UUUGGGHHHH & more hardcore intervals

That just about sums up my night.  I was feeling all great post-workout yesterday and my physics lab just tanked it.  I was in the lab from 2100-0100.  Yes 4 hours. I was cranky and tired and frustrated.  Basically the night didn’t end so well.  I was also sooo keyed up from the failure that was the lab experience that I couldn’t sleep at all.  I was wayyy too overtired. Pretty much a mini-meltdown ensued as this was the straw that broke my back.  I guess the plus of not wanting to sleep was that I got to catch up on my pleasure book?

Anyway I just got out of a meeting with my advisor who helped me a bit with the lab and I just came from finishing up the experiment with my partner and we got it to work.  It was a stupid trick that we didn’t know about.  Last night we were doing everything right but we needed the laser about 3 meters farther back.  But whatever, I feel silly for getting all worked up.  But everything’s okay and now it’s just re-writing the lab report. That and about the 30,000 other things I need to do.

BUT enough complaining.  There’s absolutely nothing I can do to change my stress and get rid of the stuff on my plate.  I can, however, change the way I respond to it so that’s what I’m trying to do.  I’m attempting to let the little things (like catching up on 24 from last night or watching LOST live tonight) go and concentrate on the big things (Spanish paper and physics lab).  Prioritize because as much as it pains me to say this school > LOST.  I know: admitting that hurts me too.

Obviously I need a good hard sweat session today because I was a bit keyed up when I got up this morning.  Lucky for me it’s Tuesday which means: intervals! And I threw in hills too because I skipped them last week. Here’s the deal-io:

• 2 mile  warm up
• 2 X  [4 X 800m (.5 mile) ] @ 10k pace (7:08) with 90 seconds recovery between intervals and 5 minutes between sets
• 1 mile warm down
• 5 minute bathroom break
• 1/2 mile re-warm up
• 2 X .5 mile hill @ 5% with .25mi recovery (.5%)
• 4 X 90 seconds (7-8-8-7%) with 60 seconds recovery (.5%)
• 2 miles GMP (8:00)
• 1 mile warm down

GREAT WORKOUT.  I kind of need to pat myself on the back here for a moment (because after the hell of last night I need a victory haha). It felt hard but not exhaustive.  Painful but not extreme. Yay.

It’s gotten to the point in the training plan where intervals days are starting to repeat so I’d already done the core of this workout (the 800s) in the first week of training and I think I’ve had to have improved since then because of the previous reasons.

I actually slowed down the interval part by 5 seconds (from 7:03 in week 16 to 7:08 today. Still faster than my 10k PR pace though which was the prescribed pace) which may have helped make it seem easier but I definitely felt like I had more in me, not another set or anything but maybe 1-2 more. That kind of reminds me of Yassos, except without the 5 minutes between sets. Given my pace that I did today, as well as the pace I did 6 weeks ago, the correlation to a marathon pace would be around 3:31-3:34.I’m not too sure how I feel about Yassos as predictors but since I’m shooting for a <3:30 (I’m serious though: a 3:29:59 is the goal) I’m somewhat near that if you believe in that stuff.  Not too sure if I do or not.

In any case I finished the interval portion feeling not drained.  Sure the workout was tough but I wasn’t feeling worn or anything.  Not just in the physical sense but in the mental sense too. Which is good because I still had my hill portion to do.  Hills, like I always have said, are SO MENTAL for me.  I absolutely dread them. I don’t think I will ever fully embrace them in the sense of enjoyment.  Yes I know they’re good and have accepted that but love? Whole new ball game.

I hadn’t done long hills in 3 weeks so I knew I wanted to incorporate them.  At the same time I knew doing 4-6 of them would be pure torture from a mental standpoint.  So I ended up with 2 of long, not steep hills and 4 short & steep ones.  I think this worked out to my mental benefit because 2 is a great number.  After the first one I was already half way there! And the shorter ones are never really bad because you’re only doing it for 90 seconds. Definitely seems like a blink of an eye.  So I found myself enjoying hills more than normal (still not saying much though) because I was constantly switching it up and I couldn’t get into a negative rhythm.

Throwing in GMP (8:00) was not in the original plan.  I’m not sure how I feel about them.  They aren’t fast enough to work on my body the way speed work does but they’re not slow enough to be easy.  I guess it’s more for my mind to wrap my head around the fact that this is the pace I want to average for Boston. Which, after such a hard/intense workout, felt easy-peasy.

I left the gym feeling rejuvenated and all my anxiety from last night was melted away.  Funny how I said that yesterday and the rest of the day went to hell.  Hopefully today is NOT a repeat of yesterday haha.

And yes these miles were all on the treadmill.  I don’t think I’d be able to run lots of run on the thing but, like I’ve always maintained, the treadmill is great for speed work where exact pace is critical (and without a team to compare myself to I doubt I’d be able to maintain exact paces on my own). Plus I got to watch a really cool program on the History channel on our galaxy and universe in the context of gravity which was cool and very informative (yup the physics nerd in me was nurtured there) and then when that was over I caught some of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Guilty pleasure for sure. 

Before I go slave away at my work, check off some of the top priorities of my work and feel accomplished by doing so, I want to say thanks for all the amazing comments you guys give me!  I feel like y’all are looking out for me and I love it.  Not many people in my “real life” know what it’s like to train or run or anything like you guys do so it’s always awesome to read your perspectives and advice.  Okay end Hallmark moment heh.

But to give back to you, I want you to check out this picture that was awaiting me this morning on my computer. I can’t get it to be put in-text so you guys will just have to click here.  Trust me, it’s worth it.

Uninspired

That’s totally how I would describe my run this morning.  I think I jinxed myself when I said that my LR this weekend didn’t beat me up.  Well maybe not jinxed by my words but my fast “recovery run” — that surely didn’t help.  My pace today was what my pace should have been yesterday: 9:38.

Annoying because Monday isn’t defined by a recovery day, it’s an “easy day” so I feel like I should be able to move faster.  At least that’s how I felt when I was done with the run and calculated my pace.  In hindsight right now I’m happy that the run was so slow because I have a hard speed session tomorrow.  From now on I need to keep in mind that it’s my 3 quality workouts that count.  Not the 3-4 recovery/easy runs.

The run itself, while slow, was remarkable only in the fact that it was one of the rare runs where I ended slower than I started (not counting the initial 5 minutes where my body is fighting inertia).  I might have started out too strong (stupid ego!) and the last half I could feel the turnover in my legs slowing.

In fact I cut the run shorter than planned.  For recovery/easy runs I typically combine 2-3 short routes to make up the distance I want and today I only did 2/3 of ‘em. It never felt painful or a struggle to move or anything that would indicate to me that my body was really worn down but I definitely think that this weekend caught up to me and the *smart* choice was to stop sooner than I wanted.

Throw in lackluster sleep + school related stress and I can definitely see how it all adds up to an uninspired run. My body isn’t what’s run down per se, it’s my “being”.  I’m being pushed in many different directions.  Training is intense. School is just so stressful this semester with all the work I need to do. I’m a senior trying to figure out post-grad. Working a couple campus jobs. Organizing events (such as Relay for Life)and being a leader on campus (physics club and being a freshmen advisor).  And other responsibilities. Gah. And yet here I sit blogging

Plus the weather has been doing nothing to make me excited about stepping outside, so I’m sure that today wasn’t purely physical.  I know I live in New England and winter is by definition cold BUT I’m sick of it.  You know how DC and the south has been hit with snow as of late? Well the reason that the snow isn’t traveling further north into my ‘hood is because it’s actually too cold for the storm systems to hit us.  On one hand I’m soooo thankful for it because I’m not a snow fan but on the other hand I’m not a fan of temperatures in the single digits / teens when I wake up and highs in the 20s, maybe hitting 30* if we’re lucky.  A catch-22 for sure.

Moving on though (and flooding myself with positivity because: positivity leads to more positivity!), I also got in a good great strength session after my Spanish class.  By this time I had some pep in my step.  I was worried that I’d end up dragging through the weights because I ended my run lagging a bit.  I was planning on bailing if I got to the gym and was still feeling blahhh. Definitely not the case though as I powered through my routine (found here for those of you who have been asking). It felt so good to feel strong! I absolutely LOVED the feeling.  Not that on a regular lifting day I don’t feel good (I never quite love lifting but I never truly hate it either) but today was just a rock on kind of day there.

And wouldn’t you know it but after that kick-ass workout I felt 100% less stressed and better about life.  Very funny/interesting to me because usually it’s running that does that to me and today it was the lifting. Either way I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Speaking of gifts…I got some packages in the maaaaaail.  Sure all college kids anxiously await any type of mail but packages? It’s like Christmas morning.  I recently won 2 giveaways and now am the proud owner of a L.E.D cap light (from Nikki) and a pedometer (from ErikaH).  Thanks ladies! Can’t wait to try them out, with the cap light I might have to get up extra early though because the sun is rising earlier (!).  Not that I can really complain because I’m really excited to use it

Alrighty off to go tutor again (I tutor stats on Sundays and physics on Mondays).  I don’t think the intro class has a homework due tomorrow so I’m hoping to get some quality time with my lab report and other fun work.

Happy Monday all!! I’ve actually been taking a lead from EE and trying to embrace Mondays.  Granted this is only the second Monday of the semester but waking up this morning was a bit easier once I tried to look at Monday as a fresh start and something to enjoy.  Like a blank sheet of paper: it’s all about what you make of it and I’m going to make mine florescent vibrant colors

Inexperienced Racer

Hmmmm. So I’m totally not hurting as much as I thought I would be after pushing myself really hard in yesterday’s 19 effort.  Which, by the way, I 100% agree with all of you who said “be careful” and “training plans are set up in a certain way for a reason” and “there’s still 10 weeks to go”.  I totally did not see it that way when I was running, I was too focused on my anguish of the run and, in some way, wanted to punish myself.  For what? Who knows.  But I’ve always enjoyed a little bit of pain.

That said, later that night when I was doing homework and laundry (yes I am soooo cool on a Saturday night), I realized that y’all were right.  At that point there really wasn’t anything I could do except try to learn from my “mistake”.  I don’t really consider it a mistake or bad per se what I did yesterday but rather the mind of an inexperienced racer who desperately wants to succeed.  And not just a “good job” succeed (which obviously will happen just by virtue of running Boston as a second marathon) but a “DAMN!” succeed.

Needless to say I’m a bit overzealous.

This morning I wasn’t feeling it like I predicted during my hard second portion effort.  Well maybe I was a bit at first.  I have a physics lab to do this afternoon so running my post-long run recovery run at my favorite time of late morning just wasn’t going to happen so I got up when I woke up and hit the streets then.  Normally I like the late morning because it gives my legs a chance to, not only get a few more hours of rest, but a few hours of walking around to loosen up.  Oh well, life. What can I do?

Back to the run.  The first mile was definitely granny shuffle.  Like I probably could have walked faster.  But no judgment on my part ( at least consciously as over time I did speed up).  Over the first few miles my form started to come back (granny shuffle isn’t just named for it’s super slow speed) and I felt fluid.  The pace was definitely still shuffle pace but it didn’t feel that way which was nice and allowed me to keep myself judgment free.

Over the course of the next few miles my pace had to have picked up quite a bit (and I know the last mile was at 8:35!) because the average pace for the whole darn thing was 9:10.  Wayyyyy too fast for a recovery run.  Sure it started out really slow but I must have really picked up the pace to keep a 9:10 average.  Keep in mind that my typical LR pace is ~9:00 and according to the running calculators my recovery should be at 9:30-10:00.  Guess those 19 didn’t take a huge toll for today. Maybe it’ll be a delayed thing and tomorrow I’ll not want to move heh.

I guess I should start paying attention more to my pace on recovery runs.  The past 6 weeks have been so intense that I haven’t had the need to monitor my recovery pace.  Not that recently the intensity has let up but my body is adapting to it.  That may be an area for change (the intensity of my quality workouts) but it shouldn’t change the way I do recovery.  Again: inexperienced racer showing.

And as a follow-up to my bladder issues yesterday, I think Jess’s theory makes the most sense: I’m not sweating as much and the extra fluid is going to my bladder.  So I’m not sure what to do to combat it.  Wear more layers to sweat more? Haha

In terms of the food / drink I’m having beforehand, this was my thing yesterday:

• 0815: Bowl of oatmeal with banana and pb made with ~8oz of water
• 1100: Leave for run.

So I’m already not drinking anything within a short time frame of leaving and can’t abstain anymore.  It’s interesting to note that on my early bird runs (sans breakfast) I don’t have the bladder issues so I’m sure it’s related to my breakfast but I’m still getting plenty of time to digest and have that stuff work it’s way through me.  So I’m still stumped. Conundrum for sure.

And on the random aches and pains front: I’m convinced that my foot stuff is related to a tight calf.  Last night I was using the Stick on my calf and my foot felt so much better! Definitely need to be more diligent about stretching as the recurrence came after a slacking in that department. Perfect evidence to keep up a routine. It was also weird to see my big toe contracting and moving while I was massaging my calf.  I mean, I know that everything is interconnected but still weird to see.

My bruised knee hasn’t really gotten any better. Definitely not worse but annoying.  It looks like a bruise and feels like a bruise but it’s been ~1 weeks since I noticed it.  Shouldn’t it be going away by now? Do running knee injuries present like a bruise? Clearly I’m a little paranoid after realizing my inexperience of yesterday and pushing that 19 miler.  I’m sure it’s nothing but the mind likes to jump to worse case scenarios, no?

Alright. Enough of a procrastination break. Got to get back to experimentally calculating the wavelength of a laser.  Kind of fun but my answer isn’t turning out the way I want it.  I’m an order of magnitude off.  Boo. I might have just figured it out? Hollllerrr. Hahah

Enjoy your Sundays everyone! I guess I should say something about the Superbowl but my beloved pats are not in it so I won’t be watching.  Granted I do have to tutor tonight so I wouldn’t have been able to anyway but whatever

Well That Was Hard.

Ugh.

That is how I would describe my long run today. [Post writing edit: What follows is a bit...pessimistic and complain-y.  Just a disclaimer beforehand that I'm just venting. Hahaha because I just re-read my post and was wanted to tell myself to quit bitching but it's how I was feeling at the time.]

But first let me back up.  The movie last night was GREAT.  We saw Edge of Darkness (the Mel Gibson one) and I loved it.  My friend loved it because it was filmed where he lives and everytime something came on the screen that he knew he was hitting me! I’d totally recommend watching it as the time just flew by.  The ending was totally not what I expected and was very effed up. But in a good way

Despite getting back from the movie at a decent hour I still managed to log not a lot of sleep.  It’s not that I was in bed unable to do so but rather that I had a billion things to do that I couldn’t fathom getting into bed with them left undone.  I’m really anal and had to do some serious cleaning of stuff before I could let myself hop into bed.  But once I was asleep I slept for a good 8 hours.  Granted I wanted it to be closer to 9 or 10 but better than the 6 or 7 during the week. I woke up once at 0600 because my bladder was full but the rest of my sleep was solid. Very weird dreams though that made me feel like I needed to shower when I got up haha.

I guess you could then describe me as non-rested this morning even though I woke up before my alarm (by 3 minutes).  And I knew right then and there that today’s LR was going to suck.  I felt exhausted.  Unfortunately I couldn’t push it off until tomorrow because of physics lab plans so right off the bat I was dreading going out.  Which is why I let myself get wrapped up in somethings work-wise and ended up leaving my dorm much later than I wanted (1100). Total stall-age right there.

But I decided to “nut up or shut up” and heading out for my LR.  My plan called for 13-16 but I wanted 18.  Yes that is crazy with the way I was feeling but I just needed it.  So I set off.

Regardless of the fact that I literally went the bathroom 30 seconds before I left my bladder was FULL 4 miles into the run.  Did I ever mention how I don’t run through places with lots of public bathrooms? Mostly residential neighborhoods with a few DD’s and gas stations sprinkled around? Well now you know.  And 4 miles is pretty far from my school so I made the decision to keep plowing forward and hope that it was just mental.  Around mile 8 I knew it wasn’t and was still 6.4 miles from my dorm.  I really should start wearing a diaper or something.

I really just don’t get my bladder issues. In December I thought it was due to my pelvic floor muscles getting fatigued (and that may still be related to the fact that once my bladder is full on a run it’s a struggle to hold it) but I don’t know exactly what it is that’s causing my bladder to be full only 4 miles into a run.  That’s really not that far.  I don’t even pee that frequently when I’m not running! Hopefully it goes away because I don’t want this to be an issue during Boston.

Anyway that made miles 4-14.4 really challenging because I had to frequently slow my pace so I didn’t wet myself.  Which made me angry and bitter and frustrated.  Not exactly what you want your mentality to be during a run.  Luckily I made it back to my dorm and relieved my bladder.

First portion stats: 14.4 miles ~133.5 minutes. ~9:16 pace. (I had some issues with stopping my watch for my bathroom break) Wicked slow compared to what I wanted but it was not fun.

So that was all complaining and bitching and moaning.  Because once I peed I felt so much better.  Obviously physically but mentally too. I think it was good to have that short break after 14.4 miles and made heading out again so much easier.  The run wasn’t a long run anymore.  I just had a short loop to complete.

And as if I’m not a masochist enough I chose to run my 4.6 mile loop to make 19 for the day.  BUT with a 14.4 mile run already behind my 4.6 seemed like a piece of cake.  And I’m not going to say it was 100% because I took all my frustration from the first portion out on this one.  I don’t really even remember much about this part.  Not the constant wind, snowfall or dropping temps (all of which were occurring the entire 19 mile run.  The wind bothered me the most. I can handle gusts but there wasn’t a moment of calm today. Boo).  I just put my head down and ran.

It felt faster than it was. I felt like I was going between tempo and GMP but I think that’s due to the fact that I had just run a respectable 14.4 before. I even thought to myself “This is going to hurt tomorrow” hahaha.

Second portion stats: 4.6 miles. 39.5 minutes. 8:35 pace.

Total for run: 19 miles. 173 minutes. 9:06 pace.

I wish I could have run just slightly faster overall but I know that what I did is good and well within what a long run pace should be. So all-in-all I am VERY HAPPY with it. Even with all my negativity during the first part of the run.  I can look unbiased right now and say that it was a good run.  I’m very proud I was able to complete it.

I’ll leave it on that happy note and please know that I really am happy about it.  I think the more mental and physical adversity I face, the stronger it’s going to make me.  Yes it SUCKS during but right now I think it is a great experience.

And good luck tomorrow to RunningFiance who’s running a half! I know you asked for my speed but given that you can run a half (and training runs) wayyyyy faster than me I don’t think you’ll need it

Check out this running skirt giveaway by Tricia

Friiiiiiiday and 5 week check-in

Hey all! Another busy Friday for me.  Do I ever get a break?! This weekend is going to be all about the homework.  It feels overwhelming but — deep breathe — I know it’ll all get done. How? Good question.  But it will.  Small steps.  So clearly I am being productive by blogging

Nothing too exciting running wise here.  Got in a very nice recovery run this morning and followed it up with some afternoon lifting. The pacing of the run was typical: start of shuffling and then after loosening up the legs move into a more fluid form.  Another reason I like morning running is that no one I know is awake on campus to see me doing the “granny shuffle” as i start these runs.  So my ego gets to stay relatively intact

My knee is feeling somewhat better today.  Definitely still bruised and it’s red/purple.  I wish I could remember what I banged it into!! So annoying but the more I think about it I could see it being a lifting related bruise.  I often bang my knees with the weights inadvertently.  Nothing really bad  but I’m a klutz haha. I’m also thinking it could be a result of the way I sit in my desk chair: with that leg under me.  I’ve always noticed that it hurts my knee when I get up and I think that it might be a cause of the pain that’s there.  I’m not ruling out a running injury although the color of my knee suggests that’s unlikely.

I figured that since today is about 5 weeks into the New Year I’d take a moment and reflect on the goals I set for myself like I did a week into the year.  I think it’s very useful to frequently remind myself of them so that I don’t keep them on the back burner:

• Drink more water Ehhhhh.  I do drink a liter of water, a liter of milk and some diet coke with lime everyday so I am staying hydrated but most of what I drink is in the afternoon and night.  This makes my sleep interrupted because I have to pee.  All. The. Time. At. Night.
• Get faster aka do more speed training. Semi-Check.  I still have been doing the 2x a week speed that my plan calls for but I feel stagnant a bit.  I mean, yes I am fast, and my tempos have been rocking but I think I need a race to truly give me a sense of where I stand with this one.  I’m sure I am faster (how could I not with the killer speed stuff I’ve been doing?) but I need a good check-in and hopefully I can find a race in the next few weeks.
• Get stronger aka do more lifting. Check.  Since my last check-in I’ve been lifting 3x a week and still LOVE it.  I definitely love the way my muscles look when I keep lifting regularly and I know that the reason I’m able to hit quality workouts is because my muscles are strong.
• XT more Kind of Check? I’ve incorporated ellipticalling into my routine but not as a replacement for running. More as a supplementary was to do a shake-out run without actually running.
• Stretch more Maybe. I’ve been inconsistent with this one.  There are periods of a week or so where I am religious about stretching and then periods of time where it won’t happen.  So better than last check-in where I had yet to begin a routine but definitely room for improvement.
  
• Respect rest day FAIL. Nope.
• Listen to body Ehhhh Check. Last week I let the streak go because my body just wasn’t feeling it and I’d like to think that it let me be a little less obsessive with the miles.  I am really good at listening to my body when it comes to pacing and I’m a lot less judgmental about that.  Which is a HUGE victory.
  
• Wear sunscreen FAIL. And I’m just going to let what I wrote last month stay: “Granted the sun hasn’t been out that much in the past 10 days or so when I made these goals but I need to remind myself that even though it’s WINTER the sun is just as bright and dangerous.  In the vein of skin care I have made a dermatologist appointment to get some of my suspicious moles checked out.”

So I’ve actually improved over the past 4 weeks since I last checked in. Obviously room for improvement but what fun would life be if all your goals immediately came to you? I like a challenge!

Okey-dokey.  Going to go try to do some work before heading into the city tonight to catch a movie with a friend.  No idea what we’re seeing but that’s okay because he has free passes.  And since I’m not spending my own moolah I don’t have to be picky haha

And check out this giveaway over with ErikaH

Happy Friday!

Tempo. Not Too Shabby.

It’s Thursday. Ergo: TEMPO THURSDAYS.

I had a really fitful night of sleep last night.  I was so keyed up over my physics classes that I couldn’t power down.  That and my nose was so congested (and I couldn’t blow it!) so I definitely had a hard time getting up this morning.  I ended up sleeping with two pillows (which I don’t do because having my head at an angle bugs the heck out of me) so it was a rough night and morning.  I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror before heading out on my run and it was not pretty.  I have pretty low standards of how I need to look in the morning so the fact that I thought I looked like hell is telling.  Oh well.

I also woke up feeling like my right knee had been hit with a sledgehammer. OUCH.  It doesn’t hurt when I walk or move at all (well stairs a bit) but touching it makes me think I slammed it into something without realizing it because it’s painful when I poke and prod it (note: don’t poke and prod bruises).  It definitely feels bruised and I don’t think it’s a running- related pain.  Just a I’m-incredibly-clumsy pain.  Unless knee injuries feel like a bruise? Guess I need to pay attention to where I walk. Funny because I don’t remember banging into anything.

Regardless of the weird knee thing I decided to do my tempo workout first thing (like last week) for a couple of reasons

• I have soooo much work to do so I wanted to have my workout under my belt before getting lost in the world of Quantum Mechanics (Sorry EarlyRunner I doubt I’ll do a post on it unless it’s really requested because I don’t understand most of it myself! haha.  Maybe at the end of the semester when hopefully I’ll have learned something)
• I really like running first thing.  It sets a tone for the rest of my day.
• Tempo running in the morning, sans TM, sans breakfast is hard.  I really like a challenge and I think that if I can conquer tempoing correctly as an early bird than I’m in excellent shape.

As much as I complain about tempo running on my own (because let’s face it I do contemplate the tm for these runs every darn week) I really love it.  Of course if you were to ask me during the tempo portion I’d hate it and likely want to hurt you.  But at the end it’s all good.  I always feel the good exhaustion at the end of a tempo because I’ve been running hard.  And a hard effort is most excellent.

Which is exactly what I got. Given that my sleeping hasn’t been all that great lately I was worried about what I could do today.  Early morning quality workouts are completely different from early morning recovery runs — duh and I think I wrote the same thing last week. Oops. I figured that if I could just keep the pace the same or equal to last week (7:44) then I’d be good.  Not going to lie: the first few miles were tough.  But I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves

• 3.8 mile warm up @ 9:45
• 7 mile tempo @ 7:35
• 3.8 mile warm down @ 8:55

Total time: 124 minutes
Total distance 14.6 miles

I wasn’t planning on going for 7 tempo miles this morning but when I finished the 5.5 mile loop that I was going to do I miscalculated my pace.  I figured that I was going at a longer tempo pace so I kept it up for another 1.5 miles.  Mmmmm yeah wasn’t the case and I’m sure today was a progression tempo as the last 1.5 was at 6:58 pace. So clearly I was beasting this tempo.

It didn’t feel like it though and, like usual, I tend to doubt my abilities to run tempos on my own.  I always think I’m going MUCH slower than I am and I always wonder how I’m going to complete the workout.  It’s silly because in the past 6 weeks of training I’ve never once failed at a tempo run (*knockonwood*!!) but the lingering doubt is still there.  I guess in some ways it’s good because it drives me to run faster and harder — one of the thoughts that goes through my head is “imagine how disappointed you’ll feel if you’re 5 seconds off pace” — but still I wish I was more confident with it.  Hopefully that’s something that will evolve over time.

But from my perspective after the run: I’m extremely happy with how it all worked out and think I was crazy for the worrying.  Especially because with my rounding system I think I’m under counting the run by about a quarter mile, with .1 of it in the tempo portion.  (My system means that 1.77 + 1.24 =/= 2.01.  It really equals 1.9 because I don’t use the hundredths place decimal).   That means I’m faster (not by much but faster nonetheless) than I’ve calculated.  Not too shabby indeed.

Hopefully I can channel some of that awesomeness into finishing up my Quantum problem set now. I don’t have that much to left to do (I was actually pretty productive after my run)it’s just that the math is very messy and I don’t want to.  Then I get to play with lasers for my Experimental physics lab.  At least the lab is exciting because writing up of the lab report won’t be.

Happy Thursday all!

Recovery Wednesday

Hey all. Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday so far. Mine’s been a little crazy, I haven’t had any time to sit down since 0730! Obviously I know I’m not the only one with crazy busy days but, man, knowing that I’m not going to have any time to do my work until 2100 or later is really agitating.  I’m trying to just accept it because there isn’t much (read: anything) I can do to change my Wednesday schedule but it’s so hard to do.

Onto running though! Today was a recovery run + lifting day and I feel really good about it.  The run started off sooooo slow.  Honestly the pace was 10:00 for the first few miles!  I like to keep my recovery pace around 9:30 (well really closer to 9 but it’s smarter for me to go slower) and it was an ego knock to see those 10s but I gotta do what I gotta do to do what I wanna do (ie: run slower today so that I can hammer home a great race in April).  My legs did warm up and pick it up by the end and my overall average pace was 9:26.  I’ll take it! Whoo-hoo.

Plus the weather was pretty nice. Yes it was still coldish (~21*) but it was a weird mix of sun and flurries.  There was a dusting of snow overnight and *very* light snow when I left for the run.  I like this kind of precipitation, just enough that it’s nice to look at and wander about it but not enough that it sticks.  And by the end of the run the sun was shining and I felt good bringing it home.

My lifting was a bit hard today but in a good way.  I definitely felt like my legs and arms were working hard but not completely exhausted and drained.  I’m always a bit worried that after Tuesday and Thursdays of really fast workouts my muscles are going to be exhausted walking into the gym and lifting would be pointless.  Not the case so far which is very reassuring.  I like having a spring in my step after a workout rather than feeling like death.  Death = no bueno.

Speaking of death, well not really but sickness: my nose is starting to clear up.  No help with the pressure in my ear and face but I’ve only been on the antibiotic for 24 hours.  Hopefully soon though especially since I’m on a heavy hitter.  And thanks to those who called me a champ and whatnot for sticking with my workouts with it: it really hasn’t impacted my daily living just my sleep.  The only time I’m really in pain/discomfort is when I lay down.  Super annoying because when I crawl into bed at night I just want to crash!

And LOST?! Ummmm I’m not quite sure I can say that it was amazingness last night but I can definitely see this season being amazing.  I suppose that I’m not impressed because it was mostly a setting things up and confusing the hell out of the viewers type of episode.  I have faith though and am sooo happy it’s back on.

Okay sooooo lame post I know! I have to run off to my Quantum class. Tomorrow is tempo Thursday so I will hopefully kick butt and be really excited in my post haha.  But check out these giveaways from Tricia and Mel and Mary. Pretty sweet

Another Interval Tuesday: Week 11 style

Thanks for all the positive reactions to my January recap. I’ll admit that I had to check and re-check the numbers before posting because I couldn’t believe how much I ran during those first 31 days of this year. Wowza indeed! I didn’t see that one coming at all. And don’t worry: I’m totally being careful with taking it easy in other aspects of my life so that I’m not wearing myself ragged (ie lots of sleep, less challenging courses (well at least I’m not in the classroom as much as previous semesters, I’d argue that Quantum Physics is pretty challenging haha) and eating lots and right)

I’m also glad that you guys like it when I post my average paces and that kind of stuff.  I’m always hesitant to do so because I know how competitive I am and when I see other people’s paces it can be weird.  But I’ve found that the longer I’m in the blogging world the more comfortable I am with seeing other people’s paces as just that: other people. So I definitely don’t mind sharing mine with you in the future.

Moving along, today is Tuesday which means INTERVALS.  I’ll admit that I always get a little nervous Monday night knowing that the next day is going to be intense.  But I’m also way excited because, let’s face it, running fast is wayyyyy fun!

Here’s what my plan called for:

• 3 X (800-600-600) @ 5k effort with 90 seconds recovery between each interval, 5 minutes between each set

And when have I ever done the workout exactly as indicated?

• 2 mile warm up
• 4 X (800 (.5 miles) – 600 (.38) – 600 (.38) @ 6:45 pace with 90 seconds between intervals, 5 minutes between each set
• 1.5 miles @ MP
• 1 mile warm down

So a couple of things to note or at least things that I noted heh:

1. No hills.  I just needed a mental break from the past 5 weeks of including hills.  At first I felt bad about skipping them but no other plan I’m aware of has hills every single week.  Just because mine doesn’t have any and I’m improvising doesn’t mean that I need to go overboard.
2. Extra interval set.  Because I wasn’t doing hills I still felt like I had a little kick left in my legs so I made an impromptu decision to add an extra one.  My legs were feeling it by the end, and strangely so was my lower back, but I was happy with how they felt.  Not dead but fatigued. That was probably because:
3. 6:45 = faster than my 5k PR pace.  I’ve only run one 5k and the pace was 6:56.  I definitely think I am faster than that and the reason I was “slow” (read: slower than I think I’m capable of) that day was inexperience with short racing strategy.
4. Including MP miles at the end.  By the time I got to these miles (which were another impromptu decision) my legs were tired but MP felt really nice.  Like really easy nice.  Sure my goal MP is 8:00 (for a 3:30 marathon) and that isn’t terribly fast but still will be hard to maintain or average for 26.2 miles. I definitely thought that it was nice my legs could handle it 100% and I had already put in 11-12 miles of hardcore intervals at that point.
5. I saw the head track coach and he’s still sooo nice to me.  I think that he knows what a hard worker I am (even though he doesn’t know I’m training for Boston — that was a different coach — and he actually ran Boston in 2009) and I also know that he’s disappointed that I’m not running and jumping for him but I love that he asks me how I am in a way that’s not purely conversational.  Like he actually wants to know.  So I’m thinking: would it be weird to ask him if I can use the ice whirlpool in the trainers room that’s for school athletes? I really want to experience an ice bath but I feel awkward just showing up to the trainers because I’m not known there. Hmmm just a musing I suppose.

Overall I’m incredibly happy with this workout.  If you recall, last week I complained about feeling like my workout was phoned in (sorry I keeping beating the phrase into the ground but it’s the only way I know how to describe it) and it definitely didn’t feel that way this week.  I think that it had to do with a touch of overdoing it (ie the streak) as well as the combo of interval length and speed.  I genuinely think that longer intervals are wicked easy for me so the shorter ones today helped kick my butt.  Plus with no hills I didn’t have to dread the second half of a workout haha

Also I’ve been battling a sinus infection the past few weeks which probably took a toll on my outlook.  3 weeks ago I went on a Z-pack to clear up the infection but after a few days of relief it came back with a vengeance.  It’s not sooo bad, mostly when I go to lay down in bed.  And even though my nose is stuffed up, nothing comes out when I blow.  And now there’s pressure in my ear.  Boo!

I absolutely hate going on antibiotics so I always wait until I feel like I’m going to die before going to the doctor.  Plus most sinus infection / ear infections go away on their own, so I always wait (maybe not the smartest choice as one year I did this and developed the beginnings of pneumonia.  Not smart!) AND I chronically get strep/sinus /ear infections during the winter months without fail and don’t want to be on meds 24/7.  But this go-round I was in so much pain one night that I wanted my ear drum to pop just to relieve the pressure (which has happened to me before and is INCREDIBLY painful in and of itself.)  And off to the doctor I went and am now on a heavy-duty antibiotic and hopefully this will do the trick and not mess up the good bacteria in my system too much.

Wow didn’t mean to write so much about my ailment! Hahah. But on a more positive / less complaining note: LOST is on tonight!! And it’s a 2 hours premiere. Woot.  And there’s a recap episode before hand so that makes… THREE HOURS OF LOST AMAZINGNESS.  Seeing as how I’m pretty bamf myself ( ) I think I can handle it but I just get so giddy thinking about the gloriousness that will be tonight.

P.S. Check out the giveaway that Marcia is having. Awesomeness continued.

Monthy Recap: January 2010

So I kind of liked not having weekly recaps last month.  Makes me feel like the posts are “meatier” AND it’s easier to see week-to-week trends when there are 4 weeks laid out.  Granted the weeks listed here are Monday to Sunday so there are a few days of December but whatever. I like it this way

But before I get into the first month of the year I was talking to my Spanish profesora after class just to let her know that I’ll be missing class for the Boston Marathon.  Normally I wouldn’t have bothered (we get 3 free misses already) but there’s a composition due that day so I wanted to make sure (in advance because I am like that) that it would be ok to email it to her.  And she goes “Oh don’t even worry about it.  You have the best reason ever for missing class. How exciting”.  She’s not a runner but it was way cool to have a professor be so interested and supportive in my running rather than looking at me like I have three or four heads.

So here’s January / the first 5 weeks of Boston training. Just to note, I wrote these as the weeks passed so the tone might shift from week to week and whatnot.

Week of 28-December to 3-January

• 90.0 miles
• 13 hours 3 minutes 38 seconds
• 8:44 average pace
• Core 3x, Full Body Lifting 2x

Woooooot another weekly mileage pr (as the last week in December was one too).  I wasn’t even shooting for it, but it just happened and I was *shocked* that I ran 90 miles.  This was also the unofficial first week of Boston training, I was just loosely following a schedule.  The overall pace was *much* faster than it’s recently been (I had 2 speed sessions and 2 tm sessions which go much faster than outdoors for me). I’m actually both excited and nervous about the mileage / training this week. Excited because I know that during “monster month” I will be able to do what I need to but nervous because it’s only week 1 (or week 16 depending on how you count) and I don’t need to be anywhere near this point right now.

Week of 4-January to 10-January

• 85.2 miles
• 12 hours 47 minutes 32 seconds
• 9:00 average pace
• Core 3x, Full Body Lifting 2x

Week 2 (or Week 15 according to my plan) of Boston training down — I decided to make it official after all.  Still on the high side of mileage but that’s due to one overzealous run at the beginning of the week, the rest were where they needed to be.  Average pace looking good too, I think 9:00 is a good balance between my recovery days (which tend to be slooow) and speed days (obv fast).  Happy with the 2x of lifting and 3x of core; hopefully that can continue longer in the training cycle.

Week of 11-January to 17-January

• 87.2 miles
• 13 hours 5 minutes 40 seconds
• 9:02 average pace
• Core 2x, Lifting 3x, XT 1x

Another great training week.  I still continue to be amazed by how my body is reacting to the training.  The average pace is right where I want it (well maybe 2 seconds too slow haha) which is nice because my recovery runs have been really slow (which they need to be) so it means that I’m hauling butt in my quality workouts.  Definitely good.  I’m also very happy with the fact that I was able to hit the gym THREE times for lifting.  So far the response has been positive.  I also added in an elliptical session, it was after my tempo run so it was nice to be able to stretch the muscles and circulate my blood without the impact of running.

Week of 18-January to 24-January

• 89.4 miles
• 13 hours 13 minutes 4 seconds
• 8:52 average pace
• Core 2x, Full Body Lifting 3x, XT 1x

So my favorite part of those numbers? The 8:52 average pace!! I guess with a kick ass interval, tempo AND long run I should have expected it.  Woot.  I also like all the lifting I’ve been doing: powerful and strong chica here.  My least favorite part? The eighty-nine point FOUR.  Makes me wish for an extra .6 to round up to 90.  But I know that’s not what I needed.  I mean this was supposed to be a cutback of 5-10 miles.  Oops heh. And I don’t like the XT.  I think that I don’t like XT in general. But I’m happy I got that in as my shake-the-legs-out workout post-tempo rather than another run.

Week of 25-January to 31-January

• 93.8 miles
• 13 hours 50 minutes 17 seconds
• 8:51 average pace
• Core 2x, Full Body Lifting 3x, XT 1x

Weekly PR.  I think this will likely be the last one of those for a while.  I definitely let my mind run wild this week and I think I felt the touches of the drain with my speed sessions, while stellar, just felt blah.  Amazing considering that I broke the double digit streak this week that my miles could get so high.  Plus my average pace for the week was a killer. I think that was mostly due to faster-than-normal recovery runs because I didn’t think my speed work sessions were anything extra spectacular compared to previous weeks. SO I’m very proud of this week and it’ll definitely go in my books as a stupendous week.

Month of January totals:

• 397.1 miles
• 58 hours 58 minutes 17 seconds
• 8:54 avg pace

Definitely a monthly PR for sure. So many great things happened. Hit 2 weekly mileage PRs (and all the weeks have been the highest they’ve ever been for me!). Boston training really took hold.  I was in the midst of an amazing double digit streak.  I incorporated lifting and stretching and XT-ing into my routine. The thing I’m most impressed with is my average pace being UNDER 9 min/mi.  I know for some of you that is no biggie but that’s huge for me.  It definitely shows that I’ve been diligent and hardcore with my speed work.  I know that I’ll won’t likely get another month like this but it sure sets the bar high for what is to follow.  I’m hoping that I can take what I’ve done (lifting, stretching, XT, speed work) and keep it all up for February.

What a way to start of 2010!

O.M.G. Shoes.

So I forgot to mention yesterday to say THANKS for all the nice words about me being stressed on Friday.  It was just silly stress, well I guess the stress wasn’t silly but it didn’t have a focus or purpose.  But I get so much lovin’ from y’all. <3. And thanks for all the suggestions for fueling during the run.  I hadn’t thought of crackers and pretzels just because of the logistics of taking it. Luckily I wear a windbreaker that has a front pocket so carrying the stuff shouldn’t be difficult it’s just those pesky frozen fingers make everything 10000000x more difficult.  Which is why gels and stuff is out.  I need something that I can stow away already opened, like pretzels in a fold top baggie.  I’ll experiment and keep you guys posted on that.  Luckily it shouldn’t be 14* on April 19th.  At least I’m going to pray it isn’t.

It was, however, another cold one here in southern New England.  I purposely chose to push off my run ’til noon so I could take advantage of the 22* (feels like 6*) weather rather than bitterness when I first got up.  The wind wasn’t too bad actually so I, again, overdressed.  In fact I was sweating during this run! Craziness.

After some stalling (because I always stall when I know it’s cold out. I know I can handle it but I’m never like “hell yeah it’s cold out! Rock on!” So I stand at the door to my building for a good 5 minutes just waiting hah) I hit the streets for a recovery run. Despite having run 20.5 miles yesterday my legs didn’t feel bad.  Sure when I first got up they were a little grumbly but they loosened up quite nicely and I was able to hit a nice clip from the get-go.  Not sure what I started out at but my overall pace was 8:56 for a total of 10 miles.

Very fast for a recovery run.  But it didn’t feel that way and in fact I was trying to keep myself from speeding up even more! As for the distance, my rule of thumb is the recovery run can be 50-66% of the long run distance.  In this case ~10.25-13.6.  Even with my self-imposed rule I was at the low end of my run.  I originally set out for 6 miles but was really feeling it.  That said I don’t think I would have wanted to go any further than I did.  My body was definitely happy with stopping at 10 and surprisingly my mind was too.

One highlight of the run was that I “broke in” my asics sneaks that I bought last week when I was home.  It’s weird because in the past I’ve never had more than one pair of running shoes in my possession but at the moment I have FOUR.  They are

• 2000+ mile New Balance 768
• 700 mile New Balance 769
• 10 mile Asics Gel Kanbarra 4
• 0 mile New Balance 769

I wrote “broke in” with the quotes because I am now a firm believer in the fact that a good pair of shoes should NOT hurt you.  I didn’t always think this and up until a year ago (when I got my first pair of real running shoes — the 768 ones) I wore cheap ass shoes from Walmart.  They weren’t specifically running shoes but rather athletic shoes.  Which was great because I wasn’t running huge miles or intense work so the price was right but they cut up my feet so bad for the first 1-2 weeks I wore them.  In fact I think that the blisters I got from a pair like them was the reason I had to be on IV antibiotics for a resistant strain of staph in my toe last January. NOT GOOD.

Now I love my New Balance.  More expensive yes, but for the way I run totally worth it. Last week I was at Kohl’s and there was a huge sale of many types of running shoes so I looked around and since there weren’t any New Balances that fit me the way I wanted and I ended up finding the Asics.  Which did you know stands for “Anima Sana In Corpore Sano” (a sound mind in a sound body)? Well I didn’t until a week ago.

The verdict on these guys? Well they’re a keeper for sure.  My only complaint is that they didn’t have any “wide” versions at the store and I settled for regular width.  But on my test drive today I was wearing double socks (because it’s cold!) and there wasn’t any real discomfort.  Yes they are a little tight in the toe area but nothing major and nothing that dropping that second pair of socks won’t cure. I doubt I’ll wear them for my LR or speed work but they definitely will help me make my NBs last longer as I plan on wearing these guys as my recovery run shoes.

Another highlight of the run was when I was finishing up I ran past a police officer and I said “good morning” to him (which I ALWAYS am nice to the po-pos.  My dad is a cop and I genuinely think that cops are bashed far too often! But that’s a rant for another day) he replied back with “man that is some dedication you have”.  He probably meant me being out in the cold because obviously he had no idea how far I’d run or what my running schedule is like but I was so touched by that. Definitely brightened my day.

Well I’m off to a Sunday meeting.  Ugh I hate Sunday meetings, I know most people are doing work today but I never do work on Sundays: I hate feeling rushed doing stuff last minute. Plus I want to enjoy my Sunday before my week starts.  The calm before the storm anyone?

Hope you had a great weekend and are having a totally relaxing Sunday