Fierce

In my last post, the clouds were all figurative. Apparently the weather gods took a dislike to my being happy about the sun.  It rained and poured and thundered and lightning’d.  The sky was pitch black at points and it looked like armageddon.

Ok, so it might not have been *that* bad.  But it was still mighty unpleasant out there.  Luckily I am a weather.com fiend and was able to time my run so that I was out there for the only minutes of the day that was run-able.  Yippee!

8 miles. Prolly exact too.  And at an exact, even minute, pace. My inner OCD loved it. My legs were throbbing and tight today but what did I expect when my run yesterday was really fast (without intending it to be) and I pushed my entire body through strength? Even the act of getting out of bed was tough on the ole muscles. Nothing really spectacular on this run, which really annoys me as this is supposed to be a running blog.  If nothing special happens it forces me to come up with something interesting.  Which requires brainpower. Which is a very precious commodity these days. *LeSigh*

Hmmmm, well I  meant to use The Stick last night while parking my butt on the couch and watching The Closer, but that idea flew right out of my head so fast I doubt it was an actual thought. So be it though, and tonight I vow to do better. Stretch too. Very important!

I also plan on doing better in my studying.  I’ve just been so lazy on that front.  Like, I know that running and reading are important to me but this stupid test costs more than I make in a week.  I could put a little more effort into it, you know?

Speaking of reading, I am sooo into the Alphabet Series.  As I can never put together a succinct summary of anything, check out that link.  My g’ma got me into it forever ago and I’m almost caught up (the next one coming out this winter is U).  I love reading and once I start a good mystery / detective / military book, I will not put it down.  Very very dangerous when I have actual work to do, or when I need to sleep as I often unwind from a long day by reading before I go to bed.

Also speaking of reading, Monica over at RunEatRepeat has a great contest that you should check out.  Or not, as the less people who check it out means the greater chance I have of winning the prize. Heh.

Wow. Complete hodgepodge of ideas here.  I will tie everything back to running by posing this question: anyone have a favorite / really good running plan they love for a half? I’ve set my sights on 2 halfs for the fall but don’t really want to follow RWOL’s SmartCoach again.  I want something that will really really push me and make me a fierce competitor. Woah about those pictures. I had to do it. And here’s another (my personal favorite) because I really can’t resist. Story for another day I’m sure but trust me, I’m giggling with delight here, plus I totally changed the name of this post to reflect that.  🙂

Clouds Overhead

And I don’t mean literally. The weather has been spectacular the last couple of days.  Finally, as the month of June only had FIVE sunny ones.

The cloud I am referring to is my “professional” life.  I mean, the cloud is lifting in some respect because I finally got my spiffy looking Children’s Hospital I.D. badge, meaning that I can finally go to the clinic and interact with patients! Hizzah! Getting this i.d. was a process, however, with me calling a billion different departments and having to make a spontaneous trip into the city.  But it’s over so I really can’t complain. Especially since I look damn good in my i.d. picture, if I do say so myself haha.

The impromtu trip changed my running for the day.  Not that I minded because I *needed* to make the drive but it left me leaving my house for my run at 12:30, which is normally when I’m getting back. Despite the later (and hotter) time I manage a really good quick clip.  I was running like I was in a rush, which I really wasn’t but since I’m such a creature of habit, leaving later stressed me out physiologically even though it wasn’t big deal mentally.

After I did a full body circuit which felt great and capped it off with a warm down for a total of 10 miles for the day.  Woot! I was nice and sweaty after the run.  Plus I was starving because I ran through lunch.  I ended up eating my normal lunch PLUS a cereal, granola, blueberry and yogurt mix.  Yum.

Well, anyway back to the cloud.  I should be studying for the MCAT right now.  I took a prax test over the weekend and didn’t do too hot on it.  I know that I have 4 weeks left until the test, plenty of time, but I should be reviewing the concepts that I was shaky on. Instead I’m watching The Closer (amazing show!).  Oh well, tomorrow is a new day.  But with old weather as there are predicted storms for most of the late morning and all afternoon. Plenty of time to buckle down and get my study on, right? Of course, but this procrastination is making me feel all heavy.

P.S. I was going to write a post on My Running but decided to make it a new page.  I figure new ppl who want to check out the site might enjoy having it readily accessible rather than having to hunt through old posts.

P.P.S. Based on my last post, a lot of you are early bird runners who don’t eat much (if anything) beforehand either.  Nice to know I’m not (completely) crazy! LARunner made a good point, though, about making sure to drink something to prevent dehydration.  Very very good point. As I was saying to my friend the other day, I need to start drinking early and often.  And while I was being flippant and talking about another kind of drinking, the point still remains: drinking water = dehydration prevention.

Fuel for thought

So before I get into the topic I want to write about, thanks for the congrats on my race guys. My body is sore though and after one too many vodka and cranberry-sierra mists (soooo good btw) a normal and rationale person would have slept as late as possible.  My internal alarm clock, however, had different ideas.  So I got in about 6 already before work, in cool and crisp weather; so worth the early wake up!

AND just to brag some more: the postings of the race yesterday are up and I was 2nd in my age group and 4th female overall, not too shabby!

Now I’ve been shying away from writing a food post because I don’t know how I feel about them when I read ’em. I mean, unless it’s a spectacular recipe or something, I’m not that much of a fan reading about what someone ate for every single meal (which by the way, is not what the blogs I read and comment on do! I ❤ reading “my” blogs otherwise I wouldn’t read them!)

So rather than tell you what I love to eat or anything like that, I figured I’d copy Aron and share how I fuel myself in preparation for my running, and depending on how much I write a little post- and during- running as well (if not, well it’s always a great post for another day!)

I typically only really run at two times: 6am or 11am.  Or, as I tend to think of my runs pre-breakfast and pre-lunch, as an 8am run is fueled the same way as a 6amer.  So that’s how I’m going to organize this post. And I tend to time my runs to finish at a meal so that I can really enjoy a hearty meal when my muscles need it the most.

6am (or pre-breakfast):

I run at 6 am M-F during the semester and days when I’m working all day.

If I’m running in the early morning, I don’t eat anything which isn’t great, especially since I do tempo runs during the week.  I haven’t really found that my no food thing to be detrimental to my running; my runs have always been (on the whole) very good.  I guess I could always experiment with some small foods or liquids but I don’t like running with the feeling of food in my stomach (same goes with sleep). In my lack of eating pre-run defense I try to eat something carb-y the night before to have something in the tank, my favorite is oatmeal (instant, ftw!) with some added dried fruit or blueberries. Yummy!

11am (or pre-lunch):

On the weekends during the semester and whenever my schedule allows I run at 11ish. It’s my favorite time because I get to eat a full breakfast beforehand eat around 8 ,maybe 830 if I’ve “slept” in.  This way I get about 3 hours of digestion going.  I suppose these runs are easier and more enjoyable but I’m not sure if that’s related to actually having food in my system or the increase in sleep I get.  My go-to breakfast is a bowl of cheerios and an english muffin with pb.  I also cut up a banana and put about half on each.  (fyi: if I could I would eat this every single morning and about 90% of mornings I do!) Great way to start the day and fuel some good runs!

I’m not a coffee drinker (love the smell, hate the taste) so I don’t have any before a run like so many runners I know do.  You’ll also note that I don’t do any PM running.  I’ve done running in the afternoon in the past and, while I run my fastest and most fluid, I don’t like it.  I’d rather get up at 4am and run than wait to run at 4 or 5 pm.

Well I think that gives y’all a decent look into my pre-run fueling.  If I’ve missed something or you want to know more, let me know! I’ll also be posting (hopefully sometime soon!) my post-run eats as well as during-run eats (only really long stuff, so it might be a short *cough*foronce*cough* post) if you guys are interested.

Back in the Fast Lane

So apparently my fears of total and utter failure were unfounded.  I ran so hard I thought I was going to revisit my cheerio and banana breakfast.  I didn’t, of course.  That woud have just been gross.

But let me back up a bit.

Last night: I *tried* to get a good night of sleep but I was keyed up from my MCAT prax failure (which to anyone who gave me facebook compliments when I was fishing for them: Thanks!).  Plus, I still wasn’t 100% sure I wanted to do this.  Let’s face it, the race is a town event and I do not like 99.99% of the people in my town.  No desire whatsoever to socialize with them or relive stories from high school. I am so over that. I did try to read and relax in bed, however, and I did sleep pretty soundly, albeit it was hard to fall asleep.  Oh and my cell decided to let me know, via chirping at 5 am no less, that it was dying.  It was like, okay, I get it, just die already!

This morning: I got up around 730 to eat a bowl of cheerios with a banana before the 9 am race. This is only half of my usual breakfast so I packed the peanut butter and raisin english muffin to eat after the race.  No sense in eating a ton of food for a 5 mile race.  Good thing too, as I’ve already told you guys that my stomach wasn’t feeling it by the end of the race.

In any event, I arrived around 830 to register, get my t-shirt and warmup. The race was at the center of town recreation dept so I used the track to jog a mile then do 4 X 100m strides.  As I’ve never been any type of long distance racer in my adolescent / teenage years I still have no idea what kind of warm up to do for races around 10k. (As it stands for my 2 halfs and 1 full, I don’t really do any jogging before because, let’s face it, 13 or 26 miles is long enough thank you very much).

So the race itself (because that’s all that really matters): I found a girl that I ran with during my brief stints as a track runner in high school and we decided to just run how we felt and not push.  In the back of my mind, though, was a *yeahright* attitude because after paying for a race, I’m going to race.  So we took off and mile one was FAST.  6:40.  Ummmm, ok? Needless to say, the next mile was 7:34.  Still fast but much much closer to my ideal and predicted goal.

The next few miles were hard, more mentally than physically.  I’m not going to lie though, I always hurt during these short races.  My legs burn and my lungs do too.  I love it but only when it’s over.  Note: everyone that saw me running (old coaches, old teachers, people that I knew from high school) all told me that I looked great, even at the end.

At the 4 mile mark, one of the teachers of my high school (who is also the XC coach) told me that I was definitely in the top 10 female, which made me want to pick off as many runners as possible. Another note: that teacher is amazing despite the fact that I’ve never really known him.  I never did XC nor did I ever have him as a teacher.  He is that kind of person, one of the .01% in this town.

And before I knew it, I was at the finish.  Trying not to hurl.  And imensly proud of running as hard  as I did. And, man, I wish I could give you more details to the race itself, what I was thinking, the songs stuck in my head.  But I honestly don’t think I can.  The race just went by so. damn. fast.  Which is what happens when you run like me 😛

As you can prolly guess, my finish was great.  My time was 35:32 or roughly 7:05 min/mi.  Pretty stellar considering I’ve just come off of a marathon and haven’t really incorporated speed into my routine.  Oh, and even though the results weren’t posted when I left, I’m pretty sure I was #5 female overall.  Woot!

My splits:

• Mile 1: 640
• Mile2: 14:14
• Mile 3: 21:28
• Mile 4: 28:40
• Mile 5: 35:32

Just by looking at the numbers I can tell that I didn’t run an even split race.  Not that I’m complaining because I’m very happy with how the race went.  Just something to keep in mind for the next time I race something around 10k distance.

And thanks for reading the novella, especially considering I don’t believe that much of it was the race itself! Have a safe fourth of July everyone!

The MCAT owns me. Part 1

[Edit: I wrote this post without a title, realized that I was complaining about the MCAT a lot and then created the title. And yes, PART ONE. Because clearly more will follow haha]

I don’t really have anything profound to say today so I’ll just dive right into my run.

It was 11 miles of both hell on earth and gliding along.  My legs took their sweet freaking time to loosen up but once they did my pace increased steadily.  I think I must’ve been going at a pretty nice clip by the end because the overall pace was where I wanted it to be but I *know* the first few miles were wayyyyy under my usual.  Which is fine because, honestly, negative splits always make me smile and feel good.

I followed the long run with Week4Day3 of the pushup challenge (which was wiiiiicked hard!) and about 10 minutes of core.  Typically I don’t do core or any type of strength on a day of a long run but, with a race tmrw, I decided I’d rather do it today than try to fit it in sometime tmrw which would be a pain. Although it was a literal pain today as I didn’t realize how tired my arms would be after a hot 11 miles!

And yes, you heard (saw?) correctly.  I have bitten the bullet and decided to race the local 5 miles tmrw.  I guess it comes down to if I wake up in time to do it, but in my heart I know I want to race.  So, provided I get enough sleep tonight, I will toe the line and see how I stack up in shorter races.

The rest of my day (and continuing into tonight) is MCAT MCAT MCAT.  I just took a portion of a practice test and didn’t do so hot on it.  Which makes me feel like I just threw $35 out the window.  But I know, I know, practice (and getting things WRONG) will lead me to be smarter about my test taking strategy.  A lot of my mistakes is because I felt rushed and tense.  I kept an eye on the clock (as the real test IS timed) which prolly was a mistake this early in the game.  The tension comes from the fact that no one in my house was (and continues to be) considerate of the noise level. Granted, I did get some quiet but an hour is not enough when the test itself is FIVE hours long.  I know I didn’t work through the test in it’s entirety but it’s hard to concentrate when there are 2 t.v.s,  3 gameboy d.s., and 5 people talking.  All within a 10 foot radius of my desk. GRrrrrr.

Whew, and a rant takes over my blog! Sorry! Well I think I’ve taken a long enough break from working.  Gotta get my nose back to the grindstone!

P.S. I can’t wait to write a race report this weekend.  It will either be amazingly fantastic or amazingly hilarious.  Regardless (or as I hear ppl say, which irks me to no end, irregardless) stay tuned because I’m already looking forward to it haha

P.P.S: I posted a couple posts ago about me looking for a good half training plan.  I’m still in the market for one so if you have a plan that worked well for you please let me know

P.P.P.S: If I don’t get around to posting, have a happy and safe fourth of July!

Getting Schooled by a Thirteen-year old

Yup.  So to give my ego a boost I will say that before setting out with my 13-yr old brother I had done a full body circuit complete with a 1.5 mile warm up followed by a 6 mile run.  Got it?

And when I got finished with all that, I was feeling pretty good.  Nothing stellar but my legs didn’t feel dead or anything.  And the weather held out too, the thunderstorms that had plagued the area all yesterday, last night and this morning had moved on and I was able to enjoy my run in a light mist if that.  So when I arrived home and my brother (whom for future reference I’ll call K5, yup all 6 kids start with K, so I’m K1) asked if I would run a mile and a half with him, I honestly didn’t see why not.

Let me preface this with:  in the past when I’ve run with him we have run at an 10-11 min mile pace.  Which is slower than I usually go, so I do it as a warm down for myself and a great way to bond with him, even if we don’t talk.

Well let me just say that since the last time I ran with him, he has gotten a lot faster.  A helluva lot.  He is going to have an amazing XC season this fall, I can just feel it.  I guess I should also state that he’s definitely gone through a huge chunk of puberty, so he doesn’t look like a scrawny little boy but his shoulders are broader, he’s definitely going to hit 6′ soon etc.

But onto the run. Our pace was SUB-8! After a total of 7.5 miles before (and no where near sub-8) … well let’s just say that this run was not a warm down at all.  I was surprised, though, that I was able to (somewhat) keep up with him.  He was always ahead of me by a meter or two but I gutted it out.

It was soooo much fun, even the fact that the sky *opened up* on us.  I mean, I could see that a storm was a-brewin’ but I figured it would be regular rain.  Not so much.  But I was having so much fun that I was able to laugh about the pellets of rain with K5.  I swear I’m going to have a few bruises tmrw.   And when I looked at my watch (yes I’ll admit to timing a fun run with the bro) and saw how fast we were, I guess I knew we were booking it, but I was still shocked about how much he pushed me.  I felt like I had just done a mini-tempo or something, I got that high that comes after running fast and hard.  Woot! I think I’m going to incorporate more K5 runs for a speed boost after mid-distance runs.

I also can’t stop beaming and gushing about how much K5 has improved.  Pretty soon he’s not going to be able to fit through a door haha.

Sweet Success

After spending forever on the phone I managed to get another $50 visa gift card sent to me because…well the card technically expired June 9th BUT it was labeled on the card 06/09.  Ummmm would you actually read that as the 9th of June on an exp date? Yeah me either.   And after talking to one person and then working up the chain of command I was able to get that cash, or rather a new card.  Yippee. And I managed to do it without being rude and mean.  Double yippee.

After all that aggrevation I hit the roads for a very nice 7 mile run.  The weather wasn’t as nice as yesterday and the rain finally let up for me to get out there.  I mean, I don’t have a problem with running in the rain.  It’s just tenbillion times harder to start in the rain rather than have it start raining mid-run.  The latter is so much more enjoyable.  And about a mile away from home the thunder started up.  Like real real loud. Clearly the last mile was the fastest.  I made it home just in time because the sky opened up and the rain came down in buckets for the rest of the day.

The run itself wasn’t anything to write home about.  It was a little slower than usual but it wasn’t one of those slow runs where every step feels like crawling and it’s physically painful to go so slow.  I’m actually quite happy about that, as I used to be the runner that had to have every run be faster than the last.  It’s really nice to just go and enjoy the experience, which is what I’ve been doing lately.

Times will change though, as I’ve received such positive feedback about racing a half (or two) this fall.  That would put me starting a 12 week plan, two weeks from now.  Any suggestions for a good training plan? I’ve used SmartCoach from RWOL but I’m looking to push myself further than I’ve done before.

I also did week 4 day 2 of the hundred pushup challenge and I love the way my arms are looking and feeling.  I obviously wasn’t working my arms in the right way lifting before because I am very impressed with the tone of my arms (yes I am that vain) but also I do feel stronger which is a huge plus. Hopefully this translates to my arms not feeling dead during races.

Speaking of which, I still haven’t decided to run the 5 miles on the fourth.  I’m pretty sure I want to do it, but I haven’t raced a shorter race since October.  I’m just a wee bit scared of failure, and having such a long hiatus makes me nervous that I will forget how to face something short.  I mean, I’ll do it for that reason alone but it would be nice if I felt more confident about it.   In any case it’ll be a great experience, which will lead to more confidence next time 🙂