Snobbery

of the coffee variety.  You see, I’ve NEVER been a coffee person before I started and entered the real world in August.  Slowly but surely I’ve started, well, becoming addicted to the stuff.  I’ll admit that I didn’t really drink it to enjoy it.  In fact, what I typically drank was this stuff

and I drank it, and liked it, because I could make it as strong / weak as I wanted.  I could make it (and did) pipping hot.  And it was quick.  For Christmas (and I am ashamed to say that I JUST broke it out of the box.  No real good excuse either except that I was too lazy to buy coffee filters…) I got

TA-DA

Well I guess it wasn’t *totally* that I didn’t have any filters (yes I know that’s a weak excuse) but also because I A) had lots of the instant stuff in the cabinet and B) didn’t really know what kind of coffee to buy (I guess my only real requirement was CAFFEINE).  I did get a thing of DD coffee and some store brand with the coffee maker buttttt well I just didn’t have any oompf to make my own coffee.  Until….

omgsogood

a friend (who doesn’t drink coffee) gave me this bag because she was given it and didn’t want it to go to waste.  Rather than leave it in the clinic I immediately told her that I’d take it.  And OMG so good. I definitely am NOT a coffee connoisseur but I am sooooo enjoying this coffee.  I haven’t yet checked out how much it sells for in the grocery store / godiva store but I’m betting that it isn’t exactly cheap.  So I’m trying to really savor it while I can!  I still have the packets of instant in the cabinet but hopefully this lets me become a full-fledged coffee snob.  All in good time.

But at least I’m able to enjoy *something*.  Because I was all set to get up and actually enjoy my traditional Tuesday Tempo.  Maybe I should have heeded “Beware the ides of March” because alas my left leg did not want to cooperate with me.  And neither did my brain because I totally slept through my alarm this morning after being up all night with what I suspect was a fever and a really runny/stuffy nose. I am amazed at how much snot can come out of my nose.  It’s not even that big!

I’m also amazed that I managed to get through the warm up once I got out there,  barely though.  It felt (and still does) feel like my other leg did in December after trying to do too much after WR.  The funny thing is that I was hurt this time last year in my Boston training but with my shins.  Oh well.  This time around I plan on not being slightly silly and training through it.  I mean, I might try but at least I listened to myself and didn’t try to force the tempo. And tothose of you who are wondering: I don’t have access to a gym / pool / bike so XT-ing it up isn’t an option for me at the moment.

I did spend the time that I was going to be running the tempo icing, stretching and rolling.  So I wasn’t just bumming around feeling sorry for myself.  And to note: I’m not feeling totally frustrated or even sorry for myself.  Yes, it sucks to not be able to complete workouts but I’m feeling worn at this point and need some R&R. I thought one week was good enough but I guess not. We’ll see how I feel in a few days. It’ll be a most excellent time to try and satiate my insane appetite that I’m getting being so far in training hahah

Good thing I’m taking Boston for fun, no? I’m doubley looking forward to the massage I scheduled for Friday. Holler.

Finally, after seeing everyone else post on FB their Boston number I figured I’d check out what mine was and what wave I ended up being in (for those of you who don’ t know, Boston is now a 3 wave race). I’m not going to share the actual number here (because I don’t know who is reading behind the scenes) sorry but it’s good enough to get me FIRST WAVE. Holler. And I’m sure many of you know my full name and can search for me.  And then stalk me on April 18th.

Glutton for Punishment?

Apparently.  After an emotionally charged weekend what do I decide to do to cap it off? Try to physically exhaust myself too. Luckily I had a hard interval workout on tap for this weekend. I wasn’t up for it at all on Saturday so around noon on Sunday I decided to tackle it and hope that a good painful (but in a good way) run was what was necessary to pick me up.

On tap: 3 X 3.3 miles. Boo! Hiss!

Ouch just to look at the workout. I typically only do 2 of the intervals (as do most normal and sane runners) but I was definitely going for the whole “glutton for punishment” vibe this weekend.

As far as how fast I wanted to run it, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hit the 6:29-6:43 tempo interval pace that McMillian thinks I can do based on WR, and while I’m in good shape, there was something just ON about my training last fall for WR….which speaking of….guess what I got in the mail over the weekend?

Holler. Between this piece of mail and my new Boston confirmation I should be rearing to go! Maybe not McMillian pace ready, but I thought that between 7:00 and 7:15 was reasonable for this workout.  Oh man. Oh hubris.

How’d it go?

• Warm up
• 1st interval: 3.3 miles @ 7:19
• 2nd interval: 3.3 miles @ 7:28
• 3rd interval: 3.3 miles @ 7:32
• Warm down

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeh. My head was no where near being in this workout.  I was very distracted, probably from my weekend, but in all honesty I was about to write that I felt like I was pushing at my best.  I wasn’t.  Clearly with each interval being slower than the last. Normally I’m the opposite. No real excuses or anything but I probably could have kept my head in the game…

Is it bad to admit that this is on my iTunes?

That said, my legs did feel the burn and clearly fatigued throughout the workout.  Which is what I wanted to do. I just wish that fatigue pace was a little faster that’s all. Too much to ask for? I know that all the life stuff that’s been crazy present in my life lately  has been a huge factor in my training this cycle.  Unlike previous cycles I’m not basing my life around my training but rather my training around my life.  And at the moment some things (*cough*hanging out with my friends and having fun*cough*) are more important than, well I was going to say training but I’ve still be attempting my hard workouts, but things more of the sleep nature

 

I love how my friend's expression is like "oh man. here we go tonight" hahah!

And I don’t quite know how this post is going to come across.  Because I have lots of emotions going on when I think about this Boston training and where my running is at right now.  In the end, no matter how frustrated or upset or angry I am about not being as fast as when I was training for WR, I am much faster than this time last year when I was training for Boston.  That’s still a very good sign.  Just annoying that WR was so amazing that right now can’t really compare.  It’s like karaoke-ing after the kid who is studying musical performance at grad school (true story from last week at karaoke!).  No matter how good you are at singing (or training with my running right now) it’s not going to compare.  Doesn’t mean that I’m not doing some good stuff but last time had all the stars aligned. We’ll see how zen I feel about it on April 18th though!

Girl Drop It To The Floor

Whew. No partying for me Wednesday night, one mid-day work night is enough!  I was in my bed (after marathon cleaning..like scrubbing cleaning….) early. I was bushed. I did manage to watch an episode of Pushing Daisies before I conked out though.  I seriously do not know what I’m going to do when that show ends.  I don’ t have many episodes left!

I actually got to sleep in a bit Thursday morning because of the nor’easter that hit.  I was told that I could work from home today and I took my work up on that offer by working in the morning/early afternoon.  Tonight is a clinic night and since the roads were plowed when I got up (my car, however, was not plowed out of the lot!) I went in later and was able to A) actually get work done from home (office work is so much easier for me to do NOT at the clinic. Less people demanding my time) and B) get my long run in without rushing.

J, however, told me: “I agree the best run is after a night of little sleep. The worst run is the day after …”

I completely agree even though I didn’t want to hear it. I remember reading back in the day that New Year’s Day you’ll feel fine and dandy from the night but January 2nd you’ll be dragging.  Something about you’re body and brain finally having matching signals.  Since Thursday was two days after my late night let’s see how I did:

4 X 4.4 miles = 17.6 miles at an average pace of 9:03

• 1st: 9:09 pace
• 2nd: 9:01 pace
• 3rd: 9:06 pace
• 4th: 8:42 pace

I cannot believe that the last one was so much faster than the first three.  Guess I really wanted to get it done!

Considering the slush and the sleepiness I’ll consider it a success.  Like my tempo run on Tuesday, I really feel like I’m off the mark training wise for this race.  My paces for quality workouts are slower and my easier runs are faster than they should be.  I suppose in the end this is mental and I need to really buy into the training schemes again.  You know: run quality as quality and run easy as easy.  I’m not doing that lately.  It’s hard though because it’s only 11.5 weeks ’til Boston and I’m comparing to WR where I only had 5.5 weeks.  I still feel like there’s ages to go until the race!

On a related yet not quite related note: my hunger has been sky high today.  And lately.  I know that it’s because my training is increasing but I’m normally not quite as famished on long run days as I am today.  I’ve eaten 3 bowls of pasta tonight.  On top of my regular dinner.  For a gal that doesn’t quite like pasta this is quite a feat!

I was going to take a picture but the meal was literally bowtie pasta and a basil pasta sauce.  Not too exciting.  Except to the girl who just ate 3 bowls of it…

So I’ll leave you with the song that is STUCK in my head and won’t get out. Because this post is more or less a training run post. Enjoy! I’ll try to enjoy the rest of my night…if clinic keeps going the way it’s going I may be going out again.  But it’s Thursday, which is more acceptable than Tuesday…

Ouchie…

Story of my day today:

Brownie sundaes + Tropic Thunder (What do YOU mean *you people*) + bottles of wine + 0130 bedtime + 0530 wakeup

I know it’s a long equation but what does it equal? An 11 mile run at a blistering pace of 8:31.

I feel a bit bad pulling out this run after saying how much harder my runs are in the morning (and btw I LOVED reading your thoughts on when you can run vs when you want to run and if they’re the same or not) but I’ve also always said that the night after little sleep and alcohol yields the best runs. This morning was no exception.

Not only that but the 13* I was in actually felt balmy after that -1* run on Monday. Ahhh relativity.

So there.  (I’m sticking my tongue out at you when I say that)

Time to finish getting rid of this headache via coffee, finish up my workday and go get some groceries to bunker down for the 10-14″ of nor’easter snow coming my way.

Where The Wild Things Are Sex Running

Another spicy search term to brighten up your day/week because: WHEW it has been dragging! Guess that’s what I get when I take days off and don’t work a full work week since pre-Thanksgiving.  I’m hoping I can stay strong and pull through to the weekend!

Training wise…yes I said “training”.  Even though I’m not officially starting a plan for the 2011 Boston Marathon (!!) Sunday marked 4 weeks post-White Rock.  And thus I’m not purposely limiting myself to only easy runs.  I mean, if I feel like going easy on a day I want to do something specific I’ll take it(no sense in mentally beating myself up and wearing down) but I’ve decided to throw some “hard” (or rather quality) workouts in here and there.  Just to make sure my body doesn’t forget how to train (like it ever could!)

Monday: Easy 8.8 miles at 0545. Ugh. After a weekend of only sleeping 13 hours this run was really rough.  Like unbearably rough.  Sunday night I crawled into bed around 2030 to read because I was done with everything I needed to do (yay productive Sundays) and wanted to catch up on the good book I’m reading. I swear I was out cold within 10 minutes.  Because when my mom called me at 2115 I was sooooo out of it.  I am such an old lady!

But despite the sleep deprivation I had a good run.  It was refreshing to be out in the crisp morning pre-dawn air.  And I was running pretty fast too.  I had only planned a 6.5 mile route but was feeling so strong that I ended up adding the extra 2.3 miles.  I faded hardcore towards the end of it and wish I had stopped at the original distance (so much for not wearing myself out 😉 ) so that I could end on a BANG rather than a fizzle.  But hey, the run was still good.  So I was happy. Not bad for the first early morning run in about 2 weeks.

 

Although I might have felt great on the run this is likely what I looked like. Thanks google.

Tuesday:Again, I slept for an obscene amount of time. Apparently my body can’t handle three days of drinking over the weekend like it once could. For shame I tell you! Anyway, Tuesday was tempo Tuesday during WR training, and will likely be during Boston training, so I decided that Tuesday would be a good day to reintroduce speed.  While a good idea might have been to do fartleks or something to ease into it.  Nope. Not me. Here’s what went down:

• Warm up
• “Tempo” : 4.4 miles @ 7:43 (2.2 @ 7:47, 2.2 @ 7:40)
• Warm down

Tempo is in quotes because I know that it’s not tempo paced.  But for some reason any run that is faster than easy and supposed to be steady = tempo in my mind.  Maybe that’s something I should work on this upcoming training cycle. That said, I’m soooo totally not disappointed that it’s not actual tempo pace of even MP.  It hurt and was hard.  And confirmed that I hate tempos.  But it was a great start and, despite hating every minute of it, I still loved pushing myself.  T-3 weeks until Boston training for me!

I was supposed to finish my Hundred Pushups Challenge and 200 Situps Challenge.  But I didn’t .  Yes I’ve completed all 6 weeks. But I’ve done this challenge before and don’t feel the need to “prove myself”.  I’m 99% sure that I can do it buttttt, I’ll fully admit it, I just wasn’t into it.  Doing the days and weeks was a vehicle to get myself to reintroduce some type of resistance training.  Mission accomplished.  Instead I did a core workout for 15 minutes and then did another type of pushup challenge.  The gist of it is to do 1 pushup on January 1st, 2 on the 2nd, etc. and culminate with 365 pushups on December 31st.  I actually decided to do this on Tuesday and had to do 10 to catchup.  But after doing the other challenge, it wasn’t so bad…we’ll see as the year progresses what I think.

Wednesday: Another 0545 run.  Blah. This one was actually a little worse than Monday but only because I had to work late last night and didn’t crawl into bed until late. But I’m glad that I got out there this morning.  I don’t know where this “Oh hey I can sleep more and then run after work” attitude is coming from.  Not that it’s a bad thing per se but I used to be a real go-getter in the mornings!

Not too much interesting here except that I totally wiped out about a mile or so from my apartment. Normally I’d just shake it off but since it was around 0700 at this point it was getting lighter out and a guy totally saw me hit the ground.  To his credit he asked if I was okay and if I was hurt.  Only my ego buddy. I need to start paying attention hahah! I still ended up with about 8 miles at a good easy…dare I say recovery (after 4 weeks of recovery running I’m not sure I like the phrase at the moment!)?…pace with no fading at the end and there might have been a light negative split. Emphasis on the slight.

Well that’s all I got for you today. Happy Hump Day. I usually hate that term but considering the search term I titled my post after and the picture for pushups I’ll use it.

Check out the giveaway from Julie (Hot Legs Runner) and Muncher Cruncher and Matt (The Kitchen of  a Runner)

Things I’ve Learned: Weekend Edition

I typed out a post just now but deleted it because even I couldn’t stand how teenager whiny I sounded.  Especially because I was just bitching and moaning. Nothing positive.  No bright side. So I’ve turned it into things I’ve learned this weekend.  Because learning is ALWAYS positive. And fun.

• If it’s 8 days until Christmas then good luck finding those gingerbread kits.  Because my friend and I wanted to make real gingerbread houses Friday night but decided to at 2100 that night.  Meaning we could have made the dough for the walls but decorating would have to wait.  And let’s face it: decorating is what gingerbread house making is all about.  After hitting up several stores searching for those $10 kits there was nothing in sight.  So we said “Eff it” and watched Iron Man 2 instead.

 

Or maybe eating it's the best. Thanks google for the image

• Sleeping in until 1000 isn’t a bad thing.  Unless of course you have a billion things to do during the day.  Luckily that wasn’t really the case for me on Saturday when my alarm went off at 0845 and I fell back asleep until a little past 1000.  But it felt glorious.  And lazy. I also did this, but to a not-as-late degree, on Sunday morning.  Mostly because it was cold in my apartment (see a later lesson for why) and because

• Late nights at the GCB (the Graduate Center Bar, literally in the basement of a building at the university) are fun.  It’s essentially a dive bar and I tend to shy away from it because I’m not a student but the drink are extremely cheap (and relatively strong) and there are graduate students there.  Hotttttt. I also think that it was this late night (coupled with restless sleep because it was cold in my room) lead to the sleeping in Sunday morning.  So worth it.

 

Good times with good friends = awesomeness. Not taken Saturday night though.

• Running post-breakfast is a good idea and leads to good running for me. Although it’s tough to get my butt out the door because I’ll get sucked into the internet vortex or the good book that I’m currently reading.  And even if I manage to pry myself away it takes FOREVER to actually put the running clothes on and get out there. Lesson: do this on days where I have nowhere to be.

• But once I got out there it was amazing! Lesson: sunny runs and runs where I’ve let my body wake up are the bestest. On Saturday I ended up with 10.8 miles, first double digit post-WR and it was definitely the FASTEST, by a long shot, post-WR. Again, the pace isn’t where I’d love it to be but it was 0:02 away from being within McMillian’s easy pace/LR pace.  So I’m thrilled. The day was perfect for it too: 36* and sunny.  Definitely beats the teens and dark that I’ve been doing during the week.  Sunday was a shorter but equally fast (like 0:01 seconds off that easy pace) run in some cloudy, yet warmish, day.  It felt like it was going to snow though.  Boo.  But both runs kicked booty AND ended with LMPs (last mile parties) and WAY fast splits. Leading me to my next lesson:
  

• Rolling, stretching, PT exercises are good.Coupled with the Pushups ( 29, 33, 29, 29, 40 ) and Situps ( 45, 50, 45, 45, 70 ) I’ve been doing my body is feeling good and on that Saturday run I was pain free.  Holler.  I’m feeling like a better/stronger/faster/less hurting runner.  This can only help me in the long term.

• As can checking the oil burner more frequently (what you thought this would be 100% running?!) Because on Friday we ran out of oil and spent 2.5 days with no heat.  Let’s just say mid-December in New England is not the best time to do so and apparently my apartment, being nice and glorious in it’s antiquity, is not well insulated.  AKA we burned through our oil wicked fast, like 3 weeks fast.  Luckily we finally went out to buy a wrench and bleed the line so we have heat.  I feel incredibly BAMF for being able to bleed the line myself now.  Like a regular MacGyver

thanks google images

• So I spent most of the whole day working on my bloggy secret santa gift (SORRY TO THE PERSON I HAVE. I’m 99.99% sure it’ll come the Monday after Christmas! I’ll have it in the mail before obviously but I have no idea if it’ll get to you in time), catching up on blogs (as well as reading through the blogs of some new commenters!) and watching the first season of Chuck.  Because Chuck is an awesome show.

And he's a wicked cute nerd, like me 😉 Thanks google images

• And finally, after staying out way late for two nights and sleeping in for two days Monday mornings suck. I normally don’t care too much about Monday mornings but man it is ROUGH getting out of bed at 0545 (or getting into bed before 2300 the night before!) after getting out of the habit.  And the running isn’t too stellar usually as was the case this morning.  But, after having pain free and fast and AWESOME runs for the past 4 days, I can’t say that the dud of a run this morning was all that awful. And I will say that Monday morning runs are worth it because I get to see my friendly older pair of men walking the pathway when I’m out that early.  They’re always so upbeat and happy and I smile when I pass them and tell them to have a great morning/week/whatever.

What about y’all. Any lessons learned this weekend?

Check out the giveaway from Janae (Hungry Girl Runner) and Julie (HotLegsRunner)

1. Vacation: beach or mountains?

2. Luggage: check it or carry it on?

3. Bed: make it or leave it a rumpled comfy mess?

4. Races: smaller or bigger?

5. Toilet paper roll: over or under?

6. Pancakes: thick and fluffy or thin and crepe-like?

7. Alarm: get up or hit snooze?

I’m Looking Like A Star. You Can’t Stop My Shine

Wow.  Just wow.  I am in love with the outpouring of love from y’all on my Dallas WR Marathon race report (ummmm yes shameless plug but it’s my blog and I do what I want 😉 ).  You guys seem just as excited as me. And I love that and the running/blogging community. ❤

I was going to do a “now what?” kind of post because I’m sure that it’s on your minds.  And it’s been in the back of my head too.  But I’m not allowing those thoughts to come to the front.  I never take the time to live in the moment. I’m always chasing the next thing and not enjoying what I’ve just done. So I can feel them tickling my brain but I’m not focusing on them.

You might ask yourself why.  And it’s because I just had a kick ass year.  I smashed my previous PRs in every race (all of which were done post-Labor Day).  And every race I ran was a PR going through the year month-by-month.  Capped off with the aforementioned race on Sunday.  Obviously everyone knows the next big race I’m doing is Boston (or at least committed to doing because I’m already registered) but goals? training? things I want to accomplish?

I have idea but I’ll think about them later because right now it’s time to revel and relax and act like the star that I’m going to be until this feeling wears off

Dedicated to the 96% of the men I finished in front of 8)

Needless to say I’m recovering now and not training at the moment so I guess this post will be how I’m reacting post-race. Mostly physically because, like I said, I’m still grappling mentally with how well I ran and am still basking in the post-amazing-race glow. And this may get lengthy because I want to do it all in one shot of a post.

On Tuesday I went out for what my dear friend tbm calls a “systems check” run.  Kind of a way to see what is true pain and what is just hey-I-dominated pain. It went well.  Quad and groin and hips soreness for sure but no pain or anything like that.  AKA I’m not injured.

I did the same Wednesday morning and actually ran the exact same route in the exact same time.  In the exact same temperature and wore pretty much the exact same outfit: shorts and a long sleeve.  I did break out the heavy duty gloves because it was ~24* and I figure that it’s December and, while the temps will likely keep dropping until Spring, I can give my hands a break here and not give them frostbite.

While I have been giving my hands a break the past few days, I haven’t for my legs/feet. And no, I’m not talking about the running. I may or may not have been wearing my heels this week.  In all honestly my FEET do not hurt.  I got ZERO blisters this race.  I’m crediting the fact that I took the podiatrist’s advice and bought the “silly” socks (and by silly I mean expensive polypropylene socks) and wore them during the race.  My feet feel amazing, although when my favorite podiatrist comes in next week I’m going to see him again. And I figure I can walk in my heels with no pain so why not? I mean, I work with cute medical students and doctors 😉

So my feet feel good.  And my muscles are sore.  Go figure right? I just ran a marathon.  But my pride refuses to let me take the elevator or walk down the stairs backwards.  While I said in my RR that I felt more sore post-Boston I have to amend that and say POST-RACE I was more sore at Boston but I’m feeling more sore in the days that follow now.  I mean, I can hobble down the stairs and not be cussing, but it isn’t fun.

Not my friend. (although bonus points if someone recognizes the pic)

Those stairs are in contrast to my new best friend which has been beer. Obviously I haven’t been drinking like a fish over these past few days but I have been enjoying a beer post-work. And on an alcohol related note: I did have a margarita while in Texas.  When in Rome, no? Immediately regretted it as my big margarita night is still too fresh hahah.

Also not fun is how famished I’ve been post-race.  Like, I know I ran 26.2 miles so, duh, I should be hungrier but I’ve NEVER had this extreme amount of hunger post-any race I’ve done.  Since I crossed that finish line I feel like I’ve been a bottomless pit.Not that I’m truly complaining (although my food bill certainly is) but it’s not fun being hungry All. The. Time.

My sleeping post-WR has been erratic.  I didn’t really sleep well on Sunday or Monday nights.  Not because of anything specific but rather that my body just wasn’t tired or sleepy.  I did get lots of time just laying around and keeping off my feet but actual sleep eluded me. Tuesday night it was a different story and I slept HARD.  I was groggy when my alarm jarred me out of bed.  It’s been awhile since my alarm has woken me up on a day I get to go into work late and I really can’t say that I enjoy it.  I’m hoping for more deep sleep the rest of the week and headed into the weekend.

So I think that wraps up today’s post? Oops to the length, I figured that since I’m out of training right now it’d be brief.

In short: I think I’m recovering fine from WR.  Granted this is the first marathon that I’ve actually felt the need to recover from even though I don’t really know how to do this hahah. My first was a pretty easy effort and for my second I was injured, so I was recovering from that and not really the race itself.  We’ll see how the rest of the week goes and, once I’m off the high that is post-WR, I’ll start to let those “what next” thoughts take form.

Oh yeah, this is my 500th post. Crazy 8)

Check out the giveaway from Linds

Answers for my Feet, among other things

On Tuesday night the podiatrist volunteer was in the clinic and I had him check out my feet.  If you recall at the very end of August I got another toe infection and my PCP suggested I see a podiatrist.  Well due to lack of time and money I didn’t.  So when the podiatrist showed up I jumped at the chance to see him as “the last patient” and get his input on my feet.

Thanks google images because while I do have pictures of my icky toes from hospitalizations past butttttt I'll spare you. And don't think I'm a creeper for taking them: I was TOLD to my the doctors so that I could have a visual to compare to see if they were getting better hahah.

The long and short of the “appointment” and his opinion was that I run in cotton socks which, duh, hold moisture and also cling to my feet causing micro-abrasions on the toes which then get infected because I’m not aware of them and thus do not bacitracin them.  Since I’ve really only had this problem since becoming a marathon runner he thinks that the more intense pounding is just a lot of my toe-sies.

Anyway the podiatrist’s suggestion was/is to buy polypropylene socks to wear.  Especially during the hard workouts / during the marathon itself.  He did remove two toenails that were icky.  Nothing wrong with them but they were hurting me and he didn’t want them to cause me pain.  An angel I tell you!

He was AMAZINGLY nice and told me to call him if I ever had any questions or if the socks didn’t do anything.  Like for free. God’s gift to the Earth? For real.

Since he didn’t say anything about not running (In fact when he told me I could call him whenever he said that he had lots of runners in his practice so he knew how to keep us on out there!) I felt good going out for my recovery run from the tempo I did yesterday. Which I’m still smiling from all the nice comments from you guys.  Again, I know that the workout was good and something to draw from.  But, like the mile repeats over the weekend, it wasn’t how I envisioned the workout going.  I felt slightly like a loose cannon during the later part.  Not cool calm collect and in control like I wanted.

Thanks again google images. And a physics connection too! My lucky day

Anyway….back to today.  Ever since the time change over the weekend I’ve been sleeping sooooooo much.  I honestly don’t know what’s up with that.  On one hand I know I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth butttt I never sleep as much as I have been the past few days.  Partly it’s because T/W/R this week are clinic so I don’t have to get up at 0500 but still: I’ve been falling asleep immediately and waking up to my alarm.  Plus we’re talking about ~9 hours a night. Sheesh.  Time change affecting me much? Normally I only get affected in the Spring when we spring forward!

I’m sure the extra sleep is aiding in my training, and running in general. Or at least making me focused to do what needs to be done.  AKA a nice “chilly” recovery run for me this morning. I think it only felt cold because it was cloudy and overcast and a bit misty as well as WINDY. I ran across a bridge / the canal and I honestly thought I was going to get blown into traffic.  No bueno.  But overall I got a solid run in.  It felt faster than it actually was but it was within the range I am for on recovery runs.  Not sure if that’s a good thing or not but since I wasn’t pushing the pace or out of breath I’m going to take it as a good thing.

Doubly so because my tempo yesterday was fast and my legs were tight all yesterday at work.  But no soreness in my legs this morning? I’ll take that thank you very much.  I could do without the arm soreness from those pushups from yesterday.  Whoops to not doing strength in forever.

It was also a creepy run when I was running along the river trail.  The leaves have pretty much disappeared from the trees and the dreary weather made it look like the environment was stripped of color.  Pretty freaking creepy indeed.  I actually got a little paranoid running too which *rarely* happens, especially in an area I’ve run so much and know so well.

 

Google Image #3 today

But all in all I’ve been very pleased with all my runs in this “cycle”. I can’t believe that the race is soooo soon AND it’s almost time for taper.  Weird.  But that’s what you get when you sign up and decide to run a marathon with 5 weeks to go!  In many ways I think that I’ve been so pleased because (and I don’t know if I’ve written it hear or just talked about it with a few of you via email and whatnot) I haven’t had the ~11 weeks of mental (as well as physical) beatings that I can give myself over a long training cycle and end up feeling burnt out.  I’ll likely feel slightly underprepared when stepping up to the starting line but not injured or hurt.  *knockonwood*

I have a hills (or tempo interval) workout tmrw because I’m doing what could quite possibly be my last 20 (and likely should be) this weekend with a friend.  Crazy.  Then it’s T-3 weeks.  Next week I expect to be intense but slightly cut back in terms of miles then a steep 2 week taper.

Then GAME TIME.

Rolling, Snowing and Trying to Cling to Fall

Hey all.  YAY for sunlight on my morning runs from now on thanks to DST ending.  Last night when I was out running some errands the sun was setting at 1633?? Oh well.  The fact that the sun rose at 0626 this morning makes up for it. I guess.

Hopefully y’all feel well rested from this weekend.  I do? I actually felt like a slug this weekend because I slept for 10 or so hours Friday night and then, because of the time change, ELEVEN hours on Saturday night.  Which was even more miraculous because I went out that night as well.  Who am I?! I NEVER sleep in like that.  I’m going to call it a good thing though.  Although I will say that I totally squandered that extra hour in the day. I’m always complaining about how I wish there were more hours in the day and then when I get one, what do I do? Sleep.  Figures 😉

After my repeats on Saturday, which I did edit the post with an addendum saying that I was pleased with the workout and know that I’m in the right place with my training, I basically DID NOT MOVE until going out.  Instead I curled up with a good book I’ve been reading (*cough*IamsuchaNERDbecauseit’soneofthosebooksyoureadinhighschool*cough*) and lounged.  After a while my legs started feeling more than a little tight.  So I finally broke down and broke out:

And yes those are two laundry baskets. I actually have three. I use a very complicated system 😉

Now I know that many of you have been on the foam rolling action for a long time.  So have I … in theory.  I bought this baby back in March or so but only have used it a few times.  Mostly because I’m lazy and partly because I know how tight my muscles are.  Roller + tight muscles = pain.  Duh.

I will say that I neither cried nor screamed as I was doing my thing.  I had a friend over and complained a lot.  Aloud of course — that’s the only time complaining is really ever fun HA.  But my voice never rose and I’m pretty sure no cuss words were uttered.  I did sweat though.  Which tells me I was doing something good and putting my body through some type of stress.

This translated, I think, into a muy bueno recovery run on Sunday.  Sunny skies and cool temps.  It felt great.  I even ran a wicked hilly route and felt fine.  Encouraging and I used the darn thing Sunday too after a long day of laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning the apartment.  See? I can do more domestic things than cook 😉

Monday morning brought SNOW.  And..well not a recovery run per se…but an easy one at that and “fast” easy (aka I looked at my watch at the end and smiled because it was faster than I thought).  The only remarkable thing was the weather and, well, I’m afraid I’m dangerously close to using up my complain-for-free passes.  It actually ended up not being too bad (it was mostly sleet and it stopped early on in the run) except my shoes were soaked 100m into it.

I will say that if it snows, or I guess this morning was more of a sleet, at WR I will be ready.

Just because the sun rises earlier doesn't mean 0500 is any lighter! So a bad picture but YES that is snow on the railing, in the tree and on the road!

I was sent this article on How to Deal with the Cold from a friend who thought it’d be funny to send this to me.  I’ve been living here my whole life so I think, despite my complaints about winter, I’m pretty cold savvy.  For those of you who aren’t here are some excerpts (and my thoughts on said excerpts):

The Physical

• “Don’t underestimate the power of sunshine” Duh but with .43453453453 hours of daylight (yes that’s a decimal point out in front of those numbers), and all of those during working hours, how am I supposed to get this?
• Take your vitamins. Duh.
• Stay hydrated Okay so this one I get because heaters = dry air. Which also equals nosebleeds for me.
• Get outside and stay active. But. It’s. So . Cold. I actually do get outside (I think last year I ran in 12* weather) but it’s soooooooo hard to do.

The mental

• Be mindful of your mood and mental health Unless of course this makes you even angrier for not getting out of the NorthEast when you had the chance.
• Stay social. Ummm this is really hard to do when you’re A) too cheap to pay for a cab and B) to intoxicated to drive yourself.  AKA walking is how I roll.  Let me tell you: heels and dresses in freezing weather? Not a good combo. I guess we’ll just have lots of house parties?
• Evaluate your winter pitfalls to guard against them This might actually depress me because it’s basically telling me to make of list of why I hate winter.  And I’m pretty sure (as I know you are) that it’s a pretty lengthy list.

I think you should probably be doing these things year round.  And I bet you can totally tell how bitter I am about winter.  I’m going to spend the rest of this…rain/snow/sleet/whatever it’s doing out there daydreaming about my move to somewhere warm. Because I’m 100% serious about making like a leaf and getting the f$%# out of here.

Anyone? I know I chose a random picture but anyone on that quote that's italicized?

And hey, check out this giveaway from Matt (Kitchen of a Runner) and Janae (Hungry Runner Girl) because everyone likes a giveaway.

And what’s a post without wicked awesome pictures?! (and by wicked awesome I mean Halloween-y and NOT snow and not a random guy from a great movie)

I actually forgot to share this last week! But over Halloween weekend some friends and I went to a “Jack-o-Lantern” festival in the city. It was way fun to see all the creative ways people carved pumpkins.  Here are some of my favs:

Betty Boop!

I ❤ Dinosaurs

Monopoly Man!

I know it’s a week late but I feel the need to say “Happy Halloween” anyway. I mean, it is my favorite holiday after all. But I can say (and have it be 100% true) “hope you enjoyed the weekend 🙂 ”

And enjoy your Monday too.  I sure am considering that A) I haven’t done any work all morning because the software I use won’t download the new version and we had to call in IT people B) the network is being backed up so I can’t work on any of my files and C) my friend made the coffee this morning so strong that I’m afraid to stand up because I’m pretty sure that my legs are so twitchy that I don’t think they’ll support me hahah.

Can’t You Read?

Scarecrow: Read what?
Guardian of the Emerald City Gates: The notice!
Dorothy: What notice?
Guardian of the Emerald City Gates: It’s on the door – as plain as the nose on my face! It… oh…

Courtesy of Google Images

Apparently it was hard to read the notice that said “Show Up to the Track” today. Or my brain didn’t get the “hey we’re not going to go as fast as you want today” notice from my legs.

But the rest of my body read the notice that said “Sleep In”. I do believe that I got up at 0900? I NEVER wake up to an alarm on the weekends. Ever. Very weird. I really can’t remember the last time I did that.   And I probably could have hit snooze and not felt badly at all about it too.  Guess my body just needed sleep! (okay so maybe THAT isn’t so shocking)

Good thing too because today was the usual Saturday head-to-the-track day.  I think, however, the combo of my stomach thing-y Thursday night and the mucho sleep I got last night messed up some rhythm in my body so the workout felt kind of weird.

The plan was to do 5 X 1 mile, with 800m of recovery in between.  According to some people I’ve talked to, the pace I should target on this workout is double Yasso pace.  Well I did do Yassos two weeks ago, with the average 800 being 3:12, but I knew that trying to do 5 mile repeats at 6:24 was going to be pushing it. Especially since I don’t think 3:12 is very realistic for this upcoming race.

Since McMillian predicts 3:18 for my marathon fitness at this moment, I went with a target of 6:30.  A little fast? Yes.  But I’m always going to push in intervals.  Fast short stuff is my background after all.  6:30 was a bit ambitious for sure, but I figured why the heck not?

And just for good measure, I wanted to get some 400m repeats in afterward. Talk about ambitious.

The Workout

Mile 1: 6:43

Ummmmm okay. So maybe my trend of the first interval being the fastest will be wrong today?

Mile 2: 6:40

Okay better.  But still.  This is HARD today.

Mile 3: 6:35

Another hard one.  But at least the effort is staying the same and the time is getting faster.

Mile 4: 6:35

(At the 800m) Yay 3:15. Maybe I can hit the goal pace! (At the end) Oooooooooor not.

Mile 5: 6:34

Ugh this hurts. This sucks. I want to be done. NOW. F#$# those 400s. Not happening. Not No Way. Not No How. (Yes I really did quote the Wizard of Oz during the last lap of the last repeat)

And I wish that I had a Wizard to make this workout feel better! Like the Great and Powerful Oz (courtesy of google images)

Post Workout Thoughts

Overall I just don’t think my heart was in it today.  I know that, on paper, this workout looks great.  According to the calculator that spit out the 3:18:08 goal time, my 1600 speed workout time should be 6:30-6:44.  Since I’m an exact-ist that works out to 6:32-6:46 per mile.  And I was at the fast end of that.  Happy face even if I weirdly feel disappointed a bit.

I think the disappointment comes from the fact that I was so easily distracted during it all.  From the little kids vs. parents/coaches soccer game on the infield to the cute guy who was using the park to do an outdoor strength session to other distracting thoughts running through my head, I wasn’t focused on running. Or at least running hard. My head kept bobbing around.  Like I was rubbernecking or something.

And I can’t get over how hard this workout felt either.  Maybe if I had been more focused it wouldn’t have been so bad? Yes, speed work *should* feel hard. But my legs just felt so spent by the end despite the rest of my body (like my lungs!) feeling 100%.  Normally I get that exhilarating rush after a speed session that I can feel in every cell of my body.  Not today.

Maybe it’s the constant changing of the weather (the past 4 days have been: 27*, 41*, 59*, 43*. All at the same time of day!) doing something funky to my psyche.  Although I will say that maybe I didn’t recover too greatly from that stomach thing because I did get a little lightheaded during some of the recovery jogs by the end. Which is why I nixed the 400m repeats at the end.  It just seemed counterproductive at that point.

That said, I’m going to pull a Sarah and say that, during my long warm down and after much deliberation, I am pleased (I think that was her exact post title a few days ago too!). The fact that I was able to get faster over time bodes well for me and, even though I’d like to have the first two over again, the last three being so consistent is a boost despite my thinking that something is holding me back and that I could have (or should have) gone faster.

Then again, I probably will always feel like that because I’m such a perfectionist and expect so much from myself.

[Edit: So I just re-read this after reading a few comments and I definitely am not *upset* with how the workout went. I just had a much grander idea of what I wanted to do.  From a physical standpoint I think I nailed it, especially with what my current training goals are (MARATHON), but I always want to be faster, stronger etc.  I think it’s the fact that I come from a sprinter background and when I get on the track, going wayyyy fast is just my mentality. But the workout was really solid and another good workout to draw on in….28 days?!….when I run WR.]

Anyway.  Enough whining. The Great and Powerful MM has spoken (yes I am having an intense urge to watch that movie now)

I’m going to say an early GOOD LUCK to my peeps running NYC tmrw: AMarathoner,  Eat Drink Run, Meals for Miles, Skinny Runner, The Runner’s Kitchen. Hmmmm I feel like there’s more of you? Let me know if you’re running it! I’m going to keep updating this list 🙂

And I’m going to say AWESOME JOB to NACN (from rwol) who ran amazingly in Indy today. Woot.

HAVE A GREAT (rest of  your) SATURDAY 🙂

And check out the giveaways from: Tricia, Running Diva Mom, 26.2 is my cooldown

P.S. I’m glad you guys liked seeing the soup that I made. I’m becoming so domesticated and adult.  Not sure how I feel about that hahah!