Taper (?) Week

Here we are, a mere FOUR days from what I’ve been working towards for the past 12 weeks. I’m so nervous! All of my other races have been relatively stress free, since I didn’t train super diligently for them. While my training didn’t go 100% as planned and I threw in triathlon training, I put in a lot of hard work and am anxious to see the results. There’s a part of me that’s nervous about actually running 13.1 miles. Another (very) small part of me that will be disappointed if I don’t make my secret goal time. It’s unrealistic to set a goal when I’ve never run the distance before. But it would be nice.

In other news, I have no idea what to do this week! I don’t know when I should stop running or completely rest. Well, today was a complete rest day. I have an exam and an important quiz tomorrow so I spent the day studying. I attempted a yoga for runners video but it wasn’t doing it for me.

Here’s the schedule for the rest of the week!
Wednesday: 5 mile run and spin
Thursday: attempt a yoga video in the morning (only free time!)
Friday: stretch and maybe a little yoga
Saturday: rest
Sunday: RACE! ahhhh

I’m really looking forward to this weekend. On Friday night my mom will get here and we’re going out to eat at Our House, one of my favorite Burlington-area restaurants. Early Saturday we are driving to the Adriondacks to meet my dad and then we’re going to hopefully go to Lake Placid for the day! Of course, then Sunday is the big day!

A New PDR

I had a 12 mile run on my training plan yesterday and was absolutely terrified of running it. I had planned to wake up really early Wednesday morning to run but somehow slept through all THREE of my alarms (guess I was tired…) and woke up at 6:45, too late to run 12 miles and get to work by 10. I switched it to after class and slept for another hour.

I had class until 3:50, rushed home and got ready to run. I wanted to run 2-3 miles before meeting up with the running club group run at 4:30. I met up with them about 2 miles into it and they were speedy. I was going at a 7:50-8:20/mile pace for about 2 miles. That’s pushing it for a 5k, I can’t even dream about hitting those times for a long run. Needless to say I did not complete the full 5 miles with them and broke off about 2 miles in. I did a couple of loops in this really nice neighborhood with some pretty views and then ran along the waterfront, where I knew I’d have access to water.

I finished the 12.8 miles in about 2 hours 20 minutes. I know I could have done better, but I walked about every mile for 10-20 seconds. I know I’ll do better race day, when the adrenaline is flowing and I’m pushing myself at a pace that I KNOW I can handle. I ran the Newburyport 10 mile at a 9:02/mile (according to the Garmin, my official time doesn’t reflect that pace but my Garmin said I did 10.16 in 1:32 so I’m going with that ;)).

I was also kind of annoyed that the group run was so speedy. They overemphasized that they wanted to include everyone… then ran the group “easy” run at a 7:50-8:20 pace. I guess the overall pace for that run was 8:39, which isn’t too bad. I’m going to go on the run tomorrow so we’ll see how that goes!

Bundle of Nerves

So many things on my mind lately and it’s stressing me out.

I just joined the running club at school and there’s a regional cross country meet for all collegiate running clubs in the northeast. I miss running in meets so much and would be so upset with myself if I didn’t do it. The thing is, the other runners in the club are really fast and I don’t want to be the last one coming in on runs… which shouldn’t bother me at all. But it does. My goal is to at least go on Thursday for the early practice. If I completely suck, at least I know I tried!

I’m also nervous about the fact that I signed up for three half marathons.. in three months. I can treat one or two of them as training runs, but I would like to do really well in at least one.

I also take back what I said about not incorporating speed. Speedwork might just take over my life in the next few weeks. I’m going to take it easy to avoid injury, but it will be lifting that it’ll be on the back burner, at least until the end of October.

Among other things…

In other news, I went to kundalini yoga (again) by accident. I wanted a powerful/vinyasa-y class and ended up in kundalini again! I actually liked it, but it wasn’t what I was feeling for today. The gym keeps listing the yoga classes as “vinyasa flow” and the instructor keeps showing up doing kundalini. Not fun.

I’m going to avoid all forms of “vinyasa” and just go to a power yoga class.

I also spent some time in a high school today, was mistaken for a (high school) sophomore. At least I know I still got it 😉

Weekly Wrapup

I haven’t been doing great with my workouts. I want to increase speed, distance, AND strength all at the same time and end up not doing most of it because I’m trying to do too much. We’ll see..

Sunday: Spin class + NROLFW 1A
Monday: Power yoga
Tuesday: 3 mile run
Wednesday: 8 mile run
Thursday: 3.36 mile walk/run
Friday: Rest/stretch
Saturday: 5 mile race! plus 12ish mile bike ride + yoga class

Distance: 19.36

Not bad. Here’s what’s up for this week:
Sunday: rest (unplanned, but needed)
Monday: 3.1 mile run
Tuesday: Zumba or yoga + lift
Wednesday: 12 mile run
Thursday: 3 mile run
Friday: 4-5 mile run + lift
Saturday: bike ride

I think I’m going to focus on just getting quality runs in before the half-marathon and not worry about speed. It’s too late in the game for that anyway and I have plenty of time to worry about that during the winter. The indoor track/treadmill will be my best friend. As for strength training, I don’t think it will hurt to focus on mostly upper body stuff until the half marathons are over. I don’t want to do too much lower body, because the soreness might prevent me from getting good runs in. We’ll see!

Flashback: Franklin SNETT 5k

Back when my mom and I finished our first 5k together, we immediately got on the computer to look up another one. We found a few that were being held when I was home for Easter, but chose this one because it was kinda close to our house.

As we were checking the weather the night before, it said it was supposed to rain right around 10am, when the race was supposed to start. Fantastic.

Luckily, it didn’t even start to drizzle until we both had finished and then it poured.

Anyway, we got ready and left the house very early since we had about a 45-minute drive to Franklin, MA.

We warmed up, got our bib numbers and (huge) t-shirts, and soon enough the race began!

I started off kinda fast (of course) and so I took it down pretty quickly so I wouldn’t burn out. I did beat my previous PR of 25:56 and finished in 25:10.

We hung around for the awards and raffles – we entered to win some sweet prizes but didn’t win anything 😦

Great race! It was their first time putting it on and everything was very well organized.

Flashback: Seaside Stride 5k

This was an awesome race! It took place in my hometown at night AND I won my age group! Pretty awesome.

It started at 6pm so I had to figure out how to eat during the day so I didn’t feel gross while I was running. I had a normal breakfast (peanut butter with banana toast), salad and fruit for lunch, and a luna bar two hours before the race.

I had some awesome spectators. My mom, dad, aunt, and cousin were on the beach as I ran by and then I got to see my mom and dad as I ran towards the finish line. It was so nice seeing them halfway through and at the end.

I finished in 25:06 (my current PR) and had a great time running it. I was so surprised when they called my name for the 20-29 age group winner – I didn’t think I had won anything. I got a sweet beer glass which was sweet. I think I lucked out because the first place winner of my age group was first woman overall, so I got bumped to first! I’m not complaining 🙂

All in all, a great race 🙂

Flashback: Equinox 10k Trail Race

Since I just started this blog recently, I wanted to start writing recaps of past races so I’d have them to look back on!

This is going in backwards chronological order, I ran this race in June, 2011. My mom and I drove to Burlington the night before to move me in to my apartment. I was staying at home for a few weeks before my job started because I don’t get a lot of opportunities to do that.

We got in late the night before, ate some pizza, and went to bed. I woke up early and went out to get English muffins and peanut butter from Dunkin Donuts, since I had no food.

The race was about 25 minutes away and I still needed to register so we left pretty early. I was running the 10k race and my mom considered the 5k, but decided not to. She ran the course anyway to kill time waiting for me 🙂

The course was two loops (which I didn’t know – always look at course maps!) so I killed it during the 5k, then had another lap to go. Sweet.

I finished in 1:06, don’t have the splits since it was pre-Garmin but it wasn’t pretty. It was a trail run, very hilly, and HOT. I was doing a walk/run towards the end and was convinced my time was around 1.5 hours so I was happy with 1:06.

Archie Post 5-Miler Recap

My first 5 mile race = automatic PR!

Saturday morning started very early so I could eat and have enough time to digest my pre-run breakfast before the race. It takes my body a crazy amount of time to digest food before a run. I have to wait at least two hours or it’s still sitting like a brick in my stomach. Not exactly convenient..

The race was held at UVM so I made my way over around 7:30 for the 8:30 start since I wasn’t sure what the parking situation would be like. It was no problem and I was left with quite a bit of time to hang out. I stretched a bit and warmed up before getting on the bus to the start line. For this race they literally bussed us 5 miles away and then we ran 5 miles back.

The start was in a residential neighborhood right in front of a house where a guy was washing his car, haha.

The race itself was all right. I made some stupid mistakes like running the first mile in 7:45 and thinking I could hold that for 5 miles (yeah, right). My pace ended up being 8:32 which I was upset about originally but then had to take a step back and remember that I’ve only been running consistently for about 7-8 months and I’m not going to become faster overnight. I should be thrilled that I can have an average pace in the 8s. I should have started off at a more conservative pace and THEN picked it up later in the race, so I didn’t have to crawl across the finish line.

It was a learning experience 🙂

Some splits:
Mile 1: 7:44
Mile 2: 8:18
Mile 3: 8:50
Mile 4: 8:52
Mile 5: 9:17 (off because I walked around a bit after without pressing stop)

I have 43:00 for Garmin time, but official time was 42:25. The course was a bit short, so I finished it in 4.97 or something.

The rest of the weekend was fun. I went on a bike ride with one of my friends through some of the neighborhoods at the waterfront. We saw some gorgeous houses and even found a new beach!

They also had a free yoga class at one of the studios here so my friend and I went. It was a Feldenkrais workshop. It was totally weird, it was an hour and a half of repeating the same motions over and over while laying on the mat, but after class I felt much more grounded (and didn’t have any soreness after the race!) so I’d say it was a success. I don’t know if I’ll ever try another class like that, simply because I got bored. I need my yoga to be faster and with more of a stretch. I went into that class hoping to stretch a lot and the first thing the instructor told us was to stop each motion right BEFORE we feel a stretch. …really?

After I was completely dead and just laid around all afternoon. We barbecued for dinner, hamburgers for the boys and a portobella mushroom cap for me 🙂 I also grabbed some tofu from the hot bar at City Market for a side and it was delish. We also roasted some tomatoes + peppers. Yum! Dessert was Ben and Jerry’s, of course!

I went home early because I was volunteering at a triathlon this morning! I was set up as a road marshall and got to wear a fancy vest. It was all right, not quite as exciting as the sprint ones. I enjoy doing the water stations much more.

Afterwards I did some homework and went food shopping (got kale for 70 cents a pound!) but I’m just so tired. I’m gonna get to bed early tonight and get up early-ish to finish some homework.

That was a long post!

Exciting news!

I raised $1,520 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training and reached my goal! I can’t believe it. Back in May when I attended an information meeting about Team in Training, I felt so unsure of my fundraising capabilities. I was honestly more worried about raising funds than I was about actually completing the race.

Barely a month ago I had less than 1/3 of my fundraising minimum and had no idea what to do. My mom sat down at her computer and came up with a list of people to send the e-mail off to. People I’ve never met contributed and it was just so amazing, people’s generosity.

I feel so much more excited and confident about my upcoming race because I was able to complete my fundraising (before the deadline :)) I can’t thank those who have donated enough for their support.

Successful 8

After Saturday’s not so great run, I wasn’t feeling too optimistic about today’s 8. Saturday’s spin class was a good way to exercise my legs without too much impact. I also managed 3 awesome miles yesterday (avg. pace 8:58!). Not too shabby.

The pain that I felt last week, a combination of Zumba and lifting, was not something I want to happen again, if I can help it. NROLFW is going back on the shelf until after the half marathon craziness is over. I think spending the winter improving my strength and running will a good way to spend the chilly months. Esp. up here in the tundra. Although a marathon doesn’t sound like such a horrible idea..

Back to the run! I had my alarm set for 6, didn’t run until 7. I didn’t want to start running while it was dark so I waited around. I actually stretched beforehand, so that made things easier. I ran a new route since it was raining and I wanted to be close to my apartment in case the skies opened up on me my phone. Also, not really sure if my Garmin should be getting wet…? I’m guessing a little rain is okay.

The 8 miles took me about 1:22, which was pretty slow for me but I took into account the rain and everything. Plus, it IS a long run and I should be staying in the 10:00/mile range anyway. My average pace was 10:15/mile so I was happy.

Good long run! I spent the rest of the day refueling. A bag of yogurt raisins may or may not have been demolished in Spanish class. I also had a couple of the delicious peanut butter chocolate pretzels. There was healthy stuff too! Some rice cakes + pb&j for lunch and a clif z bar, because I’m 5 years old.

I’m hanging out on campus right now because I’m going to go to the running club’s general meeting. I’m a little intimidated by the running club, but I figured I needed to suck it up and go to the first meeting because there probably is nothing to worry about.

On the agenda for tomorrow: 4 mile run (with a pup!) and possibly a yoga class. I have much less homework than I thought, although my thesis isn’t going to start writing itself…