Strength on the road: Spring forward 15K

As any runner knows all too well, race registration fees add up. So I had full intentions of sitting out the Spring Forward 15K Saturday.

But Friday I stepped out to walk Liz, and I saw that strange bright yellow shiny thing in the sky that we haven't seen much of this winter. So I drove over to Fleet Feet and wrote out a check.

It was freezing Saturday morning in Mendon, but the sun was shining which instantly put me in a good mood. I ran most of the 9.3 miles with Traci from work, which was great motivation to keep going up the hills (of which there were many.)

We kept a steady 9:50 pace that I felt comfortable with, further proof that I'm speeding up, yay! I still like training at a slower pace, but enjoy being able to race faster.

Since I have two half marathons back to back, I'll take one at a 12:00 pace.

Getting prepared for another long week of training, adapted from Beginner Triathlete:

MONDAY
S: Warmup 5 x 50
Main: 2 x 1000, both are RPE 4
Cool down: 250 easy
B: 45 minutes easy
MAYBE DFC Athlete

TUESDAY
10 mile run with Megan


WEDNESDAY
Cycle, sculpt and center class
S: wu: 300 continuous- (alternate 25 swim, 25 kick)
main: 20 x 75 hold constant pace for each-so judge pace in the first few,
cd: 200 easy

THURSDAY
OFF

MAYBE DFC Athlete

FRIDAY
Performance cycle and core - teach

S:  wu: 200swim, 200kick, 200pull, 200swim
main: 1 x 1500
cd: 4 x 50, each slower than last


SATURDAY
B: 2 hour long ride, hopefully outside!
R: 6 mile easy run--not immediately after the bike

MAYBE DFC Athlete

SUNDAY
OFF

Race report: Rochester Autumn Classic Duathlon

A rainy morning. 

I am now a du-athlete. And once I get that pesky swimming thing figured out, this half-iron is in the bag!

On Sept. 30 I finished the Rochester Autumn Classic Duathlon in 2:15:02 (had I not forgotten to take my helmet off at one transition I could have been under 2:15... gah!!! Yes, I know my goal was 2:30.) Many apologies to the few who care about taking forever to get this report up, as mentioned in my previous post, life has been busy busy busy!

The du was a 2 mile run/10 mile bike/2 mile run/10 mile bike/2 mile run.

Here's the breakdown:

• 2 m run - 19:17
• Transition - 40 seconds
• 10 m bike - 37:35
• T - 60 seconds
• 2 m run - 18:43
• T - 41 seconds
• 10 m bike - 38:38
• T - 28 seconds
• 2 m run - 17:58 (negative splits wee!!) 

I wake up to the clank clank clank of rain pounding against my air conditioner. Always encouraging on race morning :-/ I got there, caught up with a friend, and it's still pouring. But as time to line up nears the rain is down to a light drizzle. 

I size up the competition. Lots of hardcore looking people there. I was one of the few on a hybrid. For the Formula 1, the longer race that I did, it was mostly men. They yell go and everyone takes off. For the first tenth of a mile or so I'm at the back of the pack running an 8:00 mile. Crap! I don't want to finish last. Panic sets in. I ease up to about a 10 minute pace and since they started the sprint distance people five minutes later it was hard to tell where I ranked. I run most of the two miles with another guy who kept saying "yea, I run a 10 minute mile I know I'm slow". We're running just under a 10:00 pace and all I kept thinking was "slow down slow down slow down or you'll never make it." But the pace felt comfortable. 

We get into transition, I go through seamlessly, and the guy I was running yells "hey, Ohio!" as he whizzes by me on the bike. I'm riding in a steady line of people so my fear of being in last place subsides. I get over the hills without a problem, and go back to transition. This is where I almost ran off with my helmet, thank you awesome guy working the transition area who stopped me! I take a Honey Stinger, kick it up and...

Owww.

This does not feel good. I knew what to expect from practice but I didn't account for the hills. I cannot feel my legs. My quads are burning. It was a weird sensation only comparable to the last six miles of a marathon. I have no sense of how fast I'm going. I feel like I'm barely shuffling along, but when I look at my watch I'm still running sub-10s. I get through the first mile, and my legs ease up and then the second mile is quite pleasant. 

And then, just as I'm back to the running groove, it's time for the bike. In the 18:43 I spent running some sinister jacka$$ went out and doubled the size of the hills. This bike was rough. I was shifting on hills that I hadn't shifted on the first time.

Further, all the sprint distance people were done, and I'm all by myself. Fear of last place sets in again, until I pass someone fixing a flat. Thanks to the wonderful Fleet Feet crew I didn't get lost since I could no longer use my usual follow-the-person-in-front-of-me strategy. 

The whole 10 miles are a struggle. I just want to be done. I run in my bike, barely stop and kick it out for the run.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. 

It's even worse than the second run. I feel like I can barely control my legs and my knees are knocking together, something I have never felt before. The only thing that's keeping me moving is me wanting to be done, "you haven't walked yet don't do it now" I keep telling myself. Somehow, some way, I find the energy to make it through the two miles and kick in in. Matt the trainer is there cheering, yay! 

Age group award! 

I catch up with David, who finished 15 minutes ahead of me and is up on the results. He tells me that he didn't see any women my age ahead of me... hmmm.... There weren't a lot of women, period. I stay for the awards ceremony.

They call my age group and go immediately to second place, which means there was only one other woman. They call a name, and it's the girl in pigtails I passed during the final run. Then they call first place for my age group and it's me! I never win anything... and first out of two is still first :)

It was all in all a great race, I'll definitely look for the spring classic! 

Enjoy!

Music Monday: Green Day - Last of the American Girls

I'm going to try and bring back the weekly feature thing, though I've never been very good at it :) On my playlist this week: Green Day - Last of the American Girls

The Gluten-Free Diet

Though all my weight-loss endeavors I have never, ever subscribed to a special diet. I simply found success through counting calories (which I haven't done in over a year) and moderation in everything.

In general, I've had a rough year. I've gotten sick a couple times, and I found out about a back problem that's been lurking in the shadows for quite some time. In general, this year no matter how much or little I exercised, or how good or bad I was about watching my diet, I was carrying this constant feeling of bloat and exhaustion.

In February I bombed out of a long run and ended up in the chiropractor's office, for what I thought was a calf injury (but turned out to be related to my back.) The chiropractor starts asking me about all these other things, though, the fatigue and stomachaches that I had checked off on my new patient form. He asks about my diet and such.

"What are you doing," I'm thinking. I had already been there an hour and I'm just anticipating the "where are you?" text from my boss. No doctor has ever spent this much time with me. I'll go to my regular doctor for my colds and my tummy doctor for my stomachaches. "Just tell me what's wrong with my calf so I can go back to work," I think.

"You know, this is all connected," the chiropractor said, referring to all the physical problems I'd been having the past two months. "All of it."

How Android makes my life better

I'm a little late entering the smartphone world, but thanks to my parents I'm the proud new owner of the HTC Amaze. (Slightly off-topic post for today. There is some relevance!)

I've been addicted to the show Alcatraz, where prison inmates magically reappear in society after they mysteriously disappeared 50 years ago. In one scene, someone is trying to explain to one of them what the Internet was.

As I'm sitting there playing with my phone, trying to figure out what one of the songs was on Glee (Verdict: Lenny Kravitz, Stand), I'm thinking: "Man, just wait til he sees one of these things."

I was slightly terrified it at first. But fast forward one week and I can't live without it.

I've barely browsed the Internet on it. I've only made a few calls. What really makes it worth it are the apps. And every single one of these either came with the phone or was a free download.

It's made my life a lot better, and a little bit worse.

WAYS THIS CRAZY TECHNOLOGY HAS IMPROVED MY LIFE (In alphabetical order, because that's how my phone operates)

January stats

I love The Daily Mile. It gives you all kinds of fun stats on your miles.

In January:
...I ran 88 miles
...That took 15 hours and 3 minutes
...Fastest run was the First on the First 5K at a 7:46 pace
...Farthest run was last Saturday, 10.9 miles

Lifetime stats (through Feb. 2):
...I've run 535.74 miles (from here to New York City!) in 142 workouts
...That's .02 times around the world
...It took 95 hours
...Enough to power 1,285 TVs
...Enough to burn off 19 pounds, or 363 donuts
...Enough to save 28.2 gallons of gas

Fun stuff!

8 miles in sub-zero temperatures

BURR It was cold this morning! Accuweather forecast for Worthington for when we were running is to the left. I repeat, burr!

A girl in my group had it right, it definitely takes a certain kind of person to get out there on these types of mornings. I never would have considered myself that kind of person, but there I was.

We did 8 miles in 1 hour and 26 minutes, giving me 23 miles for the week.

I wore my MIT jacket, a long sleeved tee and a long sleeved tech tee. I wore a pair of athletic pants over the Under Armour compression tights I bought yesterday.

Normally you start off cold and warm up quickly, but not today. One mile in... freezing. Two miles in... still freezing. Three miles in, I didn't even want to stop for water, cold drinks of any kind were not appealing in the least. I went for my Gu Chomps, and those were frozen... completely inedible!

The girls all had frosty hair and eyebrows. My Garmin couldn't take the cold, it kept going back and forth between 5 and 9 mph.

After we turned around at three I was just numb. By mile four I'm starting to get some feeling back in my chest and thighs. By mile five I can feel my arms and legs. It wasn't until mile six that I can say I was at all comfortable.

I was going to stop at six but a girl in my group talked me into doing an extra two. Why not, it took so long to get warmed up, might as well keep going!

Burr. And yes I know I lived in Maine for 2.5 years, but still, BURR!!!

Not sure on the plan for next week yet, I'm exhausted, time to curl up with a book in my nice warm bed (which it looks like I'll be sharing with two stubborn greyhounds, one of which has made a nest with all my blankets.)

Here's the beauty of going to MIT every Saturday morning: I get my run out of the way first thing, then I get all my other errands done on the way in. By noon I am done done done done done for the weekend!

What I love about Maine: Cheap LL Bean loot

It's not the overload of seaside shanties selling lobster and crabs, even in November.

It's not the people, who are always beyond friendly and willing to help you at every turn. (I was at the Gap and my LL Bean bag broke, five people rushed to help.)

It's not the ocean.

It's not the tough nature of people here, who will look at 3 feet of snow and walk outside like it's 60 degrees out and sunny. (Seriously, Ohioans, it's only cold white fluffy stuff, toughen up already).

It's not the scenic, long, 2 lane curvy roads. (Unless you get stuck behind someone from Jersey).

It's not the Kennebec River Rail Trail. The hills will kick your butt and leave you grinning at the end.

It's not Sen. Olympia Snowe, who remembered my name after meeting me only once. "Jessica, that girl in Norway who asked all those really good questions."

It's not the high cost of heating oil (In this case I'm not kidding, it's absolutely not.)

Well yea, it's all of those things except the latter. But above everything else, above the exaggerated "As" and the absence of "R"s, unless of course they're called for, "I have an idea'r", it's the LL Bean outlet store.

How I miss thee.

I went down to Freeport today for some good old bargain hunting. And I made out like a bandit.

What does all this have to do with running, you ask?

Let's start with non-cotton fleece pullover, $20, bright yellow for running at night:

Abstract bricks

Every time I've failed to complete a run I've known I was doomed within the first two miles. It's actually pretty good motivation... because once I make it past those first two I know I'll make it the rest of the way.

I hit a wall today, though. I went out for my first 12-miler, per the training program, and I just couldn't do it. Couldn't make the legs function. I survived the first mile, albeit barely. Forced myself to stretch for five minutes. Made it another half mile beyond that, and then my legs just quit. Felt like I was wearing giant bricks instead of shoes. I was achy, nothing in particular, just really, really tired. So that makes my weekly mileage a pathetic 17 miles.

I know I'll have off-days from time to time. Still it's discouraging!

I thought I did everything right... ate carbs out the wa-zoo yesterday, took yesterday off from any activity, drank Gatorade beforehand, etc. So what went wrong? It could be any number of things.

Going public!

I’ve just wiped away all my other feeble attempts at being a blogger on my WordPress account (The record: one week, apart from the year I actually got paid for it).

But I'm going to transfer over a couple old posts from a private blog so it will look like this has been around for awhile!

I’m still of the opinion that no one really cares about me whining about shin splits but I’ve found some pretty cool public blogs by people in the area and figured I’d give it a shot.

To sum things up, my short and fragmented running career in a few paragraphs:

Ran track and cross in high school. Went to college. Abandoned running and did usual college student stuff. Graduated from college and did the usual young professional stuff. Joined a gym at a few points. Learned that actually paying the membership fee isn’t enough if you want results. What a rip. Started C25K a few times. Gave up a few times.