2012: The official goals post

As this is auto-posting, I'm getting back into a familiar routine.

While most of the world is sleeping in on Saturday morning, once again I'm up early. Before dawn early. I'm putting on my cold weather gear, packing a bag of warm clothes to change into after, and warming up the Fit.

I'm driving 40 minutes to join the long procession of cars turning into Thomas Worthington High School for the Marathoner in Training program (MIT). Jeff's going to gather all 400 of us in the gym to kick the winter season off. He'll call out "10:30s!!!" then we hit the Olentangy Trail, sun, rain, sleet or snow. We'll yearn for the heat of summer, just as we yearned for the cold of winter in August.

I'm going to stop with the "I must be crazy for doing this" posts. It's a foregone conclusion. We're all crazy in our own little ways. I just choose to blog about it.

All 400 of us share one same personality trait: We're all goal oriented, some to the point of obsession. The magic number is called a PR, a personal record, and each one of us is there because we're determined to beat it.

The PR could be a goal distance, for many first timers it's simply to run as far as you can, to the marathon or half marathon point. That was my ambition my first season of MIT, training for Cleveland. 

But once you complete that distance, you now have a time to beat. Some simply want to beat their time, others set a new goal time. I ran a 4:32 in Cleveland, and sought to run Columbus in 4:20. That was the number that was burned into my head in my second season of MIT. I smashed through that goal, running Columbus in 4:13.

Passing the halfway point

This week in training.

It's kind of fun to look back at my posts from the same point of training in the spring. Today was the first 14-miler. Last session I replaced it with the CRRC Winter Run in Granville. That was a really good run for me. Today could not have been more different.

The weather was worse than last week. We met at 6:30 and the temperature was tolerable, but the humidity was worse than last week. I was completely soaked by the halfway point.

It took me awhile to get into the groove, miles 1-2 were really difficult but miles 3-10 were pleasant. I wore my compression socks so my shins didn't hurt. My heart rate was a bit higher than last week throughout.

After we turned around to come back I really started struggling. I got some awful side stitches the last two miles. I slowed it down on Mile 13 but picked it back up on Mile 14 because I really just wanted to be done.

I'm going to cross train Mondays and Fridays until I make it through this heat (and I'll be at your spin class Thursday Jamie, no worries!) This Monday was my first time on the bike and it was a lot of fun. I covered 15. Next week I'm going to shoot for 20.

Next week's long run is a fallback, so 10 miles. Monday I'll ride 20, Tuesday I have 6, Wednesday is 4 -- I'll shoot for hills, Thursday and Friday are both 3 but I may try to swim or ride Friday.

I want a running skirt...

Totally unrelated, I'm back on my Rilo Kiley kick. Here's my song of the day:

Yasso, Death Valley, 18 miles, and a very tired me

I won a book and got it autographed.

I've been neglecting my blog all week. I'm not dead. Actually, I'm in pretty good shape and quite healthy. Just been tired. And busy. In a nutshell, if I haven't been passed out exhausted, I've been packing up in hopes of finally leaving my crappy apartment. And, as much as I love MIT, I'm looking forward to finally getting off road at Alum Creek tomorrow.

First things first -- Bart Yasso spoke to MIT last week and he was amazing. He was so remarkable, had so many stories (Bare Buns run, Beth?)

And yea, I thought the Warrior Dash was crazy?  Bush league. He had some hilarious stories from the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile race through Death Valley.

After we got to run with Bart for a bit, which was just fantastic, though I really didn't get to talk to him, there is photographic evidence of the experience!

I'm the one in the blue jacket waving my arms.

Saturday's run was wonderful, but insane. It was our first 18-mile day. Me and another in our group, Bill, started out behind so we ran sub-9:00 miles to catch up with the rest of the 10:30s. We slowed to regular pace for awhile. Our group shrunk considerably after the halfs turned off, and we were down to 4 by the turnaround. Then someone took a spill, so I ran ahead with Bill from the group. We were definitely headed back fast -- we ended at a sub-10:00 pace. I also tried Gu, it wasn't bad.

Here are the splits: (There are a lot of splits)
8:23, 8:58, 9:32, 10:16, 11:06, 10:08, 10:24, 10:10, 10:12, 10:11, 10:12, 10:12, 9:59, 10:08, 9:43, 9:22, 9:12, 9:56.

That gave me 36 miles for the week, a new record.

I felt great during and after the run. I was feeling good through lunch, through my dentists appointment, through shopping at Easton. Took the dogs for a walk, relaxed and watched a movie, didn't even need my usual nap.

And Sunday morning... crash. Seriously, I woke up way late in immense pain. Everything hurt. And I was so tired. I remember lying on my couch, and the alarm went off to switch laundry, and it took a good half hour to get my lazy butt up to do it. Monday wasn't any better, getting out of bed to go to work was rough. I eeked out 3 miles on the treadmill at a 12:00 pace. I woke up Tuesday with random cramps in my legs. I took the day off. Wednesday I went 6 on the bike trail, felt good during and immediately after but the soreness came back. I felt good doing three with Lizzie the dog yesterday, but my knees were hurting after. Today I'm feeling better. I haven't done any lifting or spinning this week, and I only did one yoga class.

I'm giving up on New Rules of Lifting for Women until after my marathon, it's a good program but it's just too cumbersome right now. A friend in my pace group recomended a body weight routine I'm going to try (thanks Kim).

Thankfully, it's a taper week, so I just have 10 tomorrow, and I'll end at 22 for the week (as opposed to last week's 36).

Instead of going to MIT, I'm doing the Conquer the Creek Trail Run at Alum Creek tomorrow morning. I'm really excited, though I've been neglecting my hill training (another thing that's probably going to take a backseat until marathon day). I think it will be good for my legs to get off the pavement too. Tonight I'm headed over to the Banyan Leaf Spa at Cherry Valley Lodge for a massage, a Groupon deal. That will help too.

The race is 6.5 miles, so I'm meeting up with a friend I met at the Granville Winter Run for a 3.5 mile warm up. I've never been to Alum Creek before, should be fun.

Next week the long run is 18 again, then the week after is 10. I'm finally transitioning onto the proper training program!

I'm hoping to move very soon, my apartment is way too much for me. I've been sorting through everything I own and getting rid of a lot of stuff, trying to simplify. I want to stay with my landlord, plus I'm still under a lease, so I'm hanging tight until he has something else open up. I feel so unsettled right now, hopefully that will change soon! 

Cleveland Marathon... 57 days!

Photos from the Granville winter run

The Columbus Roadrunners Club took a bunch of photos at the Winter run Feb. 13. Here's a YouTube slideshow of all of them:

Here's what I look like finishing 15 miles (special thanks to CRRC for emailing these to me!):

And here's the starting line:

Race Report: CRRC 15-mile Winter Run

I'm officially past the half-marathon point. I covered 15 miles today! Just don't ask how my legs are feeling. Or, pretty much any muscle in my body, for that matter.

I ran the Columbus Roadrunner's Club Winter Run (CRRC Winter Run), the 15 mile distance, this afternoon. We really lucked out with the weather, I was comfortable in my tech shirt and compression tights, but the course was tough. Here's the course map, and below is a screenshot of the elevation chart. I'm really glad I've been doing some hill repeats, I know I was passing a lot of people on the inclines.

And, with this run, I finally hit 30 miles for one week! Wahhoo!

The beginning of the run took a lot of restraint. There were some fast people, really fast people, there. I started off toward the back of the pack and had to force myself to keep above a 9:30 mile. Pacing was hard throughout... every time I stopped paying attention I found myself drifting toward an 8:30 - 9 mile. I recognized the 10:00 pace coach from MIT and tried to stay behind him, but lost him toward the end of the first lap.

15 miles was two laps of a 7.5 mile course. I forced myself to slow down for the first 10 miles, then for the last 5 I let myself go faster. The last two I really had to push through. But, toward the end I was passing a lot of people, and I ended up 3rd in my age group! I'm really glad I held back, otherwise I wouldn't have made it. 

I'm not exactly sure what my real time was. I'm going with 2:23. My Garmin said 2:19, but I accidentally stopped it so it only accounted for 14.75 miles.

I'll post some more details later... probably tomorrow, including my splits. Right now I'm a little tired, and I only have 3 episodes left in Season 2 of Lost (come on, Jack, figure out that something is not right with Michael!)

90 days until the Cleveland Marathon. (continued)

I'm afraid of Gu

I've had the same Raspberry Gu packet in my jacket pocket for about three weeks.

Here's my confession: I'm afraid to try it. I like the gummies -- Gu Chomps, ShotBloks, PowerGels. But I can't bring myself to try the fast acting stuff.

I don't want to try it for the first time on a long run because I don't want to have to quit early because my poor, wicked sensitive stomach rejects it. When else would I want to give my body a shot of concentrated carbs and caffeine? So that means this week I will try it on a shorter run.

I was off work this week so I've been up in Lakewood with the parents. I'm driving back tomorrow. I tried to do one run outside, but it was so bitter cold and windy by the lake. Did 15 miles total. I was feeling exhausted and sluggish through Wednesday, but Thursday I did a treadmill hills workout and totally rocked it.

Instead of the normal MIT long run I'm doing the winter run in Granville Sunday. 15 miles. I took an extra rest day today.

And I'm still addicted to Lost. About halfway through Season 2... Jack and Ana Lucia just decided to start an army.

MIT run: 12 miles!

Edit: I lifted this picture off of Fleet Feet's Facebook page.
Pretty crazy!

Ran 12 miles this morning through the streets of Worthington, which beat my old record of 11. And I'll be beating it again, and again, and again, until race day.

What a morning. Today was all about toughing it out. 

I almost didn't go. My stomach hurt when I got up, probably from eating too much Trader Joe's pesto tortellini. I've had cold symptoms on and off all week. But I'm glad I got my lazy butt out of bed (partially thanks to a redheaded greyhound who really had to pee). 

We usually run on the bike path but I guess it wasn't in great shape with all the ice, so we ran through Worthington neighborhoods. Those poor people, living on a quiet backstreet in suburbia, suddenly have 500 people coming through. Two kids were staring at us out their bedroom window. One guy was trying to back out of his driveway and was getting very irritated.

The run went very well, went with a good group of people as always. It started to rain/snow toward the end and I could literally feel bits of ice bouncing off my face. The ninth mile was the toughest, especially since we ran past the school where we started so it would have been so easy to just cut it short. Then the last two I was just on auto pilot.  

(Ok, I just bolted off the couch to grab my phone, literally every muscle I have protested). (continued)