Vote for me and Lizzie

"Does this work? Is it working? Is she reaching for the cookies yet"?

Shameless promotion: Offering people prizes to get them to promote you.

Guess what, Fleet Feet, it's working :-P

Fleet Feet is running a contest -- post a photo of your favorite running buddy and get people to like it. The one with the most "likes" wins a prize.

I figure this pathetic look (and I mean that in the most loving way possible) has exploited me enough over the years for treats, walks, and romps with the red ball that usually end with something in my apartment getting knocked over. Now it's my turn to exploit her! Muhahahahaha.

Instructions:

1. Go to Fleet Feet Sports' Facebook page (link: http://www.facebook.com/FleetFeetColumbus)
2. Scroll down until you see Lizzie's begging look.
3. Hit "like"

Another 20-miler for the books

The step up to 20 miles, the second longest run of the season, is a rough one.

It's the big 2-0. You're no longer in the teens. You're in the big leagues.

It's funny. I remember this as last season's most miserable run. I remember trying to leg out the last little bit with the 10:30s but feeling so tired that I just wanted to quit.

But my blog from the day says something different.

"Mentally I'm feeling great, race day is approaching very quickly and getting past 20 was a huge confidence-boost for the 26.2...

"...After the water stop at Mile 16 I dropped back with another girl in our group and we fell back to about an 11:30 pace. Two others that started early with us also ended up dropping back and we did our last three miles very slowly. We were all really hurting. It was a struggle to keep conversation going just to pass the time. 

"But that's ok, we got the time on our feet in, we did it, that's all that matters. And, when we got back to the school, there were all kinds of wonderful supportive people there to greet us."

The dynamics of the runs were the same too, in the sense that they came after really, really rough weeks.

But this time, I felt great for the entire run.

The beginning was the same as every other long run. Things were achy and my mind couldn't wrap itself around the fact that my legs had so much more to go. The mental block would have hit if it weren't for the people around me.

And, as usual, I settled in. At the midway point I was feeling strong, and with 6 miles to go I felt like pushing myself a little further. Perfect timing, the 10:00 team was coming in the other direction so I jumped ship. Another 10:30 sped up with me, and since our distances were off from the 10s we ended up doing the last 2 on our own. We kicked it up to a 9:30 pace and ended up with an average of 10:15.

Time and heart rate splits:
Mile 1: 10:47, 164 bpm
Mile 2: 10:41, 154 bpm
Mile 3: 10:40, 152 bpm
Mile 4: 10:42, 160 bpm
Mile 5: 10:21, 155 bpm
Mile 6: 10:07, 155 bpm
Mile 7: 9:46, 158 bpm
Mile 8: 10:19, 158 bpm
Mile 9: 10:23, 157 bpm
Mile 10: 10:25, 156 bpm
Mile 11: 10:29, 156 bpm
Mile 12: 10:15, 160 bpm
Mile 13: 10:10, 164 bpm
Mile 14: 10:18, 167 bpm
Mile 15: 10:15, 164 bpm
Mile 16: 10:06, 166 bpm
Mile 17: 10:12, 169 bpm
Mile 18: 10:26, 167 bpm
Mile 19: 9:29, 171 bpm
Mile 20: 9:03, 175 bpm

Bring it, Columbus!!!

The other side of the fence

Sorry for the lack of updates. I regret to report that I put Gigi down last week. I'm working on a goodbye post but, well, it's hard to write. I have several posts planned, I've been running with Lizzie more and I want to blog about that, and we had our 20-miler Saturday and I want to blog about that run.

But last week I had the awesome experience of volunteering at a race. I'll admit, my motives for doing so were a bit selfish -- you get a free race entry (maybe for another PR at the First on the First!) and a t-shirt. But hey, I figured I'd be at the Emerald City Half and Quarter Marathon a week ago Sunday because I had so many good friends running that I'd be there anyway, so I might as well make myself useful.

Myself, some others from MIT, and other random people worked the water stop at Mile 1 and 11 for the halves and Mile 4 for the quarters.

It. Was. Exhausting.

Setting up in the dark. Kim Villena I stole this from you!

I woke up at 4 a.m. to be there by 5:30. The race started at 7. This was my second time working a water stop -- the time before I did it with a bunch of people who don't run and man, being able to do it with runners made so much of a difference. Setup went like clockwork. One person sets the cups, one person pours, a third organizes. We had time to kill until the runners came.

But, being at Mile 1, when they came, we were slammed. They trickled in slowly then we were hit by the speedy folks concerned about every second. Cups of water were snatched out of my hand before I could get into position, sometimes taking my arm with them. I tried to cheer on Karl, Kim, Shona, Larry, Susanne et al but we were busy running back and forth. The steady flow turned to the slower runners, who tend to slow or walk through the stops. Then the walkers, who took their time to stop and rest.

If there's one thing volunteering has showed me, it's that it is much more fun to be slow! It's the slower runners who were hanging out in groups, talking and laughing. The faster runners were too serious :)

We had a short lull to recover from the rush. We set up the cups again and relaxed. Then the quarters started to trickle back. This wasn't nearly as bad as the first rush! I was actually kind of bored standing at the end of the line! It was nerve-wracking waiting for the halves because two of my good friends were trying to PR and I started to get nervous when it was time for them to show up!

I'll admit to being really bored waiting for the last walkers to come through. But on the other side of the coin, I had more and more admiration for people coming by as time moved forward. The slower the walkers got, you knew that meant the more they overcame to be there.

I thought I'd feel bad for the person in last place, but I didn't. She walked 13.1 miles. Even though she came in last, she did it, and that's all that mattered.

Girl Talk is the BEST workout music

Kim B. was building a playlist for Emerald City tomorrow and needed suggestions. I looked this up for her and figured I'd share with everyone. If you're a runner, and you haven't heard of Girl Talk, well... you really should have!

Best of all, it's a free download here.

Some of the best tracks: (Warning, some explicit language)

"Down for the Count"

"Let it Out"

"In Step" (from his previous album)

August: By the numbers

This will just be a quicky post. The stats for August:
115: Miles running
91: Miles cycling
965: 2011 miles
1,398: Total miles
848: Donuts burned

Columbus is coming up fast!

Only 3 mega-long runs left til the Columbus Marathon, 52 days from today!

I just registered to run with the 4:30 pace team (which I will say goodbye to after the first half!) And there's a sweet video of the course:

2011 Columbus Marathon Complete Course Overview from dan farkas on Vimeo.

After 18 miles, total exhaustion

At the beginning of the year, I didn't understand people who told me "I can't train for a marathon, I have kids." What's the big deal? At the worst of it, you're gone for 4 hours on a Saturday morning. With MIT starting so early, you're probably home by the time they wake up.

Then came the first 16-miler. I reeled for a few hours, then crashed. When I woke up, I had some of the worst soreness and exhaustion I had ever experienced. After that run, then my 18, 20, 22 and my race, I was out for the entire weekend. Anything that required the slightest bit of exertion was out of the question.

Parents who train for marathons (or those who have any other obligations on the weekends), how do you do it? Throwing the red ball to my dog takes special effort! Any chore I can't do sitting down can wait!

Yesterday I was scheduled for 16. I, errr, went 18. It was a great run, I felt really strong through the entire thing. Staying on my feet for so long after was probably a bad call. I did some shopping (pair 4 of Mizuno Precisions on their way!). Then I went to the 10TV Health and Fitness expo, which was a huge waste of time.

I had really good splits and my heart rate stayed where it needed to be:

My average pace was 10:20, average HR was 155. Splits:
Mile 1: 10:53, 171 bpm (doubt this is right, monitor was acting up)
Mile 2: 10:26, 164 bpm
Mile 3: 10:27, 152 bpm
Mile 4: 10:20, 152 bpm
Mile 5: 10:29, 149 bpm
Mile 6: 10:28, 150 bpm
Mile 7: 9:09, 149 bpm
Mile 8: 9:37, 154 bpm (potty break and subsequent catch-up)
Mile 9: 10:20, 149 bpm
Mile 10: 10:27, 150 bpm
Mile 11: 10:33, 149 bpm
Mile 12: 10:12, 153 bpm
Mile 13: 10:25, 153 bpm
Mile 14: 10:18, 152 bpm
Mile 15: 10:18, 155 bpm
Mile 16: 10:26, 158 bpm
Mile 17: 10:30, 162 bpm
Mile 18: 10:37, 159 bpm

Anyway, aside from the laundry that I absolutely need to do, my only mission for the rest of the evening is to find out if Jack Bauer can stop the pandemic virus in time! Netflix, I love you.

Song I'm currently obsessed with:

Indian Run registration, and other musings

For the second year in a row I'm going to do the Hocking Hills Indian Run down in Logan. I did the 10K last year and it's a fantastic race. This year I'm signed up for the 20K, that's 12.4 miles. I haven't been running off-road much this year so I think in the next few weeks I'm going to get to Dawes and the Bio to get acclimated to trails again.

I'm also eying the Nu Hop Trail Run again this year at Mohican. It was fun running it last year, though I'm not sure what I can do two weeks after Columbus. 

I've been a bad blogger lately. Really, there's not a lot to report. We're in the heart of the training season, our long runs jump from 14 miles to 16 miles Saturday, and our weekday miles are building rapidly. Providing I complete the long run I will have done 30 miles this week alone. At least the heat has taken a break and I'm back to running a 9:30-10:30 pace weekdays and a 10:30 pace Saturday. The 14-mile long run went great last week, we ran from Ohio Health in Westerville up to Galena and back, beautiful scenery. This week it's back to Worthington High, while I adore MIT I have to admit I'm getting sick of running the same trail every week.

I've been taking Lizzie dog out for my 3 mile runs. We didn't get out this week but in general she's been coming for one run a week. She loves it. We can't do the pet run in Granville Sept. 3 but I'm hoping to find a 5K that I can do with her.

My other dog, Gigi, has lymphoma and hasn't been doing well at all, so that's been an added layer of stress. The poor girl isn't responding to the prednisone, so I'm going to try her on a new med this week.

Overall, running, work and life has left me thoroughly exhausted. Going to rest up tonight to prepare for tomorrow (we have to be in Worthington at 6:30, ick!), I want to check out the 10TV health and fitness expo, but beyond that I plan on taking it real easy.