Goals For The Week

Wow, I guess it has been a while since I've solidified my goals for the week on here, so I'm back at it again.

1. Watch the nutrition (track what I eat)
   
2. Take vitamins every day
3. Drink 64 oz of water each day
4. Follow my training plan
5. Go to yoga once
   

Nutrition - the next few weeks I will have to watch what I eat more carefully than I have in the last 2.5 months. My training and mileage is slowing way down and I need to keep my intake and weight in check. I actually asked Shawn yesterday if he thought I should lose a couple of pounds before the race and he yelled at me: "NO!" He said any attempt to do that now would be totally drastic and could mess with the fitness I've built up. Duh, just another psycho question from an amateur athlete. He did caution me about eating too much because of the slowdown in training. So, my goal is to maintain where I am for the next two weeks and not gain any weight before the race. I am going to achieve this by stocking my place with healthy foods and log what I'm eating. I had been really consistent with doing this, but dropped off around xmas time. Such is life...

Vitamins - I've also fallen off the wagon here, which is so ridiculous. It may be a placebo, but I honestly think I feel better when I take my vittles and it is so easy to do. So I just need to do it (and have already done so today, thankyouverymuch).

Water - another thing I'd been good with and dropped from my daily to do list. Just do it. Drink the friggin H2O dammit.

Training - obviously this needs to be done. This week my training also includes stretching and Trigger Point specifically which is fantastic. I NEED to do these things and know how beneficial it can be. So, MWF this week is dedicated only to stretching and TP.

Yoga - this falls somewhat into the stretching category for me. I always feel great afterward too.

Last Big Run

Phew.

Wow.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

It was a tough run, I am surprised and pleased at the results, AND (after I win this pistachio-eating contest with myself) I am going to pass out.

To bring you up to speed, today's run is the peak of my three month half marathon training plan that I've undertaken with an awesome coach & friend, Shawn. There are exactly two weeks left before the race and today is my longest and most difficult run of the whole program. The run is 14 miles with the middle 7 miles @ race pace (7:55).

I have had similar training runs prior to this, but none as long or with as long of a tempo portion in the middle. For example, last week was 11 miles with 5 tempo miles and a couple of weeks before that was also 11 miles with 5 tempo miles. However, neither of those runs went off smoothly - one was riddled by blizzard conditions and I did it on a treadmill, the other was broken apart by me stopping to tell everyone my big news. So the point is that I had no idea how I was going to perform today.

Luckily I had Shawn with me to guide me through it, and boy was I glad he was there! I learn so much from him each time we talk shop so I basically had a closed audience session with him for at least 2 hours - sweet! Aside from the conversation, he was there to set the pace for me, calculate splits and motivate me to keep going.

We went to the Heritage Trail in Vancouver, WA. We were going to do the actual Vancouver Lake half mary course, but it was confusing to figure out the actual course (lots of out and backs). We opted to run this trail because it has a great surface and is marked at every quarter mile. This way we could gauge the real mileage and not rely on the Garmin. The trail is 3.5 miles long which would be perfect out and back twice for the 14 miles.

So, here are the results (keep in mind that all miles were continuous except for 2 brief breaks after the warm up and before the cool down):

Mile 1 = 8:05
Mile 2 = 8:26
Mile 3 = 7:56
Mile 3.5 = 4:17

Mile 1 = 7:30
Mile 2 = 7:37
Mile 3 = 7:37
Mile 4 = 7:41
Mile 5 = 7:48
Mile 6 = 7:32
Mile 7 = 7:44
Tempo Avg Pace = 7:38 (holy!)

Mile 1 = 8:44
Mile 2 = 8:46
Mile 3 = 8:31
Mile 3.5 = 4:13

Total Miles = 14
TOTAL Time = 1:52:43 Avg Pace = 8:03 Avg HR = 179
I just broke my previous 13.1 PR in a 14-mile run? Awesome.

Oh boy, this was tough, but seriously not as tough as I'd imagined. The warm up felt fast and it was...definitely faster than I usually go on these runs, but hey, I was with the coach and what he says goes, right?

During the tempo run it was definitely hard, but after the 3rd mile I was totally doing okay and feeling the cadence (left, left, left right left) and my breathing and kinda hit the zone. Of course I had Shawn guiding me through and I was able to have some conversation back and forth during this part. I started to feel the effort during mile 4 and 5 and you can see that I slowed down, but Shawn brought me back and we sped up a bit for the last 2 miles. Was I glad to finish this 7 mile stretch.

The last 3.5 miles were good but still tough. I was trying so hard to keep up a respectable pace and I feel comfortable with the results.

(I am going to need to wrap this up quickly as I am losing concentration and focus that only wine can cure.)

The overall run was just awesome. Like I said I got a lot of good info from Shawn during the run and really tested my limits. I am feeling really good about the progress that I've made over 2 and a half months and hopeful that the future can bring more. We ended the run all sweaty and muddy which made me feel even more like a badass (see pictures below). I feel prepared for a good race and have a good strategy in place to go as fast as my body and mind will take me. Man, it was awesome to have Shawn along to push me today, but if I can do this on my own during a race then I will really feel accomplished!

I mentioned above that I broke my half marathon PR on this run, and this run was 0.9 miles faster than a half! My one and only half marathon was Seattle in 2004 and I definitely did not train as hard. The course was also really hilly. Anyway, if I'd stopped today at 13.1 I think it would have been about a 1:44- yowza!

(As a side note, a little pre-race info (this helps me for future planning): Woke up at 8 a.m., drank about 10 oz coffee w/Splenda, one vanilla yogurt, half piece of bacon, an eggo and a bunch of water over the next 2 hours. Started running at about 11 a.m. During the course of the run I drank a few sips of Shawn's HEED potion and ate 2 Shot Blocks each before the tempo part and right after. I hate eating those, they get all stuck in my mouth and are just nasty in general. But...I can see the benefit so will continue to take them on longer runs. I didn't have any negative stomach issues afterwards, so I guess that is good.)

Here are some photos of our run today:

Go Bostad!

Obligatory mud shots:

This picture doesn't do justice to the nasty hairball/snarl that I created while running today. I still don't know WTF happened???

After Hours

It is 10:30 on Friday night, which is considerably late for me. I am enjoying the last of a bottle of champagne that a friend from far off sent to me as congratulations and thinking of her with every sip.

I am starting to get sore from my track workout yesterday. I wasn't very sore until just about an hour ago when I stood up after dinner. But the weird thing is that it isn't muscle soreness, it is joint achy-ness. It isn't that big of a deal, and it loosened up after I started walking, but still...it is there. A little earlier in the night I had twinginess in my knee, just out of nowhere! How can my body be doing this to me?

Again...nothing major, just little things that annoy me. Little things that didn't happen when I was a sprightly 80 pound 7th grader. (And of course it is really smart to compare yourself to the person you were 17 years ago.) Bottom line is that I wish my body could bounce back quicker but it can't and it is fine. Nothing major, just annoying. I just don't like aging!

I am really looking forward to my easy run tomorrow and my not-so-easy run on Sunday. 14 miles, half of which will be at a race pace of 7:55/mile. And all with my loving, trusting awesome coach Shawn. After this there aren't too many hard days before the big race. I have been training for three months for this race and it is about to be all over with in 2 weeks. Ahhhh, life.

I Wanna Run!

Today is my day off and it is surprisingly killing me! I want to run, can't I run? I have all sorts of energy and apparel why can't you just let me do it?

When did I turn into this person?

Need for Speed

Hey there, ho there.

It is 4 pm and I have spinach tongue (but I love it and how Popeye-ish your arms look!) and am a sticky/post run/unshowered mess. Now that you have the visual...

Today was my track workout! I was strangely looking forward to this and didn't feel any anxiety or stress beforehand. (Not that I usually do, but you know, I usually do. Actually, I feel the same average stress level on most runs, even the super easy ones. The average stress level is relatively low as compared to things like...considering Plan-B, waiting to hear back on a job interview, being tailed by a man that is dressed like and looks like Mephistopheles while running or deciding whether that tofu is really over its use-by date. You've all been there I'm sure. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I'm typically a mess, a hot mess [or a tranny], so I was happy to realize that this week I wasn't!)

I had serious problems with my Garmin but they were mostly user generated. I simply didn't think about the programming beforehand which resulted in many resets and bad data-gathering. One interesting thing is that Garmin thought my miles were shorter than the track did. I still timed my mile intervals to the track, not the Garmin. It was only a 0.2 mile difference, but that meant about an 8 second increase in the interval which is clearly significant.

I did manage to capture the data that I needed - the MILE INTERVALS. My workout was as follows:

• one mile warmup
• drills
• the actual workout
• one mile cooldown

The actual workout was this:

• one mile between 7:00-7:10
• 5 minutes rest
• repeat two more times

My results:

• Mile 1 = 7:02 (185 bpm)
  
• Mile 2 = 7:00 (185 bpm)
  
• Mile 3 = 6:52 (185 bpm)
  

How do you like the consistency on the HR? Wow. I really didn't know what to expect of my performance beforehand, so I just tried my best to stick with a consistent pace that targeted my goal time. Once I got into the groove it felt better. The first mile kinda sucked, but I definitely felt my limbs loosen and my stride lengthen and become easier on the 2nd mile. The third mile I tried to do it basically as balls out as possible. It wasn't as much of a mind fuck that it usually is which shows that I'm becoming more comfortable on the track. (Which is awesome!)

My last mile I had an audience - the ambulance. For some reason there is ALWAYS an ambulance hanging around within a block of the track, most likely because of the proximity to the hospital there. This time they decided to park in a position where they could watch the show. It made me feel a little bit safer, but also run faster because they were hot. Hot in that EMT sort of way. The back turn of each 400, there they were - watching. It made me run faster; I mean, who doesn't run faster with an audience of hot men?

This was the 2nd best EMT experience of my life. 2nd to the time that these guys below decided to advertise their phone number to my then co-worker/friend Liz and I while driving from Berkeley to Walnut Creek on highway 24 (fall 2006).


Feel free to give these bad boys a call.

I digress.

I gave myself the 5 minutes in between the intervals to slow down and I noticed that my HR typically dropped to about 120 bpm before I was ready to start the next mile.

Yes, the miles felt hard, but I know if I kept up the speedwork I could do them faster. Knowing this makes me not want to stop now, or after my race. I haven't had this much growth physically/athletically in a really long time and I'm thriving off of it. I am definitely going to keep up with speedwork after my race.

For the record, the pre-workout food and water consumption was as follows:

• coffee (approx 2 cups)
• water (maybe 20-24 oz)
• bagel, toasted, one half butter the other cream cheese
• vanilla yogurt

This felt like a good combo of food. I wasn't full in the stomach when I ran (my last item was consumed a couple of hours before the run), and I only had limited gagging occur. Oh! I also made marine snow TWICE before my run, so I felt nice and "clean."

***

I couldn't let this picture go either. Another pose in my Cake-sponsored t-shirt. This time in the tights that someone attempted to buy me so my ass would never sag again. Alas, they were too tight for me, espesh in the calf-age, so had to be returned. Thank god for that Nike employee pass.


Next big day is my 14-miler this Sunday, which I'm doing with my Coach! I am really looking forward to running with him, as we haven't done this yet.

Sick of myself. Good night.

Popcorn Time

I deserve this...

3 miles easy is dunsky. And of course I ran into Jen and Zach on the path too - Jen on the bike riding alongside Zach doing his "easy" run (too fast for me!). I love how Portland is a big small town.

Ok, for those of you who are The Office fans, please download the NPR Fresh Air episode from 12/30/08. Interviews with Jenna Fischer and Rainn Wilson. Awesome! (I think Terry Gross wants to bang Rainn - she actually snorts from laughter at one point and it is really cute.)

Ridicularious

Back in the sweet saddle of procrastination. I am actively procrastinating many work-related items as we speak as well as my puny 3 mile easy run tonight. Thank god I have until tomorrow to do my mile repeats on the track!

I looked back at my times yesterday, still in disbelief at the 7:40 pace, wondering how I could re-calculate it to compensate for my downhill. I know that the uphill on the way back could sort of do it, but I decided to pretend that my first mile was a whole minute slower, which would add 12 seconds to my overall average pace. So I'm going to say that my pace for this run was actually 7:52 average pace. That is still okay right?

Popcorn has been on my mind for about 2 hours now and I can't handle it. I am definitely going to purchase some downstairs. I live in the same building as a big grocery store and it is way too easy. I decided that I would wait until returning from my 3 miles though, so I am showing a little restraint. I also am dying to max out on red wine alone tonight, but I will not. I must keep myself in good shape for my track workout tomorrow.

Yes, that is the plan.


Bonus picture of me on xmas day receiving a bizarre personalized t-shirt from my sister that says, "Going The Distance" then my full name. I sort of wish my social security number was on there too. PS - I'm doing a yoga pose that replicates the screen print too. My family is awesome.

Gusts and Thrusts

(The gusts being the wind and the thrusts of me powering my body through it.)

So today's run was supposed to be the exact same as last Tuesday:

Mile 1 = 8:45
Mile 2 = 7:30
Mile 3 = 8:15
Mile 4 = 7:30
Mile 5 = 8:15

Some of my lessons learned from last week were to not stop, avoid wardrobe malfunctions and push it a little harder on mile 1, given that it is downhill. Also...set my Garmin so that I can see time for the specific lap I'm on and not just the instant average pace. This theoretically should help me pace myself better...

Here are my results with HR per mile:

Mile 1 = 7:09 (150 bpm)
Mile 2 = 7:26 (181 bpm)
Mile 3 = 7:50 (176 bpm)
Mile 4 = 7:33 (188 bpm)
Mile 5 = 8:30 (187 bpm)

TOTAL = 7:40 (176 bpm)

I have to admit the wind was really strong anytime I was heading South or West, which is basically half of my run. From what I remember, the particularly strong gusts were during mile 2, the 2nd half of mile 4 and the majority of mile 5.

Mile 1 - this felt lickety split, but it is downhill fgs and as my HR indicates, it was not a big struggle to go this fast. I don't know how I can do this run better other than to start from a different point. Hopefully the uphill on the last mile evens this out. I don't know.

Mile 2 was my first "fast" mile - supposed to be 7:30. I really focused on getting my pace right and did a better job this time. However, the wind was blowing in my face for the first part of this mile.

Mile 3 - I slowed down quite a bit and had the wind at my back...this felt fine.

Mile 4 - back in the fast lane again and right after I started this mile I turned directions and hit the wind again. I looked down at the halfway point of this mile and it was exactly 4:00. Damn! That is an 8:00 average and I wanted to hit 7:30, so I sped up...clearly enough to get in at a 7:33 mile. Phew.

Mile 5 - this was wonky...everything was into the wind and uphill. I did my best to NOT stop (running through stoplights, going around the block if I had to, etc.) and managed to do it pretty well. It was a tough tough 8:30 mile!

Overall I am pleased. I feel okay, not too worn out. Don't know if I could nail that pace for 13 straight miles, but for now this feels okay and I know that I don't need to run that fast during the race.

First Week Of The Rest Of My Life

Thank you so much for the congratulations! Crazy enough, I ran into THREE bloggers on my run yesterday and got to show them the ring before they read it here. How fun is that?

So yesterday's run was to be 11 miles with 5 miles of race pace (7:55) in the middle. The other 6 miles at zone 2-3, which is a wildly large range. I always try to stick to the lower end of that, which is about an 8:15 pace (unless I'm going downhill and then I can go however fast I want!). I woke up about 9 a.m., had a cup of coffee, one piece of buttered toast, two pieces of bacon (eww) and a bunch of water. I let that digest for a while and hit the road by 11:07 a.m. Here is how I did:

Mile 1 = 7:38 (149 bpm)
Mile 2 = 8:05 (167 bpm)
Mile 3 = 8:20 (173 bpm)
Mile 4 = 7:40 (180 bpm)
Mile 5 = 7:56 (180 bpm)
Mile 6 = 7:35 (175 bpm)
Mile 7 = 8:05 (183 bpm)
Mile 8 = 7:47 (183 bpm)
Mile 9 = 8:23 (179 bpm)
Mile 10 = 8:04 (182 bpm)
Mile 11 = 8:00 (183 bpm)

TOTAL = 7:57 (176 bpm)

Let me explain some of the fluctuations above...I stopped at the end of Mile 4 to show off my ring to Gazelle and Junk Miles. I swear I only stopped for 30-60 seconds, but this would have contributed to my slower HR during mile 5 (it was the same as 4 but I would guess it would have increased had I not stopped). Then, right at the beginning of mile 6 I ran into the Ambitious One and stopped to show off my bling there too.

I am super impressed with my overall pace and want to take credit for it, but I feel that stopping twice holds me back from doing that. I still did okay.

Once I picked back up at mile 6 I did not stop. It was a tough run from there on out - my legs were tired, specifically my joints up in my hip area. Maybe I should have done my track workout on Thursday instead of Friday and given myself more time to recover? Had I not celebrated my engagement as much in the preceding days I bet it would have left better. It was also cold out there and took my legs a while to warm up. I don't feel like I ever did get fully warm, which sucks. Afterwards I stopped at the fountain to talk with Alisa who was waiting for her hubs. In the few minutes that we were talking we both got really cold as our bodies cooled down. I had to leave here there waiting so I could run home to a warm shower. Sorry Alisa, I hope he didn't take that much longer to finish!

I was pretty exhausted after the run, but not ungodly tired. Today my left shin is a little splinty but I'll ice and do some TP to soothe it.

This week is going to be tough. Today is off, thank god. Tomorrow is a 5 mile tempo-ish run with lots of speed built in. Wednesday is 3 miles easy. Thursday is a track workout with mile repeats (!!!), then a couple of easy days, then a big 14 miler with 7 mile of 7:55 pace built in. Help me! I'm looking forward to it though. The race is only a couple of weeks away and I'm excited for it.

Have a great week peeps!

Happy New Year!

I haven't found the time needed yet to put together my new year's intentions, but one was recently handed to me on a silver platter:



Goal #1 - PLAN A FREAKING WEDDING!

Whoo hooo! I am really excited. Really really excited. I love the ring, love the guy. This was a great way to start 2009!