End of Week 6

Wow - an entire week has passed and I haven't had the time to write. Let's see if I can address everything in an organized manner....

Training Recap

Monday - off day to recover from Sunday's 15. I did a great job today by doing nothing! I was starting to get stressed about not going into my pre-wedding freakout "I need to get buff arms/shoulders/back" phase yet. To address this I asked anyone if I could borrow some type of DVD that would get me motivated. The Gazelle came through! She brought over her Shred DVD for me to borrow for the next few weeks. We took a tour of the house and talked shop for a while. She also surprised me with a sweet housewarming gift - a garden reference book that is totally awesome. Thanks GOC!

Tuesday - 6 miles with strides. I didn't take along my Garmin, just as I love to do on my recovery runs. Ran this with my HTB and it was great!

Wednesday - This was my big 12 mile tempo run with 7 miles @ tempo. I did two miles warm up then went into the tempo. I started off too fast again (1st mile was 7:23) but then settled back into three consecutive 7:51 miles (what is that?). But my HR was really increasing and this was a LOT harder than my 12 miles at this pace on Sunday. After the 4th tempo mile I was seeing stars and decided to slow down. Next mile was 8:10 and then I was just done going fast. In total I did 9.63 miles instead of the 12. I finished up the last 2.63 miles at a really easy pace. I don't know what happened - it sucks that one day it is easy and then a few days later it is much much harder. At this point I was just hoping that my 20 miles on Sunday would go well. I think I've conceded that it is just fine if these mid-week runs aren't totally perfect. As long as my long runs go well, then that's what's really important. Of course, I'd love to hit every workout on the head but I'm not going to beat myself up about this.

Thursday - another off day. NAILED IT.

Friday - 12 miles. I took this at an easy pace around the hood. We had guests coming over for dinner so I ended up cutting this short a bit. I ended with 10.8 miles @ a 9:08 pace.

Saturday - this was supposed to be an easy 5 miles, but I figured I'd only do it if I really had time. The past few weeks I've missed this easy 5 mile run and it has worked out fine. Yes, probably not the best idea to blow off the recovery runs but it is also okay to want to keep my legs fresh. Who knows though, right? In any case I didn't run at all today. I ate well and did not drink (ok, one beer while watching football, but that does NOT count!) and got to bed early. PS - Go Blue!

Sunday - the big 20 miler. I was a little scared about this one and briefly toyed with pushing this to Monday. The weather here was really sketchy: rainy and windy and cold. At around 10:30 I ate my standard bread meal of an english muffin w/jam. I had some coffee, which fired me up. I decided at noon I would get the run done today and was out the door by 1:30. (Sidenote: I love the long run days where I can take my time preparing for the run - mentally and physcially. Lounge around the house, nibble, drink coffee, slowly wake up, etc. Is this going to bite me in the ass on race days where the gun actually goes off at 8 a.m. or earlier? I hope not. But honestly even if I wanted to change my habits I can't and I won't! I love it too much!)

Before I go on, I need to apologize for the deep dive I'm going to take in recanting this run. But it was a big one and I want to remember it all...

When I headed out it started raining again less than a quarter mile from home. No big deal. I saw a clock with the temp posted - 67* and rainy, perfect running weather, right? I think so. I'd decided to do Marine Drive, the site of my previously successful 17 mile run a few weeks before (8:15 avg pace). I like this route because it takes me across the I-5 bridge over to the Oregon side, then along a nice path by the Columbia River, before it heads across the treacherous I-205 bridge back into Washington. You exit the 205 bridge at about the half marathon mark and based off of where I finished the 17 miler the last time (about 3 miles from home) I figured I could make it a loop and end up at home with 20 miles done. The stretch after the bridge back to home isn't very exciting (residential), but it is familiar and I like that.

Back to the run.

I didn't have any strategy except to get started and see how I felt and adjust from there. Obviously I want to be successful on these long training runs, but if my body is only feeling 9:00 miles, then so be it. But yesterday my body was feeling more like 7:40ish miles and it felt great. I knew that this pace was probably too fast and would come back to haunt me toward the end of my run, but I didn't care. I decided to just lock in (like last wknd) and see where it took me. Honestly, I wanted to see how long I could sustain this until my body broke down. I know, not the typical strategy for a training run, but it felt good to me. And honestly, this pace felt EASY...I was not busting my guts to get this done. So I decided this would be a test run and might hurt toward the end but I was totally okay with that. Fun!

Miles 1-10 were superb....I really do love Marine Drive and going right by the airport and water. It was quite windy at times and rained off and on. I actually really loved running in the rainy parts. My pace for these miles was 7:48, :59, :46, :36, :50, :41, :47, :45, :43, :40.

After this is the turn onto the 205 bridge where for three miles you are on a sidewalk in the middle of 12 lanes of really fast traffic. It is kind of bananas. There is also an elevation gain that for me feels quite significant. The last mile is tough! Seriously, the last mile on this bridge feels never-ending and just when you think you've crested the bitch, it keeps going. I've done this twice now and just try to put my head down and grind it out.

It was at about this point where I could feel the faster miles taking their toll. Miles 11-13 were 7:52, 7:54 and 8:27. I glanced down at the half mary mark and the time was exactly 1:42:40, two seconds above my half marathon PR time. Whoa.

The last 7 miles I went significantly slower and was pretty okay with it. I had to remind myself a few times that this wasn't the actual race, race day I'd have more training and a full taper under my belt and would be feeling a lot better and putting it out there even more. This was a training run and I shouldn't kill myself. I went with what was comfortable, which turned out to be 8:04, 8:25, 8:12, 8:33, 8:21, 8:06 and 7:57.

Total run = 20 miles, 7:58 avg pace, 170 avg bpm

I finished about .75 from home and walked the rest of the way. I also want to note my nutrition on this run: right before the run I took a Chocolate Gu and a bunch of water. I didn't dive into my belt bottles until about mile 5 and ended up finishing just about all 6 bottles at the end. At mile 10 I ate an entire package of Gu Chomps blueberry/pom flavored with 180 calories. They taste good but were a bitch to chew and swallow all. I think in the future I'll wait until the half marathon mark to eat all of this.

I'm really pleased with the strategy I took on this run and the way it worked out. I definitely learned something about my body and how I run. I have another 20 miler next weekend which is perfect for me to execute more strategy! Now I know that if I'm having an on day on race day I can definitely achieve my goals, and that is a huge confidence boost.

I took a 10 minute ice bath after the run followed by a hot shower, stretching and trigger point. I basically laid on the couch the rest of the day catching up on my DVRed shows. It was awesome.

Another thing to note is that I didn't pull out my ipod until the last 5 miles. I've been really good about not using it on most of my runs but I'm glad I brought it with me yesterday because it did help pull me through.

Injury Report

Nothing major to speak of, but some expected areas of interest to note. My feet - of course my feet are well callused, but there have also been some fun blisters that have cropped up recently. I was really surprised to see a blood blister on the inside of my left big toe when I took off my shoes yesterday. What's that? I also have blisters on the heads of my 2nd and 3rd toes on both feet. Then my 2nd and 3rd toes on my right foot are blistered under the nail, which means they're black and probably going to fall off. One of these actually hurts more today, which is odd cause I thought they'd run their course.

I have gone to the sports masseuse twice now and plan to go a few more times before the race. It is really awesome, because this guy understands athletes and really grinds on me the way I like it. (Stop.) At the first appt he could tell that I have issues on my left leg - in my hip/butt, down the IT band to my knee. It is nothing major, just something he recommended I focus on with stretching. Showed me some good stuff that I swear I will start doing more often. These spots get more sore toward the end of my long or hard runs, but I don't even really recall this being too much of an issue on my 20 miler yesterday. Hmm, maybe it is working?

Another negative thing is my stomach issues. I didn't experience anything until after yesterday's run, but when it hits, it really sucks. Bad. I honestly don't think I have any massive issue that can be treated, so I don't see the point in going to the doctor about it. (Plus, I'm scared they'll do bad things to me. Stay outta there!) But honestly, I think this is something I'm going to have to tough out and hope it gets better.

Marathon Readiness

I'm feeling pretty good about the race and comfortable with my training right now. Like I mentioned some of my mid-week runs haven't been 100% but they're still pretty good and I feel like I'm getting out of it what I need. I really don't have time or energy right now to fuss about training or the race. I'm too busy freaking out about our house, upcoming family guests, and our wedding...

House Updates

The fucking painters aren't done. They've been actively working here for about a month now, I think. They were supposed to finish on Thursday but didn't. Then they were supposed to come back Friday to finish it off but didn't. They said they'd come back Saturday but I said no - I want my f'ing holiday weekend to myself and I'm sick of these jokers being around. So I think this week they'll be coming back and finally putting a nail in the coffin.

That said, the colors we chose look awesome. I'm really pleased and can't wait to finish everything off with blinds, drapes, rugs, furniture, etc. We have a long way to go, but have at least seen some options that we like and will be ordering away in no time.

Wedding Updates

I'm getting married in 2.5 weeks. Wow. I feel like we still have a lot of stuff to make decisions and take action on, but it is really fine. 2.5 weeks is a long time! My parents and sister come out the week before the wedding which will be nice, but we also want the place to look nice for them. I'm trying to take advantage of the holiday today by doing some crafty things for the big day. I am so excited and nervous for it all!

Ok, I think that will have to be it for now. Happy Labor Day!

Start of Week 6

My new colors! Sad thing is that under the purple polish - three of my toes are actually a shade of purple/black...yep, they're going to fall off.


Above, me running on my Thursday "12" miles in the nasty heat again. Not a great run.

My feet after a great 15 miles on Sunday.

Thursday I had to do a treacherous 12 miles after my stupid 10 miles at the track. It was another hot one and the best I could do was to leave at high noon. The forecast was hot & sun and I knew it was going to only get hotter as the day progressed. It would have been ideal to go 1st thing in the morning, but I have a penchant for NOT running in the a.m.

I decided to try the Burnt Bridge Creek trail in Vancouver. I did not have a good run. It was way too hot and I didn't love the route. It just seemed so much longer than I'd imagined. I ran into some stomach issues and was able to use a bano at the turnaround point. I ended up having to walk a lot so didn't get in the full 12 miles of running. It was another quite miserable run under my belt:

Miles: 10.8

Pace: 9:20

HR: 154 bpm

Friday was an off day and I was delighted to enjoy this. Unfortunately, I also enjoyed way too many glasses of wine...

Saturday was scheduled to be 6 miles with strides. I had every intention to do this but at the end of the day didn't get it done. Feeling sluggish from the night before and taken over my wedding tasks didn't help.

Sunday I had 15 miles with 12 at race pace. Of course, I got cranky beforehand thinking about how much this was going to suck. I hate it when I do that to myself. I managed to completely turn around my attitude pre-run and ended up really enjoying this run. I did this one on Springwater again - two loops around the river path (about 6 miles total) and then another out and back to the end of the 1st part of Springwater. I decided to start off with the 12 miles at goal pace and do the last 3 at whatever pace. I nailed it! I was going to allow myself to have my goal pace of around 8:15, which is slightly slower than my first-announced goal pace of 3:30, or 8:00 miles. I've been thinking about this goal a lot more and trying not to focus too much on it - I'm stressed out enough with wedding plans I just don't need this hanging over my head too.

Back to the run...my mile breakdown is below, but have to note that mile 1 had to be skewed. It may not have been because it is actually downhill, but I'm going to add on a minute just to be safe:

6:29 (97 bpm)

7:38 (172)

7:55 (171)

8:03 (173)

7:55 (175)

7:54 (176)

7:48 (176)

7:49 (176)

7:52 (176)

8:18 (175)

7:42 (176)

7:46 (179)

Adding on a minute to mile 1, this comes out as a 7:51 avg.

Total Miles 15.1

Avg pace: around 8:00

HR: 170

It took me a couple of miles to hit my stride but once I did I realized it was comfortable and just locked in. My left hip and knee were the only places to feel tight toward the end, but nothing major.

I learned two important things about performance factors:

1. I perform much better w/o sun and heat. (It was overcast and probably in the 60s when I ran.)

2. I perform much better w/o having anything to drink the night before. Most of my long runs have followed at least a few cocktails/glasses of wine. The two runs w/alcohol the night before have been my best.

I have a lot of stuff going on this week and am starting to get really antsy and nervous about the wedding. Where has the time gone? We are crossing things off of the to do list but there is still a lot left and I'm scared. I have a massage again this week with Kurt. I need to keep doing a better job at stretching and trigger pointing. I feel like there has been a lot of info that I haven't posted here related to running, but I just can't find the time right now...bummer.

Runners EFFING Colitis

Not a good run for me today. I did about 2 miles before settling in at the track for 1000 repeats. It was hot and that was getting to me despite having plenty of water at my side. I tried through the first few intervals not to stop and take the recoveries as 2 minute jogs but I just couldn't do it. I ended up making concessions on the run to get through it (longer recovery, saying I could only do 800s if I had to, saying I could stop short of the 5 intervals if necessary). That worked really well and my intervals got much easier, however, before my last 1000 my stomach issues kicked in and I ended up having to go home.

I'm bummed about the whole stomach thing, it really bothers me that this keeps happening but I don't think there is anything that can be done about it. I've done some research and don't think I have anything super chronic like IBD or Crohns, and for anything less there really doesn't seem to much that can be done for treatment. It is always only running induced for me too. I hate it!

Interval recap: 4:11, 4:23, 4:17, 4:06

Picture Post

I had some issues with my camera card connecting with my computer, so I figured I owed some pics. This is a mish mash of a bunch of recent stuff:


Wedding crafts with the Barnes'....

Jen busting a move. (Isn't my sideyard cute?)

Go Zach!

My wearing my only strapless top in attempt to get rid of those white triangles you can see on my chest!

My little wedding invite station - complete with wine.

Pretty roses and dahlias from my garden along with my computer screen background of raspberries from my garden!

Lilies from my garden - they smelled wonderful in the house!

A fun arrangement of a spiky dahlia with poppy seed pods popping out.

Rando deer figurine (old Avon perfume bottle?) I found at the thrift store. I love him!

Where I make things happen.

Location of my first "long" run (13) outside of Salt Lake City. Kids were jumping off of this bridge into a murky river - it was HOT.

Me, completely wilted, after a hot a miserable 13 miles in the desert.

Going out the door on my 17 mile run the weekend before last (capping off Week 3 of training).

Back home after the 17 miles - this was just an awesome run and I felt GREAT afterwards. I was jumping around and totally energized. Not how I felt this week, but hopefully it comes back sometime soon!

That's it. Are you happy now?! :)

Cliff's Notes

Ok, so a lot of stuff going on and if I don't lay it out there right now it is never going to happen and then I'll disappear and everyone will cry.

Last two weeks recap: I did most workouts and most went well but a couple not. Last week was actually great despite missing some recovery runs. Wow. Then this week was a bit tougher with the travel to Seattle and heat and soreness. My long run this week (today) was 18 and good pace (8:38) but felt much harder than last week's 17 at 8:15. Go figure. I had my massage on Friday and it was awesome. I learned some things and am going to go back at least every two weeks. The massage could have contributed to the soreness I'm having right now.

Long runs coming up are 16, 20, 20 15, 12 then RACE DAY. I am pumped, but also relieved that I'm not too strung out on achieving the 3:30 goal, or even the BQ for that matter. It is a week after my god forsaken wedding for god sakes.

I had a great time today after my long run...felt like sheiyt for a while, then napped and felt a whole lot better. Jen and Zach came over for wedding crafts and cheese and wine on the lawn. It was awesome...but now I'm home alone, slightly buzzed/tired and ready for nighty-night.

Looking forward to another week in the life. Hope you're having a good one.

eed

17 Fabulous Miles!

Just a quick check-in here... I've been in Seattle all week for work and unable to catch up on anything! I did just want to briefly drop in to say that my long run last weekend was fantastic. I will give details later but it was the best run I've ever had, really. I felt great the entire time and totally great afterward. I want every run to be like this. The best part is that I performed really well and averaged 8:15 miles...not far off of my goal race pace. 4 miles were sub-8:00.

I can't say how much a run like this boosts the confidence. On the flip side I'm now worried about what comes next...can I keep this up? Not going to worry about that too much.

I have my first sports massage today and am kind of terrified. I'll report back.

My training this week didn't go that great but after my perfect week last week it is okay. I'll touch on all of this later. Being away from home and eating work travel meals didn't help either. I way overdid it.

Hope all is well in runnerland!

eed

11 Miles Hanging Over My Head

I may be acting overly dramatic, but my runs seem to just HANG over my head all day leading up to them. What's up with that? It literally ruins my mood. Once I get out there it isn't that bad, but the anticipation sucks. Does anyone know how to get over this?

All I want to do tonight is finish my wedding invites and play scrabble and drink wine. Is that such a crime?

I can't postpone this run until tomorrow because that would put me at 11 miles on Saturday and 17 on Sunday. No bueno. I have to do this tonight, hands down.

I have been majorly manic about wedding stuff lately and it is killing me. I feel like I am buzzing high level all the time and it is only going to crash. I'm definitely acting glass half empty and sick of it.

Sunday night I drive to Seattle for work until Thursday. I'm planning to do my 17 miler on Sunday morning but haven't picked out a route yet. Suggestions? Not too far, since I have to drive up to Seattle later that day. While I'm there it will be nonstop work crap. They're even forcing us to share rooms (embarrassing) so I literally have no downtime. I even have to sleep with one eye open. My one goal is to do 12 miles on Wednesday, the only night we do not have dinner plans. I can already tell my team is annoyed that I have to do this since they're trying to plan something during that time. This is when people who just don't get it really bother me. Guess what people - you better start getting it. At least empathize for one tiny moment will you? Maybe it will do you some good so you eventually, one day, can hope to run more than a mile without stopping for a break.

I'm such a whore, but seriously...I hate work get-togethers like this. And I'm also dreading my 11 miles that I have to do today. But while I'm at it those old bitches that I overheard saying my irises looked like shit can suck it too. Guess what old bitches? I can see you, and I can hear you so get the fuck off of my lawn.

Happy Friday!

9 Mile Tempo

Today I ran from home and ended up doing the loop across the I-5 bridge. I don't know what it is, but I energizes me: steel, concrete, trucks and cars zooming past me at 60+ mph, water far below, big sky, big boats, wind. It is all pretty exhilirating. And kind of scary...

I also did not bring my iPod. It is my effort to become more zen in general focused on running in specific. I do not want to feel dependent on it! I've actually done really well and not worn it on almost 100% of my runs the last couple of weeks.

I was supposed to do this run yesterday but just COULD NOT make myself do it! Instead I ordered in Chinese (I didn't even pick it up, I had it delivered) and drank wine. It rained yesterday for the first time and was cold and gray, so that might have contributed to it.

Anyway, down to the run...9 miles with 5 miles tempo (one more mile tempo than last week's 8 miler).

Miles 1-2: 9:02 (131 bpm), 9:11 (138 bpm)
Miles 3-7: 7:02 (175 bpm), 7:29 (178 bpm), 7:22 (180 bpm), 7:32 (183 bpm), 7:35 (184 bpm)
Miles 8-9: 10:00 (169 bpm), 8:32 (169 bpm)

Avg pace: 8:12 min/mile, 166 bpm

I knew last week I went to fast on my tempo miles but I guess I don't learn. That last fast mile was pretty hard for me to push out but I managed. Really, I don't mind pushing this hard - I like it. But now I'm starting to worry that something bad is going to happen - injury, mental breakdown, flooded basement? What do you think? Is it okay to sustain this type of speed on future runs?

Peace out!

Bach Party and Another Long Run

(Pic from Sunday 15 mile run - me, and my man.)

Where to begin?

Let's see, last I reported was my Tuesday 8 mile tempo run, next run was 11 miles scheduled to happen on Thursday. Due to life going on I moved this to Friday thinking one less day of recovery before my long run shouldn't be an issue. I went during the middle of the day with perfect cool and cloudy skies. I ended up finding myself on a network of trails around Vancouver and was easily able to get in 11 miles. I had started from home with no real plan in place except to check out the area and I came across some good trails. Anyway, my run went like this:

Miles: 11.01

Avg Pace: 8:20

Avg HR: 170 bpm

It felt great!

After the run I rushed to get ready and showered. I had to head to pick up my wedding dress and do some other errands in Portland before meeting up at my friends house for pre-bach fun. I got my dress and had fun trying it on although I was about to pass out due to not eating anything. This wedding stuff is all starting to become real which is getting me happy and freaking me out all at once. Ahhhh! Planning a wedding, I've found, is very similar to training for a marathon - it is all that you want to talk about or think about and you're excited but nervous at the same time.

Anyway, I showed up at my friend's place and surprise, my fiance was there. I was like, what? He wasn't supposed to be around on my girl's night out. I brushed it off and started on glass of wine and garden tour when suddenly my BFF from Michigan jumped out from behind the tree! I had NO idea she was coming and was totally shocked to see her there. What a great surprise. Seriously, the night ended up being so much fun and I got to spend it with the PBRs! Everyone was in rare form and hopefully had a blast. Things got a little fuzzy toward the end of the night but nothing too out of control. I don't know how I did it but I ended up waking up early and going for a 5 mile easy run on the river front. Amazing. I spent the rest of the weekend relaxing up at the lake and having everything catered and taken care of by my awesome future husband.

Sunday I briefly considered postponing my long run (15) until Monday. I had consumed a bunch more wine on Saturday night and was still sluggish and hungover from Friday. But i decided in the long run it would be best to get it out of the way, do a different course than from home and not have to carve out 2+ hours on a Monday. I'm so glad I did. We ran the Historic Columbia River Highway route (a run Jen and Zach often do) and I ended up doing 15.2 miles. Stats:

Total miles: 15.2

Avg Pace: 8:31

Avg HR: ?? (forgot Garmin!)

The first hour of this run just breezed by but the last 30-45 minutes started to get boring and taxing. I wasn't sore per se, but my muscles were just tired. Actually, more my joints than muscles. I didn't work out my hydration well nor my nutrition so next time I need to be better at that. I'm actually very happy with my pace too - this is the longest run I've done in probably 2 years and I went faster than I'd expected. I bet if I'd been better prepared I could have inched it up a bit and still felt comfortable. Although it is still scary to think that I'll need to run at 8:00 pace to hit my goal of a 3:30 marathon. I don't even want to think about that yet.

Ok, yes.

Thank god it cooled down - my run last night was exactly what I needed for a little boost in my running self-confidence. I haven't had any good runs lately so I needed this, badly.

I did an 8 mile tempo run, with 4 miles to be at half mary pace, so for me around 8:00 min/mile pace. I took the first two miles really easy, like 9:00+ then kicked it in. I started off way too fast but then actually fell into a groove. (This is a groove I haven't felt in a while!) My 4 tempo miles were all within 5 seconds of a 7:30 pace, making my total pace for the 8 miles 8:18 and avg HR 164 bpm. Not bad for a warshed up hag like me.

Otherwise I've been busy cutting and arranging flowers from our garden. I don't know why I waited this long! They're beautiful and smell great. I can't get my computer to read my camera SD card, so these photos will have to wait. Also prioritizing items to be purchased for this house, which includes about every piece of furniture you could imagine.

On wedding news, my dress arrived! I'm going to pick it up on Friday, along with the jacket, and take along my 3 shoe options, get the dress altered, etc. The whole shebang. Then I go to my bachlorette party! I'm super excited for it all, I think its going to be great/fun/exciting/all of it. Saturday I'll head up to the cabin for some relaxing, sunning, swimming, and then LONG run (15m) on Sunday. I still have to figure out how I'm going to fit in 11 miles in the middle of the day tomorrow. Wish me luck on that...