Marathon No. 5: Weekly Round-Up (Week 7)

My first 20-mile run of this training cycle actually was okay.  I felt good up until Mile 18, at which point I told myself to keep running because there was a cheeseburger waiting for me in Eastern Market.  (I ran with my coworker who is training for February's Miami marathon, so we started and ended our run in her neck of the woods.)  The best part? I still have two more 20-mile runs on my training plan....

...yay?

Week 8 (the mid-point) is actually pretty relaxed compared to last week.  I have a total of 25 miles planned, spread out over three days.  Here's what it looks like:

Monday: Rest, stretching
Tuesday: 8 miles
Wednesday: Cross and strength training
Thursday: 8 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 9 miles
Sunday: Cross and strength training

Marathon No. 5: Weekly Round-Up (Week 3)

Week 3 didn't go exactly as planned, which is okay.  Although I planned to run 25 miles, I was only able to run 15.  The short story is that I came down with a nasty cold on Monday.  With headaches, a slight fever, and constant coughing, I decided to take it the week off until I felt better.  By Friday, I was strong enough to attempt running but it was way harder than it should have been.  Saturday wasn't any better, but I was able to get in eight miles - slowly - today.  I feel good about it, and I've been trying to figure out what's the best way to move forward with my training plan.

My training plan has a few recovery weeks built in, so i think I may count this weekend's runs as that. For Week 4, I'll try the Week 3 plan again with a few modifications.

Monday - Off

Tuesday - 6 miles (speed work)

Wednesday - 5 miles (holiday fun run)

Thursday - X-training

Friday - Off

Saturday - 15 miles

Sunday -X-training 

Judging by my run today, I should be back to normal health-wise by Monday.  I'm crossing my fingers. Plus, the bright side of being sick was that I was able to give my IT band several rest days, and it didn't bother me at all on my runs this week.

MCM Taper - Week 2

The weather in DC is perfect for running, and I'm starting to feel really good about the upcoming marathon.

On Saturday, I hit the treadmill for Yasso 800s.  In theory, to run a marathon at a certain time - say 4 hours - you should be able to run repeats of 800 meters in 4 minutes.  I've done this workout a few times during training but finally got myself up to 10-800 meter repeats (7 x 800 @ 4:15, and 3 x 800 @ 4:00).  The repeats were a nice push to get me in shape for the race. 

This week, I started with cross-training, a rest day, and a 4-mile tempo run.  The rest of the week includes:

Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 8 miles
Sunday: 3 miles and strength training

Beginning the Taper

Last Saturday, I did my last 20-mile run of this training cycle.  I learned that running 20 miles on two consecutive Saturdays is a terrible idea.  It's cool, though, because now it's time to taper.

Runner's World featured an article this month describing a tapering strategy that scales back on mileage but not intensity.

From the article:

In principle, tapering should be simple–run less so you're rested for race day. In practice, many athletes find two to three weeks of cutting back on mileage and intensity makes their legs feel heavy and lifeless. But Spanish coach and physiologist Iñigo Mujika, a leading expert on tapering, sees a way around that problem. Mujika suggests athletes start their taper early, scaling back on mileage but not intensity, then three days before the event, "reload" their muscles with an interval workout. Performing these workouts when your legs are fresher than they've been for months can actually increase your fitness.

Indeed, too much rest or slow running lowers the muscle tension in your legs, says Norwegian Olympian and 13:06 5-K runner Marius Bakken, which is why they feel flat and sluggish. Short, fast bursts of running raise muscle tension back up. If you get your taper right, your body will respond by producing more oxygen-carrying red blood cells, lowering stress hormone levels, and storing more fuel in your muscles–enough to shave about three percent off your finishing time, on average. Here's how to inject some energy into your taper so you shed fatigue and sharpen your edge.

The last few taper cycles (including those for half-marathons), I've taken the attitude of "It's cool; I'm tapering" and totally slacked off when it came to pace.  I'm curious to try this going forward.

My runs over the last week haven't gone as well as I would have liked.  I imagine that it's a combination of trying to do speed work only a few days after running 20 miles and on a few hours of sleep (I had an early flight to Pittsburgh on Tuesday and two intense days of meetings -- who knew my body would hate me for trying to run).  So far, I have about six miles logged for the week with a planned 90-minute speed workout tomorrow morning.

It's getting real, folks...

MCM 37: Weekly Round-Up (5)

I swear, I'm still training for this marathon.  I'm just really bad at writing about it this time.

Early last week, I started to stress about my training.  I haven't run more than 19 miles yet, and I'm down to the last two intense weeks before taper.  But, at the same time, I've been doing a lot more speed work and felt great after ninety-five percent of my workouts over the last two weeks -- including after my most recent long run. 

I think the key for the next few weeks is to really put in the work.  I've got three marathons under my belt so, in theory, I can run 26.2 miles.  With hill and speed workouts, and putting in all of the miles on the next two long runs, I should be in great shape by October 28th.

Here's the plan for this week:

Monday:4 miles
Tuesday: Speed Workout + Strength Training
Wednesday: 5 miles
Thursday: Cross/Strength training
Friday: Off
Saturday: 20 miles
Sunday: 3 miles

MCM 37: Training Update

The blog has been very quiet these days, but I'm in training for Marathon #4. 

The shorter runs, speed workouts, and hill runs have gone really well.  But, truth be told, I've had to push myself to get my long runs in.  If we don't count the long run I cut short because heat exhaustion was a very real possibility, I've only done one run over 10 miles in the last three weeks.  (I did some rearranging, too, to accommodate a lovely weekend getaway.)  There's a part of me that's very chill about the whole thing because I can run the marathon distance -- the three finisher's medals prove it.

But, after Providence, I want to run 26.2 miles well.  
I want a PR.
I want to get closer to a BQ time.
I want to be faster than Oprah and Sarah Palin.

I can say "I'll put in the miles in August and September" but now's the time to really work on becoming a stronger and faster runner.

Out of the 17 planned weeks of training, I've completed three and will be moving onto Week 4.  This time around, I used the Smart Coach tool from Runner's World to build a plan to get me across the finish line in just over fours.  Given my current PR, it's ambitious.  But, if I put in the work, I should be able to reach my goal.

Weeks 1-6 of my plan

Week 4 is coming up:

Monday - 6 miles
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - 6 miles
Thursday - 5 miles AM/swimming PM*
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 14 miles
Sunday - XT

*I've decided to take the plunge into the world of triathlons...except how I look more like a drowning turtle when I swim.  I think the swimming classes have started to correct that.

It's going to be a fun next few months!

My Third Journey to 26.2 Miles

It's no secret that I haven't been blogging as much during this training cycle. There isn't a particular reason. I'm not any less excited about running a marathon and sharing my training progress than I have been for my other races. I enjoy writing about my running because it keeps me accountable to my training; it also helps me keep a running log of my progress so that I can look back down the road and put everything in perspective.

Case in point:  I would be lying to you if I said that I wasn't disappointed that I did not run the Rock 'n' Roll half-marathon in under two hours.  (I may have accepted it, but I really thought that I had it in me to reach my goal.) It also didn't help that my time was only slightly faster that my time at the 2011 Baltimore Running Festival.  But, I went back to my recap of the 2010 National Half and saw how much I've improved in a year:

In 2011, I ran the National Half in 2:09:33.  In 2012, I ran the same course for the RnR USA Half in 2:04:29.  I might not be making huge gains from race to race, but it's affirming to see my progress over a longer period of time.

Next Sunday, I'll be running the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler for the second year in a row.  (The lottery has been favorable.)  I want to PR, and I hope that I can run the race in 1:30 or faster.  

After that race, it'll be crunch time for the Cox Sports Marathon in Providence.  I've been anxious about the training for this race and will be until I drag myself across the finish line in May.  Because of my aggressive race schedule at the start of the year (and other excuses I can make for myself), I really haven't been putting in the longer runs (18-22 miles) and won't until after the 10-Miler.  I'll take them slowly, for sure, but I felt so confident going into Philly because I had done many longer runs.  

My goal for this final week of March and April is to train in earnest.  No skipping runs because I don't feel like it.  No cutting speed workouts short because I don't feel like doing another interval.  No whining. No complaining. No making excuses.  

Just running.

Cox Marathon Crunch - Week 1

Monday - X-Training and Strength

Tuesday - 3 miles (easy)

Wednesday - 45 minute speed workout

Thursday - 3 miles (easy)

Friday: Stretching/Yoga

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run

Operation Sub-2:00 Half-Marathon

I forgot to mention one important detail about this week:  I start training for my next set of races! Whooo!  (I’ll admit that I’m excited most by getting to look at another colorful spreadsheet for a couple of months.)

I mentioned in my 2011 Round-Up that one of my goals for this year is to run a half-marathon in under two hours.  I set this goal twice last year – first in advance of the Rock ‘n’ Roll half in Virginia Beach and, when I failed, before the Baltimore Half.  I failed to achieve that goal at both races, and, after, my mind was filled with thoughts of how I probably could have run a sub-2:00 race if I’d done X, Y, and Z during training, ate better before the race, and had run through a few water stops to save time (and spill water all over myself because I only mastered the “Drinking while running” move in Philly).

I surprised myself a bit in Baltimore, though, by running a 2:05 even with all of the hills on the course.  If I focus on strength and speed this time around, I should be prepared to run a sub-2:00 half marathon in March at the Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Half.

My long run mileage peaks at 18 miles before the race, and I’ll be working in speed workouts and two-a-days (with which I experimented last month and it wasn’t as bad as it sounds…as long as only one of those workouts is a hard run).  

This is what I have for Week 1:

Sunday: 3.5 Miles (Accompanied by the men pounding in my head post-New Year’s Eve)

Monday: Stretching, cross-training, and lifting session (Originally planned as a rest day)

Tuesday: Intervals, 40 minutes

Wednesday: 4 miles

Thursday: Tempo Run, 50 minutes and Strength

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 13 miles

Fall Four: Weekly Round-Up (14)

I felt great last week during training, even after running the Army 10-Miler and the Baltimore Half-Marathon in a little less than a week.  I had a great speed workout on Tuesday and a fantastic long-run on Saturday.  I'm down to the final four weeks.

Monday: 3 miles 

Tuesday: 5 miles

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 50-minute speed session 

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 22 miles

Sunday: X-Train and Strength training

After this week, it'll be taper time.  Whoo! 

Fall Four: Weekly Round-Up (13)

I modified my training schedule for this week.  The original plan was to run the Army 10-Miler hard, take it easy during the week, and enjoy being back in Baltimore for the half-marathon.  Now that I'm running Baltimore with the intention of running hard (sub-2:00 half or bust, baby!), I'm going to do a bit more running this week than originally planned.  

Also, this week: My body is a temple!  Wine? Maybe one glass of red.  Beer? Nope.  Fruits and vegetables? Hell yes!

Monday - X-Train and Strength Training 

Tuesday - Speed Workout

Wednesday - 3 Miles (easy) and Strength Training

Thursday - 3 miles (easy)

Friday - Off 

Saturday - Baltimore Half-Marathon

Sunday - Off

Fall Four: Weekly Round-Up (10)

Time to crank up Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer."  I've reached the mid-point of my training for the Philadelphia Marathon.

I'm very happy with my training.  I know I say this a lot, but things are going really well. I've made a lot of progress in these last few months.  I feel feel faster, and I have stretches on my runs during which I'm able to push myself to run at paces that would have seemed impossible last year.

Of course, when I think about my training and where I want to be by the time I line up at the start in November, I see room for improvement.  I mean, if a certain former governor of Alaska can run a sub-2:00 half-marathon, why can't I?  (Yeah, yeah. First Rule: You do not talk about Fight Club.  You do not compare yourself to other runners.)

I've got just about a month before I run the Army 10-Miler and Baltimore Half-Marathon.  For a while, I thought that the Baltimore Half might be my chance to run a sub-2:00 half.  But, as I think about it more, I just want to enjoy being in Baltimore and running in the race that helped ignite my love of this crazy sport.  It's during the Army 10 that I really want to push myself and crush my time from the Cherry Blossom 10-Mile race in April.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to find the right balance of speed and endurance work.   I'm also  running an 8K this Saturday as part of my long run, just to test my speed.  

Week 12:

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - Tempo Run, 45 Minutes 

Wednesday - 5 Miles

Thursday - 4 Miles, Strength training 

Friday - Rest

Saturday - 15 Miles (including 8K race)

Sunday - X-Training, Strength training

Before I dash off, one last thing:

I was going to save this for my Tuesday Inspiration, but I think it's appropriate to post today.  To commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Runner's World posted a collection of stories about how that day affected the lives of 13 runners -- Remembering 9/11.  Each story is powerful -- a reminder of the events of a clear Tuesday morning.  As I read each story, I found a reminder to honor those who were lost by living each day to our full potential.

Fall Four: Weekly Round-Up (4)

Over the last seven days, I spent just three at home in D.C. On Tuesday and Wednesday, my coworker and I traveled to Nottoway, Virginia to complete site observations for one of our projects. Then, on Saturday, I took a train to Boston to spend the weekend with my senior year housemates and people who probably should have lived in our house. It was so good to see everyone and spend some time catching up, reminding ourselves of the excellent time we had in college, and creating a new batch of stories to tell the next time we get together. (Seriously, guys, why don’t we do this more often? Like, all of the time.)

I plan to spend this week getting myself back into my usual routine. I love traveling, but it always does a number of my eating, running, and sleeping patterns. (It's been at least a week since I've cooked a meal for myself. I should really get back into doing that.) The good news is that I proved to myself that I am capable of getting out of bed super early to get my workouts in. Clearly, I should be able to do this more often – especially now that the temperature is D.C. threatens any attempts to safely run outside.

So, workouts:

I did all three of my running workouts on the treadmill last week, and all three focused on speed. On Wednesday and Thursday, I went for this:

Warm-Up – 5 Minutes

Intervals x 3
2 minutes at 5.0 MPH
2 minutes at 6.0 MPH
1 minute at 7.0 MPH
1 minute at 8.0 MPH
2 minutes at 7.0 MPH
2 minutes at 6.0 MPH

After Thursday’s workout, I decided that I was ready to increase each interval by 0.5 MPH – which is exactly what I did on Saturday (8 miles was not going to happen on the treadmill). I felt good after Saturday’s workout, which also included time on the stationary bike and strength work.

Also -- I took a look at my training schedule and made a few changes to allow for more speed work and more strength training.

Hopefully, things will cool down in D.C. If not, I’m going to start training myself to get out of bed early so that I can run before it becomes unbearable to do so.

Week 5:

Monday: X-Training and Strength Training
Tuesday: 4 Miles
Wednesday: 5 Miles
Thursday: Tempo Run 45 Minutes
Friday: Off
Saturday: 15 Miles
Sunday: X-Training and Strength Training

Starting Out on a Journey

June seemed to go by very quickly, and it struck me how little I actually ran this month. If you’ve been following for a while, you’ll recall that one of my goals for this year is to run 1,000 miles. As of today, I’ve run 428 miles. I imagined that I would have more mileage at this point in the year, but I’m not worried since I know that I’m going to kick my training into high gear starting tomorrow.

Week 1 should be an easy transition back into heavy training:

Monday: Cross and Strength Training
Tuesday: 3 Miles
Wednesday: 5 Miles
Thursday: Tempo Run, 30 Minutes
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 10 Miles
Sunday: 3 miles
Total Miles (excluding Tempo): 21 miles

In other news, I can’t remember the last time that I cooked an actual meal at home. (Last week was a little crazy, and bowls of pasta with tomato sauce were the way to go most nights.) So, I tried a recipe that I picked up from Eat, Live, Run for a quinoa and black bean salad. I can’t say that I’ve also been my best at eating vegetables lately, so this was exactly what I needed this week. You can check out the full recipe here, but photos of food are never a bad thing.

The salad combines corn, red peppers, red onion, avocado, black beans, grapefruit, and quinoa.  The flavor combination was incredible.

 The vegetables and fruit are the first to go into the bowl for mixing.

 Followed by the quinoa and a lime juice-based dressing.

The salad keeps for about five days in the refrigerator, which is great because the recipe yielded more than I can ever consume in a few days.  Yum!

Happy Anniversary, Dear Blog! Let's Run Another Marathon!

It’s hard to believe that it was a year ago that I committed to running my first marathon. And, unlike my previous attempts to run 26.2 miles just to prove that I can, I actually went through with it.

I have you- my friends and lovely readers - to thank for helping me cross the finish line.

Writing about my experience and sharing this journey with you has been a motivating force that encouraged me to put on my running shoes and hit the asphalt. Thank you for taking the time to read my tl;dr posts and, for those of who talk to me regularly, listen to me blab on about my training and races. (Honestly, I still don’t know how some of you put up with me. Seriously.) Thank you for all of your page clicks and your comments. Thank you all for your words of encouragement.

Thank you for helping me to get through it all. And, for many of you, that goes beyond running.

It really does mean a lot to me to know that you're in my corner.

I think it’s appropriate that one year after starting this blog and my first journey to 26.2 miles I’m making my final preparations to start training for the four races that I’ll be running this fall. Over the weekend, I finalized my training schedule – all 21 weeks between now and the Philadelphia Marathon on November 20th. Knowing that I’m capable of making it across the finish line – even if it did take me five and a half hours the first time – my goal for Philadelphia is to finish (of course) and to shave an hour off of my time. I’ve also joked that it would be amazing if I could shave two hours off my time and Boston Qualify.

(To be honest, I’ve half-joked about this. There’s a part of me that wonders if I’m capable of a BQ. I mean, what else am I going to do this summer? Have a social life?)

When I trained for Baltimore last year, I did zero speed work and focused more on putting in the miles. My goal was to finish. That was it.  Strength training was also a rarity. (I some insecurities about using the free weights and strength equipment in my apartment’s fitness center around all of the large men. Happily, I’ve gotten over that and lift heavy objects with the best of them.) Omitting those things from my training last year definitely hurt me in the end, so this year, weekly tempo runs, speed workouts, and strength training sessions will be a huge part of my training.

I also made a mistake not running the second 20-miler that I scheduled. Maybe, just maybe it would have helped me get over that oh-so-special wall in Baltimore. It's completely my fault, though, between the poor planning and sheer ignorance that one should taper before a huge race. This time around – one of the perks of starting so early – I have two 20-milers planned with more than enough time to recover from my shorter races and taper before Philadelphia.

So, what does the race calendar look like?

As it stands, I'm committed to four races. I'm looking forward to all of these and the chance to run with friends and coworkers at each.

September 4 – Rock and Roll Half-Marathon, Virginia Beach
October 9 – Army 10-Miler, Washington DC
October 15 – Baltimore Half-Marathon
November 20 – Philadelphia Marathon

(Yalies, it just hit me that I probably won’t make it to The Game this year. We’ll see though, since I have a knack for making awesomely terrible decisions that backfire very quickly.)

Believe it or not, the first week of training kicks off on Monday. Once I start, I'll be posting more regularly than I have these last few weeks. And you know what that means? More inspiring people, more carb night recipes, more running misadventures, and - if all goes according to plan - more race recaps.

Ladies and gentleman, in the timeless words of Kel Kimble: "Aw, here it goes!"

Training Update

Mmm, Thursday: Over the hump and marching valiantly toward the weekend!

Okay, so I technically can’t really complain about this week. I had a good race on Sunday, went to a Nationals game on Monday for a dollar (yep, a dollar!), and had a really great run during Fleet Feet Ladies Night. And, after? I plopped on my couch with a black bean burger and a beer to watch the second half of the Women’s National Soccer Team friendly against Japan. And, it was good.

Today's exciting news – well, exciting to me because I think that spreadsheets are fun – is that I started drafting my training plan for my fall races. Honestly, it was time to start planning. Since I signed up for the Philadelphia Marathon, I've been thinking about my training a lot -- my goals for my fall races, my strategies to avoid burnout, deciding between a July or August start -- and I needed to get my thoughts on paper. So, last night, I fired up Excel and created a shell for my training plan. Then, I start to figure out my plans for my long runs -- starting at 10 miles and hitting 22 miles three weeks before the marathon. (As with my Baltimore training, I'll be increasing my long runs by two miles every two weeks.)

I need to decide how many times during the week I should/want to run. Last year, I ran five days each week. It was a lot, but I wanted to make sure that I could finish the race. This year, I'm considering running three or four times per week and adding more strength training to my schedule. The goal for Philly is to finish and finish faster than my performance in Baltimore.

Thinking about my race and training schedule, I think I’ll be a much happier person if I drop down to three long races this fall instead of my planned four. October and November are booked, so I need to pick a race for September. I worked in the Parks Half-Marathon into my training schedule but Virginia Beach would also be a fantastic choice – and I’d get to lounge around on a beach during Labor Day weekend.

We'll see! For now, I'll focus on finishing my training plan.

Going for Speed: Weekly Round-Up (8)

Time flying when you’re having fun has come up a lot on this blog. I’m still not entirely sure when it became the end of February, but here we are.

I'll be traveling for work this week, but I should be able to complete my workouts as planned in the hotel's fitness center.

Week 9:

Monday: X-Training and Strength
Tuesday: Tempo Run – 45 minutes
Wednesday: 5 miles
Thursday: 3 miles and Strength
Friday: Off
Saturday: 12 miles
Sunday: 3 miles and Strength

Saturday will be the the longest run of this training cycle before I begin my taper. Depending on how I feel after, there's a chance that I'll run the ¡VAMOS! 5K. I haven't registered yet, but my participation looks very likely.

Since it is the end of the month and training for the half marathon is winding down, I've been thinking about setting a few goals for the month of March. They're fairly simple and a way to make sure that I do more of the things that I like and accomplish a few things that I've been putting off for a while. In addition to owning all of my workouts planned for March and meeting my time goal for the race (which I'm rethinking -- more on this later), my non-running goals for the month are:

• Meditate three times per week: I don't consider myself a new-agey type.  However, I committed to meditating once per week in February found that those 30 minutes did wonders for my mental health. I would love to get in that time daily, but three days per week is a great start for now.
• Read four books: Simple enough -- and, I need to balance the time spent reading blogs and news sources online with reading print material.
• Map academic future: Since last summer's GRE push, I've been putting this off and the sense of urgency might be starting to grow a little.  I love my job and can't imagine leaving, but graduate work has always been on the radar so I should get on working out the details.
• Try something new: I'm leaving this one open. 
• Swim!: Or, learn to do more than tread water.
• Find an opportunity to become more involved in the community.  

I'm looking forward to the extra challenge. Now, off to enjoy this weekend's glorious weather!

Going for Speed: Weekly Round-Up (7)

This weekend, so far, has turned out to be exactly the kind of weekend that I’ve needed: two excellent runs, soccer on the Mall, fro-yo on the steps of the portrait gallery, time to catch up on my reading (I’m currently working my way through The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness and The Bee Eater), movie-watching, shopping success, and lots of sleep.

Glorious, restorative sleep.

I had a long talk with my dad last weekend about my training – how great it feels to run and to see my hard work pay off, but also how tired I’ve felt recently. I do make an effort to get at least seven hours of sleep every night, but sometimes that isn’t enough to keep me going at the office, during workouts, and during any attempts to be a social butterfly. 

I worried that I might be over training, but I feel very comfortable with my workouts.  After mulling over what could be going on, I decided that my body was just tired and needed a solid night of sleep.  So, last Sunday, I gave it a try. I felt incredibly lame, but I forced myself to go to bed at 10:30.  

The result: leaping (quite literally) out of bed at 6:20 the next morning for a workout.

I would love to say that I’m going to get eight hours of sleep every night, but I know that life happens and sometimes you have to settle for fewer hours of sleep than you’d like.  I will, though, promise to make an effort to take better care of myself during training and rest when I need to – even if it means sacrificing a workout every now and then.

Week 8’s training schedule:

Monday: Cycling, strength training, and extra stretching

Tuesday: 5 miles

Wednesday: 8 x 400 m at 5K Pace (8:57 per mile)

Thursday: 30-minute easy run

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 9 miles

Sunday: 3 miles at race pace

With about a month to go before the half-marathon and the Cherry Blossom 10-miler a weeks after, I’m starting to narrow my options for fall marathons.  I’m down to Hartford, Philadelphia, Newport (RI), or the Marine Corps Marathon in DC. Something inside me is hinting at picking two of the above – one half-marathon and one full.

Could it be time to check into Runner's Anonymous?

.....Absolutely not! 

Love the Run You're With 5K - Round-Up/Weekly Round-Up (6)

Alright. So:

I made a slight adjustment to this week's training plan once the little voice inside of me – let’s call her Reason -- figured out that it would be a terrible idea to run 8 miles on the day before a race that I planned to treat as an opportunity to set a new PR.  Instead, I took the elliptical for what turned out to be a very productive workout.

I woke up at about 7:00 this morning to get ready, fuel, and make my way over to Pentagon City for Pacers' Love the Run You’re With 5K.  Previous experiences with public transportation on race day have taught me well, but I definitely overestimated how long it would take me to get Pentagon Row on a Sunday morning.  Other than it being a little colder than I had hoped, it wasn’t a terrible thing to have more than enough time to adequately warm-up, stretch, and mentally prepare for the race – which mostly involved rocking out to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" and Destiny’s Child’s “Independent Women” in honor of competing in the “Stupid Cupid” (read: single) category.

I knew going into the race that there would be a bit of a climb about a tenth of a mile after the starting line. The course flattened out fairly quickly, and I was in enough of a groove to keep my pace steady for most of the race.  I ran into a little bit of trouble during the last mile when I started to feel my left calf cramping. (You would think that all of the stretching would have prevented that, right?)  I took a 30-second walk before I decided that it was time to push through the pain and finish strong.

Place: 585/1694

Division: 140/465 (females in the SC category)

Gun Time: 28.18.3

Net Time: 27.48.2 (Previous PR: 31.14)

Pace: 8:57

Mission accomplished and onto Week 7:

Monday: Strength and X-Training

Tuesday: 4 miles

Wednesday: Tempo Run 40 minutes

Thursday: 3 miles/strength

Friday: Off

Saturday: 10 miles

Sunday: 4 miles (at race pace)

Happy Valentine’s Day Singles Awareness Day Anna Howard Shaw Day, folks!  

Going for Speed: Weekly Round-Up (3)

It’s bloody cold again in DC.

On any normal day, I’d think that I was a wimp for not running outside because of a little cold weather. (I'm from New England, damn it, and I'll tell you when it's cold.) Yesterday just happened to be the coldest day so far this season, and I decided that it would be best to allow my better judgment to prevail and complete my long run on the treadmill. When I went out for errands, I layered just enough to make sure that I would be mistaken for a giant, teal marshmallow.

Of course, none of this actually prevented the worst cough/headache/sore throat combination from setting in. It's cool, though. I didn't mind having some time to rest and catch up on my pleasure reading and a few projects for work. Hopefully, whatever cold this is will be mostly gone by tomorrow so that I can move onto Week 4 of my training:

Monday – Cardio/Strength Training
Tuesday – 3 miles
Wednesday – Speed Workout: 6 x 400m at 5K Pace
Thursday – 3 miles
Friday – Rest
Saturday – 8 miles
Sunday – 3 miles

On the subject of Saturday's errands, I made a trip to my favorite running store yesterday to restock my stash of Jelly Belly Sport Beans and ended up purchasing my first Sweaty Band. My hair is too short to pull back in any meaningful way, so I was excited to find something that would keep it out of my face and stay in place during runs. I mean, I haven’t actually worn it during a run to test it out -- but not one strand of hair has fallen out of place while writing this post.

If you’re interested in winning a Sweaty Band, one of the coolest fro-cos (freshman counselor in Yale-speak) in the history of fro-cos is hosting a giveaway on her blog. Check it out the giveaway and her general awesomeness at Stuff Jewish Girls Like.

Adding to the 2011 Calendar

Okay, folks, new plan! Instead of heading to Virginia Beach in March, I decided to register for the 2011 CareFirst National Half-Marathon in DC.

I considered entering the full marathon at some point back in October, but I was discouraged when I saw that my finish time from Baltimore did not meet the qualifying standards. So, I put the entire event out of my mind --- until this morning when I learned that I could use my results from December’s 10K to qualify. I opted for the half marathon instead of the full so that I would have no problem treating the 10-miler (two weeks later) as a race. I’m really excited about the course, which covers a good portion of the city.

The distance should not be a problem, so my training will focus on improving speed. Each week, I’ll weave in one speed workout with runs of three to five miles during the week (longer on the weekends), cycling, and strength training.

I estimated a finish time of 2:14:00 on my registration form to give myself a bit of wiggle room should something go wrong. My actual goal is a finish time that is under two hours, and 1:59:59 is perfectly acceptable.

Week 1 kicks off tomorrow (why waste time?):

Monday – Cycling and Strength Training
Tuesday – 3 miles
Wednesday – Tempo Run: 30 Minutes
Thursday – 3 miles and Strength Training
Friday – Rest
Saturday – 6 miles
Sunday – 3 miles

Let the wild rumpus begin!