12 Miles Yesterday/Today

*Update: I just got done running the 12 miles today. I felt OK during the first 6 mile loop. I stopped at my car to eat a banana and fill up on water and then I headed out again. SOMEHOW I had a "partial-runner's high" and I was able to run the last 6 miles at a fast, 10% effort pace. Huh? Does that even make sense? It was only a partial-high because I still had to put out energy, but it was still a high because I was unintentionally running at a fast pace and felt a lot stronger then than on the first loop. That's a rare feeling and so it's always encouraging to have one of those good runs. (am I retarded?)

-12 miles on a hilly, paved course yesterday....a little tired at the end
-hope to do the same path this afternoon in the rain

10 Miles on Trail Yesterday

Well I finally forced myself to get a trail run in yesterday and skip out on the easy, flat pavement course. For some reason I have a negative feeling about trails (because they force me to push myself) and so every time I park my car at the park and stand up, I consider getting back in and taking a nap at home. It's also hard for me to want to run because the trail doesn't have mile markers so I'm usually running around aimlessly, trying not to repeat the same path I just took. Ay ay ay.

Anyway, there is a small section of trail that I always love and it involves a lot of hills and some technical paths. I decided to run on it for 9:30 minutes, estimating that was about a mile, and then I turned around. I did that five times, thus (hopefully) running 10 miles.

For the past 5 or so runs, I have found that running fartleks the entire time has helped me tremendously. Well...I don't know if you'd consider what I do as a fartlek. What works for me is sprinting every other 15-50 steps, depending on how I feel.

Yesterday I ran the first 4 miles at the same pace and I was kind of sluggish and dragging my feet. Then I remembered that I should do fartleks and immediately my run was more entertaining and the counting kept my mind going and I immediately got out of that tired-feeling mood. If I don't do them, it's very easy for me to run slowly, forgetting that I can actually run faster and push myself.

Soo...I don't know if doing this for 5+ miles is a good thing or not because I'm not actually running at a consistent pace the whole time. However, I do know that this strategy picks my legs up higher and faster and my "slow steps" (when I'm not sprinting) eventually get faster too.

As I was on my 8th mile, Chris happened to be at the park and see me so we ran the last two miles together. Running with someone is always easier than doing it alone! All in all, I'm glad I made myself get out there on the trail. Twas a good run.

Last Week's Recap

Mon- 26.2mi
Tues- Off
Wed-4mi
Thurs - Off
Fri- 5mi
Sat- 10mi 11.5mi
Sun- 5mi 10mi

I ran 10 miles last night for a total of 51.7 for the week. Not too bad. This 70-80 degree weather is testing me for sure, making it tougher to run already. Like I said, it's doubtful I'll run the 40 miles after work this week to fulfill the Ten More Miles! challenge but who knows. Less than two weeks until Gwawbone.

11.5 Mile Run---10 More Miles! Challenge

I've been very surprised that this past week my legs have been feeling achey...not one particular muscle group sore but an overall heavy-feeling. I didn't end up running yesterday because of being so tired. I think last week's trip and lack of sleep is catching up to me.

I just now kicked myself in the butt because this is the last weekend in April and I have yet to run 40 miles for April's Ten More Miles! challenge. I was halfway planning on running 40 this morning but I slept past my 4am, 4:30am and 5am alarm clock and woke up at 8am. Dangit. I'm leaving out of town soon and so I didn't have six hours to go run. I don't want to drop out so soon because in May I'll be running 50 miles at Gnawbone and in June I'll be running 60 miles during my 100m Mohican race. If I hadn't won yet I'd probably have to drop out in July. Perhaps I'll get it in this week still but I doubt it.

So anyway, I ran 11.5 miles this morning and it wasn't the greatest. My legs were feeling tired and it was 70+ degrees out and blah blah blah. Oh well! More to come tomorrow.

Boston Marathon Race Report

Keep in mind that if you want a short recap, you should see my previous post.

I stayed with my friend Kathryn, her fiance, and her future in-laws at their beautiful home in Cohasset...about 30-40 minutes away from Boston.




The expo on Saturday was a lot of fun-TONS of people-waiting in line for an hour to buy stuff...










The Red Sox game on Saturday night was awesome.




My bday last Sunday:

Pre-Race: Monstering it up!

Athlete's Village: Around 6:30am we all got on buses and took an hour long drive to the starting point. We waited in this big grassy area behind a school for a few hours until the start time. It was a tad bit cold.

                                                                              GO COLTS! (no wedgy)

At the start line:


During the race: I was really proud of myself for pacing myself each mile and not running too fast early on, even though I felt good. There were rolling hills but nothing too big or bad at all. It was hard to notice them because there were so many people to look at. I felt like I ran a great, comfortable race and am happy with my time. Each mile was a lot of fun with tons of fans.

This was right after I crossed the finish line- 3:39:52...Disregard the last 10 seconds of it:


Post race:



I had an awesome trip and had fun with Kathryn and her family. The weather was perfect. The Boston people are very nice. A lot of strangers would randomly congratulate me on the street. I hope to be back again to do the race again.

Quick Boston Update

Update: See my updated Boston report here.

This will be a quick post about Boston for those of you that don't want to read a long arse post full of pics and videos tomorrow.

The weather was perfect for running: a little sun and no rain! I finished in 3:39:52 (and re-qualified for Boston) and felt great the entire time! It was hard to pace myself in the beginning because of the downhill portions. During the second mile one guy said, "If people are passing you in the first three miles then you're running a good race". I kept that in mind and made myself stay on pace for the whole race and it worked for me!

Initially I had a loose goal to finish under 4 hours...and then as I got closer to finishing, I wanted to finish under 3:40. This was my second fastest marathon (which when I think about it, doesn't sound very impressive), with Columbus being the fastest.

I polished everything off with a fat hamburger, fries, and two cider beers...and then an Auntie Anne's pretzal at the train station. Yum.

More to come later. All in all, a great day and weekend. Thanks for your support!

Weekly Recap

Mon- 4mi
Tues- 4mi
Wed- Off
Thurs-6mi
Fri- 4mi
Sat- Off (In Boston)
Sun- Off (In Boston)

Welp...the time has come. I ran 6 relaxed miles yesterday in awesssome weather and will run 4 this afternoon and then that's it. I might try to get in 1-2 miles on Sunday but I don't really want to get lost in a random Boston neighborhood.

Last Monday and Tuesday the inside of my hamstring was feeling a little sore which was odd... The pain has since gone away so I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope it stays that way.

-My plane leaves tomorrow morning around 7am and I get in at 11am. I'll go straight to the expo...then hang out around downtown or something...then my friend somehow got us tickets to the Reds game (I don't even know who they are, but that's ok!) that night so it should be a fun, busy day. (I just now found out it's "Red Sox"...not Reds. Dangit)

-Sunday's my bday (WOOOHOOO! Big 25!) which will be a low-key, relaxful day...

-Monday I have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to get to the starting line and then wait for about 5 hours for the race to start, which hopefully won't be in the rain. Then I run a great marathon with tons of people and drink beer and such (track my run, Bib #14152, here are instructions). That night we'll hang out downtown and do whatever.

-Tuesday- who knows what we'll do...

-Wednesday- back to Indy in the morning after an awesome weekend!!! See ya then!

Hallucination 100 Miler!!!

Gracias a Bill, I finally got more information about an upcoming 100 miler in Pinckney, MI on September 26. Running Fit is putting it on and I believe the Dances With Dirt director, Randy Step, is organizing this race. I don't know though...not much information is posted yet. I had emailed the DWD people a few months ago and asked if they were going to have any 100 mile races any time soon...and they said there will be some new races this Fall. Soo, somehow they're related. Woohoo!

As you know, I love the DWD series and so I hope that I'll be up and ready for their 100 miler (course consists of 6 loops). The delimma (since when were there 2 m's in "delimma"?) is that the DWD Hell 50 miler is on September 12 and so either I run both and risk killing myself or I opt for the big one.

For those of you that don't want to run 100 miles, for whatever weird reason, it looks like there will also be the following races on the same day: 50m, 50k, marathon, half marathon, 50m relay and 10k. Holy moly.

Last Week's Recap

Mon- Off
Tues- Off
Wed- 4mi, 10 mins abs/arms
Thurs-Off
Fri- 4mi
Sat- 10mi, 10 mins abs/arms
Sun- 8x.25mi sprints, 4mi, 10min abs/arms

Well...as you can see, I loved tapering so much that I decided to take the whole week off. I had a great 4 mile run that one day! Awesome! I didn't feel like running and so I didn't. Ohhh well, can't win 'em all.

I think my mindset definitely changed after I decided not to do the bet. It's great not having that pressure to run fast at Boston. Sooo....6 days until the big race and now I'm just hoping the weather's good and we don't have rain!

Tapering's Awesome

I'm really loving this tapering stuff...4 miles yesterday (7:30 pace on flat land) and 4 miles today?? Sweet! It's too easy. It's nice having time left in your day after a run.

Boston Bet is Off

Update: I emailed my boss and the fast guy and they are fine that I'm dropping out. Whew. However, the fast guy (Gio) said he just ran another half marathon in 1:15 and ran the last 6 miles at a 5:35 pace!! He finished 4th place overall. That is ridiculous! I told him I was even happier now that I dropped out because there is no way I can compete with him. I would have set myself up for failure.

*(Note to reader: This post is merely for me to vent and feel better)

Today my husband and I were talking about Boston and somehow he convinced me to drop out of the bet that my boss put on for me (bet: my Boston time has to be within 40 minutes of this other super fast guy's Boston time, whose goal is 2:50) . Of course I know I could have dropped out all along, but for some reason I never felt like I truly could.

Although it seems so simple to you all, the decision was/is SUPER TOUGH for me. The guys at work keep asking about the race and keep saying that they know I'll win and whatever else. There's too much pressure. Tomorrow I'm going to email my boss and the fast guy and let them know that I'm dropping out. They can still compare our times but I know that guy will win.

Here are the pros to dropping out:

• I enjoy the race
• No pressure to run each mile at a certain pace
• Who cares if I go slow up those hills
• Take pictures during the race
• Drink beer during race
• Give high-fives to people and fans
• Participate with the fans instead of listen to my music, focusing on my time
• If I never do Boston again, I'll always have this good memory of it

Here are the cons to dropping out and the cons to not dropping out:

• Disappoint my boss and perhaps other coworkers (if I drop out ahead of time, or if I don't drop out and I lose)
• If I don't win the bet, I'll finish the race being disappointed and always have a negative memory of Boston
• The opposite of the above items will occur

Bottom line: (*again, I'm just saying this for my own sake) The day after I get back to work and tell people about the race, my coworkers will already have forgotten about the bet and whether I won. However, I will always have the memory and it's up to me as to whether it's a good one or not. I'm not a fast enough runner to both enjoy the race and run it super fast...I put too much pressure on myself. For that reason, I'm an ultrarunner.

AHH! It's still hard for me to get in the mindset that I no longer have to worry about my time, since that's all I've dreaded for the past four months! But as my husband said, I'd hate to waste this opportunity (that could be once in a lifetime for me) on this stupid bet and regret it forever.

Soo..just tell me that I made a good decision and all will be well.

Weekly Recap

Mon- 6m, 6x.5mi hills, 10min abs
Tues- 12m, 4x.5mi hills
Wed- 6m (1st/last fast), 10min abs
Thurs- 10min arms
Fri- 12m, 10min abs
Sat- 20m, 10min arms, 10min abs
Sun- 11x.25mi, 3x.5mi sprints

I didn't end up doing Friday's workout. My [honest] rationalization is that when I had planned out my training schedule for the week last Monday, I didn't pay attention to the amount of miles I was going to run...I kind of just randomly wrote down some miles to do each day. SOO, I didn't necessarily care to run what would have been 70 miles this week. 56 is fine. :)

Regarding the sprints...let's face it- I just hate running sprints for some reason and I don't know how to enjoy them. I know that for this next week, I'll definitely plan them in the beginning of the week so I'm not as tempted to ignore them.

It was pouring out rain today and I went to the track and ran 5/10 .25mi sprints. I was freezing so I came home and did 6 more on the treadmill. I was surprised at how much easier they were to do on the treadmill than on the track. #1, I can set my own pace and stick to it the entire time; #2, Looking at how much mileage I have left on the treadmill is much better than looking at the rest of the boring track circle I have to complete.

However, the treadmill doesn't make it so much more easier that I'll sprint more than .25miles. Yep, I attempted to do a half mile sprint and that's the point where I quit and didn't care enough. Por eso, there are 11x .25 mi sprints. I suck. Dangit.

Now I'll start tapering for Boston. I don't think I've actually intentionally tapered since I ran my first marathon in 2004. I don't even remember how to taper properly...I might have to go back and look at my weekly marathon training guide from 5 years ago (but I'm sure I'll just randomly pick some miles to do instead).

After Boston comes a change in gear to get ready for Mohican's 100 Miles: #1, Start running on trails again; #2, Quit worrying about my pace (woohoo!); #3, Run more back-to-back long runs; #4, hills, hills, hills, hills; #5, Prepare mentally!!!

20 Miles

I ended up not running the 12 miles yesterday as planned...I was tired and there were 41mph winds so I said screw it. I'm going to try to fit the miles in tomorrow on top of my sprints.

I ran 20 miles today at an 8-8:05 pace. I chose the flat course just so I could try to have a faster time...and I was hoping to complete them in a 7:30-40 pace but oh well! I felt good and it was a nice day out.