San Diego Rock ‘n Roll

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Sunday was experiment time – running a half marathon off of spring speed training. I had a bunch of 50 mile weeks and a couple 60s in, but I was still nervous about not having many long runs in. There were quite a few weeks that I did not run anything over 10 miles. Randy assured me, I still had plenty of strength left from marathon training. But January seemed so long ago!

Got up there Friday and went to the expo with the lovely Dari, Monica & Alyssa followed by breakfast and some shopping in down town San Diego. Then it was fish tacos for lunch and then a salad for dinner. I don’t know why I decided not to go with pasta, I guess because I was still full from lunch. And then we topped it off with a little fro-yo.  So an unusual pre-race meal, but I figured it’s just half.  Plus I’m not good at turning down fro-yo….

We stayed at the good old Motel 6 less than a mile from the start.  I was so happy not to deal with parking and shuttles.  The 30,000+ crowds were enough craziness at the start. We had 5 of us Tucson kids hanging on corral one, so we chatted for a bit.  I claimed my usual “just going for a little jog” to Keith and we were off.  Won’t lie, it’s nice being corral one and not dealing with the craziness of the crowds after the gun goes off.

My plan was to pick it up after the downhill at mile 5.5-6.5, but the legs felt like doing even splits.

  • 0-5k: 6:39
  • 5k – 10k: 6:39
  • 10k-10 mi: 6:41
  • 10 mi – finish: 6:36

There were a lot more little hills in the second half than expected.  I guess that happens when you are running off and onto freeways.  I gave my normal cheery shout outs to the bands and some crowds.  My favorite was when some girl exclaimed her excitement that I was wearing my hoop earrings.  I don’t know why I started keeping them in while running, but I did and it seems to amuse people.  Also, it was weird running in humidity and a reminder that A) it makes you feel like your throat isn’t sand paper & B) your clothes become drenched with sweat even when it’s not that hot out.  Thankfully a change of clothes was waiting for me in my gear check bag.

All in all a good day. 1:27:00.  92 second improvement from my previous best in March and on track for where I should be in my 2:5X attempt on October 28th.  I’ll try to find a half in mid September to see if I can get in the 1:25 or less, which is where I really need to be for that to happen.

Keith and Alyssa rocked it with PRs too.  Alyssa knocked off 10 minutes and so reminded me of myself just a year ago…I think she’s going to get way speedy with her dedication and great attitude about it all!

BUT the most exciting part of the day was watching the Tucson full marathon crew finish. First it was James – 2:31 – INCREDIBLE!  We were sooooo excited when Keith spotted him coming from about half a mile away.  He was the second non elite guy to come through and the look on his face was priceless, as was his wife’s when she found him after.  He worked his butt off for that PR and we were all so happy to see it happen – with his bloody nipple and all.

Then  crazy Marathon Keith came through for his 3rd marathon in 6 weeks.  Then it was Dari and Danielle with big PRs, followed by our first timers Tim & Monica. Being there to see Monica finish was also a big highlight.  Took her just over 5 hours (faster than my first as I reminded her!) and she was in some major pain. But it represented such a big moment her, much larger than just a race.  Running has helped her get through a really rough patch in life and to see her accomplish the 26.2 was a reminder of why we all love this crazy sport.

Love these kids!

Spring of the 5k Fun

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So spring is over for me! I spent it doing mostly speed work, nursing a bunch of random knots that showed up in my calves & quads and running a few 5ks.  The final 5k of the year was the Tucson 5000 back on May 13th. We had a gorgeous 70 degree Southern Arizona morning.  Lots of speedy boys came out to play.

I was wishful thinking a sub 19, but the legs weren’t having it after half way through.  I still managed a 19:13, which was a 16 second PR from my previous best the first week of April, so can’t complain too much. Hit the first mile right around 6:00, so maybe a little too fast. 5ks are painful sprints – I always forget that till hits me. But at least they are over quick.

Here’s a lovely video that includes my 5 seconds of fame.

Last July I was running in the high 21s, so the fact that I took off 2.5 minutes in 10 months I’m pretty happy with.

Afterwards we beat the mother’s day crowds out for some Work Out Group breakfast at B-Line.  Mmmmmmm pancakes :)

With the end of that race and 3 weeks till the San Diego Rock n’ Roll half that I have not done any specific work outs for, it gave me a couple of weeks of some long tempo intervals and to work out some “niggles.”

Run or Wine and Doubles

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So I meant to do a short easy run Tuesday night since my quads were still feeling Saturday’s race a tad.  Well that run turned into just slightly slower than a tempo pace.  6:45 pace is still talkable for me but it is nowhere near my easy run pace.   BUT it did feel good to move the legs  :)

Yesterday, however, was truly short & slow. Three miles and called it quits.  Actually the main purpose of the little jog was the drinks & grubb at the wine bar after.  And yes, we did go to a nice wine bar in the ”fancy” mall in our sweaty workout gear. Little black dress vs. little black running shorts?

I was actually planning on the easy run being a little longer though, but my dog is about to do her “happy-I-get-to-go-for-a-run” obnoxious dance since I’m going to head out the door for a few more easy miles this morning, making today a double. All runs with Ruby-dog are easy since she’s convinced she needs to pee every 2 minutes when we run – even though nothing comes out….. She’s worse than me before a marathon.

Then tonight is speed work time.  The legs are getting antsy since I haven’t done any all week!

Do you ever like to crash nice places in running clothes?

Intervals, the Wrong Direction

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At my Tuesday/Thursday speed sessions with Work Out Group (WOG)  there are all levels of guys and girls joining in on the fun - we have the 5 minute to 10 minute mile pace covered between us all. Lately, most of the girls I would normally roll with during intervals are doing marathon specific workouts where as I’m  attempting to get my 5k time down…..so I end up chasing after a bunch of boys that can run somewhere around a 17:xx 5k & a 1:20 half marathon. (Look to my side bar and you will see my legs don’t do that yet.)

Usually I’m pretty good about pacing myself so that my last interval is my fastest. However,  I somehow forgot last week that these guys are quite a bit faster than me.  That resulted in our workout of 2x200m & 6x600m going like this…..

Oooops…lesson learned, hopefully.  Tomorrow I will try to behave myself and reverse that trend I had going last week.  It’s good running with people faster than you, but I’ll save hanging right next to those guys for the warm up, cool down, and post workout beer.

Do you run with people faster than you to push you?  And if yes, do you know when it’s a little too much “push”?

How many miles?

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So for the first time in my “adult” life I am actually training for something other than a marathon – with the exception of last spring’s half ironman (more on pretend-to-be-a-triathlete one of these days). It seemed weird not gearing up for a long race.  But it’s SO FUN not worrying about the getting in a solid long run every week.   Instead my weeks revolve around attempting to find leg speed, social runs and lots of weekend 5k/10k/random shorter distance racing….and post-race eating/drinking.

But even without a 26.2 in my near future I’m still managing to run just as many miles a week as I did for my last marathon. My last two weeks were 51 and 50 miles; I’m hoping for mid 50s this week and 60s the next  couple weeks.  Of course this is all part of the master plan (my  non-expert constantly changing master plan.that is…)

I’m a huge dork and one of my favorite things to do is look through my brightly colored excel workbook training log. It has a tab for every training cycle I’ve done since my first 26.2 adventure in 2008.  Colors make me happy!

There have been a lot of “upgrades” to my training over my four marathons - especially this past this round – but I’m pretty sure the biggest game changers were training with other people, adding in a little more speed work and having a good size jump in my  weekly mileage.

Average Weekly Mileage for 12 weeks before Marathon

    • Marathon #1  - 29 miles…result: shuffling with an un-happy ITB to a  5:07
    • Marathon #2 – 34 miles…result: still some shuffling, but 4:09
    • Marathon #3 -  36 miles….result: 3:53
    • Marathon #4 – 51 miles….result: 3:14  – stride for stride with rock star Michelle and felt good at the end!

So with no surprise, more mileage led to good things. I’m no training pro and still have a lot to learn, but I think running around 50 miles even when just training for the shorter stuff is helping out. Since there is no need to do 20+ mile runs right now, I spread out the miles more evenly throughout the week.

THEN once it is time to marathon train again I should hopefully be able to take it up a notch and work my way up to 80 mile weeks without a problem. Easy Peasy?

(Of course  I’m going to have to embrace 4:30 am wake-ups to get those miles in soon I suppose…hot hot Tucson summer coming soon)

Have you seen any success with amping up the mileage?

Monday Traditions

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My quads were sore, but of course I ran anyways – up a mountain.  I took one of my friends up “A Mountain” for his first time before he heads out to do Air Force activities on the other side of the world for 4 months.We kept it pretty easy…which probably meant super slow for him since he’s one of those fast guys.  Anyways, it’s a great little 6 mile run that has become part of my Monday tradition….easy run out, 1.5 miles up, take in the great views, 1.5 miles down and then back.  It always looks way more intimidating than it actually is:

So my trip up the little hill is part of this wonderful thing Tucson does Monday called Meet Me at Maynards.  About 500 people show up downtown, walk/run 2-6 miles and then stick around to chat, pet each others puppies, have a beer and wait for raffle prizes.  You get little incentives like shirts, hats and pins for showing up a certain amount of times.  This is actually where I made my very first Tucson friends, Dave and his big black lab puppy Rincon.  Since then I’ve met all sorts of fun people who I run, drink & eat with every Monday.  Yay for friends and food and running – my favorite things!  Does your town have anything like this?  I think it’s something every city should try to do!

Monday of Sore Quads and Boston Troopers

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My quads are SORE!  I did manged a nice easy 12 miles yesterday on tiered legs and I thought they’d feel a little better today – WRONG.  My outer quads are not excited about the idea of running tonight.  Maybe I’ll switch out my run for some yoga and just jog a few easy miles after.

I guess I didn’t think a 7 mile race would come with that whole delayed onset muscles soreness of doom.  But raging downhill for 3 miles, much faster than I normally let my legs go, does that I guess? At least trusty Running Times tells me it’s a ”beautiful thing”…..only if it felt beautiful too:

“Although DOMS is associated with something negative, it’s actually a physiologically positive reaction,” says Dr. Szymanski. “Once your body is exposed to whatever made you sore, the next time your body will say, ‘I got it, I’ll protect you.’ It’s actually a beautiful thing.” http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=21701

Of course I shouldn’t complain after a bunch of my friends made it through 26.2 miles of Boston heatwave today.  Most of them didn’t run the times they were really shooting for, but they all survived!  Even the winners were off by about 10 minutes from last year’s times, so it must have been pretty brutal out there.  Hopefully they enjoyed the experience and got sprayed down with lots of water along the way though.  I know even from the live video-cast at home, I got excited seeing the streets lined with screaming college kids.

BUT the push-wheel guy set a new course record – impressive stuff.  I would not want to arm wrestle one of those athletes…..or anyone really….