I've moved!

Hey Ya'll!

I've moved blogs- my new blog is less running and more lots of other stuff. But I'll still talk about running. I promise!!

Come find me: The Garden of Clio

Where have you been??

 

Hello all! I have been missing for months! Unless you follow me on twitter, of course. So where have I been? Here’s the cliff notes version:

 

Lake Placid Half Marathon – sucked. another PW. 2:45. It was hot, I had a poor choice of pre-race dinner, and I made my first post-race trip to the medical tent. I didn’t actually vomit, but I came really close. Lucky for me, BV waited for me at mile 12 to help me across the line.

BV, in fact, has done a good deal to keep my mental game going positive! Thanks, mister!

I’m still marathon training. The Mohawk Hudson is about 6 weeks away (holy shit) and I’m doing all right. I’ve been battling some hip pain for a few weeks. I’m not sure what to make of it. it hurts to stand up and get out of bed… but give me an hour to run, and I’m fine, weird.

Last weekend I ran the Rock n Roll Providence half marathon. Hip pain was abound for the days leading up to the race but I woke up race morning pain free! woo! I set a PR! YAYAY 2:29:01. It was a tough course with a fair amount of hills, but I was running happy and totally rocked it, even thought there were next to no spectators on the course. What gives, rock n roll? Also, apparently Karmin was the “headline” band, but I never saw/heard them – talentless, pirating hacks. Whateves.

Today I set a PDR – 16 miles with a 5:1 run/walk ratio. I killed it. And my hip feels great!

 

So, the real news – why have I been missing from blogging? The truth is, I got bored of blogging about running. It was limiting. I don’t want to just talk/write about running. I’ve recently been encouraged (again, by BV) to take my writing a bit more seriously. (Obviously not in this post, this is fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants writing). As a result of this suggestion, I’ve rethought blogging, writing, and well, many aspects of my life. I’m professionally frustrated, and am daily unchallenged at work. When friends or colleagues as me what sort of job I’m looking for, I always respond “I don’t know, I just want a job where I have to write.” HELLO! You don’t need a job writing to write. In fact, writing while not at work is probably more productive in terms of improving.

With all that being said, I’ve decided to put to bed floundering in flip flops and move on to another blog. The next blog will be much more broad in the topics covered, though I will still cover running, just not to the extent it has been covered here. It will also be on wordpress, I’m looking for something a bit more professional. I’ve changed my twitter handle to reflect my new foci – @runwritereader.

The title/location of the next blog are still TBD, and I’m currently working on content so that I have some posts ready to go when I launch. I will post the new blog title and link here once it’s launched. Though, there’s an excellent chance it won’t go public until after the marathon – October 7 – just in case any of you want to follow me over there. In the mean time, if you’re interested in keeping in touch, please follow me on twitter! Maybe someday I’ll be a world famous author – you want to be able to say you knew me when!!!

Thank you to all who have commented and offered support and encouragement in my running. It’s been much appreciated. And don’t worry ya’ll, I’ve still been reading/lurking on all your blogs, even if I haven’t given mine much attention lately!

I Suppose I Should Address That Race I'm Running This Weekend

First off, Happy National Running Day! I got in a quick 2 miles this morning (I'm tapering, sue me - and I did over an hour of lifting first - too bad it's not national p90x day.)

Tapering - yea, that. For Lake Placid. Which is Sunday.

Real life running folks have made comments that I haven't said much about LP. Am I excited for it? kind of. I'm nervous. 1. Because my last half went badly and I really don't want this one too. 2. I remember that GD hill at the end and it sucks ass - last time I was at least blissfully ignorant of how much it would hurt. not just the hill, all of it. Last year LP was my first half marathon of life! One year later and it is my 4th. Not a bad year if you ask me. 3. I'm nervous because on the other side of LP is the start of marathon training. Yes, I have tweeted that I've started getting excited about it - 'tis true. However, I'm also nervous about it. Wouldn't you be? 26.2 freaking miles. wtf is my problem?!

Goals - goals goals goals. Honestly, I have no idea what a time goal might be for lake placid. I haven't been training for any specific time - though I have had a few bad ass paces on a couple of long runs ( sub 11:20s) and I have done my longest run of life -14.25 miles - during this training cycle. Ideally, I'd just like to do better than I did on this course last year. Which means below 2:36. Closer to 2:30 would be magnificent.

HOWEVER, my real goal is to make it from start to finish with the fewest negative thoughts possible. I really beat myself up at the last half, and that negativity is still lingering a bit. So, walking away from this race feeling positive is my A goal. While that seems lame compared to people's "push the pace" A goals that are usually posted - I think I've pretty much narrowed down my main challenge to my mental game. And that bitch needs to get in line if I'm going to run a full marathon. And, quite honestly, the paces won't see a significant decrease if I don't actually believe I can do it. So, mental game is where I'm at.

I am sad to report that run-buddy Natalie will not be joining me for this race. We are super bummed that she has a recurring not-yet-official injury in the calf/Achilles area. Since she may or may not have the beginnings of the full-marathon run itch again, it's probably best that she sit this hilly beast out and try to figure out what's going on there.

In other news, I need new shoes after this race. Someone please remind me to go to fleet feet next weekend :)

May Milestones

I realize May still has one more day in it, but tomorrow is just another scheduled speed workout. 10x400 - a feat in itself, but no milestone for this girl.

I did have two huge running milestones this month, well, this week!

On saturday 5/26 I ran a PDR of 14.25 miles in just shy of 3 hours! It was a huge sweat fest, but I did it! i finished it with sopping wet shoes and a shirt that had gained ten pounds. I did the first 5.2 outside. it was unbelievably humid. I'd been prepping mentally for this long run all week and didn't want to have to cut it short due to heat/dehydration/not yet being adjusted to these ridiculous early summer temps here in upstate NY! So I changed my clothes (a necessity, I was soaked) and headed to the gym where I proceeded to sweat like crazy for the rest of the run. At the end of the second hour I was feeling really solid! The damn treadmills stop every 60 minutes, so getting going again was tough. But I hung in there and resisted the urge to fist pump as my distance crept past the half marathon mark!

My second milestone came this morning. It was just a quick (and speedy) run of 2.75 miles (time was crunched due to my badassness during p90x). However, those miles took me to my first 100 mile month of life! WOO! Today I had no qualms about how excited I was on the TM. I was smiling like a fool. I mean, come ON, 100 miles!!! ONE HUNDRED MILES. IN ONE MONTH.

I feel like I'm a "real" runner now. Part of a special group. I also thought it was kind of funny because toward the end of my miles today a girl hopped on the TM to my right - she often runs next to me. I think she likes it because I'm generally running at a slower pace than her (not today). But, as I stepped off the TM this morning i grinned and thought to myself - you may always be running 9:xx miles, sweetheart, but did you run 100 of them this month? BOOM!

So, it turns out i'm still pretty excited about my running accomplishments. hehe.

2.5 weeks to Lake Placid. Let's get it!

longer long runs

In previous half marathon training cycles, I've capped my longest long run at 12 miles. This time, I'm planning to exceed the half marathon distance in training to 1. be better prepared and 2. get a small taste of the "next step"

This week's long run was 12.33 miles. Not significantly longer than previous training cycles, but still. It counts. I meant to do 13, but I misjudged how long my loops were. I'm still very satisfied with 12.33 miles. They were tough, but solid miles. And I was sore the next day. I haven't been sore after a long run in several weeks, so it felt good to push it.

It would be nice if it would stop heating up so fast in the mornings (20 degree difference between start and finish, not ideal). But, i'll survive. I just keep telling myself this will make me a stronger runner.

Some time this weekend i'll be pushing it to 14-15 miles. I'm a little nervous, but I have confidence. Just. Keep. Running.

Let's get it in folks. Marathon training is approaching in just a few short weeks!

Jumping the Gun

Well, last post I wrote tons of positive affirmations about going after my PDR this weekend (current PDR is 13.1). However, I jumped the gun. I've always planned to hit 15 miles during the training for the Lake Placid Half. However, I took a more laid back approach to my training this time (to avoid too much structure/mental burnout) by not writing down a stringent plan and as a result, I didn't realize that if I did 15 this weekend, I'd effectively spend the next 3 weeks tapering, which is the opposite of what I wanted to do this cycle. So, probs no PDR this weekend (maybe by a few tenths of a mile, we'll see.)

I am still thinking positively about seriously kicking this run's ass. What is good about not trying to hit a PDR this weekend, is that last weekend I aimed for 13 miles and failed miserably. So I get a do over! yay! I've got a better outlook, and slightly cooler morning temps. Plans to get on the road about two hours earlier than last week. And BV has offered to pit-crew me if I need it! :) Doesn't get much better than that!

Yesterday I did my very first double run day! Not necessarily by design, but definitely on purpose. I didn't go into this cycle planning on double days, but the Workforce Challenge was yesterday after work, and I had an itch to get a few miles in yesterday morning (plus my upper body was pretty sore from my first p90x workout, ouch). So I did 2.5 in the morning and 3.5 "race" in the afternoon. The race was great, it's really laid back, get together with coworkers and run as a team. I do believe they have these races all over the place - usually referred to as "corporate challenge" but in Albany, we have a focus on politics and with an absurd number of public employees, "workforce" was deemed more politically correct. blah blah.

Anyway, 3.5 miles with about 9300 people. I wasn't aiming to break any records, just an easy peasy negative split running along with BV who snuck up on me just after the first mile :) It was fun to run a race actually with someone! I must say it was also pretty cool to be in a race environment, and not feel like endurance death is taking over. This was the shortest distance I've "raced" since my very first 5k in September 2010! It was a beautiful day, and the serious downhill at the end is just the way everyone wants to finish their workday :)

Double day yesterday also kept me on track for possibly hitting 100!!!! miles for the month! I really hope it pans out, May seems like a really nice month to hit 100 miles, as opposed to my next most likely month of August - which is sure to be a sweat-fest.

Happy Friday, everyone. This weekend I'll be sure to post a long run recap, and stay on the blogging train! Gotta get my chops back before marathon training begins :)

Annnd, I'm back

I've taken a bit of a hiatus from blogging. A fair bit has happened since my last post - for example, I finished my second master's degree! woo! it had been hanging out there for a while, I just needed to complete the thesis, and I finally got the kick in the arse I needed and finished it up. So, originally, blogging to a back seat to being a responsible adult (boring.)

But then, I started to get a bit down on myself about my running. Admittedly, I'm still more or less in that funk. Initially I wasn't *too* upset after the half marathon on April 1 didn't go as well as planned. I knew I was under-trained for the hills, and I also didn't have a good mental game going in. Unfortunately, for the most part, my mental game hasn't gotten too much better. I did have a super good run on May 5th, where I killed 10.5 miles at what would be a half marathon PR pace. I also spectated BV running the New Jersey marathon and witnessed him taking FIFTY EIGHT minutes off of his marathon time in SEVEN months. Talk about inspiring. However, this past weekend's long run sucked - I was dehydrated, it was much warmer than it has been for previous long runs. And, despite the fact that I have another half (on a familiar course) before I even formally begin full marathon training, I'm already scared out of my wits about it, and I keep pestering myself with self-doubt.

So I've been avoiding blogging, because every time I see blogger pop up in my browser, I recall some sucky run i've had, or think I will have, and avoid it.

Then, literally like 2 minutes before I started this post, I recalled that I've had some rough patches with mental toughness before... and blogging has always helped, not hurt the issue. So, time to stop avoiding and start confronting. This weekend's long run will be a PDR. It WILL be. I will not wimp out and stop before the end. I've got a 5 mile loop that I love, and I will complete it three times. I WILL. I may employ a run-walk method for it. But no matter what I do, I won't stop after the second loop. I won't cut back early on the third loop. I'll embrace those rolling hills two miles into the loop with style.

I've been doing a bit of reading on mental toughness and focus, so I'm going to be employing some positive thinking tactics all week. I'm going to envision myself killing it on this long run from now till sunday. That should help get me in the right frame of mind for this long run. I will start my run early because it is going to be WARM. I will hydrate all weekend. I will do awesome... right?

Ugh, see what I mean?!