Here we go again

10 days of rest. Grr. I did it in the beginning of the summer when D started "coaching" me. Let the body renew itself. White blood cell count revive. Rest a little before working hard. 10 days.

D said I could run through the holiday weekend to counteract all the eating (and drinking!), then take the 10 days. He doesn't budge on that number, either. So today is day 1.

I need to do this because I want to follow D's plan. I feel lucky that he'll plan my training for my next marathon, even though I think this time around he won't be as involved/available. That part stinks, but I've learned a lot about his thinking and the way his training plans work, so I'm just glad he'll work a plan for me.

Because, you see, I registered for my goal race. I'll be joining two fantastic women at the Illinois Marathon on May 1st. It's only the second year of this race, but we've heard rave reviews from friends about last year. The course looks pretty friendly for a good time and a solid race, and that's what all three of us are hoping for. I'm excited that Maria and Cindi will be there!

So, here we go again. A little down time, a great runner for a (sort of) coach, and a marathon training round. I'm excited, I'm ready to work hard, and I'm looking forward to May.

A long, busy, fun-filled holiday weekend

There's so much to report.

Wednesday I went to my friend's party. Lots of beer drinking and beer pong. I started well, spectated for a while, then closed the night with some great play. Some people may roll their eyes or laugh at the fact that I'm well past my college years and playing beer pong, but I don't care. I had fun with my friends.

Thursday, I peeled myself out of bed in time to meet my sister and my friend, G, at a local turkey trot. We decided not to do the race, but we ran the loop together anyway. We finished in time to see the racers come in. Great way to start the day. I got about 7.5 miles done -- and then headed to the shore for dinner with the family.

Friday I met up with an old friend from college that I hadn't seen in 15ish years. Sooooo wonderful to catch up with him! J was a great, fun, close friend in school, and seeing him this weekend reminded me that it is important to stay in touch with good people. We sat in my house and laughed and reminisced, and lamented the fact that we had different, separate plans for the night. He lives across the country and one hour wasn't enough time to spend together, so we made plans to meet for coffee the next morning.

After J and his wife left, the guys started arriving for our night out in the city. We took the train over to Old City to see our friend's band. They were so good! Fun night -- we went to a different bar after the show and had a great time there, too. Waited for the train for a while but eventually got back home safe and sound, but late.

Saturday morning came quickly, and G and I had planned on meeting for the other local turkey trot we planned to do. I ran over, met up with him, and we decided to take the race easy. Safe to say we both were running with headaches.

Well, instead of taking it really easy, we ran hard but not all-out. Ended up with a 24:20. We'll take it! I found out later that that was good enough for 13th female OA, 2nd in AG, and 74/330 total. Sweet! My coach won the race, so he was there to get my medal for me at the awards.

After the race, I met up with J again, and then ran into my parents who were in town for an alumni thing, and then stopped in the store to touch base there, and then headed to LBI for my HS reunion.

Whoa. 20 years. Admittedly, I wasn't really keen on going to this, though I knew I should. Aimee and I headed in and immediately started the, "Hey! Hi! You look great! How've you been?" lines. Funny thing is, while there were definitely people who have not kept themselves healthy and looking good, so many people did! Lots of people looked the same (though a little older), and unfortunately there were a bunch of people I wished were there but weren't. A and I decided not to head to the after-party after some debate. It was a nice night, but truth be told, I was kind of over it after about an hour.

So this morning I slept in. I needed to catch up on some sleep and still kind of need to now. I got dressed and set out for a LR over the bridges. I got about 10 miles done, and really enjoyed soaking in the sunshine and salt air.

This was a long, busy, fun-filled holiday weekend. Back to work tomorrow. I feel like I need to take a day off just to recuperate from the past 5 days!

Beer

I've been drinking a lot of it lately. And by a lot, I mean often.

Sometimes it's good beer, like this Alagash White I had tonight. Sometimes it's something light like Miller Lite.

I've been hanging out with a couple of the running group guys quite a bit. Sunday football? Beers. Wednesday after the group run? Beers. Friday night? Saturday night? It's the weekend. Beers.

During the week, I limit myself. One or two. And I go home early so I can still get up and be a good teacher the next day. But still, it's being out and drinking beers on a weekday. Something I never used to do, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it now. Ok, really, I limit myself on the weekends, too. I'm not that big of a drinker anymore. But I'm having beers way more often than I normally would.

Drinking all this beer will affect my training when I get into my spring marathon workouts. I know this, because it definitely affects how much sleep I'm getting. Drinking all this beer will not help me become prepared for a great spring marathon.

The thing is, I like hanging out with these guys. They're funny, they're people I feel comfortable with, and they get the whole drinklotsofwaterwhiledrinkingalcoholicbeverages thing. They're runners, too, so we don't give each other a hard time if someone isn't drinking, or stops after one or two drinks.

We hang out a lot, and we drink beer. It's a good thing. I'll scale back when I start training again. For now, I've been enjoying the beers.

*sigh*

The Philadelphia Marathon is tomorrow. I'm not running it.

Instead, I'm getting up super early to pick up my sister at 5:15am and get her to the start. She's running it.

I got my race plan together tonight. Park, hang with A until she starts. Meet up with parents, eat my bagel/avocado/tomato that I'm packing into my little backpack, and wait around for the 8k'ers, the half marathon leaders, marathon leaders, drink the rest of my coffee, meet up with other spectating friends, hopefully catch my friends N finish the half and J come through the half, and then catch my sister as she runs through the half sometime around or just under or just over (what? she hasn't revealed an exact race pace plan) the 2 hour mark.

At that point, I'll jump in, swap out her water bottle, and see what she wants me to do. Stay with her a little? If so, fine. If not, I'll circle back, hang with the parents/friends a little longer, and then make my way out towards Falls Bridge. I'll plan on catching up with A sometime after she passes the bridge, when she'll have less than 4 miles to go. Unless she tells me earlier she doesn't want me to do that. Although, even if she says that, I'll probably do it anyway. Who doesn't like a boost of personal cheer in those last few miles?

I'm totally bummed I'm not running tomorrow. I'd feel less bummed if I could figure out which spring marathon to do. More on that another time.

Big race tomorrow, and I've gotta get to sleep. At least my race plan is set.

leaking energy

I had to work at the running store after work at school today. I set out for a 6ish mile run around the river, and decided to make it a tempo since I was short on time.

The first mile+ was kept at an easy pace, and I was feeling really good. Legs felt good, temps were good, it was just an easy run.

As soon as I got to the river loop, I dropped the pace. Got a pretty good clip going. I wasn't trying to hit any particular pace, but just run comfortably hard. Mile 2 ended up around an 8:19 pace. Still feeling good.

Mile 3 was a bit faster, and at one point I noticed my pace was sub-8. Huh. Still comfortable, but backed off a bit. Just as mile 3 was ending, I noticed my legs were still moving ok, but my body seemed to be leaking energy out at a rapid pace. As soon as I hit the 3rd mile beep on my watch (8:03), I was pretty concerned that I'd trip over my own legs. They were still moving, but I felt like I had less control over them. I felt out of whack. I felt a bit woozy. I wanted to just curl up right there on the sidewalk, next to the river. My legs were still moving, but I needed to stop.

I walked for a few seconds, stopped, contemplated how to get home the quickest, realized I'd have 3 miles to go any way I went, so I turned right around and started back. I started running again after about one minute, but I didn't want to run. I still wanted to be curled up on the sidewalk. I kept moving, though, because I needed to get home and no one I knew was driving by, no matter how hard I wished for it. I kept thinking about a big glass of chocolate milk and a peanut butter sandwich the whole way home.

I realized this must be a fueling thing. I've been eating pretty lightly this week. Not a lot, but some. I'm running less, and I'm starting to feel like the pounds are on their way back, and I'm trying to be careful. I actually ate more today than I have been, but I guess today wasn't enough. Or maybe that wasn't it at all.

Either way, I made it back. Somehow. And at a pretty good clip, too. So the run wasn't a bust. Entirely.

But holy smokes, it's weird to actually feel all your energy seep right out of your body.

OBX Half Marathon 2009

A report about this race is long overdue, and I just haven't had the time/focus to update my blog. I need to get back into posting here -- I'm not sure it matters to anyone else, but I like logging my thoughts/experiences and being able to look back on those. I'll try to be better! In the meantime, this is a report about OBX that I posted on the running forum I belong to, with some minor alterations... There are some fun pix of the day/weekend that I'll post in another entry.

*This is a loooong report, and I haven't even included all the fun of this weekend. The race was story enough, so thanks in advance for reading if you get through the whole thing!*

The backstory here is that I wavered on jumping up to the full 26.2 for the race in OBX up until the day I arrived there. I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do since my running had been going so well recently, but I finally went with what I knew to be smarter – when I got to the expo Friday afternoon, I picked up my HM bib and that was that.

My Voodoo shirt and cheetah print arm sleeves (in tribute to my friend, Joe, who passed away this summer) got some cheers and comments from both spectators and other runners throughout the day. Without anyone I knew along the sidelines throughout most of the race, this was a big boost.

Pre-race: Saturday night, Shawn offered for me to ride to the start with him and Brandy, and I accepted. And then mercilessly bugged him about our super-early departure time. We arrived at the start in the darkness, and before race officials even had the start line set up. It was actually perfect: The 3 of us went for a relaxing warm-up jog and stopped at the beach entrance to watch the most beautiful sunrise over the ocean. Soon enough we were heading to the starting line where I said a quick hello to some of our other 30’s HM runners and lined up with Maria’s sister. We decided to start right near the front of the 8-10 minute corral.

The race: After deciding to stick with the HM, I thought I would plan on trying to run something close to my new (from Sept) PR of 1:47:38. I planned on running the 1st few miles at about an 8:20ish pace and seeing how I felt. When the gun went off, I crossed the line and started my watch. I went out a bit faster than planned, but I was comfortable and kept track of how I felt through these first few miles. Since I was feeling good, I kept the pace anywhere from 8:03-8:20 per mile and kept moving forward.

The course was a mix of highway miles and winding back streets along the water. I enjoyed the first 6 miles – the views along the water were beautiful, the houses were somoething to see, and there were pockets of cheering people scattered throughout. As we approached mile 7, we were now on the highway again and I knew we were heading to the big bridge around mile 10.

At this point I knew I was running something close to my PR, but wasn’t super-focused on my time. We also now had a decent head wind that would last almost to the very end of the race. I did a few checks of my legs and actually slowed the pace a bit in miles 7-8ish to make sure the legs were going to feel strong enough to run me up and over the bridge. So far, so good. I made sure to take a gel somewhere between m 6-7, drink some water at most of the water stops, and just try to enjoy the day.

Just before the bridge, I saw Shawn ahead on my right. I knew he was going to try to run back out and pick up some of us after he’d finished, but with a quick look at the time, I knew he must’ve pulled up early. He curled around to my side, told me he hadn’t been feeling it, and he’d run me to m12-12.5. Cool!

We began our way up the bridge and I kept my pace. Shawn said, trying to keep my mind off the bridge, “I keep looking for dolphins!”

I replied, “I keep looking for the top of the bridge.”

When we passed the 10 mile marker, we were almost at the top. Pace was good, I was feeling good, and we headed down the back side. I was still feeling good as we approached mile marker 11, but this was a long, straight, wind-in-our-face road, and my legs started to feel it. I wanted to turn. Where do we get to turn?! I was beginning to question if I could hold this pace.

Sometime between miles 11 and 12, I started to feel my throat closing up. Uhoh. A tell-tale sign for me that my body’s shutting down. I didn’t tell Shawn. I started to slow. Shawn kept me running, though, and after passing mile 12, told me I wasn’t allowed to look at my watch anymore. I told him I wasn’t.

Truth is, I needed to be done.

Reality was, I wasn’t.

Shawn said, “At that next red flag, I want you to surge for 20 seconds.”

Yeah, right.

I don’t think I did, but I must have. Mile 13 was my fastest pace yet. And that’s probably the reason I didn’t even turn to wave at Lori and Amy as I headed to the finish. Throat closing up, feeling like I’m about to puke, I hear Shawn telling me to get angry about past races gone bad. “Go get that PR,” he said, and reached back to extend his hand and tell me “good run.”

Less than a tenth of a mile later, I crossed the line, stopped my watch, saw a 1:47:26, and promptly assumed the runner’s death stance – bent over, hands on knees, gasping for breath. A race volunteer asked if I was ok. I would be, but I couldn’t speak. I was dry-heaving and trying to get my throat opened again. I walked a few steps, collected my medal, and squatted down by the table. The volunteer never left my side, though I was waving her on, and asked again and again, “Are you ok? Need medical? Need a wheelchair?” This last one made me laugh, though I barely could. I looked up at her and squeaked out, “I just PR’d. I’ll be fine.”

Shawn gave me the thumbs up and headed back out on the course. Finally feeling better, I got my finisher pic, got a few bits of apple and peanut butter sandwich bites, and wound my way back out to where my group of friends was. The sun was shining (HOT, btw!), the sky was blue, and although it was a tough finish, I felt great about the race. With my fall goal race 3 weeks behind me, I really wasn’t sure what my legs would do. To PR, by about 15 seconds (I would see later when the official results were posted), was good.

Post race: This was fun. Getting to watch all my other friends come through the finish was great. We watched every last one of our group come through. Despite getting yelled at by a volunteer because my feet were in front of the curb, and having her threaten to call the cops on me, I thought the race volunteers were great, the race was a pretty nice course overall, and the whole experience was positive. Wearing our Voodoo shirts and cheetah print pulled us together and made me smile. I did break down a little, and my eyes filled with tears, at about the 3:40 mark in the marathon time. It was then that it hit me. I wouldn’t get to see Joe come around the bend, loosen his dreads, and fly by to the finish. His spirit was there, though. He was with us. It was a great day.

*************************************************************************************

Here are my splits, listed by paces rather than actual splits because the mile markers seemed to be off in several places along the course. The first mile, for example, only registered .98, and that sort of messed up the even splits along the way.

Final time, as listed on the official results: 1:47:24 (it was originally listed as :23???)

7/386 AG division

76/2205 females

277/3381+ OA

8:14, 8:08, 8:04, 8:10, 8:07, 8:10, 8:13, 8:13, 8:158:13 (this was mile 10, climbing the bridge)8:05 (cresting and then heading down the bridge)

8:15 (uhoh, legs are dying, throat's closing up)

7:47 (um, what?! mile 13!)

last .1 was 6:50 pace. whoa.

I did the HM

and PR'd by 15 seconds.

1:47:23 Woot!

Full report to come...

Goin' to Carolina

I'm heading to OBX tomorrow morning. I'm getting more and more excited to spend the weekend with my friends there.

And after going back and forth and back and forth all week, I'm 99% sure I'm going to stick with the HM.

I'll do it right and train for a spring full.

Yeah, like 98% sure. Or 95%.

4/144/9:04

This afternoon's run:

4.25 miles
144 avg HR
9:04 avg pace

hmm.

This didn't help my decision about OBX.

I shouldn't do it

I haven't run over 18 miles since my last marathon
I haven't trained to run a solid 26.2
I am going to be partying with my friends all weekend
26.2 miles is a far way to run
I shouldn't do it.

But I'm really consumed with the idea of running the full at OBX this coming weekend instead of the half.

I don't even know that I could switch, because it's probably sold out.

I really shouldn't even be thinking about it.