Fail Hill

14 Feb

Since I missed Saturday’s run to make an airport drop, I decided to run a 7.7 mile course in hilly Clermont early Sunday morning.

When I woke  up it was a chilly 36 degrees and it felt like 27 degrees. It took us almost an hour to get to our meeting spot in Clermont and when we got there saw that it was even colder there. Brrr…

Our small group of Marathonfest runners utilized layers to the max. I myself wore running tights, a singlet, my long-sleeved Disney marathon shirt, a pullover, a ski cap and gloves. I was still freezing.

For me, getting out in the cold is the hardest part of a cold run. Once I warm up after a few minutes, it’s usually great from there. I thought this would be one of those mornings.

Unfortunately halfway into our first mile, I started to feel dull cramps. By the end of the mile, my cramps had gotten worse. I realized that if I ran to far and the pain became unbearable (which is often the case for me), I would be stuck walking over three miles in the freezing cold to the car. I finally spoke up.

There were only three of us on the run from our group: me and my two group leaders Sue and Emily, both of whom had run 14 miles the morning before.  When I mentioned my concerns, they quickly agreed to call it a run and go get some warm coffee and breakfast instead. I felt bad, but I knew I was better off playing it safe. Sue captured the great pic above of me and Emily surrendering and heading back to our cars. What group support!

As we drove to breakfast I thought to myself, “So long hills of Clermont, til we meet again!”

I ended up walking back into my house around 9:30 AM, and after breakfast, coffee and Advil my pain had subsided. I felt up to running again but didn’t want to commit to a longer distance since I didn’t know how my body would react.  I decided to see how fast I could run a 5k.

My fastest 5k PR is somewhere just under 31 minutes, but that was a couple of years ago when I was running shorter distances at faster speeds (for me that is). Since then my 5k times have increased to the 34 minute region, so I’ve been working on cutting that down again.

Sunday’s self-imposed 5k time trial brought me in at 31:32.64. I managed to maintain an average of 10:10/mile and it felt good!

With good time spent with friends over breakfast and a encouraging 5k trial time, it looks like Sunday’s run wasn’t such a fail after all. And I very much look forward to returning to Clermont for some serious hill running in the near future!

When was the last time an ailment stopped you mid-run?

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31… Going on 32

11 Feb

A couple of weeks ago I read about a fellow Marathonfest runner who became a heart attack survivor at the age of 31. She’s since created a blog about her experience and her road to recovery. We’ve not met, but being her same age and a newer runner myself her story really resonated with me and made me think about my health and life in general.

At 31, my brain still thinks I’m 21 but my body often reminds me that those days are long behind me. Yet, I still embody the belief that nothing will ever happen to me and that I have my whole life ahead of me.

While discussing the rarity of having a heart attack at 31 on one of our morning runs, my group leader Sue said something that stuck with me: “You know you’re really getting old when your friends start dying of natural causes.” At the time I chuckled but I came home and asked Donnie if we were at that age yet. I don’t even remember how he responded, but we got an answer in the worst way possible earlier this week.

On Thursday morning Donnie lost a good childhood friend to a heart attack. He was 33 and he left this world too young.

I missed this morning’s run to drive Donnie to the airport so he could go to the funeral this weekend. But truth be told, I have been going back and forth on skipping the run since Wednesday. My body is tired, and I can’t seem to get my energy back. I’ve been joking that it’s because I’m soon to turn 32.

It’s likelier that I’m tired from the incredibly busy month I had at work, and the marathon that I ran and only gave myself a week to recover from. And the horrible food I’ve been eating all week so that I didn’t waste our leftover Super Bowl food hasn’t helped one bit. Nor has my busier than usual social calendar, which has also lead to poor food choices.

In the effort to kickstart my energy, I’ve decided to clean up my eating habits and I need to figure out how to do it on a budget and make it fit into my schedule. Unfortunately in today’s society, eating good is neither cheap, nor convenient. And while the higher costs of healthy eating are a bit depressing, it’s the finding time to grocery shop and cook that are my biggest challenges. I will conquer and divide and it will be well worth the extra effort.

Besides, one day I want to be turning 81 and complaining that my body just isn’t like it was when I was 32.

Any words of advise on meal planning? 

Motivation

8 Feb

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Being a Slacker… Er… Minimalist

7 Feb

Nope, I’m not talking about my way of life or even my style of running (though I do run in the fairly minimal NB Minimus Road shoes). I’m talking about my current strength training workout. “Minimalist” sounds much nicer than “slacker.”

Since it seems that I’m having trouble motivating myself to get my strength training in, I figured I would start small then build from there. For the next two weeks, my goal is to do this minimalistic workout from Coach Jenny at Runner’s World twice a week, then build from there.

This morning three of us ran four miles at seven minute intervals (run 7 minutes / walk 1 minute). I again forgot to turn my watch off until I had been stretching for a good 7 minutes or so, but here are the slightly skewed stats:

  • Distance: 4.19 miles
  • Time: 51:40.90
  • Pace: 12:19/mile

Our average pace per running interval was 11:16/mile.

Afterwards I came home and did my slacker minimalistic workout:

  • 60-second plank
  • 60-second push-ups
  • 60-second lunges
  • 60-second squats

I was doing the workout from memory and completely forgot about the leg curls. Oops! Next time.

Do you incorporate strength training? How do you keep yourself motivated? 

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Forgetting Fourteen

6 Feb

This weekend was one full of celebrations (Donnie’s birthday, Super Bowl, it being such a beautiful weekend, etc… ), but before I could start celebrating, I had to run fourteen miles.

First, we did a four-mile route: two out and two back. My times are slightly off because I didn’t stop my watch immediately after the route.

  • Distance: 4.12 miles
  • Time: 58:11.24
  • Pace: 14:07/mile

We picked up the late starters and ran our (almost) 10-mile route.

  • Distance: 9.91 miles
  • Time: 2:16.53
  • Pace: 13:48/mile

My long runs are with intervals (run five, walk one). For a good while we managed to maintain an average pace of 11:22 miles during the runs, which is faster then we’ve been running.

I’m not sure if it was our pushing the pace, or a combo of the running hills Thursday then the pace and longer distance on Saturday, but I was super sore several hours later. I think it would’ve been a good day for an ice bath, but I typically don’t need one for anything less than 16 miles so the thought hadn’t even occurred to me. I guess my body forgot what running fourteen miles was like.

Saturday night we celebrated Donnie’s birthday with the most yummy dinner at KRES Chophouse and sans ice bath I found it uncomfortable to sit still for so long, especially in a dress. I must’ve looked odd constantly shifting my body to try to get comfy. But the white chocolate bread pudding at the end made me forget all my pains. Ha! Everything we had was incredible: Steak Tartare, Filet Mignon served Oscar style (topped with asparagus, crab cakes and béarnaise sauce), Mushroom Risotto and of course, that bread pudding! And as always, the service was amazing.

Sunday was spent with friends laughing, eating, drinking and playing bocci ball, and watching football. For dessert I served a dessert inspired from one we had at Jam Rum Bar & Bistro in Puerto Rico last year: coconut ice cream topped with mango, blue berries and strawberries and served with cinnamon pita chips. When we went to the store earlier that day we couldn’t find coconut ice cream so I bought some Blue Bell Vanilla Bean ice cream, let it melt a bit, then mixed it with coconut cream in the blender and put it back in the freezer to harden again. It was delish!

What did you do this weekend? 

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Hills, Groundhogs and the Most Inspiring Video

2 Feb

In the efforts of working on both my speed and strength, I’ve decided to rejoin the Marathonfest Thursday morning training sessions. I’ve been running with the ladies Tuesdays and Thursdays, but decided I could benefit from the Thursday hill and tempo workouts. The good news is, I can still join them for coffee afterwards (which I did this morning).

My goal for this morning was to run the 3.4-mile loop with hill repeats without taking any walk intervals. I was able to accomplish this goal. Since I remembered to bring my borrowed Garmin this morning, I actually have stats:

  • Distance: 3.34 miles
  • Time: 37:15.71
  • Avg Pace: 11:09/mi

Back when I trained for my half marathons, I would average around a 10:45/mi pace for shorter runs and 11:18/mi for the half marathon. My Disney Marathon pace was 13:22/mi and I hope to get that down to at least 12:00/mi for Flying Pig.

Going up hills you can usually find me muttering to myself. I tend say things like “dig deep” and “you can do this” and my favorite: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” This was one of the bible verses my mom had us say before bed every night growing up and it’s always stuck with me. This morning was no exception. Unfortunately, you can usually also hear curse words flying out of my mouth during tough runs. I tend to have the mouth of a sailor. I try my hardest not to curse around the bible verse.

When I got home this morning I saw that a friend had posted this video. Watch it and tell me you don’t get the chills watching it. Tell me your whole being didn’t get excited at the end. Tell me you weren’t inspired. I think I actually clapped at the end and shouted. My dogs must think I’m weird (thought they have no room to judge).

And today’s Groundhog Day. For those of you in the colder regions, I hope the groundhog doesn’t see his shadow!

How did you feel when you watched the video I link to above?

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It’s Official

31 Jan

I’m all signed up for the Flying Pig Marathon! I missed my run this morning, so signing up for a marathon totally makes up for it, right?

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

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Running Field Trip: The Hills of Apopka

29 Jan

Yesterday morning, us Marathonfest runners took our first field trip of the training season: the hills of Apopka.

Just mention the words “hill training” to me and I tend to cringe. I’m the kinda girl that considers a speed bump a “small hill” and typically go out of my way to avoid any road inclines.

And yes, this is how I feel even though I’m told they will make me stronger. They will only make me stronger if they don’t kill me first.

So why does running hills suck so badly? I think this article from Runner’s World answers it well: “You have to recruit more muscle fibers to get yourself up the hill, which causes those muscles to fatigue faster,” says Carwyn Sharp, Ph.D., assistant professor of exercise science at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. On the bright side, keep doing hills and eventually your body adapts and gets stronger.

Since the Flying Pig Marathon has hills, I figured it was time to change my attitude. It’s either conquer them in training or face them unprepared on race day. So for the time being, when I hear the words “hill training” I will feign a “yeah!”

We started our run yesterday morning at 6 AM in Apopka. The street lights aren’t as plentiful out there and the roads were dark. Combined with the fog, it looked like a scene from a scary movie.

At least you could see our shoe reflectors:

Since I’m trying to work on my speed, I set out to keep up with the faster runners in our group. For the first 6.5 mile loop, I felt great! The hills were beasts, but I trudged up them, one foot after the other. However, towards the end of that loop I started to feel light-headed. I made sure to refuel with some Chocolate #9 agave gel.

For the second loop (only 4.5 miles) my energy level evened out. But around mile 8, my IT band started to lock up. Suddenly it felt like I was on mile 20 of the marathon and I had trouble bending my left knee. Rather than push myself through unnecessary pain (it’s just a training run) I decided to call it a day and walk the rest of the run out. The entire way back I lectured myself in my head for not doing more strength training in my legs. But at least I had a good 7.5 miles of hill running under my belt.

Lucky for me, I was sore by 5 PM. I guess I should’ve taken an ice bath, but with such low mileage it just hadn’t occurred to me. But at least the hills didn’t kill me. Well, at least this time.

Here are some more pictures from the run:

This hill was a beast.

My group running uphill. We had to be on the special lookout for cars, since they'll pop up over the hill.

With all the fog it was like we were running in a scary movie.

Farmhouse engulfed by fog

Do you run hills? If so, do you like it, or do it begrudgingly for the benefits?

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10 Reasons Running Doesn’t Suck As Much As You Think

25 Jan

Yeah, I pretty much love this list of 10 Reasons Running Doesn’t Suck As Much As You Think that’s over on HelloGiggles.com.

My favorite reason is #10, mainly because I want to know that I used up this ol’ body of mine. I want to use it so much that my body begs for mercy. And when the day comes that it doesn’t move like it used to, I don’t want to regret that I didn’t take advantage when I could.

And it’s no secret that I run so I can eat peanut M&Ms, which is addressed by #2. But if you’ve ever seen my playlist, then you know that I’m fond of #3 too.

Which are your favorite reasons?

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Dry Heaves

25 Jan

My friend Stacey recently posted the link to this Runner’s World poster on my wall. I loved it, mainly because I’ve been there.

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