Missing scenes

OBX.

Ahhhh.

What a time. What an experience. What friends. What a beautiful slice of the coast. What running fun. And above all else, what a tribute!

Joey was remembered well. We sang Happy Birthday to him, we felt him among us --- in the ocean, while running, while laughing, while living. Kath made some super cool medals for all of us, Chris fashioned some sweet armbands, and everyone pitched in on creating signs to post along the course (pictures to come). I cannot properly express what it means to me to have this group of friends and to have some of my family there as well, sharing in the experience! I am rich beyond words.

As for the running, I stuck to my plan with keeping the full as a training run & was lucky enough to have my little bro with me the entire way. And although my tummy sloshed a bit in the first half, I never felt physically hurtin'. However, I wasn't there mentally. Somewhere around mile 16 a light went off.

What exactly am I training for?

Sure I am registered for CIM on 12/6 and I also registered last minute for Rocket City (12/12) as a back-up, but am I ready? Is this run in OBX really a step towards one of those two races? A phrase that I've held in my mind recently came from Chris Lear's Running With The Buffaloes. Wetmore tells his runners to make a movie in your mind - the movie contains all aspects of the race you've worked towards. Your training prep, the course, your execution, etc.

I then attempted to make a movie in my mind.
The movie is incomplete, there are missing scenes.

I pretty much decided right then and there that I had to reconsider racing a marathon next month.

I want to do this right. I want to be able to make the masterpiece in my mind AND on the road. I am not able to do this right now and I have nothing to prove attempting to force the issue when it's well outside of my character to do.

The good news - I'm READY to make it right. I've been consistently logging my miles w/out any quality [yet] and I can feel my body responding positively. After over a year of being somewhat healthy and injured and somewhat not, I'm strong, I know the formula for me. I want to work with Lloyd all the way through this thing so any previous pitfalls might be avoided, training techniques improved upon and levels raised to where they should be. Of course these thoughts had to have lived in the back in my mind somewhere... they didn't just magically appear at mile 16 in OBX. Most certainly that race was the impetus and just having allowed them to come out and, further, to discuss them with some of the folks at OBX (Missy in particular) and later Lloyd, felt like a huge load off my mind.

So here I am. Sticking with consistent mileage for now, adding in some other fun stuff during the base building phase and looking for a spring marathon to strut my stuff.

There are no miracles in running

Loving Chris Lear's Running with the Buffaloes and perhaps even more so, love learning about Mark Wetmore's coaching style and interactions with his CC teams. I'm already seeing similarities between Wetmore and my own coach, and it feels really good to work with Lloyd and get some solid plans slated for my running. Because we're starting our work together deep into a training cycle, the strategy will be a bit different from an orthodox training cycle but no less important. And thus the focus for the coming weeks, including the full @OBX will be to log the miles in an even-paced easy effort. Consistency is more important than anything as this point. Coach and I are looking towards the future and making big plans.

And so my daily runs look a lot alike at this point but my attitude and outlook have incurred a serious spike. In energy. In positivity. In drive.

It doesn't hurt that the NYC Marathon is this Sunday and the buzz around town is highly inspiring and motivating! Missy & I are planning to meet up with Kris & Jenn to do some spectating along First Ave before joining Trevor out of Manhattan, into the Bronx and back through Central Park. Oh and tomorrow we'll be meeting up with Trevor & Bob for some expo action followed by carbo-loading - wheee!

Happy as a Clam!

After a 3 day imposed rest period from my teeth extraction, I'm back! And I could not be happier.

Last night's fartlek run felt like I was suspended about an inch off the path, effortlessly gliding along 9 miles w/6 x 3 mins @HMP and 2 mins recoveries

My concentration on an adjusted foot strike is paying off. Although my calves are sore from the efforts, I can feel huge energy return gains in each and every stride. And, even more importantly, a ton of stress taken away from those body parts I overuse when running - my hammies & butt.

Tonight's 8 miler was similar, so easy, so relaxed, so enjoyable. Very quiet along the Hudson tonight and the perfect way to unwind after a very hectic work day.

Our weather as of late could not be more pleasant. 62* on last night's run and 59* on tonight's. Both evenings sported clear skies with loads of activity... some stars, some aircraft.

And perhaps one of the happiest elements, one that resulted in a perma-smile my entire run tonight. I will be working with a coach!!! And not just any coach, the very talented Lloyd (aka rootsrunner). I am beyond stoked at the prospect. It's something that I've thought about a lot and always considered a big missing element to my running.

...and away we go!

Still here

After a hectic work week and some OK running I'm on forced rest for a few days. Had my top two wisdom teeth extracted Friday morning and am playing it extra cautious with the workouts. There's no way I want to delay healing and no way I want to end up with dry sockets. So the weekend was mostly this:

Chocolate milk
Mashed potatoes
Green monsters
Ice cream (and I'm not even an "ice cream person")
Kefir
Applesauce
Iced coffee

+

Lots of couch time with my favorite fuzzy one



The time off has made me a little stir crazy but I'm hoping it was the right move and also a little bit of rest that my piriformis seemed to want.

Back at work today and no probs with the ole sockets so knock on wood, I'll be outside tomorrow for some miles. I've also got a very exciting running development to announce soon - wheee!!

Ever evolving, always adjusting

I sent my head a mini restart notice on Monday. Just a little something to get me recommitted to my training and really buckling down now that CIM is just 2 months out.

Tuesday - 10 miles running w/2 x 3 mi @tempo in 1:23 (8:18/mi).

I wasn't sure how this was going to go since last Sat. started out somewhat OK and kinda blew up in my face. So after taking an intended day off and then an unintended day off (stupid work!), I headed out to see what the legs were feeling up to. For the first set of tempo miles I fell into a nice pace pretty easily but felt I might be a little slow. This is not unusual for me running this pace, it normally takes me a mile or two to get it right - first mile too slow and then the next way too fast (i.e. 8:05 followed by a 7:10 - eeeks!). After that it was all good.

2 miles warm-up in 18:07 (9:03/mi)
3 miles @tempo in 23:07 (7:42/mi)
.5 mile recovery in 4:56
3 miles @tempo in 23:25 (7:48/mi)
1.5 miles cool-down in 13:13 (8:48/mi)

Wednesday - 90 mins Kula Flow, 4.75 miles running in about 45:00 (9:28/mi).

I needed to get in an easy recovery run but couldn't muster the needed energy pre-work so I decided to pack up my stuffs after yoga and run home from the studio. The distance wasn't the problem, it was my lack of proper planning. No need for me to bring both my backpack and my big purse to the office that day; shoving that sucker into the backpack and then running with it home added nearly 15 lbs. and a not-so-pleasant chafe mark in the middle of my lower back. Other than that the plan worked a-OK. Yoga included lots of back bending and supported headstands. Love me some headstands but I find the supported headstands a bit tougher than forearm headstands; I think it's just more difficult for me to find my center line.


supported headstand


forearm headstand

Thursday - 6 miles running sleazy in 55:57 (9:19/mi).

Finally hauled my butt outta bed before work to get an easy 6 miler logged. I seem to forget too easily how nice morning runs are on the weekdays and how the lack of a few extra zzz's is totally worth it! I love how the light of a new day dances off everything it hits ...the water, the trees, other runners. I may get out for another short sleazy run this evening depending on how I feel coming out of my massage.

Go get 'em!!

First off huge good luck and positive vibes out to Jen and Cindi racing marathons this weekend in St. George and Minneapolis/St. Paul, respectively. Actually, as I write this Jen is through the finish in Utah - a spectacular effort and a shiny new PR for Jen with a 3:06 marathon. That's some super sweet action - congratulations Jen!!! When I grow up I wanna be Jen!

But back to my humble life in humidity land. Gah. This morning brought with it a huge blanket of the nasty stuff just in time for a workout including a bunch of MP miles. Met up with Missy to run Grete's Great Gallop (a HM) in CP and managed about 9 miles at MP before my legs just threw in the towel. Actually they threw in the towel prior to that, right before mile 7 so I walked it out a bit and then got back to running. But it was a futile effort. I wasn't very smart with my workouts this week.

1). I did two things on Monday I haven't done in a long time and they seemed to have negatively impacted the balance that I need to keep to have everything hurty-free

2). I ran Thursday's run too fast. Sure it felt great, it felt effortless but my legs probably tired too much from the run and didn't recover fast enough to deal with today's humidity.

3). In trying to get back to my training plan from a couple diversions (RTB and the Fifth Ave mile) I haven't been consistent enough.

All of this contributed to 15.75 miles running in 2:26:54 (9:19/mi). Of course 9 of those miles were at MP but the rest were garbage. That in itself is inconsistent as all hell. I refuse to let myself stew about it too long, I know I need to refocus and I know I can do it. Last weekend's running left me feeling very confident and I don't want to let a couple bad decisions this week derail that. Onward and upward!

Yep

Another week in the books. Work is still kicking my ass and something I did on Monday kicked it a bit more too :(

Monday - 45 min spin class, 4 miles running in 36:02 (9:00/mi). This was the first time I've both attended spin and ran on a TM in awhile and either one or the combo of the both of them left a mark on my bod. Legs are irregularly tight and hamstrings are very crabby. I will not be continuing with this Monday workout at any point in the near future. Might replace it with another session of yoga, we'll see.

Tuesday - rest day, see explanation in Monday's workout. Poops.

Wednesday - 90 mins of yoga. Again, everything felt way too tight for where I was just a week ago. I did feel much better after class but wasn't happy with my perceived effort.

Thursday - 8 miles running in 1:05:13 (8:09/mi). This run was a dream. On total cruise control and the pace felt effortless. NYC temps were right around 55* and just a light breeze off the Hudson.

Friday - 5 miles running in 50:22 (10:04/mi). Supa sleazy recovery run but a little too little a little too late - more on that later.