Month: November 2011

The first thing I wanted to do tonight was crawl into bed and sleep. The last thing I wanted to do was run 10 miles.

Sleeping doesn’t give you mile splits.

That is all.

One usually doesn’t get tan lines in November… in Seattle. Not unless they’re training for a mothereffin’ marathon for hours at a time on sunny weekends. Ridic!

Random interjection: my latest marathon training recap is up on Answering Oliver – check out Marathon Training: Week 15.

And thanks to those who gave feedback on my marathon goal musings. I’ll definitely set A-, B- and C-level goals – C will be to finish alive, and B and A will aim a bit higher.

I don’t want to set myself up to be disappointed, but I also don’t want to feel like I could have done better if only I had believed in myself more. There was a time when I wouldn’t have believed I could even train for a marathon, let alone complete one or hit a certain time. I remember what that feels like, and I’m not going back.

Always believe in yourself.

Oh, Internet friends. I really want to kick the shit out of my first marathon.

Everyone says you should just focus on finishing your first 26.2, but my training has been going very, very well. For example, I bounced back from a miserable illness to run 18 miles at a 9:40 pace. I ran 14 miles at a 9:11 pace while hungover (but don’t try that at home). I’ve had one horrible long run, but pretty much all my other runs have been awesome.

So I’m thinking I should expect a little more of myself than to just finish.

I also won’t be running another marathon for a while (for reasons to be explained soon), so I want this one to be really freakin’ awesome. At the same time, I don’t want to be stupid and burn myself out and either finish miserably or not finish at all.

I’m just starting to think about what my goal should be and what I might be capable of…

* Obviously I want to finish in under 4:30, which is the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas course time limit. I think this is very doable, barring unforeseen disasters.

* Theodora, whose general training pace seemed to be on par with mine, just ran NYC in 4:19.

* And the Runner’s World pace predictor thingy projects everything from a 3:59 (based on my 5K PR) to a 4:19 (based on my recent 18-miler).

I think it’s reasonable to aim for a 4:15 finish (9:44 pace). I’ve done many of my long runs at 9:40ish already, and I’ll see if I can manage that for my 20-miler this Sunday!

With this goal in mind, I did a Yasso 800 workout on the treadmill Monday night. Runner’s World guru Bart Yasso says that the amount of time it takes a person to run 800 m can predict his marathon finish time; therefore, one can train for a certain finish time by running 800 m repeats at a certain pace.

If I want to run a 4:15 marathon, I need to run 800 m (half a mile) in 4 minutes and 15 seconds — that’s 8:30 pace. This was Monday’s workout:

* 1 mile warmup — 9:30 pace
* 4 x 800 — 8:27 pace, with 800 m recovery at 9:40 pace in between

Total workout: 5 miles, 45:45 (9:09 pace)

I guess I was supposed to do 4 minutes and 15 seconds worth of recovery jogging rather than 800 m, but it was easier for me to keep track of the distance than the time on the treadmill. This was by far the sweatiest treadmill workout I’ve ever done, but it went by a lot faster and felt better than plodding along at a steady pace the whole time.

Tonight, I hit the gym for a quick strength training session after two-and-a-half weeks off from lifting, and I definitely felt the burn (in a good way). I’m gonna try hard to stick to my training plan, including lifting, for these last few weeks to help me reach my marathon goal!

What do you guys think about aiming for a 4:15 finish for my first marathon? Reasonable or impractical? I always like to err on the side of dreaming big!

I usually take it easy on Friday nights to prepare for my Saturday morning long runs, but last night I showed utter disregard for that and drank alllllll the beer in Seattle. We’re fresh out. Sorry, everyone else!

Luckily this run actually turned out to be awesome due to a number of factors: beautiful weather, a speedy running buddy and a cooperative stomach/body. (My stomach revolted later on in the day, but I’ll get to that in a minute. Excited?)

I ran a mile to meet up with my friend Kory, who was also hungover from a separate occasion, and I figured we would take it easy. The farthest he had ever run before today was 6 miles, so the plan was to run with him around Lake Union (about 6) and then part ways back in Fremont so I could continue on to finish 14.

Here’s the thing about Kory: He’s freakin’ fast. I think he usually runs 6:30 miles or something stupid like that, so I had to tell him to slow the eff down every five minutes or so. (I didn’t get a photo of him, but he looks quite a bit like Kiptyn from The Bachelorette, so just use your imagination.)

Kory still felt good after we finished running around the lake and wanted to do a few more miles, so we ran over to UW, past University Village, through Ravenna Park and through the UW Greek system to get to 45th, which we took all the back back through the U District and Wallingford and to his place high atop Fremont/Phinney.

All that was 10 miles and hilly toward the end, which is all Kory’s fault for choosing the route. I normally wouldn’t subject myself to this shiz on a long run:

I also normally wouldn’t run this fast for 14 miles:

I only got to slow down for the massive hills, so it wasn’t even like miles 8 through 12 were easier. But all things considered — “all things” being how many beers I drank last night — the hills and the pace weren’t all that bad. Just challenging!

I finished off with a speedy last few miles by myself through Fremont and along the Burke-Gilman trail because I felt really, really good. And, wow, holy beautiful sights on the Burke-Gilman!

Lake Union.

Statue of Sri Chinmoy.

Stunning trees along the Fremont Canal.

I always run this trail, but I’ve been running at night and missing all this fall glory! It was just wonderful being out there today.

I didn’t take in any fuel on this run besides Nuun and water, and I wasn’t really hungry when I got home, but obviously I needed to eat something after two hours of running. I got two bites into a banana and one or two slices into an apple before it came right back up. Revenge of the hungover stomach.

Meant to eat it all. Couldn’t even come close.

My icky stomach kindly accepted a single piece of dry toast before I napped for a few hours. I did not feel good at all and have no idea how that run went so well when I felt so terrible afterward.

I decided Friday night was my last hurrah and I won’t be drinking again until after the marathon! Trust me, that’s an easy decision to make when you felt the way I did this afternoon. Urgh.

I feel back to normal now and whipped up my very favorite dinner of all time — tuna casserole — which I ate a ton of to fill my sad, empty tummy. So good.

Now I just have a 20-miler next weekend and then I taper for the marathon! Time is just flyyyyyying by. I’m so excited.

Good luck to everyone running the NYC Marathon tomorrow!!! I’m super excited for Theodora, Brenna and all y’all who are so lucky to be running such an incredible event!

I’ve been really lucky to have fresh-feeling legs pretty much every time I run. Last night, though, my legs were tired!

I had “only 5 miles” to run and figured it’d be a breeze, but it wasn’t until a few miles in that I felt like I got into my running groove. I wonder if the first two miles felt like such a struggle because I’ve been treadmillin’ it lately.

Mile 1 – 9:17
Mile 2 – 9:09
Mile 3 – 9:00
Mile 4 – 8:41
Mile 5 – 9:08

I made a conscious effort to slow down for the last mile because I usually speed up more and more throughout shorter runs and I’m sure it’s better to cool down a bit at the end.

I also thought about how I haven’t really done tempo, speed or hill runs at all during marathon training. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas course is billed as “flat and fast,” so I’m not too worried… I just realized I’ve fallen short on the type of training I learned (and loved) to do with DetermiNation.

Shaky and sweaty post-run pic in honor of Smile Friday (taken on Thursday night… posted on Friday… whatever):

To all the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Tumblrites out there: Only ONE MONTH TO GO until we rock the strip at night!!! Can’t wait to see you all there!

robindoesrunning:

Women’s Brooks Ghost 3 Running shoes $69.95 

Women’s Brooks Cascadia 5 Trail Shoes $69.95

Use sitekey code BUY1111 at checkout to get an additional 20% off 

Other men’s and children’s running shoes on sale as well. 

Check it out. 

Robin is my hero. I currently run in Ghost 4 but they don’t fit as perfectly as Ghost 3 (which are worn out and now sit in my closet for non-running adventures).

I miiiiiight have purchased two pairs of Ghost 3 shoes. In PURPLE.

The key code above didn’t work for me, but there is a thing to click at the top of the site that will send you a coupon for 20% off your first order. Do that. I essentially got two pairs of my favorite shoes for the price of one!

You know I’ll need them. My marathon is coming up in one month, but after that, the crazy don’t stop.

That whole 9-miles-on-the-treadmill thing wasn’t so bad!

I’ll say this once, and then we can all forget it ever happened: You people who listen to music while running may be on to something.

I listened to music on my phone (R.I.P. iPod, I discovered) for the first time in nearly a year, and one of the first songs that came on was "Party in the USA.“ As in Miley Cyrus.

I was like, "HOW HIGH DOES THE VOLUME ON THIS THING GO?”

I broke the run up into a 5-miler and a 4-miler to help defray the mental anguish of the whole 9.

I did 5 miles first so that I was more than halfway done. Then I took a quick bathroom break and tried to pretend I didn’t just run 5 miles when I hopped back on the treadmill.

Denial. Try it.

9 miles – 1:24:51 (9:25 pace).

I ate a Clif Shot during mile 7, which was wayyy too late since I already felt hungry and a bit lightheaded at that time. I had eaten a Larabar right before going the gym, which usually holds me over, but I failed to factor the soul-sucking properties of running on the treadmill into the equation.

The lightheadedness followed me from the treadmill to my car to the grocery store to home. I ate a bunch of grapes and then hopped in the shower before having dinner. Note to smart people: Reverse the order of those activities.

Post-shower, I spent about 15 minutes lying on the floor of my room actively trying not to puke, which was funny in a not-funny way because I didn’t have much of anything in my stomach to puke.

I suspected the cure was to eat something substantial, and yet the thought of that made me want to puke. Again, not funny.

Finally I made some pancakes (odd choice, yet I stand by it) and instantly felt better as I ate them. I still didn’t have much of an appetite, though, so I went to bed having eaten much less than I would normally eat after 9 miles.

Woke up sta-a-a-a-a-rving. Can’t stop eating today. Tummy feels all better.

Still listening to Miley. (You’re welcome.)

Rain. Cold. Darkness.

But WIND is my downfall.

After a nice mild-weather day, Seattle decided to try some cold, dark, rainy, WINDY action tonight. I got soaked just walking home from the bus stop, and my umbrella blew inside-out.

So I’m gonna go die quietly for the next hour and 25-ish minutes run 9 miles on the treadmill.