Sunday, September 28, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Playing Hooky
I skipped the group run today and slept in until 10 am. :-) Now that the heat/humidity have settled down, there really is no reason for me to start a 14 mile run at 7 am (which requires me getting up at 5:45 am so I can eat breakfast, stretch, etc.) So I didn’t. Also, the group was running from Crossroads in Oakley and the route was an out and back going through Norwood and Hyde Park. I hate out and backs and I am tired of running in Norwood/Hyde Park, so I decided to plan my own route. Guess where I ended up running? Ha.
Let me just say that planning a 14-15 mile run that doesn’t involve a million crosswalks or excursions through the ghetto isn’t a small feat. Even though I ended up running a similar route to the group’s, I was glad that I was able to plan a loop vs. an out and back. (My route also involved an extra 104 feet of hill climbing. I was very proud of this for some reason).
According to the coach’s email, we were supposed to run 3 miles easy, 9-10 at marathon pace, and the last two miles easy. For the first three miles I did a solid 9:57 average. My nine “marathon pace miles” were all over the board, ranging from a 10 to an 8:39 (mile 10! boom.). And the last 2.6 miles…let’s don’t even talk about the last 2.6 miles. My legs were dead through most of the run and both IT bands were a nuisance, so by mile 12 I just wanted to FINISH. Not good. If someone would have offered me a ride at that point I would have taken it (Kidding. Mostly.)
I should add that my splits were slightly less than exact because some of them occurred in between streets/landmarks and I wasn’t always hitting the button at the right time.
My average pace for the total 14.6 miles was about a 9:38, which is about 30 seconds off of my goal pace for a four hour marathon (9:09) and 20 seconds off of my McMillan predicted finish time (4:03/9:19 pace). The McMillan finish time is based off a calculator that has been deadly accurate for me in other races this summer. Sigh. Really, will those three minutes make or break me? Probably not but I’ve had the 4 hour goal stuck in my head since May and I’m unreasonably stubborn.
And let's face it - right now my biggest battle is not pace but attitude. I need to get better at fighting through the “I want to lay down in someone’s front yard” feeling that keeps coming up in the last few miles of every run lately, whether it’s a 20 miler or a 5 miler.
Let me just say that planning a 14-15 mile run that doesn’t involve a million crosswalks or excursions through the ghetto isn’t a small feat. Even though I ended up running a similar route to the group’s, I was glad that I was able to plan a loop vs. an out and back. (My route also involved an extra 104 feet of hill climbing. I was very proud of this for some reason).
According to the coach’s email, we were supposed to run 3 miles easy, 9-10 at marathon pace, and the last two miles easy. For the first three miles I did a solid 9:57 average. My nine “marathon pace miles” were all over the board, ranging from a 10 to an 8:39 (mile 10! boom.). And the last 2.6 miles…let’s don’t even talk about the last 2.6 miles. My legs were dead through most of the run and both IT bands were a nuisance, so by mile 12 I just wanted to FINISH. Not good. If someone would have offered me a ride at that point I would have taken it (Kidding. Mostly.)
I should add that my splits were slightly less than exact because some of them occurred in between streets/landmarks and I wasn’t always hitting the button at the right time.
My average pace for the total 14.6 miles was about a 9:38, which is about 30 seconds off of my goal pace for a four hour marathon (9:09) and 20 seconds off of my McMillan predicted finish time (4:03/9:19 pace). The McMillan finish time is based off a calculator that has been deadly accurate for me in other races this summer. Sigh. Really, will those three minutes make or break me? Probably not but I’ve had the 4 hour goal stuck in my head since May and I’m unreasonably stubborn.
And let's face it - right now my biggest battle is not pace but attitude. I need to get better at fighting through the “I want to lay down in someone’s front yard” feeling that keeps coming up in the last few miles of every run lately, whether it’s a 20 miler or a 5 miler.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Better...
After a one-day rest from Tuesday’s not-so-fun run, I was planning to do an easy 5 miler tonight around the Lunken airport bike path. This is normally my least favorite place to run (BORING!); however, it’s flat and my IT band has been borderline obnoxious all week, especially on hills, so I was looking forward to a nice recovery run. Unfortunately I got home too late to do the bike path, so I got stuck running around Hyde Park…for the third time this week. To preserve my sanity I tried a new route that ended up involving hills. There’s just no way around them.
But I had a great run! I didn’t really know where I was going for part of it (I had the general idea) and my IT band didn’t start bugging me until mile 3! Major improvement over Tuesday. I did wear my IT band strap although honestly, I’m not sure how much good it did because it only sits where it is supposed to for maybe 1/10 of a mile. Really those things should come with garter belts or something to hold them up. I also discovered that shortening my strides and doing a higher kick helps A LOT with keeping the pain manageable.
All in all I felt pretty good. I had forgotten how much fun it is to come home and jump onto Gmaps to see how far I went. Speedy Gonzalez I’m not but it’s good to see progress after dragging @ss earlier this week.
But I had a great run! I didn’t really know where I was going for part of it (I had the general idea) and my IT band didn’t start bugging me until mile 3! Major improvement over Tuesday. I did wear my IT band strap although honestly, I’m not sure how much good it did because it only sits where it is supposed to for maybe 1/10 of a mile. Really those things should come with garter belts or something to hold them up. I also discovered that shortening my strides and doing a higher kick helps A LOT with keeping the pain manageable.
All in all I felt pretty good. I had forgotten how much fun it is to come home and jump onto Gmaps to see how far I went. Speedy Gonzalez I’m not but it’s good to see progress after dragging @ss earlier this week.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Doh
Wow. Tonight was bad.
Our coach originally had 8 miles of hill repeats on the training schedule, but let us off the hook since we ran 22 last Saturday. He changed the plan to do a 5, 6, or 8 mile run around Hyde Park, which isn’t exactly flat but it beats running up and down the same hill for an hour. Sounded like it would be an easy night.
I was running with my usual buddy and we took off way too fast of course (she’s faster than me anyway). But the first three miles of the route were through a new neighborhood and involved about 10 different turns (really), so I wanted to stay with the group. By mile 2 I felt like I was dying. I passed someone with a Garmin who said we were only doing an 8:46, which should be a manageable pace for such a short run. Nope. My legs were completely heavy and the tendons around my knee felt like old rubber bands. Awesome.
I gave up trying to keep pace with my friend (or anyone else) and tried to focus on just finishing. Around mile 3.5 I saw people making the turn for the 5-mile loop and I wanted so badly to follow them but decided to stick it out. By mile 4.5 I was done. My IT band was killing me to the point where I slowed down to a 10 or 11-minute mile pace. Ugh. I totally punked out and decided to just do 6 miles. I felt like a giant loser and felt even worse when the elite runners were passing me in mile 6 – after they had just done 8.
I think I’m going to take a week off from running with the group. Normally I like to push my competitive side, but with the marathon four weeks out, I need a rest from the head games that come from always trying to keep up with the pack.
Our coach originally had 8 miles of hill repeats on the training schedule, but let us off the hook since we ran 22 last Saturday. He changed the plan to do a 5, 6, or 8 mile run around Hyde Park, which isn’t exactly flat but it beats running up and down the same hill for an hour. Sounded like it would be an easy night.
I was running with my usual buddy and we took off way too fast of course (she’s faster than me anyway). But the first three miles of the route were through a new neighborhood and involved about 10 different turns (really), so I wanted to stay with the group. By mile 2 I felt like I was dying. I passed someone with a Garmin who said we were only doing an 8:46, which should be a manageable pace for such a short run. Nope. My legs were completely heavy and the tendons around my knee felt like old rubber bands. Awesome.
I gave up trying to keep pace with my friend (or anyone else) and tried to focus on just finishing. Around mile 3.5 I saw people making the turn for the 5-mile loop and I wanted so badly to follow them but decided to stick it out. By mile 4.5 I was done. My IT band was killing me to the point where I slowed down to a 10 or 11-minute mile pace. Ugh. I totally punked out and decided to just do 6 miles. I felt like a giant loser and felt even worse when the elite runners were passing me in mile 6 – after they had just done 8.
I think I’m going to take a week off from running with the group. Normally I like to push my competitive side, but with the marathon four weeks out, I need a rest from the head games that come from always trying to keep up with the pack.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
I think I can, I think I can
Writing this a few days late but the dreaded 22 miler is worth noting. I saw it on the schedule all month and after the 20 miler we did two weeks ago, I would have been more enthused to spend three hours solving complex calculus equations. But I digress.
The route took us from Newport through Covington, over to Cincy, then out Eastern Avenue, a loop around Lunken Bike Path, BACK downtown via Eastern, then a loop around the stadiums and back over the bridge. This route has its plusses and minuses:
- It’s flat, mostly (yay! definitely a plus for a 22 miler)
- We run through some cool parks on Eastern (plus)
- It’s kind of boring and you can see downtown for the entire 5 miles you spend running back via Eastern and the buildings always looks like they are so far away (boo. minus.)
- The bridge at the end of the run is a long and steady incline (sadist coaches. minus!)
I wanted to take this run slow since I destroyed myself running too fast too early in the 20 miler. So I started out with the 10-minute mile group. Really, this is around the pace I’m supposed to be running for long runs according to McMillan. I ran the first few miles slow and was feeling great, so when my running buddy sped up I sped up with her. In fact, I kept up with her until mile 15 (I lost her in mile 5 of our last 20 miler)! We were totally pushing each other around the bike path and she helped me keep my pace back out to Eastern.
Even though I lost her at the 15 mile marker, I held a pretty steady pace by myself AND I wasn’t nearly as surly by the time I got back downtown. (last time I was hating life by mile 19). We did have the option to skip the stadium loop and just do 20, which I seriously considered. I looked at my watch and saw I was WAY ahead of my previous 20-miler time and still feeling ok, so I decided to keep going.
But then I was full-on grouchy by mile 20.5, yelling at myself (in my head) “I’m not having fun at all! why am I doing this??”. A minute later I remembered I was running 22 miles for the first time and that it probably isn’t supposed to be fun. People tell me all the time that I’m crazy for doing a marathon, and I probably SOUND crazy for openly admitting that I talk to myself, but really, don’t judge me unless you yourself have run for three plus hours.
Crazy or sane, I finished the 22 and had an average pace of 9:03. Awesome! I did a little victory dance around my living room before hopping into an ice bath. I’ve graduated to two bags now. A nice end to my first 49 mile week.
The route took us from Newport through Covington, over to Cincy, then out Eastern Avenue, a loop around Lunken Bike Path, BACK downtown via Eastern, then a loop around the stadiums and back over the bridge. This route has its plusses and minuses:
- It’s flat, mostly (yay! definitely a plus for a 22 miler)
- We run through some cool parks on Eastern (plus)
- It’s kind of boring and you can see downtown for the entire 5 miles you spend running back via Eastern and the buildings always looks like they are so far away (boo. minus.)
- The bridge at the end of the run is a long and steady incline (sadist coaches. minus!)
I wanted to take this run slow since I destroyed myself running too fast too early in the 20 miler. So I started out with the 10-minute mile group. Really, this is around the pace I’m supposed to be running for long runs according to McMillan. I ran the first few miles slow and was feeling great, so when my running buddy sped up I sped up with her. In fact, I kept up with her until mile 15 (I lost her in mile 5 of our last 20 miler)! We were totally pushing each other around the bike path and she helped me keep my pace back out to Eastern.
Even though I lost her at the 15 mile marker, I held a pretty steady pace by myself AND I wasn’t nearly as surly by the time I got back downtown. (last time I was hating life by mile 19). We did have the option to skip the stadium loop and just do 20, which I seriously considered. I looked at my watch and saw I was WAY ahead of my previous 20-miler time and still feeling ok, so I decided to keep going.
But then I was full-on grouchy by mile 20.5, yelling at myself (in my head) “I’m not having fun at all! why am I doing this??”. A minute later I remembered I was running 22 miles for the first time and that it probably isn’t supposed to be fun. People tell me all the time that I’m crazy for doing a marathon, and I probably SOUND crazy for openly admitting that I talk to myself, but really, don’t judge me unless you yourself have run for three plus hours.
Crazy or sane, I finished the 22 and had an average pace of 9:03. Awesome! I did a little victory dance around my living room before hopping into an ice bath. I’ve graduated to two bags now. A nice end to my first 49 mile week.
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