Mood swings, bribes, and bridges

One of the myriad benefits of long distance running is the emotional roller coaster you begin to experience after being on the road for more than two hours. No other activity has quite the ability to make me happy, sad, pissed off, and elated...all back to back. It's interesting, this sport.

The double secret group met early this morning to get in 3.6 miles before joining the rest of Group A for 13.4 more. As an added bonus, we had to be at Newport by 7:30 (40 minutes early) to get the mileage done, and as a SUPER added bonus, we had to run two more bridges than everyone else (seven bridges total). Ha ha ha I hate Newport. :-)

I wasn't feeling great on the double secret route and actually considered going home and not doing the rest of the run. However, I bribed myself with a Chocolate Gu and decided I could turn around and go back at any point. (I tell myself a lot of things just make it through one more mile.) It was really, really windy today and we were doing the half Flying Pig course, which is basically all uphill with the exception of the last four miles or so (seriously). Somewhere in Eden Park I started getting pretty surly and decided I don't want to run at all next week (yeah, right). By the time we passed the Walnut Hills YMCA, I contemplated going inside and calling one of my parents to come and fetch me.

Another Gu and half a mile later, my 3:50 running pal found me and kept me distracted until we hit the Gilbert downhill. By then I was all smiles, waving at the people at the bus stop and loving life. I discovered I had a bit of fuel left in the tank and took off, only to discover that we had to run all the way to the Southgate bridge. Boo. Back to cranky. We finally made it back to Newport and found that our average pace was 8:50. Cheers to that! Happy.

I stopped at UDF on the way home to get two bags of ice and a delicious chocolate milk to enjoy in the bath. I also discovered the awesomeness that is hulu.com and entertained myself with a nice episode of the Facts of Life while I shivered and tried to avoid hypothermia. :-) All in all a good morning.

Just because you can...

...doesn't mean you should. Ha.

Our head coach had us doing speed work tonight from Newport. The plan was to do a 1.75 mile warmup, five miles of fartleks (based on marathon goal time), then 1.75 miles back to the start line. The fartleks were supposed to be five minutes "on" and two minutes "off". No breaks.

Since I've been running faster than a 9:09 pace on our long training runs, I got brave and decided to hop in with the 3:50 group who were doing the following paces:

8:16 on (MP minus 30 secs)
8:46 off (MP)

I felt great during the five miles...I kept up with the group and was able to get my breathing stable in the "off" minutes. Then we stopped for water before heading back. Then everything went to you-know-where in a hand basket. :-)

My legs were actually in good shape; however, I had the mother of all side stitches, my stomach was making goofy noises, and I was trying to talk to someone and realized I wasn't making any sense. Doh. Two hours later and I'm still hurting...

I don't know what the problem was. This definitely isn't the fastest I've ever run, but I guess that's neither here nor there at this point. All I can say is that if it's this painful to recover from TRAINING at the 3:50 pace, no way do I want to know what happens after I do this for 26.2 miles.

Not sure that a 3:50 is a realistic goal anyway given the marathon I've chosen to run; however, for a split second tonight I actually thought about it. The aftermath has been nothing short of humbling though. I kind of want to curl up in a ball somewhere and howl. Yeah, I'm a punk. :-P

Mind over matter

Ugh...what a week. In the last nine days, I think I have had one day off from work (today is not that day. nor is tomorrow). I'm SO glad to be busy, especially in this economy, but the stress is getting to me - to the point where I'm so exhausted that running has switched from being a stress reliever to being "one more thing I have to do".

Needless to say, I wasn't completely jazzed to do 12.1 miles this morning. My legs were tight and I was a little overdressed for the run (it's a balmy 31 degrees), so I was kind of surly for the first few miles. However, we were doing part of the Pig course, the section from O'Bryonville to Mariemont, which reminded me that I CHOSE to be out there today and I CHOSE to train for this race. Training is the one thing in my life I can control (as long as my body cooperates) and since I like being in charge (hello OCD!) I really should be enjoying every workout even if it hurts. Remembering these few things helped me to have a much better run. :-)

Some other things that made today awesome:

- Chocolate Gu. This stuff is heaven in a foil pouch. It's like licking all the icing off of a cupcake but it's even better because you don't have to feel guilty about it. AND it didn't make me want to throw up. Amen to that.

- Our pace coach. Today's run was pretty hilly and the coach cheered us up every incline and kept us on track.

- The Boston Boyz. I don't know how they ended up with the 4-hour gang, but I got to run with some of the BQers for the last few miles. Since my goal (very very long term goal) is to someday run Boston, I kind of idolize these guys...

Average pace du jour ended up being between 8:35-8:41 minutes per mile. Happy.

Accidental progressive pace run

Tonight's run has me wondering...can the good people of Hyde Park not change out a lightbulb here and there? Seriously. Almost all of Torrence is dark and there are a bunch of street lights out on Grandin. I wore my little flashing bubble to avoid being hit by a car, but sometimes I wonder if that thing acts too much like a beacon, attracting the crazies in the woods who otherwise wouldn't have seen me. And...perhaps I should stop reading Stephen King novels.

At any rate, my plan was to do an easy pace today. I got in five miles of recovery on Sunday (9:48 pace) and needed to do about four miles MP tonight, ideally on a flat surface. Since I was running hills I decided to compromise and slow down, taking my splits every mile for entertainment purposes only. I ended up with:

-10:18 for mile 1
- 9:39 for mile 2
- 9:31 for mile 3

No idea what mile four was (serious lack of landmarks on the last downhill, especially with the lights out), but my watch indicated that my average pace was 9:18 for the whole run. Apparently I decided to haul @ss the last 1.3 miles. Doh. Oh well, at least I got a workout in while it's still 50 degrees. Yay for shorts! And yay for 90's rap music - I had Warren-G and Sir-Mix-a-Lot stuck in my head tonight. Mount up...

Whole lotta love

The double secret training schedule called for a 15 miler this morning, which posed a problem because the running group had organized a 7-mile Valentine's Chase run from the Loveland Running Spot. (Alex, I'll take cheesy for $1,000 please.) To get our mileage in, some of us met at 7 am to do an additional 8 miles before the "chase".

I'm pretty useless before the sun comes up and was really struggling to keep pace. We were supposed to be doing a MP +30 sec run - should be about a 9:36 for me. I was running with the 9:00 group though (there is no 9:30 group really) and they decided to run sub 8:30 minute miles. I almost threw up, ha ha. My saving grace(s) were my running pals who were very entertaining this morning and also very encouraging. Somehow I managed to make it back to the Spot for some Gu and water and a quick break. Average pace for the first 8 miles ended up being between 8:25 and 8:28 (there was some debate among the Garmin users over exact distance and speed :-).

We then had to put our watches back in the car (I'm rockin a regular ol' Timex, which came free as part of the Fall program) so that we could run the Valentine's Chase. The purpose of the chase was twofold:

1) You were supposed to predict your finish time BEFORE the run and then run without a watch to see how close you could get. Closest predictions = mega cash prizes (actually I have no idea what the prizes were)

2) The girls got a seven minute head start so that the boys could chase us (hence the name of the run). Sigh.

There was about a 10-minute break between my eight miler and the chase - very cool because I got to meet up with my half marathon buddies who were also doing the run. Yay! What was not so cool was when we started moving again and I realized my legs had locked up from standing around for 10 minutes. Doh.

The chase (and the eight miles before it) was on the bike trail, which is MIND NUMBING. Out and backs are tough for me anyway from a mental standpoint and the trail was making it worse. I had predicted I would do 1:03 - a 9:00 pace - for the run, but I think I started off at a 10:00. It was freezing cold and I just wasn't feeling it. Then people started passing me. Then the boys caught us. Finally my competitive side kicked in and I was able to pick it up. The back half of the run seemed to last forever but I managed to finish in 60:08 - about an 8:35 minute mile. I attribute this to the fact that the bike trail is flat as a pancake...

The best part of my day (aside from running with my buddies and seeing my old pals) was that I managed to convince two of my non-Running Spot friends to meet me for brunch, even though I hadn't had a shower (if that's not love I don't know what is). We had a magical, greasy breakfast in a smoky Newport hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Total euphoria. I plan on sleeping the rest of the day.

The sky is falling

So, Cincinnati is being hit with 60 mph winds tonight. My boss urged me not to do my training run because I might get hit by a falling tree. Guess what? I almost got hit by a falling tree. What are the odds???

Despite my run-in with nature, I had a great night! Our group met at Crossroads and did the Madison/Erie/Rosslyn/Brotherton loop - some decent hills, although we had a nice tailwind at our backs for most of it. I took off way too fast and kept waiting for my legs to die so I would have an excuse to back off the pace. But then before I knew it, we finished the 6.8 miles and I had forgotten that I wanted to slow down. Average pace? 8:19.

I can't figure this out. Why am I faster now? Is it because I've tweaked my training plan this season? In the Fall I was doing 3-4 runs per week: 2 with the group (1 speed run and 1 long run) and 1-2 on my own, which usually involved hills mixed with a masochistic effort to beat my old training run times.

This season I'm doing four runs per week: 2 with the group (same as Fall) and 2 on my own (1 five-mile run at a 10 minute pace and 1 MP run on the treadmill or other flat surface). Are the flat, slow runs helping?? Perhaps my sudden burst of energy is coming from the REALLY BAD HIP HOP MUSIC I've been getting stuck in my head during training runs. Tonight's internal jukebox? Cyclone by Baby Bash (I had to look that one up). Ha ha.

Whatever the cause, this newfound speed makes me hungry for red meat. A bunch of us went to Habit's after the run tonight in hopes of getting burgers, only to have the power go out during the first round of drinks (silly hurricane-force winds). Thankfully Arthur's had power so we were able to satisfy our carnivorous cravings there. :-)

Hungover long run

During training season, my Friday nights usually involve laundry, dinner at home, and me falling asleep on the couch by 10 pm. If I'm really feeling wild, sometimes I'll do yoga. However yesterday there was an all-you-can-drink alcohol fest (complete with DJ) in the lobby of my office (don't ask). This week has been incredibly, ridiculously and maybe unnecessarily stressful, so I had already decided I needed a drink last night. Just one or two beers at a local bar, then I would head home. But when the Sade started pumping into the lobby around 4:30 pm, I figured it wouldn't hurt to have some free cocktails at the office. Ha. One hour and six drinks later, I was very, very intoxicated. Some of my co-workers found themselves in the same boat, so we ended up in the rec room playing drunken kickball, ping pong, cornhole, etc. until 9:30.

What does any of this have to do with running? Not much really, except for the fact that said events made it difficult to get out of bed at 7 am today for my long run. Especially since I woke up at 2 am with a wicked hangover. However, I persevered and made it to the Running Spot promptly on time for our run. I spent the first couple miles just trying not to yak and by the time we hit the water stop at mile 6, I was dragging and my left shin was killing me (it is all bruised from playing kickball last night). Thanks to some cold water and the magic of caffeinated GU, I got my second wind and was able to truck up Gilbert to Eden Park at a reasonable clip. It didn't hurt that I met a new girl somewhere on Court Street - if we hadn't been chatting I don't know how I would have made it up that hill. :-)

I actually felt pretty good when we got back to the Spot, enough so that I went and did the three mile add-on for the double-secret group. The add-on was around Grandin/Rookwood - same loop where we do our nasty hill repeats. I ended up doing 13.72 miles at an 8:50 pace. Hello! That's my half marathon pace! Granted, I did take a 2-3 minute water stop at the Spot before doing the add-on but still...

Staring at the wall

I did hill repeats last night with the group (about 5 miles total) and it was so cold that my fingers hurt, to the point where I couldn't unzip my jacket pocket to get my car key out. Call it frost nip, bite, whatever you want, but enough is enough. Hence, tonight's marathon pace run was treadmill city. I just couldn't bring myself to run outside (not that I can get up my hill on foot anyway. still no sidewalk for Jen.)

Adding insult to injury, I have lost most of my iPod playlists (long story) so I left my workout music to chance and put the iPod on shuffle (Note: I don't usually run with music unless I'm tolerating the treadmill). I wound up listening to all sorts of random stuff, some of it surprisingly good for keeping pace (Let You Go by Nico Vega and Dying is Fine by Ra Ra Riot) and some of it surprisingly bad (Live Your Life by T.I....too slow). Plus I was staring at the wall the whole time and despite the fact that I was sweating buckets (yeah. gross.), the four-mile run didn't even feel like a workout. Boo.

On the plus side, I've been admitted into the double secret high-mileage group. :-) So far I've done 14 miles this week total and our run Saturday is supposed to be 14...

Ironic

So Saturday's run was 8 degrees, right? Today it was 50 degrees and I did my 5 mile recovery run in shorts. I'm not complaining per se, it's just funny. I found it ironic that I was running in shorts through the snow and ice that still linger on the Lunken Bike Path (can't run around my neighborhood just yet - sidewalks not even close to being visible).

Oh and hey, word to the wise. Don't eat piles of spelt bread grilled cheese before a run.

Frost Nip

I've really, really had enough of winter. FYI.

Yesterday's run was from the Glendale store, so we got a nice change of scenery. Plus there are lots of suburban areas out there, which meant we weren't running on main roads - also a bonus. The only downside was that it was 8 degrees. We ran in similar temperatures two weeks ago, but yesterday felt so much colder. Everyone was wheezing for the first few miles, then I noticed that people's faces and hair were covered with ice crystals. I could see ice on my eyelashes - we all looked like little old men. Kind of funny.

I was dragging until about mile 4 (we were doing 11), to the point where I thought maybe I should have run with Group B. For whatever reason, I got a second wind in the middle of a big hill and I wanted nothing more than to kick that hill's @ss. I wouldn't be surprised if I was growling as I ran. I caught up with the 9-minute pace coach and stuck with him the rest of the run. My average pace ended up being 8:53. Yay!!!!

I've noticed that when I run outside for extended periods when it's 10 degrees or below, my fingers turn completely white (and stay that way until I've been in the hot shower for 5 minutes) and the skin on my hands and arms burns for a few hours afterwards. I thought it was frost bite but my little brother, who is a paramedic, corrected me - what I'm experiencing is frost NIP, not bite. Part of me is impressed that he is so medically savvy, the other part of me wants to give him a noogie. :-)