Kristy, Author at Run The Long Road Coaching

(brief) thoughts on Boston

April 16, 2013 by Kristy 6 Comments

Normally I would remain silent and not blog about such a horrific event. But it’s Boston and I feel the need to say something. Although I can’t eloquently string the right words together to convey what I’m feeling.

Anger. Rage. Disgust. Sadness. Heartbroken.

My heart breaks for the 3 people that were killed, especially the 8-year-old boy cheering for his Dad. Reports are saying that his sister (6 years old) lost her leg. I pray that the death toll doesn’t rise as 17 are still listed as critically injured.

I can’t wrap my head around the scene at the finish line.

(source)

My heart breaks for the runners that didn’t get a chance to cross the finish line…stopped around Mile 25.

(source)

Running Boston last year was a dream come true – something that can still bring tears of joy to my eyes. I know a handful of runners that ran their first Boston yesterday and it disgusts me that their experience is lessened due to yesterday’s events. As my sister-in-law said…an incredibly joyous event is now marred.

expo fun and st. pat’s

March 17, 2013 by Kristy 13 Comments

On Wednesday, I – well, RTLR Coaching – was a vendor at a local health and fitness expo. This was my first vendor gig and I was pretty pumped about it. It didn’t draw a large crowd – definitely not race expo size – but it was big enough for me to connect with local runners and other local vendors in my area.

Each vendor was provided with a 6’ table and was told to “make it look nice”. When you’re a running coach, what are you supposed to put on said table? It’s not like I’m selling merchandise or demonstrating anything. Instead, I made a nice alternating arrangement of business cards and trifold brochures I created. It took me a whole 5 minutes to set up my table.

Let’s talk about the last minute homemade sign. On Monday night Matt asked me if I had a banner or anything to hang on the table, identifying myself. Um, no. Didn’t even think of that. Ensue frantic shopping trip to Michael’s to stock up on crafty items. The result is a homemade sign that screams newbie.

Another lesson learned? In addition to ordering a banner, get a T-shirt made. When in doubt, throw on the Boston jacket!

All in all, I got to talk about running for 3 hours, which is always a good night. Hopefully I got some new clients too!

St. Patty’s Day
One of the best times of the year! Another reason to drink beer and (college) basketball!

I wasn’t sure how long I was going to run yesterday but in the spirit of SPD, I decided to make it a 17-miler. Turns out, yesterday morning was the best time to be out and about…drinking green beer.

Because the afternoon was miserable.

But not too cold for beer.

It seems the Luck of the Irish was plentiful this weekend at the races! I’ve seen numerous mentions of PRs on Twitter. I can’t wait to read the race recaps.

If you raced this weekend, brag about it! If you didn’t, brag about how much beer you drank or something else.

I had a strange urge to run a 5K this morning – that never happens – but decided on 9 recovery miles instead.

Thank you, Runner’s World!

March 6, 2013 by Kristy 21 Comments

Grab your April issue of Runner’s World and turn to page 40.

It’s me!

I am so absolutely thrilled to finally see this in print! I answered this question back in June 2012 and have been in contact regularly with the editor about when it would appear. It was definitely worth the wait.

Appearing in Runner’s World – in any capacity – was definitely something on my bucket list.

It almost happened last April during the Boston Marathon. Prior to Boston, RW was looking for so-called “Boston squeakers”, or people who barely got into Boston. I am the very definition of a squeaker – my BQ time was 3:43:46 and the cut-off for my age and gender was 3:43:46. Yep, you don’t squeak by any less than that. I received an email from Tish Hamilton (yes, Tish Hamilton!) asking if I would be available for a photo shoot at the Boston Marathon finish line the day before the race. RW was gathering “Boston squeakers” and was planning on doing a story about them. Umm, YES! Sidenote: if you know me in real life, you know that the prospect of a photo shoot makes me way more happy than it should.

I was literally on the edge of my seat with excitement. Not only was I running my first Boston, I was going to appear in Runner’s World. Does it get any better than that?!

Then the weather forecast got worse and worse (or hotter and hotter) and Tish sent an email saying the angle of the story had changed and instead RW was going to focus on the heat, not the squeakers. Photo shoot cancelled. Total bummer. I missed my shot as a RW model. BUT, I was still running Boston!

Then came an email from a RW editor in June asking if I would answer a question for their “Ask The Experts” section. Holy crap – this was even better than a photo shoot. I was appearing in RW because of coaching. I never expected this!

Thank you RW. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity and would love (love, love!) to work with you again in the future.

To those of you reading Run The Long Road for the first time – welcome! I hope you like what you see and stick around for awhile.

To those of you interested in coaching, my services are listed here. You can contact me at runthelongroad (at) gmail.com with any questions. Go ahead and check out my PR page to see how “fast” I am – I don’t mind. What I lack in speed I make up for in knowledge Smile

happenings and training

March 3, 2013 by Kristy 14 Comments

This is the longest stretch I ever went without blogging. Every time I sat down to write a post over the past 2 weeks, I ended up just deleting it. Quasi-training doesn’t lead to the most fascinating posts. Some people can make the mundane sound interesting. I’m not one of them.

Quasi-training is going really well though. For right now, it’s just what I need. I have no interest in racing a marathon this Spring. Running a 50K or a trail marathon? Maybe. But I enjoy being noncommittal at the moment.

I’ve fallen into a pattern with training. 3 weeks of 40-50 miles and then a big drop back week. That’s good enough to maintain my base until I decide to be committal again.

Wk of 2/4: 40 miles with 13 miles long
Wk of 2/11: 43 miles with 17 miles long
Wk of 2/18: 46 miles with 20 miles long (first 20 of 2013!)
Wk of 2/25: 30 miles with 10 miles long

Besides running, we celebrated a very important birthday.

clearly…

And I laughed till I cried, drank too much, and chatted until 3AM with these ladies.

5 of 8 Mains

All is good.

Brooks PureCadence

February 15, 2013 by Kristy 18 Comments

I’m loving these shoes…even if they are pink.

I despise pink but they were only $78!

I’m a Brooks girl. I wore Adrenalines for a long, long time before they started to tweak the design (for the worse, in my opinion). So I transitioned to the (slightly) less supportive Ravennas and all was good.

I’m a big believer in “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” when it comes to running shoes. So then why try the PureCadence?

I just finished reading Jay Dicharry’s book, Anatomy for Runners (review coming soon). While he did stress “if it ain’t broke…” when it comes to running shoes, he also pointed out that going as minimal as possible could be better. If Adrenalines are as minimal as you can go, then stick with them.

Going more minimal improves muscle activity in your foot, improves balance and proprioception (something I am trying to work on), and improves foot strength. Our foot responds differently in more minimalist shoes. The cushioning of traditional running shoes have made our feet dependent on that support.

None of this is ground breaking news. And I’m not advocating that everyone switch to a more minimalist shoe. For me, I have an issue with overstriding whenever my pace dips down to HM pace. I can feel my right hamstring tighten after a few miles. This hasn’t manifested as an injury but it’s something I should try to fix.

Dicharry’s advice for runners wanting to switch from a traditional shoe to a more minimalist one is to drop your current heel height by ~half. The Ravennas have a 10mm drop and PureCadence has a 5mm drop.

So far I’ve put 17 miles on my PureCadences (2 short runs and a 9-miler this morning). So far, so good. I can definitely “feel more” when I’m running and I notice the difference in weight. I’m hoping that these shoes, coupled with a few tweaks to my form, will nix my overstriding issues. I haven’t been able to do so in my Ravennas.

Did you transition to a more minimalist shoe recently? Which one? I know the PureFlows are very popular. They might be my next pair.

thirty-six

February 10, 2013 by Kristy 21 Comments

Yesterday was my 36th birthday. Since my birthday fell on a Saturday, I naturally turned it into a birthday weekend. I believe birthdays should be celebrated….even if I am closer to 40 than 30. On that note, let’s change the subject.

I knew exactly how I wanted to start my birthday – with a long run. Abby must have read my mind and emailed me mid-week asking if I was up for a birthday run. Of course.

It always snows on my birthday. Always. But luckily Nemo didn’t destroy our plans and we managed 13 snowy miles. It was a literal winter wonderland (much like my 16-miler a few weeks ago).

Next up was spending the rest of the day with Matt and Hawk. We strolled around Chestnut Hill (a cute neighborhood in Philly) briefly, until it became too cold.

I have been fighting a cold all week long. By 6PM I was a snotty mess and felt awful. I tried to rally to go out to dinner but we ending up ordering pizza and watching a movie. I was in bed by 10:30. Party hardy.

But, it being my birthday weekend, we are doing dinner tonight instead. Followed by The Walking Dead. Oh, how times have changed.

What’s your ideal way to celebrate your birthday? For one of my birthdays, I really want to “run my age”. Too bad I wasn’t running marathons back when I turned 26.