20 miler

20 Miles, Take 3

July 29, 2011 by Kristy 18 Comments

7/29/11
20 miles / 2:53 / 8:39 avg pace

Oh happy day! No work, a 20-miler, and a weekend away make for a good Friday.

The weather cooperated somewhat so I was able to finally push the pace. I’m getting sick of LSD runs.

Splits:

And some post-run pictures. Yes, I do tend to wear the same clothes each week. I was trying for a jump pose but that’s impossible to do with a self-timer so instead you get a bunch of missed jumps.

Gotta run (ha)…I need to drop Hawk off for the weekend and finish packing for Baltimore. Get ready for another wedding recap on Monday!

Happy Wedding Eve, Amanda! I cannot wait 🙂

20 Miles, Take 2

July 7, 2011 by Kristy 12 Comments

7/8/11
20 miles / 3:07 / 9:21 avg pace

One of my Dad’s favorite sayings is “no one ever drowned in sweat”. I think I came pretty close today. 90% humidity is no joke! I was planning on doing this run as a long, slow distance anyway but the weather gave me no choice. By mile 10 my shorts were drenched and sticking to me. Shortly after that, I started getting exhausted and my stomach started to cramp up. I dehydrate pretty easily so I always carry my handheld water bottle with me…and I refilled it 4 times! So after a 4:30AM wake-up call and 20 miles, I feel completely hungover – headache, nauseous, etc. Awesome. On days like today, it’s unavoidable. I drank a ton of water, ate Shot Bloks every 4 miles, and even took electrolyte tablets pre- and post-run.

But I need to recover quickly because tonight is summer wedding #2. My friend Wendy is getting married! I’m so happy for her!

Are you dealing with this ridiculous humidity too? Please feel free to vent!

Have a great weekend everyone!

I May Be A Believer After All…

February 21, 2011 by Kristy 4 Comments

2/21/11

6 miles speed

I get nervous every time I do speed work. I worry that I won’t hit my splits and that I’ll never get faster. I tell myself that I’m built for endurance, NOT speed. I’ve said numerous times that I was on the fence as to whether speed work makes a difference. I’m giving it a real, fair try this training cycle to see what happens. In the past, speed work has been very taxing on my body. I tend to take longer to recover and often my tempo and long runs suffer because of it. I was just reading in Brad Hudson’s Run Faster that runners whose strength is speed generally recover faster from speed work and runners whose strength is endurance (me!) recover faster from longer runs. The converse is also true which explains my prolonged recovery after speed work and my speedy recovery after 20-milers.

Today’s speed work called for 6×800 at 3:33 (7:06 pace). I did 5×800 (the 6th one so wasn’t happening…I was exhausted). My spilts: 3:34, 3:34, 3:33, 3:32, 3:32! Woohoo! Why was I so happy? Let me explain:

1. I have never done 800s this fast before. I generally hover around the 3:40 range. I was surprised I was so consistent too.

2. For the past 7 weeks, I’ve been doing speed work on the treadmill because of the weather. Today I went to the track (yeah!) but I was concerned about my ability to adequately pace myself. It’s so much easier on the treadmill – just set the pace and stick to it. The track is much harder.

3. I did a 20-miler 2 days ago! Now I’m wondering what my splits would be with fresh, rested legs!

So maybe all this speed nonsense is helping?! Could it be that I’m a believer in speed work? Nine more weeks of speed work plus a little bit of confidence in myself and who knows what’ll happen?

I’ll leave you with this picture from SF (technically Stinson Beach, CA). This is how I felt after my run today…

Mm Hmm

January 28, 2011 by Kristy 11 Comments

1/28/11

60 min yoga

Snowstorm #86 brought a ton of snow. All in all, I think we got around 15-16 inches. I wanted to get some easy miles in today but decided to hold off on that until Sunday when I’ll have access to a plowed trail. So instead I went to RYAH for a lunchtime vinyasa class. The class was OK but the teacher kept saying “mm hmm” the whole time. I noticed it early on and became fixated on it…then it began to drive me crazy.

“Downward facing dog to high plank, mm hmm”

“Breathe in, flat back, mm hmm”

“Hold it right there for 1 more breath, mm hmm”

Ahhh! Make it stop!

Thankfully she refrained from “mm hmm” during savasana.

Moving on to running-related stuff…

I have a 20-miler tomorrow…yeah! This is my first of 5 (yikes) 20-milers. I usually do 4 during a training cycle so 5 should be interesting.

A few weeks ago I bought a Tiger Tail Rolling Muscle Massager to help with some of the tightness in my right hamstring (which, thanks to yoga, has all but went away). I really like it. I use it on my hamstrings after my runs and I find it more effective than stretching.

I took some pre-yoga pics today to show you how I use it (because it’s so difficult to figure out).