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foam roller

My Top Tips

June 15, 2011 by Kristy 6 Comments

6/15/11

8 miles easy / 1:12 / 9:00 avg pace

Last night I was scrolling through my list of blog topics (I keep a list on my BlackBerry), trying to decide what to write about.  “My Top Tips” seemed intriguing (to me, at least).  These are marathon/half marathon training tips that I swear by.  My intention is to list the less obvious stuff; maybe things you don’t hear all the time.

Know The Course
The race course, that is.  Check out the elevation profile and do some research.   Ask around, check out marathonguide.com, and find out as much as you can.  But remember, hills are subjective!  Some people think rolling hills are mountains while others think a 1-mile climb is flat.  After you gather your information, train for the worst case scenario.  I’ve gotten burned in the past (“it’s a flat course, no major hills”).  Riiiiight.  I learned my lesson last May.  Now, if I know there’s one small hill, I’ll incorporate hill work just to be on the safe side.

Delete Your Garmin History Pre-Race
Of course, you’ll charge your Garmin obsessively before the race but it’s also important to delete the history so you avoid getting that nasty warning message during a race.  Upload all of your data to your computer and then delete the history on the watch itself.  I’ve never gotten the “memory full” warning during a race but it did happen on a 20-miler once.

How Am I Going To Carry All Of That?
GUs, ShotBloks, oh my.  Add an iPod or water bottle to the mix and suddenly you’ve got a lot to carry.  There are a lot of options out there – fuel belt, SPIbelt, race ready shorts (you know you want them!) – but, as with everything, you need to find what works best for you.  Experiment on long runs and take note of any bouncing, moving around, chafing/irritation, and bruising (yup, some are brutal).  Make sure you test it on a 20 mile run too.  Some things don’t rear their ugly head until the later miles.

Foam Roller + Ice = Your New Best Friends
This is more of an obvious one.  If anything hurts, foam roll it and ice it.  And be consistent – repeat a few times a day.  This could prevent that “twinge” or “tweak” from becoming an injury.  A little time spent with your new BFs can save you lots of time later on in training.  Runner’s World has some great videos on how to use a foam roller.

Refuel After Hard Efforts
Your body will thank you the next day.  Trust me.  A hard effort is a long run, a tempo run, a speed workout, etc.  It’s important to refuel within 30 minutes post-run with a 3:1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio food/drink.  Chocolate milk fits the bill and who doesn’t love an excuse to drink more chocolate milk?

What training/race day tips do you swear by?

The Last 22

April 9, 2011 by Kristy 11 Comments

4/9/11

22 miles

3:10:44

8:40 avg pace <– that’s 5 sec/mile BELOW my goal marathon pace!

Heeeellllloooo, taper!  I welcome you with open arms!  If you’re thinking why the hell would I run below GMP, see here.  I hadn’t planned on it actually, just wanted to run close to GMP and end on a good note.

Instead of boring you with 22 split times, I’ll include some random thoughts about today’s run.  Please note I’m on a crazy endorphin high right now so I hope this makes sense.

  • I definitely think a 3:50 is within my reach.
  • I treated this run like race day.  I started out running 9:00 pace and gradually decreased the pace from there.
  • I felt really good at Mile 13 so I picked up the pace and wondered how long I could hold it for.  I made it to Mile 22 🙂
  • I was tired at the end but still had gas in the tank.
  • I definitely improved my mental game this training cycle….mind over matter means more to me than you can even imagine!
  • I thought about Boston a lot during this run.  For Boston 2012, I will be 35 years old…meaning (for 2012 ONLY) I could qualify with a 3:45.  Could it be a possibility?  What if…?  I didn’t train to BQ in May but it’s very tempting to have it so close within my reach.  At least temporarily.  Once 2013 comes, it’s back to 3:40.
  • I loved every second of this run.  I hope after 3 weeks of taper I can repeat this come May 1.

I came home and immediately devoured chocolate milk and foam rolled.

Woo hoo! Sorry for the gross close-up of my arm.
Hawk helps me foam roll. I'm only 5'5", not the giant this picture makes me out to be.
Super attractive

I want to give a huge shout out to my sister-in-law, Desiree, who ran her first 5K today!!!  She totally rocked it, like I knew she would, and I think she’s been bitten by the running bug!

 

 

 

 

Tiger Tail vs. Foam Roller

March 9, 2011 by Kristy 2 Comments

About a month ago I bought a Tiger Tail.  It looks like this:

Why did I decide to buy a Tiger Tail over a foam roller?  Not sure, but you can say I was definitely clueless.  I had never used either before, nor had I ever held one (never had the need to).  I thought the Tiger Tail would be more portable and would “hit the spot” more than a foam roller.  I assumed the foam roller was soft (ever jump into a foam pit?).  I bought a foam roller yesterday and the word foam is definitely a misnomer.  There is nothing soft and comfy about this thing.  The foam roller HITS the spot.  Boy oh boy.  What prompted me to buy one?  I watched Jen’s video on foam rolling 101 and it looked pretty effective.  I used it yesterday on my glute/hamstring.  Let’s just say that my glute/hamstring felt fine pre-roll and hurt post-roll.  Not painful, but similar to the hurts-so-good pigeon pose.  I think my Tiger Tail may begin to gather dust…

Tomorrow begins the Monster Month before taper time.  Apparently I’m supposed to run 3 more 20-milers?!   We’ll see.  I always do 4 20-milers; I’m not sure how much benefit I’ll gain by adding a 5th.

I have 2 races coming up in April that I’m really excited about.  More on that in another post though!

PS – Check out Aron’s blog for a giveaway!

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