Leigh Valley Marathon

Bachelorette Fun: Saturday Night

June 28, 2011 by Kristy 4 Comments

6/28/11
6 miles tempo / 50:40 / 8:26 avg pace
*3 miles at 7:45 pace. My actual times were 7:48, 7:57, and 7:57. I struggled with the last 2 tempo miles. I hate having to do 2 hard days back-to-back but I’ll be away this weekend so I had to get it done.

As promised, here’s part II of our weekend!

Saturday started out perfect…with a 3-mile run in Avalon with Sara! I’m training Sara and her 2 co-workers for the Philly Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. Sara is superwoman – works full-time, mom of 3 (oldest is 7!), and she’s training for her 4th half marathon. This run is exactly what I needed after my 20-miler on Friday. We had a great run and got to gawk at the many gorgeous homes along the water.

DSCN1198 — This isn't a hotel...this is someone's house!

We spent the majority of Saturday on the beach and sipping cocktails along the water. Ahhhh…

Saturday night was more drinking and dancing…best described in pictures 🙂

DSCN1202 — The bachelorette all ready for a night at the shore!

DSCN1213 — And it was Trish's birthday! Cookie cake is the best.

268430_2178702068165_1265289090_32596097_5837110_n — Group shot (Trish is really enjoying her birthday!)

It was an awesome weekend and I can’t wait to do it all over again in 1 month at Amanda’s wedding!

Bachelorette Fun: Friday Night

June 27, 2011 by Kristy 6 Comments

6/27/11
6 miles speed

After a fun-filled weekend of going out, drinking, and little sleep, I was dreading the track this morning. Dreading it. I peeked at my plan last night praying for something semi-easy but instead saw 3×1600 at 7:11 pace. Ugh, mile repeats…my nemesis. I took the liberty of increasing my “rest period” between intervals to 400m instead of 1 minute.

1st interval: 7:11. Right on target.
2nd interval: 7:08. Really?!
3rd interval: 7:05. Huh?! I should eat junk food, not sleep, and drink beer more often! I can’t believe I wanted to skip this workout when my alarm went off this morning.

Onto more fun stuff! I’m totally milking this bachelorette recap into 2 posts, so let’s begin with Friday 😉

Friday night was relaxing…sitting around chatting, dinner, more chatting (and drinking), and then going to the hotel bar later on. My legs felt great despite the 20 (very early) miles that morning and I even managed to stay up until 2:00AM! Some pictures…

DSCN1167 — Me, Amanda (bride-to-be), and Michelle

More pictures tomorrow! Off to work for a very long day. It’s going to take me a few days to fully recover from the weekend…just in time for the 4th of July!

How To Run 20 Miles And Survive A Bachelorette Party

June 21, 2011 by Kristy 20 Comments

6/24/11
20 miles / 2:57 / 8:51 avg pace
*This was a tough one. It was so humid you could cut the air with a knife. My average pace felt hard and there wasn’t an inch of me that was dry. Check out my shorts post-run (I can’t believe I’m posting this awful close-up). I wore my Lululemon Willpower shorts and they are absolutely fantastic. Nike tempo what?!

This weekend is my friend Amanda’s bachelorette party so I’m heading down the shore today for some drinking and dancing with the Mains. So what am I doing to ensure I can still dance (and stay awake) after 20 miles?

1. Drink chocolate milk immediately post-run. I literally put the chocolate milk in a thermos and wrap it in an ice pack so I can drink it right away. I don’t mess around!

2. Foam roll. I spent a good 10 minutes foam rolling when I got home.

3. Ice bath. I generally don’t ice bath but I’ll take all the help I can get today.

4. Coffee/carbs/water. After a 5:00AM wake-up call, I desperately need coffee in order to hang tonight. And then I’ll need lots of water to counteract the dehydration from the 20-miler, coffee, and (eventually) beer. I’ll also be eating a mini-meal of carbs every 3-4 hours. Empty stomach + beer = bad news.

5. If all else fails, drink beer. It’ll numb the soreness in your legs! Yes, that is asparagus on the side there. You need to balance out the beer with some healthy eats.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Fatigue Is Your Friend

June 17, 2011 by Kristy 10 Comments

6/17/11
17 miles / 2:35 / 9:07 avg pace
*A 4:45 wake-up call and I’m home calling into a meeting at 8:30! I love Friday morning long runs. Today I did my version of long, slow distance. I’m aiming to run a few of my long runs a little slower this cycle.

I had an aha moment the other night reading Born To Run. They were talking about embracing fatigue…and the only way to really conquer fatigue in training and racing is to learn to love it. Very interesting! Fatigue won’t be going away anytime soon (unless someone comes up with that magic pill so we can all run tirelessly for hours) so we might as well welcome it like a house guest.

Whether or not you hit the Wall during a marathon, you will experience fatigue to some extent. Fatigue can be the Grim Reaper to some or just a god-awful pacer to others (I tend to experience the latter). But what if we anticipate it’s arrival and embrace it? We won’t give in; we won’t let fatigue slow us down. We become friends with fatigue. Imagine that!

Call me loony but I’m giving this a go. Seriously. I’m welcoming fatigue during my hard effort runs – speed, tempo, and long. It can only help with my mental game come 9/11/11.

source

I want to give a HUGE shout out to Cindi (my running twin) and Sarah, Jennifer, and Heather (Always Training Trio) who are all running the Grandma’s Marathon tomorrow! Best of luck ladies!

Random Thursday

June 16, 2011 by Kristy 7 Comments

6/16/11

5 miles easy / no Garmin

Does anyone know how to transfer your Garmin split times from the Garmin Training Center to a post? Or, am I clueless? I’ve tried the good ol’ cut-and-paste but that doesn’t work. I have the Garmin 305…maybe it can’t be done with that model? I find that hard to believe though. Any help would be appreciated!

So I’m halfway through Born To Run (LOVE IT!) and they just talked about barefoot running. I’m shocked to say this but I found their arguments (they were pro-barefoot running) very compelling. I’m a tough person to convince too; I’m both flat-footed and bow legged. I rely on both my beloved Brooks Adrenaline GTS and orthotics to keep me injury-free (and it works…I’m one of those “mutants” that Chris McDougall refers to). But now I can see how barefoot running would help someone battling chronic injuries. As a coach I shouldn’t be so close-minded. I’m not about to jump on the barefoot bandwagon (if it ain’t broke…) but I definitely want to read more about it.
Not 1 but 2 people Googled “we love Chuck Bass” and got directed to my blog. Awesome.

Do you or someone you know run barefoot or in VFFs? What do you think of the whole barefoot running phenomenon?

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?