marathon pace

Progression Run Love

February 5, 2012 by Kristy 18 Comments

After a rough 20-miler last weekend I wanted to try a different approach for this weekend’s long run. I wanted to avoid going out too fast in the beginning but also wanted to include some marathon-paced miles towards the end. Since it always takes me forever to warm up in the winter, starting out slower gives me a chance to warm up naturally (not forcing it) all while saving energy for the later miles. I love progression runs so I decided on the following…

3 miles at 9:00 pace
4 miles at 8:50 pace
4 miles at 8:40 pace
the remaining miles at 8:30 or faster pace…this would give me about 7 miles near MP.

I didn’t do so bad…

It’s funny, my legs went on autopilot and resorted to old marathon paces – 9:00, 8:45, and 8:30. I had a hard time keeping myself at 8:50 or 8:40.

Overall, I was pretty pleased. I felt great; it didn’t feel too taxing and I had energy at the end of the run.

Are you a fan of progression runs?

Do you have a pace that your legs automatically gravitate towards? I was stuck at 9:00 minute/miles for awhile before I started doing speedwork. My legs always gravitate towards this pace.

Thursday Thoughts

January 12, 2012 by Kristy 19 Comments

I woke up this morning to torrential rain, despite weather.com’s hourly forecast assuring me that there would only be a 50% chance of rain at 6AM. Ugh. I’m all for running in the rain (especially when it’s 50 degrees in January), but voluntarily running in a downpour is a bit much. My mind starts spinning. How am I going to fit in my tempo run? I could do it on the treadmill or get to work early so I can leave early and do it then. Outside running (even at night) trumps treadmill running any day. Decision made.

I get into work by 7:15AM and manage to spill my coffee not once but twice. The first time on myself as I juggled 2 bags and an umbrella. The second time all over my mouse pad. I dry off the mouse pad, let it air dry, and stick my planner under the mouse. Ugh.

If today continues this way, at least I have my run to look forward to.

I was out the door for my run by 4:15PM. I’m not the best after-work runner but I was aiming for 8 miles total, with 6 at MP (8:15-8:20 pace). Success! MP splits: 8:17, 8:13, 8:17, 8:19, 8:15, 8:14 <– consistency!

Other random thoughts…

I love Running Times. I just got my first 2 issues in the mail this weekend. Way better than Runners World, if you’re a run nerd like me. No fluff, just good articles with quality information.

I’m not so in love with my Brooks Adrenaline 12s. I know, this is blasphemous. I’ve been wearing them for 2 months now with no issues (note: I’ve been wearing them for 11 years with no issues as well). This past weekend, the right shoe started to rub the inside of my ankle the wrong way. My inner ankle is now swollen and sore. I switched back to my Adrenaline 11s and I’m fine. Comparing the 2 side-by-side you can tell the 12s are cut higher on the inner ankle than the 11s. Waaaah! Now I’m running in an old pair of 11s while my new pair of 12s sit in my closet.

Is anyone else super excited about the Olympic Marathon Trials? I would love to be in Houston, spectating and soaking it all in!

Is it true there will be no live coverage of the Trials?

Is anyone else having a similar problem with the Adrenaline 12s?

Lehigh Valley Marathon: Week 14 Recap

September 6, 2011 by Kristy 8 Comments

9/5/11 (Monday)
5 miles tempo
*2 miles at marathon pace: 8:13 and 8:10. Way too fast…I blame it on the taper crazies!

Labor Day weekend was wonderful. I rested, got some stuff knocked off the ol’ to-do list, BBQ’d, and slept. I slept like a champ…9+ hours each night. More time spent sleeping = less time for the taper crazies to strike.

And the taper crazies made me order this for Hawk’s Halloween costume. Sorry, buddy.

MON: rest
TUE: 6 miles speed (my last speed work of this training cycle!)
WED: 5 miles easy
THU: 6 miles easy
FRI: 10 miles long
SAT: rest
SUN: 6 miles tempo (4 miles at MP)

A total of 33 miles for the week and 229 miles for the month of August! That’s a new mileage PR for me! Damn, I should have ran an extra mile to make it an even 230.

So what’s left? Two more easy runs…probably 4 miles on Thursday and 3 miles on Friday and lots of marathon prep. You know…lists, weather checking, and repeating of positive mantras!

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Hurricane Irene

August 29, 2011 by Kristy 9 Comments

We survived Hurricane Irene! It wasn’t much of a hurricane by the time it hit Philly. Other than lots of rain, the wind wasn’t too bad. Luckily, we didn’t lose power or suffer any water damage to our house. I can’t say the same for my beloved running trail. It was swallowed up by the Schuylkill River. Hawk and I went on a little walk yesterday to survey the damage first-hand (I’m a bad blogger and didn’t bring my camera). Yikes! I feel terrible for the people that live around there; they had to evacuate. So I should quit my complaining about finding an alternate running route for the next few days.

I dubbed this past weekend my “getting caught up on life” weekend. If I’m gonna be stuck inside, why not tackle my to-do list? On the top of my list was cleaning out my closet and finally hanging this up…

I love it. It got this back in December and picked out the perfect spot for it (yes, my closet – it’s a large walk-in and I figured it would be out of the way). I hung half marathons on the end and marathons in the middle. That’s a lot of races!

My favorite medal would have to be the NJ Marathon. Pretty classy for Jersey (I kid, I kid).

Hawk didn’t seem too perturbed about the hurricane.

DSCN1628 — Matt had just finished a day of painting and laid on the floor to take a nap. Hawk couldn't resist.

Matt and I were well stocked with essentials.

DSCN1639 — Aforementioned painting took place in the kitchen, hence no outlet covers.

We tried to watch the movie True Grit but could not get over Jeff Bridges talking out the side of his mouth. We literally could not understand a word he said and turned off the movie. House Hunters was way better anyway.

In running news, I moved my tempo run to Saturday because of the hurricane and ended up doing an easy run. My legs were NOT in the mood for more MP miles the day after a 22-miler. So I kept it easy and my super Type A self didn’t seem to mind. Imagine that.

If you were trapped in the house this weekend because of Irene what did you do?
Do you watch House Hunters or (even better) House Hunters International? We are obsessed.

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Lehigh Valley Marathon: Week 11 Recap

August 17, 2011 by Kristy 5 Comments

8/17/11
7 miles speed
*3 x 1600m with 400m rest interval between repeats – all done at 10K pace.

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We are getting to the very end here, folks. Last week went very well, probably because it was a drop week and my legs felt rested.

MON: 6 easy
TUE: 7 speed (and my new found love for 10K pace!)
WED: 7 easy
THU: rest
FRI: 20 (#4 – pretty close to MP too!)
SAT: rest
SUN: 7 tempo

47 miles for the week!

Taper
I’m taking a different approach with my taper this cycle. I’m doing the traditional 3 week taper in terms of reducing my overall mileage but I’m doing a 2 week taper in terms of my last long run (22-miler). This week I hope to hit 55 miles (that will be my max for this cycle) but I’ll only be running 15 miles on Friday. Next week I’ll keep my mileage in the low to mid-40s but I’ll do a 22-miler. I think this is going to work out way better mentally for me. I hate the 3 week lag time between your 22-miler and the race. I always begin to doubt myself.

Question of the day: What’s your go-to mantra during a race? What are you most likely to repeat over and over again to finish strong? I’ve gotten much better but I used to battle negative thoughts all the time so I began to say “let go” (as in let go of the negativity). Sounds so silly but it really worked. I also like “if you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t”. So true!

Three Things Tuesday

August 15, 2011 by Kristy 15 Comments

8/16/11
11 miles tempo / 1:33 / 8:27 avg pace
*1 mile warm-up and 10 miles at MP (8:35). Splits: 8:09, 8:07, 8:11, 8:14, 8:18 – I felt like I was running too fast so I checked my splits and slowed down for the remaining 5 miles – 8:38, 8:37, 8:29, 8:28, 8:25.

Isn’t it supposed to be Three Things Thursday? Hmm, not sure. Oh well, go with it.

Redemption Tempo
This morning I got a second chance to do a tempo run that I attempted 2 weeks ago. It didn’t go so well the first time but I was able to get some redemption today. The trail was soft and mushy from all the rain, which made it even harder to maintain MP but that’s OK with me. I always want to prepare for the worst case scenario and then, if it’s not so bad, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. Does that make me a pessimist or a realist?

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Garmin “Pace Smoothing”
Maybe you all knew this but I found out there is a way to minimize how much your pace fluctuates on your Garmin. When I was training for NJM, I was getting annoyed at how often my pace would go from 7:30 to 10:00 to 9:00, etc. Even though my effort was consistent, my Garmin pace wasn’t. My Garmin is only 2 years old (I have the 305). I looked up the problem and it directed me to something called “pace smoothing”.

Per the Garmin manual, pace smoothing averages your current pace over a certain amount of time to avoid errors in GPS position and speed due to varying satellite signal recognition. When you turn on or increase pace smoothing, the pace shown on your Forerunner is steadier. It did help, although I still think there could be something wrong with my Garmin since I never had an issue until this year. But I’m too dependent on my Garmin to part with it and get it looked at!

How to “pace smooth” (at least on the 305 model): mode –> settings –> running –> speed units –> smoothing. I’m using “most” for the least amount of fluctuation.

Are you addicted to your Garmin? Can you run without it? Even better question, can you RACE without it? No way Jose…I’m addicted!