marathon pace

It's Monday Again?

August 15, 2011 by Kristy 10 Comments

8/15/11
7 miles easy…Garmin-free!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! This is the second weekend in-a-row that Matt and I didn’t have to travel anywhere and it was fabulous.

Friday
I had a very early wake-up call (4:30AM) for a 20-miler. It went well and I felt pretty good throughout the day. That night, my friends from high school came over. We sat out on the deck, ate pizza, drank (well, I did most of the drinking), and chatted the night away. It was so good to see everyone. We only get together a few times a year and I always look forward to it.

Saturday
I didn’t get to bed until midnight on Friday (super late for this grandma) but, of course, woke-up at 7AM. Normally that’s “sleeping in” but it was my rest day and I wanted to take full advantage of it. Oh well. Matt and I ran some exciting errands (looking for granite countertops and bathrooms floors). By 5:00, I was a zombie. We re-watched The Hangover and I was in bed by 9:30. Don’t judge.

Sunday
It was raining so I donned my hat (the only time I sport a hat, you can see why below) and went outside to run my 7-mile tempo. I love to run in the rain in the summer – it’s so refreshing. 5 miles at 8:00 pace with a mile WU and a mile CD: 8:19, 8:00, 8:02, 7:54, 8:20. I dodged puddles and ran in the grass for the first and last tempo miles.

This is a familiar site – soaking wet shorts. See why I don’t wear a hat? I think some people have a good head for hats and I do not. My head is rather large and so is my hair. And I look like a boy.

On Sunday afternoon, Hawk had a very special play date! My friend Michelle brought her daughter, Charlotte, over for a visit. Charlotte loves dogs so we thought it would be cute to get them together.

DSCN1537 — hawk is OK but posing for the camera is way more fun

Question of the day: did anyone run in the rain yesterday or did you stick to the TM? Do you like to run in the rain? I like to run in the mud too. I need to sign up for one of those mud races.

20 Miles, Take 4

August 12, 2011 by Kristy 19 Comments

8/12/11
20 miles / 2:52:52 / 8:38 avg pace

It’s a beautiful day! When I got back to my car post-run the temp was 67?! Wow. Further evidence…my shorts were (somewhat) dry after my run! If you can’t tell, I’m holding up 4 fingers because this is my 4th 20-miler…obviously.

I felt pretty good throughout this run, aside from some GI issues around mile 14. This is odd for me, usually business is taken care of pre-run (sorry, I mean how else can you talk about this topic?). Isn’t funny how your GI tract knows exactly where the bathrooms are and notifies you? OK, movin’ on…

Splits – the first 10 miles. I was in complete awe of the sunrise this morning (I need to bring my camera – it’s unreal) and you can tell I didn’t start getting serious until mile 6.

The second 10 miles. I’m happy to see I picked up the pace at mile 14. Mile 19 was an awful hill…but I rebounded nicely with mile 20 🙂

So. Happy. To. Be. Done! Beer and pizza tonight with friends…and we all know how much better it tastes after a long run!

Unrelated question of the day: I’m thinking of switching to wordpress.org but I need to choose a web host. Anyone have suggestions? How is Blue Host? Has anyone used Revive My Blog?

Lehigh Valley Marathon: Week 10 Recap

August 10, 2011 by Kristy 9 Comments

8/10/11
7 miles easy / 1:05 / 9:17 avg pace

Thanks for your comments on my running etiquette post. The verdict? Those guys were in the wrong and total creepers!

I had to double-check which week I was recapping. It’s all starting to mush together towards the end.

MON: 7 at marathon pace
TUE: 8 speed
WED: 8 easy
THU: REST!
FRI: 15 long
SAT: 5 easy
SUN: 10 tempo

53 miles for the week and 6 days of running (normal for me is 5 days per week). I figured I’d give it a shot but I really prefer 2 rest days.

I was looking over an old post I wrote at the beginning of this training cycle, where I laid out my plans for changing things up and doing things different. Overall I’m doing pretty good:

increase overall mileage — CHECK
switching between hill repeats and track workouts — decided against this since I need the speed work to BQ and my long runs are plenty hilly.
trail running — CHECK. Every tempo run has been done on a trail.
long runs (do some at LSD and some at MP) — CHECK. Thanks to the humidity, the choice as to which runs were LSD was made for me 🙂
cross-train (yoga and strength train) — FAIL! I haven’t been to a single yoga class yet and I went to 1 strength training class.

Somehow, I always imagined that running alone could transform my body into this…

(via)

I’m delusional but I can dream, right? I know it takes a steady dose of strength training (and good genes) to look like Kara. So yesterday I did an at-home, completely made-up, 20 minutes of ST. And it only confirmed that I need to go back to a class. Baby steps, right?

Unrelated question of the day: what do you use to track your runs? Daily Mile, etc? I’m thinking of ditching my excel spreadsheet for something more high tech!

An Ugly Tempo

August 8, 2011 by Kristy 14 Comments

8/8/11
6 miles easy / 57:50 / 9:38 avg pace

Sunday’s tempo run was downright ugly. I was supposed to do 1 mile easy and 10 miles at MP (8:35). I’ve been doing my tempo runs each week on a trail since my marathon has 12 miles of towpath. All week I kept thinking how good of a practice tempo this would be…really mimicking race day terrain and pace.

The result? An ugly tempo. I ended up with 10 miles total – 1 mile warm-up, 6 miles at MP, and 3 miles cool-down. The only highlight was my MP miles – a complete disaster in terms of consistency – but all at or under MP: 8:09, 8:17, 8:27, 8:09, 8:32, 8:33.

How did this run go from having great potential to ugly? It makes total sense now…

It was ungodly humid…repeat ungodly humid.
I was dehydrated. Matt and I were out and about all day Saturday and I wasn’t drinking enough water. Then we went to dinner and I had a few beers 🙂 The beers tasted especially good, since I was so thirsty!
I didn’t bring any salt caps with me.
I didn’t sleep much on Saturday night. We finally watched Paranormal Activity and I was terrified. I slept with one eye opened.
So…I was tired. And mentally I just wasn’t there. I really wanted to be back in bed sleeping.

I can’t be too upset. My long run was pretty much done at MP pace on Friday. So I know I cando it. I’m dropping back a few miles this week so I can rest up for my final 2 weeks before taper time!Let’s end on a positive note. We ended up going out for Matt’s birthday on Saturday night. We went to a very causal place so we could sit outside with Hawk.

DSCN1514 — Put me down and let me get back to my ice cubes

Do you like scary movies? I like them and then regret watching them all the time. Paranormal Activity was scary but still doesn’t top The Exorcist. That is hands-down the most terrifying movie I have ever seen.

Wedding Fun

August 1, 2011 by Kristy 11 Comments

8/1/11
7 miles / 59:51 / 8:33 avg pace

Another weekend, another wedding! Let’s start at the beginning…

FRIDAY
Matt and I drove to Baltimore on Friday afternoon. The wedding was at the beautiful Marriott Waterfront Hotel. The rehearsal dinner was that night and the bride and groom graciously opened up the event to all guests at 9PM. An open bar is the perfect way to recover from a 20-miler…thanks Amanda!

Baltimore at night.

The Bay Cafe. Sand floors and plenty of cold Miller Lite!

Late-night pizza and shenanigans.

SATURDAY
I started off Saturday with an easy 4-miler on the treadmill at the hotel gym. I wanted to sleep in but not deal with the heat so the treadmill was the only option.

We have been waiting for this wedding for a long time. Amanda and Mike are the last of the Mains – my close group of friends – to get married. Everyone was so excited for a weekend away (sans kids for many of them!).

Amanda and her dad walking down the aisle. Doesn’t she look beautiful?

Look at that veil…

The new Mr. & Mrs.

The cocktail hour was outside on a rooftop deck overlooking the waterfront. It was quite toasty but the perfect spot for a photo shoot.

Me and Matt. I’m desperately trying not to squint.

Hello Mains!

…and a little later on in the night…

One more…

All the lady Mains rounded up for a picture.

Congratulations Amanda and Mike! We had a fantastic time!

Lehigh Valley Marathon: Week 8 Recap

July 27, 2011 by Kristy 6 Comments

7/27/11
7 miles easy / 1:05 / 9:17 avg pace

I am more than halfway done this training cycle. Makes me excited and nervous at the same time. I hate to complain about the heat again, but it’s really starting to do a number on my confidence. I know that I can’t do anything about my pace when the humidity is off the charts but I was moving along so well! I was feeling good, handling more mileage, pulling through on speed work, running (near) marathon pace on long runs and then BAM. Everything came to a halt. So. frustrating.

Let’s review…

MON: 7 speed
TUE: 11 easy (7 AM and 4 PM)
WED: rest
THU: 8 easy
FRI: 17 long
SAT: 10 ~~tempo~~, MP, MP intervals
SUN: rest / 20 min yoga video

Highlights ~
1. Monday’s speed work, before the heat wave kicked in. This was a tough workout and I was very pleased with my times.
2. 53 miles for the week!
3. My ability to remain standing during Friday’s 17-miler. I’m not kidding! And Operation Hydration was a success!

And the not so good ~
1. Sunday’s run. Oh this sucked. Supposed to be a tempo run (3 miles at 7:44 pace). There was no way I could sustain that in the heat so I planned on doing a MP tempo. Riiight, scratch that too. Apparently MP was too much. So instead I would run MP for a mile, then recover for a mile, then repeat. Pathetic. The heat was a big factor but I was incredibly exhausted from Friday’s run and my legs felt like lead. I have never been so happy to finish a run.

Onto more positive stuff, I am so looking forward to the weekend! We are heading to Baltimore for my friend Amanda’s wedding. I even have Friday off. I’m squeezing all my runs in Monday to Friday this week so I can take 2 rest (hungover) days this weekend.

Since it is hump day, what are your plans for the weekend? Any long runs planned?