marathon

I need to work on my race face…

October 5, 2011 by Kristy 11 Comments

The plus side to a small marathon (or down side, depends on how you look at it) is there are plenty of pictures of just you running the race. From all timepoints. Looking oh so fabulous.

I rarely like race photos. I look miserable (even if I wasn’t during the race) and always appear to be race walking.

Because we can all use a good laugh on this Wednesday, I’m sharing my Lehigh Valley Marathon race photos. Even the horrendous ones. You are welcome.

Smilin’ and overstridin’ during the early miles.

Things are getting tough as I enter yet another towpath…but I manage a half-assed wave.

Still on that towpath and not looking happy.

I’m en route to a BQ here, seconds away from the finish line. Do I look happy? No. I was trying desperately to hold it together (i.e., not cry) so I guess that’s the reason for the pained look.

How about a fist pump though?

This is a typical Kristy crossing the finish line photo – obsessed with stopping the Garmin at the precise time and never looking at the camera.

Now I’m beginning to cry and I’m just overwhelmed with emotion but there were no tears.

This one takes the cake…doesn’t it scream BQer? 😉 No wonder the volunteers rushed over to me!

Got any good race photos to share? And fess up…do you actually buy any of your race photos? I never have…just because they are so awful!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

September 20, 2011 by Kristy 20 Comments

This blog is only about 9 months old so many of you have only seen a brief snapshot of my running. I want to walk down memory lane and show you how far I’ve come in 10 years. This post is not about bragging but about showing you that anything is possible…if you want it badly enough. For me, qualifying and running the Boston Marathon were dreams of mine for the past 10 years. I’m sure people thought I was crazy talking about BQing when I was still hours (yes, hours) away from my BQ time. But Boston was always in the back of my mind during every marathon.

Marathon #1: Marine Corps Marathon 2004 – 5:12
My goal was to finish. I treated this marathon like a party. I stopped and chatted with Matt, I stopped for pee breaks, I stopped for stretch breaks. I seriously spent a half hour stopping.

Marathon #2: NYC Marathon 2005 – 4:36
A huge improvement but I should have done some hill work.

Marathon #3: Marine Corps Marathon 2006 – 4:58
I had a terrible training cycle and my head just wasn’t in it. I was ready to quit at mile 10.

Marathon #4: Marine Corps Marathon 2007 – 4:11
I told you I loved the MCM! I was finally beginning to make some progress here. I was ecstatic with this time!

Marathon #5: Philly Marathon 2008 – 4:12
Oh, I was pissed about this one. It was 15 degrees at the start…I never warmed up and my lungs burned since I wasn’t acclimated to the cold yet. Just awful.

2009: I took a year off marathoning to get married, buy a house, and honeymoon in Europe 🙂

Marathon #6: Pocono Marathon May 2010 – 4:13
I was livid about this race. It was much hillier than I thought (this is the sole reason why I always train for the worst case scenario). I hated the marathon and the course. I had a great training cycle but hit the wall HARD at mile 19. Up until mile 19, I was on track for a sub-4:00 but I fell apart mentally. At this point I was SO SICK of finishing in the 4:1x range.

Marathon #7: Steamtown Marathon October 2010 – 3:58
Redemption! Finally, a sub-4:00! This was a great marathon too. Gotta love the downhills.

Marathon #8: New Jersey Marathon May 2011 – 3:52
We all know what happened here…

Marathon #9: Lehigh Valley Marathon September 2011 – 3:43
BQ BABY!

How did I manage to shave off 30 minutes from May 2010 to September 2011? Hard work and determination. I’m not naturally speedy. I didn’t run track or cross country in high school or college. I didn’t hit the running genetic jackpot. I’m just an average runner who dreamed big. That’s it. If I can do it, so can you.

Tomorrow’s post will focus on what I did physically and mentally to shave those 30 minutes off.

Do you have big running dreams? Share them!

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.

Quick update! Please, please vote for RTLR for CBS Philly’s Most Valuable Blogger. Voting is very easy – just 1 click and you’re done. You can vote once per day (don’t worry I’ll remind ya!). You can vote here or go to my home page and click on the badge. THANKS!

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!

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.

Two-A-Days

July 19, 2011 by Kristy 6 Comments

Let’s talk two-a-days, doing doubles, or whatever you wanna call them!

I was supposed to run with a running group last night but the person I was going to meet couldn’t make it. I know from last week’s run that they only do about 4 miles and it’s at a slower pace. I was prepared this week to add an additional AM run to get more miles in. Both of these runs being easy, of course. I ended up doing 4 miles at night on my own (it was ungodly hot), bringing yesterday’s total to 11. I’m not a fan of two-a-days – I don’t think they are necessary.

Here’s what Advanced Marathoning has to say about two-a-days:

As you increase your mileage in preparation for a marathon, you should resist the urge to switch from single to double runs.
Marathon training focuses on endurance-based adaptions such as depleting your glycogen reserves to provide a stimulus for your body to store more glycogen and training your muscles to ulitize more fat at a given speed. You’ll provide a greater stimulus for these adaptions through a single 12-mile run, rather than a 7-miler and a 5-miler done at the same pace.

I wasn’t even going to paraphrase because it was so well said! I 100% agree with Pete Pfitzinger. Imagine splitting your 20-mile long run into 10 and 10?! Bottom line: It’s not the same and you will not reap the same benefits!

Another reason to forego two-a-days? Double the number of showers and gross, sweaty laundry!

While I would have preferred to run 11 miles (at once) yesterday morning, I made the best of the situation. This running group isn’t permanent and, as long as the two-a-day is 2 easy runs, I’m OK with it for the short term.

Have you ever done two-a-days when training for a race? Like ’em or hate ’em?

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!