NJ Marathon

A Steamy 10-Miler and Week 16 Recap

April 25, 2011 by Kristy 8 Comments

4/24/11 (yesterday)

10 miles

1:32

9:12 avg pace

Spring turned into full blown summer here in Philly. It was 67 degrees when I started running on Sunday (at 8am!) with lots of sun and humidity. Initially the weather felt great but by mile 3 I was feeling the heat. My 9:00 pace felt hard; my breathing and heart rate were more indicative of an 8:30 pace. The miles dragged on and on. I wanted to end with a few miles at marathon pace but there was just no way.

I’m definitely the type of runner that needs to acclimate to hot or cold weather. Sudden, big swings in temperature are not good. It takes about 2 weeks to acclimate myself and then I’m fine. Today’s run wasn’t the best confidence booster for the marathon but I know it was 100% due to the heat. Thankfully the forecast for Sunday’s race is calling for mostly cloudy with a high of 63 and a low of 53. I’d prefer it to be a little colder but I’ll take what I can get!

Week 16 recap of NJ Marathon training:
MON: rest
TUE: 6 miles at marathon pace
WED: 6 miles tempo
THU: rest
FRI: 6 miles easy
SAT: rest
SUN: 10 miles “long”

28 miles for the week. The taper is working because I feel lazy and sluggish 🙂

Do you need to acclimate to hot or cold weather?

Random Thursday

April 21, 2011 by Kristy 8 Comments

Rest day!

Some random thoughts and pictures…

I’m having a much calmer taper week this week compared to last week. I was a mess last week obsessing about goals and other things that are out of my control. Poor Matt.
Speaking of goals, I promise to do a post next week about my A, B, and C goals. I’m still thinking about it and it’s also a little unnerving to post your goals for ~~the whole world~~ a few people to see.
It’s all easy runs from here on out. I want my legs to be fresh, fresh, fresh for the marathon. Better to have more rest than less rest.
Some fun things people searched for and got directed to my blog: what to do when you don’t want to run, chewed up dog bed, marathon training and green beans (my favorite), and dad running (odd…my Dad doesn’t run).
I apologize to the runners searching for the Penn Relays 20K results and got directed to my blog. Since the race does no advertising, they got Run The Long Road. Lucky runners.
Oh, speaking of that race…I placed 7 out of 15 in my age group (30 to 39). Not too shabby considering it was a training run!

I’m done rambling…here are some random pictures.

358 — Pompeii, Italy: supposed to be marveling at old ruins but this was much more fun

024 — Bar crawl in Montreal = very good time

That’s all the randomness I can take.

*If you don’t mind, please “like” this link on Facebook. Mark Keeley, a Philadelphia Gas Works employee, was killed in a gas explosion in January (he was only 19). He was a diehard Mumford and Sons fan and was planning to travel down south to see them live this year. His family and friends created a Facebook page in hopes of bringing the band to Philly this summer so everyone can see them live. They were told it can happen if the idea “gets enough attention”. They already have 13,000+ “likes”.

Week 15 Recap

April 19, 2011 by Kristy 2 Comments

4/19/11

6 miles

52:00

8:40 avg pace

First things first, let’s talk about Boston! Unbelievable, right? Desiree Davila taking second place and missing first by a mere 2 seconds. Geoffrey Mutai ran the fastest marathon ever, 2:03:02, but it won’t be considered a world record since the Boston course is point-to-point and has a net downhill elevation. So how fast was Mutai running? Oh, you know, just your normal 4:30 pace! I can’t even fathom that amount of speed for 26.2 miles! Impressive finishes all around.

Kara Goucher came in 5th place with a 1-minute PR just 6 and a half months after having a baby. Damn! Check out the Runner’s World post-race interview and video here.

Onto today’s run. I was supposed to hit the track for my last round of speed work and decided a marathon-paced run would be a better fit. I just don’t see the point of tiring out my legs with 1000m repeats. I’d rather practice my goal marathon pace (8:40); which I followed precisely 🙂

Week 15 Recap of NJ Marathon training:
MON: 7 miles easy
TUE: 5 miles speed + yoga
WED: rest
THU: rest
FRI: 5 miles tempo (fail!)
SAT: rest
SUN: 12.5 miles (Penn Relays 20K)

Only 29.5 miles for the week. I was hoping for 32 miles but Friday’s tempo just didn’t work out as planned. The good news is my asthma is much better and I’ll still be on antibiotics for another week. Yeah, no germs can catch me!

Boston Madness

April 18, 2011 by Kristy 9 Comments

Who has Boston fever?! I do! Today is the 115th Boston Marathon and I’ll be glued to my computer watching it all unfold. This time last year I was a spectator (the race coincided with my RRCA-coaching certification) and it was unbelievable! The whole city goes nuts in celebration. Knowing how excited I was to watch the race last year, I cannot begin to imagine what it’s like to run it.

I’ve been obsessed with the Boston Marathon ever since I started running 10 years ago. Once I found out you had to qualify in order to run it, I was hooked. Then I found out how fast you had to run to qualify and I have to admit, I felt defeated and thought it was an impossibility. But I like to set goals and challenge myself so I made it my “running dream” to qualify and run Boston some day.

To me, qualifying and running the Boston Marathon means you reached the crème de la crème status in running. First you are a marathoner, then a Boston qualifier, and then a Boston Marathoner. You made it.

I think about qualifying for Boston a lot, especially right now with my 8^th marathon just 2 weeks away. Right now, as I type this, my heart rate increases just a smidge at the prospect of qualifying. I want to experience that feeling at Mile 26, with 0.2 miles left, when you know you are going to qualify. I think I would burst into tears of joy and hyperventilate.

I want to BQ. I want that coveted Boston jacket. When people ask if I have ever run Boston, I want to say yes. I want to be a Boston Marathoner.

But for today I will follow the race online and cheer everyone on from my cube at work 🙂 Best of luck to Aron, Keri, and Dorothy who are all running Boston today. You ladies will do great!

And…go Kara go…I really, really hope you win the women’s race!!

Here are some pictures from last year’s race.

Getting ready to spectate! Yes, I wear that North Face jacket everywhere.

Penn Relays Distance Classic 20K Recap

April 17, 2011 by Kristy 6 Comments

4/17/11

12.5 miles

1:46:10

8:30 avg pace

I used this race as a pseudo-marathon paced run. I’ll explain the “pseudo” part later. I didn’t want to go all out with my marathon just 2 weeks away. This race is very odd but fun at the same time. The last time I ran it was 2009. Instead of boring you with a play-by-play of the race, I’ll just give you a few race highlights.

There were about 100 people running the 20K. I swear. It’s the smallest race I’ve ever done. There’s no chip, no spectators, no pictures, and 2 water stops on the course. Hard core.
The people that run this race are FAST. I have never seen people go out so fast at the start of longish race. I’m talking 5K pace. I wanted my overall pace to be 8:30 (hence the pseudo part…my marathon pace is around 8:40) so I succeeded in that respect but I went about it all wrong. I wanted to start out running 8:50 and then take it down from there; just like I’ve done on every training run and exactly what I plan on doing come marathon day. Riiiight. Since everyone took off like lightening, if I would have stuck to my 8:50 plan, I would have been at the back of the pack. It’s crazy. So my first mile was 8:23. Boo.
My miles were pretty consistent after that but I much prefer starting out slow and picking it up during the last few miles.
The best part of the race is the stadium finish. I LOVE a stadium finish! You get to run the last 1/4 mile around Franklin Field, where the Penn Relays take place. It’s incredible.
I’ll probably know my official results in about a week, if I can find them online. Like I said, this is a super no frills race. I’m pretty sure it’ll be 1:46:10 since I was at the front when the whole “ready, set, go” went down.

Here are some pics. The weather was absolutely gorgeous.

Philadelphia-20110417-00038 — Early morning at Franklin Field

Philadelphia-20110417-00039 — Franklin Field

Philadelphia-20110417-00048 — This is where we entered the stadium for the "grand" finish!

Philadelphia-20110417-00049 — Another pic of Franklin Field post-race with the sun shining.

Friday Favorites

April 15, 2011 by Kristy 9 Comments

4/15/11

5 miles tempo?

44:00

8:48 avg pace

The plan was to run 8 miles with 5 miles at tempo (~8:00 pace). As you can see, this did not happen! About a 1/2 mile into the first tempo mile, I had to stop and catch my breath. My asthma was really bothering me. My asthma is very well controlled and is NEVER an issue anymore. I was able to do another 2 miles at tempo (albeit with difficulty) and then I called it quits. Damn post-nasal drip! It has been really bad the last 3 days and now my lungs (and asthma) are aggravated. I quickly made an appointment to see the doctor and got a Kenalog injection (a steroid injection…in my butt, to help me breathe) and a prescription for an antibiotic, since the doctor isn’t 100% sure the post-nasal drip is attributable to allergies. Thank god I got an antibiotic! Apparently, the steroid injection is supposed to work ASAP so I should be fine for Sunday’s race.

Enough sick talk…it’s time for Friday Favorites!

Friday Nights In
I told Matt last week that you couldn’t pay me to go out on a Friday night. Maybe I’d do a happy hour, but that’s it. I much prefer dinner and renting a movie or grilling and drinks on the deck in the summertime. Here’s a somewhat related picture of Matt and I ditching the Friday formal night on our honeymoon cruise and opting for comfy clothes, pizza, and beer on the ship deck. We did have fun people watching though. I could have brought my wedding dress and wore it to dinner. That’s how gussied up these girls got. I couldn’t be bothered!

528 — I'm sporting a hoodie and Matt has a T-shirt on

Franzone’s Pizza
Monday night is pizza night in our house. Franzone’s pizza is delicious! The sauce is a bit sweet which makes it different (better) from other pizza places. I just try to ignore the massive amount of sugar I must ingest on Mondays. And they have the best deal! After 5pm, the time you call is what you pay. For real…we get a large pizza every Monday for $6.00!!

What are some of your Friday Favorites?