NJ Marathon

I Love Yoga and Week 7 Recap

February 20, 2011 by Kristy 6 Comments

This morning I went to the wonderful Candace’s vinyasa class at RYAH. I feel amazing; like I never ran 20 miles yesterday. I did lots of stretching and tiger tailing post-run and chugged some chocolate milk within a half hour of finishing. I think the combination of those things plus yoga are responsible for me feeling so good.

Anyhow, here’s how week 7 of NJ Marathon training shaped up:

MON: rest (flew back from SF)
TUE: 5 miles speed
WED: 7 miles tempo
THU: rest
FRI: 6 miles easy
SAT: 20 miles
SUN: 75 min yoga and 3 miles easy (just to put me at 41 miles for the week!)

41 miles this week. Finally. Seems like it took me forever to get to 40 miles. I’m generally happy with the FIRST training plan because I only do quality runs and my legs are fresher overall compared to previous training cycles. I just can’t shake the low mileage thing. I need to get over this. I’m happy with where I am and should focus on that. I feel stronger and faster than I did last training cycle. I need to believe in the training, believe in the training…

Week 6 Recap

February 14, 2011 by Kristy 1 Comment

Happy Valentine’s Day!

We are heading back to Philly today (sigh) but, on the bright side, I think it’s going to be a warm week.

Yesterday we rented a car with the intention of going to Muir Woods but ended up driving all around beautiful Marin County. We found Panoramic Highway and took it all the way down to Stinson Beach. Oh my god, absolutely beautiful. I’ll post pictures soon. Matt and I are suckers for a windy, mountain road with gorgeous views. I told Matt that if someone could safely transport Hawk out here, I would never leave.

Here’s what week #6 of NJ Marathon training looked like:

MON: rest
TUE: 8 mi speed
WED: rest
THU: 8 mi at GMP (goal marathon pace)
FRI: rest
SAT: 15 mi long
SUN: 6 mi easy

Total of 37 miles for the week with only 1 treadmill run 🙂 I hope treadmill season is coming to a close. Back to yoga this week!

One Year Older, One Year Wiser

February 9, 2011 by Kristy 5 Comments

Today is my birthday! I’m 34. I immediately start to think of my age in terms of running (is that strange?). This is my last year in the 30-34 age group and (the best part) I get 5 more minutes added to my BQ time. Let me explain…according to the B.A.A., “qualifying times are based upon each athlete’s age on the date of the Boston Marathon in which they are participating”. Since I’m clearly not running Boston in 2011, my first chance would be 2012 and I would be 35 on the day of the race. That means I need a 3:45 qualifying time…as of now. The B.A.A. had some changes in leadership this year and there is some talk of changing the qualifying times. We’ll see. I’m not even focusing on BQing this year (of course, I’d welcome it with open arms if it did happen). I’m just trying to get my marathon pace below 9:00 and try for 3:50 at the NJ Marathon.

I’m in San Fran for my birthday! Matt asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday and I said “go to SF”! It’s been almost 3 years since my last visit and I’ve been itching to get back. This is the BEST birthday present.

Back to turning 34. I’m fine with it. I certainly don’t feel 34. My friend Kristin said that’s because I don’t have kids…and that may very well be true. My 34-year-old self could kick my (drunken) 24-year-old self to the curb!

My 30s have been great so far (I included highlights below!). Fun like my 20s but also fulfilling, if that makes any sense. And my definition of fun has changed (I know that’s a sign of getting older!). Movies and pizza on a Friday night vs. going to a bar. I still like to go out and have fun but I hated crowded and loud bars. I prefer dinner and drinks and nice conversation 🙂

1. Getting engaged (June 2008). Matt and I dated for 10 years before getting engaged. He proposed on St. Joe’s campus and completely surprised me. It was absolutely perfect.

matt supermodel — After a night of celebrating

2. Buying our first house (June 2009). We looked at almost 40 houses. We saw our house on a Friday night and put a bid in the next morning. We knew what we wanted. And we love it! We moved in 6 weeks before our wedding, which was a little crazy. Sorry, I don’t really have any good pics but promise I’ll post some when all the painting is finished.

3. Getting married (July 2009). BEST day of my life. I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. We had beautiful weather and everything went smoothly. We danced the night away with family and friends. I wish I could do it again every year (not the planning, just the reception!).

727 — I'll explain the glove in another post

4. Becoming an RRCA-certified running coach (April 2010). I’ve coached family and friends but wanted to make it “official”. That weekend in Boston was the first step in doing something I’ve always wanted to do. Hopefully soon I’ll launch a coaching business.

5. Getting Hawk (May 2010). I’ve always wanted a dog of my own (I come from a family of dog lovers). Matt was not a dog lover (but not a hater either). It didn’t take long for Matt to come around. He’s smitten with Hawk. Hawk makes us laugh on a daily basis and we love walking in the door and being greeted by 25 lbs of cuteness.

Hawk on Hawk Hill (St. Joseph's University)

6. Breaking 4:00 hours in the Steamtown Marathon (October 2010). This was huge for me mentally. I kind of got stuck in the 4:10 range for awhile and was dying to break through. I ran my first marathon at 27 but didn’t really “train” until my 30s. Now I know what works and what doesn’t and how hard I can push myself.

7. Going to Europe (September 2009). This was our honeymoon. Since neither of us had been to Europe and we couldn’t decide on a single country to visit, we took a cruise. The cruise itself was hokey and cheesy but we saw so much! It was like a European sampler. We loved the Amalfi Coast of Italy and Santorini, Greece.

8. Going to Australia (October 2010). This was a dream vacation for both of us. We stayed in Sydney, Melbourne, and Port Douglas (Great Barrier Reef area). Unreal…and the trip of a lifetime.

And with that I’m off to do some birthday celebrating in gorgeous San Fran!

Week 5 Recap

February 7, 2011 by Kristy Leave a Comment

Week 5 of NJ Marathon training…

MON: rest
TUE: 7 tempo + yoga
WED: 6 speed
THU: rest
FRI: 8 easy
SAT: ~~lazy~~ rest (should have went to yoga)
SUN: 18 long (duh)

Total of 39 miles. Finally getting up there.

Heading to a power yoga class at RYAH tonight!

Borrowed Time?

January 6, 2011 by Kristy 2 Comments

1/6/11

30 min yoga

I did it again. Yoga On Demand. This will not become a habit. I can come up with numerous excuses why I didn’t go to a class tonight but it all boils down to I didn’t feel like it. At least I did a more challenging practice. My arms were shaking and I’m going to feel it tomorrow. So so sad. Moving on…

My title for this post sounds a little bleak, huh? I’ll explain…

I’ve been running for almost 10 years now and have not been injured (knock on wood). I swear. Sure I’ve had minor knee tweaks and twinges, but nothing that a little ice and 2 rest days couldn’t cure. I also don’t stretch after running, work on my core, cross-train, or strength train (do as I say, not as I do :)). I don’t want this to come across as bragging because I’m not. As a coach, I’m ashamed I don’t do these things. I just never have and that became a bad habit.

That being said, I am very conservative with my training (maybe too conservative). I watch my weekly mileage to ensure I’m not increasing it too fast. I also listen to my body; any twinges are immediately iced and, if needed, a rest/easy day is taken. Maybe these things have been my safety net so far. But I can’t shake the feeling that maybe I’m on borrowed time. The NJ Marathon will technically be my 3rd marathon in a year. I realize I’m asking a lot from my body, especially since I keep increasing the intensity of my training with each race. I’m terrified of injury so decided to take preventative steps this time around. And that’s where yoga comes in. Yoga has it all – stretching, core work, and strength training. So it’s worth it to me to decrease my running to 4 days/week this training cycle to allow for 2 days of yoga. I think (hope) the payoff will be great. Now if I could just get my butt to an actual yoga studio…

Does anyone know what time it is tonight? T-SHIRT TIME! Yes folks the Jersey Shore is back on tonight. Love it or hate it, you just can’t not watch!

NJ Marathon Training Plan

January 2, 2011 by Kristy 7 Comments

1/2/11

7 miles

1:06:58

9:34 avg pace

An easy run today. It was hard to hold back since it was nice and warm – upper 40s!

Tomorrow I begin training for marathon #8, the NJ Marathon. This will be a flat course (yeah!) along the shore (no, not that Jersey Shore, but close). Before I talk about the training plan, let’s discuss goals. My current marathon PR is 3:58. I’m shooting for a 3:50 for this marathon. A recent half marathon time is often a good predictor for your goal marathon time. I ran 1:49 in September and this predicts a 3:50 marathon finish. Of course, this is under ideal conditions: good race day weather, training went well, no injuries, etc. Everything has to fall into place. And sometimes, that happens…sometimes, it doesn’t. So my “A” goal is a 3:50 and my “B” goal is anything under a 3:58. Go big or go home, right?

Some of you may wonder why I’m not gunning for my BQ time of 3:45. It’s not realistic for me right now and I don’t want to overtrain and set myself up for failure. I’m happy making small strides towards my BQ time and I would be thrilled with a 3:50. That being said, you never know what can happen on race day and sometimes BQs come out of nowhere 🙂

I’m currently reading 2 books: Brad Hudson’s Run Faster and Bill Pierce, et al’s Run Less Run Faster (FIRST plan). The best way to describe my training plan is a modified version of the 3:50 plan from FIRST with a little Run Faster mixed in. For this cycle, I wanted the flexibility to incorporate 2 days of yoga per week into my plan. The benefits of yoga for runners are tremendous (injury prevention, core and total body strength, and deep stretching). I’ve wanted to incorporate yoga in the past but it always fell by the wayside since I was so focused on getting my miles in.

With each training plan I always aim to turn up the intensity a bit. Right now my endurance is much greater than my speed so I need to focus on speed work, as much as I hate it. There’s a reason why I shy away from 5Ks and 10Ks…I hate running all out! That’s why the marathon is my favorite distance. But this speed work is necessary for me to inch closer to my BQ time.

The FIRST plan focuses on “3plus2” – 3 quality runs per week (speed, tempo, and long) with 2 days of cross-training. The FIRST philosophy is “if you want to run faster, you need to train faster”. These runs are no cakewalk; they are hard! But, with only running 3 days per week, you body can adequately recover from these hard runs.

Hudson’s Run Faster focuses on adaptive running. Basically, look at your training plan as being “penciled in” and adapt accordingly based on how you feel that day. That means that sometimes hard workouts will be replaced with easy ones and vice versa. This philosophy saved my butt when I realized I was overtraining during my last cycle.

Now for my modifications…

1. I can’t imagine only running 3 days per week (even with 2 days of yoga). I just love it too much. Also, the weekly mileage for the FIRST plan is a lot less than I’m used to. So I plan to add 1 easy run per week. This run can be anywhere from 5 to 10 miles, depending on where I want my weekly mileage to be that week. I like easy runs (who doesn’t?) and they are a valuable component to any training plan.

2. Speed work may need to be modified depending on how I feel (remember, adaptive training). For me, tempo and marathon-paced long runs are the bread and butter of training. Speed work, although valuable, is taxing on the body and requires more recovery. I’ll continue to do speed work each week as long as it doesn’t compromise my tempo and long runs. If I begin to feel dead legs, I’ll swap the speed work for an easy run or another type of run.

3. What about hill work? Since the NJ marathon course is flat, I don’t have to worry too much about mimicking the course with each long run (Philly has plenty of flat running). I don’t want to abandon hill work all together so I plan to choose a hilly course for some of my easy runs.

I have my work cut out for me but I’m excited to train again. These last 2 1/2 months of “fun runs” have been great but I love a fresh new training schedule 🙂