run

8 Blissful Miles

January 11, 2011 by Kristy 5 Comments

1/11/11

8 miles tempo

1:12:18

9:02 avg pace

I wish I could bottle up how I felt during this run and take a sip whenever I need some encouragement. Even though it was cold and I ran through snow I felt amazing!

Split times:

Miles 1 and 2 (easy): 9:22, 9:23

Miles 3 to 6 (tempo): 8:44, 8:44, 8:45, 8:44 (how’s that for consistency?!)

Miles 7 and 8 (easy): 9:18, 9:16

If you missed my post about what a tempo run is, you can read about it here.

A view from my run…

IMG00041-20110111-1041 — Partially frozen Schuylkill River

Today was the first time I ran with my SPIbelt. I don’t like to bring much with me when I run but I should be taking my cell phone for safety reasons.

The SPIbelt is like a fanny pack for runners. It’s small but super stretchy. I put it on low – down by my hips – and it didn’t move an inch or bop up and down. I’m not fashion conscious when I run but it’s barely noticeable. I took the liberty of modeling it for you…

And Hawk approves of it!

I could definitely use a photography class. Sorry for the poor quality pics.

It’s supposed to snow which means quality time with the treadmill tomorrow. Boo.

Week 1 Recap

January 10, 2011 by Kristy 1 Comment

Today is a rest day but I wanted to recap my first week of training. Or so I thought it was my first week of training. Last night I realized I started training 1 week early! Oops…I guess 1 week early is better than 1 week late. I’m actually really happy this happened. Matt and I are going to San Francisco in February and my plan called for a 20-miler that weekend. A 20-miler on vacation is not a good time. But with an extra week of training I can use the added wiggle room to rearrange my longs run so that I’ll only need to do 13-15 miles in San Fran. Sweet 🙂

Week 1 Recap

MON: 5 mi speed work

TUE: 6 mi easy run + 20 min yoga

WED: rest

THU: 30 min yoga

FRI: 6 mi tempo run

SAT: rest

SUN: 13 mi long run

A total of 30 miles. Yikes, that’s low for my first week of marathon training! I’m trying to keep in mind that the mantra for this training cycle is quality over quantity.

13 Snowy Miles

January 9, 2011 by Kristy 7 Comments

1/9/11

13 miles

2:07

9:46 avg pace

As you can see from my pace, this run was bad! Before I explain why, let’s start with the weather. The hourly forecast on weather.com is a runner’s best friend. Last night I checked the weather and saw that the “feels like” temp would be in the single digits in the early morning. So I decided to sleep in and let the sun warm things up a bit. I had 2 options: (1) run near the river on a plowed path but have no protection from the biting wind or (2) run on a wooded trail covered in snow with some wind protection. I chose option #2 and prepared myself for some snow running with my YakTrax. I took some high quality pictures on my BlackBerry so you could see what they are…

This is what they look like when you take them out of the box. They remind me of the sick contraption from the first “Saw” movie. I won’t go into more detail, but if you saw the movie you’ll understand what I mean.

This is the the top view once you have them on (so fashion forward!).

And the bottom view…

Those coils do a great job of grabbing the snow and ice so you are able to run without breaking your neck.

The early miles went well but it was difficult to run in the snow. It was hard to push off; like I was running in sand. I felt like I was running a 9:16 pace effort but my Garmin was telling me otherwise. So I decided to cover the distance and not worry about pace. Around mile 8 I started to get really cold, the wind had picked up and my face and hands were starting to go numb. Then I began to get really miserable 🙁 During the last mile, I started to feel nauseous. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon for me. There’s no rhyme or reason to it either. I can fuel properly pre-run, during the run, and post-run and still feel sick. Eating something, even though it’s the last thing I feel like doing, usually does the trick (more on this below). So I downed some chocolate milk within 15 minutes of finishing, took a hot shower, and laid down for a little bit. Ah, the joys of training through the winter!

Let’s talk refueling post-run. Refueling within 30 minutes after a long run (or hard run) is extremely important. I began to consistently do this last year and noticed a huge difference in my recovery time. After a long run, your glycogen stores are depleted. It takes about 24 to 48 hours to fully replenish your glycogen stores. When you do 2 hard runs back-to-back, you run the risk of beginning the 2nd run with only partially filled glycogen stores and may have a bad run. It’s important to eat/drink shortly after your run because your body stores glycogen at a faster rate during the first hour post-exercise. Your choice of food/drink should be a 3:1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio. The carbohydrate will restore your glycogen stores while the protein will speed muscle repair and enhance glycogen storage. Chocolate milk is a great choice…and it’s delicious. It also a sneaky way of getting the carbs and protein in when the last thing you feel like doing is eating. Another good choice, when chocolate milk isn’t feasible, is a Luna Bar. Last summer I would drive to my long run and would keep a Luna Bar in my car for the ride home.

Off to catch up on The Bachelor! My sister-in-laws were talking about it yesterday and now I need to see it. Those girls are crazy…I heard one had fangs?! Seriously?!

*Refueling information from Advanced Marathoning.

Tempo Madness

January 7, 2011 by Kristy 6 Comments

1/7/11

6 miles tempo

54:00

9:00 avg pace

Today’s tempo run called for 2 miles easy, 2 miles hard (7:54 pace), and 2 miles easy. Here’s what I did: 2 miles at 9:30 pace (easy), 2 miles at 8:00 pace (hard), 2 miles at 9:30 pace (easy). I wanted this to be a strong tempo run for me so I modified the hard pace to 8:00 instead of 7:54…nothing to lose sleep over. And I felt really good. The 8:00 pace was comfortably hard, which is what a tempo run should feel like. I did this run on the treadmill since it was snowing when I woke up. Ugh…2nd treadmill run this week. I only resort to treadmill running when it’s really cold, really dark, or snowing. I’ll take running outside over treadmill running any day, even in the rain.

So what is a tempo run? The goal of a tempo run is to improve your lactate-threshold pace. Lactate threshold is the point at which lactate starts to build up in the bloodstream because lactate production is greater than lactate clearance. Once lactate accumulates in your bloodstream, you begin to slow down. You want to improve your lactate-threshold so you are able to run at a faster pace without accumulating too much lactate. Your lactate-threshold pace should be close to the pace that you can currently race for 1 hour (source: Advanced Marathoning). For most marathoners, this is your half marathon pace. If you go faster than your lactate-threshold pace, you’ll accumulate lactate rapidly and if you go slower, you won’t be providing enough of a stimulus for improvement. You really want to narrow in on the pace where lactate is just starting to accumulate. The design of a tempo run usually consists of a warm-up and cool-down and sandwiched in between are a few miles at lactate-threshold pace.

Another great thing about tempo runs (and the reason why they are one of my favorites) is the psychological benefit. Marathons are hard and it’s so easy to give up and let your pace fall off towards the end. With tempo runs you sustain a fast pace for miles (as opposed to speed work, where you sustain a fast pace for generally less than a mile). This builds your confidence and mental toughness.

OK, enough with the science lesson. Tomorrow is a rest day for me and Sunday is a long run (13 miles). I’ll post all the details about that on Sunday along with some info on refueling (I’m sure you can’t wait :))

I’m trying to spice up my posts with pictures so, for today, I’ll leave you with a picture of Hawk playing in the snow. Warning…it’s an extreme close-up!

Easy Run, Yoga, and Random Stuff

January 4, 2011 by Kristy 6 Comments

1/4/11

6 miles

57:23

9:33 avg pace

A nice easy run today to shake out my legs from yesterday’s speed work. I had good intentions of waking up and going to a yoga class this morning but Hawk decided it was play time at 4:45AM and it took me awhile to fall back asleep. So when the alarm did go off, sleep won over yoga. This is lame but after my run I did one of those 20-minutes yoga sessions you find on On Demand. I think it was called “Zen in Your Den”. Hysterical. It was super easy but just want I wanted…a nice easy stretch. My right hamstring has been a little tight and I think it’s causing me to shorten my stride a bit. Some yoga is just what my hamstring needed.

Onto some random stuff…

Total mileage for 2010 = 1,528! So I almost ran to FL and back.

Matt and I exchange ornaments for Christmas each year. This may be one of my favorites…

I think she looks like me with the exception of the hair. My hair never looks that nice when I run. It’s more like this…

032 — MCM - 2007. Worst pic ever. I have no idea what is going on with my hair. Humidity, wind? I don't know.

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 🙂