speed work

Running Etiquette

August 8, 2011 by Kristy 17 Comments

8/9/11
7 miles speedwork
*1000m, 2000m, 1000m, 1000m – all done at 10K pace (7:30-7:40) with less than 400m rest interval. I loved doing intervals at 10K pace. What a treat compared to 5K pace! My breathing felt smooth and controlled.

When you go out for a run, do you generally keep a respectable distance between you and the runner in front of you? I always do and treat it like I would driving – I don’t generally drive up someone’s ass so why would I run up someone’s ass? I thought this was plain and simple running etiquette but I’m not so sure after this weekend. (Note: I’m not talking races, just training runs).

Situation 1 (Friday’s long run)
I was on my first mile and I could hear feet slapping and breath sounds coming closer. I was expecting the sounds to pass me but they just hung around…for awhile. I immediately start to get annoyed for 2 reasons: (1) if I can hear you breathing, you are way too close and either need to pass me or back off; (2) I start to get a little nervous when it’s a male and I’m running by myself – you should never run that close to a female running alone! I finally decided to slow down and let him pass. Thankfully he diverged onto another part of the trail.

Situation 2 (Sunday’s ugly tempo run)
There was a guy ahead of me for a few miles (I was keeping my distance behind him). He started to slow down and I decided to pass him. As I pass him he speeds up (errrrr!), as I slow down he slows down. I dig deep (remember the run was ugly) and pick up the pace to try to get rid of him. Not surprisingly, he keeps up with me. THEN he tells me that he is not being creepy, it’s just that I’m keeping a good pace for him!! I shoot him a weak smile and try to ignore him. I “paced him” for another mile until he took off in another direction. He was being creepy in my book.

So what gives? Did both these guys break running etiquette? I think so.

Do you keep a respectable distance behind other runners?

Lehigh Valley Marathon: Week 9 Recap

August 2, 2011 by Kristy 13 Comments

8/2/11
8 miles speed
*3 x (2 x 1200 in 5:18): 1st set (5:10, 5:05); 2nd set (5:04, 5:09); 3rd set (5:13, 5:16). Not great in terms of consistency but I did beat 5:18 on each interval.

MON: 7 speed — total fail. I think I eeked out 3 miserable mile repeats and called it a day. My legs were so tired.
TUE: 12 total — 8 tempo AM (ended up being a decent run) + 4 easy PM
WED: 7 easy
THU: ~~easy~~ unplanned rest day
FRI: 20 long — very happy about this run!
SAT: 4 easy
SUN: rest

So 50 miles for the week. I wanted to do more but my legs would not cooperate. I was going to force the easy run on Thursday but I’m glad I didn’t. I think Friday’s 20-miler would have suffered.

I’ll end with a funny story. Yesterday I was running and I ran into (pun intended) someone I used to coach last summer (I worked with Fleet Feet Sports to train a group of runners for the Philly Rock ‘n’ Roll Half). We chatted about what we are training for, etc. When I told him I was trying to BQ he asked what time I needed.

Me: 3:45.
Him: Oh, that’s not so bad.
Me (sarcastically): Oookaayyy.
Him: Well I guess that’s fast for you…
Me: (more sarcastically): Thanks a lot.
Him (sensing my increasing sarcasm): Well, a guy would have to run it in 3:15.
Me: You are comparing apples to oranges. Guys run faster.

Apparently BQing is easy! Don’t you love when people who never ran a marathon make comments about pace and time?! I don’t encounter this often but I would love to tell people to go run a marathon and then come talk to me. I’m sure they’ll change their tune!

Have you ever received any comments from the peanut gallery of non-runners? Does it irk you?

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?

2 Years

July 25, 2011 by Kristy 22 Comments

7/25/11
7 miles speed work

Today is our 2-year wedding anniversary! We are celebrating tonight with pizza and beer. I’m a cheap date. We did class-it-up by going out to dinner on Saturday night.

My wedding was by far the best day of my life. Matt and I dated for 10 years before we got married so this was a long time coming. It was a beautiful day and we thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. Here are some highlights with lots of pictures…

Obviously, marrying Matt was THE highlight. These are 2 of my favorite pictures from our wedding.

My wonderful bridesmaids.

Walking down the aisle with my Dad (photo from a friend).

Getting our pictures taken at St. Joe’s (where Matt and I met).

Of course the cake was a highlight! Our wedding cake was from Bredenbeck’s and it was absolutely delicious. Still delicious after 1 year in the freezer too!

Having the St. Joe’s Hawk (mascot) at our cocktail hour.

Busting out a Thriller dance at the wedding. Oh yes we did. We = me/bridesmaids/friends. Matt opted out 😉

Dancing (and drinking) with friends and family. Funny side note: Matt and I warned our reception place about the massive amounts of Miller Lite that would be consumed. We asked them to not run out of ML. They politely laughed and said it wouldn’t happen. At the end of the night, Matt caught them running in 6-packs of ML and throwing them in ice. So technically we didn’t run out but they did have to scramble at the last minute and buy more!!

*All pictures courtesy of Sean Marshall Lin (the best wedding photographer around).

Lululemon R&D Party

July 18, 2011 by Kristy 17 Comments

7/18/11
7 miles
*2 x (6x400m in 1:42). This is a tough workout. Avg pace for the first set was 1:36, and second set, 1:37. I was happy to be able to consistently beat a 1:42 on each lap.

Last night I attended the Lululemon R&D Party at the new King of Prussia store. The KOP store just opened and the party celebrated its opening and also honored their R&D members. They really went all out — food, candy, beer, wine, and lots of interesting people to meet.

The KOP store front. Taken from both angles because it’s awesome.

The food spread.

The even better candy spread. Practically all of my favorites lined up in a row!

I got the opportunity to meet the rest of the KOP staff and some amazing R&D members. I love talking with people who turned their passion into their career (something I will do some day…soon!). Since I started my running coach business just a few months ago, I’m still very much a newbie with the whole starting-your-own-business thing. I got the opportunity to talk with some knowledgeable people and got some great advice. Oh, and lots of running talk too!

The best part of the night? My photo shoot! Yes, photo shoot. Lululemon had a photographer set up outside the store to take action shots of the R&D members.

I got to run (more like skip) across the white background and tried my best to exude care-free running. At first, I felt like a complete dork. The other R&D members were doing cool yoga poses and here I was skipping and trying to look normal. But if you know me, you know I love a good photo shoot so I eventually warmed up and found my groove. I promise to post the pictures as soon as I have them. I cannot wait to see how they turned out.

Thank you Lululemon KOP for a fabulous night!

A Fun and Productive Weekend

July 10, 2011 by Kristy 6 Comments

7/11/11
8 miles easy / 1:17 / 9:37 avg pace

Let’s recap the weekend! Friday night was my friend Wendy’s wedding. She looked beautiful and her dress was amazing (it was so Wendy!). The ceremony took place outside on this beautiful covered terrace. It was perfect.

Here is Wendy getting ready to walk down the aisle…

She was a little emotional!

Back view of her dress…

The food was awesome: mini cheeseburgers and a mashed potato bar?! I can’t think of a better way to refuel after 20 miles.

Group shot: Sheryl, Wendy, and me. Not sure why we are all squatting down (especially me).

Saturday was my first weekend home in awhile and I was prepared to tackle some of my to-do list. Matt has been asking me for some time to go through all my pictures (pre-digital age…about 3 1/2 boxes worth) and trash/consolidate. We live in a small house so the less boxes lying around, the better. This took all day. And I’m not even finished. I separated everything into piles based on time but I still need to organize more before placing them in storage boxes. I got rid of 3 garbage bags worth of pictures. Who needs that many pictures of your senior prom? I also got to relive how much fun I had in college 🙂

DSCN1308 — This is the treadmill's purpose during the summer months

On Sunday I had a 8 mile tempo run planned with 5 miles at 8:00 pace. I’ve been doing my tempo runs on a shaded trail so my Garmin is always a little off; it often tells me I am running faster than I am. It’s difficult for me to accurately track my pace so I just aim to run in the “comfortably hard” tempo zone.

I got back to my car and took a peek at my times. Holy crap! That was comfortably hard?! I finally found my groove and hit my pace on laps 5 and 6. I obviously need to reign myself in more and control my pace but I do love to see progress!