via lehigh valley marathon

A long run, HLS, and a delayed hangover

August 22, 2011 by Kristy 12 Comments

8/21/11 (Sunday)
15 miles / 2:13 / 8:52 avg pace

Let’s recap this weekend in reverse…

Long Run
My long run was supposed to be done on Friday but with all the thunderstorms we’ve been having I was terrified of getting caught in one (especially after Meggie commented that she knew 2 people that have been struck by lightning). So I stuck close to home and did 9 easy miles. I rested on Saturday and did the LR on Sunday. I am so happy to begin my pseudo-taper this week (decreasing my overall mileage). All I have is 22 miles on Friday and then I’ll be in full blown taper mode!

HLS
So this weekend I attend the Healthy Living Summit (HLS). Don’t worry, I’m not going into a detailed description of the entire weekend. I decided to attend since it was in Philly and I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet other bloggers, although my blog is a running blog rather than a food blog. I do think I promote a healthy (balanced) lifestyle and I hope my blog inspires people to run but I’m definitely not a foodie. I don’t really get excited about food and I could easily live off pizza, cereal, peanut butter, and green beans (such an odd combo, I know). My diet is more carb heavy than most (good carbs, of course) but I’m also running a lot. I left HLS feeling like all I eat is crap! Ha! I admit I could add more veggies and fruit to my diet but I just don’t think I could get on the tempeh band wagon. It’s just not for me…and that’s OK 🙂

The sessions were very informative and I had a great time hanging out with Holly and Alli. Am I happy that I went? Absolutely!

Friday night was the HLS cocktail party at Reading Terminal Market. It was so awesome to be at RTM when it’s empty and have the entire place to ourselves (it’s generally packed with people). We were provided with 2 drink coupons which I promptly exchanged for beer. We had 2 choices for beer (sadly no Miller Lite) and we made a wise choice and went with Kenzinger. It was yummy. So yummy that me, Holly, and Alli went back for many more. Followed by a round of beers at the hotel bar. Followed by late night pizza delivered to the lobby. We laughed at how we made HLS unhealthy.

On Saturday I woke up surprisingly not hungover and was pretty pleased with myself (remember, I drink Miller Lite, which is like drinking water). And then around 2pm it hit me…the delayed hangover. Ugh, I HATE the delayed hangover. You get this false sense of phew I made it only to get slapped in the face with a hangover 10x worse.

(via)

I came home Saturday night and went to bed at 8:30. I was amazed I was able to get up and run 15 on Sunday morning.

Ever experience the delayed hangover?

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Derailed Run

August 18, 2011 by Kristy 13 Comments

8/18/11
6 3 miles easy / no Garmin

I stepped out the door a little before 6AM and thought it looked a little darker than usual. And everything had this yellow hue to it. Odd, but I kept running. Then I noticed some lightening but no thunder. Possible heat lightening? Although it hasn’t been too warm here. I continue my run but I’m a little nervous since it’s starting to get darker and darker. I’ll pretty much run in anything but thunder and lightening are a deal breaker.

Then I start making deals. Just a little bit further and then turn around. That will be 3 miles. You most likely won’t get hit by lightening. What are the chances? Then I start recalculating my weekly mileage in my head, trying to see where I can make up these 3 miles. Ugh, Sunday’s easy run is going to be a long one.

Then the thunder and wind pick up and it begins to rain. I hightail it home to avoid a lengthy blow dry if my hair gets too wet. Mon, Wed, and Thu (the days I go into the office) are shower-and-throw-your-sweaty-hair-in-a-ponytail days.

Have you ever been caught running in a thunderstorm? I did a few years ago and I was about 2 miles from home. It was pretty scary.

Ever rock the sweaty ponytail look? I could trademark it.

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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.

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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!

Three Things Tuesday

August 15, 2011 by Kristy 15 Comments

8/16/11
11 miles tempo / 1:33 / 8:27 avg pace
*1 mile warm-up and 10 miles at MP (8:35). Splits: 8:09, 8:07, 8:11, 8:14, 8:18 – I felt like I was running too fast so I checked my splits and slowed down for the remaining 5 miles – 8:38, 8:37, 8:29, 8:28, 8:25.

Isn’t it supposed to be Three Things Thursday? Hmm, not sure. Oh well, go with it.

Redemption Tempo
This morning I got a second chance to do a tempo run that I attempted 2 weeks ago. It didn’t go so well the first time but I was able to get some redemption today. The trail was soft and mushy from all the rain, which made it even harder to maintain MP but that’s OK with me. I always want to prepare for the worst case scenario and then, if it’s not so bad, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. Does that make me a pessimist or a realist?

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Garmin “Pace Smoothing”
Maybe you all knew this but I found out there is a way to minimize how much your pace fluctuates on your Garmin. When I was training for NJM, I was getting annoyed at how often my pace would go from 7:30 to 10:00 to 9:00, etc. Even though my effort was consistent, my Garmin pace wasn’t. My Garmin is only 2 years old (I have the 305). I looked up the problem and it directed me to something called “pace smoothing”.

Per the Garmin manual, pace smoothing averages your current pace over a certain amount of time to avoid errors in GPS position and speed due to varying satellite signal recognition. When you turn on or increase pace smoothing, the pace shown on your Forerunner is steadier. It did help, although I still think there could be something wrong with my Garmin since I never had an issue until this year. But I’m too dependent on my Garmin to part with it and get it looked at!

How to “pace smooth” (at least on the 305 model): mode –> settings –> running –> speed units –> smoothing. I’m using “most” for the least amount of fluctuation.

Are you addicted to your Garmin? Can you run without it? Even better question, can you RACE without it? No way Jose…I’m addicted!

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.

20 Miles, Take 4

August 12, 2011 by Kristy 19 Comments

8/12/11
20 miles / 2:52:52 / 8:38 avg pace

It’s a beautiful day! When I got back to my car post-run the temp was 67?! Wow. Further evidence…my shorts were (somewhat) dry after my run! If you can’t tell, I’m holding up 4 fingers because this is my 4th 20-miler…obviously.

I felt pretty good throughout this run, aside from some GI issues around mile 14. This is odd for me, usually business is taken care of pre-run (sorry, I mean how else can you talk about this topic?). Isn’t funny how your GI tract knows exactly where the bathrooms are and notifies you? OK, movin’ on…

Splits – the first 10 miles. I was in complete awe of the sunrise this morning (I need to bring my camera – it’s unreal) and you can tell I didn’t start getting serious until mile 6.

The second 10 miles. I’m happy to see I picked up the pace at mile 14. Mile 19 was an awful hill…but I rebounded nicely with mile 20 🙂

So. Happy. To. Be. Done! Beer and pizza tonight with friends…and we all know how much better it tastes after a long run!

Unrelated question of the day: I’m thinking of switching to wordpress.org but I need to choose a web host. Anyone have suggestions? How is Blue Host? Has anyone used Revive My Blog?