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Friday Favorites

April 22, 2011 by Kristy 9 Comments

4/22/11

6 miles easy

58:52

9:48 avg pace

It’s Friday….and that means more favorites!

The Amazing Race
Matt and I have watched this show from the beginning and it never gets old. Is anyone watching this season? Go Jet and Cord!

Cheerleading
Long before I was obsessed with running, I was obsessed with cheerleading. I cheered (competitively…yes, it’s a sport) from the time I was 6 years old straight through to my junior year of college. I think that’s why I started running soon after college. I needed a new obsession. Let’s walk down memory lane…

Scan_Pic0003 — I think I was 6 or 7 in this picture

Scan_Pic0004 — 6th grade maybe? This picture cracks me up because the look on my face shows you just how crazy I was about cheerleading.

Scan_Pic0002 — Senior year of high school...ouch, awkward looking.

Scan_Pic0005 — At Nationals...junior year of college

Pedicures
I declare April to October “pedicure season”. I think pedicures are a must for runners. We ask a lot of our feet, we should pamper them once in awhile!

What are some of your Friday favorites? Do you watch the Amazing Race or other reality show?

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”.

Running Pet Peeves

April 20, 2011 by Kristy 15 Comments

4/20/11

6 miles tempo

51:40

8:36 avg pace

2 miles easy, 3 miles at 7:54 (actual: 8:07, 7:54, 7:58), 1 mile easy.

I thought it’d be fun to do a post about some of my running pet peeves. Please feel free to share yours as well. We can vent together 🙂

CARS
I’m sure this is at the top of everyone’s list. I purposely do not run on roads for fear of getting run over. Especially with so many people talking on their phones or texting while driving. Thankfully, I have a great paved trail near my house that I run on almost all the time. The only scary part is that I have to cross 2 mini streets near train stations. It’s fun in the morning when people are rushing to work and flying over these streets so they don’t miss their train. Seriously, yield to pedestrians means nothing to these people.

SMOKERS
Smoking is a big pet peeve of mine in general. I can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke. On this paved trail I also run by 2 businesses where there employees are allowed to smoke pretty much right on the trail. Which means I run by and get a whiff of smoke in my face. Good times. I swear these people spend more time smoking than working. So gross.

GRUMPY RUNNERS
Usually when I pass another runner, I’ll give some form of hello…be it a nod, smile, or “hi”. The people who don’t reciprocate piss me off! Not sure why this bothers me so much but it does. There’s this one girl that I’ve been seeing for years and she refuses to say hi. I’m talking like 5 years of completely ignoring me. We run at the same time on the same days. Jeez, we should be on a first name basis by now. I give up!

STALKERS
Well maybe not stalkers but more nosy people. The ones that look out their window or stop and watch you run by. You know, the nosy people in your neighborhood. In my case, it’s the older people that gawk. People run all the time; it’s not an uncommon occurrence! I feel extremely self conscious when people watch me run (with exception of races, of course). This isn’t a huge pet peeve, just more of an annoyance.

What are some of your running pet peeves?

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.