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Friday Favorites

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4/15/11

5 miles tempo?

44:00

8:48 avg pace

The plan was to run 8 miles with 5 miles at tempo (~8:00 pace).  As you can see, this did not happen!  About a 1/2 mile into the first tempo mile, I had to stop and catch my breath.  My asthma was really bothering me.  My asthma is very well controlled and is NEVER an issue anymore.  I was able to do another 2 miles at tempo (albeit with difficulty) and then I called it quits.  Damn post-nasal drip!  It has been really bad the last 3 days and now my lungs (and asthma) are aggravated.  I quickly made an appointment to see the doctor and got a Kenalog injection (a steroid injection…in my butt, to help me breathe) and a prescription for an antibiotic, since the doctor isn’t 100% sure the post-nasal drip is attributable to allergies.  Thank god I got an antibiotic!  Apparently, the steroid injection is supposed to work ASAP so I should be fine for Sunday’s race.

Enough sick talk…it’s time for Friday Favorites!

Friday Nights In
I told Matt last week that you couldn’t pay me to go out on a Friday night.  Maybe I’d do a happy hour, but that’s it.  I much prefer dinner and renting a movie or grilling and drinks on the deck in the summertime.  Here’s a somewhat related picture of Matt and I ditching the Friday formal night on our honeymoon cruise and opting for comfy clothes, pizza, and beer on the ship deck.  We did have fun people watching though.  I could have brought my wedding dress and wore it to dinner.  That’s how gussied up these girls got.  I couldn’t be bothered!

I'm sporting a hoodie and Matt has a T-shirt on
Matt loves his beer
My North Face formal wear

Franzone’s Pizza
Monday night is pizza night in our house.  Franzone’s pizza is delicious!  The sauce is a bit sweet which makes it different (better) from other pizza places.  I just try to ignore the massive amount of sugar I must ingest on Mondays.  And they have the best deal!  After 5pm, the time you call is what you pay.  For real…we get a large pizza every Monday for $6.00!!

What are some of your Friday Favorites?

Taper Insanity

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I’m only a few days into the taper and I’m already going a wee bit insane.  It doesn’t help that this is my second rest day in-a-row.  With a race on Sunday, my running schedule was thrown off a little this week.  I want to run the marathon, like, now! 

Aside from decreasing my overall mileage, this week looks like any other training week – speed, tempo, easy, and the race.  I can’t even refocus my taper insanity onto Sunday’s race, since I’m using it as a marathon paced run!  This extra time has allowed my mind to obsess.  Obsess over the persistent post-nasal drip (gross, I know) I’ve been having.  Am I getting a cold?  Is it allergies?  Since I’m allergic to everything and the pollen count is sky high, I believe it’s allergies.  Another huge obsession is with my race day goal.  I spend lots of time crunching the numbers and visualizing.  More on that next week…that’s a post in and of itself! 

Since you know what they say about an idle mind, I have been trying to obsess less and spend more time…

– Relaxing and catching up on TV (specifically Friday Night Lights)

– Taking Hawk on walks.  Hawk loves the taper because of all the extra walks!

– Tackling my to-do list.  I could do this…or watch another episode of Friday Night Lights. 

– Read.  Since I have to cut back on running, I may as well read about running!  I do have about 5 running books to read.  

What do you do to keep yourself (and your mind) from going insane during the taper? 

Random Wednesday

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Rest day!

  • I found out my bib number for the NJ Marathon is 700.  Winning!  Not only is it lucky, it’s an even number!
  • I went back to yoga last night for a 75-minute Vinyasa class with my favorite teacher, Candace.  It was a nice n’ easy class which is exactly what I wanted.  Candace does a ton of swan-dive-forward-folds (sometimes I get dizzy) and always throws in the pigeon pose at the end which makes my glutes/hamstrings happy.
  • Since my plan to cut out all sweets until after the marathon failed miserably, I am going to try portion control (imagine that).  Matt and I don’t have sweets in the house because we have no self-control around them.  So I bought ice cream yesterday (well, 2 actually) and I told Matt that we need to practice portion control and make these 2 cartons last as long as possible.  Surprisingly, Matt agreed!  It’s a good thing we’re both on the same page or we’d be out of ice cream.
  • I never posted these pictures from our DC trip.  Hawk is pretty darn cute…

Sometimes You Just Don't Want To

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4/12/11

5 miles speed

That’s exactly how I felt about getting up and hitting the track this morning.  I never have any trouble getting out of bed for a run but speed work is a different story.  How can I loathe something so much that has absolutely, without a doubt, made me faster this training cycle?  I only have 2 track sessions left before the marathon; can’t I just suck it up?  Apparently not.

I was supposed to do 8x800m in 3:33.  I had no intention of doing all 8 intervals.  I was planning on doing 6.  Well 6 turned into 5.  My head wasn’t in it so my body wasn’t in it.  Overall, my times weren’t terrible (with the exception of 1 interval):  3:37, 3:37, 3:38, 3:48 (oops), 3:37.  I did a super speedy cool-down and was done with it.

When I came home (it was still really early), I wanted to go out and run another couple of miles.  I hate the fact that I only ran 5 miles today.  I think it’s awful that I feel that way too.  I am tapering after all!

On the plus side, it’s really warm here and I got to wear shorts this morning!

Do you like or loathe speed work and why?

 

Taper Time + Week 14 Recap

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4/11/11

7 miles easy

1:06

9:26 avg pace

I’m officially tapering…the hard work is done; now it’s time to rest and prepare for the big race.  I’m aiming to keep my overall mileage in the low 30s this week and the mid-20s next week, since my training cycle stressed low mileage.  Unfortunately, I still have 2 speed workouts to do 🙁

This Sunday I’ll be running the Penn Relays Distance Classic 20K (about 12.4 miles).  I won’t be racing it though.  I’m using it as a goal marathon pace run, which is exactly what my training plan calls for anyway.  I love when it all comes together!

Week 14 Recap of NJ Marathon training:
MON:  rest
TUE:  8 tempo
WED:  7 easy
THU:  rest
FRI:  6 easy
SAT:  22 looong
SUN:  rest

43 miles for the week with no speed work.  My legs were more sore than I thought they would be after the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler.  I’m glad I took another easy day so I could get in a good 22-miler!  Missing too?  Yoga.  I was leery of taking a class this week since I tweaked something in last Friday’s class.  Usually I leave yoga feeling better but not that time.  I was worried it would affect my race last week, but I was OK.

I’m going to show all of you just how weird I am…every time I say “taper time” I think of MC Hammer’s song “U Can’t Touch This”.  You know…”stop, hammer time” kinda sounds like “stop, taper time?”  Riiiight?  Well if you never thought of it before, I bet you will now!

We saw this sign in Australia (if you look closely it says hammer time). I thought it was hysterical...and how appropriate?!

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The Last 22

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4/9/11

22 miles

3:10:44

8:40 avg pace <– that’s 5 sec/mile BELOW my goal marathon pace!

Heeeellllloooo, taper!  I welcome you with open arms!  If you’re thinking why the hell would I run below GMP, see here.  I hadn’t planned on it actually, just wanted to run close to GMP and end on a good note.

Instead of boring you with 22 split times, I’ll include some random thoughts about today’s run.  Please note I’m on a crazy endorphin high right now so I hope this makes sense.

  • I definitely think a 3:50 is within my reach.
  • I treated this run like race day.  I started out running 9:00 pace and gradually decreased the pace from there.
  • I felt really good at Mile 13 so I picked up the pace and wondered how long I could hold it for.  I made it to Mile 22 🙂
  • I was tired at the end but still had gas in the tank.
  • I definitely improved my mental game this training cycle….mind over matter means more to me than you can even imagine!
  • I thought about Boston a lot during this run.  For Boston 2012, I will be 35 years old…meaning (for 2012 ONLY) I could qualify with a 3:45.  Could it be a possibility?  What if…?  I didn’t train to BQ in May but it’s very tempting to have it so close within my reach.  At least temporarily.  Once 2013 comes, it’s back to 3:40.
  • I loved every second of this run.  I hope after 3 weeks of taper I can repeat this come May 1.

I came home and immediately devoured chocolate milk and foam rolled.

Woo hoo! Sorry for the gross close-up of my arm.
Hawk helps me foam roll. I'm only 5'5", not the giant this picture makes me out to be.
Super attractive

I want to give a huge shout out to my sister-in-law, Desiree, who ran her first 5K today!!!  She totally rocked it, like I knew she would, and I think she’s been bitten by the running bug!