The Need for Speed

I finally got around the the track work that was supposed to be my "long" run this past weekend.  (Weekend = Thursday, apparently.)  As long as it gets done, right.  Since I am supposed to be tapering for my half on Sunday and you can't taper from NOTHING, I figured a couple of miles on the track wouldn't hurt anything.  I put my kiddos and my recently operated-upon husband into bed and headed for the closest track.

I dressed in running shorts and a lightweight tech t-shirt because it was 85 degrees when I started my run.  (More on that choice in a minute.)  However, I was delightfully surprised to discover that the track is completely shaded at 7:30 in the evenings.  There was even a lady walking the track while her 4 kids played on the field in the middle, so I wasn't alone.

It was a bit of a walk from the car, through the grass that really needed to be cut, to the track, so I considered that my warm up.  I dropped my water bottle on a bench and went to a place where the grass had broken through the concrete to start my run.  (This is the track at the high school, but it is not the high school track.  The football and track teams use the stadium at the old high school, which is now the middle school.  This track is probably used twice a year for the mile run, so it is not in the best condition.)  I started the watch and took off for my first half mile.

There was some debate on how I should do this speed work.  I am a loyal Galloway Girl - I follow the intervals like it is my job.  My watch beeps and I walk.  It beeps again and I run....for however far I need to go.  But, I knew going in that I can run a 1/2 mile straight.  Hence the dilemma.  Do I run the half mile without walk breaks or do I use my intervals?   After some discussion with my various running friends, I decided to just run the half mile.  After the first lap, I was pretty sure that the track was short.  I was on pace for a 10 minute mile.  (Yes, I know that I can run a 10 minute mile, but I can do it for exactly one mile and I felt like I was hauling behind while I was doing it.  I didn't feel like that on the track.  I was just running.)  I came back to my little crack of grass after my first half mile and took the split - 5.05.  Then I walked one lap (1/4 mile) at a leisurely pace, got some water, and lined up for another 1/2 mile.   I got faster, but I slowed back down for the last two repeats.  Some of the slowdown can be attributed to talking to the little girls who decided to join me for part of my run.  I guess their mom was going to slow for them.  I am a sucker for little kids (blame that on the teacher in me) and if a kid talks to me, I am going to talk back.  But, I also got tired for the last two repeats.  Hopefully more track work will help that.

After the first two steps of my running, I realized that the running shorts were a gross error in judgment.  I have too much going on in the thigh region for running shorts to work for me.  They were riding up and sticking and rubbing and miserable.   Thank goodness I had the foresight to use Body Glide before I left the house or I would have set the woods on fire with all of that rubbing.  Maybe having to constantly pull my shorts down contributed to the speed (or lack of).  Maybe I am still just slow....who knows??

In short, I liked track work.  2 laps around the track with the promise of a little walk afterwards is totally doable.  I liked the challenge of trying to go faster.  I liked the fact that I could run those half miles without stopping for 4 repeats.  

The down and dirty:

1 - 5.05.10

2 - 4.53.79

3 - 5.02.00

4 - 5:02:25

So, I got faster from the first lap, but slower for laps 2, 3, and 4.  How do I fix that??  (Don't say, "Run faster.")

The hills are alive....

We spent the weekend in the mountains of Pennsylvania.  After a couple of weeks of bad runs and short runs and no runs, I am determined to do some kind of running this weekend.  I may have mentioned that I am running a hilly half marathon this coming weekend.  I am NOT prepared for it.  It's going to be ugly.  Stay tuned for how ugly.  The race recap will be up next weekend.

Anyway....I ran some hills with Kris last week before we left during the return of summer in Virginia.  It was a little rough, so I wasn't sure what would happen on the hills of Pennsylvania.  We were staying at a hotel on a golf course, so I planned to get up early on 2 of the days and run on the cart path.  It fit all of my requirements - it was paved, hilly, and right outside my front door.

The first morning, I got up at 6, got ready, and got moving.  When I walked out the back door of the hotel, my body almost went into shock at the chilly temperatures.  (There was a freeze warning every night we were there.....and we were NOT prepared for winter.)  I started along the path and ran around the back 9.  It was hard, but not impossible.  I stuck with my intervals -2 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking.  If the watched beeped in the middle of the hill, I walked.   If I had to start running in the middle of the hill, I did.    It was just over 2 miles around and back.

I got up and did it again this morning.  I wanted to do 4-5 miles, but I got up late and we had to leave PA by 9:00 (with breakfast and a stop to say goodbye to the grandparents), so I just ran the same cart path....but this time I ran it the opposite way.  No wonder Friday's run seemed easy!  It was mostly downhill.  Running the route in reverse found all the hills.  It was harder today, but I stuck to my intervals and I got it done.

I'm still not ready for the half on Sunday.  It's still going to annihilate me.  But, running was fun this weekend. It was work, don't get me wrong, but I liked being out there.  I looked forward to going.  In fact, I was a little irritated that I couldn't get my track work in like I was supposed to.  So, instead I ran some hills.  

Things I learned this weekend:

- I am a nicer person on days that I run.  It might do everyone some good if I find a running steak so I have to run every day.

- I am a cold weather runner.  I am happier when there is a chill in the air.

- I don't like running in nature.  I like concrete.

- I am never going to be fast.  This is a fact of life.

Jess and Kris went up a hill....

In just about 10 days, I am going to run a half marathon that has hills....lots of hills.  I run at sea level....flat, flat sea level.  My running friend, Nancy, warned me about these hills.  She told me to train for them.  I trained a little.  Then I ran a half.  Then I lost my mojo.  Then I didn't train anymore.  My other running friend, Kris, is running the half next week with me.  She's fast and awesome.  She met me for some hill training in an unexpected place not far from my house.

Before I get to the actual run, please let me tell you that summer has returned to Virginia.  We don't ease into it here...it just comes.  One day it's 60 and the next day it's 90....just like that.  When I met Kris at 4:00 this afternoon for our run, it was 88 degrees.  Luckily, there was a nice breeze.

I was hoping the hill training would be like this.

 

It wasn't.

This course was a big, green park with a trail (sort of) mowed into it.  The grass may have been mowed last week....certainly not this week.  We've been getting some pretty heavy afternoon rains for the past week.  Mud puddles hidden in the grass of a hilly cross country course....NOT my idea of a good time.  But, the hills of Williamsburg are coming faster than I am ready for.  Plus, Kris likes the whole nature thing and was really excited to run.

I warned her that I was hot just getting out of the car and I was really worried about the run after the track record of the past couple of weeks.  She told me not to worry about it and off we went.  We went one way, only to be greeted with a dead end.  So, we turned around and started our little jog through nature.  I felt more comfortable with 1:1 intervals because of the crappy runs since Nike and the heat, so that's what we did.  It was still pretty rough.  Even 1 minute of running was hard sometimes.  I did get some reprieves when I had to walk around the massive lakes in the middle of the trail and she didn't say anything when I counted that as a good time to walk, even though the watch didn't beep.  

I missed a puddle about halfway into our adventure and splashed right through it.  My "new" Brooks running shoes are no officially no longer new.  I finished the run with a wet sock.  I said some naughty words at the puddles.  I had dirt and grass up the back of my legs.

The hills themselves weren't terrible.  They were gradual, which is what Williamsburg will be like.  I stuck with the intervals, so I knew that after a minute, I could walk.  That helped.  The company was fantastic.  The breeze was nice and the park is really pretty.  It's one of Chesapeake's best kept secrets.

I pretty much hated the entire run (great running company excluded from the phrase "entire").  I came home and found a tick on my leg.  There was entirely too much nature out there.  But, apparently hills are a way of life when you are a "real" runner.  I'm going to be running through wine country in September.  That just screams hills.  Plus, I heard that hills make you faster.....I need all the help I can get.

Taking this running show on the road for the next few days.  The plan is to do some speed work on a track on Friday and then run a golf course cart path (in the mountains of Pennsylvania) on Sunday.

Losing my Mojo

Something's wrong.  My life seems out of balance.  I am tired...all of the time.  I am cranky...most of the time.  I count the minutes until bedtime on most days.  The big boys fight with each other all day and the baby cries and wants to be held.  I lose Mom of the Year every single day.  I just want a minute of peace where nobody needs me and there isn't something that I have to do next.  I also want a clean house.

So, when things have seemed out of balance before, I could go for a run.  Then life would feel a little less chaotic and a little more centered.  That's not even working.  I've lost my mojo.

Two weeks ago, I had an amazing race at Nike DC.  I mean, seriously, it was a great run.  It felt good, I stayed strong for just about 13 miles.  I finished fast (fast for me).  Then something happened.  I couldn't recover from the distance.  I caught a chest cold.  Walking from my bedroom to my living room would send me into a coughing fit that was completely unproductive.

I got up last Saturday morning with the plan to run 4 miles.  I got through my warm-up walk and started my first running interval.  My head felt fuzzy.  The watched beeped and I started walking.  I couldn't recover from the running interval.  My breathing was labored, I was light headed.  It was work. I dropped my intervals to 1 and 1.  I made it about a mile.  Then I decided that pushing through wasn't going to work, so I walked home.  Goal for the day was 4 miles, I made it 2.

I wish I could say things are getting better.  They are not.  I am ending this week with a childbirth-caused situation.  I don't get it often, but when I do, it's a doozy.  Walking and sitting is uncomfortable and running is out of the question.  So, another week without a run.

I need my running mojo back.  I have a hilly half in 2 weeks that I am not prepared for.  It's going to kick my butt.  I am supposed to start speedwork on the track this week.  I was really looking forward to it.

Tomorrow's 5K ought to be interesting.....

Color Me Rad

Today was another race day....but this one was a little different.  For starters, the 5 year olds came with me. (The baby was supposed to come, but he woke up with a pretty nasty cough and a little fever, so he missed out on the fun this time.)  My husband and my mom came too.  All of the extras came as runners, not spectators.  We also came to the race looking like the Casper the Friendly Ghost.  

You may be asking why.....well, today was our second Color Me Rad race.  We all ran it last year in Boston and we had so much fun, we decided to do it again.  This time the race was at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex, not in a mall parking lot like in Boston. (The other big difference from Boston is that this year it was CHILLY.  We were in long pants and thermal shirts for the race.)  We got there, got parked, and met up with the MRTT girls and some of their families.  

There were SO many cameras trying to capture this good looking group.  :)

After the picture, we made our way to the football/field hockey/soccer field to gather with all of the other color runners before the waves started.  There was a guy entertaining the crowd with root beer chugging contests and by throwing shirts into the air.  Some people did a little pre-partying and started throwing their color packets before they even started the race.  At just about 8:00, they started letting groups of "500" through the fence and around the the starting line.  As you can see from the picture, all runners 7 and over had bibs, but the bibs were not chipped or grouped in any way.  The wave start was whoever made it through the gate before the flags went down to end the wave.  The crowd got a little packed and a little testy during this process, but once we got to the starting line, the fun began!!

The race was through fields for probably 4 of the 5K.  My running friend, Kris hung with us instead of running the race, so it was nice to have company.  I am really glad that the monkeys were with us and I didn't feel like i had to run.  It was more like a cross country course with random hard tufts of grass and unexpected holes, and yucky mud...I just don't do mud.  I would have not been able to run a good race because I would have been worried about breaking myself.  So, I hid behind my children and we walked. 

At Color Me Rad, you are doused with color every kilometer.  After a little nature walk through the woods (nature = baby buck romping out of the meadow back to the safety of the woods), we came to the orange color station.  The enthusiastic volunteers threw orange powder all over us.  We remembered to keep our mouths closed and powered through the station.  At 2k, we came to green.   Green was a little different.  The color at 2k was in liquid form.  The volunteers used weed sprayer bottles to spray us down with green color.  (GREAT idea when it's hot outside.  Not so fun when it's a bit chilly.  That color was cold!)  Jeffrey had to potty between 2k and 3k, so we jumped off the path and let him take care of business.    3k brought us back to powdered color and my favorite - pink!  There was a water stop after pink and then we ran through liquid yellow.  For the last kilometer, we made our way back to pavement and the parking lot of the Sportsplex.  We picked up our color bomb packet and ran though a fog of purple to cross the finish line!  There was more water and some granola bars at the finish.  We got our official finisher picture and took an unofficial one too.

Then it was time for the real fun to start!  All of the finishers headed toward our entertainer from the start who was up on a fork lift throwing color packets (and colored powder) out into the crowd.  Every 5 minutes or so, he would tell everyone to open their packets and then it was time for a color bomb.

After a couple of these, our finisher picture changed a little bit.

All in all, this is a great race.  It's fun and it's wonderful for families to do together.  Packet pick up was quick and easy!  The holding area before the start was a little packed and unorganized, but everyone got to start the race.  For the crazy wave start and no rhyme or reason to the waves, walkers stayed to the right and runners passed on the left - probably the best course etiquette I have seen in a long time!  I really did not like the actual course....it was a little too cross country for me.  I am happier on the pavement.  :) Most importantly, it was family fun day and my kids had a BLAST!!!   Color Me Rad, we will see you next year!

We Run DC - Nike Women Half Marathon

Way back in November, I entered my name in the lottery for the Inaugural Nike Women Half Marathon in Washington DC.  I had no idea if my name would be picked from the thousands of entries, but the thought of a Tiffany Finisher's Necklace was enough of an incentive to give it a try! The running gods were smiling on me and I got in and my two running friends (one is a fellow princess) got in too!  The only thing left after the lottery was to wait until April!

About two weeks before we left on our Nike adventure, my Moms Run This Town club presented me the honor of wearing our travelling skirt for the weekend.  (You can see it up in that picture up there....isn't it cute???)  It's a Sweet Spot running skirt.  The amazing thing about this skirt is that it will fit everyone in the club.  Yep, you read that right.  It fits the little tiny fast girls AND it fits the regular sized slow me....with snaps to spare.  The awesomeness of those wonderful ladies is wrapped up in that skirt and it goes around with different people to different races.  I hoped to do it proud.

We left our house bright and early (like, early by the clock and early by the time we had hoped to leave....this, by itself, was an amazing feat) on Friday morning and headed up to DC.  Our plan was to make it to Georgetown for the Expo by lunchtime.  Packet pick up on Friday was SO easy.  (RunDisney...take some notes.)  We walked through a tent that could accommodate a really long line if necessary and walked right up to a lady holding a sign.  She directed us to another lady at a computer.  The computer lady scanned my confirmation email and all of my contact information popped up on the screen in front of me.  I verified the info while she checked my ID.  Then she scanned a race bib, handed me a bright green bag full of stuff (race map, some free samples, a card with a number on it that would do something at the Expotique) and we were on our way.  The entire process took 2 minutes.  Now, my only complaint about this process is that my name was not on my bib.  They volunteers had stacks of bibs and you just got what you got.  In fact, my friend who checked in about 35 minutes after I did, had a bib that was 3000 numbers less than mine.  It was quick and it was efficient, but I sort of like having a bib with my name on it.

After a quick lunch, we met up with the other girls and made our way to the Expotique.  I am not sure what I was expecting, but this Expo was different.  It was in a HUGE tent on the Georgetown waterfront.  All of these awesome signs were on the outside of the tent, so of course I stopped.  An enthusiastic volunteer with a great sign jumped in one of my pictures.

After the photo stop, we headed into the tent.  Luckily, it wasn't (too) crowded, so they let our stroller go in.  I am not sure that would have happened on Saturday, when the word on the street is that the place was PACKED.  This Expotique was like a portable Nike convention.  There was nothing for sale...it was just a demonstration of how awesome Nike is.  There was a place to get your makeup or hair consulted by some of the other sponsors.  There was a place to try Nuun, since that is what they served on the course.  There were Luna Bars (also on the course) and a place to make signs.  Shoe people would watch you run and tell you what kind of Nike shoes would be best for you.  You could look at how to use Nike+ for your training.  There were walls of shoes to look at.  On each wall of shoes, there was a key pad.  Remember that card with the code on it in the bag?  We went to each of 3 walls to enter the code.  Sometimes a code would open a door with a key.  The key would open a door to some shoes.  I wasn't that lucky.  No free shoes for me.  We didn't stay too long at the Expotique....all of the shopping was at the Nike Georgetown store.  But, there were some neat pictures to be taken before we left.

See my children over there on the left....they almost photobombed the people that took pictures after us.

The race route

From the Expo, we walked up the street to Nike Georgetown.  Right outside the door, there was a long wall with all of the runners' names on it.  I found mine (and Jacob found his.)

When we got inside the store, it was SO CROWDED!  I sent the wonderful husband to get in the CRAZY LONG checkout line while I picked out my shirts and got fitted for THESE BABIES:

Photo credit to Elizabeth Westman

Yep, those are exactly what you think they are.  They are Tiffany blue Nike 5.0 shoes.  They are dated on the tongue.  Those are ribbon laces.  (Don't worry...they came with real laces..but I am NOT running in these shoes.  These are shoes for looking cute.)  

Saturday was a day at the Smithsonian.  I'll write all about that in a different post.

Sunday morning came early.  I got dressed in my Audrey Hepburn, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" inspired outfit and was ready to go.  (I got lots of compliments on our pearls throughout the morning!)  We met in the hotel lobby at a little before 6.  We took a cab to the start, which was about a mile away from the hotel.  The cabbie dropped us off and we made our way to meet some people from our Princess Half Marathon facebook group.  We found one of the girls, but we didn't meet up with any of the others.  I popped over to take a picture of the starting line.  It wasn't the best picture, but the Capitol is right behind the gates.  It was an amazing view to start the day!

We jumped in the massive porta potty line (breaking the "go early" rule).  I saw a former church choir friend  in the port potty line.  This was her 1st half marathon and it was SO nice to run into her in that sea of people.  We got through the line and made it to our starting corral with about 5 minutes to spare.  One of the girls I was running with was starting in the last corral, so we decided to start with her.  The start was corralled, but there was no time between corral starts.  We went from the back of 15,000 people to the start line in about 8 minutes. 

After we crossed the starting line, we went through 13.1 miles of Washington, DC streets.  This was one of the most beautiful race courses that I have run.  We started with the Capitol in front of us then we headed toward a tunnel.  It was pretty cool to run through the tunnel.  There were drummers at the beginning and end.  They had cool blinking lights.  When we came up through the tunnel, we were met with signs and spectators. There was a lot of bobbing and weaving to get around groups of people and slower people.  Luckily, the course was wide enough for it to be okay.   As we headed toward the Lincoln Memorial, there were even more spectators.  Nike had a Chinese drumming group, complete with a dragon.  This is also where I saw my family for the first time.  My boys has made signs and were there to cheer me on!

The best cheerleaders EVER!

The course went over the Arlington Memorial Bridge into Arlington.  My friend, Elizabeth, was having a hard time with the pace and told me to go ahead.  The 3:00 pacer had just passed us and I was bound and determined to finish in under 3 hours.  For the 1/2 mile or so that we were in Arlington, I was chasing Andrew, the pacer.   My other friend, Jen, and I caught him and passed him and we never saw him again (but you KNOW I was looking over my shoulder for a couple of miles to make sure that he wasn't on my heels.)  We went back over the bridge, saw our families again, and went toward the Kennedy Center.  We passed a group of Brazilian Drummers and they were ALL WOMEN.  It was pretty cool.  We saw Elizabeth and saw our families for the last time for about 7 miles.  After the Kennedy Center, we went out on a little peninsula and around a golf course.  We passed the 10K mats and the signs warning of the pace requirement.  (It was the hard cut off....any runner that passed that point after 9:00 was subject to getting picked up and driven to the finish.)  I passed the first sign WELL before 9.  At about mile 7, Jen thought she could speed up and PR at sub-2:45.  I didn't think that I could pick up 2 minutes a mile to hang with her, so she took off and I just kept going.  This was a LONG 4 miles around the golf course.  It was hard to get to, so there were not many spectators.  Nike did a good job with staging water stops, scream teams, and motivational signs to get us through this part.  Before long, I was at Mile 10 and on my way through the tunnel again and up the hill (flat course...HA!  They took a page from Disney and put all of the elevation at mile 10!) back into the city.  I knew that as soon as I got through the tunnel and up the hill, I would see my family again at mile 11.  There were SO many spectators from about 10 to the finish.  Here's what it looked like when I saw MY cheer squad.

Mile 11 took me back toward the Capitol.  What a beautiful sight!  Just about then, I realized that I would be able to beat 3 hours.  I knew that I just had to keep going.  Then it was up Pennsylvania Avenue to the finish.  I saw my family one more time just before the finish line.  They had been joined by our wonderful Navy friends who had metroed into the city to see me at the finish!  When I saw them, I knew that my Tiffany necklace (and my PR) was on a little further up!  I crossed the finish line in 2:55:25....15 minutes faster than the Shamrock Half and 5 minutes under my goal.    I got across the finish line, got my water and then headed for the bling.  There were volunteers with scanners who scanned my bib before I could get that little blue box.  As soon as I was scanned, I walked up a little way and saw this:

Yeah, he's a cutie...but look at that BOX!

As I moved through the finisher area, I grabbed a banana, my heat blanket (my first ever!) and my Tiffany bag (they also had more Luna bars and some fruit cups) and got in line to get my shirt.  So, apparently most runners are regular sized with tiny feet...judging by lines and what the sold out shoes this weekend.  The line for the x-small, small, and medium finisher shirts was NON EXISTENT.  The large and bigger line was pretty long, but it moved pretty fast.  I was talking to a girl in line who ran in San Francisco and she said the shirts run small and recommended that I get a size bigger, so I did.  After I did that, I considered checking out the finisher merchandise, but we had to check out of the hotel by noon and it was an hour wait to get into the tent.  I had my shirt and my shoes and I didn't need a pen or key chain or coozie, so I figured I wasn't missing much.   I walked back to my family and watched Elizabeth finish.  I found Jen, who met her goal and beat her old PR.  We said good bye to all of our friends and walked back to the hotel so I could shower before our 3 1/2 hour drive home. 

The Nike Women Marathon in DC was an amazing race.  It was a beautiful course - full of girl power - through one of the most amazing cities in our country.  Packet pick up was well organized and Nike had a lot of great merchandise for the weekend. The Expo was not so "expo-y" as much at is was Nike-y, but that's okay.  I brought everything that I needed - KT Tape, GU chomps - and I wasn't in the market for new running stuff anyway.   I would have liked my name on my bib, but if that's the worst thing about the weekend, then I'll take it.  

Goods from the weekend (except the shirts that I bought.....I didn't think to take a picture of those..)

I am counting the days until next year's race!  This year, I will be able to say that I am a student, so I should have NO problems getting in!

Running for Boston

There was a lot of talk about how to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings on Facebook in the past couple of days.  I know this because I was sick on the couch and got to read every single one.  THe running community wore race t-shirts and took pictures of their running shoes.  They ran 4.09 miles (the time on the clock when the bombs went off) or 2.26 miles (in honor of the 26.2 marathon distance).  They ran alone.  They ran together.  But, I was sick...puking sick....so I couldn't run.  I had to keep changing my race shirt because the baby was throwing up too.  It was pretty miserable.  I couldn't eat for 2 days.

When I finally started to feel a little better, my husband came home a little early.  I took advantage of him being there and the beautiful spring day and I set off to run my 4.09 miles for Boston.  I took a new route.  I went left at the stop light instead of right.  I ran on the grass in the median so I could get to the neighborhood streets.  Those first two miles felt great!  Then, the lack of food and the lack of energy and two days worth of puking caught up to me.  I started to feel AWFUL.  I changed my intervals from 2 minutes of running/ 1 minute of walking to 2 minutes of walking/1 minute of running.  I couldn't believe it.  I waited all week to run for Boston - for the runners who couldn't finish, for the innocent spectators who were injured or killed, for the city of Boston, and for the running community - and then it was hard.  But, I kept going.  I set out to run 4.09 miles for Boston and I was going to do it, even if I had to walk instead of run.

It took me forever to go 4.09 miles, but I went.  I even tried out my outfit for the Nike Women Marathon next week.   Double win with a whole lot of running fails in the middle of it!