Week 6…HERE we go!

We are getting down the the final weeks of training.  This past week, I have been really starting to feel my months of training pay off. I remember in the beginning I thought 11 miles was a “long run”…  I am officially starting to feel like one of those “crazy runners” that now considers 11 miles as a “short run.”  I’ve definitely been through a lot of ups and downs with my training since October and it great to finally feel confident and strong in where I am.

December I logged 116 miles, January 59 miles, and February 106 miles.  As you can see my mileage jumped around a bit and it is because I was really hard-core with training when I first started out. I was pretty strict with following a training schedule in December and unfortunately ignored listening to my body. In January I fell behind due to an injury and took lots of weeks off from running to focus on cross-training and getting better (also going to see a chiropractor and listening to my body). When we entered into February I changed my training plan. I was going to train based on how I felt.  I have been doing that since.  I noticed that I don’t have to kill myself with logging tons of miles during the week (I know my dad already told me this, but sometimes you have to learn the hard way).  I also started becoming more dedicated to speed workouts on Tuesday nights and long runs during the weekends.

This week’s training was pretty scarce with miles because I had the “big race” this past Sunday…a 20 miler!  This was the longest distance I have run to date and have ever run in my life.  Here is how my week 6 training week went:

Sunday – I ran the Hyannis Half Marathon (13.1 miles) – I wrote about this in my previous blog post

Monday – 60 minute spin class and 30 minute stretching/weight training.  I had the day off from work so I also went to the chiropractor in the morning and had a massage in the afternoon.  I was feeling pretty refreshed to take on this week.

Tuesday – We had one of the toughest speed workouts yet…and I totally forgot to bring my watch to this workout.  A watch is key for speed workouts because it is obviously all based on pace. I managed to get through the workout by following along another runner who brought a watch.  The workout we had this Tuesday is called the “ladder.”  We did two sets of 400m, 800m, 1200m, 1600m at a 5k pace with a 200m, 400m, 600m, and 800 meter recovery in between, respectively.  This was challenging because as you get to the 1600m (or 1 mile) you are pretty drained from all the other laps.  Once you complete this set you re-do the whole ladder again.  Between warm up and cool down, I ran about 8 miles.  My hip was bothering me a bit when I was running, but I think it was because I just ran a race 2 days before.

Wednesday – Rest

Thursday - Rest

Friday – Rest (yes, three days of rest!) and I didn’t feel bad because the week before I did the same (i.e. rest three days in a row) and did pretty well in my race. I think allowing the body to completely recover and taper down towards a race is important!

Saturday – I think my body can’t go more than 3 days without working out, because at this point I just felt gross. I went to the gym and did 30 minutes on the arc trainer and 30 minutes of some good stretching

Sunday – I ran the long-awaited Black Cat 20 mile race in Salem, MA.  This race sounded like a great idea when I signed up for it 2 months ago, but when I had to wake up at 4:45 AM this Sunday I wasn’t feeling it. Also, your nerves really get to you when you’re trying to sleep the night before a big race.  Let’s just say, I didn’t sleep much waking up every hour checking my clock.  Anyways I woke up and did my normal race prep routine.  I like to allow my body to really feel awake. I  try to wake up an hour before I have to leave my house so I can drink a cup of coffee, eat a protein bar, stretch a bit, shower, and change.  I did do something a little strange and different from what I have done in other races – I took my table salt and poured it in a spoon and ate it.  Tasted disgusting by itself, but I thought it might help with dehydration (in prior races my face always looks and feels salty, which I guess is a sign of dehydration).  I left my house at 6 AM and headed to Salem, which was about a 40 minute drive from where I live.  I also like to get to a race at least an hour or an hour 1/2 before it starts.  I have to get my registration packet, check out where the start/finish line is, drop of my extra layers of clothes, stretch, and go to the bathroom a few times (It is a nervousness thing…believe me the lines for bathrooms at races are disgustingly long before a race and you know what I mean if you’re a runner.  It is funny that there is absolutely no line after the race).  I was happy to hear the race started at 8 AM instead of 10 AM like the Hyannis Half, because I was able to finish the race before noon and still have the afternoon to rest.

My goal for this race was to go out slower and test my food intake during the course.  I saw my co-worker Mike right at the start line and we ran together for the first couple miles.  It helped a lot because I tend to go out way too fast…the last race I was nearing 7:15 minutes miles at the start.  It felt like I was crawling at the beginning of this race because runners sprinted out. Toward the end of the race I was pretty drained and looking back I think my starting pace was probably still a bit too fast seeing that my watch said I was going a little faster than 8:20 minutes miles.  I think I should be aiming for closer to 9 minute miles for the first 5 miles or so, but I guess I’ll have to test this out on training runs going forward.  Another runner in my Dana-Farber group said he was going to aim for 10 minute miles in the beginning and build up to “negative splits” (meaning that you build up speed as you get closer to the end of the race). The idea is to save energy for the end and use it to push you through as runners and dropping away like flies (read more about it here in an article from Runners’ World: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244–12106-0,00.html)  This method really works because he actually only finished a couple minutes behind me and he said he felt awesome the whole race. I always try to write down mile times for certain points so I can get a feeling of how I am doing during the race (if I am going too fast or too slow), but I didn’t calculate it so accurately to account for negative splits. The day before I was trying to think of what kind of time I should aim for.  I originally thought I would try for 8:30 min/mile pace.  I wrote the 3 mile splits and the respective times on a post it to later write on my watch.  Last minute at 9 pm the night before the race I decided to see what the pace would feel like if I were to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  For my age group I would have to run about an 8:10 min/mile pace (the marathon I would have to finish in 3 hours 35 minutes). I decided that I would try writing the 3 mile splits at Boston Marathon qualifying pace and just see how I felt. I didn’t expect to run this pace because I thought it would actually be too fast, but I wanted to see how I compared in time.  My goal for the 20 mile race was to finish under 3 hours (if I were to follow my split times I would finish in 2 hours 44 minutes).  While I love the Garmin watch for training runs, I try not to focus as much on the distance and per mile pace during an actual race.  I don’t really look at my watch often other than every 3 miles as I marked out on my watch. Mainly because I want to be able to enjoy the run and not get so caught up in the mechanics and technicality of the race. Here is a picture of my simple watch with the splits at 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 20 miles.

I ended up finishing much better than I expected. I finished in 2 hours 44 minutes 33 seconds or a 8 min 14 second pace.  Only 4 seconds per mile off a Boston Marathon qualifying pace.  I was proud of my time and gained a lot of confidence in my running capabilities during this run.  I have to admit, I was pretty spent the last few miles and questioned how people do another 6.2 miles to complete a marathon. But I also thought the same thing when I ran the Boston Prep 16 miler and thought, how do people do another 4 miles to make a 20 mile race.  I think somehow I will just find the energy and use up every little bit to complete the marathon.

The Black Cat race is a fairly new course as this was the 2nd year the race was put on.  I was a bit nervous to run this newer race because when I ran the Worcester Half Marathon during its first year, I was pretty disappointed with the mile markers and water stops.  The Black Cat was surprisingly really well-organized and laid out. I would definitely recommend it to other runners training for Boston.  They had the local college sororities cheering the runners on and handing out water.  Even though these college kids were complete strangers, it was so nice having a friendly face cheer you on as you feel like you are going to tumble over at the last few miles.  I can only imagine how nice it will be in Boston to have cheering along the whole course. I feel like that will be exactly what I need to get me through the last 6.2 miles of the race.

The water stops were every 2 miles or so and I stopped at probably all of them but 1 or 2 to gulp down Gatorade. I used the  method of walking for 10-15 seconds at stop while I quickly downed the liquid before running again. Not once did I drink water during the race…I am sticking to Gatorade during my marathon. I also tried to take down a gu at mile 10, but it was a Powerade brand (I normally eat a chocolate GU brand) and a strange kiwi flavor that I couldn’t seem to stomach other than a few squeezes before I dumped it on the side of the road.  I think it would have helped if I had a little more GU, but I managed to feel pretty well fueled despite not having much other than liquids during the 20 miler.  I am wondering if I should carry 1 GU packet with me during the actual marathon.  I don’t think I really need anything more than 1 GU and Gatorade during my actual race.

The Black Cat 20 Mile Course went through the historic areas of Salem as well as entered into Marblehead and along the ocean. The course had some nice rolling hills and I enjoyed the downhills as I let my body just fall forward and opened my strides. I let my arms hang to avoid any cramping.  During the uphills I focused on my posture and just pushing through to the top.  I know I’ve said it before, but the Boston Prep 16 mile race in January was such good preparation because I have not experienced any hills nearly as bad as that.  Any hills I have run since have seemed like cake compared to those in Derry. No joke.

The interesting part of this race was that there was a 10 mile and 20 mile race on the same course.  The race was made up of one 10 mile loop that you did twice if you were completing the 20 miler. I wasn’t a big fan of the whole loop idea going into the race because the thought of crossing the 10 mile point and seeing people finish would be mentally challenging. It was actually not as bad as I thought. The second time along the loop, I was more zoned out.  It was also nice being able to loop and get a sense of where I was in the course.  When we were around mile 8, a girl who was wearing a Reach the Beach shirt ran along the side of me and told me she was following me to help her finish the 10 miler.  I wished her luck as we crossed the 9 mile mark.  At the 10 mile mark when people were finishing the 10 mile race, I joked with the girls cheering everyone on that I only had 10 more miles to go.  I felt like I had more “fun” during this race.  Because the course was a loop, you passed other runners a number of points during the race. I waved to my fellow Dana-Farber runners and a friend from Holy Cross the 2 times I did the loop. It was fun seeing them and it gave me a boost of energy that I needed at those points of the race.  I also noticed the photographers on this course (normally I am so tired I totally miss them) and even waived and smiled at one.  Hopefully some of these pictures came out good!

When I finished the race I felt pretty good…I even had enough energy to kick it up at the end and sprint to the finish. It was around mile 15 or so that I started feeling tired. At mile 19 I definitely wanted the race to be done.  In my mind I kept doing a countdown to myself. “OK Jamie only a 5 miler left” “OK, only a 5k left” “Alright, one mile girl, that is only 4 times around a track…you got this”  Let’s just say there was a lot of conversations going on in my head. I wasn’t really even focusing on my music much as I did in my last race.

The weather was pretty perfect. It was around 40 degrees and cloudy.  The sun can be really draining when it beats down on you, so I was glad there was a bit of an overcast. I wore fewer thick layers this time around because last weekend I was so hot from running.  Since we were running so long I actually felt cold at the end because of all the sweat that was built up on my clothing.  I did experience a bit of chafing for the first time as a runner.  I felt sore everywhere to the touch when I got home. I actually have a little bit of scabbing under my chest.  I will have to apply the anti-chafing stick everywhere before my next long run.  Nothing too serious, but a new experience for me.

The post-race celebration is always the best part. I enjoyed some warm soup and caught up with an old friend from Holy Cross that ran the 20 miler.

Overall I had a really great time! (Easy to say now that I am done) I am feeling much more confident in being able to complete the Boston Marathon in a pretty decent time.  I plan to do 1-2 more longer runs before enjoying the tapering.  In the next few long runs I will have to experiment again with going out a little slower and trying to aim for negative splits. So far, so good!

Here is a photo from my Derry Prep 16 miler in January:

Week 7 Wrap Up – Reaching Milestones!

Phew, 7 weeks until the Boston Marathon! Can you believe it? I remember when I was counting down 7 months in October.

I had some exciting highlights this week, both with reaching a fundraising milestone and a training milestone.

Last week I reached just over $5,500 in donations for the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge.  That means that I am just shy of $1,000 of my personal fundraising goal of $6,500. Although Dana-Farber is encouraging runners to try to reach $8,700, I am really thankful for all the donations I have received thus far. THANK YOU!!!    As a small thank you of appreciation, I promised that I would raffle off a “thank you” gift to one of my donors when I reached this fundraising milestone of $5,500.  I typed up all the names (all 68 names of my donors) and had someone I work with select a name randomly out of a box.  My friend, Elyse Boyle won!  I would have been happy if any of my donors won, but it was nice surprise and a bit ironic that Elyse won the raffle because she was one of my reasons to why I was inspired to run for Dana-Farber.  Elyse ran for Dana-Farber a couple of years ago in honor of her mother who battled and is a survivor of breast cancer.  I remember how much it meant to me that she wore my grandmother’s name on the back of her marathon jersey, so in a similar manner, I borrowed her idea of wearing my donors’ loved ones’ names on the back of my Dana-Farber Marathon Jersey.  Elyse won a cute Nike Running Shirt, which I will be giving her as soon as I get it mailed to me.  Thank you to not only Elyse, but to all my donors.  Going forward, for every $250 I receive in donations I will be raffling off a small gift to one of my donors as a thank you for your support.  My next milestone fundraising goal is $5,750 (currently $159.80 away!)

In terms of training, I took it light this week.  Not only because I ran the 18 mile run last Sunday and needed a rest, but also because I ran the Hyannis Half Marathon yesterday and wanted to taper my miles to lead up to it.  So there isn’t much to update other than the race, but here it is:

Monday – 20 minutes arc trainer and 45 minutes cross train (weights, stretching). Went to the chiropractor to get my ankle/hip worked on.

Tuesday - Speed workout at Tufts University.  We did 12 – 600 meter sprints (about 5k pace) with 200 meter recovery jogs in between. With warm up and cool down, we ran about 7 miles. The workout seemed to go by pretty fast.  We ran each 600 meter in about 2 minutes 24 seconds, which stayed pretty consistent throughout the entire workout. The goal of the speed workouts is to stay consistent with time through each repetition and actually go faster as you do them. I finally met my fellow blogging friend Patrick (I wrote about his 25 mile website a few posts ago and the shirts he is selling- check it out).  It helped because Patrick ran with me (since I brought a timer watch) and he pushed me to run faster than I probably would have run if I was doing the workout by myself.  He is a faster runner than I am so it helped me push myself.  I was definitely tired, but felt good.  Thanks Patrick if you’re reading this!

Wednesday- REST

Thursday- REST. Went to the Chiropractor again.  The chiropractor agreed that my leg is getting better and I can start spreading out my visits every 2 weeks!  Good news!

Friday-REST (again!)

Saturday – It would have definitely been more appropriate to workout on Friday and then have a rest day the day before my half marathon, but I was feeling pretty disgusted with myself for not having worked out three days in a row, so I went to the gym for a small workout session. 30 minutes hard on the arc trainer and 30 minutes stretching.

Sunday - I ran the Hyannis Half Marathon (13.1 miles) Race.  This was a milestone for me because it was my third half marathon and a personal best time for me. I remember how much I struggled after my first half marathon and how much I’ve progressed since then.  It feels great to see how all this training has paid off.

I really enjoyed this half marathon because I ran it with 2 of my good cross-country friends from high school.  Because of running, we’ve actually reunited after 5 years of having lost connection (because we all went to different colleges).  We all ran another half marathon together in May (Boston’s Run to Remember).  We email each other every now and then and grab dinner or see if we are around for other races.  It was a bit ironic because I emailed my friends, Jess and Allison, back in November or December to see if they’d be interested in running Hyannis since I just signed up for it. Both emailed me back and said they had already signed up for it too. We all had signed up for the race on our own – we felt it was destiny that we were meant to run the race together!

The race was about 1 hr 45 minutes away from where we live, so we drove down together.  I’ve heard this race can be a hit or miss with the weather (end of February in New England).  Last year the race was in snow and rain…yikes!  We were really lucky with a nice sunny day (with some head winds).  I saw many other people I knew running the race, which was surprising because there were over 5,000 runners who were also signed up for either the half marathon or marathon.

The half marathon course was very pretty, we ran by the ocean at least on 2 occasions that I can remember. There were a decent amount of spectators that were cheering us along, which was really encouraging. Now I can only imagine that number of spectators in Boston!  There were a few small gradual hills, but also a decent amount of downhills.  After running the Derry Prep 16 miler, I honestly feel that any other hills can’t even compare; so smaller gradual hills seem like a piece of cake.  I highly recommend others to run the Derry Prep in preparation for the Boston Marathon. I also remember playing the same song over and over at least 10 times on my iPod. The night before I downloaded some new music on my iPod and was pumped to hear one song in particular (Flo-Rida, “Wild Ones” remix). I had to admit, I don’t have the best taste in music when it comes to what I will listen to when I am running – I need a very upbeat songs (techno, hip-hop, pop).

My intention wasn’t necessarily to have a personal best at this course, because I was trying to use it more as a training run.  In my mind, I would have loved to break my previous best 1/2 marathon time of 1 hour 45 minutes 9 seconds, however I really wanted to finish under 2 hours. For me, it is really challenging not to compare yourself to a run you’ve done in the past that is the same distance run. I think that is why, for runners, we often compete against ourselves, not necessarily others. We like to make personal records for ourselves. That is the great thing about running – it is meeting your own expectations, not others.  I had some goal times written on a piece of tape that I stuck to my watch, which laid out a 3, 6, 9, and 12 mile goal times.  I noticed when I went out, I probably went out too fast since the watch time as I crossed mile 3 was 3 minutes quicker than what I had written down.  I was feeling pretty good and told myself I’d keep going and see how I felt.  I definitely was feeling a bit tired by mile 9…when I reached mile 10 I kept telling myself, “Only a 5k left, you can do it.”  By the time I saw mile 12, I was ready for the race to be done.  I know I pushed myself with my pace a little more than what was reasonably comfortable.  I finished in 1 hour 41 minutes 26 seconds (or 7:45 min per mile pace). A personal best for me.

To note for future longer runs, I still have to focus on not going out too fast. I did it again during this half because I got caught up with the crowd. I have another training run this weekend where I really need to practice this with.  While I can go out faster for my 1/2 marathon time, I know I won’t necessarily have enough steam to run this pace for a 20 mile run.

During this half marathon, I experimented a bit with my eating/drinking. I think what helped me most was that I stopped at nearly every water stop and chugged down some Gatorade (not water).  While I drank, I would quickly walk as I finished the cup, then proceed back to running.  I realized stopping and recovering for 15 seconds was better than not being hydrated.  I also didn’t have any GU during my run, but felt fine. I read an article last week that Jack Fultz posted on the runners’ community board that actually pointed out if we eat right, we don’t really need to eat that much during our run. I remember my dad also telling me he didn’t need to eat anything while he ran his marathons.  Check out the article, interesting: (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/workouts-may-not-be-the-best-time-for-a-snack/?ref=health).  I have another long run this upcoming week, so I will experiment again with this.  Since the run is longer, I might have to take a gu packet this time.

One of the best things about running longer races is that we get treat ourselves to a nice brunch after.  Allison, Jess, Liz, and I went out to eat down the street before heading home for the long drive back.  It was a great way to end this day.

Here is a picture that we took right before the race (I’m in the middle, with my two cross-country friends on either side of me).

Boston Prep 16 Miler: Reflections

The big 16 mile Boston Prep race, done!! Woo Hoo! (please take note of the “Moderately challenging” and mountain peaked looking course as illustrated on the shirt we received at yesterday’s race)

I’m not sure where to even start with this post, because there are a lot of thoughts going through my head. But why don’t I begin with what my body wants to tell you:  I am sore.  My roommate told me yesterday that it looked like I just got off from riding a horse for 5 days.  Between my glutes and calves, my legs need some serious rest for a day or two.  Luckily I have today off from work…and I’m getting a massage later this afternoon at a local massage school ($35/hour…not so bad for a recent grad student’s budget).  Hopefully it will help relax some of the muscle soreness in my legs. I might also take a nice warm bath later today.  I really don’t remember the last time I’ve been this sore from a run – EVER.

After being away from running for almost 2 weeks after an injury, it was definitely nerve wrecking to get back into training with a race….a 16 mile, very hilly, competitive race (with many runners who’ve qualified for Boston) to boot.  It was a great learning experience, which is why I understand (as a First-Time Marathoner) why it is so important to get the racing experience prior to the actual Boston Marathon.

The good news is my ankle was holding up pretty well during the race, however my hip is still bothering me a bit today.  I can deal with that part – just will making sure to stretch it more regularly.

Some lessons learned as I was running yesterday’s course (many re-enforced from what experienced marathoners told me along the way):

Lesson #1:   Listen to your body when it isn’t feeling good. This was actually something I learned before running this race, but I realized my legs needed a full 2 weeks off to actually be back in recovery mode.  I probably could have healed much sooner, but I kept testing my body by running a couple miles here and there and then go further into injury mode (and never really allowing myself to fully heal). Ideally it probably would be better to have eased back into running after having these 2 weeks off…starting with 5 miles, then 10, etc. rather than jump right to 16 miles, but I appreciate the need for recovery time much more now.  Fingers crossed no more injuries!

Lesson #2: Practice on more hills.  I’ve been training on primarily flat courses along the Charles River.  Let me tell you Derry, NH – the complete opposite elevation level then what I am accustomed to training on.  NH has hills of its own and I remember them fondly when I ran Reach the Beach.  I will be venturing to Newton Hills soon to get more hill experience. I think cross-training on the arc trainer for the past few weeks weakened my calf muscles. Never in any of my running experiences (even in my 18 mile run last month) did I ever have my calf muscles tighten up so much to the point where my legs literally spasmed and gave out while I was running.  It was so painful that there were portions of the run at the end that I had to actually walk (I hate walking during races).  This occured probably around 13 miles.

Lesson #3: Familiarize myself better with the course.  In many of the 5ks I’ve run, I never had to walk through the course, but it was probably never really necessary.  Going forward it is a good idea to run part of the course for the more difficult/longer runs. I should also really get more training on the actual Boston Marathon course.  Many of the Dana-Farber runs train on the course, so I will be sure to do that in the coming weeks. I am also going to do a drive through of the course a couple times so I can visualize where in the marathon I will need to fuel/hydrate before approaching the more challenging parts of the course.  I was lucky that Mike from work had offered to do a drive through of the course yesterday before it started because he gave me pointers on when to get ready for the uphills and that was when I took my gu.

Lesson #4:  Pace myself to leave energy for the end.   I was actually feeling pretty good most of the run and I was proud of myself that I started off slower than I normally do.  Pacing myself has been a learning experience since I ran my first 1/2 marathon a couple years ago (I got caught up in the starting excitement and went out WAY too fast and have been better about pacing since).

Lesson #5: Train in all types of weather conditions. We’ve been lucky as Boston Marathon trainers this year that the weather has been incredibly cooperative with us.  We have experienced a mild winter by all New England standards.  However, training in this mild weather has also allowed me to be complacent.  I have trained outside in rain once during the past couple months and that was a 5 mile run.  Yesterday’s circumstances had me running on a snowy ground for the first time in awhile. During the run I had to adjust to sliding on the ground, quickly picking up my feet to avoid snow puddles, and feeling a very cold wind against my face (side note: should have worn chapstick/ now I know why a woman was smothering vaseline all over her face before yesterday’s run).

Lesson #6: Pay attention to my posture and cadence/stride.  I could feel my body curling up towards the end or while I was going up hills. While it was doing this, I remembered what I read in my book about checking this periodically  (and even walking if you had to) and quickly tried to straighten up and widen my stride to ensure a better running form.  In my longer runs, I will have to keep an eye out for this. I noticed once I corrected my posture, I felt stronger.

So now that you have my lessons learned, you are probably wondering how I did.  I have to say I am proud that I finished coming off an injury. My goal for this race (as I posted on Saturday) -was to finish safely and watch my starting pace.  That I did…so a success story in my book.  It was definitely not the best run I’ve ever had, nor the fastest – however as you can see I learned a lot from yesterday’s run.  The good thing about the run was that they had split times along three points of the course which helped me compare some race time’s I logged in the past.  The bad thing was that the start time was confusing.  I started further in the back of the starting line then I normally do (so I was behind hundreds of runners) because I didn’t want to get trampled on and slip or twist my ankle.  I don’t think there was a starting strip that logged when you actually crossed the “start,” so my watch time was about 3 1/2 minutes behind the time the clocks displayed along the course.   Looking at the results it appears that there was no official starting cross time, so I believe all runners had the same start time.

The clock times on my results reported (with my notes/comparison to other races in red):

5 mile: 42:55 (pace 8:35)

• 5 mile race back in 2010 was at 38:05

10 mile: 1:24:22 (pace 8:27)

13.1 mile (half marathon): 1:54:20 (pace 8:44)

• Half marathon time in 2011 was at 1:45:09

16 mile: 2:21:11 (pace 8:50)

Granted comparing these past race times to this 16 miler is not a fair apples to apples comparison since the longer the distance, the slower your pace should probably be.  Also the elevation, weather, course, and my body’s mental and physical strength all play a factor in each race.

Given the conditions, I was happy with my performance at yesterday’s 16 miler.  I am looking forward to training for the Hyannis Half Marathon at the end of February, but for now I am going to rest up and get geared up for the next long run!

Race Jitters!

Almost 2 full weeks off from running.  Wow…seems long!  But good news – my legs feels much better than it did a few weeks ago. My dad was right…full recovery was what was needed.

I have been focusing on some cross-training this week, but tapered down with intensity to prepare for my 16 mile race tomorrow.  Recap of this week is as follows:

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – Headed to the gym in the evening after work. 60 minutes on the cybrex arc trainer, lots of stretching.

Wednesday – Woke up super early to get in 30 minutes stretching, foam roller, hip exercises (Did I tell you my hip was making a “popping” feeling? I read up about it online and a lot of running sites said that hip exercises could help reduce this. The popping seems to be less noticeable now).

In the evening, I attended the 2nd Dana-Farber Marathon Runners’ Meeting.  It was a perfect meeting for me to go to because they had a physical therapy presentation by Jessica Douglas, MSPT of Joint Ventures Physical Therapy & Fitness (http://www.jointventurespt.com/Cambridge-Physical-Therapy.html) which helped me understand better maybe why I was feeling injured in certain areas of my leg.  I also met a couple of other runners that I have been communicating either through email or following their blogs.

Wednesday I also received great news – the Dana-Farber Marathon Team released the top 50 fundraisers through January 16th via email. Guess what? I came in 42nd overall (I think out of 500 runners)!  This is awesome and I am so grateful to all my donors! Thank you, thank you, thank you – I can’t say it enough!

Thursday – Got up early and did 45 minutes on the cybrex arc trainer, stretching, ab workout

Friday – Rest

Saturday (today) – Will be doing stretching to prepare for tomorrow’s long race.  Also went to Marx Running earlier this afternoon (http://www.marxrunning.com/) to get some warmer gloves/gear.  Mark who is the owner of the running store is really passionate about running so he gave me lots of great tips to prepare for tomorrow.

This 16 mile race tomorrow is called the Boston Prep Run and is located in Derry, NH.

I am feeling really jittery about this 16 miler for following reasons:

• I haven’t raced since October (and that was only a 5K)
• I haven’t run for about 10 days
• I have never run a race longer than a 1/2 marathon (last 1/2 was back in May 2011)
• This whole season we’ve been extremely lucky and haven’t had much snow, which means I haven’t trained in snow.  Today New England got 3-6 inches of snow which means I will be running tomorrow in snow
• The Derry Boston Prep race is known to be extremely hilly and I have not trained on many hills, since running around the Charles is relatively flat
• I am getting over an injury
• I haven’t really run a race in winter weather
• 16 miles!!! ahhh!

Despite being super nervous about it (my stomach is a little topsy turvy as I write this) I made sure to lay out all my “stuff” to be prepared for tomorrow. During the runner’s meeting this week, Jack Fultz, our coach and former Boston Marathon winner, suggested that we should think of our day starting before we actually go to bed. You should set out all of your clothing before sleeping and think of sleeping as resting your body to get ready for your run. So that is what I am doing.  I know this totally looks like I overpacked, but it is way better to be over-prepared then forget something silly like socks.  I swear I am not moving to Derry, NH.

Hopefully I get some rest tonight – it is always interesting with how much sleep I get before a big race, but my goal for tomorrow is to finish and feel good.  My primary focus tomorrow is keep steady with my pace (so not start off too fast) and be safe (especially with snow possibly still being on the ground)!

The good thing about the 16 miler race tomorrow:

• It will be great for me to get out some of those “race jitters” that I am sure I will be feeling before the Boston Marathon.
• It will also be cool to be surrounded by other runners training for the Boston Marathon during the race tomorrow
• It will be great indicator for where I stand/my progress with marathon training
• It is a long run that I can do with race support – water, a sweeping truck (that picks up anyone if they aren’t feeling good)
• It is a new personal challenge for me – longest race I ever run!
• It will be the 2nd longest run I have ever run – the longest run I ever ran was 18 miles last month
• 16 miles!!!!! ahhh!

I am sure I will keep you posted with how it goes tomorrow!  Wish me luck

How many kills did you get?

I was reminded about the New Balance’s Reach the Beach Relay Race back in September…when my roommate asked me what was up with the t-shirt I was wearing last night:

I know it is horrible, it is a picture of a cat that has been run over, but I promise there is a story to it.  I don’t regularly wear t-shirts with dead animals on them.

Back in September I was asked to fill in for a friend and co-worker who was a team member in New Balance’s Reach The Beach Relay (http://nh.rtbrelay.com/).  It is a 24 hour relay race with 12 team members traveling 2 vans running over 200 miles from Cannon, New Hampshire to Hampton Beach. Each team comes up with a clever name – some examples of team names this year were: Hello Kitty, Are We There Yet, Grumpy Old Men, WIMP, We Got the Runs, Moms Gone Miles, Take or Be Taken, Shut Up & Run, Cheap Yellow Mustard, etc.

Now I want to say upfront I had no say in our team name of “The Sail Cats.”  And the first question I had when I joined the team was, why team sail cats? I guess it is an urban legend…according to Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sailcat): “Once an ordinary cat, Sailcat was turned into a super invincible cat by space radiation whilst hunting a mouse one night by a highway. Soon after he became invincible, he was run down by a semi truck in the passing lane of the highway, but he lived through the horrific incident. Shortly after he was flattened, some kids came along and found Sailcat pancaked to the road. They then picked him up and threw him like a frisbee into the night sky, thus beginning the legend. From that day forward, Sailcat was the feared and revered protector of all living things wishing to cross freeways.”  I still don’t really get it, but that is where the story of the t-shirt comes from.

Anyways, when each team member finished one of their legs of the relay, the fellow runners in the van would ask, “how many kills did you get?” (Referencing to the sailcat – i.e. the run over cat)  By this they meant how many other runners did you pass during your leg of your run.  So if I passed 7 other runners during my run – so I would respond “killed 7.” It was funny how competitive teams got with one another (in a healthy sort of way).

The sail cats team actually ran pretty well. We ran in the Ultra Mixed division, which is a team made up of males and females.  In our group we came in 44 out of 119 and ran at a 8:01 min/mile pace – not too shabby (http://nh.rtbrelay.com/results/2011results.html).  Since I was added last-minute to the team, I ran some of the shortest legs in the relay – I think it was 7.5 miles, 4.5 miles, and a 3 miler – so a total of 15 miles in 24 hours. Some team members ran over 26 miles if you added all their legs together.

It was a really fun experience and I can’t wait to do it again …I am actually planning on running Reach the Beach in the Spring that takes place in MA and ends at the Cape. I am sure I will talk more about this experience in future posts…there are so many stories to share.

As far as training goes, it was a mental battle to get up this morning, but I did it!  I knew I had to get up because I had something after work today and there was no way I’d make it to the gym after that. I had cross-training on my schedule and did about an hour of weights and stretching this morning.  Tomorrow will be back to running.

Just DO IT.

So late last night I was pondering whether I should sign up for the 16 mile Boston Prep Race in January. Mike from work let me know about it last week. I didn’t even know they had races in between a half marathon and a full. I kept thinking about it all week as to whether I should sign up for it or not…or whether I would even be prepared to do it.

On my “to do” this weekend I had most of my items crossed off (feeling very accomplished), but one item was left: sign up for races.  So instead of thinking about it any longer, I just signed up for the race and put an end to it. As Nike says, “JUST DO IT.”

I am really nervous just thinking about a 16 mile race right now, but I know in the long run it will give me the confidence I need to be able to do a full marathon. I feel good at 13.1 miles (half marathon), but this race will give me the opportunity to do even more challenging distance. I think half the battle will be running in it during January (with snow on the ground!!!!)

Now time to train for the 16 miler!  Baby steps!

Body Spandex?

This morning I ran a 3 mile race (not the typical road race distance – a 5k or 3.1 miles). OK – it might be just a mental thing, but I was thinking “sweet, 0.1 miles shorter.”  The race was in West Newton – the 10th Annual Paddy’s Pub Race – http://www.paddysroadrace.com/GeneralInfo.htm.  My friend Meaghan, who is also a runner and someone I know from work, told me about it and I decided to sign up for it a couple of months back.  I also met up with Rob, another runner friend of mine that I met in May at the Boston’s Run to Remember 1/2 marathon (who also happened to the same college as I did – small world?).

Since there were over 2,000 runners registered, I got to the race about an hour early. As I was waiting for the race to start, I look up and notice this guy in a full body spandex suit.  I mean FULL on body suit, head to toe. I’m not sure how he was breathing in that thing, but it definitely made me smile.  I mean I wear spandex pants when I run, but where do you even buy one of these?  Later after the race I noticed he had two other friends with body suits on – one in plaid and the other in a tuxedo suit.

As I was waiting for the race to start I started chatting with some of the runners beside me.  With so many runners at this race, they often line you up at the start according to your pace.  So there was 5-6 minute mile pace runners, then 7 minute mile pace runners, then 8 minute mile pace runners, etc.  I stood just before the 7 minute mile pace runners since I’ve been running under 7 minute miles recently.  It is so interesting how people become runners or why they decided to run a race.  One man who stood beside me told me his son goes to Assumption and runs sub 5 minute miles (almost 4 minute mile pace) and he sort of picked up running because of his son.  Two other men beside me were running their first race ever.  Another man said he was running his 2nd race of the morning? Crazy.  Anyways, my point is it that it was fun to feel the energy of those around me. I feel like runners have such a great way of sharing their love for this sport.  This might be a generalization – but I’ve never met a runner that I don’t like.

I have to admit I wasn’t feeling my best before this race.  I got home pretty late last night, so I was tired this morning. As any athlete, some days you feel great and other days just lousy.  While I didn’t feel so good during my run, my results were better than I thought. I realized after the first mile, I ran out a bit too fast. The first mile I passed at 6 minutes 20 seconds. Normally, I am pretty good at pacing myself, but I think it was because at the start I was trying to get around a bunch of people so I wouldn’t get “stuck” behind. Overall, I ran 6:42 minute pace per mile and finished 4th in my age group (20-29). With over 2,000 runners I felt pretty good about the outcome despite not feeling great. I haven’t signed up for any more races yet this year so I guess I’ll have to get on that!