solar squirrel

Well kids, if you hadn’t heard this past Sunday I qualified for Boston for the first time!

Thanks to Elizabeth for catching this action photo!

I woke up early and had already had planned what I would have for breakfast - a turkey burger on a whole wheat bun with ketchup.  I know it sounds weird, but when I was training for the winter 50k earlier this year I had a turkey burger for breakfast and I had great energy and no stomach issues.  Todd and I both had our turkey burger breakfasts and were prepared for a good run!  One thing I’m going to have to change for the next marathon I do is that I will need to figure out what I can eat during the race.  The only nutrition I took in during the marathon was a swig of my stashed Heed at mile 15 and 2 salt tablets- one after about the first hour and a half and the second at about 2.5 hours.  I think this could have been the reason why I started to fade at mile 22…

My plan was to run just fast enough to qualify for Boston.  I didn’t want to risk running too fast and then bonking.  That meant that I needed to run a 3:40 at the slowest, 8:24 pace.  That was the plan for all 3 of us.

Janet, Bridget and I started off together, but Bridget was recovering from bronchitis so she didn’t do as well as she could have so after the first few miles it was Janet and I.  Wow were we consistent and Elizabeth was right - the first miles felt SO easy - it was incredible, my legs felt so fresh and I didn’t even feel like I was running, or walking even.  Even though I felt good I knew better than to try to pick it up - I forced myself to go at the planned pace, which Janet and I decided should be somewhere between 8:10 - 8:24.  The first half marathon was a piece of cake and as we made the turn around point at about mile 20 I still felt decent.  At least good enough that I knew that I would be able to keep running at my planned pace of no slower than 8:24.  The weirdest thing happened around mile 22, though.  I walked through the aid station to drink some water and then my dumb legs didn’t want to start running again!  I was tired and knew I had to start running soon because Janet was getting further and further away and I didn’t want to run alone especially when I was so spent.  I forced myself to pick it back up and got back to my pace, but wasn’t able to catch Janet or the posse of people that was running with Mel.  The one guy (I can’t remember his name) was so awesome, though, he slowed down and waited for me to catch up to him and was so encouraging!

When I got to mile 26 I looked at my watch and saw 3:37 and knew I only had 3 min to run .2 of a mile so I was cutting it close, but I made it!  My final time was 3:38 and I even managed to get 3rd place in my age group.  (Mel beat me by 2 seconds at the very end!!  Way to go, girl - I didn’t even realize I had caught back up!)  I got this cool little picture of the towpath as a prize.  I love stuff like that.

I am so happy that I had Janet to run with.  She basically talked the whole time and it made the miles go by so easily and quickly.  I really loved the course and the volunteers.  The weather was perfect and afterwords we just hung out and chit-chatted.  My legs were sore and I was tired but definitely didn’t feel awful.

Here are the splits!

1    8:18
2    8:13
3    8:16
4    8:20
5    8:18
6    8:16
7    8:12
8    8:11
9    8:13
10  8:13
11  8:15
12  8:12
13  8:08
14  8:14
15  8:11
16  8:24
17  8:15
18  8:17
19  8:12
20  8:16
21  8:20
22  8:18
23  8:14
24  8:25
25  8:28
26  8:20
.2   3:23

Total time:  3:38
Pace:  8:18

Boston, here I come!

The past few days have been action-packed and full of fun.  Here’s a quick review:

My weekend started on Thursday night because I decided to take Friday off of work.  I got out of class and took my time getting home and when I got home I stayed up later than usual laying around and watching episodes of The Office that I’ve rented on Netflix.  I slept in on Friday and got some errands done and then around 7pm got ready for my own personal ’spider walk’ with Todd.  Todd does a spider walk for the public every year, but I had to miss it this year because of class, so Todd promised me my own personal spider walk.  I decided to invite Joe F. from work and his family since they didn’t get to make it either.  We had a fun time wandering around the park in the dark and finding spiders:

This one is an Argiope that is actually pretty common.  Elizabeth took this picture today, but we found it on Friday during our walk.  It’s so fat!  We even got to see it poop!  I didn’t even know spiders pooped!  LOL!  Friday night ended pretty early because Todd and I had to get up super early (4:30 a.m.!!!) for the Akron Marathon.  Todd did the full marathon and I was part of an all female 5-person relay team - Five Fast Femme-Fatale Freaks.  I was hoping for our team to come in top 3 (we got 2nd place last year).  I had the 3rd leg - a 10k - and I was hoping for around 7-min miles.  For some reason I wasn’t thinking strait and Janet got there earlier than I was expecting so I had to hurry up and drop my stuff and sprint to the relay exchange point.  (Seems to be a common theme for me this year…)  Anyway - my 10k went pretty well.  I was hoping to be sub 7 pace, but it wasn’t happening and I ended up with a 7:04 pace - which IS a new PR for me!  We took 2nd place female team overall and celebrated by hanging out in the awesome weather and drinking the free beer.  Todd looked awesome at the finish and had negative splits the 2nd half.  (I Think his time was 3:27 - and he felt great and didn’t even try).

I’m finishing up this post 2 weeks late but stay tuned for the Tow Path marathon recap coming soon!!!!!

First off - I’ve been consumed with school so sorry for the absence of posts.  (Had to go to class all day Friday and Saturday including a presentation on a book that I stayed up all night Thursday night reading…)  Also work has been killing me, but I FINALLY had a breakthrough this past Thursday and my software written in C appears to be playing nicely (and, more importantly WORKING) with the assembly code that I integrated with it.

If that above paragraph doesn’t give you an indication as to why I run, you obviously handle stress better than I do.

So - I went to the Dr. - the same one E-Speed went to - and he told me that the problem I have been having with my knee isn’t IT band like I thought, but something called “Synovial Impingement Syndrome”.  I think this can also be referred to as ‘runner’s knee’.  Basically I have irritated the cartilage or something and it’s causing swelling and pain.  I think this is related to my IT-band becoming tight, so the stretching can’t hurt.  My treatment:  overdose on ibuprofin for 2 weeks but I can continue to train as usual.  My plan is to deal with the pain until after the Tow Path marathon.  After that I’ll take a minimum of 2 weeks completely off from running, possibly 3.  The Dr. said that running won’t do any permanent damage, so if I have to deal with a little pain then I will.  It’s just kind of scary taking so many ibuprofin - I have taken more in the past week then I usually take in an entire year!

I’m planning on running 20 miles at about an 8:30 pace in Solon with SERC on Sunday, so we’ll see how that goes!

I have been waiting and waiting for someone to come up with an entire gym concept that encompasses sustainability, conservation, and reuse. I should have guessed that one would spring up in Portland, Oregon; the same place that has electric car dealerships. Check this place out - The Green Microgym. I’m sure you’ve always wondered what would happen if someone harnessed the electricity from your workout - at least I know I have - but I was discouraged to find out that the amt. of energy that I create is actually quite small - I sure feel like I’m generating a lot when I’m working out hard! But this gym actually has taken some really good ideas into action using solar to subsidize some of it’s energy and also using member’s art work on the walls. I’m most impressed with some of their equipment which I have never seen before. I love the idea of harnessing  kinetic energy, which I honestly feel EVERY gym should do - and it looks like this one is currently investigating it with the use of this company called ReRev. Why not use some of that energy created by all the jumping around during an aerobics class? I know there is a dance club in Rotterdam that uses the same idea from dancers on the dance floor…I am definitely going the next time I am in the Netherlands for more than 48 hours.

I haven’t posted for a while…I’ve had pain in my left knee for a week (started last Sat.). I ran about 15 miles yesterday with Elizabeth and Janet at an easy pace and it felt pretty good during the run, (after taking 4 days off) but after my knee pain is now back. I think it’s ITB, which both Elizabeth and Janet have had in the past. Todd told me not to run AT ALL, because I need to let it heal. I think he’s right, but at the same time I don’t want to loose the fitness-level that I’ve achieved so far. So I don’t know what I’m going to do. I need to get in to see someone ASAP and make sure what I have is ITB-related and go from there. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

I know I’ve been kind of slacking when it comes to updating about my training. Towpath training is going pretty well. I have managed (with the help of Bridget) to knock out ALL of my track workouts on schedule and exactly as I am supposed to. I have also managed to get in the pool at least once a week. I guess you could say I have been sort of slacking with my biking, and that may be why the half iron today was so painful (more on that later). But for the most part I have been doing pretty well with my training - running; biking; or swimming every day. Here’s a quick recap of this past week:

Monday: Swim at lunch 40 min.
Tuesday: Track workout -6 x 800 with 200 - 400 Rest interval.
Wednesday: Bike at lunch - ~15 miles.
Thursday: Run at lunch ~7.5 miles
Friday: SLACKED
Saturday: SLACKED - went to Blues and Brews and got a little tipsy w/ Toddykins.

Yea, yesterday was fun…Todd and I went to the annual Blues and Brews at Stan Hywet to taste a whole bunch of beers from all over. Todd did a bit too much tasting (I was tipsy myself - luckily we walked so we didn’t have to worry about driving). He was making me laugh so hard because he was mad at himself for drinking too much and feeling crappy so he just laid on his back on the floor and used his flip-flop as a pillow. It was hilarious!

Today was the Greater Cleveland Triathlon, and sort-of last minute I decided to do it because if you are a member of CTC you got $20 off, so I figured that made up for the dumb $10 USAT fee and the online registration fee. It was still like $170 dollars!!!! For what??!!?? I don’t know what I was thinking because I have only done one half iron distance and that was in 2006 at Steelhead. I didn’t train for this, but I figured what the heck - how hard can it be? WRONG! I’ll explain in more detail later, but the bike was HARD. I guess I’m not in as great of biking shape as I thought I was! Plus, since the water was so choppy, we didn’t even get to swim - instead doing a 1.2 mile run to replace it. (Which Janet and I started late because the freaks who were running the race started it early!!!) All in all it was good, though. I was a little sad because Todd wasn’t there to cheer me on - but Bridget, Melissa, Elizabeth, and Beth were all there which was AWESOME and I didn’t know Janet was doing it either - so I had tons of friends there, which was GREAT! Brian was even there - though when I saw him the first time I was delusional from just getting off the bike and had to ask him which way the run went!! He was there cheering at the 1/2 way point for the run and hopefully I looked a little better. I’ll post details about the race tomorrow - for now you’ll just have to wait!

I’m training for the Towpath Marathon. I want to finish fast enough to qualify for Boston. That means that I have to have a mile pace no slower than 8:24 min-miles. I’m using the FIRST marathon training program and tweaking it a bit based on my triathlon training. (So if I ride 100 miles, I’m not going to do my long run the day before, etc.) I was also informed that I should be running more than 3 days a week, so I decided to tack on another easy day, generally running about 4 miles at a relaxed pace. My off-days are either swimming or cycling; sometimes aerobics class or rollerblading, etc. (or nothing if I’m really being lazy.)

Generally the longer runs (18+ miles) are supposed to be done slower than your planned marathon pace (PMP). This is great, right? You can relax, chit-chat with your running pal about nonesense, look around, say hi to other runners… WRONG. I have found that running 45 seconds slower (and some of the runs even allow for 60 seconds slower!!!) than my ‘planned marathon pace’ is outright excruciating.  My legs can’t take it - it’s like torture for them for some reason!  Is that the point????  Am I supposed to be in so much pain from running slower?  Today, as an experiment for my 20-miler I decided to just run whatever pace felt comfortable.  Wouldn’t you know it it was 8:22.  Very consistently 8:22.  My slowest mile was 8:50 and my fastest was 8:11, but overall I was at a pretty consistent pace.  I felt comfortable pretty much the whole time with the exception of when I ran out of Heed (yep - I am drinking Heed now - I think you actually acquire a taste for the stuff after a while!!!) 3 miles away from my jug that I had hidden behind a rock off of the towpath.  Now - is this bad?  Am I going to negate my training because I am not going slow enough?  I just can’t imagine running over a 9-min mile for 20 miles.  I get into this nice rhythm around 8:30 pace.  I feel like I can keep that pace very easily.  Can I use that as my long run pace since it’s comfortable for me? (Going slower if I need to.)  Or is the point of the added time to make you suffer and have bad leg pain to make you used to being on your feet longer…PLEASE my running friends - I need advice!!!

For the time being I’m just going to stick to the training schedule but modify my long runs to be at a pace that is comfortable for me, and if that pace is way faster than 45 seconds over my planned pace then I don’t care.

In other news - yesterday was the 2nd Annual 100 mile Burning River ultra race.  I volunteered at E-Speed’s incredibly well organized aid station that the runners went through at miles 56 and 60.6 at Boston Store.  Huge congratulations to ALL of the runners - especially Melissa T., Dawn M., and Steve Hawthorn.  Steve - I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT!!  YOU ARE SO HARD CORE!!!!!!