...so THAT's why!

I learned why the SmartCoach plan had me running every other day at that pace and that I definitely need to make Tempo runs my b**** the reaaaalllllly fun way Tuesday night! Huck and I met up at one of my favorite route spots where the houses are HUGE, partially on a greenway around a lake and sort of idyllic for our 10:30 first "warm up" mile. My shins were SCREAMING at me as we went down the hill from where we parked our cars, but I figured it would be fine once it leveled out.

Well, sort of. I had a mini freak out when we didn't know whether to go straight or turn around the lake, and once my "go! go! go!" focus gets messed up, its pretty darn hard to tune out the feeling of being lost while your shins hurt and now your knee hurts and TADA your surprise for THIS run is your hamstrings are tightening up while you're pushing pace. While literally saying "something generically motivating", Huck got to watch the side of me saying "yeah, see! go go! you've got this! tune out the pain, focus, you've only got 2 more miles left at this pace and then a super easy mile cool down!" try to take down the "expletive EXpLETIvE this HURTS!" side.

Unfortunately, the answer was solved by salt water, namely the tears that started streaming down my face as we kept running, finally knowing the route. We walked around a bit, looked at houses that we will probably never be able to afford and their lovely gardens, and plotted what to do. I finally let Huck convince me to do p90X plyometrics workout, which has lots of jumping around since "even though you might hate Tony Horton, he really does just want the best for you, and there's lots of low impact modifications you can do" according to the boy. We walked back to our cars, played on a swing set, got leftover Easter candy at CVS, and then conqured p90x- and I only did modifications for the very last set of stuff.

Different parts of my legs hurt last night as we saw Daniel Tosh, and now my cheeks and abs hurt sooo much from laughing, but it was totally worth it. Trying to conquer Lake Johnson with its 3 evil hills this afternoon. Thankfully this run is "easy" and it shall be treated as such, darnit!

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

You want me to do WHAT?!

Prescribed run: 2 miles at 12:35 pace
Actual run: 2.11 miles at 10:26 pace

How did I get that "prescription" you ask?! Well, you see, on the heels of that "ok, let's run a 2 hour half!" conversation with Huck, I explored around Runner's World website and found their "Smart Coach." The target race is Nov. 4, and it took some finagling, but I finally input all the right stuff to get the end race distance to 2:04, the closest it would get me, based on my first half results. And yeah, it spit out this for the first week. Yes, a 30 week plan starts with this :

PS Mom? If you put in my 8k time (55 mins), it starts you out at 12:30 pace and finish out at a 2:10 half, just sayin'!

It was supposed to be "easy" but Huck and I kept pushing each other. As he pointed out, a couple months ago, I'd yell at him, tell him he was fired, if he pushed pace. Now?! When my shins KILL on the uphill and I switch to the balls of my feet, I match his stride length and turnover and he warns me "don't push pace too much!" because our "easy" run has quickly turned into a "I'm not backing down, are you?!"

Running at 6pm was kind of BLEGh especially when you add the fact that maybe 200 feet of the run was flat?! It was 72, pretty sure cars kept kicking up dust into my eyes as I ran, and my mouth was parched by the time I was half up the hill. Loved that beyond the half point, Huck turned around and said something generically motivating and we had a hilarious "this is how I hurt" ... and kept running.

If I stayed on the balls of my feet as I ran downhill, I could match Huck's turnover and it hurt WAY less running! I also made sure to stretch like crazy when I got home. Like always, I have to remind myself that I just have to get past the first 5 minutes of the run and life is ... well, life?!

Oh, and as for the prescribed plan? I'll play it by ear, do what feels easy, even if its (hopefully) way above pace for SmartCoach :)

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

"Oh my gawd, you're beautiful"

I'm still in that post-run high, so with apologies for the scatterbrained, here goes the list:

1.  Loving that song right now! Hit play, and keep reading :D
2. Also super happy the weather in NC cooled back down a little so I didn't have to wake up before the sun to beat the sub-50's to start my run. Started out around 9am when it was sunny but 48*. As a "thank you" gift for mentoring for the 8k program, we got Brooks compression arm sleeves, and I had one on my right arm. No real reason except I wanted to rock the one sleeve look?! I took it off when I started warming up, about 2 miles in and tucked it into my shorts. Was suuuuper tempted to tuck it into my back and give myself a tail but when you're already wearing a neon green shirt that says "I got lucky..." on the front, well, I was standing out :/ Oh, and I totally rocked my aviators! I got "sport" sunglasses but they keep  trying to slip off my face, so I decided that even though my $10 polarized metal frame aviators aren't DESIGNED for running, if they work, go with it!
3. Totally about to make these babies when I'm done, although I am lacking green chiles. Good thing the Grub Cat around the corner has less than zero standards for my post-shower high fashion!
4. 
   Had an AMAZING post run high going on (will explain later), and even realizing that Huck and I had been locked out of his place didn't dim it much. Again, the weather was BEAUTIFUL, so we watered the new plants in the front, the food garden in the back, even the brussel sprout plants the bugs are devouring, and sunbathed on his deck as we relished the fact that at least BOTH of us stank :) Huck now has lantana and a blue (fave color) hydrangea (favorite flower) growing in his front yard. It looks super put together now. He's raising the bar for all his neighbors, muwhahahaha.
5. I'm going to probably keep running for as much as I can this summer, even if it means dying in the heat. Might have to do the run 6 days a week thing and make the runs short and at the crack of dawn...so I say in April when July's heat and humidity hasn't begun to wreck its havoc, but if I build up momentum, I won't want to lose it. I've decided the next goal is a 2 hour marathon, which equates to about a 9 min pace. Keep in mind that I just did a 2:30 half, which is a 11:20-ish pace. That's 2 minutes/mile over LONG distance to cut. Oh, and the goal race is a nice and hilly one in November and has just become the NC Half Championships- no pressure! If I increase speed, doing long runs will be less annoying and time consuming and I might start being in the first half of the finishers for races! If I want to keep running into my 70's, I've got to build some speed to lose over the next half century! So, 7 months (including the brutal NC summer) to drop 2 minutes off my race pace?! That's why Huck said "suck up the pain for your legs and let's go." His lower calves are killing him, so going up hills was painful for him and watching Huck admit pain isn't something I see that often, especially since he likes to be all macho and tough for me ;) Meanwhile, my shin splints make hills somewhat of a relief. Yes, my gluteus maximus and thighs kill, but at least the shins go "wheee!!!" for a bit. Yin and Yang, Huck and I are!
6. Out of somewhere, which now that I think about it, I have no clue where that came from, Huck decided our magic min. distance for today should be 5 miles. I mapped out a course from his place, threw in a killer hill that's about a mile and when you've almost conquered it, ratches up the incline just as a "hey, how do you like me NOW?!" I always have to tell myself to just. keep. running. even after I get to the top, teach myself that yes, you can kill the hill and then keep going :) For speed nights with the 8k training group, we used to go .15 miles down the street and RUN up that hill, then do that 6 times. That makes ANY other hill you ever have to do seem like a breeze, straights feel like downhills and downhills feel like you're more than coasting :) Oh, and this hill was about the halfway point of our run. But, once we got to the top, I caught my breath and gave Huck the "we're through the worst of it, I promise!" and he kept plodding. 
7. We walked through the shopping center a bit after the aforementioned evil hill. Don't want to tackle/dodge Whole Foods Saturday morning shoppers! Oh, and its the complex where Fleet Feet is, I was wearing a shirt that boldly proclaimed my FF allegiance, sooo I decided to set a great example!
8. We had to stop to cross a super busy road, and we knew from about that corner to our stop corner was 2 miles, straight shot, a few busy streets to cross, so Huck and I looked at each other and just said "kill it?!" We know I can run 10:30 miles for a while, so our goal pace for this 5-er was to drop the pace by 10 seconds. Not much, but enough to make it a little uncomfortable but attainable. If we'd set 9:30s or even 10s for the goal pace, when we kept going too slow, I'd have burned out and gotten way too frustrated. 7 months to drop pace, this was a long steady run, so only slight pressure. I'd started my running app (I'm on to Map My Run now, btw since I can load my pre-determined routes onto it and then make sure I'm on track if its roads/turns I'm not familiar with mid-run) before we actually started, so it kept telling me I was doing 12, then 11 min average pace, while Huck's more accurately started app said we were doing 10 somethings. He hadn't given me an update in a while, so standing at the stoplight, we agreed to start leaving more of ourselves on the sidewalk- major hill killed, less than 2 miles to go, knew the pace needed to drop a bit to be on goal. Green light...
9. GO! Slight downhill, and I was just re-warming my legs up after standing at the stoplight for longer than my shins liked. About halfway up past Meredith College, Huck suggested we kick it up, but we were a bit too far from the stoplight for me to steadily maintain the burst I knew I had. There was this patch of shade and it looked like around there was where the sidewalk got another few degrees of incline, so I spit out a "not yet." We kept plodding, although this plodding was quite an attack, but under that tree, I just ZOOMED! Out of Huck's mouth? "Oh my gawd, you're beautiful," even as I had to maneuver behind a car that was coming out of the intersection and threatening to derail my utter slaying of the hill and leaving the bf in the dust. Best. running. compliment. ever?! 
10. We had to stop at the light at the almost apex of the hill and Huck paused RunKeeper, saw our new average pace and said "flippin' A, we're killing it, but I'm not telling you because I don't want you to slack off. Let's just keep going like this and... wow!"
11. Nothing like the past minute to keep you motivated, so we kept going... and going...and going... hit one more stoplight and plotted. "Leave it all out here? Less than a mile 'til home? Its okay if we can't keep it up, but let's just see..." as we faced these rolling hills. They sort of suck because you can't see the valleys from even 1/4 mile away. It just plain seems EVIL, darnit! We got down, up, down, and I eeked out a "I make no promises to X street", the next top of the hill "driveway!", telling Huck I promised the driveway halfway up the hill. But then we got there, and I was letting out some growls to remind the hill that I that it was my b**** and just. kept. going. I could see the top of the hill and downhill slope to our stop point, sooo why not keep it up? 
12. I pointed out a car that was a bit before our stop street to end at, just to make our cool down longer since we'd gone beyond 5, so really, the harm of an extra 200 feet of cool down? Nada. Huck agreed and after the last cross street it was ON! We raced and sprinted to the end and it was about this time that Huck checked his phone, stopped it IMMEDIATELY to not let our lazy walking interfere with this apparent miracle we'd pulled off. 
13. 5.3 miles. 9:56 average pace. Goal pace de. STROYYYYED.

14. Yeah, I sort of feel like the bug now. Half that, and half "I wanna go dance party it UP!" But its amazing to have that under your belt and know that your 600 calorie burn for Saturday morning is dunzo :) 

Have an AMAZING Saturday!

Here's to the next TV Timeout,

-Syd

Bunny Ears and Easter Eggs

I'm signed up for this baby and I realized that 10 days is plenty of time to rest my poor shins and that today was as good as any to get back on the horse. Plus... there was THIS : http://www.capitalrunwalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Easter-Egg-map.pdf

I mapped out the best route I thought I could do in the 1 hour. I'm going to let you guess and figure out what I could do, keeping in mind that the top of the Dan Allen deck is like... 4 floors?! I won't tell you until the end so go, search!

Huck came with me and I wore bunny ears and a pink top, getting into the Easter spirit- it was Maunday Thursday, anyway :) At each location, you picked up an egg, and different colored eggs meant different numbers of raffle tickets. We got back after our 3 stops, 4.8 miles (we got off my pre-planned 4.21 mile route a few times) and had 14 tickets (figure out where we went yet?!) so we dropped them in different raffle bowls. I went for a foam roller, pint glass and t-shirt, and visor and Road ID giftcard- I was totally thinking of you, KR! They had 1 hour with a yoga instructor, 8 week course for Yoga for Runners, and free Brooks shoes, but I do yoga on my own and love my Mizunos.

People LOVE talking to Huck because he's got Fila toe shoes, not Vibrams. This is also about when we discovered that both Huck and I had dropped some of our "Keep this Ticket" stubbs into the bowls. Oops...I won nada :/ BUT Huck got compression sleeves for his legs in S/M and (worst of all) Carolina blue. BLEGH! He got to trade them for large red ones- go WOLFPACK! I also ran into people I know thanks to the roomie and Fleet Feet-ness.

This run felt really good. We were going a 10:30-ish pace until we had to make sure we found the egg keepers and just where my super-awesome pre-planned route took us. The person for our final spot WASN'T THERE, and we had to sort of take some pretttty risky street crossings, so we were super bummed until we ran into the lady halfway back to the store. Nothing like last minute let down and then win :) My shins ached, but I made sure to stretch afterwards and just sort of realized this was the suck level, the music rocked, focus on the eggs and maybe a bit of chit chat with Huck ;)

Sooo we went to White Memorial Church, Fred Fletcher Park and then the Belltower. 14 tickets :) 28 total, 1 win, 4.8 miles, great night :)

Here's to the next TV timeout!
-Syd

Pictures, PICTURES

I promised you pictures so, feast your eyes on THIS! Between this one and my "sooo, I'm back!" life should even out. Totally in pain in ways that rival the worst post-workout ever, minus my arms. Had I been doing crazy upper body lifting, it would be awful, but going down stairs? Yeah, the first two are entertaining, but after that I get into a rhythm!

Anyway... the pictures!

I did a lot of hiking in the summer. Gotta love state parks!

Dressed up like a Pilgrim for the Thanksgiving Day 8k. See that leg ripple?!?!

Yeah, I was sort of zoned out for this one...

Totally "doesn't count" Jingle Bell 5k, but I was festive, and the socks got mad love!

Festivities post- Run Green 8k! I swear this was BEFORE my free beer!

Repping the mad crazy St. Patty's spirit with the Roomie!

There's... a reallly funny story I'll tell at parties behind this, but just know I ran across the bridge in the background, and that's my sailor uncle pretending like he ran it with me at 6:30 on a Saturday morning and yes, that's TWO Gatorade bottles in my hand!

Me, post Half :) Quite proud of this one :D

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

P.S.

Put better than I ever could with AMAZING illustrations!

Happy Monday?!

Mic check....

So… I’m back. And when I say I’m back, it should also be noted that I’m about to take it easy. Whiplash yet?!

Let me backtrack… when last we met, I believe I was still slaving away at the thesis, dating Fred, looking for a job and chilling on the running because North Carolina in the summer isn’t the best for avoiding heat. Now, the thesis is done, degree in hand, Fred… is still Fred but not mine, details on the latest version eventually, back to looking for a job, and yes, almost about to take a break from running because its already 60* at 7am nowadays.

I got back into running in September. Yeah, no clue why I got back into it when it was SEPTEMBER and still suuuper warm, but I knew I needed to get back into some sort of routine. Maybe there were even a few cooler days that gave me hope?! I stopped writing stuff down, so who knows. What I did discover was that I was faster! I hadn’t lost the “speed”, but I could go faster! I started back on KR’s 10k plan, and then got boy whiplash and thought that maybe I’d ratchet it up to a half marathon in…January?!

But FIRST! The roomie, the mom and I dressed up like fools for a Turkey Trot 8k on Thanksgiving Day. What better way to make sure you won’t gain as MUCH weight from the turkey and stuffing and pies than to rev up the metabolism before all the goodies?! I tried to rev up quickly for a couple of halfs in January, but shin splints, traveling for Christmas and the realization that apparently yes, at 25 is when your body decides it wants to break down led to 0 half marathons for January.

Except… you see… I’d done something crazy on Thanksgiving Day, darn post-race endorphins! But let’s keep this chronological! Having conquered my own 8k, I volunteered to mentor for Fleet Feet’s 8k Training group. Making it even more fun?! I knew I’d have someone to drag, I mean, keep my company twice a week. The roomie had gotten into running, starting with the couch to 5k plan and was ready to go be faster, stronger and generally more bad-ass!

So, with our first run a chilling 2 miles on a Tuesday evening in January, the roomie and I were off! We were both in the 11-13 minute/mile pace group. I started off being comfortable at the back, but as the weeks progressed, I sometimes had to be the mentor at the beginning of the pack. Those 11 minute miles got trimmed to 10:30s and shorter, while talking, and before I knew it, it was the last week of January which meant…

MY half marathon training started! On Thanksgiving Day, I’d signed up for the first NC Half Marathon at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. There were a few other races in that general time frame that I was considering. I figured late March would mean it would still be cool, maybe rainy, but warm enough to run without 50 million layers. The one I’d originally had my heart was soon ruled out. Never underestimate the power of bad word of mouth!

The roomie’s friends had heard that my “target race” was on a great course, but the people running it didn’t know what they were doing. Messed up logistics? Yeah, that sounds like a recipe for disaster at my first half. Plus, that was the race where KB got injured and was a hobbling fool for weeks afterwards. I started looking around and, having family near Charlotte, figured that driving 2 hours to go race was totally sane, so why not?!

I did the 8k with the training group, rocked it, but dear heavens, the HILLS around here! I realized I’d pushed myself more than I planned to or remembered when I went to go run the next day. It totally did not happen. I think I did 2 miles, and cried like a baby for the last mile. Always great walking into the house and explaining to your boyfriend that, despite being out for 25 minutes, you only went 2 miles and yes, your face is caked in snot and tears, Cosmo’s surefire way to attract men!

At this point, I had to juggle the Runner’s World half training plan I’d been following with what my body would physically allow me to do. I did most of my long runs, but my mid-week runs weren’t as long or as fast or inclusive of the speed work as I would hope or plan for. The two “perfect” examples were the 8 mile run that didn’t happen and the 10 miles of pure suck. The 8 mile was supposed to happen on a Thursday evening, about 2 weeks after the 8k. I’d run 2 miles on my shin splints the Sunday before and knew that if I could just get 5 minutes in, the pain would just be numbed and dull and I could power through.

Except… I couldn’t get out of my own head. This is a seeeerious problem for me, but that night, I just panicked, didn’t want to keep pushing through the pain, yelled at my training partner (aka dear sweet willing to mess up his workout schedule for me boyfriend) for always staying 2 steps ahead of me, not by my side, and other random thoughts just took over and I was DOA. I maybe did 2 miles? And that was it. Buried the thought of that run, shook it off, moved forward.

A trip to the beach that weekend threw a huge wrench in my 10 mile plans for that weekend, so I decided I was still on shin splint recovery rest, and had a much better and motivating 2 mile run with the bf and a dog that can actually run! (Yes, I still love Lucy, but the gremlin rebels at walks up hills, she can’t pace you for 2 miles!) There was still another weekend to do a 10 miler, so I marked on the calendar in Sharpie, planned out a challenging but scenic route, made sure the phone with music was charged and headed out! At 10 am... when it was really sunny…with plans to just get water/Gatorade at random gas stations and fountains along the way…and some darn evil hills…and a part with just the side of the road, no sidewalk…and one of the most stressing things that could happen to a girl less than 48 hours old … I did 10 miles.

Did. I didn’t run the whole way. Might not have run even half of it, but Huck (so bf has a nickname, its “Huck”…continue on) refused to let me turn around unless it was on the route. He let me walk some, took pictures of the snakes on the sidewalk near the arboretum, downed the world’s best Gatorade at mile 8, looked at me like a CRAZY person when someone that I knew (but didn’t explain to him that I knew) stopped to give us water, but most of all kept me moving and reminded me WHY I was doing this and that I was doing this for ME and HE was doing this for me, darnit! That’s love, ladies and gentleman.

They say awful training runs set you up for some pretty awesome races. You know, sort of like how awful dress rehearsals in band or for a play get out all the suck, so that all you have left when it counts is the awesomeness you have inside of you?! Well… today was awesome. There were signs that said “embrace the suck” but I didn’t, because there wasn’t any left. I’ve had some pretty awful days since the shin splints reared their ugly head, and not just because of running, but the kind of days where you have to consciously and deliberately remind yourself that its just a bad day in a good life, or an awful day in a flipping AMAZING life, focusing on the positive, working on the parts of your life that you CAN control. Today, I blocked it all out.

The butterflies grew noticeable as I was standing in line waiting to pee when it was 7:26 and the race was scheduled to start at 7:30 and I didn’t know exactly where to line up. Thank heavens for lightning delaying the start! Oh yeah, by the way, tooootally saw lightning driving into the speedway. Not scary at all! But, I peed like a champion speed demon, found Huck, and found my way to the start line, my pacing group and started the music, after taking a picture or 2, of course, and posting it to Facebook. Priorities!

There was a lot of “ok, run YOUR race, know YOUR goals, forget about the people around you, they didn’t train like you, their shins don’t hurt like yours, they might just be faster than you, this tank needs to last you longer than anything you’ve prepped for so its okay to be conservative now” running through my head for, oh, 2 miles?! I ran into people I knew at the first mile marker, had someone else talk to me shortly after that, and my mood was just ON!

The music was great, I ran into more spectators and runners that I knew, and at mile 6, picked up a running buddy. BJ was walking, but I told him to get back to running, he was almost through the worst parts! We ran into mile 10 together, when he peeled off for the bathrooms. He and I had the same goal pace, and were both super excited to not be crawling (yet…or do I?! keep reading!) and setting personal distance records with every step we took. Reason #918 I love running- you can make new friends mid-race and make 5 miles feel like a walk in the park.

Other highlights include:

    kid with the sign that said “slap sign for extra power boost”- I hit it twice!

    Running over US 29 on a pedestrian bridge that had some bounce to it. Later found out that a few years ago, one of those bridges collapsed! Seriously excited I didn’t know that before the race!

     I was on the 4^th mile when I saw the eventual winner, and he was in mile 9. Yeah…he did it in half my pace, but he didn’t look as happy as I did across the finish line and he probably didn’t get as many hugs as I did!

    I never. Stopped. Running. No walk breaks. NONE! I told myself to get to 10 miles, and once I got there, I pulled a mental switcheroo and said “enh, you only have a 5k left, no walking, suck it up!” and it worked! Personal pride, determination, not just to say “I didn’t walk” but also to just get this thing DONE with were amaaazing motivators!

     The course went around the NASCAR oval, then out around that track, around the dirt track and down and back over the drag strip, around the outside of the NASCAR track then, and this is the cool part, you ran through the tunnels to get onto the asphalt again. Something SUPER chilling about running through a tunnel, and then emerging to the light and lots more spectators and a finish line that, yes, is 2 miles away, but that you can at least SEE!

   

And last…but oh.my.goodness…not least. I smiled I ran across the line, and I cried for a second because I was done, I did it, in 2 hours and 27 minutes, without walking, and hey, here comes a super awesome medal. Seriously, this medal has cars that move and LED drag strip lights that do the countdown. I got my picture taken, grabbed food, found Huck, and just reveled in the glory that was my first completed half. Yeah, I said first. This might be a regular thing!

Every muscle in my legs is on fire, my upper abs even took a turn at being in pain, but the pride of what I did makes it all worth it. The medal is hanging on my door right now, but I need to find a place of honor to hang it in my room. Yeah, I’ve got my master’s, but right now, the accomplishment I’m the most proud of culminated with two and a half hours on a Sunday morning in Charlotte. Maybe it’s the post race endorphins, but dang they’re good and strong, and I wouldn’t trade my hobbling body for the world right now!

…pictures to come!

Here’s to the next TV timeout,

Syd