Group Track Session, 40th Birthday...and Goodbye!

In the prior post, I said I don't believe birthdays are a reason to be "princess for a day."

But I have to say, I had one great long birthday weekend. Apologies for this long account! I'm letting myself indulge since this is The Last Post on BQ by 40.

It started bright and early on Saturday morning when I went to Boulder to join up with the Boulder Striders, a running group led by Colleen De Reuck. Darren put their track workout on my schedule, reversing his prior stance of not allowing me onto the track. Since my last attempt at a group run didn't work out (which is to say, I wimped out because it was cold), I was glad to get one in before closing the blog.

Needless to say, I was one nervous introvert, and the fact that this was the workout added to my nerves:

Warm Up 15-20 min/Stretch/4 x 100m strides
Start 2,400m @ Half Marathon Effort 3 min active rest
Then 1,600m @ 10 km Effort with 2 min active rest
Then 3 x 800m with 2 min active rest as follows:
--1st One @ 10 km Effort//2nd One @ 3-5 sec faster than #1//3rd One @ 3-5 sec faster than #2
End 1,600m @ 10 km Effort
Cool Down 5-10 minutes

I know many of you do speedwork that's tougher than that, but that's a big one for me.

There wasn't a lot of talking when I arrived. Everyone looked fit, but not scarily so, and Colleen has a way of putting people at ease. We set off on a warm-up jog, then did some stretching and drills together and then the strides. Cynthia, who had told me she was coming out to watch, take photos and then have brunch with me, arrived about this time (very nice of her to watch in the chill!). She asked me if I was nervous. I nodded yes.

But then there was nothing for it but to start. The slowest group went first. I asked them how fast they expected to do their 2,400 meters in, and they said at an 8:15 pace. So I went with them. My sea-level half-marathon in October was at 8:09, so I figured I'd give back a few seconds for the altitude.

Before I could think about it any more, off we went. I stayed behind a group of four women. The day was beautiful, chilly but on its way to warming up to the 50s, and I was comfortable in a thin race T-shirt, arm warmers and tights. The 2,400 was over before I knew it, and we were at about an 8:00 pace. We jogged a little, drank a little Gatorade...and then it was time for the first 1,600. Bam! Over even more quickly. And well under 8 minutes. I had looked down at my watch in disbelief at one point. Was I really going that fast? Was it really true that running with others is all it takes to make paces that are laborious alone....do-able?

Big thanks to Cynthia for taking photos. Not a bad view for a high school track! That's me in the white shirt.

And that's the way it went the rest of the time. The rest periods were so short I had no time to dread the next interval. And the intervals felt much easier than they should have for the paces my Garmin recorded. By the time we finished the final 1,600 I was hooked.

That's Colleen in the blue jacket cheering us on as we wrapped up one of the intervals.

I hope Darren puts more of these track workouts on my schedule. Next weekend I'm going to try to hook up with the other group that I bailed on last weekend. This time it will be for a long slow one, and I think I'm going to like that, too.

Cynthia and I left quickly and went to watch a nearby 4-mile cross-country race. Colleen had left the track workout early to do this one, so we go to see her as well as numerous other fast Boulder-area runners in the women's race. The winner (at a blistering 5:29 pace, finishing in 22:29) was Brianne Nelson, whom Kathy and I had met in the airport when we were headed out to the Olympic Marathon Trials and the Houston Marathon a year ago. Colleen took 9th. The top ten were all under a 6-minute pace on a hilly grass course. Amazing!

After a giant piece of quiche at brunch with Cynthia, I spent the rest of Saturday hanging out with my family, including my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew who are visiting from the East Coast. Dan made homemade pizza on Saturday night, and all weekend I broke with my standard practice and let myself eat dessert whenever I want. I'll be back on the wagon starting tomorrow, after all.

Sunday was work, but it didn't feel like it since I found a sheaf of birthday cards and treats waiting for me.

Today I woke up early and started the day as I usually do: with a run by myself. It was 45 easy minutes with five strides at the end. I took in the clear view of the mountains to the west, the fresh air, the thwack-thwack of my feet, and I enjoyed every one of those strides. And then it was time to get ready for the party!

Here's a photo of the cake:

Chicking the Grim Reaper since 1973!

Everyone arrived at 10 a.m. and we took off on our 4K run at about 10:20. Most of the guests brought their kids, so the lead pack (which included Cynthia, Caolan (who I met in person for the first time today!), and my old friends Erin and Amy) also had to function as de facto sitters-on-the-run for a bunch of eager under-8 cyclists (thanks for that, you guys!). I ran in front for a bit, then slipped back to chat with some slower runners and the walkers...and of course Dan, his sister (my awesome sister-in-law Kate) and my little nephew Sam (who was a bit baffled by the whole proceeding...he preferred the playground at the park). I also got to run for a bit with my friend Josie's eager black lab, Summer. Summer's ordinary pace is my 800-meter track pace, though, so I didn't run very far with her today (have a hill workout tomorrow!).

Waiting to run!

Caolan, Cynthia and Amy, ready to lead!

The pack hits the park.

It was about as perfect a day as Colorado offers in January: temperatures in the 50s, brilliant sunshine, no wind. We all finished back at my house with bright eyes and rosy cheeks. With the help of a friend, I lit a literal 40 candles on the cake and then we feasted.

With Cynthia and the remains of the cake.

I said it last year, and I'll say it again: birthdays are not a reason to feel sad or stressed about the passage of time--and that's just as true of the ones with 5s and 0s on your new age. All of my friends tell me the 40s will be the best decade yet, and I do not doubt them. Be glad to be alive! It's a gift and a blessing.

And with that, I'm signing off. I didn't BQ by 40, but I'm planning to BQ as soon as I can. I hope I still know many of you in 10 years, when I plan to celebrate my 50th birthday by running 50 miles.

We have lots of time to train. Care to join me?

Still Learning....

Do I really know how to run a marathon?

The answer to that (I'm pretty sure) is no.

I have now run six of them, and I've learned many things. But the main thing I've learned is how much I still have to learn.

The major thing I'd like to be better at is how to pace myself in a marathon. Here's a look at the paces for my last three 26.2s, mile by mile, according to my Garmin data (I don't have this data for the first three I ran, and because of Garmin discrepancies these numbers may not add up to my official finishing times or match the official race data exactly):

Top of Utah--September 2011
Mile 1--8:29
Mile 2--8:11
Mile 3--8:15
Mile 4--8:28
Mile 5--8:28
Mile 6--8:44
Mile 7--8:38
Mile 8--8:27
Mile 9--8:35
Mile 10--8:53
Mile 11--8:30
Mile 12--8:28
Mile 13--8:31
Mile 14--8:34
Mile 15--8:21
Mile 16--8:40
Mile 17--8:31
Mile 18--8:54
Mile 19--9:30
Mile 20--10:03
Mile 21--9:14
Mile 22--10:36
Mile 23--11:10
Mile 24--10:36
Mile 25--9:41
Mile 26--9:40
Final .2 pace: 8:35
RESULT: 3:59:11

Houston Marathon--January 2012
Mile 1--9:26
Mile 2--9:01
Mile 3--8:33
Mile 4--8:25
Mile 5--8:19
Mile 6--8:36
Mile 7--8:31
Mile 8--8:36
Mile 9--8:46
Mile 10--8:46
Mile 11--8:47
Mile 12--8:49
Mile 13--8:45
Mile 14--8:29
Mile 15--8:36
Mile 16--8:46
Mile 17--8:47
Mile 18--9:00
Mile 20--8:59
Mile 21--9:04
Mile 22--9:08
Mile 23--9:12
Mile 24--9:08
Mile 25--9:19
Mile 26--8:57
Last .2 pace--7:50
RESULT: 3:53:28 (my current PR)

California International Marathon--December 2012
Mile 1--9:19
Mile 2--8:57
Mile 3--8:39
Mile 4--8:51
Mile 5--8:56
Mile 6--9:00
Mile 7--9:07
Mile 8--9:01
Mile 9---9:00
Mile 10--8:47
Mile 11--8:45
Mile 12--8:59
Mile 13--8:51
Mile 14--8:53
Mile 15--9:00
Mile 16--9:06
Mile 17--11:36 (bathroom stop)
Mile 18--9:04
Mile 19--9:14
Mile 20--9:17
Mile 21--9:05
Mile 22--9:12
Mile 23--9:18
Mile 24--11:40
Mile 25--11:08
Mile 26--9:57
Final .2 pace: 9:02
RESULT: 4:06:32

What do these races have in common? If you said, you hit the Wall, Terzah, and right around the same time in all three races, well, you'd be right.

The fact that I markedly slowed down in Houston, too, albeit more modestly than the other two drama fests, surprised me. In each list, I italicized the mile where I think the Wall came. Each race had its own unique reason: Top of Utah killed me when the screaming downhill turned flat; CIM killed me due to the headwind and my stomach...and even Houston, a race I am still mostly proud of and felt good for the entire way, featured a noticeable point where my pace slowed. In that case, I don't really know why. Poor fueling, maybe? Hard to say, because I was enjoying myself.....

These data also show me that in each race I put in some early miles that were faster than what I was ready for. Top of Utah--which lures you in with a screaming downhill for almost 15 miles--is understandable. But someone like me shouldn't have been doing an 8:11 mile that early in any marathon, for any reason, and especially not in my first marathon in six years. In Houston, I started too slow (9:26?! really?!), but I made up for that with too-fast times in miles four and five. And for that day at CIM, knowing the worst of the headwind was still ahead, I shouldn't have run Mile 3 in 8:39. I was trying too hard to keep up with a pace group that, on that day, was too fast for me.

So here's my homework for April's Eugene Marathon:

1. Be honest about my possible pace, and not only that but be honest about my possible pace for the weather and health Mother Nature deals me on THAT day, NOT necessarily what my pace could be on a perfect day. Darren can help with this, but Darren isn't going to be with me in Eugene on April 28. In the end, I have to know my own body and be honest about the weather.

2. Aim for an even pace, tilted toward slightly slower in the first half and slightly faster in the second half. This will be the hardest part, I think.

3. Fuel properly. Practice this in training. Truth is, I hate eating while running. I barely ate anything during Top of Utah or CIM, and I may not have consumed enough calories in Houston, either (though I'm less sure about that). Time to get over that. This cycle I plan to experiment more with sports drink and Gu-type things. Shot Bloks work well for my gut, but they are bulky and cumbersome to carry and after 13 or 14 miles, my mouth just doesn't want to chew them.

I'm in good company in cultivating true humility in the face of this distance. In my weight training sessions with her, Colleen has said a couple of times that the marathon must be respected, no matter how talented a runner you are or how many you've done (she told me she's lost count of her marathons, but I know they include four Olympics and at least one Olympic Trials victory).

Any other advice? How did you run your best marathon: even paced, or negative split, or positive split? Has anyone really mastered the marathon (maybe Meb has....but anyone less, um, gifted)?

Embracing the Treadmill

I thought of calling this post "wimping out," but even though that's what I felt like I did, it's unfair to some real badasses out there who I know have to train on treadmills.

So yep....the group run didn't happen today. It was 5 degrees with a windchill of -13 when I woke up, and the sidewalks were icy. I decided breathing that for 90 minutes, and slipping around while I was at it, wasn't worth the tough-girl points. Instead, I drove to the YMCA and did my slow long one on the treadmill. It wasn't so bad. It wasn't so great either, and I still want to avoid that whenever possible....but it was better than being bone-cold for an hour and a half or more.

Plus, when I was done, the gym was right there for the 60 minutes of weights and core work that I also had on the schedule.

My friend Keith says we can try again in two weeks for the group workout. Not sure if Keith and his wife joined the group today, or waited until later....I hope they ran inside too. It's now 10:40 a.m. and it's still only 16 outside. Here's hoping it warms up for my next run on Monday!

Stay warm, everybody.

Introverts and Group Runs

Have you ever taken the Myers-Briggs personality test? It's one of the few "psych" tests I have done, or at least I've done knock-off online versions. Here's a decent one--at least as far as I can tell it's decent. I sometimes wonder if these are just more-elaborate versions of a women's mag quiz.

One thing I'm fairly sure these tests do get right: they always peg me as an introvert. I remember a long time ago being at a crazy post-college New Year's Party and ducking into an empty office because big crowds tire me out. At almost every party I go to I'll do this after a while: find an empty room, a bookshelf or even a bathroom where I can go be alone for a while. In the case of this party, a friend of mine found me in that office and said, "Ah....taking a break from the party! You must be one of those introverts who can pass for extroverts sometimes."

And he was right: I am an introvert who can pretend extroversion. I worked as a reporter for several years, and to be a reporter you have to be able to initiate and carry on conversations with strangers. But I never was comfortable at this. Ultimately I'm much happier as the librarian I am now. I do still have to talk to people I don't know as part of my job, but it's usually one-on-one and cordial (reporters often have to be confrontational).

What does any of this have to do with running?

Well, this weekend I'm going to run with a group. Someone I knew briefly back in college got in touch last fall. Turns out he's a runner, too, lives in Boulder and he'd just run his half-marathon personal record, something he attributes in large measure to group training. He invited me along on one of his group's Saturday runs, and I decided to give it a try.

This scares me. I've run with individual friends, with Cynthia and Kathy and my old friend Angela, and I've always liked how this ups the fun factor. I've run on two 24-hour relay teams. I also enjoy being an anonymous member of the crowd during races.

But in races everyone's focused on his or her own run. Cynthia and Kathy are friends in other contexts--they know me. A training group....that's A LOT of other people, and, well, they chat. I'm bad at chatting. I'm scared I'll be the slowest person out there (Darren's got me doing a 90-minute run, all at a low heart rate). And I'm scared...well, I'm scared of all the other things that scare me in any new social situation: that I won't know what to say, that I won't come across as having a sense of humor, that I'll say something to make me put my foot in my mouth, that they won't see me as a "real" runner or as a very interesting person. (These things have all happened to me, and not just back in middle school. Maybe the other introverts out there can back me up on that.)

But I'm going anyway because it won't be the first time I've done something in running that scares me, and it's always been for the best. I'm going because it was nice of my friend to ask me, and surely he doesn't think I'm a total loser or he wouldn't have issued the invitation. I'm going because I see running with a group, at least sometimes, as a missing piece in my training. I'm going because when this blog goes away, I'll need a support group and because I think it's stupid to live in a place like Boulder County and NOT know more runners in person (and actually run with some of them sometimes!). I'm going because I have a marathon in April, and three-plus hour training runs alone get dull.

I do feel that, given my personality and time constraints, I'll probably still do most of my runs alone (I hope I'll get to do at least a long run or two with Cynthia and Kathy this cycle). But getting a little more social in general can't hurt.Wish me luck! I know this sounds like a lot of drama for something that will hopefully be fun. Even for a consummate introvert.

What about you? Are you an introvert or an extrovert (and what do you think of tests like Myers-Briggs? useful or complete BS)? Do you train with a group?

Avoiding the Treadmill

It's been hard to get outside to run at my preferred time, the very early morning. It's cold,truly cold (as in sub-zero until the sun's above the horizon), and the sidewalks are dicey. Not everyone shovels like they're supposed to.

I also was assigned a hard fartlek workout today for the first time since the California International Marathon. This one was 7 x 3 minutes at a high heart rate with a 90-second recovery after each interval. I've been doing shorter pick-ups embedded in easy runs, but this is the first one where speed has been the entire point.

It was tempting to do it on the treadmill at the YMCA we belong to here. It's warm there--I can wear shorts and a tank. And I don't have to worry as much about pace. If my heart rate drops below where it's supposed to be (this morning between 166 and 172), I just push that little pace up arrow and take care of it. Outside, I actually have to keep myself honest, and that's still hard for me when I'm running fast.

This time, I did not give in to temptation. I DID wait until late morning, when it's much warmer (above freezing), but I'm happy I soldiered outside and took care of it on a nearby bike trail.

Doing these kinds of runs outside whenever possible is, for me anyway, really important. The last few hard workouts I did before CIM were on the treadmill. Even though I always follow the conventional wisdom and set the incline to 1% to mimic outside conditions, something kept whispering to me that I wasn't getting as much out of it because I wasn't being responsible for my own pace. There's only one way to silence that voice, I think--get outside.

Now, I know I'm lucky to live where I do, and to work part-time. Yes, it's cold in the early morning, but at least while my kids are in school, I have a couple of mornings a week where I don't have to go out pre-dawn. This does cut into what I can do with the rest of my day (the laundry doesn't do itself), but I'm thinking I can use the pre-dawn time when I would run in warmer weather to do some of these household chores before the kids wake up. Then I can get them to school, do my run under the friendly Colorado sun...and still have time for things like more chores, paying bills and a nap before it's time to pick them up.

Today's run outside was gorgeous, and with each interval I gained confidence in my own ability to hold the necessary pace. Plus you couldn't beat the view of the snow-mantled mountains to the west.

What do you think? Am I being too paranoid about speedwork on the treadmill? I'm sure I'll still have to resort to it some this winter....I just want to minimize that.

Revising Expectations

Boys and girls, it's DUMPING outside here in Sacramento. It's supposed to continue to dump, with the worst of the rain and 20-mile-per-hour winds tomorrow between 7:30 and 9 a.m.

Yep, that's right in the middle of the race. And no....it's not going to be a tailwind.

I just went to a meeting with the pace team leaders....and as much as I hate to type it, because I know it makes me look like a quitter.....I have to revise my goal.

Darren said it first. He sent me an email yesterday saying he'd seen the forecast and unfortunately wants me to scale back my goal.

And when I chatted with the very frank and nice 3:45 pace group leader just now, he said the same thing....not just to me, but to everybody. The winds we are looking at tomorrow, he said, will strip us of 38 seconds per mile at minimum. He said he's still going to hit 3:45....but he asked people to help him lead, something he said he doesn't have to do in good years. Those who do run 3:45 in tomorrow's likely weather, he said, are capable of a 3:30.

My training has been good. On a nice day, I'm ready to run a 3:45 and might even be able to do a few minutes faster. But I am not capable of a 3:30, or a 3:30 effort.

I know some of you badasses out there would put all your chips on the table and go for it. But I don't want to end up walking at the end because I went out at the wrong pace for the day. And I don't want to wreck my chances for a better day a couple of months down the road.

Here's what I'm telling myself: Putting on my big-girl panties does not mean deliberately choosing to bonk on the off-chance that everyone around me is wrong about what kind of day it's going to be tomorrow, or wrong about what I am capable of. Putting on my big-girl panties means remembering that I'm lucky to be here at all, remembering what those of you who trained for the New York Marathon this year just dealt with.

So the goal tomorrow is to beat 4 hours. I'm going to run with the 3:55 pace group. If conditions are better than race officials are advising, I will speed up. If I can beat my Houston Marathon personal record from January (3:53:28), it will have been a very good day.

No whining. It's a little over 12 hours until the gun.

One Week to Go

I have one week to go until the California International Marathon. In one week, in fact, I will be finished with it, for better or worse.

Last "Long" Run: Yesterday I did my last long run, 90 minutes with a harder 1/2 hour thrown in in the middle. It was a lousy run as confidence-boosters go. I managed to stay at what I have been hoping will be race pace (8:30/mile) for about the first 15 minutes of the "harder" part. After that, my heart rate, which was supposed to stay between 155-165, began to wig out on me, and I had to slow down. The final 30 minutes, in which I was supposed to stay below 150, actually required some walking to do that. I don't think I can blame the Garmin this time. I think my body just wasn't having it. Soon after, I had to find a bathroom pronto. Let's hope neither of these things (slowing down and gut issues) happen next Sunday. Maybe I can blame two days of Thanksgiving food??? :^)

Heart rate training can be a real heart-breaker (no pun intended) because there's no way to avoid the bluntness of it on bad days. When you start to exceed requirements, you just have to slow down, or there's no point in doing it at all.

That said, it's not the first time I've had a bad run a week before a marathon. Does this happen to anyone else?


Conversation with Dan:

I bored my husband even more than usual about CIM this weekend, but I figure he has only a few more days of putting up with it. On Friday night over some two-handed bridge, I asked him if he thought I could do it (meaning qualify for Boston). Dan is always honest with me. He's a scientist, very rational and practical, and while he's also very kind, he wasn't going to be all sunshine and sparkles if he really didn't think it possible.

So I was happy when this is what he had to say on the subject: "The only question for me is your endurance. Did you do enough long runs? You clearly have the speed."

So he didn't say NO (and the long run issue is the one on my mind, too). Which is encouraging!

Menu Planning:
I'm normally a huge scatterbrain when it comes to meal-planning, but not this week. Here's what's for dinner in my house through Thursday:

Tonight: Pasta w/ Dan's tomato sauce and mushrooms
Monday: Leftover pasta (last speed workout Tuesday morning--4x1 miles at marathon pace--requires bland food)
Tuesday: Egg, chili and cheese burrito (recovering from said hard workout while working late)
Wednesday: Chicken, green salad and green beans
Thursday: Pasta w/ Dan's tomato sauce (again; hey, don't stray from what works, right?)

Pace Bands:

I've ordered pace bands from Races2Remember. They are for 3:50 (which would be a PR but not a BQ), 3:45 (the Golden Threshold and my A goal) and 3:40 (the Moonshot). 

How I'm Feeling:

Yesterday afternoon I sat down with Darren for a half hour to talk about the race and our plan for it. That plan is not final, because some of it depends on how Tuesday's 4x1 mile workout goes, so I'll be including the details of the conversation in my goals post later this week.

But right now, a day after the conversation on another beautiful day in Colorado, I'm feeling pretty optimistic, even with the way yesterday's run went. I'm not going to say "I know I will BQ." I'm not an "if you believe it, it will come" person. But if it's a good weather day in Sacramento, if I approach the marathon with the proper humility and concentration, if I execute the plan Darren laid out for me, and if I can find the zone I ran in in Detroit, I think I CAN BQ. And after the year I've had, that's such an exhilarating mindset to be in!

Kicking My Bootie

THIS is tapering???? says Terzah the Tortoise. :^)

I may be tapering, but today you could have fooled me.

My alarm woke me at 4:30 so I could get to the gym when it opened at 5 for my Tuesday speed workout.

This was only the third time this entire cycle (including the lead-up to the Detroit half-marathon) that I've gotten on a treadmill. The weather has been amazing, warm and calm and clear. It's been fantastic to train outside so late in the year. But today marked the second week I've done the Tuesday workout on the treadmill. I typically have to get up earlier on Tuesday than any other day. I like running in the dark, but only when I can let my mind wander and the miles flow by at a comfortable pace.

And Tuesday paces.....aren't comfortable. Darren's had me doing increasingly faster-paced workouts--and it was getting hard (by myself, in the dark, groping to light up the Garmin to see my heart rate and pace) to push my legs to the point where the heart rate stayed above 170 or higher as long as he had asked. So I asked him if I could do these inside, and he said yes, provided I keep the incline at 1%.

Here's what he had me doing between 5:30 and 6:45 a.m. today:

After a warm-up and some strides:
2 miles at HR 160-165 (two min active rest)
then 3 x 1/2 mile at HR 170-175 (two min active rest after each)
then another 2 miles at HR 160-165 (two min active rest)
then 3 x 1/2 mile at HR 170-175

This is how that translated into pace:
1st 2 mile--paces between 8:00-and 8:47
1/2 mile--6:58-7:30 pace
1/2 mile--7:05--7:30 pace
1/2 mile--7:05-7:30 pace
2nd 2 mile (the disappointing one; legs felt like rubber)--huge range between 8:27 and 9:30; I was able to ramp back down to 8:47 in the 2nd mile and still keep HR at or under 165, but just barely
1/2 mile--6:58--7:24
1/2 mile--6:58--7:24
1/2 mile--6:53 (!)--7:12 (happy with these; not sure why they stayed fast when the 2 mile preceding them was so slow, but I'll take it)

The total with the warm-up and cool-down came to about 9 miles. I was proud of myself...and pretty much ready to crawl back into bed.

BUT it was time to meet Colleen for the last of our four pre-California International Marathon weight sessions.

Another blogger with a hamstring issue emailed me last week to ask what Colleen is having me do to keep my own occasional right-hammy flare-up under control, so I thought I'd share that here. The answer is: a lot of hamstring-strengthening exercises and a lot of glute exercises. And by "a lot" I mean A LOT more than I've ever done before.

Today, for example, we did hamstring curls on a special bench designed for that purpose, raising the weight with two legs, then lowering it with one. We also did two sets of hamstring curls on a Swiss ball (with a small weighted ball between my knees to bring my adductors into the game). We also did balancing lunges with my back leg dangling from a rope loop. We also did bridges and clam shells for the glutes, and side walking with my ankles bound up in one of those rubber band ropes. There were also upper-body exercises and calf strengtheners.

Between all of those, we did LOTS of core--side planks, crunches on and off the ball, curl-ups on an angled bench...You've probably done or at least seen most of what we do. It's just that with Colleen, I do much more of it.

Finally, throughout the workout (not just at the end), we stretch, especially those hamstrings (though we do it gently).

Colleen has had hamstring issues a lot of her career, too, and she said that whenever she slacks off the hamstring exercises her issues return. When her hamstring is sore, she says, she eases into the work, maybe lifting only ten pounds with the "bad" side--but weight training is part of what she does. Always.

That's a good lesson for me. I've always found weight training dull, and even when I've been faithful about it, I've never trained as hard as I have with Colleen. It's been an eye opener.

So after getting my bootie kicked twice, first by a world-class coach and then by a world-class runner (who is a fantastic personal trainer; I recommend her to all my Colorado running friends), I went to the dentist, squeezed in an hour nap....and then went to work.

Taper ain't never been like this before!

A Virtual Race and a Long Run

 

Laura at Mommy Run Fast is co-hosting a virtual race to raise money for the Red Cross's efforts on behalf of Hurricane Sandy victims (it runs through December 1, so you can still sign up; click the bib image above for more information). Dan and I had been looking to donate anyway to a hurricane-related cause, and I had a speedier one-hour run on the books this week, so I thought I'd make a "race" of it.

Yesterday's run was a "steady state" run, in which I was to start out with 15 minutes at a very easy heart rate (145 beats per minute), ramp up to 15 minutes at 150-155 bpm, then to 15 minutes at 155-160 and finish with 15 minutes at 160-165. I figured I could do at least 10K in that period of time, so that's what I'm calling my virtual race.

Here's how it ended up:

Overall: 6.35 miles; 1 hour 6 seconds; avg pace 9:28; avg HR 152

Mile 1: 12:03, avg HR 136 (Garmin was wigging out as usual during the first mile; I'm not sure how accurate the pace or the heart rate is for this mile)
Mile 2: 9:09, avg HR 144
Mile 3: 9:21, avg HR 154
Mile 4: 8:46, avg HR 160
Mile 5: 9:01, avg HR163
Mile 6: 8:49; avg HR 164
Last .35: 8:33 pace, avg HR 163

It wasn't my fastest 10K, but I nailed the workout and felt fantastic. Plus Darren was happy with it, which makes me happy. Thanks for hosting the virtual race, Laura!

Today I followed that up with a 2 hour 15 minute long run, this time all at an easy heart rate (below 150). I ran it slowly, but I returned to the tough course in Boulder where I ran long two weeks ago, so the terrain made up for the pace.

This was my last long run of the cycle. Darren has already posted next week's workouts, and the "long" run next Saturday is only 90 minutes. There's a tough speed workout on Tuesday, but I can truly say now that I am tapering.

Two weeks to the California International Marathon.

Three (W) Things Thursday

I don't usually do Three Things Thursdays or Wordless Wednesdays, but it sort of works today. It's another excuse to do a post in bullet points, at least!

1. Weight: I've been worried about it, in the manner of someone who has a big race in just over two weeks and can't seem to stop eating. My sweet tooth has become a fang. So has my savory tooth (chicken and dumplings.....mmmmmmmm........) I'm still controlling the sweet tooth except on Sundays, though I did have some pumpkin pie at my daughter's class Thanksgiving lunch today. I love pumpkin pie. Not exercising such control over the savory tooth......except to hold off on dairy before speed workouts and long runs......

I'm less worried today because the number on the scale registered 125.4. I haven't seen a 5 for that third number since before my kids were born. So it seems....it's actually OK that I'm hungry lately.

Bring on the pumpkin pie (mostly on Sundays, of course, and I know this free pass will be over after the California International Marathon...but still.....bring it on).

What's your favorite holiday dessert?

2. Watch: I got a new strap for the Garmin and since then it's worked just fine. I'm being much more faithful about rinsing it out after EVERY run, and hand-washing it with soap after every five runs.

I'm still worried about its accuracy (maybe taper worries are setting in before I even taper). So yesterday I experimented with wearing the strap above my instead of below my "girls" (guys have an advantage here; bras and breasts....tricky for heart-rate monitors). It worked OK, but I think during a longer run it would chafe, so today I went back to the usual position.

If you heart-rate train, how do you position your strap? (Interested in hearing from gals AND guys on this one.....)

3. Weak Points: Thanks to two massages I can't really afford from the excellent Kate, one visit to Dr. Hansen the chiropractor, plus Colleen's perfect exercises, my right hamstring has subsided and is feeling completely normal. My back, like a child that's been ignored too long, has been bugging me a bit the last few days. But some good Pilates stretches and time on the foam roller placate it, and it hasn't interfered with any runs. It's also still at its worst in the morning right after I roll out of bed. Running loosens it up.

One of the massages revealed that my right calf is also VERY tight. I'm now paying it more attention with the Stick and roller as well. Boy, do I hate having my calves massaged! It makes me want to kick like an unbroken colt.

What sore spots do you hate to have worked on?

Not Tapering Yet.....

We are three weeks out from the California International Marathon. But I'm not in taper mode yet.

Yesterday I completed what I'm guessing will be my longest long run of the cycle, a three-hour beast with two 30-minute sections at tempo heart rate embedded in the middle. It was cold and windy, but I've run in worse. I finished the first two hours, including the first 30-minute tempo section, just as directed. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the second tempo 30, my gut decided to speak to me, and rather than see if I could get through it without stopping, I ducked into a handy outhouse and dealt with it.

Upon leaving the outhouse, I launched into tempo pace again as quickly as I could....only to develop a painful side stitch. Suddenly the mild headwind, which hadn't really bugged me before, seemed gale force, and I felt I was huffing and puffing. Once the stitch worked itself out, and I turned out of the wind, the pace came back. But I was already halfway through the allotted time and my heart rate hadn't once reached the level it was supposed to for that section (164-168 beats per minute). By the end, I finally got it up to 166. But I felt like I'd failed on that tempo section, and the paces were 20 to 30 seconds slower than the race pace I'm hoping for at CIM (8:30/mile). Overall, I give myself a B-minus for this run.

In the afternoon, the next week's workouts arrived from Darren. He made no comment on my long run, positive or negative. What I did notice is that this coming week will still be hard work. Saturday's long run is 2 hours and 15 minutes, all of it easy this time. But the day before is a 1-hour progression run, and I have a hard "sustained" session on Tuesday that represents no decrease in distance or intensity from the ones I've done for the last three weeks. As has been the case for weeks now, I'll run every day but Sunday.

I'm glad about this. The two-week taper worked much better for me for both the Top of Utah and Houston Marathons last year. And this cycle, which has featured less-than-optimum amounts of time to build up for 26.2, I feel I need all the real workouts I can get (without tiring myself out too much, of course).

How long do you like your marathon taper to be: two or three weeks? If you're running CIM (or another race coming up soon), do you feel like the hay is in the barn or that you still have work to do?

A Hilly Long Run

Unlike the Top of Utah Marathon, which features straight downhill running for the entire first half, the California International Marathon is much more of a rolling course despite a net downhill. So I know I need to practice running up after running down and vice versa.

Colleen had told me last July that a good long run for CIM training can be had by starting at a trailhead in North Boulder, running on the level gravel path along the foothills and past Wonderland Lake (see picture above; the trail is along those hills on the far edge), hooking into a ritzy North Boulder neighborhood along 4th Street where the ups and downs are marked, turning west and running up Boulder Canyon....and then running back down the canyon, through the neighborhood and back to the trailhead. You can tack extra miles and time on by continuing on the Boulder Creek Path, too, so this can be as long a long run as your training plan calls for.

Mine called for a 2.5-hour progression run. I didn't think I'd need the extra Creek Path distance, so I ended up having to tack an extra loop on at the end for the last 25 minutes, but that wasn't a problem. Here's what the elevation change looked like:

 

I think I did OK on the "progression" run part of this also, though the watch went haywire on me again early in the run (see the spiky part below starting about 10 minutes in). Unlike last week, I just ignored it, keeping an eye on total time and pace, and trying to ramp it up at the prescribed intervals. When I looked at them afterwards, the heart rates were a bit high, but I did pretty well on that front too:

Next weekend's long run is a different animal. It's a 3-hour outing with 2x30 minutes at a heart rate of 162-168 (approximately race pace heart rates). So I'm going to get a new strap. This race is too important to me to mess around with the equipment--and fortunately there are good deals online for Garmin straps. Darren also wants me to do these intervals on a flat course this time--so no trip to Boulder next weekend. That's OK. I'm proud to have tackled this tough course once. And I do feel I can handle ups after downs, and downs after ups.

One interesting note: Darren gives me only a week's worth of workouts at a time. I've been surprised at how happy I am with this. Normally I'm a huge planner who likes to know what's coming (even in novels I read ahead!). But seeing only one week ahead helps me concentrate on the task at hand without fretting about whatever tough runs are further out.

The exception, of course, is the race itself. I know exactly what's coming on December 2 at 7 a.m.