Archive for August, 2011

Sunday’s usually my foot-long hot dog of a post but there’s not much going on in my head today, so this’ll be a shorty.

The week was great – solid workouts and my body feels strong. I made one permanent scheduling change inspired by last week’s cutback.  Monday has typically been my recovery 9-miler, the only single-digit run of the week, but I’m now extending Monday (still at recovery pace if I need it) so my speed day can be the 9-miler.  This makes it way more pleasurable since I can do a normal-sized warmup/cooldown instead of a 5-mile trudge home.

I’ve also made a half-hearted attempt at resuming supplementary exercises.  Having been incredibly bad on that score with the excuse “I’m running a shitload, screw it”, this week I started pushups again, a few crunches, some little dumbbell crap and a few lame pull-ups.  It takes hardly any time so I really have no excuse not to aside from my innate laziness.

Week in Review
I had hill sprints planned for today as a change from drills/strides but it was pouring rain and in the end, I decided to bag ‘em.  I don’t even feel guilty, it would have been extra credit anyway.

Also, as you can see, my easy paces are perking up again, this thanks to the weather which started improving on Wednesday, mostly mid-to-low 70s around 6 and 7am.  Dewpoints have still sucked for the most part, but there’s hope as summer starts making a move towards the Exit sign.

Monday: 14@8:30
Tuesday: 9@7:42 (9x 3min on\1min off)
Wednesday: 15@8:16
Thursday: 11@8:27 (drills & strides)
Friday: 12@7:35 (6.5@7:03 progressive)
Saturday: 17@8:19
Sunday: 12@8:08
Total: 90 mi

Today’s Crockpot Adventure
I’m making this little gem today (halved, because it’s a huge recipe).  Pork Chalupas – a yummy meal for a dark, rainy day.

Ice, Ice, Baby
I’ll leave you with a crazy little photo.  Remember my ex-hubby Jonny and friend Andy on their sailing trip to Greenland?  Behold their current state of affairs:  (slow going, that’s for sure)

Today was my big-ass tempo day.  The run called for 6.5miles (5@7:05, 1.5@6:55) – no break between, just speed up for the second part.

Even though I could think of at least 3 reasons why this tempo should not be a problem for me, I was nervous about it.  The longest tempos I ever do are 6-milers and they don’t speed up at the end so this was a new thing for me.  Plus, I’m really not used to seeing these paces as a general thing, which is a bit of a head trip unto itself.

The weather was fantastic compared to the last few months: 67 degrees, dewpoint 54.  On the bad note, I got on the scale and saw 123lbs…I’m a pudgster!    On the good note, I filled my Shuffle with some favorite songs and downloaded some new ones, which always gets me pumped.  Ready as I was ever going to be, I left the house.

2.75 miles warmup, a drink from the fountain, 2 strides and I begin.  My first couple miles were slower@7:10, the first one because the Garmin was off, telling me I was doing 7:06, the second one because I went up the bridge, though on the way back I had gained momentum so the bridge didn’t phase me.  Section One went 7:10, 7:10, 7:03, 7:06, 7:05…avg 7:06.

Section Two is where it got interesting.  Honestly, I wasn’t convinced I’d be able to speed up at all.  I have a lot of self-doubt, even after writing a blog post spouting a bunch of confidence crap, it’s not like I’m walking around all puffy-chested, I’m just starting to believe.  But I got real lucky.

First off, there was a handsome guy ahead, right when I started that section, so I followed on his heels but after about 1/2 mile, passed him.  Then I found my rabbit!

What a great rabbit it was.  He was this guy, looked like a hardcore trail runner due to his garb, but also, he had a huge backpack on that looked like it was full of bricks. It was obviously some kind of training torture device so it was truly impressive.  And his pace was perfect!  We ended up running side by side, wordlessly, for a mile and when I finally got to my endpoint, I thanked him for the rabbiting, he grinned and chugged on.  Section Two went 6:52 and 6:54 pace for the remaining ½ mi…average 6:53.

Then, for the cooldown, that cute guy I had passed comes back in the picture, so I followed him for a while, the last couple miles averaging 7:53 (what can I say? he had nice legs).

So the entire tempo portion averaged 7:03, just one second over goal even with those slow first miles.  And the cherry on the sundae is that it was also my fastest training run ever, 12 miles @ 7:35/mile, a factoid I won’t mention again now that faster runs are in the cards.

Sure, it didn’t start as peppily as I might have liked but that’s my M.O., I always take a bit of warming up to hit pace.  And don’t think for a moment that the last 1.5 miles were easy, they weren’t – if backpack guy wasn’t there, I doubt I’d have been able to do it, so I’m not going to burst out with some crazy race time in September.  But if I can do 7:00s and it doesn’t hurt too bad, I’ll be thrilled – with 8 quality sessions to go, it’s looking good.

Heart Rate
It was great!  Funny enough, it was exactly the same as my shorter and slower 5.5mi@7:11 tempo 2 weeks ago: avg. 173 (HRR 83%), max 180 (HRR 88%).  Today was 10 degrees cooler which surely helps but still, I was quite a bit faster today.  Tis a thing of beauty.

Weight
I’ve been saying I’m not going to make a point to lose weight before the race.  My reasons are:

#1) It’s nice having a wild card for when these speed improvements stop
#2) It’s a slight reaction to having been so strict with my weight for racing last year
#3) As long as I’m getting faster, I don’t need to

But if I could lose 4-5 lbs in the next 5½ weeks, that’d be one powerful extra weapon.  So I’m going for it.  If I don’t manage it, no biggie, I’m already happy as hell with the status quo, but I may as well start jotting down calories and being more conscious about it.

And that’s it from my end of the world.  Hope you all have a great weekend and some swell runs while you’re at it.  Ciao!

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt truly confident in my running, close to 2 years actually.  Though I’ve had some ups along with the downs during that time, I’ve never fully trusted any of them, expecting nothing since nothing was standard fare.  But last Friday’s MP run was like a gently fallen seed of confidence that, instead of brushing away as I tend to do, I let sit.  And this week it began to grow.

A couple days after Friday’s run, I started piecing things together, going from “I think this is working” to “This shit is working”.  That might seem silly, since my reports have pointed to progress since I raised the mileage, but as long as there were still holes where my faster paces were supposed to be and heart rates that wouldn’t budge, I wasn’t completely convinced.  The pervading thought I’ve had through all this has been “I’m really good at running easy pace…now what about the rest?”

It took me a day or two to realize that Friday’s run was the most indicative sign of progress I’ve had so far because there was no way I could ever have run an MP section like that before.  No way.  And in humidity/heat?  Double no way.  But now that I’ve digested that and am trusting that it is indeed the real deal, my attitude is changing.

My speed session yesterday, for example.  Speed days always freak me out, ever since the plateau started and throughout its duration, I’ve always done them with a tinge of dread, as in “how much is this one gonna suck?”  But the way I felt preceding yesterday’s session was the way I remember feeling when I was on my growth roll, back in 2009: calm with a tinge of excitement, because I knew it’d be better than last week, though last week didn’t even suck, I am finally able to expect progress, at least for a little while.  That’s huge.

The workout was an exact repeat of last week: 9 miles w/ 9x(3min on/1min off @ 10k pace).  The 3min on’s were 6sec faster than last week though the dewpoint was worse.  Even the last couple cooldown miles were peppy @8:02s, leaving me with an average pace of 7:42 for the whole she-bang.

My heart-rates are getting to where they should be, too.  Each week’s speed session brings my Max HR for the workout one beat higher (yesterday, I hit 183 at the end of the last one), so I’m breaking through that wall slowly.  For reference, when I wore my HR monitor in a 10k (my PR 10k, actually) I averaged 182, maxed at 188 and that was on a cool day.  It’ll be interesting to see where my heart rates go from here and if they ever match the old ones again, though it doesn’t really matter as long as the paces are doing what they should.  But back to the running…

Today was a 15-miler that, by all rights, could have been quite sloggerly after yesterday’s hard effort.  I would have been fine with that, btw, since I’m now totally focused on quality  days; whatever pace the peripheral runs end up at is immaterial, I just want to be recovered enough to do the workouts.  Anyway, I started with a creaky 8:50 and didn’t feel so great until about mile 5, then I picked it up nicely, ending up with 15@8:16.

Tomorrow is an 11 which I’ll take real easy, tacking drills/strides on at the end, the better to be loose and ready for Friday’s major tempo run:  12 or 13 miles with 6.5 miles of tempo, the first 5mi@7:05 and the last 1.5mi @6:55.

It’ll be a challenge but one thing in my favor is that Friday is supposed to be mid-to-upper 60s with a dewpoint in the 50s, the best weather we’ve had in months.  That should really help.  Aside from that, there’s one other thing I think is going to help out on that run: my beautiful new training companion…a little confidence.

This week saw some slow, sweaty recovery jogs but also included the fastest training run I’ve ever had >9 miles.  It was a 12-mile tempo on Friday that was supposed to be 8@MP but I liked the way it was going so much, I extended the fast bit an extra mile (and I wasn’t drunk or on drugs, either).  MP portion was 9@7:22, average pace for the full 12mi was 7:38.

The promising thing about this run – besides a vastly improved Marathon Pace – is that it was 73° with dewpoint 65.  Knowing that cooler weather will bring an even better result is just so fun!

Fyi, In case anyone is wondering why I’m doing Marathon Pace miles at all, Coach Adam/A Muse gave me a variety of tempo runs for the next few weeks and two of them include 1-hour at MP which I translated to distance (8@MP).  They allow you to fit in more volume due to the slower pace, a la Daniels.  While it’s not the standard 20-40min Lactate Threshold run, it is as Adam says, “solid aerobic resistance training”.  It’s also, incidentally, what Tinman calls the “Tinman Tempo“: a 60-80 minute tempo @ 1 minute slower than 3k-5k pace.

Cut Back Week in Review
Less mileage but more quality. Not exactly a restful week but definitely a productive one.

Monday: 8@8:50
Tuesday: 10@8:25 (drills & strides)
Wednesday: 9@7:46 (9x3min on\1min off)
Thursday: 10@9:10
Friday: 12@7:38 (9@7:22)
Saturday: 12@8:32 (found a dollar on the ground, woohoo!)
Sunday: 11@8:32 (drills & strides.  Added a new one: carioca)
Total: 72 mi

Weekly average pace, which I’ve been including for a useless “fun fact”, is especially irrelevant now that the dips between quality days and recovery runs are increasing, so I’m not going to include it anymore.

Brunch With Those Kooky Kids
One of my favorite forum pals, Amy (aka Agile) and her hubby Bryan, were in town for the weekend so we met up for brunch today.  Chatter, laughs, life plans and a little bit of running talk were the specials of the day. Behold the requisite iPhone proof of our fabulously fine fête:

Me, Bryan and Amy. Good times, good times...

Period Talk
You already know I have no shame talking about female issues, just as poop or pee are general subjects to a runner, LadyTime should be as well, though there’s less written about it and most women don’t seem to keep that type of info in their logs.

The other day, there was an article in the NYT about periods and athletic performance which talked about a couple studies on rowers and um, hoppers (I kid you not…people were told to hop) and in the former, they found no performance loss due to women’s cycles.  Since that has not been my experience at all, I posted this on Facebook and had a fun discussion with a few of my runner gal-pals.  More ladies said they had a performance hit than not so I determined that the article was bullshit.  Because I’m sciency like that.

A couple days ago, my friend Rebecca led me to this great Running Times article on running and menstruation that matched my experiences and those of the women I know whose running is affected by their periods.  A very informative piece, I highly recommend all you gals give it a read.

I had never even heard of a sodium connection but in the article they advise pre-loading in the luteal phase (the day after ovulation until the day of your next period).  And this “Low blood sugar during the luteal phase may result in decreased lactate thresholds” is kinda major!

Also, the article reminded me of an important fact I’d forgotten: we lose iron through sweat.  I’ve not been strict about taking my iron supplement but considering how many sloshy shoe runs we’ve had, that’s something I need to amend.

Shoe Wear
There’s a Kinvara Wear thread over on the RWOL Shoe Forum where a few people had posted photos of their Kinvaras to illustrate how they’re holding up, so I took a photo of my retired green ones.  I stopped wearing them at 514 miles, for no real reason except it seemed like a lot.

From the comments I received, “I get more wear if I drive 500 miles in my shoes – remarkable!” , “Tinkerbell. Yes, incredible” and “The lack of wear is amazing!” I’ve started thinking twice about my shoe-dumping parameters.  So I resurrected this pair for Saturday’s 12 and will keep them in rotation till, I dunno…maybe 750?  I still have 3 more Kinvaras  in rotation w/45-393 miles on them, plus 2 new in the box.  Guess I’ll be rotating with the Adios just a wee bit longer.

Kinvaras @ 514 miles

Ah recovery!  I really needed it, no question.  I thought Monday was the nadir with 8@8:50 but nope, today I whipped out a 10-miler @9:10 on the coolest morning we’ve had in ages, 70 degrees.  I guess yesterday’s fartlek combined with LadyTime was enough to put me in the sludge.  I was planning on doing my hour-at-MP tempo tomorrow, but might wait an extra day.

More drill talk

Tuesday’s 10-miler had a slow start but ended with a few 8:00s for 8:25/mi.  At the end I did a drill/stride session which I’m really getting into for several reasons:

First off, in order to do the butt kicks, high knees and skipping, you’re automatically forced to keep your hips under you; when I run, I often have to remind myself to tuck my hips in so this is valuable.  Also, the exaggerated arm movements relax the shoulders and even affect my hand shape in the following stride.  Then there’s the powering off for your legs (most important) plus forced forefoot landings – it’s like a mini strength workout.

I think I’ll do the drill/stride combo twice a week from here on in.  It takes so little time (2 reps of 3 drills with 6 strides takes about 6½ minutes) and if I’m going to do strides anyway, may as do both.

I also found a wonderful set of drill videos from NYRR.  They’re meant for coaching kids and have the most concisely detailed instructions I’ve seen on the subject.  Excellent production values as well. (Edit: just saw the buttkicks one and the demonstration kid is actually not doing them the best way – she’s kicking too far behind which other buttkick videos, Lauren Fleshman’s for example, warn against, feet should aim directly under the ass, knees go high. Oh well, the rest is good)

Fartleks

Wednesday’s 9-miler contained a satisfying fartlek/interval session.  In last Sunday’s post, I wrote I’d be doing 10x(3min-ons/1 min-offs) but when I did the math (10×3 = 30min with 9min’s recovery), it struck me that this was too much since it was a 10-minute increase of hard running over last week’s intervals with less recovery.  So I changed it to 9 reps (27 minutes total work with 8min. recovery), still a solid work increase but a little more manageable.

I didn’t do any strides or drills preceding since, in keeping with fartlek, I wanted to keep it relaxed and laid-back so the first two were on the slow end, but after that, I got in the groove.  Thanks to the short recoveries, my average heart rate – while still low for a 10k workout (175, 84%HRR) – was closer to where it should be.  7:46/mi for the whole thing.

Heat Heat Heat!
I’ve been saying weather isn’t affecting me so badly this year and I am faring way better, but now that I’m doing more quality work of course I’d love to run the paces as written, not with any heat-deducted approximation.  But as acclimated as you can be, it’s silly to expect to run at top shape when it’s humid and high 70s-80s at 6am.  I know this, but I still chide myself some, just can’t help it.  But here’s what I was thinking about this week:

Most people’s optimal running environment is between 45 and 55 degrees, my fave is 50.  78 degrees is 28 degrees over 50.  Consider the opposite: subtract 28 from 50 and what do you get? 22 degrees.  Remember what that’s like?  All the crap you had to wear?  Did you expect to run your best at 22 degrees?  Nevermind that you’re not losing body fluids all over your shoes.

Even a 20 degree difference (70 sounds so innocuous, doesn’t it?) taken the opposite way, is 30 degrees…still below friggin’ freezing.  So let’s consider this before we blame ourselves for taking a hit on humid 70+ degree mornings (Peggy, are you listening? ). It’s not personal wimpyness, it’s bona fide physiology.

Meat Meat Meat!
I’ve been on a huge meat kick to an embarrassing extent.  In the last couple weeks, I’ve consumed two 2.25 lb pork loins, 5.5 lbs of chicken and 2 or 3 hamburgers, not to mention a handful of eggs (egg salad sandwiches).  It cracks me up that I’ve lived in the Blue Hovel for 2 years and only recently began cooking like a regular person.  Until a few months ago, I hadn’t bought a single package of chicken and had purchased one lone package of beef patties.  Nowadays, my shopping trips look like I’m feeding a family of bears.

I’m big on the crockpot lately and I made this Thai Chicken recipe the week before, liked it so much that I made it again a few days later (first time with breasts, second time w/thighs…both were delicious).  In the meantime, I shared it on FB to rave reviews so if you’re a crockpot owner, give it a shot.

I also make a pork loin in the crockpot that uses a can of whole cranberries and since I’m into shredded meat lately, I shred the shit out of it, then make burritos or eat it with mashed ‘taters and brussels sprouts.  Last week’s version was a little weird though since Whole Foods finds it beneath them to stock cranberries in the summer, but they had canned blackberries so I tried that, which was actually tasty except for the millions of tiny seeds.  Live and learn.

Aside from meat (which I’m one day away from ODing on), my usual diet these days is a bowl of hot 5-grain cereal with PB and Sweet ‘n Low before my run, then when I get back, usually the same thing.  Then around noonish, an egg-salad or tuna sandwich (or as of late…meat!), a small snack around 3pm, dinner around 6 with a huge bowl of fruit for dessert, then before hitting the hay, maybe some crackers with a wedge of low-fat Laughing Cow or some carrots.

You’d think I get to eat like a pig with all the running I do but alas, no.  I haven’t had cookies, candy, cake or even low-fat ice cream for a few months.  But what’s changed is that if I make a quesadilla, for instance, I don’t measure out a little portion of shredded cheese, I pull a few handfuls out of the bag…just like a normal person would.  Instead of being miserly with the peanut butter in my hot cereal, I have a generous-sized dollop.  It’s those little things that are different.  But if I want to lose weight for better racing, I’ll have to pay more attention.

Somewhat related, I was thinking about meal times the other day and realized that the reason I get so much hungrier in the winter, besides the usual winter chill/food connection, is that I go to bed at 12:30am in the winter but eat dinner around 6:30.  That leaves 6 hours between dinner and sleep, whereas in the summer, I eat at 6pm but go to bed at 9:30, so that’s only 3.5 hours between.  That’d be like eating dinner at 9pm for a 12:30 bedtime – a little too Continental for my tastes, but I think a 7:30 or 8pm dinnertime sounds like a reasonable idea for the Fall/Winter so I’m going to try that out when the season changes.

No Sunscreen? A-OK!
My friend Todd shared a really cool page yesterday that gives you a UV Index forecast for your location – just change the zipcode in the URL to reflect your own.

Every summer, I have a constant, low-level buzz of guilt for never wearing sunscreen on my early morning runs; I hate dealing with it and feel it compromises my sweatability.  But even though I leave the house at dawn and return before 9am, I have a pretty good tan, so I still manage to get a fair amount of sun.

But according to the UV Index page, I’m not in danger without sunscreen since the UV risk remains low here until 10am (and I imagine that’ll get pushed farther out now that sunrise is getting later).  Low risk means “Unless you are especially sensitive to UV radiation generally no protection is needed.”  Yay! One less thing to feel guilty about.  That just leaves 1,352,034 more.

My, What Excellent Shoes You’re Wearing
Geoffrey Mutai, currently the best runner in the world, just set a course record in the Half at Bogota last weekend with a 1:02:20 beating out 2nd place by 2 minutes and 27 seconds…huge!  Recognize his shoes?  Adidas Adios, baby!  The kicks of champions.

Afternoon Edit…An Online Interview
The nice people at Digital Running did a little interview with me, which might not tell you anything you don’t already know, but what the hay (hey?), check it out.  Thanks Brian and Raffi, I’m flattered to be a part of your website.

One of the great things about being a runner is the lack of equipment needed.  Basically, all you need to run comfortably are some wicking bottoms and tops, a great pair of shoes and some non-cotton socks.

There have been long threads on RunnersWorld Online discussing favorite styles and brands of socks and while it’s not the sexiest subject, for many of us it’s an important consideration.  Aside from comfort, they can also affect the fit of a shoe quite dramatically depending on their thickness which makes them a potentially pivotal accessory.

Here's my splayed foot looking all weird (you try splaying your toes and making it look cute), the better to show the individual toes.

While I have my favorite socks (and recently bought a boatload to replace my worn ones), I was super happy when Injinji sent me a pair of their new “No Show” Performance Lightweight socks to try.  My friend Audra has been wearing Injinjis for years and swears by them as blister-preventers.  Since blisters aren’t typically a problem for me, I was never driven to buy a pair but this summer, with the toe annoyances I mentioned in my last post, I wondered if they might make my Kinvaras more inviting until the temps start falling.

Now, on the postcard that came with the socks is a list of five features the 5 toe seamless design provides: proper toe alignment, superior moisture management, blister/hotspot protection, no bunching or sagging, better gripping and balance and lastly, “strengthens muscles in foot”.  I will have to take their word on toe alignment, helping with balance and strengthening foot muscles, but the other bulletpoints seemed obvious instantly.

They’re a very comfortable sock, which surprised me since fabric between the toes doesn’t sound that great.  Plus, I remember wearing rainbow “fashion” toesocks in Jr. High; with a thick wad of acrylic/wool yarn between each toe, they were downright painful.  But these are nothing like that.  In fact, several reviews I checked out said “they feel weird at first but you quickly get used to them”  but they felt fine to me from the get-go, the fabric is so smooth and thin that it wasn’t a big deal.

I took them out on Monday’s recovery 8-miler with my Kinvaras.  While my go-to sock is very cushy on the bottom, I do own some thinner socks but rarely wear them because they’re too thin for my liking.  The Injinji socks, while thin, feel more substantial due to the supportive stretch while also giving me extra room in the shoe, helping with summer foot spread.

Since it was only an 8-miler, I didn’t get to test them in full shoe slosh, but I was pleased with them. I could also see how it’d make a huge difference as far as blister prevention – you wouldn’t have to Bodyglide hotspots on the toes if you’re a person who has trouble with that,  just put on these socks and go.

So my final word on these are Thumbs Up!  If you’re looking for a thinner sock and have problem feet, or even if you don’t, give Injinji Lightweight Toesocks a try.