Posts Tagged ‘long run’

Epilogue on the race

Turns out the time I listed on my race report was clock time  and my chip time was 35:41, so less suckage than originally thought.   Seriously though, I have only good feelings about the race, those consecutive negative splits tell me I was holding back which is very unlike my usual race M.O. (go out pretty hard, lag in the middle, then try to get back to speed at the end).

Yesterday’s Long Run & A Shoe Question

I had 19 scheduled but I made it a 20 (what’s another mile when you’re at that point?).  I did a couple trips up/down Smile Hill though not the full mile due to a snow barrier, but still got in about .75 mi each way.  As I continued on I started feeling really leg-tired, which was partially the race but it’s not the first time this cycle that my LRs had my legs feeling “used”.

As I picked apart what exactly was bothering me, I came to the realization that the way I’ve been wearing my shoes for the past couple months (quite loose) was not doing me any favors.  I could feel the arch shifting around with each step which has to defy the whole support system of the shoe.

Now, the reason I’d been wearing them loose was my right foot had a hotspot on top around Xmas and it lasted about 3 weeks, so I loosened that shoe quite a bit.  Then, due to the cold, I’ve occasionally been wearing 2 pairs of socks so I loosened them further to accommodate the thickness but never tightened them back up.

I’ve read of guys wearing their shoes so loose they slip in and out of them, so I didn’t think it would matter much, but after I realized their floppiness might be hindering my comfort level, I tightened them up near the end of my run and wouldn’t you know…the rest of the run felt way better, so that was an elementary lesson learned.

What about you guys?  Do you wear your shoes loose or tight?  I’m curious about this.

My First Blog Freebie

A couple weeks ago I got an email from a company saying they’d send me a free case of Vita Coco coconut water if I’d mention it on my blog or Facebook, but it was for a contest that ended that day so I told the guy I wouldn’t be doing another blog post for a couple days but I could mention it on Facebook.

Before I did, I asked Doggie Girl if she’d ever heard of the company or the product and she said Vita Coco is great stuff, then someone else chimed in and said they loved it, so I figured, what the heck, I’ll do it.  So I FB’d and Tweeted it.  Today I got my promised case of Vita Coco.

It’s actually really good!  I was expecting something thicker like regular fruit juice (which I don’t like full-strength and always water down) but it’s really light flavored water, basically.  It only has 60 calories and loads of electrolytes so it was cool to find this in the vestibule when I returned from my run.  It made for a great recovery drink.

I’ve been thinking about freebies since a few of my fellow bloggers often get free products to review.  My problem is I find it weird to ask for stuff, which I assume is the main way to get hooked up.  Hopefully more people like that one guy will happen by, if not, I’m going to have to get some guts and start begging for goodies.

A New Gifted Runner Service

I’ve had a lot of requests recently for putting people’s running shirts together so today I officially went into business as offering that service to anyone who wants it.  I’m not charging much and turnaround time is pretty fast, so if you’re interested check out my Let Me Make Your Shirts! page for info and pricing.

And that’s it for this Monday’s Hodgepodge.  Newsletter day will be tomorrow so keep an eye out. So long for now, peeps.

Look up at your browser’s address bar.  Notice anything different?  No?  How about some missing hyphens in the URL.  Yessiree Bob, I finally got the domain name without dashes, woohoo!  That might be why, if you read this thing from a Reader, it looked like I had a million new posts over the weekend, the switchover meant changing everything from the old domain to the new.

The story of the name of this blog and the dashed domain is that I started posting on the Runners World Beginner Forum the same time I started learning to run in Feb 2007, picking Girl In Motion as my username.  So in November, when I started the blog, it made sense to use that name.  Wouldn’t you know, girlinmotion.com was already taken by a porno site, as I’m sure many of you discovered when trying to find this one.

Cut to about 2 months ago, I get a couple emails saying “girlinmotion.com is for sale for $1200″ to which my reply was “fuck you”.  I didn’t actually write it but it was mentally written the way my replies to spammers always are.

Then on Friday as I was coming home from my run (they’ve been hotbeds of ideas lately) and feeling wistful that I didn’t have that non-dashed name since I was starting all this action on the site and the dashes do leave a level of difficulty when saying the name “girl dash in dash motion dot com” and also, for searchers to find it naturally, those dashes are a hindrance.

Since a couple months had gone by since the coercion emails, I gave it a shot and put it into Godaddy to see if it was available.  YES!!!  Plus, I had a coupon, so I got two years of my brand new domain for $15 vs one year at $1200.  Happiness.

Bikini Ski

One of my readers is doing something pretty cool for charity.  Her sister-in-law suffers from Crohns Disease so to raise some dough, she’s going to ski in her bikini.  If she raises $1000, she’ll do two bikini ski runs.  Very clever and an entertaining way to help someone close to her.  So if you have a few bucks to spare, visit her blog Pedestrianrunner and throw a couple bucks her way.  Help her freeze her tush off for a great cause.

Friday’s MP Run

I finally did that 10w/8MP rearranged from last week.  It was a successful run, hit my paces without too much ado (MP miles 7:34, total avg 7:49) but I had a strange Boston thought on the cooldown mile home, that maybe I should pace someone instead of taking a chance on blowing up again.  Here’s what I posted to my friends in the sub 3:20 thread:

If the 3:20 doesn’t work (and there’s every chance that it won’t) I probably won’t be that far off my miserably gotten 3:33 so I won’t be too proud of the result anyway.  And if I make my goal easier by going for a 3:25 to begin with, again, not far enough off that crap 3:33 to matter and if that planned 3:25 goes awry, that’ll be really depressing.

So that’s what I’m thinking right now, not deciding either way but wanted to let you know what’s going on in this silly mind of mine.

A Snowy Sunday Long Run

Saturday was crazy, Philly got the 2nd biggest snowfall in its history (bumping December’s storm out) with 28.5″.  Here’s the photo I posted on Facebook, taken in the morning so there were still a few more inches to come.Yesterday was a 17 miler and while it was a bit treacherous getting to the park, they did a good enough job of clearing the paths so I was able to run without too much hopping around.  It was cold though, 22 with windchill so I wasn’t exactly feeling spry on the way home.  I think the cold keeps your muscles and tendons from being as pliable as they would be at normal temps, at least I know it’s true for tendons since that was a warning when I researched my ITBS, that it’s worse in the cold because it remains tighter so it must be so for all tendons.

And that’s it for Monday’s blahblah.   Have a great running week everybody and here’s a few smoochies for the road.

This is not a post about quality booze or friendly ghosts, just good spirits in the happy sense.

Yesterday’s weather was gorgeous, a Spring-like 52 degrees, so I broke out the capris and made it my LR day.  I was being silly about getting out there, though.  With 17 on tap, I just wasn’t wanting to do it at all but I had a chick potluck party to go to and had to be done with the run in time to buy something to bring (because I’m not a cooking contributor in situations like these, too lazy).

Finally got my ass out there with the plan to make it all easy miles, though I took it to the trails so at least there’d be some level of hills and footwork, better than my usual easy jaunt around the river.  But once I got to the trail system (mile 5.5), a really sweet girl I had passed caught up to me while I waited at the street crossing, and said something about “fast” and gave me the thumbs up before running on.  I couldn’t hear it all because I had my headphones on, but I was so surprised by this unexpected niceness that it gave me a sudden shot of energy.

In the trails, I plowed (or ploughed) – either way…I pushed.  It was great fun and I was doing low 8s going uphill, sub 8s down, despite the gravel and ice patches still on the ground.  Even added an extra 1/2 mile to the turnaround to make it an 18-miler.  Once back on the road (mile 12.5), I kept up the pace through mile 16, then slowed back down to normal.  Ended up with 18@8:18 avg.  After 8 easy in a couple hours, I’ll have a 63-mile week.

I won’t lie, between this and last cycle, I’m having a hard time living with my decision to take it easier, though not enough to actually do something about it.  I mean, I’m not exactly sitting on my ass eating bonbons, and maybe it’s because I’m not doing Pfitz, Daniels or Hudson (Marathon Race Training Forum’s favorite sons) that I feel a little off-kilter.  On the other hand, I’m running harder 2 times a week, got my MLR and LR, which is basically what every marathon plan calls for anyway.

I guess it’s my active imagination wondering what I’m going to feel like when I see that Citgo sign in the distance.  Will I be dying?  Will I be surprised that I feel good?  How I can have a better race not busting my butt as hard as last time?  But last time sucked, so is this easier approach the gold?  Man, I sure wish I had a crystal ball.

I was today, when I got home from my Long Run all covered in gnats.  Crazy run, btw.

Catching up the last few days, I got out late on Friday for my 12.  Not genuinely late, but with daylight savings time it was, I ran the last hour or so in the dark, which was really fun!  I’d always wanted to do that but was too scared of rapists and murderers in the park at night, but since I finished around 6pm, it wasn’t really freaky, still lots of people around.

Yesterday, I did 10 easy but was not feeling it.  First run in a long while that I just wanted to pack it in early, but I’m stubborn, so I completed it.  This is when I realized that I am officially tired now.  So I was wondering how I’d do today.

Today’s run was 17 “Steady” as per Hudson.  I swiped my aforementioned mentor’s (A Muse) recipe for his last LR before taper: MP+5%-10%, though again, I was feeling on the tired side and gave myself a pass to go slower if needed.  I ended up with 8:05 avg for the run, though the funny thing was I had done a hard reset on my Garmin 205 but forgot to turn autolap on, so as the run progressed, I was all “damn, but I am steady!” because the lap pace hardly veered.  Turned out it was one long lap for the whole run, and when I put it in Sporttracks, saw that I’d done some 7:50s and 7:45s in there.

The bad part of the run was I brought my small water bottle which I emptied at around mile 11, and by mile 13 I was ready for a fountain, but the stupid Parks commission removed them all, as they do each year, so I was dying of thirst for a major portion.  Luckily, about 1 mile before home, there’s one fountain they leave on longer which saved me for the final trudge.

And with that, finishing off an 81.57 mile week, I’m finally entering taperland for real.  Bring it on, baby!

On to my most favorite new ingenious item that I recently bought: Now that I live in a tiny apartment, when I wash my running clothes there aren’t places for me to hang them in their wet state, so I was putting them in the dryer for a while there but that’s the quickest way to ruin sportsbras and other stretchy stuff (you know when elastic gets crispy? no gooda).  I was looking at drying racks on Amazon, but those accordion floor ones suck, they don’t hold that much.   And then I found it…Drying Rack Mecca!

This cheap thing ($8.96 before shipping) is sturdy, holds 20 items and doesn’t take up a bit of space.   Me love.

Alright!  333 miles for October, a mileage PR and my body’s behaving wonderfully, no tweaks or sluggishness, knock on wood.  Here’s how October looked (click it for real size):

Now on to today… a “Hard 20″: 1 easy, 18@GMP+20sec., 1 easy.  I’ve been working with 7:30s as my GMP, even though I’ve been waffling about what my goal actually will be.  It’s just an easy number to deal with.  So today’s goal was 7:50s for the 18 portion.

The weather was perfect, 55 and overcast, touch of rain at the beginning and some light wind.  It went swimmingly, ending up with 7:46 avg for the 18, 7:51 avg for the entire run.  With this result, I’m thinking 7:30 is back to being a reasonable GMP, so forget 3:18, sub 3:17 is what I’ll be shooting for.  Yay.

In another reconsideration move, I mentioned I was going to do 90miles this next week.  After some back and forth with one of my favorite posters on MRT, A Muse (whom I consider the Running Buddha at the RW forums with his generous and sage advice) I realized that this was not the wisest placement for a 90.

When I saw A Muse’s peak volume week landed 6 weeks out, I went and looked at Pfitzinger and Daniels and saw that they, too, peak at 6 weeks, so it wasn’t making sense to me to have my highest volume come 3 weeks out, especially when it’s also my hardest quality week.  That’s what I get for following Hudson’s plan as written, I was supposed to think about it and adjust, but was lazy.

So I’m going to keep it around 81 for the third week in a row.  Like I wrote in the Hudson thread, the only reason I’d be going 90 is to assuage my ego and my ego’s not running Philly.  I’ll save 90 for the Boston cycle.  That means I also get to skip the one double in the plan, since I don’t need to split that day up now.

Lastly, I’m subtracting some mileage from my taper weeks because Hudson would have me at 70 the week preceding race week and that doesn’t seem very taperish to me.  So today was my last 20 of the cycle!  Next weekend’s LR will be 17 (thank you,  A Muse).

The week ahead looks like this:
Mon: 8 w/10 hill sprints
Tues: 12 w/8x2min @ HP
Wed:14 last 7 moderate
Thurs: 8 or 9 easy (supposed to be another progression but I’ll see how I feel)
Fri: 14 w/10MP
Sat: 8
Sun: 17

Crossing fingers there’ll be no life drama interweaving said schedule,  just some steady running.   Later, fellow running fiends.

As mentioned, today was a planned 24.  I decided to take it to the trails because there was a regatta at the river which meant the river loop would be a clogged pain in the ass to deal with and I’d have to fight my way through 3 times.

Before I left, I did some calculations for how long it might take because I knew my Garmin might lose satellite reception on the trail.  I figured 3:30 should do me fine.  I left my music at home along with my HR monitor, taking only my sunglasses and my larger, 20 oz handheld, which I’ve avoided using the entire summer but needed for this route, and a couple gels.

The run was great exercise.  The trail section is 12 miles of constant undulating rollers and gravel footing with some rocky patches.  I went farther in than I ever had and was surprised to find a covered bridge I didn’t know existed.   The trail ends at a major road so I turned around there – the only problem was I’d only covered 1:41, which would mean my run was short, so on the way back I wrestled with myself about what to do.

I knew it wasn’t a speedy run, thanks to the uphill of the trail, so there was no doubt it wouldn’t be 24 miles, which I could totally live with (24 is very much “extra credit” as far as LRs go)  but I had a mileage goal for the week I had my heart set on…my first 80 and I thought I needed at least 23 for that.

So a mile from home, I did what I call a Garmin Penance Mile, backtracking some to make a needed mileage goal.  I can’t tell you how much I hate doing it since there’s nothing worse than being so close to home after running for hours and voluntarily delaying the finish when you’re already half-zonked, but for that 80, I did it.

Got home tired but satisfied.  Immediately went to Google Earth and found I did 23.75, so that’s fabuloso.  Slowish, at 8:47 pace, but considering the trail portion, I’m really happy with it.  Then double happiness to find this brings my total mileage to 82 for the week, so a mileage PR with room.

Speaking of home sweet home, I wasn’t going to mention this because I’m a bit embarrassed by my constant complaints with this place, but last week I thought someone had left a bathtub overflowing.  There was a constant sound of water glugging above from one end of my apt to the other.  It sounded like the whole ceiling had turned into a pool.  I actually called Nick because I was afraid the evil upstairs neighbors had done something stupid and the ceiling was going to collapse.  Nah, turns out that’s the sound the heating system makes and what I have to look forward to all winter.  Glug glug glug.  Great.  I’ll probably pee myself in my sleep.

Then yesterday, I’m sitting here at the computer and think I see a fleeting shadow.  I look over and see nothing, so I figure it’s my imagination.  Today, I go to eat my regular pre-run bread and peanut butter and find the bread looks weird, like a chunk is gone from the corner.  I inspect the bag and find something has gnawed its way through.  I have mice.

So after my arduous run today, I shower and immediately leave to get mice traps before Rite-Aid closes.  Because I really am living in the lap of luxury.