Oregon Coast Road Trip

GOOD LUCK to all you San Deigo Rock N' Rollers tomorrow. I have been following all of you throughout your training and I am excited to hear all about it! You are all gonna kick ass and rip tit. (that's what my softball team used to cheer in the huddle before every game - "kick ass, rip tit". Sometimes we shortened it to K-A-R-T. That's good stuff right there.)

************

The hubbs and I took a road trip to the Oregon Coast and had such a good time. I really needed to get away after my finals. It was gorgeous and we had a blast. Pictures for your enjoyment.

Secretly I always wanted to live on a farm. I love cows.

Astoria Bridge & Columbia River (this is on the Washington side, in the distance is Astoria)

I'm a goofball

Cannon Beach (where they filmed Goonies) Seriously can't get over how freakin sweet my new camera is. This picture is rad. My cute little hubbs

Weekly recap tomorrow or Monday.

Until then.

Weekly Goals

Monday: Run - 5 miles

Tuesday: Run - 6 miles, including 4 @ 9:14

*Wednesday: Run - 4 miles

*Thursday: Run - 4 miles

*Friday: OFF

Saturday: Long run - 10 miles

Sunday: Bike Ride

**Going out of town Wednesday. We're taking a little road trip down the Oregon Coast leaving Wed coming back Friday.

So, it looks like no swimming again this week. I have no desire to go today because all the crumb grabbers are out of school and I don't want to fight for a lane and listen to a bunch of screaming brats. Seriously hitting the pool next week! No excuses!

This is what I have come up with for my marathon training plan. I got it from this chick who got it from this chick. I made some small changes. Advice? Tips? Be brutally honest. I have only run one marathon before and I grossly under trained which got me injured during the marathon and took me out for a few months. I am interested in trying Pfitz out but I don't think I'm ready for such intense mileage. Maybe the next one.

Remember, brutal honesty feedback.

Long Run & New fueling technique + Weekly Recap

First the weekly recap - Monday: Swim, 4 miles No swim. I haven't swam in two weeks. What's up with that. They say it takes about 21 days to form a new habit and I DO NOT want to form a new habit of not swimming. This week I am swimming at least two days. I feel like my body is off kilter because I've been working out my legs and not my upper body. Run - 4 miles/9:56 av. pace/176 bpm/1,088 elevation gain Tuesday: Speedwork - 5 miles including 4x800 See previous post Wednesday: 2 finals, 4 miles No running today because it was my birthday and I was a little buzzed all day ;) I even gave a presentation for one of my finals after a birthday lunch where I consumed 3 grey gooses on the rocks. Thursday: 1 final, 4 miles 6 miles/10:37 av. pace/168 bpm/1,629 elevation gain (I added a couple of miles because I didn't run the day before. It was hot and hard) Friday: Swim I'm a loser - no swim Saturday: 10 miles 11 miles/10:35 av pace/158 bmp/1,444 elevation gain (again, added an extra mile to make up for wed.) Sunday: Bike ride Recovery ride - 1hr Total Miles: 26.2

************************

I tried a new fueling technique for my long run. It was genius.

I poured a packet of Gu Rocktane into one of my little water bottles on my fuel belt, filled it with water, then shook it up until dissolved.

I started sipping off of it around 45 min into the run, then a couple of sips every 10 minutes. It worked wonderfully. I had a great 11 miler. I haven't run 11 in quite a while so I wasn't sure how it would go down. I finished it off at exactly 10.5 miles. Had I run any longer I would have needed another bottle.

**********************

I'm off to par-tay. BBQ at the parents house. Should be fun and good photo opportunities with my new toy. Be safe and have fun!

Birthday Present

Thanks for all the sweet birthday wishes. I had a great birthday despite the finals. I got the most awesome present ever. A Nikon D60 camera. It sweet. My hubby got me beautiful white roses, a bottle of wine and made me my favorite dinner - grilled crabcakes and corn on the cob. Yumm. I have the best husband EVER! Have a looskie at some of the pictures I took with my sweet new camera:

There are so many functions and settings. Settings for portraits, flowers, landscapes, even a sports setting so my hubby can take awesome pictures of me running. I love it!!

************

I have 10 miles scheduled for tomorrow, but I might make it 11 or 12 because I didn't run on my birthday. Started drinking wine as soon as I got home :)

Lots of fun partying to do this weekend. Happy Memorial Day!!

Happy birthday.....

...to ME!! Thirty-two today. Speed work last night. Instead of going to a track I went to a trail with lots of rollers. Some big, some small. All my superfast running friends from my running group do it this way so I figure it has to work. On the schedule: 5 miles w/4 x 800 What I did: 1st 800: 4:14 (bpm 172) 2nd 800: 4:15 (bpm186) *about 200ft climb 3rd 800:4:08 (bpm 186) 4th 800: 4:05 (bpm 183) I'm happy with the last two. They were a little flatter. I really tried to concentrate on pushing up those hills. Last night I realized how much I miss hill workouts. I used to alternate months. 4 weeks speedwork, 4 weeks hill work. My major overriding goal this year is to get faster. I am not happy with the pace I am right now. I feel like I work hard, I put in the time, I eat great, I sleep well, I do the speed sessions why is it not happening. It's frustrating. I'm on the fence about doing a tri this summer. Some days I'm all jacked up about it, other days I just want to focus on my running. I know, I know - It's great cross-training, but to be honest I already do enough cross-training. Part of me thinks I should just focus on my running goals.

Finals

I've fallen off the workout wagon. Well, not really - but I kinda feel like I have. The last two weeks have been really weird and crazy. I don't deal well with schedule changes. My husband has been gone at some work function all week and even though technically we live half the year without each other I feel like this week is killing me. Last week I was sick and didn't do any workouts. This week is finals week and so everything is awry. I have two finals on Wed and one on Thurs. I just want to get them over with. I have been studying like it's the CPA exam or something. My brain is mush. Since I only have class two days this week it's thrown my training schedule off and I need to get back into a beloved routine. I haven't swam in over a week. I was going to swim yesterday after a run. I went to the Y to do a quick 4 miles then just get in the pool directly after. I got to the Y, parked, went to put on my running shoes and realized I forgot them. What an idiot (I told you my brain was mush). I was pissed because it took alot of energy just to make the decision to leave the house. I went home and contemplated skipping the swim and just running around my house.After much negotiations the whole way home, I decided to stick with the original plan. Grabbed my shoes and went back to the Y. Left the parking lot for my run. It was an unbelievably shitty run. I wasn't feeling it. I was irritated because I hadn't left my office what felt like weeks. Usually only a few foot strikes and I feel better but it wasn't happening. It was hot and I was generally irritated. After 1.5 miles of a pissy attitude I switched from my book on tape that I listen to on easy runs and put on some ear-crushing music. It was just what I needed. A little Gwen Stefani and Toby Keith to change my mindset. I ended up finishing strong and felt much better. Wouldn't you know it, I ended up skipping the swim after all. Things that I confirmed yesterday:

• Running is always the best medicine for a bad attitude
• The later in the day it gets, the worse I perform (unless I have people to workout with).
• I am a morning worker-outer
• Music can be transforming

The schedule for the week:

Monday: Swim, 4 miles

Tuesday: Speedwork - 5 miles including 4x800

Wednesday: 2 finals, 4 miles

Thursday: 1 final, 4 miles

Friday: Swim

Saturday: 10 miles

Sunday: Bike ride

Cougar Mountain 5 miler

Today I did a trail run race. I didn't really prepare since I was sick all week, but it was fun nonetheless. I was a little nervous since I hadn't run since last Saturday. Thank goodness it was a 'taper' week. I thought about running yesterday, but just figured I would chalk this week up to a loss, run 5 miles today and then hit it hard next week. I was only supposed to run 20 miles anyways, so I guess 25% mileage is better than 0%. I got there early so I could do a thorough warm up since I was so concerned with running on stale muscles. I did about 15 minutes worth of plyometrics and ran about 1/2 mile for a warm up. I was really worried about getting injured - not so much about beating my time from last year.

Trail head for Cougar Mt. trails

I ran this last year and came out with a time of 1:03:15 - which for 5 miles sucks balls. But considering the climb and that it was singletrack and a casualty of running (or biking) singletrack is that you are often succumbed to the pace of the people in front of you so there were times I would have run, but didn't feel it was necessary to run someone over and didn't really feel like asking them to let me pass. [Usually I'm not passive so I guess it is just my excuse for why it took so long to run 5 miles.] Anyhow, this year I am proud to report that I had a 3 minute PR. PR Sweetness -- I love it. Final time 1:00:09.

After the race. Not too dirty. There were a few muddy parts, but not to bad overall.

Instead of a shirt, they gave us socks. Nice ones too. Wool. That was a nice touch.

The reward: J.Lohr Cab Sav. Highly recommended. You can find it in local grocery stores for about $15. It's a great dinner party hostess gift. Never met anyone who hasn't liked it. Try it.

I'm going to try to post the link for the elevation chart:

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Cougar Mt. 5 mile Trail Run

I know there are lots of racers this weekend. Good Luck to all of you guys and I can't wait to hear about them all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Does my blog look like a pepto bismol bottle? I was bored with the layout. I don't know if I like it yet.

Pass the Kleenex

• I understand why I felt so tired last week.
• I am blowing my nose every five minutes and it is very sore.
• I can't skip school because finals are next week. Hope I don't get anyone there sick.
• My hubby is gone for the week at some work thing.
• I have not run since Saturday.
• Thank goodness it is a taper week.
• I have a hard ass trail run 'race' this Saturday that I hope I have the energy for.
• I am reading, but not commenting.
• Tylenol Sinus and Congestion pain is a waste of money.
• Why is it only one nostril that is plugged up even though they alternate?

Long Run & easy week ahead

Is it weird that I am obsessed with this woman? She's HOT! and I'm no lesbian. It's now progressed to me stalking her on Facebook. This morning she was, "Getting coffee and heading to Comerica Park for the walk for MS, great cause and good way to start the weekend." But in my defense, at least I don't leave comments like the 350 other people. Assss-if people. She doesn't give a crap what you think about her status updates.

************

I am tired. This week was rough as far as my workouts go. Next week is my recovery week -although I think my body wanted this week to be easy. I had to move some workouts around, but I pretty much got them all in. Well, the priority ones at least. Today I had a long run scheduled. 9 miles. It was good (better than I expected considering my legs felt like lead all week). Lot's of major hills which I walked up once my heart rate hit 175. I'm talking hill workout hills that are like 1mile long and you think that mailbox is the top so you push through only to get to the mailbox and find out your not even close to the top hills. My mile splits were all over the map because every other mile I was either climbing, descending, or recovering for a hill. My fastest mile was 9:20 and my slowest was 13:45. Overall 9 miles/ 10:43 av. pace/ 164 av. bpm I'm trying to pay attention to my heart rate a lot this run. I know I am a high beater, but I want to try and get it down. I've been doing some research about this and it sounds like interval training is the key. ************ I have been knee -deep in marathon training plans for the last few weeks. I think I am going to use a combination of a couple that look appealing, but does anybody have any good ones they would recommend. It's only my second marathon and I'm looking for a 4:30ish finish. I love speedwork, want to do about 3 twenty milers, and am looking to peak at about 40 miles a week. (That sounded like a personals ad) One more solicitation - I am looking for a protein powder to put in my smoothies. Anybody have one they can't live without. I have never used anything like this before, but I have smoothies like 5 times a week and I want to try something new. ************ I don't know why I am using the asterisk button so much. ************ Happy Mother's Day to all you crazy running moms. I hope you have a great day!!

What's wrong with me?

Last night I hooked up with my running group - whom I haven't run with in months. It was so good to see everybody and run with people again. Unfortunately, I can not keep a pace to save my life. I was supposed to do 6 miles total w/4@ 9:25 pace. Sounds easy right? Then how could I have fu#@ed it up? This is how it went down: warm up: 1 mile @ 9:28 plyometrics w/light jog: 15 minutes Mile 1: 8:35 (185 bpm) RI: 1:49 Mile 2: 9:18 (179) RI:1:32 Mile 3: 9:36 (178) RI: 1:11 Mile 4: 10:14 (178) stopped early to get a drink because I was so parched cool down: 1 mile @ 10:07 I went out way to fast (like always). I think this time I'll blame it on the plyometrics. They really get your fast-twitch muscles moving and I guess it was hard for me to gauge how fast I was actually going until about 4 minutes in and then I knew I was toast. Of course by the time you know it- it's already too late. I tried to slow down but I was still about a whole minute too fast. I hade to take a Rest Inteval because my heart rate was out of control and I still had three more mile to get through. As you can see each mile got progressively slower and my heart rate was out of control. At least the RI went down with each mile. I really need to get this pace thing figured out. BAD!

Weekly Goals

Monday: Run - 4 miles Tuesday: Tempo w/running group; 6 miles, 3@9:25 Wednesday: Swim/Run - 4 miles Thursday: Run - 3 miles/Core/Yoga Friday: Swim Saturday: Run - 9 miles Sunday: bike ride - no time or distance - just ride I'm switching my schedule up a bit this week. Dropping the Friday spin class and doing a real bike ride Sunday. Hopefully this works out and I can make it a permanent change. Happy Monday.

Weekly Recap

Monday: Bikram Yoga, Run - 5 miles

Bikram was good, but I felt a little out of center. Balance wasn't as strong as the last time I went. I didn't sleep well that night so I think I was just a little out of focus. Run: 5 miles/9:48 pace

Tuesday: Interview

No workouts today, but I had an interview for an internship. Will find out at the end of the week - fingers crossed.

Wednesday: Swim, Run - 5 miles, 3 @ 9:20

Yes, and yes. See previous post

Thursday: Run - 5 miles

Run: 5 miles/10:11 pace

Friday: Swim, Spin

No spin. Swim was good. Used a workout from swimplan. Hubby did it with me. He doesn't know it - but he kept me on track. I'm glad I didn't do the spin class. I'm thinking about dropping these from the schedule. I need to just ride the bike on the road.

Saturday: Run - 9 miles

See previous post. Went much much better than my last 9 miler. Ice bath afterward - so good. My legs felt great for the rest of the day. I'll definitely be incorporating ice baths into the regimen.

Sunday: Tacoma City Marathon Volunteer

total miles for the week: 24.8

Volunteering

First, let me preface by stating that I am three glasses into a bottle of wine and in a court of law - I could not enter into a legally binding contract. Ok, so I had a great day volunteering at the Tacoma City Half/Full Marathon. Some observations at the get go

• Runners come in shapes and sizes
• No two gaits are alike

I was stationed at mile 6. It was really crazy to see marathoners actually sweating and panting at this point. I wanted to tell them to slow down and chill out because you got a looong ways to go, but I didn't. It was so fascinating seeing what runners were wearing. Some looked like they were going away for the weekend. It was crazy. Seriously, it's one thing to have a camelback but it's an entirely different thing to have a roll of toilet paper, tent, and air mattress slugged into it. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but seriously....whoa. This was the first female coming through for the half marathon. I'm curious to see what her time was. She was hot in a 'your a seriously in shape' competitor kind of way. See how fast she was:

Once I was able to leave my post i was waiting around for one of my girlfriends (who was also volunteering at mile 3 and due to injury hasn't' run since October) to come and meet me and she somehow ended up talking me into walking the rest of the course. It was all good and fine jabbering away until we caught up with this girl: Notice her right foot. Yeah, it's gone. I snapped a picture out of admiration (I was too chicken to get one of her front) when she went through my station. One word - AMAZING. We caught up and walked with her for the last 2miles and it was such and honor. She has done 6 half marathons and one sprint tri. So cool. She was an awesome girl and it was such a privilege to do part of the race with her. To watch marathoners look at her in admiration was seriously incredible. It really makes you appreciate what you have. How can I get upset about a rude driver that cuts me off when some people HAVE NO LIMBS. Seriously, get a grip! I hope I never forget this twenty minutes of my life. Her whole body was aching and she struggled to finish, but you know what - quitting was not an option for her. Her only goal was to finish at least second to last. It was such an honor to even meet her and she probably has no idea how much she inspires people. Spectators were going crazy for her and marathoners were going even more phycho. Hopefully I can find a better picture of her finishing and post it in her honor. That's about it. What a cool day. Sidebar - since we were on the very end of the finishers and the course was almost closed down allowing traffic to go through intermittently- we were still taking up the whole road and there was one driver who actually honked and then proceeded to give us serious attitude with her arms to tell us how mad she was we were taking up one lane (mind you - the other lane was still closed and there was absolutely NO TRAFFIC AROUND, she could have easily rolled into the other lane to pass us gracefully). Clearly she was too ignorant to even understand that there was a major even wrapping up, but aside from all this I ask you this: What kind of person actually gives someone with NO LEG an attitude about being in her way while she is driving and the no leg person is walking in the street. I was appalled that this actually happened. The no leg girl (sorry, I didn't get her name) was strong as nails and simply said, "I wish I had my other leg with me - I would have thrown it at her." What a good sport. I hope someday that driver realizes what a crazy bitch she is and gets her you-know-what handed to her. Unbeliveable.

Long Run

Well, relatively long run - 9 miles which is a long run by my standards of having not run this far since November. It was a good success. I tried to pick a route that had less hills so that I could really concentrate on keeping my pace even. Total miles: 9.0/10:16 av. pace elevation gain: 2,031 feet I also took my first ever ice bath. I know some of you are probably rolling your eyes at an ice bath after only a 9 miler, but I just wanted to do it. I am still very paranoid about getting re-injured. It was awful at first, but I just kept telling myself, "It's for a good cause." Funny saying for the situation I think. I don't know how I came up with that but it suits me. 10 minutes and I was out. Let my body come back up to temp for about 10 more minutes then hot shower. I admit, my legs feel great now (about 2 hours later). The IT band was pretty tight around mile 6, but overall pretty good now. A few more love making sessions with the foam roller today and and day off tomorrow - should be good to go. Also, tomorrow I am volunteering at the local half/full marathon. It should be interesting since I have never volunteered at a race. Maybe I'll post a "volunteer race report". Lastly, I know there are a ton of you racing this weekend. Good luck! I know you'll all do great with all the awesome training that has been had. Can't wait to read all the race reports.