Mondays in Love: Getting Race Ready!

We are 20 days from the start line and preparations are underway! This came in the mail this week and, well, I love.

I think I've mentioned my love of pace bands (available here) before. I used them during the Cleveland Marathon, the Lincoln Half (recap here), and perhaps one other time. They take the guessing out of timing your race. They do this by customizing each pace band to the specific race and to your goal time, accounting for warming up and hills. And, shipped to your house, they are like $7.50 or something. Compared to the cost of shoes, registration, and travel, it's a drop in the bucket. And no, they did not ask me to post this review!

I'm also just really happy with how training is going so far (knock on wood). Week after week, the paces on the training schedule get easier to hit. At this point, I have only two kinda intimidating training runs left--13 miles on deck this Saturday, and a tough tempo run next Wednesday. Then, that's it--it will be time to get this show on the road! 

Mondays in Love: 9:19!?!

....and, we're back on schedule. And I have a few posts planned, so things won't be quite so quiet around here. Game on!!

This Monday, I'm loving so much. Let me break it down.

1. My Saturday "long" run. It was glorious weather. I felt great. And I ran faster than I knew I was still capable of without feeling like I was pushing myself much. The first 4 miles of this 5-miler were 9:48, 9:30, 9:53, and 9:19. Nine-nineteen?!? Get outta here! I had no idea that was in me! The last mile was part running, part walking a cool-down. 
2. Oh yeah. I totally park here now. 

3. A woman in the park the other day who yelled, "You go! That's great!!" as she passed me going the opposite direction. 
4. Getting close to my giant work deadline. It's Friday, and the project is coming together nicely. 
5. Fruit jambalaya. I am crazy with the freaking fruit these days. Fruit on my cereal. Fruit on my greek yogurt. Fruit as snack food. Fruit in my salads. Now fruit for dinner. I seriously cannot get enough. FRUIT! 

That's what I've got this Monday. Run strong ladies and gentlemen. And runners too. :) 

Find your wings and soar

It's true--I have a low grade obsession with Target. Pretty much every weekend I go to Target to buy household goods and some of our week's groceries. Yesterday while walking through I saw a little square piece of wall art inspirational decor that said

find your wings and soar

For a split second in my mind, it read as

find your wings and sore

And I thought to myself, that's exactly what this week was like. 

Lately I've been noticing that my stride has gotten shorter and it's gotten much easier to run mile after mile at about a 9 minute pace. One of my coaches back in Illinois said he'd never correct our gait because it would correct itself to seek efficiency eventually. I think I've finally arrived at "eventually." I think I've finally hit my stride, so to speak (is that even a pun? or the literal use of the phrase? I'm not even sure). 

On Saturday I went out to hit my 6.3 mile loop and was amazed to finish it faster than ever without feeling like I was even pushing the pace. Mile after mile, it just ticked off: 9:07, 8:47, 8:35, 8:34, 8:38, 8:45, 0.3 mi @ 8:49 pace. Total of  6.3 miles @ 8:45 avg. pace. My calves were a little sore on Sunday. So when I walked through Target and saw that decor, I knew it was literally my sign to write this post. :)

I have a lot to cram into this post. It may sound silly, but I didn't want to post earlier in the week because I just didn't want to interrupt all the Boston recaps.

The recaps got me all choked up pretty much every day last week. It's hard to communicate to non-runners the excitement of the day. It's like our Super Bowl, except most of us know at least one athlete participating, and we actually participate in the sport ourselves. running love

So all that stuff to cram into this post? Well, some of it is going to have to wait. Clearly. Here's a sort-of recap of my week in the meantime.

Monday
5 miles easy. I decided to finally take a camera with me to get some spring pictures of the park. Here's a pic of my favorite spot in the park. Sometimes I forget to look up when I run (just ask Meg). But I never miss this spot. I am so incredibly blessed to have all of this at my feet in the middle of a big city. It is such an incredible freedom to be able to run in this gorgeousness. I have a whole set of "come take a run with me" pictures from this run, appearing soon.

Tuesday
I just absolutely had to get some sleep. It was becoming non-negotiable.

Wednesday
My fave, fave, FAVE speed workout. It sounds so freaking innocent. It's not. I love it.
1mi warm-up
4 x 1mi @ 5KRP with 800m recoveries
1mi cool-down

Thursday
3 miles easy

Friday
5 mile pace run. I bumped it up to 6.3 just for funsies. I'm having a hard time running pace at marathon pace and not half pace. Problem? I think not.

By far the more interesting part of Friday was the evening weather. This happened. Oh yeah. My MIL was scheduled to fly in at just about exactly the same minute that a tornado was ripping through Concourse C of Lambert Airport. The Southwest website said she landed. What it didn't say was that she landed AT MIDWAY. You know, in freaking Chicago?!? She buddied up with another passenger and rented a car, getting here about 3:30am. Today while I was running I just kept thinking about all the blessings in my life, including our safety here during the storm and hers while traveling into it.

Today
I reeeeeally wasn't sure how I was going to get everything crammed into my day. We were forecasted for an Easter Egg Hunt all morning and rain all afternoon.
{mid-post rant: our hourly weather forecasts are damn near useless. For my zip code, the forecast is actually for a place 25 minutes from here. It's not exactly helpful. Sometimes the current weather conditions are even wrong.}
I got hopeful and optimistically ate a bagel at the Egg Hunt. Carbs, you know, in case the weather forecast was wrong. Shockingly, it was. Wrong. I had just enough time between easter eggs and rain to run 20 miles. #WINNING. (sorry, couldn't resist)

There were some tough spots in it, but overall it was a GREAT long run. I averaged a 9:35 pace and felt good through most of it. And it made me SOOO happy that when I stopped at the Panera for my recovery smoothie, the barista recognized me and asked if I'd been out running (clearly). I told him I'd just finished 20 miles. When I turned to leave I heard the other barista repeat the number 20 incredulously. :) I just smiled.

Next question: picking a race pace. Stay tuned. I'll need some input.

A welcome curse

I think I've come to a conclusion about me + marathon training: the 16-miler in my 16-18-20 cycle is cursed. And I am OK with that. Evidence:

Detroit Marathon, 2009: shooting pain from an ITB injury, cut the 16-miler short and limped back to my car frustrated, defeated, sad (read that anti-pep talk here). I repeated the 16-miler the following week and went on to a huge personal victory with the race (here).

Lewis & Clark Marathon, 2010: The 16-miler was a total disaster. I didn't hydrate properly and waited an hour too long in too hot weather to start the run. The 18-miler the following week went really well and I went on to PR the race by over 27 minutes. (now I'm just bragging)

Cleveland Marathon, 2011: Last weekend's 16-miler didn't go badly, it didn't go at all. Thank you all for the comments. You made me feel so much better about it, and convinced me to be easier on myself. I still wasn't convinced that I could spread my 13.1 mile success from Martian into 26.2. My workouts went well this week, but I was still apprehensive. So when I started out today's 18-miler, I wasn't at all sure how it was going to go. Here's how it went:

Mile 1--9:34 (whoa lady, slow down! You know from experience not to run long runs at race pace! What are you doing?!?)
Mile 2--9:40 (well, this does feel easy, but cool it, lady. Cool it.)
Mile 3--9:55 (ok, slow-down enforced. But I wanna go fast.)
Mile 4--9:36 (I might pay for this later)
Mile 5--9:54 (now KEEP IT HERE)
Mile 6 & .3 (end of first loop)--9:45 pace

Second loop: 9:38, 9:36, 9:37, 9:31, 9:35, 9:28.
Holy consistency, Batman! By this time (total, 12.6 miles), I'd decided that the pace was fine and I probably wasn't going to pay for it. But I've never pulled a pace like this at this distance. I was sort of in disbelief!

Third loop: 9:31, 9:28, 9:33, 9:23, 9:31.
I felt awesome. AWESOME. I felt as fresh at mile 16.5 as I had at mile 2.

I don't want to get cocky here. Believe me, I'm still terrified/excited/terrified about race day. But I'm really pleased with today's run, and I got a little confidence back. One more (very) long run to go--20 miles on deck for next weekend.

A new weekly best!!

SO PUMPED to tell you that I hit a new personal best mileage week: 36.8 miles! Last week was insanity on a few fronts. My running attire went from thermal tights to short sleeves and shorts. Work was totally out of control. Oh, and in case I didn't mention it, I put 6+ miles on my standing highest mileage week ever. Go me. Here's the recap.

Monday
4 miles easy. It was 34 degrees for this early morning run, so I hit the streets in thermal tights, a jacket, gloves, and, for the last time ever, my Penn State ear warmer.

Tuesday
Yoga. Class starts at 7am. By 7:15 I was ready to walk out. This chick was hardcore and I wasn't in the mood for it. But I guess she does the hardest part of her workouts first. It turned out to be a great workout.

Wednesday
By far my most memorable run of the week. I told The Redhead that if "Hills are for Heroes" then "Wind is for Winners." Yes, yes, I am laying claim to this mantra on behalf of all Midwesterners. It was gray, windy, and cold out. Every time I rounded the bend of the track and came into head-on wind, I just had to repeat that mantra and keep pushing on. I did a 1 mile warm-up, a 4 mile tempo+ run, and a 1 mile cool-down. My tempo times were 5-18 seconds faster than scheduled. I feel good exceeding my goal times consistently. And in case you're wondering, when I do tempo runs mid-day at work, I use the track because I work in a highly urbanized area and get stopped at lights too often to reasonably run a tempo workout.

Thursday
3 mile recovery run with my neighbor. I think we're going to make this a regular thing, which I'm pretty excited about. :) Also a point of excitement: the debut of my new Pearl Izumi ear warmer. LOVE it.

Friday
7 mile pace run. Went well. Not much else to say there. Debuted the new pairs of Brooks.

Saturday
16 mile long run. By far my most successful long run this training cycle. Woot! I made a conscious effort to keep the early miles at the same pace I'd expect of the later miles. I kept roughly a 10:07 mile pace, which is only about 17 seconds slower than my goal race pace. It was a gorgeous 60 degrees and sunny. Absolutely beautiful. It felt so good to do my long run in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Eat your heart out, winter!!

I'm feeling good about the distance at this point. I build miles again next week, then cut back before Martian. Next week is also a lighter week at work. It's gonna be awesome.

One-week challenge wrap-up

BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO RUNNINGFIRST. He did it. He ran a solo 16 miler today (read it here) and with that, has won the challenge. Keep up the good work!! Go get those PR's this spring!


Here's the break-down of the rest of my week's workouts. It was a tough and rewarding week.


Thursday was my rest day.

Friday was a 6 mile pace workout. The plan was to run one warm-up mile, 4 miles at 9:09 and 1 cool-down mile. But I ran the first three miles much too fast. I slowed down almost far enough after that, but the damage was done. The result of the workout was that I was sore last night.

I HATE that I have to say the following. HATE it. But here goes: I had no business trying to run my 12 miler today. For one thing, I had a fever (which I didn't bother to actually measure with a thermometer, but took the sweats/shivers as a sure enough sign). For another, I'm fighting an infection. I'm on amoxicillin for what turned out to be the worst sinus infection of my life. Third, one of the two runs I missed when this sinus infection was a bad cold was the 9 mile long run that was meant to prep me for this step-up in mileage. And finally, I ran entirely too hard yesterday. The end result of all this was a 12-miler that I got through successfully, but it took more effort than usual. Average pace of 10:06, which is right on target. Here I am when I got back to the house.

I give you this picture as a teaser for tomorrow's post. I have two new product reviews, an update on The Vengeance, and an update to an old product review. Stay tuned!

Lesson learned

Last week I mentioned that Mr. Joanna and I were working on a new display area for my race medals. Well, I am very pleased to say that it's finished and I love it! It's in what I would describe as a hallway off of our bedroom. The framed medal up top is my very first medal, from the Chicago Distance Classic in 2007. It's nothing fancy, but I love that I finally have a real place to display my hard-earned hardware!

On the training front, today I learned a lesson the hard way. It sounds so ridiculous in hindsight.

I've always wondered why we do long runs slower than race pace. It seems logical that you should train to run the distance you want to run at the pace you want to run it. And I've been feeling really good recently about my tempo work, and maybe got a little over-confident after my 27-minute PR in marathon #2. So, you guessed it, I decided to do my 10-miler today at race pace.

Mile 1: 9:15

Mile 2: 8:59

Mile 3: 9:07

Mile 4: 8:54

Mile 5: 9:13

Mile 6: 9:16

And now I know why it's a bad idea.

I haven't been tapering. I'm not that rested. It's my first attempt at 10 miles at anything faster than about a 10 minute pace. It was too much. Now I get it. This is why I shouldn't be left to my own devices, people.

All this brings me something kind of exciting.

I'm slowly converting to someone who swears by running by the numbers.

A while ago I posted about wanting to follow the Runners World 2:00 half-marathon training guide in the spring. Then last week Morgan over at Caution: Redhead Running posted a link to the McMillan calculator, which I'd never seen. I know my tempo work and longer mid-week runs were a big part of my success this training cycle, but I have a lot of room still to improve. Historically, I haven't paid as much attention to the type of mid-week run I've been doing or the pace I did it at; I just went for a run. I think I'm ready to change that. And in a hugely running geek way, I am so excited about it!

577.8 + 4.0 + 10.2 = 592

set to break 600 next week!

Race Report: Lewis & Clark Marathon

The last 24 hours have been such an incredible experience. Marathon #2 is in the books and I cannot wait to tell you all about it!

Pre-race

RunningFirst came into town yesterday afternoon. We picked up our race packets, spent some QT with my boys, and had the traditional pasta dinner. I turned in pretty early in anticipation of the 4:50am alarm.

At 0-dark-fifty I dragged myself out of bed. Attempted to eat some oatmeal. Nervously checked and re-checked my do-not-forget-these-things-under-any-circumstance list. Worried about my back, which was giving me some shooting, pinching pains 'cause I slept on it funny. Took the obligatory pre-race picture. Packed up. Headed out.

At 5:25 we left my sleeping boys behind and left to head to the race.

It was probably 40 degrees at the start line, but warmed up quickly once the sun came up. We pre-Gu'ed (ate runner food), put our bags in the bag drop, and lined up right about 7am.

Miles 1-5

After just a mile I'd warmed up and was just enjoying the sunshine. My strategy was to run the whole race and walk the water stops. So, dutifully, I walked through the first water stop. And then my right shoe was off. You read right. The guy behind me stepped on the back of my shoe. RunningFirst helped shield me from the stream of runners (I was *right* in the middle of the road) while I put it back on. Shoe back on, and we were off again.

9:59

10:31 (shoe incident)

9:43

9:45

9:54

Miles 6-10

Were pretty easy. I Gu'ed at mile 6, as planned. Around mile 7 we hit the bridge over the Missouri River, which was lovely. Shortly thereafter we turned and started running along the river. We talked our own ears off all the way through mile 10 (read: I talked non-stop and RunningFirst responded every now and then), which helped to make the miles pass a little faster.

9:33

10:10

9:56

10:29

10:02

Miles 11-15

Gu'ed again at mile 12. As we approached the half-marathon finish I started scanning the crowd for my boys, since the plan was to see them at the half and at the finish. I looked and looked and looked and didn't see them. I started to fear that I'd missed them. Then we were past the halfers' finish and getting toward the start of the Katy Trail and I still hadn't seen them. I was holding back the tears with everything I had. I hated thinking that they might be out all morning and we missed each other. I worried that they'd gotten lost or run into trouble along the way. Seeing them in a race is always incredibly emotional for me, and the idea of missing them tore me up. And then, just as I was giving up hope, I saw them! My boys! They both yelled "Momma!" and I just beamed. And maybe cried just a little. You would too. Don't lie.

10:20

9:55

10:07

9:32 (this was through the half-marathon finish, and it just pulled me along)

10:02

Miles 16-20

One word: hilly.

9:53

10:17

10:27

10:04

10:38

And in case you were wondering what my boys were doing to pass the time, I give you this:

Miles 21-25

I still hadn't hit the wall. In fact, I kept waiting for it and it kept not coming. Score! At mile 23 I took about half a Gu. I was starting to tire out, but I kept going. Between 23 and 24 I really wanted to walk, but there was no way I was going to run that far and walk when I had less than 3 miles to go. Plus, I knew my time was way under my target and was starting to believe I might hit a 4:30. At mile 22 I told myself to get to 23 so I could Gu. At 23 I told myself to get to 24 and see how I felt. At 24 I told myself I had to wait until 25 to pick up the pace. At 25 I was not fast, but I was determined.

10:06

10:15

10:28

10:32

10:17

The Finish

I saw the finish line from about half a mile out. I just went for it. My Garmin was showing lap time, lap pace and total distance, not total time. I knew from what people around me were saying and a quick mental math estimate of time, that I was close to a 4:30. I didn't know if I was going to do it or not. As I passed my boys, Mr. Joanna yelled "Great time!! It's a great time!" I knew he also thought I might be under 4:30 but also wasn't 100% positive. Neither of us could see the clock on the finish line yet AND I didn't know what it had said when I started. I smiled at him (or tried) and went for it.

When I went over the line, the clock read 4:33:28. I didn't know what the start clock had said, but I knew it was going to be close. Two things that didn't occur to me at this point: 1) to stop The Vengeance (my Garmin), and 2) to check my history for the total time. It turns out that I remembered to stop it 65 seconds later, and didn't think to check the history for about another 5-10 minutes after that. Do you know what it said?

4:28:28

Somehow, beyond my wildest dreams, I'd come in under 4:30. Chip time puts me at 4:27:23. 27:31 faster than my PR. I prayed in thanksgiving. I made a few calls. I gave Mr. Joanna the whole run-down of the race. I beamed.

RunningFirst came in a little over 5 hours. I am super proud of him for toughing it out to finish. And still thankful for his company over the first 13.1. I don't know if he'll blog this or not, but if he does, be sure to stop over and tell him congrats.

What Lies Ahead

The US Half, November 7. Time to get faster and shorter. But for now, a week off!! Thank you all SO much for your encouragement, advice, and friendly support that got me to the finish line!

543.5 + 3.8 + 26.5 = 573.8 miles

Hit the ground running

On Monday I decided it was too nice out to run on a treadmill, so I tried a new course--about 2.4 miles from my office to downtown, turnaround and head back. It's a hilly 4.7 mile loop, with portions of shade and only a few intersections that really require you to stop. I liked it so much that I decided to repeat it this morning, but with more effort on doing it faster (hills! tempo! yeah!). So there I was, gliding along at that coveted "comfortably fast" pace (averaged 9:03/mi), enjoying the cool morning air, charging up hills and racing back down. And then, out of freaking nowhere...

BAM! I was face down on the sidewalk. I totally bit it on some uneven pavement.

So there I was, processing what had just happened and slowly starting to peel myself back up off the sidewalk. Checking to make sure all my body parts were still attached. Making sure nothing was bleeding too badly. Dusting off some of the dirt I acquired. Standing all the way up and assessing my ability to run back to the office. I decided I was in pretty good shape, so I picked myself up and continued on. I'm not going to lie. I wish I could have been all gangster and hauled my sorry carcass back at the same fab pace I'd been keeping. Yeah, not so much!

I'm not sure whether it's a sign of the times or a blessing that no one asked if I was ok. The only thing really damaged was my dignity. And my wedding ring! Apparently I hit the ground hard enough to scratch platinum. You're impressed that I bit it that hard. You know you are.

In other news, I found a local running store that carries my not-ungirly-at-all size 10/2A Brooks Adrenalines. They had to have them transferred from one of their locations out in the 'burbs. They should be in tomorrow or Friday. I'm excited about new shoes (500 miles and counting on the current pair...), but more about having a good excuse to go scout out a local running store. Nerdy running excitement? Maybe. And it feels great.

424.9 + 4.7 + 4.7 = 434.4 miles

Three Things Thursday

Three Things Thursday (I know, it's been a while since I did one)

1. Last hard run
Last night was the last hard track practice before race day. Coach Paula was there early and had started her 10 x 800m workout, her fave pre-race workout. We took a cue from her and did a scaled-back version, 6 x 800.

1 mile warm-up
800s (half-mile intervals) at: 3.48, 3.43, 3.38, 3.40, 3.39, 3.36
1 mile cool-down

According to this post from last July, these are good times for me. I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about the race! I want that new PR!

Mileage (somehow the addition has gotten screwed up somewhere. I'm going to trust that runningahead.com has it right somehow):
214.7 + 3.9 + 5.0 = 223.5 miles

2. The news!
Mr. Joanna and I bought a house! I will post a few pictures of it later. It's a great place and I feel lucky to have found it. We close in mid-June. I still get tied up in knots regularly about the whole move, but at the same time I'm excited. And anxious about selling our current place.

3. Other odds & ends
I thought I'd throw in some of my recent crafty projects while I'm at it. I've had SO much fun making these. It's a good creative outlet for me and it's productive--two things that make me happy. Check out my recent projects here and here. These are pages from our 2005 trip to Alaska. I'm finally almost finished!

PAUSE please

I need for someone to please press the Pause button for a few minutes. This running recap is so long overdue because these are literally the first free minutes I've had. My Google Reader was overflowing with your wonderful posts, which I'm getting to (!), and now I can turn to this.

Tuesday (4/13): After a busy day at work and playing with the babe, I was left to race against sunset to get my run in. So, foolishly, that's what I did. I just ran as hard as I could for a 2-mile loop around the neighborhood. It felt awesome, and I had a blast, but I payed for it later (read on).

Wednesday: Our regular track was out of commission for some needed repairs, so Meg, RunningFirst, our teammate AM and I decided to run the neighborhood around there instead. It seemed like we started out way fast but somehow our first mile was our slowest. We ended up doing 3.3 miles in 30:57 for a 9:20 pace. Not bad for an "easy" run.

Thursday, o-dawn-thirty, aka, the only time Meg and I could do our dress rehearsal: Meg and I met at 7am at a Meijer (the Midwest's improved version of a Wal-Mart), left one car there with Powerade, left another bottle of Powerade in a park along our route, then parked at our starting/stopping area. It was dress rehearsal time for the upcoming Illinois Half. How did it go? Good and bad.

Let me explain. One thing Meg and I have markedly improved on during this training cycle has been strategy for long runs. We have had at least 2 long runs at each mileage (2 8-mile runs, 2 10-milers, etc). Each time we've had a mileage hike, we've used the first time to ease into it, then the second time to really attack it at race pace. So, our 12-miler dress rehearsal was hard. Really hard, for me (thank you, Tuesday sunset run). But it was good. Why? Because we got through it, and fairly respectably at that. Because we now know what to expect of the course. Because we are now past our peak training run.

This week we run hard. Next week we taper. Then we race, May 1. The goal is to PR (2:06:09); the dream is to sub-2.

After our run we grabbed some breakfast before I dashed home to get cleaned up and drive 2 hours to pick up my mom (nickname: Pepper) from our nearest metro airport. The return trip was eventful, but that story is for another day (Meg is my hero).

Friday-Saturday: Mr. Joanna and I got up with the babe, got his day started with Pepper, then left for the 3 hour drive to our soon-to-be-hometown to go house hunting. I'm not ready to post details about the trip yet, but I will give you this. On Friday night we had dinner at an Italian place. For dessert I ordered 2 profiteroles. In France, 2 profiteroles makes a nice, reasonable dessert. Here in the obese U.S. of A., it's enough food to feed a family. Not that I'm complaining. We all know I'm a total sugar addict. Why do you think I run?!?

Sunday: We got back around 1 and found, to our great dismay, that Pepper had taken the babe to the grocery store. We couldn't wait to see him and practically smothered him in hugs when they got back. I got in an easy 3.9 miler that afternoon. It was good, even if just to loosen up. And bonus: the babe used his potty successfully THREE times (twice while we were gone, once after we got back) over the weekend. I realize that this may seem like TMI to those of you who don't have kids....

Monday: I took Pepper back to the airport, worked on some stuff around the house, and played with the babe until his bedtime. I got a picture of one of his recent quirks that I wanted to share. He routinely lines up all his trucks/trains when he plays with them. I love this. I also love that he puts them away when asked. He's a pretty orderly kid. And yes, that's a giant duck laundry hamper in the background.

Mileage:

193.2 + 2.0 + 3.3 + 12.2 + 3.9 = 214.7

The truth about track workouts

I feel like I kind of skirt the truth about track workouts when I talk about them on here. That fact was brought into bold relief for me yesterday when two things happened.

1. I had to explain to non-runner adults what I was doing. First was to a woman (who we adore) who works at my son's daycare. The second was to one of my committee members (who I quite like), who I happened to run into on my way to practice last night. The third was to a woman who looked at me like I was crazy when I stopped at Walgreen's on my way home. She stared, cocked her head to one side, and read my shirt out loud, "Inaugural Rock & Roll Half-Marathon." I decided it wasn't worth explaining it that time.

The truth: Most grown adults put "track practice" in the category of "things high school students do," and explaining that your evening is devoted to it sounds patently bizarre. Like losing toenails and chafing, I just decided a long time ago to file "track practice" with the other runner topics you can't discuss in polite society.

2. I'm secretly intimidated by track practice every single week. How? I have no idea. I ran them for three years in high school and am on my third (I'm not counting '08) year of running them with the Team. I don't remember being intimidated by them in high school, but then I also don't remember obsessing over pace like I do now. I had a moment of panic yesterday when RunningFirst revealed the workout: 8 x 400. I got through them just fine (1:37 to 1:42 intervals, I'll take that!) and it's a workout I've done gobs of times before. Why the worry?

The truth: Even runners get intimidated about running sometimes. It's an ugly truth; I'd rather be fearless. But in just a few fleeting moments every week, I'm not. You don't have to be fearless, you just have to do it.

Mileage (end of March cumulative total): 147.4 + 4.0 + 4.0 = 155.4 miles

Death March of Crazy

Meg and I went all Kara Goucher on our 8-mile long run this morning. Okok, no, we did not actually set world records, or appear as a blur along the path. But we did run fast for us. We didn't time the run, but from the pacing work I've done this spring I'm pretty sure it was at least 15 seconds/mile faster than what we've been doing. It felt good to run the last 8-miler at race pace, especially because it was windy and cold and any reasonable person would have rather sat inside drinking coffee. But oh no, our chapter of Overachievers Anonymous over here kicked our long runs in the pants. At one point I accused Meg of setting the pace at "Death March of Crazy," but I secretly loved it. The other 6 people from the Team who came all did 10 milers (at least), because they're awesome. I'm not sure about their times (though I'm sure they were great) because Meg and I started & finished early. A move about which The Gangsta had some choice words.

I promised belated pictures from Detroit and here they are. First, it was not a can of tomatoes. It was canned pumpkin. Duck taped. True story.

And second, proof that you CAN fit 3 adults and 2 toddlers in a Honda Fit. And everyone looks sooooo happy. This cracks me up.
Mileage: 113 + 4.0 + 8.0 = 125.0

because we're AWESOME!

Since the spring thaw appears to be starting in the Midwest (!!), Meg and I decided that today was the day to break free of treadmills and head outside for a training run. It was 44 degrees when we parked our twin Priuses at the park. Dressed in thin running pants, my beloved Detroit Marathon jacket with a short-sleeved running top underneath, and gloves (I looked a little Dr. Evil-esque), I was chilly as we headed north out of the park. Before we were even two blocks out we'd set the brisk pace we'd follow for the rest of our run and the chill was gone. I'd used this website ahead of time to map out a route and, reading from my small, hand-written page of directions, Meg kept us from getting lost.

We followed the 6.2 mile route through (basically) two neighborhoods and back, including some streets I'd never seen before. This town has some really cute neighborhoods and it's fun to talk about the houses and so forth to keep our minds occupied. The distance passed quickly and before I knew it we were finishing off the trail through the park. Little did I know Meg had timed us. And guess what? We did it with a pace of 9:21.9/mile! The last day of February, and we beat the goal pace I set for long runs for February. Because we're awesome! And even better, the run felt great and we had fun. This was a huge confidence & motivation boost, which is important because we officially registered for the Illinois Half today, too. We have 9 weeks to build mileage and speed. We're both moving this summer and this might be our last chance to easily race together (there WILL be future shared races--the key here is the word "easily"). It's time to get our training in gear, and after today, I am so, so excited.

I have to admit a small defeat, though. Due to a bug that's been going around that prevented me from eating for about 4 days this week, I had to skip my Thursday run. Consequently, I missed my February mileage goal by 3.0 miles. I'm a little disappointed, but at least it was caused by something I had relatively little control over. Plus, I'm extra motivated to pick things up in March.

70.8 + 6.2 = 77.0 miles

Beautiful Day

Here it is, your Three Things Thursday. Note: I'm switching from using initials to using nicknames for people. It's a fun twist. I'll put nicknames in italics for a while so it isn't confusing.

1. Our good friends who I'll call The Minnesotans had their baby this morning! She's a beautiful 8 lb. 13 oz. bundle of joy. Ears and I got to visit the happy family this afternoon. What an amazing gift. Mother & baby are doing well, and for that we are so, so thankful.

2. I am officially 10 days ahead of schedule on pacing! I did 4.1 miles today in an average pace of 9:16. I'm planning to do 6.5 this weekend and am hoping for a similar pace. Depending on how that goes, I may pick a new target pace and start working on it next week. I'd love to get down to 9 minutes eventually, but it's going to take some serious work, especially as long runs get longer.

3. That 4.1 miles brings my total mileage to 60 for the year. I am especially excited about this for two reasons: a) I'm on track to hit 80 by the end of the month, and b) IT WAS MAY 18 LAST YEAR BEFORE I HIT 60 MILES. Un-freaking-believable. I'm 3 months ahead of 2009 Joanna. And yes, I ran that 4.1 rather than 4 because I really wanted to hit the 6-0 mark. I'm a dork like that.

Side story from the gym (pretend this is part 3a). As I was walking back to my locker, I overheard a conversation between two moms whose kids were doing hockey practice. "I asked her what sport she wanted to focus on and she said crafting." Love it. It made me think of The Bestie, who I then called, because she comes pretty darn close to making scrapbooking a competitive sport. I also loved the idea of a little girl loving both. I love being both an athlete and a scrapbook enthusiast. Who says you can't do both? Since I'm on the topic, here's a link to my most recent project, still from our honeymoon to Alaska. It's a very unusual page for me, both because it has only one picture and because of the excessive layering.

Rediscovering the locker room

I'm going to participate in what Caution: Redhead Running and runjessrun call Three Things Thursday. I have to say, I've had a LOT of fun discovering these blogs and the blogs they link to. I started reading a few scrapbooking blogs a few months ago, and it's fun to do the same with running. I have some ideas of new directions for this blog, I think.

1. Tuesday and today I ran on the 'mill, 4 miles each day. Like I said in my last post, I'm working on pace these days. Today, I'm happy to report, I shaved 8 seconds per mile off my average pace, down to 9:33/mile, still including a (shorter) warm-up and cool-down. I'm pretty excited about the long run this weekend, since having more miles between the warm-up and cool-down will mean more time to bring that average pace down.

2. Both days, I had no choice but to shower at the gym before returning to work. It had been a long time since I'd done this and I'd consequently forgotten the...experience, we'll call it.

On Tuesday I was half way to campus before realizing that I'd left my flip flops at home, and I didn't have time to go back. All through my run I debated what to do about this. Could I get away without showering? Could I shower in my socks (no, too porous I decided)? Did I dare shower barefoot? Then it occurred to me--running clothes are made to dry quickly. I could stand on one of my articles of clothing, then trust it to dry out during the day. But what? I settled on my shorts. So there I was, standing in the shower on my shorts. When I got out I threw them in the bathing suit drying thingamajig, then threw them in my gym bag. We do what we must. :) I wasn't gonna do something crazy like miss my run!

Today I got of double dose of gross in the locker room. Upon entering the first shower stall I saw that its previous user had stuck her boogers and hair to the wall. GROSS!! So I backed out quickly and moved down a few stalls. The partitions between stalls don't go all the way to the floor, so you see the feet of the person next to you. About half-way through my shower I looked down and saw bare feet with disturbingly long toe nails. Eeeeww!! PEOPLE--certain bits of disgusting behavior are permitted among runners (e.g., discussions about missing toenails, chafing) but seriously?!? Pull yourselves together.

3. DISCOVERY! I've read a few times recently (once in RW, once from my teammate AM) that setting the incline on the 'mill to .5% or 1% better mimics running outdoors. To be honest, I was skeptical. It just sounded like more....work. But on Tuesday I tried it and I am officially a new fan. I think that it's helped ease the common treadmill shin problems, and it really *does* feel more like running outside. Effort-wise, I don't even notice the change. Do it! And please let me know how it works for you.

mileage: 37.9 + 4.0 + 4.0 = 45.9

On short-term goals

I met my goal for the week by getting in a second, longer run today. I did 5 miles on the treadmill, and, uncharacteristically for me, took note of the average pace. I varied my time on each mile:

Mile 1: 10 minutes (warm-up)

Mile 2: 9:30 pace

Mile 3: 9:22 pace

Mile 4-4.25: 9:30 pace

Mile 4.25-5: 9:30 to 10:00 pace (cool-down)

Overall I averaged 9:41/mile, which is a good bit slower than my goal race pace of 9:10/mile. I'm sort of OK with it today because I am just coming back from time off, because it felt very easy, and because it included my slower warm-up mile. But, it got me to thinking about short-term goals.

I originally aimed for 100 miles by the end of February. I am going to adjust that goal to 80-85 miles to account for the time I took off. I am also going to try to improve my pace. By the end of February I'd like to be averaging 9:22 for long runs. I think this is imminently manageable given where I'm at right now and the fact that my long runs won't increase in distance very much before then.

My last half-marathon mile pace was 9:37. It seems reasonable that if I can work on pace this early in the season, I should be able to set a new PR when I race this spring/summer. I want that sub-two hour half.

Mileage: 32.9 + 5.0 = 37.9