The Sweetest Words

The other night Kyle asked me a question I've been waiting forever for him to ask:

Will you create a running training program for me?



I squealed and shrieked.  And then started spouting out of a multitude of questions.  And then I think I freaked him out.  Baby steps, Jerbear.

As you may have noticed, I fell off the blog wagon after posting my grand goal for the rest of the month/year.  And that's because I fell off the running wagon as well.  I had some pain in my foot that I started to affectionately refer to as my "stress fracture foot" and after a couple of runs sans knee strap my knee was feeling wonky.  Couple that with upcoming finals, one of which that was 40% of my final grade (NBD, I'm just having a panic attack thinking about it now!), and some possible burn out on the horizon, I decided to put running on the back burner for a bit.

I was a little concerned when I wasn't missing running.  At all.  I was sleeping in on my late days at work.  I was sleeping in on the weekend.  It was... kind of amazing.  I was also studying my little booty off during every second of free time, and it was great not to have to stress about fitting in an hour of running in my already crammed day.

But Saturday I took my tough final, and Saturday night I celebrated, as I think is necessary.  And Sunday I rewarded myself with a run.  Just a measly 3 miler.  But it was nice.  And then I watched Green Bay put up another tally in the win column.  GO PACK GO!

Monday I woke up with more knee annoyance, and I was pissssssssssed.  I complained to Kyle that "I JUST WANT TO GO FOR A RUN G.D. IT!"  And he said... good.  Finally.  And he was right.  FINALLY I was excited to get back in to it.

I did a lot of foam rolling on Monday and Tuesday, and knocked out an easy 5 miler with strides on Wednesday morning.  Granted my "easy" heart rate isn't quite what it was pre-Philly.  But apparently endurance eating doesn't equate to endurance running.  Wish you all would've told me that... jerks.

And tomorrow is me and Kyle's running date.  And I'm pretty excited about it.  Since I'm not begging him to run with me, as has been the case the 3 other times he's ran with me, and it's him requesting it, I think it's a good sign that he's excited to do it.

And as for my first semester of grad school, unofficially knocked out a 4.0, while working full time and training for two half marathons and a full marathon.  ::gives herself 3 gold stars and 2 successive pats on the back::  ROLL TIDE!

P.S.  Have you met my niece?  She's kind of beautiful, no?  Takes after her auntie obvs.  ;)

Hello lover....

I learned a very important lesson last Friday night.  No it was not, “do not eat any form of seafood the night before races,” but I should also file that one away in my cranium.  I learned that the stick (or in my case the rolling pin) and the foam roller are not created equal.  WTF!  I started using my rolling pin over 2 years ago to help work out the issues in my IT band, assuming it did the same thing the foam roller did. 

Until I tried out Megan’s on Friday.  I’ve been rolling like a crazy person since the Sioux Falls half, because I’m just so. GD. Sick. Of. being. Hurt.  After rolling religiously all week long, I hopped on her foam roller and was shocked that I still had muscles to roll out!  There were even a couple of spots near my knee that I’ve never been able to get a response out of from the rolling pin that were causing TEARS with the foam roller.  I rolled until I could roll no more (ok, really, I just couldn’t handle the pain anymore).

After completing Fargo pain free, my mission was to procure a new foam roller—stat! 

I hit up the local sporting goods store, and after hitting on some hottie in the hunting and fishing section (hubba hubba!) I had my new love!

We’ve already gotten in a couple of fights (meaning I’ve rolled twice and she made me cry.  Yes.  A she.  I imagine my foam roller to be a bit of an S&M chick with a whip!) but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to keep me from getting hurt every time I turn around.

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So with my big ZOMG MARATHON announcement out, I started marathon training on Monday.  I’m doing a 6 week Pfitz inspired plan that’ll hopefully get me 26.2 miles in one piece.  Wednesday’s workout was one I’d never done before 1,000m intervals.  Seems easy enough, right?  I mean, at least it’s not 1600m intervals, because those are a bigger B than my whip-crackin’ foam roller!

I was wrong.

They weren’t fun.

I had 9 miles to do with 5x1000m.  The recovery was stated at 50-90% of the time it takes you to complete your interval.  So naturally I skewed on the 90% side.

I did a 2 mile warm up and then got to work on some repeats.

4:50 - Felt like I was playing “catch up.” Usually I go out to fast and struggle to maintain. For some reason an 8:15 pace “felt” like 7:30s.

4:50 - Much better.

4:43 - Cruisin’ along.  What’s that?  Sideache.  Noooooooooooo!  I only have 48 seconds to go! That’s not long. Let’s countdown.  Pinching my stride while hauling now.  Longest 48 seconds of my life.

5:05 - From the first steps my sideache was back.  I toggled between slowing down to 8ish pace to get it to subside, and then hustling back, where it’d return.

Thought about calling it a day but decided I’d attempt to “toughen up” and do my 5^th one.

5:10 - Apparently I was pooped.  No energy.  No speed left.

And a two mile cooldown.  Who’s bright idea was it to put a speed workout in a 9 mile run?!?!? 

I did 9 miles in 1:25:22 for a pace of 9:29.

My repeats averaged a pace of 7:49.

The three that I didn’t die during averaged 7:39.

I was pretty ok with the workout until I calculated my total time for the 5k of speedwork and realized that it’s slower than almost all my 5k times for the past two years.  AND THOSE ARE WITHOUT 4ISH MINUTE BREAKS IN BETWEEN.  SHEESH.  Granted I was having my garmin clock .63 miles instead of .625, so that totally makes it ok right?!?!  :P

Oh well.  Guess I’m glad I’m running a marathon and not a 5k, eh?

Beer Cures What Ails You

All last week I was hardcore itching for a run.  In between rolling pin + IT band tears, I kept going knowing that it would get me out running quicker.  I had high hopes that Thursday would be the day.  But I failed the “jogging in place without stabbing pain” test that I had set forth for myself.  Luckily Friday afternoon I was passing with flying colors.  As soon as I got home from work I got changed and flew out the door.  I wanted to run somewhere in the range of 3-6 miles depending on how I felt.  Ok, full disclosure:  I wanted to run 6 miles, but I was willing to let my IT bands dictate the distance.  Annoying.

I was seriously flying for the first mile and a half.  My legs were FRESH.  And fast.  And fabulous.  And the air was cold.  Long sleeve tech tee and shorts weather is my FAVE.  But about a mile and a half in, my right IT band and quad started tightening up.  So I turned around at the 2 mile mark.  My leg got tighter and tighter and my pace got slower and slower.  Wah wah.

I did 4 miles in 38:18 for a pace of 9:35.

Let’s play:  When does the leg start to hurt??

1. 9:27
2. 9:18
3. 9:45
4. 9:48

It’s a new board game Hasbro is coming out with, I think. 

To celebrate commiserate my run, Kyle and I went out for dinner and drinks Friday night.  Oktoberfest mini tour?  Yes please!  I’m fairly certain I read somewhere that great beer heals IT band issues.  Bottoms up!  I had four 6 oz. samples of four of the tour beers….. and I called it a night.  Or I did after a mini dance party at my apartment with Kyle shaking his head at me in embarrassment.  Truly I just think he’s jealous of my moooooooooooves.

Saturday I was bummed to miss out on the group run.  I had high hopes of joining but after Friday’s run, I decided some biking/stretching/icing/rolling was in the cards.  I biked a boring 11 miles on the stationary bike at my gym, and then walked behind the building to get some froyo. 

P.S.  Whoever decided to put the great froyo place in the same building as my gym is awesome.

And because I could feel the beer working its magic on my IT bands, clearly we had to enjoy some more on Saturday night.  I got dolled up for the first time in 4 weeks.  True story:  I hate unpacking, and instead leave my suitcases open in my kitchen and “unpack” as I need the items.  I found my curling iron still tucked away inside.  Uh… sorry I look like a pile all the time KK. Ooops.

Since Bama was playing, I had to sport some crimson.  ROLL TIDE ROLL!

Sunday I was bound and determined to get in some miles, though I promised myself that as soon as my leg started hurting/tightening I would stop and just walk home.  I was concerned that continuing to run on Friday was just putting off my recovering.  I kept the pace slow, and made it 6 pain free miles.  WHOO!

I did 6 miles in 59:10 for a pace of 9:52.

My legs definitely didn’t feel fresh as a daisy, as they had on Friday.  Apparently biking zero miles and then trying to bike 11 miles fast will cause your legs to be tired.  Who knew?!?!  Towards the end of the run, my legs were feeling tired, and I started to get concerned, until I realized that they were just feeling fatigued vs. dead.

It got me thinking about the IT band issues from the race on Sunday.  It almost felt like my IT bands and quad were non-functioning after a certain point.  Instead of the muscle contracting and relaxing with each step it was just contracted and locked up.  It explains why my leg felt so heavy and my stride was so shortened, because my hamstring (which is definitely weak in comparison, and possibly part of the problem) was doing most of the work instead of sharing the duty.  It also explains why my hamstrings were insanely tight after the race (hamstring issues are about the one issue I haven’t had, knock on wood!).  Anyone have any knowledge or experience on this?

Either way, it was nice to have this worked out in my brain.  I know I couldn’t push through whatever it was, because I tried, but it was still annoying the heck out of me that I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t, you know?  Hmmm… now on to correcting!

Oh and then some more beer was consumed while watching the Packers win (although they were looking rough to start with).  Beer is medicine I can get on board with, clearly.

Race Brain Neurosis + IT Band Update

I tend to have some crazy/wild anxiety ridden thoughts and dreams leading up to races.  My brain is insane, what can I say.  Because I didn't want my race report to be 1200 pages long, I left out a lot of the random quirks.  But they're too entertaining, so here you go.

I was reading through my race report from last year's Sioux Falls Half (p.s. this is almost an exact report of this year's, except I through a minor tantrum in my head, instead of staying positive and enjoying the race), and laughed when I described my dream the night before.  The gist:  The race was being measured in a unit of measurement from the Star Wars movies.  No one would give me a conversion rate, and clearly my Garmin only works in kilometers and miles, so I was freaking out!

Fast forward to this year:  I woke up in a sweat in the middle of the night, and woke Kyle up to tell him my dream.  He was thrilled I'm sure.  In this version of the half marathon, the miles were broken down by colors.  Each runner had to be dressed head to toe in that color to advance to the next mile.  I remember being PISSED that the starting mile color was yellow and not green, thus negating my sweet outfit, and only made it through mile 3 of the race before I got tired of tearing off sopping wet clothes while running.  :)

The day before the race, I went to Scheels to pick up my race packet, and also needed to grab some GUs.  I love the Blueberry Pomegranite GU Roctane, and use them exclusively for races because they're roughly $1000/gel.  Scheels didn't carry any, so I thought no biggie, I'll head to the running store.  I know they have them, but the price is typically $1000.75/gel*.  Seriously, I could go out for dinner for a couple of those puppies!  When I got to the running store they were completely OUT of my favorite gel.  Panic mode.  These thoughts may or may not be exact thoughts that went through my mind instantly:

"Well, there goes the half marathon.  Might as well not even run!  I mean, how can I be expected to run a race without my gels?!?  That's like asking me to not run in green!  (not asking me to run, without... shoes or something NECESSARY, but green, told you my brain is insane!).  I wonder if this guy knows he just ruined 12 weeks of training.  I should probably tell him.  Make him overnight me some gels."

But instead I grabbed some pineapple roctanes, and they were fine.  Meh.

After fretting about town in search of the holy grail of GUs I set down to painstakingly plot out my race plan.  Mind you, I had a mountain of schoolwork to read and complete, but I knew my brain couldn't focus unless my t's were crossed and i's were dotted.  I color coordinated the water stops.  I drew in where I'd GU and highlighted them appropriately.  I marked out where my Mom and Kyle would be on the course.  I figured based on my goal paces approximately what time I would be at those spots for their spectating conveniences.  I did calculations TWICE on the final 4 miles of the route as to what my paces would need to be to hit 4 time goals.  Twice because the first time I was leaving out the .1.  Uh.  Oops!

And then come race morning, I put on my heart rate monitor while I was getting ready.  My resting heart rate is usually in the 48-51 range.  While sitting in the truck, silent, driving to the race start, it toggled anywhere from 88-101.  Imagine what my brain waves were probably giving off!

And there you have it.  I hope you enjoyed your little look in to this runner's neurosis.  :)
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I think my IT bands are coming around.  My left one is almost back to normal.  My right one is still........ not happy.  I've been rolling as much as I can humanly stand, and icing as well.  My training program for Fargo was supposed to start on Tuesday, but that obviously didn't happen.  Fingers crossed that I could maybe get in a few miles tomorrow after work, before class.  I know last year I was super antsy to get back in to training for the Vegas Marathon, and I ended up only being able to run sporadically for almost 3 weeks because the IT band problems led to such bad knee issues.  Patience is a virtue.

And special thanks to Coach Jaseface who analyzed some race photos over the last year, and may have pinpointed my form issue.  I hope to wrangle someone to video tape me as soon as I'm able to get back out there to confirm and see the extent of the issue.  Racing in pain is just not the most fun thing in the world, in case you were curious!

Midwesterners, enjoy the brisk cool weather this week.  I hate you all. :P

*Actual mark up represented.  I mean, seriously.... an extra 75 cents a gel, that's outrageous!

Race Report: Sioux Falls Half Marathon 2011

Sunday I woke up after a good night of sleep.  I never sleep before races.  A WIN ALREADY!  Yay me.  I dashed outside to see the finish line so I could begin visualizing crossing it, exhausted and ecstatic.  True story:  while we were laying in bed Saturday night I demanded that Kyle open my window blinds to see if the finish line was up yet.  I wanted to dream about it.  It wasn’t.  I was bummed.

I got dressed, ate breakfast, snuggled back up to Kyle to wake him up, and we were off to the race start.  I wanted to get there early a) because I’m neurotic on race days and b) because a bunch of my friends were running the full and I wanted to see them off for their 6:45 start.  The fact that I was perfectly content in shorts and a thin long sleeve at 6am was slightly concerning. In past years, I’ve been bundled up in sweats and a hoodie heading to the race start.

Said hello and good lucks to my studly 26.2 friends (silently being uber thankful I was only tackling half the distance) and started my warm up.  Kyle and I got to a whole new level in our relationship when we discussed the importance of pooping on race day.  My favorite quote of the morning was, “Most people focus on winning the race, Jeri focuses on pooping.”  Accurate.

Megan and I made our way to the starting line and tried to eyeball where we should be.  The start is d-u-m-b.  We run a lap around a track and then head out of the stadium primarily single file.  It’s typically a cluster-eff.  My goal is usually to avoid the cluster-eff as much as possible.

Oh.  Speaking of goals.  My race day strategy was as follows:

Miles 1-4 (hilly) 8:30

Miles 5-9 (slightly less, but still hilly) 8:20

10-finish (flat) BTTW

I calculated out what my paces for 1:48, sub 1:49, and sub 1:50 would need to be during those 4 remaining miles.  None of them seemed that scary.  Not easy.  But not capable of killing me, either.  When I talked to Tom before the race, I told him that I realized that if done properly, the race SHOULD NOT FEEL EASY.  I should be working my booty off.  A lot of times I lose my brain when I think, “CRAP! This should feel easier!  I’m going to die!”

Megan and I commented that we were way too comfortable standing around in shorts and tank tops for the start of the race.  I tried to ignore that comment and pretend the sun wasn’t already making its way high up in the sky.  The race started and we were off.  Shockingly we picked a great starting spot, because dodging people was minimal.  I had settled in to an 8:30 on the nose pace, and it felt…er… easy.  Okie dokie then!  I waved g’bye to Kyle on one side of the stadium and my madre on the other, and got to work.

About one mile in to the race I had sweat droplets starting to fly off of me.  Roughly a mile and a half in, my body was so wet that my heart rate monitor slid right off me.  Perhaps I should’ve brought a handheld along…. Hmmm..  One of the first big hills was in the second mile, and I just concentrated on going up it.  There were some rollers for the next mile, and the pace was evening out around 8:30.

1. 8:31
2. 8:43
3. 8:32

During a major downhill I was flying trying to bank a little time for the upcoming hill I knew we had.  At one point I looked down at my watch to see a 7:40 average mile pace.  Uh… oops.  During the next uphill stretch I took my GU, grabbed some water (yes, the first water stop was a good 3.5 miles in.  UFF!) and thought my legs were starting to feel some of the pounding.  At the top of the hill, we turned around to run through the downtown, which is one of my favorite stretches, and also where I planned to see Kyle for the first time.  During this downhill portion, my legs were not flying.  They felt very heavy.  I expected the heaviness to subside after they got the uphill work shook out of them.

I saw Kyle and he snapped this lovely pic of me throwing him my heart rate monitor.  And it was on to Falls Park.  One of my other favorite portions of the race.  And also the part with the steepest incline.  I saw my madre in all of her Team Green glory, screaming and cheering like a fool (which I love, Kyle could take notes).  I knew that after this stretch, things flattened out more.  I tried to power up the hill but my legs felt…stuck.  No biggie… I’ll make it up on the flat part!

(I'm so good at running I can do it with my eyes closed.... lolz)

We looped back through the downtown area and made our way to the backside of the bike trail, since the primary part is still under construction.  My legs felt like crap.  My IT bands, specifically my right one, felt like I had 10-15 lbs of extra weight attached to them.  My stride was short and choppy.  I kept thinking the heaviness would shake out in due time and I would get back to work.  I did realize that unless they figured it out asap, sub-1:50 probably wasn’t in the cards.  But a course PR was more than doable!

4. 8:34
5. 8:35
6. 9:23

At about the halfway point I figured if I ran the same as I had the first half, I’d be right at a course PR.  And I never positive split a half (attention:  foreshadowing!), so let’s just get back on track!  Look at me being Miss Sunshine.  Holy crap.  Except that they never loosened up.  I was stuck running a 9-9:30 pace and just could NOT stride out at all without feeling like my leg would give out.  This part of the route had a smidge of shade, which was good, because it was getting very very hot out there.

I kept plugging along running as fast as I could, STILL thinking that eventually the heaviness would shake out, and I could race whatever I had left on the course.  Except that there kept being rolling hills and the downhills would lock things back up, even as I was taking them very conservatively.  Well…poo.

7. 9:11
8. 9:36
9. 9:19

I got to Lincoln high school where I had planned to see Kyle, and he was leaning against the school not even cheering.  I may have snapped something to the effect of, “The least you could do is cheer for me!!!”  Haha, poor guy.  In his defense he was staring in the sun, and probably didn’t see me coming.  Also, apparently every other girl at the race got the memo about black shirt green shorts.  Jeepers.

I saw my mom shortly there after and she was a cheering and screaming fool, which of course, made me smile.  I think I may have given her the, “this sucks” memo as I ran by.  That may have been an exact quote from the exact spot in the race as last year.  ;)

(Always gotta have the sad panda photo....hahah...)

This was supposed to be the part where I started my BTTW kick.  This is literally the part of the race I look forward to when running halfs.  Wah wah.  I pretty much stopped looking at my watch and just tried to enjoy the day.  I chatted it up with some runners and offered encouragement to some that were struggling.  I was bopping along at my long run pace, the least I could do is use some of my extra energy to cheer people on.  :P

The last few miles must’ve drug on, but looking back, I don’t remember anything too notable, other than getting passed.  A lot.  Hah.  Since I usually start at a more conservative pace and then really turn it on the last 5k, I’m not used to that.  Since I started at 8:30s and was finishing at 9ish, I was definitely getting passed a lot.  Ho hum. Ha.  I did see a girl getting oxygen about a mile from the finish which freaked me out.  I kept thinking how horrific it must be to be running the full.  It was warm. (Sidenote: After chugging a bottle of water post race, along with the fluids I took in during the race, I was still down 4 ½ pounds. Holy sweat-a-thon!)

I tried to pick up the pace the last mile and at some point realized that breaking two hours might be close.  Eep!  I ran the finishing quarter of a mile as fast as I could with pain shooting up the IT bands.  Beep beep!   Coming through.  I probably looked like the biggest sandbagger. :/  Oh well.

11. 9:36
12. 9:26
13. 9:14
.14 :55 (7:08 pace)

1:59:49.

(True story: my mom was pissed this chick ruined her finishing photo of me. Baha.)

Well ok then. :)  The nice thing was that I wasn’t dead tired crossing the finish line, but I was bummed.   I was very proud of myself for never giving up on the course, but looking back I was probably a little delusional.  IT band stiffness doesn’t “go away.” Hah. It took awhile for it to click that that’s what it was, I just thought my quads were feeling tired from the constant ups and downs.  Whenever I run downhills, I always run them very conservatively, because I know my IT bands will be severely affected by them.  I’m not sure why it didn’t click in my head that flying down them wouldn’t do the same thing. ??  I guess I just assumed that I’d be miserable the next day, not during the race.

I’m happy that I finished my 12^th half marathon and that I finished my 7^th consecutive Sioux Falls Half Marathon with my 3^rd best time.  I hope I read this blog post before signing up for next years race, because unless the course is back to normal, I don’t want to race-race this again.  I’ve decided it’d be fun to do the marathon as a relay “for fun” (attempting to convince Kyle of the fun-ness), or to do the half as a relay and then just keep running with KK during his final leg, or pace my BFFF who’s been talking about doing a HM forever.  All fun options. 

Sweatiest finisher award goes to: jerbear!

 

My friend Molly was back home for the weekend from San Diego.

I'm starting to sweat just looking at her in capris.

He's only faux touching me. He was extremely grossed out when my sweaty arm touched his.

Jerbear and Mamabear

Try A Tri

I always get to a certain point in marathon training (or training for any race distance for that matter) where I start to obsess about what's next.  Because clearly I've already obsessed about what's currently going on, far too much.  I've been scouring some race calendars for the past few months, but nothing has really tickled my fancy.  Last year I jumped in to 5k training waaaaaaaaaaay too fast, and ended up with some pissed off hips.  I hope to not do that this time around.

Well something happened to catch my eye....  it is enough time after Fargoooooooooooooo to allow me to rest and then adequate time training (sort of).  It is challenging enough to keep my mind occupied.  And it includes plenty of cross training to allow my legs a chance to get back to 100% post-marathon.  And the cheap-o registration date is a week after Fargo, so I don't have to commit to anything until after I know how my body has handled the race. 

Yup... I think I'm going to try a tri!

It's just a little sprint triathlon, but I'm super duper excited about it.  Not sure if you read my 101 in 1001 post, but I have a goal to complete a half ironman in the next few years, and you have to start somewhere!  Plus I love Princess Leia so much, that I can't wait to spend some more QT with her.

The date:  June 25, 2011

The distances:  swim 400m, bike 20k, run 5k.

My status:  Freaking Excited!

I've been scouring the internet for some sprint tri training programs, but I thought I'd let the experts (aka my lovely readers) weigh in.  I'd like to keep my weekly mileage somewhat high (30's?) so that when the tri is done I have a decent enough base to race some 5ks and 10ks during the summer.  (I need to start nailing some new PRs ya know?  I got the ITCH!  And no...not that kind of itch....)

Also, what sort of gear do I HAVE TO have?  Keep in mind this is a pretty lowkey tri.  And since it's short, I'm sure I could get away things I couldn't normally.  Like do people wear their suits under their biking/running stuff after the swim?  (I'm not buying a tri suit, so don't suggest it.)  Could I wear a sports bra and spandex shorts for the swim and then throw on a tank for the rest?  So many QUESTIONS!

And in other news, I'm mondo happy I dropped the quest for 200 miles.  Reason a) PR.  Reason b) my IT bands are pisssssssssssssed after Saturday. I thought they might be after an insanely hilly route.  Me and my rolling pin are currently besties.  Hope they're back to normal for my final 20 miler Saturday!! :D