Back on Track + Cold Weather Gear Review

The first 6 days of January have come and gone, and my first week of training has wrapped up.  And for the first time in a long while (how long? *licks finger, pages through online running log* since the week of August 13th) I completed all of my scheduled runs.  I'm using a training plan from Runner's World smart coach (freebie) and am essentially starting from scratch.  5 runs a week:  3 easy, 1 tempo or interval, 1 long run.  I do intend to do strides on one of my easy days, because I enjoyed that aspect of Pfitz, and once my fitness comes back a bit (dear God, please come back) I intend on doing some fast finish long runs, every 3rd or 4th week.

My plan currently goes to May 11th, the day of the Brookings half marathon, yet I'm not 100% sure I'm doing that race yet.  It's narrowed down to that race, or Fargo half as my spring goal race.  Goal B race of the season is the Get Lucky half marathon up in the cities (which also aligns itself with excellent BFF time with Sheana, and celebrating my fave holiday).  I also got the sweetest green running duds for Christmas, which I can't wait to wear for the big holiday.  Besides those two races, there's one in January (christ, it's january already huh?) and a couple in April that I'm mulling over.  No registration triggers have been pulled at all, which worries me only slightly.  I refuse to pay money to train/race poorly (see: fall 2012).

26.2 miles ran this week, not intentionally.  I got lost on a 5 miler on New Years Day.  Yes, I was running in town, no I have no idea how I got lost, but I was freezing my buns off, and I'm glad that I only tacked on an extra .2 miles because it could've been much, much worse if I had gone south instead of north when presented with those options (uh hello Harrisburg).  Interestingly enough the time spent running this week (4:36) is slower than four of my five marathons.  I told you I'm doing some slow pokey get-back-in-to-shape base mileage.  Uff da.

I did purchase a face mask this week, mainly after the freezing five miler listed above.  My body was completely fine and dandy, but my face was frozen.  I don't think I mentioned it on here, but according to the doc I've developed mild rosacea.  Funsies.  I've always been extremely prone to wind burn, and of course extreme heat and cold aggravate it, which I don't need.  Enter weirdo ninja mask.  (Ollie is such a good model, right???)



I wore it on my long run today, and while I'm sure I looked like the biggest dork ever, it helped.  My face is only slightly rosy 3 hours later.


Pros

• Breathable-ish.  The one I purchased has an opening under the nose, and ventilation in the mouth area.  
• Easy to pull up and down.  At times the wind was at my back or being blocked by trees, so I took it down.  It definitely constricts breathing some, so it was nice to tug down and then put back up as needed.
• $22 isn't bad as far as winter running gear goes.  I'm lucky that I have all the coats/tights/pants/super duper insulated pants/yaktrax/gloves/hat/ear warmers that I need (as I've acquired over the past few winters of running), $22 is nothing compared to what you can spend on winter running crap.  They did have some cheaper ones that were just the mask without the little neck cover, but I would've needed a scarf to go with it, which ended up being $25.  No thanks.
• You don't have to smile at other runners that you see, because they can't see it anyway!  Wave and go!  I found myself smiling and waving every.single.time and every time I thought to myself, they can't see you smile Jerbear, STOP IT.

Cons

• I look like a doof.  (But I'd rather look like a doof while running, than be bright red faced in day to day life.)
• I had to pull the thing down every time I had to blow some snot out of my nose.  Since my allergies suck, this was frequently.  Like 2-3 times a mile.  The material also got slightly irritating to my nose, presumably because I was blowing snot rockets, wiping my nose with my gloved hand, and then putting the mask back up.  I don't think it'd bother skin at all if you just kept it in place the whole time.  
• By exhaling into the mask, my face ended up slightly damp.  Not a problem until I ran directly in to the wind, and the ventilation shot cold air at my wet face.  Brrrrr x 10.

**I wasn't paid in anyway for this review, just my two cents on something I obvs should've bought two years ago when I started bitching about my face freezing off during runs.

One week of solid running done, here's to 51 more!  Hah.

Another Post Complaining About the Weather...YAYZIES!

When I was down in Houston visiting my running bestie, Jenn, we had multiple hundreds thousands of conversations about running and marathoning.  At this point, both of us had ran at least one less than stellar marathon, so naturally you break it down inch by inch to discover the why.

One of the topics we landed upon was **big shock** weather.  I know that a lot of you have equally shit-show level of weather to train/run/race in, but I'd love to get your two cents and suggestions.

In my eyes, there are 6 weeks of ideal weather to run in my area of eastern South Dakota.  That's about three weeks of spring when the snow and ice melts, the temp comes above freezing, and before the onslaught of heat and humidty arrive.  The other three weeks are in the fall, when we get the repreive from the latter and full on freeze of the former.

Yes, that's 42 days. 

Out of 365.

Popular times of year for marathons in this area are spring and fall, naturally.  If you choose to run a spring marathon (which is my first choice for reasons I'll get in to), you deal with 18 mile long runs on solid sheets of ice (just ask my hip when I ate $#!t hard at the end of a run).  You run in 15-30 degree temps for the duration of your training.  When spring actually comes, you're enjoying your taper so your body never really gets a chance to acclimate to the warmer more humid temperatures.

Then race day comes, and even a day in the 60s (which is fairly cool as far as spring race temps are concerned) sounds ideal, but it's anywhere from 2x-4x warmer than what you're used to.  Throw in any humidity at all, and you're rather screwed.

That gives us our next option of a fall marathon.  For me, this really isn't even an option, given how much I sweat when hot and humid, making it seriously unsafe for me to pursue.  But let's say for arguments sake that it is.  For an early October race, you start training mid-June.  The first few weeks aren't bad, but then we reach July and August and some of September (ie:  the bulk of your training weeks) where getting up at 3am to "beat the heat" isn't even an option because the humidity overnight wavers in the 99-100% range.  Granted, some of this is great training for the fall slaughter heat fest that has been recent popular fall marathons:  Chicago, even Twin Cities would've been too warm for my liking last year.

For this reason alone, I won't even think of running a fall marathon at the beginning of October.  I refuse to train through the shittiest weather SoDak has to offer to be slapped in the face with just as hot and muggy of a day as I've slogged through all summer.  Sorry. 

My point:  It's impossible to train for race day conditions.  That's such a HUGE variable of the marathon day picture, that I feel like sometimes you have 2 strikes against you just heading in to that day that you've prepared for months for.  (Wah, wah, I know!)

I do have a third option, and definitely one I will utilize once marathons get back in the racing schedule more regularly, which is the destination marathon in early December.  It's almost perfect.... you can (hopefully) get the bulk of your training in before the blizzards hit, and can enjoy your taper when they do.  But then there's always the issue of **SOB I'M GOING TO KICK A KITTEN** if a blizzard strikes leaving you not able to depart for your destination marathon.  Also the cost of traveling somewhere for a race can get a little out of hand.  And here again we have the issue (although less severe) of training in much MUCH cooler temps than you'll end up racing in.

So there you have it.  I'm a little bit screwed, and not in a good way.  Any good suggestions you'd like to throw my way?  I'm all ears.  Especially if you're in the midwest and suffering right along with me.

11 snot filled miles

Sunday I had an 11 mile long run to accomplish.  SOME idiot thought it would be a good idea to go out and celebrate her 5k on Saturday night.  And SOME idiot didn't feel so great all day.  Also, this SAME idiot thought it would be a-ok to do a long run the day after an all out race.  Perhaps that sickness affected my brain, hmmmmm....

After lounging around on the couch, I finally mustered up the energy for the run around 3pm.  As soon as I started out it felt like I was breathing through a straw/an elephant was sitting on my chest.  I'm guessing I felt the same for the 5k the day before, but the adrenaline was pumping so I didn't notice.  Holy poop though.  Ugh.  I also felt like there were bubbles of snot that were blocking off my airwaves, especially during the last half of the run.  I kept hacking and hacking up crap but it never really got any better.

Also it was much warmer out than I had dressed for whoops.  I'm not complaining please don't get me wrong, but I was a pretty sweaty version of myself.  Because of the over indulgence from Saturday night, I was positively parched.  I dried out my handheld at the 5.5 turn around point.  Uh oh.  One slight benefit is that it is MUCH easier running with an empty handheld than a full one.  Who would've thought that was an arm workout?

My last fail for the run is one that I'm beginning to see a trend in (so I'm guessing you readers will be able to pinpoint this one also) CRAPPY FUELING.  What makes me think that I can eat a protein bar for breakfast and pb&j toast for lunch and have it keep me going for 11 miles?  Please see above and then recite it with me, "SOME IDIOT."

Ok, all the poop aside, it really wasn't that horrible of a run, I just didn't feel that "strength" that I feel at the end of the run where I know I can kick it up another notch.  It just wasn't there.  Coincedentelly it wasn't there for the 5k either, so maybe we'll just chalk this run up to the sickness.  Stupid sickness.

I ended up putting in 11 miles in 1:40:52 for a pace of 9:11.

1. 9:19 
2. 9:04 
3. 9:08 
4. 9:06 
5. 9:10 
6. 9:17 
7. 9:14 
8. 9:09 
9. 9:12 
10. 9:05 
11. 9:02

After the run I stretched and took an AWESOME ice bath.  Since SOME IDIOT hadn't stretched at all post-5k, she had really really tight legs.  Shockingly running 11 miles still made them sore.  The ice bath helped 234982349872398x.  I then tried to eat, although pretty unsuccessfully.  It is definitely my goal for the rest of my long runs to consciously take in enough fuel and calories before my runs to make sure that I don't fizzle out at the end.  My poor stomach was a hurting unit most of the night.

To reward myself for completing my run, I enjoyed some retail therapy courtesy of my papa.  Would you like to see what I got?  I thought so.  :)  Have no fear, I will do a winter running gear fashion shoot upon arrival.  I'll even do my hair and everything!  Jk, you know that won't happen.  :)

New pants...on SALE (as far as nike is concerned I guess)

new hat to further the ninja look

new jacket (in green obvi). 

The reviews on the website were pretty swell for crazy cold temps such as those we have here in good ol SoDak.

I'm so stinkin' excited for them to arrive.  Also, I fully understand that since I actually bought them, it will hold off on being bitterly cold again for a while.  Can I let you in on a little secret??  That's okie dokily with me.  :)

I Love My Parents

I was chit chatting with my parents on the phone tonight giving them the details about the race on Saturday (yes, I'm going to do it because I feel pretty a-ok right now, and yes they're driving 45 minutes to watch me run for less than 24 minutes....fingers crossed anyway....and then driving back home another 45 minutes because they are SUPERFANS!).  

My mom asked if I had started to buy my cold weather running clothes yet or if I was still waiting.  I told her I had been looking but don't have the $$ to get them with this month's paycheck (yes, I get paid once a month, and yes it sucks...good thing I'm a credit counselor and can budget my money to a T).  She asked how much I was planning on spending, and I estimated $200.  She was shocked that I was going to spend that much but offered to give me an advanced birthday present to help out with some of the funding.  Then in the background, I hear my dad say, "Go ahead and get what you want and tell me how much it is.  I'll give you a 'You're a great daughter and I love you present.'"  To which I laughed off.  Until my mom mentioned later in the convo that I should take dad up on the offer.  Apparently he wasn't kidding.  SCORE!

I'll give you two guesses as to what I'll be doing as soon as I publish this post.

If you answered:   

• Nike.com......you are correct.
  
• Revisiting your comments on this post requesting cold weather clothing suggestions....you are also correct.  :)

Any other suggestions, get them in asap.  This girl's got a winter weather wardrobe (3 points for alliteration, hey yo!) to purchase.  :)