Tale of a Poor Training Session

Woe is me.

When I screw up a hard workout, I REALLY screw it up.

I was supposed to run 10 miles with 4x1200 intervals at 5k pace on Wednesday. Chris and I ran 11 miles the previous day, and in talking to my long run friends throughout the day Wednesday it was determined that we'd do our long run, 20 miles, on Sunday instead of Saturday. Phew. That meant I could move my speed session to Thursday and enjoy a recovery day on Wednesday. Ahh..

However, that meant I wouldn't have a running buddy to join me. No worries though. Extra easy day will make up for that!

Next issue was getting on a track that wasn't being occupied by high school football practice. But then, at work I had the option to leave at 1 p.m. since I had to come in on Sunday. Perfect! No practice at 1 p.m.

Guess how hot it was at 1 p.m.? 87 degrees. Barf. No thank you. I went home, after a failed attempt at getting a session of recovery boots where the person in front of me was allowed to start their session 20 minutes late, thus pushing mine back as well. Not that anyone bothered to tell me that until what was 20 minutes into my session. But I digress.

I decided I would just do my workout around Tea. I mapped a little one mile loop near home so I could grab water and change shoes as needed. And then I procrastinated it. Setting out at 8 p.m. And I hadn't eaten since 1 p.m. First mistake.

Second mistake: do you know how dark it gets these days? Very dark. Do you know how much of my extremely high property taxes goes towards street lights in this town? Very little to none.

But still, I was ready to rock it!

Three mile warm up felt great, despite the heavy humidity and still warm temps. I came home to switch out shoes for my first interval, grabbed my nox vest and my headlamp because it was pitch black out.

Started my first interval and my shoes felt terrible. I'd only wore them on the track and I started to get really nervous that I was going to hurt myself this close to the marathon. I did an out and back from my house to change back into my shoes. And by then my goose was cooked.

I was starving. I couldn't see the street I was running on, despite my headlamp in my hand. I couldn't make myself run fast without seeing the road.

And each and every interval got slower and slower. The fourth one being slower than my last 5k pace in the Sioux Falls half marathon, at the end of 18 miles. Uff. I desperately wanted to quit early, and I definitely didn't want to finish my 2.5 cool down miles. But I did it anyway.

Miles are miles even when they don't go as planned.

The best part about a really crappy training session is that a unicorn run is usually just around the corner. So I'm waiting! I'll take it October 7th, if I'm able to pre-select it. Thanks!

Ladies Night Love + Yasso 800s

Alright just wanted to clarify a few things about my previous car post:

1)  I don't have a personal "banker."  Apparently my wording was incorrect.  Yes, Kovas, I have a driver, but he was off for the day, so he didn't have to take me to the bank. :p  But honestly, if I did have a driver I'd be the happiest chica in the world.  I loathe driving.  (But I do like it more and more in my sweet new car....obvs.)

2)  No my banker didn't come car shopping with me.  Hah.  And no my dad isn't my banker (although I sure wish he was!)  Why oh why couldn't I have been a trust fund baby?  Some people have all the luck. :)

Moving right along.  Tuesday I had a date with the track.  I <3 track.  Aaron offered to meet me at the track to gawk at me while I was running keep me company.  And it's a good thing that he did.  I had to work late, and ended up running 3/4 of the workout in the dark-dark.  It would've been super scary to do solo.  When I got to the track there were little munchkins having football practice.  Now I tend to make fun of soccer moms (in a good hearted sort of way, of course) but I will totally be *that* mom at my kid's football practices.  Almost makes me want to reproduce.  No wait.  It doesn't.  

There were also a couple of semi-attractive guys on the track when I got there.  All of my friends have been pushing me to date a runner for.ev.er. so I'm constantly on the look out just to see if there are any cute ones out there (not that I'm in the market, just for research sake, mind you).  For some reason, I'm just usually not attracted to skinny runner boys.  Maybe it's just because I don't want to date a boy who could beat me in a foot race... that's probably it.  :)  Speaking of, there was one cute one on the trails on Monday, so I suppose now I can take my eyes off of high alert for the next 6 months. ;)

I had 6 x 800 in 3:28-3:38 on the schedule.  For some reason I had 800 m. cool down jogs in between each 800, but I like to do closer to a 1/4 of a mile, so I changed that up real quick. :)  I did my warm up mile and I was off.

3:34 (7:08 pace)

3:41 (7:22 pace)

3:37 (7:14 pace)

3:31 (7:02 pace)

3:34 (7:08 pace)

3:31 (7:02 pace)

(I did my recovery laps slightly faster than the 800 pace, so I suppose we could technically call these Yassos).

It was so nice having Aaron along for the ride (literally he was biking laps with me at times) not only to make it a much safer run, but it was nice to have someone to babble to during my recovery laps.  I was pretty stoked with my times as well.  They were hard, but not impossible.  I definitely think I'll continue with Yassos for my MARATHON schedule.  After doing the last one in 3:31 (which felt really freaking HARD at that point) I pondered how I ever ran an 800 in 2:39.  Seriously, that seems barfiliciously fast.  Oh... it probably was... which is why I quit racing 800's in 8th grade. :p

And now to leave you with some adorable pictures of me and one of my favorite people slash life partner :p Jenn.

Drink in a pineapple?  Why not.

We tend to look even cuter when together. Yeah, I didn't realize it was possible either. :p

Jenn, me, and Jeff.  Runners represent!

I tend to enjoy embracing people in photos.  

Especially after a drink or two out of a pineapple.

And if your drink doesn't come in a pineapple, it's best to at least give it a pineapple topper.  

Speedy Legs + Inspiration

Wednesday I had the dreaded 1600 m. intervals on the schedule.  Of course we were under a wind advisory, because that seems to be the name of the game lately.  I decided to head to the gym.  Speed workouts are actually kind of fun on the treadmill.  When I started the run I was shocked at how great my legs felt.  I seriously felt like I could've BQ'd if I had tried.  (Ok, not at all, but you get the idea.)  I hope my legs feel that fresh and great race day.  Wowsers!  My iPod decided to putz out and me after my warm up mile, so I chose to sing Blink 182 - Miss You over and over in my head during my repeats.  

I did 7 miles in 1:02:29 for a pace of 8:56.  Average interval pace was 7:47.

Warm Up	1 Mi	9:39	9:39	9:39
Interval	1 Mi	7:47	17:26	7:47
Recovery	0.5 Mi	5:29	22:55	10:58
Interval	1 Mi	7:48	30:43	7:48
Recovery	0.5 Mi	5:25	36:08	10:50
Interval	1 Mi	7:52	44:00	7:52
Recovery	0.5 Mi	5:26	49:26	10:52
Interval	1 Mi	7:44	57:10	7:44
Cool Down	0.5 Mi	5:13	1:02:23	10:26

The once hated 1600 m. repeats are now actually --dare I say it?-- fun.  Oy.  When did I become a distance runner?!?!?!?!

Thursday night I headed out for an easy 8 miler.  Since it was late and already dark when I headed out, I had to run a pretty hilly route to run through a super safe part of town.  My legs were feeling the speed workout from the night before.  I ran to my old apartment and ran an old route from a few years ago.  I love the area of town because it is super safe and there's almost zero traffic, so I don't have to worry about dodging cars.  About halfway through the run, it started to rain lightly.  I've said it before but I l-o-v-e running in warm rain.  It was seriously such a beautiful run.

I did 8 miles in 1:15:23 for a pace of 9:26.

I have a list of things I want to do/need to do in my spare time.  Last weekend I finally got around to doing one of the things in the "want to do" category:  my inspiration board!  Over the last year I've been putting my race bibs on my refrigerator post-race.  Well it's getting a bit full, so I wanted to do something with them but to display them a bit better.  Behold the board.  :)

I have all of the race bibs from every race I ran in that required a bib, including 3 from high school (bottom left corner 2000, middle bottom, and the GREEN one from the state track meet my senior year)! As you can see I've done quite a fit of the races multiple times.  I also included some fun inspirational words/quotes/sayings.

Some highlights/closeups:

My favorite bib because it A) has my name on it B) is not boring and WHITE and C) makes me look FAST because I was in corral A.  Haha.  Also, Race Like a Girl....you know it!

Pace band for 3:40.  Someday. :)

I've had this Green Bay Cellcom Marathon ad cut out of a Runners World magazine for 4 years (hence the super old logo).  

Run happy. :)  

Wind is a Swear Word in my Book

Terribly sorry for my lack of posts this week.  I've been doing the runnin' but none of the writin'.  I think I'm to that point of MARATHON TRAINING where I run, sleep, eat, and repeat.  With some serious slackatude to the bloggy blog.

Also our weather has just been attrocious.  Wind wind wind.  When I was younger (and very tiny) my dad used to tell me to put rocks in my pockets to keep from blowing away on the way to school, at track meets, going outside to play.  Well this week I'm half tempted to take his advice, geez Louise!

Monday I had an easy 10 mile on the schedule, and really, I just had to laugh.  Since when is a double digit run an easy run?  This should get to count on my long run section of my spiffy graph I like to create, right? (Sidenote: I just spelled graph "graf", my bwain is bwoken.)  Office hubby and I were a-bitchin' about the wind before leaving work, as he was getting ready to do a 7 miler.  We said our goodbyes and hoped to not blow away.

I started the run into the wind, per brilliant Glenn's suggestion (ok to be honest, this was merely coincidental that I ran into the wind to start, b/c running from any other direction from my apartment is MAJOR hills, which is a no go for Jerbear).  I swear to god there were moments that I was running at a standstill.  The American flags along the route looked like they were going to whip right off the flag poles.  Luckily, I really wanted to keep this run in the easy peasy pace category, because my legs were still tight from Saturday's 18 miler.

I was beyond excited to hit my halfway mark, because it meant that I would get to enjoy the wind.  Wheeeeee.  I jumped HIGH into the air, and was carried quickly and effortlessly back to my apartment by the wind.  No rocks here!  When I checked the weather report when I got home the winds were in the mid-20s with gusts up to 45.  NBD.

I did 10 miles in 1:36:08 for a pace of 9:37.
1. 9:34

2. 9:51
3. 9:43
4. 9:45
5. 9:42
6. 9:34
7. 9:32
8. 9:28
9. 9:27
10. 9:28

On the drive home from work on Tuesday I was smacked in the face with the worst headache ever.  Apparently all this wind is stirring up the pollen and depositing it in my nasal cavities.  Thanks!  I closed my eyes because my brain was throbbing, and before I knew it 2 hours had passed.  I popped some Ibuprofen and headed to the gym for my speed session.  Somehow the winds were even worse on Tuesday (gusts of 50-60 mph, you've gotta be joking me, right?)

I hit the treadmill to do my speed workout of 4 x 1600 m. @ 7:52 pace with 800 meter jogs in between.  I was also supposed to do a warm up and cool down mile with an additional 800 meter jog to total 9 miles, but with my brain swollen to the size of Mt. Rushmore (or so it felt) I said naaaaaaw.

This workout made me want to race in a bad bad way.  Screw this MARATHON TRAINING I want to go FAST!  My legs were definitely burning the last quarter of each mile, but it felt good to work up a hard sweat.  (It goes without saying that I sweated out an Olympic sized pool, no?)  Also, for the 1/2 mile jog, I walked for .05 then jogged at 10:00 pace for the .45.

I did 7 miles in 1:03:07, but more importantly, held an avg. pace of 7:44 for my 4 mile times.

Warm Up	1 Mi	9:40	9:40	9:40
Interval	1 Mi	7:38	17:18	7:38
Recovery	0.5 Mi	5:36	22:54	11:12
Interval	1 Mi	7:44	30:38	7:44
Recovery	0.5 Mi	5:34	36:12	11:08
Interval	1 Mi	7:48	44:00	7:48
Recovery	0.5 Mi	5:50	49:50	11:40
Interval	1 Mi	7:48	57:38	7:48
Recovery	0.5 Mi	5:25	1:03:03	10:50

I got to spend Wednesday night with N, and apparently it's been awhile since I've been to Minnesnowta.  Dude, there's no more snow!  When did that happen!?!?!?  There's weird green stuff on the ground.  Totally through me for a loop.  Also, I've never done the drive to his place during daylight, it usually is dark as I was leaving work.  It's a pretty entertaining drive.  I saw a miniature pony farm, what appeared to be a collection of windmills (ha! go figure, theme of the week=wind!) and many many windtowers.  Windtowers are kind of HUGE, how did I not see these before??

I also watched my first episode of American Idol and only wanted to slit my wrists 2 1/2 times.  Luckily N kept me entertained (and back from the ledge of jumping) with sweet Michael Jackson dance moves during commercials (the kid cracks me up...seriously...).

As I tweeted about earlier, I'm looking for suggestions on how to get him to attend my marathon.  I've brought it up a few times (probably 1,000) but have yet to push him for an answer (because the guy can't decide ANYTHING in advance, yes it's highly annoying as I plan everything to a T.  You've seen the spreadsheets!).  If you have any advice, or suggestions, I am all ears.  As of right now, I have a "sales pitch" of sorts that I'm working on.  He's out of town enjoying some Twins baseball games so I'm tempted to pitch it to him while he's happily drunk.  Jk.  Kind of.

Check out Leslie's sweet giveaway NOW!

A Week's Worth...Again

I was on such a roll with my excessive posts last week, one might have thought I was b-a-c-k.  And then I fell off the wagon, this week.  Almost quite literally, as I'm blaming my lack of posts on my Irishness and needing to celebrate it in full force um... most of the week.

Monday I was loving the fact that it was still light out at 6pm when I hit the trails for my run.  However, I was not loving the extreme flooding of my bike trail.  Talk about rerouting my run.  Looking at my route on Garmin Connect looks somewhat like a Family Circus cartoon.
I did my 6 miles in 56:48 for a pace of 9:28.

Tuesday I had myself sliiiiightly freaked out about my run.  Given that my 1600 m intervals were so horribly hard for my first cycle of HM training, that I omitted them from my second cycle of HM training.  Uh.  Yikes.  I had 7 miles total, one mile warm up and cool down, 2 x 1600 @ 7:57 with 800 meter jogs after each mile.  Instead I did a 2 mile warm up, intervals, and 1 mile cool down.  The last thing I want to do after running hard and fast is run slooooooooow for a long time.  No thanks.

I hit up the gym in shorts and a barely there running top, again to minimize sweatage, and was ready to go.  The run went awesome.  It was definitely just as tough as I expected, but I think I was a little mentally tougher than the last time I attempted.  I know what my body is capable of, so I'm not as willing to let myself "quit."  I did give myself .1 of each 1/2 mile to walk after each 1600 which I think helped tremendously.  I think next time I would only do .05.  I was pretty recovered by the end of each 1/2 mile jog/recovery.

I did 7 miles in 1:05:44 for a pace of 9:24.  My interval pace was 7:51.

You'd best believe I left that treadmill a soaking sweaty mess.  So sorry gym. :(

Wednesday was conveniently my rest day and my favorite holiday ever ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!  Not to be confused with MARATHON TRAINING!!!!  I somehow convinced myself to get up out of bed early to do some yoga for runners podcast which focused a lot on loosening up my oh so tight hippies.  Let me tell you how not flexible I am first thing in the morning, the day after speed work.  Answer:  Not flexible.  It did feel good to start the day somewhat loosened up.

As soon as I was off work it was out on the town with some friends.  I've really become a bit of a homebody since I started training.  I'm either hanging out with the boy, visiting the boy, running, or eating.  Doesn't leave much time for boozin' it up with the compadres.  I think we made up for it on ST. PATRICK'S DAY!! Don't you worry. :)

By the Luck 'o the Irish, I felt 100% fine Thursday morning (not working til 11am didn't hurt) a fact I bragged about throughout most of the day.  Until I got to the gym.  Holy crap, my body did not want to run.  That's what you get for celebrating your little heart out I guess.  After the first mile my legs and lungs did loosen up, but you can tell my lungs were NOT pleased with the 2nd hand smoke they had to inhale.  I felt like it was the first mile I had ever run in my life.  [P.S.  Please remind me to never quit running so I don't have to feel that horrible chest pain EVER.]

I managed to eek out 5.75 of my 6 miles before the gym closed in 54:18 for a pace of 9:27.

Tonight is going to be spent attempting my culinary hand at homemade margherita pizza to inhale as fuel for 20 miles tomorrow.  EEEEEEEEEEK!  20 #1, you're about to be my B!

Best of luck to Heather and Glenn as they take on their own marathons this weekend.  Make Jerbear proud kiddos. :p

Just Call Me Lance With My Needle

I failed to mention, but on my not so fun 12 mile treadmill run , I had forgotten to bring my running shoes to the gym.  I was wearing my next most recent pair:  Asics Nimbus 10, pink. (see running shoe chart for reference) and decided it would be too big of a waste to drive all the way home.  Big mistake.  I got blisters on top of blisters next to blisters.  Apparently there was a reason these shoes were retired, eh?

Unfortunately, after you have blisters, it doesn't take much to re-aggravate them, even if you have switched back to your oh so great running shoes.  Today after my run I decided it was time to get out my sword aka my trusty blister popping needle.  I lined up all the supplies:  peroxide?  Check!  Sword?  Check! Cotton ball? Check! Bandaids?  Check!  And it was on.  Pop poke puncture. P^3  I guess I am lucky (lucky?) that I only get water blisters, I can imagine that blood blisters are a little more gross and painful.   Usually after I pop mine they'll refill themselves a couple of times, but then they'll be gone for good (assuming I stick to good shoes).  Until then, I think I'll leave my P^3 station set up on my coffee table.  Man it's a good thing I don't have roommates. :p  (P.S. I hope you can't see the fur on my legs, they're like chia pets, I swear.  Also, I really hope none of my readers have foot fetishes, because, um..gross.)

Now that you've all emptied your stomach contents due to my brutal overshare (what? I thought there was no such thing as TMI for runners...pussies....), on to some runs.  Tuesday I had one of my least favorite workouts:  mile repeats.  Blech.  I had 6 miles total with a one mile warm up, 2 x 1600 m. @ 8:02 pace and 800 jogs, and a one mile cooldown.  After going through the workout in my head, I realized that it was going to end on a 2 mile cool down, and I knew I would be tempted to skip it, so instead I did a 2 mile warm up.  I'm a genius sometimes.  :)  Honestly I tried to cut this run short in so many ways and I'm pretty proud that I ended up with all 6 miles.

I did the 6 miles in 54:53 for a pace of 9:09.  Mile times, 7:54 & 7:55, HECK YA!

Warm Up	1 Mi	9:39	9:39	9:39
Warm Up	1 Mi	9:39	19:18	9:39
Interval	1 Mi	7:54	27:12	7:54
Recovery	0.5 Mi	5:04	32:16	10:08
Interval	1 Mi	7:55	40:11	7:55
Recovery	0.5 Mi	4:58	45:09	9:56
Cooldown	1 Mi	9:42	54:51	9:42

I was pretty darn proud of my sweat fest and speed session.

This morning I woke up and headed to the gym (pre Jeri Lance-a-lot) to do my easy 6 miles.  As soon as I stepped outside I questioned why I was going to the gym.  It was in the low 20's, which in my brain=cold.  But I forget what cold minus wind feels like..... not bad at all.  I checked the weather report for Saturday, and with a high of 25 and little to no wind, looks like the Jerbear is OFF THE TREADMILL and on the trails for her 14 miler (PDR right here, whoo!)

Anyway, I wasn't too hyped up about my 6 miler, as I tend to get annoyed by the easy/junk miles in training programs.  Right after I jumped on the treadmill, a guy jumped on the one next to me, who had a prosthetic leg from the knee down.  Seeing him bust out his mile next to me almost brought tears to my eyes.  Not only was he truly inspiring as a runner, but it put my run into perspective.  There should never be a time that I dread doing a run, I should be thankful everyday that I lace up my running shoes that I'm healthy and capable of running.  So anyways, thanks random dude for giving me some perspective and inspiration this morning.

I did 6 miles in 56:51 for a pace of 9:29.

1. 9:38 2. 9:38 3. 9:40 4. 9:30 5. 9:26 6. 8:56


After completing the first 5 miles at a nice and leisurely pace, I had to kick up the speed on the 6th mile.  I also played around with the incline.  Definitely made the run more interesting.

Have a great weekend kiddos!  Be sure to check out RunZoeRun's Champion giveaway.