Race Report: Sioux Falls Half Marathon

Leading up to the Sioux Falls half, I had been training for about 4 weeks.  I knew my fitness level wasn't very high, so I wanted to run it as a comfortably hard effort level, roughly around marathon pace.  Prior to the race, I had told Kyle I thought I'd run in the 2:07-2:10 range, but I wanted to be under 2:05.  He told me that based on my lack of training, he thought 2:05 would be a stretch.  CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Naturally, race morning arrived and we had a massive cold front move in.  This is comical because every time my running friends and I choose the same race as our "goal races" the weather blows, ie:  Sioux Falls half 2011, Fargo marathon 2011, but since all of us were doing this years Sioux Falls half for fun, it was running weather perfection.  High 30s at the start.  Mid 40s by the finish.  Low humidity, little to no wind.

I got to the race start plenty early, because Niki was staying with me and running the marathon.  The marathon starts 45 minutes prior to the half.  I saw her off at the start, and then met up with Megan, her parents, and eventually my parents.  Megan and I had tentative plans to run together as much as possible.


From the start, I wanted to get my heart rate in the upper level of LR pace (~160).  Megan and I were chatting along and loving the cool temps.  Every time we'd get to a hill (ok Sioux Falls' version of a hill) we'd vow to stop talking, but manage to start up again before we got to the top.  Derp.



We stuck together for the first 4-5 miles, and I kept my HR right where I wanted it, but decided to dial it up a bit for the middle section (9:35-9:45 pace).  For the next 5 miles I pushed a bit and lowered the pace to around 9:30s, keeping my HR in the mid to upper 160s.  I got to see my family and Kyle a ton on the course, which was awesome.

The final 5k I wanted to push as hard as I could but I could tell I hadn't done any speedwork since last spring.  My second to last mile was  my previous GMP (9:08), and my final mile was 8:38 (slower than my half PR pace, but still MUCH faster than I'd ran in months).  My final sprint was 7:27 with a max speed of 6:44.  So maybe I have speed, just in teeny tiny doses.


I knew I was close to my 2:05 goal from around the 10k mark, and that kept me from slowing down throughout the race.  I crossed the finish line, stopped my watch, and looked at my garmin.  2:04:59.  Hah.  Take that Kyle.  ;)



I was pretty psyched with my race given my non-existent training, and especially because the majority of my training runs for the summer had been in the 10-11 minute range.  I knew I was pretty out of shape, but was saved by the super great weather and low temps.

Megan wasn't too far behind me, but had to deal with some cranky hip problems.  And then I got to stick around and cheer on all the marathoners, including Niki!  Whoooo!



Kyle put my TEAM GREEN shirt on the Ollie Girl for her inaugural race spectating.  I die.

Half marathon #16, and Sioux Falls Half Marathon #8 in the books!

Registered for Marathon #6

Last night I sat down at my computer ready to empty out my pockets of money.  It’s a bit rude when 2/3 of your fall races all have the same early bird registration fee, no?  Without batting an eyelash, I plunked down $38 for my 8^th consecutive Sioux Falls Half Marathon.  Cheap, awesome race.  Seriously… $38! 

And then I started to do some himming and hawing over the Dallas Marathon.  My running this summer has been close to non-existent.  Between some lingering burn out, a mega intensive June class schedule, and HOLY HADES hot temps (interesting fun fact:  July 2012 posted the driest month in city HISTORY, along with the 2^nd hottest temps, behind 1930-something), I’ve yet to put together a solid week of training, let alone a solid base. 

I decided to check out the flights to see if the prices were increasing, and was surprised to see $160 staring back at me.  The 5-6 times I’ve looked in the past few months have shown me $375…….. $320 is probably the cheapest I’m going to get.  I called my bro to see if there was a specific time I should plan to fly in/out of town, and he gave me the go ahead for whenever.  I plunked in my departure times, and when it came time to pay, the $160 hadn’t changed. 

IT WAS $160 FOR THE ROUND TRIP FLIGHT.

Cue spastic dancing and whooping. 

Cue also Ollie giving me the side eye for waking her up from her 20^th nap of the day.  Gurrrrrrrrl can sleep.

I called my mom, asked her to try to replicate the pricing, as I was sure I was missing SOMETHING.  Nope $160 for her.  After quadruple checking the dates, airports, times, etc. I purchased my flight.  I somehow managed to take care of my trip to meet my sweet niece Harper, hang out with my studly nephew Harrison, see my bro and SIL, and hopefully run a solid 26.2 (for once….) for what I assumed JUST THE FLIGHT was going to initially run me.  HUZZAH.

Amped up marathon Jeri: 1.

So this week is my last week of “base building” aka attempt to get in a long run.  And at this point long run=anything higher than 6 miles (my current summer LR).  I’m hoping to have some solid training (some semblance of Pfitz 18/55 with 26.2 for funzies throw in with Megan in San Fran!), a healthy cycle (YOU HEAR THAT LEGS??!?!), and maybe be able to squeak out a PR come December.

P.S. In case you were concerned, there’s talks of creating/crafting a Team Green shirt for Ollie for the Sioux Falls Half.  No worries.  Team Green REPRESENT!

Slow Down Summer

I feel like all I do anymore is write “update” blog posts. But Danielle was whining that I need to blog asap, or she’s going to cut me, so here I am. IN BULLET POINT FORM-ish.

• Last weekend I biked 52 miles in the Okoboji ride. Following arrows on the road is hard thus the extra 2 miles in my 50 miler. It was hot. Last I saw, the heat index was 106 or something painfully hot like that. From 9am-2pm I drank over 80 oz. of fluids, yet did not have to pee until well past dinner time. Please keep in mind that I sweat 1/10^th of what I do while running, as I do biking. Gross. Big thanks to Aaron and Mike who kept me company, and joined in on my delirious singing on the latter miles, something to the effect of “my lady bits hurt, and my butt hurts, and I’m HOT.. doo deeee dooooo!”
  
  10:15 breakfast brat, natch.
  
  
• I got to spend the 3^rd and 4^th of July with my bestie Jenn and it was glorious, but of course not nearly enough time, as it never is. Someone needs to stop living in the jungle on the other side of the planet ASAP… ya know?
  
  
  
  I hope Jenn has all the cute pics, this is the only one on my phone.  *sobs*
  
  
• The other night I asked Kyle if he would come snuggle with me, as I was having a bad day. He looked at me, looked at Ollie who was snoozing away in between us, and indicated that we be “vewy vewy qwuiet” to sneak out without her. We crawled in to bed and giggled about our swift escape. Ok, I giggled, it’d be way weird if Kyle giggled… not much of a giggler. We joked that it felt like we had a kid that we were trying to sneak out on. We enjoyed 5 minutes of alone time before someone woke up and likely had a panic attack that we weren’t there anymore. “MOOOOM! DAAAAAAAAD! WHERE’D YOU GO? COME BACK! I MISS YOU! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Our Ollie girl is a little bit of a spaz when it comes to our attention, can you tell? (just like her mama, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!!? Ok yeah. I’m a spaz for attention too, I must admit.)
  
  
  
  
  
• It’s been hot as hades here and running sounds like 0% fun. I’ve been going pretty strong with one run a week, Monday nights, 5 miles. It’s become a running joke, actually (heh…running joke.) I’ll be lacing up my running shoes and Kyle will say, “Whoa?? You’re going running? How far??” And then he’ll remember it’s Monday…. “Oh.. enjoy your 5 miles!” This week I bucked the trend. It was 100+ with a gazillion percent humidity, so I decided to take my 5 miles to the gym in my apartment. Ugh. The treadmills may be as old as me in there. My footfalls are SO LOUD that I couldn’t hear the TV over my plodding along. 1.25 miles later I called it good. I planned to wait until 9 when I dipped below 90 but then I got invited out for beers at Old Chicago. That’s one thing I *can* do in the heat.
  
  
• Marathon training starts in approximately a month, so I think my time of “d!ck!ng” around should probably be coming to an end. Meh. I am excited to start running again, but glad I’m not having to get “serious” for the next month. I’m kind of enjoying this break. I have started doing some targeted strengthening exercises to strengthen my glutes, hammies, hips, so hopefully I can avoid injury for once.
  
  
• I got an invitation from the Mizuno Mezzanni project, and received my free Wave Riders in the mail today. That means, that along with my heavily discounted Kinvara 2’s that I just purchased, I’m now hoarding 3 pairs of running shoes in my office at work. I used to really like the Wave Riders, and ran the Vegas Marathon in them. But when the newer version came out in Winter 2011, I *hated* them. Speaking, I still have a pair of them in pink, size 8 if anyone wants to buy them for cheap. They have 5 miles on them. Anyway, given my extreme ability to break while running, I’ve been thinking that I could stand to run in a more “substantial” shoe, especially for long runs. I’ve wanted to try to Wave Riders again, but after being burned with the pair a few versions ago, I couldn’t fathom plunking down $100+ to see if they’d changed. I’m pretty excited to see if they fill the previous long run shoe void in my heart!
  
  
  
  
  
• I’m still riding a 4.0 wave after getting my grade for my June class (quickly raises the roof with excitement). Oh p.s. I’m trying to bring “raising the roof” back so feel free to get on board with that, spread the word, etc. It was a children’s materials and services class, and further solidified how badly I want to be a children’s and young adult librarian.

Well I think that’s enough babbling for now. What’s that? You want more Ollie cuteness before I go? Alright, twist my arm.

Ollie thought she got to drive home on the 4th of July.

Dad gives the BEST tummy rubs.

When I smile my tongue usually gets caught in my teef and flipped around.  

I kan haz some sushee?!?!?!

No.

Puggy Update

I've been severely absent in the bloggy world lately, but I don't feel too bad about it.  I'm still reading blogs, but it's soooooo annoying to comment from my phone, so don't be surprised if I tweet you instead of commenting.  Bad internet friend=jerbear.

But my best excuse for my absence is this little girl.

OLLIE GIRL!

aka Ollie Lee (Kyle seems to think she needs my middle name, despite it's redundancy).

We've been together for about a week and a half now, and I must say it's love.  Within 20 minutes of meeting her 3 weeks ago, we bonded.  She sat on my lap and didn't want me to pet any of the other pups on the residence.  The whole week leading up to getting her, emails flew regarding her name.  Everything I suggested, Kyle axed.  I was regrettably settling on Penelope/Penny/Pen because that's what I always expected to name my first female (notice I said first, as there will be many, many more I'm sure).  But she just didn't look like a Penny.

One afternoon after Kyle was shooting down ALL MY NAMES, I went in to my co-workers office and she had all my name suggestions brought up in an email next to two pictures of her.  We went down the list and eliminated all the ones that didn't "fit."  I commented that I wish she was a boy, because I think Olivander would be great (oh hai, huge 'arry pottah nerd heah!) and that should looked like an Ollie, to which she exclaimed "OMG SHE DOES!" So then I toyed with naming her Olivia, and Ollie for short, but then I remembered SHE'S A DOG, SHE CAN HAVE A SILLY NAME. *

Our first night was a little rough as she was so stinkin' loud.  Like panting uncontrollably, and doing this weird coughing/choking/gagging thing.  I was ready to preform CPR and/or the Heimlich roughly 75 times.  She also wouldn't sleep away from us, so guess who got to snooze in the guest bedroom?  That'd be the non-snoring family member--me.

The next morning we ran to Pet Smart to pick up some food and things for her, and when we came home she was crying so hard at the door I panicked.  Thinking I'd never be able to leave this dog again, ZOMG!  Luckily, she learned pretty quickly that we weren't LEAVING leaving her, and she didn't have any more separation anxiety.

She doesn't chew on things, she doesn't pee or poo in the apartment, she sheds like a banshee, but she's just the sweetest girl ever.

She likes to sit on my lap while I'm in class, and likes to lay on the floor next to me while I'm studying. She loves looooooves going on walks (which is good because she has a couple of lbs. to lose) and loves to SPRINT down the hallway after we get the mail.  Seriously... it's hilarious... I'll try to video it soon.

She hates the flash on my phone, and the lighting in my apartment sucks, so the photos have been sparse.  She adores watermelon (the only people food we've given her as pugs have sensitive stomachs).

She follows me around and has a smile that lights up the room.  When snuggling with Kyle she has to keep her eyes on me the whole time, just so I know that I'm still #1 (or so I'm telling myself).  She loves Kyle like crazy, and I've heard her drop the L word a number of times.  Smitten.

Just love her to bunches and I'm so glad that we found each other.  She needed a good home, and I needed a good pug to spoil.  I think we both lucked out tremendously.

*Since naming her, I've also realized that Winnie would've been good/cute too.  Geez Louise naming is hard, remind me not to have children.**

**Oh!  Speaking of, I actually dipped in to my FUTURE BEBAH'S NAMES as part of the brainstorming, just in case there was a gem in there.  Not so spoiler alert: there wasn't.

Oh Hey, Remember Me?

I’m a big planner. Sometimes figuring out my race “plan” is more fun than actually executing it. This spring, I had already decided that I would cut back the running mileage for this summer. Based on the hades like temps for the spring, I was a little concerned as to what the summer was going to bring. Plus, summer classes are from 6-10:15pm two nights a week for June and then July, in which we’re smooshing one whole semester’s worth of information into four weeks (and then again for July). Uff. 

And then I got a pug. 

 ZOMG I LOVE HER SHE’S AMAZING SHE’S THE GLITTER FARTS TO MY SPARKLE BUTT.

All of these components further solidified my plan to cut back the running miles. 20-30/week? Sure. Sounds good to me. Have I hit that the last couple of weeks? Uh… not even close. To fill the gap (don’t ask where I’m finding a gap in my time) I decided to add in some biking! YAY! I can bike in the sweltering heat! It actually feels kinda good (compared to running that is). 

I found a 50 mile ride the end of June, and a lovely friend who’s willing to accompany me on said ride. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a great biker, and he’ll calm my little newbie brain. And another lovely friend will be accompanying me on a 60 mile ride/race in July! YAYZIES! But again… haven’t been riding much some early May when I had that weird calf cramping. SOOO YEAH! Time to get going.  (Update since drafting this:  PDR with Aaron last Friday night with 30.3 miles with a MONSTER upset stomach.  If I can be in that much pain for 30 miles, I can surely do 50!)

And there may be a TBD century ride in August.

After I leave this summer refreshed and jealous of everyone’s shiny new summer time PRs, I will be off and running towards marathon training. I plan to start Pfitz 18/55 (possibly hitting 60…juuuust to see how that works out) on August 3^rd, putting me 18 weeks out from my goal fall race DALLAS MARATHON (previously Dallas White Rock Marathon). I’ll get to see my lovely nephew and meet my gorgggg niece, and run in delightful Dallas “winter” temps. And since I learned this spring that 18 weeks is faaaaaaaaaaaar too long to hold my attention for training, I’ll be doing a 26.2 mile training run in the form of Nike Women’s Marathon with Megan! In case you were curious, my summer, PLUS those first 2 months of marathon training will be seeing some hill work! Which is great because I think running uphill is great for my (shoddy) form!

So that’s my plan. I have some local races written down in my planner, so if I wake up to unusually cool temps, I can head out and jump in, but I’m clearly not in PR shape. Like… not even close. As is evidenced by zero PRs since last August. Womp womp!

But luckily for me I’ve mega PR’d in PUGGY LOVE!

Pug Bestie

This weekend Kyle and I move all of my belongings in to our new place.  And it should be noted that my mom spent a solid 8 hours moving, packing, and cleaning, and she is a BEAST.  My mom is better than your mom.  FYI.  I would also like to note that while Kyle and I were able to move things on Sunday after attending a very fun wedding between his classmates, it is ill advised to move while hungover.  We're talking.... ill advised.  At one point, we created a nest on the living room floor and curled up for cat naps.  Oy.

One of the goals and reasons behind the move was to find a pug-friendly home for future pug bestie.  Tentative timeline on this goal was August.  Give us some time to get settled.  Get through the craziness of summer classes (fyi, I learned that my classes go from 6-10:15 and not just 10 last night... that was a fun surprise).  Jerbear gets sleeeeepy that late.

Since I had "a plan" it should come as no surprise that my mom emailed me last week with an "OMG" subject line.  Yes, I am my mother's daughter, why do you ask?  There was a student's mom (she's a teacher) who was looking for a home for a pug they had taken in a few months ago, and would I like it?  Within 10 minutes of me saying, yes I may be interested, my mother had photos uploaded for me to peruse.  Seriously... efficient. And she knows I'm impatient.... so yeah.

According to the vet, she's 6-7 years old, and could stand to lose some L-Bs.  I set up a date to go visit her on Monday night.  My mom said she was super friendly, but I wanted to make sure she was ok around males too, as her history is somewhat unknown.  We arrived and she was itching to get out of her pen.  As soon as she was loose, she took off like a rocket.  I thought pugs were supposed to be lazy??!  After she got that out of her system, we got to play.  She had to get attention from everyone in the group, and then when she realized I was going to give her the MOST attention, she parked her curly tailed butt in my lap and stood as my guard dog against the rest of the pups on the property.  MINE, she said (if she could talk).

Pug pick up will occur this weekend or next depending on if our weekend fishing trip plans go through or not.  Be prepared for an onslought of puggy pics.

Currently her name is Fancy, but she doesn't seem to "know" that's her name, and I'm not thrilled with it.  Any suggestions?  We spent the drive home throwing around ideas, but I'm not 100% sold on any yet.

Best puggy name.... and go!

Race Report: Green Bay Half Marathon

If you follow me on twitter, you know that Green Bay race weekend was a great one.  Hard not to have a good time in Titletown!  All week long we heard about how hot it was going to be.  I waited until the day before the race to really decide my "game plan."  Jenn and I took off for a shake out run at about 11am on Saturday.  We had to stop and walk a couple of times because the heat+humidity+awesome cold she gave me (and still had herself) was making breathing impossible.  This should be fun.....

Race morning arrived and Jenn and I jogged the quarter of a mile to the race start.  Convenient hotel location FTW.  We found the super secret stadium bathrooms with no line, and were a little concerned when we realized we were sweating while peeing.  Uh.... it's already warm.  At this point, my A goal was a mid 1:50s.  I thought I could run about sub 2 pace for the first 7 miles, and perhaps kick it up to 8:30s the last 10k.  Jenn and I finally found each other at the start line after someone needed another emergency bathroom run, shocker, and set off!

I HEART YOU GREEN BAY!

From the get go Jenn took off.  She always starts aggressively, and I never start aggressively enough, so I guess this should've been a given, but I was intent on starting easy, because I knew the heat was going to add its own element of difficulty.  Seeing where my heart rate was at a 9 minute pace, made me realize that my A goal should probably be sub 2, if I was lucky.  I had fun weaving in and out of the Green Bay neighborhoods, chatting it up with the runners around me.  Around mile 1.5 I saw Jenn, and she said that sub 9 pace wasn't happening.  Truth, sistah.  I kept running and feeling good for the first few miles.  I made sure to grab a cup of water to drink and a cup of water to dump on my head to cool me off.  My super cute green sunglasses that I wore all through the Brookings half last weekend with no problem?  They sweated off my nose four and a half minutes in to the race.  So I got the treasure of carrying those along with me.

The first four miles were pretty fun because they were fairly shaded and, heck, we'd only been running for 4 miles.  But I saw more people walking at the 5k mark than I ever have in a race before.
1.  9:07
2.  9:07
3.  9:01
4.  9:11

I first realized that sub 2 probably wasn't likely when I hit the water stop after mile 4.  The crowds of runners were swarming the table.  The volunteers were frantically trying to fill more and more water for the runners.  I had to stop to get my place in line to grab some water.  New goal:  have fun!  I started to get roasty, and all of that shade that I swore was along the first 11 miles two years ago.... was gone.  I kept a pretty consistent 9:10-9:20 pace to the end (while running), but I started walking through the water stops to try to get my heart rate down a bit each mile.  Granted my pace was quite a bit slower than it was last weekend, my heart rate was just as high.  45 degrees, meet 80 degrees. :)
5.  9:38
6.  9:38
7.  9:49
8.  9:18 (clearly no water stop)

We went through some super cool neighborhoods and managed to find some hills (anything is a hill for this flatland girl) to give some variety.  The volunteers that were handing out cups of ice quickly became my new heroes.  Along with the dude who picked up my sunglasses when they fell.  And the folks who were outside with hoses, sprinklers, super soakers, etc.  In case you were curious where my extra .05 came from, I hit every shower/sprinkler/hose I could.

Normally when I run a race, if I see a race spectator or runner with Packers gear on, I'll yell out "go pack go!" when I see them, since it's fairly rare where I'm from (everyone is a Vikings fan, poor souls....) and I love the Green Bay race because EVERYONE is decked out.  Wheeeee!  Feels like I'm with family.

9.  9:34
10.  10:47 (bano break)

Sometime during mile ten I thought I needed to take a pit stop and some portapotties appeared.  I figured it was a sign.  I wasted about a minute there, which is pretty efficient imo, and was on my way. It started to get pretty brutal here.  Seems that the earlier miles were shaded compared to this.  Also the sun was up enough that we were running in to it for what seemed like long stretches.  During the final 4 miles, I actually walked 2x that weren't during the aid stations because I thought I was cooking from the outside in.  (How do you like your Jerbear?  Medium rare?)  I even walked a smidge during mile 13!  Seeing people on the side of the road with their eyes rolled back, and ice packs on their chest really freaked me out.....

I kept thinking that I wish we were running through Lambeau Field again, because that would get me to the finish line sooner.  I tried to pick up the pace the last 1/2 mile, but my legs weren't having it.  I finally found a "kick" of sorts with a quarter of a mile to go.

11. 9:59
12.  9:52
13.  9:53
.15 1:06 (6:37 pace, so yeah I guess I found a small kick...)

13.15 miles in 2:06:05 for a pace of 9:38.  Interestingly enough, my first full marathon time (and still PR) in Green Bay was the EXACT SAME PACE.  Actually a smidge faster at 4:12.

When I finished I was shocked at how full the medical tent was.  It was scary.  I scanned the crowds for Jenn, but didn't know if she had passed me while I was in the bathroom.  Finally I found her and we set out to find AR.  Shortly after our reunion they announced that the race was cancelled due to the heat and humidity.  I immediately started tearing up, because I felt so bad for everyone that had trained their butts off, not to get to finish.  But it was totally necessary.  If the medical tent was that packed at 2 hours, where you'd assume most half marathoners at that pace are reasonably fit, I can't imagine what the people that still had 2-4 hours to go were feeling.

I'll be back for 26.2 next year, and can't wait to run through Lambeau Field again.  Hopefully after another Green Bay Packers Super Bowl Win!