Tough as Nails* (Take 2!)

*Wherein this time, the title is in fact referring to me ME and not the workout!  Heck yes.

This morning I had my scariest workout for all of my marathon training:  10 miles with 8 at a tempo pace of 8:44.  If you recall from a couple weeks ago, I totally failed at life for the last tempo run, by not fueling or hydrating properly.  I normally do my speedwork on Tuesdays, but I'm switching around my schedule this week.  Long run is going to be Friday at lunch (I'm off early, whoo!) then off to see the boy.  As I had learned my lesson last time on my 18 miler, thou shall not complete speedwork and long run in close proximity.  Can't get much further away from Friday then Monday, right?

Fuel!  I drug myself out of bed early, ugh,  just to eat, double ugh.  I had a big ol' bowl of cereal with a nanner.  After letting it settle, I headed out for my run.  My warm up mile was a smidge too fast, but no big deal, right?  Once the warm up mile was behind me, I started in on tempo mile #1.  After trucking along at what I "thought" was my tempo pace, I looked down at the Garmin:  8:10.  Uhh...whoops.  For some reason my brain thinks that tempo equates to hard, when 8:44 pace should be just slightly faster than my normal pace that I've been running lately.  That definitely did NOT compute.

Around the 2 mile tempo point, I came up on a couple that were just starting that appeared to be running in the 8:30-8:40 range.  Perfect-o.  You will be my rabbits until my turn around point!  Drat!  Shoe tying.  I almost stop as well, because why give up the perfect pacers right?  The guy told me to go ahead.  I told him we were running almost the same pace, so I'd take my turn pacing for awhile.  Turns out I do better with being chased than I do when chasing.

1. 9:23 (warm up)

2. 8:38
3. 8:29
4. 8:28
5. 8:32

At the turn around, they kept going (come back!  It's your turn now!!) and I decided to really try to find this elusive tempo pace.  I also wished that I had packed a GU, I could've used a little extra somethin' somethin' at this point.

6. 8:39

7. 8:46
8. 8:48
9. 8:10

I knew I wasn't close to my tempo pace on the last mile, but I always give it everything I have at the end of speedwork sessions, just feels good to go fast sometimes, right?  And then I had a lovely cool down mile.  When I got home, I quickly calculated my pace for my 8 tempo miles 8:33, whoohoo!  My HM pace is 8:34....makes me want to run another one, ASAP.  Since I was rushing off to work, I never looked at the final mile time, assuming it was 9:30ish.

When I got to work and uploading my info into my running log on Runnersworld.com, I was shocked to see that my cool down mile was 8:38!  Almost spot ON what my tempo pace was.  Seriously?  Go figure.  So despite the insanely sporadic splits, I ended up with 9 tempo miles (without realizing it) at a 8:34 pace.

Total run:  10 miles in 1:26:36 for a pace of 8:40.

After talking it over with my office husband (yes, we haven't divorced...yet.  Although he have joked about how many more calories we're going to burn by walking SO FAR to visit each other; God we're nerds) this is my first tempo run of MARATHON TRAINING that hasn't been done on a treadmill.  Plus, it'll be awhile before I need to hit that pace, since the marathon is just going to be done at "whatever pace gets me to the finish line without dying."  And that's in no way going to be 8:44 pace. ;)

I found this picture when I was back home yesterday for Easter.  This is during my 8th grade year (my final year running distance, thank God) at the regional track meet (the meet before the state meet).  I'm in the green (of course), and I literally spent the whole season chasing that chick in blue in front of me.  She was a year behind me, and of course competed in the same events as me in the Varsity and Jr. High track meets.  I'm from a small school, so if you were good enough you could run for the Varsity team, which means I got out of a TON of school in the spring, heck ya!  (Check out that forward lean, you can bet we were running into some STRONG wind, all 100 lbs of me. :p)

Anyways, back to the race.  This was the 1600 m. (the mile) and it was my favorite distance.  I loved being able to judge a competitors stride to determine how tired they were, and when to make my move.  That was the only thing I enjoyed about distance running.  :p  I much preferred the sprinting where I could just run all out for 13 or 27 seconds (depending on the race 100 m. vs. 200 m.) and be done.  Call me lazy.  I think I got 4th or 5th in this race (no I didn't beat girl in blue).  I did find my diary when I was at home with some race times listed in it, and at the beginning of this season I was running ~6:30, and my PR was 6:17.  Not sure if that was this race or not.  Ok, memory lane over.  Carry on with your lives.

Another 8

Since it was my cutback week (can you hear my legs sighing in relief from there?), I had another 8 miler for my "long run."  I putzed around forever Saturday morning, than finally rolled out of bed.  I made myself some toast with almond butter on it.  Now, before Saturday morning, I was an almond butter virgin.  Am I just weird, or does it have the after taste of marshmellows????  Maybe it was the kind that I had, but it was definitely not what I expected.  Whatever the after taste, it didn't upset my stomach like normal peanut butter does.  Phew.  2 cheers for AB!

I started off the run and felt like I was jogging by somehow flying along.  There was some wind at my back, but my legs felt springy.  Springy legs = happy Jeri.  Seriously the first 4 miles fleeeeeeeew by.  I couldn't believe how fast I had gotten to the turn around point.  As soon as I turned around I was smacked in the face with the wind.  Those last 4 miles were some of the toughest miles I've done lately.  Since my splits were so good the first half, I couldn't let up the second half, right?  I finally made it home after officially cursing the wind/damning it to hell (not sure that I have the ability to do that since I'm not God and all, but thought I would try at the very least).

I did the 8 miles in 1:12:13 for a pace of 9:02.
1. 8:57
2. 9:02
3. 9:07
4. 8:59
5. 9:07
6. 9:08
7. 9:08
8. 8:47

When I got home, I immediately checked the weather, to see what was causing me to run in place for 4 miles.  While it was 7-8 mph winds when I left (when the wind was at my back) it was 20-33 mph on my road back.  Uh yeah.  No wonder I wanted to DIE!  Oh well, I count running into the wind as strength training, so that knocks my ONE TIME of strength training off the list for 2010.  Yes!

In completely random news, both N and I were heading to our respective homes this weekend.  When we dated in high school, it seemed like we lived sooooo faaaaaar away from each other.  I refused to drive, so we only got to see each other when he'd come visit me.  Just for fun, I decided to mapquest how far away we live(d) from each other.  What do you know..... a small little half marathon jaunt.  Kind of funny that he literally felt hours away, when I now run farther than that on a standard Saturday long run.  I was half tempted to do a 13.1 to visit him Easter morning (since there's a MONSTER downhill for about 5 miles, I thought for sure I could break 1:50), but opted not to.  Some other time, perhaps. :)

And just because I love him and missed him oh so much, my puppy Kerby.  I haven't seen him since August.  Love him.

Check out Erica's Road ID and GU giveaway !

March in Review + New 'Do

March in Review

Total Miles: 151 which is up from 124 last month (compared to 66.8 in 2009). This breaks my current monthly record (previously 138).

Total Time: 23:35:49. I ran almost a full day this month. That's pretty sweet in my book. (Last month was 19:17:08.)

Total Runs: 17 for an average of 8.88/run. My lucky number. :D (Last month was 7ish/run).

Highest weekly mileage: 3/22/2010 — 3/28/2010: 39.8 Mi 6:14:10 Highest mileage week to date (no wonder my legs were traaaaaaaaashed)! (up from 35 last month)

Favorite run: My first 20 miler.  I imagine this is similar to the love you feel for your first born, no?  To be honest, I expected to crash and burn, just b/c 20 miles is a long way yo!  Imagine my surprise when it was my best LR of the 14+ distance.  20 I heart you.

Most hardcore run: 7 tempo miles.  It. Sucked.  But I'd imagine I am a stronger runner because of it.  Right?  RIGHT!?!?!?  I purposely haven't looked forward in my planner just because I'm assuming there's a longer and faster tempo workout to come.  [shudders]

Favorite Race: St. Patty's Day 5 miler.  Auto PR + my fave holiday + one butt ton of Green = What's not to love people?  Oh yes, the massive mud and poorly organized day.  I remember now. :P

Current Jams:  Ke$ha--Dancing with tears in my eyes & Hungover,  Rihanna--Rude Boy,

This week has been a cut back week (praise the Lord!).  My poor leggies were hurting last week.  Last night was my last run for the month.  As everyone was shouting out their mileage for the month on twitter, I was prompted to check my running log:  142.8.  Well I couldn't end the month with 150.8 miles could I?  Hell no.  I headed out after working in gorgeous 70 degree temps.  I just let my legs do what they wanted to do, and apparently that's a bit faster than my easy pace.  I figured I would compensate with the 8 miles slated for the following morning.

I did 8.2 miles in 1:16:20 for a pace of 9:19.

This morning I begrudgingly got out of bed.  I always plan to run before work on Thursdays (I work a late shift) but always end up sleeping in.  A friend is in town back from school for Easter, and we're going to take on the town so I had to get out there.  Morning running!  How could I have forgotten about you?!?!?  It took a couple of miles for the legs to wake up, but after that I was crusing along.  My effort level was 10 minute miles, but my actual pace was around 9:10-9:15.  It was crazy.  You gotta love those runs.  All day I've been feeling my fabulous runner's high.  I think morning running and I might be rekindling our flame this spring.  ;)

I did 8 miles in 1:14:15 for a pace of 9:17.

In exciting news, I got my hair did this week.  whoot whoot!  Check out my darker do.  I think the dark makes me look more like a smarty pants, no? :)

In sad news, my office husband moved offices.  The following are various email excerpts to how I feel about this travesty.

Email to Nick (yes he knows about my office husband, and is ok with it....at least as far as I know!): 

Did you ever get moved in high school because you talked too much to your friends that sat around you in certain classes? Surprise surprise, I did. All the time. Apparently I’m a bit of a talker?!?!?!?


Anyway, my office husband had to/got to relocate to an office farther away. I feel like this is the corporate version of desk moving. :(
Also random/awesome email brainstorm with the office husband:
Jeri:  I hate that you’re not next door. Shall we craft tin can phones this afternoon?
Tom:  yes we should or get web cams so we can skype
Jeri:  Hahahahahah we should totally skype from two offices down. Love it.

RIP office relationship.  I've already got one distance relationship on my hands, I just can't hack #2. :(

Margherita Pizza + Smiles for 9 Miles

For the past hmm....4 weeks, I've been craving margherita pizza.  It's definitely on my top 10 favorite foods in the world.  I recently (recently meaning in the last 6 months) inherited a bread maker, and decided to attempt my hand at homemade pizza crust and 'za.  I figured the night before the 20 miler would be as good of night as any as A) I was doing nothing but chilling and B) I wanted CARBS.  Well, that was an easy decision.

First I set out to make the pizza dough.  Which really consisted of about 5 minutes of my time, and 90 minutes of the bread machines time.  From there I was left with a mountain of dough.  Mental note, next time halve the dough amount and freeze the other half.  I don't have a lick of Italian in me, so my pizza dough tossing skills are nill.  Still it managed to look somewhat pretty chillin' on the 'za pan.

Next up was the cheese (my favorite part,  my digestive system's least favorite part).  Mozzerella ball mmmmm...  Three pieces for the pizza, one for my mouth.  And repeat.

Next we have roma tomatoes that were chop chop chopped up and marinated (marinated?  sure we'll go with that) in with some EVOO (look at me, I'm Rachel Ray! Using EVOO like it's my j-o-b) and a minced clove of garlic.

And even though the recipe didn't call for it, some additional marinara sauce.  I like my pizzas like I like my women...saucy!  Wait....what?!?!?

And into the oven while I salivate from the living room in anticipation for 10-15 minutes.  Out of the oven and holy amazingly fragrant and fabulous basil upon ze top.  And bon appetit!  As you can see, I ended up with some deep dish style crust on accident, hence the note to halve it for the future.  But I love me some crust, so I wasn't too upset with my culinary shortcomings.  Three slices for supper and one for an early breakfast = much-o awesome-o LR fuel-o.

And thus concludes a sneak peek into Jerbear's kitchen.

__________________________________

Tonight I had an easy 9 miles on the agenda.  All last week we have been eyeing this week's forecast with anticipation.  Could it really be?  60's and 70's?  Don't get your hopes up, as that can be the forecast today, and sleet and snow tomorrow (sad but true).  True to the meteorologist's word, it was gorgeous today albeit insanely windy, but whatevs.

All day long I was staring dreamily out my window at the sunny day working hard at my desk without a moment to even give the weather a second thought.  Yeah, that's it.  But there it was, at 4pm, with an hour in the day remaining, deep seeded hunger pains.  Dun dun duuuuuuun.  I knew I couldn't run 9 miles with nothing in my stomach.  Through painful trial and error I knew I couldn't eat a PB sandwich because that would cause paaaain.  And my cupboard is painfully bare as I get paid the last day of each month, and we are closely approaching that date hence we're on the Jerbear "diet" if you will. :p

I thought about all of the things I could throw on top of some toast.  Jelly?  Probably would piss the tummy off.  Plain toast?  Eh.  Cinnamon and sugar?  Hmm....maybe.  I had one slice.  No instantaneous stomach pain.  I had another.  Still good.  I gave my tummy a good 15-20 to give me a head's up that I had made a very big mistake and when it didn't, I took off (in my very cute, very girly new pink running shirt, whoot whoot!).

I could not have asked for a more beautiful day for a run.  The temp was perfect.  The insane winds weren't even noticeable because it was so warm out.  Families were out biking, walking, smiling.  I literally had a smile plastered on my face for the entire 9 miles.  And they seemed to fly by.  Other than some slight pain in my left calve from a charlie horse cramp early Saturday morning (uh yeouch!) the run was completely effortless and awesome.

I did the 9 miles in 1:24:13 for a pace of 9:22.

16 miles + Running Watermelon

This weekend I had 16 mile attempt #2.  I had originally planned on heading out around 10am, until N expressed his interest in sleeping in until 10.  Say whaaaaaaaat?  This kid is usually up and at 'em at 8am, so I took the extra Zzzzz's.  By the time I did head out, lunch time ish, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and all was right with the world.  After checking with a couple of my runner buddies, I got the all clear on the bike trails not being flooded anymore.  Hurrah!  I took off in shorts and a long sleeve shirt.

Less than a half mile into the run, and my stomach was hurting.  My cereal, which has caused tummy pain 0 times thus far when used before LRs, had broken its streak.  I knew there was a bano about 4 miles in to the trail, so I set my sights on that.  Do you know how hard it is to get into that "groove" of effortless mindless running when you need to go to the bathroom like...now?  Answer:  hard.

1. 9:21

2. 9:26
3. 9:34
4. 9:29

After the bathroom break, I thought I would be all systems go.  Nada.  My legs were tired and heavy, and seemed to be barely shuffling along.  A quick recant of my runs this week.  Monday 8 miles hilly route, b/c trails were closed.  Tuesday 8 mile tempo run that SUCKED. Thursday 8 mile uber hilly route.  Where were my easy rest miles for this week?  Oooops.  Oh well, my legs will be way more tired than this during the marathon, so I'd better buck up now, eh? :)

The other thing that was driving me absolutely batty was my Garmin.  Because of the overcast skies throughout most of the run, my "current pace" was sooooo very off.  It typically showed me running 11-14 minute miles.  As you can tell based on my mile splits, this was not exactly "right."  On a run where you don't exactly feel on, it sucks to have your Garmin oh so very off as well.

5. 9:35

6. 9:40
7. 9:35
8. 9:38

The middle third, which is usually my least favorite portion of the run, was actually my fave.  I saw a lot of friendly faces out on the trails.  You can tell who else has their long run rotation on Saturdays, you start to see the same familiar faces out there.  Plus, the wind was at my back for part of this run, which ALWAYS helps to make the run more enjoyable. 

9. 9:40

10. 9:26
11. 9:31
12. 9:24


The last 4-5 miles were done into the wind and it was brutal.  Before I left, I had thought the wind was supposed to be around 6-7 mph.  Barely a whisper.  However, I knew that this was much much stronger than that.  I kept trudging along because I was just ready to be DONE!  After seeing my paces for these miles, I can see why I was so wiped.  I was running hard, fast (for the end of 16) and into the wind.  That's not supposed to feel easy!  When I got home, my friendly weatherbug report 20 mph winds, and 30 mph wind gusts.  Ooooh, so that's what was blowing me across the trail...that's what I thought.  :p

13. 9:25

14. 9:32
15. 9:13
16. 8:38

I finished 16 miles in 2:31:14 for a 9:28 pace.

This definitely wasn't the easiest run, but I will learn from it that easy runs during the week really should be easy in most aspects.  Tired legs do not bode well on long runs.  But hey, I was happy to get out there in shorts regardless. 

While we were hanging out Friday night, I got super excited for the unveiling of my marathon race day outfit.  (What?  You don't plan out your outfits 2 months in advance?  Weirdos...)  I plopped down my outfit next to Nick with a huge grin on my face.
N:  You're going to look like a running watermelon.
Hah, not quite the reaction I was going for, but not altogether inaccurate.  At least I'll be easy to pick out in the crowd! :)

In other exciting news, Nicholas bought a house last week.  Whooo!!!  Too bad it's in Minnesota.  Boooo!!  I'm still super excited for him, and have already begun pushing for running puppy #1.  Is it too early to ask for my golden retriever for Easter???  :)

Ooh!  I added some pages to my bloggy mcblogsome.  Check out my Running Story and Race Results & Reports.

Tough as Nails*

*Not me, the run.  Uff.

Tuesday night (speed work night) had me doing 9 miles, with 7 at a tempo pace of 8:44.  Nine miles and speed work should never be allowed into the same sentence, just sayin'.....  I contemplated running outside vs. hitting the gym.  Because of the flooding and some trail maintenance, the bike trails are closed near me.  Also, I live in a bit of a valley, so no matter which direction I run, I end up having to run some pretty decent rolling hills.  7 tempo miles + wind + hills = ahhhh hell no!  Gym it is.  Unfortunately, I don't know if this was a better choice or not.  The gym was so hot and humid.  So many sweaty bodies (mine included) made for not so awesome conditions.

I'm going to be honest, this run was tough.  One of the toughest I've done in a long time.  I even tried to work the magic with my brain where I tell myself that I ran a full 13.1 miles at a 8:34 pace...but ya, the brain just didn't want to hear it.  I think I was probably dehydrated and fairly underfueled, which didn't help the situation at all.  Also, my legs were tight.  Holy cow.  Not sure if the 20 miler is still in them or what, but they sure didn't feel as fresh as they normally do for speed workouts.  I ended up bargaining with myself that if I could stick out the 7th tempo mile, I could forgo the cooldown mile, and opt for a cool down walk until my heart rate returned from skyhigh to normal.  I'm really good at making deals with myself.

I ended up doing 8 miles in 1:10:44 for a pace of 8:51 (tempo pace:  8:43).

1. 9:38

2. 8:37
3. 8:47
4. 8:49
5. 8:42
6. 8:50
7. 8:43
8. 8:35

While we were out on St. Patty's Day my old roomie mentioned that she was thinking of doing a HM in Vegas this year.  Of course I freaked out.
Jeri:  OMG!!!  THE VEGAS RNR?!?!?  I'm totally doing that!  You should do it! You should do it! You should do it!

Um ya.  I was slightly excited.  She's not a runner, but wants to get into shape, and I totally think she can do it.  We're going to have a powwow soon to sit down and talk about what she wants to get out of training, what she wants to put forward during training, etc. so I can mold a beginner program for her, as well as give her a rough guideline to follow for base building.  Is there a market for running coaches for newbie runners? Because I think that would totally be my niche.  Oh wait, I'd have to actually be a certified coach?  Um..ok.  But I love getting other people inspired to do something they're totally terrified of doing.  Very fun.

In other exciting news, while doing some race searching in my area (btw, seriously my faaaavorite thing in the world to do, other than cuddle HA!, is to plan out my racing schedule), I stumbled upon something exciting.  My schedule from May's marathon to September's HM is pretty wide open, and I had plans to run as many 5ks as humanly possible, along with another HM if it worked into my plan.  Well I found out that the group that put on the 5k that I won last year (whoot whoot!) is expanding their race day to include a 10k and a HM.  Given the small field from last year, I'm guessing they'd have a similar turn out, and is plenty of time after the marathon to give it a go.  If I could place in my AG for a HM, I could probably retire as a runner (jk...kinda...ha).

Check out the Hungry Yogini's awesome yoga giveaway!

8 8 8 is great!

That used to by my personal chant/cheer/whatever in high school.  My lucky number and volleyball number is/was #8, so it's always had my heart.  Tonight I had 8 easy miles on my agenda.  To be honest, I contemplated skipping it because my knee was still a little wonky while walking around at work today. I figured I'd at least get 2-3 in, and turn around and come home if it ended up being too painful.

First and foremost, the most exciting part of my run:  wearing shorts.  These poor leggies have not seen sunlight in uh....anyone?? Buehler??  My guess is November, but to be honest it was probably early October.  Despite the 25 mph winds (can we just get ONE all around nice day?  no?  I need to quit bitching about the weather now?  Ok, dually noted), it was actually a very nice 54 degrees.  Getting started was a bit chilly, but I warmed up (ie:  started sweatathon 2010) real fast.

Secondly, no knee pain.  Uh...what?  Ok, I'll go with it.  My stomach was still pretty pissed off at me, as it's yet to recover from the 20 miler apparently, but other than that, I was a-ok and feeling good.  I did a route over by my old apartment, so it was definitely nice to check out some new/old scenery.  And I took out the new shoes for their first spin outdoors.  Heck yes.  Come to think of it, maybe that's why I had no knee pain.  Hmmm....interesting. I'm planning on wearing the older pair only for really crappy crappy muddy/wet weather, so hopefully they'll only get another 20-30 miles on them tops.

My garmin had issues finding a satellite, so I ended up running about 8.1 miles in 1:17:08 for a pace of 9:32.  P.S.  I had two separate people LAUGH at me for declaring my 8 miler an "easy" run tonight.  It's insane to think that 8 miles is the shortest run I'll have for this week.  Don't even get me started about the week on my schedule that has 10 miles as the "easy run" [shudders].

I had such an overwhelming response to my Life to Do List and Qualities List, that I just had to follow up with some explanation.

Domesticate a squirrel.  Growing up, my nickname from my parents was Squirrel Bait.  Yes squirrel bait = nuts.  That should give you an idea of the type of child I was.  Come to think of it, my parents also called me Fart Blossum.  I'm not even sure they loved me at this point.... :p  But I digress.

I've always had an obsession with squirrels, they're just so stinking cute.  When I went to college, there was a swarm of squirrels that hung out on the walkway from the cafeteria to my dorm.  Many of them would chill in a crab apple tree outside the building.  One night, I bravely walked up to one, and actually petted him (more or less touched his back, and then freaked out).  When I called to tell my mom what happened, she replied, "We always knew you were Squirrel Bait!"  Oh, gotta love them.  Anyway, this will happen someday.  It's gotta, it's on "The List."

Potty training a cat.  I'm a dog lover, but I also love cats.  One thing I don't love is their stinky litterboxes.  At one point a long time ago, I saw a thing on tv where someone talked about potty training their cat, and it completely made sense, because it's roughly the same way you'd train them to use a litterbox.  Again, this will happen at some point.  I'm guessing they won't learn to flush, but that's fine. ;)

I also had many folks respond with their impressive match up on my "Qualities List" and also their extreme short comings (pun intended....apparently my blog readers are shorties.  It's ok, I still love you all. :p)  I think my top match was @jumbolaw with 21 matches.  He also suggested that I add single to my list.  Oh touche.  Excellent idea.  Ha.