Katy Perry Concert

Emily and I got to see Katy Perry in concert for the second time last Friday night. We saw her last in Fargo and it was a blast, I love her so much. Here are some terrible photos because my camera sucks and we had super high up seats.

Still totally worth it!

Ocean View Half Marathon Official Race Photos + November in Review

The Ocean View Half marathon had free race photos, and that's basically my favorite trend at races lately. You can certainly tell where I'm at on the course (on a hill vs. not) by the grimace on my face. Ha.

I like to hurdle the finish line, don't you?

November in Review

Total Miles:  102.53 miles up from 79.8 miles last month. 55.8 miles last November.

Total Time:  16:53:25 up from 13:14:44 . Average pace dropped from 9:58 to 9:53! 

Total Runs: 19 runs, an average of 5.4 miles/run.

Highest weekly mileage: 

11/20/2017 – 11/26/2017:	32.1 mi	5:12:43	9:46 / mi

Most hardcore run: I was either racing or recovering for all of November so there aren't a ton of hardcore runs, but there was one tempo run after we started training for our next half, 8 miles with 4 at tempo.

Favorite run: 9 mile long run with Toni. The miles flew by, and we hadn't run long together in forever!

Favorite Race: Probably the Banquet 10k. I enjoyed the views at the Ocean View half, but it was so darn hard, it's difficult for it to be my favorite. Especially when the 10k went so well.

Favorite Jam: I'm enjoying T Swift's new album when I have to run by myself!

F^3 Lake Half Marathon Training Week 2

Week of November 27 - December 3

Monday Planned: LT 8 miles 20 minutes at LT, 4 min recovery, 16 minutes LT
Monday Actual: I was sick, so I had an unintended rest day.

Tuesday Planned: General Aerobic 5 miles
Tuesday Actual: General Aerobic 6 miles with Taylor Swift's new album to keep me company.

Wednesday Planned: General Aerobic 3 miles
Wednesday Actual: General Aerobic 4 miles at the group run. We dressed 100% identically 100% on accident.

Thursday Planned: General Aerobic + Speed 7 miles 10x100 strides
Thursday Actual: LT 8 miles 20 minutes at LT, 4 min recovery, 16 minutes LT. So so so hard.

Friday Planned: Rest
Friday Actual: 4 Recovery Miles at the coffee run with Toni!

Saturday Planned: Rest
Saturday Actual: Rest

Sunday Planned: Endurance 12 miles, increase effort last 3 miles at LT pace
Sunday Actual: 12 miles, increased effort last 3 miles, but it was completely dark out so it was hard to see, thus harder to really speed up and not be afraid of falling.

Total Mileage Planned: 35 Miles
Total Mileage Actual: 34.2 miles

Weekly Reads: When It's Real

When It's Real is a new teen book by Erin Watt. The summary sounded like a perfect escape read, so I was excited to pick it up. It read like Justin Bieber fanfiction and I ATE. IT. UP. It's a really great lighter teen romance that you're not going to completely roll your eyes at. I loved it.

My rating: 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads:

Meet Oakley Ford-teen celebrity, renowned pop star, child of famous movie stars, hottie with millions of fangirls… and restless troublemaker. On the surface he has it all, but with his home life disintegrating, his music well suddenly running dry, and the tabloids having a field day over his outrageous exploits, Oakley's team decides it's time for an intervention. The result: an image overhaul, complete with a fake girlfriend meant to show the world he's settled down.

Enter seventeen-year-old Vaughn Bennett-devoted sister, part-time waitress, the definition of "normal." Under ordinary circumstances she'd never have taken this gig, but with her family strapped for cash, she doesn't have much of a choice. And for the money Oakley's team is paying her, she figures she can put up with outlandish Hollywood parties and a team of publicists watching her every move. So what if she thinks Oakley's a shallow, self-centered jerk? It's not like they're going to fall for each other in real life…right?

Boston Trip Recap Part 3

On Tuesday morning we woke up bright and early to go to a private yoga class. It was a spine stabilizing practice with some psoas goodness for me. After yoga it was off to Cambridge to explore Harvard!

With a stop at a brewery for lunch, obvs. I had my one major food ordering misstep at lunch, as I was craving a burger and fries and coveted Kathryn's pumpkin ravioli every minute she was eating. I also ordered the brewer's choice flight.

After lunch, we made our way over to Harvard with very limited time to explore before we had to make our way back to pick up Kathryn's youngest from preschool. Harvard on super colossal speed, and go!

Somehow it was already time to go home on Wednesday. :'( Waaaaaaaah!

Race Report: Banquet 10k

It was perfect race weather the morning of the 10k; so nice that I debated wearing a jacket for the race, because it was a little chilly. Lucky for me, and my super sweaty soaked self, I opted to ditch it before the race. Phew. I didn't get in my warm up, or any stretches, leg swings, nada. In fact, I didn't know where the start line was when a person with a hand speaker started saying incomprehensible things toward the crowd. Until I realized that it was the start, and we were to go. Ok then!

When I got to the corner that the guy was on, I started my watch. As a no frills, no timing, donation-based event I was cool with the laidback nature, but as I approached people going two different directions I realized I didn't know which why I was supposed to go. Luckily some guys instructed me to go left. From there I knew it'd be an out and back, so easy peasy. Others weren't as lucky as they were trotting along with us only to realize that they were planning to do the 5k and that we weren't doing a double loop as has been done in the past. Oops!

Prior to the race, I had messaged my buddy Jacqueline to see if maybe I could pace off of her for the race. She wanted to know what I was thinking I could/would run, and I said 8:40s maybe 8:30s. I also slipped in that if I was having a super excellent day, maybe 8:20s (as some race calculators have predicted off of a speedy 3 mile this fall). She let me know that she usually starts slower and speeds up and I said that was my usual plan as well, but I've sucked at doing lately. I saw her before the race, but after the weird start, I just ran.

Mile 1 8:33

Mile one felt good but I usually slow down after that first mile, so I mentally prepared for this race to be in the 8:40s. Which would still be awesome! I ran a 5k in the 8:40s this summer, two maybe even. And my 5 mile last spring was 8:50 pace. Around mile 2 Jacqueline and her friend ran up on me. And were chatting away. And tried to engage me in chatting. Sorry ladies, this is far too fast for me to converse during.

Mile 2 8:37

They went ahead of me shortly and I tucked in behind them, and I was surprised to see that our pace was picking up but I was still feeling just as good. Hmm..... It was during this mile that I like to distract myself during an out and back race by counting places. Just shy of the turn around I was in 5th place for females and 25th overall.

Mile 3 8:35

We hit the turn around and I was shocked at how good I was feeling. I failed to look at my watch at the turn around so I wasn't sure what my overall time was going to look like, or if the course was long/short, which is probably for the best (foreshadowing).

Usually miles 4 and 5 of a 10k are the worst because you've hit the turn around but all of that fatigue starts to hit your legs and you feel like you're the weight of an elephant. But nope, not today. I started to realize that I was running on my buddies heels, and that I needed to go around them because I was feeling GOOD.

Mile 4 8:35

(Did somebody order some super consistent splits or what??)

I told the ladies I was going to push the final two miles because I refused to let mile 5 be the shit show that it typically is, and they told me to go on ahead. I knew that Jacqueline wouldn't let me go, because she has the same competitive brain that I do, so that kept me pushing ahead. Despite running my fastest mile split of the day, I still had tons of people pass me this mile. I actually lost track, but a few women and quite a few men flew by like they were just out for a jog. I guess maybe they were out for a jog since no one had bibs on, but it was such a huge crowd and so disorganized at the start, I'm guessing they just started out way behind or accidentally went with the 5kers at the start.

Mile 5 8:27

During the final mile, my friends again passed me, and I vowed to stick to them like glue knowing they'd help me along for a nice finishing sprint. I kept calculating my final time based on an 8:30 pace, but then couldn't really think of what a good 10k finishing time was. Derp. I was following my friends and working so hard that my brain said "I think they all missed the turn for the finish" my brain responded "they've done this race for years! surely they know!" I caught up to them when they realized their mistake and I hauled up 3 flights of stairs to make up ground and get back on track. So much for that 8:30 pace. Grumble.

Mile 6 8:36

I knew my race was going to be over 6.2, but I wasn't sure how much and I was getting tired. And now there wasn't any one in front of me to chase. And I knew we started on a nice little downhill, so the opposite was my finishing stretch. I noticed a few people walking from the 5k looking at me funny when I was crossing the train tracks, and just after I crossed them I realized there was a train coming right toward me. Uff. 

.33 2:42 (8:09 pace, 7:20 max pace)

I finished the 6.33 miles in 54:08 for a pace of 8:33.

It felt so good to run so strong, and mentally be in the race. 10ks are SO HARD. And will always be the hardest race distance in my opinion. 5ks you can hurt for 23-24 minutes, nbd, half marathons you pace yourself so really only that last 40-50 minutes is hard, but a 10k is that crazy all out mentally tough distance. And I'm so excited at how I did!

This 10k is tied for the second fastest 10k pace ever, which was on a short course (like almost a half mile shorter than this course) so I'm excited for this to be my last race of 2017 (and as a 33 year old!) and to lead into the 2018 year.

P.S. Did I use the word excited enough? Because...uh... yeah. I am.

Spring Race Plan

A few days before the Twin Cities race, one of my running friends mentioned to me that the half associated with Grandma's Marathon, Garry Bjorklund half marathon, was doing away with the lottery and was opening on Sunday. The Sunday we were driving home from the Twin Cities 10 Mile. Which got my wheels turning. If it's a really nice cool day, as it tends to be, we could have an additional shot at a really fast half marathon time in the spring. If it's a super hot day, well we just spent a lot of money ($lodging$) to run 13 miles and cheer on our friends who are running the full. I've also always wanted to do Grandma's marathon, but have been hesitant to sign up because when it's hot, it's HOT. In the back of my brain I thought that maybe if we loved the race for the half, maybe we could do the marathon in 2019 too. ALL THE PLANS, ALL THE FUN, ALL THE RACES. It's been a million years since I've done more than one marathon in a year, so we'll see how that shakes out.

BUT. At 5pm on the drive home from the cities, I got in the queue for the half marathon, and 13 minutes of it auto-refreshing every 2-3 seconds while I was on data on the verge of being over for the month, we got our spots! And the next day our hotel$$$.

So this spring we'll have two goal races: The Brookings Half in early May and Garry Bjorklund half in mid June. There are some fun winter races that I've always avoided in the past, but I think we'll make those happen this year!

Toni and I have a half in Chicago toward the end of January for fun, as well as a 4 mile race in early February. There's also a 5 mile race in March and April as check ins for our spring training. I can't WAIT! Although, I'm not entirely ready for the ice/snow storms/below zero temps/windchill in the -30. ahhhhh!