Dreadlocks and Rainy Runs.

So fall happened this week in Columbia.  Yes, it is supposed to be back to around 90 degrees later this week, but there has been a definite change in the weather.  It's cool in the mornings and in the evenings.  I can run without feeling like I'm swimming through the air with all of the humidity.  In short, it is awesome.

Last Monday, I was planning to do an easy long-ish run but it started raining on me, which was actually awesome, until my left shoe started rubbing and opened up a very uncomfortable blister on my ankle.  I decided that 5 miles was enough, and called it a night.  

I had straightened my hair that morning, so when I left on the run my hair was stick straight.  Rain/humidity/sweat do very bad things to my hair, however, so when I returned, my pony tail looked like this.

{Rat's nest.}

I actually had to cut the elastic out of my hair because it had expanded so much,  I couldn't get it out without ripping hair.  And that rat's nest took me a good 30 minutes to comb out in the shower.  The middle part on the inside of the tangles wasn't wet, so it was really hard to get conditioner in there to help untangle it.  It was like one giant dreadlock. The worst.  And this is not the first time this has happened.  Basically any time I run with my hair curly/natural, I get a nasty uni-dread.  Does anyone else have this issue or is this a personal problem?  Maybe I need to start braiding my ponytail?

Reboot.

There are 4 weeks left before Georgetown, and I'm realizing that my plan needs to be reworked.  I've got issues...

1. One rest day is not cutting it.  I've been taking extra days to keep the shins calmed down anyway, so might as well address that in the schedule.

2. I've finally found a really great cross-training/strength class that I love, so I want to make sure I have time for that each week.  (It's this barre class, and it is AWESOME.  I get so sweaty and it's a great workout.  My glutes really need some work, and this class definitely gives me that.)  

3.  The 10 mile race that I was planning to run this weekend has been canceled, so that's kind of a bummer.  However, it leaves me with an extra week in the schedule, so now I'll have time for a cutback week/mini taper.

4.  We've got a big wedding the weekend before the race which requires us to be in Charleston on Thursday night.  I was thinking that I'd get up on Friday and do my long run, but Thursday night is a bar crawl for the wedding party/out-of-towners, so let's get real... I'm gonna want to participate.  So, I'm moving that week's long run to Wednesday. 

Taking all of that into consideration, here's the plan for last few weeks of training.

8	8m	Rest	Barre	4.5m run	3m run	5m pace	10 m
9	Rest	5m run	1 mi + 10x hills + 1 mi	3m run	5m pace	11m run	Rest
10	Rest	5m run	Barre	45 min tempo	5m pace	12m run	Rest
11	3m run	5m run	Barre	9m run	1 mi + 10x hills + 1 mi	Rest	Rest
12	3m pace	4m run	2m run	Rest	Rest	RACE DAY!

Yesterday I did a 4m pace run.  Not shockingly, I went out too fast and positive split the crap out of this one.  Part of that was on purpose... I wanted to keep the run in the 8:50-9:00 range (since, you know, that's the pace I'm aiming for and that's the point of this run).  I felt great the first 2.5 miles and then hit some hillier bits and couldn't have held on to the 8:35ish pace anyway.  Definitely something to remember when I'm on the start line in Georgetown.

In non-running news, J and I went to see Beasts of the Southern Wild this weekend, and I looooved it.  The little girl who plays Hushpuppy is absolutely amazing.  So much so that I'm not sure the movie would even have been possible without her - it would have been entirely different.  If you get a chance to see this one, definitely do it!

Georgetown HM Training: Weeks 4 and 5

Because I'm so behind (again), I thought I would just do some highlights from the past 2 weeks.

On Wednesday the 15th, I did a glorious 40 minute tempo.  I warmed up for about half a mile (aka before I discovered that my Garmin wasn't on) so it was really more like 45 minutes, but whatever.  The warm up as pretty draggy so I was concerned about having to pick up the pace, but when it came time, my legs just did it.  I love that.

Uhh, yeah, that last mile was downhill.  Still counts.

On Sunday, I did 7 miles for my long run for the week.  I haaaaaaated the first half of this run.  Hated.  Cannot stress enough how much I did not want to be doing it.  I had a headache all day and it was sticking around when I left the house.  My Garmin died after about 2 steps, so I had to use RunKeeper on my iPhone, which I don't like because I wear an armband and I can't see my paces very easily.  Plus I couldn't find my good headphones, the kind that hook over my ears, so the right earbud fell out no less than 43 times in first 3 miles.  (Are you feeling sorry for me yet??) Because then... I BUSTED. Hard.  On the busiest road on my route, of course.  I managed not to go down on my knees, so that was good.  But I took some skin off my hands and my thigh and I definitely jammed up my wrist.  It's actually still a little sore.  But once I popped back up and got going, everything got zen and last 3.5 miles just flew by.  By the end, I was back in love with running and all was right in the world.

As discussed, slower than my goal pace, but not THAT much slower.  Even when I was wallowing in self pity over the earphone situation, etc., my legs felt good.

Lastly, this past Friday I had approximately 12 minutes to spare for a run so I ran 5 hill repeats on my favorite hill.  Less than a mile, but dang did I get plenty sweaty and out of breath.  Also my glutes were sore all weekend, so maybe I need to visit my hill more often.

Tonight, strength + stretching was on schedule, so I went to a barre class.  I bought a 10 class Groupon, and my booty is gonna be fierce by the time I've used them all.  Holy cow, who knew such tiny little movements could burn so bad?  Love it!

Georgetown HM: Weeks 2 & 3

I'm way behind on my weekly recaps.  I barely even remember Week 2, except for the 5K to end the week, but I think it was pretty uneventful.  Week 3, however, was a bit of a doozy.

I started the week with some strength training using the Nike Training Club app.  I did a butt workout that was one of the worst decisions of my whole life.  I was SO beyond sore for days afterward that I could barely walk.  I had planned my rest days for Thursday and Sunday.  As it turned out, I needed my rest days on Tuesday and Wednesday for my buns to recover, so I made some rearrangements.  

My favorite run of the week was the 3 mile pace run I did on Saturday morning.  I wasn't real sure how it was gonna go because I didn't have anything to eat before I left the house (J's stepmom made a ridiculously delicious brunch when I got back) and it was already blazing hot at 9am when I set out.  I started out on the road, running past all of these amazing beachside/creekside houses and ended up doing the last mile on the beach.  

{The view from our bedroom.  Not too shabby.}

The first half mile was kind of a struggle but then I hit my stride and the rest of the run flew by.  In order to run a 1:59:xx, I need to hit at least 9:05/mi.  I'd like to run more like the 8:55-9:00 range, and my average pace on this run ended up at 8:56, so I was very happy with that.

I didn't want to spend any of our last few hours of beach time doing my long run, so I waited until we got back to Cola.  I had to settle for 5.5 miles as it was getting dark fast.  

I'm kind of undecided about long run paces.  I know the traditional wisdom is to do them very slowly, but I'm not 100% convinced that's a good idea for me.  My legs can't take a ton of miles, so I like to make the most of them.  Anyway, for now my strategy is just to let my legs decide... I'm trying to focus more on effort and breathing rate and to stop checking my Garmin constantly.

In other news, I registered for the Kill the Hills 10 miler this week!  That should be an interesting one. :)

Race Recap: Hot Summer Night 5K

The Hal Higdon plan that I am using for this training cycle calls for a race every 3 weeks or so to test your fitness.  First up was the Hot Summer Night 5K, which was supposed to be in week 3, but there aren't a ton of races around here in the summer, and I thought this one sounded fun, so I went with it.

And it WAS really fun.  I actually really liked the evening start time.  Maybe it's because I usually run after work anyway, so I'm comfortable with a late start time.  I don't know, but usually when I race in the morning, I'm always exhausted afterwards and end up napping.  This time, I just got up as usual and spent the day shopping (where I scored a ridiculous deal one these and these at the Devine Street Sidewalk Sale, woohoo!) and watching the Olympics.  I ate a late lunch around 2pm and a granola bar around 5pm, and I felt much better in terms of fueling than I usually do in the mornings.  

So anyway, J and I got out to the start around 6:15 so I could warm up a little bit, and the race started right on time at 7pm.  On the way there J asked me what my goal was and I told him 26:00-27:00, but I knew that I wanted to try to break 25:00.  I've really only done one formal speed session (plus a few zombie runs) so I wasn't really sure how possible that was, but I felt good when I was warming up so I decided to try it.  Once again, I started too far back in the pack and had to dodge a lot of people for the first 800m or so.  (I need to get better at figuring out a good starting position.  But I guess I'd rather dodge slow people than BE the slow person who started up front like an idiot).  After that though, the course was pretty open and very flat, (and really it wasn't THAT hot) so I just tried to keep the first 2.5 miles under control and then I let myself go the last .6 to the finish.  I definitely felt like puking/quitting the last 100 yards or so, but I told myself to think about Galen and a silver medal and did I want to puke or did I want to win a silver medal?  I wanted to win a silver medal, damn it, and I did!

My chip time came in at 24:51!  Woot!  

My splits were 8:10, 8:13, 7:48, and a ridiculous 6:50 for the last .1.  No wonder I felt like puking.

This was a super fun race, a nice flat and fast course, AND they had pizza at the finish. Plus any race that Strictly Running puts on is generally well organized.  I will definitely be doing this one again!

Georgetown HM: Week 1

So Week 1 of HM training is already in the books... and honestly, it was not my best week.  

I missed 2 workouts, including my speed session, which was I was actually looking forward to.  However, J had an after work firm event at Terra that night (i.e. his firm paid for us to hang out with our friends and eat delicious food and drink good wine).  So yeah, I wasn't going to miss that to go run 400 repeats.  Instead, of sweating it out on the track, I was inhaling this as fast as I could:

I have no really have no excuse for Sunday.  I slept late and was planning to go out in the afternoon, but it ended up getting stormy, and I got caught up in making this ridiculously good (and healthy! well, healthy-ish!) chicken pot pie:

So basically it seems that if I have to choose between eating delicious food or going for a run, I choose food.  I am fine with that.

The runs that I did do this week were great.  I have written before about my issues with going slow when slow is called for, and I really tried to focus on that this week.  These initial runs were meant to be easy, and I forced myself to actually go easy.  

So, Tuesday was 3 miles @ 9:32; Thursday was 3 miles @ 10:12, and Saturday was 5 miles @ 9:42.  Here are Saturday's splits.  Nothing amazing, just nice and steady.

This week kicked off today with a couple NTC workouts for abs and arms, and now I'm chillin' on the couch with a delicious beer, watching some boys in some VERY sturdy Spandex dive off a seriously tall platform.  Definitely not the worst Monday ever.  

Have a great week y'all!

Making Plans.

This is my last week of plan-free running.  Starting next Monday, I will be gearing up for the Bridge 2 Bridge Half Marathon in October, and I'm going to use a modified version of the Hal Higdon intermediate plan.  I had to switch some days around for life stuff (weddings, showers, travel, etc.) and to fit in some races.  Most of the races around here on Saturday, not Sunday like the plan anticipates.  (This is the South.  Sunday morning is for church, not racing!)  I may have to make a few more tweaks, but it should generally look like this:

Some thoughts:


1. I'm really pumped about the Hot Summer Night 5K.  I've never run a race at night before, but I usually do my runs in the evening, so I should be fine.  I'm curious to see if I race better than I do in the morning.


2. I'm a little nervous about the tempo runs.  I pretty much never run according to time.  I either have a certain distance that I want to do and I map a course around downtown/my neighborhood that will get me that distance, or else I do one of my standard routes so I know basically how far I'll be going and how long it will take.  I anticipate that I will be doing most of the tempo runs down at the Riverfront so that I can just run back and forth on the path for however many minutes and not have to worry about calculating a specific route.


3.  I'm also nervous that most weeks only anticipate one rest day.  If I feel like I need to take an extra rest day, I absolutely will.  I think that Monday's stretch + strengthen workouts will either become complete rest days or will be yoga.  For the strength workouts, I will be using the Nike Training Club app.  I did my first workout with it last week, and my booty was sore for days.  It's awesome.  (SN: When I click the NTC app link, the page is mostly in Spanish.  No idea why.  The app is in English, promise.)


4.  Anyone interested in a 10K in Charlotte?  This is the one I'm considering, but I don't really want to make the drive to go race by myself.


5.  Am I crazy for thinking that the Kill the Hills 10 miler sounds pretty awesome?  Technically, the plan calls for a 15K race that weekend, but apparently people in SC don't run 15Ks.  I couldn't find a single one, much less one that fit that general week 9-10 time frame.  I figure that I can use the first 0.7 mi as part of my warm up, then try to stick as close to HM pace as possible for the last 9.3.  The half has four bridge crossings (two bridges, over and back each one) so I definitely need the hill practice.  I'd love a running buddy for that one too!