Runner's Quiz + Race Week

What whattttt... it's Race Week! 

I am pretty excited for this race, but to be honest, I'm not feeling super confident about meeting my 2 hour goal. I haven't been very consistent about sticking to my training plan, sometimes for legit reasons and other times for less legit ones.  But given that this is only my second half, I'm just looking at it as a learning experience. I've definitely learned some things that I will apply to my next training cycle (i.e. I will not lie to myself and think I can run 5-6 days in a row.  Not happening on this shins.)  Oh, and if I don't do it this weekend, I can always try again on November 3 at the Governor's Cup.  :)

Also, I miiiiight have sustained a moderate injury this weekend at the wedding. I tried dancing in heels (stupid) but gave up after an hour or so and took them off (stupider). I ended up stepping on glass on the dance floor, and I just generally danced my ass off for like 6 hours straight (for real).  It feels like I've bruised the pad on the bottom of my right foot/toes, and it's a bit tender to walk on today. Totally, 100% worth it though... so.much.fun.

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Ok, so this running quiz is kind of making the rounds, but since I love running and I love quizzes (it's true, I thought school was awesome) I figured I would try it.


1. Fuel: Shot Bloks, GU, Energy Chews, Candy, or other?

Definitely Honey Stinger Chews. Preferably Pink Lemonade. Finding the right fuel has been a long battle for me. I was definitely underfueled during my half in May. I only ate like 3/4 of a bag of sports beans because I just really, really haaaaate gels. I tried to make myself like them, but one time I tried a Strawberry Banana on a long run and it was hot and just so gross and that was the end of GU for me. I was dry heaving for like a mile afterwards. So sick.

2. Race Length: 5k, 10k, 1/2 marathon, marathon, ultra or other?

{Cooper River Bridge Run}

Maybe this is a weird choice, but I really like the 10k. It's a good combo of endurance + speed - too far to go all out right from the start, but short enough that you can really push it.

3. Workout bottoms: Running skirt, shorts, capris, tights or other?

TS4L.  Tempo Shorts 4 Life.  I really love my Nikes, but I just bought my first pair of speed shorts from lululemon (thanks J!) and I might be hooked. That is unfortunate given their price tag.

I've never tried the running skirt thing, and it's waaaaay too hot here for like 10 months of the year to run in tights or capris. I did get some sweet running tights for Christmas last year, but I only used them once or twice before I got injured, so we'll see how it goes this winter. Unless it's in the mid-40s or below, I usually just wear shorts + a long sleeve tech tee. And let's get real... if we're getting below freezing, I will be staying inside.

4. Sports Drink: Gatorade, Powerade, Cytomax, water or other?

I drink plain water exclusively during my runs, but I do love a cold red Gatorade (the cure for [almost] anything that ails you ... well, maybe not, like, SARS or something) or some Nuun before and after. I am a salty sweater for sure, but I really try not to overdo it with sodium, and sports drinks tend to have more than you think.  I'm not convinced that because I'm salty after a run, it means I need more salt. I get plenty (read: too much) in my normal diet and that seems to be enough.  I haven't had an issue with cramps even at the peak of my summer running (see below), so I don't see a reason to change that right now.

5. Running temperatures: Heat or cold?

{Summer in Columbia}

Hot, hot, hot any day of the week. I live in South Carolina... it's not like I have a choice.

6. Running shoe brands: Saucony, Brooks, Mizuno, Nike, Asics or other?

I love my Mizunos. My shin splint issues really decreased once I ditched my old New Balances for these. I'm a fan for life.

7. Pre-race meal: Oatmeal, Bagel, Banana, Eggs, Cereal or other?

Finally got this one figured out too. Honey Wheat English Muffin + PB + banana slices + Tupelo honey (preferably from the actual Tupelo Honey in Asheville). Usually with 16oz of Nuun to wash it down, as discussed above.

8. Rest Days: 1x per week, 2x per week, never ever ever or other?

We all know I am the Queen of Rest Days. Usually 2 full rest days per week plus one cross training day for yoga or barre or an NTC workout.

9. Music: Have to have it or go without it?

I surprised myself on this one. The first time I had to go without music was because I couldn't find my headphones, and I was sure I was going to be the mayor of Miz City. But... it really wasn't that bad. These days I tend to do at least once a week without any type of "entertainment." I still want music for races, but I also love my zombie runs and recently I started listening to audiobooks on some of my longer runs as well. My first pick was Bossypants, which actually turned out to be kind of a mistake... breathing gets even harder than usual when you are laughing uncontrollably at the genius that is Tina Fey. Also, people tend to look at you strangely when you're running along LOLing to yourself.

10. #1 reason for running: stress-relief, endorphins, you love to race, so you can eat all the cupcakes you want, weight-loss, love running for social reasons or other?

Easy. All of the above. What started out as a weight loss thing very quickly reignited my love of competing/having a sport in which to participate. (Sorry, the English major in me would not allow myself to end on a preposition.) The stress relief and endorphins are also addicting. The cupcakes (or in my case, Swedish fish) are a bonus.

BAM.  There you have it.  Leave your answers in the comments if you'd like!

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!