Pretty Running Pictures

Some pretty pictures from my trail and road runs this week :)

Hard to complain about this site on the trail earlier this week! Even though this run was not super stellar (characterized by a very slow pace and a very ungraceful fall), it was still nice to get outside. 

Today's run, which almost didn't happen. There was, literally, a little black rain cloud that hung around for most of the early afternoon. Just as I had resigned to coming inside to the treadmill, the sun came out and I had one of the best runs I've had in a few weeks! 

Proof that playing hooky is fun once in a while, my husband and I went on a field trip this week to one of our favorite hikes. It's a little hard to see, but most of the little yellow things in the middle are actually Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies on the fire road leading up to the trail! 

The top of said favorite hike (Virginians might recognize Old Rag when they see it). Not another soul in sight :)

Winter Running

Over the last few days, I've managed to get in two really great runs in the snow. On Sunday, I went on a nice 4.5 mile run, when the snow was melting and the sun was shining. On Monday, I had a break during work and I was able to squeeze an 8.2 mile run in before heading back. Here are a few things that I learned:

1. Trail shoes work really well for keeping your footing in snow/slush. Having a little extra grip was really helpful.

2. Be prepared for wet feet. Snow will melt on your shoes, but as it warms up there might also be melted water underneath the slush. It's not hard to deal with, but it can be alarming.

3. Switching between the roads and the sidewalks can be a little scary. Not everyone has their sidewalks cleaned, and that's ok. Running in bike lanes and on road shoulders usually are usually par for the course. However, snow plows usually don't usually prioritize bike lanes and shoulders (again, that's ok). Just be aware that this may cause some awkward hopping back and forth between the snowy shoulders and the clean road to avoid traffic.

4. Running in the snow is beautiful. Honestly, running this weekend was so invigorating and exciting. I was running on a route that I run all the time, but with the snow this route was like I had never seen it before. My routine had become something special.

The snow is gradually melting. I'm not sure if we're going to get any more this year, but I'm going to put my shoes on as often as I can to play in the snow while it's here.

6 week marathon training

Time to turn the training up to 11.

On Saturday I had my longest run in a long time. I ran 8.22 miles at a very respectable pace. If I honestly felt like I could have gone longer, if I had started my run a little earlier before sunset. The best word to describe how I feel now is 'jazzed'.

I got my calendar out and counted the weeks leading up to my next marathon. 6 weeks. There are 6 weeks between now and my next marathon. *gulp*.

Increasing mileage really does need to be a priority for me above everything else. However, I'm starting to feel limited by my strength and flexibility on my speed. I'm going to focus on compound lifts, and follow the 5x5 program from StrongLifts. I want to make sure that I'm focusing on my core, and that I'm evenly strengthening my muscle groups. I've always enjoyed doing squats, but having huge quads with relatively weak hamstrings could result in increased injury. I think, for that reason, it's important to stick to a training plan.

When I pulled out my calendar to look at events to train around, I realized that the upcoming months are the busiest of my entire life. One weekend in February we're going to go to visit friends out of town, another weekend we're headed back to visit my family for our wedding shower. Recently I took over as coordinator for our church's care cluster, which is taking over at least 3 Monday evenings coming up. Wedding planning also needs to be kicked up a notch, and so does work towards my thesis.  My fiancé and I recently took over the role of coordinators for our young adult small group. So... there's a lot to work around.

When my college friends started switching to taking notes on the computer and on their iPads, I stuck to my trusty spiral notebook. I felt like making a physical copy of my training schedule might bring the same feeling of careful planning and study that I gained from taking notes and study guides in class. It so did. I'm going to try to do this for all of my other training schedules from now on!

It's a lot to juggle, but I want to make sure that I'm setting myself up well for success, without putting myself in a position where I might be injured. Here's roughly what the next 6 weeks should look like.

Week 1
Sunday - Rest from running. B day lifting (Squats, Overhead Press, Deadlifts).
Monday - Rest.
Tuesday - 6 miles.
Wednesday - 2 easy miles. A day lifting (Squats, Bench Press, Bent Over Rows).
Thursday - 4 fast miles. Rest from lifting.
Friday - Rest from running. B day.
Saturday - Valentine's Day hike!!! :D

Week 2
Sunday - 16 mile long run.
Monday - Rest from running. A day.
Tuesday - 4 easy miles. Rest from lifting.
Wednesday - 3 easy miles. B day.
Thursday - 6 miles.
Friday - 2 easy miles. A day.
Saturday - 3 easy miles.

Week 3
Sunday - 13.1 mile race (Sentara Colonial Half Marathon).
Monday - Rest from running. B day.
Tuesday - 4 miles easy. Rest from lifting.
Wednesday - 2 easy miles. A day.
Thursday - 6 miles. Rest from lifting.
Friday - Rest from running. B day.
Saturday - Traveling.

Week 4
Sunday - 10 miles
Monday - 5 miles. A day.
Tuesday - 2 miles. Rest from lifting.
Wednesday - 7 miles. B day.
Thursday - Rest.
Friday - 3 easy. A day.
Saturday - Traveling.

Week 5
Sunday - Traveling
Monday - 10 miles.
Tuesday - 5 miles. A day.
Wednseday - 3 miles. Rest from lifting.
Thursday - 2 miles. B day.
Friday - 2 miles. Rest from lifting.
Saturday - 18 miles.

Week 6
Sunday - 3 miles.
Monday - 6 miles. A day.
Tuesday - 2 easy.
Wednesday - 2 easy.
Thursday - REST
Friday - REST
Saturday - Shamrock 8k
Sunday - SHAMROCK MARATHON

We'll see how this shakes out!

Oops... where did that week go?

Here are some of the excuses I've used to not run in the last week:

1. "I have a paper due this week, I don't think I have time right now."

2. "I really want to do 5 miles today, but it's probably going to get dark before I'm done, so maybe I'll just do it tomorrow."

3. "I should eat something first so that I don't bonk. " (a few minutes later) "Oops... now I'm really full. Now I must wait." (subsequently never gets back to it). 

4. "I feel generally depressed, I don't feel like getting out of bed"

5. "I'm feeling generally anxious, I don't feel like using my nervous energy in a constructive way. Instead I will let it paralyze me." 

6. "Well... Monday is a rest day on my training schedule, so I should stick to that." (note: this normally doesn't matter, unless you haven't run any of the preceding days, or don't sincerely plan on running any of the following days). 

7. "Today is going to be rough at work, I should sleep in instead of tiring myself out even more."

8. "It's ok, I'll just add more mileage to my weekend runs."


You get the point. I've been feeling lousy, and although running usually makes me feel better, I've been fighting it. I'm still not really sure why.

I always sleep better after my running days. I always feel more focused and energized at work and at home after a good workout effort. It's always so satisfying to log my workout into my MapMyFitness log.

I'm pretty frustrated with last week's version of myself. I feel so much better after 3 miles at the gym this morning (and then slightly worse after trying to do squats sans Smith cage for the first time in about 10 months).

Today was good. I hope I remember how good this feels when I'm thinking about pushing my snooze button tomorrow morning.

Time to brag about my awesome coach (fiancé)

OK, I'm going to brag about my fiancé for a little bit.

My future husband is a champ. He is incredibly goal oriented, and picks up new hobbies/skills/talents/expertise very quickly. When he sets his mind to something, it gets done quickly and it gets done well. He's a great racquetball player, and takes weight lifting very seriously. He's in incredible shape, and is very knowledgable about how to accomplish his fitness goals.

When we met, I had been running for a few months. I had a couple of 5k races under my belt, and had finished my first 10k a few weeks earlier. Early on we talked a lot about our fitness routines, and he made it very clear that although he could run, he had no interest in ever doing it ever.

In the spring, he decided that he wanted to run a race. At that point my plan was still to run the Anthem Marathon, so I suggested that he might like to do the 8k that morning while I was doing the marathon. So he signed up, and we made plans to go for a run together in the near future.

Well, it didn't go super smoothly. For a number of reasons. First of all - he's about 8 inches taller than I am. My fastest and largest strides at that point were still so slow that if he stayed at my pace, he was basically walking. Secondly - the state we live in can best be described as 'balmy' during the months that he was training. Going on his first outdoor run was definitely a huge shock with respect to breathing and sweating. Third - the neighborhood we were running in was very hilly. The route we went started fairly flat, and only got hillier.

Not that that stopped him. He worked a running plan into his already very busy workout schedule, and stuck with it.

When we got to the 8k, he informed me that his goal was to run the 8k in about 45 minutes, but he expected the race to take more like 50 minutes because he was still walking sometimes during his training. He asserted this more than once while we were frEEEEEzing at the starting line. Once the race started though, he was OFF. I was able to keep an eye on his red sweatband for a little while, but I had lost him by mile 1.

At the finish line I got my medal, got my water, and then tried to find him. I found him sitting on a stoop with his medal around his neck. Contrary to what he had thought, he had not only run the entire distance, but he had finished in 40:38!!!!!!!! 10 entire minutes faster than he had expected.

I'm so proud of him. When I found him at the end of the race I completely forgot about my own time and my own race. I was so excited for him, and so happy that he had exceeded his own expectations.

Even though running isn't his favoritest physical activity ever, he's really really good at it. He's also a really great coach for me, because he keeps me accountable. He asks me all the time what my training plans are, how they're going, what my times are, etc. With his knowledge of lifting and strength training, he's also very good at providing me with strength training suggestions. He's good at taking issues that I have, and diagnosing what is going on, and offering suggestions for how to fix them.

We're getting married in a few months, and we've talked a lot about the future of my running. I know that time is going to be tight when we're working and moving. When we have kids, it's going to be hard to work time in to go on a 15 mile run on Saturday mornings. More than once, he has looked me in the eye and said "I'm going to make sure that you have what you need to keep this up." If that means entertaining the kids when he gets home from work so that I can get an 8k in before dinner, or taking care of breakfast on Saturday mornings so that I can get my long runs in, or making sure wherever we live that we have a treadmill in our basement so that I can get a run in during kids' nap time.

I'm one lucky girl.

THE SHOES (New Balance Minimus WR10)

When I started running, I understood the importance of getting a good pair of shoes. Not only with respect to quality, but that they also needed to be appropriate to how I run and the surfaces I was going to run on. I had friends who were runners, and I had heard them talk at great length about their shoes. "Ok," I thought to myself, "you're being high maintenance. Just get a decent pair and you'll be fine. They cannot POSSIBLY be worth what you're spending. You're just picky."

This is more or less how I look when I walk past a running store. Or talk about my shoes. Or when I read shoe reviews online.

The object of my affection right now is my pair of New Balance Minimus WR10 shoes (see heart).

I've run in shoes before with varying levels of support and structure, but these are my favorite so far. These shoes are very very minimal. Compared to the larger shoes I've worn in the past, these really do feel like a part of my foot.

It took a little while for me to get used to how hard my foot hits the ground when I run, but it honestly doesn't bother me at all on most of my runs. The one occasion that  it did start to bother me was towards the end of my marathon a few weeks ago. I was looking around at everyone in their huuuge Hoka's, and thinking "I'm going to buy that the second I get home - oh my goodness why did I buy such tiny shoes!?". Looking back though, I was making that assessment around mile 23. I was feeling pretty melodramatic and probably would have said that about everything on my body at that point.

Although these shoes aren't ideal for trails or gravel (think "Princess and the Pea" about every pebble you come across), it looks like New Balance does make a trail version! I plan on talking to my local running shop about it very soon....

If you'd like any more information about this shoe I'd absolutely suggest looking at this site. Gearist knows what he's talking about, and tries out EVERYTHING. Including beer (#beerist).

My favorite things (fuel)

Before a long-ish workout, I definitely need to eat.... something. If I'm running first thing in the morning, I try to eat something easy to digest and that I can absorb quickly. One easy source for that I have on hand are Honey Stinger Waffles. The vanilla and gingerbread flavors are DELICIOUS. Like... dangerously delicious. As in I want to snack on them all the time. Delicious.

During my long workouts, I try to use gels about every 4 miles. After a lot of experimentation, this seems to be my sweet spot for preventing epic bonks. Some of my favorites include Salted Caramel Gu and Banana Hammer Gel. Unlike Hammer brand gels, most Gu gels contain caffeine. Sometimes I want caffeine, sometimes not. I like having both options just in case.

I'm recovering with strawberry whey protein after my weight workouts or speed/medium distance workouts. I'm not trying to bulk up, so I just mix one scoop (about 170 calories) with water to have after my workout.

After my long runs, I want to make sure that I'm replacing carbs as well as protein. For that I use Hammer Recoverite. I use single packets after runs longer than about 14 miles. I would probably use them more often if they were a little less expensive, but it is worth it once every week or so.

In general, this plan is working pretty well. I usually feel like I have enough juice to get me through my workout, and I'm usually not hurting so bad the next day. 

How I got to my first marathon

I started running in March of 2013, and on Sunday I completed my first full marathon.

Couch to 5k

When I started running, I was pretty flabby. I don't just mean that I had gained weight (I totally had), but I also frankly had no muscle tone of note to work off of. I started with a pretty good couch to 5k plan recommended to me by a friend. I found pretty quickly that rather than keeping track of time with a watch (run for 60 seconds, walk for 30 seconds, etc), it found myself keeping time with songs. Here's how that works: I broke songs down into units (1 unit usually consisted of a chorus, or bridge, or verse of a song). I would run for a unit, walk for a unit, run for a unit, walk for a unit, etc. For me, it helped being able to ride on the energy from the song for the running bursts. I eventually worked through the program, and even found myself getting impatient during the walking periods, and accelerating through the program faster than I had expected. I completed my first 5k on May 11, 2013 (http://www.montpelier5k.com)

5k to 10k

After the 5k, I just kept increasing my weekend long runs to get to 6 miles. Honestly the only thing I changed is that on the weekends I incrementally increased my long run mileage. I ran my first 10k in September 2013 (http://www.pepsi10krun.com).

10k to 13.1

My race registration/goal strategy can really only be described as impulsive. I'm not sure what happened, but I signed up for my first half with no real sense of whether or not it was something that I could accomplish. I signed up, printed off Hal Higdon's Novice 2 Half Marathon training program, and stuck to it (for the most part). As I had with the previous two training periods, I pushed my long run mileage farther than the training program had suggested. I finished my first half marathon on April 5, 2014 (http://www.charlottesvillemarathon.com). Fun fact: I registered for my second half, which took place 3 weeks after the first half (http://www.runthevalley.com/park-to-park-marathon/)

Half to Full

Remember what I said earlier about being impulsive? I registered for my full marathon as soon as I had finished my first half. Originally, I had planned to to the Anthem Richmond Marathon (http://www.richmondmarathon.com), but due to scheduling conflicts I needed to change my plans about 3 weeks before the race. I deferred my registration until 2015, and signed up for the Outer Banks marathon, which was one week earlier. I had been working through the Hal Higdon Novice 2 Marathon training program, and with that change in schedule, something had to give. In my case, it was the 20 mile long run.

I'll save the actual race report for another post, but I want to talk about how my training and how I feel about my preparation.

1. My long run peaked at 18 miles, that I did 4 weeks out from the race. I ran most of my long runs outside, but I actually managed to run one of my 14mi runs, and a couple of 12-13mi runs on the treadmill. Boring? yes. Tedious? yes. Invoking strange images from gym personnel? yes. However, it was kind of cool to mess with pace and incline in a way that I would not have been able to on the road. For example - it was fun to mimic hills once in a while by adding an incline. When I'd do this, I would keep the speed the same, forcing me to practice climbing faster than I would have otherwise.

2. Working up to my long runs, I would bring several gels (either Gu or Hammer gel), and a water bottle. After a few epic bonks on my 15, 16, and 17 mile runs, I finally figured out how many calories I needed and when. Turns out the magic formula for me is about 1 gel about every 4 miles. I really like Hammer Gels (chocolate and banana) and Gu (salted caramel) for during the run. Afterwards, however, I prefer to have peanut butter flavored Hammer gels for before and after. They tend to be a little thicker, and have some more protein than the other gels, it's just easier for me to eat and digest while I'm not running.

3. After my harder effort workouts (either long workouts or higher intensity workouts), I would drink shakes after the workout was over. After hard workouts (both hard running workouts and weight workouts), I would follow it with whey protein. I wanted to make sure that I was giving myself all of the amino acids I would need to help out my muscles. After long runs, however, I would drink a Recoverite shake (Hammer nutrition). Recoverite is more carb heavy in addition to having protein, so it helped me start to reset my glycogen stores. Once I started incorporating this into my post-workout routine, I felt much better the next day, and I was able to work better during the next workout.

4. Where I'm training is, in general, much hillier than the majority of the Outer Banks course. I think this was helpful for some portions of the race, but didn't get me as far as I had expected. When I got to the race there were hills, and they were very different than I had prepared for.  I think I need to prepare for my next marathon 'smarter' with respect to terrain, definitely.

First marathon - check! I cannot wait for the next....