Back in the saddle?

I ran on the treadmill tonight and felt generally bad.  Last week was a great week, until the end, and this week is just not going well.  I ran for 30 minutes at about a 9:00 pace.  I can't imagine that a few unintentional days off would set me back that far.  Maybe I'm exhausted from the weekend.  If anyone can offer insight, feel free!

Another mediocre run on the treadmill.  My heart rate was around 180 at the end of my run, and five minutes later was still well above 120.  I ran a 9:05 pace the whole time.  Some of you have sent me suggestions as to why I'm not feeling well this week-thank you!.  I feel like I drink enough water, but maybe I haven't been lately.  My workload has dramatically increased this week to a level where I expect it to stay.  Maybe my body needs time to adjust to a higher level of stress.  My husband is feeling out of sorts also.  We are leaving for a week-long vacation in one week in Connecticut.  I'll be running at sea level, in cool weather, with no work-related stress-yeah!  It will be interesting to see how that week goes.

Tomorrow will be a rest day, and then a 10K in Flagstaff Saturday morning!

Today my husband and I ran a trail 10K in Flagstaff, Arizona.  I ran the race two years ago, so I was familiar with the course.  Last time, I was four minutes off my goal time, given the high altitude (7000 ft), steep hills, and rocky terrain.

Before the race started, my Garmin froze up and wouldn't work.  At the starting line, the announcer said there were no clocks or mile markers along the course, so I figured I would listen to my body and see what happened: uncharted territory for my type-A self!

The first mile is slightly downhill and on a packed gravel trail, so it was pretty easy.  The big hills are in the second and third miles.  After what felt like about 4.5 miles, I asked a volunteer how much further, and he said three miles.  I wanted to cry.  A little while later, a girl with a functioning Garmin passed me, and I asked her.  She said we'd gone about 5 miles (yeah! I was right!) and told me our pace (bad, bad).  I typically have a pretty strong kick late in my runs/races, and I think I was able to make up some time between miles 4 and 5.5 (estimates!), but I wasn't able to kick in my characteristic finish line sprint.  As I approached the finish line and saw a number I had never seen before in a 10K, I wanted to cry.  We drowned our sorrows in excellent Swedish oat pancakes at breakfast, though.

I have read that one can expect performance to suffer by about 10% when running/racing at high altitude.  I had wanted to run the race at marathon race pace (8:24 for Boston!).  I ended up running about 10% slower than that, so I felt a lot better about my performance after doing that calculation.  However, I will have my work cut out for me this training season.  I'm hoping that last week was just a bad week and that I'll be back to my easy sub-9:00 pace 5-milers and weekend 9:00 pace 10-milers this week.

I'm also trying to lose some weight.  I'm 5'8" and have been at 135 lbs for the last several years but have gained 10 lbs, more or less, over the last eight months.  I know the extra weight is affecting my performance, but I also need the calories to run well.  Since I've started keeping track of my calories, I find that I eat 1300-1400 calories a day, but I'm not losing weight.  Maybe that's too few calories to keep my metabolism going...I'll have to play around with that.

Another week, a fresh start!

Yeah!  I am back!  Tonight I ran with my husband on the Phoenix Bridle Path, one of our favorite places to run.  It was very humid, but much cooler than normal (about 85 degrees).  We finished in 45:13, a 9:02 pace overall.  I finished the first half in 22:41 and ran the second half in 22:32.  I always try to run the second half faster, and the bridle path is slightly uphill on the return.  Anyway, my heart rate was around 170 at the end and back down to 120 within about 4 minutes.

Interestingly, I "overate" today.  I had a bunch of trail mix and wasn't hungry for lunch.  I finally ate lunch at 3:00 pm.  I wonder if the extra food helped my energy level.  Thank you to everyone who commented on my entries-the tips are helping!

Tonight I ran 5 miles on the treadmill because it was pretty hot outside.  I had a great run: 5 miles in 44:35, averaging 8:55.  I ran the first half in about 22:45 and kicked it up to finish the second half in 21:50.  I ran the last mile in 8:19, a little faster than marathon race pace.

I felt really good throughout the run.  In the middle of my run, I checked my heart rate, and it was about 160 (right where it should be).  After the last mile at 8:19 it was around 180 but fell back to 120 pretty quickly.  In the next 2 1/2 weeks, I'd like to get to the point where race pace feels a lot easier so I can begin my official marathon training feeling strong.

After the run I did 3 sets of pushups and 3 sets of crunches.  I really need to do more strength training, but it will be hard to fit it into my running, especially as the runs get longer.

Tonight I did 5 miles on the treadmill (106 degrees outside) and felt great.  I ran it in 45:02, so just over a 9:00 mile.  I started out at a 9:05 pace for the first mile, went up to 8:57 for the next three miles, and ran the last mile in 8:49.  Heart rate at the end was 170 and down to 120 within about 4 minutes.

Feeling good, and hoping to keep it up!!

Ran 4 miles on the treadmill (hot day again) in 36:45 (about a 9:10 pace).  I felt great for the first three miles but got felt a little queasy after that, so I decided to cut the run short at 4 miles.  I've run 5 miles per day for the last three days, so I'm fine with it.  My heart rate was a little lower than normal and returned back to 120 very quickly.  Wonder if it was something I ate...

We leave for vacation tomorrow night.  I'm going to try and squeeze in a run after work (our flight leaves at 11:30 pm).  The real challenge willl be keeping up the running on vacation.  My husband and I usually go, go, go on vacation and are too tired to do anything but crash, and then sleep late.  This will be a more low-key vacation (I think) with the majority of the time spent with my family on the beach.  So, we're taking lots of running clothes and hoping for consistency.  I think I'll have Internet access on my mom's laptop, so you all will see how I do!

We arrived  at Groton Long Point, Connecticut yesterday afternoon, and this place is beautiful!  Our flight was delayed (bad luck with flying lately!), and we hardly slept on the plane at all, so we are still recovering from jet lag.

I basically didn't sleep at all Friday  night, slept 9 hours last night, and just woke up from an hour and a half nap!  My husband is still asleep.

My mom's new house here is right on the beach, and there is a boardwalk that stretches around the sound.  I'm looking forward to running there.  There is also a state park nearby with a lot of trails.  The town in general is runner-friendly.  There are not a lot of cars, and there are people on bikes everywhere.  We plan to run tomorrow when we are fully recovered from jet lag.  We also have kayaks, so we plan on exploring the area that way as well.

In the meantime, we're eating very well!  Last night, my mom's husband cooked clams, shrimp, and lobster.  We each had our own personal lobster, which I've never had before, so it was quite the experience!

We had fully planned on running today, but we still have no energy!  I guess it takes a while to catch up when you basically miss an entire night's sleep!

We ran 5 miles in 46:41 (9:20 pace) along the beach in CT.  It was a beautiful day: about 70 degrees but humid!  We actually ran on the boardwalk or the sidewalk adjacent to the beach.  We ran a little slower than usual, but my heart rate came down very quickly.  Of course, it was my first run in three days, so it will probably take a couple of days to get back up to speed.  My husband and I have heard conflicting things about running in the sand.  I've heard it's good for you (I've done it, and it's very difficult), but he heard it's bad for you. 

After our run, we kayaked in the ocean for about an hour.  It was really fun and a good workout.  We kayaked over to another beach and found two giant dead horseshoe crabs.  they look a little bit like stingrays but with hard shells.

Tomorrow we're going to visit friends in the Hamptons.  Hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in a run down there.

We did 5 miles along the beach again today-beautiful run!  It was not as humid as our run on Monday, and we finished in 44:40.  We ran the first mile in 9:20 and got to the halfway point at 22:28, so we picked up some speed to about 8:50.  We ran the second half in 22:10, and our pace varied a bit, from 8:28 to 8:50, according to my Garmin.  Our average pace was 8:56 with my heart rate around 160.

Our marathon training plan is based on heart rate and time spent running, rather than mileage, for some of the runs.  So, we have to figure out our max heart rates before we start.  I know that the 220 minus your age won't be accurate for me, because my heart rate can go up to about 200, and I'm almost 30.  I found some articles on the subject, so we'll be doing some scientific tests when we get back to AZ!

Today we ran along the Charles River in Boston.  What a beautiful city!  Our hotel was in a very good location, right off Beacon Street on the Freedom Trail, but we had a hard time finding the river.  We probably walked a good 1-1.5 miles to find the trail.  We ran for about 48 minutes.  My Garmin said we went 5 miles, but I think we went a bit farther, because the time was  a little off, and the Garmin has a hard time keeping the signal with so many trees.

This afternoon, we went on a bike tour of Boston.  We had signed up for a guided tour on bikes, but we greatly underestimated how long it would take to get to the bike shop, so we missed the tour!  We rented the bikes anyway and did our own self-guided tour.  It was scary at first, riding in the traffic, but we got the hang of it after a while and ended up really enjoying ourselves.  We rode for almost 3 hours, and I have no idea how far we went!  All I know is, I am all fired up about running the Boston marathon after seeing it on foot and bike!

I wasn't able to run as much during our vacation as I wanted to.  Most of our vacations are whirlwind tours where we don't have any time or energy to run, so this was actually better than most.  And I am so spoiled now after running in the beautiful weather.  Time to fire up the treadmil again!  I feel good and well-rested for next week! 

Tonight was my first run back in Phoenix on the treadmill.  I was feeling out of sorts, as you can probably tell by my distance.  I finished in 24:50, a 9:01 pace.  I got almost no sleep Saturday night because of our traveling home from Boston, and I think my body was still a little off today.  It's probably a good thing, though, because I am going to run tomorrow morning.  I have commitments after work tomorrow and Wednesday, so I'm trying the morning thing.  As I have said before, I am NOT a morning person, so we'll see how it goes.

After the run, I did some weights: several ab exercises, seated row, pushups, etc.  I tried to do some lunges, but my legs felt like jello.  I know I need to strength train, but it's so hard to find the extra time.  Also, many times I find that I'm so sore I can hardly run the next day.  Has anyone incorporated strength training into marathon training without spending every spare moment working out?

Well, I did it...barely!  We got up at 5:30 and ran outside on the Central Ave. Bridle Path, which was packed.  We started out at our normal pace or faster (9-minute mile) and were barely slogging 10-minute miles by our turnaround point.  I ended up running for 40 minutes and walking the rest.  It was discouraging, but I think it will take time to get my body used to running in the morning.  Plus, we just ran last night.  I'm hoping to get to bed earlier tonight (I got 7 hours of sleep last night) and do better tomorrow morning.

Well, it's been a stressful week.  I have my first arbitration tomorrow and have been holed up at work.  When work gets stressful for me, everything else (including exercise) tends to go out the window.  I know things will get easier once I've been practicing law longer, but things like this tend to eat up all my time now.  I know it gets better, because I sometimes run with a whole group of attorneys who obviously have time and energy to train for marathons!

So, hopefully my preparation for tomorrow will pay off, and I expect that it will go fine.  Luckily, busyness at work comes and goes in spurts, so I won't be this busy all the time.  I'm looking forward to running after the arbitration is over!

Today is officially the start of my marathon training program.  It's an advanced program that I got from active.com.  It consists of moderately high mileage with 1-2 speed sessions per week after the first month or so, lots of running at marathon race pace, two 20-milers, and one 22-miler.  I've done two 20-milers in training before, but never more, and never anything over 20 miles, so that will be interesting!  Luckily, it starts easily, with only 8 easy miles this weekend.

Another interesting feature of this program is that most of the weekday runs are laid out by minutes running, rather than miles.

My husband and I did just under 5 miles this morning (45 minutes).  We got up at 5:45, a little later, because my schedule allowed it today.  It is SO HARD to get up-have I said that?!  My husband leaves today for most of the week on business, so I knew our run would be the last time we would spend together for most of the week.  That helped me get out the door! Anyway, I felt like I slowed WAY down in the second half of the run, but I finished in 45:51.  My slowdown of almost a minute was significant, but not as bad as I thought.  Now that I am officially in training, there are NO more excuses to skip runs, not even a crazy work week!

Tonight I ran on the treadmill for 50 minutes.  The training plan called for one hour of running with 4-6 surges of 30-60 seconds each: a fartlek workout, I guess.  I did four surges for one minute each at 8:19 pace, and the rest of the time I ran at a 9:05 pace.  I started getting tired after about 42 minutes, but I held out until 50 minutes, and then I was DONE!  There was no way I was doing the last 10 minutes.  My heart was racing, and it took over 10 minutes to get back down to 120, which worried me a little.  I ate normally today, but I probably didn't have enough carbs with lunch.  And I had a stressful day at work (seems to be the norm these days!).

My husband is in Texas, and he had quite the obstacles to running tonight!  It was super hot and humid, so he opted to run on the treadmill inside the hotel, but when he got to the fitness center, it was empty!  (it was fine last night).  So he decided to run outside anyway.  He tried to get water, and the hotel was out (!), so he took some money on his run so he could stop at a gas station.  He forgot his watch, so he took his cell phone with him to keep time!  But he ran for an hour, hills and all!

I did a Pilates video at home, which felt SOOOO good!  I haven't really done it on a regular basis.  When I ran the PF Chang's marathon in 2005, I did Pilates twice a week for about the last six weeks of training.  I don't know if it improved my running, but I saw visible results very quickly.  And it sure feels great!

Visible ab muscles, here I come!

Tonight I ran on the treadmill.  I finished the run in 45 minutes, so I averaged just under a 9:00 mile.  I felt surprisingly good, given the fact that I had just been bowling for 3 hours and ate pizza.  Our whole office went bowling, which was fun.  I think I'm going to be sore tomorrow!  Anyway, the run felt good.

I'm following the training plan, which calls for cross training on Wednesdays.  So, yesterday I did Pilates.  It felt really good, but I don't know if the schedule will work for me.  It calls for running on Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, and Saturday, and cross training on Wednesdays.  But, since I usually run at night, I would be running on Friday nights and then turning right around and doing long runs the next morning.  I'm going to tinker with the schedule a bit and figure out what is best for me.