Frozen Fourteen and Merry Christmas

Yesterday I braved the New England cold and pounded out a 14 mi long run.  I wore plenty of layers so temperature-wise I was comfortable the whole time.  The only problem: my water froze, which made for a very thirsty final 5K!

mile 1 @ 9:25
mile 2 @ 9:22
mile 3 @ 9:47 — begin vertical hill #1
mile 4 @ 9:57 — end vertical hill #1, add long climb #1
mile 5 @ 9:56 — vertical hills #2 and #3 with very little rest in between
mile 6 @ 9:40 — long-ish climb #2
mile 7 @ 9:31
mile 8 @ 9:35
mile 9 @ 9:19 — vertical hill #4.  followed by vertical downhill. still this was my hardest mile and probably shouldn’t have been my fastest…
mile 10 @ 9:35 — uh oh, the tops of my water bottles are getting a little harder to open.
mile 11 @ 9:15
mile 12 @ 9:33 — yup, water bottles are frozen shut. 
mile 13 @ 9:54 — I’m thirsty. and running up long climb #3.
mile 14 @ 9:27 — cold and numb and don’t care.  I’m done.

14 miles – 2:14:15 – avg 9:35/mi 

And when I arrived at the top of the driveway, the last-minute gift I ordered online on Monday had arrived.  Yay — that means Mom, Dad, and both my sisters will all have gifts from me under the tree (even though Lynn won’t be home for Christmas).

As of yesterday, all my gift wrapping is DONE.  As of 30 minutes ago, all my Christmas cookies (a double batch of chocolate chip, a double batch of oatmeal, and a batch of Christmas cookies in fun holiday shapes) are DONE! 

And now I have a nice relaxing Pilates workout planned.  Followed by a shower, Christmas Eve Mass with the family, then Fam Christmas Party #2.

Tomorrow, bring on Christmas Morning, then Fam Christmas Party #3.

And Saturday, bus back to NYC.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

 

(Speed) Work

I set out for a fast three miles, broken down into a .5 mi warm up, 4×400s up the hill on my parents’ street (with recovery 400s down the hill in between), and .5 mi cool down.

The result was definitely three miles, though I wouldn’t call it fast.

.5 mi warm @ 10:01

.25 mi up @ 8:02 (2:00)
.25 mi down

.25 mi up @ 8:10 (2:02)
.25 mi down

.25 mi up @ 8:42 (2:10)
.25 mi down

.25 mi up @ 8:52 (2:13)
.25 mi down

.5 mi cool @ 10:14

Small comfort: at least I did this workout faster this time than last time.

 

Impromptu Tempo Run

I set out for an easy 6.  Mile 1 was easy (@ 9:03).  But then my legs turned out to have other ideas.  I ran miles 2, 3, and 4 at more or less goal pace (8:14, 8:27, and 8:09).  And then the cold – and hill after hill – started getting to me and my legs went back to an easy-ish 9:22 for mile 5.  Then finally good old Right and Left banged out a hilly mile 6 @ 8:39. 

The speed felt good — I had a lot of stuff to pound out.  First being the indulgences involved with Fam Christmas Party #1 yesterday.  Second being the stress and drama involved with said Family, which manifested itself at said Party. 

My family is going through a very difficult time right now.  One of my aunts has cancer that has taken over her entire body and causes her a lot of pain.  As if that’s not bad enough, the rest of the family still can’t seem to get along.  The entire situation is very sad and also infuriating, and I’m doing my best to keep believing for miracles. 

Dear blog-friends, I’d greatly appreciate your prayers for healing and peace in every body, every heart, every relationship within my family.  I believe that your prayer, right now, could be the one that makes the difference.
Thanks a million — and while we’re uniting in prayer, please consider this your invitation to send me your prayer requests as well!

 

Not One of My Most Brilliant Ideas

Although the clouds were heavy with snow overhead, I braved the cold and banged out my 14-miler yesterday.  Thankfully the snow didn’t start to fall until I was already in the shower. 

The run itself was great:
mi 1 @ 9:47 – this is the warm-up. The speed will come.
mi 2 @ 9:27 – right on.
mi 3 @ 9:52 – winding up and down the hills of Owl’s Head Park.
mi 4 @ 9:43 – brr, it’s a bit nippy by the water…
mi 5 @ 9:33 – but at least I’m not the only one out here…
mi 6 @ 9:27 – everyone’s smiling and greeting me in passing…
mi 7 @ 9:37 – all happy to get the running in before the storm.
mi 8 @ 9:12 - hm, I’m on track for a negative split this second half.
mi 9 @ 9:03 – ooh, public restroom comin’ up…brief pause…aahh much better, now I can run.
mi 10 @ 9:18 – settling back down – still 4 more to go.
mi 11 @ 9:14 – still feelin’ good.  Hooray.
mi 12 @ 9:17 – don’t I usually hit a wall somewhere around here?  Oh well, not complaining!
mi 13 @ 10:07 – Oh, there it is.  Coupled with a nasty headwind.  Not fun.
mi 14 @ 9:19 – whoa, that went by fast.  Can’t believe I’m already done!
.1 mi @ 9:04 – grr, I wanted to sprint this but some lady with big dogs is blocking my way.  That’s okay, I’ll just keep going like I’m going and at least have some closure – I was not ready to stop at mi 14!

14.1 mi — 2:13.49 — avg 9:29 / mi

After a quick stretch, quicker shower, and quick bowl of soup with toast and steamed broccoli for lunch, I did my last minute packing, and headed out into the snow for the long trip to NH. 

If the run felt good, the ride did not.  Not far into it, my poor crunched-up legs began to ache.  By the time we pulled into the rest stop (3 hours into the trip!) my knees were beyond any point at which a quick stretch would make any difference. 

While waiting in Boston for my connecting bus, I elevated my legs by using my suitcase as an ottoman.  That felt good.  But then I had to get on the other bus for another hour.  Granted, one hour goes by faster than four.  But I was so uncomfortable and so exhausted by then that the one hour felt like four.

My parents picked me up and as soon as we got home I went straight to bed.  And couldn’t fall asleep I was so achy — my knees, lower back, and right elbow.  Ugh.  (Right elbow?  Why would that hurt?  Who knows.)  Eventually I slept, woke up, went back to sleep.  And 6:45 came too soon.  My legs – and entire body for that matter — feel less than fresh. 

And it’s cold and snowy here in NH today.  We’re only supposed to get 1-2 in rather than 6-10, thankfully.  But still I’m going to pass on the 7 miler I needed to run in order to make this week’s mileage.  That’ll throw off the next few weeks of training, which doesn’t thrill me.  But at least I won’t get injured. 

And hopefully I’ll go into this week’s miles fresher.

Conclusion: I do not recomment running 14 miles before making a 7-hour bus trip.

 

 

Backed into the Weekend Warrior Corner

So I’ve done a little holiday reveling this week.  There was the company holiday party Monday, a holiday social Wednesday, and a holiday happy hour yesterday.  Although I planned to leave yesterday’s event in time to get home and go to bed early, things simply didn’t work that way and I stayed later than expected.  As soon as I knew I was going to miss my bedtime, I opted to stay out even later.  Go big or go home, right?

So this week I’ve already had three days off from running.  Which means that right now I’m 21 miles off of this week’s scheduled mileage.  That’s a lot considering that a 20-mile week used to be high mileage for me.  But these days, not so much.  The 14-miler I’ve been planning for tomorrow will take care of most of that.  And then a 7-miler on Sunday and I’ll be all caught up.  Oh, the joy of Sunday being the end of the training week!

I just have to stick to it now.  And, go figure — tomorrow is supposed to be a little snowy.  But since I must run in the morning in order to catch my afternoon bus to Boston and then NH, hopefully I’ll be banging out my 14 miles in nothing more than a gentle flurry — or, even better — no precipitation whatsoever!

Sunday may feature a bit of snow in NH, but I can handle a quick 7 miles in the morning.  Before fam party #1 in the afternoon.

On the agenda for the rest of the week: LOTS of running, LOTS of baking Christmas goodies, and LOTS of last-minute (tax-free!) shopping!  I’ll do my best to keep you in the loop, as the adventures are sure to abound!

 

I’m Gonna Be Faster Now…

…because my head is about 75 pounds lighter. 

Okay, maybe I exaggerate.  But I did get about 5 inches of hair chopped off yesterday, and I’m now back to the short (jaw-length) bob I got when I donated my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths almost two years ago.  I love it!

Can you say 5-min showers?!  And 5-min blow-dry?!  And — hopefully! — a little more aerodynamic-ness?!  Which means more speed!! 

Which would mean more ego… 

Which would make my head weigh a little more…

Which would slow me back down…

Hmm…

Haha.

 

The Wednesday Dilemma

Wednesday is trash day on my street.  Wednesday is also my preferred speed work / hill training day.  This presents a dilemma because I do my hill training on the hill located a few blocks down my street, and if I run in the street the trash truck gets in the way and if I run on the sidewalk the trash cans get in the way.

It’s not as simple as you may think to just switch hill training days (and switching trash days surely isn’t an option).  You see, the only day I can do long runs is Saturday, so that’s out.  I don’t want to do a speed workout the day after a long run, so Sunday is out too.  I often do easy runs on Sundays, so even though Monday may be an option, I don’t love the idea of pounding out a speed workout on the 4th day in a row of running.  Tuesday is usually an off day, since by then I’ve done 4 days of running in a row.  Thursday is almost always off because I have dinner and small group meetings on Wednesday nights, and I usually get home after 10:30 which generally doesn’t give me enough sleep for an early-morning run.  Friday is the only other option, but who wants to do speed work on a Friday after a long week — not to mention, who wants to do speed work the day before a long run?

The solution is probably to make sure I take either Sunday or Monday off, and do an easy run the other day.  And then do speed work on Tuesday, easy run Wednesday, off Thursday, easy run Friday, long run Saturday.  BUT to complicate things, Sunday is now the END of my running week rather than the beginning like it used to be.  So sometimes I NEED to run on a Sunday.  And Monday, believe it or not, is the easiest day for me to get up out of bed for a run, so I don’t like to take it off.  Ugh.  I’ll have to keep thinking about this.

In the meantime, today’s solution was speed work on the track.

In Mile Trial Three I clocked in a 6:33, shaving 3 sec off my previous fastest mile.  Woohoo!  I can just TASTE 6:30 — and I suspect I’ll be able to do it when cold air doesn’t burn my lungs and a nasty wind doesn’t hold me back like the blocking sleds they use in football practice!

After the mile trial and a 400m recovery jog, here’s what I did:

• 400m @ 6:01 (1:34.82)
• 400m recovery jog
• 800m @ 6:46 (3:28.57)
• 400m recovery jog
• 400m @ 6:15 (1:42.2)

With the warm up run to the track and cool down run home, today’s workout totaled a little more than 4 mi.  I had planned to do 5 (I originally intended 2×800s or at least 4×400s), but time and the cold did not permit.  Still, I’m happy with today’s workout, though I’m confident I can do better.

Lynn tells me that running in the cold will actually really strengthen my lungs though, so there’s a bit of extra working out going on internally when I do workouts like this, even when I don’t feel they’re the best I can do.  I’ll have to look into that, see if there’s any science behind her claim…

 

A (Four-Day) Marathon

Over the last four days (Friday + Saturday + Sunday + today) I’ve run the equivalent of a marathon.  Someday (soon, someday soon) I will run that in one day.  You can just feel it coming.

Friday, 3 mi.  Speed/hill work.

Saturday, 13.1 mi.  It was a beautiful sunny day, not too cold (high 30s - low 40s), and I was determined to fully enjoy every mile, every step of the run.  I followed the same course as last week’s 13-miler in the wintery mix, but this week I ran it (plus an extra .1 mi sprint) 8 min faster, in 2:00:54!  Much better than last week!  I went earlier in the day, ran at a relaxed and easy but still decent pace (avg 9:14), and at the end I still had enough gas in the tank for a .1 mi sprint @ 5:08/mi!  That’s my fastest end-of-run sprint ever!  (Though I am determined to get it under a 5:00 pace!)  I felt like a million bucks when I was done, and for the entire next day as well!

Sunday, 5 mi.  I intended to take this one easy, just to get these miles in and keep the legs loose.  And in fact, I’m not sure these legs could have gone any faster than they went, which was a 9:42 per mile average, for a 49:29 finish.  My poor legs felt like lead the entire way, but they stayed loose all day and for that I was very grateful.  (My muscles tightened up quite a lot after last Saturday’s 13-mile fiasco, and my knees did not enjoy any of last week’s runs as a result.  They finally loosened up for this Saturday’s half-marathon training run, and following Sunday’s true recovery run, so far so good.  Am I to deduce that a good recovery run is in order after a long run?  Maybe…)

Today, 5.1 mi.  Knowing that my legs are anything but fresh, I put off today’s scheduled speed/hill work (I didn’t exactly go according to plan last week, so this week must be rearranged to adjust) in favor of another easy 5 miles.  Surprisingly, or at least interestingly, they were easy.  I didn’t push it at all, and todays “not pushing it” was a good 30 sec per mile faster than yesterday’s “not pushing it.”  (Except that today’s .1 mi sprint was almost 30 sec per mile off Saturday’s pace – what’s up with that?!  Shouldn’t I have been slower after the longer run?!)  I finished in 47:06 (avg 9:14 per mile). 

And with four running days down, I did not mind indulging a bit at the office holiday party today:  2 glasses of wine, a scoop of green salad, 2 helpings of salmon and green beans, a scoop of chicken pot pie, a scoop of bread stuffing, and a sampling of dessert bites later, I’m stuffed! 

Now a day of rest and recovery will do my body good!

 

Twenty-Two for Time Trial Two

As of today, planned days off and/or being tired are no longer valid reasons to stay in bed instead of running in the morning.  Because pouring rain (Wednesday) and freezing cold (today) are not fun conditions to run in, especially when I could have just sucked it up and run when it was dry and warm warmer.  There would’ve been less to “suck up” then, no?

Because I had been lazy on Tuesday I knew when I woke up to Wednesday’s rain that I just had to run in it.  I’d made my bed (so to speak.  How clever is the irony of this expression?!) and now I had to lie in it.  You’d think that would’ve taught me.  But no.  I took my regular day off on Thursday too.  And when I checked the weather this morning and saw 22° in the corner of the tv screen (and heard the meteorologist say that with the wind chill it felt more like 12°), I couldn’t even whine.  Once again, I’d made my bed. 

Anyway, this morning I dressed in the following layers (because I know you’re wondering, “What does one wear to run when it’s that cold outside?”):

• short-sleeved shirt
• long-sleeved shirt (cotton)
• long-sleeved shirt (tech)
• hooded sweatshirt (with hood on and tied around my chin)
• fleece
• running tights (shorts)
• running tights (long pants)
• running pants
• winter hat
• knit scarf wrapped around my face (to warm the air as I sucked it in)
• running gloves

As I added each layer, I placed it on the radiator for a few seconds to warm it up.  Thankfully all this kept me sufficiently warm during the workout.  When I arrived back home, it took a solid 5 min to peel off all the layers — and the bottom two layers were even wet with sweat!

Anyway, now for the workout:

 I ran to the track (a warm-up that didn’t leave me quite warm) for another Mile Trial.  I started my mile strong, trying to break out even faster than I felt like I was going in the first lap of Mile Trial One.  At the beginning of lap two, Pokey read 6:04 and I liked that.  But as I came out of the turn at the top of the track, a nasty wind hit me on the straightaway.  That triggered a mental “uh oh” which in turn triggered a physical “uh oh” and by that same straightaway on lap three I was no longer really in it.  I was struggling for breath but at the same time not wanting to breathe the cold air.  Lap four went by fast, and I almost couldn’t believe I was already in the home stretch.

This time Pokey and the track measured up exactly.  I crossed the finish line in 6:46. 

I guess that is not bad for a cold and windy day.  It makes me really look forward to Mile Trials in warmer weather when I don’t have cold air and wind and thousands of layers to slow me down!

Of course, that was not the end of the workout.  I still had some hill repeats on the agenda.  Because it was so cold, and I was already running late, I decided to do only one mile instead of two on the hill:

• .25 mi up @ 7:16
  .25 mi down @ 11:30
• .25 mi up @ 7:43
  .25 mi down @ 10:35

I ran home, peeled off my thousand sweaty layers, and then did some ab and arm work in the living room.

The subsequent hotness of my shower, my oatmeal, and my coffee almost wiped out all memory of my freezing morning.  Which is good to know in case it’s this cold on race day.

 

The Biggest Loser – Season Finale

I won’t give anything away in case anyone hasn’t seen the finale yet.  But let me just say Wow.  I am so happy with how things turned out.

Surprising:
1. Tracey.  Unrecognizable.  And, in my opinion, looks rather unhealthy.
2. Rebecca.  Amazing.  And the short ‘do is cute, but I definitely prefer her as a brunette.
3. Shay!  The $1,000 per pound challenge brought tears to my eyes.  I am so pulling for her!

Not surprising:
1. The Proposal and Engagement.  I called this the minute Ali introduced the couple as a couple.  Each time she played up their relationship, I was just waiting for him to go down on one knee.
2. The Winner!  I have been pulling for this guy ever since the first time they had their go-home challenge and he demonstrated at such an early point that he was truly committed to changing his life.  It melted my heart to see him explaining to his family that they’d be preparing their own fresh meals and eating at home — because it can be really delicious and it’s healthy too.  He is truly a winner, and totally deserves his $250K.

During one commercial break, Lynn and I looked at each other and both simultaneously asked “Now what are we gonna watch on Tuesday nights?”  Sure enough, the very next segment of the show was the preview for next season — and it turns out we don’t have to get used to TBL-free Tuesdays:  Season Nine begins in January!

Hooray!