Race Report : Boston's Run to Remember half-marathon

The good news : Finished. Didn't collapse.
The bad news : 2:22:32

A loud thunderclap woke me up at 6am yesterday. Then the lightning came. I got grumpy and slept too late. By the time I rushed out the door, it was actually quite nice out, and during the race it was clear, warm, and sunny. A little too much so at times.

I started off at a 8:15/mile pace for the first two miles, according to the mile splits. Once I realized that, I slowed way down, but the damage had already been done. I haven't run a mile that fast since the 7th grade. Around mile 9 I started walking. Ugh. Most walk breaks I kept to 10 seconds or so, but I walked across the entire Longfellow bridge. My brain just quit on me. I'd be giving myself these great peptalks to keep going, and then my legs would just stop running! I was all "Dude! Legs! WTF!" but they just weren't listening. Neither was my stomach or my lungs. They were all like "Nope. We're donecakes. Mind over nothing."

I'll try and give myself credit since I haven't been able to walk without a limp until about a week and a half ago, and trained through ITBS (dumb), but it's still frustrating.

On the upside, I felt a lot better after this one than after the first. I managed to take a shower and have brunch with my friends and go to a BBQ and not take any naps! Maybe that's an endurance event in itself.

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me

Sometimes I think Take it and Run Thursday is the only thing that prompts me to write in this blog. Anyway, this week's topic is something very close to my heart. Food.

Foodstuffs that make me feel like a running superhero :
-Coffee. A pre-run cup of coffee makes me fly. As long as I run past some bathrooms and water fountains, of course.
-Bananas. I have developed a great love for bananas. I have two for breakfast every morning, with a handful of walnuts of almonds. It's like a muffin without all the flour and sugar and stuff! And I guess it's true what they say about potassium, I haven't had charley horses lately.
-Fruit in general. I prefer to get my carbs from fruit & veg rather than bread and stuff. I just tend to feel more energetic when I don't eat floury things. This is probably a good sign I should stop eating so much candy.
-Whole wheat pasta and oatmeal, mixed with plenty of veggies (pasta) and peanut butter/fruit (oatmeal).
-Gu. Not necessarily a foodstuff, so maybe it doesn't count, but I would be taking impromptu naps on the sidewalk mid-longrun without these squishy packets of joy.
-Water. Of course. Not just pre and post-run, but all day, constantly, water water water. I like to throw in one of those CVS-brand vitamin C powder packets to boost nutrition and flavor.
And finally...
-Beer. Not as a fuel, by any means, and not in excess, but knowing I have a frosty delicious beer waiting for me at the end of my run really pushes me through that tough last mile. Sorry, I guess summer makes me talk about beer a lot more than usual.


Yesterday's run
"Tempo"
10 minute jog, 20 minutes at tempo pace, 10 minute jog (or 5 min jog, 5 min walk 'cause I almost tripped over someone's dog and then someone else's baby. Sometimes I wish Castle Island wasn't so nice in the summertime)
3.25 miles
10:46/mile
Comments - I've often wondered how you really figure out your "tempo pace", fancy calculators aside. I realize now that if at around 20 minutes of running at said pace you come precariously close to barfing up the handfull of Skittles you ate as your pre-run "carbs", that's tempo. Mine's between 9:15 and 9:45. By the end of the summer it'll be between 8:30 and 9:00. Just watch me.

3 days to go.

Just a girl

I'm starting to really enjoy being the only deadlifter in my weight room, surrounded by guys doing different varieties of arm curls.

Put up 8 miles yesterday. It should have been more, and I was honestly feeling okay, but I'm still trying to take a conservative approach to my mileage because of the leg thing. Not bad, not bad. Ran the end far too fast, ranging from 9:50/mile at one point to 7:38/mile at another. I didn't even know my legs could move that fast.
Anyway, that was my last long run before Sunday's half. I doubt I'm going to beat my previous time, but it should be a fun experience with a new friend, and then I'm going to do my darndest to rest up before even thinking about marathoning.

Speedy Shorts

Today's "Take It and Run Thursday" focuses on summer running. I can't even begin to express my joy at the fact that it's finally spring in Boston, that I can run a mile without having to blow my nose or cough up a lung or slip and fall on the sidewalk. I am thrilled.
I am a summer runner. So yeah, I just started running last spring/summer, but after a miserable snot-filled treadmill-bound winter, I know for sure that I am a summer runner. If I ever want to run outdoors year round, I am going to have to move somewhere warm. It's that simple.
One of the things I love about spring/summer running is the motivational power of my Speedy Shorts. I have two pairs of these wonderfully comfy (short, skintight spandexy) "yoga shorts" from Old Navy. I only wear them for tempo runs and speedwork. Because they make me faster. How do they make me faster, you ask? Let me explain.
No matter how good you look in short skintight shorts (and if I do say so myself, I do) you can't just slowly lope around the block in Speedy Shorts. No, you have to earn them. Whenever I think about slowing down or takeing walk breaks during my tempo, I think to myself "Self, you cannot run 10:30 miles in Speedy Shorts. You just can't". And so I don't. Hey, whatever works.

Anyway. I'll round this dose o'random off with some summer running thoughts/tips.

Aside from my Speedy Shorts, these are some of the things I can't live without for summer running. Some obvious, some less so.

-Sunscreen. Duh. At least SPF 55. I love Neutrogena Ultra-Sheer Dry Touch sunblock.
-Water. Also duh. Thankfully, my usual route includes conveniently placed water fountains, or as we call them in New England, "bubblahs".
-The ocean. I'm lucky enough to live by the ocean, and the breeze usually keeps me coolish even during the Dog Days. If it's not enough, I kick off my shoes and go for a little dip at the end of my run.
-A bandana. No need to become blinded by sweat. (As a sidenote, how gross are runners? Really, if it's not snot rockets in the winter, black toenails after long runs, blisters, chafing, and excessive sweating, it's something.)
-The occasional shower beer. In moderation, of course.

I am ridiculously excited about this summer running season, with Falmouth coming up and the possibility of training for my first marathon on the horizon! Now if only I could get a correct diagnosis on this left hip business and start getting faster!

A couple pretty good runs recently. Last Thursday I did a solid tempo run. 20 minutes of 45 at tempo pace, which is 9:46/mile. It turned out to average closer to 9:30/mile, which was awesome. Yesterday, I cruised home on the bus from NYC in the early morning, went to work and finished up some tasks, went to the gym and KILLED it with some amazing high intensity weight training, and then went home and got in my scheduled 8-miler. Very productive day! Needless to say, that wiped me out to the point that I fell asleep during the nail-biting Celtics game. I woke up at the very end, confused and disoriented, only because I could hear half of Southie freaking out and cheering. Have I mentioned how much I love my neighborhood?

My legs feel surprisingly good. They're sore, but in a satisfying way instead of a limpy, pained, broken way. I took this afternoon off from the gym (don't want two back-to-back days of to-failure squat jumps, even I'm not that masochistic) but will try to get in 4.5 miles tonight, plus perhaps some yoga. The IT band pain is starting to subside a bit, which is kind of odd but very welcome. Trying to be more aware of my body alignment has made me realize I pronate on my left side, bigtime. My knee kind of rolls in. I'm sending back my new Nike LunarTrainers (love them, but my left foot needs more support) and getting the Zoom Elites, I think.
Starting to get really excited about this upcoming racing/training season. Just signed up for Falmouth again!

Why it's nice having training buddies even if you never see them

NFN and I had set up a googledoc to track our training for the Run to Remember. It's pretty cool - I outlined the plan and made a column for each of us to track what we'd done for training. I just went to update my progress, and noticed that in my Sunday column, next to "12 miles run", she'd written "Nice job!"
That made me smile.
Thanks for the virtual fist-bump, Nat!

Made it through 12 miles today down by the Charles River. Actually, it was probably closer to 14; I was annoyed with myself for taking so many walk breaks that I got off the T at South Station and did a light tempo run the 2 miles to Murphy's Law. The sub-10 minute mile pace shredded my stomach, for some strange reason.
I am slow. I am still just as slow as I was when I started running, and it annoys me. I am still absolutely wasted from today, and from Saturday's weight workout (I finally gathered up the gumption to go into the Big Boy weight room, only to discover, that like many college gyms, it has no squat rack, just a leg press and a punch of bench pressing stuff. It's always arms day at college gyms) and just took a two hour nap. Lame.
Some strange foreign man stopped me near the end of my run to ask me if it was going to rain today. There were already drops intermittently falling from the sky, so I'd wager yes. But he was carrying a large umbrella and I was wearing a flimsy white t-shirt. Who do you think knows more about the weather forecast, strange foreign man, hmmm?

Oddly, my leg stops really hurting too much after a couple miles. For some reason, I have a feeling this might not be a good thing. Last week I bought The Stick, and have been using it with some success, but my left IT band is now sore to the touch from all the pressure.