I wish race photos of me did not exist

Being photogenic is not one of my strong suits. Never has been. And when you add in sweat, pain, ill-fitting tshirts, and a hot sunny day? Very unpleasant.
I'm always so excited to get look at my race photos, because I continue to keep up hope that one day I will be one of those delightful looking people who can look lovely and spry midrace, maybe with a dapper little wave or thumbs up at the photographer. Maybe when I'm older, and closer to the demographic of people who can be called "spry", this will happen. Until then, I must resign myself to being caught mid-breath in an ill-fitting t-shirt and sweat-soaked pigtails under my Trot Nixonated Sox cap.
One upside to race photos is that it gives me a chance to critique my stride and running form, which is always a good time. My stride is always terrible. Either the camera always catches me in the moment where I look like a duck, or I just have a terrible stride and run only from the knees down.


Exhibit A

Anyway, in this one I actually look like a runner, though I still have T-Rex hands.


Make. It. Stop.


And of course, the best part of race photos is looking at the crowd around you. See below. I'm just about to run out of the frame, but get a load of the chick in the back of the pack in this one. She's on her phone. During a half-marathon.

You have got to be kidding me

I fear for the future of the world.

Plans

I promised my aching hip that I would rest for an entire week after the half-marathon, and that, with much difficulty, is what I did. And you know what? It didn't kill me. I still kept up with my thrice-weekly cardiostrength workouts, but that's about it.

Since today is a new day and a new month and all that, I'm going to take this space to outline some of my summer training goals and plans!

I'm using the FIRST plan to train for theFalmouth Road Race in August. After reading about it and thinking it sounded like a really good plan for me (I get injured a lot, like to exercise mid-day but hate the treadmill, get bored easily, and like really specific workout planning) I decided to get the book. It's actually pretty good. I'm not one of those people who is ever going to qualify for Boston, but the other programs in there are good, and the stories are fun and inspiring. It even makes science interesting!
So, I am going to actually do the 5K plan for Falmouth, even though it's a 7 mile race. My justification is as follows :
a) I want to start off conservatively, instead of jumping into a new plan headfirst and getting hurt like I always do
b) Conservatively or not, the plan has me doing 7-mile midweek tempo runs several times during the program, and some speed sessions should take me close to an hour. Yikes.
c) Last year I had a pretty decent showing (for me) and I hadn't done any speedwork or run more than 5 miles at a time. If I just want to beat last year's time, this should be more than sufficient.
d) I tend to run faster and be more fit in general if I cross-train, especially weight lifting.

In addition to the running plan, I'm also following a beginner barbell strength-training plan, found here on the very informative and awesome GymJunkies.com website. I recently completed his 31 day "shred" challenge (minus most of the diet part because I don't really want to lose weight, am lazy, and love beer too much) and lost 5 or so pounds anyway. The best part though was finally getting over my fear of the weight room...at least for the most part. The second best part was having my hip-based IT band pain almost completely subside after two weeks of strength training.

So there you have it. Structured, simple, and not easy in the slightest (but not grueling enough to keep me limping all through the summer). Just the way I like it.

Tonight's run : 1 mile warmup, 2 miles tempo (@9:34/mile, or something like that), 1 mile cooldown.

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!