Fast

What is it about running fast that makes it feel so good? Why is it that covering 5 miles at a normal, easy pace is nothing like covering those same 5 miles at a fast pace?

This morning I set out at 5 am for a hilly 5-miler. Thursdays I like to hit the hills and speed things up a little bit; bang out a good, hard workout with enough time to recover for the weekend long run. This morning, probably because I had a schedule rest day yesterday, I felt great. “Don’t push, just run” I repeated to myself as I cruised along the dark bike path, up, over and down the hills. My legs felt fresh and smooth. It was easy; easier than previous short runs.

The best part was letting myself run at a fast pace. Fast, when you don’t have to work for it, is an amazing feeling. I feel like I anything is possible and better yet, like I could run on and on forever.

After 3.5 years of running, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I am just not built for speed. Endurance is my where my running strength lies. I can dial in to a 10:30 to 11:00 minute pace and just go and go, for hours. However, I also have to keep reminding myself that although I may not have been genetically blessed with speedy legs doesn’t mean that I can’t get faster. This morning’s near-effortless hilly run at a 9:30 pace feels as good, if not better than completing a 20-miler at 10:30 pace the previous weekend.

I’m looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish at the marathon, the distance that demands both speed and endurance.

Weather watch for April 24:
(Because I need something to focus my obsession on for the next few days)
Showers (40% chance), high of 71, low of 57 – I’m actually encouraged by that, better than sunny with a high of 85!! (:Knocking every piece of wood in the vicinity:)

Daily Dozen:
5.04 miles – hilly route
Walking and stretching XT @ lunch hour

Taper, Here I Come

Well, the damage has been done. Yesterday I completed my final long run of this round of marathon training. All that is left is the next two week’s of tapering – shorter runs and more sleep.

I feel confident coming off of the long run yesterday. While, I can’t say running 20 miles was easy, it certainly wasn’t as difficult as it has been in the past. I finished running strong yesterday and I am only minimally sore today. Completing the run was a tremendous boost to my confidence going in to the marathon, especially falling the run previous weekend’s attempt at 20 miles. I’m feeling very good about the marathon.

Some people have a hard time tapering before their marathon. They get antsy when they have more time on their hands because of the mileage reduction that goes along with the taper. However, I look forward to tapering. In fact, I see it as my reward for all the hard work I put in over the past few months. I ran hard. I ran long. Before I attempt to run both harder and longer during the marathon, I get a little break in order to rest and recover.

I don’t experience that taper madness that some runners complain of. I don’t feel like I need to squeeze in one more long run, I’ve yet to feel any phantom aches and pains or injuries and I don’t obsess over the coming marathon. I’ve read about other runners having issues with all of these things during their taper. Not me – I am looking forward to the extra sleep. Zzzzzzz

On deck tomorrow – “only” 5 miles.

Daily Dozen:
4.41 miles – very easy pace, feeling good, still on a high from yesterday’s run

A Tale of Two Runs

It turns out my body was going to make the decision for me. (Yes, I should have known that all along).

I woke up Saturday morning ready to face a 20 miler. I dressed, I ate, I packed my pockets w/ Fig Newtons, and I headed out the door. The morning was cloudy and the day was a bit cooler than I was expecting but it was a good temperature for running. I set off, plotting various routes.

The first mile went off well. I was enthusiastic and confident. However, that proved to be a short-lived experience. My heartrate was increased from the beginning of the run and by mile 2 I realized that it just wasn’t going to be my day. The decision to not run long was not a difficult one for me to make, unfortunately. Other days it would have been a struggle between my brain, my heart and my legs but not that day. I would live to run another day, I decided and then I headed home racking up only 5.6 of the 20 planned miles.

Despite the easy decision, I couldn’t shake the feeling of sadness once I got home. I quit and there are no other ways to describe it. I may have made the “right” decisions but it still means that the right decision was to quit.

As I threw my sweaty (but not sweat I had earned, I thought) clothes in to the laundry basket and climbed in to a hot shower, I was a little down on myself. I’ve run through worse conditions, through legs that were more tired. I’ve willed myself through much tougher mental roadblocks. What was going on that I quit so easily?

I never did find the answer. I went on with my day and slowly the disappointment and sadness melted away being replaced by more important things like spending time with family.

I woke up the next day much earlier than I expected and the first thought that popped in to my head – I want to run. I crawled out of bed, stumbled around getting dressed in the dark and snuck out of my in-laws house, ready for a run in the country. The difference between running that morning and running the previous morning was stark. Where I felt sluggish and tired the day before, I was smooth and energized the next morning. Where I regretted not having the time to run longer that morning, the previous morning I regretted making plans around a long run that ended up being a bust so I had too much time. Where as my pace never warmed up past a crawl on Saturday morning, Sunday morning there was a spring in my step and I just couldn’t hold back.

I ended up running under 10 minute miles without every intending to run at my marathon goal pace. I just started running and I settled in to a fast pace. I don’t’ know that I could have slowed myself down even if I had wanted to because the pace felt so right. Slowing down would have been impossible.

One of the things I love about running faster paces is that there is span of time after the struggle of warming up but before the paces catches up to your muscles and forces you to slow down when the possibilities seem limitless. I really can run close to a 4 hour marathon. After this marathon I really will run a sub-4 marathon. I should sign up for the ultra-marathon I have been eyeballing. I should just keep running and running and running and…

Before I knew I was close to home and I reined in my speed-induced daydreaming. Back to reality, I told myself as I turned down the home stretching, forcing my legs to slow. I didn’t want to experience a blow up or a slow down. I wanted those possibilities to remain just that…possible.

Both Saturday and Sunday, I ended my runs on my own terms. Both times, I made the decision to stop and both times it was the “right” decision to make. Honestly, I’m not even sure what my point is here. I’m sure there is a lesson in there somewhere. What I do know is that Sunday’s run wiped Saturday’s run off the radar and thank goodness for that.

Daily Dozen:
5.22 miles – feeling good, running strong

Decisions.

This week was supposed to be the peak week in marathon training. I had a great 15-miler last Sunday and I was looking forward to another solid week of running, to be capped off by a 22-miler this coming weekend before being able to slip easily in to a 3 week taper…in fact, I wasn’t much bothered by the impending 22-miler, looking beyond it to the lower mileage, lighter load, more sleep of the taper.

But then I caught a stomach bug. Sunday night as I was vegging out on the sofa and contemplating turning in for the night, I started to feel a little “off.” By the time I put head to pillow less than an hour later, I was really starting to feel awful. Then, a little over an hour after falling asleep I was huddled in the bathroom thowing up. For the rest of the night, I repeated this hourly performance not stopping until the sun had come up the next time.

Just like that, just as quick as that, there went my peak training week down the toilet…swoooosh, plop! Bummer!

Yesterday, Thursday was the first time I ran since Sunday and it well. I could tell I was tired and not quite “on” but I completed the run and felt good about it. This morning I ran in to work, covering about 8 miles and tomorrow’s long run was on my mind for most of the time.

What to do? Take it easy tomorrow, don’t push it but cut my taper from 3 weeks to 2 weeks and run 22 miles next weekend. A 2 week taper didn’t work for me when I tried it during my training for marathon #2 so I’m very hesitant about this idea. However, I am a much stronger runner than I was back then so maybe, just maybe I could handle a 2 week taper.

Or, should I attempt the 22 miles and see if I can do it in order to preserve the 3 week taper that I was so looking forward to last week. I like this idea better but I’m just not sure it is wise.

Decisions. Decisions.

Daily Dozen:
8 miles run to work

Four Courts Four Miler - Race Report

Regardless of whether I am in the middle of training for a marathon or not, I enjoy running local races. Races that do not involve travel on my part. Races, for all intents and purposes, right outside my door. The Four Courts Four Miler is just such a race.

It was the inaugural event this year put on by Pacers, a local running store, and sponsored by Ireland’s Four Courts, a local Irish pub-style restaurant in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. You can’t tell by the photo above but everything about this race was green and Irish.

As I mentioned previously, I was a little nervous going in to the race. Running had not been going as well as I had liked and logic would usually dictate that a runner who is already tired and possibly facing the specter of overtraining shouldn’t try to find an answer in racing and pushing their running. It sounds like I am court disaster and maybe, I was? I don’t know.

What I do know is that something clicked at the race.

It felt good to be in that crowd of fellow, green bedecked runners. The drizzling rain didn’t seem to phase any of us once the race started (beforehand is another story – it was pouring rain for the hour or so before the race meant that me and my loyal cheering section were soaked on the walk to the race). I was passing the Mile 1 marker before I knew it and nearly to the half way point of this four mile race before I even felt like I was even pushing the pace. Everything felt easy and that was such a relief after weeks of legs o’ lead.

Around the 2.5 mile point, I was “leapt” by the leprechaun. One of the fun parts of this race was that one of the super speedy Pacer-sponsored runners (turns out he is also Irish) started the race 8 minutes after the start gun. For every runner he beat to the finish line (or “leapt” if you will) the running store would donate a dollar to a local charity. I was hoping to be in Mile 3 by the time he passed me but in the middle of the race it didn’t even matter. Running felt good. My pace felt right. I was relaxed but still focused on racing hard (quite the contradiction, I know). Being beat by a local elite runner was of no consequence to me because I was having a great race.

The other catch to this race was that the first mile was downhill, the next two miles were more or less flat, and the final mile was up, up, uphill. However, I wasn’t worried for two reasons. One, I love running hills and as long as I didn’t flatline my legs during the first three miles I would be able to pass runners left and right going uphill. Two, I run this hilly section (although it feels like a mile long hill, it is actually two hills with a very brief flat-ish section in the middle) several times a week.

I passed the Mile 3 marker and took the hill in stride, keeping my legs turnover short but quick and my breathing steady. While everyone else slowed down, I picked up the pace. My second half split was actually faster than my first half split, which is not the norm for a course with this downhill/uphill profile.

As I raced toward the finish line, I spotted two runners between me and the end and I told myself to do whatever I could to pass them. I charged. I kicked. I sprinted. As much as one can charge, kick and sprint while running up a reasonably steep hill, I gave it all I had. I beat one of the two runners solidly. The other one was just ahead of me as we crossed the line; he had saved a little for the end and I wasn’t expecting it.

It felt so good to cross that finish line. It was a real confidence booster to look down at my watch and realize I had beaten the goal I had set for myself. As I was catching my breath, my fans (husband, Mom and Dad) found me and then I found the water. We didn’t stick around for the end of the race or the after party (although it did look like a bunch of fun) because we had plans for the rest of the day.

I am feeling much more positive about Nashville after this race. It feels so good to be back!

Splits (kinda – I didn’t hit the lap button on my watch so I’m working from memory)
Mile 1 – I didn’t want to look.
Mile 2 – 17 minutes and some change, right on target
Mile 3 – 25 minutes and some change, woohoo, doing better than target
Mile 4 – 34:27, a minute and a half better than I was expecting and a faster split than the first half

Pros:

• Local (for me) and walkable to start/finish
• Nice shirt – tech fabric with the Kiss Me I’m A Runner slogan. Love it!
• Great race management
• Hilly finish – yes, this can be a positive attribute to a race

Cons:

• Nothing really – a great small, local race

A Little Nervous

It’s been a strong week of running for me this past week. Last Sunday ended up being a beautiful day, perfect for an 18 mile long run. Monday through today, I’ve hit each one of my scheduled runs. I’ve felt a bit tired from the higher mileages but when my runs started I felt energized.

This weekend’s long run is supposed to be a cut back week before next week’s 20 miler. However, I’ve decided to throw in a little wrinkle for myself; a race – Four Courts Four Miler.

I haven’t raced since November at the GCF Half Marathon and I’m a little nervous about tomorrow’s race. Truthfully, I’m not quite sure why.

I’ve fallen off my pace a little bit compared to what I was running before I got a little sidelined by injury and weather in February but that’s no reason to be scared right? Also, the race is downhill during the first half but Uphill during the last half – 2 miles down, 2 miles back up. Again, I love running hills, that shouldn’t be causing anxiety. Except for the recent dry spell, I race often since the local running scene is so active and this race is super convenient. Nothing to be too concerned about.

And yet, I’m a little nervous.

Daily Dozen:
10 miles run commute

So Whose Legs Have I Been Running On?

My legs have felt more like my own this week than they have in previous weeks. Running hasn’t been such a struggle and my pace is improving without extra effort on my part. In fact, three of my 5 runs this week have actually been in the 10s for an average overall pace, rather than the 11s I was seeing last week and the week before.

It’s better than just an improvement in pace though. My legs are feeling better; not so much like they had been dipped in wet cement. What a relief.

I had nearly resigned myself to the slower pace and the leaden legs, wondering if I should curtail all of my running plans for the year. Maybe I will run/walk the marathon in April since I had already signed up and call it quits for the rest of the year, I thought.

Honestly, I was surprisingly OK with that idea. Not that I would prefer to have my tentative plans spoiled by a silly overuse injury (I should have known better – my paces, especially on the long runs were just too fast. I’m not at 10 minute miles yet. I knew better but was dazzles by the specter of single digit pace. I’ll get there but I’m not breaking through just yet) and the snow. Yet, delaying my plans and living to race another year was more important to me.

I am determined to be a life long runner. I want to be pushing my kids in a jogging stroller just as much as I want to be winning age group awards when I’m 70 just because I was the only 70 year-old to show up.

I am back to feeling optimistic about not only the upcoming training and marathon but also the rest of my running life.

Daily Dozen:
10 miles run commute