Running with Lara!

I had a wonderful time last night, meeting Lara and running with her in the 10K development run in Utica! She is just as wonderful and easy to talk to as you would imagine by reading her blog. And we ran the whole way together, which was great and gave us a chance to talk (although, by unspoken agreement, we did have a few "no conversation zones" when we were working hard!). Let me tell you, that girl can FLY on the flats and downhills, and has an amazing finishing kick!
The run itself was just what I was hoping for in terms of Boilermaker prep. The hills were not as steep as what I train on around my house, but they were plentiful and long. And the atmosphere was like that of a race, with lots of people, water stops, mile markers, etc. Since I haven't raced in ages, it was good to get the feel for that again. The weather was wickedly humid - I almost think the first 1/4 mile was the hardest for me, just getting into the groove and getting a good sweat going.
We averaged an 11:38 pace, including a 9:41 pace for the last full mile - we passed quite a number of people in the last mile and a half, and didn't get passed by anyone, so it was really nice to have such a strong finish.
I feel much more confident about the Boilermaker now, and am very much looking forward to seeing and running with Lara again!

Been Away for Awhile...

From blogging, blog-reading, and basically everything else due to a death in my husband's family (his aunt), for which we drove to Iowa and back for the services. Two days in the car with 2 kids, 3 days in Iowa, 2 days again in the car. We are glad we went, and saw lots of family, but it certainly was exhausting! Luckily I was able to squeeze in both a 5-mile and 10-mile run in the sweltering heat and humidity, so I'm not TOO far off my Boilermaker schedule. And tonight I meet up with Lara to try the 10K development run that covers some of the Boilermaker course. I'm looking forward to lots of fun, lots of hills, and lots of sweat!
I'll be back to my regularly-scheduled blogging and blog-reading as soon as I can convince someone to take my kids for a week... ;-)

Good Running, Bad Eating

I ran a total of 19 miles last week, and everything went well. After my Big Hill Run on Wednesday, I took two days off. Yesterday I did a really fun 5-mile run near my Mom's house (we visited her for the weekend). The roads near her house are flat, shaded, and low-traffic, and they connect to a great running/biking trail. I clipped off those 5 miles at an average pace of 10:41, and it didn't feel hard at all. Now, if I could only flatten out the Boilermaker route...
On the down side, I'm still struggling with trying to eat lightly enough to lose any weight. I splurged too much over the weekend at my Mom's, which always happens - she keeps lots of sweets around! It's disheartening to see how little the scale has budged since the beginning of the year, even though I am exercising a LOT more regularly. I just need to keep the eating aspect under control - I understand that I'm building muscle, and that accounts somewhat for not losing weight, but I feel my healthiest and best when I'm about 20 pounds lighter than I am now, so I'd really like to start heading in that direction. I think after the Boilermaker, I'll focus on weight loss a bit more for a month or so, just keeping my running at a good maintenance level, before picking another race to shoot for. Hopefully, once I establish the good habits, I can keep them up even when my mileage increases.
Hope everyone had a good running weekend!

Tackling the Hills

As part of my Boilermaker training, I've been doing quite a bit of hill work, along with some long runs that had built to 8 miles as of last weekend. However, I wanted to have a run that combined distance and lots of hills, just to know I could do it. So I had scheduled a 9-mile hilly run for this weekend, but changed it to this morning since we've decided to go out of town this weekend.
Since I really wanted to focus on distance and hills and not worry too much about pace, I decided to walk for one minute after each mile (good prep for starting running again after walking at water stops, too!). And when I was running up the hills, I just switched the screen on my Garmin to show the grade of the hill but not my pace. Let me say I definitely picked some wicked hills for this one. The hardest was at about the 2 mile point - a hill almost half a mile long (.43 according to the Garmin), and quite steep almost the whole time. Whew! And the worst part was that, just as the real climbing began, the road changed from asphalt to sloppy gravel (it was raining at the time). Luckily it changed back to asphalt before I got to the top, and finishing it on asphalt was MUCH easier; I was surprised at the difference it made. Around the 3-mile point, it started POURING rain, which actually felt good! I headed down a dirt road that goes along some beautiful wooded areas for about half a mile, then turned around. That part was really more like a trail run, since the road was basically mud and rocks. Then I looped around back down the other side of the hill I had come up, went on rolling hills for awhile, and finally up another monster hill back to the area of my house, where I rounded out the run to 9 miles in my neighborhood. Total time was around 1 hr. 56 min. (12:56 average pace).
Though it was a very challenging run, and I'm plenty fatigued now, I really felt TOUGH out there, scrambling up those hills in the pouring rain. Bring it on, I say!
One thing the last two long runs have taught me: I probably need to take in some more nutrition during those runs (and the race). For each, I've only consumed 24 oz. of Gatorade during the run, and I've had a few times when I felt like my leg muscles, especially calves and hamstrings, were on the verge of cramping up. I got some Power Gels today, and will try one of them on my next long one.

Deerflies Are The Enemy

The weather has been unbelievably humid the last few days, so I've gotten a couple of runs in that should be good Boilermaker Prep - 2.5 miles on Saturday morning (11:47 pace, including hills), and 8 miles yesterday (Sunday) morning (11:38 pace, mostly flat).
During my long run, it was in the 80's and 97% humidity. The only saving grace was that it was overcast for most of the run, so I didn't have the hot sun beating directly down on me. But even in the first half mile or so, I was feeling like I was running with a wet washcloth over my face! And around mile 3, when I was on a road that runs alongside a canal, I got swarmed by several deerflies, which was a huge pain in the neck. Luckily I had a hat on, since the head area is what they tend to go for, but it's just a hassle to hear them buzzing around and see them fly in front of you each time they circle around. I went past a field that normally has grazing cows, hoping I'd lose the flies there, but, alas, NO COWS. So I was basically the only fly bait for miles around. It got a little better after about 15 minutes of this, but then I stopped to pick up the large Gatorade bottle (with squirt top) that I had stashed along the side of the road before I began my run. After I took a few sips and started up again, I realized what a genius I was - hey, why don't I slow down and carry a bottle of sugared water, surely THAT will keep the flies away - NOT! I stashed the bottle again (for later pickup) after drinking most of its 24 oz. over the course of a mile, and didn't have too many fly problems after that.
The sun came out during the last couple of miles of the run, and I have to admit I had thoughts along the lines of: 1) What sadist running club schedules a 15K race for JULY?; and 2) what masochist registers for said race?
Overall, though, I'm happy to have that run under my belt, and feel like my training's going reasonably well. During the next few weeks, I'm going to experiment with the best things to wear and eat during the race - nothing new for race day!
Congrats to this weekend's racers!

Yay for Fresh Produce!

I've been doing a little better keeping the appetite monster under control this week. One thing that helps is all the fresh and delicious (and healthy!) produce around this time of year. My husband and I bought a subscription this year to get weekly produce during the growing season from a local organic farm. It started last week, and we got a box of asparagus, mesclun mix, spinach, carrots, etc. - all delicious. And I get to pick up another box today!
I'm still chugging along on my running schedule, and I really look forward now to my early morning runs. I'm also starting to wear a pedometer during the day, trying to get more than 10,000 steps a day, in addition to my 5 runs/week. I haven't had to really work to get over the 10,000, but it does make me more conscious of decisions like where to park at the grocery store, etc.
One of my good friends is going to become our next-door neighbor (along with her family), in a matter of weeks, so I'm excited about that. She was telling me yesterday that she went out and ran a mile on the local track the other day, because she'd like to be able to go out and walk or run with me sometimes, but doesn't want to bite the dust after a quarter mile. It's funny, because she's quite slim, and if you looked at the two of us, you would probably not guess that I am the one in better physical condition. I need these reminders sometimes that it's more important to focus on fitness than weight!

HHHH Long Run

Hot, humid, hazy, and (somewhat) hilly. Pretty much sums up my 7-mile long run this morning. As I hoped, it did serve the purpose of probably being good prep for the Boilermaker. But boy, was it hot!
Normally when I do my morning long runs, I head to a nearby town where it is almost perfectly flat, and I go early in the morning. I couldn't do either of those today - the nearby town was having a major antiques festival, meaning lots of traffic, and my husband had an ambulance call this morning (he's a volunteer medic) with a one-hour transport each way to a trauma center, so I didn't get to start my run until right about 10:30. So, I just headed into the village that I live outside of, which is relatively flat, but on the outskirts has some medium hills. Since it was so hot and humid, I decided to choose a course that would allow me to pass by my car a couple of times for water.
Overall, the run went fine, but I probably went a bit too fast. The problem was that I started right in the village, where there were lots of people around heading to church (I'm sure they thought I was a heathen - hey, another H!), and in this town the odds of not seeing someone you know in that situation are almost zero. And for some reason I always run a little faster when I see people I know, or think I'm going to (am I the only one who does this?). Sure enough, I passed by my son's first grade teacher heading to church within about the first 2 minutes. I was feeling strong, and did my first 2 miles at a sub-11:00 pace, which is fast for me. Encountering hills along the way, including a killer one (about 12% grade) at about the half-way point, slowed me down a bit, but I still ended up averaging 11:22 pace for the whole run (just under 1:20 total time). I felt pretty zonked during the last couple of miles, but luckily recovered pretty quickly with some water and a banana I'd brought in the car. But while I was out there, it was hard to imagine pressing even harder, and for longer, in a month for the Boilermaker. I am definitely hoping that 1) I get more used to heat and humidity between now and then; and 2) the crowd support makes a big difference!

I'm official!

It took a long time (like 10 days) for the Boilermaker folks to update their registration list from those who mailed it in, but I'm finally on the list! Somehow I find that motivating, like if I don't do the race now, it will be embarrassing to have my name as registered but not among the finishers (since I know so many people are tracking my name between the two lists - yeah, right!).
I've been keeping up fine with my schedule for this week - 2 miles on Tuesday (12:15 pace), 3 hilly miles Wednesday (12:31 pace), 2 miles yesterday (11:27 pace). It's supposed to be very hot and humid this weekend, which will be good for my 7-mile long run on Sunday, since apparently conditions for the Boilermaker are often hot and humid. So when I'm suffering out there on Sunday, I'll just keep telling myself it's good prep for the race...
Happy weekend running!