Workout Fail

Goal:
2x3 Mile at GHMP

Actual:
10x1 Min on/off at McAlpine

"Why do you always plan big workouts after vacation?  They never end well!"

That's exactly what Aaron practically spat out to me as he joined Laurie and I as we finished our adjusted workout of minuters.  And he was exactly right.  He also added that I never learn.  Maybe it's just that I am an overachiever and hope that each time it will go well.  Well, it didn't. 

Upon my return from California, I struggled to wake up in the morning and the humid air seemed like a shock to my system.  I, along with other Charlotteans, am probably adjusting to the full onset of summer weather that has arrived.  It's hot, humid and sticky.  Beads of sweat form all over my body and drip continuously down when I run; that's how I know it's summer.  All of that being said, the workout probably should have just been scrapped, but we decided to do minuters instead and to put all of our marbles in the bag for a hard long run Saturday.  This plan has worked for me in the past, and I just have to trust that all of my hard long runs since March will give me what it takes to run sub 5:55 at the USA Half Marathon Champs in 3.5 weeks.

Down Ladder at the JCSU Track

Goal:
2000m, 1600m, 1200m, 800m, 400m w/ 400m rest

Actual:
2.5 mile warmup to JCSU
2000m (5:45 through mile), 1600m (5:29), 1200m (4:01 - all in 80), 800m (2:36 - 78/78), 400m (70), 400m (72) w/ 400m jog rest
2.5 mile cool down for ~10 Miles total

pm: 5 miles for 15 miles total for day

The 5:10AM alarm this morning was much easier to wake up to, knowing that Laurie was coming to my house for the warmup.  Given that there was basically no way out of this workout without dramatically affecting Laurie's workout, I hopped out of bed immediately to begin my preparations.  Somehow I had extra time to spare and I found myself sweeping the floor before heading out the door.  The warmup was uneventful, and we made it to the track where we found AJ waiting for us.  Not long thereafter, Aaron, Jesse, Charlie and Mike all showed up and the two separate groups began their respective workouts. 

Laurie and I were solo, so we alternated leads for each interval, and I was up first for the 2000m.  I took us out entirely too slow (93) and found myself making up for it on the remaining laps.  In the end, we came through in our target pace of 5:45.  For the mile, Laurie lead us through a solid time of 5:29 and I felt like my breathing was out of whack.  I didn't want the workout to be doomed due to my labored breathing, so I accounted it to the humidity and not my lack of fitness.  Fortunately, for the remainder of the workout, I felt comfortable and confident and....fast!  After the first 9 laps of works were completed, the workout was much easier to handle as we only had 6 laps left.  Since the boys had 400s, we waited for them for our last interval, and I tucked right in with Mike and took us out at what I would consider a blistering pace of 70.  In my Nike Pegasus trainers, that was basically all out for me, but it felt almost effortless.  I would actually consider it fun, which is an adjective I thought I'd never use in the near future to describe a track workout. Since I'm an overachiever, I decided to add on another 400m since the guys had one more to go.  Although this went against the prescribed workout, I didn't want to pass up another opportunity to potentially beat the guys.  This "una mas" interval wasn't as fast as my other one, but the effort was still there.

Overall, this workout is a positive indicator that my fitness is indeed where I want it to be.  I felt relaxed and maintained what I consider to be some solid times.  Admittedly, though, I am looking forward to a long weekend in California with my sister where I don't have to get up at 5:00AM

Week in Review

75 Miles
0 Days Off
8 Runs
10x1 Min Workout
16 miles w/ 4 miles @ 553 pace

This week surprisingly did not start off with sore legs.  In fact, since I ran so slow at my race on Saturday, my legs felt rather spritely, so I decided to jump into a workout on Tuesday.  I didn't write a blog this week for my minuter workout because there really wasn't much to report besides the facts.  I ran with Caleb and Laurie in the morning, with no focus on the splits or the paces, and finished feeling like I got in some good speed.  After more runs with fellow CRCers, my week culminated with a 16 mile long run with some tempo miles at goal half marathon pace thrown in.  Brad and Laurie accompanied me on the faster part, and we shot off a little too quick, but ran 4 miles in 23:35, gradually dropping the pace.  I pulled away from Brad in the end (he has a marathon next week), feeling the strongest at the finish.

As Meagan noted to me on phone earlier this week, we've got five weeks to get into good enough shape to run enough consecutive miles at this same pace to earn a PR.  I'm encouraged that things are headed in the right direction, and I'm crossing my fingers that the air in Duluth will be much dryer than the air here in Charlotte.  Summer is coming on full force as the humidity levels are beginning to finally reach what's considered normal.

Back to the Track: Mile Repeats

Goal:
4-5x mile with 400m rest gradually getting faster

Actual:
2.7 warmup
4xmile in 5:40, 5:35, 5:30, 5:20
2.3 cool down for 10 miles total

Prior to this morning, I hadn't been on the track for anything longer than 400m repeats since the CRC 100x5k back in March 2011.  I was excited, yet slightly nervous, for this adventure on the track for mile repeats.  I had mile repeats on the schedule, but Laurie had a different flavor of the same workout, so I opted for hers.  The goal was to get faster on each one and to end around 5:20 pace.  Laurie met at my house and we ran to JCSU to start our workout in the dark.  Charlie showed up a few minutes later and started his own workout at a faster pace than us.  Laurie and I alternated leads on each repeat, and it is amazing how we nailed the paces.  Every single lap was basically perfect...and by perfect I mean right at 85 for the 5:40 mile, plus or minus .2 seconds.  On the last one I had to lead us to a 5:20, so the pressure was on.  Fortunately we nailed it! I was tired after that fourth one and admittedly it was a little hard to run 5:20 in the trainers on the track.  A part of me wished that I had worn my racing flats, but it didn't really matter.

It was definitely great to have Laurie and Charlie out there because if they hadn't been there, I would have ditched the track after two lonely laps and opted for the roads.  Surprisingly, I rather enjoyed the time on the track and wouldn't be opposed to heading back out to JCSU in the near future for another speedy workout.

Moe's Burrito Dash 5k

Goal:
Win Prize Money

Actual:
3.1 mile warmup
5k race in 19:04 with Burrito, 2nd place, $1000
3 mile cool down

PM:  6 miles with Laurie for ~14 miles total

Last year, I found this gem of a race, the Moe's Burrito Dash, with a very deep prize purse, but with a slight catch: you had to eat a burrito in the middle of the race.  Last year, only one other competitive woman showed up and it was a relatively easy win.  It helped that the race was short, that the burrito station was at mile 2, and that the burrito was about the size of a taco.  This year, the course was exactly 5 kilometers, the burrito station was at 1.5 miles, and the burrito was bigger.  To further complicate matters, there were six women with me in the burrito station.

Despite all of that, it was a blast because of two things: (1) Garrett and I got to take a mini road trip with Laurie down to the race, one of my favorite people in Charlotte and (2) Laurie, Pezz and I finally all toed a start line in the same race together!  Ironically, I had told Pezz about this race a couple weeks ago, questioning her decision to do the Tar Heel Ten Miler, which was further away and featured a smaller prize purse.  On Thursday, she texted me asking permission for her to run it. Pezz is so nice that I'm pretty sure if I had said NO WAY, she would have actually not run it.  Of course, I told her that I do not own the Burrito Dash and that she should definitely do it.  Knowing that both Pezz and Laurie have PRs that are minutes faster than mine, I didn't want to discount either of them before the race because I had done a decent job of eating my burrito last year.  Well, not this time around....

After a nice warmup with Laurie and Pezz, we all toed the line and waited for the signal.  Pezz effectively false started, but it didn't matter as we all followed a couple seconds later.  Pezz shot off to the front and another tiny girl went with her, but then fell back to where Laurie and I were.  After 1000m, Pezz was about 15m ahead of me and I was in second. I knew that Laurie, the tiny girl and a couple others were close, but I kept chugging through.  I didn't catch my splits, but I guess I went through the first mile in 5:15.  We got the burrito stand, and Pezz had taken about 2 bites.  After 10 seconds, Laurie, the tiny girl and two former college runners entered.  We were all stacked against each other and eating a burrito.  I couldn't breathe without snot shooting out of my nose, and I kept glancing at Pezz and Laurie to see where they were at.  At one point, I almost threw it all up but managed to keep it down.  Out of nowhere, Laurie downed her burrito and took off right before Pezz yelled "welcome to moe's" and I was left to follow in their dust about 10 seconds behind.  Another girl was right with me and I broke her after 400m.  Around 2.25, I caught up to Laurie (finally), told her GREAT BURRITO EATING and she told me to GET PEZZ.  I told her that another girl was close behind me and powered ahead.

At the finish, I crossed the line about 8 seconds back from Pezz and threw up as soon as I crossed.  The next girl, Christina Supino, a former Dartmouth runner, was close behind and then Laurie.  I was bummed that Laurie, Pezz, and I did not take the top three spots, but Laurie had just gotten an iron drip, so she was still recovering from that.  Fortunately, she is a great sport and was totally supportive of us and patiently waited for us to get our awards.  She did come away with 50 Moe's Bucks, but since they were only valid Columbia, she gave it to Christina, who lives there.

Overall, this year's experience wasn't nearly as positive as last year since I threw up and had a much more difficult time eating the burrito, but I had a lot of fun with some of Charlotte's fastest women!

Some 400s on the DSL

Goal:
14x400m with 1:00 rest

Actual:
3.7 mile warmup
4x600m (157, 200, 159, 200 w/ 1:45 rest)+ 6x400m (77, 77, 77, 77, 75, 75 w/ 75 sec rest)
3 mile cool down for 10 miles total

I had 14x400m on the schedule for today, but I really want to set myself up for a PR on Saturday, so I decided to switch it up a bit for only 3 miles of quality.  I had the pleasure of working out with Laurie for the first time in 2013 and it was a tremendous help!  All the guys that I typically work out with were all recovering from PRs from the weekend, so it was basically just the two of us on the Dilworth Speed Loop in the dark, early morning hours.

There really isn't much to report here except that I came away feeling like I got some good turnover in the legs without overly taxing myself physically.  I'm looking forward to more workouts with Laurie as we both continue to get into better shape than we are now!

Week in Review

32 miles
6 days of running
3 days of sickness
2 days of lifting
8 mile long run

Yeah this isn't the week I wanted it to be, but life got in the way.  I lost weight, my wedding dress is too big, I stressed too much over the wedding, I got sick, and I haven't been able to sleep.  Not in that particular order, but that summarizes my week.  My shin is fine when running, but when I perform self massage on it, the left shin doesn't feel the same as the right, so I'm not 100% better yet.  I'm hoping I can get in a respectable long run next week and hit 45-50 miles so that I'm not sucking wind the week of the wedding.  On a positive note, I was able to get well enough to attend the celebration party that Laurie hosted at her house for Garrett and I.  It was great to hang out with everyone in a non-running environment and to just sit back, laugh, and enjoy everyone's company.  We have such a great group here in Charlotte!!

Pre-Race Workout

Goal:
3 mile tempo at 6:00-5:50 + 4x400m

Actual:
3.5 mile warmup
3 mile tempo in 6:10, 5:56, 5:56 + 4x400m with 1:00 rest.
3 mile cool down

4 miles in the pm

This felt harder than it should have, but I've had other workouts where I could barely break 6:00 pace before a race and then really crushed the race, so I walked away feeling pretty good about my effort, and confident about the prospect of a race in DC.  Caleb, Laurie, Eric and I all met up at the Speed Loop way before the sun came up, and started the workout without much thought.  For the first mile, we were all in a comfortable little pack, talking a little too much, and it was eerily similar to my Army Ten Miler pre-race workout last year.  Except, this year we went through the first mile much more slowly and then Caleb and Laurie took off and I tried to hang on desperately, but my leg wouldn't do it.  Then I hovered around the same pace for the last mile, watching Caleb and Laurie run smoothly about 30 meters ahead.  After a half mile jog, we started the 400s and again, my legs felt heavy to lift, but I completed them feeling strong.  On the cool down, I enjoyed the cooler weather and felt really positive about the weekend.

Then, in the afternoon, I felt my hamstring revert back to where it had been a couple weeks ago--exceptionally tight.  When I really thought things were starting to get better in my hammy, a little workout went ahead and threw it all off.  It really all comes down to the fact that I was slack on my glute exercises. Like most runners, I've got a weakness in my left glute, which is causing my hamstring to do a lot more work than necessary, therefore causing my hamstring some wear and tear.  Hopefully it will hold up for Army Ten Miler!