Auntie Em Goes Running

Tempo run.  

Easy.

Last longer run.  Some MP.

Easy

Travel day.

Back late last night from Kauaii for Spring Break, so this run did not happen until late in the day.  I haven't been able to blog any of my running in the two weeks I've been gone, but, trust me, I ran.  And tapered.  I am off in the morning to Paris!  Again, I'll be unable to blog while I'm restricted to my Ipad, but if you really have to know, you can find me on facebook (Kelly Krieger).  I will post a report there on the 10th.  Otherwise, I'll be back the 17th!

 Happy Springtime everyone!

Travel

First Paris run!  Jogged to the beautiful Luxemborg Jardin.  3X4 minutes at MP.  Jogged back to apartment.

We were going to do a race prep run today, but decided to forgo it, as we spent quite a bit of time on our feet between going to the expo in one part of the city and practicing our metro trip for race morning, plus all the walking that accompanies that.

  I have spent the last two weeks in Hawaii, tapering and enjoying the sunshine, then flew directly to Paris, stopping for an overnight at home to collect some fresh running clothes.  Needless to say when I arrived in Paris on April 8th, I had no idea what time zone I was in!  We arrived about 3 in the afternoon Paris time, checked into the apartment, and jogged over to Luxemborg Gardens for some marathon paced intervals.  Then dinner in our neighborhood and in bed by 11pm.  We spent the 9th visiting the expo, learning the metro, and rehearsing the metro ride over to the race start.  Since the race begins and ends near the Arc de Triumphe and Place de la Concorde, it was no hardship to go over there anyway; it gave us an opportunity to wander around the courtyards of the Louvre and visit Tuilleries Jardin.  We spent a bit of time walking, so we decided to forego the pre race run on this day.  Instead, we got some carry out food on our way back to the apartment, plus some groceries for the next few days, and tried to go to bed early.  

Race Morning!  Up early, bag packed, and off to the start.  The start is at 8:45, which is pretty strange, and it is clear and warm in the morning.  Already shorts and a light sweatshirt feels pretty comfortable.  Arlane (my running buddy on this trip) and I check bags and agree on a meet-up place for post race, then make our way to the start line, pausing for a few minutes to take a few pictures in front of the Arc de Triumphe.  There are no corrals or anything, but there is an 8:45 pace person, so I get in the pack near that marker.  In just a few minutes we are off and running, amazingly on pace.  I feel packed like a little sardine, and find that I am running a bit defensively, elbows out!  First few miles are a bit off pace, due to rounding the Place de la Concorde and slowing at the tight turns.  I am at 8:40ish for the first two miles. After that, I settle into exactly 8:25-8:30, which is what I am after.  It is surprisingly not that hard even in this crowd; self seeding has apparently worked out pretty well, and everyone around me is running about the same pace.  I try to run as straight as possible and not dodge and weave too much, always keeping the pacer in sight just ahead.  

The crowds on the sidewalks are enormous and VERY vocal!  Really wonderful.  For the first 10 miles, we are running South, down Champs Elleysee and towards a large forrest called Bois de Vincennes.  We pass Notre Dame, Paris Opera House and the Bastille along the way, but my focus is in a sphere about two feet around my body just because of the crowds.  There is a water and refreshment station every 5K, where the water is served in tiny plastic bottles.  My first reaction is that this is a horrible waste of plastic, and it is, but the bottle allows you to grab a bottle and sip it for a mile or so before discarding it.  There are also oranges and bananas AT EVERY AID STATION!  If there is anything in the world that makes me completely sick it is a banana.  I cannot stand the smell of them, so I spent a lot of time near the refreshment stations dodging plastic water bottles, caps, gu cylinders, and banana peels.  I was pretty sure that if I stepped on a banana peel, the race would be over.   I grabbed a water bottle at just about every station, drank it, and, as it got warmer, poured some over my head.  

At the halfway mark, I was at 1:51:something, exactly where I wanted to be!  Pace felt fine, and I was trying to eat a shot block every mile or two.  At about mile 15, I heard "merde!" off to my right, and a 200 pound man fell over right on me, absolutely smashing my right big toe!  It hurt so badly I wanted to cry, and my left arm came up, caught him mid fall and literally threw him off of me!  I didn't even look at where he went, but I imagine him sort of splatted all over the runners behind me.  My toe hurt like absolute hell for about a mile, and the whole thing was a bit scary.  The race at this point was still elbow to elbow, no different from the start really.

I hit my wall at about mile 19, and just felt no fuel left in my legs.  My pace from this point slowed a whole lot, and I finished in 4:05:23, a little bit off of my 3:45 goal.  But of course this is the best marathon I've ever run anyway.  No injuries, no ambulances, just the running!  Just to finish running with everything feeling good was such a hurdle for me.  I obviously need to get in more fuel during a race, but I'll figure that out for next time. 

I didn't even find Arlane at the end, and had no idea if she was ahead of me or behind me, so eventually I just got on the metro and headed home.  There were thousands of people crowding onto the trains, so many that they just opened the gates and let everyone just stream in.  I felt sorry for the few people on the train who hadn't run a marathon; we must have smelled pretty bad!

I didn't think I'd be saying this, but already I am looking forward to the next one!  I won't do a Fall marathon, thought, because I want to focus on biathlon, triathlon and duathlon over the summer, plus mountain biking.   I am looking forward to running speed workouts and doing some track events too.   I will plan another marathon for Spring 2012. 

Just wanted to add a couple of things.  It got very warm on marathon day!  70 plus by finishing time.  I don't think the heat was a factor for me; I wasn't too hot, but was rather surprised that it got so warm.  Also, I ran the marathon in the Saucony Kinvaras!  I have really loved that shoe, but never imagined that I'd run a marathon in such a light shoe.   I don't see any reason to ever have another shoe now.

Just got home from Paris last night, but I was up early, so decided to go meet my bike club for a "rabbit" ride.  Haven't been on my bike in WAY too long, and haven't run or really done much except walk all over Paris for the last 6 days.  Plus a lot of sitting on airplanes.

Anyway, this bike club is determined to kick my butt.  I am the only woman who comes; I will really have to change that.  The goal in a rabbit ride is to try and catch up to the group ahead of you.  Then the last person in that group has to drop back to the group behind.  I started out in the middle group, and was doing pretty good for most of the ride.  I am a pretty strong hill climber, and can usually catch and ditch others on the hills, so that saved me.  I am not very good at the downhills because, duh, all these guys weigh a lot more than I do!  Also, jet lag maybe, but I was toast after 25 miles, and just tried to hang on and draft for the last 7!

I just posted my Paris Marathon report on April 10 blog, if you are interested!

Jet lag sucks!  I haven't slept for days.

But, life goes on.  Yoga this morning, and it felt so good to be back in class after my long absence.  Absolutely delicious.

Track workout this evening.  Warm up, with jogging, drills, etc., then 6X200 at .43, .48, .48, .50, .49, and .43.  Kind of all over the place on my pace tonight.  I guess it is because I am so tired.  Felt good to run a bit fast though.  Cool down on the track.  Short workout.

First brick workout!  I was looking at my training calendar this morning, and realized that I am supposed to do a duathlon near Mt. Ranier Saturday the 30th!  YIKES!  I am not even sure if I registered in time.   Its a 5.2 mile run, a 28 mile bike ride, and then a 3.3 mile run.  Better get ready.

Bike ride this morning was 16.42 miles, average pace of 15.3.  Low heart rate of 137 average.  The effort felt easy, just as it was supposed to.

The run was also at a 137 heart rate.  Stopped only long enough to change shoes and shorts, longer than a racing transition, but enough to simulate going directly from biking to running.  I ran 4.12 miles.

I would like to another (longer) one of these on Sunday, but it is unfortunately an Holy Day for our family (last of lift assisted skiing on Mt. Baker).  Choices are hard.

Early am track workout.  Its almost light enough at 5:30 to not run on the track!  Spring is coming I guess.  Warmed up, did drills, jogged, then 4X400 at 7:30 pace, with 1 minute rest intervals jogging.  Cool down around Western campus and on to yoga.

I picked 7:30 pace because this will be my goal pace for a 5K I'm running this weekend.  I am actually going to try something different on this race, since it is just a social race and sandwiched in between two bike rides anyway.  I am going to start at 7:40, go to 7:30 the second mile, and speed up more the last mile.  Usually on a 5K I go out on pace and try to stay there.  But 5K has not gone so well for me this past winter; it proved too difficult to train for a marathon and speed at the same time, I think.  Anyway, something different!

swimming only.

Decided to run a local 5K this morning.  Amazingly, I was able to keep splits fairly consistent and get a PR!  Splits were 6:59, 7:03, 7:18, and 6:34 (for .1).  Time was 22:04.

I hung around and ate pizza for awhile and then went on to the rest of my workout.  45 minutes on the bike at slightly above easy HR (average HR was 133).  40 minutes of running at easy HR (HR was 140), and then a final 45 minutes of biking at a slightly higher HR than the first bike ride (average was 139).

No running!  Skiing in the sunshine to celebrate Easter and the final day of Mt. Baker with lift assisted skiing.  We have such an incredible amount of snow up there (and more on the way this week), that it seems unbelievable that they are closing!  I see lots of great back country coming up for Spring!

Really slow, easy run with my friend Aeron before yoga.  45 degrees, with a gentle rain, and large black slugs everywhere.  Ran to yoga and darn near fell asleep at the end, during relaxation.  

Happy Monday everyone!

It is the kind of day that is hard indoors!  Nevertheless, I waited until this afternoon to do my bike ride.  Swam this morning, and I'm adding swimming to crosstraining miles now, since I'm officially training for a tri!  I seriously doubt my ability to swim at times; we will see if I can actually pull it off.  I don't mind if I come out of the water mid pack; I'll definitely be able to catch most people on the bike and the run.  My fear is coming out of the water dead last...

Bike ride was a sustained hill workout.  30 minutes wu, 30 minutes tempo effort on the hill, and 30 minutes cd.  Perfect day for it.  I believe Sunday's race has a large hill in it, which I will do twice, since I am doing the longer course.

Things are so busy in my house, with my smallest chick graduating and leaving the nest!  Prom, graduation, gowns, senior projects!  Best for me to stay busy and stay out of the way.  Trying to drop a few tidbits of guidance as I disappear into the background.....

I was planning on riding for 1.5 hours, then transitioning quickly to running shoes for a 45 minute jog.  Instead, I was forced to transition directly into a hot bathtub and give up the running.  After I left on my bike, it began to rain, then the temperature dropped by about 10 degrees and it rained harder.  I was wearing tiny little tri shorts, and thankfully a jacket on top, or I would have frozen to death, instead of just becoming hypothermic.  I do not own any of those little neoprene booties that cover the bike shoes, so I was thoroughly soaked, in shorts, in 37 degrees, with driving rain.  Never have I been so miserable and cold.  Thank goodness my wonderful daughter was home when I finished, so she could take off my shoes and helmet for me and make me hot tea.

It is not yet Spring in Bellingham!

Track workout and yoga.  Tempo run.  One of my goals for summer is to perform better on tempo runs.  I really suck at them.  I will have to slow down to actual tempo pace and run for longer at 7:50ish.

No running today; kind of a "rest" day for Sunday's race.  I swam, rather a lot.  I've started getting real swim workouts now, not just my lazy little drill practices.  So, they are harder, and I actually swim a fair amount.  So, I add the equivalent crosstraining miles for the time actually spent doing lap-like swimming.  I don't count laps that are drills.  Today's workout was challenging, and I really couldn't complete the required laps without stopping.  I am a bit discourage, because I am not used to not completing my workouts well!  I guess I have to look at it as if I am a beginning runner, and take walking breaks.  I WILL get this swimming thing.

Strength workout following swim, focus on arms, abs, and hips.  No leg strengthening stuff.

Just a race prep run, sort of a farlek experience, followed by a strength workout.  Ready, ready, ready for the duathlon!