No, I haven't posted in a while. I have been training, nothing monumental. Pretty much taper stuff. I haven't run more then 8 or so miles since the 21 and change trek through Pocohantas.
I am making this an event. I am bringing a camera, and taking pics of me with spectators, the scenery, fellow looney tune runners.
I am nervous, why? Why not? I want to run well, but don't know if I will be able to for 26.2 miles. This is my last big race of my season. What a way to end everything. I am looking forward to taking it easy and just going to some technique based classes that Brad and I signed up for this winter. We are going to hit the ground running in January. I need to be able to ride for 56 miles, after swimming for 1.25 miles and then run a half marathon. These classes will help me get the right form down so I can train at my maximum potential.
I signed up for the NYC Triathlon for next July today. So I know I will be doing one other race besides the Half Ironman in April!
Wish me luck, this grouchy marathoner is going to need it!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
The Ceiling is in shards at my feet
Yes my blogging friends, I did it. Yesterday was the day I head butted the glass ceiling and then broke through. I hovered there with all of my long runs, maybe even left my dirty fingerprints on it, but never broke through.
Once again my husband decided that we needed to run the trail of Pocohantas Park for our long run. Once again, I questioned the wisdom. The trails are tough, they are way hillier then I need to run, but I had a fierce determination to conquer the milestone my friends.
We got ourselves up, ate our breakfast, mine was a bowl of granola and Life cereal, because not only Mikey likes it, and a few brownie bites. I know, the breakfast of champions, but I figured what the hell, the carbs would be needed.
I made 6 water bottles up of Gatorade and plain water and ice. Gathered up a bunch of GU packets, a few cliff bars and protein bars and we were off to Pocohantas.
It was cool yesterday. A bracing 48 degrees when we started, and that bodes well for me. I run way better in the cool then in the heat. We got out, I made a potty stop while Brad got his I-Pod all ready for the trek and we were off.
I had a strategy in my back pocket for this run too. I had started training for the marathon with a book about marathons written by Jeff Galloway. He recommends 2 minute walk breaks after a certain amount of mileage run to help save your legs and avoid hitting the wall at 20 miles. I told Brad I wanted to do that, I know he likes running harder then I do so I didn't expect that he would want to join me. But he did, he said he wanted to see if he did that would he be able to pick up his pace towards the end. So off we went. I remember that Galloway said as tempting as it is to not take those breaks early on, take them, you'll be thankful later that you did. So after two miles Brad said let's walk now. After two minutes we started running again, then we walked for two minutes after the two miles. We skipped our last walk break because I needed to hit the loo again during the last bit of our first almost 7 mile loop we had set up. Got back the the truck, refilled our water bottles with Gatorade, GU'd up, and off we went. This loop we vascillated between speeds, but still took our 2 minute walk breaks, but not necessarily after two miles. Sometimes we stretched it because we were on a good downhill and wanted to wait until we were finished with the uphill of that. But we did still take our breaks. We added to our second loop so we actually ran 9 miles as opposed to 7-ish. We refilled, GU'd up and we were ready for the last bit of our 20 plus miles.
It was fairly uneventful other then the fact that my legs hurt like a motherf*@$%r and I wanted to throw in the towel. We had two or so miles left and Brad said he wanted to pick up the pace, he had legs left the bastard, I told him to go on ahead and I would catch up, that I would probably need a walk break before I could finish. My last two miles were dicey. I walked/ran it, I can't say I was Speedy Gonzales, but I kept reminding myself that I had never run or walked that far before. When I realized where I was and that I was about 1000 meters or so to the parking lot where we were parked I really started to run. I ran because I knew I was close to the end, I ran because I knew I would be able to stop soon, I ran because it still hurt like a bitch when I walked. I ran until I got to Christine our black truck, and then I stopped. I felt like Forrest Gump(I'm pretty tired, I think I'll go home now) only on steriods. I was pissy that my legs hurt like they did, Brad said it looked like I was going to kill someone. I did say the first person in my path was going to get punched, and punched hard. Brad ducked back in Christine laughing at me.
Why? I dunno, I think maybe all of those endorphins went bad because it took too long to release them after all of those miles. Hmmmm, I wonder if endorphins spoil?
Once again my husband decided that we needed to run the trail of Pocohantas Park for our long run. Once again, I questioned the wisdom. The trails are tough, they are way hillier then I need to run, but I had a fierce determination to conquer the milestone my friends.
We got ourselves up, ate our breakfast, mine was a bowl of granola and Life cereal, because not only Mikey likes it, and a few brownie bites. I know, the breakfast of champions, but I figured what the hell, the carbs would be needed.
I made 6 water bottles up of Gatorade and plain water and ice. Gathered up a bunch of GU packets, a few cliff bars and protein bars and we were off to Pocohantas.
It was cool yesterday. A bracing 48 degrees when we started, and that bodes well for me. I run way better in the cool then in the heat. We got out, I made a potty stop while Brad got his I-Pod all ready for the trek and we were off.
I had a strategy in my back pocket for this run too. I had started training for the marathon with a book about marathons written by Jeff Galloway. He recommends 2 minute walk breaks after a certain amount of mileage run to help save your legs and avoid hitting the wall at 20 miles. I told Brad I wanted to do that, I know he likes running harder then I do so I didn't expect that he would want to join me. But he did, he said he wanted to see if he did that would he be able to pick up his pace towards the end. So off we went. I remember that Galloway said as tempting as it is to not take those breaks early on, take them, you'll be thankful later that you did. So after two miles Brad said let's walk now. After two minutes we started running again, then we walked for two minutes after the two miles. We skipped our last walk break because I needed to hit the loo again during the last bit of our first almost 7 mile loop we had set up. Got back the the truck, refilled our water bottles with Gatorade, GU'd up, and off we went. This loop we vascillated between speeds, but still took our 2 minute walk breaks, but not necessarily after two miles. Sometimes we stretched it because we were on a good downhill and wanted to wait until we were finished with the uphill of that. But we did still take our breaks. We added to our second loop so we actually ran 9 miles as opposed to 7-ish. We refilled, GU'd up and we were ready for the last bit of our 20 plus miles.
It was fairly uneventful other then the fact that my legs hurt like a motherf*@$%r and I wanted to throw in the towel. We had two or so miles left and Brad said he wanted to pick up the pace, he had legs left the bastard, I told him to go on ahead and I would catch up, that I would probably need a walk break before I could finish. My last two miles were dicey. I walked/ran it, I can't say I was Speedy Gonzales, but I kept reminding myself that I had never run or walked that far before. When I realized where I was and that I was about 1000 meters or so to the parking lot where we were parked I really started to run. I ran because I knew I was close to the end, I ran because I knew I would be able to stop soon, I ran because it still hurt like a bitch when I walked. I ran until I got to Christine our black truck, and then I stopped. I felt like Forrest Gump(I'm pretty tired, I think I'll go home now) only on steriods. I was pissy that my legs hurt like they did, Brad said it looked like I was going to kill someone. I did say the first person in my path was going to get punched, and punched hard. Brad ducked back in Christine laughing at me.
Why? I dunno, I think maybe all of those endorphins went bad because it took too long to release them after all of those miles. Hmmmm, I wonder if endorphins spoil?
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The 20 mile glass ceiling...
Hello, and here we are again trying to smash through that freakin' 20 mile glass ceiling. Brad and I had it all planned out we did. Tired of chasing through the maze of Foxes around here we opted for the pristine trials, oops I meant to type trails of Pocohantas State Park. It is truly lovely there and we had a flipping hoot of a time when we camped there this summer, but we knew there were several great trails we could run to break up the Foxy monotony of our distance runs.
We filled water bottles with Accelerade, the fruit punch kind, my new favorite flavor, Gatorade and ice water. We grabbed Bumble Bars, Cliff bars and Snickers marathon bars. Plus our new favorite GU, the vanilla orange Roctance. I also brought along some Luna Moons, not unlike my Jolly Rancher Sport Beans that I like so well. A lot stickier though so you get the added fun of trying to pick your teeth while you are scooting along. Hey, anything to keep me occupied. Otherwise I start imagining I am running with Edward Cullen, which really isn't a bad thing if you know anything about him, but he's faster then I am so I can't keep that pace, hahahaha!
We get to Pocohantas and decide to run the Old Mill Trail with like a lollipop loop to add to the mileage and make it end up at the parking lot where Brad's truck is parked. That is where we have our beverage station set up. It was perfect really. After our first uneventful running 12 minute miles loop, we reload our fuel belts and off we go. We ran the next one at a much faster pace. We ran 9 minutes on the downhills, 10 on the flats, 11 on the uphills. I had to imagine myself on my mountain bike on some of those uphills though. They hurt to go up, especially the one that was like a 45 degree angle leading up to our SAG wagon set up! We completed our next 5.6, replenish our stores and set off again. This time we take Beaver Lake Trail. Hahaha, Beaver lake, hahaha, anyway it was a mountain bike path. I had to imagine myself on my bike for it too. It would have been a fun trail to ride for sure, see my Muddy Buddy post if you want some insight into my mountain bike prowess or lack thereof, it sucked to run for me. That much faster pace on the last loop tapped me. We continued to run, did a modified last loop and wound up at the car. We did 17 miles, we didn't have time to finish the full 20, we needed to start the kid round up.
Anyway, we get back to the truck, Brad grabbed the two ice filled water bottles from the cooler and hands one to me. I greedily start slurping the water down my throat, I had ripped the top off because that squirt action was just pissing me off, and lo and behold an ice cube hit that little punching bag down the back of my throat and starts my gag reflex. Just then, this old couple who had been walking the trails comes right up to the back end of our truck where I am now in the process of trying not to heave as the water is pouring out of my nose like Niagara Falls. I walk to the front of our truck because now boogies from the back of my throat are mixing in with everything and it is all running for the nearest exit like patrons in a crowded movie theater and a fire breaks out. At that point all I heard was the roar of everything making it's grand entrance onto the pavement below and their Volkswagen Bug trying it's buggy best to get away from the barfing extravaganza that was occurring! Then, after everything drained from me like the plug being pulled from a tub, I started to laugh. That poor old couple! I can't imagine what I looked like. Probably red faced, maybe like one of those angel fountains with water spewing from it's mouth (and nose!), drenched in sweat...My spectacle was only outdone by my husband deciding he needed to get changed with a towel wrapped around his waist. If that towel had fallen, oh the humanity!!! I still laugh when I think about all of it. Unfortunately the glass ceiling still is intact, we're going to have to do something about that soon. All of those hills had to count for something, straigten out the course we ran and it had to be 20 miles right???
We filled water bottles with Accelerade, the fruit punch kind, my new favorite flavor, Gatorade and ice water. We grabbed Bumble Bars, Cliff bars and Snickers marathon bars. Plus our new favorite GU, the vanilla orange Roctance. I also brought along some Luna Moons, not unlike my Jolly Rancher Sport Beans that I like so well. A lot stickier though so you get the added fun of trying to pick your teeth while you are scooting along. Hey, anything to keep me occupied. Otherwise I start imagining I am running with Edward Cullen, which really isn't a bad thing if you know anything about him, but he's faster then I am so I can't keep that pace, hahahaha!
We get to Pocohantas and decide to run the Old Mill Trail with like a lollipop loop to add to the mileage and make it end up at the parking lot where Brad's truck is parked. That is where we have our beverage station set up. It was perfect really. After our first uneventful running 12 minute miles loop, we reload our fuel belts and off we go. We ran the next one at a much faster pace. We ran 9 minutes on the downhills, 10 on the flats, 11 on the uphills. I had to imagine myself on my mountain bike on some of those uphills though. They hurt to go up, especially the one that was like a 45 degree angle leading up to our SAG wagon set up! We completed our next 5.6, replenish our stores and set off again. This time we take Beaver Lake Trail. Hahaha, Beaver lake, hahaha, anyway it was a mountain bike path. I had to imagine myself on my bike for it too. It would have been a fun trail to ride for sure, see my Muddy Buddy post if you want some insight into my mountain bike prowess or lack thereof, it sucked to run for me. That much faster pace on the last loop tapped me. We continued to run, did a modified last loop and wound up at the car. We did 17 miles, we didn't have time to finish the full 20, we needed to start the kid round up.
Anyway, we get back to the truck, Brad grabbed the two ice filled water bottles from the cooler and hands one to me. I greedily start slurping the water down my throat, I had ripped the top off because that squirt action was just pissing me off, and lo and behold an ice cube hit that little punching bag down the back of my throat and starts my gag reflex. Just then, this old couple who had been walking the trails comes right up to the back end of our truck where I am now in the process of trying not to heave as the water is pouring out of my nose like Niagara Falls. I walk to the front of our truck because now boogies from the back of my throat are mixing in with everything and it is all running for the nearest exit like patrons in a crowded movie theater and a fire breaks out. At that point all I heard was the roar of everything making it's grand entrance onto the pavement below and their Volkswagen Bug trying it's buggy best to get away from the barfing extravaganza that was occurring! Then, after everything drained from me like the plug being pulled from a tub, I started to laugh. That poor old couple! I can't imagine what I looked like. Probably red faced, maybe like one of those angel fountains with water spewing from it's mouth (and nose!), drenched in sweat...My spectacle was only outdone by my husband deciding he needed to get changed with a towel wrapped around his waist. If that towel had fallen, oh the humanity!!! I still laugh when I think about all of it. Unfortunately the glass ceiling still is intact, we're going to have to do something about that soon. All of those hills had to count for something, straigten out the course we ran and it had to be 20 miles right???
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