I'm on business travel and no matter what the time difference, I always try to get out for a run. The first day I was here (Wed) I ran on the treadmill which I find uber boring! Even with an iPod or headphones to watch the news I get bored. Running 4 miles is torture on the treadmill but a sneeze if I'm outdoors like I was today. It was about 39 degrees this morning and I took off about 6:20 am. I ran the neighborhood from the hotel took Piccard and then made a left on Redlands down towards the office. I really love the brick architecture and the quaint neighborhoods. There's something about New England that is so appealing to me. My colleagues and I had a great time traveling and getting to know one another a little bit better.
Anyhow, my run was great. It's great running in the dark to an extent. Being up early you feel like you get a jump start on the day. Everything is quiet and still. I love watching the sun rise and doing something good for myself before the day starts. On my way back I passed by the Rockville Town Center and "Nick's Chop House" where we ate dinner last night. I had a giant pork chop and gave my 2nd pork chop to my coworker Susan to take home to her husband. Can you believe they gave me two huge pork chops? There was no way I could eat both! Thank goodness I run or I would be as big as the Michelin Man!
Running is my coffee (even though within the last year I have become addicted to coffee!). Without my run I am sluggish, irritable, and unproductive (or not as productive as I would be if I got my run in!). My boss always asks me, "Helen, did you run?" Her second question is usually, "Helen, did you have coffee"? I guess I don't really need the coffee as the combo of running and coffee is like super unleaded!
So I only ran about 4 miles yesterday and about the same today - maybe 4.5 or 5 but nonetheless it's done. On my way back I found this great park with huge play structures for the kids, a baseball diamond, football field, and basketball courts. I ran the perimeter and felt great. The air was cool and perfect for running. I like the crispness of the cold weather out here!
Tomorrow on the flight back I'll wear my compression socks to prevent any clots or pooling of blood in my ankles. Love these socks! This weekend we're doing a 2:15 hour pace run at marathon pace. We'll see how that goes but I'm looking forward to going down a bit on mileage this weekend.
Helen
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
5 weeks to go!
So this past Saturday we met for a casual 16-20 mile run in Oceanside. I agreed, after much cajoling, to meet at 6 am despite my desire to sleep in and get 30 minutes or so more delicious sleep. I think sleeping in is so foreign to me with all this training. As much as I would love to, my training doesn't allow for it.
So, at the parking lot I saw Cherl and running up were Steve and Kelly. It was a bit overcast when we started, perfect running weather. We all set off trying to go slow as we are all experimenting to run 30-60 seconds slower than race pace. We always seem to go faster but our bodies eventually go into auto-pilot after 4 or so miles. Cherl recently signed up for the OC (Orange County) marathon on May 1st so I had another "official" training buddy. Kelly and Steve are just running to stay in shape and keep the endurance in their running repertoire.
We set out and soon hit the San Luis Rey Bike path which parallels a freeway in Oceanside (not sure which one). A lot of runners and bikers use this path as it's 8 miles from one end to the other. For my Bay Area friends, it's a lot like Crystal Springs trail, just a lot less pretty. There is no shade cover and this past Saturday there seemed to be a lot of gnats that kept flying into our face, chest, and sometimes, mouth! This happens in the spring when there is standing water.
The miles were flying by and before we knew it we were at the end of the bike path near the park. Filled up with water and back we went. I decided I would tack on another mile or so to give me 17 miles for the day. Cherl went 20 and finished strong. Kelly and Steve hung back - Steve was a trooper. He hasn't run more than 5 miles recently and here he was running 16! Insane!
So 20 last weekend, 17 this weekend. Next weekend I plan to do 2:15 at marathon pace so for me that will be a 8:45 pace. I've been running most of these long runs at about a 9:05-9:15 pace so this will be pushing it a bit. The weekend after that I'll go long and run about 20-22 miles depending on if I can find a course that doesn't more me to pieces!
So basically another two weeks of long runs and then we will taper! Cannot believe it's coming up so quick. I'm so thankful to have running - it makes me happy and keeps me focused, organized, and centered. Happy trails...
So, at the parking lot I saw Cherl and running up were Steve and Kelly. It was a bit overcast when we started, perfect running weather. We all set off trying to go slow as we are all experimenting to run 30-60 seconds slower than race pace. We always seem to go faster but our bodies eventually go into auto-pilot after 4 or so miles. Cherl recently signed up for the OC (Orange County) marathon on May 1st so I had another "official" training buddy. Kelly and Steve are just running to stay in shape and keep the endurance in their running repertoire.
We set out and soon hit the San Luis Rey Bike path which parallels a freeway in Oceanside (not sure which one). A lot of runners and bikers use this path as it's 8 miles from one end to the other. For my Bay Area friends, it's a lot like Crystal Springs trail, just a lot less pretty. There is no shade cover and this past Saturday there seemed to be a lot of gnats that kept flying into our face, chest, and sometimes, mouth! This happens in the spring when there is standing water.
The miles were flying by and before we knew it we were at the end of the bike path near the park. Filled up with water and back we went. I decided I would tack on another mile or so to give me 17 miles for the day. Cherl went 20 and finished strong. Kelly and Steve hung back - Steve was a trooper. He hasn't run more than 5 miles recently and here he was running 16! Insane!
So 20 last weekend, 17 this weekend. Next weekend I plan to do 2:15 at marathon pace so for me that will be a 8:45 pace. I've been running most of these long runs at about a 9:05-9:15 pace so this will be pushing it a bit. The weekend after that I'll go long and run about 20-22 miles depending on if I can find a course that doesn't more me to pieces!
So basically another two weeks of long runs and then we will taper! Cannot believe it's coming up so quick. I'm so thankful to have running - it makes me happy and keeps me focused, organized, and centered. Happy trails...
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Getting hooked on Blogging
So I started a blog for my uncle who is in the hospital and now I think I may be hooked on this blog concept. I'm going to start chronicling my training so that my training partners can see how far ahead of me they are :-). Seriously, this concept of journaling and sharing it with interested readers is fascinating to me.
So right now I'm training for the Boston Marathon which is run on Patriot's Day in the New England states. The tradition with Boston is that the marathon is run the third Monday in April which marks this holiday. New Englanders observe it as a holiday and people come from all over the state to watch the running of this oldest and most prestigious marathon.
I was lucky to barely qualify for this race last year when my running friends and I went to St. George, UT to run the marathon there. I barely squeaked by and got a 3:49 qualifying time. For my age group, I need under 3:50 to qualify which is about an 8:45 pace. Much slower than in my younger days but these days I am thankful for the extra cushion of time as I seem to need it!
Anyways, I've been training off and on since about December 2010 and thank goodness for my training partners. We've been diligently meeting weekday mornings at 0530 am to get in our runs. Luckily with the time change this weekend we will "spring forward" and have some light in the morning. The bummer is we lose an hour of sleep Saturday night.
As of today, we have a little under 6 weeks to go before the 115th Boston marathon. My training has consisted of 5 days of running a week. Typically I run Mon/Tues/Thurs/Sat/Sun. If I am lucky, I cross train on Wed. and take Fridays completely off. I was debating whether I should do the "Hanson" running plan which has you running 6 days a week but I figured that was just too much for me. I've never been a high mileage runner and even running 5 days/week is a lot for this old body.
We are in the high season right now. Weekday runs range from 4-7 miles even though I know they should be more like 6-8 miles but I barely have enough time to squeeze in a run before I have to shower and get to work. This early morning stuff is brutal but at least it provides me with energy for the day. Saturday runs are LSD - Long Slow Distance. I downloaded "RacePace" an iPhone app which provides training paces based on your ideal marathon finishing time goal. According to the app, I should be running my long runs at 9:06-9:56. Lately, that has been the case with me averaging 9:00 or 9:05 pace on my long runs. Oddly enough, my Sunday recovery runs of 4-5 miles have been at a faster clip - like a 8:50 pace. Mondays are complete trash for me.
Today I did a treadmill run and as much as I despise treadmills I had no choice as it was cold outside and I only brought shorts and a t-shirt and knew I would freeze if I attempted to run the bike path near the gym. It went by surprisingly quickly. Of course I had my iPod shuffle with me along with the 4 tv stations provided by 24 hour fitness. I like to catch up on the news when I run. It's all depressing but good to know how crazy Charlie Sheen is or to know what to wear to work for the week.
My last long run of 20 miles was tough. The first 18 felt easy but the last few miles I dragged. We ran from Moonlight Beach in Encinitas to the top of Torrey Pines hill. Tough, tough, climb. I am terrible on hills. Anyone who knows me will tell you that. But I'm slow and steady and I don't look up. Baby steps. I can tell I have a few blood blisters underneath my 2nd toes. No matter how big a toe box I get I always seem to get blood blisters. Sigh.
this weekend I'll scale it back down to 16 miles. We're going to do the Oceanside Pier trail. My friends, Cherl and hopefully Kelly will be joining me.
Okay, enough for now. More tomorrow.
Helen
So right now I'm training for the Boston Marathon which is run on Patriot's Day in the New England states. The tradition with Boston is that the marathon is run the third Monday in April which marks this holiday. New Englanders observe it as a holiday and people come from all over the state to watch the running of this oldest and most prestigious marathon.
I was lucky to barely qualify for this race last year when my running friends and I went to St. George, UT to run the marathon there. I barely squeaked by and got a 3:49 qualifying time. For my age group, I need under 3:50 to qualify which is about an 8:45 pace. Much slower than in my younger days but these days I am thankful for the extra cushion of time as I seem to need it!
Anyways, I've been training off and on since about December 2010 and thank goodness for my training partners. We've been diligently meeting weekday mornings at 0530 am to get in our runs. Luckily with the time change this weekend we will "spring forward" and have some light in the morning. The bummer is we lose an hour of sleep Saturday night.
As of today, we have a little under 6 weeks to go before the 115th Boston marathon. My training has consisted of 5 days of running a week. Typically I run Mon/Tues/Thurs/Sat/Sun. If I am lucky, I cross train on Wed. and take Fridays completely off. I was debating whether I should do the "Hanson" running plan which has you running 6 days a week but I figured that was just too much for me. I've never been a high mileage runner and even running 5 days/week is a lot for this old body.
We are in the high season right now. Weekday runs range from 4-7 miles even though I know they should be more like 6-8 miles but I barely have enough time to squeeze in a run before I have to shower and get to work. This early morning stuff is brutal but at least it provides me with energy for the day. Saturday runs are LSD - Long Slow Distance. I downloaded "RacePace" an iPhone app which provides training paces based on your ideal marathon finishing time goal. According to the app, I should be running my long runs at 9:06-9:56. Lately, that has been the case with me averaging 9:00 or 9:05 pace on my long runs. Oddly enough, my Sunday recovery runs of 4-5 miles have been at a faster clip - like a 8:50 pace. Mondays are complete trash for me.
Today I did a treadmill run and as much as I despise treadmills I had no choice as it was cold outside and I only brought shorts and a t-shirt and knew I would freeze if I attempted to run the bike path near the gym. It went by surprisingly quickly. Of course I had my iPod shuffle with me along with the 4 tv stations provided by 24 hour fitness. I like to catch up on the news when I run. It's all depressing but good to know how crazy Charlie Sheen is or to know what to wear to work for the week.
My last long run of 20 miles was tough. The first 18 felt easy but the last few miles I dragged. We ran from Moonlight Beach in Encinitas to the top of Torrey Pines hill. Tough, tough, climb. I am terrible on hills. Anyone who knows me will tell you that. But I'm slow and steady and I don't look up. Baby steps. I can tell I have a few blood blisters underneath my 2nd toes. No matter how big a toe box I get I always seem to get blood blisters. Sigh.
this weekend I'll scale it back down to 16 miles. We're going to do the Oceanside Pier trail. My friends, Cherl and hopefully Kelly will be joining me.
Okay, enough for now. More tomorrow.
Helen
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