Last week was one of our "off" weeks in terms of mileage. Our longest run on the schedule was "only" 12 miles. Ha ha! I ran 5 miles on Thursday evening with the 10K class (they only had 2 on the schedule so we had to add an extra loop). Saturday morning was a quick 5 miles from my house down to the Bay and back.
Sunday was the Cold Turkey 10K race in South County. I've run this race for the past 3 years or so. It is usually cold, and typically a pretty day. This year was no exception. The difference is that I am normally not really trained up to 6 miles. As we were pulling up to the high school where the race begins and ends, I tweeted that it only seems reasonable to run a 10K race, finish, and run the course again when one is in marathon training. And that is what we did!
The race was actually about .2 miles short. Which explained why I was shocked to be averaging 10:30 minute miles doing Galloway at Mile 2. I slowed down a bit, but still was averaging just under 11:00 minute miles. I find it's pretty difficult for me to conciously slow myself down during a race. This could potentially be a problem during the Half-marathon portion of Goofy. I have one more race to work on this: the Celtic Solstice 5-miler in December. It's the first leg of our 22 mile day, so hopefully I'll be able to keep it slow and easy. We'll see.
Anyway, even with the short course, I averaged 10:50 minute miles for 6 miles. Yikes! We finished the race, grabbed some water and snacks, and headed back out on the course again. Luckily we waited long enough that everyone was pretty much finished by the time we headed back out. While I thought doing the course again would seem tedious, it really wasn't all that hard. We were much slower, of course, but mentally the out-and-back nature of this loop makes it pretty easy to handle. My legs were a little tired from running the first half quickly, but they persevered. It is a pretty hilly course, though! Thankfully, it was much easier than the 12 miles I struggled with a few weeks ago.
With this week being a holiday week, I'll be scrambling to get my runs in. Tonight, I'm going to attempt to get anywhere from 3-5 in, and then my Thursday and Saturday runs will be in South Carolina. I'm aiming to get 9 or 10 miles in total there. I'll be back Saturday night, and we have another 12-miler planned for Sunday.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Field Trip!
One of the few things I can say I really enjoy about long runs (besides the unabashed joy of being finished with one), is the excuse to take running field trips. When we were training for my first marathon 3 years ago, we took all kinds of field trips to run...to the Mt. Vernon Trail in Virginia, to the NCR trail North of Baltimore, and others. Since I moved to Annapolis, I've always wanted to go on a longish run through DC. When I first thought about running in DC, I was thinking 5 miles or so around the Mall. But, you know, 19 worked for me too! Why run 19 miles on a trail we know or around Annapolis, when it can be a fun adventure in DC!
I have to be honest, I was a little nervous about whether or not I would be able to finish this run. It was our first of 3 major back-to-back weekends in preparation for Goofy. With the route I mapped, we had no real bail-out places since we had no car...only cell phones for communication and Metro Stations here and there. On Saturday, we had run the Cold Turkey 10K course with the 10K class as a race preview, and then tacked on 3 extra to make our goal of 9 miles. The course is very hilly, and I actually could feel it a bit after 9 miles. Not a good plan the day before a 19 mile run! I was busy the rest of the day on Saturday, and we even had a concert Saturday evening with a lot of standing! Luckily, my training partner enjoyes sleeping in, too, so we set out from Annapolis at 10AM and caught the Metro into DC.
We started off at the Smithsonian Metro on the Mall right in front of the Washington Monument. After a potty break, we got started and went past the monument, down the reflecting pool, past the Lincoln Memorial, and over the Memorial Bridge. It was a beautiful day...few clouds, pretty sun, but it was around 67, which was a bit hot for a long run. We managed ok, though. Once we got to the other side of the Potomac, we picked up the Mt. Vernon Trail which runs along the water with great views of DC. The trail goes through Gravelly Park just north of the airport, which is a great place to watch planes land and take off from DCA. We turned around just before the ariport and headed back towards DC. At Mile 8 of our run, we turned off the trail and headed over to Roosevelt Island. We carried our water bottles with us, and I had read that the island trails had water fountains, so we could refill there. Unfortunately, they were apparently turned off for the winter! Rats...on a warm day, I knew it would be a thirsty time until we could get to a populated area and find a convenience store!
The island was really pretty...fallen leaves, water, and even some ducks! Once we got back on the Mt. Vernon Trail, it was up, up and up again before we hit the Key Bridge. This was about 10 miles into the run. We turned down M St in Georgetown and the first place we found for water was Dean and Deluca. At this point, I was really thirsty! We split a giant bottle of water into our smaller bottles, and headed back off down M. I would not recommend M St in Georgetown on a pretty day...the shops were all open and tons of people were ambling down the street. Not conducive to a run! We turned off down Wisconsin and headed toward the water again to pick up the Rock Creek trails. This took us along the river by the Kennedy Center, and back up to Memorial Bridge, where there was no crosswalk! We back-tracked over to the Lincoln and managed to pick the trail back up on the other side. From this point on, I was really glad that my training partner had printed a map of our route! I think we pulled it out every half mile or so after this point...we were at about 13 miles.
We circled the Tidal Basin and went by the Jefferson Memorial, and up 15th st back to the Mall. There was a lot of people-dodging going on again because of the crowds (likely due to the pretty day). We also hit a lot of lights which slowed us down. By the time we got to the Capitol, we were at about 15 miles. I have to admit, we walked up Capitol Hill. There was just no way my legs were going to carry me up that hill running...after 15 miles of hills behind them! Luckily, Disney is pretty flat, so we didn't need the hill training! After getting up the Hill, we headed down Pennsylvania to the Eastern Market area, turned down 8th to East Capitol, and headed back towards the Capitol and the Mall. At this point, I was very much ready to be done! Running down Capitol Hill hurt almost as much as walking up it! We finally hit 19 on the Mall, headed back to where we started! We both downed Gatorades we bought at one of the street vendors, stretched, and got back on the Metro in search of food!
All in all, it was a good run! Especially since I was able to finish the back-to-back days! I was tired that night, but not too sore on Monday, which is a good sign!
This weekend/week is an "off" weekend in terms of long runs, so we have 5 tonight at the Community College, I'll get 5 in at some point on Saturday, and then we are running the Cold Turkey 10K on Sunday. We need to get 12 miles total in on Sunday, so I think we'll just go out and run the hilly race course again. Slowly!
I have to be honest, I was a little nervous about whether or not I would be able to finish this run. It was our first of 3 major back-to-back weekends in preparation for Goofy. With the route I mapped, we had no real bail-out places since we had no car...only cell phones for communication and Metro Stations here and there. On Saturday, we had run the Cold Turkey 10K course with the 10K class as a race preview, and then tacked on 3 extra to make our goal of 9 miles. The course is very hilly, and I actually could feel it a bit after 9 miles. Not a good plan the day before a 19 mile run! I was busy the rest of the day on Saturday, and we even had a concert Saturday evening with a lot of standing! Luckily, my training partner enjoyes sleeping in, too, so we set out from Annapolis at 10AM and caught the Metro into DC.
We started off at the Smithsonian Metro on the Mall right in front of the Washington Monument. After a potty break, we got started and went past the monument, down the reflecting pool, past the Lincoln Memorial, and over the Memorial Bridge. It was a beautiful day...few clouds, pretty sun, but it was around 67, which was a bit hot for a long run. We managed ok, though. Once we got to the other side of the Potomac, we picked up the Mt. Vernon Trail which runs along the water with great views of DC. The trail goes through Gravelly Park just north of the airport, which is a great place to watch planes land and take off from DCA. We turned around just before the ariport and headed back towards DC. At Mile 8 of our run, we turned off the trail and headed over to Roosevelt Island. We carried our water bottles with us, and I had read that the island trails had water fountains, so we could refill there. Unfortunately, they were apparently turned off for the winter! Rats...on a warm day, I knew it would be a thirsty time until we could get to a populated area and find a convenience store!
The island was really pretty...fallen leaves, water, and even some ducks! Once we got back on the Mt. Vernon Trail, it was up, up and up again before we hit the Key Bridge. This was about 10 miles into the run. We turned down M St in Georgetown and the first place we found for water was Dean and Deluca. At this point, I was really thirsty! We split a giant bottle of water into our smaller bottles, and headed back off down M. I would not recommend M St in Georgetown on a pretty day...the shops were all open and tons of people were ambling down the street. Not conducive to a run! We turned off down Wisconsin and headed toward the water again to pick up the Rock Creek trails. This took us along the river by the Kennedy Center, and back up to Memorial Bridge, where there was no crosswalk! We back-tracked over to the Lincoln and managed to pick the trail back up on the other side. From this point on, I was really glad that my training partner had printed a map of our route! I think we pulled it out every half mile or so after this point...we were at about 13 miles.
We circled the Tidal Basin and went by the Jefferson Memorial, and up 15th st back to the Mall. There was a lot of people-dodging going on again because of the crowds (likely due to the pretty day). We also hit a lot of lights which slowed us down. By the time we got to the Capitol, we were at about 15 miles. I have to admit, we walked up Capitol Hill. There was just no way my legs were going to carry me up that hill running...after 15 miles of hills behind them! Luckily, Disney is pretty flat, so we didn't need the hill training! After getting up the Hill, we headed down Pennsylvania to the Eastern Market area, turned down 8th to East Capitol, and headed back towards the Capitol and the Mall. At this point, I was very much ready to be done! Running down Capitol Hill hurt almost as much as walking up it! We finally hit 19 on the Mall, headed back to where we started! We both downed Gatorades we bought at one of the street vendors, stretched, and got back on the Metro in search of food!
All in all, it was a good run! Especially since I was able to finish the back-to-back days! I was tired that night, but not too sore on Monday, which is a good sign!
This weekend/week is an "off" weekend in terms of long runs, so we have 5 tonight at the Community College, I'll get 5 in at some point on Saturday, and then we are running the Cold Turkey 10K on Sunday. We need to get 12 miles total in on Sunday, so I think we'll just go out and run the hilly race course again. Slowly!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Weekly Update...
Last week/weekend was a busy one in my regular life, so I had to squeeze my runs in where I could! Last Tuesday, I ran 4.5 miles with the 10K class around the community college. I really hate that loop, but since it's well lit after dark, it's where the class always meets. I'll be glad when we can figure out somewhere else to have our evening runs in the winter! It was a slow 4.5 miles, with a couple of stops here and there.
Saturday, we were scheduled to run a 5 mile race through Downs Park in Pasdena (MD, not CA). It's quite a lovely park, right on the Bay. We had 9 miles on the schedule, so we ran 2 before the race to warm up (which was necessary...it was below freezing!), 5 during the race, and 2 afterwards. I ran the race faster than I wanted since this was supposed to be a training run. I actually averaged 11:00 minute miles for the 5 during the race. Oops. It didn't really bother me on Saturday...
...but Sunday's run was tough. We had 12 miles scheduled, which didn't seem very difficult considering we ran 17 the Sunday before. However, I think my legs were feeling the faster 5 from Saturday, because I started getting pretty tired around 8 miles. I also didn't fuel up properly for the run...Junior Mints and champagne at the opera the night before just won't cut it! We persevered, though. Our route took us to Thomas Point and back, and then through the Hillsmere Shores neighborhood in Annapolis. It was a pretty run with no rain (finally!), but I just wasn't into it.
I think my lessons learned from this training week are to eat properly the night before the run, and that I will need to hold myself back in the 1/2 marathon leg of the Goofy. When you're trained up to 20 something miles it seems easy to run some of them faster, but I will pay for it the next day. Which is what I'm desperately trying to avoid for Goofy since I'll be running a marathon the next day!
Today, I squeezed in 3.25 on the treadmill at lunch because it's a concert week, so no other time to run. Saturday, we've got 9 on the schedule. The 10K class is previewing the Cold Turkey 10K course, so we'll run the first 6 miles with them, and then finish up with 3 on our own. Sunday, our rain-postponed DC monument tour is back on tap. Except, this time it is 19 miles. The weather looks as if it will hold out for 60s and sunny. I'll take it! Look for a full report here sometime next week.
Saturday, we were scheduled to run a 5 mile race through Downs Park in Pasdena (MD, not CA). It's quite a lovely park, right on the Bay. We had 9 miles on the schedule, so we ran 2 before the race to warm up (which was necessary...it was below freezing!), 5 during the race, and 2 afterwards. I ran the race faster than I wanted since this was supposed to be a training run. I actually averaged 11:00 minute miles for the 5 during the race. Oops. It didn't really bother me on Saturday...
...but Sunday's run was tough. We had 12 miles scheduled, which didn't seem very difficult considering we ran 17 the Sunday before. However, I think my legs were feeling the faster 5 from Saturday, because I started getting pretty tired around 8 miles. I also didn't fuel up properly for the run...Junior Mints and champagne at the opera the night before just won't cut it! We persevered, though. Our route took us to Thomas Point and back, and then through the Hillsmere Shores neighborhood in Annapolis. It was a pretty run with no rain (finally!), but I just wasn't into it.
I think my lessons learned from this training week are to eat properly the night before the run, and that I will need to hold myself back in the 1/2 marathon leg of the Goofy. When you're trained up to 20 something miles it seems easy to run some of them faster, but I will pay for it the next day. Which is what I'm desperately trying to avoid for Goofy since I'll be running a marathon the next day!
Today, I squeezed in 3.25 on the treadmill at lunch because it's a concert week, so no other time to run. Saturday, we've got 9 on the schedule. The 10K class is previewing the Cold Turkey 10K course, so we'll run the first 6 miles with them, and then finish up with 3 on our own. Sunday, our rain-postponed DC monument tour is back on tap. Except, this time it is 19 miles. The weather looks as if it will hold out for 60s and sunny. I'll take it! Look for a full report here sometime next week.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Weekend Running Round-Up
Whew! I logged a lot of miles this weekend! Actually, all of my miles for the week were logged this weekend. I was supposed to run 3 or 4 on Thursday, but after a stomach virus felled me on Tuesday and Wednesday, I decided to take Thursday easy and save my energy for the weekend. No relapses for me!
Saturday, I had planned on running with the 10K class I occasionally help out with. However, a strange noise in my brakes made me re-think that and decide to take my car in to get it checked out instead. If I weren't training for something, I would have just called my Saturday run off, but with this Goofy Training I knew I had to get it in! So, I dropped my car off, informed them that I was off to run 8 miles and to call me with the diagnosis. I thought I made it clear that I was technically "waiting", but I'm not sure they got that. I ran from West St in Annapolis to downtown, city dock, over to the Academy, through West Annapolis, by the Naval Academy Stadium and back to West St...all in the rain! I cut the run short to 6 miles because I hadn't heard from the car place. It was actually a pretty easy and enjoyable run, even with the rain. Luckily, nothing major was wrong with my car! The men in the shop kept laughing at me though...and were amazed that I was training for a marathon!
Sunday, my Goofy partner and I had planned on running 17 miles in DC. However, waking up to rain changed our minds, and we headed up to the B&A trail. The extra hour of sleep helped tremendously! I felt pretty good through 11 miles, got a little tired around 15...and was ridiculously happy to finish 17. The last 2 I was forcing myself to keep going. I think I could have gone farther, but was mentally only prepared for 17! Thankfully, it started to clear up about an hour or so into the run. We averaged almost 12 minute miles, which is my target pace for the race. I took 2 Gus during the run, and had a pumpkin tart at our 11 mile water stop. Afterwards, we refueled at a local grill/bar while watching NFL.
My total mileage for the week was around 23 miles. Next week I'll be jumping to 27...which is technically 1 mile more than the recommended 10% increase. I think I'll be ok, though. Not much I could do about being sick...!
This week's planned runs include 3 miles on Tuesday/Thursday, a 5 mile race plus 4 on Saturday (for a total of 9), and 12 miles on Sunday. 12 seems easy at this point...
Saturday, I had planned on running with the 10K class I occasionally help out with. However, a strange noise in my brakes made me re-think that and decide to take my car in to get it checked out instead. If I weren't training for something, I would have just called my Saturday run off, but with this Goofy Training I knew I had to get it in! So, I dropped my car off, informed them that I was off to run 8 miles and to call me with the diagnosis. I thought I made it clear that I was technically "waiting", but I'm not sure they got that. I ran from West St in Annapolis to downtown, city dock, over to the Academy, through West Annapolis, by the Naval Academy Stadium and back to West St...all in the rain! I cut the run short to 6 miles because I hadn't heard from the car place. It was actually a pretty easy and enjoyable run, even with the rain. Luckily, nothing major was wrong with my car! The men in the shop kept laughing at me though...and were amazed that I was training for a marathon!
Sunday, my Goofy partner and I had planned on running 17 miles in DC. However, waking up to rain changed our minds, and we headed up to the B&A trail. The extra hour of sleep helped tremendously! I felt pretty good through 11 miles, got a little tired around 15...and was ridiculously happy to finish 17. The last 2 I was forcing myself to keep going. I think I could have gone farther, but was mentally only prepared for 17! Thankfully, it started to clear up about an hour or so into the run. We averaged almost 12 minute miles, which is my target pace for the race. I took 2 Gus during the run, and had a pumpkin tart at our 11 mile water stop. Afterwards, we refueled at a local grill/bar while watching NFL.
My total mileage for the week was around 23 miles. Next week I'll be jumping to 27...which is technically 1 mile more than the recommended 10% increase. I think I'll be ok, though. Not much I could do about being sick...!
This week's planned runs include 3 miles on Tuesday/Thursday, a 5 mile race plus 4 on Saturday (for a total of 9), and 12 miles on Sunday. 12 seems easy at this point...
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