Annual 4th of July Long Run

Starting in 2010 (and maybe even earlier- I can't remember) I've done a long run on the 4th of July. I usually have the day off and I usually overeat at the 4th of July cook-outs so it makes good sense to burn some calories while enjoying a quiet morning on the lakefront path. I had hoped to continue this tradition this 4th of July but as you can imagine not all plans work out when you have a (then) 2 and a half month old at home! Mostly I was too tired to even contemplate a long(ish) run, plus the time it would take to get little Z all ready for a big day of seeing friends and family would have required me to start pretty early. I opted to get an extra hour of sleep. I think that was a good choice!

We had a very nice 4th of July with Adam's family and the Boyles. Z was well behaved (though a little overwhelmed by all the people to share too many smiles) and we kept her on a good nap schedule. On the ride home, the little stinker didn't want to sleep- we could hear he swishing around in her carseat. To keep her entertained, Adam sang 'The Rainbow Connection' in Kermit the Frog's voice which elicited giggles and smiles from our little backseat passenger which was awesome:)

But back to running. Despite only running 1 mile on the 4th, striving to maintain my 4th of July tradition (even though I failed at the execution) was a worthwhile endeavor. Soon after delivering in April, I made the goal of running 10 miles on the 4th, as a way to keep myself on target building up miles slowly but not too slowly. This worked well and I was on target, having run 8 the week before, at 10 weeks postpartum.

Today I ran 12. And it was absolutely fabulous which was reflected in my 8:37 min/mile pace which is FLYING for me on a run of this distance. To put it in perspective my PR for the half marathon (13.1 miles) is 1:56:44 which is a 8:54 min/mi pace. So 8:37 pace on a relatively slow easy long run is astounding. I know I will be very sore when I get up for the multiple middle-of-the-night feedings tonight, but it's totally worth it! Certainly, there is some degree of "baby doping" going on here, but I'll take it and hopefully I can continue at these faster speeds even as my blood volume goes back to normal over the next few months. As Z gets older my sleeping duration should be increasing so perhaps the two effects will balance each other out.

I must give a shout out to Adam and my Mom, who did not think anything of me leaving them with Zooey duty for a two hour run on a random week night. There's absolutely no way I'd be in this good of shape this few weeks from pregnancy without their support. I know there are folks who think it's crazy that both Adam and I still work out every single day with an infant at home but I truly believe it is better for us and therefore better for Zooey if we continue to maintain good health habits even though it means we see her a little less. We are role modeling that exercise is fun and an integral part of life, which she may not notice now but she will eventually. As she gets bigger she will be able to participate in more and more of our activities. I have no doubt we are doing the right thing by her by carving this time out for our physical and mental health.

And lastly, I want to pat myself on the back a little. I am tired. Having an infant who still doesn't sleep well or much is HARD. Pumping every 2-3 hours during the day and after every nightly feed is HARD. But I have been dragging myself through most of my workouts with the occasional pay out being a great workout like tonight. I have every excuse in the world to take some time "off" from training. But I will continue to fight that urge. One day I will not be able to run. TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY.

A Wet Run

Today I had a wet 17 mile run. No, not because it rained. Shockingly, it didn't rain. The radar showed this huge swatch of rain coming our way about 1 hour into my run, so every minute after the first 60 that it didn't rain I considered a win. But it never did rain. No, instead I was soaked with sweat from the 74% humidity. Like wring your cloths out soaked. Like if it had rained, I probably couldn't get any wetter soaked. (If you're thinking 'Ew, gross, she just wrote that?' Yes, I did. It's a runner's blog for pete's sake!)

But the low-70 degree temps and steady breeze more than made up for the humidity so it ended up being a nice run. I did the Northerly Island Loop then added on the extra 11 miles on the Lake Front Path going north.The path wasn't as busy as usual (probably because of the threatening radar) which was nice.

Overall, it was a good run. Building up the long runs is not very fun, the whole goal being to suffer now so you don't suffer as much in the race. To be honest, today I really had minimal suffering. I hope I'm not jinxing myself by saying I think I'm in better marathon shape than maybe ever before. I didn't really have any soreness until the last mile and even that was minimal. Sure I got tired at various points but usually a goo chomp or two would perk me up pretty well for a few more miles. I kept thinking "relax, stay strong, and keep running" as my mantra for the day. At mile 11 (the north end turn around for this particular run), I certainly would have preferred for the run to be over but I wasn't completely miserable about the remaining 6 miles either.

I ended up running 17 miles @ 9:39 pace for total time of 2:44:15. I did not turn my Garmin off at water fountains except when there was a line (3 times). I also turned it off briefly at 3 red lights. I could have ran faster if it was a race situation. So I think I may be right about where I should be for an attempt at a sub-4 hour marathon on a day where everything comes together. I sorta hope that happens this November at the Outer Banks. I guess we'll see!

Happy Running to All!

Ah...a Long Run

I haven't written a running related post in a while so here goes. I ran 18 today at an overall pace of 9:15 which I'm quite happy with, especially given the circumstances. The wind was INTENSE. And since I was on the lakefront I fought it the entire way home without any breaks. Yes, I had the wind at my back on the way South but I think fighting 25 mph wind for 8.5 miles straight more than overtook any benefit I may have had from the wind helping me up front. I generally don't mind "the elements". Wind, rain, snow, cold, hills (not really an element)- they all serve to add variety to a run, which is good. (Heat and humidity, however, add nothing but pain and suffering.) My marathon PR was on a windy, windy day. But the course meandered back and forth into and out of the wind so it was tolerable. This straight into the wind non-stop situation was brutal. I imagine that's how the marathon in Antarctica is. That will be a tough one, but it will happen one day, I have no doubt.

So not surprisingly there were no negative splits today. The first 10 miles I did in sub-9 minute miles, but they way back I fought to keep each mile under 10 minutes and I succeeded in all but 1 mile.

In general though, I felt strong and any time there was even a 2 second break in the wind I felt myself surging ahead. If this was a calm day I could have keep all sub-9 splits easy.

I hope/think a sub-4:00 marathon is not too far away!

I Am Thankful For Eyebrows

I've started my own little 4th of July tradition of doing a long run in the morning before heading to our afternoon BBQ. Usually I have the day off (though not always), the path is a bit less crowded than the weekend, and I can build a calorie debt to be deliciously filled later in the day.

It was a hot one- 80 degrees w/ 50% humidity. Not unbearable, actually quite nice in the shade, but the long open stretches were brutal! So I made a mental list of the things I was thankful for, things that helped me deal w/ the heat. And the first thing I thought of was eyebrows. Thank god for eyebrows! Without them, the gallons and gallons of sweat that poured from my head over the past 2.5 hours would all be in my eyes! I've definitely not given my eyebrows the credit they deserve. I usually find them to be pretty annoying because they require me to go through the painful process of getting them threaded every month or so to keep them shapely. I'll try to respect them more in the future;)

The run went pretty well. My goal was 17 miles near 9:40 pace w/ no walking and I came pretty close to achieving just that. I took 2 short (<20s) walk breaks after mile 14, which I'm okay with. I ran 17.16 in 2:41:43 for an overall pace of 9:25. Slowest mile was 9:58, fastest was 8:55 and the vast majority were b/t 9:15-9:30.

Okay, I'm off to eat my weight in hot dogs!

February 18th.....

....was the last time I did a long run. Since then, my longest run has been 8 miles. Until today. Phew! I finally got in a long run. With my tune up marathon coming up in 1 month and my goal race in 6 weeks, I was starting to worry that I wasn't going to be ready. But thankfully, I've built up enough of a running base that missing 4 weeks of distance running isn't the end of the world.

Today I got home from work, had a pasta lunch w/ nutella and pretzels for dessert. Then I watched a really interesting Nat Geo documentary on solitary confinement (random, I know, but it was instant play on Netflix). Then I took a 30 minute nap. Then I got ready as fast as I could and got my butt outside before I talked myself out of the run.

As always, I'm so glad I ran. I enjoyed a good portion of the run. My muscles and joints aren't as adapted to long runs as they used to be- they didn't hurt per se, but were making their presence known;)

I ended up going 16. I thought about 20 but figured that might be flirting with injury especially since so many of my recent miles have been on the soft treadmill rather than outside. 16 is long enough to feel like I'm getting close to marathon endurance but not long enough to induce multi-mile painful boredom.

My plan was to run comfortably so I wouldn't burn out and cut the run short. So, no heavy breathing, just a nice easy conversational pace (though I had no one to talk to, I wish I did!). Ended up finishing in 2:38:24 which is 9:54 pace. I'm very happy with that. I think it puts me in good position to run a sub-4:15 marathon after a few more weeks of training.

Splits:
Mile 1: 10:08 (really trying to keep the pace slow)
Mile 2: 9:58
Mile 3: 9:39
Mile 4: 10:21 (first water and gu chomp break, a bit of walking)
Mile 5: 9:26
Mile 6: 9:34
Mile 7: 9:31
Mile 8: 10:22 (water, gu chomp)
Mile 9: 9:56
Mile 10: 10:05
Mile 11: 9:17
Mile 12 9:21
Mile 13: 10:57 (water, gu chomp)
Mile 14: 9:29
Mile 15: 10:30 (water, gu chomp, search for motivational music on ipod- chose 'More' by Usher)
Mile 16: 9:51

Good run. Glad it's done so it's not hanging over my head anymore! Now I better run and take a hot shower. I'm starting to get really cold in my wet, sweaty clothes (gross!).

An Unbelievably Good Run

As I type this, my fingers are still numb from the cold so typing is not so easy. The only reason my fingers are frozen is that it was actually nice enough outside to run without gloves- 47 degrees and sunny! But the wind was icy cold, and I was gloveless, hence the now frozen fingers. But the wind and my cold digits were the only rough parts of my run, it was otherwise amazingly awesome!!

Like I do on most long run days in the winter, I waited until the absolute last minute to head out for my 17 miler. I ate breakfast, took a nap, watched Dean Karnazes's Ultramarathon Man documentary, ate lunch, read a book, then finally headed out at 2pm. My actually getting the run down was driven more by my desire to avoid feeling guilty if I didn't do the run rather than any actual desire to spend nearly 3 hours running.

My schedule said 17 miles @ 9:50 pace, so my plan was to run comfortably and not really worry about time- I figured that would get me close enough to 9:50 pace. I headed south on the Lakefront Path with my Nathan hydration pack, 1 pack of Gu Chomps (watermelon, if you are curious), and my "Believe in the Taper" playlist on my ipod (so what if I'm building, not tapering- it's still a good playlist!).

I stayed relaxed with decent form until about the last 4 miles. The last 2 I just gutted it out, not even paying attention to form anymore, just trying to get 'er done. I try not to look at my Garmin too much because it stresses me out but I glanced down often enough to know that I was certainly going faster than 9:50 pace. I didn't know how much faster and was quite pleased when I uploaded my data and saw my average pace was 9:20! Woo-hoo!!!

As you can see below (x axis=miles, y axis=pace), my pace was incredibly variable.



The peaks in pace (ie slow sections) are probably where I slowed to drink water and eat Gu Chomps. I never once stopped or walked- in fact this may be the longest run in which I did not stop or walk a single time in my entire running career! I think I've accepted that I'm not really a pace group kind of gal, meaning I don't really enjoy running when I'm constrained to a certain pace like when running with a pace group. I prefer to indulge my body's natural variations in pace based on how I feel, the music I'm listening to, and the sights I'm taking in. I still think it would be fun to be a pace group leader one day, but that would be at a pace significantly slower than what I'm capable of thus making it more comfortable and easier to be "constrained" by pace.

To put this run in perspective, my previous fastest long run was a 15 miler last September that was 9:11 pace but I stopped to eat and drink (probably for ~30-45 seconds) 2ce in the midst of the run. And I remember I was huffing and puffing the entire time. (Side note: That 15 miler was only 11 days before the Chicago Marathon- probably not the best idea to do such a long, hard run so close to race day!) Today's run was very comfortable right up until the last 2 miles and even then, I certainly could have pushed more, but this wasn't a marathon pace run, rather a comfortable long run, so I didn't kill myself.

Splits:
Mile 1: 9:11
Mile 2: 9:14
Mile 3: 9:01
Mile 4: 9:09
Mile 5: 9:07
Mile 6: 9:12
Mile 7: 9:05
Mile 8: 8:49
Mile 9: 9:47
Mile 10: 9:17
Mile 11: 9:06
Mile 12: 9:47
Mile 13: 9:40
Mile 14: 10:10 (the wind was NUTS!)
Mile 15: 9:12
Mile 16: 9:29
Mile 17: 9:25

And because I'm a big running dork, I had to plug a 9:20 pace into the Cool Running pace calculator to see the correlating marathon finish time (it's 4:04:43, btw). Hmmmm.....

Good luck to all the racers this weekend! And happy running to all!