Jacob's Ladder

Tonight was another fun round of track repeats at TC Williams (Remember the Titans!). After a frenzied search for a parking spot, which was a total ordeal, I finally made it to the track. And since I was all hot and bothered about trying to get to the damned place, I was already warmed up too!

The plan for this evening was to run what is known as the ladder. Basically, you increase the distance for each "rep" then come back down. I checked with my intended marathon pace timing and came up with the following times for each of the different splits (Ch-ch-ch-check out my HTML table building skillz below).

Rep	Distance	Goal Time	Actual Time
400m	434m	2:11-2:19	2:10
800m	756m	4:34-4:45	4:09
1200m	1223m	7:01-7:32	6:45
1200m	1223m	7:01-7:32	7:10
800m	708m	4:34-4:45	3:58
400m	434m	2:11-2:19	1:30

Both the HTML table and my awesome splitz. 

(PS: Yes, I know there's supposed to be a 1600m rep in there, but it was lightening out and was getting dark, and I did not want my good friends Joe and Sonia to get electrocuted. Also, if you look at the garmin info, you'll note the last rep is shorter. That is because in my excitement to get a-moving, I forgot to turn on my watch. But I know I was freaking flying, so the last one is a guesstimate).

Ten Miles - take 2

The plan this weekend was going to go a little like this:

Saturday - Clarendon Day, run ~10 miles
Sunday - Rest
Monday - 6 miles
Tuesday - 3 miles (tapering off)

However, in light of my non-starter on Clarendon Day yesterday, my schedule shifted to the following

Saturday - Clarendon Day, ~4.5 miles
Sunday - 10 miles
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 3 miles

This morning, I pulled myself out of bed and went for my 2nd 10 miler. For breakfast, I switched it up (more later) and had a smoothie and a Starbucks VIA.

Side note: Starbucks VIA are phenom. for runners. I do not want to make an entire pot of coffee before I run because I will not drink it when I get back.

So out I went with two gatorade aqua pods - hoping that National Harbor would have water fountains, like the Mt Vernon trail does every 2.5 miles or so. More on THIS later too.

The first two miles were good - I have run that trail at least three miles a week. Then I went up the bridge. I always forget how long the bridge really is - mostly because when I'm driving it, I'm going about 75 miles an hour on the beltway.

The bridge incline is higher on the Virginia side, and so it was easy trails going downward. However, I started to feel dizzy and not really energetic. I drank some of my gatorade and pushed through.

At the end of the bridge is a ramp to take walkers across the beltway to the other side towards National Harbor. It's not that bad going the way I'll be running on the WW1/2, which is great.

The one thing I'm really concerned about during this half is the shell path that leads to National Harbor. It's about .25miles, and I'm not very good at running on non-asphalt. Good to report, however, that the shells are pretty densely packed, and it wasn't so bad running. So yay on that.

Now I'm in National Harbor, and looking around for any kind of a water fountain. For future reference, THERE ARE NONE. Stupid national harbor. Passed by a restroom, though.

I had pre-mapped my course to make sure I did the full 10, and ended up going around an unfinished park with a muddy trail, and around back of the Gaylord (the big hotel there). Not going to lie, afraid I was going to get kidnapped. Real sketch.

Here, I decided to walk. I was thirsty, my stomach was upset again, and I was really grumpy.

Knowing that there would be no more water fountains, I decided to head back over to that restroom, pause my workout, regroup, and fill my water bottles with nasty water.

Don't judge, I was really thirsty.

I also opted to take my goo here, with the availability of water. Note I did not take my goo prior to the beginning of the run, and I don't think I'll make that mistake next weekend. I can really tell a difference in performance and energy level.

So I looked at myself in the mirror and said, "Snickle, you have to run home, you know. You have your water, you have your goo, and you are good to go."

Out I went, super stoked to finish!

Then BAM.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMP.

Not the muscle kind, either.

It was so bad, it nearly made me cry. But I said, Damn you, I will run this. I have three miles to go. Screw you, pain.

Pushed through it and was back on the up ramp to cross over 495. Going the opposite way is a lot harder than going to National Harbor, but I did it. And I forced myself to smile.

Then I got back on the bridge, and realized that running close to the bridge wall (it's more like a fence) makes me dizzy. I have this same problem when driving near trees where the sun is filtering through them - the blinking lights make my head spin. Good to know for the race, I guess.

But I heard on my little run keeper that I was at mile 8 - which meant only 2 more miles to go. Well that put me in a DAMN fine mood, and I hit my runner's high (and the goo probably kicked in finally). So, like last week, I sauntered along, grinning like an idiot, and singing along to my music.

Hitting mile 9, my body started to slow down, and I walked a bit to find a pick-me-up song. Lately, I'm into Britney.

Ran/walked the final mile, and ended up with the following:

Runkeeper Result: 

Total Distance: 10.07 miles
Total Time: 2:01:48
Avg Speed: 4.96
Elevation Climb: 394 feet

All in all, I'm very proud of this run. Considering my stummy wants to kill me, and I ran a race yesterday, and I didn't have goo this morning, and all of that, I still managed to finish at an acceptable pace (my goal for my half is to finish with a 12 min/mile pace).

Not to mention that I feel fully prepared for my race now. I've gone most of the way down to the starting line, and I've gone to the finish line. Now just have to put them together.

This week is tapering. I love tapering.

Sunday Runday

I attempted to take a picture at the 4 mile halfway point and it killed my run keeper. So I had to do two separate run tracker thingies, but here they are:

Part 1 - 4.18 miles
Part 2 - 3.86 miles

Total Distance: 8 miles (New distance!)
Total Time: 1:36:53
Total Elevation: 84 feet
Avg Pace: ~12 min/mile

What I ate: 3/4 of a Balance Bar, Starbucks VIA coffee + Chocolate milk (as I was out of regular coffee and regular milk; Ingenuity!), half a banana

So I wanted to try and fall asleep during the first mile, but no such luck this week. I opted to head south this time, following the trail of the WW1/2 to get intimately familiar with it. Now, of course on Friday, I had some issues with run keeper, but for the meantime, it appeared to be working this time.

I felt some tightness in my thighs in the first mile, so I stopped for a minute and stretched it out. Afterwards, no real pain, so hooray! After the first two miles, then we got into "new territory." At this point on Friday, I was starting to get all sorts of annoyed, so I didn't really have time to enjoy the scenery. Today was different, though, and I went along my merry way!

The last time I had been this far south on the Mt Vernon trail, I was on a bike, so all of the hills and valleys were great - use the speed from the valley to push me up the hill. Unfortunately, running has no wheels, so everything was manual :P But it was still nice - there are a lot of bridges and gorgeous vistas of the Potomac river.

Happily, I hit the four mile mark just outside of Fort Hunt Park, where I stopped to take pictures!

Sadly, that's when my Runkeeper died. Or rather, it showed my progress in all 0's, which scared the bejesus out of me. Silly Snickle, you should know that you can't expect your phone to do three things at once right now. It's delicate.

After screwing with it for a minute, I finally decided to give up and start a new run. On the way back, it didn't give me any audio cues, but I knew I had turned around at the halfway mark, so I was ok with it!

Around mile 5, I started to really wish I had brought NUUN or Gatorade or something other than water. I didn't drink any NUUN prior to my run, which in hindsight was a mistake. Although I think that I might just do a hybrid of Gatorade and NUUN as my hydration strategy - sorry, but those NUUNs still make me feel ill.

I stopped at the 6 mile mark water station and refilled and poured water over my head. Then I kept going!

So I felt like I hit "the wall" around mile 6.5 and 7 - just felt my energy go downhill fast. But I kept up my strategy of giving myself three "I want to quits" before quitting, and I am happy to report that I did NOT quit period. It's amazing what you can do if you allow yourself.

So the lessons learned from this run are as follows:

1. Drink NUUN/Gatorade before
2. Bring something to eat during the run if I'm doing over 7 miles. I saw on the WW1/2 course that they will be providing ACCEL Gels at the 7 mile mark. I might have to go invest in some so that I can make sure they work for me.
3. Bring Gatorade in one of my bottles - I need that extra something. Water is great, but isn't going to cut it. Especially if I've got a water stop on the way (which I do).

Overall, this week was full of technology malfunctions, and I did not run my 3-4 miles on Saturday. However, I'm learning more about what my body needs in order to complete this half marathon, and I am starting to feel more and more prepared.

Technology is teh worst sometimes

I live in an area where AT&T fails miserably at times. Today was one of those times.

So my run yesterday was postponed in lieu of helping a friend move, so this morning after doing a few hours of work and study, I headed out for my interval training. 

I'm beginning my run and wondering...gee...these quarter mile alerts are coming pretty fast - and its saying I'm running super fast. Wonder what's up?

But hey! I went with it!

Until about a mile and a half in, I wondered why I hadn't been hearing ANY audio alerts. Looked at my phone and run keeper was stuck on 1.05. 

Brilliant. 

I fiddle-faddled with it and did the usual shenanigans, but to no avail. So I quit the run and re-started.

Except my freaking AT&T signal wouldn't work. Thanks dude, will be moving to VZW when Steve Tim (Cook) releases the new iPhone. Kthxbye

So I said, Ok, I'll run another quarter mile (lucky for me I've done this route a lot, so I know about where the markers are), time it, and then add it. 

Long Story Short - I spent about 10 minutes trying to get a freaking signal before it finally worked. 

By this point, I was all flustered - not the least bit because I had almost been run over a bunch of times by rude bikers. Then Boo called, and I snapped at him for calling, then I had to go do intervals, and my freaking thing wasn't still working and oh yeah, my inhaler is on empty, so I wasn't getting any medicine when I puffed. 

Add all of that together, and I pretty well damn near had either an asthma attack or a panic attack. I pushed myself into a little wooded area and told myself to Calm The $^#T$ Down. Took some time to catch my breath and then continued. 

Although RunKeeper says I didn't do but 5 miles, I know I turned around after the 3 mile point, so I'm going to say I fulfilled my obligation of my intervals today.

The intervals were not the worst, if I do say so myself. They were 2 x 2 minutes and 2x 2:30 with a minute slow in-between, and I believe I did a fairly good job on the majority of them! 

The biggest accomplishment today was that I was able to recognize an impending panic/asthma attack and stop it before I got hysterical. Even before it was anything more than a tingling in the chest. I also was able to push myself to keep running for around 80% of the run - which isn't bad considering all of the freaking issues.

I also repeat that unless AT&T improves service in my neck of the woods, I'm switching back to VZW. It's 2011 kids, should not be dealing with this issue. 

Oh Yeah - and no joint pain - period :D

Hill of Doom and Increasing my Mileage? Am I Nuts?

RunKeeper Result

Total Distance: 6.19 Miles
Duration: 1:13:49
Avg Pace: 11:56
Avg Speed: 5:03
Elevation: 202

Today's schedule called for 5-6 miles plus some AIs and GPs. I figure if I just run up the Hill of Doom it'll be enough. But even the full course, I would still be only at 5.4 miles. So I had the bright idea to park at my boo's house and run up to Pacers. So that gave me an additional .8 miles.

It was an awkward run because I had a bag with me, but I muddled through.

Once the real fun run started, I found myself actually keeping up with people for the first mile or so (bonus!). This was even up the hill a little ways. Unfortunately, due to my allergies flaring up and my failure to push myself to keep going, I ended up walking up the last part of the Hill of Doom. But even so, I couldn't talk at the top and was coughing up narsties, so perhaps it wasn't so awful that I walked.

By the bye, can I just say Allergies Fail?

I ended up running downhill with a friend at ~10 min/mile - which is technically an AI for me :) but then my stomach was cramping and I just had to walk for a bit, so I let her run on. Then I delved deep into my reserves and ran for the majority of the way back.

As per usual, last one to finish - but I finished :)

After wine tasting, it dawned on me that if I ran .8 miles to get to Pacers, I would have to walk the .8 back to my car. And I was sad. But I did it.

I did get a bit of stretching in and I'm icing as a precaution, but I feel pretty good - just exhausted. No awful pain during the run - just tiredness. It was about 75 degrees at run time though - which helps.

I will say though that I feel myself progressing each week - and every time I run a little bit farther with somebody, or push myself a little bit more, or find myself running for a longer distance at a faster pace, I can't help but celebrate a little bit.

But now it's 10:00 and I am ready to climb into bed and watch some more nerd!tv.

Final Run, Hurricane, and the End of Week 3

Wow, what a week.

Left Sunday for Tampa.
Missed the Earthquake Tuesday, but ran in a Monsoon.
Massage on Wednesday
Hot, awful run on Thursday
Flight home and final Lost Dog 5k on Friday
Hurricane Saturday
And gorgeous, albeit windy, Sunday

So today's schedule called for pulling back a little on the mileage (for that I am thankful). It said to do 4-5 miles, so I compromised (since I had Zoe) and did4.5.

RunKeeper Result

Total Distance: 4.51
Duration: 56.52 - This has to be off by at least a minute or a minute and a half. It didn't pause when I told it to pause, and I didn't realize it until it had been there for a minute.
Climb: 117 ft

For some reason, the urge struck me to bring Miss Priss with me on the run today. So out we went!

The first mile was rough - I had some lactic acid build up in my calves which I had to run through. But blessedly, no knee pain. I guess sleeping all day Friday and all day Saturday was what I needed to repair my body.

I also seemed to hit my stride just as we were coming up on the last mile, going about 10 min/mile. I honestly felt like I could have kept going.

So this week was not the best week, but it wasn't the worst week. I'm looking forward to returning to a normal schedule next week so I can focus on my fourth week of training.

Next Friday will be one month until my half marathon!!!

Lost Dog 5k #4!

So I got back from my conference early Friday morning and then proceeded to sleep for the rest of the day. Then I got up, did NOT go to yoga like I was supposed to (bad me) and went to go do my LD 5k.

RunKeeper Result

Distance: 5k
Duration: 33:12
Avg. Pace: 10:31

Race was hot and muggy, but I still think Zoe and I did a fairly good job. I came in 9th of 21 overall - not a bad score anyways.

Hill of Doom (R) Part Deux

I did it!

I ran up the Hill of Doom (R)!

It was awful and my heart rate peaked at 188, but I did it!

Runkeeper Result

Distance: 4.05 M
Duration: 47:22
Avg Pace: 11:42
Avg Speed: 5.13
Elevation: 159
Avg BPM: 165
Peak BPM: 188

So I did a fairly consistent pace, and actually got a bit faster in the last part! What worked for me today was looking down and keeping focused on the completion of all of the areas that normally I don't do well on (hills, and the last quarter mile). The problem was my knees began to ache in the last mile, and I started to feel sluggish.

So I'm icing with my friend the bag of corn, and hoping that it's just my body adjusting to longer miles. I'm very proud of myself for running up that hill today, and as I told Carson earlier, now I have to do it every week.

Kind of exhausted now, so I'm going to let my chocolate milk chill, have that, and then go watch nerd!TV and fall asleep.

No yoga tomorrow, as I will be up the street in Baltimore all day. So we'll see how Thursday goes...:/