April Review

160.4 miles. I didn't quite hit my all time high (September 2009 with 163). I could if I wanted to since today isn't over, but I have a 5K tomorrow and a 15 miler on Sunday and not another rest day until next Friday .... so, I think I'm okay with 160.4 miles! :)

Of my four long runs, 2 were actually "long" and the other 2 were done for speed "semi-long."
16 miles at a 9:17 average pace
9.5 miles at a 7:57 average pace
19.2 miles at a 9:07 averagepace
11 miles at a 8:19 average pace

I had 5 great track workouts!!! :)

I had 11 other runs of 6 miles or more!

So far, it's been a good year. San Diego training started mid February .... so, here is the year thusfar in numbers:

January: 55.8 miles
February: 107.1 miles
March: 158.5 miles
April: 160.4 miles

Year total: 481.7 miles

I Heart Track!

I'll make it quick, I promise. Every Wednesday I fall more and more in love with the track!

Workout: 1200 2000 1200 1600

Rest: 3 min. after 1200's, 5 min. after 2000 (much longer than usual)!

Expected Splits: 5:12, 8:40, 5:09, 7:15

My splits: 5:09, 8:30, 4:58, 6:37

Yes, you read that right!! 6:37 (per my garmin) or 6:39 per the actual 4 laps around the track. Either way, I was pretty excited about this mile!! :) It makes me very happy going into this 5K on Saturday!

Love me some track!! :)

5K Anxiety

This upcoming weekend, I will run my first 5K in over a year! I'm beyond anxious. I KNOW that I can break my PR - but, I'm so nervous. I have absolutely NO idea how fast I can run a 5K. Without a doubt, I'm sure I'll begin too fast. I always do! HHHhhhhmmmmm!

In preparation for this weekend, my schedule for today read: 2 miles easy, 2 miles at 5K pace, 2 miles easy. My interpretation: 2 miles easy, 2 miles as hard I can, 2 miles easy. Outcome: 17:57, 13:39, 17:55. So, that second set was a 7:03, 6:36!

In other news, I ran 11 miles on Saturday instead of a long run. I ran fast, though! It was a gmp run. Total time was 1:31:30ish. I don't have my garmin on me now for splits.

Nothing too exciting tonight ... just trying to wrap my head around this whole 5K thing. Gotta go though ... chocolate chip cookie time!

A little bit of everything

So, I just realized that I've posted three times on Runners World since I've last posted here. Not sure the best way to play catch up . . . so, I'll just give a quick recap:

Monday --> The day of the Boston Marathon! I tempoed on this day and had an amazing run! Quite possibly this is due to following the Live Boston Blog and heading to run immediately at the finish of the race. The best part about this, too, is that I had run a 19 miler less than 48 hours before. 6 miles: 46:55 (8:10, 8:01, 7:59, 7:53, 7:44, 7:08)

Tuesday --> Ran 6 miles on my lunch break. The schedule called for an easy run! Nothing too noteworthy. I think the average pace was 8:40.

Wednesday --> Track! The plan: 400 400 400 400 1200 400 400 400 400 1200 1600 Expected Times were: 400's in 1:39, 1200's in 5:09, 1600 in 7:10. Actual Splits: 1:38, 1:37, 1:36, 1:37, 4:58, 1:35, 1:35, 1:34, 1:35, 4:56, 7:05 I love me some track!! :)

Thursday --> Thursday deserves a post all in itself! Let me just do a little copy and pasting from my log ....

I'll be the first to admit, a lot of my runs lately have been nothing short of OSOM! Run after run, I've felt great, logged a ton of miles and haven't stopped smiling.
So, I must admit that this was not the case yesterday. Mentally, I was ready for my "easy 7 miler." But, physically my body just kept saying "Jaime, no!!" I'm embarassed to admit, but I tried several times yesterday to run this 7 miler and it simply did not happen.

Attempt #1: Lunch break. I decided to run my favorite route outside from work. It's semi shaded (and since it's 85 degrees outside I think this is a good idea). Nope. After maybe 30 seconds, I stop and walk to my car and decide to hit up the treadmill.

Attempt #2: Lunch break (treadmill). I make it about two minutes. David happens to be at the gym, too. He comes, gives me a little pep talk and I go for it again (does this make this attempt #3) ... I make it a mile on the treadmill and stop. I'm done. Just done. I can't get into the run. So, I head outside and decided to run again. 30 seconds later, I walk to my car and drive to Panera. I sit outside for an hour eating a salmon salad (hello, I need to fuel for my afterwork run) with my iced chai latte. I wish I were at the pool or beach but decide that it's okay since I'm still getting some sunshine.

Attempt #3 (or 5 depending on how you look at it): I'm determined. I head home from work and immediate put my running clothes back on. It's going okay and I'm running but I keep wanting to stop and wanting it to be over. I run .6 of a mile away from my house and stop. I walk back home. I grab a book and a glass of wine and call it a night.

I was frustrated with myself. Maybe this easy 7 miler was just "junk miles." But, I like my junk miles. I ran 50+ miles last week and I don't want a 30-something for this week. So, I call up my running friend, Penny, and she agrees to meet me at 5:45 this morning for a 5 miler.
I go (because I'm not going to stand up a friend) and run 5 miles in 45:10 (9:25, 9:01, 8:57, 8:52, 8:53). I didn't allow myself to push at the end since I have 16 on the schedule tomorrow but I did run!!!! And, it felt good (minus the heavy legs).

So, in all fairness, I thought I should share this with you. My training is still going well, but we all have our bad days! But, today is Friday and the sun is out and I have a smile on my face! :)

Best.Week.Ever.

I had my highest mileage week, ever! 50.2 miles. Pretty lame for a lot of marathoners, but for me, a first and I'm ecstatic! For my first two marathons, I got up to right around 40 miles. For NYC, I went above 40 miles twice, but never more than 42. 50.2 miles and I feel great!! WOOOHOOO

So, for a little recap:

Monday: 11 miles in 1:35:34 (9:04 to 8:11 splits)

Tuesday 7.05 miles in an hour

Wednesday: Track

Thursday 7 miles in 58 minutes

Friday: OFF

Saturday: 19.2 miles in 1:54:46 I surprisingly felt pretty good during this run which made very happy! I think it averaged around 9:05 pace; however, I started in the 9:20-9:30 range and ended in the 8:35ish range.

Sunday: 2 miles SLOW. After I added up my mileage for the week and realized I was 1.8 miles away from breaking 50, I just couldn't resist. :)

How fun is Boston Marathon Day?! I'm super envious of everyone that got to run today and thought of all of you!!! I've even looked up some of your times :) and I'm just dying to read all of your race reports. With some more hard work and little luck, I hope to be there next year!!!

**The picture above is from the San Francisco Marathon in Oct. 2008. What a great day ... but I plan on crushing that time! How funny is it that my sister took a picture of me brushing my teeth! :)**

Picture Time + Morning Track

Okay, so let me first just say that I've been running my little booty off! I ran 11 miles in 1:35 on Monday (during my lunch break nonetheless ..hahaha), then I ran for an hour yesterday (7.05 miles). Then, I woke up bright and early this morning for some fun times at the track!!

Workout: 400 800 1200 1200 800 400 opt. 1600

Expected Times: 1:38, 3:28, 5:10, 5:08, 3:26, 1:36, 7:15

Rest is the same as always - 1 min after 400's, 2 min after 800's and 3 min after 1200's

My times: 1:30, 3:16, 5:01, 4:56, 3;13, 1:27 .... and then I was dead and refused to run the optional mile, but coach "made" me .... 7:05

I'm just loving the track. I'm getting faster and really enjoy pushing myself during the practices. Now, if only they make me faster then I'll be one happy, little runner. San Diego is the main goal on June 6th, but I'm running a 5K on May 1st and am excited to see what I can do with that!!!

Also, I realized that I never post pictures. We just uploaded our camera to the computer and look at the arrangement of photos that I found:

Sunset at Clearwater Beach a couple of weeks ago

My cousin, Amanda, and I the night before the NYC Marathon.

(Me) Fishing at Patoka Lake in Indiana

Well, there were more, but sadly there all too large and now I need to get to work. Was going to show you all the BF ... but after 5 tries, I should probably get off of the computer!

Happy Wednesday! :)

IronGirl 15K RR

After a crazy Friday night (no drinks involved), but only 4 hours of sleep and a lot of snoozing, I woke up with 20 minutes to get ready. So not typical of me! The lack of sleep is another whole story that involves a drunk boyfriend and his best friend (from out of town) having the night of their life and arriving home at almost 4AM .... Anyway ...

Back to Saturday morning. I met my friend Penny at 6AM to we headed to Clearwater with full intentions of doing a minimal of 20 minutes as a warm up (but up to 4 miles as my schedule said). Traffic was crazy and we got to Clearwater around 7AM. No biggie. We parked and started getting ready. As I went to attach my bib number to my shirt, I realized that there were no safety pins in the bag. Luckily, Penny brought four safety pins and gave me two of hers. Then, she went to put on her Garmin and realized that she didn't bring it! Luckily, mine was on my wrist but I felt horrible for her! Then, we both reach in our bags to get our ipods and she realizes that hers is almost dead. I can't find mine. Apparently, I left it at home. Of course. So far, crazy morning! But, the sun is shining and it's absolutely beautiful out so we decide we're going to make the most of the day! :)

We start walking to the beach and decide we'll hit up the restrooms and then warm up. No port-o-potties! There are restrooms, but a crazy line. Luckily, the line went by fast and we were warming up by 7:10. We warm up for about 1/2 a mile (clearly we didn't get in the 20 minutes) and walk to the start line. We make our way up to the very front (well about five seconds from the front) and get ready to start. We realize we haven't stretched - of course we haven't, we haven't done anything right this morning - so we stretch while we wait for the National Anthem.
Off we go. The 5K and 15K are together. It's a pretty neat event - only women and a lot of mother/daughter teams. There were quite a bit of young daughters, too! Clearwater isn't flat. It's an out and back course so we get to cross this hilly bridge twice. I thought about this ahead of time, but didn't realize that the rest of the course would be hilly, too. Kind of through me off, but oh well!

As we start, Penny's shin is hurting pretty bad. We don't even make it to mile one together (which was fine), but I was worried that it would be a long day for her. Mile One comes by fast, 7:40. As mile 2 begins, we head up the bridge. We don't even make it to the top of the bridge and the 5Kers get to turn around. I'm feeling great but thinking that it would be nice to be racing a 5K today. I keep going up the bridge and finally start coming down. Mile 2 is in the middle of the downpart of the bridge - 8:00 flat. I'm pretty excited that I don't go over 8min. even with the hill!

Mile 3 is pretty uneventful. I quickly realize that we get to do this loop twice. Nothing exciting. A lot of water and gatorade on the course, though. Mile 3: 7:54 (Penny must be feeling better because she passes me here). Mile 4: 7:55 I actually start to feel good after mile 4 and decide to pick it up a tad. Mile 5: 7:41

We begin to loop sometime during the next mile. So, I start passing runners and walkers left and right that are on their first loop. It's not a wide course at all. No biggie, though. A runner named Annie starts chatting with me. We run the next mile and a half together. I slow down a bit as my hamstrings are TIGHT! I'm not out of breath at all which is exciting but my legs are heavy and tight!! I did have a hard week of training, so I'm okay with this, but I really want to break my old time. Mile 6: 7:58 Mile 7: 8:05

After this, we begin to head back up the bridge. Oh my!!! I knew it was tough going up, but it was at the beginning of the race. This time around ... NO FUN!!! I keep going but actually find myself wanting to walk. Of course I'm not going to walk but no fun at all! My feet are burning (I'm wearing shoes with only 5 miles on them so I think it may be this ... still not sure). Mile 8 is 8:24. I tell myself that I need to pick up the pace when I see this. I only have 1.3 miles left. If I can finish a track workout with a 6:50 something every week, then certainly I can finish strong here. I start passing a couple of runners but I'm not picking up too much. I just wanted it done. Mile 9 is : 8:01 It's only .3 At about mile 8, I realize I can still break my PR, but I'm going to have to push. I wanted mile 9 to have been faster than a 8:01, but it's still possible so I decide to push this last .3 I go for it, knowing it's going to be tough.

.3 miles come and I still can't even see the finish line. I get a little upset, but I keep running. At this point, I realize there was no mile 9 sign either. There were mile markers for everything else, but zero clocks. I keep running, though I probably slow down a little bit here. I see minutes go by on my clock before I finally see the finish line. I decide to sprint a little at the end anyway.
Garmin read 9.56 and finish time was 1:15:55. Obviously, i didn't PR, but my .56 was ran at a 7:20 pace I missed it by exactly 2 minutes. I find Penny at the finish line. She was upset because she thought she was running well and came across in 1:13:28 (at Gasparilla I ran a 1:13:55 and she ran a 1:12:50). So, she didn't beat hers, either. She ran the entire course without a watch and there weren't any clocks.

I tell her about how off my Garmin is. We then decide to ask everyone else that have watches on. There garmins are all between 9.58 and 9.61

At Gasparilla, my Garmin read 9.3 miles exactly! So, I actually PR'ed by 9 seconds. I won't count it but I will use that to compare apples to apples and know that I'm improved in the last five weeks. After all this course was harder and I ran the 9.3 miles faster.

We get our print outs and her print out says she ran the 15K in 31 minutes. It takes us forever to fix this with the officials. It says her pace is 3:23. Hahahhahaha She had "won" the race. They give her the time that she says she crossed the finish line in and subtract 6 seconds because they had her start time recorded. It's good thing she's honest and didn't lie because they totally just switched her time!

I realize that Garmins are a little off. I've ran quite a bit of races with mine, but I've NEVER had one be almost 3 tenths of a mile off. That's more than a full lap around the track!! Oh well. I'm training for a marathon and it was a GREAT marathon paced run - if I want to look at it that way! You can't beat running races at the beach! It was such a beautiful day. Not too windy. Less than 70 degrees and beautiful blue skies. No matter how crazy of morning we had, I couldn't help but smile and feel lucky that I'm a runner! :)

Track Schmack & an Early Morning 5 miler

Last night was track! Coach said to not hold back even though I was racing on Saturday. So, I didn't. But, let me just say ... it was hot!

Workout: 800 1200 800 400 400 400 800 1600 (optional)

Rest: 2 1/2 min. after 800's, 3 min after 1200's and 1 min after 400's (this is the one that always gets me ... one minute seriously!?!?!)

Expected Splits: 3:22, 5:03, 3:22, 1:38, 1:38, 1:38, 3:20, 7:15

Actual Splits: 3:18, 5:05, 3:20, 1:35, 1:35, 1:36, 3:18, 6:58!!!

I didn't want to run the optional mile! Like, I seriously did NOT want to run it. I wasn't even sure that it was possible. No one else in my group chose to do it, but I decided to suck it up and just do it. I even started slow - I just kept saying, 55 seconds 200's. I kept repeating that and breaking up the mile into slow 200's. Somehow, that worked! When it's all said and done, I just love the track!

I woke up this morning at 4:50 so that I could Penny (my new running friend:)) at Bayshore for an easy 5 before work. 5 miles down before the sun came out in 43:06! Not too bad! Surprisingly, I felt pretty good! Now, it's time to rest before the 15K this weekend! Oh, and I got new shoes yesterday. There is nothing better than new shoes!

Racing in the middle of a long run

I am such a good little runner when it comes to getting in all of my runs during the week! My long runs are always not so great. Okay, so maybe some of them go well. What I should say is that I don't always look forward to my long runs. Most marathoners LOVE the long run. For me, though ... it's not my favorite.

My point being .... I have a 15K race this Saturday. I really want to do well and beat my Gasparilla 15K time (1:13:55); however, I also have 17 miles on my schedule. So, my calendar looks something like this: 4 mile warm up, 15K race, 4 mile cool down. Hhhhmmmmmmmm....

Most would say just race the 15K since I still have 9 weeks to San Diego; however, long runs are super important for me! I know I have to finish that last 4 miler! I feel like my main goal needs to be to run 17 miles! But, of course I want to PR, too!!

How fast can I race a 15K and still finish the 17 miler. Odds are I'll crash and burn. You'd think I'd learn by now. Who knows though, maybe I'll start off smart and finish very well. I'll keep you posted!!

What a great way to start the week!!

I met up with Penny yesterday evening to run 7 miles in downtown St. Petersburg and Snell Isle. Oh my goodness! This run was absolutely gorgeous! We followed the water for a while and crossed over the Snell Isle Bridge to run around million dollar plus neighborhoods! These houses were insane. Ridicously huge and beautiful waterfront properties! I couldn't even imagine!

The evening was simply beautiful, though! There were lots of other runners and bikers enjoying the great weather.

My schedule called for 2 easy miles, 3 marathon pace miles, 2 easy miles. I didn't follow the schedule at all - unless, you consider the fact that the schedule called for 7 miles and we ran 7 miles. Hahaha! I'm such a little rebel!

8:52

8:49

8:39

8:25

8:37

8:24

7:37

That's almost a 100% negative split run! The best part was that I felt surprisingly well (a little tight) and had run 16 miles the day before!!! We finished strong and kept a pretty good pace the entire run.

I seriously need to start running with my camera. I should have taken some pictures of this run. Unfortuntely, the picture above was found online.

Solo Track

Ahhhh - How fun was NC! I got in all of my runs and just had a blast visiting the parents, sisters, little brother and nieces and nephews! On top of that, how great is it to not go to work for an entire week! Anyway, back to running ...

Last Friday, I met up with my high school cross country coach (I can't believe it has been 10 years) and she clocked my track workout. No shot I would have finished this one alone. The workout was 4 x 1200m with a 3 minute rest in between. The splits were to be 5:12, 5:09, 5:06, 5:03.

I didn't want to let her down at all. I wanted to show her how much better of a runner that I am now and really push through this workout. Oh my goodness, it was tough! 1200's are not my favorite!

Splits were: 5:10, 5:08, 5:01, 5:00
I did it!!!!

It was fun getting back to FL and looking at my garmin stats online. I ran a ton of mountains (there aren't hills in western NC). It was nice to see the elevation gain during all of my runs - because the pace was certainly slower.

Back to catching up on emails at work!!