First track workout in Colorado, in this training cycle and in 2012

photo courtesy of  http://www.trailrunningclub.com

I am proud of myself. I stretched beyond my comfort zone and joined a group of complete strangers for a track workout. I put myself out there with some (hopefully) positive results.

I have had great intentions in the past of joining a formal running group, but have never done it. I joined a Meetup group in Anaheim when I first moved there, but was lucky enough to find friends in the neighborhood soon after moving there, so I never met up with the Meetup group. I am smack in the middle of marathon training right now.  *Did I mention that I signed up for the Big Cottonwood Marathon on September 22?*  That means that I need to find ways to motivate myself to push a little further.

I have met some people through DailyMile who are local Colorado runners. One of them messaged me about a track workout in town. She couldn't make it this week, but told me where and when it was.  She encouraged me to go telling me that the group was warm and welcoming.

I was nervous. Really nervous.

I showed up to the track and there were a couple people there warming up. I set off to do a warm up myself. It struck me odd that the people that were running were running the opposite direction than people normally run around a track. I followed suit. It really did feel odd to run that way on a track. I figured that people wanted to run a different direction since the workouts would go the standard counter-clockwise.  I didn't ask.

After my one mile warm up (which was the best mile I have run since moving here), people were gathering. I stood with the group awkwardly. No one talked to me at first. I introduced myself to someone who seemed like he was in charge. He then introduced me to Jane, the coach. Both of them were super nice and welcomed me.

Coach Jane gave us the evening's workout.  This was cool. I have never had a coach tell me my workout. I have given out workouts, but it was nice to have someone figure it out for me. The workout was to run 1200 meters as a group and then in pairs, we would run twelve intervals of 300 meters. During the group 1200, we were to figure out who our partner would be.

Here is where I realized that the group was fast. Very fast. I ran with the pack and as I looked down at my Garmin, I was running in the low 7's! I averaged that 3/4 mile at around 7:15, which is fast for me, especially lately.  However, I quickly fell toward the back of the pack. I was running even with some women for the first lap or two, but by the third lap I was nearly dead last. There was one older guy who was behind me. I have never really been the fastest runner in a group, but I definitely haven't been the slowest. It was a bit of a blow to my ego.

When it came to teaming up, I felt like the nerdy kid on the playground. No one was approaching me to ask me to be their partner. It seemed like there were a couple younger women who actually teamed in a group of three. Ack...another blow to the ego. The coach paired me with the man who was slower than me. This was actually a relief since the workouts were done in a relay fashion and your rest time is a function of the speed of your partner. I knew I would need as much rest between intervals as possible.

The workout was pretty simple, once I figured out what we were actually supposed to do. We sprinted 300 meters (3/4 of the way around a track) and then jogged/walked back 100 meters where our partner would be finishing his 300 meters).  This would continue twelve times.

I can tell you that I never would have had the motivation to finish twelve intervals without the help of a partner/group. My partner, Brian, and I had been lapped several times over.  But the good news is that with everyone running their own intervals, you couldn't really tell who was ahead and who was behind.  Had Brian suggested that we skip the last two intervals (since we were about two behind the bulk of the pack), I would have easily agreed.  But we did them all and pushed ourselves each time. We finished last to cheers of some of the people who were still milling about (others had set off to run some cool-down laps).

My pace was not as bad as I had thought at the time. Converting 300m to standard interval distances isn't easy, but I am pretty sure I am on target for where I need to be for a 3:40 to 3:45 marathon.  When I knew I would be doing a track workout, not knowing what kind of intervals we would be doing, I set a conservative goal to run 400's under 2 minutes, knowing I should decrease that time to around 1:40 or so. I was not that far off.  Here are my intervals:
1:08
1:10
1:13
1:19
1:15
1:13
1:16
1:19
1:19
1:15
1:19
1:16
My overall running pace for the evening (not including the jog back 100m to meet my partner) was 7:32 (including the 9:00 paced warm up!!).  For me, that was fast, fast, fast.  Even though I was the second slowest person out there, I am happy with my performance. Despite being the turtle, I will be checking my ego at the door and going back. Heck, some of that speed may just rub off on me!

I have eight weeks before my marathon. For the first time since starting my training, I think I am on the right track.

Happy Running...

1000

Last weekend I hit 1000* miles for 2010.  That is pretty amazing considering the fact that I hit the 1000 mile mark the last week of the year in 2009.  I am almost full four months ahead of last year!

I still haven’t busted the fifty mile week yet, but I have been close (forty-seven).  However, I ran 171 miles in the month of August, a new personal best!  I think September might shape up to be a monster mileage month as well.  I ran twenty-six miles this weekend** and have a couple more twenty milers scheduled.  We’ll see how it goes.

I am enjoying a higher mileage training plan. With my high-mileage plan, I can run with my friends and not worry about pace.  I can run one day at twelve-minute-miles with the girls and another at a tempo pace under race pace.  It really works for me and gives me a higher level of flexibility.  I know my way involves a good bit of “junk” miles, but these “junk” miles are good for my mental state as much as anything and I don’t want to give them up.  As Long Beach Marathon approaches, I am adding more quality miles to my weekly total.
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In the interest of getting some of those quality miles, I did my first track workout in a very long time.  Since Marci and I both hadn’t done speedwork yet this training cycle, we started “easy.”   But there is nothing easy about 800m intervals on the track.  We were aiming for something around 3:45 for 800m using Yasso as the guideline.  I also had my friend Nadine’s FIRST pace for these intervals,*** which is 3:33.  We did four 800m repeats at 3:24, 3:28, 3:38 and 3:26.  Not bad!  We walked/jogged our recovery for 400m, but I think I want to reduce that to 200m this week.  I think it was just a bit too long (although, at the time, I didn’t think so). Our goal is to work up to eight or ten repeats in the next several weeks.

_____________________________________________________________

On Saturday, I ran 20 miles at Newport’s Back Bay.*** It was a gorgeous morning and the weather was perfect.  The Back Bay is a great place to run.  I ran with my friends and we took it pretty easy.  In fact, our pace was so relaxed that at one point I was worried that running close to two minutes faster during the marathon would be impossible.  I decided to run my last two miles at race pace or faster.  It was good timing, since Joan was ready to switch to run/walk.  Kelly and I took off and I gradually kicked it into another gear.  I felt great.  By mile 19, I was feeling in a zone.  I really turned it on, because I still had a lot left.  I ran my last mile in 7:58 and it was a HUGE confidence booster.  I was thrilled that I could finish a twenty mile run with 10k speed.

I did stop right around nineteen miles, however, for a minute or two.  There were some people gathered looking at something.  There was some sort of animal on the trail about twenty feet from the bike path.  I was expecting a coyote, but was surprised to see at bobcat!  Apparently, she is a known resident of the bay and is named Babe.  I thought she was pretty cool!



I knock on wood that my running continues like this.  I feel good.  I feel strong.  I’m having fun.  What more can I ask for?  I hope the next 1000 miles are just as enjoyable.

Happy Running…

*I hit 1000 miles on September 5
**20 miles on Saturday and 6.2 miles this morning.
***My friend, Nadine, did the FIRST program earlier this year when she qualified for Boston, which has three high quality runs per week.  It doesn’t allow for deviation in the plan, though.
****This is the stomping grounds for fellow blogger, Glenn.

Last week's update-- a good week of running

I am a little late posting about last week's runs. It was another big week, at least for me. I ran another 37 miles. It was probably my toughest week as I added speed and hills to the mix.

Monday-- rest
Tuesday--5 miles easy
Wednesday-- 6 mile hill workout
Thursday-- 6 miles easy
Friday-- 5 mile track workout
Saturday-- rest
Sunday-- 15 miles

I did three runs in a row in my neighborhood. I didn't mean to, but I got lazy. I couldn't pull myself out of bed early enough. I had every intention of driving to Lake Murray on one or two days, but I dilly dallied around until it was getting too late. I need to be home by 7:30 or so in order to get the kids ready for their days. It takes about 15 minutes to drive to the lake, so I need to factor in an extra half an hour if I want to run there. The only problem with running so much in my neighborhood is the fact that there are so many hills. To leave my immediate neighborhood, I would have to run down a very steep hill (which means running or walking back up it at the end). Hills aren't a bad thing, but they are tough every day.

My hill workout was brutal. I didn't have much of a plan, so I just ran a hill, went back down and ran it again and then found another one. We have a hill in our neighborhood that isn't quite as steep as the others. It is a little less than a half mile long and is not quite as steep as 6th street, the main hill at the end of the AFC Half Marathon. I ran up our hill at race pace. At the top, I thought I was going to pass out or throw up. It was tough. It made me realize that I might need to count on running that mile or so during AFC a bit slower than my race pace. It also means that if I am going to PR, I might have to run the early miles faster. I think I like the early hills of La Jolla better. Once you have the big hill out of the way, you can push yourself till the end. My legs were jello by the end of that hill workout. So a question about hills-- should I focus on running up them at an easy pace where I can breath regularly, getting used to the incline or power up them at an anaerobic level? What do you do?

I did have a plan for the track workout. I used a combination of some calculations from my certification training and McMillan. McMillan was a bit faster than the paces I figured on my own. It gave me a nice range to shoot for. I decided to try to aim toward the fast side of things, just to see if my legs could still move quickly. It is funny how much you can dread a track workout. It is a lot of work. But it ended up being fun. Here is what my plan was:
1 mile warm up
4 X 100 @ :24-:28 with 100m walk
4 X 200 @ :45-:57 with 200m jog
4 X 800 @ 3:40- 4:00 with 200m jog
1 mile cool down

Here's what I did:
4 X 100 @ :20*, :22, :23, :25 w/ 100m walk/jog
4 X 200 @ :48, :49, :47, :49 w/ 200m walk/jog
4 X 800 @ 3:44, 3:49, 3:46, 3:49 with a short water break getting my heart rate down-- no distance between sets
3/4 mile cool down (it was getting late, so I skipped the last lap)

Obviously, I got a bit slower as I went on, but I am happy with it. I still kept well below my original paces (the higher end of the ranges). I am going to add a few miles at race pace this week in order to train my legs to run at that speed. I am hoping for a race pace of around 8:25 per mile. I know that is a pretty aggressive goal. As we get closer to the race, I may reevaluate that goal.

I thought of Terri during the sprinting portion of the workout. She often wrote about how much she loves the sprints. During the 100's, I felt free. I just ran fast, without really worrying about the time. The longer intervals were harder. I had to really push myself on one or two of the 800's. I considered skipping the last one, but am glad I completed all the intervals.

I have mentioned the track where I like to do these workouts. It is part of the Cuyamaca College campus, a junior college near my house. The track feels like a true community track. I always see other runners and walkers there. They have visitor parking spaces (where the rest of the campus is permit only). It has a drinking fountain and a porta potty. The other college nearby has a gate and I have encountered it locked on several occasions. There are ways in, but I then feel like I am trespassing. Well, the other night, it again felt like a community spot. There was a young sprinter, some walkers, a couple running laps and then going into the adjacent hills, and one special member of the community. This guy was booking across the track into the grassy infield. He's definitely not my favorite, but I would rather see him than the other pesky desert-dweller, the rattle snake. It was getting dark and I only had my phone with me, but I had to get a picture of this guy. It is a bit grainy, but I think you can get the picture. He was HUGE. I mean... almost as big as my hand! I would have put my hand down to give a point of reference, but I am not that crazy!

My last run of the week was my long run. Once again, it was a group run. This was one of those mornings I was thankful to be meeting the girls. I really didn't feel like running, but I was excited to keep up the momentum of these group runs. It was a smaller group this week (only five of us), but it was another success. I am particularly proud that all five runners completed five different distances, yet everyone felt like they were part of the group run. We had runners running eight, ten, eleven, and thirteen miles based on their individual plans and fitness. I had fifteen to do. Everyone ran at least four miles with someone else and two of the runners were able to run their entire distance with a friend.

The only bad part of the run was the return of my potty issues (warning: possible TMI ahead). I read AKA Alice's post last week that stated that the bathrooms at Balboa Park aren't open until 8 a.m. Uh Oh. That was NOT good news, since I was starting at 5:30 at Balboa Park and not running by any businesses until about mile seven! I tried to use the bathroom several times before leaving home. I started running with my friend, Anne, and all was well. I thought I could make it until I ran by the McDonald's later on. Unfortunately, around mile four, I was searching for a leftover porta potty from a park function or a race (I have found them in the past). I left Anne so she could finish her run (she had to be home earlier than the rest of us) and searched desperately for an open potty.

By the time I got back to the car, I was at a point where I couldn't run anymore. I needed a bathroom. I was meeting Alicia and Jenna and had ten more miles to complete with them. So I searched through the trunk of the car, grabbed a plastic bag, some baby wipes (always good to have!) and headed behind a bush**. AKA Alice, at this point, I thought of you and your bush. However, I didn't take a picture of my bush. It was not my finest hour.

The rest of the run went well. We ran up around the zoo parking lot and then down to the convention center. Comic Con was going on, but I didn't see any celebrities or cool costumes. It was probably too early. We did get some strange looks. Running in the sunshine is a foreign concept to some of the Comic Con attendees. LOL. We then ran up the route of the half marathon. Once again, I ran the hill twice, going back and checking on my runners. Running between the different pace groups helped give me an extra mile bringing my total to fifteen miles.

All in all, I'd say it was a successful weeek. Looking at the length of this post, I'd say I should have posted about each of the runs separately. If you read through the entire week... I thank you!


*I'm not 100% sure of this one. I think I started on the wrong line and ran a shorter distance for the first interval. When I stopped my watch, it said :14. I knew I didn't run 100 that quickly, so I estimated based upon my perceived speed in relation to the other four intervals.
**Hey... sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

The lead is gone

On today's schedule:
warm up mile
4X1600 @7:50 w/ 800 jogs
cool down mile

Here's how it played out:
warm up mile- 8:58
interval mile 1-7:11
jog .45- 8:53 pace
interval mile 2- 7:10
jog .37- 9:28 pace
interval mile 3- 7:14
jog .5- 9:12
interval mile 4-6:50 (!!!!!!!!)
cool down mile- 9:36
total- 7.33 miles in 59:18, average pace 8:05

I forgot my iPod today, which was really frustrating. I am thrilled with the fact that I was able to run without music for an entire hour. Maybe my fast splits can be attributed to no music. It was like running on a treadmill-- I just wanted to get it over with. At least it was a nice day- sunny, none of yesterday's winds and in the 50's.

My shins were bothering me. They didn't hurt enough to keep me from running, but I felt them the entire time. The good thing is that the warmer my muscles got, the less they bothered me. I have iced them a bit and plan on icing more tonight after I put the kids down. I have worked too hard to let my shins hold me back. It is time to baby them!!

Wow... what a change from Tuesday's sluggish run!

Half Marathon Countdown

It is so appropriate that this week's Take It and Run (TIaRT) topic is the half marathon. I am running a half marathon on Sunday that I trained pretty hard for. I didn't run miles and miles (only about twenty miles a week), but I think I trained pretty smart adding tempo runs and speedwork.

What I like best about half marathons is the fact that it is long enough to feel like I have really accomplished something that most people would not or could not do. I feel proud just finishing it. I love getting comments like, "you ran 13.1 miles..... in a ROW?" On the flip side, it doesn't overtake your life while training for it. The long runs are a couple of hours on the weekend and some hour-long runs or shorter mid-week. I don't have to pay a babysitter, my husband still has a wife and I feel like my life is not really affected negatively.

I have only run one half marathon and it was hard. I actually ran a marathon before running a half. During my marathon training there was only one half marathon that I could have done. The La Jolla Half Marathon was in April and we considered it. We decided against it for two reasons 1) it is difficult and hilly and none of us wanted to get injured and 2) it is difficult and hilly and none of us wanted to lose our confidence. When I ran the AFC in August, I think I was relying a lot on my residual fitness from the marathon. The Carlsbad this weekend is a race I trained specifically for and I am looking forward to it.

Since I am relatively new to this distance (although I am pretty sure it will be my favorite in the long run), I don't have a ton of advice. I will share my approach to Sunday's race: train smart and try to have fun. In the end, it isn't worth it if I don't enjoy myself.*


*I have been sort of obsessing over my sub-two-hour goal and I am trying to focus these last days on having fun. I need to trust in my fitness and training... :-)

Track etiquette and a big, fat "DUH" on myself

This morning I asked my hubby if there is track etiquette (he used to run track in high school and college). He quickly said, "only that the slower people should go in the outside lanes." a HA!

I went to the track this morning, had a nice warm-up mile calibrating my Nike+ and a few speed laps. I was the only one there for a while and I was using lane 2. Why not lane 1, you may ask? I have no idea. But on to that question later...

A couple people showed up on the track, everyone doing their own thing. I passed one guy while I was doing my 400 meter interval. He was in lane 3 or 4. On the next 400 meters, he was WALKING in lane 2. WTH? He just saw me running in that lane. Why would he walk there, even when he heard me approach from behind and move to another lane? There are so many other lanes to use. The other lady there is walking on the outside lane. I just don't get it. I thought it was rather rude.

So as I am telling DH this story he reminded me of a simple fact. "You do know that lane 2 is a longer distance, right?" "Um....yeah, I knew THAT." Oops! I knew that, but my foggy morning brain never quite registered that fact properly. Somehow, in my head, the fact that I started in the staggered position would make up for that. It would, of course, if I stopped at the finish line and not at the same staggered line. DUH. CRAP. No wonder my Nike+ calibration seemed off on Sunday (yes, I ran in lane 2 to calibrate it before). So recalibrating it this morning just added insult to injury. My 400 meter calibration was probably off by 6 or 7 meters. Heck, my mile calibration was WAY off this morning. Good thing KG is getting a Garmin this week for bike riding. I can calibrate the Nike+ properly (but most likely, I will steal the Garmin every time I run *wink*).

So is that why that guy in lane 2? Did he think I should be in lane 1?? I still don't think that someone should walk in the inside lanes, unless he was doing a recovery walk after running...which he wasn't.

The good news is that I am faster than I thought. While I only got in less than half my speed workout (I really need to get out of the house earlier!), I think it was a pretty good one:

1 X 1200*-- 6:19
2 X 400*-- 1:54, 1:50
1 X 200*-- :53

*So because I didn't stop at the finish line, but where I started, I think my intervals were around 1220, 407 and 203.

Even though my speed workout was shorter than I wanted, I did go to Stroller Strides and got in a great cross-training workout.

Why have I been avoiding speed workouts??

For some reason, they intimidate me, especially by myself. I am not sure if it is going to the track where real runners run or if it is the workout itself. My friend Laura has been out of commission so I resigned myself that I need to get on the track to do some speed workouts by myself (I have only done one so far!) I have done "strides" workouts when I add speed to my regular run, but not organized workouts with specified interval distances.

Today was different. I had a great time. I actually was starting to feel almost like a real runner. I was bummed that I was limited on time and couldn't complete the entire workout.

I tried a new track. I drove to Cuyamaca College, another Junior College around here. I liked it better than Grossmont for a couple of reasons: 1) it is much closer to my house 2) the campus feels more like a college to me 3) there were other runners and walkers there and didn't feel so isolated 4) they had a drinking fountain and 5) firefighters! There was a small group of firefighters who were working out there. There is nothing bad about firefighters :-) I have a special place in my heart for firefighters ever since the scary fire storm** last October when the fire came so close to our house.

I had a decent workout.
1X 1 mile-- 8:17
4X 200-- :43, :47, :53, :57 (200 meter walk/jog recovery between each interval)

The workout called for two one-mile intervals at a 8:32 pace (working toward a 9-minute-mile half marathon). I only did one of them and I obviously ran it too fast. I really need to work on my pacing. This was supposed to be run at a 10K pace (although I am not sure if I could average 8:32 for a 10K).

It also called for six 200m intervals at 1:01 with 200m recovery between each. I did four of them (it may have been five, but I can only remember four times *blush*) I obviously need to work on pacing for these intervals, as well. I felt good because I ran those splits faster than my last track workout, but I don't think it is as much about the speed as it is about the pace awareness. Does anyone have thoughts on this? After I saw how fast I did each one, I tried to run the next one at 1:01... I didn't have much luck, although I got pretty close.

Today was a nice change of pace. I needed it. My mid-week runs have been hard to get done. I need more variety and motivation to get them in. I will definitely head back to Cuyamaca for the track and the great trails I saw there. They run a Mud Run in the hills above the college that looks like a ton of fun.

The moral of the story is don't be afraid of speed workouts; they can be fun! I just needed to find the right environment.


**Here is a slide show that shows some pictures of the Harris Fire that threatened our house last fall: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8BYt3DFs0as3I Most of the pictures are taken from our backyard (the helicopters etc.) and across our street.