- Apr 17-18: First tri of the season on Sunday plus camping and playing in the lake on Saturday
- Apr 23-25: Swim meet Friday night (new PR in the 1000yd free, guaranteed because that is a freakish event that I never swam in school). GW Parkway 5k on Sunday where I will hopefully improve from last year
- Apr 29-May 3: In CA for reunion and visiting parents.
- May 8-9: Second tri of the season, doing the swim portion for a relay on Saturday and having another weekend of camping and playing in the lake.
- May 15-16: Nothing Scheduled!
- May 23: Poplar Springs 5K where I will hopefully improve from last year. Maybe it will not be too much slower than the GW Parkway 5k
- May 30: Jim McDonnell 1 mile lake swim where I will improve from last year since I have actually been swimming regularly.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
6 busy weekends
I was planning an outing with someone and realized that I've got a busy couple of weeks ahead of me.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Shamrock Half Marathon Race Report
Finishing my first half-marathon last Sunday was amazing. Last October,
when I signed up, running 13 whole miles, all in a row, felt like such a
stretch goal, I was actually scared to tell people what I was training
for.
My longest training run to that point was 5 miles, which meant that I had a ways to go. I can't remember exactly what was keeping me from running, but when I look back at my calendar there are a lot more workouts crossed out then checked off through October and November, but the training was ramping up with or without me, so I jumped back in to it.
The training successes were awesome: I ran my first 10k (a new longest run) in December with the team, then had a PR at the 5K in January. I *enjoyed* a "double digit run" running 10 miles (in the snow) and I was ecstatic when my main running buddy and I completed the full 13 miles training run in February.
The tough training days were also important. If Sunday had gone poorly, I'd like to think I could've drawn on the experience and used a bad training day to help talk myself through it somehow. I also learned the most when my body was mad about a workout: I learned that a steady diet of Domino's Pizza is not the fuel my body needs to run a happy 10 miles. On a different run, I ended up 3 miles from home completely bonked and walking it, so I learned to be better about carrying drinks and snacks. I learned that an extra rest week won't kill you when it was too icy to run and I "only" did 5 treadmill miles instead of 12.
None of the training prepared me completely for how little extra "umph" I would have after 12 miles of Zone 2-3 running. My brain was ready to run in Zone 4 like I'd been practicing at track, but my legs were totally not into that idea. I did manage to increase the pace, and Garmin tells me I had a lovely negative split, but my idea of how the race would happen at the end was pretty different from how it actually did. Learning to "race" something is pretty different from learning to cover the same distance.
After finishing this run, I respect the Marathon, Half-Iron and Iron distance races So Much More! I'd always thought they were extreme and admired the dedication the training requires, but now the magnitude of the challenge of actually racing such a distance is more real to me.
Overall, I'm thrilled with my training and result. Looking back at my calendar sheets for the winter, seeing the workouts I did and remembering how each "new longest" had seemed unrealistic a few months earlier, it's impossible not to smile.
I'm also terribly excited by the pace I was able to keep for the race. The 13 mile training run was done at a pace of almost 18 min/mile. The 1 hour taper run a week before the race was a pace of around 16:30 min/mile, so I'd been planning to try to keep a 16 min/mile pace and speed up at the end. In the race itself, it felt easy to maintain a pace in the 15 min/mile range until the 11th mile or so. After that, I managed to speed up slightly, but it was no longer as easy. My goal had been to finish around 3:30, so when I realized it was going to be more like 3:15, it gave me extra motivation to maintain form and to try to take longer steps for that last (impossibly long) 1.1 miles.
1/2 Marathon PR: 3:16:24
My longest training run to that point was 5 miles, which meant that I had a ways to go. I can't remember exactly what was keeping me from running, but when I look back at my calendar there are a lot more workouts crossed out then checked off through October and November, but the training was ramping up with or without me, so I jumped back in to it.
The training successes were awesome: I ran my first 10k (a new longest run) in December with the team, then had a PR at the 5K in January. I *enjoyed* a "double digit run" running 10 miles (in the snow) and I was ecstatic when my main running buddy and I completed the full 13 miles training run in February.
The tough training days were also important. If Sunday had gone poorly, I'd like to think I could've drawn on the experience and used a bad training day to help talk myself through it somehow. I also learned the most when my body was mad about a workout: I learned that a steady diet of Domino's Pizza is not the fuel my body needs to run a happy 10 miles. On a different run, I ended up 3 miles from home completely bonked and walking it, so I learned to be better about carrying drinks and snacks. I learned that an extra rest week won't kill you when it was too icy to run and I "only" did 5 treadmill miles instead of 12.
None of the training prepared me completely for how little extra "umph" I would have after 12 miles of Zone 2-3 running. My brain was ready to run in Zone 4 like I'd been practicing at track, but my legs were totally not into that idea. I did manage to increase the pace, and Garmin tells me I had a lovely negative split, but my idea of how the race would happen at the end was pretty different from how it actually did. Learning to "race" something is pretty different from learning to cover the same distance.
After finishing this run, I respect the Marathon, Half-Iron and Iron distance races So Much More! I'd always thought they were extreme and admired the dedication the training requires, but now the magnitude of the challenge of actually racing such a distance is more real to me.
Overall, I'm thrilled with my training and result. Looking back at my calendar sheets for the winter, seeing the workouts I did and remembering how each "new longest" had seemed unrealistic a few months earlier, it's impossible not to smile.
I'm also terribly excited by the pace I was able to keep for the race. The 13 mile training run was done at a pace of almost 18 min/mile. The 1 hour taper run a week before the race was a pace of around 16:30 min/mile, so I'd been planning to try to keep a 16 min/mile pace and speed up at the end. In the race itself, it felt easy to maintain a pace in the 15 min/mile range until the 11th mile or so. After that, I managed to speed up slightly, but it was no longer as easy. My goal had been to finish around 3:30, so when I realized it was going to be more like 3:15, it gave me extra motivation to maintain form and to try to take longer steps for that last (impossibly long) 1.1 miles.
1/2 Marathon PR: 3:16:24
Monday, March 22, 2010
Half Marathon, Check!
A few weeks ago, I finished a 13 mile training run in 4 hours and felt
pretty good. Yesterday I finished a half marathon in 3:16 and feel
mentally awesome and muscularly shot. My goal for the day was to finish
around 3:30 with a pace of 16 min/mile, so feeling good going 15
min/mile for the first part was an unexpected benefit.
I ran the first few miles with some teammates who were dressed up for the event, and when one of them decided to de-boa, I happily took it, wearing it like a pagent sash for a few miles, and then as a belt for the rest. Running with a green boa belt made the day even better. I hope the photos turn out :)
At the end I saw a training partner and pushed it to try to catch up, which was sort of a dumb idea, but since I didn't actually faint or throw up after the finish line I think it was worth it to finish with him.
Here's the data from the Garmin:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2768
I thought it was going to do auto laps every mile, but forgot to check that before starting. Oh well. At least it picked up heart rate reliably and helped me not go too fast in the beginning when I was so excited.
I ran the first few miles with some teammates who were dressed up for the event, and when one of them decided to de-boa, I happily took it, wearing it like a pagent sash for a few miles, and then as a belt for the rest. Running with a green boa belt made the day even better. I hope the photos turn out :)
At the end I saw a training partner and pushed it to try to catch up, which was sort of a dumb idea, but since I didn't actually faint or throw up after the finish line I think it was worth it to finish with him.
Here's the data from the Garmin:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2768
I thought it was going to do auto laps every mile, but forgot to check that before starting. Oh well. At least it picked up heart rate reliably and helped me not go too fast in the beginning when I was so excited.
Friday, February 5, 2010
600 Z4, check!
I had a great swim last night. We had a test set where we were supposed
to go 600 yds Z4, ie. a longish way at a hard effort, and then 600 yds
Z2, ie same distance easy pace. I seeded myself a little poorly in the
lane and was right on the person in front of me's heels for the Z4, but
finished it in about 9:40, for a pace around 1:37/hundred. I wasn't
actually as tired as you should be at the end of a long hard set, so I'm
pretty sure I could've gone faster, at least a little. The Z2 set was
slow enough to be comical. I can't remember how long it took, maybe
around a 1:50/hundred pace.
The point of the set was supposed to be that, in a race, the extra exertion of swimming hard is not worth it because you only gain a bit of time. I sort of hope we do this set again sometime though because I feel like I have a faster Z4/Z2 set in me.
Later in the practice was 5 100's working on something or other. I decided to work on the something while going fast for the 100 where I led the lane, and tapped the wall around 1:30 for the hundred.
I can't remember exactly how fast I was supposed to be going while being one of the worst swimmer on the college team, but I feel like doing 100's on a 1:30 interval would've been less embarrassing than what I was achieving. Certainly in grad school masters swimming, I would've felt pretty good about that pace. The point of this paragraph is "Go me! I'm getting better at swimming again!!"
Also, the snowpocalypse has started here in DC. NOAA says 20-28 inches expected this weekend.
PS. Seriously, snowpocalypse! Here's an exceprt from the newest NOAA Winter Storm Watch thingy:
The point of the set was supposed to be that, in a race, the extra exertion of swimming hard is not worth it because you only gain a bit of time. I sort of hope we do this set again sometime though because I feel like I have a faster Z4/Z2 set in me.
Later in the practice was 5 100's working on something or other. I decided to work on the something while going fast for the 100 where I led the lane, and tapped the wall around 1:30 for the hundred.
I can't remember exactly how fast I was supposed to be going while being one of the worst swimmer on the college team, but I feel like doing 100's on a 1:30 interval would've been less embarrassing than what I was achieving. Certainly in grad school masters swimming, I would've felt pretty good about that pace. The point of this paragraph is "Go me! I'm getting better at swimming again!!"
Also, the snowpocalypse has started here in DC. NOAA says 20-28 inches expected this weekend.
PS. Seriously, snowpocalypse! Here's an exceprt from the newest NOAA Winter Storm Watch thingy:
* ACCUMULATIONS...WIDESPREAD STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 20 TO 30 INCHES...WITH SOME LOCATIONS IN EXCESS OF 30 INCHES. * VISIBILITIES...WIDESPREAD VISIBILITIES AROUND ONE-QUARTER MILE ARE EXPECTED TONIGHT IN HEAVY SNOW. STRONG WINDS WILL COMBINE WITH THE SNOW ALONG THE MARYLAND CHESAPEAKE BAY AND TIDAL POTOMAC RIVER TO REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO WELL BELOW ONE-QUARTER MILE...PRODUCING NEAR-BLIZZARD CONDITIONS TONIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING. THIS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE RECORD SNOWFALL FOR THE BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON DC METROPOLITAN AREAS. TRAVEL CONDITIONS TONIGHT ACROSS THE REGION WILL BE EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS AND LIFE-THREATENING. HELP YOUR LOCAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT FIRST RESPONDERS AND TRANSPORTATION AGENCIES BY STAYING OFF THE ROADS.
Monday, February 1, 2010
More snow, more running
There's a chance that one of these days I'll get around to something
other than amazed, narcissistic thinking about how unbelievably
exercisey my life is compared to what it used to be.
Until then...
I've been training for a half-marathon that is coming up towards the end of March. The weekend runs have been getting longer and I've mostly been getting more and more excited as I complete new longest-ever runs. Until two Saturdays ago. I packed my stuff to go run, carrying my keys in my hat, though "oh, a notebook!" and picked that up, headed downstairs and realized, as I shut myself outdoors, that my hat, and keys were still in my condo. GAH!
Thankfully, I recently met some teammates/neighbors, and stood outside their building and used their computer and phone to call a locksmith. Very expensive.
I couldn't bring myself to run after all that and instead played computer games and ate pizza.
Sunday, when I got up to go run, I really wasn't feeling like it. I made myself leave the house (with keys, but without snacks) and then headed out further than usual before turning around because I thought I would quit if I went back past the house. Well, I sort of did quit, even though I wasn't near the house. After 7 miles, about 1 mile from my car with snacks and stuff, I just couldn't run anymore. People talk of "bonking" and I think that's what it was. I ended up walking the rest of the way to the car, walking and drinking and eating snacks, but never did get any umph back, so just kept walking to finish the 10.
It felt good to finish 10 miles, but it wasn't a good 10 miles.
The next weekend was scheduled for 11, and as the week went on, I got more scared and nervous.
Of course, the fact that it was supposed to be stupid cold and start snowing didn't help the nerves.
I showed up, paired up with a teammate and we headed out with a plan of 2 4-mile loops together plus some more for me on my own.
It was awesome.
Here's some pictures from teammates that I've completely stolen without asking:
Until then...
I've been training for a half-marathon that is coming up towards the end of March. The weekend runs have been getting longer and I've mostly been getting more and more excited as I complete new longest-ever runs. Until two Saturdays ago. I packed my stuff to go run, carrying my keys in my hat, though "oh, a notebook!" and picked that up, headed downstairs and realized, as I shut myself outdoors, that my hat, and keys were still in my condo. GAH!
Thankfully, I recently met some teammates/neighbors, and stood outside their building and used their computer and phone to call a locksmith. Very expensive.
I couldn't bring myself to run after all that and instead played computer games and ate pizza.
Sunday, when I got up to go run, I really wasn't feeling like it. I made myself leave the house (with keys, but without snacks) and then headed out further than usual before turning around because I thought I would quit if I went back past the house. Well, I sort of did quit, even though I wasn't near the house. After 7 miles, about 1 mile from my car with snacks and stuff, I just couldn't run anymore. People talk of "bonking" and I think that's what it was. I ended up walking the rest of the way to the car, walking and drinking and eating snacks, but never did get any umph back, so just kept walking to finish the 10.
It felt good to finish 10 miles, but it wasn't a good 10 miles.
The next weekend was scheduled for 11, and as the week went on, I got more scared and nervous.
Of course, the fact that it was supposed to be stupid cold and start snowing didn't help the nerves.
I showed up, paired up with a teammate and we headed out with a plan of 2 4-mile loops together plus some more for me on my own.
It was awesome.
- The snow did come, and it came early and there was more than predicted, but it was mostly gentle.
- Both our watches were recording km instead of miles, so we had no idea how we were getting such freakishly fast splits, but it was super exciting.
- I'd made hot gatorade for my refuel snack and it was wonderful.
- After the two loops, thinking we'd done 12.8 freak-miles (knowing it wasn't right, but if the GPS gods were giving out free distance, we were going to take it), we stopped and talked with other crazy teammates out running in the snow. I figured out the km vs miles thing and was so excited, I bounced off to do 2 more miles.
- Running down the road in a few inches of snow was exciting. The sound of it squeaking under my sneakers is something I never would've imagined I would've experienced. It was fun to try to find my footprints coming back and match my stride length. The snow was deep enough that I wasn't kicking through to the pavement, which was also new.
Here's some pictures from teammates that I've completely stolen without asking:
Monday, January 18, 2010
Zozo in the snowsnow, plus 5K PR
Here's a picture from the big snow back in December. Zozo, at this point of the walk, is really really mad at me.
The 5k last weekend was a resounding success. The night before the race, I was setting up my watch to tell me when to walk and to make the intervals and stuff, but decided to change my plan to be a little less conservative. The original plan was to run 1000m and walk a bit, because those are the intervals we've been doing on the track. While programming the watch, I decided that I could do with only 3 walk breaks so made it run 1250m before walking a bit. That worked ok, but was challenging, and at the half way point, I realized that if I walked a tiny bit longer, a teammate could catch up with me.
This is a nice way to have done a race, because 1. I was able to meet my goal to improve, 2. I know there is more improvement available, and 3. Gasping conversation is better than no conversation.
I don't know the official time yet, but it's probably less than the time I recorded on my watch because I forgot to press the stop button right away. My watch says it was 36:15, which is a 11:37 pace, which is totally awesome for me. The best 5K result I could find for me was from the 2008 GW Parkway 5K, which was 36:41, and I remember feeling truly awful coming down the home stretch for that one. On Saturday, I was breathing hard, but still had "go" left in my legs.
I got to enjoy the rest of the day as well, with an adventure to an Asian superstore and a visit to the natural history museum. They've put in some sort of ocean exhibit and have an aquarium. I could've watched those fish all day, but it was also fun to look at the prehistoric coral reef and try to find different things.
Sunday was drizzly. I had grand plans to knit and watch Lost, but ended up playing Civilization almost all day. This knitting project is never going to get done if I don't work on it.
Today I woke up stupid early to go to morning bootcamp (part of the annual goals). It was pretty awesome, and I ended up sitting down at work before 8am, which is crazy! I think I'll be able to avoid the excessive muscle soreness some other people said usually happens because I really just don't want to try that hard. It seems like I should be able to get stronger by just trying harder than I would be if I were still in bed (which is where I would usually be from 6-7am on Monday mornings)
Tonight is hashing, which is a fun addition to the workout schedule. At least it's usually fun. If the lunges from this morning come back to haunt me this afternoon, it will be less fun.
*** Update, official time 35:30, 5K PR
The 5k last weekend was a resounding success. The night before the race, I was setting up my watch to tell me when to walk and to make the intervals and stuff, but decided to change my plan to be a little less conservative. The original plan was to run 1000m and walk a bit, because those are the intervals we've been doing on the track. While programming the watch, I decided that I could do with only 3 walk breaks so made it run 1250m before walking a bit. That worked ok, but was challenging, and at the half way point, I realized that if I walked a tiny bit longer, a teammate could catch up with me.
This is a nice way to have done a race, because 1. I was able to meet my goal to improve, 2. I know there is more improvement available, and 3. Gasping conversation is better than no conversation.
I don't know the official time yet, but it's probably less than the time I recorded on my watch because I forgot to press the stop button right away. My watch says it was 36:15, which is a 11:37 pace, which is totally awesome for me. The best 5K result I could find for me was from the 2008 GW Parkway 5K, which was 36:41, and I remember feeling truly awful coming down the home stretch for that one. On Saturday, I was breathing hard, but still had "go" left in my legs.
I got to enjoy the rest of the day as well, with an adventure to an Asian superstore and a visit to the natural history museum. They've put in some sort of ocean exhibit and have an aquarium. I could've watched those fish all day, but it was also fun to look at the prehistoric coral reef and try to find different things.
Sunday was drizzly. I had grand plans to knit and watch Lost, but ended up playing Civilization almost all day. This knitting project is never going to get done if I don't work on it.
Today I woke up stupid early to go to morning bootcamp (part of the annual goals). It was pretty awesome, and I ended up sitting down at work before 8am, which is crazy! I think I'll be able to avoid the excessive muscle soreness some other people said usually happens because I really just don't want to try that hard. It seems like I should be able to get stronger by just trying harder than I would be if I were still in bed (which is where I would usually be from 6-7am on Monday mornings)
Tonight is hashing, which is a fun addition to the workout schedule. At least it's usually fun. If the lunges from this morning come back to haunt me this afternoon, it will be less fun.
*** Update, official time 35:30, 5K PR
Monday, January 11, 2010
Fast-forward to 2010
Since last writing, I successfully got quotes for refinancing, decided it would be dumb to do right now, and bought a car.
I've also kept up with the triathlon-ing, and since getting the car, have been going to the occasional swim practice in addition to running and biking.
Winter has set in hard here, with almost 20 inches of snow on Dec 19th and occasional refresher snows since. There's a chance that it will be in the 40s during the day later this week, which will help some of the piles of snow melt away, but will also probably mean icy roads at night and in the morning. Good thing I still remember how to get to work without driving :)
The packing for the Luray triathlon weekend in August was successful, and I managed to do the Sprint and Oly distance in the same weekend. I had some significant blisters, but otherwise felt ok. I certainly wasn't "racing" them. I think that this year, I don't need to prove that I can do two days of endurance events, but I think I'll go back to Luray, since that was where I did my first race in 2008.
The running continues to get better. My speed for long runs hasn't improved so much, but I'm certainly capable of jogging for much longer distances than ever before. Right now, I'm getting ready for a half-marathon at the end of March and did a 9 mile run yesterday. I can clearly remember thinking that my friends who were training for a marathon and said "it's not so bad, you just keep doing longer runs" were crazy, as I struggled to jog for a whole 2.5 miles on the treadmill.
Thankfully this week is a recovery week, but supposedly by the end of January, I will have run 10 and 11 miles. eep!
I'm also doing a 5K this weekend and I know from track workouts that I can run 1000m hard-ish, and repeatedly, so I plan to go for 1K then walk a bit, 5 times and may get a new best 5K time. Maybe.
I have lots of goals for the year, including distances for running, biking, swimming, and limits on the number of times I'll go to my local pizza place. There may be a bar chart in the future.
I've also kept up with the triathlon-ing, and since getting the car, have been going to the occasional swim practice in addition to running and biking.
Winter has set in hard here, with almost 20 inches of snow on Dec 19th and occasional refresher snows since. There's a chance that it will be in the 40s during the day later this week, which will help some of the piles of snow melt away, but will also probably mean icy roads at night and in the morning. Good thing I still remember how to get to work without driving :)
The packing for the Luray triathlon weekend in August was successful, and I managed to do the Sprint and Oly distance in the same weekend. I had some significant blisters, but otherwise felt ok. I certainly wasn't "racing" them. I think that this year, I don't need to prove that I can do two days of endurance events, but I think I'll go back to Luray, since that was where I did my first race in 2008.
The running continues to get better. My speed for long runs hasn't improved so much, but I'm certainly capable of jogging for much longer distances than ever before. Right now, I'm getting ready for a half-marathon at the end of March and did a 9 mile run yesterday. I can clearly remember thinking that my friends who were training for a marathon and said "it's not so bad, you just keep doing longer runs" were crazy, as I struggled to jog for a whole 2.5 miles on the treadmill.
Thankfully this week is a recovery week, but supposedly by the end of January, I will have run 10 and 11 miles. eep!
I'm also doing a 5K this weekend and I know from track workouts that I can run 1000m hard-ish, and repeatedly, so I plan to go for 1K then walk a bit, 5 times and may get a new best 5K time. Maybe.
I have lots of goals for the year, including distances for running, biking, swimming, and limits on the number of times I'll go to my local pizza place. There may be a bar chart in the future.
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