Sleep?

I'm a night owl, always was.

My favorite time of the night is the quiet that descends on the house, when everyone is asleep and I have no other responsibilities except to myself. I get to be 'just Jen'. I don't mean "Jen time" when I'm swimming/cycling/running/yoga; those fall into my daily responsibilities. While I enjoy endless hours of endurance training on a daily basis, require it, crave it, get mightly grumpy if I have not satisfied the endurance junkie within, can't think straight without my workout in, addicted to the endorphins Jen; my body and brain need down time from that too. That time comes at night.

Dave is not a night owl, the opposite, in fact, he often goes to bed before Van (age 8) and myself. Tonight, he was so tired that the tele in the bedroom went on at 6:20 pm (the first sign that Dave is heading to bed) and Van and I started joking "it's 6:20, bed time for Daddy!" - it wasn't too long after that, maybe 7 pm. Here's my conumdrum: I am also exhausted yet here I am, at 9:15, still up. Why? I've got some alone time and I feel that I have to take it because I don't always get it. With my return to masters swimming however, my wake up time turns out to be the wee hours of the morning, 4:30 am in fact, so sleep is at a premium as long as I am swimming MWF early mornings. Swim I must, since I put the triathlon hat back on. Nothing like a couple of half irons, the first 16 weeks or so from now that has got my arse in gear in the early mornings heading to the pool. I can't afford not to swim, not if I want to race to the best of my ability and I'm not quite sure what that potential is so in the meantime, I'm swimming, a lot, for me. That would be a whole two days of masters practice. hahahahaha...

Still, old habits are hard to break. I will get into the habit of getting into bed earlier, it will just take a little time, lack of sleep and a lot of coffee to get me there, I give it until Thursday. Here is why I am reluctant to break this little night owl habit of mine:
My day starts with getting myself and my little guy ready for school, it's frenzied. Off to work- which I love, but my job requires young people needing my attention at all times. It's a day in the service of others. Sometimes that extends to the lab, another service to willing clients trying to make their lifestyles healthier but it also requires lots of listening and apt attention. Off to home where husband and son are waiting. Practices, workouts, dinner, getting ready for the next day before this one is done, reviewing athletes programs and responding to emails so that when I finally sit down to peace and quiet with no-one saying "Mrs. G, Mom, or Jen?" I really dig the quiet time. I know of other teachers and health care professionals that need the quiet in the car on the drive home. No radio, just quiet. Reveling in silence. I get that. It's de-stress time, unwind time and I like to:

• Read voraciously: books, blogs, articles, and the endless comments on Slowtwitch
• Catch up on a few of the TV programs I dvr
• Write my own blog

Sometimes all three at the same time but I usually end my evening by completely detaching from the world with a book, then I'm ready to sleep. This usually occurs sometime between 10:30 and 11 pm, a couple of solid hours of Jen only time to do whatever I want without any interference. Swimming at 4:30 am throws a wrench into this routine and unfortunately after 6 months of virtually no swimming, I am totally out of the habit of the early morning wake up call on a steady basis. Swimming also knocks me out physically. It's a love hate relationship. I "enjoy" the physical exhaustion swimming brings to me like no other sport. Sure I can exhaust myself cycling and running but it takes several hours to do that. A 5:30 am swim for an hour has put me on the floor for the past couple of days. It will get better, I won't always be this wiped out but even in tip top fit swim shape, It still knocks me out. Not sure why, probably the breath control, and the fact that I am using all my muscles at once while trying to move as fast as possible while maintaining form through water. It's a lot to think about, especially at 5:30 am. Nevertheless, I missed swimming and I'm happy to be back in the water and so that Dave can maintain his two days with our crew at a local college, I am swimming with a different group at Sayville. It's a little lower key, I have a lane and pretty much a private coach to myself keeping track of my splits. I had to laugh though, the "warm up" is a 1000 meters.... I think I swam that exactly a month ago as a workout in itself and yet here I am "warming up". This is why I go so early though, with someone standing over me and some other really fast swimmers in lanes next to me, I'm getting in 3000 meters in an hour. I won't do that by myself in an afternoon swim I will most likely ditch in favor of the bike or a run, so 4:30 am wake up calls it is. Sacrifice.

One of my readings this evening was this: http://blog.rappstar.com/2010/04/mementous.html
Amazing athlete and a very eloquent writer, I thought I'd share it with you if you don't already follow his blog.

Happy training, happy sleeping. Good night! (9:51 pm, Early!)

Post marathon recovery and thoughts on "what's next?"

For exactly a year I have been so focused on running that all other sports have taken a back seat. This was necessary, to break 3:45 to qualify for Boston was a monumental task for me. Sure, I did two triathlons, the Montauk sprint and Timberman 70.3 but I did not train specifically for them. I swam once per week during the winter of 2009 and just added a few lake swims more for recovery from running than actually training for swimming in the summer. I biked twice per week. Once on the computrainer and a longer ride on the road on the weekend. After Timberman, I hung up the bike and the goggles. It was full steam ahead for the Albany race to qualify and I did it. Then Boston training consumed me as well as some sickness setbacks, partly from an allergy gone out of control and exacerbated by dangerously low vitamin D levels and dangerously high levels of glucosamine and chondroiten that I was oddly taking to improve my health or so I thought. With the asthma/bronchitis related problems from November through February, I figure I lost between 5 and 6 weeks worth of run training. That's a lot. Thinking about this has made me even happier that I ran 3:55 in Boston six days ago. Six weeks is HUGE. Leading up to the qualifier in October I missed zero training and ran 3:42. Granted the course was much easier and I had some biking and swimming supplementing my aerobic training in the summer. I am left wondering if I had that six weeks and missed zero training leading up to Boston what I would have run last Monday. I am wondering this because when I look at my splits, 1:53 for the first half and 2:02 for the back half, I really slowed down and that is a function of the hills tearing up my quads but also my fitness. I didn't have the same level of endurance on the back half for this marathon. What would I have run if I had that six weeks? An open ended question that has a multitude of possibilities.
After a really tough winter for training, I really thought that I would relish the switch over to training like a triathlete again and mixing in the running evenly with the cycling and the swimming but guess what I am thinking about?

Running.

Winter training and the Boston course were so difficult and I suffered so greatly on the back half of that marathon that you would think that I would hang up the sneaks and not want to go through that again. What I find myself thinking about is going back there in 2012, healthy, to see what I can do on that course. The original goal of qualifying for Boston was to become a better runner to help my efforts in long course triathlon and I have become a better runner in the past couple of years. The thing is, I still don't feel like I've tapped my potential and after completing the Boston marathon I find myself with a whole new set of running goals!!

I do feel that I need a solid break from the rigors of marathon training however. In a year and a half I have run three marathons: Chicago 2008, Mowhawk Hudson River 2009, Boston 2010. The mental aspects of training and racing cannot be ignored. I need to be completely fired up for 24 weeks worth of intensive running and marathon training and I can tell you that I would not be fired up to run a qualifying effort this fall. Sure, there is plenty of time to recover physically but I need the mental fire and the mental focus and I am not fired up to go back to Boston in 2011. I need a little more time of quality training to build my running to where I would like it to go so my plan is to run a fall marathon in 2011 and run it fast. Like 3:30 fast. That's a huge goal to tackle but I'm basing that off my 3:42 PR. Can I knock off 12 minutes, 30 sec per mile in a year and a half's time? I think I can, especially with a running build throughout the summer months in 2011, the best time of the year for me to train. October/early November is the best time for me to run a PR off all that solid summer and early fall training. I turn 39 this summer, I'm in the prime years for endurance training and I want to take advantage of it and see what I can do. 40 for 2011, a 3:50 BQ time but I don't want to just run a 3:50. I want to smash that 3:50 then show up at Boston and run that back half well, especially now that I know the course and what to expect! That's my new goal.

So where does that leave me now? Where does that leave my original plan to go back to IMLP in 2011?
This is what I have committed myself to this summer and fall:

• June 12th: The women's mini 10k Central Park
• July 18th: Montauk Lighthouse Sprint Triathlon
• August 15th: Lake Stevens Half Ironman
• September 19th: Syracuse Half Ironman
• Entenmann's Great South Bay Half Marathon (Hamptons half marathon is Oct 2nd. I really do like this race and would like to do it although I am not sure I could break 1:45 on that course. Entenmann's is flat and fast. What's your opinion?)

Events I would really like to do:

• Gold coast ride
• Southampton Firecracker 8k as a brick, bike there, run fast, bike home
• NYC long training runs in Central Park
• Schiff mountain bike triathlon
• Cow harbor, although I think it falls the week after Syracuse half iron, not such a great time for me.
• Philly half marathon, looks like fun.

Training like a triathlete again has begun, it's actually forced! I can't really run yet. Went out Thursday night at Van's soccer practice. It was a shuffle that stretched towards a very slow jog by the end of 40 minutes with a one minute walk break thrown in at the end of each 10 minute shuffle segment. My hamstrings and quads were still sore, of course, I just ran a marathon three days before! Friday I swam masters (nothing like hopping into a masters workout after 6 months of NO SWIMMING). I felt decent in the water. A little slow but I swam the hour. The coach noted that I had a "very mechanical stroke, looks like I had swim lessons somewhere along the line"- I don't really know what that means. Interesting workout at Sayville masters. 1000 warm up, 10 x 50 on a minute, 500 kick, 20 x 25's on 35 sec (it started out as 30 sec but coach must have noticed i was a little fatigued!) and I finished with some 50's of breast and backstroke. I spun yesterday for 45 minutes on the trainer. I'm still tired. I'm feeling no pressure to do much of anything. I'll swim a lot again this week and I dropped my bikes off at the shop. I'll "run" while Van is at practice on Tues and Thurs. For the next few weeks I am officially "off schedule". Recovering, doing what I feel like. Which is weird because for so much of the last year I had to run to the exclusion of other things. Time to find that swim/bike groove again!

Post marathon indulgence

Other things I noticed in Boston:

We stayed in a really nice hotel, the Ritz Carlton. I don't know if it was just Ritz employees or Boston peeps in general but instead of saying "yes" I heard a lot of "absolutely". For example:

me: Can you point me towards the nearest bathroom?
Ritz: Absolutely, make a left around the corner.
me: Thank you
Ritz: Absolutely

me: Can you recommend a good Irish pub?
Ritz: Absolutely. The Beantown Pub or the Intermission Tavern are absolutely close by.
me: Perfect
Ritz: Absolutely

Ritz: Would you like more coffee?
me: Yes, please
Ritz: Absolutely
me: So you have half and half?
Ritz: Absolutely

Ritz: How did the race go?
me: Good- the course is really difficult. Absolutely the toughest marathon course I've done.
Ritz: Absolutely
me: Absolutely hard
Ritz: Absolutely

Of course, the word fit nicely with all word transactions but it wasn't just one person, it was all Ritz employees using this word quite frequently so I noticed it. By my last verbal exchange I was effin' around with it, couldn't help myself. Anyone else notice this anywhere else in Boston? Maybe it's just part of the Ritz employee customer relations protocol...... absolutely.

hahaha

Anyway,
Since I provided you with my race morning nutrition and race nutrition details in the race report, I figured I would give you an idea of how I have absolutely (hahaha) gone over the edge and completely indulged myself while basking in the glow of my personal Boston marathon victory dance.

Post race:
Immediate: water, I can't stand the thought of taking in any synthetic sugar. A banana.

Kelly and Kim were gracious enough to stop up to my room for a visit after the marathon. After rehashing the race for a little while it was time for burgers and beers. Off to the Intermission Tavern. The Guiness was warm from the tap, just the way I like it. The juicy burger and fries were a must. Unfortunately my stomach shrank so I managed a little more than half a burger and a couple of fries. KB joined us and two more guiness went down just fine. Mom took Van back to the hotel so Dave and I stopped back at Max and Dylan's for another beer... or two.... we ran into Bob K. again, and after the fourth, (fifth?) guiness the walking seemed a little less painful back to the hotel and after downing some water in the room, I drifted off to Lily White's Party very easily...

Next morning:
Usually I'm a whole wheat english muffin almond butter type of breakfast girl but post marathon morning breakfast is where the appetite from the previous day's activities and lack of food really kicks in. Scrambled eggs, buttered whole wheat toast, sausage, potatoes, OJ, and coffee, lots of good strong coffee.

Lunch: nothing crazy, turkey, swiss, avacado on a pita sandwhich. I also finished off the last 4 of Van's chicken nuggets. A couple of chips stolen from Dave's lunch.

Car ride to ferry: half a cranberry scone

Ferry: Large cup of black tea, a couple of bites of brownie, 2 amazing oatmeal raisen cookies Bob K. brought back from Boston. He told me not to read the ingredients. You could taste the butter. They were awesome. We were going to stop at Hellenic for Greek food but we were still full from cookies. There must have been some serious fat grams in them!

Back at home: still full from oatmeal cookie indulgence, by the time I finished up household prep, blog posting and other time wasting activities like facebook, my dinner was 2 guiness. But guiness is good for you right?

Today: back to my normal breakfast, turkey sandwhich for lunch, bare naked cherry granola bar for snack at 1, handfull of animal crackers at home. Dinner...... who's up for pizza? 2 slices, 2 garlic knots. No guiness tonight though, craving the water!!! I think running a marathon and rehydrating with the majority of fluids being guiness has increased this craving.

Lots of sideways one leg at a time walking down the stairs. Lots of walking slowly. Legs still sore to the touch. No guilt for my junk food indulgences. Much more guiness needed. Absolutely!

Boston 2010- the recap!

At first I was afraid, I was petrified

I had no idea what to expect and

had a feeling my legs would be fried.

Oh, now go, run down the road

Hit that first hill and hold your head up high

Did you think I'd crumble?

Did you think I would lay down and die?

Oh...not I! I will survive.

As long as I can keep up the pace

I know I'll stay alive.

I got all my life to live

I got all my heart to give

I'll survive. I will surive. Hey Hey

Certain parts of Donna Summers "I will survive" ran through my head quite a bit in the days leading up to the 2010 Boston marathon, of course I've changed the lyrics a bit to suit my needs and I can tell you that after mile 15, I was doing some serious negotiating with myself!

As much as  I presented outward calm going into this race, I was REALLY nervous, mostly because I had no idea what to expect and I am so happy that my good friends told me that it was constantly rolling, not just an easy downhill to mile 16 where the Newton hills start because in reality, it's a steep downhill for the first half mile or so and then you are running uphill, alot, like the Cty. Rd. 51 uphill except its longer and steeper....then you run down again, then up, then down, and up, and down and up, I think you get the picture? There is no such thing as a flat section, at least in my perception of the race and coming from Long Island, I know flat. I should also know by now that I can't trust my husbands perception of Boston "oh it's not that bad, I didn't even really notice the Newton hills, you'll be fine" because he is a total anomaly in the world of endurance sports and if you know my husbands accomplishments, then you know what I am talking about.... the man is a machine.

That was the HARDEST race I have ever done in my life, including Ironman. It was harder than Ironman Lake Placid and I was out there for a third of the time I would spend at LP, that should give you some idea of how freaking hard that was. Did I mention that it was really hard? hahaha

Day before:

We got up to Boston pretty early on Sunday. First on the agenda was lunch, second was the expo. I am not an expo lingerer, especially the day before the race. In and out. The only thing I wanted out of the expo was the official jacket, which I did not get. All that was left was XS or XL so I have to order it online, and I will because I earned that jacket! The way the giant expo is set up is like a huge maze with no end in sight. It was so crowded and it was leeching energy out of me by the second as we tried to find an exit. Finally we asked an expo worker where the way out was. They set it up so that you are funneled through every exhibit. She pointed to the doors that said "energency exit only" and told us we could go through there. At that point it was an emergency, I needed out of the crowd fest!

Walking back towards the finish line and our hotel, about 100 yards from the painted finish line in the road I mentioned to my mother "walking across the finish line full of energy today, running across with every last ounce of effort tomorrow" and I stopped dead in my tracks. It dawned on me that I left my gel flask of my coveted vanilla hammer gel in the fridge at home. Bummer.... and an emergency. I do not drink gatorade and I cannot wait until mile 17 for a Power gel full of fructose I cannot digest... Oh Crap!

Dave pointed out the Marathon Sports store directly across the street. Wishing they had Hammer gel but knowing they would not, I spotted the Cliff gels. I had used them in the past, awhile back. No fructose but I was unsure of how I would do with the brown rice syrup. Have to do it, no choice. I gel at the 5 mile marks of the marathon and I do it in training so often that my body is accustomed to the sugar at those time intervals. Desperate situations require desperate measures. Cliff gels it was. Off to an early dinner with Bob Kujawski (3:08! Awesome!!!) and his daughter Halley, really good food at Max and Dylan's.

Dave, me, Bob, Halley and Van. No bystanders or my mom would have been in the pic too!

Morning of:

Got out of bed at 5:15, I could have slept until 5:45 since my hotel was literally across the street from where we caught the bus to the start but I just couldn't sleep anymore. Up, dressed. Dave volunteered to head downstairs for coffee. Just one cup- I was warned about the hour long bus ride with no port-o-john in sight. Managed to get down a half a bagel with peanut butter and a banana. Eating is hard for me the morning of a race, I have to force feed myself. Packed a Baker's cookie and another banana in my gear bag, and went out to the bus line.

I always seem to pick the wrong line at the supermarket, the Boston bus loading line to the start was no exception to this. I got on line at 6:40. It was recommended for Wave 2 starters to get on the bus line from 6:45-7:30 so following the rules I went out at that time, with apparently everyone else running the Boston marathon. I waited on line for an hour. AN HOUR!!!! Met a nice girl there for her first Boston too, we chatted it up and I had a good chat with an ultrarunner wearing the vibrams. Interesting guy. Finally we got on the bus, the last bus!!!!! Note to self, in the future, read KB's email and take the cab to the start. What a clusterfu!k that bus line is!

Bus heads out, everyone's excited. I'm on the phone with Dave and texting my coach back and forth pre-race. 50 minutes into the bus ride, a woman up front stands up and asks if anyone is from the Boston area because she thinks we are lost. The cell phones start coming out, people are calling the race directors, maps are out (who carries a map to the start? Thank you type A's!), we are heading out on the Mass Pike to the middle of nowhere. I text Dave, Kelly and Kevin that the bus is lost. KB texts back "I told you about the bus...." very funny!

We FINALLY hit an exit, pull off, a runner gets off the bus to talk to the toll booth guy. Another runner on the phone with some kind of race official and tells us that we are approximately a half hour from Hopkinton. Thank you type A runners for getting on the horn and pulling the bus driver off the road at the next exit. I shrugged, can't do anything about it! Oh well! So 1.5 hours later, officially THREE HOURS from the time I started waiting on line to catch the bus, we pulled up to the athletes village in Hopkinton. Good thing I only had one cup of coffee! First order of business: Pee. Second, get all gear ready. Hand off bag to buses going back to the start and walk the 0.7 miles to the corrals. No down time, kind of good, I had pictured myself sitting around for a couple of hours. NOT! Practically jogging to my assigned corral to make it when the announcer came over saying "5 minutes to wave 2 start". Jumped in, chatted with a couple of nice girls from Canada doing their first Boston. Lots of women in my corral, very cool! We start a slow jog, I have the garmin and my stopwatch ready, we cross the line. Go time!

The race:

Very surreal. That's all I could think about the first mile. Three years ago, Boston was a pipe dream. 2 years ago I started thinking about it. Last May I took it seriously and trained my ass off through 2009 to run 3:42 in Albany to get the coveted qualifying spot. Winter training.......brutal....... and here I was, I'm running the Boston marathon! It's like the world championships for amateur marathoners. Seriously.

I had to really control myself the first few miles and I am so glad I reigned it in, had I run faster on the downhills in the beginning I think I would have been in really bad shape later on. You could spot these people right away, flying on the down hills, 15 miles later those same people were walking. Boston is not a forgiving course.

The splits:

Mile 1:     8:33

Mile 2:     8:25

Mile 3:     8:30

Mile 4:     8:33

Mile 5:     8:46  a nice long gradual rise

Mile 6:     8:34  back on pace, controlling the downhill

Mile 7:     8:38

Mile 8:     8:55  another sharp incline from miles 7-8

Mile 9:     8:30  back on pace

Mile 10:   8:39

Mile 11:   8:54  a really steep long one

Mile 12:   8:34

Mile 13:   8:30  holding steady, feeling good

Mile 14:   8:45  first inkling that 3:45 may not be happening today

Mile 15:   9:00  a gradual climb, officially feeling my quads for the first time

Mile 16:   9:00  first of the Newton Hills, not too shabby for a steep one!

Mile 17:   9:05  Trying to hold pace on these hills!

Mile 18:   9:20  really steep incline from 17-18

Mile 19:   9:25  Official suffering begins

Mile 20:   9:30  Totally in the pain cave

Mile 21:   9:50  Heartbreak Hill, up and over up and over up and over, suffering

Mile 22:   9:29  Tunnel vision, quads/legs on fire, everything is hurting, suffering

Mile 23:   9:35  WILLING myself not to walk, YOU WILL NOT WALK JEN! KEEP RUNNING

Mile 24:   9:10  2.2 to go! Less than 25 minutes! Mentally negotiating the math, willing myself on. Suffering.

Mile 25:   9:25  This was the longest mile of my life, ever. Citgo hill is in here somewhere.

Mile 26:   9:14  Rounding the corner, suffering up one last hill, finish line in sight! Focused on nothing but that blue finish arch that seems so far far away.

Last 0.2:  2:06  DONE! Average pace 8:58 per mile in the end.

Finally allow myself to "walk" more like shuffle. Crying, want Dave, want my mom, want my little boy. Want Dave. Crying. Very slowly moving foward. I must have looked really bad because a medic rushed up to me with a wheel chair. I said "no" just wanted to keep moving forward to my family. M.E. says she knows my focused look, many others may confuse it for "needing medical attention" look. I'm sure I was pale. I was shivering. I was teary eyed and my legs were alternately buckling as I hobbled forward. I knew if I sat down I would not get up, I think that's what kept me moving forward, I so badly wanted to see Dave, I didn't want to be in a med tent. It took a really long time to slowly shuffle through the water, space blankets, food, medals, more people asking me if I needed medical help, couldn't speak just shaking the head "no". Finally to the buses. Mine was on the end (of course!). Called Dave on my cell, I was almost to the Common. I told my family to look for me leaning on a tree, that's where they found me, lots of hugs followed.

I never, ever, pushed myself to a limit and over it in a race like I did yesterday. That was an entirely new level of suffering that I did not know existed. I knew the pain was coming, I worked hard to learn how to embrace that pain over the last year and I had such a good race in the fall and was so euphoric in the final miles of the Albany marathon that I tricked myself into thinking I may feel like that again. Ohhhhh no, not in the hills of this marathon. That was the first time I ever experienced the crippling effects of downhill running. The uphills fatigue you, the downhills are where the havoc to your leg muscles set in. I have an entirely new appreciation for the 26.2 distance over the Boston marathon course.

My mom's picture of the crowds on Boylston, final mile.

The crowds are amazing, there are people lining the course the entire way. It's so loud towards the finishing miles that I was actually glad to have my earphones in to dull some of it. I personally don't miss out on any of the action while listening to the music, in a way, it helps me maintain my focus, especially when I am in tunnel vision/pain cave land. I was suffering so badly that I couldn't even turn my eyes right or left in the final miles, it was all I had to keep running and moving in a forward motion. New levels of pain. New levels of transendence.

Thank you to all my family and good friends and your well wishes, thoughts, texts, calls and emails leading up to and after the race. I can't thank you enough for your support!

A special thank you to Kelly Liljeblad,  for your help and unrelenting positive support, friendship, and guidance. I could hear you in my head over the final miles. Go time! I wish I could have seen you by the Citgo sign, running alongside but I was far too tunnel visioned out and focused on the finish only! You were in my head though. Without your help this marathon may not have been possible. You rock!

A special special thank you to Dave, for putting up with my horrible crankiness during winter training with the big miles, and your unrelenting support and inspiration to me. You made me feel very special this weekend and it's a dream of mine to come within a few miles of your accomplishments in running and triathlon. You are an amazing husband, dad and athlete.

I trained, I went, I ran, I suffered, I loved every single minute of it. Will I do it again? Not until 2012 at least. I need some downhill/uphill training and I'm going for the sub 3:40 (ultimate goal 3:30) on the flats where I can shine in the fall of 2011, then I'll be back to conquer some hills from Hopkinton to Boston!

What's that sound? A fairy godmother twinkling sound... *poof* I just turned back onto a triathlete! Time to dust off the bikes, find the googles and the swim gear.......

The Theory of Competition

just because they're the strong, doesn't mean they can't get their asses kicked..."

Signs of taper

I am definitely of the "less is more" philosphy during taper time.

Feeling sluggish through pretty much yesterday, I took it easy this week but still completed exactly what my schedule called for so far. Tuesday a 5 easy run, Wed an easy spin on the bike for 45 minutes. Thursday morning I got up early and ran 4.5 with 12 x 30 sec strides. I was tired. I am eating like all the food in the world is going to disappear tonight. I am sleeping 8-9 hours at a clip and having some bizarre dreams. Feelings of self doubt and the reality that I will be running 26.2 in a week which seems so monumental at this point. Yeah, it's taper.

The sluggishness drives me nuts. I know its coming though, after 10 years of participating in distance events requiring a longer taper, I know the feeling of slug. It's fine, I welcome it now. I know that my body is repairing the damage sustained from the long distance and intensity training over the last 6-8 weeks. I know I am sleeping more to help recovery from said damage. Slept until 9:15 am this morning after going to bed at 10:30 pm. Solid!

Friday was a rest day and yesterday I got up fairly late as well and got out for a run after Dave came back from his ride. I felt GREAT. The golf course road near my house is one of my favorite places to run, it's like running a paved trail. Isolated, surrounded by the pine barrens on each side, it's 4 miles long one way from my house. The first mile is straight uphill for me and during that time I was thinking of how lucky I am to run in such a beautiful place. I was also thinking that I am a "loner" trainer. It's not that I do not enjoy training with others, I do, it's just circumstances of life. Recently, one of the athletes I train was asking me why I don't run with the River Rats over by Harbor Hills. I would love to run with the 'rats. M.E. and Mike are two of my favorite 'rats. The reality is that with a 45 minute drive to make a 7:30 am run, it adds a ton of time to the morning workout and I have to share that time with Dave and Van. It just becomes easier to run from my door and be back in the 90 minutes to 2+ hours without adding any extra time to that window. I think this is why when I do get the opportunity to cycle or run with others, I really appreciate the time I get to spend with friends, particularly on our adventures into NYC and other places.

Cresting the top of the first hill, I was noticing some spring in my step. I had to do a three mile tempo effort at half marathon pace or a little faster. Tempo efforts are not my favorite, I prefer the short/fast intervals or even mile repeats where I get some recovery in between. Of course I prefer those, they are easier for me, the longer tempo efforts are tougher, a weakness, which is exactly why I needed to be doing it. Thinking of all the ways to switch up the workout at the beginning of those three miles, I slowly began to realize that my legs actually had some speed in them and I needed to reign myself in. I was running some rolling hills at 7:45 pace, nice! Half marathon pace for me is 8:20 according to the most recent time so I slowed down a little but not much. I found my groove yesterday, taper is working! The last mile of the three tempo was straight uphill into a stiff headwind and I still ran an 8:12. My confidence is picking up.

I cruised the last 2 home, ended up averaging 8:40's for the enitre run and mentioned to Dave that I felt strong for the first time in a few weeks. Definitely a good feeling. Boston is 8 days away, I am keeping my fingers crossed for cool, but not cold weather. Yesterday's low 50's were perfect for me. I have begun postively visualizing my race. I am trying hard to banish any negative thoughts. I can't control the weather so whatever. I can control how I feel about the race and I am looking forward to having a great time on a course I worked so hard to get to. One last 10-12 miler today and the rest is gravy this week. Ready!

Your "inner GPS"

A Simple Way to Run Faster

I got this email in my inbox this morning and it is definitely worth a read. Often times "we" (including me) get too caught up in pace, HR, time, what music I'm listening to, etc.. Sometimes running easy really needs to be easy and that pace can purely depend on how you feel. There is a time and a place for the GPS. I use mine approximately twice per week. Once for the tempo run to make sure I am hitting the target pace and once for the long run..... to make sure I am hitting the target pace. Otherwise it's just me and the chrono. Today, on a beautiful, 75 degree sunny day I appreciated just being able to run. I didn't think about Boston in less than 2 weeks, I didn't think about how fast I was running, I just ran, with my mouth closed, completely breathing through my nose, try it the next time you need to run easy, if you have to open your mouth, you are running too hard!

Part II of "what is this liquid stuff I am moving through?"

With my brief reintroduction to the water on Tuesday, I was actually looking forward to getting back in the pool later on in this week. Instead, I waded through the pool in my basement. When I got home from work on Tuesday, the driveway looked like this:

Just so you know, that retaining wall just under the green plants on the left is 3 feet high. The rest of my week resulted in me walking around in these:

Thinking that there may be a problem with the continuous down pouring rain for almost 72 hours straight, I put the treadmill up to a 15% grade before leaving for the lab Tuesday morning and Dave quickly got the rest of the equipment and furniture up off the floor. The water crept in through the garage and no sooner was he done when it came rushing in, a foot high. I did manage to fit some quality training in around sloshing through the basement and garage for the massive cleanup for the remainder of the week. Luckily, I had off from teaching this week, unluckily, I spent my entire spring break cleaning out the basement and trying to find a place to store everything that is normally down there.

We had some great weather Wednesday through today and I was looking forward to getting some riding in outdoors but the house took precedence, so swimming and riding once again took a back seat to running this week.

It's amazing how much more quickly you recover when you aren't standing on your feet teaching for 40 hours a week.

After last Sunday's 20 miler, I was really looking forward to a downturn in mileage. The week ended up like this:

Monday: rest

Tuesday: run 4.5 easy on the treadmill, swim 1000 later on in the day

Wednesday: 6.5 total: 2 mile easy warm up, 4 miles at half marathon pace or slightly faster (8:02, 8:04, 8:03, 7:46) and a half mile warm down.

Thursday: 5 miles easy, 9:15 pace

Friday: 4 miles super easy with Van. He rode the 4 on his little bmx bike and I ran along side, a pleasure.

Saturday: babysitting my 2 year old niece all day, spin easy on the trainer for an hour in the early am.

Sunday: Happy Easter! I was under a bit of stress trying to figure out how to fit in the long run this week. I didn't want to run long on Friday with the 20 miler 5 days previously, I need all 7 days and then some of recovery. Saturday was out, I was picking my niece up at 8 am and had her until 7:30 pm (GREAT day! I just love her so much!) while my sis and bro-inlaw went into the city. That left Sunday. Dave suggested early, I suggested not. I didn't want to miss any part of Van hunting for easter eggs and checking out his basket. Mass at 9, brunch at my mom's at 11. I ate a bagel, some scrambled eggs, a sausage and a small piece of authentic polish town keilbasa. A little while later I ate three of my mother's homemade chocolate cake bites dipped in white chocolate (OOOOooooohhhhh, so good!). An hour later I changed clothes and 20 minutes after that, Dave dropped me off on the side of the road 14 miles from home. By mile 4 I was stashing the outer layer in the woods. Ran home alternating a mile easy with a mile at goal pace in the heat. Tank and shorts. I don't remember that happening since August! Went through 2 bottles, conviently filling up at the Hess on 24. Started to feel the non heat acclimation at mile 11- pushed through holding pace until 12 and then my body started the slow shut down. I felt pretty great up until then. Mile at 8:30, mile at 9:00-9:15 back and forth through the hills of the Halsey Manor loop in Manorville, a great run. My avg pace was 8:55 until mile 12, then 13 and 14 I hit the heat wall and really slowed down. I was shooting for 15 miles but when I couldn't hit the 6th mile repeat at 8:30's (I came in at 8:50), I knew fatigue had set in. I pushed myself past the pain of fatigue and heat through mile 14 and walked the last quarter home followed by a quick one mile loop on the bike with an anxious Van ready to get "his training" in. I was actually glad he was only up for a mile today!

2 weeks to go until Boston. I am pleased with the training and racing I've gotten in at this point. Time to eat well (no more keilbasa and eggs!), sleep well and recover well so I can run well at 26.2 on the 19th!