Bringing it to the table

Today was my final tempo run before the Entenmann's half marathon next Saturday. Tapering down, my "long" run was on the shorter side today, 75 minutes with 3 miles in the middle at goal pace. Sounds "easy" on paper, it's a little harder to execute though. Last Monday was a planned off day and I needed it after a big weekend of training last week. Tuesday the Ragweed pollen counts went up and my feeling of overall health and wellness dropped out the bottom. The worst of it is I can't even see this microscopic invader of my respiratory system yet it wreaks havoc on my immune system. I was down for the count Wednesday and Thursday, unable to exercise. That's how you know I'm feeling really bad. There really is never a time where I don't feel like moving my body around in some capacity.
At least I got in a double day with a short easy run and a swim on Tuesday and I had no guilt. When your body puts on the STOP sign, you have to obey, if you know what's good for you. Since breathing is integral to exercise, it would do well to have my respiratory system in full order. Feeling better by Friday, I got in the 10 x 1 minute efforts at 5k pace for 6 miles. I then promptly suffered from my allergies the remainder of the evening so I opted to stay indoors on the warm, sunny, windy and humid morning on Saturday and it was a good move. I felt much better today as I gave my struggling respiratory system a respite from the pollen flying through the air.

Little buggers

Rode an hour on the trainer and ran an easy 30 minutes on the treadmill. My legs were stiff from Friday's efforts. You would think two days off would have left me with fresher legs. I guess they were because I was hitting 6:50 pace for those one minute efforts but I paid for it on Saturday. That's OK though, intensity should go up when volume knocks down for a key race, that's the way to pack the muscles with oxygen producing mitochondria and boost fitness. 

When I started running today, my legs were a little sluggish but I have learned to take warm up seriously and not hinge my entire workout on how I feel at the beginning. I warmed up for a good 3 miles and as soon as the garmin clicked off my 3 mile split, I stepped up the turnover a notch. Into the wind (of course! When is it not windy on the east end??) and got myself down to the low 8's. Then it was time to hang on. Powered by good thoughts and good music I cranked out the next three miles on the rolling hills. 8:17, 8:13 and 8:11 hitting my target of 8:10-8:15 goal pace and I put the brakes on at mile 6 to a comfortable stride. I fist pumped myself, pleased with the days efforts. Pleased that I overcame the "pain", happy that I did not let the fatigue of running hard slow me down. I ran through it, just like I plan on running through the final miles of that half marathon next week, willing myself faster when my mind is screaming for my body to slow down. I will not. That last tempo effort today was dedicated to the final miles of any race I have coming up. I embrace you once again, pain of fatigue, bring it on! I love running...

Ragweed vs. Jen: Ragweed Wins

With 6 months worth of allergy shots in me, I was hoping that the "weed of rag" would not infiltrate my overactive immune system and wreak havoc. No such luck. After riding and running for large amounts of hours outdoors this past weekend, I seem to have held an open party invitation in my nasal passages for the rag pollen to congregate en masse. Despite my inability to breathe through my nose, I am still very happy I was out there with good friends, enjoying the freedom of movement together. Here's some pictures from Saturday's Soldier Ride:

Roarey, me, Dave, Sam, and members of the Suffolk County Homefront

Opening festivities

Me on the left and Sinead, at the start of the 2 hour blabfest on bikes.

I'm pretty sure I was chewing on warm scone here..mmmmmmm

Soldiers leading the way, followed by THE SOLDIER (Sam) and the rest of us

 representing Suffolk County Homefront

Wounded Warrior representatives and Sinead and I yakking it up in the background

All smiles

Roarey, me, Dave and Sam after belly's were full of BBQ post ride

Sam and the members of Suffolk County Homefront that put in TONS of work

towards organizing this ride to benefit wounded soldiers. I look forward to working

 with them this spring for a new 5k we are putting on! Stay tuned!

Sam Cila, on the right as he nicked his competition on the left at the line the week

before at the ITU World Sprint Distance Championships. I love this picture! Sam's work for Operation Rebound and Suffolk County Homefront are crucial to help support injured active duty and veteran soldiers in returning to an active lifestyle. Please help support the cause. For more information go to:

http://www.multisportsoldier.com/

Breaking the spell

"I know there's got to be another level

Somewhere closer to the other side

And I'm feeling like it's now or never

Can I break the spell of the typical"

~ Mute Math

This song kicked on somewhere in the first mile of my first set of two mile tempo intervals at half marathon pace on Sunday. My legs were slightly fried from the day before. Since Syracuse was a no go for us, we joined Sam for the Soldier Ride on the North Fork on Saturday. Bonus! Sinead and Dennis joined us and for the two hours it took us to go from Greenport to Mattituck behind the soldiers and several stops for ceremonies and etcetera, Sinead and I talked and caught up on life and I didn't mind one bit that we were coasting along for the first 14 miles. Finally at the "break out" point, our little group consisting of Dave, Sam, Sinead, Dennis, Roary, Bob and myself took off for a little re-route through New Suffolk. At first the pace was a manageable 21-22 mph, then crossing back to Sound Ave and into a hillier section, suddenly the pace ramped up to a steady 24-25 mph (up and down little rollers no less) and half of us found ourselves in the red zone wondering how long we could actually hang on. It wasn't all that long. Regrouping at the stop sign, Sam and I agreed to head into the wind at a more manageable Ironman pace of 19-20 mph (for him) and the rest of the group hammered up ahead. Settling into a really nice rhythm, Sam and I rode together out to Orient Point, swung it back around (into the wind yet again, I swear East Enders never really get a tail wind anywhere) and cruised it back at the same effort into Greenport. 50 miles with 36 of them pretty fast and it was a perfect day for riding!

With the Entenmann's half marathon a couple of weeks away, I wanted to get one more longish run in and going out the door Sunday morning, I knew I had a good 10 in my legs.   After an easy 2 mile warm up, I ran the first two mile interval into the wind and slightly uphill. I was shooting for 8:10's-8:15's but found myself short at 8:20's. The effort was there though, the HR was a perfect 171, about the highest I can sustain for a tempo effort. After what seemed like a very short mile running easy it was time to ramp it up again, thinking I could hit the goal pace I wanted I started concentrating on turnover. Within a few minutes, the cycling effort from Saturday was making itself apparent and the negotiations within my head began:

Just do one mile hard, then a half mile easy and then another hard.

No.

Run damn you run, hold the pace!

OK- 4 by half mile repeats.

No!

Run! Go!

OK 3 x 1.5 mile repeats left.

No! 2 miles! Go!

(Glance at the garmin). 8:08, HOLD IT!

Make the speed sign.

8:16

Push! Make the curve and around the corner.

Hold! Hold! Drop! (meaning the pace)

8:10, Come on!

1 mile to go, got this.

Turnover, pick it up.

Drop shoulders, relax. Turnover!

Make the guard rail.

Make the pole.

8:18, Turnover!

Hold! HR 171

7:58, too fast, back it off.

8:10, Hold! Hold! Hold!

Made it. Cruise time.

I cruised the last three miles back to home, warming down and finishing out a solid 10 miler. I wanted to put a few more miles in than I did yesterday but I will have to rely on the endurance built from Saturday's long ride. I think I have a shot at a half marathon PR in a couple of weeks *if* I taper it correctly, have perfect (basically no headwind) conditions and cool temps in the 50's but not a wet cold kind of race. I can't control the weather so October 2nd will be what it will but I will put forth a big effort for this race. I'm looking forward to seeing what I'm made of on the flat course. It's been awhile! Hopefully I can break my "typical" with something a bit less than my current PR. I look forward to the challenge and the pain! I know it's coming. Bring it!

The reality of working full time

I was perusing slowtwitch last night before going to bed and that was a mistake, I got all riled up reading a link in the lavender room with several members spewing venom about teachers. Instead of clicking away, I continued reading, and found myself reacting emotionally to negative opinions from nerdy corporate triathletes. Not wanting to involve myself in the "discussion", I finally did shut off the computer annoyed with myself that I actually wasted time reading someones vitriol concerning my profession. I do find that comments like that typically come from people that are so far removed from children and classrooms that they just have absolutely no clue what it is like to invest the whole of your energy into 30-32 students per class, get them excited about a topic, keep their attention, manage behavior, manage the individual learning plans of certain students that need that extra push, while trying to spread your attention to each student so that they feel included and involved, add character building into the very same lesson plan and try to be entertaining and not B-O-R-I-N-G. Do this 5 periods a day, everday, complete all administrative work knowing that it will never get done in a single regular school day, call/email parents (with good and bad news- the latter requiring further energy reserves) and then pack my work and grading up to take it home to complete while paying attention to the needs of my son and my husband desperately hoping that I can carve out just 30-45 minutes of time for myself to clear my head and not have anyone ask me a single question that requires an immediate response. Get ready for tomorrow before finishing today, set the alarm and then do it again. I'm not saying that anyone elses life in a different career is less hectic and less stressful, it's just that there is such a negative consensus by so many people that teachers have it "easy". Sure I have the summer off and it's great but it isn't why I chose to go into teaching. I WAS in the "regular corporate world" working for hospitals and doctors for much longer than I am teaching. I became a teacher to positively influence the lives of children, educating them to make good, solid decisions about what is right for themselves and for their country. Idealistic? Of course! 6 years later I still am and when my former students come back to visit or to thank me for pushing them a little harder to do things they didn't think they could do then WE ALL WIN.
Today was compounded by not sleeping well last night, actually not at all. 4 hours of interupted sleep doesn't actually classify as "sleep" more like a nap. I promised myself not to go back onto to that forum for a time. While I know that I put 150% into the students I teach and I try to make learning fun around the demands that require us to produce students at the end of the year that meet and exceed the state testing standards so that I am not specifically "teaching to the test", I am forced to take the outcomes of my students on the assessment very seriously in light of No Child Left Behind and now "Race to the top". Administrations theme for the teachers in my district this year is "accountability". Which is fine, no one takes my responsibilities more seriously than myself. Despite being dog tired today, I looked and acted happy and enthusiatic. When I am teaching I am happy and enthusiastic, because I generally love it but on days like today, I seriously have to psyche myself up to do it like I would for a race. No joke.
I did get myself on the trainer for a 45 minute spin tonight and I thanked my pre-written work out schedule for only having 45 minutes worth of cycling on it today at an easy aerobic pace so that I didn't have to stress about doing anything more. I needed that spin, I was craving the mental release and the solitude of my music to drown out the worries of my day, to be fully in the present. While I was riding I started visualizing the stress literally flowing through my blood vessels, to the capillaries in my skin and out my pores via sweat, then remembering that stress actually does have a chemical composition to it in the blood via the hormones adrenaline and cortisol and when I am feeling continually on edge all day, like today, that my stress hormone level is elevated and I do need to manage it and for me, nothing relaxes me physically and mentally like a workout.
After riding and completing my new little calisthenic routine I've been doing (Up to 40 push ups now!!!) I was physcially relieved, and writing these thoughts out here has continued to reduce my mental stress. I have finally unwound today and I am looking forward to a good night's sleep!

Week in review

Syracuse 70.3? Up in the air.... we still don't know if we are going to make it up there next weekend. I think that we both want to do it but it has lost some of its luster now that it's not to be the family "reunion" weekend we hoped it to be (my Aunt and Uncle live up there but are now in charge of my ailing grandfather for the month and they will have their hands full). My mom can't make it up and I don't want to take anytime off from work, not while I am establishing the boundaries and procedures with new students. I don't want Van to miss a day of school either. That means driving up friday afternoon and driving back immediately after the race on Sunday. It's a lot of driving, considering it will take us about 7 hours to get up there. Looks like Dave re-broke the same rib that popped last April..... still, we haven't ruled it out. Good friends Danielle and Joe are going up, I trained Joe for this first half ironman for him and I really would like to see him finish regardless of my own feelings about racing next weekend. I think that Dave and I are such commitment oriented people, when we say we are doing something we do it and signing up for a race is tantamount to saying that we are doing it. I think the only time I ever missed a race was when I crashed on the bike in 2006 and physically could not swim with a completely wrecked shoulder. For Dave, he missed IMLP last year after he landed on crutches with his hip. The only thing that has ever prevented me from racing was pregnancy or injury neither of which I am at the moment. I think that's why this decision to stay or go is eating away at us. I'll know by Thursday, that's when I'll have to pack the gear.
In the meantime I have been training like I'm going. I had an awesome long run last Sunday with M.E.. 14.2 miles across Manhattan and we smoked it in 2:04 (M.E. ran on to  finish a 20 miler) it was a great run day with a fast tempo finish over the last 3 miles and I felt like I could have run 20 had I needed to. I love days like that! Monday, Labor Day, was a family day at the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous and I had a really nice 30 minute recovery jog on the flat, hard packed sand. Tuesday, back in the classroom and I was exhausted when I got home but I got on the computrainer that night and cranked out an hour with some tempo efforts and nice high watts. Wednesday was a well earned rest day. Thursday I ran 75 minutes easy in the trails and brought home some chiggers (freaking chiggers! My feet are so itchy!!!) so I'll be staying out of the trails, unfortunately, until November when the cold weather finally kills them off. Friday I rode a hard, windy, hilly 45 miles in 2 and a half hours and promptly exhausted myself for the rest of the day and the next. With my quads and hamstrings blown to bits (oh... and now I know it's the tri bike that is aggravating my hamstring and glute med on the right after being off it for two weeks and feeling great only to have symptoms return friday when I rode long again, Sinead! Retul me!!!!) I asked Van to pace me while doing an easy recovery run for 4 miles on Saturday morning. A quarter of a mile down the road I yelled out to him, "Hey! Wait up!" and he turns around with a gleam in his eye, "I'm giving you the look" and off he pedals like he was shot out of a cannon. Dave and I have created a monster!



Running faster than "recovery" trying to keep up with him, I jumped on the trainer for 45 minutes when I got home to flush my beaten legs out. After a crappy nights sleep (my feet were itching me like crazy!!!) I set out for my run after a second cup of coffee (willing myself through caffeine to wake up!). The first two miles were easy, then I turned on the jets and powered by good music and will, I ran up and down the hills of the golf course road as fast as my legs would carry me at a 170 heart rate. This turned out to be 8:30 (uphill), 8:14 (mostly up, some down) and 8:19 (I don't even know, half up then level I think). A gel and what seemed to be a too quick half mile recovery, I ran 2 x 1 mile at 10k effort in the hills, which turned out to be an 8:04 and an 8:01. Finishing up my last half mile fast, I thought of all of the people I know out there racing this weekend and in my mind I had a kinship with you, pushing as hard as I could. I hope these harder efforts in the hills pay off on the flats in a few weeks when I attempt a PR at the flat and fast Entenmann's half marathon. A great week, the only thing missing was my three swim workouts, the ear finally cleared up by Thursday but I did not want to chance a reinfection in the lake so I'll wait for the pool tomorrow. I hope your week was equally as good!

Thoughts on EBT: Effort based training

"Training, then, is not a series of numbers that can be universally applied but is rather the art of combining measure, timing and sequence to the specific needs of the individual.This is the brilliance of Arthur Lydiard".
~Lorraine Moller


What are your specific needs? What are your strengths? Your weaknesses?  Your injuries past/present?
You can never progress faster than your slowest part will allow. This one statement covers a lot of ground. Place yourself into the statement, and apply it. 


Effort based training is an excellent way to dial into your body and the cues it gives you, you just have to listen to that "inner voice" and allow it to dictate your pace. You also have to be flexible with your workout schedule for the week because if you truly listen to what your body is telling you, you may have to switch your planned workout to a different day. For example, yesterday morning I went out for a run on a beautiful cool day, thinking that I would run the first 2 miles easy and then run 3 miles at open half marathon pace followed by a half mile easy, then 2 x 1 mile 10k efforts and a warm down. My body was having none of it. Knowing that my intention was to run at set pace ranges throughout the workout, I wore the garmin. As I left the house and ran down the road, I could tell I was a little sluggish, probably left over from Sundays hard 14 in Manhattan, lingering effects of the antibiotic and 2 days back in the classroom but I still hoped for a good workout, willing my legs to turn around and over a bit quicker. Running up the 51 hill I passed Dave coming back from masters swim. He remarked to me later that my cadence looked really slow and sluggish, it wasn't just me psyching myself out. If it was that visible while he passed me at a good 65-70 mph than I must have really looked like the dog crap I felt. I looked down at the garmin. 10 minute pace at a HR of 160, Oh yeah, can you say TIRED? That was a good 20 beats higher than normal, sure I was running up hill but my HR's aren't usually that high until I hit the 8 minute pace ranges. The tempo effort was scrapped and I ducked into the trail, if I'm going to run slow and easy than I prefer the trails to zone out in. 4 days prior I ran like a champ at the Manhattan 14.2 mile training run with M.E.. The first portion of the run I felt GREAT, going up and down hills at a steady 9:15ish pace, talking, laughing, having fun. At mile 11 I picked it up and ran the last 3 miles dropping from half marathon pace down to 10k pace and I was flying, feeling great, endorphins kicking in and the miles ticked by effortlessly. I could have run longer, it's those types of runs I recall when I hit a tough patch in a race, almost like I am willing myself to enter the 'runners high' again. 4 days prior that 14er was effortless but yesterday's 7 miler was full of effort at a slower speed, so be it, I needed more recovery time.


Train, adapt. Train, adapt. Breakdown, recover, build up better than before. That is the essence of a good program. Toe the edge but don't go over it. Pull yourself back from the precipice and above all else, listen to what your body is telling you.   Sure, there are times when you must work through the pain of fatigue, the days where you must finish a long run or ride at a fast finish pace even though your legs are screaming at you to just sit down but those workouts need to be spaced out, you need to allow recovery from them. What good is it to overtrain yourself to oblivion, deal with constant nagging injuries on a daily basis only to show up at a race over cooked and tired? It defeats the whole point of following a structured program yet I know of and have seen athletes do this to themselves all the time. I think that some athletes forget that rest and recovery weeks built into the program do more for your fitness than just constantly cycling up the mileage. You are stuck on numbers then and if you don't adapt to the training you will go stale, get injured or both. Remember, the desired outcome of training does not occur while we are training, but during recovery, you improve not during training but while resting. The longer your peak race, the longer your taper needs to be, there is a lot of deep muscle fatigue that needs time to repair and rebuild. It basically comes down to whether you are in a catabolic (breakdown) phase or an anabolic (build up) state. Are you catabolic or anabolic? The art of good training relies on recognizing which stage you are in. Recovery day vs. scheduled workout. Here's the best way to know which you need:
Pore sleep?
Sore muscles?
Chronic injury?
Bad mood?
Elevated morning heart rate?


A tendancy for endurance athletes to overtrain is often marked by an inflexible schedule. Not taking into account what you did in the days prior and finishing a long or intense workout because it was on paper. Ignoring your body's cue for rest. Rest doesn't have to be feet up either, it can be active recovery, a short light jog, an effortless swim, a walk on the beach. When the training program is no longer fun, when you can't enjoy the process, when you dread the upcoming workout, when you are chronically exhausted, recover. Find your joy, there are many ways to satisfy this endurance training and racing urge we share. Put the watch (garmin/power meter/foot pod) aside and give effort based training a try for awhile. Use the gadgets for the threshold workouts when you need them, or not! A hard training session is a hard session and you can do that by feel without having to use xyz all the time to tell you if you are there or not. Listen to the inner voice.


"Do the work. Do the analysis, but feel your run. Feel your race. Feel the joy that is running."
Kara Goucher

All sorts of out of sorts

When I googled "out of sorts" I picked up a link from wikipedia for the definition of malaise:

Malaise (pronounced /məˈleɪz/, mal-aze) is a feeling of general discomfort or uneasiness, an "out of sorts" feeling, often the first indication of an infection or other disease. Malaise is often defined in medicinal research as a "general feeling of being unwell".

I went back to work today.

I have an ear infection.

I think we have to drop out of the Syracuse 70.3

waa waa waa waaaaaaaa...

Actually, I love my job. The first day is always rough because I'm not back into my routine so I didn't get to sleep early enough and I got up very early so that I could fit a bike in before work. I didn't sleep well last night, mostly do to an ear infection that popped up out of no where. I jinxed myself at the allergist on Tuesday.
Doc: How are you feeling?
Me: I feel GREAT! Everyone is sneezing and complaining that their allergies are bad but I don't have any symptoms!
Doc: That's really great, maybe the allergy shots are starting to take effect.
Later on.....
Me: My nose is all stuffed up and my ear hurts.
Dave: It's the lake, stuffs me up every time.
Me: I swam in the lake for the past two weeks and I was fine.
Dave: Until now. The same thing happened last month before Placid, you swam in there for a couple of weeks and wound up with mild swimmers ear remember?
Me: Yes, but it didn't hurt this bad and my nose wasn't all stuffed up, maybe it's just a coincedence.

Then there was me up half the night until I broke down and took some ibuprofen and that must have taken the edge off because I went to sleep but of course it felt like 2 minutes and then the alarm was going off. I did get up because I had no other time to train today so it was 5:15 am on the Computrainer and I knew I was tired and "out of sorts" when I couldn't hit my regular watts. Of course, I got off the bike a few times thinking it was the resistance roller, tried adjusting that. Double checked that I was on my user and not Dave's user settings. No, I just couldn't put out the watts this morning. Instead of riding 90 minutes, I cut it back to 60. After going to the trouble of waking up so early I was not about to abandon the ride so my stats read like I was cruising but my effort level was higher.
Then I went to work and sat through 4 hours of meetings.
In between my mom stopped by (she teaches in the same district and all the faculty are at the first meeting otherwise that would be weird if my mom just happened to stop by my work) to tell me that Syracuse is out for her. Due to some family circumstances surrounding the declining health of my grandfather she can't go up and we can no longer stay at my Uncle's. The would have been cheap trip suddenly becomes a very expensive hotel stay/eat out trip that we weren't counting on. She offered to take my little guy for the weekend but the quick cheap trip is no longer cheap and it may just be better for us to opt out of this race and forfeit the entry fee's vs. spending a good $1500 or so on hotel and food. We haven't completely decided against it yet but we aren't feeling positive about going up and doing the race in light of the new circumstances. Boo- hoo.
I just hate the thought of a wasted entry fee. When we commit to something we go through with it but sometimes life happens. I'll just have to figure out what to use all this good half iron fitness for....

My ear still hurts.

On the way home from work I tried to stop at the new urgent care facility that advertises "Walk ins welcome" to have my ear checked out. The hours were 8:30-3:30 and I got there at 3:15 to find the door locked. Nice. Then I went down the road to another "urgent care" doc and the lights were off there too. Where the heck was I? I mean, I know I didn't have an appointment but why call yourself an urgent care facility when nothing happens except urgent closure in the middle of the day? I really need to find a new GP, in the meantime I'm back at the allergist tomorrow so hopefully he can work something out for this ear.

I did have a great dinner at Hellenic in Greenport with Dave, Van, Marty and Eileen tonight so there was a positive ending to this not so great day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

So, now that my racing plans look to have completely taken a 180, what's next? What race(s) should I do? Cow Harbor? NYC long training run on the 19th? I could ramp my run mileage up but what would I be training for??????