The short:
I decided to jump into a race that my local running club OMRR hosts, accurately called Sweatfest, in Missouri's July heat and humidity. Albani and I both ran the 2 mile, which started at 8 p.m., and I ran the 10 mile, starting at 9 p.m. The state records in both events for my age were very weak, so I was able to break them. I also broke the overall female 2 mile state record (which was also clearly very weak - we all know short races are not my forte!) with 11:37 chip/11:39 gu
I normally don't do monthly reviews, but May was just such a special month that it deserved it's own highlight. And, the reason why I don't do monthly reviews is because it takes me a good 4 weeks to write one (I started this June 12th).I entered the month of May with high anticipation, lots of exciting things on the calendar. I was nearing the end of the best half marathon training cycle I'd ever had, and also nearing the end of 10 months of preparation for the biggest event of my life thus far
I've made a commitment! Sort of a commitment that is. I picked a marathon to attempt a BQ, but I have until August 31 to sign up before the price increases. As such, I have not signed up yet, and really haven't made any commitment to the race yet. (Working on baby #2 might come first--we'll see) The commitment part is only that I started a training plan (good training for possible future pregnancy too). The goal race is the Atlantic City Marathon, and my training plan started on July 1st. I'
Assuming that New Hampshire 2019 is still the target, as of Saturday I am now officially 1/3 through training.Last week had some good days and a couple of bad ones. The summer is killing me this year. No doubt it's the same as always, I just can't remember from one year to the next how terrible running in humidity is. Then there's the fact that I'm old. And I hear everything gets harder as you get older. Since I've never actually done that, I suppose it's a matter of seeing up close what all tho
There were no tanks or flyovers, but I tried to show I was Keeping Bangle Great by doing my annual 4th of July 5K, here in beautiful Redondo Beach.
This would be my 17th year doing this one. In keeping with my current blasé attitude toward racing, I was not super excited and didn't have any special goals. Since I seem to continue to get slower as I age (go figure!) it gets a little depressing to find a consistent goal (like sub-20) getting further and further away. So I don't stress it - vo
Tuesday - 75o and sauna-like, with the alternative of 95+ in the afternoon, so I accept. Seven miles @ 9:03.
Wednesday - Intervals. This week I did a 1600 ladder (400-800-1200-1600-1200-800-400) on the streets. With the morning runs I don't want to take the extra effort to go to the track. This keeps my warm up/cool down shorter since the two closest tracks are almost two miles away. Another soaker (not rain, just humid). Happy enough with the paces, though. 7:06 for the 400s, 7:09 & 7:
Somehow I never remember what happened before until after it's happened again. I swear I've never been as gob-smacked by the summer heat as I was last week. This is not fair.
Last Monday's tempo was not bad. 77o, 16 mph. Ran north and south. 7:51, 7:50, 7:52, 7:36. That's a 7:44 average and felt strong the whole way. Heart rate stayed around 160, slowly climbing throughout.
Tuesday was 84o and normal for the day after a good tempo. That is, I felt pretty tired. And like every summer da
June 2019 in Review
Total mileage for the month: 252.1
May 27-June 2: 70.1 (2:03 strength training)
June 3-9: 77 (2:08 strength training)
June 10-16: 62.6 (1:44 strength training)
June 17-23: 51.7 (0:25 strength training)
June 24-30: 32.2 (0:30 strength training)
After my final little workout before Grandma's
Farm
The short version:
One of my race day mantras for Grandma's was "When God is your everything, you can do anything!" I hoped that "do anything" would mean accomplishing my Big Dream Goal of a 2:45:00 or better marathon, but instead on June 22 it meant holding on for a 2:47:44 through a rough final 4.5 miles. Although I didn't grab an OTQ, I had an amazing experience working with numerous other women who were pursuing the same dream. I never felt like I was racing anyone, but instead that
Monday night. I was sitting on the couch having my heart broken via text when I saw a shadow move across the wall. Something big – so big I could hear its wings – was flying through the air.
Fthpth fthpth fthpth
Before I could process what I was seeing, the creature landed on the handle of a broom I have leaning in the corner and I could see that it was a waterbug aka American cockroach aka palmetto bug. I might have uttered some of my finest combinations of swear words but I don’t
The traffic girl on the morning news is always crying for the weatherman to forecast afternoon highs in the 80s. What's wrong with her?
End of Week 3. Feels like I'm starting to settle in to a nice training rhythm. Hitting all the miles, dialing in on GMP better. This is how it's supposed to work. Forty miles total.
Tempo Monday - Cloudy. 71o. No wind. Four miles that I ought to be able to run at 8:00-ish easy. And I probably could have, except I started out at 7:36. I've also learned
It's 7:02 and I just hopped off my friend's Vespa at the entrance to the park. I run to Lakeside for bib pick up. The lady tells me, "It's 7:04."
FuckFuckFuckFuckFuck. The race starts at 7:10 sharp and I'm still a good 10 minute walk from the start line and my left shoe is on wonky. My hair is stupid from squishing my ponytail into the helmet and my hat is in my hand. What does a ten minute walk translate to in running?
I find out soon enough when I hear the horn blow and I'm stil
Vertical Mile Challenge – June 15, 2019
Rocky Face Park | Hiddenite, NC
Race 6/12 for 2019 goal! Halfway there!
It’s been a minute since I’ve written anything, and that’s because my world has changed quite a bit in the last month. I’m now living back in my home state of North Carolina, and have a lot of time on my hands while I find a job. I haven’t been using all that time to run though. I’ve let the stress of everything (that I’ll write about some time) get to me and haven’
Two things I can think of why Monday's tempo went better than awful. The last few years I've needed a couple of days after donating blood to feel back to normal. So I had plans for an easy run instead of Monday's normal tempo. I hydrated more than normal, and it was only 65 degrees again. June has been pretty good that way around here so far.
The week before I struggled to average 8:15's for 4 miles. This time it was a smooth 8:04.
Tuesday was not bad, either, although there were stoma
Plenty of people, I'm sure. It takes all kinds to make a world.
Relationships are funny things. Sometimes you do things that you wouldn't normally do. Call it compromise. Flexibility. Love. Weakness.
With a late spring marathon for 2019, it made so much sense to me that plans for my other marathon this year would involve something in November or even early December. I keep a spreadsheet with several options for different times of the year. I look at it when it's time to pick one. Mrs.
We got a kitten and he is the cutest! We took almost a week to settle on his name: Nugget Theo Ibbetson. "Nugget" from gold nugget (my husband and daughter love the show Gold Rush), and also because it sounds good with our other cat's name, Bandit. Theo because he was named Theodore at the shelter we adopted him from. Scroll down through excessive kitten photos for the running update I'm excited about.
I ran this about 3 weeks ago and now am just finally writing about it.
I awoke to overcast skies, but not so overcast that I was bothered. After all, the weather had been predicted to be sunny that Saturday with a high of 80 degrees.
It had been a pretty good training cycle. I survived the early winter months with my discovery of Peloton Digital's on-demand treadmill workouts and surprised myself with how much I was able to push the pace. By the time regular outdoor runn
Here is some music while you read. (And if you like that, you can read this)
After 3 marathons in 13 months, I've decided to take it easy for a while. No more marathons until Fall 2020 (probably...); No halves until December. Just some 5Ks and a 10K and running what I feel like. So that means I'll still do track workouts on Wednesdays, because I like to run fast, and long group runs on Saturday, because I like to be social. But nothing longer than maybe 12 miles. And no pressure if I want t
May 2019 in Review
Total mileage for the month: 345.8
April 29-May 5: 87.6 (2:11 strength training)
May 6-12: 66.8 (2:00 strength training) - planned cut-back week that I disliked
May 13-19: 94.3 (2:18 strength training) - new weekly mileage PR
May 20-26: 80.7 (0:55 strength training) - I had bronchitis, & started antibiotics on May 23
May 27-June 2: 70.1 (2:03 strength training)
Remember that the little cold I had the week before last? Well I guess that took more out of me than I thought it did. I still had a little bit of a cough, I still had some stuffiness in my nose, but I felt OK. Anyway, I have a whole list of things it didn't quite go right in Vermont and I'll go through those for whatever they’re worth. Call it making excuses if you will, but when you have a decent training build up you sort of expect to do fairly well on race day. When that doesn't happen there
I've noticed a bunch of random links inserted in bloops. Then I checked my old posts and they have been altered with random links from the looptionary replacing some of my full sentences. Almost all of my old bloops are affected. Any way to fix that and salvage the original posts? Very strange.
The short:
I readjusted my goals for this race after being diagnosed with bronchitis about 44 hours before it. I knew I wouldn't be able to run the PR I'd hoped for while wheezing and taking antibiotics, plus it ended up being 72-80 degrees and 90% humidity during the race. I hoped I could go for the overall female win, and I was able to accomplish that with a 1:23:32 half marathon, which bettered my previous on-antibiotics-PR of 1:28 -- you've gotta take the PRs you can get, right?! I w
As a Mother’s Day present from my Mom, she offered to watch DD while I ran a 5K race in Cape May, NJ – a 2.5 hour drive for her. (DH had a horrible work schedule for the past month or so and has been stuck working weekends). I really wanted to see how fast I could run a 5K with my current training. I haven’t tried to race a 5K in almost two years. For that last race I finished in 21:43, which was good enough for 2nd in my age group and a cupcake from the local bakery (still my favorite prize
