The short version – I thought I put in enough training, but “the wall” hit me good, and the marathon humbled me… as it should! Not super disappointed because it was my best effort for the day, and I have a lot more respect for the distance again. BQs are not easy and that's why they are magical! I will be trying again!
The Atlantic City marathon is my 17th marathon, but only the 3rd that I have raced, and the first that I have raced in 10 years. I followed a Garmin-provided training plan
This past summer I really, really wanted to start building up a good base again. The idea of the 3 x 13 Trailfest series scared me. The problem was that I really had no idea how to train for the back to back days plus add in the fact that my body was still being a jerk on some days.
I managed to be super consistent with some form of exercise. Biking became my go to if I thought I'd do more harm than good by running. And some of my results this summer were excellent -- PR on my summer 5k tra
I ran my first ever 100 mile week! Ironically, it wasn't exactly planned. My coach schedules my mileage Monday through Sunday, which is how I prefer it (Strava also tracks weekly mileage that way), so it was only by luck, or maybe fatigue, that it happened on a Sunday through Saturday week. You'll have to read the rest for the full explanation! You'll also notice that the little extra 0.1-0.3 I have on almost every run was an important part of accidentally hitting this milestone.
In June of 2012 I began my life changing journey of running. I was drawn into it after going cheer on my daughter as she was running her first half marathon. I did not get to see her train as she lived some 45 miles away and did not get to discuss running with her as she is somewhat of a person who keeps things to herself.
Somehow she and her mother talked me into signing up for a 2013 January half marathon at Walt Disney World in Florida. I just think they wanted a winter vacation. With my
It's been 3 months since I've posted on here. Since then I trained for a marathon. And I didn't get hurt. But it was summer (so, a little warmer than usual around here). And I wasn't really motivated. Because you see, it was a trail marathon. So when I didn't really get enough miles in, I shrugged and said, eh, no matter. It's just a fun run in the woods. Time will be ridiculously slow anyway, so, whatever.
So I enjoyed running and didn't push it when it got hard, and (not coincidentally) s
I finally ran a 5K time starting in 17!
Everyone won & PRed!
This local race was a last-minute addition to my schedule. Back in July, I noted all of the races I was interested in on my training calendar and told my coach to choose which ones she thought were the best fit for my biggest season goal, the Indy Monumental Marathon (this truly shows how much I trust her!). I wrote the Panther Run 5K/10K/15K on there as a fun local event
Total mileage: 76.0Not as high as I had hoped it would be. Had a few days where I just wasn't feeling great, and I'm a firm believer in quality over quantity, so some days became easy days or running for time days, which always means I lose some mileage. The silver lining is I hit a beautifully round number without even trying!I'm putting a hold on marathon training. Still planning on doing a half marathon that I signed up for in mid-October, but there's enough flux in life right now that being
My friend Cathy and I have been talking about doing the Grand Circle Trailfest for almost 2.5 years. The Grand Circle Trailfest is 3 days of racing roughly a half marathon each day. Each day you run just outside of a National Park -- Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon (Horseshoe Bend).
Three years ago I sent Cathy the promo video for this race and she was excited as I was! We were all set to sign up and then I had the whole hamstring tear. Fast forward 2 years and I told
Still deciding which was harder.
Didn't do the Baconator Awards last winter. I suppose they'd run their course and it was time to move on. As for myself, I wasn't anxious to repeat the previous winter's torn meniscus so I skipped doing any runs that might have been bacon-worthy. I'll probably do the same this year. Since I bought that dreadmill for Mrs. Dave, she hasn't used it, despite getting all the way through a Couch-to-5-K program over the summer. Not that there was any "anti-D" pres
The Short:
I decided that running the Indy Women's Half for the third year in a row would be a beneficial fitness check and practice trip to Indianapolis six weeks prior to my goal race there, the Indy Monumental Marathon. Since the race morning weather left a lot to be desired (a humid 74 degrees), my goals for the race were to complete the best I could in the field and hopefully hit marathon goal pace. I am not sure anyone was more shocked than I was when I finished 3rd overall in a new
September 2019 in Review
Total mileage for the month: 360.5
Sep. 2-8: 75.2
Sep. 9-15: 92.5
Sep. 16-22: 92.6
Sep. 23-30: 75.5
Runship - like friendship, but even better!
Races:
Sep. 8 - Plaza 10K in 36:52, which I was happy with in 71 degrees and humidity! I was proud that I split 18:24 and 18:27 5Ks without ever looking at my watch. I placed 6th overall female, and was 18 seconds off my PR, w
Sitting here, wondering how this past summer managed to seem so, so long. Common wisdom and my own experience says that time goes by faster the older you get. But, I have to say that it sure seems like it has literally crawled since the end of May. Looking back, I can see that it was as full as ever with trips, challenges, running (of course), work and all the other things that make life what it is. Vermont was only four months ago? Feels like four years.
Over 750 miles run on the plan, mos
I read a piece of advice on tinamuir.com about writing a letter to yourself providing the advice you would tell a friend if they were having pre-race nerves. So, this is my letter to self. The letter is regarding an upcoming local 5K this weekend that I set as a pre-marathon goal race. The pain of a 5K is some kind of special, and I always get more nervous for them than anything over 10 miles. Plus, in the back of my mind, I want to place well, and maybe PR, and maybe break a time barrier th
Don't ask me why I go through the same cycle of mind games every summer, where I figure I've suddenly reached the end of my running career because I can't finish a run or my pace is just so slow it's not even worth the trouble to get out the door. I have no answer.
Then, fall comes along, the temps drop, the humidity plummets, the wind freshens, and all is right in my running world. When I go back and look at the numbers, they really don't look that terrible anyway, so what was I even worri
I think I might be falling in love with running again. Actually, with exercise in general. So, I guess with me. I'm falling in love with me again.
Running has really sucked for a long, long time. And you know how that goes - it sucks, so you listen to excuses to not do it. Then it sucks more, so you avoid it more, and so on. Sprinkle that with back problems every time I started making progress and just life in general. Whatever, I talked about all of that on my last bloop.
I kin
T-Rex and I left at 3:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday last, hoping to get as far as Peru, and maybe Moline before we stopped for the night. This was a cutback week for me, but I still had a bunch of miles to run. My plan was to try to make it to Cheyenne early enough to find a place where I could do Interval Wednesday that night, then a recovery run Thursday before driving out for the third leg of the trip. I might miss Friday with everything we needed to do moving into the apartment, but an earl
The short:
Mother Nature didn't want the Plaza 10K runners to have it easy this year, so she gave us 71 degrees with thunderstorms in the area and a dew point of 68. Historically I haven't raced well in these conditions, so I lined up ready to give it my all and to be thankful for whatever that was, without any specific time or pace expectations. I ran by effort and ignored my watch, and although I had an idea where I was at since the race had a course clock at the 5K mark, I was thrilled
Tuesday - Myrna Trail. 6 miles. 77o. 17 mph. Cloudy. Out of the six miles there's about a half mile that follows a little trail through a couple of small nature areas. It ends (or starts, depending on which way I'm running) where Myrna Street ends, so I call it the Myrna Trail. Not really a trail, but it's more of a trail than anything else I get to see. Even picked up a spider web, so that's pretty nature-ish, right?
Wednesday - Phoenix Lake. 3 x 3200 intervals. Total 11 miles. 70o. 3 mph
It was supposed to be a trail run. Between the rocks, steepness, and my getting old, there was much more walking than running..
The snows of yesteryear await the snows of September. MapMyRun shows the average gradient as 7.8%. Maybe I can feel not so bad about it now..
Only one climb on the route, how bad could it be ? ha.
One of the few runnable bits of trail,
Once I could run all day up here. Now I have to take a rest, quite possibly more than one.
Total Mileage: 70.92In July, I tackled a Peloton Digital challenge, where you did a workout using the Peloton App every day. This could be any of their available on-demand classes: spin, running, strength, yoga, stretching or meditation. I managed to eek out a 'W' on this challenge, even though some of the workouts were done at 11:30pm that day. It was fun, but reminded me that being attached to any type of digital workout every single day is just too much for me; I need to be able to do my own
Classes have started again. I'm taking Research Methods in Healthcare and Nutritional Epidemiology & Health. and Well, technically they don’t start until Thursday, but the courses are open and I have a discussion post due Thursday, so I’ve begun working. This week shouldn’t be too hard but once things really get going I’m sure I’ll be back to my routine of sleep, run, work, study – repeat (with meals and snacks in there of course). It may be less intense than last semester but the stakes mig
Got over whatever that was at the beginning of last week. Maybe it was nothing, but it sure felt like something wasn't right. Took it easy on Tuesday and tried to come back on Wednesday.
Wednesday, of course, is Interval Day. Last week (week 13 of 18) was time for the classic Yassos. 10 x 800. I'm not going to get into the debate about whether this is a marathon predictor workout, or even if it's a good workout for a marathon training schedule. I like 800s, and doing a bucketload of them is
I was the official tagger alonger at this year’s 100 on 100 this past weekend a few weeks ago. It’s really hard to describe and I always sucked at writing about Loopmeets so I’ll just tell you a bit about it. This year the team was fivestarks, Apple Pie, the incorrectly named Slow Running and Pat representing the OG, and Gonzo Runner and Paige bringing in some fresh (and very fast) blood.
Fivestarks had made arrangements to pick Gonzo Runner up from Newark Airport on her way to Vermo
August 2019 in Review
Total mileage for the month: 375.8 - new monthly mileage PR!
July 29-Aug. 4: 84.5
August 5-11: 87.3
August 12-18: 96.0 - new weekly mileage PR!
August 19-25: 88.1
August 26-Sep. 1: 69.2 - scheduled cut-back week
Races:
August 31: Brookhaven 5K in 18:22 [splits of 5:48, 5:48, 5:59 (5:15 kick)] for 6th female (race recap coming). Although not the time I was aiming for, Sarah Kiptoo came to the race to break the Okla
Last year I was a last minute substitute on the 100 on 100 team. After successfully completing my 16 miles I was so happy and excited that I volunteered to captain the 2019 team.
We had ELEVEN individuals who wanted to be on the team! 11! That’s how much fun this relay is. I put out an email asking for 5 people to send me money to cover the entrance fee.... I received 6 payments. Derp. Suddenly we had more members than allowed.
I tried to be brave and rationalize that it would be fine
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