Back at ‘er

So post marathon, I have been resting, working like a fiend, playing golf and running a bit.  Now I want to run a lot. Well not a cuckoo a lot, but more.  I have my races picked up and an even racing a 10km in July.  I haven’t raced 10km ….since I actually started running so this could be interesting….

Sunday’s run was just.so.awesome.  I had to work over the weekend (Friday – midnight – 2am and Sat 11pm-2am) so my sleep was completely screwy.  It would have been easy to loll around in my jammies but instead I went out for a ~9.5km run….and felt so much better – no way would I have felt like that if I had taken the easy road.

Because Ontario is just so much fun with its weather, we went from snow/hail to tons of rain and cold temps to having a Heat Alert issued. (meaning with the humidity, temps will run over 35C…HOTZO)  That meant back to the early morning running today where it was me, the road, the neighbourhood bunny rabbits and the local paper delivery guy.    8.5km before the sun came up and still a sweaty mess?  Yes please….

(don’t mind my Mr T necklaces…I added a new Lift Your Sole necklace to my run wardrobe essentials….I pity the fool who makes fun of me…)

How do you beat the heat?  Does it bug you? 

I don’t really handle heat that great (hellllllooooo Pittsburgh Marathon) so I have to be careful when I am in the danger temp zone.

Four for Friday – the what’s next edition

1.  Our next training ‘season’ doesn’t start for a few weeks but I am already in the planning  stage.  I was always on the fence about doing a Fall marathon as we are going away for a BIG RACE in September which is going to cut into training a bit.  So this session is going to be the Summer of Speed and Half Marathons.  Realistically the only thing that will change training wise is that I don’t have to run a bajillion KMs on Sundays.  And don’t think it will mean training will be any easier….we don’t call our coaches Satan and Satan JR for nothing…

2.  Race #1 will be The Midsummer Night’s Run Aug 20th:

I hope the race is better than how I registered….I messed up my.own.name on the entry.  Goof much?   Geez…

3.  I’m not 100% set on the other races though I am leaning towards the ScotiaBank Half Marathon Oct 16th as I have never raced it.

I am not sure what others are in the plan yet…I will see what the Satan Coaches think…..

4.  While we were in Pittsburgh, the hubs was nice enough to pick these up for me: 

Injinji….I LOVE you…. Being me, it took me about 10 minutes to put them on and I was very aware of my ‘toes’ but once I got running…it was all Happy Toes and Happy Feet.

What are your summer racing plans? 

Pittsburgh Marathon Recap – the fun one with pics!

I haven’t been sitting here brooding about my deep dark race. The hubs is a little slow with getting pics to me so ….. I blame him. :) I have moved on from the race, I have made my race plans for the summer (more on that later) and have started training again.

‘Nuff said.

Race weekend started with the usual couple-y self portrait at the border crossing:

and some playing/shopping in Erie:

Batman here:

Superman here:

We hit up the (awesome) expo on Friday and Saturday. I had forgotten that I put my nickname on my race bib. It was fun to hear people yell: “Go Lo!” on the course…

Since Nike is a sponsor, there are some pretty cool things there like your name on the giant race wall and yes…we got pics of all our names.

and Nike Pittsburgh shoes…

The local paper also prints everyone’s name in the Sat morning edition…of course, we took photos of that …and photos of us taking the photos of our names…

Race day dawned early…and humid…and rainy.

Not relaxed but fakin’ it.

The full and half troopers:

We had a great team of ‘athletic’ supporters (hubs and wives) out on the course. The hubs got some actual ok pics of me on the course….thankfully not at the 25km mark where the pukefest occurred..

These nut bars ran the whole marathon like this:

Want to see pain? Here it is:

I couldn’t even make the walk back to the hotel..the poor/amazing hubs had to catch a cab for us. He rocks.

So thanks Pittsburgh, we had a blast and I would recommend this race to anyone.

Pros:

-great expo. The race bag included a bunch of samples, a running light and a pair of Nike socks. SOCKS RACE DIRECTORS!!! WE LIKE SOCKS!

-great tech shirt and meda

-amazing on course support - tons of water, Gatorade, gels, even chips at the 25mile mark

-the cheer squads and bands each mile were phenomenal

-good route - if you are doing the half and want to PB...you may have to elbow people out of the way..it is crowded. The half and full all start together and split at the 11 mile mark...it got really lonely for us marathoners but the on course spectators made up for it.

Cons:

-the start corrals were difficult to get to and some of our group were fence hopping to make sure they got in on time.

-if you like 'official' race photos...don't look for them here. They bit.

-if you don't like bridges...don't run here. You get to go over 5 of them.

Even though it was the worst run of my life, I will wear my shirt and medal with pride and think of you fondly…

mostly after I have had a drink.

Pittsburgh Marathon Recap – the short, dark, downer post

I wish I could write that I came out of Pittsburgh with a PB and feeling like a ‘true’ marathoner after marathon #3.

I wish I could say that all my efforts in training, resting, cross training, nutrition and hydration paid off.

I wish I could feel like the marathon weight was lifted off of me and that I felt like a deserved to say I am a marathon runner.

But I can’t. Sunday’s race in Pittsburgh was my worst race yet. To be honest, I am not sure what to chalk it up to other than the humidity. It completely sapped everything out of me.

I even puked at the 25km mark.

I so wanted to stop. There were some very dark moments for me out there. It would have been so much easier to DNF and not have to keep going and not have to report back another 6+hr marathon.

But I didn’t stop. I didn't quit. Quitting would have been so easy and felt so good for a short period of time.

I am not laying any blame on the race, the course or that I did something stupid like not eat/hydrate the way I trained to.

My coach who is wiser than me put it best when I said that my regret was that the race didn’t reflect my training:

“Regrets are the hardest things to deal with because we can’t go back. Believe me when I tell you that from my perspective, it very much does reflect what you did in your training – you trained to go as hard as you could over that distance on the day of the race and NOT QUIT! That is they way I look at this. You never quit in training and you never quit in the race. The “time” may not have reflected what you did in training but everything else including your mental training was well represented in this race. I am very proud of you – more so – given that it would have been very easy to quit and no one would have faulted you for it. Instead you chose to do what you were trained to do – get to the finish line. That is what should define and propel you to the next challenge.”

I’ll be back with a better, sunnier recap full of pics and highlights from a great race weekend…except for the whole 42.2km part.

Laura

Five for Thursday – the Pittsburgh Marathon edition

1. Sunday is the Pittsburgh Marathon – already. I can’t believe that Marathon #3 is just around the corner. It was a rough training cycle this time around with almost every Sunday being lousy with snow, wind, bitting cold and WIND. I put in more KMs this training cycle and did many of my training runs faster than before so let’s hope there are some pay off. Like the Flying Pig last year…here’s the weather forecast:

Sweet. Awesome. Wicked. Whatever..I can’t change it so let’s embrace it shall we?

2. This week’s taper week has been …restful. There has been an easy 7km run and today will be a 6-7km run with one 2 min FAST interval. I have rested, eaten well, drank more water than you can imagine and apparently gotten very Zen about this upcoming race. I am not nervous but actually looking forward to it. Go.Figure.

3. Packing for a ‘destination’ race is a feat unto itself. I have more crap with me than you can imagine: bandaids, vaseline, moleskin, roadID, Garmin, Ipod, bodyglide, watch, chargers, safety pins, race belt, water bottles and belt, KT tape, gels, etc.. My race bag is full:

and I have yet to pack all my clothes.

4. Speaking of clothing…since a lot of rain and warmish temps mean soggy-ness so less clothing the better meaning my tried and true running skirt is my go to for race day. The other options so far are:

I know the red hat doesn’t match the shirt..but I like this hat….

Packing ‘light’ is not my style.

5. For everyone racing this weekend, race hard and race well. If you are in Pittsburgh…well you know what I’ll be wearing so say Hi! And Marlene...Rock it in Mississauga!

Weekend Recap – The Sun! The Moms! The Thor!

Friday was a fun night out with the hubs and a friend to see Thor.  I loved it ….. and it had nothing to do with this guy being in the film:

 

Image Credit: Zade Rosenthal

or him being shirtless at times in the movie…

Saturday was a bit of a tough 10km run.  It was way warmer out than I thought so I was totally overdressed.  Not having had nice weather in awhile, I have to remember to bust out the shorts.  I also tackled some much needed housework …cause it won’t be happening during Taper Week.

Sunday was a glorious 10.5km run in the sunshine! And no wind!  It was a fun run as all of us who are racing in Pittsburgh (NEXT WEEKEND!) were there so we did an easy run together.  Did I mention it was sunny and no wind??

Mother Nature must have been appeased by her kids apparently to give us such a nice day for Mother’s Day.  We had lovely visits with our respective moms and family and enjoyed the Vitamin D.  The hubs does the cooking, I do the dish clean up in these kinds of scenarios.  I was struck but how some things don’t change and totally remind me of the Moms.  My Mom always uses J Cloths for washing the dishes…ever since I was little:

My MIL uses Palmolive dish soap – the original green scented one. 

Other things remind me of them as well:  Mom’s BBQ sauce and carrot casserole, MIL’s cherry jam and her serious giggle, both of them make wicked pies and so many other small things.  It was lovely to time to visit with everyone and enjoy each other’s company

How was your weekend?  Do you have a Mom/Dad/sibling/friend favorite reminder?

Four for Friday – Taper running and Moms

1.  Since spin/core is done I have some flexibility with my running this week.  Tuesday was a scheduled run but it was raining and gross.  So I moved it to Wednesday..and I am so glad I did.  It was warm and sunny and I ended up having a great interval run…Anytime this chick see a ‘4’ in front of KM/Hr on the Garmin is nothing short of a miracle.

2.  Last night’s run wasn’t so great.  It actually went by quickly and it was tempo-ish but it was TOUGH – to the point where I wanted to bag it after 3km.  But I used my mental toughness reserves and made it through another 6.5km.  NO MORE TEMPO UNTIL RACE DAY!

3.  Speaking of race day…it is now 8 days away.  Wahhhhhhh!!!  I have only stalked the weather forecast for Pittsburgh twice.  Once it showed sun and wind the next it showed rain and wind.  I’m not looking again until next week for fear of seeing snow…or locusts.

4.  Sunday will be a nice easy run with the group and then off to spend the day with the Moms – mine and the hubs.  My sister is making homemade bread for Sunday brunch.  HOMEMADE BREAD people..the week before a marathon?  It doesn’t stand a chance…..

Happy Mom’s Day.  If you are a Mom, have a great day and I am in awe of you.  I have trouble keeping track of me and a hubs….

Taper Time and a bunch of 'stuff' that is breaking..luckily not me

Sunday's 23km run means for me...I am officially in taper. Good thing..'cause it wasn't a real pretty run. Granted I ran Friday and Sat morning and played golf on Sat but Sunday was just a not fun run. The overall pace ended up pretty good but that is partially because the hubs met me with about 2km to go and forced me to keep running. I thanked him/cursed him.

Stuff wise...it was not a good week in the Laura household:
-Wednesday the hubs came home to some flooding in our basement as the water line in our fridge broke and leaked.
-I managed to put a ding in our stainless steel fridge.
-Sunday my laptop died..it didn't get sick it just died.
-Our TV exploded...well it let out a loud pop and that was the end.

Said fridge is now fixed however it looks like there is something wonky with our water heater and dishwasher. Ahhhh 'Stuff'...you complete and complicate my life! Over the past few days, I have been on a tear to get rid of some stuff - books, magazines, old clothing etc. It is a combination of giving things away and recycling and shocks me to see how much I can easily get rid of.

The hubs is still around..I can't get rid of him that easy though he is now sharing 'my' TV space. If he thinks I am giving up Glee for hockey...he has another think coming.

Marathon runners: How much do you cut back in taper?