Yikes!

Ok, I am lame. The last time I posted was before my vacation. I don't even have an excuse because I have had plenty of time to blog (and run) but I just have been spending that time doing other fun things (like playing around with the floorplan of my apartment, making fun cupcakes, knitting, etc etc etc).

I guess running was just one of the main things in my life prior to now, and now, while it is still a big part of my life, I tend to have a million other things going on too.

I spent a lot of time this marathon season being frustrated...not angry...not sad, just frustrated. It seemed like no matter what I did, I couldn't get my times to go back to what they were before I had Liam. I was still working really hard, but I wasn't getting the results. I wanted to basically start where I was at the beginning of 2009. I didn't actually think this was too unreasonable (I'm not even sure if it is now). But I also just kind of accepted that running was going to be harder, I was going to be slower. I didn't know if this was a copout, but I was okay with it if it was. I thought.

Then I ran with my friends Gina and Pam one Saturday and as we were chatting Pam said that her friend (who was also pregnant around the time I was) said that running is hard, things just don't work the same way they did before. This made me feel lots better. And I realized; here I was comparing myself to Kara Goucher again, who is an Olympian, has trainers and nutritionists, runs professionally, and isn't still breastfeeding.

So, a couple of weeks ago I had my 20-miler. My 20-miler always sort of psychs me out because however it goes is the same way the marathon goes for me. I printed out this marathon armband which would have me pacing my miles so that I would end up with 9:00 splits (even though I had been running with the 10:00 min/mile group all season). I had a glass of wine the night before to relax (this has been proven to work for me). I worried worried worried so much that I didn't sleep. When I got to Grand Central (we were doing this run out of the city) I got there so early that the train doors weren't even open. So I stopped at a shop and grabbed two donuts which I inhaled in about 2 seconds. I fell asleep on the train and almost missed my stop. And then, when we got there, Coach Christine informed us that the bridge was out due to Hurricane Irene and we couldn't run our normal route. We actually had to go the other way, which involved running through several house-lined streets and the downtown area of Scarsdale before we even got to the Hudson River Parkway Trail. Ugh. And I am AWFUL at directions.
We had to stick together as a group for the first 2 miles so no one would get lost.

Well, my pace was just going to go way out the window. Whatever. I didn't really feel like I could do it anyway. I was just going to run what I ran and get the mileage in. (I usually call this "Zen Running"). So I kind of stuck with a group of three people going about 10 min/miles. Unfortunately, at the turnaround (5 miles) they decided not to stop. I needed a GU so I decided to run with the group that was slightly ahead of us and still stopped for a GU break. They were obviously going faster, so I would have to see how long that would last.

Their pace actually felt pretty good. And when I looked down at my watch, I saw we did a 9:22 mile. Cool! I stuck with them until the next turnaround, but then I was on my own. They had decided to go the other way (even though the bridge was out, someone had put a plank over the stream so you could go over it if you wanted to...I was NOT in for that. I did not train all this season to fall off a plank and injure myself.)

I got a little lost, but did find my way. I felt great. At the end I felt like I could run another 10 miles!!! And I ended up with a 9:00 pace for the WHOLE RUN! AMAZING! I was so so pumped.

THEN, I ran the Staten Island Half this past weekend. Once again, I ran by feel. I was going to try and hit 8:50s, but I took the first mile out too fast (8:37). I made a concentrated effort to slow down and went 8:22 on the next mile. I really told myself to slow down for the next mile and did an 8:08. Ok. At this point I took stock of how I felt (great) and decided to just go for it. In the end, my slowest mile ended up being an 8:56 and my fastest a 7:55.

I PRed!!!!!!!!

BY FOUR MINUTES!!!! (I got a 1:50!)

Did I just underestimate myself before? Did I just kick it in for some reason? What happened? I have no idea but I am NOT going to change ANYTHING and hope for the best on NYC marathon day.

Confused

OK. Now I'm all confused.

Why?

Well, because I have no idea how to run my marathon.

I say this because I ran my 20 miler this weekend. I was going to do 2-4 miles at a 10 minute pace, then gradually wind myself down to a 9 minute mile pace and do maybe the last 2 miles at sub 9s. This sounded reasonable to me because I had done my half marathon last week at an 8:40 pace which felt really very doable.

Of course it was raining. I say "of course" because I think it has rained during all of my 20 milers except one. So let's just say, I am very used to running 20s in the rain. :) I actually don't mind either, because it beats the heat any day.

I got up at 6:15, ran to Central Park, down to 86th Street, turned around and went up to the 102nd Street Transverse. It was here that I dropped off my bag, and lined up with the other NYRR for the "Tune-Up" 18-miler training run. It was funny because they set it up like a race (we all had numbers, got t-shirts, had shoe tags, there was Gatorade and water and pace clocks) but it was really just a big training run. The big perk was that it counted as a qualifier for my 9+1 requirement for NYC 2010. Yes, that's right! I ran 2 qualifiers this weekend which means I have my 9 in the bag. All I need now is my volunteer day, which I have already signed up for.

My first 2 miles averaged 9:45. Perfect!

When I started the run, I saw my friend from TNT Molly right ahead of me. I was so glad, because I figured we would be able to keep a good pace together. This was especially good for me because I tend to do backwards negative splits, and I really needed to hold back on that first half of my run.

It was great though, because running with Molly took my mind off of the run, since we were talking the whole time. I wasn't obsessing over the mile markers, or really my splits for that matter. I guess it was a good thing, because with all of the rain it was pretty impossible to decipher what my splits were anyway.

I felt REALLY good, the whole time.

In fact, when I lost Molly at about mile 11 (she told me to go ahead, she had hit a wall and needed to slow down) I did my next mile at 9:04 (we had been averaging about 9:40s the whole time). But then I took it right back down. I guess I was just all about running comfortably. And it was comfortable.

I mean, of course, my legs were screaming at me towards the end, but that's just what happens in a 20 mile run. I actually felt pretty great.

I ended up with a 3:12.30 for those 20 miles, which averages to a 9:37 pace.

Not helpful.

Here's why...

Originally, at the beginning of the season I was killing practices. Coach Christine said she thought I could do a 3:40 marathon. I talked to the other coaches and they said if Coach Christine said it, then it was totally doable, because she tends to be conservative with her estimates. THEN I started racing, and realized a more attainable goal for me was probably to break the 4 hour mark. To do this, I would have to run a 9:09 pace. I considered this totally and completely doable.

Now, I'm not so sure.

If history (of my 20 milers before a marathon) is any indication, this run means that I will do about a 4:11-4:13 marathon.

On one hand, it's nice to know that this is a realistic goal going into the marathon. But on the other hand I am kind of bummed. I mean, I went from thinking I could do a 3:40 to coming to the realization that it will probably be more like a 4:11?

That was my "hopeful" goal for last year!!! And I am so much faster now!

But I am always one who is like "Yeah, it was a PR, but I was REALLY hoping for..." I mean, the only race I can think of that I was super happy with was the Bronx half marathon this February.

ARGH! All of this thinking is making me crazy! I know the game plan should be to calm down and not worry about it, because that is what always makes me run "off" but seriously? That is like telling a super stressed person not to stress out...all that does is make them stress out more! :)

The GOOD thing out of all of this was that I maintained a very consistent pace through the whole thing.
(9:45, 9:45, 10:03, 9:58, 9:24, 9:25, 9:31, 9:41, 9:38, 9:34, 9:22, 9:38, 9:49, 9:04, 9:35, 9:24, 9:29, 9:46, 9:39, 9:07). At least I am learning SOMEthing!

(BTW, today is the last day for donations to my run and I'm still short! If anyone wants to donate, they can, at runemily.com!)

20 in White Plains!

Saturday we had another fieldtrip run, this one was in White Plains which is way north of the city. It was an absolutely beautiful day, even a little chilly. It was even MORE chilly in White Plains, even though it isn't that far away from New York City.

Coach Christine was there to describe the workouts to us. I was pretty much dreading doing 20 miles, and she said that we didn't REALLY have to do our 20 on Saturday if we were running the Marine Corps, because we still had time to get another 20 in. But she also said that it was a good idea to get the 20 out of the way. I just figured that I really wasn't going to get any better weather than this for a 20 miler. AND it's not like I would really want to do it any other time either.

My goal was to run easy so that I felt like I could make it through the entire 20. So I wasn't going to get upset if I didn't get a great time. I was trying more to run on feeling. That being said, I wanted to maintain around a 10 minute mile throughout the entire run.

I always love our fieldtrip runs because they give us a change of scenery. Although Central Park is beautiful it sometimes is monotonous when you run it day after day. And White Plains was really pretty. We were running in the forest the whole time and the weather stayed nice and cool. The only bad thing about these runs is that the turnout isn't always great...so a lot of us were running alone. This was actually fine for me this time though, because I could really concentrate on staying steady with my pace.

It was easy to keep track of pace because our run consisted of 5 miles out to the dam, turn around and run back to the start and repeat the whole thing again. My first five miles was 41:32, my second 59:09, my third 49:50 and my last 50:40, for a total of 3:21.14. This tells me that I need to SLOW DOWN at the beginning of my run. I think this is the hardest part for me. But I bet if I would have slowed down I would have ended up with a much better time.

However, I was really happy with my run because I actually felt at the end of my run that I could have done 6 more miles. I've never felt that way before on a 20 mile run. Don't get me wrong, I was SORE, and if I would have stopped it would have been over, but my legs just kept going (I have no idea how). My 20 mile run is usually a pretty good indicator of how my marathon will go. If I feel as good as I did during that run when I run my marathon, I will be in good shape.

I DO think that I will try to SLOW DOWN in the beginning though.

Great Hill? Ha!

New York has NOTHING when it comes to hills! Especially when you are comparing to Cincinnati.

Saturday I got to run with my old training group while I was in Cincy. It was fun, especially since my old running buddy, Sarah, was there. They were scheduled for an 18 mile run, but according to my plan I was supposed to do my big 20 miles. So I got to the Running Spot extra early (yuck) and ran 2 miles before the group workout. The first thing I noticed was how DIFFERENT the hills were. I mean, in Central Park there are lots of hills, but they are also separated by flat land. In Cincinnati, it is hill after hill after hill. And Great Hill in Central Park? Maybe it is the size of a small hill in Cincy. Maybe. I could feel it in my knees immediately. But I still maintained my <9:00 minute mile pace on those first two, so I was happy.

I was glad to see that the course we were running did follow the Pig course...including the new changes. But we also added on Millionaire's Mile in the beginning , which has some brutal hills. Sarah and I started out our run at a sub 9:00 minute mile and it was very apparent that we wouldn't be able to do that for long. The hills were just too killer. So we slowed down a bit (reminding each other that if one of us was holding the other back that the other should just go ahead).

The first 9 miles was cake for me. It was after that, that I was really feeling it. I even had to take some Tylenol 8-hour at the truck (thank goodness for the truck). I'm sure Sarah was thinking I had a huge potty mouth around the second half of the run. I just could not get over the hills.

As we started up to Eden Park I was really dying. We only had 5 more miles left but they were all of the killer hills on the course. Sarah needed to walk, and I needed to as well, so I am SO GLAD that she did. I was only pushing through the pain because I was running with her (which is a stupid thing to do). We walked up the hill leading into Eden Park and started running again at Mirror Lake, where we did a few laps to add on (the course was only 16.5 miles so we decided to add on 2 there). Up the killer, most humongous hill on the course we passed another runner who was honking like a goose (???). And then, of course another hill on the way back to Victory Parkway.

That one we had to walk again. And of course, who should come up behind us, but Coach Joe. (They always see you when you are slacking!). He walked with us up the hill and we talked about how we were really feeling it. He made me feel better though, because he said this was a REALLY REALLY hard 16.5 mile course because of all the hills (including some killer ones that are not actually on the course) and the placement of the hills (the worst ones at the end). He said the difficulty made it more like a 19 or even 20 mile run.

We finished and I logged a 3:20.28 for my 20 miles. Gone were my hopes in the back of my head that for some miracle reason my 8:45 pace last week was close to my marathon goal pace (I didn't really have THAT much hope for that anyway). But my 20 mile runs are usually pretty darn accurate in predicting how my marathons will go...so I am VERY pleased with a 10 minute pace on that killer course. ESPECIALLY since we walked twice.

Thank goodness for Sarah too! Not only did she make my run much more enjoyable (we talked the WHOLE time) but she pushed me to run well on that course! If you're interested, you can read her account of the run here.

I think next week I have a 14-miler, so I am just going to bask in this lovely , lovely taper!

A Little Help From My Friends

I must say, I never thought I would feel so great after a 20 mile run!

Don’t get me wrong…it was very very difficult. In fact, I was NOT in the mood and I really didn’t think I was going to make it.

Let me back up…

It is not a good sign when you don’t sleep very well because you are dreaming that you wake up an hour and a half late for your 20-miler. Stress. Plus, I just really really didn’t feel like doing 20 miles. I had carb loaded all day Friday, went to bed early, etc, but it just didn’t matter. Plus, I was stupid and wore my skirt without the pockets, so I had no place for my Gu. My running buddy, Lindsey suggested sticking them in my sports bra. Knowing my history of chafing, I made sure I used BodyGlide first. It ended up working out perfectly! So now I have a new trick.

We were off to a slow start, with a 13 minute first mile. Everyone I run with started freaking out because we were going too slow. I was like “No! No! I would rather go slow at first and have energy at the end!” We weaved our way through Hyde Park and then through Mariemont. It seemed to take forever. I couldn’t believe that our first water stop was only 3.5 miles in. I was already tired.

The way the run was set up was that it was 16.75 miles. If you wanted to add on, you could do the 1.7 mile loop in the middle of the run 2 more times, or you could add 4 miles on at the end. My group decided on the pretty, flat, 1.7 miles in Mariemont in the middle of the run rather than adding on at the end. Not only is it a mental block to end at the Running Spot and then know you have 4 miles to go, but those 4 miles happened to be in Eden Park which means HILLS. We were also like “Aww. It’s so cute here! I’m glad we’re doing our loops here!” But by the third loop we were like “AGH! Get me out of Mariemont!” As we ran out onto Wooster Pike Sarah even said “Wow! Civilization! I feel like I’m back out of 1940!”

By this time I was feeling like it was the longest run ever. Sarah felt like it was the shortest run ever and Lindsey said she felt in-between. That made me laugh.

Next came Wooster Road. Let me just say…I have a new appreciation for Eastern. I just canNOT run on industrial roads. They make me crazy. Not to mention the fact that some of it did not have sidewalks and I felt like I was going to be run over by a car. I was so glad I have driven that way to my friend’s, because I knew where I was going and didn’t second guess myself. All the girls kept asking “are you SURE we are going the right way?” Then Sarah and I saw a big group of people. I thought it was weird because there shouldn’t be another water stop for awhile. They were all wearing really bright colors. Like day-glo orange. Yes, they were a juvenile detention work crew. Bizarre, the things you see on your runs. ☺

By the time we made it to Lunken I really didn’t know if my legs could move anymore. Lindsey and I debated walking when we got to Delta. I was not looking forward to our home stretch. We only had 4.25 miles left, but it was all up hill.

I shot another Gu. I have to admit…they are awesome. Lindsey laughs at me because she says I ‘take them like a pro’ now. They keep my legs going when I swear there is no human way that my legs could still be moving.

I thought about walking even more as we finally hit Delta. But my legs just kept moving. I wasn’t going to stop them. But by this time my body was in robot mode. So much so, that when I could not go straight because a car was blocking a driveway in front of me it took TONS of effort (mental and physical) to go around it.

We stopped for water one last time with a little more than a mile to go. I walked two blocks to Stettinius, and started running again. I knew I had exactly one mile left. When we got to the O’Bryonville shops I even kicked it up a notch. I looked at my watch. 3:30!!!!

I have no idea how that is possible, but I was soooooooo pumped. I realized that if it wasn’t for the girls, I would not have done it. I so would have been walking for a lot of those 20. I was so impressed with us! Hurrah!

Saturday Run

My scabs are healing nicely, which is good news because I have my 20-miler tomorrow. Which, by the way, I am very very nervous about. I am just not feeling it.

Two weeks ago, when I ran my 18-miler (when I showed up at Lunken thinking I was supposed to do a 20-miler) I was feeling really great. I was ready to take on an entire marathon. So I knew I could do it. This week I am just not looking forward to it.

The good news is that the weather is going to be perfect. I always run better in colder weather, so I have been waiting for this forever. I won't even know what to wear. Just kidding. I will pretty much dress like it is 90 degrees out. I heat up quickly.

I have been carb-loading all day...which was easy because I was in an all-day work session. They are always catered. And they ALWAYS have french bread. I took 4 slices. And I piled up my plate with tons of food. It kind of reminded me of Emilio Estevez's character in the Breakfast Club, when they all take out their lunches . The clients looked at me a little strangely but then one of my colleagues mentioned that I was a marathoner, and they were all like "ohhhhhh!" I am hoping we can go out for some pasta tonight!

I swear, eating is the best part of running!