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.

Brooklyn!

Me, Gina and Pam post-race (look at my shirt! isn't it cute? it says "running chick")

Okay, so it never ceases to amaze me what my body can do. I say this because my running has not been happening, yet I am able to run half marathons and not destroy my body. And when I say I have not been running I don't mean "I've only done a couple of miles here and there, but not the mileage I'm used to." I mean I haven't been running at all. Three weeks prior to the Flying Pig? No running. And then the next three weeks before the Brooklyn Half Marathon? Also no running.

Now, I would not recommend this, being that it is stupid, but it is pretty amazing that my body can handle this.

I also say this because I only got 2.5 hours of sleep the night before the half. Mostly this was because we had to get up so darn early (start was at 7am...in Brooklyn). But also because I just could not get to sleep the night before.

To top things off, we (me, Gina, Pam) decided to take a cab to the park because it would be so much easier. We must have had the most idiotic cab driver ever. I have no idea why he went the way he did, but we basically ended up making a circle around Manhattan. The whole ride was $50!!! That is more than it takes to get to JFK! Ridiculous. So when we went to drop off our bags some guy was yelling at us that baggage was going to close...so we had to run. And then some other guy yelled at us because we were late and our truck was full (the start was at Prospect Park, but the finish was at Coney Island, so the bags were loaded on trucks according to your number) so we had to go to "late baggage". And then the portolet line was like a million people long. Oh yeah, and it was the hottest day (by like 20 degrees) that I've run in yet.

If this was two years ago this would all have destroyed my psyche completely and I would have probably passed out at the second mile. But I was just in it for the fun this time.

Us three girls just ran easy the whole time. It was actually a great time to catch up. Prospect Park is known for these awful awful hills, and we had to run the loop twice, but it wasn't that bad because we were all just chatting away. In fact, it may have been the most enjoyable half marathon I have ever run.

The coolest part about the race is that it ends on the boardwalk in Coney Island. So it was fun to end on a beach even if we weren't going swimming. :)

And after all of this, plus stopping at just about every water stop AND stopping for a restroom break, we still ended up with a 2:17! Pretty good! I could definitely go for some more half marathons like that.

Brooklyn!

So I have yet another half marathon this weekend. This one is part of the NYRR Half Marathon Grand Prix. It is the only one of the Grand Prix that I have never raced, and the one that everyone talks about. From most people I have heard that this is the best one, but from a couple of friends I have heard it is the most difficult. I am inclined to believe both.

I think it will be super cool because it runs all through Brooklyn and ends in Coney Island where there is a huge beach party. However, it is supposed to rain all weekend, so that probably won't be as cool as it seems.

It is probably the hardest because of all of the hills...mostly those Prospect Park hills. I have run Prospect Park a couple of times and it is always rough. The way I picture Prospect Park is sort of like an Escher drawing. It seems like the whole route is uphill. This cannot be physically possible, because Prospect Park is a loop, but it really truly seems like there are no downhills. And for some reason the hills seem so much harder than Central Park. This is weird too, because I think the hills in Central Park are much steeper and there are definitely more of them.

At any rate, I am still looking forward to it. I really want that stupid patch that they give to everyone that completes at least 4 of the 5 half marathons...AND it will get me guaranteed entry into the NYC Half next year. :)

And It Begins...

My "official" training for my spring marathon started this week with a 7-miler on Sunday. I made Bill and Liam stay at home so I could go at it on my own and it was kind of nice to run again without worrying about a stroller or how bundled up Liam had to be or how fast I had to run/if he was asleep or not to get him between feedings. And it was so nice out too! 40 and sunny! Needless to say, with all of this, I had a pretty good run.

Ok. Let's not be modest. I felt AWESOME. Especially when I learned that I had done the whole thing in 1:09, which means that I had a sub-ten pace (my first in a LONG time). And I ran the whole way. None of this run-walk business!

So then Tuesday I wheeled out the BOB again for a three miler with Liam. The goal was to do the whole lower loop twice without walking. And the earlier the better because the temps were supposed to go from a high of 37 degrees at 8 am to a low of 15 degrees by 3pm. Yuck. I realized why those temps were dropping so fast on the run: the wind was CRAZY. It didn't help that I underestimated the mileage and needed an extra .3 at the end of my loops...so I had to run up a crazy hill from the park at 72nd street to get to street level at Central Park West...INto the wind. Difficult normally, but worse with a stroller.

But this whole getting back into a schedule thing was making me feel like "Ok. I can do this marathon thing. It's not going to be fun, but I can totally do it."

But then it got cold. Like, too cold to run with a baby outside. So I figured, I'll just run after Liam's morning feeding, which is usually like 6:30. I'll get the mileage in sans-stroller before Bill gets to work. I should know by now, this NEVER works. I am NOT a morning person and it is even worse when I am not getting enough sleep anyways. And then it is even WORSE when I wake up with a scratchy throat and feel like all I want to do is SLEEEEEEEEEP. So guess what I did?

So I decided not to beat myself up and do some cardio weight DVDs. I was not exactly looking forward to this (getting me to exercise lately is like convincing me to get dental work done) but I sucked it up and put in the DVD when Liam was in a happy, sort of sleepy, chill mood. I put him in his crib, knowing that he usually just drifts off into a nice little nap. Hahahahaha. 20 minutes into the DVD he was screaming bloody murder. I decided to make it to the next segment, seeing if he could calm himself down...

Nope! So, I made it 25 minutes into a 45 minute workout. And honestly, I just didn't have the energy or desire to try this again yesterday or today.

So once again, I am going into my long run completely underprepared for the mileage I am going to undertake. Hmph.

On a happy note, I got into the Brooklyn Half Marathon (race two of the Grand Prix) before it sold out...which was amazingly, like, in two days. This was because of my most wonderful running friend, Gina who sent an urgent email telling us on February 7th that the registration was open but they were already saying it would sell out by the 8th (it did). I got the email, got online and signed up. WHEW! I did all this so fast that I didn't even look to see when it was! (May 21st). Luckily, I will be here. And will be running it with Gina :)

Race Schedule

Ok, so I think I've got a pretty ambitious race schedule lined up this year...lots of half marathons and of course the crown jewel, the one I've been waiting for, the race I've wanted to do ever since I've started marathoning – the NYC marathon.

Here's what I've got so far:

• Manhattan Half Marathon – January (done!)
• More Half Marathon – April 4th
• Flying Pig Marathon – May 1st
• Brooklyn Half Marathon – May TBD
• Queens Half Marathon – July 30th
• Bronx Half Marathon – August 27th
• Staten Island Half Marathon – October 9th
• NYC Marathon – November 6th

I'm sure I'll throw in a few of my other NYRR favorites here and there. Especially in the summer and especially if my friends join in. Coogan's was fun last year and I always like the Pride Race (mainly for the cool t-shirts, music and popsicles at the end) and there's always a lot of great swag at the Scotland Run. I think it might be kind of easy to get my 9 races if I can do all of this. Then I can do NYC in 2012 too! But I am getting waaaaaay ahead of myself. Maybe right now I should just take one run at a time.

I am going to check out the Pfitzinger plan in Advanced Marathoning. But this might be a little ambitious too. Especially since my points total for this week so far is: 1. Yes, that's right. And that doesn't even come from a workout...it's from eating a healthy dinner. :)

Hurray! Half Marathon!

Thanks to a very special husband who decided that I had trained way too hard (haha, I guess it's all relative) to skip my half marathon and decided to skip his cooking class instead, I was able to run the first of the Grand Prix races this year!

I have to say, I was feeling pretty guilty about this when I woke up on Saturday and it was FOURTEEN DEGREES and I pretty much just wanted to say "forget it". However, I sucked it up and got my butt over to the park. I was so so layered for the whole thing...sports bra, t-shirt, crazy ninja shirt with speedskater hood, fleecy headband, all weather jacket, compression socks, tights, pants and gloves!

I made my way to the last corral (I was planning on run-walking this thing, so if I would have been in my assigned corral I would have gotten plowed over) to stand around shivering for 34 minutes (because I overestimated how much time I needed to get there). I seriously was starting to wonder about my level of sanity. I think it was a mutual feeling amongst all of the runners there who kept saying things like "WTF is wrong with us?" and "WHY was it a good idea to sign up for this?"

I also knew that this could basically last forever since I was run-walking with 3 minutes on and 2 off. I mean, my 6 miler was done at a 13:47 pace and my 9-miler at a 12:39 pace. I feel like I need the run-walk right now though, so it made me a little nervous when I had to run through 10 minutes of the intervals at the beginning because the field was so crowded. I was kind of sort of okay with it thought because it was SO COLD and walking would have frozen me even more.

Oddly enough though, I felt pretty good. And when I looked down at my watch I saw that I was maintaining a 11:38 for those first 2 miles. Awesome! Of course a lot of that was because I ran the first 10 minutes, but even so...

Another strange thing is that when I got to the second water stop and took the frozen water it actually tasted really good. And not just the water but the ice...in fact the ice was preferable even though I was soooooo freezing and it would take me until mile 5 to even start to feel my fingers a little (this from the girl who never used to wear gloves running because I was always too hot).

I made the first loop and it wasn't so bad, but I didn't know about this whole second loop thing. I didn't know if I was up for it. But before I knew it I was at mile 9!!! And I was still maintaining a pace of under 12 minutes (even though it was inching up to the 11:50s).

In fact, at mile 9 I started picking up the pace big time. I felt awesome! And I kept thinking about how I was going to see Bill and Liam at the finish and we would go get breakfast, which just made me happy.

Before I knew it I was in the final lower loop (The race is two loops and then another lower loop...grueling mentally.) I will say that the last two miles kind of weren't the greatest. I was getting tired. But I still felt good enough to run through my last two walk cycles. I kept looking at my watch, trying to get my final pace numbers down.

And guess what? I finished at an 11:32 pace! And that's run-walking!!! I was pretty proud of myself.

So I guess I could do a half marathon with 21 miles of training over 3 weeks. Although I am pretty sure that this was still a stupid thing to do. I am now going to take a couple of weeks off and start training for my spring marathon (or half marathon, I can't decide). I was also so pumped that I went ahead and signed up for the More/Fitness magazine half marathon again.

Hurray! Half marathons!

Don't Try This At Home

I was perhaps a little overzealous in my signing up for races before Christmas. See, my goal for the last three years has been to complete the NYRR's Grand Prix of half marathons. This includes one marathon in each borough. They spread them out throughout the year so that you pretty much have to be fit for the whole year. It is kind of a big deal to do all five and you get a patch for doing it.

For one reason or another I have never been able to do this (the first year I missed the Manhattan one, the next year I missed Brooklyn because of my sister's wedding, the third year I missed the last two for obvious reasons.) So I decided that this was my year and signed up for the first of the five which is the Manhattan one.

This one happens to be the most boring and one of the most challenging: two loops of Central Park. That's right, tons of hills! Oh yeah, and being in January it tends to be the coldest too. Two years ago it was below freezing and the cups froze right to the table.

My training schedule was going to have to be pretty aggressive, but I figured I could do it. I did it a couple years ago! The plan for my long runs? A six miler this Saturday, a nine miler the following Saturday, a twelve miler the third Saturday and then the race the following Saturday.

Well, I kind of miscalculated. See, the race is on the 22nd. So I figured I'd better get my butt in gear. I have been not so diligent about my runs since Thanksgiving (yes, I've only been out twice). I have been doing lots of weight lifting and cross training, but we all know that is not the same.

Yesterday I waited until the warmest part of the day, packed up baby in the BOB jogger and headed out along the Hudson Bike Trail for a nice easy three miler.

Hahahahaha.

It was HARD. I forgot how difficult it is to run in the cold if you're not used to it. The breathing totally throws me off. I also just kept getting so TIRED. I know that a lot of this is because I am using a ton of effort to push that stroller. But I also know a lot of it is because I am completely out of (my normal) shape. So I will say there was a lot of run-walking.

And I'm pretty sure there is going to be a lot of run-walking during this race.

I'm still planning on doing it, but I will definitely be backing off of the training afterwards so that I don't injure myself for my spring marathon (or half marathon, I haven't decided).

Yes, running friends, I know this is stupid. But I think I can do it. If anything it will put Gina's and my theory to test: if you are a hard-core runner who does marathons and half marathons all the time we think you could probably do a half marathon with little to no training.

Like I said, I would never recommend anyone else do this. :)

Where ARE We?

This weekend I ran the Queens Half Marathon. The Queens Half is a very unique event. First of all, it is very very hard to get to (since almost no one in NYC has cars). You have the option of spending a bazillion dollars on a cab, paying $15 to take the shuttle from the NYRR HQ, or trying your luck at public transportation. For the last option, you take the subway to about 2 miles from the start and wait for a free shuttle from NYRR. The problem with all of this is that 5,000 people run this event, so the free shuttles are very crowded. Oh yeah, and the roads close at 6 am so, you have to make sure you get on the shuttle before then. Both years I have run this, and a lot of the people who take that option end up showing up about a half hour after the start. That is just too much stress for me, so, for the second year in a row, Bill and I opted for the $15 bus tickets. The last bus leaves at 5am. Soooooooo...we both got up at 3:45am (bless Bill!) to grab a cab across the park and catch the bus.

When we got to the park in Queens, some girl said to her friend "Where ARE we? The end of the subway line was back there, and that was like 20 minutes ago!" Everyone in the bus laughed.

After that? You scramble to find a park bench to sleep on until the race starts at 7am. And it was COLD this year, so there was more shivering than sleeping!

Despite this, I kind of sort of like running this event. EVEN THOUGH it has 66 turns within 13.1 miles (those turns keep me from being bored) and the whole thing is hills. Up and down, up and down, there is no flat part that is more than about 20 feet. And that's only three times in the whole race.

Ramon said not to count on PRing, because you could not PR this event. I realize why now. I do not remember it being THAT hilly last year, but maybe that is because last year it was like, 90 degrees!

The start was crowded, and once again, I was in the corral behind my friends I usually run with. It was SO crowded that my first mile clocked a 9:16. I didn't freak though, because I knew Ramon said no PRs (even though I was secretly still hoping for one). My next mile was 8:25, so I knew I needed to slow down desperately. Luckily, I found Molly (a girl I usually run with). She runs pretty consistent 8:40s in the beginning of races, so I decided to covertly follow her :) And guess what? My next lap was 8:44! Perfect!

In fact, I was pretty consistent the whole race, ranging between 8:16 and 8:51. The miles were flying by, and I didn't really feel tired until mile 11. Which, Ramon says, is an indication that I ran the race smart. Yay! A smart race! I don't usually get those.

In that last mile? There were two of the largest hills on the course. There was actually a collective groan as all the runners around me made one of those last turns to see that huge hill. One guy was like "Now that is just RUDE!" which made me laugh. I had to really dig on that hill. It pretty much sucked.

I was all pumped when I looked at my watch, which said I averaged an 8:33 pace. Whoo-hoo! Too bad my ACTUAL pace was 8:42. Why the discrepancy? Well, Coach Christine said all the turns added mileage on, and that UNLESS you ran on the course line exactly you probably ran an actual 13.33 miles (everyone who had a Garmin had that the course was 13.33 miles).

So my official time was 1:54.04. A PR by 34 seconds. Don't get me wrong...I am happy with a PR, but I am bummed because I felt like I was running a lot faster than my PR in the Bronx Half. :)