week 4 training

10 weeks to go

totals: swim 400 yds, bike: 25 miles, run: 34.3 miles
mon	run	6.1 mile run with marcie.  Still super humid out.  (55:12/9:05 pace)
tues	run	6 mile run (53:44/8:53 pace).  Still hot, but I'm getting better at handling it.
wed	swim/bike/run	try the tri.  400 meter swim (13:50), 9 mile bike (33:06), 2 mile run (17:02)
thurs	rest
fri	run	12 mile run with jess.  Failed 14  mile run and hottest day of the year. (2:04:00/10:24 pace)
sat	run	8.2 mile run.  Hosted run with MVS and totally redeemed myself.  2nd to last mile was 7:55!  (1:10:40/8:34 pace)
sun	bike	16 mile bike on Josh's loop.  Avg pace was 13.6 mph I think.

this past week was soooo hot that i actually thought, is winter almost here?  then i had to slap myself for having such vile thoughts.  i AM trying to embrace the heat and acclimate, but friday was 80 degrees with 80% humidity by 6 am when i left for my long run and there was just no coping.  i think that i will attempt the same exact route next week and pretend like this week didn't even happen.  no walking!!

not much going on otherwise.  marathon training is in full swing and my mileage is increasing each week.  this time around i've been feeling really strong and have avoided the shin splints and heel pain that messed with me during seattle training.

try the tri week 2: karen joins

another great week at try the tri!  since this was karen's first outing, we decided to swim together, so my swim time was a little slower.  (ignore the peeper in the yellow cap.  he was totally drafting off us.  :))
swim time: 13:50  (+6 min from last week)(swam with karen)
t1 time: 2:19 (+31 secs from last week)(fiddled with my garmin)

but i totally killed it on the bike (shout out to the speedy "silver bullet").
bike time: 33:06 (-4: 26 mins from last week)
t2 time: 1:22 (+7 secs from last week

the run remained about the same, but i felt much better.
run time:17:02 (-36 secs from last week)

overall: 1:07:39 (+1:36 from last week)(yay!  really good considering the swim!)

it was super hot (hellllo heat wave) so i didn't put on my new wetsuit even tho i should be practicing with it.  here, we can pretend.

wetsuits are soooo flattering.  :)

only 3 more weeks of try the tri.  i am going to make it to at least one more, if not two.  and then its only a matter of weeks until the real deal.  SheRox on Sept 25.  get excited people!

week 3 training

i wish i could just find a format for this blog and stick with it.  you know, consistency and all that.  but for now, you will all just have to deal with my blogger ADD as i attempt to figure out what works best.

so for right now, i am going to try and start posting my weekly workout notes on mondays for the remainder of the weeks leading up to the smuttynose hampton marathon (yes, i officially signed up.  it is on oct 2 and there are precisely 11 weeks of training remaining.  eeek!)

this week was jam packed even tho i didn't plan it that way.  josh and i picked up our new bikes on wednesday, and proceeded to ride them 3 out of the next 4 days.  i guess we like them or something.  :)  my long run this week didn't go quite as i had planned due to the really-starting-to-get-on-my-nerves-excessive-heat.  plus i'm doing most of my runs with my smuttynose partner in crime, and running while talking is new to me, so i'm still finding my zone with that.

11 weeks to go:
totals: swim: 2000 yds, bike: 33 miles, run: 29.3 miles

mon	5.5 mile run.  HOT so not what I had planned (49:20/8:58 pace)
tues	5 mile run.  Track workout (800 WU, 5x400 in relay).  Treadmill 3.25 miles @ 9 min/mile.
wed	rest
thurs	6 mile run (51:37/8:36 pace) (1.5 WU, 3@5k pace, 1.5 CD) (8:04, 7:45, 7:34) PLUS 6.5 mile bike (to Haverhill freeway)
fri	6.5 mile bike (to Haverhill freeway) PLUS 1.6 mile run slow (10ish pace)
sat	2000 yd pool swim, 45 mins (100 WU, 3X500 free with 100 kicks, 100 CD)
sun	11.2 mile run.  HOT.  (1:45:19/9:22 pace) PLUS 20 mile bike on bike path

and since no good blog is complete without a pic, here ya go (borrowed from sis)

a non running post! non runners rejoice!

some of you may remember the bunny incident from last month.  in case you don't, a quick recap....

we discovered a bunny hole in the corner of our backyard when josh accidentally ran it over with the lawn mower.  (not to fret (at least at this point) they were not killed (at least not at this point)).  at first i was very anti-bunny and wanted to exterminate them using various cruel methods, but over the course of the next few days, i found myself checking on them frequently and trying to keep the dogs away.  i say trying, because on about day 3, i failed, and nala, the big bad bunny killer that she is, decided to chomp on one.  welllll, the thinking is that the smell of bunny blood scared the mother away, because she never returned, and even tho the bunnies were progressing quite nicely and were up and about around the hole, they eventually died a dehydrated death on about day 5 of bunny watch '11.  sad, i know.

anyhow, that brings us to our more happy story of the day.  my redemption song, if you will.

there has been a very persistent bird, who despite my knocking down of her first nest attempt (pre-bunny) has rebuilt and hatched herself some cute little baby birds.  because i am a newly reformed animal liker (not yet lover), i told mama bird that i would leave her nest intact until her babes were grown enough to leave the nest, but after that, all bets were off.  i've been keeping progress on the little things, and yesterday i was able to snatch a cute pic while mom was away getting food stuffs (at least i presume... she could have been off partying and getting a "bella vita" tattoo, but i'll have faith)

 

just wanted to share!  hope you are having a less hot and humid week than moi!

try the tri - week 1

i'm back with my long awaited first triathlon race report.  yay! 

"try the tri" is a weekly event put on by my local tri club (trifury) that goes for 10 weeks throughout the summer.  its a very low key "race" if you would even call it that, but it is super well organized and i was really, really impressed with it, and the members of trifury (who i'm slowly meeting more of).  the race consists of a 400 meter swim, 10 mile bike and 2 mile run. 

here i am at the start with josh and also an uber flattering pic of me with my mentor, robin, and my fellow mentee, judy.

 

the swim course was pretty easy for me...must be my few good years of high school swimming have managed to carry over.  i was 2nd out of the water which was cool!  i could get used to total swim domination!

swim time:7:50

t1 time: 1:48

not having any idea of what to expect in the transitions, i think my time was ok.  i didn't try to put my shirt on over my helmet or anything too crazy, but i also didn't have a wetsuit to take off, so time will tell on the transitions. 

bike time: 37:32

and then the bike happened, and i proceeded to get past by everyone and their mother.  definitely my weakest sport but maybe the new road bike (woohoo) i bought over the weekend will inspire more riding!

t2 time: 1:15

run time: 17:38

the running was actually the hardest part for me, since it took a good mile of the two total for my legs to start feeling like legs again.  brick workouts here i come!!

total time: 1:06:03

i am definitely doing this again!  i think there are at least 5 more weeks left, so 5 more weeks to get my time under 1 hour.  i'm secretly (or not so secretly) trying to recruit peeps to do this series with me, so if you are even remotely interested, let me know so i can railroad you into it.  :)

oh, and i forgot to mention....

i'm racing (if you'd call it that) my first ever tri today!  josh is coming with, so i'll make him man the camera.  stay tuned....

pics are up!! aka the post in which gwen posts non-hid pics of herself

so karen, dave and i ran the harvard pilgrim 10k on the 4th of July.  mostly (ok, it was pretty much only) because you got to run thru the helmet and onto the field at gillette stadium, finishing on the 50 yd line.  since patriots tickets are soooo expensive, this was my first, and probably last time to gillette stadium, and definitely as close as i'm ever going to come to the field ever again.

the race itself was not fun.  it was like 80 degrees with 80% humidity when we started and i sounded like a wheezing vacuum by the 1 mile mark.  my splits were as non-progressive as can be (8:15, 8:30, 8:45, 9:00, 9:15, 8:45)  (hey, at least i picked it up at the end!) (total time: 55:48)  but the pics...oh the pics!!  i'm contributing it all to the compression sleeves, but i am preeeettty pleased with these pics, i must say.  

also!  make sure to check out karen's blog. she is less conceited than i, but will post a pic or two nonetheless, i'm sure.

seattle rock and roll marathon race report

ok, ok, i'll stop procrastinating and just write the damn thing.  ugh.

for a first marathon, everything went very smoothly and just as good as one could hope for.  we woke up early (3:30, i think?  my memory starts to go after a week), caught a cab from capitol hill to downtown where the shuttles were taking the runners to the start in tukwila, and didn't even have to wait in line.  (i heard that these shuttles got very crowded later on and a bunch of people arrived at the start late.  nothing like a little extra adrenaline!)  the weather was perfect too, 55 i think at start, 62 at finish. after about an hour of waiting around at the start, we got into our corrals (i was corral 9) and the race got underway. 

corral 9 only had to wait about 10 mins or so to get the start...and we were off!  i paced the first mile just as i'd planned, and then brought it down to 9 min/miles and stuck with it.  the first 10 miles were the prettiest of the course, right along lake washington.  this section had the most spectators by far and lots of interesting things to look at.  the miles went pretty fast.  at about mile 10, we split from the halfers and did the first out and back (out of 3) of the course, across the lake.  i was still feeling really good at this point!  we met back up with the halfers, went thru a long tunnel, and headed into downtown.  mile 16 started and we started the second and loooongest out and back.  this is where things started to go bad.  my legs started cramping and mentally i started struggling.  i tried to hang in for a few more miles before resigning myself to an 8 mile run/walk to the finish.  i ran/walked up and down what seemed like the longest hills of my life and told myself all i needed to do was finish.  mile 23 brought the third and final out and back (sadistic course, for sursies) and i tried to rally, but cried instead.  with only 1.5 miles to go, i was finally able to coax my legs into running again, and i slowly made it to the finish. oddly enough, i wasn't really even happy to be finished...i think i was just so emotionally exhausted that i was too tired to feel anything.  even now, a week later, i wonder if i could have done more and i'm just not sure.  part of me thinks i kind of gave up, and the other part remembers how much pain i was in.  i KNOW i have a better time in me and even during the race, i was already planning my redemption marathon!  here's my splits from the race so you can see how my story ties into my mile paces.  (mile 12 and 13 were in a tunnel).

 

and, my only good picture from the race.  i have no idea what mile this was at, but its pretty cool that the space needle is in the background!

 

so in sum:  

good first half

sucky second half

time: 4:30:55 

ready to run another one! 

i wish i knew how to quit you

a fast person has stolen my body....

and is running all over town with it!

i don't know what's gotten into me, but lately my runs can do no wrong.  one good run after another and i love it!!!

here are my splits from today's, what i call my "usual run".  its a reasonable hilly 4.6 mile loop around my neighborhood.  notice those 7's in there??  craaazy.  and for reference my previous best time on this loop was 39:50. 

this is so exciting!!!

20 miles and clipless pedals

yay!  the last real long run of my marathon training is complete!!  ran 20 miles on saturday, and it feels so good to have it done and out of the way.  it was also a pretty big confidence booster going into the actual marathon. my pace has been getting progressively better with each long run, and this one was no exception.  it looks like i really may have a shot at breaking 4 hours which would be incredible!

20.17 miles / 3:08:27 / 9:21 avg pace

the other exciting news (and second half of my very exciting title) is that josh and i took the plunge and got clipless pedals for our bikes this weekend.  the first 3 mins of attempting to get my shoe into the pedal were pretty foolish, but after that, its been easy peasy.  we've been practicing up and the down the street and around the neighborhood, and we hope to take them for an actual spin sometime early this week. 

here are the shoes that i got.

we decided to go with the spd system, but my shoes have the right holes on the bottom for both spd and real road bike pedals, so that is cool.  as a quick review, these shoes are really nice and comfortable.  they conform nicely to my feet and the ratchet thingy in the back provides for a really good fit.  i tried on some pearl izumis that were garbage by comparison.  i'll keep everyone informed of the number of times i fall over.  so far its only about 0.5 (no real fall, just a wobble as i forgot to take my 2nd foot out before i tried to get off the bike.  haah)

in the month of may

stats for may (a little more detailed this time.  yay!):

running: 141.9 miles in 22 hours and 17 mins for an average of 9:25 min/mile pace
biking: 29.5 miles
pilates classes: 1
spinning classes: 2

goals for june:

this is kind of tricky because i'll be spending most of june tapering for the seattle rock and roll marathon on june 25, but i would love to break 150 miles in one month, so if not june then july.  i'm also a little afraid to admit it, because then somehow its real, but i'm going to throw it out there...i've been thinking about doing a triathlon.  just a sprint distance to start, but i'd really love to do a half ironman.  i mean really, it makes good sense.  i'm a pretty good swimmer (left over from years of high school swim) and i've really been enjoying the bike rides that josh and i have been taking and of course, i like running.  duh.  so another one of my june goals is to get clipless pedals for my hybrid and start riding more! (lets say "more" means 100 miles; need to have measurable goals, after all) and while i'm at it, my 3rd june goal is to swim at least 3 times.  that should be a good start in case i want to get all craaaazy and sign up for one of these things.  :)

(for those of you unfamiliar with tri distances, here are the distances:

sprint (can vary, but usually): swim 0.5 mile, bike 10 miles, run 3 miles
HIM (half ironman) (also known as an ironman 70.3): swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, run 13.1 miles
ironman: swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, run *A MARATHON * 26.2 miles)

anyone out there reading my blog ever do a triathlon?  its just sounds so different from a road race, what with all the transitions and all.  any first time stories?  advice?  and don't all comment at once...i don't want to get overwhelmed.  :)

weekend race recap

ahhhh...this weekend was just what i needed.  (and its not even over.  score!)  the sun and (lots of) warmth finally came to new england.  we went from 50 and rainy last week, to nearly 90 and humid this week.  the spring to summer transition never fails to disappoint!

karen and i had signed to up to do a couple of races this weekend (of COMMEMORATIVE cup fame)(which failed to materialize, tho i DID get a pretty sweet coozie... so all is not lost)  first up was a 5k on saturday (new PR of 24:19) and today was a 5 miler (new PR of 40:55).  the 5k was cooler but hilly, and the 5 miler was flat but HOT.  so i was kind of in pain both days.  (as you shall sooooon see).  karen didn't end up running either race due to super annoying ongoing calf issues, but her huz dave took her place in the 5k, so that was cool.

i'm not very good at race reports, and since i had a built in race photographer, i'm going to let the pictures from this weekend do the story telling.

we started both races feeling fresh and fine!

the gun went off  *bam* and away we went!

 

it kinda went, run run run, this isn't too hard, run run run, halfway there, run run run, yeah i'm getting pretty tired, run run run, i.am.dyyyyyying.  and scene.

then we finished!  and boy were we tired.  like really tired.

(do i have the best running pain look you've ever seen, or what?)
i wasn't the only one that was tired tho.

and then it was time for post race food and drink!  and we were feeling (pretty) fresh and fine again!

have a great memorial day all!!!

new food faves

since i starting running again, eating healthy has been something i've been attempting...meaning, i don't always get there, but i'm kinda sorta always trying.  and so i thought i'd share a few foods i've found along the way that make this better eating a little tastier.

there are only a handful of foods i won't eat in this world; sweet potatoes, watermelon (i'm weird, i know), cucumbers (i'm getting better with these)...
cottage cheese used to be on this list, but since i've discovered these breakstone cottage doubles, i am LOVING it!  and i always feel good about finding ways to get more calcium in my diet, since milk is probably another food i should add to the do-not-do list.  my favorite flav so far is the pinapple, but they have all been really yummy!

some have compared them to prunes, and i suppose i should add a disclaimer that they may make you a bit gassy, but don't let that stop you from trying the deep chocolate vitatop!  especially with some chobani and/or banana...mmmmmm, deeelish (or with mighty maple peanut butter like this girl.  plus, they're fortified (like your cereal).  winning!  (is that old now?  prob.)

and that brings us to my last fav...chobani yogurt. after years of eating diet yoplait, the creamy texture kind of threw me off a bit, but now that i'm used to them i could never go back to those watery, tasteless yoplaits. i found out about these through some peeps at work (who it seems were practically forming their own chobani fan club for awhile, but who can blame them).  the going favorite seems to be pomegranate, but once again, i think pineapple is the best.

what are some good healthy foods that you have happily stumbled upon?

the countdown is on

today marks the official one-month-until-the-marathon mark. 

i'm finally starting to feel all these emotions...excitement, fear, anticipation, disbelief.  it really hasn't seemed real until just recently and i still can't believe that in 1 month i will be a marathoner!!  almost time to get a 26.2 sticker for my car.  haha.

here's the course map and elevation.  i'm totally ready to get this party started!

days of the week

monday: treadmill time at the gym. tried to make it more interesting than the infomercial that was playing on the only screen in view, and did progressive miles. 9:30, 9:15, 9:00, 8:45, 8:30, 8:15 with a blast of 8:00 at the end. workout: 6.4 miles, 1 hour


tuesday: track day with the MVS striders. so gross out; nasty, windy and rainy. queue nancy kerrigan..."whhhhhhyyyyy?" we did 3 sets of 400, 800, and 1200 with 200 jogs in between legs and 400 jogs in between sets. (1:52, 3:59, 6:22, 1:55, 3:55, 6:11, 1:53, 3:57, 5:56) workout: 7 miles, 1 hour


wednesday: spin day with kertch! i hate spinning, but i'm hating it less! workout: lots.of.spinning, 50 mins

thursday: more treadmill time at the gym (drat that NE weather!). today includes a bonus shot of my back. in case you can't read in reverse, it says "you just got chicked" getting chicked is what happens to boys when they get passed by girls! :) workout: 4.9 miles, 45 mins

if ya'll like this format, give me a shout out and we can make every week just as fun!
http://shoppingandsuch.blogspot.com/ (for you FB peeps)

quick and random

found a few long lost pics on my phone and thought that the trio made an excellent "favorite things" post.

lady gaga: i loooove me some gaga


kara goucher: girl crush! call me kara! we'd totally make awesome besties.


pizza, food in general: doesn't my cart look staged? i'm normally not such a tidy shopper. :)


have a great hump day folks!!
http://shoppingandsuch.blogspot.com/ (for you FB peeps)

weekend recap

this weekend turned out to be very productive on the running/exercise front!

i DID end up getting my 12 mile run in on friday. the weather was perfect (i have gotten VERY lucky this training cycle in terms of long run weather), my transition from work to bike path went perfectly and on-schedule, and i thought i had escaped any friday the 13th hi-jinks. then my garmin battery died. 5 mins into a 2 hour run. wah wah. so i had to guess how fast i was going, and try not to run faster than i should for optimal non-dying-at-the-end-ness. i failed and the last mile was pretty miserable. its just so odd, i really don't feel like i ran any faster than i did during my 16 miler, so a 12 miler should have been a cakewalk. i already didn't like this particular bike path, so now i really don't like it. :P take that minuteman!

(i get childish and cranky in the afternoon (at work))

saturday - did pilates in the city (how posh) :) with the sis and friends. i am woefully inflexible, but this class was pretty good and i am still feeling it in my lower abs and butt-tocks 2 days later!

and on sunday, the impromptu 5k went mah-voulously. both sis and i PRed!! my time was 24:39 (7:56 pace) and hers was 30:08 (9:43 pace) we were so excited, we went right out and signed up for another 5k AND 5 mile combo on memorial day weekend. (you get a COMMEMORATIVE cup for doing both...swank!) any peeps in the 01844 should join us! its sure to be good times!

http://www.coolrunning.com/major/11/sonsofitaly/

i shall leave you with my outfit from 5k sunday. nothing too fancy. long sleeve tee (brooks), tights (lulu) and shoes (asics). i've got a whole bunch of running outfits i'm just dying to share. maybe this week, i'll do a "days of the week" running montage. kind of like "days of the week" underwear, but less exposed. :)

just a few race pics for ya

let's see...what to chat about...

well, tonight is week 3 of track practice. so far so good on that. i've got a 12 mile run in the lineup for fri since the weather is supposed to be pretty good. then on sat i'm being a good crosstrainer by going to (a supposedly very hard) pilates class with the sis and friend and on sunday i'm thinking of running an impromptu 5k.

sounds fun! would sound even more fun if it was sunny and 75 degrees for all that fun-ness. i am completely over these spring months. deathmarch was the worst. crapril wasn't much better. and dismay is just dragging on and on....come on namesake month!

ok, enough with the words. onto the not-so-cute pics! (side note, for a second there i thought i deleted this post. that would have been tragic and ya'll def would have missed out on these not-so-cute pics cause i am not one to re-write. phew!)

this was at around mile 2ish i think. i look tired already. i'm not! i just hate race photographers and after one too many failed smiling attempts, i just look down, hoping that they won't see me.

mile 5, i believe. see that overly smiley girl in front of me? yeah, that's why i look down.

i def remember this photog at mile 12. he was laying on the ground and i couldn't quite tell what he was from a distance, but i just kept saying to myself, "make it to the black blob on the ground, you can do it. just a little bit more to the black blob"

aaaaand the finish!! so happy to be done.