From One Extreme to the Other and Back Again

Oh 1L where have you been?  I’m sorry blog, but I have been negligent I know but it wasn’t because I wasn’t running.  In fact, I’ve been running quite a bit, I’ve just been very lazy about blogging.  And after a very crazy indoor long run (14 miles which equates to lots of times around an (12 to a mile) indoor track, off I went to the Bahamas for some winter escape and R n R.  It was a luxury to run in shorts and a singlet even if it was close to 80F and quite humid and quite hilly.  It was glorious to get up every morning and not have to put on layers of clothing and to run up an over the bridges from Paradise Island to the main island and back even in the wind.  It was a short few days, but well worth it.

 

A little Bahamas Sunshine

But oh blog, five days in Nassau was to be followed by 4 in NYC culminating in a half marathon – and a half marathon that I planned on racing.  Waking up on Thursday morning and travelling to the Nassau airport, I wasn’t so sure.  My congestion had returned and I was worried that I caught a bit of airplane air combined with the extreme temperature swing (12F to 80F), and that I wouldn’t be able to race.  My Friday morning run proved to be ok, but I couldn’t really get the legs moving and I hoped that it was simply a small be of travel lag.  (It can’t be jet lag if you don’t travel through time zones, right?).  Friday night brought a fun trip out to another Nassau to catch up with my friend David and watch the Islanders vs. Senators hockey game.  Little did I know, that the Senators win would be one on the way too many as they have climbed their way into the playoffs knocking off those Boston Bruins (at least for now). 

 Saturday morning brought rain, but I was feeling better after returning to using Flonase, and I had a delightful breakfast with an old friend.  My daughter, her roommate and I then ventured to the Math Museum to take in a little Pi Day fun and had lunch with Cristal.  We did a little shopping in Times Square, and I then headed back to “rest up” while watching some college basketball in anticipation of Sunday’s race. 

Times Square

Waking up Sunday morning, I met Cristal in my hotel lobby and we headed to the “United Airlines VIP Pre-Race Setup”.  I had to (temporarily) be happy with United as it was an incredible spread and although I had to rush out to my Wave 1 start, I know that Cristal made mega friends and had a great time.  The weather was a perfect 43F with no real humidity (even after Saturday's rain and snow in NE) and the course is an excellent combination of rolling (the first 6 miles are in the park) and flat with a tunnel thrown in at mile 12 just for fun!  I knew the park had a good climb at 5K so I went out conservatively hoping to pick it up as I went through the full 13.1.  Wasn't sure where my fitness was really at given my melt down in early February, a returning cold, and dialed back mileage (and winter mess of training), so I wanted to be conservative.  Well I did something that I always try to do in that I ran each 5K progressively faster with my faster miles in the latter stages of the race even into the wind on the West Side Highway (it really wasn't too bad) and had something left to climb the hill out of the tunnel and finish strong.

Ended up running 1:41:51 good for 17th in my AG, 603rd woman (10,150 total), and 2564th Overall (19,455 finishers).  My 5K splits were as follows:

5K        24:46      7:59 pace
10K      48:59      7:54 pace
15k    1:12:51     7:50 pace
20K    1:36:34     7:47 pace

13.1   1:41:51     7:46 pace

I was extremely pleased and somewhat surprised as to how well the race went, and the Post-Race United VIP area was just as good as the Pre-Race consisting of a full breakfast and medal engraving.  I’ve never had a medal engraved after a race so this was a nice touch and free!  I was happy with United Airlines until I got stuck in NYC later that day on my way back to Cleveland.

Another View of Times Square

After returning for just an afternoon and sort morning, I got in my car and made the trip down to Atlanta to visit with friends and run, yes, run, another half marathon.  This one is a super hilly course that I really love and it always gives me the confidence (or not) as to how I’ll handle a Spring marathon.  This time, though, I was not set to race the course, but to use it as a “tired legs” marathon pace run.  Therefore, I set up to run solids runs – Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before Sunday’s race.  Laurie and I ran 5 miles in the rain with 30 sec pickups on Thursday, Jody, Terry, Rachel, Susie and I ran 12 miles on Friday, and Joe and I ran a solid 6.5 on Saturday.  I was set to run comfortably on Sunday and that I did.  Again, I was surprised by my final time of 1:51 as it never felt hard and I had plenty left to climb those last few hills on Juniper, up to Peachtree and finally by Georgia Tech to the end.  The last hill is a killer as it comes right at mile 12, but I felt solid going up, passed a lot of runners and knew that all was well.

After a couple of successful weeks, I know that I could probably use a long run or two, but I'm at least fit for a solid half - now Boston, well that is another animal all together.

Really? It's March!

Since my last posting, I had a couple of lousy weeks ending with a 12 miler in/on the snow that was just absolutely futile.  I was so tired and annoyed by how lousy I felt that I decided to shut it down for a few days.  So in spite of Boston being just weeks away (hard to believe at it is still snow covered and really cold!), I shut it down and took three days off with complete rest - no running, no yoga, no weights, no core class - nothing, nada.  And well.........

It worked!  The rest did indeed help as my runs on Wednesday (outside) and Thursday (inside) were much better even though they were at a relatively easy pace.  I still don't feel 100% and always have to laugh when I feel winded after carrying the laundry upstairs (LOL).  I also broke down and went to the doc in a box to see what the deal was with my continued congestion, etc. which had been really bugging me since before New Orleans.  She gave me a prescription for a z-pack and Flonase, and well after the week, it too worked.

I was a bit apprehensive about Saturday's upcoming long run, but I knew that I could always rely on my local running Peeps to pull me through.  And following Tim's wise advice, "You need to run slow to run fast", I ran 18 relatively unscathed miles.   It was cold - very cold, in that when we started it was -6F, but we ran on the road for all but 2-3 miles which kept us on dry pavement for the most part.  We did venture onto the all purpose trail in the busy section where it is a cut through and up the hill where there is a blind curve.  It was cold but my thumbs were the only cold part of my body after about 6 miles, and then after that, nothing was cold.  The sun came out and it did warm up, but we still stopped at the heated golf course bathroom - they have xc ski rentals and such so it is open - to get water since all of our water bottles pretty much froze.  Most of the group only did 16 and when we got to 3 miles left (for them, 5 for Tim & I), we dropped the pace, and Tim & I maintained that pace right through the final 5 miles even with two on the snowy path.  Now we were not breaking any records as it took us 2:59 to run the 18 miles, but our pace for the first 8 averaged around 10:10 and our overall final pace was 9:58 - so you can see that we did drop it down.  Tim is by far one of the smartest runners that I know and with his help (and the help of others back in 2013), I am where I am today. Thanks to all my peeps (Elaine, Christine, Mike, Zoe, Tom) for Saturday's run - I would not have done it without you!

Woke up on Sunday though to about an inch of snow and lots of slush, so I decided to wait and run inside later (Rec center doesn't open until 11) and I was glad that I did.  Chuck was up there running his recovery run and although he is faster than I, we started together and I was surprised at my HR and the pace.  I ran 5 miles at an 8:40 average and it felt easy.  Not only that, my HR never strayed above the range I was looking for.  I guess there is something to be said for rest.

Well Cleveland seem to have missed the weather that is plaguing most of the country just south and east of us. We did have a bit of snow/ice/rain on Tuesday and we were worried that it would freeze over by the time our group meets so we decided to run our workout inside.  I'm still dialing it down a bit, so I was only going to do one harder mile and the rest as a Progression Run which I did pretty successfully even on the indoor track where it seemed like a bit of a NASCAR track with all the people who seemed to feel they had to run inside as well.  

Turned out that we missed the bad stuff and it stayed warm enough that I ran outside yesterday and it was almost 30F!  Of course, the white/gray/ice and crap has not melted and the sidewalks for the most part are still covered with the crap where the laziest feel like they do not need to shovel (grrr).  It is tricky running along the roads when the cars seem like you should be on the sidewalk (because there is one) and not in the shoulder (which is actually wide for bikes!).  So 5 mile went by easily enough which was nice.

Decide that although it is much colder today, most of the roads and any shoveled/plowed sidewalks/paths are clear, so I'm going to head out later today before I work with my trainer for another easy 5 or so miles.  I'm set to run long(ish) tomorrow which might be interesting since we are going down to 1-2F tonight, but at least we will have no white stuff falling from the sky.  It was/is either that or run long(ish) in 80F temps in the Bahamas.  Frankly, it might seem odd but running long (ish) in single digits temps actually seems easier! LOL.

Off to the Bahamas on Saturday and into a mini-taper before the NYC Half Marathon on Sunday the 15th.  Looking forward to the half as I'm feeling recovered finally.

On a related Boston note, the Boston Bomber trial has resumed and its a weird one.  The defense basically stated that the scumbag is indeed guilty and really all the trial is about is the death penalty or not.  I'm still really on the fence here as if he gets the death penalty there are no appeals (no doubt of guilt or innocence or insanity pleas), but does he suffer enough?  One of the victims took the stand yesterday and shared a letter that she wrote as facing him made her stronger and no longer afraid.  He wouldn't even look here in the eye. We will never forget, scumbag - Boston Strong!