Fresh Pond 5 miler, take 3, RR

I think I have a new Saturday morning routine. Sleep in until Petru wakes up (today it was 7:45), snuggle with Petru and Chris, eat breakfast, drink coffee, and run 5 miles to do the Fresh Pond race, then run 5 miles back home. I'd like to say that taking an icebath followed by a hot bath while watching Grey's Anatomy and eating lunch is part of the routine, but unfortunately it only happened today as Chris took Petru to the Aquarium to meet an out of town friend of his and his kids!

The plan today was to run 7 miles @ HMP as part of a long run. I ran 5 over there @ MP/HR 160 and waited for about 5 min while watching firefighters simulating rescues of ice cracking victims. We had a large crowd today and I got to meet some people. Really nice folks, some of whom come from over 1 hour away just do to the race.

My plan for the race was to not go faster than 6:45. I wanted to have enough juice to do some extra mileage for a total of 7 miles around HMP. I felt incredibly good during the first loop. The pace was right at 6:45 as I crossed the finish after the first loop. I started to suffer a bit around mile 4, but nothing really bad. I got a little competitive toward the end as I wanted to beat my time from last week, and ended up running a 6:43 pace for the 4.6 course (not a 5 miler as it is advertised), in 30:39, which is 22 seconds better than last week. I told the RD my name, ate a bit of a gel, and started my 3rd loop. This was hard. My legs felt weaker and it was harder to push with my big toe. I had to stop a couple of times as to not bump into 2 large dogs with oblivious owners, but ran the loop @ a 6:53 pace, which is a more realistic HM pace for me anyway (I'd be thrilled to run this pace in 3 weeks!). Overall, good workout and I did not feel trashed thereafter. Initially I though Chris would pick me up from the race so that I would not have to run 5 more miles home (I don't really need these long run for a HM), but we had to change plans so I ended up running 5 slow miles home, for a total of 17 miles.

I'll be on mommy duty from 2 pm on, minus 40 min for a swim later on. We have game night tonight with yummy food, friends, and likely a late night, which is fine, since I slept in today. It's so funny that 7:45 mean "sleeping in" for me these days:)

Happy weekend!

Learning to suffer on the bike

For a long time I thought that running is way harder than biking. I know it is like comparing apples to oranges, but I tend to automatically rank and compare things in my mind.

A little way back I started training with heart rate. I have been working mainly in zone 2, but today I had some zone 3 and 4 intervals. Holy Batman! First, it took me about 5 minutes to get in zone 3, and once there, sweat started pouring off of me (despite the fact that I had turned the heat down and there were 54 degrees in the room). I had a couple of repeats in zone 4, which meant that I had to work the big gears at an over 90 RPM to get there. I can't imagine ever going into zone 5. Time moved so slowly and I could not concentrate on watching TV because my pace and HR would slow down.

I also have never experienced a trainer induced endorphin kick, but after 2 hours this morning, I felt invincible! I think this HR stuff is very good for me. It makes me work the bike, something that I don't think I really did before! And, amazingly, my 3x10 (1.5 miles) @ 10K pace this evening hurt, but did not kill me. And I managed to stay away from the treadmill. Thank you, Arlington, for plowing the bike path!

Bullet point randomness

# I've had a frustrating day at work. I think time is valuable and I have a hard time adjusting to other people's lax timeline. I like efficiency. I think most meetings are unnecessary.
# In turn, I had an awesome swim. My swims have been great lately. My L arm is catching up. I think I swam the entire last year with only my R arm.
# My mom drove with me to the Y this afternoon so she could watch me swim. How sweet is that?
# Since my mom arrived, I have been eating the most tasty Romanian dishes. Everything gets baked in the oven for hours. Yes, not something I would ever do!
# We are in the process of getting more snow. I need to do 12 miles with some HM pace work tomorrow. I think I might have to get this done on the treadmill. Not excited about it. I also have 2 hours on the bike. I am excited about that!
# Chris caught me crying while on the bike watching Grey's Anatomy. There is something really wrong about this.
# My hammy is at 100%:)
# My mom dyed my hair last night, a bit too dark for my liking, but a nice change. #I love to change my haircolor.
# Last night I gave haircuts to both Petru and Chris. I always do that. I love it and Chris pays me in massages. I charge a lot!
# I am addicted to muffins.
# I tried and tried to eat protein powder. I put it in smoothies, oatmeal, etc, etc, but I still hate the taste. I also entertained the idea of making those green smoothies that are so trendy in the blogland. But then I realized that I love spinach and eat a ton of it anyway!
# Gotta go. We got a bosu ball and I am cracking up watching Chris trying to balance on it!

Ironman vs Ultrarunner

Oh, the bike!

My bike and I are clearly bonding up. We spend at least 6 hours together every week. If I have a tough workout, I watch Hulu TV. If I have an easy one, I can read your blogs.


Looking at this picture I am reminded how I am flat chested when I first got the bike I was worried that I am going to be super uncomfortable on it. Well, I am not. The aero position feels great. I have zero back pain, or any kind of pain. And the more tucked in I am the more power I generate.

By the way, the front of the bike was placed on about 10-15 inches of books, to simulate a long hill for my muscular endurance 2 hour ride this evening.

Mom is visiting for 3 weeks. I already skipped a workout (swim). There will be more skipped workouts since otherwise I won't have any time with her. If I did not like my mom this would not be a problem, but my mom is amazing and I like spending time with her. Everything will be fine as long as I don't skip any runs since my first HM is in less than a month!
Have a great week!

Fresh Pond 5 miler, take 2, RR

Last night I made the decision to not race Derry 16 miler this year. The timing was just not right. Petru has his first African drumming lesson tomorrow at the same time the race starts and I want to go with him; Petru has a tendency to make up his mind about whether he likes or dislikes something in one minute, and Chris, albeit the best father ever, will do anything to avoid conflict. Plus my mom is arriving from Romania today!

So, in lieu of the Derry race, I decided to run 16 miles, 5 to the Fresh Pond race start, then the 5 miles (actually 4.75) race @ HMP, then 1 (actually 1.25mile) @ HMP for a total of 6 HMP miles and 5 miles home. My hammy has been feeling good as I took the entire week easy, so I was ready to roll. When I got to the race site, there were few runners. The director said that there will be no race, as the woman who typically does the timing thought it would be too dangerous to race (ice and cold), but then someone else decided to do the timing, so the race was on. At the start, the director asked whether anyone wants to do the 5 miler, and about 5 of us raised our hands (I think I was the only woman).

I felt pretty good from the beginning. I had run the 5 miles to the race start @ 7:45, HR 160, so was well warmed up. The path was very slippery and there were 2 occasions where little dogs jumped at my feet, but otherwise the run was great. I ran mostly by feel, with the goal of not going all out. My breathing got a bit heavy toward the end, but I managed 4.75 miles in 31.01, which is 30 seconds faster than last time (as the winner of the male race mentioned as they announced my time - cracks me up that he remembered). Average pace on Garmin was 6:45. After spelling my name to the RD, I headed out for 1.25 miles at HMP, and then did the 5 miles back home at a super easy pace.

Although I still think that my planned HM pace is a bit too ambitious, it was nice to be able to do 6 miles at this pace today, on snow and ice (and to not fall, LOL). Plus, my name will be in the Boston Globe again tomorrow, which I KNOW is going to be the best present for my mom:)

Legs felt fresh for the entire 16 miles, no lactic acid accumulation, which is probably because of the strength I developed from all those big ring bike intervals. It was also so nice to run pain free. I'd lie if I said I was not concerned about my hammy pull. In the back of my mind, I still feared a stress fracture, even though there was not a discrete painful spot, I was able to jump on that foot pain free, and the pain would be present only when standing up or during the first couple of minutes of a run or walk. I personally think that injuries are part of the sport, and if you race hard enough, no matter what precautions you take, there will be injuries. I mean, elite runners always get injured, even though they have the best coaches, and that is because they push hard enough. Having said that, I do believe that babying the little aches and pains is the way to go. This week I skipped my run on Tuesday, and ran super slow, at a 120-130 HR the rest of the time until today. Plus, I am becoming a true believer in compression socks and wear them all the time now.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Love heals

My pain was diagnosed as a butt pull. OK, hamstring pull, but butt pull makes me laugh, so that's what it is:). Apparently it has something to do with running on ice and skidding every so often. And it already feels better, the more I walk, the better it feels. I'll take the day off, though. Really, it is snowing out so being indoors is much more appealing anyway (OK, lie here, but let me create my own reality, will you?)

Thanks for all your nice comments. You guys know what to say to make one laugh or feel better. I do want to clarify that I am not a crazy woman and don't train like this every day (I would if I did not have to work this much!), though I do have to pack more training into the weekends bc of my work schedule. And you'd think I'd be tired all the time, but I really am not. I think my secret is lots of food and daily 10min power naps (including those on a yoga mat in my office when patients cancel).

Back to the love, though.

Thanks Amanda for my first package from my HBBC win. Is it bad that the first thing that came to mind when opening the package was to hide the candy from my son? I won't, no worries, my superego already repressed that thought!














And of course, thanks Chris (who never reads this blog, by the way, or any blog that is not basketball or tennis based) for my gloves (I have been complaining of cold hands during runs) and Ritter chocolate (one of the best), and for the chicken curry you made (still cooking)































And thank you little guy who told me this morning: "Don't worry mommy, I will make you feel better!". Love the peacefulness when he sleeps. I may or may not have recorded him on my i-phone while he was sleeping last night.


Can you tell I am happy? Really life is good!

A thin line

I am a true believer that the longer you've been training hard in a sport (lets say running or triathloning), the less chances that you are going to have a major injury (e.g., stress fracture), or any injury at all. This is likely a combination of getting wiser (hard a$$ runners tend to get stress fracture early on because they, we, want to run hard all the time, and even use running harder to get over a hard but not so good run) and physically tougher (I read somewhere, I think in Lore of running, about how it takes about 1 year of running for the muscles to get stronger, 2-3 for tendons, and 4-5 for bones).

So why am I thinking about this today?

I consider myself wiser at mind and tougher at body, at least as compared to my 2008 "nothing can break me, I am going to run fast every time cause the faster I run the faster I race" self. My 2 stress fractures were fairly traumatizing, and it took me a couple of years to go from running only 3 days, to 4, to 5 and now to 6. I went from megalomania to insecurity in a matter of 2 stress fractures.

Since then, I have been injury free and running double the mileage I peaked at for my first marathon. I am also swimming and biking a ton. I learnt about alternating hard and easy days, and I am religious about it for the most part. The "most part" is where the trouble is. I am getting pretty lax in this "most part". Take this weekend, 15 fairly hard miles (my unrealistic HM pace is really more my realistic 10K pace), 3 hours muscle endurance+speed skills bike followed by a 4 mile MP run, a mile swim, and 30 min strength. Then today 10 miles with 4 miles of speedwork, and 45 min bike. Do you see what I see? Three hard days in a row!

My butt hurt me during the run this morning. The pain radiated from the butt to the calf, and it stopped when I ran, but returned when I slowed down for recovery during intervals. The pain was more of an ache, and it is most likely overuse (dah!!!). I foamed it, iced it and stretched it and it is much better now. Still this is a reminder that I really, really need to have hard and easy days, and stop overloading the weekend, even though the weekend is where I have the most time. My body is tougher, but it is still a body, it can get injured. And my mind needs to stay wise and keep up the megalomania-insecurity balance that has kept me healthy for the past 2 years!

Adventures in snowland

As some of you know, New England was hit with bunches of snow on Wednesday. My clinic got cancelled and I got to spend the day with my family trying not to stress over how I was going to fit 3 days of work into 2. To take my mind off of this, Petru and I attempted sledding in our backyard. We bundled up, but once outside realized that poor Petru was covered in snow up to his neck. I made a path for us, sled a few times to make a sledding path, and then the fun began. Chris, then the neighbors joined in and it was a blast! I love to behave like a 5 year old, and I am very good at it, since you asked! After a while everyone went inside for lunch and I escaped for my run attempt. I had 6 easy miles and was determined to get them in. The bike path was covered in snow, so I ran the miles on the road, which was actually not bad bc there were few cars aside from the snow plows! Score! Running was more challenging on Thursday, when I had 10 miles with 15X90 sec fast. I got stuck at work late, and the roads were busy, icy and narrow. I ran v slow having to stop a lot to let cars go by. I ended up finding a parking lot to do the repeats, but I called it a day after 10 repeats. I was pissing people off, and I got the message. By the time I got home I was a mess, covered in slush from head to toe (there was slush in my hair from the careless Boston drivers).

Today I wanted to make up for some lost mileage this week and planned for 15 miles. We are in New Hampshire at my in laws' house for part of the weekend, which means I had to run by the ocean. Pretty but cold. I wanted to run some HM pace miles, so I planned on 5.5 easy, 4HMP, 5.5 easy. I ended up running 5.5 @ sub MP, 4@ HMP, and 5.5 sub MP, with the last mile at HMP. All in all, a pretty decent average pace. There were a few breaks, to tie my shoe laces, to get some hot water from a bakery (since my water bottles froze), but I take it! I call this run the foot in the door technique run, where I give myself permission to go slow and once I hit a certain pace I am almost there so really, I should not slow down. It works. I think I run better when I don't put pressure on myself to hold a certain pace, and just let myself run.

So not a lot of run mileage this week, but I did put in a lot of biking, so that should be good. We've also been dealing with a head cold that comes and goes, v weird, but like Chris says "you never let a cold slow you down". We are off to a lovely dinner with a Tunisian theme. I am not a foodie, but am excited for the company. And dessert, of course! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Update, bullet point style

I feel like posting this evening, but I don't have any organization to what I want to say. I am posting anyway, because, really, I can do whatever I want on this blog. That's only one of the sweet perks of blogging!

* I am putting in a lot of swim/bike/run hours. I feel they are paying off. I feel I am a much stronger swimmer. I am not swimming much, only 3Xweek for 1 mile, but I have been using swim cords as well, and I feel they help a ton with form and strength. I am also more consistent in the water, more confident, more secure. I am not sure whether these will translate in speed, but for now I am happy. In February I will start my official HIM training plan, and my swimming mileage will go up. I am also feeling both stronger and more comfortable on the bike. I have been doing a few 3 hour rides, and yesterday I had my first brick of the year, 3 hour bike followed by 4.5 mile run, both comfortable, like I could have kept going. My legs felt great on the run. Not sure if it is the new bike, or the strength I have gained, or that maybe I am going to easy on the trainer? Who knows. For now my bike workouts have been focusing on force, speed skills and endurance. This week I will incorporate muscular endurance as well. I am doing a lot of big chain, low RPM stuff, as well as low gear high RPM. And did I mention I love my bike? And no saddle issues? Yup, even when I use tri shorts. On the other hand, I am a bit scared about riding outdoors on the tri bike. I am happy it is icy out and I have an excuse not to ride outside. I know I'll adjust, but I am terrified of accidents. Boston drivers are, hmmm, famous! And running, I have no idea how running is going. Seriously. Some days I feel fast, but other days I feel that my HM goal pace is a bit unrealistic. I won't worry about it now, though, as I am really enjoying training and racing low key. I also realize that as much as I love this blog, I really should not be concerned with what you guys think of my race times. And I am not for the most part, but sometimes I am, and I need to change that. Do I have unconditional acceptance from blogland? LOL.

* Last week I discovered NPR's "All songs considered", and have downloaded some pretty awesome music, like one of Wilco's concerts and Liz Phair's 2008 anniversary of "Exile from Guyville". Really good stuff!

* This Saturday I watched a swim meet at our Y. It was amazing. Did you know that little kids breath every 7-8 strokes? And their little hands are moving so fast! No fear for those youngsters. The 5 year olds were absolutely amazing. I wanted to hug each of them. With the older kids, you could really see how technique makes such a big difference, but with the little kids it was all guts!Inspirational!

* My name was in Sunday's Boston Globe, a friend saw it and called me up. I felt a bit guilty bc they posted that the race was 5 miles and my time was 31:31. The time was correct but the race was short. Something not right about that. But, I was not the only woman who raced the 5 miler, the paper prints the name of the first 5 male and females, and there were 4 other women behind me, so at least 1/5 (LOL). Will go back there on Saturday, I think.

Not much else. Looking forward to a huge snowstorm on Wednesday (jk!).

Saturday snowy run

I had a plan to run another 5K today, but we got snow and I did not think going sub 20 in these conditions would be possible. Good thing I did not preregister. Instead, I did something I had wanted to do for a long time. I ran the 5 mile race in Fresh Pond. This is a low key, free weekly race. I did not treat this as a race, mainly because I did not want to run a slow warm up. So I ended up running 5 miles @MP to the race site, went into the little visitor center to peel a layer or two (I love to be cold when I race), and looked around me. Everyone seemed so hard core. Everyone had zero body fat. There were only a couple of women, and they were both stretching in various cirque du soleil type movements. Oh, and I showed up with my ipod and water belt. Yes, noone else had any of those. Seriously. I felt so out of place.

At 10 am we all went outside. It was snowing pretty hard by that time. My plan was to run planned HM pace and not exceed 185 average HR. The course is a 2 loop around the pond. The course is short. I finished (per Garmin) in 31:23, which was only 4.65 per Garmin (not 5), 1 minute below HMP, 185 average HR. It was a good effort, negative split, lots of nausea during the last mile but somehow I managed to keep my breakfast in (this time I ate cereal and coffee about 2 hours before the race, so, yeah, well deserved!). Good effort, and I was not trashed like I am after races, which means I could have easily ran faster. Good. I was the 8th person overall and first woman (probably the other women did the 2.5 race), so 1 out of 1, very impressive, lol. Oh, and I ran the race entirely alone. There was a pack of young men who I only saw for a minute or so, and the people behind me were far away.

After the race I dragged myself home and ran 5 really slow miles not allowing myself to go over 160 heart rate. The icebath was the last thing I wanted to do, but my hamstrings have been tight lately and so I ended up going in. And the spinach and laughing cow cheese omelet with homemade bread never tasted this good. I love winter running. And I have a feeling the Fresh Pond races are going to become part of my Saturday run.

Welcome 2011!

I am one of the few who has not posted any New Years goals. The truth is, my life is pretty good and if I could keep things as they are now I would absolutely do it. I love my work. I love my family.

I love this little guy. I wish he could stay 5 years old forever.

And I love my husband, (especially when he makes whole wheat bread like this).

And I like who I am. I am comfortable in my skin. I don't need to be better, more of this or of that. I don't need to live life for someone else. I see how fragile, uncertain, and difficult life could be, every single day in my work. I am lucky and I don't take that for granted. Of course at times I wish my legs were smaller, or that the frown line I developed from running hard or worrying over this and that would go away, or that I could move to San Diego, but are these really things to stress about? No, not worth it!

So maybe a goal is to keep life as is, keep up the balance of work, family and running/triathlon. And of course I want those PRs, and I want to move closer to those goals on the right hand side of this blog. But I am in no rush, despite the fact that with every year that passes it will get harder and harder to get faster. I know the body needs time to adjust, and I know you can't push things too much too soon. I really enjoy my training, learning about how my body responds to training, developing a feel for the water, holding a sub 7 pace for longer than I have ever held it before, even spending 3 hours on my trainer early on a Sunday morning. So it's all good over here. I feel I am in the right place!

Lowell First Run 1.1.11 5K race report

Stats:
Garmin (official results not posted yet).

Distance: 3:18
Time: 20:23
Pace: 6:26 pace
Average HR 182
Place: 1st woman overall!


I was v nervous going into this race. I spiked a fever Thursday afternoon, and felt out of sorts Friday, too. The 3 of us went to Lowell on Saturday morning, and I felt fine. We got there early so that I could run the course as a warm up. I have been reading a lot about how important warm ups are in 5ks, and I think it made the race easier for me. Part of the reason why I wanted to run the course, was to see the Garmin mileage. I was pleasantly surprised to see that miles 1, 2, and 3 were right on with my Garmin. I was thrilled. But then the .1 turned into a .19! I was pissed. I talked to a race official who was hanging around the finish, and he confirmed that they had to add to the 5K so that the finish would be out of the way of the 10K race, which was 2 loops of the 5K...

After a few minutes of pity party I told myself to just go and run. The weather was gorgeous. I was wearing shorts. The course was the flattest possible, only 2 small hills in mile 1. It was 1/1/11. My boys were there with me. How awesome to race on such a day!

And off we went..

Mile 1: 6:24
I felt really good on this mile. I wanted it to be comfortable and I did not push the pace, even though lots of people were in front of me. I passed a woman on a hill, but otherwise, I was surrounded by men. It was....kind of fun:)

Mile 2: 6:17
I continued to feel great. I only looked at the average pace, which turned into 6:20 by the end of this mile. I ran step for step with a young men, and that made it fun.

Mile 3: 6:33
As the mile started, I felt great. My watch continued to tell me 6:20, and I knew that if I maintained it, I would be close to breaking 20 min even on a 3.2 course. But around 2.5 mile, I felt this awful nausea, and withing a minute I vomited chunks of oatmeal that I had eaten for breakfast 5 hours before the race. I continued to gag and vomit for the rest of the race, and slowed down in the process.

.17 (funny how it was .19 when I first ran it, and .17 in the race): 6:50
The gagging continued but I kept telling myself to just run, not overreact, because, really, nothing bad can happen. Right as I finished mile 3 I saw 19:02 in the official clock, but after that I stopped paying attention to the pace or time. I wanted to be done. As I turned the corner, with less than .1 to the finished, I slipped on ice and fell on my side. I immediately got up and ran to the finish, while hearing the announcer saying that I was first woman overall.

So I am not disappointed I did not break 20:00. On an accurate course, a 6:26 pace would have meant 19:56. I know only official results matter, but for me a Garmin result is just as good. Of course, I will continue trying to get an official sub 20, and I know I will. I am v close:)

What frustrates me is the nausea and vomiting that plague me in 5Ks. This time I ate 5 hours before the race, and that clearly was not enough. Aerobically I felt fine. My legs felt fine. HR for the first 2 miles was 175, which is about 10 beats below what my average HR is when I run hard. The higher HR for the last mile (182) and the last .17 was probably a bit of anxiety bc of the vomiting and gagging. So I am fit enough to get a sub 20:00, but my stomach is not. Suggestions? Thoughts? Should I run on an empty stomach (no breakfast)? Should I warm up even longer than 3 miles with strides?