Damn You Germs!

After a week of being sick with what I would describe as one of the worst colds I've ever had, I finally got a chance to get a workout in today. That wasn't necessarily the plan, but after 5 days of feeling like poo-poo, the last 3 coughing my head off, I had anticipated spending this last day before starting another work week resting on the couch to ensure that I was well enough to make it into the office to see my clients and not have to cancel any appointments. But after getting some homemade chili in me, and vegging out to 22 Jump Street, my body couldn't take the laziness anymore and was just BEGGING to get in a little sweat session. (Side note: This is how I know I'm an actual "athlete" now and not just going through some phase - when my body actually goes through withdrawal from exercise after a certain period of time, and I'm jonesing for some kind of physical activity). Not really feeling up to a swim just yet, I decided to go at it with the trainer once again. I still had at least the second half of Scrooged to watch since my last ride, so I climbed upon my humble steed and off we went for a 60-minute spin. I have to say, the hour went by fairly quickly and I felt great afterwards. Not only physically, but mentally as well. I'm really looking forward to getting the tri bike on the trainer at some point and trying my hand at that new piece of machinery - in fact, I'm not sure why I don't at this point. My Garmin 920 won't be in for almost another month or so, so there's really no reason for me to NOT hop on and get some time in the saddle. I think it still intimidates me, though. I need to just get over that part of it, I know, because heck - I did just drop a few dollars on the sucker and it is (supposedly) gonna make me a more efficient and faster triathlete, so what am I waiting for? I also got some new gear for the bike, and for my up-and-coming amateur triathlete career - a water bottle for the aero position (I'm sure there is a technical name for this, but I couldn't tell you what it is at this point), some nutrition for my training and practice-races, a Total Immersion swimming book/manual, and an awesome new tri bag to boot. Again, when you're receiving this kind of swag as a Christmas gift, you know this isn't just a game anymore - or, at least, you're wanting to look the part. :) Regardless, I'm hoping that now that this cold is (nearly) over, I can schedule some upcoming workouts and get back at it. Only 2 months or so left before the REAL training begins for the Half IM in Muncie. The next 8 weeks is gonna be interesting to say the least.

Picking It Up

Well I've been on a kick now for about three weeks, which means that I've worked out approx. 4-5 days out of the week, every week. Whether that be swimming, biking, or doing Orange Theory classes (which incorporate strength, endurance and running), I've kept it up pretty well. Can't say that my motivation has improved much, however, and it's been hard to get up in the morning to get going - especially on those days when I don't have an accountability partner. I did end up getting a new tri bike a few weeks ago, but since it's Winter here in Kentucky I haven't been out on it, and did a 45 minute spin on the road bike on my trainer last week. I'm still a little intimidated by this whole "tri bike" thing, since I've never once used aero bars and I got a new type of shoe and clip - which means that my right of passage of falling over within the first month of riding is inevitable. Still, I know I need to get more workouts in before the "real" training begins. According to my calendar, my 6 week base building really doesn't begin until January 12th, so I'm just trying to get a little bit of the three sports in when I can. The half IM training starts February 23rd, so I'm looking ahead at that to see what it will entail, so I can go into it pretty confident that I can keep up with the workouts. I don't want to be swimming 1000 meters at a time thinking I'm crushing it, when the first workout has me doing 2500 meters total (which, by the way, it does). The swim doesn't really concern me though, although I do plan on a lesson or two to make sure my efficiency and form are what they need to be (my goal is to not get in "junk miles" - or meters in this case). My biggest concern is the bike. 112 miles just seems so daunting at this point, and thinking of being on a bike for 6-8 hours when my booty gets sore after just 45 minutes is intimidating in and of itself. Not to mention the physical endurance needed to go that far within the cut-off, as well as the hills. Oh, the hills. Not my strong suit by any means. And although I've completed 5 marathons, none of which were spectacular, I know that I can do a run/walk method and get by on that. Again... it's the bike. With that said, I'm just gonna have to force myself to get on the trainer more. Maybe get some DVD's that will guide me on some good workouts rather than merely watching a Netflix film and peddling just to pedal. Who knows, maybe I'll even get up the nerve to do some spin classes and go from there. All I know if that after that first 45 minute ride last week my legs felt like steel - for 20 minutes at least. I just need them to feel that good ALL the time.

Let The Base Building Begin....

I've been in the pool a few times over the past week, and although the first day was a struggle, I'm finally starting to find my groove again. I'm getting excited about getting into the actual training for the Half and Full Ironman's I have coming up, and have input a training program into a calendar, consistent with the weeks leading up to both races. I'll start training for the HIM February 23rd, and the IMLOU training will be 8 weeks in when I complete that race, so I'll just pick up where that one left off. As I was plugging in the workouts, I noticed that the week after my half (Muncie), there is a Recovery Week for the IM plan - which actually works out great. I'm also thinking of doing another half about a month later - which would be approx. 2 months prior to the full. The Laurel Lake half is apparently a pretty hilly bike course, which is exactly what I need. I need to train on hills, as much as I hate them, so that my mind doesn't get the best of me come race day. So, this blog will mostly consist of my training workouts and some race reports for the races I will be doing while training. Today's workout was nothing but swim: Laps: 50 Meters: 1250 Calories: 308 Average Strokes: 17 400M Time: 11:50 Strokes: 16 Efficiency: 64 Total Swim Time: 50:25

Hard Rock Half Marathon - Nashville

Not much to say about this one..... I wasn't feeling it from the beginning. Not even while I was lying in bed that morning. I looked at Jim and said, "I don't wanna run today." This was the fifth race in 6 weeks that we had signed up for in late Spring. We were originally going to do 7 races in as many weeks, but opted out of the extra two. Thank Goodness. Because by the time this one came around I was done. After my stellar PR the weekend prior, I knew I couldn't pull off anything close to that time. Especially with this being a hilly course. I had ran the Country Music Half in 2008, so I knew that it wasn't flat. I wasn't expecting the nearly all-uphill battle for the first two miles though, and had to walk more than my normal "every mile" pattern. In fact, there's no sense in my doing a play-by-play of the miles because there was no method to my madness during this one. I ran when I felt like running, I walked when I got tired. I do recall Jim's hip bothering him early on, and since we had decided pre-race to stick together on this one (since I wasn't feeling it mentally, and he wasn't feeling it physically, we thought it was a good idea), we ended up walking more than I expected. This didn't bother me however, since by mile 6 or 7 I was growing a little tired myself, and didn't mind the walk breaks. The weather was great, I dressed appropriately, and besides the minor hills here and there, there really wasn't anything that kept this from being a good race - I just wasn't feeling it. Miles 6-9 went straight out, and then straight back into town, so that was a bit brutal, but at least I knew ahead of time that we would be heading back somewhere around Mile 9, so mentally that helped. Those last 4 miles though we basically ran from object to object ("Okay, let's start running at that fire hydrant and try to get to that blue sign") I think we both just wanted it to be done for the sake of being done. I did, anyway. Jim's hip was "killing" him at this time, and I told him that if we made a drinking game out of every time he stopped running and said "Fuck" we'd both be wasted. He didn't find the humor in this comment. Regardless, we made it to Mile 12, which was nothing but uphill. Somewhere along the way we both decided we would like to at least break 2:30, and with a little over 1/2 a mile to go it seemed more than possible. Rounding one of the last corners we had two blocks of nothing but downhill to give us some momentum. Rounding the very last corner, we had about 3 more blocks to the finish and decided to just keep running it - duh. Coming across the finish line, I stopped the Garmin at 2:25:25. A finishing time I thought was really decent considering I wasn't in a great place the entire race. I guess that goes to show how much I've progressed though - when I can have a "bad" race and still come in at what I consider a decent finishing time (for me, anyway). Splits to follow (Garmin battery is low).

Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon

So... this will probably be the shortest race report that I've ever written. Not because it wasn't a great race - it was! In fact I set a new PR of 2:14:09 with this flat course, and went the entire 13.1 miles without once thinking to myself "God, I wish this race was just OVER now!" The drive up to Indy the evening before had me a bit worried as it started to sleet, and later snow as the temperature continued to drop. I've ran shorter races in this cold of weather before, but never a full 13.1 miles and I was concerned about how the chill would impact my race, and also whether or not I would be warm enough without overheating. After a pasta dinner and beer (which seem to be my pre-race staples), Jim and I headed back up to the hotel room to relax a bit before calling it a night. Asleep by 11:00, I drifted off and stayed that way throughout the night, with 7:00 a.m. coming right on time. I looked outside to see that the snow and sleet had stopped and the roads looked fairly dry. I think we were expecting temps around 30 degrees to start, and although I didn't check the weather report, it felt every bit that cold as we stepped out onto the street to walk the 2 blocks to the start line. I was comfortably dressed in some tights, a tech t-shirt with a heavier long-sleeve jacket on top, gloves, and a head band to cover the ears. Since we didn't leave the hotel room until 7:45 there wasn't much waiting around to be had and before we knew it the start gun went off. Amazingly, and I do believe for the first time ever, I felt great from the start. My body didn't feel heavy like lead as it normally does, and it didn't take three miles to get into a good groove. In fact, I'd say I had things pretty much taken care of less than a mile into the race. I had pre-planned my normal 1-mile-run, 1-minute-walk routine, but was feeling so good I decided I'd try to go 2 miles without a break and see how that felt. Well, two miles came and went and I remember thinking to myself, "Hmm, I wonder if I could just walk every two miles instead of one? Well, probably not. I'll see how I feel at three miles." Well, three came and went and I was still running. I walked a minute at mile four and was back at it again, with the same thought, "I'll see how I feel at 5, because I'm sure I'll want to walk by then." Alas, water stops came and went, the five mile marker came and went, and I was still going strong. Now, normally in my race reports I'm spelling out particular things that stood out to me at each mile - not this time. I honestly felt like I was in the zone the ENTIRE TIME. It was simply amazing and, a day later, I still can't believe it. Mile 6 came up and just happened to coincide with a water stop, so I took the opportunity to swallow down a Gu and take a cup of H20, not overly needing the refreshment, but also not knowing if I would get the opportunity again. By this time I was bound and determined to ONLY walk every two miles. Just past mile 6 my mind began to want to chime in and screw me. It told me that now was about the time I start losing some momentum and my knee would be hurting soon. Luckily I was smart enough to bring and wear my knee brace during this race and it was giving me no problems whatsoever. That, along with the running tights, made for fresh-feeling legs that weren't showing any sign of fatigue. So... I told my mind to go screw itself and off I went again. My mind listened for the most part but, once again, I started to wonder if I would make it to Mile 8 without a walk break. Since most of the race is little more than a fog I don’t remember much about the following two miles, but do recall turning on my headphones for the first time and wondering if that small change would impact my race in a negative way since I had been enjoying the sounds of the runners around me for this first 70% of the run. It did not, and so I moved through Mile 8 thinking for CERTAIN I would have to walk at Mile 9. Nope. Still muddling through and keeping track of the time to realize that, pending anything horrible happening, I would definitely be making this a PR race today. Mile 10 came along and I looked down to see that I had just surpassed my previous 10-mile PR by a full 4 minutes. WOW! How amazed was I, still, that I was doing so well. At Mile 11 I decided to take a walk-break – the first time the entire race that I had broken the pattern. I felt that, because I had basically 30 minutes to break my previous time, and I wanted to conserve some energy for the last 2 miles and not take a chance at bonking near the end, the extra relief wouldn’t hurt any. At 12 miles in I took another walk break and, at this point, was feeling ready to be done. Not necessarily because anything was uncomfortable or hurting, but because I wanted to see just what my finishing time would be. My Garmin had been off by about .17 miles for most of the race, so I had to mentally prepare that the last 1.1 miles was actually going to feel like 1.3. As I saw the 13 mile marker just ahead my heart began to pound faster – I recall being aware of this because I wondered if it was because I was running faster to get to the finish or because I was anxious about my time. Regardless, I rounded that last corner and saw the finish line just ahead. I looked down at my watch and saw that I had 1 minute and 30 seconds to break a 2:15 race – my previous PR being 2:20:38. Breaking out into a bit of a sprint, I crossed the finish and hit my Garmin for an official finishing time of 2:14:09 – a full 6 ½ minute PR, and 10 minutes faster than last weekend’s race. Normally just after a finish I’m pooped – I’m looking for a place to sit down, stretch my legs, massage my poor muscles and regretfully anticipate the walk back to the hotel. But not this time, no sir! I was all about walking around, holding my head up high, getting my picture taken with the medal, grabbing some water and anxiously awaiting Jim’s own finish (A 2:19:50 PR for him!) Throughout the race I wondered to myself what was it that was different about that day that made for such a good race. A few things that I could come up with were: The weather. Although chillier than what most people would like, it didn’t hamper my run at all and possibly did add to my performance. My running tights kept my legs from getting too sore, and my knee brace kept my knee from feeling any kind of pain at all. These three things, coupled with my determination to take walk breaks just every 2 miles solidified it for me, I do believe (well, that and the completely flat course helped). Breaking it up into two-mile increments didn’t make the race feel so long, and allowed me to set smaller goals for myself. Two-mile breaks meant 6 opportunities for relief (7 if you count mile 11) rather than 12 (there’s no way I’d walk between 13 and 13.1). Mentally, 6 breaks vs. 12 felt very do-able for me, and obviously ended with great results. I must say however, and I’m not trying to be cynical here, this PR is going to be hard to beat and I’m just hoping that I don’t feel a major let-down with next week’s race – the Nashville HM, which I know is going to be a hilly course. But… I never thought I’d ever break 2:20 either and yesterday proved that to be false. My splits for this race: 9:33 (1), 10:13 (2), 9:05 (3), 9:58 (4), 10:13 (5), 9:48 (6), 10:27 (7), 10:06 (8), 10:24 (9), 10:04 (10), 10:24 (11), 10:29 (12) and 10:14 (13) with a 9:49 pace for the .1 mile end.

Urban Bourbon Half Marathon

Once again, the morning of the race I’m feeling like doing anything else BUT run a 13.1 miler. But…the weather was extremely nice (overcast and 49 degrees), so I put on the normal running gear and out the door Jim and I went to run my twenty-second half marathon. The night before, I had been out with a group of new lady-friends that I had just met to talk running and triathlon. Being out until nearly 10 p.m., having very little to eat, and not completing my night-before ritual of laying all of my clothes, Garmin, running belt, shoes, etc. out gives you an idea of where my mind was. Not on this race. But by the time we got to the starting line, I had luckily found some motivation. Jim and I ran this race last year (it was his first half), and we had talked about sticking together throughout the race again this year and doing my normal run-a-mile, walk-a-minute intervals. So when the gun went off, this plan is what I fully expected, until Jim let it be known that he had to pee. Great. This early in the race you just KNOW all the porta-pots are gonna be crazy-busy, and for some reason, even though he’s a dude, he refuses to just find a bush and save some time. A mile in I tell him that we need to take our walk break. He tells me that he is going to find a place to use the bathroom and we’ll catch up again just ahead. Well…. four miles into the race we still hadn’t caught up with one another, and having him in my sights the whole time and not seeing him stop for the restroom had me seething mad. This probably gave me the motivation to run that first four as fast as I did (10:05, 10:05, 10:00 and 9:36, respectively). Because I had made it my purpose to eventually catch up with him, coupled with the fact that it didn’t appear that he was taking any walk breaks himself, I had cut my walk breaks down and had just taken my second one 2.5 miles in. Just before the 4 mile marker I caught up with him and voiced my disappointment that he took off and left me. Continuing on at my mad-as-hell pace, I didn’t want him to catch back up just yet so I didn’t take my third walk break until the 5-mile marker (10:13). I was feeling great though, and when we finally did meet up again, Jim explained that he didn’t mean to leave me, but he was feeling good and had run his first three miles in 27 minutes and didn’t want to stop. Of course, I told him I was fine with this – I mean, who am I to keep someone from hauling ass when they’re feeling in the zone during a race? We ran the next 2-3 miles together, but since miles six (11:19) and seven (11:54) were so darn hilly, I lost a bit of that momentum I started with and my tired body began to feel it. Doing some math as I crossed the seven mile marker, I realized that if I finished out the last six at 11 minutes each, I’d be looking at a PR. Since I was still feeling decent at this point, I knew there was a good chance this could happen. Unfortunately, both my mind and my body got the best of me shortly thereafter, and I started to drag a bit. By mile 8 (10:53) my left knee was bothering me quite a bit, and the shorts that I’m so used to wearing decided to pick that day to enact revenge my riding up, leaving my poor thighs exposed to one another, causing a great deal of chafing – ouch! As we curved back up Grinstead , a nasty-long hill mind you, I ended up having to take yet another extended walk break, which set me back quite a bit pace-wise. Even taking advantage of the bystander holding the sign reading, “Touch here for power,” didn’t help my ninth mile (11:37). Coming down Baxter and then hooking a left back towards Muhammad Ali I wanted nothing more than this race to be over. I knew that my run-a-mile, walk-a-minute plan was no longer an option since my poor body just didn’t have it anymore. I trudged along as best I could until passing mile ten (11:24) and then decided to revisit my strategy. I knew that walking the last three miles would just be miserable, as well as accomplish little more than prolonging the pain, so that was out. I decided I would run one block, then walk one block, but half-way through the first walk portion it felt like TOO MUCH walking, so instead I decided to run a block and a half, walk a half a block. That seemed like a good compromise, and since my body was able to handle just that little bit we went for it. At mile 11 (11:46), which was near Second and Muhammad Ali, I began asking people if they knew how far down we went before heading back towards Main. Nobody knew, so I was never able to count down the blocks of these last two miles. Luckily as I saw the 12 mile marker (11:57), I also saw the right-hand turn taking us back towards the home stretch, and I was never so happy in all my life to be nearly done with a race (Okay, that’s probably not true, but it always seems so at the time – amiright?) My body was still keeping up with my block by block plan, and I continued on this journey until the very end. Even when the finish line was in sight I continued my walk breaks just so I’d have enough gas to keep me going strong down the finish chute. I passed the 13 mile marker (12:14) and a woman who passed me began egged me on to start running again. Her encouragement must have been just what I needed because I picked up the pace and headed home, finishing the race in an official 2:24:07 – my second best Half Marathon finish. Even though those last six miles were fairly rough, the first seven made this a pretty decent race for me. I felt good for the most part, my mind was in a good place and my Orange Theory workouts have continued to prove they are paying off. If anything, I know for sure that I need to devote more time to long distance training runs – which is always a problem for me. But, I guess the next two weekends will show where my strengths and weaknesses really are as I conquer the Indianapolis Monumental and Nashville half marathons. Five races in 6 weeks – am I nuts?! Guess time will tell if this was a good idea or not!

The Bourbon Chase

Before I even start this race report let me just say that this is the most fun you will ever have during a race experience. I mean, races are fun, but they're usually over after just a few hours. Imagine spending up to 36 hours in and out of a van with the same seven people while preparing for, or recovering from, three separate legs of a race - it's phenomenal. You really get to know your van-mates (for better or worse) and you get to experience many ranges of emotion throughout this day that add up to one exciting finish at the end. Last year was my first Bourbon Chase and when it was all said and done, I told my team to anticipate me being with them again this year because of the fun I had. After my stellar performance at the 10k last weekend, I had no doubt that I could finish my 4.9, 3.5 and 4.6 mile legs in record time (well.... record time for me at least. I didn't train much at all last year and my finishing times were not great, to say the least). So when I packed up my belongings, met the team out at V02, and saw other van-mates ready to go I started to get pretty pumped up myself. That is, until the news came down from Cap'n Jeff that Budget Car Rentals screwed up our reservation and revealed they had no vans for us. You see, typically when you enter The Bourbon Chase you go ahead and reserve two 14-passenger vans WAY in advance. Like, in March. When Jeff and the two van drivers went to pick them up at 9:00 that morning however, Budget said that they didn't have possession of said vans and basically didn't apologize for not holding up their end of the bargain. Long story short, we were able to at least get one mini-van at that point so that our Van 1 folks could head to the start (I believe they had MAYBE 10-20 minutes to spare after getting signed in), and the search continued for a van for the remainder of us. Alas, a drive to the airport was necessary to pick up the second vehicle, and after a final meet-up at V02, loading up our goodies, and getting as comfortable as we all could in such tight quarters, we headed to Clermont to meet up with our final runner before heading out on the course. I was runner #7 in Van 2, which means that I am the first runner to go off in our van after we meet up at the major exchange points with our other teammates in Van 1 - whom we hardly ever see. After a quick lunch, my van made our way to Maker's Mark Distillery and waited around a bit for runner #6 (Justin) to finish his first leg of the three-leg race. The weather was decent at this point - not too cool and the rain had moved out for a while so I didn't anticipate being hampered by mother nature during my 4.9 mile course. Not long after waiting at the exchange chute, Justin came up the road and I felt myself getting pumped up to go out for this run. After slapping on the bracelet, I hit my "start" button on the Garmin and off I went at approximately 3:40 p.m. Friday afternoon. It took me a while to settle into a good groove, but after a mile or so into the race my body still felt a bit heavy so I took a short walk break around the one-mile mark. I was able to run through mile 2, but just ahead by a quarter of a mile was an excruciatingly painful hill that, although short in distance, was the most steep I have seen in a while. I knew I'd have to walk some, so I went ahead and gave in to the pain - leaning forward a bit to keep my momentum going. My quads were getting sore, and my breathing was labored, but looking around to see that all the other runners around me had also slowed to a walk was validation that I wasn't merely being a wimp - this was one tough cookie. I finally crested Mount Suck and was relieved to see a straight and flat run up ahead. A van from another team pulled up beside me and asked if I wanted some water. The air was humid, I was sweating through my tech-shirt, and I hadn't anticipated needing a fuel belt considering the cooler temperatures, so the offer of liquid refreshment was nothing to pass up. They handed me a liter of Evian and off they drove. Now... I'm not one to complain about free water from kind strangers, but with 2 1/2 more miles to go, I was not looking forward to lugging this liter of water around until the finish. The situation being what it was however, I tucked it under my right arm like a football and off I went, ready to finish this leg once and for all. With less than two miles to go I had already passed up two runners and was feeling pretty proud of myself. My team's Van 1 slowly passed by and I frantically waved my arms like a burn victim trying to put out the flames to get their attention so that they could take the water bottle from me. The gesture seemed to be lost in translation however, as all they did was offer me a shot of whiskey while I forcibly shoved the plastic container into Kevin Byrne's waiting hands. (The shots of whiskey should tell you where the priorities lie in this race, by the way). Off I went with my arms free, and the lack of weight now made me feel that I could run for days (or at least, until the end of this leg). I saw the finishing chute up ahead and began looking around for the next team-mate to take the exchange bracelet off my hands - literally. Imagine my surprise when there was no one around to greet me. Other runners made comments such as, "you don't know where your team is?" "No," I replied, sounding like a kid who had just been abandoned at Kroger. Elise Watkins was across the street and called my name. Ah, finally - a friendly face. She asked who my next runner was and I told her I wasn't sure since my van never discussed it, but none of the faces in the crowd seemed to be my van-mates. After a long five minutes I heard Lori call my name, and she quickly snatched the bracelet from me and took off, pointing me in the direction of our van that had taken a wrong turn and gotten off course. After taking advantage of a little guilt-tripping towards the guys, the van took off again as we headed to meet Lori at the next exchange. A quick baby-wipe-bath in the back of the van, along with some fresh clothes got me feeling nice and refreshed for the 10-hour wait before my next run. Split times for this leg were: 10:05, 10:14, 12:05 (darn hill), 10:48 and unfortunately I will never accurately know what my last .9 was, as I was too worried about finding my van-mates to bother hitting the "stop" button on my watch. The next 4-5 hours consisted of rotating between riding in the van, walking to exchange points, hitting the porta-pots, munching on junk-food, and lots of hilarity going on inside the van with some very interesting discussions. At one point, we met up with Van 1 for the exchange into the start of the second legs of the race, which meant that we now had another 3-4 hours of free time to do what we wanted. By this time it was nearing 9:30 p.m. so we opted for some dinner before heading off to Danville High School for some shut-eye. Given our mini-van situation, Scott, Patrick and Nick opted to sleep inside the school on their sleeping bags as Lori, Kevin, Jeff and I stayed inside the van to get as comfortable as possible. Between the sounds of vans coming and going from the parking lot, snoring and rustling inside the van, as well as conversations taking place outside by various teams, I was happy to have remembered my ipod. And although the sounds of songs ringing softly in my ears wasn't exactly soothing, it was enough of a distraction from the outside noise to at least get SOME sleep during that short period of time. A 1:00 a.m. wake-up call came much too quickly and we were on the road. The rain had moved in again, and it had gotten a tad cooler than it had previously been. This, coupled with an anticipated second-leg start time of 2:00 a.m. in the pitch black did nothing for my motivation. I tried to resign my position as runner #7 while we were still parked at the school, but my van-mates wouldn't allow it - bastards. All was well as I made my way to the start-line however, and again I took off after being handed the elusive bracelet. Heading into the dark night wasn't nearly as creep-tastic as I had remembered the year prior. And with a runner or two just ahead of me, at least I had something to focus on as I made a straight shot to the end, just 3.5 miles ahead. It was hard to see the Garmin with the lack of light, so I was never able to exactly tell how fast or slow I was going at any given time. I anticipated doing my one-mile-run, one-minute-walk intervals, but after the first mile I was feeling so great both mentally and physically that it wasn't long before I passed the runner that I had started out following. A few hills here and there meant that there was SOME walking when I got a bit fatigued, but overall there were a lot of down-hill as well, and with the "One More Mile To Go" sign past me, I was determined to finish strong. Split times for leg #2: 9:10, 10:00, 10:15 and 9:22 for the last .5 mile. (Side note: I do believe the 9:10 mile is my fastest ever, and now that I know that I am capable of these faster times, I'm questioning if and how the Garmin is affecting my pace). The next 10 hours is a bit of a blur. After getting back into the van, I slept off and on for a long-while, and was too exhausted or cold to get out much and cheer on my van-mates who were running through the night. At some point our van finished their second legs and we all decided on Cracker Barrel for breakfast. I don't feel like I engaged much with my teammates during this time as I truly was utterly tired. We made our way back to the van and ended up at the final exchange point before our final legs. We had at least 2-3 hours to kill, so despite the daylight we all settled in for a little nap. Imagine our surprise and frustration however, when two vans decorated like cows pulled up on either side of us blaring their 80's music and chanting in unison, "free sliders!" Damnit - we already have belly's full of grub, we don't want any free sliders, we just want to sleep for the love of God! They weren't going away however, so we all decided to succumb to the unwelcomed audio assault bestowed upon our ears and get up for the remainder of the day. If there is any one thing I would have to complain about this year, it would be this exchange point. For a major exchange point such as this, where the expectation is you will have up to 800 vehicles coming and going throughout the day, not one porta-pot was to be found. Not. One. How in the heck do you expect 4,800 runners to go to the John with no porta-pots around? Alas, the team made our way back into the van to drive a mile and a half up the road to a gas station for a potty break before I was to be seen off on my third and final leg - a 4.6 miler. We made our way back to the exchange point, but took a short detour to the left into a business parking lot rather than make our way back up to the cluster of vans parked 1/2 mile away (another small complaint). Hyped up on Red Bull, a slight chilly wind blowing in, I was more than ready to get this last leg out of the way. It seemed to take Justin a bit longer than expected to make his way to the exchange, but once I saw his lovely moustached face headed my way, I was prepared for my final run. Heading out at 12:40 p.m. I could definitely feel the effects of the prior 24 hours on my body. I was tired. A few small hills came up during that first mile, but I was determined not to walk this early in the race no matter how worn out my body felt. I crossed over a main road and onto a long stretch of back country asphalt that was beautiful to say the least. I ended up passing one slower runner while offering some words of encouragement when my van-mates crept up behind me in the Chrysler, offering their own brand of support through our affectionately-named megaphone, "Mr. Motivation." Mr. Motivation asked me to "moon" him, while simultaneously asking if I needed anything - such as water or Gatorade. The differences in these two requests had me confused, so I just yelled back, "No, I'm good," hoping that would suffice as an answer to both inquiries. It must have because, soon after, my lovely van 2 patrons scurried along to meet me at the finish. Although I was more tired than I'd been all day at this point, I fell into a zone and the miles seemed to tick away. There were a few small hills here and there, and I passed a few folks within the last half of the run, giving me encouragement to keep going strong. Rounding the last turn I could hear the finish line up ahead and I looked forward to not only the end, but also to the fact that I would not have to run anymore for the rest of the day. This was it, my third and final leg: 10:05, 9:51, 10:41, 9:48 and 10:26 for the last .6 mile. I was so pumped to have achieved this great task that I stayed up and alert the remainder of the day, cheering on my van-mates as they went off and then ran in again on their final legs. The air seemed to be getting a bit chillier as the day went on, and I found myself wrapped up in my fleece blanket as our last two runners went out. Jeff was our #12 runner with a little over 4 miles to go on his final leg, which meant the team had little time to make our way to the finish area, find a place to park, and walk near the finish line in time to all run in together. In the meantime, we had received word that Larry Holt, a runner in Van 1, had become ill sometime after their last legs were ran and they had decided to head back to Louisville to turn in their van and call it a day. This meant that just the seven of us in Van 2 would be crossing the official finish line. We waited around a bit longer than expected before spotting Jeff rounding his last corner towards the home stretch. I can only imagine what a sight we were - seven completely exhausted runners decked out in our own brand of comfort clothing (I was still wrapped in the fleece and was sporting a sweet pair of brown crocs at this point), stumbling across the finish to claim our sub-thirty-hour victory. Overall I had a great time. Not only with my van-mates, but also during the legs of my particular runs. I was definitely faster and feeling better both mentally and physically this year than I had last year. My body is definitely tired today, but I'm not nearly as sore as what I had anticipated. It was great running into other athletes who were on opposing teams throughout the day/night, and sharing a lot of laughs as well as frustrations with my own team. We anticipate The Bourbon Chase being two weeks after the Louisville Ironman next year, and if that is the case, I am hoping to sign up once again and make this an annual tradition. As I said, this is the most fun that I have ever had during a racing event, and it would be nice to keep that up for years to come. Next up: Urban Bourbon half-marathon in 2 weeks!

Great Pumpkin 10k

Went to bed exhausted last night after a long and stressful week of work - tired to the point that I felt like I might be coming down with something. So this morning when I woke up, and it was 20 degrees chillier than it was the previous morning, I told Jim that I was so-not-feeling this race. Donned my running shorts along with a tank top, covered by a long-sleeve tech shirt and hoped for the best as we made our way to Floyds Fork. The walk from the car to the start line was a brisk and chilly half-mile or so, but the sun felt great. Since I haven't been keeping up much running since the Bourbon Derby Half Marathon in June, I was a bit concerned about my performance. The Orange Theory sessions had definitely helped me in that race, but I had also completed the KDF Mini just a month and a half before. Not having a race under my belt for 4 months had me a little worried, and not having run any more than three miles (and even those were interval runs on the treadmill through OTF) I wondered if I could pull off a full 6.2 while maintaining a good attitude. But when the start line went off and I immediately fell into a 10 minute cadence, I had a positive feeling that this could be a good race. I planned to do my normal one mile run / one minute walk routine and felt good about that decision for the first mile and a half. Knowing that there was a steep hill coming up about 2.3 miles in, I decided to run through my mile 2 walk break just in case I had to walk any of the hill. Alas, that was exactly the case when halfway up I took a little break, and then another when I came upon a longer, yet less steep incline just ahead. Coming up on mile three I fell back into a good pace and my spirits were lifted even more when I realized that most of mile 4 would be going back down those dreaded hills. I got into another good groove and opted to walk for a little water stop just around the four and a half mile mark, which is when I looked down to see that I was just over 45 minutes into the race. Doing some math in my head, I realized that I probably couldn't beat my 10k PR of 1:01, but I could pull off a second-best which, considering the aforementioned lack of running, was alright with me. Cresting another small hill I passed mile 5 and was on to the finish. My left knee started bothering me a bit after that, but not enough to really slow me down and I managed to keep running through the discomfort. After passing the 6 mile marker I was ready for the home stretch and came in at a respectable 1:03:33. Although I haven't checked the exact time, I'm fairly certain my previous second-best was around 1:04:15. My splits were: 10:01, 10:09, 11:12, 9:52, 10:14 and 10:13 with a 9:36 pace for that last .2 miles. The fact that I had over a minute negative split, or a negative split at all, is amazing. And looking back at some of my earlier races this year, I've had pretty consistent negative splits, which is something I thought I'd never see. Overall, this was a great race. The course was awesome, the weather was good, and considering the cluster f*ck that it apparently was last year with it being the inaugural race I felt the organization was superb and I will definitely do this race again next year. Next up: The Bourbon Chase in less than one week!

Somtimes You're the Windshield, Sometimes You're the Bug

My sprint tri at the Louisville Landsharks Triathlon this morning was a very humbling experience. I wasn't really nervous until the few seconds prior to the swim start when it dawned on me that I haven't done this in over three years, and haven't even been in the water in the same time period. Donning a wetsuit (the water temp was 75 this morning) and ready for what lie ahead, I was near the beginning of the pack with other triathletes, which included both the sprint and Olympic folks that all went out at the same time. Off we went with Todd Heady's countdown and, surprisingly, the water felt great. I started out with a freestyle stroke that quickly got a lot more tiring than it needed to be this early in the race. I thought I was holding my own, although I was getting passed by many folks, when I looked back about half-way to the turn-around point to see that there were only 3-4 other swimmers behind me. Still, I wasn't too concerned at this point because I know how slow I am, and I wasn't exactly going for a great finishing time anyway - just looking for a finish. At a few points prior to that turn-around though, I can say that I thought about telling the kayakers that I was done for - just take me in and call it a day. Luckily, my pride got the best of me and I muddled through the remainder of the swim. Sometimes I did a backstroke, sometimes a breast stroke, and often times a doggy paddle just to move forward little by little while catching my breath and relieving my already-tired body. I can't tell you how good it felt to finally be within eye-sight of dry land, and the feel of slimy, slick algae on my little pigs never felt so good walking up that boat ramp. I had an official finishing time of 28:31 for the 750 meters. On the way up the ramp to T1 I felt a little dizzy and light-headed, and that stayed with me for a while. I was pretty tired from that first leg, and sitting down to get my wet suit stripped, as well as to slide into my cycling shoes was a welcome little break. I climbed on the bike and off I went, ready for the somewhat-hilly 12-miler when, in anticipation for the upcoming hill, I attempted to get into an easier gear when my shifters malfunctioned. I hadn't made it to the bottom of the hill yet when I turned around and headed back to transition. I saw my boyfriend and started to cry, telling him that, once again, my shifters weren't working and I couldn't do the race while being stuck in a hard gear. We stood there for a minute or two when I decided, "screw it," I was going to at least give it another shot and see what happens. Off I went again, and I at least got a little bit up the hill when my quads and mindset got the best of me again and I climbed off the bike for a second time walking it, once again, back towards transition. I met up with the bf earlier this time though, and broke down sobbing - I had never NOT finished a race before. Dead last? Sure. Twice. But never DNF. I sat on the ground and wailed like a baby feeling totally defeated and frustrated that my bike was not cooperating. Once again, we messed with the gears/shifters a bit more and were finally (hopefully) able to get them in working order. I blew my nose and, still feeling a bit beat, hopped on my noble steed for the third and final time to conquer this darn leg. Up that hill I went and, despite feeling that my heart was going to pound out of my chest, my legs held strong and my motto became "higher cadence, lower energy" as I peddled my way towards the entrance to the park. Turning right onto the main highway I looked down to see that I had about 4.5 miles or so before the turn-around. I felt fairly well throughout this portion of the race, even though I was being passed in the other direction by several triathletes who were well on their way back into the park to complete the run. A few small but not-too-steep hills gave me a bit of a run for my money, but for the most part I felt strong and ready for the run. Turning back into the park I could see several people nearly finished with the run, but several more were just starting and I felt that, despite my setback, I could possibly finish out the race without a dead last place on my record (once again). Final time on the bike: 1:08:19 - I predict that meltdown cost me about 10 minutes or so. T2 took a bit longer than T1 since I had to pull on dry socks over still-wet feet, down a Gu for some energy, and give the bf a quick update on my mental status - better, by the way. I walked out of T2 and decided to walk up that first hill while working out my Jell-O bike legs. Once I began running a bit though, they loosened up and off I went. My cardio was feeling good, legs a bit tired, but overall a decent run. Once again, lots of folks passing me in the other direction, but with the support I was getting along the way with numerous Landsharks cheering me on, I had no doubt that I could finish strong. The turn-around came and as I headed back towards the finish line I remember smiling - something I can't remember doing much during any other race. I even caught up with a fella that ended up doing an Aqua-run due to his own bike malfunction, and we talked a bit to pass the time during our last mile. Cresting that last small hill and curve, the long downhill came into view and I looked forward in anticipation finishing out this experience. Down the parking lot I came, body feeling great and cheers all around as I finally crossed that mat to collect my medal and much-needed bottle of water - a slow and steady 37:53. Overall, despite the bike issues and struggle-laden swim, I had a great race. It gives me a good idea of where I am with each of the three disciplines and how much work I'm going to need over the next year to complete Ironman. If anything, I need some good coaching on my swim, to get stronger on the bike, and to know that I have plenty of people that will be out there to support me on race day. I'm definitely one of those people that require much kudos and validation to get those mental blocks out of the way. Official finishing time overall: 2:19:24. Not great, but definitely better than the millions of people who decided to sleep in this morning! :)

Urban Bike Adventure

It was a chilly morning when I woke up and let the dogs out as I thought, "Man, if it's this cold at the beginning of September, how cold will it be for my Ironman in October next year?" Never fear, IMLOU is more than a year away and I had more important things to worry about this morning - like getting to Bicycle Sport to get a new battery for my long-dead bike computer, making a quick detour before heading downtown to get a long-sleeve shirt for the race since all I had brought was a tank top, and convincing myself that, despite the cool breeze in the air and having biked no more than 10.7 miles in the past year or more, I could actively compete in this downtown bike race. Ah yes, the Urban Bike Adventure. This would be mine and Alicia's third consecutive year doing this race, and typically find ourselves early-registrants due to the good times that we've had in the past. Not to mention that some friends of ours, Bill and Lisa (aka Team Nowax), have also competed in the race the past three years and we've since had a friendly little competition going on with these two. 2012 was only the second year that the race was held in Louisville, so it proved to be rather small. I'd say 20-30 teams of 2-4 people. The size, mixed with mine and Alicia's competitive nature, meant that we took home a second place overall win, as well as the first-place female-only team win in 2012. Last year the race was A LOT larger, and looked to be inundated with more kids and families, however, the distance that we had to bike (going from Downtown to Cherokee Park to Germantown and back to 4th Street Live again) must have scared some folks off because for 2014, we were back down to maybe 20-30 teams tops. Shortly after arriving and signing in we met up with Bill and Lisa to get in our annual "smack talk." They finished before us last year, so today's race was to be the tie-breaker for our two teams. The premise of the race: Each team gets a sheet of clues, which you have to decipher and then bike around town collecting photographic proof that you have either visited or achieved each challenge. A few examples of this years race were to convince random strangers to 1) strike the Heisman trophy pose, 2) play "war" with Alicia and I, 3) give either one of us a piggy-back ride, and 4) engage in a fake kung-fu fight. Beyond this, the challenges that my team-mate and I had to conquer were to take pictures at various locations around town such as The Brown Hotel, The Lincoln statue on the Riverfront, the Desert Storm memorial in Jeffersonville and Vernon Lanes Bowling Alley just to name a few. We also had to take video of us singing the Big Mac theme song in front of an actual McDonald's restaurant. Good times. Most of these challenges we took care of right away, as the folks we passed on the street were more than accommodating to our strange requests. This means we knocked out half the list before even getting a mile down the road. Our Achilles heel during the first part of the race was trying to figure out where the Desert Storm Memorial was. Neither of us had heard of it, and Google wasn't much help (yes, you can use any source to help figure out the clues). So we continued to head to the places we were sure of, hoping that we weren't unknowingly passing by this memorial in the interim. And this is where Alicia and I differ on strategy. She likes to hurriedly figure out the clues and haul-ass to the site regardless of if we know for sure where everything else is. I like to calmly take my time, figure it all out, and logistically plan where we should bike so that we're not constantly back-tracking. After making our way to the Big Four Bridge for a ridiculous cookie challenge (after each of us carrying a golf ball on a tee held in our hands for probably 50 feet, either of us had to get an Oreo from our forehead to our mouth without using our hands - just as hard as it sounds, BTW), we peddled to Jeffersonville to get a pic with a candy store before heading back to the 'Ville and up River Road to Frankfort Ave. and over to Story Ave. to "strike" a pose in front of Vernon Lanes. It was only here, after getting some much-needed and kind assistance from another team, that we found out that the memorial is, in fact, in Jeffersonville. So guess who's going across the Big Four Bridge for the second time that day? At this point we had only biked 6 miles, so it wasn't that big of a deal, but the fact that we were still trying to beat Bill and Lisa, coupled with the hills that we would have to bike up, yet again, on both sides of the bridge, tarnished my momentum just a bit. As I made my way onto the Louisville side of the bridge I saw that our frenemies had just begun the "cookie challenge." Not knowing if they had already made their way over to Indiana or not, I hauled butt up the curved structure for my second Jeffersonville visit. By the time Alicia caught up with me just 30-45 seconds later I had still not figured out where this place was. To top it off, while looking around I spot Bill coming off the bridge with Lisa falling in not far behind. Luckily, the four of us put our heads together and biked along the Jeffersonville waterfront to eventually find, salute, and photograph our respective teams in front of the memorial. Making our way back, Bill and Lisa thought we were kidding when we said we had already gotten our picture at the candy store, so their surprise when we made our way back onto the bridge was an astounding "Oh!" With only one more monument to visit, Alicia and I were feeling pretty good that we would win back both our title, and bragging rights, from Team Nowax. Making our way back across the bridge, Alicia spotted our target and we quickly made our way over to a statue of Abraham Lincoln for one last click and then back to Fourth Street Live. Still not knowing for sure where Bill and Lisa were in their quest, we maneuvered our way through downtown traffic trying not to get hit, and found ourselves pulling up to the Sports and Social Club in no time. We got checked in and showed our lovely photos to the official, then stuck around outside to cheer Team Nowax in. When it was all said and done all of us agreed it was a great time. We all enjoyed the race being smaller again this year, and as the weather warmed up and the "catching up" commenced over the unhealthiest of lunches, it turned out to be a great day for an awesome race. Alicia and I ended up coming in 6th overall, while Bill and Lisa took home a 10th place win. Regardless of place or finishing time, this is a really fun race that combines some of my favorite ways to spend a weekend afternoon: biking, racing, laughter, friendly competition, and memories. Until next year....

Pre-Training Begins

I managed my first bike ride in over a year today and I must say, although there are certain parts of it that I love, it was not without its struggles. Firstly, I have never been hugely knowledgeable about how to work the gears. For instance, I simply go by "feel" rather than knowing exactly what gear to be in during a downhill, uphill, flat surface, etc. So as I climbed my first big hill visions of my second Olympic-distance tri flashed before my eyes. You know, the one where I couldn't get enough momentum going up the steep hill and became increasingly slower over time to the point that gravity took over and I dumped myself off my bike, ego and all? Yeah....so..... as I was making my way up this hill today I started messing with my gears and, unknowingly until it was too late, found myself in the hardest gear imaginable, mashing my pedals just to keep up enough speed to get up this darn thing. At one point I really thought I was going to fall over - and right in front of a golfer nonetheless. But alas, determination and quad-strength prevailed and I was able to crest the hill and finally catch my breath as well as a small break - able to change gears in the process. As I rounded the corner onto a long stretch of flat land I attempted to mess with the gears again, however, I found that they wouldn't budge at all. Neither one. So now I'm stuck in a relatively easy gear (again, I couldn't tell you what rig (derailer?) the chain was in because I'm a total dunce when it comes to bicycle anatomy - full disclosure, I just Googled "parts of a bicycle" to find that word "derailer"), but suffice it to say the remaining hills were relatively easy to maneuver, while my cadence on the flats was now much faster than it needed to be as my torque was too much for this easier gear. I decided to continue on though since I was only a few miles into my ride at this point (Oh yeah, the battery for my bike computer had also gone kaput over the last year so I could only guess how far I'd gone or what my mph was). Coming out of a relatively flat part of the park I could have turned left and headed home, giving me about a 5-6 mile ride, or go straight and muster up the strength (both mental and physical) to conquer the rather large hills I knew were lying in wait like a soccer-mom at the Grand Opening of a Starbucks. Surprisingly one of my nemesis hills ("Dog Hill" for those of you familiar with Cherokee Park) was rather easy to climb and I felt nice and accomplished when I found myself at the top. The long, steadily-inclining path up to Hogan's Fountain wasn't bad either, but I found my heart-rate took a little longer to slow back down by the time I completed that doozy. As I made my way back towards the final home stretch I found myself feeling optimistic about this ride, as well as the upcoming triathlon in a few weeks. It seems like I have to get past the first 5 miles or so before my body gets used to the ride and then I'm fairly comfortable and confident after that. It's the same with running and swimming too. As long as I get past the first 3-4 miles of a run, I'm good. Prior to that my entire body feels like lead and I question my ability to go on. And as soon as I get into a good groove swimming laps in the pool, I feel like I could swim all day. Slowly, of course, but endurance is what I'm going for here, ya dig? Anyway...back to the bike ride. I turned my last corner onto PeeWee Reese to head back towards Taylorsville Road and ultimately home when I came upon my last two hills. The first one was a killer. Of course I knew it was coming as I had just come down the backside of the darn thing not 40 minutes prior - but the fairly steep grade was still enough to take my breath away and grip my chest like a vice. The second wasn't nearly so bad and I recall being thankful that everything from then on out was a straight, flat ride in. After logging my route on Map My Ride I discovered that I had accomplished 10.75 miles. (I had to stop myself from typing "a mere 10.75 miles" just now since I'm trying to not be so hard on myself and at least give myself SOME credit for starting over somewhere.) As I've written in the previous post, the triathlon in two weeks calls for a 12 mile bike, so getting out and doing this mileage after not being out for a year, and managing to do it with some killer hills at that, gives me a sense of confidence that I can do this thing - even if my legs did feel like Jell-O afterwards. So on the agenda for the coming weeks - get the bike looked at to find out what's going on with the gears, get at least 3-4 swims in to get used to the water and working on my form, and have fun doing the Urban Bike Adventure next Saturday (three years running) with my bestie Alicia.

Going All Out (Or In?)

So I've been thinking about getting back into triathlons for a while. I enjoy the long distance running, but I didn't (don't) want to stop doing tri's altogether because I really did enjoy them when I was competing - three years ago. Yes, it was May 2011 when I completed my last tri. I had come in dead-last (again) in my third Olympic-distance race, and I think I just decided that training for long-distance running was less time consuming. I hadn't trained well for that last race, which probably contributed to my last-place finish (actually, last place never bothered me much - just being out there doing it was always enough. Besides, I got the same medal as the first place guy, right?) But after reading, seeing, hearing about all of my Louisville Landshark buddies competing in the Ironman Louisville race this year, I decided that it was encouragement enough for me to get back out there. So.... just so happens that the Landsharks are putting on a Sprint/Oly race in a few weeks and I'm already signed up. You see, I'm one of those people that will not get out there and run/bike/swim if I'm not signed up for, and need to actually train for anything specific. (Well, let's be honest - in the not-so-distant past I wouldn't even train for events I was signed up for, I would just go out there on race day and wing it. Something I don't recommend, by the way). But, with my newfound enthusiasm I signed up for the sprint distance race (750 meter swim, 12 mile bike, 5k run) and am gonna get out there and do my best. I feel I've already got a pretty good base going with my Orange Theory workouts, so the run is the least of my worries. I haven't, however, been on my bike in a year and even then only got one ride in. But, again, with OTF under my belt I figure a couple of rides out on the bike between now and race day will be plenty to get me prepared for that 12-miler. Now the swim.....well.... that's a little more complicated. I seriously cannot remember doing any lap swimming since that last triathlon more than three years ago. I still have the concept down - I mean, I remember what I'm SUPPOSED to do - I just haven't done it. So, I went to Mary T. today and got a punch-card for 12 visits, of which I'll probably utilize two per week leading up to the race. All of this combined, I'm pretty confident that I can pull this off. Again, I will not be, and don't expect to be, the fastest gal out there. And if I do happen to come in dead last once again - so be it. I mean, I gotta start back somewhere, right? Besides, it's the perfect comeback race for what I'll be enduring in another 13 months. Ironman Louisville. Yes kids, you read that right. I am planning on (Oh hell, what do I mean "planning" on? I have actually SIGNED UP/REGISTERED for Ironman Louisville.) This will be my first full Ironman distance race. I plan on doing a few Olympics beforehand to get prepared, and maybe even a half-Iron distance as well. I'd like to (and hear that it's beneficial) to get a few Century rides in on the bike beforehand - something I know I'll need if not for physical fitness than for mental preparedness of being on a bike for 6-7 hours. I'm pretty pumped about it at this point, and although I've struggled with just the marathon portion of this race in the past, I feel that proper training and drive will go a long way. Besides, I do have a full 13 months to train - the first 7 of which will probably be more or less building a better base with which to start off my REAL training in April. So, without further ado - let the tri training commence!

Moving Right Along

It's been a little over 3 months since I started working out at Orange Theory and I have stuck with it. It's gotten to the point that if I don't work out at least 3 days a week I feel a bit lazy and depressed. I had a tooth pulled two days ago, and hadn't worked out for two days before then, so when I went today for my hour session it was like a breath of fresh air. Being cooped up on the couch with Ibuprofen and soup had run its course and I HAD to get out. Although I must say, I haven't lost any weight since started this program, I do feel more fit and healthy. One of the trainers did a session on the "Science of Weight Loss" and the core message was calories in vs. calories out = weight loss. I had asked if it was possible that I had gained muscle weight in the (then) two months that I had been attending OTF, and was told "no," that it was probably due to my appetite increase since beginning the work out. I can see that. Even though I probably have been consuming more, my body still looks and feels like I'm getting more out of these workouts than just an increase in weight/appetite. I feel great. I haven't been running in a while, although I did do a four-miler with a few friends about 2-3 weeks ago. Because I had talked my friend/co-worker into running with me, and she isn't much of an outdoor runner, we walked the majority of the course, although I must say that I was feeling REALLY good and probably could have killed the flat course. I do have a lot of races coming up starting the end of September, and those will give me a good indication of where I am health/strength/endurance-wise. Considering I did my last half-marathon with little more than OTF training, and had a near-PR finish, I'm feeling confident that these fall races are going to be more of the same - awesome. We shall see.... Although honestly, I do know I need to get out and do some long-distance training between now and then. We rarely do anything more than a 5k at OTF, and many times that isn't a straight 3.1 mile run, but rather broken up between the treadmill, weights, and rower. Regardless, I'm excited to be keeping up with this great workout regime and would recommend it to anyone.

An Unexpected Injury (Wait... Aren't They All?)

Since starting my OTF classes and registering for all of these races I have been feeling really good about my fitness level, the way I feel mentally and physically, and my prospects of becoming healthier and faster in the future. My training took a turn for the worse, however, this past Wednesday. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with it or not, but we did deadlifts and squats during our OTF workout that morning - already making my back a bit sore. When I got to work I was still feeling a bit drained, rather than my normal, energized feeling after a workout. This may have been due to continued recovery from the weekend's half marathon along with this first workout since the race. In any case, I was one hour into the three hour psych group I facilitate at work when we went on our first break. I stood up from my chair and turned to my left to sit the legal pad and papers I had in my hands down on the chair before walking into my office and - SNAP! Something caught in my lower back and it was definitely uncomfortable and even somewhat painful. I walked slowly to unlock the door to let my patient's out into the courtyard and headed back over towards my office, all while cringing and playing out my physical impression of a 90 year-old-woman (although that latter part was not by choice). I began to feel nauseous and light-headed, and knew that if I didn't sit down soon the possibility of passing out and injuring myself further was very real. I literally laid down, on the laminate flooring, all the while donning a dress and heels while concerned co-workers asked me what had happened. I was hardly able to move, and began feeling anxious and concerned that I may have done something irreparable to myself (Notice how our minds always go to the worst case scenario? I seriously thought, just in those few moments, about having chronic pain for the rest of my life, needing pain management, never being able to run again, and all of those other ridiculous things that active people think of when injury strikes). The long and short of it is, I was able to get into a chiropractor right away, who determined that I had a compressed nerve (aka pinched nerve). He even did some x-rays to rule out anything more serious. That day alone I had a short lower back massage, an adjustment to my back, a topical pain medication that was supposed to help (but didn't), and was sent home with some exercises to do and to consider medication for inflammation, and to expect to return the following day. The next day came and went and I was still not feeling any better despite another round with the chiropractor, 800 mg of Ibuprofen and completing the stretches I was given. My biggest concern was being able to work out on Friday morning, followed by The Waterfront Challenge obstacle course 5k that I had signed up for on Saturday evening. The doctor said to give it another day of rest and to come back in on Saturday. I had previously scheduled a massage with my regular gal for Friday afternoon, so I kept that appointment hoping it might help. She focused mainly on the small of my back and my right glute, which she said was really tight. I left there feeling decent, but not great, and woke up on Saturday morning in even more consistent pain than I had been the day prior. Friday, I could at least walk around and get some relief after having stretched some after sitting for long periods of time. Saturday brought just a constant ache in my lower back, which was not helped at all by walking. I went back to the chiropractor at 10:45 that morning and told him what was going on. He was still concerned that I was not feeling better, did another round of the tens unit on my lower back, another adjustment, strongly advised again The Waterfront Challenge later that evening, and voiced a pre-emptive plan to contact my PCP if things still were not improved by the middle of next week. So.... I stumbled out of there with conflicting thoughts about whether I should, or should not, run the race. On one hand, the race was paid for, it was a fairly short course, it had a great medal, and I REALLY WANTED TO DO IT. On the other hand I didn't want to injure myself any further - although I was told by the Doc that I probably wouldn't injure it further, but that the healing time may be prolonged if I didn't just give it a rest, and while I may not feel anymore pain or discomfort during or after the race, the next day could prove to be brutal and why would I take that chance? Well, because I'm a hard-core athlete that's why. I went home and popped some more OTC anti-inflammatories, consistently did my stretches, sat with an ice-pack whenever I could, took a walk (and admittedly a small jog) around the block to test things out, and ultimately decided to do the race. I was pretty pumped up when I decided I was definitely in, and I think the adrenaline that was pumping through my body helped with the lack of discomfort I felt through the entire race. It was a stifling hot race (90 degrees, even at 6:45 p.m.) but I was just happy that I was going to be going through with it, albeit taking it a little easier than I normally would. The M.C. counted down the 6:45 wave and off we went. Had it not been so hot it would have been a fairly easy course. Lots of short, steep hills through the waterfront, climbing over flat beds and cars, hopping through and then carrying tires around part of the course, push-ups, lunges (okay, okay, so this was the one thing I didn't do as we were carrying water-filled PVC pipe on our shoulders and I didn't want to strain myself), and then finally down a large, inflatable, water slide to the finish. It was a great time. My official finishing time was 44:06 with Jim coming in just 10-15 seconds slower. He says that compared to last year he killed his time - probably due to the awesome workouts we've been getting at OTF. For the remainder of the evening, which mainly consisted of dinner and watching TV in bed, I felt good. Just prior to bed I took another round of meds, including half a muscle relaxer, and laid on the ice pack to reduce any additional inflammation I may have. In the morning - oddly enough - I felt great. I'd say 80% better than I had the previous morning. I'm not sure if that's the way my body would have healed regardless, or if getting out and getting some movement/exercise through the race helped, or what. But regardless, 25 hours after the end of the race I am still feeling fantastic. A little sore, which is to be expected after a race such as this, but as far as my lower back goes I'm walking again like the 37 year old fit woman that I am, I'm no longer having to take 10-15 seconds after standing up from a sitting position to stretch out my back with a scowl on my face. And I must say... I'm definitely happy that I went through with it, even against Doctors orders. Sometimes (well, most of the time) I think that we know our bodies better than the "professionals" do and know what we are capable of. Funny thing is, prior to the race last night I even had the thought that maybe the race would do me some good - physically - and so I just went for it. If I had any concern (or at least, more concern than I did) that I would have majorly injured myself or made things worse, I probably wouldn't have done the race. But... I was confident (and a little stubborn, I admit) that I could complete it AND possibly feel better. I'm glad I did. Next up, another round of OTF in the morning, and the possibility of a Warrior Dash sign up in September.

Bourbon Derby Half Marathon

Since I hadn't completed any long runs since the KDF HM in late-April, I was concerned about the Bourbon Derby. Lack of long-distance training coupled with June weather made for a race that, during the hour long drive to Paris, KY, I was not looking forward to. Jim and I had to wake at 4:45 to leave the house by 5:15 to make it to the race location, pick up our packets, prepare for the start, and head off for our second HM of the year. It was a brisk fifty degrees and low-to-no-humidity morning which, as anyone from Kentucky knows, is a rarity for mid-June. The race was set to begin at 7:30, which made the prospect of a hot race even less likely. The air-horn went off right on time and the HM participants (from what I hear there were only about 250 of us) took off. I hadn't looked much into this race prior to, or after signing up, so I wasn't sure what to expect as far as the shape of the course and the elevation. Jim had told me that there seemed to be some rolling hills but that it didn't look too bad. Well.... rolling hills was an understatement since it was hardly anything but ascents and descents throughout the entire race. I had decided ahead of time that I was going to go with my run a mile, walk one minute routine that had worked so well for me during KDF, which actually ended up being not too difficult to do even despite the hills. Up until earlier this year I had tended to walk up hills - deeming them too intimidating and taking up too much energy to put forth the effort, but since I have been working on endurance, stamina, and intervals at Orange Theory Fitness (OTF) for the past month, the hills actually weren't that bad. My heart rate and breathing seemed to stay pretty normal throughout, and for the first 7-9 miles the only thing that was really bothering me were my sore hamstrings, but that was due to the M-W-F workouts at OTF. It wasn't until mile 7 or so that I started to break away from the one mile run, one minute walk routine, as it began to get a little warmer and the hills were starting to get to me. I had broken away from Jim between miles 5-6 as he was uber-tired from a Tough Mudder the weekend before as well as his own OTF workouts that week. As I made my way to the turn around at mile 8.5, I came back down towards the finish and passed Jim yelling out to him, "One hour and thirty minutes at 8.65 (miles)." I hadn't really been keeping track of what my mileage and time meant in terms of possibly having a PR since I was sure I would not considering the hilly course and lack of training. As I did the math, however, I figured that I could at least get in one of my top four HM finishes - as long as I came in under 2:27. I was okay with that. When I hit mile 10 I started to feel the fatigue coming on and by mile 11 my feet started to feel the effects of the pounded pavement. When I got to mile 11 I checked the Garmin and noticed that I had only clocked about 10.5 miles and was a bit concerned that my mileage was so far off from what the road markers were telling me. I thought maybe it was a fluke as I've been one or two tenths of a mile off during races before, but never by a whole half-mile. As I made my way to mile 12 I checked again and, sure enough, I was still a half mile short per the Garmin. At this point a few things crossed my mind: one being that I could quite possibly finish the race in less than 13.1 miles which would mean less time on the course which would feel fabulous at this point. The second is that the mileage would be made up closer to the end of the race and I would have to mentally prepare that I really did have the mileage on the Garmin left to run rather than the mileage per the markers on the side of the road. Third was that I could also have a PR on my hands, which was very quickly followed by the realization that if that were the case I would not be able to (ethically anyway), count it as a PR given that the course was .5 miles short. As I crest that last hill I could hear the cheers at the finish line and see where the runners took their last right hand turn to make their way down the chute. A few yards from that chute, I hauled ass and sprinted faster than I have ever ran in my life to get across that finish line as quickly as I could, making my official finishing time a swift 2:20:18. I grabbed myself a cold electrolyte drink and looked back towards the finish line to see if I could spot Jim. I walked back down towards the last turn and saw that he had just crested that last hill and was making his way towards the finish. I ran alongside of him around the corner and down the chute once more, breaking away just prior to the finish line - not wanting to possibly throw off my own finishing time by crossing twice. At some point I checked the Garmin after finishing and noted my mileage at 12.64 miles. I even checked with a few other runners who also wore Garmin's to see if theirs came up short and, sure enough, they did. All in all, it would have been nice to have another PR this year - especially for the same distance as my last PR a month and a half ago, and I guess technically if anyone were to look up my time on the KDF and the Bourbon Derby then THIS race would be considered my PR. But because I know in my heart and in my mind that I didn't complete the full distance (through no fault of my own) I cannot claim it. I figure that considering my splits for the course I would have come in at approximately 2:26:30, which would have made for my fourth best time I believe (out of 22 half marathons) and I still feel pretty good about that. Hills and heat have never been my friend - or any runner's for that matter - but my workouts at OTF have completely changed at least the hill part for me, and I can tell that I'm getting stronger, more confident, and able to conquer my nemesis like I never have before. Up next: More OTF and the Waterfront Challenge 5k obstacle race next week. I can't wait!

OTF = Great Workout Program

It's been almost four weeks since I started working out at Orange Theory Fitness, and I feel great. Except for the few days I had to take off for a stomach bug after coming back from Cancun, I've kept up three workouts per week, and am curious to see how this has helped my running - specifically my 22nd half marathon coming up this weekend. The workouts have been challenging and have kept me interested, and I feel that I have great energy and sleep better at night. Although I haven't been doing any real long-distance running, it will be interesting to experience how the intervals, and pushing myself on the nearly-three mile runs we get in as part of our workouts at OTF, will affect my race, if at all. One thing that has continued to stay the same though, is my diet :( I'll be "good" for 2-3 days and then I'll start craving bad foods (McDonalds, sweets, etc.) and then before I know it I'll have 2-4 days of making horrible choices. It seems I'm always hungry, though, regardless of what I eat (Protein shakes, oatmeal, etc that are supposed to be filling). Sometimes I feel like I'm eating out of boredom, or out of anticipatory hunger (i.e. When I leave the hospital at 3:00 and have patient's in the office until 6:30, I will sometimes eat something even if I'm not hungry so that I'm not starving at 5:00). I did subscribe to Nature Box, and received my first package of 10 all-natural snacks last week and those have been pretty good. And I'm still logging my food intake into My Fitness Pal, but although I have the percentages of carbs/fats/proteins split up to what I'd like them to be, I have yet to eat enough protein or as few carbs as I would like. What can I say - I'm a pasta, potato and white bread kinda girl. I have a Garmin Vivofit coming in the mail tomorrow, and although I know that it's a bit gimmicky and I could probably find another way to keep track of all the things that it does, I was still interested to get one and see if it helps to get me motivated to do more on a daily basis. Although getting up to walk around is kind of hard when you're a psych therapist running a three hour group a day and then having to do another 1-2 hours worth of charting beyond that - none of which can be done while up walking around. So... my journey continues.

Back In The Swing Of Things

As my prior post states, I signed up for Orange Theory Fitness a few weeks ago and am really enjoying it. I get 8 sessions per month for the price I'm paying, but am planning on signing up for the 20-30 extra classes to try and get in 3 workouts a week. After initially signing up I had planned on waiting until after my vacation to Cancun to start. I didn't want to work out a full week and then take an entire week off in Mexico and essentially lose everything that I had gained. But after a friend of mine went to his first workout and raved about it, I decided to go ahead and start - my first class being two weeks ago yesterday. I must say, I normally loathe working out and, even worse than that, having to get up early to do so. But, the 6:15 a.m. class is the latest I can attend and still get to work on time, and so I opted to get my happy ass out of bed and get there for 4 sessions so far (Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday). This workout is unlike anything I've ever done, and I absolutely love it. I love that it's a group setting with a personal trainer guiding you on what to do so you're not just blindly going in there throwing some free weights around and getting bored. It truly is an interval workout and I've managed to burn approximately 500 calories and stay in the "orange zone" for anywhere from 12-25 minutes each workout. My mood has improved and my energy is way higher than it was prior to this. Plus, it feels like I can actually feel my body continuing to burn more calories throughout the day (one of the perks to this kind of workout. A few days prior to my Cancun trip I had already decided, vacation or not, that I would be continuing to do the workouts while out of the country. I felt THAT good! What was even better is that when Patrick (the 6:15 trainer) heard that we were going out of town he volunteered to email daily workouts to us. Saturday was a bust as it was the day that we traveled, and after taking a 5 hour nap starting at 5 p.m. and then opting to just stay in bed, the 12-hour slumber did us in but kept us nice and refreshed for Sunday's workout. It was raining off and on both Saturday and Sunday, so it was nice and muggy outside (albeit overcast)for our run up and down the strip with some set workouts from time to time. I forget now exactly what the first workout consisted of, but most of them included a warm up, slow jog, base pace run, a push-pace and finally an all-out before cooling down for some walking lunges and inverted push-ups. I took the Garmin with us and we were able to get in 3 miles that day - despite the heat and humidity. The next morning we opted to stay inside at the resort gym since it was still rainy and humid out - although this new location did nothing to help the sweat-swamp that would become our bodies. Another set of interval runs leading up to a faster pace, and some push-up burpees and squat-jumps made for a tough work-out. I have to admit though that one set of burpees was enough for me and I modified it with some tricep dips and kettleball curls. Monday afternoon saw the first real break in the clouds and rain, and an hour and a half of exposure gave me just enough sun to get slightly burned, so we decided to take a break from the workouts on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Since we would be traveling again on Saturday and re-acclimating to "normal" life on this long Memorial Day weekend, we wanted to make sure we prioritized another two workouts on Thursday and Friday. Basically, more of the same - 3 mile interval run with some push-ups, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, squats and all-out pace runs. This one was a bit more enjoyable as we worked together as a team (one of us doing one exercise while the other person did another). When Friday came along I thought my vacation partner was kidding when he read me the workout plan Patrick had sent.... More running of course, but also three sets of 50 lunges and 100 squats. Holy Sh*t, are you kidding me? I got through the run okay, and the first 50 lunges, but after 20 squats my legs were toast and I had to space them out a bit in sets of 20-25 in order to get them all in. After that first set, it was nearly impossible to run again but we managed another short shuffle before a cool-down walk and our second set. I managed another 50 lunges, and broke my squats up into four sets of 25 while doing some push-ups, bicep curls and tricep dips in between. Not only did this help break up the pain of these torturous exercises, but also the monotony of it all. We decided to get in a few more interval runs on the way back to the resort, and I even managed my last 50 lunges (broken up into two sets of 25), but I'll be damned if I was going to attempts another 100 squats. Um... no thanks. Today, I can honestly say that my ass and legs are killing me. Today also just happened to be the day that we had a two hour, and then one hour flight back home, so being cooped up on a plane with little opportunity to stretch hasn't helped. I can also say that I feel really good about keeping up the workouts while on vacation. I felt that the lounging around we did most of the day afterwards didn't come with nearly as much guilt as it would have had I NOT worked out first thing in the morning. Also, I wasn't as hungry and didn't snack as much as I normally would have. I think the work out, as well as the heat both, had something to do with this. And lastly, I can see from the pics from my trip that I have a ways to go before I'm happier with my bikini body. Not that I want to be one of those women who is ashamed of her figure - I'm certainly not. But I can definitely stand to gain more confidence about it and hope that keeping these workouts up and trying to eat right will get me going in that direction. Which, if there is one vice that could keep a "healthier me" from happening, it's poor eating habits. Now that I'm back home, I guess I have that change to look forward to as well.

Slackin'

Yeah, okay - I'll admit it. I haven't ran at all since the Derby Mini. And even though I have a 5k this weekend, an obstacle course race in a month an a half, and another half marathon a week after that, I have been completely slacking on this training stuff. This is exactly why I continuously sign up for races though - to keep my momentum going. I guess since I was taking it seriously and really putting some time and effort into the ultimate goal (PR during the Derby mini), I've now gotten into a bit of a slump since then. But now... it's time to saddle up once again. Beyond the running however, I'm also going to the Orange Theory facility tomorrow to talk to the reps there about what they offer and how for how much($). I've been wanting to get more into a routine of working out, and with summer (see: hot and humid) coming up, running outside is going to be nearly unbearable unless I force myself out on an early Saturday or Sunday morning. I was determined NOT to join just a regular gym though because, let's face it, I've never been very disciplined when it comes to keeping myself accountable. Plus, working out alone can get rather boring. I did look into cross fit at one time, but it's somewhat intimidating and I'm not crazy about those types of workouts. With this Orange Theory Fitness the idea is to keep your heart-rate functioning "in the orange" which is apparently your optimum cardio and fat-burning fitness level. You alternate between the treadmill, the rowing machine, and what looks like free-weights and other muscle-building exercises for a full hour. The cost seems reasonable, and they actually charge you if you miss a scheduled session. Plus I like that you're in there with 23 other people all doing the same thing, so there is a social aspect as well. Looking forward to it.

Mind Over Matter. Sometimes...

The Kentucky Derby Mini (Half marathon) is what all of this training has been leading up to. So despite not having run for about a week (and a hot, slow 6-miler at that), I was still feeling decent about yesterday's 13.1 considering the spectacular race season I've had thus far, including substantial PR's in all of my races this year. My PR for this distance (2:22:25) was met a year and a half ago during the Big Hit Half Marathon, which is a very similar course to the KDF mini. With starting temps at 54 degrees and slightly breezy, I felt confident going in that I could pull off a new PR and set my sights on a goal finishing time of 2:15 or better. I decided to go with the same strategy for this race as I had done during the 10-miler, which was to run about a 10-minute pace and walk for one minute at each mile marker. The first 3-5 miles felt pretty good (10:08, 10:19, 10:13, 10:37, 10:07) and it was about this time that I started to wonder what mile markers we finally get into Churchill Downs. Since it had been a few years since I last ran this particular race, I couldn't quite remember if we ran through the track between 6-7, 7-8 or 8-9. I had also began doing my "math problems" it my head at this point. I've been doing this since I started racing in order to pass time, and I guess it's not anything hugely strategic, but more something that I do to help get me through. For instance, after 5 miles I'll tell myself "Okay, just a little less than half-way over." At 6.5 miles I tell myself "Okay, just have to do ONE MORE of what you just did." Anything after that and it's "Okay, less than half to go." I noticed at the 6 mile marker that I was running a little slower than I had for my 10k a month or so ago, but considering I still had 7 more miles to go I was okay with the slower time (10:22). At mile 7 (10:33) I started feeling a bit bloated with some slight GI issues. Turning the corner onto Central Avenue, the distance thus far told me that the horse track took place between miles 8 (10:16) and 9 (11:17). I'm actually surprised, looking back, that I completed mile 8 in as fast a time as I did considering the run through the tunnel to take us into the infield to run a loop consists of a pretty steep descent and ascent both in and out. During the descents my left knee started feeling it and I had to consciously slow way down. I also began feeling more of the GI issues at this point and considered a potty break. But because I was determined to finish with a new PR, and could feel myself getting tired, I thought I better not chance it. Mile 9, as you can see, WAS my slowest so far and I was definitely dragging at this point. My body was wearing out and I had to force myself to drink some water and took another GU despite my tummy feeling super blah. The temperature was also starting to heat up a bit. As I passed the 10-mile marker (11:18) I checked the Garmin to see that I was actually finishing up that first 10 one minute faster than I had completed the Papa John's 10-miler a month before. Again I began doing the math and figured that, even if I finished the last three miles at a 12:30 pace, I would still get a PR. My left knee tweaking and my body feeling the drain, I went along for the ride and incessantly checked the Garmin to make sure I wasn't falling below my goal pace. Mile 11 (11:45) was a bit of a blur, although I do recall telling myself "Just two more miles to go." At mile 12 (11:16) I was ready to just get this thing over with, and the crowd support gave me a little extra umph. Although I must admit, I was trying to determine how many more city block I had to go before the last turn towards the finish line, and when I realized that I forgot to include Floyd Street just prior to Preston, I said to myself "Fuck the PR." Of course, immediately after that I thought "Um....no. If you get to the finish line and miss that PR by just 30 seconds to a minute you are going to be so pissed at yourself." The way my butt was dragging, coupled with the fact that I had decided not to look down at my watch for the last mile so as not to evoke any anxiety in myself, made this possibility very real - and one that I didn't want to experience. Turning onto Preston and seeing the finish line up ahead, I finally did look down at the Garmin and saw that I had 3 minutes to beat my PR. Piece of cake. I continued down through the finishers chute, and even encouraged the crowd to cheer as I ran past them (They didn't. Bastards.) I finished that 13th mile in 10:35 and that last .1 (or .2 according to the Garmin) at a 9:12 pace, with an official finishing time of 2:20:38 - a 10:39 pace. Not bad, I think. Considering how well I did and how good I felt during all of the races this season, I am a bit surprised that I struggled a bit during the last 5k of this race. I think my training strategy from this point needs to be to do some 12 mile training runs just to get my body used to that last 3.1 miles, as well as to get my head in a better to place to know that I can do it. Although I do believe, even looking back, that those slow miles (9-12) were all that I could muster at that point - considering I had to conserve some energy for the end - finishing the 13th mile in the same pace that I finished the 4th mile tells me that I definitely did (and do) have it in me to push a little harder. My next half is the Bourbon Derby in June in Paris, KY. This should be interesting as I haven't done a summer-time half in a long time (if ever), and I worry a bit about the heat. Not concerned about any PR's with that one. I have a feeling that there will be some hills in there, and besides, I'm seriously considering doing 7 races in 7 weeks in the fall, including a 10k, the Bourbon Chase (15+ miles over a 20 hour period) and 5 half-marathons. This means my body will either be in prime shape for another PR, or will be giving out on me altogether. It will be interesting to find out that's for sure!

Tough Week

The last remaining updates I've had to do to the house in preparation for selling, coupled with 2 days of straight rain, as well as a topped-off week of having to take my dog in for emergency surgery to remove his right eye after another dog attacked him has REALLY hampered my training and I haven't ran since last Sunday. My body and mind are feeling it as I'm noticing my shoulders and neck tensing up - a sure sign that I am stressed out and I'm really thanking myself for having the forethought to schedule a massage a month ago for this coming Tuesday. I'm gonna need it. With all of this said however, I have planned a 6-miler tomorrow morning to maintain what I've gained thus far, as well as to release some of this tension I'm feeling. Gonna be a nice 65 degrees, so it should be a good run.

Hampered Training

After nine years I've finally decided to sell my place and move to another part of the city - closer to friends and work. So for the past two weeks I've spent most of my extra time either cleaning or de-cluttering my house to get it ready for sale. This of course means that I have had very little time or energy left after working full-time at the hospital, part-time in my practice, and taking care of the house to run much. However, even after another busy weekend filled with Mr. Clean and Glad Hefty Bags I was itching for a run this afternoon. It wasn't much - managed just under 3 miles - but I've found that sometimes, no matter how busy and tired I've been, my body just CRAVES a run. That, and hearing about a lot of my running friends finishing the Run The Bluegrass half-marathon yesterday just got me psyched up. The Derby Mini is in 3 short weeks, and with the race season I've had so far, I have no worries about being able to keep up with the mileage I'll be running and the pace I'm hoping to keep (10:15 average). My hope is that after this next week is over with (have some last-minute cleaning, touch-ups, and minor landscaping to do) and the house actually goes live on the market, I'll get back into a routine and keep up the 1-2 short runs per week plus the long run on the weekends leading up to race day. After that, I'll have to find another race or two to keep my summer running up leading up to the Bourbon Chase as well as the Sports Commission Half and Big Hit Half in the fall. My finishing time and splits for today's short run: 2.8 miles in 28:37 with a 10:14 average pace and 10:07, 10:11 and 10:27 splits.

Papa John's 10-miler

What a great day for a race. Sunny and 47 at the start, and feeling thankful by mile 2.5 that I went with the shorts and t-shirt this morning. I must admit, part of me lay in bed this morning when the alarm went off at 6:00 and thought, "Ugh. I really don't have it in me this morning." But since this is the third and final leg of the triple crown, and I will be accumulating yet another shirt for finishing all three, I pulled my lazy butt up and headed out. I sat in the car for a long while before heading to the start, and when I crossed the line I had a few more thoughts that this was not going to be one of my better races. Until mile 3 I just really wasn't feeling it, and thought that I may end up walking a lot of it. I've written before that the thought of running the entire race was kind of daunting, and while I had known going into it this morning that I wouldn't run the whole thing, I didn't really have a plan either - so I tried something new. Instead of taking my walk breaks and set-time intervals, I took one-minute walk breaks at each mile marker. This actually worked out quite well, and I think I ended up catching some time when the mile markers ended up being near, or during, a down-hill and I just took advantage of the descending pavement and kept right on running. I felt amazingly great throughout the park and was so proud of myself for running the hills. Historically, the thought of running hills is daunting to me, and my lack of confidence takes over and I end up walking them - at least the majority of them. But, since I had run the park during last weeks training run I knew what to expect when, and I think that helped. Coming out of the park I ran into a friend from my tri group, Terry, who actually started her tri career the same year I did. We`ve done a number of tris together and she's come such a long way - even completing an Ironman a few years ago. Seeing a friendly face put a little spring in my step as I continued to truck along. I was actually feeling so good, and because of a downhill, ended up skipping the 6-mile walk break. At around 7.5 miles I got a side stitch and ended up having to take an unexpected break. Normally I can run through side-stitches, but this one was especially uncomfortable - painful even, so I opted to walk a bit and do some deep breathing. Not long after I started picking up the pace again the stich returned so, again, another unscheduled walk break. After another running attempt however, it seemed to work itself out and I didn't walk again until I was near the crest of a major hill just past the 9 mile marker. I've run many races, and I've completed this particular race a number of times over the past 9 years, and I will always maintain that the last mile of this race always feels like the longest mile ever. I made my way into the football stadium (the race ends INSIDE Papa John's Cardinal Stadium and you actually get to run up one side of the field, across the end zone, then back up the other side for the finish) and remember feeling a bit of relief for my sore legs and feet from the cushiony astroturf. I had been trying to keep a 10-minute pace throughout the race, but the hills, along with that silly side-stitch slowed me down a bit, and I ended up finishing with an average of 10:17/min pace and an un-official 1:44:29 finish. Splits were: 10:08, 10:09, 10:13, 10:29(park)10:22(park), 10:19(park), 9:52(saw my tri buddy), 10:58(side stitch), 10:19, 10:17. This race ended up being a 6-minute PR for me on this course - which I am EXTREMELY happy with considering my lack of motivation this morning. With as well as I've done so far this year, I don't think it's too far fetched to expect another PR during the Derby Mini in four weeks. Now that I think about it..... I`m wondering if I should attempt another marathon this year since I`m in the zone. Hmmmmmmmm........