THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

7:39 AP.  Tried out the crocs!  I wore my favorite pink running socks with black crocs.  They were deliciously light and comfortable and the run felt fantastic.  I was running very comfortably but yet the pace was quicker.  My feet felt light and free and so did my legs.  Only downfall, a hot spot and small blister in the crease of each big toe.  I believe it is because there is sort of a bump there in the bed of the shoe as part of the inner pattern.  What to do?  Put in inserts?  I don't know what kind of inserts I could stick in there.  I also thought about just fileing the bump down.  Any suggestions?  They feel fantastic and I want to run in them more!  Nothing hurts, not my calves, achilles, nothing.  That silly bump just rubs my toes the wrong way.

Easy breezy on the treadmill while Vanessa napped.  Ran mostly at 8:34 pace except for the last .l6 at 6:00 pace to stretch my legs a little.  I am pretty eager for the 5k this weekend.  I am itching to race and itching for a PR.

Terrible loooong day at work.  Came home and had to deal with a bunch of stuff.  No time to run, but I finally just took myself off the radar and ran 3 miles easy with surges of race pace to freshen up a little for the 5k tomorrow morning.  I hope I can sleep tonight; I will sure need it if I am going to get that PR.  I need it bad. 

A little discouraged.  Once again, I managed to finish one of these short races with way too much left in the tank.  It seems like once I really get cooking it's over.  I need to learn how to race and push harder in these short races.  I started out pretty good, didn't look at my watch but was in second place when the dust settled in the 2nd kilometer.  I was trailing the girl who won last year with a 19:30 so I figured if I kept contact with her that would be about right.  I stayed in range of her the whole time and then kicked about a quarter mile out and was closing the gap fast but ran out of race before I caught her--beat me by 3 seconds.  I could talk in full sentences immediately and knew this was not a good effort or true reflection of my capabilities.  I should have picked up the pace, passed her, and gone for it much sooner in the race.  I am disappointed-I know I have at least a 19:30 in me!  I am eyeballing a redemption 5k next weekend.  Bad idea or good idea?  I feel like I need the confidence boost of a 5k PR before my next marathon.  Warmed up 3.36 miles at 8:46 AP and did 5 strides off the line.  Cooled down 4.22 miles with Eddy at 8:35 AP, stopping a few times to field phone calls since I am the on-call nurse through until Monday.  I spent the awards ceremony in my car talking to a client and a doctor.  Next I ate lunch with my husband and then had to drive my sweat stinky self in running clothes to a client's house and send them to the hospital.  It has been a non-stop crazy on-call weekend and shows no sign of letting up.  

8:27 AP.  92 degrees, steady wind at 20mph with some killer gusts, not a super fun run.  The last two days I have been slammed by patients and am so glad this is the last stinkin day of being on call(day 8).  I was busy today but finally decided to go for it and squeeze a run in the late afternoon sun at Sedgwick County Park--two four mile loops.  I managed to stuff my big phone into the little key pocket but the real miracle is it didn't ring during the run.  Now I am up late wading through a lot of paperwork but am taking a mental break to blog!  I am OFF tomorrow and won't be on call again for 6 weeks.  Phew.  So...I am eyeballing this 5k on the weekend but also at the same time there is a 15k, and I am intrigued.  While I would really really really like some 5k redemption, I am 5 weeks out from a marathon, which is the ultimate goal, and a 15k would make a killer threshold workout, especially with a long cool down to make it a long run.  I can always find another 5k, in fact there is one on the 25th, so I am leaning more and more towards the 15k.  What do you guys think?

With a little less than 5 weeks to go until marathon time, I have decided to ditch speedwork in favor of the longer, more marathon-specific tempo workouts.  It is time to get myself used to the feeling of running hard for a long period of time.  Today's workout:  3x3 miles at MP with .5 jogging recovery.

2 mile warm up 8:28, 8:36

3 at MP 7:01, 7:02, 6:50

.5 at 8:21 pace

3 at MP 6:56, 6:56, 6:57

.5 at 8:40 pace

3 at MP 7:04, 7:05, 7:04

.76 at 8:51 pace cooldown to get back to my mother's house as she was kind of enough to watch Vanessa

My actual marathon pace is probably a tad slower but I will roll with these times.  The last set of 3 was hard as there was a lot of uphill and I was getting tired.  6:59 AP for the MP miles and 7:28 overall AP.  A solid training run for me.  These are the kind of workouts that get me ready to hang on for a marathon and make me feel confident.

I'm a windy blogger today.  Revamping my training for the next 5 weeks to race day:

No speedwork--tempo and MP, long tempo-type intervals (like today) midweek and a long run weekly.  This weekend will probably be a 15k race with 10 mile cooldown, next week easy 20, week after that 20 with last 8-10 at MP before two week taper begins.  Plan to run super easy the rest of the days while upping the mileage--whatever I have time for, target is 70-75 a week. Strides a few days a week for leg turnover.  I have been feeling flat and I think this training approach is better for me and should make me peak right on time.  Thoughts?

4:15 AM.  8:47 AP. I just don't move much this time of morning--but it was run early or run never for today.  My legs felt pretty good despite yesterday's workout so I was happy about that.  My 3 year old daughter is my hero today.  She got her poor big toe smashed and it bled a lot and it's hugely swollen, and whenever she walks around more blood comes out and spills over the top of her band-aid.  I was changing her band-aid for the third or fourth time and said something along the line of  cleaning the blood off when she calmly reassured me that it was not blood, just berry juice, and her toe was not broken.

Got up, laid on the couch, let Vanessa watch television, and fed her a chocolate doughnut.  Then we drove and parked at my moms and went on a stroller run for 5.15 mile at a leisurely 8:59 pace.  Went back to mom's, drank some coffee, then went with mom with the stroller again for 1.65 miles at 13:39 pace. I wore different socks and didn't get blisters from the crocs.  They felt great.  Then I hurried and showered and went to the nurse's meeting and now I'm frustrated and burnt out and have a crammed full day tomorrow and don't feel like cooking or cleaning the house.  I want a break. Crap.  I have to catch up on paperwork before getting more behind but I am seriously shut down and am not going to do anything right now.  It's one of those days.

pm:  after I laid on the couch for an hour and prayed a little I realized what a blessed life I have and am grateful to have.  I got up, ate dinner, and spent time with my family.  After the kids were in bed I went for a quick jaunt in town and saw another runner ahead in the dark, so of course I sped up.  Well, he was really hoofing it and I never caught him but dropped two fast miles 7:04 and 6:54 in the process before giving up.  The crocs did pretty good at race pace.  Slowed down and finished.  I feel better now.  7:41 AP

http://tonystrot.blogspot.com/

I am excited to join Tony in his run tomorrow--he should reach the Wichita area late morning and me and my husband and some tribe members plan on jumping on.  I am excited about supporting our soldiers and Tony's wounded warrior project.  He started running over 24 hours ago and is still going strong!

8 at 8:26 AP on the treadmill

Me, my husband, and our 3 youngest kids trailed and ran with Tony Clarke from 4pm to 9pm.  We went with him through South Wichita all the way until a few miles over the Sumner County line.  Our truck ended up being the rear escort so we stayed with his entourage until they had a friend in Sumner County who could take over.  It was an honor to run with him and talk a little.  Me and David took turns driving and running, and the kids took turns running too, even Vanessa.  With 180 miles in him, he was actually doing pretty good.  It was  lot of walk/jog but the fact that he was still moving was amazing to me.  I heard this morning that he crossed the Oklahoma border this morning, completing the 224 journey in 59.5 hours!  Go Tony and the Wounded Warrior Project!  It was actually pretty tiring and afterward we went and at Taco Bell and then crashed.  I'm counting it as 6 although it was probably a few more miles than that on my feet.

I was little tired going into this but decided to go according to plan, longish warm up and solid tempo run.  I got up, ate a piece of peanut butter toast, drank some coffee, then drove to Goddard.  The race had a way bigger turnout than expected!  It was pretty warm and muggy, and the South wind was beginning to pick up.  About and hour before the race me and Eddy  met up and slowly jogged 4.75 miles.  I then choked down half a gu and some water and then went to the starting line.  By now the south wind was significant and I knew it would cause troubles with my times but was determined to at least run a good effort and not cross the line with a bunch of gas in the tank.  The race ended up starting about 20 minutes late, which was too much time for me to look around and start getting psyched out.  Eddy was having the same problem.  The first place girl(fastest girl in Wichita) was there with her friends and she looked so amazingly in shape, 6-pack and all.  Eddy said he could feel the energy coming off of them.  I tried to be brave and told Eddy it was okay, that WE were fast too and could give them a run for their money.  Anyways I saw all these skinny, muscular girls that looked serious and ugly thoughts reared in my head about looking like a marshmellow next to them but I finally squelched the thoughts and got my head straight.  My Garmin freaked out and didn't split the miles or show my pace or anything, just elapsed time so I don't have splits.  I glanced at it at a few of the mile markers. 

Okay so the race finally starts and I try really hard not to go out too fast and just relax into a good rythm.  The first place woman just tears out of there and she is gone.  I looked at my watch and first mile was 6:45.  Perfect.  I just try and keep a good rythm and concentrate.  The next two miles I pass a few men but am definitely second place woman.  At the 3 mile marker my watch says 20:42 so still clipping off sub 7s.  At 3 miles we turn north onto a straightway with the tailwind and a little rolling so I try to relax into my pace and keep a good turnover.  Somewhere in here I swallow a little water and dump the rest on my head because I feel hot.  As I near the turnaround I see the first place guy, and then not too far behind there is the first place woman.   WOW she is flying and looking to chick the rest of the field(she did).  I hit the turnaround heading south and here it is, the evil south wind, and it is stout today.  I tried to relax and not struggle with it too much, just keep the same effort and turnover.  I could glance at the people coming and got a handle on third place--she looked to be about 1-2 minutes back so I had a fairly comfortable gap.  I knew I was losing time in a big way through here, though.  The guy that has been running ahead of me about the entire race is losing ground and as I pull up next to him he laughingly says something about me breaking wind for him.  I surge past him and he stays on my tail for quite a while.  I wonder if my windbreaking was any good.  I told myself as soon as we turned east out of the wind I needed to make up some time so we turned and I started to push my pace.  At this point I was running all alone.  Windbreaker guy had fallen back and I couldn't see anyone ahead of me.  There was a lot of curving around through the neighborhood and I ran the entire rest of the race with nobody in sight.  A few times I nervously thought I was lost and almost made a wrong turn but was stopped by a lonely volunteer on a corner(thanks!).  When I came through the 9 mile mark in 1:03 something I knew I had lost my sub-7 average and pushed the last part of the race to try and get it back but was unsuccessful.

Although I had truly hoped for a better time, I felt like my effort was decent today.  I don't feel like I dogged it and gave up.  I was very tired at the end and had to lean over and catch my breath.  I kept my rythm in the wind and did not let it mentally defeat me.  I was never passed.  It was a solid workout on tired legs.  I am not going to call this race a flop.  I don't know if it was of certified length or had accurate mile markers, and my dang Garmin didn't measure it(I would have loved to have some better splits).

I crossed the finish line, gave Eddy my tag so he could get my medal for me, then jogged to my car, hopped in, drove home and showered quickly, and went to church.  I was only a tiny bit late for the worship service in the beginning but didn't miss communion, the offering, or the sermon. 

Next step, jog easy a few days and then run a stamina workout--probably on Wednesday?  I am thinking a 2x4 at MP or a little faster.

8:28 AP.  Treadmill.  My DDRR(day after dismal race recovery).  I have identified a problem today:   I'm not sore!  How can I not be sore?!?  Not even one little tiny bit.  Did I race or did I just do a big 'ol super tempo?  Sorry...just thinking out loud.  No more racing until marathon day. That way I arrive at the line itching to race, tapered, and hopefully I RACE!  I want to feel spent, sore, barely able to walk, too uncomfortable to sleep right,--that's how I should feel after a race that I really tore up.  That is my goal--to feel like that after October 10th!  

Asthma strikes my little girl with a vengeance.  no run.

Vanessa is better today.  I put her down for her nap and went to run on the treadmill but it's not working.  Maybe I will get a run in this evening.  I hope so.

8:10 AP.  I intended to do some tempo/threshold work midweek but I am very tired and stressed, and decided it would just feel nice to go on a longish, relaxing run, so I bribed Brandon with lunch at Red Robin to watch Vanessa for a few hours and about 10:00 took off.  It has been a long time since I visited my beloved rolling dirt roads due to always having to run in the dark(I stick to the nearby housing additions) or having a stroller in tow.  Oh how I miss them!  I had a lovely run, and was joined for a while by one of my favorite dogs(I call him Angel because he is old and white).  My treadmill is still broken--I am getting ready to make some phone calls about that.

I am not sure about my goal pace for the quickly approaching marathon anymore.  I think I have made some training mistakes this round, but you never know unless you experiment.  I may be doing good just to PR by a few minutes.  We shall see.  I don't foresee it being much of a breakthrough.  I have decided that for me, speedwork is more or less worthless and threshold work is much more effective and what I really need.  Hill work, however, has some benefits and is something I would still like to incorporate somewhat.  I ran my "easy" runs too hard, and was not fresh enough to nail some of the harder workouts or long runs.  The sad part is that I have pulled off much better performances in training than in any of my recent races, which is a sign of a problem!  I think for Houston I am going to get back to the 12-week training schedule I used for the Eisenhower marathon--albeit modified for a faster goal time.  I also need to clean up my diet--I started that today.  I have really sorta slipped into eating like crap for a while.

8:27 AP after a long day at work.  It was a short run to get ready for a long run tomorrow morning!  I am going for a 22 mile progressive run with last 6 at marathon pace.  Should be the last killer long run before marathon day!  In other new, the place I bought my treadmill from with its one year warranty has closed up shop and is out of business.  Nice.  Fortunately, my husband is quite the handyman and has been downstairs for an hour figuring it out.  He said he can fix it and is hard at work!  We may have to order some parts from the manufacturer at some point, but he is determined to have it up and running tonight.  He is the greatest!

Good luck all you top of utahers and all the other folks racing tomorrow!

7:53 AP.  This run was a disaster.  I started by myself in the dark on the HS course and got hopelessly lost.  I spent a significant chunk of time running in circles looking for mile markers and got pretty desperate at one point for some water.  I finally found some tribe members coming back and got pointed the right direction but got lost again.  It was pathetic and pretty discombobulating.  By the time I hit the last 6 miles I was lost again and didn't get much done in the way of marathon pace work.  I threw in a few fast miles but was mostly just a lost mess!  I will not do this again!  Next week I will try 18 with the last 10 at MP on a course I know well!  Ugh! Crazy splits:  8:35, 8:32, 8:26, 8:08, 8:21, 8:02, 7:54, 7:43, 7:50, 7:37, 7:42, 7:44, 7:42, 7:43, 7:47, 7:19, 7:28, 7:54, 8:08, 8:03

8.02 at 8:02 pace.  Hah!  Nice relaxing run after a super stressful day at work.  Did the last mile in 7:17 to stretch my legs a little.   Hopefully I can sucker Brandon into watching Vanessa for a few hours tomorrow and put in some marathon pace intervals.

So...me and my husband got the course map and tried to drive the course for the Prairie Fire Wichita marathon.  We got hopelessly lost and went back and started over and tried again multiple times but there are a lot of turns and the map is clear as mud--at some point we are on sidewalk and down some paths where vehicles can't go and then we tried to pick up on the other side but finally got frustrated and gave up.  I hope they have a lot of people out there directing traffic or there is going to be some major confusion.  Good thing I have Houston to look forward to if this one is a total flop!

7:51 AP.  Well, this was suppose to be a 2x4 MP tempo but my plans were foiled once again.  It was a 25mph south wind by the time Brandon got to the house and nearing 80 degrees but I figured I would at least put MP effort in.  Off I went.  Did a nice 2 mile warm up and launched into my MP tempo running south straight into the headwind.  First tempo mile 7:35 but I was fine with that with the wind, as I turned off the dirt and into a crosswind I picked it up and was feeling pretty good when a fella driving by in his truck informed me I was being followed by a little dog that almost just got ran over.  I turned around and sure enough our miniature schnauzer was in hot pursuit.  Well, I am almost 4 miles from home now and he thinks it's a game and I couldn't catch him, so I turned around and started running back towards home so he would follow me.  He kept veering off chasing animals and stuff.  I finished the 4 mile tempo and didn't see him so I turned around and jogged back a while yelling for him.  Nowhere in sight.  Crap.  I don't want to be the one responsible for losing the dog that the kids love so I jog home and get the car and drive all over looking for him and he is nowhere to be found.  Now I am feeling like a terrible human being for not catching him and picking him up and carrying him home, but at least I don't see his body on the side of the road.  I drive back home, call my mom to tell her what a horrible person I am, and as I am talking to her open the back door one more time to look out into the pasture and there he is waiting at the back door.  PHEW!  By now the momentum is lost and allotted running time is over.  other 3 miles of the tempo were 7:06, 7:08, 6:58. 1.79 mile cool down yelling for a dog.  Maybe I can run some more this evening.  Maybe not.  My training frustrations are mounting.  Maybe this will just leave me lots of energy for the 10 + 10MP tempo Saturday.

8:37 AP.  I set my alarm for 4:05am and did not much like it when it went off.  However, it is run now or not today.  I had to be done and showered by 6am.  This is actually a pretty good pace for this time of morning for me!

My treadmill is still broken(more on that in a minute).  Tis a blustery and windy day(30+mph).  There is no way I can stroller run Vanessa in that with her asthma.  What's a girl to do?  Run figure 8's around the pasture and the house, of course.  I put Vanessa down for her nap, made sure she was solidly asleep and then started running loops.  The first few were particularly hazardous as I tripped over crabapples in the overgrown grass and cleared multiple spiderwebs with my face.  After that it was fairly smooth sailing when my feet figured out where to land.  I popped in 3 times to make sure Vanessa was still sleeping.   Maybe I will get to squeeze in a few more tonight but I have more or less resigned myself to the constant onslaught of events that has made training quite difficult recently.  

8:15 AP

My husband has discovered parts of the treadmill that are broken and SUPERGLUED together.  Scandalous!  The store that sold it to me is out of business and we have as yet been unable to reach the manufacturer.  Frustrating!

8:08 AP.  Finished my visits early and got to run at 2:00 in the afternoon. It was 84 degrees but the east wind was cool and breezy, unlike the furnace blast I know as the south wind, and I was pretty comfortable.  I stuffed my earbuds in and listened to music and had a pleasant jaunt.  I ran into town and down to the track to get a drink out of the water fountain and then ran back home. The Nike Lunarfly's did awesome straight out of the box.  I like!--will be my marathon shoe.  They are voltage cherry color with an electric blue swoosh--should be able to see me coming miles away.  Fun!

8:32 AP.  Nice and easy--it is evening already and I am getting up early to do my 10 easy +10 at MP with Eddy.  Off to hydrate myself and hopefully have an awesome tempo tomorrow before kicking off a slight taper.  Well, really,  I won't taper much other than the last week since my training really doesn't warrant a taper.

YEAH BABY!  It's about time I had a good run.  Exactly two weeks before the marathon--time for the final tempo.  Goal was 10 easy with 10 at MP.  Met up with Eddy bright and early at 5:30 after two nutri-grain bars, a cup of coffee, and a few swallows of water.  We were off into the dark for 10 easy miles of chatting.  I grabbed a swallow of water at mile 3.5 and a gu with a little water at 7.5.  Splits for 10 easy were 9:04(not awake yet), 8:46, 8:32, 8:23, 8:25, 8:09, 8:07, 7:53, 7:58, 8:04.  Took a quick swallow of water at the turnaround and then dropped the hammer.  I felt great, breathing was easy, energy levels were great, temps were wonderfully cool.  The only problem was that my legs were stiff and never really loosened up.  I figured whatever pace I could hold on unresponsive legs would be easy in a marathon after a taper so I kept plugging away.  Took a gu while running in the 3rd mile of the tempo.  Splits were 6:50, 7:01, 7:09(water stop and didn't stop my watch, took me a second to get the lid off the bottle), 6:59, 7:01, 7:05, 6:59, 7:15, 7:13, 6:55, last .04 in 16 seconds.  Total time for 10.04 1:10:43/7:02 pace.  That would be freaking awesome if that is my marathon pace but I'm just going to feel it out in two weeks when the day comes.  I don't believe it will be a particularly fast course with all the turns but I will give it my best shot.  The pace definitely felt manageable and not overwhelming so I am encouraged.  We ran into Raquel afterwards and she is only running the half, so she won't be blowing the field away in the marathon.  This honestly puts me in contention for a top 3 finish if I go sub 3:10 unless a bunch of people I don't know about show up from out of state.  I hope I have my mojo on race day and can put up a fight.

Day after a Sunday 20-miler so I made this my day off.  Good thing, because I somehow slept horribly wrong and cricked my neck and between my shoulder blades.  I can't turn my head or reach with my arms right.  I have done this before so at least I know it only lasts a few days.  Note to self: don't sleep wrong the night before a marathon!  

Neck is still stiff but much much better, should be runnable.  Attempt at a stroller run coming soon.

8:00am  6 miles stroller 8:59 AP.  My legs are not sore after Sunday's tempo but they are definitely a little dead.  Vanessa felt heavy.  We stopped at Sonic afterward and she got her tater tots--it has been a while and she was very excited!  Maybe a few more this pm.....

7:00pm 5 miles in the balmy 75 degree air at 8:05.  Listened to tunes and totally enjoyed the run.  No more 4:30am runs until the marathon.  I will run when I can but not that early!  Sleep is more important than miles at this point.

7:53 AP.  Evening run on a superfull stomach of taco salad.  I had hiccups for the first two miles--that was interesting; I think I sounded like a drunken runner.  Anyways, I meant to run 8 but the sun went down faster than I realized it would and it was too dark and I didn't carry a light with me so I booked it home and ran in the ditch so the cars wouldn't hit me.  Last two miles 7:14, 7:04--a little impromptu MP I guess.  My neck is still mildly cricked but runnable and getting better.

7:35 AP.  This workout was a disaster in some ways, great in others.  Objective was a 2x3 fast tempo with 1/2 mile recovery.  Tempo defined as half-marathon pace or so--at least faster than MP.  Well, in my usual fashion, I blew through the first set of 3 miles too fast and legs and lungs were feeling fried by the end.  In fact, I decided I wouldn't do the second set of 3 but after recovering a mile and mulling things over decided to do another 3 but at a reasonable pace, which turned out to be about MP.  This was actually okay since the second set was on rolling dirt hills and I was pretty fried from first set.

warm up 8:53, 8:22

3 miles too fast 6:36, 6:40: 6:37

stagger through a mile recovery 8:57

3 on the rolling dirt 7:13, 7:10, 7:13

1.07 cool down 8:04 pace

The funny thing is, I did this exact same thing before my last marathon with this exact same workout(killed myself in the first set and staggered through the second set) so I am not too discouraged.