So far, so good

I tried out the new Saucony shoes this morning. They felt fine, but it was only a five mile run so time will tell how they feel over a longer distance. But I was glad they were comfortable for a short run. Even if they don't help for a long run at least I know I'll be able to use them.

My total mileage for September was 163.93. Should have run an extra .07 just to get to a nice even number. That mileage wouldn't sound like a lot to a hard core runner, but that's a ton for me. My previous high mileage month was August with 153.19. Prior to that, I didn't even break 100 miles for most months.

Oh, and at the beginning of the year I set a goal of running 1,000 miles in 2009. As of today, I'm at 1002.94, so mission accomplished. I guess I can stop running for the rest of the year if I want to. :)

New Shoes

I went to the awesome local running shop (Hansons) today and talked to them about how flipping sore my feet were during the 20 mile run yesterday. I am now the owner of a pair of Saucony ProGrid Guide 2 shoes. I bought men's because I have big feet and they felt good.

I'll be doing 15 miles next Saturday so we'll see how the feet feel after that. I hope to God these help with the problem because otherwise I'm not sure how I'll manage 26.2.

Recovery Run

Went out for a nice little three mile run today to loosen things up. The first several steps were tough - my legs were protesting! After that, I settled in and felt good. Running three miles sure feels nice and short after the agony that is a 20 miler. It's amazing to me how much better my legs and feet feel compared to yesterday. I enjoyed running today.

Now I'm going to forget all about the 20 mile agony and pretend that the whole marathon will feel just as great as today did.

20 Miler

I ran 20 miles today. Holy crap, that was hard! I spent the last five miles telling myself that I was going to back out of this whole crazy marathon idea. Then I finally finished the 20 miles and took some Aleve and felt better, and I realized that after all this fricking training I have to find a way to get through the marathon.

But seriously, why do my legs have to get so damn sore? Gah. I'm good through 14 or 15 miles and then I get really sore and I want to give up. I'm definitely having issues with the mental aspect of running long distances. I need to figure out a solution before the marathon on October 18th.

I'm just going to tell myself that after the taper my legs will feel nice and fresh for marathon day, so it will seem easier. Please, nobody disabuse me of that notion. It's all I have to hang on to right now!

Back. Sorta.

Ah, my poor neglected blog! How could I abandon you?

Short update for now:
- I'm still training for the Detroit Free Press Marathon
- I have to run 20 miles on Saturday and I'm dreading it
- I did a 30K race on a freaking hilly course over Labor Day weekend and I did a terrible job and it scared me into thinking perhaps this marathon thing is not for me. But I will keep going and hope that the 20-miler restores some confidence.

In happier news, on Saturday I ran a 5K. This particular 5K was the very first race I ever did, when I started running last year. So this was my first repeat visit to a race. It was fun and I set a PR. Yay!

The Legend Race Report

Last Saturday David and I ran The Legend. This was a 5-mile trail run at a park north of Lansing, MI. That's about a 90-minute drive for us so we stayed at a hotel Friday night.

It was the third and final race in a series of trail races I completed, so I earned a nice big drinking glass with the series name on it, given to everyone who finished the series. It's not a medal but it's pretty cool.

We had gone out to this park a couple of weeks ago to try out the trail and it was pretty tough and muddy and flooded out in a couple of places. Saturday at the race they expected people to run through the flooded out spots but I admit I went it to the woods and went around the water instead of going through water that was above the ankles. Call me a wimp and it wouldn't bother me. I collected a lot of mud on my shoes because I did plow right through the muddy spots.

As usual I went out too fast because the trail was pretty flat and gentle at the beginning. When it started getting rougher and more hilly I slowed way down. And I was really careful (slow!) going through the muddy spots because I didn't want to slip and fall like a number of other people did. David was up ahead of me and out of sight for the whole race because he's faster than me. But that was cool because then he was at the finish line yelling "Go Cathy!" by the time I got there. :)

It was weird because I spent a good portion of this race running all by myself! I've never had that happen before, usually there are always other people around. But I was too slow for the fast crowd and too fast for the slower crowd so I was mostly by myself. Near the end I was running next to a woman for a while and we talked a little bit about how much the hilly trail kicked our butts. I tried my best to pass her at the end but I just had no juice left so she beat me.

But I really find I enjoy the trail races because it's a mellower crowd, it's a good challenge, it's pretty on the trail and it's just a lot of fun. I had a good time and I think I'll do this same series again next year.

Heart of the Hills 10K Race Report

Now I remember why I make a point of looking for races that say they have a flat course. I do not enjoy hills!

On Saturday, David and I ran the Heart of the Hills 10K. Let me start out by saying that my performance was abysmal. I think I came in 283 out of 306. Hills suck and I'm not good at them, which I'm sure means that I should do more hill work but let's never forget that I'm fundamentally lazy.

The start and finish were at a local high school. The race started at 8am so we showed up at 7 for packet pick-up. Nothing in the goody bag except our t-shirts (cotton) and a few advertising flyers. What, no lip balm? No key chains? No snacks? Well, it's a small race so it doesn't matter.

Running buddy Vicki was doing this one, too. Since we're in marathon training and needed longer than 10K today, we set out for a little warm-up run. Just did 15 minutes, nothing major. Normally I don't warm up at all so this was a change for me.

A few minutes before 8am we lined up at the start. We had D-tags but strangely there was no timing mat at the start. Oh well, guess they measure everyone's start time based on the gun time. Not a big deal considering it took all of five seconds to get across the start. Plus, as mentioned above I suck at hills so I don't think five seconds is really going to make or break my performance.

It was raining a little bit throughout the race but I didn't mind. Felt pretty good, actually. The heavy stuff didn't start coming down until after we were done.

I set out too fast for the first mile. Once we started hitting some hills I slowed right down. I realized this race was going to be a rough one for me so I told myself if I finished with an 11:30 pace I'd feel successful. So, by that measure it was a success, even though I've run a much faster pace for a half marathon.

Here are my times mile by mile:

Mile 1: 9:50
Mile 2: 11:33 (yep, hills!)
Mile 3: 11:16
Mile 4: 11:20
Mile 5: 10:28 (nice gentle decline right after we passed mile 4 so it made me feel like continuing even though earlier I felt like giving up)
Mile 6: 11:12
last 0.2: 9:44 (can you tell I was excited to be near the end of those fricking hills?)

Along the way, I was passed by an old man who was all hunched over and he pounded his feet more loudly than anyone I've ever heard. You would think that would have spurred me on to go faster, but I'm sorry to say that I couldn't catch him. I don't know how old he was. There was a 74 year old who finished ahead of me AND a 91 year old. Yeah, embarrassing. Hope I can still run when I'm their age.

During the final mile, a guy just in front of me asked a volunteer how much more there was to go. She wasn't sure so I gave him the distance from my Garmin and we started chatting a little bit. Turns out he has atrial fibrillation so he has to keep a close eye on his heart rate while he runs. If it goes above a certain point (140 something, I think) he has to take a walk break until his heart rate goes down. He was glad still to be able to run even though it took his pace way down from what it used to be in his younger days. He had to stop to walk then so I trudged on along to the finish.

I was so happy to hear the loudspeaker. The race finished on the high school track and I was relieved that they didn't make us run the whole way around. Would have seemed endless to me at that point. Then it was off to the concession stand where Whole Foods was supplying cookies and bananas. Waited a couple of minutes to see Vicki cross the finish line. David finished before me so I found him and we headed back to the car.

Lesson learned: Hills suck

But I bet I'll do this race again next year and maybe even train on some hills so I can at least beat the 70+ crowd. :)

Especially for Black Bear!

Sorry, Black Bear, I went to class today but we didn't do a track workout. We just ran loops around the shopping center where the running store is located.

And one of the coaches hassled me about not attending the Saturday morning long runs. Considering I'd have to get up at 4:45am to get there on time, I'm not too interested in attending those runs. I run long with a friend much closer to home at 7am on Saturdays and that works fine for me!

Next up is the Heart of the Hills 10K this Saturday. Hoping my favorite Black Bear has decided to run it, too. Hint hint HINT!

Been too long!

Wow, I've sadly neglected this blog. I don't feel like I have much to say. My marathon training schedule officially started on June 29th and I promptly skipped a couple of days of running that week. Whoops! Oh well, better to goof up the first week instead of the more important weeks later on.

I skipped the Wednesday running class a couple of weeks ago because I was swamped at work and also thunderstorms were going through the area. They did a track workout that day so I may have missed something interesting.

This past Wednesday's class was okay. The run itself was nothing special. They sent us out on the roads to run 4-6 miles. Once again, the coaches went with the fast runners and those of us who are slower were left on our own. The weather was good so it was an enjoyable run. I did only 4 miles since I'd already run 3 miles on Wednesday morning (just in case work was too busy for me to get away for the class).

After the class, we had a seminar on injury prevention. Not sure exactly what the credentials were of the speaker; I think he is some sort of physical therapist. In any case, it was really interesting and he talked a lot about improving one's posture and showed us a few exercises that will help us keep in alignment more easily. He'll come back for another session some time to talk about core strengthening.

One of the coaches gave me a marathon training schedule that he selected for me. Not sure how he selected it since he really hasn't seen me run, nor has he talked to me. The coaches do know our running distances and times because we have a website where we log all our runs so they can review it. The schedule the coach gave me is higher mileage than the schedule I'm using and I don't think I'll be following it. My current schedule may be a little light on mileage so I'll probably end up doing a compromise between the two. Since this is my first marathon and there are approximately a billion different training schedules out there, it's tough to know what's right.

This morning David and I met Vicki at the park for a 6-miler. I ended up doing 6 1/2 miles. It was hot for 7am (over 70 degrees) and really muggy. But it started raining part-way through the run and that kept us cool. The only other times I've run in the rain it's been a cold rain in winter or fall. Running in a warm summer rain was actually surprisingly pleasant.

Okay, done rambling for now.

Tonight's running class

Blah, tonight's running class was really disappointing. First of all, it's freaking hot out there - 90+ degrees. I prefer to run at 6am when it's not so gross outside yet. But I didn't run this morning because I knew I had the class tonight.

So we get to the class and all they did was send us out to the streets to run 4-6 miles! The two coaches took off with the fast runners and left us slower people behind. What a waste! If I'd known that's what we'd be doing, I would have run this morning and skipped the class. Seriously, what am I paying for here? I hope it's better next week. They say they will give us our personalized training schedules next week.

After the running portion of the evening, we went into the running store and they gave us a seminar about choosing proper shoes and socks. Interesting stuff, I guess, if you were brand new to running. Personally, I didn't learn anything new.

Blah! I am whiny today!

Running Class

I signed up for a "Marathon 501" class through a local running shop. My marathon training partner Vicki was going to do it, so I figured I would too.

The group meets twice a week, on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. Wednesday night will be hill work or speed work, while Saturday is the long run. We have two coaches and we also get emails a few times a week from the head coach of the whole program. (They run this class out of several locations.) Plus they have a website with different training schedules we can use, and where we track all of our workouts so the coaches can review it during the week and give us comments when we meet for class.

Last Wednesday was the first class where we actually ran. The prior Wednesday was orientation and they didn't have a Saturday meeting. Not sure how I feel about the class so far. We met at the running store, then ran two miles to a middle school that has a track. Once on the track, we did a two-mile timed run that the coaches will use to help us determine what our training pace should be. Then we ran two miles back to the store, got some initial comments from the coaches about our workouts we'd posted online, and that was it.

I was hoping that we'd be getting some tips on running form and that sort of thing during the class, but so far it hasn't happened. This thing will run through October (most people in the class are training for the Detroit marathon that happens in Oct.) so there's still plenty of time for that, I guess. But the coaches seem a little disorganized and I'm hoping that improves, too. If nothing else, though, at least it will force me to do some hills and speed work which are two things I tend to avoid on my own.

I won't be attending the Saturday long runs because they take place at a park which is way too far away from David's house where I spend the weekends. I don't want to drive 90 minutes to meet for a 6:45am long run. Vicki and I meet at a park and do our long runs together, and there's a huge Team in Training group that meets there so we always have people to run with if we want.

Overall, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I didn't waste $150!

Flirt with Dirt 5K Race Report

Yesterday was the Flirt with Dirt 5K at Lakeshore Park in Novi. The park has mountain biking and hiking trails. The race took place on the bike trails.

The temperature was in the low 50s so in other words, perfect. The skies were cloudy. The park is small and we arrived early because we figured parking would be a nightmare. We were wrong - they were very organized and we parked quickly. I'd already picked up my race packet on Friday so David and I just milled around until it was time for the race to start.

They started us off down a grassy hill and we ran a lap around a soccer field, then along the driveway to the trailhead and finally onto the trail. I positioned myself about midway back in the pack and I really don't know if that was a good idea or not. The trail was mostly very narrow singletrack so there weren't a lot of opportunities to pass or be passed. There were a number of times that I was right on someone's heels and could have been going faster but there was no way to get around. Of course, there were also times when someone was on my heels and couldn't get past me, so I suppose it all evens out in the end.

About 3/4 mile into the race, it started to rain. Fortunately, it wasn't raining very hard and the trees shielded us from most of it, anyway. I quickly forgot that it was raining and never even noticed when it stopped.

At one point the girl in front of me tripped on a root or something and fell forward, arms splayed out, right on her face. Ooof! I stopped to ask if she was okay and she said yes, then apologized to me for blocking me! Sheesh, I was just glad she didn't get seriously hurt. We continued to run and she said "ouch" and kept looking at her left palm. I bet she ended up with some fun bruises and scratches.

The trail had hills but not any that were as long as the hills on the first trail race I did, so I didn't have too much trouble. I was really pleased that I didn't walk during this race at all, unlike the previous trail race. It was uphill to the finish so I was huffing and puffing by the time I got there and didn't exactly cross the line in a blaze of speed, but that's okay.

I had two goals for the race:

1) Don't fall. (I fell during the first trail race, ugh!)
2) Keep a faster pace than the last trail race.

Mission accomplished on both counts! Woo hoo! I finished 10th in my age group, which sounds pretty awesome until you find out that there were only 15 racers in my group. :) I finished 96 out 155 overall. Good or bad? I don't know, but I was happy with my performance.

Nice and slow

Went out for a run this morning. I turned the Garmin on when I started running and then didn't look at it again until I was done. I wanted to run nice and relaxed without pushing myself to go faster. My goal was to do something a bit longer than the 3-milers I've been doing since the Bayshore half, but I didn't want to go all out since I have a race tomorrow plus it just felt like a good day for a relaxed run.

I hit the rail trail and ran until I felt like turning around, then ran some more and did a little random neighborhood running, too. When I bought my condo 15 years ago when I was tubby and inactive, I had no idea how wonderful it would be to have that rail trail a mere 1/4 mile from my front door. I love it! They've expanded it in the last several years so I could go a good 12-14 miles or so from end to end if I wanted to (with a couple of scary-ass road crossings in there).

Weather was perfect this morning - low 50s and sunny. A delightful day all in all, and lots of people out enjoying the trail with me. When I got home I expected to see maybe 4 1/2 miles on the Garmin, but it turns out I ran 5 1/4. Loved every minute of it.

Today's run

I ran three miles today at a 9:57 average pace. That's faster than the 5K we did on Saturday. What is happening to me? I honestly never thought I'd break a 10-minute mile. Now I want to see how much faster I can go.

But I'm taking tomorrow off from running. Partly because I don't want to overdo it, but mostly because I have an appointment at 7:15, then I have to work, and then right after work I go to my first Marathon 501 class! Time to start getting ready for the Free Press Marathon. I'm excited and terrified.

More running with David

Since the 5K on Saturday, David and I have had two more opportunities to run together. On Sunday, we headed to the park where I'll be doing a trail 5K on Saturday. I just wanted to check it out and see how crazy it is. We did about 1 1/4 miles there. I think I can handle the terrain, but I'm a little worried about being able to pass people or let them pass me - it is mostly narrow single-track. Hmmm, should be interesting!

After we left the park, we went to my house and did another 3 miles on my local rail trail and got done just before it started raining. A good day of running!

I stayed at David's house last night and we headed out for a run at 6am today. We have a good three-mile route in David's neighborhood that we've run before. We headed out really fast (faster than our race pace from Saturday) for the first 1.5 miles. After that, we knocked it down a notch so as to avoid a heart attack. :) Our average pace for the three miles was nearly as fast as our 5K. I'm excited about the next 5K road race we decide to do, because I think we will kick some major butt.

I have to say once again that I love running with David! What could be better than sharing my favorite activity with my favorite person in the world?

Dow 5K Race Report

Yesterday was a big day because it was David's first 5K. We ran the Dow 5K in Midland, MI. Since the race started at 8:15am and we live about two hours away from Midland, we drove up the night before and stayed at the lovely new Springhill Suites. I love staying in new hotels - less opportunity for other people to get gross things on every imaginable surface! Best thing about the hotel is that it's entirely non-smoking. Ahhhh, I love to be able to breathe!

We woke up around 6:30am on Saturday so we could get over to the Community Center early and pick up our race packets. Turns out neither of us slept very well on Friday night. I think we had a case of pre-race jitters.

After packet pick-up, of course we had to commemorate the occasion with a pre-race photo opportunity. One of these days I'll shower and do my hair before a shower so I can look pretty in a pre-race picture instead of greasy and unkempt. :)

Then we met up with Michelle, a friend I originally met on a papercraft forum. It was her first 5K, as well. Michelle was the reason I registered for the race. She lives in Midland and I told her I'd run the race too, to provide some moral support.

David later decided this would be a perfect race for his first one since he grew up in Midland and his parents both still live there. Ultimately Michelle decided she would prefer to run her own race rather than have me run alongside her, because her pace is a little slower than mine and she was worried about holding me back. David and I love to run together so we decided to stay side by side for this one and it was awesome!

The race started right on time. We were about halfway back in the crowd so it took us a couple of minutes to cross the starting line. But once we started, the nerves finally dissipated like they always do. We were both really excited and started out way too fast. We'd anticipated running a 10:45/mile pace but we were doing well below 10 for the first mile. We kept telling ourselves to slow down but that didn't work very well!

David's dad lives right on the 10K course and very near the 5K course, so he came out to cheer us on and snap a couple of action photos. We both got a great boost from seeing him and I'm just so pleased that he was there.

We pretty much kept pushing the pace the whole time even though we kept saying we should slow down. We were both feeling good, though, so why slow down, right? When we got down to the last quarter mile I said "Let's go, leave it all out on the course" and we pushed it even more and crossed the finish line together. Ultimately when the official times were posted David ended up finishing two seconds ahead of me. I think I crossed the start line just ahead of him.

The final result was the fastest pace I've ever run for any race (even faster than the Corktown 4-miler in March where I busted my butt) and we finished with a 9:59/mile pace. Yeah! For me, that is a super-freaking-fast pace. David and I both realized afterward that we could have run it even faster but we held back a little because we were afraid we'd be dying at the end.

David loved the whole race experience and I think he'll sign up for another one down the road. And we'll be sure to push hard the whole way and leave this race in the dust!

Another day, another run with my boyfriend

David and I got up early before work today and ran three miles together. I love running with him! :)

Another beautiful day

What a gorgeous day it is today! It's currently about 50 degrees and beautifully sunny. David is helping a friend's dad move some furniture at 10am today, so we headed out a 8am for a nice three mile run. I'm so thrilled that David is enjoying running. It's been great to run with him these past two days and I hope we have many more great runs together in the future.

Yesterday we discussed that he's interested in doing a half marathon some time in the future. We haven't identified a race yet, but you can bet I'll be ready and willing to sign up for it and run it alongside him (if I can keep up with him - he likes to pick up the pace!)

That's all I have to report for now. I hope everyone is having a great Sunday.

Milestone!

Recovery from Bayshore has been really smooth this week. I haven't run a ton, just 2-3 miles a day until today. This morning I went to Stony Creek to meet my friend Vicki. I planned to run six miles and she was planning 12 since she's training for a half later this month.

My beloved boyfriend David decided to come join us. We're running a 5K in Midland next Saturday - his first race - so he wanted to run three miles and make sure he could handle the distance since he's a new runner. I am so freaking proud of him and delighted, because he ran six miles today! We took a couple of short walk breaks but by far the majority of the six was running. He did a great job! I love running with David and I'm really excited about getting to do that more often.

He may be a convert to the delights of the early morning run, too. He felt great after finishing. I always love running first thing in the morning because then I don't care if I'm a lazy bum the rest of the day. I still know I accomplished something good. Now David understands that feeling. :)

Bayshore Half Marathon Report

I am proud to announce that I completed the Bayshore Half Marathon this morning in 2:16:51 which was a PR for me. (Previous PR was 2:20:02). Woo hoo! My Garmin battery died before the race started so I was running blind and actually that worked out okay.

The race course was so beautiful! Traverse City is located on a big bay of Lake Michigan and almost the whole course was on roads along the bay. Lovely views, great weather (mid-50s and some sun), awesome houses along the course that I would love to own.

I saw so many people I knew today, which was wonderful. I spent the time before the race hanging out with Sue, who was one of the Team in Training mentors when I trained for Phoenix. She's awesome and she will also be running the Detroit marathon so I know I'll see her a lot while training for that. She was aiming for a 2-hour finish time so I didn't run with her.

I set out alone at the start line, but about 2 miles in I heard someone say my name. It was Tracy, who was the TNT walk coach when I was a member. She is also awesome. She was running with her friend Tammy and I ran the remaining 11 miles of the race with them. That was so great. I wouldn't have gotten through it without them. Tracy was gunning for a 2:15 finish (which she didn't quite get) so I was pushing myself a bit to stay with her. It was soooo nice to have someone to run with, though, that I didn't want to fall back. Tracy and Tammy did pull away from me a bit in the last half mile because they wanted to try to sprint and I didn't have it in me.

With about 2 miles to go, we say Sandy who was my TNT running coach. She ran the last 2 miles with us. Are you seeing a theme here with the TNT people? Great group of folks and it's nice to feel like part of a running community.

Overall, I had a fabulous time. I've attached a few pictures David captured. The finish line was on the high school track so there was a nice group of people there at the end giving encouragement.

Wheee! I'm so glad I did it. I feel surprisingly good right now. I have a blister on the arch of my left foot but it doesn't hurt so it's all good. David and I spent the day in downtown Traverse City checking out all the cute little shops. And I had some beer and some pie and some pizza and everything else that was delicious. And I have a nice shiny medal and a shiny new PR. :)