Upside Down And Inside Out.

This is for the week of January 21-27.

I think there is a song about that.  Oh yea.  Diana Ross.

Anyways, this week was a bit of a mess with stomach issues.  Stomach issues at night, stomach issues in the morning...I was really upset when I couldn't do my favorite Faster Finish Workout (the 20 min out/back - negative split.)  Monthly Lady Issues happened on Saturday night, and by Sunday, I was truly upside down and literally inside out. I had accidentally worn my sports bra inside out for Manhattan Half Marathon.  I went into the race not rested, but rather exhausted.

Coach wanted me to go 8:00 which is my target Marathon Pace for Boston (3:30) this year.  But me, being the stubborn old b!tch that I am, decided that my Marathon Pace will be 7:48 (3:24) no matter what.  Because you know, PR.

The race day started super early for me, at 5AM.  My race day rituals include pooping at least 3 times, getting nervous, dry heaving, ingesting performance enhancers, tying-untying-tying my shoes, then finally some form of warm up. 

Sunday, January 27 was a cold (sweet) day, starting temperatures just barely around 20F.  It had snowed Friday, so there were still snow left on the ground.  The NYRR MCs did a FABULOUS job of scaring me with “oooooo  look out for the ice on the ground, especially near the water stations!!”  I hate slipping and falling…

The race started slow, with bunch of peeps bunched up as usual and people generally being slower than necessary, I guess, to warm up their legs.  I was forced to slow down.  But by the time I hit Cat Hill, I let my legs get up to 75% effort – which is marathon effort.  I went up the Cat Hill so smoothly, I immediately got nervous.  Am I going to die by round two??  (That's the scary part of this course.  You always need to keep in mind where you're going to be for the second lap.)

Once I got over the Cat Hill, I settled into a comfy 75% effort.  Not too fast, not too slow.  Enough time to think about all my body parts, form, neighbors, etc.  Unfortunately, I didn’t see anybody funny looking.  When you have so much mental room to think about so many things, an odd thing starts to happen. 

For Example: 

“OMG why is my left foot hurting??  Do I have a stress fracture???” and

“OMG I have to pee.  Should I stop here?  Should I go here?” 

Strangely, both issues resolved by mile 12 and didn’t come back even after I finished the race. I didn’t  have to go pee after all.

This run, my performance enhancer of choice was Powerbar Gels.  These are great for sub-zero winter running because they don’t freeze or congeal.  I really don’t care to know what makes them not freeze, but it’s probably the same antifreeze fire retardant good stuff they’ve put in Gatorade…  I broke into my Tangerine Gel at mile 6, because everybody around me did too. 

Split	Time	Distance	E-Gain	E-Loss	Avg Pace
1	08:01.1	1	0	0	8:01
2	07:47.0	1	36	0	7:47
3	07:37.3	1	6	54	7:37
4	07:47.6	1	73	63	7:48
5	07:53.7	1	55	0	7:54
6	07:42.1	1	27	60	7:42
7	07:47.6	1	0	19	7:48
8	07:47.4	1	36	0	7:47
9	07:38.5	1	0	27	7:39
10	07:51.5	1	73	77	7:52
11	07:57.3	1	47	0	7:57
12	07:41.6	1	25	59	7:42
13	07:43.9	1	32	46	7:44
14	01:16.7	0.18	0	0	7:02
Summary	1:42:33	13.18	410	406	7:47

I'm not sure if it was the tangerine anti-freeze or what, but despite my fear, I did not die on my second round at the Cat Hill (red number is Cat Hill).  In fact, it felt pretty good!  At halfway into mile 10, I decide that I want to finish strong, so I took a little breather at mile 10 and 11, not going as hard on the big hills.  Could I have gone harder on the hills?  Probably...but I wasn't going for a PR, so why bother, right?

It was, however, the fastest 13.1+ that I did in Central Park.  Not too shabby.  My only concern was that my legs did feel a bit spent after the race, and it took me probably more effort to do the 2 mile prescribed cool down than the whole race.  I was also a bit annoyed that I was so off the tangent. I need to work on that so that I don’t end up running another 27 mile marathon.

Overall, I came 7th in my new age group and gave me a bit of a confidence boost. I’m sure it will be shattered in a day or two again, though! 

Fixing It.

For the Week between January 14 -20.

This week really tested my endurance and I was, quite frankly done.  After a second week in a row of not so pleasant Thursday workout, I had to ask for schedule re-do that incorporated more recovery.  I ain’t 20 years old, so I need more time to recover between workouts.

In fact, I not-really celebrated my 40th this week. 

Tuesday consisted of a Strawberry Hill Repeats which were good.  I like these.  But I discovered that after a nasty fall (see pic) in November on Cat Hill, I have developed a deep, near-primal, fear of doing U-turns at high speeds at the bottom of a hill.  I slowed down to a crawl there, and ended up getting beat by a ton of folks.  Oh well.  It’s not like it’s a race.

Wednesday, I had to wake up at 5AM to put in 10Ms.  Well, the day was snowy, sleety, yucky, so I did it on the treadmill.  Being on the treadmill for an hour and a half or so at 6AM is not fun.  My choice of TV shows were “Debt Ceiling” or “Lance Armstrong”.  Speaking of Lance…I don’t really care if he doped.  No sports athlete is ever ‘au natural’.  If you’ve ever taken a Gu or a Gel, you’ve taken performance enhancers.  I’m more irritated that he was such a nasty bitch about it to others.  Anyways, I digress.

Thursday.  Yes.  This was a  bad day.  It was a simple tempo interval workout and my legs didn’t move at all.  I felt like I was running a 3K race all the way. 

2 mile warmup. 1 mile at 7:40/mile, 1/2 mile recovery, 1 mile at 7:30/mile, 1/2 mile recovery, 1 mile at 7:20/mile, 1 mile cool down.  So roughly Marathon Pace, Half Marathon Pace, 10K Pace.

Here is attempt #1.  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/263215102

I was so disappointed, I started crying at one point.  I am SUCH a drama queen.

Not being happy with this attempt, I ranted on my training partner, then proceeded to attempt #2 in the evening:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/263215111

I’m still not hitting the paces, but I had much better run and felt a little better.  The day ended up being a 15mile day, which is bit much, but I felt good about it.  Besides, think about all the calories!

Next day, I had a good meeting with my Coach.  By the way, the guy rides a bike in 20F weather, so he’s a bit off kilter.  We discussed and reworked the schedule so that I have a "be nice to an old person" recovery day between the midweek mid miles and the second set of hard/speed/hill workout.  

We decided have the second hard day on Friday, allowing for a recovery run on Thursday…ONLY to be thwarted by weather.  This coming week, I will not get a recovery run Thursday due to snow and sleet on Friday… So after all that, we’re still on 3 day (Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday) hard schedule.

I need to do stronger marathon pace long runs now.  This weekend's was not all that great.  Yea, I hit the lower end of the pace (7:52), but ran out of juice and fell victim to the 20mph head winds. 

Marathon Mantra:  What doesn't kill me will make me stronger (or something like that).

Back to Greyhound Effect.

My Coach likes to believe that I’m faster than I actually am.  Which is really sweet of him, but I ain’t that fast.  So when I joined his Faster Finish class, he thought I was nuts.  But the truth is, I needed it.  There are always people that are faster than me and chasing them is the only way that seems to work .  The best part is my training partner has joined the class as well.  So like a greyhound with a rabbit to chase, I now have a target to follow.  I call this the Greyhound Effect.

Week 1 was tempo run, with gradual pace increase every ½ of a Lower Loop:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/259871973

7:52, 7:29, 7:16, 7:16, 7:05.  Hey…excuse the double 7:16s...but it’s super fabulous that I’m actually running in the Seven minute range without throwing up.  Good sign.  However, this newly regained confidence was short lived, as by Thursday, I was feeling fat and slow again.  

Enter 8X Cat Hill Repeats. 

Jan 2012:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/138633816

Jan 2013:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/260593091

YO…Really?  But then, the recoveries aren’t really recoveries here.  The goal of the workout was consistent pace up and down, “Marathon Effort”.  All sorts of lame excuses were made;  different workout, tired legs, 10K race, Faster Finish, 9Ms Wednesday, and taking Wil “bitchy” Ashley’s Spin, but the bottom line was that I didn’t get it done.  I crawled back with tail between my legs.  (btw, I say “bitchy” as a compliment) 
I immediately cried to my Coach, who said:

No need to beat yourself up over this workout! Your ascents were relatively consistent throughout the workout. I'm sure it felt harder since this was the third straight day of a tough workout. I never expect perfection, and would be a terrible coach if I did. And you should expect to nail every workout perfectly! If you were doing that, A. I'd be a lame coach since I'd be giving you workouts that were too easy or B. you wouldn't need me.

Remember, it takes a huge amount of effort to improve. Workouts like this one are designed to beat you up a bit. It doesn't mean you're a poor athlete if it was harder than you felt it should've been! Keep the big picture in mind.  

Ok.  So Long Run.   I scraped myself off the floor, put my violin back, and headed out to Central Park.  I was determined to do 2X Harlem Hills in this run and as many Cat Hills as I can possibly squeeze in for my 15M run.  Perscribed pace was 8:30 pace.  Since I lost all my confidence I decided to make Jean Claude Garmin STFU.  I didn't want him telling me I'm a slow, fast ass.  I decided to run completely by feel.  Target “feel” was to be 70%, for 8:30 pace.  I did much better than I thought I had!!  Not particularly fast, but even pace up and down the hills which is really important for Boston Training.  I don’t want to lose too much time in Newton!  The overall pace was strong, and I think it's where I want to be with still 13 weeks to go.

I think despite all the crying and complaining, the hill workouts are working....Or maybe it was Greyhound Effect – there were three little blonde things I saw in front of me that was going at 8:00 or so pace.  Or maybe it was just the crack.

 

2013 Joe Kleinerman 10K (oh, and Happy New Year).

The week of December 31 to January 6 comprised of what my coach called “an aggressive taper” towards the Joe Kleinerman 10K .  Not sure what was aggressive about it.  Is it like tapering, but with aggression?  Was I supposed to get mad and go hit stuff? 

Most of December had been tough, tough, tough workouts.  Fartleks here, Hill Repeats here.  Mid distance runs on Wednesdays were a killer too.  It drains a lot to get up at 5AM to go put in 10 miles, yo.  So yea, anger and aggression had built up, but I don’t think that’s what he meant.  Although he did admitting to PILING tough workouts  (emphasis added).

Last year, I had PR’ed with Joe Klenierman 10K.  45:38 or 7:21/pace. 

The course was one of my favorite lay outs, where you started at the 102^nd Street Transverse and went counter clock circle of the Park from there.  This gets Harlem Hills, West Drive Hills and all the nasty bits out of the way first, and gives you about 1.75 miles of nice flat or downhill at the end to really push it.  LOVE LOVE LOVE this course.  Also, last year, I was full of confidence.  I was running faster and I knew I was going to PR this.  AND the best part was my training partner was running it.  I didn’t want to be left in the dust by her, so there was that extra push. 

This year, I had struggled SO MUCH with the hills, I wasn’t too sure how I was going to do.  In fact, I thought it would be a small miracle if I could run sub-7:30 pace.  My training partner wasn’t running this race.  And to top it all off, the course was different.  The stupid hills are in the middle, there is not flat -to-downhill at the finish part to kick it into top gear.  Not to mention poor training results cause me to be scared straight and so nervous Friday night that I forgot to go grocery shopping.  I’ve done more races than I care to remember now, but this race was different.  It felt like this was my first 10K race ever.  Every time I thought about the start corrals, my stomach ached and my hands got sweaty. 

I do wish that I didn’t lose so much concentration and take in so much “recovery” between mile 3 and 4.  That is the part that’s down hill off Harlem Hill and onto the next first West Drive Hill.  I was “saving” for the rolling hills and the Annoying Tavern-On-The-Green Hill.  I didn't know I was going so slow because I passed a BUNCH of people on these hills, though.  But all in all, it's just not a good idea to "save" when going for a PR…guess that's the difference between being confident in your running and not.  At some point low expectations becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

Split	Time	Distance	Elevation Gain	Elevation Loss	Avg Pace
1	07:20.0	1	55	28	7:20
2	07:09.5	1	0	28	7:10
3	07:35.1	1	69	73	7:35
4	07:39.7	1	48	0	7:40
5	07:22.8	1	27	61	7:23
6	07:22.5	1	9	24	7:23
7	01:38.2	0.23	0	0	6:59
	46:07.9	6.23	208	214	7:24

Just for reference, here’s 2012:

Split	Time	Distance	Elevation Gain	Elevation Loss	Avg Pace
1	07:24.2	1	70	57	7:24
2	07:22.7	1	86	59	7:23
3	07:16.6	1	0	61	7:17
4	07:29.1	1	44	37	7:29
5	07:30.5	1	66	28	7:30
6	07:06.8	1	9	36	7:07
7	01:30.7	0.22	0	0	6:47
	45:40.5	6.22	275	278	7:20

Fun Fact:  I was 14th in my gender & age group both this year and last year.  I guess EVERYBODY WAS F%%%ING SLOW. 

Since the course is different, it’s a bit hard to do Apples-to-Apples comparison.  It’s really matter of smidge here and smidge there, I suppose.  In hindsight, I think I could’ve pushed harder.  So now the more I think about it, the more AGGRESSIVE and ANGRY I feel about it.  This is called AGGRESSIVE REVERSE TAPER, maybe.  Or not. 

Anyways.  Onwards to more training, as now Boston is only 14 weeks away.  If I lose a pound a week, I’ll lose 14lbs by Boston.  Hmmm.