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NYC Marathon Training Week 9

August 19, 2012 · by Ari · 1 Comment

Oy. Yesterday was not the best day, but you know what? It finished a whole lot better than it started. It’s amazing–if you just ask for help, usually people are happy to do it! Heather, Nicole and Tara are being rock stars helping me out to get ready for the fundraiser. Emily and Lauran talked me down, and reminded me that I don’t suck at life. I got lots of love from my best friend Bethany, and then my amazing husband….GAHHHH, I LOVE HIM. He cleaned the house. He knows me. He gets it. He knew exactly what I needed from him, and he agreed to help me with my baking for the fundraiser on Friday. Everything will work out. I just have to get through this week of auditions and silent auction planning!

So about this whole marathon training thing…. One day its going to be over and I’m actually gonna have to run the thing. That day used to seem so far away, but its going to be here before I know it. Sometimes I think I prefer the training to the actual race. There’s less pressure, and so many opportunities to hit new paces and mileage. I’m so excited for the week we do 16 miles because it will be my first time really tackling a new distance since February. That was my favorite thing about training for PF Chang’s–every week I was setting new records for myself, and it definitely motivated me to keep at it.

I was a little emotional about my running this week. Pick your jaws up off the floor, people. I know me being emotional is totally shocking and out of character, but please keep it together 😉 Here’s a look at how it went down.

Monday: 6 mi run with Nicole. This was supposed to be 2 miles easy, then 4 moderate. It ended up being a start realllllllly slow, then get faster every mile. Close enough, right? It was hot, and by the end I was at my normal moderate pace, but it took me a while to get there. Ended up with an average pace of 10:14–not quite where I’d like to be, but I’m trying to learn to go by effort rather than numbers when it comes to running in the heat. Nicole and I did see a really gorgeous sunrise, though which made everything kinda worth it!

Tuesday: Linda’s spin. 20.5 miles in 55 min. I love spin. Christina even joined me last week, and she’s coming down again today. I love spinning with friends!

Wednesday: Track. 1.2 mi warm up, 4x400s @ 8:17, 8:16, 8:16, 8:10, 1mi @ HMGP @ 8:54. I ended up with 4.36 mi in about 41 min (9:17 average). I felt like my paces were spot on, but then I was the very last person left on the track. I ran 2 entire laps with no one else. It was embarrassing and frustrating. I know it’s because most of my team was not racing, and did their mile time trial, and that’s faster obviously, but it just kinda put me in a bad place mentally about it. I hate feeling like I’m the worst, slowest, etc. Coach Susan gave me a pep talk about not comparing myself to others–something that could still use some work.

Thursday: Recovery run. Ran with Nicole again. I love having running friends so close by, and I’m so happy we’ve been able to work out in the mornings so often lately! I came up with this brilliant plan for Nicole to do her mile time trial while I recovery ran. We warmed up together, I met her at the end of her mile after I continued on at my slow recovery pace, and then she was able to cool down while I kept shuffling along my tired legs. I ended up with 3.32 mi in 35 min. Nicole killed her mile. She is Speedy Gonzales.
Friday: 19 mile bike ride. BBFF cross training day! Bike + breakfast + coffee = the reason I love Friday mornings.

Saturday: Rest.

Sunday: AFC Half Marathon. Full recap coming soon. Spoiler alert: it was hot and I met none of my goals I’m working on being Zen about it. Here’s an other sunrise picture. This was probably the best part about this race.

So this week was kind of a roller coaster. That’s okay. It’s long training plan, and not every week is going to be perfect. I just keep reminding myself of when I did my 10 mile time trial, and it was the most perfect run ever of life. It reminds me that I’m capable of having kick ass runs that not only meet my goals, but feel great too. Onward.

PS: Yesterday I officially signed up online, then received my travel info from marathon tours. Talk about things getting real!

NYC Marathon Training Week 8

August 13, 2012 · by Ari · Leave a Comment

I would like to take this moment to thank the Phoenix Metropolitan Area for this warm welcome. Get it? See what I did there? Because, you know, the record breaking temperatures and all. Okay, it wasn’t funny. Not even a little bit. Sorry. Anyway, I’m back home and I made it through my first week of legit Phoenix summer training and lived to tell the tale! It hasn’t been easy. You see, I started running in October, and it was warm then with highs generally in the 90s, but that means lows in the 70s with not ideal, but not terrible morning running weather. When I left for Oregon, the highs had climbed into the triple digits, but you could still run at 5:30 or 6 and get temps in the high 70s-low 80s most days. I thought that was tough–hah!

Then, I traveled to a land far far away where there are clouds and rain and the most amazing running weather! It was a dream come true. This has been a rude awakening, and my paces have slowed considerably while my effort level feels higher than ever. The good news? I get that it’s normal, and that I will be tougher come November. I don’t mind sucking it up for then next month if I will be stronger because of it. It’s just an adjustment. And so is the schedule.

Today I feel absolutely exhausted. I haven’t woken up later than 5am since last Tuesday. I know a lot of people wake up at 5 every day, and 5 isn’t so bad, but there’s a big difference between 5 and when you see a 3 at the beginning of your alarm. I know I can’t just spend the next month in a constant state of exhaustion. The heat is enough to do that to me, so I need to help myself out. Until my alarm time changes, I’ve decided to just be 80 (or 8–you decide) and change my bed time to 8-9pm. It’s going to mean less going out, and probably a lot less of a social life, but it’s what I need to do in order to achieve everything I want right now, and when I committed to running a whole freaking marathon, I didn’t just mean the end result. The nights I work until 9 or 10 are going to be tough, but every other night I am enforcing a bed time. Yes, I’m 27 and I have a bed time. It’s earlier than your kindergartner’s.

Anyway, here’s a look at how my first week back in Phoenix went down.

Monday–Off. Traveling counts as a work out, right?

Tuesday–Linda’s spin!! 23.4 sweaty spinning miles of AWESOME! While I was away, I missed the following things in this order: Steve/Winston/Clementine, ~~Linda’s spin~~ my family, Linda’s spin. It was like being back in my happy place!

Wednesday–Track with Team Chances! YAY!! It was so great to be back running with my team and to get to run with Stacey again. We did a 1.2 mile warm up, then 1600 @ 1/2 marathon goal pace (8:49), 400 recovery, 1200 @ 10k pace (8:40), 400 recovery, 800 @ 5k pace (8:24), 400 recovery, 400 @ 1mi pace (7:02), followed by about .5 mile cool down for a total of 4.84 miles in 47:19. It was tough, but it went a lot better than I expected. For some reason, I am always one of the very last ones out there on the track, but when we do long runs I’m right in the middle. Weird. I actually think my body prefers long distance to short and speedy.

Thursday–5mi. Monday was supposed to be 4, but I thought it was supposed to be 5, so I did that on Thursday. Stacey and I warmed up for a mile, then did the middle miles slightly faster (not on purpose, just kinda happened that way), and cooled down for the last .5. I was actually feeling pretty good until about mile 4 when the heat started to get me and I just wanted to be done. Good thing I had company, or I probably would have ditched out early, haha.

Friday–25.75 mi bike ride. I MISSED MY BIKE!!! I missed Friday cross training and breakfast with my BBFF!!! I felt a little out of bike shape after my almost 2 month hiatus, but I finished in just under 2 hours with an average pace of 13.2 mph. Not fast by any means, but not too bad for a friendly ride, and my first one back!

Saturday–8mi run with Team Chances. I averaged 10:16 and finished in about 1:22, which I was actually pretty happy with. It’s weird because everyone already kind of knows each other, and I just showed up. Our first team run was the day I left for Ashland, and although Coach Susan had been letting me come to group runs and track sessions before then, our team hadn’t officially started, so I’d hardly met anyone. I decided I didn’t want to run by myself, so I found a group of ladies that looked like they ran about my pace and creepily followed them before just deciding to announce that I was there, and I wanted to join the group. I ended up with a lot of company along the way, and ran very little by myself. I loved getting a chance to get to know some of my awesome team mates, and running with other people definitely pushed me to keep going all the times I wanted to stop and drink a frozen margarita.

Sunday–Arizona Road Racers 5k @ South Mountain. About that. I made a last minute decision to run a 5k this morning, and it basically sucked. Okay, maybe that’s too harsh, but it wasn’t great. It started at 6:30 when the sun is already all the way up, and it is HILLY. I ran sssslllloooowwww. And by that, I mean I walked way too much of it. I “ran” it 30 seconds slower per mile than the last time I ran the same course, and slower than almost any other race I’ve done. That’s okay. I’m not upset. It was just a reality check about the heat, and how much it can affect my pace, and how I feel. I’m sure eventually I will get used to it, but this was definitely the hardest so far. Anyway, here’s a picture of my friend Nacho kicking the race and the sun right in the face!

This beez ran in like 26 minutes.

And here I am trying to pretend I don’t want to lay down on the side of the road.

This love/hate thing is totally missing the love right now.

How was your training last week??? Tell me awesome things you did!

NYC Marathon Training Week 7

August 7, 2012 · by Ari · 1 Comment

AKA

Marathon Training: Vacation Edition

3/4 runs + 1 hike. Not too shabby for my honeymoon, right? I’m actually pretty proud of myself for getting it done. I didn’t follow my plan completely even on the 3 runs I completed (speed work, what speed work?), but I got my long run in, and that’s what I was the most concerned about. Let me tell you, it was NOT easy. First of all, I went from living with my running buddies, having a schedule, and being responsible to a group for getting up and running each day I said I would to running solo with just myself (and a weekly email to Coach Susan) to answer to. Also, running is way more fun with friends, in 65 degree temps, and in slightly hilly-flat terrain. You know what is less fun? Running alone in 70% humidity, feeling like every direction you go, you are climbing a mountain. What’s up with that, Maui? Huh??

Anyway, I definitely got discouraged my first 2 runs, but by the end, it got better. It always does. I know it will be the same thing coming back to Phoenix, and running in the 95 degree temperatures. It’s not going to be easy, and this week I might hate life a little, and feel discouraged, but it can only get better and easier from there. Here’s a look at how week 7 went down.

Tuesday–12 mile long run, 10:40 avg pace. I don’t remember the last time I wanted to give up on a run so badly. 3 miles in, I was sure I couldn’t finish. There seemed to be hills in every single direction. My body was literally dripping in sweat from every single pore; in fact, my running skirt looked like I had peed my pants because it was soaking wet. You’re welcome for that detail. I had to take a lot of “stretch” breaks. What? You don’t pause your garmin to “stretch” at the top of every hill you do? Oh. In all seriousness, that’s a bad habit I developed when I first started running, because I wanted to keep up to some imaginary “expected pace” of people who blogged about running. I was slow (well, still am), and I didn’t want to be, so I “stretched” a lot to catch my breath. I’ve been really good about breaking that habit ever since I started training for the Seattle half that never happened, but I was not good about it on this run. By the time I got back to our condo, I felt discouraged, frustrated, and totally lame. Then I plugged my garmin into my computer to see that I had climbed 1021 feet of elevation. Then I sat there and continued to drip sweat just sitting. I gave myself a little pep talk, and a mental break, and realized that, all things considered, I did pretty okay.

Friday–5 mile hike. I will write more about this when I get posts up about the trip itself, but I hiked in mud, rolled in mud, swam to a waterfall, and hiked through rainforest, and a bamboo forest to a 400 ft waterfall! It.Was.Awesome. My favorite part of the trip, hands down. I counted it as my 5 mile hilly run. Let’s just pretend it’s the same thing 😉

Saturday–3 mile run, 10:26 avg pace. There’s a reason there were 4 days between my first and second run. I may have given myself a mental break, but I was flat out discouraged by running in Napili Bay. This run, unfortunately, was no different. I felt ridiculously sluggish, tired, and just overall unhappy with it, but I did it because it needed to be done.

Sunday–3.1 mile run, 9:35 avg pace. So….there definitely was no track anywhere near me, and also no flat road for miles (is there ANY flat road on that island?!), so for “speed work”, I decided to run faster than the day before. Brilliant, right? And you know what? I DID! Not that the bar was set super high, but I ran significantly faster, and felt so much better! I don’t know if it’s that I ran the opposite (but equally hilly) direction, and maybe the inclines were less steep, or if it’s just that my body was finally getting used to it, but the run was awesome, and I almost kept going, but after 2 lame runs, I decided to just end it feeling good.

Now, I’m back to the 115 degree temps. This will be…interesting. I got back to Phoenix yesterday morning, and I haven’t run yet, but tomorrow is track day. I’m not gonna lie, I’m nervous to see how much the heat slows me down, and that I won’t be able to keep up with my teammates who’ve been running in these temps all summer, but I know all I can do is do my best to adjust, and wait for the summer to be over.

NYC Marathon Training Week 6

July 30, 2012 · by Ari · 1 Comment

My last week at CGST has come and gone, along with week 6 of marathon training, and my first skipped run… Whoops. Too many people I love that I was saying goodbye to, too much excitement with Steve coming up to visit, and maybe a little too much booze. I’ll admit it. Today is Monday, and I haven’t run since Thursday. However, I did accomplish a 5 minute plank, and ride a double surrey (with the fringe on the top) in the meantime, so I’ll say it was still a successful week. The most exciting part is probably my 10 mile time trial. Here’s how it went down.

Monday–10 mile time trial in 1:34:45. My half marathon PR is a 9:32 pace. This run averaged 9:28, and granted that’s not hugely faster, and it is shorter, I wasn’t racing. I had a huge breakthrough on this run, in fact! For the first time, I don’t know, ever, I didn’t stalk my garmin. I would check in every song or so, and look at my pace at the mile beeps, which may still sound like a lot, but my face is usually glued to that thing! This time, instead, I ran by feel, and negative split every single mile. Here, let me show you:

10:42 (mostly uphill)
9:53
9:48
9:45
9:39
9:22
9:14
9:12
8:56
8:14 (mostly downhill)

Who.Am.I.? GAHHH. I learned so much about myself, and how I often set myself up for failure on this run. Usually I go back and forth between “You can never maintain this pace! Slow down, you’re not good enough!” and “Look how slow you’re going! You suck!” It was so amazing to just run, and think “This feels good.” Now if only they could all be like that. In other good news, I felt great the whole rest of the day, and not sore, and exhausted like I had raced, so I feel at least mildly hopeful that I can average a good 20 seconds quicker than that in San Diego.

Wednesday–Track, 1-1-2-1-3-1-4-4-3-1-2-1-1-1. I think there was supposed to be an other 4 in there. Whoops. Didn’t do that one. I did, however, figure out the lap button! I didn’t have to stop and start after every interval. It was magical. If you press the lap button on your garmin when you start a new interval, it will show you your pace and distance on each lap separately. I was kind of lame and walked my easy intervals, but my hard ones went pretty well.

1min–6:29
2min–7:10
3min–7:53
4min–8:03
3min–7:57
2min–7:48<–grrr
1min–6:19<–eeee!!

I don’t care if it was only 1 minute, 6:19 makes me excited. The end.

Thursday–Recovery run. 3 miles. More crawled than ran. There was coffee at the end. That was my favorite part.

Friday–5 minute plank. That was awesome, other than being beat out by my student who set the female record for the summer at close to 7 minutes. I also had a male student do 10. Rude. I want to be a man. Except I like dressed.

Saturday–work, work, work, work, beer. That’s all.

Sunday–Owning that surrey. Steve, Tali, Camille, Xander, and I tried to set the double surrey record on the Steele/Hawthorn bridge loop. I mean, hills are hard with 5 people. It almost felt like exercise 😉

That’s all for me for now, friends. I am in Maui with Steve beginning our honeymoon (a year and a half later…), so I will be taking a real world haitus. I do have an awesome guest post coming to you soon though from my BBFF, and I will be back next week!

NYC Marathon Training Week 5

July 24, 2012 · by Ari · 1 Comment

Hi friends! Week 5 of training was a tough one, but it was great! Here’s a little about what went down.

Monday–5.21 miles, 10:21 average pace, 314 ft elevation gain. I don’t really know how to measure elevation gain or what that really means in the scheme of things. I do know that Coach Susan prescribed hills, so every time I saw a hill I yelled to my friends “HILL!!! We must run that way!” I also know that it was hard, but that could just be because I’m a wimp. Okay, it probably is because I’m a wimp, but I felt the opposite of wimpy afterwards, and I felt like my pace was decent, all things considered.

Tuesday–2.9 miles including 6 hill repeats. I warmed up at basically a crawl, found a hill closer than anticipated, so decided my .7 mile warm up was sufficient, then ran up the hill a bunch of times walk/jogging down. The hill was shorter than I think it was supposed to be. Only about a tenth of a mile, but it had 33ft of elevation gain–whatever that means–and it felt like a good challenge. I averaged about an 8:30 pace running up, and definitely got slower as I went on rather than faster. Whoops. My first time with a hill workout, so I’ll try to not positive split the next time 🙂

Thursday–11.1 miles, 10:20 average pace. This run was not bad. Really, it was actually mostly good, but after running pretty challenging workouts Sunday, Monday and Tuesday all in a row, and then just the combination of that with dancing all day, and not sleeping enough (I know, that’s a huge change, right?), and I just felt not quite 100%. It felt hard. Not impossible, just hard. Still managed to run the last mile in 8:45, though!

Saturday–4 miles. 10:56 average pace. I have a secret. A surprise of sorts. Are you ready? It’s shocking, and ground breaking. Recovery, actual recovery, is AWESOME!!!!! Running slow is FUN! You get to look around, and not feel like you’re gonna die, and people watch! Plus, it’s a really nice mental break to not let a number that flashes on your watch dictate how you feel about your run. I use my recovery runs to recover more often. You’re welcome for the brilliance. Stay tuned for more ground breaking discoveries.

Sunday–Actual rest. Lovely, as usual. I have never appreciated rest days as much as I have this summer!

Spoiler: Week 6 is off to an AMAZING start! Can’t wait to share it with you at the end!

NYC Marathon Training Week 3

July 9, 2012 · by Ari · 1 Comment

This last week of training felt really great! I feel like I’m finally getting back to myself, and my body is adjusting to the amount of energy I need to be up here. Sweet. After my time trial, Coach Susan sent me my suggested training/racing paces:

LR 10:10-11:10
Marathon 10:00
1/2 M 9:10
10k 8:40
5k 8:20
Mile 7:30
LT 8:40-9:10
400 @mile-5k 1:54-2:05
800 @5-10k 4:10-4:18
1200 @5-10k 6:12-6:27

I’ll have to ask her what LT means, because I just realized I don’t know that one. Some of these paces seem sliiiiightly ambitious. Not the training ones, but the racing ones. An 8:20 5K??? What??? Maybe that just means I’m faster than I think I am 🙂 Here’s how my training went last week.

Monday: 4 mile run. 10:06 average pace. The beginning felt hard. Well the beginning of every single run here feels hard because they all start uphill. But the rest of it felt pretty good.

Tuesday: Dance dance dance dance. All day long.

Wednesday: 10×1 min intervals. 2 mile warm up that I practically crawled through, then 10×1 min intervals with 1 min resting intervals. I tried to find the track I found the previous week, but got confused, so we ended up at a park that was pretty hilly. Not super ideal for speed training, but it all evened itself out. Averaged 7:17 on working intervals (with the last one around 6:45–I know it’s just a minute, but yikes!), then did a slow jog for .3 miles back to camp for my cool down. It’s funny, 1 min sounds like such a small amount of time, but half way through each interval, I felt like I was dying, but in the best way possible!

Thursday: 4 mile recovery run. Tired legs. 10:24 average pace.

Friday: Rest-ish. I mostly stretch with my classes on Fridays, so I just took a nice walk in the morning, and was able to keep the rest of the day pretty chill.

Saturday: 6 mile run. This run felt AWESOME! I just wanted to keep going, and going, and going! Ran with great friends–did I mention that I’ve only done 1 run solo since I got here? I’m so grateful! I will run alone, but I almost always prefer the company, and it’s nice to feel like I am able to inspire other people to run. Averaged 10:19 pace, and ended feeling great.

Sunday: Rest. Lovely.

You know, I was a little concerned about being about to keep up with my training while away from my team, and with such an intense schedule, but it’s really been great. If anything, having so many people that I am living with that know my goals is pushing me to never skip a run. For the first time in my entire life, I feel like a leader as far as running goes, and it is the most incredible feeling. I never imagined someone would tell me that I inspired them to run. It seems almost unreal, but I am beyond happy. I am feeling really solid about the training process right now, and if anything, I feel eager for MORE! Coach Susan told me that I could skip out on my recovery runs since I am so active here, but I don’t want to skip out on anything! I am going to ride the motivation wave for as long as it lasts!

What did you do last week?? Tell me about your workouts/training/awesomeness!

Work It Out 6/4-6/10

June 11, 2012 · by Ari · 2 Comments

AKA Rest It Out. My daily mile page has never looked so sad. It’s okay. In fact, it’s probably a good thing. Surgery, or no surgery, my body needed a break. I had a trainer tell me a long time ago, that every 6 months or so, the best thing you can do is take a week completely off. Okay, maybe that actually is good for your body, but I’m one of those weird people who does not exercise for any reason other than I genuinely enjoy it. Well, maybe there are other reasons too–I’m a human, and I care about calories and all that crap, even if I wish I didn’t, but really the primary reason is that I really really love to do it. It makes me happy. It keeps me calm. It helps me think, and stay balanced, and it gives me so much more energy!

I didn’t take a whole week completely off, but I did take 4 days, and this week I am taking it easy too. Yesterday I tried to jump back into my life. I did an 8 mile bike ride (granted it was slow), baked cookies and cupcakes, tried to clean the kitchen, and tried to be social. By the end of the evening, I felt like absolute crap. Emotionally and physically. I’m stubborn, and I’m having a hard time with doing so little. I’m antsy, and anxious, and tired, and I really don’t feel like myself. Plus, you know, all the other side effects of surgery that are still very much here, and a digestive system getting used to an organ that used to be there suddenly being gone.

On the positive side, I am somewhat back to light exercise. No running yet, and I really freaking miss it. I’ve continued to cry and mourn the loss of the sub 2 I’ve been chasing in Seattle. I decided for sure that I’m not doing the race. I’m just too tired. Walking still hurts. I don’t want to end disappointed. But I have an other half on the horizon later in the summer that I’m thinking just might be the one. Plus, it would be with my team which makes it even better!

Okay, enough babbling. This is how I (sort of) worked it out last week:

Monday: Run with Jas, & 5 MIN PLANK!!!!! I started the morning with a short run with Jason. We ran 2.4 miles by the green belt. I guess that’s what the trail by his house is called. It wasn’t his favorite morning, but it was good to be running together! When I got home, I decided today had to be the day. I knew I was gonna be out of abdominal commission for a while, and probably losing a lot of core strength from the moving around they do in there with their instruments, so I decided to do my 5 minute plank. It needed to happen. You know what? It was Fing hard! And it’s all mental. Just find someone to hang out with you, and force you not to give up. Then yell obscenities at them. Thanks for starting this 5 minute plank challenge, Ali! I don’t know if it was really supposed to be a challenge for the rest of us, but once you did it, I couldn’t resist! And thanks to my girl Devon for always keeping me honest about my planks!

Tuesday: Rest. My surgery wasn’t until 12:30, but Steve and my mom both vetoed my request to spin before hand. Rude. I guess it was something about the all day food and water fast that made them think it was a bad idea….

Wednesday: All day sleep daze. I was so exciting. I slept, woke up, watched 15 min of Lost, repeat.

Thursday: I left the house. Yes. It counts as exercise. I walked to Nicole’s truck, and into Paradise Bakery, and into fro yo. It was all I could handle, and I was exhausted by the end, came home and slept.

Friday: I walked around Target. It was hard, and I was tired, but I was so happy to be out of my house!

Saturday: 3.75 mile bike ride. At 8.7 mph. You know, like the pace you teach your 6 year old to ride at? It was awesome, and only slightly painful. I also walked a mile at the duck pond with Nicole and Stacey. I felt almost like a real person!

Sunday: 8.5 mile bike ride. I kept up a 12 mph pace!!! Watch out bike racers, Post Surgery Ari is on your tail!

Tell me awesome workouts you accomplished!!! Let me live vicariously through you!

Work It Out 5/28-6/3

June 4, 2012 · by Ari · Leave a Comment

What a tough week! Oyyyyy! Lots of great work outs, and new challenges, so without further adieu, here’s how I worked it out last week:

Monday: 100k bike ride. That’s right. 62 miles. 100k. My butt HURT! I have since bought the diaper bike shorts. They feel like cycling on a cloud in comparison. Steve, Dan and I set out for a long ride. I wanted to accomplish a good 50 miler (my previous cycling PDR was around 30), but Steve has been wanting to do a metric century for a long time, and about 20 miles in decided that would be the day. I’m not gonna lie, 4 and a half hours is a long time to be on a bike, there were several bumps along the road, and I was definitely tired by the end, but it was absolutely worth it, and can’t wait to do it again!

Tuesday: Linda’s Spin. I was tired from Monday, so I took it easy, kept my flat road around 9-10, and got in a good 21.5 miles.

Wednesday: Track love + 4 min plank. 4x400s @ 5k pace with 400 recovery jogs + 1 mile @ HMGP. My legs still felt tired when I woke up, but of course I was stoked to get to the track! I spent half the time actually at the pace I was supposed to be at, and the other half being competitive. Shocking I know. My pace for the 400s was 7:58, 8:10, 7:51, 8:14. I was aiming for around 8:15. Whoops. It was hard. Also, my working pace is the same as many of the other runners’ recovery. It’s okay, one day I won’t be painfully slow, I promise. My last mile clocked in at 8:41, which is definitely too fast for me, but Doug started running with me the last half, and brought out my competitive side. Okay, let’s be real, I don’t have a noncompetitive side. Also, that plank was hard. I did one for 2 minutes and gave up, then later got pissed about my giving up, and muscled through for 4 painful minutes. Spoiler alert: that is no longer my longest plank 😉

Thursday: Dance!!! I was planning on spinning, but woke up with sore legs, took the morning off, then went to summer of dance for my friend Molly’s awesome musical theatre class, and a contemporary class. I haven’t actually danced since, ohhhh….summer of dance last year. It was rough. I felt out of shape, and just plain bad, but it was still fun, and I’m glad I went.

Friday: Rest. This was like the week where I just kept getting more and more sore! I woke up, and I was so sore from dancing that walking, and sitting were not fun. I took it as a cue, and gave myself the day off.

Saturday: Long Run. Woke up more sore! You know that delayed soreness? Yikes. It was soooooo rough. I was hobbling just to walk around, and it took me about a year to sit and stand, but I made a plan to run with speedy Ashley, and I don’t cancel running plans. Plus, I knew with some unexpected circumstances that have come up lately, I needed to run while I could. I had planned to do 13, and for the first time I think ever, I cut it short to 10. When I woke up feeling run down, I told myself 10 was the minimum, but I was still gonna shoot for 13. I did okay for the first 6 or so, then I just could not keep it up, and I crashed and burned. Steve picked us up at mile 10. Best husband ever.

Sunday: Easy bike ride. 9 miles: coffee, breakfast, and relaxing muscle loosening. Lovely.

Bringing my total to 106.87 miles for the week, which is my highest weekly mileage ever!! It was a really tough week, and my body could definitely use some recover, but this week will be mostly off (wahhhh), so I’m glad I got it in while I could! I’ll explain more about the time off stuff soon. For now, I’m off to bake cookies to distract myself 🙂

How did you work it out this week? And what the heck do I do with myself for the next few days while I can’t????

Work It Out 5/21-5/27

May 28, 2012 · by Ari · 1 Comment

So maybe I didn’t hit 100 miles this week (or anything close to it), but my workouts, specifically my runs this week have been some of the best ever! I had my first date with the track, I ran a new PDR, and I took full advantage of most likely the last of the gorgeous weather we’ll be seeing for a while. Here’s how I worked it out this week:

Monday: Rest. After 7 straight days of working out, I was more than ready to take the day off. It was fantastic.

Tuesday: 4ish mile run. I met up with Stacey for a short, easy paced run. We started a little late in the morning, and it was already really warm, so we ended up just walking the last half-ish mile, but it was nice to get to hang out and get a short run in.

Wednesday: Track–8×400’s @ 5k pace & 1 mi @ HMGP. What does that even mean??? I *think* I’m figuring it out. Kind of. Wednesday was my first day at the track. I met Susan and the rest of the group at 5:30am, we did a little over a mile warm up lap, then 8×400’s–400 meters (.25 mi) at 5k pace with 200 meter (.125 mi) rests in between, then a mile at 1/2 marathon goal pace. I kept the 400’s between 8-8:10 min/mi, and my goal pace mile clocked in at 8:48! I love the track. Like really, really love it. I was so intimidated, and I stayed away for so long, but right now I am wishing it was Tuesday night so that tomorrow could be track day. I cannot wait.

Thursday: Off. I planned to go to spin, but had a ton of baking to do (so many candy cups, and cupcakes being sold–yes!!), and it was just one of those days where I knew my time needed to be spent differently, and that’s okay.

Friday: 800 yd swim. I swam!! YAY!! This was only my second swimming work out, and my first one solo. I went twice as far as I did the first time, and it felt great to be in the water! I’d really like to take some lessons, and kind of figure out what I’m doing!

Saturday: Long Run–15.16 miles!! Okay, so my PDR (personal distance record) was 15.01, so it’s not like I went much further, but I don’t even care. It is the farthest I have ever run, and it was a freaking fantastic run! The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and we started off early at 5:30. Before we started, Susan asked how long people were planning to go, and of course not a single other person was even planning on running double digits (they’re almost all running San Diego next weekend), and here I was saying I was planning on 15. Oy. I planned to run with Stacey for as far as she wanted to go, and then go back out to run the rest solo. Near the end of my run with Stacey (almost to mile 8), Doug came up and introduced himself, and asked if I was still going to go back out for more miles. He told me he’d be willing to do a few with me, and I was beyond grateful. Well, he ended up running the entire 2nd half of my run with me, and pushed me the whole way through! He’s run tons of marathons (including Boston….*sigh*), and he had really great advice. He talked to me about my breathing, training, etc. Towards the end, he started adding some pick ups, and then pushed me to finish mile 15 in 9:40! Then, the last .16 happened at an average pace of 8:03. Ummm, who am I??? 15.16 miles at an average pace of 10:19. When I finally looked through my garmin and saw my pace, I started to cry a little. I am finally starting to see some improvement from this training cycle. I’ve been working really hard, and it is amazing to finally see it pay off. At the end of the run Doug told Susan that I had the mind of a marathoner. I think it’s more that I’m stubborn, and prideful, but having the mind of a marathoner sounds a lot better to me 😉

Sunday: 4 mile bike ride. Yeah….that’s it. My legs felt like they had been run over my a truck. And if you’ve been around me at all this weekend, that is probably the 9,984,985th time you’ve heard me say that. Sorry, I whine.

How did you work it out this week?? Have you set any new personal records lately, or surprised yourself with your progress? Tell me your awesome things too!!!

Ari + Track, A Love Story

May 23, 2012 · by Ari · 8 Comments

Why, oh why was I so intimidated by the track for so long??? It is so wonderful!! This morning, I joined coach Susan and her group (including a couple people from my NYC team) for my first track workout! Wednesday has been my speed work day anyway, and I was grateful for the opportunity to go run with a group, and have a coach telling me what to do, rather than a computer program. I am a little over my smart coach plan for Seattle, but that’s an other story.

My alarm went off at 4:25 am, and I was out the door by 5 to meet at 5:30. We did a 1 mile warm up from our meeting spot over to the track, and I was ~~kind of~~ a nervous wreck. I was totally intimidated, and sure that everyone was going to be running 6 min miles, and I was going to be the lame-o in the back. However, everyone was really nice, and as it turned out, once you get on the track, it’s impossible to tell where anyone else is at anyway. Plus, honestly, who has time while doing their own speed work to worry about anyone else? It’s just silly to think that anyone there is going to be judging you.

We did some running drills that I have never done before, and I looked pretty ridiculous, but only slightly embarrassed about it, haha. Then Susan announced that we were doing 8x400s @ our 5K pace with 200 meter recoveries, then 1 mile @ half marathon goal pace. Okay, so as it turns out, I’m pretty unsure of what my 5K pace should actually be. My pace for South Mountain averaged 8:52, so I was guessing around 8:45. Well, I paused my garmin during the rests because I didn’t have a chance to set the intervals up before we started, and my first 4 averaged an 8:00 min pace. Probably a little too fast, but definitely enough to make me feel like 8:45 was most likely too slow. The next 4 averaged 8:12, with a total average for all 400s of 8:07. Then I ran my HMGP mile @ 8:48.

Who am I??? It didn’t feel easy, but it didn’t feel as tough as I was expecting. I still don’t know about doing a whole half marathon at a sub 9 pace, but it was a little bit of a confidence boost! The time flew by, and I didn’t even end up using my music. I was nervous because no one else brought any music, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through the workout without it, but the constant changes kept my mind busy, and I didn’t feel bored at ALL, and even my heavy breathing didn’t freak me out.

So, the thing is, I’m totally head over heels for the track. And I don’t think after NYC I will ever want to train without a group ever again. I feel so totally spoiled by the whole situation already, but I’m just trying to soak it up to it’s fullest while I can!

On my way home, Devon tweeted me about our plank promise that I had totally been lame and forgotten about, so the second I got home, I turned on the TV to distract me, and got my plank on!

Gosh Ari, stop cheating, and get your butt down!

You see, ever since Ali completed her 5 min plank challenge, I’ve been determined to do the same, and Devon is super amazing and working on her planking too, so we’re keeping each other accountable. Clearly, she’s doing a much better job at the accountability part than I am 😉 My first try, I held it for 2 minutes, last week (try #2) was 2:20, and today…

Whhooooot! Okay, now I desperately need a shower.

Track: Love or hate?

Work It Out 5/14-5/20

May 21, 2012 · by Ari · 1 Comment

Well, after a pretty mellow week with 3 full rest days, I definitely kicked it into gear last week! By Sunday afternoon my weekly mileage on daily mile reached 100! No, I did not ride extra miles on my bike just because I wanted to see a 3 digit mileage number. Who does things like that? Crazy, number obsessed people. I just happened to ride exactly 17 miles when my daily mile was at 83. Obviously. 😉

Monday: 3 miles with Jason. Remember when this guy ran like 12 minute miles? Umm, our average pace was 10:06. He’s amazing, and I’m starting to really get a lot out of our weekly runs together!

Tuesday: Spin, Strength & Swimming. I kind of felt awesome after completing 3 workouts in one day. I mean, sure, my strength training was all of 15 minutes, but I was still sore the next day from it! I am working on getting up to a 5 minute plank like this girl, and Tuesday I got to 2:20. Obviously, I have a ways to go. Spin class was awesome as usual, then I had my first swimming work out with my fav triathlete! I swam 400 yards, and it was hard and awesome.

Wednesday: Tempo run. This run was not fun. I had 6 miles on the schedule with 4 tempo miles @ 9:03. Well, my last tempo run was the same thing with the tempo miles at 9:07, and it was hard, but I killed it, and even had my last mile below 8:50. This run felt entirely different. I was struggling .5 miles in, it was 80 degrees out, and I left my ipod at home, so I could literally hear myself grasping for air. I stayed on pace, but had to stop after the second and third tempo mile to catch my breath. As frustrated as I was by this run, I feel like I learned a lot from it. I had a great talk with my coach about it, and realized that I’m really not hydrating well enough, and that as it gets hotter, I need to be okay with slowing down. It won’t be this hot in Seattle or in NYC, so I need to focus on how I feel rather than what my garmin says. This is especially hard for me since my focus on running numbers has been such a huge aid in taking my focus away from scale numbers. I am number focused. It’s how I measure my progress, and when the numbers don’t reflect my effort, I get frustrated, discouraged, and whiney. That’s okay. I don’t think I will feel that way forever. I’m not going to beat myself up about the way I feel or react to things. I am simply going to note it, try to be more aware, and do my best to not let it get me down.

Thursday: Spin. Sweaty, hilly love.

Friday: 20 mile bike ride with Nicole. We had a great time, and chatted the whole 20 miles. Perfect way to start the day!

Saturday: Long run. Our team training runs for Chances for Children don’t officially start until I leave for Portland, but Susan invited us to come run with her, and the group she coaches, so I jumped on the opportunity! My alarm went off at 3:55am (yikes!), and I headed out to meet the group. Unfortunately, the park bathrooms were locked, and so when Stacey arrived, we went in search of a restroom and ended up starting closer to 5:30 than the 5:00 start time. We started off running with Susan’s husband bill who was so nice and went slow with us to show us the path. Around mile 2.5, we separated from Bill because my stomach is still a mess, and I had to stop at this resort to use the bathroom. Even considering that, I was feeling the best I have on a long run in weeks! We were maintaining around a 10:25 pace, which is right on target for my plan, it wasn’t too warm out yet, and I just felt really into the run. By the end, though, I started fading a bit, and Stacey was pushing me through, then at the last mile, we saw Susan who had waiting for us long after everyone who had started on time was already gone, and came up to run the last mile with us! Having a coach is freaking amazing, let me tell you. That was the push I needed, because I finished the last mile in 9:26, and ended 13.06 miles with an average pace of 10:16, which, for me, is pretty awesome! I had serious runners high all day long!

Sunday: 17 mile bike ride with Steve and Jason. I wanted to go on a bike ride, and I wanted to hit 100 miles, so that’s what I did 😉

What a great week! Even with a crappy run, I still feel like it’s one of the best training weeks I’ve had in a long time!

How did you work it out last week? How do you stay motivated and track your progress when the numbers start to kind of suck??

My First Swim

May 17, 2012 · by Ari · 1 Comment

Okay, so yesterday I was a little cranky. Sorry about that. You guys were so nice, and left me some really amazing comments that made my day, and made me feel 10 million times better. Thanks for being awesome! The day before I got cranky, something amazing happened! Well, amazing to me anyway 😉 My super awesome triathlete BBFF Nicole taught me how to swim! I’m pretty sure it looked something like this

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

source

Except I forgot my floaties, and swim coach Nicole didn’t bring me any. Rude. She obviously doesn’t care if I drown on her watch. Okay, so I know how to swim in theory. I love swimming in the summer time, and by swimming I mean standing in the shallow end, staying cool in the 110 degree heat, and occasionally dunking my head under my water if I decide I’m willing to get my hair wet. OH!! And water slides!!! I LOVE water slides!!

I’ve wanted to learn how to actually swim pretty much since I got my bike. I fell in love with riding right away, and it was about .5 seconds before I started dreaming about doing a triathlon. I even had one in mind to register for, but I chickened out, and the swimming has felt so intimidating to me, but yesterday I bought a cap and goggles, and went over to the Kiwanis wave pool (the waves were off, sad, that would have been fun!) with Nicole for my first lesson.

Nicole was a great teacher! She was super patient, and made me feel totally comfortable while I’m sure I looked ridiculous. She taught me how to put on my swim cap and goggles, breathe, kick, stroke, and most importantly take awesome locker room photos.

Or maybe I taught her the last one? 😉 We ended up swimming 400 yards in probably a ridiculously long amount of time, but I didn’t care! I LOVED it! Okay, let me say that this was tough. I felt ridiculously out of shape, I inhaled about a gallon of water, and I looked more like Dumbo than Ariel, but again I didn’t care in the slightest! I love the feeling of being in the water, I love the idea of a new challenge, and I love pushing myself and expanding my fitness capabilities. I loved it so much, that I am ready to shell out the money this weekend for a real fitness swim suit. Not because I want to fit in, but let’s just say mine was not cutting it, and it definitely was not a kids show in my lane. Yikes. I’ll spare you the deets. You’re welcome.

This seems like really great timing to start too, because the weather is just getting too hot to run or bike outside (although I will have to keep it up for my Seattle and NYC training), and it will be something I can continue while I’m in Portland this summer! I’m also pretty sure some amazing, hilarious, speedy swimming lifeguard might be able to take me under her wing in exchange for pushing her with some running. Ahem, Laurel. This will be your summer “Laurel, help me swim! Laurel, help me swim! Laurel, run 15 miles with me!” You will be so ready to go back to Detroit 😉

Okay, I’m off track. For a change. I loved swimming! I can’t wait to do it again, and I can’t wait to take more locker room photos with Niole while the other swimmers watch us in judgement.

What’s the last new work out you tried that you fell in love with?? Do you like swimming? Are you good? Want to help me become good?? 😉

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