Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Awesome Tempo Run!

I was a little nervous for my tempo run on Monday...10 miles total with 5 miles at lactate threshold pace. Luckily, the weather was almost perfect...63 degrees, cloudy, with a light mist. The only negative was a strong wind coming from the east. But I am not going to complain about it at all...its not often we get cool temps like that in at the end of July!

I warmed up for 3 miles (9:05 pace) and then did the 5 LT pace miles. My splits looked like this (I bet you can guess which miles I had the headwind and which miles the wind was at my back!):

8:16--ok...a little slow
8:14--just put my head down and run through the wind
7:57--now that's more like it
7:44--wow....where is this speed coming from?
7:41--last mile.....make it count!

I ended with a 2 mile cool down that was still pretty fast (8:26 pace) and my overall pace was 8:25. The best thing about this run was that I felt awesome the entire time, especially in those last 3 LT miles. It's runs like this that make me think the magical 3:40 marathon (my BQ time) is a possibility!! But I don't want to get my hopes up....there's still lots of training to be done!

Of course just as quickly as the cool weather moved in, it was out of here. Can someone explain to me how it can go from 60 to 90 degrees over just 48 hours? Today I did an 11 mile medium-long run. It was hot and my legs felt heavy, but I averaged an 8:44 pace overall with the last mile at 8:17 (I'm working on my finishing kick!) Its supposed to stay hot and humid for the next few days....luckily tomorrow is a rest day so I'll get some relief.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Step-Back Week

Last week was a recovery week in my training....only 37 MPW with a long run of 12 miles. It was nice to give my body a bit of a rest especially with coming back to work after my California trip.

My weekend was busy and full of activities! My parents came up from PA for the weekend to visit. On Saturday we rented Kayaks and paddled around the Charles River for the afternoon....talk about a great shoulder workout! On Sunday we drove up to NH and hiked Mt. Israel (~2600 ft). It was a beautiful day so it was great to be outside and out of the city. The only bad part was that all the activities prevented me from starting the new Harry Potter book until Sunday night!

It was a good visit with my parents and a fun weekend.....let's hope I am "recovered" enough to pick up my miles again this week!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

California Girl!

Last week I was in beautiful Long Beach, CA for a work conference.....nice choice, right?!?! This was the first time I had been to southern California and it was awesome. The weather was ideal - sunny and around 80 every day. Every time I talked to Bryan I kept saying how I want to move out there :) I was there with a couple other coworkers and they liked to sight see. I saw Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Malibu, Laguna Beach, and had lots of great food and drinks! The conference wasn't bad either....just took up too much time :)

First things first: The Running We arrived on Friday and I was exhausted from the trip so no run for me. On Saturday morning, I woke up at 4:00am because of the time change so I hit the gym for 4 miles on the treadmill before the conference. Sunday was free so I was able to get my long run of about 14 miles in that morning. There was a great bike/pedestrian trail that ran along the beach so I followed that and enjoy the ocean! On Monday I did 4 miles with my friend Mike during our lunch break.....we were both hurting during that one due to the mid-day heat and the fact that we had both just eaten lunch! On Tuesday I managed a good pace 9 miles again along the beach with 10 sets of strides at the end. I was hoping to get another run in Thursday morning before my flight, but I had a little too much to drink the night before so that didn't happen...tequilla shots are never a good idea.....ooopps! Overall, not too bad of a running week given my conference schedule and wanting to go out and see California.

On Wednesday, three of us took a surfing lesson at Laguna Beach. It was so much fun (and great crosstraining too!) I had a hard time getting up on the board for the first hour of our lesson....I think I spent more time flying off the board and hanging onto my bathing suit! But finally I was able to get up and ride a couple waves in before I called it quits to relax on the beach. What a great day!!



Now its back to the real world......hot and humid Boston.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

One word summary of last week -- HOT!!

Last week Boston had its first heat wave of the summer.....3 days with temperatures above 90. This made running extremely difficult! On Tuesday I waited until about 7:30pm to head out for my 4 mile recovery run and I was still dying. On Wednesday I actually got up at 5:00am to do my 10 mile general aerobic run......and it was already 75 degrees out. I think I was still half asleep during the run because I missed a turn and didn't realize it until I was about 0.5 miles down the road! I walked in my house and it looked like I had been swimming instead of running....I was drenched! I walked right into the bathroom and took a cool shower.

Luckily it cooled down for the weekend and my long run. We went to my in-laws in upstate NY so I ran my 14 miles on Saturday morning in the Adirondacks.....very pretty, but also hilly. I felt good and had a good pace the whole time. Bryan met me and ran the last 4 miles home with me. We picked up the pace and finished the last 3 miles between 8:18-8:30 pace. The weekend was capped off with lots of good food, relaxing, and a round of mini-golf...ask Bryan who came in last place :)

Total weekly miles: 40.2