State of the Union

I actually don't really consider myself all that stubborn. But, when it comes to running, I find myself very hesitant to CHANGE things. When I was a runner who didn't care about my time, it took me a LONG time to start caring. And now that I do care, it's taking me a long time to realize that maybe burnout is right around the corner.

Wednesday nights the KoB and I meet up for a run. It's one of my favorite runs of the week... because... well.. OBVIOUSLY. But, also because there is no way in hell that I would get out on a Wednesday night and run on my own. So, it's like bonus time and because it's right smack dab in the middle of the week, it usually turns into a therapy run. (I call it therapy, The KoB probably thinks of it as... obligatory listening to girlfriend bitch run). This week, I texted him and was like... Let's do my workout tonight and of course, he texted back... Sure! (I added the exclamation point).

We started the run and I was just not feeling the workout AT ALL. Despite that, we ran over to the track and I was like... okay, let's just run a lap on the track and see how I feel. We started the lap and I noticed how incredibly beautiful the view was of the Nashville Skyline from up there. Because it's winter you can see so much more and the time of night and the lights of the skyline... it was just so dang pretty. We ran off the track and up onto a hill to check it out even more. We then found a little path and jogged around it and ultimately I bailed on the workout. Normally, I would have felt a huge amount of guilt. But, I didn't feel any guilt at all. I felt relief.

So, in an effort to keep this from getting dramatic-y (It's just running for chrissakes!)... I'll stop there and just say I've decided to take a break from "training" and just stick to "running" for a little while. That while may be a month, six months, or hell it could even be 2 weeks. I'm still going to run the Pig and try to run it as well as I can on whatever fitness I have at the time. And I will still be running a lot (HELLO Grand Canyon trip in Mid-May), but I'm just going to relax on the set workouts and set mileages.

Coach has been nudging me in this direction for awhile. And I've been too deaf to really take it to heart. It's a scary prospect for me because I've been targeting Boston 2015 and if I putz around this spring, then I might only get one marathon shot before registration starts and holy shit, that's just a pressure packed nightmare situation waiting to happen.

Thankfully the Boston Marathon has been going on for 117 years so, I feel pretty good that there will in fact be Boston Marathons for years to come. And even if I did continue training right now is there a guarantee that I will get my BQ in May or before Registration opens?

Nope.

So.... yeah. There it is. I'm going to just run to run and see if I can't get my mojo back.

Week 6 Review

Thanks for letting me whine my little head off Monday. Feels better to just admit to myself and the 4 readers I have that I HAVE NO CONFIDENCE in marathon racing. I do plan on taking a break from marathon training after this race (no matter what happens at The Pig). But, I also realize it's easy to say that now. So... who the fuck knows?

Anyway, let's talk about Week 6, shall we?

Week 6 was actually pretty fucking great. I skipped my speed workout for the week and ended up just running 10 glorious miles in the sunshine and it was just what the doctor ordered. I am usually a slave to my training schedule, so, it felt pretty good to just ignore it and run whatever the hell I wanted. The best thing about having a totally awesome Coach, is that, while I wouldn't say she encourages me to blow off workouts, she does always encourage me to take a mental break if I need it.

I could have made up the run later in the week, but I played it smart in preparation for my long run on Saturday. I wanted to be as fresh as possible for it. My long run schedule said: 13-15 miles with 5-10 miles @ Marathon Pace. I somehow managed to coerce The KoB to do this workout with me, which always helps.

We started the run at my house and the route we took is about 2 miles downhill and then it planes off to all flat until the two miles uphill to home that always kills me. Typically, this is a fantastic way to start my run too fast. Saturday, though, my legs were just not cooperating. They felt sluggish and tired (even though I had brand new shoes on!) and cold. I had to put a lot more effort into turning my legs over to get them to actually move than I would have liked. But, by the time we started the Marathon Pace miles, my legs were feeling better and I didn't have much trouble holding onto the pace.

It helped that I convinced The KoB to do most of the talking, so I was able to just focus on the pace. I ended up running about 8.5 miles at an average of 8:25 (which is ONE second slower my marathon pace) and besides the death march uphill to run home, I felt pretty dang good.

The rest of the day we spent cruising around to different liquor stores.Weird? Maybe. Then we settled on my couch for a bit to watch some more Long Way Down (motorcycling through Africa this time with Ewan McGregor). Also, WHO KNEW ETHIOPIA is gloriously beautiful??? Holy crap.

What's that??? You think this is New Zealand?

WRONG. It's Ethiopia!!!! 

WTF??

 I mean seriously. 

Ethiopia for the motherfucking WIN.

Another highlight of the afternoon included drinking my favorite beer:

Sweet, sweet Innis & Gunn.

It's pricey as hell over here, so I don't drink it that much.

This was the restaurant in Edinburgh where I first had Innis & Gunn.

See? Bottom left corner. Sudsy, delicious Innis & Gunn.

Resting Bitch Face, obviously.

 

Here's the pic I took of the bottle so I'd remember it.

 

 The other side of the table. 

All photogenic and shit.

 

Okay, I better stop now before this becomes a whole Scotland thing.

ANYWAY, it was a good week.

Week 5 Review

On paper, week 5 looked quite scary. It was the first week of this training cycle with lots of miles and workouts.

Thankfully, it was worse on paper than in actuality.

The workouts weren't long and I still got a day off. Can't really complain.

Monday and Wednesday: Easy runs.

Tuesday: 3 Miles around Marathon Pace or faster. This was pretty easy. But hot damn was it cold. The temperature wasn't that bad, so I guess I didn't really dress appropriately, it was probably the coldest I've been on a run this winter. 

Thursday: Hilly-ish 10 miler. I ran sort of the same route I always run, but I tried to concentrate on the hills, instead of just slogging through them.

Friday: OFF (Spent Friday night gorging myself on chocolates and chocolate chip cookies). Happy Valentines Day!

Saturday: 3-4 miles at Marathon Pace. Man, I just could not get excited about this run. I got up, took Mr. Bloom to daycare and then kind of putzed around the house for awhile. Finally, I got my ass out the door and the run felt better than I anticipated. This was the first of many Marathon Pace runs the day before a log run. FUN TIMES AHEAD.

The rest of Saturday included looking for a winter parka (no dice), buying an iron, drinking high gravity beers while watching Long Way Round episodes and then finishing up the night at Rotier's eating lots of delicious fried food. It was a good day.

Sunday: 18 miles 16.5 mile long run. Meh. This wasn't too bad. I should have kept running when I found out it was short, but I had already stopped for a second and mentally I was checked out.

Sunday after the run, the bitches and sonsabitches went to brunch for Coach Bitch's birthday and then I went home and cleaned and threw away a ton of shit, took Leo over to a friend's house for a playdate, ironed about a zillion shirts while watching the first couple of episodes of Homeland. And then went to bed EARLY.

It was a good week. Lots of miles, quality time with The KoB and friends, and oh yeah.. I BECAME AN AUNT! And I may have already bought an "My Aunt is My BFF" onesie and a bathing suit for her for the river this summer.

Week 4 Review

Week 4 will go down as the week where I realized... oh yeah, I'm actually training for a marathon. These runs COUNT.

It snuck up on me, all cute like.

And then it fucking attacked me.

Monday, I met The KoB for our usual Monday night run and both of us felt like dog shit. Granted, he had a lot better reason for feeling that way than I did, so we bailed after 3 miles. I did ask him if continuing on with shitbricks for feet would have any positive effect on my training before I bailed. He said no, but even if he'd said yes, I probably still would have bailed. (I just would have felt guiltier about it).

Tuesday, I met Melissa at the park, where we ran in circles for about 7 miles. I have developed a problem. When I'm running with someone else, I find myself just wanting to run the logistically easiest course. The idea of navigating stop lights, turns, cars, and other pedestrians while trying to hold a conversation with a friend practically sends me into an anxiety attack, so I usually try to trick them into running a bunch of laps in the park where there are few stops. Eventually, they realize that we've ran in circles for multiple miles and they threaten to NEVER RUN WITH ME AGAIN. So, we venture out into traffic.

Wednesday, The KoB did a workout with me. I was supposed to run 6x800s at 5K pace with REALLY honest recoveries (like 8:45-9:00 pace). The first couple of intervals felt great. But the fast recoveries were starting to catch up with me. I was ready to quit after 4, but managed to stick it out by running my recoveries a little slower. This workout kicked my ass. I even collapsed in a heap on the track after I was done. Too bad I don't run with a camera or I could have inserted a dramatically staged picture of me splayed out on the track.

Instead, I present you with a gorilla gif re-enactment.

Thursday and Friday I ran easy with my furry running companion, Leo.

Saturday, I ran a Half Marathon. My goal was to run as close to Marathon Pace for most of the race, as I could.

The view out my window when I woke up on Saturday morning.

8:27, 7:54, 8:39, 8:35, 8:33, 8:31, 8:34, 8:51, 8:20, 8:43, 8:26, 8:37, 8:13 (Thank You KoB), :42.

I finished in 1:51:12, which puts me right around 8:30 pace for the run. Not too shabby. It didn't feel quite as easy as I would have liked, but, it's also only week 3 of my training. I think I'm right where I should be.

 Up one of the many hills.

 

 The good news is even if I would have raced it, I still wouldn't

have won an award. Obviously someone else carried home a trophy though.

Showoff.

Sunday, Melissa and I ran TRAILS. And you know what? I actually absolutely LOVED it. I think it was only the 3rd time I've ran the trails at PWP with someone else. Usually I'm out there alone and contemplating thrusting myself off the side of a mountain at every climb, but this time... I had so much fun! We didn't care about our time and it was muddy as hell, so we definitely took our time. But, I loved it. I guess, I should stick to running the trails with people instead of alone from now on. 

Overall, it was a good week. I got my workouts done. I finally hit the trails for a recovery run, like I said I would and my head is fully wrapped around this training cycle.

The Rest of Week 3

The rest of week 3 was filled with easy runs... blah blah blah. Who cares?

My 15 mile long run was on Saturday. And, Saturday just happened to be my 34th birthday. HOLY SHIT. In honor of my birthday The Striders had a training run Saturday morning: the Bongo 2 Bongo 14 miler (Bongo Java is the name of a local coffee shop. We run from one Bongo Java and past another Bongo Java before arriving back at the original Bongo Java. GOT THAT?).

Coach dubbed the run: Bongo 2 Bongo Birthday Bitch Brunch Blowout Run (B2BBBBBR for short, hahahahahahaha). And everytime I saw her on the course she would yell... Birthday Bitch!

I ran 15 miles with Melissa and Liz and felt... pretty decent. I did test a Hammer Gel at mile 8ish and besides the fact that it took me about 2 minutes to actually get the thing down (uh... next time I need to remember to start taking it BEFORE the water stop), I felt no burst/help whatsoever. No gagging, though! So, there's a silver lining.

On the list to try:

Roctane Gu

Caffeinated Gu

5 hour energy/s

Any other suggestions?

After the run, The KoB said... "when you're ready, I've got something for you in the car." At first I was like... wait a minute, I know this trick... but, when we got to his car, he opened the back door and there was a 12 pack of Milwaukee's Best PREMIUM. He even had cups, so I could walk around with the beer. Perfect! And I am now proposing that we end every long run with a recovery beer.

After the beer a few of us walked down the street to a local brunch place, where there were CAP'N CRUNCH CRUSTED FRENCH TOAST AND a Bloody Mary Bar.

Food was delicious, service was excellent. 

I will be back.

There is really nothing I'd rather do on my birthday than get in a long run and go to brunch afterwards with my favorite people.

 Books and Booze for gifts.

My friends know me well.

Add to all that perfection that the day was absolutely beautiful: sunny and in the low 60s. The KoB and I spent the rest of the day nerding it up in Franklin visiting Carnton Plantation.

Ridic.

Although, if I'm being honest, I enjoyed

the tour at The Carter House much better.

Sunday, I had brunch with another friend who shares the same birthday and then I spent the evening with my family to celebrate my birthday. At the end of the weekend I couldn't help but think about how lucky I am to have such awesome friends and family. Thanks, bitches and sonsabitches!!

Week 3 Workouts

A good thing happened in Week 3: I mentally committed myself to the Flying Pig Marathon. Annnnd I am starting to get excited about it. Inspired, even!

Diving right in, bitches.

Although, I am NOT grooving with this weather lately. I mean, I realize, that I complain about the weather probably 85% of the time. So, this isn't anything new... but, it's starting to affect my running. NO MORE, people. NO MORE. It's time for me take my cranky/pansy pants off and just get my running done. HTFU (as The KoB would say).

The Workouts: 

3xMile repeats at 10k Pace

Mid-long run of 8-10 miles with 30-40 minutes at Marathon Pace.

Ideally, these would be done on Tuesday/Thursday. In reality, I am a lazy fuckwad and I skipped running altogether on Tuesday. So, I did them on Wednesday/Sunday.

The Mid-Long run I did on Wednesday night and I had The KoB run them with me. My garmin is whacked out, so, we just did these timed and by "effort." And hot damn, they felt pretty fucking fantastic. Now... some might say... that they felt that good because I had taken Tuesday off... 

Actually. You're probably right. 

But, I am choosing to believe it's because I'm awesome, instead.

The mile repeats... I thought about doing them on Friday morning. And then I chickened out and I put them off until Sunday morning. The day AFTER my long run. For the second week in a row, I've pushed a workout to a sunday. WTF?

I ran over to the park and the first one felt like someone had strapped 200 pounds of lead to my calves. It felt like I was crawling, and I was totally going to quit when I finished the first one, but then, I thought... well... I can do one more. And as soon as I started the second one, it was like someone flipped a switch on... I felt like I was flying for those last two. It was a Sunday Post Long Run miracle. 

Weekend 2 Recap

The running:

I met up with my friends Liz and Melissa at Percy Warner Park on Saturday morning for a long run. Technically I was supposed to run 10 miles with 5 miles at Marathon Pace.

 

This was what the road looked like when I parked. I pulled the pansy "safety first!"

 excuse and ran 11 very very easy instead. It felt pretty good. 

Sunday then, I got up and ran over Centennial to get in my marathon pace mile workout in. In my head, I kept telling myself that I was going to be tired from my hilly, long run the day before. And the first mile at marathon pace did not disappoint. My legs felt heavy and tired. I convinced myself that I was going to bail on the workout and just run a recovery run. But, as I finished the first mile, I was like... well maybe I can do one more... and from that one on... I felt amazing. It was like I just had to shake the cobwebs off or something. I ended up running them way too fast (Seriously. I AM going to work on this) and was proud of myself for sticking with it. Legs are going to feel heavy and tired during the last miles of the marathon. Might as well get used to it now, huh?

The rest of the weekend was pretty busy/fun, too.

Friday night I watched Mitt.

 I fully expected it to be a hate watch.

Surprisingly, I actually really liked it and thought the Romney Family came off very likeable. I mean, likeable for a political family. And of note, the documentary was filmed by a fellow Mormon. So, it had a decidedly positive slant towards the Romneys. Although, I must admit, the whole time I was like.... so they are really wearing that undergarment thingy under their clothes all the time? (I find Mormonism strangely fascinating).

Saturday The KoB and went to the Nashville Boat and Outdoors Show. I went a lot as a kid and remembered it being REALLY big. As an adult, it isn't quite as big. But it was fun to wander around and look at the ridiculously priced boats. $106,000 for a wakeboarding boat, ya'll. That is a hella expensive hobby, especially considering there's really only a few months out of the year that you can do it. Also, bonus: we got to check out Nashville's new convention center.

It did not disappoint.

After the boat show we headed over to another new Nashville site: Vanderbilt's new indoor track:

This place is sick.

They were hosting a track meet and we got there in time to watch the 400s, 200s, 800s, and the 3000m races. I also enjoyed watching the athletes do their weird warm ups and drills.

That night, I bored the tears out of The KoB by making him watch Airplane (which he had never seen)!

Hey... you make me watch Glimmer Man with STEVEN SEGAL, 

the least you can do is watch Airplane.

 

I'm striking out big time on 80s movies that I make The KoB watch. Fletch and Airplane... were both kind of misses. And I'm starting to think that I just have a terrible sense of humor. (Although, how can you like Spaceballs and NOT Airplane? Someone back me up here).

Sunday it was an absolute gorgeous day, so we spent a good part of the day at the Dog Park and then walking around outside.

Leo was so tired at the dog park, that he actually laid down to drink water.

Adorbs!

Sunday night, while Leo slept in a collapsed heap of exhaustion I finally finished a book I've been reading for a couple of weeks:

Meh. Great story line. Decent characters.

But, no where near as good as The Secret History.

And now, I need suggestions on something to read quickly before my copy of The Bully Pulpit becomes available at the library to pick up. Any suggestions?

I'm sad that the weekend is over, but it's nice to feel like you really squeezed a lot out of it, without starting the week exhausted. Week 3, let's do this.

Week Two... in progress.

Well, I'm half-way through week two of marathon training and I've already pulled a diva move of telling my coach that I was happy with one approach to my training and then 12 hours later freaking out and telling her that I wanted something else.

I blame my initial acquiescence to a plan of more quality over quantity on a holy basil high. It's a good idea to change things up... to try something else... but, I'm a mileage whore at my core and knowing that I have to hike/run/crawl the Grand Canyon 2 weeks after my marathon... well, let's just say I'm using that as an excuse to run ALL THE MILES. Hooray.

In other ways that I'm a shitty person to coach... I did my workouts back-to-back this week. Well. Kind of. I mean, ON PAPER, they were back to back. I ran a tempo run on Tuesday and I did my hill workout on Wednesday. But, it wasn't 24 hours between the two.... it was 36. So... that's better, right?

 

I offer the following explanation: I had The KoB to run the workouts with me. Who can say no to that???

The tempo run I did Tuesday morning just as the fucking polar vortex part deux was rolling into town and I managed to nail a 4 mile tempo. Half of each mile was way slow because I was running into the wind, but the second half felt like I was flying. So, at least I recognized the tail wind for once. 

Surprisingly, in my 6 weeks of slothdom since Baton Rouge, I don't feel like I've lost that much fitness. I just jinxed the shit out of myself, didn't I? I mean, sure, 4 miles was the max I wanted to run for a tempo, but I'd say it was the best I've felt starting out on a training cycle. So, yay! I guess?

I did hills on Wednesday night. The KoB and I did our regular 6 mile loop (which is hillier than I like already) and pushed the pace on most of the run and then after about 4-5 miles we added 5 hill repeats in. My goal was not to start out like a bat out of hell and have some effort left for the last repeat and I think I accomplished that. After the first one, on the jog back down, the KoB asked: "where did it hurt?" And I dumbly said... "oh, about there." pointing at a driveway we crossed near the top of the hill. NO DUMBASS, he meant, where in my body did it hurt? I told him it hurt in my legs. And he said good. When sensai asks you a question and he responds "good" to your answer. YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT PATH, my friend. Anyway, they felt hard, but a good hard. Ya know what I mean?

And finally, in other ways I've effed up this week: In an effort to save money and not spend $128 on a pair of pants that I am DYING for:

WHO SPENDS THAT MUCH MONEY ON PANTS?????

But damn. They are totally perfect, right? 

Anyway, see that seam like 5 inches ABOVE the model's knee. 

That's the whole point of the pants. They are moto pants.

I found an alternative at Zara for $30 bucks. SCORE! (I can't find a picture, they must be sold out online). Except, I got them home and tried them on and the part that MAKES them motorcycle pants (the seam details around the knees) was practically at my ankles. Short legs for the Fail, again.

Le sigh.

I did learn something else besides the fact that I was indeed a pygmy in a former life from this fashion fail:
Why so many bloggers/instagrammers/etc take photos of their feet while standing:

Because, OMG your legs look skinny and

OMG THIGH GAP!

Gag.

(Little photobomb nose in the right hand bottom corner.

the REAL reason I included this photo).

Pig Training: Week 1

Yup. I'm running the Flying Pig on May 4. And my goal is a 3:39:59. That's an 8:24 pace.

Technically, last week was my first week of training. But, I wasn't really coached and just kinda half-assed the week. ENJOYING IT WHILE I CAN.

The good:
My long run. I ran 15 miles on Saturday and they felt pretty easy and good.

The bad:
I took Thursday AND Friday off, so no wonder I felt amazing running 15 miles. 

I had good intentions on Friday. I was going to run after work, but I ended up working late and I just could not get myself amped to go out and run when all I wanted to do was sit on the couch, eat popcorn, and finish watching Top of the Lake on Netflix (which, I don't really recommend for the story, but holy shit, now I want to go to New Zealand).

I managed to get in just over 40 miles for the week.

This time of year is my busiest at work and when you add marathon training to that (and taking care of a muskrat dog), I have to pretty much say goodbye to all my non-running friends. See ya in May! The good news is... being so busy makes these next 4 months FLY by.

Training cycle #4,509. Here we go again.

Photo Dump of the past few weekends:

 Cutest dog, EVER.

Deep in conversation about economics or the diamond trade.

Or possibly bitches.

Chopping wood.

Shooting a gun.

Different weekend, same fucking shirt.

Is it the weekend yet?

BQ Training Weeks 15 & 16

The taper.

Holy freaking cow. This is it folks. In less than 48 hours I will be attempting my first and hopefully last for awhile Boston Qualifier. Where did 16 weeks go???? 

Am I ready? As ready as I can be, I suppose. I'm more anxious than nervous. I have a lot of anxiety about what mile 22 is going to feel like when I haven't had to stop and crap 3 times already or thrown up 6 times. I KNOW that I CAN do this. I just hope that I am able to do it on Saturday. 

This training cycle went well... but damn it was hard. I didn't have the luxury of having a bunch of other people training for a marathon at the same time (I'm looking at you bitches) and I struggled to get my ass out there and do the work. 

Truth.

Luckily, The KoB stepped in and saved my ass on a few long runs and many other runs and didn't break up with me when I became irrationally bitchy at mile 12 of a 13 mile mid-week long run or when I fell and cried and rolled around on the sidewalk at mile 18.5 of a 20 miler.

I do think that having a training cycle that wasn't rainbows and unicorns will help on race day. I expect to hurt and I expect to feel like I can't do it at certain times during the race. But, I ONLY have to run for 3:34:59. That's not so bad, right? Haha.

Anyway, I feel prepared. Coach really outdid herself with my training plan this go around (I am going to kiss your feet, Coach, when I see you next for not making me do 10x800s this go around!!!!!!!). I loved the schedule and the varying workouts of intervals, marathon pace, and long runs. She has set me up... now all I have to do is deliver.

Week 15 Workouts:

Marathon Pace: 3 miles @ Marathon Pace

Long: 14-20 miles.

I ran the Marathon Pace miles a little faster than I had to and they felt pretty dang fast.  Obvi.

For my long run, I ran it on Thursday of last week and I felt like I needed another good long-ish run mentally. I ran 14 miles at an honest pace and I think it kept my head in check and not at the expense of my legs. Win.

I also ran 50 miles total last week. I've been averaging in the 60 range for most of my training cycle and I kind of felt like a significant drop off might mess up my mojo. So, 50 was enough to get me some rest, but not enough to get me USED to the rest.

Week 16 Workout:

Intervals: 8x400s at faster than 5K pace with 400 recoveries.

This workout kicked my ass. I think part of it was the recoveries. I've had rather short recoveries with most of my workouts lately and I just kinda stand around and catch my breath. With this workout, I ran the recoveries at about 9 minute pace. I only did 7 of the repeats. Hopefully that was enough to get some turnover in the legs. And of course made me feel terrible mentally about the race. Yay! Taper.

Like I always say though.... if all my runs feel terrible during taper week, I should be happy. That just means I'm saving the good run for the race.

See you on the otherside!

BQ Training Week 14

OMG. 14 weeks in the books. ONLY TWO MORE WEEKS LEFT!

Now is the time for me to chill the eff out. I'm all freaked out that I only hit a 70 mile week ONCE during this training cycle and I'm just generally afraid that I didn't do enough. Shouldn't I be MORE beat up? Shouldn't I want to lay in bed and sleep all day? WHY DO I FEEL LIKE I COULD KEEP GOING ON LIKE THIS FOR 6 MORE WEEKS? ACK!!!!!

Relax, yo.

Anyway, this week was rather exciting because I had a beer mile race on Friday and then The KoB had his goal race on Sunday. SPOILER ALERT: I suck and The KoB truly is a beast. Separate posts on both of those events to come.

Intervals: 3x 800, 600, 400, 200 @ 7:00 pace.
Marathon Pace: 8-10 miles with 2x15 minutes at Marathon Pace
Long: My choice of 14-20 miles.

The interval workout felt totally manageable for once. They were challenging enough that I needed a good amount of focus, but easy enough to make me feel really awesome for a few hours afterwards. Also, since the KoB was tapering, he ran the entire workout with me. Boom.

My marathon pace run went well because my BFF Melissa stepped in and did them with me. I was excited to talk about shopping* and general girly stuff. Yay. But at the end of that run, I started to feel an extreme tightness in my right butt cheek. Fun.

Saturday, I planned on running 20 miles as a last ditch confidence booster. I met up with a posse of The KoB, Steve, and Melissa and about 2 minutes in, my butt started hurting AGAIN. WTF?

It just felt stiff and tight and because of the tightness, my gait was all wonky and that made my pelvic/groan/hip region hurt. Awesome. It didn't keep me from running, but it did keep me from running fast-ish. so, I bailed after 13 miles. FAIL.

I'm convinced that it's the latest model of Vomeros that I bought a couple of weeks ago. I wore other shoes on Friday, Sunday, and today and while I didn't run more than 6 miles any of those times, I never had any hint of pain in my ass region. WHAT THE FUCK, NIKE? I don't understand why every new model of shoes has to CHANGE? Ugh. I went to 3 stores on Saturday searching for a pair of the old model in my size and have looked online and found nothing. My plan is not wear the new shoes again till after the race and I guess I'll just wear my old pair for the marathon. It's not ideal, because those shoes are worn the fuck out. But, at least my ass won't hurt for 26.2 miles.

Time to taper, bitches.

* To be fair, The KoB and I also talk about shopping while we run. Corvette shopping doesn't really count, though.

BQ Training Week 13

This is one of my last weeks of hard training. And there is definitely a sense of urgency driving my runs right now. It's good and bad. Half of me wants to bail cause I'm tired and just want to go home and eat a bowl of cereal and lay on my couch and watch episodes of Parks and Recreation

 

But, I don't because I'm all... OMFG I've only got X amount of weeks left to train for this fucker. I am a true procrastinator at heart, so this is my sweet spot of training.

This week was good. I got most of my runs in. Although... DAMN, I am having the hardest time getting in my mid-long runs on Thursdays. This has been my achilles heel this whole training period. I dunno, I guess by the time Thursday rolls around, I just want to sleep in (so, I do) and then after work I'm always too tired to get all the miles in from work and running all week. It's strange, because those are the runs I used to really enjoy. I used to love going into work knowing that I had ran 10-12 miles that morning. But now, I love going into work after having slept 8 hours. Screw running.

The workouts:
Intervals: 8x800s at 3:30-3:40.
Marathon Pace: 20 minutes at Marathon Pace during a 7 mile run the day before long run.
Long: 20 miles.

Somewhere along these past 13 weeks Tuesdays have become my favorite day. I have NEVER enjoyed speedwork. I never really felt like I got results from intervals like I did from tempo runs, hill repeats, etc. But, all that has changed and my favorite thing about opening my training schedule is seeing what crazy ass set my Coach has planned for speedwork that week.  So, even though I had to do my dreaded 800s, I didn't mind. It was speedwork, yo!

This week was a little different though. The last month or so, every interval workout has kicked my ass. This week, my legs were fatigued, but finally... the fitness was there. I didn't feel like my head was going to explode or that I was going to go into cardiac arrest. Hooray! I did want to saw my legs off, though... so, they were challenging.

 This was probably how graceful those 800s looked.

The marathon pace run went well, too. I love those workouts, too. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?

The long run... it went fine, I felt fine. It was just all fine. I didn't run as fast as I would have liked. But, I got in 20 miles and I didn't try to slit my wrists with a broken Colt 45 bottle that I found on the side of the road. So, I call it a win. Also, as a bonus, my friend Liz joined me for miles 12-18. So, that helped break up the run into manageable chunks.

This next week is last week of HARD training. The hay is being tossed into the barn as we speak...

BQ Training Week 12

First of all, I want to say Happy Veterans Day. Of all the holidays on the calendar, this is one that I don't think gets the acknowledgement it deserves. Thank you veterans. I'm pretty sure with my mouth, attitude, laziness, and my scaredy-cat-ness I could NEVER do what you do/have done and I appreciate you for it!

Now... onto the cat gifs and training notes!

I could watch this all day.

Week 12 was a pretty good week. I'm still struggling a bit to get workouts done on my own... but, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so hopefully that will keep me motivated.

Workouts:

Track: 4x1200s @ 10K pace

Tempo: 10 mile Race

Long: Uhhh... 10 mile race + warm up and cool down for 14 miles total.

Another week of track work that kicked my ass! I am so thankful that I started crashing The KoB's Tuesday morning workout. Even if he isn't able to run all of the intervals with me, it's just nice to have other people out there that I know doing workouts to keep me focused and honest. I always feel bad though, because his crew is so upbeat and shouts encouraging words at me as I do my workout and all I can muster is a weak "good job" as they go around. 

The actual intervals were tough. Not impossible, but tough. I was happy to have them done and logged.

The race will be it's own blog post! So, yeah, I guess this is a pretty lame ass Training Week Review.

BQ Training Week 11

We interrupt week 11 with a trip to South Carolina.

Week 11 marked the last week of my training schedule that I had to travel before the race and luckily, I had the time and the most beautiful places to get my runs in. But from here on out, I'm just going to be in Nashville getting my training on. 

Since it was kind of a whirlwind week, the runs came pretty easily. Coincidentally it was also a cut back week in mileage, so I was able to get in all my runs even with traveling.

Workouts:

Intervals: 3 sets of 800, 600, 600 at GOAL 5K pace.

Tempo: 5 miles at +/- 10 seconds of Marathon Pace

Long: 14 miles jogette deluxe the day after the Marathon Pace run.

Intervals: 

On paper this workout seemed easy, peasy. In actuality, it was really fucking tough. Thankfully I had the KoB run all the intervals with me. I put in my log that it was the hardest workout I've ever done and even today, almost a week later, I still stand by that statement.

Unrelated to running:

Bachelorette Party Night (80s theme) in Savannah, Ga

The Bride is one of my best friends/roommates from College.

The Tempo run was really good. I got up early on Saturday morning, pre-wedding and jogged around the most ridiculous gated neighborhood outside of Beaufort, SC.

My question is this....

Who needs a vacation home this BIG?

I ran the first mile a little slow in 8:20, but picked it up for the other 4 miles.

And then I ran at least another mile back and forth from the house, to the reception site, to the ceremony site.

At least it was a beautiful day and a beautiful setting.

I swear, the whole place was like a movie set, or something.

I spent all day Saturday running around like a chicken with my head cut-off and then Saturday night, I got to enjoy myself at the wedding (read: Drink and stuff my face with cake).

And dance. I got to step on lots of old men feet.

Carolina Gamecocks representing!

We all met Freshman Year. The boys lived in the

same dorm and us girls lived in the same dorm.

Crazy that 15 years later, two of us got married.

Still keeping it classy with my beer can!

 Sunday morning I had to get up at the crack of dawn to get my long run done, but it's hard to complain when this was my view for the run.

Welcome to Beaufort, SC.

I ran for a little over 2 hours, so I hopefully got in my 14 miles. Garmin FAIL. I spent the rest of the day exploring Hilton Head and almost missing my flight because my GPS calculated the mileage wrong.

While I was meandering along a trail at this wildlife preserve 

on Hilton Head, I should have been making my way back 

to the Charleston Airport. Oops.

 I would have missed seeing this enormous 

pig ON A LEASH at a strip mall, though.

It was a good week of running, friends, and traveling. 

And will likely remain the most beautiful wedding I've ever been to.

Nice work, Sara.