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Run, Eat, Work, Run, Sleep, Repeat.

October 2nd, 2010 | Posted by Lindsay Runs in Blog Posts - (2 Comments)

It’s been a while. And I’ve missed writing, I’ve just been terribly busy between working 12 hour days, running 60 mile weeks and attempting to have some sort of social life. It’s EXHAUSTING! But of course, I weirdly love it. Ahh, the life of a runner.

Where do I even start? It’s been about 2 weeks! I suppose I last left off after my longest run– that left me pretty drained for the entire week. Legs were a bit heavy and my calves especially were sore, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is the heaviest training period pre-Marathon, so I need to put in the work now, and worry about getting my legs fresh during the taper.

I don’t have my running log in front of me now, but know I hit 60.5 miles the week of 9/19! I don’t think I’ve EVER cracked 60 miles before, so it was quite exciting that I’m able to run that much and I’m still *knock on wood* in one piece and not injured.

The highlight of last weekend was going down to DC to run RAGNAR RELAYS ! For those who may not know (heck, I hadn’t heard of the race series before I was invited on a team..) it’s a 200 mile relay race run by a team of 12 (or 6, if you’re a CrAzY ultra team). Each person runs 3 legs, and the race starts Friday and goes into Saturday.

Our team (GO Frozen Burrito Legion!) finished 3rd overall in a time of 24:54:45, a fantastic showing out of well over 200 teams total. It was crazy, I ran at like 2:30pm Friday for a hilly 4.6 mile leg, at 10:30 pm Friday for a 2.5 mile leg and at like 5:30 am for a 6.6 mile leg! It was a lot of running at crazy hours, and I slept for perhaps 1.5 hours while sitting up in our minivan. And only ate non-meal foods (granola bars, bananas, pretzels, gatorade..)

Here are some fun pictures!

Totally normal...'Nova Reunion at 8am in a parking lot (+Corey)

Frozen Burrito Legion!

Oh hey, just running up a mountain...

Night runners!

We're DONE!!!

It was a fun experience, and I’d TOTALLY do another one!

Since all of those runs (13.7 miles total…) were done at or faster than a tempo pace (felt like i flyinggg on that 2.5 miler since it was so short!) my legs were sore AGAIN from the speed. At least Sunday was off since it took FOREVER to get home from DC and encountered numerous obstacles along the way (stopping at 3 different brunch places all with long waits until settling at IHOP, getting a flat tire on the way home, subways running local allll the way uptown, grabbing terences bag accidentally and then my cell phone dying so having to call him at a PAYPHONE with my remaining 2 quarters to meet up on the subway tracks) and on Monday morning was surprisingly not too bad.

This week was a little lower mileage with a day off, and then crazy working hours! I need to double check on my log, but I think I was around 58-59 miles or so. I was hoping to get up over 60-62 but LIFE gets in the way!

I’m currently in the quaint town of Freeport, Maine for a business trip. It’s been quite laid back while has been nice. The FALL FOLIAGE is so great here and as much of a city girl as I currently am, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the country and outdoors! It’s also great for running on the backroads– pretty sure I only saw about 8 cars in total on my runs!

Yesterday I did an easy 6 in the POURING rain. My legs were kinda stiff from flying, and the weather was crappy, but I headed out anyway to get in the miles. BOY the Freeport area is MUCH hillier than I thought; lots of rolling hills and farms.

This morning, I woke up extraaa early to get in a planned 20 miles. I google mapped a route and prayed I’d remember it. Well, I was a little slower to get out the door this morning (must have been the glasses of wine last night…) and then I stopped a few times along the way briefly because I took my camera (pictures soon!!) to capture all of the great sights. So, ended up only doing 18 miles total since I had to rush back to shower and get to a Pumpkin Pie making class by 10am! I know 18 is STILL a good distance, but I really wanted to get in another good 20-miler. Guess there is always next weekend in Colorado…More on that later, hopefully…have to head out to dinner with the team! Freeport isn’t all play and no work :)

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Lessons Learned: NYRR Marathon Tune-Up

September 19th, 2010 | Posted by Lindsay Runs in Blog Posts - (4 Comments)

My alarm went off at 6:10 am this morning. Wayyyy too early for a Sunday, but out I bed I went. I grabbed a 1/2 cup of coffee (yes, I autoset it the night before to save time…) and a 1/2 small bowl of oatmeal (yes, also made the night before…) and ran out the door. Literally, I ran.

See, I was unable to pick up my bib number at the New York Road Runners office on E89th street the day before because the Ikea adventure with my roommates took from 11:30am-4:30pm, exactly the same timeframe I had to pick up my bib at their offices. Lesson learned to always go pick up bibs early, even if I have to dash out of work! So, I had to get to the NYRR office by 6:45am. I start running until I got to 86th and Broadway, and then realized I was not going to make it there by 6:45 on foot, so hopped in a cap cross-town. Lesson learned to always pack cash in my bag!

I probably got there at 6:44:59 but I made it. I quickly pinned on my bib, attached my d-tag to my shoe, and ran to Central Park and the starting line. By the time I got to baggage, I ran run 1.75 miles total between the trek to the cab and then to the start. Counting it in the daily mileage! I picked up the race t-shirt which of course they were out of smalls. I got a medium which serves more as a dress than a shirt…Lesson learned to pick up my race stuff early to ensure proper sizing of free shirt.

I waited in line for a good few minutes for a portapotty before the start until I decided to screw it and pop in the bushes, great success. I squeezed into my starting corral at the last second and the gun went off!

It was weird, since this wasn’t a RACE. It was a tune-up RUN. I intended to run it at a training pace, like 7:30/mile. The first mile was a tad frustrating, weaving in and out of packs of people. Really, I don’t think I hit a point where I was actually running with people rather than past them until around 5 miles.

So here’s where it gets interesting. My chip time for the 18 miles (time I crossed the start until time I crossed the finish…) is 2:16:54. However, my watch time for the 18 miles (overall run time, stopping watch when I stopped running) is 2:10:46. So, what happened in that 6 minute discrepancy?

Let’s back it up to yesterday. I had a normal breakfast around 10am, and then started helping my mom paint my room. My roommates and I went to Ikea around 11:30am, and I really didn’t think it was going to take as long as it did. So, I only brought a Gatorade for the road. By the time I arrived back to the apartment by 5pm or so, I was starving! I quickly ate a kiwi (random, but it was there and easy…) and helped my mom touch up some more before we went out to dinner.

Needless to say, I went a little more overboard than normal at dinner with my mom at  Community Food & Juice. I ordered a delicious sauteed squid with white beans, tomatoes and pesto appetizer, a grass-fed beef burger with caramelized onions and white cheddar, fries, AND then a strawberry rhubarb crisp for dessert. It was DELICIOUS! I was full, but not stuffed when I left. And then I guess it settled. It was discomfort and I knew I wouldn’t fully digest before the run the next morning. But, I rationalized it as more fuel, right?

WRONG!

The rich (though extremely delicious) food did NOT agree with my stomach the next morning. Having to stop and wait in line for the portapotty literally 3 times during the run (sorry, TMI?) contributed to the not-so-enjoyable 18 miler, and a combined 6 minutes of not running. It was a little frustrating to keep having to catch-up to the same folks, but I had my watch to take each mile splits so at the end of the day, at least I knew my real pace.

BIGGEST LESSON LEARNED: DO NOT eat a huge, rich dinner the night before the marathon! Fuel up well, but with safe, bland foods!

Ugh. Probably don’t care to hear about my stomach woes. If 18 miles doesn’t sound awful enough to run, this just made it even worse. That’s what training runs are for, I suppose!

Here’s what the run came out to…

1.75 miles…around 7:30? Warm-up stop and go.

Mile 1: 8:06
Mile 2: 7:40
Mile 3: 7:18
Mile 4: 7:19
Mile 5: 7:24
Mile 6: 7:08
Mile 7: 7:24
Mile 8: 7:18
Mile 9: 7:09
Mile 10: 7:06
Mile 11: 7:18
Mile 12: 7:02
Mile 13: 7:02
Mile 14: 7:23
Mile 15: 7:00
Mile 16: 7:01
Mile 17: 7:14
Mile 18: 6:41

Total 18 Mile Time: 2:10:46
Total distance TOTAL: 19.75 miles! Longest run EVER!

I felt good, my average pace was around 7:15, pretty good considering my first 2 miles were especially slow. Once I saw my splits going down, and saw that I was feeling good (minus tummy…) I got competitive with myself and tried to focus. It didn’t feel like I was racing or tempo-ing even, just like I was focusing on maintaining my pace and keeping it smooth. My goal pace for the marathon is 7:15 so I definitely feel like if I can do 18 at that pace in a low-key run, I can do 26.2 even faster than that come RACE DAY!

Lesson Learned: Don’t DOUBT yourself! Most of the time, you’ll surprise yourself.

After the run, I grabbed one zillion cups of water and gatorade and tried to stretch as much as I could. My shoes (mentioned last post) kinda cut up my heels a bit and they bled onto my socks. Won’t include a visual of that. It didn’t bother me during the run, so I guess that’s okay. But BOY was the walk home PAINFUL. Lesson learned: Pack flipflops to FREE my feet post-run!

Overall, quite successful. The 7am starting time was a killer but I am glad I did it. Having thousands of other folks to run with really made it ….dare I say, fun? Getting super excited for the Marathon, but NOT looking forward to a pair of sore legs tomorrow!

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Domestic Weekend

September 18th, 2010 | Posted by Lindsay Runs in Blog Posts - (0 Comments)

Again, my post-per-day ambition is turning into just that…ambition. I don’t know why I feel the need to apologize for only posting every 2-3 days or so, but I am.

Thursday was an exciting day (in my lame life). I did a 2 mile shakeout in the morning, and after work, ran straight up to Central Park from my office because it was…tempo night! Since I’m a creature of habit, I decided to do the same 3 lower loops interval I had done just about a week ago. 1.7 miles each, total of 5.1 miles. The weather was crisp and cool, and I had some fun and light shoes on.

I wore them for the 1/2 Marathon in March but I’m trying to test them out a bit more to see how I’d like them for the Marathon. I’ll probably end up wearing them because I don’t want to spring for a new pair, despite the fact I got these for free. What kind of shoes are you even supposed to wear in a Marathon? I guess that’s one to google.

So, either the last time I did this workout my legs were super tired and it was humid, or I just flat out sucked. Because on Wednesday, I rocked it. I doubt I increased fitness this much in one week, but I’ll take it. Last time I ran 35:07 total for 5.1 miles (6:53 pace), while on Wednesday I ran 34:34 for 5.1 miles (6:46 pace). Sweeeet.

The 1st lap was 11:33, the 2nd was 11:30 (felt good!), and the 3rd I was hurting a bit for 11:31. I actually even contemplated doing 1 more loop to make it a longer tempo, because apparently I love self-torture. But I didn’t…I may try that on a day I go out a little slower. I just felt SO GOOD, it was exciting. Still don’t know quite why, but funny that it could just be the cooler weather that made my time drop about 30 seconds. Makes me look forward to fall that much more…

I cooled down back to the office, making it 10 total for the day. Thursday I just did an easy 6.5 because my calves were (and still are…) pretty sore. Today I did 8 after work and ran an errand along the way.

See, sometimes when running takes up most all of your free time, you have to get a bit creative. I found out there was a 2-day sale at Banana Republic, 40% off with your BR card. Of course, I’ve been pining over some fall clothes ever since the temps got out of the 90s. This was my chance! So I set off after work with my keys, metrocard, and Banana Republic credit card. I finished my run at the store (whoops, was only slightly sweaty since it was so cool) and spent much more $$ than I intended! But I haven’t been shopping in quite some time, and I needed cute fall work essentials, right? I took the subway home. Multitasking at it’s finest!

This skirt is one of my favorite purchases from this evening!

Tomorrow is my day off from running, but I’ll hardly be resting. My mom is coming into NYC to help me PAINT MY ROOM! I’ll have to post some pictures once we’re done. In preparation for her early morning arrival, I took everything off my walls and moved everything into the middle of the room. This sure sounded like a much better idea before…I hope it’s easier than I think! Also going to Ikea with the roomies tomorrow, and have to stop by NYRR offices to pick up my bib for the 18-mile NYC Marathon Tune-Up run on Sunday!

Haven’t decided, but I think I’ll run to and from the start of the tune-up run so I can get closer to 18. The route is just 3 loops of Central Park which is probably the most BORING route I could think of, but it’ll be nice to be with a set pace group and hopefully meet some new people! The only part I am NOT looking forward to is the 7 a.m. start time. YIKES! Mostly looking forward to a big post-run brunch and massive nap afterwards. But at least it’ll be out of the way!

Welp, that was sufficiently boring, but so is my life. Running, cleaning my room and blogging on a Friday night, and painting and running some more all weekend….not your average NYC gal’s life that’s for sure. But it’s fine for the next (less than) 2 months and I’m actually loving it. Probably because there is an end in sight :)

To recap my week…

S: 17 long run!
M: 5.75 easy
T: 3 in am, 6.25 in pm
W: 2 in am, 1.5 warmup, 5.1 tempo (34:34), 1.5 cooldown
R: 6.5
F: 8
S: OFF
TOTAL: 56.5

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Fueled by Carbs & Coffee

September 14th, 2010 | Posted by Lindsay Runs in Blog Posts - (0 Comments)

On Sunday, I set off on a new journey. In an attempt to get onto a weekend long-run schedule (rather than before work), I was trying to get in at least 16 miles…a new longest run ever!

I slept in, fueled up on a small bowl of oatmeal with dried cranberries and cinnamon and a cup few cups of coffee! I have a pretty sensitive stomach and don’t like to eat any weird foods before running, but for some reason coffee is okay for me. And let’s be honest, I neeed something to energize me on such a long journey. I digested for a good hour and a half and geared up to go.

Oh and what a journey it was. I ran from my apartment, through Riverside Park, down the West Side Highway, through Battery Park City, down to the South Street Seaport, over the Brooklyn Bridge, over the Manhattan Bridge, down through Chinatown, back towards the Seaport and back through Battery Park city. PHEW! Getting tired just recapping it.

BUT WAIT! Something serendipitous happened that made my run that much better. As I turned the corner near the Staten Island Ferry area around 8 miles, I ran into none other than….

TERENCE!

Okay, no…Terence was not running 18 miles in his boxers unfortunately. I just wanted to post that picture for giggles. I do someday hope I have the good fortune to randomly stumble mid-run on him while he’s in this exact pose. It’s like he’s naked and dazed and wants yum yums. Then I know I’ve really hit a new hallucination point and probably need to stop running immediately.

And it gets better! Since NYC is such a SMALL city, I saw him for a SECOND time around the 15 mile mark.

Coincidence? I think not.

I’d also like to publicly embarrass myself by posting a picture of my first awkward encounter with Terence. I was a feeble freshman, homecoming weekend…I did my first ever “power hour” and by 6 p.m. had a terrible headache. Terence approaches me:

T: “Pick a number between 1 and 10″
L: “Ummm…5?”
T: “Okay, LAPDANCE!!”
L: “NO NO I Mean…7!”
T: “Okay, LAPDANCE!!!”

Cue my scared face below, and Terence in his boxers (I sense a theme here…)

I survived my run in around 2 hours and 8 minutes. The Nike+ said 17.5 miles, but I’m calling it 17 because I think it overestimated my pace a little since it was mostly an entirely flat route.

After my run, I was ravenous. Great thing I had a fun afternoon in store at my friend Sarah’s apartment. For her birthday, we had “cupcake wars”…everyone brought cupcakes from different bakeries in NYC and got to eat them all!

The winners for taste were the double chocolate cupcakes from Blue Smoke Bake Shop!

While the winners for appearance (but CRAPPY taste) were from Cupcake Cafe:

It was so tasty! Great way to spend a rainy Sunday.

So far this week, I did an easy 5.75 yesterday to shake out my legs post-run, and tried doubling today: 3 in the morning and 6.25 at night. Thinking of attempting a tempo tomorrow, but hope my legs feel a little more ‘springy’. I guess it’s just about impossible to expect to have fresh legs when I did 55 (okay, 54.5) miles last week.

We’ll see how the rest of this week goes…have a big weekend in store: finally painting my bedroom! Feeling quite domestic.

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Alarm Clock Fail & Fall Air

September 11th, 2010 | Posted by Lindsay Runs in Blog Posts - (1 Comments)

Been a while since I posted…sorry, chalking it entirely up to laziness on my part. So where do I start?

As I last mentioned, I had a long run of 16 miles planned on Thursday morning. Similarly to the previous week, I had brought all of my clothes and stuff to work on Wednesday, so that I could run long straight to the office and shower at the gym, cutting down on commuting time. I had a great dinner, autoset my coffee machine, went to bed at a good hour, set my alarm for 6:10 a.m….

You know when you kinda wake up before your alarm clock but you want to savor every last second of sleep? As I tried with every ounce of energy to fall asleep again since 6:10 is super early to wake up to begin with, I heard my roommates door open.

“That’s weird…why is she up so early?” I thought as I glanced at the clock.

6:46 a.m.?!?! I cursed at my blackberry for not going off. I double checked the alarm I set, because I do have a tendency to set it for PM instead of AM. Nope, all was good. Sometimes I guess it just doesn’t want to work.

I contemplated my choices…I could run 7 miles and get ready at my apartment like a normal day, or I could still head out for some sort of long run. I quickly estimated that I could get in about 12 miles to the office if I headed out ASAP. I thought that was better than nothing, so off I went for my 12.

It was a perfect fall-feeling morning. Crisp, cool, sunny…I thoroughly enjoyed my run through Central Park, and tried to pick it up towards the end to ‘make up’ for not being able to get in 16. As I ran, I thought that maybe everything happens for a reason: maybe my body just needed a little more sleep, maybe I wasn’t ready for 16, maybe since I’ve got 16-17 planned on Sunday I needed a break.

Whatever reason, it ended up being a great run and I was happy I was able to be a little flexible. I have a tendency to get really stressed out and upset when things don’t go according to how I’ve planned them and I have no control over it.

Lesson learned: Set MULTIPLE alarm clocks on Marathon morning!

Last night (Friday), I dedicated my night to being socially lame. And I loved it. I worked until 7 and by the time I got home and got myself moving, I headed out for a run around 7:45. It was a little dark, but the weather was cool. I ran in Central Park, with dozens of other extremely cool people running, biking and walking on a Friday night :)

I did 8 miles and felt good, all while taking in the gorgeous views of lit-up midtown that are visible from the reservoir and while heading down Cat Hill. Got me super excited for that moment I’m heading down Cat Hill, with less than 2 miles to go! Lame, I know.

Afterwards, I went to the gym for 30 minutes of stretching and core exercises, enjoyed a nice hot shower, and settled into bed with some hot tea and a leftover chicken enchilada to watch mindless television. It was such an exciting night, I fell asleep by midnight :)

This morning I woke up and I’ve just been laying in bed, watching some reruns of the Rachel Zoe Project and drinking coffee. What a life I lead! Today is my day OFF from running, and I plan on enjoying it thoroughly in this nice weather.

Speaking of weather, it has really started to feel like fall lately. It’s as if we got a perfect beach weekend for Labor Day, and then fall rolled right in. Really, it was over 90 degrees the previous week, and now we’re in the 70s! To celebrate, I started brewing some coffee I got from Target, Cinnamon Vanilla Nut flavor.

Yum!

I don’t know what it is about the taste, but as soon as I drank it on my way to work one day this week, I felt as if I was back at Villanova. The cooler weather combined with the taste of the coffee (kinda like the cinnamon coffee I used to get in the dining halls?) brought me right back like I was on my way to my 9:00am class for the first time that semester, not like I was on my way to work as I have each day for the past 15-16 months. Weird how tastes and smells do that to you.

If I can’t actually go back to Villanova, at least a cup of coffee can take me there in my mind.

Take me back to Villanova!!!

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A Whole New Beast & Green Monsters

September 8th, 2010 | Posted by Lindsay Runs in Blog Posts - (5 Comments)

I kicked my own butt yesterday, and my legs are yelling at me for it! Seriously, they are so sore and achy I had trouble sleeping last night. But it’s only making me stronger, right?

I started out the morning with an easy 3 mile shakeout. I used to find that these runs helped loosen me up the morning of an evening workout/race. This may or may not have been the case yesterday, as my legs were still feeling a bit heavy from the previous day’s 10 miles. I decided to do the workout from my office, so I ran the 1.5 miles up to Central Park and added on a little to make 2 miles warmup. It was more humid than I thought, my legs were not feeling springy, and I had a 5.1 mile tempo run ahead of me. I thought about quitting…running back to the office and calling it a day. Or just running easy and at least getting some miles in. But NO, I had a job to do. So I set off.

I planned to do 3 lower loops of Central Park, each 1.7 miles so I would know some approximate split/pace. I planned for 7 minute mile pace and wrote the time I should be at each loop for that pace…ditching the Nike+ sportband in favor of a good old watch that takes splits, so there are no more “maybes” like my last tempo. The first loop was a bit faster than I thought, 11:36 (6:49 pace)…but it’s so hard to determine pace when there are rolling inclines and people to dodge and bikers playing cat and mouse with you! I figured I’d settle into a pace the 2nd loop…which turned out to be 11:43 (6:53 pace).

I was really hurting towards the end of that loop, and I contemplated stopping right there. “Hey, 2 loops is pretty good. Still 3.4 miles isn’t a bad effort…and my legs are heavy and I’m probably going to die this last loop anyway…” said the voice in my head. But then I toughened up. “Come on, this is probably what you’ll feel like in the Marathon. There is zero chance your legs will feel great the entire time while running 26 miles, but you still have to keep on going!” So on I went to another loop. I really thought I was dogging this one, my legs killed on the uphill and I thought I was going to throw up (note to self- don’t eat an entire orange and a fun size snickers an hour before a tempo) but I finished in 11:48, 6:56 pace.

Okay, so my total time was 35:07 for 5.1 miles. 6:53 pace. Not bad, a solo effort on a heavy legs day in the humidity. Better than I set out to do. But then I compare it to my half-marathon, where I ran 6:50 pace for the entire 13.1 miles! I know races are different and bring out the adrenaline, but I have NO idea how I expect to run 7:15 pace for a Marathon. Is this goal realistic? It seems to be based off of my half time, I just hope I’m training myself correctly. Since I don’t have the liberty of a college coach to plan all my workouts and mileage, I am kinda making it up. I guess I did for my training of the half, too, but that was a more familiar distance…treated it as a longer tempo. The Marathon is going to be a whole new beast.

I cooled down the 1.5 miles back to the office, literally still dripping in sweat when I got back to grab my stuff. It felt great to change, and then I headed out to Trader Joe’s in Chelsea for some delish groceries! I can’t wait till it opens up on the UWS Sept. 20th. When I got home, I made some lunch for the next 2 days. Shrimp/chicken with taco seasoning, onion, garlic, tomatoes and cilantro to put into a tortilla with enchilada sauce and beans…yay for healthy mexican! Only, I had to get brown rice tortillas because Trader Joe’s was very low on inventory and thus out of whole wheat. Not sure how I’ll feel about these but worth a try!

Lately (okay, the past 2 mornings….) I’ve been making Green Monsters in my ongoing quest to eat healthier. What’s a Green Monster you ask? Check it out! I made mine with spinach, banana, skim milk, protein powder and frozen strawberries and blueberries. I may or may not have added in a touch of splenda to sweeten it up. Yum! You can barely taste the spinach, it just serves as a base really….quite delicious and an easy way to get in some fiber and IRON! I’ve mentioned my low iron problems previously, and need to make sure they don’t creep up on me again during training.

Note: Not actually my smoothie. Sadly I didn't drink breakfast in a forest, I drank it at my cube.

Today I did an easy 5 mile run…it was slow. VERY slow. As I mentioned, my legs feel like monsters and those 5 miles felt almost just as hard as the 5 mile tempo. But I needed to get out that yucky lactic acid and keep them fresh before tomorrow’s 16 miler! Similar to last week, I’ll look to run from home straight to the office. Will probably take a similar route around Manhattan, but might add in a mile or two so I don’t have to add on as much at the end. Stay tuned!!

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