I suck at blogging

Within the past month, I stopped working full-time, moved, and started a master's program in Public Policy.  It has been an amazing month and I'm absolutely loving being back in school.  Now I don't sit at a computer all day, which is awesome, but leaves me with much less time to blog.  Since I like having a record of my running and think it helps me to share my ups and downs, I'm going to make a conscious effort going forward, especially now that my training is amping up at the same time that my class work is.

I feel like training just began, but tomorrow morning is my first 18 miler of the season.  I'm actually pretty pumped for it, the summer weather has finally broken and I should have a nice cool, low-humidity morning.  I've noticed that as the temperatures have gotten cooler, even if only moderately, my times have gotten a lot quicker.  It's very refreshing.

A few weeks ago, I was dying.  Training was becoming increasingly frustrating as I could only seem to go about 3 miles without bonking.  I knew I had to be getting into better shape but it didn't feel like that at all.  Then last Friday, I had an amazing long run.  I did an out and back course on the CCT, where I did a few runs over the winter before Snow-Pocalypse.  The only difference is that I'm starting at the other end since I moved, meaning my out is a slow decline and my back is a slow incline, not the other way around.  Last week, on a 16 mile run, I was merely aiming to keep even splits on the way back, but I completely dominated, finishing my second half at almost 40 seconds per mile quicker and that was going up hill!  It felt so good and my confidence was restored.

My training this week has been tougher, so I'm not expecting the same type of results, but hopefully with the nice weather, I'll at least enjoy myself and not sweat through all of my clothes.

It's a good thing I ran this morning...

My office just spoiled my with CalTor lunch and sundaes for dessert.  So yummy!  I'm completely full (and obviously unmotivated) and entirely grateful for such a nice bunch of co-workers who would do that for someone who is leaving.

***

Wednesday, July 28: Recovery run 3 miles, 10 min pace
Friday, July 30: Easy run 5.1 miles, 8:50 min pace
***
As I ran this morning, a refreshing rush of cool wind blew past me, and it spurred a thought.  In the summer, that cool breeze is welcome and wished for, during the winter, it's a frigid blast of cold air that seems to seep through my layers of Cold Gear.  So I started to think of other way running varies during the seasons.
1. During the winter, I'm most uncomfortable during the first 1/2 mile to mile.  During the summer, that is pretty much the only time I'm comfortable.
2. I follow a summer run by a quick, cool shower.  My winter runs are concluded by never-ending hot showers to rewarm my extremities.
3. In the summer, I contemplate wearing capris when it dips below 65.  In the winter, it's short sleeves for anything over 50.
4. I fear winter precip will leave me unable to run outside, where are in the summer, I pray for thunderstorms to cool it off.
5. I hate that my gatorade gets hot in the summer, but freezes during the winter.


As much as I'm a summer girl in every other regard, I do prefer running in the winter.  I'll take baseball, the beach, flip flops and tank tops over snow any day, but when it comes to running, I'd much rather be layered in Cold Gear, gloves and a cap.

Baking fail

One of my fairlynew hobbies is baking.  When I find a good recipe to try, I tend to bring extras into work so I don't eat everything myself.  One of my co-workers has been dropping not-so-subtle hints that he loves white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, so I decided to make him some before I leave next week.

I found a recipe online that looked good and set to make it after work.  Since I'm moving in 10 days (!) I haven't been replenishing my baking supplies, so I had to sub brown sugar for white and borrow eggs from a roommate.  No big deal on either front, and everything was fine until I went to add vanilla.  I emptied my bottle and was still a teaspoon short.  I found a bottle in the communal baking cabinet and poured it straight into the batter.  Except that it was clear and was actually peppermint!  Luckily I realized it before I added too much and think I was able to scoop a lot out.  I'm not sure if the cookies actually have a noticeable minty taste, or if it's just me because I know it's in there.

Anyway, I was hoping to post a tested recipe, but since I messed it up, I won't :(  At least I learned my lesson about checking bottles.

Why math is necessary for running

There is a high school a little bit more than a mile away from my house, but I’ve always been too scared to run on their track.  I don’t know exactly where the track is and would hate to get there and find out that it’s closed to the public for some reason.  Luckily, my street is approximately .25 miles long, and fairly flat, which makes it very convenient for speedwork.

My workout this morning was 2 x 1 mile @ 7:30 with 800 rest.  Since I’m apparently incapable of dividing 7:30 by four (my first try at division yielded 400 splits of 1:07, second try was 1:22.  I eventually realized the correct answer is around 1:50 and decided I should figure out splits the night before my run, and not when I’m still groggy at the beginning of my warm up), I ended up going out a lot faster than that pace, but kind of went with it and ended up running 7:17 and 7:19.  This was my first attempt at mile repeats.  They weren’t too bad, although only doing 2 helps with that.  I’m sure I’ll feel different in a few months when I work my way up to four.  I know my high school track coach would be amazed that I’m doing mile repeats.  I used to whine about 800s.  I also enjoy Yasso 800s and other spring work outs, but since my times favor shorter races, I know I need to work on developing longer-distance speed.  My best age-graded distance is the 5k, where my PR is in the 64% range.  If you have any good suggestions for workouts (other than tempo run and 2 x 2miles, which are already on my training schedule), let me know! 

I’m happy with my times, especially since I did a stability ball class last night that included a lot of squats and lunges.  My legs were noticeably fatigued and my quads are still raging.  I feel like its fine, as long as I can still hit my times and rest afterward to allow my legs to heal.  I also think it’s a good mental boost to know I can hit times when my legs are hurting, and that on full rest, I would be even faster.

feeling hot, hot, hot!

My first long run was on Saturday. I woke up to an 85 degree heat index at 6:15, which quickly rose to over 90 by the time my run was complete.

I stocked my fuel belt with Gatorade, water, Gu and a salt packet (I do the salt!) and ran the few blocks from Matt’s apartment to the Inner Harbor to join a Baltimore Marathon supported course run. Like most Baltimore runs, it was hilly, with the first half on an incline and the second half back down. Despite being up hill, the first half actually felt pretty good. The sun wasn’t really up yet, so I was able to hide in the shadows of row homes. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realized my Garmin was low on batteries and it petered out before I even got started, so I’m not sure of my pace. I’m guessing between 9-9:30/miles. After a stop for Gatorade and water about half way through, I looked forward to the descent back to the harbor. Normally I relish in the downhills, but my quads were screaming all sorts of profanities at me since I’ve been trying to use them more in my stride. It was getting increasingly hotter and I know my pace slackened quite a bit. Luckily, I was running with a girl I used to play basketball with, so we kept each other going and decided that it was perfectly fine to cut the run short at 9 miles. It didn’t seem like many other people in the running group were continuing on past the 8.5 mile mark, either. With it being so insanely hot, I think I might have done more damage by attempting to eek out another mile than fitness lost by cutting it short.

Run totals (approximate): 9 miles, 10 min/mile pace???

***
After resting on Sunday, I had an easy 4 mile run this morning. The weather was much improved (only 75 with 65-70% humidity).  I attempted to charge my Garmin last night, but apparently once I put my lap top into hibernation last night, it stopped charging it, so I was sans Garmin again.

My rough estimate for this morning: 4 miles, 9:25 min/mile pace

I should be dead right now...

... Because I wore a cotton shirt to run in this morning. According to the Baltimore Running Festival website, "Cotton kills." Now, the run fest is sponsored by Under Armour, so obviously the site is pushing their performance products, but I had to wonder just how horrible running in cotton would be. Prior to about two years ago, I had never owned a piece of anti-cotton gear. All of my trips to the gym, rugby practices, basketball games and runs were done in cotton tshirts and tank tops. So, now that I am a UA (and UA-knockoff) convert, would running in cotton kill me?

Like yesterday, the humidity was near 90 percent, so clearly I would be sweating like Joe West during a 4-hour Yankee/Red Sox day game. I threw on a loose Hanes cotton tank top with my Nike Tempo shorts and hit the road. I was hot, I was sweaty, but honestly, I'm not sure it would have been much better had I been wearing my favorite new Nike Dri-Fit Pacer tank. And most impressively, I am still alive to blog about it.

***

Prior to running before work, my mid-morning snack staple had been Greek yogurt with fruit. Now that I'm running in the morning, however, I noticed that I crave something savory around this time. Armed with two large containers of Greek yogurt that are getting dangerously close to their expiration date, I decided to experiment this morning. I added dill, garlic powder, onion powder, lemon juice and a little salt and pepper to one to make a tzatziki-esque dip for my baby carrots. Fat-free and packed with protein and pro-biotics, it is much healthier than my other veggie standby, Ranch dressing.

***

Run: easy 3 miles, 9:25 pace

You've (got) a long way, baby

My run today was 5 miles with speedwork. I decided to make it a 3 mile tempo run, aiming for 8:10/miles. My splits were:

8:10 (go perfectionist!)
8:24 (it was mostly uphill)
8:05

While, overall, it was slower than I wanted, I'll take the 8:13 average pace. This was my first attempt at running fast in the month since the Baltimore 10 Miler. The humidity was also over 90% at 6:30 this morning, which doesn't help at all. I breathe heavy on even my easiest runs when it's that humid.

Regardless, I have major improvements to make if I'm going to be running 8:20s for 26.2 miles.