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PF Chang’s Marathon Training Week 3

December 3, 2012 · by Ari ·

I didn’t run a ton this week, but it was a great week, and it ended on a a REALLY great note. I don’t have a ton to say other than that, so let’s get to it.

Look! A leaf! Maybe Arizona has fall after all? Anyway, Steve took this picture at the race on Sunday, and this post needed a photo…

Monday: 8 mile run. The schedule called for 4 miles easy, 1 mile at MGP, 1 mile at HMP, 1 mile at 10k pace and 1 mile cool down. Somehow I counted wrong and started the marathon pace mile after 3 miles. Whoops. So after 3 miles Nicole and I did a mile at goal pace, then 9:03, 8:12 (what????), then we added an other mile at goal pace, and a mile cool down. We ended the day with an average pace of 9:54, and I felt surprisingly strong.

Tuesday:  Upper body strength training? Okay, so I’m determined to get back into strength training. I’ve been ignoring it, and let’s just say I’m not too happy with the Atlantic ocean that has become my upper arms, so I’m starting slow with things I can do at home until I at least get my motivation back up enough to get in the weight room, and do some legit strength training. It’s weird, before I started running, strength training was my favorite, and now I dread it. Anyway, I did 3 sets of 10 regular and dip push ups, 2x1min planks, and my dance ab warm up that I used this summer. I was SORE the next day, so even though the whole thing only took me about 15 minutes, I feel like it did something?

Wednesday: 2 mile run. No, seriously. I waited around too long, ran out of time, and that’s just all that was in the cards that morning. It was probably for the best. After my Monday run my foot started really bugging me, and I wanted just a short easy run to see how it was feeling after hours of icing. The good news is, I felt AWESOME! The whole run felt so easy, and I really wanted to keep going, but I had a time deadline, so 2 miles ended up being it. I went out with the intentions of taking it super slow, but without garmin stalking, I settled into a 9:30 pace that felt like a breeze. That never happens for me. It was great!

Thursday: 8.7 mile bike, upper body. Rode to Dutch Bros, then repeated Tuesdays strength training. Twice in one week–WHAT??

Friday: 11.32 mile run. 3 miles easy, 2 at goal pace, 1 easy, 2 at goal pace, 1 easy. I felt super sluggish during this run. The marathon pace miles felt harder than usual, and I was just having a hard time getting my head in the game. Luckily, I had Nicole there to yell at me when I slowed down which was about every 5 seconds. Just kidding, she didn’t yell, she just ran in front of me and told me to hurry up in the way that the best running friends nicely do when you’re kinda sucking 😉 . Anyway, I still finished with an average pace of 10:07 and hit all my paces, so even though I wasn’t super into it mentally, I’m glad I got it done.

Saturday: Rest. 

Sunday: Fiesta Bowl 5k. Recap coming soon. Spoiler alert: it was one of the coolest days of my life, and included some happy tears 🙂

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: cycling, marathon training, racing, running, strength training

NYC Marathon Training Week 9

August 19, 2012 · by Ari ·

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!

Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: afc, cycling, fitness, NYCM, racing, running, spin

NYC Marathon Training Week 8

August 13, 2012 · by Ari ·

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!

Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: fitness, marathon training, NYCM, phoenix, racing, running, spin

I Think I May Have a Problem

March 20, 2012 · by Ari ·

Hi, my name is Ari and I have a running problem. That’s step 1, right?

Okay, let me tell you a little bit about how today went down. I woke up, got out of bed and was immediately in pain. Stumbling, struggling to walk across the room kind of pain. It was super fun, let me tell you. Both of my achilles were on fire, and the outside of my right knee that had been hurting, then gone mostly away, was back with a vengeance. I started to really think about at what point running was still worth it, and at what point it started being harmful to my body rather than helpful. I seriously contemplated taking a break. A real one. Not like that time I didn’t run for a week and called it a break.

Then I went to the gym for spin class, missed the last sign up spot by one minute, said some 4 letter words, and set out on a 15 mile bike ride outside. It was lovely. The only thing that would have made it better is if Linda and the woman that always yells during class had come with me. I love that woman that yells. She cracks me up. By the end of my ride, I was feeling a little better. First thing in the morning is always the worst. Once I get moving and stretched out a little, the pain is still there, but manageable.

I started to think about what constitutes an injury. I can run. It hurts, and it’s not easy right now, but I am not in enough pain that I can’t do it. And to be honest, it’s always hurt. It just used to hurt slightly less, and while my knee pain is fairly new, it’s not like it’s bad enough to make anything impossible. This may be ridiculously bad logic, but it’s my logic, so instead of taking a break, I decided to say F you to my injuries and sign up for 4 races.

You can judge me. You can think I’m crazy, or stupid, but I refuse to let some pain tell me I can’t do what I want to be doing. Have you ever tried to tell me I can’t do something? It’s the fastest way to get me to do it. In fact, if Steve were to tell me he didn’t think I could clean the house, he would all the sudden find himself living with an obsessive neat freak. Please don’t try that. I really hate cleaning!

Anyway, here is my calendar for the next couple of months

March 24: South Mountain Classic 5K
    Impulse decision when I realized I hadn’t run a March race, and I’d really like a shiny new 5K PR. But I haven’t been running fast at all lately, so we’ll see how that goes.

April 14: Firefly Run 5K
I’d been planning on registering for this, but just hadn’t yet. You wear pretty lights! How fun! Plus I will be running this with my best friend! It will be her first 5K and I plan on running the whole thing by her side.

April 21: Pat’s Run
Again, I’d been planning on this one, and even though I am super annoyed by their registration process (Ummm, listen Pat Tillman Foundation, I am NOT a jogger), all my real life running friends and blog running friends are doing it, and I give in to peer pressure 😉

May 5: Whiskey Row Half Marathon
Let’s talk about Whiskey Row. Specifically the elevation.

Yeah, that’s over a 1,500 ft difference in elevation, and the entire first half goes straight up. I honestly am not 100% sure I can even finish this course, but I feel like I am ready for a challenge. I am ready to be training for something again. The last month has been pretty lack luster in the training department, and I miss feeling awesome and strong after long runs, and excited after speed sessions. This is what I’m doing, and my body is just going to have to keep up. Got it body? Okay, good.

And last, but not least, I have my eye on a half marathon PR race.

That would be RnR Seattle. I’ll be in the north west at that time anyhow, and if I can make it happen, I would absolutely love to do this race! I have my heart set on a sub 2:00 half in 2012, and I am pretty sure it’s not going to happen at Whiskey Row…let’s be honest. I know I could find a goal race in the fall, but I also don’t want to wait until then. This isn’t a flat course (and it has an awful looking uphill finish–I mean seriously?!?!), but I actually don’t mind a little rolling hill variety, and I really love Seattle. Fingers crossed that life works out, and I’m able to do it!

What’s on your race calendar?

Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged: firefly run, injuries, pat's run, racing, rnr seattle, running, whiskey row

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