running Archives - Page 4 of 10

NYC Marathon Training Week 10

August 26, 2012 · by Ari ·

Week 10–half way there! This was a huge week. We had our team fundraiser with a big silent auction, and I spent most of the week ~~freaking out over~~ preparing for it. Good thing I had a ~~little~~ lot of help from my friends! The event actually ended up going really well for me , and I am happy to say that once everything is entered in, I should be about half way to my goal! That means there’s still a lot of work to do, but I am starting to feel more confident that I can do this. All of it.

This week was tough for me. I don’t know what it is, but the day after a half marathon I always feel terrible. It doesn’t matter if I’ve done well, or if I’m frustrated with my time, I just feel completely wiped physically and emotionally. The emotional exhaustion just seemed to carry through the week. I honestly can’t be surprised. Most nights I don’t get home until after 9, and then I need time to wind down before I can fall asleep, and then I wake up between 4-5am most days, and it’s just not enough sleep. For the first time, I started to feel like the time commitment of my training was a burden, and I know I don’t *actually* feel that way, but between work, fundraising, training, and trying to not completely suck at being a wife/family member/friend, I just felt like something had to give. I’m hopefully with the stress of the auction behind me, this week will be better. Also, I have an incredibly supportive coach and teammates that are doing everything they can to help me reach my goal.

This week felt like the transition into real marathon training, if that makes sense? For the last 10 months, I’ve been perpetually training for multiple half marathons, and now I don’t have anything scheduled until NYC. Our long runs are getting longer (14 miles this week), and the entire commitment of a full marathon is slowly starting to sink in. It’s tough and it’s presenting unexpected challenges, but I like it. I didn’t sign up for a walk in the park. I signed up to challenge myself, and stretch my abilities in ways I never dreamed were possible.

So, all that said, here’s how it went this week:

Monday–12 mi bike ride. Nice and easy recovery ride with Nicole to get my muscles loosened up post AFC.

Tuesday–Linda’s Spin. Perfection, as always.

Wednesday–Speed work: 8 x 1min. Warm up, 1 min intervals @ 6:58, 7:12, 7:21, 7:24, 7:25, 7:17, 7:11, 7:00. My legs were definitely still a little tired, but not too bad.

Thursday–6 mi run. Okay, so I kind of suck at the whole do 2 miles slow then the next 4 at moderate effort thing. I’m really good at the slow part, but then I just slowwwwwwlllllyyyy get faster each mile. I don’t really think that’s the point, but with the heat, I’m still trying to base it on effort. I don’t have it totally figured out yet. I ran with Nicole (who is awesome and slows down from her speedy ways to stick with me) and averaged just over a 10 min pace. I feel like I need to work a little harder on these.

Friday–12 mi bike ride. Ugghhh, this day was annoying. I rode in the 10 min of pouring rain, got picked up by Nicole just as it stopped, then we went back out to ride, but everything was muddy and gross. Ended up cutting it shorter than normal, but as always the company and breakfast/coffee parts were awesome 🙂

Saturday–14 mi run. Okay, so Friday was the team fundraiser, and I didn’t get home til well after 10. I tried to go straight to bed, but I was all wound up from the evening and it took me forever to fall asleep. I ended up getting between 4-5 hours of sleep, waking up at 4am, and almost convincing myself to go back to bed and just skip the run. It felt impossible, and I knew I had 4 hours of teaching to do right after that I wasn’t quite sure how I’d make it through. I’m not gonna lie, the run was tough, and the rest of the morning was too. However, tough is not impossible, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I didn’t feel great, and it wasn’t my best, but I also didn’t feel horrible, and it wasn’t my worst. I ran with Stacey the entire time, and we ran with Jo a lot which was super helpful, because when you run with someone you don’t know as well, there is more pressure to keep going, haha. I ended up finishing in about 2:26 with a 10:24 average pace. I got some serious runners high and decided that there was nothing in the world I couldn’t accomplish. Then I was so tired that I missed my exit going to the studio, and then stopped at a green light. I was a little weird all day long, but no one really seemed to mind 😉

Sunday–10 mi bike ride. Snail speed. Rode with my perfect husband. He has been so awesome, I could write an entire post about how I’m the luckiest woman alive.

So there you have it friends. Half way through marathon training. Also, I’m working on convincing my mom to come out to NYC to watch me cross the finish line, because at 27 years old, I still haven’t grown out of needing my parents approval when I accomplish things. Okay, let’s be honest, I still haven’t grown out of needing the entire world’s approval, because I thrive on positive reinforcement. 😉

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!

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!

NYC Marathon Training Week 7

August 7, 2012 · by Ari ·

AKA

Marathon Training: Vacation Edition

3/4 runs + 1 hike. Not too shabby for my honeymoon, right? I’m actually pretty proud of myself for getting it done. I didn’t follow my plan completely even on the 3 runs I completed (speed work, what speed work?), but I got my long run in, and that’s what I was the most concerned about. Let me tell you, it was NOT easy. First of all, I went from living with my running buddies, having a schedule, and being responsible to a group for getting up and running each day I said I would to running solo with just myself (and a weekly email to Coach Susan) to answer to. Also, running is way more fun with friends, in 65 degree temps, and in slightly hilly-flat terrain. You know what is less fun? Running alone in 70% humidity, feeling like every direction you go, you are climbing a mountain. What’s up with that, Maui? Huh??

Anyway, I definitely got discouraged my first 2 runs, but by the end, it got better. It always does. I know it will be the same thing coming back to Phoenix, and running in the 95 degree temperatures. It’s not going to be easy, and this week I might hate life a little, and feel discouraged, but it can only get better and easier from there. Here’s a look at how week 7 went down.

Tuesday–12 mile long run, 10:40 avg pace. I don’t remember the last time I wanted to give up on a run so badly. 3 miles in, I was sure I couldn’t finish. There seemed to be hills in every single direction. My body was literally dripping in sweat from every single pore; in fact, my running skirt looked like I had peed my pants because it was soaking wet. You’re welcome for that detail. I had to take a lot of “stretch” breaks. What? You don’t pause your garmin to “stretch” at the top of every hill you do? Oh. In all seriousness, that’s a bad habit I developed when I first started running, because I wanted to keep up to some imaginary “expected pace” of people who blogged about running. I was slow (well, still am), and I didn’t want to be, so I “stretched” a lot to catch my breath. I’ve been really good about breaking that habit ever since I started training for the Seattle half that never happened, but I was not good about it on this run. By the time I got back to our condo, I felt discouraged, frustrated, and totally lame. Then I plugged my garmin into my computer to see that I had climbed 1021 feet of elevation. Then I sat there and continued to drip sweat just sitting. I gave myself a little pep talk, and a mental break, and realized that, all things considered, I did pretty okay.

Friday–5 mile hike. I will write more about this when I get posts up about the trip itself, but I hiked in mud, rolled in mud, swam to a waterfall, and hiked through rainforest, and a bamboo forest to a 400 ft waterfall! It.Was.Awesome. My favorite part of the trip, hands down. I counted it as my 5 mile hilly run. Let’s just pretend it’s the same thing 😉

Saturday–3 mile run, 10:26 avg pace. There’s a reason there were 4 days between my first and second run. I may have given myself a mental break, but I was flat out discouraged by running in Napili Bay. This run, unfortunately, was no different. I felt ridiculously sluggish, tired, and just overall unhappy with it, but I did it because it needed to be done.

Sunday–3.1 mile run, 9:35 avg pace. So….there definitely was no track anywhere near me, and also no flat road for miles (is there ANY flat road on that island?!), so for “speed work”, I decided to run faster than the day before. Brilliant, right? And you know what? I DID! Not that the bar was set super high, but I ran significantly faster, and felt so much better! I don’t know if it’s that I ran the opposite (but equally hilly) direction, and maybe the inclines were less steep, or if it’s just that my body was finally getting used to it, but the run was awesome, and I almost kept going, but after 2 lame runs, I decided to just end it feeling good.

Now, I’m back to the 115 degree temps. This will be…interesting. I got back to Phoenix yesterday morning, and I haven’t run yet, but tomorrow is track day. I’m not gonna lie, I’m nervous to see how much the heat slows me down, and that I won’t be able to keep up with my teammates who’ve been running in these temps all summer, but I know all I can do is do my best to adjust, and wait for the summer to be over.

NYC Marathon Training Week 6

July 30, 2012 · by Ari ·

My last week at CGST has come and gone, along with week 6 of marathon training, and my first skipped run… Whoops. Too many people I love that I was saying goodbye to, too much excitement with Steve coming up to visit, and maybe a little too much booze. I’ll admit it. Today is Monday, and I haven’t run since Thursday. However, I did accomplish a 5 minute plank, and ride a double surrey (with the fringe on the top) in the meantime, so I’ll say it was still a successful week. The most exciting part is probably my 10 mile time trial. Here’s how it went down.

Monday–10 mile time trial in 1:34:45. My half marathon PR is a 9:32 pace. This run averaged 9:28, and granted that’s not hugely faster, and it is shorter, I wasn’t racing. I had a huge breakthrough on this run, in fact! For the first time, I don’t know, ever, I didn’t stalk my garmin. I would check in every song or so, and look at my pace at the mile beeps, which may still sound like a lot, but my face is usually glued to that thing! This time, instead, I ran by feel, and negative split every single mile. Here, let me show you:

10:42 (mostly uphill)
9:53
9:48
9:45
9:39
9:22
9:14
9:12
8:56
8:14 (mostly downhill)

Who.Am.I.? GAHHH. I learned so much about myself, and how I often set myself up for failure on this run. Usually I go back and forth between “You can never maintain this pace! Slow down, you’re not good enough!” and “Look how slow you’re going! You suck!” It was so amazing to just run, and think “This feels good.” Now if only they could all be like that. In other good news, I felt great the whole rest of the day, and not sore, and exhausted like I had raced, so I feel at least mildly hopeful that I can average a good 20 seconds quicker than that in San Diego.

Wednesday–Track, 1-1-2-1-3-1-4-4-3-1-2-1-1-1. I think there was supposed to be an other 4 in there. Whoops. Didn’t do that one. I did, however, figure out the lap button! I didn’t have to stop and start after every interval. It was magical. If you press the lap button on your garmin when you start a new interval, it will show you your pace and distance on each lap separately. I was kind of lame and walked my easy intervals, but my hard ones went pretty well.

1min–6:29
2min–7:10
3min–7:53
4min–8:03
3min–7:57
2min–7:48<–grrr
1min–6:19<–eeee!!

I don’t care if it was only 1 minute, 6:19 makes me excited. The end.

Thursday–Recovery run. 3 miles. More crawled than ran. There was coffee at the end. That was my favorite part.

Friday–5 minute plank. That was awesome, other than being beat out by my student who set the female record for the summer at close to 7 minutes. I also had a male student do 10. Rude. I want to be a man. Except I like dressed.

Saturday–work, work, work, work, beer. That’s all.

Sunday–Owning that surrey. Steve, Tali, Camille, Xander, and I tried to set the double surrey record on the Steele/Hawthorn bridge loop. I mean, hills are hard with 5 people. It almost felt like exercise 😉

That’s all for me for now, friends. I am in Maui with Steve beginning our honeymoon (a year and a half later…), so I will be taking a real world haitus. I do have an awesome guest post coming to you soon though from my BBFF, and I will be back next week!

NYC Marathon Training Week 5

July 24, 2012 · by Ari ·

Hi friends! Week 5 of training was a tough one, but it was great! Here’s a little about what went down.

Monday–5.21 miles, 10:21 average pace, 314 ft elevation gain. I don’t really know how to measure elevation gain or what that really means in the scheme of things. I do know that Coach Susan prescribed hills, so every time I saw a hill I yelled to my friends “HILL!!! We must run that way!” I also know that it was hard, but that could just be because I’m a wimp. Okay, it probably is because I’m a wimp, but I felt the opposite of wimpy afterwards, and I felt like my pace was decent, all things considered.

Tuesday–2.9 miles including 6 hill repeats. I warmed up at basically a crawl, found a hill closer than anticipated, so decided my .7 mile warm up was sufficient, then ran up the hill a bunch of times walk/jogging down. The hill was shorter than I think it was supposed to be. Only about a tenth of a mile, but it had 33ft of elevation gain–whatever that means–and it felt like a good challenge. I averaged about an 8:30 pace running up, and definitely got slower as I went on rather than faster. Whoops. My first time with a hill workout, so I’ll try to not positive split the next time 🙂

Thursday–11.1 miles, 10:20 average pace. This run was not bad. Really, it was actually mostly good, but after running pretty challenging workouts Sunday, Monday and Tuesday all in a row, and then just the combination of that with dancing all day, and not sleeping enough (I know, that’s a huge change, right?), and I just felt not quite 100%. It felt hard. Not impossible, just hard. Still managed to run the last mile in 8:45, though!

Saturday–4 miles. 10:56 average pace. I have a secret. A surprise of sorts. Are you ready? It’s shocking, and ground breaking. Recovery, actual recovery, is AWESOME!!!!! Running slow is FUN! You get to look around, and not feel like you’re gonna die, and people watch! Plus, it’s a really nice mental break to not let a number that flashes on your watch dictate how you feel about your run. I use my recovery runs to recover more often. You’re welcome for the brilliance. Stay tuned for more ground breaking discoveries.

Sunday–Actual rest. Lovely, as usual. I have never appreciated rest days as much as I have this summer!

Spoiler: Week 6 is off to an AMAZING start! Can’t wait to share it with you at the end!

NYC Marathon Training Week 4

July 17, 2012 · by Ari ·

Wait, that was week 4 already? I totally typed week 3, then realized that was wrong. Oy! Last week was really great. I felt really motivated, and I felt like my pace was starting to pick up a bit. I had the fastest long run I’ve had in a long time (ever?), and made a comeback to double digit runs after almost 2 months away. Success. Also, I raced and PRed. Here’s how it went down.

Monday: 4 miles. 9:36 average pace that felt easy, and awesome. One of those “I love life, I want to run forever and ever!!!!” type of runs.

Wednesday: 3.1 miles. 9:43 average pace. My body was tired. My mind was tired. My Legs were tired. My abs here are always tired. Abs 3-4x a day is simultaneously the best and worst part of my job. Anyway, I was doing too much the beginning of last week on too little sleep. Wasn’t taking excellent care of myself, and Wednesday I felt pretty much like crap, but running helped a little, and I forced myself to sleep that night for…

Thursday: 10.25 miles. 10:13 average pace. Negative splits. Last mile (okay, it WAS downhill, but I’m still excited!) in 8:31. Serious runners high. Also, great friends got my through. They’re awesome. Best way to train for a marathon? Make all of your friends run with you at all times. Also, people get all happy and get their own runners high and are super appreciative, and make you feel motivational or something. It’s cool. I like it.

Saturday: Actual rest. Holla.

Sunday: Be The One Run. Here’s my recap 🙂

Week 4 of training = success. Still riding the excited train.

Fundraising: My fundraising page is still sitting at $600. I haven’t been able to do as much work in that department here in Portland, but please don’t hesitate to check out my for sale page, or click over to make a donation. 🙂

Be The One Run 5K Race Recap

July 16, 2012 · by Ari ·

I was about to start talking about how my 2 month accidental racing hiatus seemed so unimaginably long, and how I never want that again, and I need to race all the time. Then I was like “Whoa, self. That’s a little overdramatic. And weird. You’ve been at theatre camp for too long.” And then I also thought about how weird it is that I even like racing at all. I guess maybe one day I will be done feeling surprised by the fact that I maybe actually enjoy running. Until then, I like surprises 😉

Anyway, Tali and I arrived super early, only to discover it was a super small race, and we probably could have slept in more. Also, it was raining. A lot. We were both pretty stoked though, so we got our bibs, stopped at the Starbucks, and checked out the stands at the pre-race expo. Also, we took lots of pictures in the car while we hid out from the rain.

“Look at me. Running my first 5k. SO HARDCORE!!!”

OH MY GOSH RUNNING!!! We’re so excited!!!

Hey world. We’re running. These are our shoes.

The Be The One Run raises money for bone marrow transplants. There were a lot of people there obviously running for someone they knew, which always makes me emotional a little bit. One guy had a shirt that said “Mom :)” and I thought it was so sweet. I love being at races that are for a good cause, and seeing the people running for friends and family.

Just before we started, we met up with Liane and Karisa, gave them our swag bags, and headed out to the start. I couldn’t believe how close to the starting line I was. I was a little worried that I was about to get trampled by speed demons, but I weaved through a few people, then quickly found my own space, where I was definitely going out too fast. I lost Tali pretty quickly, but kept her in close sight throughout the first mile, which I ran probably too fast in 8:20. Then I positive split crap out of the rest of the race. That’s how you’re supposed to do it right? I ran mile 2 in 8:40. I had high hopes of averaging around 8:30 for the race, but after mile 2, I just got more and more tired. The last mile seemed like an eternity, and I just wanted to be done.

I ended up finishing in 27:16 according to Garmi, 27:14 official time.

8:40 pace. PR. Exciting right?

Umm, let me just tell you that Tali finished her first ever 5k, after only really running with me for like 3 weeks, in 25:33, and placed 3rd in our division!! What??? Girl is crazy! I finished 7th out of 35, which is actually great for me, and I PRed, and 8:40 is speedy for me, but I have this head problem where I only see how I want to do better. I ended the race feeling more frustrated than proud, and that is stupid. In the end, a PR is a PR, and I had a good race, and I will break 27 minutes soon.

Super proud of Tali, and tons of congrats to her for running such an awesome race!!!

NYC Marathon Training Week 3

July 9, 2012 · by Ari ·

This last week of training felt really great! I feel like I’m finally getting back to myself, and my body is adjusting to the amount of energy I need to be up here. Sweet. After my time trial, Coach Susan sent me my suggested training/racing paces:

LR 10:10-11:10
Marathon 10:00
1/2 M 9:10
10k 8:40
5k 8:20
Mile 7:30
LT 8:40-9:10
400 @mile-5k 1:54-2:05
800 @5-10k 4:10-4:18
1200 @5-10k 6:12-6:27

I’ll have to ask her what LT means, because I just realized I don’t know that one. Some of these paces seem sliiiiightly ambitious. Not the training ones, but the racing ones. An 8:20 5K??? What??? Maybe that just means I’m faster than I think I am 🙂 Here’s how my training went last week.

Monday: 4 mile run. 10:06 average pace. The beginning felt hard. Well the beginning of every single run here feels hard because they all start uphill. But the rest of it felt pretty good.

Tuesday: Dance dance dance dance. All day long.

Wednesday: 10×1 min intervals. 2 mile warm up that I practically crawled through, then 10×1 min intervals with 1 min resting intervals. I tried to find the track I found the previous week, but got confused, so we ended up at a park that was pretty hilly. Not super ideal for speed training, but it all evened itself out. Averaged 7:17 on working intervals (with the last one around 6:45–I know it’s just a minute, but yikes!), then did a slow jog for .3 miles back to camp for my cool down. It’s funny, 1 min sounds like such a small amount of time, but half way through each interval, I felt like I was dying, but in the best way possible!

Thursday: 4 mile recovery run. Tired legs. 10:24 average pace.

Friday: Rest-ish. I mostly stretch with my classes on Fridays, so I just took a nice walk in the morning, and was able to keep the rest of the day pretty chill.

Saturday: 6 mile run. This run felt AWESOME! I just wanted to keep going, and going, and going! Ran with great friends–did I mention that I’ve only done 1 run solo since I got here? I’m so grateful! I will run alone, but I almost always prefer the company, and it’s nice to feel like I am able to inspire other people to run. Averaged 10:19 pace, and ended feeling great.

Sunday: Rest. Lovely.

You know, I was a little concerned about being about to keep up with my training while away from my team, and with such an intense schedule, but it’s really been great. If anything, having so many people that I am living with that know my goals is pushing me to never skip a run. For the first time in my entire life, I feel like a leader as far as running goes, and it is the most incredible feeling. I never imagined someone would tell me that I inspired them to run. It seems almost unreal, but I am beyond happy. I am feeling really solid about the training process right now, and if anything, I feel eager for MORE! Coach Susan told me that I could skip out on my recovery runs since I am so active here, but I don’t want to skip out on anything! I am going to ride the motivation wave for as long as it lasts!

What did you do last week?? Tell me about your workouts/training/awesomeness!

10 Days

June 14, 2012 · by Ari ·

I’ve been running for 7 months. I don’t run super often, and I definitely don’t run very well, or at a pace any faster than your average sea turtle, or snail.It’s not easy, and most days I am convinced I hate it until it’s over. From the moment I went on my first outdoor training run last October to now, I have never gone longer than 7 days without going out for a run of some sorts, and that was due to PT orders. Today marks day 10.

To be honest, the first few days I was so exhausted and out of it, that exercise was the last thing on my mind, but from the moment I got back to riding my bike, and my energy started to come back, all I have wanted to do is run. I read other blogs, or see posts on facebook or twitter, and I totally wish I was out there myself. I’ve tried running for about .2 seconds every day for the last 3 days. Every time it hurts immediately, and so I think to myself “Not today. Maybe tomorrow.” It’s weird, because it’s not like I’m injured. I keep feeling like I *should* be back already. I know that’s silly, but I’m just so mentally ready, and NYC training officially starts next week, when I officially land in much cooler perfect running temps, and I just want to be out there killing it, and making it happen. Anyone have some patience I can borrow? I seem to be fresh out 😉

Okay, now that I got that out, let’s focus on some more positive awesome things, yes?

Turns out, you don’t actually gain weight when you exercise less. As long as you eat a little less. I have a confession. I have asked Steve no less than 15 times since my surgery if I am getting fat and gaining weight. Of course he said no. Husbands can lie, but the scale can’t, and I know you will all be as thrilled as I am that I have not magically gained 30 lbs in my 10 days off running. I’m sure you’re as shocked as I am, because everyone is that irrational, right?
I’m almost back to my usual biking stamina! I did a 20 miler yesterday, and it was a little slow, and a lot hard, but considering just a few days before I could barely hold an 8 mph pace, and did less than 4 miles, I’m happy that biking now feels almost normal, and I have an other cardio love that I can focus on in the mean time.
I’m so happy to miss running! Honestly, who am I??? I am the person who wakes up every single morning and thinks “I don’t wanna….” and spends at least 5 minutes in a mental battle convincing myself that I will be glad I did. Then as soon as I start I’m always like “WTF was my problem?! I LOVE running!” Well not always, but often enough. Mid morning it was 100 degrees, and I found myself thinking “100 degree running wouldn’t be so bad…” I usually won’t go if it’s above 80. I’m so happy to have found a love and passion for something that is so great for my body, and so unexpected! I actually really really love it, and I cannot freaking wait to start some kick ass marathon training.
Speaking of marathon training, I am beyond giddy to be working with the most amazing coach ever!!! Not only am I convinced that Susan knows everything anyone could possibly know about running, but she is soooo nice! I was so touched and surprised to be getting emails from her asking about how I’m feeling when our training hasn’t even officially started yet! This whole opportunity just blows my mind every day. I am a lucky girl.
I registered for a different goal half marathon!!

I trained really hard with a goal in mind for Seattle. It’s super lame that I don’t get to go for it, but this means I should be stronger, faster, and more prepared come August, and I’ll be going with several members of my team, so the entire experience should be really great!
And lastly, Sunday evening I will be reunited with a great friend that I haven’t seen in over 2 years! I haven’t seen Mandie since 2010, and she is doing AMAZING things at the Oregon Shakespeare festival, being a big fancy professional actor, which she totally deserves because she is talented, and wonderful, and so funny. She is one of my biggest runningspirations, and I have my fingers crossed to be able to actually go on a run with her, since back when we lived in the same place, she was always going on runs, and I always thought she was crazy 😉

Work It Out 6/4-6/10

June 11, 2012 · by Ari ·

AKA Rest It Out. My daily mile page has never looked so sad. It’s okay. In fact, it’s probably a good thing. Surgery, or no surgery, my body needed a break. I had a trainer tell me a long time ago, that every 6 months or so, the best thing you can do is take a week completely off. Okay, maybe that actually is good for your body, but I’m one of those weird people who does not exercise for any reason other than I genuinely enjoy it. Well, maybe there are other reasons too–I’m a human, and I care about calories and all that crap, even if I wish I didn’t, but really the primary reason is that I really really love to do it. It makes me happy. It keeps me calm. It helps me think, and stay balanced, and it gives me so much more energy!

I didn’t take a whole week completely off, but I did take 4 days, and this week I am taking it easy too. Yesterday I tried to jump back into my life. I did an 8 mile bike ride (granted it was slow), baked cookies and cupcakes, tried to clean the kitchen, and tried to be social. By the end of the evening, I felt like absolute crap. Emotionally and physically. I’m stubborn, and I’m having a hard time with doing so little. I’m antsy, and anxious, and tired, and I really don’t feel like myself. Plus, you know, all the other side effects of surgery that are still very much here, and a digestive system getting used to an organ that used to be there suddenly being gone.

On the positive side, I am somewhat back to light exercise. No running yet, and I really freaking miss it. I’ve continued to cry and mourn the loss of the sub 2 I’ve been chasing in Seattle. I decided for sure that I’m not doing the race. I’m just too tired. Walking still hurts. I don’t want to end disappointed. But I have an other half on the horizon later in the summer that I’m thinking just might be the one. Plus, it would be with my team which makes it even better!

Okay, enough babbling. This is how I (sort of) worked it out last week:

Monday: Run with Jas, & 5 MIN PLANK!!!!! I started the morning with a short run with Jason. We ran 2.4 miles by the green belt. I guess that’s what the trail by his house is called. It wasn’t his favorite morning, but it was good to be running together! When I got home, I decided today had to be the day. I knew I was gonna be out of abdominal commission for a while, and probably losing a lot of core strength from the moving around they do in there with their instruments, so I decided to do my 5 minute plank. It needed to happen. You know what? It was Fing hard! And it’s all mental. Just find someone to hang out with you, and force you not to give up. Then yell obscenities at them. Thanks for starting this 5 minute plank challenge, Ali! I don’t know if it was really supposed to be a challenge for the rest of us, but once you did it, I couldn’t resist! And thanks to my girl Devon for always keeping me honest about my planks!

Tuesday: Rest. My surgery wasn’t until 12:30, but Steve and my mom both vetoed my request to spin before hand. Rude. I guess it was something about the all day food and water fast that made them think it was a bad idea….

Wednesday: All day sleep daze. I was so exciting. I slept, woke up, watched 15 min of Lost, repeat.

Thursday: I left the house. Yes. It counts as exercise. I walked to Nicole’s truck, and into Paradise Bakery, and into fro yo. It was all I could handle, and I was exhausted by the end, came home and slept.

Friday: I walked around Target. It was hard, and I was tired, but I was so happy to be out of my house!

Saturday: 3.75 mile bike ride. At 8.7 mph. You know, like the pace you teach your 6 year old to ride at? It was awesome, and only slightly painful. I also walked a mile at the duck pond with Nicole and Stacey. I felt almost like a real person!

Sunday: 8.5 mile bike ride. I kept up a 12 mph pace!!! Watch out bike racers, Post Surgery Ari is on your tail!

Tell me awesome workouts you accomplished!!! Let me live vicariously through you!

Work It Out 5/28-6/3

June 4, 2012 · by Ari ·

What a tough week! Oyyyyy! Lots of great work outs, and new challenges, so without further adieu, here’s how I worked it out last week:

Monday: 100k bike ride. That’s right. 62 miles. 100k. My butt HURT! I have since bought the diaper bike shorts. They feel like cycling on a cloud in comparison. Steve, Dan and I set out for a long ride. I wanted to accomplish a good 50 miler (my previous cycling PDR was around 30), but Steve has been wanting to do a metric century for a long time, and about 20 miles in decided that would be the day. I’m not gonna lie, 4 and a half hours is a long time to be on a bike, there were several bumps along the road, and I was definitely tired by the end, but it was absolutely worth it, and can’t wait to do it again!

Tuesday: Linda’s Spin. I was tired from Monday, so I took it easy, kept my flat road around 9-10, and got in a good 21.5 miles.

Wednesday: Track love + 4 min plank. 4x400s @ 5k pace with 400 recovery jogs + 1 mile @ HMGP. My legs still felt tired when I woke up, but of course I was stoked to get to the track! I spent half the time actually at the pace I was supposed to be at, and the other half being competitive. Shocking I know. My pace for the 400s was 7:58, 8:10, 7:51, 8:14. I was aiming for around 8:15. Whoops. It was hard. Also, my working pace is the same as many of the other runners’ recovery. It’s okay, one day I won’t be painfully slow, I promise. My last mile clocked in at 8:41, which is definitely too fast for me, but Doug started running with me the last half, and brought out my competitive side. Okay, let’s be real, I don’t have a noncompetitive side. Also, that plank was hard. I did one for 2 minutes and gave up, then later got pissed about my giving up, and muscled through for 4 painful minutes. Spoiler alert: that is no longer my longest plank 😉

Thursday: Dance!!! I was planning on spinning, but woke up with sore legs, took the morning off, then went to summer of dance for my friend Molly’s awesome musical theatre class, and a contemporary class. I haven’t actually danced since, ohhhh….summer of dance last year. It was rough. I felt out of shape, and just plain bad, but it was still fun, and I’m glad I went.

Friday: Rest. This was like the week where I just kept getting more and more sore! I woke up, and I was so sore from dancing that walking, and sitting were not fun. I took it as a cue, and gave myself the day off.

Saturday: Long Run. Woke up more sore! You know that delayed soreness? Yikes. It was soooooo rough. I was hobbling just to walk around, and it took me about a year to sit and stand, but I made a plan to run with speedy Ashley, and I don’t cancel running plans. Plus, I knew with some unexpected circumstances that have come up lately, I needed to run while I could. I had planned to do 13, and for the first time I think ever, I cut it short to 10. When I woke up feeling run down, I told myself 10 was the minimum, but I was still gonna shoot for 13. I did okay for the first 6 or so, then I just could not keep it up, and I crashed and burned. Steve picked us up at mile 10. Best husband ever.

Sunday: Easy bike ride. 9 miles: coffee, breakfast, and relaxing muscle loosening. Lovely.

Bringing my total to 106.87 miles for the week, which is my highest weekly mileage ever!! It was a really tough week, and my body could definitely use some recover, but this week will be mostly off (wahhhh), so I’m glad I got it in while I could! I’ll explain more about the time off stuff soon. For now, I’m off to bake cookies to distract myself 🙂

How did you work it out this week? And what the heck do I do with myself for the next few days while I can’t????

« Previous Page