Bittersweet Sixteen

The weather forecast for Saturday called for hot, humid conditions but at least it was supposed to rain. 80% chance of rain, even. So when Kim and I met at a forest preserve about halfway between our houses at 7 AM on Saturday morning to do our run, we were optimistic. So optimistic, in fact, that we both left our sunglasses in the car.

When we started our run it was overcast. See above photo. We were excited to tackle our respective distances and excited to be running together. My goal? 16 miles. The longest distance I've ever run. Kim's goal? 12 miles. We started out nice and strong, if a bit too fast. And after a slight detour off-course, we made it back onto the forest preserve path that wound through the trees.

Our plan was to stick to the one minute walk break every three miles, but the weather had other plans. That rain the meterologists predicted? Never materialized. The heat and the sun? They both showed up. The longer we were out there the hotter and sunnier it got necessitating a few extra walk breaks.



Still, I felt good. I felt strong. I was amazed at how good I felt when we made it back to the car after 12 miles. We took a short break for Kim to switch to her bike. I ate a few sports beans and a few grapes that Kim produced from a cooler in her car. The cold grapes tasted heavenly in my mouth but when I started running again I realized that they didn't feel so heavenly in my stomach.

Kim did her best to keep me distracted while she biked next to me. At one point she interrupted our conversation to say "Erin! Turn around!" I looked back over my shoulder and saw a very bare man's ass. Yes, you read that right. Bare ass on the forest preserve path. He was running while holding his clothes in front, leaving his butt out in the open air. Wouldn't you love to know the story behind that?

Still, even with the adrenaline rush from being mooned, I started to falter. The last two miles were tough. Really, really tough. The sun was shining, the air temperature was hot hot hot and there wasn't much shade. So I walked. A lot. Well, at least more than I'd wanted to. I was disappointed that I'd felt so strong at mile 12 but was struggling so much now. Just 4 more miles! I'd thought. That's nothing! Apparently it was something. I even downed an apple-cinnamon Hammer Gel (much tastier than I'd imagined!) but that didn't even help.

Still, I ran 16 miles. The furthest I've ever gone. And that's still something to be proud of.



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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 704 ft Location: Rolling Meadows, IL Elev. Gain: +7 ft Date: 08/14/10 Up/Downhill: [+482/-475] Time: 07:00 AM Difficulty: 3.4 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 16.01 miles Time: 2:55:12 Speed: 5.5 mph Pace: 10' 57 /mi Calories: 1880 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 27 -0' 30 5.7 +0.3 -16 ft 2 10' 10 -0' 47 5.9 +0.4 +20 ft 3 9' 57 -1' 00 6.0 +0.6 -16 ft 4 10' 27 -0' 30 5.7 +0.3 +29 ft 5 10' 06 -0' 51 5.9 +0.5 -30 ft 6 10' 21 -0' 36 5.8 +0.3 +13 ft 7 11' 14 +0' 17 5.3 -0.1 +20 ft 8 10' 32 -0' 25 5.7 +0.2 -16 ft 9 10' 20 -0' 37 5.8 +0.3 +17 ft 10 10' 56 -0' 01 5.5 +0.0 -36 ft 11 11' 52 +0' 55 5.0 -0.4 +17 ft 12 11' 29 +0' 32 5.2 -0.3 +6 ft 13 10' 46 -0' 11 5.6 +0.1 -17 ft 14 10' 33 -0' 24 5.7 +0.2 -9 ft 15 14' 15 +3' 18 4.2 -1.3 +10 ft 16 11' 17 +0' 20 5.3 -0.2 +13 ft end 7' 55 -3' 02 7.6 +2.1 0 ft Versus average of 10' 57 min/mile

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Nearly Naked

Because I am apparently a masochist, I went to track last night in what felt like a sauna.

And because I've decided that when running in a sauna you need to throw modesty out the window, I ran in the least amount of clothes that you can legally wear in public.

Okay, not really. I didn't run in a swim suit. But it was pretty close. I ran in this:




And I was not ashamed.

The little breeze that there was felt really good against my bare skin. Also, I think that it subconsciously helped my form. Have to keep that torso straight lest my stomach hang out!

Actually, while doing our warm-up strides, our substitute coach's substitute coach asked me if I ran in high school or college. I sputtered out a "No" and told him I've only been running almost 3 years. "Well, you have really nice form," he told me.

Woo hoo!

That really nice form and my nearly nakedness helped to make this a good track workout. Of course, having Maribeth to help me keep my pace contributed, too. We did a new ladder-ish workout that I really liked. Two 400s, two 800s, one 1600, two more 800s and then 2 final 400s.

I think this may possibly the most even splits I've ever run at a track workout.

400 - 1:56
400 jog
400 - 1:59
400 jog
800 - 4:12
400 jog
800 - 4:14
400 jog
1600 - 8:41
400 walk
800 - 4:16
400 jog
800 - 4:13
400 walk
400 - 1:58
400 jog
400 - 1:47

Take that, heat and humidity! Actually, one the sun drops low enough in the sky to be behind some trees the track isn't quite as hot.

Now, if only I could figure out how to run in so few clothes but still wear my fuel belt. I can only picture major chafe-age. But I might need to figure out something for my 16 mile run this weekend. Longest run ever during one of the hottest and humid-est weeks ever? Wish me luck!

Now Featuring....

I've got two interesting things to share with you today.

The first doesn't involve running but it does involve walking!




Last year I mentioned a 7 mile walk up to Snowbowl ski resort that my mother-in-law was doing. I wasn't able to join her last year but this year I am!

My mother-in-law does this walk to raise money for the American Cancer Society since she knows personally what it's like to battle cancer. Because I want to support her and her cause I'll be walking the 7 miles uphill at altitude instead of running that weekend. I'm not huge into fundraising, though, but I figured I'd stick the link to my donation page here anyway.

Donate if you want!

My husband is also joining us. We'll be quite a team.



Although we probably won't be wearing our fancy clothes for the climb.

The other interesting bit of news is that running blogger and author Melinda Hinson Neely is writing a book about first time marathoners. She put out the call a few weeks ago for first timers and their stories. I threw my hat into the ring and although I wasn't selected to be an in-depth feature, I am on the list as contributor in some way. Haven't found out exactly what that way will be yet, but it's still pretty cool.

And with that, I'm off for another day in hot, humid Chicago. What's going on in your neck of the woods?

Swimming in Air

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Last night was one of those nights when I wished I had trained for a marathon last summer.

Last summer was nice and cool. Last summer wasn't nearly as humid. Last summer didn't have hordes of mosquitoes.

But, alas, I put off the big, bad marathon for one more year now have to train in 80+ degrees with 70% humidity. Last night the sun couldn't even be decent enough to stay behind the clouds. Thank goodness for trees!

So I ran 8 miles and when I was finished I looked like I'd jumped in a swimming pool. I WISH I'd jumped in a swimming pool.

The first 4 miles I attempted to hit my tempo pace of 9:30. As always, I went out too fast and with the heat it was quite a struggle. One of my "injured" running buddies, Anne, decided she would "try and keep up with me". Yeah, guess who was pulling who? I'd say she's definitely back in running form.

Speaking of running form, last night our run was "sponsored" by Nike. The rep brought some Nike LunarGlide+2 shoes for us to try. I tried them on in the store but, like other running shoes, the arch support hit me way too far back on my foot. It felt like there was a golf ball digging into the inside bottom of my heel. Weird. I opted not to wear them for the run.

During the second half of the run I met up with Maribeth and a new runner. He was running his first ever 8 miles and he was doing really well! Maribeth was doing a recovery run so I ended up slowing down for this half of the run so I could run with them. I didn't mind, though. That heat and humidity was brutal! Also, my quads were protesting and the blister on my toe was aching. I guess the 14 miles I did on Saturday took more out of me than I realized.

One of the other downsides to running in the heat? When I get home I'm not really hungry because of how much water I've chugged. Which means I have a difficult time choking down dinner and then end up STARVING for most of the next day. Here's hoping the leftover fried rice I just ate for lunch will hold me over until I get home.

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 628 ft Location: Forest Park, IL Elev. Gain: -4 ft Date: 08/09/10 Up/Downhill: [+68/-72] Time: 06:36 PM Difficulty: 2.2 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 7.80 miles Time: 1:17:41 Speed: 6.0 mph Pace: 9' 58 /mi Calories: 933 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 02 -0' 56 6.6 +0.6 -3 ft 2 9' 08 -0' 50 6.6 +0.5 -9 ft 3 9' 39 -0' 19 6.2 +0.2 +3 ft 4 9' 27 -0' 31 6.3 +0.3 +7 ft 5 10' 15 +0' 17 5.8 -0.2 -13 ft 6 10' 23 +0' 25 5.8 -0.3 +10 ft 7 10' 17 +0' 19 5.8 -0.2 +9 ft end 11' 33 +1' 35 5.2 -0.8 -6 ft Versus average of 9' 58 min/mile

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Word of the Day

Side note: I don't really like sitcoms. I can only watch a few episodes before I get irritated. Which is too bad because I hear How I Met Your Mother is hilarious. Yet, I could only get through about half of the first season.

Regardless of how I feel about sitcoms, I have to admit Barney's sentiment on being sad versus being awesome fits the bill perfectly for this past weekend's long run.

My attempts at finding someone to run with for my second-ever 14 miler didn't pan out. On Friday night I discovered that much of the reason for me being a big ball of stress was hormone-induced. When I dragged myself out of bed early Saturday morning I had horrible cramps that almost convinced me to stay home on the couch.

But, I didn't. I ate my half of a bagel with peanut butter, drank some water and Gatorade, and geared up. I drove to the bike path and started my run just after 7:30 AM.

I decided at the outset that I would take a short one minute walk break every three miles. This meant that instead of thinking of my run as one long 14 miles, I broke it up into smaller, more manageable 3 mile segments.

The weather was actually a bit chilly when I started out and thankfully it wasn't nearly as humid as it has been. The first few miles felt a little rough but I just kept telling myself I only had to make it to mile 3 before I could rest.

Shortly after mile 2 my music playlist came up with "Nike's My First 10K Training Program". That's a 40 minute podcast that incorporates a warm-up, some speed intervals, and some endurance training all narrated by some guy named Jay Blahnik and set to techno music. Similar to breaking the run into 3 mile chunks, having 40+ minutes of my run narrated by a guy essentially counting off minutes made the run go by much faster. And, I admit, I had to fight not to get sucked into the one minute speed intervals.

Throughout the entire run I was drinking water every mile or two and Gatorade at several of my walk breaks. I ate half a package of Sports Beans at mile 6 and again at mile 9.

Let me tell you, those scheduled walk breaks? Huge mental boost. I don't think I really needed them physically, but just knowing that I had a scheduled one really kept me from walking when it got tough. Don't walk now, I'd think when I started to slow down. You can walk in a few miles. What's a few miles? Nothing, that's what!

When I started to get tired and my feet started to ache I repeated "It's supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be hard" over and over again in my head. Sometimes I want to quit when things get hard. On Saturday I wasn't going to.

Overall I ran those 14 miles with an average pace of 10:22. Now THAT is awesome.

I really think I turned a corner mentally in my marathon training. And that's pretty awesome, too.

The only not-awesome thing? The blister on the tip of the toe next to my big toe that I discovered when pulling off my socks. Ow! Thankfully it seems to have already callused over so I'm good to go.

So next time you're sad about your running, stop being sad and be awesome instead. Barney says so.

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 627 ft Location: Brookfield, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 08/07/10 Up/Downhill: [+462/-462] Time: 07:35 AM Difficulty: 3.3 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 14.12 miles Time: 2:26:28 Speed: 5.8 mph Pace: 10' 22 /mi Calories: 1692 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 20 -0' 02 5.8 +0.0 -7 ft 2 10' 07 -0' 15 5.9 +0.1 +13 ft 3 10' 41 +0' 19 5.6 -0.2 +7 ft 4 10' 44 +0' 22 5.6 -0.2 -6 ft 5 10' 15 -0' 07 5.8 +0.1 +6 ft 6 10' 13 -0' 09 5.9 +0.1 +6 ft 7 10' 26 +0' 04 5.8 -0.0 +3 ft 8 10' 00 -0' 22 6.0 +0.2 -6 ft 9 10' 01 -0' 21 6.0 +0.2 0 ft 10 10' 23 +0' 01 5.8 -0.0 -10 ft 11 10' 06 -0' 16 5.9 +0.2 +6 ft 12 9' 56 -0' 26 6.0 +0.3 -7 ft 13 10' 50 +0' 28 5.5 -0.3 -7 ft 14 10' 10 -0' 12 5.9 +0.1 +3 ft end 10' 10 -0' 12 5.9 +0.1 -3 ft Versus average of 10' 22 min/mile

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Stressed Out

Just replace "swam" with "ran"


I was really not feeling like going to track last night. I'm a total stress ball right now and walking home from the train in the rain didn't help matters any. I was so close to just collapsing onto my bed and staying in for the night.

But, as I've said before, having a group of people expecting you is one of the best motivators there is. And that whole 26.2 miles thing is pretty motivating as well.

So instead of napping I put on my shoes and headed to the track. Thankfully it stopped raining. Not so thankfully the sun, which had been hiding all day, chose that moment to come out.

The sun combined with the humidity made for the quite the swampy workout. And just what was our workout? 2 miles straight, followed by a 400 meter jog, then 1 mile, another 400 meter jog, then 1 more mile. And then, because we're apparently masochists, we tacked on a 400 at the end.

How'd I do?

Mile 1 - 8:22
Mile 2 - 8:22
400 meter recovery jog
Mile 3 - 8:51
400 meter recovery jog
Mile 4 - 8:33
Rest
400 meter - 1:44 (Fastest 400 to date)

Not too shabby! Mile 3 wasn't the best one ever, but it was still under 9 which is still speedy for me. I really appreciated having Maribeth to chase. She's really good at pacing which is something I'm horrible at. I always do much better when she runs, too.

I was worried at first that the workout was going to be too tough considering I did a 10 mile bike ride (averaging 15 mph) the night before and my quads felt pretty worn out. Our initial striders left me feeling a little winded but in the end I obviously felt okay.

And that last 400? I have no idea what happened there! I just took off like a rocket and held on. Hard to believe I could run my fastest 400 after running 4 hard miles. Pretty cool.

I felt much better after track. Nothing like a good, hard workout to help with the stress. Too bad that feeling doesn't last and I'm back to being a total ball of stress. Any suggestions on how to get that post workout endorphin rush to last?

July Wrap Up

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Exciting news for July!

What could it possibly be?

Well, it wasn't that I ran a 4 mile race the weekend of the 4th. Although that was technically a PR.

It wasn't that for the first time in my racing career a race was canceled and we ended up running through a flood.

It wasn't even that I surprised a friend for her birthday.

No, I'll give you a hint:



I finally broke 100 miles of running in one month! 103.73 to be semi-exact. I even added it up several times just to make sure. Yep, over 100. First time ever.

I'm pretty stoked about that :-)

F(or) T(he) W(in)

Last night when I got home from running with my running group Jason asked me how my run went.

"Good," I told him. "Really good."

I think that was the first time in awhile I could say that after a Monday night run. I'm not saying I haven't had good Monday night runs recently, but last night was the first time in a long time that I was able to push myself and run like I did in the spring.

I know I've pretty much thrown the pace portion of my training plan out of the window, but last night I actually hit my tempo paces. Goal? 5 miles at 9:05. Actual? 5.5 miles at 9:07.

It was awesome.

What made the difference? I don't know. Maybe it was the leftover Thai food I had for lunch. Maybe it was the fact that that the sun was hiding behind the clouds the entire time. Maybe it was Maribeth and I pushing each other for the first 3 miles. Maybe my brain finally realized that tempo runs are supposed to be difficult so, as Kim likes to say, I should nut up and shut up.

Although, honestly, I think it was the slight adrenaline rush I got around mile 3.5 that helped push me through. We were running down the street when I saw a woman walking a small dog and a larger dog all up in the small dog's business. At first I thought they were both her dogs but it became obvious to me that the larger dog was not on a leash and the woman was starting to panic. She picked up her small dog and began yelling "Hey! Your dog is loose!"

I swooped over off the street onto the sidewalk, grabbed the larger dog's collar, and shoved it through the open gate from which I figured it had escaped. As I slammed the gate shut I got a glimpse of larger dog's owner and heard him calling the dog's name. I just swerved off the sidewalk and back onto the street and kept running.

Erin's Dog Corralling Business at your service.





At that point I left Maribeth behind (sorry!) and was right on the heels of another group of people. While I was looking forward to the water stop at the park at mile 4, I almost didn't want to break my stride. When we started back up after using the drinking fountains it took me a little bit to get back into the groove I'd found. Thankfully, it reappeared and it felt good.

Last night was one of those runs that remind you why you run. You're flying. You can feel your heart pounding but your legs are doing their own thing. You feel alive and full of energy.

It's a good feeling.

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 628 ft Location: Forest Park, IL Elev. Gain: +3 ft Date: 08/02/10 Up/Downhill: [+22/-19] Time: 06:33 PM Difficulty: 2.1 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 5.42 miles Time: 0:49:26 Speed: 6.6 mph Pace: 9' 07 /mi Calories: 639 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 57 -0' 10 6.7 +0.1 0 ft 2 8' 55 -0' 12 6.7 +0.1 -9 ft 3 9' 17 +0' 10 6.5 -0.1 +3 ft 4 9' 10 +0' 03 6.5 -0.0 +7 ft 5 9' 07 +0' 00 6.6 -0.0 0 ft end 9' 04 -0' 03 6.6 +0.0 +3 ft Versus average of 9' 07 min/mile

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When 13 is Good

Guess where I was this weekend?

With Kim in Guttenberg, IA!

I couldn't mention anything about it on this blog beforehand because my appearance on this trip was a total surprise for Kim. See, this past weekend was her birthday and her husband arranged for my husband and me to join them on their trip to her family's cabin on the Mississippi River. She had no idea we were coming until we showed up at her house. Surprising her was so much fun!

Needless to say, we were both pretty excited to be able to run together on Saturday. I was thrilled to have someone to keep me company as I slogged through 13 miles.



We started out from the cabin and headed along the Mississippi into downtown Guttenberg. People are super-friendly and we said good morning or waved to almost everyone we passed. Once we'd gone about 4 miles we turned around and headed back toward the cabin.

Of course we chatted the whole time but I don't remember what we talked about. Kim pointed out all the sights in town and I enjoyed looking at all the different houses. At one point we were chased by two yipping dachshunds. Maybe they're not used to seeing two people running down the middle of the street?

We were going at a pretty decent clip for the first 8 miles, averaging around a 10:15 pace. We took short walk breaks at mile 3 and mile 6 and then at mile 8 Kim swapped running for biking.



As you can see, we were pretty sweaty. It wasn't all that hot out, but the sun was definitely shining. Maybe that accounted for my slow descent into plodding for the last 5 miles. We did one loop around the adjacent island and then an out and back on another to finish out my 13 miles. I took several walk breaks and then one stretching break at mile 10. Kim kept joking that maybe she should ride the bike ahead of me so that I'd have something to chase. I didn't take her up on the offer, but maybe I should have.



My average pace dropped by almost a minute for the last 5 miles. Also, either all my sweat or the fact that I went inside during our break at mile 8 caused my Garmin to go totally wonky. All I can tell you is that I went 13 miles in just under 2.5 hours with what I think is an average pace of 11:12. I'm very pleased to have broken my streak of my paces matching my mileage on my long runs!

After our run we spent the rest of the day on the beach. You'd think I would have spent it passed out on a floaty and while that sounded grand, I ended up trying two new things.

First I tried tubing!



And then I rode on the back of a jet ski with my husband.



I actually drove the jet ski the day before but I found that riding was much more enjoyable than driving. But I really liked tubing!