Monthly Archives: September 2013

09.09.13
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Race Report: Rockin’ Marathon Relay – September 7, 2013

This was an interesting but very fun race! The course was a 1.88 mile loop around Edwin Warner Park that we had to go around 14 times (the first time being slightly shorter) to complete the 26.2 marathon distance. That meant, with our four person team, two people had to run it three times and two people had to run it four.

Team Aching Bad (ah, my love of punny team names!) consisted of Amanda, my friend Jessica, and my coworker Jeff. Amanda and Jessica are about on the same level running-wise. I’m a little speedier than them, and Jeff is a little speedier than me.

Being one of the two fastest (lol), that means I was one of the lucky four time runners! I did get to do the (only slightly) shorter first lap, so my total official mileage for the day was 7.4 miles. The most I’ve ever run in one day!

Amanda and Jeff

Amanda and Jeff hanging out during Jessica’s first lap

For the first lap, we started about what looked to be a hundred feet in front of the start line, but “officially” was about a tenth of a mile ahead. (I will note that my Garmin did not detect that much of a difference so my watch average pace for the first lap is noticeably different from my official average pace.) The horn sounded and we were off!

The first half of the course is pretty much entirely uphill. The second half is downhill with some flats. The first half is awful. Thankfully, they positioned a water station at the top of the hill, which I took advantage of every single lap.

I felt pretty speedy on the first lap. I ran up much of the hill. (I did walk a few times…that thing was steep!) Then I flew downhill. I had a quick pause on the flat to catch my breath and ran to pass the baton to Jeff, who was running after me. Below is my pace graph for the first lap, where you can see elevation too. The slowdown at the very end was due to me forgetting to turn off my watch!

first lap pacing

I think everyone on our team had about a similar first lap experience: horror at the gigantic hill and a joyous downhill run. It seemed like my second lap came before I knew it! It was a lot tougher. I walked up more of the hill and more on the flats. The third was even harder. By then, it was getting closer to mid-day and the sun was bearing down on us. The temperature had risen nearly twenty degrees since we started.

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I was trying to psych myself up for the final lap. Amanda promised me three Fig Newtons from the food station if I did it in 20 minutes. For every minute slower, I would lose a cookie. I pushed as hard as I could and did it in 21 minutes. I got two Fig Newtons (and some crackers and a banana).

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All in all, we finished our marathon in a little over five hours. So we’re not going to qualify for Boston anytime soon, but it was a blast (except for that hill).

Team Aching Bad

Team Aching Bad!

Here’s our official results with my laps highlighted:
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Garmin says the average pace for my first lap was around 10:18, and Strava reports my fastest mile was 8:48! I would say all that speed training has helped, but I’m sure a lot of that has to do with gravity. I know downhill running can destroy your quads, but my hamstrings were what was mostly sore the next day, so my downhill form must not be too terrible. But super good news: no hip pain at all!

I’m not quite ready for Ragnar yet, but relays are FUN!

Shoes: Pearl Izumi Road N2

09.04.13
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Winter Gear

I stopped by Fleet Feet on Monday to check out some cold-weather gear. (I know. Wishful thinking with the 90 degree heat we’ve been having lately!) I wasn’t planning on buying anything (unless I found a good deal), but I just mainly wanted to know what was out there. While I started running in the winter last year, I did almost all of my runs on a treadmill, so I lack anything to really keep me warm on my runs, except for one pair of running tights.

While I was browsing through the women’s section, the owner, Christi Beth, came over, and I told her what I was looking at. She was so helpful! She said that since I already had a pair of running tights, the top things I would need are a pair of capris, a long-sleeved shirt, and a half-zip pullover. I asked her if I needed a jacket, and she said that she didn’t think it was necessary if I had the pullover and the shirt, since I could layer them as the weather dictated. I told her of my love of thumbholes and pockets, so she showed me a few options that she thought I would like from Brooks and Nike. I asked about headbands/ear-warmers, and she said they didn’t have any in yet, but to check back in a couple weeks.

I haven’t bought anything yet, but thought I would ask you all what cold weather gear and brands you guys liked.

09.02.13
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Week of 8/26/13 – 9/1/13

week of 8/26/13 to 9/1/13I can’t believe it’s September already! This is the month half marathon training starts! Eeeeek!

On Tuesday, I went out to the park to do speed intervals. It had been a rough couple of days, so I really needed to relieve some stress. My plan had me do 13 iterations of 1 minute fast running, 1 minute slow. I did well, although possibly not as well as last week’s intervals, though this week there were more of them and the walk breaks were shorter, so that was to be expected. My fastest interval was the last one at an 8:25 min/mile. Yay! Also, can I just say that running is pretty much the best stress reliever there is? My dad has been having some health issues and I’d been super worried about him and my mom (who is dealing with a lot right now) and this run really helped me calm down.

My next run was scheduled for Thursday. I planned to go out after work, but when I checked the weather, I saw the heat index was over 100. Ha! No thanks. So Jonathan and I finished off the second season of “Game of Thrones” instead. I didn’t want a repeat of last week where I let TV watching derail me, so I decided to hit the treadmill. Yes, it was 10:30 at night. But I got my run in! I did three miles without walking. First time since before my injury! I put the treadmill on a 1.5% incline to compensate for lack of wind resistance. There’s some debate over whether this is really necessary, but I find that running on a 0% incline is way easier than running outdoors. Here’s a handy chart to figure out equivalent pacing. I ran the first half mile on 4.5 mph to warm up, the next on 5.0, the next on 5.5, and the next on 6.0. For the last mile, I varied it a bit, slowing down and running on a more intense incline (8%) for a minute or two, and speeding back up to 6.0 and even 7.0 for a minute at a time. It made me feel confident that I could run the 1.88 mile sections of the upcoming relay without walking if I paced myself properly!

I had a wedding to shoot on Saturday, so my last run of the week was on Sunday. It was supposed to be 50 minutes, but I decided to just round it out and do a full hour. My main goal was to run 2 miles without walking without being on a treadmill. This didn’t happen. While the weather wasn’t bad and I paced myself okay, the toll of being on my feet for nearly ten hours the day before wrecked havoc on my legs. I made it 1.25 miles before walking. By the end of the hour (and five miles), my legs felt like they might fall off. The day only went downhill from there, so perhaps I should have saved my run for the end of the day instead of the beginning.

The marathon relay is this Saturday, so hopefully it will go well!