Monthly Archives: May 2011

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

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On this lovely Memorial Day while most people were off at the beach or BBQing, I stayed home and baked. While the main reason for staying home is because I am coming off of a cold and Mike is right in the middle of one (yes I gave him a cold with only a week until our marathon – bad girlfriend!), the primary reason for the baking was simply because we wanted comfort food.

I realized that I hadn’t baked even one time since we moved into our new apartment on January 1, 2011, which is really quite unacceptable. I really love to bake and this year I wasn’t even able to bake Christmas cookies due to the fact that we were on vacation in Costa Rica for the 10 days leading up to Christmas, which is prime cookie baking time.

While perusing the nutrition and fitness blog called The Singing Runner this week, I came across a recipe for a healthy version of one of Mike’s favorite baked goods – banana bread (also a great way to incorporate one of the best foods for runners, bananas, into your diet).  I personally only discovered my love for this little cake of  banana goodness in the last year or so but have never attempted to bake it.  Today was my chance to try!

Here is the recipe (thanks The Singing Runner!):

Ingredients:

The Ingredients!

  • 1/2 c. sugar (could substitute honey if you wish!)
  • 1/3 c. applesauce
  • 1 t. vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 c. mashed bananas (4 large bananas)
  • 1 3/4 c. whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 1 t. baking soda
  • 1/4 c. hot water
  • 1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)
  • 4 T dark brown sugar (optional)
  • 1 T margarine (optional

Directions:

Pre-Baked

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Mash bananas with a fork until no thick pieces remain.
  3. Mix together applesauce and sugar in a medium bowl.
  4. Add eggs and mix until well combined.
  5. Stir in bananas and vanilla.
  6. Stir in flour and salt until just moistened. Do not overmix!!!
  7. In a separate bowl, mix together baking soda and hot water and then add to batter.
  8. Spread batter into a greased 9×5 loaf pan.
  9. (Optional) In a separate bowl mix together brown sugar and margarine until mixture is coarse and crumbly.
  10. (Optional) Spread walnuts on top of bread and sprinkle brown sugar mixture on top.
  11. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until center comes out clean.
  12. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

My Alterations to the Recipe:

Although I had the foresight this week to purchase applesauce and butter, the only two ingredients we didn’t already own, I forgot to buy vanilla extract. I did a quick Google search and discovered that maple syrup can be substituted for vanilla extract. Unfortunately, we don’t have maple syrup either but we do have agave nectar, which is a substitute for maple syrup. Using transitive logic (i.e. A=B and B=C then A=C), I deduced that agave nectar should work.  I also had to substitute the sugar for honey (1/2 cup of sugar = 3/8 cup honey) becuase I did another Google search and discovered that Sugar in the Raw does not work well when baking.

I didn’t buy the walnuts for the topping, but I did do the brown sugar/butter coating.

Taste Test

The Final Product (tastes better than it looks!)

The banana bread turned out great! The topping is definitely the most flavorful part, but overall it was very moist and delicious! Since I have never made banana bread before, I decided to look up some recipes to see how this recipe differs from others, besides the fact that it calls for whole wheat flour. The biggest difference is the amount of butter. Recipes that I found online called for a whole stick of butter, whereas this recipe called for only 1/8 of a stick and that was for the optional topping (totally worth it). This recipe also has more banana than others (4 instead of 2-3) and calls for applesauce. I think that I’ve probably had more delicious banana breads in my life, but I must say this banana bread turned out pretty tasty and it’s (semi) guilt free!

My First Sports Massage

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After every half marathon I’ve ever run, I get an hour long massage. Usually, it’s the relaxing kind, with some extra focus on my legs. Ultimately, I’m’ there to unwind and reward myself for all my hard work.

One of the after-run clinics presented by my running club featured a sports masseuse. His discussion about the benefits of sports massage for marathon runners definitely piqued my interest. I looked into getting a sports massage but found that they were about $80-$100 per session and with a recommended visit of once per week, my wallet couldn’t afford $400/month on massages. However, a Living Social deal popped up a few weeks ago for a sports massage for only $30. The place is located right near my office, so it seemed perfect. I quickly snatched it up and also told Allison about it.

Benefits of Sports Massage

Before I launch into my experience, I’ll point out the benefits of sports massage:

  • Increases range of motion
  • Decreases injury potential
  • Speeds recovery of muscle and tendons after hard exertion
  • Increases efficiency of muscle use
  • Increases oxygen and nutrient absorption and removes lactic acid

Recomended Frequency of Sports Massages

How often should you get a sports massage? The best bet would be one per week. But since this is unrealistic for most people’s budgets (although many massage studios have monthly memberships so you can get a discount if you come often), it is more realistic to every 2-3 weeks, and definitely make an appointment for the week before the race (but not less than three days before the race).

My Sports Massage Experience

My sports massage took place at a local fitness center. The building was  small and it didn’t have a lot of equipment. From the looks of it, the company specializes in personal training and sports rehab. The room that I was led to was nothing like the room where I enjoyed my massages after my last two half marathons – instead of a tranquil environment with soft music, low lights and a heated, comfy massage bet, I was greeted with a small, quiet room with a simple bed in the center. The room was so small it was practically awkward to chat with the masseuse before the massage because there wasn’t much room for two people to stand up without being very close to one another. I had changed into a dry-fit top with a built in sports bra and a pair of running capris. Usually I just wear underwear for massages but since I figured we’d be doing lots of stretching, I left my pants on.

The massage was definitely not relaxing. The masseuse was very chatty at first, so I tried to discourage him by not responding with lengthy answers. The bed was somewhat cold and the silence was eerie. At one point someone sued the restroom next door and I could hear their urine hitting the water in the toilet. Not peaceful.

I do have to say that the masseuse seemed to know what he was doing. I typically don’t like my massages to be deep or hard, but I figured I needed to just let this guy do whatever he wanted since I was there to prepare my body for marathon, not to relax. He worked for a while on my back and then moved up to my neck. My neck was one of the tightest parts of my body so he really worked on it for a while and it was painful. He had me breath through the pain and I just kept telling myself that it was good for me!

The massage on the bottom half wasn’t any less painful. He found that my IT band was very right and was kneading it with his fists for what seemed liked hours. It was pretty painful but I just breathed through it.  Next he moved down to my feet and worked on them for quite some time. He said that runners need a lot of attention on their feet, specifically their arches, so he spent a lot of time on them. I’ve gotten a cramp in the arch of my foot a few times during  a run so I was glad that he worked on this area, although it was painful of course!

He finished the massage by literally pounding on my legs and back, which was similar to the massages I’ve had in Thailand.

My thoughts? It wasn’t as relaxing as I expected and there as a lot less stretching than I had anticipated. I definitely felt like I was looser after the massage (plus I’m sure it benefited this cold that I contracted to have my neck and head massaged), but I’m not sure I’ll be heading back. At the end of the day, I really can’t afford it (it’s only $50/session here) and it’s not all that enjoyable! I’m hoping that stretching and using the runner’s stick (a tool that massages your legs) will be good enough.

Warning: Training for a Marathon May Cause Illness

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So the more I complain about this cold and the more I research how to get rid of it while training for a marathon, the more I’ve come to realize how common it is to get sick right before (or after) a big race!

Mike first mentioned this phenomena to me when explaining how the weeks prior to an Ironman are the riskiest for a triathlete. It is very common for would-be Ironmen to come down with a cold. The more research I did on this topic, the more support I found for this theory and came to the conclusion that I worked myself sick!

Hal Higdon, an influential running coach, mentions on his website: “ or the week after the marathon. That’s because in building to a mileage peak, they often overdo it and temporarily suppress their immune systems. Marathoners thus are more vulnerable to any viruses they might encounter. To avoid colds, try to avoid people who have them. And get plenty of rest.”

Sounds about right.

As usual, I went to Google to find some additional answers. I found several running forums with posts from runners who caught colds the week or even days (yikes!) before the marathon. Another article on “12 Tips to a Terrific Taper” mentions that it’s fairly common for runners to get minor illnesses while tapering.

In the past I’ve assumed that I’ve stayed illness free due to my active lifestyle and healthy diet. That is very true to an extent, but according to runningforfitness.org, although moderate exercise increases resistance to disease and infections, heavy training and racing weakens the immune system. “There is considerable evidence that susceptibility to infection is increased by running marathons.  For example, 13 per cent of the runners who completed the Los Angeles Marathon in 1987 became ill during the week after the race, compared to just 2 per cent of the control group of runners who didn’t participate in the event.” Apparently the phenomena of illness occurring more frequently during taper has not been thoroughly researched, but it seems to be clear that it seems to be the body’s response to the high stress of peak training to make itself ill.

Similar to what my running coach said, runningforfitness.org indicates that “it is safe to continue running if you feel like it, provided that your body temperature is normal and that all the symptoms are all from the neck upwards.  You should not run if your temperature or resting heart rate are elevated, you have aching muscles or sore joints,  diarrhoea, or if you have a chest infection.  If your symptoms are a nothing more than a sore throat or a runny nose, you can go out for an easy run.  If your head starts to pound or if you don’t feel well, turn round and go home.”

I skipped my 8 mile run today and I probably won’t push it by trying an easy run tonight. I know that my body is more than prepared to handle this marathon, and although my symptoms are neck-up, I’m going to take three days off and rest. I need it!

References:

http://www.runningforfitness.org/book/chapter-8-injuries/infections

http://completerunning.com/archives/2007/04/25/12-tips-to-a-terrific-taper/

http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/train16n.html

10 Days til the Marathon and I’m Sick

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Yep, you read right. After one and a half years without a sniffle (I got some weird fever in January that lasted 2 days but that doesn’t count), I came down with a sore throat and runny nose just 10 days before the marathon. It started last night when I had a terrible group run. It was an easy 6 miles but it felt like eternity. Had I not been running with my friends, it would have been torture, and I definitely wouldn’t have lasted 6 miles. After the run, a couple of friends were talking about how scared they are to get injured or hurt. I thought to myself, ‘we’re so close, that’s not going to happen now!’  Besides, it’s been so long since I was sick that I was starting to think all this exercise had made my immune system impenetrable. Wrong.

So, here I am with a 8 mile run scheduled tomorrow morning (and I had scheduled P90X Chest Shoulders and Tris for myself today but decided to sleep in after I felt the tickle last night) and I’m sick. This topic has come up during the announcements at some of our group runs, and our coach has expressed this simple rule: if you’re sick from the neck up, you’re ok to run. If you’re sick from the neck down, rest. Well, at this point I’m only sick from the neck up. I have a slight sore throat and a slight runny nose. Luckily I’ve been sleeping quite a bit lately so I think that is helping, but I usually wake up at 5 a.m for my mid-week runs, so I think at this point the extra rest tonight is worth it. I decided if I’m feeling ok, I’ll go for a short run tomorrow night. Or, I’ll take the whole day off again. I don’t want to push it!

I seriously can’t even believe this is happening. I’m trying to think positive thoughts and tell myself that if I sleep, drink a ton of water, drink Emergen-C (who knows if it really works but it tastes good) and eat healthy food, I’ll fight this bad boy off within a few days. That’s my hope. I’d really like to make it to our last long run this Saturday. Luckily we only have 12 miles scheduled. If I’m feeling better, I’ll go for it. IT also happens to be Memorial Day weekend coming up and I have a jam packed schedule. This cold couldn’t have come at a worse time! My only blessing is that it’s not very busy at work this week so sleeping in is a viable option.  

Anyone out there have any tips for training with the sniffles?

I’m a Beachbody Coach!

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P90X Transformed my Body

I started P90X back in January with vague knowledge of the company Beachbody. I knew that Beachbody was a company associated with P90X but I wasn’t sure how or why. As I progressed through my P90X journey, I learned more and more about this incredible company. The main source of my knowledge was through social media – Twitter and Facebook namely – where Beachbody has a large presence in the fitness realm. I started this blog and my Twitter account with the screen name femmefatalep90x and with all my tweets about P90X I quickly gained followers that were Beachbody coaches. I honestly wasn’t even sure what exactly a Beachbody coach was until I was approached by several coaches via direct message on Twitter. The coaches were all impressed with my blog and wanted me to join their teams.

My Reservations

At first I was very hesitant. Not only did I have a lot going on in my life that would restrict the time I could dedicate to it, at one point I was a Herbalife representative. This was right after my 4 month backpacking journey through Southeast Asia in 2009 and I was looking for a job. I signed up because I had applied for a “Wellness Coach” position on Craigslist and my “interview” ended up being a group meeting with a presentation that barely mentioned Herbalife. At the end, when I was super pumped to start weight loss groups and help people achieve their fitness goals, I was told that Herbalife was the sponsor of their wellness programa nd I’d have to sign up to be a Herbalife representative if I wanted to join their team. I didn’t know much about the products but I signed up anyway. After trying the core products – a meal replacement shake, a metabolism boosting green tea and a caffeine injected weight loss pill – I decided I didn’t want to sell a product that I didn’t believe in. First, I personally can’t drink a 150 calorie watery shake for breakfast and lunch (I need real food!) and second, the pills seemed a little like Metabolife or one of the many other weight loss pills that have been banned for causing heart attacks or even death. And above all, I believe that weight loss comes from good old fashioned hard work – exercise and eating the right amount of the right foods.

Why Beachbody?

However, I learned quickly that Beachbody is much more than an organization that sells supplements. Not only is P90X one of Beachbody’s main products, they also sell several other amazing fitness programs. When I expressed my curiosity about being a Beachbody coach to my friend Asia, the person who introduced me to P90X in the first place, she told me that she was also considering becoming a coach! At the time I still wasn’t sold on the coaching, so I went stepped back and let her take the reins for a bit.  She signed up and hosted a Beachbody party at her house a few weeks ago. Before the party, I was pretty skeptical about one of Beachbody’s main products, Shakeology. Like I said, I personally can’t handle a meal replacement shake. However, once I sampled Shakeology I was shocked at how great it tasted! It seemed super thick and delicious, even when mixed with water. At the party Asia played a DVD that explained the amazing ingredients that go into this wonder-shake and I was pretty sold on its quality and taste. One thing I forget is that not everyone is like me – some people have very busy jobs and aren’t training for marathons and a delicious 140 calorie meal replacement shake filled with protein, fiber and vitamins could actually be a great idea for them. And Shakeology can be used for a snack, not a meal replacement. I tried Shakeology last week before one of my marathon training runs and I ran my 6 miles at record speed. I had heard that it provides energy but I wasn’t sure if I believed it. I believe it now!

The seed had been planted but it didn’t fully grow until a coworker was asking me questions about P90X. Her sister had seen advertisements for the program and basically, once she talked to my coworker about my results – 11 lbs lost in 90 days and 5 minutes off my half marathon time, she wanted to do it too. I thought to myself, ‘I’m a walking billboard for this product, why don’t I sell it?’

I Want to Help!

So that’s where my Beachbody Coaching journey began. I am not a natural salesperson and I will NEVER try to sell someone a product that I don’t believe in. There are some Beachbody products that I wouldn’t use myself, and I’ll be honest and tell anyone that. There are other products though that I believe can change people’s lives, and that’s why I’m here. I am genuinely passionate about fitness and I get immense pleasure from helping others achieve their fitness goals.

Please let me know if you have any questions about P90X, running, marathons, weight-loss, training nutrition or any Beachbody products. I’d love to help!

And if you’d like, take a look at my Beachbody Profile: http://beachbodycoach.com/FitnessFatale

4 Weeks Post P90X – Where Are We Now?

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It’s been about four weeks since we were initiated in to the family of P90X Graduates. I thought I’d update you on some of my progress since graduation.

Slacking a Bit on the Fit Test

I admit - we haven’t done the fit test yet. I fully intended to do it but then I just kept working out and training for the marathon and it kept seeming not to fit into my schedule. I really want to do it still; regardless of the fact that the results won’t be 100% accurate. Since we finished P90X, I’ve been diligently logging my recommended weekly mileage for training for the marathon. This means that now instead of running only 3 days a week, I run 4. And when you run four days a week and try to fit in P90X Legs and Back, there never really seems to be a day that your legs are rested enough to take the fit test! I know – it’s not an excuse but becuase the first two weekends following our “graduation” were spent out of town by either Mike or myself, it hasn’t been easy to find time to test our never-rested bodies.

Workouts

As I expressed in my blog post about what I plan to do after P90X, I definitely haven’t been slacking on the fitness aspect. I’ve ramped up my weekly mileage, adding in a 5-6 mile easy run as well as some tough intervals plus a mid week long run of 8-10 miles. Our long runs have gotten much longer – up to 21 miles – and weekly mileage has been anywhere from 37-42 miles. The first week after we finished we only were able to get in two P90X workouts but since then we’ve been consistent with either Legs and Back or Plyo on Mondays and then two P90X upper body workouts in another time in the week. We’re basically working out about 11 hours a week! However, Yoga X is the one thing that I planned to do, but haven’t. Last week I got in a yoga class at work during lunch (my company pays a yoga instructor to come in and instruct!) but it was definitely more of a stretch routine than it was a hard workout like P90X Yoga is (although my abs were super sore afterward!). We plan to get Yoga X in this Sunday. I really hope we make time for it because I need a good stretch and core workout (another difference in doing the 90 day plan and just doing random workouts is that I am more likely to skip a scheduled workout if something comes up whereas I wouldn’t let anything come in the way before!).

As for any progress in my P90X workouts, I actually noticed a decrease in my strength the first time we did P90X Chest, Shoulders and Tris. However, this morning I did Chest and Back for the second week in a row and was able to get out 27 push-ups, a new personal record. I also started using 20 lbs for the Heavy Pants, Lawn Mowers and Seated Rows. I’ve really only been able to get Ab Ripper in about two times a week but today I added 5 lb weights (suggestion from Asia) to a few of the moves. I think I need to crank this workout up a notch to really see any big changes in my abs since I’m already doing all the advanced moves.

Food

Now this is where we struggle. I’ve always know that I kind of an extreme person when it comes to a lot of things, but food is one that is particularly hard for me to consume in moderation. I’ve definitely gotten a lot better, but one of the reasons I think I excelled with the P90X nutrition program was that the plan was so strict and I am good at following a plan perfectly when I set my mind to it. Phase 1 was so restrictive that I couldn’t even imagine eating a cookie or a piece of chocolate. Now that we’re finished with the program and we don’t have our 90 day pictures looming over our heads or the fact that we’re actually “doing P90X” (ie following the program start to finish), I am finding myself making a lot more exceptions. I try not to be hard on myself because I am training for a marathon and my body a) needs fuel and b) is burning that fuel very rapidly.

However, I haven’t felt quite as confident in my body since I started making these exceptions. The scale is only up about 1-1.5 lbs and has remained there so I’m not so worried about gaining weight right now – I’m more worried about the slow creep of the weight back on over time if I keep letting myself make these exceptions. Basically our diet has crept back to slightly healthier than it was when we started. Don’t get me wrong – it’s definitely changed for the better, but I’m finding myself reaching into that candy bowl on occasion (gasp!) and accepting chocolate covered strawberries and cookies from friends when they are given to me (my weakness is dessert!). Another exception we’ve been making more is going out to restaurants to eat. We didn’t go out much during P90X and when we did we tried to only eat a place that had P90X friendly options. Lately we’ve had a lot more social obligations that have put me in tempting situations and I usually give in, justifying that I have a big run coming up. Another change is that we’ve stopped measuring all of our food. During Phase 1, we measured every little thing and now I’m more likely just to cook the whole chicken breast or pour cereal straight from a box rather than measure out my approved serving. Since I’m training for a marathon I know that I shouldn’t be restricting myself (I just read an interesting article that found that cyclists who created a calorie deficit didn’t show as much improvement in athletic performance as a group that didn’t diet) but I’m a tad frustrated that I’m exercising more than I ever have in my life and not seeing any changes. This just proves again how important diet is in fitness and weight loss.   

Going Forward

The plan at this point is to try my best to maintain my P90X results. As I have to focus on marathon training and immediately afterward learn a whole new sport – the triathlon- I won’t have the time to focus 100% on toning up with P90X. However, after we finish our races in September (Planned: sprint tri in July (signed up), ½ marathon in August (signed up), Olympic distance tri in September(not yet signed up), I think we are either going to do P90X again, do a P90X/Insanity Hybrid, or try P90X’s MC2, if it comes out in time. I think it’s important to take some time off of racing and get our bodies stronger and leaner for the next season! The plan seems to change every week so don’t be surprised if come September I’ve signed up for a marathon in December or something. I tend to plan plan plan and then change change change.

Spectating Instead of Racing

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Sunday morning at 6:30 a.m., I woke to the sound of the National Anthem.

Since I wake up before 6 a.m. on most days, including Saturdays, Sundays are my day to sleep in! Being woken up at 6:30 was not pleasant, but soon I came to the conclusion that there was nothing I could do about the commotion and I better just get up. We had been informed of the upcoming Encinitas Sprint Triathlon via letter several times and the streets had been marked to be blocked off for days, so we knew itw as coming. I guess we were just hoping it wouldn’t affect us!

Since we were up, Mike and I decided to go watch the race. As I have mentioned in a couple posts and tweets, I signed up for my first sprint distance triathlon, the Solana Beach Triathlon, which takes place on Sunday, July 24. Although I probably could have snuggled up and gone straight back to bed, I figured it was a good opportunity to check out a triathlon. The only other tri I’ve attended was when I watched Mike compete in the Solana Beach tri last year (and watched him place 4th in his age group!).

Racers Entering the Water

So, we bundled up and headed down to the sand to watch the age-group wave starts. I must say that I will DEFINITELY be wearing a wet suit for my triathlon. Although it is May in San Diego, it is still cold at 6:30 a.m. and the water is even colder. I learned a few things from watching the wave starts and talking to Mike about it. First, you wear your timing chip around your ankle. Second, it looks very difficult to swim quickly  through oncoming waves. Third, I think I will start a little behind the pack of swimmers so that I don’t get kicked in the face.

Exiting the Water and Headed to Transition

Next we moved over to the water exit area. The swimmers ran out of the water looking quite tired, some stripped off their swim cap and googles immediately while others left them on. I’m guessing I’ll want to take mine off as soon as possible! The swimmers had to run up quite a steep hil to get the transition zone. I already knew this, but the time it takes to exit the water and run to the transition zone is included in your swim time, and the actual distance that you swim can change from race to race depending on how long you have to run from the water to the transition (i.e. the longer the transition, the shorter the swim).

Transition Area

The transition zone is just an area of the parking lot that is blocked off from the public and contains row after row of bikes. Next to the bikes are backpacks full of the gear needed to transition from a swim to a bike and then a bike to a run (cycle shoes, hats, sunscreen, towels, running shoes, etc). Once the racer exits the transition zone, they can’t get on their bikes until they hit a certain marker. Mike told me that this area gets really congested in some races and it’s best to walk your bike past the marker and mount it there. This is usually where a lot of collisions happen. This is also where the dreaded clip-in fall is most likely to happen – i.e. when you get on your bike with your shoes clipped in but can’t get them out in time and fall over. We saw this happen to one poor woman who unfortunately broke some part of her bike during the fall and had to have someone help her fix it (Mike questioned if this is allowed since it is also a rule that you must change your own bike tire during the race if something were to happen to it).

Boarding The Bike (this is what I mean about the cluster)

We stayed long enough at the transition zone to actually see some of the front runner men finish the bike and move on to the run. They were SPEEDY! It’s going to be interesting to see how the run goes for me. I haven’t run a 5k since November or so, right when I started training for the Carlsbad half marathon. I know that I’m a faster runner now, but I’m not sure how much faster I’ll be after a swim and a run!

Bikes and Runners on the Course

We followed the bike and run course for a bit on our way to a local coffee shop, noting that the bike and run course seemed really complicated and confusing. Basically the course wound through the neighborhood near my house and there were some tight turns! We finally found haven at a local coffee shop and both of us indulged in a coffee drink – Mike got plain coffee and I went a little overboard and got a Crazy Monkey Latte – nonfat milk, banana syrup and chocolate! It was delicious and we had quite a buzz from it (we gave up coffee when we started P90X in January and since we finished P90X have only had it a few times). I don’t plan to go back to being a daily coffee drinker like I was before P90X, but I do think that from time to time there is nothing wrong with indulging! Plus it’s even better this way because we get the buzz that we were immune to before!

View of the Finish from our House

Watching this triathlon got me even more excited to learn this new sport and try it out in July. In addition to the sprint triathlon, we plan to do an Olympic distance tri in September – The TriRock, which is put on by Competitor, the same group that organizes Rock n Roll. After we finish this marathon (in less than 2 ½ weeks – wow!), I’ll start swimming and biking. For now – running is my number one priority!

For more info on the Encinitas Sprint Triathlon, go to www.encinitastriathlon.com

The LONG Run (and I mean REALLY long!)

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A View of the San Diego Harbor (Around Mile 9 of our Run)

Saturday was our longest run to date, and the longest run we will do before the marathon (which is now a little less than 3 weeks away –eek!). The Long Run is arguably the most important run for any one training for a marathon. Surprisingly, it’s not the physical test of endurance that is important, it’s the mental benefit that is more significant. Once you have run an unfathomable distance (21 miles) for an incomprehensible time (about 3 hours and 45 minutes including 4 water stops, a bathroom break and MANY stoplights), you realize that you really CAN run 26.2 miles.

The Longest Run of my Life

We were given the option as the “intermediate” group to run 20-22 miles this week. As our longest previous run was only 18 and it’s not recommended to increase the long run mileage by more than 10-15%, we opted for 21, which is just about a 16% increase from 18. Our rationalization was that if we only ran 20, we’d still have a 10K left to complete on race day, which is even longer than our mid-week easy runs (6 miles). So, if we ran 21, we’d have about 5 miles left to go on race day, which seems much easier.  I told you it’s all mental at this point!

Since I gave quite the narrative on our scenic 18 mile run last week, I’ll spare you the details of our route. Here are some facts:

  • Course Overview: Begin Crown Point, run through Point Loma (up Hill Street), run down the harbor past the airport, run through Old Town, run past the shopping center at the bottom of the hill where the University of San Diego sits (my alma mater), run up to Clairemont Blvd, run through De Anza Cove back to Grand and back to Crown Point (course map is here)
  • Departure time: 7:15 a.m. (early for our group since we usually meet at 7:30 and run between 7:45-7:50)
  • Time on the course: 3 hours and 45 minutes
  • Most painful mile: 5.5-6.5 (Hill Street -3.6% grade )
  • Most enjoyable mile:  9 (ran along San Diego harbor after 2nd water station and a bathroom break)
  • Pace according to Garmin watch (stopped at aid stations and some stoplights but not all): 9:39 min/mile
  • Fastest mile on the course: 9:10 pace (mile 20)
  • Pre-long run dinner (Friday night): Italian bread basket with garlic/olive oil/vinegar (from an amazing restaurant in La Jolla), lasagna, and gelato for dessert
  • Pre-long run breakfast: 1 slice of multi-grain toast with peanut butter and 1/3 banana (usually I eat 2 slices but I was still full from dinner when I woke up!)
  • Mid-run fuel: 4 Vanilla Bean Gus, 1 cup of sports drink per aid station, and plenty of water
  • Most painful body part while running: Glutes (starting around mile 18)
  • Post-Run Celebration: Runner’s pot-luck with our running group including mimosas, bagels, banana bread, chocolate milk and fruit (YUM!)

There are four of us girls that run together – me, my coworker Allison, a good college friend Asia, and my friend Jen that I met when I joined the VAVI Runing Club originally back in October while training for Carlsbad Half Marathon (there used be 5 but Miranda ran the Big Sur marathon a couple weeks ago – we miss her!). We’re lucky to all be at about the same level of fitness and we run the same pace (Jen, Asia and I finished within 2 minutes of one another at the La Jolla Half Marathon – Allison didn’t race). By the end, we all agreed that we felt good and that we are ready for 26.2. None of us have hit the ‘wall’ during a training run, and we all felt that if we had to, we could have continued another 5 miles to the finish. We were actually quite surprised at how quickly the time passed on the run and that we weren’t more tired and sore by the end. We are confident that will the coming taper, the rest leading up to the race and the carbo-loading, we will feel ever better on race day. I can’t even believe that the race is coming up so quickly! It’ll be June 5th before we know it!

Long Run Advice

Leading up to this run, our running coach sent out an email with some links to articles on the topic of the long run. Here are some of the tips I found most helpful from the articles (most of these things I already knew but I like to read it over and over again to reassure myself that I’m doing it right!):

  • Don’t work your legs the day prior to the long run.
  • Make your longest run at least 3 hours in length, but not much more (I didn’t really understand this one since our coach told us to run 20-22 which clearly takes more than 3 hours!).
  • Pick a rolling course (i.e. there are ups and downs and it’s not all flat).
  • Run your long run as close to the same time of day as the race start as possible.
  • Practice drinking water at each mile split (carry water so you can do this) as this is how often you will see aid stations during the race.
  • Don’t run your long run at marathon goal pace (run 45-60 seconds/mile slower).
  • After your long run, lie down and put your legs up for one minute for every 15 minutes you ran.
  • Practice all of your race nutrition during this run (pre-race dinner, pre-race breakfast, during race nutrition).
  • Carbo-load and hydrate like you would for your race at least one day before the long run.
  • Don’t run 26.2 miles before the race, no matter what!!!

We Ran The Farthest We’re Going to Run – Now What?

During half marathon training the longest run before the race is typically run 1-2 weeks prior. However, with marathon training, the long run is usually run 3-4 weeks before the race. Now we begin our pre-race taper. Although the next 2 weeks won’t change dramatically in terms of mid-week mileage (I’ll still run one 6 mile easy, one 6 mile interval/speed work, and one mid-week long run of 8-9 miles), the long weekend run mileage will significantly decrease. This weekend we will run 16 miles and the Saturday that falls 8 days before the race we will only run 12 miles. The week before the race we’ll eliminate mid-week long runs and any speed work.

It’s all downhill from here!!

 

Burnt Out

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I Feel Like This Woman!

These past two weeks have been pretty brutal in a lot of respects. Not only have they been the two hardest weeks of my marathon training (ie highest mileage), I have been getting in at least 3 P90X workouts per week and have been doing overtime at work. I also did some volunteer work on Saturday that had me on my feet for 14 hours straight and didn’t allow me to get to bed til past 1 a.m. (after waking up at 6:30 a.m. the morning after our big 18 mile run).

My Workout Schedule the Last Two Weeks

  • Monday: AM – P90X Legs & Back/Ab Ripper ; PM – 45 min Turbo Kickboxing
  • Tuesday: AM – 6 mile interval run; PM – P90X Chest/Shoulders/Tris and Ab Ripper
  • Wednesday: AM – 9 mile mid-week long run
  • Thursday: P90X Back & Biceps and Ab Ripper
  • Friday: 18 mile run
  • Saturday: Work 14 hours on feet
  • Sunday: 5.5 mile run
  • Total Weekly Mileage – 38.5 (total hours work – 58!)

 

  • Monday: Legs & Back/Ab Ripper (I upped my weights to use 12s for the squats, lunges and calf raises and I swear I’m still sore 3 days later)
  • Tuesday: 6+ mile interval/speed work (see blog on Yasso 800s here)
  • Wednesday: AM- P90X Shoulders & Arms/Ab Ripper; PM- 4.3 mile easy run
  • Thursday: AM- 10 mile medium long run; Lunch – 85 minutes of (easy) Yoga (at work)
  • Friday: REST (P90X Chest & Back was scheduled)
  • Saturday: 21 mile run
  • Sunday: Yoga X
  • Total Weekly Mileage – ~42

I had planned to do Chest and Back on Friday but I’m starting to think that my body needs so much needed REST. I have been pushing it really hard lately, intensity wise and mileage wise. I also haven’t been sleeping well lately. And I’ve been working overtime at work for the month-end close (I’m an accountant). Last night was the first night I fell asleep quickly – probably because I’m exhausted!

Benefits of Rest

I read an article today (I’ve actually blogged on this topic before but it seems more relevant now!) from Active.com about how to prevent injuries when training. Knock on wood, I have yet to be seriously injured while training for a race. The number 1 way to prevent was to take a day off. Another important one was to get enough sleep. I’ve been lacking in both lately. Also, it is mentally beneficial to take a day off. I was considering last Saturday a “day off” when in reality working 14 hours on my feet is far from a day off. I should have taken Sunday off, but I felt restless not sweating two days in a row and went for a run anyway. I’m sure my body would have thanked me and I would have had a much better training week had I taken that day off. Lesson learned.

Longest Training Run of the Season Rapidly Approaching!

We have our longest run to date on Saturday. We are running 21 miles, starting in Pacific Beach, looping through Point Loma, continuing through downtown San Diego and finishing back in Pacific Beach.  Although I felt great last week on our 18 mile run, I’m still quite nervous for this 21 miler since I have been feeling pretty exhausted lately. I’m hoping that a good night’s sleep (hopefully 9 hours) tonight will do the trick! We are meeting extra early on Saturday for the run (7 a.m. which means a 5:45 wakeup call) so there won’t be much time to make up for this week’s lack of sleep on Friday night.

I am looking forward to the confidence boost that running 21 miles will give me, but at the same time I know that we will have to run 5.2 miles more on race day! Although 5 miles has become easy for me, it’s not going to be easy after I just ran 21! I just have to trust in the fact that thousands of runners before me have run just 20-22 miles prior to the race and finished.

If you’re curious, here’s our course for the 21 miler (we’ll have to add on .5 miles): http://bit.ly/csXJJX

Getting Speedy with Yasso 800s

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Last night at my Vavi Running Club weekly Tuesday night run, we did something a little different. Rather than our typical out and back 5-6 mile run, we did a group speedwork drill. In the past when we do intervals, we just run out a mile, then pick it up for the desired length (either 1 mile or ½ mile) then do a recovery jog then pick it up again. Although we definitely get a good workout by doing this, nothing could compare to last night’s Yasso’s 800s interval work!

What are Yasso 800s?

Bart Yasso, a manager at Runner’s World, invented this speed workout nearly a decade ago. According to an article on Runner’s World, since then literally thousands of runners have claimed that the program has worked for them. Here it is:

  1. Run 800 meters (that’s half a mile or two laps around a track) repeats in the same minutes/seconds as your hours/miles goal time for a marathon (ie if you are shooting for a 3 hour, 30 minute marathon, run each 800 in 3 minutes and 30 seconds).
  2. Between sets, jog or walk for the same amount of time as your 800 meter run (3:30 in this case)
  3. Do this work out once a week, starting with 4-5 and building up to 10.
  4. If you can consistently finish all 10 800s at your desired pace, you should be able to run the marathon at this pac

How We Did Them

Our running coach, Blake, had us start out with a nice “easy” 1.25 mile warm up jog. We ran from our meeting point in Crown Point to the Fanuel Park that is on Sail Bay. Then, we ran back at lactate threshold pace (about 1 min/mile faster than your normal “easy” pace). I think we were a little excited because we ran our first 1.25 miles at a 8:55 pace (usually easy would be 9:20-30ish) then ran the LT 1.25 miles at a 8:10 pace.

After we arrived back at the meeting point Blake announced that we were in Group A (the fast group!) since we arrived back soonest. Our group of five girls were the only females in the pack – the rest were super fast boys! Blake had set up two sets of two cones, one set at the start and the other set 400 meters down the boardwalk. Since the boardwalk is busy, we actually ran the majority of the first 400 meters on the grass. Once our group had dispersed, we were allowed to run on the boardwalk. Oh yeah, and the set of two cones that we had to loop around to come back was at the top of a grassy “knoll” has Blake called it. Basically a small hill. No fun!

We were instructed to run at 95% of our full exertion. The first 800 I went all out and ended up coming in around 3:15. The next few were closer to the 3:20s. The 4th I came in at 3:30. During the 5th, which I believed to be the last, I pushed t really hard and sprinted to the finish, coming in at 3:19. However – Blake announced that we were doing a bonus 800! I told Mike that we don’t quit when Tony adds in bonus rounds during P90X so we obviously have to do this one. I was out of energy but pushed through and honestly can’t’ remember what my time was on the 6th one.

3:20ish Average Equals 3:20 Marathon? Not Quite…

I was absolutely exhausted by the end. Blake only let us rest and recover for 3 min between sets (which is less than I should be since I was doing the 800s closer to 3:30). I jogged a little bit after each 800 and then walked and then rested for the last minute or so. These were exhausting! But, the good news is that my times were fairly consistent and really fast! I think with several more weeks of these, I really could get up to 10 at a 3:30 average. I think I’d need to actually jog the entire rest/recovery segment to make my results completely valid though. But one thing I am pretty confident in – I think I could do 10 of these at a 4:00 average! Which means…. a sub 4 marathon? Hah! Not getting my hopes up but you never know (we are guessing we’ll finish around 4:15 and our wave start is the 4:30 group)!

This exercise really proved to me the value of a group! I definitely wouldn’t’ have pushed myself to run these intervals at at sub 7 min/mile pace had I been alone. Last week I ran my intervals on my own and did 2 one mile intervals, 2 half mile intervals, and 4 quarter mile intervals. Most of the intervals were run at about an 8-8:15 min/mile. I definitely had more gas in the tank that morning but without the group competitiveness to get me going, I slacked a little (don’t get me wrong it was still very difficult and I’m sure it was an effective workout!). At this point, my ultimate goal has remaining consistent - I just want to finish the marathon, not race it.

I definitely want to incorporate speed training into my workouts at least once per week. This was the third week in a row that I ran intervals sand I think that it builds mental toughness as well as increases your VO2 Max. Additionally, it is a confidence booster to see that I can run that fast! I highly recommend this exercise for anyone who wants to increase speed (and burn major calories)!