Monthly Archives: February 2013

Detox Update!

Here we are, NINE days into our detox and I can proudly say I have been sticking to the plan! I haven’t had dessert (including Luna or Kind bars which I get for free at work), alcohol, or coffee for nine days! It has been hard at times, but overall actually easier than I was expecting. Here’s how we’re dealing with no caffeine, dessert and alcohol on a plant-based diet!

Caffeine

Juice in place of coffee!

The first week Mike and I definitely had withdrawal symptoms, mostly from the caffeine I’m sure. We had headaches, moody and exhausted at times. It is pretty insane how much caffeine affects our bodies, even if we only have 1-2 cups a day. I can’t imagine going through this if I was drinking more than 2 caffeinated beverages a day. I think cold turkey at that point would be tough. In fact, I found a Caffeine Addiction Calculator last week that rates your addiction and provides feedback on how to cut it out based on how addicted you are. I was glad to see I was only a 3 out of 10 on the scale. If I were any higher, they recommended not going cold turkey because the side effects would be so intense! The calculator is here if you are curious about your score!

Clean, Plant-Based Diet

Brunch at one of our fav places – opted for black bean burger over omelet

As far as following a clean, vegan diet, I have also been on track with that, although I’ve had a few “treats” including sweet potato fries after my long run Sunday and corn chips with guacamole last night (only 4 ingredients in the chips at least…). I have eaten 100% vegan since the cleanse (besides a black bean burger I got at a restaurant which likely had egg) began, although I will likely eat eggs a few times throughout and won’t beat myself up about it.

Not having dessert or coffee have been huge factors in my ability to stick to the plant-based diet. The three main things that I eat that aren’t vegan are coffee creamer, dessert (not every dessert but I definitely didn’t not eat Christmas or Girl Scout cookies just because they aren’t vegan!), and eggs/cheese. About once a week we go out to breakfast and I end up ordering an omelette and usually at parties I can’t resist the cheese platter! Now that I am not drinking coffee or eating Girl Scout cookies, the only real non-vegan thing I will eat is eggs and maybe a little cheese.

Dessert

I’ve found the easiest way for me to cure the dessert craving is to eat more at each meal so I’m not left wanting more after I’m finished. Like I said, this change isn’t about weight loss and I still want to fuel my body properly for my workouts. Last week I made lentil soup and this week black bean yam chili which we have been eating a large serving of with our salads or sandwiches each day for lunch. I’ve been eating even more fruits and vegetables than before and my mid-afternoon snack is often a banana with peanut butter which really hits the spot. I still think about dessert after every meal, but the cravings are getting easier to manage.

I also haven’t had gum which is something I was going to try to completely cut out but told myself I could have a piece if the dessert cravings were really bad. The reason I’m not wanting to chew gum is that when I buy a pack I tend to chew way too much of it and it’s full of artificial sweeteners. I also want to get my brain to stop craving a sweet flavor right after a meal, so it’s better not to trick it with gum.

Alcohol

Native Foods Cures Everything!

Since we aren’t big drinkers, this was seemingly the easiest to avoid. Not to mention, you don’t drink alcohol at work which is where you spend most of your time so the temptation is isn’t there as often. However, Mike and I found ourselves in a bad mood come Friday night when we realized that we wanted to relax and unwind from the week with a beer at our favorite place and we couldn’t. Not only that, we couldn’t have any yummy dessert either. We were both in kind of a bad mood on our walk after work Friday night but ended up feeling better after making a trip to Native Foods for some delicious vegan goodness (we tried the Greek Gyro Bowl which has kale, quinoa, and seitan as well as the Saigon Roll appetizer). I think part of the problem was that we were really hungry.

Saturday night we went to a San Diego Socker’s indoor soccer game. A good friend of ours is on the team and we went to support him. Having an activity definitely took our minds off the cleanse, although we did bemoan the fact that we wanted to drink some hot chocolate and couldn’t!

Physical Changes

It’s hard to say how the detox is positively affecting me since I’m only 9 days in. So far, there have probably been more negative effects than good feeling wise, although I’m sure it’s due to my body making changes. In additions to the headaches and moodiness last week, we also slept A TON this weekend. We slept 10 hours Friday night, then took a 2 hour nap in the afternoon, slept 8 hours Saturday night and took another 2 hour nap on Sunday! My workout on Sunday was really hard (a long run with some hard tempo intervals at the beginning), but Saturday my workout wasn’t hard enough to warrant a 2 hour nap post 10 hour night of sleep! Clearly our bodies were processing all the changes and detoxing in a way that exhausted us!

My body does look and feel better though. My stomach is definitely flatter and doesn’t have any bloat to it and I have lost 1-2 pounds in the process. My workout on Sunday went really well, which all of my tempo intervals averaging a 7:33 pace (coach says goal tempo pace for BQ is 7:31 so I’m almost there!). I think now that we are over the initial detox, my mood, energy and performance will all get a nice boost!

At the end of the day, I do recognize that all of the things I’ve been going without are things that I don’t want go without for my entire life. This detox is merely a way to cleanse my body and attempt to cure me of my sugar addiction. I plan to drink coffee and alcohol and have dessert again after the detox, but hopefully not ever day or with the frequency that i was before. I want these things to be treats, not routine.

Did you take the caffeine test? How’d you score? Have you ever given up coffee or sugar and had similar withdrawals?

The Price to Race

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My First Marathon!

Race day is one of my favorite days of the year. I love the expo, the adrenaline on race morning, the crowds, and the chance to put my will to the test and see what I’m made of. These are arguably all things that you cannot get while running the same distance on your own (although a group track workout may *almost* simulate the last one).

One thing I don’t like about races is the price. Lately it seems that race registrations have gone up. Half marathons (correct me if I’m wrong) used to be in the $55-75 range and marathons in the $65-95. Now a half is $90-100 (if you’re running RnR even higher) and fulls are $100-120. 5ks are usually $30-40. It’s hard for me to fork over money to run a race that lasts less time than it takes to drive there. The worst of all races is the Rock n Roll series which charge $110-$165 for the half and $125-175 for the full (based on 2013 San Diego RnR prices)! The only benefit I see to doing a RnR series race is the music along the course but let’s be honest when you’re hitting the wall at mile 20 the last thing you want is a rock band blaring in your ear.

Surf City Half Marathon – $90 Entry Fee

To put it perspective, I plan to run 3 half marathons, a 15k, and a marathon this year. I may throw in a 10k Turkey Trot. At $90/half, $110/full, $65/15k and $40 for the 10k, that’s $485 in race registrations before including processing fees. Although, now that I added that up, it seems like nothing in comparison to the $600 Ironman entry fee that about 25% of people lose by getting injured or changing plans before the race (most races do not offer refunds and Ironman is one of them). Last year’s races cost me over $1300 (full marathon, two half marathons, half Ironman, Full Ironman). And of course, there are way more costs associated with racing than just the entry fee (see my post on how much it cost me to train for a full Ironman here).

The major races in the most desirable cities charge the most. While researching this topic I found an interesting article that confirmed my suspicions – race prices have gone up. For example, here’s a look at how race fees have increased for some of the most popular races since 2008:

	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
New York	$158	$171	$185	$196	$255
Boston	$110	$110	$130	$130	$150
Chicago	$110	$125	$135	$145	$150
Los Angeles	$125	$130	$125	$125	$145
Disney World	$105	$125	$125	$135	$135

Graph thanks to stridenation.com

If you’re into math, the NY marathon price has gone up 62% over 5 years. That definitely beats inflation.

What’s Included in Your Race Fee

In case you’re curious, your race fee for a running race pays for the following:

Bib, timing chip (and online race results), t-shirt, food and water
Race event staff (although most people you will encounter are volunteers)
Porto-Potty rental
Insurance (a big one!)
Police department staffing
City permits
Buses to/from start and finish, if necessary
Prizes for winners and age group finishers
More that I don’t even know about I’m sure!

Running With Friends at a Turkey Trot!

Of course, you get more than just the race day and all of the above for that fee. Signing up for a race provides motivation for workouts for months as well as camaraderie if you join a running group or train with friends. Clearly, I think it’s worth it because I continue to sign up for races. However, I don’t race that often (March will be a first with two races but May-July I’m race-free for now). I see some bloggers/twitter friends who race monthly or even twice a month. I’m sure some of them receive sponsored entries but at the end of the day, it all adds up, from the training fuel (gels, bars, etc) to the running shoes to the transportation costs to get to the expo and race day, hotel and flights if its a destination race.

In the end, most fitness endeavors cost money. CrossFit, Dailey Method, triathlon, a fancy gym membership, snowboarding, golfing (possibly the only sport more expensive than triathlon) – it all adds up! But I’m sure the reduction in lifetime healthcare costs will make it all even out in the end (or the savings from fewer nights out). And if not, at least you had fun right!?

What is the most you’ve paid for a running race? What is the most you are willing to pay? How often do you race? Does cost even play a part in which races you choose?

The Ultimate Reset – Detoxing With a Plan

Clean Eating Detox

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Since the new year Mike and I have been discussing a “detox” of sorts. Just like when we did P90X, we really wanted to clean up our diets to help increase our performance and help us feel better overall. We do generally eat healthy, but we also have a few vices. For me, it’s sugar, and for Mike it’s coffee (ok me too but sugar is harder). While we’re at it, we also want to cut back on alcohol since we do find ourselves drinking a few days a week without any reason other than to “unwind” or be social.

Mike started a new round of P90X (his blog post on it here) on Tuesday and that is why we decided to start our detox this week. We both felt and performed great while eating more clean on the P90X diet in 2011 (we did eat a lot of meat and dairy though so that will be a difference this time). In fact, Mike’s standing half marathon PR is from the La Jolla half in 2011 when we were just about to finish P90X.

The detox Mike and I put together has nothing to do with weight loss and everything to do with overall health. I’m hoping to finally kick my cancer-creating sugar addiction, sleep better without disruptive caffeine and not put unnecessary stress on my body with alcohol. We don’t plan to give all these things up indefinitely, but I do want to give my body a refresher so I know it’s working it’s best on April 28 at Eugene.

The Vices

I did a little research to help validate why I’m giving these delicious and fun treats up for the time being. Reading more about exactly how sugar, alcohol and caffeine affect our bodies validated my decision. Despite all this, I do think that in moderation we can still have all of these things and be ok! You only life once right?

Sugar

No more Girl Scout Cookies!?!?

Lately I’ve been reading a lot about sugar addictions and how giving up sugar is harder to give up than cocaine (assuming you’re addicted to cocaine that is). I can definitely say I’m addicted to sugar, as any of my friends can tell you and as many of you may even know just by reading this blog. For example, I consider this year a win because Mike and I “only” purchased and consumed 4 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, compared to last year’s 11 boxes (evidence documented in my post about my sugar addiction here). I know that I exercise enough to burn off all the calories I’m consuming but it doesn’t mean that it’s ok to eat so much of it. Melissa Costello, one of my favorite vegan chefs, wrote a good blog post about the “Sugar Monster” and what you can do to get yourself off of this powerfully addicting substance.

Some ill effects of eating too much added sugar? Besides obesity and diabetes, cancer also needs ample sugar to survive and grow. Excess sugar also causes wrinkles by causing inflammation in the skin. (Caveat: Sugar IS necessary for the body to survive but you can get enough of these essential sugars from fruits, vegetables, and other low GI carbohydrates. I’m definitely not saying anyone should avoid ALL sugar. I also think it’s ok to have a sugary treat on occasion).

Caffeine

Drinking our Beloved Coffee in Belize

Caffeine is one of those topics that is highly debatable. Some say it’s good for you, some say its bad. No one has every really said it’s THAT bad, but what IS bad, is what I put in in my daily (or twice daily) cup of Joe. Every morning at work I pour sugary (and not vegan although it is IS non-dairy) creamer into my coffee with flavor descriptions such as “Cold Stone Sweet Cream.” Not healthy. Not natural. Not good. On top of that, I know that caffeine disrupts my sleep, stains my teeth and causes me to make more bathroom trips throughout the day (and I already go enough!).

Studies have found that caffeine can increase blood pressure. Caffeine is also highly acidic which can cause problems with digestion. Studies have also linked it to osteoporosis.

Alcohol

Despite that study that said drinking one glass of red wine a day for women prevents cancer, I’m pretty sure I don’t have to convince you that alcohol isn’t good for you. I’m not saying it’s not fun and probably fine in moderation, but taking a little break from it every once in a while won’t hurt either! I recently read an article in my Women’s Health Magazine about alcohol consumption’s affect on women and it wasn’t pretty!

During a quick Google search to find the article I read in the hard copy, I found another article by WHM explaining how alcohol affects your workouts. Alcohol can increase recovery time from hard workouts, encourages your body to store fat, disrupts your sleep, and reduces your stomach’s ability to absorb nutrients.

The Detox Details

Here’s are the “rules”:

Alcohol: Only special occasions (i.e. Mike’s birthday) until April 28.
Dessert/Added Sugar: 1 month cold turkey; then 1 dessert/week at least until April 28 (luckily the Hot Chocolate 15k falls after this 1 month period!)
Coffee: None except race days and Mike’s Birthday at least until April 28
Follow a whole-foods, plant based diet.
What I’m NOT giving up: Carbs and fruit (just trying to focus on the good carbs)

In general, I do eat a whole-foods, plant-based diet so that part won’t be too difficult. Although I do admit lately I have been more lax on this side. I haven’t necessarily been eating meat but I’ve been making more exceptions with dairy.

What I Am Actually Eating

Here’s how Day 2 on the plan went:

Breakfast – oatmeal with cinnamon and almond milk and half a banana (cut out the brown sugar we used to put on it).
Morning Snack: 1 oz almonds (no more 1-2 cups of coffee with plenty of creamer!).
Lunch: Spinach salad with avocado, almonds, mandarin oranges and veggies with homemade lentil veggie soup. Orange for dessert (instead of chocolate from the office candy bowl, a Luna Bar or cake for someone’s birthday!).
Afternoon Snacks: 1 banana with peanut butter; steamed kale with lemon and s&p.
Dinner: Homemade quinoa veggie enchiladas (skipped the usual almond milk/cocounut milk icecream, chocolate, vegan cookie, etc)!

Since I’m not focused on weight loss, I’ve been curbing cravings by trying to eat more at each meal so that I’m not left with that sugar craving directly afterward. So far, so good!

I suffered from headaches the first and second days due to caffeine withdrawals but those were expected. The real challenge is going to be this weekend – usually weekends involve alcohol, extra coffee and sweets so it will be difficult to avoid all of these things all weekend. Luckily, I have Mike with me so it will make it easier!

Wind Blown

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Holy Moly. This morning’s run can be summed up in one word: WINDY.

I’ve ran in wind before. It’s pretty normal for the coast to have some wind. But this was crazy! And the worst part was, I was doing tempo intervals.

The workout was 10 min warm-up with 4 x 10 minute tempo (@7:33-7:43 pace) with 2 minutes recovery between, then cool-down til I hit 60 minutes total. When we woke up (Mike was up to do P90X Plyo), Mike said it was really windy outside and that maybe I should go back to bed and run after work, or go to the gym and do the treadmill. I thought about it but I had gone to bed early the night before so I was feeling good after 9 hours sleep. The gym isn’t close and I also wanted my Garmin data to send to my new coach (yes I am a geek like that), so I decided to brave the weather and do it anyway.

encinitas weatgher

I should have checked the weather forecast before I left. Winds at 10 mph with 20 mph gusts aren’t fun to run in, but honestly I have no real basis for comparison since I hardly ever pay attention to the wind, so I may have run anyway.

As usual, I took the warm-up slow. The wind was definitely a factor but it didn’t seem THAT bad. During the first tempo interval I felt alright. I could feel the wind coming off shore but it wasn’t until the 2nd tempo interval where I hit the totally exposed beach did I really feel the wind. It was pushing me so hard that I was having a hard time running in a straight line. However, my pace was still pretty good so I thought I was winning. I finished out the 2nd interval at 32 minutes and then turned around, thinking I could make it back home in 28 minutes at the rate I was going.

I was wrong. It felt like I was running through water or straight up Torrey Pines hill. And this was just the recovery segment. No wonder I’d only seen one other runner this morning instead of the usual 10-20. I was now in the neighborhood in Solana Beach so the wind was partially blocked and I knew it was only going to get worse once I got back into the long stretch of coast that is totally exposed. I started my 3rd tempo interval, which luckily had a short downhill portion, and knew immediately it was going to be a long road back home. The resistance against my body was like nothing I’d ever felt. Apparently that cross wind I was feeling on the way out was also a tailwind and now I was facing the nastiest headwind I’d ever encountered.

All Over the Place!

I tried to stay positive, but 10 minute tempo intervals are long. A lot can happen during that time. Looking down at my watch and knowing I was going all out and seeing high 8/low 9 min/miles at times was not easy. I told myself that this was a great exercise in mental toughness. I kept reminding myself that it didn’t matter what my pace was – it was about the effort. I pushed hard into the wind and tried not to let it get me down. At times I couldn’t keep up the positive talk. I got discouraged and probably let my effort wane a bit, letting the wind win.

I thought about my coach looking at the numbers and shaking his head. It made me realize that just knowing that someone is going to look at my workout afterward makes me work harder but also puts a bit more pressure on each workout. If I didn’t have a coach, I might have not been so pissed off about the wind affecting my speed. I might have just been ok with the fact that the intervals were slower because of tough conditions. I think that extra pressure will make me faster and stronger – I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. It’s just the truth.

Lesson learned – if the wind is howling, head to the treadmill. Or, if you want a great test of mental toughness, go out there anyway. At least if it’s windy on race day I can always pull out this memory and remind myself that I can do it!

Have you ever had a crazy windy run (or worse – race!) like this? Do you tend to head to the treadmill when the weather is crazy or do you go out and brave it?

I Hired a Running Coach

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In those final three miles of the Surf City Half Marathon two weeks ago I had a lot of thoughts. Some good, but mostly bad. I wasn’t going to achieve my goal of a sub 1:45 half marathon. What did that mean? According to McMillan’s Pace Calculator, the equivalent half marathon time to my goal BQ time is 1:42 and I couldn’t even run 1:45. I had three months to get faster and negative thoughts were flooding my brain about whether or not it was even possible for that to happen.

Yeah – that didn’t happen

One of the ideas that popped up during those painful miles was to hire a running coach. I knew I had a very short window of time until my race and there wasn’t any time for errors. My performance at Surf City was a huge success in that it was a PR of 5 1/2 minutes from just 4 months ago. The race showed me that I am making progress and that there is definitely a possibly that I can continue on this path and BQ at Eugene.At the same time, it also showed me that I could possibly come very close to my goal without achieving it. Coming off of a big training year for the Ironman and now a six month training cycle for this marathon, I really don’t want to run another marathon this year. If it doesn’t happen at Eugene, I’m not sure I will be signing up for another full marathon this year. I want to give Eugene everything I’ve got.

Maybe a coach can help me look better during the race too?

A coach can be extremely beneficial to any athlete. They give you a second opinion on your training and utilize their vast experience coaching other athletes to give you solid advice for training and racing. Although training plans from books and websites will get you to the finish line, they won’t always get you there as fast as you could possibly go. I knew this when I was training for the Ironman but I decided not to hire a coach then. My goal for the Ironman was to finish and I was confident that my self-coaching would get me to the finish line. Now my goal is to run very fast for a very long period of time and I’m not as confident that I have the knowledge and experience to adjust my training plan to get me there. I don’t want to take any chances, and that is why I decided to hire a coach.

I immediately thought of two coaches. The first, Maria Simone, a friend and mentor that I met through blogging/twitter who has given me some valuable advice over the last year. Maria recently started her own triathlon coaching business called No Limits Endurance with her husband, a Kona qualifier. The second is Mike Plumb, a San Diego triathlon and running coach who coaches a free track workout on Tuesday nights. About a year ago, I attended a few of these Tuesday night workouts. Afterward, I met a triathlete who was training for her first Ironman and was coached by Mike. She recommended him highly.

In the end, I went with Mike Plumb because he is local. I wanted a coach that I could meet in person if necessary and I also liked the idea of possibly seeing him weekly at his free track workouts. Mike has been a competitive runner himself since 1977 and a triathlete since1984. At one point he was a pro triathlete and has coached high school cross country. When I went to the track workouts last year I met a girl who is coached by Mike and later found out that she regularly wins her age group at marathons. He has years and years of experience coaching runners as well as triathletes that he can use to help me achieve my goal. He is also extremely affordable, at only $85/month.

I had a very long phone conversation with Mike after a few initial email exchanges and I knew after that call that he would be my coach. He had analyzed the Garmin data I sent him and was clearly very excited to take me on as a client. He offers unlimited contact and said that since my goal is fairly unique being that it’s only 12 weeks away and I have a specific time in mind, we’d be communicating more than he does with other athletes. He is pretty confident that he can get me to where I need to be to achieve my goal and I am very excited about working with him!

This week was my first week with his plan. Luckily, he likes my routine of Sunday long run, Monday yoga, Tuesday recovery run, Wednesday Tempo/Intervals, Thursday Strength, Friday mid-week long run, Saturday recovery run. I enjoy having a fairly consistent week to week schedule and that is his philosophy as well. He also agreed that I can use the San Diego Half Marathon as a marathon-pace run and I can race the Hot Chocolate 15k.

View From my 8 Mile Run Friday Afternoon

Even though my training plan isn’t changing a lot in terms of structure, there are some definite changes in the workouts. No more Yasso 800s. Instead, there is more tempo work. There will also be tempo intervals in my long runs every other week. My mid-week long runs will have a goal pace (usually I just kind of run these easy). This week I was pleasantly surprised with my performance using the instructions he gave me. I hit all my intervals and ran all of my key workouts with a faster average pace than I’m used to running. The tempo workout that he gave me seemed like it would be easy based on the interval times and pace, but once I realized there was only 1 minute rest between, it turned out to be a very challenge, yet confidence boosting, workout.

So far, so good! Despite finally catching the cold that has been going around, I was able to have a good training week (rest if in the chest, keep training if just in the head is my motto). I am excited about this change and I think it will give me even more confidence in my training come race day morning. Now it’s time to put in the work! Only 10 weeks to go!!!

Do you use a coach? What pros and cons have you found from using one?

Race Envy

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I’m here to talk about something that many (if not all runners) experience. It’s that feeling you have when you happen across a race you didn’t know was happening or you go out to the finish line to support a friend who is running. It’s called Run Envy.

Race Envy When I Watched Team WODS at the Solana Beach Tri This Year

Both of the aforementioned scenarios happened to me this past weekend. During my 10 mile run on Sunday I stumbled across the finish area of the Puppy Love 5k Run/Walk in Del Mar which had not yet begun. An unjustified ache to run the race came over me. I ran a half marathon one week before, my current run was 7 miles longer than the race and I don’t even own a dog, yet I wanted in on the fun of that 5k. Let’s not even get into the point that I doubt anyone actually races this race. Despite this, I was a tiny bit envious of the flow of bibbed soon-to-be race finishers that I spotted at my turn-around point.

Immediately after my run Mike and I were out the door to get to the San Dieguito Half Marathon in time to watch one of Mike’s good friends finish the race. I had never run or spectated this race but have always heard good things. The route winds through the scenic homes in San Diego’s most lavish neighborhood, Rancho Santa Fe. Not only do you get to enjoy the beautiful trees and possibly wildlife on this run, you can also daydream about the day when you can move into one of the five million dollar homes you run by.

Celebrating Stephen’s PR (1:38) at San Dieguito (no I’m not incognito – just cold)

Since it’s such a small race it was easy to find parking and the walk to the finish line wasn’t too far. The entire ride over I kept telling Mike what amazing race weather the participants were getting since it was in the high 40s. I also semi-jokingly lamented about how “hot” it always is when we race (i.e. last weekend’s Surf City Half Marathon was sunny and 70). We arrived just in time to see a friend of ours from the tri-club finish with a huge PR of 1:28.

As we watched the runners funnel into the finish chute both of us were becoming increasingly excited to run this race next year. We started fantasizing about how we were going to break the 1:30 (him) and 1:40 (me) mark there and how it seemed like such a great race to do it. The women finishing under 1:40 seemed just as fit as me – why couldn’t I do it?! I got more excited the longer I watched. Mike, who has recently proclaimed his retirement from endurance sports, was eagerly dissecting the benefits of racing at a smaller, more intimate race. We were in full Race Envy.

Race Envy can give you the same feelings as the Runner’s High – excitement, optimism, rapid chatter, and a desire to register for as many races as possible (Runner’s High sparked the conversation with Mike that led to me signing up for the Ironman). By watching other racers accomplish their goals, it makes you want to do it too. It probably had something to do with the coffee we were drinking or the fact that I was fresh off a 10 mile run of my own, but watching that race really inspired me to (want to) train harder. It actually seemed to be more beneficial than actually racing Surf City the week before.

There is something about watching people’s determination in those last hundred yards of a race that inspires you go after your goals as well. When you are racing, you focus only on your own race, not the race of others and typically rather than celebrate accomplishments, we end up picking apart our own performance.

Maybe Race Envy isn’t a bad thing!

Do you get Race Envy when you watch others race?

Half Marathon Recovery

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It’s now been 10 days since the Surf City half and I feel like I’m fully recovered. The biggest reason why I switched to the half from the full is that a full marathon can take 2-3 weeks to fully recover from. Since I knew I wouldn’t be getting my BQ at Surf City, I didn’t want to waste 3 weeks recovering when I could be spending that precious time getting faster!

Last week was nice. I enjoyed the recovery and slept a lot (also have been working a lot – a reason for the lack of posts!). There are several different ways to recover from a race, but I tend to gravitate toward walks, yoga and easy runs. Here’s what my week looked like:

Monday – ~2.5 mile walk at lunch with a co-worker, ~1.5 mile walk after work with Mike. I always take a longish walk the day after a race to help get the blood flowing and avoid stiffness.

Celebrating our 1 Year First Date Anniversary with tempeh burritos, beer, and flowers!

Tuesday – Lunchtime Yoga. Luckily this was a very stretch-focused yoga workout so I felt like it was the perfect recovery workout.

Wednesday – 5 very slow recovery miles in the morning. My legs didn’t feel very tired/sore but I purposely kept the pace slow.

Thursday - Lunchtime Yoga again! This time it was very strength based which was exactly what I wanted. I had considered getting back into my strength routine but was not feeling motivated to push myself through a self-created workout. The structure of a group class was just what I needed.

Friday - 5 more slow miles in the morning. Pace was slightly faster but still slow.

Saturday - 5 more slow miles followed by P90X Ab Ripper. Again, slightly faster but still easy.

Sunday - 10 mile run. I felt pretty good on this run and noticed my pace getting faster throughout. By the end I was comfortably running high 8 min/miles.

Another Trip to Native Foods!

Recovering from a race is very important! Don’t ever push your pace too much or do anything you really don’t feel like doing during that first week. It’s better to err on the side of too little than too much. The last thing you want to do is create more damage on your muscles and extend your recovery time. Other ways to speed recovery are massage and foam rolling. A clean diet helps too!

This morning I had my first tempo run post race and I felt great! I really can tell that my recovery went as planned and now I am ready to dominate the next 10.5 weeks until Eugene!

What kind of workouts do you do the week after a race? Do you do anything else to help speed up recovery?

Ohhmmmmm

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Wheel – Increases Spine Flexibility & Strengthens Thighs and Upper Back

Since early December, I have been making it a routine to attend a lunchtime yoga class at my local gym. I’ve been incorporating yoga into my routine for a few years now but haven’t super been consistent about it since we did P90X. The main form of cross-training/strength training I did during Ironman training was yoga, mostly because it was convenient to pop in a P90X or P90X2 Yoga DVD and it also forced me to stretch for more than the 5 minutes (or sometimes zero) that I did post swim/bike/run.

Upward Dog – Stretches Quads and Hip Flexors

I have absolutely loved this addition to my training. Since I tend to run hard both days over the weekend with my long run being on Sunday, Monday would normally be a rest day or a very easy cross training day to encourage recovery. The perfect part about the class I take at my local gym is that it is not advanced and is very stretch and meditation focused. It is perfect for post-long run recovery and I’ve found it’s an absolutely great way to start my week. I’ve never really used yoga for its meditative or stress relieving qualities but I’ve found myself getting quite zen during my weekly sessions. Something about laying or sitting in a quiet room filled with strangers? Who knows…

Crane – Strengthens Abs and Arms & Stretches the Back

All runners can benefit from yoga. To get more specific, Runner’s World lists some awesome reasons to get your Ohm on (links below send you to a specific article on Runner’s World):

Relieves tight hamstrings
Can prevent/alleviate knee pain
Helps you bounce back from a long run
Speeds up recovery time
Strengthens muscles and prevents injury

I definitely notice a difference in my flexibility from the beginning of the class to the end. Sometimes my leg muscles are so tight on Mondays that I can barely touch my toes at the beginning of the class. By the end, I can put them flat on the ground. I also like the upper body sculpting that I get from my yoga class. I always add a push-up after upward dog (before transitioning to downward dog) during the flow sequences.

Yoga also helps keep me mentally fresh and excited to train. Now that I am only running and not swimming or biking each week, it is nice to have a different activity to look forward to once a week. In fact, this past week I ended up at yoga twice because I enjoy it so much (and had extra time since I’m not running as much post half marathon). Now that I’ve added my weekly strength training circuit, I feel like I am a more well-rounded runner and I’ve set myself up for injury prevention and long term health.

Yoga is available in so many forms. You can join a yoga specific studio (this will tend to be more advanced but they have beginner friendly classes too), take a class at your local gym (likely to be on the easier side), buy a yoga DVD, or just do some yoga moves on your own at home. There are yoga DVDs specifically for runners or athletes out there too. Sometimes running stores put on free or donation based yoga classes as well.

Do you practice yoga? If so, for what reasons?

Surf City Half Marathon Race Report

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The Surf City Half and Full Marathon is one of my favorite races. It is well organized, scenic, flat, and fun! It also helps that it is in my hometown so both times we’ve raced it, I get to see my family and friends.

Mike and I had both planned to run the full again this year, but if you are a regular reader you know that about a month ago I decided to switch to the half to save my full marathon effort for Eugene in April. Mike continued with his plan to run the full and I was excited for a big PR at the half. My PR going into this race was 1:51:53 at Long Beach in early October and I have seen significant improvements in my training since then.

photo (30)

Just like last year, the expo was efficient and awesome. The schwag was cool (reusable grocery bag and long sleeve tech shirt) and parking was easy and we were in and out in about twenty minutes. Just like last year before Surf City and Long Beach, we went to the ever trusty Macaroni Grill for dinner. Macaroni Grill has a “make your own pasta” menu item which means you can make a simple customized pasta for yourself. I couldn’t tell you if it’s vegan but that’s ok – the rosemary bread they serve is delicious.This time we ate not only with my mom but also my best friend from childhood Samantha, her husband and their adorable four month old son! As usual, I wrote my goal race time on the paper table cloth using the provided crayons.

We were finished with dinner with plenty of time to unwind and get in bed just after 9 p.m. with the alarm clock set for 4:45 a.m. Unfortunately that didn’t mean I was asleep at that time – I tossed and turned all night. Oh well, it’s not the sleep the night before the race that matters – so they say.

Unfortunately we didn’t time our morning out quite right and by the time we woke up, got dressed, ate our cereal breakfast, got in the car (after I thought I lost my phone and we searched for it for five minutes), grabbed our usual 7-11 coffee and got to the parking lot, we only had about 40 minutes to get Mike to the start line. Since we parked at the parking lot which requires a shuttle to get to the start (totally worth it because you avoid traffic), we had to wait for the shuttle and then wait patiently on the bus while it took us over to the start. By the time we got to the start line, Mike only had about 15 minutes to go until the start of the full marathon and he didn’t feel like he had time to use the rest room or really get a proper warm-up. He took off his sweats, kissed me goodbye and was on his way to the start to get into the correct corral.

Marathon Start

I watched the start of the marathon from the sidelines and went into the expo tent to find a nice piece of ground to sit down and relax for a bit before the start. It was really weird being alone before a race. I hadn’t had this experience since the first half marathon I ever did and I didn’t like it! After about 15 minutes of social media overload which caused me to forget to eat my banana, I waited in line for the bathroom, stripped my gear and checked my bag and then headed to the boardwalk for a 1/2 mile warm-up run. I laughed at my concern about what to wear for this race since I had expected it to be cold. Instead, it was already pretty warm at 7 AM and I didn’t even need my throw away pull-over or gloves.

After the run I continued to stretch in the now extremely long line for the bathroom. I wasn’t sure I had to go but wanted to be safe. Unfortunately the line was so long that I had to leave it with about 7 minutes to go until the start so I could make sure I started with the rest of the 2nd corral. On my way there I realized I forgot to eat my banana and decided to eat half a Gu. It had already been nearly three hours since I ate my small bowl of cereal.

As soon as I got to my corral I saw the 1:45 pacer. The website hadn’t indicated there would be a 1:45 pacer. My first instinct was to introduce myself and get ready to bust a move with these folks for the next 13.1 miles. But then, I held back. I knew I was supposed to run slower than race pace for the first 1-2 miles and I’d heard horror stories about pacers going out too fast or slow, etc. So I decided to not announce myself and play it by ear whether or not I followed them.

Happy at the Start

My decision kind of got made for me when we started walking/jogging toward the start line. The 1:45 pacers got ahead of me and then as soon as they hit the timing mat, started weaving through the crowd at what seemed like a very fast pace. I decided to let them go and catch them later.

The first mile felt good. I was glad that I warmed up. I knew I wasn’t going super fast but the crowd was congested and I didn’t want to spend a lot of time dodging people so I kind of went with the flow. My Garmin ticked off at basically the same time that I passed the Mile 1 marker indicating a 8:16 min/mile. A little slower than I had planned for that first mile, but not too far off. It was already very sunny and I laughed to myself because it ALWAYS seems to be sunny on race day, even if it’s in the middle of winter or during “June Gloom.” The 2nd mile went as planned – 8:08. Now it was time to pick it up.

My ultimate goal going into this race was to finish with a Garmin pace in the 7s. I wanted that 7:59 average. So knowing that I had just put down two miles in the low 8s, I needed to run pretty much exclusively sub 8s from here on out. One or two low 8s would be ok, but it needed to be a 7:5X most of the time. I picked it up yet at mile 3 I was greeted with a lovely 8:01 mile time on my Garmin. Argh.

The next mile included the half marathon’s only hill. Although I picked up the pace for the first part of this mile and was consistently in the 7:45ish range, the hill got me and I ended up clocking a 8:19 for that mile. Doubts started to creep in. Could I do this? What was going on!? I kept telling myself, Don’t give up – this is what those hard workouts were for. You can do it. The next mile included the downhill portion of the mile 4 hill and I was happy when my watch beeped 7:46 for that mile. Ok, no damage done, we’re back to where we were at mile 3, I thought as I averaged those two miles in my head to be just over 8 min/miles. Time to pick it up!!

That was kind of the theme of this race. I kept saying in my head, Ok time to pick it up!! Miles 6 and 7 were BOTH 8:01s. That pace seemed to be taunting me. I would look down at my watch while running and see the 7s and then the watch would click off an average pace of 8:01. Clearly I was looking at my watch when I was running fast and not when I was running slow. Around mile 6, I started to count down to the 10k to go mark (mile 6.9) I knew that I had recently run 6.2 miles as a training run at a 7:50 average so I was hopeful I could run the last 6.2 miles just a little slower than that pace.

I was using my hand held water bottle for the first time ever in a race and loving it. The only problem was that by mile 6.5 I had definitely drank more than half of it and I was thirsty for more. I didn’t want to risk losing time by refilling (although it would have been good practice for the full marathon). Once I hit that 10k to go mark, I tried to pick it up a bit but found my energy was waning a bit. Mile 8 was 7:59 – faster but not fast enough. Right after the mile 8 market I saw my mom who came out to cheer me on which gave me a boost. Right after that, I decided to take a cup from the aid station and drink some and pour the rest on my head because it was getting hot. I was starting to be thirsty and tired. I’d already taken two Gus and two electrolyte tablets yet that last kick wasn’t there.

Focus Focus Focus

Miles 9 and 10 were 8:02 and 8:03 respectively. My hope of the sub 1:45 started to fade. I knew that I’d have to do some serious work on this last 5k to do it. I had to make up a full minute based on the actual mile markers (I was about .08 behind them according to my Garmin) and that meant that I’d have to run 7:40 min/miles for each of the remaining 3 miles. I decided to go for it and sped up quite a bit (Garmin shows top speed 7:16), but at some point in this mile was what seemed to be a significant hill. The hill isn’t even big, but to me at this point in the race, it destroyed me. I slowed down going up it, telling myself I’d make up the time. Mile 11 ticked off at 8:25. Uffffff.

At this point, I just hoped to finish with a time that of 1:45:XX . I took the last half of that first Gu I opened before the start. My energy was waning. I felt like I was running 7:30 min/miles and I would look down and see 8:20. Not good. Mile 12 was 8:19. Argh!!! Not able to do math at this point, I just put the pedal to the medal for that last 1 mile, pushing it as hard as I could, yet still getting passed by others who had more energy left than me. Mile 13 was 8:06. I grabbed water at two aid stations during these miles and drank some and poured some on my head.

PR Face

I gave that final .1 (which for me was really .17 since the route you take during a race is always slightly longer than the course) all I had – 7:11 pace and crossed the finish line with a total time of 1:46:37.

I was disappointed, yes, but also proud that I achieved a 5 minute 16 second PR in less than 4 months. I was very happy that my average pace was faster than that I need to sustain to qualify for Boston (not by too much but at least it wasn’t slower!) and that I finished in the top 4.5% in my age group and top 8% of all finishers! And now I’m officially “local class” according to my 61.75% age/grade ranking! Watch out! Haha…

After the race I waited in the medical area with ice on my quads while I waited to for Mike to finish the full marathon. I didn’t really need the ice but I liked the idea of sitting on a chair with something cool on my legs. It was nearly 70 degrees by the time I finished and very sunny. A beautiful day!

ICE!

I can’t say there are a lot of lessons I learned from this race other than I need to have a solid 12 weeks of training to qualify for Boston at Eugene – I think I executed fairly well and I’m not sure what I could have really improved on race wise. I finished with a negative split, albeit not as negative as I would have liked. The warm weather certainly had a slight impact but I can’t blame that. I can definitely say that my pace was dictated by my cardiovascular fitness, not by my leg strength. My legs weren’t very tired or sore but my breathing was labored. More tempos and track workouts will fix that!

After the race we met up with two more of my high school friends and their husbands for a deliciously decadent breakfast (Mike and I split the s’mores french toast and breakfast burrito) and then we headed home to watch the Super Bowl with Mike’s sister and her boyfriend from the comfort of our own couch. It was a great day!

Fitness Fatale

Conquering Fitness Goals One at a Time