I decided to change up my planned run a little bit because I was feeling extra motivated this evening.  I decided to do a workout I have never tried: 1 mile warmup, 2 x 5k at HMP with 90 second active recovery between 5k’s, then 1 mile cool down.  It would have been a good idea, but once again, the running gods decided to play several jokes on me.

Around mile 2 of my first 5k, I realized there were several bad things going on.  One: I needed a longer warmup. I was hurting bad.  Two: it was really really cold outside and I was wearing a short-sleeved cotton shirt, shorts, and compression socks. I was planning on running indoors for some reason, but changed my mind and wanted to run on the outdoor track.  Luckily, or so I initially though, I had some Asics arm warmers in my car.  These things are incredible… if the windchill is not -20.  Ok, the windchill wasn’t that bad, but my choice of cotton t-shirt, which I almost never wear (what was I thinking?), lack of headgear, and the setting sun all worked in concert to conquer the awesome body temperature regulating capacity of the Asics arm warmers.  Third problem: my really old, but usually trusty Garmin between the hours of 7am and 4pm, has issues when the sun starts to go down. As such, I had to take my workout indoors after the first 5k.  This was fine, because I just used my jog into the Y as my active recovery.  This is where things got funkdafied… literally.

My second 5k and cool down coincided with Cardio Funk.  Now, let me preface this by saying that I am a fan of Cardio Funk, in theory.  These ladies, and a few men, really have it figured out.  What is more clever than dancing to fun music as exercise?  I have done it a couple times, most recently when I was 30 weeks pregnant.  It was not pretty, and I actually had to leave class early to go jog, because it is much harder to jump up and down, pop, lock, and shake your giant belly/booty when you are that pregnant than it is to jog around a track.  That was my last foray into Cardio Funk. So anyway, I truly enjoy watching 90 white women break it down to NeYo, Black Eyed Peas (who should now be banned from the Cardio Funk playlist after that Super Bowl Performance), and Beyonce.  It’s like watching one of those smash mobs on YouTube. Seriously, I am sure it is as amusing for me to watch as it was for people to watch my half white/half yellow self dancing at clubs in Atlanta when I was in law school.  I shudder when I replay those images in my mind, and that’s why I don’t dance anymore, unless it is at a wedding or Cardio Funk. Now, one of my issues with  Cardio Funk is that the volume in the gym is at least six times louder than it needs to be.  Maybe it is because some of the geriatric ladies who walk on the track in the morning are taking the class?  No, not possible, they are already in their pj’s having after-supper decaf coffees. I guess it’s because it wouldn’t be fun to dance to music playing at the same levels as the Muzak in your dentist’s office. The problem is that, because of the insanely high decibel at which “all the single ladies, all the single ladies” is blasting from the speakers, the teenagers strolling around the indoor track cannot hear me say “EXCUSE ME!!!” as I try to run by.

Which leads to the second issue I have with Cardio Funk.  Like the cold nor’easter causes thousands of birds to migrate south for the winter, Cardio Funk causes the kids playing basketball, who have been displaced from their gym, to meander up to the track and walk around it, dribbling their basketballs between lanes of the track.  These darn kids (insert voice of your grandfather here) are worse than the Justin Bieber fans because they have props, and they travel in packs! I can weave around a teenage girl talking on her iPhone, but if there were four of her and they were tossing their iPhones and Uggs around the track and I had to dodge those too, ugh.  Haha. These kids and their basketballs have virtually turned the indoor track into a steeplechase.  Next time, there will probably be puddles of Mountain Dew and hurdles of textbooks stacked up around the track.  Guess I better just be more prepared to run outside, or face my nemesis.

In spite of the funky obstacles I had to overcome, I finished my two 5k’s at 23:10 and 22:54.  That’s right- I ran faster indoors, with my anger fueling me.  Or perhaps it was because I could feel my legs, wasn’t running into a headwind, and I now always negative split.  Yep, I am becoming that good at pacing myself.  All in all, it was one of my most difficult workouts in a very long time.  Even tougher than my ladder runs.  Sustaining my goal half marathon pace for over 45 minutes was quite a challenge.  It reminded me of what I already know- I am sooooo not ready to run under a 1:37 right now!  But, it is crucial to get some race-specific endurance training in, and when you run pretty close to your target, it gives you confidence.  The overall mileage and long runs help build up your base endurance, but if you have a time goal, you need to teach your body how to run at the pace you want it to perform at on race day.  Eventually, I should be able to do increasingly longer training runs at goal race pace, but those workouts will be sparingly so that I don’t overly fatigue my body prior to the race.

Tomorrow, as planned, is a recovery day with some hill intervals at the end. One perk of doing speed work and tempo runs close to race pace is that your recovery jogs tend to get faster because your recovery pace feels a lot easier.  Anything that buys me more time to hang out with SuperBaby and SuperDad sounds good to me.  Speaking of which, SuperDad took SuperBaby grocery shopping after work today so that I could run without leaving her at the Y’s nursery.  I feel like a deadbeat mom sometimes for taking her to daycare all day and then taking her to the Y, which I only do once or twice a week actually.  It’s obviously important that she has a sane mother who is healthy (besides the Bojangles) and wants to instill good habits in her, but it’s equally as important for her to spend time with us.  I go see her at lunch almost every day, but if SuperDad didn’t pick up the slack in the after-school department, I would have to either run very early every morning, or go to work at 7 every day so I could run before picking her up from daycare.  Those are things I need to start mixing into my schedule, but for now, it’s nice to know she is getting to spend quality time with both of us and not just a bunch of very patient, very kind ladies who take great care of her at school and at the Y.

Yesterday I rested from blogging but not running.  I spent a lot of time napping but eventually got down to business and decided to go for my long run without my Garmin (luckily, I found it in my purse today, along with a baby sock and an overdue library book).  After hyperventilating for about a half hour and trying to figure out how I would run without it, I came to grips with the situation and mapped out 11.1 miles on mapmyrun. I made a note of the 1 mile marker, and took off, planning to do a 1 mile warmup then 10.1 miles around half marathon pace (7:30) plus 10%.  I brought Riley, the hot dog, along for the adventure.

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You wanna know why SuperDad is so super?  Because he plays video games until 3am (and I thought I was the half Asian one) and still will wake up at 8am to feed SuperBaby so I can go run and do Power Hour on a Saturday morning.  If the tables were turned, I probably would not stay up until 3am playing a video game, or any game for that matter, but regardless, there is no way I would get up after five hours of sleep just so my spouse could go run around in circles.  Then again, running keeps me sane and prevents my inevitable march towards obesity, so I guess he is benefiting.

This morning, I jogged four miles then did half of Power Hour.  I figured I should cut out early because today is my easy day, plus, SuperBaby and I were heading out of town to see my parents, and I wanted to have plenty of time for Bojangles and a nap.  One of my best friends, Brewer, took Power Hour and our other best friend (with the 4 ft long legs and insane body) taught class.  Before class, an older runner asked my about my BodyHelix sleeves and I gave a brief pitch, so hopefully he will buy a pair.  The sleeves came through again today, so I am definitely wearing them on my long run tomorrow.  During class, I once again realized how little upper body strength I have due to my focus on running.  That’s fine, because I have a tendency to build up upper body mass like a Greco Roman wrestler.  I skipped out on the jumping jacks because they exacerbate my shin splints.   Instead, I sprinted around the track.  That was my one modification for the day.  I have a rule that if you are not a newbie to Power Hour, you can have one modification per class.  Kevin always modifies the single-leg dead lifts.  I don’t know why, because they aren’t that difficult and are very effective at strengthening your hamstrings.  If you have never done them before, I highly recommend them.  They are one of my favorite exercises, probably because I have excellent balance and I am very good at them.  It actually is good to see Kevin skipping out on them, because I feel ever more superior.  Anyway, I always modify jump rope, because I have never been good at jump roping and obviously, because it makes my shins hurts more.  Some people modify pushups, and that’s understandable.  But single-leg dead lifts?  Come on.  Sorry Kevin, but you saw this one coming a mile away.

The rest of the day was devoted to sleeping, eating (one Cajun filet biscuit and two Bo Berry biscuits, thank you very much) and working.  The working part was not that fun but hey, I don’t get paid to write witty things about running, so I need to keep my day job going.  Tomorrow I am modifying my usual long run route of Southpark to Myers Park, because I am in Greensboro.  That will be a nice change of pace, provided there is enough sidewalk.  For some reason, sidewalks are a virtually endangered species here in the boro.  I will probably also need a deep tissue massage because I left my foam roller at home and my IT band is getting a little angry with me after yesterday’s workouts, so if anyone wants to set up a massage fund for me at Zen massage on East Blvd, I will gladly accept the handout.

Well, I did it.  I accomplished my first double workout since college I think.  And it wasn’t so bad.  Sure, I will be ready to crawl into bed after I finish off this glass of wine and episode of Top Chef, but my legs don’t hurt – yet.  I decided to avoid the indoor track because Jeremy Block thinks indoor track workouts are lame and because I wanted to avoid the teeny boppers (Lisa you understand my pain), and because it was pouring freezing rain, I had only one option… dun dun dun, the treadmill.  I gave the treadmill an obligatory swift kick, as I often do before I hop on it.  I literally hop on the treadmill, I don’t know why.  35 minutes later, I was done running and it wasn’t so bad.  Today was a good day, to say the least.  The ONLY good thing about the treadmill is that I don’t have to dodge and weave to get past anyone.  But of course, one of the many bad things, other than what I listed in previous posts, is that people go over the 30 minute time limit by quickly restarting the timer after the 30 minutes expires.  Um hello, do you think I didn’t notice that your speed just went from 6.0 to 0.0, your “time elapsed” now magically says “0:25,” and your shirt is drenched in sweat? I have actually said to someone “I know you have already gone for 30 minutes” and the response was “so has the person beside me.”  Seriously?  Luckily I did not have to deal with that today, or I probably would have just turned in my YMCA membership because of my outrage over the multiple breaches of track/treadmill etiquette.

Tonight, I wore my new BodyHelix calf sleeves in OmniSkyn.  I used a different material before and had a harder time running in them because they are a bit more restrictive and I am between sizes.  The OmniSkyn is great.  I did my run in the OmniSkyn sleeve tonight and really felt like my shins/calves were well supported.  I have no pain while running on the treadmill, which is a first.  See below, where I model my new Dexter t-shirt, some serious pit stains, and the BodyHelix.

As you can see, I am built more like a shotputter than a Shalane Flanagan

Tomorrow is a recovery run with a few Fartleks (brief intervals of faster paced running).  Sunday is my long run.  Let’s hope this weather clears up.  There is nothing fun about running 12 miles on an indoor track, or for that matter- 20- my personal record.

I am taking a much-deserved coffee break to provide you all with a brief look at how my past two days has gone.  I have a humongous knot in my right trapezius muscle that makes me look like Quasimodo… or so I think.  It led to a horrendous tension headache last night, so I wasn’t able to do my dreaded ladder workout.  Knowing that my readers demand more running and more intense running at that, I decided to push my ladder workout to this morning.  So I went to bed just after 9, skipping out on my reality tv and facebook fix, and when the alarm went off at 5:45, I was almost as chipper as I’d be after a twelve hour hibernation.  I think that SuperDad was astounded I actually rose when I pledged I would, as I have made morning workouts a goal on at least 79 occasions and have lived up to my goal perhaps 2% of the time.

As planned, I did the ladder workout.  I started out with an easy 2 mile jog (about 16 1/2 minutes) then proceeded to 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 2 min, 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 2 min, 1 min at 5k pace.  Afterwards, I finished with about a 1.5 mile jog, for a total of 7.5 miles.  The total time was just over 58 minutes, so I was pleased.  And it did not hurt nearly as bad as last week, probably because my body prohibited me from averaging faster than a 6:55 pace on the sprints at such an early time of day. 

I had some issues with the geriatrics on the track, as I typically do with teenagers wearing flourescent colored leggings and Uggs walking the track in the evenings.  Apparently, the older crowd come out in droves at the crack of dawn.  It’s like a bus loads them all up at Sharon Towers at 5:30 a.m. and they proceed to hobble around the indoor track for hours.  I guess it’s because the malls aren’t open yet.  I am not trying to alienate my octagenarian readership, but I get angry when I am attempting to raise my pulse above 60 and there is a wall of 85 year olds gabbing about what they had for supper at 4:30 the “night” before, traversing at a pace of no more than 2mph. There is a sign displayed in several places which says “walkers please use outside lane.”  Maybe the residents at Sharon Towers think it means “if you use a walker on this track, use the outside lane,” so they think they are allowed to use the inside lane because they have left their walkers behind with their rehab nurses.  I don’t know, but I try very hard to be polite and speak loudly, and no one listens.  So I spent a good deal of time weaving in and out, trying not to knock anyone over, because I applaud anyone who wants to exercise…  Although it might be amusing to hear a “help, I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!”

I plan on doing an easy 5 or 6 mile run tonight if the weather permits.  I don’t know if I can deal with the Justin Bieber fans walking the indoor track tonight, and we all know how I feel about the treadmill.

Running with a baby jogger really raises your perceived level of exertion

That’s me and Superbaby after the Turkey Trot here in Charlotte.  We beat out all the moms and their skinny babies in the baby jogger division, finishing an 8k in 36 minutes.  Some guy with triplets almost beat me though, so I guess I’m the pathetic one.  I wanted to hurl afterwards.  Needless to say, my perceived level of exertion was really high that day.  I ran 22 miles two days later and it felt like a cakewalk compared to the Turkey Trot.  If by cakewalk, you mean a walk that takes over 3 hours and enables you to eat several pieces of cake afterward because of the high caloric burn from the walk.

Perceived level of exertion is an interesting, fluctuating concept.  On Saturday, Erin and I ran about 4 miles before Power Hour.  Power Hour is a psychotic bootcamp-type class.  That is where we met, and where we met Griff.  One of my dear friends teaches Power Hour and she is a beast.  She has two kids but her body resembles that of someone who belongs on the cover of Shape magazine.  It’s just not fair. Anyway, Erin and I took off on that chilly morning setting out to run a leisurely 8:30/mile pace as a warmup for Power Hour.  We were huffing and puffing at mile two, barely holding 8:30.  We managed to eek out an 8:26 pace for the entire jog, but I definitely thought I would blackout 65 minutes later when we finished Power Hour.  My perceived level of exertion was very high on Saturday.  The next day, I did an easy two mile warmup then 10 miles at about an 8:20 pace.  It was tough, but actually a little easier than my run with Erin the prior day.  I know what you’re thinking: “That makes absolutely no sense.  You really need to get your Garmin checked.”  But that’s just how our wonderful human bodies work.

Tonight, as planned, I ran 6 miles then finished off with 10×10 sec hill sprints.  The pace for tonight’s run was supposed to be between a jog and a run.  My perceived level of exertion should have been around a 5 or 6, so that I could hold a conversation.  I think that’s what the PLE conversion is.  I figured that would put me around an 8:40.  Wrong.  I look down at my watch after mile 1- 8:09.  After mile 2- 8:07.  You get the picture.  Each mile was progressively a bit faster but I did not intend it to go that way.  Well, except when some girl got on the track and was trying to race me.  She wasn’t really racing me but that’s how I “perceived it,” pun intended, so I had to pick up the pace a bit.  But I didn’t sacrifice my goal, which was to keep my heart rate pretty low and my comfort level high.  My splits were 8:09, 8:07, 8:06, 8:04, 8:00, and 7:46.  As you can see, the girl racing me came in on my last mile.  Then I hopped on the treadmill, my single greatest non-human nemesis, for my hill sprints.  Don’t judge me; everyone has a human and non-human nemesis.  Or so I tell myself.  The treadmill is my nemesis for several reasons.  One: it is unforgiving and does not make my shin splints happy. Two: It takes a while to get up to the speed I want to run, which frustrates me because I don’t like seeing my elapsed time so high when my initial mileage is so low.  I dislike the inaccuracy.  Three: “they” say that treadmills help do the work for you, so you need to raise the incline and run faster than you regular pace to actually be running your regular pace.  This boggles the mind.  And most importantly: My perceived level of exertion is always ridiculously high on the treadmill.  I was just strolling along on my 6 mile run at what is the equivalent of about a 7.5 mph pace on the treadmill.  When I first started jogging on the treadmill, a 7.0 mph pace felt like I was running for my life like Michael Vick being chased down the street by some angry pitt bulls seeking vengeance.  And I only ran at that pace for about a minute before hiking up the incline to begin my hill sprints.  I ran my sprints at a 9.0 incline at a 9 mph pace.  Only 10 seconds each, with 20 seconds rest between each sprint. That may not sound like much, but it was the longest 100 seconds of my life.  Man, that workout better help, or I am going to be really mad.  It combined two things I despise- the treadmill and hills.

After my workout, my shins were screaming from the very brief time I spent on my nemesis (the non-human one).  I knew this would happen, and luckily it has not been happening as frequently because I have been avoiding the treadmill like the plague and trying to run more on the dirt-packed outdoor track at the YMCA.  I also credit my shin splint recovery to ice massage and Body Helix calf universal sleeves.  I am a huge proponent of compression.  I’m not exactly sure why, but I think I read somewhere about how compression is really good during your workout but most importantly, after your workout to aid in recovery.  It’s science.  When running outdoors in the winter, I use CW-X Pro Women’s tights in both the full length and 3/4 length. When it’s a bit warmer, or when I am running indoors, I often wear Zoot Active Compression socks.  Sure, I look like one of the Harlem Globetrotters or a woman headed to an adult rec league soccer game, but I feel good.  I have only been wearing BodyHelix for about a week.  I primarily wear the sleeve on my right leg, which is the one with the shin splints, after my run.  It feels amazing and I really believe it is aiding in the recovery process.  The next day, I have no pain whatsoever.  Tonight, I wore my BodyHelix for about 30 minutes after my run and now my leg feels great.  On Sunday, I wore it for an hour after my long run and same thing- no soreness.  BodyHelix makes a bunch of other compression sleeves for the knee, hamstring, and other body parts, so if/when I develop other problems, as is inevitable given my history, I will scoop up some more sleeves.  My IT band has flared up again too, but that’s one of the downsides of running in one direction on the indoor track.  I wonder how long it would take someone to approach me if I decided to randomly switch directions halfway through my run.  I am a pretty imposing figure out there in my pink shoes and knee-high socks, so I could probably get away with it.  If not, I will just continue to use my trusty foam roller.

I will focus a bit more on gear in a future post.  I could spend hours writing and talking about gear. Just ask Erin, or SuperDad, who found Amazon or RunningWarehouse packages on our doorstep for about 5 weeks straight before my last marathon.  In addition to my amazing natural ability to be a middle-of-the-pack runner, I credit my insightful gear purchases towards aiding my better running these last few months.  I hope that this training plan will help too.

Tomorrow, I am planning on doing one of my most hated workouts.  It’s a 2 mile warmup, then a ladder of 1 min, 2 min, 3, min, 2 min, 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 2 min, 1 min at 5k pace.  Finish up with a 2 mile cool down.  I estimate my 5k pace to be about 6:40/mile, solely based on my half marathon goal pace of 7:25.  I don’t really have a clue of my 5k time because I haven’t run a real sanctioned, organized 5k, complete with endorphins, in about 15 years.  Last week when I did this workout, I vowed I would never run a 5k again.  I am not equipped to run at that pace for longer than a minute.  But I somehow toughed it out, and hope that tomorrow is not as painful as last week.

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So, I decided to document my training plan for my next race in the hopes of a) sticking to the plan/holding myself accountable and b) helping others like me who want to get better at running but are too overwhelmed or lazy to read a book or join a running group. I am not really sure if this plan will work but I consider myself a fairly intelligent person. Well actually, I think I am extremely intelligent, as do all Duke graduates. Anyway, I am familiar with the basic tenets behind training for aerobic sports, so I figure the stuff I am doing should benefit me somehow. Plus, I know a guy training for an Ironman and his running workouts, which come from legit coaches, look a lot like mine. I swear, I didn’t steal them from him/them!

My basic running/athletic profile is better placed in this first post than the “About Me” section, because no one really cares about that section and my background is important to understanding why I felt compelled to blog about a 30-year-old mom who had the light bulb idea of actually devising a plan for becoming a faster runner. So here goes…

I ran a half dozen half marathons and a few less marathons from the age of 24-28, with PR’s of 1:36 and 3:37 respectively. Frankly though, there was nothing respectable about the way I trained for most of those “races” or dragged my lifeless carcass across the finish line. Although I was all too familiar with the term “negative split” from my days as a college swimmer and even crazier club swimmer in middle and high school, that term never played into my post collegiate running “strategy,” if you will. That 3:37 I mentioned above… well let’s just say, I went out in 1:40, so you can do the math. Brutal.

But getting back to the point of this blog. I wanted to stay active during my pregnancy so that I could indulge in… you got it, biscuits. Sure I could have used the “I’m eating for two” excuse but let’s face it- everyone knows you are eating for an 8 oz guava that doesn’t need those 800 calorie Bojangles biscuits. So I kept running. Yep, I was that crazy woman running (waddling) 3 miles around the track while 38 weeks pregnant. Shortly after giving birth, although I liked the idea of a tiny creature helping me burn calories eight times a day, I knew I would not have the energy to do anything other than have my body mold itself to the couch of I continued on with my diet of trail mix and virgin Egg Nog left over from the holidays. I did not have the time or will to drive to Bojangles. So I started easing my way back into jogging, then in August, started running with my friends Griff and Erin. I strong-armed them into signing up for their first marathons. We all had the goal of breaking 4 hours. Griff begrudgingly met us at 8am every Saturday (seriously though Griff, that’s really late in runner time) and we worked our way up to a 20 and 22 miler. I sprinkled in a very painful and hilly half marathon a month before the marathon, and finished in 1:42.59, nothing to scoff at when you were super pregnant at that time a year earlier.

When race day came, I felt better prepared than I had felt for any race in my life. I went out in a 1:53 and came back in 1:52- my first running negative split. Hallelujah! I crossed the finish line with a lot of blisters but no overwhelming urge to barf. A definite first time experience, or lack thereof. And thus, I was bit by the running bug again. I set my sights on running another marathon in just 14 weeks, and a half in about 10 weeks. I wanted to break 1:37 in the half for a PR and to gain automatic entry into to 2012 NYC Marathon. I don’t have the patience to deal with their lottery system, and I have called in far too many favors for charity runs in the past. I also wanted to qualify for Boston again (under 3:40) in March at the Shamrock Marathon. Oh silly girl, you really thought your body could handle a marathon, billing almost 180 hours, Christmas, New Years, SuperBaby’s first birthday, and running 50 miles a week? Wrong.

My training plan was derailed due to IT band problems almost as soon as I started. I have had to reevaluate and now, the plan is to do a half on March 20 in Wilmington (read: flat course). I still want to break 1:37 and think I can, provided I stick to the last six weeks of this plan.

Last week was a recovery week where I did 30 miles total with a 10 mile effort at goal race pace plus 10% to cap off the week. I also did some half marathon pace shorter runs and hill work, which you will see is a foundation of my plan. I have read that hill work is really all the strength work a runner (well, obviously not a sprinter) needs, as it really targets all the running-specific muscles. This prevents injury, and I think the hill work, along with my foam roller, Asian icy hot patches, compression gear, and massages (yesssss) have helped me recover from the IT band and subsequent shin splints beautifully.

This week, which has started off with a nasty stomach bug that has derailed my work goals and first workout of the week, is targeted for 36-38 miles. Instead of my 6 miles recovery followed by 10×10 second hill sprints, I could only muster 3 walk/jog miles with our dog pack. So tomorrow I will do the 6 miles plus sprints, and just count today as an of day. You will see that I take one to two rest days per week. Sometimes a rest day consists of a 3-4 mile jog, sometimes it is no activity at all. I just listen to my body, but not too much, because it’s usually begging for a nap, hot bath, and at least three chicken biscuits a week!