Frericks 5k & Parents Weekend

This weekend was Parents Weekend at Univeristy of Dayton, which I think is actually now called "Family Weekend." Conveniently, most of my best friends from UD have a younger sibling there still or live in Dayton/Cincinnati.

My mom and I weren't able to leave until after work on Friday, so we went straight to the hotel to bed. But Saturday morning we were ready to go for a day of fun. First on the schedule was the Frericks 5k around campus.

I knew it wasn't going to be a super competitive race because it tends to be a lot of the parents and younger siblings that walk the race, but also a decent number of runners too. I did a short warm-up around the Ghetto and lined up at the front, where I noticed there were no other girls except for a tiny 13 year old. She looked fierce and ready to race.

The horn sounded and off we went. I had a strong start but almost immediately felt like I was straight-up sprinting and obviously couldn't hold that for 3 miles. Erin and her sister Elise were standing near Marycrest, only about 3-4 minutes into the race and as I passed them I said "this already blows." As I kept going, I felt a little better and came through the 1 mile mark in 6:47. I was nervous for the 2nd mile because I knew it included Stuart Hill, the longest hill on campus.

"If a hill has its own name, then it is a probably a pretty tough hill."

Getting up the hill wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but it was still rough. I was just looking forward to the downhill, and I passed 2 people on my way down (both guys, just the one 13 year old girl was ahead of me and she wasn't even in sight any more). I don't remember exactly what my split was for mile 2 but I do remember thinking I was still on basically the same pace, around 6:50.

The third mile was also difficult and by this point I knew I wasn't going to catch the girl ahead of me and I could tell when we kind of zig-zagged through KU Field that there were no other girls anywhere near behind me. I saw Erin and Elise again and was feeling better than when I saw then at the beginning, but I was also ready for the race to be over. I had no idea where the race ended bit just tried to keep pace. Then I finally saw the 3 mile mark and the finish and kicked in with what I had left. I finished in 21:20, averaging 6:52 pace so I was happy I stayed very consistent the whole time.  And I won a UD sweatshirt :)

After the 5k we went straight to the football stadium for tailgating. Dayton's football team isn't anything special - except for the few years this kicker graced the field.

Tailgating for the football game was a lot of fun!  All the parents made delicious food.  Mom made these brownies and a turkey appetizer.  Erin's parents brought Chic-Fil-A chicken which was also amazing.

I wasn't really drinking much because of marathon training, but I did join in on a few beer games!  I miss college.  And all these people.  It was so so warm out and I was beat, so mom and I went back to the hotel for a nap.  But then it was back to campus for dinner at Milano's with Patrick and Erin.

After dinner, I went to Grace's brother's house to meet up with all of my friends again to watch the OSU game.  We had a great time just hanging out, watching the game, and chatting.  It's so rare now (except for weddings) that we are all able to get together so it was really special  :)

We're all best friends.

Weekend Running and a Video Chat

First of all, I'll tell you about my runs the last few days, and then some other random fun things I have to share.

I ran again on Friday evening, but only 3 miles because my legs still felt really weird, like during Wednesday's workout. I don't really know how to describe the way they have been feeling, but they are very tight and just don't feel "right." I am going to try getting back into running in the mornings and hope that will help a little.

Today's run was supposed to be 18 miles, but I cut it a little short.  Actually a lot short. I went to the Elk Grove Forest Preserve and Mac was supposed to meet me there, but he overslept. I debated going back home and then doing the run on streets instead of the trail and to get my iPod, but decided to stay there and get it done. The loop is 7.7 miles and then there is another trail that shoots off and is 2 miles. So I started the loop and then when I was at about 27 minutes, I split off onto the other trail and did the 2 miles out and then back. So then I was at almost an hour (I didn't have my Garmin but I used the trail markers to time a few of my miles and they were all pretty much exactly 8 minute pace.) I continued running the loop, but after a little longer I knew I wasn't going to be able to force myself to do another loop. So at 1 hour and 20 minutes, I stopped and walked the rest of the way back.

I was a little disappointed in myself, but I guess it has just been an off week. My legs did feel better this morning though. I have 4 weeks left before I have to taper, so I figure I can get in an 18-20 mile run each of the next 2 weekends, then a step back week, then another 20 mile run.

But now for something fun, this was the highlight of my weekend:

A Google Hangout with some of my very best friends!! We were all group texting during the day and apparently very few of us had plans on a Saturday night, so why not do a video power hour with each other? My excuse for staying in was legit though since I had to do a long run in the morning, so I also couldn't actually participate in the power hour, but it was still a boatload of fun. It has been determined that this needs to happen once a week.  I really miss this group.  And because they expressed interest in me writing about this/being in pictures, this is one of my favorite picture of some of us:

Another person who really loves this blog and being in pictures My dad. Remember when he wanted lots of pictures of him? This weekend, he shot an 81 at his golf league.  He was hoping for a 78, but I think he was still happy with it.  He would love if I gave you all an analysis of his game and which holes he pared, etc., but I don't remember.  He did give me a few good ideas for future posts though, so I'll get those in soon enough. And to be fair, my mom did a 10 mile bike ride this morning.  Unfortunately, we did not coordinate her bike ride with my run, but maybe we can for another long run.

Do you ever video chat with your friends that live far away?

Why I Love UD

A few weeks ago I posted about one of my two favorite places in the whole wide world.  Well, my other favorite place is the University of Dayton.  All the recent Facebook posts about students moving back to campus or their younger siblings moving to campus makes me wish I could go back (for college again, not just to visit...visits are nice too though).  Today is the first day of classes, so what better day to post about UD?!  I'm really not sure I can convey all of the awesomeness in just this blog post, but I'll do my best to give the highlights.  :)

- Community! - How could I not start with the cliche reason everyone loves UD?  I don't even know how to describe it, but it's there.  One of the things I remember hearing in one of the videos shown at an event about the community is how EVERYONE holds doors opens for people behind them, no matter what or how far behind you that person is.  I realized that was so true around campus.  Everyone is so friendly and kind to each other, in little and big ways.  Even now in real life when someone doesn't hold a door for me, I automatically think "that person definitely did not go to UD."

- Friends! - Some of my very best friends are the ones I made while at UD. We have the best memories ever and will continue to for years to come :) (after we force all our own kids to go to UD so that we have an extra excuse to go back all the time)

- Basketball! - The UD Arena is consistently ranked as one of the best arenas in college basketball with the best fans. Basketball is also a great excuse to go back to campus.  This past winter, my friends and I went back for the game against Xavier.   We will have to figure out a different game to go back for this year though due to all of the conference re-alignment business going on.  Also, the Dayton Flyers fight song is awesome.  And I really like the fact that it's not one of the super big, popular schools that everyone has a t-shirt from.  So if I see someone walking around Chicago (or anywhere) with a UD t-shirt or driving with a UD sticker on their car, I know they almost surely went there (or have kids that do/did).  There is even a bar in Chicago with UD affiliation to go watch the basketball games at with other fans!  (This photo below was taken at Milano's at UD though)

- Tim's! - Most UD students either love Tim's to no end, or hate it and usually refuse to go. It's one of the dirtiest most college-like bars out there I'm sure.  I'm on the love end of the spectrum.  I really like to dance (not well, but everyone there is too drunk to notice anyways) and Tim's facilitates my love for dancing.  There are never good pictures taken at Tim's because nobody is capable of decent pictures by that time, so this is me and one of my favorite people to go to Tim's with, Brigitte - a Tim's VIP.

- Dining Halls! - UD had some pretty great dining halls. I don't have much else to compare them to though except the few times I visited ND (also great dining halls).  The fact that I could eat whatever I wanted and not gain a pound was pretty great too. If I went back to that lifestyle, I would gain at least 50 pounds in a week. Through my sophomore year, VWK was all-you-can eat and despite being in my picky eating stage still, I ate as much grilled cheese and pasta as I could.  Pita pizzas from KU, ice cream from The Galley, and chicken tender wraps from VWK and Marycrest were all my favorites.  I think I ate the exact same thing for lunch every day freshman year at the Empo - a turkey sandwich and a Crunch bar. The dining halls were also a great place to just sit with friends for awhile and chat and people watch.

- Ghetto! - I guess this goes back up to the part about the community.  For anyone who isn't familiar with UD, juniors and seniors (and 5th years) can live in the student neighborhood lovingly referred to as the Ghetto. Some of the houses even have their own names. When the weather is nice, everyone is outside on the porch or in the yard. Sometimes you can bring your couch in the yard...

- Dayton 2 Daytona! - This is the greatest vacation ever created...for college students; nobody else would survive this. It is also the unhealthiest trip ever created. There really isn't any other way to spin this besides a very cheap vacation with all UD students drinking all day long at the pool, beach, and the local hotspots for 6 days. I went 2 years and as much fun as it was, my body would not be able to handle something like that ever again.

The UDXC Team! -Probably the best group of girls ever.  I only competed on the team my senior year, but it made the year so enjoyable and I became friends with the best people!  Actually I was friends with the majority of them before senior year, but then running together every day brought us even closer.  I think it was during my training to try out for the team and then competing with the team that has made me realize my potential as a runner.

There's so much more I could say about UD and stories I could tell, but those are the parts that are most memorable to me.  Obviously, it's the people that make it so memorable, not just the place.  Oh, and I learned a lot and got a couple degrees.  That part is important too!

I'd like to especially wish a happy first day of classes to my brother Kyle and to the siblings of some of my best friends.  It's a family school.  GO FLYERS!!

UD Friends - Why do YOU love UD??

Why do you love YOUR school?

Halfway Through August

Since we are halfway through August, I thought I'd give another little graphical analysis of my training mileage.  See my end of July post for my first Excel analysis.

Here's a graph showing mileage for May through 8/15 this year and in 2010.

I know it's not always good to compare myself to the shape I was in previously, especially 3 whole years ago, but I figure that is at least a good baseline.  I don't know how to show the quality of miles in an Excel graph, but I know it's been better this year than in 2010, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  I've been glad to actually get in some speed training this summer!  Here's a picture from the UDXC camping trip in August of 2010.  We were playing freeze dance :)

As far as August mileage, I'm at about 62 miles for half of the month.  This included more days than planned as off days last week, so I'm hoping the 2nd half of this month and the first half of September will really be much higher mileage with less days off per week!  I think I should be able to get close to 150 for the month which I'd be happy with.

Another way I can tell that I am in much better shape is how I felt after my runs Wednesday and yesterday.  I did 5 miles Wednesday at a more tempo-ish pace and felt surprisingly good and strong during it.  Yesterday morning, I woke up and did 2 miles easy and then some foam rolling before starting my morning.  I did this because I knew I would be a little sore from the faster run and thought it'd be a good way to just get stretched out in the morning, especially because it was a little cooler outside.

Then in the evening, I did 5 miles normal and felt awesome.  I didn't bring a watch with me because I didn't want to worry about my pace, but if I had to guess I would think I was going 7:45-8:00 pace.  When I finished, I felt happy with the fact that I felt like it was a great normal run without worrying about pace, just listening to my music, and running finally didn't feel like a chore that I just had to get done.  It's been feeling like that a lot recently because I just can never seem to really feel good while running, but last night was different.

And here's a picture from earlier this week when my mom and I went out for sushi.  I had just gotten my hair cut and dyed a wee bit blonder.

How is your August going?

Do you ever feel like working out is just a chore instead of fun?

Mile Repeats. Classic.

I think mile repeats are one of the most classic distance running workouts out there. I'd say they are most common to do on a track, but that isn't always available or is just boring sometimes. In grade school, we used to do the mile repeats around the school and church. In high school, we would do them on the track during track season, but around the school grounds on grass during cross country season. And in college, we usually did the mile repeats at various parks in the area to train for cross country.

My most memorable mile repeat workout was during the summer before senior year of college when I ran with Emily at Sugarcreek Park near Dayton. It's an awesome park to run at and has a few different trails. The one we usually did is a tough, hilly 3.1 mile loop. But we also had a 1 mile loop that was on a dirt trail and fairly flat with the exception of one smaller-ish hill near the end. Emily and I met a few times there that summer, including probably 2 or 3 times for mile repeats (they were on our training plan almost every weekend - Monday fun!). But there was one workout specifically that I remember just went plain awesome for both of us. We felt great and were hitting our times as planned. Naturally I just went back to my running log to see what my times were - 6:34, 6:23, 6:28, and 6:29. This was on 8/3/2009. I was pumped because I had done the same workout on the same loop 2 weeks prior with times closer to 6:50.

But that's enough nostalgia for now, because here's what's happening in August of 2013. Mac and I met to do a mile repeat workout last night. My goal was to do them under 7 minutes. He was shooting for under 6.

We ran from my apartment to the lake and then a little more down the path to get in a warm up of about 2 miles. Apparently there are mile markers along the lakefront path but I've never even seen them and we couldn't find one to start at so we improvised. Since Mac was going to be faster, he took the Garmin. We started each one together and when he got to 1 mile, he stopped and then I finished running until I got to him. In between each, we took a 5 minute break of walking, stretching, and getting water.

We were both very pleased with our times! I did my 3 mile repeats in 6:45, 6:40, and 6:38. I was really happy that I got faster on each one instead of slowing down like I have a tendency to do. I really thought that second one was going to be over 7 minutes because I felt like I was crawling so I was pleasantly surprised when I ended up faster. It was also kind of cool not knowing exactly how far into it I was, although I found myself looking at my watch and counting down approximately how long I had left. Mac had an awesome workout too. He did 4 mile repeats and got faster each one, ending around 5:40.

After we finished the workout, we just walked back to my apartment. I'd guess total mileage was 6 miles. (I did a mile cool down while Mac did his 4th mile repeat.) We also ran into Steph and Danny heading out for an evening walk along the lake since it was such a nice night!

I didn't have my phone or iPod with me so I didn't take any actual pictures during our run and just had to use one of my stock photos of the lake/city. This one was taken last Saturday afternoon on a walk. I was thinking last night that I wish I had a camera because we basically had this view of the city, but it was dusk so the sky looked pretty and the city was all lit up already.

Have you done any workouts that specifically stick out in your mind?