An Unplanned 2-A-Day

As you are probably well aware, Chicago has been the victim of feet upon feet of snow.  And then magically, it got warmer yesterday.  Ok so it's not magic, it's science.  But for the sake of the story, let's call it magic because it seemed as if warmth would never come our way.  But alas, the warmth came and the snow melted.  But wait, it gets better.  Then it rained ALL day.

Despite the wet conditions, I still thought I would try to run outside yesterday morning.  I couldn't not take advantage of the first time temperatures were above freezing in as long as I can remember.  So I put on my fave long spandex, a long sleeve, and a short sleeve and headed on my way.  I didn't even bring my iPod because I thought I would just enjoy the pure fact that I was not on a treadmill.  Well, that and although it wasn't raining when I left, I was worried I would get rained on and I didn't want my iPod to get wet.  The poor thing has it hard enough dealing with my sweat.

I expected some puddles, but this was so much more.  I had to either run through small lakes or figure out ways to get around them - which often meant going into the street and weaving around parked cars, etc.  And some parts were slippery because temperatures were getting closer to freezing and causing all the water to turn to ice (more science).  So basically, I felt like I was not getting in a good workout and it was not worth it to keep trying to get through all the water and ice so I decided to call it quits at 2.3 miles.  I had the Garmin and I believe my miles were 8:07 and 8:3x (don't remember exactly).

Fast forward to the evening and I was back at the running again.  I wasn't satisfied with the short morning run since I took Wednesday completely off.  I had no real plan when I went to the gym in the evening, but soon decided I would do a tempo run.  It wasn't a long tempo, but still a tempo.  It went like this:

2 miles warm-up between 8:34 and 8:00 (7.0 - 7.5)

1 mile @ 7:19 (8.2)

1 mile @ 7:13 (8.3)

.5 miles @ 8:00

 

Total - 4.5 miles in 34:45

 

I'm happy with how I felt although I know I need to be doing longer tempos...or at least a long warm-up/cool-down to up the mileage.  But for now, I am really happy with it.

 

I think what I hate most about treadmill running (especially today) is how sweaty I get.  I like that the YMCA has huge fans, so I actually am cold when I enter the area wearing only my shorts and tank, but once I get going I can't control the sweat.  What I don't like about the Y is that they charge you for a towel and I always forget to bring my own!  But even when I do have a towel, it sucks having to wipe your face every few minutes (or more often).  I guess when I'm outside I don't think about it as much.  But when I'm running on a treadmill staring at myself in the mirror the entire time, there isn't much else on my mind except wishing I could stop and clean my face with soap and water.  (Not soup and water as I almost just typed, that would be gross...)

 

So now that I've most recently left you visions of either my sweaty face or washing your face with soup... let's get something happy and fun in here.  It is Friday after all!  But not just any Friday.  It's my dad's birthday!!!  This is a photo from his 31st birthday:

 

 

That beautiful, red-haired baby in his arms is me, along with some of my cousins.

 

And a more current picture of us:

 

My how hair colors can change.  Dad is on his way to Vegas right now for his birthday :)  I hope he'll come back with a present for me.

Do you ever do a 2nd run/workout in the evening if your morning run doesn't go as planned?

Have you been to Vegas?  What was your favorite part?

Tempo Runs & Twitter

Yesterday, I read this article about tempo runs and ironically, I ended up doing a tempo run last night, which was not originally planned.

Mac and I were going to do mile repeats, but decided on just a normal run instead.  I thought a normal run would be good instead of a hard workout since we are racing on Sunday and I want fresh legs for that.  Well...normal/marathon pace for Mac = tempo run for Colleen.

I don't know all the actual splits on this because I was not in charge of the Garmin.  I think the first 2 miles were about 7:30 and then we picked it up for a few to 7 minute pace and then the last mile was back down to about 7:30 again.  I had my watch at 48 minutes and mapped it out online to 7 miles, so if that is all correct (or even if it's a bit off), that was a really fast run for me!  We did stop in the middle for a bit to stretch, etc. but that is quite alright and I needed that break.

So after I read that article on tempo runs, I started freaking out that there are only 5 and a half weeks left until the Chicago Marathon and that I haven't gotten in enough "quality" workouts or "marathon-specific" workouts.  I decided I really need to build in some tempo-paced runs.  With only about 3 weeks left before I have to taper, I wanted to know what workouts I should try to get in.  So I did the logical thing and emailed Catherine.  Subject line: important running question.

First of all, I realize this article is from 2007, but I doubt running philosophy changes that drastically (even though I do think running has gotten way more popular in the past couple years and more and more research has been done).  I just stumbled upon it yesterday because the Columbus Marathon tweeted it, so I read it.  They tweet lots of good articles.  You know who else tweets awesome stuff?  I do.  So you should follow me @CSmith_Run.  While you're at it, also follow @PJSmith9.  He tweets good stuff too (and he knows it).  Some examples:

Anyways though, Catherine and I are pretty comparable in pace and she has trained for a few marathons and knows what workouts are good.  So I trust her.  I asked what pace she does for tempo runs and if she has any good workout suggestions.  She usually does tempo runs around 7:20-7:30 pace, so that was consistent with what I was assuming.  The article says tempo pace should be 30-40 seconds per mile slower than your current 5k race pace.  I did a 4th of July 5k averaging 6:55 pace and I think I would be even a little faster than that now.  So the 7:20-7:30 tempo pace sounds pretty reasonable and manageable.

The article also said a good indication of tempo pace is the "talk test."  A simple question or answer should be possible, but conversation should not.  This was definitely true on our run last night...my sentences were pretty broken up in between gasps for air.  And then Mac got too fast for me so I was about 10 feet behind for a bit.  Conversation is not possible that way either.  I guess that means I need to get faster.

Catherine suggested a workout of 2 x 3 miles at tempo pace.  I think that would be a workout that would be very beneficial.  The article from Runner's World suggests a tempo workout of 2 x 5 or 6 miles at tempo pace, but with the warm-up and cool-down, that would essentially be a long run with tempo portions.  A workout that Mac has on the schedule in a week or two is 3 x 5k, which would also be at a "tempo" effort.  So I think I will aim to do that when he does and then make one of my two remaining 20 mile runs into a tempo workout/long run.  Two workouts in one!

Who is your favorite person to follow on Twitter?

Any good tempo workout suggestions?

What Should I Do This Weekend?

Here's a quick summary of my workouts last week:

Monday - 6.3 miles tempo-ish run
Tuesday - 5.6 miles normal (included in the same post as Monday's run)
Wednesday - 19.25 miles !!
Thursday - REST
Friday - REST
Saturday - 4 miles normal w/ Angela and Olivia in northern Michigan - also, some paddleboarding = arm workout
Sunday - cross train - 12 miles biking, leisurely on a tandem bike

Even though I didn't get a run in on Friday as planned, I'm still really happy with the runs I did this past week and glad to have gotten my mileage up (both long run mileage and total weekly mileage which was about 35 miles).  I would still like to get that weekly mileage up a little more over the next 3-4 weeks before I taper.  But I say that every week.

I haven't decided yet what I want to do this weekend.  I might go to Madison, WI to watch the Ironman Wisconsin and in that case I would probably shoot for a 20 mile long run on Saturday.  But after all the driving this past weekend, a day trip to Michigan planned for the following weekend, and then UD Parents Weekend at the end of September, I think a weekend without traveling will be nice.  So if I stay here in Chicago this weekend, I can do a half marathon on Sunday or do a long run either day.  Here's my plan for Monday through Friday at least.  Obviously Monday already happened, so I just put in what I already did.

Monday - hill workout ~4.5 miles
Tuesday - 10-12 miles
Wednesday -6 miles
Thursday - Speed Workout - Mile Repeats
Friday - 5 miles

And now it's September!  As far as August running mileage, I ended up with 140 miles. If you've read some of my other posts, you know that I am comparing these couple months of marathon training to how I did during 2010 when I was training for the Columbus Marathon. In August of that year, I ran 145 miles, so I'm pretty much at exactly the same.  I was hoping to be significantly higher for the August mileage, but the beginning of the month was pretty low-mileage.

September should be a big increase over 2010 because I only had 98 miles that month. I want to shoot for close to 200 miles this September.

I decided I needed another picture and thought I'd include another one from the lake weekend, but then I thought - why not find a picture from last September?  My soul was sold away to the public accounting world for most of the month, but then I got to go to Nashville to celebrate Grace's Bachelorette party!!  Are you aware that according to whatever spell check system this blogging software uses, bachelorette is not a word?  It wants to correct it to bachelor.  That is weird.  And now I just typed it in Microsoft Word and it is a word there.  Google Blogger must not think that girls have fun too.

What are you planning to do this week?  Or this weekend?

Have you ever been to Nashville? 

At Dusk and Dawn, I Was Running

I've stuck to the first 2 days of this week's plan already!!  Woohoo!  Way to go, Colleen.  I have to give myself some positive reinforcement here.

So, yesterday evening I did a tempo run.  I didn't start until about 7pm because I met Erin for fro yo right after work.  It was a good pre-run snack and we sat and chatted for awhile, but I knew I couldn't put this workout off any longer.  My plan was to do 1 mile warm-up, 4 miles tempo, 1 mile cool-down.  Here are my splits:

8:19, 6:56, 6:57, 7:46, 7:36, 7:54, and 2:27 for the last .3 miles

After the first 2 miles of the tempo, I couldn't keep it up in the heat/humidity and decided to step it back a little, but still push a decent pace.  Even though I couldn't hold onto the pace for as long as I wanted, I was still happy with this run.  My average pace was 7:37...which is goal marathon pace.  It's a goal that I know is a little bit aggressive, but that I would like to achieve.  I did stop probably every mile-ish for a quick water fountain break.  The last stop included a little photo opportunity:

And I had to take a selfie to show you how darn sweaty I was.  I think the camera was kinda sweaty too..

You know you all love taking selfies too.  I sure do.  Even though I don't think I'm the most photogenic person, I love having my picture taken and being in pictures.  This is why I really love Snapchat.

Fast forward less than 10 short hours after that tempo run and it was time to run again!  I don't like that it is dark out when I have to get up to run now.  But I managed to get out of bed and hit the road for a 6 mile run.  I ended up running for 45 minutes, so I decided I'll call it about 5.6 miles - not entirely sure since I didn't have the Garmin, but I figure I was probably going a normal 8 minute pace.

Again, it was VERY humid even though it was like 6am.  I was again drenched in sweat, and this time my shirt paid the price.  I was wearing a pink sports bra (a new-ish one from American Eagle's new workout line that I decided to try because I heard it was dece) and a lime green Under Armour tank.  Apparently, the pink dye bled onto the green shirt.  I must've looked like I was bleeding or something...

I sure hope that comes out... I think I had only worn that sports bra without a shirt before, so I'll have to stick to that.  It will be a summer-only sports bra.

Even though I did the running part of my training plan for the week, I failed on doing any core work yesterday or today (yet, but it probably won't happen tonight).  When I got home from the run last night, I needed to get in the shower ASAP.  I couldn't handle the sweat.  And then this morning I obviously left the exact perfect amount of time to run and then get ready for work.  Perhaps I'll try getting up slightly early to get in the core work, which means more and more of my run in the dark.  Wooo for winter coming!...NOT.

Besides the usual wear and tear, have you ever had clothes ruined by running?

Are you sticking to your workout plan so far this week?

2 Months Til the Chicago Marathon!

Alright, so yesterday was the 2 months til the marathon mark.  I really haven't been getting in as high of mileage that I had wanted to over the past couple weeks, but I still have about 6-7 weeks left before I need to taper down.  And I have been happy with the long run mileage that I have done.

During my training for the Columbus Marathon in 2010, I did a 16 mile run actually on this very date.  Then, 2 weeks later I jumped up to a 19.5 mile run on the last weekend in August.  So as of now in this cycle of marathon training, I've already done 3 15 or 16 mile runs which I'm happy with.  And then can hopefully get in at least 3 of 18-20 before the end of September which I think should be doable.  I have also been doing at least a few more miles per week than I did that year and have gotten in some quality speed work already, which I never did while training for Columbus.

 

 I really don't like that picture of me, but it's the only one I have from the Columbus Marathon.  I'm jealous of people that look flawless during/after running.  I was number 217!!  I can explain that significance in another post I am planning.

In other news: One of my very best college friends and roommate and teammate and Columbus Marathon training partner, Alex, is ENGAGED!!  Alex is running the Columbus Marathon again this year and hopes to break 3 hours because she is that awesome!  We had a great time while we were training for the Columbus Marathon in 2010 as roommates - as I look back at my running log from that year, almost every entry starts with "ran with Alex today..."  I miss that!

In similar news: My cousin Jennifer has set her wedding date!!  Jennifer is the eldest Smith cousin and the first of us to get married.  We are all just a little excited for this!

Good looking family right there I tell ya.  Loads of fun, too.

This evening I ran 5.15 miles in 38 minutes - 7:23 pace.  I had no intention of running that fast.  I just went out for a what was supposed to be a normal pace run and when I got to where I knew was 2 miles away, I was at 14:55 so I knew I was going fast.  So I decided to just keep it up at that pace and finish the 5+ mile route I had planned.  I felt so strong, I think because I am still so sore from the weekend at the lake.  I could feel every muscle in my upper body working hard...and my legs too obviously, but those aren't quite as sore as my arms, shoulders, and back.


I also did the 7 minute workout again right before I ran tonight.  My cousin Joe told us about it over the weekend, and then a group of all the girls did it together (twice) on Monday morning to start our day of activity.  So  here's a link to the 7 minute workout timer, which tells you which exercise to do and counts down the time for each exercise and the transition time in between each.  And here's a link explaining the science behind it.  I think doing it just once was pretty easy, so doing it 2 or 3 times would probably be more worth it.  Or maybe increasing the time of each exercise from 30 to 45 seconds, or something like that to make it a little more intense.

And because my dad wants to be in more pictures on my blog, here are a few more from the lake with him:

(I like making faces when Mom takes my picture.)

(Boys table at dinner Saturday night)

(Mom and Dad on the dock - cloudy day :/ )

(Dad and Uncle Joe on the wave runner)

Do you have any good short/high intensity workouts that you like?

Do you like being in pictures? - I sure do, but I can do without the ones of me after running...

4 on the 4th

Happy 4th of July! Today was the Elmhurst 4 on the 4th race. Mom came to watch and Catherine and Matt came to run as well, as did my new running friend Mac. This race was a FAST field. Elmhurst is definitely a running town.

Catherine and I finished in just at 29 minutes averaging 7:14 pace. We stayed pretty steady at that pace each mile. Both of us were really skeptical with racing all out today because she just did a hard track workout on Tuesday and leg weights with her trainer and I hadn't ran since Monday and was not feeling mentally ready for a race. We ran the whole way together and made it a great tempo run. Both of us agreed that we would not have been able to give that hard of an effort if we were on our own so I'm glad we had each other there!

Next year we need to dress more festive like we do for Thanksgiving. Matt had a good race too! He was the one who was able to confirm for us that there was indeed a fast field up at the front since he was much closer to that action. Catherine and I even recognized our track coach from freshman year of high school who we have not seen since. Another positive was that the race was well organized and there were good snacks/drinks afterwards which is always a determining factor in how good a race is, just like how quickly free bread or water appears on your table determines how good a restaurant is. I don't like waiting for my bread and water.

So now since I titled this 4 on the 4th for the race, I here are 4 random thoughts I've had today:

1) Freeze pops are an amazing summer treat, especially after running. Catherine and I did a summer running camp in high school and they always had a cooler of freeze pops when we finished. And then I got one at the parade today and remembered how great they are...except for the fact that they drip blue onto my nice white shorts.

2) Catherine gave me a great idea for marathon outfit ideas for Angela and I to wear in the Chicago Marathon. I cannot reveal that yet though until this plan is fully realized.

3) I want a pool in my backyard when I have a house.

4) I wish my cousin Katie would come home from St. Louis because being at their pool isn't the same without her.

And here's my Bailey being festive:

What is your favorite post-race free snack?

Working Out @ Work

I'd much rather run outside than on the treadmill, especially when the weather is decent like today.  But I had a tempo run planned and I don't really trust myself to know proper pacing/distance when I'm running outside by myself.  I'll give it a whirl next week though to test out how I do.  Today I couldn't seem to get up early because I didn't sleep well last night and work is really slow right now, so I figured I could take a longer lunch break and use the work gym to get this tempo run done.

I'm pretty sure no matter how hard you try, if you have to pack a bag to work out either after work or during work, you will forget something.  For me today, it was a hair brush and deodorant.  I should probably just buy another deodorant to keep in a gym bag and also throw in my travel hair brush.  The hair brush wasn't a huge deal because I can just throw it up in a bun per usual without it looking too terrible.

I got on a treadmill all ready to go and couldn't seem to figure out how to turn it on.  So I was looking all around and pressing buttons and then just moved over to the one next to it.  The same thing happened, so I figured I just didn't know how to turn the darn treadmill on.  Eventually, I asked the guy that was a few treadmills over and he said "those 2 don't work."  Gee, thanks for telling me while you clearly saw me trying to turn them on.  He wasn't even listening to music or running that fast, so it couldn't have interrupted his workout that much to just tell me before I wasted 5 minutes.

So anyways, here's the run-down of my workout.  I did a 2 mile warm-up @ 8:00 pace, which felt nice and easy.  Then I picked it up to 7:13 pace for 1.5 songs (Footloose and Teenage Dream),  7:08 for 2 songs (I Love It and The Other Side), 7:03 for 2 songs (Jai Ho and Thunderstruck), then to 6:57 for 1 song (Alive).  This got me to 3.25 miles at tempo pace and I needed to stop.  Plan was to do 4 miles at tempo, but it just wasn't going to happen today.  I did a 5 minute cool-down on the elliptical then so I could get back to work.

What do you usually forget when you have to pack a bag to work out?

What is your favorite song to run to right now?