Engagement Pictures Part Deux!

We received the rest of our engagement pictures this past weekend and couldn't be happier with how they turned out! SADA is AMAZING!

 

One of my new favorites!

 

Jer LOVES giving me piggy back rides!!

He kinda likes me :)

I can't believe we're getting married in 4 months!!!!

The Virtue of Failure, or, 3M Half Marathon Recap

There are times in training and racing when everything seems preordained to go your way. It's a beautiful thing when it happens, and it can lead to magical races; races where no matter how tired you are from training, or what you think you can "realistically" run, or whether you were out drinking the night before, you just can't be stopped. In hindsight, I had one of those time periods at the beginning of October last year. During the week of my half marathon PR, I did the following:

Sunday: 21 mile progressive long run, last 10 miles at ~5:40 pace
Monday: 16 miles in a double
Tuesday: 15 miles in a double
Wednesday: 3x4 mile w/ 1mi recovery = 5:41 pace for 14 miles, 23 mile day
Thursday: 12 miles in a double
Friday: 13 miles in a double
Saturday: Half marathon race in 1:10:58
Total Weekly Mileage: 121.5 miles

Looking at that now, it doesn't seem like a recipe for a great race. A decent race on tired legs, sure, but not a 100% effort. Not to mention all the other reasons I could SURELY run much faster - I mean, I won the race by 3 minutes! I led literally every step! I even went out too hard, hitting 32:55 for 10k, which is 1:09:30 pace. What low hanging fruit that PR is, I mean it was probably worth 69 minutes if I'd just tapered, if I'd just had some competition, if I'd just...

Flash forward to today: I ran the 3M half marathon in 1:12:21. I ran 81 miles last week, not 121. I didn't have some other race I was training towards - my focus was on this one. I got put up in a hotel, got fed a nice meal with all the elite athletes, and got free entry into the race. It's even a net downhill course. So what the hell happened? Well, I've got a bag just chock full of excuses. My always lovely left foot developed yet another blood blister around mile 5, which caused intense pain on every toe-off after mile 8, and left me unable to walk until Em kindly popped it for me. My trusty old hyperspeeds (which I wore, by the way, because they had never caused the aforementioned blisters to appear) do not get any kind of traction on wet roads. I learned this two weeks ago when I tore my hammies and calves to shreds at the river road run, but look which smart guy had only one pair of race shoes when it started to drizzle this morning...

But at the end of the day, I know the excuses weren't really the problem. I came into this race knowing that I was pretty fit overall, but not where I needed to be to really perform my best. I missed a few workouts here and there, did some not so smart things with my training, probably didn't sleep enough during the last couple months, and just generally wasn't a very dedicated athlete. Which is okay, I mean, I'm never going to make a living doing this. A good year for me would be to be good enough to make the WOMEN'S Olympic team. And hell, this time last year I was running 16:30 for 5k. But at some point, you have to choose whether you're going to keep up the status quo, continue making excuses and getting your butt kicked, or go all in. Whether that means winning a major marathon or just lighting up the weekend warriors at your local turkey trot doesn't really matter, it's just a question of priorities. A question of focus.

I am going to try to go all in. I'm taking the rest of the week very easy, and then starting next week I am going to methodically attempt to build my fitness to a place that it's never been before. Some of it will be glamorous: hard workouts, high mileage, general badass-itude. Some of it will not: more stretching and general strength stuff, more sleep, better eating habits, more dedication to getting my butt out the door as soon as the alarm goes off. No more excuses, and hopefully, no more races like this one.

(As a sidenote, I just want to mention how well the 3M folks treated all of us. It was a great atmosphere to be in, and I cannot overstate how nice it was to just warmup to the starting line without all of the logistical hassles of driving, parking, etc. I'm extremely grateful to them and hope to redeem myself and actually earn my entry next year.)

Whatcha Doin'?

January 15
We started off the 2011 racing season on a cold and wet Saturday morning in New Braunfels Texas at the River Road Half. It was our first race sporting a Roger Soler jersey!



Surprisingly last year's 15 degree weather proved to be the lesser evil when compared to the rainy conditions January 15th had in store for us! Jer and I were using this as a training run but it ended up taking a lot more out of us due to the slick roads and might even be the culprit for the sickness I acquired just a day or so later. Both of our bodies were aching pretty bad the next couple of days.

It is a gorgeous out and back course though, alongside the Guadalupe River. It also has some impressive hills along the way, including most of the last mile.

One of the beauties we got to climb

It's a pretty low key race, only 100 runners, so Jer and I were able to take the win and get these really cool glass plaques.



January 22
The following weekend Jer signed up for the Endurathon 25k, which was just outside of San Antonio in Bulverde. It was another low key event put on by the San Antonio Road Runners (SARR), with roughly 250 participants, including the relay event they had mixed in. The race itself was a 25k (about 15.5 miles) that Jer was using to get a longer aerobic effort in.



He ended up running really well and averaged a faster time, on a longer and tougher course, compared to the previous week. He also won by roughly 3 minutes. 

He took away a nice glass and a fun plaque

I kept busy that morning by volunteering at the event. I don't know if it was the smartest thing to do since I was still getting over my sickness and had to be out in the 20 degree weather, but I had a great time. I got to meet wonderful people and was asked to help with the data entry at the finish line. I was pretty excited because I got to see a new timing system compared to the one I'd been working with at the Trinity track meets.




I ended up entering in all the information for people that did race day entry right before the race and then also keyed in the runners as they were crossing the finish line. It got a little hairy when large groups were coming through, but luckily, since it was a longer race, finishers were pretty strung out.

Jer kept me company at the finish line since there was a little over 3 hours difference from the time he crossed the finish line compared to the last person, but he was more distracting than helpful, since he was more focused on drinking beer than catching bib numbers.



We've definitely kept busy the past two weekends and this coming one isn't looking to be any different. We're headed up to Austin where Jer and Chass will be racing in the heavily competitive Austin 3M half marathon sporting elite bibs. It should be a really exciting race and is already capped out!

Being sick stinks, but new shoes rock!

So...I'm sick. I caught a nasty virus, and am forced to stay inside, feeling like poop, while San Antonio decides to have gorgeous weather. Yep, that's right, it's 63 degrees without a cloud in the sky in the middle of January! Of course this only leaves me to think about all the great running I'm missing out on while I let my body fight the virus and recover.

Two days before I got sick I purchased a pair of Nike Frees for $50! What a steal huh? They're not the prettiest things in the world, but they fit like a glove and made my feet feel wonderful the last couple of runs I had before getting sick.


They also gave me a good excuse for going outside on a gorgeous day like today!

 I LOVE new running shoes. The extra cushion that's there from not being worn down over 500 miles, the smell of new rubber soles, and of course the excitement they bring as you start to imagine what you'll accomplish every time you slip them on are all reasons why new running shoes make me happy.

Anyway, I don't know if it's the meds covering my symptoms up, but I am starting to feel better than yesterday so that's something to be happy about. Here's to getting healthy again and hoping I didn't pass this nasty virus on to Jer.

Engagement Pictures!

Ok, so since our blog is titled "Running Down the Aisle" it makes sense to put up wedding related stuff on here! So last weekend Jer and I got together with Sada Lewis (Goodwin) to take our engagement photos. It was super cloudy all day and just half an hour before we were supposed to meet up the clouds broke up and the sun started pouring in. Just perfect to get photos taken!

Now Jer and I aren't ones for photo shoots, but you know, we had an AMAZING time! Sada was one of our track teammates back my freshman year and now she has a passion for photography. She was absolutely wonderful and we felt so comfortable with her during the entire session. That's probably the biggest reason why we had such a great time. Anyways, long story short, here are just some of the pictures she posted on her blog from last weekend. More to come in a couple weeks!

These pictures were taken in Brackenridge Park. We run through here tons and never really noticed how beautiful it is!

 

 

Love it!!

 

Jer calls this the "typical Emily pose". I have no idea what he's talking about : )

 

This one was taken at the secret garden that Trinity has by Murchison.

  

LOVE this one! It'll probably be permanently placed at the top of our blog.

    

We were fortunate enough to use Trinity's timer for a couple pictures. We had to get some goofy ones in : )



We both competed in the steeplechase at Trinity and currently hold the school record for the event. It only seemed fitting to get a couple pictures on the steeple barrier. Luckily for us it rained the day before and filled up most of the pit. I can't pick which one I love more! This is definitely tied for the top spot!



Junk Miles. Fact or Fiction?

I never heard the term “junk miles” until my final years at Trinity. It was mentioned in passing and I somewhat dismissed it. Then I heard it again and tried figuring out why people were saying that they didn’t want to do a bunch of “junk miles”. After thinking about it time and time again I’ve come to the conclusion that “junk miles” don’t exist.

A lot of people who derisively call any slower running junk miles are under the impression that running much slower than race pace will diminish their speed. Others simply want an excuse to not train as much as they should.

OK, so let me explain why I don’t think “junk miles” exist. Starting out at Trinity I basically had the same training schedule freshman, sophomore, and the first half of junior year. I was running the same amount of mileage, roughly averaging mid to high 50’s throughout those years. Yes, I went to DIII Outdoor Track Nationals, but as cool as that was, getting dead last and almost dead last for the first two years was far from cool. In fact, it was downright embarrassing. I decided to get more knowledgeable about the sport, with the help of Jer, and I increased my mileage in the process. So slowly I started to build. The building didn’t come from longer workouts or much longer long runs. It came from easy runs, which pace wise ranged from 7:40-8:30 depending on how I felt on that day. I started to do a lot more easy doubles throughout the week and by the spring of my junior year I had a couple of 70 mile weeks and my average went up to about mid 60’s. What happened that spring? I went from a 10:54 steeple PR from my sophomore year to a 10:28 my junior year. This led to a third place finish at DIII Outdoor Nationals, much better than my past two track trips. So over the summer and the following year I continued to slowly creep up the mileage to averaging mid 70's with these additional regular runs, which led to an even more successful senior year.

The “junk mileage” I was doing after graduation (averaging in the mid 80’s) led to a 36 second PR in the 5k from my senior year (17:09 indoor track) to this past year (16:33 outdoor track). Also realize that I’m not referring solely to longer races. I PR’d by 2 seconds in a 1500m which was set my sophomore year at the highly competitive Pomona meet. While setting my new PR, I raced completely solo, without having done any specific workouts. My old college PR was set with traditional mile workouts, my new one was set without running a single 400 faster than 78. Longer aerobic workouts, higher overall mileage, and easy junk miles in between made the difference.

What Jer and I believe is that training one system doesn’t “untrain” other systems. Is doing a huge amount of jogging with no workouts a good idea? Nope. Will this cause you to lose your speed? Definitely. But adding an extra volume of easy running to a balanced diet of aerobic workouts and controlled speed work won’t hurt your speed. And if anything, running easy runs a little slower than you think you need to allows for more capacity to recover so you’re able to adapt to the stress you put on your body during those workouts.

Every mile has its purpose, and if that purpose is to go slow to help in the recovery and adaptation process, then it should be called anything but junk.

Powered By "Junk Mileage"

Weekly Recap, Week Ending January 8th, 2011

Emily:

Emily had a great week, notching 90.56 miles and three very solid workouts. The week started off with a bang with a 10 mile progressive run on our fairly hilly (and appropriately named) Hill Country Village route. That run was probably one of her better long distance workouts ever – she ran the first 5 miles in 32:40, the next 5 in 30:40, and the last mile in 5:43. After a couple easy days, she did a 7 mile fartlek of 3 minutes on, 3 minutes off, on Wednesday. Friday brought some diagonals on the football field to get some faster work in, followed by a 5k tempo on the track today (Saturday). Emily is not one for super fast tempo runs, so hitting right around 6 minute pace for a final time of 18:49 was a pretty good day, and a good way to cap off two weeks of increased workload.



Hill Country Village Route - Elevation Chart

Jeremy:

I, on the other hand, had a pretty spectacularly crappy week. It started off okay, as I tagged along with Emily for her 10 miler on Sunday. I’d been feeling kind of sick since the middle of last week, and it peaked around Monday or Tuesday of this week. I missed a couple of runs on Tuesday and Wednesday, but got in a little bit of fartlek on Wednesday afternoon to get my legs moving again. Thursday was my only productive workout of the week – I did a 4 mile tempo on the track in 21:04, followed by 5x200 in 34-35. Those felt great, which is nice because anything at sub 5 minute pace doesn’t come very easily to me. And of course 5:16 pace is great for me on a tempo, although I’d be kidding myself if I thought it was a true “threshold” effort. I could’ve gutted out another mile or two at that pace, but it wouldn’t have been fun. I paid for it though, as my legs have felt gnarly both today and yesterday. I’m doing a 10 mile progressive run tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll beat Emily’s time. 79 miles for the week, down a little from 114 last week. By a little.

Staple Workouts

Emily and I got talking about a hypothetical situation on our run tonight. Say you had to choose one workout, and one workout only, to be your ONLY workout for an entire season. What would you pick? Of course the answer depends on what race you're training for, how big a variety of races you want to compete in, and where your particular strengths and weaknesses lie. Of course this conversation segued into our favorite workouts, which segued into something else, which turned into something not running related at all. But I digress. Below is a description of a few staple workouts, some of which we do frequently, others that we should probably do more often.

10 Mile Progressive Tempo: For my money, this workout by itself would be enough to get anyone to a damn good performance from 5k all the way to half marathon. The beauty of it is its flexibility. Unlike other workouts, that don't really belong in the early stages of a training season, this one changes as your fitness improves and your needs turn more towards specific fitness.

Emily has done this workout 3 times since we started training again after the marathon. The first time, 4 weeks ago, she averaged north of 7 minute pace for the whole thing, well above marathon pace. In fact only the last mile (6:25) was faster than she had averaged for 26.2 miles a mere 3 weeks earlier. The second time she did the workout, 2 weeks after the first, her fitness had started to come back and she was able to average 6:45 pace for the whole thing. The base was starting to form, but she was still far away from the sharpness that comes from REALLY getting in shape: although she ran 4 minutes faster, her last mile (6:22) wasn't much faster than it was the first time out.

Yesterday, she did the workout for a third time, again running 4 minutes faster than the last time out. This time, the whole last half of the run was faster than her final miles had been before - 30:40, or 6:08 pace average - for the last 5 miles. Her final mile of 5:42 was now much closer to race pace for a 5k-15k race, so the workout has gone from entirely general base preparation to somewhat race specific.

You can see how, if you really wanted to just try to get the most out of a single workout, you could begin to hammer the last 2-3 miles harder and harder, eventually getting to the point where miles 8 and 9 are at goal 10k pace, and mile 10 is at goal 5k pace. Fortunately we're allowed to use as many different workouts as we can make up, so we don't have to worry about the mental strain (and boredom!) that would probably results from doing the same 10 mile tempo a million times.

Now just for fun, a list of favorite workouts! Not necessarily staple workouts, but important nonetheless.

1. Emily - Aussie Quarters, 8x400 @ 3k-5k pace with 200 quick recovery. Total of 3 miles of work at a fast overall pace, works several different aspects of fitness, particularly for 1500-10k.

2. Chass - I don't want to speak for my good buddy Chass, but for him it's probably 10x400. I'm not going to specify a recovery because it's not too important. I'd probably go 400 slow jog but Chass often does standing rest of 2-4 minutes. This is the quintessential miler workout; it has its place for anyone looking to race from 800 all the way to 10k, but for the 1500 it's a tried and true workout that will leave you in PAIN.

3. Jeremy - 4x2 mile. This one hurts in a different way, but it's great preparation for a 10k or half marathon and I need to do it more.

A Look Back at 2010

Right After My First Marathon!

2010 came and gone, but we’ve experienced so many wonderful things over the last 365 days. Running wise Jer and I were able to obtain quite a few personal bests. Jer’s total was four and considering the fact that he wasn’t able to train for the majority of 2009 it shows just how much dedication can really pay off in as little as a year’s time. He ran a whopping total of 4601 miles for the last 365 days. This averages out to roughly 85 miles a week. He consistently ran in 100’s for 21 weeks leading up to the marathon while having a rigid work schedule of 8-5 Monday through Friday. This is inspirational to me to say the very least.

For me, I was able to get six PR’s, some of which include races I’ve never run before, like the marathon, others, like the 5000m (16:33), are true testaments to the training that was put in over the year compared to what I did in college. Knocking 36 seconds off of my previous personal best (17:09) from my senior year was a huge highlight for me. Also, clipping two seconds off of my 1500m PR that was set my sophomore year on just base work alone reassured me that it wasn’t some sort of fluke in my training. The biggest difference is the higher mileage. I’ve put in 3911 miles over the course of the year, which averages out to 75 miles a week. This coming year it will be at least 80, hopefully 85. 



Dexter and Marzuki's First Christmas

Aside from running 2010 has brought us two new additions to our little family, Dexter and Marzuki. Dexter was an abandoned puppy our friend Bry found out on a run in February. Marzuki we rescued from a shelter in December so Dexter could have a playmate. Marzuki is one tough cookie. He caught the Parvo virus, which is extremely deadly in puppies, and survived it. He’s gaining weight and plays with Dexter every chance he can. 

We also put on our big boy pants and bought our first house over the summer. We ventured out and found the perfect house for us not a mile away from McAllister Park. We absolutely love it. It’s been so much fun to have room to entertain our friends as well as not having the constant inconvenience of putting the leash on the dogs so they can use the bathroom. We love being right next to the park too. We run in there almost every day and it’s really improved our Q.O.R. (Quality of Running)

So yes, 2010 was a fun time for us, but 2011 looks like it’ll be just as exciting, if not more. Some things to look forward to include GETTING MARRIED!!! We’ve made some decent progress over the winter break, but May will be here before we know it. I should also be walking away with a masters degree this spring! We’ll also be sponsored by Roger Soler’s running store which we’re both pretty excited about! And of course there is the goal of staying injury free while attempting to train as hard and as smart as possible!