Greetings from Duluth Minnesota!

It's been far too long since our last post and for this I apologize. We have a lot to catch up on, but for now I'll just give a brief update on what we've got going on this weekend. Jeremy and I are both competing in the US Half Marathon Championships early tomorrow morning! We're very excited! Even though there's some rain and possible thunderstorms scheduled for the race tomorrow, it'll still be in the 50's, which is a huge change from what we're used to training in back home in San Antonio.

A rainy day in Duluth

This will be my second year competing at the Championships. Last year I was going into the race completely blind as far as how I would do. It ended up not being too bad as I raced really well considering my training. The entire month leading up to the race my training was horrible because of allergy induced asthma (it's the worst during March and May). I was unable to complete many of the key workouts that I would've liked to get in. To help with that problem I've been getting allergy shots since August. While getting tested I found out I was severely allergic to dang near everything outdoors! I think the shots have been helping though. I haven't had as many failed workouts compared to last year, but as soon as I did have a bad workout Jer and I freaked out a little. What do we do? So....I decided to get on the treadmill for those tempos/threshold type of workouts. Yes, it's boring. Yes, I'd rather be outside using my legs like a normal person, but I've been able to complete a lot of workouts that I probably wouldn't have been able to finish had I been outside.

We'll see how things go tomorrow. I've averaged roughly 10 miles a week more than last year and I've only had two not-so-great workouts leading up to the race compared to probably 10-12 last year. On the other hand my great workouts this training season have not been up to par compared to last years. So I'm still going into this race a little in the dark as to what my fitness level is at. As far as a goal I'd like to be in the 1:17's. My time last year was 1:18:14 and I feel like I could do a little better. Last year I had such a great time because I wasn't even going to race, but decided to hop in anyways. I started pretty far back since I was going at a conservative pace (I was just hoping to make it to the finish line), so the entire race I worked my way up the line of ladies I was catching and negative split the entire race. It was a blast, but I definitely want to be a little bit more in the game this time around. There are only 60 other women scheduled to be on the starting line with me tomorrow, so I'm really excited about working with some of these other speedy ladies!

The cool personal bibs and jerseys we'll be sporting tomorrow morning!

This will be Jer's first time competing at the US Half Championships. Last year he ran the full marathon and ran a personal best of 2:27! I know he's really looking forward to the race tomorrow. The men's field is MUCH larger than the ladies. They have roughly 156 guys that will be on the starting line, so with a goal of 1:08 he should have plenty of other fellows to work with.

Thanks to our awesome friends, family, Soler's Sports, and Asics for all the great support they've given us! We'll try and make you guys proud tomorrow and get an update out at some point post-race. The gun for the men goes off at 6:15am and the women at 6:25am so we're going to hit the hay with such an early wake-up call. G'night from Duluth!  

A Much Delayed Update

I think the last thing I put on this blog was a race recap for the San Antonio Marathon, which was now many, many weeks ago. Yikes. So what the heck have I been up to in 3+ months? Here it is, in much abbreviated form, with the zero date being the SA marathon.

Weeks 1-3: Recovery
After Grandma’s Marathon in June, I recovered very quickly, and 11 days later I was able to do a light workout - a tempo at roughly 5:45 pace. This time? Not so much. A week later I tried to help Emily do a workout, and ended up exhausted and sore for the next 5 days. 16 days post-race I finally felt good enough to do a short pickup (1 mile in 5:22), and by the end of the 3rd week I had gotten back up to 77 miles.

Weeks 4-9: 3M Half Marathon Buildup
After an awful post-marathon recovery, I felt like a moron trying to get ready to run a fast half marathon. Three weeks of recovery, and the last two weeks before the race is too late for the training to really take effect, so you’re looking at a whopping four weeks to actually prepare. I had been toying with the idea of doing the US Half Marathon Championships in June, and the standard to even get into the race is sub 1:10 (my PR as of 2012 was 1:10:58). To get a hotel room, you have to run sub 1:09. That was the optimistic goal, but it required a two minute PR.

So I put in some good work. A couple of tempos in the 4-5 mile range at around 5:20 pace, a 10 mile race at 5:30 pace, a few other key workouts, and mileage for the six weeks leading up to the race of 104, 113, 112, 93 (Emily and I went on vacation with my family during this week), 108, 102. During that last week, I had basically resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t coming around quite quick enough, and any thoughts of sub 1:09 were a bridge too far. My last big workout (5 days before the race) was a 6 mile tempo, which I did at 5:42 pace, plus two by 1600m at 5:14 and 5:13. Running under 69 minutes for a half requires running 5:15 pace for 13.1 miles. I may not know much, but given how much it hurt to run those two repeats, I did know that doing that 13 times without a break was unlikely.

3M Half Marathon
But what I didn’t count on when I was evaluating the worst case scenario during that last week was a big old Texas cold front blowing in on race day. The 3M Half Marathon course runs almost entirely North to South, and race day dawned with a wind from the North of 10-12 mph, with gusts up to 20 mph. Couple that with a net downhill course and you’ve got a recipe for fast times.

When the gun went off, I tucked myself into the back of the lead pack, and focused on feeling out the right pace. Everything felt pretty good, and I ended up going through the mile in 5:11, trailing the leaders by about 6 seconds. At that point I decided to be practical, not get ahead of myself, and slow down a bit for the next 2-3 miles. But come mile 3, I was at 15:32, and feeling smooth and easy. That would continue to be the case for the next 8 miles: 5 miles was passed in 25:55, 6 in 31:06, 8 miles in 41:27, 10 miles in 51:51 (46 seconds faster than my 10 mile PR from this fall), and 11 miles in 57:06.

Then the course turned decidedly hilly and into the (as previously mentioned) major wind. Mile 12 was 5:27, and mile 13 was 5:20, and I came into the final straight knowing that I would have to majorly choke to lose the time I needed for that entry and hotel room. I toughed out that horrible last minute or so, and crossed the line in 68:35 - 25 seconds to spare, and feeling very good the day.

At the beginning of 3M - photo cred to photowolfe!

Post 3M:
I took a few days easy after the race, and got back into workouts that Friday. I’ve done a couple of 5k road races, which did not go that great, and I ran an 8:51 3k at our newly formed (and awesomely fun) alumni vs current team track meet. That was a pretty solid race, and it was nice to get a win on behalf of the old folks. Workouts have been going great for the last 3-4 weeks, and I’m hoping to start updating details on that type of thing more frequently here. Next up for me is the 5k at the UIW track meet on Friday, where I set my PR last year.

At the Trinity Dual Meet...luckily our color was BLACK

Race Recap: 2012 San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon

In my experience, the recap that someone gives after a bad race reflects more about what that person wants to have happened rather than what actually took place. With that said, I am going to do my best to give an accurate depiction here of what actually took place on November 11th, 2012, for better or worse.

Let's start at the end: 3rd place, behind one local guy and one out of town African. Doesn't sound that bad right? Well here's some perspective: 1:13:25 and 1:21:17. The former is my time at the half marathon mark last week. The latter is a time I would in other circumstances not even consider a workout, but here it was my closing half of the race. My final time was less than 10 seconds faster than my 2008 performance at this race, when I was in significantly worse shape, and also stopped midway to use the bathroom...

So the question becomes, how did I arrive at this sorry state of affairs? The sad fact of the matter is I don't really know. There are things that I would do differently in training if I could do it all over again, to be sure, but I don't believe that was a major issue. And once you remove training from the equation, all you're really left with is a list of lame excuses.

It was hot and humid. Yes, but only for me? Nope. It only gets worse from here. I had a cold that week? A runny nose and some gross yellow mucus aside, it didn't bother me in training at all, so not much reason to think it derailed my race. Maybe all I'm left with at the end of all that obsessive second guessing is the old cliche: it just wasn't my day.

Which is such a lame cop out.

I made it through the first 10 miles in just under 56 minutes feeling fine, and I kept it moving ok through the halfway mark. During miles 14 and 15, I noticed that the same effort level was only getting me 5:45s or so, where previously it had gotten me mid 5:30s. I began to contemplate the possibility that I was in trouble, but I figured if I could keep my pace to the mid 5:40s, I could still come away with a decent performance.

Well by mile 17 that ship had already sailed. I was hurting, and hurting good. Dizziness, exhaustion, and all of the other usual suspects that have previously come to bear during the last 3 miles of marathons were now here to stay for an entire goddamn hour. So I jogged on. By mile 20 I was above 6 minute pace, and I was resigned to suffering through it. I slogged through at 6:30 pace until mile 25, when nausea and lightheadedness rendered that impossible as well. My last mile was probably somewhere north of 7:30.

Since we are now several weeks removed from the aforementioned debacle, I’ve moved on to focusing on the winter and spring seasons, but I still feel some lingering disappointment for how things turned out. In the end, I believe that feeling the sting of disappointment means that you actually care about what you’re doing. And to paraphrase an old classic, caring is half the battle.

Looks like a beautiful day, huh?

Already looking a little grim, but better than that Kenyan dude back there

At the time, thought I was going strong.  In hindsight, hanging on for dear life.
Last two photos courtesy of Mark Wright of Wright Stuff Photography

The Coach-Athlete and Husband-Wife Relationship: How Does it Work?

So it’s November, the declared month of thankfulness. Although I don’t think it should be limited to just one month, I do appreciate the fact that it reminds people to take a step back and reflect on those that have truly made a difference.

When I was traveling with the Trinity cross country team, to the national meet last week, we had ten glorious hours of travel time on the first day. On the positive side of things it led to some bonding time. One runner asked me for instance, how exactly things worked with Jer, my husband, also being my coach. At first I thought about the fact that for a good amount people it just does NOT work. Then I kept trying to think of all the times Jer and I had arguments about training or racing or anything coaching related. The problem I began to notice during this time was that the memories that kept popping up, while trying to find the bad ones, were some of the most wonderful moments I have had with Jer. Besides my college coach, Jer knows my running career better than I do. He knows what works and what doesn’t. He supports me in every way possible. He knows how to motivate me. He has gotten me to perform far better that I could ever have imagined myself doing. I honestly can’t think of anyone else who would be a better fit for me as a coach. Of course, in any relationship, communication is KEY. We always talk about what's going on as to make sure we're both on the same page. Now this does not mean we have never had running related disagreements, most of the time it's lively discussion in which we don't always agree, but I wouldn't say any of them have put a strain on our relationship . And no, there is not a clear cut separation from our husband-wife and coach-athlete relationship. We don’t put on separate hats when we’re playing different roles, it just intermingles. I believe it works because we have such a strong relationship in both aspects of our marriage and running that it has formed into a unique part of our lives. Heck, I'm even trying to be play the self-designated role as Jer's coach now! He's learning to adjust :) Also, since we live with one another it's pretty obvious he knows what my sleeping, eating, and lifestyle habits are. We both help to keep each other honest when it comes to these choices in life and it's been pretty easy to live as close to the ideal running lifestyle as possible when you have someone there to keep you in check.

The more time I have had to reflect on Jer being my coach the more I realize how far we’ve come as a couple. We have grown so much together over the last seven plus years that we’ve somehow managed to have even fewer arguments than ever before. I’m still having a hard time even remembering the last time we did argue, running related or not. It is quite shocking seeing as how both of us are rather opinionated. I absolutely consider myself lucky to have the type of husband, best friend, and running coach that Jeremy is. I think we’ve figured out a great system, and it works because he is just that phenominal of a guy and of course, because I’ve learned to listen :). He has been just as invested in my running as I am, if not more so, and I know that I don’t say it enough, but I am truly grateful to have him in my life. Today, on this pre-Thanksgiving day three years ago, Jer asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. I’m just glad I was lucky enough to have been asked.

ENGAGED! Fall of 2009

Jer trying to calm my nerves fall of 2008

The running + the personal = AWESOME!

Me being a proud coach after Jer's PR! circa Spring 2012

Race Day: 2012 San Antonio Marathon

Tomorrow is race day.  The weather isn't looking quite as bad as it could've been, so I'm going out with plans to run aggressively and try to PR.  

The competition looks fairly intense, with a small contingent of Kenyans and some very good Texans.  Everything has gone well so far so time to get some sleep and see what happens tomorrow.  Good luck to everyone else running tomorrow.

Taper Taper Taper

Hey everybody.  This Sunday is the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon.  I'm kind of excited.

I began my training for this race on July 8th, 3 weeks after having set my marathon PR of 2:27:38 at Grandma's Marathon on June 16th.  There were 18 weeks between July 8th and this Sunday's race.  In the previous 17 weeks (prior to this final week of taper), I have run 2,009 miles, or an average of 118 miles per week.

Lots of workouts, lots of miles.  The weather for Sunday looks absolutely terrible, but you know what?  It was terrible last year too.  The only thing I can really do is try to feel out what pace is sustainable on race day, and not go faster than that.  I think I can still lower my PR.  I just have to run under 5:38 per mile for 26.2 consecutive miles.  Piece of cake, right?  Eh.

If, by some miracle, we get a wonderful cold front before Sunday at 7:30am, I will attempt to run the race at under 2:26 pace,  or about 5:33/mile.  If we have awful weather, then it's just about competing with whoever shows up.  Here we go!

Taper Time 2012

As much as things change over time, some always stay the same.  Here are some:

• Before every marathon, I feel like I should have done more/better/harder training. 
• I check the weather forecast at least 3 times per day.
• I always get nervous about tapering down my training.

This is my last 100 mile week, and it's just barely going to be 100. The last time I ran less than 110 miles in a week was the middle of July, so it's always a scary experience running so much less than usual.  The inescapable feeling is always that you're slowly but surely getting out of shape, no matter how crazy that might seem.

This morning I did one of my standard last workouts: 10k on the track, alternating each 1k between fast and "medium".  Today I averaged roughly 5:00 pace for the fast k's and 5:40 pace on the slow ones, with the total 10k being 33:16.  I believe this is the first time I've ever broken 34 minutes in this workout, so I'm taking it as a good sign.  

In the end though, the marathon is an entirely different beast than shorter distances.  While it's nice to know that I'm probably in close to PR shape for 10k, how I'll do in 9 days at a distance over 4 times longer is still a bit of a question.  In the end I take confidence from this being my 3rd marathon in the last 12 months - I have a lot more experience than I did this time last year.  That plus the cycle of long run workouts I've done makes me feel pretty good about where I'm at.  This is what that series looked like, in all of it's glory.

• 11 weeks out: 26.2 miles at 6:07 pace
• 9 weeks out: 22 miles with 18 miles at 5:46 pace
• 7 weeks out: 24 miles at 5:56 pace
• 5 weeks out: 24 miles at 5:51 pace
• 3 weeks out: 22 miles with 20 mile race at 5:45 pace 

So here we go! I for one am getting very excited for marathon time.