Monday, September 29, 2008

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Quality Workout Mindset

One of the most difficult things for me as part of the marathon training is to keep up with the rest of the group that I train with...a lot of them are training for their first marathon but are extremely good runners....fast runners....I am more of a slow and steady runner...speed is not my thing...but I have the endurance to keep running for a long time. During long runs, I have no problems. I just kind of tune out the rest of the runners and keep my steady pace. During quality workouts however, there is a lot of emphasis put on running drills, speed workouts, varying paces etc, and this is what gets to me. No matter how strong I personally feel doing the workouts, I always feel like I am lagging behind the rest of the group...I should know better though..Ive been through this training twice, and I know what works for me, and what doesn't. So I need to learn how to just focus on the improvements that I am making with the training, and not compare myself to the rest of the group!

Rogue's featured coach this week is Amy and one of the things she says is "meeting goals isn’t just dependent on training your legs to run fast, but it’s also about training your head.” And she's right! I do have a goal to reduce my timing this year pretty significantly, but in order to do that effectively, I am going to need to train not just my legs, but also my head, and focus on listening to how my legs feel, and how my body feels, and not worry about other runners! The great advantage of running with a group is that it motivates you to run better and faster than you usually do, but it does not necessarily mean that you run as fast as all the rest do!

I am going to be approaching my future QWs with this in mind!

P.S. The Quadballer is my new best friend! I just love it! :)

Thursday, September 18, 2008

TP Massage QuadBaller

If you would like to inflict some pain on yourself, do get yourself one of these!


It will be "GOOD" PAIN mind you!

Now I know how the poor chappathi dough feels when I bring down the rolling pin on it!

Groan!!

:(

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

IT Band Blues and 2-mile Time Trail

I’m into my 2nd week of marathon training now….and have been bogged down by IT-band issues…my left IT-band has been bugging me for a while now, since the Sweet and Twisted Tri…At that race, I went to get a massage from one of the Advanced Rehab guys who suggested that I visit one of their sports doctors. My IT-band was apparently super tight.

For those of you who are wondering, "What the heck is an IT-band?"(something I had to educate myself on as well):

Iliotibial Band Syndrome is one of the leading causes of lateral
knee pain in runners. The iliotibial band is a superficial thickening of tissue on the outside of the thigh, extending from the outside of the pelvis, over the hip and knee, and inserting just below the knee. The band is crucial to stabilizing the knee during running, moving from behind the femur to the front during the gait cycle. The continual rubbing of the band over the lateral femoral epicondyle, combined with the repeated flexion and extension of the knee during running may cause the area to become inflamed.
- Wikipedia

And INFLAMED is how it feels….it has literally been burning everytime I run, and I finally went to Advanced Rehab a couple of days ago. The doctor there examined the area and agreed that it was indeed pretty taut and slightly inflamed and that I would need to ice it regularly and do some specific exercises and stretches that will help make it feel better. I also finally bought a TP massage roller…which is great…but oh lord…so freaking painful…the physical therapist assured me that it was “good pain”…hmm…

I asked the doc if I could run and he told me yes – doing 2-3 miles will not affect me much…so I went to my Quality Workout yesterday evening…we were gonna do a time trial…A time trial involves running 2 miles around the track, so 8 laps, and the time taken to run that distance can be used to project your paces for various distances, from a 5k to a marathon. I was concerned about running it with my IT-band issues, but coach Peri assured me that it would be okay and told me to take it easy, and even walk it if I felt like it. I ended up running 2 miles and my time was 20:09. (Not a great time...but last yr, I think I ran slower than this with NO issues, so it is some sort of improvement! :p)

Plugging that into the pace calculator, my projected times for various race distances are:

Marathon: 05:19:08 (12:10/mile)
Half Marathon: 02:31:19 (11:33/mile)
10K: 01:08:01 (10:58/mile)
12K: 01:22:35 (11:04/mile)
15K: 01:45:10 (11:17/mile)
5K: 32:46 (10:34/mile)
2 Mile: 20:08 (10:04/mile)
1 Mile: 09:26


I ran my marathon last year at 5:53....and my goal this year was to reduce that by half hour....or at least break 5:30....so I'm pretty excited about my projected marathon pace....hopefully if I stick to the training, I will be able to attain that goal....just really really hope that my IT-band issues do not aggravate....have another session with the doc tomorrow....hopefully we come up with a good plan to get rid of the problem....wish me luck!! Meanwhile....I will be skipping the 8-mile long run this weekend and taking it easy...am also headed to Chi-town to hang out with some gal pals I haven't met in a while! Should be fun! :)

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Nike Human Race 10K - Austin

The MINUSES:
- Weather was HOT and HUMID
- Course was HILLY almost 60% of the race!
- T-shirt was a weird fit :p
- I had my worst 10K timing ever! :(


The PLUSES:
- 300,000 Runners running simultaneously all across the world
-15,000 Runners were running it in ATX - all adorning the same T-shirt!
- Austin was one of only 3 cities in the US besides LA and NYC to host the race
- Lance Armstrong and MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY were running it! :)
- Ran it with a group of friends - some doing their 1st ever 10K - which is always exciting!
- Awesome spectator support!
- It was my most fun 10k race ever in the end! :)

So the pluses definitely outweighed the minuses and I had a complete blast!