A Weird Running Week

The past week was sort of a weird, disappointing one for running.

Last weekend, I was so excited to run the Manhattan Half Marathon in Central Park.  First half of 2012!  My roommate Lisa's first half ever!  Yay! 

Saturday morning I woke up to a very snowy city.  The race wasn't exactly cancelled, but it was nonscored, which I took to mean, "Show up if you really really want to, but we wouldn't if we were you."  There was also a food poisoning situation, so we all decided to skip the race.  The sidewalks were terrible and super slippery and I figured I shouldn't take a chance with my ankle still being weird.  Plus who really shows up to run when it's snowy and slushy and gross?

Well apparently a lot of people.  My work friend told me that his friend said it was his most fun race ever.  Sort of feeling like I missed out.  Bummer.

Monday I went to a tradeshow aka spend the whole day on my feet.  My ankle swelled to disgusting proportions, so I figured I should take it easy on Tuesday (supposed to be 5 miles) and spend an hour on the bike at the gym.  I hate skipping a run, but I figure it's better to take it easy than push it too hard and get injured.  Then I foam rolled... DAMN that feels good!

Wednesday my ankle was still huge, so I did my 5 miles on the treadmill.  I sprinted(ish) 1/4 mile repeats with 1/4 mile recoveries.  Followed by foam rolling.  So good.




Thursday I finally got back outside and it felt amazing.  As much as I hate getting out of bed, I think running outside is the only thing that fully wakes me up.  I did an easy five and felt awesome all day. Went to the gym after work and foam rolled some more.  Addicted.

Yesterday was my longest run to date - 19 miles.  It felt surprisingly good, and as usual my first few miles were the toughest.  A lot of firsts on this run - nature called while I was running through the woods, and I made a pit stop at Wawa to use the ladies room and refill my water bottle.  Very classy.

My Garmin started dying around mile 11, so I reset it to make sure that data saved, and started again.  It eventually died, so I tracked myself on mapmyrun... until my phone died too!  Weird.  Here are my splits for the first 16 or so miles:

As usual, my pace was all over the place.  Hoping to smooth that out on next weekend's 20 miler.

Marathon Training - Week 8

This week's training was supposed to look like this:

Sunday: cross
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 4 mile speedwork
Wednesday: 8 mile pace
Thursday: 4 mile
Friday: carbs
Saturday: Manhattan half marathon

I did my hour of cycling on Sunday.  Monday I rested.  Tuesday it rained, and I considered staying in bed again.  I like to tell myself I shouldn't run in the rain.  I could slip and slow my ankle's recovery.  I could catch a cold.  If I'm being honest though, I just like to stay in my warm bed.

Anyway, instead of being the pansy I was last week, I got my butt to the treadmill.  I even did 1/4 mile intervals with 1/4 mile recoveries.  I was so proud of myself for getting in my run and doing something good for my ankle.  I even watched the news while I ran.  So productive.

I was having a great morning... only to get home and slam my toe into the sink.  My toe is looking a little broken, so I took today off.  Hoping tomorrow I can buddy tape that friend and get back on the treadmill.

A Long, Cold Run

I never made it out for a run Thursday morning.  It was raining when I woke up... plus I'd had a few glasses of wine the night before.  Extra rest days are good now and then, right?  That's what I like to tell myself.

Saturday morning I drove up to the Catskills for a ski weekend with my friends.  I'm more of a hot chocolate at the lodge girl, so I skipped the slopes and went for a nice long run in the afternoon.  I had a long, slow 17 on the agenda.

It was cold. Painfully cold.  I think my fingers are still thawing out.

The first 15 were pretty but hilly.  I'm not used to running in the afternoon, so I definitely felt breakfast jostling around in my stomach a little.  Soon enough everything settled, and by mile 4 or 5 I was feeling awesome. 

Around mile 10 I got excited - 2/3 of the way done!  Yay!  Oh wait... today is 17 miles, not 15.  So I have 7 left.  Great.

I can usually keep myself motivated on long runs, but on Saturday, I just wanted it to be over. 

By the time I got back to the lodge, I had two miles left.  The roads were way too icy to keep running on the sides of the road, so I did the last two miles by doing laps around the parking lot.  Definitely not recommended - my fingers were burning and my legs were achy and I really just wanted to go home.  Running laps around parked cars is super boring and the miles just drag on.  I started to get cranky - apologies to my running partner Jillian.

When I got back to the house, I just wanted to lie down and sleep.  My legs were really sore and I just kept thinking, "That was hard and somewhat miserable, but you signed up to run 9 miles further than that!"  I wanted to run 12:00 miles, but I was way slower:

Overall not the best run, in terms of my morale or speed. 

I'm fine with that though.  While I was running, I started thinking about the last time I was at the resort.  Last year for New Year's Eve, I went up to the same resort celebrate with my friends.  All I wanted to do was party and have an epic night.  And look decent in my skintight dress, which I knew I hadn't lost enough weight to wear. 

My biggest priority last New Year's was to take a new profile picture.  My biggest priority this year was to finish 17 miles.  I might not be running very fast, but at least I'm running - and that's a big improvement over last year.

Marathon Training - Week 7

I'm just about seven weeks into training for my first marathon.

This week's running plan:
Tuesday:  4 miles Done!  4 miles with a track workout
Wednesday: 8 miles It wasn't fun to get up this morning, but DONE!
Thursday:  4 miles
Saturday:  17 miles

Seventeen!  Saturday's run will be my longest ever.  I'm heading up to a ski resort with my friends, so I'm looking forward to a beautiful, snowy run in the hills.  That, or a few numbingly cold hours.

The marathon is 2 months and 2 weeks away.  Long enough that it feels pretty far away, but it really isn't.  I feel like I'm on track - my current plan has me running three 20+ mile runs so I know I'll feel prepared.

My only concern? I sprained my ankle four weeks ago, which is why I've been wearing this cool brace.

I haven't mentioned it because I keep thinking that if I dont make a big deal of it, then it won't be a big deal. I do my rehab exercises and ice it religiously but for some reason it isn't back to 100%.  Probably because I'm training for a marathon and increasing my mileage every week. Duh Lauren.

Tomorrow I take my new Garmin watch out for a run!

NYRR Joe Kleinerman 10k

This weekend I ran my 2nd 10k with my friends Brad and Jillian.  I was super excited for two reasons: 1) it was my first 9+1 race for the 2013 NYC Marathon, and 2) it was the same course as my upcoming half marathon in Central Park.

So excited.

I'm pretty new to running, so I'm always surprised to see how many runners show up at a race.  Who are these people?  And why did I join the cool wake up early and run club so late?

So many runners.

I had a great race.  I ran with Jill the whole time, and we beasted Central Park's hills.  Jill sprinted up a hill around mile 4 and I got really nervous that I was going to fall behind and have to finish alone.  We finished together though, PRing with a time of 1:00:25, 9:45 miles. 

After the race, I was so thirsty that I drank some of this weirdly brown water they were handing out. 

Gross

We felt so great that we planned to run another 6 to make 12 for our long run.  A mile in, our legs were dragging and our stomachs rumbling, so we ditched that plan and headed over to peacefood.

Me and my sweaty friends.

This race was really well organized, and I'm pumped to do the same course in 2 weeks for the Manhattan half!

2012 Resolutions

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions.  One embarrassingly recent year, I vowed to "be nicer," whatever that means.  This year's resolutions are all running related:

Run ten races.  1 down, 9 to go.  And along with that...

Do 9+1. 

Run a marathon.  Ocean Drive Marathon, I'm comin' for ya! 

Figure out pacing.  Last year, I went into races being all, "I just want to finish and run the whole thing."  I never had a finish time or goal pace in mind.  My friend Jill and I would just look at the clocks at the mile markers and go, "Yeah, 10 minutes something for that mile... sounds good."  This year I'm going into races with a goal pace and time in mind.

Figure out speedwork.  What's a fartlek?  What's that weird notation they use for speedwork? 

So excited to check these off my to do list!

A little speedwork (done incorrectly)

This morning was a quick 4 mile run.  I'm loosely following Hal Higdon's Novice 2 for my marathon training, and I try to do speedwork on a Tuesday/Thursday short run.  I'm lucky to live about a mile and a half from Princeton University's track:

 Princeton's track... it's not very photogenic.

...but unlucky enough to live uphill, so I get a hill workout after my intervals.  I usually just sprint the straightaways but today I got a little crazy with Yasso 800s - pretty much running fast 800s with a lap of recovery in between.  If you can run them in 4:10 minutes, you're in 4:10 marathon shape.  I reread Bart Yasso's page when I got home, and apparently you're supposed to do 10 repeats.  I did two.  Oops.

Tomorrow's a 7 mile pace and I'm hoping to try out one of these fun energy goops I bought at Princeton Running Company yesterday.

Maltodextrin, yum.

Looking back on 2011

2011 was a big year. I started my first full time job, moved to a new town, and ran my first races. In January, I signed up for Philly's Broad Street Run, and soon my goal was to run 5 races in 2011. Mission accomplished.

Here's my 2011 race recap:

Cupid's Chase 5k Stone Harbor - 2/12/11
PR 30:31 - 9:49 pace
My friend Jill and I wanted to run a shorter race before Broad Street, and no, we didn't have other plans for Valentine's Day Weekend. After zealous carb loading Saturday, we ran a respectable first race and more importantly, got our new favorite long sleeve shirts.

Jill says we look awkward but I don't care.

Dash for Organ & Tissue Donor Awareness 10k - 4/17/11
PR 1:02:25 - 10:02 pace
Hey another PR! Being a beginner is fun.

Broad Street Run - 5/1/11
PR 1:47:45 - 10:46 pace
This was the race that turned my friends and I into runners. I learned a lot of painful lessons that day - don't go out too fast, don't eat a fiber bar the morning of a race... I hit a wall around mile 7, but it was a good lesson in pacing.

Where's the bathroom?

Rock 'n' Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon - 9/18/11
2:36:50 - 11:58 pace
Yeah, I know, I got slow. Over the summer, I was moving and starting a new job. I avoided running by telling myself it was too hot. My pace was slow for me but hey, it's easier to improve upon a slow time, right? The race was still a lot of fun, partly because I convinced my friends to wear neon animal print bandanas.

We're about to run 13.1 miles!

SunTrust Richmond Half Marathon - 11/12/11
PR 2:18:56 - 10:36 pace
Richmond really is the friendliest half marathon. The spectators and volunteers were so encouraging. I felt like I got my pacing right and finished the race strong - maybe because I actually stuck to my training plan this time. I felt so great, in fact, that I thought, "Hey you should run a marathon!"

Brad and I glowing from PRing.

I never thought that I would love running this much. A year ago, I literally couldn't finish my 4 mile long run. Now I'm training for a marathon. My first year of racing was a success - here's to another great year!

New blog, New PR, New Year!

Hi! I'm Lauren. Welcome to Lauren Running Wild.  I've had an on and off relationship with running since high school. I finally committed last January when I started training for the Broad Street Run, and I've become a little obsessed. I've run a few races in the last year (more on that later), and I'm now super excited to train for my first marathon in March! I feel like all I do is read running blogs and runnerworld.com, and I've been thinking about blogging for a while. With the New Year and my marathon coming up, now seems like the right time.

This morning my sister and I woke up slightly hungover and ran the Hamilton Hangover 5 miler. We've never raced 5 miles before so... PRs! Yay! My legs were sore from running 15 yesterday, so I was hoping to break 55 minutes. We finished in 52 minutes - 10:15 miles! I'll take that.

Woohoo we <3 PRing!

Happy New Year!