I'm Baaaaack.

Okay, well Grandma's was a bust.  It happens, it's totally okay.  The one thing I know for certain about myself is that I'm not a good heat runner, not at all.  Grandma's was damn hot this year, much worse than last year.  I had always told myself that if a marathon was going to be crazy slow and bordering on dangerous, I would save my legs for another day.  I did that in Duluth.  I felt like I let a ton of people down, including myself but I'm very happy with my decision when I take a step back and look at things logically.  If I would have pushed it to the finish, my time may have very well have become a personal worse and my body would have been messed up for a long time.  Rain, wind, excessive cold can be very annoying and slow me down but heat is just dangerous to me.  I didn't want to be a martyr and end up in the med tent. 

So, onward and upward!  Since I did manage to save my body from the race I'm still able to keep on trucking with my training.  I did spend a few days feeling like I lost 6 months of training but have now realized that I can just keep building on it.  The only rough mental aspect about what happened is that I wasn't planning on training for a marathon through the summer down here in South Florida, but I'll make it with a little help from my treadmill.  I'm also planning for a trip back up to Northern MN in late August to early September for two or three weeks.  Having that sitting out there is a great motivator to endure through the tough conditions down here.  Hopefully, we can keep getting some lightening free rain a few days a week in the mornings so I can get in a good hunk of my workouts done outside.

I haven't nailed down a race yet for fall, but it'll be earlier than my original plan so I'm hoping something in October.  I hope to work this out in the next week or two.  If I'm able to race earlier, it should make the local races down here over the winter much more fun!  I missed so many with the taper and then injury post CIM that I can't wait to have a fun season down here with the girls!!!

This past week was nice and intense and I'm feeling good about my fitness.  It's always worrisome, trying to maintain things in these conditions, but I think a mix of "easier outside"/"hard inside" and monitoring my heart rate should keep me going strong.  This week was a 20 miler with a bunch of tempo stuff mixed in, that's always fine in the beginning and a complete challenge towards the end...I hope it gets easier over time, I would like to learn to really push when my legs are fatigued.  Mid-week, I was totally tricked into doing intervals!  It looked like some hillwork, oh no, totally felt like pure/fast speedwork.  And, then today was a nice tempo run...11 with 6 miles at pace and I felt pretty darn solid!

Also, to add on to my rambling post, I did have an AWESOME training cycle sans Duluth!  I finally got my 5k PR and managed a nice PR in Ogden!  Running Boston as a training run was also a really cool and fun experience, so I did get in a spring marathon even though I didn't race it.  So, the season was far from a loss, just one bad race.  I certainly can't complain about that!

Yummy Eats!

I made a couple of recipes lately that need to be shared!! I am guessing only a few people who read my blog actually care, but I know there are a handful of you out there that think about what goes into your body :).

These recipes are super easy!

Cumin Lime Tofu (adapted from eat, drink and be vegan--a GREAT cookbook, a home run every time!)

1 package of firm tofu, sliced in half lengthwise and then cut into 1/4" squares (patted dry)
Handful of raw pumpkin seeds

Mix the following:
1/4 cup of lime juice
2 tbs agave
1 tbs of cumin
1/2 tsp of curry
dash of allspice
cayenne to taste (we like a lot, but it gets pretty spicy)
salt
1.5 tbs coconut oil, melted

Coat tofu with mixture in a baking pan and put into the oven at 375* for 15 minutes covered with foil. After 15 minutes, take out remove foil and sprinkle seeds on top. Put back into oven, uncovered, until juices are almost soaked up around 15/20 minutes. I like to turn on the broil for a minute or so to really crisp up the edges of the tofu.


Orange Glazed Tempeh (I'm not sure the original source of this recipe, I found it online)

1 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
2 teaspoons tamari 
1 1/2 tablespoons mirin
2 teaspoons maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
1 package of tempeh
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 lime
a handful of cilantro

Put the orange juice in a small bowl. Squeeze the grated ginger over the bowl to extract the juices, then discard the pulp. Add the tamari, mirin, and maple syrup, ground coriander, and garlic. Mix together and set aside.

Cut the tempeh into triangle, bite-sized pieces.

Put the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the tempeh and fry until golden on all sides. Pour the mixture into the pan and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced until very thick.

After plated, add a squeeze of lime juice and some chopped cilantro.

Ogden Half Marathon, the super duper late race report

I'm determined to have a better running summer this year.  That means I'll toss in a few trips over the course of the season.  Trying to train in South Florida during the summer months is not only difficult, it's almost dangerous.  The heat and humidity are really challenging.  I'm heading to Minnesota in less than 3 weeks!  After that, who knows?  I'm hoping maybe the Pacific northwest.

So, we start out May with a trip to Colorado and Utah.  Wow, what a trip!  It really was one of the best vacations I've ever taken, it was awesome.  I flew into Denver with Matt and we drove to my cousin's amazing house outside of Woodland Park.  High, really high, nearly 9000 feet.  I live at 5 :).  Knowing I couldn't run that high, I drove down to Colorado Springs for my runs.  The trails they have in the Springs are totally out of control.  You can find anything!  I settled on doing the majority of my runs on the New Santa Fe Trail which was perfect.  I'm really jealous of people who have that to run on every day, those trails are so easy on the legs.  Wow, just wow.  The runs in Colorado went really well, the first day I had an 18 mile long run that just about killed me, so the remainder of the week seemed like a walk in the park. 

I was in Colorado from Saturday until Thursday, poor Matt had to head back to Florida on Tuesday.  I flew out to Salt Lake City on Thursday (bu-bu-bu-bumpy flight!) and drove up to Ogden on my own.  Utah is really, really beautiful.  No foothills, just valley and then huge mountains, it's breathtaking out there.  Matt made it out to SLC on Friday, he flew standby and it was close, but he snagged the very last seat on the plane!  We had an early supper and off to bed.  I got up around 3am, the busses left for the start at 5am.  I have no idea why they bused us up so early, but it's early.  We had an hour and half to wait and it was dark and cold.  I knew the race would heat up quickly, but that was rough waiting around.

I line up at the start and I'm feeling ready to go but I have NO IDEA what racing at altitude is all about.  I plan on going out somewhat easy and just see what happens, I was freezing the first couple of miles but things heated up quickly.  This course is by far the prettiest course I've ever run on!  There are views and then some, even a couple of waterfalls!  I was basically alone the entire race, it's a good thing I train on my own.  The last 3 miles were really rough once we were on the bike path back in town, I think the altitude just really caught up with me.  I was feeling good, but I just could not get the breathing under control, it was a weird feeling.  After getting home and doing a bit of research, we learned that those not adapted to the altitude end up racing at a much lower HR.  That was true for me, my HR for the 1/2 was much lower than it has been for all of my full marathons. 

The splits:

1)  6:54 okay, that's cool

2)  7:38 uphill mile, slower than I hoped but I'm not going to get in trouble in the altitude too soon.

3)  6:45

4)  6:33

5)  6:39

6)  6:53

7)  7:09 oops, I have no idea where my concentration went

8)  6:55

9)  6:51

10) 6:33 I'm feeling great here, I'm hoping I can reel in the leader

11) 7:08 yikes...I hear the lady in front of me isn't too far up ahead but I can't get moving.

12) 7:21 okay, I can't get my breathing under control, this is weird since my legs are feeling jumpy still.

13.1) 8:10 I give into 2nd place and I'm pretty sure no one is close behind. 

1:31:33 

2nd overall female

Overall, I'm really happy with how this race played out.  I didn't know what racing up at altitude was going to do to me.  It's different, but the beauty of running the mountains is worth the lack of oxygen.  This is a full marathon that I would love to do next year, but it's close to Boston.  I'll have to think about it and see where I'm at next spring.

Later, after the race, we went to Iflyutah and did indoor skydiving.  That was so much fun!  I was a little worried about how I would deal with it, I'm usually a mess after a race but I pulled myself together and glad I did!

Boston Marathon 2009

Visit with Uncle John, he looks GREAT!!!

I had decided to not run Boston after getting hurt during CIM. It bummed me out, but I knew I couldn't get in shape to run a good race after loosing so much fitness with the calf tear. I set my sights on Grandma's as my goal race for the spring. About a 6 weeks ago, Matt's Uncle John had a sudden stroke, a bleed, out of nowhere. The family air-ambulanced him up to Spaulding in Boston shortly after. We both really, really wanted to get up there to visit him and Matt was the one who suggested we do it during the marathon. So begins the training for the crazy long run that would be the 2009 Boston Marathon. I was certain that I'd be able to take it easier during this race, the one thing the calf tear taught me was to take a race easy if I needed to. It was a good lesson to learn and a nice option to have. I ran the 1/2 at Miami and the first 5k after that super easy and those runs were a blast. I knew Boston would be just as fun!

So, poor coach suddenly needs to get me ready for 26.2 miles out of nowhere. I managed three 20 mile long runs in 3 weeks and felt fine about going the distance.

We flew up to Boston on Saturday, landed and met up with Maureen who was kind enough to house us for the weekend and headed over to the expo. I had to chance to say a quick hello to my coach, that's always nice. I was warned to keep it under control, of course, no trust out there! My odd obsession with gnomes makes a public appearance when I ask Matt to go take a photo of Ryan Hall and I sneak up behind him holding gnomey :).
Sunday was a blast. I got up early and ran a couple of easy miles with Maureen in the cemetery where she normally does her running. I'm super jealous, it's such a beautiful and peaceful place with a nice mix of gentle hills. I would love to have somewhere so nice to do my runs in. After that, we headed into town and watched the Elite Mile races. Those were pretty fun to watch, I'm glad that Boston is doing something on Sundays. After the races we had a horrible experience on the T trying to get to the hospital to visit Uncle John, but we made it eventually. He looked so much better than either of us expected. It was so wonderful to be able to spend time hanging out with him and see the amazing progress he's made. Aunt Jean got us back to JB and I was able to rest up before a nice home cooked pre-cooked pasta supper.

I slept pretty well Sunday night, I tend to usually sleep okay before marathons but I can't sleep well at all before a 5k. Go figure, I guess that points to the races I like and those that I fear. Speed kills, people, speed kills! I think I had the alarm set for around 4am, I got up made some coffee got dressed with my multiple layers for Hopkinton and off we went into town to find the buses. I get on the bus and what do you know but sit down next to someone I know from Boca. Yikes, small world. I had someone to hang out with for the chilly 3 hours in athlete's village, that's cool.

I line up in the 6th corral and I'm almost laughing at myself since I'm just totally chill while the energy of everyone around me is just crazy with nervousness. I had two major things working for me. One, I did this gig last year so I know the routine and, two, I'm just using this as a long run so I feel zero pressure about pace. I'm more worried about going too fast rather than letting someone or myself down by going too slow. I really had no plan at all, I told Matt I'd try to keep my mile splits floating between 7:30-8 trying to keep them effort based considering the hills and general fatigue I'd be feeling towards the end of the race.

As you know, Boston drops like a roller coaster ride those first few miles. I'm running 7:30's and not even breathing harder than a walk with the puppies. I know that the hills will come later and even things out, as they did. It was really great to run this as a training run instead of a race it, I took in so much more and was able to meet a ton of really cool people on course. I never talk during my races aside from a random yep or nope when someone else asks me a question, so this was neat. I also had a blast interacting with the crowd. Man, you run over to the side and give a couple of high fives and the entire crowd goes totally wild, it's pretty funny. I made sure to mix that in every few miles.

I did make one pretty funny mistake. I throw like a girl (no aim) but, I'm strong. That's a really dangerous mix! Around mile 4 or so, I decide to take off my outside pair of gloves. They were a brand new pair, so I wanted to make sure they got to someone. I take them off, carry them until I see a group of spectators and toss them over to them. Well, my toss ends up being a pretty hard throw and I, of course, nail some poor young girl smack in the middle of her face. She was totally shocked and confused and, yes, all the guys I'm running with crack up and start pointing at me. Oops!

I was able to see Matt on course this year, too! Yippee! We failed at that last year. He got a picture of me around mile 24, I'm having fun and you can see I'm just goofing around out there.

The splits:

1) 7:36
2) 7:30
3) 7:25
4) 7:29
5) 7:33
6) 7:29
7) 7:26
8) 7:28
9) 7:29
10) 7:38
11) 7:38
12) 7:35
13) 7:38
14) 7:42
15) 7:55
16) 7:41
17&18) 16:17
19) 8:03
20) 8:20
21) 8:29
22) 7:51
23) 8:06
24) 7:54
25-26.2) 17:36

Chip Time: 3:23:59

Wow, what a crazy last couple of weeks now that I've decided to head up to Boston. Three 20 milers in 15 days. Yeah dog, that's a whole lot of long runs! The time it took for each is pretty telling of increasing intensity in workouts. #1) 2:47 #2) 2:37 #3) 2:34. The first one was like a nice stroll in the park, no quality. The second one had a bunch of marathon paced segments mixed in with short rest but they only lasted 4:15 per surge; harder but not exhausting and I finished feeling fine. The last one had 10 miles at 6:50 pace jammed in the middle...holy crap, I was really struggling to finish the last easy paced 6 miles of that run. I'm more sore after that run than I normally am after a race, yikes. I also thought it was interesting to look at the extremes of my paces last week. Fastest mile was 6:05 (mile repeats), slowest mile 9:06 (during a recovery run). I bet that is my biggest spread ever. I know I'm working hard when I am taking my recovery runs that seriously!

I'm fairly excited to head up north, it should be fun, just don't ask that around mile 21. I'll be running easy but I still have to contend with those darn hills. I not at all organized for our trip, it's going to be a quick one, but I still have a ton to do. I need to start my lists :)

Good Busy

It's going to be a wonderfully crazy next 3 months. I'll spend the next 3 weeks trying to get ready to run (not race!) Boston, my endurance is lacking at this point in my training by design. I'm still building back up after the CIM injury. The half at Ogden is 3 1/2 weeks after Boston, I may try to get out to Colorado Springs for a bit before that race, too, to give myself a week or so to adjust to the altitude. I'm not totally certain about that yet, though. Then, the goal race, Grandma's on June 20th. I feel like I've been suddenly thrown back into real, big girl, training. It's good, very good, but my body is going to take a couple of weeks to adjust to this.

The Riverwalk Race was this past weekend. I love this race, they give away watercolors for prizes, sweet! I hope to keep collecting these over the years. I had last year's framed and dropped this one off this week to get done, as well. I finally popped through the 20 barrier at this race. Tight, 19:59 but it's done. Time to move on. I know my 5k should be much faster, looking at my marathon times but I'm not holding my breath for a crazy pr anytime soon. Lactic acid is not my friend, not at all. Ouch. Distance=Fun, Short=Pain in JenLand.

Good busy, I like it :)

Boston as a long run?

Yeah, I'm thinking about it.

Pros:

• I'm registered
• Free place to stay, don't need a car in Boston, we can probably non-rev our flight up there.
  
• I have to do a long run that weekend anyway
• It would be cool to run the course slowly and really take it all in
• A nice hilly long run will set me up nicely for Ogden 1/2 and Grandma's
  
• A chance to visit with Uncle John who recently had a stroke and is in rehab up there
• It's Boston

Cons

• I haven't really run many long runs, I will probably get in a couple of 20/22 milers at the most before.
  
• Not racing it, so it'll be a long training run, I'll probably be out there for over 3 1/2 hours plus.
  
• Ending my fun little streak of marathon PR's (very vain of me, but I like it)
  
• I haven't done squat for hilly runs since CIM

What say you, my friends?

A1A Half Marathon 2009

Okay, I've been reminded that I'm totally neglecting my blog. I just have a difficult time finding motivation to type about my training when I'm not really training all that much. I've been promised by my coach that things will start to ramp back up on Sunday, so I'm very much looking forward to that. I've just been doing light mileage weeks of easy running since recovering from my calf injury, so there haven't been any real workouts or any real impressive mileage. I'm sure once I see my new schedule, I will panic and miss these last few easy weeks! I'm always a tad overwhelmed when I look at my workouts, but I get them done much easier than I expect. I guess that's the sign of a good coach! I'm very, very hungry to start working again.

This past weekend was the A1A Marathon and Half Marathon in Fort Lauderdale. I can't express how much I enjoyed this race this year! It really was a blast. First off, for me, I liked that this race finally addressed some of the issues that drive me nuts with these races. They set up recycling for the water bottles and cups at the stations! So easy and the amount of waste this eliminates is huge! Good for them, stepping up.

I had no expectations going into this race, I just told Matt I'd be somewhere between 1:30-1:40. I guess I kind of planned to try to keep the miles between 7-7:30, as long as the calf was feeling good. The calf was totally fine, it's been solid for a couple of races now. It hurt some at Miami, but after that race I consider it 100%; I've raced a 5k and now this 1/2 with zero residual issues. I'm very pleased this injury is a thing of the past.

We got there nice and early, I was able to relax a bit before the race before we lined up. I met up with a mix of friends and team members at the start. At 5:45 the wheelchair athletes were off and we waited for our 6am start. Nope. We waited for a 6:10 train. Now? Nope. We waited for 6:15 bridge. Okay, finally we are off.

I felt really smooth on this run, probably the best I've felt while racing. Of course, I wasn't out there to kill myself, so it helped out the effort level was only about 90%. I'm feeling ready to try to pop a nice race, but I also need to keep in mind that Grandma's in the goal in June, so these are just glorified training runs right now.

I LOVED the change in the course this year, going into the park first. It made the race go by very quickly. With getting out of downtown, over the Las Olas bridge, and then through Birch State Park keeping me distracted, the race was half over before I knew it. The views are so pretty along A1A, so the 2nd half of the course was just trying to keep pace somewhat and enjoy watching the sunrise and looking at the ships out on the water. Things could be worse!

I traded places with a teammate for the entire race, that was fun! Also, my friend Mari-Lee ROCKED the marathon and came home with the win. Congrats! I'm very happy for her! After the race, I was able to meet up with John, my friend dealing with his own calf injury right now (well I heard him but didn't see him early on!) and my friends Salome (on her own IR) & Bill, who rocked his race! I also need to mention when I missed my water cup at the station on the way out of the park, the guy who was holding it came running after me with it until he caught up with me several meters later. What service! Whoever you are, thank you, now that's a good volunteer and it put a smile on my face!

The mile markers we off by a good amount in the beginning of the race, so I'll pull my splits off of Running Charts.

1) 6:54
2) 6:56
3) 7:00
4) 7:03
5) 7:08
6) 7:08
7) 7:12
8) 7:18
9) 7:08
10) 7:08
11) 7:06
12) 7:12
13) 7:14

Total time: 1:33:15
2/174 30-34 AG
11/1334 Female

Nothing too exciting 'round these parts

I have a hard time blogging a lot when there isn't too much going on with my running. I do feel back, finally, after dealing with this injury. There are still some slight issues, but they are lessening everyday. I ran the 1/2 at Miami, ran not raced, so there isn't too much to report about that. I went out s.l.o.w. picked it up for a while but slowed right back down when my calf started to yell at me a bit. I also picked up a cold at Miami, it seems like every single person I know who ran that race got sick this week, crazy!

Coach is still holding me back, so I haven't run any real quality yet. I have a 5k this weekend that is going to most likely be ugly-ugly-ugly, but I need to start somewhere. I'm excited that it's racing season here, so I hope to find some of my speed that I've lost. I'll do a handful of 5k's, the 1/2 at A1A, either Gate River Run or the 10 miler down here (they are on the same weekend), and then we are going to fly out to Utah in mid May so I can run the Ogden 1/2 for a final tune-up before Grandma's. I could use an altitude tent before that one, that's for sure!

Not much else is happening around here. The puppies are great, Suunta is sleeping on the bed now, cuddled right up next to me the entire night...oh boy. She is so different than the Aussies, but has shocked me with how attached to me she is. She follows me EVERYWHERE, if I take a shower, she's pushed up against the door, if I walk in the kitchen, she's right behind me, she is always looking at me. It's funny, she hasn't done anything to make me distrust her, but I won't leave her loose when we leave the house. I just have a feeling she could cause a huge amount of damage and I don't know why. Well, since she has Bentley's giant cage, I don't feel too bad about and she trots right in when I ask her to.

Hopefully things will be a tad more interesting in the coming weeks and I'll have more to write about!

25 Things About Me

I posted this on Facebook, Maria got it started. I figured I would cross-post it here. One of these days, I'll do Cindi's version of 100!

1. I really, really enjoy running and racing. I want to see if I can keep getting better at it, which is a driving factor in my training.

2. I love my dogs probably way too much, but they bring us so much joy.

3. I wish I lived closer to my parents :( I would love to see them every day.

4. I have never seen Star Wars!

5. My toes are a disaster, it is rare when I look good in open toed shoes but I still wear my flip flops in the summer down here. I figure having a runner's body is worth getting stuck with runner's feet.

6. I think I'm about the only person who gets my husband's sense of humor! He thinks he is way funnier than he really is, which makes me laugh even harder when he tells people a joke and they just stare at him. We both tend to end up in tears while everyone else wonders what's going on.

7. I know I can't tell jokes, so I don't even try :)

8. The majority of my injuries and humiliations have occurred from the following thought entering my brain "I wonder if I can........"

9. I tend to say what I think and I love that quality about myself.

10. I am not religious in a traditional sense, I thank my parents for allowing me to grow up to develop my own ideas about life instead of forcing something upon me from a young age. They rock!

11. I am the least artsy, creative person ever. I can't sing, dance, write, draw or play an instrument. Matt is the same way, we both made it through 2 piano lessons as kids.

12. I grew up on a farm, riding horses and around a ton of animals. I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world!

13. I got my work ethic and drive from my Dad. Sometimes I feel like his clone, I'm okay with that and proud to be his daughter.

14. I love to cook, but I hate to bake!

15. I sleep A LOT, like a lot! I go to bed around 8:30 when I'm in heavy training.

16. I sleep on my stomach but wished I didn't. I hurts my neck.

17. The majority of my friends are guys, it has almost always been that way.

18. I am not sure how long I can control the urge to put out cigarettes in smokers eyes. I hate having to breath in their poison and it ticks me off.

19. I am cooking vegan or vegetarian 4/5 nights a week.

20. I have never done a shot (of alcohol). I am pretty sure I would throw up if I tried.

21. My favorite wine of all time is Duckhorn.

22. I drive a hybrid.

23. I am terrified of birds, totally terrified.

24. I hate milk.

25. I am not good at spelling and it frustrates me, but I swear it's not logical most of the time.