Madison, MS Run For Life Marathon - training run

MissZippy has a cool giveaway going on here

This week my long run was a LSD (long slow distance) run in Madison, MS @ The Run For Life Marathon.  Madison is a little over 2 hours from home, so Fri., Terri and I headed out with a plan to do a little shopping.  I am not much of a shopper, but I can get excited about a trip to Academy Sporting Goods anytime.  As I headed out, I stopped to check the mail, and to my surprise, I had a coupon for Academy....SWEET!  Let's Shop!

First we went to pick up our packets, then we drove the race course.  We were starting to get a little nervous about the hills in the early part of the race, but all of the sudden the course flattened and stayed that way for several miles, maybe even for half of the, half marathon course (the marathon is a 2 loop course - which I am not the biggest fan, and about 1/2 hills and 1/2 flat - maybe????)

After driving the course we headed to Academy.  Success!  Nike yoga pants for winter, Nike visor for running, and stocked up on Accel  gels.  I have been using Gu for years, but in the spring I started experimenting with the Accel gels.  I can't say that I can tell any difference, but the Accel gels have protein in them.  I have read several times recently that the protein can aid in muscle recovery while you are running.   I have no idea if it's true or not, but just in case, I will likely continue with the protein gels.

Terri stayed with a friend, and I headed to the hotel early Fri evening.  Let me just say, I carb loaded for, I'm sure, a 50 mile race.  The dinner of choice, cheesy bread and fig newtons (don't judge - the cheesy bread worked at St. George)
Race start time 7:00 am
Race temp just before race time 57 degrees.

1st loop

Sunrise

You see the "training run" in the title.  So the goal today was to run slow, take pics, and have fun.  I had mentioned prior to the race that I would run around 10:00 min pace, but that was flexible.    So around mile 1, I asked a runner what her goal was for today, and she said 4:30.  Great!  So we talked and ran together until around mile 12.  She is from Columbia, MS (about 25 min from me).   This was her 2nd marathon, and her first was 8 years ago @ Disney.  Around mile 12, she needed to stop to stretch (she has some IT band issues).  So I continued on my way.   We were at 10:20 avg. pace.  I started picking it up a little, but then decided to wait until the half to pick it up.  So I hit 13.1 with an avg. pace of 10:20. 

 the 2nd loop - yes, now - a solo training run

We Interrupt this story for a VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE.....  I just looked at the results, and I won Masters and won $250.00.  SWEET!  When I left today, they only had the top 3 overall men's and ladies results.  I noticed that if I had "raced", I could have possibly placed 3rd, IF I had a really good day.  (it pays to be old, and  run VERY SMALL marathons).  Didn't think anything else about results until this evening.  I wanted to see if I could find the results for my new friend to see how she finished the race.   Shock and SURPRISE :)  The funny thing is, I came out much better to have run slow and won the Masters ($250) vs $100 for 3rd overall female. 

It's amazing how good you feel when you run slow in a marathon.  I felt really good, up until about mile 22-23ish.  Then it was like any other marathon - tough to finish.  And why is that??  It should have been no problem to finish this one, but it was hard.  Is that just mental or what?   I ended up picking it up enough to average 10:05 for the whole 26.55 miles, yep, 26.55.  Official time 4:27

After the race, I made my way over to the FOOD.   They had Chick Fil A.  I think that is a Southern thing, but anyway it's a fast food chicken place.  Most of my friends and family LOVE IT.  I have never understood the love affair with the Chick Fil A.  The times that I have tried it, it's a greasy, fried, chicken sandwich.  At first I told them no thanks, but then I walked back, and decided chicken actually sounded good.  Slowly, I made my way to some shade.  It was around the mid 80s by my finishing time.  Thank the Lord the humidity was much lower today than normal for MS.  (real feel around low to mid 90s).  Any-who...I DEVOURED the chicken sandwich.  It was YUMMY!  I think it had been sitting around long enough for the bread to absorb some of the grease, but it was still warm.  lol!  It's funny how food tastes so much better when you are really hungry.

I ended up with 27 miles today, and 49.5 miles for the week.   Not sure if the LONG training run will pay off, or do me in, but today, after ice, I'm feeling good.  Will see how if goes in Dec.  Either way, I won $$'s, and that's a GOOD thing.  Hee Hee  Next week will be a recovery/ "step back" wk with lower mileage.

Terri - ended up with a good half marathon.  She is having knee issues and listened to her PT who recommended NOT pushing it.  She is running the full marathon San Antonio in Nov.  She ended up 7th in her age group out of 54.  Terri's older sister, Tracie, came in 3rd overall female for the half.  Tracie will be running NYC this year.  Another local, Michelle, won 1st place in her age group, and will also be running NYC. 
Fun times in Madison, MS

Prayers and Funnies!

First I would like to ask my blogger friends who pray, to pray for a dear friend who lost her Mother to cancer this week.  She has been on my mind a lot this week and many previous weeks as she graciously helped her Mom through chemo, sickness, and dying.   Pray that she and her family will find peace in knowing that her Mom is no longer suffering.

The funnies - (ha ha)
*the night, or 2nd night after posting my last blog, I was in bed watching tv.  Suddenly it occurred to me that not only did I use the incorrect grammar on my last post, which I had intended to do,  but I misspelled it too, ha ha.  (if you read it after I corrected it, I had originally put - "ant life grand", instead of ain't life grand)  Too funny!  You have to laugh at yourself, and if you read it prior to my edit,  I'm sure you had a laugh too.    In addition to giving you a laugh,  I was assisting in keeping the typical stereotype of "Southerners being ignorant", alive and well.  ha ha
Really, in the South, there are many SMART people, don't judge by MY posts.  Ha Ha

*so I'm running this morning, the hubs was so sweet to drop me off up the road so I would be able to run with the wind at my back.  (more often than not, I will not do this because I think training with "what the weather gives you", is good race day prep, but today I decided I wanted the wind at my back.  Hey, I raced a 5k yesterday, and I have a full marathon training run coming up, so running with the wind at my back sounded good to me.)  Back to the funny part, so I am running along in the dark and some cars are approaching.  I am running on a 4 lane road which has a nice wide shoulder.  Perfect for running. (see pic below, but imagine it DARK) 

In the darkness I see what I think is a large piece of tire.  I jump, to go over it, and as I'm in the air, I realize it's skid marks on the road.  Ha Ha Ha!  I'm sure the approaching cars where thinking look at that drunk fool, running in the dark and jumping around. 

The funnies - (weird)
So I've been running for like 24 years (eeekk).  I have read many times about breaking your runs into small portions and that really make them more manageable and doable.  Through the years, I have tried to implement this, but it has never worked for me.  I often wondered how people trick themselves into just thinking about only that segment, when many other segments will follow.  All of the sudden,  it has actually worked for me a couple of times this fall.  Today, I had 18 miles, which I broke down into 6 mile segments.  It really worked.  Not sure why, but now with the  miles increasing, it's pretty easy to think about a 6 mile run, and think....6 miles...no problem.  Weird, right?  Hope it continues to work for me.

Ran another 5k this weekend.  This one was a true 5k - 3.10 miles.  The official results - 23:59 (23:55 Garmin)  hee hee, finally, officially on an accurate course, SUB 24.  So silly, I know, but it makes a difference to me.  Still hoping to see some larger improvements in my 5k performance this fall.  I know the higher mileage/ marathon training is holding me back from 5k improvement, but still hoping for a late fall jump in my 5k times.  It can happen, I know it can.

Next weekend will be the Run For Life 26.2 mile training run in Madison, MS.  I will take it nice and slow, walk when I want, and take pics along the way.  I enjoy racing, but I really enjoy relaxing too.  It will be hard, but FUN.  Also next weekend, my local friend Terry, will be heading to Chicago for the marathon.  Hope he, and all the bloggers heading to the windy city will find cool temps & low winds, or "the wind at your back."

Ending the week with 65 miles.  Iced after the 18 miler this am, and feeling good today. 

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Marathon training - big miles - hill repeats - tempo runs - yoga - stretching - planks - push-ups.... 

"ain't life grand?"  

(Before I go further or is it farther?  i dunno, but let me just go ahead and apologize to my Mother and the teachers who read this blog.  Obviously, if you have read this blog before,  or if you have heard me speak, you have noticed the English language is not my forte.)

So today I begin week 2 of my 12 week marathon program.(1st time to do such a short program)  I was greeted this morning with 60 degree temps.  We had a day and a half cool front, at the beginning of Sept., and then NOTHING.  In fact, last week, we had heat indexes at 100 degrees.  The early tease of cool air intensified the fall fever in most of the runners in the Southeast.  So today, I was "giddy" with fall excitement all day.   I started the day with the most excellent run.

6:15 am start, 60 degree temp, cold shoulders, sunrise pic with cheap-ass camera phone.  It's kind-of cool though!  The run was nothing spectacular.  In fact, the plan was 9:40 pace and I ended with 9:38 pace, but "the feeling" was amazing.  I ran on hills, I felt good the entire run, I felt strong.  The almost weekly, hill repeats with my friends were evident today.  They are making me strong.   My run today made me proud of  my summer training.  The run today gives me hope for the fall.  Hope that my speed will one day return.  Soon...it will return.  As I patiently await the return of my speed, today, I feel my strength on the hills.  I feel the summer high mileage helping me.  I ran 16 on Sat.  I ran 12 on Monday, and I feel strong. 

Last week 55 miles with a 16 miler on hills
This week 59 miles with an 18 miler
Next week 62 miles, with a marathon in Madison, MS, as a training run....a SLOW training run.
(well on my way to my new training goal of 3 - 70 mile weeks) 

The next 8 weeks (before the taper) will be GRAND.  I love the training, I love the cool weather, I love the racing, I love going after new training goals.  I am not the best racer, but I am a strong trainer.  When I am in "the thick of things" in my marathon training, it is, for me....

THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!

Other great things today.... lunch with my honey, while I worked today - the hubby cleaned the house.  Sweet!  Life is Good!

Weekend racing!

 Audrey, Me, Robbie, Kent

What a great weekend!  Sat. morning started off at the JCJC (junior college) 5k.  My goal, stated earlier in the week to running friends, was to no longer see 24 something for my 5k time.  (remember 2 wks ago, I ran the Labor Your Legs and finished with a time of 24:03)  I didn't care if the time was 23:59, but just feel I should be running 23 somethings - EVEN IN THE HEAT.    At the LYL race several of my friends and I, all finished just over 24 minutes.  We talked about all trying to go under 24 at our next race.  Sat. was the day.  Come on, we are talking 4 seconds, I can do that, RIGHT?   I thought it would be a solo effort, but was happy when Audrey showed up before the race.  We warmed up, and realized THIS Sat. was warmer than the LYL race, and THIS course had rolling hills.  The LYL course was flat.   So I realized we had our work cut out for us.  I knew it would be really hard, but I also know that I am finally making a little progress each week, and hoped we could meet our goal.  Audrey was sick for the LYL race, so I knew she could do it, but not sure what the day had in store for me. (Audrey is a much more talented runner than I am, but lucky for me, she doesn't have time to train.  If she had the time to really train, we would not be able to run together at all, she would be way too fast.  I am lucky she is a busy, busy woman)  So we ran through all the turns, up and down the hills, and finished in the football stadium.  First glance at my watch and excitement fills me. 23:36 - finally the training is paying off with a nice jump in my 5k time.  Most of the time, if I have a jump in my time, I will quickly look at my Garmin to see if the course is short, but on Sat. I did not do that.  I didn't do it because my training has been going well, and I thought it was a realistic improvement.  Audrey finished around 15 seconds in front of me.  After the race we made it to the water coolers and Audrey asks "what was the distance."  I looked down and I see 3.04 - elation quickly goes to deflation.   As soon as I made it back to the house, the first thing I do is to get on the pace charts to see how my time would calculate out to a 3.1 mile course.  24:01 
Boo!  I also calculate Audrey's time, and she would have been around 23:46.  Woo Hoo! Go Audrey!  Nope, I didn't make the goal, but I am fine with it.  Next time, I will see 23 something, I just know it.  I feel it!  Just need a little cool weather.

After I showered I packed the car and headed to South LA.  I was heading to the Harvest Fest 2 mile trail run in Paincourtville, LA @ 6:00 pm.  The race was at the home town of one of my good friends from my college days at USM.  Her sister was the race director, and I wanted to go and support the race, but more than that, I wanted to go visit with Janet and Darlene.  I met my sister-in-law, Sonja, and we headed to Paincourtville.  We arrived a little over an hour before the race.  

Janet and Me

(we played volleyball @ USM a couple of years ago)

Before the race, I was able to visit with Janet,  and toured the beautiful Catholic church in Paincourtville.(in the picture below)  Also, I was able to visit with Janet's sister, Darlene, was able to finally meet the hubbies, and was able to meet many of Janet's friends and other relatives.  

When it was time, I headed off to warm up a little.  My legs were tight from the am 5k and the 3.5 hour drive to get to the race.  Ouch!  The first 20 yards were slightly painful - hammies are really TIGHT.   After warming up, my legs felt MUCH better.  

Around 6:00 pm we are getting ready to start the race.  I think this was my first attempt of off road racing.  (I could be having a senior moment, and could have forgotten earlier attempts, but think I'm correct in the statement).  We take off and the first surface we run on is grass, tall grass.  We are heading into the sugarcane field.  Everyone quickly moves into the truck and tractor ruts along the road to the field.  The first thing I notice is - I have to pick my feet up more than usual, 2nd note - this surface is soft, and I have to work much harder on a soft surface.  Of course, I have run off road many times, but for the most part, I'm an asphalt runner, and I quickly note that I am not "trained" for off road running.  We later get on a dirt road which I think will be better, but quickly note that the LA dirt is SOFT, very soft, not like the clay type dirt that I am familiar with running on.  Then onto a gravel road.  Twist my ankle a couple of times, not a hurting twist, just rough footing.  Then back to the grass and to the finish.  It was such a neat adventure.  I was thankful it was just 2 miles.  That was a great introduction to off road racing. 

Scott - photo opt after the race.

Me in the sugarcane fields of South LA

After the race we were treated to jambalaya.  Darlene's husband had prepared the delicious LA treat.  Yummy!  Later in the evening,  Sonja and I headed out, and made the drive to Galliano/Golden Meadow, LA.  The rest of the weekend was spent with hubby.  He had Sunday off, so it was a great end to the weekend.   Being lazy!

A Salute to "the Purist!"

Today I had a 5.5 mile run to complete my goal of 50 miles this week.  Around 2.5 or 3 miles into the run, I was running toward a rain shower quickly moving up the road in my direction.  I welcomed the rain, but I feared the damage to my Ipod.  I tried to protect it as much as possible.  This meant running without my tunes.  I tried not to be deterred.  Ok, the purist say they enjoy the sounds.... I listen to my breathing....I do not appreciate this noise.  Don't get my wrong, yes, I am very thankful for every breath that I take, but hearing the in out, in out, in out of my breathing is not calming, comforting, or enjoyable.  I notice the birds singing....nice for about a half second.  I hear the splash of my feet hitting the soggy pavement.  Splat, splat, splat, splat - again I am not amused.  I think my landing is too hard.    I also hear cars passing and splashing water, I hear window a/c units, I hear a generator running on a boat that is parked in the bayou, I hear dogs barking,  I hear the rain.  Quickly I turn from noticing all the sounds to wondering????? How do the "purist" find this so great?  I can NOT figure it out!  Thankfully, after about a 1.5 miles, I no longer need to try to figure it out.  The rain has passed and with the very light sprinkle, I am safe to put my Ipod back on.  Once again, I am thankful, really thankful for my hearing.  Thankful to hear my tunes.  It's through my tunes that I find my joy in running.  
I salute "the purist" who can find enjoyment in running with the sounds of nature, because I am NOT amused.

I had a great week of training.  As mentioned, I started the week with the Labor Day 5k, I also ran again Monday pm on the treadmill to start the week with 10 miles.
The rest of the week went as follows:

Tues. Sept. 7th - 9.5 miles with Tracie behind Anatomies in The Trace subdivision. 8:58 pace for the run with some breaks.
Wed. - walk 30 min, core work, stretch
Thurs - 11 miles am with Terri (she ran 13), Vicki (she ran 6), Dawn - ran 8. I averaged around 10:00 pace.
Fri.- 14 miles - @ Canebrake - 2 miles at 9:38 pace, 12 miles with/ behind Tracie & Michelle. I averaged 9:10 for the 12 miles. Happy with that pace after the 11 on Thurs. Glad to have T. & M. out front. It helped me to push, and maintain my pace. This was a tough run. I started at 6:40 am, and it was HOT and HUMID. (ice bath after this one)
Sat. - 5.5 miles - easy - 10:00 avg. 8 X 15 second sprints near the end of the run.
Ending the week with 50 miles, 1 yoga class @ Spiers Fitness, a little core work, a few weights, some stretching, some push-ups - finding it hard to fit all the "extras" in like I want to, but I am happy with this weeks training. Last 50+ mile wk was at the end of March.

Tues., Thurs. and Fri - I was tired.  I think I had an adjustment week.   The good news is...today I felt good on the run, I ran slow, but no longer tired.  Now I have Sunday off, (off from running - Sunday will be a walk day).  Also, next week is a "step back" week in my training.  It's actually my last week prior to my official start of my 12 wk program for the Rocket City Marathon.  I am excited about the rest week, but I am VERY excited to finally get started with my training program.   (90 days until the Rocket City Marathon, Huntsville, AL)

Short Update!

The miles seem to be ramping up, and apparently cutting into my blog time.

Definitely having some solid end of summer training and slowly, ever so slowly, making progress in the 5k.  It's been really hard to "get back" to my previous 5k times, but now, I am thrilled to report, I am back in the ballpark.  Hoping I am almost back to my "happy home" of 23 something 5ks.

Today, I ran the Labor Your Legs 5k and I finished with a time of 24:03. 

Sonja (sister-in-law), Me, Robbie, and Kent

Great day at the race.

Heading toward 50 miles this week.

Much more important than miles!

Hello bloggers!  Some of you have already read the blog below.  If you haven't, it's a MUST READ.  Very important reminder for all of us to seize the moment, enjoy the day,  and to cherish our families each and every day.

Start here with part 1, and then read parts 2 and 3.

http://hubcitytri.blogspot.com/2010/08/5-years-feels-like-blink-of-eye.html

I have been reading James's blog for a while now.  He is a local runner in our area.  Through his blog, I have grown to appreciate his dedication to his training, racing, and diet.  Through our blogs, I could tell we shared a passion for all things technical about running, training, and racing.  I have seen James occassionally at races, but never had much of an opportunity to talk with him.  On Sunday, August 22, 2010,  a small group of runner's met to run 12 miles on the Longleaf trail.  Soon after starting our run, we met up with James on the trail.  He turned to run with us.  After a couple of miles, the group separated into different paces for the day, and on this day, I was lucky that James was there to run with me.  He is MUCH faster than I am, but on this day, he was just "logging some miles", working on building his base.  He will be running Rock N Roll Mardi Gras in Feb.,  and BOSTON next April.   Immediately, we were very "chatty" about all things training.  My conclusions from reading his blog were "right on."  Yes, we do share a passion for training, training hard, and technical running - GOOD STUFF.  He paced me through a good run on Sunday, and I enjoyed our chat. 

Then on Monday, I read his blog and was shocked and amazed at his strength.  I already knew from reading his blog that he is STRONG in so many ways.  He is an IronMan!  I was shocked to realize that I had run with him on such an important day in his life.  It was an honor to say the least.