Met my team at Fairview High School track for some track intervals.
Warmed up 20 minutes, stretching, strides
4X (400 M w/ 1 min. jog, 800 M w/2 min jog, 400 M) 2 min jog between sets
400 M intervals were between 79-87 seconds each
800 M. intervals were between 2:51-2:59 each
20 minute cool down
Took a nap this afternoon and then took the kids hiking in Boulder around 4 p.m. They LOVED being out in the wilderness exploring. Afterwards we went to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner just to try something new and different. I was pretty impressed with the fact that all three of my kids actually tried and liked some of the food!
Blustery wind tunnel run around the neighborhood. Wind was bearable in between the houses, but near the end I attempted to run .1 mile on 100th ave by the Lake and it was like running up against a brick wall of dirt into my face. I carried some of that home in my ears and nostrils and cleared it out after my shower.
P.M. 9.5 miles in 7:36 ave. pace
Met the team at East Boulder Community Park. Wind was still in full force; the weather update said 35 mph winds with gusts up to 46 mph. Colleen gave us the option of going to the Rec. Center and running on the treadmill. Only two people chose that option. The rest of us battled the wind.
20 minute warm up, stretching, strides
4X45 seconds quick pace (probably 5:40ish pace)
7 minute tempo in 6:06 pace (wind against our side for the first 3 minutes, directly in our face for the next two, and a tailwind for the final 2 minutes).
4X90 seconds steady (pace was 5:40 with the wind at our back, 5:50 into the wind, 5:38 with wind at our side and 5:45 with wind at our side again) I started getting some intestinal pain on the last one of these and was kind-of dreading my last interval.
5 minute tempo in 5:57 pace. Stomach hurt the whole time.
20 minute cool down. Stomach wrenching in pain. Stopped in the bushes. Jogged slowly back to the parking lot with one final push in to the stiffest wind of the workout in the final quarter mile. Glad that one is over. Wind is not my favorite running conditions.
Felt pretty tired after the workout yesterday afternoon. Easy slow run to work out the soreness.
Aaron and I are leaving for Crested Butte tomorrow for a weekend get-away without kids to celebrate our Anniversary. A quiet weekend of sleeping in, eating out, hot-tubbing, running, biking, and relaxing with my best friend in the entire world. I'm SO excited!!
Woke up and did P90X Core Synergestics with Aaron. Then we went to town to eat breakfast and get a few groceries. Then it was off to the trails for a 7 mile run/hike through the mountains in Crested Butte. I was feeling pretty tired. It was hard to get into a groove because of all the mud and snow patches, but it was beautiful outside so I just enjoyed the outdoors and didn't beat myself up too much. After our run I went back to the hotel to shower and take a nap while Aaron added on another 10 miles. Then we both went to get massages, went to a yummy dinner together, a movie in the little local theater, and a soak in the hot tub to top it all off. Beauty day.
Got my run in first thing because I always feel the best right when I wake up. 20 minute warm-up, stretching, strides.
7 X 1000M repeats in 3:41, 3:39, 3:44, 3:40, 3:40, 3:47, 3:44 (5:50-6:03 min/mile pace)
The cool down was all uphill back to my hotel at the resort and I was about ready to stop my watch and walk up the final half mile of 12% grade slope when Aaron came to offer me a ride after he had finished his mountain run. I gladly accepted.
We did some Yoga X (I only made it through about 15 minutes before I decided to just roll out on the foam roller and relax). Then we took a little nap and afterwards drove 30 minutes to Gunnison for some SWEET mountain biking. Biked for an hour and a half or so. I was pretty tired near the end, as you can see in the video. Its always the last run of the day when things like this happen.
Ran around Standley Lake. Not super energetic this morning when the kids woke up at 6 a.m. I'm transitioning out of vacation mode where I slept in to at least 8 a.m. every day. Felt okay on my run. Shin a little sore and bruised from Saturday's crash but other than that, body feels good.
Did Ab-Ripper X with Aaron when I got back from my run which was 300+ crunches/sit-ups. Then did 3X25 push ups and 3X10 pull-ups. Little rusty on those. I slacked off last week and now I gotta get going again!
4X45 seconds in 5:25, 5:19, 5:32, 5:27 pace w/ 75 seconds recovery jog between each
4X2 minutes in 5:45, 5:58, 5:27, 5:33 pace (first two were slight uphill, second two slight downhill) w/ 90 seconds recovery jog between each
2X4 minutes in 6:16, 5:47 pace (first was slight uphill, second was slight downhill) w/ 2 min. recovery jog between each
4X60 seconds in 5:25, 5:13, 5:42, 5:11 pace (every other slight up or downhill) w/ 60 second jog in between
20 minute cool down
Colleen lead the group again today and she did the workout in full effort with us instead of taking it easy. Dang she is fast! I stayed somewhat close to her on the 45 second intervals but I was a good 20-40 strides behind on the longer intervals. Simon, the tri coach who brings his tri group to workout sometimes was there too. He is coming back from injury and this was his first interval workout in a few months. It was fun to watch him kill himself to stay with Colleen. I guess he was being a gentleman to run ahead and open the gates for the group but surely he pushing it so hard so as to not let a woman beat him too. It was funny, near the end of the intervals he started walking on the recovery jogs and Colleen reminded him that he should be jogging. He was obviously spent.
Light snow last night didn't stick to the roads or sidewalks, just made the morning more beautiful and a little chillier. Pulled my long sleeved shirt sleeves over my hands and just went by feel, not looking at my watch. I was actually surprised to see that I averaged 7:32 pace. Felt more like 8:00 pace. Legs a little tired from the workout yesterday, but not bad.
P.M. 4 miles in 7:43 pace
Went to the gym this afternoon to let the kids play in child care while I got in a few more miles and l did my pu-pu-su
Out and back on the Big Dry Creek trail. Left at 6 a.m. with the promise to Aaron that I would be back at 7:30 a.m. so he could go running before his dentist appointment. The time restraint kept me moving briskly. Felt pretty good though!
We're going to do Yoga X tonight so that should be a good stretchy workout. Hopefully I'll have the mental commitment to push through more than 15 minutes this time.
I was SO tired yesterday. Was reading in my bed at 9:00 p.m. and must have zonked out 20 minutes later. Another 20 minutes after that, Aaron came to bed and I woke up. That was when my brain turned back on and I could not shut it down. Aaron was snoring less than ten minutes after his head hit the pillow, but I tossed and turned until midnight when I finally got fed up with it and sat up to do some more reading until I felt tired again. Finally fell asleep around 2 a.m. I hate it when that happens.
Did our intervals back and forth on 2 kilometers of muddy, puddle laden trail. Reminded me of cross country.
4K at half-marathon effort (elapsed time was 14:44 which was 5:59 pace)
3 min recovery
2K at 10K effort (7:06 which was 5:46 pace)
5 min recovery
2K at 10K effort (7:17 which was 5:55 pace)
10 min cool down
Post workout I came home, ate breakfast, showered, and went to play Racquetball with my friend Shawna. We just volleyed and enjoyed hitting the ball hard without keeping score (since I pretty much stink at the game and she would have kicked my bum anyway). It was really fun though! Now we're off to take the kids swimming for the afternoon.
Finished the second half of ab-ripper X with Aaron when I got back from my run. Also did a few more sets of sit ups (too distracted by my kids to count), 4X11 pull ups, and 4X27 push ups. Aaron pointed out to me this morning that I do most of my pull-ups dynamically (cheater?) I try to start off static but after about 4 or 5, my legs start swaying and body kinda has to lunge to get me up. I don't plan on changing my form because I like it and it is still super challenging, but rocking and rolling definitely enables me to do more. Just thought I would disclose that so y'all don't think I'm some sort of super perfect pull-up prodigy.
Registered for a little 5k this weekend since we'll be in Phoenix for a business trip and I won't have my team to work out with anyway. It'll be good to see where my fitness is and work the kinks out a little before the Bolder Boulder in a couple of weeks. This will be my very first race of 2010!!!
6X800 M in 2:45, 2:46, 2:44, 2:44, 2:42, 2:38 (5:16-5:32 pace)
4X200M in 36-38 (4:48-5:00 pace)
10 minute cool down
We had a pretty big group this morning. Lots of triathletes were there which was nice because it added depth to the fastest group. The coolest part was watching Richey (our ART guy/Chiropractor) out-sprint Damon (1st year pro-triathlete) in the final 200 M interval. Richey has wheels! Apparently the Fairview High School track is the place for pros to workout because as we were wrapping up our workout more pro triathletes started showing up and I saw Renee Metivier Baillie walking in as I was walking out.
Beautiful 50 degrees and sunny. If the weather could stay like this (50 degree mornings, 70 degree afternoons) all year, I would be happy about that.
I was going to go to the gym to run a few more miles this afternoon and also do my pu-pu-su, but I did not get to it. Took a bike ride to the park with the kids instead. They were in need of something kid-centered and fun instead of just being dragged around to do my thing. On our short bike ride to and from the park I saw three different friends from my church drive by at varying intervals and wave. Interesting timing. Its always fun to see familiar faces.
I finally went through the pics from our trip to Cali a few weeks ago and just have to share a few of my favorites. Our 4yo, Bre is a little daredevil...I love it! She did not quite make it to the safety of Aaron's hands on this jump. Ended up with a nice face plant and some sand in her eyes. But it wasn't her last jump of the night. :)
Felt pretty good this morning. My ipod died at the turn-around point, which just gave me some nice peaceful time with my thoughts. Beautiful 50 degree, slightly overcast morning.
After a few hour delay leaving the Denver airport due to a travel agent error, we finally got to Phoenix around 8 p.m. Friday night and checked into the hotel around 9:30 p.m. Two double beds and one crib in the room meant I got to sleep with my 4yo, Breanne who is obviously not used to sleeping with anyone else because she seriously attacked me multiple times throughout the night. Not just a little nudging and kicking, I'm talking full on slapping and punching me in the face while screaming and yelling at me. It was a long night, to say the least. In the morning when I asked her why she was attacking me she simply said she didn't want me sleeping next to her.
We had no problem getting to the 7:30 a.m. "race" that I had registered for since that was like 8:30 a.m. Denver time and we'd already been up for nearly two hours. Aaron dropped me off at the Church where the race started and finished so I could jog the course for my warm-up while he went to get breakfast with the kids. The "race" turned out to be about 30 people, most of them local friends and family walking together and literally about 12 runners. Definitely the tiniest race I've ever done. In fact, calling it a race is an over-statement. In reality it was a fundraiser walking event where I ended up running a solo tempo run. Someone said ready, GO and me and one other guy (I'll call him Hipster) took off at 5:40ish pace. Hipster took the lead a few strides in front of me and I tried to find my groove right behind him. The sign had fallen off at the first turn-around point but since I had jogged the course for my warm-up I hollered at Hipster to turn, but in his confusion, he slowed a bit and I caught him and told him I had seen the turn-around sign on my warm-up, it must have just fallen off since then. After a few more full-effort strides, Hipster cussed, grabbed his hip, and slowed to a light jog. That was at about .9 mile and from there on out, I was on my own. Pretty uneventful. Splits were 5:42, 5:40, 5:37, final .1 in 5:09 pace for a finish time of 17:31. Finish line sign had fallen down by the time I got back. Aaron and the kids were my sole finish line greeters. After I finished, I laughed, put the finish line sign back up, and drank some much needed water. Decided to walk over to the food table and the race director said, "Oh, you're back! (looking at his watch) 18:25!?" I just smiled and laughed again (I had stopped my watch when I actually finished at 17:31) and thanked him for a nice race. He asked for suggestions for next year (as this was their innagural event...go figure?) and I told him to use quick ties for his signs since the turn-around and finish line signs had fallen off their duct taped anchors. He said he was also planning on getting a race timer and some race bibs for next year's race. The food table was decent; better than plenty of other 5ks I've done. So I grabbed a bagel and we left. It was a good fitness test that revealed to me that I can run a 5K pretty comfortably in 17:31 and I was happy about the fact that I was getting faster and looser each mile. I felt like I could have gone another 5k at that pace which gives me confidence for my sub 37:00 goal at the Bolder Boulder next week.
The rest of the day was fun. I swam with the kids at our hotel for a few hours while Aaron did his mountain run. Then we all took naps while Aaron did the Infomercial filming (the purpose of the trip). After that we took the kids canoeing on the lake at the hotel and went to dinner at my step-brother's house in Chandler. The kids enjoyed getting to know their step-cousins whom they had never met previously.
Sunday morning we had a run-in with Nacho Libre (who's wife, Victoria makes a mean batch of biscuits and gravy) and enjoyed chatting while the kids played hide and seek (they never did find you in the front bushes, Allie...nice spot!)
My left achilles has been a little tight for about a week now and is not getting better fast enough, so I scheduled an appointment to get some ART done on it tomorrow. That should be fun.
P.M. Met my team at Potts Field for some intervals on the Boulder Creek Path
20 minute warm up, stretching, strides
3 X Mile in 10K pace (I probably went a little too hard)
My watch is usually pretty accurate at measuring distance but tonight it seemed to be off. My splits based on the Creek Path mile markers were 5:41, 5:32, 5:35 but my watch says I ran shorter than a mile each time with my paces being 5:47, 5:37, 5:45. Regardless of which one is more accurate, I felt great, which was confidence building. I think I'll shoot for 5:50 pace in the Bolder Boulder, which will put me at a low 36 minute time.
There were a TON of runners out on the Creek Path tonight. I could almost read their minds..."Uh oh, the Bolder Boulder is only 6 days away...guess I better go running!"
Legs are pretty sore. Went to see Richey for some ART this afternoon and he worked my left quad and achilles really deep first with Active Release Technique and then with his Graston tools. Now I have all sorts of splotchy bruising all the way up my quad and on my lower calf. Beauty.
P.M. 4 miles in 7:45 pace
Achilles is already starting to loosen up, but still sore.
Lifted weights and mixed in 3X10 pull ups, 3X20 push ups and 3X50 sit ups.
It was unusually hard to pull myself out of bed at 6 a.m. and it took me about 5 miles to warm up, but the good news is my achilles and quad are starting to feel better after all that work I had done on them yesterday. Hopefully I can get a nap in today.
Legs feeling pretty good. Aaron and I went on a fun date in Boulder last night. Went to dinner at The Mediterranean (highly recommended delicious restaurant) and hiked Mt. Sanitas (nice little 3 mile loop). Mt. Sanitas is a pretty rocky climb for the first mile up and second mile down, then we ended up running the last mile or so down the smooth (but pretty steep) path. Super fun date; way better than the boring old dinner and a movie idea.
Met my group in Boulder and noticed that Coach Darren was having his Striders group meet at the same time and location as us and he had planned for a guest speaker to come after our run to motivate us for Bolder Boulder.
As we were gathering and getting ready to run, fellow blogger Scott Ensign came up to me and introduced himself. He was there with his brother, David who runs with the Striders group. I told Scott to come run with our group since we are a little faster, so he joined in. It was nice to meet him in person; he is very friendly and keeps the conversation interesting.
We did a 15 minute warm-up, stretching, 4X25 second strides
Then 5X2 minutes at 10K pace (mine were in 5:41, 5:25, 5:40, 5:35, 5:42 pace)
A short 15 minute cool-down and we were back at the meeting spot for some liquid, stretching, and a little Q&A with pro-runner Renee Metivier Baillie, who is running for team USA in the pro start of the Bolder Boulder on Monday. I sat with Scott and met his brother, David, who shared the article he had written about the Bolder Boulder for the Daily Camera (local newspaper).
Afterwards, I had a busy day going to two different birthday parties for friend's kids. Eating cake twice in one day probably wasn't my best pre-race diet plan, but its in the past now. ;)
Bolder Boulder (6.2 Miles) 00:35:50, Place overall: 2
Easy Miles
Marathon Pace Miles
Threshold Miles
VO2 Max Miles
Total Distance
2.80
0.00
6.20
0.00
9.00
Picked up the babysitter at 5:50 a.m. (what a Saint she was to wake up so early on her holiday). Drove to Boulder and parked at Scott Carpenter Park in between the Start and Finish lines. Jogged 2 miles with Aaron and wiggled our way through the crowds to the start. Didn't have time or space to run strides, but stretched out a little as we waited 5 minutes for the start. The race went out fast since the first three quarters of a mile is downhill. I had to restrain myself to not go faster because I really wanted to run even splits (the most efficient way to run).
Mile 1 in 5:42
I had no idea how many women were ahead of me at this point but I assumed it was a good handful and I didn't really care either because I was just running my race at my pace.
Mile 2 in 5:46
Felt pretty good, starting to get into a rhythm running with all men around me. Passed one gal that obviously went out too fast.
Mile 3 in 5:54
Some elevation gain in this mile. Just trying to keep my effort even. Passed another woman.
Mile 4 in 5:43
Coach D caught me near the beginning of this mile and seeing him motivated me to keep pushing forward. Passed another woman somewhere in here. The elevation went up some and down some. The elevation profile for this course is pretty much never flat.
Mile 5 in 5:41
Caught another woman just as we reached the highest point of the course but she did her best to stick to my tail. I visualized this mile in my head last night as I was falling to sleep because I really wanted to push through this part and knew the downhill could help me, so it ended up being my fastest mile at 5:41.
Mile 6 in 5:52
The girl I caught is still hanging on to me for dear life and at one point someone yelled to us, "Good Job! You're the 2nd and 3rd women!" I was pleasantly surprised because I didn't know we were that high up. The 1st place woman was nowhere in sight, but I just kept pushing to the finish giving it all I had.
Final .2 in 1:12 (6:00 pace)
Just trying to hang on at this point. One last steep hill up to the stadium pretty much wipes out my legs and a dying sprint to the finish on the track is all I have left. Whew!
Found out that the leader came through in 35:12 and 3rd place was 36:02, all three of us local Coloradoans! Touched base with Coach D (35:20, 1st in AG) and Jeff (35:37) while I waited for Aaron. I'm super happy with that time considering it is a PR for me and it was a challenging course at altitude. I gave it all I had and feel really grateful that it went so well. Aaron had a great race too, finishing under 40 minutes with basically no road training for this race (and running in his VFF sprints!) We saw Scott afterwards too, and Aaron took a pic on his cell phone. Now I'm looking forward to the team BBQ this evening at the De Reuck's to share race stories and hear how all the RRBs did. Good times!
