Winter Workouts that will keep you from getting ragey.

Last winter, as we all remember too vividly, was a complete polar vortex of absurdity.
From what I remember, from about Thanksgiving on there were barely any days where it was safe to head out and run on the roads. Between the snow, the ice, the sharknados and the sub zero temps it was a serious disaster.

Such danger.

I'm seriously pleased that I was able to spend most of December (except for a few runs) out of my basement and free in the world enjoying the sights (trees. squirrel! trees.)

I know some people don't have much trouble running in very cold weather. I, however, am not one of those brave and crazy individuals. I literally freeze my butt off running in the teens and when it gets into the single digits, FORGET IT. Nope. not happening, Zero fun. Zero.
So yeah, that's when I jump onto my pissy old treadmill and get my damn workout on. UGH!!

Since I am a *world famous blogger* and OMG a FOUR time Boston Qualifying CHAMPION people are always asking me about how I stay so awesome during the winter.
.....And by people always asking me I mean my friends. Occasionally. But who's counting......

So, to satisfy the curiosity of my legions of fans (*ahem* *or my mom*) Here are a couple things I do that keep my ADD at bay.

For longer runs (anything that requires me to be on the beast for 90 plus torturous minutes) the only solace is to bring down the ipad, pop in my earbuds and enjoy hour upon hour of the highest quality educational television known to man.
.......Dance Moms........
Whatever. You all watch Real Housewives so don't judge!

Strategic angles to make me look tall. Totally working.

There is a plus to the treadmill, and that is the benefit of being able to select a pace and not to alter it for a specified period of time. While I much prefer to do repeats on the track (or the road) it is good practice in pacing to thrash out treadmill repeats. B-A-R-F. I mean YAY!

A couple workouts that are enjoyable.
For people who hate fun.
Just kidding!!! I like these! Make the best of it bitches, it's winter.

Fartleks, because the word "Fartlek" makes me say "hee hee hee!" (For those you who don't know, fartlek means speed play- not excessive gaseous fumes.) Clearly you could mess around with this to meet your fitness or mileage needs but typically I like to do this:
-2 miles warmup
-Between 10-20 One minute fartleks, with one minute active rest in between (I run slowly- you could walk, or whatever makes you happy) I like to shoot for around 5K pace which feels brutal in the very best of ways... This is fun because it breaks up the monotony, trains the old legs to move nice and quick, makes you feel like a track star and speed work is good for the soul. Or the cardio, whatevs.

Or, if you want something a little different:
I am a big. BIG. Big. Fan of the progressive treadmill run and there are so many ways to do this to keep you from getting bored, falling off purposefully and breaking all your legs.

I do one of two things all of which involve some sort of outside entertainment.
1: Progressive song run. Duh, so easy. Crank up some sweet tunes and every time the next song comes on you increase your speed a predetermined amount. Rock on with your bad self.
2: Commercial progression of excellence. (fails if you have Netflix) Self explanatory, but a slower progression as a general rule. Sometimes I do "commercial hill repeats" where, during ads I crank up the incline- all the while desperately wishing for my crap TV show to come back on.

Let's be honest. I'm looking forward to getting back on the road! In the meantime though, I'm lucky to have an at home workout option and I hope that some speed work over the winter will pay off in April when it counts!

Furthermore, when else will I have a legitimate excuse to watch such horrible television??

The *best* way to start the New Year....

There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING that gets the New Year off to a good start like a pustulating case of pink eye paired with a wracking, hacking cough.

Yep, The winter plague hit and hit hard! So very, very gross.

I suppose, once you peel away the layers of germs, one can try to make the best of a rather nasty situation.

Case in point:
-The weather has been chilly. Might as well be sick!

As it turned out my weather app was *totally* exaggerating. It was a balmy -15.

-It's really too early for me to "seriously" Boston train. I'm not an 18 week plan girl. I'm like a 4 week plan girl. Which is not exactly ideal and one of my sick day goals is to figure out a proper training strategy, one which involves more running and less slamming down bottles of cough syrup (gross.)

I love how much inspiration I add to my Believe Journal... #sobrave

 -As an equestrian I don't technically get sick days unless I have a fever of 103.9 or similar so I have continued to enjoy the delight of winter time stall mucking, dressage horse wrangling (sassy beasts) and teaching of the future generation. It's all been good, actually. Takes my mind off the residual gunk in my lungs.

Who can think about their Typhoid when you teach cute littles like this??

While I have not had a particularly inspired start to the year in running it is really no big deal. It's better to get all this absurdity out of the way while the temps are treacherous! I have managed to get a few miles in (on my treddy, more on some of my better treadmill workouts later!) And I scampered back to yoga today to contort my rigid body into unimaginable positions of self improvement. I love yoga. (I really do, that is not a lie.)

I plan to be fully recovered soon (as in tomorrow) and back to my normal shenanigans!

Happy New Year, and some 2015 Goals!

Happy New Year everyone!
Now that we are moving into 2015 I'm going to move away from reflecting upon last year and get ready to jump into the New Year with both feet.
I have a few goals for 2015 and plans pertaining to their success.

THIS

Goal number one: Learn to better pace, hydrate and eat thru a long distance race so that, at mile 19, I am not flipping like a flounder on the ground, half dead and pissed off.

Last year I decided that it was in my best interest both physically and financially to race less, and to try hard to make every race count as a competitive goal- not a practice session.
These were good and honorable intentions and while I feel that I made the best use of these guidelines I decided at year's end that I did miss something that is still important at my stage of running.

Mileage.
Not literal mileage, but the kind that you can only get on race day.

One thing that I find interesting is how my two sports manage to relate to each other in many ways- even though one requires the cooperation of a 1,000 pound beast and one does not.
The need for mileage parallels the horse world in such an accurate way that I gave it some thought over stall mucking time one recent morning. (I do my best thinking over stalls)

I have been competing in the horse world for so long that I am able to adapt my show day plan to flex under a huge variety of variables (they are endless) Weather, footing, conditions, strange situations, things out of my control, ornery horse, horse who doesn't remember how to act, show running late/early, judge has the wrong test sheet, me being sick, or injured, judge totally misses a movement and wants you to show it again, a tent gets loose and rolls down the hill at you. Ya know, The usual. While I am no Olympic competitor I literally have ice running thru my veins and shit simply doesn't mess with my day. I might grouch around a bit if it is pouring dumping rain yeah, but I can get past it after a good moan. Years of practice made me this way, I have put in a ton of work to become a confident competitor and it took a lot of time, mistakes, learning, and MILEAGE to get here!

I feel rather differently about running.
My goal last Spring was to "bulletproof" myself so that not hills, or speed, or a water stop could slay me. I ran hard, yoga-d myself into relative flexibility, worked out my squashy bits and did any number of squats which I don't enjoy. I thought I had it in the bag.
But was I in any way experienced enough to re-work my plan for weather? For taking off too quick and being able to make a snap decision to modify my pace? Was I self aware enough to monitor my hydration levels? Nope. And that, in the end has everything to do with my amateur status in the running world. I simply do not have enough competition miles in the saddle (oops, on the road) to be able to adapt to what is happening on that day in that moment.

With the horses, my students and with myself on my training runs I try to simulate the day of competition. From the beginning of the day, to the practice itself I try to recreate things that might happen on race/show day. How does your show/running kit feel? Was your warmup effective? What happens if we have an audience? (this pertains a bit more to horses possibly...) Can I eat and not barf? (while this only affects my running I know a few people who have needed to work on this on horse show day..)

At the end of the day, the bottom line is that no matter how hard you try the only way to get competition mileage is to get out to the damn show/race and take a crack at it. Something about having an actual judge, or actual running participants really changes the dynamic.

So (if anyone is still here after all this musing.)
My plan leading up to Boston is to run a series of races in order to get some real race day practice but with NO intention to "race" these events.
This will be very hard for me- I tend to get a bit overexcited at the start and my competitive nature doesn't like to hear about how we are doing a progression run, or a few miles at tempo on a race course.

Well, I'm certainly never guilty of THIS!

I'm looking at these races as being the "schooling shows" of the foot race world. A place to try things out, gain experience, learn and improve for when I get to my "A" race of the season.

I have the Horrible Horrible 16 miler of Hate, in Derry at the end of January lined up as practice race number one. There should be absolutely no problem taking it rather easy, as I am most certainly not tapping out high mileage right now. (unlike, apparently, the rest of the population I won't start fussing over Boston training for a few more months weeks.

Well. If my boyfriend says so....

In closing, and in theme with "mileage" I ran 1400 miles (So basically I ran from my house to Orlando, Florida.) While this looks like a crap ton it's 500 fewer miles than last year, apparently I have become rather lazy (so, so very lazy.) I got this shit for brains idea to chase 2015 miles in 2015 but I can factually say that in no way, shape or form will than happen.
So, perhaps 1500 miles for 2015 is a better plan!

Well, that's a wrap! 2014 in all its glory.

Like ANY good blogger it is the time to type a blow by blow post about all my thoughts and feelings regarding my year of amazing and epic accomplishments!!!!!

Or..... Let's just zip thru the months and see how I did in 2014. Some good stuff, some bad stuff, some things to try differently, some things to do again. Overall not too shabby!

2014 was supposed to bring about several milestones for me.
A Half Marathon PR at Hampton in February (sub 1:36:27)
A Course PR at Boston. (sub 3:31 and change)
A strong 50K. (as in: don't blow up)
A solid Fall Marathon PR (sub 3:25:45)

Going into 2014 I knew there were several distances that I most certainly wasn't going to focus on, or be even slightly concerned about racing. Like the damn 5K, woof.

Shall we begin?

January! Jan-Jan-uary!!!!
I started off the year with a 10K- after one of the worst weather Decembers in recent history here in Maine and after being absolutely wracked with flu-like symptoms for a week I certainly did not mind a fairly average run.
-10K 1st Run, Lowell MA 46:51 You can read about the windy day right here.
(so, my 2012 10K PR still stands at 44:01. But I was bat shit crazy in 2012)

Less Bat-Shit Crazy in 2014 obviously. 

February! Time to kick some 13.1 ASS!!!
Yeah. Or something.
I ran around the Mid Winter Classic 10 miler early February on a totally decent weather day- I believe this was one of the very, VERY few outdoor runs that I had managed in weeks. The weather had been truly appalling and the road conditions horrid. I was both pleased and surprised to run a 1:15:56- only 40 seconds above my 2012 PR when, as previously mentioned, I was bat shit. A good set up, I hoped, for Hampton.

Once again we lucked out on weather, conditions and basically everything and for about 5 minutes I thought I had kicked crazy 2012 in the teeth- and managed a 3 second PR with a 1:36:37. (It was, if nothing else a 12 minute course PR for me) Later that day I double checked old results and discovered that no, I had missed my goal by something silly like 12 seconds. For some reason, this really bothered me. The whole damn day in its glory.
The one thing I took away from this race was that there was nothing I could have done about that 12 seconds! I simply could not have run faster. The end. Once I realized that, I stopped being bothered about my perceived "failure" and stopped thinking about it.

While my race was not a complete fail this FACE IS!!!!

March:
I didn't do Jack-diddly-squat apparently.
The weather was good for garbage.
I ran on the treadmill except basically once.
I did have some good long runs.

Mostly, March was like this. What the actual F**K????

April Boston TIME!!!!
I trained with the intention to run a course PR, and as we got closer my brain kept drifting to shooting for an overall PR. I decided that even if things went rather amiss I could certainly run a 3:27 or so. Unless it got warm for the first time in months of something silly.... Every outdoor run thus far had been pretty lovely in the 40 degree Spring temps and somewhat diminishing snowbanks.
Unless you're new you know it was my worst executed race in History. With temps rising, and rising, did I rethink my plan? Nope, I went charging all around running some shit crazy stupid fast miles and died a horrible death. The end. 3:54 something UGH. BOO.
Part one: when there was still hope
Part two: watch me blow up
A good learning moment! At least I learn...

I look unwell. I felt unwell. 

May. 
I ran a 5K in 21:36 which is fast enough. Seriously!
(not fast enough to beat damn 2012 though hahah!)

I ran the Pineland 30 miler that is called a 50K on Memorial Day weekend and was really pleased. I executed the race exactly the way I wanted to and was very pleased with the outcome! Yay, go me!! Honestly, we all know that I do not put in the correct training for races of this length so unless I do- this is as good as it gets for me! I truly enjoyed this race and it marked the beginning of my "Summer running Break"

"there's a creeper photog in the grasssssss"

June: 
A spontaneous Trail run at Robert's Farm was my final hurrah before taking the lazy route for the rest of June. Another really fun race!

UNCLEAN. 

July:
NADA as in NOTHING. Most runners worst nightmare, but a much needed break for me!

OK so I did SOMETHING. Mostly standing though!

August & September
Three whole entire races!
I tried out 2 new distances.
I ran the Maine Mile in 6:13 which is an automatic PR since I had never tried such a crazy thing before! I have no intention of ever running a mile faster, thanks! It was a really fun thing to do, totally outside of my comfort zone, and over so quickly that I barely noticed how much it hurt.

I also ran a 5 miler in 35:51 for another auto-PR and in the process made myself more sick that I have ever been after a race. I don't have much motivation to run a faster 5 miler ever again but perhaps this one just scared me off.

Early September was the Freeport Half, a PR was not a goal but I was happy to run exactly the pace I hoped for on legs that felt pretty good on a tough course.

I promise it wasn't just me against myself.... 

October! 
Months ago I had completely altered my Fall marathon goals, knowing that putting in the time to meet them was simply impossible. However, I was quite determined to succeed in qualifying for Boston 2016 (my AG now needs a sub 3:40:00) and I felt this was quite reasonable.
We all know what happened at MDI. Definitely a day that reminded me that you can't plan for everything!
I am still so pleased that I marched back out and ran the LOCO Marathon two weeks later.
This was everything Boston was not in terms of a well executed race, a nice cool day, and an additional 6 months of learning what I can and can not do depending on my fitness level. a 3:32:59 felt pretty good to me and was a solid BQ, not to mention a race that I felt really positive about.

PHEW! 

November:
November marked the end of my 30-34 AG era and with that, I went forth and ran 35 miles for my 35th BD.
What?
I think it was a perfectly normal decision!

The most flattering picture of the year or maybe my life. 

December:
No racing, just normal running, a zero week and some thoughts about what next year might bring.

Hopefully the New Year brings LOTS of this!!!

So there you have it kids, my whole year squeezed into one tidy little post.
I'll be back soon to talk details of 2015.
Happy New Year!!!

The story of how I met my new true love... Hoka's!!

It is finally time for the *much* anticipated post about how I broke up with my Mizuno's.

When I met my first pair of Mizuno Wave 16's, it was love at first sight. I slapped those bad boys on my feet and never looked back. (and this was after 2 pairs of Precisions, 3 pairs of Enigma's (one of which I hated) a pair of Wave 15's, and a fleeting moment with some Sayonara's... So, Mizuno was my middle name.)

I loved you, Wave Rider 16's, I loved you very much. I literally put thousands of miles on you (well. a few of you. I get around.) I overlooked some model inconsistency that would periodically give me black toenails.... Because in the end, I loved you! You loved me! I got a solid 450-550 miler per pair not to mention that I never, ever paid full price for you!!
But then you changed.... You suddenly wanted to be called 17 and it was like you were an entirely different shoe. We no longer saw eye to eye on anything! I was able to keep my torrid affair with the 16's going thanks to my acceptance of retiring colors which were possibly no longer hip on fitfluential. Awwwwwww.
But in my heart I knew the end was near....
I laced up my final pair of Mizuno 16's for the last time in late October, weeping tears of sadness and loss.

A woman scorned....

OK. So that is not exactly how it played out. My final pair of 16's were notorious for giving me massive blisters so I basically threw them in the hopper.


But what to do then?

I cruised over to Maine Running to check out some other brands. While I did pick up a temporary pair of kicks to get me by, absolutely nothing was feeling that great to my picky feet and rapidly aging hips. CRISIS MODE!
WHAT TO DO??

I had been aware of Hoka's for a while, not necessarily in a positive way.
I thought they looked absurd, like Skechers Shape Up's, or maybe like something your Nana would wear to work out in at Curves. Not exactly the kind of shoe that had me frothing at the mouth to obtain it.

Over the summer I did notice that they were streamlining the shoes a bit- instead of looking like Ronald McDonald shoes they looked like gigantic mattresses that I would surely trip over repeatedly. Quite trim, obviously....
I made the assumption that they, like Newtons, must be a specialty shoe because they certainly had a specialty price tag. I had taken note that "on the internet" it was mostly trail runners in them. I did see them here and there at road races but I still categorized them with the Newtons- shoes for people with a very specific gait, a gait that I do not have. (I am a Forrest Gump style runner. Specialized shoes for "front foot gait" basically get a big failing grade from me!)

Then, suddenly my friend Danielle was running in Hoka's. I literally, was like "WHAT??"
And she was swearing by them.
Being that she is a real person, who clearly has the same exact gait as myself, and does the same kind of running that I do, I began to perk up and take notice.

SAME gait. We are awesome.

I found the Kailua's on sale for 50% off in late October. I also had a coupon code so about 2 days and $60 later I was in possession of my first pair of Skechers Shape up's!!
I kid, I kid.
To be honest, when I whipped them out of the box the first thing I said was "Well, these almost look normal!!"
I walked around in them a bit and they felt funny but not in the way I had expected.
They were firm but cushiony at the same time, I found that there was plenty of room for my toes to cohabitate, they did not feel ungainly at all. Still, I did not particularly enjoy walking about in them. (they are NOT walking shoes.)
Furthermore, I was very concerned about the "quick lace" system- I did not think I would find them adjustable enough and I was SURE that the little tabs would click and clack around and drive me bat shit crazy.
Neither of those things happened.

Once I started running, as much as it irked me to admit it I could see what the hype was all about.
I was like an amazing stealth-ninja, literally prancing at top fucking speed along a cloud of pavement.

Except that the right shoe pissed off my ankle bone to no end.What started as an occasional little ow rapidly transitioned into full blown "Oh HOLY HELL OUCH!!!"
If I had paid full price for them I simply would have sent them back! And forver have regretted that decision....
After putting a few miles on them (25 or so) I concluded that the ankle issue was simply unacceptable but that I would take matter into my own, capable hands.
Armed with a utility knife and a terrifying pair of ultra sharp scissors I basically hacked the crap out of my poor shoe until it was deemed comfortable.

Mess with me? I WILL CUT YOU!!!!!

And DUDES, what a good choice!!!
They are now PERFECT.

I love them. I have completely forsaken my previous involvement with Mizuno in favor of a stable, comfortable relationship with my new favorite Hoka's! (fickle woman that I am....)
Happy feet, happy hips, fast recovery, you guys- it almost feels like cheating, running in these things.

The current model that I have is pretty awesome for winter running, it is the warmest thing I have ever slapped on my foot and it chugs thru snow with magical 4WD skills.
Obviously, it would not be my favorite summer shoe so I'll have to make some changes prior to hot weather.

So. The moral of the story.
....you can find love again.....!!!!!

Oh Jeez..
But really, don't judge a book by its cover. While they might look a little funny they run like a normal shoe, they are not too soft AT ALL even for picky me, you do NOT feel like you are running on high heels, and you don't even notice them after a few runs.

I believe that there is a good shoe out there for everyone, and while *my* favorite might not be yours I feel that I can recommend the Hoka's with no reservations.
I'm actually getting all giddy looking at the 2015 models, so clearly I have defected!