What I think about while running.....

My training is coming along nicely and with just over 2 weeks to go I feel relatively comfortable with my current state of fitness.

This has been such a completely wackadoo winter that I am still hesitant to throw down an estimate of my Boston finishing time. Per the norm, in the past week alone I have firmly concluded that I am a PR worthy top finisher, and also have decided that I will be lucky to cross the finish line in less than 24 hours. My emotions really are all over the place...

In reality with the glaring exception of a fairly horrid 13 mile long run/speed work expedition last weekend (in which I still hit my goal paces but wanted to throw myself into traffic the whole way) things have finally (and I DO mean FINALLY) been falling into place.

Going into Boston last year I felt great. I am feeling like despite the shat winter we had, and the struggle I had with my butt/hamstring/piriformis/whateverthefuck I'm about at the same point that I was a year ago. I feel better than before Smuttynose last October because I have thusfar managed not to have any long runs that have finished on one leg.
I feel that this is probably a good improvement.

Anyway! I actually don't intend for this post to contain endless paragraphs of me waxing poetic. We shall save that for next week when I am tapering, begining to feel especially emotional, and getting excessively verbose.

For now I want to reminise about all the amazing things that I have had the opportunity to mull over while running hundreds of miles by myself over the past few months.
You know how down in the Boston area there are thousands of runners out and about, congregating in the midst of their final long runs? So many people that extra traffic police are called in to allow the runners to seamlessly glide thru traffic?
Well. Here in my neck of the woods I am the ONLY runner. Needless to say, traffic control is easy. In the absence of other humans I need to entertain myself with my thoughts, and here they are.

1: THAT PLANE
Yeah, now they think that they might have heard its black box pinging. BUT. I had it stuck in an alternate reality- a super exciting scifi hybrid of Lost an Dr. Who.
Too bad that didn't work out. Since the plane isn't stuck on an island of hotties in a parallel universe I'm just sad about the whole thing...

Not these planes. But I love them... I'm 6 :-)

2: Thigh Gap
I am not sure if I am ashamed or proud to admit that I did not think "thigh gap" was a real thing. I was honestly sure that #mindthegap was a reference to being fearful of falling on the tracks and being struck by a train (logical)
Who the ever loving fuck has a thigh gap.....? (not me) People actually CARE about this- for real?
I am upset on a lot of levels. I refuse to stand in a knock-kneed-duck-toed-ass-popping way to improve my faulty thigh gap.
Actually.... I refuse to think of it as faulty. Thigh gap is the biggest bullshit I have ever heard of.
I have spent quite a few miles mulling this over and feeling frustrated about how society/fashion/photoshop make people feel than an unattainable body is desirable.
Can your body do awesome things? That should be the main objective.
(and more disturbingly, this trend is not just in the 13 year old demographic. Grown ass women are perpetuating it. Barf.) Rant over. (almost!)
There is a lot of *helpful* info on the internet about how to get a thigh gap like this ....Awesome..... which I would like to rename "how to be disordered."
Rant really over.

3: Cookies, Beer and Steak.
Because, running.
Want to have me over for dinner????

Beer is good for ya.

 4: How hard it is to run 30 minutes at Marathon Pace
 ......and yet somehow I run 3.5 hours at MP day on Marathon day. HOW. HOWWWWWWW??

5: I think about how 45 degrees is my perfect running weather. Not to mention that after the winter we had 45 is perfect for shorts and tank tops!
Then I think about how bad it would be to get an 80 degree marathon day and I get a bit scared.
At that point I typically start thinking about thigh gap again, as it is better to be slightly disgusted than horribly, horribly terrified!

6: The HILLS. OMG.

Woof (pic not current- our snowbanks are still 10' or more...)

 

 

 That's it for now. My internet silence has been astonishing lately, mostly due to very long work hours and silly things like marathon training which seems to take hours a day...
Taper is here as of Monday! so....... Maybe more time for internetting?

Winter!!! One Month until Boston!!! More Winter....!

And the winter.... trudges..... ON.
AND ON OMG YOU GUYS! RAWR!

1 week ago. 15 inches of pure, pure crap!!!!!!! And 1 cute horse.

The past couple of weeks have been, believe it or not, dominated by more truly horrific weather.
I have lived in Maine for 34 years and have never seen such madness!

This gorgeous foot of snow/ice was 4 days prior to the 15 inch snowmageddon. EFFFF.

Trying to look past the crapola that are the conditions...
Things have been decent.

I had a bit of the sick last weekend which was crummy timing as I had a 20 on the schedule- which I did because I'm not a complete slacker. Duh!
Continuing in the theme of this training cycle, it was absolute shit for the first 10 then absolutely perfect for the last 10. This is truly mind boggling and, if nothing else, leaves me with feelings of happiness as (apparently) I am quick to forget the first half of my run.

I often wonder if my feelings of malaise have to do with my spectacular cross training???

Because clearly, this is not exhausting. Good times. 

When I'm not busy clamboring thru 10 feet of snow I have been doing yoga, which I win at weekly. (or a few times a week) (I have logged more wins at snow-walking than at yoga if we are being honest.....)


In the true competitive spirit of a runner I decide in every class if I am the top finisher or a disgrace at life. It can go either way, especially since I am slightly delayed and can not do any inversions. Also, I have the flexibility of a 2x4 and approximately zero balance.
Regardless, I LOVE yoga and think it's the activity to thank for my current healthy body. (and I must admit, that I get scolded for my post practice fist pumping and declarations  of "WINNING AT YOGA!!!!" but I don't mind, I have a lot of fun there and can take a scolding.)

With less than a month to go I am feeling pretty strong (today) relatively quick (today) and completely badass (today.....)
Come chat with me tomorrow and I will tell you how weak, slow and pitiful I am.
HAH! Typical marathon training. All kinds of shenans.
Since the weather has been so wacko I feel that is partially to blame.

Late March??? Late January maybe.

I am hesitant to make a guess at my Boston finishing time just yet because this winter has given me a training cycle that I have never seen- and hope to avoid at all costs again- thank YOU.
But in upcoming days I plan to talk about my bets for my finish time, training details, Fall marathon plans, and other amusing things.
So stay tuned!

My long hiatus ends. For now.

Oh hey. It's been a while!
I must admit there is no exciting reason for my internet absence other than I simply have not had much extra time. It's really a good thing that I don't blog for a living as I would be flat broke.

I have had so little time to blog as of late that I neglected to show all of you my truly glorious Hampton race photo. You know I rarely miss a chance to show the world how awesome/well dressed/classy I am so this really says something about my schedule.

The pain face. Haahaha wow! There were better pics but why use those when you have THIS?

I'm enjoying counting down to Boston this year as it also means that I'm counting down to Spring. I feel that in 6 weeks we might be seeing temps more consistently in the 40's and, perhaps, will have smashed the snowbanks into submission. I am hopeful but not counting on it!

After a thoroughly less than stellar week of training after Hampton I shaped up for a good one last week.
There was nothing at all wrong with me after Hampton, but I admit that I was quite "over" winter, treadmill running and temps in the teens. I was not a particularly positive person that week but I managed to get over it without loosing friends or injuring anyone.

I also made the less than happy discovery that I did NOT PR in Hampton. *sigh* I probably don't need to admit it but I refuse to be a lying liar who lies so here is the deal: I must be such a derp that when I ran Great Bay a couple years ago I was looking at my gun time, or something. My GBH PR still stands at 1:36:27 F**K. I only noticed this because I looked at athlinks and was basically like "......uh oh....." So damnit, I need to run another fast half. UGH!!

I have had a couple of long runs that have made me feel good about the direction my training is heading in. If there is one thing I have learned over the past year it is that each workout shows me something specfic, useful and different. What I mean by that is that I do not judge my potential marathon speed in my long run, I use that to gauge my overall endurance- which at this time feels better than I expected it to given the treadmill winter. I calculate my speed based on what the numbers say in my speedwork, which I'm reasonably pleased with as well. I do find that another factor is recovery time after a long hard week- and that is the thing I'm the most pleased with. My recovery has been fantastic, to the point where if I was still a young, dumb kid I'd be skipping my rest days (which I most certainly would not do!)

Some post long run shenanigans. Totally normal.

 When I get a second to actually breathe around here I'm going to take a look at my overall training hours for the past month or so. I know that compared to many (or most) marathoners I limit my weekly mileage. It is hard to say if this will be a "forever" thing but for now, I know my body stays healthiest when I am incorporating a variety of strength training and lower mileage than people with my time goals usually put in. Mostly I am curious to see what my weekly totals are in hours rather than miles. Because seriously, marathon training takes up a chunk of the day! *worth it*

So there is the ultra condensed version. I hope to find a little more time to chronicle the lead up to Boston as it's an exciting time. I'm pumped for a few big weeks of training, a big asshole snow storm tomorrow (I'm lying, I could not be LESS excited) and hopefully the arrival of Spring. This winter has been sticking around, being a jerk for long enough!

This is winter, continuing to be a complete shit head.

Half At The Hampton's, friends, PR's, puddles and more.

This winter has been so lousy in the weather department that one might think we would have been either frozen or snowed out of all our winter races.
This has not been the case. Which is straight up amazing.
We now have a 100% success rate for the winter season, all 3 races going off without a hitch, with reasonable (or better than average) weather. (and now the winter season is over so I am not jinxing us!)
We did get a bit of a scare on Saturday evening when Jaimie posted a horrible ominous picture of Facebook. What in the ever loving hell is this? It was a "puddle" at mile 1, that's what.

Ohhhhhh shit. I better learn to SWIM!!

This created an amusing conversation on our household about lugging along extra shoes and having a legit transition area to change up in since this clearly was a duathlon or steeplechase event. Yikes.
Despite this concern we awoke (early) on Sunday ready to go, and happy to see that we would be seeing temps climb well into the 40's. Which is a damned heat wave according to THIS winter. And it meant that if nothing else, our socks and shoes would not freeze after running thru the *puddle*.

The dead sexy couple at the ass crack of dawn.

 We arrived nice and early (I'm a changed woman, I swear) to find all our friends for our amazing anniversary! We all met a year ago at the decidedly soggy Hyannis and have been BFF's ever since. Seriously, we are all meant to be together because we are fairly crazy. I love these kids!

So here we have Andy, Isaac, Jaimie, Mike, Crystal, Raquel and my Exclusive Dating Partner sexy Future Husband

I was feeling relaxed and ready to see what the day brought. We all made our way to the start with some amusing conversation and lined up, as people tend to do at races. Meaning, that for 10 or so minutes all I can see is a sea of elbows or, if I'm lucky, shoulders. It is the short girls burden.

At the start I felt that my goal time could be impacted by the puddle/lake an by the rather icy road conditions. Once we started I also discovered that (once again) the course was different! (than last time I ran it, not- I'm sure, from the map. which par for the course I had not so much as glanced at.) This is my third time running this particular race on a different route. I rather like this as change is good but I wasn't particularly fond of the first couple miles.
The good news in all this is that the lake/puddle had greatly diminished into a fairly minor icy slushy mess. A huge relief!

My first couple miles went by faster than the Mid Winter Classic which was to be expected because I was racing this course rather than meandering along for a training run. My pace for the first two miles showed me to be right on par for my 1:38-1:40 finish time. Not bad because I was slipping, sliding and spinning my tires like crazy. I saw a couple people go down HARD and I really didn't want to follow in their footsteps (or butt prints, ouch.)

Just after mile 2 the ice diminished and my pace picked up, looking a little something like this:
Mile 3: 7:18 "huh. that's a bit faster than I had planned..."
Mile 4: 7:16 "shit. that should not have been that fast."
mile 5: 7:12 "Oh F**K!!!! Now I need to keep this shit up. UGH. Damnit."

Once I came to the conclusion that I was going to continue running hard, I did.
And it was hard.
My slowest mile for the rest of the race was a 7:25 and that was up this sucky section of hills that people never mention when talking about pancake flat Hampton.. (I actually kid, if I had been running more outside this winter these hills would be nbd, but to hit them at a stupid fast pace on treadmill legs went exactly as I predicted. A little tough.)

It's a good thing we had some kickass cheerleaders. Thanks Andy and kids for being awesome.

More cowbell. 

 Overall, despite the fact that I find running an average pace of 7:22 to be challenging the race was fine. I did not have any dramatic problems during the race with either my legs or stomach. While I still don't think that my lazy left leg is as strong as my amazing badass right leg it is much better than it was 6 months ago! I met a very nice friend at mile 8 (a Team Hoyt member) and we basically ran shoulder to shoulder for several miles. I thanked him for being my personal pacer!

With just over 2 miles to go we began to run by the ocean again and the wind punched me right in the face, I fell down and quit running forever.
Well.... Not exactly. There was a bitch of a headwind though which made me think longingly of the October Hampton race and the brilliant, PR inducing tailwind. At this point I lost my pacing friend and was left with my own troubled thoughts. As we all know, my own troubled thoughts don't bother me in the least and part of every race is me getting pissed off. So on I trudged.In a pissed off way.

(insert editors note: luckily for all, there are no race photos to be found, yet. I feel that every photo of me from this race will be less than flattering as in the last couple miles it felt (oddly) like my head was falling off and my mouth was wiiiiiiide open. you all know I will share when  find these gems...) 

With half a mile to go and not much gas left in the tank Isaac leaped out on the course with me, like a super caffeine charged, bouncy, pumped up race pacer on crack. "COME ON!!!" He shouted, in glee, while easily jogging along at a sub 7 pace "Let's finish!!!!" At this point, I ever so slightly wanted to kill him but also did not want to be shamed by blatantly not keeping up, so I did my damn best to run faster. He asked my how my race was, like any nice person would do. "UGHHHHH" I replied, because really, who can race recap at mile 12.6? Trying to be civil I asked how he had done. "ONE TWENTY FIIIIIIIIIIIVEEEEEEEEE! he sang in glee, while kicking up his heels, springing cartwheels and back handsprings and sweating sparkles and rainbows. Clearly the only correct response to this would be to groan loudly and say "ughhhhh you sluuuuuut....!" right? Right. Hopefully so because that is what happened.

So when I managed to muscle out a 3 second PR I credited it fully to Isaac, the slut, and his sub 7 pace and amazing enthusiasm.  Thanks buddy :-)
I high fived my Team Hoyt friend, told him I was going to puke and ran off. (I did not puke. this time) 

Yes, the moral of the story is that I did snag a PR with a 1:36:37. It was a challenging run but I am no worse for it which makes me happy. I think that for a runner of my caliber keeping up that pace for a prolonged period of time should feel challenging so I'm ok with being a little tuckered out today.
I was 6th in my AG and the 25th overall woman. Also, this is a solid course PR for me by 12 or so minutes.

Trying to drink beer. Trying not to poop my pants. I'm hot.

I felt a little junky post race! Not 100% terrible but there was some minor GI disturbance that I could have done without but merits blog mention because that is what blogs are for. Poop talk. fun! I missed Eric's (huge PR) finish because I was in the bathroom... I missed the famous "race jump" pic with the blog friend because I might have been in there again, yuck.  I recovered quickly but not quickly enough to enjoy the remarkable spread of food and beer that this race always provided. This is a great race... I love the nice warm hotel ballroom, the ample bathrooms for me to have GI issues in, the dudes scraping the ice off the roads, the easy bib pick up and (usually) the beer. But not so much on this day. Boo.

So! A decent race, a goal accomplished an now onward to Boston!
With 8 weeks an counting I'm ready to get down to business. 

Food is not a four letter word

So a while back I promised blog posts about two things, my pet peeves and food.
As it turns out I have been able to roll all that fun into one fantastic post.

Since I am temporarily turning this space into a food and exercise blog clearly I need a new name like: Mudslides and Marathons.... Pull ups and Pickles..... Tricep dips and pita chips (you get the idea...)
OR....
PR's and Pickybars!! Haha they would probably sue me for copyright infringement! But I rather like that one..

There is always talk on running/health blogs about eating, food, body image, disordered eating, nutrition (some good some just laughable) being too skinny, being too fat and on an on.
I am hesitant to throw my hat into the ring on many of these topics because face it, I'm not an expert and only have my own experiences to rely on.

However. Due to my job I am a role model for teenage and pre teen girls, an because of that I have some really strong opinions on some of these subjects. I was a teenage girl once, long long ago, but not so long that I have forgotten the way that comments can significantly impact your body image and your feeling about yourself, not to mention your relationship with food.

My idea of healthy food. Just kidding, this looks like an awful combo!

We aren't all perfect. Shockingly, nobody is.
When it comes to our bodies, and the way we view ourselves Lauren Fleshman said it so well that instead of writing something inspirational myself I'll just link you up to her: Read it. Read it now.

As far as food goes this is where I start getting a bit peevish. Seriously, when did food become the enemy??
When did it become taboo to call "food" FOOD, or a "meal" a MEAL. Ohhhh no, now it's all "I have to fuel up!" "refuel!" "pre fuel!" "havin' some EATS!" (I hate that one)

WHAT THE HELL? Have a damn sandwich it's not going to kill you or *gasp* make you fat. And call it a DAMN sandwich, you do not have to justify a sandwiches existence by referring to it as "fuel" (I put fuel in the tractor... and sandwiches in my pie hole.)

A DAMN SANDWICH. And it looks GLORIOUS!!

I have basically stopped following any blogs that obviously promote disordered eating. Honestly, I was more than a bit shocked to see how par for the course this is. If you are only eating roasted squash for 3 meals a day that's just wrong. And it does not interest me.
I'm also reluctant to take much interest in people who view every gram of carbs, delicious pizza, omg bite of ice cream as a terrible, terrible cheat. Live a little people, it's worth it. Don't put the #cheatday #soguilty #sofat anywhere I can see it because I will roll my eyes at your tiny, skinny, needs to cheat, instagrammed self. .....seriously.....

I preach to the kids (and to myself) that a balanced diet involves many different food groups and that unless a serious sensitivity or allergy is a problem it is not necessary- or even healthy- to eliminate entire food groups.
And if you are enjoying cake, that is what you are doing. enjoying it. Not being "bad".
And if you eat a slice of pizza you don't need to feel guilty, or concerned about "burning off" every calorie.
And we should like food! It is fun, and can be exciting, and having a meal with friends and family happens to be one of my favorite things, so get on board...

Eating clams with ALL THE BUTTER.
And guess what, it's life not an effing cheat day....

We need food in order to live. Especially as athletes we need a healthy and balanced diet,
(which can indeed include some chips, beer and pizza- why not! but maybe does not involve a bucket of butter like the above pic on a daily basis. Even I think about my arteries and such...)
So big deal if you have a cheeseburger at dinner. You had a super healthy vegetable laden lunch. It all balances out. Could I be a better athlete if I went onto a raw, no carbs, no beer, no nothing if it is not orange diet? We will never find out.
In contrast to many people I know in real life I eat a tremendously healthy and well adjusted balance of foods. I am lucky to enjoy living like this and call if a lifestyle, not a "diet".
Compared to how some people on the internet eat I'm basically Jaba the Hutt which makes me laugh so hard that I injure myself. Dudes, you enjoy those 500 calories a day that you allot yourself. That's my breakfast!

Me, according to some cray cray bloggers.
I'd rather be Jaba than eat raw carrots and jello for lunch, gross!

In reality I'm not Jaba. I'm a small girl, but healthy. You can't see my bones (except a few ribs, I'm skinny what can I say...) I can work all day, pick up things bigger than myself, I'm strong enough to ride big horses, run many miles, teach the youth of America, be so busy that it is just insane!- and still have energy to hang out with my exclusive dating partner at the end of the day. And that is important- it's about being as healthy and happy as you can be. Not as skinny as you can be. not as restricted as you can be. There are not extra points out there in the universe for people who only eat 500 calories a day!

On the flip side of this I did have a little girl attend one of my day camp programs several years ago. She seemed to get really exhausted quite early in the afternoon so I took a look in her lunchbox. It contained a butter sandwich, cake and soda...... wow...  Perhaps not the healthiest choices to encourage an active day!
If nothing else this was a good learning moment for this kiddo about the balance between healthy and not so healthy, and now a strict diet of junk does not always help us to feel our best! Haha, even I don't eat cake for lunch.
Always....

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

So there you have it. My little rant. My diet is not perfect, I'm not perfect and I don't care at all. I hope that I can impart upon all of my teenagers that food keeps ya' moving, can be fun and adventurous (unless it is lima bean) and certainly is not something to be afraid of or obsess over.
And I tell them this without hesitation! Especially if they bring me cake for lunch :-)