Monthly Archives: May 2012

New Things

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I’ve been trying a lot of new things lately! 

New Workout Studio

I had two coupons to attend a free class at Core Pilates in Anchorage, so Kristy, my sister, and I decided to take a Barre Pilates class last week. 

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I had never been to Core Pilates—or even heard anything about it—but I was impressed when I walked in. 

Very nice, clean, and modern on the inside. I loved all the natural lighting.

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Going into the class, Kristy and I didn’t know what to expect, but the instructor was great and very helpful. 

We did a combination of dance poses coupled with arm and leg strengthening exercises to very upbeat music. 

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We used a variety of equipment, which is always fun. We did not, however, use the TRX straps. 

Overall, it was a fun class—not too intimidating, and I felt like I got a good workout. Surprisingly my arms were the most sore the next day. 

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New Workout “Food”

Gatorade sent me some of their energy chews to try out.

They immeditately reminded me of Clif Shot Bloks, which I’ve had before and like. 

Each package contained 6 individual chews, which equaled 100 calories. I tried two of each flavor before my workout yesterday. I really like using something like this if I’m not going to eat breakfast but need a little something before my run. I ate these about 20 minutes before heading out and they did not bother my stomach. 

I was a little bummed that the Cool Blue flavor had artificial flavoring though. Other than that, they tasted great. 

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New Restaurant

We met up with some friends at E.R. Ale House this weekend in Eagle River, AK. I had never been to this restaurant before but a couple of our friends had. 

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I think I’m kind of creeped out by Craig’s face in this picture. 

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I ordered the Southwestern Salad. It was quite tastey–nothing spectacular but still good. 

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Kristy, my sister, ordered the Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad. She shared some of it with me, but I liked my salad better. 

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This is a close-up of Kristy’s salad. There was too much meat (chicken and bacon) on the salad for Kristy and me. 

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Craig ordered pizza naturally. (It is his favorite food group.) He chose the Polynesian BBQ Chicken Pizza, and it was very delicious. The only downside was that the dough was kind of soggy in the middle. I don’t know if that was from the BBQ sauce or just the pizza dough itself, but other than that it was very flavorful.

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New Food

I would NOT recommend this at all. It was weird and tasted funky. I thought it was cool that it was meatless and soy-free, but it was not good. 

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“New” Running Item

I’ve actually had my CEP Compression Socks for a while. (Here’s the post where I originally reviewed them.) But I’ve been wearing them more, so they kind of feel new to me. In the past I’ve mostly worn them for recovery purposes after a long run, but now I’ve been wearing them while I run as well. 

I wore my Progressive Running Compression Socks for the race on Saturday. I figured they might help me during the race since I had been doing a lot of mileage that week. Now I don’t know that the compression socks actually helped me get a PR on Saturday, but my legs sure felt fresh during the race!

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Trent/Waldron Glacier Half-Marathon

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What a wonderful feeling running a PR is! An ultimate runner’s high!

My previous half-marathon PR was set during very first half-marathon in 2006, and I haven’t been able to break it since! I did NOT think I would be able to break it on Saturday in the midst of running 65 miles this week! 

Even before my sister, Kristy, came up here to visit, we had planned on running the Trent/Waldron Glacier Half Marathon.

I hadn’t even heard of this event until I was looking through the Alaska Runner’s Calendar this spring. 

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Before the race started, Kristy and I jogged one mile, did some stretching, and then got in line to use the bathroom one last time. After that, it was time to line up at the start line. In the past, I’ve made the mistake to stand way too far back in the pack, and then I end up wasting too much time and energy dodging all the slower runners, so this time we moved towards the front of the start. 

Right before the gun went off, someone came up to me and said, “hi Michelle” in a very excited voice. I did not recognize the women, but then she said, “I read your blog!” I couldn’t believe it; I felt like a celbrity. That was the first time I had ever been recognized by a reader out in public! (I’m sorry I didn’t get your name, but I’m glad you said hi!) 

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With all the races Kristy and I have run, this was only the second race we have run together, so we were excited to be able to actually run a race together. 

(The ISOs were off on the camera which is why the color didn’t come out right on these pictures.) 

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Kristy and I started out running around 7 minute miles. (I said we should start at 7:30, but I guess I was a little excited!)

At mile 2 we saw Craig!

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Here we come!

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I look like I have a tumor on my right thigh!

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Kristy and I were managing right around 7:15 minutes/mile for the next couple of miles. I kept checking in with her to see how she was doing, and immediately she told me she had started out too fast. I did my best to encourage her, but I could tell she was struggling to maintain the pace. I was still feeling really good but we had said we were going to stick together, so I didn’t want to leave her. I asked her if she wanted to slow down. (I felt bad for taking it out too fast at the beginning.) But she was nice and said I could go ahead. I wanted to stick with her, but I was feeling really good and wanted to see if I could PR, so I took off on my own at mile 4.5.

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For the next several miles, I did my best to maintain a 7:10-7:15 minute mile. It was easy to keep that pace when there was a crowd cheering but once I was in the woods by myself, I had to use a lot of self-motivation not to zone out and let my pace drop.

I finally saw Craig around mile 10.5 (I thought I would see him sooner, but I gave him bad directions and he couldn’t find me. :( ) He gave me a gel, which I was glad to have. 

Shortly after that, I picked it up even more because I was still feeling strong and wanted to make sure I PRed. This even lead to some nice negative splits under 7 minutes the last couple miles. 

I really kicked it in at the end and finished strong.

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Woo hoo! A new PR of 1:31:49. (My previous PR was 1:36:10, which I set back in 2006 at my first half-marathon in Sioux Falls, SD.)

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Kristy wasn’t far behind me. :)

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I could tell she had run as hard as she could! 

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She also got a PR! Her official time was 1:36:11.  (Her previous half-marathon PR was 1:37:47)

 

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After the race, Craig got photo happy with the camera. 

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Kristy and her chocolate chip cookie. :) She went and had ice cream with Craig while I ran 6 more miles after the race in order to get 20 miles in for the day. 

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Me and my sister, Kristy –> PR sisters!

Yeah for sparkly B.I.C. Bands!

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The classic runner’s pose. 

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This is how we felt:

Me: strong and like a champion

Kristy: dead (She ran hard!)

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My super cute sister. 

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Stats from the race. 

Official time: 1:31:49

Overall place: 30/245

Female place: 5/117

Age group (25-29) place: 2/19

The stats I have on my watch don’t coorespond to the official results. My GPS said I ran 12.85 miles in 1:31:50, but here’s what I have for my splits:

Mile 1: 7:13

Mile 2:7:17

Mile 3: 7:15

Mile 4:7:24

Mile 5: 7:25

Mile 6: 7:11

Mile 7: 6:56

Mile 8: 7:03

Mile 9: 7:28

Mile 10: 6:56

Mile 11: 6:43

Mile 12: 7:06

Mile 13: 6:56

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Update on Marathon Training

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Since being done with school, these past few days have been liberating!! The stress of work is gone, and I love having the freedom to do whatever, whenever I want! 

I have kept myself extremely busy and have hardly had any time to truly relax but that’s okay because life is good! 

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(Picture taken last summer during my trip to Minnesota.) 

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As usual, I have been busy running. 

Grandma’s Marathon is quickly approaching. . . .only 3.5 weeks until it is here! Pretty soon I will be tapering!

I am in week 15 of my 18-week marathon training plan and things have been going very well! No injuries, no missed workouts, and I’ve been feeling great! 

My confidence keeps building with each workout completed, and I am feeling strong as I work to get my body into peak physical shape. I’m feeling very excited and confident I will have a successful race!

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(Running Mayor’s Marathon 2011 in Anchorage, AK.)

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I’ve only run two marathons, but each time I prepare myself for this feat, I learn new things about the process and discover ways to help me run faster.

This time around, the following is a list of things I have done differently that I’m confident will help me run a PR.

- I started track workouts sooner

Starting in January, every Wednesday night, I did a track workout with the Skinny Raven Running Group. I think this really jump-started my training and prepared me for the intensity of marathon training. 

We would do tempo runs (one workout was: a 20 minute tempo run, 15 minute tempo run, and 10 minute tempo run), speed workouts (12 x 3 minutes), 2 mile timed trials, and mile repeats. They were pretty intense, but it was nice having other people to push me. 

- I am following a much more rigorous training plan.

I have been following the Advanced Marathon Training plan found on the Grandma’s Marathon website. It is even more advanced than Hal Higdon’s Advanced 2 Program. 

- I did a 24 mile training run. 

I know almost every training plan does NOT recommend running more than 20 miles, but this has always been something I’ve pondered: How am I supposed to prepare my body to run 26 miles if I only run 20 miles. I know there are probably very good reasons why most people should not run more than 20 miles, but I’m glad this plan challenged me to run 24 miles. I think it will only help me. 

- I’ve completed more training runs on the treadmill. 

I know I’ve complained about running on the treadmill in the past, but I’ve really found the benefits this training season. I still find it very boring, but if I wanted to do a fast tempo run in the dead of winter, it was really my only option. And surprisingly I don’t hate it as much as I used it. I can keep a very consistent pace on the treadmill, and it is easy to run negative splits—it almost feels like I am cheating when I do!

- I’ve run more races. 

In the past, I’ve been scared to run races because I thought it would jeopordize my training, but this time around, I think it will help condition my body for racing the marathon. I did the Do Run Run race at the beginning of May, my sister and I are running a half-marathon this Saturday, and next Friday we are doing the Twighlight 12K. 

- I started taking an iron supplement.

I started taking an iron supplement after I discovered I was anemic. I have only been taking iron supplements for about 5 weeks, so I can’t say for sure my iron is at a healthy level since I need to wait 3 months before I am retested, but I figure it can only help, right??


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Accomplishments this training season:

- Running 70 miles in a week—my highest mileage ever!

- I ran 24 miles for a training run and would have set a PR in the marathon if I could have maintained that pace for another 2.2 miles!

- I achieved a 10K PR in a training run.