Holiday Goods

I must have done something right this year because Christmas was very good to me! Not surprisingly, a few of my gifts were fitness related : ) Imagine that! My mom got me the bright purple Nike tempo shorts I'd been eyeing at work for months, and my dad got me a gift certificate for more yoga and a super fancy bike trainer! I was hoping for a basic trainer, but was totally shocked to get this amazing fluid one from Blackburn. I can't wait to test it out along with the Garmin cadence/power sensor my mom got me for my birthday a couple weeks ago. Yay for cycling!

Although running and triathlon are big interests of mine they aren't the only things I enjoy! My uncle got me this beautiful navy blue dress I had put on my list. It fits perfectly and can be dressed up or down!

I also happen to be a huge movie buff and have a ridiculous collection of DVDs. This Christmas I added 11 more to my collection!

I was certainly spoiled this year and I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful and generous family. I think I did pretty well on the other end as a gift giver, though. I gave my dad a Garmin Forerunner 110 since he's been running a lot more lately and I gifted my mom Fleet Feet's beginner's 5k training program so she can continue the running she started this past summer. Anyone else score some awesome goods this holiday season??

I can't believe tomorrow is the last day of 2010... Holy cow! I'll be heading to Marin with my coworker for an afternoon hike followed by a bbq and concert before ringing in the new year at midnight. I'm working on a post recapping this epic past year which I'll hopefully have up in the next couple of days. Until then, here's to an amazing 2011, and Happy New Year my friends!!

That Run

I've been fighting a vicious cycle lately. After CIM I knew I needed a break, which I gladly welcomed. I took many a rest day, bulked up on cross-training, and ran a few times, always keeping it short. But after a couple weeks of taking it easy I started to get a little anxious. After all, I'm going to be running 50 miles in a matter of months! A couple of my post-CIM runs were tougher than expected so I've been worried about my loss in fitness, but instead of simply getting back out there I've been avoiding it and choosing yoga or Jillian instead. Enter: vicious cycle of laziness and lack of running.

Last night the hard truth hit me though. I was surfing the web looking for some examples of 50 mile training plans (not a whole lot, btw) and the common theme was their duration: 16-24 weeks, on average. Some even recommended taking an entire year to prepare! I pulled up my calendar and began to count backward from April 9th...15 weeks. Ummm, shit. Talk about motivation to get my butt in gear! I still don't have an official plan yet. In fact, I probably won't be able to use any kind of super specific plan since my work schedule varies so much. Instead, I want to focus on a few key components to focus on during training, which I'll elaborate more on in a future post. My primary goal, however, is to simply get in as much trail time as possible. I'm hoping to get some advice from my ultra veteran coworker and get some sort of "plan" ready to kick off the new year.

I had the day off today and had made plans to go to yoga later in the day, but after reminding myself of the impending race mentioned above, I decided to go for an impromptu run just before yoga. I didn't set out for any specific distance, but I had time to do 4-5. The nagging rain had finally stopped and the sky broke to reveal a beautiful blue sky, sun streaming from behind the clouds. The grass was a vibrant green thanks to recent showers and the air was cool and crisp. My goal was to keep the pace easy and relaxed and focus on listening to my body. I brought along my Garmin (of course) but didn't allow myself to look at the pace during the entire run. As I started out I was greeted with a nasty head wind but I was so glad to be back out there and feeling good that I hardly cared. For about the first mile I had a weird, sharp, and persistent pain in one of my toes. It was a completely new sensation and I actually had to curl all my toes under just to continue running. After I warmed up it went away, but it will definitely be something to keep an eye on.

Mid-run I decided to do 5 miles. I was feeling good and made sure to reign in my pace when I started to speed up. I even used a trick à la Aron to keep things nice and slow: I avoided my usual fast tempo songs, which always seem to make me push harder. In my previous runs I've started out feeling good but tend to bonk a bit toward the end, but today I felt so good toward the end that I felt like I could keep running for miles : ) I even started singing aloud to myself! When I finished I was surprised to find that I had actually been running my faster pace and average 9:48 over the 5 miles. It was just one of those runs where everything falls into place, the kind of run that is few and far between but is the reason we continue to run, hoping our next one will be that one.

so lovely (source)

p.s. Yoga did not happen unfortunately thanks to holiday hours. Instead I had a little date with Jillian : ) How's two workouts in one day for getting things started on the right foot?!

Merry Christmas!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas full of food, friends, and family. Lots of gifts were exchanged and I got some great new stuff I'll be sharing with you soon! Oddly enough, most of my gifts for my family just happened to come in Fleet Feet wrapping : ) What can I say, I didn't have time to shop anywhere else!

 lots of presents under the tree

 merry christmas from my little reindeer!

Gimme a Break, Gimme a Break

No, I'm not talking about Kit Kat bars : ) Since CIM I've taken a much-needed break from running. I have run a few times, each time a bit better than the last. I can tell that I've lost a little bit of fitness from doing such light cardio these past few weeks, but I'm sure I can get it back quickly. My legs have felt surprisingly good, which I'm attributing to the break and cross-training I've been doing over the last few weeks. I've been going to hot yoga at least once a week and can already see improvements in my practice and increased flexibility. I also broke out my good 'ol No More Trouble Zones dvd for a butt-kicking reunion with Jillian Michaels. I got my coworker, Crystal, hooked on it so at least I have a partner to curse aloud and suffer through the workouts with me : )

she sort of scares me

Besides working out, I also celebrated my 23rd birthday last Thursday. A few Fleet Feet friends of mine went out for a delicious Spanish dinner complete with gourmet cupcakes for dessert : ) I also got a few gifts to spruce up my bike: a speed/cadence sensor from my mom, and a sweet light from my dad. And as a bonus birthday present, I found out the day before that I got in to the Way Too Cool 50k! I'm pretty excited since this solidifies my training/racing plans up until AR 50 in April.

FF girls all dressed up!

polaroid shot at dinner

23

And so, looking forward. I registered for my first race of 2011, a Resolution Run 10 Miler up in Auburn on New Year's Day which I'll be doing with Crystal. I certainly won't be racing it, I'm just hoping I'll actually be able to run 10 miles without them being completely miserable. I'm looking forward to starting the year off with a good run, though. I've also posted my (tentative) race schedule in the right sidebar. So far it's definitely much shorter of a schedule than this past year, but I'm taking on much bigger challenges. I'll officially be starting my training for Cool and AR 50 in January with some help and advice from my coworker (and very-seasoned ultra runner) Diane. This will mean a lot more trails and a lot more time on my feet. I'm also really hoping to keep up with yoga and Jillian at least once a week as the flexibility, balance, and core strength will all be extremely beneficial for trail running and ultras.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas Eve!!

Lottery Luck

Although I haven't really been running much since CIM, I've been eagerly planning my race schedule for 2011 (where the heck did 2010 go?!). While I mentioned my ultrarunning plans and triathlon goals, a couple of hopeful races are not guaranteed. Enter: race lotteries. This past week I put in for both the Way Too Cool 50k and New York City Marathon lotteries and my fingers have been crossed since! I'm hoping to run Cool as both my first ultra and trail race, and also as a training run for AR 50 the following month. As far as NY, that's been on my wish list since I started running, and since I didn't get in last year, I've entered my name again. If I get in, I plan to make New York my goal fall marathon and train hard for a PR. I'll find out about WTC this Wednesday, but New York won't be until March, so I'll have to try and be patient. Wish me luck! Anyone else put in for these races or entered any other race lotteries?

Yesterday morning I went for my first run post-CIM and it wasn't pretty. The lingering soreness in my legs had mostly disappeared by the end of the week and I was getting sort of antsy to do something. So when my coworker asked if I wanted to run Saturday morning, I thought I'd give it a shot and see just how recovered I was. We set out to do 5 miles on my usual loop along the American River, and immediately my legs felt heavy and I was just tired. I thought maybe I just needed to warm up, but after a couple miles I knew it just wasn't going to be a good run. I felt like I was exerting my usual effort and keeping up a good pace, but when I looked down at my Garmin I was running a whole minute slower than usual! We ended up cutting it short to 4 miles, partly due to a time crunch and partly due to my lack of energy. During the last couple miles I also had some pain in my hip joint, so I was more than ready to be done. Later at work, I noticed that my calves had also become seriously tight. Looks like I wasn't quite ready to run, so I'll be sticking to light cross-training for a few more days before I get back on the pavement, including a hot yoga session today to stretch out my tight muscles. How long do you usually take to recover after a marathon?