A trip to Jurassic Park

Sunday morning at o'dark hundred I met up with Mandy for a 3 hour tour.  The skipper wasn't able to join us on this tour though but we figured it out for ourselves.  Our tour was a bike ride to visit Tower Hill for the first time of the year.  We started at 6:30 so we could beat the heat and get the workout done early.

There were rolling hills throughout the ride but the Tower hill is it's own special bugger.  It is a climb that lasts about 1 mile.  It is tough for the first half of the climb but then it levels out to a smaller grade incline for the top half.  We hit the top of the tower and were almost at the perfect half way point for the 3 hours that Mandy needed for her training plan.  We had a detour planned on the return trip of the ride to stop at a gas station for water bottle refills but first we got to ride down the Tower hill.  It is one hill where I don't squeeze the brakes too much since it is fairly straight and low traffic.  I think I topped out around 31mph.  My Garmin says my max speed for the ride was just over 39mph but it doesn't show that anywhere on my speed graphs so I'm going with the 31mph that is on the speed graph.

We did our detour to the small gas station that is off a back country highway only to discover that they are closed on Sundays.  That's okay we had other options and luckily enough water to get us through to those options further into the ride.  After making our way to the next gas station option we began making our way back to Mandy's house.  We were peacefully riding along when Mandy spotted something out of Jurassic Park.  It was a large snapping turtle and it had huge claws.  Mandy was brave enough to snap a photo and she gave the turtle plenty of distance.  It was just sitting right there on the side of the road.

It was definitely a unique sighting...we've seen quite a few small turtles crossing the road but never one this big or mean looking.  We returned back to Mandy's without any further crazy animal sightings...except for the buffalo but he seemed happy in his yard!  Once we got back, we quickly changed out our shoes and took off for a 20 minute transition run to get our legs used to switching from the bike to the run for upcoming triathlon season.

We finished up the workout and had some recovery smoothies made with a mixture of fresh and frozen fruit and protein shakes.  The smoothie tasted awesome after a long hard workout.  It was a great workout and left me feeling better prepared for triathlon season.

Having Fun When You Can't Run

We left off with my foot in massive pain following the Valentine's Day 8K... since then I've been taking a lot of rest for my foot and focusing on swimming and even some aqua-jogging to keep up my fitness.

On Friday, there was a call put out on Facebook to help staff the water stop for the Half Marathon training group.  I had been joining the group on the weekly long runs until my injury and have missed seeing all the newbies.  There is something so energizing to see people who are running that distance for the first time ever.

It's fun to chat with them on the run too.  They are soaking up knowledge and so eager to complete their first half marathons.  It is a very unique group and I'm so very lucky to help volunteer with them.

Our water stop was set up on the trail where they got to pass by us twice.  It was a very cold morning on Saturday...so cold that the water we spilled froze on the trail sidewalks!  We had a good group of people working the water stop and cheering on the runners.  Check out this video that Chuck from Podium Images made of the run.  He is a great athlete and artist...the editing he did is amazing! You'll spot me in the video in my red jacket handing out the cups of water. I swear I was having a lot more fun than it looks like in that particular pic!

If you are in the area, don't forget you still have time to sign up for the Bentonville Running Festival Half Marathon on April 6th! Sign up at www.runbentonville.com.

Celebrate and Be Jolly!

It's the weekend before Christmas and what better time to break out the festive spirit than this weekend! 

The Bentonville Half Marathon training program started last week and this week was my first week to help with the group.  Mike Rush and his store manager Drew lead the training group and provide weekly training topic discussions before the group training run.  Because there are so many people (200+) in the training group, members of the Rush team like myself join in to help run with the group. 

My sister and her family were in town so I was slightly timed strapped on Saturday.  The group run was scheduled for 2 miles but I needed to get in 9 for my long run.  I decided to split the run up and try to get in some miles early before the group so that I could get done earlier afterwards.  It was cold on Saturday morning with temps only in the low 30's.  I wore some Aesperis Pivot compression shorts under my tights to keep my bum warm! 

I got to the Activity Center just after 6 am and figured I had enough time to get in 4 miles before the training group would start.  I selected a route to follow and headed out and enjoyed the peaceful quiet and holiday lights.  There wasn't much traffic out and it was so quiet running through the downtown neighborhoods.  I loved seeing all the houses with lights... from those with the most simple light displays to the houses with every light and yard art imaginable.  It was great! 

I finished up just before 7 and headed inside...it felt so hot in the activity center.  I found a spot on the floor and listened to Mike's talk on form and why good fitting shoes matter.  He ended up the discussion by detailing out the route to the group and covering safety on the roads.  We headed out and I did my best to hang towards the back to pace some of ladies who are all training for their first half marathons.  It felt like just a blink of the eye and we were at the 1 mile turnaround. 

I ended my 2 miles with the group and then caught up with a friend to run a few more miles.  The sun had risen by then and it was definitely warming up to be a beautiful day.  I wore my santa hat which really warmed me up too.  It felt so great to get the miles in and have a good long run.  Then I was off to celebrate with my family...we had a little one turning 5 and that requires lots of celebrating, playing, and all around fun!!!

A Little Biking Fun

Sunday I met up with some friends to ride the upcoming Shark Sprint bike course.  This course includes a really tough hill and I always like to get in a couple practice runs on the course before the race. 

AJ, Britt, Maja, and Me

We started off at 8AM and it was already pretty warm out.  The first four miles of the course seem like a constant uphill and that is made more difficult since your legs aren't warmed up at all.  We each took our own pace to get started but stayed pretty close together.  By mile 5 we were in a flatter section of the course and all together.  The fun thing about riding with friends is that the conversation and laughter make the time fly by!

We hit the big hill and I got into my granny gear and slowly pedaled my way to the top.  It was a tough ascent and it quickly made me change the route plans for our second tour of the course.  Instead of doing two loops we modified the second loop to cut out the massive hill.  One friend needed a little longer ride so she did the full loop.  We parted ways after a little break full of random topics including the best idea ever for how to turn your bike into art.  AJ and Maja came up with a brilliant idea to frame your bike on the wall so you have beautiful art and storage!

Also during our break, AJ treated us to her prime number song.  Looking back I don't remember why prime numbers were part of the conversation but it was a fun musical treat. 

As we headed back towards our starting point we were discussing more random topics and saw a truck approaching us.  In the road, there was a squirrel between us and the truck.  The poor squirrel proceeded to go crazy with indecision.  It couldn't decide where to go with the truck coming towards it and the three of us coming from the opposite direction.  It was one of those awesome animal moments that you can only witness as an athlete. 

We finished up the ride with a few miles of fast paced riding to have a strong finish.  I originally had wanted to swim after the bike ride but instead we just stood in the lake and cooled off.  The water was cool and the perfect way to finish.  It could only have been better if we had planned ahead and brought some post workout snacks since we were all pretty hungry. 

Do you have the Rhythm?

The November issue of Running Times has an article on Rhythm Runs...or progression runs as most of us call them.  My next race is in five weeks and is a half marathon.  Today when I read the article in Running Times it followed a similar conversation I had with our team coach, Mike Rush, earlier this week.  We had been discussing the upcoming half marathon and getting his advice for my running partner and I to use for our midweek longer runs.  We were discussing the benefits of progression runs versus either tempo runs or hilly workouts. 

Mike's advice was that we do progression runs...which matches the advice in the article.  Tonight Anne and I had a six mile run on tap.  We range between 6-8 miles usually for our Wednesday or Thursday midweek runs. We had decided to take tonight easy and experiment with the progression run.  Our first attempt was a little bit of a fail in that we did not run each mile progressively faster...but it was a success in that we ran two separate progression runs within our six miles.  Our splits were: mile 1 - 10:35, mile 2 - 10:14, mile 3 - 10:04, mile 4 - 10:26 (OOPS), mile 5 - 10:08, mile 6 - 9:38. 

Our 4th mile was along a busier road that had a very small shoulder.  We were running single file and must have just unconsciously slowed down.  However, we did do our second set of 3 miles faster than the first set so that is somewhat of a win.  Mike Rush gave us an E for Effort since it was our first attempt.  Hopefully we'll do better next week. 

For pace, Mike Rush recommended that we end our progression run with our last mile at or just faster than 5K pace.  We should be dropping our pace by 10-15 seconds per mile so we need to pick a starting pace that works for this.  Tonight we started just a tad too fast but also didn't get our final mile down as low as it should have been.  Learning how to feel pace can be tough and we were pretty laid back with our attempt.  We learned some good lessons and will be better prepared next week. 

Here's a quote by elite athlete Chris Solinsky from the Running Times article on why Jerry Schumacher's group refers to these runs as rhythm runs, " the way I see it, their purpose is callusing. Rhythm runs are all about controlled effort, a quality strength program. We're starting slower, working up to find the rhythm in the middle, and then staying in that small window. It's not a killer effort, just a slow, controlled, callusing." In another part of the article, these runs are referred to as an investment!

Running Times had the following tips for getting the most out of your progression runs:
1) Don't neglect warm-up.  (Our first mile was probably just a tad to quick, maybe just 10-15 seconds.)
2) Run your pace. (A little slower is better than too fast)
3) Use a heart-rate monitor if you have trouble feeling the pace.
4) Start Slow.
5) Don't worry...learn from your failed experiments.
6) Take into account the weather and adjust pace accordingly.

Ode to Fall Long Runs

(Please accept my apologies in advance, but I wanted to try out a little poem recap of my long run today versus the traditional recap I normally do.  I hope it isn't too horrible!)

Oh, how I didn't want to get out of my warm and toasty bed this morning.
But alas, Anne was waiting for me at the town square.
Taper time for her marathon meant an easy long run.
Dressing meant digging through drawers, long forgotten.
Sleeves and capris hidden away,
not to be worn during hot summer days.
The debate ensued as always, how many layers were needed.
Temps were 40 degrees and the sun would be rising.
Decision was made and away I went to face the day.

Unhappy that my new earbuds were already broken,
Meant music would not happen and words would be spoken.
Together we plotted a course that would amuse us
And avoid the dreaded hills that tend to abuse us.
Into the chill and sunrise we headed,
ticking off the miles as we went and chatted.
Gu stop at mile 5 and Biscuit a friendly yellow lab
He was the gracious neighborhood greeter!
This was followed by a stop at the White Oak Station,
potty stop and water bottle refills were in the making.
Back on the road and having fun,
we couldn't believe we were almost done.
Together we finished with 10 miles under our belts,
so amazed how little the time actually felt.

Thanks to Anne for helping me to get my pace back again.
Our long runs together are always a blast!
Good luck in Chicago, you are going to be super fast!