The raw people are sucking me in!

I have been considering eating mostly raw for a while now but many excuses get in my way. 1) what to do about my husband. He can deal with the vegan lifestyle but eating raw would mean cooking some pretty fancy meals to entice him. 2) Its winter…I want to eat warm 3) my severe grain/carbohydrate/legume addiction.

 

Everything I am reading and have read about it say that my running/recovery will benefit immensely from eating raw. People talk about all the energy that comes from it and it makes me want to try it!  I wish I had a personal chef!

 

KElli

 

It's all in your head

I am practicing mind over matter today as I fight a head cold. I had to skip my run yesterday because of this silly nuisance. It is threatening my running plans for today but JJ swears that running will actually make me feel better. I guess it will if I want it to!

Anyway, I missed my 5th day of running last week, leaving me with only 19 miles for the week with a long run of 7. I ran all the shorter miles between 8-10 min/miles and the long was in the 11 min/mile range. I have to skip a long run around Christmas because we don't have a sitter but I am going to bump that weeks mileage to this week so that we are actually starting the first week of training...this week. We truly means that a run today is a must!

Hal Higdon's Intermediate program

At first I was thinking I would do his novice II program but I really think I need to up my mileage to get a better time in Big Sur. Our last program (for SF) peaked at 35 miles/week with one 20 miler and four total runs a week. His intermediate program consists of 2 medium long runs, 1 long run and 2  shorter runs a week. My total mileage at the moment is around 20 miles and the program peaks at 45 (I think). There are two 20 milers at the peak of the training.

 

I have already gotten faster since I started the base training. I was concerned because while training for the SF marathon, my pace was 10 min/mi average for medium long runs. I usually ran the long runs around 12 mi/mi when they got in the 16+ mile range. I started my base at 12 min/mi at even the shorter distances after a 4 month hiatus from running. Could I really lose that much fitness in 4 measly months??? Yet,  I have quickly gotten back to a consistent 9-10 min/mi after only a couple months of slowly increasing my mileage and running 5 days/week. Since my “long runs” are still relatively short  still (7-8 miles), I am running them at the same pace as all my other runs. I hope this isn’t premature…..but I think my goal is to run the marathon at a 10 min/mi. I figure I will just get faster. That leaves me with a goal of 4:20 for the marathon. The course is very hilly though so I am giving myself a buffer and making the goal between 4:20 and 4:40. So that is that!!…I will re-evaluate when we get closer.

San Francisco Marathon

This is us running in the SF marathon..I think it was around mile 15 in Golden Gate park. I have to say that this marathon had many more hills than I thought it would have…but I think I was in denial. We went out slow and did walk at every aide station. The hills were tough but the downhills were murder on my legs. The views were spectacular!

Exiting the park at mile 20, I was struggling to finish but we never officially bonked or anything. J claims that he could have run the whole thing a lot faster. (biggest eye roll ever). Our time was 5 hours and we felt ok after….stuffed our faces and had a nice big glass of wine while we lounged on our friend’s couch. Ahhhhhhh sweet life.

Little did I know... I had been pregnant which I am now blaiming for my cramps and sluggishness in retrospect. We were so happy and excited anticipating our 3rd addition to the family. I was a little worried about letting my running slip because I had worked so hard and well ..it had become one of the loves of my life. It was also an excuse to spend hours chatting with my husband whom I adore more than anything...AND a big ole break from my little gremlins.

Sadly I lost her at 4 months :o(. We were devastated but I will always remember my little SF marathon running companion. We are now running the Big Sur Marathon in her memory around the time she would have been due. It is supposed to be a magical marathon and I am REALLY looking forward to it. Maybe I will train for hills this time? heh heh

Long time no see

I haven't been keeping up with this thing. A lot of things have been going on lately. I am training for the Big Sur Marathon in April 2008. I have started my base training (about 2 months ago...a little less). After Christmas I will officially be starting Hal Higdon's 18 week intermediate marathon training program!

Faye Hobbs 10 Miler!

We are back from the race. It was a great race. The weather was clear, crisp, and cool. The first three miles were pretty flat and we took it slow at 11 min/mile pace...just enjoying the beautiful ocean views! We decided to just walk a few seconds through the aide stations drinking gatorade and it worked well. Otherwise we ran the whole way!

The hills started at about the 3 mile mark but they weren't too bad. I think because I have been doing most of my runs on hilly trails (not super hilly). JJ liked to book up them becuase he said they were easier on his knees. We picked up the pace to 10 min/mi. through the hills.

When we started the race the announcer guy said that getting passed by a girl was called "getting girled" and both JJ and I rolled our eyes. But then we joked throughout the run that we were getting "little girled" "geisered" and "babied" (some guy was towing his baby behind him!). They all passed us but we kept tight on our slower pace so we could pass later which was so hard to do. JJ definitely was itching to go faster! At the turn around I felt great but really had to PEE! I even stopped drinking an hour before the race to avoid this but I guess I have to push it farther back.

We started passing at around 8 miles and it felt so nice to get past this one group of "talky talkies" who ran 4 people abroad. So annoying! All they were talking about was how they were running slow and would kick later. When we got to the 9 mile mark, I started sprinting because I heard the talkies coming! I passed by this guy and he was like "woh, not gonna catch that one! I felt like I was flying! JJ was egging me on saying "I am going to beat you!" so we raced each other in the end. The annoucer guy said he was a smart man though because "he let me beat him" ---heh heh not sure about that! Our time was 1:40 which was lower than our goal of 1:45. It means that we made up for our exra minutes by going faster in the end and averaging 10 min/mi pace for the race!

We ended feeling really good and not in pain whatsoever. Yay! I think that I have potential to go a lot faster but I have so much to learn.

Weight gain

The odd thing about being vegan and being a runner is that I never really worry about getting enough calories. In fact, I have GAINED weight since training for this marathon...that's right 5-10 pounds indeed!

I think most people would worry about my nutritional needs as a vegan but there is no worry there for me at all. My worry tends to be in how can I eliminate some of the crappy vegan snacks/fats that most likely have increased my weight. It could also be the wine, lol.

Or maybe it is just that I am gaining muscle (we can only hope)

sigh

As usual, things change

It has been a while since I have been back here. I ran the Orchard to Ocean Run in Carpinteria, CA on March 17th. For that race we did take walk breaks and were able to pass everyone from the half. Our time was 59:53 and I didn't remotely push myself. It is a great run that goes along the ocean on mostly flatish trails in Carpinteria.

As for our training. It has changed. I have been doing a lot of research and feel that I am going to try and only take walk breaks to drink....so I am aiming for the aid stations in the marathon. I am not even thinking that I have to walk...just that it will be my goal to keep running unless I am drinking. I think that it does help to keep my muscles fresh but I would like to train to run versus take the breaks.

Anyway, my husband and I had an argument about it on our last long run, lol. He was pretty upset that I had decided to reduce the walk breaks to every 3 miles. It isn't even that he needs the break because he is so much better built for running and can certainly run faster than me. He trains less than I do and does have a bad knee though....I know the walking breaks were helping his knees. I am hoping I am making the right choice!

This is my schedule this week:

Monday-3 mi (was sluggish becuase sunday I ran a 10 min/mile pace for 5 miles easily)

Tuesday- off

Wednesday-6 miles (but tried to slow my pace down to 10:30 min/mile since I was starting feel a cold coming on)

Thursday- 4 mi with strollers AND hills (it was nice actually!)

Friday (today, i am taking off!)

Saturday- Our Faye Hobbs 10 mile race!

Sunday- 3 recovery

Training Schedule

So I was planning on using Jeff Galloway's training schedule but I just realized that I don't have enough time, lol. So I pulled out my training log and decided to doctor it up a little. The log uses the official New York City Marathon program. But see I added mileage to reflect Galloway's programs of getting a 26 miler in before the marathon. Problem is that I am at 6 miles with a 10K this weekend when I should be starting 10 miles....hmmmm.

Ok, I am back to this post and I think I found a solution. I am going to cut 3 weeks out in the end of Galloway's program so that my longest run is 23/24 miles 3 weeks before the race instead of going the full 26. I feel like it stays the closest to his program. I hope not fulfilling those 26 miles before doesn't hurt us too much.

July it is...but a year later!

Ok, I find this to be pretty funny. I found this blog after trying to start a new one. I had completely forgotten about it.

Last year I ran for a few months and then basically totally stopped. I can't even tell you why. I guess I was burnt out...maybe it was the heat? I don't know but we continued to do short races but backed out of the 1/2 marathon that we paid for in the fall. We ran the 5K instead.

I have kept up running a bit through the fall/winter but then about 3 months ago, I thought I would seriously give it a try again. My reason was that I was sad and anxious all the time. I didn't know what to do. I remembered that running helped with that so I started adding some short running to my week. I did something a little differently this time. I made myself run 6 days a week for 20 minutes. After a month I increased it to 25-30 minutes a day. Then in the 3rd month, I started looking at the marathon. Running became a habit!!

I forgot to mention that I feel so much better. I am still anxious and sad on occasion but I feel like I have found some peace through running. It is mine...something I have all to myself.

I am a mom to 2 very beautiful, bright extremely difficult little children who take every ounce of energy that I have. My son has autism and it adds a whole extra layer (or ten) of anxiety, frustration, worry, fear, and awe to parenting. I haven't found much for myself in the past 4 years of his life. Even when I found time to get away, I would do something for the family. Partly out of guilt and necessity (it needs to get done) but also because I just didn't have anything that I wanted to do. I think I have finally found that for myself!

I am going to keep up with my training and write about it here. Our goal is San Francisco in July!! Yes, my husband has decided to run with me and I am really happy about it. I am training mostly alone but we will try and run our long runs together. So I get the the time to myself but also the time with him when our schedule permits.