LA Girl On The Run

I thought I was diligent by taking rest day after the stairwell tumble.  Maybe I needed this: 

Apparently I underestimated the discomfort of running with a huge bruise on my arse. I started up the mountain this morning and it was uncomfortable to say the least.  It was not painful so I kept going up the mountain.  My running mates were discussing icing and injury prevention when a little voice inside my head said “um, you have 18 miles to run this Saturday, do you really need to run through this much discomfort right now?” The answer was a clear “no”.  I told my friends what happened on the stairwell and that my conscience was guiding me to turn around. All in all it was a speedy 5 miles on the mountain despite the discomfort.  I am going to try for an easy 4 miles tomorrow morning before hitting the big mileage bright and early Saturday AM.  

It’s full disclosure time. I want to be 100% honest with you tumblrville. Gulp. I took a tumble down a set of stairs yesterday afternoon. Let me set the scene. I was on my way to an important meeting and deep in thought about said meeting. I was wearing a multicolored silk dress with a brown belt and a white suit jacket (just the color you want to be wearing when you take a fall down dirty stairs) and a pair of slightly too big strappy 4 1/2 inch brown suede heels. I usually fly up and down stairs in heels with ease but this time I completely missed a stair and bonked down the set of stairs. THANKFULLY I landed on my rear. A guy in the stairwell heard me fall and ran down to see if I was okay. When he made it down, I was already laughing. Miraculously NO INJURY to my legs, just a few bruises on my arms and rear (and one to my ego). My dress is fine and the white jacket just had a small stain that I was able to rinse out when I got home. Now I remember why I never wear these shoes. They do not fit correctly and cause me to flip flop in them. Definitely not the kind of shoes you want to be wearing while running up and down stairs. They are officially retired from work use.

The culprit - size 10 Michael Kors brown suede strappy heel.

On another note, I love heels and wear them every day. I do not subscribe to the belief that women who run cannot/should not wear heels.

Given that I took a rough tumble and not wanting to push my luck, today was a rest day. I am back on the trails tomorrow morning.

This morning I woke up a couple minutes before my alarm at 4:25AM!  Yay!  Hopefully this means that my body is ready to rise and shine again. For the last few months, 4:30AM has been tough.  After giving it some thought, I think that stress had a lot to do with it.  Interesting how stress can creep up on you.  I thought I was handling things well but sleeping through my alarm clock tells a different story.  Another lesson learned. Onward and upward!

5 miles close to race pace this morning.  4-5 miles easy tonight.  Happy Tuesday Fitblrs!

9 weeks out from the Santa Rosa Marathon.  This last week I focused a little too much on spin with a brick workout thrown in for good measure. Wednesday was a killer.  Spin, spin, ran 3 miles (a little above race pace), then spin again (yes triple spin).  Later that evening, I ran another 3 miles easy.  Thursday I had 7/8 miles planned on the trails but decided to take a rest day instead. Friday morning, double spin.  Yesterday I had 8 miles planned.  Two miles in, I knew that 8 was not in the cards for me.  You know you are in trouble when 2 miles feels like 10 miles.  I decided to wave the white flag and give my legs a break.  I stopped at 3.  Today, another double spin.  The legs feel much better.  The rest of this week will be run focused.  I took a spin detour but will get back on track towards 40+ miles.  My hat is off to those of you who run 50-60 miles a week.  Maybe I could do that if I only ran and no cross training?  I do not know.  LAGirl loves spin way too much to give it up.  The only thing that matters between now and August 28 is logging the miles towards the race.  That and a good taper.  You cannot fake the work.  Work, work, work towards the goal..

I woke up at 5:09 this morning. Late again! BOO! I was supposed to meet members of the Ultra gang down the street at 5:15.  I made it to the corner at 5:21, 6 minutes late but out of bed and running nonetheless.  I thought I might run into them but instead ran into another member of our group.  She was flying (7 min per mi or less) and it shot me awake.  After a mile and a half, I had to slow it down so I bid her adieu.  I spent the rest of the run fighting nausea.  Overall, 5 miles a bit slower than race pace.  Happy Tuesday Tumblrs!

Workouts so far this week: Sun double spin, Mon rest, Tues 5 mi am, spin pm. 

This was the first time that I have started a long run after 3:30PM.  I have to say that it was a lot tougher than a normal long run.  I may be a morning person (gasp!).  When did this happen????  It may have to do with running before 6AM twice a week over the last year.  After the long slog today, I will make sure to run my long runs early in the day over the next few months.

Off to dinner.  Somewhere there is a margarita with my name on it.

12 mi down. 4 to go. June gloom had held off. Beautiful afternoon for a run.

The alarm went off at 4:30 this morning and I actually rolled out of bed to meet the Ultra gang. 7.5 miles, 1700 ft assent into the clouds on Sullivan. 3.75 miles straight up made for a good morning wake up.  The best part was flying downhill after working so hard to make it up the hill.  I am filled with gratitude. 

runnyknows:

Not to bite of more than you can chew, unless you’re willing to deal with the full belly.

So so true!

When you decide to miss spin class to sleep in and DREAM ABOUT BEING IN SPIN CLASS ANYWAY???  I woke up this morning feeling not refreshed but still tired (from the workout in my dreams???).  I should have dragged myself out of bed and gone to class.  Lesson learned. 

Workouts so far this week: Mon spin, Tues 4 miles faster than race pace, Wed 3 mi easy. Mileage to ramp up through Saturday.  More to come…

It is a “June gloom day” in LA (overcast skies, low temps BOO!). It felt glorious to sleep in and run by the ocean this afternoon (7 miles easy along Ocean Ave and down on the bike path in Santa Monica/Pacific Palisades).  

Today is the last day of the AIDSLifeCycle.  The finish line is in my neighborhood so every year we see the cyclists finish their 600 mile trek.  I had the opportunity to run along side them for a few miles on the bike path.  They are a very inspirational bunch!  I have a friend who works on the crew every year and loves it.  

Workouts completed back half of the week: Thurs rest, Fri spin, Sat 7 mi easy.   Looking forward to inching closer to 40 miles next week.  Starting off the week with a run early tomorrow morning.

Saturday was amazing but it was just a step towards the larger goal.  I am excited to see how much progress I have made but there is still much work to be done.  Over the next couple months I plan to put in as many miles as possible to make my BQ dream a reality. So exciting!!!!

On Monday, I had the opportunity to attend K’s first official yoga class since the completion of yoga teacher training.  It was amazing!  I have slacked off in my yoga practice and realized the need make it a higher priority.  It just feels awesome. Congrats K!  Cannot wait to attend your classes regularly. :)

Workouts completed so far this week: Sun spin, Mon yoga, Tues 3.25 mi easy, Wed 5 mi trails, double spin 

Where do I begin? It has taken 5 years of running to get here and the hard work has paid off in spades. There was a woman at the race wearing a shirt that said something like “training is the opposite of wishing”. SO TRUE. You have to do the work. Period. I have had to confront and let go of a lot of preconceived notions I believed about myself. Anything is possible. THERE ARE NO LIMITS. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. My goal was to run the race 30 seconds per mile faster than my Boston qualifying pace for 13.1 miles and I did it! I learned a lot about what I need to do in preparation for Santa Rosa in August.

I was calm the night before and morning of the race. I enjoyed visiting with my friends. We awoke at 4:30AM and arrived in downtown Fontana at 5:20. We picked up our race packets and lined up to take the bus to start. The race sold out for the first time (1200 runners). It is definitely a small town race. We easily boarded the bus and took the 30 minute bus ride to the start. The start line is in the San Bernadino National Forest. I had been warned that it would be cold but it was FREEZING COLD. My teeth chattered. We had to wait an hour in the cold before the race began. This was the only downside to the whole experience. Thankfully I chose to wear capri tights and a long sleeved top. My friend brought an old LA Marathon foil blanket and this saved us. THANK GOD FOR THAT FOIL BLANKET. We huddled behind a wall and wrapped the blanket around the three of us. I left my pals a few moments before the start and made my way to the start line. The race began and I started flying down the hill. The Garmin read a 6:20 pace. Way too fast. I pulled it back a bit and started to cruise. Self doubt tried to creep in. I told self doubt to take a hike. Instead, Adele and Coldplay played in my head. Specifically “Someone Like You” and “Clocks”. There was a strong headwind for a few miles. I cruised along. Self doubt and uncertainty tried to make a comeback. I would not be deterred. Instead I meditated on “I AM”. This was a very powerful technique. It took me out of my head and back to the present moment.

As I closed in on the finish, 1:45 was in my grasp. I was overwhelmed with emotion in the final yards of the race. Official time 1:45:41! 22nd out of 80 in my age group. 331 overall. The last time I ran a half marathon for time was in May of 2010 and it was 29 min slower. 2:14 to be exact. Incredible!

Happy faces at the finish.

Lessons learned for Santa Rosa: 1) NO BIG PACK. I ran with my usual pack and it was way too much. Running faster and elimated the need to run with a large pack. I need to try running with a hand held bottle. I am not sure that I will run with any pack in Santa Rosa. We shall see. 2) I can easily run at an 8 min pace. I did a system check every few minutes and I felt great. My breath was fine and legs felt good. It took them a few miles to warm up but other than that it was fine. I was a bit surprised since I did a tough double spin on Friday morning. 3) I need to take an ice bath after a race. My legs were SORE this morning. I felt like I had run a full marathon. Ice would have helped speed my recovery but I did not do it.

Thank you team LAgirlontherun for your love and support! Tumblrs/Fitblrs are the best!