The Last Couple Weeks

It has been a very good last couple weeks of training. I've had some really solid workouts, and have put in some good long-runs, and you can't complain when it's mid-January and 50-plus degrees and sunny everyday. It's like fake spring-time. Can't beat Colorado any time of the year, but there's plenty more snow and sub-zero mornings yet to come I'm sure, but it's nice to shake things up a little.

Have also had a few pretty good runs with the UCCS team this past week, school's not back in for them yet but everyone on the team is back in town gearing up for the indoor season so it's been good to have some training partners on a handful of days. It makes me nostalgic for my college running days....
Anyways, Misch had the team over the other morning for a post-run-pancake-fest and he, along with side-kick/assistant coach Corey Kubatzky turned out the famous (well, famous amongst UCCS runners) peanut-butter-chocolate-chip pancakes. I will tell you right now that if either of them don't end up cutting it as coaches, they have a very bright future at the IHOP (I jest, I jest). But I digress.

Initially I wasn't really planning on running any races until U.S. Cross in a little less than a month, but I kinda feel like I need a tune-up. There's a four-mile cross country race in Boulder on the 23rd--the Fast and the Flurry-ous (formerly known as the Best XC Race on the Planet)--that I'm thinking about doing because it just seems ideal, but then it conflicts with my favorite-ever workout that I was going to do this week. But doing both that particular workout and the race would be one of those situations where I believe about one week afterwards I would come to the realization that in retrospect, doing both was a bad choice. So I'm debating. Mentally I feel like a race would be more beneficial, but physically I feel like the workout would. Maybe I'm over-analyzing this one. I need to wrestle with this a bit more.

Anyway, best of luck to any BRC-er's competing in Houston this weekend (Tera)--looking foward to seeing the results!!

Hills.

So yesterday was my first real workout since Club Nationals. I have been doing a lot of uptempo running (around 5:45-6:00 pace), but had not done any structured intervals until yesterday.

The Western State team was doing hill repeats (10x 200 meter hills), so I decided to jump in and break up the monotony of slow distance running. I felt really strong, so I opted to do 15 of them with one of our 10K guys. The first 10 were much faster because I had to hold off one of our anxious freshman on each one, as we were running 31-32 on the last 4 uphill! This was much faster than I wanted to go, so one the last 5 I was just running 35's with our 10K runner.

Overall, it was a great first workout. I always love doing hills early season. I am not particularly strong at hill-running by nature, so I really focusing on improving my economy and efficiency and getting better at running them.

That's about it.

Paul

Winter Wonderland

This morning I went out for a 60 minute run with one of my dogs in the -5 degree weather (it was 8:30). Despite the cold, it was very beautiful as everything had a layer of frost and there was a misty fog coming off the river. I'm not sure Anne was as appreciative...as soon as we got in the house she went straight to the couch and curled into a ball.

Good week of training so far...will report back on Sunday.

I just read Kara's post and it made me realize that I've been taking running for granted. I should be thankful that I can run and race instead of complaining that the weather has been so bad.
I have never had an injury or illness that caused me to take a long break from running. Last year I had was tendonitis in my glute/hip but even then I only had to take a few weeks off. The sports med dr I went to last week said its coming back a little but its manageable and that I can run through it. I've had a lot of little aches and pains like that but nothing major. I think its a pretty good record especially since I run high mileage and don't sleep a lot!
Next time I'm tempted to whine about the weather I'll keep my mouth shut and be happy I can get out the door. And I am INCREDIBLY thankful for whoever invented the treadmill. I don't know what I would do without one. I run 30-40% of my mileage inside regardless of the weather.

Layers

I live in Colorado and I HATE winter...there I said it. I have lived in this state since 2003 and every year I dread winter. I hate being cold, hate sliding all over the place whether I am running or driving, hate shoveling the sidewalk and driveway, hate when my dogs get "stuck" outside and I have to run out in my bare feet to rescue them, and I hate wearing layers. For those that train with me, they know my bad habit of WAY over-dressing. Yep, I am a compulsive layerer. I can be found frequently running around town in at least 3 pair of pants and 5 tops. It is a little ridiculous and one would think that after 6 winters (going on 7) of running/training in Colorado that I would have acclimated. But no, instead I pile on layer after layer until I resemble the kid in Christmas Story in his winter suit running away from bullies than a runner with miles to run.
So, obviously I am not from Colorado. I grew up in Amarillo, Texas and for those who don't know the climate is actually very similar to Fort Collins. In Amarillo it doesn't get quite as cold in the winter and it is hotter in the summer. The air is drier in Amarillo and the elevation is about 1300 feet lower. But we still got big snow storms with snow drifts 4-5 feet tall, we had snow days and blizzard warnings and below zero temps that I did run in. So, I am not sure why I can't handle a run in sub-zero temperatures without dressing as I do. So, as I deal with winter this year my goal is to try to not over-dress. I am failing miserably already and am destined to have to do piles and piles of laundry all winter long.
Despite the laundry and layering, training has actually been going ok. In the fall, I had been training for a marathon in Des Moines. I put in a lot of miles over the summer and early fall getting ready for a fast race and then my body began shutting down. I wasn't able to recover from easy days let alone hard ones. My races quickly began to show that something wasn't right and I cancelled the rest of my racing schedule and took almost a month totally off of running. I worked with several different people in the medical profession and got back on track and slowly started running. This past week I logged 52 miles that included 1 hill workout, a short tempo and a 15 mile long run. So, I am getting back up there with mileage and finally starting to feel like the runner I used to be. I am hopeful that the rest of winter and spring I will be able to continue building my mileage and start getting ready for some racing again (hopefully a marathon).

Gunnison is sort of like Hawaii in the winter.

Hello BRC!

Training has been going splendidly. Last time I updated, I had cracked a treadmill and had to take my morning runs outside. Luckily, the weather here in Gunnison hasn't been that God-awful (every morning run has been above 0 degrees) and it hasn't really affected me all that much.

My mileage has been climbing (92 last week) and I am excited to start workouts again. I will race that first Mines meet and then travel to New Mexico with our Western State team and probably run a mile or 3k. My goal for the indoor season is to qualify for USA's in the 3k, my only chance for qualification coming at Grand Valley State in Michigan in mid-Feb.

Other than that, I've just been kicking it in Gunnison. If any of you would like a winter retreat and can't afford a trip to Hawaii, consider Gunnison... They are pretty similar. Here is a picture of my house.

Week in Review

94 miles last week in singles. No workouts. 17 mile long run.

2010 is here

This is my first post, so I'll do a small introduction. I grew up in Conifer, CO and went to school at UNC Charlotte (North Carolina). I had a great college career and loved traveling the country for races. I graduated in 2006 and joined the Adidas Raleigh Club Team. In 2007 we moved to Colorado to train and be closer to family. My last year in Charlotte was no good so I took 2 months off when I got here to re-establish why I run and what I want to do.

Thanks to Russ and many wonderful friends I got back into running and being a competitor. 2009 was my first year with BRC Adidas and it has been a blessing. Everyone is so talented, super nice, I've made great friends, and the support is incredible. Since April 2009 I have been working hard to get back in shape and get back on the race circuit again (thanks coach). It was been a good year of learning to be patient, learning to train at altitude, trusting my training and capabilities, figuring out how to run for the right reasons, enjoying running, turning the brain off sometimes, and setting new goals. I've had a blast thus far and made some larger strides than I imagined I would.

Since Club Cross I took one week off and then ran miles the last few weeks. Most of it was in England so it was a blast and kept me wanting to run more. When I got back to Colorado I could feel the altitude for the first two days, but then my body remembered how to cope. I did my first workout for the year on Saturday (12x300m hills) and it went really well. I'm training for the indoor 3k and outdoor 5k and 10k. I'm hoping to get back down to my PR's and hopefully break all of them.

Happy New Year everyone!

New Year...New Blog

Hey Everyone... I am going to start with a little intro and summary of last year's training since this is my first post. I ran at Washington University in St. Louis during my undergraduate years and has one season of XC and outdoor track left when I went to graduate school at Colorado School of Mines. I had a pretty successful running career at both schools and was able to get a great education at the same time. Now I am working in Golden and on the BRC/Adidas team. I train mostly with Art and Jason in Golden as well as the Mines team.

I just added up my milage from last year and I ended up with 4116 for an average of around 80 miles a week. That is a great year for me and my first year in the past 3 without a major injury. I think that is the main reason I ran several PR's and was able to race consistently throughout the year. I have some goals on the track and road for the coming year that I should be able to hit as long as I can stay healthy. I am going to be racing a 3k indoors and then hopefully some 1500's and 5k's outdoors. I will likely run another half marathon or marathon this fall.

I am hoping to update once a week or so with a weekly summary and racing plans. I look forward to hearing comments from friends/teammates/strangers.

New Year, New Experiences

Happy New Year! At this time last year, my husband and I learned that I was pregnant (not a surprise). I spent the subsequent months running with an increasing amount of body weight, but with a new sense of freedom and excitement. It was the first time I think that I had ever just run to run, no thoughts on pace, distance, or goals. I was running because I enjoyed it and it was keeping me and baby healthy. This year, though, it's a whole new set of experiences. Now I'm trying to reverse the nine months of body strain and weight in (hopefully) less than nine months all while staying at home with my beautiful daughter. So far, I'm doing okay, but I've learned that I'm not one of those lucky women who have a baby and 3 months later are running PRs. Oh, how I wish I was one of those! Training has been progressing, but I'm finding that I need to have more patience with my body. I think many runners can relate with that! Luckily, I may soon have a former college teammate to train and trade baby-watching duties with...this would be huge as right now I'm training alone and my husband and I struggle to both have enough time to train when he gets home from work.

Quick background on me: HS--Fountain-Ft. Carson ('01), College--Adams State ('05), beginning my first year with the BRC racing team, live in Alamosa, CO.

Next up for me is the Fast and Flurryous 4 Mile in Boulder. This will be my first race since October 2008 (not counting Bolder Boulder at 6 months preggo in 66 minutes). We'll see how it goes. Training-wise, I've been averaging 40-60 minutes and have only done a handful of hard workouts thus far, so it could be a bit of a rough day!