Monthly Archives: June 2011

June 27, 2011 · 7:26 AM

Race Recap: Seattle Rock N’ Roll Half Marathon

A few weeks ago I decided that, since we were going to be in Seattle anyway, I wanted to do the Seattle Rock N’ Roll Half Marathon. Last year I did the full marathon and was very impressed with the race. I also PR-ed at the full last year, so my memory of the race is a good one. This year the half marathon option fit perfectly with my training schedule since my long run called for 15 miles. A half marathon was the perfect substitute. If I needed any more convincing, my sister and my sister-in-law were both doing the half marathon this year – it was my sister’s first and I wanted to be there with her. The only problem was that the race was sold out a few months ago. So off to Craig’s List I went and I secured a bib for half-price. Sure, I wouldn’t be racing in my own name, but there was no reason why that should matter.

Race day conditions were absolutely perfect. The weather was around 50 degrees and it was overcast, but no rain. We took the busses to the start line, eating on the way there. Instead of drinking coffee with my bagel and peanut butter, I had a bottle of 5-Hour Energy. This is a new thing for me. I’ve always been anti-energy drinks and have always been big on consuming only natural energy products (like coffee and tea). But I got a free bottle of 5-Hour Energy at a race one year and let it sit in my pantry for probably two years. Then one afternoon a few months ago I was really struggling and decided to try it. I was an instant believer. So now I’ll drink a half of a bottle it if I’m struggling before a run in the morning. But this was the first time I drank a full bottle and I really do think it contributed to my great racing experience.

The course was full of rolling hills, which I actually think is the perfect profile for a race. Your body needs the variety and the changing uphill and downhill keeps your muscles fresh and on their toes. During the race, I was conservative on the uphills and let my legs fly on the downhills, which for some reason felt very liberating. I was also pumped up with my music choice for the day: Cruise Control Podrunner at 175 BPM. Yes, I know I mention Podrunner a lot, but I really do love it and it has helped both my running form (cadence) and my speed.  And on race day I had my Yurbud earphones in perfectly. The Yurbud representatives were at the race expo the day before, so I took the opportunity to stop and ask them exactly how to insert them and find out what was I doing wrong. Now I think I have it down so that every time I can get it right and from now on I can give Yurbuds a glowing review.

All of these factors led to the perfect race for me. My pace was steady the entire way and not once did I stop to walk. I drank the water or Cytomax (course drink) when I was thirsty and had my GU at mile 7, but otherwise I just kept running and loved every step of it. In the end, I finished in 1:46:58, a new PR for me.

I had three goals for this race: 1. Have fun. 2. Set a new PR. 3. Give it everything I had and finish with absolutely no fuel left in the tank. The first two goals were definitely achieved. I am not totally convinced I achieved number 3, but I came pretty close. Really, this race was a personal experiment in that I wanted to see if I could maintain an 8:10 pace for that long during a race. I did, which gives me hope for Chicago, when I need a time of 3:35 to BQ.  Plus, I’ve still got 3 months of training ahead of me.

Me (left), my sister-in-law (middle) and my sister (right) at the finish of the Seattle Rock N' Roll Half Marathon.

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Filed under Boston Marathon, Cadence, Feel Good Running, GU Energy Gel, Hill Training, Marathon Training, Podrunner, Positive Attitude, Racing, Running Form, Running Music, Speed Workout, Yurbuds

June 23, 2011 · 7:11 AM

Running: Road Trip Sanity Saver

A few weeks ago I wrote about running and maintaining a training schedule while traveling. I took my own advice to heart this past week as my family and I drove across the country.

Besides the anxiety of traveling 8 hours a day in a car with a 4-year-old and a 21-month old, I was actually excited to get the opportunity to explore cities via running that I had never been to before. Our stops included Santa Fe (NM), Denver (CO), Billings (MT), Spokane (WA), and Seattle (WA).

Denver and Spokane rank at the top of the list with some great river trails. The top picture is the Platte River Trail in Denver and the bottom is the Spokane River Trail in Spokane.

 

 

These runs saved my sanity during our road trip and each night I found myself excited to get up the next morning and explore that city during my run. It was the perfect way to start each day and a great way to see each city through a different perspective. I got to see local shops and buildings, get a taste of the local culture, and get a feel for the people that live there. I am a normally very restless person who does not do well on long car trips, but this trip was different and I believe that I owe it all to the running. It recharged me and made me excited to keep training. Of course, it helps that the weather is not 110 degrees.

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Filed under Feel Good Running, Finding Time to Run, Marathon Training, Positive Attitude, Traveling

June 20, 2011 · 7:22 AM

Product Review: Yurbuds

I’ve gone through a lot of headphones over the past several years. The Apple headphones that came with my ipod hurt my ears, so those immediately went in the trash. I then went through a series of ear buds, from brands like Skull Candy to Panasonic. The ear buds always work, but I’ve never found a pair that I fall in love with. Then comes the summer heat and humidity (don’t be fooled – because of the monsoons, July and August in Phoenix are not “dry heat” months like everyone thinks) and I cannot get any pair of ear buds to stay in my ears for more than a few minutes on a run. The solution I’ve come up with is to use old school over-the-head earphones during the summer so they stay put. But this time I wanted to try something different.

I have known about Yurbuds for a while, but for some reason can never bring myself to spend $30 for two small silicone pieces. I realize this is silly, since I’ve gone through so many pairs of $10 ear buds that I would have saved a lot of money by now if I went with the Yurbuds in the first place. Well, this time I decided to splurge and buy the $30 Yurbuds in hopes that they would be everything I dreamed of. Since Yurbuds come in different sizes and your success with them depends on having the correct size, you need to be fitted for them at a retailer that sells them. You can also upload a picture of your ears to the Yurbuds website and have them help you determine the correct size, but I opted for the in-person method. My local running store carries them, so that’s where I went.

The Yurbuds are simply two silicone earpieces that you fit right over your Apple earphones (or similar). They come in a couple of different models – I went for the basic, lowest priced ones and opted for the bright pink color (my options were pink or blue). I’ve been using them for about a month now.

Besides having the correct size, another factor playing into your success with the Yurbuds is inserting them in your ears in the exact correct position. This is actually harder than it seems. Sometimes I can get it right on the first try and I’m out the door in 30 seconds and don’t have to adjust or touch them at all until I get home and take them out. In these instances, the Yurbuds are a dream. They are snug in your ears and feel secure, and they are so comfortable that you can hardly feel they are there. I would say this scenario happens to me about 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time, I feel like I am stopping every 2 minutes to fix or adjust them, which can get very frustrating on a 15 mile run! For some reason, I’ll have a day where I cannot get them to go in right for the life of me. I’ll spend 5 minutes trying to do it before I head out and then I give up and go anyway, fiddling with them every step of my run – which does not make for a very relaxing run!

So, the jury is still out. If you ask me on a day when I get them to work right, I would say without a doubt, go buy a pair! If you ask me on a day when I have to adjust them every step of my run, I would tell you differently. I am convinced that there is a secret to getting them in correct and fast each and every time, but so far nobody has shared that secret with me. If you know it, please fill me in.

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Filed under Feel Good Running, ipod, Marathon Training, Product Review, Running Music, Yurbuds

June 10, 2011 · 7:13 AM

Hills: What’s Your Excuse?

About six years ago, before I had my first baby and had all the time in the world, I made it my mission to run a local two-hour mountain trail every Saturday morning during the summer. Besides the memory of it being very hot, a smile comes to my face when I think back on that summer. And the reason is because that is the strongest and fastest I’ve ever felt in my running career. I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when I ran this trail route and had the best time. I was incredibly sore for the next few days, but I felt stronger just after the one run. When I had recovered fully, I then went up North a few hours where it is quite hilly and ran a very hilly course two days in a row. I was reminded yet again at how important hill training is and why everyone should try to incorporate into their running.

I know a lot of people shy away from hill training, but that is a huge mistake. Hills make you stronger, faster, and less prone to injury. Specifically, training on hills improves leg-muscle strength, quickens your stride, expands stride length, develops your cardiovascular system, enhances your running economy and can even protect your leg muscles against soreness. You don’t need to do a two-hour trail run every weekend to reap the benefits – any hill is better than no hill! In fact, if you are new to hill running or haven’t done it in a while, it’s best to start small (in both incline and length) and slowly increase your efforts.  In as little as six weeks of regular hill training you can expect a significant improvement in your muscle power and speed.

Hill training does not have to be difficult or exhausting. In fact, if it is, there is likely something you can do to fix that. If you are breathing too rapidly or have tight leg muscles, you are likely over-striding. If your lower back is sore or tight, you are probably leaning too far forward. If you have tight or sore hamstrings or shins, you could be over-striding on the downhill, while a loss of rhythm or flailing arms means you are going downhill too fast.

What other excuses do you have for not incorporating hill running into your training? Do you live in a flat-as-a-pancake part of the world? So do I, but I simply hop in my car and drive 10 minutes to a hill or mountain. If there is no hill anywhere in sight, you can use a treadmill to do hill training. There is a solution for everything, and if it’s something that will make you stronger, faster, and less prone to injury, why not try to make it a regular part of your training?

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Filed under Breathing, Cadence, Feel Good Running, Hill Training, Marathon Training, Positive Attitude, Running Form, Running Injuries, Speed Workout, Strength Training, Treadmill

June 8, 2011 · 7:15 AM

Ashley’s Training Update and Progress

I thought I would take a break today from all of the more informative and formal blog posts and write about my own running progress. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m training for the Chicago marathon and am now about 6 weeks into training. I started out very slowly and cautiously since I was bouncing back from an injury, but I’m now feeling great and confident with no problems, ready to tackle the next 4 months of training. I thought I would share some things that have really been working for me and maybe they’ll help some of you, too.

I’m approaching this round of marathon training a little differently than I have in the past. The biggest thing I’m working on is form, which I’ve written about quite a bit over the past few months. I feel like I’ve finally mastered all of the elements to good form and now rather than consciously thinking about every step, it’s more like I’m on autopilot, just cruising along. I found a few Podrunner mixes that I thoroughly enjoy that are 175-176 bpms, so I just turn them on and cruise along, keeping my cadence steady and my stride short. I feel like this alone has had the biggest impact on my training. With a high cadence and short stride, I seem to finish all of my runs with energy left over and a spring in my step. With a longer stride, I used to get exhausted and even had to take walk breaks every few miles. Now I can complete a 6 mile run without taking one walk break and still feel like I could keep going. It also makes it easier to go faster with less effort. Since my cadence is already high, all I have to do is increase my stride length and lean forward and before I know it, I’m doing speed work. This brings me to my next point.

Another thing I am working on is slowing down. This is actually harder for me than I anticipated. One of the reasons I’ve been injured so many times in the past is that I train at a pace that is too fast. I cannot help it – I simply just go at a pace that is comfortable, yet challenging. I like to push myself – it comes from having a type A personality. The problem comes when you do this for every run, especially your long runs. You are just begging for an injury if you keep it up.  When I create training plans for my clients, I include paces for every single run that are dependent on 1) Their previous race times and 2) Their current race goal. They usually get the training plan and say, “Wait a minute, my goal is to get faster. Why do you have me running one to two minutes slower per mile than what my goal race pace is?” It’s a long-proven method, however, for distance running. If you slow down your long runs during training, you are increasing your endurance. Then you incorporate speed work into your training to work on speed. But the speed work and the long runs should never mix because if they do, your risk of injury increases significantly. The only time they actually come together is on race day. So, a big goal for me this time around is to slow down, which takes conscious effort. I have a hard time staying over a 9:00 pace, but I’m working on it!

I’ve also learned a lot more about recovery over the past few weeks and things that work well for my body when it comes to recovering from a long run. I’m up to 12 miles now and have a recovery routine down that makes me feel great – like I only ran 5 miles. One thing that I think has helped is compression socks. I wear them during my long runs and then keep them on for 30-45 minutes after. Another thing I have started doing is drinking Recoverite as soon as I get home. I used it several years ago and remember it working, but I don’t remember it ever working this well! (Full review coming soon.) It’s a powdered drink mix that you mix with water and drink right after your run. I went for the chocolate flavor this time around, which is much better than the citrus flavor I drank years ago. It’s very easy on the stomach and keeps me very satisfied until I feel like eating real food (usually about 45-60 minutes after I get back). Right after I drink the Recoverite, I lay on the ground with my butt against the wall and put my legs straight up in the air. I read about these “leg drains” in Chi Running and after I tried it, I was amazed at how good my legs felt. Just lay there for 5 minutes and let the blood drain out of your legs so that when you stand up, fresh blood is pumped back in. Your legs will feel tingly as the blood flows away from your feet and legs, but when you stand up, you will feel like you have a new pair of legs! The final piece to my recovery routine is an ice bath. I know some people hate them, but I personally don’t mind them. I just listen to my ipod and keep my mind occupied on something else. After the ice bath, I take a warm shower and then am ready to eat a real meal. A few hours later I’ll spend some time on my foam roller and do a few light stretches. You never want to stretch immediately following a long run (anything over 14-15 miles) because you just created hundreds of micro-tears in your muscles and stretching runs the risk of turning one of those into a macro-tear. So it’s always best to wait several hours to do any stretching.

So there you have it – that’s where I am in my training. I’m feeling good, confident, and most of all, excited to keep training. I feel like I’m at a point where I really know my body, what works for it and what doesn’t, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me!

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Filed under Cadence, Chi Running, Feel Good Running, ipod, Marathon Training, Podrunner, Racing, Running Form, Running Injuries, Running Music, Speed Workout, Stretching