Race Recap: St. Malachi 5-miler

The results are in...

5 miles

44:58

9:00/mile pace

I'm happy to report the first race of the 2011 season was awesome. The St. Malachi 5 Miler really gave me the chance to see how much stronger I'm getting, and I attribute that (and am uber grateful) to having Brandon to train with. He pushes me at times when, if I were training alone, I would have slowed down or given up. So, Brandon...thank you!

I thought race day was going to be shoddy Cleveland weather again (as I stayed home from work the day before, because of the massive amounts of wet snow falling from the sky) but it turned out to be an incredible day! Sure, there was still snow on the ground and things were a little bit wet, but the sun was shining and that counts for about 5-gazillion happy points here in CLE.

Apparently I missed out on the big hill at the end that was part of the course last year, but I was kind of impressed with the "hills" they threw in this year (one hill is a bridge). It was a fun course though, out and back  that went around Browns stadium and the Rock Hall. This is what the elevation looked like:

(according to my Garmin)

The hills toward the end were definitely not to be taken lightly, but in my opinion, we killed it. We did start out too fast though, and I should have known better in that respect. I have a watch that tells me my pace and I generally know what I'm capable of, and a sub-8:30 mile is not something I can hold for 5 miles. So we had to stop to walk a couple of times, but we still ran it in 9:00/miles!!

I was surprised that there was only one water station at the turn-around though. Brandon said that he definitely needed more water than that. So, from now on, we are definitely bringing our own water bottle to races. Even if it's just my 10-ounce hand water bottle, it will be beneficial if I have something to drink between water stations, should I need it. 

Overall, great race! Well staffed, fun long-sleeve race shirt, lots of post-race food and water...although, I didn't go to McCarthy's for the post-race party (since we gave up booze for Lent) but I'm sure that was a good time too! It's a race I'll definitely participate in again and it was a really great halfway-through-training-checkpoint to re-motivate me after a week of slacking off (our mileage totalled 10 miles last week with a few yoga practi sprinkled in). I'm definitely ready for the week to come:

Monday: rest

Tuesday: 5 miles easy

Wednesday: rest/cross-train

Thursday: Speedwork - 6 miles with 3x1600 and 800 jogs

Friday: rest/cross-train

Saturday: 12 miles

Sunday: rest/cross-train

As always, lots of Peace, Love & Bagels,

Marathon Training Plan REmixed

First off, I need to explain the picture above. It's from the 2009 Akron Marathon. My colleagues put together a 5-person relay team to support me and run with me through the race. Why are there two people running with me? Because Andy (in the middle...light blue tee) ran his relay leg (from mile about 9 to about mile 15) and then decided he was going to finish the race with us. Mind you, the most he'd ever run at that point was like five and a half miles. Nuts? Yep. He ended up finishing 16+ miles. I love my colleagues <3 They are the best, most supportive people, ever.

So it's just about a month before I begin marathon training! This week, has been incredibly tough as far as working out goes (remember, control the controllables). Last night I got a change of perspective, and got re-motivated!

My old roommate, Emily, had a Hanukkah party at her mom's place and her Uncle Dale is a marathoner. He gave me some perspective on my long run training. Taking some of his advice, things I've learned from browsing training regimens and articles on the internet, and some of my other training experience, I formulated a training schedule that I'm pretty excited about and really looking forward to:

Let's get some things straight though:

• Things are bound to change a little bit, every week is not the same and sometimes I just don't have time to get a run in.
• It's going to be the middle of winter. Some of these runs may very well turn into indoor (cross my fingers) bike rides, yoga practices or (groan) treadmill jaunts
• If there is every any point that I am feeling overwhelmed by the mileage, I'm going to scale it back to something more palatable. I'm going to do everything in my power not to get injured again.
• Now, I not only have my own schedule to think about when I planning when I get my runs in, but I have Brandon's to think about as well. Now that we've moved in together, things are no longer about just me. 

In order to get myself ready for training I need to push up my mileage a bit, I'm talking 6-7.5 mile long runs by January...so it's not unattainable at all. I also want to concentrate a bit more on what I'm putting into my body; namely, processed sugar, "edible foodlike substances" (so Michael Pollan would say) and alcohol. I'm not going to watch my "diet"...the holidays are coming up, for goodness sake. I'm talking about eating with intention. Eating real foods. Eating local foods. Lastly, I need to be very conscious about cross-training. If I start working it more into my schedule now, I will be hopefully find the motivation to make it more routine when I'm training. I have no doubt in my mind that I got injured during my last marathon training jaunt because of my lack of cross-training. 

If you have any other good marathon training advice, please send it my way. I'd love to hear about how others are training for marathons (especially through the winter) and what you're doing to keep motivated and injury-free!