1st – Manchester City  2nd – Rehoboth Beach

It will be my 3rd marathon and I couldn’t be happier with my bib number! 3 is my lucky number and 1 - 13 is my birthday! I will take it as a good sign.

My last few weeks of training have been very up and down. One day my leg will hurt, the next it’s perfectly fine. I’m not worried about it anymore, but it definitely caused me some stress and had me take extra time off from training.

My last few long runs went well overall, I did a really slow 22 miler, a decent paced 14 miler and an easy 8 over the last 3 weeks. I’m of course in full on taper mode and have been for the last 2 weeks and I’m actually enjoying it this time around instead of going crazy.

I want to feel this happy while running.

I, of course have some goals for the race, but they’ve somewhat changed since the beginning of training.

A GOAL: Have fun, run free, and fly as fast as you can on that day.

I want no pressure/stress going into this race. I like to think I have a strong mental state when it comes to races, but lately I’m not sure where that’s gone. It’s time to get it back this weekend!

B GOAL: PR or die trying.

Of course I would LOVE to PR this race! I’m still not sure what my race day plan is, but I’ve got a few potential options in my head. If a PR is not in the cards that day, see A GOAL.

There is no C goal because if I don’t PR, then I will revert my mental state to my A goal. K?

The course looks pretty amazing and the biggest hill is at mile 15 for about a 1/2 mile, I will be thinking of all the times I ran the Queensboro Bridge because it seems pretty similar and be happy that it’s not happening at mile 20.

They have a really great video of the course on their website and every day I picture myself running the course.

I’m finally excited for the race!!! For so long I felt disconnected, possibly even worried that I might not run. My leg was being an asshole and I wasn’t sure what the future held for it. Now that the weekend is almost here and I am definitely running, I am pumped and ready to go. Lets hope I don’t have any weird nausea issues like last time!

It’s going to be an amazing weekend with my husband! We are psyched to be spending it with Lauren and Evan. I can’t wait drink beer in Burlington and watch the new season of Arrested Development with them on Sunday night What a great way to celebrate running a marathon!

Hopefully I’m back to regularly scheduled blogging. Maybe I will actually have that Eugene Half recap for you before I run Vermont. Maybe.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” - Gail Devers

The past month has been a little rough for me, but I’m working on relaxing and learning not to stress because somewhere along the way I have forgotten how to do those things.

I literally think about this quote every day.

Be back soon!

I spent the weekend in Eugene, Oregon with friends from all over the country and although the race didn’t go as planned (more on that later), I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Don’t mind my sleepiness, this was before my coffee and at the end of the weekend!

I stayed in a house with Molly, Corey, Holly, Laura, and Allison and we had the best time together all weekend. It was so nice to get to know these ladies a little more as we shared lots of laughs, tears, and many, many stories.

Traveling took a lot out of us, so we were in bed by 9:30 Friday night! We met up with about 15 other girls Saturday morning for a shakeout run on Pre’s Trail.

It was absolutely beautiful, we definitely weren’t in NYC anymore . We then grabbed some delicious waffles and ran into Casey and Mason from Nuun. It was there that plans developed for Casey and I to run together.

Off to the expo to pick up our numbers and to hear Lauren Fleshman speak. She was so motivating and hilarious! I freaking love her, it was really awesome to meet her in person. We then took a giant Oiselle Team picture since so many of us were there.

We invited the others over to our house for dinner that night and we made 2 huge batches of pasta and I drank a beer. It was a really fun night, but again we were in bed nice and early since we had the race the next morning!

[Insert race recap]

After the race, we showered and then headed over to the Ninkasi Brewery where there was a Picky Bars party going on. I had a couple beers and got to talk to a lot of new people, it was a really great atmosphere.

Oiselle Birds

Nuun ‘gene

We ended up at a few more places, including Rogue, but by 10:00, everyone was exhausted. Luckily we were only about a mile from our house, so we were home quickly.

It was a long day of traveling home on Monday, but luckily I had Laura to share the exhaustion with

I came home to find my poor cat, Leela immobile. I knew what to expect since I had to talked to my husband, but the reality had set in once I finally saw her. I haven’t talked about it on here, but last week she had 4 seizures within 12 hours. Something was definitely wrong.

After some tests and speculation from the vet, she most likely had a brain tumor. We put her on crazy drugs to stop the seizures, but she was continuing to deteriorate as the week progressed. Before I left, she was still able to walk around, she was a bit wobbly, but could move around alright. By the time I got home Monday night, she couldn’t even stand up.

My husband and I work opposite schedules, so we talked on the phone when I got home that night around midnight. There was only one thing we could really do.

I stayed home from work yesterday to have time to say goodbye and so that Derek and I could go to the vet together. I don’t know if any of you have ever been through the experience of putting a pet to sleep, but it’s one of the saddest and hardest things I’ve ever done. This is the second time I’ve gone through it and it wasn’t any easier.

We are going to NH this weekend to bury her in my parents backyard. She will be right next to her sister, Galadrial, so hopefully they are frolicking in kitty heaven right now and eating lots of fishes.

She was 17, she lived a long and happy life, but will be missed so very much.

Nothing like a matter of extreme highs and lows over the past few days. It was really hard to come home from such an amazing weekend and to be then thrown into this sad reality.

It’s been a really rough month for me overall, I am so ready to start fresh with the month of May! Hoping for relaxation and lots of good running. Be back soon with the recap of the race!

Well, last week was quite the downer, to say the least. It was full of sad news and tragedy and I felt helpless, especially because I couldn’t even run.

I ran 14 miles last Saturday and then woke up on Sunday with a wonky quad that just wasn’t feeling right. I attempted a 6 miler, but as soon as I started running, I knew it wasn’t good, so I got a mile and a half in and called it quits. I haven’t run since then. I took the whole week off, while my quad slowly got better and better each day. I foam rolled like crazy and now I am finally back at 100%.

I missed a lot of runs, including a 22 miler But,  it was completely necessary. I was hoping to be healed by Friday, but it still wasn’t there yet, I had a minor freakout, since I was patient all week, but I quickly got over it since it was Derek’s birthday and I had the day off from work.

I woke up Saturday and for the first time I felt absolutely zero pain in my leg. I was hoping to have 1 day pain free before I even attempted running again, so the plan was to run Sunday, but unfortunately that did not happen because of a little thing called alcohol that I had too much of on Saturday night.

Anyway, after a week of no running, and a weekend of drinking, I don’t feel the best today. Surprise! I am so, so happy my leg is better, but I still have to attempt that first run back, which will be tonight at the #BostonStrongNYC event in Central Park.

I just feel plain gross. My stomach isn’t great, my body feels like it’s put on 10 pounds and I just can’t wait to feel normal again. The plan is to take each day this week and do as much as I can to detox my body and prepare for Eugene next weekend! I am going to eat incredibly healthy all week and get back into the groove of running. I’m not going to dwell on all of the runs I missed last week because at this point they don’t matter and it was so important to let my quad heal 100%.

As long as I eat well and sweat a lot this week, I’m still pretty confident that I can run sub 1:50 next Sunday.

It was Derek’s birthday Friday and we both had the day off from work. We had a great weekend that included the 9/11 Memorial, Big Gay Ice Cream, lots of delicious food, and of course, lots of beer. It was a fantastic weekend and we were so happy to be able to spend so much time together, it’s kind of rough since he works the night shift and we barely get to see each other. It was all worth it. Time to get back to real life! 

I was tweeting like a crazy person and cheering everyone on! I was so pumped for everyone running, and channeling my inner desire to one day have the opportunity to run Boston myself. All of my friends were kicking ass in the race and as soon as I got the last alert that everyone I knew had finished, I figured it was time to get back to work. I shut off the coverage and put away my phone.

Maybe 20 minutes later, my co-worker asked me if I had seen the news about the Boston Marathon. I said, “no, what do you mean, did something happen?” He told me there was an explosion and my heart immediately dropped and I frantically checked the news. I was so confused, I had no idea what was really going on, was it an attack, was it an accident? I checked Twitter to make sure all of my friends that were running or spectating were accounted for and thankfully, after 10 minutes or so, everyone had checked in.

The news began to settle in and I soon began to realize that my family and friends were attacked. This was no accident, this was intentional. I was angry, I was confused, and incredibly distraught. Who the fuck bombs the Boston Marathon? It’s literally unbelievable. I have woken up every day since then still in shock, I cannot believe this has actually happened. It’s a huge tragedy and I am so, so sad for everyone affected. Whether you are a runner, a Boston citizen, or a citizen of this country,  YOU are affected. We have been violated.

As runners, I’ve heard every single one of us say, this hits too close to home, and that is the absolute truth. The running community has been attacked and the outpouring of support has been tremendous and not at all surprising. Runners are a tight knit community and I am so proud to be a part of it. It is huge part  of who I am today and to say this has affected me is a huge understatement. I feel violated and hurt and I wish there was more I could do to help.

We will still run, and we will still race. That’s what we do.

The Boston Marathon may never be the same, but it will always have the spirit of life, love, and accomplishment and  I will run Boston, someday.

My heart goes out to everyone in Boston that day. So many were injured and have a long road ahead of them and I will be praying for the families of the lives that were lost.

My body is tired this week!

Here is how week 12 went down:

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Cherry Blossom 10 mile race

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Easy 4 miles

Wednesday: Had 6 on the schedule, but got almost got caught in a crazy downpour/thunderstorm, so I cut it short and did 3 easy miles instead. I would normally make up those missed miles, but my body needs the break this week, so the miles were not missed. 

Thursday: 7 mile Steady State run. Splits: 9:06, 8:55, 8:00, 8:56, 8:50, 7:55, c/d 9:34

The formula for these runs, set up by  my coach, is 2 SS miles, followed by 1 mile at 1600 repeat pace. I did that  twice to total 6 miles and then added in a cool down mile.

Steady State Pace: 8:42-9:06 (moderate effort)

Mile Repeat Pace :  7:41-8:02 (hard effort)

I try to start off in the slower range and end in the faster range. In 2 weeks I will be taking out that c/d mile and adding in 2 more SS paced miles for a total of 8 miles. It’s going to be brutal, but I can already tell these types of runs are helping me. There is no break or rest, so basically you just have to power through, at least that’s what I tell myself.

Friday: Rest

Total: 24 miles

Clearly, an easy cut back week, but weirdly my body isn’t feeling like it was an easy week, I think all of my training is catching up to me. It was a low mileage week for sure, but I think the race on Sunday really kicked my butt, my quads are still recovering and this easy week was very much needed.

I have a 5k time trial next week that I am weirdly looking forward to! I wish I had an official race to run it at, though.

Good luck to all of the Boston Marathoners!!! 

 2 weeks until Eugene, 6 weeks until the Vermont Marathon!

Having said that, I can’t believe how much progress I’ve made over the past year. Only 1 year and I feel like a completely different runner. For many years I was a 9 minute miler, low 9s were my speed and high 9s were my easy runs, so to see this much progress in only 1 year is amazing to me. Last year, I was excited when my races contained all miles that began with a 9 and not seeing a 10:xx in there. This year, all my splits begin with an 8 and I am moving out of the 9 minute miler category (except for the marathon distance).

I have always felt that 7:xx minute miles were insanely fast and that it would take me a lot longer to get there. I don’t have any splits from a long run that have read that, but it doesn’t seem so impossible anymore. All of my speedwork miles begin with 7s and those are the days where my confidence is through the roof! Maybe next year I will be moving into the 7 minute miler category.

At the Philly Half, where I exceeded all expectations and pulled a giant PR out of nowhere! This was a magical day for me and a race I will always look back on with a huge smile.

I don’t think sub 1:50 is an unreasonable goal for the Eugene Half. Sure, it’s a bit ambitious, but it’s certainly possible, considering my training and my recent races.

I have big goals for Eugene, but in the grand scheme of things, it isn’t my BIG ‘A’ RACE. It’s an important race that will help me physically and mentally, though, and will no doubt prepare me for my goal race that is the Vermont Marathon.

There won’t be any real taper for this race, in fact, I will be running 22 miles the weekend before, but it will be a semi-easy week leading up to the weekend.

There’s obviously a chance I won’t make my goal, but I’ve always promised to myself to be extremely honest on this blog and to talk about my successes, as well as my failures. And since I have been thinking about this sub 1:50, there’s no reason not to share it with you all. It’s a big goal for sure, but it’s something I really want and I’m going to try as hard as I can to achieve it.

A goal: Sub 1:50 (< 8:23 avg. pace)

B goal: Sub 1:52:41, which is my PR (< 8:35 avg. pace)

C goal: Sub 1:55 (< 8:46 avg. pace)

Kim and I met up with Beth at 63rd and 3rd, so we could take the crosstown bus (my first time on a bus in NYC) over to the west side to meet up with Jen and Abby. We packed into Abby’s car and left for DC around 9am.

The backseat posse.

We arrived at our hotel a little after 1pm and immediately headed to the expo. It was a great space for the expo, unlike the NYC Half expo, which was a disaster. It was nice and open and it had a lot of great vendors.

Abby and I also spotted Nicole, who is part of the Oiselle Team. We saw her spike bag and thought she may be part of the team, so we approached her and we were indeed, correct. We chatted for a bit and grabbed a quick picture.

From the expo, we ventured to find beer and food. We found a place that looked decent, but honestly I have no idea what the name of it was. We all shared a plate of sub-par nachos and a few of us shared a pitcher of Fat Tire beer. And we also went to see the White House, which was fun because I’ve never seen it before.

We chilled at the hotel for a couple hours before eating dinner at this restaurant called, Zaytinya. It was a Mediterranean place that served small plates, so we all stuffed our faces with a variety of dishes that included falafel, mini jumbo crabcakes, brussell sprouts, roasted cauliflower, and endless baskets of the BEST PITA IN THE WORLD. Seriously, this stuff was amazing.

I have no idea how many of these I ate, but they smelled and tasted like the best bread I will ever eat. We went to bed with full stomachs and woke up around 6am to get ready for the race.

I was colder than I expected, so I ended up borrowing Abby’s Lux Layer, which was amazing! I don’t have this and was so happy to try it out since everyone raves about it. I have to buy one, for sure!

I dressed all in orange, including my nails!

We got to the start around 7:05, we took a few pictures and headed to our respective corrals. I was in the blue corral, but I think I was placed incorrectly because I found myself behind the  9:30 pace group. I was worried I was going to get stuck, especially since it was so crowded and I was planning on running 8:30s, not 9:30s!

Old pic.

I’ve hit a turning point in my training where my mind and body are finally in sync and I’m starting to feel really good about VCM. Hopefully the taper won’t drive me as crazy as it did for NYC, but I guess we shall wait and see.

This was a tough, but awesome week of training. It started off with an amazing 20 mile run through Manhattan and ended with lots of strong speedwork.

Here’s how it went down:

Saturday - An amazing 20 miles!

Sunday - Rest

Monday – 5 miles easy (9:42 avg. pace)

Tuesday - 4 x 1600 (7:53, 7:46, 7:44, 7:39) 7 miles total

Wednesday – 5 miles super easy (10:00 avg. pace)

Thursday - 5 mile Steady State Run. This was the plan: 2 miles @ SS pace (8:42-9:06), 1 mile @ 1600 interval pace (7:41-8:02), 2 miles @ SS pace. Actual Splits: 9:06, 8:48, 7:57, 9:01, 8:46 (8:44 avg. pace).

I didn’t expect this to be as tough as it was. It was slightly puke inducing, although that might’ve been the Kind bar I ate prior, remind me not to eat those before a hard run! It felt good to power through it, though. I have 2 more Steady State runs on my plan and they only get longer, so hopefully I make it through them!

Friday – Rest

Total: 42 miles

Zero Cross Training

Clearly not my picture, but hopefully it will be just as beautiful as this!

This Sunday I am racing the Cherry Blossom 10 miler down in DC. I’m really excited, especially because it’s going to be a fun girls weekend with Beth, Jen, Kim, and Abby. It’s going to be a short weekend trip, but the weather is looking amazing, and I can’t wait to race in a tank and shorts!

Since my legs are definitely not fresh going into this race, I won’t be trying to reach my sub 1:22 goal I had talked about in the beginning of the year. The past 2 weeks have been full on hardcore marathon training and I am feeling it. Still, I’m going to race my little heart out and see what I can do! Wish me luck

Only 3 weeks till Eugene & 7 weeks till VCM!!!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day outside, seriously THE BEST RUNNING DAY EVER. Okay, sorry, but seriously, I felt like I was smiling the whole time. I started out in Astoria, ran over the Queensboro bridge and then down the East River path around the perimeter of Manhattan and then ran east towards the park around 105th street and did my last 2 miles in Central Park.

A picture on the run was absolutely necessary.

I loved running down the East River, by the Statue of Liberty, and by the new Freedom Tower, it was an amazing NYC day and made me realize how much I really do love living here.

I averaged a 9:35 pace, which is what I averaged at Rehoboth Beach last December. My last mile was the fastest at 8:55 and I definitely felt like I could’ve kept going. What a great feeling!

My sister posted this on my Facebook wall over the weekend and it made me laugh a lot. It’s so true!

We sadly didn’t celebrate Easter, we hardly ever do. My family does back at home in NH, but for some reason we never make it home for Easter. We did receive a whole butt load of Cadbury Mini Eggs, though!

The rest of the weekend was mostly spent on the couch. My husband’s back is still hurting a lot, so he can’t really do much. We’re still trying to figure out how to go about fixing it!

This coming weekend is the Cherry Blossom 10 miler down in DC. I’m really excited, it will be a fun weekend with friends and hopefully this race will go a lot better than the NYC Half. It’s going to be a hell of a lot warmer, that’s for sure. A PR is almost guaranteed, unless something crazy happens, but I think I’ve got in the bag. I’m hoping for at least a sub 1:25 finish, but I think I can do even better than that.

Hope everyone had a nice Easter/Passover!