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I originally posted this article over at Salty Running, but I figured I would share it here as well. The Spring racing season is heating up and you should have plenty of opportunities to test out this strategy!

5Ks often get a bad rap, and rightfully so. Racing a 5K can be painful, but when approached correctly, it can also be incredibly rewarding! Of course that is assuming that you enjoy challenging yourself and testing your limits, but isn’t that is why a lot of us are hooked on the sport of running to begin with?

5Ks are higher in intensity than longer races. They hurt more, but they are over more quickly. It’s best not to spend too much time thinking about how you feel (save that for next week’s therapy session) and instead, focus on executing one section of the race at a time. In this post, we will look at five key sections of your 5K race day.

Warmup: I highly recommend running 2 to 3 very easy miles pre-race. Of course, use your own judgement as far as what you think your body can handle, based on your experience level and overall mileage. Often I find that it takes me at least a mile or two to feel good. If it takes you a few miles to feel good, you might as well knock out those miles before the race. After your easy warmup miles, pick up the pace and do a few strides to stir up the aerobic enzymes and prime the engine before heading to the start line.

Here’s how the race should go down:

First 10%: Avoid the early sprint out and instead ease into the pace. While it seems to be fairly common, sprinting off the start line is not a good idea as it will only serve to spike your lactic acid levels, causing you to hurt sooner rather than later. Instead, start off smooth and use the first quarter-mile to gradually settle into your race rhythm and goal pace. This takes some pressure off the start and increases the chances of feeling good throughout the race.

Middle 70%: Once you settle into your goal pace range, you need to plan to stay here for the majority of the race (in this case from a quarter-mile to 2 miles). While I definitely advocate negative splitting in longer races, I don’t think it is a great strategy for a 5K, especially if we are talking about racing to your true potential. The goal here is to run within your goal pace range and to use as little energy as possible while doing so. Stay relaxed and focus on the rhythm of your footfall, keeping a strong cadence.

Last 20%: You made it to the home stretch! During the last mile, it’s time to really challenge yourself, compete and give it your best effort. Race it home with whatever is left in the tank. Depending on how the day is going, you should still be within your goal pace range or perhaps a tad faster. Your training has prepared you to run fast when you are tired. Break the last mile up into chunks and focus on executing one segment at a time.

Cooldown: I also recommend getting in 2 to 3 easy miles after the race (again, use your own judgement here). This will help you flush the lactic acid out of your muscles and will promote recovery. It can be difficult to make yourself do anything else after the race, but trust me, it is well worth it!

The great thing about the 5K distance is that you can get out there and test the strategy over and over again until you master it. I’ve run over 50 5Ks in the last five years and this is the strategy that has worked best for me. There have been races where I have run incredibly negative splits (with the last mile over 30 seconds quicker than the first) and races where I have run incredibly positive splits (with the first mile over 30 seconds quicker than the last), but my best performances have been incredibly even splits (all miles within 5 seconds of each other).

Try this strategy at your next 5K and let me know how it goes!

Well guys, I told you I was going to make up for my lack of February racing by doing all. the. races. in March. This weekend I did back to back races! The last time I did back to back races, it was a 10K on Saturday and a half marathon on Sunday. This weekend it was a 5K on Saturday and a 10K on Sunday. This was much more manageable, although I am definitely a bit tired at this point.

Sunday morning I ran the St. Patrick’s Leprechaun Chase 10K in Robertsdale. I’ve only done this race one time before and it’s been several years ago now. I typically skip it since it is the weekend before Spring Fever, but when you are running all. the. races., you just do it anyway! The race takes place at St. Patrick’s School in Robertsdale. The entire event has typically been at the church, but they moved most of the pre-race activities and post-race festivities over to the school this year. I liked the way it was done this year. The race still started and finished at the church (as they used the same certified course from prior years), but everything else was just across the street at the school.

The race started at 8 a.m. We met around 6:30 to register and get in a longer warm up. It’s been a while since I’ve done a “long run,” and I wanted to get in between 12 and 14 miles Sunday. I got 6 miles in before the race, which was perfect. Luckily the rain held off for us, but it was a warm and humid morning (especially early on).

I really didn’t have a specific plan going into this race as I wasn’t sure how my legs were really going to feel once I started the race. They felt decent on the warm up, but not great, which made sense. I was asking a lot of them. Ha. I figured that I would settle in and try to run “goal marathon” pace (NOT that I am training for a marathon by any means (no one freak out (Mom)), but this is just a good pace to base my effort on). I figured I could sustain somewhere in the 6:45 to 6:55 range, but again, I wasn’t really sure. I figured that I would just play it by ear and see what happened! It’s really nice to approach races without any defined expectations sometimes.

As it turns out, I ran almost the entire race with my friend, Erin. It was nice to have someone to work with on an otherwise isolated course. The course is an out and back route that is run primarily on two county roads. We settled into a good pace and hung on through the first half of the race. We were in third and fourth positions overall for the first two miles of the race, until the leader took a wrong turn (major bummer for him … he was pretty far out in front). We passed him and the second place guy during the third mile.

From this point on, we were leading the race. It was pretty cool to have two girls leading the race! We got lots of encouragement from the other runners as we ran back (one of the perks of an out and back course (in my opinion)). Actually, six out of the top ten finishers were female. I love it!

The second half of the race was fairly uneventful. I was working a little bit harder than I would’ve liked to have been for the pace that we were running and I was more than ready to see the finish line. I finished in 42:11 as first female (and overall for that matter). My splits were 6:42, 6:51, 7:01, 6:46, 6:50, 6:37 and 5:57 for the last 0.2. Erin finished right behind me and Rebecca finished right behind her. Before we knew it, Jessica, Lizzie and Joy all finished, and that rounded out the top 10 finishers.

I had good intentions of doing a three mile cool down, but that turned into less than a mile. My left hamstring and glute were a bit cranky after the race. The same thing happened after the last 10K that I did as well, so I decided to call it a day at 13 miles. I was able to go back over to the church and do the fun run with Rebecca and Savannah. It was Savannah’s first race! We did a walk, run, skip, piggyback combo and it was a blast!

We hung around for a while and waited on the awards. They had food trucks, beverages and bands for the adults and snow cones and boucy houses for the kids. I decided that it had been entirely too long since I have had a snow cone. It really hit the spot!

I just finished up my last mini-workout of the training cycle and I am feeling a little bit nostalgic, thinking back on all of the memories made along the streets of Mobile at the First Light Marathon over the years. I have participated in the First Light Marathon in some form or fashion since 2008! I have SO MANY wonderful memories associated with this race and I am getting really excited about this year’s race.

Here’s what it has looked like so far:
2008: Half marathon 2:00:43
2009: Half marathon 1:41:39
2010: Half marathon 1:42:07
2011: Full marathon 3:24:12 (my first marathon)
2012: Relay! 2:57:17 (female champs and a course record)
2013: Full marathon 3:23:26
2014: Relay! (female champs)
2015: Relay! (female champs)
2016: Relay! 2:54:52 (female champs and a course record)
2017: Half marathon 1:24:44 AND relay 2:50:XX (co-ed champs and a course record)

2018 is still TBD, but I will be running the full and also participating in the relay again (full and half marathon runners are allowed to run leg 1 of the relay). Having my friends (aka my relay team) out there all along the course is going to make for a really fun day! I also have 4 training buddies running the full and I am excited for each one of them. Daniel will also be out along the course on his bike offering emotional support to all of us. Ha.

I have a solid race plan (thanks to my fabulous coach) that includes easing into the pace over the first couple of miles, maintaining a smooth, steady pace through mile 11, running based on effort from miles 11 to 20 (the hilly section of the race … theoretically, the effort level should stay the same during this time, but the pace will naturally slow up the hills and speed up slightly down the hills) and running it home with heart, one mile at a time.

It’s going to hurt at times and it’s going to be uncomfortable at times, but for the entirety of the race, I will be out there doing something that I LOVE with some of my favorite people. It’s going to be a GREAT day!

Howdy folks! Long time no see!

We just got back from a wonderful trip to Colorado! I am going to share the painstaking details of our trip in this post for any of you who are interested (so … Mom, Dad, Nana … this one’s for you :)). I wrote the shell of this post while we were gone so that I could remember everything we did and filled in the details once we got back. We stayed pretty busy!

I will have a race recap up in a separate post (soon hopefully … in between laundry, unpacking and more laundry), so for any of you who don’t care about the details of my life and just want to read about running … hold tight for a little bit longer.

Edited to add: I’m not sure why, but my recap is showing up as an earlier post, even though I posted it after this one.

As a general overview: We took a 6 day trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I think it was one of my favorite vacations to date! It was just long enough that I feel like we settled in and got a good lay of the land, but not too long that we ran out of things to do or got bored. We LOVED Steamboat and I could totally see myself living there (well … at least for a few months of the year). The temperature pretty much stayed in the sixties and seventies for the majority of our trip, which was perfect and there was even still some snow on the ground.

It was an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise and I definitely got my fill of the time in nature that I had been craving. I am typically a major homebody, but this trip definitely piqued some wanderlust that was stirring somewhere deep in my soul. Hopefully we will get the opportunity to wander around and explore more of the world (or at least the country) soon!

Day 1 (Travel Day): Our flight departed from New Orleans at 6 p.m. Wednesday evening. We left around 1 p.m. to ensure that we had plenty of time to get to the airport, find parking, etc. and in typical Daniel Gardner fashion we arrived at the airport about 3 hours before our  plane. We drove through some nasty weather and apparently flew out just in time to miss the next squall line that blew through the NOLA area. We had to adjust our flight path to avoid the storms as well, so the flight ended up being about 3.5 hours (instead of 3). Our pilot told us that if we had been delayed 10 more minutes, we wouldn’t have been able to make it out because the weather got so bad.

We definitely put our Garmin Virb camera to good use this trip. You will see lots of “selfie stick” pics included in this post and just a ton of pictures in general. I made most of them into collages so that they wouldn’t completely overtake the post.

Not gonna lie, I was a tad skeptical of these $80 round trip flights that Daniel booked. I asked him a few times if he was sure that we had flights or if he had just paid for our baggage fee (side note: my bag didn’t exceed the 50 pound threshold for possibly the first time ever … major packing victory). We flew Frontier and as it turns out, yes, we actually had flights. On the front row! Seats 1A and 1B. We had a little turbulence and a couple of loud, chatty neighbors, overall the but flight was great! We got delayed on the tarmac once we arrived in Denver and all in all, we were about 2 hours later picking up our rental vehicle than we expected.

We drove off the lot in a Ford Expedition (we were supposed to have a “small” SUV) and first on the agenda was to get some food! Our options were very limited and we ended up getting dinner from a gas station right outside of Denver (side note: I DO NOT recommend eating an entire bag of dried fruit and a candy bar at 1 a.m. … learned that lesson the hard way). We then began the 3 hour drive to Steamboat Springs. We drove from midnight to 3 a.m. Even though it was dark, we were able to see some snow and get a little peek at a few of the mountain ranges. I even stayed awake for 90% of the drive. I took my contacts out at some point and *almost* lost a contact into the deep, dark crevices of the rental car. I didn’t bring a backup pair (note to future self: this would be smart) and so that would’ve been really bad. As Daniel was looking for a place to pull off the road so that we could search for it, I found it! In my eye! I think the delirium had started setting in.

We arrived at our hotel at 3:20 a.m. and immediately passed out.

Day 2: We lazed around the hotel for a little while Thursday morning, as we were both pretty exhausted from the long day of travel and also not feeling *stellar* (see above warning re: gas station dinner at 1 a.m.). We scoped out a few things that we wanted to do (we don’t really tend to make lots of plans beforehand when traveling … we like to just wing it). We made our way over to Stagecoach State Park (about 15 minutes outside of Steamboat) mid-morning and went for a run around Stagecoach Lake. It was absolutely beautiful!

This was our first run at altitude and we were anxious to see how that affected us. Given that we live at 100 ft. and we traveled to close to 8,000 ft., we really weren’t sure how our bodies were going to react. Neither of us had any headaches, nausea, shortness of breath or unusual fatigue the entire trip, so we were incredibly fortunate. I felt a whole lot better going into the 50K having gotten this first run under my belt.

After our running exploration around Stagecoach State Park, we decided to get groceries so that we could do a few meals in instead of eating out for every meal. We stayed at The Steamboat Grand and our room was the “apartment” option with a full kitchen, living space, etc. so that seemed like a smart decision. In hindsight, we didn’t eat many meals “in,” but we definitely ate most of the snacks that we bought.

Thursday evening we went into town and walked around. We didn’t realize it, but apparently we were there during their “mud season,” which is the time in between their busy winter season and the summer season. The name comes from dirt paths such as roads and hiking trails that become muddy from melting snow and rain. A lot of the shops and restaurants were closed, but that was totally fine with us. We were digging the “sleepy little town” vibe. We were also digging that we got almost an entire week’s stay for the price of what one night typically would cost!

Day 3: We started the day out with a breakfast adventure run! We scoped out a few good breakfast options when we were in town Thursday evening. We also scoped out a trail that ran right through downtown Steamboat along the Yampa river that we wanted to run. We decided to combine those activities and run to breakfast, eat and then walk back.

I love being anywhere by the water and was very content to be running next to the river. We stopped to check out a botanical garden on our way back. The flowers were beautiful!

Friday afternoon we made our way to Lone Tree Colorado. It was about a three hour drive, but the trip flew by because there was so much scenery to take in. We stopped in Breckinridge along the way for lunch. I wish I could say that we stopped at some really cool local place, but we went with Which Wich instead. We don’t have Which Wich in Alabama though, so it felt like we were getting something unique.

We were also super entertained by the changes in the fullness of my bag of chips as the elevation changed throughout our drive. The air pressure is greater at lower altitude than at higher altitude. When the bag is sealed at a certain altitude, the air is pushing out at the same rate it is being pushed on. When the bag is moved to a higher altitude, the air in the bag is pushing harder on the bag than the air around the bag (middle right picture below). Fascinating stuff …

We made it to Lone Tree just in time to pick up our bibs for the race, check into our hotel for and grab some dinner before crashing for the evening.

Day 4: Race Day! I’m going to do a separate post for the race (it was a LONG race and I have lots of thoughts to share (as per usual)).

We made our way back to Steamboat Saturday afternoon and found the perfect post-race activity. We went to Strawberry Hot Springs, a natural hot spring located just outside of Steamboat Springs. It is supposedly one of the most spectacular mineral springs in the world. We got to soak in 100+ degree mineral water, which felt absolutely ahh-mazing after running 31 miles.

We also made our way over to the Fish Creek Falls. It was a quarter mile walk down and not gonna lie, we almost didn’t walk down there (that seemed SO FAR!), but I’m so glad that we did. The falls were roaring from all of the melting snow.

Day 5: We lazed around our room for a while Sunday morning as we were both pretty spent from the race. We eventually ventured out to do some hiking. Daniel had been really wanting to hike up one of the ski slopes, so that’s exactly what we did. If our legs could talk, they probably would’ve said, “C’mon guys … can’t we ever just catch a break?!” In actuality, we both felt much better than we expected to, which was nice because we had stuff that we wanted to do!

We went to the Howelsen Hill Ski Area and made our way up Quarry Mountain. There were lots of hikers, runners and mountain bikers out enjoying the beautiful weather. We made friends with a couple of guys who were hiking up as well. They asked us where we were from and when we told them we were from Alabama, one of the guys told us that he used to live in AL as well. He went on to tell us that he was “ahead of the dispensary curve” (his words) and as a result of a run-in with the law, he had to do some time at the minimum security federal prison camp in Montgomery, AL. He took up walking while in the pen and told us that he walked over 15 miles a day! Now he lives in Steamboat and owns a “bagel shop,” which I find to be highly suspect (but again, his words).

He gave us some great pointers on where to hike and told us that we were crazy (after hearing about my 31 mile running adventure the day before) and that we fit in perfectly in Steamboat. We definitely felt like locals at that point. We ended up hiking 5 miles with close to 1,600 ft. of elevation gain. This was probably one of our favorite things that we did the entire trip! The views from the top of the mountain were phenomenal!

Day 6: We RESTED! We actually didn’t set an alarm the entire trip except for the morning of the race and the morning that we left. Even though we had a very active vacation (we wouldn’t have it any other way), we also got some good rest in as well. By Monday neither one of us had any desire to do anything but lay around and rest. We discovered that our hotel had a steam room, which was quite relaxing. The steam room was the only place that I actually broke a sweat the entire trip I think! The air is just so dry (and glorious) that you don’t sweat. I mean … technically you still sweat, but it just evaporates and so you don’t *feel* sweaty.

This seems like a good place to show you some of the delicious food that we ate. I didn’t get pictures of all of it … sometimes we were too ravenous to stop for a picture. There were mud season specials at a lot of the restaurants. Buy 2 entrees and get the lesser one for free? Pretty sweet!

Day 7 (Travel Day): Our flight left Denver at 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. We had to leave Steamboat around 8 a.m. to make sure that we had plenty of time to get to the airport, return our rental car and get checked in for our flight. We stopped on the way out for one last snow pic!

We came up with a new game to play in the car. There aren’t too many billboards out there and so playing the sign game is tough. We listed to ONEderland on Sirius XM, which is a medley of pop artists (with one big hit and that was it!). The game was who would be the first to name another hit by one of the artists. It is a tough game for the musically challenged. Over the course of our trip, we probably listened to over 5 hours of ONEderland and we only knew a second some for one artist … and it was Afroman. LOL! Definitely showing our true roots with that one.

We made it back to New Orleans around 6 p.m. and were back home by 9! Thankfully Mrs. Donna picked up our little booger from the Dog Ranch for us and so we were able to get lots of Brooksy cuddles and kisses when we got home. We had a wonderful vacation, but it is always SO GOOD to be home!

Tell me: where is somewhere that you have traveled that you LOVED? We need to start planning our next adventure!

Hey there!

Race week is here and I wanted to go ahead and do the typical weekly training run-down post before the weekend gets too busy. Unfortunately this week was not super exciting from a training perspective, as I had to be a good (well behaved) runner and take it easy to get rested up for the half.

Monday: 2 mi. WU, 3 mi. tempo (6:34 avg.), 1 mi. recovery, 3 X 1:00 (5:50 – 6:00 ish), 2 mi. CD 

Monday was the only official workout of the week. This was actually supposed to be done Tuesday (since the half is Sunday, that would’ve still given me four days of easy runs), but my schedule on Tuesday is super hectic with strength training in the morning and coaching in the evening, so my options were Monday or Wednesday. Wednesday probably would’ve been fine as far as having time to properly recover, but I’ve settled into a good routine of Monday being a workout day and it’s nice to go ahead and kick the week off with a workout, so Monday was the winner!

I ran into Jill at the grocery store Sunday afternoon and she said that she was up for a “Move It Monday” workout too, so that worked out really well. It is always nice to have a friend to run with! We met at the track Monday morning, but Jill was less than thrilled about the idea of running a 3 mile tempo around the track (I think we just met there more out of habit than anything else) and I was less than thrilled about the idea of doing a tempo run on the sidewalks in the dark, so we came up with a decent solution and decided to take our tempo to the streets. We had to bail or cross to the other side of the road a couple of times because of cars, but otherwise it was great!

The plan for the tempo portion of the workout was a 6:40, 6:30, 6:20 progression. What we actually did was 6:47, 6:24, 6:28. Our route had a few hills (up and down), which made the progression aspect of the workout difficult, but overall our average was pretty much spot on. We got a one mile recovery and then we did three 1 minute “pick ups.” The pick up portion was hilly as well, so we got a bonus hill repeat or two thrown in there.

The workout flew by and I really enjoy workouts that have a little tempo followed by some speed. It keeps things interesting and you get in some solid work!

Tuesday: 4.5 miles (8:32 pace) + strength training

Tuesday morning was 4.5 easy miles with Rebecca and Jessica followed by 45 minutes of BACK exercises. Holy moly. I never knew there were so many different muscles in my back or that there were so many different ways that you could work them out.

Wednesday AM: 8 miles (9:06 pace)

Daniel, Jessica and I ran 8 easy miles Wednesday morning. Nothing super exciting to note, but it was definitely a good run.

Wednesday PM: 4 miles (7:35 pace) + strength training

We got our second strength training session in on Wednesday this week, which worked well. I got off work in time to do a few miles before our session started. I ran a little bit quicker than I typically would have because it was starting to get a little dark and I was by myself. I had my phone and taser on me, but still …

We did lower body and core Wednesday evening (lots of squats, donkey kicks and planks).

Thursday: 5 miles (8:26 pace)

Daniel and I got in 5 easy miles before work Thursday morning.

Friday: 5 miles (7:53 pace)

Friday morning was basically just a repeat of Thursday morning.

Saturday: 8 miles (8:32 pace)

My training group had 8 miles on the schedule this morning. We woke up to chilly temperatures (that seemed to come out of nowhere) in the 30s! I really wasn’t expecting that, but everyone bundled up and did great. This was their longest run so far!

Hopefully the temperature will be good for the race tomorrow … fingers crossed! It looks like it’s going to be mid 50s, which would be really nice.

Enjoy your weekend! Talk to you soon!

Hey y’all! Happy Monday!

Week 3 of RNR NOLA training is in the books and the race is THIS WEEK. What?! When you just have 4 weeks in between races, it seems like the training cycle FLIES by! Haha. I’m really excited to ROCK and ROLL this weekend!

Here is what last week looked like (from a running perspective):

Monday: 2 mi. WU, 4 X 800 (3:00, 3:00 2:56, 2:54), 2 X 1 mi. (5:56, 5:52), 1.5 mi. CD

Monday’s workout looked a little different. Instead of hitting the track like we typically do, I decided to take my speed work to the treadmill. We had winds gusting up to 40 mph Monday morning. I knew that if I tried to run in that I would only end up feeling defeated and I wanted to at least attempt to set myself up for success.

While 800s on the TM is not really ideal, I made it work. The workout was supposed to be 8 X 800s w/ a 400 recovery and the goal range for the 800s was 2:54 to 2:58. I managed to hit snooze a few times (gotta love that Monday morning reality check) and I ended up altering the workout and cutting the cool down slightly so that I could get it done a little quicker. I ended up with 4 X 800 and 2 X 1 mile. The fast portion of the workout was the same as it would’ve been, but I just cut out a little bit of the recovery time in between sets.

I decided to start the first two at 6:00 pace and since I was on the treadmill, I was able to do exactly that. I didn’t want to do the first ones too fast and then crash. If you’ve been there and done that, you know it isn’t fun. Whether it is a race or a workout, it is always best to start conservatively and finish strong! Overall I was very pleased with this workout!

We went back to the chiro Monday evening and Daniel got his turn on the Alter G. He loved it! Also in case you were wondering, my backside is feeling MUCH better. Woo to the hoo!

Tuesday AM: 4.5 miles + strength training

We kicked off Tuesday morning with a few miles and some chest and core work. My chest was sore for days after this workout!

Tuesday PM: RW Group Run

My training group had their first interval workout Tuesday evening. They did 10 X 30 second pickups w/ 1 minute in between. We met at the store and ran over to a local park with a 600 meter “track” (it’s really just a sidewalk around some tennis courts, but it is well-lit, so I am not complaining) to do the repeats. They did awesome! We ended up with exactly 4 miles.

Wednesday: 4 miles (8:59 pace)

This new Tuesday routine really seems to do me in and I was definitely not feeling the run on Wednesday. I got 4 miles in and called it a day.

Thursday: 15 miles (7:38 pace)

I was technically supposed to do my long run on Wednesday, but I put it off until Thursday since I was so worn out Wednesday morning. This actually ended up working out really well because Rebecca was able to come run with me Thursday morning! I was SO thankful to have company for my long run.

Solo long runs or treadmill long runs are TOUGH. Rebecca and I were able to get in 10 miles before she had to leave to get ready for work. I was thinking that I might have to end up doing the rest of my run on the treadmill once she left, but when I came inside Daniel was up, dressed and ready to run! Sweet! He did the last 5 miles with me.

I got 15 miles in before 6 a.m. Thursday morning. Boom. If that doesn’t make you feel accomplished, I don’t know what will. Thursday was a great day! All those endorphins really helped me out.

Friday: 8 miles (9:07 pace)

Jess and I got in an easy 8 miles Friday morning before work.

Saturday: 10 miles (including the Charity Chase 5K)

I did a separate post for this race, so I won’t rehash it here. To summarize: we did a 4 mile warm up, ran the 5K and did a 3 mile cool down.

One thing I don’t think I mentioned in the recap is that I tried out my new “fast shoes.” I’ve been needing some new kicks for speed work and races and I decided to go with the Nike Free. I wore them for the race and they seemed good. I’ve only run 3 miles in them though, so I don’t want to form any concrete opinions about them just yet. I do NOT typically run in Nike shoes, so I was a bit hesitant at first. I had a pair of Nike tennis shoes back in the day (like for playing tennis). They actually had an interchangeable outer “shell” and you could wear them in multiple colors (to match your outfit that day, obviously). I still have some reservations about the quality of these shoes, but they sure were cute! True story.

Here are my new ones (they are cute too) …

Sunday: 9 miles (9:05 pace)

The Big Beach Marathon was Sunday in Gulf Shores. Rebecca paced the 3:40 group and Jessica, Lizzie and I decided to go down and surprise her the morning of the race. We even threw her off with some sneaky text messages, like “Good luck! We’ll be thinking about you. Let us know how it goes!” She had no idea we were coming and it was SO FUN to see her reaction!

We watched the start of the race and then Jessica, Lizzie and I went for a run. We did 9 easy miles and followed that up with a quick breakfast before heading out on the course to see Rebecca. We caught her just before mile 24 and then again at the finish. Per usual, her pacing was spot on. She finished in 3:39:22. It was a beautiful day for a run, but the winds were brutal.

Side note: I’ve been thinking about it and I’m wondering if I could do a half marathon each month of 2017. The first four are lined up. June, July and August might be tricky (i.e., I’d have to travel a little bit), but I’m thinking this might be a fun goal. Thoughts?

HI! How’s it going?

Week 2 of training for the Rock N Roll New Orleans half is done. I want to start with sharing this little excerpt from Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight. Daniel just finished reading this book and said it was really good. It’s up next on my list!

For that matter, few ideas are as crazy as my favorite thing, running. It’s hard. It’s painful. It’s risky. The rewards are few and far from guaranteed. When you run around an oval track, or down an empty road, you have no real destination. At least, none that can fully justify the effort. The act itself becomes the destination. It’s not just that there’s no finish line; it’s that you define the finish line. Whatever pleasures or gains you derive from the act of running, you must find them from within. It’s all in how you frame it, how you sell it to yourself.

Isn’t that perfect?! The joy is definitely in the journey and that definitely applies to so many different aspects of our lives. Let’s talk about what the journey looked like this week!

Monday: 2 mi. WU, 12 X 400 w/ 200 recovery, 2 mi. CD

Move it Monday is starting to catch on! Nothing like spending a little time at the oval office before heading to the regular office on a Monday morning. Everyone did 400s this week, which was great! I did 12 400s w/ a 200 recovery and most everyone else did 10 400s w/ a 400 recovery. This worked out well because we all finished about the same time. There were no #yakattacks this week either, although Sasser did point out that if you take the E out of MOVE IT, you have an anagram for VOMIT. Move it Monday has a much better ring to it than Vomit Monday. LOL!

My schedule called for the 400s to be run at 82 to 84 seconds per quarter, which would be 5:28 to 5:36 pace. My actual splits were 85, 87, 85, 85, 84, 85, 86, 85, 87, 86, 89 and 86. Even though I wasn’t exactly able to hit the prescribed paces, I still feel good about this workout overall.

Miscellaneous thoughts from my brain during a track workout:

• A 200 recovery is SO SHORT.
• At least I only have to do 10 of these things. Aww, DANG IT. I have to do 12! I don’t know how I manage to lose count of how my repeats I am supposed to be doing every time, but I do.
• I really hope I don’t fall while I am running fast and bust my face open again (the fear is real).
• When does daylight saving time start? Why is the sun not up yet? I wish I was not up yet.
• I *need* to get some new shoes for speed workouts and races.
• This is the worst. Why am I doing this to myself?!
• This is the best. I LOVE RUNNING.

Tuesday AM: 4.5 miles + strength training

Wouldn’t you know it that Greg decided to “beat our legs up a little bit” again on Tuesday this week. Man oh man. These strength workouts are killer.

Tuesday PM: RW Group Run

Tuesday afternoon my group ran 4 miles. It was crazy humid for January, but such is life and running in Alabama.

Tuesday afternoon we got some cool news! Rebecca, Jessica and I all applied to be a Nuun ambassadors this year and we ALL were accepted. Wahoo! I 100% LOVE this product and am super excited to be an ambassador (which basically just means that we do free marketing work for Nuun and spread our love for their product all over the interwebs). You’re welcome.

Wednesday AM: 9 miles w/ Rebecca (8:10 pace)

Wednesday PM: 6.5 miles on the ALTER G treadmill (6:55 pace)

Oh em gee guys. This was SO COOL! If you aren’t familiar w/ an anti-gravity treadmill, here is how it works: You slip into some [not so] sexy little shorts like this …

You get zipped into the machine and then you run at 60 – 70% of your total body weight. Here is what the contraption looks like (this is not me (LOL)).

When you are running, it really just feels like you are floating. There are three cameras on the treadmill so that you can see you foot strike and your stride from three different views (front, side and back).

Let’s backup for a second … I’ve been having this random pain (perhaps random is not the accurate adjective seeing as how I run A LOT) in my glutes and hamstrings when I SIT. Sitting at work, sitting in the car … very uncomfortable. I can’t exactly get by without sitting (especially this time of year) and so I’m trying to get to the bottom of it (pun intended).

It seems that I’ve got some pelvic alignment issues that are causing the pain in my glutes and hips, but in order to fix the problem we have to get to the root of the actual alignment problem. Spoiler alert: it’s my running form. I know (and have known for years) that my form is not the best. My arms swing across my body like I am doing the chicken dance on repeat. I really haven’t been all that concerned with it as it seems to work just fine, but I definitely think that correcting it will be beneficial (both from an efficiency standpoint and to get rid of this nagging pain).

The Alter G made it very apparent that not only are my arms swinging, but also my entire torso is twisting. My lower body was zipped into the machine and I literally couldn’t move like I typically would. I felt like a super awkward, trainwreck of a runner. Basically this …

According to this article, “Most running related injuries are non-traumatic and arise either from biomechanical inefficiencies in a runner’s stride, training error, or underlying musculoskeletal impairments such as a muscular imbalance. One such biomechanical problem area is in a runner’s stride, which we have found this is often attributed to improper arm swing.”

Also according to the same article, “To maximize efficiency while running, keep your arms from swinging across your torso and crossing this sagittal plane. Unnecessary tri-planar movement (movement in planes that are outside the sagittal plane) increases the amount of torque and stress on the body while running.”

So basically running with a normal arm swing burns less energy and significantly reduces shoulder and pelvis rotation. Hashtag goals. I will keep you posted on how this goes!

Thursday AM: 2 mi. WU, 3 X 2 mile LT repeats, 2 mi. CD

The dreaded 3 X 2 mile workout. I am kind of just over this workout. It shows up time and time again (because LT repeats are super beneficial) and it’s just tough (both mentally and physically).

My goal range was 6:15 – 6:20 pace. As soon as I started the warm up, I realized that pace was not going to happen. I felt so heavy (the Alter G spoiled me!) and just tired overall. I told myself to just give it a shot and if I didn’t feel good, I could always quit stop at any point. During the first mile of the workout I thought about stopping approximately 10 times. I was definitely on the struggle bus. Somewhat miraculously, I made it all the way through the first repeat. I had a quarter-mile to recover. During that quarter I convinced myself to at least *attempt* the second repeat as well. Again, I could always quit stop at any point.

I had to tackle one repeat at a time, but the good news is that I never decided to quit! I settled into a groove eventually. Once you find your groove, it’s so much easier to keep going. I reminded myself that I only have about 5 workouts left before the RNR NOLA half (!!!) and I definitely want to make the most of the workouts that I have.

It’s easy to post a picture of your Garmin (or of yourself … whatever floats your boat) and say that you #nailedit #crushedit #smashedit (you get the idea), but that isn’t how it always goes down. Workouts are hard. They aren’t always fun. This one was such a struggle for me and I didn’t hit the paces that I was supposed to. My paces were 6:30, 6:27 and 6:22. Not horrible by any means, but still not where I wanted to be. I’m just glad I didn’t quit.

Friday AM: 8 miles w/ Jessica (9:20 pace)

Friday PM: Strength Training

We got some upper body and core work in on Friday evening.

Saturday: 14 mile fast finish long run

The weather was very iffy Saturday morning and we woke up to tornado watches and the potential for some very bad weather. It wasn’t supposed to get here until after 7 so the RW group still met. The half marathon folks had 6 miles (I say folks, but really I only had one runner show up). Everyone else was smart and decided to skip it. Haha! Luckily we made it back to the store before the bottom dropped out.

I was originally planning to run 6 with the RW group and afterwards I was going to run a little more by myself and hop in a local 5K for the fast finish part of my run. Since the weather was so bad, the race got postponed and I ended up just doing the remainder of my run on the treadmill. I did 8 miles on the treadmill and it flew by! The last 5 miles were 7:02, 6:44, 6:42, 6:45, 6:55, which were all right within the range that I was supposed to do for the “fast finish.” Woo hoo! I felt great and was really happy to hit the pace that I was supposed to for the end this run.

Sunday: 9 miles w/ Rebecca (8:14 pace)

Rebecca is pacing the 3:40 marathoners at Big Beach next weekend and so we set out in an attempt to practice that pace (8:20 – 8:25 (depending on if the course is long again this year)). It was dark when we started so we didn’t worry about it as much during the first few miles, but we were able to nail it down fairly well the last 3 or so miles.

That wraps up this week’s training. I’ve got some 800s, a moderate pace long run and a 5K on tap next week.

What workouts do you have next week?

Hi guys!

Whew. What a week. Tax season is officially in full swing. I think Rihanna says it best:

And gimme me all the work, work, work, work, work, work
You see me I be work, work, work, work, work, work
You see me do me dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt
There’s something ’bout that work, work, work, work, work, work
When you a gon’ learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn
Me na care if me tired, tired, tired, tired, tired, tired

So yeah. A little bit tired over here this week. It’s been a tough transition going from part-time to full-time (plus some). I’m not complaining. My work schedule is pretty fantastic. I just have to remind myself of that when things get a little hectic! For a split second I thought about posting something here that just said, “See ya after tax season!” and calling it a day, week, month, season (that still might happen, but for now, I’m still here :)).

As far as training goes, I had a relatively easy week and now we are officially gearing up for the Rock N Roll New Orleans half on February 5th. Daniel is running this one too (several of our running friends are actually, so I’m pretty excited about it)!

Since I just finished up a little mini training cycle for First Light, I’ll just be jumping right into another little mini build up for NOLA. This cycle will be pretty much the same from a big-picture perspective: primarily aerobic and lactate threshold (i.e., stamina) workouts, long runs (i.e., endurance) and a few V02 max (i.e., speed) workouts. Here is an overview of the workouts by category for the next few weeks:

Week 1: RECOVERY + Endurance
Week 2: Speed + Stamina + Endurance
Week 3: Speed + Stamina + Endurance
Week 4: Stamina + RACE

Here’s how Week 1 went down …

Monday: 8 miles easy (9:10 pace)

I assumed that Monday morning my legs were going to be very sore since I decided to forgo the cool down after my half marathon Sunday. I planned to go ahead and get a few miles in (nice and easy) Monday morning to work out the soreness.

It was still really cold Monday and some of the buttons on the treadmill were actually frozen! Pure craziness. The start button worked, as well as most of the buttons on the dash-board, but the speed up and speed down buttons weren’t working, which meant that I had to decide between 10:00 pace (6 mph) and 7:30 pace (8 mph). I totally went with 10 minute pace! Somewhere along the way I decided to try 7:30 pace, but that only lasted for a mile or so.

My legs felt so much better than I expected. They actually weren’t sore at all that morning. I thought I had dodged a bullet, but no, the soreness definitely set in by Monday evening.

Tuesday AM: 4.5 miles + strength training

Tuesday was the longest. day. ever. with a wake up alarm in the 3 o’clock hour, a morning workout, work all day and then coaching that evening (see below).

We got a few miles in before our session, which was great. When we got to the gym to start “lifting,” Greg kinda rubbed his hands together and said, “We’re gonna really beat your legs up today.” Oh great. How lovely.

This was the first session we’ve done where we didn’t do a single upper body exercise. It was ALL LEGS. My poor legs were not super happy with me Tuesday.

Tuesday PM: RW Group Run

I am coaching the half marathon training group at RW this spring and Tuesday evening was my group’s first official group run. I am excited to be coaching at the store again, but I think it might take a couple of weeks to adjust to my new routine. We started off with 3 miles Tuesday evening.

Wednesday: 5 miles easy (8:57 pace)

After a long day Tuesday I was pretty tired and wasn’t feeling super motivated on Wednesday. I called it a day after 5 miles.

Thursday: 8.5 miles easy (8:49 pace)

The first few days of the week were all about easy miles and recovery.  Thursday morning was another nice, easy run with friends.

Friday: 16 moderate pace miles w/ 10 X 30 second pickups (7:30 pace)

I realized this week that I am likely going to need to get my long runs in on Friday mornings since the half training group meets on Saturday morning. I don’t want to push the LR until Sunday because then my workouts for the next week would be off schedule. This makes for a fairly early wake up, but I’m getting pretty used to that at this point. I got up at 4 a.m. Friday morning and got 6 miles in on the treadmill before Daniel was up and as soon as he got up and ready to go, I hopped off the treadmill and did the rest of the run outside with him. It worked really well!

He was such a trooper with the “moderate pace.” He hasn’t done much speed work and so he was breathing pretty heavy by mile 4 or 5. I asked him if he was okay and he grunted something to the effect of “Yes … this is just what an all-out race effort sounds like [honey].” Ha. I was really, really thankful that he ran with me!

Saturday: 10 miles easy (8:59 pace)

The half marathon training group meets at the store on Saturday mornings for their long run. They started with  5 miles this week and they did great! I ran the 5 mile route with them and then Jessica and I went back out for another 5 miles after the group was done.

My mom and I also managed to get in a walk Saturday afternoon. The weather was gorgeous and the bay was super low, so we decided to do an out and back route where we walked out on the road and back on the beach. Time spent outside on the water is just what I needed. Vitamin D is good for the soul.

Sunday: 8 miles easy (8:56 pace)

Sunday morning was 8 easy miles followed by breakfast with friends (it was Baja bowls all around … also good for the soul).

That’s a wrap on this week’s training. I hope you all had a great weekend and have a wonderful week!

Hey-o! I’ve got a super short post today with my weekly workouts. Tomorrow is RACE DAY, so I wanted to go ahead and get this one knocked out.

Monday AM: 3 miles easy (8:06 pace)

Monday was a rainy day! Daniel and I were at his family’s house Monday morning and we attempted a run during a break in the rain, but that didn’t exactly work out for us. We got out there and Daniel said something to the effect of, “You checked the radar and it was clear, right?” and I responded with something like, “Well yeah, I checked it … it wasn’t exactly clear though.” My car was in the shop and we were waiting on a phone call from the repairman, so Daniel had his phone with him. Oops. Seeing as how rain and phones don’t really mix, this run got cut short (with a little bit of a pick up at the end too).

Monday PM: 2 mi. WU, 4 mi. brisk (6:49, 6:45, 6:40, 6:40), 1 mi. recovery, 6 X 30 seconds (6:00, 5:56, 5:52, 5:48, 5:44, 5:40), 2 mi. CD

Since it is RACE WEEK, I only had one “workout” this week. It was technically on my schedule for Tuesday, but Tuesday was a busy day and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get it in. I decided to bump it up to Monday evening when we got home. Unfortunately, the weather was still extremely bleak and I was forced to take it to the treadmill (I likely would’ve done this anyway (who I am kidding)).

Lightning was popping all around while I was running and I was a little bit worried that the power might go out. Daniel had strict orders to come get me if there was a tornado coming! Ha. He said that he would and said that I would probably be fine, but just to be careful because if the power went out, I would get thrown into the front of the treadmill. Hmm. Definitely didn’t want that to happen!

The workout called for a few “brisk” miles followed by a few pickups. Brisk pace is slightly slower than aerobic threshold pace and slightly quicker than steady state pace. My brisk pace range was 6:40 to 6:50. The pickups were supposed to be done at a fast pace. The range for that was 5:40 to 6:00.

After a two mile warmup, I was able to settle into a nice rhythm on the brisk miles. The pace felt fairly effortless (which is a good sign). I got one mile to recover after the brisk miles and then it was time to do a few 30 second pickups. I was a little unsure how the pickups would go on the treadmill. Sometimes running faster than 6:00 pace feels a little bit out of control, but surprisingly I didn’t ever feel out of control at all and they went great! I did the first one at 10.0 mph and then I bumped the speed up by 0.1 each time. The last one was done at 10.5 mph (5:40 pace) … MOVIN’!

If the power had gone out during those pickups, I would’ve been out of luck for sure. Luckily I survived and no harm was done!

Tuesday: 3 mile run, 45 minute strength training, 3 mile run

Back to the gym Tuesday morning to get dem gainz …

Wednesday AM: 5 miles easy (9:09 pace)

Nothing much to note about this run. I ran a few easy miles on the treadmill before work and watched Netflix.

Wednesday PM: 5 miles easy (8:11 pace)

Daniel and I got to run Wednesday evening! It seems like it has been SO LONG since we have done our typical little “evening loop”and a quick perusing of Strava revealed that in fact, our last loop was on November 16th. We used to do an evening loop several times per week. Daniel hasn’t been running much, so we were long overdue for a date night run. I really enjoy getting a few miles in with him after work because it gives us time to chat and catch up on our day.

Thursday: 8 miles easy (8:26 pace)

Thursday started off on the right foot with an early o’clock run w/ Jessica and Rebecca.

Friday: OFF

Friday turned into an unplanned rest day. I wasn’t able to drag myself out of bed that morning and by the time I got home from work, I was just done. I had zero motivation to run. I also knew that it would be better to not overdo it if I wasn’t feeling it with the race just two days away.

With a break from the physical preparations, I actually did spend some time doing mental preparations Friday. My nerdiness got the best of me and I made a color coded course map with my planned paces. I think there is a lot to be said for visualization and mental preparation. I’m SO ready to pick it up on Dauphin Street and finish strong!

Saturday: 5 miles easy (8:01 pace)

We woke up to temperatures in the 20s! What?! Cue freak out in lower AL!

Daniel was meeting the guys to run so I decided to run a few miles with them. I wore all the clothes (i.e., tights w/ a tennis skirt over them (gives you two extra layers on bottom), a long sleeve shirt w/ a vest and a puffy jacket, gloves w/ mittens over them, ear warmers and a toboggan). Spoiler: it was TOO MUCH. I got toasty.

The good news is that I learned that lesson today and not tomorrow! The forecast is about the same tomorrow. Temperatures in the 20s (with feels like temps in the teens). Holy moly! I’m going to be layered for my warm tomorrow and I’m planning to get down to just a long sleeve top, tights (maybe capris), gloves and ear warmers or a toboggan (but not both) for the actual race. Luckily my relay team will be out on the course, so I can shed some clothes even after the start if I need to.

I just made a new half marathon playlist and I’m getting ready to roll!

Sunday: RACE (recap forthcoming)

That’s it for today! Talk to you soon!