Trail Race Report!

By today, THursday, I finally feel recovered from the 15k trail race I did last Sunday.  I took this picture from Ann run-dmz.blogspot.com who is celebrating her 7th year of blogging!  How horrible am I?  Stealing a photograph from the bloggy birthday girl!?  Thanks, Ann.  I just couldn't find a photograph that captured the arrival of SPRING out on the trails.  Yours was perfect!  Speaking of her bloggy birthday,  I must admit that Ann's blog was one of the first I'd read and when I found out we lived near each other,  it was even more fun to read about her adventures on the trails and with our track club.  Ann is one sweet, stable and focused writer, runner, woman and blogger.  Thanks for your dedication, Ann!




Anyway,  my quads, calves and booty were put to the test on Sunday.  When I had done this race three years ago, I had been at the end of my Boston training and my legs were ready for Heartbreak Hill.  On Sunday,  my legs were completely SHOCKED and FURIOUS with me. My marathon was a little over a month ago and I thought that my two weekends of hill running would be enough to both recover and get ready for the Black Mountain hills.  I was a little disillusioned, confused and dazed to face these hills once again.  They were steep, they were ever present and they were LONG.  Blech.


My goal for this race was to beat my time from three years ago AND stay mentally tough on the hills.  Unfortunately,  these goals weren't met.  I was three minutes slower and my tough brain melted into a squishy marshmallow PEEP brain after the first hill.  Some how,  I managed to place 5th female and 1st in age.  Being the TOUGH chick that I am,  tough on myself anyway,  I admit that the placings didn't make me smile as much as the run itself.  The flat sections were flanked with artichoke bushes,  long green grasses and bright yellow mustard plants.  In SO CAL, this means SPRING.  So,  I continue to move forward towards my next goal this spring, the sub 20 5k in May.  


O'side 70. 3 TRI is this weekend!  Let's not forget the Carlsbad 5000 on Sunday!  There will plenty of PRO ATHLETE STALKING for BS and I this Sat. and Sun.  FUN FUN FUN!  Good luck J.U.  No pressure :).
xoxo
meg

You Have NOT Been Forgotten...

Thank you, precious friend, for the **heartfelt** email that rocketed me back to blogging!  Truthfully?  I've been reading blogs galore but not commenting...your stories and lives inspire but my REAL life calls me back to reality and I just have too much to do sometimes!  Most times!

Since January, you have all had your share of successes, changes and LIFE and me too!  I have not quite hit the big 47 years old but until then,  I'm racing my heart out, training and still have BIG GOALS and plans.  I've decided that I'm just a big-goal-kind-of-girl and I don't like anything holding me back...especially myself!  Since January,  I've managed to...

**drum roll**  Run a  personal best marathon in Arizona, a 3:25.  This was BIG.  I know it's a flat course, yadda-yadda, but I'm just going to say that MENTALLY and PHYSICALLY, this raced rocked. I felt strong and could have done MORE but a wise *coach* made me stick to the plan and it worked.  There's nothing like finishing a marathon with confidence.

--Still teaching kindergarten to some crazy kids.  We just finished a week of OLD WEST studies; ponies, cactus, paper cowboy hats...enough said.

--Still loving that AWESOME hunk of maleness in my life.  We celebrated 26 years of marriage this last week and it was bliss....by the way, I have him to thank for that 3:25 marathon.

--Still grand mothering on Tuesdays after school and every second in between!  Yes, I love it.  Sparkle Pants has now been renamed, Stinker Pants.  With potty training and "the mid two's" in progress, I thought it was a perfect reference.

--Still thinking that my daughter made the BEST choice for her life and the life of her son and his dad.  Choices and decisions are never easy.  I respect her.  I never COULD or WOULD have been able to be that strong at twenty-two.  BRAVERY.

--Still training!  I have an X-Terra Trail Race tomorrow and my mental plan is in the works.  The hill training is in progress,  the miles on the books...just more steps in the right direction!  Tomorrow will be F  U  N  !!

I have not forgotten those of you who are SUCH POSITIVE, TRANSPARENT inspirations in this WORLD of runners and bloggers!  Thanks for always being so honest and for sharing your sweet successes as well as your struggles,  I continue to learn from you and appreciate your efforts and steps forward!  I think I'm back to this... bar any new "endeavors" which may present themselves between today or tomorrow!

RUN ON, STAY TOUGH, SO GRATEFUL to be able to be inspired by you...
meg

I Welcome All Change in My Life

My husband has a new jacket,  I'll call him Fred.  Actually, I call "him" Fred Gray.  The jacket, not my husband.  It was  a pricey little thing.  My son calls the brand,  Padi-Gucci.  I'll let you take a guess at this adventure clothing company's  real name.  I sold jewelry,  running medals and a few other favors to pay for this jacket.  Well, not THIS jacket.  I actually bought a much COOLer version, a lime green version, a trail jacket version.  Fred Gray's owner wasn't impressed.  The jacket was tricked out, ultra running style.  It had breathing flaps, built in hand warmers and did I mention the COLOR?   Lime green!!  Definitely a safe color for the road or trails.

You know where this is going if you can even follow this at all...MY HUSBAND returned the "Carl Lewis" of all running jackets that I GAVE HIM for Christmas for the less "flashy" jacket, Fred Gray.

Some things will never change.  My husband loves gray.
I love bright green.
He will wear Fred Gray until he has holes in the elbows.
I will continue to introduce color into his running wardrobe.
Somethings will never change.

On the other hand,  lots of things DO change.  LOTS OF THINGS.

For instance, we no longer have an empty house with two free rooms.


I am no longer "injury" free.
  Yes, I said it.  With three weeks to go until my marathon,  my condition CHANGED and I suddenly had a "calf" issue.
Seven days later, seven days without running,  I'm back on the road to the Carlsbad Marathon and just in time for taper.

I'm either going to LOVE THIS MARATHON because of this massive REST  or wish that I had opted  for Sedona or another race.

What I've realized about change is this...

CHANGE HAPPENS AND YOU  HAVE NO CONTROL OVER IT!  GO WITH IT.  TRUST and LOOK FOR THE LESSON without questioning what is going on around you.  Move forward and expect the best.


How do you handle change?


Have fun running,
meg

Sparkle Pants Has Some Big Guns!

Watch grandma babysit Sparkle Pants.
Watch her dress him up in the dog's Halloween Princess Dress(he asked).
Watch grandma settle on cutting up her old socks and making arm warmers for Sparkle Pants(yes, he asked).
Watch Sparkle Pants take off his shirt for running(yes, that's how we run and roll here in San Diego on December 27)and step into Grandpa's WONDER shoes.  Actually,  Gpa is often  HASSLED when he wears these...the running dudes call them his CHARGER shoes.  That's NOT a compliment around here anymore.
Watch grandma take two dozen pictures of Sparkle Pants acting cute and kiss him  a zillion times in between photo  shots.
Grandma needs to go back to school to entertain herself.

Several days ago I announced that my marathon training was almost ready to be declared OVER and that TAPERING would be my next project.  There were so many OTHER things I wanted to say about training and some of you commented on sharing my similar training philosophy this time around...

Develop a base for training hard by going slower on your

long runs!

Let your body rest from the two to three hard workouts a week by doing your light days very, very SLOWLY!

Eat an apple or other carb and a little protein right after your hard workouts, it will help with recovery!

Finally,  using a heart rate monitor will help you keep these runs slow which  will definitely help you recover quicker and stay injury free.

I still have two more hard workouts before my tapering but I had to let the cat out of the bag.... 

THIS IS THE FIRST MARATHON I'LL BE RUNNING IN THE PAST THREE YEARS WHERE I WASN'T INJURED IN SOME WAY!

It's a miracle really.  Then again, no.  It's just running smarter and not going crazy with speed and trusting the training.  

** I do have ONE secret weapon that SANTA brought BS and I for Christmas and it has also helped us recover from the usual aches and pains.  More on this $$WEAPON of CHOICE$$ soon .

Run for fun!

meg

Hello Marathon, Hello Whales, Hello Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Southern California finally feels like Christmas! The Santa Ana winds are blowing a colder wind at odd times of the day(like during my speed workouts along the coast)and the California Gray Whales are making their way to Scammon's Lagoon in Mexico.  BS, my trusty running partner/husband and I,  received a WHALE SPOUTING show at sunset on Wednesday night and I was jumping up and down along the cliffs as I spotted the water sprays over six times!

I love whales.

I love sunsets.

I love running.

I love my running partner.

Enough said about that.

Only 3 weeks and some odd days until the Carlsbad Marathon! 

This training has been a mix of the ooh's and aah's...

**a long, long base phase of slow, slow long runs

**a lot of hills run at various paces that have both killed me and made me stronger.

Have you tried running up hill for 60 mins?

In Southern California?  On the coast?

(witch cackle inserted here...bahhhhaaaahaaaa)

More hill sprints, bounds and 1 min. repeats.

**a lot of marathon pace long runs which I've only just started so I hope they kick in and stick for the race!

OOOh and ahhh all I want,  it's RACE DAY that counts and I'm feeling like I can keep myself happy and feeling confident if I keep up with the rest of the workouts for the next two weeks and then sigh that ultimate ahhhh...for taper.  I'm ready for that.

Goals?

To start and finish injury free!

Be strong!

Be happy!

I can do that...

Finally,  I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and my thoughts and hugs go out to each one of you this season.

Meg

The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes. Cultivating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. This helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the ultimate source of success in life.

The Dali Lama

Periodization and Other "New" Discoveries...

This picture of Matthew reminds me that life is too short to sit around and stew, fret and wallow in the way the winds blow.  Sadly, friends,  I've been in this state of CHAOS for a few weeks.  CHANGE has a way of doing that to us.  However, one can't fight the winds forever.  I need to settle in.

So, like the little piggy who's house was FLATTENED by the Big Bad Wolf,  I'm fleeing to another house and starting out all over.  JUST KIDDING.  Well, I have made the mental leap to move into a better place and keep moving forward, because that's WHAT WE STRONG WOMEN DO!  **Please read my past blog posts if you have NO idea what I"m talking about!*

Sparkle Pants(our  2.5 year old grandson-now-house-mate) amuses us with his dances with flashlights and the way he wears the headlamp around his tummy and struts his stuff during power outages and HEY...there's nothing like having a TWO and a half year old around again!  His mommy continues to move forward as she starts over with us as well.  BOYSCOUT and I have realized that we aren't parenting anymore.  We can't!  We're co-living.  There's a sweetness in this somewhere, I feel it.  It's the "processing" that is taking some time!  Thanks for your AWESOME EMAILS and comments.  I feel like I'm back to following YOUR running, your experiences and your expertise in this area.  I've missed YOU!!

I guess I've celebrate enough and with the XC Championships over,   I've moved into the THRONGS of marathon training.   The short stuff was so easy to maintain...just speed work and resting but...

Marathon training is baaaaccckkk!

I've stumbled on to something called PERIODIZATION in marathon training.

My last 11 marathons were run according to the average marathon plan with my mileage hitting about 70 miles at the peak.  I would  run the usual weeks of training that included:  track/speed work,  a tempo run with progressively more mileage each week and then the major long run that gets longer each week and usually tops out at 24 miles.   What I've found is that my 46 year old body usually handles everything until about that last week of tough training, right before taper.  SUDDENLY, at that point, hell breaks loose.  I fall a part.  The plantar facitis kicks in and I end up tapering with a hobble and a strict habit of PRAYING 10 times a day that a miracle with happen.  I also end up visiting my physio twice a week.  I'm usually a mess by the time I hit the starting line and then,  of course my goals and plans are less than what I hope for.


THIS TIME, it's different.


Since I started training for the XC Championships,  my training has consisted of one workout of mile repeats/strides and hills,  a long run but a VERY slow one and a moderate run.  I take two days off and do one other day of very easy running.


My training calendar was broken up into three distinct cycles: base, hills and marathon specific training. 


Sunday, I ran 60 mins. up hill and the rest moderately for a total of 16 miles.  Next week I have one more long run with hills and then I start my marathon pace work.  


I'm feeling strong, not broken.  Usually, by now,  my body is aching from the tempo runs and they would  get tougher for me.  NOW,  each and every run ends with me feeling stronger.  It's the STRANGEST THING!  My body has been preparing itself for the hardest and most demanding part of my training and it's ready.  


6 weeks until The Carlsbad Marathon.  So far so good.

XC Championships in San Diego!

So happy and so sad!  The XC Championships in San Diego were today and it marks the end of my XC season.  On the one hand,  I'm happy to be freeing up my mind for things that don't start with 5 and end with k or 4 and miler.  The short stuff, all 8 races practically every weekend, have been great for my "racing brain."  I tend to run short races like a fun run...high fiving, smiling, just out for a piece of candy.  Race candy.  As the last few races played out,  I found myself focusing more on the run.  The speed, the flow, the end.  And then I smiled.  Once I realized that the courses were never flat, never smooth and usually had about three hills and lots of turns, lumpy grass and today, some soggy mud, I relaxed and found my "happy place" with XC racing.

Seriously, bliss.

I think my favorite thing about this series has been running with my BSK Teammates.  So many fast ladies but also, so smart and so supportive.  Once you start traveling around every weekend together you also get to know the other masters ladies and it becomes one big family.  We cheer for one another, celebrate and give lots of hugs.  This is what a racing team is all about.  I love you, Girls!!

BIG THANK YOUS to the RUNNING SKIRT GIRLS here in town for sponsoring us and the OPEN Elites with such cute skirts!

  

Jessica won first woman OPEN!  Awesome, Jessica! Great job, Morgan, Joey and Melissa!

Tomorrow, my focus turns to my marathon training for the Carlsbad Marathon in January! My base is strong, my focus is good, I think I'm off to a good start.

Thanks BSK girls, Coach David, Nicole, and Steve for making today possible!  I love you all!