Moving on

In January 2007, I started a new job as a technical writer for a small technology company. I thought maybe this would be the career change I needed, but somehow marketing communications ended up being my gig again. And I stuck around for over six years.

Starting Monday, I will take on a new challenge back in the agency world. I'm looking forward to getting to know my new clients, but I will miss this place. It's very bittersweet, but it's time.

A goal?

Last Monday, I ran 3.1 miles in 27:08, an 8:45 pace. That is FLYING for me, but it's certainly nothing impressive. However, in looking back at the Sternwheel 5k results in 2011 and 2012, I realized that I might a chance to place in my age group. Last year, I half-assed the race and finished in 29-something (my PR is 28:30 and that would have placed me last year), which was fourth in my age group. 2011 was more competitive, but 26:40 garnered third place.

I just don't know if I can do it.

Review: The Other Side of the Door: A Novel of Suspense

The Other Side of the Door: A Novel of Suspense by Nicci French

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The only reason I read this book is that I was looking for something immediately available as an e-book from the public library. It was okay. The entire book was written in "before" and "after" passages, which kind of got annoying. There were plot twists (I guess), but things seemed a little contrived and "trying too hard." There wasn't enough context to believe in the characters and why they did the things they did. I don't think I'll read any more novels by this author (who, I gather, is actually a husband-and-wife team using a pen name).

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Tapering - sorta

I guess I'm sort of tapering for Sunday's half-marathon. Tapering or being a little lazy? Whatever. Last week:

Monday: 3.1-mile run (fast! 8:45 pace)
Tuesday: 5-mile run (10:00 pace)
Wednesday: 5-mile hill run (9:50 pace)
Thursday: rest
Friday: strength + 3-mile easy TM run (10:54 pace)
Saturday: 8-mile run (9:51 pace)
Sunday: rest

So my mileage could have been a little higher, and I should have gotten in yoga and another strength session -- but I was consistent and relatively speedy. This would be a solid base week, I'd think, but during training, I feel like I should have around 7 hours of exercise (this was well short of that, but I am purposely scaling back mileage now). This week shall be short as well:

Monday: strength + 4-mile hill run
Tuesday: yoga (+ run if there's time so probably not)
Wednesday: strength + 3-mile run
Thursday: 3-mile run or hike
Friday: rest
Saturday: rest (considering a 2-mile shakeout run, though)
Sunday: half-marathon

Ah, Sunday's half-marathon. I feel like I should have a plan, and I really don't. I don't know if I'm going to run on my own or run with someone from the group. And if I run with someone from the group, am I going to try to run with someone who might be faster? Then I'll end up alone again too? I don't know. I guess I'll just wing it.

Review: The Smart One

The Smart One by Jennifer Close

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had trouble figuring out if the book was just totally familiar or if I just recognized the characters because they were real. The book has various points of view, which was good because I hated Weezy and Martha. I liked Claire and Cleo well enough, and I could relate to them better (although Cleo's whole situation annoyed me because it seemed like there should have been more discussion and confusion around it).

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Wow...

It's been awhile since I posted. Even the May 1 post isn't a real post - it's just an auto-post from my Goodreads account. Anyhow, to catch up:

• I ran over 110 miles in April. 
• I also hit four yoga classes and did six strength-training sessions. 
• I even lost 1.5 pounds.
• I ran 5k on Monday night in 27:08, which is an 8:45 pace and super-fast for me. There's hope for the Marietta 5k! My current PR is 28:30, so I should be able to beat that - hopefully soundly.
• I got a new job. I start May 20, the day after the Cleveland half-marathon.

So May is busy. I'm trying to finish up stuff at my current job, train, shop (have to dress like a grown-up at my new job!) and prepare myself for less vacation. That was the biggest con, actually, to taking the job, but I'll survive. I negotiated some days off, and I chose to revise some plans or let some things go. I wish I'd said my start date would be May 21 so I would have a day off between old job and new, but I didn't think of it. I'll be okay. 

I've seen a sports chiropractor twice now. He's doing Active Release Therapy on my left leg and my hip flexors, and it has definitely helped the IT band/hamstring issues I've been having. I also received some cold laser therapy that was pretty neat. It's supposed to help with cell regeneration, I guess? I'll go again -- hopefully for the last time -- after the Cleveland half-marathon. I'm hoping I can move to sports massages after that. 

He gave me a bunch of exercises to help strengthen my legs and hip flexors, and I'm trying to be a good girl and do them. I did the lunge series with my regular workout last week and was hurting for days. I'm hoping today's workout won't hurt me for days, but we'll see. I keep doing different things in my workouts, and today I focused on mostly body-weight stuff -- gotta get used to not having a gym since I'm losing my gym membership with the new job. (I'm sure I'll get another, but I might take the summer off from having a gym. We'll see. And that said, I am going to miss my lunchtime workouts! Hopefully I'll be able to work in something in the new gig.)

The sports chiro is essentially an elite runner. He qualified for the marathon trials and is super-fast. His wife, who is the massage therapist, is also an awesome runner. I like that they're runners -- and that no one is trying to force adjustments on me.

Review: The Other Side of the Door

The Other Side of the Door: A Novel of Suspense by Nicci French

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The only reason I read this book is that I was looking for something immediately available as an e-book from the public library. It was okay. The entire book was written in "before" and "after" passages, which kind of got annoying. There were plot twists (I guess), but things seemed a little contrived and "trying too hard." There wasn't enough context to believe in the characters and why they did the things they did. I don't think I'll read any more novels by this author (who, I gather, is actually a husband-and-wife team using a pen name).

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Getting faster.

Oh, speedwork. I like making you one word, and I like doing you in interval fashion. Tempo runs and mile-repeats are a little tougher. BUT. I accomplished mile-repeats on Monday night, and I'm looking forward to a tempo run next week.

My Smart Coach (haha - Runner's World's Smart Coach program) is set up for the Cleveland race, but I don't really have a goal for that race (hoping to just run with someone from the group and help them when it gets tough). So I'm not following the plan except for the speedwork. Mileage and paces are more up in the air. Monday night, I set out to do mile-repeats, mostly because I hadn't done any speedwork since before Athens and it seemed harder than a tempo run. The plan called for this:

1 mile warmup
1 mile at 9:08
.5 mile recovery
1 mile at 9:08
.5 mile recovery
1 mile at 9:08
1 mile cooldown

But I screwed it up a bit since I was using my watch to tell me when to speed up or slow down. So in the middle of a mile-repeat, it beeped to slow down. I haven't really looked into what I did wrong, but that's okay - I'm happy with what I ended up with:

1 mile warmup (10:15 pace)
1 mile at 8:55
.5 at 12:22 pace (walked for a bit)
1 mile at 10:28 (I think that's half a mile-repeat and half a recovery - wtf?!)
.5 at 9:01 pace (confused when it beeped to slow down)
1 mile at 9:06 pace (just pushed through to make this a mile-repeat)
.5 recovery at 11:12 pace (little walking)
another .5 for cooldown at 9:52 pace to finish up

Kinda makes me sad that I didn't listen to my watch correctly. It appears that I did set it up right -- I just got ahead of myself. As embarrassing as it is, I think the way I did my run -- started at the trail with a mile south and then turned around to finish the run going north -- messed me up. I had mile markers in my head that weren't accurate for the run I was doing. Oh well. I still did 6 in just under an hour, and I did hit my paces for the mile-repeats, generally.

And to follow up that run, last night I hit the Brecksville Reservation hill again. Last time, I took a walk break; this time I ran up the entire thing. 4 miles in 40 minutes with mile 2 at 10:47 (two weeks ago, mile 2 was 11:18). I love this hill -- sucks while doing it, but it's tough enough that I feel like 4 miles is totally acceptable.

In other news, I use way too many dashes.

Back at it.

Last week was a bit of a recovery week after the Athens half-marathon. I scaled back my workouts (btw, that, coupled with the Boston stuff, affected my attitude) -- although I will note that this scaled-back week is more than I used to do in two weeks, probably!

• Monday: day of rest and recovery (more from Sunday's debauchery than the HM)
• Tuesday: yoga
• Wednesday: 5-mile run, faster than HM race pace
• Thursday: 3.5-mile trail run (slow, but enjoyable... and hard)
• Friday: strength-training
• Saturday: 12-mile run, last 3 miles at faster than HM pace
• Sunday: rest

All in all, solid. 20.5 miles + a strength and a yoga. This week, back to normal. Nothing is really written in stone except for Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. Well, and Monday's strength-training is done since I did it before work.

• Monday: strength + 6-mile run (mile repeats)
• Tuesday: 4-mile hill run
• Wednesday: 6-mile run
• Thursday: strength, maybe easy 3-mile run
• Friday: easy 3- to 4-mile run or rest
• Saturday: 11-mile run
• Sunday: rest or strength

Recap: Athens Half-Marathon

Sunday was a pretty fantastic day, I have to say. I spent the extra cash and stayed within walking distance to the start. GREAT decision. We left the hotel room about 7:15 or 7:20 for the 8am start, so we had plenty of time to pee, eat a snack and warm up before the CANON went off. Never heard that before. It was like "Oh, guess we're starting now." I don't even remember hearing the National Anthem, which is pretty typical for these races.

Aaron had a plan to go sub-2, so he took off ahead of me. I started my watch late, so I just looked at it for my mile splits and tried to keep it at 10-minute miles. Seriously, I felt good-good-good for the first, I don't know, 10 miles of the race -- and my splits show where it got tough... and where I realized that and actually manned-up a little.

(Funny thing: I started my watch late and ended up with exactly 13.1 miles!)

My official time ended up being 2:11:05, which is almost exactly a 10-minute pace. That was the goal. Sub-2:10 this fall, though!

Aaron totally kicked ass and finished in 1:56:22 with every mile under 9. That's an 8:52 pace.

The race starts in Uptown Athens at the corner of Union and Court, if you're familiar with Athens. You take off down Union (going the wrong way) and make your way to the bike path that goes along the river, toward Nelsonville. The course is an out-and-back, both for the half-marathon and full marathon. I've decided I love out-and-backs -- that's what my long runs are so I'm used to it. Plus, you get to see the leaders, which I love -- it's great to see how they look like they're working hard, but it's also effortless. Very cool.

Plus I get to see Aaron and usually exchange a high-five, so that's fun.

There were enough aid stations. Most of them had Gatorade and water, but there were a couple with just water. No Gus or anything like that. (You should bring your own anyhow.)

After the turnaround, you continue on the bike path toward campus and finish on the track. It was a little weird because you do 1.5 laps on the track, but it was well-organized and easy to understand. It was a bit of a bummer to pass by the finish line -- and see the finish time! -- and know you have another 400 meters before you're done. The track would be a great place for spectators -- lots of cheering.

And I managed to pass people on the track, so that's great. I know that I could have run harder throughout the race, but I felt solid around 10 minutes per mile and felt like I could finish strong at that pace. So it's a PR in the books and good motivation for a stronger HM next time.

It's an easy course, and it wasn't too crowded. 621 half-marathoners and 204 marathoners. Aaron was #227 (15/27 in his age group and I was #409 (31/57 in my age group). For prime partying afterward, I recommend staying at the OU Inn -- walking around after the race definitely helps with recovery -- but it didn't seem that parking was an issue since you can park Uptown (most of Uptown is still open since the race is primarily on the bike path) and at the Convo. Probably at the football stadium too.

I don't have too many pictures from Sunday night, but there's this one:

And this is probably what Aaron's vision was like too.