My 8 yr Marathon Anniversary this weekend...

well the rain has finally stopped. The sun has come out too, and those crisp October days are finally here!!
It looks as though all of the stars are aligning for a what is on tap to be a great marathon Saturday!

I can't complain; tapering has not been bad at all this go around. I'm rested, feel no aches or pains, healthy and ready...looking for some wood to knock on...

Seriously though this fall has been good to me, 2 PR's a few wins, weather is cooling and it's almost here!

I am preparing my race both mentally and physically now. I have been putting aside all of my gear for the race; the socks I like to wear, specific underwear, my top and shorts, racing shoes, clothes for after the race.
Also, there are 3 fluid stations for the Elite runners; so I am preparing my water bottles for those.  My niece and nephew colored a few pictures for me to put on one, I have a picture of them to put on one, and my other sisters son, my new nephew - they made a collage of a bunch of pics to put on another botttle! What great motivation these are going to be, I can't wait until I get to one of them and have a great reminder of their love and support from afar!

My Husband and Parents will be actually at the race cheering in person, so no need for water bottles, I will have their actual faces and voices, Ha Ha!!

When tapering, I like to reflect on all the things along on the course of training. All of those hard workouts, all of those 20+ milers.  The runs in the rain, the heat, all the milkshakes! The Friends that joined me and helped me get through one more run.

This will be my 13th marathon since starting racing that distance 8 years ago, and actually this weekend is the Anniversary of running my 1st ever marathon  which was Chicago...Paula Radcliffe broke the world record for the 1st time (2:17:17) and Khalid Knnoucchi won his 4th Chicago Marathon (2:05:55), Jenn Rhines was running her debut as well and finished 14th (2:41:16), this was also Ryan Shay's marathon debut (RIP)

My result: (an hour behind Paula but never let that discourage me!)

Eileen F (F24)

3:17:57

2339

240 / 38

F20-24

3:17:07

KY

Boy, did I not know what I was doing! I finished, that was my only goal that day. But has remained my Goal every time I toe the line, to finish yet another one!

8 years later...I am also running for a finish time...I don't usually share but I will - I always have an "ultimate" goal time, but I also have the "I will still be happy if I ran this" goal time.  The ultimate goal time is sub 2:46:00 (the Olympic Trials Qualifier) - the "I will still be happy if I ran" is 2:55:00. but again, I want to finish as well :)

In 8 years I have shaved off almost 27 mins but still need at least 4 mins 20 sec more! ugh!!

Well onto more thoughts and prep for the race. Very excited! :)

Good luck to all those I know that are racing this weekend as well, either marathon, half, 5k, or Ironman KONA!

Reverse...5th and 6th weeks of the dreaded workout series...

week 5 (8/23-8/29) - It was dreaded!! I chose to do this workout on Thursday, but Wednesday is Karen's, where I ran 14 miles with my 3 friends.  However, sometimes on these, they like to try and do a small workout of some kind. When they do I usually just keep running the pace we were and catch up to them after they are done with their pick-ups.  This Thursday was a bit different, in that by 2 miles into it we were already running under 7:00/mi pace and we were just getting faster. They usually don't know that we are doing what pace, but my watch is telling me. We went on for another 2+ miles at 6:40/mi pace. At the turnaround, they said to each other, well I guess we aren't going to do our pick-ups. I notified them of what we had been doing and suggested why not do another 2 mi interval at the same 6:40/mi pace.  They were up for that, I figured why not do it as well (since I have the snazzy watch), but didn't think the pace and frequency we were doing these would affect me too much on my 3x2 mi workout tomorrow. We did that 2 miles in 6:30/mi pace and I had to hold the reins back on everybody!
Thursday - it was a cool and windy evening. I headed over to the park on my warm-up with the intention of completing week 5 - 3x2 mi at Tempo pace (5:50-6:00 vs 6:20). I tried the first one (6:23/mi) and it killed me to hit that pace, it really hit in the 2nd of the 2 miles. I then thought to try the 2nd. Sometimes my 1st of intervals can be slow and the second and third are much more smooth. Well, I stopped after mile of 1 of the 2nd, it was 6:24. So I was getting discouraged and mad very fast...I thought, what could be wrong?? The other weeks I was hitting sub 6:20 pace no problem.  Could my nerves be getting to me? Too hard the night before. I didn't think about it too long and decided to try an 800m (1/2 mi)...if I can hit that at tempo pace, then I will do 3 more, is what I thought. I ran a 3:07 (6:14/mi pace). I decided to call it a night, cool down and head home. I ran through many different reasons why but maybe the workout the night before really did take the thunder out of this one...plus I was very sleepy tired this week. I ended the week with a 21 mile run on a hilly course, we call the Orchard Loop. It was back to the warm heat and humidity and not a cloud in the sky, which is when you don't really want to run the Orchard Loop, as there is hardly any shade! Statred out great, but by the end I was dying! I was drinking way more water than ever, I couldn't get cool enough.


week 6 (8/30-9/5) - Could it be anymore dreadful! Goal was 5x2 mi at marathon goal pace (6:20), but after last weeks episode, I decided to do this workout on Tuesday and really shoot for 3 and see how it goes. It was still hot and humid but I waited until the sun started to go down. I did 3 and bagged it after those. 1 - 6:19/mi , 2 - 6:19/mi , and 3 - 6:23/mi. I was still very tired, and not sleeping to well. With the US 20km race on Monday (9/6) I decided to to review my weeks workouts and try and get quality distance in but alos get some quality sleep. Monday after the dauting 21 mi Orchard, I rode my bike on a flat route 20mi (avg 16 mph) versus running 8 miles. Wednesday was Karen's, Thursday I was in MA all day and took a rest day. Friday I ran my 12 mi morning route.  Then we headed to Syracuse to take care of my niece and nephew. I ran 4 miles Saturday and then headed to the NYS Fair and walked around for 7 hours!
Needless to say I took Sunday off as well...my hamstrings were so sore! Plus I wanted to rest up for the US 20km race on Monday.

Cloudy and Rainy for a change...

Well, in with August, has finally brought us some cloudy, cool and rainy weather. For all those hot humid 90° days when we wishing for just a sprinkle during the workouts, it came in droves Sunday just in time for the 22 mile run!

My training partner and I headed west to run the flat cinder/dirt bike path along the Mohawk river (sort of). As were driving out the rain was picking up and temps were about 65°. We placed our water at about 5 miles and 8.5 miles then headed back to the start.
I have to admit; if I had been out there by myself, with the rain, I probably would have packed it in or done about half the run, but we really had no choice but to press on. It was going to be raining the entire day.
About 1 minute into the run, someone turned a faucet on! Shoes drenched and clothes could be wrung out, only 21.5 miles to go...
Every water stop, I was attacked by mosquitoes and at least 3 bit me each time. Ick! I ended up with 10 bites on my arms, hands, and shoulders.

Also a cinder surface is very ideal and easy on the legs, the next day you don't feel as though you ran so far or hard! (TIP # 3)
(TIP # 4) May not want to venture to run on this surface when rain is coming down in buckets, the cinders end up collecting in your shoes or better yet, your sock, right around your heel, and may result in an abrasion, or a bloody heel...which is what I encountered!

Our pace for the first 7 mi was 7:31/mi
The next 12.7 mi was 7:24/mi
and brought home last 2 miles in 7:02/mi - I just wanted this run to be over! Dry clothes and a warm cup of coffee...OVERALL Pace 7:24/mi 22 miles in 2:43:12
Last time I ran this route (only 20.05) was Aug 8th - by my lonesome in 7:23/mi

Last nights run "Karen's"
What looked to be another great night with some clouds and cool temps, turned into a humid 75° and a couple passing drizzle showers!
Wednesday night's is our "Karen's Run" it is the eastern portion of the cinder bike path mentioned above.  We refer to it as that because we start at an ice cream/produce stand called Karen's...so when we are done with the run we have ICE CREAM (Milkshakes!)
Last night was our 10th week out there for our run that has ranged from 12-15 miles. A few of my training partners and teammates come out for this run. We did 14 miles; 7 out and 7 back. Shawn left us water at the 5 mi mark in this little village we go through. With this group we always go fast, even when one of us says "yeah I'm pretty tired tonight, maybe we could take it easy" or "I have a race this weekend, I am not going to run hard"...but as we get talking, shooting jokes out and discussing some very controversial topics at times, we end up picking up the pace and running pretty hard.
Paces: about every 2 miles we went from 7:40/mi, 7:10/mi, 6:48/mi, 7:09/mi, 6:58/mi, 6:31/mi, and as cool down finished in 7:32/mi. Really a bit of a spontaneous ladder workout or something.
Milkshakes to finish us off! Yum.
Over the 10 weeks - we have now progressed to finishing at about 8:00 ish, and the last 2 weeks it has been pretty much dark...Boo! Pretty soon we won't be heading out there for weekday runs until next summer...14 miles in 1:40:01