Monthly Archives: July 2010

I’ve been training for four weeks for the Virginia Beach Half-Marathon. The good news: My swimming feels fabulous, and I’m actually motivated to head to the pool for this often-dreaded form of cross-training. The bad news: I had a small setback running-wise when I re-twisted my gimpy ankle last week, so I don’t feel like I’ve made much progress as far as actual running is concerned. And I’m told I won’t be able to swim the half-marathon.

My one saving grace, running-wise: My decision to wake up early this morning and squeeze in my long run for the week, a 10-miler I decided to start slooow. See, I’ve been falling apart in the final miles of my long runs, and I needed an ego-booster this morning more than I needed to hit any certain pace. So I jogged about five miles from home, then turned around and ran back. The amazing thing: I still averaged roughly 9:30-minute miles, about the pace I’ve averaged in my other long runs.

Saturday (July 24): Lift, hard, for 30 minutes

Sunday: Long swim (sub for the long run I would have done if not for the ankle trouble): 4,500 meters, a post-wrist-surgery distance PR!

Monday: Swim 3,000 meters: 1,000 warmup, alternate 100 free, 100 back; 1X1,800 pyramid set; 4X50 butterfly, sprint

Tuesday: Run 3.7 miles in 32:09, or 8:41-minute miles. Elevation gain of about 200 feet. Felt good, but kept it short to baby my recently re-twisted ankle.

Wednesday: Randomly big cross-training day. I had an eye doctor appointment early Wednesday morning, at which the doc dilated my pupils. I felt a little too blurry to drive at the end of the appointment. My gym was within walking distance, so I just lengthened my workout: 1.5 hours of lifting, including about 30 minutes on the Dara Torres core workout in Shape magazine. Stationary bike 30 minutes later in day.

Thursday: Off. Abs, quads sore to the touch.

Friday: Run 10 miles! Ankle felt fine with the help of some KT Tape. Post-run nutrition note: I rewarded my exhausted muscles with a Starbucks Vivanno immediately post-run. It has four simple ingredients: a banana, bittersweet cocoa, skim milk and protein powder (I get a shot of espresso, too). With 270 calories, 18 grams of protein and 48 grams of carbs, it serves as a pretty decent protein recovery drink when you’re in a rush.In other news: My “I’m a Runner” interview with outgoing OMB Director Peter Orszag went live on Runner’s World’s website today! A sneak preview: “Being in a job like this is very similar to running a marathon,” he says. “If you focused on how far you have to go, it would be so stultifying and demoralizing, you would never actually do it.”

It’s hard to go wrong with a core workout that includes what Olympic swimmer Dara Torres describes as her “favorite moves.” But this workout, from Shape magazine’s August issue, was even more of a killer than I expected. Just *try* to do the slow-ball rollout and corkscrew back-to-back without grunting, wheezing or otherwise embarrassing yourself.

I especially love its focus on the BOSU, which I’ve found to be a great tool for those of us with cranky IT bands—or just about any kind of running injury.

The workout is excerpted from Torres’ new book, “Gold Medal Fitness,” in which she shares her strategies for goal-setting, diet and exercise, including 35 days of simple menu plans and her actual workout moves. Yes, it’s on my wish-list.

Check out my other favorite core workouts here and here.

Have you found any fantastic core moves lately? If so, share them by posting a comment!

There’s no theme to unite these widely varied motivators, so I’ll just offer them smorgasboard-style, a strange buffet of inspiration powering me through my week—and through a 4,500-meter swim on Sunday (post-surgery distance record!):

• A new song: “Power” by Kanye West. Especially great for lifting, but also helpful at the end of a long run.
• New gear: I’ve been hunting for running sunglasses that don’t make me look like a fool for months. I found the perfect pair in the Native Dash SS Tiger’s Eye, and I offer this brief review: They’re rimless on the bottom, so there’s nothing to bump or rub against my cheeks (NOT comfortable). They don’t fog up. They don’t say, “I am so single-mindedly focused on running, I eschew all style considerations.” Their lenses make life look prettier.
• A little help from my friends: My first two post-surgery long runs (eight miles each) were kind of miserable, slow, and ego-crushing. I wasn’t expecting good things from my 10-ish-miler last Tuesday (fun-filled weekends=mid-week long runs). But a mental trick helped make this one easier to handle: I ran four miles by myself, then met up with my running group for our normal five-ish-miler. I ended up running 9.35 miles total, and finished strong. Success!
• Races ahead: Ragnar D.C.! I signed up for this race months ago with my running buddies. We held our first informational meeting last week, and it occurred to me that this will be as much of an incentive as the half-marathon when it comes to training motivation. We each run the equivalent of three five-mile legs of the 200-mile, overnight relay, and that’s just not something I feel like I could pick up and do right now.
• A new open-water swim: the Dixie Zone OW Championships in Sarasota Oct. 2 offers a 1K, 2.5K and 5K swim in the Gulf of Mexico, ending at a place called the Daiquiri Deck. Because if you’re not motivated by the thought of a frosty, fruity drink on a deck overlooking the Gulf, you might want to check your pulse.

What’s motivating you this week?

Sunday: Off after Rockville Rotary Twilight 8K at 8:45 p.m. Saturday

Monday: Swim in ocean at Dewey Beach—about 30 minutes straight in the morning, then for another 15 minutes in afternoon. Distance uncertain. Arms happily sore by the end of the day.

Tuesday: 9.35 miles—a post-surgery distance PR, and the first long run I’ve completed without crapping out in the last few miles. Done mid-week to allow for stress-free attendance at concerts and barbecues this weekend.

Wednesday: Swim 3,000 meters: 2,000 free, 10X100 IM order

Thursday: Trail run through Rock Creek Park. 4 miles at 9-minute-mile pace.

Friday: Swim 3,000 meters

Saturday/Sunday: Plans call for swimming and lifting.

Eating local blueberries and peaches fresh from the farm stand is perhaps the best and most delicious way to celebrate summer.

It follows, then, that the biggest bummer is when the blueberries start fading out of season—when some berries in a given pint are tart and firm and tinged with pink, while others are just on the wrong side of mushy.

I love a good peach-blueberry crumble or cobbler, but that’s way too much work for an afternoon snack. .

This is my favorite way to use every last blueberry in a pint—and to use peaches in a way that celebrates their perfection (why cook it away when you can enjoy their juicy awesomeness?). Bonus points: It’s faster than a crisp or crumble, so it’s perfect for a quick dessert or an afternoon snack before an evening run—I enjoyed it before AND after the Rockville Rotary Twilight 8K on Saturday evening. Here’s how to make it:

Cook your sketchy, mushy blueberries in a small nonstick frying pan on medium-high heat with a sprinkle of cinnamon and a squirt of sugar-free maple syrup.

Let cool, then pour over yogurt (I like a combo of Stonyfield Farm and Fage Greek yogurt, both plain and nonfat, with a little vanilla). Garnish with peach slices.

I’ve been topping the whole thing with some slivered almonds and Kashi GoLean Crunch cereal—not exactly the unprocessed, in-season food I’ve been trying to eat, but if the processed stuff makes the local produce more palatable, it can’t be that bad, right?

What’s your favorite way to use produce that’s past its prime?

It’s a busy week thanks to a self-awarded long weekend, so I’ll offer this quick race report in list format. Here’s why I’d highly recommend you run the Rockville Rotary Twilight 8K next year:

1. With an 8:45 p.m. start, it’s probably the coolest temperatures you’ve run in since May.

2. With an 8:45 p.m. start, you’ll be running in the dark—which is really fun in a large group of people!

3. You can run the race as a team, as I did. My running buddies and I saw “Back to the Future” at the AFI theater in Silver Spring the night before the race, so we named ourselves “Make Like a Tree and Get Out of Here.” We placed ninth out of 19 teams, and were the first jokey team: The results list corporate teams and running-store-sponsored teams like “Booz Allen,” “Falls Road” … and then, “Make Like a  Tree and Get Out of Here.”

Striking our best Michael J. Fox air-guitar poses.

4. It makes hill training worthwhile. There’s a lot of downhill, including the last mile (thanks for that, race organizers!). There’s also a lot of uphill, including one at mile four that just about stopped me in my tracks.

5. Despite the hills and the heat, it’s a faster race than one might imagine. I finished in 41:12, 8:18-minute miles, good enough for 23 out of 197 in my age group,  146 out of 1128 overall women. Not my best time ever, but let’s just say I thought I lost a *lot* more time on that hill at mile four.

6. Killer post-race party with a great cover band, free beer and huge watermelon slices.

Yum.

Did you run the race? What did you think about it?

My Virginia Beach Half-Marathon training got an unexpected boost this week with an impromptu trip to Virginia Beach, where Steve had traveled for work, and where I decided to keep him company for a day.

The bonus here was two-fold: First, I accidentally hadn’t taken an off-day in two weeks (oops). Driving down there Wednesday and hitting the beach right away forced me to give both my brain and my body a break. Then, on Thursday, I got a chance to run on the Virginia Beach Boardwalk, where the half-marathon finishes. How’s that for motivation?

Here’s what week 2 in my half-marathon training plan looked like:

Monday: Swim 4,000 meters: 3,000 meters straight through (this was some weird, unexpected exercise in endurance); 5X200 IM

Tuesday: Four-mile tempo run: 35:20, 8:46-minute-mile pace. Sooo, this actually wasn’t tempo pace, but it was certainly tempo effort. It was sticky and hilly and the middle of the day, and I ran my little heart out. I’m calling it a tempo run.

Wednesday: Off … unless you count body-surfing in the Atlantic as a workout

Thursday: Lift for 45 minutes at shiny new hotel gym; run three hot, slow miles on Virginia Beach Boardwalk—average roughly 9-minute-mile pace

Friday: Off? I think?

Saturday: Rockville Rotary Twilight 8K at 8:45 p.m. (wish me luck!)

When I devised my training plan for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend, I knew swimming would figure in hugely. I am a healthier, stronger person when I supplement my three running days per week with a couple swimming days, and I find that swimming translates well to running. But after suffering some serious burnout after swimming competitively in high school, I have to make a conscious effort to motivate myself to get in the pool. At its best, my on-again, off-again relationship with swimming compares favorably only to Ross and Rachel.

In the past, I’ve used principles of sports psychology to devise mind games to get me motivated. I’ve reminded myself of why I love to swim. I’ve used carrot-and-stick reward systems to bribe myself.

But this week, I’ve found motivation to swim in three very simple sources. First, I have my swim buddy back! Steve’s been joining me at the pool again now that his classes aren’t taking so much time, and it’s wonderful.

Second, I’ve found a beautiful new pool. I’d been swimming at the Takoma Aquatic Center for the past year or so, and loved that it’s close to my house and free. But a few months ago, Liz of Liz Runs DC introduced me to the Wilson Aquatic Center just off the Tenleytown Metro. It’s a brand new, beautiful, Olympic-sized pool that’s also close to my house and free—what’s not to love?

Wilson Aquatic Center's pool looks just this shiny and new in real life.

Finally, in a conscious effort to avoid boredom now that I’m hitting the pool more often, I took the time to compile a bunch of my favorite swim workouts. I’m sharing them below. Feel free to reciprocate by posting a comment with your own favorite swim sets or workouts.

My all-time favorite workout: 1,650 warmup, starting at warmup pace, picking up the pace each 500 yards; 6X200 IM; 200 cooldown. Why is this my favorite? I can’t be sure. I just know that yards slip away easily during this challenging yet quick workout.

Other favorite workouts: 500 warmup. Main set: 300 free, first six strokes of every 50 fast; 3X100 stroke (I alternate free and breaststroke); 6X 50 free; repeat whole set three times.

800 free warmup; 3X800, increasing intensity each 800

500 warmup, non-free every third lap. Then 300 free, 3 100 IMs, 6 50s kick, 100 easy. Repeat two more times.

My all-time favorite set: 5X400 IM. Almost a workout in and of itself, this is a set that redeems any amount of slackerdom. It’s also a great set for a low-motivation day, as it’s almost impossible to really slack off while doing butterfly.

My favorite sets: Use these as  building blocks for great workouts, or tack them onto the end of your own favorites.

1,800-meter pyramid set on :15 rest: 1×50 > 1×100 > 1×150 > 1×200 > 1×250 > 1×300 > 1×250 > 1×200 > 1×150 > 1×100 > 1×50

4×25 sprint freestyle on :45, then 4×25 no-breath freestyle

five 100s (500), five 75s (375), five 50s (250) and five 25s (125) = 1,250 (do 2x = 2,500)

12X 75 swim: Free, stroke, free

16X75 pull

30-minute timed swim

The first week of training for a distance race is the easiest and the hardest. It’s the easiest because your motivation level is high, and because the mileage is not. It’s the hardest because it requires you to jar your brain and your body back into training mode. Depending on how long it’s been since your last training cycle, this can be quite the rude awakening.

I experienced this firsthand on Sunday morning, when I woke up at 6:30 a.m.to meet my running buddies for the first long run of my Virginia Beach Half-Marathon training. I’d gone to bed plenty early, and had enjoyed a chill night of homemade pizza on the couch rather than going out—basically, my pre-race strategy. Still, I was dragging to the extent that, had my buddies not been waiting for me, I would have skipped the run and headed back to bed.

The last time (post-wrist surgery) I attempted anything longer than a 10K was back in May, when a few of us ran eight miles to NoMa, an up-and-coming neighborhood near Union Station, on the Metropolitan Branch Trail. I was reporting a story about the neighborhood for The Washington Post’s Real Estate section, and I convinced the group to run there with the promise of a Nutella latte at a neighborhood coffee shop. The Nutella latte ended up being my sole motivation to finish—the last miles were really, really rough.

Last weekend, the story about NoMa ran, and so did I.

My training plan called for an eight-miler, so I ran the first four miles with my running buddies on the Capital Crescent Trail, then turned around to run the last four miles on my own. Things got ugly there at the end—turns out 8:45-minute miles for the first four miles felt like a jog thanks to a gradual downhill, which turned into a gradual uphill on the way back. But I finished, which is all that matters for those early long runs. My brain will remember that for next week, when I’m supposed to run the first of three 10-milers (we’ll see about that … ).

Today, I’m motivated by the fact that one week in, I already feel like I’m in better shape. I’m already adopting all the other healthy habits that make training easier (more sleep and spinach, fewer refills on the sangria). I’m even daring to dream of some fall marathons, including the Philadelphia Marathon Nov. 21; the Steamtown Marathon Oct. 10; the North Central Trail Marathon on Nov. 2.

But first, I’ve got week 2 of half-marathon training, which I’m hoping will feel like far less of a rude awakening now that week 1 is done.

What’s motivating you this week?

When you’ve finished marathons, it’s easy to be cavalier about a 13.1-mile race. You remember those 20-milers during marathon training, and remember what it’s like to know that you can run a half-marathon on the fly, without any extra training or tapering.

You know who doesn’t remember marathon training? My legs. My last marathon was almost a year ago. Since then, I’ve sprained an ankle, broken my wrist nearly in half, and spent several weeks sitting out of all activity because of the latter. And this week, as I eyed my training plan for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend, I had a major revelation: I need to train for this race, and it’s time to lose the cavalier attitude and start running.

Here’s what my first official training week for the race looked like:

Monday: Swim 3,000 meters: 1X1,000 warmup; 1,800-meter pyramid set [on :15 rest: 1×50 > 1×100 > 1×150 > 1×200 > 1×250 > 1×300 > 1×250 > 1×200 > 1×150 > 1×100 > 1×50]; 200 cooldown

Tuesday: 3X1 mile on the treadmill. Started each rep at a comfy 8-minute-mile pace, finished at a nauseating (for me, right now) 7-minute-mile pace.

Wednesday: Lift, hard, for 45 minutes, including leg presses, squats on the BOSU and lots of core stuff.

Thursday: Hill workout on a day of record-breaking heat in D.C. My hill workouts usually involve me warming up by running roughly a mile from my apartment to the bottom of North Portal Drive, then running up North Portal (elevation gain of about 50 feet over roughly .4 mile) a few times. My goal for the three hill reps on Thursday was merely to stay below 9-minute-mile pace—and not to keel over from heat exhaustion. I succeeded on both counts.

Friday: 3,000-yard swim.

Saturday or Sunday: 8-mile run ((shudders involuntarily)). I run five or six miles most Tuesdays and Thursdays with my running group, so on its face, this seems simple. But my only other post-surgery attempt at a run this long came in May, and left me plodding for the final miles, spurred to keep going only by my running buddies, and the promise of a Nutella latte at the end. Cross your fingers for a less ego-shattering experience this time …

For more information about my cross-training-heavy training plan, check out my love letter to the FIRST training program.