Thursday, November 28, 2013

Long Run Musings

It's late in the 2nd week of taper and I'm halfway between rested and insane.  The dogs and I drove through 900 miles of snowstorms to make it to Arizona for Thanksgiving and reunite the family - that said, I'm really looking forward to being back in Colorado.  I already miss the mountains and smaller-town life.

My last *longish* run was a split affair - 6.5 miles in the morning, 8.5+ in the afternoon.  I stupidly overdressed for the first run and cooked through the entire thing wearing long sleeves and tights when it was at least 40 and sunny out.  I smartly went out for the afternoon run in sports bra and shorts (side note: this has been the year that I stopped caring about people seeing my stomach and just went for it - Coach killed me on far too many track workouts where I overheated no matter what I wore and have opted for comfort) and hit race pace well.

I rolled into Scottsdale on Saturday night in the midst of various rain and snow storms and had my first taper-long run on Sunday morning.  It was funny to see the Arizonans wearing parkas while I ran in, again, a sports bra and shorts, even while it rained, but it was totally comfortable and if anything I had to hold back on my pace.  I even got to run through ankle deep water from some of the flooding they've been having here (am I starting to feel like a flood magnet or what?).  Lower elevation + the legs are starting to feel rested = we are getting there!

While everyone else is Turkey Trotting today, I'll be riding my bike because that's the kind of thing we do during taper.  And because I ran my ass off at the track yesterday followed by enough squats and lunges that I'm having to help myself get in and out of chairs today.  Is it race day yet?

Happy Thanksgiving and thank you to my family, my friends, my coworkers and classmates, and my coach for all the love and support all year!

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

On the first week of taper, my tri coach gave to me….

Many yards of swimming!
Some decreased run time!
ONE! Hard! Track workout!
12 long run miles, 3 french hens 2 turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree
*ok I may just be a bit excited about the holidays or the caffeine has kicked in this morning*

Taper started this week.  I celebrated by getting back in the pool for the first time in a month.  Don't judge, grad school life is a bit insane and pool access is always the hardest thing to coordinate.  I even attempted to get up and go to masters yesterday, only to find that the 6-7am workout really means doors open sometime after 6 and then everyone rushes in to do an abbreviated workout.  Not cool, BAM, not cool.  I'm looking at other masters options that might make it more likely for me to get in a pool on a regular schedule for training next year.  Anyway, I ended up taking my swim gear to work and going to the campus rec center between work and class.

I have a reasonable idea about what I'd like to do for this marathon, as well as optimistic hopes for a best case scenario, but I don't know the course well enough to know what exactly will be possible.  Still, my last long run at sea level gave me some idea of what I can run over distance and my split long run this past weekend, back at altitude, while difficult, gave me more confidence.  So now we're down to just resting the legs while keeping them sharp and we'll see what happens!  I'll write a post more about my marathon history sometime in the next couple weeks to give some context to whatever happens on race day.

In more immediate news, I am very much looking forward to fall break from school!  There are no classes at all the week of Thanksgiving (very different than when I was in college) and so the dogs and I are heading to Scottsdale to spend the week with Jeff and Puck.  It will be the first time the dogs have all seen each other since July 29th!  I will have a big stack of grading to do for one of my classes and a stats project to work on but otherwise it'll be a lot of relaxing and enjoying the break.

Happy hump day!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Nederland/Indian Peaks Wilderness/Boulder Canyon/Chautauqua (Mom's Photos)

Photos by Evelyne McNamara
























Pike's Peak (Mom's Photos)

Photos by Evelyne McNamara

Manitou Springs




Our train to the summit of Pike's Peak

















Garden of the Gods (Colorado Springs)








Driving through Castle Rock