Highlights of 2011, in Photos

As 2011 comes to an end, I've been thinking about highlights of the year. It was a crazy one with lots of running and a move across the country. Read on for my year - in photos. Because photos are always more fun!

A work trip to Vegas for CES in January.

Skiing at Heavenly in February

A trip to Florida and Disney's Princess Half in February - I even wore a tiara!

A rainy Flying Pig Half Marathon in May (full for the husband)

The long drive from Michigan to California in May

Riding with Integrate Performance Fitness starting in June and meeting so many fun people.

A PR at the Salinas Valley Half in August, and hiking at Pinnacles National Monument the next day.

We enjoyed many visits to SF, this photo in August.

A trip to Ohio for Buckeye football and Alumni Band day in September.

My first Nike Women's Half and Tiffany Necklace 'medal' in October.

A visit to Malibu with friends & family and the scenic Malibu Half in November (again, full for Kevin.)

Thanksgiving in Pebble Beach with family visiting.

December ended with a relaxing week in Ohio for the holidays and much-needed time with family & friends. I hope everyone had a fantastic year and that 2012 is even better. Happy New Year!

Bye Christmas, It was Fun

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and had time to enjoy family! I've been in Ohio for a week, and I truly enjoyed spending time with my family and my husband's family. This is my first year being across the country and flying, and I have to say it's been rather pleasant, likely because I didn't fly the day before/after Christmas. I blew through security today and now I have plenty of time to reflect and blog at the airport. Yay for free WiFi.

After reading so many blogs and articles about staying on track for the holidays, I was starting to feel a little anxious and harder on myself than usual. However, I'd say it paid off. I'm on the other side of Christmas and travel and don't feel like I skimped on workouts or ate too much. Big victory, especially with my mom's fabulous cookies hanging out a few feet from me the entire time.

For Christmas gifts to my aunts and cousins, we made calendars with photos and they were a HUGE hit! Everyone was looking through the photos, which were both recent and older, and reminiscing together. My grandma pulled out old photos from when she was young and it became a big photo party. I loved it and am so glad we had the calendar idea. If you wonder what to get your extended family for Christmas - this was perfect!

I squeezed in a couple of relaxing runs in the chilly Ohio air, one being the Home for the Holidays Virtual 10K. My hubby came out for the run with me on the bike pathway in his hometown and we totally rocked it! I finished the 10K distance in 1:00:44, which is great for me and would be a PR if it were an official time. I felt awesome while running, liked the 40 degree weather, and had some much-needed alone time with Kevin over the holiday.

The last day of my trip, I had lunch with two long-time friends because we were all back in town. I forget sometimes how much I miss the people who live(d) in the area. Even writing this and sitting in the Columbus airport, I realize I should have tried harder to see the friends that live right here. Why do I always worry about rushing or being a pest to people when planning, when it should be so simple? This sounds like a good New Year's Resolution - to plan ahead to meet friends without being worried or procrastinating for no reason.

On a happier note, my trip ended with dinner at Quaker Steak & Lube, a favorite wings place here. I love their grilled boneless 'wings' and the sauces, served with broccoli and pita bread. I love when restaurants enable people to make healthy-ish, but tasty, choices. (It has to be better than the breaded wings and fries...)

With Christmas now behind us, it's time to plan for 2012. I keep thinking I want to find a New Years run but haven't signed up yet. Anyone else out there planning for one? When is your first race of 2012?

Home for Christmas

I don't often write about a specific run, but every once in a while I feel the need to document a memorable one. Today, I went for a run in my hometown of St. Clairsville, Ohio, and found myself smiling as I ran along the pathway.

The best part - it's December 22, but somehow the weather was 49 degrees and perfect for running. The last time I ran this trail at Christmas time, I was dealing with sub-20 degree temps and ice! Because the weather was nice, there were lots of people out and about walking, running, rollerblading, biking, and taking dogs out for walks.

The next best part - every person I ran by said hello, how are you, Merry Christmas, etc. I sometimes forget how friendly people are here and as someone who will talk to anyone, I love it. I also ran without my Garmin, so no stressing over pace or distance today. I've been doing this more often lately, and I have to say being free of stats every so often lets me enjoy running for running. I felt so free.

Last, the scenery on the pathway is fantastic and the quiet makes for a peaceful run. The path is technically a bike trail (the National Road Bikeway) but is used much more often on foot than on bike. The path follows what used to be train tracks, and it goes over a re-done railroad tressel and through a really cool tunnel. Halfway from one end to the other is a pretty gazebo and sitting area. I ran the entire trail out and back for a total of 5 miles.

Photos of the Gazebo and Tunnel from the National Road Bikeway website.

On the way back it started to rain - I was so happy not to be freezing that the rain didn't phase me. In fact, living in California and not having seen much rain lately made it that much more refreshing. If the weather stays warm like today, I'll have to make it out a couple more times before my return to San Jose. For part of the Home for the Holidays Virtual 10K perhaps.

A Runner goes to Yoga

The best summary of this blog post title? Yoga is hard. Many people say it's a good idea for runners to incorporate yoga into training, although this was only my third Vinyasa yoga class and the last one I went to was in the spring. I'd forgotten just how tight my body feels trying to get into some of the poses and today was no different.

I headed to the gym after work to do a strength workout, but as I was finishing up people started to come into the room for Vinyasa yoga. One of the girls convinced my unexperienced yoga self to give it a shot and the next thing I know I'm in the middle of a 1.5 hour class. About 35 minutes in I'm ready for the cover-in-a-blanket-and-meditate part...but I kept trying and made it through (with a few pose modifications.) I'd sum up my good and bad thoughts like this:

I heart Warrior 2, downward facing dog, and cat-cow. They feel good and I don't feel like I'm going to fall over. I like Triangle pose and Side Angle pose too. Utkatasana is harder than it looks like it should be.

Many poses involved putting limbs in configurations that I'm not sure I could ever make happen. My hands/wrists hurt quite a bit. I modified quite a few poses, but I'm still amazed by the instructor's ability to do them.

The final stretches before meditation were likely supposed to be easy, but I was too tight for anything to be easy. That said, it really helped me stretch and relax. We finished with meditation, then I left with tired muscles and a happy brain.

What I learned? I'm always surprised at how hard Yoga can be. My muscles are tight despite my constant stretching and foam rolling. Yoga could be a good addition to my workout schedule to ease muscle tension. But next time I go to the beginner class.

A Day of Surprises

I went to work for a normal day, but the day wasn't normal at all. First, mimosas showed up in my 9 am meeting to celebrate a few team successes. Mid-day, I found out that I won the Oakland Half Marathon entry from Pavement Runner. Later I had a buddy (personal) training session which always brightens the day, and after that there were holiday treats in the buildings surrounding mine. They had egg nog, appetizers and many, many fantastic desserts like s'mores on a stick and beignets with chocolate sauce. I joined my first Twitter chat for #womensrunning this evening, and my early Christmas present from my hubby arrived in the mail. What a day!

I'm super excited about the Oakland Running Festival entry. I'd been considering this one even though I have a rather full spring race schedule, and I'm looking forward to it. There's something about winning the entry that makes it even better.

My training session was good, although the jury is still out on how much the sessions are helping me. When I lived in Ann Arbor, I worked with a trainer in a group setting and she really kicked our butts. I pushed myself and felt very toned and strong. I'm now working with a trainer in a buddy session, and he has a very different style and focuses much less on weights and reps. Instead, we do the exercise for a given length of time and use lighter weight or body weight. I generally feel like I've worked out, but I don't get the same fatigue and soreness that I came to expect. The best part of the sessions is that we use the Power Plate, a machine with a base that adds vibration to your body. It is supposed to help with better stretching and bone density, and I admit I feel looser when we use it. I'd never used one before working with him, but I've become a fan. Hopefully the sessions will make my knee stronger post-injury and become more challenging over time.

On to the last part of my day - the early Christmas gift from Kevin! I've been looking for a good work bag that has room for gym stuff AND work items. I found one from Lo & Sons last week, and although it's a little more than I might usually pay the holiday sale helps. Kevin bought it for me as my Christmas gift early so I can take it home to Ohio as a carry on. The bag is called the O.G. and my fave features are the lavender interior, the outside pocket with organizer and the side shoe compartment for my running shoes.

Good size, with handles and detachable shoulder strap.

Look! Running shoes hiding inside.

Space for the computer, tablet, and workout toiletries with the shoes. It's all in there.

Nice outside, organized pocket for phone, wallet, umbrella, etc.

Hopefully this bag will enable me to carry one bag each day instead of a separate bag for work and fitness, and I can't wait to pack it up with workout clothes for tomorrow.

Where to go from Here

I've been thinking a ton (okay, constantly) lately about my running goals for the next year. I know that I've come a long way since I started running regularly in 2008, but I also know I'd like to get better, faster. In 2010, I focused on adding a marathon to my race schedule and pushing the distance. 2011 was supposed to be my triathlon year, but due to tendonitis from cycling that didn't happen. So what is in store for 2012?

First, the highlights of 2011. I ran more half marathons than in the previous years, and I finally felt comfortable with the distance. I lost the crazy anxiety and truly enjoyed the races, and I took my PR from 2:21 to 2:10. I'll consider that a personal victory! I started training to swim and bike, and even though I missed the triathlon I am very happy with my progress and that I got over my I-can't-swim-at-all mentality. I signed up for a full marathon and backed off to a half, again due to the tendonitis, and that was tough to do but definitely necessary. Overall, this was a good year for me despite how discouraged I felt when I got hurt in August.

Now on to 2012. Should I focus on getting faster in the half? Pushing the distance to a marathon again? Faster, shorter distances? Triathlons? There are so many choices. Lately, I've been itching for a marathon redo, and I'm starting with the Big Sur 21-miler during the April marathon weekend. Kevin and I have wanted to do this one, and we are planning to treat it more like a fun sightseeing/training run than a time goal. I registered for a Duathlon in March, and I'm planning to do a triathlon with my training group at Integrate Performance Fitness. Biking, and especially the interval and lactic threshold training we do, has really improved my ability to pick up my running pace and I'm not ready to give that up.

I'm hoping to get back down to my half marathon PR this spring and to do another marathon. So far the race schedule is shaping up to include:

South Bay Sprint Duathlon - March 11, 2012
Santa Cruz Half Marathon - April 1, 2012
Big Sur 21-miler - April 29, 2012
San Francisco 1st Half Marathon - July 29, 2012

Now I'm contemplating my fall schedule and hope to include another fall marathon. I'm attached to the idea of running the California International Marathon in December, although this one means I have to miss my work holiday party (and I LOVE my work holiday party.) Maybe Santa Barbara in November, or Portland in October? I'm still deciding on my goals and races for 2012, but comment with any suggestions!

Running + Cycling are a Great Pair

This past summer I started biking with a group in Mountain View called Integrate Performance Fitness at the recommendation of a friend. The group is fantastic, and the coaches create workouts to take riders' fitness to a whole new level. I'm not so great at doing interval training on my own, and having a coach there to push me makes a huge difference.

The best part is that pushing myself on the bike actually made running feel easier overall. I realized this when I was able to drop my half marathon PR by 7 minutes in Salinas Valley - all I'd done was add this biking class as cross-training. Somewhere during the sprints, intervals and hill climbs I added fitness I wasn't getting from my normal run training. I've never felt better for a race than that day, but I hope I do again in the future.

I took a break from biking shortly after that due to tendonitis, and I'm so glad I finally went back. The winter version of the class is indoors using our bikes with a trainer (too dark in the evening,) and the instructor goes through a number of sprints and hard intervals with recovery time in between. It's the perfect way to come back from an injury; I can back off the intensity if I have any trouble without falling behind as I would in an outdoor ride.

I can already feel how the workouts are helping. My run yesterday felt amazing and I was able to pick up the pace a little too. I had no idea when I started biking, but running and biking really are a great training pair. I even signed up for my first duathlon for March 2012. Of course, the ultimate plan is for a triathlon and I'm feeling pretty confident that'll work out next summer too.

Last, I want to share my outfit from that amazing run yesterday. I bought a fun shirt at the Nike Women's Half Marathon and wore it for the first time. It says 'I run to be sexy' and brought a few smiles as I ran by others on the Bay Trail. What a great way to brighten a day and to well, feel sexy.

Thanks to my fashionable friends - Meghan and Rebecca - for taking these photos!

Stepping Up My Training

My last post told of my initial training program and reflections on how it worked for me. At the end, I mentioned that Marathon Rookie didn't work on speed, and that brings me to my next (and current) step in training plans - Hal Higdon.

I'm a slow runner and tend to have a mental block to pushing myself and letting myself feel very out of breath. That probably sounds odd, but it's the way my brain likes to work. I'm good at long, aerobic runs and chatting along the way if I'm with someone, and I truly enjoy the long, aerobic runs. That said, sometimes I feel too slow and don't like to share my times with everyone. 

I went with the Hal Higdon plans partly because of recommendations from running friends and partly because I liked the addition of interval work that it outlined. For the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in May 2010, Kevin and I followed the Intermediate half marathon program. It looks like this.

We did a great job of following this, adding track workouts for the 400 m intervals and doing either a tempo or Fartlek the other days. We used the University of Michigan track, which is open to the public after 7 pm. Sometimes it was dark, but the area is well-lit. We swapped Saturday and Sunday because we prefer to long run on Saturdays; on Sunday we did an easy run as recovery. The biggest change with this schedule was running 5 days instead of 4 days per week and I noticed the difference on my body. 

One important thing I did at the beginning of 2010 was begin a regular strength training program with a group of people at work. This opened my eyes to how essential strength and stretching is to running. I should have known this, but before I always felt like I had to run to train and didn't like to switch out those workouts for something else. In this case, I added additional workouts but later in the year subbed a run for an extra strength session. Running 4 days really works best for me.

Race morning in Pittsburgh was hot and humid, and it started raining hard around mile 2. At that point the rain felt great and thankfully cooled it down a little. The course was hilly, and at the time it felt harder to me than SF but I'm not sure that it really is. The worst hills were going up an on-ramp to a bridge and then the long hill at mile 10. I enjoyed running through Pittsburgh and over the bridges with nice views of the rivers. I felt pretty tired at mile 11 after that last hill but we finished strong (not to mention drenched!) in 2:21:33. My previous half PR from Detroit was 2:26:05.

We continued using the Hal Higdon plan to train for the 2010 Chicago Marathon, specifically the Novice 2 program. These plans are still my go-to training schedules and I don't see myself switching anytime soon. I even got to meet Hal Higdon at the Chicago Marathon expo and said thank you in person!

Between the strength and stretching programs and adding speed work, I got the results I wanted. I didn't speed up a ton, but I definitely felt more comfortable running and shaved a few minutes off of my half PR. Adding biking and swimming to my repertoire last summer had even better results - not to mention it was fun changing it up, meeting new people in the bike group, and trying something new.  My current half PR is from Salinas Valley in August 2011 at 2:10:39, and I believe I owe this at least in part to the hard interval workouts on the bike with Integrate Performance Fitness. Hopefully I can continue this trend next spring!

Training for a Half - My Beginning

I've learned a lot about running - and training to run - in the past 2.5 years. Most of all, I've learned how important it is to tailor a training schedule to your individual needs because every runner is different. For my first half marathon, the San Francisco 1st Half Marathon in July 2009, I followed a training plan found on marathonrookie.com. It looks like this.

This plan was pretty simple to follow, focusing on the number of miles for each run and four runs per week. My husband and I trained together, and I kept track of our progress in a Google Spreadsheet. We followed the plan about 90%, taking an extra day off here and there for fun events like a Green Day concert and a little biking to give our running muscles a rest. I'd already trained for and run my first 10K that May and Kevin is a long time runner, so we weren't starting from scratch with the half marathon program.

I'm very glad I had even a little bit of running experience prior to starting half marathon training. Having some mileage under my belt before training for the half gave me more confidence in my ability to prepare for and to finish an event, and of course it's what triggered my interest in running a half too. In addition to the 10K at the end of May 2009, I had run two 5K races in February and April of that year. I'd started running regularly at the end of 2008 to train for a Mt. Hood climb; little did I know I'd stick with it!

During the training period for the 10K and then the SF Half, I felt good overall but significantly challenged. I wouldn't say I'd found my rhythm yet, and the majority of my training runs felt hard. I often found myself fighting shin splints, an issue that would recur in the future. We had a couple of super hot and humid long runs that summer in Michigan that felt like they'd never end but training with Kevin helped a ton - he kept me going when I began to doubt my ability to keep going.

I had a little trouble with an old college knee injury to my left knee (yes, the same one I'm dealing with now) and wore a brace for the duration of training. I'd had physical therapy a few years before but not around the time I began running regularly, and I was wearing the brace given to my by that therapist. I later discovered that strength training was key to running and got rid of the brace for good.

When race day came, I was very nervous but managed to be well fed and well rested despite the early start time. We estimated our finish time as 2 hours 45 minutes, so we started with wave 7 out of 8. The run turned out to be great; the course is fantastic and fairly hilly. By the time we went over the Golden Gate Bridge and back we were at mile 9.5 and practically done. I didn't walk at all and kept a slow but steady pace, finishing in 2:31:45 and beating our estimated time. I remember how good it felt to cross the finish line, my leg muscles tired but not completely wiped out. I was immediately addicted to half marathons and couldn't wait to sign up for another one, which ended up being Detroit.

As for training plans, I continued to use this one for the Detroit Half Marathon in October 2009, going down in mileage a bit and rebuilding to give my body a rest. The training plan gave me a jumping off point, and I found running four days per week to work well for my body. I supplemented the schedule with strength and elliptical workouts as well as rest days.

Looking back on the Marathon Rookie plan, it helped train me to finish a race but was missing guidance around how to improve my ability to run faster and more comfortably. The weekly mileage is low, we averaged 20-22 miles per week. For our next races in 2010 we tried a more complicated training plan to work on speed and pace.

A Perfect Running Day

From living in Michigan, my brain expects running at this time of year to include lots of layers, dark cloudy skies, and freezing my butt off. The feeling of being so cold for the first few minutes of the run, beginning to sweat, and then freezing at the end because of sweating when it's cold. Bearing the (sometimes intense) lung burn that comes with breathing in the cold cold air. Where I lived last year at this time, it's cold and snowy. In part I enjoyed how these aspects of the winter run made me feel alive, and in part I dreaded feeling so cold.

Today, I experienced my best December run ever. I headed out mid-day (it gets dark so early, have to beat the darkness!) to find beautiful sunshine in my eyes. I hadn't even brought sunglasses because I didn't think it would be sunny. I wore a long sleeve shirt and could have easily worn short sleeves. Sometimes I can't believe how amazing California is! I hope I never start taking the beautiful weather for granted.

I left from work and headed down Amphitheatre Parkway to the Vista Slope. I ran to the top and around the back, fighting a rather mighty, but not cold, wind. I continued along the trail to Crittenden Lane and looped back to where I started. I stayed at or under a 10 minute/mile pace (a good goal for me) and felt comfortable the whole time. It was only a four mile run, but I felt wonderful. Perhaps this is because I hadn't run since the Turkey Trot last Thursday, or maybe because my last workout was on the bike and biking is so much harder for me. Either way I know I am lucky to have such nice running weather in December. It really was a perfect running day for me.

Here's to running and feeling awesome!