Week Six Had Fast Kicks

Week six was filled with a ton of exercising and cross training since I was on break from school and had no grand vacation planned. Unless the Rochester Athletic Club counts as a tropical oasis? Here's how I spent my break:

Monday- Arms and legs strength training at the RAC. One hour yoga session at Molly's Yoga Corner, thanks to my wonderful co-workers.  

Tuesday- 4.3 mile Cobb's Hill run. 

Wednesday-  68 minute spin class at the RAC. This class was intense, holy cow!

Thursday- Rest.

Friday- 45 minute spin class at the RAC. Arms and core strength training.

Saturday- 3.1 miles for the final 2013 Freezeroo race.

Could you tell I didn't really love this one :)

Sunday- 13.2 miles for the Lake Effect Half Marathon in Liverpool, NY. New half marathon PR!!! Weekend race report here.

Loving the bling! 

Total Miles: 20.6        Planned Miles: 19          

Total Marathon Miles: 106.75

I woke up this morning incredibly sore, more so then any previous half marathon. I'm not sure if it was because I had a heavy workout week or the double race duty or throwing the speed hammer down or a crazy combination of all of these things. Needless to say I'm popping the ibuprofen and rockin' some compression gear at work. 

It was a jeans and school spirit shirt kinda' day. 

I am looking forward to yoga tonight. It is the last class in the session and is a restorative practice night. It's basically a bunch of stretching and relaxing, just what I need. I am also looking forward to my bi-weekly appointment with Dr. Burton tomorrow. My hips are feeling fantastic, but my calves are sore and tight. Normally when a big race is over I feel a sense of accomplishment and can scale back on my running to rest my body and mind a bit. But not this time around, marathon training is just ramping up! On to week 7.  

How did your weekend running go?

When you improve your time in any given distance do you call it 

a PR (personal record) or PB (personal best)?

Double Duty With a Side of PR

This weekend was a double race weekend. Time for some official recap's! A while back Molly asked me if I wanted to do the last Freezeroo race with her and her cousin who was coming into town. I said sure, why not, even though I already had a half marathon on the books the following day. The last Freezeroo race is only a 5k, so I shifted my training schedule around and used it as one of my weeknight short runs. Score, extra rest day during the week.

I met Molly and her cousin Liz at Molly's place and we rode to the race in Gates together. Since this wasn't really a race I had much interest in doing I didn't bother to register ahead of time or even check out the course or location of the race. If you know me and my race planning rituals, this is very uncharacteristic of me. It would also come back to bite me in the buns. We got to the race site pretty early and I registered and we all picked up our timing chips. Saw lots of familiar faces but very quickly realized this was going to be a smaller race.

Since we were there early and it was a bit chilly, we just hung out inside the school and chatted and wait for time to pass. We didn't even have to wait in a line for the bathroom, sweet! Once we were outside for the start they delivered the race announcements and we were off...through a parking lot!!

Ready to go!

Yea so the course was a little weird. We started running in a parking lot going behind and around buildings. Then we went into a park. Okay I can handle this, pretty flat and bit of ice and slush but decent conditions. Then it got interesting, the course went through a field of snow and packed down ice. I didn't know this because I did no planning ahead and didn't wear my screw shoes. My pace slowed and I got kinda annoyed. Then I got really annoyed when I saw the leader coming at me and I realized I was going to have to run through that field again. Running through the field the second time was making my calves tight and I was worried about being sore for the half marathon so I walked a bit and finished in a respectable time. Then we went to The Highland Diner.

Katie and I headed to Syracuse around 4pm and we went right to Mom and Dads house. Then the four of us went out to Spaghetti Warehouse and did some carb loading. I had manicotti with red and alfredo sauce...yum!!! Blogger fail because I didn't photograph any of it.

Sunday morning Katie and I headed to Onondaga Lake Parkway around 8:20ish. Got to the Salt Museum and picked up our race packets. Loved the design of the shirts, bibs and medals and the race slogan was pretty cool too: Run 13.1 Like There's Snow Tomorrow. We met up with Molly and did some prepping at the car.

Molly normally gives a good game face,
not sure what is going on here!

We then met up with a bunch of fellow Rochestarians who were taking the early start like us. Photo Opp!

Lovely ladies rockin' it!

Headin' to the start

The course was a double loop so there were lots of opportunities to cheer on fellow runners and get tons of high fives along the way. It was also easy for my parents to stay in one spot and watch me pass by four times. I started out a little conservative running and talking to the ladies. We noticed at mile 3 the mile markers were a bit off but other then that it was run smoothly and there were a decent amount of volunteers and aid stations. I was feeling pretty strong and kept plugging away. When we started there was a light snow fall and a decent amount of wind coming off the lake, but the temperature was perfect once we got moving.

Molly & Katie

Once the leaders and fasties started passing us I felt myself picking up my pace and I felt good so I just went with it. The course was pretty boring, but flat and that's all that mattered to me. I stopped a couple times to get some stones out of my shoes but other then that I kept moving. I separated from the rest of the girls and decided I would put my music on since it was a little boring/quiet. On the second loop coming back the wind started to pick up and that got annoying I felt like it was pushing against me and it seemed to be coming from all directions. At mile 11 a realized I could maybe PR based on the distance I (thought) had left. Since the mile markers were messed up the distance never matched with my Garmin, but based on where I thought the race ended I thought I could do it. I kept telling myself to keep moving and to keep a consistent pace. 

Ready to pass off my headband, ear warmers
and glasses to my Dad.

As I was approaching the finish area I knew I would PR by 3 or 4 minutes, I was so excited until I saw runners veering right, AWAY from the finish line. Holy crap we had to do an extra (not so small) loop that was going to mess with my PR chances. We did the loop the first time around but I didn't think we had to do it the second time. As I ran bye the finish line my dad was there cheering me on and telling me I was ahead of my usual pace. I booked it, as fast as I could, and cut every tangent possible, including maybe cutting off some runners heading towards me. Sorry fellow runners but a PR was on the line. I knew my half marathon time was 2:38:?? and I knew it was going to be close. As I rounded the last curve leading up to the finish line I turned on whatever afterburners I had left and hauled into the finish line at 2:38:33. 

Too focused on my Garmin to celebrate just yet. 

Too bad I couldn't remember what my complete time was from Flower City last year. I was mad that I didn't look ahead of time. Until I realized I could look up those past race results on my phone!! 2:38:59 I beat my time by 26 seconds. Not a huge PR, but a PR none the less. I waited and cheered in the rest of my running posse and overall felt pretty decent, chilly but decent. 

I grabbed two bowls of hot, chicken noodle soup and we reminisced about everyones experience. Overall I think it was a good race. Katie and Molly struggled a bit mentally, but rocked it. Laura was strong the entire time and her determination to finish was inspiring. Thea did her half marathon pregnant at 18 weeks and officially announced her pregnancy to the world. So proud of all of my friends on their accomplishments today. You keep me going!

Week Five and I'm Still Alive

Another week checked off the training calender! Lots going on around the Keiser/Warchol household, sorry for my lack of posts lately. Let's look at week 5 shall we!

Monday- Rest.

Tuesday- Rest. Peer pressure to skip Cobb's Hill run and try on wedding dresses instead. 

Wednesday- Spin class at the RAC. Went early and did some arm strength training. Operation "wedding dress skinny arms" commences.

Thursday- 5.8 miles dark and scary with Molly and Emily. More on that to come.

Friday- 3 speedy miles with Molly & Emily.

Saturday- 10.5 miles from FF Brighton.

Sunday- Rest. 

Total Miles: 19.3        Planned Miles: 21           

Total Marathon Miles: 86.15

Lots of wedding planning and training going on. We have a date, location, photographer, ceremony chairs rented, food planned, meetings with bakers and florist and I think I have managed to find a dress. All in three weeks, not too shabby.

Don't worry we aren't going to display them like this.
Just seeing which we like better.

As far as training goes some weeks I have been a mile or two short and other weeks I have been over. I think I've evened out fine and haven't cut my long runs short at all. I've learned to be flexible with my training plan and not be afraid to move stuff around if needed. 

Thursdays run was a bit scary and reminded me how even being a safe and smart runner can lead to dangerous situations. Molly picked a flat route through Brighton to try and switch it up from the norm. We started out and it was a dark and rainy night. One of the roads we were running on is very narrow and winding has no sidewalks. I stayed out in front because I had a headlamp on, Emily stayed in the middle and Molly pulled up the rear. Most cars gave us our space but a couple cars got a little too close. It was scary. I picked my pace up to get the heck out of the way. We survived and got on to a road with street lamps and wider shoulders. We grouped at the corner and waited for the right of way to cross the next main intersection. When we got the right of way I jumped out in front and was moving along when I heard Molly yell "car back". I looked to my right and saw a car coming towards me it didn't seem to be slowing down enough to come to a full stop at the red light. I slowed down and Molly screamed to stop. The driver didn't even see us until she was right on us. She may have looked something like this:

 
At that point Molly started screaming at her about not paying attention and almost hitting us and punched her driver's side window. The woman had no idea what was going on and I wouldn't be surprised if she thought we were highjacking her car. Don't all highjackers wear headlamps and reflective gear? It was a crazy couple of minutes and she didn't even roll down her window or apologize or say anything. She just drove off and we took a few minutes to gather composure on the sidewalk.

Saturdays long run was, let's just say, long. Thea reminded us that we don't have any more single digit long runs during training. Thanks Thea for that little nugget of information. After the long run I feel like I'm in good shape for this weekends Lake Effect Half Marathon. Can't wait to do my first real race report via Cleveland or Bust!

One last little thought. Being a bride-to-be really has its perks! Here are some photos of free wedding swag we've gotten so far. Score!

Free water bottles in our wedding colors!

Totally free and heavenly cupcakes!!

Do you prefer the raspberry or the orange tablecloth? 

Ever had a close call with a car?

Shameless Bling Plug

Hey Everyone! Just a quick shameless plug. If you would be so kind, please click on the link below and "like" our ring! We could win a free night and breakfast at a local swanky hotel!! You also have to like the page, Rochester Bride & Groom. I promise you can unlike the page when the contest is over. You are the best!!!!!

Vote Here!!!

Week Four and I'm So Sore

Due to Skinny Runner I've had a lot of traffic to my site recently. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back and visit to find out how training for my first marathon is going.

Week four was all about switching up my training plan. Usually I'm pretty predictable, but with some wedding appointments and the crazy amount of snow and cold we got this weekend it required some switcheroo's.

Floating in a sea of white this week!

Monday- Rest. Why mess with a good thing.

Tuesday- 4.3 miles at Cobb's Hill. Still didn't hold a candle to this Tuesday run!

Wednesday- Rest. Usually I spin but we had an appointment to check out a wedding venue. 

Thursday- 3.5 mile tempo at SJFC track with Molly. 

Friday- 45 minute fit/cardio workout with Rob.

Saturday- 3.3 miles from Molly's apartment.

Sunday- 9.0 mile run from Fleet Feet Brighton with Molly & Laura

Total Miles: 20.1        Planned Miles: 19

This week I had an increase in mileage and so there is no turning back now! Thursday Molly and I decided to go back to the track and do a tempo workout for a change of scenery and for a reminder about how slow we really are. I've been hearing/reading about Yasso 800's and how they can predict what your marathon time will be. How crazy is it that it seems dead on with what I was predicting myself. I did 4x800's and they say to continue to add more throughout training one by one. It was such a nice change of pace than the same old routes through the city or Brighton. I'll definitely being hanging out with Bart more often.

Friday night I committed to going to a fitness, healthy lifestyle, workout/event thingy with Rob. His work had done all of the promotional materials for the event and I really had no idea what I was in store for. It turns out that the workout was centered around a fitness app called "Workout in a Bag", created by a local trainer. The main idea is that you can do it on your iPad or iPhone at home or while traveling because very little or no equipment is needed. It is also based on muscle confusion. You do a certain amount of random exercises in a designated period of time and you'll never get the same workout twice. For our class, which the trainer lead, she decided to do the workout at the intermediate level. There is also beginner and advanced options as well. I needed pre-beginner!! There are no photo's that documented the catastrophe that ensued. I figured I couldn't be in that bad of shape, uh WRONG!! I could barely do some of the movements and often cut the full amount of reps in half. It was a neat concept but I needed it to be a bit more random. By the third ab exercise in a row I was ready for the free snacks. I then proceeded to be incredibly sore for my Saturday and Sunday runs. The only positive that came out of it was winning a free, hour-long, healthy cooking lesson. I also tried Kale for the first time and actually liked how it was prepared. 

We had some chilly and snowy runs this weekend, but it was a beautiful and serene setting to run in. I also had some great company!

How can you complain about running in this?

Frozen eyelashes, no big deal.
Summer marathon training is for wimps.

How is your winter training going?

Have you ever tried a fitness app?

What types of cross training do you do?

Week Three Equals Wife To Be!

Holy cow what a week! I am exhausted, mostly mentally. Since Rob and I have been together forever I thought getting engaged would be no big deal. Easy peasy wedding, check. No fuss no muss wedding, check. Just about the two of us, check. Yea, I feel like none of that is happening, and we are barely one week in. I've said for quite some time that I would like to spend little to nothing on a wedding and put all that money into a down payment for our first home. Some how when the engagement ring gets placed on your finger you transform into your 6 year old self envisioning things you can't afford and really deep down don't want. Damn Pinterest and girly wedding magazines! My focus has really shifted off of running this week and I didn't even hit my targeted miles. Ugh.  

Too much to think about, I think I need a run!

Here's the breakdown:

Monday- Rest.

Tuesday- 3.6 miles at Cobb's Hill. What an amazing run!

Wednesday- Spinning for 50 minutes at the RAC.

Thursday- 3.3 miles around Brighton with Molly & Emily.

Friday- Rest.

Saturday- 7.2 miles from FF Brighton.

Sunday- Extra rest day, woops!

Total Miles: 14.1        Planned Miles: 15

Life ever get in the way of training?

Tell me it gets better?