Greetings from the tundra! I am so, so glad the cold snap is ending this week–this was a tough one with temps in the single digits and a 14 inch dump of snow on Thursday. We definitely have stretches like this most winters in MA, but this one was early and it was HARSH. I was glad that I was able to stick to the plan this week and really pleased to see my first 40+ mile week since October.
Basically, this was a week of taking advantage of whatever indoor or daytime miles I could snag. On New Year’s Day J and I managed to get a run in together–I love when we can coordinate our easy runs and pass the time chatting. Tuesday I gratefully hit up my favorite morning track workout, and Wednesday I squeezed in a run commute on a busy day. 
Sidenote–I have a 2.5 mile run to and from work and would love to use that to my advantage more often. Does anyone have tips on run commuting? Tips on backpacks that don’t bug the heck out of you?
Thursday was the big blizzard (or the “bomb cyclone”) so I was all set to head to the gym in the morning until I discovered that it hadn’t started snowing yet! So I suited up and got my run done just as the flakes were really starting to fly. It was a little bit rough with the wind, but kind of magical to be out there in part of the storm. Our local yoga studio was open all day, so J and I took a trudge through the snow for a nice warm class. Luckily I had Friday off anyway, but the frigid temps Saturday morning sent me indoors for my long run. I ended up taking two back-to-back classes at Heartbreak Hill Running Company’s Run Studio–it’s definitely still treadmill running, but way more entertaining than toughing it out alone. 
Boston folks, I highly recommend checking these guys out if you need an indoor option for your runs! I even ran into a couple of Oiselle teammates, which is always a nice surprise.
Sunday morning was freezing again, but I waited it out and managed to get my run done outdoors before J and I took advantage of the snow for a little bit of XC skiing. I even strapped on my skate skis from high school and took them for a spin–what a humbling experience! Skate skiing is super, duper hard but really fun–highly recommended for a good challenge 🙂
I can’t wait to hit the roads this week as the temps soar to the 30s and 40s–bring on the heat wave!!
Week 5: 42.4 miles
- Monday: 6 easy miles
- Tuesday: 1200, 800, 400 x 3 (track workout) for 8 total
- Wednesday: 2.5 recovery miles (run commute)
- Thursday: 6.8 easy pre-blizzard miles, 90 minute vinyasa yoga
Friday: Rest day - Saturday: 14 treadmill miles
- Sunday: 4.6 easy and 5 miles of XC skiing
Linking up with The Weekly Wrap (hosted by Hoho Runs and Taking the Long Way Home).
Well, I think I can sum up the past two weeks as one super solid week of training and then a black hole of Christmas plus a stomach bug plus insanely cold weather. My plan was to amp up the mileage just a bit each week this month, and all was going swimmingly for week 3! I had a really strong week of workouts and totally felt like I was getting into the groove of training–I even actually did my strength work and yoga 🙂 I also saw probably the most gorgeous sunrise I’ve seen while running! I did obviously miss my recap during the holiday craziness, but that was bound to happen.
After some Christmas festivities with J’s family we continued our Christmas tradition of going skiing on Xmas day, and we were treated to a full-on powder day–my fellow New Englanders know this is a rare treat. It’s definitely a lot more work to ski in powder–my quads were feelin’ it! When we got home I went to bed feeling a little off, and woke up to a full-blown case of norovirus. I was basically immobile for the next couple of days, and couldn’t stomach a full meal until Thursday.
I definitely beat myself up at first about missing runs, but quickly let it go–these things happen, and there literally wasn’t any way I was going to move away from the couch at that point. Luckily by Thursday I was back on my game, so I hit the treadmill to test things out and then Friday managed to get outside. Of course, the temps in Boston have been insane this week–in the single digits with crazy wind chill factors. So that wasn’t ideal. I toyed around with the idea of doing Saturday’s long run indoors but managed to convince Alexa to head out to Newton with me for a spin on the marathon course. Despite the cold temps and some super icy sidewalks, we got it done–although I was absolutely dragging by the end. It was one of the hardest runs I’ve done in a long time, but it’s worth it to make the extra effort to get out of the house.
Best race experience:
Well, well, well–here we are, back again for a new series of weekly training recaps as I gear up for Boston 2018! I 
This weekend was a busy one! I got in a nice, relaxed 10 miler in the snowbefore heading to my local yoga studio for my initial work-study training. I’m hoping to take on a weekly shift to get more connected with the community and to save myself some $$ on my yoga habit. Then I hit up two holiday parties, spending most of the evening with the Oiselle gals! It was a lot of fun, as always–and now I’m seriously considering running 
I’m back again with one last race recap of 2017 (I promise!) and I have to admit, I did not want to run this one. I definitely overbooked myself this fall on the racing front and was just feeling very blah overall this week–a little bit frustrated professionally, and annoyed I had missed a few runs/workouts due to poor planning. I was excited for a morning with the Oiselle gals but just not geared up for the 5k.
We started up near-ish to the front of the corrals and took the announcer’s advice to “go go go!” The first mile started a little bit slow as we worked our way around some slower runners to settle into the pack. We hit the first full mile split at 6:34–right on track. I barely looked at my watch during this race, keeping the effort hard but steady and pacing along with Cait. The second mile started to feel pretty tough–there’s a slight but steady uphill at this point, and my nose was pretty stuffed up from the cold. I got a little lift from seeing a friend in the pack and getting some cheers from the girls spectating. Cait and I checked in with each other to make sure the pace was ok, and then pushed through the second mile at a 6:29. I knew at this point I was going to hang on as best I could, gutting it out to the finish. We could tell there weren’t many women ahead of us so we picked off a few in the last quarter mile or so, hitting mile 3 at a 6:22 pace and then sprinting it in at 5:20 pace for the .1.
We ended the morning with a quick stop by the post-race party (it was COLD) and then a fun coffee meetup with the team. Big props to the 
This was my first time in Prospect Park and it was absolutely gorgeous. We kept our layers on as long as possible before sneaking up to the front of the start corrals. The one downside of this race was that the start wasn’t seeded at all, which made for a pretty chaotic start with 2000+ runners and walkers. Either way, Ari was off like a shot and I started out at a hard but steady clip. I did have some goals in mind for this race:
Given those goals, I figured I would try to keep the pace under 6:50, which was my previous 5 mile PR pace. The first mile was on a slight downhill, and felt fairly smooth at 6:40 pace. During mile 2 we started to climb up, so I kept my effort even and let it slip a bit to a 6:48 pace. During mile 3, we hit a fairly long and steep climb, and my pace was at a 7:02. It was at this point that the crowd had thinned considerably, but the course wasn’t closed off so there were lots of walkers and joggers in and around the racers. I was legitimately shocked when someone called out from the side of the path “You’re third woman!” I was pretty convinced they were wrong, but just in case I figured I would hold on as best I could despite some small cramps that were creeping up. I got some encouragement from J along the sidelines and then put my head down and cranked the pace up to a 6:29 for mile 4 and another 6:29 for mile 5.
Before I knew it, I had crossed the finish line and was being directed over to the sidelines to pick up my prize–for the first time in my life, I had come in as the third female finisher!! I dizzily spelled my name for the guy at the finish line and happily accepted my prize–an apple crumb pie, which I proudly carried as we headed for celebratory hot chocolate and snacks at the finish.
So this was an incredibly gratifying surprise, especially given that this was a good-size race in a big city. My official time was 33:31, which was good for 3rd woman overall (out of 1,260 female finishers). Needless to say, I was on cloud nine for the rest of the day. Overall, the race was reasonably priced ($25 if you register early), had great swag and medals, and was well-organized and fun. I’m hoping to be back next year with more family members in tow!
I’m going to start this race with a confession (runfession?): I am really, really susceptible to peer pressure–especially when it comes from other runners. After 
Come race morning, I left my house planning to arrive at 6:30 am (according to my GPS), a full hour before race start. It was marginally too early to take public transit, which I would have preferred–especially because I then sat in traffic for an extra 35 minutes trying to get into the garage, missing the Oiselle team picture 😦 Things were hectic and disorganized, and I couldn’t find the bag check or the bathroom before the staff starting yelling with megaphones for everyone to get to their starting corrals. Luckily I stumbled into some teammates in the corral and we took off, keeping things conversational and comfortable. At mile 5 I popped into a porto potty and then managed to find my friend Sarah, who I had promised to pace for her marathon workout. Unfortunately, a couple of factors were working against us–the rain had picked up and the 7,000 runners were herded on and off of a narrow series of dirt paths. The crowding was made even worse as everyone tried to avoid the mud pits and puddles that were rapidly forming. With our shoes soaked and the traction not being ideal, we kept the pace under control to make sure Sarah gets to her goal race uninjured.
While the rain definitely didn’t add anything, this race was one of the least well-organized events I’ve ever run. On top of the long lines, lack of direction, and overcrowded course, they lost a bunch of the jackets so people couldn’t get the sizes they had ordered, and the photos are all dumped into one 700-photo album instead of being searchable by bib number. Overall, this race was pretty frustrating–and would have been even more so if I had been running for time or if I had paid the full ticket price of over $100. That said, it’s always fun hanging with my birds and it was a super motivating way to get a long run in.
Happy Monday, friends! Greetings from the happy end of another training cycle. This past weekend J and I ran the 
With Boston training kicking off around Christmas, I’ve been itching to set myself another big goal. Boston is a bit of a tricky animal to plan around–the course is really challenging and the weather is unreliable. Basically, as much as I would love it, it’s not the best course to re-qualify for the 2019 race. I’m also going to be away for three weeks of training when we are on our honeymoon in New Zealand (!!!). So, basically, my thoughts for Boston are as follows:
Hello from the land where it’s finally feeling like fall! I went for a run this morning and it was in the 40s, which I LOVED. For this post, however, I’m going to rewind a bit back to Monday when the weather was decidedly less nice for running. I had been carefully watching the weather all weekend since I knew we were going to be getting some aftereffects of Hurricane Nate. Luckily, race day came and it wasn’t pouring rain, but it was nearly 100% humidity and in the 70s–unfortunately similar to the weather for 
This race usually draws a pretty impressive crowd of elites, but even so we were right up at the front of the pack to start the race off. I wasn’t really feeling the heat for the first couple of miles and ticked off some hard but sustainable paces at 6:52, 6:52, and 6:58 for the first three miles. While the front of the field got spread out pretty quickly, the course loops back on itself so I got to exchange lots of cheers with friends as we ran along Memorial Drive in Cambridge. I love this race because women are so supportive of one another! Everyone was encouraging and positive even as we were passing each other. Once we crossed back over the Mass Ave Bridge, the heat and humidity had caught up with me and I was starting to drag. I got a big boost from my teammates cowbelling and then another push as I ran past J, who had come down to cheer me on.
Overall, I had an amazing time and am super proud of my mom and my teammates and friends for their strong finishes! Despite the race shirts being a bit underwhelming this year (cotton instead of dry-fit) I would absolutely run this race again and am super grateful to have had my entry comped by the race organizers. I’m looking forward to my next race, which will be my attempt to surpass 
Shorter and Faster 