My Love Letter to Boston

Dear Boston,

Thank you for reminding me that there are heroes walking (and running) unnoticed among us. To the first responders, race volunteers, and bystanders who rushed in to help the injured without any concern for your own safety – your courage and selflessness inspire me. You restored my faith that the good in this world will always overcome the evil. And to the Boston residents who stopped two random women on the street to make sure that we were okay and to see if we needed anything – your generosity and kindness amaze me. You, too, are proof that good, caring, compassionate people outnumber those with hatred in their hearts.

I am grateful to you for reminding me that the connections we forge with other people are the most important things in this life. The outpouring of love and concern for Maria and me was overwhelming – once news of the tragedy broke, our phones were constantly notifying us of texts, emails, calls, and Facebook messages from people who were worried about us. I came home from Boston knowing that I am loved, and there is no more comforting feeling in the world in the midst of such a terrifying situation.

And although it seems much less important than so many other things right now, thank you for putting on a race that lived up to every last bit of hype surrounding it. The city rolled out the red carpet for us runners, and the race volunteers and spectators were nothing short of amazing. The entire course was lined with people cheering, holding funny signs, and handing out orange slices, water, wet sponges, Kleenxes, etc. The people of Boston were right there with us, every step of the 26.2 miles. It was a perfect, dream come true day right up until the moment everything changed.

My heart aches for all the people whose lives were forever altered in an instant on Monday. I have thought of little else since I got home. This morning, I proudly put on my race shirt and ran for the first time since the marathon. For four miles, instead of focusing on how powerless events like this make me feel, I thought of how I could honor the victims and survivors of the bombing in my day-to-day life. I’m going to try harder to help others in need. I’m going to let the people I love know just how much they mean to me every chance I get. While I know I will never forget what happened on Monday, I’m going to stand strong with the rest of the running community and keep running and racing every chance I get. And Boston, if you’ll have me with my just barely qualifying time, I will be honored and thrilled to run your streets again in 2014.

Spring Is In the Air

Yes, finally it is Spring time.  Yay!  I haven't needed to wear two layers of clothes on my bike rides in a couple of weeks now and my toes have stayed warm  :).  Training is going well.  Boston is in a week from Monday!  I'm super excited.  I know this year is going to be awesome! 

Here are a few things that I've missed posting in the last month:

• I participated in the Sarasota Half Marathon for the 2nd year in a row and it was awesome. 
• About the race:
• I highly recommend this race to anyone.  It's a small race that's flat with one bridge that you run over twice in the beginning (while you are still fresh).  It's at a good time of year where it's still cool.  I say cool because sometimes it can be 50s and sometimes it can be 60s.  But, not likely to get warmer than that. 
• The medal is awesome and the post-race food is catered by First Watch

• About my race:
• I started the morning with nothing to eat and waited until about 30 min before start time to eat a Honey Stinger Waffle (those are sooo yummy) and some gatorade with a scoop of NO Explode pre-workout.  I had a chance to use the bathroom before the race.  If I hadn't the race would have turned out very badly. 
• Waiting for the gun to go off I was talking with Sarah (and myself) saying that I was just going to go with the flow.  I wasn't expecting to PR and I wasn't going to push myself trying to reach one.  But, I started the race and my first mile was 7:28 and each mile got faster from there.  Except mile 5 which was the second time going over the bridge - that was at 7:35. 
• I took to gels, one at mile 7 and one at mile 10.  I didn't have any stomach issues during or after the race.  The races that are like that, where I don't have any stomach problems, are my favorite.  Regardless of my time. 
• I did PR... by 3 minutes from the St. Pete RnR Marathon that was a month earlier.  Finishing time 1:35:04 - 7:19 min/mi. 
• I have taught one more spin class that went really well.  So, I think I'm getting the hang of it.  My first couple of classes were too structured.  I was literally teaching the class by saying something every 30 seconds or less.  It's too distracting for them and for me.  I will most my spin profiles in another post. 
• I ran my longest distance ever - 28.01 miles @ 8:28 min/mile. 

• This was the longest distance for my Boston training.  I know that some people like to follow a plan that only takes them to about 20 - 24 miles as their longest, but I prefer to get as close to the actual mileage as possible in my training.  I do think there are added physical benefits, but for more it's more the mental.  If I do the distance, I know that when I get to race day, and I can tell myself "you've done this before.  Relax, you can do it again".  Everyone is different though.  Some people are satisfied and feel prepared come race day by breaking up all the mileage throughout the week.  To each their own.  Whatever works for you is what you should do. 
• I decided to back out of the Vineman Full Distance tri this year. It was getting to be too expensive to go out there and I need to save my money to pay for Florida IM and for a wedding next February.  I want to do Augusta again, but I have to see when it gets closer.  Maybe I will miraculously get my money affairs in order.  I don't know, though.  I want to upgrade some of my bike components too.  Decisions, decisions...
• I follow Meghann on Meals and Miles and she got a full time job working for Iron Girl.  I am so jealous.  And, on top of that, she gets to (and is encouraged to) go swim in the Gulf on her lunch break with other people she works with.  Even more jealous.  She also posted a swim session about a week ago with her normal swim group.  A couple of take aways from this:
• Take away 1: When I do kicks in the pool, I normally just go at a normal pace.  Nothing too fast or too slow.  But, Meghann mentioned that she did some of the lengths with fast kicks.  So, the next time I went to the pool, I warmed up with 200 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull.  For the kick and pull, it was one length normal, one length fast.  I like this and I think I will continue to do that.  I never thought about trying to improve my kick.  No one really every talks about making your kicks stronger.   
• Take away 2: I've been thinking about trying to squeeze a workout in at lunch time.  After reading about her swimming at lunch I decided that was it.  So, I tried it out today.  It worked out ok.  I will probably have to take a little longer of a lunch and either come in earlier or stay a little later on those days though.  I need about 15 minutes longer than a normal lunch hour to get to the pool, change, swim for at least 30 min., cool down, change, and then drive back to work.  Notice the time needed to cool down.  Well, funny story.  Today after my swim, I couldn't stop sweating.  I needed to go next door to the SwimBikeRun store to ask some questions about and look at their aerobars.  When I walked in, the bike guy Bruce, asked me if it was raining outside!  LOL.  Hence, I need about 5 minutes to just sit and cool down. 
• My brother, Marcus, and his boyfriend, Myke, are on day 89 of P90X.  They have both lost around 25 pounds each.  I can't wait to see them.  But, even better than this (to me because it's selfish) is that Myke has run a 5k and is now looking to bump it all the way up to a half marathon.  I am so excited about this!  I told him we can plan race-cations together now.
• I got invited to be a part of the elite wave of the new Iron Girl triathlon in Clermont.  I was very excited about this.  It's not like getting invited to participate in Ironman, but I'll take it  :)
• So, upcoming races:
• 4/13 - Escape from Ft. DeSoto (yes, two days before Boston.  I think it will be a nice way to keep my legs warmed up  :) )
• 4/15 - Boston Marathon 
• 4/28 - St. Anthony's - I'm getting pretty pumped about this one.  I haven't been able to do it the last couple of years because I've been participating in the Nautica S. Beach Tri with a team.  
• 5/4 - Iron Girl Tri
• 5/19 - Haines City Half  

I think that about sums up everything that's happened in the last month.  After Haine's City, I don't have any major races planned until the Women Rock Marathon in Minnesota on 8/31/13.  I am definitely going to be looking forward to that one because I'll get to hang out with Sarah for a few days.  Since she'll be moving in June I won't have a good friend and my best running partner around for a couple of months. 

Gasparilla Classic Distance Race Recap 2013

The Gasparilla Classic Distance Race weekend has for I don’t know how long offered four different races; a 15K and a 5K on Saturday and a half marathon and full marathon (last year was 2010)/8K (started in 2011 to replace the marathon) on Sunday.   This year is the 4^th year in a row that I’ve done the Gasparilla Distance Classic Race.  Every year I do one of the many challenges that they have and every year it’s the same one, both races on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday.  The first year I did it the challenge was called the Bud Light Challenge, starting in 2011 they changed it to Beck’s Light Challenge.  The Michelob Ultra Challenge is both races on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday (2010)/8K (2011 – present).  Once they started offering the 8K on Sunday they created a new challenge called the Select 55 Mini Challenge.  This consists of the 15K on Saturday and the 8K on Sunday.  I do like doing this race.  I mean, the start is only 2 miles from where I live.  How can you beat that?  The courses are down Bayshore Blvd and David Island which is where a lot of my training runs are done.  And, more often than not the weather behaves enough to have a good run. 

The first year I did the challenge (2010) I did it as a lead way into doing a marathon because I hadn’t done one yet.  The (now) Beck’s Light Challenge is a total of 25.5 miles.  Oddly enough, my first year doing the challenge has been my best year for the 15K and only this year did I beat my 5K and half marathon times.  The second year (2011) I horribly sprained my ankle half way during the 15K by slipping on the painted lines in the road because they were wet from the sprinklers and the nearby water stop.  The adrenaline from the race and my stubbornness kept me going to finish the 15K and get back to the start line to do the 5K.  My ankle had swollen up so badly that I was unable to complete the half marathon the next day and consequently unable to finish the challenge that year.  Nice bruising, huh?

My times this year were better than last year in every race, but I placed 3^rd overall female (behind Sarah) for the challenge and this year I came in 5^th.  Interesting how every year is different depending on who shows up to race, isn’t it? 

One thing about the races is that there are a lot of people, for whatever reason, that don’t like to follow the starting lineup.  So, unless you are in the very front, you are almost guaranteed to run the first mile 1:00 – 1:30 slower than you want.  For example, this year in the 15K, my first mile was 8:55 and the rest of my miles were around 7:40.  Thankfully the race directors have tried to address this and have made it a little better by having waves for the 5K and half marathon.  But, you still have to start in the front if you’re aiming for a certain time and don’t want to have to make up 2 or 3 minutes from the first couple of miles. 

I wasn’t able to make it to the expo this year, but it’s been a pretty good event every year.  I did hear some grumbles from other people that Nike wasn't there this year.  All past years they were set up in the front of the expo with cool gear specific for the Gasparilla race.  Hopefully they’ll be back next year. 

The medals are always good.  A couple of years ago they redesigned the half marathon medal.  They kept the skull design, but made a hinged mouth that could swing.  The Beck’s Light Challenge gives a pretty cool piece of gear in addition to a t-shirt for each race and a long sleeve for the half (they gave cotton shirts in 2010 and have switched to dri-fit since).  In 2010 it was a grey cotton sweater with the Gasparilla logo sewn over the left chest.  Meh, kind of boring, but it’s comfortable and I wear it around the house when I’m cold.  2011 was a yellow half zip sweater with the logo.  2012 was a blue vest and this year was a white wind breaker.  I’m not sure what the other Challenges were given.

2010

2011 (no half or challenge medal :( )

2012 5K and 15K

2012 half and challenge medal

2013

   

Every year they try to change one or two things to make the race better.  Still a few things they could improve on.  Like gender specific shirts.  I do like the dri-fit long sleeves that we get for the half though.  I wear them on cold runs because they are loose fitting and stretchy enough to easily take off and then tie around my waist. 

So, would you like to know how my races compared for each year? 

What have I done differently over the years?  Well, I actually have been training for speed for about the last 2 months.  Other than that, nothing is different.  In 2010 I ran solely on water and gatorade on the course.  What was a Gu?  I was totally clueless to running.  Do you see what I'm wearing in my pictures? 

half marathon

5K

15K

I'm wearing a head band for ear covers, regular cotton gloves and workout shorts that ride up between my legs (thankfully in 2010 is was so freaking cold that the shorts stayed in place for the most part).  I didn't even have a garmin.  I was using the Nike + with the foot pod.  So, obviously I had no idea what I was actually running each mile in unless I did the calculation because the foot pod is only good if you keep a steady pace that is the same for all your runs. 

This year, I didn't take any gels during the 15K and 5K, but I did take 2 during the half.  So, honestly my improvement comes from sheer hard work... hills and sprints.  They're not always fun, but they pay off.   

Funny How Things Work Out

My posts have been a little sporatic lately.  I always think of good things to write about but when I have time to write, I forget what I was going to say.  I should probably start writing down a reminder or takes notes in a 'note'book.  You know, because that's what they're for... to take notes.

So, anyway...  About 6 months ago I was taking a spin class and was talking with the instructor about how I had gotten my spin certification a few months prior.  It was just an offhand comment at the time while making chit-chat before class started.  I had never done anything with the certification even though I should have started to try and teach classes as soon as possible to pay for the darn certification.  But, I was scared and unsure of how good I would be in front of the class and just kept putting it off. 
About a month ago the same spin instructor, Mike, asked me if I had talked to Katharine about subbing his spin class.  I of course said no because I had no idea what he was talking about. He said that he was going out of town for work and needed people to sub his class.  He asked me to give him my information and he would pass it on to Katharine.  A couple of days later I was giving a mini-demo to Katharine and a week later I was teaching my first spin class.  Funny how things work out, right?  Even funnier is that I had about 2 weeks left to take the certification exam and renew my membership before I would have been forced to take the $300 class again to be certified. 
Teaching the class was not as scary as I thought it was going to be.  Less stressful than giving a speech.  I'll post whatever my profiles are here, but they are by no means always going to have a point.  I wanted my first two classes to have point since I was teaching a Tuesday night and a Thursday night class.  So, Tuesday was hills and Thursday was a lot of jumps and sprints.  Also, after taking spin classes for over 7 years, I finally invested in a pair of cycling shoes.  I have bike shoes for my tri bike, but the cleats are different than what you need for the spin bikes.  So, I just bought a separate pair of shoes and cleats specifically for spinning classes.  Btw, if you take spin regularly, don't be like me and wait forever to invest in a pair of bike shoes for the spin class.  You get so much more out of the session if you are wearing the right shoes because you can push and pull.  In case you have looked for shoes before and were as confused as I was, this is what you'll need:
1) shoes with two holes, NOT three.  They can be any shoes.  They don't have to be 'spin' specific or mtn bike specific.  They can be any kind that you like as long as they have only 2 holes. 
2) cleats - 99% of all spin bikes work with the Shimano SM-SH52 SPD Cleat Sets.  They look like this:
You can use the SH51, SH52, or SH56.  I honestly don't know what the difference is between them.  I think the SH52 is more for spin bikes and the 51 and 56 are more for mountain biking.  
 
You can get all of these pieces at your local bike shop (LBS).  The shoes will be anywhere from $50 to $200 but anything in the $70 to $100 is probably your best best.  The cleats are around $20.  You can install the cleats yourself, but obviously your LBS can do it too. 

I'm set to sub another class next week.  Once I get the playlist for that put together I'll post all three that I have in case anyone thinks they're good enough to use, feel free to use them. 

On another note, I'm sad to say that I had to drop out of the Vineman Full distance race in July in California.  I still want to do the race, but 1) the costs were getting to be too much and 2) it wasn't part of my plan for this year either.
So, let's talk about this. 
1) The costs - I knew I would be paying around $400 r/t to get out there.  But, all the flights I was looking at were hovering around $480 r/t.  Not a huge difference, I know.  Let's add in the hotel, car rental, food expenses while over there, and then the costs of shipping the bike.  Which on top of being expensive, was going to be a total pain in the ass.  There aren't any bike shipping companies that would ship my bike fully assembled.  This means that I had to take my bike to a LBS, have them disassemble it and package it up for me.  Then take it over to a UPS or FedEx and have them ship it to the bike shop affiliated with the race who would then send it over to the race site to be re-assembled.  To get it back, I just have to take it to the company that was handling the bikes that were shipped in and they would take care of dis-assembling it, packing it back up and shipping it back.  I mean, I had to pay for it all, but I didn't actually have to take it to the different places to get it shipped back.  So, what does that add up to.  Probably $35 to disassemble, $50 to package, $100 to ship, $35 to assemble there, $35 to disassemble again after the race, $50 to package again, $100 to ship back, and another $35 to reassemble.  Grand total: $440.  And, honestly, those estimates are generous.  I had my bike put together before and it cost me about $80.  After some thinking, I realized this race wasn't that important to me and I would rather save my money and put it into upgrading my bike or for a wedding/honeymoon.
2)  Included in my thinking was the fact that I hadn't planned on doing this race.  I set this year to be focused around Olympic and HIM distance tri's with some running races thrown in there.  I wanted to work on my speed at the shorter distances and save my sanity for training for IMFL 2014.  So, in the end I am back to my original plan.  If you read my post a while back about finding the perfect training plan then you would probably be thinking right now "so what is going to happen with your training plan now?"  Well, all that frustration over finding/putting together the perfect plan was useless.  Hmmm, I shouldn't say useless.  I did find a lot of good stuff and I'm still going to use the training plan that I've created, I'm just going to cut back on the number of weekly training sessions and the distance on the weekend.   
As a #3) this wasn't really part of my reasoning but does make the decision to drop out easier is Daniel.  He's finishing up a couple of more classes to get his MBA and he's been so busy with it.  By not doing the race he doesn't have to worry about travelling with me when he may have a test to study for or a group project to work on; and I can also help out more around the house and spend more time with him when he does have free time because I won't be doing quite as much training. So, in the end it works out better for our relationship for me to not do this race.  Even though he would have been supportive of it, it's one less thing to worry about when there is a lot on his mind right now.
   
Funny how things work out, right? 

Rock n Roll St. Pete 2013 Race Recap

Race Recap

This year’s RnR half marathon in St. Pete went very well.  The weather was perfect, a near 40 degrees warmer than last year, at about 65 degrees.  I went into the race feeling good but not expecting to stay under 8 min/mi for the entire 13.1 miles.  I had a honey stinger about 30 minutes before the race and sipped on a mix of powerwade, a scoop of bcaa powder, and a scoop of jack3d energy powder.  I started the race a lot slower than last year, but finished faster which is the way I prefer to race:

                                                                        2013:                                                 2012:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
1	7:37	1.00	7:37	7:20	1.00	7:20
2	7:43	1.00	7:43	7:24	1.00	7:24
3	7:35	1.00	7:35	8:13	1.00	8:13 – stopped to use the bathroom
4	7:32	1.00	7:32	7:20	1.00	7:20
5	7:27	1.00	7:27	7:16	1.00	7:16
6	7:32	1.00	7:32	7:18	1.00	7:18
7	7:28	1.00	7:28	7:29	1.00	7:29
8	7:35	1.00	7:35	7:40	1.00	7:40
9	7:26	1.00	7:26	7:36	1.00	7:36
10	7:20	1.00	7:20	7:50	1.00	7:50
11	7:14	1.00	7:14	7:30	1.00	7:30
12	7:18	1.00	7:19	7:41	1.00	7:41
13	7:02	1.00	7:02	7:26	1.00	7:26
14	1:22	0.21	6:26	1:37	0.25	6:30

I only took 2 gels, one at mile 5 – Clif Stawberry and the other at mile 10 – Powerbar Berry.  I took water at every aid station and took a cup of Gatorade at mile 8.  You can see my times start to get significantly faster starting around mile 7.  I ended up next to this girl around mile 5 and we ran side by side.  Around mile 7 she started to push the pace faster.  I was able to stick with her until the water stop at mile 11 and then I had to back off a bit.  I’m glad that she was there to push me though.  I wouldn’t have done it myself and then I wouldn’t have PR’d.  If you remember from my Beach 2 Battleship recap, I ended up next to a girl at the beginning of the bike leg that was pushing the pace.  I decided to let her go and stay within my own pre-set limits until I got further into the bike leg.   If I would have started with the girl at the RnR race in the beginning and she kept pushing the pace within the first couple of miles, I would have let her go too.  But, because we were a little over half way through the race, I decided to try and keep up with her.  My final time was 1:38:09.  2012 was 1:39:24.  I have 2 more half marathons and then Boston.  After this past weekend’s performance, I’m expecting some good times this year.  All of the upcoming races are ones that I did last year so I will results that are better to compare against since the courses will be the same. 

Race attire:

Visor – Nike feather light visor

Shirt – Women Rock Marathon tank top

Shorts – Nike pro combat compression shorts

Socks – Road Runner Sports ankle tab dry-fit

Shoes – Brooks Pure Cadence2 – I am in love with these shoes by the way

Headphones – Jay Bird Bluetooth

Music – iPod nano 6^th gen

Race belt – Spibelt with 3 gel holders on each side and a pouch in the middle.  This is the first time I’ve used this belt.  It worked ok.  It wouldn’t really stay on my hips as well as my iFitness one does.  But, I guess it will work.  Maybe I’ll try tightening it for the next race.  I really like my iFitness one but I wanted one with the gel holders and the pouch and all the ones like that by iFitness have a wide waistband.  I wanted to minimize what I carry around my waste.  That’s why I decided to get the Spibelt.  Both belts are water-resistant which is a necessity for me because I sweat a lot and pore a lot of water on myself unless it’s under 70… then I just sweat a lot J.

Race Review:

St. Petersburg is pretty flat.  There is one small dip and climb in the first mile.  There is no shade anyone on the course, but this race is held at the perfect time of year where it’s 99% of the time sunny and around 65 degrees.  Sometimes it varies and you’ll get 30 degree whether like last year or high 70s like previous years.  But, obviously these two extremes are outside the norm.  There seemed to be spectators along almost the entire route.  Other notes:

Good –

·         there were plenty of port-a-lets

·         cups of water were set out if you wanted to hydrate some before the race

·         they had the corrals set up with people standing there to check your bib to make sure you were going to the right corral

·         they started right on time

·         every aid/water station had a sign about .10 miles before it letting you know that there was a water stop coming up

·         there was a water stop just about every mile

·         post-race food selection was good – water, Gatorade, bananas, mini bagels, chocolate milk, cups of fruit, and granola bars.  I may have missed a couple of things. 

·         they had cold towels at the end

Bad –

·         they make you get there so early if you do the park and ride.  The race didn’t start until 7:30 but they wanted you in the parking lot no later than 6:15

·         they charge for parking for the expo.  Although you can get around this because there is a parking lot right across the street that is free and all the street meter parking is free too since the expo is held on the weekend

·         this isn’t necessarily a bad thing that they did.  But, there was so much stuff at the end that you could grab to eat and drink that you ran out of hands to carry everything.  It would be nice if they gave you a bag to put everything in.  Disney started doing this and it is awesome

·         they messed up the mile marker placement for mile 10.  It was about .2 miles ahead of where it should have been.  This also isn’t a huge deal, but it did through me off a little since I was planning to take a gel at mile 10.  So, I ended up taking it a little earlier than I meant to.

All in all, RnR pretty much knows what they’re doing.  The race went smoothly and I will probably do it again next year.        

After the race, Sarah, Daniel, and I met up with Cesar at Square One for burgers.  Sarah and I split the Peanut Butter and Nutella shake.  Yes, it was delicious!  The rest of the day was hanging out and relaxing.  Just the way I like it.  I ended the night watching the season premiere of The Walking Dead with Daniel and eating homemade pizza by Daniel.