Monthly Archives: October 2013

Mon 10/14 – rest

Tues 10/15 – 6ish mi / fast enough

I was really excited to get out the door today. My muscles were antsy and the fall weather was beautiful. I did the customary work 6 miler and could have just kept going (why doesn’t this happen on the days I get so freaking lost?!?!).

Wed 10/16 – cross: flag football

So my group mates’ coed flag football team is in the playoffs and were a girl short of having a full team today. Being the competitive flag footballer that I am, I couldn’t stand the thought of them having to forfeit for being a man…er…woman…whatever…down, so off to flag football I went. (Either that, or Steph is a good guilt tripper…or maybe a little of both…)

We played zone defense this time instead of man, which I am still thanking god for. Considering the aftermath of the last game when we did play man, my legs were none too thrilled about a repeat offense. With two nice catches and too many tackles for my little mushy brain to count I managed to do something that resembled contributing to the team’s win and advancement into the Princeton Coed Flag Football Championship game. Great! Right? Also, rumor has it that we will not be playing the team that showed up wearing war paint during the regular season. This is comforting.

Thurs 10/17 – 8ish mi / fast enough

Yet another day of experiments that make no sense. Who the hell doesn’t want to do academic research? It was really nice to just zone out for 8 miles with Rihanna and Lady Gaga.

It was not nice to feel the consequences of last night’s football game again. It’s crazy how 2×40 min of coed flag football can tear up the leg muscles! “Oh I run marathons…I ran 30 miles last weekend…I put down 45 miles last week…how hard can it be?”  Idiot.

The legs felt super tight and heavy and fatigued. It’s a very strange tightness and fatigue because it isn’t in the running muscles. Rather, it’s buried deep in some pesky neglected muscle fibers that I apparently have for sprinting — for short bursts of speed, starting and stopping. Yet, ask the running muscles to do their thing for 8ish miles and these other fibrous friends now have to chime in with their 2 cents. Maybe this means I should incorporate some speed work into my workouts after Nov 17th comes and goes. Maybe.

Bitching aside, 65 F and calm made for a great run. Nothing hurt in a worrisome way, my purple and bright orange outfit was cute and and super comfy…

and I was able to just chill with my two besties ( see paragraph 1) and run hard til the end. Good. And then back to work for more beloved head:wall interactions…

Fri 10/18 – rest

and … Happy Birthday to me!!

I’m not quite sure why Dr. Trot’s birthday rule had to be put implemented the week before Dr. Trot turned the big 3-0. Regardless, here you go…

Dr. M and Dr. T are on a boat!

a 28 yr old Dr. Trot (in her beloved birthday hat before it tragically went missing 😦

Dr. Trot behaving as strangely as the Greeks on Greek Easter

Dr. JBdP, Dr. MLP & Dr. T at their best

hair feathered Dr. Trot

round table + public transportation = maturity

3 hr graduations are fun with Dr. T

beautiful Dr. Trot

an oversaturated and slightly strung out Dr. Trot

Dr. Tort mourning a tragic RF loss

too cool for school Dr. Trot

Dr. Trot can fly!

Sat 10/19 – 6 mi + 1 hr hiking

It was a beautiful day to be outside, ~65 F and partly cloudy and calm. The run went well, legs and lungs and shins and knees etc… cooperated. When you’re 30 it only takes 3 whole days to recover from a little game of flag football. Super cool. 

The hiking trip was inspired by a random wild hair up my ass and so after work I set off for the Sourland Mountain Preserve, about 10 miles from town. (Please don’t judge the park by its website making abilities.) I didn’t want to be out for super long (or get my dumb ass lost) so I just took one long trail up the mountain from the parking lot. It was cleared enough to be convenient to hike up but wild enough to feel like I was on a little adventure.

And the view from the top was fantastic (but not really done justice by this picture…)

Sun 10/20 – 12 mi

I split this run up into two parts to accommodate my time points at work. All went well, the weather is still cool and the body cooperated. I was a little concerned that the 12 was going to start feeling long towards the end, but it really flew by. I didn’t bring any water or snacks with me, but I did hydrate well before hand and then refueled (wisely) during my quick stop back at work. Yeah for actually not screwing that up for once!

I can’t believe that next week is my last real long run before the marathon! This thing is coming up fast now! 🙂

Total mileage =  32ish mi

I hit my cutback week miles (which, funny enough, is the same number as my last high mileage week! oops! :-o) and things felt good. I had speed and power on the short runs and up the hills and at the end of each run. I also didn’t poop out after 10/12 miles or want to just pack up and go home. This is nice 🙂

One more high mileage week to survive without doing something idiotic and then the taper 🙂

Threads – tanks and tees, running skirts or capris for the chilly mornings, + compression for the long runs and Mizunos (Wave Creation 11s and Wave Elixer 6s)

Mon 9/30 – rest

Thank you.

Tues 10/1 – 6.6ish mi 

I swear to god, I will have to live in this unnecessarily confusing town for years before I can get through an entire week of workouts without getting lost! x-( One false move and a simple route (composed entirely of segments that I’ve run before, just not quite this way or all at the same time) turned into quite the adventure/race back to lab. That’s exactly what I needed. **eye roll**

Why does this happen, you’re asking? I’m so glad you asked! Thank you! So, it turns out that when you have >3 names for a single road and selectively include only one of said names on your map (based sole on the momentary personal inclination of your mapmaker) and do the same for very cleverly located street signs (if present), following an intended route becomes a logistical nightmare for poor runners that haven’t spent their entire lives in this flakey community.

That being said, I found some fun new routes. (Not that I’ll ever be able to find them again or anything…as when I ask Google maps about the road names I read she doesn’t have a clue.)

Overall it was a good run. Faster than I would have if I wasn’t racing back to an experiment, but it felt good. The legs and the lungs all stepped up to the plate and we made it. The cool weather (~65 F) should get some credit too I suppose.

Wed 10/2 – rest

Thurs 10/3 – 8ish mi 

Thanks to more experiment gymnastics, this workout was broken into 3ish + 5ish mile segments. The final 0.6 miles is a steady 2.8% grade, and let me tell you that when someone trots on past you at the bottom of the hill, putting space between you and him like it’s NBD and then slowly..loses…steam.  Struggling through the last 150m must be particularly tough when you’re passed by the girl in the skirt who’s still got plenty of steam after an 8 mile run. N.B.D. 😀

Thank you uncharacteristically cooperative legs and lungs. 🙂

Fri 10/4 – rest

Sat 10/5 – 12ish mi

Today was hard. I slept in (bad girl), but only until 8. Or so I thought. By 10:30 it was hot, I should have brought water (it was an out and back with water at the turn around…only 6 miles each way…how hard can it be? Does this sound familiar? …I’m an idiot…) I should have brought more fruit snacks. But I didn’t. I struggled though and lived to make you read about it. You’re welcome.

Luckily it’s a cutback week (as usual I needed this…runs have gotten a bit harder) and it was only 12 miles. It’s uncharacteristically hot for October (+80 F) and sunny. (Now don’t misunderstand, I’m not complaining, im just saying, it’s warm.) I think my pace was acceptable enough for a warm and dehydrated 12 miler but I was glad to be done. unfortunately, some shin pain started up around mile 8 and hung out with me to the end. Nothing to be too worried about during these high mileage weeks, but I’d rather not hurt. Genius eh?

At least I looked cute 😉

Sun 10/6 – 6ish

It was humid but  cool and the 6 miles were much less painful than anticipated based on yesterday’s struggle. I wasn’t exactly racing, but also I wasn’t competing for best geriatric runner impersonator either. This is good.

Total mileage =  32.6 mi

This is where I should be in terms of mileage for  a cutback and while I felt like I needed the mileage reduction, I also wasn’t struggling through all of my runs. The shins hurt once in a while, but considering how I felt at this point during the training for my first marathon, and even my second marathon (*note: I didn’t hurt at all at this point before my third marathon because I didn’t train for it!! The village idiot strikes again…) I’m doing pretty damn fantastic. Whether I’ll be singing the same tune during next week’s evaluation is a whole nother story!

Threads – tanks or tees (+/- arm warmers), running skirts or capris for the chilly mornings, + compression for the long runs and Mizunos (Wave Creation 11s and Wave Elixer 6s)

Mon 9/23 – rest

Tues 9/24 – 5ish mi 

Aside from having some serious indigestion for the first half (overeating on all of the kinds of food you shouldn’t over eat on and then going for a run will apparently do that to you), it was a lovely run through the Wisconsin woods (which are strikingly similar to the NJ woods…but with more bears…). Not much to report other than that one should beware of eating ones weight in baked goods immediately before a run. Who knew?!?!

Wed 9/25 – rest

Thurs 9/26 – 11 mi 

Started cultures early and then went out to get the miles in. It was a beautiful morning and all went surprisingly well.The first half was net-downhill and I was kinda on cruise control. It toughened up for the last ~3 miles which were net-uphill, but with the cooler weather and end in sight pushing through was surprisingly “easy.” 1/2 bag of fruit snacks and 4 oz water (plus pre-run hydration) did the trick, and I never really felt a wall. 🙂

Fri 9/27 – rest

Sat 9/28 – 20 mi

So, it turns out that sleeping in until 9 am is NOT a good decision on long run day even at the end of September in NJ. It was a great day, sunny, calm, mid 70s, but by the end it felt hot! The run was broken up into three segments – 1) 5.5 mi to work, 2) 6 mi around work and 3) 5.5 + 3 mi back home + loop around home. Now, they were all just one right after another, but there were two nice pit stops in there so this might be cheating just a bit. However, given my schedule lately, if I can cheat a little and knockout two birds with one stone, I’m all for it!!

The legs started out feeling pretty well, far better than last week’s long run. Of course things broke down to a certain extent in the later miles, but all things considered I felt well through out. The right lower butt (yes, yes that is the proper medical term… Actually, I’m really not sure what to call the location exactly, its in the lower part of my butt + top/back part of my leg . Does anyone have any ideas?), and the hammies started getting particularly tight by mile 16 or so, but nothing that couldn’t be stretched out and run through – focusing on maintaining good form. Joy joy joy.

 3 x 4 oz water during the run and some serious 2 x pit stop fountain guzzling + 2 bags of fruit snacks. All things considered I felt pretty well hydrated and fueled. While it got hot, I think that was the case regardless of H2O intake, drinking more wouldn’t have done much to alleviate the direct 2 pm sun. 

Sun 9/29 – 10 mi

I was a bit worried that after yesterday this was going to be  a struggle. I was wrong!! 🙂 Overall I felt great – definitely on worn legs and a bit sleepy, but it was a beautiful day and everything worked together nicely. The right side is still tight and requires babying every few miles with a stretch or two, but that’s the worst of it. The cooler temps are awesome according to the lung and muscle department (for both during runs and recoveries)

Total mileage =  46 mi

Sorry, no embarrassing fun pictures this week. It’s been enough just keeping my head above water much less acquiring photographic evidence of this. On the bright side, things are feeling good! I actually feel like I’m able to maintain some sort of speed during my short runs as well as strength through the long runs with a bit of speed at the end. AND the icing on this great big cake is that it’s all happening in the midst of a crazy schedule and without an arsenal of worrisome pains! Yippe!! ( and knock on wood!! 🙂 Maybe there really is something to this theory of their being a benefit to training in both physically and mentally draining conditions. Hopefully it’ll translate in Philly!

Threads – tanks or tees (+/- arm warmers), running skirts or capris for the chilly mornings, + compression for the long runs and Mizunos (Wave Creation 11s and Wave Elixer 6s)