ISLAND BRIDGE RUNNER

After the first race was done (and I spent a little time basking in that feeling) in South Africa. I focused on recovery. That was going to be a key component of this entire event. I changed into my recovery compression tights and grabbed my recovery protein/electrolyte drink. Cheered on a few of the others out running. But, didn’t spend too much time. Needed to recover. We headed back to the hotel. It was late. The race started around 7pm, so it was 11pm or so. On the walk b

April 15, 2019. Six years to-the-day since the Marathon bombing. The 123rd Boston Marathon. My 5th Boston Marathon. So much build up to the event. It’s always historic. It’s always exciting. I went into this one hoping for a PR. Boston is a tough course to PR on, I’ve heard so many people say. But, I’ve done it twice. Why not make it three times? I know I'm fit. The weather looked okay. Plus, I made some promises that I would push this race, no matter what. I was ready to go

Training Log February 25- March 3, 2019: 38.9 miles. Monday – 6.2mi @ 9:08. Nice and easy. Tuesday – REST DAY!! Wednesday – 6.6mi @ 9:09. On the treadmill because of thunderstorms. Wasn’t feeling it, but was able to keep ~7:20 pace for the 10 hard minutes. Thursday – 8.1mi @ 7:59. Can tell my body is still recovering, but a decent steady run. Friday – REST DAY!! Saturday – 10.0mi @ 7:59. A fairly comfortable steady run. Stability session. Sunday – 8.0mi @ 8:41. Easy peasy. Tr

For those who are unaware, there is a group out there called Mainly Marathons. Actually, as best I can tell the “group” is two brothers who organize and one wonderful lady who keeps the aid station at every event stocked. I stumbled across their website a couple of years ago when I started looking for back-to-back marathons on my quest for a BQ in every state. They organize marathons in adjacent states over consecutive days (up to 9, I think). Perfect! I reached out to them t

Training Log February 4-10, 2019: 40.6 miles. Monday – OFF RUNNING! Stability session. Tuesday – 3.5mi @ 8:38. Focused on continued recovery, so kept it easy peasy. Wednesday – 7.0mi @ 8:36. Felt myself pushing, so worked to keep it easy. Only slight tightness in the knee/hamstring. Thursday – REST DAY!! Friday – 10.1mi @ 7:36. A bit cooler weather made this a fantastic feeling steady effort. Saturday – 13.0mi @ 8:36. Kept it nice and easy. Knee barely noticeable! Sunday – 7.

Monday – 6.3mi @ 8:50. Legs felt pretty good for this easy run. A little soreness from yesterday’s strength training. Skipped the planned stability work because my ribs are still sore from the fall on the trail yesterday. Tuesday – 10.0mi @ 7:45. Started the first 4 miles nice and easy. Everything felt good. Then, 3 miles at half marathon pace (6:54, 6:57, 6:56). Wind made that a bit more of a challenge than it should have been. Finished out easy. Tested ribs with a few push-

I’ve had a lot of recent success in my races… 2 PRs in 2 weeks! Marathon and 10 mile. Shooting for a half marathon PR on Saturday. Why the recent success? Well, I’ve put in a lot of hard work. But, I’ve been doing that for a while. The switch to a coach has made a big difference. I have more accountability, so have been more consistent with my training. More than that, with my coach I’m doing things differently than I was. I feel like if you run the same types of workouts ove

If you don’t want to read all about my ah-mah-zing racing weekend. Here’s the re-cap… sub-3:10 marathon – done, BQ in two new states – done, and 1st female masters – done. Read on for the fun part. The details! Saturday, the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. As I said previously, this was my target race for a new PR, sub-3:10, if at all possible. A flat, fast course. And, the weather was perfect! Cool and dry. Very little wind. But, there was a lot that didn’t go perfect. To

One of my big goals is a sub-3:10 marathon. Well, I’ve spent the past 14 weeks training hard. With a coach. Tomorrow is the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. A flat, fast course by all accounts. The weather is forecast to be in the low 40s, sunny, with only a slight wind. You don’t get much better than that to go for a big goal. And their social media hashtag is "bemonumental". C'mon. That begs for a shot at a big PR. So, tomorrow is go time. My current PR is 3:14:49. Looking

There are days in running, and in life, where everything just clicks. Movements are smooth. You feel great. Unstoppable. Days that PRs are made. Everything in life, and running, is a balance. So, there are also days when nothing feels right. You feel awkward. You want to just pack it up and call it a day. Maybe just curl up on the couch and binge watch your favorite show. While eating ice cream. Or, maybe that’s just me. Over the past few weeks, I’ve spent a good bit of time

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted. Mainly because I’ve been busy and not had any “big” ideas to share. But, I’ve been thinking about the benefits of using races as training runs. Or, as part of training runs. Probably because I’ve done that twice since I last posted. No matter how hard we push ourselves in a training run, we always find that extra gear when we’re in a race. At least I do. Even when I know the race is “just a training run”. I think some folks shy a

What?!? She who has taken pride in being self-coached. Has hired a coach? Why? The reasons are many. But, I want to start with the opposite. Why haven't I enlisted the services of a coach earlier? I’d spent a lot of time, energy, and effort learning all I could about different approaches to training. Both by reading and by doing. My time kept improving. I was, am, (knock on wood) injury-free. Everything is going in a good direction, so keep at it. If ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Marathon number 25 is in the books. And, Utah is the 15th state crossed off the BQ list! 3:29:31, officially. 44th overall. 5th female. 1st female masters. I started the race with an A goal of sub-3:30 and a B goal of sub-3:40 (my BQ). Nice to hit the A goal, even if barely! I celebrated the past few days with a nice family gathering in the mountains of Utah. This was a good event. Relatively small. About 300 or so marathoners. There were a few drawbacks. First, was having to

I've been traveling a lot (on a plane again as I start drafting this), so wanted to briefly mention the struggles of eating “healthy” during all this travel. I think everyone probably realizes that convenient food options are not always the best for you. As I’ve been trying to dial in my nutrition more recently, it’s become so much more apparent to me during these past few months of travel. What seems like endless travel. I’ve made many concessions, but have tried to not stra

Sunday I completed my 24th marathon. I ran 3:33:41 at the Estes Park Marathon. Good enough for a BQ to mark Colorado off my list. 14 states down. That time was also good enough for a second place overall female finish! There are the results, but how did it go? I chose this race because I love the Estes Park area. And, it coincided with a work trip. Well, I got it to coincide. I did not do my due diligence of scouting the race course at all. As this neared, I started wondering

I talked (wrote) a few weeks ago about journaling. What I do. Why I do it. A training log can be a powerful thing. This past week, I’ve found mine particularly useful. For getting through some of my struggles. Mental and physical. So, today, I want to share with you an expanded look at my training log/journal. And, some of the thoughts I didn’t put down in my journal. Training Log June 4-10, 2018: Planned, 70 miles. 69.4 miles for the week. Paces: BF = by feel; E (easy) = 8:0

I talked earlier about the problems with trying to define “healthy” eating (Nutrition Matters). For now, I’m talking about going sugar-free. Well, free from added sugar. Sort of. Since Monday, I’ve focused on not eating foods with refined, added sugars. What does that mean? I’ve been reading a lot of food labels. Avoiding added sugar is easy. Make sure the ingredient list doesn’t have sugar. Or brown sugar. Or high fructose corn syrup. Defining refined sugars can be a bit tri

These few weeks of training have been a grind. A necessary grind. The day-in-day-out logging of miles. Not a lot of variety in distance or pace. Just getting the miles done. The base built. This coming week I’m starting to add a little “speed” back in with a few workouts, so that’ll mix things up a little bit. As much as my body needs the rest of some easy miles, this past week it was a bit of a struggle to get it done. Mentally. You’ll see some slower-than normal paces becau

Literally and figuratively. The last two weeks I've started my new training plan. Beginning with a 12 week cycle of base mileage. It also was the start of an incredibly busy summer. Work. Travel for work. Travel for fun (a bit). I have very little “free” time between now and August. I knew this when I set-up the training plan. I figure not only does my body need a little rest, I won’t have time to train hard these next few months. So, it’ll work out nicely. At least I hope so

Before I get into my new training plan, I realized that I haven’t really covered the idea of training cycles. Both running and strength/stability fitness. This is an important point. As each specific run has a purpose, so does each phase of a training cycle. What I’ve shared so far jumped in the middle of my recent cycle. Heavy speed and speed endurance work for the last few weeks before the taper for Boston. My training cycles are generally 10-16 weeks. This last one was lon