ISLAND BRIDGE RUNNER

I ended the last post talking about the race strategy planned for Australia, but I want to take a step back for a moment and mention just a bit about the trip to Perth. Boarding the plane in Cape Town, we entered the comfort of the chartered 757. All rows were business class seats. Drinks and snacks to grab on entry. So, a good amount of room to settle in. It was a good thing… since we’d basically be living there for the next five or six days. Since Ron was with me this was e

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

As with all races, I went into the start of the World Marathon Challenge with tiered goals. Treating it like any other event helped me mentally prepare. Even though this was clearly not your regular race. 7 marathons. 7 continents. 7 days. My A goal was to finish in under 24h cumulative time, my B goal to win and/or break the record. If I accomplished any of those things, I’d be super happy! Ecstatic, even. I didn’t really have a C goal. Finish. Best effort? That changed over

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.

A slight sidebar before I talk about my race at the 2019 Mobile Marathon. I am super stoked to announce that I have been selected to the Altra Red Team!! I’ve been running in Altras pretty much exclusively for over five years. (I did try a pair of Hokas for a couple of runs about a year ago). I am so happy to be representing a brand and company I really believe in. I am so thankful for this great opportunity, both to get more exposure as an athlete and to get to meet, virtual

Training Log December 31, 2018-January 6, 2019: 59.7 miles. Monday – 5.1mi @ 7:43. 4 miles of progression, with a mile cool down. Legs a bit heavy. Strength session. Tuesday – 6.3mi @ 8:56. Nice and easy. Legs still heavy, but no soreness (surprisingly!) from the weight session. Wednesday – Running rest day! Stability session. Thursday – 13.2mi @ 7:38. Goal here was 5 at half marathon pace (HMP) followed by 2 at 10K pace with warm up and cool down. HMP goal was 6:55, and I pu

Happy 2019!! I’m not typically one for New Year’s resolutions. They don’t seem to stick. Maybe because it’s an arbitrary time to start new habits. Maybe because I’m not quite ready to make a change. Or, maybe because I haven’t made realistic resolutions in the past. We all tend to make resolutions, or goals, for big changes. To get us to our ultimate goal. Run a marathon. Lose 20 lbs. Our end objective. And, that may be why many of us don’t stick with them. Smaller, obtainabl

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

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

Boston Qualifier. A time run on a certified marathon distance course under the qualifying time for your age and gender. Basically, your ticket to the most historic, and arguably, the most prestigious marathon in the world. At least that’s how it used to work. For the past few years, people who had a BQ, who met the qualifying standard, were not necessarily accepted into the big race. The Boston Athletic Association receives entries from anyone meeting the qualifying standard,

In my earlier posts, BC (before coaching), I always had a target pace for my runs. Or paces, depending on the workout. You may have noticed that since I’ve had a coach, I’ve not listed any target paces. This is not because I’m only putting what I run. It’s because my coach doesn’t usually give me target paces. I get target efforts. This is not an uncommon approach, especially for those in the ultra world. I mentioned the by-effort approach before, but a few of my past workout

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

This is a new mantra that came to me this week while running. Who says you can only have one mantra? That could get boring. And, some mantras are more targeted. Like this, “run for the boom”, isn’t really appropriate for getting me through an easy run. For a better explanation, let me give a bit of a backstory. I’ll start with some thoughts on being coached for the first time in 20+ years. I mean, there are pros and cons. A big pro is that I don’t have to think (or overthink)

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

This seems like a good point to talk about “carb loading”. Why? Well, I talked about what to eat, how to fuel, during a run. It’s a critical part of good running. Good meaning reaching goal times, and not feeling like you are going to die. I’ve also talked a about my thoughts on general nutrition. For runners, endurance runners in particular, there’s a third aspect to nutrition. Really. I’m not making this up just because I love food. Though, I do. We all know that distance r

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