I'm Packed!

Whew!  Packing can be checked off of the list!  Here's what I've got.  I plan to start out in my black New Balance shorts, turquoise Champion top, pink tie-dye Zensah calf sleeves, and white Thorlo Experia socks.  With the exception of the shorts, that's almost a complete redo of last year's starting outfit.

I've got two more bags of back-up outfits in case something gets too sweaty or gross.  Each bag has shorts, a top, and a fresh pair of Experia socks.

Lastly, I've got a final bag of back-ups for the back-ups!  Two more pairs of shorts, three pairs of socks (including the oh-so-cute argyle Zensah compression socks), and my blue tie-dye Zensah calf sleeves.

Next up is a ZipLock with some extra small towels because you can never have too many dew-rags (as Dave and I like to call 'em).  I might not need them all, but it's nice to have extras for teammates who might.  I'll be keeping one small towel and a bigger beach towel in a tote bag because I know I'll need those.

I can't imagine that I'd need them, but I'm bringing a second pair of sneakers just in case!  There's be nothing worse than having to run in soaking wet squishy sneakers!

My Crazy Mind

I would not consider myself to be a hypocondriac, but last night, that's exactly what mode my brain was in until I fell asleep.  I had a stomach ache.  No big deal.  It's not like I was doubled-over in pain, and stomach aches happen from time to time.

However, my crazy mind starting working overtime and quickly went to the "oh my gosh, it's appendicitis" thought!  Normal people would probably dismiss the thought, but not me!  My mind starts running through all of the options, including telling Dave to take me to the new hospital in Tradition, explaining to the doctor that I've got my race on Saturday and I have to be there, and reminding myself to bring the team captain's phone number in case I need to call him & say "I have appendicitis."  Yes, these really were my thoughts.

At some point, my brain (luckily) shut off, I went to sleep, and the stomach ache went away.  Apparently, I didn't have appendicitis.  Imagine that!

 

My Plan For Today...

...was to pack at least my running clothes.  (You know I'm a big fan of sectioning things into ZipLock bags.)

Do you want to know how much packing I got done today?  In the words of Dave's grandpa: zip, zero, zilch!  Ugggh!  So much to do tomorrow!!!!  Time's totally slipping away.

I Got the Pictures!!!!!

Woo hoo!  Thanks, Dad!  Mission accomplished!  

What I can't quite figure out is why Grandma looks miserable holding the bottle of Dr. L.  Seriously, who's upset when holding a bottle of wine?!  Dr. L is damn yummi Riesling too.  Maybe the bottle's empty, and she's sad that it's all gone.  (Good thing wine.com is delivering Grandma's Dr. L tomorrow.)

At least she looks happier here with her Bad-Ass Grandma sign!

Ok, is she not the cutest Grandma ever?!  Love her, love her, love her!  This is one of the many reasons why Grandma's the only person who gets phone calls on relay days!

Weather Update

The forecast has changed a bit from the last time I posted an update for the blog-o-sphere.

Key Largo weather:

Marathon weather:

Key West weather:

Windy weather is not my thing, but partly cloudy weather is!  If the wind stays as being out of the NE, it might not be that bad!  Fingers crossed.

Finally! Some Good Speedwork!

It had been a few weeks since I felt like my speedwork at the gym was good.  In fact, the last 2 or 3 times actually had me working harder and going slower.  (Let's clarify, though, we're talking 9.3 mph vs. 9.6 mph.  I know, I know.  That's still crazy fast, but if I could do 9.6 mph for some half-mile increments and handle it weeks ago, why would I seemingly go backwards and feel as though I had to put more effort in just to get to 9.3 mph?!)  Something wasn't right.

During Monday's visit with Dr. D'Amico, we talked about that.  His conclusion was that I wasn't giving myself enough of a recovery period in between those half-mile increments.  Here's what I was doing (prior to today): walk for 0.20 miles, run at a reasonable pace (8 minutes per mile) to get up to 1.0 miles, jack up the speed to whatever I could do (nine-point-something mph) for a half mile, bring the pace back down to a brisk walk (4-ish mph) for 0.20 miles, and then repeat over & over until about the 6 mile mark where I'd then walk one last time for about 0.20 miles and then run at about a 7:30 pace (which is 8 mph in case you're wondering) to get me up to a nice, round distance where I'd stop.

Let's back up a bit for some perspective.  Running at 9.3 mph is a pace of 6:27 according to Runner's World pace converter and 9.6 mph is a pace of 6:15.  I get that we're not talking a huuuuuuuuuuuuge difference; but to me, it mattered (and still matters).

What Dr. D'Amico suggested was to walk (although I use that term loosely since most people don't walk at 4 mph) for 5 minutes.  I'll be honest, I tried.  I really, really did.  But 5 minutes of that is just, well, slow & boring!  I definitely gave myself more time in between bouts of "run like a bat out of hell," but it was probably more like 3 or 4 minutes (at the most).

Maybe it was the extra time in between to recover; maybe it was the awesome stretch that I had on Monday.  Whatever it was, today was the first speedwork day in a while that my reply to Dave when he asked how it was was (literally) "awesome!"

    
Oh, and when you've got to put tape on your phone to hold the cord of your ear buds a certain way so they work, it's time to get a new set of ear buds.  Yes, this (below) is a picture of what I had to do this morning at the gym to get everything to work.  Embarrassing!

I should've taken a picture of this with the cord.  However, years of gymnastics & ballet must not have made me well-coordinated because I dropped the phone (but held on to the cord) as I was getting out of the car.  The laws of physics won: the cord ripped out of the tape and stayed in my hand; the phone went straight to the ground.

For Your Musical Enjoyment: Cake - "The Distance"

Cake's song, "The Distance," is in my iTunes collection and is always good to hear on a run!  Give it a whirl!

Although I've Thought About It...

...I have not packed or done any food shopping yet.  This is beginning to stress me out!

My plan tomorrow is to hit the gym early, get some speedwork in, go for a haircut (yes, I'm getting a pre-race haircut), hit BJ's since I'm already up that way, get home, sneak in another run, shower, and start work by noon.  Is it do-able?  I think so!

Go-Time is 5:50am on Saturday!

Yes, you read that correctly!  The race for team R2R Team 8 Flightsuit Fanatics starts at 5:50am!

Those of you who know me know that's damn early, but I'll make it happen!  Hey, the guys at our marina tell me I'm showing up early if I make it there before noon.  This will really show 'em, won't it?!

This year, the race is starting in waves rather than an all-at-once, shotgun-type start.  Here's the logic/rationale according to the Keys100 website: "The 100 mile team relay race will start at 5:45 AM with elite teams (those expecting to finish under 12 hours).  Subsequent waves of 25 will begin at 5-minute intervals thereafter.  The starting order will be based upon registration date: the earlier the team registered, the earlier will be their starting time."

You probably noticed that we're not starting at 5:45am.  Hence, we are not an "elite team."  That's ok; our plan is still to go out there & kick some major ass!

So Excited that I Could Not Sleep!

I woke up at about 2am and could not get back to sleep because I started thinking about all of the stuff still left to do for the race and about the actual race itself.  That got me so excited that I don't think I got back to sleep until almost 4am!

Believe it or not, one of the things I was going over in my head was what food to bring.  Pickle juice, orange juice, some yogurts, Belvitas, and bananas are on the list.  But what else?  I'd love to bring some brown rice or some oatmeal, but how could I heat it up?  While I'm not against eating stuff cold, I don't know if cold (or even room temperature) rice or oatmeal sounds inviting.

Like last year, we'll be making a stop at the Robert is Here fruit stand in Florida City to stock up on some nice fresh fruit!

Oh, clementines would be wonderful!  Are they even in-season any more?  The fact that they're easily peelable and not messy make them the perfect race/van food!

Best Stretch Ever!

You may (or may not) know that I have an amazing chiropractor/sports medicine doctor who I've been seeing since last July when I got injured.  Dr. John D'Amico is at Papa Chiropractic in Port St. Lucie.  He used to travel with the Philadelphia Flyers and work on the NHL players, so he really knows his stuff!

Due to the craziness that has been my life, it had been about two weeks (and maybe a bit more) since I had last seen Dr. D'Amico, and my legs were letting me know that it was time for a good stretch.

I had probably one of the the best sessions with Dr. D'Amico today.  Part of it was a minimum of 72.5 miles (if not a bit more) being done since I last saw him and the other part, like I said, is that he really knows his stuff!  I walked in with tired, sore, and just spent muscles; I walked out feeling like a million bucks & seriously considering sneaking in an evening run (which I have since decided to not do).

Tomorrow's a rest day, Wednesday will be speedwork at the gym and one final visit to Dr. D'Amico before Saturday's big race.  He'll give me the once-over on Wednesday afternoon to get me loose as a goose and ready for the relay!

My Dad's Task

I've tasked my dad with getting the pictures of Grandma with her Dr. L and the "Bad Ass Grandma" sign.  We'll see how he does!

He feels pretty confident that he can get the pictures.  I told him to accept no excuses from her as to why she's not "picture ready" and to guilt her into it if necessary.  Yeah, I'm playing that card!

Two Pictures I Want to Get

Grandma gets her wine.com delivery on Thursday.  I really want to get a picture of her either with the bottle of Dr. L or with a glass of her "modified mimosa."

Another thing I really should have done, but I think it's too late now, is to get her a Bad-Ass Grandma shirt made up to wear on race day!  (If you have no idea about the Bad-Ass Grandma, check out this past blog post from my Ragnar blog.)

If You Can Believe It...

I actually did not run over the weekend.  Yup, you read that right.  No running for me on Saturday and Sunday!

Sunday's always a rest day, but Saturday never is.  However, after my three days in a row of running, the thought of having a fourth day made me question if that was a good idea.  Being this close to the race and risking something dumb happening (like another stress fracture) is really stupid.  As I've said in a past post, my muscles & bones really do like (and need) rest days, so I took 2 of 'em!

My original plan was to be up at 5, have my hour of "get ready" time, and then start my run by 6.  If you've noticed the time stamp on this post, it's already after 6.  Needless to say, I did not get up at 5.  To be honest, I really didn't want to roll out of bed at 6 either.  However, if I didn't get up then, I would've been getting up at about 7, and that would mean my run wouldn't start until 8.  The sun's already pretty high at 8, and if I really do want a long-ish run today, starting at 8 is not really the best idea.

So last Monday, if I was not in St. Louis, would've been 18 miles.  Today will not (well, probably will not) be 18 miles.  Why?  When training for an event like a half or full marathon, in the 2-3 weeks leading up to the race, runners taper their mileage.  Now, if you know me, you probably know that balls-to-the-wall is more my style than tapering.  However, I followed Bryan Graham's training plan for my half marathon, and it included 3 weeks of tapering.  His plan worked really well for me, so while I wouldn't say I like tapering, I certainly do "get it."  Dave and I were talking last night about how many miles I should do today, and his first suggestion was, "Call Bryan."  Yeah, Dave knows that I need to be reined back in on plenty of occasions!

Some Interesting Race Facts

Got an email today from Bob Becker, the race director, with lots of good pre-race info.  On the website is a link to a list of the 2014 competitors, and there are a lot of them!  It got me wondering about exactly how many participants there are in each category, so I emailed to ask.  Here's what I found out!  (These are rounded approximations as per Mr. Becker's response.)

• 160 individual 100-miler racers
• 150 individual 50-miler racers
• 120 relay teams of which 22 are military teams (meaning 4 or more members are active military) 

I've got my hat tipped in awe to the 300+ runners who are tackling 50 or 100 miles by themselves!

On Thursday...

On Thursday, Grandma will be getting a wine.com delivery so she can stay hydrated for the run!

I have got to get a picture of her with the Dr. L!

The Plan

Next Saturday's plan is for me to have only one run in the morning prior to my 7 Mile Bridge time.  This year's Keys100 is a bit more "structured" in the legs, distances, and transition points; I'm still trying to figure out if that's a good thing.  Anyway, my first run will be leg #7 and begins at MM (mile marker) 71.5 which is right after the Channel 5 bridge.  I'll get in a (hopefully) quick 3.4 miles and then hand off to the next runner at MM 68.1.  After that, I rest for about 21 miles.

At MM47.0, I start what will probably be the toughest leg of the relay: the 7 Mile Bridge!  There will be a 7.3 mile stretch for me to conquer before handing off the slap bracelet.  At that point, I'll rest again and will get worked back into the rotation whenever I'm ready!

Semi-interesting note: during my last run yesterday, I left the house saying I'd force myself to stick to an 8 minute pace.  That didn't happen for more than the first 3-4 minutes, but my overall pace of 7:45 for the 3 miles (in the heat & sun) was actually comfortable.  I know, I know...that's a different sense of "comfortable" than what most people have.

Let me be the first to make some goal statements about my 7 Mile Bridge run.  Keep in mind that weather will play a big role in this and which one ends up happening. 

• Level 1: Average pace of 9 minutes or less.
• Level 2: Average pace of 8:30 or less.
• Level 3: Average pace of 8 minutes or less.
• Level 4: Average pace of 7:45 or less.

Truthfully, I think it's going to end up being level 2 or level 3.  Level 4 is a pretty good pace to have, and at that time of day, if the sun's out in full effect, that pace might just not be doable for me.

The Weather's Lookin' Good!

Check out the weather forecasts!  We're still a week away from the race, but at least the forecast is looking pretty good!

Key Largo weather:

Marathon weather:

Key West weather:

 

3 Days + 6 Runs = Tired Legs

I'm now beginning to think (or maybe I need to change that & say "know") that running on what should have been my rest day, Thursday, was probably not a good idea.  My legs are very tired.

Let's recap: Wednesday was 6.5 miles of speedwork on the treadmill, Thursday was a double run day of 2 miles each, and today was a triple run day of 3 miles, 2 miles, and 3 more miles.  By now you probably know that those runs (other than the speedwork) are being done outside in the sun & heat.

Tomorrow should be another run day.  Oh, did you pick up on that?  It should be a run day.  In fact, it should be some bridge work because it's been more than a week since I've run bridges.  I'll be honest, though; I don't know if I have it in me.  Right about now, all I want to do is cuddle with Dave, catch up on all of the TV that I've missed, and sleep.  Man, I sound like a whole ball of fun, don't I?!

I Have a Confession to Make

Forgive me, blog-o-sphere, for I have sinned.  Today should have been a rest day, but I did not rest; I ran.  Not only did I run, but I ran twice.  Yes, twice.

Don't worry, both runs were short (2.01 miles each according to RunKeeper). Despite telling myself that I'd keep it semi-easy at aim for a 7:30 pace, my runs were at 7:05 and 7:13 (respectively).  It was quite sunny & hot this afternoon at 5pm-ish when I ran, so the 7:13 pace was not easy.  (To be honest, the 7:05 pace this morning wasn't easy either.  Haha!)

Tomorrow's not a rest day, and I don't intend to swap today for tomorrow.  Does that make any sense?  I'm kind of confusing myself trying to figure that out.  Anyway, I hope to get back to a 3-run day tomorrow and get in somewhere between 6 and 9 miles.  We'll see if that plan comes to fruition.

9 Days to Go!

Just 9 more days until Kim's Keys100 Adventure Part 2 kicks off!  Can I get a "woo hoo" from the crowd?!

It's 3:47am.  My rule used to be that you had to wait until 4am to run because, let's face it, if you're running outside before that time, you look a little suspicious.  At 3:59am, you'd look like a thief; at 4:01am, you'd look like a fitness fanatic.  At least that's the way it is in my mind.  

Other than my crazy 8-mile middle-of-the-night Ragnar run in February, I haven't done much night running, and I don't plan to do that now.  With my luck, I'd do something dumb in the dark like twist an ankle, and end up on crutches this close to the race.  Uhhhhh, no!  Crutches aren't a good look on me.

Although I haven't yet seen this, I think it is time to go back to bed!

Until later, world!

Hello from St. Louis!

I'm in the mid-west!  Let me catch you up on all things St. Louis.

I've been here since Sunday afternoon for the USDLA conference and thought I should update you on my running.  Conferences always put a crimp in workout time, and knowing that Mondays are always my long run days (because I don't have to start work until noon), I knew this Monday would be a challenge.  You might recall that last week I set a new one-day non-stop record with 17 miles.  Had I been home on Monday of this week, I would've been shooting for 18 miles without stopping.  Well, I wasn't home, and I didn't get my 18 miles in.  However, I'm proud to say that I did get in 16 miles on Monday...but not in one shot.  

The 2.9 miles came from a 6am group run that's a tradition at the conference.  It was fun but was more of a social gathering than a true "run" for me.  I hope I wasn't rude, but when we got back from the run, I hung around for a few minutes, chit-chatted, and then said "goodbye" so I could go out & get a few more miles in at a more "me" pace.  That was the 3.1 mile segment.  Alright, 6 miles done before breakfast; not bad, but I'm not done yet!  Sessions got over at 4pm, and nothing was really on the schedule until 7pm, so I figured I could get in a good 6, 7, or 8 more miles.  Check out this snapshot of the afternoon weather in St. Louis on Monday.

I know, I know...hot & sunny.  I should be in "heaven," right?!  Well, I did 6.5 miles, walked a bit, and then did 3.5 more to get up to 10.  Got 16 miles done that day over the course of 4 runs.  Not too shabby.

Today, Tuesday, was a "no run" day.  I don't particularly like those days, but I know my muscles & bones do.  It's important to have rest days, even if I'd rather be doing something active.  In the sense of full disclosure, though, we did walk a lot at the St. Louis zoo and to dinner at Pappy's Smokehouse.  Speaking of dinner, enjoy this small slice of food porn.

Yum!  Pulled pork, a vinegar-based slaw, and some delish potato salad.  The slaw was so-so, but the rest of it was super!

So the plan for tomorrow is to hit the hotel gym early, get some speedwork done, attend a few conference sessions, head home, and get another run in once I get settled.  It won't be a 3-run day tomorrow, but maybe I'll make up for that on Friday.  We'll see...

This Week...

This week pretty much sucked for a myriad of reasons, but I tried to keep my running up.  Monday was 17 miles; that's the longest I've done in one time without stopping.  (For the record, I've run more during last year's Keys100 relay, but that was (obviously) with breaks in between.)  Wednesday I ran three times for a total of 7.5 miles, and Friday I was able to get in another 7.5 miles over the course of three runs.  (They were terrible, but that's not the point; they got done.)  Today I only got two runs in, but the first one was speedwork at the gym on the treadmill.  Total for today was 8.25 miles (6.25 at the gym and a quick 2 miles here in the 'hood before dinner).  

Are you doing the math?  I sure as heck did!  Even rounding today's mileage down to 8 (because I really do like nice, round numbers), I logged 40 miles this week!  Holy shit!

Joan, that crown is for you!

For those of you who are about to start shouting that I'm violating the number 1 rule of running and increasing mileage week to week, I hear ya.  Trust me, I'm pretty good with math and know this was more than 10% above last week's total.  I didn't necessarily set out to do 40 miles this week; it sort of just happened.  This upcoming week will probably be nowhere near this; I've got a conference in St. Louis, and conferences aren't conducive to 2+ hour long runs.  I'm actually sad because my Monday long run is something I really do look forward to.  Perhaps I can rearrange my runs this week.  We'll see.

Are you up for some early 90s cheesiness of the musical variety?  This is one of my iTunes downloads.  Yes, I'm not scared to admit that I paid for this song.