Thanksgiving tempo run playlist

I am trying to figure out what music, if I run with music, to run with during my upcoming marathon. One of the ideas I came up with is throwing a bunch of my favorite CDs on a playlist and hitting shuffle. Here is how that list played out today: 

Fall Out Boy- Death Valley 

Fun-Carry on

Houndmouth-Say It

Fall out boy- Miss missing you 

Cold War kids-hotel anywhere 

Misterwives-our own house 

Cold War kids- Harold Bloom 

Houndmouth-Darlin 

Lake Street dive- use me up

Fun-Some nights(intro)

Foster the people-I would do anything for you 

The Academy is-Slow down 

Woolworthy-Vaporized

Taking Back Sunday-The Blue Channel 

Walk the moon-Jenny 

The Killers-somebody told me 

Taking Back Sunday-Head Club 

The Starting Line-Saddesr girl story 

Plain White Ts-shine 

Lucky boys confusion-Child's play

""-40/80

""-not about Debra 

Was the moon-tightrope 

Lake street dive-use me up 

The dog and everything-love is 

Taking back Sunday-cute without the E(cut from the team)

Bayside-tortures of the damn 

Fenix Tx-no lie 

Jimmy Eat World-Sweetness 

Houndmouth-My cousin Greg 

Woolworthy-Woolworthy stomp

What are some of your favorite songs to run to? How do you put playlist together 

Heard on my run

I went for a long run in Detroit and just let my iTunes do the rest. Most of the time I try and control what is playing even if I don't create a playlist. There were s lot of random tunes I might have changed, but it was fun to hear what was coming next.  Part or whole portions of these songs played over two hours: 

Nelly-Nasty Girl

2 Pac-2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted 

JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound-Rouse Yourself 

Lil Boosie-Bad bitch 

Andrew McMahon-Cecilia and the satellite 

Mest-R Ska Song 

Linkin Park- H! Vltg3

JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound-Ordinary 

YoungBloodz-Spending some change 

O.A.R.-About Mr. Brown 

Eric Hutchinson-Rock & Roll

Rooney-All or Nothing 

Pomeroy-Sir Duke 

Rooney-Simply Because 

Ben Folds-The Last Polka 

Lil Scrappy- Ei L.A.

311-Same Misrake Twice 

Kings of Leon-Notion

Clipse-All Eyes On Me 

Mest-Wasting My Time 

Simple Plan-My Alien 

Short Arm Trick-Wasting My Time

Jack's Mannequin-Hey Hey Hey

The Beastie Boys-Country Mike's Theme 

O-Town-Liquid Dreams 

Lloyd Banks-I get High 

Augustana-Stars and Boulevard 

Ok Go-Return

Catch 22-Straight Forward 

The Strokes-Games 

The Killers- Jenny was a friend of mine 

Rich Boy-Get poppin 

Fall Out Boy- Rat a Tat

Girl Talk- That's right 

Ok Go- What to do 

 

Lesson learned

I should set the scene for this blog post.

It started around 3:30 a.m. when I woke up to head to Nike Chicago downtown. I, along with a few others, got asked to do a small photo shoot. It sounded like a fun time and I jumped at the opportunity. Having never done of these ever, I had no idea what to expect. 

We left for the first location (Buckingham fountain/queens landing) and did some light running action shots. This seemed like it would be a fun low key day. The group also was enjoying the warm sunny day we were having. I could not predict what the combo of the sun, a good amount of running and little sleep would do to my legs. 

By the end of the day,  my legs were pretty tired. We did a pretty good amount of running. At a few of the locations we did some pretty fast runs. We were done around three, got coffee, and went our separate ways for the day. My body felt ok then, so instead of going home, I headed to Fleet Feet to drop my bags off and attempt to run this tempo. 

Once I arrived, the pre-run routine to get myself ready started. Things were looking good and I felt excited for the tempo. My legs even felt great during the warm-up mile I did. Maybe this was my body playing tricks on me? 

The answer to that question would be yes. The first two miles of the tempo run were great! Despite how great they felt, I felt an impending doom coming. Did that stop me from slowing down to the pace I actually should have been aiming for? Nope. I pretty much even predicted when this breakdown would come. 

Mile 2.5. The turn around point of my out and back tempo run. It is also the point where legs fell apart. Maybe, mentally I knew this turn would be tough because I gave it in to it way before it even came up. Either way, I still had half of my left to go. 

At the turnaround point my legs did their best to hang on. It also did not help that my stomach started acting up, my mouth got really dry and my Zoom Elites felt so heavy(definitely not the shoes fault). I stopped a couple of times after the turnaround to get water and hope my stomach would settle down. A public bathroom is not something I wanted to spend time in. My pace slowed a decent amount, but this run needed to get done. 

Eventually, my run ended. I felt pretty terrible. Typically some would think I might have been disappointed with it, but I laughed and I loved it. Those things came out of it because I knew I just learned a few lessons from it. Lessons learned from the run include:

-Stay at your prescribed pace even if the first few feel good at a fasteh.

-this counteracts the first point, but it is ok to take chances every so often. 

-It is not easy adjusting to the heat. If you have to carry water with you, do it! I ended buying a Nathan Speeddraw plus handheld and like it more than I thought I would. 

-Appreciate your runs. They may be a struggle, but things could be worse.

The best part about it all is that I got a great run in the next day. 

Ravenswood 5K timeline

I thought it would be fun to provide a timeline of how I got ready for this past Sunday's, Ravenswood 5K. These are not tips or guidelines, but just a little insight. I do not feel like I prepare for races in a way most runners do. My timeline will start with my Saturday night run. I lounged around for a large portion of the day on Saturday before I decided to actually run. 

Saturday 

6 p.m.-When I should have gone running/gotten a haircut. 

6:40-The time I actually leave my house to get a haircut/run in. I do not always get haircuts the day before races, but it needed to be done.

7:22-I finally started my run after getting my haircut and watching the end of the Bulls game.

Sometime after 8-My 6-mile run went great. I ran to a bar to watch the Hawks hopefully win in regulation. I had a beer and thankfully the Hawks won in regulation.

11:30ish- I head home to get ready for the race. 

Sunday

Midnight-I eat something because I am starving and do not like going to bed on empty stomach. Once I got one eating, I stretched and rolled out. It is not uncommon for me to stretch and roll out after coming home from a night out. 

12:45 a.m.-I figure I should find out what I am going to wear for this race. April weather in Chicago makes it really difficult to decide, so I picked out something, took a picture and got ready for bed.

Shirt-Nike Dri fit knit

Shorts-Saucony 

Shoes-new balance fresh foam Zante 

1 a.m.- Time to figure out where the race is. Once I got that figured out, I decided to run there(2.8 miles) as a warm-up. 

Sometime b/w 1 and 3 a.m.-I fall asleep. One of my bigger fears before a race is waking up too late and missing my race.

6 a.m.- I woke up and stayed in bed for quite some time. Setting the alarm at a time before I actually want to get up is a common practice for me. It gives me time to realize that I am up that early and eventually get out of bed to run.

6:20-Bathroom trip and then a shower. Showering before races is another thing that I do a lot. It wakes me up and gets me going a little. 

7:11-I finally leave the house and get going on my warm-up run. 

7:40-I find the Fleet Feet Racing team tent, realize I'm overdressed and change into a t-shirt and shorts. I get a briefly warm-up in and then head to the corrals.

8:01-Race time!

8:20ish- I get done with the race, say hello to a few people and go back to the tent. I wanted to use this race as a tempo run for my half-marathon training and felt good about my time. 

8:33-Start my cool down. After I finished that, I went to eat at a neighborhood place. 

I enjoyed writing this. I got the idea from Cass and Kristen over at aSweatLife.com. There are some good pieces on that site. (http://asweatlife.com) 

I hope you enjoyed reading this.

2014 Recap

This year flew by! It seems like I just wrote my 2014 goals a few weeks ago. Running wise I had a good year. Lets start off the new year by looking back at recap of my 2014 running year.

2014 Races

May 9-10: Cape Cod Ragnar 

I had a blast doing my first Ragnar with people I did not really know. The hills of Cape Cod were a killer. I did not know what to expect, but it is a tough, challenging and fun experience.

May 31:The Original 5K

My first 5K ever! Usually this is were a lot of people start, but I ended up going a different route. I did not know what to expect, but I wanted to run a good race. The gun went off and I ran as hard as I could and it felt really hard. I guess I did not expect a 5K to be difficult. It ended up being a good race and gave me the confidence fr the rest of the running season.

June 6-7: Chicago Ragnar 

This ended up being a challenging Ragnar for a few different reasons. The first reason it ended up being difficult is the heat. We were not prepared for it to be as hot it got and the first few legs were rough for all of us. The second reason it ended up being challenging is because I had a wedding to attend on Saturday afternoon! I am thankful the group ended up working with me to get me to that wedding on time so i could enjoy it;even if I were extremely tired.

Chicago Marathon

This is by far the race of the year for me. I changed my training program and went with the Hansons Marathon Method. The plan gave me a lot of confidence and despite my longest run being 16 miles, I felt extremely prepared for the race. Race day confirmed everything I thought and I felt great. I loved the program so much that I even convinced a few of my other friends doing marathons to use it. Not hitting the wall is a great feeling in a marathon. I am looking forward to my next challenge.

Thanksgiving Day: Evanston Flying Turkey 5K

Another 5K! I did this with a few of the students that I help coach at the high school I work for. This is definitely the coldest race I have ever done. Despite having a great running year up until this point, I had not really trained for anything since finishing the marathon. This is another race where I just ended up running as fast as I could and seeing how it goes;it went well! Things seemed like they would go wrong because my shoelaces came untied within the first few minutes of the race and I got really annoyed, but I had to keep moving. The race ended up with me finishing third in my age group.

2014 goals

Beating my race times from 2013

I accomplished this with my marathon this year.

2013-3:47:40
2013-3:15:12

Now I have a 5K PR-19:54

I did not do a half-marathon or 10-miler,so I will try to beat those times in 2015.

Run with others more often

My running community and friends definitely grew. I ran with others more, but this is something that could definitely improve. I did most of marathon training solo, but when I got a chance to run with others, it felt good.

Stay healthy 

This happened for the most part! When I say for the most part, I mean that nothing seriously went wrong that forced me to take time off.

More races

This kind of ended up happening with adding the Ragnar's and 5K's to my race calendar in 2014. This is also due how things are going financially and sometimes I could not justify paying for races when other things needed to be taken care of.

Read more blogs

I still need to be better about this. There is a lot to learn from others runners.

2014 total mileage: 1886

Donut Dash 2014 recap

Twitter can be really great if used correctly. One of those ways it can be great came through on Saturday, November 22 when a group of runners met up for Donut Dash 2014.  I found out about the potential event via fellow bibchatter, Cass. She tweeted out a survey that the organizers(Cass, Julie and Kristen) used to plan the event.

Donut Dash Route

Usually waking up early to run is difficult for me, but running for donuts and meeting a lot of new people excited me. It being a cold, windy and rainy morning also made it a struggle to get out of bed. However, I committed the event and did not want to let them down. The group met at Montgomery Park on Saturday outside of Pete's coffee.

There were definitely nerves because I did not know anyone except Cass and we had only interacted via twitter. I enjoyed meeting her and the other runners who decided to brave the misty morning. They had coffee for all the runners who showed up. I had a cup even though I do not consider myself a coffee drinker because I needed something to warm me up. The organizers had the group sign waivers, discussed the plan and split the group into two waves. I jumped into wave one and we headed off to our first stop, Firecakes.

Firecakes would the shortest distance to run to out of all the shops we would go to. Once wave one got to Firecakes, they gave us three options of donuts. I forgot the other options they gave us, but I got the Honey Glazed donut pictured below. The other donuts were on the small-ish side, but not the Honey Glazed donut. We took our time to eat our donuts and I believe it took me the longest of group one to finish mine. I finished my donut and we started our "long" three mile journey to Stan's in Wicker Park.

Honey Glazed donut from Firecakes 

Prior to the event taking place, I kept telling people how fun I believed the event would be. Most responded with an answer like, "Running after eating a donut sounds like asking for trouble." The donut after Firecakes definitely lingered a bit on the trip to Stan's. This is the only time I worried a little that there might be some issues. Fortunately we made it to Stan's with no issues and were pleased to hear we could choose any donut.

Those who know me well know how much I love peanut butter flavored products. Even some of the runners in wave one knew that my next choice would involve peanut butter;the peanut butter chocolate donut would be my choice. A fellow wave one runner and I decided to split the donut because of the fact it looked so rich and we had one more stop left. We ate our split donut and decided we made a wise choice. It tasted great and we moved on to our last location. Glazed and Infused.

Peanut Pocket(very left) from Stan's 

Glazed and Infused had a very nice set up for the group of runners participating in the donut dash. They put aside a few tables for us and had boxes filled with a variety of donuts. Once I saw the options available, I knew my choice immediately.

Red Velvet 

As seen from the picture above, I went with the Red Velvet option (I promise that the donut sitting on the napkin in the picture is not mine). The cream cheese frosting made the donut. Despite me saying that the second donut pictured is not mine, I did have half of another Red Velvet. There were extras and I took a few of the other options home.

The overall event was a big success in my opinion. I had a lot of fun and it seems like everyone involved did as well. Thank you to Cass, Julie and Kristen for all the work they did in organizing the event. I would also like to thank Stan's, Firecakes and Glazed and Infused for providing donuts for the group.

Marathon Recap

I did not know quite sure how to do this race recap, so I decided to write a timeline of the day and some thoughts I had during the race.

Timeline for the day

4 a.m.-I wake up(thankfully) and kind of lounge around. Races make me paranoid and I never get much sleep. My high school reunion had been the night before and some of my classmates were wondering why I had not been in bed. I knew my body and knew I would not be in bed before midnight regardless of what time I got to bed. 

4:30 a.m.- I figured it would be ok to eat a Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich. I also had a 12 oz. glass of water. It would not be fun if I had to end up in the bathroom for either reason, so I ate and drank lightly. 

4:45 a.m.-Took a trip to the bathroom and showered. A shower always wakes me up a little, so I do it before every race. 

5:20 ish a.m.-Finally headed out to join the masses. It is time to get pumped up! 

6:30 a.m.- I finally arrived at Roosevelt College for the Chicago Endurance Sports (CES) Race Resort. It kind of felt a little overwhelming, so I made sure to use the bathroom and calm myself down a little. I got my warm-up in, chatted a little and checked my bags. Despite me saying it felt a little overwhelming, I highly recommend CES and the Race Resort. It felt awesome to not have to worry about using gear check at the marathon. 

7 a.m.- I finally left the race resort to head to corral D. In retrospect, this should have happened probably 15 minutes earlier, but I wanted to be on my own scheduled and not feel pressured. Either way, I got to my corral around 7:15 after waiting in a couple of long lines. It seems like they heightened security a little this year and that is fine with me. During the week, I had thoughts about sneaking into corral B because that corral fit my goal time. I ended up in corral D because at the time, who knew how well training would go and my predicted finish time matched that corral. I made the executive decision to stay in D because with the strict corral checks, it probably would not have happened anyways. 

7:20-I ran into a co-worker and we chatted about our goals. Being this far back worried me a little. I had questions like, Would I reach my goal? Should I try and catch the pace group in corral B? What if I get out too fast and kill chances of hitting my goal? Eventually, all those questions did not matter and I just had to do my best. 

7:38-This is slightly earlier than I anticipated;here we go! We are not even a mile into it and I am thinking, "I am running to slow." Trust the plan, I told myself. 18 weeks of training should not go to waste because you did not race smart. 

Somewhere between the start and 5k mark (8:02 a.m.)-The weaving in and around people drove me crazy. I hit the 5k mark with a time of 23:37 and trying to do the math in my head, I thought I had been around two minutes behind my goal pace. My split sheet says I had a pace of 7:36 at the time. 

8:25 a.m.-This, the 10k mark, is where I finally started to settle in a little bit and gain some space around me. Things felt smooth and the first GU Roctane just got eaten. My pace also picked up a little (to 7:30) between the 5K and 10k marks. It had not been enough to scare me, so I tried to to stay there for the next few miles. 

15k-7:24 pace

20k-7:29 pace

9:16 a.m.(13.1)-My second GU Roctane of the day just got eaten and I felt a little too good and my pace spiked up big time (7:29 to 7:07)!;oops. Time to slow it down and make sure my legs are good for the rest of this second half.  I hit the halfway point at 1:37:59;perfect! The remainder of the race got spent trying to do math in my head. 

Sometime after 25K-This is where things started to look like I could hit my goal. Now, I just had to mentally tell myself to race smart. I knew if I could make it to 18 and get my third GU in, I would start to feel even better about hitting my goal. Things were going well and that made me very happy. 

20 mile mark- The cramps always came shortly after this mile marker and that definitely made me nervous. I told myself, "Get to mile marker 23, take your GU, and things will be just fine." I just had to take things one mile at a time and not get too anxious or down. They always say running is largely mental and I made sure to make sure that my brain stuck with me. 

10:44 a.m.-10:53 a.m.(35K or 24.854 miles)-My final kick begin at 24 and gave it all I had on this stretch of 2.2 miles. I slowly started to gain speed and geared up to hit Roosevelt "hill". I put my head down and did not look up until got over it and turned on to the stretch run. It felt so good to see that finish line. At this point, my goal had been reached, but I had a chance to get it under 3:15 and I tried to pick it up a little;did not quite get there. It did not matter, because I felt great! My final time ended up being 3:15:12!

Looking back at this, it made realize that my hydrating plan is not mentioned. Going into things, I knew I would have a GU at miles 6, 12, 18 and one other time after that. The Hansons Marathon method plan emphasizes getting electrolytes and sugar in you when you are not taking GU and I did just that. While at each station (where I did not take a GU), I made sure to get one or two gatorade cups based on how filled they were. I had the same strategy when I took water and it seemed to work out really well. 

What is next?

I do not really know! The Hansons maraton method program gave me a lot of confidence during this training cycle and I will definitely use it again while training for whatever race is next. Qualifying for Boston may be next on the list, but I need to build a base and do a little strength training first. 

Hard work does pay off. If you want something, go out and get it. When I signed up for this in April, I did not know a 3:15 marathon would be possible, but I got there. It is possible to make time for a social life and training;a commitment just needs to made to both. Thanks for reading! 

Mid-year Review

It is hard to imagine, but we are halfway through the year already. Somehow, despite that rough winter, time did not slow down.  I thought it would be fun to take a quick look at some of my goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the year. Here we go:

Run more races/beat my goal times from last year

This is a tough one because it all depends on how I am doing financially. I have lucky enough to participate in two Ragnars (Cape Cod and Chicago) and run the Original 5K. Hopefully things are good for me and I will be able to run the B1G 10k and Rock 'N' Roll Chicago. The B1G 10k looks like a fun race and RNR is one of my favorite half-marathons because of the course and the after party. Training plans also make it difficult to run races. I am keeping my eye on the prize; the Chicago Marathon in October.

The goal times coincides with having money to do races. Rock 'N' Roll and the Chicago Marathon are the only races that I have a chance to beat. Maybe there will be some new races on the calendar for me where I can set new goals to bet.

Run with people more

I would say this goal has been accomplished. The majority of my runs have been solo, but more than once, I have had friends accompany on a long run or a speed workout. It also helped that I worked out a lot with the track team that I helped coach. Running with others mixes things up and keeps you motivated. It also challenges you in ways that makes reaching your goals attainable. This is something that will I keep pursuing.

Staying healthy

So far, so good on this end. There have been minor issues, but nothing that has kept me out of training. Stretching, recovery runs and my addaday stick have been my best friends so far. I set a goal of running at least 1,000 miles and it looks like that will happen easily. Currently, I am at 740 miles! Marathon training will get me over that easily. I will keep doing the things necessary to get to 1,000 and above.

Sidenote: I forgot the six weeks I had to take off after the marathon with a bruised kneecap. My knee connected with something at work and walking hurt for eight weeks; it hurt to straighten my knee out! Thankfully, that is the worst thing that has happened to me so far.

Read more blogs

I am working on this! I am thankful that I can connect with others through outlets like #bibchat and #runchat. It is always fun to hear from others and hear how their training is going.

How are your goals looking so far?