Tee hee hee

16

An Uphill Battle

Well Lori... I won't be running the Winter Training 10 miler again for you anytime soon! But thanks! Considering all truth I needed it- so far 10 miles is as far as I have gone this training :) I quite enjoyed myself for three reasons (1)It was a crisp morning for a run- minus the roads were extremely slick (2) I was entertained by the other runs- you can ask Amanda I enjoyed making fun of running styles for awhile (3)I WAS ABLE TO KEEP UP WITH AMANDA UNTIL MILE 8 1/2 then her tubo legs kicked into gear and I said "peace sista" but by that point in time I had made good friends with a old man and we kicked it together at a 9 minute pace. To be perfectly honest I didn't mind even coming in 3 minutes over! My legs were dying but I am just excited to be training again... I rather enjoy my love hate relationship with this sport, and overall my minute to minute time is improving so I can't complain.

P.S WHY in the 'LL are we running 2x20 milers...no one told me this! I want to speak with the management!

Training Plan

Hey E!

So, I figured since you asked...ummm, over two weeks ago... to post our training plan, I'd actually get around to it.


Monday's: Cross Train (we usually do cardio and weight training)
Tuesday's: Speed Training or Hills
Wednesday's: OFF
Thursday's: Tempo Run
Friday's: Cross Train
Saturday's: Long Run


Speed Training: (you know the drill on these)
intervals (400, 800) and fartlicks...
Hills:
Amanda has a great hill program. Start with a mile warm-up. Then sprint up the hill, walk down, do this 4 times. THEN (and this is when you start to cry) your first set begins. It looks like this:

• sprint up the hill facing forward, walk down (4 times)
• sprint up the hill facing backwards, walk down (4 times)
• sprint up the hill on your left side (grapevine) (4 times)
• spring up the hill on your right side (grapevine) (4 times)

lather, rinse, repeat (i think the max we've done was 3 times) and then technically you're supposed to do a mile cool down... also depends on your time.

Tempo Run:
Amanda and I still struggle with doing tempo runs outside because we're still learning to listen to our bodies where pace is concerned. But, since you have your uber-awesome GPS watch you might be able to take this workout outside. However, this is how we do it. (or how it SHOULD be done... we've been sick so I don't think we've actually done a complete tempo run workout yet) We do this on a treadmill, so we know the exact pace we're going and it pushes us to continue....

Mile 1- warm up at a 9 min/mile or 10 min/mile pace
Mile 2 - run a mile at 8 min/mile pace
Mile 3 - run a mile (or usually 4 minutes...haha...) at 7:30 min/mile
Mile 4 - run a 9 min mile
Cool down

Long Runs:

This is the schedule of long runs until the Ogden Marathon.

• March 22 - 15 miles (ogden)
• March 29 - 17 miles (valley)
• April 5 - WRC Half Marathon
• April 12 - 20 miles (ogden?)
• April 19 - 16 miles (valley)
• April 26 - 20 miles (your house? provo?)
• May 3 - 16 miles (valley)
• May 10 - 10 miles (ogden)
• May 17 - Marathon

Hope that helps, friend!

WRC 10 Miles from HELL

Really. Not kidding. Sometimes I wonder if they realize that the majority of the marathon is DOWNHILL. I mean really. Is there any reason to make us run uphill for 3/4 of the race? I'm up for a hill or two every now and again, but when it's hill after hill after hill, by legs eventually decide they are done no matter what my mind thinks! The morning was a really pretty morning for a run though. It was chilly, and it had snowed over night, but the sun was poking its head over the mountains and it was beautiful. I forgot my gloves (curses!) so I ran with my hands in my sleeves most of the way. Erin and I made a goal to be finished in 1:40 so off we went. The first few miles went well and we were on pace until we hit the never ending stream of hills. My legs were SCREAMING. All I have to say is that all of this hill training had better help with the end outcome! Once we hit Shadow Valley and started going down hill more I began to get my second wind. Then once I hit the 8 mile mark I was feeling good and motivated to finish so off I went. It still amazes me that once I get to the end of a race I get all anxious and have a need push it to the end. Its like my legs know that the faster I get to the end, the faster they can stop. ;) So I pushed it hard (well until the next hill) and finished at 1:40:03. So I was at least glad that I'd finished in my goal time. It was fun to run with Erin in a race again! It's been too long! I'm excited to be done running all these uphill races though! My new shoes did help out immensely. Something about having cushioning.... :D

Portland: Through my BB eyes and my Brooks feet

Well, thanks to your encouragement and Van's long talk with the front desk manager (no joke) I was sufficiently convinced that I wasn't going to be murdered, raped, kidnapped, mugged, slashed, molested or shot while running in downtown Portland at 7am (but, word to the wise, don't go running solo in north east portland on the OTHER side of the Willamette.... the above mentioned just might happen.... hello West Valley! ;) So....this might be a lengthy post, just tuck yourself into your comfy work chair (yes, amanda, you're at work...."working") and the classroom chair (umm...pretty sure you're supposed to be paying attention to the professor right now Erin....) and get ready for my super duper uber awesome running adventure.

I rolled out of bed (finally) at 6:45am. I had been awake since 6:10 but the bed was so comfy and puffy that it took all I had to convince myself that I really needed to get a long run in. So, I finally got down and outside about 7:20. I was GORGEOUS. I ran downtown for about a mile and a half until the parkway. It was a pretty downtown run. Most of their streets are awesome like this and have bricks... cool eh? I was just running along checking things out when I spotted THIS:

and made a mental note: TELL VAN. Which I did, but unfortunately we never made it back. Drat! And now I'm back home so there is no longer the "i'm on vacation" excuse for having such DEEEVINE ice cream. Sad.....

The run continued until I got to the Parkway. It runs right along the Willamette River. What a pretty place. And ps? the elevation change from Utah? HOLY FREAKING COW....sign me up! My lungs were totally diggin' the extra O2. I say we sign up for a marathon at sea level. We'd kick some serious butt. :) Here's the parkway...... I was immediately put at ease by the massive amount of runners/walkers/bikers/dog-walkers there were along the path. I knew that I would be safe for the next 2-4 miles. Whew. What was really cool was there was a "blind team in training" running along the pathway. I've never had the opportunity to see how that works. They run with one runner who can see and they direct them with their steps and voice. It was pretty cool to watch.

The walkway was GORGEOUS. I'm sure these miles took forever because I kept stopping to take pictures. There are 5 or 6 major bridges that go over the Willamette river. I've always been a fan, but man it was sooooo pretty being able to see them all just intertwined, almost artistic. Sigh. (I was cursing and kicking myself for not bringing my ACTUAL camera... silly Lori)

So, then came the funny/scary part of my run. I thought I had been pretty good about not freaking out. I had run the entire south end of the parkway and turned around and gone northbound. Well, the farther north you got the shadier the parkway became. I just noticed little things like...under each underpass there were peeps dealing drugs or just in the general not looking like a crowd I'd stop and ask directions for. It heightened when I ran under the next bridge. Apparently, this was the make shift apartment complex for all of Portland's homeless. Yaaaaah. I kinda tripped out in my mind. I was running in nice clothes and had my little ipod on.... and at this point the runners had sifted down to a runner every 1/4 of a mile or so... so I wasn't surrounded by numbers. I ran through there acting like I totally wasn't affected (hahahaha...yah, right) and kept running. Well, as I was running I kept thinking "I have to run back under that bridge to get back... what do I do?" and I looked around and realized that I was in "Chinatown" yaaah...smoooooth Lori. So, I kept jogging and kinda slowed down and waited for more runners to just pop out of the woodworks. Strength in numbers, right? Well... I had started running again and a man-runner ran past me, so I did a nice little u-turn and followed him. Apparently, I had on my "scary Lori" face that day....or the guy was gay and afraid of me...who knows.... he looked back at me when I started to follow him like I was a serial killer. He started SPRINTING! All I wanted was someone to run under that bridge with! So, I sprinted after him. Tee hee.... ohhhh.... poor guy. Yup, we made it under the bridge together and about 1 minute after we cleared the bridge I had to stop cause I was laughing so hard. Little did he know that I was the most non-scary-runner ever to run that parkway. Ooooh... fun fun. (that's the best pic i could get of him cause we were SPRINTING... see the bridge underpass coming up? That's it!)

It was about this point that I got REALLY HOT! (whether it was the 3 minute sprint or the amazing Oregon weather....) I stripped down to my cute new Nike tank. ;) Peeps were looking at me like I was nuts. They had hoodies, gloves, jackets, etc.... umm... obviously they never trained in sub-zero weather. It felt AWESOME. After the parkway, I ran back up through downtown to get back to my hotel. I'll spare you the details, but I got a little lost. It started with "ooooh I should get a picture of ______ for Amanda" so I tried to find it and uhhhh.... then my adventure started. :) Nonetheless, I knew what street my hotel was on, so even though I went 6 blocks too far south and 3 blocks too far east I eventually found it. Here are some highlights from the rest of the run.....

Niketown and a really cool park.... can't remember the name....

Their "world trade center" in Portland. The main financial hub of downtown. It's a gorgeous building!!

Me in Pioneer Courthouse Plaza really excited... cause I recognized it! It meant I wasn't totally lost anymore!! Wahoo!!!

YAY! The hotel!! I had to run up 5 blocks of uphill to get there and you know what? I didn't even feel bad. Seriously, sign me up for some bottled Portland Potion..... I LOVE IT HERE!

I was so energized by that awesome run that I didn't even care that I still had to run 2 miles in the sweatroom. (and yes, you can see by my lovely forehead that it is--in fact--and appropriately so-- the sweat room)

It was an awesome 8 miles. I would run it again in a heart beat. It made me all excited about the day that Van and I live in Oregon. My lungs with LOVE it here. The only thing that would have made this run any better was if I could have run it with you two..... allll together now....

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

how was the 10 miler?

sound bite

on my portland run. it was awesome! i will have those pictures and stories to accompany on monday morning (when i have access to my computer again)

tempo run on vacay

Holy mother of all that is insane.... Tempo runs at a hotel fitness center? SUCKS!!!! I had to BB Amanda to keep my motivation level up. Let me paint you a picture.... Rolling out of my comfy fluffy hotel bed at 8am... Dragging myself down the hallway to the fitness area. NO fan, NO open windows and NO one else in there (something about performing for strangers would've most likely made me all sorts of motivated)..... First 9 minute mile, down. Check. I'm sweating enough for 7 males in a hot sauna... Mile 2, holy heck, my legs are gonna fall off. I chose to do an 8 min mile... Why?? WHY?? Mile 3 (that lasted 3 minutes...) was run at 7 min mile.... I think the most appropriate word to describe? DEATH.

I am now looking like I just stepped out of the shower and smell like I rolled around in cow dung. Yes, I. WAS. HOT.

I think this workout totally justifies me eating the entire bag of mini eggs that are sitting on our hotel table, yes yes I do. Now, for the hard part... Running 8 miles BY MYSELF in the sweat room on Saturday morning. KILL. ME. NOW. Van thinks I should usatf it and run around portland.They have a gorgeous parkway path that runs along the Willammette, van took me there last night. There were runners everywhere. My inner freak out chick just keeps thinking about the worst case scenario. What do you think? Should I run around town and just pray a) I don't get lost b) don't get killed and c) don't go into every open house available :)

And, yes, i'm blogging from my phone. Yes, I realize I'm addicted. Sue me. ;)