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Tag: Cox Providence Marathon

To Run Providence Or Not To Run Providence

April 7, 2015

That is the question. My friend Perfect Goofy Gail will be running the Providence marathon again this year and invited me to join her. She helped me last year to achieve my marathon PR which I can still use for my corral placement for the 2016 marathon.  I have another friend that I used to work with who I saw running near my house last week so I messaged her and asked her what she was training for. She told me she was training for the Providence marathon and I felt a little jealous.  I specifically did not sign up for the Providence marathon this year because I did not want to train for a Spring marathon. I wanted to focus on half marathons and getting a decent half marathon finish time for my Disney race corral placements.  With my current ankle issue it wouldn’t be a pretty marathon at all. My half marathons right now are going to be ugly as it is. 

Gail offered to go slow and even to walk the last half of the race. Last year when she helped me get my PR we walked part of it and I still got a good time in my books but we were in the back of the pack. If I were to run the first half and walk the last we would be the last people to cross the line, I’m sure. 

So now I am debating if I should do the Providence half. Next dilemma. I want to run the Cheshire half which is the week before Providence. So I think I need to see what happens this weekend with the Middletown half marathon and see how my leg feels during and after the race. I am just walking most of this week so I can give it time to recover and to have it rested for Sunday. 

If all goes well. Then I will make some decisions. We are going on our family vacation to Disney and I am also attending the Disney Social Media Moms Conference so I have to pack everything the weekend before because I have a busy workweek prior to leaving. I have to teach the day we are flying out so I have to rush home and pick up my family and our stuff and rush to the airport. 

I read a recent blog post on the Another Mother Runner site from Amy Blake where her body was telling her to slow down. I am wondering if my body is also telling me to slow down. After I read her article it made me think if I need to stick to my plan and not push myself into doing a marathon that I am not prepared for. 

I have to respect the distance. Sure I may be able to finish it, but will I injure myself in doing so and then would that affect my vacation with walking in the Disney parks?  So the big question is to do the half or not to do the half. I guess time will tell after next weekend.  It is always fun to get away for a race, even when it is in the next state. I have to see what my daughter’s softball schedule is as well. So many decisions!!!

What would you do?

Providence Post Marathon Slump

May 12, 2014

Why does it seems like after I finish a marathon I start to fall apart?  After I finished the WDW marathon this past January my hip flexor gave me trouble for months. I figured it was because I walked 20 miles of it to help my friend cross the finish line during her Dopey challenge while finishing chemo.  Now I am experiencing random issues here and there after the Providence marathon.  I had a very good race, it was a great race actually! I don’t know if I could have done that race as fast as I did if I didn’t have my friend there to get me to that finish line goal I set.

After my last easy 4 mile run my left calf started cramping up on me towards the end of my run.  It was a warm day out but I had been hydrating all day.  I am suspicious that it happened because I started wearing flip-flops the day before.  I iced it up and then used a heating pad on it last night and it’s feeling better, but I am cautious now.

I feel like once the big accomplishment is over, my body tells me to take it easy for a bit. Maybe the release of relief in my brain that my goal was met lets the rest of my body know it will be on a break for a while.  Who knows!  But I just want to stay healthy.  I don’t have any big races planned until June 8th when I run the Heartbreak Hill Half Marathon.  I would like to get my 3rd PR in a row with this race, but given the name of Heartbreak Hill half, I am going to assume that it will be a challenging race in the hills of Massachusetts.

With a vacation coming up, I plan on taking it easy for a little bit to let my body recover, but I am going to still get in my 2 runs per week or more if I have the time and then I have to get in a 14 mile run Memorial Day weekend.

Mentally, I was having a little trouble getting out for a run the other day.  I had a lot of stuff to get done around the house and was toying with the idea of skipping my run, but I knew it was better that I get out there and do it.  I actually just put on my running clothes and my Garmin 220 and hit the road, I forgot my headphones and didn’t realize it until I was a mile into the run.  It was just me and the road and I enjoyed that.  I was going to do 3 miles, but decided to do 4.  My pace was slow though.  Since my coach told me to do easy runs post marathon for the next 2 weeks I didn’t do any speed work or hills.  I just ran for the sake of running and I enjoyed it.  It was nice to run “naked”.

I think sometimes after a big goal is met, it’s ok to have a little downtime in your running routine.  I need this time now to regroup and focus on what my goals are for the summer and leading up to training for Dopey in January.  This is also a good time for me to give my legs a little break and do some bike riding as well to prepare for my fall Sprint Tri.

Do you ever have a running slump after a big race?

My Garmin Debacle

May 12, 2014

So I was running the Simsbury River Race a few weeks ago and prior to the race I was sitting in Kim’s car with her discussing my race strategy.  She asked me what my current running pace was.  I pulled out my phone and starting to look at my stats and she told me, “Girl, you need to get a Garmin!  It’s time to get away from all that phone crap.”  (Well maybe not word for word, but that’s what she was trying to say).  So I decided to use the birthday money my mom gave me towards a Garmin watch.

As soon as the race was over, I came home and pulled up the Garmin site and amazon.com and did some research.  There were two specific things that I had to consider when purchasing a watch, battery life and interval training.

Well, I should have done more research because the first watch I ordered, The Garmin Forerunner 210 could only do interval training in increments of 10 seconds.  It’s a nice watch, but I wasn’t really sure if it was going to suit my training needs.

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So I ordered another Garmin, the Forerunner  310XT and when it arrive it was the size of a laptop on my arm!  I wasn’t too happy about the size of that watch, but it had a lot of features I was interested in like the lap pace and other data on the larger screen while doing the interval training.  So I figured worst case, I can wear it on my fitness belt and look at the data as I am running.

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The other mistake I made was testing out the watch very little prior to my marathon. I had an epic fail on race morning because I charged the Garmin Forerunner 310, but didn’t put it in power save mode overnight.  So when Gail and I got to the lobby on race morning it was dead!  So we ran upstairs, she grabbed her watch, I grabbed my Forerunner 210 and we went back downstairs.  I used it during the race with the 20/20 intervals, but when we hit 99 reps of intervals it stopped and I didn’t know what to do!  I thought I lost all of my data.  Come to find out, the data is still in the watch, but I have no idea how to restart the intervals.  I did restart the timer but I assumed I was starting at mile 0 again and starting all new stats.  We used Gail’s watch at this point in the race, but I was trying to capture as much data as I could because I like to review the numbers after my races.

My most recent purchase is the Garmin Forerunner 220 and so far I love it so much that I wore it as my every day watch.

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It is simple to use, the battery life is great and I like the screen and information it provides me during my run.  I like that I can select intervals for my own specific times for run and rest, and I came across a walk/run timer built into it today.  I am still learning the watch, but it is very easy to use and some time on YouTube will really teach me a lot about it.

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The watch is very light weight and is comfortable on my arm.  When I first started running with a watch I hated the feeling on my arm.  It really irritated me.  Ironically, when I was running the Providence marathon with it on, it didn’t even bother me.  I charged it when I received it last week and used it twice for running, and as a watch for time and it hasn’t required a charge yet.

The Garmin 220 is a keeper for sure.  I already returned the other two watches and have no regrets.  The Garmin Forerunner 210 is a nice watch, but when comparing the 210 to the 220 I’m all about the 220.  Easy to read screen, cute colors and very light weight.

What I Learned From The Cox Providence Marathon

May 9, 2014

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What I love about running is that you can learn something all the time.  Always growing. What I learned from this race also came from something Jeff sent me in my follow up email about the race.  This past weekend I ran the Cox Providence Marathon with my friend Gail.  Here’s what I learned from that experience.

Gail has done several marathons this year and is an experienced runner.  So running together for this race was going to be easy for her (I assumed).  What I learned was that when you are going to run a race together it’s a good idea to discuss the intervals that you plan to use for race day ahead of time so that everyone trains with the same intervals. Since Gail uses longer intervals, the frequent stop and starts of the 20/20 intervals bothered her legs and hips.

Jeff Galloway also asked me in my race recap email what her longest run was 3 weeks prior to the event.  I don’t recall excatly what her longest run was, but this is good information to know to make sure that the person you are running with is sufficiently trained for the race you are running.  Since Gail has done multiple marathons in the past few weeks that thought never crossed my mind.  In my opinion, she is sufficiently trained.  But what Jeff is referring to is for anyone.  Be sure you talk to your running partner and make sure you are both trained equally if you plan to stick together for the entire race.

Something else that occurred to me is that we should talk about a bail out plan.  If someone is on the quest for a PR and are running with a friend, you need to know ahead of time what the plan is if someone is falling behind or having trouble.  When Gail began to hurt I wasn’t sure what to do.  We tried to use different intervals to see if we could sync up where she could run her longer intervals and I could run using my shorter ones, but then we were pulling apart from each other.  We found a middle of the road interval pace that worked for both of us.  But I was on a quest to get a 5:30 marathon finish and she was doing an awesome job of getting me there.  Then when things started to slow down we weren’t sure if we were going to make it.  But I didn’t want to leave her behind. I am too loyal like that.  I also didn’t want to run to the finish alone without her because she helped me get to where I was.  So it’s important to talk about the plan of action ahead of time prior to the race and not when someone is having a hard time because honestly, it’s hard to think and make decisions like that on the race course and you don’t want to worry about hurting someone’s feelings during that part of your race.

Despite the rough patch we hit during mile 18 of the race, we found a plan that worked for us and we happily crossed the finish line together and I am so glad I had a friend there to help me and to also experience this special event with me!  Thanks Gail! Looking forward to more races and more PRs!

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