You never slow down, you never grow old

7.0 miles on Mt. Greylock's Cheshire Harbor Trail for a nice New Years Day hike!  Beautiful day for a hike, hit some nice ice towards the top and got to do a little sliding on our butts to get down!  So much fun and other than a little soreness in my knees on the way down, no pain after the 20 miler yesterday.

rest day! packing up and heading back to Boston...with my new super fancy hiking camelback!  yippie!!

I knew it was going to be way too cold today for a quick run outside so I didn't even bother attempting it....it would have taken me longer to get dressed than I was going to run.

Did a little over 6 miles on the treadmill, first 3 at 8:00 pace and 0.5% incline then cranked the incline up to 15% and hung back at a 15:00 pace for a mile then went back to the 0.5% incline and 8:00 pace for another mile then did the last mile switching from 8:00 to 6:40 pace back and forth for something to do....

5 miles on the treadmill at the gym before heading to volleyball... Man I love when people, especially new years resolution gym goers, try to treadmill race me!  I am going to crush you!!!!!

mile 1- 7.5mph (8:00 pace)

mile 2- 7.7mph (7:47 pace)

mile 3- 7.9mph (7:35 pace)

mile 4- 7.7mph (7:47 pace)

mile 5- 7.5 mph (8:00 pace)

Finished with .15 miles at 6:19 pace

 Felt really good in my new shoes....decided to get this pair in a size 12 (half size bigger than I have been running in in this shoe) and they feel so much better!!!  I really felt like this workout flew by and I could have pushed it a lot harder but I had to go to volleyball right after it for 5 25 minute co-ed 4's games and I didn't want to kill myself! 

1 month till the marathon!!!

Wasn't much to do at work today since our robots are down so I decided to hit the gym for a quick ride on the bike.... 30 minutes on level 8 for 9.11 miles then a tiny bit of abs and a little stretch.

Longest long run of training...24 miles....tomorrow!  

What the heck is going on!?!?!?!  60 degrees in Boston on January 7th?!?!?!  Unheard of!!!  So I obviously overdressed for this run so I slid my shirt sleeves up and now I have a fantastic tan line right across the middle of both of my forearms!  Crazyness.....but I love it!!!!!!

So my Nike+ somehow stopped recording somewhere around 16 miles for about 1/2 a mile which I only realized because I was taking Gu chomps every mile and a half at that point and I knew I had run more than .15 miles since 16.5 mile chomp I noticed it was in pause mode...bummer!  So it says I ran 23.42 miles in 3:16:15 but since I did an out and back with 12.02 miles as my halfway and I google pedometered it....I know it was 24 miles.  What it did track gives me an average pace of 8:23.

Anyway so the run was pretty good, did it on the Minuteman trail, which was really busy today with such wonderful weather, and apparently is only about 11 miles long...I didn't really think to look at where it ended so when I got to the end and still had about a mile to go to hit my halfway point, I took to the roads and ran to the middle school in Bedford before turning around and getting back on the trail.  My knees ached quite a bit but other than that and wishing I had a little more water with me, it was about as good as I would expect to feel running 24 miles!  Walked a bit after finishing and then jumped in the tub full of cold water for 20 minutes!

I think I have decided on some goals for the Surf City Marathon...

1. Finish under 3:45:00 (8:34 pace- I've run faster than this throughout training, should be able to do this no problem as long as nothing crazy happens and it would be right about 20 minutes faster than last year in Miami so no matter what I will be happy with this finish!)

2. Finish under 3:40:00 (8:23 pace- I have consistently run this pace in my long runs, including my 24 miler yesterday, and still felt good.  I have a really good feeling I can make this happen and would be psyched!)

3. Finish under 3:35:00 and BQ!!!! (about 8:11 pace to be safe.  Faster than my usual average pace when running alone, with no outside stimulation, competition, motivation, or extra adrenaline.  I am not going to kill myself for this goal, but it would be totally amazing!  I can't believe how much time I have taken off since training last year (even with taking the whole summer and a good chunk of the fall off from running to play volleyball) and had no idea that this would ever realistically be a goal for me!  You never know what is going to happen when  you get me into a race situation!!  I would be super psyched to BQ but I am not at all going to be disappointed if I don't....there's always MHRM in October!)

Decided I needed another day off after only getting 2.5 hours of sleep last night because for some reason my stupid hips/side of my butt were wicked achy! They don't really hurt but I couldn't get comfortable enough in bed to actually fall asleep until 3am and unfortunately for me, I have to get up at 5:30 for work.

I did get in my daily 4 mile walk to/from work which I haven't been keeping track of on here, but it has been every work day except about 5 when the weather was particularly hideous, since early september...so at least I have that!

Some light stretching tonight and headed to bed early so I can get up even earlier to get a run in before work because I have to bring Emma to the airport then have a dinner date with my long lost ex-marathon partner Jenny after work.   One of these days I'll have 5 minutes to sit and take a breath...

Ah still icky sick and have absolutely zero energy!  Took a 3 hour nap after work yesterday, woke up, ate some homemade coconut blueberry ice cream while watching The Little Mermaid, and then went right back to bed. I knew I needed to at least move my legs today since it is super nasty raining and I didn't get to walk to work so I went down to the treadmill and pushed hard to finish 3 miles running and almost another mile walking.  Did a round of my stretches and foam rolled my hip flexors like I learned in PT yesterday and plan to go through it all 2 more times tonight before I head back there tomorrow.  

mile 1- 7.5mph (8:00 pace)

mile 2- 7.7 mph (7:47 pace)

mile 3- 7.9 mph (7:35 pace)

Still feeling icky and have no energy but I did 3.75 miles on the treadmill before PT this morning at 8:00 pace for all but the warm up/cool down.  Ah.... PT was good today though, we found a way to take some pressure off my hip flexors and hopefully a better way to stretch one without compressing the other which HURTS!  Got some good butt strengthening exercises  to help with that and the IT/knee crap!  Better luck tomorrow!

Accidentally had a great run today! 

13.1 miles in 1:44:36 [7:58 pace]

Having not run much all week, being icky sick, and having a volleyball tournament tomorrow, I went out, after contemplating a million excuses to skip the run, for an easy 12-14 miles just to get some miles on my legs. The first 4 miles or so sucked, if I wasn't that far from home, I would have quit and called it a day. But then, I don't know if it was the PT or rest or watching The Lion King this morning or whatever, I just felt good, my stride felt much more open than usual and I just went with it, figuring I'd take the speed while I was feeling it and I could just slow down when I couldn't hold it...but I stuck with it and getting close to home right around the half marathon distance, I went for that and was psyched and shocked to see I did it sub 8:00 pace and broke the 1:45:00 I was planning to push hard for in my next 1/2 race!  Looks like I'll have to set a new goal!!! 

RCOB- tournament all day...

Pretty good day with a great team....too bad we got knocked out of playoffs on a really sh*tty call on game point!  That sucked!

6.5 treadmill miles

did the first 2.5miles by increasing from 7.5-8.0 mph each half mile then walked .10 miles and did that again but only for 1.5 miles then brought the incline up to 15% for 1 mile (4.0 mph) then another half mile at 10% incline, walked a bit then ran out the final mile at 7.5 mph.  I was bored so I kept switching it up

then went to the Celtics!!!!!! game because tickets are getting cheap again now that they aren't so good anymore, but a night at a game is always a blast and I still love those boys....and they won!!!  <3

coed 4s volleyball 5  30 minute games

3.5 miles at 8:00 pace on the stupid treadmill... 

I hate that I can't run on the treadmill, I just don't go as fast and I can't stand to go nearly as far as I would outside....

Of course it would decide to start being winter here with my last long run coming up tomorrow.... I should be grateful that every long run up to now has been great weather but this is going to ruin it for me!  One more week mother nature, I just wanted one more week!!!!!

Ran on the treadmill at the gym during the Pats game.  7 miles close to marathon pace (8:13) then 1.5 miles at 6% incline at 15:00 pace because the game wasn't over yet!  GO PATS!!

played co-ed 6s volleyball but we only had 4 players.  5 30 minute games...what a workout!

My body finally gave in to getting sick.  It fought it off and fought it off but now it's here and with just 9 days until the marathon...fooey!  I've been feeling it coming on strong since early this week so I tried to rest....now it's just me, a bag of oranges, and decongestant pills.

Went to volleyball tonight anyway because it's hard to skip out when the team is only 4 people... played 5 25 minute matches and worked pretty darn hard!  I tried to pretend I was olympic training in Denver since I wasn't getting much oxygen with this stuffy nose!

Still feeling icky but really wanted to run.  The weather is scarily warm for January in Boston...mid 50s but it is raining like crazy so I did the treadmill.  5 miles at 8:13 pace then went from 7:47 pace to 6:40 pace for the last .35 miles.

1.35 miles at 7:10 pace....

3 miles at 8:13 pace on the treadmill

Getting on a plane headed for Cali soon!  Surf City Marathon here I come!

3.0 miles along the beach trail with my sister at about a 9:00 pace in Grover Beach before heading down to Huntington Beach for the marathon!!!

Bib 1991

Had a blast in California!  Went a few days before the marathon and go to see my cousin in LA and drove down with my mom and sister (who I convinced to run the 1/2...she doesn't really run...at all!) and spent some time at the beach and pool in the days before the race...relaxing southern california style!

Race morning I got up at 3:30am and drank some water, got dressed, and ate some oatmeal with raisins, shook out some nerves and headed down to the hotel lobby to catch the 4:45 shuttle to start.....except something went wrong and the shuttle didn't show up until 5:30 and we were 15 minutes from the start with no traffic (ha on race morning...doubt it!) and I was starting in the first wave at 6:30!!!!!!  PANIC ATTACK!!!  Finally got to the start at 6:02am and was able to calm myself down and get ready to run.

Started with the elite wave (which also included finishers through 3:50) and just happened to be standing next to the 3:30 pace group and just subconsciously stayed with them through about the 1/2 marathon point because it just felt comfortable...but it proved to be too much around mile 13 so I slowed back a bit and settled into a low 8 pace.

When I turned at about the 16 mile mark and could see the 25 mile mark right next to me (it was a down and back, down and back on the PCH and beach trail by this point) I lost it.  I couldn't do, I didn't want to.  I assume this is the wall...didn't feel it in Miami, but damn if I had told everyone on earth I was running this race, I might have just stopped and went to hang out on the beach.  The last 5 miles were particularly horrible, I had nothing, Gu was making my stomach hurt something wicked, I felt totally dehydrated (it was way too warm for my liking) and the water stations were too few and far between by this point and I was running low on my fuel belt water, my pace slowed a lot and I was mad at myself.

But I held it together somehow and got across that finish line in 3:42:52 and put in the best sprint I could muster through the end.  I'm really excited that PRed by almost 22 minutes, I just wish I felt as good as I did when I finished Miami!

So I love Southern California, though I think it is too warm for a marathon for me, but it was a beautiful course, I just wish it wasn't so much out and back, I think that and the sub 8 pace through the half killed me.  But I will race again and qualify for Boston!!!!!!!!!

 Oh and I'm PISSED at Nike+ for crapping the bed after the marathon before I could upload my splits and mad that when I called them they said no problem, they could get it for me and just used my distance and finish time and uploaded all my splits to be my average pace!!!  Fools!  I know I did not run 8:30s every mile!!!!  SO MAD!!!!  2nd one I'll have to return, both did the same think in almost the exact same amount of time....need to find a better way to track!

5.5 mile hike on the fire road in the mountains in San Luis Obispo

Foot hurt like crazy!  Pretty sure it's a stress fracture!  =(

went stand up paddleboarding with my sister in Morro Bay... loved it!  Saw sealions, rays, otters, all kinds of birds....

my foot is still bothering me which really worries me that it is a stress fracture, but I don't want to pay the co-pay to see a doctor who will tell me to stay off it.  Trying to take it easy but I just can't.  Hitting the gym for a good long biking session....

4 straight hours of co-ed 4s volleyball with no breaks to speak of.  My foot was really bothering me by the end of the night and I was just plain tired.  Played pretty well regardless...

8.0 miles on level 10 hills on the elliptical

7.5 miles on level 12 hills on the elliptical

12.5 mile walk with Meghann from Central Square into Boston along the Esplanade then over toward the North End and onto the Harbor Walk then back around and down Memorial into Central (9.5 miles)....  I also walked the 3 miles to and from the train in Davis from my place.... nice sunny but chilly day for a walk!

co-ed 4's volleyball playoffs tonight... played hard but saw the 1st and 2nd place teams (we were 3rd...) in the 2nd and 3rd rounds!  way too early in the bracket to see them!  Oh well still had a great time and great play!  

Newport beach volleyball schedule is up!!!!  1st game June 9th!  Can't wait!!!!!!

Mohawk Hudson River or Amica Newport Marathon for October?!?  Decisions, decisions!

first run back from the toe injury and it felt fine....yippie!!!

4.0 miles on the treadmill between 8:04 - 8:34 pace (way too windy to be outside!!) and then another 1.5 (?) walking a good pace at 15% incline

RCOB- tournament at Univ. of Rhode Island... fun day, great team, and we made it through semi's after coming from a tough start!  

4.25 mi in 32:44 [7:42 pace] but i walked for a quick bit in there (included in time)

I want to keep track of my miles walking to and from work each day (i've been doing it since september) just for fun to see it add up...so i'm adding it as a shoe type!

parked the car in cambridgeport and walked over the BU bridge and down to Sweat and Soul studio for my first ever spin class (on the tilt bike)....loved it!  Walked back to over to MIT and played 5 straight hours of volleyball...no breaks, no subs, 6 on 6 and 5 on 5 and was totally pooped at the end!  Walked back to the car and stopped for Mexican because I was starving!!!!!

Just a little run to move the legs....quads are a bit sore from all the spinning and vb yesterday...

7:55 pace

little run with Jenny after work... I miss running with Jenny, even if it's too slow!

coed 6s on mens net.... 4 30 minute games.

don't know what I did to my left quad but i had a wicked time playing defense it hurt so bad, i couldn't take off

grass doubles in the most beautiful march weather!!!!

5.15 miles in 39:24 [7:39 pace]

hum...I really felt like I was running slower than that... cool!

ran two (painfully slow) miles with Katie today after work.  My fault, i told her 11:00 pace was fine... I almost tripped over my own feet.  Had fun with Katie anyway!

coed vb league... played 5 on 6 all night

7.11 miles in 56:00 [7:52 pace]

1.5 miles at 8:00 pace on the TM then lifted....

co-ed 6's vb 6 30 minute games, 3 on men's net, 3 on women's net

broken face

Surgery day.....

Today is the day!  The day I *try* to start running again after completely shattering many, many bones in my face and now I am finally 3 weeks post surgery and am going to give it a go!  It was so bad having to watch all the runners at the Wallis Sands 1/2 this weekend and not be able to run with them... I'm glad I went and volunteered anyway but I was itching to run!

 So I did a 2.85 mile loop by my house to get the blood flowing at an 8:15 pace.... not where I want to be, but I'll take it for my first run in a long time!  A little nervous that I'm going to run a 5 miler on Saturday since I haven't been able to run, but I'll get through it and let it be a starting point for getting back into it.  Certainly won't be the 3rd place overall finish I had at this race last year, but I didn't have a broken face then either.... =)

Oh so I was not ready for this race...as my time shows! Started out ok but within the first 1/2 mile I knew I wasn't feeling it.  At about the halfway mark you pass the parking lot where the race starts/finishes... I decided I was done, walked off the course up into the parking lot, then got mad at myself and walked back down and started running again.  I finished and I'm glad I did, but man did it not feel good!  Went and played some beach volleyball afterwards but I am paying for it all now with pain in my broken face and some nasty headaches.... boo!  Guess I'm not ready to run yet....  =(

Not being able to be active depression is really setting in.....  =(

spin class at SASY

sand doubles 2.5 hours in Dartmouth with Hil, Sam, and Tom

Grass doubles 4.5 hours

Finally able to run again and it felt great!!!!  Did the 4.25 mile loop at work but the Garmin wasn't charged so I have no clue on pace... then lifted a bit and walked about 2.5 miles to Chinatown for dinner with Fanny and Jenny!  YUM!

walked 10.8 miles back and forth all over today and on my way to spin

5.5 slow miles in the rain...

makes me sad that my 5ish mile pace is slower than my marathon pace from just 4 months ago   =(    but i guess you have to start over somewhere....

seeing the surgeon for a follow up tomorrow...

Went to the surgeon again today... says everything is healing nicely!  It'll still be a while though... back in 3 months!

Went to the gym to watch the Celtics take game 5!!!  Ran for the first half of the game, about 5.5 miles and threw in some quick walking when I got tired, then stretched through halftime, lifted upper body during the 3rd quarter then spent the 4th quarter doing random hills on the bike for 45 minutes.... never realized a game with 4 12 minute quarters could take 3 hours to finish!  Tired by 11:30 but it was worth it!   

Got some beautiful swiss chard from the farmer's market then met Jenny and walked to spin class from her place.  Instructor got in a car accident on the way in so the owner taught an intense 30 minute class for free for us and gave us another free class.  I LOVED Lynne's class!!!!  I am going to seek her out in the schedule and go with her more often, I loved her intensity!!!

Ran 5.25 miles in the absolute down pouring rain, hail, and thunder and lightening.  It was crazy, I have never been so soaking wet in my entire life but I had the biggest smile on my face and was actually laughing out loud at one point where I couldn't see or breathe because the water was coming so hard and so fast in my face!  Haha!

Hit the beach at 9:30am and played doubles vb all the way until 4:00pm!  What a great day for beach ball!!!!  So tired!

I intended to go for a run today but it was just so nice out we decided to play doubles at Nahant Beach again.... played from 9:30am until 2:30pm then went for a quick dip in the ocean!  Man is my body tired from playing in the sand!!

2.67 in 24:16 [9:06 avg]

1.37 in 11:22 [8:19 avg]

3.01 in 26:00 [8:38 avg] 

Can't go a year without running the good ole' Boilermaker!  Even with breaking my face and having surgery and not running since April, I did it!  Not my fastest, but not my slowest, I stuck a pace I could handle and I am happy enough with that!  Felt great with a sprint through the finish!  Thanks again to Hannah's grandparents for putting us all up and feeding us tons and tons of Utica inspired food!  See you all next year for sure!

4.95 in 42:03 [8:29]

5.69 in 48:30 [8:31 avg]

5.75 in 50:33 [8:47 avg]

5.66 in 48:48 [8:38 avg]

The Color Run!   Was supposed to be a 5k but turns out it was closer to 2.75 miles.  Fun time with friends, but kinda crazy trying to run around all the walkers.  We were in the 3rd wave of 1000+ participants after waiting over an hour at the start!  Glad I got to spend this time with my friends but without that it was wasn't quite the "happiest 5k" it claims to be....especially when waiting over 1.5 hours for a bus back to the parking lot....

Before: 

After: 

7.91 in 1:06:03 [8:21 avg]

coed 4s vb

5 miles on the treadmill because it was pouring!  Ran about 1.5 miles at 8:34 pace then got a wicked cramp and decided to truck it up at 10% incline for about 1.5 miles then went back to 8:34 pace for about 1.0 mile then to 8:00 pace for about 0.5 miles then cranked it up to 7:04 pace for the final 0.1 mile and felt awesome!  Then I drove over to Cambridgeport and walked across the river and down to spin class.  Lynne kicked my butt tonight... so many turns and sprints and a crazy hard hill that my butt still hurts so good from!  I <3 SASY spin! 

went for a nice swim after sweating like crazy walking home from work.... vb co-ed grass 4's at Brandeis Univ

coed 4s playoffs

3.61 in 29:29 [8:11]

BSSC coed 4s vb champs!!!! woohoo

4.00 in 33:33 [8:23] 

BVA grass doubles tourney with Kris

5.35 in 45:59 [8:35]

BSSC coed 4s Champs!!!  Won my second championship this summer!! 

5.38 in 46:52 [8:42]

Ran to Katie's house with my backpack on... no bueno! 

Officially diagnosed with a sinus infection and possible upper respiratory infection and put on antibiotics yesterday...boo!

Played the NVC Newport beach doubles championships with Hillary in the the 65 degree rain... crappy volleyball weather and feeling sick but we still got 3rd place!  Great playing!

I am going to take tomorrow to lay low and try to get a little better but then next week it's go time for marathon training now that vb is dying down.. hopefully I get over this crappy cold soon!  Lots of running to make up for! 

13.0 in 1:52:13 [8:38 avg]

Not my best but considering it was hot out, I haven't run this far since before the accident 4 months ago and that I have a nasty sinus and possibly upper respiratory infection....not so bad! 

Can't believe I even finished this race without any training or really running much at all since the accident in April!  Very happy with my time considering!  Great course, can't wait to run the full next year!

Tested out my new Altra running shoes!

2 minutes slower than last year, but alright all things considered....