Return of the Doubles

Monday I was super sore from my Sunday 11 mile hill run, though I do think the post-run ice bath helped my recovery. All I did Monday was take the dog for an hour long walk and stretch!


Tuesday I couldn’t get out of bed so I waited until after work to run. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate with me and it was POURING when I got home. I decided to scrap my hill repeat workout in favor of a 4 miler on the ‘mill. I decided to try and increase speed every mile and end with the last mile under 10:00. I succeeded! (Woo-Woo!) Despite my legs feeling a bit heavy I went for it:

Mile 1 10:47; Mile 2 10:31; Mile 3 10:10; Mile 3 – 3.5 9:52/3.5 – 4 9:30!

There was a very lanky, very runnerish looking guy next to me probably running twice as fast with half the effort BUT I made it! I think having President Obama giving his address to Congress helped keep my mind distracted.

After the run, I decided to give Jillian’s 30-Day Shred a try. I thought, 20 minutes can’t be that bad right?! WRONG! Wowza, that little 20 minute workout packs a big punch. I made it through the 20 minute workout okay but I was dripping with sweat, probably a mixture of running sweat and shred sweat. I will definitely be using this video again. If that is what level 1 is like, I’m scared for level 3! Double workout #1!

Yesterday, I had to be AT work by 6:45am and around midnight decided that getting up at 4:30am to swim was not going to happen. PLUS, the Shred and run left me mighty sore. My work day was great, busy but productive. One of those days where I was flying around 100 miles a minute, traveling to meetings and working non-stop. Those days make the work hours fly by—that’s the best part!

Last night was our February PDX runner (and Julianne, who is now an honorary PDX’er with all her work travel) meetup! She told us her really exciting news! She was accepted to be a participant in the Hope Runs 777 Challenge…7 Marathons, 7 Continents, 7 Weeks! All I can say is WOW! She is running for a charity that benefits AIDS orphans in Africa. This challenging event will also break a world record if all goes according to plan. Julianne has a hefty sum of money to raise for her journey but we all know she can do it. We were brainstorming fundraising activities last night. Sometime in the next year, there might be some sort of silent auction/raffle in PDX to help support her cause. We will be brainstorming…

Speaking of brainstorming…we all decided that we need a better name for our little running group! We haven’t come up with anything yet but here are a few I came up with, what do ya think groupies? Our group keeps expanding too, I love it, we have Cindy join us last night! She's super nice and has amazing taste in footwear!

RoadBlazers (Actually, Julianne came up with this one)
TechRunners
Foot loose and flying feet
Chicks & Dicks with Kicks

Erika, Amy, Julianne, Zach, Jen, Me, Cindy, Sarah

This morning I started off the day with a pokey-ish 5 miles. I was supposed to do 5 miles @ tempo pace (which for me is about 9:50-10:15)…I ended up bouncing around with the speed a lot and had to take a walk break at 2.5 miles (I was superduper thirsty!). I finished in 52:40 which isn’t horrible but not a tempo run really. Then, I met up with HTC and did an hour spin class. I haven’t been to spinning in ages so I KNOW I will be sore tomorrow! If I’m not totally dead tonight I’ll try to Shred again and it’s my night to take the Zoe-dog for a long walk.

Now that I’ve wasted several minutes working on this post, I best get back to the grind.

GOOD LUCK to racer Julianne this weekend as she completes the Napa Marathon! The PDX crew will be there in spirit cheering along with the ROHO's!

Hello my name is...

Not a Hill Runner.

Today, I learned this lesson the hard way. Gazelle's, Mr. Pi and I met at a track near the route of our upcoming Shamrock 15k race. Mr. Pi had 14 miles on the schedule and Gazelle's and I were running 11. I knew this course was going to be tough (as I drive the route often and know what the hills are like, at least by car). Gazelle's and I did three warm up miles on the track and then headed UP, UP, UP the Shamrock course. Garmin says it was about 1,002 foot climb! This explains the mile splits during miles 4, 5, 6, and 7. My slowest mile was 13:40 (ouch...hence, the title "not a hill runner"). However, the downhill miles were pretty sweet! (Best pace 8:38...that is FAST for me...granted I held that pace for only .5 but still!)

Long Run totals: 11.20 miles/ 11:45 pace

Here are a couple of pictures from the run:

Post run I decided to try an Aron ice bath! The first minute was hell but after than it wasn't too bad, nice even. Next time, I need more ice and a little more water my legs weren't totally submerged. I think the key to making the experience tolerable, if not enjoyable, was the hot tea and sweatshirt! (And, the look on Mr. Pi and Zoey's faces.) My question to all you ice bath takers, do you hop in the shower right after the bath? Is it bad to go from cold to hot? (I turned on the shower right away since I didn't have that much to get ready.)

The initial reaction!

Trying to hold up the sweatshirt so it didn't get wet. Zoey looking on so perplexed! (Note: I'm not naked I had on bikini bottoms, in case any of you were wondering.)

After the run and ice bath, I met Junk Miles for a Blazers game! It was a ton of fun, a great way to enjoy a beer and entertainment after a long, hard run! The stairs getting to our seats reminded me with each step that I ran hills today.

I had some great totals this week!

Running - 20.3
Swimming - 5500 yards---approx. 3.1 miles (I swam almost 2 miles on Saturday...might not have been the best plan the day before a long run but it was fun!)

I also did an hour of yoga and took the dog for a couple of good walks. The two things I seem to be lacking are biking (must work that into the schedule if I want to get in a Tri this summer) and weights. Gazelle let me borrow 30 Day Shred so I hope to get in a couple of shred sessions this week AND Tuesday I will be running hill repeats. I WILL NOT come in last at the Shamrock run!

Songs that Rock

I promised a "songs that rock" post. I was hoping to get this out earlier in the week...work got in the way! However, I am happy to report that my workouts for the week are all checked off (minus today, but I decided today is a rest day)!

Tuesday: 3.1 miles at 3% incline on the 'mill 31:51

Wednesday: 2500 yards in the pool

Thursday: 6 miles, 4 at tempo pace (these were at negative splits!) 1:04:23

Today: Rest

Saturday: swim?yoga?weights? (combo of these or all three)

Sunday: 11 miles with the PDX Sunday Runners

Onto tunes...
I've been thinking a lot about music and what motivates me, especially as I *try* to incorporate some speedwork into my marathon training program. For me, a song that rocks is one that either hits me emotionally with the lyrics (I'm sure Mr. Pi would disagree with me since he thinks I don't listen to lyrics…true only for hippity hop (yes, TFH, you were correct!)) or has a rockin' beat! Qualifying to be a song that rocks, isn't that difficult given the criteria. My mood really influences my music selection.

Here are (in no particular order) the Ambitious One’s Top 15 songs that always make my running playlists…I consider these my running classics):
1. Duran Duran – Hungry Like the Wolf
2. Kanye West- Stronger
3. Billy Joel- Running on Ice
4. Michael Jackson—Wanna Be Startin’ Something’
5. Rocky –Gonna Fly Now
6. Cake—The Distance
7. Daniel Beddingfield—Gotta Get Through This (at mile 16ish is when this is my go-to song!)
8. Peter Gabriel- In Your Eyes
9. The Beach Boys—California Girls (reminds me of my roots!)
10. Michael Sembello—Maniac (from Flashdance)
11. The Beatles—Paperback Writer
12. Stevie Wonder—Superstition
13. Gloria Gaynor—I Will Survive (again, a good one for high mileage!)
14. Timbaland—The Way I Are
15. The Rolling Stones—Sympathy for the Devil

Here’s a top 10 of my songs that rock-right now (i.e. these are songs I’ll be sick of in a month...not necessarily all current songs either):
1. Britney- Circus
2. Lady GaGa – The Fame
3. Vampire Weekend- A-Punk
4. Laura Branigan—Gloria
5. Huey Lewis and The News—Power of Love
6. Kanye West- Heartless
7. Janus Stark- Every Little Thing Counts (from Varsity Blues Soundtrack)
8. Muse—Supermassive Black Hole
9. U2- Get On Your Boots
10. Madonna—Candy Shop

I have pretty mainstream taste in music and, as a child of the 80’s, there are a lot of 80’s tunes. I change my playlist almost once a week, otherwise I get bored. I usually listen to podcasts at least once a week too. I don’t listen to a ton of podcasts but here is my normal list (in order this time!):
1. 4 Feet Running
2. NPR: Wait, Wait, Don’t tell Me
3. The Extra Mile
4. NPR: It’s All Politics
5. Savage Love

I am always looking for new songs so leave me a couple of your favorites in the comments!

Lovin' Long Weekend

I love sitting here on a Monday evening reveling in all the things I did today that don’t include the awful 4-letter word: WORK! 3-day weekends are the best (I can see why Gazelle’s has been so upset losing them).

Saturday, Valentine’s Day. Mr. Pi and I started a tradition back when we were dating that we would cook for one another instead of going out to uber-crowded, over-priced restaurants on Valentine’s Day. Every other year one person is ridiculously spoiled with dinner, dessert and dishes done (how’s that for alliteration?). This year was my turn to spoil the Mr! I’m kicking myself that I didn’t pull a Mica and take pictures of my meal—I gotta say, it was purrrrty. Here was the 2009 menu:

Orange-glazed Cornish game hens stuffed with an orange and almond rice stuffing
Basil and Spinach roasted red potatoes
Served with Almond Sparkling Wine (which is the champagne we served at our wedding)
For dessert...Cappuccino Mousse Trifle

Part of our tradition is to make trifle every year for dessert. Since trifle is really just “layered dessert” there are a TON of variations. So far we’ve had…raspberry, lemon, English, pumpkin, strawberry/banana/blueberry & Cappuccino Mousse.

Valentine’s Day, was wonderful BUT I view V-day as just another day for me to spend with my wonderful husband.

Sunday, Long Run Day! I woke up to miserable weather, rain, wind, cold! Blah! Our Sunday running group decided to cancel, well I’m the one that canceled. (Sorry chicas! You know how I am about the weather.) I was hoping for the weather to get better, I really didn’t want to run 9 miles on the treadmill. Luckily, after a few hours it DID! I spent the morning sitting on my arse drinking wayyyyyyy too much coffee, eating fresh baked cinnamon raisin bread (Have I told you that Mr. Pi has started baking fresh bread at least once a week? Yeah, I am lucky and NO, you cannot have him, he’s taken!) and reading the Twilight series. (On book 4 now, sad that there isn’t a book 5 already and I’m not even halfway through book 4.)

Around 1:45 with just a few non-rain clouds hanging about, I decided I better get a move on. The temp read low-40’s so I bundled up (this was a mistake). My plan had me running 9 miles at PMP (planned marathon pace) + 45seconds. Since I’m not totally positive on what my PMP is yet, I have a range, I decided to start easy and aim for 11:30 min/mile average. Since my poor dog hadn’t been out of the house I started off with the intention of running a short 2-3 mile loop with her and drop her back at the house and continue on. I got out the door and got a call from Mr. Pi. Apparently, he had the same idea, except at the end of his run. We met up and ran the first mile as a family, Mr. Pi, the Zoemeister and me. After a mile I said good-bye and continued on. I am so glad that I waited to run—it was gorgeous! There were birds singing in the air, the sun was shining, there were a TON of runners out and I swear, I saw a few flowers trying to sprout. The only problem was—I was HOT! Yes, me, the girl that gets cold when the temps are below 70 was HOT. I ended up shedding my long sleeve top and running in pants and a tank (I probably looked silly) for a couple of miles. I was also very thirsty, probably from all that coffee! My run went well, though I did miss my running buddies. I take more walk breaks without them holding me accountable. Because of those breaks, I ended up 1 min over my goal of an 11:30 average. Eh, I tried.

Mile 1- 10:15 (um, a little fast)/ Mile 2- 10:30/ Mile 3- 11:06/ Mile 4- 11:48/ Mile 5 – 12:03/ Mile 6- 11:36/ Mile 7- 11:34/ Mile 8- 11:03/ Mile 9-10:50
Total time: 1 hour 44 minutes and change

My legs are really comfortable around 10:45 but my lungs are having a hard time keeping up. I think I need to work on building back some endurance. My running break from the last marathon coupled with my bronchitis probably hindered my lung capacity a little bit. Regardless, I’m feeling stronger!

Monday-HOLIDAY! Today was a glorious day off! I did a lot of housekeeping stuff. Finally took clothes to Goodwill, took Zoey to the dog park, gave Zoey a bath, did eleventy loads of laundry and did some general tidying of the house.

I have a feeling this week is going to be stressful but lately, what week isn’t??!! All I know is, I WILL get in my workouts! Also, some time this week, I’m going to do a post dedicated to music. I love reading song lists you guys have put together and listening to Sarah’s Music Monday’s. So, stay tuned for The Ambitious One’s Songs that Rock. (pun intended!)

Report on FIRST Plan

I’m over halfway through my first week of the FIRST plan (my plan of choice for RnR San Diego) and I gotta say---I LOVE IT! I love having a target pace to hit for my runs and I really like having days off in between runs. My knee hasn’t been giving me any problems (knock on wood…my office furniture is fake wood so I’m knocking on my head). I have been diligent about stretching after runs and using the foam roller. The one thing I feel I need to work on in the coming weeks is keeping up with a weights routine (even if it’s every other week). I feel that adding weights to my workouts really helps my legs feel strong…even if it’s the placebo effect.

Here’s a breakdown of my exercise week:
Monday- Rest Day (This would normally be a yoga day but I was still pretty sore from the Saturday run and I did yoga on Sunday with my hubby.)

Tuesday- Speed work intervals! (I used my Alberto Salazar Nike Running download that I bought awhile back, it’s the only Nike running download I have, I wouldn’t want to use it every day but I like it every once in awhile. I think it’s called something like “improve your endurance.” The workout is 10 minutes of warm up, 4 sets of 3 minute speed intervals followed by 3 minutes of recovery and a 10 minute cool down. My plan called for 6 intervals of 3 min fast/3 min recovery (I only ended up doing 5) so after the fourth interval on the Nike workout I switched to my own music for a few minutes. I really wanted to do all 6 intervals but after 5 my legs were dead and I didn’t want to push it too much.

10 minute warm-up @ 11:06
Fast intervals @ 9:40; 9:54; 10:00; 10:00; 9:40
Recovery intervals @ 10:30; 10:47; 10:47; 10:54; 11:06
10 min cool-down @ 11:15
I did pause the ‘mill twice to stretch out my legs; once after the third interval and once after the last interval.

Wednesday- 2200 yards of Swimming! I love Wednesday’s!

Swimmer-speak re-cap: 300-warmup; 300-kick; 200 build free (each lap faster, end with a sprint lap); 4 x 75 Free/Back/Free; 200-kick (hard); 4 x 50 Free (build); 150-pull; 150-kick (breast); 200-back (build); 100-kick (slow); 100-Free (long extension))

Thursday- 5 miles Tempo! (I’m really trying to feel more comfortable running at a 10:00- 10:30 pace for more than a couple of miles. My goal marathon pace is 10:45. My goal tempo pace is 9:30…someday!)

Mile 1- 11:06/Mile 2 – 10:30/Mile 3- 10:15/Mile 4- 10:45 (short walk break)/Mile 5- 11:00
5 miles @ 10:40ish avg

Friday- Swim! (Going to try for 2500-2750 yards tomorrow. Friday’s are cross training days for me so I think I’ll try to incorporate swimming, biking and the elliptical…this would also be a good day for weights. Chic Runner does a 20-20-20 thing (20 minutes on the bike, elliptical and ‘mill) I might want to try that once or twice too.

Hope everyone enjoys their 3-day weekend and Valentine’s Day. Go to Julianne’s blog to read Valentine’s Day stories…awwww!

FINISHER!

Yesterday, Sarah, Mr. Pi and I ventured out for the 7 on the 7th virtual race, hosted by Run to the Finish. It was an absolutely beautiful day, blue sky and sunshine—my kind of day. We decided to run in a new location. It sounded like a good idea on paper. We picked a loop around a local lake. I saw that it said rolling hills but I thought "it’s around a lake how hilly could it be, right?" Um…apparently VERY! This was probably the hilliest run I’ve ever attempted—yes, EVER! I almost always stick to flat routes or routes with small/medium hills never lasting more than a quarter mile.

Sarah and I started out with an optimistic outlook until about 1.5 miles in...we’d already huffed and puffed what we thought was most of the way up the first hill. I swear that hill went on and on, we ended up walking some of it. However, on the plus side we were rewarded with a lovely downhill BUT by mile 4 I was already pretty tired. I think that route may have been a bit overzealous for my first run since Arizona and the first run of San Diego training. Not to mention the fact that we didn’t stick to the 7 mile loop and ended up going 8.10 miles, according to Garmin. Sarah paused her Nike + for the walking breaks and we ended up with 5 miles of actual running at about a 10:16 pace (pretty good, for me at least). Garmin said 8.10 miles total at an average of 12:16. To give you a taste of the difference in mile splits. We had two miles at 9:30-40 and two miles of 13:00 + (one of those at 15:00). Most of the other miles hovered in the upper 11’s and low 12’s. I think overall we kicked serious butt, considering the terrain! When we finished, I told Sarah that we have a time to beat next time we attempt this route. We are both starting to incorporate speedwork into our plans and I’m also including hills—next time the walking will be minimal or non-existent. We don't have an exact official time for our 7 miles but I added up the 7 mile splits and did an average, came to: 76.2 minutes, average of 10.8 min/mile. Not too shabby, yay for downhill!

So speaking of new training plans….I promised in an earlier post that I would discuss my San Diego marathon training plan. I decided on a modified FIRST plan. I’ll be running Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Tuesdays will be alternating speedwork and hills (I’ll be doing these workouts with Gazelle). Thursdays are Tempo runs and every third week just a straight even pace run. Sundays are long runs! The FIRST plan emphasizes pacing, each run of the week has a specified pace. I think this will really help me with my goal of breaking 5 hours in San Diego. I think as the plan progresses I’ll know exactly what pace I can realistically sustain for a marathon! I have also incorporated swimming into the plan, since I’ve joined the 100 miles of swimming in 2009 challenge on Buckeye and I also have my eye on a TRI in July/August. I feel completely ready to start training for San Diego. I am really excited about this race. There are so many bloggers running, many I’ve met and many I haven’t; it’s going to a fun weekend! Also, since the 2008 SD marathon was my first marathon, this course holds a certain spot in my memory. To all those running this race---LET’S ROCK IT!

Oops forgot one step...

I forgot to add this at the end of my last post...in case, you want me to interview YOU!

Follow these steps and you can be as cool as me with your own interview...

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

So much to say...some of it I do interview style

Lots to say this week, just no time to say it. I’m completely behind in blog land…sorry guys! This week has been filled with lots of work stuff and essentially no exercise (bad Alisa). Last week, I swam, I biked, I ellipitcal’d, I yoga’d, I lifted…I ROCKED! This week not so much. I haven’t done a lick of exercise this week unless you count taking the dog for a 20 min walk last night. I’m actually pretty mad at myself. I HATE it when I let work get in the way. It was sort of unavoidable this week as more changes are going to be happening in my department. By Wednesday, I was already at 38 hours for the week. To give you just a taste of my week, Gazelle’s and I met for coffee on Wednesday morning and about 10 minutes into our coffee break I got a work call and had to rush back to my desk—this is not unusual. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really like my job BUT I don’t like when I don’t prioritize my health. Blah. Enough. I’ll be back on track starting tomorrow.

I have a TON to say but I don’t want this post getting out of control so I’ll just briefly summarize three key things from the week/upcoming weekend and will likely have a longer post on Sunday.

--> Tomorrow I’m running 7 miles on the 7th with Gazelle’s, Sarah and Mr. Pi. (This is my first run since Arizona RnR.)
--> Tomorrow is the first day of my San Diego Marathon training. (I created a plan a couple of weeks ago, this is sure to be the topic of a Sunday post =)).
--> Non-running related…I am completely, 100%, sucked into the Twilight series…despite my best efforts NOT to be a crowd follower. I read book #1 in two days and book #2 in three days despite my busy work schedule (guess I did have time for exercise, I just spent it reading). Mr. Pi is ordering me #’s 3 & 4, I hope Amazon is fast! I totally wanted to title this post "interview with a wannabe vampire."

I jumped on the interview train this week too...knowing that I didn't want to be the only blogger out there without an interview post, so here are the questions I received from the lovely Sarah:

Even though you are totally missing Cali, what are you learning to love about Portland?

Three things come to mind: #1 All my awesome new friends! #2 Mountain views (I’ve always been an ocean person but there is something pretty spectacular about driving to work and see the sunrise over Mt Hood). #3 My job. (There is no way I would have gotten to meet so many high profile people if I had taken a similar job in California. While I’m still a little fish in a big pond, the Oregon pond is much smaller and therefore more easily swimmable.)

What was it about Mr. Pi that completely won you over?

Oh gosh, that is a hard one; there are so many things that ‘won me over’! His stunning sexiness…that one is for you honey! (Certainly a factor.) I think it was our instance chemistry/feeling like I could say/do anything (like, get the uncontrollable giggles on our first date, member that?). Over time, what keeps winning me over is our ability to keep our relationship new and fresh. Even after 5+ years, we still have tons of fun together, we go on new adventures and I still get butterflies when we have date nights (yes, honey, it’s true, I do).

Do you have any great / embarrassing / awkward running stories?

Hmmmm…the first one that comes to mind is the time I fell off the treadmill in college. I normally worked out at the local 24 hour fitness but I decided to go to the university rec center as a change. I was plugging away on the ‘mill and, here is where it gets embarrassing, a really hot guy walked by behind me (I was facing a mirror) and I totally lost concentration and flew off the back of the ‘mill crashing into him. I was mortified. Luckily, it was early so there weren’t a lot of witnesses.

What is one part of your personality you wish that other people saw more often?

This is a tough one. I feel like I’m a pretty open person and most people that know me have seen all my personality traits. Maybe my comical side? Or maybe I say that b/c I don’t really think I’m that funny and I wish I was more so? Hmmm…I’m not really answering the question, am I? I honestly don’t know. Anyone want to shout out a part of personality they want to see more?

If you could have any super powers what would they be and why?

Hands down--TELEPORTATION! This way I could beam myself anywhere at any time. Hello, Hawaii! Plus, no need to be stuck in traffic ever again.