Running in Scandinavia

I was in Scandinavia for 10 days on vacation and it was fantastic. Kevin and I went to Oslo, Stockholm, Malmö, and Copenhagen. Luckily for me, I got to explore the best way: by running. I had 49 miles of runs planned throughout the trip and I. WAS. STOKED. We started out in Oslo and that ended up being my favorite place. There were all these amazing walking paths all throughout the city. I went out with no plan and it was no problem. I passed by multiple waterfalls, a beautiful garden (pictured below), and ended my run going through the Bygdø Royal Manor (the royal farm). It was a gorgeous run and I couldn't have asked for a better place.

Halfway through my Oslo run

Halfway through my Oslo run

Stockholm posed a bit more of a challenge. I ended up just going across the water to Kungsholmen and looping around a bit. It was nowhere near as pretty as my Oslo run, but I did get a nice picture near the water.

Short run in Stockholm

Short run in Stockholm

My 7 miler went much better. I ran around the entirety of Kungsholmen, which provided much nicer views! There was a nice path all around the island which was about 5 miles, so that made it pretty easy to get an even 7!

Views from Kungsholmen

Views from Kungsholmen

Malmö was a great place to run. I ran out to the beach and then ran back through this beautiful garden. Super easy and not too many cars.

Beach AND garden run!

Beach AND garden run!

Copenhagen ended up being my favorite run, but that's mostly because, for the first 14 miles of it, I did a tour with Lena of Running Copenhagen. If I had tried to run in Copenhagen by myself, I think that, I would have been super lost. And just totally bewildered when I saw people still trying to get into clubs at 4am... when I had just woken up. Lena took me all around the city and through Christiana, which was really cool to see. I definitely would recommend Lena's tour! It was so much fun!

Lena and I after 14 miles

Lena and I after 14 miles

B.A.A. 10K Recap: OMG SO HOT

I did the B.A.A. 10K this morning and it was so hot and awful. They said at the beginning that 10,000 people had signed up, but luckily only 7,811 showed up. Small blessings. It surprised me that there were only 900 fewer people than at the 5K, which was such a small dent, I didn't even notice that there were fewer people. It was so crowded that, even though I was waiting in line at the porta-potties when the race started, I still made it into the right corral and started the race with everyone else... 15 minutes after the initial starting gun.

At the start with about 5000 people behind me

At the start with about 5000 people behind me

I do not do well in the heat. It was about 73 degrees and super sunny with no breeze (WTF BOSTON YOU ARE ALWAYS WINDY). I don't really sweat, which is a blessing and a curse, because I overheat like crazy. If I didn't have my hydration pack, I legit think I would have passed out. I felt strong the first two miles and did those sub 9. But then the next two were at 9 minutes and the last two were 9:30+. I really didn't feel good about this race overall, but it definitely felt better organized than the 5K so there's that.

In the end, I finished in 56:11. I finished in top 40% overall and top 27% in my division. Combined with my 5K time, I'm now 70th in my division for the Distance Medley and in the top 26% of women overall. For that, I'm super proud!

On Being An Overly Ambitious Beginning Trail Runner

I've recently been going trail running with run of my friends at dawn (or before). We've only gone twice so far together and it's been an adventure. Our first time out together, we got to the Fells at 4am, had no headlamps, and used our phones to light the trail. We also just had a paper map and kept missing turns, so we ended up going three miles less than we intended due to time. But it was a beautiful morning!

Sunrise over the reservoir in the Middlesex Fells

Sunrise over the reservoir in the Middlesex Fells

The next time we went, we intended to go 15 miles. Still being a very amateur hiker/trail runner, I picked the Skyline Trail in the Blue Hills Reservation because it was easily marked in the app I found on my phone and was about 12 miles long. Seemed not too bad and I thought we'd get some hills. We did... and got some great views.

View from Eliot Tower

View from Eliot Tower

View of Boston from Eliot Tower

View of Boston from Eliot Tower

However, the trail was super tough and rocky. At one point, I wasn't paying attention and fell pretty hard. I tripped at just the right spot so there was a large rock beneath my left knee... so my knee just slammed straight into it. After the shock wore off, I was able to keep running, even though my knee was swelling a bit and both knees were bleeding. However, we met our end when my friend rolled her ankle during a misstep running downhill. Luckily she was able to keep walking and we just took a short cut back to the parking lot. I looked worse at first, but I ended up being the lucky one... she hasn't been able to run the past few days because her ankle has been turning all sorts of crazy colors.

What happens when you don't look where you're going when trail running

What happens when you don't look where you're going when trail running

Have we learned our lesson though? ABSOLUTELY NOT. As soon as we're both back from vacation, we're going right back out. And I can't wait.

Mayflower Brewing Half Marathon Recap

This was a very hilly, hot race. From that perspective, it was a good training run. I now know that I do need 2 liters of water when running long distances on a hot day. Also, that I really need to do more trail runs. However, as a half marathon, it was not that great. My main complaint is that for at least 4 miles, the roads were open to traffic both ways. Routinely we had to cross the road while cars were coming down and it just didn't feel very safe. It was a good after party, but it just wasn't quite worth it. Also, they definitely did not have enough porta-potties. There was a massive line before the start of the race, but then there also weren't enough during the race. I spent 7 minutes just in line waiting to go to the bathroom at around 3.5 miles in. The next one, at 8 miles, looked like the line was probably just as long.

Overall, I ended up finishing in a chill 2:21:30. Glad I did it, but I will not be running this race again.

Run To Remember Half Recap: KILLED IT

That went infinitely better than I thought it would. I didn't get quite enough sleep, but when I woke up, I was excited and feeling good. I was planning on doing around 10 minute miles and felt like that was a good speed that I could keep up (and would cut five minutes off my time). Then I didn't keep with my planned pace...

Because I went a lot faster. I not only PR'd my half marathon, I also PR'd my 10K. I was really worried I went too fast out of the gate and wouldn't be able to keep it up, but I just kept feeling great. I decided to only do every other walk interval (ending up with a 7:1 run:walk) except for miles 9-12, when I did 3:1. I was able to do 6 out of 13 miles at a sub 9min/mile pace. I finished in 2:00:37, almost a full 15 minutes faster than my last one. I did a 9:12 pace, 1:08 faster than my last per mile, and 13 sec per mile faster than the Freedom Run 5K just last year.

I didn't actually win this race... but I sure as hell felt like I did! I finished in the top 40% in my division and top 41% overall.

Figuring Out A Training Plan

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to do a Hal Higdon plan to train up for a marathon. However, I realize that, with my race schedule, I needed to change it to fit my needs. I also had to make sure I wasn't going up in mileage by more than 10% in any given week (generally every other week). I also wanted a plan that I could realistically keep increasing (at that same slow rate) to train up for an ultra. Sometimes the distances are a bit wacky because I have a 5K that weekend, which is definitely a shorter distance than my normal weekend runs. With this plan, I'm also planning that a majority of my half marathons will actually just be at training pace, not race pace. Which I think will be good if I get in that mentality of not trying to go nuts on race day. Here's my plan... interested in any comments anyone has:

Running plan from May 30 to November 13

Running plan from May 30 to November 13

Ok, Now I'm Addicted To River Runs

Since I put a pause on my gym membership (only til June 13), I can finally run before work. Yesterday I did my normal boring MIT to Harvard and back run (~4 miles), but today I upped my game and ran along the Esplanade, which was SORTA BEAUTIFUL.

I did 6 miles, but severely underestimated how far it was to get back when I turned around, so I ended up having to do a few loops. Now I know better!

I think I'm going to start on a marathon training plan. I really like to stay on an actual plan and, right now, I'm just sort of running whatever I want between races. Not the best decision. I decided to go with Hal Higdon's Novice 2 marathon training program. Free and starts with where I'm at right now. I might have to start getting up earlier to do some of these runs, but I'm really looking forward to it! I also just bought a Nathan Intensity hydration pack when I realized this morning that my little water bottle would not get me through long summer runs. I'll follow up with a review!

Running In London

I was in London for the past week and definitely tried to take advantage of it. I ended up running a lot because there were pretty great paths on both sides of the Thames. I ended up doing a total of 33.5 miles and felt pretty great. I also went to workout with Project Awesome London on Friday. They were an awesome group! Definitely live up the name.

We were doing sprints up and down Primrose Hill, doing exercises in between. It was definitely a bit rough because I don't really run hills that often (and I had to run 3 miles to get there). The best part was that the hill gave a great view of the London skyline.

If you're in London, I highly recommend hanging out with them. They were seriously so much fun.

Trail Running

I did a trail run with TARC in the Blue Hills in Milton, MA on Saturday. We went for 7 miles up and down the hills, then a few of us did an extra two miles around the lake. I recently got a pair of Salomon Speedcross 3s to use during Ragnar New England and decided that I needed to break them in (and also start running some trails so I could get used to the hills that I don't encounter in Somerville). I found TARC, had a free Sunday, and decided to join. It was so much fun. If you live in the Boston metro area and are interested in trail running, I would absolutely suggest you join. They did a great job of making sure everyone stayed together (the faster folks would stop and wait up for everyone to catch up) and were just a great group overall. Plus the Blue Hills were great to run in. The hills were great - tough, but not impossible - and the trails were well marked. It was seriously the most fun I've had on a run in a while. And I'm also super sore today! Which is pretty rare coming off a run...

View from the top of Buck Hill (you can sorta see Boston if you look slightly left of center)

Recovery

My blog has been pretty quiet because I haven't really had much to report. I went to Crossfit last week, but I mostly rowed a lot and did a ton of substitutions to go easy on my knees. This week, I'm trying to get back into it. Today I did the following WOD as prescribed and completed 237 total reps:

Tabata 16
(:20 on :10 off)

Box jumps (24/20)
Sit ups
Wall balls
Burpees

As for running, I've got a gait analysis scheduled for Saturday so I can make sure that I'm running correctly. I've also been reading a lot and I think I need to stop being focused on my time and just enjoy my runs. With that in mind, I went on a 6 mile run yesterday, switched up my intervals to 3:1, and slowed down significantly. It went pretty well, but my knee still started hurting around mile 4. I definitely need to get over this hump and get back into actually having enjoyable runs.

Providence Half Marathon Recap

Well, that... went. I got a cold Wednesday night and by Thursday night I had a fever. My fever broke on Friday, but my throat was super scratchy and my voice was pretty much gone (still is). On the upside, my plantar fasciitis seemed to be going away. Day of, I got up early, ate, stretched, rolled out, so I thought I was ready. Apparently not the case.

I haven't had knee issues in a while, but I started dealing with runner's knee during mile 2. I pushed through, trying to be grateful that I wasn't really coughing or sniffling. I managed to do the first 7 miles at mostly under 10 minutes per mile. I slowed down a bit for the next four, doing about 10:40/mile. I picked it up and ran the last 2.1 miles straight. The rest of the race, I actually managed to stick with my run:walk intervals. Despite being passed by the 2:15 pacer very early on in the race, I managed to finish at 2:15:18, which is 7 minutes faster than my training run. I wasn't able to talk at all when I finished because my voice was gone and I'm not 100% sure that I don't have bronchitis. One month to recover and figure out what went wrong and do better next time!

Y'all, SoulCycle Is Really Weird And Not Worth It

I got to attend a SoulCycle class for free today through work. I've never been to a spin class before and I've mostly just heard the ridiculous amount of hype that SoulCycle has gotten. So basically, I was intrigued. After seeing the prices, I was extra intrigued by what a $35 spin class would be like. What would make it worth the cost? What makes it so special?

When we got there, the lockers and bathroom/shower area was pretty nice. The downside is that there were really smelly candles at the checkin desk that almost made me nauseous. Great start! And the whole area was visible from the outside, which was a bit weird, since there weren't a ton of changing rooms. I put my stuff in a locker, got my cycling shoes, and awkwardly walked over to the bike room.

I don't know if this is a general thing with spin classes, but the room was dark and there were a few candles. There were a few people walking around helping us get set up and locked into our bikes. I got locked into my bike about 10 minutes prior to class starting and so I just sat there biking while I was waiting for everyone. All good so far, I guess! Then class started.

Maybe this is a spin thing, but the music sounded like I was in the world's worst dance club. Really, that's what it was. Sure, we were on bikes. But we were supposedly biking to the beat and bopping up and down as if we were dancing. Definitely not my favorite part. She also had us do crunches, which just made me sorta sad. Anyone who thinks those half-assed bike crunches are an ab workout should do... literally any other ab workout. The weighted arm movements were slightly challenging... well the weird pulsing ones at least. But bicep curls with 2lb weights? Give me a break... that was worthless. The instructor was also a little too motivational for me. The other people in the class seemed to like it, but someone saying "you've got one more step!" and "you can always push yourself further!" just makes me roll my eyes. Also, she kept talking about fear... really? Do people really fear a spin class? At that point, I was glad it was dark because I was definitely making a face.

Overall, I expected more of a challenge. I've heard of people throwing up in these classes, but I didn't experience anything vomit worthy unless you have maybe never exercised a day in your life. If that's the case, good for you for working out! But also, don't go as crazy on your first day, slow down, and turn the resistance down. Either way, I would say SoulCycle is not worth it. I pay the equivalent of $11/class at my Crossfit gym, go almost every day, and get actual personal attention on my form. There is no personal attention in these classes and it's so dark that the instructor can barely see it. If you are into spin, there are quite a few other gyms that do unlimited monthly passes for $99/month. That is less than the cost of THREE SoulCycle classes! And guess what? You are getting the same damn thing. I'm not knocking anyone who enjoys spin... but SoulCycle is definitely a waste of money.

This Week In Workouts

Despite not running and overall feeling pretty off my game, this has been a good week for Crossfit PRs. On Tuesday, I did a 65# power snatch, which was a 5# PR for me. On Wendesday, I did a 15 minute AMRAP of 5 53# suitcase deadlifts (one 53# KB in each hand), 13 burpees, and 9 goblet squats with a tiny KB. I managed to get *almost* 8 rounds... two reps short! I felt pretty good during that and was able to keep at a really consistent pace that felt really good. Today was my biggest PR day and favorite weightlifting day... DEADLIFT DAY! My previous one rep max (1RM) was 215# and today I did 1x3 at 215# and then a 1RM at 225#! I've been stuck at 215 for quite a long time... I first hit it about 5 years ago? So it's really gratifying to see my work pay off and finally see a nice big increase in weight.

5K Almost PR + Taking A Break

I ran in the Boston Athletic Association 5K this Saturday and ended up with a pretty good finish: 26:48. I finished in the top third overall and top fifth of women. It was a super full race (8K people) and I don't think people got in the right corrals, so it was a slow start. Since my second mile was faster than my first, I think I could've really PR'd this race if it hadn't been a battle at the start.

I've actually been dealing with plantar fasciitis lately and it has not gone away. I'm going to try to take the next two weeks off running and any CF activity that is hard on my feet (ahem... box jumps and double unders). Gotta stretch, ice, and get better soon. I know that I can do the distance, so if I have to take time off now and in between races, that's fine with me.

Camping? Plus Track + OMG SO MANY DOUBLE UNDERS

I've been out for a few days because I have been at RailsCamp, tucked away in the Catskills with little internet. Doesn't mean I didn't exercise! I ran up to the reservoir twice with two different groups of people. 3.6 miles roundtrip and about 200' of hills which I was not used to. But the end view was awesome!

View of the reservoir

View of the reservoir

I also got to do 4 miles of hiking each day, ended up getting sort lost twice, but it all ended well. Once it ended with waterfalls!

We were definitely not really supposed to be here... but the view was awesome!

We were definitely not really supposed to be here... but the view was awesome!

In the crossfit world...

Tuesday I did deadlifts and did 4x3@200#. That's definitely the most I've done at that weight and it felt pretty easy. And thanks to losing 20lbs, it's now 1.5x my body weight! We also did rowing, sandbag pulls, and ring rows. I thought the sandbag pulls would take more out of me since I picked a pretty heavy one, but it was the ring rows that really got to me.

Today (Wednesday), we just did one 15 minute WOD. It was a beast:

AMRAP 15
100 Mountain climbers
30 Sit ups
30 Kettlebell swings (1.5/1)
30 Wall ball (20/14)
100 Double unders
**Every 2:00 do 2 power cleans (185/135) starting at 0:00

I whipped through everything until I got to the double unders... then it all went to hell. I spent probably about 6 minutes or more on the double unders alone. But I did finish them all! I did single-single-double... over and over again until I got to 100. I should also note that I only did 65# on the power clean. My max is 100#, but I really wanted to keep my heart rate up and not get sloppy with a super heavy weight for me. Then around 3pm today, I did a track workout which was 7x800m w/ 1:00 rest. Kept up about an 8:30 pace, which was about what I was shooting for. Basically, it's a good day.

Badger, or Lightening the Load When Tired

This is the workout that my gym posted today:

"Badger"
Complete three rounds for time of:
95 pound Squat clean, 30 reps
30 Pull-ups
Run 800 meters

Since I have to spend about 7 hours on buses today, I decided that, despite my long run yesterday, I should really go to the gym. Wasn't sure if I was going to run or row, so I played it by ear. Thanks to copious amounts of stretching yesterday, I actually woke up feeling ok. And after the 400m warmup run, I felt ready to go. However, I knew that it would not be smart for me to push myself on weights today. I went down to just 35lbs for the squat cleans and I have zero regrets. My quads were still pretty tired and it took me 33 minutes to finish, but I was able to complete it and the runs were no problem. I think the weirdest thing was that my arms were sore? Ended up doing 32 pullups and then the rest ring rows just so I could keep going.

Lesson: rest. It's important.

14 Miles: Done

This was my last long training run. I spent 20 minutes taping up my feet and my knees and I think it paid off. At no point was I limping (though I was pretty slow for a few miles). I set a new PR for distance and pace for distances over 10 miles. I finished 13.1 in 2:22:17 and finished the whole 14.15 in 2:34:37 at a pace of 10:56 min/mile. Considering how sore I was when I started, I'm feeling pretty confident that I can hit my goal of 2:10 come race day... maybe even sub 2! Considering I did my full marathon in 5:55 6.5 years ago, I'm feeling pretty damn amazing about these times.

Split Jerks, Handstand Push-ups, and Box Jumps

Crossfit has you do some weird things sometimes. The weirdest of which is the handstand push-up. While I'm not quite sure of the utility of the HSPU, I still work on them. Right now, I'm just doing negatives and working on building up the strength. I've read quite a few articles on the dangers of the kipping HSPU, so I have decided against doing those. However, it seems worth it to try to get the strict strength portion, so I'm still working on that. Speaking of strength...

Yesterday, I PR'd my split jerk by 10lbs, coming up to an even 100lbs. I felt like I could've gone a bit higher, but I'm still happy that I kept good form. Plus, after that, we had "Death by Box Jumps". That... surprised me. It was 15 minutes, minute 1 with 1 box jump, minute 2 with 2 and so on on a 24" box. At minute 10, I did 10 in under 20 seconds no problem, but apparently minute 11 got in my head and I tripped up a bit. I was able to pull it together for rounds 14 and 15, but my last round took 45 seconds, which was a bit longer than I had hoped. Since I was able to finish all rounds, I guess I can't be too hard on myself.

Let's Talk About Food

I've been exercising a lot for years. And I thought that, overall, I was a pretty healthy eater. Yet I never lost weight. I've never been super overweight, so I didn't worry too much about it. However, it did bug me. I was spending 9+ hours per week exercising (even more if you include my speed walks to and from work), yet I was still sorta chubby and did not feel very confident in myself. Last June, one of my friends turned me onto the Fit Girls Guide. It can be a bit corny, but I found the online community to be pretty inspiring. I started exercising (stressercising at the time) a bit more, but I still didn't really lose any weight. In October, I decided to use MyFitnessPal to start tracking my food and I found that I was consuming a lot more calories than I thought. I still felt like the amount of calories that FGG generally has you eat per day was still too small for me, but I started to cut the sizes of my meals and eat more snacks. I cut down from 2600 calories per day to 1800 and it made a huge difference. Since November, I've lost 20 lbs and hit my original goal weight.

Point one: calories do matter and tracking what you eat really helps you think about what you are putting in your body.

However, it's not just calories. What you put in matters too. I do a lot of weight training, so my goal macro percentages are 30% protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbohydrates. When I started tracking this more closely, I noticed that I actually was very high in my carb intake and pretty low on protein. So I switched a few things around. I decided to try the Wellpath protein blend and I've really loved that. I get the vanilla blend with the green addition and my favorite smoothie so far has been to 12 oz water, a scoop of protein, one kiwi, and stuffing the rest of my vitamix full of baby spinach. Delicious, high in protein, and low in calories. A nice, nutrient dense start to my day. I also have a steady selection of protein bars in my cabinet at work so I am never without an instant meal in case I forget. My favorites are Epic Bar Chicken Sesame & BBQ and Oatmega Chocolate Peanut Crisp. Both bars are high in protein and low in sugar. I also got ProBar Chocolate Supergreens Base Bar, but I can't really recommend it because each bar has 16g of sugar. Speaking of sugar: one of the things I've noticed in the FGG community is eating things that are "healthy" like the ProBars, but they are actually full of sugar and have way more fat than you actually should eat. Fat is good, but it should be in moderation. Given the food available to us, it's much easier to eat a really fat heavy diet than you would think. When looking at nutrition/protein bars, look critically at the nutrition facts and make sure it has less than 10g of sugar and is well balanced. The Oatmega bar is a good example: 7g of fat, 21g of carbs, 14g protein. Assuming you are eating these as part of a balanced diet, that is a good protein boost in your day.

Point two: determine how much fat/carb/protein is good for you and find foods that fit your goal. Beware of "healthy" foods with excess sugar.

Another key thing not to forget is that you also should not be starving yourself. If you are exercising a lot, you need to be nourishing your body! It can't run effectively on empty. You will feel exhausted if you aren't getting enough calories in your day, especially for breakfast and lunch. Speaking of feeling exhausted and running on empty, sleep is also vitally important to weight loss and all around healthy living. If you aren't sleeping, you won't be able to kick ass at the gym and your body will suffer.

Point three: get sleep and feed yo self.

Alright, that's all I've got for now. Take care of yourself!