See Sarah Run

 This was my third half marathon of the spring and my last chance to get a sub-2 time before the Providence marathon. It’s the first time our town has hosted a half marathon and all my local running buddies were running it. It’s been fun watching the signs go up all week and seeing people out running the course. We also lucked out and got fabulous weather. Six days ago we had a surprise snowstorm and got five inches. Today it was about 45 at the start, wonderfully sunny, and warm by the finish. My parents were in town for the race and my dad was running the 4 mile race that went with the half.

We all got downtown early, hit the port-a-potties, and had a chance to meet some of the famous runners in town for the race. This is billed as the “Legends” race because the organizers have convinced some famous running Wesleyan alumni to attend and even run the race. Jeff Galloway, Bill Rodgers and Amby Burfoot all went to Wesleyan and ran cross country. They were hanging around at the start for everyone to meet them and get their pictures taken. They even signed our bibs!

Me, Bill Rodgers, and my dad’s thumb

Bill Rodgers and my dad

Amby Burfoot and me

Me and Jeff Galloway

Then it was time to go line up. It was so fun standing on Main St. with all my friends just chatting away. The last week has been hard with lots of personal stress and the last two days I’ve even wondered, why am I spending so much time running anyway? But that moment at the start took all those doubts away. It was such an amazing sense of camaraderie, friendship and anticipation that all the training felt instantly worthwhile again. Running and my running friendships have transformed my life in the last few years and this race felt like a celebration of that transformation. Then the gun went off and off we went!

The course starts on Main but quickly turns up Court St., which is a pretty big hill. We looped campus and came back around to High St. where the 4-mile race split from the half. During this first loop, it was pretty crowded, but I was able to keep a good pace, even running at a sub-9 pace. Sub-2 pace is 9:09, but hitting that exactly would be cutting it way too close and I knew I needed some extra time for water and Gu stops. I had water, Gu and salt around mile 4 and was running about 2 minutes ahead of a sub-2 pace. Later I found out that a good friend was cheering in his front yard on this part of the course and another friend was working a water stop that I ran by twice. I have to say – I was really focused and didn’t see either of them.

I was checking my pace and my overall time at the mile markers while they were still low enough and I was still coherent enough that I could calculate how close I was to my goal. That meant I looked at my watch at 5 miles and saw 45:xx. I’m pretty sure that is the fastest I’ve ever run five miles. Miles 5-7 were a good part of the race for me. These are all streets we run on a regular basis, but the race routed us backward from our usual direction. Somehow that made it more interesting. I was definitely working hard here, but not suffering. I had good music to listen to. I thought about the Legends running these same streets when they were students and that was actually quite cool. This part of the race is a slow and steady climb but with a lot of straightaways and it was work, but it was fine.

Miles 7-10 were harder. I apparently crossed the halfway mark in 56 minutes, which is an average pace of 8:37. That is crazy fast for me. Miles 7-10 are a hillier part of the course, though, and this felt really hard. I somehow lost track of where I was geographically. Weird, because this is very familiar territory. When we came out on the top of Brush Hill, I was completely surprised to find myself there. Thank goodness this surprise was at the top of the hill! This is one of the biggest hills in town but we run up the steep side all the time and they routed the course up the easier side so that is partly why I got confused. Also, frankly, I was starting to be a little out of it. Miles 1-4 were sort of like “Wheeee! This is fun! I remember that I love running and I love racing and my town is awesome and this day is awesome!” During miles 5-7, I listened to that Britney Spears song “Work Bitch” and even though I feel a little guilty about it, I love that song and it was perfect. I was tempted to put it on repeat. Miles 7-10 felt more like, wow, this really hurts. I would like it to be over now. My right leg was cramping. I walked at the water stop at mile 7 more than I would have liked and sort of cursed my way through it as well. The dirt road through Wadsworth Park, which is generally great to run on, felt like it was specially designed to rough up my legs. I definitely started to lose heart a bit and I couldn’t tell if I was going to get the sub-2 time or not.

I’ve been lucky enough to pick up a bit of coaching from someone in the sub-30 facebook group and he got me through this tough zone. He sent me a great pep talk the night before the race and I held onto three thoughts: Move your ass. Never give up. You’re tougher than you think you are. I really thought I might have been out of the running for sub-2 at this point, but I just kept at it, even running over that damn dirt road. I wanted this so bad and I just said, if you want it that bad, you’d better work for it and just deal with that pain and run. So I did.

When I got to 10 miles, I could see that I had 29 minutes left to get to the finish line and still have a sub-2 half marathon. Generally I can run a 29 minute 5K whenever I like, but not necessarily after 10 hard miles. Still, I knew that meant something like a 9:30 or 10 minute pace would do it and I didn’t have to keep aiming for 8:50s. I didn’t actually slow down much but knowing that I could was pretty helpful. I hit another dark patch around mile 11.5 when my legs just hurt so bad. But I was so close and by then I could see that sub-2 was definitely within reach if I just kept at it. The song “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark” came on. That always makes me think of Team Neon and I just said, damn girl, pedal to the metal, get this done already. I just kept hitting repeat on that song from then until the finish line. I came cruising down High St., pretty sure I was going to make sub-2 as long as I didn’t slow down and didn’t trip. Then down the big hill on Court St., around the corner, and I could see the finish line. Apparently my family was by the side of the course cheering me on, but they weren’t on the side where I expected them to be and I could see 1:58:xx on the clock, two long blocks away. Less than two minutes for two blocks is also totally manageable but I just zeroed in on that clock and ran like hell. Crossed the finish line in 1:59:15!

My friend Triple M was working the finish line as a medic and she was right there with some water and a huge hug for me. I drank a few sips of water and just sat down on the road. I needed to stretch and I was not moving another inch until I did. She laughed and said no one else had actually sat down, but it’s what I needed to do. After a few minutes, I pulled myself together, had some more water, and got up to get my medal. I found my family and my friends. Big hugs all the way around.

Me and Triple M

One of the sweetest memories of the day for me is what happened next. My running pals had sent a text that they were at the massage tent and to come quickly because the line was not bad. That sounded great, so I just grabbed my dad’s hand and started walking with him. He had done great in his four mile race and beat his expected time by over 10 minutes! We walked together, holding hands, all the way to the massage tent and got to compare notes about our races. It was fantastic.

Got my medal!

Me, Fast Friend, and Snarky Girl, plus Kid #2

Sub-2 Baby!

The whole rest of the day was awesome. We hung around the finish area for awhile just chatting and soaking it all in. Then Fast Friend and I grabbed a quick coffee and went back to our place. In an hour or so, a huge gang of running friends came over for a post-race party. The grown-ups got to sit and eat and endlessly go over the race, while the kids ran in and out and laughed and laughed. It was glorious. Only sad note was that Kid #1 was quite sick and couldn’t participate. The Incomparable Mervus was super nice and kept him company. Otherwise, pretty much a perfect day.

On March 30^th,  we did our third 16 miler of this training cycle. The weather was terrible that weekend, but a new kind of terrible: rain, instead of snow, just for variety’s sake. We had planned to start at 8am, but were able to push the start time back to 9:30 to dodge a true downpour. Even so, we were pretty wet by the end of it.

The Middletown half is next weekend so we decided to run some of the course to get a look at it. Fast Friend, Maple Leaf Trail Runner and I started out for the first 8 miles. An unnamed someone put a bug in my brain that I should do this run faster than our usual long run pace. Fast Friend and Maple Leaf didn’t even blink at this idea. Might have to make friends with some slower runners who put up at least a minimum of protest to some of these plans.

Actually, most of the run was fine. The course for the half covers a lot of the ground that we usually run anyway and it’s really cool that there will be a half marathon here. It’s certainly not flat but at least these are familiar hills. The course goes up a fairly significant hill that we generally dodge, but it goes down the steep side of Brush Hill. We always go up that one.

We dropped Maple Leaf off at the cars after 8 and Snarky Girl called to say she was on her way so we circled round campus for two miles while we waited to pick her up. Poor Snarky Girl started running just as the rain and wind picked up but she can handle a bit of dirty weather. For the last six we ran through town and around campus for a bit.

As for the running parts of the run: I was really pleased that we held the faster pace for most of the run. We generally do long runs at around 10:30 minutes/mile or just a tad slower. For this, we were aiming for between 9:30 and 10. When our speed dropped, we were able to pick it back up again. If one of us started feeling frisky and running faster, the other slowed them down. We finished with a 9:58 average, including Gu stops, so not bad.

I had my Gu around miles 4, 8, and 12 and salt at the same time, plus right at the start of the run, plus around mile 14. I had a lot of cramping in my right hip, which is the same problem that plagued me at the Hartford marathon last fall. That’s a bit troubling because I was hoping the salt tablets would take care of it. I have been having potato chips the day before long runs and I’ll try that again next weekend.

The first 16 miler we did was a real struggle. The second one was just kind of chaotic. This one felt much more strong and purposeful, which was great!

Start spreading the news……

I’m leaving today……

Ok, I’m not really going anywhere today, but today is the day that the New York City marathon announced who won the lottery and therefore gets to run the race. I won!!! I can hardly believe it. It’s a little bittersweet because I have so many friends who entered the lottery and didn’t get in. I wish we could all be heading to New York together. Especially sad is that Fast Friend didn’t get in. I would have SO loved to train for New York with her and to run it together!

But, I’m also starting to visualize myself running down various streets in New York. I love New York! I’ve loved the city since the first time I ever visited when I was in high school. I love the smell of it, the pretzel stands, the subway, Central Park, the big buildings, the whole thing. It’s always felt like some kind of weird life error that I haven’t ever lived there. But now I’m going to run a marathon there!

I’m really beyond excited but also a little teeny bit worried. This is a MUCH bigger race than I’ve ever run before. We have done the Manchester Road Race the past several years and Manchester is a zoo with “only” 15,000 runners. But we know where to park, the Incredibly Awesome Mervus knows where to hang out with the children and ultimately it’s only a 4. 7 mile race so it just doesn’t last that long. New York is logistical insanity: over 50,000 runners, 3:30am wake-up call, buses to Staten Island, getting to the start hours before the race begins. Yikes. There is a reason I don’t usually do these crazy big races. Tiny Dynamo loves this stuff, but I get a little freaked out.

I honestly don’t remember if I entered the lottery for New York last year. I know I thought about it. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to run a marathon at all yet and I was pretty darn sure I wasn’t ready to run New York. Hartford was plenty crazy enough. And yet. Wow. New York City Marathon. When I told the Mistress of Martinis and Mischief she said “It’s like I know a famous runner now!” At least someone who is going to run a famous race!

Celebrate Life in Rock Hill, NY was my second half marathon in two weeks. Both were very hilly. See, I am full of excuses from the get-go on this one.  Might as well throw in the third big excuse: On the weekend in between the two halfs, I did a 20 mile training run. Also hilly, of course. I could add more, blah, blah, blah. Here are the numbers. I ran Colchester in 2:04:33 on 3/22/14. I ran Celebrate Life in 2:06:07 on 3/09/14. Both of those are faster than any half marathon I have run prior to 2014.

Celebrate Life is the first half marathon I registered for this spring. Because I can’t run Ragnar Cape Cod with the Albany Running Mamas (wah, wah, wah), I wanted to do some spring race with them and somehow a bunch of them signed up for Celebrate Life. I drove to Albany Saturday afternoon and spent the rest of the day hanging out with Tiny Dynamo. She’s the one who got me into running in the first place, one of those moms with a full-time job who still made time to run. We got her some new shoes at their GINORMOUS Fleet Feet. Made a burrito run. Coordinated endless details on facebook and caught up on life in general. Tiny Dynamo is a friend with whom I just pick up as if I had seen her yesterday even though we only get together about once a year. She’s a super generous runner and person and a logistical whiz and super funny and therefore an awesome friend. She’s also a serious sleep Nazi so not only was it early-to-bed, but I knew we’d be up right on time even with daylight savings.

We got up at some ridiculous hour, picked up another Albany Running Mama and drove to the bus. I knew there was a bus ride involved, but somehow had neglected to think about how long it was – pretty long. We were on the bus for about two hours! Good chatting time. We got there, got situated, picked up packets, etc. No medal for this race, but a “lovely” mustard colored microfleece jacket.

The weather was colder than anyone had been hoping for and to add insult to injury, snow started to fall at the start. Oh, and a lovely wind picked up as well. Oh well. We were here to run, not get a suntan.

Originally I had planned to make this race my goal half of the spring. When I described the race to Easy Going Trainer, I said:

“This is my goal half of the spring. I’m going to try to run it in under 2 hours. My previous PR at the half marathon is 2 hours, 6 minutes, 43 seconds so that would be a big improvement. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll try again for sub-2 in the fall. But, you never know.”

Plans change. I couldn’t resist running Colchester hard, much harder than I had originally meant to. And then the 20 mile training run. And the hard workout with Easy Going Trainer the Friday before the race. Etc. So, despite having a lovely Albany Running Mama willing to help me pace myself to a sub-2, I knew within the first mile that that wasn’t going to happen. This race was going to be work.

It was hard, hard work. Whereas two weeks ago, I was flying down the course, this felt like a battle of wills the whole way. Me against the hills or me against my own legs or me against the mile markers that seemed to show up veeerrrry slowly. It was a serious grind-it-out situation. For a lot of the race I was able to calculate that I was not going to go sub-2, but that I might beat my Colchester time. But the hills kept coming and by mile 9, it was pretty clear that even a PR was out of reach. I am disappointed. I know it’s silly because these were not PR conditions, but still, there it is.

Here’s something I’m proud of from the race. There were lots of times I wanted to quit trying to run fast and I did walk up a couple of hills very late in the race. But I always said to myself, time to get back to business, picked up the pace, and was able to get it back down to somewhere reasonable. Before mile 9 or 10, this often meant around a 9:10 pace and after mile 10, at least around 9:30.

Was the course pretty? I guess so. It was winding roads around some lakes in the winter. There was a lot of snow. Honestly, I was working too hard to enjoy the view. There was no transcendent barn moment in this race. There were only one or two hills where I ran down them super fast and passed a bunch of people. I listened to the same music as at Colchester and it was still awesome, but more rescue-me-from-this-hell kind of awesome than Top-of-the-World kind of awesome. It felt like I was running on a never-ending sine wave.

Just for the record, here’s what I used as fuel. GU at miles 4, 7 and 11, more or less. The water stops were unpredictable. I almost bailed on the third GU but I was so dead by 11 miles that I decided to take one after all. I had some water and some Gatorade. Liquids at the aid stops had ice in them! That’s how cold it was! Some good news: I used the Hammer Endurolyte tablets and I think they worked. I took one at the start and three over the course of the race. My hips did not cramp! Now, it felt for awhile like my entire right leg was going to fall off, but it was a different feeling from the cramping.

I am trying to consider the entire race as really excellent practice at running on tired legs. Instead of a half marathon, it was more like a simulation of the second half of a marathon. Indeed, if I get through the marathon as well as I got through Celebrate Life, I’ll be in excellent shape.

An article came across my facebook feed today about how to talk to our daughters about their bodies. I can summarize it in one word: Don’t. The article then proceeded with a message I’ve heard many times now. Don’t tell your daughter she’s fat. Don’t tell your daughter she’s thin. Don’t talk about her thighs or her arms or any other body parts. Don’t talk about your own body or your own body parts. Don’t count calories in front of your daughter. Don’t say anything negative about yourself in front of your daughter.

This article left me uncomfortable. I can get behind that last bit of advice. I don’t say anything bad about my body in front of my daughter. I can reveal right now that I don’t have a secret eating disorder in my past. I am interested in running and other activities as methods of weight control (and for lots of other reasons as well), but my weight has never really been out of control so maybe I have nothing interesting to say on that topic.

I have something to say about body silence though. It turns out I’m against it. I love how running and working out is making my body fitter, stronger, and yes, better looking. I think about those things pretty often and frankly, probably talk about them with my family to the point of boredom. Theirs, not mine because I’m thinking about these things way more often than I’m talking about them. I am figuring out some new things my body can do and I am proud and excited about it. Why wouldn’t I share that with my daughter? She knows I am running farther and faster than ever before. She knows that I come home from the gym sweaty and happy. I think this is good information for her to have.

I even count calories in front of my daughter. If I have forgotten to track my calories and I feel like doing it, I will excuse myself from a meal briefly to type the information into my computer. I am trying to eat more protein most days and more carbs before races and, gasp, my children know this. Once after reading a different version of that same don’t-talk-to-your-daughter article, I asked my girl if she understood why I count calories. She’s quite verbal, but she answered by pumping her little arms and pretending to run. Can it really be “wrong” to teach my daughter that good nutrition helps me do better at an activity that I love? She was able to tell me (correctly) at breakfast this morning which ingredients in her French toast had protein in them. Is that bad information for her to have? I just don’t think so.

Race day morning dawned clear and …..NOT COLD! After weeks of frigid temperatures, we are finally getting a break and it was 40 degrees and sunny. Clearly a good day for a race!

My husband (a.k.a., the Incredibly Awesome Mervus, a.k.a. I.A.M.) and the kids went with me to this one so we got up, had breakfast and got everything packed up. I love it when they come to races so this was a real treat. I gathered up my running gear and the food for the post-race brunch; The Incredibly Awesome Mervus got the kids and some books and off we went. Picked up Snarky Girl on the way there.

The race started at the Bacon Academy, same location as the New Year’s Day run. We quickly ran into another mom from Spencer School and Maple Leaf Trail Runner. Fast Friend showed up and we had quite a crew.

When we signed up for this race, the plan was to treat it as a glorified training run. I’ve thought of running this half in other years, but I’ve been too chicken. The course is super hilly and you have to train right through January to be able to run it. When I sent an email to Easy Going Trainer describing my plans for this spring, I said something like “My goal will be just to accomplish the race.”

Yeah, well, so much for that. Training has been going so well for the past few weeks. Fast Friend definitely planned to run this one hard. It’s no secret that I want to run a sub-2 hour half marathon. I was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen at Colchester, but I was also ready to run this race hard and see what happened. I hadn’t raced a half since the Ghost Train Run in November 2012 (2:06:43) and I am certainly in better shape now. I spent a good deal of time Thursday and Friday looking at pace calculators and wondering what was possible.

We got a tip from someone at the start that the course was just as hilly as we had heard. Also, that there were plenty of hills even in the last two miles so not to take the early hills too quickly. My friends are all faster than I am so I wished them a good race and settled in for 13.1 miles.

The rest of the race doesn’t have a real narrative. Sometimes I feel like a race is almost a story that unfolds as it goes. This one was just a collection of impressions. The race is hilly, that’s for sure. So hilly that pacing by my watch was pretty much right out the window. I had thought to aim for between a 9 min and 9:30 pace, but we were constantly going up and down so I had to run it by feel. I kept thinking of Jenny Hadfield’s advice about running by effort and I tried to keep my effort consistently hard. That seemed to work.

The scenery was very pretty. Currier and Ives style Connecticut farmland and woods in the snow. We ran two stretches on dirt roads, which were treacherous because they weren’t thawed. The most beautiful part was definitely on a downhill maybe 2/3 of the way through when we ran past a huge red barn on our left. The barn against the snow in the sunshine – stunning. I took a moment and told myself, just remember this. Remember how gorgeous this is and feel grateful that you are out here and able to do this. That barn was transcendent, not a normal description for a barn. I hope I sealed that vision into my memory forever.

I did my usually fueling for a half with GUs at miles 4, 7 and 10 more or less. That corresponded pretty well to the three water stops on the course. I did get some cramping in my hips partway through the race. I am now thinking the problem is that I need more salt so at 7 and 10 miles, I had water instead of Gatorade, just to get the additional sodium. That goes against the rule of not having GU and Gatorade together and also the rule of nothing-new-on-race-day, but I figured my stomach has been pretty strong and my hips have been a problem so I bet on my stomach being ok, which it was. No idea if the Gatorade helped. I did back off on pace a couple of times and the cramping never got as awful as it was during the marathon, but it was there. I’m going to definitely try some salt tablets or something next weekend.

I loved the music I listened to during the race. The Sub-30 group on facebook made a lot of suggestions and they were all awesome. I barely ever listen to music while running right now because I’m always running with friends, but it’s a real treat to listen while racing.

I had more than I thought I did to say about this race, but I saved the most important thing for last. I felt really different running this race than possibly any other. More in control, more powerful, stronger, and more joyful. I had a great race on New Year’s Day, but 5Ks are so painful. Fast Friend was yelling at me the whole time [ok, probably not the whole time], which was very helpful actually, but it didn’t feel controlled or particularly joyful. In this race I felt like I might imagine Kara Goucher or someone like that feels. I ran fast and hard almost the entire race, yet also in control. If I wanted to pass someone, I passed them. I passed a lot of people, easily more than I’ve passed in any other race, possibly more than I’ve passed in all other races combined. Plenty of them passed me back later, but I’m used to that. This was running that felt a little bit like flying.

The last mile was hard. The last half mile was almost impossibly hard. I count when things get rough and I counted the entire last mile. The best thing about being the slowest is that your whole gang is waiting for you at the finish line. So, I saw Snarky Girls’s crazy yellow Alaska shirt and Fast Friend in her headband and Maple Leaf Trail Runner, also in bright yellow. And then around the last corner Mervus with the kids and my daughter holding out her hand and everyone yelling. Then I spotted the clock which said something like 2:04:54 and I pushed like a crazy woman to get across that finish line in under 2:05. Gun time: 2:04:58. Net time: 2:04:33. WOO HOO!

Last fall, I ran my first marathon. It was amazing, hard, interesting, challenging, fascinating. I loved training for it and I loved running it. I especially loved the incredible support I got from family and friends along the way. I loved discovering that it was possible for me (me!) to run 26.2 miles. I loved almost everything about it.

Except my time. I finished in 5 hours 26 minutes. I realize that that is not terrible. I wrestled with this for several weeks after the race and I eventually accepted that this is perfectly respectable for a first-time attempt at a marathon. I had said all along that my goal was to finish and I did finish. But boy did that time grate on me. Part of the problem was that I knew I could run a faster marathon, potentially quite a bit faster. I had horrible cramping in my hips starting at around mile 9 or 10 and that slowed me down a lot. My predicted race time based on other races I’d run was a good deal faster. Anyway, obviously this still bugs me.

I spent some time in those weeks post-marathon trying to figure out what had gone wrong and what I could do better the next time around. I knew almost immediately upon finishing that I would run another marathon. In fact, I would have run another one last fall if I hadn’t thought that was a crazy idea that would possibly lead to injury. Instead, I spent the weeks after the marathon reading a lot, thinking a lot, and trying to figure out what to do differently. There are some other, smaller adjustments I would make (not taper so long, for example), but I wanted to make some more significant changes as well. Here is what I came up with:

1. More speed work. “Speed work” is just runner jargon for running faster. There are lots of ways to do it and I am still learning about them. But, for marathon #1, the training plan I used didn’t have a lot of speed work and a lot of the time I just ditched it and covered all the miles at the same pace. I had a lot of reasons for this. I got some Achilles tendonitis partway through training and my physical therapist recommended not running fast. It was summer and hot. I have very little natural inclination to run fast and I had no one to push me. So, the small amount of speed work in the training program I was using quickly became no speed work at all.
2. Start strength training. I have certainly read enough about running to know that strength training is important. I even had a couple of short routines I did at home that a friend recommended. Even more surprisingly, I actually did these routines often enough to get better at them. Still, it wasn’t a lot. One of my theories about the hip cramping is that it came from muscle fatigue so I was committed to getting stronger.
3. Lose weight. I am not significantly overweight. Most people would say I am not overweight at all. But I have a little extra around the middle and I know that carrying less weight can make you faster. This only makes sense. If I had to carry a 10 pound backpack every time I ran, I would be slower. A rule of thumb is that you can run 2 seconds per mile faster per pound lost. So, losing 10 pounds would potentially improve my time by nearly nine minutes.

Here’s what I’ve done to address these three points and how it’s going.

1. Last time around I used the Finish It plan from Train Like A Mother. I love the Another Mother Runner folks and I had excellent luck with their Own In plan for the half marathon. I had not been someone who liked the idea of a training plan, yet theirs seemed manageable. I’m happy I did this for my first marathon because given my personality, other plans might have seemed overwhelming. My number one criterion the first time was that the plan allow me to continue my beloved trail runs with friends most Tuesdays. We run five miles. We don’t worry about pace. This plan fit well with that so I went with it.

   For the second attempt at the marathon, I wanted something more serious. By now, though, I had some other ideas about what such a plan should look like. First, I really only wanted to run four days a week. I worry about getting injured and I know I can sustain four days a week safely. Second, weekly mileage on the Finish It plan topped out around 37 miles, but it was only that high one week. I found that I really liked running that many miles a week and even more would have been ok. I looked into some of the well-known plans (Galloway, Hansons, Hal Higdon, Jack Daniels) yet none of them seemed quite right. Then a friend in my online group mentioned that he used the SmartCoach plan from Runner’s World. A really fast friend. With SmartCoach, you plug in a recent race time and distance as well as some other information and it spits out a plan “tailor made” for you. The one it gave me looked challenging, but manageable. It had me running four days a week. It didn’t involve anything like changing pace six times in a run. Bonus: it had a ton of five mile runs at an easy pace, perfect social runs for me. Double bonus: SmartCoach plans are free!

   And yes, the SmartCoach plan has actual speed work. And even paces prescribed for the easy runs. But it looked manageable. And I’ve been able to do the fast runs. So far, so good.

2. Strength training has turned out to be a bonanza. Early efforts to convince my friend Mistress of Martinis and Mischief (Triple M) that she should let me glom onto her in the weight room at the YMCA went nowhere. She might as well have said “I vant to train alone” in her best Greta Garbo imitation. The times for classes at the YMCA were also terrible for me and the classes did not look interesting. Triple M had another tip though – a local guy, let’s call him Tough Guy, had started his own gym a few years ago and the place looked pretty serious. Called “Innovative Fitness,” the website was terrible, but they seemed to get results. Plus, they were having a sale! My friend Snarky Girl was game to go check it out so we headed over and tried a class that they call “Primal Circuits” but which we have shortened to circuits. We joined immediately. At the advice of the fast friend who recommended SmartCoach, I also hired a personal trainer (Easy Going Trainer, not Tough Guy. Because I want to have fun and I am not insane). Joining the gym turned out to be a completely brilliant move. The circuits class is insanely fun. I convinced a bunch of running friends to join and we started going as often as three times a week. Circuits is a mix of cardio and strength training and it’s hard. Yet, weirdly, I didn’t mind being one of the worst in the class and I generally felt great afterwards. After a few weeks, I could keep up much better. Because so many of us joined together, there’s always a friend there, even on the rare occasion that I neglect to coordinate what we’re doing that week.

   Hiring Easy Going Trainer has also been awesome. I have tried lifting weights  a few times before, but the weight room is really intimidating, especially to women. I pretty much stuck to machines, just did a few random things, and left. Now I have an expert helping me learn what to do and it’s much better. It’s also much harder, but way more fun. I had no idea weight lifting could be fun, but it’s a blast! I would do it more if I had time. So point number two, so far, so great.

3. Losing weight has been the hardest piece of this by far. I have lost around five pounds since early November. I’ve been tracking what I eat using myfitnesspal.com. I don’t record everything there every day, but I’m pretty reliable with it. After talking with Easy Going Trainer and doing some reading, I also decided to start eating more protein. I’m a vegetarian and I have a pretty healthy diet. I don’t eat a lot of processed foods, I don’t eat a lot of sweets, I don’t eat tons of potato chips. That’s one reason losing weight is hard. Not to say my diet is perfect, but there’s nothing obvious like, stop eating donuts every day. The protein idea came from Easy Going Trainer, but was reinforced by nearly everything I read. I started drinking a protein shake after most workouts. This seemed incredibly bizarre at first, but now I like it. And, it seems to be working. It’s very slow, but I’m losing weight. I’m 6 pounds lighter than I was on marathon day. Point number three, slow and steady wins the race?

We did our first 16 mile run on the training program yesterday. There’s some kind of border at 15 miles. 14 miles is just a bit longer than a half marathon. Not even a whole mile longer. It’s just a half where you get lost or go a bit off track or something. 15 is a different deal. It’s not just the five in the ones column. 15 is a different kind of pain or endurance. It’s a much greater chance for the “wheels to come off the bus” as runners like to say.

Anyway, this training plan is ambitious so we jumped from 14 to 16. The weather was dodgy this past weekend and Fast Friend wanted to avoid the snow on Saturday. I was daunted by the cold on Sunday, but that’s what we settled on. Then Saturday’s storm brought more snow than expected, but the wind was just as bad as expected. Blah, blah, blah. The story of February in New England. We met Snarky Girl at Lyman Orchards and set off. The cold was actually not that bad. I don’t know when I’m going to stop worrying about cold weather, but it’s almost never as bad as I think it will be. Our seven mile loop over there is just gorgeous and I think we all really wanted to run it. We got these pictures at the top of the big hill and felt great.

Such a pretty day. The back side of that hill must get less sun or something because the road was much slicker. There was also a lot of traffic heading into the newly-opened ski resort at Powder Ridge. We did our second loop heading towards Wadsworth State Park, hoping for cleaner roads and less traffic.

This run felt hard. At one point we were talking about birds. Not just what birds we were seeing while running, which would have been ok, but which people in our lives had been especially interested in birds when we were kids. I thought, damn, this is digging the bottom of the conversational barrel here. This run has got to end and yet, we still have six miles to go! Snarky Girl cut out shortly after the bird conversation. Because of her knee, not because we were boring her to death. I think. And Fast Friend got going on some university gossip, which is always good for a few miles.

By the end, we were hurting. We had to do a mile or so out and back and timed it so we could walk the driveway back to the Lyman’s parking lot. Somehow that walk at the end feels like a special treat when it works out that way. My right hip starting cramping up at 14.5 miles, which is quite disappointing. But when we were done, we felt super happy it was over, incredibly tired, but not demoralized. Mission accomplished! Bring on the Colchester Half next weekend!