Category Archives: Races

Officially Done with Physical Therapy!!

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Last night I headed out to Fast Track Physical Therapy in Falls Church for what I was hoping would be my last PT session. Liz, my physical therapist there, gave me the great news that I have in fact officially “graduated” and am done with PT.

It’s not easy for me to admit injury (main reason things got so bad in the first place!), and it’s even harder for me to stop running, so starting PT and being told I needed to give my body a break was a bit hard to swallow at first. Turns out this whole injury thing might have been one of the best things for me. I’ve become so much more aware of my running form and what muscles need to be working when. Thanks to run analysis my form is getting better and more efficient. I learned the hard way just how important strength training and flexibility are for runners. This seems obvious, but I love to run so much I wasn’t always making time for the other stuff. That’s changed.

Liz did a final video run analysis last night and my form has improved a ton from the first time we did this. I’m still dropping my hip a little bit, but it’s getting better and I’ll keep working on it. My feet are landing in a very neutral position and I’m doing a better job of pulling my legs underneath me. We did a quick run through of my home exercises and stretches that have helped me get so much better over the last few months, and she gave me a few more to add to the arsenal to make sure I don’t end up hurting myself again.

I’m amazed at how much more flexible I’ve become. There’s still work to do, but I always just assumed I wasn’t very flexible and didn’t realize I just needed to put the time and effort in to work on it. It has been so amazing to run pain free these last couple weeks. Seriously, I think it’s been a couple years since running felt like this. Liz and Fast Track are the best! If you live in the NoVa/DC area and need to see a physical therapist – I highly, highly recommend them.

I’ve never been so excited for a race season, and can’t wait to go after some new PRs and a Boston Qualifier!

So excited, I can't stop smiling!

So excited, I can’t stop smiling!

Shoe Showdown: Newton Gravity vs. Nike Free 5.0

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I LOVE running shoes. They’re one of my favorite things to buy. I think most runners would agree – you can never have too many in your closet! I currently have six pairs in my rotation. Two of them are probably ready for retirement, but sometimes it takes me a little too long to throw them out. I know this isn’t good for my legs, but sometimes I get attached!

I’ve been wearing my Newton Gravitys and Nike Frees for the longest, so they’re my back up shoes right now. I leave the Nike’s at work in case I forget my sneaks and want to go for a run at lunch or at the end of the day. I left my Newton’s at home after Christmas so when I visit – especially when I fly – I don’t have to stuff a pair in my carry-on.

Here’s how they stack up…

Newton Gravity 2012

Just The Facts:
$175
Women’s Size 8
7.6 oz
3mm heel-to-toe drop

How they Lace Up:
Putting on my new Newton’s was love at first step. I got to try them out in a series of four Friday 5ks wear Newton reps showed up with tester pairs, but it only took 2 weeks – and 2 PRs – to win me over. They’re incredibly light and breathable. Like all Newtons they feature their trademarked Action/ReactionTM technology and a biomechanical metatarsal sensor plate. Check out the lugs on the bottom that make them so unique and while still providing cushioning, give you a very engaging and responsive feel making you more efficient and costing you less energy with each step. The sensor plate lets you run more naturally since it allows you to sense the ground better making your stride more efficient and more stable.

These shoes are prefect for neutral, midfoot strikers like myself. They can also help encourage a midfoot strike if you’re looking to transition, but you should definitely take it slow and only run a couple miles at a time in them until you build up and strengthen the different leg muscles you’ll engage.

Newton’s bright colors are super fun, and combined with their patented technology they make me feel like I have an extra bounce in my step. I ran my fastest 5k ever in them, and yet they also were supportive enough to carry me through a marathon (also a PR) and all the long training runs along the way to it.

Nike Free 5.0

Nike Free 5.0s

Nike Free 5.0s

Just The Facts:
$100
Women’s Size 8
7.4 oz
7mm heel-to-toe drop

How They Lace Up:
The Nike Free’s are super light and feel like there is barely anything on my feet. They’re also incredibly flexible. I think they’re a good first step into more minimalist shoes. Most of my runs in these shoes were on a treadmill since they were my back up pair at the office for when I’d fit in runs at the gym there. I was stuck doing most of my runs for that training season on the treadmill though, including three of my 20-milers (ugh!) so they saw plenty of miles.

After wearing heavily cushioned shoes for years, I was warned to ease into these, but I loved the light weight barely there feel right from the start. Again, these are best for neutral runners. The heels don’t have a lot of cushion either, so if you’re primarily a heel striker these might not be a good move.

Showdown – The Verdict:
Both shoes were great to me, so this is a tough call, but the Newtons win out. Both were pretty breathable, but the open air mesh upper of the Newtons dried a bit faster. The Newtons also force you to focus on your form a lot more. It’s easier to slip into a heel-first strike with the Nikes, which isn’t easy on the foot with their lack of cushioning.

While any specialty running store would lecture me about not choosing a shoe based on color, the Newtons fun, bright colors are definitely a plus! Sometimes it just comes down to feel and my Newtons felt great on every run, gave me support without weighing me down and most importantly – made me feel fast!

Marathon Tours Photo Contest

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For today’s post, a shameless plug: please go vote for me in the Marathon Tours photo contest. Marathon Tours & Travel provide travel services for runners combining running and travel into an experience you’ll always remember. I traveled with them to Ireland in 2009 and Greece in 2010, and both trips were truly amazing.

Ireland was and still is my all-time favorite travel destination. I loved everything about it from the history to the beautiful views of endless green up in the mountains – and of course, the pubs were pretty great too. I didn’t exactly train well for the Dublin Marathon, so I lined up at the start line really unprepared. I paid for that in pain, but my days in Dubiln and Galway were worth every second of hurt.

Kylemore Abbey - my photo contest entry

Kylemore Abbey – my photo contest entry

Greece was the race experience of a lifetime. I ran the 2,500th anniversary of the original marathon trekking from Marathon to Athens. I never thought there would be a way to top the rush and excitement of crossing the finish line in my first marathon, but this was absolutely a finish experience like no other. It wasn’t the prettiest course, but taking in all the history along the way was unbelievable and incredibly humbling.

The end of the race took us into the original Olympic Stadium with the final 100 yards playing out on the track. Tens of thousands of people filled the stadium cheering. My eyes filled with tears and I pumped my fists in the air with excitement as I ran to the finish.

I traveled to both of these races on my own and never would have done so without the organization and camaraderie that came with participating through Marathon Tours. As I’m sure you can imagine, I would love to do another destination race with them sometime, and winning this contest could help me get there a lot quicker!

Entries have to be pictures from one of their trips and monthly winners for their photo contest receive money toward a trip. The end of the year prizes are what I’m after though, especially that trip to the London Marathon. The rest of the year end prizes aren’t too shabby either!

Thanks for taking the time to vote for me!

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

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Well, I’m back running and it feels great! I’m still working on my strength and flexibility so I can get to 100 percent, but I’m doing so much better and am almost finished with my physical therapy as well. Now that I’m back training, I’m going to make “Footprints” a regular Monday feature on the blog recapping my training week, and letting you know what I’ve been up to and what roads (or treadmills) I’ve left my footprints on each week. For the next month I’ll be in a base phase building my fitness level before I start an official training plan in February to prep for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon.

Last week I tallied 17 miles and mixed in some cross training as well. Here’s the breakdown:

Monday: 4 miles at the Fairfax Four Miler. This was such a great New Year’s Eve race and a fun way to start off the night’s festivities.

Tuesday: 3 miles easy through Arlington with a finish near the Iwo Jima Memorial – I love this city!

Wednesday: I hit the gym for 45 minutes on the elliptical.

Thursday: 4 miles easy – Today’s run took me from D.C. to Arlington with a run home from work.

Friday: Today was a bit scattered. I got about a mile in on the treadmill at physical therapy, followed by 2 easy miles on the treadmill at my office gym later that afternoon and 35 minutes on the elliptical.

Saturday: 3 miles easy through Arlington

Sunday: I hit the gym again for an hour on the elliptical. Luckily I had NFL playoffs on the TVs to keep me entertained.

Feels good to be back! Credit for naming the Footprints feature goes to my creative director Ian Gallagher.

 

 

Back in Action: Fairfax Four Miler Recap

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2012 was a great year of racing for me until I was slowed over the summer by an injury, but after a couple months of physical therapy and steadily getting better I figured what better way to end the year than with a race. Pacers put on the New Year’s Eve Fairfax Four Miler complete with great swag – I love my sweatshirt!

Driving out to Fairfax during rush hour for the 6 p.m. start time has never been easier. Apparently lots of people in this area still hadn’t gone back to work or got sent home early! I’ve just started running again over the past few weeks and was given the green light by my physical therapist for this race as long as I just ran and didn’t actually try and race. I’m still going a bit slower than I would like, but am working hard on getting back to full strength, fixing my form and gradually building my speed back up again.

I lined up at the uphill start line a bit further back than normal so I wouldn’t be tempted to sprint out at the start, and took it nice and easy out of the gate enjoying the festive atmosphere at this race. The course looped through Fairfax rather than an out and back, which was a nice change of pace from most shorter races I’ve done. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the race and have a good time.

I didn’t look at my watch at all during the race because I was worried it would make me want to speed up, but  checked my mile splits after and for the most part kept to my plan of a fun race with an easy pace. I finished mile one in 9:13. I did a lot of weaving through mile two and felt like I was going a bit faster than I should running it in 7:51, but evened myself out for the second half running miles three and four in 8:33 and 8:16.

My watch had me finishing at 4.1 miles likely due to my weaving in and out of people instead of just running in a straight line, but regardless I finished with a respectable time of 34:23. I came in 339 out of 1,156 runners overall, 114 out of 616 females, and 28 out of 95 in my age group. It felt so great to be back out there, and I can’t wait to be racing at full speed in 2013!

Outside Pacers by the Start/Finish

Outside Pacers by the Start/Finish

Ready to Run

Ready to Run

Start Line

Start Line

2013 Race Calendar

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I love racing. I like big races and small races. I feed off the crowd’s at the big-time ones and the challenge of pushing yourself at the smaller ones. It’s one of my favorite things about running, and keeps me pushing towards getting fitter and faster and reaching tougher goals.

In 2013, I want to race smart though. Seven races in seven weeks at one point last year where I ran my hardest in most of them might not have been the smartest idea. Adding a marathon to my schedule a month and a half out from race day was another one of my not so bright moves. My break from running as I recovered from an overuse injury in 2012 has left me hungry for all the races I can sign up for, but to make sure I don’t overdo it, I’m only planning two goal races for this year. I know I’d go crazy only having two races on the schedule so I have a handful of others I’m planning to run for fun as training runs.

2013 Race Calendar

February 10 – Love the Run You’re With 5k

March 9 – Four Courts Four Miler

April 7 – Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

*April 28 – Nike Women’s D.C. Half Marathon*

July 27 – Crystal City Twilighter 5k

*October 27 – Marine Corps Marathon*

December 8 – Jingle All the Way 8k

*Goal Races*

Now it’s time to get running to get ready for all these races! Let me know what your race plans are this year, and if you have any big race goals!

Lottery Luck

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My first experience with trying to gain entry to a race via a lottery was several years ago with the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. I did not get in. I tried again the next year, but had the same result. Thanks to their policy regarding two failed attempts, I received an automatic entry to last year’s race. The email with my link to register said something along the lines of: looks like your bad luck has turned into good luck.

Well, my good luck didn’t stop there. I entered two lotteries for April races in 2013 recently. Based on my past experience I didn’t have high hopes of getting in. One was to again run the Cherry Blossom since I had so much fun in 2012, and the other was for the inaugural Nike Women’s D.C. Half Marathon.

Good fortune shined and during the past week and a half I found out that I got accepted into both races! I know a lot of people running in both races, which will make them even more fun. The Cherry Blossom on April 7 will make for a perfect training run for the Nike Half a few weeks later on April 28 as it appears the courses are almost identical with the exception of the beginning and end of the half to get the additional 3.1 miles.

Let me know if you’re planning on running either of these April races in D.C. next year!

On another note. I think I might buy a real lottery ticket tonight!

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Physical Therapy Update

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This week marks my seventh week of physical therapy and it’s now been two months since I’ve really ran – not including my 10-minute jaunts on the anti-gravity treadmill at less than full body weight. I’m going a bit insane as this is my longest running hiatus since about the eighth grade.

I started playing three sports per year as a first grader so I was always running around, but it wasn’t until going out for the JV soccer team my eighth grade year that I really started running just to run. During our morning sessions for preseason double sessions we had to run – gasp! – two miles every day. I thought that was so far back then, but I also loved the feeling of being in great shape and how much easier it made playing sports. I ran my first 5k with my brother (the Swamp Rat Run in Cicero) as a sophomore in high school and my first marathon as a junior in college. I’ve been hooked ever since.

While I would have preferred to be back up and running right away after a couple PT sessions, I am making progress. I do two sessions a week plus one deep tissue massage a week before one of the sessions. I’ve also been spending countless hours doing daily stretches, exercises, foam rolling and icing.

It seems like it is all starting to pay off. My flexibility and range of motion has improved dramatically. I still have a long ways to go on that and will continue to work on the flexibility as I get back to running and training, but am really excited about the gains I’ve made so far. While some areas are still pretty tender, I can now use my foam roller without wanting to scream out in pain! Whoever created those torture devices is both brilliant and sinister. I’m activating muscles I need to run my best that had seemingly shut down. I can stand on a single leg without wobbling all over the place (or without wobbling as much anyways!), and my posture is improving so that I’m not standing and walking in a position that places constant tension on my hip flexors.

The best pay off: I finally reached 100 percent of my weight on the anti-gravity treadmill yesterday. It was only for two minutes and was at a reduced speed, but I’m still very excited about it. At my next session this week I get to run for real and they will conduct a run analysis, so I can make sure my running form won’t land me with another injury as soon as I get going again. Little by little it keeps getting better, and I can’t wait to get back out there on the roads.

Setting Race Goals

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Last night I headed out to Falls Church for Tri360’s clinic: Big Goals for 2013 Panel. Tri360 is a new triathlon store in the area that I’ve wanted to check out for awhile, and it’s very cool. The space is awesome and they’ve got a great assortment of bikes and gear for all three disciplines as well as a service area for bike repairs and maintenance.

I’ve been biking a bit lately since I haven’t been able to run and am really enjoying it. I haven’t done a triathlon in years, mostly because I got frustrated with the fact that I’m not very good at either the swim or bike portions. I’ve been thinking about giving it another go though when I get back into running, so I have some other outlets to keep me from overdoing it on the running right away.

Tri360 put together a great panel of professional and elite triathletes, an elite cross/mountain biker, an Ironman finisher and a swim/run coach resulting in some really good advice and an info-packed discussion. They talked about setting realistic goals based on your fitness level and time to train to avoid burnout and set yourself up for your best chance at success.

The panelists reminded us that goals don’t just have to be about your finish time or place, but can focus on other things like improvement and attitude. It’s also helpful to have training goals and to document your progress so you can look back and see how far you’ve come. Set your goals based on what’s right for you, not based on a competition with someone else – especially if you’re not at comparable fitness levels.

A big theme of the night was achieving balance between training and the rest of your life. Family, friends and work shouldn’t suffer because of your training. Having family or friends that don’t participate in swim, bike and run with you can be really beneficial – sometimes you need to “step out of the bubble”. They also talked about remembering to have fun and the reasons why you do this. If you’re not having any fun then what’s the point.

I really enjoyed the clinic and loved the store. I’ll definitely be back!

Other than the 2013 Marine Corps Marathon, I’m still planning out my race goals for next year. Let me know what your big goals are for next year in the comments!

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Volunteering at the Veterans Day 10k

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I’ve run a lot of races over the years reaping the benefits of a lot of helpful volunteers whether it’s someone giving out a helpful hint at packet pick up, a cup of water just when you need it or cheers of encouragement when you’re at your lowest point. Throughout the past year or two, I decided it was my turn to give back a little, and have been trying to volunteer at races whenever I can. Usually, I try to help out at pre-race packet pick-ups so I can still run on race day, but while I’m on a temporary running hiatus I figured now was a good time to actually pitch in on race day.

I signed up to help with last Saturday’s onsite packet pick-up at the Veterans Day 10k in West Potomac Park. It was the same course I ran in early October for the Run for the Parks 10k, so runners could expect fast, flat, a little bit boring and if windy, a potentially brutal course. The weather gods smiled on this event though. It was sunny and the temperature hovered around the 50s – not half bad for early November!

I had to leave my apartment a little after 6 to get to the start of packet pick-up on time, so without a car and the metro closed, my only option was to bike over. It was still a bit dark when I took off, so I was very thankful my Dad helped me install blinking lights on the front and back of my bike when he was in town a couple weeks ago. I also sported a Nathan blinking reflective vest just for good measure. I’m pretty sure anyone could see me from a mile away!

Things started off slow with a few early birds there to grab their race bib and t-shirts right at 6:30, but quickly picked up steam as we got closer to 7. The hour before the race started was a blur. The lines were constant and we were all moving as quickly as we could to make sure all the runners were ready to toe the starting line by the 8 a.m. start time.

A handful of us were stationed at computers looking up runners by their name. I love Pacers’ system of assigning the race number at packet pick-up rather than having to search through a pile of numbers to pull the right one. I would simply find the runners name, grab the next bib in my pile and type that number in to assign it to them. Several others behind us at the computers hustled back and forth as we yelled out t-shirt sizes making sure to retrieve the right one for us.

One of the big things I’ve learned as a result of volunteering over the last year is that I will never, ever again complain to a volunteer about a logistical race issue or wanting a different t-shirt size. They have no control over it! For the most part, people were great.There were lots of smiles and excitement as people picked up their bibs and shirts and got ready to run. There’s always an exception though! A few bad apples were very upset with me for not allowing them to switch t-shirt size. I tried to explain they could just check back after the race to see if other sizes were available and that I wasn’t allowed to give out different shirts until we knew we had enough, but they didn’t want to hear it. Thankfully those folks were few and far between, so I was able to just smile, wish them luck and move on to the next person in line.

I decided to hang around and watch some of the finishers come in and boy were they flying! The top three men all crossed the line in less than 30 minutes. The winner, Chris Kwiatkowski, finished in 29:47 and the women’s winner, Carmen Hussar, came in shortly after at 33:45 for paces of 4:48 and 5:26 per mile respectively. Impressive!

It was one of those days I really wish I’d brought my nice camera along. Riding into D.C. looking at the red sky over the monuments as the sun just started to rise on a foggy morning was absolutely beautiful and my iPhone just couldn’t do it justice. Also, as you can see in the finish line pic, my shutter speed on the iPhone couldn’t quite keep up with the lead runner so all I caught was the finish line banner falling to the ground.

It was a great way to start my day and while I really can’t wait to run again, I also look forward to helping out on the volunteer side of things again soon too.