Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I had to do a bit of shuffling with my workouts this week, but felt great and feel like I’m on my way to getting back into racing shape. This was the first week on my new program designed by my running coach and I think it’s going to be a really great program for the next couple months. I ended the week with a fun 8k at the state park back home I worked at during the summers through college.

Here’s the day by day breakdown…

Monday: 30 minutes on the elliptical, followed by a 35-minute full body strength workout and a 15-minute core workout.

Tuesday: I ran an easy 6.5 miles around Hains Point at lunch averaging just under an 8:30 pace.

Wednesday: 60 minutes on the elliptical followed by a 30-minute full body strength workout

Thursday: Getting to work early, a conference call during lunch and a long drive to Syracuse right after work turned today into an unplanned rest day. I was supposed to hit the track today and ended up moving it to the following Monday, so you’ll see it in next week’s recap!

Friday: Rest Day

Saturday: I put in an easy 9.8 miles around my hometown running up to my old high school, around the athletic fields and back home. I enjoyed the run, but forgot how hilly it is there!

Sunday: I ran the Charity for Children 8k at Green Lakes State Park on Sunday. Full recap coming soon, but I loved this race and would really like to “race it” next year in better shape instead of just running it as a workout. I finished in 40 minutes according to the official results and wish I’d hung around for the awards, but didn’t realize till this morning that I would’ve gotten an age grouper award!

At the finish after the Charity for Children 8k at Green Lakes

Working With A Coach

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I recently hired a running coach to help me reach my goal of qualifying for Boston this fall at the Marine Corps Marathon. I’d heard good things about DC Running Coach and in a strike of good timing just shortly after I gave up my gym membership at Washington Sports Club, a deal came on Zozi for a 3-month program with Mike of DC Running Coach.

I had an initial talk with Mike about my running background, my current training, upcoming races and my goals. Next up I went to a group track workout and after joining in for a few laps and the dynamic warm up, we worked on my running form. I’m still doing a good job of keeping the mid-foot strike I worked on with my physical therapist, but he identified a couple things – increasing stride length and a more compact arm swing – I can work on to get faster and run more efficiently.

We had another talk about my goals and what I can realistically accomplish this year, and I’m now in my first week of the three month program he created for me. I’ve been creating my own programs for years and while I think I’ve done a pretty decent job, I have a tough time not second guessing on what the best training runs to include are. There is so much advice out there so it can be tough to know what’s best. It’s nice to have someone just give me a plan that’s tailored directly to me and to help get me where I want to be. There are also weekly group track workouts and I’ll turn in weekly recaps to help hold me accountable. I’m really excited to see how much I can improve working with a running coach and I’m happy to be back in a training program! Now it’s time to put in the work so I can get that BQ this fall!

Have you ever worked with a coach? Do you think it made you better?

Race Recap: National Police Week 5K

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

On Saturday my friend Jayne and I ran the National Police Week 5k in D.C. along with another friend of hers. The Police Week 5k honors fallen law enforcement officers by raising awareness to the sacrifices officers make every day. Every runner’s bib has the name of an officer killed on it to remind us all what we were running for.

Police Week Bib and Race Shirt

I had no expectations or time goal after two weeks of almost no running and just a handful of cross training days. While I was pretty far off my PR, I was pleasantly surprised by how the race went and by how strong I felt. I took advantage of an early packet pick-up option at Pacers on Friday, so I’d be ready to go on race morning. As usual I pinned my race bib on my shirt Friday night and laid my clothes out for the morning.

Despite staying in and being lazy on a Friday night, I still had trouble falling asleep and was so tempted to just turn the alarm off Saturday morning. The gloomy, gray day I saw when I looked out my window only made me want to get back in bed, but I knew I really needed to get out and run today.

I got to the start fairly early and had time to get warmed up and drop my bag off. I met up with Jayne and chatted for a bit before we split up and headed off to the start line. The rain started just before the race, but it was pretty light and actually felt kind of good. The course started off with several quick turns before heading down a slight hill that we’d have to come back up at the end. Then we hit a straightaway that took us down 3rd Street past the Capitol Building before the one-mile marker and then a turnaround.

Color Guard before the National Anthem

The course turned back onto 3rd after a the turnaround took us around a block then jutted down Constitution Ave. for a down and back past the 2nd mile marker before heading back up 3rd Street. The second mile felt really long. I almost felt like the marker should have been on the other side of the street when we first passed it rather than when we came back by it after turning around at a cone. My Garmin beeped well before reaching it – not that that is always accurate though. I also proved once again how bad I am at running tangents as I ended up doing an extra tenth of a mile according to the Garmin.

My adrenaline was flowing and I felt great at the start. I felt like it was almost too easy and I must’ve been going slow, so I was shocked to see my watch at 6:42 when I hit the first mile marker. Knowing I wasn’t in any kind of shape to be running that pace I tried to pull in the reins for mile 2 running it in about 7:18. It didn’t help though and I slowed way down unable to keep the pace up for mile 3 slowing down to a 8:11 mile. I was able to kick it down the final stretch turning it up a few notches for a 6:25 pace. According to the official results I crossed the line in 23:25 for an average pace of 7:33 putting me in 151st out of more than 1,500!

Adorable pups making it to the finish too!

Jayne also finished strong. She had a playlist and had a goal of finishing before a certain song came on and cruised in just as it was starting! Next up for her is the Marine Corps 10k.

I’ll be back racing again this Sunday back in my hometown for an 8k. Hope your weekend races and runs went well too! Let me know how you did in the comments.

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I started off this week in a total funk and my one-week recovery after the half marathon turned into more like 2 weeks. A busy week at work and coming down with a cold midweek didn’t help my motivation any, but I finally broke out of things with a good Friday evening workout, a better than expected 5k after 2 weeks off of running and a good Sunday run.

Here’s the day by day breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class

Tuesday: Rest Day

Wednesday: Track workout with my new running coach. I did a 2-lap warm-up and dynamic warm-up drills with the group and then worked on my form while others did their workouts for the week. More to come on this later.

Thursday: Unplanned rest day. Today was a great example of why I shouldn’t put workouts off. I had to go into work early and was sure I could get in a lunch run, but ended up working through lunch.

Friday: Elliptical for an hour followed by a strength workout

Saturday: I ran the National Police Week 5k, and while it was a bit off my best performance, it was much better than I expected after a nearly 2-week layover from running. Recap coming tomorrow.

National Police Week 5k

Sunday: I put in a strong 5.03 mile run averaging sub 8-minute miles on a beautiful afternoon through Arlington and D.C.

A Marathon View From the Sidelines

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

Last weekend I volunteered with the DC Capital Striders at the Potomac River Run Marathon along the C&O Canal Path. It’s not too often I’m up before 6 a.m. for any reason other than going running, but Sunday I would just be manning the sidelines. I met up with the rest of our group at Lock 7 and helped set up the aid station. The marathoners would go out and back twice along the path so we’d see them all four times along the course. We were stocked with water, Gatorade, bananas and power bars.

Lock 7

Volunteer Group at Lock 7 (stole this from the DC Cap Striders FB page)

The race had about 500 runners with a 7 a.m. non-competitive start and an 8 a.m. regular start. After we got things ready to go it wasn’t going to be too long before the first set of runners were coming through since the first time they’d pass us was just about 3.5 miles in. It was an overcast day and temps were in the high 40s at the start with a slight breeze – perfect for runners, but a bit chilly for us. I’m glad I packed some hand warmers that I still had on hand from when I used to teach outdoor boot camps during the winter!

I handled the water cups and doled out encouragement to as many runners going by as I could. I know how much it means to me to have some encouragement along the course, especially one without a lot of crowd support. I also knew a couple runners so it was fun getting to cheer them on as they passed by. Other than one botched water handoff to one of the faster runners during his first trip through our station, I managed not to drop or spill the water cups on anyone! Successful day if you ask me. Although if you ask the guy who I botched the handoff with, he might not agree! There was a somewhat steady stream of people after the 8 a.m. group got going and we had people coming from both sides, but it was never overwhelming. I can’t even imagine working a water stop at one of the mega races. I need to remember to say extra thank yous at the Marine Corps Marathon stops this year!

Runners on the C&O path

It was fun to be out there and it was really inspiring to see so many people of so many different abilities putting it all out there to finish their marathon. I love this sport!

Aid Station at Lock 7

Congrats to everyone who ran Sunday! Have you ever volunteered for a marathon? How’d it go?

Rough Day Running: Nike Women’s DC Half Marathon Race Recap

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

My race day started off with a 4:44 a.m. alarm, and unlike I usually do when early alarms go off, I popped right out of bed. Exhausted from a long week of travel for work I actually went to bed early Saturday night and didn’t feel like I needed the snooze button Sunday morning. All my race gear was laid out, so I was quickly ready to go.

The first sign of a bad day struck when I grabbed my Garmin. The display screen was blank. I had just charged it the night before, but I think it went into it’s protected mode which I’ve had trouble with before. I pulled up the email from Garmin support on how to bring it back to life, but after I did it beeped that the battery was low. NOOOOOO! I had a minor panic attack before Ian calmed me down and assured me this wasn’t the end of the world. I was going to have to wear a regular stopwatch for the race and not have instant feedback on my current pace or beeps with mile splits at all the markers. I haven’t done an outdoor run without my Garmin or before that my Nike Plus wrist band in years. I convinced myself not to worry about it and headed toward the metro.

I was really early, so there was barely a line for the porta potties. I was one of the first people in the 6:30-7:29 pace corral, which turned out to be pretty sparse. I had to go to the bathroom again, but stressed out about whether or not I’d have time so I decided not to go. I think I might drink too much water on race morning sometimes. This was a bad decision and would come back to haunt me as I really couldn’t hold it anymore and had to find a porta potty just past the 10k-mark wasting about 90 seconds.

Other than that little bit of TMI, everything seemed perfect for the start of the race. Temps were in the low 50s, so I wasn’t freezing like at the start of the Cherry Blossom, but it wasn’t going to be too warm to run in either. The Nike trainers kicked things off with some fun active stretches to get everyone warmed up and pumped up, and then to top things off they introduced Shalene Flanagan and Joanie Benoit Samuelson. The two both sporting Boston tees were going to “jog” the race with us.

At the start, ready to go.

With so few people in my corral and even fewer in the one ahead of us, I was very close to the start line. I didn’t have any issues with overcrowding or weaving in and out of people at the start, which was awesome. I’ve heard some rumblings on social media that this was a bit of an issue for others further back however. We headed out for the first mile that led us through a tunnel with drummers and strobe lights reverberating off the walls pumping up the energy. From there the course was very similar to the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler running along the Mall, out and back over the Memorial Bridge, past the Kennedy Center and through Hains Point.

Coming out of the tunnel at mile 1

Right from the start something didn’t feel right. It was hard to breathe even during mile 1 – like that out of shape, out of breath I’m running way too hard feeling. I wasn’t running way too hard though. I ran my first mile right on pace in 7:30 and my second at about 7:27. It felt hard though. Really hard. I desperately tried to stay positive though, and told myself it was good that I wasn’t going out too fast. I didn’t want to let my mind beat me when I’d trained so hard for this race.

My next two miles slowed to about a 7:50 pace even though I felt like I was pushing to keep at my 7:30 goal. Again I told myself to stay positive and that I still had energy in the tank to make up for it. This was not a fun way to run. I wasn’t taking in any of the sites or enjoying the bands and cheer sections along the course that were all really great.

I entered the long, lonely stretch that is Hains Point and told myself this was my spot to make up some time. I’ve been running these roads so much this year and there was actually no major headwind to deal with on Sunday…this never happens at Hains

Point! Instead I got even slower. Nike did a great job of filling this four-mile-stretch with motivational signs that I tried to use for motivation. By mile 9 though, when I realized I’d slipped well below an 8-minute pace and was only slowing more, I almost broke down and cried.

Leading from start to finish…wow!

Mile 10 brought the first real hill up an on ramp, but it wasn’t even that tough of a hill when you think about the course for the National Half Marathon also here in D.C. At this point I wanted to just run off the course and hide somewhere to stop the struggling. Mile 11 brought us back through the tunnel and into the final stretch down to the Capitol Building and back towards the finish on Pennsylvania Ave. I swear that loop around the front of the Capitol took days. I saw Ian just after the 20k mark and tried to smile as I ran by, but just wanted this race to be over.

Just get me to the finish line!

You can see the finish line of this race from a long ways away. The fact that I didn’t have any energy to even kick to the finish made it seem like I was never going to get there! I did finally cross the line though and got high fives from Shalene and Joan Benoit – the highlight of my day. I broke down a little when I saw my friend Lindsay who was handing out water at the finish and told her I felt awful and had a terrible run. Being a runner she just gave me an understanding hug and told me there’d be another chance for a PR.

Only highlight of the race…getting high fives from Shalene Flanagan and Joan Benoit Samuelson at the Finish!

I kept moving through the finish area collecting my Tiffany’s necklace from the ROTC guys in tuxedos and then grabbed my super cute finisher’s tee. Well done Nike. I met up with Ian and immediately lost it and started sobbing in his arms. I realize this is a ridiculous reaction to not getting the time I wanted, but I was exhausted emotionally and physically and it just came out. I’d trained so hard for this race and was really disappointed that I’d had such a bad day. It wasn’t just that I was mad about my time on a day and a course that were tailor made for a PR, but that I’d hurt for the whole race and hadn’t enjoyed any of it like I usually do on race day.

ROTC guys getting ready to hand out Tiffany’s necklaces to the finishers. Kudos to Ian for getting them to do the prom style picture!

Finishers Tee and Necklace

I had a goal of finishing in 1:38 and ended with a time of 1:47:48 putting me in 812 place overall and 236 out of 3,744 in my division. It’s funny how relative running can be. A few years ago I would have been over the moon with that time, but after the training I put in, I know I could have done much better. In the grand scheme of things it’s just a race time. Nobody other than me really cares what time I come in. Even my goal time wasn’t going to win me any awards. I finished another half marathon and that’s something to be proud of.

Also, one of the best things about running is that there’s always another chance. I’m thinking about adding in another half marathon to give it another shot, but am trying to give myself a few days to see how I feel before jumping into a new race. I’m looking at the half in Alexandria on Memorial Day weekend or the Zooma half in Annapolis on June 1. Has anyone done either of these? What are your thoughts? How do you deal with a tough race?

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I ran 20.6 total miles last week in my half marathon week. Everything about the Nike Women’s DC Half Marathon was great except for my performance, so I was a bit disappointed, but what can you do?!

Here’s the day by day breakdown…

Monday: 3 miles at my race pace on an indoor track at the Chicago Hilton where I was staying for a work trip. I didn’t look at my watch once the whole time and felt like I was keeping an easy pace – was actually surprised when I saw I’d hit my race pace for the run.

Tuesday: Rest Day

Wednesday: Interval workout on the treadmill back at the hotel gym (which was pretty awesome). One mile warm up followed by 6x400m repeats at a sub-7 minute pace for a total of 3 miles.

Thursday: Rest Day

Friday: Rest Day. I had the day off from work (just had to check emails) after traveling back from our Convention late the night before, but didn’t really spend my day relaxing. I was up early for a dentist appointment then had to get over to the other side of Arlington to have routine blood work done, and spent the afternoon/evening volunteering at the race expo.

Saturday: 1.5 mile easy shake out run at a 7:48 pace

Sunday: Race Day. Conditions were absolutely perfect for a PR and yet I struggled from start to finish and never felt good. It kept me from enjoying what should have been an awesome race. Full recap to come tomorrow, but I finished well off my goal of 1:38 in 1:47:48.

Only highlight of the race…getting high fives from Shalene Flanagan and Joan Benoit Samuelson at the Finish!

Nike D.C. Women’s Half Marathon Expo

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I can’t even believe my half marathon is TOMORROW! It’s time to put so many weeks of training to the test. I’m not particularly thrilled with my last two weeks of training, but am hoping the foundation I built will be strong enough to still go for my goal. Yesterday I headed into Georgetown for packet pick-up and the expo, and thought it was a great experience!

Ian dropped me off around 3, and I headed straight to the packet pick-up tent since I’d volunteered to help out for a shift there.

Packet Pick-Up Tent

I was really impressed by how many volunteers they had an how organized it was. No matter how many people poured in, there never seemed to be much of a line if any at all. I got my volunteer shirt, went through a quick training session and sat down at a computer to check runners in and assign their bibs for the next three hours.

Bib Pick Up

The time flew by. It was really fun to see how excited everyone was for the race. Before leaving I picked out a bib for myself and saw that I may have been a bit ambitious when I registered placing myself in the 6:30-7:29 pace group. I’m hoping for a 7:30 pace so I’m debating whether it’s smarter to start near the back of this group or drop back and start at the front of the next group. It’ll likely be a game-time decision.

Bib and Pace Corral Bracelet

From there I headed to the Expotique on the Waterfront. I thought it was pretty cool. It was fun, loud, energetic and crowded once I entered the tent. I breezed through pretty quickly since I was starting to get hungry and had a dinner date with Ian planned at Pizzeria Paradiso coming up, but I did make time to stop and test out several of the Nuun Hydration flavors. They were all pretty awesome, but I especially liked the Cherry Limeaid and Fruit Punch varieties.

Expotique

You could also get a quick hair style from Paul Mitchell stylists and a free makeover with Bare Minerals make up – the only kind of make up I wear. I love the natural look it gives and the fact that it never feels caked on. I took my card from my packet that gave me three chances to win Nike shoes and gear and tried my code on all three walls with no luck…bummer! Then I took a quick look at the wall of sneaks, selection of sports bras and inspiration wall where everyone was free to write why they run on it.

Fun things to do at the Expo

There was still more to see at the Nike Store, so I made my way up Thomas Jefferson St. towards it with a stop at the We Run DC wall. This was so cool. It had the names of every participant on it.

We Run DC Wall

I even managed to spot mine!

Finding my name on the We Run DC wall!

The Nike Store in Georgetown is pretty great with three levels of awesomeness. They even had a DJ in the store. It was a mad house and they had tons of NWM DC specific gear. I found a black tank with the DC race logo on it. I actually have the same style tank in three different colors so I knew what size to get and knew I’d love it!

During my Sunday stop at Pacers to pick up my Gu and Body Glide for the race I asked about the special Tiffany Blue Nike Frees I’d heard had been designed for this race. They only had one pair of size 8’s left in stock…my size! I figured it was a sign I just had to get them.

Nike Frees – DC edition

Now it’s time for some spaghetti and meatballs and hopefully an early night! Good luck to everyone running tomorrow!! See you out there!

Taper & Travel

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

The Nike Women’s Half Marathon is this weekend! How did that happen?! The taper time is always an anxious time for runners. This race and my last big race – the Niagara Marathon – both had one thing in common for my taper period: each race happened directly after my company’s annual convention and at least a week on the road. Last year was worse as I flew out for a weekend of fun at a friend’s wedding in St. Louis, flew directly from there to a week in Boston for the convention and flew from there to Buffalo where my boyfriend picked me up and drove me to Canada for the marathon. This year I flew to Chicago for convention, but was home late Thursday night and being a local race, didn’t have to get myself anywhere else.

Traveling while on taper has some pros and cons. Being such a busy week, it would be hard to fit my regular duration and intensity of training runs in. On the negative side, one of the most difficult things about the taper for me is realizing you don’t need to eat as much as you did during your normal training weeks since you’re not burning nearly as many calories, and eating healthy on the road – especially during busy work trips – is not something I’m great at.

My meals usually consist of more beers than usual, comfort foods like the picture below from a diner that claimed to serve Chicago’s best mac ‘n cheese (it wasn’t) and one too many desserts.

Giant Miller Lite!

Decent Mac ‘n Cheese – but not the greatest as they claimed!

Delicious Strawberry Cheesecake

A big postitive for this trip though was the hotel gym at the Chicago Hilton. I’ve stayed at some hotels with really nice gyms lately, but this might be the best one yet. It even had an indoor track! Despite the fact that it took 18 trips around, I happily did my 3 miler on it instead of the treadmill on day one.

Indoor Track!

Every cardio machine also had its own individual TV built in, which I love. I took advantage of this for my interval workout.

Always love the indivdual TV screens on treadmills.

So many treadmills!

As soon as I saw the pool area I was really bummed I hadn’t brough my suit. It had a great lap pool and two hot tubs!

lap pool

two hot tubs!

It was really an impressive hotel gym. It made it a lot easier to get my workouts in this week since it was freezing here in Chicago. Still, I hope I’m not on the road for my next big race. It takes a lot out of you and I’m glad I’ll have a couple days off before the run on Sunday to hopefully recover from the week! I can’t wait! I’ll be volunteering at the expo from 3-7 on Friday, so stop by and say hi if you’re picking up your packet then.

I’ll leave you with a few more pics of the gym…

Weight Area

Tons of cardio machines for a hotel gym!

Pretty awesome view of the Chicago skyline through the floor-to-celing windows!

Giving Back

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I love races. They’re what all the hard work and training are for. Volunteers are such an awesome part of races and I’m always sure to thank them no matter how tired I am. I decided I should probably give back after all the races I’ve done and over the last few years I’ve been trying to do a better job of volunteering at as many races as I run.

Turns out, volunteering at races is a ton of fun too. It’s great to see everyone out there going for PRs or just trying to finish. Other than a few bad apples who get really upset if you can’t give them a different size t-shirt than what they ordered, everyone is so incredibly nice and appreciative.

I’ve spent my last two Fridays volunteering at Pacers Crystal City 5k Fridays. I love these races, but since they didn’t fit into my race schedule this year I figured this was a good way to still be a part of them. My first volunteer shift was at the water stop. This might not seem like a big deal, but it’s actually something I’ve been terrified of doing. I’ve volunteered at a lot of races and I’ve always avoided doing this. Ridiculous, I know.

Still, I was worried I’d mess the hand offs up and leaving a runner without any water. I had no idea what to wear on my feet – flip flops in case I got splashed a lot or sneakers in case my toes got stepped on?? Admittedly I probably put too much thought into this for a 5k race where most of the runners don’t even take water anyways. It turned out to be pretty easy. I just held the cups out there and let the runners take them out of my hands. I didn’t even get splashed. Who knew?! I really enjoyed getting to interact with the racers mid-race and encourage them to keep going.

Last Friday I was back to packet pickup and pretty thankful for that since the skies opened up into a thunder and lightning storm shortly after the start and we had set up shop inside. As I mentioned in my last post it was also really great to be around so many supportive runners while everyone was still reeling from Boston.

I’m so glad I’ve found out how much fun it can be to participate in races in other ways than running over these last couple years…just gives me more of a chance to be part of this great community.

What races have you volunteered for? Have you done a water stop…and am I the only one who had an irrational fear about working at one?!