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?!

Run For Boston

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

Last week was quite the emotional roller coaster. It’s still hard to believe it all really happened. I found myself glued to the news and twitter after the bombing happened Monday. Friday I woke up at four in the morning and my boyfriend told me they were on the trail of the bombers. I couldn’t go back to sleep or pull myself away from the news as Boston went into lockdown. It was pretty tough to focus at work Friday and get everything done before my trip for my company’s annual Convention this week.

Friday night things took a turn and I started to feel some optimism. I volunteered at packet pick-up for the Crystal City 5k and was blown away by how awesome the running community is. So many people showed up wearing Boston shirts and colors and everyone showed up with a spirit that nothing could stop this community. When I got home it was back to watching the news, and I can’t even put into words how incredibly happy I was when they caught the second suspect. The many emotional tweets and blog posts I saw since Friday though show me that a whole lot of people were feeling the same way.

The DC Capital Striders organized several Runs for Boston including one I went to in Dupont Circle. The famous Kathrine Switzer quote circulated a bit last week: “If you want to restore your faith in human nature, go watch a marathon.” For runners, I think going on a group run does the same thing.

On a selfish level, I needed this run and it did wonders for my heart. There was a huge turnout – many first timers to the group like me. Baylee, the group leader for this run, had printed off race bibs in support of Boston for us all to wear. We started things off on a beautiful, sunny morning with a moment of silence to honor the victims.

I met some awesome people along the way. One girl I met is running a local marathon in a couple weeks that I’m volunteering for and happens to be volunteering at the half that I’m running next weekend. She’s hoping for a BQ! I started struggling and probably would have really slowed down had I been on my own, but I paired off with another runner and we chatted away the miles and were done in no time. I love how easy it is to talk with and get to know people along a run that started out as complete strangers. It may have just been a single group run, but it made me feel so much better. I love the running community.

Big thanks to the DC Capital Striders for organizing Saturday’s run! I hope to join them for more group runs in the future.

Pictures below were posted in the Meetup group by Baylee, the group leader, and Caroline, who blogs at IHeartRunning.com and runningbloggers.com.

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

Sorry this is so late. I’m in Chicago for work this week, so I’m only blogging when I get the chance. I ran 16.8 total miles last week in another lackluster training week. A tough training week seems pretty trivial in light of last week’s events in Boston though. As I enter my taper week and get ready to race on Sunday I hope that the strong foundation I built in the earlier weeks of training will be enough to carry me through. No matter what happens next Sunday, there is one thing I know for sure. I will run my heart out and leave everything on the course. I’ll run for Boston. I’ll run for everyone that has supported me through my training. I’ll do it to prove to myself that I can always be better. And, I’ll run my heart out because that’s just what runners do on race day, and no terrorist will ever change that.

Here’s the day by day training breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class. I had a personal training session in the AM, so I couldn’t make my usual morning class and went after work instead. I was fighting back tears before class started after following the news out of Boston all afternoon and almost skipped the class, but was really glad I went.

Tuesday: Rest Day.

Wednesday: Interval workout on the treadmill. One mile warm up followed by 6x800m repeats at a sub-7 minute pace for a total of 4 miles.

Thursday: 50 minutes on the elliptical.

Friday: Rest Day. Work got crazy today and I ran out of energy to get myself to the gym by Friday night. Good reason to make sure I get my runs in first thing in the morning.

Saturday: 12.8 miles. I needed this. More to come in a later post, but the DC Capital Striders put together a great Run For Boston group run out of Dupont Circle.

Sunday: Another unplanned rest day after traveling to Chicago and sitting though 6 hours of meetings. I didnt have it in me to get in my 3 miler after our staff dinner, so I put it off till Monday morning when I discovered we have a super awesome hotel gym!

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I ran 28.75 total miles last week, and to be honest, none of them felt great. It was not my best week of training. I’m not sure whether or not to attribute it to coming off of the race Sunday, running out in the heat for the first time, having too many things on my plate this week or maybe it was just a bad week. Anyways, here’s the day by day training breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class

Tuesday: 20 minutes of easy biking and a 2.5 mile easy-paced uphill run.

Wednesday: Unplanned rest day. I got myself to work 2 hours early so I could get a run in midday and still leave a few minutes early to get to my CPR Certification course that night. When I got ready to run at lunch I was very unhappy to realize I forgot my sneakers. By the time I got home close to ten that night I went straight to bed with no thoughts of a late night treadmill run.

Thursday: I put in 6.25 total miles as part of my interval run around Hains Point. I warmed up for a little over a mile before doing 4, 1-mile repeats with 1/4 mile recovery jogs and a short cool down. My mile repeats were slow and sluggish yet I felt like I was going as hard as I could. It was not a fun run. The last couple fell well below even my goal race pace.

Friday: I headed out to Hains Point again for a tempo run today, and again felt slow and sluggish. I don’t like doing back to back speed days, but forgetting my sneakers Wednesday kind of forced me into it. I was really proud of myself for completing this run though because I was pretty tempted to just stop and walk back to work, but I made it for 6.85 miles including my warm up and cool down.

Saturday: I was up and out early for my long slow run and it was just that…long and slow. I hoped to meet up with a running group about 3 miles in, but my tired legs were running slower than 9 minute miles to start, so I didn’t quite time it right and ended up doing my run alone. It was a beautiful day for a long run though, and I got in 13.15 miles along the Capital Crescent Trail. I followed up the run with an hour outdoor yoga for runners class in Clarendon that I actually really enjoyed.

Sunday: I still had a 5-mile pace run on my schedule for the week, but after 3 tough days in a row I decided it was probably best to take a day off. Hoping this decision pays off and gets me on track for a solid week this week.

Race Recap: Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

This Sunday’s Cherry Blossom 10 Miler was my third time running the race, and it proved once again why it is one of my favorite races. Ten miles is a great distance for a race. You need to train for the distance, but you can still run fast too. My enjoyment of the event probably wasn’t hurt by the fact that I scored a new PR either! I finished in 1:15:54 bettering last year’s time of 1:16:41 and a far cry from my first go at it in 2009 when I finished in 1:28:39! It’s really awesome when you can clearly see your hard work paying off! (My apologies in advance…this is going to be a long post.)

I kicked things off Friday afternoon with a lunch at Rosa Mexicana and a trip to the expo with my friend Megan. Having shown up right at the opening of the expo last year and waiting in a line that ran through a hallway, down 2 cases of stairs and out the door, I was a bit nervous we’d face that again. Most people heeded the organizers warning though apparently, and we were able to breeze right in and pick up our bibs and tee shirts with no wait at all.

We explored the expo for a little bit before getting reeled in by the RooSport booth. The ladies there were selling pouches created by their mother that could store anything from gels and keys to your phone or credit cards. It had one larger pouch that closed with a small piece of velcro and one zipper pouch for valuables. The cool things about this pouch is how you keep it on you. You simply slide the pouch into your shorts (or shirt, sports bra, etc.) and let the flap fall down over the front – a very strong magnet does all the work of holding it in place. Megan was kind enough to pick up two so I could give one a try too.

RooSPORT pouch

I broke the cardinal sin of never trying anything new on race day (I do this too much) and used it to hold my Gu. I’m an instant believer. This was awesome. I barely felt it there. It didn’t move or bounce. It was easy to get my Gu out of when I needed it. I love it! This will also come in especially handy on days I run home from work and have to carry all my credit cards and keys.

On Saturday I went through all my final pre-race prep, which included some screen printing to add my blog logo and website to one of my Nike tanks. I used a different variation of the logo that includes a D.C. skyline background and not only did it look awesome printed on the shirt, but it was a very appropriate first race to wear it for seeing as we were running by so many D.C. monuments.

My 5:44 a.m. alarm sounded and it felt like I’d barely been asleep. It’d been a late night cheering on my Syracuse Orange in their Final Four loss to Michigan and it would’ve been a lot easier to wake up had I been excited about them winning. Nevertheless, it was a season that exceeded all expectations and I had a race to run, so I hopped out of bed and got moving. I ate a piece of toast, a banana and a yogurt while downing a glass of water and getting ready. Ian and I left for the metro around 6:25. After getting off at the Smithsonian metro stop we headed away from the crowds so I could run to my office quickly and use the bathrooms there instead of waiting in line for the porta-potties. Soon after we made our way for the start. I felt a bit rushed so I was only able to get a few of my active warm-up stretches in before giving Ian my jacket and hopping into the corral to wait for the start.

It was sunny, but chilly so I was almost glad I didn’t have a ton of time to stand around. I wore a tank, arm warmers, gloves, capris and calf sleeves, which proved to be just perfect for the 40-degree temps. I started with the red wave a few minutes after the first wave took off. My mantra was start slow, finish fast so my original plan was to run the first couple miles 10-15 seconds behind my goal pace of 7:30. I got nervous about my ability to control my own pace though and hopped next to the 7:30 pacer at the last second.

Naturally that meant I went out a bit faster than my plan, but it was still much better than I’ve done in the past (last year I ran mile 1 sub 7…oops), and for the first time it didn’t destroy my legs for the final stretch. We headed past the Washington Monument down Independence Ave, past the Lincoln Memorial, out and back over the Memorial Bridge, and out and back past the Kennedy Center for the first three miles. We dodged toward Hains Point on Ohio Drive before coming back and looping past the Jefferson.

Mile 1 – 7:23
Mile 2 – 7:16
Mile 3 – 7:20
Mile 4 – 7:22

I was feeling really strong, but started to tighten up a little for mile five. I passed the mile marker and was a bit down when I saw I slowed to a 7:35 pace, but instantly felt better when I heard Ian call out my name. My look of distress quickly turned into a smile and I powered up one of the few slight hills on the course.

Now that’s a race face even Mark Remy would be proud of.

Smiling after hearing Ian call my name!

Mile six took me into Hains Point and a horrific headwind slowing me down even more through mile 7.5 when we finally hit the turn around and the wind died down. Somehow I found myself running with no one within 10 feet in front of me for a bit here, so I couldn’t tuck in behind anyone and had to battle the wind head on. How does that happen in a 17,000 person race?! I practiced this section so many times, but the wind here got the best of me yet again, slowing me down quite a bit.

Mile 5 – 7:35
Mile 6 – 7:42
Mile 7 – 7:55
Mile 8 – 7:52

Not too much in the way of cherry blossoms, but my allergies are thankful for that.

I was most proud of my last 2.5 miles of this race. I could’ve given up when I realized how much I’d slowed down battling the wind, but instead I picked it up and really pushed it to the finish line. I knew I’d be cutting it pretty close to 1:16 and really, really wanted to finish under that, so I powered my way through a little uphill before the final downhill to the finish. I was so incredibly pumped when I read 1:15:54 on my watch – a new PR!!

Mile 9 – 7:35
Mile 10 – 7:23

Going hard to the finish line!

Post-Finish in front of the obviously under construction Washington Monument

My finish time was good enough to put me in 1,713 place overall, 401 among women and 127 in my age group. I actually finished ahead of 90 percent of the pack! That’s crazy to me and such an improvement over just a couple years ago. I also was a part of the DC RoadRunners team that finished second in the open women’s division! Thanks to the Cherry Blossom organizers for another great race – well organized and fun as always!

Ian and I were able to find someone to take our picture at the finish. I so appreciate him getting up before dawn and trekking all over the place to take pictures and support me and my crazy running habit!

He also got some shots of some pretty great fan signs. The bottom left is a little bit blocked by a runner, but it says, “This is what a supportive girlfriend looks like.” All I have to say about the woman holding the “Who Farted?” sign is she who brings the sign commits the crime. 🙂

From all the tweets and race recaps I’ve seen I know there were a whole bunch of you out running too. How’d it go? What was your favorite sign?

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

I only ran 20 total miles last week, but it was a great week of training. I put in short interval and tempo runs along with my cross training before running in the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler on Sunday. Here’s the day by day training breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class

Tuesday: 3 miles easy – run home from work.

Wednesday: I’ve been trying to do all of my interval workouts outside this training cycle, but just couldn’t work it in today. I did find a quick time slot to get down to the treadmill though, and put in 4 miles total including a 1/2 mile warm-up followed by five 1/2 mile intervals at a sub-7 minute pace with 90-second recovery jogs before cooling down.

Thursday: Rest Day

Friday: I put in a short 3-mile tempo run Friday morning on the treadmill starting at a 7:30 pace and working down to a 7:18 pace.

Saturday: Rest Day

Sunday: Race Day! I had a great day at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler setting a new PR for the distance with a finish time of 1:15:54. I’ll have a full recap out tomorrow, but I was thrilled with the PR and only 54 seconds behind my goal for this race leaving me very optimistic that I’m on the right track for the Nike Half Marathon at the end of the month.

Beautiful Day for a PR!

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Colleen Lerro

The Cherry Blossom 10 Miler was a blast this morning! The weather was a bit chilly when I first got out there, but was perfect to run in and the sun was shining all morning. I set a new 10-mile time PR with a 1:15:54 finish for an average 7:35 pace! Full recap to come this week, but here are a few pics courtesy of Ian. Congrats to everyone who raced today!