Women's training thread - week of 4/19/09

wow, i had been looking for the thread and not finding it; beats me how come. anyway, congrats to the boston ladies. kara and colleen, obviously, but also female masters rocked the course (2:53:47 - 5th in her age group), and it sounds as though tf... did, too, although i wish i knew who you were so i could have tracked you. let\'s hear the reports, including how the wind was or wasn\'t a factor. i sure was happy to have been running in the shelter of the woods, and the weather web sites were giving the same report for boston as for here in upstate ny.

heal fast, humbled, darkwave, and track chick.

i had a good week, continuing with my current little streak of every-weekend racing -- and my little streak of second place finishes (although this time the first place woman was also a masters runner; hurray for us old ladies ;-) last week included a wednesday long run (20 hilly trail miles, which takes a long time) and then a never-a-flat-moment 20K trail race, with one of those descriptive names including the word \"muddy.\" it was a fun time, although i\'m sure i would have been faster had i gone into it rested. the course has a brutal long/steep uphill finish, some of it with ~25% grade, and a long stretch where it\'s possible to see many of those ahead. it turned out that my husband was having a very good race, finishing 9 minutes faster than he did last year when it was unseasonably hot and humid, and he was thinking he might catch me. as it turned out, i finished about a minute and a half ahead of him, but it sure would have been a hoot to duke it out with him to the finish line!

this coming weekend\'s race will up the ante. again on trails, it\'s a series of three races: the HM starts at 7:30, the 10K starts at 10, and the 5K starts at 11:15. some people run just one race, but we\'re entered to run all three in succession. this will either be really fun or simply tortuous. i\'ll report back next week. until then, happy trails (or gardens or roads), enjoy those treadmills and arc trainers, say thank you to your PTs and massage therapists, and/or revel in the fleeting discomfort of marathon recovery.

Somehow I managed to miss that Female Master was running Boston. That is an incredible time!

CONGRATULATIONS!!! FEMALE MASTER! And PR no less! Those are hard to come by....

My name is pretty much a misnomer as I left the track to concentrate on the road and step up in distance (although never say never I suppose!). I've had this name for years though and didn't want to change it. It's interesting reading everyone's training and I hope to be joining you soon.

THANK YOU ladies :) WOW!!! what an amazing race!!! YES, the wind was a bit challenging. Sarah gave me advice a couple years ago about trying to "group" together to break the wind. I found a couple of women that I asked if they would be interested in breaking the wind...they gladly accepted. We stayed together for 17 miles. The funny part was at one point, while going through Wellesley, I found myself overwhelmed with emotion and excitement (see picture *haha*)that i dropped into 6:17 pace.

www.boston.com/sports/marathon/gallery/0420_eliterunners?pg=17

It is funny (the picture)!!! I was laughing and crying...the crowd support was so amazing. I thank Kara and Ryan for that. For a cooler day w/pretty good headwinds, the crowds were bigger than I ever remember.

Congrats to ALL who raced and finished Boston :) Great job!

great photo, female masters! i was watching the universalsports stream and im-ing with my husband (who couldn't get the video feed) about the race when i saw merga and rono pass you. you looked really good and strong then, too, although not quite so smiley. congrats again on the PR -- makes me think of the day of my marathon PR at philly when you cheered me on during the out/back section. that wasn't your day, but this was. you go, girl! (note to the rest of you: in philly, female masters was coming back as i was still going out, of course. in fact the only time i've been (or ever will be) ahead of her in a race was in a marathon relay when my team's first-leg runner gave me a something like a 9 minute head start over her for our 9-mile section; even so, i kept expecting to hear her light footfall and a cheery greeting coming over my shoulder ;-)

Female Master, you little honey you :o) That picture captures the essence of running and is such a wonderful testimony to running and racing with joy, which to me anyway translates to strength.I am so glad to know little words of advise creep back and are useful, and made me feel like I was there in some small way.I will research some races and even marathons around my new destination and sense there is much more to come out of you young lady.I literally had clammy hands and could barely sit still watching the live feed yesterday.Now make sure you recover well, good food, good rest and maybe the dreaded ice bath. I intend to add those back into my training :O)

female master wrote:

THANK YOU ladies :) WOW!!! what an amazing race!!! YES, the wind was a bit challenging. Sarah gave me advice a couple years ago about trying to "group" together to break the wind. I found a couple of women that I asked if they would be interested in breaking the wind...they gladly accepted. We stayed together for 17 miles. The funny part was at one point, while going through Wellesley, I found myself overwhelmed with emotion and excitement (see picture *haha*)that i dropped into 6:17 pace.

http://www.boston.com/sports/marathon/gallery/0420_eliterunners?pg=17

It is funny (the picture)!!! I was laughing and crying...the crowd support was so amazing. I thank Kara and Ryan for that. For a cooler day w/pretty good headwinds, the crowds were bigger than I ever remember.

Congrats to ALL who raced and finished Boston :) Great job!

Wow, what good race results! NLS, congrats on another great placing over the weekend. That 3-race series in one day sounds challenging. I am actually doing a trail race this weekend (well, I'm not allowing myself to actually race it,but I will be running on a trail 10K course), so I'll think of you, I'm sure.

Female Master -WOW! That is a great picture. What a great time.I could only dream of that. What kind of mileage did you run to train for Boston? I thought yesterday was very inspiring, between Female Master, De Reuck (sp?), Kara, and TFLetc. It makes me excited to get back into marathon training!

WOW! Female Master that was an awesome picture, I saw that yesterday and briefly wondered if it was you! Great race, very inspirational!

female master...that's you!? WOW! GREAT PHOTO!

I saw that photo yesterday....you look SOOOOoooo incredible. You were throughly having a grand time for yourself.

I know that part of the course and I know what it's like....LOL!!

WAY TO GO!!!!

Going to Billy store today to join in the after glow....:)!

Female Master--AMAZING JOB!!!!!! A PR and you look AMAZING in your photo! CONGRATS!!!! Running Boston is HUGE, and you did great!! It's so inspiring to hear about everyone's boston experience!

Training this past week was...well...difficult. I usually wake up at 5am to get the big run in the morning, but couldn't do it because I was so tired (which is weird) so I had to do them after work (when it was hotter) with our pup (who can keep up for at least 2 miles). This week though, 5 am hasn't stopped me yet. And thankfully so, because the weather here has been in the upper 90s since Saturday. It's supposed to hit 100+ today!! I don't think I'm ready for this heat to come quite yet, especially if it means waking up earlier and earlier. Right now, I am just trying to get my mileage up and get a huge base of training for the fall so I can hit up some races then. Hopefully this summer I'll be able to find a few tiny road races for a rust buster (I haven't raced since June 2008...yikes!).

My husband asked me if I would like to help out with their PFT tomorrow (he's a Marine). He's trying to pace a couple of his guys for under 18 minutes (18 minutes is 100%) for 3 miles. He asked if I wouldn't mind coming and helping out (which I'm not really sure how a bunch of guys would feel about a girl being there). So we'll see. He's shooting for a 100% on this PFT (he's gotten 100s since 2006), so hopefully he gets that. I don't think I could do it, seeing as pull-ups are involved.

Anyways, I am glad to hear that everyone's training is going somewhere! I know it can be frustrating to be injured, but it makes you appreciate everything about running a whole lot more (for me it did, A LOT). So I hope everyone continues to do well!!

RLAG--Keep grinding those miles out! I am excited to see how your first marathon goes!

Boston runners,GREAT JOB!

Great pic and congrats on the PR female master.

I love you ladies :) Patti, I can just imagine you heard that "roar", but at a MUCH faster clip!

No longer--The smile was not there because I was stressing a little when the elite men passed. Before they came by us, officials told us to move to the right side of the road...so we did. Then the lead men PASSED us on the shoulder of the right! I felt REALLY bad because I DID NOT want to interfere. The next 3 passed on our left and Ryan came by on my right (which I SCREAMED..."GO RYAN!!!"). That is why I was not smiling. Trust me, I smiled, mingled and had a lot of fun w/the crowd :)

What about..cats (love the name, I must say :)--about 80 or so, then I did 4 weeks at 90. I like the longer mileage; I tend to race best when I'm at 90 (it's just my power base). I did a lot of strengthening, Yoga, and Pylos.

Az--my family found that picture and sent it to me. I thought it was a riot!

Sarah--I ALWAYS have a part of you with me :)

Keep up the good work. I'm really glad I joined up with a bunch of great women!

Sticky runner are in Arizona by chance? 100F is what they are calling for here.

What a nice day yesterday -- it was so fun participating from afar, I have not enjoyed a marathon as much since the 2004 Olympic Trials Marathon -- when we could watch the whole thing on TV before going out for our long run!!

Just add me to the chorus: what a great photo!!!!

Good luck NLS on your race trifecta. And more power to you for trying it!

...100F...in April...that's crazy.

AZRunning!

Not in Arizona, but close enough! I'm in the Mojave Desert of Southern California (right outside Palm Springs).

I am hoping I climatize somewhat to this heat before the summer hits and all I have are these 120 degree days that everyone keeps raving about!!!

Where about in AZ are you??

Tucson ... and I am not looking forward to the summer, regardless of the fact it is "cooler" than Phoenix!! Wow, I have been in Palm Springs in September/October (last months of lower rates for the nice hotels there) it was pretty darn hot.

I just read today that it takes about 2 weeks ... when I lived in the south it would take about 2 miserable (read, painful) long runs and then I would be "used" to the heat - but I never liked it.

Where in the South were you azrunning? The thing about heat there is it is often accompanied by the other dreaded H= humidity! I am going to have to adjust to that again as Utah was dry, a very arid climate and up-state NY has been just plain cold, although it is supposed to be in the 70s this w-end , go figure I won't be here, drive South on Thurs.

Would be great to be able to work on all the running muscles represented in this thread and hope I can meet other runners to help in the realm of massage once I am settled.

Ok super thread as always!

Female master, wow! What a great race for you, and what a great photo, too. It made me smile. In fact, just thinking about it makes me smile.

Still waiting with bated breath to hear about tfltft's race.