Brick

I have officially started my training for the MCM (yesterday) but I have to continue training for the dualthon which is July 2 so I have to add a brick once a week. My timed run went well yesterday. I have to get used to running a timed amount rather than miles for my short runs. I am used to just running for mileage. Brick today went ok. The first two legs were great but the third one kick my butt. HUMIDITY! Ran 3.0 miles then hopped on my bike and rode 10 miles. Took off for the last run and ended up run/walking 2.0 miles. It took me 2 hours to accomplish this brick. I NEED to get faster afterall the awards ceremony is schedule 2 hours after the start of the race! I still have two more bike miles and one more run mile to add. Things I learned:
1. I love my mirror that my husband put on my bike. I can now see anything that comes up behind me.
2. A bike helmet is a LOT cooler than my baseball cap.
3. I am learning to drink water and maintain my bike speed.
4. I have a great husband for not getting mad at me as I continue to buy little gadgets.

Hills northwest Ohio style

I dont blog every run just the ones that I have learned something or tried something new. Since I have the elevation map of the MCM, I have decided that I need to add hills to my run. Unfortunately, I live in northwest Ohio where we have small mounds but hills are few and far between. So, I decided to run the next best thing....the overpass. I did just that today. I ran up it three times and down it four. Yes, the fourth run up....I walked it. But it was a run down and as soon as I got to the base, I turned back around to go back up. Next time, I will not run as far away from the hill on the first run over so that I have more time. I tried one of the runners on the first timers board of counting as you run up the hill to keep your mind occupied. It worked. Someone else thinks of running through the hill. I dont mind running them. Tomorrow is my first "official" training day. I am used to focusing on running by miles and not time. So it is going to be an adjustment to get used to running that way again.

8 miles ....

WHEW!! So much better today than the day I tried to run 4 and just could not! This was my last "long" run that was not a training run. I have been doing one long run a week for a while now. Not particularly training for anything but just to do one. Because I cant imagine training for a marathon with just running up to a 20 mile long run, I will begin training for the MCM on monday. My longest run will be 22 miles. Which freaks me out alittle because that is 4 miles short of my ultimate goal. When I trained for my halfs, I ran up to 12 miles which is so close. No GI problems today to report. The temperature outside was perfect for me. I love it when it is in the 50's. So, I am hoping that DC will be like that in October. The only thing that happened to me, which has never occurred before was my right ankle acted up. It was so weird and hard to describe. It was like it was sleeping or something. I could not feel it which caused me to limp a little. This lasted less than a mile and happened at my turn around point. I dont know if I was running on that side funny or the angle of the road. I just hope that whatever it was, it does not happen again. I brought a bicycle helmet today. The salesman at the bike shop was trying to convince me to stop running and move to biking all the time. He claims that it will ruin my knees, legs and back. Sorry bike salesman....not stopping!

Body Whisper

Bad run day:(. It started off fine but about 1 mile and half into my run but body rejected what I was trying to accomplish. It was a short run day about 4 miles. Everything from my waist down started to hurt and my feet felt like they weighed 100 pounds a piece. Normally, if something starts to hurt, I just continue to run and it goes away. Not this time. I started walking and thought I would give myself a little break and pick back up into running. It did not happen. I tried but still did not feel right. The only thing that I can think of that I did different from my normal routine was my speed workout yesterday. I ran 1 and half miles of sprinting between the telephone poles versus my normal 1 mile.  I have learned that when running does not feel right, dont push it. Your body is trying to tell you something. I will chalk this one up as a learning experience and continue on.

Another brick laid with sweat!

Some days I feel as if I can conquer anything. The run feels easy and my body is strong. But other days my legs just dont want to move. It is a battle...I think it is really the humidity. I know that I have mentioned this in the past but going from cool weather with very little humid to warm and humid takes a toll. Today I decided to do a brick workout. The first 3 miles of my run was hard. I pushed myself. Once I switched to my bike, I began to feel better. I did not push as hard as I did on my biking only day. I got off the bike after 8 miles and ran again. So much better. I did 2 more miles. On my route there is this tree that is flowering. I am not sure if it is a cherry or apple tree but the fragrance from that tree is incredible. There is no artifical product that could come close. This is one of the many things I love about being outside. You get to experience things with all your senses. Even though this brick was laid with much sweat, it was well worth it.

8.5 miles

Wow! Was it humid out. Not warm temperature wise but since we have been getting all this rain, we have a lot of standing water so once the sun came out...whew! I really wanted to run the trail today but I decided that it would be way too muddy! I have started my cycle of run 8 minutes and fast walk 1 minute. I used this method to train and run my two half marathons. It worked well so I plan on using this 8:1 cycle for MCM. I had been running with no walking and proved to myself that I can run 10 miles straight. I m doing something a little different, I am running the first mile and then started the cycle. Prior to this, I would jsut start the cycle. I have noticed that I run at a faster pace when I use the interval. I ran an old route today using old country roads which is great because they have very little traffic. The only draw back is no bathrooms but that was not an issue today. Apparently the slices of meat and some cheese I ate the night before settled well. 

12 miles on a bicycle

I am a very goal orientated person. I have discovered this about myself the more I run and try other activities. I am still unsure how fast I should be aiming for on my bicycle. I can tell you one thing, you use different muscles when you bike compared to running. Today I set a time goal of 60 minutes to finish 12 miles. I beat  my goal at 55 minutes and 39 seconds which averages out to 4.6 minute miles. I average about 13 miles per hour. I have to admit, when I got off of my bike, my legs were shaking. I cant imagine running a 5 k after that but I have until July 2nd to get my speed and the transition for running and biking squared away.

Another brick laid down!

The weather is such a fickle thing. Last week was sweating up a storm with shorts on. Today, I am in running pants with an underarmor shirt on! Oh well:) Laid another brick in the path leading to the duathlon. Ran 3 mile then hopped my the bike for 40 minutes (8 miles) then off to run 2 miles. I am really focusing on speeding up my bike portion so instead of mileage, I focused more on time. I gave myself 40 minutes on the bike.Wind is not my friend on the bike. I do not particularly like it running either but it is worse on the bike. I am discovering that I need to crouch down more and try and keep my elbows in. I seem to move faster that way. I am understanding the reason behind why the avid bicyclist have the toe clips on their bikes. My foot slipped off my pedal twice. A good neighbor of mine told me not to give up that bicycling is like running...you only get better with the more miles you put on. Since this is my first attempt to do anything like this, I will keep on pedalling forward.

Long Run learning experiences

I discovered that I need to pay more attention to what I am eating the night before my longer runs. I eat the same thing every morning but I think that what I am eating the night before is affect my run. Note to self, do NOT eat fiesta feta cheese dip and have a glass of wine the night before a long run. Luckily, I know where all the bathrooms are on my route! I have discovered that I like dots instead of gummy bears for my snack as I run. They are a heck of a lot easier to chew. Besides, I love them anyways and that is my excuse for eating them. I eat one dot per mile. I ate 7 dots today:). I am also going to try and get up earlier to run as well. The humidity zapped me. I need to purchase my water belt soon...my hand held water bottle only lasted 6 miles when it is hot. This is not even a fraction of the mileage I will be running when I train for the MCM! Unfortunately, I have to go to Toldeo for this belt. None of the little sporting good stores near me carry them. Lots of new things discovered today!!

Pedalling my buns off....

So here is my question...What is a respectable time (miles/minute) for bicycling? I took off and rode 6.8 miles in 30 minutes. I have no idea what I should be striving for!  I could probably push it faster but this was with no running prior to taking off on my bike. I did put in a 12 hour shift which I spent most of it on my feet.

Speed Play and Strenght Training

Winter was unkind to my pace. I am not a fast runner by any means, I guess you would consider me a mere jogger at my pace of 10:30 minute miles. But coming out of this winter and wet/cold spring, I have dropped into the 11 minute mile catergory! I even ran this winter and spring....mostly outside with many layers of clothes on. So, being a running newbie, I have read many articles on the importance of adding speed training to your workouts. Today I did just that..jogged 2 minutes followed by 1 minute of faster pace. I could not go at an all out sprint because there was no way that I could maintain that for a full minute. Surprisingly, during this speed variation, I knock off 30 seconds from my mile time. After this, I went to the high school stadium and ran up the stairs. I would run up twice then worked on my running form. I repeated this 4 times. The last run up the stairs was not graceful! I think that my legs were protesting :) For strength training, I went to the gym and lift weights. I only did my arms, shoulders, chest and core. 

My brick path to the Napoleon Duathlon

What a glorious day for being outside! Finally!! I completed a brick today. I am now up to 3 mile run, 9.35 mile bike and 2 mile run. I am getting there but I have discovered that I need to get faster on my bicycle portion of the brick. I dont know why when I get on my bike that I feel like I should just glide along at a leisurely pace. At this rate, the duathlon will be over and I will be crossing the line with no one there. I have that strange sensation that my legs belong to someone else after I get off my bike and start running. But this feeling is not lasting as long as it has in the past. I run like that for the first half mile and then it feels normal. I am hoping that as I continue training for this, that will improve. On a side note, I would like to thank my follow running buddies for this idea of creating a blog. Now people on facebook wont have to read my status about running anymore. :)