Adrienne Langelier Racing

First of all, my thanks goes out to Katy and the Lampson family for hosting the event on their great piece of property. After a little rain shower, the Run the Trails event for 7 Hills got off to a fast start. The mud on the trails made it extra challenging-at least I got good and muddy sporting an authentic "trail runner" look by the end. I noticed what Katy meant when she suggested wearing mudflaps out there!

After dodging puddles and hopping around for most of the terrain, I managed to be the second runner in (behind a super-fast JC), clocking in an unofficial 34-flat for my 5 miles in this noncompetitive event. As far as I know that is a personal best time. I now have added another medal to my fledgling collection. Afterward, I enjoyed my first hamburger in forever and chatted with some of my fellow mudrunners!

For the week, I have clocked in 46 miles and am on pace for getting about 200 in this month, which is higher than my usual 160-170. (Edwin, I hope your quest for 200 ended successfully!) For tomorrow, it is weights and low impact in prep for another busy weekend running amongst the academic craziness that is this semester!!

That's all for now, peace!

First off all, I managed to find my MP3 player! Yay! Don't have to start all over with the playlists after all. What a week it has been- I had moments where I wanted to pull out my hair one strand at a time! My department re-keyed the locks at my office and I have been without an office for almost 2 weeks now. I took two exams and posted a subpar performance on one of them (which eats at perfectionists like yours truly).

I have logged 29.2 miles so far this week and am planning to get in a solid hour and a half today, but not too hard cuz I wanna run the trails at Katy's at a decent pace! I did a fun little activity with my friend from school yesterday evening. We hit the track in the middle of town for a little walk/jog training, only to get kicked out due to a coinciding sporting event! So we ended up doing a little "home tour" of Huntsville's avenues! This was a nice change of pace given how the week began.

The scenery is interesting if you pay attention, there were attractive wildflowers everywhere-that is one ting the 'Ville has to offer in the Spring, some nice natural scenery. We encountered a random pet park, dangerously-placed coat hangers on the sidewalk, and a bizarre concrete gorilla in a cage attractively placed in someone's front yard!

After today, I have 2 exams in the bag! Needless to say, I'm a little fried, and a lot relieved! I have those days where I wonder, "what would it be like if I had a real job right now?" I guess that can wait, because I'm dead-set on a career as a psychologist, and they don't form overnight!

Tragic as it is, a few days after my playlist post, my MP3 player is gone! I think I left it on some steps as I stretched, and it never made it back to my pocket. It was just a cheap version, but I loved that little thing! However, I have enjoyed running without it, and it is good to know that I am not one of those "music-dependent" runners!

My runs this week so far have been productive, I did some speedwork on the treadmill yesterday, completing a "5k sandwich", which is basically doing one 5k, lifting wieghts, and then following up with another 5k. I varied my pace from about an 8-minute mile to warm up, then taking it all the way up to a 6-flat mile for most of the second one (whew!). I have since forgotten exactly how long it took me, but I would guess around 40ish, give or take (but most likely give).

This morning, while I should have put some extra sleep or study in, I did an 8-miler on a hilly loop in town (sans music). Starting my morning like so tends to help equip me to handle days like today. Anyhoo, that's all I got for now, be back later....(maybe I will go into some core training for those interested, who knows?)

I got one of my last good park training runs before Hog's Hunt yesterday morning. After reading article after article on changing up the pace for your different runs, I decided to go a little easier this particular run (baby steps are needed for a workaholic like me). I am stubborn and tend to end up going all out everytime, but towards the end of the season, and my muscles rebelling a bit, it can tend to get a little tiring. Needless to say, the run felt awesome! I don't have anything besides feel and my Ironman to gauge my pace, but I probably slowed it down anywhere from 30-45 seconds per mile. I owe it to Ryan Hall's blog for the "easy inspiration"!

Equiped with my bottle and leftover Shot Blocks, I ran the outer, inner, and repeated some stretches for a total of 2 hours. I finished up with some left in the tank, and a still had a sense of getting a good, solid run in. Given the just-cool-enough weather, the trails were lively and even the often-surly bikers were friendly.

I did encounter one close call as I was finishing up on the trail near the parking lot; a tree root jumped out and bit me, and didn't let go. Everything tensed instantaneously as I braced to fall really hard. Luckily, and this is a great testament to core training, I stayed on my feet and managed to not throw my back out from the impact. I have encountered roots before, but this was the big mama root!

Overall, minus the nasty root, my first solo venture into the park (and I even paid the fee!) left me feeling refresehed and ready to get some more racing in soon! Sometimes, you just gotta go cruise!

Happy Good Friday everyone!

I put together today what I think is a good playlist for speedwork, tempo runs, or just getting through the last few miles/ motivated...worked good for me this afternoon, as I did a quick 6 miles around Huntsvegas. Just thought I'd share...
The list (in not particular order):

1. Touch the Sky-Kanye West
2. Mr. Brightside-The Killers
3. Fuel-Metallica
4. U2-Elevation
5. Ready, Steady, Go!- Paul Oakenfold
6. Stronger-Kanye West
7. Ain't Nothin' Wrong with That-Robert Randolph & The Family Band
8. Bush-Machinehead
9. Gunpowder & Lead-Miranda Lambert
10. Fly Away-Lenny Kravitz
11. Firestarter-Prodigy

To get psychological, supposedly loud, fast music releases brain chemicals which essentially can help pump you up! If anyone has other suggestions, feel free to post, I'm always looking for a good playlist!

As for the rest of my runs this week, I'm currently at 28 miles on the week, so tomorrow I am likely off to the state park again to finish off my 40, or more or less. Once again, Easter Sunday will be my day of rest, as it is probably appropriate to do so. It's about 2 weeks until Hog's Hunt! How time flies!

Happy Easter!

For the sake of my legs, I took in some crosstraining today. It was nice to mix it up. Started with a 12 minute slow warmup, upper body/core lifting, concentrating on using the medicine ball, stability ball and cables. and a twenty minute spin on the Octane trainer (for those who have used one of those, try X-mode, it's killer!). Felt refreshed after that, and right now I should be working on my statistics project!

Hot, tired, humid. Did about 5 miles today and was not impressed with how I felt/did. I guess we all have those days-amidst work, grading, and chasing students around the computer lab. I managed to finish in under 40 minutes, with considerable effort (I would have splits like you pros have, but I'm not bright enough to track them! :)) Anyhoo, I will be up at just after 6 tomorrow, trying to get a good, solid 8 miles in. Wish me luck.

25 miles in the past two days = resting today! Do I need it! Friday I met up with some fellow 7-hillers for nine miles in Huntsville State Park-it had been a while since a I last ran through there and it was an enjoyable run except for the 80 + degree heat. I finished up in approximately 1:06.

The following (and notably beautiful) morning I met up with some of the Battling Bloggers from TIR for some more trails-good to see everyone again!. I completed about 15 or 16 in about 2 hrs. I originally planned on getting in 13 miles, I ran into another club member and ended up doing another 3ish with him as he warmed up.
I tested out some Cliff Shot Blocks on this particular run, and was fairly pleased with the results, although I will probably stick to gels during most runs. After that , I was spent! While I may have some speed, it has it's limits!

After hanging with Katy and Edwin for a bit, it was off for some of Huntsville's finest Mexican food-nothing beats a big plate of fajitas after a long, hard run!

Happy Sunday!

As I prep for what may or may not be my last longer race of the main season, I reflect back on all that I have learned in my first fullish running season-when in grad school, you gotta time-manage. Some of you may know that I am new to the whole running/racing scene, and believe me, this stuff is verrry addictive! What began as exercise turned into a club invite turned into a half-marathon and so on and so forth. I told my vanmates at TIR that I consider myself an "accidental" runner-I came to Huntsville looking for "extracurricular" activity, and boy, did I find it!

So anyway, I compiled a list of some of the more memorable things, lessons, etc. I have encountered thus far:

1.) Go in with no expectations, except to run your butt off, and see what happens.
2.) Tech socks actually make a difference!
3.) Watch out for blinkies falling off in weird places!
4.) Your feet get really, really ugly!
5.) Pine needles cover up things that will trip you!
6.) Before a marathon, you can never get enough bread products!
7.) A "roadkill" is passing somebody up in a race.
8.) PR does not stand for public relations!
9.) Marathoning is actually pretty fun!
10.) Maybe I'm not as crazy as my friends think I am!

I'm sure this list will keep growing. Til then, I'm hitting the pine-needle covered trails!(with no luxury cars in sight!)

For a low-level writing teacher, I should know to put my posts into paragraphs! OOps! S'more later to come. Peace.

Being a grad student, I still get to partially partake in spring break. No skiing or Padre for me, just spending some time in the Houston area and seeing friends and family while simultaneously picking at my thesis. I think tomorrow I will hit up Rice Village and see what it has to offer, Saturday I took in the zoo and a Wade Bowen concert (great Texas country, in my opinion). Anyhow, before the rather large thunderstorm came in (funny, I wrote about the letter last post) I squeezed in a nice 16 miles or so, give or take around my parent's subdivision. Whenever I run this route, I always have little games I like to play with myself to pass the time on the flat Greatwood course...First, I like to play count the "count the luxury car"(no offense to those who own them, I'm just a little jealous!). Today I counted 9 Mercedes, 11 BMW's and a Range Rover in a span of roughly 2 hrs. to my tally. Another fun thing I sometimes do on these runs is to yell Fore! while passing the golf course-I admit this is a little obnoxious, but most golfers simply smile and wave. One stretch contains a view of the highway and I can see the traffic pileup on 59 and be glad to be out sweating than stuck in traffic-priceless! The one thing that kept this from being a nearly perfect run was the losing war I fought with my headphones...those suckers just don't want to stay in! After cocking my head like a chicken to keep one earbud in while swatting and trying to catch the other one with my hand while still running. This is probably a sight for those who pass by! I guess I need to quit being a cheapskate and purchase some new, proper ones. Besides that, I thought about how great it is for it to be a Monday morning and I am nowhere near my office or the classroom, but out gettin a little road therapy in!

If I recall correctly, people were freakn' wearing shorts a day or two ago! This morning, however, was a different story. I awoke at my usual 6:30-7ish for a morning run and turned on the TV, the goofy weather guy on the College Station news (being an Aggie, I am biased toward still viewing Channel 3 in the morning), and they were talking about snow. Thinking nothing of it, I let the puppy out and low and behold, it was snowing-in March, no less!
After getting over the caffeine-deprived stupor of early morning, the thought came to me: "I should so run in it!" -Those who are not lifelong Texans may feel free to laugh at my excitement over a little flurries.- After some hasty deliberation, I put on my tights, beanie and sweatshirt, looking like a winter Texan for sure. I headed out the door and down the street. This random white stuff was coming down pretty good now for March in Texas standards (wait, is there a standard?), getting in my face and sticking to my eyelashes. About three-quarters of a mile the cold began to hit me-did I underdress? Turns out, it was windier than I thought, my headphone cords were no match. Nobody told me that it stings a little when snowflakes hit your face! I also realized that I was not wearing gloves-ouch! After fussing with the elements for a few more minutes I made the ultimate WUSSY decision to head back...to the treadmill! What was a fun idea eventually led me back to the treadmill at my apartment complex for "speedwork". While the treadmill workout got the job done, I learned something about running in the elements: if it's snowing, don't go out in your usual garb!
Needless to say I am a little disappointed that what looked like fun really wasn't so much, however, I tip my hat to all those Northern runners! Next time it snows in Huntsville-I'll be ready!
As a parting note, I wish all of those participating in the Huntsville inter-club competition good luck! May Seven Hills take the home-field (or road) victory!

The most memorable leg of my TIR (first and hopefully one of many) experience was taking off at just after 3:30 to run across the suburb of Fulshear, TX. Honestly, I had my doubts about this one, I had run really well earlier that evening and didn't know how much I had left in the tank. Luckily, this model apparently runs ok on Red Bull and a little bit of adrenaline. Minutes before, we had passed "Caffineated Katy" in the van (aka rolling motel room) tearing up her leg-thoroughly lit up with blinkies and headlamps. As we pulled up to the next exchange, I felt a sudden surge of motivation. I was about to do one of the craziest runs of my life, and I was ready to have fun with it. For me, the first mile is all about adjustment, how fast I want to go, what songs should play in my head (for some reason, and somewhat annoyingly, this time it was "Party Like a Rock Star"-I don't even care for rap, but hey , it worked. I don't remember too much about the leg, besides that surprisingly I didn't feel much. In psychology , we have the fancy term of "dissociation"...apparently that happens to you when you are out trying to haul butt in the middle of the night when you're already sleep-deprived! As I neared the exchange and handed off to Holden, I felt sense of accomplishment-I was done, but, even more so, an sense of comraderie, and that trumps a PR.

So, this is my first-ever blog entry! I guess I gleaned a little inspiration from spending 48 hours in a van with nothing but bloggers (and Katy!). So I thought I'd thought I'd give this a whirl. Hey, I'm already an overly-busy grad student, so what's one more thing! Given the name psychorunnergirl, expect to hear about two of my favorite things, psychology and running! MAYBE I will occasionally post something remotely funny or insightful, but for now my random thoughts will do. Anyhoo, I just finished one of my most unique running events to date-the Texas Independence Relay. 203ish miles, 2 vans, craaaazy running leg times (think 3:30 am), and all the sugar free Red Bull you can drink! At least I know now that at age 25 I can still pull an all-nighter(with some awesome company-while setting a couple of PR's to boot! I wonder what other states celebrate their independence day? I can't think of one. Could you imagine, like Rhode Island independence day? Wouldn't have the same effect.

Amazingly, I was up and moving around again at 7am this morning-back to the grind of reserach, teaching, and textbooks! Life is messy and crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Stay tuned as I post my periodic musings.