Adrienne Langelier Racing

I have set an new, obscure personal best in the form of monthly mileage. While I have come close, I have never made it past the 200-mile mark. Today, at mile 10 of my 17-mile run, I was able to tick off 200. Doing so gave me a little more motivation to get a good long training run in before the Huntsville Half Marathon coming up 2 weeks from today. I will likely keep it somewhat shorter next weekend, to "rest" and enjoy my parent's company as they come in for my birthday. I liked Jon's recent post about races such as this one-small town running is fun and friendly! Huntsville is where my somewhat odd running journey began-basically in my own front yard!

The run this morning was based on 3 five-mile loops, which I finished in 1:57. I practiced finishing hard on this one because I feel like I close relatively weaker than I run for the rest of a race. With 15 miles in, I did a one-mile out and back to cool down. Conditions were great as well. Hopefully I have enough energy in between scoring protocols and reading to get a recovery run in tomorrow.

After getting spoiled by running intervals on a bigger track these past few weeks, I used the little 1/8-miler at the HKC. I never realized just how much you feel like you are turning on that thing! At any rate the speed workout was good, I felt fast, and I made it to work on time-can't ask for much more on your Wednesday (ok that's a lie, but anyways...)!

Not too much different from other track days, as I was not feeling very creative this morning.

2 mile warmup + 5 mins. on stationary bike

Strength and core training

5 min warmup
2.5 miles 30/30's-not as fatigued now after doing these, which is a good thing
1-mile jog down

After that, it was off to my internship site for orientation. Life moves fast and furious after Ike.

Since Huntsville State Park will not be reopening it's gates any time soon, I had to deviate from my usual long run venue yesterday morning. With a little help from USATF, I picked a 16-mile route circling (with a couple out and backs) the greater parts of town, strapped on my RoadID and Cytomax bottle, and headed out. I made it a point to stay away from areas where I felt uncomfortable running through, being a lone female. After an initial morning haze, the weather was mostly cooler and drier. I finished up, including shutting it down the last mile to cool down, in about 2:12. It's nice knowing it is possible to create a loop in this place with distances in the double-digits.

Even with being "displaced" for most of the week, I was able to log in 55 miles this week. Hopefully, I will have 200 in by the end of Sept.; nice and ready for my upcoming long races.

7:00 this morning my eyes popped open, and I was met by some fleeting confusion. This was because I woke up in my own bed this morning for the first time in a week. While I am extremely grateful for my awesome friends and family who donated their couches and fed me, it was nice to get back to Huntsville last night and begin getting back to the usual. I did not really know what to expect, but the town seems to be rebounding alright. With the fridge restocked (and no related stench!), the apartment cleaned up, and power restored, I have a nice Friday to relax.

I ran by some electrical workers this morning on my easy 5-miler, and made it a point to tell them thank you. I felt like a total dork doing so, but it really sucks without electricity-I could only imagine what it was like for my friends and colleagues who stayed put!

I put my last run in in Aggieland yesterday, logging in close to 10 (I drove it later that afternoon). It was a little cloudy, but the temps were fantastic. Of course, I did an easy 5 today. Long one on tap this weekend, for about 15 or 16. I saw in the paper that the State Park is closed until further notice, and it made me kind of sad.

Change of scenery for this session. I took advantage of the free admission at TAMU's SRC and used the full-sized :) track. Workout felt relatively good, with the exception of drier conditions that tended to bug my lungs somewhat. I ran up and down the ladder again and this one seemed to go by faster than usual, perhaps because of my increase in free time this week?

Total: approx. 7 mi.

2 mile W/U
Strength training: Lunges, leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises. Also did some upper: Lat rows + bicep curls, stability ball chest presses, shoulder presses, yoga planks, ball crunches, cable twists.

Intervals:
1200 easy
400m-800m-1200m-800m-600m
10 min./1200m cooldown
-400m recovery in between

...Entire thing took about 50 min. Other than that, still waiting on the power back home!

Ok, it was not that long ago since I walked with the Texas A&M Class of 2007! But wow, this place has already changed quite a bit. From a different side of town, I ran an old loop plus some that I used to do when I was in college. There are several new buildings up and some more on the way on the main campus. I put in an estimated* 9 circling around A&M's perimeter and criscrossing Bryan-College Station. It is not everyday you run across two different towns! After spending a year in hilly Huntsville, this run was much easier and faster than I remember it being!

The rec center where I worked up until last August has undergone a substantial facelift, however, I did run into an old client and a couple old coworkers while I worked out for free-some special "refugee" rate. I guess that place has not changed TOO much, I did see my name on the wall from getting Personal Trainer of the Year back in 2006. I lifted weights on the new FreeMotion equipment and ran about 4 relatively fast miles on the full-sized upstairs track. Tomorrow I will probably run intervals on it at some point.

The University has wisely called off operations until Monday, so my little escapade has turned into somewhat of a "working vacation". If I had my way, though, I would like to see some power back sometime next week. We shall see.

Due to Ike, I have been appreciatively staying with friends and family in College Station. I usually really enjoy my time in Aggieland whenever I make the hour-trip up here, but this one has been tainted by the stress of no power at my place, my family still in Sugar Land with patchy contact, and numerous projects and things left open-ended in Huntsville. With me being Ms. Control Freak, I don't do too well with uncertainty, but am slowly learning to take things one day at a time.
There are things that are simply out of all of our hands. So, all I can do is wait and enjoy myself, the people I don't see here too often, and the things I fortunately have access to here (like A/C, showers, and hot food).

I was still in Huntsville when the hurricane hit, stayed for the afternoon to assess things, and decided to leave that evening. My exit turned out to be harried in the yucky conditions. I had little daylight left and a steady rain was falling. I grabbed a few outfits, frustratingly threw away all my decaying perishables, got my dog, and threw everything in my car soaking wet. I probably looked like a half-drowned rat when I arrived at my friend Chrissy's Sat. night. Exhausted, I sure felt like one.

Yesterday morning, I took in a 90-minute run around the Bryan-College Station area, not as much to preserve fitness, but to unwind. Today I think I will work out at the Rec. Center where I worked as a personal trainer as an undergrad. My old 'stomping ground'! Hopefully there will still be a couple familiar faces there to say hello to.

I hope everyone remained safe and is faring okay under these less-than-favorable conditions.

*In response to Jon's email, all is well this way so far. I have some good friends that I am staying with tonight and we have all procured supplies. Best wishes for everyone's safety this weekend.

I am somewhat apprehensive of exactly what Ike is going to do to the Sugar Land (where the parents are)-Huntsville corridor and in between.

For the week I have about 34 miles in. Yesterday I ran two loops of the "Tour de Huntsville" equaling 10 miles before work. For this run, I maintained a easy but strong pace. This morning I hopped on the treadmill after lifting weights for a "tempo-ish" run. I averaged about a 6:45-6:50 pace for 5 miles, with 1.5-mile warmup and 1-mile cooldown. I remained distracted by watching the wind and clouds wax and wane and the neighbors making preparations for later today.

Weight training consisted of:

Bench dips
Lat Pulldowns
Dumbell Chest Presses
Shoulder presses/raises
Forward and Reverse Lunges-2 x 15 each.
Standing Core twists with weight
Crunches
V-Ups
Stretching!! Pre and post

Again, take care and be safe, especially with the panicy drivers (I tend to agree with K somewhat)!

What I thought would be a quiet early-morning track workout at Sam Houston's Prichett Field turned out to be quite the opposite. SHSU's track/XC team was already in full swing running repeats when I arrived at a little after 6:30 am. My first reaction was one of a little intimidation, given the coaches were standing out there and the guys seemed to be flying around the track. That feeling quickly vanished as I commenced into my warmup and interval work. I even got a little ego boost every now and then as I passed some team members during my intervals! Kids (hehe)!

Run felt good, minimal discomfort despite the humidity and nature of the workout.

-1.5 miles to the track from apt.
-400 warmup
-2.75 miles/2800m 30/30; finished up with a 300m "sprint".
-Including the warmup lap, total time for intervals was 18:50.
-2000m warmdown
-1.5ish m back to apt.

Total: Approx. 7.25

Have a good one y'all!

Is Lance for real?

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/8541742?MSNHPHMA

I guess the tough get running! With the semester a couple weeks in, three weeks on the job, volunteer hours for my psychotherapy class beginning (exciting!), and squeeze in some IQ tests to some wonderful, willing volunteers, and surprisingly, running lately remains strong. I have to get up a little earlier, put a little more thought into it, but (knock on wood) it's working-I can only imagine how stressed I would be without it! It seems I am frequently blogging my endless quest for "perfect" time management, my apologies go out to those sick of hearing it! It's like a constant experiment for a twenty-something grad student.

Now...the latest workouts:

Today: solid 16.5 miler in the State Park (estimated due to some out-and-backs to increase distance); I think I saw some Renegades as I turned around at the top of a hill.
Yesterday: Easy 3
Friday: 5 and a quarter on the treadmill
Thursday: 9ish-started easy, ran into Norman and chatted for a bit, and it later turned into a bit of a tempo run.
Tomorrow: Rest!! :)

Of course good running is usually backed by good weather, as this was the case for this week. As much as I enjoy a good summer, fall weather is hard to beat!

Today I switched up the track workout a bit. I did my usual 2-mile warmup and some light strength and core work. It appears that lifting before hitting the track may be beneficial, based on how the rest of my weekly workouts and races have felt lately. It sure is tough in the short run, though! My workout today consisted of running "up the ladder", more like a stepladder since I only did a few different distances...

5 min. easy
400m: 1:18
800m: 2:49
1200m: approx. 4:20
800m: 2:51
400m: 1:24 (this one hurt!)
4 x 100 strides

1-1:30 recovery in between

10 min easy

Total Speed Distance: 4000m
Total for the day: about 7 miles.

Now I'm spent!