Adrienne Langelier Racing

Who knew that probably one of the craziest August's of my life would be so productive running-wise? I had my last courses and exams, graduation, vacation, starting at the practice, and all the relocating and settling in associated. Now that things hopefully are about to become more even keel, I am optimistic about what the near future may hold, and am enjoying the present along the way.

When I think about how I maintained (admittedly at times bullheadedly) regular training under considerable fatigue and stress-a few variables come to mind. First, my commitment to a lofty goal coming up within the next few months; I did not want to fall behind any. Second, many of you know that I am a big proponent of consistency. As runners, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to train as long as we have shoes ready to go and a relatively safe street to put them to-all it takes is a little planning. Sure, it may be hard to get going, especially when the going is tough, but I found keeping the mindset that I am helping myself was beneficial. Something else I discovered regarding training through hectic times is planning accordingly. I made sure I at least had an idea of what the week would hold, and adjusted from there (this meant some solo track workouts, but they all turned out allright).

After a conversation with Bill as he rode alongside me on Saturday's (almost) 15-miler, I recall touching on a potentially easier routine with *slightly fewer demands-i.e. a little more more time on my hands! I finished up with 205 miles this month, and if everything goes ok, I should have an easier time reaching that in the upcoming months.

To recap this past week, all my workouts went really well. I hope this bodes well for my upcoming race, but time will tell....

Wednesday track was a 20-minute tempo run sandwiched by easy 2-milers. I ended up averaging sub-6 or near there and put in 3.3 in 20. A cool new route was discovered down the road from me around a lake/pond type thing, and I finally quit being a "long-run loner" and had a great long run paced by the coach and some coffee with my peeps afterward. It was fun seeing everyone out there that I knew and they all looked great.

This morning was another first. I spent some time in Houston and took advantage of the hills on Allen Pkwy. I put in an easyish 9 in 1:05 with about a 7:20 average. Not bad considering I'm now a flatlander! Though he probably doesn't know who I am, I had a Luis Armenteros sighting. If I use my imagination, I may have been going at a faster pace than he was, but he probably was just warming up! I am really enjoying being in the Houston area.

This week will begin to get easier starting with a rest/strength training day tomorrow. Gotta get ready for the weekend!

Slow week this week...ok, maybe not slow, but somewhat uneventful. Checking my mileage for the month, it appears that I am on track to get close to 200. I have been averaging 50 or just shy of it for the past few weeks. Besides the occasional "yuck" run, I feel pretty good right not putting it in and am getting into the kind of shape that will get me to where I want to go.

Speaking of mileage-On my morning 8-miler I hit a puddle and slid, nearly falling backward on the sidewalk. The likely culprit: the increasing smoothness of the soles of my Adidas Boston's, aka my "Lamborghinis". Sad to say, I am the type of dorky runner who names her shoes. My red racing flats I call the "Ferraris". Needless to say, I cannot keep running on bald tires, so I went through a short process of elimination and ended up with another pair of Boston's, a shoe I have been really happy with lately. This time I got them in girly pink instead of yellow-I guess they're the "Pink 'Lambo's"!) Lol

Anyhow, for the rest of the week: I have a busy work day tomorrow and a scheduled day off, but that is by design for when I hit the Flintridge Hills, etc. eeaarrly Saturday morning! Start your engines!

Lots of new stuff this past week, both good and "learning" experiences. As I say to clients I will say to myself: There are no "bad" experiences, per se, just opportunities to learn. As I will get to, I had to remind myself of this yesterday.

As many of you know from following my Facebook page, I started my new position this week. I see a lot of opportunity to grow there with them and am really excited. The workweek ended pretty uneventful, which I see as a good thing. On Wednesday afternoon, I get an email from my cousin who was coming in from San Antonio to crash at my place after the Incubus concert with her friend. As it turned out, her friend could not go, so I was offered a free ticket. I have a little rocker chick in me and love their music, so I took her up on it. Free tix and an opportunity to hang out with Audrey, I could not pass that up! I did, however, have a 16-mile progression run scheduled the next day.....

Anyhow, the show turned out to be awesome, those guys impressed. We were even so close to the stage that I could see Brandon Boyd's (the lead singer) jawline. Not counting the countless Texas Country shows I have seen, this was the best seating I have ever had at a concert. They even played all my favorite songs of them, but my favorite was an acoustic version of 'Drive'-great stuff! As the chorus goes: "whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there...."

...to get overheated on my long run"! (cue acoustic solo) Yup, it sucked. After ranting and raving in dissappointment to Coach Bill, I am choosing to accept it for what it was, a rough day-I feel more initiated into the running lifestyle now as these things pop up. I was set up for it: standing and hopping around til midnight the night before, missing sleep, a near-perfect but hard workout on W, and getting adjusted to my career and such. Plus, when I checked my Blackberry back at the car, the TWC report said "Heat Advisory". Nice. Was it worth it? Sure. I will have many more of these runs (in cooler weather) to come. Free tickets with my cousing who will soon be moving to Georgia, not so much.

What was positive was that I did complete the 16, even though not in a fashion I would have liked and know I can do usually. I can tend to get arrogant regarding my mental toughness and talent and sometimes think that I can rise above the elements if I want to bad enough. We all have bad days. I think keeping this in perspective is important. I could tell that it was unusual as I felt funky and tired for the rest of the day. Was I dissappointed, heck yeah, but I allowed myself a few hours to be pissed and then let it go.

I have set a goal to hit my splits for the next one, and will prepare with my usual routine: bed at 10, up earlier, 2 Cytomax gels or Roctane with water. Today I put in a 5-mile recovery run at 8:09 pace and felt just fine, especially after sleeping 9 hour (NINE-I never get that!). This week's workouts fall perfectly in line with "resetting" everything.

Yeah, the title alludes to the fast-paced nature of yesterday's track session. After grimacing a bit upon first seeing the workout, I actually found these somewhat enjoyable; in a voluntary self-suffocation kind of way (I give David credit for that term)! An added bonus was the "cooler" 88-degree temps when I arrived at Knox following a good day at work.

Prescribed was a 1-1.5 mile warmup, 6 x 800 in 2:53-3:00 with a 200 recovery, followed by a .5-1 mile cooldown. Coach pointed out that whatever I'm running, I usually do more, so the warmup and cooldown likely turned out a little more than the 7-mile prediction for the evening.

I hit the first 800 in about 2:54, which was right in range. I ended up, even after the short recovery time (which averaged about 1 minute or so) putting each interval in within my prescribed window. I think this is a skill/discipline that I am beginning to learn. Even with my competitive nature, it is often silly and pointless to race yourself in a workout.

The final tally resembled this: 2:54, 2:55, 2:55, 2:56, 2:57, 2:54. A pleasant surprise was that while this was definitely challenging, it did not steal all my oxygen!

Besides the little mechanical mishap I experienced a few weeks ago, my experience dealing with Garmin has turned out to be an overall positive one. Some of you may remember my expression of frustration when the thing went out on me: it would not leave the "satellite search" mode and would power off when hitting other buttons. I was relieved after talking to the first tech. guy that my profuse sweating was not to blame!

I sent it off shortly after moving and it reached their headquarters in Kansas (I would need a GPS there, for sure!:)). Yesterday when I called to follow up, I was told that it was delivered back to me on the 10th, which was great, except for that the apt. office did not receive it, and I was busy graduating that day...uh...where's my GPS....???

After a moment of some agitation, I called UPS to verify where it had been shipped to, they gave me an address with some backwards digits; could have been my fault initially, but who knows for sure. Anyhow, after thinking it was a lost cause to track, I called Garmin again and spoke to "Bill", telling him what had happened. After some searching around, he came back on the line and told me that he apologized and a new unit (yay!) would be here by the end of the week. I was not expecting that kind of courtesy. They also were going to attempt to retrieve the other unit-to that end I wish them luck. I'm sure some people would be thrilled for a random electronic device to arrive at their doorstep!

Long story short, hopefully I will be lost no more out here in this still somewhat unfamiliar territory, and my TrainingPeaks will again be more accurate.

Thanks Garmin guys somewhere in KS!

What's the best thing to do when you graduate from a tough graduate program and are about to start a new job? Go on vacation! That is my belief, anyway. I just returned from Playa del Carmen, Mexico- and it was just what I needed. It was my second time there, and the first staying overnight. Another friend and recent Master's degree recipient accompanied and we got in some much needed R & R on the beach and the streets of Playa. The scenery, ocean, and weather was fantastic.

Being an often-times compulsive person by nature and over-dedicated athlete, I made sure to get my miles in while away. I actually looked forward to heading down the hotel complex and seeing the sights. I was fortunate to be staying in an enclave that had a safe feel and lots of others out running. Some of my favorite landmarks included a small set of ruins and the long walkway leaving to the resort's beach club. What tripped me out was the treadmills only reading Kilometers; you learn quickly that we are biased in America. Mojitos are not the best fuel source, but definitely enjoyable while laying by the pool!

This week is all about getting everything in order, working, and settling into my long-term routine. Should be fun. Until then, I'm resting up and looking forward to it.

Hopefully not too many of you have suffered from this, at least not in the middle of August in Houston. If you have, you have my sympathy! I have tried to be creative in dealing with this minor inconvenience via USATF's website, and the local parks around here. The past week has worked well, though I have usually stuck to Meyer Park and major road out-and-back's. Today I was not so lucky, With temps rising, the 8-miler route I designed did not exactly match when I put rubber to road....long story short: two wrong turns later, two pedestrian solicitations for directions later, I finally found my way around the planned route.

While this was designed as an easy run, I probably began to push the pace a tad towards the end, wanting to get back to the apartment. It crossed my mind that I could compromise tomorrow's track session, so I eased up a bit.

Sure, I may be being a little overdramatic about today's journey-it did make me think about the dependence on gadgets that I and many of us have. In a conversation with a fellow psychologist yesterday, he mentioned that before too long, the average memory span may be lessened due to the electronic conveniences we all have today, cell phones, GPS, palm pilots, etc.-Yuck! Well, if my memory is going to go on me, I at least want my electronics back from repair in a timely manner!

As for the symptoms of this "disease" (lol) they can be as follows: frustration, a general feeling of being "turned around", running too fast, running too slow, ending up in random cul-de-sacs, and excessive sweating from extra effort. Who knows, they may have a diagnosis for this in the future!

The rest of the week should go beautifully. I go to Tuesday night track for the first time tomorrow, catch a plane for Mexico the following day and hang out on the beach. In the spirit of dedication to my sport, I will split doing runs on the beach and the resort treadmill-whatever is safeist.

Track last night was great, especially with a little surprise I received after my 2-mile 10k goal pace run. All week I had been processing this "crazy and difficult" workout and psyching myself up to meet the beast. I was planning on a 1 mile WU, 3 x 100 with a 300 recovery, then 2 x 2 miles in 12:00, followed by 2 x 400 in 1:20., with an 800 recovery in there somewhere.

Imagine my surprise when I was taking off for my second 2-miles when Bill called out 400 in 1:20. What?? I realized about 3/4 the way into it that I couldn't read! Somehow I flipped what I printed and it was 1 x 2-miles instead of 2! It was 97 degrees, so I did not mind doing less than I anticipated! I came in on the first 400 a little slower than prescribed, so I made up for it with a third. I ended up feeling good about this one. I am learning that I do not need to blow every pace out of the water in order to get some quality work in.

My 2-mile was actually a 12:07, due to heat and me being more conservative than needed, but I was happy. It gets the job done in preparation for a 10k PR. 400's were in 1:25 (the d'oh lap!), 1:18, and 1:20. After that, I needed some Goose's! This was one of my favorite track experiences so far.

Wow! My hands have finally stopped shaking after hitting "submit" for my last counseling exam (I squeaked out with an 'A btw...). It has not hit me, nor will it for probably a good week, that I am done with all the work in my Master's Program. I walk on Saturday, go on vacation a few days after that, and subsequently then start my new position. I would be afraid to tally all the hours, sweat, tears, (no blood, even though it may have felt like it at times!) and effort I have spent in preparation for what's to come. I have gotten more out of my time at SHSU/Huntsville -even though I complain about you Huntsvegas, you've been good to me!!- than I would have ever imagined. I could go on for pages talking about all my experiences these past two years, but will refrain and hit some of the good, bad, and ugly in no particular order.

The Good:
1. I will have a career, first and foremost.
2. I learned I can handle a whole heckofalot!
3. I transformed from just a girl who runs sometimes into a runner with purpose.
4. I met some incredible individuals both in my program and the athletic community.
5. I learned to be very resourceful and make the best of situations.
6. My position at the university that I will likely always be grateful for.
7. I survived!!
8. Huntsville Half Marathon/7 Hills RC!

The Not-so-Good:
1. Stress, stress, and more stress!
2. Wishes I had spent more time on other areas/relationships in my life.
3. Living like a student-enough already!!
4. The brutal summer weather.
5. Hurricane Ike.
6. Dealing with being not far away, but just far enough to where I had difficulty doing things out of town.
7. Nothing to do or see.

The Ugly/Indifferent/Various and Sundry "learning experiences", etc.:
1. Hills-I appreciate them, will miss and not miss training them at the same time!
2. Getting up at crazy hours to train before clients, schoolwork, and classes
3. Enough of Wal-Mart and Chili's already!
4. The comp. exam experience-when it rains, it pours! (I did set a 10kPR the next day, however!)


This is just a sampling of what came to mind. I will never forget my experiences here and those that have been born out of it (i.e. new job, serious marathon training and goals, awesome individuals I can hang out with more now). Hopefully this has not been too sappy for you all!

Here on out, I will get adjusted to my new surroundings which so far I dig and try and enjoy myself. I also feel more able to pursue some of my athletic goals as well. Let the adventures begin!