Adrienne Langelier Racing

I had the privilege this past January of "having lunch" with (sorta, anyway), warming up near, and watching Brooks runner Brian Sell charge down the turnaround at the Houston Marathon. I greatly admire his work ethic and his contribution to the sport of distance running. Even though New York is likely his last big rodeo, hopefully his attitude and contributions to the sport will be lasting.

Amby Burfoot with Runner's World wrote a good, no-nonsense article here-just like Mr. Sell's running and attitude itself.

Thanks Brian! You have inspired another fellow runner to grind out those miles.

After the Huntsville Half last weekend, I was amazed with how my body responded and how little recovery was actually needed. I see this as a good indication for my current fitness level, thanks to some solid training, coaching, and support. I woke up the following Sunday feeling little to no soreness with the exception of some arch cramping in my foot from wearing my Brooks T5's for the furthest distance ever.

Aching foot aside, I had an easy run or two before hitting the track Tuesday for a a type of post-race workout I had yet to encounter: 16 x 400s. Usually, my interval work is muted following a race, however, Coach Bill gave the green light for me to try this one out. I made a conscious effort not the be intimidated by the workload coming off a half, so I basically just went for it: my best and last quarter was a 1:21 and most averaged around 1:25. While I definitely was tired, I was proud of how I did. It's these manageable challenges that will help toughen me mentally and physically as an athlete.

After the track, I was able to rest easy for some more days before yesterday's long run. Melissa, Mike, and I were slated for an easy 10-12. We met at 6:00, which is relatively later in the morning to start for us, and ran/laughed/conversed as usual. Coach had a little surprise for us as we traversed Flintridge (mile 11-12), however...we had about 4 miles to go to get back to the meeting spot! Having enough fuel and running an easy pace, I settled into the extra work. We finished 15.7 miles in 2:07, and my Carmel Latte and banana was great afterward! It was rather cold out there, my lack of usual total sweatiness was evidence for that.

It's fun to look back at how far I've come entering my third season of competition. Before, those workouts that were unexpected would surely have freaked me out. It's amazing what we can do and learn when we challenge ourselves.

On tap this weekend is the Monster Mash 10k in Houston. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good weather and fresh legs to break a personal time barrier.

As of this morning, I am officially registered. Just under 7 mos. to go and a lot of miles to log in beforehand. Racing season began for me in earnest, with most everything leading up to April. My goal besides continuing to drop my race times and go into uncharted weekly mileages is to stay healthy and focused. Thanks for everybody's continuing support!

This was my third consecutive running of an event that will always have a special place in my running life. Each year this race has brought new, positive surprises. Call it recency effects, but 2009 is my favorite for several reasons.

Friday afternoon I met up with my awesome training partner, Melissa (who rocked the race with a 10-min PR, beating my 2007 winning time) and headed up to Huntsville early. Being the dedicated runners that we are, we kept it nice and low-key that evening, with me cooking up some chicken penne (my pre-race favorite) and lights out before 10:00. Even with sleeping on Melissa's friend's couch, I got some good pre-race sleep in. The only thing that jangled the nerves at all was hitting my goal time. Since I have some experience on those hills and have run the course countless times, I felt confident about where I would place-I woke up rested and ready to rock. This was a first for me, staying with some other runners and getting more into the "team" mentality. I love my little training group.

My training had been going really well up to this race, thanks to being coached this year. The bar was set higher this year, with trying to run in the low 1:20s and be the first known woman to win the race three consecutive times. I also sported the On The Run red uniform for the first time and did not want to disappoint. Here's how the race unfolded yesterday morning:

Melissa and I arrived, after setting up our chips and bibs the night before, about an hour before start and began our warmup. The temps were cool and dry, and I was comfortable in my warmup outfit. I wanted to keep the mood light initially, and then get more intense as the start neared. I think I did a good job of that; saying hi to those I knew but saving my oxygen for the hills.

After the gun went off, I climbed Bowers Blvd. for the first time, thinking about my pace and the importance of keeping even splits for the first loop. I let some guys pass me and settled into my rhythm, giving myself my usual pep talk of "breathe, you're doing great, just breathe..." and so on. After mile 2, I felt great, had gotten on goal pace, and was well ahead of the other females in the field. All I had to do was maintain a decent pace and the three-peat was mine. Pacing became the priority. I headed through mile 3 in 18:45ish and my legs were frozen at a 6:15 pace, according to my Garmin.

Miles 3 through 6 consisted of looping around the State Penitentary and one of the peskiest hills on the course. Being a new flatlander, I tried to ignore the elevation change by staring at a big oak tree on the edge of campus and maintaining my form, talking myself through staying on pace. I took a gel shortly before mile 6 and put on a smile as I passed all my clubmates, coach, and my mom (who came out and surprised me!) At this point, I was in second place overall, feeling good with one man ahead of me, however...

At around mile 5, I looked over my shoulder once, seeing a gentleman coming up on me. Before I knew it, I had to share my space with him for a good 4-5 more miles, unfortunately with me doing most of the work. This was somewhat mentally challenging, as I just wanted to run in my own rhythm. He eventually took the lead over me, putting me in the third spot, which I was ok with, since I was still on pace. It was kind of freeing to have some breathing room for the last couple miles. The excited/tired feeling at the end of a race was beginning to set in as I hit the last mile, checked my watch: 1:18 and picked it up. I was beginning to doubt I could make it in 1:21, but I can sure finish strong, somewhere I had lost a couple seconds off pace but I remained calm and took it in. I managed to catch the leader with about a half mile to go, told him good job, and began the go-for-broke dash to the finish.

As I rounded the corner, turning what after-burners on that I had left, I heard Jon Walk's voice on the PA and looked at the clock-I managed to get in in 1:23:23, third win in a row, second year to get 2nd overall. Did I hit my number one goal time, no, but was it a great race and experience, definitely. I cleared the chute, reflecting on how far I have come in the past few seasons, very satisfied. I felt good, conquered the hills more easily than anticipated, and had some great support at the race. I feel I still have room to drop my time even lower in the future.

My thanks goes out to the Seven Hills Running Club again for putting on such a nice event and congrats to all who finished. It was great seeing you all again.

Three times completing the Huntsville Half, three times a win, three times a PR...more race report to come when I rest up! Thanks for everybody's support this morning!

That is hopefully a metaphor for my performance at next weekend's Half Marathon-stirred up and ready to explode. I just spent an awesome weekend training, volunteering at the USA 10-Miler for my team (and watching some top talent in the process), and just hanging out with the family downtown.

There were 3 races held this weekend (with friends competing in all of them): 10 for Texas, the USA 10-Miler, and of course, the Chicago Marathon. Sadly-sigh- I did not race in any of these, but watching, handing out bibs, seeing pictures and hearing everybody's recaps has gotten me licking my chops. It's been over a month now.... I want to race!!

Contributing to my current is solid training. I have been putting in excess of 50 miles a week in regularly, with some pretty crazy track workouts and long runs. I have never run this intense before, and I am curious to test out the effects of this on Huntsville's hills Saturday morning. I have a lighter week of work leading up to the event, hopefully I can stand it. Til then, I'll keep on shakin'!

SNL fans will get my drift on the title from one of the best sketches ever!

Thanks everyone in FB land for the birthday wishes. I enjoyed a good (even if it involved some work) birthday weekend. I have definitely reached those "no man's land" years where there are no milestones in sight. Anyhow, I digress....

I completed my longest run of the year, 18 miles, despite some initial soreness in my soleus without a hitch early Saturday morning. After telling Bill about my predicament, he suggested cutting out the faster portion where I practice my half marathon goal pace. I initially agreed, however, I was psyched up for the challenge of the tempo work mid-long run and basically did it anyway. Funny thing was, the faster I went, the more the soreness faded-a likely result of more momentum and lighter steps. After I ran back up to the support bike, I confessed what I had done: I just had to get it in. Our joke after that centered on the Will Ferrell skit, of course runnerfied to our liking! My final time and distance was 18.34 in 2:23 with an overall pace of 7:48. basically it was about 14 easy ramping up to a 6:20 in the middle.

Postrun I briefly visited with many of the Woodlands Fit crowd, got a recovery latte and banana, showered and was off to a therapy convention to man a booth for ADD Wellness and a new treatment partner. I somehow managed to not totally mangle my legs with a combination of walking around, standing, and sitting while answering questions at the booth.

Sunday was the day of rest, and I mainly visited with family and actually abandoned my likely dietary over-regulation and had some carrot cake-mmm. The rest of the week trainingwise is shifted due to an upcoming credentialing, and I hit the track tomorrow for, you guessed it-more goal pace repeats. As long as I keep the stress of this week under control (practice some of the techniques to be seen in my upcoming article), it should be a good workout and a good week.

That is exactly what I had to do to get thorough last nights workout. It ended up being one of those I walked away feeling like a real woman and athlete, but it definitely took some effort. Many thanks go out to everyone who was so supportive at the track as I completed 12 800s last night. This 2 more miles worth of these repeats than I have ever done before.

These started out easy enough; I had some soreness in my calf that was concerning me but in my stubborness I started out hard, testing any limits. 2:51-2:52 for my first 3 or 4 repeats. In hindsight, this was a mistake! With only a 90 second recovery, the pain was 'brought' starting with numbers 5 through about 9. I recall fighting thoughts of just laying down on the track on number 7. This was one of those days that I had to talk myself through each unit of the work: convince my mind and body to relax, count steps, etc. (Visualizing Jason's Deli afterward helped too!)

The lesson I took from this past evening is to be patient, let loose, and go with the challenge instead of fighting it. Bill still has to remind me sometimes that it is just a workout. One to be proud of.

I ended up with all 12 ranging from 2:51 to 2:59. And I can still stand up today!