Adrienne Langelier Racing

I know I am beginning to gain some experience in training and racing when I use a race as just a
"hard workout", or just one to train through en route to Boston. In the past, I have always done some type of taper before racing, however, today's 10k was a trip through some uncharted waters, complete with a pretty wicked headwind!

I made the traditional trip downtown with Bill plus Micah and his parents. As usual, work was busy this past week and I did not have much time to get anxious until this morning. I tend to be a bit Type-A; therefore I was getting increasingly nervous during the drive down of how I would do time and effort -wise coming off some peak marathon training mileage.

When we arrived downtown, we were a few blocks away from the start, and the walk seemed to calm me down a bit. I also did some visualization beforehand. Before the 9:35 am start, I slowly warmed up amongst the craziness: horses, people dressed like cowboys, and lots of runners; in excess of 12,000 came out for this race. Let's just say I did a lot of dodging and weaving in between my jogging and strides.

Upon the start, I managed to get a spot out front and may have gone out a little too quickly, as I often do, for the first half-mile or so. I was overtaken in the first straightaway by super-women Mary Davies and Austin's Carmen Ayala-Trancoso. This was my first time to race Ms. Troncoso, though I have read about her many times before. Mile 1 went by easily in 5:55. As I approached mile 2, I saw my mother and boyfriend and that gave me a quick jolt. I passed through mile 2 in about 12:00....

That was then I hit the Elysian Viaduct/headwind/bridge. This is where most of my tiredness manifested. Mile 3 was about a 6:25ish and the 5k split was somewhat disheartening. I trucked on, not feeling too comfortable but hanging in there for mile 4. Upon turning a corner and heading back towards downtown, I began to pick it up again. "You can do it", "commit" were some of the things I kept repeating to myself as I again met with the Viaduct.

I heard cheering from my club/teammates: Robin, Kathleen, Jon, and Jeremy and began to shave off some seconds off the pace. Those guys helped out a lot today. I hit mile 5 in 6:18 and was determined to take it down more. This time I had a tailwind! Even though I was tired, I felt a surge of excitement as people passing told me I was the third female in this competitive race.

At this point, I knew a PR was out of the question, so my focus switched to maintaining my position. I made the final turn at Minute Maid Park and gave it one last push toward the finish. I shook my head a little bit when they called the 6-mile split out at 37:00-plus. The middle two brought some unanticipated difficulty. I dropped the hammer as much as I could and knew I needed to press to make it in under 39:00. I crossed the finish in 38:52 according to my watch.

Initially I faced my usual spell of disappointment, but I worked hard out there and finished behind two very accomplished runners. I did my 3-mile cooldown and cheered some others in, met up with everyone and received a cute gold trophy-one of my favorites so far. Essentially, the way the Rodeo Run scores the finishers, I received a 1st place trophy : Davies received Female Overall and Ayala-Troncoso received First Master. I affectionately called my placement "First Mortal".

Upon reflection, while this was not my fastest effort, I felt I made a good effort and still remaining well under 40:00 while racing tired is a good sign. Next stop, Seabrook Lucky Trails Half.

Friday marked exactly two months from the 114th Boston Marathon. As my training continues to progress, my anticipation builds for the event. Various race scenarios are beginning to run through my mind and I had my first dream about the event the other night: unfortunately, I made a wrong turn in this one. If I wanted to "analyze" this dream, I'd say it may be some premature nerves. Good thing actually doing so is next to impossible on that course.

This past week's training has been easier, but still high volume; lots of basework and a fun, fast Wednesday track workout. My daily average for the past two weeks has been around 10 miles or so per day. The only snag I hit was a stressful workday which lead to two nights of bad sleep, and some resulting upper respiratory "crud", possible from being worn down. The importance of getting proper rest cannot be understated during peak training; and I got to experience firsthand just how delicate the balance is of workouts, sleep, nutrition, and stress. At least today I write more refreshed and get a lighter week before Saturday's 10k race.

I should cap off another solid 70 miles by the end of the day today with an easy 5-miler. Yesterday's 16-miler was done all at an easy pace, and I got through the run pretty easily even with being tired . Just another week in the "fast times" in the life of being a hyper-driven individual!

This was just the little workout I needed to get my confidence up for next weekend's 10k. After a decent recovery from the weekend and last week, my legs still did not feel too snappy as I headed to the track this evening. I came prepared, with my T6 Racers packed in my bag, and hoped for a decent one.

As I finished my 2-mile warmup and went into the first repeat of 12x 200 (200 recovery), I was pleasantly surprised. Given that my training has been very Boston-specific in the past few weeks- my expectations for my leg/fast-twitch turnover were admittedly not very high, however, the speed felt good and I managed to be just a little off what I run during my shorter race training in the summers: fastest in :35 and slowest in :39. My prescribed range was :39-:42, and I am usually happy to exceed expectations.

Splits for workout: 2 mile WU in 15:19, 12 x 200 in 35, 38, 38, 38, 39, 39, 37, 37, 38, 37, 38, 36-give or take (used Garmin).

While this was not my fastest speed workout, I felt strong and enjoyed my time out there today. I was able to maintain focus and keep it positive, which is most important.

Run Happy.

Well, actually at the time of this post I'm sitting at 68 since Monday. The plan this week was to increase the miles another 10 percent (turned out to be a bit more) as I begin the ascent to peaking my Boston training. This week has brought both some physical, mental, and logistical challenges, however, I write this feeling strong and motivated.

Physically speaking, I am surprised with how good I actually feel. While I am not able to quite hit the gears "at will" as I have become accustomed to, I am getting into really good shape. My daily average for mileage has been around 10; including a goal pace run on Monday (6:15-6:20), easy work on T, TH, and F, a gnarly track workout (8 x 1600 in 6:04-6:13), and a Flintridge-centric 20-miler this morning-complete with a really hard finish.

On this particular foray I started the first 14 with Micah riding and Mike running along easy at 7:45, only to rachet it down to the 6:30 (as close to goal pace as possible, but I was tired!) with the last bit at 6:10 pace. I knew this one was going to be tough given both the nature of the workout itself, plus the mileage increase, but wow-this was was a character-builder!

With Bill's encouragement, some "tough love", and pacing, I angrily attacked the hills at a hard pace as best I could. For a span of about 3 miles, I was completely nonverbal, making more primitive utterances while redlining down Flintridge. Was it the perfect workout? Not hardly. Was I happy with how this week's training wrapped up? Absolutely. Two miles easy recovery and I have my 70 miles this week.

All starts over Monday, with an easy 7-10 miles. Rodeo Run in two weeks, Seabrook Half Marathon in 5 weeks, Boston in just over 8 weeks.

Dig Deep.

...Definitely one of my longest training days yet. I was even caught by surprise with how easy it actually felt (relatively speaking, of course!). I have trained with Bill long enough to know that whatever is listed under my long run on my training spreadsheet, the workout is subject to change :). This is probably good for me; as stated in my last post, I have a tendency to lack some flexibility.

Prescribed was 16-18 in 7:10-8:10, an easy run for me-something I could dial in, given my current fitness, pretty much anytime. The adjustment made pre-run was to run 20: two 10-mile loops, the first one easy, the second one hard in 7:00 pace or under. Cool. Let's go!

I took the first loop with Mike and Kim and enjoyed casually chatting before breaking off (and bumming an extra gel pack). Looks to me like both of their training is progressing nicely as well. Second loop I took off at 10, dropped the pace to 6:55, and basically held it there for the next 9 miles. I undershot the loop a bit, so I made up some distance and trained with some headwind along the waterway before heading back to Starbuck's. I hit the last mile with a degree of satisfaction in 6:45.

I felt really good during most of the run and used the "chunking" technique to help the splits go by faster (there's some mental training); taking splits every 2 miles. This also served as a good reminder to take in fluids and/or gel packs. The idea of chunking is to break down a task into more moderate amounts and merely focus on the time interval at hand. I find it helpful for the longer runs.

Late afternoon it was time for a 2-mile recovery run on the 'mill at 8:36 pace, immediately followed by an ice bath.

Total morning workout: 2:27:55, 20.01 miles; 7:24 avg.: 1st loop 7:53 pace, 2nd loop 6:53 pace.

Run Happy!

It's been one of those weeks in training and life in general, however, being out of my usual rosy position is not necessarily a negative thing. I will subscribe to Dean Karnazes' famous statement: "If you're not pushing yourself beyond your limits, then you're living a numb existence" (I'm sure I butchered it somewhere, but the meaning remains the same). Our personal limits, to a degree, are often self-imposed.

With work not showing any signs of slowing down, I feel more compelled to train-likely an escape, but this escape will likely benefit me on a given Monday morning in April. Anyhow, I this week brought a bit of travel on Monday and Thursday, requiring a little more planning to get everything in. To top it off, the weather has been of questionable quality for most of the week. Cold and rainy are not my favorite conditions to get a run in!

Being recently given the green light for more two-a-days to ramp up the mileage, I put in some good work both with a goal pace workout in the morning and easy hills in the evening. Wednesday's forecast was not looking good for track, so I constructed a backup indoor workout-just in case.

Arriving at the High School, resurfacing had closed the track temporarily, and I was tempted to jack up the 'mill and do 9 miles worth of intervals. It was also raining and hovering just below 50 degrees. If you are a regular reader, it is no secret that I am not a big fan of the cold.

After telling Bill that I may have to concede and hit the dreadmill, he gently reminded me that there was another track around the corner. It was all it took was a little motivation that in the statement "this will be good for you"; I completed my 3x 1600-800-400 in some yuck conditions. And I think I did quite well. Without the headwind at the 4th turn, I would have hit every split (I was about 75%). I was not completely comfortable or in my element on this one, but completing this session was something lightly validating (refueling afterward on my boyfriend's tuna wraps weren't too shabby either!).

After some recovery runs yesterday-more two-a-days, I am resting up for an 18-miler in the morning. I'm sure I will be pushed out of my comfort zone on a regular basis more and more in the upcoming weeks. The way things are going, I should be "marathon tough", as I need to be, here soon.

Run Happy!