Adrienne Langelier Racing

First, let's rewind back to Friday, when I received an awesomely large shipment by my beloved gear sponsor, Brooks...

New gear is always a great way to cap off a busy week.

I always enjoy "new shoe day", and my coworkers seem to do so as well, watching me giddily tearing open the brown boxes addressed to yours truly and then taking turns passing around the schwag of the month. I'm slowly trying to convince them to give running a try-maybe the stylishness of the women's line will help?!  My first shipment of the year included my favorite Epiphany top, a couple singlets to race in, and some flower power shorts that resemble the board shorts I was so fond of in high school-sweet! As for shoes, I picked up the new Ravenna 3 and second pair of Pure Flows in pink. (You can read my original review of the Flows here.) I took the flows out this morning and noticed that the seemingly white midsoles were actually iridescent-what a flashy touch!

Now for the real meat of this post... Each training cycle I learn a little more about what my legs do and do not tolerate. Apparently a considerable down week after a solid 3-4 week (or just a crazy-busy month) or  build is something that is necessary for me. Early on I was dealing with some nagging soreness in the lower left leg, talked to Coach, both deciding to take it easy this week.

In fact, I voluntarily took a detour to cross-train lane  in order to avoid any possible complications for my upcoming races. I actually just completed my first run a few days this morning and felt the benefits of rest.

Don't feel too sorry for me though-I have stayed busy and found this past week actually refreshing. I'm a fan of cross training, personally. A fun thing that happened was conquering my fear of flip turning-and the self-consciousness that often comes with runners hitting the pool. I had the itch to jump in at the Texas A&M Natatorium when I had a break from working last week. The goal was to just get comfortable in the water again but it actually turned into a nice 45-minute personal clinic in observational learning.

Apparently if you spend enough time on a pool deck observing-you learn a thing or two; I found a stroke that actually felt smooth and pulled off some flip turns. Granted the turns need considerable work, I have been afraid to do them after hitting my head hard during one in college. I didn't care about style points-as the diving team was standing right there-I was just pumped to re-establish the skill again. I guess the older I get the less I care about what other people think.

In addition to putting in some swim yards, I threw in some cycling and made up my own spin workouts to get some LT work in. With some good music in the iPod, a little focus and a lot of intensity-it can almost be fun. All in all, I may have done MORE volume this week with less running, but my energy levels feel higher than the weeks prior. Perhaps having work his magic helped as wel.

I am constantly re-teaching myself and learning again the limits and preferences of my body. Each time I do, I feel more confident and mature about it. When I wanted to freak out about missing a run in the face my upcoming half, I would talk myself through it and remind myself of the importance of rest and changing up the stimulus every now and again. If today's short run was any indication-it makes me feel much stronger in the end. So here's to nailing negative cycles-just all part of the process of becoming a better athlete!

Stay the course- even when you have to mix it up every once in a while!

This may be my shortest-longest post ever. I recently did a fun little interview (be kind, I'm a beginner!) with RunRunLive, a Boston-based podcast for runners by runners. Besides my brief talk of Running Psych 101,  there's a multitude of resources, topics, and guests, ranging from top sports docs, Dave McGilvray, the RD of the Boston Marathon, Josh Cox, Dean Karnazes, and so on.

Episode 208 can be found here. Hope you enjoy and learn something!

Stay the course.

If you follow running at all, you are all now aware that it' s going Shalane, Meb, Ryan, Desi, Kara, and Abdi. What is really cool is that I stood there and watched it all unfold on the streets of Downtown Houston. Before I post some observations that I made at my first - ever trials experience I have to congratulate all my friends and teammates who raced this weekend. The conditions were great and inspiration ran high. Special props go out to marathon queen Rebecca for notching her marathon PR once again!

I went into the weekend with two jobs to do: the first escorting a newly minted Olympian Saturday morning and playing "coach" for some club mates prior to running the races on Sunday. Although I missed actually racing, I definitely walked away with some great experiences. I was able to get an in depth perspective at the Trials, seeing the starts and finishes for both men's and women's races.

The start was especially intense and you could feel it in the air and see it in the athlete 's faces. After the tedious prestart moments, at the end of the day it was down to 3. I will elaborate more on the. Women 's race because I was backstage with first place finisher Shalane Flanagan. Before you get too excited, I was merely a 'shadow' volunteer!

I did get to see a bit of her competitive style, as all 3 elite women had starkly different approaches. Please note that the following contains merely my 100% opinion and analysis.

Our aforementioned trials champ. Flanagan appeared composed yet ready to attack if needed-definitely very mentally tough but with a touch of her own mystique and grace.

Speaking of mentally tough, you don't get any tougher than Ms. Davila, a Hansons-Brooks runner. she appeared relaxed before, during, and after the event was over. From what I saw of her performance, her countenance never changed. She was quoted by emphasizing execution of an "honest, fast, race". Ask and you shall receive. The last few miles were intriguing as all 3 eventual teammates kept the victory anybody's guess.

 Honesty was written all over Kara Goucher's face for a large portion of the race. It was apparent she wanted to make the team very badly and was prepared to hurt for it. After coming back from injury, she had some catching up to d training wise and I was thoroughly with her honest display of toughness, genuine emotion, and determination. Off the record, I found her very easy to talk to and just like you and I. Aside from her world-class speed, I found her to be just like any other runner girl just wanting to improve and succeed. And she really likes hamburgers-as I found out after the race!

Despite very different styles in these competitors, they also have some things in common. Along with the obvious talent and work ethic, there were some common threads that I find in athletes among "the best of the best"; as these were on full display on Saturday:

• An "extra gear"-when it counts, it can be dialed in.
• Willingness to be uncomfortable-and stay there. Elite marathoners train and are great at this.
• Patience.
• A focus on execution versus emotion. These athletes seemed to put their emotional needs aside for a couple hours; saving it all for after the finish. 

Mostly wordless post here, but I think the picture offers enough explanation. Tomorrow morning, my adopted city will be hosting both the Women's and Men's US Olympic Trials. I get to watch it all unfold at the finish as I serve as a volunteer. This weekend will be filled with joy, excitement, running and friends and I can't wait. Good luck to everyone racing in H-Town this weekend!
Stay the course.

"We're on an open-bed truck on the highway...and we're on the run..." Heartbeat by The Fray

As I drove away from my friend Rebecca's apartment in Alabama I couldn't help but notice how fitting the timely Fray song on the radio was to describe the weekend. I will do my best to describe the event and keep it brief-but it may be difficult, because, it was simply awesome! I'll even attempt to entertain the reader with my "race" (or more like relay leg) report by loosely describing the miles "by song" (as you'll see soon) for creativity and brevity. Here's my account of how the First Light Marathon Relay's Female Open course record got demolished by "The Benoits of Spiridon"...

To begin, I could not get to the AL Gulf Coast fast enough on Friday. After an uneventful drive, I arrived and the female bonding was already in full swing as Courtney had made an awesome dinner for all of us. Then came the bedazzling our our race shirts- gray tech fabric with silver skulls. Pow! With tough looking shirts like that, we were bound to smash the course record. That and I was on a fairly stacked team with former college runners and a lot of talent. These girls are also all pretty swell. :)

Saturday Rebecca showed me around her too-cute surroundings and I instantly took to the town of Fairhope on Mobile Bay. This quaint yet lively town offered some great running and the team did our shakeout along the bay and some really awesome houses. Other fun things included a trip to the beach at Gulf Shores (including the "mandatory" Bushwacker at the Pink Pony) and dinner with Spiridon's teams (the local training group) and believe it or not, Coach Bill and Jon W. I'll admit I was tired and not feeling too great Sat. night, perhaps a little much travel, but after an early night I woke up a bit more spry-thank goodness because that's when the fun began....

We had our hilarious posters made, our skull and crossbone shirts, our pacing plan, and leg assignments in place and soon enough the gun went off and speedy (ok that girl's blazin fast) Courtney lead us off for the first 5 in just over 30:00. Nice. We keep that up and we'll take that record running backwards. After Courtney passed off to Sam 1 of 2 (or as they call them 'Sam Squared') we hopped in the back of Becca's awesome boyfriend's truck (yep!) and we rode along the streets of Mobile hollering and cheering all the way.

Do we look like we're having a good time, cuz we are!

Exchanges 2 and 3 went off with great runs by Sam C. and Sam G. That was when I started feeling and hearing about the heat and humidity-oh well, I was prepared to give it a strong effort on my 10k anchor leg. Becca takes off, definitely taking one for the team tackling the hills and I have one more truck bed ride until I rendezvous with my best running bud at the top of a hill-yeah downhill start, baby!

After the best warmup I can throw together after sitting in the back of a truck up came Becca and it was time to go as the bracelet was passed. My objective was mid 6:00's and seeing what happened. Now for the "song" part; sometimes when I need to manage an effort (or boredom) I'll think of a certain song. Sometimes they take on a life of their own depending on how I feel-on this leg, it was a little of both. Again, whether you like it or not, you get inside Adrienne's head a bit again!

Mile 1: "Good Feelin'" by Flo Rida-crusin down a hill "I get a feelin like I've never had before..." I am way ahead of pace on this one, as coach suggested hitting the first in 6:30. Oh, well! I heard shouts of "go honey badger!!" As Bill and Jon passed in their rental car. Feeling good and having fun.

Mile 2: "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5-"You wanna steer, but I'm shifting gear, I'll take it from here...and it goes like this..." I can hear the team coming up behind me as I hit 6:25 pace on mile 2 and as they pass, I do the Ryan Hall crowd pumping thing and signal for them to yell louder. And that they responded as my favorite moment out there happened: as I ran up to a male marathoner I hear Becca belt out "chick him, Adrienne!!" and so I did. I still feel kinda bad for sandbagging the poor dude since I was just 2 miles in and he was 24. He did look strong regardless.

Mile 3: "All These Things That I Have Done" by The Killers- "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier"...Okay, this is when the cheering went away and I started to feel the heat. Wearing a long sleeve didn't help either. I noticed the pace fluctuate and the Garmin 'act up' I'll admit I had to fight off a little frustration here but kept moving forward. Besides, I had a record to help break!

Mile 4: "The Show Goes On" by Lupe Fiasco- "All right already the show goes on..." While I'm still passing people right and left I'm baking as I pour water over myself and have to talk myself through a rough patch. This is where I hit 'stop' on the Garmin and just paid attention to the master marathon time for the whole relay. I was doin' this for the girls, and a little bit of pride-besides I was still on pace with cushion to break 3 hours-our team's time goal.Who cares if I feel like poo at the moment? Onward!

Mile 5: "Give a Little More" by Maroon 5- "If I get a little more, from you baby..." Aw yeah, the flat and fast Dauphin St. I am starting to get out of my midrace slump and plan how I want to close this leg out.

Mile 6.2: back to Good Feelin'...I realize how cool this experience was and start mounting a kick that I am actually quite proud of heading back into downtown Mobile. I'm tired and hot but excited. Seeing my teammates and familar faces I throw it into gear, watching the clock tick 2:57 and close hard, pointing at the clock.


Original course record for Female Open: 3:19. New Record. 2:57. We came, we saw, we conquered. I had a blast and enjoyed immensely the girl bonding time, the ocean, running with friends, and everything else that I have trouble putting into words. And cruising around in the back of a pickup truck. Even though we take our racing seriously most of the time, this was a great opportunity to let our hair down. And that we did.

Champs. For the record, I did pour water over myself!

Thanks, Becca, Keith, Sam Squared, Courtney and the rest of Team Spiridon! This Texan is grateful for the opportunity to run with you all. Anyone else ever done a relay race of any kind? I am quite fond of them myself. You are ALL awesome!

 Alabama, I will be back:)


Stay the course.