Come Back to Boston

16 in the snow sounds both fun and a bit like too much work. It's quite something how you (and others) log these winter miles. Good training to you.

Dave Wolfe wrote:16 in the snow sounds both fun and a bit like too much work. It's quite something how you (and others) log these winter miles. Good training to you.

Thanks, Dave. It has been a few years for me (Atlanta winters from 2006 through 2012), but I'm getting the hang of it again. It makes you stronger kind of like hills (at least I keep telling myself that)

same here today in Detroit. A tad colder. Took a tumble on some ice covered by snow. Those icebug shoes would have saved me.

Finished the week with a solid 6 miles in the Metropark again, and on the snow. Here is a beautiful shot of the all purpose trail today. Running on snow will make you stronger, right?



You can see our footprints to the right. Yesterday, this trail was "plowed" as in there was only a dusting to start and then this by the end. The sun was out this morning making it very beautiful.

Michele "1L" Keane wrote: Running on snow will make you stronger, right?

this guy is good. at least read the part about winter running. YES!! It will make you stronger. We had a similar day here today. Beautiful but cold day to run.

http://www.coachjayjohnson.com/2011/01/winter-training-for-college-runners/

That looks like a gorgeous place to run in the winter, Michele! I can see why specialty shoes are so useful, though,

Hey Michele, just catching up on things. So you've went from 12 months of warm weather running to having to deal with winter training...I'm glad to see you've got such a great attitude about it. Maybe some of that will rub off on me. I'm so done with the winter. I'll take 85 and humid anytime.
You mentioned that you had surgery recently. I hope it wasn't anything too serious, and that it's all behind you. I also saw that you've been dealing with an achilles issue. From the looks of it, it doesn't seem to be getting in your way recently. I hope that's also in the past.
I'll have to look around here and see who else is training for Boston. As I said yesterday, it will great to finally meet you.

Those snowy runs....Wow...soooo pretty. But tough, I'm sure!

How'd your daughter survive our little blizzard here this weekend? You were around here for the '78 one right? I've never seen anything change a mindset than that one. Any talk of a major storm and people freak out thinking they're going to be trapped for close to a week again.

Do you use YakTrax or anything on the snow? When I run on snow, I just slip and it makes it very hard, which sends me to the TM.

Alex Kubacki wrote:How'd your daughter survive our little blizzard here this weekend? You were around here for the '78 one right? I've never seen anything change a mindset than that one. Any talk of a major storm and people freak out thinking they're going to be trapped for close to a week again.

She and her friends had an absolute blast. Not often when the entire city is shutdown - smart move especially after the Blizzard of '78. I missed the entire month of February Jr year of high school.

Shannon in the snow in front of BU. Apparently, the BU students had a huge snowball fight that was on CNN.

JohnP wrote:Do you use YakTrax or anything on the snow? When I run on snow, I just slip and it makes it very hard, which sends me to the TM.

John, I run in Icebugs in the snow. They work way better than Yaxtrax or the ice grippers I had as the "spikes" are built right into the shoe and they don't pull the shoe weirdly like my ice grippers did which gave me blisters all the time.

http://www.icebug.se/Product.aspx?m=645

Whine, whine, whine - I know I should give it up for lent, but here I am whining again. I'm running, but I just can't seem to get it all together - one step forward and two steps back it seems like. I did my first "speed" workout in a very long time, and it was/is quite depressing to not be able to run an 800 much faster than 3:55. The fastest one I ran was 3:52 and I was hurting the entire 800 m. It doesn't appear to be the lungs, but more the leg turnover - it is just missing. It is getting tough to accept that 10 min pace can feel hard when I was running 8:45 as an easy pace a year ago. My patience is running thin and it is going to snow again and get cold just in time for my long run on Saturday. Maybe I still have jet lag.

I'm supposed to head to New Orleans next weekend to run the half marathon with some friends from Atlanta, and as of yesterday, they all bailed. They haven't been running because (get this) it has been too cold and rainy. Unfortunately, this means another weekend by myself, only this time I'll be in New Orleans which might be ok. I was hoping my husband could come, but he doesn't return from Tokyo until Saturday night and the race in Sunday morning (and he has a board meeting on Monday morning).

On a better note, skiing was great!

Hope you can stay positive and get through the winter training Michele. Maybe you shouldn't worry too much about speed at this point as opposed to working on strength and getting to your goal MP. By this I mean longer tempo runs as opposed to shorter speed workouts like 800's. I'd think that after Boston, especially with the winter in your rear view mirror, you'll have an easier time getting the speed back, especially without the pressure of marathon training.
Have a good time in New Orleans, even if you end up going solo.

Don't discount jet lag! Sometimes I've made up my mind that jet lag is over in two days, but depending upon all the other factors, it can hang on longer. What a bummer about your friends not running New Orleans. No excuses for them..there are always treadmills. Have fun out there!

I agree, Dot- there are always treadmills, and frankly, it was never too cold (sometimes too wet, too humid, or too hot) to run in Atlanta. No excuses except that they are taking after Jerry and being lazy Jet lag may indeed have played a role in my runs earlier this week as today's 16 miler over the hills went pretty well. We really negative split the run as we averaged 9:56 at the turnaround at 8 miles and ended up with an overall pace of 9:33. Of course, the first 1.5 miles is up an incredible hill and then you get to literally almost roll down it for the last 1.5 miles. We lucked out on the weather too as it was around 30F and sunny. If we had stayed on the west side of the city and run our usual trail in the Metropark, we would have been faced with 27F and snow showers. It can be a bit of a pain to drive to the other side of town and that part of the Metropark at 7 am, but it was worth it especially after running tough hills. It was a tough run, but I didn't struggle as much as I did the other day.

So we both hit the hills today, huh? It looks like you had an encouraging run, especially feeling frustrated with your recent runs. I'm glad to see it went well.

On my way to New Orleans in the morning, so it has been a bit of a "step back" week if there is such a thing for low mileage me (right now). The race might be a bit exciting to watch - even from the road - as the course doubles back on itself in the first 8 miles or so and the field has an incredible cast of elite runners including Mo Farah, Shalane, and Kara.

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2013/02/strong-fields-set-for-sundays-rock-n-roll-new-orleans-half-marathon/

I'm not looking for much time-wise just a solid, good effort run/race especially since I'm guessing that it will feel warm (humid) and it might rain. At least rain isn't snow, so I'll be thankful for that. One of course never knows until race day.

On another note, it seems as if I am not the one to follow around to choose the best place to live I guess I went from 16th to 17th!

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/forbes-magazine-ranks-cleveland-17th-on-its-2013-list-of-americas-most-miserable-cities

You've got to some cool people in that race. Some are wondering if Mo will run the fastest Half ever on US soil. I kind of doubt it but who knows. Enjoy the race.

Good luck and have a good time in NO this weekend!
Pretty funny about your new city. I was there years ago for work, just for a couple of days, but I remember being pleasantly surprised and having my low expectations exceeded. I hope you're enjoying living there.

Weekend in New Orleans was a lot of fun in spite of the fact that the original people that I was supposed to be there with all bailed. I was able to hook up with one of the other coaches from the Atlanta Half Training program and his wife and we had a fun time. David and I run around the same times, so we started the race together. Unfortunately, his hammie has been bothering him, so he did not have a lot of miles and he dropped back around half way so as to make sure he finished unscathed. The race weather was good - low 50s at the start with a touch of humidity (I could feel it not living in it anymore), sun and a light wind. The wind was at your back on the way out, but in your face during the middle and latter miles. It wasn't that strong, but I could feel it as I tired. I had hoped to run around 1:50 and try to stay pretty steady with the splits. I ended up running 1:49:13 which was good for 7th in my AG, and I was the 941st finisher overall out of 9270. Interestingly, I would have won the 55-59 category, so it is just a lesson to make sure I hang in there another few years. I waited for David after the race, and as we were exiting the chute area, Mo Farrah came walking back in and we congratulated him. He stopped and asked us how our races went. I'm surprised that I could even talk, but he was so gracious and funny. He said a half wasn't so bad (he ran 1:01:00 and out sprinted Gebremarian by 1 sec for 1st). Since the course turns around at mile 4.5, you can see the elites coming back at you and they were flying. Shalane looked determined to hang in there with Defar which she did for the most part (2nd place with a PR), but Defar is one of the most effortless runners that I have ever seen and she just flies.

One neat thing was to run along with www.teamgleason.org for a while. Steve Gleason was a Saints special teams player who has ALS and was being pushed by his BIL in the race (and they finished around 1:40). Steve is only 36 and played as late as 2007. Of course, since he is a hero in New Orleans (apparently his claim to fame is that he blocked a punt that led to a TD against the Falcons in the first game in the Superdome after Katrina), his foundation has raised a great deal of money for ALS research. Heartwarming and heartwrenching at the same time. Steve is now wheelchair bound and talks with the aid of a computer.

Back to the grind this week with a 20 miler in the cold on Saturday. At least we are supposed to be missed by the snow.

Sounds like your trip to New Orleans turned out pretty well! Good job on the solid half and helping your friend.

Just seeing Mo run would have been a kick, but to meet him, too? Too cool.

Here's hoping the snow misses you.

I was so happy to see this quote from Shalane Flanagan this morning:

"It felt phenomenal," she said. "I felt completely on top of my game. I liked the way I was in control of my running."

This despite less than ideal conditions.

"I'd heard this was a flyer kind of course," she said.

It didn't turn out that way because of a brisk headwind and the deteriorating roads on the course.

"I knew they were older roads, and they'd had storms and what-not," she said. "But the pavement was bad. There were tons of potholes. I couldn't keep my head up because I had to keep looking down."

Love it since my main complaints were the headwind and potholes and road camber in the last couple of miles. I downplayed it, but now I feel very happy and justified for my frustration

Great job with the race. You've come back real quick. Congrats.

Last week was a pretty good one as I seemed to recover from Sunday's race rather quickly. It wasn't that long ago that a 1:49 half would have been an easy run, so it is good to see that I am headed back in the right direction. I'm getting slower as I age, but I'm not dead yet and I think I can expect to run some decent times still. Brought the mileage back up into the mid-40s which is pretty good considering and ran my first 20 of the year in the snow, on the snow, and in the cold. It was slower than I've ever run a 20 before, but given the conditions and my coming back, I'd say it was a good run. I felt great on Sunday, not wiped out, and ran an easy negative split 5 miler that felt pretty effortless.

One thing of note is that my daily run pace has gotten faster even at the same heart rate, so progress is definitely being made. The next big test will be to see how well I handle the "hills" in Atlanta when I run the half there on the 17th. The good news is that currently the weather is expected to be cold by Atlanta standards (37F! at the start) which should bode well for me since I obviously have not run in any real warm temps this year.

Looks like this next big storm will miss us again with its wrath. We are supposed to get some snow late tomorrow night into Wednesday morning, but it doesn't look like more than 2-3 inches which is okay by me.

Recovery Week with Long run

Mon - Day off, return from New Orleans
Tues - Easy 3.6 mile recovery run
Wed - Easy 5.5 miles with striders; Core class
Thurs - 7.3 mile Progression Run
Fri - Easy 3.4 mile recovery run; Core class
Sat - 21 miles in and on the snow (2") and 24F
Sun - Easy 5.1 mile recovery run in and on the snow (again!)

WTD: 46 miles

YTD: 323 miles