Repetition: is it monotony or rhythm?

Last night I attended my first real track workout. A few weeks back I attended a fake-ish track workout as the school was having some sort of sporting event so the track workout was actually on a trail instead. Although mentally I knew I've been needing to incorporate track workouts if I want to get faster, I was intimidated about trying it. If you throw me in a pool, I can come up with a workout. I know what workouts should include in the pool, I know pool etiquette, and I fee like I am in my domain, but I was afraid tracks would be full of people that were extremely fast, doing workouts I didn't understand and that I would just be fumbling around getting in people's way. Fortunately my running friends, especially Andy and Adam, have been encouraging me to go, one with advice on what to do as a workout and the other in the form of literally dragging me out to these weekly workouts with DC Road Runners (including rides to and from so I can't wuss out).

And to my surprise, it turns out I really enjoyed working out on the track. Although it's a different arena than the pool, the repetitive nature and fixed distances to track speed/distance/relative effort was familiar to me from swimming. I know a lot of people complain that swimming laps in a pool is boring and monotonous because you are just going back and forth in the same line and nothing really changes, but I find it soothing, rhythmic, and a way to relax my mind, and that is how I felt on the track too. I felt in control, calm, and focused like I do when I swim. There is something very comforting in knowing exactly where you are going, how far you have to go for each set, and being able to break down these goals into smaller units (laps in a pool or around a track). Silly me having been such a wuss all these months and not starting sooner!

For people unfamiliar with a track, the loop around is 400 meters and 4 laps equals a mile. Although I met up with people from a group, I decided to do my own workout as suggested by the Chicken Tender Runner himself. I started with a 400 warm up and was running with a couple of guys. We started kind of fast and I knew it was too fast for me if I didn't want to crash and burn, so I told them I had to slow down if this was just a warm up. I didn't want to make the same mistake I made over the weekend, and I am glad I did.

Then I did 3x1 Mile repeats at my goal 10k race pace with 400 recovery in between each mile. One of the guys stuck with me for the work out. I could feel at first that he seemed a bit restless because he maybe wanted to go a bit faster, but I knew if I did that, I would ruin things for the later miles. I am glad I stuck to my guns because I started off a bit slower but went faster with each mile and felt stronger in each one too.

Here is my average pace for each mile: 9:38; 9:34, 9:26. 

Not an actual 'Action Shot'

Pretty good descending set, and then followed by an 800 cooldown, for a grand total of 4.25 miles that really felt like the flew by. If it hadn't been for people waiting for me to go eat afterward, I would have done another mile repeat. But as you are aware, I am also a social being, so I had to finish up so I could then hang out, eat wings and share a pitcher. 

Now I have signed up for Jingle All the Way 10k in December, so I need to make sure I can keep those paces up for 6.2 miles and break and hour. I might also do a 10k before that while visiting my family this coming week, but I wouldn't particularly "race" that one since I want to do it with my brother and sister-in-law, so it would be more of a fun, group run. This kind of fits into my new grand plan of trying to convince my brother to sign up for a triathlon. He was quite the high school athlete and in addition to his soccer skills would run track and cross country in the off seasons to maintain fitness for soccer and ran the LA Marathon way back in the day. My mom told me his good friend and boss is into triathlons and that a new pool opened up, so it seems like all the puzzle pieces are falling into place. The only tough part is he is also the father of 3 very adorable but very active sons, so a lot of his weekends and evenings are devoted to shepherding them to various sports practices and games of their own, but maybe I can get him to drink the kool-aid... at least for a Sprint to Olympic Distance race.

And the award goes to....

Well, this blog is working, kind of - I haven't been guilt tripped into working out by others so much as feeling a bit guilty myself and then not blogging about it, but I was guilt tripped for not updating... so this is for you, SWC! 

Since my last update, I have worked out a bit: 
-I've swam a couple of times, one early in the morning and the other tonight. I am hoping to make Monday nights regular swim nights, so hopefully some of my local friends will  keep on joining me for extra motivation.
-I've ran a bit, but not enough. I went out this weekend and used new gear I bought at the MCM (such as these really bright, reflective sleeves pictured on the right), but it was really cold when I started, so I went out way too fast the first mile and then felt really tired for the next mile and half, then settled for the next 1.7 miles, but then cut it short to stop a the farmer's market. I averaged 11:09 min/miles, which is not impressive and I was pretty sore after... sooooo yeah... I need to run more consistently.
-I haven't ridden my bike, but I did clean it really well yesterday and am waiting for a new bike pump (since someone who borrowed mine broke it) so I can inflate my tires and at least set it up on the trainer for week day training. I would appreciate any trainer work out suggestions if anyone has any. And no need to send me a lmgtfy link - I can do that myself, but figured I'd ask my friends too. I also need to do a bike fit too now that I have aero bars, so maybe I'll get that done as an early Christmas gift to myself. 
-I have been pretty good at keeping up with my push ups and sit ups that are part of the "Tri Chicks 100 Pushups Challenge". Week One I did a total of 68 push ups and 165 sit ups, and Week Two I did 94 push ups and 194 sit ups. 
-I didn't work out the weekend before last, but I did attend a wedding, so I danced a lot and consider it cross training...
-And that same weekend I also attended a party with triathletes, an awesome off season paella party hosted by the awesome (and Colombian) Alejandro, so that's also almost like working out, right? Well, maybe not, but it was a lot of fun, and explains the title of this post. My contribution to the party was funny/silly awards that I drew and decorated myself... such as the one here, Best Organizer of Off Season PAIN awarded to Karen aka 100 push up Tri Chick Challenge organizer.  

Where in the World is Carolina Sandiego...

In just this year I have traveled out of the country four times: Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Peru, and most recently, El Salvador. So I apologize for not having had a second to update the blog since I was working out of the country. My flight to El Salvador left Sunday at 5 am (meaning I arrived at Dulles at around 3 am) and returned Saturday morning at around 2 am, and the time in between, I was working... a lot.

But before I left, I did my first stand-alone 5k race, the Sister Cities International Race for Peace in Foggy Bottom. So here is my race report... 


Prep: I received a lot of helpful advice from Andy since he has been key in encouraging me to try to get faster and comes from a running background. He gave me some good advice for my pacing, for setting up different data fields on my garmin watch (using average pace per 1mile lap instead of speed), what to eat, how to warm up, etc. I have only done 5ks at part of the end of Sprint Triathlon... or well the Warrior Dash too... but that doesn't really count, so I didn't know what my speed could be if I were just running. I decided to be a bit conservative and shoot for a goal of sub-30 minutes. 


Pre-Race: Took the metro over to Foggy Bottom and enjoyed how much less stressful pre race for running races are than triathlons. Less gear, less set up, no waves, no transition area - and if I didn't have brunch plans afterwards, then I wouldn't have even needed the big backpack I took so I could have a change of clothes. I did about a mile warm up trying to make sure I went slow. I am trying to make a very conscious effort to better pace myself and go slow when I need to go slow so I don't burn out once I need to go fast. 


Race: Just after 9 am, the race took off. I positioned myself mid way back since I know I am slow, and again, I was making a concerted effort to watch my pace. The course was a weird one as you can see from the map. Several twists and turns and pretty much running around a fork for part of it - down a block, turn, back up the block, down the next block, back up that block, then down the next block and back up. The first mile was overall downhill, but I was trying to keep a bit slow despite the adrenaline from starting the race and the downhills. Around the end of that mile I had synced up with a girl going about the same pace, and she said something about how she was glad I did and how I was suppose to help make sure she didn't stop running. But I felt bad because I knew I was trying to run my own race and had my own goals in mind, so if I had to, I was gonna drop her... which I did about a quarter miler into mile two in the midst of the forking section the race. Andy's advice was very helpful here as average pace turned out to be a much better tool to keep track of my speed. I kept checking to make sure I was at the very least going faster than 9:40 miles, even though the first one was in 9:20. The third mile had some uphills (had to go back up from the downhills from the first mile), so I felt my heart rate creeping up and my average pace falling a bit. That last mile felt a bit long because of the uphill, meaning I definitely need to incorporate hill repeats in my workouts now too. Once I could see the finish line, I took off sprinting. That last "lap" (which wasn't a mile lap but just the .1 or whatever left) had an average pace of like 7:02! At the overall clock, I knew I was under 30 minutes, and my garmin had me around 29:19.

Official Results: My actual official time was actually 29:07! Ohhh, the fury, if I had known more precisely that I was 8 seconds off of sub 29, I would have started sprinting sooner! But I was almost in the top third for my gender and division, not too shabby.

Name	State	Div	ChipTime	ClockTime	Average Pace	Overall	SexPl	DivPl
CM	VA	F2529	29:07	29:33	9:23	232/465	111/302	34/95

Lessons Learned: Holy crap my hands were numb! It was a bit chilly that morning, especially in the shade, and even though I felt comfortable running in shorts and a T-shirt I also learned I need to buy some gloves for running because I could barely type out a text message after the race. Need to continue to work on pacing myself and need to incorporate hill repeats. 


Next goal is going to be sub hour 10k in December. 


Unfortunately I have to catch up a bit after the race training-wise. While away, I swam a bit, mostly to loosen up, at the hotel pool while in El Salvador, and ran 3 miles on a treadmill doing intervals again, in a bit over 30 minutes. This weekend was a bit of madness between the rally and halloween (and I LOOOVE halloween) so I didn't get any good workouts done. 


But yesterday, I started the the 100 push up challenge and the 200 sit up challenge because, as Amanda so eloquently stated, "for some reason, a boat load of us tend to do what Karen tells us". So those updates will now be included in my blog in addition to the overall training.