I haven't recorded my mile time on many occasions. The fastest had been 7 minutes 22 seconds...until tonight. I jogged over to the track after work and ran 1.03 miles at 7:11 pace! Yes!
http://runkeeper.com/user/LibrarianOnTheRun/activity/137025907
Deep down, I really want to be able to run a 5k at this pace. There is a lot of work to do before that can happen, but this is a start!
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Jingle Jog Surprise
I love it when I go into a race mainly for the people I'll be running
with or the charity it is for, expecting a completely mediocre
performance, and then surprise myself with my time. Such was my
experience at the 2nd Annual Matamoras Jingle Jog on Sunday.
I had made plans to run on Saturday with my running buddy, who has taken on a temporary job during the holidays and can't make any of our normal week-day morning runs. Another friend told me about this 5k jingle jog on Sunday, and I kept it in mind, but I knew that a 5k the day after a long run would not work out that well.
So my buddy, her sister, and I ran a hilly 6.5 miles on Saturday afternoon after I got out of work. We ran an average pace of 9:21 per mile and climbed over 500 ft (I love RunKeeper's stats!!). I felt pretty dead on a lot of the hills, but by the end, after a downhill, it leveled off and I had a huge burst of energy and finished feeling strong and really good. In that moment, I thought "Sure, I could run a good 5k tomorrow. I'm in!" I borrowed red-and-white-striped knee socks from my buddy, and texted my other friend to commit to the race.
And then I stayed up until 1 am working on a final group project for grad school. And then I woke up at 6:15 am to get to the race over an hour away.
As my friend, his dad, and I registered and got ready for the race, I tried to calculate what kind of time I'd be able to run. It was a flat course, but I was seriously tired. My guess was about 26:30. That was my last 5k time, and even though I was physically tired today, I was also fitter than I had been before. I figured that if I was overestimating the strength of my legs, and they felt really dead, then I'd probably finish more around 27:00-27:30. One thing was sure, I was going to push as hard as I could and see what I was capable of.
I was dressed in my green sparkle skirt, the red-and-white knee-socks, and a santa hat. This was a fun race because so many other people dressed up as well - everything from full elf suits to a snowman, and lots of santa hats and red and green colors.
It was chilly, but not frigid, and I seemed to be dressed just right in knee-socks, capris, and a thin wool long-sleeve shirt. I warmed up a little and found that the socks wouldn't stay up when I ran, so I safety-pinned them to my capris. Someone joked that I should make sure they didn't pull the capris down, too!
We lined up for the race and wished each other good luck, and before we knew it, the race was started and I was fumbling with RunKeeper and to get my iPhone back into my ifitness belt. The iPhone 5 is just a little too long to slide into the pocket easily, and I don't have an arm-band for it yet, but I wanted it with me so I knew my pace at regular intervals. I don't run a a very consistent pace, and I hoped that knowing both my average and current pace would help me if I started to slow too much.
I got the phone into its pocket and followed the group ahead of me. The race was chip-timed, so I knew that I just had to run my own race. It didn't matter how far behind I was if they stepped over the start before I did. But there were an awful lot of people ahead of me....
Within the first quarter mile, I knew that I was going to have hat trouble. I had jammed the santa hat on over a red ear-band to keep it in place, but all I could hear was it rubbing with every step. I pulled it down tighter, but that only pulled the ear-band down, and I felt like the hat on top would fall off any minute. I don't think that I made it to a half mile before I took off the hat and held it. I felt like I had wasted time and energy fiddling with it, so I focused on running and maintaining the fastest doable pace.
At one point, a little boy sitting outside his house who was watching us called out "Is this some kind of show?" I shouted "It's the Jingle Jog!" in a much-too-cheery voice.
I sounded cheerier than I felt. I told myself that if I just kept up this pace, I'd be happy. But I couldn't. Every other time I got a RunKeeper update, it would show that I had slowed down, so I sped up a little until it reminded me that I was slowing down. Not by a lot, just enough to make the average creep up. I passed some people and was passed by others. In the last mile, someone who seemed like she could be in my age category passed me, and I didn't feel like I had it in me to fight for the spot. I let her go by and told myself that I'd keep her in sight and try and pass her in the end if I could. With a half mile to go, I started to get a little closer to her. At mile 2.9, I made a move and passed her. I could hear her right behind me, but at mile 3 we turned onto the straightaway to the finish, and I pushed hard. It was a deceptively long straightaway, and I tried to hold on to my pace as long as I could. I heard footsteps coming up behind me, and a long-legged girl came sprinting up to pass me. We still had a ways to go to the finish, but I surged forward and passed her. I didn't win that fight, though, as I just didn't have enough in me to keep up that speed. She pulled ahead, I dropped back, and I stepped over the finish a second after she did.
When I saw the clock, I was really surprised. I finished in 25 and a half minutes! My chip time was 25:31. I hadn't run that fast in over a year and a half! What a great feeling! I caught my breath, and 2 minutes later my friend's dad came down the straightaway. I cheered him on as he came through the finish. It was one of his faster times, and he was pleased with his performance, although he was annoyed that one of his rivals has apparently been training and improved his usual time by several minutes.
A minute after that, my friend came through. I cheered him on as he made a nice fast kick toward the finish.
After congratulations were exchanged, I cheered on many of the other runners who came through and congratulated the girl who had beaten me at the end. She was about 12 or 13, and it was her first 5k. She was really sweet, and I she definitely has a good future in running ahead of her. When I found my friend and his dad again, I was shocked when he told me that he had checked the score sheet and that I was first in my age group. What?! I thought for sure that I would have had to have run sub 24 to place in this race. Not so! I was 1st out of 5 in my group. Awesome!
I had made plans to run on Saturday with my running buddy, who has taken on a temporary job during the holidays and can't make any of our normal week-day morning runs. Another friend told me about this 5k jingle jog on Sunday, and I kept it in mind, but I knew that a 5k the day after a long run would not work out that well.
So my buddy, her sister, and I ran a hilly 6.5 miles on Saturday afternoon after I got out of work. We ran an average pace of 9:21 per mile and climbed over 500 ft (I love RunKeeper's stats!!). I felt pretty dead on a lot of the hills, but by the end, after a downhill, it leveled off and I had a huge burst of energy and finished feeling strong and really good. In that moment, I thought "Sure, I could run a good 5k tomorrow. I'm in!" I borrowed red-and-white-striped knee socks from my buddy, and texted my other friend to commit to the race.
And then I stayed up until 1 am working on a final group project for grad school. And then I woke up at 6:15 am to get to the race over an hour away.
As my friend, his dad, and I registered and got ready for the race, I tried to calculate what kind of time I'd be able to run. It was a flat course, but I was seriously tired. My guess was about 26:30. That was my last 5k time, and even though I was physically tired today, I was also fitter than I had been before. I figured that if I was overestimating the strength of my legs, and they felt really dead, then I'd probably finish more around 27:00-27:30. One thing was sure, I was going to push as hard as I could and see what I was capable of.
I was dressed in my green sparkle skirt, the red-and-white knee-socks, and a santa hat. This was a fun race because so many other people dressed up as well - everything from full elf suits to a snowman, and lots of santa hats and red and green colors.
It was chilly, but not frigid, and I seemed to be dressed just right in knee-socks, capris, and a thin wool long-sleeve shirt. I warmed up a little and found that the socks wouldn't stay up when I ran, so I safety-pinned them to my capris. Someone joked that I should make sure they didn't pull the capris down, too!
We lined up for the race and wished each other good luck, and before we knew it, the race was started and I was fumbling with RunKeeper and to get my iPhone back into my ifitness belt. The iPhone 5 is just a little too long to slide into the pocket easily, and I don't have an arm-band for it yet, but I wanted it with me so I knew my pace at regular intervals. I don't run a a very consistent pace, and I hoped that knowing both my average and current pace would help me if I started to slow too much.
I got the phone into its pocket and followed the group ahead of me. The race was chip-timed, so I knew that I just had to run my own race. It didn't matter how far behind I was if they stepped over the start before I did. But there were an awful lot of people ahead of me....
Within the first quarter mile, I knew that I was going to have hat trouble. I had jammed the santa hat on over a red ear-band to keep it in place, but all I could hear was it rubbing with every step. I pulled it down tighter, but that only pulled the ear-band down, and I felt like the hat on top would fall off any minute. I don't think that I made it to a half mile before I took off the hat and held it. I felt like I had wasted time and energy fiddling with it, so I focused on running and maintaining the fastest doable pace.
At one point, a little boy sitting outside his house who was watching us called out "Is this some kind of show?" I shouted "It's the Jingle Jog!" in a much-too-cheery voice.
I sounded cheerier than I felt. I told myself that if I just kept up this pace, I'd be happy. But I couldn't. Every other time I got a RunKeeper update, it would show that I had slowed down, so I sped up a little until it reminded me that I was slowing down. Not by a lot, just enough to make the average creep up. I passed some people and was passed by others. In the last mile, someone who seemed like she could be in my age category passed me, and I didn't feel like I had it in me to fight for the spot. I let her go by and told myself that I'd keep her in sight and try and pass her in the end if I could. With a half mile to go, I started to get a little closer to her. At mile 2.9, I made a move and passed her. I could hear her right behind me, but at mile 3 we turned onto the straightaway to the finish, and I pushed hard. It was a deceptively long straightaway, and I tried to hold on to my pace as long as I could. I heard footsteps coming up behind me, and a long-legged girl came sprinting up to pass me. We still had a ways to go to the finish, but I surged forward and passed her. I didn't win that fight, though, as I just didn't have enough in me to keep up that speed. She pulled ahead, I dropped back, and I stepped over the finish a second after she did.
When I saw the clock, I was really surprised. I finished in 25 and a half minutes! My chip time was 25:31. I hadn't run that fast in over a year and a half! What a great feeling! I caught my breath, and 2 minutes later my friend's dad came down the straightaway. I cheered him on as he came through the finish. It was one of his faster times, and he was pleased with his performance, although he was annoyed that one of his rivals has apparently been training and improved his usual time by several minutes.
A minute after that, my friend came through. I cheered him on as he made a nice fast kick toward the finish.
After congratulations were exchanged, I cheered on many of the other runners who came through and congratulated the girl who had beaten me at the end. She was about 12 or 13, and it was her first 5k. She was really sweet, and I she definitely has a good future in running ahead of her. When I found my friend and his dad again, I was shocked when he told me that he had checked the score sheet and that I was first in my age group. What?! I thought for sure that I would have had to have run sub 24 to place in this race. Not so! I was 1st out of 5 in my group. Awesome!
My friend was 2nd in his age group, so he got a medal, too. His dad was in for disappointment. His age group was the largest and most competitive group in the race. He still had a good time, though. He had run this race alone last year and felt a big difference in the fun factor to have other people there too.
Hurray for the Jingle Jog!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Sparkle extravaganza (I mean River Ramble) race recap
We sparkled and shimmered all along the river today in the River Ramble Fall Classic 10k, coming in 2nd out of three teams. We had a great time dressing up in our skirts and applying glitter gel to our faces and glitter spray to our hair. We definitely had the most character and personality on the course!
Two of my team members also set personal records in the 10k and won age category prizes!
Here is how the race went for me:
Even though we were running our own paces, we decided to line up together as a team near the front of the pack, since there were hundreds of runners and no chip timing. Starting in the front may or may not have been to my advantage. I can't tell if I burned myself out by going out too fast or if I would have set myself a slower pace if I hadn't had the momentum from everyone else.
In any case, when we started, we ran 0.2 miles through the parking lot to the hill that takes us out to the road. I kept a light but brisk pace through the parking lot and just tried to take it easy but keep the pace going up the hill. Then I tried to remind myself to use the slight decline to my advantage and let gravity do its thing.
I tried to keep at a steady, quick pace, and I got to the 1 mile mark at 8:08 minutes. I thought that I usually go out a little faster, but I knew that if I held that, I was still on pace for my goal time. I was feeling tired though, and the balls of my feet down to my toes were totally numb. It's hard to describe running without feeling your toes, and I can just say that it is very uncomfortable, especially when you know you're continually pounding on those spots. Around this time I also started getting the dreaded cramps, and I don't mean the lactic-acid kind. Still, I kept on my pace, and it seemed like no time before we got to the 5k turnaround. Alas, what an easy race the 5k must have been! Even with my frozen toes, I think I could have turned out a time around 25:30 on that course.
But I was running the 10k, so I kept going straight beyond the turnaround, and it wasn't long before the hills started. These were not nearly as unforgiving as the hills that I usually run on, so I should have flown up them, but I did not perform as well as I expected I would. When I found myself plodding, I picked up my knees and lightened my step, but I was much more tired than I should have been. I continued to fade as I got closer to the turnaround point, and more and more people passed me. I can't say that's not disheartening, but I flashed my sparkle skirt (well, it did its own flashing) and kept going, trying to pass people on the downhills.
I played leap frog with a couple of people until they either drew ahead or fell behind, and I found myself in a no-man's land with no other runners around me for the last 2 or 2.5 miles. At this time, I tried to do the math to see if my top goal was anywhere near attainable and settled on trying to finish in under 55 minutes. My time at the turnaround was about a minute and a half slower than it should have been if I wanted to match my PR.
After passing the 5k turnaround, I tried to use the flats there to my advantage and speed up a little. I got excited when I could see the parking lot. There was one slight incline left, and I jogged up it, hoping that maybe I'd get a burst of speed and somehow be able to pass the guy up ahead of me. I dropped my hand-held bottle of Gatorade next to a road sign where I'd be able to pick it up later and immediately felt lighter and freer. I crested the hill and started to coast down towards the parking lot. I heard someone coming up behind me, and that spurred me on just enough. I opened up my stride and made for the finish line.
The last stretch is deceivingly long. I was told to smile for cameras, so I held back a bit instead of going for the usual power sprint (and accompanying photos of flailing limbs and ridiculous grimaces). I heard someone say that my skirt was flying, and one of the race volunteers said that even though I was the last of my team to finish, I was still fast, and they were all waiting to cheer me on. And they were!
I finished in 55:26, which is a little disappointing, considering I had been improving so much and know that I was capable of at least 53:52 on that course, but it's something to beat in the future. I have to remember that my first goal in this race was to have a great time running in our sparkly skirts. I wanted us to bring a lot of fun to this race and have a blast, and we did! We all left with such a great feeling and are already planning on continuing our weekly groups runs. There's even talk of signing up together for a half marathon in the spring! And I think that our enthusiasm extended out to a lot of other people today. One or two people actually thanked me for dressing up!
After cheering on many other 10k runners, we got some refreshments and stuck around for the awards ceremony, where two of our girls won 2nd and 3rd place in the 30-39 year age group! Way to go!!! What is even more impressive (and a little frustrating) is that the friend who placed 2nd was only a second or two behind 1st place in that age group. Believe me, when we do this next year, she's going for 1st!
After individual awards were given, every member of Team Blood Sweat and Sparkle was awarded a River Ramble mug for 2nd place in the team competition! Go team!!
This was a great race that was very well organized, even though it was in its first year. The weather was beautiful, and everyone I saw had a great time. The location was also awesome. After everyone else left, I took my unfinished breakfast (more on proper - and un-proper - nutrition in a later post?) down to the boat launch and sat down and finished it while looking across the river. It's a beautiful spot, which is why I'm getting married just a few miles downstream from there next September...! You can't beat the view of the river and mountains behind them.
Anyway, the course was great, everything ran smoothly, and I'm so glad that we were able to put such a quirky team together. It added an element to the race that I don't always see.
I am really looking forward to finishing up my grad school program and having more time to exercise again so I can work on improving my fitness and becoming a fast runner. Watch out, River Ramble - I'm coming back next year, just as sparkly, but faster than ever!
 |
| Team Blood, Sweat, and Sparkle |
Two of my team members also set personal records in the 10k and won age category prizes!
Even though we were running our own paces, we decided to line up together as a team near the front of the pack, since there were hundreds of runners and no chip timing. Starting in the front may or may not have been to my advantage. I can't tell if I burned myself out by going out too fast or if I would have set myself a slower pace if I hadn't had the momentum from everyone else.
I tried to keep at a steady, quick pace, and I got to the 1 mile mark at 8:08 minutes. I thought that I usually go out a little faster, but I knew that if I held that, I was still on pace for my goal time. I was feeling tired though, and the balls of my feet down to my toes were totally numb. It's hard to describe running without feeling your toes, and I can just say that it is very uncomfortable, especially when you know you're continually pounding on those spots. Around this time I also started getting the dreaded cramps, and I don't mean the lactic-acid kind. Still, I kept on my pace, and it seemed like no time before we got to the 5k turnaround. Alas, what an easy race the 5k must have been! Even with my frozen toes, I think I could have turned out a time around 25:30 on that course.
But I was running the 10k, so I kept going straight beyond the turnaround, and it wasn't long before the hills started. These were not nearly as unforgiving as the hills that I usually run on, so I should have flown up them, but I did not perform as well as I expected I would. When I found myself plodding, I picked up my knees and lightened my step, but I was much more tired than I should have been. I continued to fade as I got closer to the turnaround point, and more and more people passed me. I can't say that's not disheartening, but I flashed my sparkle skirt (well, it did its own flashing) and kept going, trying to pass people on the downhills.
I played leap frog with a couple of people until they either drew ahead or fell behind, and I found myself in a no-man's land with no other runners around me for the last 2 or 2.5 miles. At this time, I tried to do the math to see if my top goal was anywhere near attainable and settled on trying to finish in under 55 minutes. My time at the turnaround was about a minute and a half slower than it should have been if I wanted to match my PR.
After passing the 5k turnaround, I tried to use the flats there to my advantage and speed up a little. I got excited when I could see the parking lot. There was one slight incline left, and I jogged up it, hoping that maybe I'd get a burst of speed and somehow be able to pass the guy up ahead of me. I dropped my hand-held bottle of Gatorade next to a road sign where I'd be able to pick it up later and immediately felt lighter and freer. I crested the hill and started to coast down towards the parking lot. I heard someone coming up behind me, and that spurred me on just enough. I opened up my stride and made for the finish line.
The last stretch is deceivingly long. I was told to smile for cameras, so I held back a bit instead of going for the usual power sprint (and accompanying photos of flailing limbs and ridiculous grimaces). I heard someone say that my skirt was flying, and one of the race volunteers said that even though I was the last of my team to finish, I was still fast, and they were all waiting to cheer me on. And they were!
 |
| That skirt is flying! |
After cheering on many other 10k runners, we got some refreshments and stuck around for the awards ceremony, where two of our girls won 2nd and 3rd place in the 30-39 year age group! Way to go!!! What is even more impressive (and a little frustrating) is that the friend who placed 2nd was only a second or two behind 1st place in that age group. Believe me, when we do this next year, she's going for 1st!
After individual awards were given, every member of Team Blood Sweat and Sparkle was awarded a River Ramble mug for 2nd place in the team competition! Go team!!
 |
| Celebrating with 2nd-place mugs |
Anyway, the course was great, everything ran smoothly, and I'm so glad that we were able to put such a quirky team together. It added an element to the race that I don't always see.
I am really looking forward to finishing up my grad school program and having more time to exercise again so I can work on improving my fitness and becoming a fast runner. Watch out, River Ramble - I'm coming back next year, just as sparkly, but faster than ever!
River Ramble 10k goals
Two months ago, the 10k distance was a little daunting. I hadn't been running for months, and I just didn't see myself completing the distance with anything but an agonizingly slow pace. But the River Ramble, which offers both a 5K and 10k distance, only permitted team competition for the 10k. And I wanted to form a team - a team comprised of people wearing sparkly running skirts. So I got my running buddy, her sister, and one other runner together to form Team Blood, Sweat, and Sparkle. We ordered skirts from Team Sparkle, which I had read about on the Chic Runner's blog and set out to train for a 10k.
Initially, my goal was to run faster than 9:30 per mile pace. We mapped out a training route that was hillier than the race course, and on the first time running it, I came in at 58:52. That was 9:28 pace! I revised my goal to be about 55 minutes. The next time I ran that route, I cam in at 57:41 - 9:16 per mile! I was very excited about doing some long runs and a timed mile to work on both endurance and speed, but I got sick with a cold, and then a secondary infection, so I lost about 2 weeks of training. I got back out as soon as I could, and last Tuesday I ran the race route in an amazing (for me) 53:52. Then it was time to rest and wait until race day. My goals for the race were:
Initially, my goal was to run faster than 9:30 per mile pace. We mapped out a training route that was hillier than the race course, and on the first time running it, I came in at 58:52. That was 9:28 pace! I revised my goal to be about 55 minutes. The next time I ran that route, I cam in at 57:41 - 9:16 per mile! I was very excited about doing some long runs and a timed mile to work on both endurance and speed, but I got sick with a cold, and then a secondary infection, so I lost about 2 weeks of training. I got back out as soon as I could, and last Tuesday I ran the race route in an amazing (for me) 53:52. Then it was time to rest and wait until race day. My goals for the race were:
- Have a great time running in our sparkly skirts! I wanted us to bring a lot of fun to this race and have a blast.
- My top time goal (aka goal that might be in reach) was to finish in under 53 minutes. That would involve running about a minute faster than in my fastest training run (which I had put pretty much everything onto the table for).
- If that wasn't achievable, my next goal was to set a personal best.
- My next goal was to finish in under 55 minutes.
- If I had a pretty stinky race, I hoped to still finish with a pace of under 9 minutes per mile.
So, there you have it!
My next post will be a race recap!
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Out of the library and onto the road
Librarian on the Run is on her way to becoming Archivist on the Run. For the past year, I've been back in grad school studying Archival Studies with the hopes of being able to work in a library with a special collection. So I haven't had much time to blog. I initially began this blog in 2008 after I got my master's degree. It was the first time I wasn't in school, and I poured my mental and physical energies into running and writing about it. Now that I've been back in school, the blog has become an afterthought, but I have only 4 more weeks of class left!
In the mean time, I've been keeping up with my running. I had a cyst removed from my neck in July, which stopped all physical activity for that part of the summer, but once I recovered, I jumped into training for the Ride to Read fundraiser for the library. Once I finished that, I got right back into running. I don't think that cycling for the Ride improved my running per se, but it left me at a good fitness level, and my running training started off well. Three weeks after the Ride, I ran a hounds and harriers race with my fiancé's German shepherd, Anna.
This was quite an experience! I hadn't practiced running with this leash with her enough, so we had a few kinks to work out at the beginning of the race, when she wanted to sniff every other dog there was - and there were 120 of them! The starting line felt like complete chaos, but everyone was actually very well-behaved. We got into a rhythm after the first mile, and it was quite nice. There were dog bowls at the water stops, and she forgot we were racing and wanted to drink from every single bowl. (After the third bowl, I nudged her to get back to running!) And we came over the finish line at 26:37. Congrats to Anna on her first 5K!
After Hounds and Harriers, I set my sights on a new goal: The River Ramble Fall Classic 10K. It's organized by the local running store, and the 10K has a team competition. I had heard about Team Sparkle from other bloggers and thought that a sparkly 10K team would be a lot of fun, so I got together my running buddy, her sister, and another library runner to rock the River Ramble in sparkle skirts. We're Team "Blood, Sweat, and Sparkle." I can't wait! We're getting together today (after we all vote - Happy Election Day!) to run the race course so we know what to expect. In fact, I need to start getting ready so I'm not late meeting them... More to come about our awesome sparkle skirts and my goals for the 10k.
Ride to Read success and recap
Despite my pre-ride jitters, the Ride to Read was a big success. I easily rode the 60 miles and was bursting with energy at the end. I raised over $2,500 for the new library building, and it was an event that brought together the other library branches. The full recap is on the Ride to Read blog here.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Ride to Read today - Ahhhh!!!!
Ok, so after 2 1/1 months of training, totaling 488 miles, I'm ready to tackle the 60-mile Ride to Read fundraiser I organized to raise money for the library. Or am I? I've ridden most of the course and covered more than the distance on training rides, and it's not even a race. Why am I nervous?! I shouldn't be. I'm trained and feel so much more fit than I have in a long time. I have tons of supporters, including my fiancé, who dislikes road riding but has been training and is riding today with me anyway. It's going to be a great day.
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