Running on the Road: Atlanta

When I ran in my previous life, my challenge was fitting in workouts on a big law schedule. I found that by becoming a morning person and hitting the pavement at 6:00 am or earlier I could make it work during the week, and I was typically able to get my long runs in early Saturday morning, even if I had to go to the office in the afternoon.

In my current job, the challenges are different. My schedule is flexible and totally inconsistent. Trying to set a schedule when your travel days differ week to week, and you never know what facilities you are going to find in any particular location keeps you on your toes.

But, since I’ve recommitted to fitness and running in mid December, I’ve averaged at least a couple of days on the road a week, and managed to go from not running at all, to breaking my previous 8k time by more than 12:30.

Running on the road requires two things. Flexibility and commitment. I need to be flexible on location, time of day, length of run, and workout. Even if Saturday is my long run day, If I’m staffing a trip over a weekend, I might need to do it Friday or Monday. I might not want to do two hill workouts in a row, but if my hotel is in a hilly neighborhood, that’s what I get. Learning to be flexible has been good for me, but my type A calendar and check list personality has had to adjust.

Commitment means that no matter how much room my size 13 women’s Asics take up in my suitcase, a set of workout clothes and my running shoes are always coming with me.

This post in the first of what I hope to be is a regular feature on running while on the road. I’ll talk about my life as a running road warrior, tips on gear, workouts, etc, as well as posts about running in specific locations.

This week I was in Atlanta for work, and stayed in a hotel in Midown.

After a terrific race on Saturday, it’s been a challenging workout week. Bronchitis and asthma really took their toll, and I’ve been tired and sluggish and unmotivated all week.

Since I wasn’t able to motivate to get out of bed for a spin class before my flight on Wednesday, I knew I needed to get a run I before dinner plans. Over the past few months, I’ve learned that hotels can almost always suggest running routes in the neighborhood.

In this case my options were Piedmont Park and the Georgia Tech campus. The park was about a mile a way.

There were a lot of things wrong with the run. First, I was still feeling terrible. Coughing, maybe still had a fever, but doc had ok’d running so long as I felt ok with it, so i forced myself to try. Second, it was 3:00 pm, 80 degrees and humid. Third — the mile route to the park was rolling hills.

Needless to say, it was not my best run. But I did learn that the park was beautiful, with more rolling hills, and a half mile gravel fitness oval.

Thursday I got up to run before my meetings started. Another lesson I should have learned is that knowing sunrise is very important. At 6:45 it was still fairly dark in Atlanta, but by 7 I headed out the door to Piedmont Park. 65 was a lot better than 80, and I was prepared for hills, but still struggled quite a bit.

It was a gorgeous morning for a run, and I enjoyed watching the sun come up as I headed toward the park.

I had hoped to do speed work on the oval, and was jealous of a running group I saw doing 1/4 mile repeats, but just didn’t have it in me, so an easy 45 minutes at least gave me some sort workout.

All in all Piedmont Park is a fabulous place to run in Atlanta. Winding roads on gentle rolling hills, lagoons, a view of midtown and the oval track provided a lot of options. There seems to be a terrific runnincommunity, and I wish I had been feeling more myself. But, hopefully there will be a next time.

Next up, next week: Moscow!

Maybe I’m not a Such a Penguin After All . . .

I’ve been running off and on for fifteen years — did my first 5 or 10K and my first half marathon my senior year in college in 1998.

That was the year that I got passed by a Kenyan who was doing a full marathon just yards from the finish line.

I was proud to finish and though I still have the race bib, it was before race times were preserved online, and I have no idea how fast I was. Not fast was pretty clear.

I do seem to have my results from couple of 5Ks just a year later (age 22), and it seems like I was doing 5Ks in 33-35 minutes, and a 10K a few months later at just over 70 minutes. A couple of years after that, there were a few 5Ks in the 31 minute range. In one, I ranked 125 out of 155 women in my age group. In my journal (yes, I still have my journals from back then), I note a 2001 5K best at 29:50: “BEST TIME EVER!!!”

I didn’t race much during law school and my first couple of years of practice, but fast forward a few years, and the times don’t change that much. A little better, but still always hovering in between the 9:30 and the 11:00 mph range depending on length of the race.

A solid back of the packer — or at least back 1/3 of the packer. A penguin.

Rather than try and go faster (since of course I was going to get slower after 30), I went further.

Another few half marathons, but nothing better than 2:12 (about a 10:00 minute mile). Ran my first marathon in 2009 in 4:42. Thrilled to finish, but always back 1/3 of the pack.

This year I came back to running after almost three years off (despite previous blog entries about running in Moscow, nothing stuck).

Just before Christmas, I decided I needed to get back into shape.

And it meant starting all over at the beginning. I couldn’t run one mile, let alone 26.2.

So, I used a run/walk plan to try and get up to a 5k. Started with running 4, walking 2 minute intervals. And at some point near the end of January, I was running a 5K straight through again, and then 4 miles and 5 miles on a treadmill. But still slowly — my standard 10:15-10:30 miles. I’m 36. Thought this would be my pace for the rest of my life.

But, a treadmill is really, really boring when you’re on it for 50 minutes straight. And I signed up for the Shamrock Shuffle and found a training plan online that included speed work.

One day a week, pick ups every 10 minutes for a minute. Another day a week, 4 or five minutes at 90% effort followed by recovery intervals.

And it kept my treadmill runs from making me insane.

And then I decided that even with the speed work, I just couldn’t handle a treadmill anymore 4 times a week.

So I joined Chicago Endurance Sport’s Spring Training program. It would bring me outside at the beginning of March, but the weather in Chicago couldn’t be that bad, could it?

It’s Chicago, of course it could. The first four weeks on the Lake Shore path for my long runs were a mix of miserable and almost miserable.

But I actually started doing the speed work in the shorter races during the week. Hills in Chattanooga, treadmill intervals in Indianapolis. I could make it work on while on the road.

And I was cross training — spin classes and swimming, which increased fitness without killing my legs.

And a couple of weeks ago, I made it up to Fleet Feet in Lincoln Square for my first outside interval workout. Quarter mile repeats at 5K time. If it was only a quarter mile, I could push myself. And then there was A, a pace leader from CES. We ran our long runs together, so I could keep up with her on speed work, right?

Well, she was really fast, but I came close. Finishing a couple of steps behind her every repeat.

And I was doing the repeats pretty fast for someone who was only a ten-minute miler.

Then last week, it was half mile repeats. This time in the zoo parking lot. And even though A wasn’t there, I was running fast enough that I should be running a 5K at 8:00ish pace. Was this possible? Or was I just good at really short distances?

I had a pretty good run on Friday, and despite not feeling well (hello bronchitis), I decided to push myself in the Shamrock Shuffle.

I left my stuff at the Fleet Feet Chicago/CES/Nike Racing team tent and went to my assigned corral.

The first mile was tough. Some dodging, some missing tangents, etc, but when my Garmin buzzed, my first mile time was 7:38!

OK — that’s too fast. I can’t sustain that for five miles.

So I started to run by my heart rate monitor.

And I started passing people who were in corrals ahead of me (your corral number is on your race bib).

I couldn’t sustain 98% effort for five miles. But maybe, just maybe, I could sustain 90% effort.

Mile after mile went by — nothing really slower than 8:30 or 8:40.

And when I crossed the finish line, my Garmin read 5.06 miles (I need to run straighter) and a time of 41.52. An average pace of 8:16. Me??? That can’t be right.

But when the results were official on chip time, they were consistent. 41.49 race for an 8:25 pace. This was a PR by more than 12 minutes and 30 seconds over my 2009 time.

Top 10% of all women running, and even higher in my age group.

That’s not the back of the pack anymore.

I’m a little blown away by all of this. I never expected to be running in the 8:00s. And what should my 5K time look like — probably under 25 minutes? A half marathon under 2:00:00? A marathon under 4:00:00.

None of these things seemed possible only four months ago, when I couldn’t even run a mile without a walk break.

But, it seems like even at 36 we can learn some new tricks.

Can’t wait to see what this summer training brings!

“Spring” Training Starts

This was the opening weekend of Spring Training through Chicago Endurance Sports.

I’m going to be very honest with you. I don’t really like running in the cold. In fact, I hate running in the cold. It’s not my hands or my legs or my hears that hate running in the cold, but my lungs. They get angry and rebel against me, doing ugly things to stop me from running outside during the winter. And so I just haven’t done it.

But then at a certain point in the winter, typically around March, as my mileage begins to creep up around 6 miles, I grow to hate the treadmill.

So I’m kind of in a terrible place — I hate the treadmill, and I hate the cold. But I love running. So, it’s a delicate balance on any given day. Which do I hate more? During my shorter runs during the week, the treadmill usually wins out — between music, tv at the gym, and speed workouts, I can trick myself into not hating a 45 minute workout. But on a Saturday, for a long run, it’s torture.

So, this year, I decided to join CES not for the summer marathon training, but for Spring Training.

And just like in Russia last year, where it snowed on the first day of spring, the joke was on me. First day of spring training = 21F at the start. Yeah, I was not happy.

The first 10 minutes of the run were honestly, about the most miserable I can remember. I made the mistake of automatically filling my handheld water bottle from the fridge. I was wearing thin running gloves — my hands did not need to be chilled. The wind along the lake cut into me and tears were streaming down my face. It was more the cold then being upset, but I kept asking myself why I was doing things. The next ten minutes improved a bit. I warmed up enough to talk to the people next to me. I stopped looking at my watch every 30 seconds.

And then the turnaround. Perhaps the most beautiful turn around ever. Because when we turned around at Belmont, the wind was suddenly at our backs. And all of the sudden it felt balmy. I undid one loop of my scarf. I felt a bead of sweat run down my nose. I could do this. And I did.

I can’t say that I want to regularly run in 20 degree weather. I know there are winter warriors out that there that love it. Savor the solitude on the lake path. It’s not something I aspire to. But after this week I know I can do it. And at least it wasn’t the treadmill.