Sisters in Sport, Final Check-in

Do you remember my big goal for December, 8 hours of sleep at night? Remember how I was really confident it would all work out perfectly? I said, “I’ve identified all the little obstacles to achieving the 8 hours of sleep a night goal, and I’m actually feeling good about getting there, even with the holidays approaching.”

I’ve been doing such a great job with my mini-monthly goals since using my Believe I Am Training Journal and I was feeling confident about my sleep goal. When mapping out all the reasons behind my lack of sleep and making an action plan, I knew I could definitely start to sleep more.

The month started off great… sort of. December 1st = 9 hours of sleep! Amazing! December 2nd = 4 hours of sleep (the night after my marathon)! Uh-oh… This was easily explained by my normal trouble sleeping the night after a marathon, plus early morning flight, with the added problem of a domestic abuse situation right outside our hotel room leaving us listening to screaming, crying, security coming, then finally the police taking the people away. December 3rd-6th, all solid 8 hour days.

believe I am journal

First 6 days of sleep, not too shabby (except the 4 hours night!)

Then, some curves. Christmas shopping and prep. Get-togethers. Jeff out-of-town. Being home for the holidays and just wanting to spend every minute with family. The list continues… the sleep declines…

So, while I was far from the 8 hours a night every night, I did hit 8 hours more this month than any in the past since my daughter has been walking. And that says a lot considering everything that was going on this month. It’s nice to have a goal written, in my own handwriting, at the top of a page that I look at every single day. It makes me more mindful, more likely to do what I set out to do. It reminds me of a friend who was keeping a food journal this summer and she started choosing the salad bar every day for lunch because she knew she had to answer to the food journal/herself.

I’m thankful for this journal. It’s helped me through a lot the past 3 months. I use it in addition to an online running log that auto-uploads my garmin data. I like the handwritten process of the Believe I Am Journal. How I can write anything I want (including space for a novel in back if I wanted… well almost)! How I can see my own handwriting, my own thoughts, my dreams, desires. As I said before, this is the second Believe I Am Journal I’ve owned and it’s even more helpful the second time around because I’m finding more uses, more deeply ingraining the visuals, and figuring out more about myself. I now carry it around in my purse, a great idea I got from another Sister in Sport. I would recommend the journal to anyone and EVERYONE. Except my 8-year-old nephew who called it “a girly little thing” when I pulled it out after a run during Christmas festivities. Maybe ask before buying it for your 8-year-old nephew.

I’d like to finish by saying that I used the GRATEFUL visual a lot during my training and racing these last few months. After a few heartaches in early October, I started using the visual shown below:

I really connected with the last line “It’s amazing how many doors start to open when you are grateful for what you already have.”

I loved it so much I got it in cozy sweater form.

Sporting the sweater earlier tonight. Blurry iPhone pic.

So there you have it! For January, I’m back on the strength goals again. I’m already feeling weak in the glutes/hips/hamstrings from just a month of taking it easy post-marathon. I need to get back on board. This time, adding some … weights!!

 

 

Columbus Turkey Trot 2012 Race Recap

Oh wow! It’s been a week since I last posted! That’s what happens when there’s a holiday and birthday party and I’m driving around Ohio trying to see everyone in my family.

Kinsley and Currie

The 1st birthday girl and my little lady sitting on my lap.

Thanksgiving was great for us, so much fun with both the in-laws and my family! We ate things like this for 3 days straight:

pumpkin pie, sugar cream pie, pecan pie

Pumpkin, pecan, and sugar cream pie

Now we are back in Rochester and I’m trying to get unpacked and repacked since it’s MARATHON WEEK!

The main point of this post is to give a little update on my racing. On Thanksgiving morning, I ran the 5 mile Turkey Trot in Columbus, Ohio. It starts on Lane Avenue near the running store Frontrunner and runs through The Ohio State University Campus, around Ohio Stadium and back up Lane Ave to finish where you started.

Given my running history you may assume I do a Turkey Trot every year, but this is actually only my second year of racing on Thanksgiving! I really enjoy starting the day this way and hope to continue racing a Turkey Trot every year.

I’m going to try to make this quick with some bullets:

  • Got to race an hour before start & immediately used porta potties. They were in the worst shape (dirty, wet floor) I’ve ever seen this early in the day. Got a laugh out of the graffiti (is this considered graffiti?) on the soap dispenser.
porta potty columbus turkey trot

Sex way? Sex wax? Either way, what does it mean? Wait, if you know, don’t tell me!

  • Felt awful on the warmup.
  • Saw an OSU cross country teammate right before the race started. We hugged and quickly took our places.
  • First 2 miles nice gradual downhill. Felt great, effortless. Also knew I had to do those same 2 miles gradual uphill at the end.
  • Kept passing dudes the whole race, was first woman from the start. Actually used some Believe I Am journal cues and they REALLY worked. More on this in another post. #ninjastars
  • Uphill didn’t feel bad. I felt pretty darn comfortable the whole race, kept waiting to feel the real race pain. In hindsight, was upset I didn’t run harder the last mile!
  • Finished 1st female, 28:19, 5:40 pace. I was 20th overall. I was about 40 seconds ahead of female #2. Got pie and a trophy plus a bunch of food.

columbus turkey trot

  • Oh, and immediately after I crossed the finish line, a woman from Easter Seals Central and Southeast Ohio took my picture for their Facebook page. I thought I should share my cold, yet sweaty, glory below.
columbus turkey trot

Just crossed the finish line, trophy placed in hand before they even took my racing bib tag. bing, bang, boom!

  • Whole Foods was right across from the finish line so I went in to get my recovery started. I was excited to see Vega One. Unfortunately all they had in individual packets was Natural flavor. No thank you. I want to recover, but not enough to drink that straight up with water.
vega one at whole foods

I love every flavor of Vega One EXCEPT natural. And that’s all they had in individual packets!

  • So I tried something new-to-me: Vega Sport Recovery Accelerator in Tropical flavor. Pukey-looking when mixed in bottled water, but ok tasting and did the job. Yes!
vega sport recovery

Vega Sport Recovery in Tropical flavor against a backdrop of my goosebumpy legs. Looks nasty, tastes ok.

  • Went to coffee shop with Jeff.
  • Immediately had coffee (again) with a different friend who ran OSU cross country with me, at her house. Made my day!
girls posing with coffee

We took some weird pictures. We have a history of weird pictures together. Most are better kept in private.

  • Finally, it was home to shower, change and feast. I wore fitted clothing which is quite a daring thing to do on Thanksgiving!
thanksgiving pic

Got ready really fast, just went with the wet hair look until it air dried. Yes, if you were wondering I wore the same scarf almost every day while in Ohio. You can only pack so many things!

So there’s the race and my Thanksgiving in a nutshell!

Tell me about your Thanksgiving! Would you wear tight fitting clothing to feast? Any strange porta potty stories?

Sisters in Sport, 1st Check-in

I’ve been working in my Believe I Am Journal for a month now, and it’s time to check-in with myself and all of you to see how it has been going. In my first post about Goals and Believing, I talked about my goal of an Olympic Trials qualifier and the smaller steps I’m focusing on to get there.

believe i am training journal

2013-2015 Marathon goal planning

The goal I chose to focus on was hip/glute/hamstring strength to set myself up for less chance of injury on my way to a super speedy marathon. The Journal has given me an easy way to record my strength and stay accountable. My Sisters in Sport have kept me motivated every week with their posts and encouragement. It has been wonderful. Here’s what I’ve been doing.

believe i am journal

First two strength sessions of the month. I would like to claim the title of “worst handwriting of all sisters-in-sport bloggers”.

Twice a week, I’ve been focusing on strength exercises. One day, I do between 120-130 lunges (between 60-65 per leg, per session). Another day I do specific glute strengthening exercises – a few exercises from the following Coach Jay Johnson video. I really recommend incorporating a few of these exercises into your strength routine. (Just don’t add too many at once, you WILL be sore!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GLrKr54yA0&feature=player_embedded

Like everyone else, I have little free time to throw in extra workout-related-stuff, so I knew I’d have to get creative. My first lunge session was completed in the hallway of Currie’s dance studio. In this outfit:

sweater, scarf, boots and skinny jeans while doing lunges

I got the feeling that if I waited to do lunges after Currie went to bed, they wouldn’t get done so I went ahead and did them in my “street clothes”.

My next session was done 2 days later when Currie (thankfully) decided to take a nap. Boom – just like that “week one strength” was done. Each week’s strength workouts followed a similar pattern. I found a way to get the stuff done without adding stress to my life or rushing through the exercises. Seeing my progress in the journal motivates me to keep it up. Hearing that others are doing well helps me even more.

A few days ago, right before I drifted into dreamland, I noticed something and jotted it down in the blank pages in the back of the journal. Check out 10/29 below:

flexing booty and it felt stronger

No idea why I was flexing my booty in bed (dirty jokes aside), but glad I did. I felt so strong and wonderful!

A positive I didn’t expect from the Journal is it’s helped me keep track of little quotes, sayings, etc that I pass throughout the day and want to remember in my racing. Anytime I see something inspirational, something I want to think about during the marathon, something I need to remember during training, etc, I pull out my journal and write it in the blank pages in the back of the journal. I visit that space often, reread it, etch it in my mind.

you create your own universe

Digging these quotes this week.

So what’s next? I’m training for my marathon for the next few weeks. As far as my strength goals go, for the month of November, I’m going to continue the current routine, but add some core (think planks), some drills and some additional hip exercises. Adding slowly, staying consistent, enjoying the process.

Do you have a Believe I Am journal? How are you doing in terms of goals this Fall?

 

Racing Update – Next Goal

Quite a few people have been asking “What’s next Jen? What are you training for?” I finally have an answer for you. I’m running California International Marathon!

California International Marathon

Picture straight from the CIM website… oooooo… ahhhhh….

As my “year of no marathons” was coming to a close, I started to feel a little sad about 2012 being an empty marathon year. The Columbus Marathon on October 21st would mark my one-year-away date. Just a week before that half, I was having a rough time personally and decided to medicate with more running. I started plotting a potential December marathon. It worked perfectly with my “train through Columbus half” plan. I applied for the elite field at CIM and told myself if I was accepted, I would run. The email response came after my long run on October 14th. I tweeted about it.

Just got an interesting email. #exciting #purposelyvaguetweets

Yes, I was accepted into the elite field. Very cool. Also, I was feeling extremely out-of-MARATHON-shape.

That was a rough 17 miles, but it was 17 miles!

I almost died (drama queen) doing 17 miles. It could be because I had been running 30-40 miles a week with an 8-10 mile long run most weekends up until that week. Then I applied for the marathon and got fired up and decided to run 60 miles with a 17 miler to finish up the week. #ouch

Maybe you wondered why I ran Columbus Half as a training run if I had no bigger race coming up. Or maybe you wondered why I was feeling insane enough to do a workout after my 5k race this weekend.

2nd place in the 5k. off for remainder of workout now.

Well, now you know.

I’m not out of shape. I have a good base. I was doing 12-13 mile long runs all summer along with lots of stroller running. I even did a 17 mile long run for fun one day in Seattle this summer. As you can see from my recent race recaps, I’m not in PR shape, but I’m in pretty good shape from 5k-half marathon. You saw in my Goals and Believing post that I’ve been working on hip/glute/hamstring strength in the month of October so I’m feeling strong. (More on how the month of strength went in a post later this week.)

believe i am journal

It’s all going in my Believe I Am training journal

The question is… how ready can I be for this marathon on December 2nd? I had 7 weeks until marathon day when I started training. That leaves about 5 weeks until taper… maybe 6 if I make it a short taper. In an attempt to remain injury free, my plan is to run 60-69 miles per week for the next 3 weeks with one workout and one long run. The other days will be easy so I can recover.

marathon pace chart

Hello old friend!

I will be ready for this marathon. Will I be PR ready? Not likely. Will I be ready to have fun AND run fast? Yes! I will be racing with a friend whose goal is slightly faster than mine. I will dig deep. I will be tough. I will see what I’m made of.

Why CIM?

  • My brother Jason Ordway will be running and it’s good family bonding time.
post race massage, columbus marathon

We bonded over post-race massage and a family cool down the last time we raced together!

  • Lots of my Oiselle Team birdies will be racing. I love a good meetup.
  • Other friends will be running.
  • Not many big marathons in December and I like the big race feel for 26.2 distance.
  • A history of great running weather usually ranging from 40-60 degrees F.
  • Strong field of runners.

So here I go! This is going to be exciting!

What’s your shortest marathon buildup? How did you do?

 

Goals and Believing

believe i am journal with cherry wood cover

I just received my second Believe I Am Training Journal and have been excitedly flipping through the pages and planning out the steps to achieve my goals over the next year. In case you don’t know, these journals are much more than training logs. They were created by professional women athletes – USA Champion Lauren Fleshman and Irish Olympian Roisin McGettigan. These ladies created the journals to be used as a “training tool” that easily helps you plan and set goals, record your training, use visual cues, and work on your mental game all in one simple journal.

believe i am journal snippet

If you know me, or my blog, you know my number one piece of advice for performing your best in life is BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. In my About Me section, you can read about my mental journey and how it took me 28 years and one child to begin to truly believe in myself and my running. “Believe in yourself” was my first bullet in my Secrets to Success post. I wrote another piece on confidence and how it has changed my running in this ME Monday post. In my mind, BELIEVING is by far the most important aspect of training. Many of us work hard. Few of us truly believe we can do it. It’s something we have to practice daily.

believe i am journal

This is where the journal comes in. I got the first version of the Believe I Am journal right when they first came out and I’m ready to get after it again with my other Sisters in Sport bloggers and go after my goals! I have an end goal of a super speedy marathon and an Olympic Trials qualifier.

believe i am journal snippet

No, my end goal isn’t “super speedy marathon” although it might look that way based on the little preview I gave you here!

I’m going to get there and I’m working on all the little steps I need to take to make it happen. I’ll share the little pieces with you at the end of each month. I hope you will share your goals, successes (and even failures) with me too!

believe i am journal snippet

My current goal is to work on my strength so I can keep all the normal “hot spots” happy, allowing me to train the way I want without downtime from injury. Specifically for me, this means hip/glute/hamstring strength. All of my running problems stem from these areas and I need to get strong if I want to perform well. I’m really good at hitting all my RUNNING workouts in a training cycle. I’m not so good at all the “extras”. Let’s change that.

Believe I am training journal

Yes, got 120 total lunges done, 60 on each leg, in the hallway outside Currie’s dance class. Starting off October in a strong way!

So there we go. I’m ready to get started! Will you join me in setting some goals, friends?