More Turkey?!?

Turkey Trotting that is!

This might be a weird post.  I've been wanting to write up a little race recap on my Turkey Trot I did on Thanksgiving, but all the eating and laying on the couch watching What Not To Wear marathon and 24 kept me busy :)  I also had a good run last night after work that left me with a bunch of reflections about IM training and some other stuff.  So what do we start with first?  Who wants seconds of turkey trotting??

My Coach put an APB out on facebook about a last-minute Turkey Trot race early Thanksgiving morning. Once I saw it, I was in!  I've been wanting to check out this park for a while, Rockland Lake State Park, as my future long bike rides will pass by it.  I'm also planning on a fun long training day up there in April, where I'll bike from NYC to this park, run a half marathon then bike back home.  Now that's what I call a solid training day that I'm looking forward too! **does that make me crazy?

But I digress.... so I said heck yeah I'm in! And while my cool, normal friends were out boozing the night before Thanksgiving, I was cleaning out my closet, doing laundry and setting up my race outfit.  Yeah, I don't know if I can handle any more wild nights like these.

I met my Coach at 7am the next morning and we drove up to the park.  It was pretty chilly out but I decided to go with my 3/4 pants and my Chicago 10-10-10 long sleeve top.  I was cold at first but I certainly warmed up once I got running.

While this race was another local one, they at least had timing chips!  The start was the same as the last turkey trot where there were no corrals so it was a free for all.  We started near the front as Coach is super speedy and I, well, I'm not super speedy but there were bunches on young kids near the front that I'd knew I'd pass right away. 

I was wondering if I could pull off another 5 miler PR but I knew this course was hillier and it was much colder out.  We didn't really warm up so my muscles were pretty tight. 

Mile 1 - 8:26 This was too fast again for the first mile.  And this mile was uphill so my heart rate skyrocketed and I was breathing hard.  I focused on keeping my form and let people pass me up the hill.
Mile 2 - 8:32 Ok this felt better.  There was a little downhill reprieve but then another uphill made me work harder
Mile 3 - 8:28 Not bad - the course flattened out a bit and I was psyched I was holding a good pace again
Mile 4 - 8:36 What happened here? There weren't any major uphills.  I may have mentally slowed down a bit so that I would have gas at the end.  I'm still happy I kept it under 840 though!
Mile 5 - 8:18 SWEET!  I was able to make my last mile the fastest for the second race in a row!  I think I might have fallen in love with the 5 mile race :)

Total - 42:45 the second fastest 5 miler I've run ever!

Both of the past two races have been in my off season and I seem to be getting faster!  I think it's the combination of more rest (I hadn't run since Saturday but I did swim) and the no-pressure.  I don't need to be fast at these races.  I just like to run them for fun.  Maybe I need to think more like this with my A races of the season.  Ah, who I am kidding?? There's no way I'm gonna look at IMLP as a "no-pressure" race!  it's my first Ironman for goodness sakes :)

After writing about all the jolly goodness of my turkey trot, I'm gonna save my "reflections" for another day.  Plus, this post is getting WAY too long :)

Who you calling a turkey?

Yesterday I ran in my very first Turkey Trot!  It was a 5 mile race down the shore in Manasquan.  What a great, great local race.  One of my close friends asked myself and another longtime friend to run it and after yesterday, we have decided to make it an annual tradition!

The biggest highlight of the race (besides my surprising PR!), was the start time.  A lovely 11am start in about 48 degree weather.  Perfect for a race!  It really was a breath of fresh air compared to the highly mass produced races I'm used to.  There was no online race registration, no credit cards, no timing chips... just a spray painted start line and a rifle to kick it all off!

The three of us screamed in fright when the gun went off, laughed then got our legs moving!  We decided to run our own paces.  KHB wanted to see how fast she could run a stand alone 5 miler and KDR was be christened in her very first road race!  I was so proud of her just to be there at the spray painted start line.  I figured I would hold 9 minute miles since I've really only been running 6 mile jaunts on the weekends.  The one pice of advice I gave to my newbie road race friend was to go easy the first mile.  Don't let the excitement of the race get to you because it'll catch up to you in the later miles.  Well, what do I do? I go out too fast in the first mile! 8:24 - whoops.  But I didn't feel like my breathing was labored and my heart rate was high but I also had about 4 glasses of wine the night before.... whoops #2.   The course was flat which was another plus compared to the hills in Central Park that I'm used to.  Mile 2 was by the water so it got pretty windy I tried to tuck behind some of the bigger guy runners to shield myself but I did feel my pace slow a little bit.  Mile 2 = 8:32.  Mile 3 was along the residential section of Manasquan and there were small groups of people handing out cold beer! hah!  I declined the beer but I did accept my 8:32 mile 3 split.  Mile 4 was another tough one as we again ran by water and my 830 average pace was way, way faster than I thought I could ever do at this point in my 2010 season.  Mile 4 = 8:34 so I only lost two seconds to wind and fatigue!  I have to be honest, mile 5 was tough.  I got hot, my glasses started to fog since I was warm, and I began to doubt my fast pace.  I thought well, Jill, you are doing way better than you thought you would so there's no shame in slowing down.  But then I said Get Real!!  I love having my last mile of a race be the fastest so I pushed and pushed to get that one mile done.  I sped up a bit but due to my lack of speed work I got passed by about 5 women in the last 100 yards.  I just had no kick.  But I crossed the finish line hard in 42:12!! Mile 5 = 8:11.  So my average pace according to my garmin was 8:29!  Holy smokes!  I never thought I had that in me... but I did!

KHB was only 10 seconds away from breaking 40 minutes and had a huge PR! And KDR finished her first 5 mile race with a smile on her face!  I was so proud of both of them!!  Afterwards we went to a Jersey diner to eat burgers :)  I had a great day with my friends and I can't wait to do it again next year!

p.s. I've been glued to ironman live watching Chrissie Wellington come back to racing and killing it!  What an amazing woman and triathlete!  Such an inspiration!

2 week recap in photos

Since I’m officially in the off season and in TV world we’re in the middle of one of the busiest months of the year, I’ve been a major blogger slacker!

So instead of writing out everything I’ve done for the past two weeks I’ll show it in some photos!

First up, the annual Greenwich Field Hockey Club Halloween Bash!  And what a bash it is, especially when you’re dressed as a barbarian!

A Barbarian hiding in the bar trees

Halloween is seriously one of my favorites – I just love, love, love getting all dressed up, transforming into something that seems way cooler than your own life!  A barbarian seemed like a nice change for me, plus I got to “beat” people with a really cool club.

Barbarian sneak attack on Mr. Six

After the Friday night Halloween bash… Saturday I was left on the couch battered and bruised myself from the late night!  I watched the Rally to Restore Sanity as my boyfriend and basically loads of good friends hoofed it down to DC.  So yeah, Saturday was probably my laziest day of the year.  Sorry, no photos of me being lazy.

Being lazy on Saturday meant I was going to have a really awesome long solo ride on Sunday!  But my bike had other plans…. First I had a flat.  So I fixed it only to realize that my Kevlar reinforced tire won’t get back on the rim!  35 minutes and a ton of curse words later the sucker still wasn’t on!  So I decided to change out the actual tire as I had a new one waiting for me in my apartment.  I brought the bike upstairs, changed the actual tire and wallah!  This freakin’ tire didn’t fit on it either!!  After another 30 minutes of cursing like a sailor (sorry Mom) and getting frustrated I called the DC bound boyfriend in a huff.  It’s not like I thought he could magically tell me how to pull the last 5 inches over the rim but boyfriends are there to do the “manly” stuff. 

I didn't feel like taking a new photo of my bike, so here's me in the NYC Tri

So after I battled my bike and LOST… I went for a 6 mile run in Central Park .  It definitely improved my mood.  The NYC marathon finish line was almost all set up and beautiful fall colors really helped my mental state.  My heart rate was a little high for the pace I was going but I’m pretty sure that is due to my once a week running plan I’m on (not officially, kinda self imposed)

We can skip the weekly update between Saturday to Saturday because it only consisted of work, work, and more work… plus a one time 4.5 mile run after an early-ish work night. 

 WAH!

This past Saturday I trekked to Jersey to see my very talented brother coach the MSU football team to their 8^th win of the season!! I was afraid I was bad luck because last season they were undefeated until the one game I came to… but this year I wasn’t bad luck as they won!!  They are now 8-1 and are (hopefully) on their way tot the playoffs!  I am one proud sister

Not only did I get an extra hour of sleep on Sunday but it was one of the best Sunday’s of the year… NYC Marathon!

I, of course, was jealous and wanted to run with them but I stuck to the sidelines, took some photos and cheered for my friends!  And boy do I have some speedy friends!  My Coach ran it and KILLED it getting a 9 minute PR!  She looked great as she whizzed by us!

I was so happy to be cheering for all the athletes out there especially all the challenged ones.

And then it was Monday.  Blah.  The Monday blues.  Wah.  But then I realized something… my TYR order was being shipped to me on Monday – hooray!!  What else can a girl look forweard to than a brand new training swimsuit and an awesome skull bikini?!?! 

I took advantage of a great TYR deal pro Hillary Biscay posted on her blog.  Check her blog out – she’s pretty unbelievable… 9 Ironmans in one year and is now training for the  Ultra-Ironman in Hawaii !!

Armed with my brand new green and black TYR suit I was ready to hit the pool!  But I forced myself to get in 30 minutes of strength training first.  Yeah, I’m very sore today.  I guess that’s what happens when you don’t do strength workouts in 6 months!  After the torture fest I finally hit the pool and knocked out a solid 1600 yards.  Nothing phenomenal distance wise but I felt great!

So that’s my two week recap!  Let’s hope I can update a bit more frequently this week!!