Tag Archives: half-marathon

Time to tackle a half

Posted on June 6, 2012 | 41 comments

Those fabulous folks who have been following me on my running adventure will likely have noted two things: I am extremely slack when it comes to training; and I heart Lululemon (in my defense, I was a very early adopter: Toronto, 1999).

Though I’d probably be content to just run 5Ks and 10Ks for the rest of my life, I figured if I’m going to really challenge myself, I have to at least try a half-marathon. (Although, even as I type this, it sounds completely absurd.)

What better race for me to attempt, then, than the SeaWheeze Lululemon Half-Marathon in Vancouver (August 11). It’s hosted by my favorite ubiquitous sportswear company and it has wheeze in the title. Appropriate, no? I get the feeling that the half-marathon part of this half-marathon may come second to the general Lululemon-ness of the event. But that’s completely fine with me.

SeaWheeze Lululemon Half

Click if you fancy reading the words.

Yes, there will be training

I’m not foolish enough to attempt to “run” a half without putting in the miles beforehand, so I am going to try to follow the Tackle Box program Lulu designed. I am already a few weeks behind, but I hope when I cobble together the bits and pieces I do throughout the week, I can almost arrive at a full week of training.

To help runners with their motivation, Lululemon sent out shorts to everyone who registered early.

SeaWheeze Lululemon Half shorts

Spotty!

I guess there has been some Twitter-verse moaning about these spotty duds, but I think they’re cute as hell, even if they leave little to the imagination (hence the moaning, I suppose).

Anyway, I’m inspired to at least obtain a body that would rock a pair of shorts like this. And the polka dots make me happy.

Here’s a PDF of the Tackle Box Training Program. I’m going to try to report back every once in a while on my progress. This plan is heavy on the yoga, which I don’t do. I’ve substituted with a weekly ballet class, and weights/strength training. My days won’t match up to the schedule, but I’m hoping my activities will get me to an appropriate level of preparedness. (I’ll be happy if I can run three-quarters of the race.) Wish me luck!

June 4-10 (week 3)

Monday: Power yoga

Tuesday: Tempo Run: 1 mile warm up/ 2 miles tempo/ 1 mile cool down

Wednesday: Rest or flow yoga

Thursday: Easy run 2.5 miles

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Long run 5 miles

Sunday: Yin Yoga or optional run (40 minutes)

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Once upon a timer: My first race as a volunteer

Posted on May 14, 2012 | 13 comments

I’m not up to running 13.1 miles yet (or maybe ever, but that’s another story), so when Hubby signed up for this weekend’s Twin Lights Half Marathon at Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, MA, he suggested I volunteer. My immediate response? “Errrrrrr, ummmm, ahhhhh ……. sure.”

OK, so perhaps I am not the world’s most enthusiastic unpaid laborer, especially when it involves getting up at 6am on a Saturday. But I guess I was a teeny bit keen to take a glimpse behind the race curtain. I said teeny.  

Twin Lights Half Marathon

Runners gather for the Twin Lights Half. The beach is just beyond the grassy dunes.

So I sent off my volunteer email and asked to be assigned to an intersection directing runners. I thought that would be fun, and I would be out there on a course looking dignified for a change (albeit in a bright orange vest). I also chose “timers,” but I secretly hoped the volunteer co-ordinator wouldn’t notice that.

I got assigned to “set-up” and “timers.”

Crap.

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52 Weeks, 52 Runs. No. 15: To hill and back

Posted on April 9, 2012 | 19 comments

This weekend’s 5K had a tough act to follow. A duo of tough acts, in fact. My two most recent runs, the North Carolina motor speedway 5K and the Ukrop’s 10K in Virginia, were both brilliant, festive, flat, speedy, spirited events that left me with renewed enthusiasm for my 52 Weeks, 52 Runs challenge. During one I set a PR (yes, I talk like this now); and during the other I ran farther than I ever had before (with only a mild case of jelly legs).

So the Great Bay Half Marathon and Beyond the Rainbow 5K in lovely Newmarket, New Hampshire, part of the wonderful-in-every-way Will Run for Beer series, had its work cut out for it.

Correction: We had our work cut out for us. (There’s a reason the back of the half-marathon shirt has the slogan “These legs conquered the Great Bay Half Marathon.”)

Great Bay Half Marathon & Beyond the Rainbow 5K

The innocuous start under lovely sunny skies at the Great Bay Half Marathon and Beyond the Rainbow 5K. No rainbows, though.

The last two runs were so fabulously flat, I think I had forgotten that there are many hills in the world, and that they are all positioned to cause runners (OK, me) maximum discomfort.

This run was not flat. And I was ill-prepared (which is slightly pathetic given how many of these suckers I have done).

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52 Weeks, 52 Runs. No. 13: Motor-vation

Posted on March 29, 2012 | 30 comments

I have been considering how I might improve my pace. I could work on my appalling form, eat better before a run (hash browns are bad), lift more weights, or, you know, train. Or … I could just run on a motor speedway and steal its mojo. I mean, it expects fast, right?

This was part of my thinking when we signed up to do the North Carolina Half-Marathon and 5K this past weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Our mini-runcation marked No. 13 in my 52 Weeks, 52 Runs challenge, which shockingly means I am a quarter of the way through and show no signs of slowing (except when I do).

But back to North Carolina. The real reason we decided to head south was this:

N.C. Half Marathon

Flashy!

Most of you know how I feel about medals (although I am coming around), but this, the “Fastest Medal Ever,” lights up in speedy colors. It lights up! It doesn’t make car noises (something for the race organizers to think about), but it lights up!

I didn’t get this fine piece of neck bling myself (it was for half-marathoners only, i.e. Hubby), but I was still dazzled by its presence. It lights up! So worth it.

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The vicious circle: Smuttynose Palooza Indoor Half-Marathon

Posted on January 17, 2012 | 8 comments

First, a disclaimer. I did not run the Smuttynose Palooza Indoor Half-Marathon. I would like to say it’s because I had the lurgy and was feeling … as though I had just run the Smuttynose Palooza Indoor Half-Marathon. But really it was because there is absolutely no way I could possibly manage that distance this early in my running career. (For now, it’s 5K all the way.)

Attentive readers will note that I had originally planned to do the outdoor Cabin Fever 5K, which was part of the aforementioned Palooza, but illness coupled with the early-morning insanity of that locationally challenged prospect – it was in Middle of Nowhere, N.H., otherwise known as Milford – kept me under the covers. Did I mention this past weekend was appropriate only for polar bears and snowbunnies?

The Milford Dome in New Hampshire

The capacious Hampshire Dome in Milford, N.H.

Hubby, however, did run the 13.1. And it was such a cool event that I couldn’t resist giving it a mention. Anything that’s called a Palooza and is sponsored by a beer company deserves at least that. (It was part of the fabulous Will Run for Beer series. And yes, while Hubby ran, I sampled. Order was restored.)

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