February 10, 2009 - speed work

Lisa and I did 16 400's tonight. This was a pretty tough workout, we worked really hard! We were supposed to do each 400 at a 2 - 2:10 pace. I did every one between 1:54-1:59, I was amazed that I was able to stay so consistent. Lisa did exactly what she was supposed to do all of them at 2-2:07 pace. It was a great accomplishment!

My Nieces

These are my nieces, Samantha, Allyssa and McKayla, my mom, Grandma Gilly and my kids, Kyle and Cassie.

15 miler

Lisa and I have been doing most of our long runs and speed work together training for Nashville. Today was 15 which is the furthest she has ever gone (before today, the furthest was 13.1). We had wonderful weather 36 degrees and overcast (who else but a northerner would call that great weather). We met at Bonnie Park in Strongsville and headed north on the path. We made it 2.5 miles then had to turn around because the road was flooded (over a foot of thawing snow will do that), that was about the only problem we ran into. Lisa did great. She was a real trooper, ran into some leg cramping problems at around mile 12 (yes, Lisa I did hear you, I was just "ignoring" you... sort of, just didn't want to make it worse by talking about it!). It was great!

Today, Ladd did 10 miles with Chuck as he is tapering for his marathon next week. After today's run he feels more than ready for it! Good Luck Ladd!!

The plan is that I will run 12 miles of the marathon with him next Sunday. Guess I will count it as a tempo run.

One Week Into February

Spring is inching closer and it's feeling like it in early February, it was almost 50 today. After our group run last Sunday Marsha and I ran 4 miles Monday night before we picked up pizza and Tuesday afternoon I did my test run for the Prediction run that we ran this morning. On Tuesday I headed out and did a mile warm up and then cleared the gps and ran 3.1 miles in 22:49. Not to bad for being in a situation that there is no reason to push myself. My prediction for todays 5k was 21:55 but after we arrived in Cuyahoga Falls and found out that the course was full of ice/snow/water and lots of turns I knew that my time would be hard to hit. The race had 270 people (largest crowd ever for this race) and we ended up starting in the middle of the pack which was way to slow for the first half mile, after the starting pack broke up a little I was able to pick up the pace quite a bit but still had lots of slow downs with all the turns.
I ended up finishing in 22:48 and finishing in 72nd place of the 270. Marsha predicted 24:44 and finished in 26:37 and 141st place. After the race we headed to Rochne's for breakfast and the awards. We had a good showing from the Medina County Road Runners today with 6 of us in all showing up today. Bill Henry also attended (my subway running buddy) and Dan S. from work and his brother also ran.

SuperBowl Sunday Group Run

MEDINA COUNTY ROAD RUNNERS

8 MILE - GROUP RUN

02-01-09

This group run started at the McDonald’s just south of Medina, the weather was perfect and we had a great group. Let me explain GREAT weather, earlier this week we had a foot of snow in a very short period of time, so the roads have been very difficult to maneuver, look at the large pile of snow behind us! Temperatures have been very cold! Today we got into the 40's felt like Spring. We did this run as 2 pace groups, one at 10:30 and one at 9, from what I understand both went about 30 seconds faster than their expected pace, which is pretty good, can't always be right on. Left to Right: Janet Sproat, Sharon Sibilski, John Gorsek, Frank Dwyer, Dan DeRosha, Ladd Clifford, Kim Albright, Marsha Clifford, Shelby Buell, Don Gaither, Randy Albright, Debbie Scheel, Not Pictured: Lisa Grafton and another gentleman, who I am so sorry I can’t remember his name. Also, 2 people joined the men en route.

Medina County Road Runners Meeting/Group Run

Monday, January 26th

We were meeting for a group run at 5:30 at Highland library. I was a little leary about running on the country roads in the dark, but it ended up being pretty good, it didn't get dark until the last 15 minutes or so. 11 people arrived, Pictured Left to right:

Frank, Roy, Ladd, Joe, Darren, Dan (another guy behind Dan I don't remember his name...) and me (three more arrived after the picture, Shannon, Patrick and Lisa). We did five miles the first three around 9:30 pace mile 4 at 8:30 and mile 5 at 7:45. OOPS.... I took the lead at 2.5 miles with Joe, and at that point I was the only lady still with the group..... As I always say "don't let it be said I held up the run...." but I guess I pushed it a bit fast. Oh well, good pick-up run! It was a great run, I got a chance to talk to almost everyone who ran, which I always enjoy! Catching up with everyone is great!

After the run was our monthly meeting, we had another 8 or 9 people show up for that. I know that Lisa and I aren't in the picture and 3 or 4 people arrived after I took the picture. We had a great speaker on how to run your first marathon. Lots of discussion on the 5k/10k this summer and on the new Logo for the club of which Dan came up with many great ideas some of the discussion got the logo options down to 5 of which Dan is going to Dr. up a little, then we will put them in our newsletter and have a vote. I hope that we can all get new shirts for this years race season, and maybe a banner for when we are at local races, to get new people interested in the group! It was great to talk to two new ladies I hadn't met before and one lady who has been a member for a long time I just hadn't met (Kim). It was great to congratulate Jade and find out she is 4 months along! What a great group we have!

COLDEST RUN TO DATE . . . .

It was 11 degrees when we started our run with about 7 degrees windchill, it warmed up to maybe 14 while we ran our 13/18 miles. Lisa met Ladd and I at our house at 8:55 we ran to town and around to Chucks house to drop Ladd off. Lisa and I continued on for the rest of our 13 mile run and Ladd and Chuck did another 10 miles together then Ladd ran his last 3 miles home by himself for a total of 18 (his last long run before his next marathon in 3 weeks). It worked out very well. Lisa and I run a little slow for Ladd so it was a good warm up for him. And this way we didn't push Lisa for too long, only first 5 miles. Really never felt too cold other than my cheeks.

Last night we had 12 people over for dinner to celebrate our daughter Cassies' birthday. She will be 13 next weekend. The picture above is of our son Kyle (14), Cassie and one (of our 3) nieces Sammy (4).