Was I overtrained? Yes. Did I carb-load enough? No. Did I peak too soon? Yes, for my PR in the Hurricane Half Marathon three weeks ago. Was the course unexpectedly hilly? Yes. Does that explain why it took me over 4 hours to run 26.2 miles? No. Not exactly. Why not? It was mental. Read more
Weekly Roundup 5.19.13
First things first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SALTY! Our fearless leader turned “29″ again yesterday, and we hope she had the best day ever! Second, woohoo! We had a heck of a racing weekend! More on that later, of course, in the race reports. Third, we had TONS of incredible comments from you gals this week on all of our posts. YOU make us a community, and we love hearing from you, more » Read more
Comment of the Week 5.19.13
It’s that time again, Salty Runners, time to bestow upon one lucky member of our community the highest achievement in commentary: This week we had a ton of great comments, and it was really really hard to choose! Ultimately the competition came down to three fantastic Salty Readers, but once the final votes were cast, one stood out among them. Man oh man, did it ever. Who’s the big winner? more » Read more
Those Stinkin’ Stubborn Side Stitches
Ever since my half marathon at Capital City in the beginning of May, I’ve been experiencing some nagging side stitches on most of my training runs. What. a. pain. in. the. butt. (Well, actually, the abdominal area). Back in high school, I struggled with side stitches often and it seriously affected my racing. I tried going to specialists and was told many possible causes – spasms, gas, and diaphragm irritation- but more » Read more
Running is for Rich People
It’s all relative. Some of us are willing to do more than others to get faster. Huh. Willing. If you’ve read my sister’s post about recognizing what you’re willing to do to maximize your training, you know that it’s all relative: super fast runners Shalane and Kara earned their success at Boston this year because they were willing to make sacrifices necessary to pursue running as a career. Runners like more » Read more
How to Salvage a Marathon Training Plan (I Hope)
Say somewhere during the heaviest part of the training cycle, you missed runs for marathon training. Maybe things got busy, maybe you got sick, maybe there was an injury threat…no matter what the cause, is there a way to recover from missing workouts? I think so. I hope so, or I have totally screwed up my Boston-qualifying marathon goal. When I decided on a race and created my training plan, more » Read more
Cap City Half Marathon Race Recap
Yep, I’m gonna say it. I have a … HUSBAND (and here I was finally getting used to the whole “fiance” label). I took the plunge and became “Mrs.” Gingko last weekend! The wedding was all that I imagined – just like everyone said it would be – my own little fairy tale surrounded by friends and family from every stage of my life! Reality hit quick though. I had more » Read more
Mint’s Training Log – 5.5.13
I am a little late to the training log this week as I have been traveling and very busy with work. Sometimes training (and blogging about training) has to take the back burner and now is one of those times. I am currently in Dallas on a business trip. A scheduling conference I had with the court was cancelled, so I found some unexpected time to update the Salties and more » Read more
Getting Faster Is Simple. It’s Not Easy.
This post was originally published on April 5, 2012. Now that my first race post-baby #3 is in the books and I’m staring down the barrel at months of training to get back to PR shape, I need this one! Sometimes when I can’t sleep after one of the kids wakes me up I like to turn on the tube. For some reason I prefer infomercials for shake-weights, freaky belts, more » Read more
Coriander’s “Forget the PR 50K” Race Report
At the beginning of this year, I planned out all of my races for 2013. At the top of my list, was running my first 100 miler. When I was considering what other races to do besides the 100, I knew I needed to avoid burning myself out running a ton of small races during 100-mile training. The Forget the PR Mohican 50K fit perfectly into my training schedule. And more » Read more