Kris Lawrence

Today’s Workout- 9 miles total with 8 X 800 (2 minute jog in between reps)

We wanted these between 2:50-2:55 and considering the humidity I was expecting to be on the slower end. Surprisingly between extra sleep and two cups of coffee I ran them a tad bit faster than planned, all sub 2:50. Now no major workouts before a 10K Saturday.

Thank you everyone for the Disney trip advice. We stayed at the Contemporary and on the first day Steve says to me “I saw a sign for a jogging path!” I was very excited but learned the path was an 800 meter loop around the hotel…womp womp. All good though, Coach Hadley said “run when you can”. No pressure to get miles in and in the end I probably walked 5-6 miles a day and only ran 2-3.

My other concern at Disney was food. Anyone who has read my blog knows I am not a stickler about food. I love it all but was not thrilled about the idea of eating what I anticipated would be cheeseburgers and fries all week long. I did none of the vacation planning and figured the meal plan would be fast food type kid meals. NOT TRUE AT ALL. We ate so well! My kids did not touch a single chicken nugget or corndog and probably ate more veggies than normal because they were presented in Mickey shape. If you are booking a trip to Disney, reserve dinner at the new Beauty and the Beast Castle. It’s gorgeous, quiet, and the food was incredible. Apparently it books up months in advance so that’s why I’m giving you the heads up. For all my veggie lovers, every sit-down place we ate at had vegetarian options. I was very impressed at the food options. Oh, and guess who missed her daughter dancing on stage with Prince Charming because she was too busy filling her plate with sushi and carrot cake? This girl. Not my finest Disney moment.

Anyway before I get back to running related news, here are some pics from our trip. I’ve never been a “princess” girl and didn’t expect to fall into the whole Disney thing but I can see now how people get wrapped up in it. The excitement in our kids eyes was priceless. The trip was absolutely fantastic. That being said our next vacation will be a crowd-less, beach one where I can be a lazy daisy

Before the Park Opened.

Kinda wish I had a Cinderella gown too!

I swear I did not do the orange thing on purpose.

Running is going well. I’m officially back to real workouts and while it took a week or so to start to feel smooth again my legs are coming around. Last weekend I raced another 5K with friends. I wasn’t thrilled with my time (18:09) but it is about what I should expect at this point. Hopefully that time will drop down significantly before marathon training ramps back up in September. I have plenty of endurance but I need speed!

This weekend I will be racing the local Elizabeth River Run 10K. It is hard to believe but it will be my first 10K I have run since racing competitively….automatic PR right!?! I did run a few when I lived in Washington State but I can’t even remember my times. Have a great week everyone and to my friends in Oklahoma, stay safe and sending you lots of love!

I promised a peek into what my post marathon recovery phase is like and can honestly say the first week post Boston was blissfully lazy. I did not run a step for four days and the first day back I ran 2 miles. I repeated that another day or so then took two more days off. Then I ran 3.5 miles for a few days, took some days off, then ran 4 miles. I loved it! Never will I understand those people who post marathon say they hate recovery and want to get back to work immediately. Bring on the sweatpants and extra sleep for me. Also the Doritos….lots of Doritos.

The end of last week I did sign up for my neighborhood 5K. I can walk to the start and the course runs right by my house. My neighborhood is fantastic so I love to support the kids school. The problem is the day prior (after I had already paid for the neighborhood 5K) the Mr. says “Hey, there is a 5K at my work today. It’s free and there will be free food.” I heard “free” twice, therefore I hopped in his truck and went with him. I had every intention of running the work 5K at an easy pace, put myself on the starting line at the appropriate place, and never wore my watch. However at the first mile I looked around and noticed only 3-4 men in front of me and well, it’s fun to beat the boys so I sped up a bit. I found myself in second place overall by the halfway point and the placings never shifted from then on. I was surprised to finish in 18:38. Afterwards there were awards, free sushi, coconut water, and veggie/turkey wraps. The food was amazing! Usually post race festivities are beer (not my favorite after racing) and bananas (fair enough but nothing spectacular).

That 5K left me a bit concerned for the next day but if I’ve payed for a race, I’m running. The Independence Middle School 5K was a morning race and the work 5K was a nooner so two 5K’s in less that 24 hours is NOT what I would recommend for the post marathon recovery period. It’s pretty dumb actually. My warm up consisted of walking 800 meters to the school and picking up my race packet. I ran from the race packet pickup to the starting line, around 400 meters, then did some strides and warm up drills. Normally I am an obsessive stickler and like to run 2-3 miles before every race except the marathon. This was very low key. Again I did not wear a watch. I wanted to run for pure fun and knew I’d be staring at my splits worried the whole time if I wore a watch. I took the first mile very relaxed and it felt like a fun run because I passed my house, my kids friends houses, etc. Being in my neighborhood made the whole thing have a different feel. Once we hit mile 2 a volunteer told me our time was 11:40 and I thought “Her watch is off.” When I came around the 3 mile bend and saw the first two numbers on the clock were 17 I was shocked. I finished in 18:08 as first female and 3rd overall. Maybe there is truth to the whole “Running relaxed is running fast” thing that I have such a hard time buying into.

Why Thank you General!

It is rare for me to run 5Ks. I am a marathoner so while short distances are helpful I will always lean towards the longer races. The fastest 5K I ran in 2012 was an 18:22 and I remember working HARD for it, as in “That hurt so bad I never want to do it again HARD”. Last Saturday’s 5K showed some promise that I can get speedier. While it is a bit unfair to say I haven’t run a sub 17:30 5K since high school considering I have never trained or tried to reach that goal, it is the truth. Now I have a little fire growing under me to work towards it. If I choose a late Fall marathon as opposed to my typical October time frame then that leaves me with plenty of time to get some speed training in. I am leaning towards the Philly Marathon in late November so if you have run this one, send me advice PLEASE.

Tomorrow the family and I leave for Disney World. Any running advice? We are staying in the park and I have no clue what to expect. I’m hoping I can sneak off and run early in the morning. Our kids do not know we are going yet. Relatives of ours did the same thing (not tell the kids until the morning of) and I never actually thought I could pull it off.

So I’m thinking Summer of Speed?? What about you? What is everyone training for? Any Summer Goals? Disney Advice? Take care everyone!