I’m normally not too concerns about looking “pretty” while I run. I love working out and my favorite workouts are super sweaty. That’s why I’m the girl in yoga who wants the teacher to crank up the heat and who jumps into the front row at zumba to sweat her face off.
This is why I normally don’t look uber hot in my race photos. I mean, I’m running a race not engaging in a photo shoot. Some of my Chicago shots were pretty awesome. Between the slower pace I was running and the water being sprayed at me I looked pretty hardcore. There was also one of me crying.
So you can imagine my excitement when I looked up my race photos from Pasadena and I looked great. I actually waved at the cameras and didn’t look like a hyper stage mom on Toddlers and Tiaras. Perhaps this means I should have been running harder? Ha!
Here is a selection on images.
Rose Bowl!
I look super excited, especially compared to that guy behind me.
I feel like I’m one of those happy people in a college brochure in this picture. And look! I’m totally off the ground too!
I used to hate the way I looked when I ran, especially my legs. I have big thighs that have always been a source of self consciousness for me. Running the marathon changed my perception of my body in so many ways. Instead of looking at the photos and immediately thinking “I hate how my body looks!” I appreciated it in a way I hadn’t before. My thighs carried me 26.2 miles and I have a whole new appreciation for what they can do.
I was sore Monday and Tuesday but I’m happy to hit the gym tomorrow for zumba. I also signed up for the Pasadena 1/2 Marathon in May. It’s going to be the weekend after graduation and likely will be my last distance race until the fall. I loved the scenery in Pasadena and I scoped out the course map online. I’m excited to dig into training and try and better my time. When I set my PR I wasn’t doing speed work and I went on very few distance runs. I’m going to build on the workouts I’ve been doing and add in some hill runs.
Tentatively, I think my workout routine is going to look like this:
Monday: zumba
Tuesday: hill run
Wednesday: zumba & interval run
Thursday: rest
Friday: easy run
Saturday: long run
Sunday: yoga
I love yoga and zumba. Yoga helps me stretch out and is completely necessary in my life for my body and mental health. I always hit the same class. Zumba is challenging but is fun. To me, it’s like not working out. Obviously it is a workout but its fun and doesn’t feel like work to me. I’ve been working in interval runs on Wednesday for the past couple of weeks. These runs are short but challenging and are supposed to make my legs stronger. I’ve been doing them either before or after zumba and its been working out well. My Tuesday night class has ended and I can incorporate another run. I want to do hills because Pasadena is hilly and my apartment doesn’t have hills near it anymore. Basically, this is what I’ve already been doing but with one extra hill run added in so I know I can stick to it. I’m excited to get started tomorrow and get into fighting shape. I’m not sure I’ll be able to PR but I’m looking forward to putting work in.
Any runners out there have training advice for when you’re looking to beat a PR? I’m always happy to hear it.
Left Coast Contessa 
Awesome race pics and congrats on your race!
I got my PR in the half-marathon in Madrid where they have km markers instead of mile markers. I didn’t have my Garmin then, but I checked my pace every kilometer. When I realized I was hitting them in about 5 minutes, I knew that would be a PR for me so I just held that pace. The key for me was not going out too fast and just maintaing a consistent pace. I was surprised with my time – I hadn’t done a half in 2.5 years and was just hoping to break 2 hours, but I ended up running a 1:44, shaving 3 minutes off my previous personal best.
I ran my 2nd half at Pasadena last year and PR’d by 5 minutes. It’s a nice course. If it’s the same course, the first 4-5 miles are all on a slight downhill. It’s really easy to start out too fast. My informal strategy was to bank time at the beginning. I wasn’t concerned about running even splits. I knew I’d had to make up the time I’d lose lose on the hills later in the course. There were some tough hills after mile 9ish.
Definitely do some hill training. Run the hills around UCLA! Run hard up them (maybe not the entire hill because they’re pretty long, but for 100 meters or so and then build up). Recover on the downhills. Also do some tempo runs. You really do need to get your legs used to pushing the pace.
I’m new to cross training and strength training. These are definitely helping me out on the run and with recovery, but we’ll see what happens on race day.
Thanks for the input. I used to live in westwood and I loved running the hills around campus. I’m planning on my hill run to be around campus. I actually read your race recap yesterday and looked at the map online. I think it is downhill, it seems to be along part of the route from last Sunday. I just hope it doesn’t rain!
I’d prefer rain to a really hot day. It was a pretty light drizzle compared to the downpour during the LA Marathon.
yes! I would not mind a drizzle. Chicago was just shy of 80 + humid and for me it was almost too hot for me.
Congrats on Pasadena! I ran that one a few years ago and loved it! Those are super cute race photos. =) Congratulations!
You look fabulous, my friend! I love how happy and excited you look.