Elizabeth Clor's Blog, page 4

My First Sub 90 Minute Half Marathon

The title of this blog post gave away the ending! Now let’s start at the beginning.
This morning I ran the Newport News One City Half Marathon. This was my goal race for the spring, and I trained specifically for it. Even though I am running the Boston Marathon in April, I oriented all of my training towards a half marathon.
In my training I focused primarily on half marathon pace and 10K pace. My goal was to work on improving my lactate threshold. My longest run was 15.5 miles, which included 2 x...

My Instagram Followers Wrote This Blog Post

I asked my Instagram followers to name one thing they've learned from me. The answers spanned a wide range of topics but mostly fell into the following themes:

Consistency/dedicationRunning formMindsetFaster with ageFuelingWardrobe/dressing for runsI've highlighted my favorite ones! 

1. Relax while running 2. Gained some confidence 3. Beets and beet juice as a performance enhancer 4. Fueling is important! Have a fueling plan and stick to it. Also not to try new fuels for a race.5. Enjoy the process...

For The Love of Hills 10K

The actual name of the race I ran this morning is "For The Love of It" 10K, but I'm going to assume the "it" refers to "a hilly course".

I knew what I was getting into with this race. This was my third time running this race, and 4th if you count the summertime version on the same course. Even though it's challenging, this course held my PR from 2017 to 2020, so it can be fast if you stay strong on the hills and take advantage on the declines.

In 2017 I ran a time of 41:51. In 2020 I ran a time of...

New Year's Day 5K: Workout or Race?

Yesterday morning I ran the New Year New Day 5K in Ashburn, VA. This race was a last-minute decision for me. I was pretty sure I was NOT going to run a New Year's race because I had done two 10Ks in December-- one of which I didn't blog about because there wasn't too much to say!

But as I was putting together my training plan I realized that I had speed work on tap for Monday, and that also happened to be New Year's Day. Whenever I can run my speed workout in a race, I do it! I like being in the ...

Going the Extra Mile

"Going the extra mile" is one of the most popular running cliches/puns out there. Never has it been so applicable to my running career as it was during yesterday's 10K. 

Background
I registered for the Jingle All The Way 15K a few months ago which was scheduled to occur today, Sunday. But as the race drew closer, the weather started looking miserable. Rain, wind, humidity, and warm temps. That's just not fun for me. So on Wednesday I made the decision to pivot and run the Ringing In Hope 10K which...

Turkey Trot- I Winged It!

I did not have any goals or this year's Turkey Trot due to its proximity to the Richmond Marathon, just 12 days prior. I knew that I would still have my marathon fitness, but my legs were still recovering.

I took 8 days off after the marathon and resumed the Monday before Thanksgiving, with a very short run of only 15 minutes. In addition to recovering from the marathon, I had caught a cold two days post race. By Monday it had been a full week since I got sick and I had all of my energy back. The...

Lessons Learned in Training

Even though I have now run 33 marathons, I learn something new each cycle. Sometimes I learn something I already knew, but yet forgot along the way. And often my training confirms what I already suspected, but wasn't 100% sure about. 

Disclaimer: these lessons are unique to me and might not be applicable to the running population in general.

There's nothing magic about a 20-miler
I only ran one 20-miler this cycle and nothing longer. During winter training it makes sense for me to run multiple 20's...

Birthday Marathon: A celebration in Richmond

Yesterday I turned 45. And I ran a marathon. My 33rd marathon, but the only marathon (or race, for that matter) that I've ever done on the day of my birthday.

Background
I was supposed to run the Marine Corps Marathon two weeks ago, but 16 days out I developed hip pain which resulted in two weeks of almost no running. Just some 2-3 mile runs here and there to "test" it out. Two visits to the doctor and cortisone shots eventually cleared things up but it wasn't 100% in the days leading up to the ra...

TFL Trigger Points and Iliohypogastric Neuralgia

On Friday, October 13th, I noticed that my right hip was aching while climbing stairs. Ever since then, my hip has been the bane of my existence! 
All-brick boardwalk in Miami BeachI'm going to include the timeline of the injury mainly so I can remember it in the future and for anyone else who has a sudden hip issue arise. But it will be quite boring for anyone who isn't me or anyone not suffering from a hip injury. So feel free to skim through or breeze past it to the next section. (Even the tit...

Boston Marathon Controversies Galore!

Last week the B.A.A. announced that 11,000 qualifiers would not be admitted into the Boston Marathon. The qualifier field was limited to just over 22,000 runners and the race had 33,058 applicants. Anyone who did not run at least 5 minutes and 29 seconds faster than their qualifying standard was denied entry.  A week later, Tracksmith announced that their BQ singlet would only be available to those runners who had been accepted (22,019 runners), not to all qualifiers. 

Everything in the above par...