Or does it? I was looking forward to putting my money where my mouth is as it were and hitting the marks during week 1 of training. Or at least trying to. I knew the miles were going to be hard and I knew I had a busy week but I was looking forward to the challenge.
Monday- 3.1 miles Baby tempo! You can read all about that enlightening run here. I’m still debating where to run my tempo miles. I’ll figure something out.
Tuesday- Planned rest day My legs were a little tight after the attempt at speed the previous day. I wore compression socks under my slacks most of the day and made sure to foam roll.
And here’s when things went south-
Wednesday- Intervals– rest I woke up with a headache and stomach pain. I held fast that I was going to run after work. Except that I didn’t make it through the day at work. It got to the point that I couldn’t even stand up straight my stomach hurt so bad. Joy.
Thursday/ Friday- Rest What I didn’t mention was that starting Tuesday night I woke up every night sweating ridiculously. TMI? Sorry. Maybe I was fighting something? My brother had been sick, my boss missed a day being sick. Whatever it was, my migraine wouldn’t quit and I felt weird. I also had a doctor’s appointment where he ordered a series of fun tests. Yay.
Saturday- Planned rest. We were going out of town for my grandmother’s memorial. I knew I wasn’t running that day. It was a sad, nostalgic, interesting morning and a long day.
Sunday- 8 miles. I didn’t want to run. I still wasn’t feeling great but I also wondered how much of that was real and how much was just lingering inertia of the week. I slept in in the morning and headed out a little before 3. Yes, I was running during the Super Bowl. 😛 I was bartering with myself in miles 1 and 2, the week was already a wash so I could call it at 4 right? I even slowed down in mile 3 which has a downhill and is usually a little faster. Grrr. But I kept running and something changed around mile 3.5. I just kept going, mile 4, across the bridge- where I pulled a sub 10 mile. This is only interesting because I average around 11:30ish until I hit the bridge and bring the pace down over the next .3 mile. I swear I wasn’t sprinting. Mile 5- still going and feeling pretty good. Mile 6 and I ran an entire hill that I have never run all of before. I celebrated on IG and my mother laughed at me. Ok, so the hill less than 1/2 mile and only gained 92 feet but let me have my tiny victory!!! Onto mile 7 and mile 8 and I still felt good! Woo hoo!! I have no idea what happened but I’ll take it!
11.1 miles for the week. 1 half completed workout, 1 fully completed workout. 1 missed run and 2 missed cross trainings. I’m still on the long run high though so yay! But I am thankful that this is a longer training plan now. If it was the standard 12 weeks, I may be a little nervous but the longer plan is keeping me a little calmer. It may be a false sense of security but only time will tell.
Why is that short work weeks seem so long? Maybe it’s because we try to cram 5 days work into 4? Maybe it’s just one of those questions that will never be answered. 😛
Last week saw a better training week which is surprising considering the skies are dumping water on us and I have a fierce desire to avoid the gym the first few weeks of the year. Seriously, I know that CA is in a severe drought and that we desperately need water but we are not equipped to handle this much water at one time. Downed trees, power outages, highways are flooded, in fact as I type this I have no idea how I am getting to work on Monday. My main way to work has been closed since Friday evening due to a massive landslide. Considering I drove past 2 pretty large slides already last week and they didn’t shut the road for those, the fact that the road has been closed for 2+ days is kind of alarming.
But enough about mudslides- let’s get to the running!
Monday- 3 ish miles. That ish makes me a little crazy. My Garmin decided to go a little crazy and lose satellite for the first part of my run. Like most runners, I know the first mile from my house very, very well. My watch always beeps at one particular street sign. It didn’t. Grrr. It took another 2 blocks. It’s not like I was setting any speed records, I was feeling overly sluggish but the drop in data really aggravates the type A data nerd in me.
Tuesday/ Wednesday– Work was busy and the rain came. I carried my running gear around with me just in case there was a break in the rain.
Thursday- 2.6 miles There was a break in the rain so I changed after work and headed back home for a nice evening run. One bonus about running in the dark is that I feel zero need to push the pace. It’s one of the few times I can run easy and have it actually be easy both in feel and pace. Throw in dodging puddles and piles of dirt and debris and it really keeps things easy. The break in the rain was nice but dang that temp dropped fast. Make up your mind weather! I kept it short because my stomach chose to be an asshat on Thursday but I wouldn’t let it completely win.
Friday- Rest What else? Luckily I worked the early shift at work because the mountain decided to come down about 30 minutes after I drove through. Yikes!
Saturday- Rest I celebrated a little too early about the no more Saturday work days. It was off to work. Closer location and only for a couple of hours but it was kind of funny how quickly it came about. It was pouring rain outside all day, my stomach was still an asshat so I pushed my long run back a day.
Sunday- 7.1 miles There was a break in the rain mid-morning so I made a run for it. I layered up in preparation of the rain in case I was caught in it. I was overheating by mile 2. The Buff came off in mile 3. I used the wait at a traffic light during mile 4 to peel off my jacket. The weird thing was the damn wind. It was so windy it was pushing me backwards at times. The wind tried to take my hat off more than once. Damn near lost it when I was running over the freeway–never getting it back from there! It was extremely windy but it was a warm wind. My pace was a little erratic thanks to hills and the wind but overall it wasn’t that bad. My 3/1’s kind of fell apart thanks to some of the hills though. I need to work on that. Not bad for my longest run in months but man I feel out of shape.
12.7 miles for the week. Moving in the right direction at least! Slowly. 😛 As for this week, the rain is still here so I am not sure how my week day runs may go. Like I said, I’m not even sure how I’m getting to work. As for the weekend, I am debating how crazy or stubborn I am but more on that later.
You know those motivational images that say that no one ever regrets a workout?
Yeah, that’s the one. Lies, all lies. I’ve regretted numerous runs. Multiple times I forced myself out there to only to have it be a truly miserable experience. The way Tuesday shaped up I had a feeling I was going to regret that run.
Lately, I look forward to my run in the mornings but by the time I get I off work I am usually exhausted and that enthusiasm wanes. Tuesday was more of the same. I so wanted to go home and sit in my comfy chair and do nothing. But I changed and headed for the river path to get in 4-5 miles. As I was driving there were so many things against this run.
Wrong shoes
Wrong socks
I forgot my headphones
I forgot my belt
My inhaler was also in my belt
My side/ stomach had hurt all day
So yeah, this was going to be awesome.
I always leave my belt in my car after running but my mom had given me a ride after Sunday’s long run and I never put it back in my car. Same story with my headphones. I have a box of spare running gear in my car but I don’t like them, that’s why their in the box. 😃 But I sucked it up, dug out my old Flipbelt and Yurbuds and attempted to run. Less than a 1/4 mile in I was reminded of why I dislike those items so much. The cord on the Yurbuds is like 4 miles long and bounces incessantly no matter how you wrap it around your belt. Then there’s the belt. I know everyone loves the Flipbelts but they just don’t work for me. I realize I wear my belt super low, I mean low, so it’s partly my fault. That just doesn’t work with the Flipbelt. It ends up being more like the poor man’s version of a butt lift. 😄 Plus it tends to move around.
My stomach hurt so there were plenty of walk breaks and a few complete stops along the way. I ran 2 miles completely and the rest was a mish mash of running and walking. I was hoping I would at least hit 4 miles but my stomach hurt and then I got a little emotional so I called it at 3.74. To get to 4 I would have had to run past my car and back and I just wasn’t up for that.
As if I didn’t already know, this run helped prove why people say runners are crazy. Or slightly masochistic. For all that this run had against it, it didn’t suck. It was far from amazing but it was also far from horrible. Oddly my form felt better than it has in weeks. Actually, those 2 miles I managed to fully run were in the low 9’s. So yeah, it didn’t suck. I needed that.
How was your week?
Ever have a run that didn’t go as poorly as you thought?
On a Thursday, a day late and a dollar short. That’s how I roll. 🙂 I got distracted last night watching a movie and didn’t finish.
Running-
As much as I want to get back to running 4x a week, I have held steady with running 3x. Which is putting me around 15 miles a week. I guess the entire month of May is going to be a recovery/ rest month? I made it out for 2 weekday runs last week. A 3.5 mile run and a 5 miler. Both were run around a 9:45 pace after my warm up. Not too shabby. Once again both runs were cold and windy. Grrrrrr. I haven’t run long since the SLO half. 6 is as high as I have gone. I miss the long run. I’ve finally mostly accepted May for what it is. However if I am running a half marathon in July, I really need to get back on track in June. I am going to hold off on registering just yet. The 10K might be the better fit right now. Which leads me to-
Work-
I am halfway through week 2 of the whole open to close thing. Monday through Friday only means an extra 45 minutes or so. Fridays hit 11 hours. I admit I am a little tired. I have been making myself go to sleep earlier and it helps a bit. The sad part is that earlier is still 11:15. 😦 But win for not upping my soda intake!! So, this is part of why I am ok with fewer miles right now. Don’t get me wrong, the numbers geek in me is crying but it’s just a small part. The surprising part is how stupidly positive I have felt. Being down 50% of the staff should freak me out but somehow I’m not alarmed. Yes, things are going to be rougher than normal for a month or so but it will all work out in the end. Who am I? Maybe that silly song is bleeding into other aspects of my life. Nothing-
This past Sunday, I planned on doing absolutely nothing. Not even running. Now, I’ve managed to run 1 weekend day each week so far in May but I planned to run both days. Not following through on those days I missed made me feel guilty and that stressed me out. So this Sunday I planned nothing. It was so awesome. I wasn’t stressed about missing miles or running around doing errands. I slept in, lazed around, worked on my bib scrapbook and started one of my Harry Potter swap crafts. Marvelous.
Stomach-
This little flare up hits a year on June 1st. Can it still be considered a flare if it lasts a year? Or is it just life at that point. I am still struggling with the Atkins diet, I think it helps but I need to work on consistency. While I feel like I am staying fairly calm with all the work stuff, I admit there has been some stress eating going on. Bad slacker! The weekend was not a great one for my stomach, even at the race. Oh well, moving on.
See? Burger is diet approved- fries not so much.
On the upside, the week is halfway over! *edit- Mostly over!! The wind is dying down and the temperature is finally warming up- woo hoo!!!! I am very excited to see temps in the 70’s and 80’s. And American Ninja Warrior is back!! It’s so nerdy how much I love that show. 🙂
Oh and if you are training for and running a fall marathon, head over to Hanna’s page and check out her fall marathon blog roll! It’s awesome. It almost makes me want to run a marathon just so I can join all the cool people. Almost. 🙂 I’ll stick to my 2 half’s this fall.
I ain’t even mad, bro.😀. Actually my new motto might be “just hang on”. But before we get into that, let’s talk about the expo real quick.
The Expo-
Expo haul- love the ambassador shirts this year!
Saturday dawned rainy and windy. Those running the 5k ran in the rain. The rain had cleared by the time I arrived to pick up my packet and attend the ambassador meet and greet. Picking up my packet was super easy and I wandered around the expo before heading out to the meet. I was there less than 10 minutes before I spent money at the Lorna Jane booth. Oops, but since that was the only thing I bought, I think I showed restraint!
raceSLO Ambassadors!!
The meet up was outside and it was so damn windy, I thought we were going to blow away. It was nice catching up with the repeat ambassadors from last year and meeting the new ones. A few of them I had been trying to meet since the Ventura half. It was so windy and cold that after chatting, getting our shirts and taking some pics, we all scattered to do our own thing. I headed home to rest a bit and figure out food. I had been having a mental struggle all week, going back and forth between following my new diet rules or following conventional running wisdom. Spoiler- I chose wrong.
Flat Slacker
The Race-
Sunday was supposed to dawn cold and windy, so I tried to prepare for that. I didn’t feel like I got enough sleep and my stomach was cranky but neither of those are new things on race morning so I didn’t pay too much attention. My mom was dropping me off so I didn’t have to catch the 4am bus to the start. I got to the start with 15 minutes to spare so I figured I would hit the port-a-potty line just to be sure. The lines were huge. By the time I got out of there, they had moved the corrals up to the start line, oops.
Miles 1-5- 9:25, 9:14, 9:20, 9:36, 8:31
The whistle blew and we were off- sort of. I ended up starting behind the 2:45 pacer. Rutro. My fault but the first mile and a half were spent bobbing and weaving. I dropped the 2:45, 2:30, and 2:15 pace groups when I decided I just needed to run my own race and not worry about catching the 2:00 pace group. In one way it was freeing not having to worry about keeping them in sight. It meant I had to pace myself and while I knew breaking 2:00 was unlikely, I was feeling strong and thought I could PR- sub 2:05.
We hit the first of the long hills and I still felt good going up. Last year at this time I was already sucking air and tiring out. Thanks to all the weaving I did at the start, my Garmin and the mile markers didn’t match so I just checked my total time at each of the course markers. I was feeling pretty good as we the flat section before turning up another long climb.
Miles 6-8- 9:36, 11:25, 9:29
About a 1/4 mile into 6, my stomach started to make itself known. I began to wonder if I was going to have an issue. But wasn’t even the biggest thing to happen that mile. Maybe it’s because I was focused intently on telling myself I was fine and not paying attention to much else, but the next thing I knew, I was airborne.
It’s still kind of blur but I remember hitting the ground and rolling. My water bottle ended up about 10 feet down the course. WTF?! About 5 different runners stopped their race to come help me. Some helped me up while one chased down my bottle. A bike medic was there in seconds. I was kind of in shock/ denial, so I honestly don’t remember if I thanked all of them. I posted a big shout out to them on my Facebook page but I feel bad if I didn’t say it right then. 😔 I assured the medic I was ok and kept running. It was few yards later that it all set in and then I was trying to talk myself out of hyperventilating myself into an asthma attack.
Eventually I calmed down and I was still on track to PR. Halfway through mile 6, my stomach let me know that I needed a bathroom and I needed it now. There were no bathrooms at that point. I had to start walking because it was either walk or embarrass myself. I walked the rest of 7 just taking deep breaths. I felt a little better by the turn around so I picked up the pace. I said goodbye to the PR hope but knew I could still beat last years course time even with the fall and the walking. At mile 8, I was 4 minutes ahead of a last year.
Miles 9-11- 13:01, 9:48, 9:54
Around 8.5, my stomach reared again. I was near an aid station so I looked for bathrooms. I finally found them off to side and back away and bolted for them. Not sure if I looked urgent or if he did this the whole race but there was a volunteer who directed me to which port-a-potty was open. Thank you!
After that snafu, I was back running but had slowed a bit. Shockingly enough I was still on track to beat last year’s time. I just had to stay under a 10:00 pace the last few miles. My legs felt strong; bruised and bleeding but strong. My mental game still felt on point as well. Despite the morning so far, I wasn’t defeated and I wasn’t giving up. We had a nice decline portion before we went from the roads to the railroad trail. I knew there was the suspension bridge and a few streets left before the finish line and I was still hopeful.
Miles 12-13.1- 10:37, 12:49, 2:17
Mile 12 slowed some towards the end thanks to my stomach again but I thought if I could a 9:00 for the last mile and sprint the .1, I could still pull this off. I shouldn’t have gotten cocky. My stomach threw a fit in the last mile. Why are there no bathrooms at mile 12.5?! Ha! There were 2 times I had to get myself completely off the road, out of the way and just stand still, focusing on deep breathing and calming my stomach. My fastest pace was now a jog but I was mostly walking.
It felt like more than 100 people passed me in that last mile. Including the 2:15 pace group. The last .25 mile is a paved path that goes around the pavilion at the Madonna Inn and I had been looking forward to sprinting it. I walked 90% of it before jogging across the finish line. Half marathon#12 done.
Finish- 2:15:07
Where I wanted to sprint
Once I crossed the finish line and got my medal- which I feel like I fought for!- I was looking for a bathroom. I had wanted a finishers picture but the line had about 50 people in it and that was just not going to happen. I also should have stopped at the medical tent but I had other priorities. Plus, my arm warmers had done a pretty good job of drying the blood.
Oops. But my socks were on point!
My mother found me fairly quickly and we headed for the back of the pavilion where the port-a-potties and UPS trucks (bag check) were. After that, I made it as far as the grass by the trucks and just tried to calm my rolling stomach. I wanted to try to find some of the ambassadors and see how they did but was just not up to moving. I had eaten nothing and had drank very little throughout the race as I knew my stomach was just not up to it. I let myself have a bit of the chocolate strawberry protein smoothie that Jamba Juice made for the finishers. It tasted like a Frosty. 🙂 We ended up leaving not long after that, I was feeling rough again and couldn’t handle another port-a-potty, so we headed to the McDonald’s down the street. Real bathrooms and I got an ice-cold Diet Coke. Oh the magical healing properties. 🙂
Half smile/ half grimace
Like I said at the beginning, I am not mad or even sad. There were quite a few times throughout the race where I could have said screw it and bailed or phoned it in (see Ventura) but I knew I was stronger than that. My legs were feeling fresh, tumble not withstanding, my head was in the game and I was determined. I think that’s one thing that came out of my McMillan training plan that I wasn’t anticipating- the confidence. I knew I could I do it, and I still honestly believe that if it hadn’t been for my stupid stomach, I would have PR’d, hills, fall, headwind and all. Yes, the wind had picked up and was pretty bad but by that point it was the least of my concerns. 🙂 So with everything that race morning threw at me, I am damn proud of that 2:15.I love this race. I love the course and the crowds. The expo is still my favorite and the volunteers and staff are amazing. Seriously, I think the bike medic was there before I stopped rolling. I am already looking forward to next year.
Ever fallen while running? This was my first time.
Slacker Runner 