Overtraining. To anyone who looked at my training schedule, it's no surprise that this topic would come up sooner or later. In a weird way, I take it as a good sign that it finally did because otherwise I might have questioned whether I was pushing myself to the limit. But the goal is to the limit, not over the limit, and I'm seeing the signs that it's time to take a step back.
One of the first signs was on Labor Day. The Saturday before I gave myself a do-over of a workout with 13.1 worth of mile repeats. Given that by the time I got back to my car, I'd covered over 20 miles and the temperature had soared to 100 degrees, I was happy with the 8:29 average, even though I'd originally been shooting for 8:15. Still a night and day improvement over the first time I'd tried it and completely blown up at the end of July. Silly me, I thought I could handle an easy 4 the next day and incorporate some tempo work into my 15-miler on Monday. I quickly figured out that I needed LSD that day, forgot about pace, and let myself just enjoy the run. (I even found the house key I'd dropped a couple weeks earlier!) But I should have known better than to attempt two 15-mile runs (with a significant number of miles at or faster than goal pace) in 72 hours and taken note when my body said no thanks that Monday. I didn't.
My other big clue was pain in my lower calf on my left leg. That started with the Hottest Half at the end of August. I'd experienced similar pain with my right leg during a race back in May, but that time, it subsided soon after. This time, the tenderness kept lingering. It wasn't completely debilitating, though, so initially I didn't pay much attention. When I had a pain-free run a week ago Friday, I even thought maybe I was out of the woods and proceeded with a 20-miler that included tempo work last Sunday. It started hurting again around mile 7, and I pressed on, charging uphill, determined to maintain my target pace. I met up with my friend Pam at the halfway mark and kept pace for another 3 miles until the pain, fatigue, and rising temperatures finally started to slow me down. I kept pushing through mile 15, and Pam was gracious enough to run/walk the rest of the way with me. What followed was perhaps my most painful foam rolling session to date. Bad sign.
I'd hoped that an ice bath, compression, and a massage on Monday would fix the problem, and it wasn't too excruciating during Tuesday morning's easy run. But it hurt enough afterward that I figured out I needed to scratch my evening run and the 14-miler I had planned to, from, and on the trails for Wednesday. I hated to lose the miles but considered the cost-benefit analysis and figured that in the grand scheme of things, I wouldn't fail to reach my goals because I cut those miles...but could fail to reach them if I pushed too hard, further delaying my recovery and potentially risking more serious injury.
Because I wasn't up and out the door before dawn on Wednesday, I got to sleep in...til 8 o'clock!!! I can't remember the last time I did that. It also afforded me some time for reflection. As I made more of an effort to listen to my body this week, I was tuning in and noticing how I was feeling: A little sniffly and just an occasional twinge of a sore throat, like I might be on the verge of getting sick. Fatigued. Emotional. Demotivated. What??? Anyone who knows me knows that it is totally uncharacteristic for me to be anything less than 110% enthusiastic about running. But I was finally able to be honest with myself. As excited as I am about Marine Corps and the 50K, there's a part of me that looks forward to not training 10-15 hours a week. For the past week or so, I think I had been carrying that around inside like a dirty little secret. It was masked by excitement as I contemplated races for 2014, but in the back of my mind, I found myself wondering how long I could take a break after the 50K without losing fitness...
Even though I didn't run on Wednesday, I noticed that I felt heavy and slow, and it occurred to me that some of it had nothing to do with my training. I have maxed out my caseload at the office and recently started attending a weekly training class for personal, spiritual, and professional development. That investment is already yielding dividends, but like the work that I do, it's emotionally demanding. So all at once, I've got a heavy workload, heavy training load, and personal growth work that is emotionally heavy. No wonder I've been feeling...well...heavy.
All of this had me a little worried heading into Thursday's speed session, which I'm glad I still opted to do. The plan was 6 x Yasso 800's @ 3:40. To my surprise, I averaged 3:35! Credit it being a few degrees cooler, the new shoes (Type A5s that weigh just 5 oz!), the shot of caffeine I took beforehand, and/or the day of rest on Wednesday. Maybe a little bit of all of the above. But I don't care. I'm still encouraged because a month ago only one of my 10 repeats was < 3:40 and this time, they all were! I was relieved that I wasn't as heavy and slow as I felt and that I got through the workout without pain...
...but then I felt sore again after the fact. I pulled on a compression sleeve under my dress pants and headed to the office. I got through the rest of the day on Thursday but didn't get home until after 8, and by that time I was completely spent. The day ended with me eating peanut butter by the spoonful straight from the jar. Disappointed about the unnecessary calories, I initially asked myself, "How could this happen?" Then I realized that was the wrong question. How could it NOT happen when I was physically and emotionally exhausted and all kinds of rungry after not eating enough during the day and not getting home and getting dinner until late? I told myself that if my worst indulgence in such a state was a few spoons of peanut butter, I was actually doing way better than a lot of people, including my former self.
Friday I woke up still feeling exhausted. I hit the snooze button, which I hardly ever do. When I finally did get up, I had to face facts: calf pain + fatigue + sniffles + loss of motivation and self-discipline = overtraining...or at least as dangerously close to it as I need to come.
They say if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging. I could not find a single convincing argument that running the 6 miles I had planned on Friday would help me reach my goals and determined that, to the contrary, it would actually only set me further back from full recovery. Ditto for the leg workout at the gym. How was that supposed to help my calf heal or give me fresh legs for this weekend? I decided to take a day of rest, and for the first time in so many months I can't remember, I even entertained the thought of taking 2 in a row [gasp!].
Saturday morning, I woke up before the alarm, felt better, and enjoyed some quiet time...but then went back to sleep for a short nap before heading to the office. When I got home from work mid-afternoon, I opted for another nap (2.5 hours!) over watching the Aggie game. While that turned out to be a very good call, the fact that I would rather sleep than watch a huge football game is also a sign that something is wrong with me! After getting extra rest, I did a little bit of strength training and decided to go for a short easy run, just 4 miles of run/walk. I could tell my calf still wasn't 100%, but it wasn't a hindrance. I don't think the run set me back physically, and it did me a world of good to run happy. My mind needed that one more than my body--and more than it needed another rest day. Win.
I also figured out that if I rested today, I could do today's workout tomorrow and keep the every other day pattern to aid my recovery. It's disappointing that I had to cut more than half my scheduled mileage this week, especially when I had already planned to take it easy next week in preparation
for Saturday's race. But I'm choosing to think of it as giving myself a monster 2-week taper for the 10K. :)
On the upside, I still got one really good workout in this week, which was both a confidence booster and good prep for MCM. I also set myself up for another good workout tomorrow, which I'll be able to tackle being closer to 100% than I was a week ago. I got FOUR rest days this week and have found a way to
shuffle things around to give myself three rest days for each of the
next two weeks. I'm hoping to get in a couple of solid weeks of training after the 10K, and then it will be time for a legit 3-week taper leading up to the marathon. I still have some key workouts planned over the next 6 weeks, and I remain determined to get in as many of those as I can without overdoing it. I selected them because I believe they will help me reach my goal. But I also recognize that I might have to substitute no miles for easy miles like I did this week, or if I'm not up to a particular workout, easy miles for hard miles at some point. I'll take it day by day, see how I feel, and adapt as needed. I'm more concerned with the big picture than individual runs, so I think I still have my priorities straight and my eye on the prize, so to speak. I'm keenly aware that crossing the finish line begins with getting to the start line.
6 weeks and counting...
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Reality Check
I waited to write about Hottest Half, and I'm glad I did because it's taken time for it to all sink in. A week after the fact, I am able to be happy that I ran well, turned in my best half marathon yet, learned a few things that will make me a better, smarter runner, and accomplished most of my goals. But last Sunday, those things were being overshadowed by the disappointment of not meeting one particular goal.
In my running log, I make a practice of labeling each run with a word or phrase that sums it up. The first word that came to mind for that race was: Bittersweet. I was really upset about missing the sub-2 finish. I researched other half marathons and toyed with the idea of giving it another shot before MCM but eventually decided I couldn't do so without compromising my training schedule for the big event--not to mention that another entry fee would be about half the cost of a pair of new shoes! Since then, I've realized I have yet to turn in the finishing times I hoped for at any distance:
5K - I signed up for the Labor Day 5K at Rangers Ballpark last year, just to get my first race under my belt. I was doing it with a girlfriend who said she would show me the ropes (like what to do with that chip thingy that goes on your shoe) and figured we would run it easy together. On the drive over, she said to me, "I think you should run for time." I was just over 30 minutes, which would have been my goal if I had known far enough in advance to set one. :)
I did run a 25:58 on a training run a couple of months ago, but I simply haven't raced another 5K, so my official time is still over 30. Oh, well. One of these days (like when I'm willing to pay to run for a few minutes for a lousy cotton t-shirt), maybe I'll fix that. ;)
10K - I had hoped to run the Tour des Fleurs in under an hour last September, but it didn't happen. I was sure I could get there by the American Heroes 10K in November, but that didn't happen either. In a way, it was probably a good thing that I had been battling injury in the months prior and was therefore content to run pain-free, as I would have been even more upset if I really been running for time when the poorly marked course turned out to be over a mile long!
As with the 5K, I've since broken the hour-mark in training but have yet to turn in an official time under an hour simply because I haven't raced any more at that distance. Planning to fix that when I return to Tour des Fleurs in 3 weeks!
Half Marathon - I've now run four of these things and didn't really expect to break 2 hours at Cowtown or Heels & Hills. Last February, it was just a someday maybe. By May, it seemed like a goal that was in sight, and then disaster struck in June when I tried to go for it too soon. Technically, I have now covered 13.1 miles in less than 2 hours (possibly twice if somehow that Jog Log data was right), but again my official race time does not reflect that.
As I think about it, I've never had a race that went perfectly according to plan. (I didn't even have a plan for Too Hot to Handle 15K, thinking at least that way I wouldn't be disappointed, and then that backfired.) The closest thing was Heels & Hills, and even that day I had a cramp. Every other race, something has gone wrong. Sometimes those were my mistakes (primarily going out too fast), but often they have been circumstances beyond my control, such as weather, a long course, or at my last race, equipment failure.
Thinking about this has given me pause as I target a sub-4 finish for Marine Corps. I have every reason to expect that I will be able to meet that goal based on conversion formulas suggesting that I'm already close enough that another 8 weeks of training (and a 30-degree temperature drop) should push me under the line. But what if something goes wrong? Or what if having 30,000 people in my way keeps me from running the fastest time of which I would otherwise be capable?
I am not for a moment giving up on my goal, just beginning to prepare myself that if something happens, I could be disappointed. So what can I do?
- Train as hard as I can without breaking myself. This has been the goal from the beginning, and I want to be as strong, fast, and smart as I can be in order to give myself the very best chance of overcoming any and every obstacle on race day.
- Remember where I started. My initial goal was to finish. And to finish feeling fantastic. So that I would want to do it again...which would give me as many chances as I need to hit whatever time goal I might have. When I filled out the registration form in January, I tentatively put down a goal of 5 hours because my fastest 13.1 at that point was predicting a 5:28 marathon. That was 7 months ago. Now that's dropped to 4:09. We've come a long way, baby!
- Remember what's important. This journey has not just been about finishing a marathon. It's been about finishing the Marine Corps Marathon, raising money for the USO, and honoring those who serve our country and sacrifice in order to defend our freedom and our way of life. I am grateful to be making my first trip to our nation's capitol, to have a spot at this year's race, and to have 2 legs to run it on. Regardless of what happens on October 27, I hope I can keep things in perspective.
In my running log, I make a practice of labeling each run with a word or phrase that sums it up. The first word that came to mind for that race was: Bittersweet. I was really upset about missing the sub-2 finish. I researched other half marathons and toyed with the idea of giving it another shot before MCM but eventually decided I couldn't do so without compromising my training schedule for the big event--not to mention that another entry fee would be about half the cost of a pair of new shoes! Since then, I've realized I have yet to turn in the finishing times I hoped for at any distance:
5K - I signed up for the Labor Day 5K at Rangers Ballpark last year, just to get my first race under my belt. I was doing it with a girlfriend who said she would show me the ropes (like what to do with that chip thingy that goes on your shoe) and figured we would run it easy together. On the drive over, she said to me, "I think you should run for time." I was just over 30 minutes, which would have been my goal if I had known far enough in advance to set one. :)
I did run a 25:58 on a training run a couple of months ago, but I simply haven't raced another 5K, so my official time is still over 30. Oh, well. One of these days (like when I'm willing to pay to run for a few minutes for a lousy cotton t-shirt), maybe I'll fix that. ;)
10K - I had hoped to run the Tour des Fleurs in under an hour last September, but it didn't happen. I was sure I could get there by the American Heroes 10K in November, but that didn't happen either. In a way, it was probably a good thing that I had been battling injury in the months prior and was therefore content to run pain-free, as I would have been even more upset if I really been running for time when the poorly marked course turned out to be over a mile long!
As with the 5K, I've since broken the hour-mark in training but have yet to turn in an official time under an hour simply because I haven't raced any more at that distance. Planning to fix that when I return to Tour des Fleurs in 3 weeks!
Half Marathon - I've now run four of these things and didn't really expect to break 2 hours at Cowtown or Heels & Hills. Last February, it was just a someday maybe. By May, it seemed like a goal that was in sight, and then disaster struck in June when I tried to go for it too soon. Technically, I have now covered 13.1 miles in less than 2 hours (possibly twice if somehow that Jog Log data was right), but again my official race time does not reflect that.
As I think about it, I've never had a race that went perfectly according to plan. (I didn't even have a plan for Too Hot to Handle 15K, thinking at least that way I wouldn't be disappointed, and then that backfired.) The closest thing was Heels & Hills, and even that day I had a cramp. Every other race, something has gone wrong. Sometimes those were my mistakes (primarily going out too fast), but often they have been circumstances beyond my control, such as weather, a long course, or at my last race, equipment failure.
Thinking about this has given me pause as I target a sub-4 finish for Marine Corps. I have every reason to expect that I will be able to meet that goal based on conversion formulas suggesting that I'm already close enough that another 8 weeks of training (and a 30-degree temperature drop) should push me under the line. But what if something goes wrong? Or what if having 30,000 people in my way keeps me from running the fastest time of which I would otherwise be capable?
I am not for a moment giving up on my goal, just beginning to prepare myself that if something happens, I could be disappointed. So what can I do?
- Train as hard as I can without breaking myself. This has been the goal from the beginning, and I want to be as strong, fast, and smart as I can be in order to give myself the very best chance of overcoming any and every obstacle on race day.
- Remember where I started. My initial goal was to finish. And to finish feeling fantastic. So that I would want to do it again...which would give me as many chances as I need to hit whatever time goal I might have. When I filled out the registration form in January, I tentatively put down a goal of 5 hours because my fastest 13.1 at that point was predicting a 5:28 marathon. That was 7 months ago. Now that's dropped to 4:09. We've come a long way, baby!
- Remember what's important. This journey has not just been about finishing a marathon. It's been about finishing the Marine Corps Marathon, raising money for the USO, and honoring those who serve our country and sacrifice in order to defend our freedom and our way of life. I am grateful to be making my first trip to our nation's capitol, to have a spot at this year's race, and to have 2 legs to run it on. Regardless of what happens on October 27, I hope I can keep things in perspective.
Hottest Half - Race Recap
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I had been looking forward to this race and went in with multiple goals. Obviously, I wanted to run it as fast as I could, and there were several times/paces that would be significant to beat:
- Race PR from Heels & Hills - 2:04:55 (9:32)
- PR from Rainbow Run according to Polar - 2:01:57 (9:18)
- Sub-2 (9:09)
- PR from Rainbow Run according to Jog Log - 1:59:57 (9:09)
- McRun equivalent of 4:09 marathon (with 9 weeks to go) - 1:58:19 (9:01)
- 9-minute miles
- McRun equivalent of 4:00 marathon - 1:54:02 (8:42)
- McRun equivalent of 3:45 marathon (predicted by Yasso 800s) - 1:46:55 (8:09)
I also set a few goals that had nothing to do with time:
- Finish.
- Breathless.
- Knowing that I had left it all on the course.
- Average HR > 175
My plan was to start getting my HR up in the first mile and try to hold it in the upper 170s for miles 2-10, then go 180+ the rest of the way. Based on past experience and data, this seemed like the best strategy to maximize performance without pushing myself into the danger zone and crashing.
I had a good warmup and felt ready to go. My HR was in the 160s for the first mile, which I ran in 8:42. In the 2nd mile, I turned my HR alert on to cue me if I was below 175. It kept beeping at me, and I kept pushing...and ran mile 2 in 8:26.
Common sense should have told me something was wrong, that I was running too fast, and that I should slow down. This was way faster than I expected my average pace to be based on the majority of my data, but I reasoned that maybe I was seeing the effect of a week's taper, and since the Yasso/McRun conversion suggested I might be able to average 8:09, I thought maybe it wasn't entirely crazy....
Until I finally noticed what my monitor said my HR actually was. I ran mile 3 in 8:40, supposedly with an average HR of 113??? That average dropped to 99 for mile 4 and 74 for mile 5, despite running both around 8:52. Clearly, I was getting bad data. I was furious, since my whole race strategy and most objective non-time goal was based on this stupid device. I took it off (no sense chaffing if you're not even going to get good data!) and put it in the pouch on my belt. It continued to take readings, which initially were more accurate OFF my body!
I felt good, though, and continued to run well. I found a couple of guys that were running my pace and tucked in behind them, matching them step for step until we got separated at the water stop. The change in the bounce when crossing bridges felt super weird, and I couldn't believe they had us zig-zagging down ramps with railings on either side, but I pressed on.
During the 2nd half, my fast start and the climbing temps were catching up with me, and a couple of times I pulled alongside other runners just to keep me going. The first guy and I never said a word, and I left him behind as soon as I realized he was going too slow for me. The 2nd guy was about 6'6" and had super long legs. I said something about just 5K to go, and he began to pull ahead of me as we started uphill. I pushed myself to keep up...and kept going, right past him. :)
Even from the first mile, I had been noticing a discrepancy between the mile markers and the distance on my Garmin. Sure enough, it was a long course. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to hit the lap button as soon as I knew I'd run 13.1. But I still had to run an extra third of a mile to the finish!
It was so nice to have my mom at the finish line. She is a great assistant, and I'm super happy I'll have her with me at MCM! It took me long enough to recover that I knew I had given my best effort, but it wasn't so bad that I was incapacitated the way I had been after Wounded Warrior (which I think was a relief to Mom since that was the last race she came to). We waited around for the awards ceremony with my friend Pam (who took 2nd in her age group!) and her husband. We also bumped into another friend from our group runs, and the tall guy I'd dropped with 3 miles to go came up to congratulate me on leaving him in the dust. :)
Post-race, the data-crunching began...
My 13.1 time was 1:58:11 - right where I wanted to be for that 4:09 equivalent 9 weeks out. Total race time = 2:00:55. I was pissed that the long course had cost me an official sub-2 finishing time, but I still averaged 9-minute miles, so I was happy with my performance. I'll never know for sure if I averaged HR > 175, but I definitely accomplished my goals of finishing breathless and knowing I'd left it all on the course. Even though I missed the 2-hour mark, I felt much better about this race than Too Hot to Handle, when I hadn't had a firm goal and finished feeling like I didn't run hard enough. In fact, based on the 13.1 time, I had met all of my time goals except to run the equivalent of a 4:00 marathon or less...which I hadn't really expected to do with it so hot anyway. Despite the long course, my official time was still a race PR and a personal PR (based on the earlier Polar time, which I believe was more accurate), so just about any way you slice it, this was my best half marathon to date.
I'm learning it is wise to accept (and perhaps expect) that there may be factors beyond one's control on race day, like temperatures in the 80's, a HR rate monitor giving bad data, or a long course. My goal is to become strong enough to overcome those things and not cost myself any extra time because of a mistake like going out too fast. Of the factors within my control, that's the only thing I would change about this race. Being deceived by my HR monitor (and seduced by the Yasso/McRun conversion) cost me a negative split, and I'll never know if the difference had I run just a little smarter would have been enough to get me under 2 hours in spite of everything else....
Either way, I had a good race and learned things that will help me for MCM and beyond:
- Let the data speak. Come up with a target pace based on the majority of your training data, and let that be your guide on race day. Take conversions with a grain of salt; they're not as trustworthy as data from runs you've actually done. While taper and adrenaline will hopefully give you an edge on race day, the difference is more likely to be seconds (not a minute or more) off your pace. Plan accordingly and run conservatively to start. If something unprecedented or miraculous is going to happen, let it happen in the 2nd half of your race. :)
- Listen to your body, not just your Garmin.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
10 Weeks to MCM
Here's a recap of this week's training:
Monday: 6 miles. I needed an easy run to recover from the "racy rainbow run" the day before, and being sans Garmin, I opted for a strategy I used to use before I even had a Garmin: Run 3 songs, walk a song. Kind of fun to kick it old school. :)
Tuesday: 0 miles. Rest day. Props to Garmin for getting me a replacement watch here so quickly, and before Wednesday's workout, when I really needed it!
Wednesday: 12 miles. Yasso 800s! The theory is that if you do 10 x 800m repeats (with 400m recovery jog in between), your average time (m:ss) = your marathon time (h:mm). My time = 3:45! This is much faster than any of the calculators based on times for other race distances have predicted for me so far, but a friend who is an experienced marathoner said Yasso 800s tend to predict accurately +/- 10 minutes (3:35 - 3:55). If that's the case, I'm definitely in sub-4 territory...with 10 weeks left to train and cooler temps ahead. I started with 4 repeats @ 4:00 a couple of months ago, adding 2 every other week and then running this set of 10 as fast as I could. The plan is to keep doing Yasso's every other week but drop back down to 4 and shoot for a faster time of 3:40 (only 1 of the 10 faster than that in this attempt) and keep adding 2 every other week until I get back to 10. I'll run those as fast as I can about 2.5 weeks before the marathon, which should give me a way to measure my progress over the next 8 weeks--and a good idea of where I stand going into MCM.
Thursday: 12 miles. Originally slated as a trail run, but with the rain, I opted to stay on the roads. I picked a hilly route and did a 4:1 run/walk to give myself a bit of a break since I knew I had 32 miles for Wed-Thurs-Fri plus a long run on Sunday. Even walking every 5th minute, my pace was a bit faster than previous runs on the same route. Progess.
Friday: 8 miles. Different coaches have different definitions of exactly what constitutes a "tempo" run, but the general consensus is that is at or slightly faster than goal pace. My goal was to run 6 miles @ 9:00, with 1 mile each for warmup and cool down. I debated whether to get up at 5 and do this in the dark, wait until the afternoon and battle the heat, or do it on the treadmill that night, since I'd be at the gym for strength training anyway. I hate treadmill running and know how the heat jacks up my HR, so I opted to go early, not realizing until I stepped out the door that it was beginning to rain. Even with my headlamp, running in the dark and rain dulled my senses and the cumulative fatigue of 24 miles in the past 2 days made this run more challenging than I expected it to be with the cooler weather. But I reasoned these 6 miles were kind of like the last 6 of marathon--when you're already tired. I was just a few seconds over 9:00 for the first 2 miles but averaged 8:57 across the total 6, so I'm good with that.
Saturday: 0 miles. Rest day.
Sunday: 22 miles. Crazy as it may sound to some, I've been looking forward to this one. After several 20-mile runs, this was my first time going beyond that distance, and I wanted to try out a new strategy: run 2 miles, then take a :30 walk break, simulating walking through aid stations @ MCM. Running in 65-degree weather at the start felt like a dream. As is often the case, it took me a few miles to get going. (How do people race 5Ks? It takes me that long just to get warmed up!) But by mile 4, I was cruising, easily running < 10:00 and trying to hold myself back so I could save something for later. Nearing mile 5, I had a narrow brush with several dogs that live there. Got my pepper spray ready just in case but was able to dart past without incident. Mile 5.5 and I was rocking again, impressed by how great I felt a quarter of the way through.
My fueling strategy was to pop an energy gel at miles 4, 8, 12, 16, & 20 and to enjoy a Nutter Butter every 2 miles in between. At mile 6, I got my snacks out and (since I was running without music) thought I might have heard something hit the ground. I looked back to see if I had dropped something, failed to see a lip in the asphalt ahead of me, and took a little spill...
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Thank God I fell straight forward and didn't twist or break anything. I scraped both hands, a knee, and an elbow, but nothing too serious. I rinsed as best I could with the water from my fuel belt. Thankfully, I carry band-aids in case of blisters, so I applied one as best I could to my wet hand and carried on.
I was planning to stop at the hospital a few miles down the road anyway, as it's a great place to refill my bottles. I cleaned myself up as best I could in the ladies' room and asked the folks in the ER if I could get a fresh band-aid and some neosporin. DENIED. "Legalities." "Like if the band-aid was infected with something." Um, excuse me, I get that you want to charge me $500 for $.25 worth of medical supplies I'm willing to self-administer, but why are you putting potentially infected band-aids on your paying customers??? Ridiculous. Makes me think of something my dad used to say before he moved back to a small town: I miss Mayberry. I made a note to check the Texas Health mission statement when I sit down to write a letter to whoever's in charge of that place.
I kept going, stopping to refill water again 3 times along my new route, which thankfully I'd had the presence of mind to preview using Map My Run. (Learned my lesson after that last one in Trophy Club that turned out to be about 4 miles further than I expected!) Some hills between miles 15-18, but I managed them and still felt strong at mile 19. I did feel slightly fatigued the last 2 miles, but Garmin tells a different story--just faster than average pace down the home stretch. Even though the temperature had climbed up to 82, and I was at the end of my 60-mile week. Yay.
Total time for today's run (not counting pauses for water/medical aid stops) = 3:47:16 (10:20 pace). I checked my time at the 20-mile mark: 3:27, 11 minutes faster than when I last ran a straight 20 (no walk breaks) a month ago and 16 minutes faster than when I Gallowalked it at the end of June. Some of the improvement is training progress and cooler temps to start, but I'm also encouraged that the 2-mile/:30 strategy seemed to work well, yielding my best time yet.
I was walking to cool down, basking in my accomplishment, letting it sink in that I had just run TWENTY-TWO MILES. And then...I realized I had lost my house key!!! I usually keep it attached to a clip with a ponytail holder (not likely to break like a rubber band). Perhaps it came off the clip when I took the pepper spray off. Maybe that was what I thought heard drop just before my fall. Either way, I was still locked out! I made a call and left a message on the after-hours voice mail, praying someone would come to my rescue. I stretched and decided I'd give them a half hour to respond before heading to Waffle House around the corner to refuel before deciding my next move. I thought there was a chance that if I walked back to mile 5 or 6, I'd find my key there...though after 22 miles, a locksmith might be worth the money. :) Thankfully, I didn't have to choose. My maintenance guy showed up 15-20 minutes later, and I don't know the last time I have been so happy to see someone! He let me in, where chocolate milk, my foam roller, and an ice bath were waiting...
So that's my week. Plus 5 core workouts. (With my hand jacked up, I think I might be planking on my elbows for the next few days!) Three upper body workouts and two leg workouts, one at home and one at the gym. And on target with my eating goals. Feeling like a rock star, knowing that whatever happens at MCM, I will have done everything in my power to have my best race.
This coming week, that means REST. Looking forward to massage tomorrow and cutting mileage in half this week to taper for Hottest Half.
10 weeks and counting...
Monday: 6 miles. I needed an easy run to recover from the "racy rainbow run" the day before, and being sans Garmin, I opted for a strategy I used to use before I even had a Garmin: Run 3 songs, walk a song. Kind of fun to kick it old school. :)
Tuesday: 0 miles. Rest day. Props to Garmin for getting me a replacement watch here so quickly, and before Wednesday's workout, when I really needed it!
Wednesday: 12 miles. Yasso 800s! The theory is that if you do 10 x 800m repeats (with 400m recovery jog in between), your average time (m:ss) = your marathon time (h:mm). My time = 3:45! This is much faster than any of the calculators based on times for other race distances have predicted for me so far, but a friend who is an experienced marathoner said Yasso 800s tend to predict accurately +/- 10 minutes (3:35 - 3:55). If that's the case, I'm definitely in sub-4 territory...with 10 weeks left to train and cooler temps ahead. I started with 4 repeats @ 4:00 a couple of months ago, adding 2 every other week and then running this set of 10 as fast as I could. The plan is to keep doing Yasso's every other week but drop back down to 4 and shoot for a faster time of 3:40 (only 1 of the 10 faster than that in this attempt) and keep adding 2 every other week until I get back to 10. I'll run those as fast as I can about 2.5 weeks before the marathon, which should give me a way to measure my progress over the next 8 weeks--and a good idea of where I stand going into MCM.
Thursday: 12 miles. Originally slated as a trail run, but with the rain, I opted to stay on the roads. I picked a hilly route and did a 4:1 run/walk to give myself a bit of a break since I knew I had 32 miles for Wed-Thurs-Fri plus a long run on Sunday. Even walking every 5th minute, my pace was a bit faster than previous runs on the same route. Progess.
Friday: 8 miles. Different coaches have different definitions of exactly what constitutes a "tempo" run, but the general consensus is that is at or slightly faster than goal pace. My goal was to run 6 miles @ 9:00, with 1 mile each for warmup and cool down. I debated whether to get up at 5 and do this in the dark, wait until the afternoon and battle the heat, or do it on the treadmill that night, since I'd be at the gym for strength training anyway. I hate treadmill running and know how the heat jacks up my HR, so I opted to go early, not realizing until I stepped out the door that it was beginning to rain. Even with my headlamp, running in the dark and rain dulled my senses and the cumulative fatigue of 24 miles in the past 2 days made this run more challenging than I expected it to be with the cooler weather. But I reasoned these 6 miles were kind of like the last 6 of marathon--when you're already tired. I was just a few seconds over 9:00 for the first 2 miles but averaged 8:57 across the total 6, so I'm good with that.
Saturday: 0 miles. Rest day.
Sunday: 22 miles. Crazy as it may sound to some, I've been looking forward to this one. After several 20-mile runs, this was my first time going beyond that distance, and I wanted to try out a new strategy: run 2 miles, then take a :30 walk break, simulating walking through aid stations @ MCM. Running in 65-degree weather at the start felt like a dream. As is often the case, it took me a few miles to get going. (How do people race 5Ks? It takes me that long just to get warmed up!) But by mile 4, I was cruising, easily running < 10:00 and trying to hold myself back so I could save something for later. Nearing mile 5, I had a narrow brush with several dogs that live there. Got my pepper spray ready just in case but was able to dart past without incident. Mile 5.5 and I was rocking again, impressed by how great I felt a quarter of the way through.
My fueling strategy was to pop an energy gel at miles 4, 8, 12, 16, & 20 and to enjoy a Nutter Butter every 2 miles in between. At mile 6, I got my snacks out and (since I was running without music) thought I might have heard something hit the ground. I looked back to see if I had dropped something, failed to see a lip in the asphalt ahead of me, and took a little spill...
Thank God I fell straight forward and didn't twist or break anything. I scraped both hands, a knee, and an elbow, but nothing too serious. I rinsed as best I could with the water from my fuel belt. Thankfully, I carry band-aids in case of blisters, so I applied one as best I could to my wet hand and carried on.
I was planning to stop at the hospital a few miles down the road anyway, as it's a great place to refill my bottles. I cleaned myself up as best I could in the ladies' room and asked the folks in the ER if I could get a fresh band-aid and some neosporin. DENIED. "Legalities." "Like if the band-aid was infected with something." Um, excuse me, I get that you want to charge me $500 for $.25 worth of medical supplies I'm willing to self-administer, but why are you putting potentially infected band-aids on your paying customers??? Ridiculous. Makes me think of something my dad used to say before he moved back to a small town: I miss Mayberry. I made a note to check the Texas Health mission statement when I sit down to write a letter to whoever's in charge of that place.
I kept going, stopping to refill water again 3 times along my new route, which thankfully I'd had the presence of mind to preview using Map My Run. (Learned my lesson after that last one in Trophy Club that turned out to be about 4 miles further than I expected!) Some hills between miles 15-18, but I managed them and still felt strong at mile 19. I did feel slightly fatigued the last 2 miles, but Garmin tells a different story--just faster than average pace down the home stretch. Even though the temperature had climbed up to 82, and I was at the end of my 60-mile week. Yay.
Total time for today's run (not counting pauses for water/medical aid stops) = 3:47:16 (10:20 pace). I checked my time at the 20-mile mark: 3:27, 11 minutes faster than when I last ran a straight 20 (no walk breaks) a month ago and 16 minutes faster than when I Gallowalked it at the end of June. Some of the improvement is training progress and cooler temps to start, but I'm also encouraged that the 2-mile/:30 strategy seemed to work well, yielding my best time yet.
I was walking to cool down, basking in my accomplishment, letting it sink in that I had just run TWENTY-TWO MILES. And then...I realized I had lost my house key!!! I usually keep it attached to a clip with a ponytail holder (not likely to break like a rubber band). Perhaps it came off the clip when I took the pepper spray off. Maybe that was what I thought heard drop just before my fall. Either way, I was still locked out! I made a call and left a message on the after-hours voice mail, praying someone would come to my rescue. I stretched and decided I'd give them a half hour to respond before heading to Waffle House around the corner to refuel before deciding my next move. I thought there was a chance that if I walked back to mile 5 or 6, I'd find my key there...though after 22 miles, a locksmith might be worth the money. :) Thankfully, I didn't have to choose. My maintenance guy showed up 15-20 minutes later, and I don't know the last time I have been so happy to see someone! He let me in, where chocolate milk, my foam roller, and an ice bath were waiting...
So that's my week. Plus 5 core workouts. (With my hand jacked up, I think I might be planking on my elbows for the next few days!) Three upper body workouts and two leg workouts, one at home and one at the gym. And on target with my eating goals. Feeling like a rock star, knowing that whatever happens at MCM, I will have done everything in my power to have my best race.
This coming week, that means REST. Looking forward to massage tomorrow and cutting mileage in half this week to taper for Hottest Half.
10 weeks and counting...
Monday, August 12, 2013
Breakthrough
Today is Day 15 of 90, and I have so much good news to report, I don't know where to begin.
After the first week of clean eating didn't yield much, I decided to switch back to my old birth control pills. I'd changed brands 5 weeks earlier because the new ones were free "preventative care" with my insurance, and I had reasoned that saving $20+/month would add up to a couple of pairs of shoes a year. The new ones were supposed to be similar to the old, but my weight loss froze when I started taking them. After talking with a friend about her experience, I began to suspect this might be the culprit. Something my brother also said stuck in my head: as much as you've put into training for this marathon, why would you not do EVERYTHING you can to do your best? Was I really willing to risk my sub-4 goal because I wasn't willing to spend $60 for 3 months worth of pills??? Within 5 days of switching back, I was down 8 pounds! Holy cow! I broke through the barrier and started seeing a new set of numbers on the scale--numbers I haven't seen since I was a kid! Yay!
It's not just the numbers on the scale that are changing. I remember when the idea of being a size 2 was just a fantasy, a hopefully-someday-maybe (but probably not really). Now I am easily a size 2--and some things that size are too big for me...what??? Again and again, I'm reminded that my God can do "more than we can ask or imagine," and this definitely qualifies.
I'm so excited to see how my hard work is paying off, and now that it is, I'm able to be grateful for being stuck. I never would have taken my eating to the next level if what I was doing before was still working. Now that I've started, I still want to see it all the way through to MCM, so in the long run (no pun intended), this will be good for me. :)
I've had a breakthrough on the training side as well. Yesterday's run was originally scheduled as a 12-mile run with tempo work, but I modified it and went a full 13.1. I was a bit handicapped by my Garmin going down (again!) but used my old Polar HR monitor and Jog Log on my phone. My aim was to do a "racy" rainbow run:
Mile 1: Blue (150s)
Miles 2-3: Green (160s)
Miles 4-10: Yellow (170s)
Miles 11-13.1: Orange (180s)
My hope was to find the sweet spot between pushing myself too hard and not enough and develop a strategy that I can use for the Hottest Half coming up in 2 weeks. I felt good until the very end, though the longer I was out in the heat, the slower the pace the same heart rate yielded, generally speaking. The yellow zone is comfortably hard for me, and I could probably hold there for more than 7 miles. Orange is uncomfortably hard, and I was glad I didn't have more than 3 to do in that range. As the 10-mile mark approached, I had to overcome a mental barrier to make myself push harder for those last 3, but doing so allowed me to spend enough time in that zone to get stronger (and accustomed to the uncomfortable sensation) without blowing apart as I have on some previous runs. I'm learning!
According to Polar, my time was 2:01:15 - my best by a healthy margin and a time I haven't even come close to since Heels & Hills in May. If you believe Jog Log (which I'm not sure I do), I may have even broken the 2-hour mark...
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Either way, it's a PR by several minutes, and I'll take it! This is a big confidence booster going into the race in 2 weeks, and hopefully all I need is a little tweaking to create the perfect race day strategy...
After the first week of clean eating didn't yield much, I decided to switch back to my old birth control pills. I'd changed brands 5 weeks earlier because the new ones were free "preventative care" with my insurance, and I had reasoned that saving $20+/month would add up to a couple of pairs of shoes a year. The new ones were supposed to be similar to the old, but my weight loss froze when I started taking them. After talking with a friend about her experience, I began to suspect this might be the culprit. Something my brother also said stuck in my head: as much as you've put into training for this marathon, why would you not do EVERYTHING you can to do your best? Was I really willing to risk my sub-4 goal because I wasn't willing to spend $60 for 3 months worth of pills??? Within 5 days of switching back, I was down 8 pounds! Holy cow! I broke through the barrier and started seeing a new set of numbers on the scale--numbers I haven't seen since I was a kid! Yay!
It's not just the numbers on the scale that are changing. I remember when the idea of being a size 2 was just a fantasy, a hopefully-someday-maybe (but probably not really). Now I am easily a size 2--and some things that size are too big for me...what??? Again and again, I'm reminded that my God can do "more than we can ask or imagine," and this definitely qualifies.
I'm so excited to see how my hard work is paying off, and now that it is, I'm able to be grateful for being stuck. I never would have taken my eating to the next level if what I was doing before was still working. Now that I've started, I still want to see it all the way through to MCM, so in the long run (no pun intended), this will be good for me. :)
I've had a breakthrough on the training side as well. Yesterday's run was originally scheduled as a 12-mile run with tempo work, but I modified it and went a full 13.1. I was a bit handicapped by my Garmin going down (again!) but used my old Polar HR monitor and Jog Log on my phone. My aim was to do a "racy" rainbow run:
Mile 1: Blue (150s)
Miles 2-3: Green (160s)
Miles 4-10: Yellow (170s)
Miles 11-13.1: Orange (180s)
My hope was to find the sweet spot between pushing myself too hard and not enough and develop a strategy that I can use for the Hottest Half coming up in 2 weeks. I felt good until the very end, though the longer I was out in the heat, the slower the pace the same heart rate yielded, generally speaking. The yellow zone is comfortably hard for me, and I could probably hold there for more than 7 miles. Orange is uncomfortably hard, and I was glad I didn't have more than 3 to do in that range. As the 10-mile mark approached, I had to overcome a mental barrier to make myself push harder for those last 3, but doing so allowed me to spend enough time in that zone to get stronger (and accustomed to the uncomfortable sensation) without blowing apart as I have on some previous runs. I'm learning!
According to Polar, my time was 2:01:15 - my best by a healthy margin and a time I haven't even come close to since Heels & Hills in May. If you believe Jog Log (which I'm not sure I do), I may have even broken the 2-hour mark...
Either way, it's a PR by several minutes, and I'll take it! This is a big confidence booster going into the race in 2 weeks, and hopefully all I need is a little tweaking to create the perfect race day strategy...
Monday, July 29, 2013
90 Days...
90 days until Marine Corps Marathon. 90 days to do everything I can to hit that sub-4 mark. 90 days to get down and dirty...by going clean. Today I cleaned out my cabinets and my freezer in order to clean up my diet.
More or less, I'll be following Matt Fitzgerald's plan, as described in "The New Rules of Marathon & Half-Marathon Nutrition," which focuses on food quality using a hierarchical list of categories:
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Nuts & seeds
- Fish and lean meats
- Whole grains
- Dairy products
- Refined grains
- Fatty meats
- Sweets
- Fried foods
Basically, the idea is that for any given level, you should eat more of the foods above it. So for every fried food, you should eat 10 servings of veggies, 9 of fruits, and so on.
The fish/lean meat category was flip-flopped with nuts/seeds in his earlier book, "Racing Weight," and he says that if you're running as much as I am, it's okay to bump whole grains up above either of those. So I don't feel the need to be strict about the particular order of that little trio, as long I get more fruits/veggies and less of everything below.
There are a few little exceptions here and there. Thankfully, tiny amounts of dark chocolate don't count as sweets because they give you anti-oxidants! And per Fitzgerald, the rules are suspended for workout nutrition.
I'm also adding a few of my own rules (which I'm posting because if I put them on the internet, I have to stick to them, right?):
- No deep fried foods
- No cokes
- No kid foods!!!
Though this may not sound like much to some, those who know me well know what a challenge this will be for a girl who has historically eaten like a 5-year-old: no fruits or veggies and plenty of chicken nuggets, tater tots, and spaghetti-Os. Since January, I've made a concerted effort to eat healthier, try new foods, cook more, and eat fewer "kid foods." But eating like a grown up for 90 days will be taking it to a whole new level for me. Here's hoping it takes my running to a whole new level, too!
More or less, I'll be following Matt Fitzgerald's plan, as described in "The New Rules of Marathon & Half-Marathon Nutrition," which focuses on food quality using a hierarchical list of categories:
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Nuts & seeds
- Fish and lean meats
- Whole grains
- Dairy products
- Refined grains
- Fatty meats
- Sweets
- Fried foods
Basically, the idea is that for any given level, you should eat more of the foods above it. So for every fried food, you should eat 10 servings of veggies, 9 of fruits, and so on.
The fish/lean meat category was flip-flopped with nuts/seeds in his earlier book, "Racing Weight," and he says that if you're running as much as I am, it's okay to bump whole grains up above either of those. So I don't feel the need to be strict about the particular order of that little trio, as long I get more fruits/veggies and less of everything below.
There are a few little exceptions here and there. Thankfully, tiny amounts of dark chocolate don't count as sweets because they give you anti-oxidants! And per Fitzgerald, the rules are suspended for workout nutrition.
I'm also adding a few of my own rules (which I'm posting because if I put them on the internet, I have to stick to them, right?):
- No deep fried foods
- No cokes
- No kid foods!!!
Though this may not sound like much to some, those who know me well know what a challenge this will be for a girl who has historically eaten like a 5-year-old: no fruits or veggies and plenty of chicken nuggets, tater tots, and spaghetti-Os. Since January, I've made a concerted effort to eat healthier, try new foods, cook more, and eat fewer "kid foods." But eating like a grown up for 90 days will be taking it to a whole new level for me. Here's hoping it takes my running to a whole new level, too!
Friday, July 26, 2013
A Tale of Two Runs
Today was a day of victory. I finally nailed a workout that was kicking my butt back in May. The goal was 12 miles:
Mile 1 - Warmup (no pace target)
Miles 2-8 @ 10:00
Miles 9-12 @ < 9:00
The first time I tried it, I blew up completely.
Times for the last 4 miles: 9:09. 9:27. 10:32. 10:54.
I tried it twice more over the next couple of weeks, with better results, but still never able to run even one of the last 4 miles under 9 minutes. I was a little freaked out because my heart rate kept soaring into the 190s (I think my max is 200+ instead of the 184 predicted by the obviously imperfect formula), and only once was I able to recover enough that the last mile wasn't my slowest.
Today, I nailed it!
Times for the last 4 miles: 8:59. 8:58. 8:54. 8:33.
Yes. 8:33. Nearly 2.5 minutes faster than the pace for the last mile the first time I tried it. YAY. My HR did creep up to the 190s during the last mile, but I took it in stride (no pun intended) and recovered quickly as soon as I finished. I felt like a rock star on my cool down!
It's so amazing to see how far I've come. If I compare Saturday's 20-miler (my third overall, first without walk breaks) to my first attempt back in April, I see huge progress there, too. From 4:13 to 3:38 in 3 months. (Granted, this last time I paused my Garmin for potty breaks and refilling my water bottles, but that didn't take anywhere near a half hour.) And I felt significantly better after the last 20 than I did the first.
Interestingly, though, the most recent one was only 5 minutes faster than the Galloway run/walk 20 I did a few weeks back, after which I felt FANTASTIC, which definitely makes me think I ought to consider that strategy for the 50K. Not apples to oranges, though, because the most recent 20 came just four days after that first trail run, followed by a day of Yasso 800's, and only one day of rest, so my legs weren't exactly fresh going in. :)
As for trail running, I took another crack at that this week, too. This time I ran to the trail (just under 4.5 miles), took the same route going out and a different one coming back (without getting lost, just over 5 miles), and then ran home for a total of 14 miles. Given that this was just 2 days after running 20 straight, I incorporated walk breaks and still ran significantly faster on the trails than I had the week before (averaging closer to 12-minute pace instead of 20!). That suggests that with additional training and experience, plus cooler temperatures in December, maybe my ballpark of 6 hours isn't so ludicrous after all.
One of the highlights of my week was stumbling on to this gem to help me prepare:
More details here: http://trailrunningcamp.org/
I can't believe that for the first time in more than 25 years, I'll be going to camp. Running camp. TRAIL running camp. That serves civilians but seeks to attract combat veterans, who have such a dear place in my heart. Led by people who not only do but actually win 100-mile races. What a way to break into the world of ultramarathoning! Quite fortuitous that the camp falls two weeks after Marine Corps, so I'll have that first 26.2 under my belt and a little bit of time to recover. Then I'll have four weeks to practice what I've learned before my first ultra trail run. Kind of like it was all divinely orchestrated. ;)
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