9 miles down

• 1 • 13.1 Training, My Running

Well… I’m still contemplating Chilly. I was going to do 10 today but woke up feeling stiff and overtired, which affected my pace. Given the short preschool window I had, 9 miles was all I could fit in and still shower!

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Slower than I enjoy running my long runs. But it felt uncomfortable, not painful. Unpleasant, but doable. I don’t know. We’ll see about this race in November. If it would feel like today’s run but with 4 extra miles, I would say no. But I like the progress towards the goal and getting back to my long runs and seeing where it goes – so thanks for the motivation!

You Have To Want It… bad enough to schedule it.

Today was a day where there was no wiggle room; it was running 9:20 – 11:20 or nothing, and moving it to another day wasn’t great either.

I could Greg’s voice in my head telling me “You have to want it. And it’s fine if you don’t.”

When I ran my first half marathon in 2013, I wanted it. Nothing kept me from those long runs. I found a way.

I wish I’d done that for this race a month ago… but I’m glad I’m keeping the door open by ramping up my long runs. Even on a day when it seemed like insanity to spend that time running.

 

 

 

Struggling with whether to run the Chilly Half Marathon

• 3 • 13.1 Training, My Running

I’ve decided not to run the Chilly Half Marathon this November. I’ve made this decision about five times.

It’s the right decision.

I haven’t run further than 7 miles since May. MAY. (The kids dropped out of summer camp, I got a chest cold and spent two weeks on an inhaler, my babysitter started field hockey… life happens, and this time, I didn’t figure out a way around it)

The Chilly Half Marathon is in 6 weeks.

You don’t prepare for a half marathon in 6 weeks.

That’s an insult to the half marathon distance. (Maybe this would be possible if I were doing a lot of running, but I’m running fewer than 10 miles a week right now.)

You know when that long run was in May? The Maine Coast Half Marathon. My slowest and most brutal half marathon, which I also ran unprepared, because I’d spent the 3 months prior learning to swim and road bike for my first triathlon.

I promised after the grueling 6 miles of walking I did during that race that I’d never run another half unprepared.

So, for the 6th time, I have decided not to run the Chilly Half Marathon in November.

I’m not prepared.

The problem is that my head has decided this, and my heart is drowning in sorrow and playing little violins every time I go for a run.

I went for a beautiful fall run with the stroller today, a nice tempo 3 miles in the first brisk weather I’ve had for running. It was gorgeous. It even smelled like the start line in November – cool air, chilly breeze… ahhh.

Chilly is hard for me because I’ll be there as a spectator if I’m not running. I love watching Greg, but it’s harder when it’s a race I used to be so excited to run too. A race I signed up for. A nagging little piece of my heart says “just go, you’ll make it!”

I think what I may have to do is go for a 10 mile long run and allow my body to explain to my heart in excruciating detail exactly why we are not running the Chilly Half in November for the first time in 3 years.

It’s tough love, but it may need to happen.

How to Push Just a Little Further

• 0 • 13.1 Training, Motivation, My Running, Running, Swim

keepgoing

The hardest part when I did Couch to 5k in 2012 was getting through the first 20 minute stretch of running without stopping. I had to attempt it multiple times, and finally made it through when Greg ran next to me with the jogging stroller. The thought of quitting in front of him and both my children was enough to finally overcome the hurdle.

The funny part about my previous attempts was that I remember not giving up at minute 17 or 18 which would indicate that I couldn’t quite make it yet. Nope. I was giving up at minute 10 or 12, despite having done 15 minutes of running successfully. I was quitting at minute 10 or 12 because although I could have kept going in that moment I was convinced I couldn’t finish the whole distance. The thought of having to continue for that long made me panic, and I stopped. My mind was quitting, not my body.

The same thing has been happening to me with swimming.

I’m having trouble making progress; I can barely finish my 50 yard repeats. My swim instructor thinks based on the number of repeats I can do in a session and how my form looks towards the end (not tired) that I could make it much further if I could get through it mentally.

It’s amazing how similar it is to running, where the feeling of being unable to catch my breath was the hardest part in the beginning.

So I’m revisiting strategies I used to use for running when I tried to increase the distance there. These strategies have gotten me from 60 seconds of running to over 2 hours of running, so clearly they work for me.

Time to take them for a swim.

Strategies for Pushing Through Your Desire to Stop

Take it One Moment at a Time. Don’t tell yourself you need to make it X distance before you can stop. Ask yourself if you can keep going NOW. Just this moment. Just one more stroke, one more, one more.

Recover Without Stopping. Slow it down rather than stopping. See how slowly you can go without stopping and watch how it helps your heart rate and breathing. For running this is especially true if you’ve just run up a hill; you may not even need to slow down, just be patient and realize you don’t need to stop, your breathing will calm down a minute or so after you clear the hill.

Count / Use a Mantra: When I’m doing 400 meter repeats on the track, I’m usually thinking “one two one two one two one two” over and over again to distract from anything else. In the pool, I’ve started to think one, two, three AND one, two, three AND. It helps me keep from thinking anything else, and also helps me breathe in sync with my stroke on the AND.

Be Social: Being with someone distracts you from what you’re doing and provides accountability. I try harder and take fewer breaks during my swim lessons because I don’t want to waste my time with an instructor. I swam a lot of continuous back-stroke in the pool with Greg on Mother’s Day because I didn’t want him to think I take a break every 25 yards.

Add Repeats: If you’re hitting a block with the length of a repeat, shorten it but do more repeats. Do what you’re comfortable with until it’s boring. Boring isn’t scary. Boring is boring. Boring helps fight the panic. Add to your total distance slowly, and realize that’ll help your individual segments of activity lengthen also.

nemopillow
Time to get out there and go after it like my cat with a pillow.

 

 

Reflections on the Half

• 0 • 13.1 Training, Running

cando

Crossed “finish half marathon I hadn’t properly trained for” off my running bucket list.

Again.

I think I’m proud of myself? I’m not sure whether it’s more admirable to know when you shouldn’t start, or to be willing to walk or crawl across the finish if you have to because darn it, you said you were going to do this.

I’d signed up for it long before I got a number in the Tri For a Cure Lottery (have you donated to my fundraising page?) and when I got a number for my first triathlon in July, those long runs took a back seat. Like WAY back.

But while I’ve been running, oh, say a fourth of the amount suggested for half marathon training, I’ve at least been training for the tri about 5 days a week for the past 3 months.

I was curious to see if that’d get me across the finish line.

It did.

Not quickly, though.

I had some major chest cramps that wouldn’t quit starting at mile 7… and that’s pretty early in the race to commence with a walk/jog strategy.

So it was slow. It was painful. I did a lot of walking from mile 10-13. But I made it, and I didn’t get injured, and WOW am I impressed with that year that I trained hard all summer and ran the 10:01 pace half marathon in the Fall of 2014.

Way to go Kelly of 2014. YOU WERE A ROCK STAR. I can’t even IMAGINE being able to do that after this last race.

It’s actually awesome to achieve something and then lose it. It keeps me from taking my status as a runner for granted. Being a half marathon runner is something you have to continue to earn with consistency. You can’t just have achieved it once and still be able to do it.

This most recent half was my slowest finish, at over 2 hours and 40 minutes. Even though I ran a half as recently as November and have been swimming 3 days a week, biking 1-2 and running 1-2, I cannot run that far. I can finish, but I can’t run the whole thing.

And I kind of knew that going in, but part of me was curious to see if I slowed it down to an 11:30 pace if I could manage a jog for the entire time. (Nope.)

Where does this leave me… well, with a renewed fervor to adequately train for Tri for a Cure in July. It is NOT fun to complete an event you haven’t trained for and are inadequately prepared to do. It just isn’t. It’s fine to be chill about time goals, it’s fine to have a walk/run strategy, but going in severely under-prepared to execute your plan isn’t a great idea for distance events.

I’m thrilled that I have another 13.1 mile lesson keeping me motivated to train for future events.

It hurt.

It does not feel good to be at mile 10 and realize you are going to be on the course for another 40 minutes and you can’t even manage a jog right now because you’re in pain. 

If you don’t prepare, it hurts, and the pain doesn’t get you anything. That’s a beautiful lesson. That lesson got me to the pool this morning, and it’s going to get me to the pool again tomorrow morning and a spin class after that. That lesson reminded me that I should be running at least 10 miles a week, every week, no excuses, because I don’t want to finish that race in July walking.

I knew I couldn’t do well on Saturday, and I didn’t let that stop me from participating. But I’ll be honest. It didn’t feel good to finish; it didn’t feel like much of an accomplishment. It felt like failing an exam I didn’t prepare for and then wanting a sticker because I showed up to the test.

If it’s going to hurt that much, I want to feel satisfied afterwards, like I trained well, ran hard, and suffered because I wanted to get there faster… not because I didn’t train.

Lesson learned!

…again.

 

Never Try Anything New on Race Day

• 5 • 13.1 Training, Running, Triathlon

I was at a Bike Clinic for Tri for a Cure this weekend, and they reminded all of us of a golden rule of racing; don’t try anything on race day you haven’t used during training.

You don’t want to find out at mile 9 that the cute tank you bought just for race day chafes.

You definitely don’t want to discover that your GI system and GU packets don’t get along.

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See this awesome new fuel-belt I got? It bounces like crazy and the velcro gives out. It’s worse on some outfits than with others, depending on how slippery my shirt fabric is.

I ran a half marathon in a cute new jacket one year and had such bad chafing from the zipper hitting my chest while I ran that it actually scarred. It took over a month and a half to heal, and I can still see the mark on my chest.

So I guess you could say not testing my gear has scarred me for life.

Try. Everything.

And in the combinations you plan to race with, too. I can take Vega gels if I have water, but I can’t stomach them without water.

Do your sunglasses interfere with your bike helmet straps? Does the top you’re planning to wear work well with those shorts? Do your tri-shorts fit under your wetsuit? Is the sports bra you plan to wear too absorbent and going to stay wet for the entire bike and run? Do you have room in your pockets or belt for the nutrition you’re planning to use?

Whether you’re training for a 5k, half marathon, or triathlon, now is the pre-season to try it all out.

Write down what works in different temperatures so you remember.

Test your nutrition plan.

Make sure your gear plays well together.

Nothing is worse than bloody feet because you picked socks that can go three miles and didn’t realize they’d start rubbing your feet raw at mile 5!

I know you can’t plan for everything, but if you put a little thought into testing your gear and nutrition on training runs, you’ll increase your chances of a seamless race day 🙂