Oh yeah… a half marathon. In May. Two months before that triathlon I’m so excited about.
Maybe I should start running.
Track Repeat Tuesdays are awesome, but that’s only a few miles. I’ve been swimming twice a week, doing spin-class once a week, and running under 10 miles a week total. That will make for a tough half marathon in May if I don’t take April seriously… and maybe even if I do.
So this morning I headed out for a long run.
I planned to do 7 miles, but it was a beautiful day… there’s a loop I really enjoy… it turned into 9.
Can you tell which two miles I picked up phone calls for and didn’t stop the app?
The great news is… I made it.
My legs were like “9 miles? O.k.” I was like “Really?!”
I may not have been running a lot recently, but I’ve been really active. Some of it must be translating, because what hurt the most when I got home was the blisters that started forming around mile 5 because I wore the wrong socks. My legs felt tired, but not as tired as I thought they’d feel after running twice as far as they’ve run at once since November.
I’m thrilled, because I was starting to really worry that this half marathon in May was going to be a horrible idea since I’ve been swimming and biking in addition to running and my mileage has suffered.
I realize that running is the best preparation for running, but I think I’m in much better shape than if I’d been idle on those days that I was cross-training.
If I feel reasonably good tomorrow, I’ll be tempted to increase it to 10 miles next week, which would give me five solid weeks of double digit long-runs in preparation for the half in May. That’s enough to finish without walking and drink the free beer at the finish-line without throwing up.
Track Repeat Tuesday: It was our last week of indoor track repeats!
It was such a supportive and great group of mixed abilities but similar goals. We showed up each week, laid it down on the track, talked kids and work and half marathon training, and worked harder because we had each other’s encouragement and accountability.
I had such a great experience that I’ve signed up for the next session on the outdoor track, even though it’s a further drive than I’d like. I might miss five minutes of warm-up each week, but it’s worth it for the scheduled work-out experience.
Our coach e-mailed us a group photo, but without everyone’s permission to post it… here’s just our feet!
And a clip that shows me in all my glory after this week’s timed mile 🙂
I loved being part of the group because the fastest runners were more experienced. They showed up talking about their kids taking the SATs vs. the ACTs, and then dropped sub-seven minute pace on their repeats. It was inspiring to see them so much faster than I am, because it gives me a glimpse of what my life could be like if I stick with this until my kids (now 4 and 5) are taking the SATs. I love the thought that I’ll show up to talk parenting high schoolers with my running friends and smoke the preschool moms in 10 years. That would be pretty awesome. Especially if the preschool moms look at me and realized that once their own kids are in elementary school and they’d been running an extra decade that they’ll be the fastest ones.
I’m all about competing with just myself, but sometimes other people around us can symbolize our future and past selves in a way that inspires us… and possibly them as well.
Timed mile: I ran 8:24 the first week of track repeats, and 8:15 today. Given that I just returned from vacation and had a cold and didn’t run while I was gone… I’ll take it 🙂 Just not back-sliding in the spring is quite the accomplishment, especially given the extra time I’ve spent swimming and going to spin class that takes away from my running.
But… There’s a half marathon around the corner and I’m starting to panic. I need to prioritize some long runs to make sure I can finish the race in May. I don’t want to drop out; I’ll train so I can finish and try to actually start out realistically. Remember the year I didn’t train enough in the Spring and then ran 10k pace and crashed during the Heartbreak Hill Half Marathon? Yeah. Let’s not do that. Let’s get some solid long runs in and then take a “scenic” approach to the Coastal Half.
Doubling down: After doing a warm up, drills, timed mile, and cool down I think my running workout was probably still under 3 miles this morning. So I decided to pack up from track repeats and go swim at the gym. I have to shower before entering the pool anyway, so I just grabbed my swimsuit and gym bag and went from track to the gym.
Given how uncoordinated I am in the pool, I spend most of my time practicing form and doing drills that work on coordination and technique. I realized that I don’t usually have much muscle fatigue after I swim (unless I’m doing a lot of kickboard drills) so it’s a good workout to do after I run or bike. That way I get the extra practice in, and don’t sacrifice a day of running for the sake of swimming.
Tomorrow I’m going to try another double day: swim lesson in the morning, and spin class in the evening.
Double workouts like the best strategy for making more time to run, which I desperately need to do if I’m going to finish that half marathon in May.
How many days are there in a week? I should be running at least 3 days a week. If I also swim twice a week and spin once a week, that’s 6 workouts a week. I’d get even more out of my swim lessons if I swam 3 times a week, and I often indulge in two spin classes a week because I really enjoy them. That’s up to 8 workouts a week. If I don’t combine swimming with other days, this isn’t going to work! It’s easy to tack on a 20 minute swim at the end of another workout if I time it right.
Plus, I just learned that my gym actually has drop in babysitting rates. I’d been under the impression that to use their babysitting you had to sign each child up for a monthly membership – turns out it’s $11 for the first child and $8 for the second with a two hour max. That means I could swim and shower for less than $20… and probably throw in a 20 minute bike ride for free. Hellooooo Spring training! I’ll have to see how they like it, but they’re pretty flexible, separate easily, and love playing with new toys.
What’s that Tracksmith calendar say?
Oh yeah…
zero days off.
I might actually agree with that. I never thought I’d be the type of person to work out every day, but I like rotating between swimming, spinning, and running.
I signed up for this track clinic on a whim when a friend recommended it to me, and it’s been incredible. I goand push hard, once a week, every week. I’m halfway through the clinic and not sure what I’ll do when it ends. I’m afraid of losing all the ground because I won’t have the scheduled time and group to keep me motivated.
If it hadn’t been scheduled, there’s probably no way I would have run this morning.
The indoor track my group uses.
But it was. And I knew I’d feel better if I went. And I knew I’d feel disappointed if I didn’t. And I couldn’t procrastinate.
So before the coffee had even hit my system, I was chasing other women as fast as I could around an indoor track.
The Workout: We did a warm up, drills, 400 meters, 800 meters, 800 meters, 400 meters.
Improvements: I’m in the second group (the slow group) but we’re picking up the pace from week to week. This week I ran the repeats in 1:49, 4:10, 3:57 and 1:48. I know we’ve done some 400s over 2 minutes last week.
Pacing: I need to work on exerting a steady effort throughout my repeats. I finished the first two repeats in the middle and toward the back of the pack, but sprinted towards the front towards the end of the last lap on the first 800 meter repeat. I felt kind of rude passing people on the last straight stretch; it shows how poor my pacing is, and while it’s nice to finish strong, it’s a little ridiculous also. I sincerely hope the other women understood I was just trying to salvage getting something out of the repeat I botched in the middle.
After finishing faster than I started on the 3rd repeat, I tried harder to exert a faster effort from the beginning for the last two repeats. I pushed harder and managed to stay in the front both times for the entire duration of the repeat. I feel like that meant I was going a more steady pace than if I’d been in the back and then passed everyone on lap 3, which is the only reason I focus on placement – it can be a good gauge of how steady you’re going.
Saving it for the end: I think I’m subconsciously afraid of crashing on these repeats. I’ve noticed that not only am I faster towards the end of repeats, I also tend to be towards the front of the pack on the later repeats in the workout, never in the beginning repeats. Not once in any of the 4 weeks have I been towards the front on repeat #1 or #2. I’m always towards the front on the last repeats. What does that say? Says that someone’s saving the energy for later… and then when it’s finally clear that we’re almost done, I’m like “oops! here it is!”
That said, my 400 meter times were only 1 second apart this week, which seems consistent. The first 800 meter was definitely slow at 4:10 vs. 3:57.
Wait… am I arguing about seconds, here?
What’s happened to me?
DO I SOUND LIKE A RUNNER?!?!
Anyway – I think the feeling I had between the repeats is more important, and I definitely had an inconsistent feel with the effort I put forward on that first 800 meter repeat, and a slower time, and I’m excited that I did the next 800 at a more consistent feel and with a better time.
Next week is February break and there’s no track clinic… we’re supposed to do 4 x 400 on our own. Our coach said that missing a week can set you back two weeks because of the way repeats build on each other, and that 4 x 400 is always a great workout to do on your own because it’s manageable and enough not to lose ground.
My 6th Half Marathon is over! I have another 13.1 miles of continuous running to my name.
How the race went: I started out strong, then I hit the hills and tanked. I kept trying to pick the pace back up, but general fatigue hit, and my watch kept reading at 11 plus minute miles. I just kept going, and kept trying to pick up the pace, but no matter how hard I tried to stick with a certain runner, they inevitably pulled away as more people passed me from behind and my legs refused to quicken the pace. The harder I tried to speed up, the more my legs threatened to quit altogether and the fear of stopping made me ease up slightly. I tried to find the maximum exertion I could put into it and still keep going.
I lost Greg’s co-workers in the first mile; they were targeting 9:30s but ended up running stronger than that. I’m so glad they pulled away so I didn’t slow them down! While I maintained that target pace for the first mile, it slowly crept down and I was in the 10s for miles 6 and 7, and then the 11s for the remainder of the race.
The weird splits in the middle are where I kept pressing the lap button instead of the display, trying to change it so I wouldn’t have to see how slow I was running. I figured it out, and saw just the time stamp for the last three miles.
How I’m feeling: I’m disappointed. I hired a trainer and ran higher mileage weeks than ever before because I wanted to run this race faster than last year, not slower than the past two years. More miles, worse race performance. That’s hard emotionally. Am I a better runner, and I just had an off-day? Or did I miss too many key training runs this year because I was sick and didn’t run the Maine Half Marathon? Did I start training seriously too late in the summer? Maybe I didn’t run enough repeats, because I was focusing on adding miles rather than intensity.
I don’t know. What I do know is that I need to accept that this same experience is a possibility next year. I may just be a 2:10 – 2:20 half marathoner. I am not complacently accepting this or giving up the possibility of improvement, but I also need to be realistic going into training next year and not expect that my results will automatically reflect my training efforts. Because they didn’t this year. And that stinks. I need to accept that possibility even as I enjoy trying to get faster.
If I’m going to do this again, which I most likely am, I need to continue to enjoy the journey and not focus on the destination.
Some awesome things: This race motivated me to start running 4 or 5 days a week instead of 3, giving me the added confidence and flexibility in my training schedule because I no longer avoid running back to back days. This race introduced me to strength training and the TRX, something I am going to focus on achieving a better base-line in this winter, so I can do 50 squats come spring and still be able to run the next day.
This race motivated me to get out and run long, something I enjoy and take pride in being able to do. I watched the sun come up, I ran by fall foliage and beautiful lakes, I made running a priority when I otherwise wouldn’t have.
I get more than enough aerobic exercise to be physically fit and healthy. That matters, and this race helped me stay motivated to do it.
The best part of the race: My in-laws (who are expert race spectators) brought Will and Andrew to see me on the course. I got the biggest, most beautiful hug from them around mile 4. I was still feeling great, running sub 10 minute miles, and thrilled to see them. I didn’t care that it would slow me down, I ran right over to them and gave them a hug and thanked them for coming to see me run. Knowing now that I wasn’t going to be running fast later, I’m so grateful that I followed my heart and spent those 30 seconds to be with them during the race.
Greg came back for me: I remember a moment at mile 9 when I looked down at my watch and saw that I was giving it everything and running 11:35 pace. I knew I was going to be “late”. I knew Greg was going to be worried. I tried so hard to pick up the pace – I kept looking at my watch and thinking of him standing there, minutes ticking by, wondering if I was walking, or crying, or injured. I wished I had my phone so I could text him “slow but sure”.
I was right – he was thinking of me. He was wondering how I was. He ran 2 miles into the course to find me. After running a 1:28 half marathon and coming in 34th out of over 1200 people, he jogged 2 miles into the course looking for me to make sure I was ok and run alongside me the last two miles in support.
Except… 2 miles into the course, he still hadn’t found me. I was so slow that he was afraid he’d missed me. He didn’t want to not see me finish, so he sprinted back to the finish line. 2 more miles. After throwing down a PR, he ran 4 extra miles, 2 of them at top speed, to be there for me when I finished.
If only I’d been a little faster; he must have turned around just before he would have seen me.
I can’t imagine running that course and then turning around and running more. To run an extra 2 miles as fast as I could to see someone finish? I cannot imagine what that felt like, and I’m humbled that Greg loves me so much that he would make his legs do that, for me. Especially when it was already clear that I was not going to be finishing proud.
I wish, for him, that I had been able to run faster. Not for a second did he make me feel as though I’d let him down… and that’s almost worse. He believed I’d be finishing sooner, and I didn’t. He believed in my ability, and I feel like I let him down. He ran four extra miles to see my 7 minutes shy of a PR finish.
He’s crazy.
I’m lucky. Greg did that extra running because he cared about how I was doing, and being there for me at the finish.
He cared about how I was feeling, not how well I was running. He could not be better or more supportive. I wish I were a faster runner for him; but he doesn’t care how fast I run, he cares about me.
I hope you had a good running weekend, and have people in your life like Greg who care only about how the race went for you, not how fast you ran it. We could all use a Greg in our life!
Tomorrow is race day! To say I’m nervous after investing in a running coach and four months of training would be an understatement. So let’s not talk about it.
Instead – another post brought to you by the expert advice of my running coach, Jake! (Who has his own site filled with advice, including free workout videos and a blog, at www.trijake.com.)
Two tips for a better water station experience on race day
1. Make eye contact and point at the volunteer you plan to get your water / sports drink from so they (and other runners) know you’re coming for them specifically.
2. Grab your cup using a pincer grasp on the top of the rim, rather than holding around the circumference. This makes it less likely you’ll squish the cup and splash liquid everywhere. You can either keep it in a pincer grasp and drink that way, or switch your hold as you jog away from the station.
3. Sweet potato and spinach lasagnas with made with kite hill cultured almond ricotta for a board potluck tonight. Helloooooo pre-race day pasta 🙂
