Exhausted, Discouraged and Defeated – And That’s OK.

9 years ago • 3 Comments • 13.1 Training

MeandAndrew — At the Wellesley Mothers Forum Fall Carnival on Saturday!

I’m having a tough time with running right now.

I’m running more miles per week than ever before (25-30) and trying to run my shorter runs faster. Every time I run, I run on tired legs. Every time I push the pace, it feels like I’m slogging through mud.

I’m exhausted from the amount of running combined with a busy fall schedule. Preschool phase in last week had me picking up and dropping off the kids at different times, so I had to be at school 4 times within the space of three and a half hours, and fit my running in between. Volunteer commitments for the mother’s forum, which I LOVE had me attending 4 events in the last 10 days, one of which I hosted. I fell asleep Saturday afternoon for two hours, and I’m NOT into naps.

I saw my running shadow yesterday and it looked so… sad. My shadow was not running. My shadow was jogging, and it was a sad, effort-filled jog.

I miss heading out with fresh legs and getting into the flow of running. I struggle to complete each run.

I write this not because I enjoy admitting that I feel defeated and exhausted, but because I know it’s ok to feel this way. Voicing the challenges associated with this difficult point in my training will make it even better when I run that half marathon in November and look back at this week with gratitude.

I can feel discouraged, exhausted and defeated. I can feel frustrated with the fact that I don’t yet see returns on my efforts because I’m still in the middle of training. It’s fine to feel this way, and it doesn’t mean I don’t also feel hope and excitement.

When I think of the effort I’m putting into this training cycle, I know that whatever happens on race day was earned.

I can picture the way it will feel when I grit my teeth keeping pace up those hills between miles 8 and 11 of the Chilly Half Marathon, feeling the fatigue in my legs and knowing I can tell them to keep going anyway, and they will.

I can picture the thrill of standing at the starting line with legs that have been tapering, ready to put forth my best effort, knowing I won’t feel fatigue until towards the end of the race because I will be ready.

I can picture the way it will feel when I cross that finish line and reap the rewards from all the time and effort I’ve put in this fall.

Not all training weeks will feel this hard. Not all weeks will have this many events, or a challenging schedule. But by bearing down and making it through these weeks, I reap the rewards of my running training, being part of a great volunteer organization, and having happy and well adjusted kids who had the time they needed to phase in to preschool.

So I will survive the weeks I need to survive, because weeks where I thrive are around the corner!

Got up early and ran 10 miles before the Fall Carnival on Saturday… crashed and took a 2 hour nap Saturday afternoon.

Next week will be my highest mileage week ever!

9 years ago • 0 Comment • 13.1 Training

Happy Labor Day! We put a moratorium on travel this weekend, having one too many memories of sitting in traffic for hours on end trying to get home from Maine. While we missed seeing our family in Maine, we loved having a 3 day weekend for long runs and paddle boarding at the local pond! My in-laws even came down for a day trip.

Trail Running: I’m newly obsessed with trail running. I have always been hesitant, because (honestly) I worry about getting lost and I don’t like uneven terrain. But you can’t beat the views, the peacefulness, and the shade. We even have some great trails wide enough for strollers, and I had a fabulous 3 mile run of over half trails this morning with the boys!

This week will be my highest mileage ever: My running coach e-mailed me a training schedule for this week because he qualified for a golf tournament and had to cancel our session. He’s done triathalons, ultras, and now is enjoying the process of becoming excellent at golf. It’s truly about the journey. Anyway, next week the plan is to run 32.5 miles. There are 5 x 800 meter repeats, but the rest is just logging the miles at whatever pace I can survive.

My strategy: Not to look at the plan for the week, just to look at each day as it comes. I have a 10 mile and 7 mile run back to back this weekend, something I have never, ever done before. If I think about it, I will worry and my confidence might waver. If I take each run as it comes, I’ll do better. I can run 7. I can run 10. That’s all I need to remember as I lace up and head out. One mile at a time.

I’ve never run more than 26 miles in a week! I’m excited to pass the 30 mile mark. I love having a running coach right now, because I would never plan a 30 mile week for myself right now, but if he believes I can do it, and should do it, I’m willing to try. Believing is a prerequisite to doing, and nothing gives you confidence like knowing an expert has tailored your running plan for you. 30 miles in a week… here I come!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend, and wish you clarity and confidence as you plan your running week!

Stroller run sweat. Planning to earn a good race at the Chilly Half Marathon in November!

Trust the Training Process

9 years ago • 2 Comments • 13.1 Training, My Running

Learning to Trust the Training Process:I feel like I’m training for a half marathon for the first time. I know it’s my third season of training for them, and my next in October (a practice half for the race I’m targeting in November) will be my 6th half marathon. But I’ve never trained like this before.

My first season: I added diligently to my long runs until I could go further each week, targeting race survival. I wanted to run 13.1 miles without stopping, and it was all I could do to run a few times a week and keep adding distance to that weekend run.

My second season: I tried the Run Less, Run Faster workouts to do three quality running workouts a week, and added in some cross training for good measure, doing spin class about three times a month. I found most of the workouts too challenging in intensity, and ended up just sticking to the “three times a week” part of the plan rather than the “high intensity” part of the plan. Still, I was doing some track repeats, and I had added in spin class. My training was evolving. I was growing.

My third season: I hired Jake to be my running coach. I’m doing strength training. I’m doing some recovery cycling once a week. I’ve added hill sprints, he’s analyzing my running form, and I’m running 5 days a week. This is a huge change. I’m slower than I was last summer, not because I haven’t improved, but because I’m suddenly running 5 days a week and strength training and cycling, and while Jake is varying the intensity so I can “recover” I’m not running on rested legs. Last summer, I was targeting three runs a week. Let’s be honest, that meant some weeks I was running twice a week because I’d miss a run. I never ran back to back days, so if I missed a run, I didn’t move it to the next day because that would impact my scheduled long run, which I never ran after another running day. So there were weeks I was only running twice. Guess how rested I felt running? Pretty rested. But I wasn’t working consistently enough to improve the way I’m going to improve this season.

Training is demoralizing: I’ve had to get slower to get faster. I ran my 5th half marathon last November at 10:01 pace. That’s 13.1 miles at about a 10 minute pace, and I recently blogged about how difficult I’m finding it to run 7 miles at that targeted pace. In an e-mail from Jake, he reminded me that I need to trust the process. It’s going to feel hard, and I’m going to run slower, while I’m training. The muscle building process is hard, but I need to remember that I won’t feel like this when I run the race after tapering.

Journaling: I’ve started to journal my training. I’m inputting Jake’s schedule for me into excel, and am tracking how much of the targeted goal I met, and how I felt. It’s going to be great to look back at. Keep in mind if you’re looking at it that this schedule is targeted specifically for me based on my running history, weaknesses, and goals – so if you’re interested in Jake’s training plans, I’d recommend not looking at what I’m doing specifically, but checking out his free downloadable plans (scroll down and his downloadable plans are on the left under Full and Half Marathon Training Plans).

This Could be Epic: There’s a huge difference in the way I’m training this year vs. previous years. Not just in sheer amount of time, but in effort and willingness to push through discomfort a little to make progress. I wouldn’t be brave enough to do this (I’m very, very injury averse) if I didn’t have a coach guiding me and telling me it’s ok to run tired and sore. Again, seek your own professional for running advice! It’s been weeks and I am injury free, and hopefully getting stronger. What will this fall bring, if I keep putting in the effort?

I’m excited to find out 🙂

What my Training Journal Looks Like – do you keep one?

Examining My Moving Time vs. Elapsed Time on Garmin

9 years ago • 3 Comments • 13.1 Training, My Running

Comparing elapsed vs. moving time for two long runs:The goal of my last two long runs for half marathon training was 7 miles each at 10 minute pace. The two runs went very differently. The first one I ran alone, prioritizing the 10 minute pace goal but taking a lot of breaks. The second I ran with a friend and didn’t want to burden him with a lot of breaks, so even though I had to run slower to make it happen, I ran continuously. The time elapsed vs. moving time on my Garmin helped me examine the huge difference between these two runs that ostensibly had the same goal.

Run One: I ran by myself. I was getting over a cold, so I took it *real* easy on myself when I felt like stopping. I didn’t want to walk, and I didn’t really want to slow down, so I did the entire 7 miles at 10 minute pace and modified it by stopping my watch whenever I felt like it to rest on the side of the road.

It was kind of brutal. I felt like it took forever to run the 7 miles… because it did. When I got home and looked at my Garmin connect, I discovered that I had taken THIRTY MINUTES in breaks. Garmin keeps track of the elapsed time of a run, so even when you stop the watch, it knows how long it has been since you commenced the workout. All those little breaks I took added up… and Garmin kept track. By subtracting my “moving time” from my “elapsed time” I was able to see that I added a full half hour onto my run. Time spent just standing on the side of the road thinking about how I should really start running again.

runwithoutted

Sort of miserable.

Why I ran the next long run with company: I knew I had to do it again the next week, and I knew I had trouble pushing myself to keep the pace and eliminate breaks, so I recruited company for the run. Ted is a more experienced and faster runner, but was willing to keep me company. Knowing he was already slowing down a lot for me really kept me running through the fatigue.

Run 2: We ran 11 minute miles instead of 10 minute miles, but we did 7 miles without stopping. I was a little horrified that I’d told him my goal was to run 10 minute miles and we ended up running 11 minute miles. I was setting the pace of the run and just could. not. seem. to. go. faster.

When I first saw the splits on Garmin Connect after I got home, I was thinking why didn’t I run with Ted last week when I managed to run the 10 minute pace?

But the elapsed time tells a different story. During my run without Ted, I took 30 minutes of breaks. With Ted, we took less than 4 minutes off for navigation purposes. If you average out the pace to include breaks, that would mean my first long run averaged just over 14 minute miles. When you put it that way, I ran way faster with Ted.

runwithted

I’d rather think of my first run as a whole bunch of 10 minute repeats, but the point is, the 7 miles at 11 minute pace without stopping probably served me better in terms of half marathon preparation.

I need to learn to push through the “want to stop” feeling, and keep going… because I obviously can. I think modifying the pace might be a better alteration to a long run than taking an unlimited number of breaks. I definitely don’t want to be constantly fighting the urge to take breaks when I’m running the race.

I wrote a post a few summers ago about eliminating walking breaks from your run that was very popular. Maybe I should give it a re-read 😉

In the meantime, having Ted there to motivate me to eliminate walking breaks helped me really see the stark difference between these two runs. One where I prioritized meeting my pace goal, one where I prioritized eliminating breaks.

A walk/run strategy can work really well for some people. A “take unlimited breaks whenever you feel like it” strategy prolongs runs to the point of misery. Big difference! I know I was recovering from a cold on Monday, and I respect the effort I put in to meet that target pace. I do have 7 miles at that pace in my legs that I didn’t before. But if the point of the long run is to teach yourself to keep going, I’m not sure I really did that with my first run. There’s a time for running so hard you need breaks. It’s called intervals.

Does the difference between your elapsed time and moving time tell you anything helpful about your runs?

Weekend Fun & A Running Update

9 years ago • 0 Comment • 13.1 Training, My Running

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I did some running, we had friends over for dinner, went to the beach, and even made it out to lunch just the two of us. (An event worthy of the above pictured sangria.)

Running update: It’s about 13 weeks until the Chilly Half Marathon on November 8th. I’m really hoping to drop the pace for this one (9:30 goal, down from 10:01 result last year).

I really want to use my limited training time efficiently, so I hired a running coach to help. He’s an ultra-marathoner and triathlete who provides specific half marathon and marathon coaching packages, and I’d enjoyed his spin class.

My first session with him was last week. We talked for a few minutes, I caught him up to date about what I’d done over the summer (not as much as I’d hoped, but hey, lots of paddle boarding) and then we did 50 minutes of circuit training and he gave me a running plan for the upcoming week.

What’s circuit training? I did small sets of exercises (45 seconds of high knees, 250 meters of rowing, 45 second plank, etc.) and would cycle through a group of 3 exercises 3 times total, then move on to another set of exercises.

Result: I worked hard and felt fantastic… until the next day. I was in so much pain for two days that I couldn’t run. The third day, I got a shard of glass stuck in my foot and didn’t run. I finally ran on Saturday (already 10 miles behind for the week). I had, by then, gotten the glass out of my foot… but my muscles still weren’t back to normal. I averaged 12 minute miles for my 6 mile run (so glad I finally put the watch back on so we could track my summer “progress”) and took today off instead of doing my prescribed 3 mile recovery run.

pace — The day after circuit training I ran one of the most painful miles of my life before fear of injury and straight up pain sent me walking home.

Whoops. I probably should have been more clear that while I had been enthusiastically working on my push ups in Maine, I hadn’t done the full sets of 50s twice a week as prescribed. That may have gotten lost in our discussion, along with the fact that I’ve never done any sort of regular strength training. Coaches aren’t mind readers. I said “I did a lot of paddle boarding and not enough running.” That’s not the same as “And I did the fun part of the 50s and only half as often as you advised.” And, honestly, except for the last sets of high knees and jumping jacks, I didn’t have much indication at the time that I was working too hard. Perhaps a little over-exerting is a necessary part of figuring out where you’re at.

Going forward: Now I have to go in on Tuesday and tell Jake that I missed four out of 5 runs this week, and that we’re not at ground zero for this training plan, we’re at below zero. I’m not a fan of admitting I didn’t do what I was supposed to do because I’m not fit enough to make it through 50 minutes of circuit training and still run the next day.

But there’s still time. This moves me one step closer to figuring out what level of strength training is just enough to get benefits and not so much it jeopardizes my running. And it gives me added incentive to do better in pre-season training in the future. It’s not just about the half marathon training, it’s about being ready to start! (There’s a reason many beginner plans are 16 weeks, whereas more intermediate plans might be 12. You need to ramp up!)

On the plus side, I had a great weekend, I did make it out for a relaxing 6 mile run, and I’ve got 13 weeks. I know first hand how much can change in 13 weeks.

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13.1 Training

I’m having a tough time with running right now.

I miss heading out with fresh legs and getting into the flow of running. I struggle to complete each run.

When I think of the effort I’m putting into this training cycle, I know that whatever happens on race day was earned.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend, and wish you clarity and confidence as you plan your running week!

What my Training Journal Looks Like – do you keep one?