Saturday, February 21, 2015

Napa Training Weeks 16 and 17... Taper Time

The infamous taper has started. It seems there's something about taper time that makes all runners restless. It's like you feel like you should cram a little more training in, yet you know that what's been done is done and all you can do is trust in your training and try to rest, eat right, and not do anything stupid.

So... trust in your training. I took everyone's advice and decided not to do any longer runs than the schedule dictated.

Rest. No problem there.

Eat right....well... that's tough. I'm finding myself falling off the good food wagon more and more lately. I've also come to the conclusion the scale at the fitness center MUST have broken over the weekend. Last week I was almost scared to get on the scale on Friday (the 13th) but did anyway and was relieved to see that it still read 124. On Wednesday, again, I was scared to get on after a weekend of bad eating... and it read 119. No way! I was alone in the locker room. I weighed myself three times. Then, I jumped up and down on the scale to see if I would weigh more. Nope, still 119. Does cold weather or the barometric pressure have an effect on how the scale weighs you? I haven't weighed this low since before I had kids. Plus, there is NO WAY I lost 5 lbs in less than a week. Today, I weighed myself again... and got 118. Ummm, I think the scale needs recalibrated or something because there is no way this is right. In any case, with one more week to go I just hope I'm not gaining weight!

So here's the summary...

Week 16
Sunday - Rest. Totally toast after my night shift.

Monday - 4 miles. Made friends with the dreadmill and did it at 8:41 pace.

Tuesday - Rest. I had to rearrange the run schedule to go to a funeral and didn't feel like running afterwards.

Wednesday - 8 miles. I wore my Garmin and hit the roads. Plan was to start easy then finish at marathon pace. I had the Garmin covered up under my jacket so all I could hear were the mile beeps. This is what happened...


I overshot the finish but filed away in my head that I was capable of a sub-8:00 mile after running 7 miles.

Thursday - 12 miles. Ran 9 easy on the hamster track then ran to the dreadmill and did my last 3 at 8:41 pace. My fitness center limits our treadmill time to 30 minutes so I really can't do any long runs on it. 4 miles is the longest I can go and I'm going over by almost 5 minutes when I do.

Friday - 1 mile. I was tired. I had a ton of stuff to do. I finally got to the fitness center but just didn't feel good when I started running and all I could think about was all the other stuff I had to do so I bagged it after a mile. I originally had 5 miles on the schedule.

Saturday - 7 miles. ValenTimes 10K plus a mile warm down. Maybe rest on Friday was good. I ran a 10K PR of 47:57.

Week 16 Total Miles: 32 miles

Week 17
Sunday - Rest.

Monday  - 4 miles. Easy run on the hamster track.

Tuesday - 6 miles. Again, an easy run... except my legs still felt way fatigued from the race on Saturday.

Wednesday - 4 miles. I'm still tired and having a wee bit of panic about it.

Thursday - 8 miles. Felt better but still ran all of it easy.

Friday - Rest. Got up at 4:30 am and spent the whole day at work then rushed home to get my daughter to cheer at the Center Grove vs. North Central basketball game - which turned out to be one of the best high school basketball games EVER. CG tossed in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime after being 16 points down at the start of the 4th period and never leading the game, then won it in OT, beating the 3rd ranked 4A team in the state. It was crazy exciting. I also didn't get home until 10:30 pm. Talk about a long day!

Saturday - 4 miles. All done at 8:41 pace on the dreadmill.

Week 17 Total Miles: 26 miles

So this is it. One more week to go before my big race. Eat well, rest, and don't do anything stupid!

Saturday, February 14, 2015

ValenTimes 10K


Last year I ran a 5K PR (22:50) a week before the Derby Marathon. I plugged that number into the magical race predictor calculator and it gave me an average predicted marathon time of 3:39:21. Obviously I didn't run that time but it was eye opening to see the potential.

So here I am, two weeks from my goal marathon and the last road race before my marathon this year is a 10K. This year, I looked at the race predictor backwards. I put in a marathon time of 3:50:00 to see what kind of 10K time I needed to run to potentially run that time. It spit out a time of 49:39. My 10K PR was 49:19.

I still have this because I'm a sentimental packrat.

I ran this time 28 years ago. I thought then that it would be a beginning to competitive road racing but then life got in the way and I stopped racing. I went to college, med school, and finished a residency. I got married and had two kids. I've been a Girl Scout leader, dance instructor, and have carted my kids around to dance lessons, skating lessons, cross country meets, track meets, ice hockey games, dance competitions, soccer games, cheer practice, football games and basketball games. I used to glance at this plaque sitting in my basement and think that I would never run that fast again. 49:19 is 7:56 pace. No way I could hold that pace for 6.2 miles ever again...

Until today. I felt like I was capable of holding an 8:00 pace... and if I could do 8:00, why not push it a little and do 7:56? If I could PR I could prove to myself that I was capable of 3:50.

It was not the ideal morning for a race. It was cold - in the 20's - but what bothered me the most was how windy it was. That little voice inside my head was messing with me. It's windy today so it's OK if you don't PR...

I looked around at the start and started thinking though that there was a chance I could win the women's 10K race. Then we were off...

Mile 1 - 7:31. Too fast. Slow down! Why the heck do I always run my first mile too fast?

Mile 2 - 7:38. Better. We get to where the 5K and 10K runners split and I realize there's one woman ahead of me. I want to speed up to catch her but I won't be running my own race if I do. Pace yourself! She'll come back to you.

Mile 3 - 7:56. Just keep this pace. I peeked at my watch at 3.11 miles and saw 23:58. I remembered from the race predictor that the 5K time for a 3:50 marathon was 23:57. Just keep this pace!

Mile 4 - 8:03. Now we're running into the wind and I feel like I'm faltering... but I think I'm slowly gaining on the woman in front of me.

Mile 5 - 8:10. I almost gave up this mile. We were still running into the wind. The little voice was talking to me again. It's Ok. You ran some really good miles. You will finish in second place matter what your time is today. Second place is good enough. Then, three men caught up to me. I stayed with them for at least a quarter mile. It was much easier running in a pack and I saw that we were running an 8:00 pace. We ran through the 5 mile mark together before two of the guys pulled ahead of me and one fell back. Thanks guys. One more mile to go. I can still do this!

Mile 6 - 7:50. My Garmin was not exactly matching up with the mile markers on the course. Miles 1, 2, and 3 were all long on the course. 4 was pretty close, but then 5 and 6 were short compared to when my watch was beeping. In any case, I ran past mile 6 and the girl yelled out 46:00. I knew then that I was going to PR. I wasn't going to catch the woman in front of me (who turned out to be a 13 year old) but I ran my race and had my time.

Official time - 47:57 (7:43 pace)
PR by 1:22

I'll take it!



Monday, February 9, 2015

Napa Training Weeks 14 and 15... Hanging On



I think I have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). It's cold outside. It's gray. I think it either rains or sleets every weekend. All I want to do is curl up in bed and stay there. I'm hungry. I'm tired of oatmeal. I'm tired of bananas. I'm tired of chicken. Did I mention it's cold outside? I just feel exhausted.

The last two weeks have been a struggle. I thought it was smooth sailing after Charleston. I felt good during my recovery week but then it turned into a grind...

Week 14
Sunday - Rest

Monday - 10 miles. Originally I thought I had a pace run on the schedule and was dreading it but then discovered it was just a regular run. Hallelujah! I got it done on the hamster track.

Tuesday - Rest. Original plan was to run 20 miles but I had too much stuff to do at home, I was tired, and I just wasn't in the mood to run so I rearranged the schedule and took a rest day. Then I totally fell off the good food wagon. I just wanted comfort food. Meatloaf and green bean casserole. Then ice cream with hot fudge sauce and salted caramel peanuts... all stuff from my grocery shopping that week.

Wednesday - 5 miles. Hamster track again.

Thursday - 10 miles. Not in the mood to run but ground it out on the track then went to work.

Friday - 20 miles. Again, not thrilled about it but I hit the track early so I could get all my miles in before going to work. I had thought about doing the 10 on Friday and the 20 on Saturday but Saturday was my day off and I didn't want my run to suck up my entire morning. This turned out to be a great decision, mainly because I didn't get home from work until 4 am Saturday.

Saturday - Rest. I was toast after my shift at work. I was suppose to run 5 more miles but just couldn't do it.


Week 14 Total Miles: 45

Week 15
Sunday - Rest. It was raining. Surprise (insert sarcasm)

Monday - 5 miles. Yup, hamster tracked it.

Tuesday - 10 miles. So this was my pace run. It was 20 degrees with 15 mph winds. I tried SO hard to not run the early miles fast but still blew through the first mile.
Mile 1 - 8:20. Ugh. I have GOT to slow down!
Mile 2 - 8:33. Slow down, slow down...
Mile 3 - 8:40. Better. I hit the turn around and the wind hit me full force.
Mile 4 - 8:42. 4 and 5 were the uphill into the wind miles. I swear if it's this windy in Napa I'm running behind somebody!
Mile 5 - 8:47
Mile 6 - 8:37. Made the turn around and flew downhill with the wind at my back again, then realized I was running 7:55 pace. SLOW DOWN!
Mile 7 - 8:40
Mile 8 - 8:46. I hit the turn around and the wind just took my breath away again.
Mile 9 - 9:04
Mile 10 - I was DONE with the wind after mile 9. Just totally done. Ended up walk/jogging home.
Average pace for 9 miles was 8:41.

Wednesday - 20 miles. Last 20 miler of this training cycle. I had kids to cart around in the evening and it was suppose to snow so I went out at 8 am to get the run in. Thankfully, it was sunny and not as windy as Tuesday. I kept my Garmin covered up and just listened for the beeps for my mile markers. I ran 10 miles out from my house and ended up somewhere in the northern part of the next county, running past some really nice countryside scenery and scared up two turkeys. It was a nice easy run. I picked up my pace the last mile to see what I could run it in... and ran mile 20 in 8:49.

Glad I got the run in early. It got nasty in the late afternoon then started snowing.

Thursday - Rest. Active recovery at work all day.

Friday - 10 miles. Easy run on the hamster track and... drumroll... I MADE MY GOAL RACE WEIGHT!! Woohoo. Now I just can't gain any weight for 3 more weeks.

Saturday - 5 miles. OMG! The sun came out! I worked the night shift Friday night so I slept in Saturday morning. When I woke up the sun was shining. I wasn't sure if I was going to run on Saturday as I was sure I'd be dead tired after my shift but the sun lured me outside and I got 5 easy miles in.

Week 15 Total Miles: 50

So now it's down to 3 more weeks. I'm not sure what I'm going to do mileage-wise this week. The training program calls for 34 miles, then down to 26 after that, then it's marathon week. I feel like I need to run more than 34 miles this week then do a two week taper. I'll have to see how I feel.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Making Weight


I weighed in at my goal race weight today!

It's the highlight of my week. It's been a tough 2 weeks. I plan to post the training updates after my run tomorrow but it's just been hard. My goal was to lose 10 pounds since, theoretically, that's suppose to take 15 minutes off your marathon time with no change in your level of fitness. Obviously I've been working on improving my level of fitness too but making goal marathon weight is huge for me.

Ten pounds. It doesn't sound that hard. But for someone like me, it's incredibly hard. I started out at 134 lbs. To lose 10 lbs, I had to lose 7.5% of my body weight. It took me two and a half months. You see shows like The Biggest Loser where people lose double digit pounds every week. Let's say someone starts out at 300 lbs. They just have to lose 3% of their weight to lose 10 lbs. Plus, besides running, my other hobbies include baking/cooking and grocery shopping... really not the past times you want when you are trying to lose weight. I can bake up a 1000 calorie dessert in no time flat... and oh the deals! Kroger had their Mega sale going on the last two weeks so I've been grocery shopping almost every day. I seriously would have gone every day if I had a bigger freezer. My hollow legged children have been loving it.

It's funny what will motivate people to lose weight. I didn't try to lose weight for my wedding. I don't go on diets for Spring Break. I have in my life watched what I ate when my clothes started fitting a bit snug since I hate shopping for new clothes but I'm not one to religiously step on a scale. I think that these last couple months have been the first time in a looooong time that I actually consciously made an effort to lose weight... all for a better marathon time.

I felt like a high school wrestler trying to make weight. Now that I have, I just have to keep it off for another 3 weeks. I have done a long run of 20 miles or more once a week for 5 of the last 6 weeks. This week was my last 20 miler. The mileage will go down after that so I'll really have to be careful... but for today, I'm HERE.