A New Day

I'm not much of a morning person but on days like today I understand why some people love mornings.

I'm the only one up. The house is still asleep. It's quiet. The air is still cool outside. All the hours ahead hold such promise.

So today is Day 1. Actually, it's really Day 2 but yesterday, Day 1, was a rest day. I'm starting a new run training plan. The Mill Race Marathon is 18 weeks away. I decided I needed a more structured plan this time around so I'm going with the plan I had come up with for Napa. Today is a 3 mile run. It's funny how skewed your mind gets when you start running longer distances. Without a plan telling me it's "OK" to "just" run 3 miles, most days I'm telling myself it's not even worth going out the door unless I'm running 5-6 miles... then lots of days I end up not running at all.

That's been my last 2 weeks. It's been a combination of end-of-the-school year graduation/open house madness along with work, heat, and not feeling all that great that have sidelined my runs.

Mainly so I can keep track, the last two weeks...

Sunday 5/14 - Zero miles. Mother's Day. We had friends from South Bend come and spend Saturday night with us. I got home around 1 am from work so I didn't get to see them until morning. We then went out to brunch. The wait was so long and then it took awhile to get our food. I made it back home just in time to go to work again. Same 2pm - 11pm shift for the third day in a row. I was beat.

Monday 5/15 - 6 miles. It was over 85 degrees when I started an easy run on the Monon in the evening. Then I had stomach issues due to downing a left over jalapeño sausage cheese breakfast skillet before the run (BAD idea!). Ended up having to walk a bit. Not a great run.

Tuesday 5/16 - 5 miles. Run Club. Again it was over 80 degrees by the time we started running. The actual workout was a track workout but I had been running around all day like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get stuff done for J's Open House on Saturday and was halfway around the 465 loop when I realized I'd left the house without my Garmin. Ugh. Ended up running, more like trying to keep up, with some of the fast kids. They were racing on Saturday so they took off for an "easy" run. We got to the mile mark and I looked over at Trena and asked how fast we were going. "8:00." I let them go after that as I wanted to finish the run still standing and I was already overheating. No watch but I'm sure I averaged sub-9:00. Did NOT feel good after the run though.

Wednesday 5/17 -  Zero miles. Worked all day.

Thursday 5/18 - Zero miles. Took G to the orthodontist in the morning then spent all day prepping Open House stuff.

Friday 5/19 - Zero miles. Worked from 7 am to 7 pm. Got home and started making cupcakes for the Open House at 8:30 pm. Baked 145 cupcakes in 4 different flavors - red velvet chocolate chip with cream cheese icing, lemon blueberry with lemon cream cheese icing and fresh blueberries, strawberry shortcake with strawberry filling and whipped strawberry cream topping with fresh strawberries, and double chocolate with chocolate buttercream icing and shaved chocolate. After the cupcakes were done baking I had to finish J's trifold of photos. Trying to get all her photos to fit on a trifold at 3 am was like working a giant puzzle with no sleep. I finally went to bed at 5:30 am.

Saturday 5/20 - Zero miles. Got up at 8:30 am to finish icing all the cupcakes. I made other food too. Luckily it was a joint Open House, with the party itself being held at my daughter's friend's house (since mine was TRASHED by now). Got everything hauled over there and set up just in time for the Open House to start at 4 pm. I sat down and almost fell asleep as the guests started coming in. It was immensely satisfying though to see that everyone loved the cupcakes.

11 miles this week.

Sunday 5/21 - Zero miles. I needed today to rest.

Monday 5/22 - 6 miles. Nice easy uneventful run on the Monon.

Tuesday 5/23 - 6 miles. Good run on the hamster track. Missed Run Club in the evening as J graduated from the Vincennes University Early College program in the evening. Her actual high school graduation will be next weekend.

Wednesday 5/24 - Zero miles. The day got away from me then G had a choir concert in the evening. We went out to dinner after that and didn't get home until almost 10:30 pm.

Thursday 5/25 - Zero miles. Up at 4 am to go to work. I had intentions of running after that but never made it off my couch.

Friday 5/26 - Zero miles. Up at 4 am again to go to work. Woke up feeling crappy. My throat had been a little sore all week. Now my head was stuffy and I couldn't stop coughing, which in turn made my chest hurt... rummaged through my medicine cabinet and came up with the following cocktail - 1 guaifenesin/dextramethophan combo pill for the chest congestion and cough, 2 pseudophed pills for my sinus congestion, 3 chlorphenamine pills for my runny nose and sneezing, 4 ibuprofen pills for my body aches, sore throat, and I felt a wee bit feverish, a snort of Afrin up each nostril, and 2 zinc tablets just because I found those too. That and two cups of coffee and I thought I was ready for the day... until I went to see my first patient and discovered I didn't have much of a voice either. It came out really hoarse and squeaky.

Felt better, thankfully, by the time I got off work. Then it took me 2 hours to get home due to highway construction. Ran in, changed, then took off for Carmel again to go to my niece's graduation Open House by 6 pm. Hung out in Carmel after that to bring G home and got home a little after 9 pm. My husband's aunt was at our house by then as she was staying here for my mother-in-law's surprise birthday party in the morning. I was up long enough to set out some clean sheets and towels before I passed out.

Saturday 5/27 - Zero miles. Up at 6 am so we could be ready and out the door by 7 am for my mother-in-law's surprise birthday party at 8 am in Columbus. It's her 80th Birthday and we did a surprise birthday breakfast.

By the time hubs and I got home in the afternoon I could hardly stay awake... but I had to drive to Carmel to pick G up from dance. Did that then finally got to lay down for a bit, and then the day was pretty much over.

12 total miles this week.

Now it's a new week. A new day. A new beginning. Let's see what the day brings!

Training Log 5/7/17 - 5/13/17 - Commitably Committed

After my "perfect Saturday" of racing and running around all day I woke up Sunday with a low grade compartment syndrome in both lower legs. Sigh...

Compartment syndrome occurs when your muscles swell but are restricted my the membrane that surrounds your muscles, the muscle fascia. The higher pressure blood from your arteries gets pumped into the muscle but the lower pressure blood in your veins can't get out of the muscle because of all the pressure from the swelling. If this happens quickly, as in acute compartment syndrome, you can actually lose circulation in the affected body part as well as damage the nerves so you need an emergency fasciotomy where, basically, you get your leg surgically fileted open to cut the muscle fascia and release the pressure. It's not pretty when it happens. I saw it happen to Kim Betz, the 1987 NCAA Women's Cross County Champion, when I was at IU. It happened to her after a meet in 1988 and I don't think she was ever the same after that. Luckily, I didn't have the acute kind. With a low grade (sometimes called chronic) compartment syndrome your muscles swell and they feel firm and painful but you still have circulation and sensation. I get it in my lower legs every now and then. When it happens it's very painful when I move my foot and do activities like push off my foot, plus it feels like I'm walking around with 20 lb weights strapped on to each leg. I tend to feel it most in my soleus which is the muscle that's underneath and below my gastrocnemius (i.e. the calf muscle). When it happens all I can do is ice and rest the area until it goes away. Getting an elective surgery to open up that muscle fascia is on option but it doesn't always help. I had a friend who had that surgery. He had a long painful recovery so I will stick to ice and rest.

In the meanwhile... I went a little crazy on committing myself to future races.

I decided I wanted to qualify for Boston again. I know. It's a sickness. I picked the Mill Race Marathon as my qualifying attempt. It's on Saturday September 23rd, the weekend after the Boston 2018 qualifying window closes. I am going to try and qualify for Boston 2019. I will be 50 on race day in 2019 so I get another 5 minutes. If the current qualifying standards don't change my qualifying time will be 4:00. I'm convinced I can run that. In fact, I am still going for sub-3:50.

Then I signed up for the Monumental Marathon on Saturday November 4th. This is for redemption. I had such a bad race there in 2013 I want to do it again to run it better. Plus this will be my back up marathon in case Mill Race blows up.

Carmel Marathon on Saturday March 31st offered a crazy race special for a couple days last week where the entry fee was $31. Carmel hadn'r really been on my radar but I pulled the trigger anyway and signed up for it too, mainly because it's a local race and I know a bunch of people that are running it. FOMO I suppose.

The 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, which I think might be called the Indy Mini these days, also had a sign up special right after this year's race where it was $60 to sign up for next year. I still want a PR on that course so I signed up for that too. Might as well commit myself while the prices are low :)

Mainly for future reference for myself, this is what the races cost...

2017 Mill Race Marathon $60
2017 Monumental Marathon $80
2018 Carmel Marathon $31
2018 Indy Mini Marathon $60

As far as my running week...

Sunday 5/7 - Zero miles. It stayed dry and sunny so I worked in my yard all day.

Monday 5/8 - Zero miles. Really really sore from yardwork, plus my legs still hurt but it was still dry and sunny so more yard work!

Tuesday 5/9 - Zero miles. It's suppose to rain again so I did some MORE yardwork before going to work.

Wednesday 5/10 - 3 miles. Finally woke up able to push off my foot without too much pain so I did some easy miles on the Monon in the evening. Good stretch and PT exercises afterwards and I felt back to normal after my shower.

Thursday 5/11 - 6 miles. Nice easy miles on the Monon.

Friday 5/12 - Zero miles. Too much stuff to do at home before going to work in the afternoon.

Saturday 5/13 - Zero miles. Again, tons of house cleaning and grocery shopping to do before going to work in the afternoon. Got absolutely killed at work.

9 total miles this week.

Training Log 4/30/17 - 5/6/17 - 500 Festival Mini Marathon

Quite honestly, the week ended up being a bit anti-climatic. Once I decided I wasn't going for a sub-1:50 race, I was pretty confident. I would run sub-2:00 and even thought 1:55 would be easily obtainable so I was able to relax.

I ended up resting and eating. I've been exhausted lately and really tired on my runs. I started tracking my food again and realized I wasn't eating enough carbs to fuel my runs. So, this being race week, I ate EVERYTHING and it felt pretty darn good!

Sunday 4/30 - Zero miles. Worked all day and was pretty much a starving sleepy train wreck by the time I got home. I was so hungry my stomach hurt too much to eat. I finally just passed out.

Monday 5/1 - Zero miles. Today was suppose to be my day off, rest day. Hubs had other plans and I ended up driving almost to Cincinnati with him so he could pick up a car. Again, starving tired train wreck by the time we got back home. Got back just in time to drive G to Carmel. I was planning to run while she was in class but couldn't. Absolutely too tired and it was pouring rain. Ended up watching "The Barkley Marathons" on Netflix instead.

Tuesday 5/2 - 6 miles. Ran on the county road and the miles flew by. Really enjoyed my run. Then it started pouring rain again and I went to work in the evening.

Wednesday 5/3 - 4 miles. Easy run on the hamster track. It was pouring rain again.

Thursday 5/4 - Rest. Like rest rest rest all day! I had to work the night shift tonight and I knew that two nights before your race, so THIS night, was the important sleep night. Since I was going to be up all night I laid around all day as much as possible. Of course it was pouring rain again so it was pretty easy to do.

Friday 5/5 - Zero miles. Got home from work and slept until noon. Continued to lay around all day the went to the Expo to pick up my race packet. Found out from friends before leaving to drive downtown that some of the roads around my house were flooded and closed so I formulated a drive plan for Saturday morning too. Ran thru Goodwill after the Expo to pick up a throw away jacket for the morning.

Saturday 5/6 - 13.1 miles. Race day! I'm glad I blog so I have something to look back on from year to year about what I did and what time I left the house, etc. as I can never decide what time is a good time to leave the house on race morning. I looked back and saw that I usually get to my favorite parking garage downtown by 6 am. Working backwards I decided to get up at 4:30 am so I could eat and leave in plenty of time to get downtown by then.

Oatmeal and coffee for breakfast, then a banana and bottle of water for the car. My wave didn't start til 7:33 am but I left the house at 5:30 am so I wanted something to eat closer to race time. It was cold. My car said it was 39 degrees.

Got parked, ate, and waited for Margo to get there so we could meet up. Then it started raining. Ugh. This could be awful. We huddled under the entrance of the Eiteljorg museum waiting until it was time to get in the corral.

Me and Margo at the start

Thanks Margo for remembering to take a picture!

Race finally started. It was still spitting rain.

Mile 1 - 8:35. My original plan was to run easy and go out at about 8:45 pace. Well, I felt like I was running very easy but faster than I planned but I just went with it. After the first mile I had warmed up enough to throw my jacket.

Mile 2 - 8:37. Still spitting rain but it was a fine mist. Not enough to really even get you wet. Skies were overcast and the temperature was perfect (40's). This was PR weather. I was a bit annoyed that I wasn't in PR shape to take advantage of it but decided to enjoy what the day brought.

Mile 3 - 8:32
Mile 4 - 8:29
Mile 5 - 8:43

Still running very easy. I hadn't stopped at all for any water or Gatorade but wanted to sip some Gatorade as I knew I'd need the fuel. Problem was, I couldn't find it. Everyone seemed to be offering water but I couldn't find the Gatorade. I looked at the aid stations at both mile 4 and 5. I had a GU with me so I finally took that before I entered the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and took some water there.

Mile 6 - 8:33. Turned the corner to get onto the track itself and Meb Keflezighi was standing there high fiving everyone. Of course I had to give him a high five too.

Mile 7 - 8:45
Mile 8 - 8:41
Mile 9 - 8:39
Mile 10 - 8:27

Ran around the track without a problem. I cannot tell you how many years I've started suffering on the track! 2012 I had to start walking on the track because it was so hot and I was seeing more black in my vision than anything else. This year the track miles went by without incident and the sun started peeking out. Many runners around me welcomed the sun but I didn't want sun yet; it was perfect the way it was!

Plan was to run conservatively for 10 miles then see what I had left.

Mile 11 - 8:26. This mile felt great. I looked down at my watch at one point, saw that I was on 8:17 pace, and thought I might end up with a decent time after all. I ran the whole race with my watch on lap time mode so I only saw the pace for the mile that I was in. I knew though that I hadn't run anything close to the 8:23 pace I needed for sub-1:50 but I also knew I was under 8:45 pace and 8:45 pace gets you 1:55 so I'd fall somewhere in between 1:50 and 1:55. I saw the overall gun time at mile 11 and realized I could run 10 minute miles from here on in and still make 1:55. For all the years 1:55 had been my goal it was a weirdly satisfying feeling.

Mile 12 - 8:35. Ewww... this mile felt a little harder. First time all race I felt like I was working...

Mile 13 - 9:05. Turned the corner onto New York Street. This is the street we finish on and it's less than a mile to the finish. You turn the corner and run across a bridge over the White River then it's through the IUPUI campus to the finish. I turned the corner and my legs turned to concrete. There was absolutely no finishing speed left. Had to put one foot in front of the other to get myself to the finish line. Well, if my legs were going to bonk (cause my cardio was still in great shape), I guess I'm thankful I made it over 12 miles before it happened. I knew this was a possibility since I hadn't run over 13 miles all year.

Official finish time - 1:53:31
Female 45-49 age group - 45th out of 1026
All females 689 of 10,186
Overall 2908 of 19,067

My goal used to be to finish in the top 25% overall. This year I made the top 16% so I guess I'm moving up in the world!

Looking  at my 5K splits I'd have to say this is one of the most consistent times I've ever ran.

To top off my day, as I was walking out of Military Park a man flagged me down. At first I was confused and thought maybe I had dropped something, but then he started thanking me. He said he started to really struggle in the race but then decided to lock in on me and not let me out of his sight for the rest of the race so I was the one that got him to the finish line. I'm not sure when this happened as I wasn't aware of anyone running with me, but I guess if he was behind me I never would've seen him, but hey, it made my day! All I saw was that his name was "Chuck" on his bib. So Chuck, whoever you are, you made my day!

I was home by 11 am. After that it was grocery shopping and picking G up from dance. J had her senior prom that night and informed me when I got home from the race that she wanted friends over post-prom to spend the night so I spent the rest of the day picking up the house, then lots of prom pictures with the kids before they left. As soon as the kids left, the rest of us went out for dinner too. Back home that evening I marveled at the fact that I could do all this. Years ago, like in my 20's and 30's, I'd run this race and be laid up for the rest of the day. Some years it was days before I could move normally. It's amazing what happens with some consistent training. Not to say my training has at all been really consistent lately, but it's been WAY consistent since I started blogging compared to what I used to do.

After 9 days of rain, the sun came out and stayed out. These are the kids before they left for prom.

It was the perfect Saturday.

23 miles run this week.

Training Log 4/23/17 - 4/29/17 - Mini Decisions

This was the week I'd decide on what kind of shape I was in for the half marathon on May 6th. I needed to be realistic and once I figured it out, I was fine with it.

Sunday 4/23 - Rest

Monday 4/24 - 5 miles. Easy on the county road. I considered doing 10 but after one loop I decided I didn't need 10 today since I was planning to do 10 on Thursday.

Tuesday 4/24 - Rest. Worked the night shift Monday night so I slept all day, then went back for another night shift.

Wednesday 4/25 - 4 miles. Good run on the hamster track. I tried not to sleep in too long this morning after my night shift so I could get my sleep right again but didn't have the energy to leave the house until 7 pm. Once I started running, it was one of those runs where I felt like I could run all night but I cut it short as I knew I'd be running hard the next morning.

Thursday 4/26 - 10 miles. Met Margo at 9 am to do our last hard run before the Mini Marathon and to find out what kind of shape we were really in. Plan was 2 mile warm up, 3 miles at race pace, 1 mile recovery, 3 more miles at race pace, then 1 mile cool down. So, first interval went fine. Ran 8:30, 8:30, and 8:25. It was all manageable but I was asking myself if I could really do this for 13 miles, plus the pace needed to be a hair faster (8:23 for sub-1:50). After the first set Margo decided she wasn't doing the second one so I was on my own. Ran 8:35, then 8:38. I had to really work for that 8:38 and that settled it. I decided I wasn't in shape to go for a sub-1:50 half marathon next weekend. We are both definitely in sub-2:00 shape but not sub-1:50 shape. I ended up doing a 2 mile cool down and was at peace with the fact that I wasn't going to go sub-1:50.

Friday 4/27 - 5 miles. I'm really proud of myself that I even ran on Friday night. After working the night shift on Monday and Tuesday night I turned around and got up at 4 am to work the early morning shift. I got home around 4:30pm and planted myself prone on the couch. There was a thunderstorm out so if I was going to run I'd have to go to the hamster track, which closed at 7 pm on Friday nights. I finally peeled myself off the couch to get there in time to get my miles in.

Saturday 4/28. Zero miles. Up at 4 am again for an early morning shift and this time I couldn't get up off the couch once I got home. Again it was thunder storming out. The fitness center closes at 5 pm on Saturdays so I would have had to drive further to the Y to run on the dreadmill and I just couldn't move.

24 miles this week. Considering my schedule, it was a good week.