Louisville, KY 4/3/15
As a self proclaimed fair weather runner, sometimes I feel like I'm cursed by bad weather.
Years ago, as a college student, I used to run a 5K that took place in February called the Polar Bear Run. The weather was always miserable. Then, it occurred to me that since I was the only person I was running for, I didn't HAVE to run in miserable weather anymore... so I quit running in the winter.
Flash forward to 2006. It had been over 10 years since I ran a winter race. I'd forgotten the misery. It was a mild winter. I got lulled into a sense of safety. I registered for the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon in May and decided to do the training series 5K in February. Yup, 20 degrees and sleeting on race day.
So, no more winter racing again for a couple years. Now it's 2012. Again, mild winter. Progresses into a nice spring. I finally decided to do an 8K on April 21st. It's APRIL for Pete's sake! You got it... 20 degrees with, like 50 mph wind gusts. I considered just waiting inside the port-a-potty til the race started. At least I was sheltered in there!
When I started this blog in 2013, I still wouldn't run in bad weather. Then I discovered the indoor track. Voila! All my problems solved. I LOVE my hamster track. It keeps me running all year long.
...but this training cycle I got a coach... and he wants me to do speedwork... and I can't do the workouts on my indoor track because my Garmin won't work indoors. Ugh. Outdoors again, rain or shine. Of course, in my case, it's been RAIN!
So here's the low down on my last couple weeks... I left off with the long run on Week 2...
Week 2
Monday - 4 easy (indoors)
Tuesday - 8 (read about it HERE) It rained on me.
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - 15 miles. Long run day. I was suppose to run 20. Of course it's thunderstorming outside so I took to the hamster track. I felt good through mile 8 then I started feeling horrid. Hot, nauseous, light-headed. I may have been tired from working plus I had a million other things to do on my "to-do" list as we were leaving for Spring Break to Playa del Carmen, Mexico the next morning. Anyway, I bagged it at 15. Fact is, I barely made it to 15.
Friday - Traveled all day
Saturday - 4 miles. Woohoo! We're in Mexico. It's sunny and beautiful but it's like 80% humidity and 70 degrees by 7 am. I went to check out the fitness center at 7:30 am. There were exactly 3 treadmills and they were all occupied. I took to the streets outside our resort. The scenery was beautiful. The air was NOT! The pollution and the constant smell of raw sewage was a bit overpowering. Gag.
Sunday - Rest
Week 2 Total Miles: 31
Week 3
Monday - 6 miles. Horrid run. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort - also known as an all-you-can-eat 24/7 resort. Frankly, we ate like pigs. By Monday morning I had ingested so much food my body didn't know what to do with it. I felt like my stomach weighed 100 lbs and had to take a bathroom break midway through my run just so I could finish 6 freakin' miles. Not pretty.
Tuesday - 6 miles. By now I'd decided I HAD to run 6 miles just to burn the calories! I'm never eating this much again...
Wednesday - Traveled home all day
Thursday - 8 miles. Workout was a 2 mile warm up then 800m at 5K pace, jog 400m, 400 m at 5K pace, jog 400m, then repeat 2 more times, then cool down for 2.5 miles for a total of 8 miles. Well, guess what... it was RAINING. I knew I was going to get wet but I didn't have a choice. This was the only day I could do this workout and the only time I could do it was while my daughter was at dress rehearsal at the Tarkington for a show she was dancing in so I packed a change of clothes and sucked it up.
Pretty darn proud of how this went. Here are the speedwork splits:
800m - 3:38, 400m - 1:53
800m - 3:46, 400m - 1:46
800m - 3:49, 400m - 2:01
By the time I got to the last set of speed sets it was raining so hard I could barely see. My shoes were so soaked they felt like they were 10 lbs a piece. I'm suppose to run a 5K on Saturday. If it's raining like this, I'm running in aquasocks! There was thunder and lightening crashing everywhere. I was the only fool on the Monon. It got scary. Lightening scares the crap out of me. I finally made it back to the safety of the Tarkington and changed clothes in the bathroom. Nevermind taking a shower, I was soaked to my underwear. All I had to do was towel off and throw all my clothes in a plastic bag. The only thing I forgot was dry shoes.
It stormed like crazy. The photo above is Louisville after the same storm. Roads were flooding everywhere.
Friday - Rest. We went to the show my daughter was in, then out for dinner afterwards. I didn't get to bed until 1 am.
Saturday - 12 miles. First road 5K of the year, the Arc's iCAN 5K. Plan was to do a 3 mile warm up, then run the 5K and do a 6 mile cool down.
Weather report - no rain but 30 degrees in the morning. Ugh. The alarm went off at 6 am and I considered blowing off the race and just running by myself later in the day, then peeled myself out of bed. Things didn't go as planned. I got lost getting to the race so I got there later than planned and barely had time to get 2 miles in before the start.
All things considered - eating like a pig for 5 days, 5 hours of sleep, first 5K of the year - things went OK. I had no idea how fast to go out so I just went for it...
Mile 1 - 7:13
Mile 2 - 7:50
Mile 3 - 8:04
last 0.1 - 0:34
Official time - 23:41
Obviously I went out too fast and my splits were all over the place. I ended up 4th in the women's race and won my age group.
Magda, Nora Jo, me and Jane
Cool down didn't go exactly as planned either. I never did really figure out the 5K course; I just chased the people in front of me. I decided to run the course backwards as my cool down but then I got to the last person on the course and realized there was a chase vehicle after them taking down all the course markers. Ack!! By the time I'd gotten 1.5 miles through the course the vehicle had picked up most of the signage and I was sorta lost on the course. I ended up peeking down neighborhood streets looking for runners or leftover pilons to find the finish again... so I only got 3 miles in before the awards ceremony. Finally, I drove home and ran 4 more miles to finish my 12 for the day.
Sunday - Rest. Happy Easter! I got to work all day.
Week 3 Total Miles: 32
Week 4
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 4 miles. Easy run indoors... because it was raining.
Wednesday - 8 miles. Workout was warm up 2 miles then do eight 800m repeats with a 200m jog in between, then cool down 3 miles. Originally I was going to do this at 9 am. Well, guess what... it was RAINING... then started HAILING. Complete and total downpour at 9 am. I decided to postpone my run until the evening. Then the sun comes out and shines all afternoon. 4 pm rolls around. I'm driving to Carmel to take my daughter to dance and run the Monon. Guess what... it starts to RAIN again. This time I didn't think to pack any extra clothes...
So it's raining but not too bad when I start out. I get four 800's done in 3:53, 3:54, 3:54, and 3:52. By the time I finish my third 800 I'm about 4 miles from the dance studio. The skies open up and it's a complete and total downpour again. Then it starts thunder and lightening... like really really scary lightening. I got done with my fourth 800 and got to the overpass that goes over 146th Street and was too chicken to run it in the lightening. No way was I going to be the highest point on the horizon! I stopped under the overpass with several other runners. Problem was, I couldn't huddle under there indefinitely. My daughter's class was only 90 minutes. I was covering 8 miles. I had to get back before she was done. As soon as the light changed on 146th Street I left the overpass and just booked it back to the studio... never mind trying to get the other four 800 repeats in, I just wanted to get back! I got back and figured out I'd covered 8 miles in 65 minutes.
Talk about being wet! I was so soaked I went into the bathroom, locked myself in a stall, and was able to take off all my clothes and wring them out into the toilet. Then I had to put all the wet clothes (which at least weren't DRIPPING wet anymore) on again and just stand inside until my daughter was done with class.
OK, it can stop RAINING any day now! I think I've paid my dues.
Thursday - Rest
Friday - 16 miles. I was suppose to run 20. It was a deceptively beautiful day. There was a thunderstorm all night. I remember thinking at 1 am that I really wanted to do my long run outdoors but didn't think I'd be able to do it if it was still storming. Well, it stopped raining in the middle of the night and the winds picked up so much that the pavement was dry in the morning.
Deceptively beautiful. It was so windy it took my breath away. Plus, I think I got a little spoiled running all month on the flat protected Monon. The county roads by my house are hilly and, this time of year, all the farm fields are completely bare and open so the winds are brutal. I was tired from working all day Thursday plus, well, I was just tired! My hamstrings started aching and by mile 16 I just couldn't take it anymore and threw in the towel. I actually had to walk another mile home but it was just too much pain and effort to keep running.
Ugh. This was suppose to be my last long run before Derby and I bagged it. Time to rethink the training plan. I was suppose to do another 8 mile "steady state" run next week, followed by another longer run of 10 miles at marathon pace with warm up and warm down. If I moved the 8 miler to this week, maybe I can try 20 again next week... I emailed my coach.
Saturday - Rest. Spent the day at work.
Sunday - 8 miles. No reply from my coach yet so I did the steady state workout. 2 mile warm up, 5 miles at marathon pace, 1 mile warm down.
Still running faster than goal marathon pace. Should I just let myself run in the 8:30's?
Week 4 Total Miles: 36
So now it's Week 5...
Today was a rest day. Coach emailed me back. The 20 miler is still in discussion. Do I really need it? I'm running the Carmel Half-Marathon as my 10 mile marathon pace run on Saturday. Plan is to warm up 2 miles, run 10 miles at 8:45 pace, then cool down for 1 mile. He said I could do this as long as I didn't "cook my legs racing." Ummm, no way am I "racing" 13.1 miles a week before my marathon. I just don't like doing long runs by myself. I'm planning 4 easy miles tomorrow, then maybe 20, then two rest days, then the half marathon. That's only 3 days of running this week but 37 miles which would make it the biggest week of this training cycle. Still doesn't feel like a lot of miles to me but no going back now!
Should I run a 20 miler this week? Should I let myself run in the 8:30's? There are days I feel like "I've got this!" but then there are days I'm full of doubt. There are days I really want more time to prepare but then there are days I just want April 25th to get here so I can go do this!
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