This blog needs updated like woah. I didn't fall off the face of the earth, but between balancing work and running and not neglecting my friends or husband (or my sleep), life is becoming a world of craziness. So here's what I've been working on:
BALANCE.
When I find something that feels good, I tend to run with it (pun unintended) and get a little crazy. Obviously, training for a marathon feels good. (Mostly.) So lately, my world has revolved around running and making sure all the runs on the schedule fit into my life no matter what. Then two thoughts made me stop and really look at what I'm doing to myself.
The first: I don't know how the hell I'm going to make it to the marathon without absolutely wearing myself out.
Yeah. No good. I need SOME energy to actually, you know, run 26.2 miles. Having the life sucked out of me may just set me up to never want to run again after this, and I want to run. And I want to want to run.
The second: my husband is going to New York City for two weeks (well, two work weeks plus the weekend between them). He invited me to fly out and spend that weekend with him. Part of me (a part larger than I'd like to admit) wanted to decline because I would miss the long run that weekend.
You heard me. I would almost give up not only a trip to NYC, where I've only been ONCE, and a chance to NOT have to spend 13 consecutive days without my relatively new husband, because of a freaking long run.
So I've re-evaluated. I'm working harder on listening to my body and what it really wants me to do as far as speed and mileage, and I'm working harder on leaving the running shoes off in favor of some QT with the one person who puts up with me, and the fact that these days 90% of my time is spent running, or thinking or talking about running.
What this means: yes, I'm going to NYC. I got up early on Valentine's Day to run that morning so I had the evening to spend with my guy. I skipped a Girls on the Run group run so we could sleep in and then hang out in bed. When my shins were killing me, I swam a mile instead, and it felt great.
The world won't end if I don't follow the schedule exactly, and I will still have a successful first marathon even if I skip some runs because my sanity, my marriage, and my health are all necessary to completing that marathon.
Quickly now......
Recent runs
They have been good. Really. My running buddy and I stuck together yesterday for 15 miles. My farthest run ever!!! And the awesome news - we did it one minute faster than my half marathon race time. Yes, you read that correctly. 15 miles in 2:34. And it wasn't a push for speed - it was a (mostly) comfortable pace. After 13 or so, no pace on earth was going to feel comfortable, that's all. :) Some of my shorter runs have been in the sub-10 pace region - and again, that is what feels good right now. I'm purposely doing more hills and they're working out ok. Not great, but ok. Even the 150 foot monster near my house that I have only ran up ONCE (because I was afraid of it) is doable. OK, so I have to catch my breath at the top, but still. That's where I am and it's ok.
There was one crappy run - the group run where we did speedwork. The recipe was simple: 2 mile warmup. Repeated .6 mile loops (with 70 second breaks) at 1 minute faster than marathon goal pace. I'm still not sure what my marathon pace will be. I'd love to think 10 but I'm trying to be realistic. Anyway, I figured I could do .6 mile loops at a 9:00 pace. So I went with the 10:00 coach....who did the WARMUP at a 9:00 pace. Yeah, crap. I started doing the loops with her, realized I couldn't keep up, looked at my Garmin and saw that the first number was a 7, and said eff this. I did some of the speedwork on my own, then tried to run with the 10:30 coach. However, she was doing the speedwork at about a 9, and at that point, I was worn the f out. I felt defeated, but really, I felt a little aggravated that the coaches weren't sticking with what they said they were going to do. If I'd have known, I would've done that workout on my own, and it would've been a challenge, but not one that sucked the life out of me.
Anyway......everything else is going well. For real. I think that's a decent catchup for everyone and I'll try to stay on top of this bloggy thing more. :)
You got it lady - BALANCE!!! is everything. I've gotten that way about bad weather runs. I want to want to run - running in sleet is a fast way to make me not want to run, at all. I've found I'm still meeting my goals if I do the 2 group runs each week and fit in one extra run that's just a maintenance run - no speed, no hills. If I've got time, I'll tack on a 4th, 30 min easy run to stay loose - but I like to cross train too and I think that's important.
ReplyDeleteI've also realized with the coaches - you should stick with your regular pace coach on speedwork days - b/c their plan is to do the same thing you are. If you switch up to a faster coach, and that coach is planning to run faster than their regular pace too - then you're doubling up on the level of speedwork you should be doing. You get the experience you had - which is eff this! If the plan for the night is to run faster - your regular pace coach will be running faster too. Does that make sense? At least that's been my experience in the half group.
It wasn't even that I'd switched to a faster coach - they were ALL on Red Bull that night or something. I actually switched to a slower coach. I had been running with the 9:30-10:00 coach, but I decided to go with the next one slower than him because, while I've been keeping with him on flat ground, he's been going faster than I can on the hills.
ReplyDeleteSo the next coach in line was the 10:00 coach, and my recent runs (including the 10 mile) have been at about a 10:00 pace. She specifically said she was going to do the "faster" loops at a 9:00 pace, which is a really good speedwork pace for me. Then she did the WARM-UP at a 9:00 pace (even faster at times) and the speedwork at something like an 8! She actually said we should be "almost at a sprint", which is not how the workout was written - it said 1 minute faster than marathon goal pace. For most people, I'd think that wouldn't be a sprint! I don't mind sprints, but I'd like to know that I'm going to sprint, and then NOT run the warmup at a pace that wears me out. They all specifically told us their pace and how fast they planned to do the speedwork, and all three of them that I tested out were way off. The coaches, at least in the Kentucky full group, seem to be kind of erratic.
(Sorry. That was long. I did need to vent about that. While I LOVE the running group and would totally sign up for it again, that workout was hella messed up.)
There's one coach in the Ohio group that I really like. I ran with her in Glendale and we seriously stayed ON a 10:00 pace. My splits are like, 9:58, 10:04, etc. Since I'm trying to focus on steady pacing, that's great for me.