A Runner’s Balancing Act

What a weekend! A lot has been accomplished over the last four days. A new 5k PR; a killer 18 mile training run; and oh yeah, A NEW HOME FOR BALANCING ACT!!!!

It was time for the blog to get a new look and a new home. Some of the websites designed by my colleagues at work include WordPress blogs, and now that we’ve lost a few of those designers, it’s become my job to maintain those sites. I figured I might as well make the switch with my personal blog so that the skills I learn will actually help me at work. What you see here has taken me nearly the entire weekend to figure out. It’s still a work in progress. I’m not entirely happy with the look as it’s a little bland for my taste. Over the next few weeks hopefully I will have some ideas to spice it up a bit.

Besides working on this blog, I was also able to get in a few good runs this weekend. The weekend started out with the annual Founatin Hills Turkey Trot.  A friend of mine came into town the night before the race and stayed with us so that she’d be able to do the Trot with us in the morning. It was raining all night before the race and we woke up to a good down pour right before we left the house.  I figured I’d be running in a trash bag to start.

My friend Sherry and I before venturing out of the house in the rain to run the Turkey Trot

We were really lucky. The rain cleared up right before we left the house and the sun actually peaked through the clouds. I was surprised when we got to the start line, there were tons of people! I thought the crowd would be smaller considering the rain overnight.

The race went pretty well for me. Despite the fact that my breakfast had not settled well, I managed to find about a 7:40-8:00 pace and hang on to it thoughout the run. I knew a lot of people who were running this race since it’s in my hometown. There were several spots where the course doubled back on itself so it was really fun to see everyone at different points on the course.

The last mile I caught up to a guy from my old Team in Training team from last year and we ran the rest of the way together. I was starting to hurt by that time so it was nice to chit chat a bit and try not to focus on how much farther I had to go.

I came in at 24:05 according to my stopwatch and 24:15 gun time.  It would have been nice to see a 23:xx time but I was happy regardless. Considering my stomach felt kind of queasy the entire race and I had to leap over quite a few large puddles, I’m guessing I have that 23:xx time in me.

My friends and I waited for awhile for the awards ceremony but it took them forever to post times. We left after that since my friends needed to get home. About 15 minutes after we got home I got a call from my good friend Ariana. She took first overall for women finishing in just over 20 minutes! She has really improved her time since last year. Ariana had stayed for the awards ceremony and she said I had gotten 3rd in my age group! I was floored! I hopped in the car and went back to the community center since it’s less than a mile from my house. They were still there cleaning up and I was able to pick up my 3rd place medal!!! I have lots of medals, but this it the first one that’s not just a finishers medal.

My first award!

I took Friday off from running and on Saturday my running buddy, M and I hit the canal in Gilbert/Chandler to do our 18 miler. It was a tough one. Again my stomach was acting a bit off and I didn’t feel as strong as I normally do. It was a weird morning.  A chilly 47 degrees but humid since all the rain from the day before had left everything damp and dewy. There was fog rising out of the grass in the parks and off the water in the canal. Not a common sight here in Phoenix.

The fog rising out of the park where we run early Saturday morning.

I was cold for the first few miles and I didn’t drink much for the first hour. After about an hour, I reached up to my visor and realized it was soaked. Then I noticed my clothes were soaked too. I don’t usually sweat like that in the cold. Must have been the moisture in the air. Then I started forcing myself to drink more. M really wanted to maintain about a 9 min/mi pace since that’s what we would need to do for a 4 hour marathon.  For the most part, we were able to do it, but it was not easy. The last few miles were a real push and when we finished we both wanted to collapse on the ground. Definitely couldn’t have done 26 at that pace.

We stopped twice to eat our gels and once to refill our water bottles at a park. I have my garmin set to auto pause when we stop running so the average pace does not include those stops. Our average pace was 9:05 (9:09 is exactly the pace of a 4 hour marathon). It was tough. I sure hope the rest of our training makes holding that pace easier come race day.

So that was my weekend. I finished with a total of 39 miles this week. Here’s the breakdown:

Sunday: 4 mile, 10 min/mi
Monday: 7 miles, 9:20 min/mi
Tuesday: 6 miles, 9:30 min/mi
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 4 miles, 3 at 7:47 pace, 1 cool down mile (Turkey Trot)
Friday: rest
Saturday: 18 miles, average 9:05 pace

Total: 39

I think I’m resting tomorrow. My quads are still sore from 18 yesterday. Have a good week everyone!

Here I sit at my computer trying to ready myself for this morning’s run. I am NOT excited about it. In fact, I even debated texting my running buddy to tell her I wasn’t going to make it. Thing is, my running buddy isn’t much of a text-er and so I would really need to call her. Since I’m too embarrassed to call, I will just have to suck it up and go. I really should go anyways – its just, I didn’t get to sleep until midnight last night. And my legs are sore, really sore.

We did 12 miles out at South Mountain Park on Saturday morning at a really good pace. Our average was 9:05 on a hilly course. The hills really beat up my quads. Sunday I  had planned a “recovery run” of 7 miles. I don’t usually plan runs for Sunday, but since this upcoming week will be a little crazy with Thanksgiving and a 5k Turkey Trot on Thursday (which I plan to race for a pr),  I really needed to get in some miles early on in the week if I was going to make my goal of 40+ for the week.

When the alarm clock went off Sunday morning I just knew there was no way. I could feel my achy quads just laying in bed. I ended up heading out at around 4 pm that afternoon. Believe it or not, it was actually a little warm, around 82 degrees. This is the time of year that I absolutely love living in the desert.

Well I didn’t make 7 yesterday, there was just no way. I did 4 and they were tough. My quads were really tired and I could feel them with every step. My average pace for that run was 9:40. There were times I looked down at the Garmin and I saw a pace over 11:00. Yes that is really slow for me, but it was all I could do. When I got home I decided an ice bath was in order. Except I had no ice so it was a cold water bath. I hope it still worked.

Now I sit here, about 12 hours later, about to embark on another longer faster run, in the dark, with a head lamp I think is getting ready to give out (I forgot to get batteries for it yesterday). I hope my quads recovered. I just popped an advil, hopefully that will numb them up a little.

Here is the rundown on last weeks training:
Sunday: Rest
Monday: 7 miles with running buddy in the am, average pace 9:26
Tuesday: 6 miles: 1 mile warm up, 3 mile intervals at 7:30 – 7:50 pace, 2 miles cool down
Wednesday: 3 miles, average pace 9:11
Thursday: 6 mile tempo run, average pace 8:25
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 12 mile hilly run, average pace 9:05

Total: 34

I’m off for my 7 miler! Yay its only a 3 day work week! Whohoo!

Last week was my first forty mile week in quite awhile. The only week I hit 40 during the training for the Nike Women’s Marathon was the week we ran the 20 miler. This time around I’m trying to get in a few more 40 mile plus weeks, since I’ve read several articles (here’s one) that suggest 40-50 miles is the magic threshold for marathon training. Don’t know if I fully believe it, but marathon training is always an experiment to me, so I thought I’d give it a try and see what results I get.

I feel like my body is giving me signals that it is ready for these higher mileage weeks. My legs seem to be recovering faster, and my mind isn’t bored with the routine since I’ve been mixing it up a lot with tempo runs, track workouts, treadmill and group runs (thanks to the Garmin, I can finally do these workouts outside with the certainty that I am doing them right). Just 6 months ago, running three days in a row made for a very difficult run on the third day. Four consecutive days was nearly impossible. It seems that I’ve finally moved beyond that three day barrier in my training.

I remember the first time I hit a 40 miles in a week. It was back in college, a little over 5 years ago. I wasn’t training for a marathon at the time, just running for a variety of personal reasons. I remember having to go out on the last day of my training week to run 2 miles on very heavy legs just so that the my total milage would reach 40 for the week. It seemed like a gigantic accomplishment. After that I put in a lot more 40 mile weeks that year. For some reason 40 became my magic number.  At that milage the pounds just seemed to melt off. I was already underweight so the result was not good, but at the time I liked it. For a long time after that, I didn’t think it was possible for me to run 40 mile weeks and not lose weight.

I’ve learned a lot about nutrition since then, and my relationship with my body has changed so much.  Food and running occupy separate parts of my thought life now. I run because I’m training for a marathon, I want to get faster, gain endurance, challenge myself. I eat because I don’t like being hungry. And magically, if I listen to that hunger the weight doesn’t fall off like it used to. Pretty simple!

So here’s the break down of my workouts in the last week:

Monday: 7 miles with my friend, average pace 9:24
Tuesday: 6 mile tempo run, average pace 8:39
Wednesday: 4 mile recovery run: average pace 9:30
Thursday: 7 miles with my friend, average pace 9:26
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 16 miles, average pace 9:25, pushing the pace the last three miles at 9:00, 8:40 and 8:30.
Total: 40 miles

This week, I’m trying to hit 40 again but it will be harder since we are planning a shorter long run on Saturday of just 10 miles. After the long runs get over the 16 mile mark, I like to do them every two weeks with shorter long runs on the weekends in between. My husband is acting a little neglected lately and I might need spend some time with him tonight instead of doing the 7 miles I’ve got planned. Gotta keep it all in perspective. It’s a balancing act for sure.

Happy running!