A Runner’s Balancing Act

On the subject of scary animals. I heard on the news the other day that a woman was attacked by a rabid fox while running on a trail in northern Arizona. I guess the fox latched on and would not let go! She ran over a mile with the fox latched on to get to the car. She was able to get the fox off her arm and threw it in her trunk, knowing it was probably rabid and would need to be tested. Then then drove herself to the hospital. Read the story here. Its pretty incredible!

That led me to wonder if my pepper spray would do anything to stop a rabid animal. My guess is probably not.  I guess I need to take Chris’s advice and start carrying a gun.  My husband would love it. He’s been trying to get me to go to the shooting range with him since we got married!

Running has been so easy this week, I find myself wishing I could do it more. I seem to be recovering faster and easier then ever. I’ve decided to try to work myself up to a weekly mileage of between 40 and 50 miles and hold it there for 4-5 weeks.

I’m hoping that more miles = faster times, though it’s been debated. Here is an excellent article by coach Dean about the quality vs. quantity debate in marathon training. If you haven’t read coach Dean’s blog, I highly recommend it.

I know 40 to 50 miles a week is not considered “high mileage” for intermediate marathon training, but it’s still more than I’ve done in the past. In the past, my marathon training has peaked at 40 miles a week, but I don’t think I’ve held it there for more than a week or two. Most weeks I ran 32-38 miles.

My good friend Ariana is also training for PF Chang’s and hoping to qualify for Boston. She emailed me this week and said she’s running over 60 miles per week right now. I can’t help but be a little jealous of her! I wish I could train like that. There’s just not enough hours in my day to do that kind of mileage. Sure I could do it by sacrificing sleep, time with my husband and household duties, but I would hate my life and I would resent running. It’s just not worth it.

Rachel, I’m with you. I just need to win the lottery so then I can hire a personal coach be a full time marathon runner and still have time to sleep, eat and clean.  Ariana, you are my hero, I don’t know how you do it!

For now, I run because I enjoy it and I enjoy spending time with my friends who also run. I love feeling fit and conditioned. I love the personal challenge of running marathons, but I doubt I’ll ever get much faster than I am now. I don’t need qualify for Boston or run 60 mile weeks to feel like a “real” runner…. right? Sometimes I need a little convincing (especially this week) but generally, that’s what I tell myself.

Runs this week were as follows:
• 7 miles early Monday with my running buddy, average pace 9:30
• 6 miles speed work on the treadmill Tuesday night. 1 mi warm up at 6.2, 3x1mile at 7.6 mph, one minute walk between each interval. 2 mile cool down at 6.6
• 2 slow miles with my church’s 5k training group on wednesday night
• 6 miles with Liz last night, I don’t know the average pace or exact distance because my garmin’s battery was dead.

Tomorrow, 14 miles with Liz, Sheila an Malinda. I’m really looking forward to it. Friendship and running make a great combination. Have a good weekend everyone!

Last Saturday was my first official long run for the PF Chang’s Rock N Roll Marathon, sans Team in Training. It was kind of strange since Sheila, Liz and I met at the same park we met at for our TNT runs. We decided to meet at 6:30 a.m. and by coincidence the TNT PF Chang’s team was also meeting at that time. We stayed in the parking lot, while the TNT’ers went up to the picnic tables we used to meet at.  We noticed they did their “warm up” walk around the park, and it was kind of freeing to not be subjected to their wacky warm up routine and stretches. We took off well before they did.

I have thoroughly enjoyed running with TNT in the past year. They do great things in both the sport of running and raising funds to fight blood cancers. I’m just a little relieved to be done with it. It’s sure is nice be able to do long runs on my own schedule – especially now that I know enough people that run my pace that I don’t need to do long runs alone.

So Sheila, Liz and I set off to do 12 miles on our old familiar canal. We took it kind of slow since our legs were still a little heavy from the marathon just 2 weeks before. I felt really good. The hamstring pain seems to be gone again, hopefully for good. I felt so good after we finished, that I considered running a few more miles after I drove home! Of course I didn’t, but that was kind of weird. I’m usually pretty glad to be done when I’m done! Instead of running more, I actually did my old free weight and ab routine in my living room. I am still sore today! I need to get back into doing that 2-3 times a week again.

So now that my hamstring is feeling good, I’m officially jumping into marathon training again full force! It’s surprising that I am more enthusiastic about running right now than I have been in a long time. This is the first time in my running career that I’ve known so many people that run my pace and there are lots of group run opportunities to keep things interesting. And after a long hot summer, the fall temperatures are so energizing. Every time I walk outside and feel the cool air I can’t wait until my next run.

I got the work week off to a great start this morning with a 7 miler in the pre-dawn hours with my running buddy. We’re meeting at 6 am now, but we still have a half hour of darkness before I can turn off the headlamp. We can’t meet any later because I’d be late to work if we did. Arizona does not observe daylight savings time, so we didn’t gain an hour of morning sunshine like the rest of country did this weekend.

Running in the darkness of the early morning kinda freaks me out. I’m ok running at 7 pm in total darkness, but there’s something about pre-dawn that puts me on edge. It’s just so quiet. I imagine that all desert animals have come out overnight and have yet to retreat to their daytime hiding spots. I worry that if they were to attack, no one would be awake to hear my screams. I’ve started carrying mace to fend off scary animals (forget scary people!). I only run by myself for about 10 minutes before I reach the point where I meet my running buddy. Those 10 minutes are the creepiest part of the run. I feel so much better when there are two of us.

We routinely see packs of coyotes and javalina during our morning runs. I’m not kidding when I say packs. When we see these animals we usually see more than three of them. This morning was no exception. While it was still dark, we saw several mangy coyotes crossing the road up ahead of us. I shined my headlamp up at them and their little eyes reflected the light back at me. My running buddy pointed to the wash the coyote had run from and when I aimed my headlamp there, several more sets of eyes shined back at us. Eeerie!

I pulled out my mace and unlocked the safety as we ran by. I don’t think coyotes are known to attack, but if they tried they were going to get a face full of pepper spray! We picked up the pace and made it safely through that portion of the run. My gamin says we we clocked our fastest mile in there (8:50 pace!). Not bad considering it was also the mile with the most elevation gain, about 150 feet!

Nothing puts me in a better mood on a Monday then to know that my run is already taken care of. Tomorrow, I’m going to try to hit the gym after work. I can loosely follow election coverage on TV and get in a decent speed workout. I’m breaking out the FIRST workouts I did in the early part of the summer. I have a 5k on Thanksgiving day that I’m hoping to PR so I need to practice running fast.

Speaking of election coverage, Senator McCain is going to be having his election festivities just a mile and a half up the canal from my work at The Biltmore Resort and Spa. I’ve run through there many, many times on the canal path after work. This morning they were showing an ariel shot of the resort on the news and you could see the canal path and almost 50 media satellite trucks lined up right next to it. It’s kind of weird that all that will be happening in a place so familiar to me and only just up the road.

I’m shooting for around 36 miles this week with a 14 mile long run on Saturday. Lots of running! I can’t believe how much I’m looking forward to putting in those miles. I’ve been bit by the marathon bug BAD this time!

Happy running!