I count down the weeks before marathons. It's one of those things that I do. I'm sure many other marathoners do it too, but there's something about the numbers that motivates me and makes me happy.
I have just under three weeks of hard, heavy training, and then there's about a week and a half of decently hard training, and then it's all downhill. This week will be the worst of it, so technically from here on out, everything gets easier. This is so doable.
Saturday's pace run went exceptionally well. We had one of those "oh hell no" moments when we woke up on Saturday to the sound of the wind whipping around outside of our windows. And snow. did I mention the snow that was pelting us in the face when we went outside? Winds were somewhere around 20+ mph. So needless to say, it made the indoor/outdoor decision very easy. I took E-Speed's advice and put the treadmill on 1% and targeted an overall pace that was a bit under what my ideal pace would be. Nitty-gritty details are over at dailymile*, but overall I ended up with a pace that was 8:53/mile for the 12 miles. That's well under 4:00 pace, and decently under 3:55 pace (dream goal), so I'm feeling pretty good about this, especially because it felt good. A challenging sort of good, but not like I was exhausted by the end and couldn't go any further. When I reread the section on MP runs in Advanced Marathoning, Pfitz says that the objective is to get used to race pace, but it's also mostly to give you a confidence boost. If you can do this in the middle of heavy mileage, tempo runs, and interval sessions, you should feel confident that you can hit that pace for a marathon after the taper and resting up. I did a lot of visualizing how this run would go, and tried to follow a strategy that usually works for me on race day, and I think that really helped a lot. I'm excited.
This run was exactly what I needed. Last week's miles were a bit uninspired and I was feeling a bit run down on the recovery runs. I think that this run + getting a good amount of rest over the weekend were exactly what I needed to recharge. Yesterday's easy run felt great and I'm looking forward to the last LT run of the training cycle tonight.
I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but I'm starting to decide goals for the fall and for my training this summer, and I'm getting really excited about it all. Now it's just a matter of putting in the rest of the hard work, seeing how things shake out on May 1, and setting a goal from there. I think this may be awesome.
* widget is in the sidebar -- if you like details, go there.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Currently Pondering:
*This is reposted from dailymile, where I've been posting most of my workouts over the past week or so. I'll probably post more there from here on out, as I like that format better.
This weekend I'm supposed to do a marathon pace run: 15 miles with 12 at marathon pace. This replaces my long run for the weekend. Ok, awesome, right?
It's going to be cruddy outside. I hate complaining about it because let's face it, anything that's in the 40's rather than the 30's is like a heatwave compared to a month ago. But this is getting ridiculous. Rain, cold, winds at 15mph, possible snow. Ugh.
So I guess the question is: do I suck it up and try to do the run outside in the natural elements, knowing that on race day Mother Nature may just decide to toss me something equally as mucky, or do I move it indoors and complete the run on a treadmill?
I guess my real question is trying to understand the point of this run. Is it to simulate race conditions and get me used to naturally being able to hit marathon pace? Or is it to increase fitness by getting in a solid run of 12 miles at my intended goal pace? If I try running it outdoors and fail miserably due to the conditions, does that defeat the point of trying a MP run? Would I have been better off doing the run indoors where I could actually complete the workout as intended?
I can argue it for running indoors (the weather is likely not going to be this bad on race day so what's the point in "racing" in crappy conditions, my body is still "getting used to" MP even if a treadmill is regulating the speed) and against (you need to be able to regulate MP on your own - without the assistance of a TM, you're being a total wuss so stop whining).
I guess it comes down to the fact that I don't have confidence that I can "get 'er done" this weekend if I run outdoors. I'm nervous about being able to hit MP for all 12 miles, and feel like I'll be more likely to complete the run successfully if I do it indoors. So from a mental aspect, is it better for me to succeed and have confidence on race morning than to fail because of uncontrollable circumstances and be doubting myself come May 1? If I can't run my desired MP in 45 degrees, rain, and wind, should that indicate that I'm not ready to try for that MP?
So many questions!!!
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
officially a 30-something
I had a birthday yesterday, which officially transferred me from the "20 something" category to "totally old". I'm cool with that. My 20's were kind of overly dramatic, and I feel like my 30's will be much more settled if that makes any sense. The 20's are such an awkward time when you're trying to establish a career and you're trying to actually do something with your life while trying to transition to adult-hood (you mean I have to pay for my car registration EVERY YEAR?) and I feel like there's a lot of fumbling and confusion because - let's face it - college life as most Americans know it doesn't do the absolute most stellar job in terms of translating to what a real work/real life environment will be like. Beer doesn't just magically show up in a keg at someone's house every weekend when you're an adult... you actually have to PAY FOR IT. I feel that I'm a lot more knowledgeable about what I want to be when I grow up, and while there may be some chaos in my 30's regarding subtle (or not so subtle) shifts in my professional life, I at least have a better idea of what my profession really means and where I feel that I need to improve. I had absolutely no self-awareness of this kind of stuff when I was an undergrad, so score one for developing the "metacognition" ability in the past ten years.
There is also the whole "finding a meaningful relationship" thing, which is officially figured out. I really couldn't be happier on that front.
Someone asked me the other night if I felt like I was more knowledgeable or "wiser" than I was ten years ago and whether I would trade that for the things that gave me that knowledge/wisdom. That was an interesting question for me. I do feel like I've personally grown so much and on so many fronts in the past 10 years, and I feel like I'm a lot more equipped to handle the crap that life's going to throw at me. I've had to deal with more crap in the past two years than most people have to deal with in a decade, and (with the help of several professionals) I've managed to find a way to handle everything (both practically and emotionally) and still make time for myself, have a social life, and be able to foster a healthy relationship with my spouse. Stuff still gets thrown at me, but instead of taking a week to get over it or obsessing about the "what could happen"s in life, I've learned to identify what I can control about a situation and only focus making the best out of what *I* can control. While I'm happy that I learned these lessons (I think most of the skills I've mastered throughout this process are relevant and will be helpful in all aspects of life), I would never, ever say that I'd be willing to repeat the grief, pain, frustration, and anger that helped me learn these lessons. The past five years, specifically, have been relatively awful for me and I'd never want to go through them again just to learn some life lessons. So to answer that question, no, I don't really think it's worth it. But I'm happy I learned some life lessons instead of just being a grieving mess.
OKAY. on to happier subjects. RUNNING!!! Let's see... last week's mid-week long run was put off because we got some significant news on Wednesday evening that I needed to sort through/process. I gave myself an evening to work through some things and then got up the next morning to get my run in. To say it was challenging doing 11 miles in the morning before work would be an understatement, but the whole run was completed, albeit slowly. Otherwise there were a few easy short recovery runs in there and a 16 mile long run on Sunday... Can I just mention here that I am SO. FREAKING. OVER. the winter weather? seriously. it's getting ridiculous. We had to adjust things to account for the Northern winds at 9 mph (SO. OVER. IT!) so it was hard to get exact mile splits since it's not one of our usual routes. I do know that we negative split the last 5 miles by 3 minutes, which is pretty significant. I think we ended with around a 9:50 overall pace, which I was pretty happy with. I half-heartedly attempted my tempo run yesterday but I knew that after Sunday's long run I just didn't have it in my legs so I did the warm-up and called it one of my recovery runs for the week. I'll tackle the LT miles this evening and then there's supposed to be some warmth coming our way later this week! I'm super excited about that.
I got to talk to two of my favorite people already this week, and we are doing all sorts of celebrating in these parts, so this week promises to be a good one. I officially have 9 weeks left of marathon training, which means only 6 weeks of "hard" training before the taper. For some reason, this is SO MUCH MORE manageable than previous training cycles. It's awesome, and so much more reasonable when I'm trying to convince myself to do ridiculous distances in the middle of the week.
There is also the whole "finding a meaningful relationship" thing, which is officially figured out. I really couldn't be happier on that front.
Someone asked me the other night if I felt like I was more knowledgeable or "wiser" than I was ten years ago and whether I would trade that for the things that gave me that knowledge/wisdom. That was an interesting question for me. I do feel like I've personally grown so much and on so many fronts in the past 10 years, and I feel like I'm a lot more equipped to handle the crap that life's going to throw at me. I've had to deal with more crap in the past two years than most people have to deal with in a decade, and (with the help of several professionals) I've managed to find a way to handle everything (both practically and emotionally) and still make time for myself, have a social life, and be able to foster a healthy relationship with my spouse. Stuff still gets thrown at me, but instead of taking a week to get over it or obsessing about the "what could happen"s in life, I've learned to identify what I can control about a situation and only focus making the best out of what *I* can control. While I'm happy that I learned these lessons (I think most of the skills I've mastered throughout this process are relevant and will be helpful in all aspects of life), I would never, ever say that I'd be willing to repeat the grief, pain, frustration, and anger that helped me learn these lessons. The past five years, specifically, have been relatively awful for me and I'd never want to go through them again just to learn some life lessons. So to answer that question, no, I don't really think it's worth it. But I'm happy I learned some life lessons instead of just being a grieving mess.
OKAY. on to happier subjects. RUNNING!!! Let's see... last week's mid-week long run was put off because we got some significant news on Wednesday evening that I needed to sort through/process. I gave myself an evening to work through some things and then got up the next morning to get my run in. To say it was challenging doing 11 miles in the morning before work would be an understatement, but the whole run was completed, albeit slowly. Otherwise there were a few easy short recovery runs in there and a 16 mile long run on Sunday... Can I just mention here that I am SO. FREAKING. OVER. the winter weather? seriously. it's getting ridiculous. We had to adjust things to account for the Northern winds at 9 mph (SO. OVER. IT!) so it was hard to get exact mile splits since it's not one of our usual routes. I do know that we negative split the last 5 miles by 3 minutes, which is pretty significant. I think we ended with around a 9:50 overall pace, which I was pretty happy with. I half-heartedly attempted my tempo run yesterday but I knew that after Sunday's long run I just didn't have it in my legs so I did the warm-up and called it one of my recovery runs for the week. I'll tackle the LT miles this evening and then there's supposed to be some warmth coming our way later this week! I'm super excited about that.
I got to talk to two of my favorite people already this week, and we are doing all sorts of celebrating in these parts, so this week promises to be a good one. I officially have 9 weeks left of marathon training, which means only 6 weeks of "hard" training before the taper. For some reason, this is SO MUCH MORE manageable than previous training cycles. It's awesome, and so much more reasonable when I'm trying to convince myself to do ridiculous distances in the middle of the week.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
On developing and GSD
Runs have gone well over the past week. There was a bit of a fueling issue for last week's mid-week medium long run, but otherwise, everything felt pretty good. Here's the rundown (HA! get it? RUNdown!):
Wednesday PM: 11 mile medium long run. Totally unmotivated, but headed out anyways. If I could either do these when it's warmer or light outside, I don't think they'd be nearly as irritating. Went into it a little underfueled from the previous days' workouts, so ended up getting kind of bonky head-wise at the end. Weirdest bonking feeling I've ever felt because physically, I negative split the run, bringing the last three miles in at about 30 seconds faster than the rest of the miles, but head-wise, things weren't exactly clicking, if that makes sense. It took a concerted effort to get me refueled and feeling back to normal but it didn't really have any affect on any of my other runs last week. I'm writing it off as one of those flukey things and am taking it as a reminder that regardless of the quality of the food you're eating, if you're not eating enough quantity-wise, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A PROBLEM. Fueling for mid-week long runs are always particularly challenging because I'm just not that used to shoving huge amounts of food down my gullet during the regular workday.
Friday PM: recovery 5. Easy peasy. There's really nothing to comment on about this.
Saturday AM: 15 mile LR. In a word, awesome. No, seriously. Dice and I both were ridiculous stoked about how well this run went. I really wasn't feeling it all that much during the first few miles but once I warmed up the run was pretty much just steady as she goes. Turned around to just over a 10:00/mile pace and then seriously CRANKED. IN. the last 7.5 miles. I hit my split button on my watch with 4 miles to go just so we could get an idea of how fast we finished because it felt like we were picking things up. By the time we got to the last mile dice asked me how fast we were pacing and I said, "you don't wanna know. is the pace ok?" when he affirmed, we just kept it up and came in with an 8:45 average for the last 4 miles (between 9:30-9:40 overall pace for the run). The fast pace felt nearly effortless. Totally natural. It's so, so weird. But whatever, we'll take it.
Monday PM: 8 mile general aerobic. I didn't take my watch with me on this run, but based on when I left the house and when I got back, I was probably between 9:00-9:30 pace for this run. Again, the run felt great. I'm totally digging the runs these days. It's always more enjoyable when you feel like you're easily pulling off a decent clip on general aerobic paced runs.
I've got a nice easy 4 miler planned for this evening and then another medium long run tomorrow. It should be a good test to make sure last week's mid-week medium run was a fluke. I'm making sure I have a ridiculous amount of food packed for the day to help me fuel, which should help.
On a personal note, I did my annual review this week, and this time of year always reminds me of all the personal development goals that I have for myself, and how it's so easy to put them off and then a year goes by before I do anything about it. Next week I turn the big 3-0, so I talked to dice about it and I am going to create a Personal Development Plan that will be modeled after my Professional Development Plan that I do for work. Some of the things coincide, so that's the easy part, but there are a lot of other things where I want to make improvements in my home life, and I think that writing them down and taking time to reflect on my progress in a systematic manner every quarter or so will help me make sure I'm progressing in some of the areas where I otherwise may just put things off.
One of the big things on my PDP is to be better at balancing my personal relationships with my friends with my married and training life; I've found that it's really easy to just get wrapped up in training or in hanging out with the husband, and there's not really anything wrong with enjoying either of those things, but I know that making a more concerted effort to keep in touch with friends will add some much-needed balance to my life. Dice has his own ways of communicating with friends (usually through random, short daily text messages or emails) and I tend to do my communicating more in one mass clump where I'm on the phone with someone for an hour once a month, but with the introduction of married life (and a husband who's always around to entertain me) it's been harder for me to set aside an hour to chat with friends here and there so I need to make more of a concerted effort at it.
There are also a bunch of professional things that I want to work on that have absolutely nothing to do with my job, and this will be a great way to stay on target with those goals during my personal time. I think that overall, this is going to be a great way to make sure I'm GSD, as Mo says. Who knows, maybe I'll even put "blog more than once a week," on my PDP.
doubtful.
Wednesday PM: 11 mile medium long run. Totally unmotivated, but headed out anyways. If I could either do these when it's warmer or light outside, I don't think they'd be nearly as irritating. Went into it a little underfueled from the previous days' workouts, so ended up getting kind of bonky head-wise at the end. Weirdest bonking feeling I've ever felt because physically, I negative split the run, bringing the last three miles in at about 30 seconds faster than the rest of the miles, but head-wise, things weren't exactly clicking, if that makes sense. It took a concerted effort to get me refueled and feeling back to normal but it didn't really have any affect on any of my other runs last week. I'm writing it off as one of those flukey things and am taking it as a reminder that regardless of the quality of the food you're eating, if you're not eating enough quantity-wise, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A PROBLEM. Fueling for mid-week long runs are always particularly challenging because I'm just not that used to shoving huge amounts of food down my gullet during the regular workday.
Friday PM: recovery 5. Easy peasy. There's really nothing to comment on about this.
Saturday AM: 15 mile LR. In a word, awesome. No, seriously. Dice and I both were ridiculous stoked about how well this run went. I really wasn't feeling it all that much during the first few miles but once I warmed up the run was pretty much just steady as she goes. Turned around to just over a 10:00/mile pace and then seriously CRANKED. IN. the last 7.5 miles. I hit my split button on my watch with 4 miles to go just so we could get an idea of how fast we finished because it felt like we were picking things up. By the time we got to the last mile dice asked me how fast we were pacing and I said, "you don't wanna know. is the pace ok?" when he affirmed, we just kept it up and came in with an 8:45 average for the last 4 miles (between 9:30-9:40 overall pace for the run). The fast pace felt nearly effortless. Totally natural. It's so, so weird. But whatever, we'll take it.
Monday PM: 8 mile general aerobic. I didn't take my watch with me on this run, but based on when I left the house and when I got back, I was probably between 9:00-9:30 pace for this run. Again, the run felt great. I'm totally digging the runs these days. It's always more enjoyable when you feel like you're easily pulling off a decent clip on general aerobic paced runs.
I've got a nice easy 4 miler planned for this evening and then another medium long run tomorrow. It should be a good test to make sure last week's mid-week medium run was a fluke. I'm making sure I have a ridiculous amount of food packed for the day to help me fuel, which should help.
On a personal note, I did my annual review this week, and this time of year always reminds me of all the personal development goals that I have for myself, and how it's so easy to put them off and then a year goes by before I do anything about it. Next week I turn the big 3-0, so I talked to dice about it and I am going to create a Personal Development Plan that will be modeled after my Professional Development Plan that I do for work. Some of the things coincide, so that's the easy part, but there are a lot of other things where I want to make improvements in my home life, and I think that writing them down and taking time to reflect on my progress in a systematic manner every quarter or so will help me make sure I'm progressing in some of the areas where I otherwise may just put things off.
One of the big things on my PDP is to be better at balancing my personal relationships with my friends with my married and training life; I've found that it's really easy to just get wrapped up in training or in hanging out with the husband, and there's not really anything wrong with enjoying either of those things, but I know that making a more concerted effort to keep in touch with friends will add some much-needed balance to my life. Dice has his own ways of communicating with friends (usually through random, short daily text messages or emails) and I tend to do my communicating more in one mass clump where I'm on the phone with someone for an hour once a month, but with the introduction of married life (and a husband who's always around to entertain me) it's been harder for me to set aside an hour to chat with friends here and there so I need to make more of a concerted effort at it.
There are also a bunch of professional things that I want to work on that have absolutely nothing to do with my job, and this will be a great way to stay on target with those goals during my personal time. I think that overall, this is going to be a great way to make sure I'm GSD, as Mo says. Who knows, maybe I'll even put "blog more than once a week," on my PDP.
doubtful.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
sold.
This weekend was a relative success in terms of getting workouts in. I had planned to do my long run on Saturday but I was having some stomach issues due to eating a blended up grapefruit a bit before the run (evidently you're not supposed to eat extremely fibrous foods right before a run... IMAGINE THAT.) so I ended up spinning instead and switched the run to Sunday. That was a bit of a gamble since Sunday was Valentine's Day (a day meant for being lazy with your loved ones, right?), but I managed to pull myself away from the nook in the couch that dice and I had collectively created and get out to get my miles in. It was actually a pretty decent day, despite the winds from the North, and the run ended up being a refreshing addition to the day. I was quite pleased to crunch the numbers and see that I managed to pull off a 9:50-ish pace for the run; it felt relatively easy and the wind/cold/multiple clothing layer usually slows me down to an extent that my long runs in the winter aren't really comparable to those in the summer.
So that was pretty awesome.
And then came yesterday. Which was a huge test. Because really, I should have given myself some time to rest/recover before attempting LT miles. But for a variety of reasons, doing my LT miles on Monday was the best option (scheduling-wise) this week. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous about it. Five weeks ago I attempted a 4 mile LT run, got through 2 miles and had to quit. That was when I decided to scale back training and get ready to do a 12 week play. Since then, I've done two 3 mile LT runs that were relatively successful (although at the slow end of my LT pace range), but the last one I did, two weeks ago, left me beat. Definitely more tired than I should have been. And that was only including 3 LT paced miles.
But hell, I decided to give it a try anyways, just to see where I was fitness-wise, and I've gotta say... I'm sold on the mileage + cross training + good nutrition combination. Because yesterday's 4 mile LT run was run smack dab in the middle of my LT pace range and I felt incredible (like I definitely could have either run the miles faster or continued on for at least another mile). And this was a day after my long run. I don't recall ever feeling that good after doing LT miles.
I know, I know, I know... I have to do these suckers outside to equitably compare them. But right now I'm settling for either doing them indoors or not doing them at all because there's no way I'm going to be able to do these in the cold + wind combo that this city gives us during winter months. So ok, it's not a fair comparison to say that I've "never felt this good following an LT run," but I'm still really pleased with how the run went relative to how LT runs have been going over the past few months.
So here are the paces:
2.5 miles - warm up
1.5 miles - 8:27 pace (high end of my LT range)
1.5 miles - 8:19 pace (mid range)
1 mile - 8:12 pace (low end)
1.5 miles - cool down
That averages out to an 8:20 average, which is squarely in the middle of my 8:09-8:31 range. sweet.
I'm trying to figure out what the difference is over these past few weeks where somehow things have just clicked, and really, the nutrition piece is the only thing that's truly new in the equation. I started running 30+ mpw back in December, so it's not really the mileage (and even did a few shorter - ~2 mile - tempo runs back then to start cultivating speed) and I've been doing a bit of cross training almost every week for the past few months. The past few weeks are when I've really started adhering to the "food is fuel" mentality and been paying attention to what I'm eating, and I'm wondering if that truly is the missing link. I guess only time will tell.
I was ridiculously tired this morning. I got out of bed and considered plodding on with the scheduled cross training and then decided it was really better for my body to just get some extra rest. I'm going to see how I feel later on this evening and may throw some cross training in then or may just take today as a rest day, depending on what my body is telling me. This whole "listening to my body" thing is totally weird, let me tell you. :)
So that was pretty awesome.
And then came yesterday. Which was a huge test. Because really, I should have given myself some time to rest/recover before attempting LT miles. But for a variety of reasons, doing my LT miles on Monday was the best option (scheduling-wise) this week. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous about it. Five weeks ago I attempted a 4 mile LT run, got through 2 miles and had to quit. That was when I decided to scale back training and get ready to do a 12 week play. Since then, I've done two 3 mile LT runs that were relatively successful (although at the slow end of my LT pace range), but the last one I did, two weeks ago, left me beat. Definitely more tired than I should have been. And that was only including 3 LT paced miles.
But hell, I decided to give it a try anyways, just to see where I was fitness-wise, and I've gotta say... I'm sold on the mileage + cross training + good nutrition combination. Because yesterday's 4 mile LT run was run smack dab in the middle of my LT pace range and I felt incredible (like I definitely could have either run the miles faster or continued on for at least another mile). And this was a day after my long run. I don't recall ever feeling that good after doing LT miles.
I know, I know, I know... I have to do these suckers outside to equitably compare them. But right now I'm settling for either doing them indoors or not doing them at all because there's no way I'm going to be able to do these in the cold + wind combo that this city gives us during winter months. So ok, it's not a fair comparison to say that I've "never felt this good following an LT run," but I'm still really pleased with how the run went relative to how LT runs have been going over the past few months.
So here are the paces:
2.5 miles - warm up
1.5 miles - 8:27 pace (high end of my LT range)
1.5 miles - 8:19 pace (mid range)
1 mile - 8:12 pace (low end)
1.5 miles - cool down
That averages out to an 8:20 average, which is squarely in the middle of my 8:09-8:31 range. sweet.
I'm trying to figure out what the difference is over these past few weeks where somehow things have just clicked, and really, the nutrition piece is the only thing that's truly new in the equation. I started running 30+ mpw back in December, so it's not really the mileage (and even did a few shorter - ~2 mile - tempo runs back then to start cultivating speed) and I've been doing a bit of cross training almost every week for the past few months. The past few weeks are when I've really started adhering to the "food is fuel" mentality and been paying attention to what I'm eating, and I'm wondering if that truly is the missing link. I guess only time will tell.
I was ridiculously tired this morning. I got out of bed and considered plodding on with the scheduled cross training and then decided it was really better for my body to just get some extra rest. I'm going to see how I feel later on this evening and may throw some cross training in then or may just take today as a rest day, depending on what my body is telling me. This whole "listening to my body" thing is totally weird, let me tell you. :)
Friday, February 12, 2010
Happiness, how'd you get to find happiness...
I woke up on my own this morning at 4:30. Weird, right? I forced myself back to sleep for an hour before getting up to get my run in, but I found it simultaneously funny and annoying that my body is getting used to all of the early morning crap. Granted, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep on the couch at 9 PM last night, but I'm cool with that. I haven't been so great with the getting to bed early thing and it's been making my morning workouts kind of grumpy, to say the least.
Take Wednesday's 9 miler. There was a relatively significant amount of snow that dropped between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, and to suggest that the paths were a mess would be an understatement, so I ended up heading to the gym for this. I was planning to do a mix of treadmill and indoor track work due to the fact that I was totally annoyed with having to be up and running indoors for so many miles in the middle of the week (so many things to be annoyed with!), but I got into a groove on the 'mill and never really looked back. But man, was I grumpy for the first 3 miles. sheesh.
The week's been dandy so far, with all of my mid-week running complete, plus a few swims, some yoga, and a nice morning with some deadlifts yesterday to keep my body from getting too comfortable. I'm smack dab in the middle of Nutrition Experiment #328, which may actually be the last "experiment" I need to try because I'm actually feeling more energized and fueled than ever. I bought a book (I think it was Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes, which I don't particularly recommend, to be honest) way back when I was training for the Detroit marathon years ago in an attempt to make sure I was fueling properly for my runs, and I've never really been 100% satisfied with anything I've tried. It's looking like the current experiment might be exactly what I was looking for, but I don't want to jinx it by claiming I've found the solution to all of my fueling needs.
On an almost completely non-related note, I was reading this morning about Daniel Kahneman's talk at TED regarding the difference between experiencing happiness IN your life versus being happy ABOUT your life, and it really hit home. This concept (along with many others) is something I've been working to integrate into my daily life since I began working with my therapist, and I honestly feel that it's been life-altering. This concept, to live in the moment and experience things as they are happening rather than focusing on what may possibly happen or what happened in the past, has changed the way I deal with stress in my life (and integrates largely with how I've dealt with the grieving process) and has generally made me someone who is just much, much better to be around (in my husband's opinion, and despite the adversarial events that sometimes come up in our lives). This is largely what helped me get through my wedding day without my parents being there, and continues to influence how I look at things on a daily basis. It's weird how such a simple concept can change your life.
My favorite part of the recaps were the comments on how,
Speaking of, this weekend I get to accompany one truly extraordinary friend to a wedding dress fitting to help prepare me to learn how to bustle her gown on her big day. I am SUPER EXCITED about this because she bustled my gown on MY wedding day, and now I get to return the favor for her. I'm so thankful (and excited) that she asked me to go with her! Also, running. There will be a long run. As well as spending Valentine's Day with a certain boy... I can't think of anyone that I like being around more than him.
Take Wednesday's 9 miler. There was a relatively significant amount of snow that dropped between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, and to suggest that the paths were a mess would be an understatement, so I ended up heading to the gym for this. I was planning to do a mix of treadmill and indoor track work due to the fact that I was totally annoyed with having to be up and running indoors for so many miles in the middle of the week (so many things to be annoyed with!), but I got into a groove on the 'mill and never really looked back. But man, was I grumpy for the first 3 miles. sheesh.
The week's been dandy so far, with all of my mid-week running complete, plus a few swims, some yoga, and a nice morning with some deadlifts yesterday to keep my body from getting too comfortable. I'm smack dab in the middle of Nutrition Experiment #328, which may actually be the last "experiment" I need to try because I'm actually feeling more energized and fueled than ever. I bought a book (I think it was Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes, which I don't particularly recommend, to be honest) way back when I was training for the Detroit marathon years ago in an attempt to make sure I was fueling properly for my runs, and I've never really been 100% satisfied with anything I've tried. It's looking like the current experiment might be exactly what I was looking for, but I don't want to jinx it by claiming I've found the solution to all of my fueling needs.
On an almost completely non-related note, I was reading this morning about Daniel Kahneman's talk at TED regarding the difference between experiencing happiness IN your life versus being happy ABOUT your life, and it really hit home. This concept (along with many others) is something I've been working to integrate into my daily life since I began working with my therapist, and I honestly feel that it's been life-altering. This concept, to live in the moment and experience things as they are happening rather than focusing on what may possibly happen or what happened in the past, has changed the way I deal with stress in my life (and integrates largely with how I've dealt with the grieving process) and has generally made me someone who is just much, much better to be around (in my husband's opinion, and despite the adversarial events that sometimes come up in our lives). This is largely what helped me get through my wedding day without my parents being there, and continues to influence how I look at things on a daily basis. It's weird how such a simple concept can change your life.
My favorite part of the recaps were the comments on how,
Research concludes that "happiness is mainly being satisfied with being with people that we like."This made me laugh because a friend and I were just talking recently about how one of the reasons our 30's will differ from our 20's so much is because we've learned over the past ten years that it's ok to, "spend as much time as is physically possible with the truly extraordinary friends in our lives," as she stated, rather than trying to keep a wide circle of friends whom you only marginally enjoy being around. Learning to let go of relationships with my ex-boyfriend, certain family members, etc., has simplified my life in SO MANY WAYS and has made me so much happier.
Speaking of, this weekend I get to accompany one truly extraordinary friend to a wedding dress fitting to help prepare me to learn how to bustle her gown on her big day. I am SUPER EXCITED about this because she bustled my gown on MY wedding day, and now I get to return the favor for her. I'm so thankful (and excited) that she asked me to go with her! Also, running. There will be a long run. As well as spending Valentine's Day with a certain boy... I can't think of anyone that I like being around more than him.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
there are reasons, and there are excuses.
sheesh, it's been a long time since I've been around these parts, eh? Life is good, it's just been moderately busy and I haven't really felt like writing here was any sort of priority. But yesterday started yet another training cycle and that's always when I come back to tracking workouts and getting them written down on the interwebs so that NEXT time I've stopped blogging for 6 months and start training, I can go back to see how hard/easy it was last time.
So, let's see... what's happened since the last time I blogged? oh yeah. the whole "wedding" thing. that was great. and then there was Greece, which was pretty much awesome. and then there was a lot of non-running when we should have been running when we got back. also very awesome, although not conducive to running well in a marathon. and, oh yeah, there was a marathon.
Chicago '09 wasn't too shabby. The weather was near perfect. The crowds were a royal pain in the ass, as usual. and despite taking a full 4-5 weeks pretty much completely off of running, I still managed to negative split by something ridiculous (maybe 4 minutes?) and be 2 seconds/mile off of my PR. I was pleased with the effort given the fact that we got distracted toward the end of training, but to be honest, I was disappointed in myself for not following through with the plan once we were back from the honeymoon. But in the grand scheme of things, I wouldn't take back those weekends of newly-wedded bliss, where we just lounged in our pajamas, eating pancakes and watching football all morning, to get a sub-4 hour marathon. Ever. happiness happens. and sometimes you need to make room for it.
but this brings me to a discussion the husband and I were having the other day. about when a reason for not doing something becomes an excuse. and it really got me thinking. Because really? there aren't a whole lot of "reasons" why I haven't broken 4 hours yet. I truly believe I'm physically capable of doing it. I just haven't actually had a training cycle where I 100% committed myself to that particular goal and followed through. There *are* a bunch of excuses, though.
"I'm just getting back into running again after a long time off."
"Your father just died and you don't feel like exerting more energy than it takes you to get out of bed."
"Handling the estate is stressful."
"You're getting married. Give yourself a break."
I mean, really, they truly are mostly just excuses. They are (with the exception of the first one) relatively *valid* excuses, but excuses nonetheless. Physically, I could have trained through any of those things and possibly broken 4 hours. It just wasn't a priority to me at the time, plain and simple. and that's totally ok. I absolutely, 100% recognize that.
But really... it's time to get that 4-hour demon off of my back. for serious this time. And there is no room for excuses this time. If I don't break 4 hours, there had better be a physical REASON why.
We are about 12 weeks out from IL-thon '10, and yesterday I put in my first true training run on Pfitz's 12/55 plan. why 12 weeks instead of the usual 18? well, because I made a bunch of excuses over the past 3 months and I wasn't where I needed to be to get the workouts done RIGHT on the 18 week plan. I started it, and ended up dropping a run or cutting back the mileage, or not hitting the LT paces, nearly every week. So I made the executive decision that instead of continuing this program and not hitting my target goals, I was going to step back, bring myself up to speed with a month of really hard work, and be ready to hit the 12 week plan full throttle.
I honestly think that's going to be very possible. I've been putting in workouts similar to what I would have been had I stayed on the 18 week plan, but have been making adjustments where necessary so I could get my fitness to a level where the LT runs feel relatively comfortable (at least, for LT runs) and I don't feel like I'm going to TOTALLY FREAK OUT having to run mid-long runs in the middle of the week in either the freezing cold or on a treadmill. Coming into this with a month+ of doing 35-40 mpw is going to help too, I think. So even though I haven't been following a plan for the last 6 weeks, I've been working hard. And last night's 8 mile run outside in a "feels like" of 17 degrees with a double digit headwind for half of the miles felt great and were well within "general aerobic" pace, even though I was wearing about 80 layers of clothing.
So awesome. here we go again. and there are no excuses this time around.
So, let's see... what's happened since the last time I blogged? oh yeah. the whole "wedding" thing. that was great. and then there was Greece, which was pretty much awesome. and then there was a lot of non-running when we should have been running when we got back. also very awesome, although not conducive to running well in a marathon. and, oh yeah, there was a marathon.
Chicago '09 wasn't too shabby. The weather was near perfect. The crowds were a royal pain in the ass, as usual. and despite taking a full 4-5 weeks pretty much completely off of running, I still managed to negative split by something ridiculous (maybe 4 minutes?) and be 2 seconds/mile off of my PR. I was pleased with the effort given the fact that we got distracted toward the end of training, but to be honest, I was disappointed in myself for not following through with the plan once we were back from the honeymoon. But in the grand scheme of things, I wouldn't take back those weekends of newly-wedded bliss, where we just lounged in our pajamas, eating pancakes and watching football all morning, to get a sub-4 hour marathon. Ever. happiness happens. and sometimes you need to make room for it.
but this brings me to a discussion the husband and I were having the other day. about when a reason for not doing something becomes an excuse. and it really got me thinking. Because really? there aren't a whole lot of "reasons" why I haven't broken 4 hours yet. I truly believe I'm physically capable of doing it. I just haven't actually had a training cycle where I 100% committed myself to that particular goal and followed through. There *are* a bunch of excuses, though.
"I'm just getting back into running again after a long time off."
"Your father just died and you don't feel like exerting more energy than it takes you to get out of bed."
"Handling the estate is stressful."
"You're getting married. Give yourself a break."
I mean, really, they truly are mostly just excuses. They are (with the exception of the first one) relatively *valid* excuses, but excuses nonetheless. Physically, I could have trained through any of those things and possibly broken 4 hours. It just wasn't a priority to me at the time, plain and simple. and that's totally ok. I absolutely, 100% recognize that.
But really... it's time to get that 4-hour demon off of my back. for serious this time. And there is no room for excuses this time. If I don't break 4 hours, there had better be a physical REASON why.
We are about 12 weeks out from IL-thon '10, and yesterday I put in my first true training run on Pfitz's 12/55 plan. why 12 weeks instead of the usual 18? well, because I made a bunch of excuses over the past 3 months and I wasn't where I needed to be to get the workouts done RIGHT on the 18 week plan. I started it, and ended up dropping a run or cutting back the mileage, or not hitting the LT paces, nearly every week. So I made the executive decision that instead of continuing this program and not hitting my target goals, I was going to step back, bring myself up to speed with a month of really hard work, and be ready to hit the 12 week plan full throttle.
I honestly think that's going to be very possible. I've been putting in workouts similar to what I would have been had I stayed on the 18 week plan, but have been making adjustments where necessary so I could get my fitness to a level where the LT runs feel relatively comfortable (at least, for LT runs) and I don't feel like I'm going to TOTALLY FREAK OUT having to run mid-long runs in the middle of the week in either the freezing cold or on a treadmill. Coming into this with a month+ of doing 35-40 mpw is going to help too, I think. So even though I haven't been following a plan for the last 6 weeks, I've been working hard. And last night's 8 mile run outside in a "feels like" of 17 degrees with a double digit headwind for half of the miles felt great and were well within "general aerobic" pace, even though I was wearing about 80 layers of clothing.
So awesome. here we go again. and there are no excuses this time around.
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