I was not going to blog today. But after discussing upcoming runs with Kelly from Running Kellometers, I had an epiphany.
I realized I've been going in the wrong direction with my running goals this year. Not only was I going in the wrong direction, I was going in ALL different directions! Much is the case with the rest of my life lately! lol. I try to do everything good or better and instead I seem to make it all worse or make myself incredibly frustrated!
My goals with running this year.. basically to PR every distance imaginable while training for two marathons and PR those too while I'm at it! Before I ever ran a marathon, that was always the goal, to PR! Run a 5k...try to beat your old time. Run the Shamrock Shuffle 8k every year (coming up in March) and PR that too! Luckily I didn't worry too much about PR'ing anything last year while training for the marathon, because most of my races for that year where passed. But now that I'm training for a spring marathon, I've got some of these runs coming up that I've done for many years and my goal was always to PR them. I now realize that is the wrong direction for me to go in right now.
I've been frustrated as of late with my running pace. I say I'm about a 10 min mile pace. But to PR any distance other than a half marathon or marathon, I have to be under that pace! So when I run a 10:15 pace or a 10:30 pace (or even higher) during my marathon training runs, I'm disappointed with my pace! How am I ever going to PR a 5k or the Shamrock Shuffle 8k while running those paces! The answer is simple. I'm not! And that should be ok right now. That should be the way it is! They are called "marathon training runs" for a reason! I'm not trainig for a 5k, I'm training for a marathon.
My first marathon, the 2011 Chicago Marathon, I had a finish time of 4:53:06 (11:11 pace). My goal times were somewhere between 4:30-4:45 but to be honest, I really had no idea what I was going to finish in. I just wanted to finish! If I finished under 5 hours, I would be ecstatic. And I was! I was thrilled with the way my first marathon went!
Right now, the most important thing to me is the next marathon. And of course I would love to beat my previous marathon time. While talking to Kelly, we were discussing speed work. I was confused on what my speeds should be while trying to do speed work. She was talking about what "they" say your speed should be if you are training for a marathon. And I thought, but that's too slow! Now I realize my problem. While Kelly was advising me the way I probably should speed train for a marathon, I was thinking of the pace I would need to get for a 5k or 8k and the speed that I would need for that. We were talking about two completely different things. Because Kelly was in the right frame of mind. She knew that I should be focusing primarily on the marathon. Whereas with my frame of mind...I was focusing on other small races that will end up hindering my training properly for the marathon.
I feel like I'm babbling...
Basically, the way I ended up thinking about it today was this. What would I prefer to accomplish this year? What will be more important to me when this year is over? Come December 31st, will I be happier PR'ing the Shamrock Shuffle 8k or one or both of my marathons this year? The answer is simple: The marathon! Without a doubt. I'm using the Shamrock Shuffle 8k as my example because I've done that run every year since 2004 (except 1) and it's one of the most important races to me every year. My goal has always been to do better than the year before. This year, my goals are shifted and I have to let that mentality go.
And when I am frustrated with my pace while doing my marathon training runs, I need to realize that they may be slower than I would like...but right now, they aren't too far off the goal I have set for the marathon.
And yes, I vaguely remember a few other people trying to tell me this in the beginning of the year but I didn't get it back then. I can be stubborn when I want to be. I was in a "I don't want to hear it" mood. I didn't want to listen because I felt like I was being told not to do something.
For some reason I feel so much better about my running right now. For the past 2 months I've been giving myself a hard time thinking I'm too slow. It's hard when you are running next to speed demons (Kelly) and they are so much faster than you! But the reality is...Kelly isn't training for a marathon. Kelly is working on her speed for the races up to a half marathon right now. I can't compare myself to her or anyone else. Right now, I just have to focus on me and the pace I need to get a 4:30 marathon.
And I just realized my marathon is exactly two months away from today!!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Indoor Triathlon Race Recap
I'm actually not known to do race recaps for my runs. I think it's because this started as a healthy eating/weight loss blog and partially turned into a running blog. But since I did something completely different than just running, I thought a race recap was appropriate.
I decided to take part in a very small indoor triathlon with my hair stylist Carol and a group of her running friends. I've always wanted to do a triathlon but they scare me a little. This triathlon is what I considered a "baby" triathlon. In no ways do I consider myself a triathlete for completing this! It was a very structured timed event. You got 10 minutes for swimming, a 10 minute transition, 20 minutes on the stationary bike, a 5 minute transition and a 15 minute run. But I thought this was a good way to "get my feet wet" before doing a "real" triathlon.
The night before I was actually kind of nervous! I don't know why. I knew I could easily do each event so it's not like I won't complete it. I went to bed early just because I was really tired. I had a dream that night that I was up against 2 girls in the pool (that's it!) and they told us we had to do the backstroke. Now, I was on the swim team in high school for only 1 year, my junior year, to help out because they didn't have enough people. Since I hadn't swam the first two years and was now swimming against varsity, I was a lot slower than everyone else. And they usually stick the worst people on the backstroke (at least in my case). So I always got put on backstroke (or in the relays, obviously). I think this is where the backstroke came into play in my dream!
So in the dream, they said we had to compete in the backstroke. The other two girls didn't know how to swim the backstroke! (Haha!). Lucky for me...I did! And I creamed the other two girls in the backstroke! I woke up around 5:30 and kind of chuckled at my dream! If only this were the case! lol. But I didn't have to get up until 7:30 so I went back to sleep.
I got all my stuff together and off I went. It was nice because this was very local and only around 15 minutes from my house. I got my swag and my lane assignment.
For a cheapy race, the swag bag was kind of nice. Lots of free samples. I always love the granola bar and energy samples!
I met up with the girls who were shopping in the store (of course!!). Finally we got changed and all ready for the swim and headed to the pool. The pool was 25 yards and they counted lengths of the pool. And if we pushed off and then the whistle blew signaling the end...that last length counted even if we didn't swim it. As long as we pushed off, the next length counted. After the person working the event took pictures of us in the pool (I do not like having pictures taken in a bathing suit! lol), we geared up to start. I am hopefully going to get the pictures this lady took emailed to me...but I don't have them yet. I have a few pictures a family member of one of the girls took though.
When the whistle blew, I started out fast! And after two lengths, I was tired! lol. I knew I needed to slow it up a little. 10 minutes isn't very long but I wanted to keep a good pace. I'm a fairly slow swimmer. I knew from the few practice swims I had earlier in the month that I would not make 20 lengths in 10 minutes. So my goal was to get as close to that as possible. They announced when the time was half up. I was about 9.5 lengths in. When I was around 17 lengths in, I knew I just wanted to get to the end of the wall and push off just in case the end timer sounded. I wanted to get the extra length in. So I just kept thinking, "Get to the end and push off!" I knew it was getting close. After I was finishing length 18 and was about to push off, I heard the guys yelling, "GO! GO! GO!" And I pushed off and about a second later, the whistle sounded to complete the swim portion. So even though I didn't swim that 19 length, it counted! Lucky me! They clocked me at 475 yards. Good? Bad? I don't know. I knew that I did good for myself. I also knew that out of the 5 of us, 2 girls swam faster (525 yards) and 2 girls swam slower (400 and 425 yards). I was happy enough with my distance.
Then we went to change out of our suits and headed to the bikes. I forgot my headphones and that made for a very boring 20 minute bike ride! Not much to say about the bike. I tried to keep my RPM's up and did well for the distance for me, 6.60 miles. I must say, the equipment in this gym was very new and very nice! The seats on the bike were comfortable and it was very smooth to ride!
After the bikes, I had 5 minutes. I went to get my knee straps which I left in the locker room. I stretched out a bit and headed to the treadmill. The girls had started early but I was taking my time as this wasn't counting against me at all and I figured I could catch my breath a little bit.
I hopped on the treadmill and off I went. Actually...I hate treadmills for a few reasons. One reason is...it takes about 10 seconds to get up to the speed you want to run at! I was saying out loud..."Come on! Get moving!" I was losing precious time! lol. My goal was to do some speed intervals. Even my recovery speed was going to be higher than normal though. All I needed to do was run for 15 minutes! But I was nervous that if I ran on a speed to high for me, I would get so tired that I would have to lower the speed too much later. So I was a little conservative but still tried to push it. After a minute warm up at about 9:50 to get my feet under me, I decided to do 2 minutes at about 9:13 or 9:05 pace and 1 minute at 8:34. I would see how that felt and decide from there the rest of the run. Well that seemed to work out ok. Since I didn't have my headphones, the intervals made the time go fast and gave me something to focus on. With the last three minutes, I figured I could push more so I ran 2 minutes on 8:57 pace and the final minute on a 8:05 pace. Yeah I was all over the place but I thought it would be better than just trying to run a straight pace and poop out later. My overall miles for the 15 minutes was 1.66. I felt just "Eh...it was ok". I wish I had picked it up a few times earlier or ran longer for a little bit on the higher pace. But overall it was ok. I did beat all the other 4 girls that were there with me in the running! Nice!
Since I got on the treadmills last, I was the last one off and immediately they wanted to take all of our pictures! I'm red in the face, my hair is a mess from the swimming portion.
I feel that I always look like a linebacker when I take photos with people! I'm bigger and taller than just about everyone! Oh well...
Even though this was a small little triathlon and really means nothing in the grand scheme of things, I was pretty pleased with my performance. You still don't realize how tired you get from one event to the other. It was a lot of fun. I would definitely do this again! It's good for those that show "interest" in a triathlon but don't think they can ever do one! This was a lot of fun and may give you courage to sign up for another triathlon! Which of course I did! Also, after receiving the results, I found out I got 2nd place in my age group for females! Ok, it was only out of 9 girls in that group but I didn't care! Not too bad. Also, I was really close to the first place position but that girl creamed me in the run (she ran 1.93 miles in 15 minutes).
A sprint triathlon is in my future. I wasn't going to do a triathlon this year with my hefty two marathon goal but I know a few people that started talking about do one and decided, "Why not?" So I signed up for a triathlon in August. It's two weeks after a half marathon, so it won't interfere with that. And it's 2 months before the Chicago Marathon, so it really won't interfere with that. Sometimes I think I'm a little crazy. But you only live once.
A little side note. Lent. I'm Catholic but I really don't go to church or even follow many of the rules of lent or anything. On another side note, I feel that God just wants me to be a good person! lol. So that's what I try to do. Normally I don't give anything up either and I eat meat on Friday's too. I know, I know. We always did at home. In fact, it seems that I always gravitate towards meat on Friday's and would forget about Lent anyway! This year, since I failed at not eating candy for the entire month of February, I decided to give up candy and ice cream for Lent. So far, so good!
**Also, Maggie from Mag Mile Runner is having raffling off some great stuff in order to raise money for her charity for the American Cancer Society. Click here for the link to her page and donate. Granted, it ends today and I should have blogged about this sooner! Sorry Maggie! But I'm all up for donating to a good cause and also trying to win some good stuff! You could always donate even if you aren't entered in the raffle!
I decided to take part in a very small indoor triathlon with my hair stylist Carol and a group of her running friends. I've always wanted to do a triathlon but they scare me a little. This triathlon is what I considered a "baby" triathlon. In no ways do I consider myself a triathlete for completing this! It was a very structured timed event. You got 10 minutes for swimming, a 10 minute transition, 20 minutes on the stationary bike, a 5 minute transition and a 15 minute run. But I thought this was a good way to "get my feet wet" before doing a "real" triathlon.
The night before I was actually kind of nervous! I don't know why. I knew I could easily do each event so it's not like I won't complete it. I went to bed early just because I was really tired. I had a dream that night that I was up against 2 girls in the pool (that's it!) and they told us we had to do the backstroke. Now, I was on the swim team in high school for only 1 year, my junior year, to help out because they didn't have enough people. Since I hadn't swam the first two years and was now swimming against varsity, I was a lot slower than everyone else. And they usually stick the worst people on the backstroke (at least in my case). So I always got put on backstroke (or in the relays, obviously). I think this is where the backstroke came into play in my dream!
So in the dream, they said we had to compete in the backstroke. The other two girls didn't know how to swim the backstroke! (Haha!). Lucky for me...I did! And I creamed the other two girls in the backstroke! I woke up around 5:30 and kind of chuckled at my dream! If only this were the case! lol. But I didn't have to get up until 7:30 so I went back to sleep.
I got all my stuff together and off I went. It was nice because this was very local and only around 15 minutes from my house. I got my swag and my lane assignment.
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| Swag bag |
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| Lane/Machine Assignment wrist band |
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| The free stuff in the bag |
I met up with the girls who were shopping in the store (of course!!). Finally we got changed and all ready for the swim and headed to the pool. The pool was 25 yards and they counted lengths of the pool. And if we pushed off and then the whistle blew signaling the end...that last length counted even if we didn't swim it. As long as we pushed off, the next length counted. After the person working the event took pictures of us in the pool (I do not like having pictures taken in a bathing suit! lol), we geared up to start. I am hopefully going to get the pictures this lady took emailed to me...but I don't have them yet. I have a few pictures a family member of one of the girls took though.
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| Before the start, I'm in the light blue and black suit in the middle. |
Then we went to change out of our suits and headed to the bikes. I forgot my headphones and that made for a very boring 20 minute bike ride! Not much to say about the bike. I tried to keep my RPM's up and did well for the distance for me, 6.60 miles. I must say, the equipment in this gym was very new and very nice! The seats on the bike were comfortable and it was very smooth to ride!
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| The first person is my hair stylist Carol with a magazine with Johnny Depp (her favorite). | I'm second on the bike. |
After the bikes, I had 5 minutes. I went to get my knee straps which I left in the locker room. I stretched out a bit and headed to the treadmill. The girls had started early but I was taking my time as this wasn't counting against me at all and I figured I could catch my breath a little bit.
I hopped on the treadmill and off I went. Actually...I hate treadmills for a few reasons. One reason is...it takes about 10 seconds to get up to the speed you want to run at! I was saying out loud..."Come on! Get moving!" I was losing precious time! lol. My goal was to do some speed intervals. Even my recovery speed was going to be higher than normal though. All I needed to do was run for 15 minutes! But I was nervous that if I ran on a speed to high for me, I would get so tired that I would have to lower the speed too much later. So I was a little conservative but still tried to push it. After a minute warm up at about 9:50 to get my feet under me, I decided to do 2 minutes at about 9:13 or 9:05 pace and 1 minute at 8:34. I would see how that felt and decide from there the rest of the run. Well that seemed to work out ok. Since I didn't have my headphones, the intervals made the time go fast and gave me something to focus on. With the last three minutes, I figured I could push more so I ran 2 minutes on 8:57 pace and the final minute on a 8:05 pace. Yeah I was all over the place but I thought it would be better than just trying to run a straight pace and poop out later. My overall miles for the 15 minutes was 1.66. I felt just "Eh...it was ok". I wish I had picked it up a few times earlier or ran longer for a little bit on the higher pace. But overall it was ok. I did beat all the other 4 girls that were there with me in the running! Nice!
Since I got on the treadmills last, I was the last one off and immediately they wanted to take all of our pictures! I'm red in the face, my hair is a mess from the swimming portion.
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| After the Triathlon. Sporting our medals. |
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| Close up of the medal! |
A sprint triathlon is in my future. I wasn't going to do a triathlon this year with my hefty two marathon goal but I know a few people that started talking about do one and decided, "Why not?" So I signed up for a triathlon in August. It's two weeks after a half marathon, so it won't interfere with that. And it's 2 months before the Chicago Marathon, so it really won't interfere with that. Sometimes I think I'm a little crazy. But you only live once.
A little side note. Lent. I'm Catholic but I really don't go to church or even follow many of the rules of lent or anything. On another side note, I feel that God just wants me to be a good person! lol. So that's what I try to do. Normally I don't give anything up either and I eat meat on Friday's too. I know, I know. We always did at home. In fact, it seems that I always gravitate towards meat on Friday's and would forget about Lent anyway! This year, since I failed at not eating candy for the entire month of February, I decided to give up candy and ice cream for Lent. So far, so good!
**Also, Maggie from Mag Mile Runner is having raffling off some great stuff in order to raise money for her charity for the American Cancer Society. Click here for the link to her page and donate. Granted, it ends today and I should have blogged about this sooner! Sorry Maggie! But I'm all up for donating to a good cause and also trying to win some good stuff! You could always donate even if you aren't entered in the raffle!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Tough Run and Product Review
Last week I blogged all about the wonderful and fattening treats everyone made/gave me for my birthday. Let's just say it got worse on Tuesday for Valentine's Day. And after eating tons of sugar that day and having an equally horrible crappy 3 miles treadmill run that night because of it, I gave the rest of my candy I had at work to my parents! I was talking to Dave from Experience Life (who needs to update his blog, by the way) about it Tuesday and the crappy way I was feeling about my eating, my gaining weight, etc. Dave gave me a swift kick in the ass as he loves to do some helpful advice and I chewed on his comments for a while. While thinking about it, I decided I needed to implement a plan of some kind. I came up with planning my meals for the next day a day in advance. Yes, I know this is old news for some of you, but for me planning is not easy to do! I'm not a planner! But my plan was to make and eat breakfast at home in the morning before I went to work in the attempt to eat a more healthy, balanced and filling breakfast to start out my day. And I planned my breakfast, snack, lunch and snack the night before (even if it was 11:00 pm). The only thing I hadn't gotten to planning was dinner and if needed, an evening snack. And I was pleased to find out that this "planning" stuff seemed to work for me! So, I'll keep trying this and hopefully keep the momentum going. I actually didn't plan anything today as I was super busy yesterday but I'll start again for tomorrow.
Saturday I needed to run 13 miles for my marathon training. I can't believe this was the end of the first 8 weeks of my 18 week training plan!! I was a little nervous for my calves as even though they were feeling better, they were still sore the week before when I ran 12 miles on flat trails. This week, I was running the 13 with my normal marathon training group The Yankee Runners in a hilly neighborhood. But I got some compression sleeves to try for my calves and this was the first long run that I was going to wear them on.
Bonus was that I got them for free! Now, my run group deviated from our normal street route (because it's only a 6 mile loop) and went into the trails so we wouldn't have to repeat. The weather was perfect! Probably in the 30's with sun. I could not have asked for a better winter to train for a spring marathon! The trail however was choppy and uneven. Due to rain a few days earlier, there were frozen muddy shoe prints and horse prints on much of the trail. It made for a very rough run. Trying to keep your footing and running and the tons of hills! I felt like I might die!! In fact, maybe 7 miles in, my former pace leader took a spill as she tripped over a rock! I was of course a few steps behind the group and I looked up and saw her flat on her back! She was rolling around in pain and I didn't know if she slipped and landed on her back or what. She said it was her ankle and knee. Luckily, we had a nurse on hand and was checking her out. I asked Jeanne if she wanted us to call for help (not that I would know where to tell them we were at!) but she said no, that she was going to be fine. After about 5-10 mins, she got up, shook it off an continued to run! She is a little scraped up today but she said she is feeling ok, just a little sore. I happily joked around with Jeanne that if she needed to slow up or walk at any time, I would be more than happy to stick with her!! Haha! :-)
With one mile left in my 13 miles, I realized my stomach felt completely empty! I'm usually really good with knowing what to eat before a run and I even had a gu with me during the run. But I think the extra hills in the trails and the choppy terrain really used up a lot of my energy! I've never had a completely empty stomach feeling on a long run before ever! I think I may need to bring 2 gu's or bring something else for energy during my long runs. Luckily there was a gatorade stop about .80 miles left in my run. I normally eat a half serving of oatmeal before the runs (a full serving during normal races because I have more time to digest it) and a banana. This morning, I only had the 1/2 serving of oatmeal. I didn't have any bananas. So I may need to try to eat a full serving of oatmeal and a banana and maybe even get up about 15 mins earlier just to have more time to digest it before running. What do you eat for energy during your long runs? I feel like I may be one of those people that can't chew well while running more than 16 miles, which is why I stick to gu's.
The good news: I did not have one ounce of pain in my calves after my long run! I have almost no doubt it has to be the compression sleeves! I mean, that is part of it. The other part is the fact that I got a few good stretches from the chiroprator for my calves which I've been doing. But even after my 6 mile run earlier that week, my calves felt a little tight. But they felt pretty great after the 13 miles! My legs were understandably tired but that was about all.
The other good news: I secretly love the hills! Don't tell anyone! Yes, my pace is slower when running the hills in those trails. Yes, I did stop and have to walk up them a few times. Yes, I felt like my lungs were going to burst and I might die! But I always love the feeling I get when I do something and finish and it was completely hard for me to do! (Side note: not to mention that I have a completely flat butt...and I think the hills are giving my completely flat butt a little something extra...just a little). lol
Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Saturday I needed to run 13 miles for my marathon training. I can't believe this was the end of the first 8 weeks of my 18 week training plan!! I was a little nervous for my calves as even though they were feeling better, they were still sore the week before when I ran 12 miles on flat trails. This week, I was running the 13 with my normal marathon training group The Yankee Runners in a hilly neighborhood. But I got some compression sleeves to try for my calves and this was the first long run that I was going to wear them on.
 |
With one mile left in my 13 miles, I realized my stomach felt completely empty! I'm usually really good with knowing what to eat before a run and I even had a gu with me during the run. But I think the extra hills in the trails and the choppy terrain really used up a lot of my energy! I've never had a completely empty stomach feeling on a long run before ever! I think I may need to bring 2 gu's or bring something else for energy during my long runs. Luckily there was a gatorade stop about .80 miles left in my run. I normally eat a half serving of oatmeal before the runs (a full serving during normal races because I have more time to digest it) and a banana. This morning, I only had the 1/2 serving of oatmeal. I didn't have any bananas. So I may need to try to eat a full serving of oatmeal and a banana and maybe even get up about 15 mins earlier just to have more time to digest it before running. What do you eat for energy during your long runs? I feel like I may be one of those people that can't chew well while running more than 16 miles, which is why I stick to gu's.
The good news: I did not have one ounce of pain in my calves after my long run! I have almost no doubt it has to be the compression sleeves! I mean, that is part of it. The other part is the fact that I got a few good stretches from the chiroprator for my calves which I've been doing. But even after my 6 mile run earlier that week, my calves felt a little tight. But they felt pretty great after the 13 miles! My legs were understandably tired but that was about all.
The other good news: I secretly love the hills! Don't tell anyone! Yes, my pace is slower when running the hills in those trails. Yes, I did stop and have to walk up them a few times. Yes, I felt like my lungs were going to burst and I might die! But I always love the feeling I get when I do something and finish and it was completely hard for me to do! (Side note: not to mention that I have a completely flat butt...and I think the hills are giving my completely flat butt a little something extra...just a little). lol
Hope you all have a wonderful week!
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