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October 10, 2006

Why I Heart Nike

I got an e-mail just as I was getting ready to leave work today, reminding me of the Nike group runs that are happening in Chicago right now. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, they have 3 and 5 mile group runs that leave from places convenient to either work or my apartment. Since most of my Tuesday and Thursday runs for the next 9 weeks are 9 miles? It works out perfectly.

Thank you, Nike, for you have saved me from the treadmill. Plus, I got to run today! I didn't think I was going to, since I slept in too late to hit the gym before work, and I just can't handle the treadmill after work. Not only did I get to run, but I got to run with some fun people and then hang out with them afterwards while enjoying free wings, quesadillas and veggies. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that situation, and that doesn't even include the awesome view of the skyline we got on the lakefront.

As far as I know, these runs are going to be pretty much a year-round thing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because that would be awesome, and limit my treadmill time to one day a week. One day a week! Like I said, I heart Nike big time right now.

Posted by Dawn at 08:21 PM | Comments (1)

Relax, Regroup, Reschedule

Man, September was just not a good month for training. I wound up not running at all for the first 10 days of the month, due to my British Vacation Adventure. Sure, it was less than ideal, but it wound up being just fine. I came back, I jumped right back into my training schedule and had an awesome long run of 18 miles the following weekend. Sure, I'd lost a little bit of speed/fitness, but not enough to worry about. I'd log the miles, get that back, and be more than ready to rock in Grand Rapids on 10/29.

Then the temperatures dropped 30 degrees overnight, and I got sick. When I woke up Monday morning, I felt fine. By the time I got home Monday evening? My throat was sore from the drainage, and I was tired and cranky and not in a good place. I had a cold. Crap. I spent a week sleeping it off and not running, telling myself that I was much better off this way. I'd get back into the schedule next week. I still had a couple of long runs planned before the taper. It would all be OK. Sure, Grand Rapids wouldn't be as rockin' fast as I'd originally hoped, but it would still be more than fine.

The next week, though, I just couldn't kick the damn thing. Overall I felt better and my energy levels were back up to almost 100%, but I had all this chest congestion and couldn't run more than a step or two without hacking up a lung. This was, to say the least, a bit discouraging. I wound up running a pretty reduced schedule during the week, and figured I'd rest up and save my energy for the weekend's long run, which would be fine and get me back in gear. Except the long run wasn't fine. It was supposed to be 18 miles, but after 10 I was exhausted and hacking up a lung. I tried to talk myself into gutting it out until at least 12 miles, but it was a crappy run anyway (I was underhydrated and poorly fueled, thanks to spending the previous day at an amusement park) and I just didn't have the desire to pull through.

I think that was when my motivation died. I tried not to worry about it too much - I still had a 20-miler on the schedule for the next week, and I could still rock that before tapering - but I was just done. Getting up early to go run in the gym before work was never easy, and became nearly impossible. I just didn't care. I knew that my best hope for Grand Rapids was going to be to just finish. Sure, I could probably run a nice, solid race and still probably set a new PR (the nice thing about crashing and burning on your first two marathons? The bar is set pretty low for #3), but I'd be running just to finish. Not to run fast, not to run well, but just to not die.

If I was going to be honest with myself? That's just not worth it to me. Both marathons so far have just been about survival (although for totally different reasons), and I just wasn't that excited about adding a third to the list. I know I can get myself through a marathon - what I want to find out is can I do it well? And the pure and simple fact of the matter was that right now, I'm just not in a position to run a good marathon in 3 weeks, and knowing that it's hard to get myself psyched up about spending the time on the treadmill or on the long runs for it.

So, I decided not to do it. It kind of kills me to just say, "Nope, not running Grand Rapids anymore," to, in a way, give up without even trying. But I'm not quitting completely. Instead, I decided to take a few days off (and skip this weekend's long run - sometimes, you just need to be a little lazy) and, starting tomorrow, I'll jump back into a training schedule focused on Vegas. I've got 2 months, which should be enough time to get that fitness and speed back and be able to run a good race down there. I can step back my long runs into the 15-16 mile range, which is a lot easier to mentally gear up for after a break than someting in the 18-20 mile range. I'll rebuild the mileage, I'll run a 20 or two before the taper starts, and then I'll rock Vegas like it's never been rocked before.

It'll be great. Most importantly, though, I'm excited about running and training again. As bad as I feel about opting out of Grand Rapids, the change of plans was clearly what I needed.

Posted by Dawn at 09:33 AM | Comments (1)