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April 30, 2007

How Not To Freak Out Before a Marathon

Taper making you twitchy? I've found the perfect solution:

Schedule a move one week after the marathon.

No, seriously. I've got a marathon in 6 days, and I'm moving in 14. I'm so concerned about the move (and the packing... and more packing... and still more packing) that I've barely even thought about the race. I'm just running whatever's in the plan for the day, and then all of my spare mental energy is on packing and moving (and packing - how can there be so much packing??). In fact, this week I'm making a special effort to remember that I have a marathon this weekend (and thusly things to do like review the course map and tell my parents where/when they'll be able to see me, pick up the rental car on Friday, figure out what time I'm leaving on Sunday, pack for the weekend (gah! more packing!), etc) because I'm afraid I'm going to forget something vital if I don't.

Apparently Moving Freak Outs totally trump Marathon Freak Outs. Who knew?

Posted by Dawn at 08:14 AM | Comments (2)

April 26, 2007

Owwwwwwww

The other week, I was poking around online for triathlon training plans. A quick look at the calendar told me I'd need to get down to training for Accenture as soon as I recovered from the Pig if I was going to have any hope of getting through it, so I wanted to see what plans were out there, what they looked like, and have one ready to go before heading to Cincinnati. Anyhow, as I was poking around the internets, I came across a company that specializes in triathlon training for women. Not only did they have plans available, but they also provided coaching services.

Hmmmm. I looked a little deeper. For only slightly more than I was paying for run coaching last year, I could get multi-sport coaching. Hmmmm. Something to think about.

Then I kept looking... they were local! And ran group workouts! That I could go to! This was tempting. I thought about it for a few days, then went ahead and signed up. Having previously experienced the Power of Coaching, I was all over it, and being able to get in to group workouts sealed the deal for me.

Another bonus to using a local company is that I actually get to work with my coach in person every now and then. Shortly after I registered we got together for lunch and went over my race plans for the summer and my goals for the races. We also set up a time for me to come into the gym where she works and do a CompuTrainer session on the bike - she'd set up a time trial and we'd use that to get an idea of how much power (wattage) I could push on the bike and what my HR training zones should be. She wanted to get it in as soon as possible, but she didn't want to disrupt my taper, and she didn't want to do it right after the marathon, either, since I'd be recovering.... aack! What to do?

I offered to come in this week - I had a couple of hard speed-work-like runs scheduled, and I'd just swap out one of those for the CompuTrainer session. No problem! Excellent. Wednesday was the day.

Yesterday when I woke up, my legs felt great. They weren't sore, they weren't tight, I was all, "Woo-hoo! I have bounced back from the 20-miler, and am ready to get medieval on the bike this evening."

Y'all, I look back at myself and LAUGH. The time trial kicked my butt, took names, and then ate my legs for lunch. The course was a challenging one - not at all flat, but incredibly hilly. As soon as I hit the first climb, I felt every inch of the 20 miles I'd run on Sunday. As soon as I hit 40 minutes and could stop, I damn near fell of the bike - I was tired, my legs were shot, and my butt was completely numb.

BUT! It was a good workout, and my coach got all of the information she needed. And, really, considering I was less than 100%, I did pretty well. She also wants to meet up for a ride on the lakefront once I'm done with my marathon to see if we can work on my bike fit a little bit. She also stretched me out after the workout last night - she said, "I think your IT bands might be a little tight - let me see." Which was followed shortly by, "Wowwwww." Yeah. A smidge tight. But having someone else stretch it out? Was awesome.

So far, working with a local coach, even if it's mostly online? Is awesome.

Food log:
6 a.m. - Bagel with lowfat cream cheese
10 a.m. - Avocado tomato mango salad
12:15 p.m. - 1/2 PB&J sandwich on wheat bread
12:45 p.m. - String cheese
2 p.m. - Kiwi
5:30 p.m. - Chocolate Chip Trail Blaze Bar
6:30 - 7:30 p.m. - Water & gatorade during workout 8:15 p.m. - BK Spicy Tendercrisp Sandwich, lemonade - hey, it was late, I was exhausted and hungry, and the drive-through was on the way home. It was the tastiest deep fried chicken sandwich I've had in a long while. At least I passed on the fries?

Workout:
Bike: 40-minute hilly time trial with warm-up and cool down. Avg watts: 120, avg HR: 180

Posted by Dawn at 07:57 AM

April 24, 2007

4/24/07

Food log:
7:00 a.m. - Hard-boiled egg on wheat toast with a little bit of mayo
12:00 p.m. - Cheese & veggie sub, salt & vinegar potato chips
12:45 p.m. - Hot chocolate, with whole milk and whipped cream (TMI alert: my digestive system isn't always the biggest fan of full-fat dairy or of chocolate. Putting them together isn't really a good idea, but sometimes I get away with it. Not yesterday. I was just uncomfortable and felt like crap all afternoon. Ugh. Only skim hot chocolate from now on.)
6:00 p.m. - Gummy bears - an impulse buy at the grocery store. Also a mistake. Ugh.
7:30 p.m. - Chicken soft taco with avocado - tasty! I've got enough leftovers to hold me for the next day or two, which makes me incredibly happy.

Workouts:
5:50 a.m. - Intervals: 2 mile warm-up, 4x(3 min @ 10K pace, 2 min recovery), 1.5 mile cool-down. I started out taking it super easy, since my legs were still a little tight from Sunday's long run. After a couple intervals, though, I felt good and pushed it a little harder. Too hard, though, since my legs were sore all day. Oops.

Posted by Dawn at 09:27 PM

April 23, 2007

4/19/07

Food log:
6:00 a.m. - Wheat toast with butter and orange marmalade (just call me Paddington), string cheese
12:00 p.m. - Asian noodle soup with cabbage & chicken dumplings, curry chicken bao, BBQ pork bao, hibiscus iced tea
5:15 p.m. - Tuna melt, avocado tomato mango salad
9:00 p.m. - Chocolate chip Trail Blaze bar

Workouts:
Recovery day! I was supposed to take it easy, which I managed to do at work (score one for the desk job). However, once I got home I was up and down stairs all evening doing laundry, getting boxes, packing boxes, etc, etc.

Posted by Dawn at 09:54 PM | Comments (1)

April 22, 2007

20 Miles: In The Bag

After last week's horrible awful unsuccessful attempt at 20 miles, I decided to do some rescheduling - instead of starting my taper then, I'd do one last long run this weekend (in theory: 20 miles) and then have a two week taper before the race, instead of a three week one. I know quite a few people who have done it and liked it, and since I'm not running The Pig for time, I figured it was worth a shot. Mostly because I really wanted to have a good 20-mile run - not because I thought I needed it physically, but because I needed it mentally.

So on Saturday, I rested. I ate well. I went to bed insanely early so I could get in 8 hours of sleep before getting up at 4 a.m. for breakfast. Then I went out and kicked that 20-miler's butt. Sure, I was sore and tired and the end... but if I'd had to run another 10K? I could have done it. I'm ready for this race, and I feel pretty good about it.

The one thing I'm finding as I do more and more of these long (18+ mile) runs is that it all boils down to hydration for me. Towards the end, I was feeling pretty crappy and I wasn't sure why - I'd been drinking water like a maniac, but everything still felt hurty and crampy. Then I just knew: I wasn't getting enough electrolytes. I stopped at the next gas station, bought a bottle of Gatorade, and once I chugged that thing down? I felt much, much better. It was amazing. (Clearly, I was also still a little dehydrated, since I chugged the thing down in about 5 minutes and didn't feel sloshy, but it was super-warm out and there's only so much fluid one can get down while running.) So another little thing for me to note in my mental training book: water is good, but if I'm going to be out there for 3+ hours, electrolytes are better.

All in all, though, it was a great run. I knocked the distance out, and because it was so warm (57 degrees when I started, and it went up to 75 degrees by the time I was done) I feel much more confident about my ability to handle those conditions should we end up with them on race day. Right now, I feel ready to go down there and rock and roll (we'll see what two weeks of tapering does to that, which is why I'm writing it down now).

Food:
4:30 a.m. - Wheat toast with peanut butter
7 - 11 a.m. - Water, Gatorade, and Gu during run
11:15 a.m. - Chocolate milk
2:30 p.m. - Huevos rancheros, breakfast potatoes
7:30 p.m. - Chicken, mixed greens, avocado mango tomato salad

Posted by Dawn at 07:45 PM | Comments (2)

April 19, 2007

4/19/07

Food:
8:30 a.m. - Bagel with lowfat cream cheese
12:00 p.m. - Hawaiian pizza (canadian bacon, pineapple)
7:00 p.m. - Green salad with pears, walnuts, gorgonzola, olive oil, balsamic vinegar
8:00 p.m. - Tuna & rice with soy sauce

Workouts:
Run: 6 miles w/4@tempo pace/1:00:31
Avg HR 173/Max HR 196
I had intended for the tempo miles to be right around 10:00, but as far as I can tell they were closer to 9:30. Garmin flipped out, so I don't have accurate split data.

Posted by Dawn at 08:51 PM

April 18, 2007

4/18/07

Mmm... Tasty:
7:00 a.m. - Bagel with lowfat cream cheese
9:30 a.m. - Cherry yogurt
12:30 p.m. - Peanut butter/banana/apple/cranberry sauce sandwich on wheat bread
7:00 p.m. - Chicken flautas, rice, chips & salsa & guacamole, green apple blow-pop

Workouts:
Run: 3 miles/33:01
Avg HR 165/Max HR 177

Posted by Dawn at 07:57 PM

Mmmm... Tasty:
7:15 a.m. - Kashi Go Lean Crunch & skim milk
11:45 a.m. - Chicken & wild rice soup w/crackers and roll, Ben & Jerry's Cinnamon Buns cone (yay Free Cone Day!)
5:15 p.m. - Free cone day part 2: Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Therapy sugar cone
6:00 p.m. - Green salad with pears, blue cheese, walnuts, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. Chicken breast stuffed with blue cheese, asparagus, and bacon - this did not turn out so well. I only ate half of it, and STILL felt the bacon kicking in my digestive system almost immediately. Never again. Ugh.
8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. - Homebrew club meeting - beer & bar food (pizza, fries, fried zucchini)

Workouts:
Run: 5.9 miles with 12x30 sec @ 5K pace with 1 min recovery. I love this workout, especially first thing in the morning.

Posted by Dawn at 08:17 AM

April 16, 2007

Mmmm... Tasty:
6:00 a.m. - Everything bagel & low-fat cream cheese
10:30 a.m. - Sour Patch Kids
12:30 p.m. - Italian sub
5:00 p.m. - Dragon roll sushi - this was from the local Jewel, and it was mildly disappointing. It didn't include shrimp tempura (although for grocery store sushi that wasn't entirely surprising), but the worst part was this: on most of the roll, the avocado used was way, way underripe. It was just about crunchy. Ewwwww. At least the eel inside was still good, so it wasn't a total loss. Then again, two rolls only cost me $7, so we'll file this under "you get what you pay for."

No exercise today - instead, I started packing for the big move (4 weeks and counting)! One box down, 47 more to go....

Posted by Dawn at 08:07 PM

April 15, 2007

Back on the Bike

Today, I sucked it up, stopped being afraid of the fancy clippy shoes and pedals, and took my bike out for a ride. It was fantastic - my legs were totally beat up from yesterday's run (which is ridiculous - clearly, I really need to not be skipping my weekday runs), so I took it nice and easy. I kept it in a gear where I could spin 80-90 rpm without straining my legs (even though at times that gear was a pretty small one). I made it to and from the lakefront without getting killed (and was even feeling confident enough by the end to take main roads all the way home instead of side streets), and I didn't get stuck in my bike and fall over. It was a short ride - only 10 miles, but it felt great. Now that I've reminded myself that the big fancy bike isn't all that scary, maybe I'll get it out more often.

Energy in:
8:30 a.m. - Banana
10:30 a.m. - Out to brunch! Biscuits & gravy with eggs, Diet Coke
2 p.m. - Jalapeño chicken sausage & whole wheat bun
3 p.m. - Trail blaze chocolate chip energy bars (2) - these things are good. Too good. I need to start freezing them so I don't feel like I have to eat the entire batch (9 of 'em) before they start getting fuzzy (about 10 days)
5 p.m. - Bell's Oberon
7 p.m. - Grilled cheese sandwich, in celebration of National Grilled Cheese Month

Energy out:
Bike: 10 miles/50:51
Avg HR 144/Max HR 168

Posted by Dawn at 06:30 PM

April 14, 2007

Energy In:
5 a.m. - Whole wheat toast w/peanut butter
11 a.m. - Trail Blaze chocoloate chip energy bar
12 p.m. - Jalapeno chicken sausage on whole wheat bun
5 p.m. - Peanut Butter Moo'd from Jamba Juice
6:30 p.m. - Chicken tacos

Energy Out:
Run: 14 miles/3:08:26 - this run was just awful. Everything hurt, I felt sluggish and tired the whole time, and my legs were dead by mile 9. I suppose that's what I get for a) slacking off on the training big time this week and b) eating crap all day on Friday. Note to self: a good dinner will not make up for an entire day of junk food.

Posted by Dawn at 07:18 PM

April 13, 2007

Is This Thing Still On?

Hello! Man, it's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that - I've been active on the general blog, but I just haven't had much to say about the running in a while. I am running, and in fact I will definitely be running The Pig on May 6 (taper starts after this weekend! EEEK!). Even more surprising, I think I might actually be in pretty good shape for it. The hills are going to kill me, and it's not going to be fast, but I think it'll actually be OK. My 18-mile run the other week was far, far better than I expected, so I'm feeling good about this weekend's 20-miler and the upcoming race. If nothing else, I'll have a good time and get to enjoy the beautiful Ohio River valley scenery.

But, yeah, haven't really felt like writing about the running much lately, and it took me forever to figure out why. Then I realized something: there's nothing new or exciting about my running this year, really. The first year, I was training for my first marathon, so it was all new and exciting. First 15-miler! First 16-miler! First 20-miler! First marathon! Every week, I was breaking new ground, and it was awesome. Then, last year, I was getting faster and breaking PRs nearly every time I turned around, so that was exciting, too. This year? Well, it's my 3rd time through this whole marathon trip, and I'm certainly not running fast enough to set PRs. Not only did is strike me as boring and not worth talking about, but it was depressing. I think the main reason that I'm not running as fast as last year is the simple fact that my training hasn't been as consistent - I'm using the same program I used last spring, but because I'm not being as consistent about it (On a good week I'll hit all my miles; on a bad week? Well, there have been more than a couple of weeks where I've run 0-10 miles. Total. Eeek.) it's not working as much magic as it was last year, although it is still doing its job (get my butt in shape to cover 26.2 miles without dying). Then there's the matter of the extra 10 pounds of junk in the trunk that I'm carrying around this year. While it's not a huge amount, it's probably not helping things.

At any rate, I spent a lot of time being frustrated by the above and feeling fat and out-of-shape. Sure, I could run 15 miles... but not as fast as I used to! Then I realized that was OK. I mean, I could still run 15 miles, which is way more than I ever thought I would be able to do. Not to mention way more than most of the general public could probably do. (Special thanks for helping me get this in perspective goes to the new boyfriend: I was whining about how I felt slow and out of shape after a 13-mile run, and he was all, "Out of shape? But, um, you just ran a half-marathon? I think that means you're in pretty good shape.) Then I gave it some more thought, and I realized something so obvious, I really should have seen it before: the structure of my life this year is completely different than it was last year, so maybe I should take another look at my training goals and see if they needed some adjusting? So I did, and here's what I found:

Last year: I had recently broken up with a guy, so I had all sorts of time and energy to put into training. I wanted to get faster, and I was willing to bust my butt to do it. Work was awful and stressful, and running/training was one of the few things I felt like I had control over and could succeed at, so I buried myself in it. I worked my butt off, I got faster, and it was all good. (Well, until I got the Cold That Would Not Die, had to take two weeks off, and realized I'd totally burned myself out. Oops.)

This year: Well, there was the extra poundage that found me during the end of last year when I wasn't so much running. Plus, I'm busier - I spend more time with my friends, I have a new boyfriend - I have a lot more outside of work to juggle with my training. Work is better, but it's still stressful sometimes, and I use running to relax and ponder, rather than to escape. I'd rather go out for a leisurely 6 mile run than bust my ass on some speedwork. Sure, it feels good to push it every now and then, but my program now is heavy on the speedwork and I'm just not feeling it.

So I readjusted. Re-evaluated. Step 1: Accept that The Pig is not going to be a fast race for me. Instead, I'm just going to take it relatively easy and enjoy it. (Well, as much as my self-competitive spirit will let me.) It's not about the time on the clock, but about the experience. Once I started thinking that way, I found myself looking forward to it a lot more, since the pressure was off.

Step 2: Figure out a training schedule that fits in with my new schedule: morning or evening runs? Long runs on Saturday or Sunday? The past few months have been something of an experiment, and I've learned a lot. I've learned that for some reason, it's easier for me to get out and do a long run on Saturday rather than Sunday. I've learned that it's easier for me to roll out of bed at 5:30 and drag my butt into work (then leave early and run in the afternoon) than it is to get up at the same time and run before work. I've also learned that this plan goes flying out the window if I have to work late since I won't get home in time to run before it gets dark. Also, there's something nice about getting the run done in the morning - it wakes me up, gets me ready to face the day, and I don't have to say, "No, I can't go out after work - I have to go home and run" if last-minute plans pop up. However, that doesn't mean that it's still really stinking hard to get up before sunrise and run.

Step 3: Forget speed this year. Instead of hitting intervals and tempo runs 2 or 3 days a week, focus on lots of nice easy miles. I'm a pretty low mileage runner - I've never really gone past 40 miles a week, and my average is probably closer to 20 - so I've got plenty of room to grow here. Plus, lots of nice easy miles will help improve my base fitness, which is certainly not a bad thing.

Step 4: Bring back the running blog! I enjoy running more when I get to geek out about it, and since very few of my friends are runners, this is where I get to do that. Even if all I say is, "I ran 6 miles this morning, and it was awesome," then it'll help me, I think. Plus, I miss the feeling that there are people out there following along in my training with me and getting pumped about race day right along with me. Sure, my friends get excited and are supportive of this crazy thing I do that they don't quite get, but they really don't want to hear the gory details about how I get there. But someone out there probably does, and I'd hate to deny them that opportunity. Plus, the RBF is a great community and I miss being an active part of it. I've been out there, reading and commenting, but it's just not the same, you know?

Step 5: Get serious about dropping the extra weight I picked up. I've been "sort of trying" to get rid of it for a few months, but I really haven't been trying all that hard. I think what I need here is some accountability, and I think what I'm going to do is steal an idea from Veg*Triathlete and do daily summary posts, like this. Sure, it's going to be boring as all get out for a lot of you to read, but having some public accountability (or at least the perception of it) will certainly make me thing twice about having beer and pizza for dinner or bagging my run because I'm feeling lazy, you know? Besides, if it's too boring for you to read, you can always go and read something else. 'Tis the beauty of the internets.

Wow. That was a long one. So, to sum up: I'm back! I'm finding my lost mojo, and I'm going to resume telling you all about it whether you like it or not.

Man, it's good to be back. I've missed you guys.

Posted by Dawn at 09:46 AM | Comments (2)