October 10, 2006

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)

September 13, 2006

So Long, Summer

It's official: summer is on its way out. Since I've gotten back from vacation (details coming soon!), I've been wearing long sleeves and a jacket to work. Last night, I took the air-conditioner out of the bedroom window so I could let fresh air in instead. The biggest change, though, is that the amount of daylight is slowly decreasing. I can no longer run in the mornings before work, as the sun doesn't come up until I'm just about ready to leave. It's been that way for a few weeks now, which has been a bummer, but I've had enough daylight to run in the evenings after work, so I didn't worry about it too much.

Sadly, that's no longer the case. With darkness hitting the Chicagoland area around 7 p.m., I've only got time to run after work if I leave right on time and don't hit any major delays going home. Even then, it only gives me an hour or so of daylight which isn't always enough. So, this week, with great sadness, I've taken my weekday runs to the treadmill.

Yesterday was an easy 4 miles and... man. Running outside all summer has spoiled me, because those 4 miles took forever and every minute of it sucked. (Not helping was the fact that I didn't run at all during the 10 days I was on vacation, so I've got a little bit of catching up to do.) Looks like I'll be appreciating my weekend runs even more from now on, because no matter how awful the weather might get, I'll still be outside.

Don't get me wrong - I love fall. I love the cooler weather and the turning of the leaves and the crisp feel of the air. I just wish it all came with 16 hours of daylight.

Posted by Dawn at 01:46 PM | Comments (1)

August 23, 2006

Ouch

Last week was kind of a big week for me - 34 miles.  It's the most I've run in a single week in a long time - since before Madison.  In theory, my training plan has been building up to that peak gradually, with a recovery week this week before I go back to hitting the high (for me) miles as I gear up for Grand Rapids.  In reality, however, heat waves and work and other realities of life have meant that last week was the first week in over a month that I've actually run all my scheduled miles.  Instead of gradually moving up from 25-mile weeks to 35-mile weeks, I jumped up to a 35-mile week after 3 weeks of hitting 20-25 miles.

Oops.

The big mileage increase last week was the main reason I was expecting Sunday's long run to suck.  My legs had been feeling tired all week anyway, and I figured they would just be toast by Sunday morning.  However, all was A-OK.  Yesterday was a rest day, but I wound up taking the bike out for a bit, mostly because I wanted to take it in for a pre-tri safety inspection.  (I wasn't concerned about there being anything wrong with it, but the inspection was free so I figured I might as well get it checked out, rather than discover Saturday morning there was some sort of problem.)  That's when I felt the extra miles.  That's when I realized my legs were most definitely toast.  On top of that, it was exceptionally windy out, which made for some pretty slow riding as I was determined to take it pretty easy.

By yesterday, I figured it would be OK.  I had an easy 4 miles scheduled for the afternoon, and I wasn't worried about it at all.  I didn't run on Monday, so surely by Tuesday evening I'd be recovered enough so that an easy 4 miles would be nothing.

Oh, how very wrong I was.  I took it incredibly easy during the whole run because I had to.  Everything hurt, and by the turnaround point my shins were screaming for me to stop.  It wasn't fun, but it sure as heck kept my pace down.  Today?  Everything from my knees down is just achy.  I'm trying very hard to not think about the fact that I have a track workout tonight, because absolutely no good can come of it.  I'll just have to make sure I go into it well-hydrated, try not to set any land-speed records, and spend a lot of quality time stretching afterwards.

Meanwhile... ouch.  At least I've learned a valuable lesson about sticking to my schedule and finding ways to get the miles in, though.  I hope.

Posted by Dawn at 07:30 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

August 22, 2006

Still Here

I'm still here.  Still hanging in there.  Still running.

My coach has come up with a new way to torture me: 13-14 mile long runs, with the last 3-4 miles at 10K to half-marathon pace.  I did the first one two weeks ago, and it sucked.  The last three miles were hard and seemed to last forever.  Somehow, though, I stuck it out, dropped my pace down like I needed to, and lived to tell the tale.

This past week, I did it again, and you know what?  It was a little easier.  The last mile was a little rough, but that might also have been because I ran it in just over 9 minutes.  There's a part of me that can't quite believe that I can run a 9-minute mile at all, never mind after 13 miles of running.  Clearly, progress is being made.

I've had some races recently, too.  The other weekend, I returned to Michigan for my 2nd Run Thru Hell.  It's a 10-mile race over some decently hilly terrain.  Last year, I was walking the hills by the halfway point and finished in 1:52:32.  This year?  I flew through the course.  I never had to walk any of the hills, and I finished with a new PR of 1:39:29.  That's 13 minutes off last year's time.  I know that most of that came from not having to walk any of the hills this time around, but, still, it's mind-boggling to look at.

What does all of this mean?  It means that I'm right on track for a 4:30 marathon in October, and exactly where I need to be right now.  This is a good thing.

Posted by Dawn at 01:30 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 04, 2006

Plan D?

The situation: I had dinner plans at 7.  Prior to that, I had to put in a full day of work and get an hour of running in.

Plan A: Get up at 5:30 and run.  Get to work around 8, enjoy some time to relax between getting home from work and leaving for dinner.

Problem A: At 5:30 there was rain of near biblical proportions.  Not so good for running, largely because it made the neighborhood dark and gloomy, and I just wasn't comfortable going out running that early in the morning in it.

Plan B: Get up at 5:30 anyway and go in to work early.  Leave work early, have time to run, shower and change before leaving for dinner.

Problem B: I have to kick off some batch jobs, but I can't do that until our production admins move some files around.  They say they'll be done by 5.  Which means they'll be done at 5.  There's no way I'm getting out of work by 4. 

Plan C: If I leave right at 5 and don't have to wait too long for transit, I can probably squeeze in a little run.  Maybe.

Problem C:  Hell, I'll be lucky if I have time to go home at all.  Stupid admins.

Final verdict: Get up early, get to work early, stay at work late.  Run home, quick change, attempt to relax on the way to dinner.  Still no running this week, although I mostly blame the fact that it was just too damn hot to run up until yesterday.  Which kind of makes yesterday even more annoying, since it was the best running weather we've had here in a while.  Oh well.  I'll just cross my fingers that this deliciously cool weather hangs on through the weekend.

Posted by Dawn at 07:49 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

July 18, 2006

I'm Not Dead Yet!

I knew in the back of my mind that I'd been sort of neglecting this blog recently - work has been crazy busy, and I've been lucky if I've been able to keep up with my running, never mind blogging about it. However, I didn't realize just how bad it got until jeff IMed me this morning to make sure I was still breathing.

Oops. Work is still busy, but at least the general stress level has come down a bit. This does two things: firstly, it makes me a far more pleasant person to be around and secondly, it frees up some valuable mental energy and motivation to tend to my poor nelected blog. Hello, blog. I missed you! I did! It was The Evil Man who was keeping me from you lo these many days...

Anyhow, while I may still be alive and kicking, I cannot say the same for my beloved Forerunner. I turned it on and put it on the windowsill while I got ready for my 12-miler on Saturday morning. Usually by the time I'm ready to leave, its found a satellite signal. Saturday, however, it was asking me if it was indoors or not, since it was having trouble. Hmmm. I turned it off, then back on again once I got outside. Nothing. Nada. After a few minutes, it asked if it was still indoors. Grrrr. I went through the motions of confirming it wasn't indoors, I hadn't moved hundreds of miles since I last used it, and yes, today was the 15th of July. I figured I'd just start my run and it could pick up the signal later - I knew where my turnaround point was from previous runs, so at least I'd have an accurate time total.

A little over a mile from my apartment, it finally found a satellite signal and then commenced to do something best described as "freaking out." It logged an autolap (set to 1 mile) every 5 seconds. Umm... not quite. I stopped, turned it off and back on again. It picked up the signal OK, I started it and resumed running, and everything seemed to be OK. When I got to the lake (about a mile later), I looked down and saw that the display was totally blank. Huh? I tried turning it back on. Or off and on. Something. Anything. It seemed I had two display options: upside down and backwards, or completely blank. Eventually I just gave up - I knew where my turnaround point was and I had a vague idea of what time I left my house so I'd just finish the run and guesstimate the time. It'll be close enough.

Based on the beeps and boops coming from the 201, it sounded like that it was still functioning fine, although the display was dead. Hmmm. When I got home, I stopped the watch (I'd left it running) but left it turned on. My plan was to run the battery down, recharge it, and then see what happened. Sunday morning, I plugged it into the charger. When I checked on it again Sunday evening, the display was still out - no "Battery Charging Complete" message floating around as usual. I didn't even try to turn it on, but instead pronounced it dead.

I'm a little bummed out about it - in addition to feeling sort of lost without it (I'm pretty familiar with how far the landmarks on my routes are from my house, but it's just not the same!), I kind of miss it. My parents got the 201 for me almost 2 years ago, when I was training for the 2005 Disney half. That was the race that started this whole crazy running thing - I was undertrained going into it, it was a horrible, awful, painful thing, and I came out of it saying, "If I can be undertrained and finish a half, I bet I could totally do a full if I actually trained for it..." A small thought, simple enough, that somehow changed my entire life. My 201 has seen me go from someone who could barely string 2 or 3 miles together without a walk break into someone who can go out and knock out 5 or 10 miles without even thinking about it. We have a history, the 201 and I, and I'm sad to see it go.

Since the 201's way out of warranty, I'd have to pay Garmin to fix it. Ten minutes of online research showed me that for just $100 more than it would cost to fix the 201, I could buy a new 301. To be honest, I've been wanting a 301 for kind of a while now, but couldn't justify the purchase while I still had a perfectly good 201. Maybe this is the universe's way of telling me it's time to move on. The 201 was there for the beginning, to get me started, and now it's time for the next step. Really, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little excited about the prospect of a new gadget.

Until then, though, I'll be rocking it old-school - just me, a rough guess as to where my turnaround point is, and a plain old-fashioned watch to track my time. It's something that my mildly obsessive self finds a little unnerving (was it 5 miles? Or 5.25? Or 4.75? I need to know!), but I think it'll be good for me.

Posted by Dawn at 12:22 PM | Comments (4)

July 04, 2006

Return to the Pool

Yesterday was my return to the pool. I haven't been swimming in months - it's been so long that I have absolutely no idea when the last time I went swimming actually was, but according to my log it was on February 22. Definitely a long, long time. The first few laps were awful, and I had a moment of panic when I thought I'd lost all of the swimming fitness I'd developed over the winter. Then I realized that I'd apparently forgotten all of the technique I'd learned in those months, and I had defaulted to my old, inefficient, sloppy way of swimming.

I stopped and thought carefully about what I was doing. First, I starting holding my breath until just before I took more air in, rather than blowing it all out right away. Then, I slowed down. Then, I focused on my body position and rolling back and forth like I'd spent so many laps doing back in February. The less I worried about getting from one end of the pool to the other, the faster I got there. The less I thought about swimming as a means of locomotion and the more I thought about it as a simple series of body positions, the easier it got.

I only had a half hour, but I managed to get in a full 900 meters. I tried "sprinting" a couple of laps - seeing if I could go all out and keep my better form and habits at the same time. Surprisingly, I think I did OK.

Today had an easy 5-7 miles on the schedule. I set out, and my first thought was, "Damn, my legs are dead! I must have run that 5K hard if it took this much out of them." It didn't take me long to realize that while the 5K was probably a little hard on them, it was more likely the combination of the 5K on Sunday and the 16 miles I put in on the bike on Saturday. I wasn't sure how I felt about going the whole 7 miles, but I decided to wait and see how I felt at the 2.5 mile mark. If my legs were still feeling sluggish, I'd turn around and call it a day at 5. If not, I'd go further.

I wound up feeling just fine at 2.5, and at 3, and didn't turn around until the 3.5 mile mark - I was feeling OK, and going for the full 7. Unfortunately, around the 5.5 mile mark, I started feeling it in my butt and was wishing I'd turned around earlier than I did. Instead, I had to settle for taking it easy and a promise to do lots of stretching when I got back home. There will probably be some more stretching before I turn in for the evening, and hopefully there won't be too much lingering soreness by the time speedwork rolls around tomorrow night.

Posted by Dawn at 07:26 PM | Comments (2)

June 29, 2006

Accidental Brick

So, I'm signed up for this triathlon in August. It's nothing huge - it's a super-sprint, which, checking the web site, is super-tiny. 375m swim, 10k bike, 2.5k run. Nothing, really. I entered it mostly because I had a free entry through my employer - it just cost me the $9 for the USAT day permit. Back in October when I got the e-mail at work telling me I could register for this for free, I figured, "Hey, what the heck? It's free!"

Of course, after a few months, I started to talk myself out of it. Messing with the equipment would be a pain in the butt. Figuring out if I needed a wetsuit would be a pain in the butt, especially if it turned out I did. Not to mention the fact that my bike situation was up in the air. Sure, I have a bike, but it's one I haven't ridden in 7 years. I wasn't sure how much work it would take to get it to a rideable state. Plus, I didn't have a helment, blah blah blah. I was pretty much willing to say, "oops, no bike, no can do," and wimp out of the whole thing. After all, it didn't cost me anything to register, so it wouldn't cost me anything to skip out of it.

Anyhow, fast forward to last week when my neighbor offered to clean up and tune up my bike for me. What the heck. He did, and it turned out all my bike needed was a little adjusting here and there - despite being moved all over the midwest and sitting in various closets, spare rooms, and basements for the past 7 years, it was in perfectly good condition. I was ready to go! Except I didn't have a helmet or a lock. Well, that was fixed easily enough - I stopped by a bike shop on the way home from work Tuesday evening, and they got me all hooked up with what I needed. I'd have to bring my bike up there to have them install these locking skewer things (to keep people from walking off with my quick-release wheels), but that was it.

No problem, I said! And then I thought about what would be involved in getting my bike up there. Riding it. In the city. Eeeeek. I told myself it would be OK. Tons of people use the bike lanes and are totally fine. I'd just have to suck it up, do it, and I'd be fine. Besides, it would be worth it. A summer free from waiting for the bus! It would be so much easier to be able to bike my errands instead of having to CTA it around town. So. Much. Easier. Not to mention better for me.

So today when I got home from work, I sucked it up and did it. I rode my bike the few miles up to the bike shop, and got there in one piece. I successfully navigated the bike lanes, and hopped on the sidewalk when there wasn't one. And you know what? It was [i]fine[/i]. And a lot of fun, actually. And now I can leave my bike locked up places without having to worry about someone walking off with my wheels or my seat.

Of course, once I got home, I still had to do my easy 3 mile run for today, so I did a quick change and headed right back out. Now, since I wasn't riding for speed, I didn't think of my little bike ride as a "workout". However, I did cover a little over 7 miles total. Not enough to wear me out, but just enough that when I started running, my quads said, "Um, hello? Yes, hi, um, what's this all about?" By the end of the first mile, though, they were fine. I figured I'd have a slightly slower run - probably averaging an 11:00 - 11:30 pace - but everything felt OK so I didn't worry about it.

I took the 3 miles nice and easy. I didn't really pay attention to my Garmin until I was done, not really wanting to know just how slow I was going. Let's just say I was surprised when I discovered I'd covered 3.1 miles in 30:53.

Huh? Really? That's... one of my faster runs recently, and it certainly didn't feel like I was putting any sort of effort into it. Heck, I was barely breathing heavy when I finished. I know 10 minute miles are getting to be easier for me, but that easy?

Well, heck. Between the fact that I no longer have a bike-related excuse for wussing out of the tri, and the fact that apparently my legs like to follow a bike ride with a run, it looks like I'm going to have to suck it up and figure out this whole "tri" thing. Guess I better start swimming again....

Posted by Dawn at 08:37 PM | Comments (2)

June 15, 2006

Commitment

The more observant among you may have noticed that while I had a whole slew of summer and fall races listed in the sidebar, I hadn't yet put a fall marathon up there. You may have been wondering, "Is Dawn running a fall marathon? Which one is she doing? Is it going to be a Top Secret race? Or maybe after the sauna in Madison she's just going to stick to 5 and 10Ks like a sane person."

Well, the last one certainly isn't true, as I have very rarely in my life asked myself, "What would a sane person do?" before deciding on a course of action. Nor would anyone who actually knows me describe me as a sane person. Really, it came down to the fact that I just didn't know. I was planless, which is not a state I like to be in.

It wasn't my fault that I was planless, though. I had a plan! My plan was to enter the lottery for New York. If I got in, I'd run that. If I didn't, then I'd run Chicago. No problem. Plan A and Plan B, lined up and ready to go. Until Chicago went ahead and filled up before Memorial Day, which.... whatever. I have a wide variety of thoughts on the complete ridiculousness of the situation, but we'll just skip over that. Suffice it to say I was shocked, amazed, and somewhat annoyed. My Plan B was now kaput. Useless. Very much un-plan-like. However, I wasn't worried. I still had Plan A, which was to run New York if I got in to it. No problems.

I did start pondering other fall marathons, as Plan B Redux. There was Milwaukee. There was Grand Rapids. There was the Marine Corps Marathon, if it was still open. Heck, I could even go run Detroit again, if I really wanted to. I tossed these ideas around in my head, but never really picked one or gave it any sort of serious consideration. Mostly because it never occurred to me that I wouldn't get in to New York. I mean, I knew it was a possibility, I just never thought it would actually happen.

Then it did. And I was suddenly confused. I latched on to Marine Corps, but wasn't 100% committed. Then, before I could register, it filled up. All righty, then. No MCM for me. So, now what?

I thought. I pondered. I knew people that would be running Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, and Steamtown. I did consider running Detroit again - it's close to my parents' house, which means free lodging. Plus, I'd love to go back there and run a really great race, to even out the death march that it turned into last year. Except there was one small problem - I just couldn't get excited about it. The more I thought about it, the more I was afraid the course - which was gorgeous in spots, but largely uninspiring - wouldn't hold up well to a second viewing. I finally just decided to knock that one out of consideration.

Milwaukee and Steamtown were all good and well, except they were early in the month and wouldn't fit with the half I want to run on October 1. (Milwaukee is on the 1st, and Steamtown is the following weekend.) Plus, the overall downhill of Steamtown worries me - I'm not sure how my legs would hold up to that, especially since I don't really have a good way to train on hills around here. Sure, I can hit the gym and use the treadmill to train on uphills, but I'm not sure how I'd prepare my legs for that much downhill. Maybe a year or two from now, when I'm in better shape overall.

After hitting Marathon Guide and looking at damn near every race that would be run in the midwest during the month of October, I finally decided on Grand Rapids. It'd be close to home. I knew some people that ran it last year, and they had nothing but good things to say about the race. And, really, how can you not love a race that has Oprah and P. Diddy pace groups?

So, Grand Rapids it is. It's out there. I've told people about it. The time goal I'm working with right now is 4:30, but that's subject to change, depending on how this summer goes. All that's left to do now is register (which will be done by the end of next week, I promise).

Posted by Dawn at 01:04 PM | Comments (9)