Star Wars Half Marathon Training: Weeks 4, 5, & 6

Overall I am happy with how my training is going.  It isn’t on schedule or going as planned, but I am progressing and feeling good.  I think that is what is the most important.

 

I know I am not where I “should” be for my training, but I have until mid-January to get to 13 miles.  Maybe I’m being too optimistic, I don’t know.  I’m rarely optimistic so I doubt that’s the case.  Running feels good right now, and I’m enjoying myself.  The miles I am doing feel comfortable and I want to keep that going for as long as I can.  I’ve progressed from barely running 3 miles without wanting to die a month ago to running over 5 miles without stopping for walk breaks.  That’s a sign I’m doing something right.  It has to be.

 

Plan

Week 4: Monday-5 miles, Wednesday-30 min elliptical, Saturday-6.5 miles

Week 5: Monday-5 miles, Wednesday-30 min elliptical, Saturday-7 miles

Week 6: Monday-5 miles, Wednesday-30 min elliptical, Saturday-7.5 miles

 

 

Actual

Week 4: Tuesday – 45 min elliptical, Thursday – 5.43 miles, Sunday – 6.12 miles

Week 5: Tuesday – 3.07 miles, Thursday – 5.12 miles, Sunday – 3.35 miles (with no walk breaks)

Week 6:  Tuesday – 5.51 miles (no walk breaks), Thursday – about 5 miles, Sunday – 1.18 miles

 

 

So of the 3 weeks I’m recapping here, only one of them is close to the “Plan”.  The rest are just me running based on how it feels and my schedule.  Week 6 I ran on Thursday while on a business trip, with 3 other coworkers at the buttcrack of dawn in 40 degree temperatures while not properly dressed for the weather with no tracking devices for time or distance.  I’m VERY proud of that run.  Then on Sunday…well…I got a side cramp from chugging water before leaving the house.  It’s my fault.

 

I’m in love with my new “hands-free” water bottle and the Energy Beans I mentioned in my last post.  They both work great!  I don’t eat as many beans as the instructions say to though because the amount of calories and caffeine in a whole pack of beans isn’t worth it for me.  Plus I can see results with only a few beans at time. 

 

I have already signed up for my 2^nd half marathon to take place one month after my first one.  Probably a stupid idea, but there’s nothing I can do about it now!

 

I’ve not been around on the internet a lot lately and there is a reason for that.  I’ve got some stuff going on that I’m not ready to talk about yet.  I’ll probably confess in my next post or the one after that,  We will see.

 

Hopefully ya’ll follow me on IG because I post a lot there and that will be the best way to stay up to date with my training runs.  

Xoxo

Star Wars Half Marathon Training: Weeks 2 & 3

Long story short…I suck at being consistent and following through with training.

 

I worked SO hard to create the perfect training schedule and set myself up perfectly to be prepared for my half marathon.  And here it is, day 22 of training  and I’ve pretty much done nothing but make excuses and whine. I even set up reminders on my calendar to write recap posts and haven’t completed those in a timely manner either.

 

Plan

Week 1: Monday-3 miles, Wednesday-30 min elliptical, Saturday-4 miles

Week 2: Monday-3 miles, Wednesday-30 min elliptical, Saturday-5 miles

Week 3: Monday-4 miles, Wednesday-30 min elliptical, Saturday-5.5 miles

Week 4: Monday-5 miles, Wednesday-30 min elliptical, Saturday-6.5 miles

 

Actual

Week 1: Monday-3 miles, Wednesday-3.5 miles

Week 2:  Tuesday-4 miles, Thursday-4 miles

Week 3:  Monday-27 min elliptical, Thursday-20 min elliptical, Saturday-2 miles

Week 4:  Nothing so far…planned to either run 4 miles or get on the elliptical tonight before dinner.

 

And the plan to get back to my “happy weight”….yea…no progress there at all.  Dropped a few pounds then gain the right back.  I’m tracking 5 days a week though and being pretty honest about it.  Or at least trying to.  It’s the weekends that really put a hitch in my giddy up. And beer…beer doesn’t help either.

 

I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  I cannot get motivated and I can’t stop being negative.  EVERYTHING in my life I feel negative about. I’m sad and miserable for no reason at all.  I see it, and I hate it, but I’ve not done anything about it.  I keep hoping I’ll just wake up and be back to feeling happy and focused.  My social calendar has been fuller than I like lately too which hasn’t helped.  The husband and I had a chat last night and he agreed to help push me more and get me moving on the weekends instead of being lazy.  I just have to get the long run over with, then I have the rest of the weekend to relax and eat.  It’s all mental.  I need to get past this mental hurdle.  (Then the physical hurdles can begin….ugh…)

 

I’ve been posting a lot of my training stuff on Instagram to help keep myself accountable.  Mostly I think I am annoying my few followers because I’m such a “Negative Nancy”.  I love the positive comments and likes though.  It really makes me feel better about myself to know there are people who care.

 

It’s no wonder I have no friends IRL.  I’m horribly depressing and probably annoying to be around. Ugh.

 

On a more positive note, I was just informed that the new water bottle I ordered from Amazon has arrived.  I’m super excited about it. I bought a belt water bottle holder years ago, but didn’t like how it felt so I don’t wear it.  I’ve been running with a regular bottle in my hand for a while now, and it’s been a little annoying. And last week after I got bumped by a car on my silly 2 mile run (long story…see my IG...I’m fine…)  the husband asked me to carry my phone when I run in case something happens. So that inspired me to order one of the fancy hand held ones that have pockets. I might just go out and try it tonight on the road.  But maybe not…I’ll probably just make excuses and not do a dang thing…who knows…

 

I also ordered some energy beans that are supposed to be super great for mid-run pick-me-ups.  I’ll give those a shot on my next long run, whenever that is.  I don’t really like jelly beans, but of all the other options out there they seemed the least horrible.  Plus the little packets will fit nicely in the pocket of my new water bottle! I bought a whole case of them so hopefully they are worth it.  If not…maybe I’ll do a giveaway.

 

 

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Star Wars Half Training: Week 1

With the Star Wars Half in mid January and me not running since April, I knew that getting my training schedule started early would be important so September 1^st marked Day 1 of Half Marathon training for me. 

 

I actually had my running schedule booked into my Outlook calendar for several months now.  I planned ahead and took the time to schedule individual runs 3 days a week from September through January.  They are even specially color coded and contain lots of exclamation pointed reminders to get me motivated.

 

The First also marked my first day back to tracking seriously with Weight Watchers again.  For about the last year I have been half-assing it and tracking maybe 4 days a week (if at all).  My weight sucks right now, and I’m not happy about it.  I’m not in a bad place, and can get the weight back off easily, I just have to pay attention and work at it.  I’d like to be back to my “happy” weight in time for the half marathon, but I’m not going to stress on it too much.  I know when I amp up my training I will need more fuel to keep my body going so I can’t be full on “diet mode”.  I also don’t want the holidays and training to be an excuse to binge and eat all the things.  This week I made it 5 days of honest tracking….and then…well…I’ll explain later.

 

A lot of this training and the Half Marathon itself will be more mental for me than physical.  I’m very confident that my body will be able to take me across that finish line (as long as I take good care of it).  But it’s my mind that will be my biggest hurdle to overcome.  When I drew up my training calendar I did a lot of research and grabbed lots of other example schedules to work off of.  Many of them had the longest run being 10 or 11 miles prior to race day.  I didn’t like that.  I want to be able to know that my body can do a minimum of 13 miles before I set foot in California.  I also want to enjoy my time on the course too.  I’m paying a lot of money for this race, and I don’t want to be a miserable mess the entire time.  So I created my own training schedule and will run upwards of 13 miles several times prior to the official race.  I also don’t want to be self concious or unhappy with my body while running or posing for photos, so that’s another reason I want to drop some weight before the race too.  

 

So Monday I started with 3 miles (easy).  I told myself to go slow and just get into the groove of things.  I was also running in a brand new pair of shoes so I wanted to take it as easy as possible.  The husband tagged along for a bit on his bike which was nice.  The run was tough, but I got through it. 

 

Then Wednesday I had planned on spending 30 minutes on the elliptical but it was a beautiful sunny day so I opted to run instead.  Big mistake.  Huge.  I ran alone with my own thoughts to keep me company and spent the whole time just beating myself up.  I could feel my thighs rubbing together, I could see my muffin top in my shadow on the road in front of me, I felt people looking at me and judging me for how slow I was going.  It was just unhappy and uncomfortable.  I did almost 3.5 miles in over 40 minutes.  Back in April I was just about to break my record and run a 5k in under 30 min.  So yea, I beat myself up a lot over that.

 

Then the weekend hit and I had a bit of a mental breakdown and couldn’t get out of bed.  I tried. But I just couldn’t do it.  The husband had to physically drag me up and get me moving for our regularly scheduled “Date Night” on Saturday.  I barely made it.  I cried 3 times just trying to get dressed.  He took me to my favorite local brewery for dinner and beers followed by ice cream and that helped a little. (If you’re in the Portland area, you have to go to Salt & Straw for ice cream. It’s amazing. I can’t get enough.)  Sunday I didn’t even bother to try and run.  The husband didn’t event bother to make me. He could see I needed to hide from the world for anther day so brought me coffee in bed and let me be.  I’m still not back to myself yet, but I’m working on it.  Seriously people, dperession is real, and ugly, and hard. 

 

So today I will hit the pavement for 4 miles instead of the 3 that are planned to make up for the 4 that I didn’t do on Saturday.  Then Wednesday I will need to do 4 again.  I have plans to go to Seattle on Friday and Saturday so my long run of 5 miles will have to be done on Sunday.  Unless I get out of this slump and get super motivated, wake up at 6 AM on Friday, run 5 miles, shower, then get in my car before 8 to make it to Seattle by lunch time….we will see.  For now, this week is just about being gentle with myself which is easier said than done.

 

I’ve added a reminder to my calendar to write up quick recap posts for my training each week.  Mostly to keep myself accountable, but we will see how that goes.  We all know I suck at blogging on the regular.

 

xoxo

 

Race Recap: Bridge to Brews 10k

As those of you who follow me on Twitter or are lucky enough to know me on Facebook know yesterday was my first ever 10k.

I went back and forth between nervous and excited in the days leading up to the race. Some days I felt confident and ready, and others I felt like I would die before the finish line.  Many of these feelings came when I looked at my running log and noticed that I had only actually run the 10k distance once prior, with several runs just below that distance.  And then all my runs in the week prior were hard on me physically even though they were small distances. 

Packet pick up was on Friday.  I love it when races have free beer at these events!



I love that this was my number. 53 is my fave number and 68 is my lucky number!

 This race had the option of not getting a shirt with registration which is what I signed up for. I kind of regret that decision now. I will be looking into trying to buy one if they have any left.

Fast forward to race day.  I got about 5 hours of sleep. I made a smoothie out of leftover coffee, milk, ice , and a Weight Watchers Chocolate Smoothie mix for my breakfast. I would have liked a banana, but I was all out. While I was getting dressed I kept going outside after each layer until I had enough clothes on to not be cold before the run or too warm during the run. The Man got quite a good laugh out of it.

I got to the Max station just as the train I wanted was pulling away which meant I had to wait a half hour before the next train came. I used that time to pace the platform and stretch. I also took my traditional "look how silly I look" picture.



 While pacing the platform I was people watching and noticed that I was the only person dressed for the race that was alone. Everyone else was in groups of 2 or more.  I suddenly got super sad and lonely. I had told the Man to stay home because I was worried he would be bored waiting around for me.  I tried to self talk myself into not feeling sad, but it only got worse as the morning progressed.

I got to the race just a few minutes before the start time. Rushed to bag check where I found a friend who I knew was also racing.  I lost him in the crowd while I was heading to the Honey Buckets but we agreed to meet after the run so I didn't mind.

By the time I made it out of the potty lines the race had already started. The race was starting in waves and I knew I needed to be in the back of the line since I am slow so it didn't bother me.  I have to say, it was really well organized for such a large race in a small space!  According to my timing chip I crossed the start line about 8 minutes after the official gun. 


If you look closely you can see runners on the middle bridge!

After the first corner was the biggest steepest hill I had ever seen. It was not a good sign for me and I got winded really quickly trying to get up it at a good pace.

After that hill was the first of 2 bridges we crossed.

This is the view from ON the bridge you could see in the above picture



I love running on Portland's bridges. We have so many of them and the views are amazing. I wish I had gotten more pictures, but I needed to focus on what I was doing unfortunately.



This is another view of the 1st bridge



It was right around this area (mile 3ish) that I started to see people along side of the road waiting for their friends/family to pass buy. I saw one guy actually stop to hug and kiss his wife before moving on. It almost made me tear up.

I had over planned my wardrobe and was SUPER hot. I wanted to take off my long-sleeve shirt, but didn't want to stop even more. I ended up folding the bottom edge of my shirt up so my stomach was exposed (but still covered by my light jacket so no one would die from the sight of my floppy skin), and pushing down my knee socks to let my calves breathe. Just about everyone passing me was in tank tops. It was in the low 60's and I would have tripped one of those bitches to steal one of their tanks if I could. (Note to self: Invest in a few of those tanks before your next race!)

When we got into the downtown area, I started to struggle both mentally and physically. I wanted to barf and my head was going into places that I didn't want to be. I needed a cheerleader, and I didn't have one. So I stopped, and sent out a text to Twitter: "2.4 miles to go and I may die..." I was hoping that my Twitter friends would come to my rescue and give me the pick-me-up I needed to carry on. And they did. Almost instantly I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. I didn't even need to stop and check what they said...just knowing they were there was all I needed.

The last mile and a half was a lot easier, especially when the 2nd bridge came into sight.



The 2nd bridge - saw a guy puking off the edge of this one...into the river.

Following that bridge was another hill from hell, but I knew that the finish was just around the bend so I pushed thru it.

I crossed the finish line in 1:07:46.  I had hoped to finish in 1:06 but I will gladly take 1:07!

My friend who I met up with earlier was waiting for me at the finish line and it warmed my heart enough to forget about all the faces who I didn't see at the finish line but wanted to. We went off to bag check to retrieve my ID, then jumped into the beer line!



2 free beers!  Yes, please!


We finished those beers, then had 2 more beers show up, then decided that being drunk at 10:30 on a Sunday morning wasn't a good idea so we headed out for some food (and another beer).

I got home to find the Man working hard in the back yard. He didn't care at all that I was stinky and gave me the big "well done" hug that I needed. He followed that by telling me he was sad he missed the race. If I wasn't completely dehydrated, I would have started crying. That man knows just what to say to me sometimes. I love him so freaking much.

My heart was still hurt from the feelings I stirred up while running, so I thanked all my Twitter friends for their support then poured out a rant on how lonely my race was. I got a lot of feedback from everyone that made me feel a lot better (not completely better tho).

I need to remember that I race for me, and not for glory. I also need to remember that some people are just assholes.

After a long shower, fresh change of clothes and about 80 glasses of water I got a text from the friend I saw at the race asking me to be his "race buddy". I guess he is tired of racing alone too! He has already emailed me several races to sign up for that he is doing and told me to send him any I wanted to do for him to sign up for.  I am SO excited for all of these races now, knowing I don't have to do them alone!

Stay tuned....lots more race recaps will be coming in the next few months as my racing schedule is now FULL!  :)

xoxox

Shamrock Run 2012 Recap

Last year I ran the Shamrock Run 5k, and had a blast. (Read about it here)

This year I decided to up the challenge. My original plan was to run the 15k, but after a lot of thought and several drafts of a training plan, I decided to run the 8k instead.

I signed up in early January, did the math, and figured out how much running I would have to do to get ready in time. Now, when I say "did the math" I want you to know, that in my head 8k translated to 6.5 miles. So that is what I trained for. (Yea, 8k is actually 4.96 miles...I am very stupid...)

Luckily winter started out really mild here in Portland so I was able to do a lot of long runs outside. I pushed each weekend run a little longer outside to get more distance and closer to the 6.5 mile mark. I figured once I had the distance down, I would be fine. I was in no rush to win the 8k, I just wanted to finish!

I found out a few weeks before the race, just after my first ever 6.5 mile run, that an 8k isn't actually 6.5 miles and that I would only need to run 4.96 miles. I was SO excited!  I could run 5 miles easily! I could actually focus on speed and not stopping for walk breaks! 

I did my usual pre-race ritual of getting my clothes ready and in a pile on the couch the day before the race. And like usual, I laid in bed too excited to sleep and worried that I would over sleep my alarm.




I didn't wear the shirt. I wore something else. Green isn't my color.


I dozed off eventually and at 6:02 my eyes flew open in a panic wondering why my alarm hadn't gone off. (I set my alarm for 6:04 so, it went off 2 minutes later.)  I braided my hair, got dressed and the Man and I were out they door right around 7.

We took public transportation to the race because there is no way in HELL that we would be finding parking downtown.

The 8k was scheduled to start at 8:25. We got there just after 8. There were some delays due to Amtrak, so we had to stand in the cold rain (much better than the snow that was predicted) until almost 8:45 before it was even my turn to start.

I was so excited to get running because I was so cold. I knew once I got going I would get warm quickly.

The race itself went fantastic. I didn't feel the urge to stop. I really wanted to run faster but there were SO many people I couldn't get a clear path. (Why the HELL do people stop to walk as a GROUP in the middle of the road? Please, GO TO THE SIDE! Let the runners PASS!)

The night before I memorized the course so I knew that there would be a steep uphill the last mile, followed by 2 turns then a steep downhill to the finish. Knowing that the finish was at the bottom of the hill kept me running up it. I looked at my Garmin on the downhill and saw that I was doing an 8 min mile and actually laughed out loud. When I turned the last corner, I aimed myself for the left side of the road because I knew that is where the Man would be waiting with the camera. I gave him a HUGE grin when I saw him, and then some bitch ran in front of my ruining the picture.

I crossed the finish line in exactly 54 minutes! 6 minutes faster than my goal of 1 hour! I was wet and only a little tired. As I went to find water I tried not to be upset because I felt like I should have pushed harder. I was barely out of breath and I felt like I could keep running.

I snapped out of that quickly, put a smile on my face, and met up with the Man and headed for the beer garden for my free beer and chowder!

After I chugged that beer down, we headed to our fave breakfast place so I could eat my weight in blueberry pancakes. I then went home, showered and took a LONG nap.  Spent the rest of the day on the couch doing homework.

I still feel like I should have pushed harder. My muscles weren't sore at all the next day. I am a little disappointed in myself which I shouldn't be. I ran a mother effing 8k! Next year I will be doing the 15k. No ifs, ands, or buts about it!

Oh, and I may have signed up for a 10k in 3 weeks...Bridge to Brews

And I may have my eye on a half marathon in June...or I could puss out and just do the 10k version of that race. We will see.

Running my way

Two of my own personal struggles in life are comparing myself to others and worrying about what others think about me.  I do it all the time in all aspects of my life.

I don't think that I will eliminate this type of thinking completely but in the last few days I have removed it from one portion of my life.  My running.

Here's a little background:

I think I may have only started running because that is what all my online friends were doing.  I don't really remember what motivated me.  I do know that I hated it.  I hated it, but oddly I kept at it and wanted to be better at it.  All my friends were running 5k's so, dammit, I was going to run 5k's too!

I started the Couch to 5k program, signed up for my first race, got about 6 weeks into the training and quit.  Walked 80% of my first 5k and was ashamed of myself. But I kept signing up for races and I kept running, albeit on a random basis. For 2 years I never ran more than a mile without stopping and I never ran more than 3.2 miles at once. 

In September I ran the Race for the Cure and only walked twice.  That was a record for me.  I also ran that race faster than any other I had done before.  It turned a light bulb on in my head and made me want to run even more.

When I signed up for the Shamrock Run in March of this year, I set my goal to be the 15k but quickly realized I didn't have the time or motivation to train that hard, so I settled for running the 8k.  In my head, that translated to 6.5 miles.  I don't know why I thought it was that long...I am not very bright, I guess.

All of my runner friends run several times a week and they run long distance.   On Twitter I see updates like "XXX just finished a 200 mile run in 86 minutes and felt GREAT." It would make me feel like crap every time.  Why can't I run that far or that fast? Why am I not that amazing?  Why am I only running 3 miles in 45 minutes once a week and calling myself a "Runner"?

That guilt actually got me motivated to run more, so I guess it worked.  I bought all the running gear I could get my hands on -- GPS, compression pants, cold weather gear, warm weather gear, iPod running apps etc. Each time I would go out for a run, I would push it a little further when I felt like walking.  I noticed that if I ran slower, I can go longer without stopping.  The first time I ran for 3 miles nonstop I averaged a 13 minute mile.  I cried big fat proud tears of joy when I got home.  When I bragged about my run, I only said how far I went...not how fast. I didn't want anyone to know that grandma's could walk faster than I run.

Since that run, I have managed to push myself to 5 (almost 6) mile runs outdoors without stopping, and 3 miles on the boring ass treadmill.  I finally love running.  I feel so much better after I pound out some miles.

On my last run I let my brain wander and I thought about 2 people that I really look up to regarding running.  Both of them run long distances on a regular basis.  I automatically assumed that they run them quickly and without stopping. I learned recently that both of these things wasn't true about them.  It really blew my mind.  Why had I wasted so much mental energy berating myself for not being as good as I thought they were? Why was I only getting satisfaction when I did something better or equal to someone else? The act of running brings me so much joy, why do I let others squash that joy by comparing my success to theirs? My running, is MY business and no one else's.  I run for ME. No one can bring me gratification from my runs but ME so therefor I really need to only be concerned about how I feel.  From that moment on, I decided that I needed to reframe my thinking.

When someone jumps on the treadmill next to me, I try not to glance at their feet anymore to see if they are running faster than me.  I try not to make a mental list of who started running before/after me to see who stops first. When I see other runners outside I don't adjust my form or go faster until we cross paths (yes, I still wait until they can't see me if I want to take a walk break...). When I run past the freeway I don't wonder if the people in the cars are looking at me and thinking negative things about how slow I am. Instead I think that maybe that person is wishing they were out running too. When I see a friend ran 10 miles, or ran a 7 minute mile, I refuse let that make me feel like less of a runner. 

I am a runner.  I am amazing.  I can do anything. And I my opinion is the only one that matters!
Now, my friends, I want to leave you with a quote that has really inspired me lately. It resonates with me in a lot of ways, and I hope it does the same for you.
 

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.

~Thich Nhat Hanh~