Adjusted Reality

Quick Recap of Spicewood Half:

Did my pre-race ritual (which is by rote now) of honeymilk and a gluten free breakfast bar, got packed up, got in the car, and got to the race.  Not sure if I was ready for uphill both ways in the rain, but there I was…

My goals for this one were:

A) Get to the finish line without further injury or DNF.  This wasn’t an A race, a B race, or really even a C race, so it wasn’t worth it.  The turn around for the 10k was 3.1 miles in, and unless my hip felt ok (which it did then), I was going to turn around and just finish with Zliten.  Once I started to feel pain, I liberally walked when I had to the rest of the race and though I had some mental anguish taking it so slow, but I successfully fended off megamaniachal competitive Quix.

B) Run them hills and enjoy it!  When Zliten asked me how long I would take to finish, I said 2:15? 2:30?  More?  I really had no time goal on this one (ESPECIALLY once I knew I was going in gimpy).  The first 6 miles I really attacked the hills and worked on refining my stride both up and down to fatigue my quads more and the rest of my body less.  I’m still feeling it in my quads today where my normal tight hammies and calfs are back to normal, so mission accomplished.  Geisha steps, quick little geisha steps!

The race temps were about high 50s-low 60s and spitting (not enough to be considered raining, but definitely wet).  I made the gametime call again to ditch my long sleeve and run pants and tank top, which seemed to be the right call.

Zliten and I ran the first 3.1 together uphill (seriously, some uphills were more severe than others, but this was definitely all UPUPUPUP).  My thought when seeing the elevation was “awesome, I’ll knock out the tough part at the beginning and fly down the hills at the end”.  I was feeling ok, so I left him at the turn around and picked up the pace to about 10:15-11:15s through mile 4-6.

Around 6, my hip started to go from stiff to hurty, so I started to take walk breaks.  Then the hurty stayed constant but didn’t get worse, so I definitely took liberal walk breaks and just enjoyed the scenery.  It was freaking beautiful.  The quote was, “after climbing the hills you will be rewarded with some awesome views” (paraphrased), and it was so true.  My anticipated finish time went quickly from 2:15 to 2:30 to 2:40.

I’m not sure how to put this tactfully, but I’m usually the biggest one among my finisher group.  I usually finish with the skinny folk, but not this time.  Yes, this time, I was definitely with those of my stocky stature.  I finished at 2:40 and some change, 2nd to last in my AG.

However, I did accomplish some awesome goals: a) my quads were WAY sorer than the rest of my legs the next day, which means I’m successful in trying to change my stride and b) my hip actually felt GREAT the next day.  It was not exactly the big bang I wanted to end the last race of 2011 on, but it was definitely a different, more mature, more patient Quix that day than I have ever been even if I had to fight my head the last few miles to not push through the pain.

Decision Time:

Now, I have to make some hard decisions in how I continue with my training.  I am DEFINITELY at that point of training where I just feel BLEH.  Not close enough to the race to be excited about it yet, and far enough into training that I just want some time off.  I made the decision to ramp up my long run EARLY, and I completed 18 miles 9 days ago, and have my first 20 on the schedule for this coming weekend (it will actually be Monday but close enough).

I am less broken than I thought I would be right now – I thought I’d be limping after racing injured on hills but I took it slow and cautious enough to feel better post-race than I had during any run last week.  Now that I have no scheduled races for a while, I want to be VERY careful to take care of it now.  If I slip a week of training right now it’s no big D.  I’ll take that over dealing with a nagging tight/painful hip for the next 2 months.

I’m just wondering how WISE it is now to be going out to run 20 over 2 months out from my race.  I plan to do 20, and then relax most of the week, and chase that with a 10-15 the next.  Then, over my holiday break, I plan on doing a 21 and 22.  Then probably another stepback week of 10-15, run my 23 mid-Jan, and then start tapering.  I may just have to go out on those runs and see what my body can do.  As long as I hit 20 one of those days, beginner marathon training dictates that I should be able to finish.  More than 1 is gravy.  This feels so weird to be playing it so fast and loose with my first marathon (I have a tried and true half training schedule), but there was not a plan that really felt right for me, so I had to tinker with my own concoction.

I am hanging on with the tempo/hills/speedwork during the week.  It’s not much harder than what I was doing to train for the half and though some of the runs have been tough, I’ve not felt like I’m out of my league (and I’m doing the advanced speedwork, not the beginner training). After 5 halfs now and really pushing longer distances this year, I’m very comfortable running up to about 2 hours, but doubling that is REALLY HARD.  I don’t remember going from 10k to half being this hard on my body.

I’m really not concerned about the time on my marathon, because as much as I want to earn the 26.2 sticker for my car, it’s really part of a grander plan.  It will be nice to know what 4-5 hours on my feet feels like because I predict 6-7 for a half ironman.  And that is (possibly) the goal this year.

What I did do is take this week easy.  I plan to do two elliptical sessions, 2 weights sessions, 1 bike session, and a long swim – so not sitting on my ass, but definitely ramping down the intensity.  I’ll resume the pounding on Monday and see how I hold up.  It always freaks me out during training, but I’ve learned that taking time off never hurts me if it’s to prevent an injury.

Nutritionista:

So the first calorie counting week has come and gone.  I reliably ate between 1700-1900 calories (right around 1800 most days) each day besides my long run day (2400, lots of this booze).  She asked this week for me to cut to 1600 calories except on long run days.  No problem, right?

Two challenges:

-It’s SO HARD to fill up on just a few calories without bread.  Low cal filling lunch? 2 slices sprouted grain, 4 oz turkey, mustard, veggies.  Boom, done for about 350 calories.  The legumes and oils and nuts I’m filling the carb void with have SO MANY MORE CALORIES and 1600 is so so so so so hard.

-Habit.  I wasn’t tracking calories with a goal to hit 1800, that’s just where I landed.  Every freakin’ day.  Cutting 200 calories when you’ve established a habit is HARD.  Guess it’s time to make a new habit.

This week is going to be a practice run at it, because next week I’m on vacation and while the goal is to mitigate weight gain with lots of activity and be reasonable stuffing my cakehole – I am not going to be tracking and I’m not going to be training.  The week before Christmas I’ll start for real.

I know that sounds stupid, but I’m not usually a huge OMG HOLIDAY I MUST EAT EVERYTHING person, so hopefully I can get a jump on two weeks of weight loss before Jan 1st.  I’m sick of looking like an overweight special needs kid in my race photos (let’s just say I will NOT be purchasing any of these…) and this is getting ridiculous.  150-160, I was upset with the number on the scale, but nothing else affected me.  160-170, I was upset that some things in my closet didn’t fit, but not really upset with the mirror.  At 175 I am consistently unhappy with what’s in the mirror, and I need to fix it.

So, 1600 calories.  Let’s do this…

Here is a little catch up on life, my universe, and everything going on.  I’ll try to be brief but y’all know how well that works most times.

Nov 19th: 16 mile run at Town Lake

So I got coerced to do this mud run (really, it took a lot of arm twisting… right…), and realized I had a 16 miler scheduled.  16 miler != 5k mud run, so I had few options: ditch my long run and set back my training a week (ewww), run on my coveted day off everything Sunday (double ewwww) or do double duty on Saturday.  It was the lesser of 3 evils, so about 7am we were up and out to Town Lake to try out the trail.  We did about a 7 mile loop.  Some observations:
Mile 1/8/15: this is the worst part of the trail!  I don’t know why, but it’s the part I liked least.
Mile 2.5/9.5: WTF BIG HILL!  I walked this both times.  If it was closer to my house I might come and run it for hill repeats.  Nasty…
Mile 3-7: Loved running with Joel!  It was so nice to have a buddy, especially one who understands we are both there to keep each other silent company with our respective musics unless we feel like busting out in song and/or dance.
Mile 8: Sucky mile because Joel finished his run and I had 9 more to go. 🙁
Mile 10: Had to make a pit stop for some tummy rumbles, figured I’d be sly and use the gas station bathroom.  Gas station bathroom was fully out of TP and only had a hand drier and no kleenex.  99 cent black wristband, I hardly knew ye.  Thanks for getting me out of a crappy situation (literally)!
Mile 12-ish: walk breaks start making more of an appearance (not just on hill of stupid)
Mile 13: Awesome that RunTex has water coolers out under the bridge, but disappointed when I could barely get 1/4 camelback refill since they were mostly dry by then.
Mile 15: OMG I really have to run over this bridge again (began 3rd loop)?
Every mile or so: ARGH I HAVE TOWN LAKE IN MY SHOEZZZZ!!!! (stop, shake, resume).  Seriously.  The inside of my Asics must really have a crush on the trail because they had a major love fest all day.
16.0 miles – 3:06.  Only 10 more to add before the race!

Nov 19th (later) Warrior Dash: 1 hour + for 3.2 miles…

Got home, showered and changed as quick as possible, ran out the door, grabbed some food, and met up with said arm-twisting coworker to drive to the Dash.  My legs actually felt damn decent at that point, I had re-biofreezed and stretched and showered and could actually walk normally.

We started and jogged the first half mile, and got through the obstacles, but then we got to the first mudpit.  It was a doozy.  The goal was to run through super quick and not get stuck and lose your shoe.

Guess who failed miserably.  If your answer was me, DING DING DING!

However, I am a stubborn little shit sometimes.  I spent 15 minutes digging my damn shoes out of the mixture of mud and concrete and quicksand and whatever the fuck was in that thing one at a time while Zliten and said coworker waited.  After almost 17 miles on the first day I was NOT going barefoot through trail.

What you don’t realize is that if your shoes fall off in the pit of despair, they also fill with mud.  Which made new mud-insoles in your shoes which are lumpy and hurty and make your shoes too small.  Which, on any given day, is uncomfortable as hell, but especially on longest-run-ever morning.

I also got mud splashed in my eye from falling in the mud.  It felt like a freaking boulder was on my contact.

I vetoed running, but we trudged on, with my too-small-now-10-lbs-each shoes and one eye open, other eye watering.

Have to admit, a lot of the new obstacles were a lot of fun, there was a lot of interesting single track technically challenging trail (they took a page from Hell Run and upped the difficulty), but clomping with one eye closed kinda was a buzzkill.  All in all, a blast though, I REALLY enjoyed my post race beer, and we decided to get a big big group next year.  And hopefully I’ll plan better with training.

I seriously thought I was going to do major damage to my sensitive tootsies, but they got through, minus a toenail bruise due to the toosmallness.  Very happy I didn’t!

Thanksgiving week:

Was crazypants.  Family in town.  Overtime to fix issues with a launch (normal, just poorly timed).  I actually bagged two workouts (speedwork and a x-train swim) due to extreme mental and physical done-ness.  I had taken Sunday off planned, but also Mon (worked until 11pm), Tues (worked until 7:30, then spent time with family), and Wednesday (had to pick up packet and run errands after work, gym closed before we could get there).  When I get into those situations I find it’s better just to give myself the days off and not stress because a) I’m already stressed enough and b) I rarely miss workouts and that particular week c) Zliten’s parents only come into town once a year and d) I can pretend it’s a mini-taper for the Turkey Trot.   That brings us to…

Turkey Trot 5 Miler:

After the week I had, I had no expectations for this race.  I wanted to run at least my M tempo pace (9:30), but it was pretty hilly.  I had no idea what I had in me.

Well, I thought I knew what I had in me, but I digress.

We left the house 30 mins late, but it should have, with no traffic, gotten us to the race site almost an hour early.

Enter almost an hour worth of traffic.  I really really thought I needed another potty trip, so Zliten let me out and continued to wait in line to park with about 10 mins to go to the race start.  I got my warm up run sprinting to the porta potties, and found the LINE OF DOOM.  It’s ironic listening to the national anthem, feeling thankful and patriotic, and directly facing the crappers.

It was decision time.  Do I wait, use the bathroom, and get caught in the back dodging 20,000 (literally) walkers and strollers, or do I chance it.  I had already gone that morning, so I figured it was just nerves and rolled the dice and left the potty line.  I found the 9-10 minute mile corral, and just about immediately after I got there, we were going.  Good timing!

The first mile was uphill.  I remember spending the first half hoping that I had not chosen poorly about the bathroom, and then fell into step behind girl with the cool waistband.  At mile 1, I was about 9:30-ish.  Mile 2 stabilized, then went downdowndown and upupupupup.  Going downhill, I flew into the 7s (maybe even the 6s) ’cause I hopped on the median, put my arms out, and flew.  I was a leaf on the wind.  Then, the painful uphill I just trudged as quickly as I could, concentrating on small, quick steps.  I don’t remember my split at mile 2, but I think it was around 19 mins.  Apparently there was a water stop each mile if not more often but I missed most of them due to the crowds.  I found the first one at mile 2 and sucked down some water.

Mile 3 I felt pretty strong, especially because we started the downhill portion.  Negative split, what what!  It ended just as we were going over a nice high bridge into the sun.  Temps were perfect, I was feeling good, and I could do ANYTHING for 2 more miles.  I don’t remember my exact split but I think it was 27 something, and I remember thinking for some reason that I expected to finish in the 48s.  Considering I was running about 9:30s (and just got better), that math doesn’t add up, but considering I predicted between 45 and 50 I wasn’t bummed.  Mile 4 was a gradual downhill (my FAVORITE running conditions) and I sped up even more.  When I got to mile 5, I really thought that the course might be short again, it didn’t seem like there was enough distance between where I was and the finish.

But there was.  I kept it steady until I got to the downward slope of the bridge and pushed past everyone I could, turned the corner, and looked at the clock… it was in the 47s.  Since I started at least 1 minute behind I knew I had a shot at a time in the 46s.  I thought my PR was 46:50 and I was so excited!  I crossed the finish and my garmin said 46:42 (actual finish was 46:39).  I celebrated a little and watched for Zliten (who I totally missed and came in right at 1 hour).

Then, I checked my 2009 race results and my time was actually 45:50.  So no PR, but definitely a stellar run considering the week I had and what I’m training for.

18 miler on Saturday:

I’ll cut this fairly short but explain the circumstances.

-Cycled hills the day before.

-Also shopped for 8+ hours the day before.  Let’s just say don’t be me.  I started this run in pain.

-Ran the first 8 miles with Zliten.  He punished me by taking me on his hills course.  It’s not any severe hills but it’s pretty much a constant steady uphill.

-Walked a cooldown mile with Zliten.  I wanted the company more than I wanted to go fast.

-Ran mile 10 and 11 and ran into a major fucking wall at 12.  My legs would not go.  The hurt when I walked just felt sore, the hurt when I ran threw the meter into potential injury territory, so walk it was.  You train what you have any given day, and the best I could do was time on my feet (which is actually very important, just FELT wussy).

-I walked 3 miles.  I tried to pick up and run a few times and I just couldn’t.  Right around mile 15 I noticed that if I could just hold 12s, I’d make my cut off (I gave myself 4 hours).

-I started running again and I had my legs back.  I ran all but one quick uphill walk break around 17, and finished in 4:02.  I expect 18 NEVER to go so slow again and to beat my time when I run 20 in two weeks.

Damage: oddly enough, my HIP has been sore this week.  Ankles fine, arches fine, feet fine, but that 4 hours on my feet did something to my HIP.  I feel about 70 years old complaining about my hip.  It felt better, and ran on it Monday (5 miles of speedwork).  Ow on Tuesday.  It felt better on Wednesday so I did my 2 mi EZ, 3 mi 9:15 tempo, 1 mile EZ.  Ow yesterday.  I have a race tomorrow, but I think I’ll go ahead and cross train a little more next week instead of run so I can let it heal – I would really like to not have a major injury that I exacerbate to the point of having to ditch further 26.2 training.  Tomorrow’s race is basically just a long hilly training session IMO, so if I have to take it slow or walk, I’ll be ok with it (at least that’s what I say now…).  And no matter what, I’ll have wine at the end to console me.

(Yes, btw, first day of the Christmas season – I’m wearing shorts, a tee shirt, and cowboy boots!  Go Austin! Also, don’t my legs and arms look fabulously buff in this picture? Wheee!)

This last week started my start of calorie counting again.  So far, I’m observing that I’m around 1800 calories on weekdays, 70-90g fat (which is waywayway higher than I used to, normally coming in around 30-40 before I started adding olive oil/nuts/etc), 150g carbs, and 100g protein.  Nutrition-person-lady said the fat content is fine, and not to aim for a certain number this week of anything, just gather data.  So I have.  Weightwise – I’m back to 175.0, so that’s the lowest I’ve been for a while.  Ready for onward and downward!

Somehow, my life continues to be crazy through December (but crazy awesome).  In the coming weeks I have a pinball party Yelp event, my company Holiday party, volunteering at Decker Half, my first 20 miler, Jamaica, seeing Tori Amos live (fourth row, people, I’m so stoked!!!), a wedding, and then it’s Christmas week!  I was all excited about having these 3 weeks of to laze around and now I have plans on quite a few of them.  I’m pretty sure I’ll squeeze an epic couch gaming/movie watching marathon of some sort though…

Epic update of epicness done.  I’ll be back to update soon on hilly races, pinball places, and smiling faces soon!

Leaving this up as my last post before thanksgiving isn’t working for me.  So instead let me list a small subset of the many things I’m thankful for instead of whining about…

-I am thankful for my legs.  They haven’t given up on me yet even when I ask them to do crazy things that no one should back to back.  Also?  Kinda HAWT.

-I am thankful for my awesome husband who is just awesome.  For example, one day on Facebook, he just exclaimed that he has the bestest wife ever.  When asked (because I certainly didn’t remember doing anything amazing), he just said he was thinking of how awesome I was and wanted everyone to know.  That’s only one of the myriad of ways he is wonderful, but it’s the one to comes to mind first today.

-I am thankful to have an awesome family that I get to spend all day with tomorrow, eat turkey, and play card games.

-I am thankful for my health.  I have nothing that keeps me from enjoying each and every day to the fullest and doing any damn thing I want to do.  I’m thankful for the funds to be able to continue to improve it through healthy, natural, and organic eating, athletic equipment, chiropractor, doctor, and dentist visits, nutritionist visits, gym memberships, and race fees.

-I’m thankful for the opportunity in racing to push myself to the limits.  I think it makes me a better person in my life to be able to be as mentally and physically strong and challenge those boundaries each and every time I toe the starting line.

-I’m thankful that on an average moment, the emotion I’m feeling is probably somewhere pretty close to JOY.  Through hard work and surrounding myself with awesome and amazing people, I have built a life that feels sometimes like I should pinch myself and it should go away, because it simply MUST be a dream. I’ve stopped doing that (the bruises are a bitch) but I try never to lose sight of how amazing I have it, even if I’m having a *moment*.

Happy Turkey Day everyone, and remember…

What are you most thankful for?

So, if you’ve noticed, I’ve really stopped talking about my nutrition/weight progress/etc, besides just weighing in once a week.

It’s not because I’m slacking or have given up.  I’ve just stopped seeing progress.  It’s fucking frustrating.  My nutritionist is frustrated too.  If my body cooperated, I should have probably been dipping into the 150s and close if not at my goal by now instead of just being stuck.

With all these gains I’ve been making in my running (biking, and swimming), imagine what they’d be like if I could lose this 25 and get back to my 150 happy weight.  If it’s really true that you can cut off an average of 2 second per mile per pound (not that I don’t trust Adam, it just seems crazy to me), I could be rocking almost 1 minute/mile faster paces if I could just deal with this shit.  I’m really noticing that getting sub 9:30 and especially sub-9 feels like a lot more work than it should, even though I have endurance I have never had before.  Maybe when it was 5 lbs it wasn’t a big deal but if I can rock this hard at 175, imagine what world dominance I could enact back at 150.

Plus, I could stop looking at race pictures and sob uncontrollably smack the race photographer for being at that angle smack myself for wearing those hideously photogenic but awesomely comfortable shorts be unhappy with them…

I’m not sure why 175 is so different than 150, but it really has been the tipping point.  In the 6 months I’ve stabilized here, I’ve been less inclined to go shopping, dress cute, and want to be photographed (except on race day, and only in flattering poses).  I’m sure I’ve even gotten to the point where people are talking behind my back.  Not that I care (really, if I still liked what I saw in the mirror, I could give a flying leap about what anyone thought), but I think I’ve finally crept up to “she looks bigger than she used to” status.  The convo would probably go, “Geez, Quix has put on some weight in the last 2 years.” “Yeah, and she’s always running and racing and doing shit, I wonder how that happened.”

You and be both, people.  I’m making endurance sports look really bad…

There are a few things I won’t do.

I can’t home cook every meal.  Working more than 40 hours a week (sometimes WAY more and unpredictable hours) and training like I do means that sometimes I’m going to need a packaged meal or takeout.  It’s just not feasable on days when I leave at 7 am and get home 12 hours or more later to spend an hour or more cooking food.  What I have done is identified places (like Elevation Burger, Jason’s Deli, and Chipotle) and brands (like Amy’s and Applegate Farms) I can trust to give me fairly decent options in terms of good quality convenience foods that aren’t full of crap.  You might be able to argue that it takes 15 minutes to throw together food, but sometimes when you have an hour of downtime a day or less, that 15 mins of couch crashing is GOLD.  I’ve been very honest about where my food comes from with my nutritionist and she thinks I’ve been doing a good job.

I will not give up alcohol.  I have given up sugary drinks and mixers, as well as beer for the most part, but you can take my vodka and La Croix or wine away from my cold dead hands.   Drinking an obnoxious amount on a Saturday night is not what makes me fat.  It’s also been a constant through the last 4 years.  Also, now it has pretty much 100% coincided with long run or bike or brick day, where I’m burning over 1k calories if not upwards of 2+, so it’s not as if I’m not earning them.  My nutritionist has asked me to whittle this down a little, but is down with the boozin’.

I will not give up a little sweet indulgence here and there.  Nor has my nutritionist asked me to.  I oscilate between a bite or two of something every other day and abstaining but having a full serving about once a week.  This week will probably be a little more than normal due to holiday feasting but sweets are not really my downfall.

I have pretty much given up grains.  I feel good where I’m at.  If I have too much at once I feel bloated.  I can still have something wheaty right after a long run and feel great, but that’s about the only time it doesn’t feel like a brick in my tummy to have more than a serving of grain at one time.

So here, I have to take a little aside from my normally positive self and whine and rant.

It’s not fair that I eat as clean and healthy as I do and I’m still 175 lbs.

It’s not fair that I train as hard as I do and I’m still 175 lbs.

It’s not fair that a friend who I inspired to run jumped on a treadmill and is, within a few months, doing under 20 minute 5ks at 3% incline, and I can barely break 27 minutes right now.

It’s not fair that no matter how much I eat like an athlete, or train like an athlete, or think like an athlete, I can’t manage to look anything like an athlete.

It’s not fair that by getting better at swimming and stronger arms, I make my top heavy self noticeably top heavier which makes me less happy with my physical appearance in light of vanity/clothing fitting/etc (approaching Eastern European Swim Team status).  See?  Look at all that shoulder!

It’s not fair that I can’t seem to lose this weight, and it’s both cathartic and frustrating at the same time that throwing money at a nutritionist didn’t work.  I have spent years doing the research and was disappointed in myself that I couldn’t figure it out.  It’s taken a trained professional 6 months with 0 scale progress now too.  At the very least I don’t feel dumb.

It’s not fair that there is nothing easy left to try.  I don’t consume caffeine.  I don’t consume sugary drinks.  I rarely eat foods that are nutritionally void and if I do it’s occasionally, in small quantities.  I don’t emotionally eat.  I eat generally lean meats, healthy fats, rabbit food, whole grains at meals.  I snack on fruits, veggies, hummus, jerky, organic cheese, and nuts.  I drink enough water.  I train a lot.  I take rest days.  I listen to my body and know (usually) when to push myself on through and when to bag my workout.  I am happy, albeit a little stressed lately with work, but enjoy my life.  I sleep 8 hours on average per night.

The only theories I have left are:

-Something is wrong with my body that’s not diet or exercise related.  I ran the gamut of tests in August though with even a full, extended thyroid panel and everything came back fine, so I doubt it.

-It really is portions.  I’ve done *better* lately with measuring and spot checking, but I haven’t whipped out the measuring cups and spoons at each meal.

-Zliten is pushing for overtraining, but I would say 4 sessions of 30-60 minutes per day and 1 long run per week is not any more than I was doing during tri season.  Running for 3+ hours is pretty intense, but I seem to be handling it.  And this is not a new problem.  It’s not as if I was losing weight during off season last year…

Other than that, I just don’t know.

I am thankful to be able to do what I do now, and look how I look now, let’s just make sure that’s stated right here.  Five years ago, just fitting into a size that didn’t start with 20-something or walking up a flight of stairs without being winded was but a dream to me.  Now I’m bitching about being less than half that clothing size, and about only being able to run twice as fast as my max speed used to be on a treadmill.  Feels petty.

However, I’ve put in the 5 years of work.  For example, 5 years ago me would have been giddy with joy with my salary.  However, present me is just satisfied with it because it’s what I deserve for the job I do and the experience I have.  Just like my weight.  I feel like it’s time for the dividends of my hard work to fall into my lap, kthx.

Life just doesn’t work out that way.  It usually takes just a little longer than you expect or think is reasonable to get what you want.  And it’s just not fair.  Doesn’t mean you get to give up though…

/rant off

Workouts, then blahblahblah…

Last Week:
Monday: Reverse Ladders (1200m, 1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m (@ 8-8:30) with 200m recovery in between @ 12) + crunchtime
Tuesday: 30 mins bike hills, yoga
Wednesday: 7 mile L tempo (9:45 min/mi)
Thursday: off (yoga/stretching)
Friday: off (yoga/stretching)
Saturday: Azle Half Marathon!!! (…err 11.25 miles?)
Sunday: off

This Week:
Monday: Hill repeats (6x 1/3 mile 3% incline @ 10 min/miles, flat at same pace/same distance) + crunchtime
Tuesday: 30 mins bike hills, yoga
Wednesday: 5 mile M tempo
Thursday: 30 min swim + weights
Friday: off (yoga/stretching)
Saturday: 16 mile run morning, Warrior Dash afternoon
Sunday: off

Weight: still 175.  Bleh.  However, it’s the week where I expect not to lose so it’s fine.  I’ll get angry if I’m not getting lower next week.  I did also eat a few not-so-good things this weekend so I will just focus on being a good girl this week and seeing if I can get the scale to budge.

Let’s talk about the race.

I was mentally not feeling it the day before.  Notatall.  Each and every day last week was crazy at work.  I actually did 9-3 at jury duty and then rolled into work and stayed until 11:30pm.  Thank the dear fluffy lord I had the sense to stop at home first and take half an hour to throw a pile of  stuff on my yoga mat that was to be packed.  When I got home I just had to trust that 4pm Quix had done her due dilligence and just threw everything into a bag that night, and got up the next morning at 7am and threw that bag into the car.  I’m getting pretty good at packing for overnight races.  The only things I forgot was an extra plug for my garmin charger (which I didn’t need anyway) and my slippers (but had comfy sandals so it was fine).

We left Austin around 4:30pm and hit a little traffic on the way up, so it was a 4 hour drive, not 3.  We rolled down the street to the hotel and it looked SKETCH-TASTIC at first, but then magically transformed into suburbia, so it was fine.  We checked into the room and the only thing they had left was smoking. BLEH.  I can’t believe our apartment used to smell like that… ugh.  Since it was already 8:30, we decided dinner was first priority and tried to get into Applebees but it was PACKED.  Like so packed we didn’t even want to order takeout.  Instead, we went across the street and hit up Ginger Browns, and ended up with some amazing food.  Salad, monterrey chicken, mashed potatoes, rolls – perfect pre-endurance-race food.  Plus, they gave us two of the most awesome cinnamon rolls for free.  I was so stuffed I had to save it for the next day (but still so so so so so good).

I was still totally un-excited, my legs were sore, my brain was worn out and foggy, but I did the normal pre-race routine of laying stuff out, trying to poop, biofreeze, trying to poop, relaxing and watching tv, actually finally pooping, and then drifting off to bed just before midnight.  The awesome thing about the race was it was at 9am, and only 10 mins away, so waking up at 7am was just fine, thanks.  I got up, showered, got dressed, got my breakfast and caffeine on, and started to get a little in the mood.  The weather was beautiful, just a little cold and a little windy, but it was def. workable.

This was the same weekend I did Rock N Roll San Antonio last year.  It was a trip how different these races were – RNRSA I was lucky to get a hotel over a mile away from the start so I didn’t have to deal with parking and shuttles.  Azle, we parked in the Junior High School parking lot, which was also the start.  I love the energy and support of big races, but sometimes, little local races are a blast too.

I couldn’t decide whether to run with the jacket or not and made the call 5 mins before to take it off before the race, and I’m so glad I did.  I hate running with sleeves unless it’s way cold, and to take off my jacket, I would have had to take off my camelback and zune.  I probably need some of those compression sleeves I see spiffy runners wearing all the time (hint hint Santa).

Anyhoo, here’s the breakdown…

Race Pros:
-Saturday race.  Sunday races suck.  ‘Nuff said.
-Easy parking, packet pickup, etc.
-I think small starts are fun, starting 15 minutes back feels anticlimactic
-9am start meant sleeping in until 7am and having a leisurely morning, not a crazy 5am wakeup time
-Everyone was friendly and even the police support seemed geniunely happy to be supporting and/or racing the course
-Nice neighborhood and scenery
-3 loop course – for some that’s a con, but I often run loops and like knowing and being able to plan for what’s coming
-Nice weather… it was supposed to be windy (like 15-20 mph), but being on neighborhood streets that were pretty shielded, I didn’t feel it.

Race Cons:
-Course was short almost 2 miles for the half due to a screw up.  10k course was short about 1/2 mile.
-Only 1 water stop for the 10k, only 2 for the half.  This is why I rock my camelback, but still, water at 4.2 and about 9 miles?  Unacceptable.
-It was hillier than I thought.  It wasn’t *bad* but I certainly could have done without the long long incline from about mile 9 to 10.5.
-Streets at times were a little uneven, my tootsies definitely felt it.
-When they gave awards they just called names, not places, times, or ages. I’m still waiting for the results to come up.  I know I was at least 2/3 for 30-34, but it would be nice to know if I was 2/3 or 2/10 or whatever, and also how much I was beat by/beat 3rd place by…

Personal Pros:
-I rolled the dice on trying something new on race day – a new, bigger, gel holder that Zliten bought for me Thursday night.  At first I couldn’t figure out what to do with it, but found that clipped to my pants in the small of my back, I didn’t notice it there at all.  It worked like a charm and will be great for marathon training runs.
-Even though the course was short, the run felt REALLY short.  I guess my 2.5 to 3 hours running lately means a slightly short half marathon feels like a short run.  Score.
-I feel like I got better at hills this race.  When I could, I powered up them, shortening and changing my stride, trying to burn more of my lungs and quads and save my calves and hammies.  My cadence improved – avg 87 and hit 90 on some miles (at least 90 is the goal).  When I couldn’t, I power walked up them (@ 15 min/miles) for a bit, which stretched out my legs and let me save up a little energy to rock the flats even harder.
-I busted past at least 5 people on the way to the finish.  My max pace?  6:33 min/mile.  I definitely wanted to make sure I had the best chance possible at AG podium!
-My pace was just about right on my planned marathon pace and I really wasn’t wasted at all after.  Legs, lungs, everything felt peachy keen and WAY better than I have after a training run in a long while.
-I ended up with an AG silver medal (and I reckon there was at least 3 because they gave out a bronze right after me)!  My second placement medal in 2 races!  Woohoo!

Personal Cons:
-Not the race’s fault, but I had an mp3 player screw up which only left me with about 1 hour worth of music instead of the 4+ I had on the playlist – luckily they were all songs I didn’t mind listening to twice.
-Short course meant my nutrition was off – I did mile 5 and mile 9.25 – I kinda wasted that last gel, it was kicking in 1 mile to the finish.
-I felt the fade around mile 9, but it was definitely not as bad as normal.  Longer running distances lately and the gels helped.  I might consider really stepping up the nutrition sched for the marathon, maybe sucking down as many as 5 gels…

So overall – 1:55 for 11.25 miles, or about a 10:15-ish pace.  I would have been on track for about a 2:14 finish at 13.1 miles, which would have been fine with me.  My legs are not in PR condition right now, and while it would have been nice to pull one out of my ass, I’ll have to settle for a solid run I feel great about, and a 2nd place medal.  So yeah, it didn’t suck.  Plus, it couldn’t have been official because of the short distance, so I’ll save that PR run for another day…

Then the weekend collapsed into a bit of a spiral of crappy food.  In N Out and some boozin’ was planned, but the cinnamon roll wasn’t.  And for dinner, I only had a bowl of potato soup, so the fruit and veggies?  Non existent.  Then the next day cheesy Mexican food and some cake at a baby shower… I redeemed myself with dinner of the rest of my fajita meat and veggies on top of a salad and some mango and I’m heading into the week salviating over getting some healthy food in my cake hole.

So this week my focus is keeping track of my (good healthy properly portioned) eats, making it through my training, getting enough rest, cleaning up the house for guests next week, and resting up for my epic adventure on Saturday.  I’ll be doing a 16 miler in the morning (we’re going to try out Town Lake for the first time, Zliten and I are going to do 7 and then bring his Kindle and wait for me to finish up my +9) and then we go home, get changed, and head out for our 2:30pm wave of Warrior Dash.  I wasn’t going to do it but then we got a groupon for it for half price and a friend at work really wanted to so… the total for the day will be about 19.5 miles.  I plan on taking that last 3.5 REALLY slow.

How’s your week going?  Ever done a training run before/after a race?  What would you splurge on if your next meal had no calories?