Adjusted Reality

Tomorrow I will post more in detail about the race, but I figured I might as well continue with this one more week. 🙂

If you’ve been following me here this shouldn’t be any surprise, but for the rest of you and for my posterity, here is how last week went.

Monday: 4 mile run and yoga

Check and check!  Not the greatest run – my headphones died so I had to find backup headphones so I got out late, it was HOT by then, my toe started bleeding for no apparent reason on the run, and I was almost late to work, but ya know, I got it done.  Yoga felt good after work that day!

Tuesday: 30 minute tempo run

Check, sorta.   My toe was hurting still so I wore my older, larger shoes.  They didn’t hurt my toe, but since they were pretty worn out, I definitely felt each step and couldn’t push myself so fast.  It was almost more of a regular run than tempo, but again, I did the miles.  Was gonna yoga after work, but I had to go to the Yelp party, so I never got time.

Wednesday: yoga

Check!  Ah, look, there is my yoga.  Was a nice day off as well.

Thursday: 2 mile run and yoga

Check and check!  After all that training, I finished this and went – uh, ok, my warmup’s done, now how far do I have to go?  Felt weird only doing that short of a distance (but kinda good).  I pushed myself a little harder than normal and felt fast – though I was still wearing the old and crappy shoes because of the hurty toe.

Friday: Rest/Travel

Check!  Packing was the most strenuous thing I did that day.  I pretty much got eaten by the hotel bed around 9pm, which was great, because I had to be up at 6am!

Saturday: HALF MARATHON!!!

Check!  I’ll go into this more tomorrow, but lets just say I know why they tell you to not do 13.1 miles before the race – if my 12 last week had been this brutal, I might have reconsidered!   But – I got through it and though I didn’t beat my goal time, I certainly got close!

Total week 12 mileage 22.1 (running):   (plus 1-2 miles of walking)

Now what happens?  I almost feel lost without a rigorous running schedule, but I’ll keep myself busy and make do.

Week 13 – the week after!

Monday – 30 mins DDR and yoga in the morning, bike ride after work

Tuesday – weights in the morning, roller skating at adult night after work

Wednesday – yoga or off

Thursday – 30 mins arc trainer and weights after work

Friday – 30 mins DDR and yoga in the morning

Weekend: epic bike ride, weights at the gym

This is all subject to change for any reason I damn well please, because this week is about making sure my poor little knotted up muscles get stretched out and used in different ways besides *poundypoundypoundy*.  I hope everyone enjoyed/tolerated these updates, they really helped me out!  For now, I will put away the weekly update until I get closer to something specific I’m training for…

Race: finished.  Massive amounts of italian food: eaten.  Legs: barely under my control.  Couch: yes, oh my yes.  Standing: overrated.

Chip times not up yet, but if it wasn’t 2:15 it was sure close.  More next week!

Well, race day is tomorrow and the nerves are definitely coming into play.  I’m sure it doesn’t help that I’m stuck at work when I would like to be packing, yoga’ing, and sleeping more (I had a small bout of the wakeup-then-can’t-fall-back-asleep fun last night and netted about 5.5 hours of sleep).  So instead of doing, I’m just going to type.

Things I am worried about:

-I’ve never run 13.1 miles before.  It still trips me out that training for a long race, you don’t run the full distance until you get to the starting line.

-I’ve put in very few miles this week.  I know you’re not supposed to, but it just feels wrong.

-Running in the heat.  I’ve had some good runs lately, but I’ve also had some miserable runs where I felt like I was wading, not running.

-My toe and shoe situation.  Monday’s run, my toe started bleeding for no reason.  My newest and best shoes fit me *perfect* so there is no extra toe room, and when I put them on, they hurt walking around so I wore my old-expired shoes.  My options are a) wear the new ones I’ve been training in and deal with any possible pain b) wear the old ones and gamble on my toe feeling good but the rest of my foot possibly hurting because they’re so worn or c) going to buy a pair just like my new ones in a half size bigger, and risk racing on new shoes (these had literally NO break in period, they were comfy from day 1 but still – not something you do on race day).  I’m thinking a), but I’m hoping d) toesies are fine tomorrow!

-Getting there.  We’re heading down this afternoon to beat traffic and relax and swim in the pool and get a yummy dinner, but I’m not sure how to navigate to the course/shuttles/whatnot.

Things I am confident about:

-Minus the intentional omissions while in Vegas, I followed my training program pretty much to a T.  While it was my program I concocted, it was after researching a LOT online.  I’m ready for this.

-I feel healthy and ready to push myself.  I’m not feeling burnt, I’m not physically exhausted, though I am surprised that I still have mild muscle soreness today having only done about 9 miles, yoga up the wazoo, and no strength training.

-The forecast tomorrow in San Antonio is promising.  The race starts at 78 degrees at 8am (feeling like 83) and ends around 83 at 10am (feeling like 88) with 15 mph wind.  The last few weeks I’ve been training in somewhere between “feels like 90” and “is actually 90” weather, and we have been strangely un-windy here lately, so I’m excited.  It will feel like the middle of winter!

Now, also, since I can’t be packing, I’m going to pretend:

Normal overnight stuff bag with toiletries, shower stuff, pajamas, swimsuit, a change of comfy clothes for Saturday after the race, my slippers just in case my tootsies are shot after the race (thanks for the idea, DietGirl!), a change of going out clothes in case we decide to stay down there another night (probably won’t, but…) and camera.

Body pillow.  I want to sleep as comfortably as I can.

Towel for the car so I don’t sweat all over it on the way back if we leave immediately.

Laptop with Sims 3 and movies to watch in case everything on TV sucks.

Running bag with what I’m going to wear to race in (and maybe a backup), vasolene (my version of body glide), my camelback (just in case I find out the water stops aren’t as frequent as I’d like), shoe wallet and safety pins (gonna pin sport beans #1 to the inside of my skirt, sport beans #2 going in the shoe wallet), both pairs of shoes JUST IN CASE (god I hope I don’t have to use my old shoes), sunglasses, timing watch, zune (just in case, I might as well see if everyone is showing up with mp3 players and ignoring the no-headphone rule), sunscreen, breakfast (fruit and a zone bar), water bottle (lukewarm water will be better than nothing if needed) hair ties, and chapstick.

Yes, I travel light.  Sue me, I like to be prepared!  Now, to finish the rest of the morning at work, have some lunch, hit the store for aforementioned fruit and water, and get to packin’!  Soon, so very soon, I’ll have the 4th race picture to add to these 3!

So I have a HUGE case of what I call “The Shiny Syndrome”.  Known also as “oooh, look, shiny” or characterized very well in the movie Up! as “SQUIRREL!”  Basically, I’ll make these great and grandiose plans, and then get distracted and start wandering away to another path following something else shiny and then all of a sudden, I have no idea how to get back to the other one.  So it’s fine, and I keep chasing the new hotness shiny.  Rinse, and repeat.  And repeat.

Some things take longer than others to lose my interest (gymnastics I gave a good 13 years, pursuing art seriously after college – about 4 years, etc), but eventually, it will fall off my radar, as one can only have a finite amount of passion in their life without being exhausted (or exhausting!).  Some of the more recent and fleeting shinies have been:

-The 100 pushup challenge.  I was enamoured with the idea of being able to do that many.  The problem was when it started to be a workout on it’s own and not just part of my arms workout.  I got up to about 45 and have maintained the ability to do that many though!

-Selling my jewelry.  I dropped 150 bucks on beading supplies and was NOT going to make anything for myself until I had made at least 10 sets (necklace and bracelet) to sell at 15 bucks a pop.  I was not going to buy any more supplies until I sold them, making back my investment.  I was going to do this by May.  It’s the middle of June, I have 4 necklaces made, 0 bracelets, and I’ll already spent at least 10 more dollars on beading supplies.  Fail!  In my own defense, it has been so beautiful outside this spring, I just couldn’t bear turning down gallivanting outside.  And there was a half off sale.  Now that the 100+ heat is approaching, I definitely plan to restart this anew.

-Obsessively tracking/analyzing my food/activity/mood etc.  I was so good for a long time, analyzing calories in vs calories out daily and weekly, as well as how I felt.  I found out a lot of things during that phase, like not to worry about a day or 2 of being up in weight, just take your low per week and count that.  Also, if I could be a “calorie burner” each day (as in, take in less calories than I burn) I did better than if I just did a few marathon days, even if it ended up the same at the end of the week.  I just haven’t been able to get back to that, even if it was probably one KEY element of my success.

So now that we have established that it is hard for me to see things through, I would like to express how incredibly proud of myself I am for finishing this half marathon training (minus the last 2 mile run of course).  Even if I fall down in 2 minutes and break my ankle and I can’t run.  Even if the car breaks down on the way to San Antonio and we get picked up by a carnie cult and end up as circus freaks.  Even if I have to walk half the race or don’t finish or get abducted by aliens along the course.   I managed to avoid “shiny syndrome” long enough to set out a 12 week plan, and see it through.  I set a goal to run 13.1 miles, when I could only run 6 at the time, made a training schedule, and Saturday I shall be primed and ready to do it.  I didn’t quit at 8 or 9, even though it was freaking cool I could get that far.  I didn’t stop increasing my mileage even though the rapidity of it was honestly intimidating.

I know this hobby is a keeper, as I’m already starting to think about training in the fall for the next one in Jan/Feb.  I still maintain that I am super ready to take the summer off and maybe work on 5k/10k times and riding my bike and *supersecretsurprisestuff*, but I’m already figuring out what worked, what didn’t, what I need to add, when I need to start, and how I’m going to run in cold weather.

I don’t even care that I had a crappy tempo run today.  I don’t care that I still have a 2 mile easy run left and all the yoga I can possibly cram into my life before Saturday.  For all intents and purposes, I did it.  I’m standing near the top of the moutain.  Just getting to this point is a victory in its own right.  The rest, they say, is downhill from here.  13.1 miles downhill.

Now, with all that feel-good talk out of the way, I’m taking bets on whether I can smash the 2:15:00 goal I’ve set for myself…