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Awesome (and not awesome) Things – 2014

On December 31, 2014

The days in 2014 are getting short, so here’s a recap of how things went. Honestly, I stopped tracking a lot of my goals, and happy I got as much done as I did! Here’s my top 3 (and bottom 3) things for 2014 and how I did on my goals.

Racing:

Awesome thing #1: I got really really close to my half marathon PR!

Awesome thing #2: My first AG placement in a tri that was not 3rd out of 3!

Awesome thing #3: Laying it down at Kerrville with a huge PR under rough conditions.

Honorable mentions: Volunteering a lot more. +karma and it’s actually kind of fun. Surprising myself big time at Jack’s Generic and breaking the curse. A PR at 10/20 for the 3rd year in a row.

Not awesome thing #1: Nutritional nightmare and subsequent tummy blow up at Woodlands.

Not awesome thing #2: Huge burnout funk (the start of it here) encompasing X-50 and Pflugerville.

Not awesome thing #3: Kind of dying at Space Coast marathon.

2014 Goals:

1. Plan out a reasonable season with adequate training time and enough offseason to keep me from being crispy. Figure out what the A, B, and C races are and set appropriate goals.

I did great here – except for late April – early June. I thought throwing a bunch of training at burnout would make it go away. Surprise (to no one but past me, I guess)! However, I rebounded with a vengence later to attack season pt. 2 with full on sharp teeth!

Also, apparently I didn’t set any racing goals as resolutions. I’m ok with that, as I set them all year as races approach.

Training:

Awesome thing #1 New gym! Lake, outdoor heated clean pool, endurance spin with wattage_cottage, and less than 5 mins from work.

Awesome thing #2 Getting my run legs back after the debauchle which was 2013. It’s nice to be putting down paces that don’t embarrass me.

Awesome thing #3 Finally womaning up and riding streets outdoors in August and September. Can’t wait to get back out there, actually!

Honorable mentions: longest swim ever, longest outdoor bike ever, fastest over-half marathon run ever, some massively awesome triple brick miles.

Not awesome thing #1 Missing 1k run miles by just a few. I’m totally going to hit this next year.

Not awesome thing #2 Letting myself get into a hole after x-50 and trying to push through and do long distances for no reason.

Not awesome thing #3 Marathon training was inconsistent this year. Also, missing my training partner!

2014 Goals:

1. Maintain a 20+ mile per week base, with some 40+ weeks during peak (running).

20 mile per week? Close. I intentionally took some weeks off or lower during off season or after races, but if you expanded it to be 15-20, I’d say I hit that. 40+ weeks? Yeah… only during marathon training. Maybe next year.

2. Have a specific workout planned for each session with pace goals (unless it’s truly a recovery day, then EASY will suffice). Do not neglect speedwork on any of the three disciplines. Show up and conquer each training session.

I did REALLY, REALLY well at this for the Kerrville cycle. I think I know how to periodize tri training decently now. It didn’t work as well for marathon training, shockingly, that doesn’t seem to fit into a 2 month cycle. 😛

Eating:

Awesome thing #1: Butter coffee w/protein powder. This has replaced yogurt as my breakfast and rocks my world because of the ability to consume it so quickly after training.

Awesome thing #2: I hate to say it, but upping my fats and lowering grains. I’m going to stick with it for a bit if for only one reason: my gut is a lot happier and I am able to handle race day nutrition much better since I started carb fueling myself by corn and potato instead of bread and pasta.

Awesome thing #3: I batch cooked throughout most of the year. It’s just gotten to be a habit. There is nothing that fights the junk food monster better than having a healthy, yummy meal ready to heat up.

Honorable mentions: tacos rule my world. If I ever get an academy award or something speech worthy, I’ll probably have to thank tacos in the list of things that got me there. Bacon fridays (on Friday, a group of us at work split a large order of smoked bacon) are also on my list.

Not awesome thing #1: I had some bouncing around, but I’ve ended up about back where I started. It takes about 2 months for me to really get in and start losing weight and feeling good and then I have a race or vacation and it goes back up.

Not awesome thing #2: I don’t think I did much better this year about not eating crap that I didn’t want because it was in front of my face.

Not awesome thing #3: I have a ninja blender and have not made ONE morning smoothie with it. I see a 2015 resolution.

2014 Goals:

1. Track calories and diet quality all year, minus vacations and/or periods where I am on break.

Oops. I went super neurotic about it, then got stressed and stopped in April. I think I’m going to figure out a middle ground for 2015. Tracking helps me, but when I spend too many hours analyzing my intake it gets me crazy.

2. Batch cook the majority of 2014, and make use of my fit/snap kitchen when I’m too busy to do so. Try some new recipes, and try to incorporate foods that I don’t 100% love but want to love, to see if I can make myself love them. Keep variety in my fruits and veggies – man cannot live on spinach, mixed veggies, apples, and berries alone.

Yep! I so did this. I expanded my veggies (cauliflower, brussels, sweet potatoes, etc). I did lots of batch cooking and it still rocks my world.

Leisure Time:

Awesome thing #1: Vacations! I got to visit Honduras, Belize, Cozumel, Portland, the Oregon Coast, Pajaro Dunes/Monterey Bay, Port Aransas, Cocoa Beach, Miami, and the Bahamas. Not to mention race trips to Allen, Denton, the Woodlands, Boerne, and Kerrville TX. I am really lucky to be able to have the financial means and be healthy so I can use my time off on vacations, not sick days.

Awesome thing #2: Waterpark! Getting a season pass to Hawaiian Falls made my summer. I’m already counting the days until we get to do it again.

Awesome thing #3: We’ve had a regular gaming group for most of the year and it’s been so much fun.

Honorable mentions: Getting the chance to see FIVE broadway shows this year. Lots of awesome friend time and parties. I barely felt like I fell into a training hole this year and it was a good thing. Ren Faire. Halloween. Five weeks summer offseason to do fun stuff. Life is good.

Not awesome thing #1: So much money fixing things. Everything broke this year – electronics, house stuff, car stuff, teeth, legs, etc. I’m really fortunate to have both a cushion in the bank and our salaries are such that shit like this can still happen and we still are able to put money into that cushion. And that everything broken that was important could be fixed. But still.

Not awesome thing: #2: I need to pay some more attention to the house – we have so much stuff that needs organization and purging. Two adults should not be wishing for more space than a four bedroom house.

Not awesome thing: #3: Gonna go with three fractures in the leg bones for Zliten. While I’m sure it’s much more annoying to be the one on crutches, it wasn’t without annoyances to be the spouse of a crutchy mc crutcherson. And, hello, runs are not as fun solo all the time.

2014 Goals:

1. Set one goal per month to clean/organize/redo something. It can be as small or large as I choose.

Ugh, I tried. But this stressed me out and I left a lot of things undone. I still need to scope this smaller (plans for 2015 already in the brain…).

2. We must fix the shingle in the roof and replace the front door. Scope out redoing the slab on the patio and covering it, repainting/brick work the exterior, kitchen counters and if we want to redo anything else there (gold stars for completing).

We did the shingle and decided to wait because money. We’ll do this next year. Door is still holding together. Nothing else yet.

3. Holy crap, I had a lot of minor things. So, um, let’s list them.

Things I wanted to do that I did: continue to either host or go to a game night every ~2 weeks or so, not go into a training hole (aka, see people that aren’t my family a few times a month), uploading photos that go on the blog on the blog instead of linking from elsewhere, have more house parties, complete the TX Tri series with volunteering the races I didn’t race.

Things I made some progress but didn’t really accomplish: social media blackout days (I find I close it down more often than I did, but it’s still too much), purge my lists and follow people I’m interested in (working on the second, but I feel BAD about the first!), write shit on the blog that’s not just lists and graphs and race recaps (getting there, but I used to, like, WRITE, now it’s really journally), take care of myself not to get crispy (I did better, but I let the season go too long earlier this year).

Things I just didn’t do: get through my coaching class (I just dropped it, working full time and training and other hobbies and a life means the thought of it is just stressful), go somewhere epic (lots of vacations, but didn’t leave North America), making something wearable on the sewing machine, scuba dive once over the summer (and NOT doing it made me feel like a big noob diving in December – oops), and do something epic over the top nice for someone. I mean, I think I did nice things for people, even stuck my neck out professionally for some folks, but it wasn’t that selfless “random act of kindness”.

2014 Summary:

If I could sum up my feelings about 2014 in three words (plus, of course, extrapolation because, let’s face it, I’m not succinct and this is my little sandbox so… yeah):

1. Grateful/fortunate/lucky: I have so much cool shit in my life. While I’m always going to have things to improve because goals are cool, y’all, I am truly happy and proud of the person I’ve become in my 35 years. I think me at any age would be happy to meet me at 35 and hang out. And not just 18-20 year old me so I could buy me beer. Though I probably would.

2. Fun: Yeah, there are things that feel like chores. Some days at work are a slog. Sometime I have to clean the house and go grocery shopping or call a human on the phone and life sucks. But honestly? So much of my life is viewed as PLAY lately. I get to summon a whole bunch of creative people to a meeting room at work and come up with plans to make ideas into life. I get to play in the lake, the pool, at the gym, on trails, in my neighborhood. Being able to view life as play does not suck.

3. Focused: I focused on doing races for a reason. I focused on training for a reason and not just MOAR MILEZ (although I fell into that trap a bit late spring and paid for it). I tried to help us focus a bit more at work and be more proactive about our planning which helped us be more focused and complete more. While I lost it a bit at home, I tried to make sure relaxing days were for relaxing, and productive days were productive, and there wasn’t too many of one or the other.

I’ll hoist a glass of wine for 2014, it was a pretty great year! 2015, I’m coming for you… after a nice long holiday break (which I am currently in the middle of and it is GLORIOUS).

Winding Down

By Quix

On December 23, 2014

In Uncategorized

Merry Christmas from the Donna the Iguana!

I am not a cold weather fan, and I’m probably just counting the days until the waterpark opens again, but I do love this particular time of year. The lights, the tree, the music, and it probably helps that my husband just kind of a Christmas nut, so we do it up.

However, once it’s grey and January and there’s no Christmas lights up it SUCKS, but we won’t think about that yet since I have another two weeks or so to be happy and/or merry.

Another thing I love about December – everything has slowed down a bit around here (very, very thankfully) and it’s a time for relaxing and reflection. And some running, don’t get me wrong, I still have a race in 9 weeks and 4 days, but I’m still on the zen hippie plan over here.

1. No electronics. I haven’t brought my garmin, my HR monitor, or my phone (music) on a run yet and I probably won’t until after the new year. A year ago, you could pry my electronics from my cold dead hands, but during the right periods of time, this year I learned that it’s nice just to let go and just go move.

2. I’ve had rough mileage goals last week (wanted to hit 30 run miles, hit 32), and I will for the next two as well, but they’re suggestions. They’re also gauging my big February decision: 13.1 or 26.2 on the 28th. Right now I’m ok with it being up in the air, and my mileage totals and body condition will influence that decision greatly.

3. Some bike, some swim, some weights, but they’re not a focus.

Until Jan 5th, I’m taking it as it comes and using my watch and my brain and my heart to decide what’s to do. I’m doing my best to shovel myself out the door when I’m supposed to go, because often during the winter I don’t have a whole lot of “get going” oomph, but the general plan is “until I feel like stopping”. And generally once I start, it’s some other force like I’m going to be late to work or it’s getting dark or running longer than 12 miles my first week back is probably a bad idea. And even if there is, I promise myself no guilt for going outside, running around the block, and coming back inside if I’m not into it.

In food related stuff, it’s December. I give myself some latitude here. There’s some of this:

Lemon pepper fish, asparagus, greek salad. Every bite on that plate was amazing.

However, there’s also some days that look more like this:

…and that’s ok. One way I’ve tried to keep myself from resembling the Goodyear blimp is batch cooking of my old favorites and trying some new recipes.

Of course, zuppa toscani is pretty much a mainstay around here, as is beef stew, and chicken tacos, sirloin burger soup, and shepard’s pie made their appearances. However, I’ve been trying some new tricks. Some of my new favorites have been:

Low carb tuna casserole. Recipe inspired by this, but you know I can’t follow a recipe to save my life so mine turned out different in a wonderful way.

Tamale pie. I got the idea somewhere on instagram, but when I looked for the post, I couldn’t find it! I took leftover barbacoa that was a little dry and needed some help, and added olives, onions, green pepper, corn, and black beans, and made it wet with tomato sauce and taco seasoning. I used this recipe for the topper. It was dinner last night and hit the spot in a huge way.

Not-at-all chicken and dumpling soup. Zliten asked for chicken and dumpling soup. I cringed and was thinking of how to make two different ones without the dough, but then remembered that he wanted THIS soup, which actually doesn’t have the dumplings in it. I used a modification of this recipe as my soup base (sub cauliflower + one potato for the asparagus, omitted the butter, used more sour cream), and just threw in chicken, one more chopped up potato, and a whole bunch of veggies and he can’t stop eating it.

Protein powder fro yo. Take 4 cups of (full fat) plain yogurt (not greek), add a few scoops of protein powder (so far, I’ve done cinnamon swirl, cookies and cream, and chocolate with mint extract), and you have a dessert. It still hits the sweet spot, but it has protein and not a lot of extra sugar and some nutritional value.

I may have also made some heavenly peppermint stick ice cream, but it’s got zero redeeming nutritional qualities and it’s for Christmas dinner. I also won’t put the recipe right here for you just in case.

In other life-things, which I’ve had a decent amount of, because I haven’t been training my face off:

Got some really sweet tickets from Yelp to go see Anything Goes on opening night (yep, more orchestra seats for the price of some social media-ing and parking). We were just a few days off the cruise ourselves, so it was a nice transition into real life. There were some epic tap sequences and it was one of the rare shows where it was the full broadway cast, no substitutions.

It’s hard to say that it was the best, competing with Wicked and Beauty and the Beast, but it was up there.

I don’t always spandex. While our holiday party was in that unfortunate time after vacation/the race where nothing fits and I feel like a balloon, I used a blow drier and a straightener, put on makeup, and figured something out and headed downtown to Fado and we made merry. It was a bizarre party where the bar was open, then cash, then open for a minute, then cash, and the food was available for like maybe 30 mins before they took it away and brought desert (so guess who ate a plate of deserts for dinner figuring it was better than an empty stomach + booze + people I manage? ding ding ding!).

However, the whiskey, conversation, someone I see daily not recognize me (maybe I should quit with the ponytail and jeans and tees all the time?), and our company’s epic white elephant gift extravaganza made up for it. Fun times.

Friday was Zliten’s last day on crutches, and Sunday was his first 20 minute trainer ride! He’s now back to 2/3rds of a triathlete and hopefully the healing continues well so he can run soon.

Once quitting time on Christmas Eve can get here, I have 11 whole days off and not very many plans, and I hope to keep it that way! If I can spend the majority of my break in my PJs on the couch (when I’m not in spandex training), life will be great!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyeux Noel, Grumpy Festivus, or whatever you celebrate, cheers!

Hot and Hard: Spacecoast Marathon

By Quix

On December 9, 2014

In Uncategorized

I’m reluctant to put proverbial words to paper on this one because I’m really still not sure how I feel about this race and where I go from here. But it’s time. So here we go.

Pre race:

I did all the right things. I ate reasonably on Thanksgiving (for Thanksgiving, that is, though I did have a LOT of bread). I ate plenty of good food on Friday instead of one big meal real late like last time – see below my second meal of the day (and probably a meal’s worth of snacks extra), not the first. I wore various pairs of running shoes all week even though it was PERFECT weather for cute shoes and boots. My legs were coming around to where m-pace felt like holding back. Packet pickup on Friday was a breeze and meant I stayed out of the expo. Hell, I got 12 hours of sleep the night before the night before. Nothing but love here for process.

The only thing was my head was hardly in it. Usually when Zliten and I are about to race, we’re excited and nervous and chatter about the day. Well, he wasn’t all about that, so I tried to put it out of my mind and just pretend I was on vacation. That sucked for two reasons: a) no real race day enthusiam b) until about 9pm when I laid down to sleep and was bombarded by OMG ALL THE THOUGHTS about the next day. Which netted me mayyyyybe 3 hours real sleep total.

I also skipped my shakeout run for swimming in the hotel pool. Now, the shakeout run last year was the beginning of the end for me, which is probably why I ditched it. I don’t always shake out the day before, and I don’t think it affected me, but probably worth noting.

The morning of, I really just wanted to get this over with so I could get on with being on vacation. I wasn’t exactly the epitome of a pumped up jam. I did some of the normal things (purple stuff, kind bar) but not others (skipped coconut water which I think was a huge mistake, could not poo for the life of me). We got there, parked, I porta pottied (nada), took some pre race pics, sat with Joel until about 20 mins before the race started and all of a sudden needed to use the portas again (yay!).

Another reason for not-looking-forward-to-it: the forecast kept getting warmer and warmer and while mid 70s, sunny, and humid doesn’t sound like the end of the world it is certainly not optimal marathon weather, especially for us not-trying-to-qualify-for-Boston folk who are out closer to noon. To be clear, I started the race in a tank and shorts and I was completely comfortable before I started running. Bleh.

I got in with the thick of people, found a spot between the 4:45 pacer and the 5 hour peeps (no 4:50 pacer), and we had our countdown and then it was time for launch!

Start – 6.5
I held back here. My goal was to run 11 minute miles and I constantly had to pull on my own reigns to do it, but I hit the turn around at 10:58 average feeling great. I took in a gel around 1 hour and was enjoying the day so far. Around mile 5 I actually started to really get into this thing and had hopes it might be a great day after all!

6.5-13.1
Goal was to speed up to about 10:50s average by the half. I felt great until about mile 8-9 and was tempted to fix that average in the first mile after the turnaround, but I tried to be patient. Then, the first low got me – some of these miles go up a bit and the crappy sleep I got the night before started to show because I got hit with the tireds wayyy too early. Not a good sign.

Also, my sock kept twisting up, and I had to pull over a few times to fix it, and it never really felt right. I’ve ran with these socks MANY times and they’ve never done this before (grrr). I took another gel early -I figured crankiness = need more caffeine and sugar. Finished 20 oz full strength gatorade at 12 and ditched my handheld. I hit the half point at 10:55 pace and feeling decent, a little worried about my toe, but not exploding like last year.

When you’re doing the robot 15 minutes before the race, probably time to get serious…

13.1-20
13, 14, 15 were decent, I couldn’t speed up like I wanted, but I was holding steady (another gel around 14-15), and then at 16 I just… walked. It very much came out of nowhere, and I couldn’t fight it. I don’t understand how I have these strong 18-20 mile training runs and then fold at marathons wayyy before that, but it just happens. Something to fix.

I think it was partly my surroundings. A lot of people around me on the marathon course were walking. The half course was coming right at us and most people were walking since it was the 3+ hour folks coming into the finish (they race the second half of the marathon and they start 30 mins before us). I didn’t realize it until post-race unraveling, but it was REALLY demoralizing that day, and I need to be ready for that if I do this race again.

I walked, fixed my sock again, and then ran until an aid station and then walked and ran a bit and walked and stretched and played with my sock a few more times. I didn’t understand at that point how hot I was, but I was fading and starting to give up. Not good.

Around 18, the five hour Galloway (run/walk) pacer passed me and it woke me up. I was not willing to concede missing sub-5 hours and my thought was “hang on to that dude for dear life”. Now, you may giggle at the run walkers like I used to, but that pace is no joke, especially 18 miles into a hot marathon. When they called run, it was about 1 minute per mile faster than my goal m-pace. When they called walk, it was 14-15 min powerwalk pace, which was CHALLENGING with my current muscular condition.

Both running and walking hurt a lot, but in different ways, so at least it was changing pain which was better than same pain right then. Sometimes I had to run for two of their segments to keep up but I was not going to let that jerk (reality: awesome marathon angel) out of my sight.

20-26.2
I held with the group until about 22, I even passed them at one point but they reeled me back in. I had convinced myself he was WAYYY ahead of pace according to my watch (which lost data for a while and I had still set to autopause even though I swore I’d fix that after last year) and I’d catch him later. My plan was to gel around 3:45, but I finally got my fourth down right after 22.

Mile 23 and 24 were more low points. Whereas last year I rocked the last 10k, I didn’t get that same boost at 20, it was a major fight. I had the worst leg cramps ever and I had to continue to pull over to stretch them to the point where I had people ask me if I was ok.

However, the pixie dust didn’t completely evade me. When I hit 24.5 things fell back into place and I finally got that third wind. My last two miles were the fastest. The second to last mile was in the 10:20s and the last 1.2 averaged in the 9s. How? I’m not sure. Marathon magic.

I crossed the line probably looking like a crazy third grader on field day but feeling like an Olympic sprinter (EDIT: the video actually shows me chugging along fairly nicely but definitely hid the EFFORT that was going on there).

Post Race:

I got my medal and towel and cold washcloth, chugged 4 waters, and found Joel volunteering at the pizza tent. He got me a chair, a fresh slice of cheese, and gave me his ice pack and all I could say for about 15 minutes was “I’m so hot. That was so hard. So hot. So hard.” I limped to the beer tent and got one and sat down and maybe added a few words to my current vocabulary but I don’t think I made coherent sentences for almost an hour.

My garmin said 4:54, but somehow there was 6 extra minutes of farting around because I came in just over 5 hours official time. It was a PR (by 1:37), but I was just CRUSHED initially. I mean, it’s hard to bitch about a PR in wayyyy harder conditions but OMG, 58 seconds. Come on. If I could have known, I had to have been able to find that somewhere, right?

After 8 days of reflection, I have found some other things to be proud of.
1. Any day you can cover 26.2 miles and walk your ass into a grocery store after and order sandwiches less than an hour after you cross the tape is a good day.
2. While my third wind came so dang late, who can knock mile 25 and 26 being the fastest of the day?
3. I had heat, salt, and (really mild) dizziness issues for the next few days. I did not hold back here. While I might have had a few more minutes in me, I didn’t have all that much more than I gave. That. heat.
4. I placed 89/232 in my age group (38%). Damn near top third. Solidly in the top half. My goal time of 4:40 would have gotten me top quarter. It was a HARD DAY, y’all.

HR AVG: 162, which is probably pretty spot on for a marathon target. Zone 3.

That day, we spent between the balcony overlooking the ocean, in the pool, and laying in bed. Being directly in the sun was not good for me – I faded until I got into the AC, so the heat was definitely a factor.

The next week – I spent probably half a normal training week in the ocean on vacation so lots of active recovery. Along with a lot of good food, booze, and passive (lounging on deck chairs reading) recovery, I feel pretty darn stellar after just over a week. Water, especially salt water, is magic for marathon recovery.

What’s next? Well, I’m signed up for another marathon Feb 28th. I’m putting a lot of thought about how hard I want to train and race that one (or potentially drop to the half). I’ve decided I’m going to do a lot of whatever feels good this month, with a goal of maintaining some running base, and see where the chips lie at the beginning of January.

Ready For Launch! (Space Coast Marathon – T-minus 5 days)

By Quix

On November 26, 2014

In Uncategorized

This has been a very interesting few months, but here we are.

First up, August and September I nailed the hell out coming in rested and fresh to a 2 month half ironman cycle to which I PR’d the shit out of my race and generally feel like for the first time I actually RACED a 70.3 instead of survived it. Lots of happy warm fuzzies about those two months and the race that capped them off.

Then, probably because I raced the hell out of that race, I found myself a little less able to jump into marathon training with as much enthusiasm as I had last year. Maybe it was the weather taking forever to dip below scorching and then heading directly to polar. Maybe it was feeling satisfied with the run of that race left me less hungry and with something to prove like last year. It just took longer to get going, mentally and physically.

Either way, the first week or two I had to pull myself into run training by the ear. The 10+ hours of training that had been so effortless during tri season was definitely in the realm of EFFORT. My paces weren’t magically dropping, frankly, I ran one of my slowest runs of the YEAR after a particularly awesome/awful crossfit session early in the cycle and I was kinda frustrated.

The redeeming qualities were some magical long runs. A 20 miler where I felt like I could keep going forever at last year’s marathon pace finally got my confidence up. Then, I ran an 18 faster than I’ve ever done a long run before and I didn’t die. Like, at all. I also nailed a 50 mile week and two weeks in the 40s without injury.

This month, with the cooler temps, the paces finally came down. I know it’s science, but it’s just so bizarre to me that I can slice a minute per mile off EFFORTLESSLY going from 70 degrees to 40. Most of my November run average paces have started with a 10 (some with the help of the weather, some not). This helps when you want to run a marathon with a pace starting with 10.

I thought my November mileage was dismal, but it’s pretty much equal to last year’s training (~115 miles vs 122 miles, both times missed one long run), so at least I didn’t get worse.

And now, it’s race week. Here we go! The weird thing about endurance sport is we spend time practicing what we’re going to do for race day, but only certain parts at certain times. It feels like FOREVER since I did that 18 (2 weekends ago) and even MORE FOREVER since the 20 (4 weekends ago). The flip side is it also feels like forever since 10 minute miles were anything but normal pace. So, that’s where I’ve arrived at and those are what I roll into race day with. Ready for launch!

Pre-race:

I’m hoping to learn from what I did wrong last year and what worked really well in triathlons this year.

No cute shoes: I’ve been wearing various running shoes this week full time and I continue will do the same until after the race. This will hopefully prevent my temporarily broken ankle that was magically- better-but-off the day of the race.
Eat like a normal human this week: a) I bought My Fit Foods so I didn’t have to stress about cooking and having leftovers for a short week. b) Eat breakfast on Thanksgiving even though I’m going to eat turkey day foods later. c) Don’t eat a whole plate of dessert and feel sick after, save that for post-race. d) Eat throughout the day not all at once. e) Eat something before 6pm on Friday, bringing food for lunch instead of relying on the airport to feed me.
Keep with the pre-race fueling that has worked: planning on trying to replicate Kerrville because I felt awesome – Friday night: steak/chicken/fish, potato, salad (or similar). Saturday lunch: same meal, but a little smaller. Saturday peppered with snacks like fruit, potato chips, nuts, sunbutter, cheese, etc.
Speaking of eating, stick to a nutrition plan day of: kind bar and coconut water and purple stuff AM, start with disposable gatorade in handheld and toss it when it’s done and then live off the course, one gel per hour (plan one caff gel around hour 3, maybe have an extra caff gel in case i need the pep).
Shakeout run outside on Saturday. I think the treadmill did not do me a service last year as my last run.
Going to a movie on Saturday to chill out and take my mind off the next day (and to give Zliten a break from my pre-race babble).
Not running around for 3 hours trying to find a replacement cable, hopefully.

Fashion plan:

It may be superstition, but I wore a certain nike top and tri shorts and red visor during both long runs that went really well. So, guess what I’ll be wearing? Also, I’ve got my wonder woman blue star skirt that will go well with the space theme and has an extra pocket, and matches the ensemble, but I’m iffy on it (I’m not sure I’ll appreciate an extra layer with the 63 degree race start/73 degree high forecast). Rounding it out will be my “new” (probably close to 100 miles on em) purple bondi 3 hokas and blue and white compression sox. I will look a bit of a mess but really, who cares.

Other stuff… like I said above, taking my handheld with a disposable gatorade so I can toss the bottle mid-race and still have gel storage. My nice sunglasses seem to be MIA since the last race (but I haven’t made a lot of effort to find them) so I’ll probably just wear some randos. Aquaphor instead of body glide has made my life, so I’ll be lubing up with that.

Just in case the weather takes a colder turn, I’ll have a tee, arm warmers, capris, and a jacket, but I don’t expect to need any of that stuff.

Race plan:

I never know exactly what is going to work exactly when race brain finally takes over, so I’ve broken down the race for myself a few ways.

Specific Pace/Hour Plan:

Hour 1: around 11 minute miles/average
Hour 2: no faster than 10:45 (but no slower than 11)
Hour 3: no faster than 10:30 (but no slower than 11)
Hour 4: no faster than 10 (but no slower than 11)
Last chunk of the hour: turn down for what (fast as my legs will go)

This lands me at about mile 22-23 when the clock hits 4 hours and sets me up for a nice PR. This is also how I’ve been running this cycle, first mile is ALWAYS the slowest and the last is usually among the fastest unless something is wrong. Keeping to 11 minute miles the first hour will be a huge challenge, but I think it will pay divedends in my late race energy. I think the last two years I’ve started two quickly and this will help me not go out all happy puppy.

Pacer Plan:

Start with 4:50 pacer.
Around 6, leave 4:50 pacer and find 4:45 pacer by 11-12.
Around 16, leave 4:45 pacer and find 4:40 pacer by 22-23 (I will be REALLY proud of myself if I can speed up with 10 miles to go)
Turn down for what (hang the fuck on or see what my legs have in ’em)

Sometimes numbers get hard. This lets me follow the white rabbit. Of course, sticking with any of these pacers is a PR, and I’ll continue to assess what I have that day, but if latching onto something is needed, this is what I’ll do.

Simple Plan:

Run 10:30-11 minute miles until mile 13.
Run faster the second half.

I am confident that if I can keep my head on straight, I can negative split this thing. It is how I instinctively run. I need to watch the start of the race (oh my, 9:45s feel effortless, let’s go for a 4:15 I have no business trying to run) and wherever that trouble trap is going to be between mile 13 to 20. Hopefully, my fueling strategy will stave off the lows (I didn’t get them in Kerrville and my long runs have generally been good), but I’m ready to fight those fuckers.

Thoughts:

I have had some success planning the thoughts I will carry into the race, because if I don’t plan for positivity, negative thoughts tend to take their place.

1. Remember that long races have highs and lows that oscillate. I just need to keep my head on straight during the lows and try to hang onto the highs as long as I can. Also, negative thoughts = need sugar and/or caffeine.

2. The faster I finish, the faster I get to see Zliten. Also, I gotta rock this race because he doesn’t get a chance to run it and at least one of us has to have an awesome day (hopefully both, he loves volunteering). I’ve done a decent amount of running on my own so I’m ready for it, but I can’t rely on a Zliten save around mile 14 again…

3. I promised to go back to tell the forum folks who gave me advice how my race went. I will be MUCH happier to report that I held strong through the race and PR’d.

4. Just like I really wanted to feel like I nailed a 70.3 this year, I really want to nail a marathon at my current fitness. This will also free me up to make a decision about my race in Feb not based in the need for revenge.

5. I don’t have a lot of deep thoughts this time, really. I have a process to follow, I have backup processes if the wheels start to come off. I’m smart, I’m strong, I’m tough, and I will conquer this marathon like I’ve conquered the last three races I have if I just do my thing and get my brain to stay out of the way of my body.

6. Also, I am THANKFUL (tis the season) that my body has held up with only minor complaints and is ready to take on this major feat of strength which is a marathon and have the luxury of doing it on the beach in FL and going on a cruise right after, and spending my marathon recovery week snorkeling and diving. Life is hard, yo.

And on that note, I’m off to do all the things. And try to rest as much as possible. We’ll see how that works out.

Survivor’s Guilt

By Quix

On November 21, 2014

In Uncategorized

Last Sunday, I started *the rest*. I decided that I wasn’t running until my leg felt better or I got it checked out no matter what. Zliten did the same because of his knee.

I biked last Monday and Tuesday and did my strength and my shin/ankle felt like it was under constant pressure unless I was up and walking around on it for a while.

I totally had a stress fracture, I had convinced myself. This is my no running face.

Our chiropractor appointment was on Wednesday after work. I gave her the schpiel as to what was going on and her first words were that it was “very unlikely it was a stress fracture”. Whew. She poked and prodded me all over the calves and everything checked out.

Then, she went to my back and holyyyyy shit, my hips were about a full inch off. My left leg was one inch longer than my right. She fixed me up, I stood up, and it was like…

*angel’s chorus*

She warned me there would be a little residual pain for the next 4-5 days. There was, but it was definitely better and is now down to just a little twinge as I get going sometimes. She also asked me to run no more than 5-6 miles at a time, but I could do doubles to get to 10 or so, until Monday. Then, I could return to normal.

Done, and done. I was a happy girl. The net result was I’ve sacrificed about 2 runs for bikes last week, and had to cut a long run short. You better believe I’ve made up for that by lots of m-pace miles. And that’s ok. It’s that time in the cycle to start training more specifically, and it’s not like m-pace is really that taxing at short distances.

This is me back on running.

Back to storytime. Next, Zliten hopped on the table and she poked and prodded his knee. I figured his had to be fine. His was wayyyyy less severe than mine last year. I couldn’t walk or stand up properly for 5 weeks. He ran 10 miles last weekend without all that much pain. She ordered an MRI and said she hoped she was wrong.

Long story short, he’s got 3 fractures in his leg. Prognosis – no running for at least 3 months, no racing for 6 while it heals. Swimming only until 6 weeks out (from the last 10 mile run he did one week after injury). Frankly, to minimize WALKING if at all possible and get on crutches to help it heal more quickly.

While he’s not happy, he’d worked himself into a tizzy about having a bad meniscus tear never being able to run again, so only 3 months off is a relief, even though it is a bummer we’re eating 2-3 early race registrations.

And now, I’m totally feeling the “survivor’s guilt”.

It’s a little harder to motivate yourself when your run buddy is still in bed and can’t run with you. I’ve really had to push myself to get out the door and it hasn’t worked every day. The flipside is that when I’m out there, the mix of not chatting, the weather, tunes, and the lack of fatigue in my legs from last week’s 17 miles run oops have made for some really excellent paces. However, it’s been much more work to actually get going. Especially with this cold crap going on. I’m not just dressing this way for the cutes, it’s winter-like up in here.

And then, you want to gush about how you had this fantastic run, and came in just about 2 minutes over your 10k PR without even really trying and felt amazing and you get sullen injured triathlete eyes looking at you from the couch because not running sucks.

I figured I was the one who would be the dumbass who ran herself into the ground, the haters had me worried. I had mentally prepared myself to be the one out of this marathon and started to look up long distance swimming races for next year. Instead, I’m signed up for another marathon in February and a 10 mile race in March that I’m going to be training for myself instead of with my Zliten. Obviously I’m in the best spot of a bad situation, so I’m not saying “poor me” or anything, but it’s still a bit of the ol’ sad trombone.

Also, this puts a completely different spin on next year’s plan. So many questions, when I thought our biggest conundrum was reconciling the desire to do Austin 70.3 and also Spacecoast marathon one month apart at the end of the year in 2015. But, we’ll get it figured out. It will stay loosey goosey for a while, and I’m ok with that. I’m going to really look into my heart of hearts and see what my race priorities are and what fun things we can do that we usually miss.

I do know that now coach needs to make two schedules for a while. Last year, I had a fire lit under my butt with my knee to both stay active but only in the right ways so I could heal because I had a bunch of race registrations on the line. Zliten’s is a little different. The next official race for him is unknown (maybe he’ll be able to participate in 10/20 March 29th, maybe not), but there’s going to be a lot of battles between the couch and the pool, the weight room, and soon the trainer this winter. I think I can help by giving him boxes to check off.

Either way, I’m definitely going to go out and rock this marathon for the both of us, especially because I know Zliten is going to be helping at the finish (if you can’t play, volunteer, right?). And the quicker I get there the quicker I get to see him.

This week’s photos brought to you by the fact that I’m too lazy to take anything but goofy selfies.

Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Tag: running Page 38 of 50

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