Marathon Runner through and through

So you know you are a true marathon runner when you run a 5k at only a slightly faster pace than your half-marathon/marathon. Yep, that was me today. After running the Platte River half-marathon two weeks ago, I ventured down to the 5k this weekend. I got up this morning at 5:00am to head to Boulder to race at the Boulder Distance Carnival. It was a great morning for a race with the sun shinning and a mild wind. I was pumped to start the race! The race started and I was feeling pretty good. As I came up on mile one I looked at my watch and was relieved and shocked all at the same time. Whoo, only 2miles to go-not 12 or 25.2- but man I'm running slow (6:20) I better pick it up. So, I start moving up passing a few people and ended up leading a small pack into the wind through mile 2. Sorry to those of you in that pack. I know there wasn't much to draft off of seeing as I'm only 5'2''. With about 800m to go, I was able to see this guy in red about 150m ahead of me and I started gunning for him. I had a flash back to college and imagined he was from Western State -GO Adams!- Anyhow, I made some ground on him going up a hill with about 300m to go but then he turned it on. My small marathon stride just couldn't keep up. I crossed the line and looked at my splits. Well, I ran pretty much even between 6:20 and 6:30 for 5k, just like a true marathon runner would. Although 5k was a bit of a stretch for me right now with my longer training and miles, it was a fun race to run. Boulder Running Company did a great job putting the race together and all the people there were very supportive in cheering for their fellow competitors as they came through the line. It was nice to pretend to be a 5k runner for the day, but I should probably stick to the half-marathon/marathon:)

Paralysis by Analysis...

What a nasty affliction...like leprosy or something. I like to think that I know how to make good decisions as far as training and racing are concerned, but I feel like if I use more than 5% of my brain during any decision-making process, nothing really gets done. I know you should listen to the Inner Voice of Reason, but I hear several Inner Voices of Reason. They go like this:

"Hmm....I should do workout X tomorrow."
"But I did the last half of my long run yesterday waaaay harder than I was planning to. It was basically an AT run tacked onto a long run. It was awesome."
"Hmm...well then I should do workout Y tomorrow, so it'll balance out."
"But I can't change it! I already wrote it down as The Plan for this week!" (Frantic tone).
"Um...hello? It's PAPER. It's not carved in stone. I could change it. I bet I won't even get struck by lightning for it. There probably won't even be a plague of locusts. Or frogs. Remember all that you have been taught. Use the wisdom bestowed upon you. Think long term. Tsk tsk."
"But if I change this week I'll have to change next week, and the week after, and the one after that...all the way till the Apocolypse..."
"I think I'm over-analyzing things. Perhaps this is not rational."
"I concur!"
"Seriously, don't get your spankies in a wad."
"Get a job."
"Hmm...I should do workout X tomorrow."

Process repeats. It gets very tiresome.

A very wise teacher once told me to approach anything confusing in life in the same way that a dog would: If you can't eat it or play with it then it's probably not good for anything so just take a leak on it and walk away. That's not at all applicable to this situation, but I wanted to find a way to tuck that little gem into here somewhere. You can thank me later.
Back to the issue at hand.
So at present I'm overanalyzing the possibility of running the Cherry Creek Sneak on Sunday. Owing to some unforeseen, untimely, and very much unappreciated circumstances arising from an incident several weeks ago involving a tempo run, a moonless night, and a hole in the ground (I don't want to talk about it), training has been anything but great for a while, although things have certainly started to come around this past week. Of course it's only a five mile race/fun run, not exactly the Death Valley Ultra, so really it shouldn't take that much thought, right? Oh but it does. I really like to go to races to actually compete, and get all serious, even if there's nothing on the line, and to compete like you should you have to be relatively confident. Confidence stems from preparation. Preparation at this time is virtually nil. At the same time though I don't think I have much to lose just by doing it and who knows? It might be the best ever. Plus it's always looked really fun. Plus I haven't raced since Jacksonville and that was ages ago. And I kind of think I should just take a leaf out of Delaney's book and just go for it despite feeling underprepared (plus this race is 21.2 miles shorter than his was sooo...). But I'm still juggling with the idea of nixing it and just training then finding some other rinky-dink race the next week to do for fun and just gear everything after that to the Bolder Boulder. I have no idea. My friend Hafer told me to decide by midnight tomorrow. That's the deadline, well it is if I want to bum a ride to Denver anyway. So hopefully I'll figure it out by then. I'll let you know.

Another Half Marathon

After my failed attempt at a half marathon effort at Platte River, I decided on Wednesday that I really needed another chance at a hard effort in a race environment. I really, really wanted to make sure that I was still on track for the marathon-bad races (despite the reason) always seem to make me question my fitness and also make me worry that all of the sudden my body is no longer adapting to the miles.

So, after last weekend, even though I was trying to be upbeat and positive most of my emails with Jon (my coach) over the past week went something like this:

Me: The run was good today. My legs felt good, my stomach is feeling better but still not 100%. Do you really think that I am ok?
Jon: I really think things are ok. You are on track.
Me: Good. I hope you are right.

Me: OH MY GOSH…the marathon is only 10 weeks away. Do you think I will be ready?
Jon: Yes. Things are ok.
Me: Are you sure?
Jon: You might not run a PR but all we are looking for is a strong effort, a respectable race and actually getting through a training cycle without having to pull the plug.
Me: OK. You are right…

Me: 9 weeks left!! OH my gosh…I haven’t even started much work yet.
Jon: You are driving me crazy. My opinion isn’t going to change. Stop reminding me how long it is until the marathon, I have it on my calendar. Have I ever not had you ready for a marathon? CALM DOWN!!!!

Well, maybe he didn’t respond that way on the last response, but I am pretty sure that is how he was feeling!

Anyway, I decided that I needed to prove to myself that last weekend was a fluke, I am not going to get sick every time I race over 5K and that things as Jon put it are ”ok”. So, I decided to run another half marathon. I have lived in Fort Collins for almost 7 years and have always vowed never to do the race I ran yesterday—the Horsetooth Half Marathon. Hills are one of my biggest weaknesses…I am just not a big strength runner so throw in a couple of well placed or ill placed hills and the course can kill me! So even despite some big hesitations, I decided to go for it. I had a plan in mind and I executed it very well…I hoped to run the first 2 miles in 15 minutes. YES, I did mean to type 15 minutes…you should see the course profile! So once I got through those 2 miles in 15:05 I was pretty sure the rest of the race would be ok and thankfully it was. I crossed the finish line 8th overall and the 1st woman. I was very pleased with how I felt during the race, how my body didn’t let me down the last 5 miles and that I didn’t need to stop in the last 5K to find a bathroom! =) So it was a success and I think Jon was happy because my freaking out emails probably won’t start up again until I realize I only have 8 weeks left!

26 mile tempo...

...It aint no workout. But it's what we do all those cute little 8-10 mile tempos to get ready for. That's really all a competitive marathon is...you grab a pace that's about 95% of your anaerobic threshold (tempo pace) and hope like hell you can hold it for 26.2 miles.

This has been arguably my worst pre-marathon buildup yet. Since January I've pounded some big miles, but have been sick 3 times and have a nagging foot injury that I just can't seem to find a solution for. Despite being more focused than any other time since the trials, my workouts really never got to the level I'd like to see them and my races have done little to quash my unease. But then again, my training leading up to Boston last year was beautiful...and I ran the worst marathon of my career. Also, before I ran my PR a few years back, my training was less than perfect as well. So, the quality of the journey doesn't always dictate the essence of the result. Fortunately, starting about four and half weeks ago I had a couple glimmers of hope. I had a two week span where I didn't crush my workouts, but I at least ran what I had written on paper. The first workout was a 2M warm, a 4M tempo in 20:55, a 9M run in 60 minutes, and another 4M tempo in 20:46. Considering I was running solo and it was a breezy night at the track that's not too bad, for me. A week later I ran 5x2mile averaging 10:21 with 2' rest. Also not bad for a solo effort on a windy night. Unfortunately, almost as quickly as I started to feel fit I fell ill with a respiratory and throat virus that forced me to start my taper a week early. I've been in taper mode for about 2 1/2 weeks now and just tonight started to feel like things may be coming together. I've done most everything within my control to get ready for my 26M tempo. I fly out to Boston tomorrow morning. All that is left is to get some rest and get to the line in Hopkinton for my tempo to bean-town. 2:18 or bust.

-jd-

Bad Luck

I tend to have bad luck for certain things...one thing is cars and the other is drama at races. I have run one race where the airline lost my luggage, a building fell on the starting line, there was a tornado the night before turning off the power to the hotel (for the WHOLE weekend meaning no lights and NO hot water) and the town flooded. I have also run races where I have forgotten chips; I have gotten lost on the course; I have had home stays with very, very interesting hosts, I have pulled hamstrings and had to wait 5 hours to get bused to the finish (where I then got in an argument with a Marine about how I was an elite athlete but did not have my credentials because it was in my bag in the elite tent since I didn't want to race with it and I had not crossed the finish line to get there the other way because I had to pull out-whew--apparently I am still bitter). So today and this weekend my bad luck happened with both!

It was my sister and her husband's 16th wedding anniversary this past week. So, me being the amazing sister that I am agreed to babysit her kids for the weekend (ages 10, 12, and 15). Me being a non-parent and the owner of a black thumb I was worried I was going to somehow hurt one of the children. I have pets that I have kept alive for 5+ years, but they seem less fragile somehow (although each dog has been to the emergency vet at least twice for small things like electrocutions and severe, heavily bleeding cuts; and that doesn't count the things that they should have gone to the vet for be we took care of it at home). Plants, however, are another story...they are all DEAD! My weekend started out with me driving down a car on loan from my dad (I seem to be cursed with car problems and at my house right now we have 4 cars and only 1 is working). This car has 298,200 miles on it and since September I have replaced the clutch, the timing belt, spark plugs and something else I can't remember. So, I was certain this wonderful car would get me the 80 miles to my sister's house (from Fort Collins to Highlands Ranch), but it had other ideas. As I drove along the interstate in downtown Denver in rush hour Friday evening, it died at least 30 times while I was driving it. I had to keep restarting the car while I was rolling 30 mph and then it continued to do it all the way to her house. Luckily I made it but not without several frantic calls to my husband and dad seeking advice and sympathy! The babysitting part was actually ok, when I finally left today they were all alive and appeared to be healthy--there were no trips to the ER and everyone made it to their soccer games on time (well, mostly). Although there was an incident with a dead mouse, but I (errr... my nephew) saved us.

My plan this weekend was to also run the Platte River Half Marathon. I have run it 4 or 5 times. It is a well organized race with amazing race directors, a good after party and amazing volunteers. So as usual I made it part of my racing schedule/marathon build up. I was pleasantly surprised to see some of my teammates (Megan and Lavenna) at the starting line which was fun. And the first 6 miles of the race were good. I felt like the pace was pretty controlled and I wasn't expending too much energy. My splits were good considering I haven't done much yet for workouts. Then at around 6 miles my stomach starting hurting a little. I have learned that my blood sugar tends to drop during races causing stomach craps, so I usually carry a gel with me even in halfs in case that happens. I waited another mile or so and it didn't improve so I took the gel. I had about 1/4 of it and was carrying it in my hand when I realized that it was much more than blood sugar, I was SICK. I started getting chills and feeling really, really bad! At around mile 8, I had to slow way down and jog because my stomach was hurting so bad. At mile 10, I made it to the bathroom and spent about 5 minutesand then continued on in the race. I was still feeling pretty bad, so my pacing wasn't as fast as before but much better than miles 8-10. I was thinking about jogging in but knew the goal of the race was to get in a hard effort so I kept going! I finished the race but paid the price with getting sick all over again and have been sick all afternoon and evening. I am guessing I have a stomach virus or some food poisoning. But on I go! Oh yeah and my car...I had to leave it at my sister's and had a relay of family members who got me home this evening-3 legs, but I made it and am exhausted! The race didn't turn out quite like I had hoped as I wanted a hard, controlled effort with even pacing and I got about half of that. But I still got in a decent effort and finished even though I was not feeling my best. And my brother-in-law is going to take the car in tomorrow and see about getting it fixed down in Highlands Ranch. So, it all worked out even if it was a challenging day!

I did want to congratulate my teammates Megan and Lavenna on their excellent races--we were all in the same boat, not really ready to race, but still showed up hoping for a good, strong effort! I believe they finished 1st and 3rd and represented our team well!! And a special thanks for Maureen Roben and Alan Lind for an amazing race and for continued support! Thanks to both of you and all of your volunteers for putting together another successful race this year!! I hope to be back ready to RACE it next year!

I don't WANT to do it, do I HAVE to do it?

Hello to all to all! I see they changed the web page a bit and it looks good! Thanks again to all for checkin our blogs and being supportive!
I'm kinda embarrassed to even be writtin about what I will be talking about! But everybody must know what has been going on with me. Since Indoor U.S.A Champs, I honestly haven't done much for training. I put in a good week after U.S.A's, but the week after that was the complete opposite.
It all started after I took some time off after Club Nationals. I felt like I needed more time to relax and be "human". So I took more time off than what I was expecting (6 days). During those days, I had already made up my mind that I was just going to train through Indoors and push hard for Outdoors. Coach Martin told me the sooner I race Indoors, the better off I will be physically. turned out ok, but deep inside I knew I was half-ass-ing the season. Couple weeks after U.S.A's, I didn't feel like running. Since then, I haven't affiliated myself with anything that had or has to do with running.
So therefore, I am not going to compete at all this spring. I don't WANT to run at the moment.
This is the reason why I titled my post what I did.
I will come back to running when I WANT to, not feeling that I HAVE to. It's been a big difference to me in those 2 words. Wanting something is when you have the deep urge to do it. Having to do something is almost a duty or job if you will.
I will get the passion back, I just don't know when I will get it back.
I surely will keep everyone posted what is going on with me.
Good Luck to all this spring.

Mother Nature is such a...

OK, I'm not one to complain about the weather coming from what I thought was the coldest and windiest place on earth, Allendale MI but this has gotten ridiculous. I am in the process of cranking up the mileage and workouts for US 25k Champs but it appears the Mother Nature doesn't want me to have good workouts along the way. This all started about 3 weeks ago when I went to do some cutdown 600's. I only had to do 3 of them and was planning on running around 38, 36, 34 for them. Little did I realize that by the time I got to the track the first of several "hurricanes" would be joining me. I did my usual run in front of 300 of about 45 min. and arrived at the track. After a quick pit stop I stepped up to run the first one. I swear that the moment I hit the line the wind went from something I categorize as a breeze to something I would expect to be a part of an over-dramatized movie about when tornadoes and hurricanes collide. I attempted them anyway and after running an all out 200 into the teeth of it in 40s followed by a 100 where I almost fell down from being pushed in the back so hard I threw in the towel, reasoning that doing them like this wasn't going to do me much benefit and the following day's workout would go much smoother without them.
The next day...wasn't any better as that wind brought snow and the footing was impossible. I did my best with what I found and had something of a good one. I don't know that I ran that fast due to the footing but managed 40 good minutes of work. Later that day of course all the snow melted and my second run was nice (Maybe I should have learned something).
Skip ahead to the next Tuesday and I've got 2K's. The day shaped up nicely all day long until of course when it came time for me hit the workout. I warmed up over to MVP and right as I arrived, down came the cold rain and up came the wind. The Jack Quinn's Running Club was out so I had some company, at first. After my second one in the rain I was alone, cold and alone. I finished the workout, with unspectacular times as you might expect and began to cool down. Halfway home I ran into Tommy. About 10 seconds later we ran into an epic blizzard. I'm sure he will attest, it went from light rain to blizzard in about 5 seconds and by the time I got home I couldn't feel several parts of my body.
Running the next couple of days was fine until I got out the door in Friday for my 25 x 400m workout. Just as I show up to the track it begins to sleet and heavily. This time I said some variation of the words "no way not this time" and packed it up heading for home. The next morning I went out to give it another go and realized the sleet was the better option. The wind once again was up, way way up. I managed to run 15 400s in wind that could blow over a bus before realizing that all I was doing was, for lack of a better phrase, "pissing in the wind." Frustrated, I headed for home.
Jump now to this past Tuesday and it's time for some k's. Leaving the house there was wind but I figured that by now I was used to it. For the first half of them the wind was somewhat reasonable. After that it got ugly. The wind began to swirl such that it seemed to always be against me and several gusts were actually able to blow me of the track and on the the grass. Making matters worse, it was picking up sand from the parking lot and running became something resembling a sandblaster. Perhaps this had some health benefit acting to exfoliate my skin but what mattered to me was that Mother nature had ruined yet another workout.
Finally yesterday I managed to have a workout that wasn't ruined my the weather. I got up stupid early for a Saturday and was able to get my 3 X 2mi. in before the wind could come up. Hooray!
I don't know where all these ruined workouts have left my fitness exactly. On the one hand, I've been working hard and once I get a good day the high mileage and tough workout conditions should make any race seem like a breeze. On the other hand, I don't know where my fitness is, I don't have a nice fast rhythm set in my legs, and I have lost some workout volume. Overall, I know I gotta keep my head up and good things will happen. Looking ahead, I plan to find a short race this coming weekend, then have a go at the Cherry Creek 5mi. in three weeks and finally really get after it May 8th for the 25k. May you all have better weather than mine of late, good vibes and fast times.

At Last...

I once had a friend (who was a runner) ask me why I liked to run. I don't remember what I told her then as it was years ago, but I realized recently that over the past couple of years I had forgotten what it was I liked about running and that I had begun to discover this love again. Everyone is different, but for me the turning point was just enjoying being active and pushing myself again. I did this with a different sport all together, rock climbing. I have spent the past few months really working hard to improve my upper body strength, my balance, and technique all for climbing. I was still running but I was really living for climbing.

To me climbing and running seemed so different and I tried to separate them in my mind and my life. So, the one day climbing reminded me of what I loved about running sort of blew me away. One day at the gym we decided to work on our endurance, so my climbing buddies and I picked a relatively easy route to top rope and did it as many times as we could without stopping. I climbed up and came down a lot and while I was doing it, instead of thinking about the wall in front of me all I could think about was how much I loved pushing my body and doing this type of work on the track not on the rock climbing wall. It was strange but this one endurance workout I got made me miss those countless hard workouts I have done over the years on the track--doing 800m, 1000m or even mile repeats with short recovery and feeling my body getting more and more tired with each interval yet feeling strangely energetic,strong and invinceable. This was a turning point for me. From that point on I slowly started taking running into consideration when I was planning climbing days. I began doing the little things again that need to be done, but I don't always find the time for (like taking ice baths). And my focus went from improving my climbing ability to getting ready for this marathon that I have committed to.

And now this past week I finally really felt like I had my first really successful week in my marathon build up. My mileage was higher, the hills and tempos were faster and I felt stronger. After my scheduled runs for tomorrow I will have put in 78.5 miles this week (I know not a ton, but if you looked at my training log over the past year you too would be excited) and run 2 pretty decent workouts with a long run Sunday. Thursday though was what got me motivated and ready for Jon (my coach) to bring it on. The workout wasn't much 2x3 miles with 5 mins recovery between. But I went into the workout feeling tired and not sure if I was going to be able to run the pace that was on my schedule, on the warm up I was nervous knowing this would be a turning point either way--a good day or a bad day was going to tell me a lot. Thankfully it was a great day. My pacing still needs some work as I seem to run very inconsistent splits which is unlike me (I have been called the metronome), but I was able to run controlled, relatively comfortable and still quick. I did my 2nd 3 mile 10 seconds faster than the first and it left me feeling like I could do more. I love that! So, now I just have to get through the next 11 weeks and I will be on the starting line in Duluth ready to run!

Aqua Jogging 101

Running is the most fickle sport.

Well I fell off the BRC Blogging Wagon for a while but to tell you the truth there hasn't been much to tell lately. Training has pretty much been up and down and back and forth and all over the show for the last three weeks. After Jacksonville, I decided to just put in miles over the course of the following week before getting back to throwing in a couple workouts a week and going back to the more structured stuff working up to the Cherry Creek Sneak 5 mile on April 25th and then the Bolder Boulder 10k on May 1st, maybe something in between those two as well. Surprisingly I felt pretty good the week after the race. My first workout back I opted to do a 35 minute tempo run and was just going to go out and back from Colorado College. I ended up doing the run at 5 a.m. that day, so needless to say it was dark. I was heading south, looking all cool in my headlamp, got about 10 minutes in and hit a rough patch of ground going under a bridge by the Tent City, stuck my foot in a divot that I totally didn't see and found myself flat on my face in the middle of the trail. So I got up real fast to make sure no one saw that (if they did I was just going to pretend like it was totally on purpose....plyometrics or something), cussed out the divot, and kept going. It was actually a really good run minus the fact that falling in a hole isn't what I like doing first thing in the morning. Over the next couple days my hip/low back/quad/groin felt pretty crappy but I figured as long as stuff felt good by the long run on Sunday then no matter. There's no such thing as pain-free running anyway, it's a total myth--contrary to what Runner's World may tell you. The long "run" that Sunday with Kevin Bacon and Coach Klubousky was probably the most counterproductive thing I did the whole week (which is saying something) and I threw in the towel after 60 minutes of hobble-dom and feeling ridiculously off-kilter and like my hip/low back might break in half, and was in the pool for a couple days before starting running again, which went well for another couple days before inexplicably going downhill again so for now it is back to my three BFF's: Elliptical, Bike, and Pool. Primarily Pool. And let me tell you there is nothing better than having a lifeguard stare at you non-stop while you're doing intervals with the aqua-jogger on at 6 in the morning. Seriously like you're going to drown with a flotation belt on. It's almost enough to make you want to drown yourself.

In situations like these, I usually allow myself a 48 hour "Grieving" Period, where I mope around and feel sorry for myself and make bad decisions and drown my sorrows in Guinness and watch soppy movies and act like someone shot my dog and am just a generally miserable person to be around and I wouldn't blame anyone for shaking me. This is followed by a 24 hour Brow-Beating Period where I get mad at myself for feeling bad for myself (neurotic much?). Then I get a life and I pull my head out and get back to buisiness. And so it goes, it is the price for aspring to studly-ness! You gotta take your knocks.

So for the time being I'm doing interval stuff in the pool and doing the elliptical or bike on alternating days. Usually it's like 70-90 minutes worth of stuff in the pool, but I have a vivid imagination so time passes pretty quick. Usually I just pretend to be chasing some enormous doped-up Russian chick in some cross country race or something. Special. And I'm trying out running easy every couple days or so to see when things get to a point where I can train through the rest of it and still have it work its way out. Things are making progress so I'm not terribly worried. Been there and done that about a million times. In my spare time I'm working on this 1,000 piece puzzle that I've been piecing together intermittantly since 2006. It's supposed to be this kitten and puppy cuddling in this basket of yarnballs but I'm only about 30 pieces in so you can't tell yet. It really is quite adorable. But in any event, I'm still going to "nut up," as it was so quaintly put to me the other day, and do the Sneak in 3 weeks. It'll be my first time doing that race--I've only ever watched it and it looks like a fun one and is a great distance.

Anyways, I think it was Green Day who sang the words "Do you have the time/ to listen to me whine?"
And on that note, I'm out.

Hope everyone's training is going well, and for everyone's who isn't I hope you'll be on the up-and-up soon!

Happy Easter to everyone.

Injured but happy

Well I am really injured and finally going to take a real break and let everything heal. But I am very happy I was able to squeeze out a last hurrah today in the Shamrock Shuffle.
Running might not have been the best idea I've ever had but to me it was worth every second. The last couple of weeks I've been a cross-training boot-wearing you know what. Just ask David. The thought of being able to do this race was keeping me going as I pulled out of jacksonville and gave up any hope of doing boston.
Walking over to the warm up area I didn't think I would be able to run since it really hurt to walk. I even told the elite coordinator this morning that it probably wasn't going to happen. But I had to at least try and warm up. It didn't hurt that much more to run so I figured I would go for it. I put a 20 dollar bill in my shorts in case I would need to take a cab back. I also looked ridiculous with my big pain patches up my achilles and down my IT Band. (I have fluid around my achilles. and wearing the boot and xtraining gave me an IT band issue.) But hey....whatever it takes.
I actually felt semi-ok for most of the race and was able to pull of the win. I tried to really appreciate every moment of the race and breaking the tape has never felt so good. I'm in a lot of pain and looking at 4-6 weeks off but I am just so thankful I was able to race today.