When did this happen???

So, this week - two mid-week runs.

Two six mile midweek runs. 

When on earth did I start being the runner who could do mid-week six milers?  When did that become not-a-long run?

I'm stoked.  I realized on my run that once I gain some confidence in what I'm doing, I start having fun doing it.  It's that way at work, at home, with my kids, in the community... and now with running.

The other midrun musing I had - I seriously look like Mrs Whatsit when I run.  Remember the character from Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time who wears the crazy, mismatched patterns and socks and layers?  Yeah, that's me.  Every single run.  Tonight it was red long-sleeve shirt with neon vest, white hat, crazy-pattern orange/blue bandanna on my ears, white-and-purple skirt, over black tights, and pink striped socks.  Add a headlamp, a blinkie on my back pocket, and a pair of knuckle lights and I must have been visible from at least 400 yards.  (Either that or they should not have been driving.)  I tried to get a picture of it after the run, but my arms are apparently too short to do that very well and there were no mirrors around...

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On another note, be sure to check the "Team Weebee" page (up top, to the right) and leave a comment if you are thinking of joining our team for You Go Girl! in September.  ALL are welcome - we're basically a team-for-the-sake-of-the-discount. :)

Better!

So I don't know what I did yesterday, but whatever it was, it was the right thing to do, apparently.  (Cue happy dance here.)  Five-point-eight beautiful Tuesday night miles, no bonking issues (must remember the veggie-and-cheese sub for lunch), no overexhaustion, no nothing to take away from the loveliness of an evening run. Reasonable expectations, better pacing than I've had in several runs, and I didn't beat myself up for the occasional short walk break.  Refreshing, rejuvenating, redemption.

Just before finishing I stopped dead in my tracks and looked up at a beautiful half-moon sky, constellations shining brightly through the openings in the light skittering clouds - Orion, the dippers, the Sisters.  Stars can be a rare sight in the Pacific Northwest - when it's dark at a reasonable hour, we're socked in with clouds, and when the weather is clear, it's light until well past bedtime; I take my star sightings quite dearly.

Anyway, on pace to do okay this week, even with the schedule weirdness.  Today's rest was well-enjoyed; I have been walking errands on lunch hours, and today was an enjoyable trip downtown for several stops.  The kids are both writing research reports, so every day has brought another trip to the library to pick up books off the hold shelf.  Tomorrow should be another good six-ish miles (probably repeating Tuesday's route or some close variation), then hopefully a few easy miles on Friday if it's not too crazy (deadline day at work, might not make it - and if so, then that's that).  Either way, it's unheard of for me to be at ten miles on Tuesday evening, so I'm happy with whatever I get.

* * * * *

My son just asked me if I knew how the marathon got its name.  (Um. Yes, child, I do.)  He's now charged with finding me the historical evidence for the declared-victory-and-died legend - if/when he does, I'll be sure to post it.  (really?  it's not an unverifiable legend?  I'm skeptical but open-minded...)

Technical difficulties

Some days you just can't get your act together. This morning was one of those days.

The day off work presented the opportunity for a morning run, so I'd planned 6 to 8 miles. This being my "first" week of training for CCM half, and with a two-day swim meet this weekend upcoming, I've got a plan that pushes my long and tempo runs to midweek, along with other screwy stuff that may not make sense. But I get ahead of myself.

Anyway, six to eight miles this morning.  Should have thought of that last night when I allowed "just one more" episode of TV until nearly 11:00 pm. Should have thoughtful that when I sat for nearly twelve hours on a hardwood floor,  cross legged, sorting receipts and other sundry tax paperwork. Should have thought of that when my food intake yesterday  basically consisted of a large bag of pretzels and black coffee. So, no, I did not set myself up for success this morning.

Regardless, it was wonderful to wake up without the alarm clock, somewhere around 630, and recognize that it was already light outside (yea!) and I was looking forward to a run. Made my toast and juice, got dressed, told my hubby I'd be home by ten, and headed to the lake.

First: it was COLD out. Fully ten to fifteen degrees colder than what I've been running in the past few weeks. I’ve been trying to dial in exactly what to wear for any given temperature run, and I thought I'd done okay with my jacket over a short-sleeved shirt.  It was at first. But a mile in I realized I was going to be too hot in that getup.  So, stopped at the car on that loop, which was preordained by the fact that I'd left my gels at the car, instead of putting them in my pocket. Dropped the jacket, and had a gel since my body was not feeling like I had any energy (coffee and pretzels, anyone?). Started back out, and got maybe 200 yards before I recognized that I still needed SOMETHING on my arms or I would be frostbit by mile 4. Back to the car for arm sleeves. Get a block away and go to press the button on my Garmin - it's not there! Yep, it back on the hood of the car where I left it.  Nice, real nice.

So. All that back and forth, and I'm two miles into this run. I should be warmed up and things should be working. Except they're not. My back and hips just feel weird, not firing like they usually do and splaying everywhere. My form is crappy. I'm trying to keep an easy consistent pace, yet I'm not succeeding on either measure. I am now just trying to make it to the water fountain at the next mile marker. And I'm indulging a moment of despair. Really? Why is this run failing today? If today fails how am I going to make it through the plan for the week? How am I going to make it through the next thirteen weeks? I'm an idiot, thinking I could pull off marathon training.

Yeah. Love my mind on a despair bender.

The good thing is, I've been there enough times that I recognize them. I also know and trust that they're false in every way. Somewhere that rational brain says, shut up. You're lying to yourself.  Stop talking. And I do.

When I got to the water fountain I stopped for a gulp and considered my options. I've got an aggressive schedule planned for the next two weeks, both running and the rest of life. I'm coming back from two weeks off for illness. Pushing now, if I'm not prepared, has consequences. So I made the choice to call it good.  I headed back toward the car, finishing with four miles - miles I'm happy to have banked for the week.

* * * * * * *

Planned for this week:

Monday – 4 miles (adjusted from the 6-8 intended)

Tuesday - 5-6 miles

Wednesday - off, most likely

Thursday - 5-7 miles

Friday - 3 miles

Saturday - off

Sunday - if I can get it, 3-4 miles.  (depends on swim meet progress, but my bag will be in the car. And I hear there's a lovely trail next to the aquatic center.)

The overall plan is also pretty ambitious - I'm preparing for the Capital City half marathon in May, after which there are exactly twenty weeks to the Portland Marathon. When I really get my head on straight, my only goal for this training cycle leading to Capital City is to get my weekly mileage consistent and up to the level I need to enter the marathon training cycle. I'm estimating that to be about 25-30 miles per week, consistently, by May. I'm using the plans from Train Like A Mother, a bit more loosely right now than I'd like, but they're providing the structure and I'm riffing off them.  Last year was the first time I'd used a training plan to prepare for a run, so this is all new territory for me. 

Breaking habits

Some perspective here… I started running after my daughter was born (she who turned nine last week).  I would complete some short fun run in late summer or early fall, keep running a little as the rains came, and then stop by Halloween, only to pick it up again in about March, when the work schedule eased from insane to merely crazy and a “lunch hour” actually included sufficient time to change, jog two miles, and change back (thank you, baby wipes).  All that to say, I’ve got a nearly-decade-long habit of not running through the holidays and cold months – and that, dear friends, is the habit I’m trying to break.

So with that said, I will admit that I’m pretty proud of this:

 

 

Yes, there’s a couple goose-eggs.  Yes, those “4” weeks are likely generous.  But this is huge progress in consistency for me. 

*  *  *

However, it’s not sufficient progress to jump right into a training plan for Capital City half marathon.  So the past two weeks I’ve been focusing on running enough days per week (at least four) and getting a long run (it’s all relative).  Two weeks ago, I got close – but no long run (swim meet weekends, I tell ya). 

This week it came together.  Woohoo!

 

I’ll recap last week’s training a bit later – I want to think about my plan for this week first – but today’s run was pretty close to glorious.  I have been enjoying its high all day.

Slowly...

Here's what the last two or three weeks held...

Date	Distance (mi)	Duration	Pace	Felt	Effort
01/13/13	3.45	00:34:08	09:54	tired
01/09/13	2.76	00:25:11	09:06	good	4
01/08/13	4	00:38:28	09:36	good	4
01/07/13	1.12	00:15:00	13:23	tired	3
01/05/13	3.39	00:38:17	11:16	tired	2
01/03/13	2.63	00:24:30	09:18	alright	3
01/02/13	2	00:45:00	22:30	alright	3
12/29/12	4.58	00:50:02	10:55	tired	3
12/26/12	4.65	00:48:00	10:19	alright	3

Hardly impressive, to be sure, but a 6-mile week and a 11-mile week are far better than a goose-egg.

Running is hard right now.  Physically hard.  Mentally hard.  There have been a lot of  distractions, deferrments, sleepless nights, and obstacles over the past several weeks.  I'm not sure if they've sucked the joy out of my running, or if they've just kept me from running long enough that I have to start from some level of scratch.  I'm thinking it's the latter.  I'm hoping it's not the former.

All I know to do, though, is keep getting out there.  Tomorrow, I may be able to run at lunch; if not, I will fit it in after work (which would be my usual plan, but we're in our one week of 20-something degree temps for the year and running after dark on icy streets in 27* and dropping is not my idea of safe).  There's holes throughout the week to find time to run - and almost none of them have me resorting to the treadmill at 5:30 a.m. (the worst-case scenario I can't quite bear to invoke right now).  These runs may be short, they may be slow; they may hurt or leave me gasping or wondering why I can't hold any sort of pace.  But they will get done.

Back at it...

So, yeah, December has been a nothin' month...

All the various levels of crazy converged to make it such that the only runs I could make happen on a regular basis were our Saturday-morning-with-the-Math-Teacher runs.  There were a couple others spattered in there, but yeah... not much.

But all told, I do not in any way consider that to be a failure.  Given that my usual pattern of the past several years would have been to stop running sometime in October and not begin again until, oh, March, I'll call a few single-digit weeks a rousing success in the "maintaining consistency" department.

But... after that zero-mile week last week, enough is enough.  I got back into it with a Monday morning "Saturday" run with tMT and her lovely daughter (aka the speedster).  Easy three miles, no big deal.  But I'd forgotten that it would count for Kiley's Christmas Virtual 5K!

So.  Pretty pleased about that.

Took yesterday off (I don't think I got out of my pajamas yesterday).  Today I'll get in a few miles while the kids swim.  I've got several weeks of base-building to get in before starting my training plans for a May half-marathon and the Portland Marathon in October (yep, those are my A-races for 2013). 

So.  Back at it...

So much for that...

Seems I picked a bad time to declare a running streak.  The general craziness of life added to some low-grade ick combined to kill the streak this week.  I got a full week in - and then I got to 9pm Friday and realized that I hadn't been on the treadmill.  And I didn't have it in me.  I didn't have it in me on Saturday either (six hours standing at a swim meet will do that).  So the streak was thoroughly busted at that point.

This morning I woke up to a break in the rain and a house of still-sleeping people. I got dressed and headed to my favorite path to catch the sunrise, all ready for a great run.  Except... that great run didn't show up.  The five miles turned into a painful 1.5 out and a walk back to the car. So, counts for a run in December - but not much else.

Coincidentally, I forked over the cash for Portland Marathon entry yesterday.  Great day for a bad run.

Obviously, something's up.  Not sure what, exactly - could be a bunch of different things (flu season, work stress, poor sleep, REALLY poor eating choices...) (oh, gee, maybe the combination?  Smart, I am.)  Hopefully I'll be able to sort that out over the next couple weeks so this blah-streak doesn't last into the New Year.