Long Lost Post - Trying to Predict a Richmond Finish Time (Written 9/9)

Trying to predict a Richmond finish time

*written 9/9

This past Friday I was playing around with a race finish time predictor. I entered my treadmill half marathon time in and got a marathon time of 4:02: some seconds. So, yay to a predicted time faster than Gettysburg, but boo to a time above 4:00.

So then I put in a 4:00 marathon to see what kind of half marathon would predict that time and it was 1:55:07…hmm…could I have run that? Possibly…but then again I was on the treadmill…

So, I’m feeling fairly sure that beating my Gettysburg time is realistic, but will I be able to get my 4:00 or under marathon that is a goal of mine? Maybe not in this race…but I can try!

Saturday’s long run had me feeling pretty strong and hopeful. We did 17 miles on the W&OD trail in 2:41. That averages out to a 9:29 minute mile. At the half marathon point we were at 2:05 so we definitely picked it up in the last 4ish miles. I probably had no business running quite that fast, but it really felt good. It really goes to show how much a drop in humidity and temperature can affect running effort.

Long Lost Post - Treadmill Half Marathon (Written 9/4)

Treadmill Half Marathon

*Written 9/4

Monday morning I ran (raced) a half marathon on the treadmill. This probably sounds miserable to most people, runners and non-runners. Good music is what got me through it, and my Bennett and Ian cheer squad at the end :)

I’ve been feeling too cheap to pay for a race entry so I decided I could just push myself on a half marathon long run and that would work well enough for a fitness test. I would have much preferred to log those miles outside, but once all schedules were juggled, this was really the only weekend to “race.” So, Treadmill it was since Megan was off racing! Admittedly, a treadmill time is not the same as an outdoor time, but I figured I could still push myself and have some idea of how I was doing.

I had planned to run this Saturday, but then decided I really needed a lazy day. I had planned to run this Sunday, but when I went to get set up, I realized I was out of shot blocks. So, Monday became the default. Poor planning on my part since we were going outlet shopping that afternoon. My legs were not happy with me by the end of the day.

I really struggled in trying to figure out how to pace myself in this run. I had no idea what was realistic. My first goal was to run the half in under 2 hours, and I thought I could definitely do that. But how far under I wasn’t sure. So I started at 6.7MPH (8:57 I think) and started running. At 10 miles I realized I could pick up the pace, and probably could have earlier. Over the next 5K I slowly started running faster. In the last mile I just started increasing the speed every few minutes, finally hitting 13.1 at a 7.9MPH. Overall time was 1:56:??(maybe somewhere between 10-15 is Bennett’s estimate). Stupidly I switched the treadmill from counting down the time to telling me time ran, and apparently at that amount of time it doesn’t display seconds. I’m really bummed about that.

I’m pretty happy with that time! I was definitely tired at the end, and could tell I ran hard, but I didn’t totally max myself out. I think I could have gone a little faster. I am not sure what this means for my Richmond time since it was on the treadmill, but I’m feeling more hopeful.

Long Lost Post - Training Struggles (Written 8/29)

So, I found these blog entries written months ago that I never posted. Since they were already written I figured I’d post them to have the full record of Richmond training posts on the blog.


Training struggles

*written 8/29

It’s been a while since I’ve had the time or energy for the blog… It’s been more fun having Ian than I imagined, but also very exhausting.

In fact, exhaustion is the number one thing I struggle with as far as marathon training goes. Ian started out as a pretty good sleeper, but over the last month or so that has all changed. He is waking up a lot, and thus so am I. The lack of sleep at a time when my body is under the duel demands of breastfeeding and marathon training make mild exhaustion chronic and acute exhaustion crop up every few weeks.

Lack of sleep is more troublesome to me than finding the time to run. After a few weeks of struggling with the timing of runs without my mom around to watch Ian, I realized that getting up at 5 to run is the only way to make it work. Luckily Bennett realized that he needs to get back in shape, and he came to the same conclusion about 5am workouts, so we can help each other. We figure the more consistently we get up at 5am, the faster it will become routine. So we are trying to get up that early, or close to it, 6 days a week with one lazy day. This holiday weekend is the exception J

I’m progressing through my training pretty well, although the heat and humidity were really getting to me for a few weeks. This summer I seem to be dealing particularly badly with the heat and humidity. Thankfully it’s almost fall. I don’t remember struggling so much with summer running while training for MCM. Maybe I just blocked it out, haha.

After a truly terrible 13 mile run in early August, and a few weeks of no energy, I feared I was pushing my body too far too fast. It’s possible I was somewhat, but I also realized I wasn’t eating enough. So that has been a big focus for me over the last month or so…how to eat enough without resorting to too much junk food. This is harder than it sounds. First to drag around that much healthful food with me is really a challenge. Second, with constantly changing mileage and varying hunger levels of Ian, I have no idea how much I should actually be eating. So, it is an ongoing experiment.

I have taken so many editorial liberties with Hal Higdon’s training schedule this time around, that I don’t know if I can even say I’m following his schedule. I hope I know what I’m doing enough that I’m not over training myself. I’ve added in hills and tempo runs, which I’ve done before. I’ve rearranged rest weeks and repeated weeks to get the right balance and better work with Megan’s and my schedule. This time around, Megan suggested that I try for a 22 mile run as my longest. So, in addition to 2 20 milers, I will be doing a 22 miler 3 weeks before the marathon. I’m hoping that will prove to be a helpful decision.

I have no idea at this point what a realistic time goal is for Richmond. I guess that will have to come closer to the race.

The Richmond Marathon

Finally posting my Richmond marathon post that I wrote a few weeks ago...

I am very glad that Richmond was not my first marathon, because if it was, I never would want to run another one again!  I don’t know what it was on Saturday, but it was not my day.  That feels strange to say because I achieved a PR.  But, it was the most miserable race I have ever run!

My misery in no way reflects on the actual race.  It was a nice course and a well-run marathon.  It simply wasn’t my racing day physically or mentally.  I have no idea how I beat my Gettysburg time. I had concerns about this race in the week leading up to it.  I didn’t feel refreshed and ready to go like I should have at the end of tapering.  My legs felt stiff and achy, and I felt tired.  Maybe it was running that last 22 miler too fast or maybe it was being sick during most of tapering (I lean towards this).  I don’t know, but I wasn’t feeling ready to run amazingly on Saturday.

Whether my mental lack of preparedness was due to physically not feeling 100% or the rain or something else…I don’t know.  The anticlimactic start of the race definitely did not help.  We stood and watched clearly defined wave after wave of the half marathon start.  When it came time for the marathon to start, the wave system seemed to break down.  They started off wave 1, although even that didn’t seem very high energy for a race of Richmond’s size, and then just sort of let us go to (we were in wave 2).  So we were walking towards the start line expecting to be stopped, and then we were allowed to cross it…and then the marathon had started.  I never got my start line adrenaline.  It was just, oh and now we are running…ok…. 

It was a rainy wet day.  Our feet were wet within the first few miles, and it rained lightly several times throughout the race.  There were puddles everywhere from heavier rain earlier.  My lungs felt a bit tight and congested from the beginning, stupid remnants of my cold!  My legs never hit their stride and felt bleh the whole time.  One muscle after another alternated feeling tight or weird in some way. 

I wanted to stop running before we got to the half way mark.  I remember thinking that I wish I was running a half marathon today so I could be done!

By mile 15-16 I felt the way I should have felt around mile 19-20.  I was so over the race and running and being wet.  I really wanted to quit, but of course I couldn’t.  I had to keep dragging myself through this never ending race.  At one point I was positive we were coming up on the last “party zone” at mile 19 only to be told by Megan that we were at 17.5 miles.  I seriously wanted to cry at that point.  My legs felt horrible!  My lungs felt tight and horrible!  My breasts were getting engorged and beginning to hurt even though I had fed Ian several times before the race to make sure they were empty of milk.  I had no energy and was really having trouble caring about my time at all.  I remember thinking, with all the things that have happened this year, who cares what time I get.  There’s so much more important than a marathon time goal when I feel like this. 

The crowd support wasn’t helping.  Megan pushing was only helping some.  I had to walk because my lungs were tight quite a few times, and I really hate walking in races unless it’s to eat or drink towards the end.  I told Max and Megan at least twice that I really could not do this, and of course got nicely yelled at. 

I tried to run hard down the last downhill to the finish.  I legs were so shot that I thought I would fall and my knees just fold.  The hill was never ending…the finish line seemed like it would never come.  I crossed it and felt like I was going to throw up!

Just like I never got my start line adrenaline, I didn’t really get my finishing high.  I was done and good!  I hadn’t gotten 4:00, which was my reaching goal, but I had gotten a PR of 4:01:32.  I had been so miserable in the race that I was having trouble getting excited over the time I had achieved.  Even now, I am just glad to be done with it!

After getting to this point in writing this post, I just checked my official time and splits.  See below.

10K: 54:44 average 8:50

Half marathon: 1:56:23 average to that point 8:53

20 miles: 3:00:49 average to that point 9:02

Marathon: 4:01:32 over-all average 9:13

Clearly I ran the first half of this race too fast!  Perhaps this contributed to me feeling like death the last 8 miles.  There were a good number of down hills that I am sure I picked up speed on, but clearly pacing is something I need to work on.  I’m just so bad at converting effort into pace and at knowing exactly how hard I can push and maintain over that long of a distance.  I guess that comes with experience.  I need to find a way to be more aware of my pacing throughout a race though.  Too bad their aren’t talking Garmin’s. 

The first week back at work

My first day back to work was June 24.  While I really hate being back, I’m loving being back part time and with 2 telework days!

Having done fabulous at reaching my pre-work goals, I failed miserably at running my first week back at work.  I ran all of twice.  I did not lift, and I did not do any core exercises.  Pretty bad!  I guess if I’m going to have a terrible running week, my first week back at work is an understandable week to do it. 

I think I might have to rethink my running and non-running days though.  I don’t know how realistic it is to plan to run on days I’m actually in the office.  To have time to get ready, feed Ian, and eat breakfast, I’d have to get up around 5:40am, and by the time I get home, all I want to do is play with Ian.  Luckily I am only in the office 2 days a week.  I might try my running days as Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Fitting in a run on days I work from home is so much easier.

Running goals

I had 4 goals to accomplish before going back to work.  Happily, I accomplished 3 of them and was very close on the 4^th.

1.       Run a 10 mile long run.  I actually got in 2

2.       Reach a weekly mileage of 30 miles.  I did this the week before going back to work

3.       Hold a plank for 90 seconds.  I also snuck this in the week before going back to work

4.       Be within 3lbs of my prepregnancy weight.  I did not manage this one, but I did get within 4lbs so not bad. 

Welcome back summer running…

Yesterday was hot and humid!  Eleisha and I planned to run 8 miles together.  Knowing that it was going to be very summer like, we thought we’d run on the early side and meet at 7:30.  Wow did we both under estimate our lack of adjustment to summer running.  It was miserable!

Both of us have been running inside a lot lately, and somehow I remembered more shade on the Mt. Vernon trail.  These facts combined to a not so fun run of just over 7 miles.  It’s amazing how the weather can make a distance that should be very manageable into miles of torture!  We were both so hot by the end we wanted to die.  Oh and there was definitely some walking thrown in to the mix…  It was definitely a day that I missed having my inhaler to take before I run, as I was definitely wheezing.  It showed me though, by how little I was wheezing, how far my fitness has come over the past few years, even in my less than ideal fit state at the moment. 

At the same time, Bennett took Ian for his first walk in the stroller.  He doesn’t have the head control yet for running, but we thought it would be nice for Bennett to get some exercise and Ian to get use to his stroller while I ran.  Apparently they had lots of fun, and Ian liked watching the cars go by on the road.  One thing we will have to figure out is how to keep the sun off his legs without overheating him because the sun shade on the stroller only blocks the sun from part of him. 

A good running week

This has been a good week for running, probably the best in a while.  I’m starting to feel like a competent runner again. 

The first highlight of the week came from breaking in two new pairs of running shoes.  New running shoes always make me happy, and since these shoes were mostly funded by a mother’s day gift from my mother-in-law, they made me extra happy! J  I got the Brooks Pure Flow 2 and the Nike Pegasus some number or another.  I’ve run in versions of both these shoes before and look forward to training in the new versions.

After weeks of all my runs being easy paced miles, trying to get my legs re-used to the impact, I felt like I could start including some quality training runs.  So one of my weekday runs was a hill repeat run.  It felt great to push that hard, but it was sad how hard the hills were. 

I also did a long run of 8 miles and ended up with 25 miles for the week!  I’m pretty sure it’s been since December for both of those mileages.

Best of all, this morning I got to run outside with Elisha.  This was my first opportunity for an outside run since late last fall when I decided that the treadmill was a better place for a pregnant me to run.  I was so tired of only running on the treadmill that even a rainy run outside felt amazing!  Plus it’s always great to catch up with a fun running buddy I haven’t seen in way too long.

Running with a baby in the house

Running these days is such an interesting challenge.  First there’s the exhaustion to overcome. I’ve never done well with less than adequate amounts of sleep, and finally the weeks of being woken up every hour or two is starting to show.  It’s a good thing I’ve trained myself to run when I’m tired from all the morning running during marathon training because I’ve definitely been relying on that mental push to get myself going.  Of course once I’m running it feels great.

Then there’s the trickiness of timing.  I have to balance when I’ve last eaten with when Ian has last eaten and is likely to sleep or play with my mom long enough for me to get in a run.  This is not an easy thing to manage because Ian isn’t on any sort of eating or sleeping schedule.  Sometimes he’ll eat, fall asleep, and it looks like a good time to run, but I’ll be really hungry or full.  Then by the time I am ready to run, Ian is ready to eat again. 

Right now I am just trying to regain fitness and build up miles so interruptions and changing my runs around are not as big of a deal.  Hopefully when I start getting more serious about training, Ian will have settled more into a schedule I can work around. 

Hello blog

Written yesterday…                                                              

 I have been debating whether or not to pick back up my blog.  It’s been so long since I had the time or energy to write.  I was too exhausted in the last 2 months of pregnancy to write and then having a new born hasn’t left me with much time or interest in blogging.  Bennett suggested that I might find it helpful to write about Ian’s birth, and I spent the morning doing that.  It reminded me that I usually enjoy my blogging so I’ve decided to see how it goes.  I’m still deciding if I want to post my write up from this morning or maybe an edited shortened version, but for now, post-partum running…

I had a checkup 2 weeks after Ian was born and of course one of the first things I asked was how soon can I run.  I had a post baby plan all thought through and honestly it didn’t involve getting a doctor’s permission to run or not run.  I know my body well enough to judge myself under normal circumstances.  But that was when the birth was going to go as planned, with little to no interventions.  Since we ended up with a C-section, I thought it would be smarter to actually check with the doctor.  I was healing well so he told me at 4 weeks to go for a power walk, and if it felt ok, I could start running.  But if I had any pain in the incision…well I shouldn’t so listen to my body and that would mean I was doing too much.  I cheated a bit and started lifting at week 3 since I felt good.  I had managed to continue lifting until the week before Ian was born.  With only a few weeks off it wasn’t too hard to ease back into it.

At exactly 4 weeks post-partum I was on the treadmill.  Not only did I not have anyone to run with outside, but running on the treadmill meant if it hurt, I could just stop.  I was afraid I wouldn’t even make it through the 5k run I had planned since I hadn’t run at all since late January.  Happily, I got through 5k without hurting or needing to stop!  It was pretty slow though and the next day I was sore…kind of humbling…

A successful first run made me immediately jump to the question of how fast I can build back up my distance and weekly mileage without hurting myself.   I’m still playing around with that question 3 weeks later.

4 weeks Post-partum running week 1: 2 5k runs and a 4 mile run

5 weeks postpartum running week 2: 2 3 mile runs and a 5 mile run

6 weeks post-partum running week 3: a 3 mile run, a 4 mile run, a 5 mile run, and a 6 mile run

I’ve been pretty happy with my progress, although all treadmill running gets a little boring.  Several of my runs had to be interrupted for emergency baby tending, definitely showing me that running seriously with a baby is going to be a whole different experience. 

Exercise bike!

After 2 frustrating weeks of running, I am officially giving up on running as my main source of cardio exercise.  I can’t run more than about a mile and a half without my abs and back hurting.  I’m so used to running through healthy discomfort, but I think this is my body saying no more than that distance.  Sometimes I’ve been able to walk some and then get in another mile, but walking ruins any cardio aspect to the run.  It’s so hard not to just grit through it, and so humbling to be hurting after only a mile and a half.

This is very sad for me!  Sad because I love running and sad because I really expected my body to handle running better till the end.  It just goes to show that no matter what kind of shape you are in pre-pregnancy, the body has a mind of its own. 

So, after sulking about it and being cranky for days, I had a breakthrough.  We have a listserv of Capitol Hill families, and I decided to see if anyone in the neighborhood had an exercise bike they would be willing to loan us.  I didn’t really have high hopes, but it couldn’t hurt. Well, I am now looking at the lovely exercise bike that will be living in our house for the next two months!  And they wouldn’t even let me give them anything to “rent” it!  I’m feeling pretty good about people today and looking forward to the nice bike ride and some uninterrupted cardio that I’m about to have! 

If I can’t force my body to run, I can at least keep up some cardio endurance for the post childbirth return to real running!  Thanks to the wonderful Megan, who has agreed to run with me this fall, I can start planning for my fall marathon as a way to keep myself sane.

Feeling irritable and dejected…

It seems the last month has been a downward slide of athletic ability, and I find this very frustrating.  I scaled back to nothing longer than 6 miles in December, with the hope that that at least was something I could keep up for a while.  Now, I am not even sure about a 6 mile run being possible over the next few months and that is just depressing.   

I don’t know if it was getting to 30 weeks or a tipping point in weight gain, but I feel like this week even compared to last week was very different.  This week has been full of bad runs with none of them more than 4 miles.  Even those 4 mile runs included a stop to pee or walk because of a leg or side cramp.  It’s almost more frustrating to run, than not run because of how little I can do.  I know that’s the wrong attitude; that I should run, or run/walk, what I can and be happy I’m active…but I just can’t get my head there. 

Today brought a new source of irritation.  I had bought one of the maternity support belts earlier in the week, and it arrived today.  Several people have recommended that I get one for running and told me how helpful it was.  I checked reviews from runners, and there were a lot of positive comments.  I tried it out today, and it didn’t really help much at all.  It wasn’t comfortable, and I think actually made my back feel worse.  It might have helped my lower abs a bit, but I still felt like my lower part of my rib cage was irritating my upper abs as I moved my body.  I’ll give it a second chance on Sunday I guess…

I’m so frustrated with this lack of activity.  Sadly, I don’t have a gym membership so that is really limiting my options for other types of exercise.  We have a public indoor pool near me, but I’ve never been good at sharing swimming lanes with other people.  People keep telling me to walk, but even putting the treadmill on an incline, I can’t get much of a workout unless I walk so fast that I’m having the same type of discomfort as I have while running.  I guess this is what comes from being in too good of shape before getting pregnant, but not being one of those people whose body allows them to maintain a quality level of mileage.  It’s really irritating that my level of fitness and mental discipline can’t force my body to let me keep going at a level I want.  I really need to find a free spinning bike to use between now and March to fill in what running can’t do for me…next