Change of Plans

Sorry for my absence the last week. I have been in a full on, end of semester flurry of activity. I do so enjoy working a full 8 hour day and heading straight to the library for a couple of hours afterwards to research Hellenistic philosophy (sarcasm, if you can't tell).

As I mentioned last week, my team was looking for another runner for our Ragnar Cape Cod ultra team. So far, I have yet to participate in a Ragnar with a full team. The last two Ragnars I did, PA and DC, we had less than 12 people. Between making up those miles and night time pacing, I ran 30+ at each event. Last November Mike and I decided we should just go ahead and start an ultra team since we had been running ultra miles anyway.

Two weeks ago, one of our teammates got injured. I was stressed about finding someone, but was mentally prepared to run 38-40 miles if I needed to. Luckily the team member had the shortest legs, so it would have been doable. But this week another team member dropped due to injury. As much as I love long runs, splitting 200 miles among 4 people just isn't feasible, especially since I'm running the Delaware Marathon the following weekend, and would prefer to be somewhat recovered by then.

Initially I was heartbroken. I was really excited about this event. I've never been to Cape Cod and I was excited to hang out with everyone in the van. We could join another team, but they will likely want another registration fee and honestly, since I've only ever run ultra distances at these relays, I can't justify a trip up there and even more money spent for a measily 15 miles of legs. On top of that, I totally did not bother looking at the academic calendar for next weekend back in November when we registered. I have a final exam due the following Monday and last week my professor informed the class that she wasn't even going to distribute it until next Wednesday. So I would have basically had to rush to write it as soon as I returned from Boston on Sunday morning, when I would probably just want to pass out from exhaustion.

So, long story short, we are not running Ragnar Cape Cod next weekend. I am however, still taking next Thursday and Friday off work. I can write my final and be done by the weekend, which means I have a few more days to enjoy freedom before my summer class starts in mid-May.

Of course, since I was really looking forward to running an event next weekend, I had to go find something to fill it with:

Next Saturday I will be running the River Towns Marathon in Danville, PA. It was cheap, local-ish (2 horus away), and well reviewed. It is a very small race, which is perfect because I'm not trying to PR or run ridiculously fast (which large crowds tend to make me do). Call it a training run for the Delaware Marathon.

On a last note, I don't know how any ultra team makes it to the start of a relay race with all their runners intact!! What is their secret!?!

A Once in a Lifetime Blog Post About Weight Loss

To be clear, this is a running blog, not a weight loss blog. I don't believe running and weight loss automatically go hand in hand. Sure, weight loss can be a nice side effect of running, but it is by no means guaranteed. If your #1 reason to run a marathon is to "lose weight," then in my opinion you are probably doing it for the wrong reasons. When it comes to adding miles, its actually fairly easy to gain weight by overeating. I gained a few pounds during my first marathon training cycle. I didn't mind however, because weight loss wasn't important. Crossing the finish line was.

I love food and I strive for moderation, but truthfully overeating has always been a problem for me. Fortunately I've still picked up a lot of good habits over the past years that have helped transform my diet. I've learned that adding healthy habits one at a time is the best way to go. If you do it all at once, it can be too overwhelming. Over time I replaced soda and juice with water, white grains for brown, french fries for salad and veggies. My tastes have changed and now I legitimately enjoy eating healthy foods. I will always look for a side of brussels sprouts on a menu before anything else and dinner at the Every Day Is Run Day house is usually pretty healthy:


Quinoa patties

Salmon and wild rice

Turkey burger and green bean "fries"

All that said, I really enjoy dessert too and I don't think I could live without sugar. Don't steal any of my chocolate chip cookies unless you're looking to get smacked.


Pinkberry

Crumbs

The most importrant part of the day - dessert table

In my short running career I have been injured twice and each time I stopped running completely for about 6-7 weeks. I don't know about some people (aka my husband), but I was not born with a runner's physique. So after about 3 weeks of not running, despite whatever cross training I am doing, my body starts to take on weight again. Each injury I've gained about 6-8 pounds and even after I've started running again, the weight does not easily come off (like I said, running and weight loss don't necessarily go hand-in-hand). After the first injury I forced the weight off because I had to fit into my wedding dress (very stressful, I don't recommend!). This time, I didn't have a pretty outfit that I had to wear in front of a hundred people motivating me to lose the pounds. So, in a last stitch effort to get back down to my racing weight (and fit properly into my pants again), I joined a DietBet game.

I found out about DietBet through some other blogs and after looking into it more I decided to give it a whirl. Essentially, you bet money to join a game and have 28 days to lose 4% of your body weight. You submit photos (only seen by the mods) at the beginning and end of the game with your starting and final weight. At the end of the 28 days everyone who has lost 4% splits the pot. The game is set up sort of like a Facebook newsfeed, with participants posting their work out details, accomplishments, motivational words for others, etc. Even though its online, there is definitely a community aspect that I could see being helpful to a lot of people.

For me, I didn't join for the message boards or the support network. I joined because I like money and hate losing it. I figured if I actually laid money down on the line, it would actually motivate me enough to moderate my eating habits and get back to base. Turns out I was right:

Sweet!

Over the 28 days I didn't change what I ate, as much as how much I was eating. I still enjoyed dessert on occasion, but didn't fill up my bowl quite as much at dinner (usually a major source of my overeating). I also watched my food choices a little more on the weekend. I don't consider what I did a "diet." I just used a little more self-control without causing any feelings of deprivation.

At the end of the game, I lost 7 pounds and won $43. Good deal!

Running and weight loss - what are your thoughts? Have you ever done a DietBet?

Come Sweat With Me!

Okay folks, here's the deal. My Ragnar Cape Cod ultra team is short one runner and I'm looking for someone to join! Here is everything you need to know:

- The event is May 3-4

- This person would fill Runner #11 and #12 (26 miles)

OR

- Either Runner #11 or #12 (10 miles and 16 miles respectively)...we're not picky, we'll take any help we can get!

- You get to hang out with myself and Sara for an awesomely sweaty 24-30 hours.

- This will be your running backdrop:

If you are interested in joining or know someone who is, please email me ASAP at everydayisrunday@gmail.com!

Why It Hurts So Much

I spent Monday morning at my desk doing work and watching the elites running the Boston Marathon. I watched the winners cross the finish line, elated and exhausted. I checked up on the finish times of a few friends and started to think about how I could be at the same start line in a few years if I work hard enough. Then went on with my day. I was in a meeting when I started getting texts about the explosions. I had to run to class immediately afterwards and could only briefly get online during our 10 minute break.

When I got home, my husband wrapped his arms around me and I just started crying. Not because I have been at countless start and finish lines and now suddenly felt so vulnerable. But because everything that the Boston Marathon means, everything that running means, was attacked. Boston represents our potential to be our best, to be strong, to be confident. My heart is broken to think that someone tried to steal that.

I may not have a BQ (yet), but I know the type of work it takes to get there. You pour blood, sweat, and tears. Months of early mornings, missed social occasions, and long hours on your feet. There is a reason that I tear up every time I pass an ongoing race. It could be a 5k or a 50k. It doesn't matter. What matters is that the people doing that race, pushing themselves to cross that finish line, embody the triumph of the human spirit. Pushing past everything you thought you could do. Finding out what you're made of. Reaching deep down for that last inch of strength.

I, for one, will keep running. And if I do end up at the Boston start line in the future, I will run for everything that was lost today.

What the Doctor Ordered

First of all, thank you all so much for your comments and emails on my last post. I promise that even if I don't reply, I do read everything you guys send me (often more than once!) and truly appreciate it. One of the best things about being part of the running blogger community, is how supportive we all are of each other. So, thank you!

On that note, I promise this will be a much less depressing post than my last one. To be honest, I rewrote that post so many times, I didn't realize how depressing it sounded until Mike told me and everyone started texting me and asking if I was alright. Last weekend was rough. Very rough, actually. But thankfully a very good week followed it and I don't think I will be hitting bottom again. 95% of the time I'm a pretty optimistic person. As Elle Woods would say, "exercise gives you endorphins and endorphins make you happy." Truth, but you can still get yourself down sometimes.

Anyway, here are a few reasons my week turned out better:

1. The weather

Enough said

2. A good set of weekday runs

All of my Tuesday-Thursday runs were fantastic this week. I ended up doing two our four of them on the treadmill (it was actually too hot out at lunchtime at 85 degrees), but finally caved and bought a Spotify Premium membership, so I jammed to that the whole time.

3. Embracing Flexibility

This weekend was another busy weekend with lots of things on my to-do list. I wanted to attempt a 20 miler, continue researching my paper, write 10 pages of said paper, and get some other homework done as well. Leading up to this weekend I felt okay, but on Thursday I was up all night dealing with work stress and it melted into Friday when I started to freak out about getting everything done this weekend.  I was actually sick to my stomach over it on Friday morning and barely got down my breakfast (nothing usually keeps me from my oatmeal). Eventually I made an executive decision to hold off on one of my assignments and leave it for next week. Sure, it would have been great to have done it this weekend, but with a Monday deadline for my paper, that was the priority. After the decision I felt much less stressed and went into Friday night feeling super.

4. My Long Run

Which brings us to Saturday morning. This weekend I decided to do my long run on Saturday. Really, that's how it should always be. I always wake up stressed out on Sunday because I feel like I have a million things to do. Running for three hours on top of it, is just a recipe for disaster (see last weekend). I knew if I wanted to run and do everything else, that I had to run early. I can't be stressed about running instead of doing homework if I would have been sleeping anyway, right? I set my alarm for 5 am Saturday, snoozed it until 5:30, and was out the door by 6.

Right from the start, it was a great run. The sun was coming up. The roads were empty. The cherry blossoms had bloomed and their was a gentle dew all over the river grass. A thick fog enveloped the river, but here and there I could make out the crew teams rowing through it.

This was my first 20 miler in five months (JFK was almost exactly 5 months ago). After such a long hiatus, 20 miles definitely felt a little scary. My past experience has shown me that the first 20 miler of any training cycle is always rough, so I hadn't really been looking forward to this run. Even though I mapped it out, I didn't really pay attention to the mile markers.

Good morning Philadelphia!

Even though I love being close to the trails where we live now, I really miss living downtown. A nice run through the empty 7 am streets was just what I needed.

Since I didn't know the mile markers I just assumed I was going at about a 10 minute pace, which was totally fine. I like to run long and slow for these kinds of distances in training. Even though the run started great, I was feeling fatigued after an hour and a half already. When I got back to the river to head home I checked my watch to try and figure out how fast I had been going. I knew at that point that I was about 6 miles from home and was kind of shocked to see a 2:12, instead of a 2:20 on my watch. Since there is no sense in wasting a speedier-than-I-thought run, I decided to try and kick it into gear the rest of the way home. I put on some tunes, passed a bunch of people, and made it back to my front door 3 hours and 2 minutes after I left. Not the 3:20 I was expecting. I actually remapped my whole run to see if I had run less than I thought, but I didn't. Turns out I ran the first 14 miles in a 9:15 average and the last 6 in an 8:31 average. Negative splits for the win!

After peeling through all my running data, I figured out that not only was this my fastest 20 mile training run, but my fastest by a whole 9 minutes. I've run a fair share of 20 milers (I think 7 alone in JFK training), but they always ended up in the 9:30s or slower. This run was a HUGE confidence booster, especially since a) it was my first in 5 months and b) I didn't really feel like I was trying that hard. I really don't have any plans to PR at the Delaware Marathon in May, but at least now I feel better about trying to run reasonably well.

5) A visit from my favorite person

After such a great morning I had no doubts that day would be fantastic, especially since my Mom was coming up from DC for an afternoon visit. I know I'm almost 27 years old and an adult, but I still feel like a little girl who needs her mommy sometimes. We hung out for a few hours, shopped, ate, and all my stress just melted away. A mommy-daughter day was exactly what I needed.

Plus amazing goat cheese salad from our dinner

So yes, it was a better week. My to-do list certainly won't be any shorter in the coming weeks, but I feel like I got some of my mojo back, and that makes a whole lot of difference. 

Losing My Running Mojo

Sunday morning I work up at 7am, put on a pair of shorts and compression socks, gobbled up a banana and granola bar, sipped on a cup of water, and set my stopwatch to zero. I let my dogs out back and stepped outside to get a taste for the temperature. Then suddenly, as I stood there dressed and ready to go, I realized my 18 mile long run was not going to happen. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Instead of turning on my music and heading out the door, I went back upstairs, defeated, and broke down. In my two and half years of running, and barring injury, I have always sucked it up, gone out there, and finished my run. This time was different.

Mentally I consider myself to be a strong runner. Bad runs happen, by overall, I don't deal with a lot of self-doubt. Finding success in running helps boosts my confidence in other areas of my life, which is one of the reasons I love it. But this weekend I let anxiety and self-doubt win. Instead of feeling like my usual capable self, I felt defeated. I failed.

This has been a tough semester for me and, as we fully dive into April, otherwise known as the end of the semester, I've been feeling more and more overwhelmed. Sunday morning everything came crashing down. The thought of running for 3 hours and then sitting down to do hours upon hours of work seemed impossible.

Obviously no one has a gun to my head telling me to run. It's something I put on myself and its only as important as I believe it to be. On the one hand I am glad that I didn't force myself to run when I really didn't want to. Its important to be flexible and take breaks when your body and mind tells you to. On the other hand, I feel like I'm in this vicious cycle. The doubt I've felt in some of the non-running areas of my life has now negatively affected my running, And when I lose confidence in my running, I in turn lose confidence in other areas of my life. And around and around it goes.

Eventually Mike convinced me to go out for a shorter run with him. We settled on 10 miles, but I still wasn't remotely excited about it. Truthfully, it was one of the hardest 10 mile runs of my life. I wanted to quit every mile, and probably would have if my husband weren't by my side. The whole time I kept wondering how the hell I ran 50 miles when getting to the next stoplight seemed so hard.

I wish I could tell you that I felt better after the run, that my anxiety levels deflated and I regained my confidence, but I didn't. I hope that this weekend was the turn around point and that my running mojo is out there somewhere ready for me to find. I'm ready to feel strong again.



 

Old Habits Die Hard

In the two and a half years that I've been running, you could say that the five months I spent training for JFK last summer and fall stand out. Fitness-wise, I was in the best shape I've ever been. Mentally, I was as tough as nails. I will always be proud of crossing that finish line on race day, but I am equally proud of the months of work I put in.

Just ran 50 miles. NBD.

While there were some things about training that I will not miss (70 mile weeks, work, and graduate school leave little time for anything else), there are plenty of things that I really did like about it. Like enough, that I would love for them to be part of my weekly routine whether I'm training for anything or not. It's amazing what you get used to over five months and I quickly found myself missing my old "habits."

Now that I'm practically 100% back-to-normal since my injury, I've started incorporating some of these elements back into my routine. Even though I don't have any 50 mile races on my calendar this year, I don't think they could hurt. My goals for the rest of 2013 are really just to stay in consistant marathon shape, which they would benefit.

Double Runs

I wish I could find the energy to do longish runs before or after work (like this super cool person), but right now in my life it just doesn't work for me. Instead, I prefer to split up a run one day a week to get in some more miles. Usually these double runs add up to anywhere between 10-14 miles depending on my energy level that day. Not only is it a way to feel super accomplished on a regular old Wednesday, but, for me, it means I can happily run only 5 days per week instead of 6 and let my legs enjoy the extra rest day.

Hill Work

One of the very first things I noticed this winter as I started running again outside, was that my hill endurance was shot to hell. Last year hills felt easy, fun, and were a welcoming part of my run. So far this year they've felt like death every time and not the "but I feel accomplished when I get to the top" kind. More like the "why is this so hard and I'm going to go home and sulk" kind.

Finally I got fed up with it and scheduled myself for some good old hill repeats this morning. Hills are definitely not a rarity in my neighborhood, so its pretty easy to come up with 5-6 miles of ups and downs without feeling bored.

Surprisingly they first few didn't feel so bad and I started to think that I would get through the whole thing without any issues. Then I forgot about the 3rd and 4th hill. The steepest section on hill 3 is a lovely 17% grade, which doesn't sound terrible, but you actually feel like your going to fall off the sidewalk and plummet to your death if you don't lean into it enough. Overall, the workout was a success and I already feel more confident. The Delaware Marathon is known to be a bit hilly so I'm hoping I can counteract that with some weekly hill repeats.

Back-to-Back Long Runs

For my first marathon I followed a Hal Higdon plan with a few variations. Like most marathon plans, it had me run long one weekend day and either rest or run very short on the other. Looking back, I can't believe I actually used to take Sundays off. Now, I can't imagine doing anything better with my weekend than spending both days hitting the pavement or trails for several hours. JFK training had a pretty standard Saturday long run (16-25 miles) and a 10 mile Sunday run. I've slowly eased back into that set up over the past few weeks. I don't know that I'll be doing any back-to-back 20 milers anytime soon, but for now this feels pretty good!

Burn Out and Race Registrations

After sitting on my ass for five full days after my wisdom tooth surgery I was as ready as ever to start running again. I felt like one of those wind-up toys that's ready to make a break for it the second you set it down and let go.

Finally, last Tuesday my mouth felt healed enough to run. I slammed out 7.28 miles of pure awesomeness. I can't remember the last time my legs felt so fresh and ready to go. After days of trying to keep my blood pressure low (so as not to dislodge the bloodclot in my mouth) I eagerly pushed up a few hills and each labored breath felt fantastic.  So yes, Tuesday's run was awesome. So awesome that I apparently used up all of my week's allotment of awesome run feelings, because the rest of the week sucked.

Somehow I managed to have a good speed workout on the treadmill during lunch on Thursday, but other than that I was seriously dragging on every other run.

Two 15-minute sets and some extra on the end to get 4 miles

Saturday was 9 miles of "running, I hate you" in what should have been perceived as lovely spring weather, but felt like "why is is so hot already?" and "eff this shit."

On Sunday's 16-miler I actually had to stop after 2 miles and give myself a pep talk before continuing. I felt a little better after I got to the 8 mile turn around, but probably only because I knew the only way I'd make it home is if I ran back and complaining wasn't going to change that. That's the nice thing about out-and-backs and not carrying a cell phone: you're forced to run the miles no matter how you feel about them.

Overall, a pretty shitty-feeling week of running after Tuesday stole the thunder. I'm well aware that not all runs are good runs, but usually I can at least average a good week. Hopefully running and I will get along better this week. I've got an 18 miler on schedule for Saturday, so fingers crossed that the happy, "omg I love running" beam of sunshine hits me square in the face at some point.

In other news, I'm officially registered for all of my fall races. My bank account is crying, but its nice to know that I probably won't be pulling out anymore registration fees from it for anything else happening this year.

Mike and I both managed to get into the Marine Corps Marathon. In case you haven't heard, active.com sucks and made a bunch of runners angry when their site went doen 1.5 minutes after registration opened last Wednesday (a la Chicago). I got in after 20 minutes and Mike got in after an hour. Totally worth giving up my lunch hour for.

I also registered for the Philadelphia Marthon this morning and as the first 1000 people to do so, I scored registration for only $80, which makes my bank account cry slightly less. Philly was my very first marathon in 2011 and I look forward to running it again as, what will hopefully be, my sixth this fall.

So, to sum up this post: I hated running this week, but decided to spend hundreds of dollars signing up for a bunch of marathons. Makes perfect sense I think.