Friday, March 18, 2011

Another catch-up post..

So once again I haven't been around for an extended period... it was the end of the quarter and things got hectic, and then I took this past week as a kind of mental reboot from life. I even did a painting (my first painting in 7 years--best decision ever to paint again). So needless to say I'm feeling much better, and aside from some grading I still have another week to myself to work on writing and things before it's back to the full academic grind.  I've been trying to remind myself that life is full of choices and everything I do is a choice, not an obligation.  When I see things that way everything is a lot less stressful.

Here are some running-related things:

Two weeks ago I did the rainiest run I think I've ever done.  I met 2 women from the running group out in the suburbs at 530am, and we did 11 miles together before the big group run at 8am, when I finished my last 4. It was raining SO HARD... part of the time it was like torrential downpouring.  The whole area was flooded.  We ran through shin-deep water at one point, and ankle-deep water several times.  My feet were entirely saturated.  No major blisters or anything though... the only problem was some inner-thigh chafe from my shorts (I never get any kind of chafing unless there's major rain involved...bleh).  I wanted to write about this run because I had like a mega-runner's high after it (15 miles in the rain ... yeah kind of awesome).  But then I didn't.

Last week I kind of sucked at running.  I was supposed to run 35 miles or something crazy and I ended up missing a couple runs and doing only 14 miles (wow that was bad..)  It was the last week of the quarter and I failed completely at work/life balance and also felt sick-ish on the weekend.  The good news is I feel better.  The bad news is, I had a week of only running 14 miles right in the thick of marathon training.

This week has been really great running-wise.  I did 7.3 miles on Sunday, 10 miles (half of which was speedwork) on Tuesday, and 8.7 miles (half of which was speedwork) yesterday.  Tmorrow I'll get 17 in as a long slow run, which means my weekly total is gonna be insane... like 43 miles.  The 7.3 on Sunday only kind of counts toward this week's total, though... it was halfassedly the postponed long run from Saturday that I had missed, and it was pretty pathetic because I felt like crap.  So I guess all in all I'll have like 36 or 37 GOOD miles this week.

Yesterday was my first ever 2 runs in one day.  I was pretty psyched after that.  I did speedwork in the early afternoon and an easy 4 miles with the running group in the evening for a total of 8.7 for the day.  And I didn't feel that bad.  Legs were really tired and I did go to bed kind of early, and today I'm a little bit sore, but nothing too crazy.

I was worried about getting enough miles in per week on the Daniels plan but now I see that the first speedwork day of each week is actually speedwork+distance... you do some tempo run stuff and then you keep running for awhile while tired, presumably to get used to running while tired.  So, this speedwork day actually ended up being 10 miles.  I'm technically not supposed to be pushing my long runs over 2.5 hours, but I'm nervous about not doing runs that are close to marathon distance so I've kind of built the Higdon long run structure into the Saturdays of my plan.  I'll see how I feel after the 17 tomorrow and if it's simply too much to do a run that long on weeks when I have 2 days of speed training and pretty high midweek mileage, I might drop the distance of those weekend runs back down.  We will see.

4 comments:

  1. In 2000 I ran the LA Marathon. It was pouring! Our shoes were soaked before we even started. And it was cold! In the 40s. My husband and a friend were smart and turned around at mile 5 and ran back. Another friend and I kept on running. And we kept on our plastic garbage bags for the whole race. I wouldn't have made it without my friend. I had hypothermia at the end (fortunately resolved with a hot shower). One of my proudest (or stupidest) finishes, we ran 3:33!

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  2. I feel like SUCH a slug compared to you.
    This time I'm doing Hal's Novice 2 again and peaking at 35 miles.

    Since my second marathon is only about 17 weeks out from the first one of the season, I'm going to use the fact that my mileage base will already be high and up to the Intermediate 1 Higdon plan, peaking at 44 and getting an an addition 20 miler in the plan. :) Then I will feel less like a lazy lazy fat ass. I don't know how you teach, do all the school work AND run 45 miles a week!!!

    Wonderwoman. <3

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  3. I agree with weeona -- running high mileage while dealing with end of term craziness is practically superhuman! Don't feel bad about the 14. Sometimes life just means you're not going to get the perfect marathon training schedule in. If you'd have tried to run through that week you've have knackered yourself mentally and physically, neither of which are conducive to good training ;-)

    And I LOVE running in hardcore rain. It really does make you feel badass! For me it's about being out in the elements (I love walking in the wind and snow and stuff, for similar reasons), but I also think it helps you keep cool, and able to maintain a good pace.

    Finally:
    "I've been trying to remind myself that life is full of choices and everything I do is a choice, not an obligation. When I see things that way everything is a lot less stressful."

    You're so right about that. Thanks for reminding me!

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  4. Debbie--That marathon sounds TERRIBLE! Congrats on sticking it out... really tough. And a great finishing time, too!

    Weeona--haha. We'll see if I manage to hit 45 again this week ;) I have a feeling it's not gonna be an ongoing thing, even though I'd like it to be.

    Alison--as usual, thanks for understanding :)

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