Has it been a week already.....

from my last post???

Time just vanishes when you're working, mothering, and running 36+ miles per week!

The 14 miler on Saturday, turned out to be a solo 11 mile run. Sis had a bad chest cold so she excused herself from the run. My knee started acting up a bit on me so I walked the last 2 miles and skipped the last 3 altogether. I substituted yoga instead for the 3--not really equal, but it was needed.

Actually, I'm doing quite a bit of (focusing on poses that work on the legs) over the last few weeks. Today I can happily report that I had not even a twinge of ITB pain on my hilly 6.5 miler today and I finished the route 10 minutes faster than my last PR!

I'm doing another 6 tomorrow and then resting up for the 20! on Saturday.

I'll post on Sunday (I'm promising) and let you all know how that went.

Cheers and happy running!

There are no bad hills...

We did 18 miles on Saturday. Most of the running was done on trails at the local regional park. Sis wanted to stay close to home and the park offered water fountains and 'real' bathrooms (we could write a travel guide on the best porta-potties in Sonoma County at this point). The caveat to running in this park is that you can't go 50 yards without encountering a hill of some sort.

The first 3 miles weren't all that bad, we reasoned we'd walk the hills and run the rest.

Then a funny thing happened. We were running UP the hills too. I got this crazy boost of energy. My breathing felt good, my legs were strong, my mood was up up up. I had a Beck's "Summer Girl" stuck in my head (which has a great rhythm for running). Sis felt the same way (although she hates Beck).

At 10 miles we stopped at the bathroom and did the usual and refilled our water. I had some sports-beans too. I had the first bag around 6 miles (first time I actually ate while running...I just didn't want to stop). I just wanted to stay on this boost. I felt so energized I felt a bit like The Great Cornholio
Sis didn't know what to make of me.

The next 6 were uneventful. My legs started to tire, Sis started to really slow, so we took it easy (ie....walked or hiked a lot)

The last 2 miles we picked it up again and ran most of it. Not bothering with intervals, we just wanted to see if we could run. And we did!

With the crazy hills we did on this run we have convinced ourselves that this run was really like 22 miles. Don't really care what the reality is.....

We've got 14 on Saturday and I'm thinking we'll do the hills again.

Rice
is so right!!! There are no bad hills. Thank you for reminding me of that!

One Run

It's funny how one single run can turn things around.

I've been feeling really burned out from running lately. I just can't find any mojo or energy to do it. I began to think that maybe I was running too many miles; that maybe this whole marathon thing was a bad idea.

I have to admit I slacked a lot on my runs lately. Either doing shorter runs than scheduled or doing a lot more walking just because I didn't feel like running.

But something happened on my run yesterday. I decided to do this 6.5 mile loop that goes through some pretty hilly (but very scenic and peaceful) areas. The run started off exactly like all my other ones have recently--all of those thoughts and feelings bubbling up. I don't want to do this, I'm too tired, I am really not cut out for this...you know, standard stuff. I bargained with myself that I as long as I did these miles I wouldn't run up any of those steep hills (aren't we always bargaining when it comes to running?). I just go to get these miles in.

What turned the run around, was for some reason I decided to run up one of the more steeper hills. Yeah, it was hard. Yeah, my heart rate was through the roof, but I did it. After conquering that hill, something changed. I finally felt I had energy...maybe I got a little of my mojo back. I don't know--but that run was the best one I've had in a few weeks.

Good thing too, because tomorrow we've got to do 18 freaking miles.

Oh lordy.........................

Losing It

What a week. I realized almost 3 weeks too late that I somehow forgot to mail my rent check. When I went to call my landlord from my cellphone, I got a message that it was turned off for non-payment. I've been forgetting to pay my bills! This normally doesn't happen!

WTF???

Between work, my daughter back in school, and spending seemingly endless hours on the road--more things are slipping through the cracks, and the cracks are getting bigger.

This week I was supposed to run 4 miles on Tuesday, 8 on Wednesday, and 5 on Thursday. I did run the 4 miles on Tuesday, "ran" 5 miles on Wednesday, and skipped Wednesday altogether.

On top of this, I had my "husband" (God, I really don't know what to call him anymore...we've been separated for over a year) over for dinner yesterday--I guess his other "relationship" has become rocky--and now he wants to work on getting back together. This is after me giving him my blessing to seek other "relationships" months ago. How can one tell a crying man that you don't want any romantic relationship--I felt like if I said something that I would be kicking him when he is down.

Well...I'm actually looking forward to our 12 miler tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a nice, easy run and I'll be able to talk about this crap with sis. We do use our runs as a bit of a problem management session. It does make the miles pass a little quicker.....

16 miles--4 hours 4 minutes

I'm pretty happy with Saturday's 16. My sis has been really worried about having to do the whole marathon, breaks and all in less 7 hours (16 minute miles). She really cranked it up for Saturday's run.

Instead of stopping the Garmin during potty breaks, long stretches, stop-lights, and even a long 5 minute stretch-powerbar eating brake, I just let the Garmin tick off the minutes. This is something I never did.

We started off with our standard 5 minute walk and then ran the first 3 1/2 miles before settling into our run/walk intervals. We decided to try doing Four/Twos instead of Three/Twos because sis found it really hard to transition so frequently. It worked well! We both actually found that it felt about the same or even a bit easier.

Around the 9th mile, I started feeling a bit stiff and started getting the ITB pain in both legs. The biofreeze helped quite a bit, but I really felt the pain around mile 12. I switched to Race-Walking. I remember a runner friend in high-school telling me that race-walking is all about the hips. I had still had lots and lots of hip action left so I put it in gear. Sis was slowing down at this point and I found that I could still race-walk at about 14 minute mile--with NO pain. Sis found that slow running was easier than race-walking so I just let her set the pace and I used my hips to keep up with her.

At the end of the run we both felt like we could go on longer--even maybe a lot longer.

We finished in 4 hours 4 minute...and like I said this included all the stretching, potty, and eating breaks--Just like a real marathon. Sis didn't realize that our walking breaks are pretty slow...like 19 minute miles (when she has her way). She vows to keep that in mind and walk a bit faster next week.

This week is a recovery week, so we'll be doing 12 on Saturday. We are going to do our 5 minute warm-up walk before we start our run and go around 4 or 5 miles before we slide into intervals. Depending on how we feel at that point, we may try doing Five/Twos.

I was only a little sore the next day and today I'm feeling great. I'll post my new ITB strategy next time.

Real Quick

I mean, this post is going to be real quick

It's 7:14 AM and I'm supposed to be leaving at 7:30 to go up to sis' for our 16 and I'm still in my PJs. It's amazing how much this marathon training has taken over my life. The important things are still important, like parenting and work. But some things have been falling through.

Like housework, for instance.

My house is a complete mess. I couldn't even find a clean towel this morning. There are cobwebs everywhere (doesn't help I live in the country), I cringe every time I open the fridge.

I haven't mowed my lawn in over 2 weeks--my garden is overgrown and unloved.

I haven't picked up my mail from the post office in over a week.

But those things aren't a priority for me right now. This damn marathon is.

We "only" have 5 more runs that are over 12 miles then it's taper time. I think my house can wait until then......Thank god I don't have to worry about what the Mother-in-Law thinks anymore.