Training

This past Sunday:

East Bay Bike Path with a fellow pharmacist from work who just finished a half. 1:56 easy for a 13 miler, hopefully this means sub 4 in Miami isn't a pipe dream.

14 today.

After a night out, training didn't seem like a great idea last night so I scratched the 7 miler planned and turned to a comforting long run of 14 right in the heart of the storm. It was so bad that I'm currently washing my gloves, jacket, t-shirt, shorts, shoes, socks. I had to do the last 3 on the apartment treadmill for fear of getting a cold or injuring myself.

After tacking on my miles on the treadmill these past months, running 11 through Providence, despite the dreary weather, was just what I needed. I may be alone in this, but I like running just for the simple act of running; not really concentrating on races or times. Knowing I was one of a few crazy souls to run and thinking it was a good idea to. Getting lost in songs I forgot about thanks to shuffle. The leaves changing. Calves coated in remnants of the haphazard trail I usually take across the city (anyone who's followed me around the city knows what I mean). A couple new side streets and houses to gawk at. Businesses coming and going and the slow construction on Weybosset St. and Blackstone Park, as if I knew these places like the back of my hand thanks to running.

The past couple months have been a bit taxing. It's nice to have a goal in mind (run 14 miles) and have that as your thought and accomplishing it that day. None of your other problems are solved by the end (at least for my runs) but you definitely have a more positive outlook; you have to considering I had to do a couple loud claps to keep myself motivated.

Marathon Time

One week down, 15 more to go.

This week's long run of 10 miles was at 10:00 minute pace for the Cumberland Duo + myself. After the first week, knees are holding up but my left foot definitely feels a bit weird on the outer section. The first couple of weeks of training should be fine since the mileage is where I have been all year. In a month, it'll start ramping up to where I will be entering uncharted territory.

This experience definitely will test two things that I have not really been tested upon: faith and commitment. I have to trust in a higher power that my training will take me to the finish line and I have to follow more or less a plan that will make my long runs nowadays pale in comparison.

Plan for marathon:

Run together for the first 10 miles

Or we could always just ride a bus for the last 6 miles.

We have no excuses to not run a marathon: Running with a baby on board and 100 year old runner

To-do list:

Find a hotel room for Sunday night post-race.

Jess Runs Her First Marathon - Part 2: Race Day

"The marathon is a charismatic event. It has everything. It has drama. It has competition. It has camaraderie. It has heroism. Every jogger can't dream of being an Olympic champion, but he can dream of finishing a marathon." --Fred Lebow, NYC Marathon co-founder

"A marathoner is a marathoner regardless of time. Virtually everyone who tries the marathon has put in training over months, and it is that exercise and that commitment, physical and mental, that gives meaning to the medal, not just the day’s effort, be it fast or slow. It's all in conquering the challenge." --Mary R. Wittenberg, president of NY Road Runners Club

I found these two quotes online while searching for inspiration on starting this particular blog. Like many of my own life decisions, I really couldn't pick just one! These two quotes say a lot about what the marathon meant to me. After training and experiencing my first 26.2 this weekend, I can definitely relate to both.

A marathon is absolutely dramatic. From the first day of training to crossing the finish line. You put a lot of hard work into one race. Months of sweat, blood, and tears. Motivation, frustration, and plenty of satisfaction along the way. All of that is quite dramatic. Enough said.

A marathon is competitive. I am a competitive person. There are many different types of runners. People running at various paces and levels of experience. Everyone wants to finish. Some people want to win, some want to PR, and some just want to survive. During the first half, the marathoners ran amongst the half-marathoners. There were half-marathoners zooming by me as I was trying to pace myself for the first half. It took a lot for me to resist keeping up with them. I had to keep reminding myself not to speed up, keep my pace. Or else I'll be hurting during the last half. The marathoners were far and few in between among the sea of half-marathoners so pacing myself at the beginning with other marathoners was quite a challenge. I wanted to look better and faster than some of the runners around me, but I had to remember that we weren't at the same level. I was going double the distance, don't push it. I think during this race, I was mostly competing with myself. Fighting the urge to speed up, but pushing myself so I could finish.

A marathon has camaraderie. Throughout the race, I would occasionally be running along side another person going a similar pace. I had a couple conversations during the run. The first conversation was about the weather. We had such great weather, but it was windy. And then the view. Such beautiful views of the ocean. It was breath-taking. It was cool to share that with others runners. During miles 14-17, I paced with another runner who was in the same boat as me. It was her first marathon and her training only brought her to a maximum of 22 miles as well. She had done some triathlons before so we discussed that for a while. We talked a lot but we never shared each others name. That's okay, it helped keep my mind off the pain. I ended up going ahead of her because she had to stop at a water station. "Can't stop. Won't stop." When the course would come back around I would see my new friend running the opposite way and we high-fived each time. It was pretty awesome to have that extra support along the way.

A look at my goals for the race:

1. Finish the entire thing --- check
2. Run the entire 26.2 miles --- check
3. Complete it in 4 hours and 30 minutes --- Ehhh... close enough.

My official time is 4:43:28 which is an average pace of 10:49. I would say that is still successful. I'm just so happy to have finished it and ran the entire race. I got a little nervous about my time goal when I passed through the half-way point at 2:15. That is definitely my slowest half marathon, but if it was directly in the middle of my time goal, and I still had the hardest part left, I knew then that I wasn't going to make my personal time goal. Luckily I was able to shake off that disappointment really fast. Now to just finish. "A marathoner is a marathoner regardless of time".

The hills were my enemy. The course was much more hilly than I expected. Who knew that an island would be so hilly! When the race went into the second half into Middletown, it was brutal. The hills really slowed me down. Brought me to an 11-12 minute pace. The downhills were nice as I was able to stride and buy some time. If there weren't any hills, I think 4:30 would have been much more possible.

I did have to stop, just once. I stopped at a water station to refill two water bottles. Other than that, I kept on going. I grabbed sips of water at most of the water stations and a banana at ~mile 16. The banana was an awesome idea! I was a little leery of having a banana during my run as my training did not include bananas mid-run. The added potassium was just what I needed at that moment and I really felt the positive effects of the nutrients from the banana. It was a pleasant surprise.

Marathon Tips:

1. Lay out all your race stuff the night before. Make sure your GPS watch and iPod is fully charged. (AND don't forget your sneakers the morning of! Haha, I almost did!)
   
2. If you're used to carrying hydration with you, do it. I carried my fuelbelt with 4 8-ounce bottles. Three bottles had water mixed with Accelerade in it, and one bottle for plain water. I also grabbed water and gatorade at stations along the way.
   
3. Pace yourself in the beginning. It's easy to get caught up in the adrenaline and excitement from other runners around you. If you don't pace yourself in the beginning, you will be hurting in the end.
   
4. Don't push yourself during the taper down weeks. The taper down is important. It may make you feel like you should be doing more, but don't push it. My taper down consisted of short easy runs. The shorter runs tempted me to run faster. I ran faster, and developed a shin splint on my left leg a week prior to the marathon. The three days prior to the race, I did not run. My shin started to heal but I was still worried. I didn't feel it much throughout the race, but I am definitely paying for it now.

Also, take a look at this link the week before your marathon for some last-minute tips and motivation before the big day: 10 Race-Day Preparation Tips

If I ever do another marathon again, I am happy to have a time to try to beat now. I am very competitive with myself and my goal would be to shave a considerable amount of time off my first race. I ran 26.2. I know I can do it. Just have to fine-tune some things. I'm still not 100% sure that I want to run another marathon... It's a lot of work.

Jess Runs Her First Marathon - Part 1: Training (sprinkled with a little bit of pre-race nerves)

It has been forever since I've posted anything here. Do not worry...I am still running! The marathon is tomorrow and the past couple of days I have taken some time to reminisce about the past 7 months of training for the marathon.

594 miles, 28 weeks, 1 goal.

1 goal: 26 miles before I turn 26 (turned 25 in August, so tomorrow may be a goal setting day for me!)
28 weeks: Seems like a long time, but it certainly does fly by! Especially when you're running almost 600 miles during that time period
~600 miles: At an average pace of 9-10 minutes per mile is approximately 5,700 minutes = 95 hours. Breaking it down like that, proves that it is a lot of time on the pavement. Running became a part of my everyday life. Even on days I didn't run, I thought of running.

The following picture is an overview of my 28-week training period (courtesy of the ole' standby Nike+ Coach Program):

The weeks were, for the most part, tolerable. A majority of my runs were 5-12 miles. When the intensity picked up, I was running 5-6 days out of the week. With one long run at the end of each week. "Short" runs being 4 miles and the longest run was 22 miles.

The program never pushed me to run more than the actual marathon distance. I've heard mixed reviews on this approach. I am okay with not having run the marathon distance before. I have used Nike+ training in the past, with the 5K, the 10-miler, and the half marathons. I have had success and trusted these programs so I felt comfortable only running 22 miles as my farthest run. We will see how that works out for me tomorrow!

Training was a challenging experience for me. There were good weeks, some bad weeks, awesome feel-good runs, and runs where you just feel like giving up on the whole thing. My levels of motivation and confidence were all over the place.

The following are a few random things that I've learned throughout my training.

1. Sidewalks are dangerous (well in RI at least):
   The famous "Rhode Island" roll-out. Operators of cars do not realize there is someone in the sidewalk that wants to cross until they are well over the crosswalk creeping out so that they can cut someone off. I would have to run behind cars countless times. Most of the time I would make sure to make eye contact with the driver and give them a dirty look. Needless to say, I found much better luck on the road in the shoulders.
2. Children are hazardous:
   Especially on bikes. On the bikepath. Typically children drive right into the direction they are staring at. When they see a runner like me with all my gear for long runs (hydration pack, head phones, GPS watch), they look at my like I'm insane. Watch out for those kids. They'll getchya!
3. Camelbacks actually do work well: It was an idea one day. I ran out of water too soon on a hot day. I had just four 8-oz bottles on my fuelbelt. I knew I needed to do something about my hydration. I thought of a camelback. Toyed around with the idea for a bit, then finally just bought one. Best idea ever. I bought the smallest one so that I wasn't carrying too much on my back. It was still 50 ounces of pure hydration. Amazing. It never felt too heavy and I had plenty of water for my long runs (I obviously don't like circling around or stopping anywhere).
   
4. Life sometimes gets too busy:
   There were weeks where I only ran 1-2 times. I skipped some runs. It was a crazy 7 months with 5 weddings to attend, moving from Western MA back to RI, adjusting to a new work schedule (twice) and finally getting settled in. There are a lot of life things to do besides run. Unfortunately running took a back burner a few weeks out of the training. However, I was always able to get back onto track pretty easily. It's okay to take a break once in a while. I followed the training program about 80%... I would say that's still successful.
5. Getting sick sucks: I traveled to Montana in September for my cousin's wedding. Montana is not the most direct place to get to. I had to take a total of 6 different planes round trip. It was inevitable I was going to get sick. But damn. I was feeling like crap for about a week. I don't know what I had. I ran a couple of times during that week, but they were probably my worst runs ever. It being late September by this time, I was getting quite worried! Don't get sick. It will be your ultimate low in the training, lol.
   

Blood. Sweat. And yes, tears.

Blood: Simple enough. Blood from blisters and chaffing. I got a couple bruises on my pelvis area from having my fuelbelt on too tight.
Sweat: To the point that I wasn't just sweating, I was salty and gritty. Kudos to Tang for pointing out that I should have more salt/electrolytes while running. I was drinking enough water, but not replenishing the salt/electrolytes effectively.
Tears: I did get discouraged from time to time. Worried. Frustrated. How am I going to complete 26.2 miles? Am I really ready? Can I do this? It was indeed an emotional experience as well.


It's here though. Whether I am ready or not. The marathon is just hours away. Stay tuned for the race report. I'm excited to see how I do. I expect it will take me about 4 and a half hours. That's a long time but my ultimate goal is just to run the whole thing. I just want to run. Pace myself. And have a good time.

To be continued...

Maine half marathon race report

I think it's been about a year since my last race report. It hasn't really been due to laziness or that I didn't run any races, but its been about disappointment with my times. Especially the last couple half marathons I was so aggravated with my times that I didn't feel like dwelling on about them. My goal all year for the half-marathon was PR first and foremost and sub-2:00 being the secondary objective. In the Pawtucket half in May, my head cold coupled with a lack of long-runs and overall training, led me to run the exact same time as my PR... 2:03:33. Then came the Rock and Roll Half in August. I was completely undertrained for this one. It was at the peak of the summer heat, and I was putting 10 mile weeks tops. I'm not even going to say that time, but rest-assured I was completely disappointed with it.

I decided since it had cooled off a little bit, that I was going to ramp up the training for not only this half, but for the upcoming marathon. I put up 3 runs over 10.5 miles, which I hadn't done yet this year. Plus 4 weeks of close to 30 miles. I was hoping that 4 weeks would be enough, but I knew I probably started upping the miles too late to make much of a difference. But all I really needed to do was PR.

We got to the race with plenty of time to spare. So I wanted to get at least 2 bathroom visits in before the race started. The weather was not pleasant at all. It was around 60 and raining. We saw that the only bathrooms were 3 porta-potties with a huge line outside. Seriously how is there only 3 porta-potties. So after 15 minutes of being frozen by the rain, I had one of the best bathroom visits of my life. Primetime. Later we realized there was a bathroom in the basement of the gym we were standing in front of. So the second trip I went there. It was warm down there, but my God, that was the most disgusting bathroom I have ever been in. Somehow it smelled about 10x worse than the porta potties.

As usual we got to the starting line just as the race was kicking off. They had a friggen loud cannon right at the start and then we were off. Pat and I tried to get as close to the front as we could, but there wasn't a whole lot of time. As a result, my pace for the first mile felt really slow. I was even caught behind some walkers. Seriously, if you are going to walk from the start why would you not stand in the very back. I tried not to bob and weave through to conserve energy as best I could. I thought for sure I was going 10+ minute place, but when I looked at my watch after the first mile it was 9 flat. Which is just under 2 hour pace... I could sign for sure.

I was trying to hold that 9 minute pace for the first few miles and see how I felt and go from there. After 3 miles, I hit 27:20. I little bit off pace, at this point I was beginning to worry a little about sub 2. The pace was a little more difficult now then it was that first mile. Right after that 3rd mile sign I heard some sirens. As we were crossing an intersection, one of the race volunteers ran into the middle of the road and stopped us from crossing. We waited there for at least 20 seconds before the firetruck came. I was getting so antsy, but everyone behind my was screaming at the woman. We still had to wait for 2 more firetrucks to come, which ended up being at least a minute delay. I was pretty deflated after that because I knew I was close to not being able to hit that sub-2 pace as it was. Oh well, the PR is what really matters, which was like 9:25 pace.

After she let us go again, I told myself I wouldn't push it too hard and make up the time too quickly. Well that was pretty fruitless, because I still hit the 4th mile at 36:30. I was still going in the wrong direction.. barely at sub-2 pace, and past on my past halves I would fall off a little bit the last 3 miles. Whatever just keep running. The first few miles of the course was pretty scenic, running alongside the bay. But once we hit that 4th mile we were running through some neighborhoods. At about mile 5, we could see the leaders that have already hit the turnaround. They were flying. So I knew Pat wouldn't be far behind. At this point I was really starting to hit a groove, but I stopped looking at my watch. I saw Pat later then I thought I would, either I was doing worse than I though or I was doing better... and it's Pat so he obviously wasn't doing bad.

At the turnaround point, there was a lot more spectators then I expected. Those people cheering plus seeing Pat, gave me a nice boost past the only hilly stretch on the course. At the halfway point, I was at 58:10. I made up some ground and the sub-2 was looking really promising at that point.

The other 2 halves this year, I was doing fine till mile 9 or 10, then my lack of training kicked in and I felt like I was lucky to finish. This time at mile 9 I still felt fresh... mile 10... still fresh. I didn't really start to tired out till midway through mile 11. At this point I really had no idea on my pace. I knew my Garmin was going to be off. For some reason it has always added about .2 to .25 miles on these half marathons. I think it is because they way they measure the courses. I knew the pacing it said was off, so I tried not to think about it and just run as well as I could.

The other goal I had for this half, was no walking. I had walked at least a little in the other 3, usually just after the water stops. This time I only stopped once for water and I ran through it. Since I started only getting fatigued at the 11.5 mile marker, I knew I could handle a mile and a half of sucking it up and not walking at all. That last stretch I kept trying to slow down to save some energy for that final kick, but my body wouldn't do it. Every time I slowed down, I just sped up again. Once I saw the crowd and knew the finish line was there, I gave it everything I had. I saw the clock and was in complete disbelief. I knew I was going to PR. I thought I had a really good chance at breaking 2 hours. And I thought on a good day I could break 1:58 or 1:57. But there is no way I would believe I could run a 1:53:44. I was pretty damn excited.

For me, the best PRs are not only the ones where there are big gains, but races that I finish strong. Races where I know I left time on the course, which leaves me optimistic for future races. I did the first half in 58 and change, and came home in almost 55:30. I know I can run sub 1:50 with minimal more training. And even better, this is a huge boost going into marathon training. I can't wait. First up though are some big PR's in the 5k and 10k. I'm aiming for sub 23 and sub 49. This report probably doesn't make any sense but I refuse to proofread anything I write.