 
 
 
Feeling GoodTuesday, October 12, 2010
Had a VERY slow few miles this morning -- my legs were feeling utterly dead after last nights Bodypump followed by hooping. I was able to do a move that I couldn't do before for the first time at Hoop Class so that was exciting! I'm not good enough at it yet to do it consistently, but I was able to repeat execution of it at least 4-5 times so it makes me feel confident that with practice I will be able to get that one down. 
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CATIATM
10/13/2010 11:20AM
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One of my favourite things about you is how you constantly challenge yourself and try new things. 
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SKYFYRE
10/13/2010 12:54AM
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You are driven! I really feel unmotivated when I wake up early to exercise. I guess that would be different if I was a day shifter! Have fun on your run! Sounds like your hula skills are getting more and more ninja!
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SWEATONCEADAY
10/13/2010 12:41AM
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i used to not understand chunks of your blogs when they were in rowing lingo. now that hoola hooping paragraph has me even more confused lol. have a great run tomorrow. Report Inappropriate Comment |
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DDOORN
10/12/2010 11:43PM
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Bodypump, hooping...you sure know all about mixing it up...! Good for you! :-) Don Report Inappropriate Comment |
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SEEHOLZ
10/12/2010 2:48PM
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Bodypump.. the ST is coming along I see.. no wonder you're sore... Glad you're feeling good! 
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MBSHAZZER
10/12/2010 12:29PM
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Dana - the hooping class sounds like fun! I'm a big proponent of "more long runs are better"! So I think you're going to do great! Also, if you find it's too much, you've given yourself enough room to scale back. You can't go wrong! When is the marathon? Report Inappropriate Comment |
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KEAKMAN
10/12/2010 12:09PM
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I am still amazed that you can hoola hoop! I can totally see how it would be an AWESOME cardio workout, but I was never able to get the thing swinging. If I ever get a chance to try that class I am so going to do it.....should be good for a laugh if nothing else! And yes, I can see where Bodypump AND hooping in the same night can kill you. Glad you took it slow today. Listen to your body and respond appropriately. (It has recently dawned on me that the second part of that sentence is more important than the first!) Report Inappropriate Comment |
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RUNTRILAUGH
10/12/2010 11:20AM
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Hooping class.... sounds like something I could never do! SOOO not coordinated! But good job!!!! Report Inappropriate Comment |
My weight is pretty much stagnant over the past few weeks. I suppose I could be doing better tracking, but it's still kind of annoying. I stopped doing the deficit tracking and things stopped moving - even though I'm still eating (mostly) well and hitting workouts.
I NEED TO DO SOME STRENGTH TRAINING!!! I am so lame on that front right now. And I know my body needs it.
I had a bad race yesterday, Disappointed in myself but really I think my expectations and plan for the day were poorly conceived more than anything. I still finished, and got a time with a pace faster than my usual long run, faster than my (so -far) planned marathon pace.
It was a 15K that I squeezed in under 2 hrs.
Here are some estimated split times...
Mile 3: 34ish
Mile 5: 58ish
Mile 7: 1:26ish (so yes, those two miles between 5 and 7 utterly destroyed me)
Mile 8: 1:45 (WOW that'sa ridiculously slow mile! - 19 min??)
Mile 9.3: 1:59:15ish (clock time was like 1:59:45 ish I think, no chip timing, watch was around 30sec of of clock)
So... yeah. This road loop after mile 5 was miserable. I think right before mile 5 is when I took some Gatorade. And I was fighting puking the whole rest of the race. I guess I did 1.3 in 14 minutes or so, which is not bad for me at all - but honestly I walked most of mile 8 and just SPRINTED into the finish after mile 9. I started jogging a bit toward the end of mile 8 and had to stop and bend over to alleviate the nausea and somewhat dizziness.
The race was at the top of a "mountain" here in AL - 1600' elevation - and fairly rolling - especially from mile 5-7 more than anything. I ate a bowl of cereal in addition to my usual PB/Banana wrap before the race. And I took Gatorade. Those are the kind of variable factors involved here. I think I also selected a goal time and inital pace that was not commensurate w/ the rolling hills. Since I maintained it early on I figured I should keep trying for it until about mile 5 when I recognized I felt like total crap and I could feel my body just dragging and see the hills were getting more rolling. I didn't have an elevation map for this course... but I should've just run it at MP and then had the energy to add a few easy miles on a nice trail up there afterward to boost the mileage for the day since that was my LR. That was a plan I had but I decided instead that I thought I could run 1:45 for a 15K and ignored the fact that I had zero attempt at a taper, and ran 10K Thursday evening (which for me is a mid length run, one of the longer distances I'll do midweek), and had unknown course conditions, and wanted to add some extra miles. *DOH*
I do all this analysis not to excuse my performance, but to learn from it so I can avoid whatever choices I made that gave me a less than awesome result.
I also am starting to realize that my goal of breaking 5:30 for my marathon is probably unrealistic and attempting to maintain that kind of a pace will almost certainly result in blowup and possibly being swept off the course. I will hold any final judgement for my half marathon result in November (which I will most definitely prepare for as a RACE) -- but right now the plan is to try to run an even paced marathon race at around a 13min mile. Which means that last week's GREAT 17+ miler was too fast. I need to really slow down my long runs to ensure my endurance is there. I guess some could argue that maybe my race pace should be faster if an easy LR is at 13:15min miles, but I know I run slower than that sometimes and my LR shouldn't be faster than my slower runs I don't think. Granted most of those slower runs are shorter, average including my warmup mile w/ 5min minimum of walking... so the run pace is a bit slowed down...
But anyway. It was just a tough day yesterday and I'm feeling disappointed with adjusting my goal to not be able to achieve such a big improvement over my first marathon, which I felt was kind of a disaster. Why should I run a well executed race and improve only 15min over a complete disaster of a race? Over 26.2 miles? I mean I understand hoping for a huge PR on a shorter distance is kind of ridiculous, but considering I was done at the half of my first and drug my butt in to 5:55, it's kind of depressing to think that my new goal is only 5:40.
I am wondering because last year I actually thought I might be able to do the marathon between 5:15-5:30 if I had executed it well. Was that just ridiculous dreaming? And why I came in at 5:55? Are my expectations just actually realistic this year? Or am I actually that much slower?
So many questions. I definitely have quite a bit of training time between now and the marathon, but I'm not sure I will be making any kind of gains during that time other than preparing my body for the distance - not necessarily speed gains.
I want to dial in my nutrition to shed as much as realistically possibly before the race - every lb off this body will help! I'm not going to do anything crazy for that to happen, just want to get back to my deficit tracking and being more precise and clean and less willy-nilly with things. I can have freedom to not just eat carrot sticks, but I don't need to have that kind of leeway EVERYDAY ya know?
I want to ensure I'm still doing some speedwork - I kind of got off the beaten path w/ my training runs lately and have just been trying to GET IN SOME MILES without a good attempt at hitting proper training paces or doing any speedwork for the past few weeks - basically since I got sick before my half.
I just looked again at the training plan I wanted to base mine off of, from the latest marathon training special from Runner's World, and reminded myself of what my speedwork goals are.
This weekend I'm running a 5K for social reasons - for training purposes I'm doing my LR BEFORE the race. The race doesn't start until 9AM, so I will have plenty of time if I get started early to get in 15 miles (which is my goal). I will need to start running at like, 5AM. hahaha. At least. (in order to ensure my pace is NICE and SLOW) Good thing I got my headlamp.
After that I figure it's fine to run the 5K at whatever pace I feel like it. It'll be run hard, but after 15 miles I'm not sure hard will = any kind of proper 5K race pace! HAHA :D It'll be interesting to see what I have in the tank after that.
Today I'm running a few miles w/ my friend KEAKMAN in the Portland Marathon. No I won't be in Portland- the plan is to be in my neighborhood actually... her goal time is 14:24 min miles and an even pace, which will give her a PR over her last (also first) marathon time, which I believe was 6:38:xx, so a 20min PR! Which I think is an excellent and realistic goal!!! If all things go GREAT I think her stretch goal is under 6, which I don't think is out of the ballpark either.
If only I could be as understanding toward myself and not be such a nazi about the fact that I don't feel I'm getting any faster and if anything, maybe getting slower. *sigh*
OH! So all this has led me to set a new goal for my running post marathon.
I won't have a goal race right away, but I do have a goal training approach: Keep my mileage up somewhat. We're talking not going under 25 miles a week, aiming for an average of more like 30 (confession, I haven't hit 30 miles a week yet... dangit. I just checked my training - no wonder my paces are so miserable - I have had 25, 28, 29 - today's miles will get me to something like 27 for this week), but to maintain a long run distance of 10-13 miles each week, and incorporate regular speedwork. That sounds good right? I think if I can maintain that kind of training as a base in the spring, I should maintain better endurance for entering any kind of marathon training, but have enough energy to be able to devote time to some real speedwork as well. Since I won't be building mileage I won't have to worry about doing too much speed and building at the same time.
Anyway, point is - I need to blog more. All this has been spinning inside my head and getting me faosapthisaprihr crazy. Help alleviate my crazy, friends!
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HEALTHY4CAROLYN
10/12/2010 2:16PM
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Hi Dana! Can you tell me where to find more information on deficit tracking? I too am at a stand still losing weight though I've exercised and tracked food (haven't exercised much in the past week though due to a back pain issue). And hey - I'm not that in-tune with running marathon's - but geesh that sounds like a great time to me! 
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MBSHAZZER
10/11/2010 9:19AM
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Dana, sorry to hear that you had a bad race, but it was a very USEFUL race because you learned a lot. So, it was actually a GREAT race since it will make your next one better! :D As for your time goals... WOW!! I am looking to shave 2 minutes off of my marathon time and even that seems daunting! Don't look at it as "15 minutes over 26.2 miles"... 15 minutes is HUGE! Any time improvement is a big deal. Always moving forward! And I do think that keeping your mileage up after a race is a great way to keep the momentum going and keep your fitness up. Think about it this way... if you keep up the mileage, you can focus on improving your pace instead of building your mileage back up! Have a great week! Report Inappropriate Comment |
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SEEHOLZ
10/11/2010 7:26AM
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I think that's what I consider building a base and it's good to have a plan.. back in your head! SOunds to me like overall the running is coming along, just not the way you had hoped. But, like you said, with some tweaking, you'll get there... it's a journey for a reason and I think you are doing just fine. But, I know the feeling of being kind of disappointed, so hugs. Anyways, keep us posted! Report Inappropriate Comment |
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BOBBYD31
10/10/2010 9:32PM
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we run to learn or at least we should learn with each run. today was a learning experience sometimes we learn more than other times. over all you got some good training in even if it was not what you expected.
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KEAKMAN
10/10/2010 8:30PM
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As we both saw today, shaving 15 minutes off your marathon pace would be pretty dang amazing! Think about it - that is 34 seconds per mile faster! THAT is a lot faster Dana! After my debacle today I thought about elite runners, and how they usually set new records of *maybe* a minute faster, or 2.5 seconds per mile faster. Now that seems much more realistic. Learn from me. Be realistic. And do what you have trained for. Shoot for 3 or even 5 seconds per mile faster. It will feel AWESOME to PR 75 seconds to 2 minutes faster than #1. And that will feel better than 90 minutes slower than your first marathon!! THANKS for running with me today - you are awesome! Report Inappropriate Comment |
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HOPERY
10/10/2010 7:49PM
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You are still my personal hero! I can't believe you are prepping for marathon # 2. YOu are a rock star!
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KNH771
10/10/2010 2:14PM
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Not being a runner myself, I am just amazed at every finish you accomplish. I'd be shocked and happy just to make it over the finsih line! I'm sorry your results weren't what you wanted yesterday, but I'm sure you'll figure out the adjustments you need to make.
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SKYFYRE
10/10/2010 1:10PM
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Dana, this is not crazy at all, this is very insightful. Why kill yourself for a PR of 15 minutes less than your last marathon, I think a goal of completing the marathon in the same time, but far better condition is a more admirable goal. I love that you are looking to the future with your running and speedwork. I think that if you read up on speed training you will find that the weeks before the marathon are not meant to turn you into speedy gonzalez, so focusing on speed work for next years marathon is brilliant! I hear you on the eating thing. I restarted my calorie deficit training 3 days ago. Join me! I want you to know how truly incredible you are. No matter the way you were feeling on yesterdays run, you still finished it. I imagine you must have been suffereing a bit there especially during that 19 minute mile, but you kept on going. Maybe the run was bad but YOU are AMAZING!! Take it easy on that 5K that is a LONG morning of running, Girlie! Report Inappropriate Comment |
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DDOORN
10/10/2010 1:03PM
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Hey, I know these things are all relative, but I just don't think ANYONE who can finish a 15K can call it a "bad" experience...! :-) Maybe a "learning" experience...and it seems like you are doing your best to make it so...! Great to hear from you Dana...! We all go through "quieter" phases...I did earlier this year...but lately have been more blabby and bloggy...lol! Check out some of my recent cycling blogs...lots of pics lately since I've figured out how to use my cell phone's camera! Don Report Inappropriate Comment |
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MSSUNBUG
10/10/2010 12:35PM
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Actually, I think 15 mins shaved off is pretty darn good--and I'm imagining that you'll like see even more than that off come race day. Think of it this way: if you managed ANOTHER 15 minutes shaved off in the coming six months... I mean, that adds up! You know what you need to do. Just as with weight, see if you can keep you the numbers in perspective. Most people never even get up the courage or strength or endurance (it takes all three) to CONTEMPLATE running a marathon. And you're doing it for the second time! Regardless of your time, you're going to have finished TWO marathons. How many people do you know who can lay claim to THAT? BTW, I'm super sensitive about what I eat before running. AND gatorade consistently makes me want to hurl. It could really be that simple. Good luck with the training--and the weight loss. You're doing all the right things, take good care! Report Inappropriate Comment |
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BRUIN2
10/10/2010 10:36AM
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When I was marathon training (ok, any race training really) - there were three runs that made the world of difference: long run, hills, and a tempo or speed run. So I think you should be building speed work into your training even if you aren't hitting the high mileage. You need to get those legs turning over faster! I don't think you are making excuses for the race - you know the reasons that things didn't go as planned...and that's ok. What matters is that you are out there! You are running! Focus on what you ARE doing!!!! Report Inappropriate Comment |
adds weight too. And lactic acid build. But but duh, you know this. I liked Amee's story of the kitty litter. HAHA! She would. My scale hasn't been my friend lately either. but i'm liking the way i look in the mirror more and more. So that's the most important thing. So just do some urban striptease videos in your mirror and you'll be good to go!! ;) 
