Marathoning....take 2....

I really fail at blogging lately, but I'm trying to get back into it.

So since my last post, I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in just under six hours (5:57:39 to be exact). Kind of disappointing, especially because I had an internal mental breakdown at mile 14 (MILE FOURTEEN I TELL YOU!). Basically, did not take Tums, got feeling ill, didn't eat or drink for 2 hours, and by that time...well it was just finishing at that point.

And because I am my own worst critic and a self-described perfectionist in everything I do (with the exception of cleaning, LOLZ), that only meant I had to try again.

And I tell you, I had a great plan back in December:

1. Train for a fast 5k in February
2. Train for a fast 10 miler in April
3. Train for a fast half marathon in June
4. Train all summer for a fast(er) marathon in October.

Boss, right?

WELL....as I have found out repeatedly this year, planning is useless. (Seriously, ask me about that wedding I'd planned to have sometime next year....)

1. I plum-ass FORGOT to sign up for the 5k, which was Love the Run You're With. Like....walked up to the registration desk, checked bank statements, etc. before it dawned on me that I FORGOT TO SIGN UP FOR THE RACE I WAS TRAINING FOR.

2. Right around March I started to have really bad hamstring pain, which put a huge damper in my training. I was actually considering pulling out of the race, but then the Boston Marathon bombing happened. And let's just say, it dawned on me that this could very well be my last race (I mean, you never know, see post above about planning). So I ran the GW Parkway Classic in something...who knows. Because I had SERIOUS GI issues; the difference between my watch time and bib time was something like 15 minutes.

Oh, and that hamstring pain? Turns out my left butt was "asleep" (not firing correctly), and causing my gait to be off. Pain was gone in about three days. WTF.

3. I knew going into the VA Wine Country Half that SOMETHING was going to go wrong. I mean, I was 0 for 2, how could this one go any better? And, I was right (hooray?). It was humid, hot, gross, and miserable. And it had been a ridiculously cold spring, so I was woefully unprepared for the humidity. In fact, I actually considered going to the medical tent and/or passing out. But if I passed out, they would call my emergency contact, which happened to be my ex-boyfriend (see aforementioned comment re: wedding above). So I finished in - literally - my worst time ever.

Which brings us to #4 - train all summer. Well first thing, I was in Florida, and my great dreams of keeping to my running schedule were dashed due to high humidity and high alcohol levels (hey, I'd just gotten out of a long-ass relationship, quit judging). Then, during week 1 of training, I was driving my baby cousin all over south Florida looking at colleges. Then aforementioned cousin got me sick, like - fever-sick (I can't remember the last time I had a fever). So two weeks went by with very little running, and the running that did happen was slow and miserable.

HOWEVER.

Last week, I finally got back on schedule, due to a couple of things. I realized that being sick with a gross-ass lung infection + asthma + humidity + pollution = nearly fainting, so I did something I haven't done in at least three years - run on a treadmill.

But I was sprinting 9 minute miles. Easy. Like, I might have been able to do 8:30s. And I wasn't coughing my face off. And I wasn't dizzy. At ALL.

Then I was able to do 7 miles yesterday on my first "long run" of the marathon training season. And I actually enjoyed it - I was like, "Damn, Whit, you're drinking your Nuun, out at 7am, it's only 75 or so and cloudy, and you're at Haines Point. This is exactly where I want to be right now." And I even smiled (You should click on that link to hear how I am saying "smiled").

In all, I did a grand total of 19 miles this week: 3 on Monday in my neighborhood, 3 on Tuesday with Pacers, 3 on Wednesday in the gym, 3 on Thursday with Pacers, and 7 on Saturday with Pacers.

Next week, I am aiming to do 21 miles:

Monday: 3 Miles + Weights and such at the gym (In lieu of killing myself in the heat and humidity, I'm going to take advantage of the gym, free weights, and dog-less stretch time.)
Tuesday: 3 miles with Pacers (depending on how I'm feeling, maybe 4)
Wednesday: Speed Work with Pacers (distance is maybe 2-3 miles)
Thursday: 3 miles with Pacers
Saturday: 10 miles with Pacers

I'm planning (dammit Whit, what have I told you about planning!!!!) to do a little more building of my base mileage until I am completely caught up, 21 this week, 24 next week, 28 week after that, before dropping down during my off week. I'm also going to start off only doing 3 every day during the week, before gradually upping my mileage to 4 miles (during the long run off week), then 5 miles at the next long run off week. I think the biggest thing I didn't do last year was keep up with my mileage during the week.

So that's a long story of what's happening in the Full-Whit universe. I really am going to try to continue and blog this marathon training this year, because I feel like it motivates me and allows me to overanalyze every single thing that I do, which is kind of my cuppa tea.

So with that, I leave you with a little bit of running humor. I'll be here in just a few weeks....

My First Failure :'(

So I'm being melodramatic. It wasn't a failure, and I got a PR, and it's not super important.

BUT I'M SO BUMMED OUT.

Backstory:

Clarendon Day Race   is a 5k/10k double race. I thought, oh, you know I can do a 5k, and I can do a 10k. So I can do both! Besides, that, plus an additional mile back to the starting point, is about 10 miles - right where I need to be doing!

The thing was, you have to run the 5K in about 30 minutes or so, then run back to the starting line, and be ready to go at 9:05. So basically, 45 minutes to run ~4.5 miles.

To begin with , I did not have coffee this morning, did not have any sort of bread-carb (just a smoothie), and did not sleep very well. Had sushi last night (what was I thinking), and my stomach hurt.

I think you know where this is going.

BOOM - Like a crazy jack-rabbit, I go flying out of the start line, going a cool 9 minutes/mile. One mile down, feeling awesome, one and a half, feeling....meh... Two miles in...oh my god what did I do. Two and a quarter, walking. Two and a half, slow jogging. Two and three quarters, walking. Three miles, I really have to run teh rest of this.

But I was still ok, time-wise, and jogged my way back.

Up a hill worse than the Hill of Doom.

Actually, let's just be frank here, I was walking.

By the time I was almost back, the race had started, and people were jogging. By now, I was feeling just the worst, and was looking at another 6 miles.

So I did what I have been so good to not do recently - I gave up.

Here's my 5k result - a personal record of 30:07.

I've been kicking myself all day for giving up, wondering "what if I had just done x or not been so y." But, you know, this was really outside the box of anything that I have ever done before, and I am always energy conscious (trying not to do too much too fast too early). And to get a PR on a 5k is really awesome - and then to walk all the way up the hill again is pretty cool too.

Besides that, doing 10 miles today would not have been a good training exercise for my half. Quick bursts of speed are not the way (for me) to complete my race (in one week YIKES!). Slow and steady is my strategy.

So in the morning, I will drag myself out of bed for my very last "long run" prior to my half marathon, where I will run my second 10 miler (did my first last week, didn't blog about it, oh well :P).

There is a reason for everything, I guess. I'll take this as a learning experience, and do even better next year.

Lost Dog 5k #4!

So I got back from my conference early Friday morning and then proceeded to sleep for the rest of the day. Then I got up, did NOT go to yoga like I was supposed to (bad me) and went to go do my LD 5k.

RunKeeper Result

Distance: 5k
Duration: 33:12
Avg. Pace: 10:31

Race was hot and muggy, but I still think Zoe and I did a fairly good job. I came in 9th of 21 overall - not a bad score anyways.

My old friend...the bag of frozen corn

Tonight was the Lost Dog 5K#2 race. We'll get to specifics in a hot second, but I would like to take a moment to state that my old friend, Mr Frozen Bag of Corn, has re-appeared.

Knees began to tweak a bit during the race today - might need new shoes (can't remember when I bought these) or most likely new inserts.

So for now I am icing as a precaution. Hopefully Sunday's run will be less painful as I will be resting all day tomorrow.

On to happier things :)

LOST DOG RACE #2!

Zoe and I got there late because Mommy took a nap and then watched Stephen Colbert and then said, "oh snap!" and Route 7 is teh awfulz. But we got there before the race started anyways, so that was good.

First mile was pretty decent, I think we ran it under 11 minutes (full pace thingy once Pacers gets it uploaded). They moved the race 600M south on the trail in order to give us more room to race, and the race actually went a lot better.

I had a smoothie on the way to the race this time (and a Panera brownie around 4pm) but didn't drink as much water. Felt it, but pushed through anyways. I'm learning that when I want to quit, I have to keep going. Then, when I want to quit again, I keep going. The third time in succession that I want to quit, I can walk. That's how I ended up running 5 miles yesterday at 10:30.

I think my finish time tonight was around 33:30, which is a full minute and a half better than last week's. I'm happy with it - Zoe still didn't win for her size group. Sad :(

That's all for now, and here's hoping my knees can rest up during rest day tomorrow.

/W

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Here's the official results

104  16/28     119 Whitney   25 F 33:28.9 (GUN) 33:01.2 (NET) 10:38 (PACE)
105            329 Zoe          D 33:29.7 (GUN) 33:01.8 (NET) 10:38 (PACE)

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Here are some pictures:

Lost Dog 5k #1

Miss Priss (Zoe)

(So I'm a few days late on this post....)

Ever since I rescued Miss Priss in Feb 2009, I've been a little nutso about animal rescue. Yeah, I've turned into that person who will give you the evil eye if your dog is not spayed or neutered (for serious people, just do it. there are plenty of dogs out there who need homes, we don't need your litter of puppies too).

I digress.

So, Zo-bo came from Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation, and therefore, they are my "charity of choice." Every Sunday, from 1-4, I hang out with some pooches in need of good homes. It's a great way to spend an afternoon, if you have nothing else to do.

I digress again.

So, I had been going a couple of weeks, running with Pacers Running Stores on Tuesday, volunteering with Lost Dog on Sundays, happy to have my two organizations separate.

Until I saw this:

Lost Dog 5k Series

FOR SERIOUS? ANIMAL RESCUE AND RUNNING? SIGN ME UP!

So we had the first one last Friday, and Zoe and I were so ready! Well, I was ready, Zoe....has not been running with Mommy as much because it's been so hot (seriously, the DC metro region has been slammed recently). But realizing that we sort of had a 5k coming up, Mommy started dragging Zoe out with her late at night to run.

Race Report
We got there super early because I'm my mother's daughter. LDCRF was doing a cool thing called "Rent-A-Mutt" where we had 10 of our own dogs available for runners who either did not have their own dogs, and they went like hotcakes before the set up had even finished! Dogs of all different sizes and shapes were there - and everyone was happy to be out with their pooches.

The only problem seemed to be that the race was held on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail - which they did not get the permits to shut down the trail.So we had to deal with some obnoxious bikers (one who used colorful language. I proceeded to scream back at him that he was a tool). But the weather was mercifully beautiful, and with Zoe strapped around my race, we were off!

There were only 250 runners in the race, and, looking around, I heard lots of people say things like, "I haven't been training" or "It's so hot!" So I was all, "Hey, maybe I'll actually get a decent place in this race!"

Final Stretch!

Psh, fat chance.

I was so excited about all of the excitement that I forgot to eat close enough to the race. So before we even started, I was hungry. And Zoe was totally more interested in smelling everything on the side of the street. So I had a 18 pound dead weight for a lot of the race, and was hungry.

Off to a good start. /sarcasm

We did the first mile pretty easy, and the trail was pretty. Towards the end was a rather large hill, and somebody lying to us that water was right around the corner (it was, just not RIGHT around the corner). Zoe with her bottle nose drank straight out of the cup, and I was actually feeling fairly hydrated - just HUNGRY.

We looped around and came back, and I started to feel the pangs in my stomach turn into light-headedness (damn physiology). I was running with one of Lost Dog's Foster Moms (of which I am one, just not right now), and she started to pull ahead of me by a while.

Perhaps the most annoying thing were these two girls. So I am slow and steady running, running, running, and these girls would run, then walk, then when I either just passed them or was about to pass them, they'd put on a burst of speed and start running for a minute. Then repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

Look, I'm sorry my dog is 18lbs and faster than you. Just let me freaking pass you.

ANYWAYS, we made it to the end, and got some good pictures! Not to mention I looked hott in my Lost Dog "Ask Me About My Fosters" Shirt (no picture of that yet - will post when I find it).

So here are our results:

135        329 Zoe         D 35:06.8 (GUN) 34:26.7 (NET) 11:06 (PACE) 
136  19/34 119 Whitney  25 F 35:06.4 (GUN) 34:26.7 (NET) 11:06 (PACE)

RunKeeper

I'm not  super thrilled with 11:06, but I'm not horribly upset by it, considering I was hungers and Zoe was more interested in sniftering. 

Besides, I have 3 more races to improve - and dang it, we will get that medal !

Zoe and Me Before the Race