Training Day #3

When I started the planning for this race, I decided, I might as well give the half marathon distance a try since you know 9.3 is close to 13.1. Crazy I know. But really though, my logic was that if I can survive 9.3 then surely I can make it another 4ish miles and complete a half. And what better place to do it than my hometown and the annual Kentucky Derby Half Marathon. (I still haven't actually signed up for it. I'm sort of waiting to make sure this 15K doesn't kill me.) I searched high and low and finally found a training plan that sounded reasonable, easy (enough at least), and still gave me at least 2 days off each week. I finally landed on Hal Higdon's Half Marathon Novice 1 training program.  (Half Marathon Novice 1 Training Program) My plan was in place, but after the hiccups I dealt with in December, I ended up a few weeks behind.

All week I've been debating do I start with week 1, knowing that I only had 6 weeks to go, and that as of week 6 my longest run would have only been 6 miles.  So after feeling as good as I did post-run last night I decided tonight I would step it up a little more and try to at least cover my miles for the week.  At this point in weeks 1 and 2, I would have covered 8 miles (I've bumped the schedule up a day so that my long runs fall on Saturday). And guess what - I did it with 3/10 extra! So my plan is to skip weeks 1 and 3, and continue to increase my long runs by 1 mile each week, which will put me at having covered 8 miles the weekend before the race. 

Now this could totally backfire. We shall see, but I'm feeling good, and tonight's run just further proved that I'm getting back quicker than I ever expected. 

By the way - did you see that?! 3.7 miles and a whole minute faster than last night! That includes my 10 minute warm up and cool down too, so taking those out of the mix brings my pace down to 12:11/mi. And that my friends is something I'm pretty excited about. I'm still slow and don't really anticipate my pace improving drastically beyond this, but that's ok! I'm good with being slow. I'm racing the me that would rather be laying on the couch like a sloth with a good book in my hands. So I have to keep my competitive nature in check and remind myself that any speed is a good speed.

In other news, I so thankful that my coughing is slowly going away. This flu is a nasty bug. I discovered that a combination of taking sips of water every few minutes, along with sucking on some candy helped tremendously. Even more ironic though, the coughing seems to be worse when I'm walking as opposed to running. Guess that's a sign I need to just keep running?!

I did switch it up tonight and ran 2:1 intervals, which definitely matched my fitness level a little more. Regardless of how much I train, running for long periods of time is a big struggle. I'm hoping that eventually I'll get there, but for now, I've been focused on just covering distances and experimenting with intervals that feel good and give me the appropriate number of breaks so that I can catch my breath and stay strong. Last night I felt like the 3 minutes were a tad too long and I had to walk through the last minute of a few of them. Tonight, it was hard, but completely manageable. So much so, I'm actually a little sad tomorrow is my rest day. 

Hope you're training is going well! 

Until tomorrow - it's a rest day, but I'll be talking about my experience with shoes!

Training Day #2

After yesterday's run, I wasn't sure how tonight's run would go. My training scheduled called for 2 miles. I decided to go back to my trusty interval timer to help pace me through tonight's run. Given my incredibly slow pace, I picked a program that I had labeled "3:1 - 3 miles" thinking I probably would be lucky to cover my 2 miles.

Surprisingly, unlike last night, the first mile went by fairly painlessly. Minimal coughing and strong legs helped. Then around 2 miles in, the fatigue of the last few weeks started to set in. I could feel my body's reaction to having not done anything besides sleep over the last two weeks. But something in me said "keep going" so I did. And surprise!

I finished 3.02 miles! I was honestly a little shocked when I lifted the towel (side note: I have to cover the panel of the treadmill or else I obsess over my distance, time and speed, making the run that much longer and painful). I was super pleased to see my pace had dropped almost a full minute from last night. And when I factor out the 10 minutes of warm up and cool down, my "running" pace was just a few seconds over 13 minutes a mile. Overall tonight's run was better. I still coughed. I still walked more than I wanted to. But at the end of the run, I felt like I could have kept going. Part of me wants to continue to dwell in the "I can't do this" arena, but of all things, I realized my body (even in it's weaken state) is strong and CAN do this. My muscles are remembering what we've done for months now. So maybe, maybe, this running 9 miles things is actually possible. 39 days to go!

Training Day #1

Tonight I jumped back in the saddle - err...treadmill - and ran for the first time in several weeks due to injury and illness. I expected little for the first time out and knew going in that I had to be easy on myself. My training plan was suppose to be 3 miles. I decided to ease in and do half, which turned out to be a good call. Although I would say tonight was really more walk than run.  Within a minute of getting going my lingering cough from my bout with the flu flared up, and I spent much of my run/walk coughing in the most violent way possible. Makes running a tad bit difficult.

So here's the summary of my run tonight.

Now let's be real - a 15:09/mi pace is frankly a disappointment. I ran for portions and my time includes close to 10 minutes of warm up and cool down at relatively slow paces but honestly, I could have walked the whole time and still hit this pace.  These are the moments that make me feel a little down. Makes me question why I'm evening bothering. But I've never been, and really, most likely never will be a fast runner. At my best I managed an 11:30/mi pace in December, but that was pushing myself and in a race. I know I have to (re)start somewhere, but I struggle with not focusing on my pace. I can't help but think of it in terms of the race and at this pace it will take me 2 hours and 21 minutes to complete the race. My goal is to do it in under 2 hours or close to a 12:55/mi so I have some room to go.

But tonight is night 1. I have 40 days to go. Every little bit counts.

How's your training going? What challenges are you facing and how do you keep going despite it?

Until tomorrow!

Catching Up

When I started this running journey back in July, I had no idea where it would lead me. I had hoped to blog through the process, but honestly, those first few months were hard. Dealing with the emotions and disappointment were hard enough to process myself - let alone share with the world. Yet, as I've walked this path, I've realized how much I've search for others who have walked this journey and felt the same way I do. So, I'm making a point to get back. To share honestly and openly about me and my runs. Let me first catch you up....

Last July I started running. I had new shoes (which were pretty) and an unrealistic view of what it would be like. I ran my first 5K race in September. I trained hard, but was no where ready for the challenge. I walked a lot, and finished in 41 minutes. But I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed it. So I went on to run 3 more 5K's and an 8K through the end of 2014. My training was sporadic, and despite adding distance, I struggled with never being able to run for any notable distance without having to walk. And here's where I'll be honest, for a while, I felt like a failure. I cried and stomped around, thinking I should just give up. Why bother!

Thankfully, I had banded together with a couple of gals from work who helped keep me going and encouraged me. If it weren't for them, I surely would have long quit. Instead, in early December, I made a big leap and signed up to run a 15K in February - that's 9.3 miles! Crazy! I had a training program ready, made my hotel arrangements, even purchased some snazzy new shoes. Then I was struck with the most awful shin splints. I'd never experienced such a thing, but oh my word, the pain brought tears to my eyes and made me stop in my tracks. So I reluctantly spent two weeks off resting and icing.

Ready to run again, I managed a single run before falling ill with the flu and then a stomach virus. It's now 6 weeks out from my big run and I'm nervous. I'm also committed and I've come to terms with the fact that at this point, I'm neither fast nor able to run without walking. So tomorrow begins training day 1 in preparation for a 15K. I hope you'll join me for the process.

Day 22 - July 24

I've been bad about updating. But I have been trying to keep motivated and keep up my running. Don't believe me {honestly, why would you?} below is my calendar of runs as evidence.

So while not  entirely consistent, I have been trying. And there for a while I thought I might be improving. But if you follow me on Twitter (@agirlandherrun) then you probably saw that yesterday's run was a particularly bad one. Not just bad, as in I didn't accomplish what I wanted, but truly bad, as in I came home, promptly sat on the couch and contemplated just quitting altogether. I told myself lots of lies in those post-run moments - "I'm never going to get past this hurdle" "My body just wasn't made to run" "I simply can't do it". And one point, I really started to believe them.  It doesn't help one's psych either when the scale seems to be moving in the wrong direction {another topic for another day} giving me further reason to just throw in the towel. Then, after a long hot shower to soothe my achy muscles, I did what all logical people do -  found something to distract myself in the laziest way possible - I grabbed a book and curled up in bed.

<< Side note: I'm currently reading "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand. As a dedicated fiction reader, this one is a little out of my normal scope of books, but Ms. Hillenbrand is a phenomenal writer and has crafted this story in such a way, that I literally can't put it down. If you're a reader, or just like history, I would highly recommend this book. >>

So as I'm reading about this amazing story of survival, by no less than a Olympic RUNNER, I realized I'm selling myself short. So I'm taking one step forward and two steps back some days. It happens. Ok - so I managed to only run about 4-5 minutes total over the course of 30 mins, but I covered almost 2 miles. That more that I did last month, heck it's more than I did the day before. That's got to count for something, right? I wrapped up the evening feeling a little less discouraged and resolved I wasn't going to give up just yet.

Then this morning, as we were getting ready for work and chatting, my husband said the smartest, yet simplest thing. In the midst of my lamenting about not being able to do the training, he pointed out that maybe I should just start over. Huh? Start over? Why would I do that?! But as the thought sunk in, I realized that's probably what I should do (or better yet, should have done to begin with).

When I started running on July 3, I wasn't following a programing. I was just running. And that was fine, but I started realizing my results weren't consistent and I felt like I couldn't get past a certain point in my run. At that point, I decided to give the Couch to 5K method a shot.  However, in my cockiness, I opted to start on Week 3 because I could totally do 3 minutes of running no problem {not entirely true, but I wanted to think I could}. However, when the game stepped up and I find myself where I am now, flaming out (somewhat literally, my legs were on fire) at week 4, I realized, it's because I haven't been training for 4 weeks to get my muscles in shape to do the week 4 workouts. Week 3 I did, but just barely. My lung may be working fine, my legs haven't seen this much activity in years. {So maybe I'm not horrible at this running thing after all?!} Just as there's no crying in baseball, there's no cheating in running. You can't jump ahead just because you think you should - believe when I say this, my legs are reminding me of this with every step I take today.

Which means today, I'm starting over. I'm starting with Week 1 Day 1 of C25K. I'm going to forgive myself for whatever "failures" I've convinced myself I've committed, and move forward.  It's humbling really. But I'm hoping starting over will help build up my muscles, but also my confidence. After all, I've got nothing to lose at this point!

Day 8 - July 10

Time to hit the road again.

Six o'clock, once again, came a little too early today.  After yesterday's rest, I was tempted to just turn the alarm off and catch an extra hour of zzz's. But alas, I didn't. {Full Disclosure though - I did hit the snooze button once.} So after an extra 9 minutes of sleep, I drug my sleep butt out of bed and got ready to head out. After my disastrous day 2 days ago, I opted to follow my normal path, in hopes that subconsciously I would push myself past my furthest run. I didn't quite make it, but got close. 7/10 of a mile! Woo Hoo! And thankfully very little pain in my legs.  

Along the way I did get a chance to observe a little cat and mouse game - literally.  It funny what happens when the rest of the world is sleeping.  The cat ultimately lost his breakfast as he became more aware of me, but it was intriguing to watch, none the less. 

Let me just "AMEN" to that one!
Image courtesy of http://thetinyterror.com.

I ended up taking a shorter path than normal too this morning because a) I was still tired and b) since I left out late, I didn't want to risk being late to work. Cut my total run/walk to only a little over mile. Looking back a few hours, I wish I would have pushed myself to do the other mile, but such is life.  There's always tomorrow. Overall, I arrived home fairly positive, if not a little sleep, but in generally good spirits. And then I promptly curled up in bed with my sweet baby boy {who's now 1, and I'm still having trouble grasping that concept} a cuddled for a few more minutes.

Daily Breakdown

Physically: Better than it's been.  I didn't go as far, but I was a little quicker and felt less discomfort in my legs. I did struggle with my breathing some, and need to try to do a little better job focusing on technique (got any tips on this - please share!) and consistency.

Emotionally: Other than being tired, I'd say today was a pretty good day!  I wish I had been able to keep going another 1/10 of a mile, but feeling a little more confident in my ability to do this. I'm definitely coming off my initial excited high that I have when I start a project.  The reality that running and getting to the point where I can actually do a 5K, is going to a very long journey.

Distance: 1.15 miles. Ran .69 mile and walked .46 mile 

Day 7 - July 9

"And on the 7th day God rested." Genesis 2:2-3

After a few days of running, I could tell I was mentally and physically in need of a break.  After consulting with some friends and my husband, we agreed that taking at least 1 day off a week would probably be a good idea.  So I slept in and I must say - throughly enjoyed it.  {I can already tell tomorrow morning isn't going to be as much fun.}

Throughout the day I did a little stretching here and there, but in general I just relaxed. And it was awesome.  Seriously, relaxing is what I want to do {did do, and honestly would do all the time} if it weren't for this pesky thing I did - making a commitment to get healthy.  

And yesterday happened to be my baby's 1st birthday, so good reason to relax I think. :-) Now if only getting started tomorrow would be just as easy.  ::sigh::

Daily Breakdown

Physically: Easiest day so far! But seriously, I was still dealing with some residual pain in my lower legs and ankles, so I did make an effort to walk around at work and stretch them out. Otherwise though, I just relaxed.

Emotionally: Not as good as I thought I'd be.  The extra hour of sleep was wonderful. But all day I have found my thoughts going back to my runs. I swing drastically from being really proud of the progress I've made to being really down about the set backs I experienced.  It's a bit odd.

Distance: 0 miles.