Adventures in Running

My new year is off to a quick start. I can't believe it's February already. Where did January go? I've been keeping busy with running and running and running with a little bit of swimming and biking thrown in for good measure. Here's just a few highlights...

1. Thursday Track workouts:
My husband and I put together a group of friends to do track workouts together on Thursday mornings. For starters, it's great to have people holding you accountable to getting out of bed when it's dark and chilly. I've found that I look forward to this workout so much that when my alarm rings at 5 am, I bounce right out. Or at least stumble sleepily without hitting snooze.

With people around to push me, my repeat times have dramatically improved. The last time I did speed work (before IM Canada) I was hitting around 3:20-3:30 for my 800 repeats depending on how tired I was. I have consistently been hitting 3:07 for the past few weeks. And my mile repeats have improved from 6:56 to 6:35! I can't keep up with the guys who show up, but it helps to have them just out of reach to keep me striving. As my husband says, to run faster you have to run faster. And track workouts are helping me do just that!

Who knows, maybe I'll aim for another BQ in the next 15 months....

2. PF Chang's 1/2 Marathon:
My (other) sister flew into town for the 1/2 Marathon. I didn't have a goal in mind for this race. I figured I'd take it out comfortably and pick it up at mile 8-10. I ended up running 1:40 and change. Not a PR by any stretch, but the fastest I've run for a half in two years. And it was easy. I ran comfortably and then around mile 8, just tried to increase my effort. I ended up running my last mile only a couple of seconds slower than my first mile (mile 1 is always way too fast!). I was really excited about the strong finish, and feeling like I could have gone faster. My sis also reached her goal of sub-2 hours! She's training for a marathon in June.

3. Coldwater Rumble:
A week after PF Chang's was my 4th race in the Aravaipa Running Trail Series. Bad news: I got horribly lost. Good news: I finally got to use my map! I arrive at every trail race with a copy of the race map in my Rush Pack. I've never gotten to use it before. I almost started feeling silly for carrying it. I was running along with my best girl, chatting away, enjoying the gorgeous weather... and before I knew it we had gone quite a ways without seeing a red trail marker flag. Once we realized, we started to pay attention but it was too late. We eventually reached a dead end of sorts and realized we needed to turn around. We added an extra hour on the trail (roughly 5 miles?) and it turns out we missed a sharp right hand turn that dropped into a ravine. So what was supposed to be a 20 mile trail run, turned epic.

After a brief period of "oh, shit, this is going to be a long day" we turned our frowns upside down and enjoyed the gorgeous weather and beautiful trail. I truly enjoy trail running and even though it was hard, and I was sore for days, I loved every step of it. I believe that I have become a better, stronger runner because of expanding my horizon to include trails.

4. London's Run 1/2 Marathon:
I hate to cap off January with a weak performance, but at least it was a learning experience. My legs have not recovered from last weekend's epic trail run, and now I find myself battling severe head winds and a bad attitude. Working off my husband's advice to just "go all out" at the beginning and "if you die at mile 6, so what?"... I took off like a bat out of hell. I didn't die at mile 6. I died at mile 4. How sad is that? With every step my right calf felt like it was in a vice, and someone was repeatedly stabbing my hip joint with a fire poker.

When fatigue set in, my mind went south and I really struggled to keep it together. I wanted to cry, but when I cry while running my throat closes up and I can't breathe. So that was out. I wanted to scream. But the course was lined with photos of all these cancer survivors and kids battling worse things. So I couldn't scream. How selfish would that be? Instead, I just had to grin and bear it. I pretended to enjoy it, while seething internally. I was mad at myself for running so slowly. I was mad that my legs weren't recovered. I was mad that I set up an expectation that I couldn't achieve. I finished 1:43 which is completely respectable, just not what I had in mind when I started.

My friends remind me that these are the days that I can draw from in the future. When the going gets tough, I'll know I've battled through worse. I've never wanted to quit so badly in my life and I didn't. That has to count for something.

That's all for racing. I have a new favorite IM workout. I park at the Pemberton trail head, bike the hills of McDowell Mountain Road, 9-mile, and Palisades Blvd. My husband bikes from our house, meets me at the car after 50-70 miles of biking and we transition run on Pemberton. It's such a nice change of scenery and I don't dread the T-run. Then it's a nice lunch at our favorite hot spot (DJ's!) before we drive home.

February is slated to be even busier and better than January. I know it's going to fly by. I look forward to sharing stories from my first ultramarathon! Less than 2 weeks away!