Recovery week

This was a recovery week so my mileage was taken back a little bit. I also had to drill this weekend with the Coast Guard and did not do my usual weekend bike ride; it's not too hard to twist around my running schedule, and I'm much more willing to do so, but dealing with traveling with a bike for a long distance just isn't my cup of tea. And I told myself from the get go: to make sure I can enjoy the bike, if I don't feel like doing it, I just won't do it. Forcing myself would only make it worse.

It was a rough week. One where I felt like I had a some pretty high points, but then some pretty low ones. I'm not sure if I want to go into the all the details, which may be part of the problem. It's hard to know when and/or who to share some personal problems with, especially for an introvert like myself.

I hope I don't accidentally bite the ultramarathon bug sooner than I should. I had already planned on doing a trail marathon about a month after I do a second half Ironman (HIM in September, marathon in October), which would be right before the fair, so a fun way to end the season and get some R&R. Well, having discovered the NC Half Marathon Series I looked around and saw one that is being held the same weekend as the trail marathon I wanted to do. Turned out for the half there is also a full marathon AND a 40 miler. I'm pretty tempted to see what I can do about it.

I felt like I had more to say... not much going on. I'm going to start volunteering at Rex Hospital. I'm also trying to see about what my schooling options are, but I'm still so mixed up, I don't want to get my hopes/expectations up. Nursing is still a possibility. However, fitness/wellness is never out-of-mind. And I think a budding interest in nutrition has led me to look at food science. A conversation with a professor with NC State's food science department was very informative and their graduate (masters) program is enticing. Who knows...

Mumble Jumble.

Not a whole lot to report. Just trying to keep in the swing of things. I am becoming more and more confident in my bike-run brick workouts. If these training runs are any indication, then I am planning for a great run at the White Lake Half-Ironman.

You know you're a runner when you get called out for the gear you wear. I am classical in my manner of wearing technical, dry-wicking shirts, and barely-there running shorts. Twice this week I was more-or-less cat-called... or so I thought? First was when I was passing by a park and some guy said "Well isn't that cute outfit" with what I took for sarcasm. But after passing, I think he had a daughter and was encouraging her interest. The second time I thought some jerk was whistling at me from his truck. Just turned out to be two dogs slobbering/whimpering.

I've been going through several books; and my list seems to grow faster than I can read them. My recent reads:
1) Rowing the Atlantic by Roz Savage : Woman going through a life change is the first row solo across the Atlantic (Canary Islands to Antigua)
2) Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox : Broke the men and women's records for the English Channel swim before she was 18, first to swim the Bering Strait (between Soviet Russia and the US), first to swim to Antarctica (no wetsuit for any of these)
3) I Shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish - a Palestinian doctor's biography as he works in both Gaza and Israel
Now I am reading Proofiness by Charles Seife where he discusses the misrepresentation of statistics and mathematics in society.

Yesterday I had a great after-dark run at Bond Park. It was the second time I got to use/test my headlamp; the first time on a off-pavement route. It was tons of fun, and surprisingly brisk given the workout I had had earlier that morning.

Only problem was that it probably disrupted my sleep last night. I think I only got about 2 hours of sleep. Not simply toss-and-turning, I've probably been awake since about 1:00am. I feel OK, but I'm bracing for a crash.

I am thoroughly enjoying my training season. For the most part, I'm following a similar schedule that I did last year during the summer and leading up to the City of Oaks Marathon. However, my bike and run workouts are becoming more entwined since I want to be well-prepared for the bike-to-run transition. Though maybe not harmful, it was certainly a shock after my first triathlon a few years ago, and it's worth getting use to the change in movements. Overall, it has made my weekend runs shorter than what I would ideally want (that is, a single long run). However, as it's going, after a bike ride is a run (this one-to-the-other is known as a brick), with another run in the evening. Overall my weekly mileage builds similar to the marathon, but with the shorter individual workouts more in line with the half Ironman (HIM). I'm not sure if it'll turn out how I want, but ideally I can still build longer still and will have a strong base for ultra-races and a full Ironman next year.

I did get some new running shoes. I seem to get just over 500 miles out of a pair. I'm working a little bit on adjusting to a midfoot to forefoot strike, which is considered ideal for injury prevention. And I have a slight eye for a pair of Vibrams but I still think it'll be a little while. I'm already enjoying my entrance in to trail running, which is pretty entrenched with my desire to do ultras. It's also given me an eye to Cary's network of greenways, which aren't trails, but may be a nice divergence from the sidewalk.

Last thoughts:
1) I should really try to focus on slow runs. I usually run base on feel, and lately that's be a lot faster than my norm. I feel ok at the moment, but if I'm not careful, this can lead to serious overtraining.
2) I'm enjoying my aerobars (Thanks Lida and Mark!). Sometimes I feel like a missile.
3) Today's trip to REI was bittersweet. I went for just some more HEED, a sports drink mix from Hammer Nutrition, and just a energy bar or two. Well, they were out of HEED, but had a special on all foods, and I ended up stocking up on a variety of foods, some are staples of my diet; others are ones I'd like to test out in training.
4) Still not sure I'll drop my facebook.

Let the Season Begin

I originally did not have much of a season (particularly the spring) planned. Plagued with my knee injury (IT band tendonitis) from late November to mid January, I was hesitant to plan anything significant, worried about having lost a good running base. However, the past two/three weeks have been very promising, with my weekly mileage in good order. My knee is not absolutely pain free, but a consistent, lasting pain is now an occasional tweak, with little post-run ache. I've adopted a regular stretching routine, and I continue with a brief strength training routine.

So, look to the right to see my current race schedule. The biggest will be my first half Ironman at White Lake in May. A fairly popular race, it now spans two weekends. I'm register for the first, but prompting from my friends is tempting me to move to the second. It primarily depends on the organizers' policy regarding such. I'm also excited to try a weekend double whammy with a 10 miler followed by a half marathon.

My biggest challenge/desire is how to focus my running. I am always after higher mileage, but without any long distance races planned (the Medoc Trail Marathon is really just going to be for fun), I worry about being lackluster. I ultimately want to hit ultra-distance training, but don't want to jump on the train to quickly.

This weekend highlighted the beginning of the season. Saturday was the Krispy Kreme Challenge (2 mi, 12 donuts, 2 more mi under an hour) (4 mile warm up and 4 mile cool down). And Sunday I washed it down with some a Cook-Out milkshake.

Progress

It's become clear that my volume of blogging is directly related to my volume of running. After about a month without running, I've successfully completed two runs. Friday I got in 4 miles on the treadmill. This afternoon I worked through about 5 miles outside.

Neither one was completely pain-free. I should be listening to the recovery/rest die-hards out there. However, although my knee is not 100%, the pain was manageable and did not last past the exercise itself. And I am continuing to be caution. Though I was eager to pick things back up, 5 minutes yesterday was about all I managed before the knee pain was joined by just some run-of-the-mill soreness that, given the circumstances, didn't mesh.

My snail's pace is frustrating, but I'm just grateful for the chance to return to running. And the slower pace and time on the treadmill is giving me the mental alleviation to put some thought into my form and technique. This included some short bouts of deliberate fore-foot running. This style, with many faddish names, is a big craze right now, along with the interest in barefoot/minimalist running.

I finally saw an orthopaedist who has diagnosed the ailment as IT band tendonitis. The IT (illiotibial) band is an odd piece of meat. Not really a muscle, it runs all the way from the glutes down to the knee. Most people who suffer IT band problems suffer from pain along the thigh. In my case, the IT band has likely rubbed too much along the conglomerate of bones that meet at the joint.

This week I've finally begun adding a stretching regiment, after the ortho commented on my tight hamstrings. It's novel to me to put just as much, if not more thought into the cross-training/stabilization routines; however, I know it's something I've been lacking. And if doing so gets me back to the roads and trails and keeps me from the sidelines, then so be it.

It's been several weeks since I last posted, and a lot has gone on. I guess it's hard for me to know who is "in the loop" because of I don't know who only follows me on here, or also on Facebook. I don't know of either gives a complete picture.

The week after the marathon I felt great. A Wed. or Thursday 5 miler felt ok and I decided to make that weekend run 15 miles. I intentionally did not follow a specific route, and ended up doing around 18 miles. Well, I hadn't carried any fluid, so it was a little grueling, but it was cold so there wasn't terrible fluid loss. I had a bit of an ache in my right calf, which dissipated later in the day.

It went down hill the following week. Each successive run, my right knee started hurting. At first not until about 7 miles in, but eventually within the first 2 or 3 miles. I did a 15 miler on Friday (since I was traveling that weekend) and it was hurting within a mile. Me being me, I did the rest of the 15 miles.

Now I've been on a hiatus for nearly three weeks. For someone who loved and thrived off of 45-50 mile weeks, this was torture. The first week I supplemented with cycling and swimming. Both also cause my knee to ache, and I've stopped cycling now too (also because of the cold.).

I've been extremely fortunate though. I was a rower in college, and used to be quite familiar with the erg (the indoor rowing machines NO ONE ever uses, at least not correctly). For the past year, I've never done more than 250 meters; even for rowers an erg is the most boring exercise, and when I had no rowing oriented fitness goal, it seemed so pointless. However, erging has the upside of giving me no knee pain. So now I've been rowing several days a week to replace my running. I think I may actually being rowing more meters now than I did while at State. On the other days I've been swimming, where my yardage has also skyrocketed to support my exercise addiction. I've gone from doing a max of about 4000 yards in a session to a minimum of 5300 (to cover 3 miles).

I know at some point I'll need to go see a doctor. My biggest fear isn't having to take time off, but if whatever is wrong will require surgery.

It's tough to be away from something I love so much (running). I just try and comfort myself with the stories of people who may not even start running until in their 50s, or people who were 100 lbs overweight, or chronic chain smokers, who have been able to turn their lives around. I try to tell myself that if people can turn their lives around, I should be ok with a couple of weeks.

The best thing about going back to erging is that I'm able to do all kinds of mini-goals without the presumption of having my previous fitness. Such as that for that first hour piece, I had no goal 500 m split and just went with it. Obviously, as I've progressed, I have been lazy, but my tolerance for the boredom has increased as well.

More than meeting an ultimate time/distance goal, I love being consistent. This morning was a high point on that scale. For my hour piece, it was set to log 10 minute splits. For 50-40 min, 40-30, 30-20, 20-10, my meters were 2342, 2343, 2343, 2342. Meaning for I maintained the same pace for 40 minutes. For those unfamiliar with the sport, that's not half bad.

The Marathon

It's hard to write post-race and feel that it is completely satisfactory. So many things go into the preparation, strategy, and then all the little things that to you seem worthwhile, but probably mean diddly-squat to anyone else.

It was a great race from many aspects. It was well-organized (for it's size) and also a solid performance for myself.

To get it out of the way, I ran a 3:17:58 chip time (3:19:40 gun time. Gun time is when you cross the finish from when the gun goes off. Chip time is from when you cross the start) (results). This put me 14/100 in my age group. I was 47 overall out of 654 finishers. This was a BIG personal record. My previous (and only other marathon) was last year's Marine Corps Marathon at 3:49:22, making this a 31:24 improvement. Further stats: it is a 7:33.4 min/mile pace; it is also 6:59 min off the 3:10:59 Boston qualifying time, which would require :16 sec/mile faster pace to make.

Was I upset about not getting a Boston qualifier? Definitely not. For Marine Corps, I was somewhat naive coming off my training and had lofty expectations that led to rookie mistakes and a disappointing performance. I went out too fast and ended up burning out around mile 16. This year, I set some more realistic goals and then tried to execute. The beginning of the race was what I call a "restrained" pace where I primarily try to hold back a little to make sure I'm conserving energy. It was about mile 12 that I caught up with the 3:30 (8 min/mile) pace group. Most "negative-split" strategies have you go out slower the first half, so I knew I was pretty much on target. I knew I was picking up speed, but still held back till I had cleared the hillier sections leading into Umstead (~mi 15-16). In the next stage I kinda went somewhere between "letting go" and "running with a purpose." Essentially no longer holding back, but not yet willing to hit the grindstone. Mile 18 - 20 was solid pace building to take me into a "determined" and eventually "hard" finally 10k.

That hard final 10k is hard to describe. If you had asked me last year about, it would've been very daunting. But having come through the 20 mile point essentially unscathed, and I suppose with a little bit more mature outlook, I was both more fresh, and more determined to keep it strong. I almost wish there were more splits provided post-race so I could see how the pace was that last bit. I still don't know if I hit any "wall" but I know I was in that strange place of running on fumes but also mysterious reserves.

Soon I'll do another analysis of my training leading up to the race, this will be important to planning my future races.

Final comments:
-Race volunteers were great, if not sometimes hit-or-miss.
-Great to hear from an unexpected friend coming out by Gorman (thanks Gavin).
-Play it by ear, but if nature calls early in the race: answer. Comfort goes a long -way.
My deer slaying days are not out of sight (sighting along Ebenezer Church).
-As I've said before, and further realized: I am much more a runner than a triathlete. As much as I am ever determined to do an Ironman in 2012, I would give it up in a heartbeat to qualify for Boston.

On the NYC marathon(!!!). When I got home, NBC was re-broadcasting the race coverage:
-Man, I want to run that race.
-Being at a football/basketball/hockey game is exciting. Watching a football/basketball/hockey game is meh. Watching a minute and a half of Olympic swimming is cool, but still meh. But 2 1/2 hours of a marathon is MESMERIZING.
-Great wins by Gebrmariam (men, Kenya, 2:08:~~) and Kiplagat (women, Ethiopia, 2:28:30).
-I really want to run NYC.
-Regrets/better luck to my American male favorite, Dathan Rizenhein (8th, 2:12:33).
-Much praise to my American female favorite, Shalane Flanagan (2nd, 2:28:40, and in her DEBUT MARATHON).
-Man, I REALLY WANT to run this race.
-Also on Flanagan: she is quite fine! (as with 99.99999% of women distance runners)