Every Day Is Run Day

Back to Racing

2014-01-24T09:53:00.001-05:00

Exciting news - I signed up for a race! On Sunday, March 30th I will be running the inaugural Philadelphia Love Run, a half marathon. It will be my first big race since my horrible DNF at Lehigh Valley in September.

I know that I explicitly said in recent posts that I would not be racing or signing up for races anytime soon. However, something miraculous has happened in the past two weeks. I have had little to no pain on all of my runs! Something finally just clicked and I am feeling at about 95-98% most of the time.

That said, I am still being very cautious and as much as I want to jump right back into marathons, I don't think that would be very smart. So, this spring I will try out a few half marathons and maybe some 10-milers. I will save my marathon comeback for the fall.

I am unbelievably excited to be working toward a goal again, even if its just to make it to the finish line feeling okay. Plus, hopefully this will make the rest of winter fly right by and before I know it, it will be race day.

Happy running!

Searching for Strong Once Again

2014-01-08T11:07:00.001-05:00

I never know how to start a post after a long hiatus. So, let's skip the pleasantries and jump right in.

I AM RUNNING.

Not a lot and not completely without pain, but it's something. About four miles every other day to be exact. I am hoping to try five miles later this week.

After an ineffective round of PT in September and October, my doctor suggested that I try ART (Active Release Technique). The first few sessions left me feeling unsure and I considered abandoning it completely (especially since my insurance didn't cover it and I was paying out of pocket each time). Low and behold though, by session four I was feeling some relief. The Friday before Thanksgiving I ran my first mile on the treadmill and have been ramping it up ever since then.

2013 was a bad year. I spent more months on the bench or recovering from injury than I did running carefree and happy. But every injury is a lesson. This time, I'm adamant about starting off slow and taking my time. Hence, I spent several weeks just running two miles at a time and then slowly added and third and now a fourth. Part of the reason I am doing this is also because, as I said, I'm not running completely painfree yet. My piriformis still flares up depending on whether I'm on the treadmill or running outside and if I've really done all of my stretches and exercises the night before. It's not carefree running, but its running.

The biggest challenge of running after a long-term injury was rediscovering my strength. After sitting out for three months I came back to find my endurance shot to hell and my running crops a little tighter than I remember. Ten minute miles felt too fast (still do) and three miles on the treadmill seemed to take forever. I am still struggling to find my strong in the New Year and still working to make sure I can run without causing more pain or damage.

I have zero racing plans for 2014. Quite frankly, I'm too nervous to sign up for anything. For now, though, I'm happy just to be able to run and hopefully this year I will be smarter than the last.

The Last Eight Weeks

2013-11-04T13:17:00.001-05:00

Hello! It's been a while. Last time I checked in I had just DNF'd my first race and was dealing with piriformis syndrome. Sadly, eight weeks later, I am still dealing with it. No running. No sitting. You get the idea.

2013 has been a rough year, at least on the running end of things. I've been injured or slowly recovering from injury more months than not in the past 365 days. The last truly good race I ran was the Baltimore Marathon last October. It's pretty much been downhill since then and believe me, it has left me questioning what I think my body is actually capable of vs. what my mind wants it to be capable of.

In any event, at least each injury gets easier to deal with. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely bitter everytime I see someone running and I have avoided reading other running blogs at all costs. Frankly, I don't want to hear about someone else's awesome marathon recap while I'm benched for the best running weather season of the year. Still, aside from one or two days during the last eight weeks, I've been okay with not running. Or at least, I've accepted it.

Luckily, this fall has been absolutely insane between work and school and life and while I would love to be running right now, at least I'm keeping busy. Here's what I've been up to the past eight weeks:

Physical Therapy
As soon as I DNF'd that race, I called the doctor and set up some PT appointments. PT has always worked for me in the past and I felt confident we could nip this thing in the bud right away. Unfortunately, PT has not really helped at all this time around, which has been very disappointing. They even tried a fancy treatment called Iontophoresis that involves driving anti-inflammatory into my butt with an electric field. I felt a little improvement six treatments later, but as soon as I tried sitting again the pain would come right back.

Standing (Lots and lots of standing)
The week after I DNF'd it was pretty clear that sitting only aggrevated my symptoms and caused a tremendous amount of nerve inflammation. At first, I tried sitting straighter and getting up frequently, but it was quickly apparent that any sitting, no matter how good my posture, was causing more pain. The problem here is that I work in an office at a desk that I need to be at for most of the day. But, where there's a will, there's a way. Solution - standing desk.

Unfortunately standing desks can cost $$$ and I wasn't about to ask my office to shell out for one. Luckily though, we live in the age of the internet and there are thousands of super crafty people out there. It didn't take long for me to find a quick, cheap standing desk hack. One trip to Ikea later and viola! Standing desk for $22.

My set up at work

The first week standing was hard and my feet were killing me (even though I was spending 50 miles per week on my feet running previous to this). Now, seven weeks later I am feeling just fine. My husband and I also bought a standing desk for home. All said and done, I have done little to no sitting the past two months and if I'm on the couch, I'm laying down horizontally. Even after this injury is over I will probably continue to stand since its better for you anyway. At this point though, I would just love to be able to sit in the car or go to the movies without feeling pain.

Graduate School
Coincidentally the semster started the week I had my injury. I have about 5.5 weeks left of my graduate program and have been working every weekend all semester to finish my thesis. I did this program in 2.5 years straight by taking summer classes. I'm literally counting down the days until December 10th when I will be DONE!

Work
My work coincides with the school year, so September and October are always slammed. Even if I was able to run, I wouldn't have time for lunch runs anyway, which had made the whole not-running thing a little easier to deal with.

Cleansing
I have always wanted to try a cleanse, but with all of the running I was doing, it was impractical to take in so few calories while I was burning so many off. I've done four cleanses over the past two months - an intense 3-day cleanse and three 1-day cleanses every couple of weeks. I don't know that I will be doing the 3-day cleanses that often since I feel like I can't work out at all during them, but the one-day cleanses are really nice and don't throw off your entire week.

I thought I would HATE the beet juice the most, but ironically it is my favorite and I could drink it every day

For those of you who are curious, I have tried three different cleanse companies so far - BluePrint, Suja, and a local Philadelphia juicer called Sip-N-Glo. If I get my act together I might just do a little omparative review.

Finding Other Ways to Workout
The really horrible thing about this injury, aside from the whole no running/no sitting thing, is that I can't bike or swim either. The nerves in my hamstring and butt become too irritated. This has been incredibly frustrating because I haven't really been able to do any cardio. I've resorted to a lot of strength training and try to fit in about 30 minutes a day, but 30 minutes of strength just doesn't compare to the amount of cardio I was getting in.

Finally a few weeks ago my husband and I bought our own heavy bag. We've been going to boxing class on and off for about three years and I've been wanting to set up a home gym for a while. Between all of the PT equipment I've invested in during my injuries and the foam rollers and hand weights I've bought over the years, turns out we have a pretty nice set up. The heavy bag has been great for getting some cardio in and of course, to take out my frustrations about not running :)

So that's pretty much been life for the last eight weeks. I am trying out ART therapy today after work and I'm optimistic about more positive results than traditional PT. I'll keep you guys posted!

Piriformis Syndrome: A Literal Pain in the Butt

2013-09-12T11:03:00.001-04:00

First of all, thank you for the kind, supportive comments on my last post. Dropping from a race is never fun and certainly not something any of us set out to do. But, shit happens. I am 100% positive it was the right move and once I accepted that, I got over feeling sorry for myself pretty quickly.

On the car ride home from the race I was already furiously Googling to find out what my issue might be. After typing in my symptoms it didn't take long for me to land on Piriformis Syndrome, which the doctor confirmed for me this morning. The Piriformis muscle runs horizontally across the butt and the sciatic nerve can pass in front of it, behind it, or even through the muscle in about 10% of people.

Source

When the Piriformis muscle gets inflamed it can press on the sciatic nerve, which can cause pain to shoot down the back of the leg. All of this would explain the knot I felt in my butt during the race and the spiraling tightness moving from just below my butt down my hamstring. Piriformis Syndrome also explains why I was in so much pain just from driving in the car. While it can definitely be a running injury, Piriformis Syndrome can also be brought about by extended bouts of sitting (aka what I do every day at work and most of the weekends when I'm not running).

I still have no idea why the muscle got inflamed when it did. I didn't have a traumatic injury prior to Labor Day weekend when it started hurting nor did I tweak anything while running. The good thing is that I started stretching it as soon as I got home on Sunday, following some of the treatment exercises recommended online. Self-diagnosis is definitely something to be careful with, but in this case I just kept doing what felt good:

Pigeon Pose has been great at relieving some of the tightness
A great video about neural flossing for Piriformis Syndrome can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFtUgS69rPk&feature=fvw
In addition, I bought this from Trigger Point. I have their foam roller and love it. Like the foam roller, this massage ball is no joke. I have been rolling it between the wall and my butt and it has relieved a lot of the tension.
I've also been doing many of these exercises (below)

The Figure-4 Gluteal Stretch and Standing Hamstring Stretch have been especially effective
Source

After two full days off, I ran four very slow miles on the treadmill on Wednesday. They felt good and I did ample stretching before and after. On Monday I will start PT again for what seems like the millionth time. But, I'm more than happy to go back if they can teach me a few new things and help make sure that I really kick this thing to the curb for good.

The most annoying thing about Piriformis Syndrome has just been that sitting makes me feel very nervous. This is sort of a problem since my job requires me to sit at a desk all day. I've tried to make sure I'm sitting straight with my feet flat on the floor, but all I really want to do is this:

Source

Injuries totally suck, but thankfully I caught this one early. Also, if I'm going to have an injury, at least a butt injury is pretty funny. :)

D to the N to the F

2013-09-09T10:10:00.002-04:00

I'm not even sure how to start this post. It's one I hoped I'd never have to write. Sadly I had to drop out of the Lehigh Valley Marathon yesterday around mile 13.5. My first DNF.

Looking back at this summer's training cycle, it hasn't necessarily been bad. The only bad thing about running this summer was that I felt incredibly slow and sluggish on nearly every run. I don't really attribute that to anything but the weather though. Summer heat and humidty + running just don't mix for me.

So, other than feeling like a sloth, running went pretty well over the past 12 weeks. I got through my long runs feeling fine. I haven't had any ITBS problems that plagued me over the winter and early spring. In fact I made it all the way into my taper until I started feeling some discomfort in my right hamstring. It started acting up badly on Labor Day weekend, a week out from the race. I first noticed the cramping after sitting on the couch all weekend and then again at my desk the next week. By Tuesday evening I was in pain just walking around and bending over to touch my toes. I began to get worried, but it wasn't really affecting my running, so I was still on board to run the race.

Wednesday night before the race I got a really awesome sports massage. The masseuse sat down with me for a full 10 minutes asking lots of questions about what was hurting. He spent a majority of the time on my right leg and by the next afternoon it felt like a lot of the kinks had been worked out. On Saturday morning I did a short shake out run for the race on Sunday. I noticed a little cramping after the 3 miles and once again began to worry if I would be able to run the race. After my shake out run, I drove two hours round trip to the expo to pick up my packet. Keeping my right foot on the peddle for that long was causing intense cramping in my hamstring and butt. I had to take 5 minutes to stretch out before I got back in the car after getting my packet. I spent the rest of Saturday relaxing and stretching the crap out of my legs.

Pre-marathon dinner: Red Snapper, brown rice noodles, and baby Brussels Sprouts that I got way too excited about when I found them

When I woke up at 4:30 am on Sunday things felt pretty good, but I couldn't help feeling like I was not going to cross that finish line. We drove out to the start line, about an hour a way, and I was already in a pissy mood. It was 90% humidity, which is really less than ideal marathoning weather. On top of that, I started regretting signing up for a race that I knew was going to take place mostly on a toe path along the river. Don't get me wrong, I love a good scenic race, but I've been doing almost all of my running lately on the toe path in Philly. The combination of the lack of crowd support and the swampy weather was making me none too happy, but I had already decided earlier that week to just use the race as a training run and not stress myself out about running fast. An opportunity to practice pacing after the disaster in May.

Don't let this smile fool you. Fake energy.

As soon as the race started and I began running I felt off. I wasn't in pain, but I could already tell my legs, breathe, and mind were not in sync. Some days you get going and you just feel awesome. Other days you just know you're not with it.

Sure enough around mile 2 or 3 I began to feel some discomfort in my right hamstring. It wasn't painful discomfort though. I tried to get my mind in the game, but I must have thought about quitting at least five times for every mile. Rarely do I deal with so much personal negative energy when I'm running and here I was wearing my don't-talk-to-me bitch face while everyone was pumped up and smiling around me.

As the miles ticked by I made myself stop thinking about a possible injury DNF. "If I think its getting worse, I will stop," I told myself. Instead of thinking about my leg, I focused on how bored I was. Bike path, toe path, more bike path, more toe path and over and over and over. I was basically just running angry the whole time.

Around mile 10.5 I noticed my leg acting up a little more. By mile 11 I realized that I was not going to finish the race without really messing my body up. The cramping was into my butt by then and both knees were hurting. I finally made the decision to DNF at the halfway point and amazingly, after spending five days leading up the race wondering if I would make it and spending the previous 11 miles hating everything about the race while also fearing I would have to drop, once I finally made the decision I only felt one thing - relief. All the back and forth in my head stopped and it just got quiet. Dropping from a race was a weird experience. I ran through the halfway point and then just pulled over to the side and stopped running. Just like that it was over. I found race official and eventually got a ride to the finish line to meet Mike.

Even though I was absolutely sure I had made the right decision, I still cried like a baby because I felt like a failure. Part of me wonders if I would have kept running if I wasn't injured. I was already having such a bad time that the thought of running another 13 miles on the toe path seemed even worse than trying to run through an injury. This is my third big race in a row that I've gotten injured during or right afterwards and I'm beginning to feel cursed.

The good news about all of this is that at least I finally have enough self-discipline to know when to stop. There are several other races I am excited about running this fall and finishing a race I wasn't even enjoying would not have been worth it.

The Time 20 Miles Kicked My Ass

2013-08-26T13:59:00.001-04:00

As karma would have it, days after I posted about how running 50 slow miles every week didn't feel like real work, I got kicked in the ass by my 20-miler this Sunday.

The first half of the run went well enough. It was actually a little bit chilly when I left the house at 6am. I was, admittedly, a little discouraged when I looked at my watch the first three miles only to realize I was running an 11 something pace (really?!). Otherwise, though, it was pretty enjoyable.

I always struggle to come up with long run routes since I'm pretty sure I've run every runable route in the city of Philadelphia. For this 20-miler I decided to run all the way up the Schuylkill bike path to Valley Forge National Park. It's 15 miles from my house to the park and then you can do a 5-ish mile loop around the battlefield. I really struggled with this run from about mile 10 and on. The bike path I was on started to get really boring and monotonous. Not to mention the latter half of that path is not shaded very well and the sun was started to heat things up!

I was siked by the time I got to Valley Forge because I needed a change of scenery.

The park is really beautiful, but I forgot about the hills!

Normally I would not consider them bad. They are mostly short rollers. After 15 tough, boring miles, however, my legs were toast. By the time I finished, t was so happy to see Mike, who was kind enough to pick me up so I didn't have to run the 15 miles home. He brought my a gatorade and a bagel and both tasted like heaven.

So yeah, it was a tough run and I was reminded of it the rest of the day. Normally I can recover pretty quickly, but for some reason I spent the rest of the day feeling like a zombie. I could barely shuffle around the house and was having trouble putting together coherent sentences. While I was wasting away on the couch in the afternoon, Mike introduced me to an amazing new show (based on a web series), called Drunk History. Watching it fulfills two basic requirements: learning something and laughing your ass off. I think they should make another show where they film people who've just run marathons and ultra marathons teaching history. I can guarantee they will sound just as ridiculous. I would have been a prime candidate after Sunday's long run.

By 8 pm I was comatose and slept the deepest sleep I have ever slept. Today I planned a light 4 mile shake out run on the treadmill. Some time ago I learned the best way to loosen up sore legs was to actually get moving. Mile one felt rough, but after that point I had a great run. Four miles quickly turned into five because I couldn't stop listening to 'N Sync. I didn't watch the VMAs, but I have seen the 5,000 "OMG 'N Sync might really reunite" articles on Buzzfeed last week and I just had to add them to my playlist.

I missed you guys

So that was my weekend - got my ass handed to me, lived to tell about it.

Were you an 'N Sync fan or BSB? I was 'N Sync and my sister was BSB, so we basically had the biggest poster rival ever in our bedrooms.

How to Run 50 Miles Per Week & Still Feel Like The Laziest Person Alive

2013-08-23T15:23:00.002-04:00

Running, like anything you've been doing habitually, becomes just that - a habit. Waking up an hour before you really need to so you can get those 6 miles in isn't a big deal. Packing your running shoes for a weekend trip doesn't phase you at all. Buying fuel for your long run doesn't seem any stranger than grocery shopping. Whether you are training for a race or just simply running to run, the point is, after awhile running on a routine basis just becomes second nature.

Forming a running habit is great, don't get me wrong, but it has its drawbacks. It's very easy to get stuck in an effortless pattern. For example, I've been running 50 or so miles a week the past few weeks as I gear up for the fall marathon season. 50 miles kind of feels like my base and comfort zone. The problem, lately, is that I'm doing all of this running and I still feel like a lazy piece of crap. I don't necessarily think its the distance I'm doing, so much as the speed with which I'm doing it. I'm running, but it doesn't feel like I'm actually trying. I've hit a plateau and I'm having trouble finding the motivation to make running hard again.

Last weekend I had two of the best 10 mile runs I've ever had while visiting my Mom in DC. I didn't have any goals for these runs. They were simply guilty pleasures. That said, I was extremely surprised (though I really shouldn't have been), to find out that I ran both runs averaging over 10 minutes miles. Not exactly on my way to a sub 3:45 marathon here, folks. I wasn't exactly mad that I ran so slow, since I didn't have any intention to do otherwise, but it does explain why I felt like I barely got a workout. Obviously I got a workout. But seriously, I barely broke a sweat out there over 10 miles.

This has been a very interesting training cycle. In a little over two weeks I will be running a marathon, the earliest fall marathon I've ever done. I have felt ZERO motivation to do any speed work save a few occasions and I'm honestly worried that the temperatures won't be cooled by race day enough for my speed to naturally improve. I'm worried about pushing too hard and having another pacing disaster. I'm upset that I might let this "BQ" course go to waste.

On the flip side - I've got three other marathons this fall and lots of cooler, speedier weather along the way. And I should probably jsut chill out.

Fall Marathon Season: 5 Weeks Out

2013-08-05T15:30:00.001-04:00

Last week was a cut back week. I was shooting for about 40 miles, however I spent Saturday (my rest day) visiting my sister in NYC and we ended up walking 9+ miles. So, instead of setting out for a long run Sunday morning, I slept in and sat on the couch all day watching Breaking Bad on Netflix.

That is the beauty of having no specific training plan, my friends. You can play it all by ear. I was especially willing to take an extra rest day since I am starting the last three weeks of marathon training today. That means the next three weekends I will be putting away several 18-20 milers plus peaking my weekly mileage. If all goes well, I will be begging for taper by August 26th and ready to toe the start line at Lehigh Valley two weeks later.

Speaking of Lehigh Valley, I can't believe my first fall race is only 5 weeks away! This summer went crazy fast and though I'm not looking forward to classes starting and work getting busier, I am so ready for a change in seasons. Bring on the light sweaters, warm color palette, and crisp morning runs!

I have been doing some serious thinking about what my goals for Lehigh Valley. Originally I was hoping to BQ. Then I thought about it more and decided I would be happy enough with a PR since it will likely still be pretty warm out and maybe not ideal super-fast-running-weather. Now I am even questioning a PR because, you see, I haven't done any speed work all summer. Aside from my time in Berlin, all of my runs have been slow and lethargic. Even though the weather has cooled a little bit, its still too hot out for midday speed work on the treadmill (the only time I can get to the treadmill) and I definitely don't have enough energy to hit the track before work. Luckily, I have plenty of other marathons this fall to try and PR in, Philly being the strongest contender. I probably won't have any concrete goals for Lehigh Valley until the week of, but if I don't feel fast, I won't push it. I rather have a good time, chill out, and recover quickly for the rest of the season. Either way, I am siked for racing season to begin! Come on, fall!

Berlin: What to Do & What to Eat

2013-07-24T18:47:00.001-04:00

Every summer since we have been together, Mike and I make a point to get away for a week, usually traveling to Central America or the Caribbean. This year I really wanted to go to Europe. It had been a few years since I'd been transatlantic and was dying to get back, even if that meant leaving my relaxing beach week behind.

We ended up settling on Berlin for a few reasons. For one, I had always wanted to go there since I did my study abroad in Rome. My roommates went for a weekend and said they had a blast. Secondly, Berlin is billed as being pretty cheap for a major European capital. Now having returned, I can vouch for that. We spent less money than we did on our honeymoon in Costa Rica and I still have euros left over!

Running aside, there is plenty to do in Berlin and we easily filled 8 days with activities. I won't torture you with the 500+ photos that I took. Instead, here is a sampling:

Complimentary breakfast every morning at the hotel usually included green tea, fruit salad, yogurt with muesli (there's so much muesli in Europe!) and toast or a roll with jam

We walked 3-6 miles every day cruising the sites and just enjoying the city:

Cool sculpture on Kurfurstendamm Strasse

Potsdamer Platz

The Bode Museum. We saw 15+ museums and memorial sites

Schloss Sanssouci in Potsdam

At the Reichstag on a gloomy day

Berlin Wall Memorial

At the Berlin Zoo

On our last day, when we felt comfortable with the roads, we rented biked and cruised around for 6 hours

I've never seen so many cyclists in any city. All ages. Everywhere.

Food-wise, I can't recommend Berlin enough. Surprisingly we ate cuisine from all over the world except for traditional German fare. The city is extremely diverse and international. You can find everything from Chinese to Italian to Vietnamese to Ethiopian.

Bruschetta for one? Yes please! From one of the many amazing food trucks at the Sunday flea market, Flohmarkt am Mauerpark

From another flea market cart - perfectly ripe watermelon spears in a cup

So many wonderfully delicious quick-stop cafes for pizza and panini

Many scrumptious salads were eaten:

But don't worry. I ate lots of dessert too!

And you better believe I raided the grocery store our last night to smuggle these treats home. I won't tell you how long it took me to go through them

Lastly, this is Germany, so of course there was beer:

They were all awesome and all as cheap as a bottle of sparkling water

And wine. We can't forget about cheap, delicious, European wine

We now return you to your regularly scheduled running programming.

49 Miles in Berlin

2013-07-14T14:43:00.000-04:00

Forgive the absence. Mike and I just returned from a wonderful 8 days in Berlin. I will save the trip details for a later post. Right now I just want to talk about the running!

I ran six days in Berlin and covered 49 miles total. 35 of those were outside. The rest were on the ol' mill in the hotel. We spent the first day sleeping in as late as we wanted since we had been up 27 hours from traveling. On day two, however, we were ready to rock and roll! I had two long runs planned for each weekend, both 13 miles.

Since we had barely been around the city at that point I tried to map the simplest route possible. It ended up being very easy to follow and we saw a lot of great sites along the way! I think running is the best way possible to see a new place.

We left around 7 am so the streets were nice and quiet. I should also mention that the summer temps in Berlin are 55/75 with no observable humidity. Yeah, pretty much heaven. That's how summer should be, in my opinion.

The Tiergarten aka the Central Park of Berlin

Mike at the Victory Column

Approaching Museumsinsel

At the Brandenburger Tor

Along the Spree River

On our way back through Potsdamer Platz I found the wall line

I was really good about remembering to bring the long run basics with me - handheld water bottle, compression socks, body glide. I did, however, forget about fuel. I don't use gels and instead look for licorice, fig newtons, etc. I actually brought a bag of swedish fish with me specifically for the long run, but got too hungry on the plane and all of a sudden WOOPS! they were gone. Rather than test new food in a new place, we decided to forego the fuel. If we were running any longer it would have been really tough at the end, but 13.5 miles on a banana and piece of baguette for breakfast ended up working out okay. I only started getting ravenous during the last mile.

It's amazing what a weather change will do for your pace. I felt totally relaxed and casual, using minimal effort, and we ended up running both long runs in the low 9's. Crazy considering a 10 minute pace felt like a death the week before on the east coast.

Other than taking the scenery and enjoying the weather, the runs were pretty uneventful. I did fall flat on my face at mile 12 of our first long run. Too busy looking at pretty dresses in the store window. Thankfully I was unscathed except for an annoying bruise on my right hip bone and some dirty hands and knees.

I think the strangest thing about running in Berlin was just not seeing that many other runners. Considering the city hosts one of the world's best marathons every fall, I would have thought Berlin to be a runner's haven. Don't get me wrong, we did see some, especially on our second long run when we headed into the Tiergarten more and ditched the tourist hot spots. However I could probably count them on two hands. Strange indeed.

In my next post I will talk about the most important part of any vacation - the FOOD!

Exhaustion and Rest Days

2013-07-01T08:22:00.002-04:00

After a bit of a set back after the River Towns Marathon, I am very happy to be running pretty much back to normal. Normal being my usual 5 days per week of Tue-Wed-Thurs-Sat-Sun. I am also quite excited to be biking to work again. Our ride is about 16 miles round trip on a fairly flat path (except for the monster 0.2 mile hill to my front door). Over the winter I rarely biked. I just couldn't take the cold. And then it was cold until like April 30th so I wasn't doing much before then. And then I was in marathon recovery and then ITBS recovery and so it was only last week that I finally biked to and from work all five days.

Even though last summer I was managing 50 mpw running and the 75 mpw biking to and from work, my body definitely needs to adjust to get to that point. I realized yesterday that I've either biked, run, or more often done both every day the last 9 days. This explains why I am absolutely exhausted. I did practically nothing all weekend and I still barely dragged myself out of bed this morning. I know some of this is not just exercise related, but also leftover from the end of my summer class last week. Up until last Thursday evening, I had been in class 12 straight months. I am mentally and physically exhausted!

I wish someone would carry me around when I got too sleepy to walk

Finally this morning I convinced myself to take the bus instead of biking and take a real rest day. It's easy for me to want to go-go-go all of the time, but without rest days you end up overtrained and overtired. Nine days is far too long to wait and in fact my paces were alraedy suffering late last week, which should have been a sign to take a day off. In the future I am going to keep Monday a true rest day, even if that means taking the stinky, slow bus.

Looking Ahead: Lehigh Valley Marathon

2013-06-20T09:32:00.001-04:00

Even though summer doesn't start until tomorrow, as usual, I am already thinking about the fall. Or actually, I have been thinking about the fall since about February. You kind of have to if you run races. The whole training thing, ya know.

Anyway, I am stunned to think that there is a mere 12 weeks between now and my first fall marathon, the Lehigh Valley Marathon on September 8th. In some ways, 12 weeks seems like a really long time. I mean, summer will be over by then and it has barely started! Then again, looking at my long run calendar, it seems like barely enough time to get things done.

I'm usually not one for fully drawn out training plans. I like to take each week as it comes. With only 12 weeks until race day, however, I figured setting up a long run schedule was probably a good idea to make sure I hit certain numbers. Since I had to back off the last month or so I am starting with just 10 miles this weekend and building from there. It's a pretty standard 3-week build/1-week cut back and repeat.

Hopefully all will go smoothly, I won't die in the summer humidity, and I will make it to the start line on September 8th. In all honestly, this is a race I want to PR. Not only did it have the 4th highest number of BQ-ers in 2012, but its average finish time that year was 4:02! So yeah, I'd like to race this one. A BQ would be great, but in lieu of chopping 11 whole minutes off my current PR, I'd be just as fine with any sort of PR. Baby steps, people.

This all depends, of course, on the summer weather. There's nothing like 90 degrees and 90% humidity to turn your 8 minute miles into 10 minutes miles.

And then you look like this after every run all summer

P.S. Lehigh Valley still has spots if anyone is still looking for an early fall marathon. Net downhill! Come on people!

The Latest

2013-06-17T16:16:00.001-04:00

Oops, its been awhile. The last month and a half has been a whirlwind. Weddings, summer class, vacation planning, work, work, work, etc, etc.

When we last spoke I talked a little about my leg pains post River Towns Marathon. After taking one full week for recovery immediately after the race I had a good running week. Then, the next week I started having IT Band pain in my left leg (typical left leg!). The pain didn't start until between miles 4-6 and everytime it started I stopped running shortly thereafter. After 3 runs of this happening I finally cooled my jets and took five full days off. Since then I haven't had any pain. I also went back to PT and haven't been running "normal," but no pain is no pain. And hey, I can totally deal with 6 weeks of lesser running when I've spent 6-7 weeks with no running with my last two injuries. I caught this one in time and nipped it in the bud.

After spending about 3 weeks on the treadmill I went outside this Saturday for 8 miles. Man, were they tough! The first few miles felt like the worst, but by the end I think my body had re-acclimated to road running. The good thing is that since I never really stopped running, I haven't lost much endurance. That's nice, because I have a marathon in 12 weeks and no time to waste!

Since I've been such a bad blogger I may as well catch you guys up with some pics of the last 5 weeks.

I actually put on real people clothes for a few big events:

My sister's college graduation!

For a wedding

More wedding

Another wedding. PS. Don't wear black when its 90 degrees and an outdoor cocktail hour

I ate some yummy food:

Bean sprouts belong on everything

I went running in NYC:

I like to call this one "the first humid day of the summer when you realize how much things will suck until October"

All in all, things have been good here in Philadelphia.

The Non-Marathon Birthday Weekend

2013-05-12T13:14:00.003-04:00

If there was one thing I definitely wanted to do the weekend of my 27th birthday, it was run a marathon. Unfortunately, after last week's River Towns Marathon, I developed some right leg issues and had to forego this weekend's race.

Right leg aside, my recovery actually went picture perfect and all of the residual soreness went away by Tuesday. I doubled up on PT exercises and foam rolling, slept every night in my compression shorts and sleeves, iced all of my aching parts, and even got a sports massage on Wednesday.

I did run 3 miles on the treadmill on Thursday and while they weren't explicitly painful, they just didn't feel right. When I woke up Friday morning my right quad definitely felt inflamed and at that point I decided to drop out of Sunday's race. It was a really hard decision to make, but when I started bargaining with myself about how I would let myself start the race, but promise to drop out if it started hurting, I realized I shouldn't be running in the first place. My races this month were all about having fun, but how can I have fun if I spend a whole race worrying about whether something will start hurting too much? If you think there is a good chance you will DNF, save yourself the prolonged injury and just back off.

I have a doctor's appointment this Thursday and hopefully we will get things sorted out. I've never really had a right leg problem before. It's always in my left. And this time the pain isn't in one specific place. It comes in waves of tingling and moderate spurts of pain over the top and interior side of my quad and sometimes in my IT band right above the knee. I'm still continuing all of my hip strengthening exercises that solved my IT band pain in the winter and I've also been rolling out my lower back, which has helped immensely. I'm thinking it might be nerve related, but we shall see.

Despite my running plans being ruined, I still had an awesome birthday weekend. I had some fun shopping and then Mike took me to my favorite Philly restaurant, Audrey Claire.

Dessert was from Crumbs Cupcakes:

Overall, a great weekend. And, marathon or no marathon, I still got to run one last weekend, so I can't really complain!

How to Pace Yourself Like an Idiot: River Towns Marathon Recap

2013-05-06T12:03:00.001-04:00

I had two goals going into this race, which I briefly mentioned in my last post: take it easy and practice pacing myself. I failed miserably at both.

Because you're just going to scroll down to the bottom anyway, I finished in 3:51:44. If you had asked me prior to the race what number I had in my head, this is about right. About six minutes slower than my current PR, but well enough under 4 hours to still feel like a solid time.

So yes, I finished with a time I was hoping for, but I took the worst possible way to get there. Before we get there, however, lets back up a bit.

Choosing what to eat the night before a marathon (or any long distance) is always tough for me. So far though, I've found fish to be a good pre-race meal. I had salmon teriyaki the night before JFK and it hit the spot, fueled me up, and didn't give me any stomach issues. Friday night we headed to the local thai place for salmon pad thai. It was cargo-loading deliciousness all around.

Saturday morning we were up at 3:15 am. The race started at 7 am and was about a 2.5 hour drive. I actually slept pretty decent albeit for only 6 hours.

3:30 am fake energy. Yay.

We were in the car by 4 am and started the long drive. Since Mike wasn't running, we brought the pups along. They were thrilled to be rudely awakened at an ungodly hour and carried to the backseat of the car.

"Why the hell are we up so early? You know I need 20 hours of sleep a day."

The River Towns Marathon is a very, very small race on a pretty straight forward 13.1 mile out-and-back course. The full marathon had 106 sign ups and about 90-some people made it to the start line. There was also a half marathon with about 500 sign ups, but the half didn't start until 9 am. This is pretty much the opposite of every race I've ever done that had a full and a half. Both have always started together and around mile 13 the half marathons detour to the finish while the full marathoners keep going, usually finding the roads to suddenly be much emptier, which can definitely wear on your motivation when you need it later on.

At this race however, the marathoners would be on their own for the first 75% of the race and meet back up with the halfers around mile 20 when they hit their turn around. This sounded pretty nice to me. I figured that if at any point during a marathon having more runners around me would be helpful, it would probably be during the last 6 miles when I'd most likely be struggling.

At 7:05 am the race director drew an "official" start line across the road with orange spray paint, counted down to zero and we were off!

Wear bright compression socks if only so your significant other can find you in a crowd

I truly (truly!) tried to run by feel at the beginning of this race. Since we were only 90-some runners the crowd thinned out very quickly. By mile one we were already out of the little town of Danville and onto the scenic River Road where a majority of the race would be.

As I passed the mile 1 marker I looked down at my watch to see 7:53 staring back up at me. Umm, too fast! By mile 2 I calculated that I'd run the second mile in about 8:20. Better, but still too fast.

P.S. I don't wear a GPS watch. I use a regular old $20 stopwatch. I find that calculating the splits out in my head gives me something to do (though the math gets a little shaky after 20 miles).

At mile 3 I calculated that I'd done a 9 minute mile, but by mile 4, it showed that I must have done a 7 minute mile. It was pretty apparent by that point that the mile markers were not placed correctly. There was no way I was sliding between 7 minute miles and 9 minute miles that quickly, especially since my energy output each mile felt the same. I decided to just keep going as I was, figuring I was probably doing around an 8:30, but really having no idea.

As I said, the course was a 13.1 mile out-and-back course. The first 9 miles were on a scene road along the river. We weren't really that close to the river, but it was sort of in view at times. Mostly it was just a lot of foliage on either side of the road and towards mile 8, some houses. Very pretty, but I had a feeling I wouldn't like it too much on the way back. There was absolutely no tree coverage along the road. At 7 am, this didn't matter much, but it was supposed to go up to the low 70s and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

For those first 9 miles I ran alongside a guy who was doing his first marathon. We didn't say more than a few words to each other, but it was nice to be near another person. There was a pack of three people about a hundred yards ahead of us and a few people way behind us. Other than that, however, I may as well have been running alone. I suppose that is what happens with a 100 person marathon though, right?

At mile 9 we finally veered off the main road and made our way towards to the short 1.5 mile trail section. I was a little annoyed by the time I got over to the trail because, frankly, it was slowing me down. Even though I couldn't be sure of my actual pace, I knew I was going pretty fast, probably even on target for a PR (the PR I wasn't supposed to care about, remember?). At least the trail was pretty and we went over a very scenic bridge.

Courtesy of the River Towns Race Series Facebook Page

We were back out on another road by mile 12. They didn't take splits at the halfway point, but my watch was showing 1:48:45 when I made the turn around (8:17 pace). On its own this would have been a half marathon PR for me by 1.5 minutes. I only set the previous PR back in March and that had felt ridiculously challenging. I definitely didn't have another 13.1 miles in me after that race and I had no idea if I would this time around. I knew I probably wouldn't be able to maintain the same pace, but I'd be lying if delusions of a sub 3:40 finish weren't starting to trickle through my head.

On top of this, after I passed the turn around, people running in the opposite direction of me started yelling as they went by "you're the third woman!" Like I said, small race. Still, it would be pretty neat to get a top 3 finish.

By mile 14 I could feel my legs starting to wear. I started trying to mentally prepare myself for the last 9 miles of the course when I'd be back on that awful road. The sun was really out at this point and it would just get worse. At mile 17, when we got back on that road, I turned my music on, hoping it would help me power through. It had the opposite effect, however, and I shut it off after three songs.

At mile 18, the fourth woman passed me. I wasn't even upset at that point. She looked like she was feeling great and was even carrying on a conversation with someone next to her. I, on the other hand, was dying. I don't think I've hit so many walls in one race as I did here. Probably six walls over the last 7 miles. I was so tempted to pull over to the side of the road and just curl up in a ball and start crying. My quads started cramping. My knees were aching. I started walking through every water stop.

At mile 20 (assuming it was correctly placed) my watch read 2:53, which means since the halfway point I'd slowed to a 9:15ish pace. It was around this point that the half marathoners joined our course. The half marathoners at their turn around were about 50 minutes into their race, meaning these were 1:40 half marathoners. Here I was, slow and dying in the sun, with a bunch of speedy, relatively fresh looking runners whizzing past me. I thought there presence would perk me up, but instead they just made me feel even slower.

Mentally I felt a little better by mile 21, but physically my body was shot. It wasn't hard for me to give up any PR dreams. I reminded myself what I had wanted out of this race and that I also had another marathon in 8 days that I'd really like to run. At mile 24 I started walking more. I decided if my body really felt like it needed to walk, I should just let it. No sense getting injured right then and there. Thankfully, the course unexpectedly veered off that terrible death road around mile 24.5. I was so ridiculously happy to be on a new part of the course, that I decided to just push it to the finish at that point.

The final 1.5 miles
Courtesy of the River Towns Race Series Facebook Page

Finally, I crossed the finish line at 3:51:44. I ended up coming in as the 6th woman. Hey, if Kara Goucher can be happy with 6th place, so can I! I don't think I've ever been so tired after a race. Not even after JFK. I literally collapsed on the grass afterwards and now, two days later, my legs are still extremely sore.

So, even though I ended up with a time I'm happy with, I really took a jackass route to get there. You know how they say to be careful not to go out to fast? This is why. Because you fucking die at the end. To recap, I ran the first 13.1 at an 8:17 pace and the second 13.1 in a 9:30 pace. Textbook poor pacing, my friends. The funniest part about this whole experience was that I could probably have finished with the same time by running even 8:50 splits the whole way and not felt like death for the last 7 miles.

I think a lot of things contributed to my demise. The course was nice, but not 26.2 miles nice. Being alone out there for that many miles with no shade was not fun. Clearly I wasn't the only person who suffered on the way back. The 1st place female was probably on track for a 3:30 finish (based on when I saw her at the halfway point), but finished in 3:41, only 10 minutes before me. It appears we all died a slow, painful death in the hot sun. Also, not having properly placed mile markers doesn't help.

Hopefully my legs will be back in action by Sunday. I'm taking it super easy this week. If I do make it to the start line Sunday morning, my number one goal will be proper pacing. At least I can't mess it up more than this race, right?

Monster May - The Game Plan

2013-05-01T13:39:00.001-04:00

Even though I've been running again for a full four months since my injury, I've only done one race between now and then. Though I would have liked to have raced more (so many good March and April races!), I decided to give my body ample rest and recovery time. I think it ended up being a good decision. Not only do my legs feel great, but mentally I am raring to go! I can't wait to toe the start lines and get race season into full gear.

I have three big events in the next 25 days (aka Monster May):

5/4 - River Towns Marathon
5/12 - Delaware Marathon
5/26 - Dirty German 50k

Ideally, I'd love to PR the 50k (my current PR is 6:10). I don't care so much about PR-ing in the marathons. That is what the fall season will be for. Really, I just want to have a lot of fun this month, practice my pacing, and get some new race bling.

As big as this month seems in terms of racing, I keep thinking about last October when I ran 270 miles, PR'd a marathon, ran back-to-back 20 milers, and did a 50 mile weekend. And I did all that without getting injured. So, I feel pretty confident going into this month with regards to staying healthy. Nevertheless, injury prevention is still a top priority.

Overall, I'm pretty good about keeping an injury prevention routine, but I will be tweaking some things this month:

- Right now, 5-6 nights a week, I foam roll, do a varied set of PT exercises and stretching, and complete 250-350 reps of core work. This month I am going to make sure these things are happening every single day, no exceptions.

- Last year I was all about high mileage all the time, even between and leading up to races. As nice as it is to say I've run such-and-such number of miles every month, I've realized I rather do the races and run less in between, than not even make it to the start line because I overdid it. The next few weeks will consist of a lot of short, slow runs leading up to race days and several forced recover days afterwards.

- I will also be adding in more cross training. Now that the cold weather has finally ceased, I can bike to work without my toes freezing off. The biking should also help take the edge off my calorie burning desires since I won't be running as much during the week. Who knows, maybe I will even get back to the pool.

What makes up your weekly injury prevention routine?

Change of Plans

2013-04-26T08:52:00.002-04:00

Sorry for my absence the last week. I have been in a full on, end of semester flurry of activity. I do so enjoy working a full 8 hour day and heading straight to the library for a couple of hours afterwards to research Hellenistic philosophy (sarcasm, if you can't tell).

As I mentioned last week, my team was looking for another runner for our Ragnar Cape Cod ultra team. So far, I have yet to participate in a Ragnar with a full team. The last two Ragnars I did, PA and DC, we had less than 12 people. Between making up those miles and night time pacing, I ran 30+ at each event. Last November Mike and I decided we should just go ahead and start an ultra team since we had been running ultra miles anyway.

Two weeks ago, one of our teammates got injured. I was stressed about finding someone, but was mentally prepared to run 38-40 miles if I needed to. Luckily the team member had the shortest legs, so it would have been doable. But this week another team member dropped due to injury. As much as I love long runs, splitting 200 miles among 4 people just isn't feasible, especially since I'm running the Delaware Marathon the following weekend, and would prefer to be somewhat recovered by then.

Initially I was heartbroken. I was really excited about this event. I've never been to Cape Cod and I was excited to hang out with everyone in the van. We could join another team, but they will likely want another registration fee and honestly, since I've only ever run ultra distances at these relays, I can't justify a trip up there and even more money spent for a measily 15 miles of legs. On top of that, I totally did not bother looking at the academic calendar for next weekend back in November when we registered. I have a final exam due the following Monday and last week my professor informed the class that she wasn't even going to distribute it until next Wednesday. So I would have basically had to rush to write it as soon as I returned from Boston on Sunday morning, when I would probably just want to pass out from exhaustion.

So, long story short, we are not running Ragnar Cape Cod next weekend. I am however, still taking next Thursday and Friday off work. I can write my final and be done by the weekend, which means I have a few more days to enjoy freedom before my summer class starts in mid-May.

Of course, since I was really looking forward to running an event next weekend, I had to go find something to fill it with:

Next Saturday I will be running the River Towns Marathon in Danville, PA. It was cheap, local-ish (2 horus away), and well reviewed. It is a very small race, which is perfect because I'm not trying to PR or run ridiculously fast (which large crowds tend to make me do). Call it a training run for the Delaware Marathon.

On a last note, I don't know how any ultra team makes it to the start of a relay race with all their runners intact!! What is their secret!?!

A Once in a Lifetime Blog Post About Weight Loss

2013-04-18T13:11:00.000-04:00

To be clear, this is a running blog, not a weight loss blog. I don't believe running and weight loss automatically go hand in hand. Sure, weight loss can be a nice side effect of running, but it is by no means guaranteed. If your #1 reason to run a marathon is to "lose weight," then in my opinion you are probably doing it for the wrong reasons. When it comes to adding miles, its actually fairly easy to gain weight by overeating. I gained a few pounds during my first marathon training cycle. I didn't mind however, because weight loss wasn't important. Crossing the finish line was.

I love food and I strive for moderation, but truthfully overeating has always been a problem for me. Fortunately I've still picked up a lot of good habits over the past years that have helped transform my diet. I've learned that adding healthy habits one at a time is the best way to go. If you do it all at once, it can be too overwhelming. Over time I replaced soda and juice with water, white grains for brown, french fries for salad and veggies. My tastes have changed and now I legitimately enjoy eating healthy foods. I will always look for a side of brussels sprouts on a menu before anything else and dinner at the Every Day Is Run Day house is usually pretty healthy:

Quinoa patties

Salmon and wild rice

Turkey burger and green bean "fries"

All that said, I really enjoy dessert too and I don't think I could live without sugar. Don't steal any of my chocolate chip cookies unless you're looking to get smacked.

Pinkberry

Crumbs

The most importrant part of the day - dessert table

In my short running career I have been injured twice and each time I stopped running completely for about 6-7 weeks. I don't know about some people (aka my husband), but I was not born with a runner's physique. So after about 3 weeks of not running, despite whatever cross training I am doing, my body starts to take on weight again. Each injury I've gained about 6-8 pounds and even after I've started running again, the weight does not easily come off (like I said, running and weight loss don't necessarily go hand-in-hand). After the first injury I forced the weight off because I had to fit into my wedding dress (very stressful, I don't recommend!). This time, I didn't have a pretty outfit that I had to wear in front of a hundred people motivating me to lose the pounds. So, in a last stitch effort to get back down to my racing weight (and fit properly into my pants again), I joined a DietBet game.

I found out about DietBet through some other blogs and after looking into it more I decided to give it a whirl. Essentially, you bet money to join a game and have 28 days to lose 4% of your body weight. You submit photos (only seen by the mods) at the beginning and end of the game with your starting and final weight. At the end of the 28 days everyone who has lost 4% splits the pot. The game is set up sort of like a Facebook newsfeed, with participants posting their work out details, accomplishments, motivational words for others, etc. Even though its online, there is definitely a community aspect that I could see being helpful to a lot of people.

For me, I didn't join for the message boards or the support network. I joined because I like money and hate losing it. I figured if I actually laid money down on the line, it would actually motivate me enough to moderate my eating habits and get back to base. Turns out I was right:

Sweet!

Over the 28 days I didn't change what I ate, as much as how much I was eating. I still enjoyed dessert on occasion, but didn't fill up my bowl quite as much at dinner (usually a major source of my overeating). I also watched my food choices a little more on the weekend. I don't consider what I did a "diet." I just used a little more self-control without causing any feelings of deprivation.

At the end of the game, I lost 7 pounds and won $43. Good deal!

Running and weight loss - what are your thoughts? Have you ever done a DietBet?

Come Sweat With Me!

2013-04-17T08:38:00.002-04:00

Okay folks, here's the deal. My Ragnar Cape Cod ultra team is short one runner and I'm looking for someone to join! Here is everything you need to know:

- The event is May 3-4

- This person would fill Runner #11 and #12 (26 miles)

OR

- Either Runner #11 or #12 (10 miles and 16 miles respectively)...we're not picky, we'll take any help we can get!

- You get to hang out with myself and Sara for an awesomely sweaty 24-30 hours.

- This will be your running backdrop:

If you are interested in joining or know someone who is, please email me ASAP at everydayisrunday@gmail.com!

Why It Hurts So Much

2013-04-15T21:11:00.001-04:00

I spent Monday morning at my desk doing work and watching the elites running the Boston Marathon. I watched the winners cross the finish line, elated and exhausted. I checked up on the finish times of a few friends and started to think about how I could be at the same start line in a few years if I work hard enough. Then went on with my day. I was in a meeting when I started getting texts about the explosions. I had to run to class immediately afterwards and could only briefly get online during our 10 minute break.

When I got home, my husband wrapped his arms around me and I just started crying. Not because I have been at countless start and finish lines and now suddenly felt so vulnerable. But because everything that the Boston Marathon means, everything that running means, was attacked. Boston represents our potential to be our best, to be strong, to be confident. My heart is broken to think that someone tried to steal that.

I may not have a BQ (yet), but I know the type of work it takes to get there. You pour blood, sweat, and tears. Months of early mornings, missed social occasions, and long hours on your feet. There is a reason that I tear up every time I pass an ongoing race. It could be a 5k or a 50k. It doesn't matter. What matters is that the people doing that race, pushing themselves to cross that finish line, embody the triumph of the human spirit. Pushing past everything you thought you could do. Finding out what you're made of. Reaching deep down for that last inch of strength.

I, for one, will keep running. And if I do end up at the Boston start line in the future, I will run for everything that was lost today.

What the Doctor Ordered

2013-04-14T16:32:00.003-04:00

First of all, thank you all so much for your comments and emails on my last post. I promise that even if I don't reply, I do read everything you guys send me (often more than once!) and truly appreciate it. One of the best things about being part of the running blogger community, is how supportive we all are of each other. So, thank you!

On that note, I promise this will be a much less depressing post than my last one. To be honest, I rewrote that post so many times, I didn't realize how depressing it sounded until Mike told me and everyone started texting me and asking if I was alright. Last weekend was rough. Very rough, actually. But thankfully a very good week followed it and I don't think I will be hitting bottom again. 95% of the time I'm a pretty optimistic person. As Elle Woods would say, "exercise gives you endorphins and endorphins make you happy." Truth, but you can still get yourself down sometimes.

Anyway, here are a few reasons my week turned out better:

1. The weather

Enough said

2. A good set of weekday runs

All of my Tuesday-Thursday runs were fantastic this week. I ended up doing two our four of them on the treadmill (it was actually too hot out at lunchtime at 85 degrees), but finally caved and bought a Spotify Premium membership, so I jammed to that the whole time.

3. Embracing Flexibility

This weekend was another busy weekend with lots of things on my to-do list. I wanted to attempt a 20 miler, continue researching my paper, write 10 pages of said paper, and get some other homework done as well. Leading up to this weekend I felt okay, but on Thursday I was up all night dealing with work stress and it melted into Friday when I started to freak out about getting everything done this weekend. I was actually sick to my stomach over it on Friday morning and barely got down my breakfast (nothing usually keeps me from my oatmeal). Eventually I made an executive decision to hold off on one of my assignments and leave it for next week. Sure, it would have been great to have done it this weekend, but with a Monday deadline for my paper, that was the priority. After the decision I felt much less stressed and went into Friday night feeling super.

4. My Long Run

Which brings us to Saturday morning. This weekend I decided to do my long run on Saturday. Really, that's how it should always be. I always wake up stressed out on Sunday because I feel like I have a million things to do. Running for three hours on top of it, is just a recipe for disaster (see last weekend). I knew if I wanted to run and do everything else, that I had to run early. I can't be stressed about running instead of doing homework if I would have been sleeping anyway, right? I set my alarm for 5 am Saturday, snoozed it until 5:30, and was out the door by 6.

Right from the start, it was a great run. The sun was coming up. The roads were empty. The cherry blossoms had bloomed and their was a gentle dew all over the river grass. A thick fog enveloped the river, but here and there I could make out the crew teams rowing through it.

This was my first 20 miler in five months (JFK was almost exactly 5 months ago). After such a long hiatus, 20 miles definitely felt a little scary. My past experience has shown me that the first 20 miler of any training cycle is always rough, so I hadn't really been looking forward to this run. Even though I mapped it out, I didn't really pay attention to the mile markers.

Good morning Philadelphia!

Even though I love being close to the trails where we live now, I really miss living downtown. A nice run through the empty 7 am streets was just what I needed.

Since I didn't know the mile markers I just assumed I was going at about a 10 minute pace, which was totally fine. I like to run long and slow for these kinds of distances in training. Even though the run started great, I was feeling fatigued after an hour and a half already. When I got back to the river to head home I checked my watch to try and figure out how fast I had been going. I knew at that point that I was about 6 miles from home and was kind of shocked to see a 2:12, instead of a 2:20 on my watch. Since there is no sense in wasting a speedier-than-I-thought run, I decided to try and kick it into gear the rest of the way home. I put on some tunes, passed a bunch of people, and made it back to my front door 3 hours and 2 minutes after I left. Not the 3:20 I was expecting. I actually remapped my whole run to see if I had run less than I thought, but I didn't. Turns out I ran the first 14 miles in a 9:15 average and the last 6 in an 8:31 average. Negative splits for the win!

After peeling through all my running data, I figured out that not only was this my fastest 20 mile training run, but my fastest by a whole 9 minutes. I've run a fair share of 20 milers (I think 7 alone in JFK training), but they always ended up in the 9:30s or slower. This run was a HUGE confidence booster, especially since a) it was my first in 5 months and b) I didn't really feel like I was trying that hard. I really don't have any plans to PR at the Delaware Marathon in May, but at least now I feel better about trying to run reasonably well.

5) A visit from my favorite person

After such a great morning I had no doubts that day would be fantastic, especially since my Mom was coming up from DC for an afternoon visit. I know I'm almost 27 years old and an adult, but I still feel like a little girl who needs her mommy sometimes. We hung out for a few hours, shopped, ate, and all my stress just melted away. A mommy-daughter day was exactly what I needed.

Plus amazing goat cheese salad from our dinner

So yes, it was a better week. My to-do list certainly won't be any shorter in the coming weeks, but I feel like I got some of my mojo back, and that makes a whole lot of difference.

Losing My Running Mojo

2013-04-08T09:21:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning I work up at 7am, put on a pair of shorts and compression socks, gobbled up a banana and granola bar, sipped on a cup of water, and set my stopwatch to zero. I let my dogs out back and stepped outside to get a taste for the temperature. Then suddenly, as I stood there dressed and ready to go, I realized my 18 mile long run was not going to happen. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Instead of turning on my music and heading out the door, I went back upstairs, defeated, and broke down. In my two and half years of running, and barring injury, I have always sucked it up, gone out there, and finished my run. This time was different.

Mentally I consider myself to be a strong runner. Bad runs happen, by overall, I don't deal with a lot of self-doubt. Finding success in running helps boosts my confidence in other areas of my life, which is one of the reasons I love it. But this weekend I let anxiety and self-doubt win. Instead of feeling like my usual capable self, I felt defeated. I failed.

This has been a tough semester for me and, as we fully dive into April, otherwise known as the end of the semester, I've been feeling more and more overwhelmed. Sunday morning everything came crashing down. The thought of running for 3 hours and then sitting down to do hours upon hours of work seemed impossible.

Obviously no one has a gun to my head telling me to run. It's something I put on myself and its only as important as I believe it to be. On the one hand I am glad that I didn't force myself to run when I really didn't want to. Its important to be flexible and take breaks when your body and mind tells you to. On the other hand, I feel like I'm in this vicious cycle. The doubt I've felt in some of the non-running areas of my life has now negatively affected my running, And when I lose confidence in my running, I in turn lose confidence in other areas of my life. And around and around it goes.

Eventually Mike convinced me to go out for a shorter run with him. We settled on 10 miles, but I still wasn't remotely excited about it. Truthfully, it was one of the hardest 10 mile runs of my life. I wanted to quit every mile, and probably would have if my husband weren't by my side. The whole time I kept wondering how the hell I ran 50 miles when getting to the next stoplight seemed so hard.

I wish I could tell you that I felt better after the run, that my anxiety levels deflated and I regained my confidence, but I didn't. I hope that this weekend was the turn around point and that my running mojo is out there somewhere ready for me to find. I'm ready to feel strong again.

Old Habits Die Hard

2013-04-03T09:43:00.002-04:00

In the two and a half years that I've been running, you could say that the five months I spent training for JFK last summer and fall stand out. Fitness-wise, I was in the best shape I've ever been. Mentally, I was as tough as nails. I will always be proud of crossing that finish line on race day, but I am equally proud of the months of work I put in.

Just ran 50 miles. NBD.

While there were some things about training that I will not miss (70 mile weeks, work, and graduate school leave little time for anything else), there are plenty of things that I really did like about it. Like enough, that I would love for them to be part of my weekly routine whether I'm training for anything or not. It's amazing what you get used to over five months and I quickly found myself missing my old "habits."

Now that I'm practically 100% back-to-normal since my injury, I've started incorporating some of these elements back into my routine. Even though I don't have any 50 mile races on my calendar this year, I don't think they could hurt. My goals for the rest of 2013 are really just to stay in consistant marathon shape, which they would benefit.

Double Runs

I wish I could find the energy to do longish runs before or after work (like this super cool person), but right now in my life it just doesn't work for me. Instead, I prefer to split up a run one day a week to get in some more miles. Usually these double runs add up to anywhere between 10-14 miles depending on my energy level that day. Not only is it a way to feel super accomplished on a regular old Wednesday, but, for me, it means I can happily run only 5 days per week instead of 6 and let my legs enjoy the extra rest day.

Hill Work

One of the very first things I noticed this winter as I started running again outside, was that my hill endurance was shot to hell. Last year hills felt easy, fun, and were a welcoming part of my run. So far this year they've felt like death every time and not the "but I feel accomplished when I get to the top" kind. More like the "why is this so hard and I'm going to go home and sulk" kind.

Finally I got fed up with it and scheduled myself for some good old hill repeats this morning. Hills are definitely not a rarity in my neighborhood, so its pretty easy to come up with 5-6 miles of ups and downs without feeling bored.

Surprisingly they first few didn't feel so bad and I started to think that I would get through the whole thing without any issues. Then I forgot about the 3rd and 4th hill. The steepest section on hill 3 is a lovely 17% grade, which doesn't sound terrible, but you actually feel like your going to fall off the sidewalk and plummet to your death if you don't lean into it enough. Overall, the workout was a success and I already feel more confident. The Delaware Marathon is known to be a bit hilly so I'm hoping I can counteract that with some weekly hill repeats.

Back-to-Back Long Runs

For my first marathon I followed a Hal Higdon plan with a few variations. Like most marathon plans, it had me run long one weekend day and either rest or run very short on the other. Looking back, I can't believe I actually used to take Sundays off. Now, I can't imagine doing anything better with my weekend than spending both days hitting the pavement or trails for several hours. JFK training had a pretty standard Saturday long run (16-25 miles) and a 10 mile Sunday run. I've slowly eased back into that set up over the past few weeks. I don't know that I'll be doing any back-to-back 20 milers anytime soon, but for now this feels pretty good!

Burn Out and Race Registrations

2013-04-01T15:12:00.004-04:00

After sitting on my ass for five full days after my wisdom tooth surgery I was as ready as ever to start running again. I felt like one of those wind-up toys that's ready to make a break for it the second you set it down and let go.

Finally, last Tuesday my mouth felt healed enough to run. I slammed out 7.28 miles of pure awesomeness. I can't remember the last time my legs felt so fresh and ready to go. After days of trying to keep my blood pressure low (so as not to dislodge the bloodclot in my mouth) I eagerly pushed up a few hills and each labored breath felt fantastic. So yes, Tuesday's run was awesome. So awesome that I apparently used up all of my week's allotment of awesome run feelings, because the rest of the week sucked.

Somehow I managed to have a good speed workout on the treadmill during lunch on Thursday, but other than that I was seriously dragging on every other run.

Two 15-minute sets and some extra on the end to get 4 miles

Saturday was 9 miles of "running, I hate you" in what should have been perceived as lovely spring weather, but felt like "why is is so hot already?" and "eff this shit."

On Sunday's 16-miler I actually had to stop after 2 miles and give myself a pep talk before continuing. I felt a little better after I got to the 8 mile turn around, but probably only because I knew the only way I'd make it home is if I ran back and complaining wasn't going to change that. That's the nice thing about out-and-backs and not carrying a cell phone: you're forced to run the miles no matter how you feel about them.

Overall, a pretty shitty-feeling week of running after Tuesday stole the thunder. I'm well aware that not all runs are good runs, but usually I can at least average a good week. Hopefully running and I will get along better this week. I've got an 18 miler on schedule for Saturday, so fingers crossed that the happy, "omg I love running" beam of sunshine hits me square in the face at some point.

In other news, I'm officially registered for all of my fall races. My bank account is crying, but its nice to know that I probably won't be pulling out anymore registration fees from it for anything else happening this year.

Mike and I both managed to get into the Marine Corps Marathon. In case you haven't heard, active.com sucks and made a bunch of runners angry when their site went doen 1.5 minutes after registration opened last Wednesday (a la Chicago). I got in after 20 minutes and Mike got in after an hour. Totally worth giving up my lunch hour for.

I also registered for the Philadelphia Marthon this morning and as the first 1000 people to do so, I scored registration for only $80, which makes my bank account cry slightly less. Philly was my very first marathon in 2011 and I look forward to running it again as, what will hopefully be, my sixth this fall.

So, to sum up this post: I hated running this week, but decided to spend hundreds of dollars signing up for a bunch of marathons. Makes perfect sense I think.

The Science of the Long Run

2013-03-27T11:02:00.001-04:00

I love running. In fact, the only thing I love more than running is running long (and also maybe chocolate chip cookies).

After scaling back my mileage the past two weeks due to the RnR USA Half and then my widsom teeth removal, I am ready to pick it back up and get into serious long run territory. I'm hoping to score an 18 and two 20 milers in April, which should set me up nicely for a busy race schedule in May.

The last time I ran 20+ miles was at JFK in November. Needless to say, it's been awhile and I'm eager to test out my endurance. I'm sure the first 20 miler won't be enjoyable. Let's face it, sometimes long runs just plain suck, especially when you run out of new running routes. Mapping 20 milers are always difficult for me. Its a game of "which parts of Philadelphia will I hate the least on this particular day."

That said, I really do love running long. I love the slow, steady burn, the hours to myself to work out my thoughts, and of course the post-run satisfaction that comes along with sitting on my ass the rest of the day (I deserve it).

While perusing r/running on Reddit this morning I found a link to Wiki page called The Science of the Long Run. Luckily for us 2013 folks, Wikipedia isn't nearly as trecherous as it was when it started. My teachers are even vocally supportive of it (Need a quick date on something? Wiki it!). If the author's references are as relible as they seem, then it makes for some very interesting data on the long run.

The study looks for correlations in data between the number of long runs in the last two months of marathon training and marathon time, injury rate, etc.

Source

There is obviously a lot more analysis that could be done on future data, but overall I found it very interesting, especially since it seems to support the idea of more long runs for better performance. Yay long runs!