Burnt Out

Days until Nike DC: 12

Miles in 2014: 310.4

Ok.  I’ll say it.  Perhaps this spring the mantra of “Run all the Races!” may have come back to bite me in the asphalt.  Since our spring session started mid-January I’ve run 6 half marathons and a 10k.  Apparently that’s a few too many!  I definitely have been feeling it.  My legs are sore, I’m tired, I’m unmotivated, and I’m grouchy.  I’ve missed more week day runs than I’ve gone too.  I stopped cooking healthy meals and returned to easy convenient fixes.  The combination has totally taken a toll on me in terms of training.

Instead of continuing to whine about it, I’m going to try and put a plan into place.  As a teacher, this time of year is exhausting.  I always seem to struggle spring break through the beginning of summer.  This morning though, I got up and went to the gym.  It was not my most inspired workout, but I got up and out of bed on a week day morning which is more than I’ve been able to do for a month now.  Tomorrow my goal is to get up and run.  I made wise choices all day when it came to food and didn’t go off the reservation and eat the easy stuff.  The goal tonight is to cook dinner and get food ready for breakfasts and lunches for the next day or two.

Next up is the need to lose some fat mass and replace it with lean muscle.  The 10 or so pounds that have crept back on do not make it easier to run.  That’s the next focus, I know how to do it, I’ve done it before, it’s not complicated.  So some amended “goals” for the remainder of the year:

1.       Less Races.  That’s right you heard it here first.  I have Nike DC in 2 weeks, and then a fun 12 k, and a 5k the two weekends after that.  After that nothing is on my schedule until the Portland Marathon in October.  Then in true form race junkie I’m already signed up for 5 halves in October and November.  3 of them are non-negotiable but the other two I may decide to bail on.   I made my coach promise to beat me if I sign up for anything else.

2.       Focused training.  For me it’s very easy to mentally crash long before I really physically need to.  This summer session I am going to work on my mental toughness and focus on doing all my training the right way and with the best effort I can give it.  I want to go under or right at 5 hours in Portland in October and I know that I will have to put in the work and make it count in the worst months to train here in Florida.

3.       Quit being lazy… it’s been so easy to sleep in.  Even easier to not make the right foods and get something easy from the store or go out to eat.  Though, I am going to rest just a little in between sessions in May to recuperate from my rough Spring season.  We might even sit at Starbucks, sip a latte, and watch everyone else run by.  But come June it’s back to business!

Hopefully all of this will snap me out of my self-inflicted slump!

Dopey Challenge

Miles in 2014: 60.9

Days until Nike DC Women’s Half Marathon: 100

As I sit her with the inevitable post-marathon plague, you know the one you get when you stop moving and all of a sudden your body attacks you a cold, I have a few minutes to reflect on 4 days, 4 parks, and 48.6 miles!  I knew the Dopey Challenge wouldn’t be an easy undertaking and Leah and I battled for days before we signed up for it, but now that it’s over I’m so glad we did!

Day one: Thursday 3.1 miles – Waking up to run 3.1 miles on a Thursday is no big deal usually, most Thursdays we log more like 5-6 miles.  We did have to be awake much earlier to make it to Disney with plenty of time to be ready to run.  Having learned our lesson last year, we agreed to get to Disney about 2 hours before the race start every day.  Leah and I parked within minutes of each other which was good since she had my bibs and shirts.  We hung out in her car for a bit before meeting up with Amy and Carolyn.  We made the rookie mistake of stopping at the first set of porto-potts we came to and I luckily used the last of the toilet paper in mine!  We said good bye to Amy at the corrals and met up with Dennis to enter our corrals.  I had a C corral start, and everyone else had a D corral start.  I tried to remind Dennis that we were most likely faster than everyone in this corral and his usual “start at the very back and let everyone pass us” plan was a bad idea but no one listened to me.  So with the start of our corral, just I predicted it was crowded and we passed hundreds of people the whole time we ran.  So, you know what that means, it was super crowded!  While I know that this is called the “Family Fun Run” the number of little kids darting around or being drug by their parents made navigating the course tricky and sometimes a little dangerous.  I may not be popular for making this next suggestion but, perhaps RunDisney needs to require anyone under the age of 10-12 to start in the final corral to prevent some of the problem races with little kids creates.  It’s dark, they’re short and the combination makes it hard to see them causing some of us slightly more tunnel-visioned racers to trip over them.   The race was crowded as I said, and right at mile 1 Leah fell and scrapped her knee!  This was particularly bad since we had 47.6 more miles to go in this challenge.  She dusted herself off and got back to it.  We finished in a conservative 35:18.  Later that day Leah stood up at work to find out that she could barely put any weight on her ankle as a result of the tumble.  After a frantic trip to the orthopedic we hoped that she was fixed up enough to make it through the next 3 days of races!

Day two: Friday 6.2 miles- The final 3 days of races all started earlier than Thursday so I was up at about 2:30 in the morning.  Again, Leah and I parked near each other.  Today we spent our car time in the morning watching youtube videos on how to use KT tape to stabilize an ankle.  After that we got ready to meet the gang!  We found Gloria, Amy, and Michelle and made our way toward the corrals.  Today we got smart and used the porto-potts with no line.  Leah, Michelle, and I decided to start in C today, since we were almost late for work on Thursday.  C corral was still crowded but we did seem to have a little more room as the race went on.  We took Thursday pretty easy to test Leah’s ankle.  I also was cautious of some of the ground since it had rained that morning.  We walked all of the boardwalk since it seemed extra slippery on the wood.  We also walked in the last half mile or so to give Leah’s ankle a cool down.  We finished in a 1:20:19 which was a nice easy pace.

Day three: Saturday 13.1 miles- Day 3 started a little off schedule.  Sarah was meeting me at my house to ride over together but she forgot her bib and had to turn around.  While she was doing that I realized that I needed gas in my car.  The gas station on the corner is right next to a Taco Bell that was still open and had many a drunken college kid in the back of a pick-up.  That should give you insight on just how early we were up.  We made it to Disney still on our time frame and met up with the group.  We took our Marathonfest before photo and started back on the long hike to the corrals.  Once we were settled into Corral K, Leslie, a friend of mine I’ve known pretty much my entire life met up with us.  She just had a baby a few weeks before and was understandably a little undertrained.  I told her to stick with us and she would be ok.  We started off comfortably and just enjoyed the course.  Leah has two mandatory photo stops in the Magic Kingdom; one is on Main Street and the other is in front of the castle, we don’t stand in line for photos, but we will peel off to take a quick group shot, and honestly some of those photos are some of my favorites.  At mile 10 people started to leave us – which is always ok.  We just wanted to finish steady and standing.  Susan left first, then Michelle and Sarah.  Since it was Sarah’s first half I’m glad she went ahead and pushed herself!  Leah, Leslie, and I finished in 2:52:58 – which matched down to the second me and Leah’s times from the Goofy last year!  What a great way to finish off my 20^th half marathon!

Day four: Marathon Day – Sunday 26.2 miles – No matter how many of these I do, I don’t think they ever will just feel easy.  We knew that setting a PR was highly unlikely, it was too hot, and we had just put 22.4 miles on in the days before.  Instead of worrying about our time we went into looking to enjoy a marathon as much as one can enjoy a marathon.  We started with a huge group! Lauren, Dennis, Carolyn, Angela, Brittany, Michelle, Leah, and I stayed together through Leah’s mandatory photo opportunities and our first bathroom break.  After the bathroom break Lauren and Dennis took off and finished right around the 5:30 mark – they are ready for their spring marathons Boston and Tokyo!  The rest of us did a good job of staying together for awhile.  Around mile 12.5 Michelle and Brittany hit the bathrooms and Leah, Carolyn, Angela, and I hopped onto Everest and rode the ride.  This may just be the coolest thing I’ve ever done during a race.  It cooled us down and gave us a much needed adrenaline rush.  Our only mistake was not pausing our watches, but man it looks like we ran one really fast mile in the middle there!  One of the things that made running this marathon much more bearable was knowing we had people we knew all along the course.  It was easier to think in 2-6 mile chunks of who we should be seeing next.  There are way too many people to name here who were out along the course, but I am so thankful for all of them.  Michelle and Brittany caught up with us when we stopped to use the bathrooms around mile 14 and we all stayed together until mile 19.  After we left a pit stop stop with Dan and his wife, it was just Leah, Carolyn and I.  By this point I was grumpy and the sun was really starting to get to me.  Last year the sun wipped me out at mile 15, so I was glad I was now nearing mile 21.  Leah refused to let me slow down and dropped our interval from 3:1 to 2:1.  I know at least once I whined to Carolyn to stay with me so Leah would have to slow down.  We kept up the 2:1’s for a few more miles before dropping again to 1:1’s.  I know I was not fun to be with at this point but Leah and Carolyn drug me through those last icky miles.  It is the first time though that we finished a marathon still running a formal interval and not doing a death march at the end.  I know I complained a lot, but I am so happy that Leah made me finish strong!  We finished in 5:55:22, which was 28 minutes faster than last year’s Goofy.  After getting ice on our knees and picking up our last 3 medal (rounding out the week’s total to 6). We settled down in the runner’s village to wait for all of other friends who were finishing up.  This was a great weekend to complete Marathon #5 for me!

As crazy as it sounds this was one of the best and most fun marathons I’ve ever run.  So fun I might just decide to go and try to be “perfectly Dopey” and run every Dopey race from here on out.

OUC Orlando Half Marathon

Miles in 2013: 992.7

Days Until Dopey: 30

So I’m working on getting out of my slump and back on track.  This Saturday I ran the OUC Orlando Half Marathon.  I had been signed up to be the 2:45 pacer for a few months now.  When I went to pick up my packet I was told that the other 2:45 pacer had to back out leaving me as the only pacer.  I have to admit I was a little nervous of the responsibility, what if I was having a bad day, what if I tripped and fell, what if I just didn’t have it in me?  Luckily, I was able to snag Leah the other pacer gig so I felt MUCH more comfortable having her as my security blanket!  We met up in the morning and used the very swanky Brooks sponsored VIP porto potties – if you know me you know I’m a sucker for a port-o-let!  We met our group of hopeful 2:45 finishers and headed to the corrals.  By the time we got there it was already a little crowded in the area of 10+ to the beginning of the walkers.  I swear about 30 seconds after the start I broke the pacer stick – you can’t take me anywhere!  As we started with our group we got to know some of it’s members.  One girl said “a 2:45 is a PR for me so I’m sticking with you” another was the mother of a student I had a school.  Most seemed to enjoy the 3:1 interval pacing “man this makes it easier.”  Each mile we would check our watches, true to form we were a little faster than pace.  Every mile we’d tell the group “we’re ahead of pace so we are going to slow down just a little” and we did, and yet at the next mile, still ahead of pace.  I blame it on our fast walking pace.  We also had budgeted an extra 30-60 seconds for each of the water stops so we knew we needed a little extra time in there for those.  One tough thing was that the 2:30 pace group had started a few minutes behind us in the corrals so we heard a lot of “how are you ahead of the 2:30 pace group?”  As the run went on we maintained a pretty steady pace.  One girl was particularly awesome – she had a group of people cheering for her that I swear made it to 5 or 6 places on the course.  The first time she saw them she started to cry “I was in the hospital yesterday with a Kidney infection” she told us.  I told her to suck it up she could cry at the end, she laughed and agreed.

At the start

Around Mile 10 I was struggling, it was SO HOT.  Even though I am a born and raised Florida girl, I cannot handle the heat well at all.  As the race progressed I got more and more over heated and felt worse and worse.  I knew I had to back of a little bit.  Leah and our pack of 15 were up ahead just a little bit so I sent a quick “about to puke” text to her to which she replied “I got this. Hope U feel better.”  Thank God for Leah, I could breathe a little easier.  I kept plugging along.  A few times people would come up on me and check to see if we were still on 2:45 pace  - I could always reply “yes!”  As I hit mile 11 I started picking people to push along “c’mon Jorge we are running to that stop sign!”  Poor Jorge, I heckled eh motivated him for miles.  He told me his original goal was 2:15 – I told him that wasn’t happening but we could still get 2:45.  He stuck with me for most of the rest of the race.  I came up on the finish line at 2:41 and change.  Leah had kept the whole group and they finished in a 2:35.  She told me she kept offering to slow down and they all said “no way, this is AWESOME!” and kept going.  I never came up on any of them so I know they all finished ahead of their goal!  Leah luckily got all of the sweaty stranger hugs and I didn’t.  I did however see poor Jorge about a minute after me who just smiled and gave me a fist bump. I also saw a girl from our marathonfest pace group who held with me for almost all of the race sail in at a 2:42 and a very happy 10 minute PR!  I’ll call that a successful pacing job.

Leah and the people from the pace group finishing

It was a tough race on a hot day, I’m glad that I could help others achieve and exceed their goals!

With our medals and we had to get a pic with Bisquits!

Post NYC Blues

Miles in 2013: 979.4

Days Until Dopey:  34

A quick recap of the past month.  After the NYC Marathon I fell into a little bit of a post marathon slump.  I guess it happens to the best of us.  If you start to type into a google search engine “post marathon” it suggests “depression”, “blues”, and “slump.”  I know you are supposed to rest and recover after a marathon.   Trust me, I enjoy the sleeping in.  But, I found myself drained physically and mentally.  I had been looking forward to NYC for most of 2013, even when I wasn’t officially “IN” I knew that I would be going and running that race. Now that it was over, what did I have to look forward to?  Yes, I have that crazy Dopey 48.6 coming up in just over a month, but having done the Goofy last year it doesn’t seem quite as exciting or intimidating, plus Disney is just down the street.  I’d have to check my Nike+ log, but I think in the month of November I only ran about eight times, and 3 of those were races!   Who is this person I was becoming?  I only went to 3 of our weekday work outs all month!  December is here and I haven’t started out much better, I skipped yesterday’s workout too!

The second weekend of November, Leah and I volunteered at the finish line of the Wine and Dine Half Marathon.  It was lots of fun and I enjoyed being on the other side of the race.  We also didn’t plan very well and had signed up for the Baldwin Park Half Marathon the following morning.  Since our shift ended at 3:30 in the morning we drove to the race and slept in Leah’s car.  Yeah. We are those girls.  So on two or three less than quality hours of sleep we rolled out of the car and headed to the race.  I didn’t go into the race planning on doing anything other than finishing – I mean I had just PRed a marathon the week before.  Leah took off and I lost sight of her about 3 miles into the race.  I ran most of the race by myself, and just went along at a pace that felt comfortable.  I spent the last half of the race looking at the person ahead of me and just trying to pass one person each interval.  I was super surprised when I finished with a time of 2:37!  It was my fourth best half time ever!  I couldn’t believe that a week after a marathon I ran one of my top half times.

But man, the next day I could tell I was going to pay the price for it!  I was so sore.  I felt worse after the half than I had felt after my past few marathons.  I knew I was in trouble.  I took it easy and didn’t run for a week and a half.  My first run back was terrible.  I was miserable and bailed after 4 miles.  I skipped Thursday that week.  We met for a Dopey Double on Friday, and I took my 6 miles easy.  Saturday I was supposed to run 14 miles.  By the time I was 5 or 6 miles in I knew 14 wasn’t happening so I bailed and did 10 miles.  I started to get worried, I still have a very busy Fall/Winter schedule ahead of me and I was worried that all of these less than stellar runs meant something.

I got up (while on Thanksgiving Break!) and ran Tuesday morning (mostly because I had about 4 people’s race packets for the weekend that I needed to give them).  The run was tough, but I did better than I had been expecting to do.  Thanksgiving morning I woke up to temps in the high 30’s/low 40’s and was in heaven.  It is no secret that I run considerably better in cold weather.  I met Krystal in Deland for the Thanksgiving 10 Miler which is one of my favorite races.  I like to get up on Thanksgiving and run more than the usual Turkey Trot 5k, it makes me feel like I can eat my face off later at dinner.  I ran the race at what felt comfortable and improved my time from last year by 8 and half minutes!

Sunday was the Space Coast Half Marathon.  This is also one of my favorite races.  Last year, Leah and I had huge PR’s there and both ran our first under 2:30 half.  The goal for our group was to run an under 2:15 half, but being in the slump I’ve been in I was doubtful that was possible for me that day.  I still tried to give it a go an attempted to keep up with the 2:15 pace groups.  I was only a few miles in before I felt like I was going to throw up. I backed off my pace a little and watched Leah disappear ahead of me.  I still was running a pretty strong pace for most of the race.  Space Coast is one of my favorite races because at about mile 5 I start to see all of my fast friends headed back and it starts to take my mind off the running.  As I make the turn around I get to see other friends who are a little slower than me.  When I saw Leah she was ahead of the 2:15 pace group and wound up finishing with a monster PR and our group half record.  Then, I get to see my REALLY fast friends running the marathon and cheer them on.  As I came up on the turn near mile 13 I saw a bunch of Track Shack people there cheering us in.  After I finished (with a 2:30! – my third fastest half time) Leah and I went and got ready for a long day of cheering.  We stayed to cheer on Rumen and Rebecca in their first full marathons!  Both of them did awesome jobs and I’m so proud of them both.

Then it was back to the slump… I didn’t run Tuesday.  I was sore and tired.  Yesterday I went to go get a much needed massaged and was benched for this morning’s run by both my massage therapist and my coach.  While I enjoyed the extra three hours of sleep it is not helping the mental slump that I am in!  Hopefully I will snap out of it soon and be back on my regular 3-4 days of running a week!

Looking ahead:  This Saturday I am pacing the 2:45 finish pace group at the OUC Orlando Half Marathon.  I think I even convinced Leah to take it easy and run with me, let’s just hope Dennis and Lauren don’t reclaim our group half record at the race or Leah might kill me.  The following Sunday we have the Mount Dora Half Marathon, and I’m also running a “Beat the Stress” Christmas Eve morning 5k.  After the Dopey I might still have a crazy half schedule!  I’m signed up for 7 more half marathons and a 10k in the span of 3 months.  One series I’m particularly excited for is the Best Damn Race series.  We ran the first Best Damn Race last year in Safety Harbor and it was beautiful.  This year they’ve stepped the medal to a beautiful spinning sailboat and added a race in Orlando.  If you do both of them you also receive at spinning medal showcasing both cities.  It’s pretty awesome – if you want to join me (and want to save some money) go sign up and use the code “MOREHEAD” to receive $5 off your registration fee (it also works for the 5k and 10k if you’re just not up for a half).

One thing that will help snap me out of this slump is that our group of 10 ladies made it into THE NIKE DC WOMEN’S HALF MARATHON!  A group of us tried to get in last year and didn’t make it.  If you know me the lure of that swoosh and a Tiffany and Co. necklace at the finish line is my idea of heaven.  So instead of wearing myself out and training for a spring marathon this year, I think we will work on getting faster and focus on the half marathon distance and start back on the crazy marathon schedule in June when we will hopefully be training for the Chicago Marathon!