8/14/2011

Training schedule says I will do: 13 miles

I actually did:   13.53*

*18.53 miles using Aubree's Bonus Mileage System, getting 3.25 miles for running uphill for a total of 6.5 miles, 1 mile for sweating through underwear, pants, sports bra and shirt, 0.25 miles for 80+ degree weather, and 0.5 miles for traveling more than 10 miles. 

 

Days to go until the marathon: 42

Miles to go until 1000: 648.97

I know, I've been a slacker.  Not just with posting, but with running too.  It is no secret that I have been struggling to keep my running mojo going while training for this marathon.  I think it is also no secret that I've had pain in my hips (mostly the left recently, but it has been on the right too).  Well, I had a great 18.8 mile run a couple of weeks ago.  The first 13.5 miles of the run felt AMAZING.  I felt fast, and great.  13.5 to 15 were a little harder.  15 to 17 really sucked.  17 to home was better again.  Overall my pace was 11:25, which honestly would shock me if I am able to run the marathon at that fast a pace.  So I thought maybe my mojo was coming back.  Then I left the next day for vacation and did a couple of runs while on vacation.  But then I didn't run at all for the 2 weeks after I got back from vacation.  Part of this was lack of motivation, part of it was wanting to see if my hip pain would go away, part of it was because I had (have, as it's not over yet) 18 days in a row of work without a day off as soon as I got back from vacation.  And part of it was because someone had posted on Run Like a Mother's facebook page that the best way to get your running groove back is to take some time off.  So I did.

My first run back was actually yesterday, I had signed up for a 5k.  I am a bit of a race snob, and usually don't think 5ks are worth the entrance fee, but this is for a good cause (building a dog park in our town, which really needs one), and I thought maybe it would be helpful to run a race I can do relatively fast.  My plan had been to run to the start of it, so that I'd get 14 or so miles in for the day and be done with my long run for the weekend.  But of course I was on call, and my pager went off, and I had a patient in labor.  I ended up still doing the 5k -- all the while wondering if it were the stupidest thing in the world, because what better way to ensure the patient delivered quickly while I was in the middle of the race -- but not the pre-run.  That was ok, I did my long run today (more on that in a bit).

I started out the 5k fast.  Too fast, in fact.  I very quickly felt exhausted and couldn't believe I'd gotten so out of shape with just 2 weeks of non-running (during which time, I should add, I did bike commute to work several times so it wasn't like I was a slug).  Then I looked down at my Garmin and discovered I was running a 7 minute mile.  Well no wonder!  Whenever I hear of people running 6-7 minute miles, I often think to myself, "I wonder if I could run that fast for just one mile?"  I now know that I can't.  My limit at a 7 minute mile is apparently 0.25 miles.  So I slowed down and the rest of the race felt good.  It was a very small race (I think there were less than 50 people running it), and for a long time I thought I was the very last one (but later discovered there were a couple people behind me, and I did pass 2 people near the end).  So I kind of felt bad about myself because of that, although I overall ran a 9:35 mile for the race, so I tried to convince myself that I shouldn't feel badly that I was the slowest one out there, because I still ran fast for me.

For the record, my patient delivered at around 8 pm that night, so I did not miss it, nor did I cause a faster labor by my absence from the hospital.

Which brings us to today's run.  I've been reading a couple other running blogs from time to time recently, and one of them talked about how you should have a negative split (i.e. the second half of the race is faster than the first half), and that for every minute you are under pace in the first half of the race, you lose 2 minutes in the second half because of exhaustion.  So I tried to do today's run with a negative split, which I don't think works for me.  It was really hard to go at my slow "goal" pace in the beginning (arbitrarily set at 11 min/mile, since my actual goal marathon pace is anything faster than standing still), and I ended up at the same slow pace at the end.  Maybe that's the point, and I guess I was more consistent in my pace, but it felt overall like I was slower (and my pace was objectively slower than the great 18.8 mile run I mentioned earlier), and not necessarily less tired.  So I don't know about this whole negative split thing, although I am willing to try it on one more long run before I go back to just running without thinking about pace except to say "oh, I'm going fast right now" or "wow, I'm going slow right now".

I also tried to make this run more interesting than usual.  Usually, I run straight down the major street near my house (Colton), to the next major cross street (17th), and then I turn and head up that to the next major street (Poly), etc.  But today I decided I would shake things up a bit by running up and down the side streets in between Colton and Poly.  It did make things more interesting, and certainly added a lot of hills to my run, and I think I liked it overall.  But it also felt like I wasn't really going anywhere because at one point I realized I had run 2 miles, but was only like .75 miles away from my house.  This actually turned out to be a good thing, however, because at that 2 mile mark, I realized I didn't lock my front door.  So I ran home, only to discover that I had, in fact, locked it.  I then repeated the up and down side streets from the beginning.  I don't think that's what it meant when people talk about doing hill repeats, but that's ok.

Overall I enjoyed the runs this weekend.  My hip did start to hurt, but wasn't unbearable.  I know I need to add strength training to my regimen, and I keep meaning to . . . maybe this week . . ., and I think that will help with the pain I'm having.  But, I do feel like I'm going to be able to run (or should I say finish, as there will definitely be some walking involved) this marathon which I can't say I for sure did a few weeks ago.