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Month: February 2016

another Modesto Marathon training update

another Modesto Marathon training update

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Since we’re less than a month out from Modesto (!), I figured it was high time for another training update. I still have other posts I want to write about training postpartum and how it’s different compared to how I’ve trained before – and I know you’re on the edge of your seat, eagerly awaiting those posts’ publication – so I’ll get to it… eventually. That’s what taper is for, right?

sammrun

2/6 – 17 with final 4 at GMP; actual 17.12 @ 8:14 average with Meredith, some rollers, and GMP at 7:19, 7:28, 7:17, 7:15

Thanks to a confluence of extenuating circumstances, Meredith and I decided to go long on Saturday for a change. She had 10, I had 17, so I posted the first 7 sola before we ran the balance together on the rollers between SJ and an adjacent ‘burb. GMP is still a big mystery to me – somewhat problematic because I’ll soon be posting 26.2 GMP in fewer than four weeks’ time – so I tried to go on feel and hit 7:19, 7:28, 7:17, 7:15. Many of the GMP miles were over the ascent portions of the rollers, which made the effort a little higher, but I felt really good – in a fatigued sort-of-way that comes with doing GMP at the end of a long run – and got totally lucky and managed to hit all the stoplights at the right time, thereby running the GMP continuously, without interruptions. Score.

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during some of the earliest miles

2/7: speed lite – 8 miles with 8×1′ at 10kRP; 2′ recovery. Actual: 8.75, 7:51 average

A very delayed start – during my kids’ attempted-but-aborted afternoon nap – for this run and fortunately, Meredith also had similar mileage and a similar I just don’t waaaaaaaaanna attitude to contend with. Bless her for being willing to drive all the way back to SJ for “just 8 miles.” I haven’t run a 10k in a while, so my 10k RP time (for training purposes) is based on my racing from about 2013-15, making my 10kRP around a 6:40-6:45, which is about what I’ve been posting for tempo runs, so… yeah. Just using the data I have available. I hadn’t done a “speed lite” workout like this before, but I was happy to have this on deck the day after a 17 instead of my usual tempo. You can definitely tell that I’m not used to pacing this stuff, since my times were unnecessarily (and potentially deleteriously) faster than they needed to be, but dammit if it wasn’t super fun: 1′ at 6:24, 6:20, 6:31, 6:08, 6:23, 6:21, 6:14, 6:28. It was also about mid-seventies and pure sun (a big change for what I usually run in) for this, which made chasing this run with popsicles just delightful. I finished this run feeling strong and satisfied… and thirsty.

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many left turns

2/13: 12 miles with 4-7 at tempo + 6x (1′ at 10kRP; 2′ recovery). Actual: 13.16 @ 7:34 average

The Olympic marathon trials were this day, so I was totally channeling my inner Desi (love her) to rock this run. I overshot the distance to 13 (which seems somewhat inevitable, based on how far away the track is, the route I take to get there, and those little details), and even with little sleep and sub-par nutrition from the night before, this went over pretty well – 6:40, 6:44, 6:35 for the tempo [prescribed range is 6:55-7:05] and 6:15, 6:26, 6:14, 6:25, 6:08, 6:10 for the 10k 1′ portions [can you tell where the wind was?!]. I had to rally a bit on the tempo because I started too quickly, and the wind made for some tricky pacing on the 1′ sections, but overall this went pretty well. Doing the 1′ portions after the tempo can be mentally taxing, but I’m finding that I enjoy it because it allows me to open up my stride a bit more and finish the run by breaking through mental and physical fatigue – just like we all have to do at the end of any race we run. It only amounts to a three mile tempo plus six more minutes of fast running, but I think these types of runs are excellent for mental callousing.

2/14: first 20 in a couple years! Actual: 20.16 @ 8:18 average

The last time I ran a 20 was in advance of the Santa Rosa ’14 marathon, when I was training to pace the 3:35 group, so I was a little anxious about how this run would go – and because I’d be doing it by myself and the day after speed. It went well though, and by some miracle, even though I ran city streets for the entirety of the run, through parts of down that are usually clogged by vehicular traffic, I only lost seven minutes on the run to stoplights and cars. (For perspective, some days I can easily lose 10-20 minutes!). I decided from the get-go to take things pretty easy early on, averaging in the 8:30s and ultimately ended up negative-splitting this run. I went on a tour of SJ and SC, which was pretty fun, and the 20 was actually pretty relaxing overall. Running is so weird sometimes. Who the hell says that running 20 miles is relaxing…

2/20: 12 with miles 4-7 @ tempo + 6x(1′ at 10kRP, 2′ recovery). Actual: 13.05 @ 7:38 average

Same workout as 2/13, same overshooting-to-13 as before, but better pacing this time around, with the tempo at 6:43, 6:43, 6:35 and the 10k 1′ at 6:07, 6:08, 6:11, 6:03, 6:11, 6:10. I attribute the pacing improvement to having a better grasp of the workout (since I had just completed it a week prior) and the virtually non-existent wind. I made a conscious effort to focus on consistency and smart-starting my tempo – trying to avoid blowing up and petering out – and I think the focus helped tremendously. Typically when I’m running tempos on the track, I only check my pace every 400 m, and for most of this tempo, my pace was exactly the same each time I looked. Just like last week though, the 10k pace was harder to dial in, and I’m sure I’m running those segments faster than I need to be, but I think it’s mentally good to push through the final bits of mental/physical fatigue in an effort to prepare myself for doing the same on race day.

2/21: another quiet and sola 20. Actual: 20.08 @ 8:24 average

Just like last week, I had another quiet and sola 20 on deck the day after speed, and just like last week, I gave myself permission to ease into it for as long as it took. I wasn’t expecting to be in such a mentally shitty place for so long though – it was one of those moods where I was wondering why the hell I was voluntarily doing this stuff – but after about 9 miles of that, both my attitude turned around, and my legs came to life a bit. This 20’s route was flatter than that of the previous, and again, by some miracle bestowed upon me by the running gods, I lost only five minutes to cars/stoplights this time around. I ended the run posting a negative split, was buoyed by a nice dude who mid-run, somewhere around mile 13 or so, yelled to me to JUST KEEP ON RUNNING! (thereby becoming my new running BFF, unbeknownest to him), and though I was tired at the end, I was in such a better place mentally than I was when I started. That’s the funny thing about running: sometimes it can take such a long time (nine miles for me on this run) to a) feel good and b) be happy that you’re out there and able to do this stuff in the first place. We just gotta roll with it, and trust the process. Oh, and I finished the run and was home by 8:30, pretty much as the rest of the family was waking up. That rocked.

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total adoration

The next training update will be written from the exciting locale of Taperlandia – can’t wait!

the long-distance runner is (voluntarily) lonely no more

the long-distance runner is (voluntarily) lonely no more

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The backstory to this post is that I wrote it for The SF Marathon’s blog, since I’m a social media ambassador for the race (and totally want you to run it! It’s so fun). I’ve had the great pleasure of having family visiting for about the past month, so between all the wonderful family QT and just general life happenings — all good things, all good things — sitting down (or rather, standing) to write hasn’t been much of a priority. I have notes scribbled out, ready to be made coherent, for a handful of posts, so now that life is back to its regularly-scheduled-programming, perhaps my blog-posting regularity (eh), too, will commence. We’ll see. Anyway — yay running. Here you go; I think many of you (my team! my people) will totally get this.

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People often ascribe some element of martyrdom to running. It doesn’t really seem to matter if you’re going for a little jaunt around your ‘hood one morning before work or putting in hours upon hours (and miles upon miles) during training for a half, full, or ultramarathon; for whatever reason, if you willingly run, people seem to think that you’re martyring yourself to a fruitless and futile endeavor, one characterized by literally doing the same thing – putting one foot in front of the other – hundreds of thousands of times.

To say that you’re a runner is to give many people the idea that you’ve taken upon the badge of honor that has begotten runners and joggers alike for the past few decades: a loner, someone who’d rather spend time with his or her thoughts than with other sentient beings. Becoming a runner is to add yet another character to the ongoing saga of “the loneliness of the long-distance runner,” a mythology surrounding our sport since the jogging boom of the 1970s. To be a runner is to live in isolation, away from every_one and every_thing, to be forever an introvert, and to be happiest when being alone.

Except that running isn’t a solitary endeavor. It’s as much a team sport as any out there.

There are so many elements to the running community that seem to have withstood the test of time simply because they’re tradition. It’s practically sacrilege to have anything pre-race but pasta, evidenced by many races’ Marathon Eve pasta feeds, wherein many a runner will stuff him- or herself to the gills with the starchy carbohydrate in part to top off glycogen stores (one can hope) but mostly, I’d guess, out of deference to the tradition. Similarly, many in the running community and those who support us perpetuate this ongoing mythology of “the loneliness of the long distance runner,” conjuring images of runners out there pounding pavement each morning to the tune of … nothing.

While the pasta/carbohydrate loading pre-marathon might have a glimmer of basis in science, I’m calling bullshit on “the loneliness of the long distance runner.”

Thanks to the explosion of social media over the past few years and many runners’ willingness to put themselves and their training out there – creating blogs, twitter and instagram profiles, facebook pages, and creating and maintaining training groups through platforms like Strava, Dailymile, or MeetUp – if you’re a) even minutely connected to the internet and b) a runner, chances are you can easily connect yourself with a team (or three).

Running can, of course, be a solitary and singular endeavor – and many people revel in that quiet time to themselves, a time when they don’t need to stress about their work, family, or any other obligation – but it doesn’t have to be.

Maybe this proclamation is a bit melodramatic, but to run – to be a runner – is to connect yourself with prior millenia’s worth of history, dating all the way back to our earliest ancestors whose lives and livelihoods literally depended on their ability to run. Surely I can’t speak for you, but I think it’s pretty badass to (willingly!) do something our ancestors did so long ago. Not many other sports have been around for nearly the entirety of life as we know it.

Running as a team – running and training with friends – brings with it a lot of practical components that can be beneficial. Of course there’s the accountability aspect – because you’d probably feel like an ass if you left your partner high and dry in the predawn hours, when you’re supposed to be out running – but there are also many other ways that running with a team/with friends can help you, such as giving you more opportunities to run a variety of paces (slower or faster than you’d usually run), which in turn might actually make you a better (read: stronger, faster, fitter, healthier) runner. By actively being involved in a community of runners, you can also forge and cultivate some incredible friendships, and you might also find various avenues to link service with your running, since so many races (including TSFM) give you the option to run on behalf of a charity and to fundraise. It’s a pretty cool thing to be able to use a hobby like running to benefit some social good.

In the absence of physically running in real life with a team, social media can also be an acceptable way to join forces with runners near and far – and in the process, create your own virtual team (and even complete a virtual race, if you’re so inclined). Sometimes  overbooked life schedules preclude us from meeting up with our buddies for a run, but virtual teams – virtual accountability, if you will – can also be a lot of fun. It can get the job done.

When you train alongside someone (in real life or virtually), you’re giving yourself a buddy with whom you can incessantly “talk shop” about training, racing, running, or anything else that’s on your mind. Your team “gets it” – all the highs and lows of training, the momentary boosts of confidence and the crippling effects of anxiety and doubt – because chances are, your team is going through the motions just as much as you are.

Running and training for endurance events invariably give us opportunities to be raw and vulnerable as we set goals and work our asses off to realize them. Having a team is to have a sounding board through every step, every mile, of the process, and in our moments of confidence, anxiety, dismay, excitement, and the entire emotional gamut in between, your team’s got your back. Even when you’re running by yourself – because no one can run your race but you – your team’s in your back pocket.

So many people have run before you, and so many more will come after you. The greater running community is like one big hippy dippy happy family, singing kum-by-yah as we run mile after mile each month, sometimes praising our decision to run for fun and other times wondering what the hell is wrong with us that we’d voluntarily enlist ourselves in such a challenging activity.

In the most non-patronizing way possible: your team gets you. Your team understands. We do this for all the same reasons that you do (give or take).

Runners are a welcoming bunch, and I encourage you to put yourself out there and connect with some, either with clubs in your area or with the virtual running community. I think you’ll be surprised how much more enriching this sport becomes once you realize that yes, while no one else can run your mileage but you, being on a running team isn’t an oxymoron. If there’s any doubt in your mind, just watch the USA women’s Olympic Qualifying Trials from the LA Marathon on 2/13/16. I don’t want to reveal any spoilers (in the off-chance you haven’t already seen the ending), but believe me: the OQT will assure you that running is as team-based an endeavor as they come. I dare you not to tear up.