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On the fence

On the fence

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That’s where I’m hanging these days, since I am not 100% sure how I want to train for Eugene. Right now, I’m thinking I’ll take another 1-2 weeks of pretty easy, unstructured running (as part of a reverse taper from Houston), race my 10k on 2/3 in the attempt to PR, and then begin Eugene training on 2/4.  That seems and sounds manageable, since that’ll give me a good 10 weeks of training time between early February and late April.

What I’m uncertain about, however, is how I want to train.

I’m considering a few different plans, all of which are all over the place in terms of mileage and running frequency- 3-4 days a week, 5-6 days a week, 35-50 miles, 50+, 50-60 miles… so I’m not really sure how I want to proceed.

My goal for Eugene is to go after that sub-3:30 that I just narrowly missed in Houston. I think I’m physiologically capable of it even now; I just have to do some refinement and honing in the next couple months.

My training usually has me running about 6 days a week (along with some strength work, a la WCCF), a good variety of hard and easy/recovery days, and I always have a good time with it (read: I enjoy it). The thought of only running 3-4 days a week is not appealing to me, at all.

I need… more.

Don’t get me wrong, there are always days where the running comes more easily than others, but if I ever *don’t* look forward to training, I take the day off to recharge my batteries. It works immensely well for me.

The other interesting thing to consider is that usually, my training has capped me off around 50 miles per week because that has always been my “sweet spot,” the point in my training where overtraining starts to seep in and even a rudimentary cost-benefit analysis shows that I’m quickly reaching diminishing returns, since I’ve tended to develop some ITBS once I hit that mileage.

Here’s the curveball, though: that was all pre-pregnancy.

Since being pregnant and subsequently giving birth, I have experienced just the opposite; now, 50 mpw, or very close to it, don’t yield the same ITBS or overtraining symptoms that it once did.

I have no idea what to make of this–if it’s a different mentality I’m taking toward my running now, my miles being more quality than they were before, or something else entirely (hormonal? maybe??)–so I’m not sure how to proceed.

Just because I can do something doesn’t mean I should do something… right?

When you’re developing your training plans for a target race (or a specific goal) and want to change things up, how do you negotiate the unfamiliar territory? I’m super curious to hear.

Let’s go, 2013

Let’s go, 2013

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Again, I blame the travel whirlwind for throwing off my writing game, but I finally got around to doing some math on my mileage for 2012, and the magic number?

1818.98

…miles for 2012.

As much as I can tell, that’s my highest-ever mileage for a single year since I started doing this crazy business in 2007, so that’s kinda cool. (I don’t know what I did in 2007… probably not much, since I had just started; 1500 in 2008; about 1300 and change in 2009; 1543.23 in 2010; not much in 2011 because of the pregnancy).

What makes me even happier (maybe even prouder) is that 2012 was my first full-year of training after having A in May 2011.

Man, doesn't feel that long ago. She's on me here.. and is fewer than five minutes old. Yowza
Man, doesn’t feel that long ago. She’s on me here.. and is fewer than five minutes old. Yowza

I still can’t really truly account for what seemed to *click* physiologically for me in 2012, but hey, I’m not asking many questions. Maybe I should… In the interim, I’ll take it and run (ha ha, HORRIBLE pun) with it 🙂

So, here we are, 2013. What’s up for me this year? Let’s revisit what I said in 2012 and build accordingly.

1. Drop time in 5k and half-marathon: ideally 21 flat 5k and 1:35 half — check and check; I posted a 20:30 at the 5k on Mother’s Day and a 1:35 at the Polar Dash, a 1:33 at F^3, and a 1:35 at the Alpine Races half in Lake Zurich

2. Go sub-3:35 in the marathon — check, went 3:34 at Champaign

3. Rock the NYC marathon on my 29th birthday; it’ll be a 26.2 mile birthday party! — nope, Hurricane Sandy had other plans

4. Do a new race this year: a trail run or an ultra.  Or both… — hmm.. check! Completed Ragnar Madison-Chicago 200 mile relay as part of a team of a bunch of strangers… It was a blast! Totally exhausting but totally fun! (I have a lot of posts about this; here’s where they begin).

5. Be a better cross-trainer (read: begin cross-training, and do it regularly) and start CrossFit to become a more balanced athlete and runner — check! Started CrossFit at Windy City CrossFit in May 2010 and went 1-3x/week through the rest of the year. I think it greatly contributed to my running and overall health and athleticism, and I’m excited to return to it, now that I’m not travelling for six weeks at a time. It’s an ass-kicker to be sure but totally worth it.

6. Seep my running passion into other areas of my life in an effort to make me a better mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend, family member, and human being — this is always a work in progress.

For 2013 then, I want to:

a) stay healthy and injury-free

b) go sub-3:30 in the full (my major goal) and

c) 1:30 in the half. This is very much an ancillary goal. If this happens on my way to realizing point b, awesome. If not, no problem. (that sounds wishy-washy… suffice it to say my focus is on points a and b).

I’d like to drop more time in my 10k, since that was the one of the only distances I couldn’t race in 2012, but it’s not *as* important to me as the marathon.

I guess, now that I’m actually sitting down and writing this out, I’m not really sure what I want to do for 2013. I never imagined hearing myself say that.

I feel cautiously optimistic that I’m not yet fully realizing my potential–wow, that sounds simultaneously ridiculously pompous and also very condescending (like what a math teacher would tell you, ha)–but I’m not really sure. I guess I need to think about this some more.

Some stuff I know I want to do–see the aforementioned points a, b, and c–as well as goals that don’t really carry with them a specific metric; for example, I know I need to continue going to WCCF to get in some much needed strength and agility work, but I’m not really sure if I want to commit to a certain number of times/week… or just let it adapt as my training schedule adapts. I don’t know.

Maybe my 2013 goal is to not have a goal, aside from the big two (points a and b).  I guess I need to think about this some more, after all, and revisit this in, say… March 🙂

At any rate, here’s what’s on the 2013 calendar, effective as of today:

1. Houston Marathon – 1/13/13

2. ChiTown Big Game 10k- 2/1/13 (my first 10k since I was pregnant, whoa)

3. Shamrock Shuffle 8k – 4/7/13

4. Eugene Marathon – 4/28/13 (always a special day; 4/28 was A’s due date)

5. NYC Marathon – 11/13

I’ll likely add more races (halfs, some 5ks, whatever else seems to work) to the mix, but I’m committed to five as of now.

I’m cautiously optimistic that 2013 will be a good year for my running. As I said in my Houston race report, I’m super fortunate to be able to glean a lot of running wisdom from my training buddies and the fine folks at RYBQ, twitter, and dailymile, so I can only hope that it’ll all combine to form the perfect storm of running wonderfulness… one day at a time.