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Catching up

Catching up

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I concede: it has been a while.  I get that.

It’s ooooooooold news, but I’ll do some quick highlighting and ruminating on what’s gone down since we were last together.  Where applicable, I’ll post some (probably awful) pictures.  Why not.  I’ll try to be brief, but you know me… brevity’s not my thing….

1. Water Splash Dash 5k, back in Ohio (July):25:15, so not great, but scored an AG win.  Funny thing about the race–my first race since giving birth–was that I was beat in the last few strides by a girl who was about half my age.  Humbling to say the least.  That girl could fly!  Funny pictures below… such a dork…

 

Bringing it home
Irked that a ten year-old beat me, but hey. 'twas fun.

2. Labor of Love 5 miler, back in Ohio (September): 41:24, so again, not breaking any records, but still easing into things.  Fun thing about this race was that I had never done that distance before, so it was an automatic PR, ha!  It was actually quite enjoyable, though it was organized by some anti-choice church group.  I might have thrown away my morals for 41 minutes that morning in order to run a race on Labor Day in northeast Ohio.  Not my proudest moment, for sure…

3. Kennedy 5k, back in Rockford (October): 23:59, so faster than my first post-baby 5k in July, but still not blazing.  However!  Very exciting here again… it was enough for an AG win that morning and I think third woman overall.  What I remember most about that day was how crazy it was, as C, A, and C’s dad mad-dashed it up to a wedding in Wisconsin that night.  Timing was not on my side that morning, so I … um … went to that super-fun wedding rockin’ the 5k look.  (Hey, if nothing else, it made straightening my hair that night that much easier… gotta love natural oils.  Ewwwwwwww).

Running off some steam before the race
A handful of strides into the 5k.... one of those cool, crisp fall mornings
Salty and sweaty mommy with five-month A (and my AG medal, wahoo!)
See? I passed for clean that night. lololol

4. Monster Dash Half Marathon, in Chicago (October): 1:44, which was super encouraging!  This was my first “endurance” event or what I had been “training” for all summer, as I slowly worked my way back into the endurance world, so I went into this race with minimal expectations.  I told my training buddies that if I went sub-2, I’d be giddy.  With that in mind, then, I was totally STOKED that I posted a 1:44 because that was basically just a few minutes off what I’d normally post pre-pregnancy.  I remember feeling very encouraged by this and hopeful that good things were to come in January, when I was slated to run the F^3 half and the Polar Dash half.  Plus, I ran a half marathon dressed up like Robin!  Why not, right?  It was Halloween…

5. Home Run for the Homeless 4 miler, back in Ohio (November): One of the best, lowest-key, but tough races out there, and my mainstay if we’re in Ohio for Thanksgiving.  Very few other races have you spend more than half of your miles traversing through a very hilly (but very cool) cemetery.  This year’s time was the fastest ever of the three times I had run it before, and it was especially interesting to do this time around because I was pregnant in 2010 when I did it last.  This race is such an awesome tradition, and I learned that it’s actually the second biggest race in Summit County (next to the Road Runner Akron Marathon, I’m assuming).

6. The Great New Years Eve Race (GNYER) 5k, in Ohio (December): Wow!  Totally surprised by this one!  6:55 average, which let me post a 21:32 overall, enough for an AG win and I think fourth woman overall.  And!  to boot!  a 5k PR!  I was floooooooooooooooored.  Definitely wasn’t expecting this to happen, even though the course was just an out-and-back through a residential area in Stow-Munroe Falls (though of course, there were some good climbs and descents sprinkled in there).  I have to say that overall, I think the NE Ohio racing circuit does a good job of putting on high-quality but inexpensive events when you consider the race price relative to the amenities and premiums.  For the $40 pricetag of the race (maybe give or take $5), I got an Asics dry-fit baselayer-type of jacket with the race logo imprinted on the back, and for winning my AG, I got an aluminum waterbottle–very useful and practical, not just another random piece of bling that’ll inevitably go into a box somewhere.  In addition to all that, the post-race gig was awesome, too.  The only weird thing about many Ohio races I’ve done–which probably warrants another post in and of itself–is the way that they time everything with the timing chips or bibs.  It’s very peculiar to me and definitely not how it’s done in Chicago.

With the other AG placers at the GNYER in Ohio

7. Polar Dash Half Marathon, in Chicago (January): The funny story about this race is that the race organizers, based out of Minneapolis (I think), kinda screwed themselves over.  Racing a half in Chicago in January is a gamble to be sure, but the race actually got postponed from its original date because of the city’s/police’s/park district’s/race director’s fears that the huge snowfall we were slated to have that weekend would make for unsafe conditions.  I get it.  Better to be safe than sorry.  The funny thing, though, was that the race was on a Saturday, and they called it off by like, mid-day on Wednesday.  Kinda wild.  Adding to the irony of it all was that when they actually did have the race, about two weeks later, the DAY before the race Chicago got hit with what was probably its largest snowfall of the season (since our winter this year was really mild), so the race would have been better off held on its original date.  Go figure.  The RD had to do some last-minute course changes, but all told, it went over well.  I got a huge surprise at this race by posting a 1:35–which was a five-minute PR–and in the process, won the women’s field by finishing first overall (and within the top 30 or so people, I think) and consequently winning my age group as well.  No idea how to explain it.  I prefer cold weather over warm, to be sure, but I hadn’t really been doing any sort of formal speedwork prior to the race.  I just kinda ran with it… ha ha, bad joke.  Needless to say I was floooooooooooored again.  And… kinda funny… since this was the first year of the race, I can say that I’m the women’s record holder 🙂  I haven’t found myself in any of these pictures, but here are some good ones that show you how polar-ly it was that morning: http://www.facebook.com/ChicagoPolarDash?sk=photos.

8. F^3 (fast, fucking, frozen) Lake Half Marathon, in Chicago (January): With the Polar Dash getting rescheduled, that put me running two half-marathons in back-to-back weekends.  While during the Polar Dash, it was snowing and breezy the whole time (and we were on the south side of the path, running between Museum Campus and 31st Street, roughly), on the morning of F^3 it was just f***** COLD!  Lots of good-sized ice patches on the eastern side of the lakefront path (since we were running between Foster Ave and North Avenue), and the wind was relentless.  In fact, at the very end of the race, with probably two miles to go, a woman I was chasing slipped on a patch of the stuff and bit it hard.  Running in January can be brutal.  (but don’t worry, she was ok, and actually passed me in the last 30 meters….)  Despite the coldness and the windiness and the frozenness (making up words here, sorry), though, there were still tons more runners at F^3 than there were at the Polar Dash.  I went into the race thinking that I’d be happy just to finish the thing, seeing as how I was pretty fatigued still from the Polar Dash, but I don’t know–the stars aligned or something–and I posted a 1:33, a new PR, breaking the old one I had just set six days before.  The 1:33 was enough to land me another AG win and be something like the 4th or 5th woman overall.  Again, totally floored, totally not expecting that time, and still (months later) not quite sure how it happened, especially in the absence of any formal speedwork.  (Cool thing about this race, in addition to everything I’ve already said, is that there were three photographers on the course that morning, and all of them availed their pics online, for free!  That never happens!!)

Passing Foster Ave. beach, where we started. About 2 or 3 miles in. Note the strawberry behind me
Right at the turn-around, at the chess pavilion at North Ave. beach. Love it when I see the photographers before they see me, haha
Strides away from a 1:33 finish. All business- sleeves rolled up and gloves are off. Soooooo tired but ecstatic I'm about to be done

So.  That’s what’s been up.  Sunday I’ll be racing in Cary’s March Madness, which is one of the two hardest half marathons I’ve ever done–and I think will be half marathon #19 (though I need to check my records)–and the weather is looking quite favorable.  I am excited.  After that will be the Shamrock Shuffle 8k and then, following that, in late April will be my first marathon post-pregnancy, down in Urbana-Champaign.

Pretty stoked and a bit nervous, to say the least… but mostly just stoked at this point.

We shall see.

The ‘marathon’ at the nine-month mark

The ‘marathon’ at the nine-month mark

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When I trained for my first marathon in 2007, the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Hot Marathon Year from Hell, from start to finish, it was about a nine-month journey.  In January of that year, I began incorporating running into my workout routine, and probably by late January or early February, I had signed-up with Team in Training‘s Early Bird Chicago Marathon program.

Most Chicago Marathon TNT participants don’t begin training with Team until May(ish), but I had the time and energy and wanted to start sooner rather than later.  In retrospect, doing so gave me a great foundation and a lot of time to build-up my running strength, since I was able to start on a treadmill (in the cold winter months) using something of a run-walk ratio (though I didn’t know at the time what a run-walk ratio or routine actually was).  Thus, by the time “full-blown” Chicago Marathon training began in May, I was sufficiently strong, in terms of muscular capacity, endurance, and mental capacity/state of mind (if that makes any sense) to be able to exclusively run for all of my running workouts.  Of course, I had to take baby steps to get from Points A to B, but I got there–in due time.

Come race day, even though my first time wasn’t the performance I wanted it to be (thank you, random hot day in October of 2007!), I knew, going into the event, that I was beyond prepared.  I had been waiting for the day, and dreaming about it, and visualizing it, and been scared or anxious or nervous or excited even thinking about it, for months.  And the day finally came!

You can probably tell where I’m going with this.  Today marks 36 weeks–nine months–of the pregnancy.  Practitioners call 36-40 weeks being “full term,” so in theory, if Yoda came today, s/he would be “at term” and not a preemie, though s/he might still have some slightly underdeveloped organs.  It’s crazy, and really, pretty surreal, to think that we’re already at this milestone.  I’m hoping that Yoda “bakes” for a little bit longer because as excited as C and I are (as well as our family and friends) to welcome Yoda into the great wide world, I think I’d sleep a little more soundly at night knowing that s/he held out until my 4/28 due date 🙂

I have been finding myself thinking about this pregnancy and the big day–the big labor and delivery (L&D) day–increasingly in terms of running and marathon metaphors.  In fact, others have even expressed the same sentiment.  At last week’s L&D class, a mother of a four-month old came in and described her L&D process and remarked that at the end of it, your body is so tired that “you honestly feel like you just ran a marathon.  Every ounce of you is tired.”  C poked me and grinned–most likely reassuring me that “hey, if she says L&D is like a marathon, this should be a cakewalk for you!”–though of course, I couldn’t help but wonder if this lady had ever run a marathon in her life 🙂  (skeptic that I am).

Regardless, going into this final stretch of pregnancy is making me think a lot about the “final stretch”–taper madness–that comes in advance of a marathon (or any endurance event).  Suddenly, the volume of workouts decreases, as might also their intensity, and getting ample rest becomes of paramount importance.  Moreover, staying active is still important, but activity becomes more focused on just making sure your muscles remember how to move moreso than an actual intentional stressing or straining of them.  And of course, nutrition remains as important now as it was early on and throughout the training cycle (or pregnancy, in my case).

Though the last two weeks have found me not running at all, thanks to the lower back pain that seems to be part and parcel of the later stages of pregnancy, I have gotten back into a “routine” and have become one of those regular lunchtime walkers on the lakefront during the work week.  (Between walking on my lunch break, visiting a chiropractor, and constantly icing or heating my lower back, I feel like I’ve become a glorified elderly lady, but that’s a topic for another post).    🙂

So what happens from here until the big day?  I guess lots of “dress rehearsals” – lots of visualization, positive thinking, and preparation; anything C and I can do to prepare ourselves, we’re doing (or have already done).  That has amounted to taking infant-care 101 classes at the hospital and L&D classes, maintaining good activity and sleep and nutritional habits, and constantly reminding ourselves (moreso me than C) that even in what will likely be the toughest part of L&D–the transition part, the part where many mothers will admit that they felt like they had nothing left in them to give and felt like they could not, for the life of them, soldier on in the L&D process–that transition is just like the dreaded “wall” in a marathon.  It might (or might not) rear its ugly head, but I’ve “trained” to get through it.  And really, by the time the “wall” in L&D arises, we will be so close to the ultimate finish line that, just like in a marathon, that will be my cue to “dig deep” and get to that otherworldly place that I (usually) manage to find in the toughest parts of the race, when I really feel like I have nothing left to give.  Granted, I’ve never run more than a four-hour marathon in my life, so here’s hoping that my L&D is relatively quick; otherwise, I might be singing a different tune 🙂  (cautious optimist here!)

I don’t dare say “bring it on, L&D” out of sheer fear and superstition, but suffice it to say that I’m not nearly as nervous about thebig day that could, in theory, come any time now, as I was nine months ago.  I’m trained, I feel pretty ready, I know it will be a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing (since we always remember our first times, right??); it’s just the waiting game now.

Pregnancy taper madness is ON!