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Oakland Marathon 2014 training: 2 weeks out

Oakland Marathon 2014 training: 2 weeks out

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Two weeks out – week ten – week of March 3, 2014

OakMarathonLogo

Closer and closer to race week! And so begins the taper.

Earlier in the week, I wrote a rare mid-week post about how I was finally all kum-bah-yah about pretty much all the big stuff in my life right now–moving to California, how my training has progressed, and where my fitness is, relative to my goals/where I want it to be, as I prepare to toe the line in a couple weeks–and I think finally putting everything down on paper (screen) really made some type of indescribable-yet-indelible impression on me. It is a bit strange to describe, but I think that the taper cutback is also giving me a chance to metaphorically step back and look at my training this cycle, concurrent with our cross-country move, and see everything from a greater vantage point than before. I’ll write a separate post reflecting exclusively on my training, but suffice it to say for now that I’m happy how things have gone.

Of course, life can and does happen sometimes. I wasn’t planning to fall ill this week–really, who plans to, ever?–but when the week began with the scratchy/burning feeling in my throat, I knew it was just a matter of a few days before I’d get hit with a sinus infection or a cold. I made the executive decision to forego my last LR, 17 miles, on Sunday morning after feeling kinda bleh on Saturday. It’s a hard decision to make when I thought about it like a runner, but once I stepped outside that mould, it was a no-brainer.

At any rate, I guess if there’s ever a good time to get ill during training, it’s during taper, when you’re already at a reduced volume or intensity and slowly awaiting your body to rebuild and repair itself after weeks and weeks of working hard and haulin’ ass. I really do not want to be the fittest spectator on the sidelines at Oakland, so I’ll do whatever I need to do between now and then to ensure that I’m on the other side of the barricades. 🙂

This week’s training!

Monday, March 3

p: rest/XT

a: rest

Gotta love the Monday rest days.

Tuesday, March 4

p: VO2 max 9 mi w 5x600m @ 5kRP, jog 90 sec between

a: recovery + speed: 6 w 6x100m strides: 6.02 miles

In the interests of observing the purpose of the taper, I wasn’t super keen to start the week with a VO2 max workout that came shortly after an 8k, that came right after a 20 miler. Instead, I thought it’d make more sense to have a nice recovery with some strides thrown in for variation. The recovery felt really good, the strides were comfortable, so I was happy that I seemed to be holding everything together post-final peak week. For little runs like this, I’ve finally figured out that it makes the most sense to just run tedious laps around my ‘hood. I don’t lose any time to stoplights or much vehicular traffic that way.

Wednesday, March 5

p: MLR 11

a: altered VO2 max workout: 9 miles with 8x800m repeats, 3 min RI — 9.64 miles, avg. for 800: 3:16

Pfitz had the 5x600m repeat workout on the books a couple weeks ago, and I didn’t do it then because I wanted to do 800s instead. With that in mind, I thought it’d make the most sense to do the 800s again for comparative purposes, so off I went to the PCP track in the pre-dawn darkness for my repeats. I was convinced that this run would go poorly due to life interruptions, but it did just the opposite; in fact, I’m positive I’ve not run such consistent 800s before, and especially when doing them by myself:

3:16, 3:15, 3:14, 3:15, 3:15, 3:16, 3:17, 3:16

For the first five repeats, my first 400m was on pace for a 3:05/3:08, but I intentionally slowed down on the second loop because I knew that I am not yet quite able to hold that pace for the entirety of this workout… and especially doing it sola. (Note to self: I desperately need to find fast pre-dawn runners here). On the last two sets, however, my splits for each 400 were perfectly even. I was really thrilled about how these 800s felt and, when I finished, felt like I still had some more left in the tank. It was a really encouraging workout for sure.

in case you wanted to know what it looks like to run 800s at the PCP track pre-dawn. It makes me think of those old "Cops" episodes..
in case you wanted to know what it looks like to run 800s at the PCP track pre-dawn. It makes me think of those old “Cops” episodes..

Thursday, March 6

p: recovery + speed: 6 w 6x100m strides

a: recovery 5.02

Another switch this morning. Everything was in working order when I awoke, but given how the week had progressed, a recovery seemed to be reasonable. Super chill, super humid, pretty cathartic run, and immediately after I finished running, I walked straight into a parked pick-up truck. Yup, I was that relaxed, folks.

Friday, March 7

p: recovery 5

a: MLR 11 mi, 8:23 average

Final midweek (kinda) MLR in the books for this cycle, “just” 11 miles.

I mostly just stuck to running laps around the cemetery that’s about a mile away from home. Like running around my ‘hood, it’s tedious, but I don’t lose a ton of time to vehicles, stoplights, and the like as I do running pretty much anywhere else in my immediate vicinity. Plus, the cemetery has a nice descent and ascent. Anyway, the run was really nice and comfortable, and I felt super spring-y. I’m simultaneously chill/kum-ba-ya and HYPER as all hell, and I told myself a couple times to calm down on this run.  842, 29, 18, 19, 23
826, 31, 21, 14, 15, 18

Saturday, March 8

p: 8-10k tune-up race

a: LR 17 GA 6.02 miles, 8:09 average

Well, I knew I wasn’t going to race on Saturday since I just did on Sunday, so originally, I planned for my 17 mile LR. After doing the typical pre-LR dance with my tea and breakfast, I was literally on my front porch warming up when I decided I’d be better off doing the GA run I was going to do on Sunday. I wasn’t feeling 100%–by now, that cold/sinus thing I had been nursing all week was really making itself known–and while I knew I could, was able, to run 17 miles, I didn’t think it’d be wise. Oh, and shortly before I left to run, I had a lovely nosebleed. It’s pretty hard to snotrocket on your runs when you’re worried that your nose is going to flow red again at any second… just sayin’. Also, during the short little GA run, I experienced some of the seasonal vertigo stuff I get–also not fun. I typically don’t feel it when I’m running, but Saturday must have been my lucky day! At any rate, the actual run itself, through the west side of PCP and over my highway hill, was quite nice. I just felt like I had a bunch of sinus/allergy/cold nonsense in my head and promptly went back to bed once I returned home.

the west side of PCP, near Mabury/Jackson
the west side of PCP, near Mabury/Jackson

Sunday, March 9

p: LR 17

a: LR 17 “being smart 0 miles day”

I spent most of Saturday in bed and super-medicated to clear this shit outta my head, and come Saturday night, I actually felt pretty great; I was pretty confident I’d be ready to do my 17 miler in the morning. When I awoke at 4 to start my usual pre-LR dance, basically, I just had a moment with myself (I do this often) and asked myself what was more important: running a 17 mile training run on sub-par health, just to say that I did it, or taking a true rest day so that I’d be ready to run well, strong, and healthy two weeks from today (race day!!!)? The answer was a no-brainer.

As much as I didn’t want to miss my LR, I knew it was the right decision to make, and in the big picture, really, really important. I can’t remember the last time I skipped a LR, so while I felt a bit guilty about it, once I stopped thinking about this like a runner, I knew I was 100% making the right call. I really don’t want to be the fittest spectator in Oakland.

Missing the long run, combined with this being a taper week anyway, made my weekly mileage tank, but big picture, it’s inconsequential. Rationally, I know that a LR today isn’t going to affect my race performance in two weeks, but having a lingering cold that I was too stubborn dumb to mind early on surely will.  It’s funny; a couple years ago, I would have surely (and stubbornly) run through this in an effort to hit all my prescribed mileage for the week. The things that experience can teach you…

Next week will be amazing, and we’ll be ONE WEEK CLOSER to race day!!

Weekly Mileage

p: 59

a: 37.69

Let’s hear it. What do you do when you fall ill during a training cycle?

RWS, or Listen to Your Body

RWS, or Listen to Your Body

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Running while sick, that is.

This is one of those things that it really depends on a couple things: your body, for starters; how (or where) you’re sick, secondly; and whom you ask.

Of course, no one knows your body better than you.  That goes without saying.  What works for some people, or what does (or doesn’t) bother them, is sheer hell for others.  Take the common cold, for instance.  It affects people very differently.  We all probably know people who are sick far more frequently than others and just as well, the people at the opposite end of the spectrum, who seem that they are somehow living in their own separate untouchable/super-healthy world because they manage to evade sickness and the common cold every single year.

Luckily–knock on wood this holds true–I’m in the latter camp.

I just don’t get sick very often.

I think my lack of sickness comes in large part because of my lifestyle, but I also think my diet (strict vegetarianism, borderline veganism) has a lot to do with it, too.  It’s all anecdotal, but I think there’s something to it.  I think I’m just one of the freaks that can avoid sickness for some reason or, maybe more scientifically, cold and flu symptoms don’t seem to affect me as they do others.  I don’t really know.  I’m just lucky, I’m guess.  And incredibly, incredibly grateful.

So anyway, last week, on basically the morning that I ran Cary, I fell ill.  The day before, my throat was a little sore all day, but I chalked it up to allergies (which I wasn’t diagnosed with until I was an undergrad, and even then I was dubious at my doctor’s diagnosis.  Still am, to a degree.  I guess it is a little hard to live in the Midwest, though, without having some semblance of allergies.  Digression.).  Saturday night into Sunday morning, the day of the race, I woke up several times because I thought my throat was burning.  Fast-forward to later in the day, after awakening at 5am, driving over an hour to Cary, and running a half marathon on hills and in humidity, and after spending several hours with a friend and her baby, I drop another two and a half hours at a clinic in Rockford to be told that I had viral sinusitis.

What?

Not a sinus infection (which was my Erin diagnosis), but worse than a cold or just another annoyance from seasonal allergies.  Bad enough for me take some OTCs, some prescription-strength codeine, and to call in sick (to A, ha!) for a day, and to (gasp!) not run for about four days.  It’s actually a bit comical to write about now, because it doesn’t sound that bad, but good Lord, last week was miserable.  As much as I can recall, I haven’t been that sick since well before I was pregnant, so sometime in 2010, if not 2009.

When you’re sick only once every few years, it kinda blows when you finally realize you’re not as invincible as you thought.

I wanted to keep running, once I had my couple days of rest following Tuesday, because last week was supposed to be a build week that would end on a 20 on Saturday and the Shuffle on Sunday.  I didn’t want to lose four days of workouts to this annoying sickness that found me in bed all day once last week and taking medicine every four hours all the other days to help offer some relief.  My mind was saying go for it, but my body was saying no-the-fuck-way.

So this is where the debate comes in regarding when and how much people should exercise, in general, or run, specifically, while ill.

A quick Google search will indicate that some use the above/below the neck rule–that if you have a cold and it’s “above” your neck, that it’s ok to run or exercise, but to not overdo it, but if it’s “below,” then stay in bed and take a rest day (or two or three).

Others offer more strict prescriptive approaches, maintaining that there’s actually a hard-and-fast number–and for most runners, it’s 60 miles per week–that sets runners over the edge into compromising their immune systems enough that’ll set themselves over into illness territory.

And of course, diagnosing this stuff based on what the interwebs say is always something of a joke, because a lot of the pages end with the obligatory “stop what you’re doing and call your doctor if you’re experiencing any chest pain or shortness of breath” warning that they probably have to post for everyone out there who is more inclined to read something online and take it to heart than they are to listen to their own bodies.

So what ultimately happened last week?

I listened to my body (and my family).

I was lazy.

I didn’t do much of anything at all last week, until Friday, when I finally ran a very easy five miles before the weekend’s schedule. All told, at least right now, I’m glad I did what I did because it’s better to be sidelined with something annoying like this for four days than something far worse for four weeks.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of swallowing my pride (and my phelgm… eww).