A Fine Balance

One of my friends, a seasoned marathoner, warned me that serious marathon training involves constantly towing the line between being in the best shape of your life and being hit with illness, injury or burnout. I am quickly learning how right she is.

I wrote last week about my 30k Sunday run that felt relatively breezy. I thought I had recovered well,  but by Tuesday afternoon I was feeling not-quite-right. Getting caught in a torrential downpour on my Tuesday evening run sealed the deal: I spent the night and most of the next day in bed with alternating fever and chills, feeling too weak and tired to do much more than watch Downton Abbey and catch up on my celebrity gossip. It passed quickly, and I was back running hard by Friday. But it surprised me how suddenly and thoroughly I was knocked out. Maybe it would have happened regardless of the 30k ... but the timing was suspect.

More balanced than I.

I know how to run. I have plenty of experience pushing past pain to run faster times, I have long been fitting training and racing into a busy schedule, and I have a race day routine that's been set in stone for a decade. I am much less skilled in the art of rest and recovery. I probably should be better by now - after all, I've missed full seasons due to illness and injury in the past. I know I need to eat properly and sleep lots and do all my therapy and strengthening exercises to stay injury-free. But with shorter distances, I've been able to get by letting that side of things slide. (I now shudder at my varsity-athlete post-race routine, which usually involved intoxication, little to no sleep, and a run early the next morning. But my 20 year-old constitution was hardier.) With the marathon, I'm learning that failure to do all the non-running work is swiftly punished.

So, as I enter my heaviest month of training, I am going to try to take recovery as seriously as running. Many a coach and running magazine has tried to drill the importance of recovery into my head, but I'm going to try to actually take it to heart. 7-8 hours sleep a night, regular massage/ART, stretching and foam rolling every day, ice baths, resting heart rate monitoring, physio exercises, core work, post-workout protein ... I am actually going to do all of this instead of just thinking about doing it. And, with any luck, the reward will be making it to the start line healthy enough to suffer through 42.2. What a strange breed we are.

Week 10 Recap:

M: off day - yoga class
TU: 12k + core/leg work
W: off - sick
TH: off - sick
F: 14k (11k tempo)
SA: 12k + core workout
SU: 32k

Week total: approx. 70k

Identity crisis

This morning I ran for two and a half hours. 30k. My longest run ever.

The thing is, it wasn't that bad. I had a good sleep last night. It was perfect weather for a run this morning: sunny but breezy. I had excellent company and conversation for the first 22k. My stomach cooperated, my hamstrings didn't give out. I am now hobbling around a bit, but the Sunday afternoon hobble is now a normal part of my existence. It wasn't fast, but it wasn't all that slow either. Two and a half hours of running that, shockingly, I kind of enjoyed.

I say shockingly because I thought this would be the part I'd hate. I thought I would dread these longer and longer runs taking up my entire Sunday morning, requiring rest Saturday night and more rest Sunday afternoon. And yet I find myself kind of looking forward to the long runs. In fact, the short, steep hills I ran on Wednesday were much more uncomfortable and mentally challenging. The long run is leisurely. When you divide it up into 5k segments, or gel breaks, or route sections, it doesn't feel all that long. I like seeing the kilometers click by on my GPS watch. I like making it to places I've never run to before. The long run means time with friends, or the opportunity to really listen to an entire album. Or three entire albums. I enjoy the feeling that I've accomplished something, on a weekend, before 11am. And then, when it's all over, I can laze around and eat everything my heart desires for an entire afternoon. In fact, I NEED to rest and eat obscene amounts. How many people get to say that?!

Oh jeez. I'm turning into a distance runner.

Week 9 Recap:

M: off day - Vinyasa Flow class
TU: 10k + core/leg weights
W: 13k (6 x 650m hill workout)
TH: off day
F: 14k (2 x 5k workout)
SA: 6k
SU: 30k

Week total: approx. 73k

Olympic fever

I miss the Olympics. As an obsessive-compulsive runner-type, I attacked my Olympics-viewing with the same gusto as my training, and became the ultimate couch potato. All free time was spent engrossed in everything from judo to weightlifting. I cried with the gymnasts, cheered with the rowers, and reached the point of feeling like I could judge a synchronized diving competition ("Well-executed pike but a little too much splash on the entry."). I memorized every Nike commercial, gained a strong opinion on every controversy, felt a meaningful bond with Brian Williams.

But of course, the running competitions dominated my attention. I am completely inspired by the mind-blowing efforts out on the roads and track. I have been trying to channel their speed, agility and perfect form in my own workouts. This has led only to me seriously straining my hamstrings and embarrassing myself with my 200m split times, but no matter. I am inspired, and inspiration is needed when one has a hilly marathon less than two months away.

Hooray, it's 5:30am!!

While most couch potatoes don't begin their pursuit at 5am, a serious couch potato must make sacrifices to achieve greatness. So, on Sunday morning, myself and 300 or so like-minded crazies gathered to watch the Men's Marathon on the big screens at the Mill Street Brew Pub. I had worried that nobody would show up at such an ungodly hour on the day of rest, but I underestimate the devotion of my fellow runners. There was a line-up out the door by 5:30am. The party was a great time, and we raised lots for Dylan Wykes' CANFund and my own Team In Training campaign.

Brad and I are the chipper, completely awake, greeting crew.

Anyway, now life has returned to normal, summer TV has gone back to being awful, and I probably won't watch a single synchronized dive until 2016. But on the plus side, I probably have another couple years free from the "I Believe" song. Dammit, now it's back in my head again.

Week 8 Recap:

M: off day 
TU: 10k
W: 15k (6 x 1k workout)
TH: off day
F: 14k (2 x 5k workout)
SA: 10k + BodyPump
SU: 26k

Week total: approx. 75k

Work-Life-Marathon Balance

(So I didn't get around to my blog last week, but then I thought that fit well with the theme of this post, so I figured my "regular readers" (ha) would forgive me.)

The last couple weeks have been busy. Packed work days, evening networking events and conference calls, a visit from out-of-town friends, and (most importantly) Olympics-viewing. And on top of all this, usually a couple hours a day are dedicated to training.

Yesterday I noticed one of those inspirational church billboards reading "You always have time for the things you put first." A good point. But sometimes it's hard to know what should come first. Running is important to me - I have a blog dedicated to it, after all.  I love to train hard and see where that takes me. But clearly I am no elite athlete, so it's only logical that my actual career takes precedence - especially since I'm just starting out. But I've also committed myself to this marathon, so I'm trying to make a regular training regimen fit.

Some days are easier than others. For instance, there was one day last week where I had a reception to attend after work. Knowing I still needed to run later and wouldn't have time for dinner, I tried to eat a bit from the food trays, and allowed myself just one glass of wine before switching to club soda. I realized--mid-chew-- that one of the hors-d'oeuvre I'd picked out was basically a disguised ball of blue cheese - and I'm very lactose-intolerant. I forced myself through 10k afterwards, all of this goodness sloshing around furiously in my stomach.

The easier thing would be to get up early, but I'm realizing that just doesn't work well for me these days. Getting up early means going to bed early, and that means spending little time with my boyfriend, whose erratic musician/retail sales schedule gets him home late most of the time. Our lazy Sunday mornings together are now replaced by an early-morning kiss goodbye as I head out for my long trek. I am not willing to give up all my time with him, friends, and family for the sake of running ... but for the marathon, it does seem that I have to give up a bit.

It's not easy, but (as another billboard surely reads), if it was easy, everyone would do it. I don't have the balance totally figured out, but it's working well enough for now. And there are certainly benefits to that attempt. Running allows me to spend more time with my brother, and my social life doesn't disappear, but rather shifts to time with great running friends. Some of the closest bonds in my life have been formed out on the track and trails. Running brings me happiness and health, and the strict training schedule forces me to stay organized and focused at work. My loved ones benefit as I'm more pleasant to be around when I can run.

Bottom line: it's worth it. Off to work now.

Week 6 Recap:

M: off day - yoga at home
TU: 14k (11k tempo)
W: 11k 
TH: BodyPump + easy bike
F: 13k (5 x 2k on the track)
SA: 7k
SU: 26k

Week total: approx. 71k

Week 7 Recap:

M: off day - Zumba on the Hill with Sabrina! 
TU: 10k + BodyPump
W: 12k (fartlek - 5 x (1k hard, 500m easy))
TH: easy bike
F: 7k (4x800, 4x200 track workout)
SA: 11k + weights
SU: 13k (hamstrings strained from random speed workout, oops)

Week total: approx. 53k