Ran 3 Today
I ran three miles today as per my training plan. My legs felt heavy-each step was agony. I can tell I am sore from the 7 miles and I can’t see how I can actually do a whole marathon. Then I went to the hair dressers…an unlikely place for inspiration but here is what happened.
So the hair dresser is asking me what I have been up to, blah, blah, blah and I say, “I am training to run marathon.” This other lady, butts into the conversation and tells me she runs marathons. Okay, I swear, she is is like 60 and does not look like she runs a block, much less 26.2 miles. So, turns out she does HALF marathons. Okay still impressive. Then she told me it is all mental and just stick with it.
Okay, well, no old ass lady is going to out run me so I am sticking with my plan. The plan is key. Must stick to the plan. Sometimes people ask me if it was hard to become a doctor and I say, “not really. You just do the plan. ” Okay-the plan takes 12 years and you hit a lot of obstacles along the way (and invest a couple hundred gand) but is is basically, do the plan and you will get to be an MD. Okay, so same system for this marathon deal-work the plan. My plan: The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer. My Bible.
Marathon Equipment I Use
Camelbak-I am under the impression that I need to start hydrating on the long-ass runs. I know that water is an essential component to keeping my biochemical processes going-gotta keep my cells pumping out the energy by keeping them hydrated. I just ordered this bad boy and I will let you know how it works.
Nike Plus-I reviewed this in an earlier post. I would love to hear anyone’s comments on how this works for anyone else out there.
Nike Plus Pouch Option I use-so far this is a great tool as I am not stuck using the Nike shoes. I runin Brooks. More on those later.
Nike Plus Pouch Option II-I thought this was a pretty good option. It looks like it might hold the sensor tigher which would improve accuracy.
Holy Shit-Linked from ShoeMoney
Now a lot of people out there might appreciate a link from ShoeMoney. I love it and hate it. It gives me traffic which is not always a good thing as now I have to be accountable. I think I gotta run this marathon after all. My seven miles really kicked my ass and I sort of moped around all day feeling tired. THE BOOK (my training bible) says you should have a day of rest after your long runs to rebuild glycogen stores in the muscles, but I had actually not planned on resting today-but I did anyway so that made me feel even more of a blob. Since I won’t be able to run later in the week, I was going to hammer it out early on. Okay, so now I got to hit it tomorrow.
Plus, my trash talk has me in trouble with Dillsmack and he has challenged me to the FASTEST 2 miles. Shit. Fast is NOT my game. But I accept and will see what I can do. I am not sure how that will work with the Nike Plus as I never run anything less than three miles at a time. I will probably have to set it for 2 and then do another mile on top of that to have the run qualify for the challenge.
The Nike Plus site also has a challenge by state/country-most miles by all runners in a state. So I signed up to run for Nebraska for the month of July. Like Nebraska has a shot but whatever, the idea is to run and run and get better. Making progress every day.
Dillsmack-more out of shape than the ShoeMoneys!
Okay, now you all can view my NikePlus data thanks to the skills of Shoemoney. The best part is that you can see my challenges on my blog and if you scroll over there, you will see that Dillsmack challenged me to run a cummlative 20 miles. Yeah, I beat him and not just by a little, by a LOT! So if Shoemoney can beat me at the biathalon and I can beat Dillsmack that would mean that Dillsmack is in the worst shape of all three of us. Did I mention that ShoeMoney and I are like 10 years older than DillSmack? I eagerly await his next challenge-bring it!
The Freakazoid Does 7 Miles!
6/17/07
I was a total badass today and did the SEVEN miles! I must admit it was tough to hammer it out but I just could not, would not let myself quit. I also came across a pretty good distraction while I am running-weird but it works.
A little background of my mental habits: I am a anesthesiologist so I train for and often encounter life and death situations-and I have to handle them. Not that my job is hard-core all the time, but certainly tough, critical, fast-paced situations are something I have to deal with-or it is very likely someone will die. The longer I have practiced as an anesthesiologist, the more I find myself playing out traumatic situations in my mind. Sometime I will flash back on those times when I have been in critical situations in the OR or ER. Good or bad, those experiences are with me forever.
To compound this, I am a naturally paranoid person. I always think about what I would do IF…if a tornado happened right now…if I was held at gun-point…if war broke out. I think about my survival plan in advance. I think my medical training has corrupted my mind that way, after all, in the OR, I have to think about and pre-plan for what I would do IF…if the patient stopped breathing…if the patient went into an life-threatening heart arrhythmia…if the patient started to bleed heavily during surgery. Jeremy calls me a “freak freakazoid” when I am in this mental mode-I call it being prepared.
So today, as a rounded the lake, I wondered what I would do if I was in the middle of that lake with Juliet. How would I get her to shore safely without either of us drowning. I imagined myself pulling her as I swam, keeping her head out of the water. My plan got a bit elaborate but guess what? I wasn’t focused on how much my legs were hurting. I was almost unaware that I was running. I was ruminating on some powerful images and it totally distracted me from my run. It worked and kept me moving. It also gave me a little boost as I imagined myself saving my daughter, swimming hard, getting her to shore. Yeah, I am a freak from the planet freakazoid.
Nike Plus, I love You!
Notes on the NIKE PLUS
My first run, I was so excited about the Nike Plus. The system consists of two small, quarter-sized parts. One fits inside the specially designed Nike Plus running shoes (or in your laces) and the second part plugs directly into your IPod Nano. The system is fantastic because it allows you to take off running with no plan. You program the Nike Plus to track you over any distance, in any time and just GO! AWESOME! All the while, your IPod plays your tracks while you pound out the miles. Periodically, a voice comes on and says, “you have completed 2 miles” or whatever distance you have covered thus far. At the end of my longest run, a voice said, “This is Lance Armstrong, congratulations, that was your longest run yet!” Thanks Lance!
The problem showed up on my third run, the day after I had run it through some puddles and probably gotten it wet-the calibration was way off. I ran for 50 minutes and it said I had covered only 2.7 miles. I consistently run 11-12 minute miles so I knew there was a problem with the sensor. Since I had never calibrated it, I figured I better give it a fair chance and do a calibration, which I did, over a flat mile-long trail. Since then, there has no seemed to be a problem. Plus, I always time myself and know pretty clearly-down to a minute or two-how long a run should take me.
PROS-
-You JUST RUN!
-Nike Plus does the work of tracking your distance, your time, and your calories burned
-It small and can fit in your laces or a specially designed pouch you can pick up pretty easily
-You don’t necessarily need Nike shoes
CONS-
-
-Can get damaged, slip out of shoes, get wet and is small so easy to loose
-calibration can be off
-some say it has a pretty short life span but hey, it was 30$ so not hard to replace but again, if I get a new one does that mean I loose all my run data?
Marathon Contemplation
6/12/07
I ran my 3 miles today as scheduled. While I ran, I focused on coming up with my actual marathon plan. Am I actually going to run a marathon? Can I do it? Maybe a marathon IS a little excessive for an overweight 37 year old woman who is not really an athlete to begin with. I am more like an athlete imposter. But whenever I try to talk to people about the idea of me running a marathon, they always say, “well, you could run a HALF marathon.” Something about that really grates on me. I don’t think I could do a half and get to the end a feel like I had really done something. Plus, the rest of my life I can’t just rollout with, “yeah, I ran a marathon.” I have to say “half-marathon” like some sort of pussy.
So I might as well give up this whole thing if I am only shooting for a half. If I am not doing a whole one, I am just going to keep up my little jogging schedule an not do any formal runs.
It makes me think about my grandparents, Joe and Josie Huebert. When my grandfather was a young man, he was paralyzed permanently from the waist down. He and my grandmother were a young married couple with no children at the time. They went on to have five children and grandpa owned several businesses and was even the mayor of his town. Grandma worked as a nursing assistant, full time, with five children. I wonder if they ever thought, “well, maybe we should just do HALF.” Like have half the children or only work half the time or own half a business. Nope, they both did it all they way, balls out.
So I am formulating an “all the way plan.” That is me, all the way or nothing.
Should I run a Marathon?
6/10/07
Today was the end of week 2. I did six miles. My strategy is to go at a moderate pace, occasionally I will do a short sprint to challenge myself but on these long runs, I try to flow, not push. I ran along the railroad tracks in south
I have noticed that my aches and pains have subsided mostly. I did have a big ass blister on my little toe. It has a day to heal until my next run. I did a lot of delayed gratification mind games to keep going. Like I won’t check my mileage until I listen to a full song or run to a certain mark I can see up ahead or I count to 50. Anything to just keep me focused on something else but the run so I can just keep running. It is like I am living the moment by not living the moment. Weird.
I am doubting my ability to run the marathon quite a bit. I have to do what I did today plus TWENTY miles to do the marathon. Scary. Intimidating. Hard. I did the math and that also means about 5-6 hours of running. Can I do it? How will I fake myself out to get through that?
Start of Week 2, Marathon Training
I did three miles as I was supposed to. Three is almost routine now. Not such a big deal. I have ironed out the kinks with the Nike Plus and the Ipod and reworked some of my song choices. I also know that a miles takes me 12 minutes so 3 miles takes me 36 minutes. I multiply by 12 and know how long my run will take. It has become more routine for me to do the run. I have to work it into Juliet’s nap schedule, so I often go when she is asleep. Jeremy mans the baby moniter and I can get out and run.
I have also started thinking about what marathon to run (IF I actually run one) The Omaha one is September 23. Now, vacation is pretty hard for me to get but I just HAPPEN to have it that week. Also, Omaha is my home town. So that seems the most logical. Having vacation at that time seemed a little wierd. It removed a big obstacle for me, opens the way for me to actually run it. But I hear Omaha has a lot of hills. But I can always go down there and drive it one and see how bad it is.
I don’t avoif hills when I train. I actually like them as they push me to get just a little stronger on the runs. Sometimes on flat terrain, I will do a 10 second all-out sprint as part of my run, sprint, recover, sprint, recover. I am well aware that the more I tax myself, the more I will progress as an athelete.
This week culminates in a long run of 6 miles. That seems long but I think I can do it.
5 Miles-FIVE MILES!
6/4/07
I did my FIVE FUCKIN” MILES today. It was hard. I wanted to walk so often. But I plowed through it. I am not sure if I want to do this challenge or not. I am so tired. I hurt. But what The Book says, “it doesn’t matter.” No matter what is wrong with the run, if your knees hurt, you are getting pelted by hail, you get a blister…no matter what, it doesn’t matter and you just keep running. marathoners run in the rain and sleet and ahil and at night and early inthe morning and whenever they need to to get the running done. I knew I had to plow ahead and focus on something else so I could forget the pain and keep putting down my feet, one after another. Those steps added into inchese and feet and miles and then I was DONE. Thank GOD! Done!