Brrrrrr

The weather has finally changed in New York, and it looks like the cold is here to stay, at least for the rest of the week.  It was a perfect morning for a run with 6,000+ of my closest friends- cold, crisp, bright with a light wind (OK at times a bit more than a light wind).

I am happy I was able to keep the pace in check for the portion of the run that was a NYRR race.  Probably could have slowed down way more, but the heart rate was in check, so I went with the 8:34 pace (actaully the pace was sort of refreshing, as 10 minute miles has been a task on the treadmill the past few weeks).  Ran the extra mile home, showered and got straight back into bed.  I love the weekend.  

At some point I will go grocery shopping.  Oh and buy a scale.  I had my last pizza last night for 10 weeks (with ONE exception- Ledo's pizza at home for Redskins football and/or UMD Terps Basketball/Football over the holidays!)

HA

Even more proof, I swear 90% of the bag of Peanut M&Ms I just ate* were BLUE!! I did not pick these out, even I have better things to do with my time while at work :)







*Yes its 11:15am.

BLUE!

It seems the entire city is turning blue now that Obama won...




...and I am perfectly fine with that!

Mind and Body- The 'no plan' plan

I had a minor freak out yesterday about my hip/femur.  It is bothering me a bit, and in a scary, 'painful' way.  So I have decided to take the pressure off.  It feels better today.  In a way, it feels like deep, muscular fatiuge, which of course makes total sense, and I think I may have been dealing with going into the marathon as well.

But my early tri season for next year is pretty much set.  There is NO need to push now.  Yes, I feel like I gained all this base and want to keep moving 'forward', but this involves rest and letting myself recover fully.  I need to rest my mind and body, and ENJOY my accomplishment, not jump right into the next thing.  I also need to remember it won't take as long this time to build up the mileage if I let it drop for a month or two, as I won't be returning from injury and from ZERO.

I re-joined the gym last week.  I wanted to be able to swim again.  And do the elliptical and watch TV.  And make a fool of myself by sweating profusely in Beginner's Yoga.  They also just opened a new location and it is INSANELY nice, and has chaise lounges in the steam room.  I think that alone is worth the monthly fee, if for nothing else but my stress levels.

So no schedule, no plan.  Only goal is to do something for at least an hour, 5 days per week, eat healthy and lose a few lbs. 

I also realized today that I only need to do a few more NYRR races in 2008 to have automatic entry into next year's NYC marathon.  So I'm going to do that, b/c really, why not?  But I'm only going to race the 10k.  (The other runs will be two 4-milers and one, maybe two 15ks).  The others will be nice, crowded weekend runs.

Yes, I'm crazy

Because I am considering this.






Three full weeks/a month to recover, and a gradual build back up in the miles. And I would use a real plan this time, as in, follow an actual schedule, as I now feel like I have the base under my legs that is recommended.

My thought process:

-I was planning to go to Atlanta in the spring anyways to visit friends.
-I could always just run the half if I'm not feeling the full.- you can transfer your entry until a week before.
-It would provide a great base for triathlon season.
-It would hopefully give me the confidence to try an early season Half IM, but also would give me enough time (about 2 months) to focus on the bike (versus other spring marathons that I have found in early May).

I know it could be hot OR cold, and I know it's a hilly course. It would also require 3+ hour runs in Jan/Feb in NYC.

But it basically runs though Emory and I think it would be really cool, and I know I could convince some friends to join me, at least for the half.

Reflections on the marathon.

(Bummer they didn't have finishing clocks for wave2 times)

I'm not going to try to put my thoughts together in a coherent, witty post, but I want to get it down so I have the memories and lessons to look back on. So here are my reflections, being as honestly with myself as possible.

Sidenote: I have slowly shared this blog with some friends scattered across the country, but I have been hesitant to share with too many close friends, especially those in the city, as it has really been an outlet to be honest about where I am with my training, emotions, etc. I fear that if too many people close to me, as in training partners, coaches, etc read my thoughts on a daily basis, I may start to edit or censor. Right now I am SO glad I have made this choice b/c, as you will see in my reflections, I am a bit disappointed in my race this past weekend, and am so glad to have this as an outlet to express those feeling, bc I am still so so proud of my accomplishment and don't want to diminish it at all, or the help my friends gave me through the entire process, especially on 1st Avenue on marathon day.

So, here goes:

1. I admit, I am a bit disappointed with the outcome of the marathon. This has NOTHING at all to do with time. I know I will improve and in fact, believe I could end up enjoying the distance once I learn how to run it. However, I don't think I ran to my potential on Sunday, which is disappointing regardless of how many times you have done something.

2. What was my potential? I have no clue (see 'related' below regarding not having a time goal/race plan). I know I didn't run the amount you're 'supposed to' in my training (whatever that is?). I am not sure how much mileage my body will ever be able to handle, but I know there will be a limit. I did everything I could to smartly and safely get in the miles I could, and I am confident in this. But being my first marathon, after a major injury, I had no idea what I was capable of and didn't have much racing to base a goal time on.

3. I REALLY, REALLY enjoyed the training. I have always 'enjoyed' training as it has been a major part of my life since I was 12 years old. I don't know where I am going with this, or if there is a point I'm trying to make, but I enjoyed training for the marathon more than I have enjoyed triathlon training. Sometimes it feels like a task to get on my bike, but the running never felt like a task, and I really missed it when I needed to take rest weeks. I think the difference was having a specific goal race in mind- and want to remember this during triathlon season next year. I need to pick a goal race and train FOR it and focus on that.

3. HOWEVER- I do think I could have gotten some of the miles in SMARTER. My 20 miler was a half marathon, with 7 miles added on the end. There was about a 30-45 minute break between the first 13 and last 7, and maybe this contributed to whatever happened around mile 13? In the little corner of the back of my mind, I had never run 20 straight. BUT I had run 3ish hours TWICE, and I cracked before 2 hours, so who knows?

4. I still can't wrap my mind around what happened around mile 12/13. Maybe, even though I was feeling fine, I realized I had gone 13 miles and still had 13 MORE to go and I freaked out. But I don't remember that happening. Honestly, I just remember a moment where I decided to give up- which KILLS me. I have done this in the past when I thought I wasn't doing well- better to give up and have an excuse for failure than try your best and still fail. However, it's weird b/c I knew if I FINISHED I would have succeeded, regardless of time- but maybe I was just lying to myself about this?

**Related- I think not having a goal was a defense mechanism for not wanting to 'fail'. Now that I have run the distance and experienced the race, I cannot believe I went into this race without a time goal or even really a plan about pacing. I think this, more than anything, contributed to what happened. Once I started to slow down, I freaked out, but also had nothing to fall back on to make me feel OK/better. If I slowed down but was still within my goals, but could have thought, "That's OK, XX:XX minute/miles will still put me where I want to be", I could have had something to latch on and focus on. But I didn't have a goal pace, so when I started to slow, there was nothing to focus on except my splits getting slower and slower.

BUT, BIGGEST LESSON OF THE DAY: Do not put a Gu in your sports bra and forget about it- it will chafe in ways you've never experienced and leave a beautiful scab, that will most likely scar, in the most lovely of places.



So it's 4 days later and I feel almost 100%. I am still painfully tired and want to eat everything in sight, but my legs feel almost normal. There is a bit of lingering soreness behind one knee, but ironically, my hip feels better than it has in weeks.

And of course, now come the 'what's next?' thoughts. I'm going to try not to be stupid about what is next, and let myself recover and repair. My early tri season is pretty set- already registered for three races in June and July, one of which will become the 'GOAL' race, most likely NYC.

The most immediate goal: There is a 10k in December that I want to rock out. I have run this race every year since I moved to the city (for a grand total of two times - ha), and am excited to see if I can improve on last year's 4 minute PR now that I have a base I never had before.

But other than that, it's back to the pool and back on the bike, and I am REALLY REALLY excited about that.

Yes.

As someone who works in the developing world, and has experienced the constraints of Bush's policies on the very ability to carry out my work, today I am hopeful. About so very much.

Definitely not tomorrow, maybe not next year, but someday...

I am hopeful that I will be able to use government money to provide condoms to women in Africa.

Or to create prevention programs for sex workers in Brazil.

Or to educate young girls in our own backyard that if abstinence is not an option, safe sex IS.