The best laid plans

Day 1 (yesterday) of half marathon training went swimmingly, despite the fact that I didn't wake up from my alarm because I had spent 3/4 of the night tossing and turning after getting up with my daughter in the middle of the night.

No matter.  I got home from work at 4 PM and did a nice 4 mile run with 6 stride outs after AND got dinner on the table before my husband was home with the kids.

SHAZAM.

Day 2 not so great.  My son woke up at 3:15 AM barking like a seal and gasping for breath.  I took him to the ED.  He was diagnosed with croup and we had to stay there for observation after the breathing treatment and steroids.  We arrived back home at 7 AM...just in time for me to shower and get to my daughter's meet the teacher date at 8:15AM and then to work.

OH>MY>GOD am I tired.  I don't do well on one night of little sleep, but two in a row and my eyeballs are twitching and I am semi-hallucinating.

Needless to say, I am already switching Friday's rest day to Today.

And hopefully going to bed at 7PM.

#EyesOnThePrize

I ran 10 miles!

Last week, I got a Facebook message from B, my Boston training partner in crime. 

"Wanna run early Saturday morning?"

I was excited, but also nervous as I haven't done anything longer than a 5 mile run post injury.  I was trying to gear myself up to go 6 on Saturday.  I asked her how long she wanted to go.

"I'm thinking 10"

I confessed that I had not gone that long since June (June 12 to be exact) but that I would try.  My last run with B was a 22 miler pre-Boston that we CRUSHED in 2:45.  I was excited to see her.

I crept around my dark house at 5:30 AM and drove to her house to meet her at 6 AM, quietly texting "I'm here" so as not to wake her family.

And just like that we fell into stride and started chatting/laughing it up.  It felt great to go on a real "long" run.  We were not concerned about pace, just a relaxed, nice run.

We covered 10 miles in 1:17:41.  I should not have looked back at my last 10 mile run, but I did.  I ran 10 miles on June 12 in 1:10:56.  You wanna know how much fitness I lost due to my foot injury? There you have it.  6:45 difference.

Still, the 10 miler with B gave me confidence that I could in fact start to run longer distances.  I have been so nervous to even venture beyond 5 miles.

And with that, Half-Marathon training kicks off today!  I am following Kara Goucher's 10 week training plan she made for Oiselle Volee to start off.  I set my alarm to get out on the road this morning before work, but then I woke up at 1 with  my daughter and struggled to fall back asleep.  I am dragging today!  

Friday Links!

Friday!

I am really excited to watch the New York City Marathon this November, although it will have to be recaps because it is the same date and time as my own half marathon.  So many great women runners to watch, including GWEN JORGENSEN! I am so curious to see how she will do!
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/sports/olympics/two-events-fewer-16-miles-more.html
http://www.flotrack.org/article/45508-olympic-triathlon-gold-medalist-gwen-jorgensen-will-run-the-nyc-marathon

Sarah Mac Robinson is also running!
http://www.runningstarfish.com/2016/08/im-racing-nyc-marathon.html

NYC Marathon has helped me cope with the fact that the Olympics are over. Le Sigh.  I enjoyed reading Dr. Lesko's experience of Rio watching Oiselle athletes on her blog:
http://drleskoblog.tumblr.com/

Did you see Runner's World's Top 15 running moments of the Olympics?
http://www.runnersworld.com/olympics/the-top-15-running-moments-at-the-2016-olympics/slide/14

I enjoyed this podcast recap of the Olympics Track and Field with Malcolm Gladwell
http://www.houseofrun.com/%E2%80%8Bepisode-341-olympic-recap-with-malcolm-gladwell/

American Women Domination
http://www.vogue.com/13468183/american-women-most-medals-rio-olympics-2016/
http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/08/shine-theory-rio-olympics-gymnastics-track.html

Finally, I checked Kelly Starett's book out from the library after reading this article:
http://www.outsideonline.com/1926891/new-injury-proofing-rules-runners

Pain, Pain Go Away

I started investigating the impact of mindset on running earlier this year, kind of by accident as we had to read Mindset for work. And, because I am more tuned into it, it seems that "the mental side of running" is all the rage lately.  Lucky me! To date, I have focused generically on "mental focus" - creating mantras, thinking positive thoughts.  I have read about the power of habit (another work book!) and therefore started practicing mantras while not racing.  I have found that these have been helpful but still not exactly right.

Then I read Mark Remy's August 2016 column in Runner's World and CLICK!  I had it.  My issue.  Pain. Suffering. Hurt. Discomfort.  I don't like it.   I can so clearly remember a conversation back in high school before a big cross country meet where one of my teammates said, "I just don't want it to hurt" and emphatically agreeing with her.  Indeed, if I reflect back on my race history - when they started to hurt, I lost it, most of the time.  I think my marathon especially suffers from this.  I mean a 5K is so quick and while it hurts, I can easily talk myself out of the pain knowing it isn't going to last too much longer.  During a marathon? I am not successful.  Out of 7 attempts at that distance, I only have 2 that I don't remember bonking at:

1) The 2006 Chicago marathon, which was my second marathon and where I dropped 38 minutes and 16 seconds off my time from my first attempt to qualify for Boston in 3:30:20.

2) The first time I ran Boston, in 2007, where I didn't care what my time was and ran entirely by feel, and had an enjoyable time (and finished in 3:33:28, which was almost exactly 3 minutes slower than my qualifying time.)

Pain Face during Race for the Bacon

Every other marathon, I distinctly remember the point at which I backed off because it hurt.  Um, how can I be in love with distance running and be unable to deal with pain?!  Easy.  Generally, I have found minor success at running good enough.  My breakthrough moments in running have come when for whatever reason I could push past the pain.  If I can learn to deal with some pain, I can easily get my 3:15 marathon goal.  I know it.  I had an amazing training cycle preparing for Boston 2016 - including a number of long runs where everything clicked and they were amazing.  I also had a number of long runs where they didn't feel right/I wasn't comfortable and I remember dwelling on that the entire run.  

Now that I am aware of this, I can more effectively work on making this common practice, right?  So say the sports psychologists anyways.

Here are some of my favorite recent readings on dealing with pain:

Alexi Pappas, "My Pal, Pain"

Heather Stephens, Go Through It

Another Mother Runner podcast The Mental Side of Running

"There is a big difference between pain and discomfort - work on understanding why you are backing down." 

From the aforementioned Remy's World:

"Suffering is a constant.  It'll be there no matter what. Do your speed workout and you will suffer.  Put it off for weeks or months (or years) and you'll suffer.  run today and you may suffer, at least a little bit. Skip it and you'll suffer for that too.  Go get it done. you might as well choose the kind of suffering that makes you faster."

Jason Karp, via @heather_runs74 on Instagram:

"There will always be that voice inside of us that says, 'This is too hard', or 'This hurts' or 'I want to stop'. We can either let that voice get the best of us, or we can work at mastering ourselves and our emotions."

If you have any other quotes/links/etc, share them. :)

Pain Face during Acuity Health Race

Run Fast Eat Slow

Have you purchased Shalane Flanagan & Elyse Kopecky's new cookbook Run Fast Eat Slow?

I pre-ordered it because I love cookbooks, but haven't been able to make anything out of it yet because our August has been IN.SANE.

Several of the recipes are featured in the latest Runner's World and on the cookbook's website.   You can also purchase the ebook off of Amazon right now (until 8/30) for only $3.99.

I have paged through it and read parts of it and it is a beautiful book.  According to some of the social media runners I follow, the food is tasty!  Make no mistake, after the night I had, I will NOT be making any of the quinoa-based recipes!

KeenWah Kause for Keeling Over

Quinoa is the devil.

I used to eat quinoa fairly often, pre-Whole30.  It is not on the list of allowable foods for that diet so I cut it out of my diet completely for 30 days.  I didn't notice specifically that quinoa caused any problems during my 10-day reintroduction phase, but I really didn't feel great during that time period anyways.

Fast forward to last week.  I made lunch for my team at work as a fundraiser for the run we are doing next month to raise money for Children's Hospital.  One of the items I made was the chicken quinoa soup out of Runner's World Cookbook.  It was really yummy and I ate two big bowls of it.  My stomach hurt for the rest of the afternoon.  I thought I just overate.

Two days later, I had another big bowl of the same soup for lunch and same effect - painful stomach cramps, nausea.  At that point, I suspected the quinoa as the only other ingredients in the soup were chicken and veggies.  (Also, no one else who ate the soup felt ill.)

Today I purposely brought a big bowl of quinoa for my lunch to test my theory.

Unfortunately for my stomach right now, I was right.  Fortunately though, quinoa will be easy enough to eliminate from my diet.

The saponins may be to blame.  I don't always rinse my quinoa, and I have no idea if the brand I currently have is pre-rinsed.

I'm not sure how long quinoa has been bothering me.  I do know that I had a huge quinoa salad the day before the Boston Marathon and my stomach wasn't right then.  I ate a ton of quinoa while pregnant with Maggie and had a lot of nausea during the pregnancy.  This is one of those instances of retroactively trying to fit data points into the hypothesis.  Moving forward - no quinoa for me!

Two Years of 5K Data Review!

I am a data nerd so I combed through two years of 5K race data to look at my average pace at each mile mark.

The pace in the Mile 1-4 columns is the "Average Pace" data from my Garmin for the race while the Finish Time is the finish time per the official race results.  Most of the time my Garmin is off by a few tenths of a mile in distance and a few seconds in finish time compared to the official race results.

2015 was injury free for me.  I injured my foot between the Silver Lining and Acuity Health races in 2016.

My Takeaways

1. I.ALWAYS.START.TOO.FAST...
What was I doing starting Acuity, the first run I had in a month, at the same pace as the race I set my 5K PR in?!  Similar thoughts for Hank Aaron.   The go-out-fast-approach does have some research behind it.  My homegirl Lauren Fleshman suggests this:

"Try this next time: Run the first mile with your head, the second mile with your focus, and the third mile with your heart. In the first mile, you can’t let any emotion or excitement in at all. Start with a pace you are confident you can maintain and then relax a little bit more. Until you see that one mile marker, all you are allowed to think about is running smart. From 1-2 miles, focus on maintaining your form and start to look around you, taking a survey of which runners around you probably went out too hard, and which ones you should make your prey in the third mile. You are taking some time to strategize for the big battle, and you aren’t allowed to draw your sword until you pass the 2mile marker! The last mile, start to pick off your victims, and allow your mind to feel gratitude for how powerful and strong your body is. As soon as you can see that finish line, pretend you are Meb running down Boylston St in front of all of America and run with passion, tall and proud!"

This strategy advocates for even pace.

This article has different strategies for different runner types.  For an experienced competitive runner the "strong start, middle float, strong finish" is recommended.  I would say some of my 5Ks follow this.  Annnnnddddd some do not.

2. ...and then my second mile is slow.  Sometimes I can pull off a faster 3rd mile.  Sometimes.  (Definitely not post-injury this year!)

3. The second mile of Silver Lining SUCKS.  I recall thinking this during the actual race this year.  Hills and turns.  Hills and turns.

4. Run Tosa Run 2016 was such a good race.  I loved it during and I loved if after and I love it now.

I think this will help me set some goals for my next 5K race.

What about you - What pacing strategy do YOU follow for a 5K? Have you looked at your race data in a similar way?