I posted in July about my growing conundrum about whether or not I was going to register for Boston 2017. After posting about it, I didn't really give it much thought until a few weeks ago when the Instagram posts started counting down to this week, registration week. At that point, I had ALMOST made up my mind that I was NOT going to do it. There was a blip earlier this week where I thought "Maybe????" when last year's training partner Facebook message harassed me about joining her :)
But I'm sticking with my original decision which is NOT running Boston in 2017.
WHAAAAAAAAAA?
Reason 1: My heart is not in it
At first blush, this may seem crazy, but this is not the first time where I have qualified for, and subsequently passed on, running the Boston Marathon. Of the 7 marathons I have run, 5 were BQs. The first time I qualified for Boston, I ran it. That first BQ was a major goal of mine after moving to a new city (Chicago) in my 20s and wanting to get back into running after a long on again, off again relationship with it through college and grad school.
I toyed with the marathon after Boston 2007 and gave that distance up for several years because I would under train and be dissatisfied with my performance.
Then, after my second child was born, I was in my mid-30s and dying to do it again. Could I do it? YES I COULD! My 4th BQ led to running my 2nd Boston Marathon last year - two major goals of mine from the last two years checked off the list.
To me, qualifying for and running the Boston Marathon has been a challenge that I have given myself during some points of transition in my life. I don't really have a big transition that I'm facing right now, and maybe that is why the Boston Marathon just isn't making my heart sing this year. Last year I was in full countdown mode for registration, I was planning my life around this marathon. This year...meh.
The Boston Marathon is amazing. In so many ways. I don't know if this will make sense but I sort of want to save it for times when I really NEED it.
Reason 2: Time
Guess what. It takes a ton of freakin' time to train for a marathon. For this reason, I only really can mentally handle about one marathon a year at this point in my life. My husband can really only mentally handle about one marathon a year, and he is a critical key to getting training in with two kids. Would I like to be one of those runners that is tackling marathons all the time? Sometimes. But that is not my current life. So if I am going to do one marathon next year (which is still a goal of mine), I want it to be a new one. A new course. A new experience. Who knows how long I will be running marathons? I might as well tackle some other ones on my to-run list while I can. Also, I have to be cognizant of my PPL bank at work, which unfortunately for me, is not endless :(
Reason 3: Expense
Boston is really expensive, particularly when you take your family. Of course, plenty of other marathons that I want to run are still expensive so if I'm going to drop a lot of dough, I'd rather go to a new destination.
When it came down to it, I think the only reason I wanted to run it was to join in the hullabaloo of this week on social media. Which is a dumb freakin' reason.
So, no Boston for me next year. HOWEVER, I have goals people. And the 3:15 (or faster) marathon is at the top of that list. Stay tuned.
Friday, September 16, 2016
Friday Links: Wake Up Early: How You Can Do It
This has been A WEEK.
I have not gotten a full night's sleep all week. For Real. Last night before going to bed, I prayed to the gods and heavens above that neither of my children would wake up in the middle of the night as seems to be our current routine. Turns out none of the gods or heavens like me - at 2:30 my son was awake.
Despite the fact that my eye is twitching (does that happen to anyone else when you are tired?!), I haven't missed a run yet! I ran 4 of the 5 days so far this week.
I missed 2 of the 4 early morning alarms because I was so tired. Luckily my afternoons this week have been dedicated to a SAS training, and two of the afternoons we were done early so I could sneak my run in during that suddenly free time. PHEW. I took Thursday as a day off this week, which was much needed. Which left this morning, when I forced myself to get out of bed.
I still struggle with the early morning run, but it has been getting easier. I agree with many of the tips in this week's Friday Link: Wake Up Early: How You Can Do It.
I started trying to ease into morning runs by wearing my running clothes to bed. While this proved useful to getting out of bed and going, it wasn't very comfortable, mainly due to the compressive sports bra. As long as I set out EVERYTHING I will need for a run the night before, in convenient spaces, I have been doing ok.
The routine that has been working for me is:
5:00 Wake Up Alarm/stretch in bed and say mantras like nobody's business to motivate myself to not go back to bed
5:05 Get out of bed. Stumble into bathroom and turn on shower light so as not to wake husband. Put contacts in, change in running clothes that I have laid out night before, go downstairs.
5:10 Turn on porch light. Go into kitchen and turn on a bunch of lights. Get water bottle out and fill with water + 1 Nuun for after run. Check phone to scroll through Instagram for more motivation. Grab knucklights and watch which I also put out the night before. Go back to front door and put on shoes which I set by door the night before.
5:15 Get out of the house and run loops around my neighborhood. 1 loop ~ 1.15 miles
5:50-6 (Depending on how far I had to go) Return back to house, grab water bottle of Nuun and RxBar, sit out on front porch admiring the quiet for a bit (unless I hear that the kids are awake, which then I usually go up and greet them).
6-6:45 Shower, dress, makeup, hair for myself. Help kids get dressed, hair, teeth. Breakfast for kids, make lunches for myself + kids and breakfast for myself which I take to work and eat.
6:45-7:00 Commute to work (Hubs finishes up with breakfast with kids and transports them to school & daycare)
One of the ways that I have been able to motivate myself to do morning runs is that I feel more calm during our night routine if I don't have to run after kids are in bed. I am not nearly as annoyed with them for DRAAAAAGING out bed time if I am not itching to get out the door at 7 PM stat. Also, I get to enjoy some time with my husband (usually watching tv) every night when I run in the morning. I think these more relaxed evenings are the biggest motivator for me embracing the morning routine.
I try to get to bed between 9/9:30 to accommodate waking up an hour before I was used to, but that doesn't always happen. Usually I figure, if I get to sleep through the night, I am getting 7 - 7.5 hours a sleep on a week night. I do not get up at 5 on weekends which grabs me an extra hour or so of sleep on Saturdays and Sundays.
So that's my trying-to-be-habitual-morning routine! Anyone else an early bird?
I have not gotten a full night's sleep all week. For Real. Last night before going to bed, I prayed to the gods and heavens above that neither of my children would wake up in the middle of the night as seems to be our current routine. Turns out none of the gods or heavens like me - at 2:30 my son was awake.
Despite the fact that my eye is twitching (does that happen to anyone else when you are tired?!), I haven't missed a run yet! I ran 4 of the 5 days so far this week.
I missed 2 of the 4 early morning alarms because I was so tired. Luckily my afternoons this week have been dedicated to a SAS training, and two of the afternoons we were done early so I could sneak my run in during that suddenly free time. PHEW. I took Thursday as a day off this week, which was much needed. Which left this morning, when I forced myself to get out of bed.
I still struggle with the early morning run, but it has been getting easier. I agree with many of the tips in this week's Friday Link: Wake Up Early: How You Can Do It.
I started trying to ease into morning runs by wearing my running clothes to bed. While this proved useful to getting out of bed and going, it wasn't very comfortable, mainly due to the compressive sports bra. As long as I set out EVERYTHING I will need for a run the night before, in convenient spaces, I have been doing ok.
The routine that has been working for me is:
5:00 Wake Up Alarm/stretch in bed and say mantras like nobody's business to motivate myself to not go back to bed
5:05 Get out of bed. Stumble into bathroom and turn on shower light so as not to wake husband. Put contacts in, change in running clothes that I have laid out night before, go downstairs.
5:10 Turn on porch light. Go into kitchen and turn on a bunch of lights. Get water bottle out and fill with water + 1 Nuun for after run. Check phone to scroll through Instagram for more motivation. Grab knucklights and watch which I also put out the night before. Go back to front door and put on shoes which I set by door the night before.
5:15 Get out of the house and run loops around my neighborhood. 1 loop ~ 1.15 miles
5:50-6 (Depending on how far I had to go) Return back to house, grab water bottle of Nuun and RxBar, sit out on front porch admiring the quiet for a bit (unless I hear that the kids are awake, which then I usually go up and greet them).
6-6:45 Shower, dress, makeup, hair for myself. Help kids get dressed, hair, teeth. Breakfast for kids, make lunches for myself + kids and breakfast for myself which I take to work and eat.
6:45-7:00 Commute to work (Hubs finishes up with breakfast with kids and transports them to school & daycare)
One of the ways that I have been able to motivate myself to do morning runs is that I feel more calm during our night routine if I don't have to run after kids are in bed. I am not nearly as annoyed with them for DRAAAAAGING out bed time if I am not itching to get out the door at 7 PM stat. Also, I get to enjoy some time with my husband (usually watching tv) every night when I run in the morning. I think these more relaxed evenings are the biggest motivator for me embracing the morning routine.
I try to get to bed between 9/9:30 to accommodate waking up an hour before I was used to, but that doesn't always happen. Usually I figure, if I get to sleep through the night, I am getting 7 - 7.5 hours a sleep on a week night. I do not get up at 5 on weekends which grabs me an extra hour or so of sleep on Saturdays and Sundays.
So that's my trying-to-be-habitual-morning routine! Anyone else an early bird?
Monday, September 12, 2016
Half-Marathon Training Week 2: NAILED IT
If you follow me on Instagram (@amyschlott) you know that last week, the second week of half-marathon training, I ran FIVE days. Well, I have an important update: I actually ran SIX days and crossed off all of the workouts on my plan.
Monday: Labor Day
I had a beautiful 5 mile run along Big Cedar Lake in the early morning hours. I love running along the lake when we are there with family. 36:47.8 (7:21 avg pace).
Tuesday
3.25 easy morning miles (24:30, 7:32 avg pace) with 6 strides after.
Wednesday
Off
Thursday
1 mi warm up, followed by 3 mile repeats, followed by 1 mile cool down, again in the morning. The goal pace for my mile repeats was to be half-marathon goal pace plus 10-20 seconds. I am working with the half-marathon goal pace of 7:00 miles. I ran these mile repeats way too fast: 6:48, 6:43, 6:31.
Friday
4.03 easy morning miles, 30:41 (7:37 avg pace)
Saturday
6.24 miles, 43:31.7 (6:59 avg pace).
Sunday
Was supposed to be off, but my six-year old daughter asked me to go on a run with her. We did 1.5 miles of a run/walk AND then our family did a 6 mile bike ride.
Total Miles (excludes Sunday): 23.65
Four of these runs were done in the morning - three of them in the DARK. I am finding that 5 AM runs are almost becoming essential with our schedule, and I am not minding. It does take a lot of mental convincing to get out of bed when my alarm first goes off though! Bring on Week 3!
Monday: Labor Day
I had a beautiful 5 mile run along Big Cedar Lake in the early morning hours. I love running along the lake when we are there with family. 36:47.8 (7:21 avg pace).
Tuesday
3.25 easy morning miles (24:30, 7:32 avg pace) with 6 strides after.
Wednesday
Off
Thursday
1 mi warm up, followed by 3 mile repeats, followed by 1 mile cool down, again in the morning. The goal pace for my mile repeats was to be half-marathon goal pace plus 10-20 seconds. I am working with the half-marathon goal pace of 7:00 miles. I ran these mile repeats way too fast: 6:48, 6:43, 6:31.
Friday
4.03 easy morning miles, 30:41 (7:37 avg pace)
Saturday
6.24 miles, 43:31.7 (6:59 avg pace).
Sunday
Was supposed to be off, but my six-year old daughter asked me to go on a run with her. We did 1.5 miles of a run/walk AND then our family did a 6 mile bike ride.
Total Miles (excludes Sunday): 23.65
Four of these runs were done in the morning - three of them in the DARK. I am finding that 5 AM runs are almost becoming essential with our schedule, and I am not minding. It does take a lot of mental convincing to get out of bed when my alarm first goes off though! Bring on Week 3!
Friday, September 9, 2016
Friday Link: Easy on Easy Days
FRI-YAY!
Yesterday, I read this post on Salty Running: When It Comes to Running, What Is Easy?
I definitely do not take it "easy" on my "easy" days. I think it has a lot to do with anxiety I feel to get the run done, mostly because I am fitting runs into small windows of time. With the start of school, my day has much more structure in place in terms of logistics of picking my kids up at the end of the day, getting to work by 7 so that I can leave at 3 to get kids. Thus, I am trying to get my week day runs done in the early morning, prior to work. I also like to sleep. So I have calculated that if I set my alarm at 5, I can be back, shower, help get kids ready, lunches, etc before I am out the door to get to the office. Phew. Just typing that made me anxious.
Today I had an "easy" 4 miler on my schedule and I tried so hard to go easy easy easy. According to the article, my "easy" pace could be anywhere in the 1:30 - 3:00 slower than my 5K pace. My last 5K pace was 6:18 so that leaves me with a 7:48 - 9:18 window.
I got up at 5 and thus was in the dark, save for my knucklelights and neighborhood lighting, chugging along. In addition to the aforementioned anxiety of having enough time, it is hard for me to fully relax during an early morning run because a small part of my brain thinks, "What if some creepy guy is chilling out waiting to pounce on me?". For this reason, I stick to running laps around my quasi-closed neighborhood.
My first mile was 7:55. YES. Definitely felt easy and definitely was working to slow down. It felt really unnatural. I let go of working so hard to think about "going slower" during my other miles and the result: 7:27, 7:30, 7:24. My average pace for my 4.03 run was 7:37. A little faster than my optimal window, but not terrible.
Anyone else not go easy enough on easy days?
Yesterday, I read this post on Salty Running: When It Comes to Running, What Is Easy?
I definitely do not take it "easy" on my "easy" days. I think it has a lot to do with anxiety I feel to get the run done, mostly because I am fitting runs into small windows of time. With the start of school, my day has much more structure in place in terms of logistics of picking my kids up at the end of the day, getting to work by 7 so that I can leave at 3 to get kids. Thus, I am trying to get my week day runs done in the early morning, prior to work. I also like to sleep. So I have calculated that if I set my alarm at 5, I can be back, shower, help get kids ready, lunches, etc before I am out the door to get to the office. Phew. Just typing that made me anxious.
Today I had an "easy" 4 miler on my schedule and I tried so hard to go easy easy easy. According to the article, my "easy" pace could be anywhere in the 1:30 - 3:00 slower than my 5K pace. My last 5K pace was 6:18 so that leaves me with a 7:48 - 9:18 window.
I got up at 5 and thus was in the dark, save for my knucklelights and neighborhood lighting, chugging along. In addition to the aforementioned anxiety of having enough time, it is hard for me to fully relax during an early morning run because a small part of my brain thinks, "What if some creepy guy is chilling out waiting to pounce on me?". For this reason, I stick to running laps around my quasi-closed neighborhood.
My first mile was 7:55. YES. Definitely felt easy and definitely was working to slow down. It felt really unnatural. I let go of working so hard to think about "going slower" during my other miles and the result: 7:27, 7:30, 7:24. My average pace for my 4.03 run was 7:37. A little faster than my optimal window, but not terrible.
Anyone else not go easy enough on easy days?
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Half Marathon Training Week 1: Done
I survived my first week of half marathon training. Hooray! It was a little rough getting back into a training plan particularly because last week was also busy with my oldest's first day of school and her 6th birthday party.
The training plan that I am following is one that Kara Goucher made for Oiselle Volee members. It is 10 weeks long and there are 5 running days, 1 cross train or off day and 1 day fully off. I am aiming to do all 5 running days, with two days off, to see if I can swing this (previously I have done 4 running days).
The plan isn't very different from other plans I have followed: Saturday is long run, Wednesday is a speed workout and all other runs are 3-6 miles. Some days also have strides and core. I was able to get the speed workout done (fartlek), the long run (5 miles) and two of the 3-6 miles days last week. That is 4 days out of the 5 I am aiming to do. On a super busy week, I'll take it.
I can tell I am out of shape. Most of the workouts feel hard - or maybe that is just because I am doing most of them at 5 AM in the dark. Womp womp.
1 week down, 9 to go!
The training plan that I am following is one that Kara Goucher made for Oiselle Volee members. It is 10 weeks long and there are 5 running days, 1 cross train or off day and 1 day fully off. I am aiming to do all 5 running days, with two days off, to see if I can swing this (previously I have done 4 running days).
The plan isn't very different from other plans I have followed: Saturday is long run, Wednesday is a speed workout and all other runs are 3-6 miles. Some days also have strides and core. I was able to get the speed workout done (fartlek), the long run (5 miles) and two of the 3-6 miles days last week. That is 4 days out of the 5 I am aiming to do. On a super busy week, I'll take it.
I can tell I am out of shape. Most of the workouts feel hard - or maybe that is just because I am doing most of them at 5 AM in the dark. Womp womp.
1 week down, 9 to go!
Friday, September 2, 2016
Friday Links! (Er,...Link)
Happy Friday.
I have not read very many things online this week as I have been trying to use all of my free time to work on props for my daughter's Wizard of Oz themed birthday party occurring tomorrow. I leave you with this one link:
A Long Run Back: How English Gardner Overcame Depression, Anxiety On Road to Rio
I have not read very many things online this week as I have been trying to use all of my free time to work on props for my daughter's Wizard of Oz themed birthday party occurring tomorrow. I leave you with this one link:
A Long Run Back: How English Gardner Overcame Depression, Anxiety On Road to Rio
Thursday, September 1, 2016
August Mileage Recap
AHHH! It's September! My oldest started kindergarten today!
My total mileage for August was: 66.85 miles.
Still on the low end. This was 7.6% lower than August 2015 mileage, so for the past three months, I have been in the negative in terms of percent change. Good thing I had a strong first 5 months of the year because I am still 97.5 miles ahead of last year at this time. I think 10 weeks of half marathon training will secure the notion that 2016 mileage > 2015 mileage (barring any injuries, of course).
However, on the plus side, August's mileage was more than double that of July! So we are heading in the right direction, folks!
I rebounded nicely from Tuesday's debacle. I went to bed at 7:45 PM on Tuesday night and slept until 6:15 Wednesday morning. Yesterday my kids were at their grandma's house so I had an hour in between when I got home from work and when they got home which allowed me to do my fartlek workout in some nice sunny skies. It was a difficult one - I felt so sluggish from the first step to the last, but it was done.
This morning I got up and did an easy recovery run in the dark with my knuckle lights. The air was nice and cool but I am not ready to have most of my runs occurring in the dark. The good news is that with school schedule, I HAVE to get my run in in the morning. I have lost a bit of the flexibility I once had. So far, I have been doing great with getting up and heading out the door in the wee hours of the morning. Time will tell!
How was your August mileage?
My total mileage for August was: 66.85 miles.
Still on the low end. This was 7.6% lower than August 2015 mileage, so for the past three months, I have been in the negative in terms of percent change. Good thing I had a strong first 5 months of the year because I am still 97.5 miles ahead of last year at this time. I think 10 weeks of half marathon training will secure the notion that 2016 mileage > 2015 mileage (barring any injuries, of course).
However, on the plus side, August's mileage was more than double that of July! So we are heading in the right direction, folks!
I rebounded nicely from Tuesday's debacle. I went to bed at 7:45 PM on Tuesday night and slept until 6:15 Wednesday morning. Yesterday my kids were at their grandma's house so I had an hour in between when I got home from work and when they got home which allowed me to do my fartlek workout in some nice sunny skies. It was a difficult one - I felt so sluggish from the first step to the last, but it was done.
This morning I got up and did an easy recovery run in the dark with my knuckle lights. The air was nice and cool but I am not ready to have most of my runs occurring in the dark. The good news is that with school schedule, I HAVE to get my run in in the morning. I have lost a bit of the flexibility I once had. So far, I have been doing great with getting up and heading out the door in the wee hours of the morning. Time will tell!
How was your August mileage?
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