Carmel Week 17: Why Is It Still Cold?! WHY?!

Why Is It Still Cold?! WHY?!


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Selfie fun with Grandma!

I'm feeling a little more positive this week. My runs haven't sucked too bad, and we are inching closer to race day! I did start the week off with some horrible thoracic pain. After three nights of bed building, my upper back was killing me. I was hoping I'd sleep it off Sunday night, but I woke up in pain! I was able to run without it bothering me. I focused a lot on stretching and tennis ball massage. That seemed to help a lot, but the hubs wanted to put together the entertainment center! This aggravated my back a bit, but I knew I wanted to just get it over with so I could focus on rest the week of my race. After another couple of days of stretching and massage, I felt hopeful that it wouldn't be a problem.


Although it hasn't affected my running, I have my chronic piriformis syndrome issues. My right piriformis gets so tight that it compresses my sciatic nerve and refers pain down through my calf. It's a more irritating pain than anything. I usually only get it when sitting in the car (which I have to do ALL DAY LONG). Of course, it is made worse after a run. A year ago, I had it pretty bad and decided to get a massage a few days before the Little Rock marathon. It helped tremendously! I decided to go ahead and do it again before Carmel. I also had them address my upper back and neck.

• 3/19: 6.13 miles, 8:59/mile; Bis/Tris, 30 minutes. Sarah met me at my house for an early run. It was nice rolling out of bed and not driving somewhere! I found a nice 6 mile loop from my house and around the Lambton Park neighborhood in New Albany. After work, I went to the gym to stretch my back and see if I could tolerate a lift session. I stuck to bis and tris to slightly eliminate the involvement of my thoracic spine. At the time, I was having pain with shoulder motions great than 90 degrees.
• 3/20: 9.5 miles, 8:19/mile. Today's speed session included a 2 mile warm up (9:13/mile), 3 miles at marathon pace (8:13, 8:06, 8:00), 0.5 miles at half marathon pace (7:30), 3 more marathon miles (8:00 x3), and a 1 mile cool down (8:57). All went well, and my legs felt good. I did have to run on the treadmill because of the weather. I decided against a lift session to continue resting my back, but I did practice some yoga.
  

  

  Coffee is the best post run treat.

• 3/21: 7.28 miles, 8:56/mile; Shoulders, 45 minutes. I took my efforts back to the treadmill again today. I had my usual Gahanna Wednesday run planned, but the roads were icy from the snow/winter mix over night. We decided to skip the 5 a.m. run. After some easy miles, I did the same shoulder workout from last week. My back is continuing to feel better! I'm hoping I can tolerate a chest/back workout tomorrow for cross training day.
  

  

  Just flexin' our shoulders.

• 3/22: Chest/Back/Abs, 45 minutes. Cross training day. I decided against a yoga workout in an effort to start resting my legs for race day. I decided to lift my favorite muscle groups...chest and back!
  

  

  My mom came across some old high school t-shirts.

  
  

  

• 3/23: 12 miles, 8:36/mile. Minus the company, today's run wasn't my favorite. I was supposed to do 5 warm up miles, 6 at marathon pace, and a cool down mile...that didn't happen. I technically only ran two of them in my pace range, two about 10 seconds slower, and the others easy. I just wasn't feeling it today. Not only was I sleepy, my legs were fatigued. I just kept telling myself I shouldn't feel that tired a week from race day. That's why I gave myself permission to slow down. My overall pace was great so I'll call it a win. I was glad to have Sarah and Britt to distract me from everything.
  

  

  Solid run. I just didn't hit the intended paces.

  
  

  

• 3/24: 3 walking miles, 17:13/mile. I met Meg at Schneider's for a cold walk through Westerville. I will never get tired of these moments with my buddy!
  

  

  Always gotta have some donuts. [ME, Meg]

  
  

  

  Peacock pose. This was a new one for me.

• 3/25: 5.59 miles, 8:57/mile. I had a slow start to my morning. I could have sworn I had the flu or something. I had the most awful sore throat last night into the morning. Swallowing was so painful. Throughout the night, I kept waking up in a pool of sweat. Of course, that was followed by freezing cold chills. This happened probably 5 times in the second half of the night in addition to getting up twice to pee. This was combined with an awful migraine that I've had since yesterday. I was a mess. Fortunately, between my mom and husband, I was able to sleep until 8 a.m. When I got out of bed, I felt guilty for sleeping because I could hear my sweet kids playing and having a good time. I woke up and tried to spend a little time with them and my mom. By 10 a.m., I mustered up enough energy to run. I took some ibuprofen just before starting my run which helped a bit with the headache. The run felt great, and the sunshine was beautiful.
  

  

  I love these moments with my pains in the ass.

Carmel Week 16: Wind and Skipped Another Race

Wind and Skipped Another Race

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Roop and her Buckeye hat. 

James starts preschool Sept. 4th!

Heavy wind seems to be the theme of the week. It was CRAZY! And, yes, you read it...I skipped another race. After my annoying experience last week, I spontaneously used my volunteer comp entry for a St. Paddy's Day 4 miler in Powell. At the time, I forgot that my husband was hosting a BBQ for his Bible Quiz Team. I love him, but this meant that Lisa would be cleaning the house while he spent the day at a tournament. On top of hours spent cleaning, my one year old earned the nickname "Ruthless Ruthie." By the time 4 o'clock rolled around, I had no desire...or energy...to deal with a fun 4 miles. I was whooped. 

• 3/12: 4.2 walking miles, 14:31/mile; Bis/Tris/Stability, 40 minutes. I'm a boring person today. The sun actually made an appearance, but that was not enough for me to go outside. I walked an hour on the treadmill. WTF. It's hard enough to run that long on the mill. I'm not sure what my deal was.
  

  

  Toe balance practice.

• 3/13: 6.68 miles, 8:59/mile; Chest/Back, 40 minutes. I was supposed to run with a couple of girlfriends, but I bailed. Y'all, my mind hasn't been in a good place. I have not been reliable which is very uncharacteristic for me. I'm trying to work through my personal issues so I can be a better wife, mom, and friend.
  

  

  I'll never refuse a Reese's Easter Egg. 

• 3/14: 11.07 miles, 8:03/mile. My speed workout for the week was 11 miles total with 4 at marathon pace, 1 at half marathon pace, and 3 more at marathon pace. Amanda and I planned to run together on Wednesday this week, and there's no better person to join me for speed than her! She kept me focused and motivated. The goal was to keep MP miles 8:00-8:12 and HP somewhere in the mid 7s because I have no idea what my half pace really is at the moment. My goal was to try to get a feel of the pace and not have to look at my watch so much. I felt I did a decent job of that for the first 4 MP miles. I did look at my watch for the HP mile because I wanted to make sure I wasn't going too slow. For whatever reason, when I returned to doing my last three MP miles, I couldn't slow myself down enough. Every time I looked at my pace, it read 7:50. I ended up going a little too fast there at the end, but that's life. I'll try to be more disciplined for my MP miles on Friday.
  

  

  BFF run. [ME, Amanda]

  
  

  

  
  

• 3/15: Shoulders, 45 minutes; Restorative Yoga, 45 minutes. Today was another running rest day. I knew I needed to do a shoulder workout, but I was tired of the doing the same crap. I looked up a shoulder workout by Brittany Tacy (I believe she has a different last name now). It was amazing! My shoulders were dead by the time I finished. I followed that up with a video by Yoga with Adrienne to stretch my legs and back.
  

  

  I'm not lying...my right forearm is sore from my new juicer.

• 3/16: 14.2 miles, 8:31/mile. This week's long run. Anyone who says taper drives them crazy is actually crazy themselves! Workout: 6 warm up miles, 7 marathon paced miles, 1 cool down mile. I'm trying really hard to focus in on what the pace actually feels like. Today was slightly difficult due to the freaking crazy wind. I kept going between freezing cold to sweaty hot depending on the direction we were running. I have to give props to Sarah who kicked butt today!! I was happy to have her to motivate me today. The run felt really good so my head is in a better place...at least for today.
  

  

  
  

• 3/17: 3.46 walking miles, 17:20/mile. I met up with Meg at Schneider's for a walk and donuts. We were expecting a wintery mix, but it wasn't doing anything when we started. Shortly into the walk, the sleet started coming down and slapping our faces! UGH! I'm over this crap!!
  

  

  Another bestie. I can't wait until she's running again!! [Meg, ME]

• 3/18: 8 miles, 9:00/mile; 2.2 walking miles. I joined Brittaney, her friend Julia, and Chris in Westerville for part of Britt's 20 miler. I enjoy my Westerville runs a lot more now that I run in Gahanna/NA most of the time. I was freaking tired today. I spent 3-4 hours cleaning the house yesterday followed by another night of drinking margs and building a bed with the hubs. My entire body was sore! I told the hubs we needed to get this crap done so I could actually rest during race week. I am going on strike from all things house moving related.
  

  

  Great run followed by yummy bagels! [ME, Chris]

  
  

  

  My new calling...I dare you to ask me to power wash.

Carmel Week 15: My First "Race" In Over 4 Months

 My First "Race" In Over 4 Months

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No longer a baby.

This week's workouts were a little different due to a half marathon on Sunday (I'll detail that later). I had all easy miles with the occasional strides thrown in there. The focus of the race was to practice marathon paced miles, but still get a total of 20 miles for the day. Let's venture into how it all went down... 

• 3/5: 6.67 miles, 9:00/mile; Chest/Back, 45 minutes. A rough start to my morning resulted in a nice sunshine run. I intended to go to a group run at 5 am, but ended up staying home to help the hubs get the kids ready. They were out the door just before 7 am, so I set off after that. I just needed an hour of easy running, so I set off to explore potential routes. I stumbled upon a perfect 5 mile loop from my house. The sunshine during this run was the only good thing about my Monday (drama with the gas company).
  

  

  
  

• 3/6: 6.11 miles, 8:46/mile; PNF/Shoulder/Stability, 45 minutes. Today's normal speed day was turned into speed/hill day. I was to run 45 minutes easy (so I made a 5 mile route), followed by 5x30 sec uphill surges and 5x30 sec downhill surges. Sarah and I used the hill at the end of the road I used to live on. For the uphill surges, we jogged down for recovery. When we got to the downhill surges, we just walked up for recovery. Good times.
  

  

  Yoga with my girl.

• 3/7: 7.88 miles, 8:53/mile. I skipped my usual Wednesday morning group run because James has croup! Ugh. He was up coughing and sounded awful. Momma can't sleep when her babies are like that. I hit up the treadmill after work for an easy 70 minutes. 
• 3/8: 4.6 cycling miles, 20 minutes; Yoga/Abs, 40 minutes. I did a hodge podge of stuff for my cross training day. I started with a 30 minute yoga video that I ended up loving. I never know what I'm getting into when I choose these random YouTube videos. I followed that up with an easy 20 minute cycle to work out the hard work from the yoga practice. Finally, I ended with some ab work. Feeling strong today!
  

  

  
  

• 3/9: 6.44 miles, 8:53/mile. My brain was a little fuzzy this morning. Obviously I ran, but I later texted Sarah to ask if it really happened. I seriously couldn't recall actually making it happen. LOL. I was so sore from yoga the day before. I couldn't believe how tired my legs were! I spent the rest of the day unpacking, moving odds and ends from the old house, and going up and down stairs. I was whooped by the end of the day. 
• 3/10: 3.1 miles, 8:43/mile. Not gonna lie, it's nice having only 3 miles to run on a Saturday morning! Britt and I are both running a half tomorrow and needed some shakeout miles. We met for the NA Starbucks 5k loop. Short and sweet. Tomorrow's goal: practice marathon pace...can't wait!!! (minus the waking up early and cold part of it)
  

  

  Shake it out. 

• 3/11: 20 miles, 8:32/mile. About that race...I didn't go. I guess you could say it was an act of protest (that no one but myself cared about. LOL). I was leery of this race when I registered. I definitely second guessed myself when I hit "submit." Many of my friends and myself have had bad experiences with this specific race company in the past. I decided to give them another chance when I saw that a half marathon would be only $13.10 and the race was certified with "professional timing." In the past, this company's races were not certified and their courses tend to be drastically short (one of my big pet peeves). Sparing the details, I later found out they had only applied for certification and "professional timing" did not mean chip timed. ALL THE EYE ROLLS. Despite these annoyances to add to my hatred of this company, I was going to follow through with this "race" as part of my training for Carmel. Upon waking up at 5 a.m. a.k.a. 4 a.m. with time change, I had a message from a friend about a post regarding the race. The free tacos and drinks that were supposed to be provided post race were no longer part of the deal (well, they partially were, but, again, sparing the details). I could care less about post race stuff, but I was livid about this! It just added fuel to the fire I had towards this crap-tastic company. I ended up deciding not to waste my time or gas money to drive 30 minutes for a glorified training run. Instead, I opted to wait until my kids woke up to help the hubs out, and set off for my run when they left for church. I was hopeful that the run would set my mind and attitude straight.
  

  

  
  

    Now, about that. LOL. I set off around 10:30 (an hour later than intended because my watch wasn't charged! Maybe this race thing wasn't meant to be anyway.). The goal was to run 6 warm up miles, 10-13 miles at MP, and the rest a cool down. I felt amazing during my warm up. No left over soreness from yoga, legs were fresh...I had a positive attitude about my run. For whatever reason, as I approached the end of my warm up, something wasn't feeling right. I felt this pressure. It's like my body was moving, but my mind wasn't keeping up. I started breathing heavy all of a sudden. I was thinking about the fact that I was about to start running a lot of miles at my goal race pace. For some reason, that must have freaked me out. I realized I was having an anxiety attack. I've never had one while running. It was an awful feeling. After my first race pace mile, I literally had to stop and remind myself to breath. At this point, a lot of negative thoughts were swirling through my brain..."there is no way you can run a marathon at your goal pace," "No matter what your training says, you won't be able to hit your goal," "You're just not ready for this." OMG. I couldn't control it. I stopped and texted Amanda to tell her I was freaking out. She did her best to calm me down and pep me up enough to keep me going. Per Amanda's suggestion, I decided to refrain from looking at my watch and just run. If I didn't hit my paces, it would have to be ok. It worked for a short time, but I started getting super anxious again. That was basically my cycle the entire run. It was awful. I couldn't rid my mind of the negative self talk. On a more positive note, it was gorgeous outside. I enjoyed the sun and looking at all of the big homes I will never live in. Despite my mind being a hot mess, I need to make myself proud of this run in some form or fashion. I had to stop and pep myself up so many times it's not funny. UGH. I need this to go away.
  

  

  
  

  

  I goofed up in mile 14. I was lost in New Albany and had to stop to look up my route on my phone.  I forgot to stop my watch. UGH. This took 2 minutes which is why I took 6 sec/mile off of my total average.

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So, where does this leave me with regards to meeting my goal? Hmm...basically, I have zero confidence in my ability. I'm not sure why, I'm just not feeling like I'm there. It's the negative thoughts in my brain taking over. I need to get over it, and I'm hoping I will in the next three weeks. Yes, THREE WEEKS UNTIL MY MARATHON!!!

Carmel Week 14: A Month Away From Joy and Pain

A Month Away From Joy and Pain

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February miles.

This week's agenda brought me decreased mileage (to recover from my 22 miler) and more focus on marathon pace during my long run. I had two cross training days, and turned my walk day into a rest day due to moving into a new home. My weekly running mileage was only 34 miles!

Ily was born late Sunday/early Monday...the walk DID work!!

• 2/26: 10.4 cycling miles, 45:07; PNF/Shoulder/Stability workout, 1 hour. Rather than my normal 1 hour run with hill surges, coach asked me to do an additional cross training day. Although I'm usually not thrilled to hit up the indoor bike, I was actually excited about it today.
• 2/27: 6.31 miles, 9:11/mile; Chest/Back workout, 45 minutes. Even my usual speed day was toned down this week. Coach had me run 45 easy minutes followed by 5x30 second hill surges and 5x30 second flat strides. I ended up doing this early and solo because it just didn't fit in with anyone else's workout. I almost skipped out on a morning run for extra sleep. I had to force my ass out of bed.
• 2/28: 7.54 miles, 8:59/mile; Bis/Tris, 45 minutes. Today's assignment was all easy miles, 60-70 minutes. I met up with my usual Wednesday crew for another Tour de Academy.
  

  

  Wednesday crew. [ME, Elizabeth, Sarah, Britt]

• 3/1: 9.6 cycling miles, 45:05. I took it super easy today for my weekly cross training. No lifting since I was short on time. Work was freaking insane today. I also sort of felt like poo because I didn't sleep well. Ok, I'm finished whining.
• 3/2: 16 miles, 8:35/mile. This was the focus of my training this week. Goal: 7 easy miles, 8 miles at marathon pace, 1 mile easy. I met up with Sarah and Britt for the first 11 miles. All was good, and I took them on a tour of my new neighborhood. After dropping Sarah off, Britt decided to get her long run out of the way. At this point, I was halfway through my MP miles. I was with Britt for the next mile when my stomach started cramping. Unfortunately, I didn't get my pre-run bathroom visit. It hit me like a rock. I told Britt to keep going, and I stopped for a moment. It only took about 10 seconds for the cramps to go away before I started running again. I felt so much better...it was the oddest thing. After that, I had no issues getting the rest of my miles. It was a nice muddy and windy run!
  

  

  Mud.

  
  

  

  Warm up miles.

  
  

  

  MP (goal 8-8:12) and cool down.

• 3/3: REST. Well, sort of. It was moving day for the Davis Family. I was completely exhausted from being up until 1 am the night before. I also only slept about 2 hours because I had a million things on my mind. We worked hard all day Saturday, and I was ready to pass out by the time bed rolled around. I decided to do my run the next day and skip my walk this week.
  

  

  When you are packing and drinking wine.

• 3/4: 4.05 miles, 10:05/mile. I FINALLY got to see my friend, Lisa. It was perfect for my schedule. I got to sleep in a bit after an insanely long day of moving and unpacking. It was a great way to end a stressful and emotional week.
  

  

  Sunday sun run. [Lisa B, ME]

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I mentioned last week that I was contemplating going watchless for my marathon. I spoke with my coach, and he fully supports the idea. I think I'm going to step out of my comfort zone. I actually plan to wear my watch so that I can see my stats, but I think I'll put a piece of duct tape over it so that I can't see it. 

Family pic at Harrison Pond.