Day 47(26) - Failing Forward

I totally fell of the wagon. Like fell off, rolled underneath it, and ended up on a couch with a beer fell off the wagon. I killed week 1 and week 2. And then well...things got a little less runny and a little more lifey.

Week 3 (7/14 - 7/20) was supposed to be another 3/5/3 mile sets during the week with a 6m run on the weekend. I "excused" myself that week because it was Masters Nationals. So I did run a lot - league on Tuesday and frisbee Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so for a light rest week I didn't worry a lot about exact mileage.

Week 4 (7/21 - 7/27) was supposed to be a 3/6/3 mid week with an 11m run on the weekend. I did do one run of not quite 6m and some frisbee, but then I went to Arkansas and absolutely did not do an 11m run. Totally got in some cross training in the form of swimming in the pool and nerf gun battles.

Nephews extraordinare!

Since then I've had some spotty spurts of going on a run or a hike but nothing consistent and nothing in line with the training program. Trust me, I've got all the excuses if you want to hear them, most of the stories end in a great new beer to try and in one instance a ridiculous outfit and spiked seltzer.

Technically I should be on week 7. This would include a 14m run this weekend. Could I do it? Yes. I know that as long as I'm active I will always be able to run at least a half marathon so 14m doesn't really sound that daunting. But part of doing a training and sticking to it was to do a training and stick to it and dear readers, I failed horribly.

But I am committed to failing forward*. So I've decided to back up and restart at week 4. So day 47 in real life is now day 26 in training.



Here is what the next two weeks look like:

                       Monday     Tuesday     Wednesday     Thursday     Friday     Saturday     Sunday
Wk 4 Plan       Rest            3mi            6mi pace          3mi            Rest           11mi          Cross 
Actual             3.29mi       5.83mi         5mi walk         rest

Wk 5 Plan        Rest           3mi               6mi                3mi            Rest           12mi          Cross

I have frisbee league on Sundays now so I have my cross training locked up. I'm hoping I can get myself back in the routine of running consistantly. I notice I feel better, I work better, and overall I'm just a better person when I do this.

*Failing forward came from one of my favorite co-workers. We've had a very challenging project going on almost 2 years and had to do a presentation this week on it's status (spoiler status was not great but we're fixing it). She brought up that at least we are failing forward, making mistakes but making mistakes and keeping our focus on how to move forward and fix them to ultimately get a product that will benefit everyone. With that in mind I am committed to failing forward with this training and while I made mistakes and will continue to make mistakes I'm going to keep moving myself in the direction of my goal - completing this training in it's entirety. 


           

Day 14 Week Two Blues

Week two is the hardest. Week one is great, you get to feel successful with each day of training; look at me I did it, I ran three days in a row! Week two you realize you have to do it again, and again for another 17 weeks. This week was hard but I'm glad that I got it done. I got the right number of miles in, sort of unconventionally, but I did it.

Here's what week 2 looked like:

                Monday     Tuesday     Wednesday     Thursday       Friday     Saturday      Sunday
Plan         rest             3mi            5mi                 3mi                 rest          9mi             cross
Actual     rest             2mi            2.5mi(w)         track/2mi       4.54mi     2.23mi        8.9mi     

Total: 22.27miles

I didn't cross train last week nor this week. Frisbee covers a lot of the other type of movements I need. I think when I have less frisbee I can work in more of a cross training workout into my routine. Tuesday and Thursday were both frisbee days. I did a track workout before a double header on Thursday and my quads were sore for the next few days. Wednesday was a walk, so not a run. I know part of my struggle is making sure I continue to do things every day when I can so I can't get too mad if it's a walk and not a run. As long as I get my miles in and make sure I hit my long runs I feel good about it. I thought the run I picked on Friday was 5 miles, when I double checked on mapmyrun.com I realized that the 5 mile route adds one small part that I didn't do. I'm mostly happy about my Sunday run. I ran a similar run last week but shorter (took out an extra section I added to get close to 9 miles) and I did it faster. I'm hoping this gets me slowly to a more comfortable feeling running "pace" runs.

Sorry nothing exciting or profound this week. Just wanted to make sure I kept to my accountability by posting what I did. Week 3 will be interesting. Next Friday, Saturday, Sunday is Master's Nationals so it will be a lot of frisbee. Hopefully I'll have deeper thoughts after that!

Day 6 - I got 99 problems but mental hurdles ain't one

I've written a lot about the mental hurdles you have to get over to run races, especially long distance races. Not surprisingly the most common response I get when I mention running a marathon or an ultra marathon is "I could never do it". But you can! I was just talking with a friend about running and why I've always believed anyone could run. As well documented in "Born To Run" (the infamous book that convinced me I should try a 100 miler and a blog) humans are built to run. We were built to chase prey over long distances. What changed? Well we don't have to chase our prey, we don't even have to drive for prepackaged prey someone will drive it to you. We also have a lot of pavement which is just not really great on your body. We made shoes to help, but for anyone who's done a road marathon and a trail marathon you can tell pretty quickly when you have to walk down stairs the day after.

Part of the challenge of running long distance races is convincing your brain, tainted by society, that you can do it. I remember the first time I ran 10 miles, the first time I reached double digit miles. I couldn't believe it had happened and how easy it actually was. And after that, every run that came next; 13 miles, 18 miles, 26.2 miles, 50 miles wasn't impossible. You really do have to just do it and experience that you can do it and there you are. A lot of races are run with doubt. Doubt that you can finish, keep going, get over that next hill. A lot of races are also lost by poor training and injury. But you'd be surprised by how many times just thinking "I can't" gets in the way of finishing, and even more so, signing up for a race.

After I finished my first marathon I felt like I could do it again. After I finished my first 50 miler I know I could probably do anything as long as I didn't mind getting sick after. That's the belief that carried me through the Salida Race Through Time Half Marathon this March. That race was my first long distance trail race in I think 2012. I was terrified the night before. Wrong Way Ryan can attest to that. While him and the Bearded Wonder were out getting beers, I was laying in my bed obsessing over the race map. And I had trained for that race. I had done everything right. Fast forward to this March I "trained" with almost zero trail miles, drank beers with everyone the night before, and just sort of showed up and did it. I did it because the doing 13.1 miles wasn't the hard part. I knew I could do it, I had done it. I also knew I couldn't do it as fast as I wanted to so I paced accordingly.

It's that thinking that's gotten me pretty sloppy at training.

So part of this adventure right now is improving the other parts of racing. My brain is fantastically equipped to complete impossible tasks. My legs, not so much. So my mental hurdle is picking a training run over happy hour and running even if it's a league night. Or in the case of this past week, going on a run after happy hour. That was rough, so many burps. I have to get over the mental hurdle of missing social engagements and pushing myself along with frisbee. I'd love to see a running book dedicated to FOMO.

Here's how I did this week:

Monday                  Tuesday       Wednesday        Thursday        Friday    Saturday    Sunday
Plan: rest                 3m               5m pace             3m                  rest         8m             cross
Actual: 3.26m         2m               3.36m                5.53m              Rest!      8.33m

Total: 22.38m

I ran on a rest day, Monday's are good nights for me to run because I don't have frisbee league so I think I'll likely continue with running on Mondays. I only did 2 miles Tuesday because it was frisbee league. I wore my garmin watch and it gave me 2 miles of running during one game. I consider that sort of pace work because it's a lot of sprinting. Wednesday was after a happy hour so I'm glad I at least got a run in. Thursday was a great hike. Hiking up hill is sprinting in disguise so I think that was a good alternative. Friday I actually rested! Saturday I did a long road run, it wasn't as fast as I want it to be so I'm hoping my times start to get better. Which I know means actually doing the pace runs. Sunday is cross training so I think I'll do a hike and/or some strength training.

So week one was ok. I got in more miles than required so I am glad I took one rest day. Hurdle of week 1 is over and I think I did ok. Maybe I manufactured a way to get over that hurdle in a non-traditional way, but considering where I've been I'm pleased.
                                                   

Day 1 - A fools errand?

I haven't posted in awhile mostly because I haven't really been running. I dabbled. I ran the Salida Half Marathon this June. Ill advised. I did the least amount of training one could do without finishing being considered a miracle. I did finish, I felt mostly ok. The most I ran three months before was 10 miles, on the road, super slow.

The other day I made a deal with myself that I would run a race this fall. To get to that point I am starting my training today and my goal is to stick to it and really do it. I've followed training programs before and by followed I mean "followed". I was terrible at sticking to the mileage, the pattern of running. The one time I did it, really did it, was when I trained for my first marathon back in 2008. 11 years ago to today; day 1.

I have a few goals.

1. Stick to the program as close as I can to make sure I get the milage in per week and honor the pace days, rest days, and days run in a row. For reference I'm going to use the Hal Higdon Novice 2 program.

Week 1 looks like this:
Monday     Tuesday     Wednesday     Thursday     Friday     Saturday     Sunday     Total
    rest             3mi          5mi pace           3mi            rest          8mi            cross       19mi


2. Report out on it. I probably won't post every day, but I will do my best to post once a week with an update on how well I'm staying on track.

3. Run a sub 4hr marathon. This one may not happen at the end of the 18 weeks. I haven't found a marathon that quite matches up There's a half thats pretty close so I may got for a sub 2hr half and use that to spring into a marathon within that month.

4. Get the courage to do another 50miler. I still want to get to at least one 100 miler in my life. To feel confident doing that I need to better my 50miler times. So I'd like to commit to signing up for a 50 miler by the end of this training.

I get inspired by reading about running. I just finished Peter Sagel's book "The Incomplete Book of Running". I'm going to start "What I Talk When I Talk About Running" by Haruki Murakami. I followed a lot of the Western States tracking this past weekend so I think I've got a good dose of inspiration.

So today is Day 1. The training program is 18 weeks. That's 126 days. I already messed up the schedule, today is a rest day, but I had time when I got home after work so I ran 3ish miles. I may look at switching rest days up.