Mud runs, sprints, new shoes, 5Ks, and training

I can't believe that its been 2 months since the marathon! I've been pretty busy since then. On June 8, I did the Mud Factor run with the bootcamp people from my work gym. It was awesome, scary, and painful! I'm proud of myself for not skipping any obstacles, despite the cement blocks that were my shoes. I came out of it with a nasty scrape and bruises on my knees, and both ankles were out of commission for a full day afterwards (due to the deep mud, or so I'm told). Here are the girls after we finished:

And the damage to my knees:

I haven't pulled the trigger by signing up yet, but we're talking about doing the Gravedigger on Sept 28. This race will hopefully have a lot less mud, but more high obstacles. I did ok with the mud in the mud factor, but I am terrified of heights. One girl said that I was visibly shaking after climbing over the first 15ft-tall A frame. There were 3 A frames: a flat wall with ropes that you climb up, a cargo net over a second one, and then a 70ish degree wall with ropes halfway up that you had to grab to get over (this was the source of my still-scarred knee). I will most likely do the race, but it is the week before the SoS half, so I bought different shoes and I'm going to tape my ankles with KT tape just for some added stability.

A few weeks after the marathon, I started doing sprints on the treadmill every Monday morning with my trainer. They've gone about as I expected:

Week 1: dizzy
Week 2: almost puked
Week 3: horrible cramps
Week 4: almost puked/cramps
Week 5: migraine about an hour after sprints (I think this is coincidental...)
Week 6: NOTHING BAD HAPPENED!!! Finally.

They still suck, but I'm doing better, and we're doing more sprints with less rest time. I've already seen a difference in my speed and 5K time, so they're helping a lot. I'll continue to do them once marathon training starts on the 22nd. I bought a garmin footpod and Wahoo ANT+ adaptor for my iphone so I can measure the actual distance of the sprints on the treadmill (we step off to rest while the treadmill is still going). They're sort of cute, and they'll also help when I do the Choctaw 5K on Labor Day weekend in the land of no GPS/cell signal.

I went to a natural running form clinic at the local running store (Red Coyote). I've been fighting shin splints since March or so. They seem to strike at random, but I can almost always deal with them if I wear my calf sleeves and take ibuprofen before the run. I almost always wear them to sprints, and about half of the time on long runs. Anyway, at the clinic they suggested that the fact that I heel strike is likely the cause of the shin splints. So I've been working on that, mainly by being sure to push my hips forward rather than back (as is my normal habit apparently). I also bought a pair of Brooks PureFlow2 shoes as my next pair of running shoes. I've been gradually transitioning to them-I'll run the first half of my mid-week runs in my glycerins, and then switch to the pureflows for the second half of the run. Last Saturday I ran the last 3 miles of my (fantastic!) 8 mile long run, and it was awesome. I am going to take at least another 2-3 weeks to transition to the new shoes. I'd like to be in them completely by the time I start marathon training on July 22. They're very bright! I would have preferred a blue pair, but this is the only color they had. In retrospect, I guess I could have asked them to order a different color for me.

They also have a bizarre tongue! It's attached to the outer side of the shoe. Very odd.

I am on a 5K kick lately, which is a bit odd since I hate 5Ks. They're too short! But I've been going to the weekly social 5K at Red Coyote, and I'm doing the Sizzling Summer Series of 5Ks. The first one (the Hot 5K) was on June 21. I PR'd! My new 5K PR is 31:44, which beats the 32:14 set in the Putnam City Cancer Classic last November. I went out a bit too fast, and paid for it at the turnaround with some fun abdominal cramps. I need to do some googling to find out why this is happening-I think I read somewhere that over-hydration can be a cause. But I don't want to die of heat stroke, so... idk. But if it weren't for the walking that I had to do because of the cramping, my time would have been under 30 mins, which is one of my goals! Almost there. I may not try to PR on the next 2 races (Hotter on 7/19, and Hottest on 8/16) because of the insane temps that are Oklahoma in July and August. All 3 races are at 8pm on a Friday night.

And, finally, I start marathon training in 20 days! I'm going to run the Rt66 Marathon on Nov 24 (and the Spirit of Survival Half Marathon on Oct 6). I've already put my schedule up by my desk at work, although it is still subject to change. I need to figure out where to add hillwork, because quite a few people have told me that the course is a very hilly one. My trainer says Fridays are a good day, and an online forum suggested doing it during the longer mid-week run on Tuesdays. So I have 3 weeks to figure that out.

Marathon recap

I loved every minute of the marathon. Every stinking minute. My fueling plan worked out just fine, I met my finishing time goal (<6hrs), and the weather was fantastic. But I digress.

I got up around 4:15am. I ate a turkey sandwich around 4:30 or so, and half of a banana. We left at 4:55am. We got to the corral areas around 5:45am. It was what I consider super cold (47F), so I shivered for most of the time we stood there waiting to start. Liz used the early start option, and so she started at 4:30am. There were so many people at the starting area that none of the apps on my phone would work, so I couldn't track her. I was in the 2nd of 2 corrals, and I lined up about 50 feet beyond the 10:30 pace sign. There weren't any slower signs than that, and my pace is ~12:30. I didn't want to be at the very end, but I also didn't want to make the mistake of getting too far forward and running too fast. Every year, they have 168 seconds of silence to honor the 168 victims of the Murrah Building bombing. This year, they added an additional 3 seconds to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. Those 171 seconds were so very long, and so very emotional. There were easily 20,000 people there, and the intense silence was amazing. Only one girl spoke, and I gave her some very unfriendly looks. She appeared to be foreign based on her accent, but she was so rude. My husband made the mistake of wearing one of his EMT jackets, so people kept asking him questions. The disrespectful girl kept trying to ask him how she was supposed to get into the corral (she was a pacer).

Anyway, finally we started! It took me over 13 minutes to get to the starting line. You can just barely see the starting line in the picture above (it's that white thing right to the left of the tree). I had a lot of trouble getting my nike running app to work because there were so many people there. I finally got it settled about a mile into the race. I tried very hard not to start out too fast, and I think I mostly succeeded. My first few miles were in the 11 minute range, which is faster than my average pace of ~12:30, but still slower than my epic 9 min first mile of the SoS half. I ended up taking off my arm warmers somewhere around miles 7 or 8. Mike met me at miles 12 and 18 to reapply the sunscreen so I wouldn't roast like I did on the 20 mile long run (we succeeded-no sunburn!). I managed to stay with my pre-determined fuel plan: Gu at miles 4, 9, 13, 18, and 22. I took beans when needed, usually about 2 miles after Gu. I started taking powerade at the water stops around 10 miles in. The plan was to alternate powerade and water, but towards the end I started getting both powerade, water, and pretzels at every stop. The temperature by noon was close to 80, and it was hot. I was very happy to see that the later water stops had wet sponges so I could wet my head.

My left hip started hurting around mile 14. It got bad enough that I took some aspirin around the 18 mile water stop, and then tylenol around mile 21. Nothing that I thought would be a problem hurt-my shins were completely fine! I was surprised by the hip pain. At that point, I just kept going on. I walked up any hills that I came to, and walked through water stops. One of the girls that I work out with was waiting between miles 25 and 26, and seeing her gave me the extra boost I needed to get to the end. My last mile was one of the faster ones-my pace was 12:08 lol. Once I saw the finish line, I started cheesing like a dork. I almost cried when they handed me my medal-it was close!

My time was 5:36:49, well under my less than 6 hours goal. I finished pretty strongly, but was gimpy once the adrenaline wore off. My hips and knees were fairly sore. I had asked Mike to bring me muscle milk at the finish, and they had bananas, so I avoided post-race incoherency. After the picture-taking was done, we went home. I drank 2 more cups of chocolate milk, and ate some pasta. Then I slept for 4 hours. I was really stiff once I got out of bed again. I have a blister under the skin on my heel; hopefully it won't burst. There's also a chance that I'll lose the second toenail on my right foot. I cracked it a few months ago during a long run, and it's still pretty sore after Sunday.

On Monday, I was a bit stiff in my hips and knees, but it got better as I moved around. Against a few people's advice (but not that of my trainer-she ok'd it), I did a light arm workout on Monday. If it had been a leg day, I totally would have skipped it. But since it was arms, and my arms were fine, I went ahead and worked out. I think it was beneficial to loosen up a bit. Plus, I have a mud run on June 8, and I need to get my upper body ready. Yesterday I was still a little bit stiff in the hips, and today I'm fine.

Here are my stats & splits from the results page:

163/204 in F24-29
862/1135 females
2259/2740 overall
Gun: 5:50:46
10K: 1:15:13 (1:04:22)
15K: 1:53:14 (1:52:32)
Half: 2:37:01
27K: 3:26:46 (3:13:34)
32K: 4:10:46 (3:57:34)
Time: 5:36:49

The difference between the gun and chip times is 13:57, so the times in parenthesis are what the app said my times were, based on my chip time (I think lol). I wish I knew what my half time was, because it was almost certainly a PR.

Finally, here's my medal! :D

I signed up for this year's SoS half yesterday, and I am planning to run the Route 66 marathon in Tulsa in November. I've been bitten by the marathon bug, it seems. :D

Well, the race is tomorrow.

I can't believe that it's already here. I've trained for 180 days for tomorrow.  The goal was always the marathon, yet it's seemed almost like an abstract date in the future that won't ever actually be tomorrow. Yet here it is. We picked up our packets this morning. I laid out my clothes 2 days ago (lol):

I pinned my bib to my shirt. I have bib holders on my spibelt, but unless I want the bib on the side or right over my quads, I'll need it pinned to my shirt. I'm wearing some red Ascics armwarmers in honor of the Boston marathon bombing victims.

I'm pretty nervous. I think I'll be ok once I start running. I know how to do the running-it's everything else that scares me. There were so many people at the expo that my anxiety level went through the roof, and tomorrow will be just as crowded. There are over 10,000 half marathon runners and 3500 full marathoners, and we'll all line up together tomorrow morning. I'm going to line up as close to the back as I can get. Maybe if I hang out with some slower people, it'll help keep me from running the first few miles too fast. My first mile in the SoS half was a 9 min mile, which is 3 mins faster than my regular pace. I'd like to try to avoid doing that tomorrow. 

I sort of failed at the taper in terms of cross training, but I haven't run since last Tuesday. My last workouts were on Wednesday, where I did kickboxing, leg day in weights, and then spin. I never went beyond a 2 in resistance in spin though, and didn't even break a sweat. I decided to skip the last 2 runs (3 on Wed, 2 on Thurs) because my left shin has been grumpy. My last run (4 miles on Tues) was sort of painful. It could have been the compression sleeves though-they feel like they've been hurting more than helping over the past few times I've worn them. I did go to weights yesterday, but I was sure to wear clothes that I absolutely couldn't work out in (nice jeans and a handknit cashmere sweater), and I wore my glasses. I can't work out in my glasses. They'd fall off at the slightest bit of jumping or sweatiness. I folded towels for the entire 30 minutes of the workout, while they did a super intense arm workout. I cheered/trash talked from the sidelines lol.

I have drank so much water over the past few days. I don't think I could drink much more. We ate spaghetti with newman's own marinara sauce and some meatballs for a carb-loading meal.

This will be on my car by tomorrow night:

In case anyone needed further proof that I am addicted to working out and endorphins, I start training on Wednesday for the Mud Factor Run on June 8. My trainer is going to focus heavily on my upper body strength. She said I could have Monday off, but only Monday. lol. I'm going to try not to run for at least an entire week. My shins need the break. Hopefully I can ease back into it after that.

Great white shark in an innocent happy clown fish body. That's me, apparently.

Yesterday I ran my last long run of marathon training.  The 8 mile run was a bit painful, as my shins have decided to be grumpy again. I've been icing the left one especially. I think that it's partially psychosomatic, because I didn't work out at all on Friday or Saturday, so one little 8 mile run shouldn't have much of an impact. Here I am before yesterday's run:

I wore my marathon shirt :D It's very bright lol.

My husband and I drove the marathon route yesterday. It took us quite a while; over an hour. I guess I didn't really think the course would be that long, but I can do it. I just have to focus on moderating my pace. I'm a little worried that I'll run too fast and wear myself out quickly. In the SoS half, my first mile was a 9 minute mile because I was so excited. That's roughly 3-4 minutes faster than my normal pace, and I'm running slower now than I did then because of the angry shin. Hopefully I won't give in to the adrenaline and can at least hold myself at a 12 min pace. The hills on the course aren't too bad-there is one bridge that looks terrifying because it seems almost straight up, but it's 2-3 miles in, and is therefore over quickly. The rest are manageable. There's one stretch of the course where they are doing construction on the road, and the part that we'd run on is very rough. The concrete is literally crumbling, and it was hard to drive on. I really hope that they fix that before Sunday. If they don't, I'm going to walk that portion.

Last week I had full-fledged taper madness going on. My anxiety level was through the roof, and I compensated by working out. A lot. After the 12 mile run on the 13th, I did a leg workout. I did spin before lifting weights on Monday, the 15th. I did another leg workout on Tuesday after I ran 7 miles. Then on Wednesday, I did a full leg day (kickboxing, leg day in weights, ran 3 miles, and spin). All of that was probably a mistake (as my shin is reminding me), but I needed it for the mental health. Working out was the only thing that made me feel better. I ran 3 slow miles on Thursday and then didn't work out again until my run yesterday. I feel much calmer (and more rational) now. I was all prepared to go lift weights this Friday, just to take the anxiety edge off. Now I think I'll still go, but I'll just sit there and chat while they lift weights and I fold towels. I'm still going to go to kickboxing and leg day on Wednesday, but I'll modify the exercise so that I'm not really doing much. A week from now, I'll be able to say that I'm a marathoner. :D

Oh, and my gym Coast 2 Coast Fitness Challenge team won! We reached 3000 miles about 2 weeks ago. I'm super excited to be a part of the winning team, even though my team members were a little crazy with their competitiveness. Need an example? I sent an email on Monday of the week before we won, saying that we were almost there and how exciting that was. The team captain sent back a reply saying that my ferocity surprised him. He called me, and I quote: "a great white shark in an innocent happy clown fish body. You are smelling blood and want to viciously bite off the legs off of the poor Weapons of Mass Reduction surfers while they are just now content to catch a wave once in a while." All I said was "yay we're almost there," and he got vicious competitor destruction from my email. See? They're crazy. And I want to make a shirt that says great white shark in an innocent happy clown fish body.

Less than 2 weeks left!

The OKC Memorial Marathon is 2 weeks from yesterday. I'm pretty excited, and a little bit nervous. I'm pretty confident that I can do it, but I'm not sure if that's confidence or if I'm simply naive. I don't think it'll be easy, but if I can control my pace, then I'll be just fine. My bff and I have decided to run the race separately. She will do the early start, and I will do the regular start. We'll run a few miles together when I catch up to her, and then I'll wait for her at the finish line. So plans have changed just a bit, but if I can just be mindful of my pace, I'll be ok.

I have always had a problem with my face turning red easily. It happens fairly frequently when I work out, especially if we get my heart rate up for a long period of time. A couple of months ago, I puked after a workout. We actually had to stop it. My trainer said that it was obvious that there was a problem when my face went from my normal beet red to white. My head was pounding and I couldn't hear because my ears were throbbing. And then I puked. Fun times. Last week I did kickboxing before weights, and my face reached an epic shade of red. I actually matched my hot pink under armour tank.

It took a few hours to fade lol. I don't know if this is always going to happen, or if it means that I need to work on my cardio more? All I know is that I am required to wear my HRM at all times when working out with my trainer. I'm ok if my head pounds, but I need to stop and get my heart rate down if my ears throb.

My trainer's boot camp class is going to sign up for a mud factor run in June. I'm not in her boot camp class because of my work schedule, but I am super thrilled to be included! It's going to be so much fun. I can barely wait! We're going to work on getting ready for it after I've recovered from the marathon (hopefully the next day lol). Last week made a year since I started working out. Here is a pic of me last June at the kayak/5K, and then a pic of my arms after weights today.

I think I'm making some progress. I look forward to making a lot more.

Finally, today was the Boston Marathon. I excitedly watched the elite races this morning at my desk, and went on with my day. When I got back from lifting weights, the news was reporting bombs going off at the finish line. The details are still a bit confused, but my thoughts are with the runners, their families, the victims, and everyone involved. It's just horrible, and not a place you'd expect something like this to happen. I'm horrified. The OKC marathon folks have announced that there will be tighter security measures, and so far they haven't canceled the race or anything.

One month to go!

We are officially one month away from the marathon. I'm both excited and nervous. The last couple of long runs haven't really gone as I'd like, but the 20 miler is coming up next week. We've both had some issues with blisters and properly fueling before the runs. Liz and I will be in Texas next weekend for our annual trip to the DFW fiber fest, and we're going to run the 20 out at some nice trails there. If everything can just come together smoothly for that run, I will be ok. At worst, we'll need to do the early start, and that means getting to the starting line at 4:15am. I really don't want to go that route if we don't have to.

I don't have a whole lot to talk about, so I'll just show you the past few weeks in a random collection of pics. :D

I broke my kickboxing gloves. I'm not sure whether I should be happy or sad about that.

 I'm growing some muscles. In May I'm going to post a weight-lifting update post to show how far I've come in a year.

This is what I'm planning to wear in the marathon.

I have quads.

Liz and me after our 15 mile long run. She looks amazingly happy for someone who had very very horrible blisters on her feet. I never photograph well.

I've been having some shin/calf problems in my left leg. I didn't realize that my current shoes had 350 miles on them, so I bought some new ones. They're identical to my current shoes (I sharpied the old ones to differentiate between them). The shin problems haven't gone away totally, but the intensity has lessened. I use the new ones for running only, and the old ones are my cross-training shoes now.

I recently deleted over 100 pictures that look similar to this one from my phone. The treadmill automatically stops at an hour, so I have to stop and take a picture of it so I can keep track of my time/stats.

I feel so organized now. The last time I bought Gu at Academy, I went ahead and took an empty box as well. Obviously I love the chocolate flavor. I also like extreme cherry and extreme pomegranate beans.

My work gym does regular fitness challenges. This one is a team challenge, and the first 6-person team to log 3000 miles (aka LA to DC) wins. You get miles for running, biking, and classes. See that No Limits 2.0 team that's in first place? That would be my team. :D

A week from today is my last day at my second job. It's a tad bit stressful there, and the benefits were no longer worth the stress. After a year of working 70 hrs/week with no regular day off, I'm pretty sure I'm going to take a lot of naps, catch up on my knitting and TV, and have time to plow through books again. Oh, and I'll have more time to work out, which is always a bonus. I'll be quitting right before the taper begins in my training, and I've heard lots about taper madness, so hopefully I won't go completely insane.

I'm already thinking about my post-marathon training plans. Obviously I'll need some time to recover, so I probably won't do much running in the first half of May. I'm going to start training for the SoS half on July 22, so between May and July 22, I'd like to cut down on my walking breaks. I know that I can run 3 miles without stopping, but I want to make that the norm. I also want to PR in the SoS half, but I'm not going to push myself a whole lot. I'm already planning to run the Memorial Marathon next year as well, so I'd like to try to PR that one as well. Basically, I'm going to go easy on half training, and then crank it up for the next marathon. We'll see how that goes.

Finally, I'm a college student again! I'm enrolled in a sign language interpreter program at OSU. I think it will be a pretty decent backup plan for a second job, or if anything goes wrong in my main, grant-dependent job. It takes a while to get through-I'll graduate in May 2016. Coincidentally, the grant that pays me runs out in June 2016. So we'll see. The vast majority of the classes are in the evenings. I hope that continues to be the case. I'm pretty excited! I bought a backpack today :D

Milestone Week

This week (well, last week really, but both weeks are the same) marks the point where I've gone further with training than I did for my half marathon in October. My last 2 long runs were both 13 miles, so I did 13.1 just because that's a half. I ran the first one with my bff out at her house, and it was a great time. We always have so much fun together! We're most likely going to get arrested for disturbing the peace during the marathon-that's how loud we are. My weekly mileage is up to 25 miles per week. My left ankle has been a little grumpy ever since I tried Zumba a few weeks ago. The class was a bit awkward. My longest mid-week runs are on Tuesdays, and I'm up to 7 miles now. I just don't think I can do 7 miles and then go to Zumba again. Also, I sort of suck at dancing. So there's that.

This week has been super busy workout-wise. Monday was a bit scary. I did an arm workout with my trainer, and we did cardio on the treadmill in between arms sets. I normally struggle with the treadmill workouts, but it's usually ok. The treadmill was set at a 12% incline and the speed was 4.5, for 3 minutes. I was ok until the second treadmill bout. I didn't have my HR monitor on, so we can't be 100% certain, but I think my HR spiked above my max. Despite resting after the cardio, I couldn't make it through the last arms set. I got dizzy, my head was pounding, and I couldn't hear. I ended up puking in the bathroom. My trainer was super worried about me-she said my face went from the purplest she's ever seen to very white when she came to check on me after my shower. The workout ended around 1:30, and I didn't feel better until 8pm or so. What really concerned me is that I couldn't fill out the mileage sheet for the Coast to Coast challenge after my shower. My trainer said that I have to wear my HRM every time I work out with her now so she can check.

My 7 mile run on Tuesday went ok. I went a little slower than normal because of Monday's incident. On Wednesday, I (probably) went a little overboard. I started off with kickboxing at 7am, and I broke my gloves. I think they were already broken from the previous time, because I wasn't punching very hard.

I also did weights yesterday, and it was a leg day. I don't know what the proper terminology is on this, but I squatted 65lbs! There was 20lbs total on the bar, and then I'm told that the bar weighs 45lbs by itself. This was my first time to do barbell squats on anything other than the smith machine. It was pretty cool. I ran 4 miles after weights, because I didn't want to take an extra shower and come back after work to run. That sort of didn't matter though, because I ended up going to my first spin class, and while awesome, it resulted in a 3rd shower for the day. My butt is so stinking sore today, but I really enjoyed the class.

Oh, and I am hungry all.the.time. It seems like all I do is eat. Sheesh.