marine corps marathon

Right, so I’ve got this marathon I have to run on Sunday : )

Actually, I’m pretty relieved it’s still going to happen! I’m running the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC.

With the government shutdown, a lot of things were uncertain…including this event. Apparently, we were on a need to know basis and the Marines had decided that we didn’t need to know how close it probably came to being cancelled. With such short notice, if any of the course had to be altered there would have been no way to get a new one re-certified in time.

Fortunately, (for many reasons besides this race) this is no longer a concern and race day is almost here!! I have all of the usual pre-race jitters like: weather (which looks to be a non-issue!!), getting sick (bah!), taking the right metro train on race day, getting to my corral on time. You know, all of the things outside of your control that could go wrong. However, I know that once I arrive in the right spot, at the right time and feeling healthy (pleasepleaseplease) I’ll finally be able to relax and enjoy the experience.

Because after running over 400 miles during the last 16 weeks…26.2 more seems like just a drop in the bucket!!!

signs of fall

I know it must be October because the leaves are changing…

These damn things have been in the house for less than 24 hours and already my teeth hurt…

The Marine Corps Marathon sent me an eCard yesterday…along with my bib number.

Oh. My. Already?????!!

core yoga

Sprinkled throughout my latest experiment with Insanity and running…I’ve also been keeping up my yoga practice. I finished a month-long yoga challenge at the end of April. May wasn’t quite as consistent as I had hoped it to be, but I was still getting it done a few times a week.

I’ve been sticking with Tara Stiles, since after her challenge I had built up a very nice comfort level with it. Plus, her DVD collection offered so many different options…anything from 15 minutes of easy-going yoga to a strength building hour-long practice.

However, today I decided that I was getting a little too ‘comfortable’ with it and decided to mix things up a bit. After my daughter went down for her nap, I took a break from packing (have I mentioned that we’re moving?!?) and took Shiva Rea’s Core Yoga DVD out of the case for the first time.

First up, I was a little confused by the menu. It offered a “Yoga Matrix” and apparently what this meant is that you can piece together your own yoga practice out of seven options (plus a 2 min shavasana). Thereby being able to customize your practice based on your primary focus for the day and also how much time you have available.

Cool.

So, for my first try I selected: 1) Water Core (no idea what that was, but it sounded far less scary than the “Fire Core” alternative!) 2) Creative Core Lower Body 3) Agni Namaskar (Again…no idea what that was, but since I already worked out today I figured it was best to avoid the “Upper Body” choice.)

I have to say, this was by far the most interesting yoga practice I’ve ever done. It was definitely more ‘traditional’ than Tara Stiles. Tara doesn’t play into the whole ‘make an offering’ thing, she doesn’t get all ‘earthy’ on you and none of the Sanskrit names are used for her poses. I’m not necessarily saying I like one more than the other, it’s just that they’re very different and there’s an adjustment period. Shiva Rea is more traditional in some of those aspects, but then in others she’s in a league all of her own!

Right, so, Water Core. I enjoyed it, but there was some weirdness going on. In fact, there were moments when I wasn’t entirely sure what was happening. Partly because she was flying through odd tai-chi-like-movements and partly because of the interesting/blurred out camera editing…

^^^What’s happening up there??!!^^^

Then we moved onto the Arni Namaskar. She opened up by letting us know we were about to embark on a practice centering around 109 push-ups.

Crap.

I just DID 109 push-ups this morning during Insanity!!!! *sigh*

I already felt invested in this, so there was no other choice than to hit the deck.

It was definitely a lot of push-ups, but it was broken-up into 12 rounds and as it turned out it wasn’t so terrible. I really enjoyed the rest of the video.  It’s so hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, but there is something missing from the more modern-style of yoga that is present in traditional practices. There’s a flow in the traditional ones that makes it feel less like a workout and more like fluid movement. If that makes any sense.

I think from this point forward I’ll be sure to mix up both the traditional and non-traditional practices since I feel that they each have something great to offer!

it’s insane

Yesterday I decided that it was finally time for me to give Insanity a try. I’ve had it for a while, but I didn’t want to start anything new during marathon training. At this point, I’m feeling 100% after the New Jersey Marathon and I still have just about a month before Marine Corps Marathon training begins, so I figured now (while I’m easing back on running a bit) would be a good time to check it out!

So, before the girls woke-up yesterday, I headed down into the home gym and got started. I opted to skip the Fit Test. If there is ever a Fit Test, I always skip it. I’m all grown-up now and I frown upon tests. Instead, I jumped right into Plyometric Cardio Circuit.

As the name suggests…there was many, much jumping going on. It was reminiscent of my experience with P90X2’s Plyocide last year. Towards the end, it was challenging to keep up with, my heart was pumping, but it was so very repetitive. The same moves over and over again. At least on the treadmill I can turn up the music and zone out. With Insanity you have to be totally present, which left me staring at the clock counting down the seconds until we did something different.

Then, randomly, they started doing yoga right in the middle. I don’t particularly like cramming 10 minutes of yoga in the middle of a high-intensity cardio workout. I skipped it. I already have my own yoga practice going on, so I don’t want to rush through it and end up wasting valuable cardio time.

Towards the end I was still going, but I was definitely feeling fatigued. It was a short workout out (especially since more than 10 minutes was dedicated to stretching), but it definitely required a whole lotta’ energy!!

Then this morning arrived. 24 hours later. Did I mention that I wasn’t sore AT ALL the day after my marathon??? 26.2 miles…no soreness. 30-ish minutes of Insanity and I can barely walk! I somehow managed to get a 4 mile run in this morning, but I have no idea how I got the food shopping done today as well. On my way home I actually let out a small whimper when I thought about all of the bags I would soon have to walk into the house.

Insanity definitely woke-up some of the lesser used muscles in my legs!! That right there earns it another shot. I’m not going to follow the calendar, I still run at least three days a week and I have no desire to double-up Insanity workouts on running days. As it is, a few times a week I double-up running with yoga…but I think that’s more of a complimentary pairing rather than an overboard fitness obsession!!

Tomorrow I’ll be giving Cardio Power & Resistance a try…which I’m not entirely sure is such a wise decision considering I have an eight mile run scheduled for Saturday morning?! Wish me luck!!

bring on the taper

Wow. I am officially less than a week away from my first marathon!!?!

I can’t say that my training went exactly as I had hoped. My foot injury back in January put a big kink into things. As a result, I lost a full month of training.  Eventually, there was a slow attempt at easing back into running and then a focus primarily on increasing my distance…but not wanting to push my pace out of concern for a ‘too much, too fast’ injury.  Oh, and just to liven things up a sudden change in the shape of my feet required me to ditch my running shoes about a month ago and invest in a new pair. For the first time in my life I’m officially wearing a wide-width shoe?!

Looking back over the last few months, I wish I could have gotten more than only three runs in per week. I also wish I was able to add in regular speedwork.  But you know what??? Even though those things didn’t happen I’ve got NO complaints! I am so very thankful to even be running at all right now!

Once I started back-up in February I decided that I would scrap a time-goal entirely. The course is open for 6 hours and 30 minutes…that’s my new goal, BUT…I would consider myself very lucky if I were to come in around the 5 hour mark. Not a very lofty goal, but my mindset has changed since my injury. It was either take it a little easy for this one, or back out…and there was no way I was going to back out just because I wouldn’t be able to rip-up the course with a (relatively) speedy finish time!!

Since things were going so well and physically I was feeling 100% I decided to go ahead and register for a local 8k. I was a little nervous at first, the idea of ‘racing’ two weeks before a marathon didn’t seem to align with my very conservative training plan! I ended up deciding to do it about an hour before the race! To be honest, I think it was Boston that influenced my final decision. It was the Saturday after and I just felt like I wanted to run…to be with a group, at a race and run without any concern for a PR.

I’m so glad I showed up that morning!! It was a very challenging course…two MASSIVE hills, one was virtually a wall that I walked up while leaning forward with my hands on my thighs!! The other was a long, steep incline right up to the finish line.  Oooofah!!

I finished at 47 minutes…a 9:27 average pace. Five minutes longer than the Philly 8k back in November, but considering that I haven’t done any speedwork since December AND Philly was a totally FLAT course…well, I was pleasantly surprised!!

So, now I’m tapering. I know this because I am a paranoid wreck that I’ll get sick. Like right now…I suddenly have a sore throat, but is it a real sore throat or a taper sore throat??? If it’s a taper sore throat then I’m probably just thirsty : |

accidental marathoner

Running. Yes. Still doing that too. In addition to all of the cooking and yoga that’s been going on around here I’ve also been continuing on with my marathon training. I’d like to say it’s been uneventful, but I’m not so sure you can train to run 26.2 miles in your limited spare time and not hit a snafu or two along the way. Regardless, things are moving along. I completed my first ever 18 mile run last weekend! Yesterday was a scale back long run, so I dropped down to 13 miles and next weekend I’ll peak at 20 miles before I begin to taper. The end is near!!

Over the last few months I’ve noticed that the shape of my feet have changed. I suppose a year of consistent running can do that. I had to retire my current pair of running shoes almost 200 miles early (bah!!) and move on up to my first pair of ‘wide-width’ shoes. Another year or so of running and I fear that my clown feet will force me to quit and join the circus instead.

I took the new pair out for a half-marathon distance spin yesterday and they’re significantly more comfortable. Excellent.

Over the last month I’ve also been experimenting with fueling options. I’m big on GU. I’ve tried several energy gels over the last year and I find that GU is not only the better tasting of the bunch, but I also tolerate it the best. However, there’s only so many GU’s you can suck down during a run before you start wishing no such thing existed. It gets progressively harder to choke them down as the miles rack up. I absolutely cannot eat solid food while running, so I started looking into alternatives.

So far the only thing I’ve come up with is Carbo Gain.

You mix a half a cup of powder with about 16 ounces of whatever you normally drink…whether it be your favorite sports drink or plain water (like me). It has very little taste to it, so it’s not in the least bit overwhelming. Basically it’s equivalent to one energy gel spread out over the course of your run. I’m now into uncharted territory distance-wise, but when I first started using it for anything over 9-10 miles I noticed that I was able to comfortably finish my run even though I was taking one less GU than usual. It’s a little sticky if you spill it, but it’s gluten, dairy and soy free which makes it a huge score for me!!!

I figure the more options I have the better since apparently I enjoy putting myself through the grueling efforts required for marathon training. This became evident when I very randomly, very spur-of-the-moment decided to register for the Marine Corps Marathon in October!?!?!?!?

I have no idea how that happened?! Especially considering how horribly wrong the entire registration process went. SO many runners tried for the entire 2+ hours registration was open (before selling out) and never got through.

After I registered I told my husband “I think I just accidentally registered for another marathon?!” That’s exactly how unprepared I was for making this decision!!! But I have to say, now that I’m registered I’m totally psyched!! This was the other marathon I was considering when I signed up for the New Jersey Marathon…I never imagined I would be able to do both, so I’m really excited to not only run MCM, but also that I’ll be joining my best running ‘bud at the start line!!!

tara stiles yoga program

As previously mentioned, about a month or so ago I finally started back up with practicing yoga again. Up until this point, all of the videos (as well as the studio that I went to) offered up ‘traditional’ yoga. And that’s exactly what I was looking for. However, over the course of this challenge it was impossible to not come across Tara Stiles.

Tara is described just about everywhere as being a ‘rebel’ yoga instructor. I saw several articles where the authors had a lot of negativity to share regarding her method of teaching. Yet there were plenty more singing her praises.

Finally all of the controversy got to be too much for me. It’s like banned books. Tell me I should avoid something because it’s not in line with how things ‘should be’ and I suddenly HAVE to check it out immediately!!

So, on Day 21 (the last day of my Yoga Challenge) I opted for Tara Stiles Yoga Weight Loss and Balance. I was really curious about what I would end up doing with a yoga ‘rebel’ leading the way. During that hour we did some: plank position, upward dog, downward dog, forward bend, warrior pose, chair pose…wait.

WAIT.

What’s so rebel-ish about this??! Apparently, the only thing that makes her a rebel is that she chooses to use the English posture names as opposed to Sanskrit. Which being that English is my first (and only) language, it’s actually quite helpful.

Oh, and she also doesn’t randomly stop to tell me about how lotus flowers like ‘murky waters’ and to ‘root your sitting bones to the ground and give back the flow of energy to the Earth’.

Yeah, we’ve got a wild one here.

So, I didn’t find Tara all that rebel-ish. She offered up a nice 50-min long yoga practice. Pretty much the only thing that I didn’t like about her teaching style…

“Awesome, you guys.”

“Nice, you guys.”

Over. And OVER again, you guys.

Since that first video I’ve tried a few others by her and I’ve gotten past the “you guys” and I hardly even notice it anymore. Overall, I enjoy her straight forward style and really don’t see what all of the controversy is about.

Long story, even longer…I’ve decided to join up with her April Yoga Program!!

I’m actually really excited about it. I’ve already received her This Is Yoga collection, so I’m all set and ready to go!!

mile two monstrosity

17-mile long run…complete. I am well over halfway there!! On Saturday, I decided on a completely different route than I normally take. I knew there were going to be a few big hills, but the idea of just a straight out and back seemed a lot better than having to snake through side streets and crossing relatively busy intersections.

There was a monstrosity at mile two that seemed endless!! I started pushing my way through it and at about halfway I looked up to find that the end was nowhere near being in sight. Once I finally made it to the top I still had 15 miles to go.  Ooofah.

In the end, it was a really good run. Very challenging at times, but I was able to push through and felt pretty solid the whole way. Since coming back from my foot injury I’ve been running during the week on the treadmill, so when I head out for a long run on the weekend it’s probably a really good idea to get some hills in anyway. My hope is that it will all balance out, particularly since the NJ Marathon appears to be a pretty flat course. Once it warms up a bit I’m hoping to start getting outside at least once for a mid-week run as well.

In other news, I had to retire my Nathan Quickshot***. Only for a bit, but I was sad to see it go. The Quickshot is beyond awesome, I trained with it all summer last year and it was perfect for the half-marathon I ran back in October. Unfortunately, 10 ounces won’t cut it for marathon training. I tend not to drink a whole ton of water, because I get stomach cramping pretty easily, so I figure 16 oz should be enough to get me through. Of course on race day there will be water stops I can utilize, but I always run with my own water as well. When I stop at a fluid station during a race I tend to take an unneeded walk break and they do add up by the end. So, I utilize them when necessary, but not every time.

The new 16 ouncer I’ve taken out on my 15-miler last weekend and my 17-miler this past weekend and it officially has my seal of approval!! The Amphipod Hydraform Handheld In-Touch. My iphone 4S fits perfectly inside of it (without it’s case and there’s no hole for the earbuds, so you have to loop the wire around and out below the zipper) and there’s room to spare! It’s comfortable and it was definitely worth the investment!

***btw, in the quickshot post linked above i mentioned that it kept leaking…turns out it was NOT the quickshot, but the fact that i was putting a nuun tablet in…the carbonation was creating too much pressure. once i started putting plain water in the leaking stopped entirely.

a gentle nudge

The 21-day yoga challenge ended last week, but I’m still going at it. I have seriously fallen in love with yoga. I enjoyed it when I was practicing regularly several years ago, but this is very different.

Back then I was all about the workout. It had to be intense and I would only do it twice a week because I didn’t feel like it burned enough calories to make it worthwhile. I would only do Bikram because I felt like that was the only variety that would actually get my heart pumping. I often classified all other forms of yoga as being ‘boring’.

I don’t know if it’s a maturity-thing…I’m definitely older and maybe a smidge wiser. Or maybe I’m just in a better place body-image-wise. Whatever the reason, I’m no longer consumed with the calorie burn rate while practicing. I’ve been working on casting aside my competitive-spirit every time I step on my mat. Basically, I’m letting everything go and allowing myself to really enjoy this time that I’m setting aside for myself every day.

Yesterday I was rewarded with my first obvious sign of improvement during practice. My shoulders are (and always have been) extremely tight. For years I’ve done a lot of working-out with weights. Bench-press, pec-fly, delt-rows, etc. I suppose all of that must have caught up with me because back in August while doing a very simple/routine exercise I completely destroyed my left shoulder. It literally felt as if it crumpled like a piece of paper.

I went a while with limited mobility. Eventually it got to the point where I could move it freely again, but it’s never really been the same. I try to be mindful of it during practice, but not leave it out entirely. I’ve already discovered that to not do anything at all makes it far worse! I do what I can and I stretch to the point where it’s challenging, but not painfully so. It’s been long enough now that I know it’s limitations.

Then yesterday as I was in a wide-legged forward bend, I laced my fingers and lifted my arms above my back.

I went as far as I usually do without discomfort, but then all of the sudden…whoa.

It’s hard to explain, but it’s almost as though someone gave me the gentlest of nudges…my shoulders widened slightly and my arms gently dropped much further than they normally do. I felt an openess and flexibility in that shoulder that hasn’t been there in quite some time! It was fantastic!!!

I also recently decided to start checking out yoga in the printed word. A yogi memoir, some yogi fiction (who knew there was such a thing??) and now a 365 day journey exploring yoga.

Apparently, Meditations from the Mat is the yogi equivalent to the runner’s Born to Run! Hopefully, it ends up being just as good!

on the mat

The experimenting with smoothies continues over here. Typically, I prefer the ‘green’ smoothies.  I use mostly spinach or kale, but lately I’ve been seeing a lot of recipes that use oats. I was skeptical at first, I wasn’t entirely sure that they would blend thoroughly, but as it turns out it was great!!

I ended up with a pretty basic strawberry smoothie. A cup of almond milk, a cup of frozen strawberries, gluten-free oats and a dash of agave. Very tasty! I saw one recipe that also called for some cashews, which I bet would be delicious too.

I’ve also been experimenting a lot with yoga. I used to practice (somewhat) regularly years ago. Unfortunately, there are no Bikram studios around here, so once I stopped commuting and starting staying home with my daughter I stopped practicing entirely.

Even without doing yoga during that time, I still found myself thinking about it and wishing that I could start back up again. So, I decided that even if I couldn’t visit an actual studio the time had come for me to at least start doing it at home.

Enter Yoga Journal’s 21-Day Challenge!! I came across this challenge and figured why not give it a shot. I’m already on Day 18 and completely and totally LOVING it! I signed up as a ‘beginner’, but quickly discovered that apparently I either retained enough flexibility from my past practice or maybe it’s due to how active I am in general…but I’m definitely not at the beginner stage. So, I’m using the challenge as a guide, but I’m finding almost all of the videos I use on YOME…which is complete and total (free!) yogi-awesomeness!!

the marathon plan

Allow me to think ‘out loud’ for a moment.

As mentioned in my previous post, I’m trying to play catch-up for marathon training. I know that I won’t be able to train the way I WANTED to…not that I won’t be able to train AT ALL. Sorry, I guess I should have been more clear on that.

Anyway, I’m not focusing on speedwork anymore. Whatever my finish time ends up being will be okay with me at this point. I’m also cutting back to three running days a week (for now), to allow for an additional rest day. Below is the breakdown of my upcoming mileage. The first column shows what the original training plan called for, the second column is what I plan to run and the third column shows the increase in mileage over the previous weekend’s long run. (I have an 11 mile run scheduled for this weekend)

As it stands I’ll have only four weeks out of the next nine (mind you I still have over two months of training time left) where I will need to be a bit aggressive with a two mile increase over the previous week. I have kept ALL four of the scale-back/taper weeks and I will only fall one mile short of the 20-miler (thinking that’s safer than increasing by three miles to achieve it)…finishing on the precise week the original plan calls for.

As of right now, my gait is one hundred percent fine. In fact, it’s better than it was before the injury…mainly due to the fact that the black toenail I had on that same foot made some serious progress during my break and is feeling MUCH better during long runs now.

I think anyone who knows even the slightest bit about running knows that injuries happen. Sometimes they happen regardless of you following all of the expert advice (like it did to me last month) and sometimes it happens because of poor judgement calls.

At this point I’m well enough to run, I know it. I knew when I had to stop and I know that for the moment it’s okay for me to go. I could make it to the finish line with absolutely no more problems or I could get sidelined again. No one can predict that.

I haven’t just been out there randomly running 4 or even 8 miles….for the last year I’ve been consistently averaging 25-30 mile weeks. I’m not new to this. I put my time in. The training. The work. Over the last year I’ve raced in 5k’s, 8k’s, 10k’s, a half-marathon and a relay. I’ve gone for long runs in humid 95+ degree weather and I’ve been out there jumping over ice patches with temps nearing single digits.

I know that some people would see this set-back as a perfect excuse to back out, but you know what? Excuses are fine for other people. I hear them all the time. I don’t judge. We all have our thresholds. For me personally, I’m not a fan of excuses. Right now if I were to give up training TWO MONTHS before the race…it would be an excuse. It would be GIVING UP. I’d rather walk the entire marathon (and people, there’s no shame in that) then give up because I’ve got some hard work ahead of me.

on the road

Right. So. Where was I????

Yes, of course, injured. Over a month lost from marathon training. After teetering back and forth between 85-95% recovered I finally decided on February 6th that it was do or die time. I hit the treadmill and figured I would either complete three miles or snap my damn foot in half trying.

As it turned out…it was a pretty nice run. I ran again a few days later. Four miles that time. My foot definitely did not (and still doesn’t) feel 100%, but it’s definitely no worse after I run…so there’s that.

The following weekend I went for my first long run in a month. Seven miles, with a sinus infection. I was very sore the next day. The run itself went well and my foot held up fine, but it was definitely disappointing to feel soreness after a run that just a few weeks earlier was a pretty typical distance for me.

Anyway, ran on the treadmill a few times during the week…then cracked out a 9-miler yesterday. Mile 5 was a beast, but 6-9 were pretty solid. No soreness today. I’ve lost a lot of speed on my long runs, but I’m completing them and at this point that’s the most important thing.

There’s no way I’m going to be able to train for this marathon like I had hoped. There’s just not enough time. I will literally be playing ‘catch-up’ straight through until taper week. As it stands now, in order for me to get at least one 19-miler in, I will need to increase my long run each weekend by TWO miles…as opposed to the preferable ONE.

So, there’s some frustration, annoyance, disappointment…but mostly a whole lotta’ determination to give it everything I have in an effort to at least complete the goal (of finishing) that I set for myself.

I won’t lie. I’m not super-interested in running right now. I enjoyed my ‘break’ a little too much. I started getting a lot more variety in my workout routine and I absolutely fell in love with yoga all over again. I’m hoping that as the weather starts warming up and I find my groove the love of running will return.

In the meantime, I’m breaking in a new pair of Mizunos…because experimenting with new running shoes is exaaaaaactly what you should do when coming off of a random foot injury, yes???????