5 days and counting!

5 days and counting until our 3rd marathon of the year: the San Diego Rock and Roll marathon!  This will be the 3rd year in a row that I will be running this particular race.  It's hard to beat the weather and the venue.

It has been a recent goal of mine to run the SD RnR under 4 hours and while I'm certainly not going to write off that goal, I will certainly be happy with a time under 4:20 (even more excited with a time between 4 - 4:15, but I won't get greedy ;-) ).  I want so bad to achieve these goals!!

Last week (as well as this one) has been the tapering period and I usually get antsy around this time because of the decreased weekly mileage.  Surprisingly, I have been quite happy running less than 25 miles per week.  Who knew that running 5 marathons in one year would be so freaking tiring? ;-)  I have been pretty inconsistent about going to the gym, though, and am feeling like I'm losing muscle tone and strength in other places.  Need to start getting my butt in there regularly.

5 short days... I never feel ready and I'm sure it's going to hit me even harder the night before.  All I can do is just concentrate on why I run in the first place... because I can.

2011 Bike to Work Day!

I had been going back and forth this week on deciding whether to bike to work today and am glad that I decided to do it!  With a few mishaps this morning (chain got derailed and I missed a couple of turns), I made it into work and still had the energy to run 5 miles.  What was even more surprising is my pace for the run was quicker than I had anticipated.  My legs felt pretty worked after the bike ride and I was expecting a slow run.  Feeling a little tired right now, but the ride home should be fun.  Thank you, San Diego, for the gorgeous weather today. =)

2011 Bike to Work Day - Garmin Stats
5 mi run - Celgene / UCSD campus loop

Success is how high you bounce after you've hit bottom.

I've struggled to sit here and rehash today's failed 20 mi run. But I realized and have experienced that not all of my runs are going to be great, I'm not always going to feel like a super woman, I'm not always going to accomplish the mileage I had intended, I'm not always going to run every run the fastest or the strongest.  There will be off days and today was certainly one of those days.

The first 3 miles of the run I spent trying to warm up as my calves felt like they tightly wound up rubber bands ready to snap at any given moment.  I stopped a couple of times along the way and stretched them out.  By the 4th mile, they felt warmed up and I thought I was ready to conquer this run.  As we made our way through the posh residential area of Mission Hills and down Presidio, I started to feel like I was waist deep in mud.  My legs felt incredibly heavy and it was difficult to propel my leg in front of the other.  I saw that my pace was starting to slow while we were running along the San Diego River and to keep from psyching myself out, I switched fields on my Garmin, so that I won't be tempted to look at my pace.  Joe had already started to put quite a bit of distance between us.  And as much as I tell myself to try and not let it get to me, it does.  At least in my irrational and delusional state, it does.  Especially when I'm yelling obscenities at myself to run faster, pick up your legs, catch up, keep up!  Oh, if only the body can always do what the mind wants.

When I got to the OB dog beach, Joe was waiting for me, offering shot blocks and water.  I hoped that a couple of shot blocks and water will give me the boost I need to continue on.  It did not.  It took me a while to get started again, telling my legs to propel my body forward. We made our way through the ABCs of Ocean Beach (Abbott, Bacon, and Cable) and then on to the campus of Point Loma Nazerine (that campus hill is epic and was definitely not what I needed to boost my confidence).  As I was trudging along Canon, I tried my best to keep my mind off the sloth-like pace and just thought about how satisfying it would feel to finish.  I saw that Joe had stopped at the corner of Canon and Rosecrans and I decided to take a bathroom break. Afterwards, I fought with myself, encouraging myself to go on, it doesn't matter how long it takes to finish.  Joe was wording the same thoughts that were going through my mind.  We walked through the Farmer's market, through Scott, and finally onto N. Harbor Dr.  12.6 miles.  7.4 mi to go.  

I have been in this situation several times before, where my body rebels and refuses to listen, no matter the amount of positive thoughts.  Soon, my positive thoughts turn to a path of defeat. I meekly tell Joe that we should just get a cab home.  Tears of frustration and failing seem to run down my cheeks faster than I had that day.

Success is how high you bounce after you've hit bottom. 
It has been about 7 hours since and yes, I'm still wallowing in feelings of defeat.  I don't feel like I've hit bottom, but pretty damned close to it.  I was reminded by the above quote my friend, Bi-ying, posted on her FaceBook page.  It refueled my determination to attempt this same route next Sunday and finish it, no matter how long it takes.  If, in the off chance, I don't finish because of the heavy legs feeling or mental defeat, I know that I at least tried that route again.

12.6 mi run - Tour de San Diego

Butterflies before tomorrow's long run

Tomorrow will be the last "long run" before the SD RnR and then I will start tapering down for the next 3 weeks.  Right now, my body is feeling like it needs the rest, for sure, but I know that once the mileage decreases from 45mi + / week to 25 to 30 mi a week, I will start fiending for more mileage.  Usually, gym attendance increases during the tapering down, I'm like an addict looking for something to fill the void.  I know, I know... rest is part of the training.

Our 20 mi run tomorrow will hit several points of SD.  We'll start off at Balboa Park, head west towards Mission Hills, Ocean Beach, then back east along N. Harbor Dr., up 6th Ave back to Balboa Park.  It's a pretty epic run, so I'm a bit anxious about it.  Hoping for good running weather and being able to get up early in the morning.

7 days later...

... since the OC marathon and I've managed to log in almost 36 mi!  Not bad considering this week is supposed to be a recovery week.  I've noticed that a lot of the solo runs (sort of solo anyway, I was running with Lilo) were at a slower pace than when I ran with Alison and Joe on Saturday.  I guess no matter how much I want to run my own pace, when running with someone, I do tend to get a bit of a competitive edge.

I've been eating a bit too much and foods that have been weighing heavily in my stomach.  It's definitely had an effect on my performance as well. Today's run was tough as I was burping up lunch from 6 hours prior. Running certainly does tell you what you're doing wrong and my diet this weekend wasn't exactly runner friendly.

This weeks marks a new week and it's also the last week of long runs before the taper down.  My body is needing it.

05/02/2011 - 2.5 mi run Garmin Stats
05/04/2011 - 8 mi run Garmin Stats
05/06/2011 - 5 mi run Garmin Stats
05/07/2011 - 12 mi run Garmin stats
05/08/2011 - 8 mi run Garmin Stats

2011 OC Marathon - Lesson(s) learned / Ego revitalized

Lesson 1: I've learned a very important lesson from running this particular marathon.  I'm not allowed to eat Mexican food the night before a marathon.  No matter how tasty and how much of a craving for it's deliciousness! I felt the heaviness of the food (from too much meat and the greasiness - I try to limit my oily foods to only once in a while) right after dinner and it sat until I woke up at 3:15am this morning.  I used the restroom once before we left the house, twice before the race started, and THREE more times DURING the race!  The heaviness FINALLY alleviated after the last time I used the porta-John. And it was then, I could finally concentrate on the race.

I was particularly cranky this morning because of the my stomach issues and was already anticipating a slow race.  Even so, I tried to put the thoughts behind me and encourage myself to just have fun - after all, it was kind of a last minute marathon we decided to do. Other than the stomach problems, everything else felt good.  My legs, my breathing, not incredibly hot even though the sun was blazing at 7am.  The OC marathon is a point to point course, so there was hardly any zig-zagging unlike the Surf City USA marathon. There were some really gorgeous areas that we passed, particularly between 6 and 8 mi.

It became very windy during some parts of the race, particularly the over pass over the 405.  The spectators and volunteers were awesome as usual and I was pleasantly surprised by the officers cheering the runners on.  A couple even gave me a high five, which brought a big cheesy grin to my face.  

Lesson 2:  My threshold of "hitting the wall" has increased and now instead of being at mile 18ish, it's more at mile 22.  I am able to talk myself through difficult times and I even started to pick out certain people ahead of me and try to catch up to either pace them or pass them (Thanks for that tip, Joey!).  

Lesson 3: Don't always trust the mile markers.  I realize that my Garmin isn't always in synced with the mile markers.  It usually goes off about 0.1 to 0.15 mi before I hit the markers.  But I noticed that between miles 17 and 20, my Garmin was completely off the markers!  My Garmin read 19.88mi when I *just* passed the 19 mi sign.  I was worried that I had screwed something up and yelled, "Does ANYONE know what mile we're on?!?"  No one else seemed too concerned and I heard someone say, "Um.. I think 19?"  Not that that really helped out any, so I tried to convince myself to not let it mess with me too much.

Me and mile 8 - Delirious with excitement!

No significant soreness post race: quads are a bit sore and the inside of my right ankle is a bit swollen from getting a tiny bit sloppy in my form.  It makes me excited to know that I did so well including the bathroom breaks... but a tiny bit bummed to know what could time I could have gotten if I didn't have to take them.  At least, with the newly learned lessons, I can strive for that sub 4 marathon  at the SD RnR... but I would be completely elated with a 4 hr to 4:12 time - a time to beat my PR from last year's marathon.  Ego has been revitalized and this marathon has completely fueled my desire to finish up the last 3 marathons scheduled this year!

I am extremely grateful to Tiffany for her hospitality, getting up at 3am to drop us off at the start line, and ride the bike around the route to cheer us on.  She does this, without any complaints, and because she loves to show her love and support for both Joey and I.  She is an amazing woman and I know that a couple of sushi dinners on us can't even begin to repay what she has done for us.  So, thank you, Tiffany.  Love you!

The siblings

Thank you to Lan Bui for coming out!  You don't know how happy I was (or maybe you do, just by the photo you took of me)  see you before making my way up that hill on mile 14!

I want to hug you, Lan!!!

 Thank you to Joey for being my inspiration and patient with me as I continue to improve my running.  You are amazing and I love you with all my heart.

Joey at Mi 8 - Lookin' fresh and smilin'

Official Finish time: 4:15:31
2011 OC Marathon Garmin Stats