Inspire Me!

It's time to separate the women from the girls.

I say this for 2 reasons. 1) The training is starting to get interesting now. Long runs take me out for most of the day: the morning is spent running and the rest of the day is split between sleeping and eating. Medium length runs are now what I would have considered a long run a month ago. It's gotten to the point where I've started taking a couple hours off work once a week to squeeze in that 'medium' length run on a weekday. Add to that, the fact that every couple of weeks I have to do back-to-back long runs. Essentially what I'm saying is that running is taking over my life. 2) It's supposed to be 35 degrees on Saturday. For a high. And snow might happen. Ugh.

So what's a girl to do when she's staring down the barrel of a couple long runs in the middle of winter and she's kind of over it? Get inspired, of course. So here's what I've been up to lately.

Read "My Year of Running Dangerously" by Tom Foreman. This book follows CNN correspondent Foreman as he goes from fairly sedentary suburban family man to marathoner to ultramarathoner. He eloquently describes how he fit in crazy long runs and what it felt like to run for hours and regularly get lost doing it. As I read the sections where he describes 30+ mile runs, it made me think I'm really glad I only have 18 miles to do this weekend. And also that I'm a slacker.

Watched "Spirit of the Marathon II". Years ago when I ran my last full marathon, I watched "Spirit of the Marathon" and it was so inspiring. The documentary follows a handful of people as they train for the Chicago Marathon. This second installment follows a group of runners as they prepare to run the Rome Marathon. I've been wanting to watch this movie for a while now and I finally made the time to do it. I didn't like it as much as the original but it's still a heartwarming set of stories that make you excited to run again.

Reading "Born to Run". I know I'm late to the party on this one. Most runners have already read this book. For whatever reason, it just didn't appeal to me until now. I'm about 2/3 the way through it now and am finding it hard to put down. Like the earlier book I mentioned, there is a lot of discussion about running an obscene amount of miles at a time. Reading about people who regularly run 100 miles at time kinda makes my training look like preschool.

Ordered a copy of "Spirit of the Marathon". I loved the original movie so much I decided I needed to watch it again. When I saw I could get it on Amazon for less than $10, I decided to buy it so I could get inspired whenever I want to. As I mentioned earlier, the original installment of the documentary follows runners as they train for the Chicago Marathon. Since my first marathon was Chicago, watching this the first time brought back a lot of memories. Seeing the featured runners putting the work in to realize their dream really made me want to get back out there and get a run in.

So I've done my part to inspire myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. It definitely takes a village though, so in the next couple of weeks, any extra inspiring or encouraging messages would be appreciated. This is where things start to get real.

Predictions

We're less than 2 months from D-day, 53 days to be exact, and I have a number of long runs under my fuel belt now so I thought it would be a good time to revisit the predictions I made several months ago about how this marathon training business was going to go. Back on May 14 when I wrote about committing to the Dopey Challenge, I listed several things I expected to happen during the course of training madness. Let's take a look and see how accurate I was back in the innocent days of 3 mile runs. You can re-visit that entry here.

Love Boat Carnage

Prediction #1: I will want to eat all the food.
True? Yes. Oh my God, yes.
Yesterday was a 17 mile day. The only things I did yesterday were eat, run, eat, shower, eat, nap and eat. I actually stopped on the way home from my run to get a doughnut to eat while I figured out what I was going to eat for lunch. My Goofy friend (as in she's doing the Goofy Challenge of a half marathon followed by a full marathon) Ashley met me for lunch minutes after I got out of the shower. Seriously. My hair was still wet when I arrived at the restaurant. We split a Love Boat - a literal boat full of sushi - which we demolished in short order. This was after we eat ate a bowl of miso soup and a small salad. I then went home to nap and woke up several hours later to the sound of my stomach gurgling demanding to be fed again. I answered the call and ate half a pizza. 

Jeffrey and Jane made this run fun!

Prediction #2: I will wonder why I thought this was a good idea.
True? Yep - this was my attitude most of last week.
I had a lackluster 16 mile run that included 2 bathroom stops and an emergency run to a drugstore to buy a granola bar. In the days after, my runs were colored by this sub-par performance. I did not want to get out of bed early. I did not want to go out in the pre-dawn morning when I could have been sleeping, and just about the last thing I wanted to do was run. One. More. Mile. I was simply over it. I had already put in hundreds of miles and dozens of early mornings and yet I had oh so many more to go. It got overwhelming. Luckily, I have friends who showed up to run with me and a Dopey mentor that talked me off the ledge. Things went better this week and I might just be starting to see the light at the end of this many miled tunnel.

The "What Died in Here?" pile

Prediction #3: I will be doing laundry like it’s my job. 
True? Abso-stinkin'-lutely (emphasis on stinkin')
Laundry piles have quickly taken over my house. I usually have 3 of them: 1) The 'regular' dirty laundry in the 'regular' hamper. This consists of my work clothes, pajamas, towels, etc. It's pretty harmless and can be done under regular conditions. 2) The clean-but-I'm-too-tired-to-fold-them-and-put-away clothes. More times than not, I pull clothes out of this pile to wear again and they never see the inside of a closet or drawer. 3) The "what died in there?" pile. These are also known as my running clothes. Fairly soon after I started training, I went out and bought a separate laundry hamper for these clothes and these clothes alone. I did this for 2 reasons - sometimes I need to wash running clothes before I have a full load of the 'regular' laundry, and they reek of a funk that can only be accomplished by running in them for 2-4 hours at a time. This laundry requires a special kind of detergent (seriously) and should be done wearing a hazmat suit. It should also be noted that this hamper lives in a separate room from where I sleep.

Prediction #4: It’s very possible I will lose body parts.
True? Not yet.
Every full marathon I've ever done (all 2 of them) has cost me at least one toenail. Typically I keep hold of the nails all the way through the race and lose them weeks later, but I can usually tell when I'm going to lose it way before it actually happens. And so it's no surprise that "Toenail Watch 2015/16" has already begun. They are all hanging on for now but I'm concerned about #2 on my left foot. It's a problem nail - it has a history of abandoning me. I've learned to not get too attached. Literally.

Prediction #5: People will call me crazy. 
True? You betcha.
I've lost count of the number of people that have called me crazy, rolled their eyes or shook their heads in disbelief about what I'm planning to do. Some people have called me inspirational but they're easily outnumbered by a 2-1 margin by the first group. That's ok though. If I wanted a truly conventional life, I'd have done a lot of other things differently too. Years from now (hopefully lots of years), I want to screech into my grave with my body all used up and saying "Man, that was a wild ride!" I think I'm well on my way.

With 4 1/2 out of 5 correct, looks like I pretty much nailed my predictions. Maybe I should head to Vegas.

Marathoners Are Like Small Children

My friend Jennie is always in my corner cheering me on even when she doesn’t understand why I would do the crazy things I do. This Dopey Challenge business is just the latest thing she shakes her head about but offers her support.

Jennie and I were talking one day about how one’s life changes while they are training for a marathon. I was describing a few things that are going on in my life during training and she said “You know, marathoners are a lot like small children.” As an aunt to a gaggle of nieces and nephews, she knows a thing or two about small children. And as we talked more about her comparison, we realized how true that statement really is.

I delved into the idea more and came up with a partial list of how marathon runners are like small children.

1.       1. We eat lots of soft foods. Like kids cutting teeth need to slurp on soft foods like applesauce, pudding, yogurt and bananas, so do marathoners need fuel sources that are easy to eat. Though most of us have our own teeth, when you’re on the 3^rd hour or so of a long run, you need to conserve all your energy for putting one foot in front of the other. Chewing is wasted effort. For that reason the running world has created all sorts of things for runners to eat while they are literally on the run. One of the most popular products on the market is called Gu. The product is exactly what it sounds like. This pudding-like substance makes up an entire food group for marathoners in training.

2.       2. We need to eat often. Much like babies need to eat every few hours, so do we. Instead of breast milk and formula, we tend to gorge ourselves on carbohydrates. When you burn through 2500 calories in one run, it’s necessary to fuel up often. During marathon training I can find myself doing one of four things at any point in the day: working, running, sleeping or eating. Sometimes I’ve woken up from sleeping just to eat. Often I’m eating while I’m working. And as you can see from the point above, I’m often eating while I’m running as well.

3.       3. We require early bedtimes. Anyone with a small child knows their life revolves around the sleeping patterns of said child. Late nights out are a thing of the past. Heck – even being out past the dinner hour is a foreign concept. Similarly, a marathoner in training schedules weekend activities around getting their long runs in and this means getting to bed at an early hour so we can wake up at oh-heck-no-o’clock the next morning for our run.

4.       4. We produce an obscene amount of laundry. Small children tend to be messy and are often in need of a wardrobe change. Marathoners tend to be smelly and are often in need of a wardrobe change.

5.      5.  We have a hard time with staircases. It’s cute when you see small children trying to tackle a staircase and have trouble because the stairs are too tall for their short little legs. It’s slightly less adorable to see runners struggle with stairs because of their tired, wobbly legs.

6.       6. We have to get new shoes every couple of months. Much to the lament of their parents, small children need to get new shoes every couple of months because they grow so fast. Much to the joy of running stores, marathoners have to replace their shoes every couple of months because they put so many miles on them in a short amount of time. A pair of running shoes should be replaced every 300-500 miles. For a marathoner in training, it doesn’t take very long to hit that mark. And we don’t even have the option of the fun light-up versions.

7.       6. We get cranky when things don’t go our way. Conjure up an image of a toddler having a meltdown because he didn’t get the color crayon he wanted to use. You now have a vague idea of how a marathoner behaves if a race course is mismarked, there isn’t enough water at an aide station or they missed running their goal time. We can be a cranky bunch, but it’s probably because we need more sleep. Which brings me to…

8.       7. We need our naps. Getting up before dawn. Running for hours. Cramming our workouts into already busy days. These things tire us out much like the rigors of preschool can tire out a spunky child. Therefore it is in everyone’s best interest if we nap. Unlike the small child, we won’t fight it when it is suggested.

Marathoners might need the extra care that is usually reserved for small children but take heart, we can easily be made happy much like small children are - by dangling a shiny object in front of them.  Usually a finisher medal does the trick.

Back-to-Back-to-Bed

I'm not gonna lie. This week was rough.

There comes a time in all marathon training when you feel like you're just over it. You're tired. You're grumpy. You're in desperate need of sleep and you become keenly aware that you'll never be a foot model. That time came for me this week.

#beechstreetstrong

This was another back-to-back long runs week. I started out the weekend with a 7 mile run with my friend Lauri. Lauri is trying to make me a morning person. That's never gonna happen but she has helped me get used to getting a workout done in the morning. I have even managed to not strangle anyone at that hour. Granted most people aren't up yet, but I still call that a win. We got our 7 miles done by 7:00 am and I found myself done with day 1 of the back-to-backs.

Unfortunately later that day I found out that my training partner would not be running a long run with me again this week. Our training schedules just aren't syncing up like I'd hoped. It looked like the long runs I had planned with her were probably not going to happen, at least not for a while. A 16 mile run was on the schedule for the next day and I was alone. And terrified. I've never run that far by myself and I didn't really want to now. So in addition to all the other stress of training for a challenge like Dopey while balancing 3 jobs, now I had the stress of trying to find people every week who would be willing to run part or all of my long runs with me.

Thankfully I have some awesome friends. Two of them, Jeffrey and Jill, answered the call and joined me for the first half of my run. It was great to have the company, and even though I knew I'd be alone for the hard part of the run, it helped my mental game to know that I'd only have to do half of them alone.

Thanks Jill and Jeffrey!

So for the first 8 miles I had company. The next 3 miles went well. But by the time I got to mile 11, I knew I had made a rookie nutrition mistake. The stupid thing was that I knew I was doing it while I did it. That morning before leaving for my run, all I had to eat was a single banana washed down with some water. I knew I needed more calories than that but just couldn't force myself to do it. I'd worry about the consequences later. Later came with a vengeance. Suddenly, and with 6 more miles to go, I was famished. I had taken 2 gels but knew that the paltry 100 calories in each was not going to do much for me. I made a quick decision. I was fairly close to where I parked my car so I ran there to get my debit card and then ran to the closest drug store and bought a granola bar. I can honestly say that was the first time I've gone to a store and bought food mid-run. Might not be the last time though.

The last 5 miles seemed interminable. Having to make 2 bathroom stops and the run for emergency rations, I felt like the last part of the run would never end. But finally it did. And not a moment too soon. I mustered up the energy to smile for a selfie that I could send to my mom to let her know I was alive and then I headed home.

I looked way better than I felt...

After a run like that, I typically have a hard time deciding if I'm more hungry or tired. This time tired won out. So after my shower, I crawled into my bed. And stayed there. For 3 hours. When I was finally able to get up, my feet hurt so bad that I couldn't bear the thought of wearing shoes. The only thing I was able to put on my feet was my Oofos sandals and since it was pretty chilly out, I had to wear socks. So this is what I looked like when I ventured out of the house to scavenge for food.

Always the fashion-forward runner

Maybe it's the fatigue or maybe it's the remnants of a less-than-ideal run, but I gotta say, after this weekend I've been less than enthusiastic about this whole endeavor. I'm giving up a lot to do this thing. Sleep for one. Several times a week I get up and start running before the sun comes up. My social life is suffering too. I find myself having to turn down invitations. It makes me wonder if I turn down enough of them if I will stop getting them altogether. And for the social events that I do go to, I regularly have to leave early so I can get up for a run the next morning. 

I'm sure it's just a down week. Looking on the positive side, I have friends who rally around me to help me run long distances or who stop to ask me how my training is going, or just put up with the fact that this challenge is never far from my thoughts. I get to see myself making progress every week and that brings a certain satisfaction. And I have a trip to Florida in January to look forward to as a reward for my hard work. 

So yeah, this has been a rough week. But the good news is that tomorrow starts a brand new one.

  

Welcome Back Long Run

Milestone time. I have now successfully completed my longest run since 2010. Sunday's run was 15 miles. It went pretty well. After a rainy Saturday, Sunday was beautiful and I convinced a few people to join me for part of my distance. Since it was Halloween weekend, I figured it was as good a time as any to do a "test run" in my Mickey costume. (Oddly enough, I didn't get any strange looks. Not sure what that says about our running community....) You can all rest easy knowing the outfit got passing marks. I had no problems with any part of the costume so I will be dressed as Mickey Mouse for the marathon. I mean, seriously, how cute is this?

At this point in my training, I've discovered a few new things.

Hunger is now starting to be a real thing. I've started getting hunger pangs, as in my stomach physically hurts, at completely random times. Once last week, it was an hour and a half after I'd eaten dinner. I tried to ignore it because I was getting ready to go to bed but it wasn't long before I realized that there would be no sleeping until I ate something. So now I keep graham crackers on hand for these emergency munchies that spring up. They are easily portable, have a satisfying crunch to them, are conveniently portion controlled and are a lower sugar/calorie/fat option than a lot of other convenient foods. 

My cheap sports bra has a distance threshold. And that threshold is somewhere shy of 15 miles. I mostly wear good-quality Moving Comfort sports bras but I also have one cheaper brand I got at TJ Maxx a while back. It hadn't steered me wrong in the past but in the past, a "long" run was only 8 or 9 miles. I now have a couple of lovely strawberry-colored reminders to wear only the good stuff from now on.

For the first time ever, I kind of like that Daylight Saving Time has ended. I'm new to this whole morning running thing and I've been running in complete darkness during the week for the last month or so. This morning was the first time in weeks I didn't have to bring my lights with me on my run. Small things make me happy.

Sometimes the 5:40 freight train is more like the 6:25 freight train. As I mentioned several entries ago, unbeknownst to me before this fall, there is a freight train that comes through Uptown Normal at approximately 5:40 in the morning. How soon I get to the train tracks determines which direction I can run. This morning I crossed the tracks with no sign of the train and didn't give it much thought as I ran another 2 miles. And then on my way back home....stuck. Thankfully, I wasn't on too tight of a schedule because I stood there waiting for the darn thing to pass for a good several minutes.

The schedule this week is a little tough. I work 3 weeknights at Fleet Feet instead of my normal 2 and 2 of them are later nights than normal. I'm supposed to do another back-to-back set of long runs this weekend but I have to both attend a departmental retreat and a facilitate a focus group on Friday so I won't be able to go in late. It's "Suck it Up Buttercup" time!

The Lull and the Rain

We're 10 weeks out from Dopey. This is where I find myself in an odd lull between "Oh, these runs are getting easier," and "Crap, I have to run HOW far?" So as I slogged through a week consisting of sudden frigid weather and a seasonal cold that took me out for a day and a half, I was thoroughly aware of what was to come in the near future.

Weather had not yet curtailed any of my training plans, and given that it is nearly November in the Midwest, that's fairly impressive. But my luck ran out this weekend. I generally do my long runs on Saturdays because I work Sundays and doing a multiple hour run without the chance of an afternoon nap and periodic intake of ibuprofen seems a bit like pressing my luck. But this weekend there was something like a 90% chance of rain for Saturday so I weighed the discomfort of running for hours in the rain (and the possible subsequent blisters and/or chafing) with the discomfort of running for hours the same day I work at the store. The dry and fatigued option won out. It appeared, at least as of today, that I made a wise choice.

So as it turned out I have a little free time today as I watch the rain beat against the window. I decided it would be a lovely day to do some reading. This book seemed more than appropriate given what my training schedule looks like.

I also managed to check another task off my to-do list. This particular task has been on my to-do list since early 2010 so I figured today was as good a day as any to finally take care of it. See, back in January of that year I ran the Walt Disney World Marathon and bought a shadow box to display my new favorite medal (and item for which this blog is named). Today I managed to actually put said medal in said shadow box. Better late than never, right?

And while we're talking about medals...runDisney released this year's WDW Marathon weekend medals this week. Assuming I'm successful with this Dopey madness, I will earn the 6 medals in the middle.

So it is with mys eye on the prize(s) that I prepare myself to tackle the next very challenging 68 days. 

Lord help me.

36 Hours Later...

I ran again this morning. Ideally, I would have given myself another rest day after that whole 4 races in one day thing from Saturday, but my schedule did not allow for a Tuesday run, so this morning it was. I figured my quads were going to hurt a lot. After all, that's really the only thing that bothered me during my epic 5K tour of Bloomington-Normal. But on this morning's run they actually didn't hurt.

Everything else did.

Well, that's probably hyperbole. It's more accurate to say everything else below the waist hurt. My shins. My calves. My hip. Even the tops of my feet, which I didn't know was possible. I was barely a half mile into my "run" this morning when I realized it was not going to go well. I hung in for a mile before I allowed myself to walk for the first time. But it turned out that walking hurt almost as much as running. So there I was at 5:45 am thinking if I at least ran with my phone I could have tried to get a Uber ride back home. Since I was phoneless, my only choice was to keep running moving.

And then I realized...this is what I signed up for. Quite literally. I signed up for a challenge which included runs that would be done on tired legs. It is a 4-day challenge that I won't be halfway through until mile 3 of the marathon on last day. So this little 4 mile jaunt this morning was nothing in the grand scheme of things.

It was suck it up Buttercup time.

So I continued on with my run, avoiding temptation to cut it short. I plugged into that part of my personality that my mom calls stubbornness, but which I prefer to call determination. I made it back home an embarrassingly long time after I set out. And for the first time in my life I seriously considered how I could make an ice bath happen.