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’til the next episode

’til the next episode

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It’s safe to say that anytime I begin a post with a not-so-subtle allusion to a Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg lyric that life is good. My opportunities for writing are limited (just like anyone else’s, right?), but probably more than anything, it’s not that I have less time to write than anyone else; it’s just that with the time I do have available, I’m choosing to do a host of other things (again, probably like many others). I have many drafts on my laptop that I haven’t yet completed and posted; I think of so many ideas mid-run (or mid-whatever, actually) that haven’t yet come to fruition; one of these days, I’d like to get on a somewhat-regular writing and posting schedule. I’ll figure it out. It’s on my to-do list.

Anyway – just chillin’ ’til the next episode is a pretty good reflection of what’s been up with my running lately. Post-Pony Express on 5/1, the fam and I went south to Disney for the big one’s birthday, I took an entire WEEK off running (which I’m pretty sure I haven’t done – or have only done – following childbirth), and slowly but surely I’m getting into training mode for TSFM on 7/31. After racing and tying-my-PR at Modesto, I learned that even if I’m physically feeling “fine,” I’ve got to take some mental downtime from marathon training. Maybe that’s something that is coming with “training age,” the number of years and seasons/cycles I’ve been doing this stuff, or hell, it might just be a natural consequence of the interaction between the marathon grind and parenting two little people 24/7 (read: exhaustion). At any rate, I gave myself two weeks of forced downtime and very little running after PEM and have slowly gotten back into marathon training mode.

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those target carts are the best

 

We have some upcoming travel to the midwest for the summer to see family (hooray!), and while we’re in IL and OH over the summer, I’m planning to race some short stuff for the first time in … a while. I find that I gravitate toward running and racing the long stuff because, among other things, I feel like it’s a better decision financially (why pay $40 to race a 5k when you can race a half/marathon for not much more?!). I haven’t raced short stuff in a long time – my last 5k I “raced” was at 9 months/36 weeks pregnant – so I’m planning to be the conductor of those Pain Trains I’ll surely be riding. I’m planning to incorporate the races as part of my training, so it’ll be fun… or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. I feel like it’s easier to run fast when there’s a bib involved. I just have to tell myself that I’d be doing virtually the same workout/distance on a track, so why not do it with a bib attached and in the company of a bunch of other runners? Like anything else with running, I think it boils down to perspective.

At this stage in training, most of my running lately has been with the baby and at nice and run-all-day paces, so it’s exciting to see what’s in the stems and to hopefully see some progress over the next 8 weeks (or so) leading into TSFM. I haven’t done any formal speedwork or tempo runs since early March, right before Modesto, so on a steamy and windy day last week, I decided to kick things off with a 6 miler – 2 WU, 2 @ some faster-than-run-all-day-pace, 2 CD. It was nearly 80; about 150-200m of each track lap was straight into the wind … but fuck if it wasn’t exciting to just run footloose and fancy free without pushing three wheels and forty-five pounds in front of me.

 

I never take pictures of my watch, but I was surprised how this run fared. (say hi to our little lemon!)
I never take pictures of my watch, but I was surprised how this run fared. (say hi to our little lemon!)

 

Plus, with TSFM’s hilly (and wonderful) course, it kinda behooves me to run a lot of hills during training, so one of my goals for this cycle (and for each week) is to post at least a little elevation. That might get challenging once I’m in the midwest, but I’ll figure it out when I get there.

from a recent hilly run through my affectionately-called "secret garden." downtown SJ is in the top left quadrant.
from a recent hilly run through my affectionately-called “secret garden.” downtown SJ is in the top left quadrant.

 

Hope you are doing well and had a lovely Memorial Day weekend. Happy almost June (and Global Running Day, apparently)!

 

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Drawn to the fire

Drawn to the fire

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With the Newport Marathon just about two weeks behind me now, I think I can safely say that recovery has been going well. It’s been a lot of “listen to your body” miles, mostly at recovery or general aerobic paces, and it wasn’t until yesterday, almost two full weeks post-marathon, that I tried anything that resembled a speed workout for me. The ZOOMA Napa half marathon (which sold out! in its inaugural year! weeks ahead of race day!) is in a week, so I figured it was probably as good a time as any to see if my legs remembered what HMRP felt like… in no small part because I haven’t **truly** raced a half in well over a year.

Though Napa isn’t the culminating race or event for me in 2014, I am going into it with somewhat specific goals, ones that I’m still hashing out and will probably continue to hash out until the morning of the race. In my head, at least the “rough ideas” of the goals I have seem manageable, but we’ll see come race day. Things might go down in flames, but hey… part of the process. (and in the weird “the universe is on to me” department, this quote landed in my inbox from Runner’s World this week. I guess there is something to be said for just fuckin’ going with it…).

c/o http://www.pinterest.com/pin/190628996702043304/
c/o http://www.pinterest.com/pin/190628996702043304/

 

It’s exciting to do an inaugural race because by its very nature, there really isn’t anything you can go off of–like previous finishing times, for example–to give you an idea of what the race will be like. I’ve done very few races in their inaugural editions, so it’s pretty special to be able to do this one and because it’s one for which the other ZOOMA Napa ambassadors and I have been heavily promoting in social media land since January-ish.

Napa will be awesome.

Racing will be awesome.

Meeting and hanging with the other ZOOMA ladies will be awesome.

Hurling myself into the possible flames that my goals might get enveloped in–or not!–will be awesome.

And, with that, this lovely NFG song, which has become somewhat anthematic for me during the last part of my Newport training, and the song that, I kid you not, I had in my head for most of my race, and was actually singing it under my breath as I was racing–also about fire, metaphorically speaking–seems apropos.

Have you ever done an inaugural race? Do you give yourself “anthems” during training or racing? Tell me you love New Found Glory, too!