ridin' the wave

Wow!  Three weeks since I’ve posted anything about actual training.  I have been training, and I have been tracking everything, but sometimes life happens at break-neck speed around here (ok, most times) and I just sort of ride the wave.

It’s like that scene in Finding Nemo, after Marlin gets past the jellyfish, but he’s blacked out and has no idea what happened.  Crush fills him in:  “Saw the whole thing, Dude.  First you were all like “Whoa”, and we were all like “Whoa”, and you were like “Whoa…”  Marlin is still clueless, but he does remember he’s on a mission: to get to the East Australian Current!  Crush reassures him: “Oh, Dude.  You’re ridin’ it, Dude!  Check it out!”

Sometimes, after a wild week (or 3) I need someone like Crush to fill me in on what happened.  And to remind me that despite all the crazy, I’m on still on track.  In the absence of a cool surfer-dude sea turtle, I rely on this:

My kids call refer to it as “Your Brain.”  It's a little notebook I carry around with me with notes to myself (or notes from my kids).  This page is my triathlon training schedule.  Really, it is.  I promise.  I am an information junkie.  I track every run in Nike+, bike rides in MapMyRun (because I don’t want cycling miles co-mingled with running miles!) and log all of that plus swimming, yoga, pilates, foam rolling and walking in Fitocracy.  I’ve got more numbers than I know what to do with!  But I really like the simplicity of just looking at this one page and seeing if I’ve pretty much done what I need to do for the week as far as this triathlon training is concerned. I actually made a "prettier" spreadsheet with my completed training times where the numbers add up vertically and horizontally, but this is a simple way to just see if I'm on track.

I’m 7 weeks into a 10 week plan, and it’s going really well.  I like that it’s all based on minutes (not distance) which makes it easy to schedule training sessions.  I was comfortable with all 3 distances before I started, so this is all about building endurance so that I can do it all on one day and not feel like death at the end.

Weeks 5-7 at a glance:

5: Swim 55 (25+30), Bike 85 (35+50), Run 70 (35+35)  Total: 210

6: Swim 55 (25+30), Bike 70 (35+35), Run 80 (25+20+35)  Total: 205

7: Swim 65 (30+35), Bike 105 (45+60), Run 75 (30+45)  Total: 245

To be honest, this is the first week I’ve gotten in both swimming sessions, but I’m WAY over what’s required for running.  I’m not trying to win, just finish strong.  And yesterday I hit my fastest time for 250m swimming by a full minute!  6:30 doesn’t put me at the head of the pack, but it is in the faster half.  That’s amazing to me!  I’ve been swimming since I was in grade school, and swam on a swim team for several years, but I was never fast.  Just consistent.  I’ve got piles of 5^th place ribbons to prove it!  I keep thinking I should do some reading, find out what I could be doing better, because basically I just get in the pool and swim laps of freestyle the way I always have.  Slowly.  Surely I could work on my form or my breathing or something, right?  As I swim, some of those swim clinics I took (back in the 70’s before most of you were born!) do come back to me.  And yoga has really helped with my reach!  I just haven't had (or taken) the time to do more research.  But I really think the biggest thing has just been going back every week, even if it is just once or twice a week, and doing a little bit more each time, whether it’s more total distance, or just more consecutive laps without stopping.  It’s not rocket science.  If you keep doing something on a regular basis, you’re going to get better at it!

So, yeah, three more weeks of training done.  Three more weeks to go.  Three weeks till the triathlon, and three weeks till I’ll be doing my swimming outdoors!  I’m not sure which event I’m more excited about!

The Ramblin' Rose is on May 19th and there is still space available!  Join Me?  

www.ramblinroseevents.com

how [not] to prepare for a race

If you want to know all the things you should be doing in the days just before a race, a quick Google search will turn up more great ideas than you could ever implement.  If you want to know what you should NOT be doing, I’m your girl!   The weekend of the Mad Tea Party was pretty crazy, but this one takes the cake!  (alas, no frosting… but I digress.)

Here’s how [not] to prepare for a race, say, a 10-miler.  First, subscribe to all the running groups and races on Facebook, so that you are constantly tempted with photos of pretty medals.  That’s where it usually starts for me.  I had been eyeing this pretty Tar Heel 10-miler medal for a while, but I just figured it would fill up while I was being indecisive.  Monday morning, there’s that medal in my newsfeed again, there are still 100 spots available, and it’s close enough in that I know that I’m free on Saturday.  I also know I’ll be itching for a long run by then.  Quick!  sign up for the race before you change your mind!  [cue the ominous music…  Real Life, enter, stage left]

Real Life: (nonchalant) “Mom, don’t forget we have that thing on Friday at American.”

OK, it’s just one day in DC.  And whatever your do, don’t bother to book a hotel room so you can drive up the night before and… I don’t know…  sleep?  Nah!  Sleep is for sissies.  Leave late (LATE) on Thursday night (to miss all the traffic), drink a bunch of coffee and lots of water, drive 5 hours (including TRAFFIC at 3am!), sleep 2 hours in the car (restful AND relaxing)… Freshman Day at American University: GO!

Lots of coffee, not enough water, and carbs.  Lots of carbs.  Continental breakfast: fruit and carbs.  I was exhausted, I was weak, the coffee was thinking for me.  I got some fruit, but also a huge bagel with cream cheese.  Lunch was better: veggie wrap, apple, pretzels… oh, and a chocolate chip cookie the size of the moon!  Dinner was the worst: pizza.  I don’t even eat pizza anymore because I always feel awful afterward, but this was homemade, tossed in the air, fresh basil, tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella pizza!  “Individual size”…ok, which individual really needs 8 slices of pizza??  (me, apparently.)  And you’re supposed to load up on carbs before a race, right?  (Oh, and also, I did eat a salad. So, yeah.)

It’s hard to know what aggravated my right foot and knee more: the 10+ hours of driving, the walking around campus, or all the sitting!  I got home around 1am and literally fell into bed.

And you know what’s more fun than a race that starts at 7:30am?  The 5am alarm… which, for me, means getting up at 5:30.  My foot actually felt better than I expected, but the rest of me, not so much.  I will say, I’ve gotten pretty good at the mad pre-race scramble. I was out the door at 6 and sitting in gridlock in Chapel Hill by 6:30.  Can anyone explain to me why 5,000 runners showing up for a planned event at a 60,000-seat college football stadium would mean gridlock???  At 6:30 am??  (Again, I digress…)

Somehow, I got to where I was supposed to be on time and lined up with the 10:00 pace group.  Yes, I did.  Because they were chasing us out of the bleachers onto the track and this woman said, "just go line up anywhere."  So I did.  The 10:00 runners derived great satisfaction in passing me, as did most of the 11:00 and 12:00 runners.  It was brilliant strategy, really—I got to go ahead and get started with the race instead of starting with my actual pace group and risk being picked up at the end by paramedics!  I felt pretty good the whole race, especially as I woke up.  I even ran a hill challenge  at mile 9 (mile 9!  really???) and on mile 10 came up with energy out of the blue, finishing that mile even faster after all those hills!  (Giving no credit to all the carbs-- I'm totally switching my pre-race meals back to birthday cupcake frosting!)

And that, sort of, brings me to my point.  I probably had no business running a race this morning.  But I would have run 10 miles today regardless, and I REALLY REALLY wanted that medal.  [Yes, I do realise there is more to running.  I also love the medals.  Can you imagine if you paid $40 for something cool at Target, and then they said, “OK, now you just have to run 10 miles to go pick it up.”  I know… I just got to my point and already I’m digressing again]

My point is, because I knew I was going in tired, I also knew I’d be fine.  I wasn’t kidding myself about setting any records.  I just wanted to “finish in the upright position.” Earlier this week, Jeff Galloway Tweeted:

"Going beyond 20 miles breaks you down only if you go too fast."

I’ll be honest, I resisted his method of training in the beginning.  Oh, boy, did I resist!  I was running about a 10:00 pace for a 5K, and I loved feeling like I was flying.  The walking and running was awkward and therefore, I grumbled. Often.   Behold, Exhibit A:

Of course, he’s always right.  I’ve since learned that it’s the reason I know I can go out and run as far as I want on any given day.  As long as I’m willing to listen to my body and take it as slow as I need to, I feel like I could run forever.  It’s what got me thru increasing my distance from 6 miles (without any walking) to 14 miles (with walk breaks) and I’m not finished yet!  Each time I set out to tackle a new distance, I know those walk breaks will get me as far as I need to go.  And today, on way too little sleep, a foggy brain, and all the wrong pre-race meals, I knew it would get me thru 10 miles and to the finish for that awesome medal!

Oh, and my time?  6 seconds slower than my first half marathon pace.  20 seconds slower than my best half marathon pace.  No.  Big.  Deal.  AND I got to spend a long, fun and crazy day with my daughter who will be up in DC full time before I know it.  THAT’s a pretty big deal.  If you're in it for the long haul, take your time.  One of my running friends always says, as long as you don't quit, you win!  (I'm sure he didn't say it first, but he says it ALL the time.)  Take it easy, and enjoy the run.  Even if the circumstances are less than perfect, the run can still be awesome!

(Did I mention this medal??)

today's running mantra

today's running mantra:
We are runners.
And we will run.

I hope everyone had a chance to get out there today and felt the incredible strength of the running community like I did. ♥ lauren

"wait... maybe I should have had breakfast."

“OK… Here we go. Focus. Speed. I am speed.

One winner. 42 losers. I eat losers for breakfast.

Breakfast. Wait, maybe I should have had breakfast. ”

I’m going to start eating breakfast.

Fascinating, I know.

I am not a breakfast eater. I never have been. And some days, that has meant going for a run at noon on an empty stomach. And I’ve felt great before, during and after. In fact, my first half marathon distance training run was at 1 in the afternoon, and I hadn’t eaten anything all day, and I felt great.

So, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

Well, I didn’t start this whole journey to become a runner. I started it to become the “me” who had been missing for a while. The “me” who has always been there, but had been hanging back for a while, letting other things take center stage, as other things sometimes need to do. And it wasn’t about “getting happy,” because I’ve always been a pretty happy person. It was more about “getting intentional.” Doing things with purpose, rather than just continuing to do what I’ve always done.

To be honest, the reason I started working out with such purpose is because I knew I need to make some changes regarding my health, and dieting just wasn’t an option. I’ve come a long way since last April, and while I’ve never officially dieted, I have changed my diet in many ways for the better. Just simple changes like eating more fruit and vegetables, fewer simple carbs, and while I don’t call myself a “vegetarian” because I really have no moral or ethical stake in the matter, I couldn’t tell you the last time I ate meat. If the right meat presented itself, I’d be all over it in a heartbeat, but at least in the last couple of months I haven’t felt it, and haven’t missed it.

Signing up for this Dopey Challenge has been less about the actual running, and more about continuing my journey of learning about myself. As part of that, I’ve committed to really learning about proper nutrition, and, if I’m gonna do this, a runner’s diet. I spent a lot of time this week just scratching the surface—there is SO MUCH to learn about food and how it works to fuel your body! It’s kind of overwhelming. So I had to take a step back, or I’d never get started.
I decided to approach nutrition in kind of the same way I did fitness: one step at a time.

When I started working out, my entire training routine was this:

one hour on the elliptical.

That’s what I did. Every day. And I was really happy with that! It was something I could wrap my brain around, and I lost 30 pounds in 4 months without making myself crazy. It worked for me. Then I went for a run in Central Park, and got hooked. And then I had to learn about resting. I signed up for a 5K, then a half marathon, then a sprint triathlon, and had to learn all about different kinds of training. But it all started with just one simple thing.

I’ve read so many different things about nutrition and fueling long runs this week. My hero, Jeff Galloway, has told me it’s fine to skip breakfast or just have a cup of coffee and maybe a half a banana before a run. I’d sort of been hanging on to that. But when I’m faced with a bunch of different information from different sources, I’ve learned to look for the common threads—that’s usually where the truth lies. And with nutrition, other than drinking lots of water (which I already do!) the one thing that jumped out at me from every direction was “eat breakfast.” So I’m going to start with that.

I realised I have two stumbling blocks when it comes to thinking about breakfast: I love breakfast food, but don’t usually have time in the morning to cook what I’d want to have; and I’m always reluctant to “spend” all those calories first thing in the morning! But I’ve read a lot that says you don’t have to have a huge breakfast for it to be beneficial, so I’m going to try small and simple. Some protein and either fruit or even vegetables. I never feel like I can eat enough vegetables, so I’m going to experiment with getting a jump on that in the morning.

I’ve gotten along fine all these years not being a breakfast person. I’m more like Piglet here:

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh.  ”What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.

I don’t wake up thinking about breakfast (some of my kids do!). I wake up thinking about what exciting things the day will have for me. And I’m hoping that incorporating breakfast will help me be better prepared for ALL the excitement. I bet Pooh’s right, it really IS the same thing.

How about you, do you eat breakfast? What’s your favorite meal that helps you “rise and shine”?

yes, I am Dopey


"You’re mad, bonkers, off your head. But I tell you a secret. All the best people are."

So, I ran this half marathon on Sunday… it was pretty awesome.  But before that happened, there was madness.  ‘Cause that’s how my life is. 

When I was training for my first half marathon, I ran into a moving SUV about 7 weeks before the race.  I was sidelined for a few weeks, but in the end Iwas able to run the race.  Training didn’t go as planned, but the weekend of the race, I had all my ducks in a row: good food, relaxation, peace, and quiet.  I was by myself in Disney World, and for a few days, I was able to do whatever I wanted (or not).  That’s pretty rare for me. 

A race weekend here in Raleigh goes more like this:  Out late on Friday night catching up with a friend, up early on Saturday for a yoga retreat (ok, that’s also rare, and it was awesome!), then Saturday afternoon: Birthday Party!!  My five-year-old niece and I share a birthday, and I LOVE celebrating with her.  This year it was an Alice in Wonderland theme, complete with the Mad Tea Party and at least a dozen kids! 

I intended to be careful about what I ate, really, I did.  But it was a MAD TEA PARTY!  And there were cupcakes:

I only had one cupcake, but the frosting… O  M  G!   As luck would have it, the kids sitting near me did not share my passion for the frosting, so I was happy to help out.  I’m pretty sure I had the frosting equivalent of at least 6 cupcakes!  Then, it’s my family, so we always hang around too late.  Got home after 10, and we still hadn’t walked (my kids and I walk a mile every day… some days it’s a challenge).  So, we walked, got home before 11, and I was thinking I’d still get a little more than 6 hours of sleep (for me, that’s very good!) 

Then the power went out.  Our power hasn’t gone out since 2001—we’re on the same grid with three nursing homes, it just doesn’t happen.  This inspires my daughter to launch into “Blackout” from In The Heights, so now I’ve got that stuck in my head!  (“has anyone seen Benny?...”)  I set the alarm on my phone, and had just dozed off when the power came on—and so did all the lights, the TV, the flashing alarm clock…

I finally got to sleep, slept like a rock (as I do) and woke up to the alarm(s) at 5, but I just couldn’t drag myself out of bed until 6, and we had to leave at 6:30.  Instead of a leisurely breakfast, 30 minutes of yoga and then foam rolling like I did in Disney, it was a pretty quick foam roll, no yoga, and an apple and almond butter in the car on the way.  Not the ideal meal to eat while driving.  My son: “um, Mom, since we’re out of the neighborhood, do you think you should drive with BOTH hands?”

And did I mention the weather?  The forecast for Sunday was gorgeous, but at 7am?  45 degrees.  Colder than when we ran on New Year’s Day!  At least it wasn’t raining…

None of this was how I would plan to prepare for a half marathon, but it’s my real life. 

And the race was awesome!  After about 5 minutes, I didn’t feel the cold, I had my Camelbak, so plenty of water, and the course was gorgeous and FLAT!  I was able to find myself an opening where I felt like I was pretty much out there alone, just me and my music, and aside from a little concern about getting lost, it was heavenly!  I did easy 2:1 intervals, and wound up finishing with my best half marathon time yet! 

Today, I’m feeling great!  I was looking forward to a quiet day of relaxing and rest from training, until I get this message about race registration!  Yikes!  I hadn’t really even decided what I was going to do yet!  I had made up my mind to go for the Goofy Challenge—a half and a full back to back—when they announced the Dopey Challenge!  5K, 10K, half, full… six medals.  DOPEY!    

I could explain all the crazy reasons and why it makes sense for me, but the bottom line is this: I got the idea in my head that I’d like to try, and couldn’t convince myself to walk away from it. 

When I started to write this post, I wanted a quote from Dopey himself.  Then I realised Dopey never said much.  But here’s what Happy had to say:

Happy:  This is Dopey.  He don’t talk none.

Snow White:  You mean he can’t talk? 

Happy:  He don’t know, he never tried. 

That pretty well sums up why I’m going for the Dopey Challenge.  I have a bunch of “rational” reasons for thinking I can do it, but the reality is, when I first signed up for the Princess Half, I did all the math, counted the weeks, and knew I could get to that distance.  Turns out, I wasn’t following the plan that included running into a moving SUV.  Even with all the math and training, in the end, I had to go with Plan B.  I’m hoping to steer clear of moving vehicles from now on, but no matter what I set out to do, there’s no telling what might cross my path.  I can think I “know” how things are going to play out, but the truth is this:

I’ll never know if I never try. 

Thank you, Dopey.