Life After Marathons: A Running/barre3/Coffee/Life Journal

Anyway ... I'm having a rough week and it seems like lots of people here are having rough times right now and the world is having a rough time and my heart hurts.
Thanks for sharing this. Because it helps us all realize that some days or weeks or months or even years are just tough. And we're not alone in having struggles.
 


What is it with this week?? At least it's Friday, so here's to hoping for a better week next!

Thanks for sharing this. Because it helps us all realize that some days or weeks or months or even years are just tough. And we're not alone in having struggles.



Totally agree. Worst week ever

Thanks for all the love, guys! Here's hoping next week is a better week for all of us.
 


Was talking to my dad and he said that if he ever ran a marathon again (note to self: try to get him to enter next year's NYC marathon lottery?), he'd want to do a 27-mile run before just so that he knew mentally that he could do it. I understand the sentiment, but for me that's like 5-6 hours and it would kill my entire day. But that's really what I've been struggling with here - balancing time with mental preparedness. I have no doubt that I can be physically prepared for the race without a 26-mile run. But mentally ... I dunno. It's tough for sure. I've struggled a lot with not being mentally prepared for new goals.

Three marathons for me and I've never surpassed 20 miles in training. I was just telling @jennamfeo - you'll get to race day and there's all the excitement and adrenaline that helps. But you'll also bust through a wall and it will come a point where you realize you're going to do the dang thing ... and your heart just kinda takes over and guides you to the finish line and you feel like nothing can touch you.
 
Three marathons for me and I've never surpassed 20 miles in training. I was just telling @jennamfeo - you'll get to race day and there's all the excitement and adrenaline that helps. But you'll also bust through a wall and it will come a point where you realize you're going to do the dang thing ... and your heart just kinda takes over and guides you to the finish line and you feel like nothing can touch you.

Thanks for the insight ... hopefully you're right and it will all work out on race day.
 
Three marathons for me and I've never surpassed 20 miles in training. I was just telling @jennamfeo - you'll get to race day and there's all the excitement and adrenaline that helps. But you'll also bust through a wall and it will come a point where you realize you're going to do the dang thing ... and your heart just kinda takes over and guides you to the finish line and you feel like nothing can touch you.
I have one less marathon than Keels but also never done more than 20 in training.
 
I have one less marathon than Keels but also never done more than 20 in training.

Well if you haven't run 3 marathons, then I definitely don't trust your results :)
(Just kidding ... it's always good to hear that people have been successful even without the 20+ mile runs ... makes me feel a drop less nervous)
 
New Balance Bronx 10 Mile: Training Week 7 Recap
Almost There!

The week before race week! Between the knee issues and some work stress, it was an interesting week, and I'm not totally happy with it. But ... it's over now and all I can do is look to the future. And what I see coming up in the future is the Bronx 10 Mile ... hopefully in a week from now I will have a shiny new medal. Expect a pre-race update Wednesday or Thursday ... not sure I'll have time to get it out today.

Monday
  • Running: 1 mi WU + 2ish mi HM Tempo + 1ish mi CD - 4.28 miles, 51:23 minutes, 12:00 min/mi avg pace
    • Last tempo run of the plan! This was originally scheduled for Tuesday but moved to Monday due to scheduling stuff.
    • Run was good (finally hitting my paces! ... ish), but I had some knee pain during the run that persisted after the run. But more on that later.
  • Cross Training: None
    • Was scheduled for a barre3 class, but cancelled because of my knee.
  • Food: Nothing memorable.
  • Work/Life: Work was okay. Life, on the other hand...
    • This knee thing was tough. It actually started Sunday, but it was more annoying than pain. Monday the pain started and there were points where it really hurt to bend my knee. And I definitely couldn't do that thing I do at work sometimes where I sit on the floor instead of my chair because ain't nobody got time for a chair. I'm pretty sure my diagnosis of patellar tendonitis was right, and rest and ice (and some NSAIDs) seems to have helped a lot.
    • Real Talk: For whatever reason, I felt very fat a lot of the day. I really don't know why, because I've had worse eating days. The worst was when I went shopping after work - I tried on a dress I liked but I felt like I looked super fat in it, so no. I bought it one size bigger because I looked less fat, but it was a little loose in the back, so I'm not in love. Sigh. Ended up trying it on again at home later in the week, and I'm gonna return it.
    • Stress level 32.
Tuesday - Erev Yom Kippur
  • Running: None
  • Cross Training: None
  • Food: Actually ate okay. Go me!
  • Life/Work: I was up super early and at work before 8. Some stuff happened, but nothing too exciting. It was what it was. Knee hurt a little, but it wasn't as bad as Monday by a long shot. Stress level 22.
Wednesday - Yom Kippur
  • Running: None
  • Cross Training: None
  • Food: Fast day! Ate okay but not great after the fast.
  • Life: I iced my knee in the morning before services and then during our afternoon break. I think it helped a lot - not only was my knee not bothering me, but things that normally hurt my knee didn't hurt as much, so that was good. Stress level 55, but since I only work my watch for a little bit at night, I don't know what that's all about.
Thursday
  • Running: 3- mi Easy/LR - 2.81 miles, 38:12 minutes, 13:36 min/mi avg pace
    • This run felt good, so I have no idea why it was so slow. None at all.
    • When I went out it was too dark for me to be comfortable on my usual route, so I took a slightly different route, and didn't really plan the 3 miles well. Usually I'd add a loop around the block or something for the extra 0.2 miles, but between the fact that Monday's run went a little long and the fact that I was still being cautious with my knee, I decided to just let the run be short. I'm fine with it.
    • This was originally scheduled as EC (easy continuous) pace, but I had decided that I wanted to do it as intervals instead and change Sunday's run to EC, which ended up being the right decision.
  • Cross Training: barre3, 57:42 minutes
    • This class was with my favorite instructor, Steph. I told her when I got in to class about my knee, and she suggested a few modifications for me, some of which I ended up using, but not all. She also checked on me at one point to make sure my knee was holding up okay, which I really appreciated.
    • Overall, this class was good. My knee only bothered me once or twice, and even then it was only a little. But I also didn't feel like I was working very hard, so there's that...
  • Food: Ugh
  • Work: Just a really bad day.
    Pretty much didn't talk to anyone all day. My team had a "war room" right behind me trying to troubleshoot a problem and it was hard to be right there and not be involved because I'm completely irrelevant. Whatever.
  • Life: Grrr Jets (congrats @Capang). Stress level 30, but that's probably because I only watched a few minutes of the Jets game.
Friday
  • Running: None
  • Cross Training: None
  • Food: Ate all the chocolate.
  • Work: Another really bad day at work. Not work itself, just me.
    Today I made the decision to not interact with anyone on Slack. It started off because my comments probably weren't relevant, but from there it became a conscious decision. I don't think anyone noticed. I'm out Monday and Tuesday, and I assume that once again nobody will notice I'm gone. I don't know if it's me outside work stuff, something about the job, just a bad match between person and company, or me in general. I want to look for another job, but what if this happens again? What if it's not that I'm in the wrong job, it's that I won't fit in anywhere? Also, I have a performance review coming up soon (not sure the exact date yet), and I'm like 75% sure I'm going to get fired because I literally do nothing around here. Sigh.
  • Life: Wanted to go pick up my race stuff before work, but I was running late, so I went after work. It was fine, nothing too exciting. Stress level 37.
Saturday
  • Running: None
  • Cross Training: None
  • Food: Nope. Not good.
  • Life: Nothing exciting happened at all.
Sunday
  • Running: 5 mi EC - 5.07 miles, 1:02:45 hours, 12:23 min/mi avg pace
    • This was the run I didn't know I needed. For my previous longer continuous runs, I took "breathers" every so often, when I would just stop and breathe/drink water/rest. This run I didn't let myself do that. When I wanted a break, I kept going. When I wanted to walk, I kept going. I paused my watch 4 times - water refill #1, traffic light #1, traffic light #2 (which was the same as #1, but in the opposite direction), and water refill #2. No pauses just for the sake of a break. Getting through all 5 miles with no randoms stops was a huge mental boost for me and I'm so glad I got this run. It was exactly what I needed, and I didn't realize that until it happened.
    • *TMI WARNING* Started to have what I thought where bathroom issues at about 4.5 miles. Turns out they might have been fueling issues (which is something I need to think about). Either way, the last 0.5 miles was uncomfortable, and while I finished about 0.25 miles from the house, I had to walk home at the end because that was less uncomfortable than running. Sigh.
  • Cross Training: None
  • Food: Meh
  • Life: So far okay. But it's not even noon yet :). Stress level 10 ... it's been a low-key day so far.
Overall Week Stats:
Running: 3 runs, 12.16 miles, 2:32:20 hours, 12:32 min/mi avg pace
Barre3: 1 class, 57:42 minutes
Weight: Up 0.9 lb from last Sunday. Grr. Not a good week.

This week is race week! Officially, I'm scheduled for 3 mi on Wednesday and 3 mi on Friday, which (once you add the 10 mile race) would take me over 70 miles for the month. But I'm also thinking about maybe just doing 3.5-4 miles on Thursday instead of the two runs (which I think would still take me to a monthly mileage record). I dunno. I'll figure it out Tuesday night. Will also be doing barre3 one night this week ... just not sure when. I'll figure this all out eventually.

And, since this is the place where I write out all my thoughts ... we'll end with some
Marathon Training Thoughts:
  • As of right now, the schedule that I think will work for me is 30-minute runs during the week, with max one 45 minute run every two weeks, for the first month, then moving on to 45 minutes with one max 1 hr run after we change the clocks. I am willing to be slightly flexible, especially if some life things happen, but this is something I think I can do without falling into the exhaustion issue I've been dealing with lately. One of my focuses (foci?) for this training cycle really needs to be preventing the exhaustion that has been causing so many problems for me. I need more sleep and more rest.
  • I'm planning on continuing barre3 twice per week (she says 5 seconds after she says more rest...). I think at some point I want to start doing it on Sunday after my long run ... we'll see what Coach has to say about that.
  • My preference is still max one hard run per week, but ... I'm slightly flexible. Again, we'll see what works.
  • I would like to go to 16 miles as my longest run (well really I'd like to go over 20, maybe even to 26, but ain't nobody got time for that, so I guess I'll have to just trust everyone who says I don't have to go the full distance in training, even though that hasn't always been the case for me in the past). It will be hard to do this and stick to the 3-hour time limit. With my current paces, running 3 mi WU + 10 mi M Tempo + 3 mi CD would be just over 3 hours (3:04), but that's a lot of miles at tempo. We'll see what happens with the paces next plan ... maybe it will be doable.
  • I'm nervous that this marathon plan will be too long. The longest plan I've done with Coach Billy was the plan for my 7-miler, which was like 12-14 weeks (I promise, I opened up the plan and counted the actual number of week 2 minutes ago, and then I forgot), and that was the one I struggled with the most. Other plans ranged from 4 weeks (just the once, and I technically wrote that plan) to 8 weeks. I'm seeing some of my friends struggle with long plans right now. With all that, I'm worried that the 14-15 weeks of this plan (I may be counting wrong) will be too much for me. I'm wondering if maybe breaking it up into two 7-8 week plans would be a better idea ... but I'm not entirely sure how we would do that. It would probably mean finding another goal race somewhere towards the end of November. But I also don't know if that would then interfere with marathon training. I dunno. This is just another thing I have to think about before we start on the plan.
 
I'd live to say I saw the Browns win, but I was asleep. Had to be up by 4 to get a run in so oh well. It's probably the only win this season.

Also, I get why you are currently absent, but I just wanted to say I miss you on the running thread. I always liked and valued your responses and insight there.
 
I'd live to say I saw the Browns win, but I was asleep. Had to be up by 4 to get a run in so oh well. It's probably the only win this season.

I probably should have gone to sleep before the end. Not only would I have been better rested, but I would have saved myself some heartbreak.

Also, I get why you are currently absent, but I just wanted to say I miss you on the running thread. I always liked and valued your responses and insight there.

:hug:
Thank you for your kind words! I've been skimming bit and liking things here and there, but haven't really wanted to get involved in the conversation (for several reasons, one of which is the college football thing).
 
I'm planning on continuing barre3 twice per week (she says 5 seconds after she says more rest...). I think at some point I want to start doing it on Sunday after my long run ... we'll see what Coach has to say about that.

Doable. Although I probably wouldn't do it after the runs longer than 120 min. But you could try and see how you feel about it. I generally recommend with these "shorter" long runs to go out and about your day. Once the long run is done, go shopping, go for a walk.

My preference is still max one hard run per week, but ... I'm slightly flexible. Again, we'll see what works.

Definitely doable.

As of right now, the schedule that I think will work for me is 30-minute runs during the week, with max one 45 minute run every two weeks, for the first month, then moving on to 45 minutes with one max 1 hr run after we change the clocks. I am willing to be slightly flexible, especially if some life things happen, but this is something I think I can do without falling into the exhaustion issue I've been dealing with lately. One of my focuses (foci?) for this training cycle really needs to be preventing the exhaustion that has been causing so many problems for me. I need more sleep and more rest.

Definitely doable. It'll certainly depend on the number of days per week. As we aim to try and maintain balance amongst the long run and the rest of the week.

I would like to go to 16 miles as my longest run (well really I'd like to go over 20, maybe even to 26, but ain't nobody got time for that, so I guess I'll have to just trust everyone who says I don't have to go the full distance in training, even though that hasn't always been the case for me in the past). It will be hard to do this and stick to the 3-hour time limit. With my current paces, running 3 mi WU + 10 mi M Tempo + 3 mi CD would be just over 3 hours (3:04), but that's a lot of miles at tempo. We'll see what happens with the paces next plan ... maybe it will be doable.

So 10 miles at M Tempo (10:47) would be 1:47:53. That's a pretty long M Tempo segment as most do max about 60-90 min. So doing 108 would be a big step up in difficulty. But I can understand the mental side of things. So since it seems like the next point revolves around the length of the plan, then how about making this 16 mile (with 10 at M Tempo) near the mid-point of the plan. A short build to it. Then run it. Then a bit of recovery. Then a build back up to the marathon. It'll get you your mental edge of a 16 mile 3 hour training run, but also allow you additional recovery before the actual big event. Thoughts?

I'm nervous that this marathon plan will be too long. The longest plan I've done with Coach Billy was the plan for my 7-miler, which was like 12-14 weeks (I promise, I opened up the plan and counted the actual number of week 2 minutes ago, and then I forgot), and that was the one I struggled with the most. Other plans ranged from 4 weeks (just the once, and I technically wrote that plan) to 8 weeks. I'm seeing some of my friends struggle with long plans right now. With all that, I'm worried that the 14-15 weeks of this plan (I may be counting wrong) will be too much for me. I'm wondering if maybe breaking it up into two 7-8 week plans would be a better idea ... but I'm not entirely sure how we would do that. It would probably mean finding another goal race somewhere towards the end of November. But I also don't know if that would then interfere with marathon training. I dunno. This is just another thing I have to think about before we start on the plan.

See above on a method of splitting the plan in two parts. I wouldn't go much less than 8 weeks as that seems to be the area of cardiovascular adaptations.
 
Doable. Although I probably wouldn't do it after the runs longer than 120 min. But you could try and see how you feel about it. I generally recommend with these "shorter" long runs to go out and about your day. Once the long run is done, go shopping, go for a walk.

I remember you mentioning to me once that you recommend going out and doing something else after runs on certain days, so I figured this might fit the bill.
It also has the side benefit of freeing up one of my nights during the week for an event or cleaning or just (gasp) relaxing.

Definitely doable.

:thumbsup2

Definitely doable. It'll certainly depend on the number of days per week. As we aim to try and maintain balance amongst the long run and the rest of the week.

A lot of it is also going to depend on my living situation (ie how long my commute to work is). If I'm still commuting over an hour to work, then I really have to stick to these numbers, which may mean running more days during the week than I really want to (although Friday and Saturday are definite nos, so really the only thing that's negotiable is Mondays and how often I run on Wednesdays). This is definitely something we'll have to talk about a lot once we start on the plan.

So 10 miles at M Tempo (10:47) would be 1:47:53. That's a pretty long M Tempo segment as most do max about 60-90 min. So doing 108 would be a big step up in difficulty. But I can understand the mental side of things. So since it seems like the next point revolves around the length of the plan, then how about making this 16 mile (with 10 at M Tempo) near the mid-point of the plan. A short build to it. Then run it. Then a bit of recovery. Then a build back up to the marathon. It'll get you your mental edge of a 16 mile 3 hour training run, but also allow you additional recovery before the actual big event. Thoughts?

Hmm. I wasn't even thinking about a max for the M Tempo segment, just the mileage situation. I wouldn't necessarily be against making that the "midpoint" of the plan, although I did come up with a different idea yesterday (see below). It does sound like maybe it could work, and it would give me a little bit of a break during the recovery, which should help with the exhaustion thing I've been dealing with. I like the idea.
(I'm also willing to do more of the 16 miles at an easy pace and go up to 3.5 hours/210 minutes if you think that won't screw me up too much)

See above on a method of splitting the plan in two parts. I wouldn't go much less than 8 weeks as that seems to be the area of cardiovascular adaptations.

I was actually thinking about splitting it around the Rangerstown 5K - since I will probably want to race that one anyone - make all the long runs marathon-oriented, but focus some of the shorter runs on 5K speed. Of course, first they have to announce the date for the Rangerstown 5K... (if they don't announce it by the end of the day Thursday, I will probably tweet at them and ask, since they announced it around this time last year)
If I decide not to do that, your idea could work.
And I definitely agree with 8 weeks for the second part of the plan - I think 8 weeks really is the sweet spot for me.
 
Also ...
- Should have my race post up tomorrow. I have some things I still need to figure out for this one. But whatever. I'm ready for my 10 miles in the Boogie Down Bronx ... mostly.
- I think I'm gonna barre3 tomorrow and run Thursday. Unless something comes up tomorrow, in which case I'll do both Thursday.
 
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