Anniversary Trip in Pictures

Marathon Mania (6 Days Late!)

Sorry for the lateness of this, but I was on the central coast of California, drinking more than a little wine, celebrating 7 years of wedded bliss with my hubby. But I did not want to ignore this one, as I am quite excited and somewhat fearful of my marathon plans for the fall.

TIART - Is Marathon!

A few months ago, I realized that the Nike Women's Marathon was in San Francisco, a place I adore, and the schwag is a Tiffany designed necklace given to finishers by firemen dressed in tuxedoes. What is not to like about such an event? With its proximity to Napa and wine tasting, I knew my hubby would be up for it. (sense a theme here?)

I discovered that it is a highly desirable event, so random selection entered. I had spoken with my friend Gretchen and she was going to register as well. Our mistake was not registering as a team. If we had registered as a team, we both would have been selected or we both would have been rejected. Unfortunately, one of us made it and the other did not.

Then it hit me. I live in Tulsa, OK. The date of the marathon is Oct. 19. That means my long runs are in July and August. In hot, humid, heavy air. Not a recipe for success. So I started digging around for some training plans and attempting to psyche myself up for it. I was not going to drop out of this race before I even started to train for it. That is too defeatist.

So I landed on the Hal Higdon plans, counted backward and realized I had 30 weeks to prepare. I have been working on the 12 week spring training plan to give myself a strong base with regular weekend runs of 8-10 miles going into the 18 week intermediate training plan, it is his Personal Best training plan. I am not good with strictly adhering to a plan, but I am doing most of this, plus a few more workouts.

I am on week 7 and doing well. I like having a plan and I like that this one is reasonable for me.

But I still have the long runs on July / August before me. I recently met up with the science teacher at my son's school. She mentioned that she saw I had run a good race a few weeks' ago and we started talking about running. We each had our 2nd babies within a month of each other, we are nearly the same age, and our paces are close. She offered - OFFERED! - to run my long runs with me. I cannot say how much I appreciate the offer and have already followed up with her to let her know that (1) I appreciate it and (2) I want the help.

I do not typically train with another person. Running is a solitary activity for me. It's my escape. It is the one time during the day that nobody requires anything of me, except myself. But running for over two hours? I need encouragement. Particularly this year.

You see, this will be my 6th marathon. My last one was Napa Valley in 2007. I was the most prepared for that one than I had ever been before, but I totally bonked during the race. Why? I think it is because I ate sushi for dinner the day before. I was still breastfeeding, so was pumping milk like mad. During the training, I was as thin as I had been in many many years. I think when it came time to deliver on race day, I had no reserves.

Another problem is this ongoing issue with my right foot. After running nearly 2 hours, my right foot falls asleep. I have been wondering if the plantar fasciitis had anything to do with that. If PF has been showing its nasty head for a long time and I simply ignored it. Oh, and new clothes I had bought the day before at the runner's expo. I was battling an empty tummy, a numb foot, new clothes that did not chafe, but were not comfortable, and simply wanted to finish. And that's exactly what I did. I simply finished. Not a bad thing, but not what I expected going into it. I had expectations. I had even set them with three different levels, depending on how well I felt that day. Let's just say I fell far below the lowest level.

So what am I going to do differently? I have inserts now that make my feet happy. I will be buying new shoes (at least 2 pair) this weekend. I will ensure I am adequately fueled the day before. But I know there is more. I know something will slip through the cracks and I will have to have a strong will.

In my humble opinion, the long run is not just to train the body for enduring the distance and the pounding, but it is to train the mind to handle 3+ hours of introspection. So to do this, I happily accept anyone who wants to help me through that.

No new clothes on race day. I can do that one.

Fueling during the race? I have never tried the gu or anything else. I am usually a water girl, maybe part of a banana midway, but I have never trained with fueling during a race or a long run. Perhaps I need to start adding that into my plans. Where to begin?

Hill Repeats - Take 5

Week five of the spring plan and it was hill repeat day. Last week, I ran hills on Thursday and a nice 6 miler on Wed. I am going to switch it this week (because I did not wake up early enough) and see how it goes. The Plan has hills on Wed. Of course, a plan is simply a guideline, right? Well, I am sure there is a reason for it.

Anyway, did roughly the same workout as last week: 3.5 mi; 5x0.30 mi hill repeats at 7% grade (argh! they were tough); time 34:00 min (one minute slower, if you are counting). I lengthened the hills to 0.30 mi versus 0.25 mi and shortened the recovery from 0.25 mi to 0.20 mi. It was good. But they still stink.

I found this good resource on running hills on the treadmill. I wondered if I was approaching it correctly and it appears that I am.

Tonight we have a wee bit of wine tasting in store, for the upcoming wine event that we are co-chairing. I have co-opted W's cousin to babysit the kids. I normally have a hard time finding a sitter on Wednesdays. These meetings must be moved to another day.

New Traditions

With the ruin of our old ornaments, we visited Target and bought a kids' tree for $20 and some fun ornaments. My favorite is the gumdrop-looking garland. We came home and I unwrapped everything while Nathan had a blast decorating the tree. My personal favorite new decoration we purchased? The Yoda snow globe. He looks a little like the Grinch, but upon closer inspection, it is clearly Master Yoda.

While Nathan decorated and had fun snapping pictures of the tree and his father drinking a glass of wine, I made my mom's Portuguese Soup and yeast rolls. Both were a major hit.

Tonight we will be decorating the adult tree. I had to stop by Target to purchase one more length of garland as I skimped yesterday.