Mountains 2 Beach Marathon Training 2020 – Part Two
The week started off hard, with Monday spent at the funeral home with my dad and sister making arrangements for my mom’s service and handling the logistics that follow a loss.
Week 4
This week had a challenging start. I took Monday off from work to be with my dad and sister at the funeral home to make arrangements for my mom’s service and deal with all the other aspects of the death of a loved one. It was a sad, sad day. I am really not a nurturing person and I felt the entire day like my presence was making their respective days worse instead of better. I am truly grateful that my sister came to visit and help my father since she IS a nurturing person and was the right person to be there for him.
No MITHACAL Milers
My training stayed mostly on course this week with a few exceptions. Tuesday evening is our MITHACAL milers night. I was at my dad’s house taking with my dad and sister and helping with some things. I knew the roads were getting snowier and snowier because snow had been falling for awhile, but when Scott came over to get my from dad’s house we continued to help with things and stayed chatting until our normal leave time. We made it about 1/3 of the way to Ithaca traveling 30 mph behind a very cautious driver and I said, “we’re never going to get there on time.” Scott was silent. I knew he really wanted to make it. I was projecting ahead to missing the warm-up, having to run the warm-up while other people started the intervals and ending up short on intervals and distance. We continued on our route and I said something else. He abruptly turned around. I knew he was really annoyed with the situation, but I also knew we’d never get there on time. We also would have gotten home crazy late and we eat dinner after this so I wasn’t eager to enjoy a 9 pm dinner and then go to bed.
We got home and flipped a workout. I ended up doing Les Mills on Demand “The Trip” cycling and 30 minutes on the elliptical. It was good and it allowed us to have dinner as a family at a reasonable hour.
Running with Sarah
One nice thing about Sarah coming to visit from Portland, Oregon is that I had the chance to run with her a couple of times. We got out for a Thursday out and back run as well as a Saturday morning run. I had wanted to hike with her more as well - more laid back time to connect - but I was so busy with my baking load for Emoticakes this week that there just wasn’t time to do both. Always a slave to a training plan once it starts, she was happy to indulge me by choosing to run instead of hike.
Time for new shoes
My Altra Torins that I bought from Xander in August have over 500 miles on them. The tread looks great but my feet have been hurting so I know the foam is just done. It was on my list to go in and buy new shoes from him at Finger Lakes Running Company as soon as I could. Saturday morning he had to work and I had to deliver cupcakes to Cornell, so Scott, Xander and I all went in and Scott dropped us off at the Running Company. I had some time to look for shoes as he opened the store. As with last time, I tried the regular Torins and the plush Torins. The regular ones had a perfect fit in the heel and the plush ones felt slippy (same as last time). The only sad thing was that the only color they had in my size was the same color as my old ones. Xander and I had a good laugh that I had “new” shoes but they were exactly the same.
End the week with a snowy run
When my sister was here she commented on my attire, “you look like a yard sale.” Fair enough. My clothes are all mismatched and very bright. I am very visible to motorists that’s for sure! Sarah flew home on Sunday. After she flew out, I donned my bright gear that I had worn with her the other day and headed into the beautiful snowy afternoon for a 5 miler. The snow was gently falling and I was listening to my Flower City Half playlist on my phone. I love how music can transport you to another place and another time. The run felt surreal as I listened to favorites that brought me right to where I had been running in the Flower City - I remembered my freezing hands at mile 11 and not being able to open my Shot Blocs. The grateful feeling I had while running in the cemetery and more. Snow was swirling gently around me and I was filling with gratitude for this opportunity. My new shoes that Xander sold me felt amazing underfoot. I spent time thinking more about my mom’s spring service that we’re planning.
Sauna time
If asked to pick one big purchase that has brought me more joy than anything else it is the sauna. Scott turned it on before we went out for our respective runs. We’d enjoy our 15 minutes of delightful heat after the chilly run even though we knew original hot yoga was in our late afternoon future. As we sat in the sauna we recapped our weeks, talked about our running and looked ahead to the following week. We sorted out who was driving Xander to piano, discussed the grocery list and other day to day things. As we stepped out of the sauna I sighed deeply and smiled. What a great run to end a week with.
I hit most of my training goals this week! The rowing and 20 minutes of Flow didn’t make it.
Week 5
This was a weird workout week. It started pretty strong and then Scott hatched an idea for us to take a super fast ski trip at the end of Week 6 of training. That meant that this week we’d need to change some things since next week we wouldn’t have time to do the 5 mile run on Friday or the 12 mile run on Saturday. He shuffled things around and it seemed to make sense on paper. I guess it did work out well on paper, but not really so much when it came time to complete the workouts.
The first half
The first part of the week was only slightly flipped around. My dad is starting to come to terms with the new normal of my mom not being here and so are we. We decided it would be a good idea to have him for dinner as often as we can which meant that Monday night yoga should be replaced by a home workout for me this week. I took BodyPump from the following Monday and threw it in on this Monday so that Scott and I would have time to prepare a nice dinner at a reasonable hour for my dad. Tuesday we did our MITHACAL milers workout and the kids had my dad to dinner. Things started fo fall a little downhill from there.
Goodbye rest day
This Wednesday was one of the randomly placed rest days in my training plan. I finished the entire plan and then realized I hadn’t budgeted in rest. Sure I had plenty of light days but no 100% off days of rest. This rest day is the 3rd day calling for rest in my plan and it would become the third time I skipped a rest day. I moved Thursday’s 5 miler to Wednesday’s rest day and then moved Friday’s 5 miles to Thursday. Friday we had a snow day for school and it was a genuine snow day. There was no way I would be able to run on the roads. I subbed out elliptical and BodyPump on Friday for a run. Most of Friday was spent baking for my baking job, doing school work for my teaching job, and spending time with my dad. While productive, the day didn’t feel that joyful.
Saturday slog
Saturday was a chilly start and I had multiple cake pick-ups “mid morning” that day. Xander had to work at 10 so he headed out for his scheduled 8 miler at 8 am. He wore yak tracks and said he’d report back in for us. I mentioned to Scott that I might sub out an elliptical workout for my long run. My plan only called for 6 for the week, but we were flipping with next week so I was technically supposed to do 12. He made some comment that he swears was not to make me think I had to run, but I took it that way. Because Elizabeth was at a fitness class and Scott was taking Xander to work and given the uncertain timing of “mid-morning” for cake pickups, I spent 2 hours on the computer planning for school and then started work on an upcoming ice-cream cake. I knew one cake was being picked up at 11, so I figured everything would be out of the house by then and I’d be able to run. Right at 11 one of my cake pick-ups emailed to find out if mid-morning was still ok. She was sending her friend and wanted my cell number for the friend to confirm. Soon after the friend confirmed for 2 pm. Now I had a window of time to work out - from 11:30 - 2 before we headed out on our family ski weekend for this week. The other cakes were picked up moments after 11 and I was able to be ready by 11:30.
The trouble with the timing was that I was hungry, I was not really in the mood to run and I was inexplicably tired. Elizabeth was home by this time and she kept sharing small stories as I tried to get out of the house. It was entertaining as I had my air-pods in with my podcast already playing and she kept talking. There was a lot of pausing them before I finally said, “I’m leaving now.”
The run was challenging from the get go. I haven’t needed to run in yaks in a long while. I looked over at the golf course longingly. I’d really rather be cross country skiing. I didn’t want to run 12 miles. Every 5 steps I’d get out of the slush and onto pavement and then the yaks felt terrible. Still, my podcast was interesting so I was mostly fine ... until it ended when I was just 3 and a half miles in. I switched the podcast to a new one and continued my slushy run. I really did think I could make 10 (I wasn’t even shooting for 12 actually since I was on a 10 mile loop). Then abruptly on Main Street in Tburg I started walking and looked at my watch and asked Siri to call Elizabeth Dawson. It failed. My talking was slurred because it was cold out and I can’t talk well when it was cold. I should have taken that as a sign. But, I tried again. This time I was successful. I asked her to pick me up at Not My Dad’s Ice-Cream. “When?” she asked. “Now.” “Are you ok?” “Yup. I’m just tired and not feeling great.” True enough. Soon she arrived and we drove home. Of course Scott finished his 12 happily. When I got inside he said, “I’m going to row 10 minutes.” My run was just over 5.5 miles of misery.
The actual plan
When I sat down to write this today I looked at what this week’s plan had called for. In addition to the rest day Wednesday that I didn’t take, it only asked me to do a 6 mile run on Saturday and a cycling class. I wish I had planned Saturday better and gotten the cycling in. By the time I finished the unsuccessful run we had just under an hour before we had to leave to get Xander, I had to greet my cake pick-up and get ready. If I had looked in the morning I would have cycled and possibly gotten farther in the run. I learned a few lessons with this today though.
Look at the plan. If you are going to modify it be committed emotionally.
Pick what you are going to listen to in advance and queue it up so you aren’t facing choice on the road.
Consider leaving tech at home. I would have had to finish this run if I didn’t have an easy way to call Elizabeth. Even just leaving the watch at home would have helped because my hands are usually too cold to open my phone.
Mix up the routes. I’m so done with the route I’ve been doing almost every day all winter. I think I would have been successful if I had changed the route.
Eat a snack. 11:30 is a weird time to head out. It isn’t the best to be both hungry and thirsty and have nothing with you for a 10 mile run.
Looking ahead
After out family ski trip, Scott and I talked about next weekend. Whiteface is hosting the Empire State Games so it isn’t wise to head there and this would be our 3rd weekend at Gore. That would be ok and we still might decide to go, but it is unlikely. We considered Killington but knowing it is a holiday weekend and remembering how crazy the lines can get makes us think we’re better off getting our long runs in and enjoying the day. 10 hours in the car over a 24 hour period doesn’t sound all that romantic!! We head out for a trip to LA next Sunday and put no running on the calendar for our trip but we know we’ll end up getting some fitness in. That makes me feel like a slightly missed week of training is ok.
Week 6
A weird week
The week started off strong and then it just fell apart toward the end. Training was mostly ok, but every day seemed like there was a new work or personal challenge that just pushed me past what I could handle. I had a lot of baking to do and teaching the week before a break is always different than other weeks. I started to fall into, “I’ll just do what I feel like doing” instead of consulting the training plan.
The cross training
On Monday Scott and I did Les Mills on Demand BodyPump and I got a short bit of steady state cycling in. I always enjoy BodyPump. We did release 104 which was what we both trained on when we had our little stint of wanting to be instructors. Every time we do that release I laugh a little wondering how my musically unintelligent self could have managed to keep time while telling other people what to do, and I feel a little bad that Scott didn’t certify because it would have been fun for him.
Later in the week we did Pump at home one more time. Elizabeth was team teaching for our normal class at FLX and she asked us not to go. It was good as Friday turned out to be a really rough day for me, so I was pretty glad to not have to put on a happy face and pump with other people.
Crying and running
It seems like the only time I fully fall apart crying is when running. It feels safe. No one is there to console me or say I’m overreacting. I haven’t cried since my mom died and I think that I’m finally starting to process how hard this is. My sister and my dad had a full week of sadness and tons of crying and I just kind of looked at them feeling bad that I couldn’t cry. On Friday at work a colleague came in to tell me something that I could improve on and for a million reasons I wasn’t able to hold it together. I ended up crying for all of my prep period, all of my lunch and then kind of holding it barely together for the 3 classes I had to teach for the afternoon. I haven’t been in a position like that since my cat died when I was 22 in graduate school. I had an internship teaching and vividly remember crying in the bathroom whenever I wasn’t teaching a class.
Anyway, I thought I had it together by the time I came home. I was in no mood to run though and announced as I walked in the door, “It is freezing and I’m going to Precor instead of running.” Both Scott and Elizabeth said, “Sure it is 14 degrees that’s probably a wise choice.” As I started to get dressed I realized I’d be so annoyed with myself if I skipped the run. An elliptical is great but it really doesn’t sub in well for running. I got very well bundled and headed out for 5. As soon as I got out of the neighborhood I started crying and didn’t stop crying for the entire 5 miles. On the upside, by the time I got home I was able to kind of carry on a conversation, something I hadn’t even been able to fake before heading out.
Are you running long?
At lunch Scott asked me if I was running long. He reminded me that our plan actually didn’t call for a long run this week (because we flipped it and did it last week). I reminded him that I quit halfway into that long run last week so I was going to try to run long. I headed out for 9-10. It wasn’t the 12 that I should be doing, but I felt like it would be enough. I put on a Tim Ferriss podcast. I tuned into Penn Jillette. I adore Tim’s podcast, especially while running. It has a way of putting everything into perspective. I identified strongly with a lot of what Penn said. He hates moderation. He is all in or all out. Yes, this is why I struggle at work and with people in general. I am so passionate about things that it freaks other people out. I’m really blunt and people don’t like that. I love how he interviews people with strong personalities who are not afraid to be who they are and share that. It always helps me to really get inside someone else’s head, something I just can’t seem to do interpersonally.
However, my calmness just vanished as soon as I got home. Scott had run 10 and I ran 9.3. I left thinking he was going to go for 6 and I interpreted his 10 as a competition. I think I was so on the edge emotionally that really all someone would have to do was say “boo” and I’d cry. Anyway, we headed to the sauna and I shared all that is bugging me; my mom, not really being able to talk about it, my day job, how much baking I have to do for my evening and weekend job, not feeling like I am helping my dad enough and on and on and on.
Back to the point
Elizabeth is signed up for two spring half marathons and she’s not running a lot right now. She is doing a lot of cross training and she seems to enjoy winging the distance. We had a conversation about how the training is the point. The destination and race day are fun, but the training is the point. I don’t think she agrees with us, and that’s ok. I love that when I get to marathon day I will be able to look back and know that I used running to work through emotions. I will have memories of my running and the podcasts or music I chose. I know that the time on my feet over the weeks will help make race day more fun, or at least bearable.
On vacation
We head out to California today! I haven’t been to LA since I was 22 and I convinced my internship coordinator that I was desperately needed for a corporate business trip. I fondly remember a day at Disney, seeing Hollywood and going to the beach. I look forward to being back there with Xander and Scott. I also look forward to having NO training on the plan. We know we’ll run - we’re packing running clothes - but it is nice to just see a blank week to do whatever I want to do.
Week 7
This week was VACATION week! It is our first year having one child in college. For the past 2 years we’ve traveled as a family to ski in Colorado. We thought it would feel sad to take a ski trip without Elizabeth so we decided to indulge Xander with his desire to go to Disney again, but this time we switched things up and took him to California to Disneyland. I knew we’d spend two days in the parks and we weren’t sure what to expect for time to run, so I blocked off the full 5 days for no running.
A Beach Run
Our rental was in Newport Beach and we were literally one block from the ocean. We started our first day there with a 4 mile morning beach walk, then drove up the coast and checked out other beaches. Late day we returned home to the rental and got a beach run in. It was so much fun!! All 3 of us headed out separately and ran along the beautiful beach sidewalk. You could go about a half mile north before the sidewalk ended and then a bit over two miles south. I ran every bit of sidewalk that you can run and I got 6 miles in. I always find beach running a bit challenging but this run was one of my top 3 things from our vacation.
We didn’t run after that - our two Disney days were extremely full and we walked all day long. By the time we got home in the evening it was chilly and we just didn’t have the energy to hit the beach and run. Instead we enjoyed the sunset on the ocean one evening, getting take out for our dinner and another evening we prepared a meal in our rental and just enjoyed recapping our day after our short beach walk.
And a ski trip
When we originally looked at the winter we bought a few Gore/Whiteface 3 packs of tickets. It was hard to find full weekends that we could ski (we actually didn’t find any) but we found a few one day opportunities. It turns out that the tail end of break was one such opportunity. Elizabeth couldn’t join us due to a college concert requirement, but Xander and scheduled work to be done at 3 pm. That meant we could leave Ithaca at 3 and get to Saranac Lake by 8, hitting Whiteface the next morning. However, Xander felt he needed to catch up on homework so it turned out to be a date ski day for Scott and me. We got back into town Friday morning at 3:30 am, and I managed a 5 mile run and BodyPump at FLX Fitclub (yay!) Then, Saturday morning we sorted it out so that when we took Xander to work I ran 5 ish miles toward Ithaca and Scott and Xander picked me up. We headed up to Saranac early - why not since it was just the two of us? We had an AMAZING visit at the Saranac Inn, including a really great dinner. I actually don’t remember the last time Scott and I went out for a really nice meal together. This was followed by the best day of east coast skiing I’ve had in the past 2 years. We had a bluebird warmish day and no crowds at all. Scott and I took every quad and triple ride just the two of us. That coupled with first tracks down the 2.5 mile Wilmington trail at Whiteface, made for an amazing day. We racked up 21 miles in just about 4 hours of ski time and then made the longish drive home to get ready for the work week.
It would have been SO easy to run. When we got home it was just after 6 pm. We were earlier than expected because we decided that after a week off from work we’d want to have the evening to get prepared. I had to force myself not to don reflective gear and head out for a 5 mile to make sure I had 20 miles for the week. My training plan and left all these blanks and I had embraced it with a full heart. I decided to fight that desire to get the miles in, instead relaxing and preparing for the week ahead.
Success
Even though mileage was really low this week (about 17), it included 2 full days of walking and I did get one BodyPump session in. It is good to have a fall back week in training from time to time!! I am a little worried about transitioning into longer mileage, and hopeful that it connects with warmer weather. I am struggling with my 4th toe on my right foot getting calloused and hurting a lot early on in a run, so I may have to consider different footwear.