Just over 44

No! Not me! Sheesh.

Just over 44 days until the marathon. I have to admit I'm a *wee* bit nervous. For my first two marathons my training consisted mostly of running. Now that I do more tris than running events, my training is a mixed bag. I wonder how I'll fare having spent less time on my feet for this one. Plus I'm running with my brother (his first marathon! rock it!) and our goal is a good bit faster than either of my first two. Granted, I think I'm *overall* in much better shape than when I did the first two, I'm just not sure how good my running "shape" is right now.

Last week was an easy week. This week I tackle 16 miles, which Rob did last week. Not that I feel any pressure to keep up with him or anything. You know, I'm just saying.....

Still alive and even moving...a little

I checked the weather yesterday and we were supposed to be getting a mid-afternoon break in the rain so T and I decided we'd sleep in and see what the weather looked like when we got up to head out for our run.  Around 9:30, after having breakfasted and checked weather.com and balancing temp, wind, and chance of precip, we decided to head out at 11.  My goal for the day....14 miles.  My run was to be 30 min in heart rate zone 1, 40 min in zone 2, 40 min in zone 3, and the rest of the 14 miles in zones 1-2.  I was also supposed to run a flat course to simulate race conditions.  Oh, have I mentioned that my marathon has about 24 feet of elevation change.  For the whole course.  Schweet, no?  Quite a change from Nike, for sure.

We headed out to the Alameda creek trail since we just couldn't think of any other flat courses or any other courses that might be more interesting.  We have *got* to find some new running grounds.  30 min in zone 1 just kind of zipped by.  We were warming up nicely, except for the patches where we were hit in the face with a crisp wind.  I'm not going to complain much about the weather when my brother's done some long runs in...oh 8 degree weather.  And that's *before* wind chill.  Kudos to him, but ugh.  So other than some pretty decent head winds, we couldn't complain.  Mademoiselle Nature kept the rain at bay. Nice.

40 min in zone 2 was doable.  Again, just the annoying wind.  Then zone 3 time came up.  I was having the worst time getting my legs to move enough to jack up my heart rate.   I made a quick stop at the water fountain to fill my water bottles and then kept trying to pump my legs.  I was able to get up to low zone 3, but frequently dropped into zone 2.  The head wind helped me by making me work harder at a slower pace and on those sections where the wind was stronger, my heart rate finally jumped up.  By about 30 minutes I was ready to drop.  I wanted to stop this insane zone 3 stuff.  Somehow I managed to keep moving...just keep running, just keep running.  About 10 minutes before I was due for my last gel, I started feeling really light headed.  Not so much leg tired, but just fuzzy in the head.  I think I was starting to bonk.  I finally took my gel and about the same time I was finished with zone 3 and was able to ease up on the pace a bit.  

I was at about 10.5 miles when my Sherpa, T, showed up on her bike.  She had a shorter run today and when she was finished, she did some 'active recovery' by entertaining me while *very slowly* biking along side.  Thank goodness.  I was about to go nuts out there by myself.  Even T's singing was appreciated at that point. ;-)

Finally, we were quickly approaching the parking lot where our cars were parked.   Hm, either I miscalculated or my Garmin bonked too.  I still needed another mile.  So, a bit of mental toughness training as well, as we passed up the cars and headed back the other way for another 1/2 mile out and 1/2 mile back.  The last few tenths I was counting down every .05 of a mile.  I was completely out of steam.  But I did it.  I made the jump from 10 miles two weeks ago, to nothing last week because of being sick, to 14 miles this week.  Whew.  

I'm not yet convinced the 'bonk' was my body telling me to gel more frequently.  I think it may have been still recovering a bit from this cold that is lingering around as a stuffy nose. Seriously, how do colds last so long!?!?

Nutrition plan today was gel at :15, :45, 1:15, 1:45.  I also remembered my salt caps, and so far (knock wood) no headache.  Big hooray there.  Salt caps pre-run, at 1 hour, at 2 hours.  Overall pace was 11:10/mile.  And that was including some decent head winds at points, and a jump from 10 to 14 miles.  I'm not going to complain about that.  Wow.  I haven't run more than a half marathon in...well....probably since the last Nike full marathon I did.  That was...umm....2006?!?!  Wow.  Now I've impressed myself. ;-)  

Lingering aches are the usual: right heel pretty tender, knees a bit achy, hip flexors sorely in need of stretching.  Back very tight (which my PT says is related to my excessively tight hip flexors ~ we're working on that).  

Cheers and Happy Valentine's all!

Friday Randomness

• 14 miles on the 14th....the symmetry is a good omen. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.
  
• How can i have 800+ songs on my iPod and never have anything I want to listen to?
• I think that I've become immune to NyQuil. No really.
• Treatment #3 of acupuncture for Bam and now she doesn't have to go back for a month unless her 'condition' worsens. No, we still don't have any idea what her condition actually *is*.
• Someone brought red velvet cupcakes to work today. They were okay, but not as good as mine. Hey, it's not conceit if it's true. ;-) And I have to admit...mine aren't as good as the ones from Sprinkles. Mmm, Sprinkles.
  
• I'm sick and tired of the octuplet woman. Quit begging for money and go away now.
• I am annoyed by my antenna reception of the digital stations. It cuts in and out and I have to fiddle with the antenna to get stable reception. No, I'm not annoyed enough to shell out for cable or satellite TV.

I guess that's all the randomness I have floating around my stuffy head for now. Happy Friday and for some of us....long weekend! Woo hooooooo!

Uh, how did *that* happen?!?!?

58 days until the marathon?!?! That's less than 2 months! Deep breaths....don't panic.....at least not until I see how the 14 miler on Saturday goes. *THEN* I can panic.

Hopefully my cold will be completely gone by then. For now it's just lingering on...and on.....

Altho, it's supposed to rain.....and running for 2-1/2 hrs in the rain, with a cold, will probably not help matters. However, I think I would prefer pneumonia to 2-1/2 hours on the dreadmill.

Ok, maybe not. But still.

Derailed

So I woke up at about 3 a.m. on Thursday morning with a scratchy throat. I thought it was just my sinuses giving me grief. They've been so dry lately. Then as the day wore on I was feeling awfully tired, but who wouldn't be if they got up at 3 a.m. right? Then I started sneezing...a lot.....and my nose started to run.

Damnit. I don't have time to be sick.

So, now I'm supposed to skip my workouts until I'm better. Which means skipping my 12 miler tomorrow. Which means going from 10 miles last week to 14 miles next week. Which means I'm falling further and further behind. Which means I'm panicking!

Sigh. Maybe I just run it anyway and don't tell anyone. :-)

Tri season in doubt?

With the lack of rainfall here in California, and this being the third year in a row with low rainfall, we're being warned about a drought that could be the worst in the history of the state.

What does this have to do with triathlon?, you may ask. Well, for most of the sprint tris I was considering this year (actually, even those I wasn't considering) the swim is held in a reservoir or lake that may be part of the reservoir system. So, no rain, no snow pack=no water in the reservoirs. So I may be doing less events than ever. Or maybe they'll turn them into duathlons? And if they do, will I still do them? Hmm, so many questions.

Luckily we're expecting a couple of storms to move through in the next few days. And hopefully they'll dump a bunch of rain. Well, not enough to flood....but a bunch.

I guess my tri season will be TBD.