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Bellingham Bay Marathon Training Week 4 – Cape Cod Running

Andy and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary with a week-long vacation with the pup on Cape Cod. It’s our favorite spot because it is the most chill place on Earth. When you love to do nothing – which just so happens to be our all-time favorite activity – there is no better place to be than the Cape. We even got engaged there.

August 30, 2012

This week also happened to be my first step back week, which worked out well because as nice as running at the Cape is, I was really in full relaxation mode.

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See? FULL RELAXATION.

 

Week 4: June 9 – June 15

 

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This is what it looks like to run at the Cape

  • Monday – Maintenance Legs
  • Tuesday – 2 mile warm up, 4×800, 2 mile cool down (6.74 miles)
  • Wednesday – OFF
  • Thursday - 1 mile warm up, 2 mile tempo, 2 mile marathon pace (5 miles)
  • Friday – Plyos
  • Saturday – 8 miles
  • Sunday – OFF

Total (running) miles: 19.74

 

Summary of Week 4 running:

Fucking humid.

Tuesday: So, for the 800s. This was actually my first time ever doing a workout of only 800s (they were part of my track workout in Week 2, but so were other distances). I checked through last year’s training schedule and my former coach never gave me 800s. That makes me feel a liiiiiitle better about sucking so hard during this workout. I’m not used to pushing that hard for half a mile.

But at some point I need to stop making excuses and wonder if I really am just not good at the shorter, faster interval workouts. On this day, it was raining when I woke up and still 100% humidity when I got to the running path. There were no other cars in the parking lot, which actually says a LOT. I run on a very popular biking/running trail and there are usually lots of other people there. But this day was so unbelievably shitty that no one else bothered. So, that should tell you something.

It was humid. My stomach hurt. I never did this particular workout before. Whine whine excuse excuse. My interval splits were:

(1) 400 – 3:39
(2) 400 – 3:36
(3) 400 – 3:43
(4) 400 – 3:57

During the second and third intervals, my neck hurt. The pain radiated to my collarbone, which was a new type of terrible feeling. But I stretched during the active recovery and my neck didn’t bother me during the last one. Which was also by far the slowest, so, there’s that.

And then my stomach hurt so badly that I had to walk a number of times during my 2-mile cool down. Maybe this just isn’t my thing – and that is OK! All that really matters is that I am working my hardest, and I absolutely was. And also, I don’t enjoy it.

I don’t like the feeling of my lungs about to burst and just wanting it to be over. I do like pushing my pace in tempo workouts because while difficult, I can maintain it if I have to. But for these fast intervals? Not fun for me. Not why I run. The reason I have no interest in training specifically for a 5K. If I PR in a 5K, yay. But I will never reach my full potential there because this type of running simply isn’t fun for me. I like pushing my limits and seeing what I can do, but I like it in a longer type of workout. THIS is why I like marathons so much.

I still need to test an interval workout in better conditions because for some reason every track-type workout I’ve had so far has fallen on the hottest and/or most humid days. But I have a feeling it’s just not my strength.

I emailed Coach Abby and said as much after this workout, telling her that I had a feeling Thursday’s workout would be much more up my alley (based on all the things I just said). And I was right.

Thursday: Ah, Thursday. How I looked forward to this workout. Not only was it a little less humid, I also felt a lot more confident about this one. 1 mile warm up, 2 miles tempo (~8:20-8:30 according to Coach), 2 miles marathon pace (9:10). What I did was:

(1) 10:24 (warm up)
(2) 8:07  (tempo)
(3) 8:24 (tempo)
(4) 9:03 (marathon pace)
(5) 8:57 (marathon pace)

I clearly have to work on my marathon pace, since you know, that’s the most important one! The warm up went well, the first tempo mile went well, and then I got the most painful stomach cramp on the lower right side. The only thing that helped was stopping (not an option) or pressing hard into it (difficult to do while running). So basically, I suffered through the rest of this run.

I somehow managed to stick to a decent tempo pace during the second tempo mile, despite my pain. I was so relieved to be able to slow down to marathon pace! But I need to get better at it, I was so worried about being too slow that I was still too fast. And for the final marathon pace mile, I caught up with Andy and Larry on their walk when I had .30 left to go so I grabbed Larry Gary’s leash and we ran the final stretch together. Fast. Because it was fun and I love to see my baby boy run!

And that’s why that final mile was really too fast. Like I said, work to be done.

Cape Cod running

This is the photo that fogged up my shades

Saturday: The long run, which was a shorter long run than I’ve had in a couple of weeks. I was happy to “only” have 8 miles, even though it felt like I was running forever. Another 100% humidity day, one of the sweatiest runs of my life. I stopped to take a photo and my sunglasses fogged up!

It cleared up once I was running again, but when I finally reached 8 miles (in 1:21) and got in the car to go home, sweat poured into my eyes, stinging them like crazy. I couldn’t wait to get home, wipe my eyes and get in the shower!

And, just for the record? While running on vacation is fun (wee! I’m running in a new place! How fun! So pretty!), doing plyos (squat jumps, lunge jumps) while on vacation really fucking sucks. It feels like the total opposite of vacation.

I just wanted to be on the wicker with Wick.

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We nicknamed Larry ‘Wick’ because he loved his wicker so much

 

Do you like running shorter intervals? Thoughts on training while on vacation?

 

P.S. One more reason the Cape is the best? COOKIES MADE OUT OF CUPCAKES.

cape4And OH YEAH one last thing: This comic completely resonates. Especially the making up bizarre measurements of distances: The DOs and DO NOTs of Running Your First Marathon

 

Post-Injury Learnings + My Husband’s Viral Tweet

While I was injured for a few months, I learned something: Just because I can do something, doesn’t mean I should.

What I mean is this: When I’m taking Refine classes, I get stronger. And when I get stronger, I’m able to lift heavier kettlebells, use heavier resistance on the pulley system and do the advanced version of any given exercise. And I go from two classes a week, to three, to four. But I don’t think it’s right for me and the way I am built to always do more more more. I already know I can get the benefits of the class without it – my problem is that the class is so much fun I WANT to do more. I crave it. I feel proud when I can use a heavier bell or add an extra resistance cord. But just because I can doesn’t always mean I should.

Don’t get me wrong – for many people, that is the entire point of exercise! You get strong, you move to the next level. But with my injury history I’m only now realizing that that isn’t right for my body. I have a very small frame – maybe that’s why, I don’t know. But I can tell you that I’m already noticing improvements in my strength from just going to Refine once a week (and not using much weight yet). Of course, everyone reaches a point where they have to do more – faster reps or heavier weight – to continue gaining benefits. But I can be more mindful about how I challenge myself.

For example, when I talked to Brynn (founder of Refine) about this, she suggested that when I am ready to pick up a kettlebell again, instead of racking them by my shoulders, I hold them with my hands, hanging down. Or I continuing to avoid exercises that just might not work for my body (like jumpbacks) and keep substituting them with ones that do, even if they’re not quite AS challenging (like med ball wall slams). I’m still boosting my heart rate and moving constantly and gaining strength – that is good in and of itself!

Plus, the benefit of a class like Refine is that I’ll always have an instructor ready to offer me a modification or alternative workout when an exercise doesn’t feel or look right. And one thing my Physical Therapist said that sticks with me – go with my gut. I’ll know when something doesn’t seem OK and that means I should stop right then and there. If I have any doubt about an exercise, don’t do it. Which makes me especially glad to have such great instructors at Refine to offer alternatives.

After the marathons, I’m sure I will go to class more – but I don’t think I will go more than three times a week again. I think I need to recognize my limits and remember that exercise is a personal thing. Just because my friend can take class five times a week and be awesome doesn’t mean I can, and that is OK. Just because I *could* do an overhead press after the last time I came back from my neck injury doesn’t mean I should have – clearly, since that brought on the recurrence of my injury. I need to recognize the limits of my body and remember I am still reaping the benefits of the class.

So much of exercise is learning what works for YOU – and that will always be different than what works for someone else.

I’m so far from type-A it’s laughable, but for some reason when it comes to classes I love, I get into this mindset where I plan my life around going X times a week. So many months off from my injury seem to have freed me from that, and I really value the extra free time to see my dog husband and dog.

Speaking of husband, we were sitting outside on a pier eating my favorite breakfast from my favorite Jersey City cafe Sam A.M. when he came across a funny article about the Kanye + Kim wedding. He wanted to take a photo but neither of us had a pen with us for him to place a little mark (he does this so he can easily identify when other websites steal his photos). We tried to figure out how to get Larry in it, but couldn’t find a good way and so he just snapped the photo and tweeted it. And then went viral:

With over 10,000 retweets and being picked up by multiple other sites (most who credited him, we can identify those who didn’t because his version has that crinkle in the corner). There is no real point to this story other than to express my excitement that a tweet Andy sent while we ate breakfast went viral. The real question is: How can we get rich?

Other news:

(1) Today is National Running Day! Women’s Running has a special offer in celebration of the day – just $1 an issue!

Me, my grandma and my Aunt Dale

Me, my grandma and my Aunt Dale

(2) Last night I went to the kickoff session for the American Cancer Society’s Team DetermiNation NYC Marathon team at the Hope Lodge. The Hope Lodge is a facility that offers lodging at no cost for cancer patients being treated in Manhattan. As part of our team efforts, we will be spending time there with patients, reminding us why we are all working so hard to raise money for ACS. My constant reminder every day is my Aunt Dale, who died almost two years ago from kidney cancer. I’m sharing my fundraising page here again because I appreciate any donation at any amount to help me reach my goal. Thank you! http://main.acsevents.org/goto/dorigray 

 

 

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