Thrill of the Chase

Winds have been quite light the last few days, which leads to some quite amazing ocean swimming conditions! I swam straight into that sun as it was coming up. Aloha Friday, indeed.

Water was warmer than the pool. How is that possible? Seriously. Anyway, it was also as clear as it ever is on that side, and glassy smooth on the surface. Mark and I swam ~55min this morning, all quite easy. He wasn't motivated to swim hard today because he is swimming the Maui Channel on Sunday morning (~9 miles) so he spent a bunch of time 'treasure hunting'. He has a good eye and manages to find all kinds of stuff. Mostly sunglasses and goggles/masks, but sometimes GoPros end up on the ocean floor and he's always looking for those, especially on a clear day like today. No GoPros today but we did find 2x sunglasses and a pair of surf shorts. Somebody must have a good story about losing those shorts.

Afterward my plan was to take advantage of the flat roads Kailua has to offer (there are no flat roads in my town) and run some steady pace miles. Of course I forgot to pack my garmin (argh!) but I made the best of it and figured I'd run/repeat a loop I know to be right ~3 miles and just time the whole thing and could figure out pace (close enough) and call it good. I guess that went ok. I ran the first loop at what felt like MAF- it was quite easy. Then my plan was to try to run a loop ~40"/mile faster, which I figured would be in the range of +10 heart beats... Just steady tempo. I ended up running that loop 3min faster than the first time, so it was a full min/mile faster, which is ok I guess but the effort was too hard I think for what I was going for today (def more than +10 beats!). I knew it while I was running too... This is harder than you're supposed to be going Michelle... but damn I just had a hard time making myself back off. Pacing is a pretty critical skill when running a marathon and I just feel like I kinda screwed it up today.

Maia had a successful Cat Hunt today. She's encountered this gray stray before and he holds his ground and doesn't run away. He defends himself quite well with some solid hissing and sharp claws. Maia is obsessed though. I think her dream scenario is that she wants the cat to run, and she wants the freedom to chase it. For her I think it's the thrill of the chase she's after. Then again maybe that's what we're all after?

A Fun Story

I wasn't blogging much back in September, so I never really told this story...

It was a Sunday morning, about 3 weeks before Ironman Louisville. On my schedule was a 90' hilly run- a specific treadmill set. We were having a stupidly hot/humid summer (we got the effects of El Nino- in the form of hurricanes, heat and humidity- before most of the mainland) so most of my key run days were prescribed to be inside so I wouldn't die. The thing was, this particular morning happened to be quite cloudy and not that hot and I had an option for an outdoor run that was hilly and ~90'... so I made the call at the last minute to run in the botanical gardens instead of on the treadmill. Not many people would blame me! I still sort of felt like I was cheating by not following the plan to a T, but...

Anyway, as I approached the turn-around at the end of the gardens, I came upon what appeared to be a professional photoshoot. There were two thin young gals dressed in cute clothes, bounding up the hill and smiling like no real runner would do. Essentially, this is the scene I came upon. Trust me, that hill is steep and nobody's ponytail swings like that while running up it.

So they stopped shooting so I could run past. I sort of felt bad for interrupting them. I got to the top of the hill and saw their whole camp set up.... Several big cars, a few tents, a bunch of food, a changing tent, lots of clothes on a rack, and a couple people hanging out. I smiled and waved to them, made a comment I can't remember now, then started my run back home.

I ran past the two bouncy girls again and after I was down the hill, a van drove up next to me... windows down... A woman seemed to be asking me about a photo shoot? I took an ear bud out and said, "Yes there's a photo shoot going on it right back there..." and I pointed to where I'd just come running from. It took a minute for me to understand that she was asking me if I would join their photo shoot... What? Me? Um, seriously?

I was soaking wet but they insisted I get in their van (it was a rental) and they would drive me back to the shoot for 'hair and make-up'. Ha! Hair and make-up... If they only knew how non-standard this is in my world. To be honest, I think the Hair and Make-up guy was grossed out by me because I was all wet. Normally I guess they coat the models in this bronzing oil b/c it makes them look like they are glistening with sweat. He decided I didn't need any of that. And since I hadn't combed my hair in a few days and it was all knotted up, he opted to just give me a hat (that's how I typically deal with the issue as well).

The whole thing was already taking longer than I anticipated it would and I was starting to get hungry. Honestly my biggest concern was that I still had 5 miles left to run home and I didn't have any food with me (it was only supposed to be a 90' run) and I was 3 weeks out from an Ironman which meant training was huge and I was eating ALL THE TIME... so when they offered me some food I jumped on that opportunity! I filled up a plate with a granola bar, some fruit, some yogurt, etc. When the 2 young thin gals saw me eating, they had lots of questions. Carbs?!? I ate carbs?!? I thought the one gal might actually faint. Ha!

Anyway, they toweled me off and dressed me up in their clothes (I'd found out at some point that it was Athleta, which got me excited b/c I have loved Athleta clothes for a long time!) and we spent maybe an hour jogging like 10 steps at a time back and forth back and forth in several different locations while they took a billion pictures. The models were quite nice and asked me a lot of questions about how much "exercising" I did.

The gal in charge took down my contact info and handed me a couple of gift cards so I could order some free clothes online (score!) and I grabbed another granola bar and then set off to run back home and explain to my husband why I was 3 hours late.

I sort of forgot about it until a few days ago when I got a text from an old friend of mine about how she saw my picture in the Athleta catalog! Oh ya that's right... Then more texts started coming in... It has been fun to hear from some friends I haven't heard from in years telling me how surprised they were to see me running up that hill! (And um, I had no idea how many friends I have who get that catalog?) Trust me though, nobody was more surprised than this 40-something year old mom becoming an 'Athleta Model', even if it was just a one off thing! Though I heard a rumor that they used another picture in the next catalog, so that will be fun to see too... :)

Flipping through the catalog I saw that they took some fun shots in a few more familiar local places where we train and play... A nice reminder... #LuckyWeLiveHawaii!

Wednesday

I jogged down to the pool this morning with my wetsuit stuffed into my backpack. It was pissing rain and not warm so I put my wetsuit on while we were standing outside the gate waiting for the pool to open. Then the lifeguards told us that there was a mix up and (whoops!) nobody had a key to open the pool. This happens at least once a month- for a second I considered that I was just not meant to start back swimming yet, but I had my wetsuit on already so I opted to wait it out and 20 min later the pool manager showed up and opened the pool for us. So I got 2400m in by myself. Felt terrible. The wetsuit helped me to not be slow (plus, it was too cold to swim slow!) but I was reminded why I don't often take breaks away from the water. Swimming just sucks when you don't do it enough! I might go back tomorrow b/c I think the best way to feel good in the water is to swim often, even if you don't swim a lot during the session. 2K tomorrow then an ocean swim on Friday will set me back on the right path.

So sad 2400m left me feeling quite fatigued today. Ugh. That's what I get for being a full on wimp about swimming lately.

For my run this afternoon I wanted to do something quality, so I opted to repeat a neighborhood loop that goes ~1/4 mile up then ~1/4 mile back down (so it's a bit over 1/2mile total). I'd done this session before but it's been years. I like it because it feels like I get a bit of everything... strength work up the longer hill (2+ minutes to get to the top) then try to stay on the gas after being tired... some quicker/fast running on the way down. It's long enough that it's quite uncomfortable so I get some mental toughness benefit as well... This is the elevation profile from MapMyRun.

Going in I figured I'd do 5-6 loops, depending on how it was going. I timed them and found I was descending each one, but the 4th one felt hard... harder than I intended to go today. I wanted these to be solid but didn't want to feel like I completely left my legs out there (or be a session that I wouldn't recover from). The fact was, I started racing myself and going harder than I should have been. I fixed that problem by not starting my watch on the last 2x loops- that allowed me to get the right work in (by feel- it felt right- strong but not max) without racing myself. It feels good to be able to have confidence about a session without needing to see all the data that went along with it.

Tapering

Not much to report for the last 2 days. Just two days of short easy running with the dog, plus a bit of FST type stuff. I mapped out a little taper plan for myself and 2 stupidly short/easy days is the start of it. Athletes tend to either love or hate taper. You can probably guess which camp I personally fall into. For me I think it is less a fear of losing fitness than it is about the fact that when I'm training big/hard, I feel motivated/fulfilled in a way that I don't when I'm not training big/hard. I like feeling like I'm on a roll, and stopping that momentum with a drastic taper doesn't feel right to me. That said, I've convinced myself that this is the right thing to do right now so am not really fighting it... mostly b/c tomorrow I get to do a decent workout again!

I still haven't swam. I jogged down to the pool yesterday morning with the intention of swimming, but the heater is not fixed yet and the water is so so cold. I had my suit + cap/goggles on and I just stood on the pool deck trying to convince myself to get in. One of the older ladies (braver than me!) got in and swam 100m and came back to the wall and said It's so cold I can't breathe! And that was all I needed to hear. I took my swim cap off and walked back to my dry clothes and jogged right back home. Then later of course I get email updates from my local athletes who are swimming and they are saying the water is cold but they did it and I thinking BLAH I am setting a shitty example right now!! The fact is, if I had an Ironman this year, I'd be gritting my teeth and getting in that icy water. But I don't have any reason/motivation to be swimming well right now. Clearly, one has to care about their performance in order to put up with the discomforts of training. Right now I don't care enough about swimming to put up with water that is 70 degrees. That said, I do plan on taking my wetsuit with me tomorrow and forcing 3K even if it kills me. Ok, maybe I'll start with 2K. I am tapering after all.

How To Have A Great Run

I ran my hilly Gardens Run again today. It was hands down the best run I've had in years. When Scott asked how it went and I told him, he said "Running is so finicky". His point was that it seems, to him, that whether or not I have a good run or a crap run is completely random. Maybe sometimes it is, but I did some things today to set myself up to have a good one, so I don't think it was a complete random fluke today. Anyway, here's what I did.

~I ran stupidly easy yesterday.

~I massaged my quad like 3x throughout the day yesterday, in hopes that my knee would feel solid today (it did). The management stuff I'm doing for my knee is clearly working! It's not 100% perfect, but I'd say it's 90% and I'm able to run. As long as I stay on it, I feel at least somewhat confident that it won't stop me.

~I ate oatmeal for breakfast this morning. I am not on the anti-carb bandwagon. At all.

~I took Maia for a 20' walk this morning. I think that really easy movement like that is a great way to start the day!

~I spent at least 20 minutes working my key mobility hot spots- ankles, hips, t-spine. I used the voodoo band on my knee and ankle. I used a resistance band to do some 'Monster Walks' around our house. I activated my core with some plank movements and a few perfect form push-ups. I did 200 jumps with the jumprope (barefoot, including some single leg jumps). I guess you'd call this my version of a dynamic warm up. For sure it works for me- I felt super from the first step of my run today!

~I chose light shoes (Brooks Pure Flow) that tend to make my running stride feel smooth.

~I wore a cute running outfit (Pink Tartan by Coeur). Somehow when I'm wearing a cute outfit, I just feel better about everything and that leads to a better run. It's all in my head, but that's what fast running is, no?

~(Possibly most importantly) Before I started, I decided I was going to run fast today. "Fast" is relative, of course, but I think when we make this decision ahead of time, we are somehow more willing to put up with the discomfort that harder running brings.

On this route I rarely wear a garmin, but I know the distance b/c the route is a staple for me. I do start my stopwatch though, and I know my splits at several different check points along the way. I knew I felt good to start, and my goal today was to go ahead and push a little right from the beginning, with the thought that I wanted to whole run to be more of a tempo effort (vs just the back half, which I more commonly do). Mostly I wanted to see how I would feel if I wasn't so conservative to start. I admit I freaked out a bit when my first checkpoint (gate to the gardens, ~2 miles from my house) was over a minute faster than I did it last time (last time I completely blew up at the end!) so, um, yikes... I knew it could turn ugly at any moment but that was a risk I felt willing to take today. At the half, I was almost 2' faster than last time, and I had enough fatigue that it seemed plausible that I might not negative split today... but I tried anyway, and sure enough, neg split by more than 2 minutes, which shocked me for sure! I didn't blow up at all today which was awesome and confidence boosting and damn I needed that after some crappy runs the last few days/weeks. After my failed long run attempt on Thursday, I sort of thought maybe I wouldn't run again for quite some time... so knocking this out 4+ minutes faster than I've gone in years (over a 9.3 mile very hilly route) and not feeling like death at the end- winning! :)

These are the kind of run days that make you feel like all that slow crappy (but consistent!) running you did just might have been worth something after all. I still don't have a ton of confidence that I'm ready for a full marathon, but I do think that in a big picture way, I'm on the right track!

Saturday

Just jogged low aerobic 7.5 miles this morning. Felt like a recovery day. It used to be that the best way to get myself to truly go easy was to use my HR monitor as a leash. Recently though this method has started to piss me off, because I'm always 'racing' myself to see how fast I can go while staying within my own prescribed HR cap. Somehow when I'm coming back from a layoff or a while away from true aerobic training, this works great. Once I've spent 2 months doing it though, I get irritated when I don't see improvement every run, and then the uphills piss me off, and well, I need to find another method so I can achieve my objective but still enjoy running!

These days my best bet seems to be to leave my garmin at home and listen to a podcast. I'm not sure what it is exactly about podcasts, but when I listen to them while I run, I tend to go quite easy and stay really relaxed. Today I listened to the 3rd episode of the new Serial. They do such a great job of narrating a story- I genuinely enjoy listening and running while doing so is perfect. I think the thing I like the most about the narration of it all is how balanced it seems. I feel like they present the situations from lots of different angles, without much bias, but in great detail, which I appreciate. Last season I didn't discover Serial until they were like 10 episodes in, so it was great b/c I didn't have to wait a whole week (or two!) until the next one came out. This time around though I'm on it and I find myself  wanting them to come more frequently!

Knee held up today pretty well. Massaging my quads (by hand) seems to be the best thing I can do to manage that situation. Voodoo band has been quite good too, because that tends to make it crack when it needs to.

The last few days were really active for Maia. She spent a lot of time catching up on sleep today.

Friday

It occurred to me to do one of those posts where I go over highlights of the year, or goals/plans for the new year, but really, I think I prefer to keep this blog more acute (if that makes sense?). Blogs that gloss over details, to me, are way less interesting.

I'm not big into New Years Resolutions. I think it's funny when people assume that a year is going to be "GREAT!" but they don't set out a plan to make any real or lasting changes. Nothing changes because a page turned on the calendar.  But any of us can make lasting changes any day we want. We just have to decide.

I set out to do a long run yesterday. Ideally I wanted 20 miles and I felt good to start so thought yep I think I'm good for 20 today. But ~4 miles in my knee started talking to me. By mile 6 it was screaming and I had to make a decision b/c I was still running away from my house at that point... Part of me wanted to stubbornly run though it (because otherwise I felt good), but then I thought that might be a decision I would come to regret, so I turned around. I stopped several times on the way home to stretch, and when I could get my knee to crack/pop it would feel 100x better. I ended up with 13 miles instead of 20, which with the Maui Marathon in ~2 weeks felt like a giant failure. The worst part though was laying on my bed afterward, knee throbbing, thinking UGH I'm fucked. I really thought maybe that's it I wouldn't be able to run again for months. And then of course I was berating myself b/c of the jump in volume I'd put myself through the last 2 months. I have some big running plans for 2016 and the idea of not being able to run b/c I'm an idiot and ran too much just wasn't sitting well at all. I did all the rehab I know to do yesterday (reducing inflammation, massaging/rolling quad) and then spent the last evening of the year with some friends, some alcohol, and watching tons of illegal fireworks, hoping our house wouldn't catch fire.

Maia stayed very close to me all evening. At first I think she was trying to protect me from the bombs outside, but after 3-4 hours of constant loud BOOMING, she was shaking like a leaf. She doesn't normally sleep in bed with us, but we made an exception last night. She even cuddled up close while I was reading Moana a book.

I woke up this morning and my knee was hurting. Figured if it hurt while laying in bed, not moving, that was a bad sign. but then I got up and made it pop/crack, and instantly the pain was completely gone. I waited for it to come back but it never did.

We spent the day at the beach with a bunch of friends. 2016 started off in a picture perfect way. Looking at this I made a spur of the moment call to Mark asking if he wanted to swim. Convincing Mark to ocean swim is about as tough as convincing Maia to run, so we spent ~an hour  in this today and it was quite nice.

I came home and was exhausted, took a late afternoon nap (stayed up way past my bedtime last night and I'm too old for that!) and then had this nagging thought about needing to run. I've been on a bit of a run streak... I'd have to go back in my log to see for sure when it started, but I think it's been at least 2 months now where I've run- at least 1.5 miles- every day. Breaking my streak on New Years Day wasn't appealing, and since my knee had felt perfect all day I didn't really have an excuse. So I peeled myself off the bed and put my run shoes on and interestingly, felt awesome. Knee was fine, which frankly was baffling, though I am not complaining. I did a New Years Day themed run just for fun (16x1' on 30" rest), and 5 miles later walked in the door feeling 100x better than I did when I started. Anyway, cheers to 2016. I think if this year is going to be a "successful" one for me, I'm going to have to be diligent about all that rehab/prehab stuff... rolling, massaging, compressing... all of that.