Two Trials

An easy run this morning.  I felt sluggish after working until 11pm and having an early morning wake-up call.  The fresh air helped knock the hazy feeling out of my head and energize my body.

A recovery day.  13 miles in the morning and then off to work at 11am.  My legs felt great after yesterday’s long run.  I had a fun, easy run.  It was still cold outside and I’m still wondering if spring will ever come.

A new start today.  I decided to get back to the basics today; run because it’s fun and something I love.  No stressing about interval times or pace.  I decided on a long run and chose to go out Westport Island, which is where I have been doing long runs since I started running marathons 10 years ago.  I thought this locale would help me get back into the groove.  Brad and Margaret were trying to encourage me as I was standing by the woodstove procrastinating.  “It’s not sleeting or blowing a gale today,” they said with enthusiasm.  And I thought that these comments are from people that spend all day every day out side; I could at least manage 22 miles in the elements.

And it did!  I had a great 22 mile run – nice and easy.  While it was cold and breezy, I stayed warm enough.  I enjoyed running on the old, familiar road of Westport Island where I can pretty navigated the road blindfolded.  The run was effortless and smooth; I was pumped up again.  I ended my run by running to Sarah’s Cafe in town to meet my mom and Maddie for our usual pizza and spinach salad lunch.  It was so great to see Maddie pop out of the car fired up to see me.

Looks like getting back to the basics is going to help me move forward.

I’m clumping these days together, because they fall into the same category – crummy training days.  I had several bad days where I struggled physically and mentally with my workouts.  I was feeling like each day’s workout was becoming a chore.  So, I decided to put on the brakes for a few days.  I mean, in the end, I do this because it is fun, right?  If it’s becoming a chore, then something’s not right and I need to re-assess.   I was figuring that my slump was largely due to a lack of sleep along with a few other life stresses.  So, I took to working on a few of those things hoping that improvement in those areas might, in turn, help the training.

I spent most of the afternoon today on Peak’s Island at a fundraising event for Two Trials hosted by the Inn at Peak’s Island.  The event was planned by a friend, Jeanne Hackett (arunningconversation.com).  There was food, a band, kid’s activities, and a raffle.  Brad had unfortunately gotten stuck in Atlanta coming home from his ski trip and, therefore, missed the event, but my mom, Maddie, and I had a blast.  Maddie loved riding the ferry out to the island, and all the way she planned all the things she would get painted on her face during the event.  She ended up with a butterfly, cricket, dog, and a princess.  She was covered.  Then, my mom and I let her paint our faces.  I ended up with something that resembled South America in the gold and purple.

Maddie has been feeling great the last several days, even though her counts are down.  It was so much fun for us to watch her run and play with all the other kids.  In fact, you would have been hard pressed to pick her out of the crowd as the sick kid.  She still thinks it’s funny that she hasn’t lost her hair.

The event raised over $2,000 for Two Trials and the Maine Children’s Cancer Program.  Way to go and thanks to everyone who supported the event.

An easy ten miles this morning.  The weather was brisk, and the sky was crystal clear.  It was, in fact, a perfect morning.  I felt great this morning, refreshed and energetic.  I love these effortless, smooth runs.

Today was a recovery day after yesterday’s long run.  My legs felt a little tired, but I took it nice and easy.  It was a pretty nice day (translation – there was no sleet, freezing rain, or excessive wind).  These days when it seems like every other day we have some sort of wintry storm, I’ll take a decent weather day when I can get it.  Looks like tomorrow we’re in for sleet/freezing rain and another storm of some genre on Saturday.  I’m almost resigned to the fact that spring will never come or at least it won’t be here before the Trials.  Aw, it’s all about building character, right?  I suppose I’ll be stronger in the end for all those miles logged in the adverse weather conditions!

Long run day!  I was supposed to do my long run yesterday, but I had a bit of a stomach bug that kept me on the couch most of the afternoon.  Today’s run was an easy paced effort.  I felt OK, although I did have intermittent waves of nausea (left over from yesterday, I guess).

My mom picked Maddie up from school, so I ended my run at Sarah’s restaurant in Wiscasset where they were having lunch.  The pizza they had ordered made me want to vomit all over again, so I just sipped a bit of water and hoped to make a quick get-away.

Finally, by 4pm my stomach felt better, and I was able to take in my post long run chocolate milk and some pizza.  And my ear is still numb, although I think it’s getting a little better.

So, today’s plan was for a tempo run outside.  I awoke to guess what?  Yep, you guessed it, a steady snowfall that was scheduled to last all day leaving us with 8-10″.  I thought better of a 9 mile tempo run in the mucky, wet snow.  I hit the treadmill with my iPod and some college basketball as my entertainment.  1 X 6 mile and 1 X 3 mile at marathon pace with a 2 mile warm-up and cool down at the end.  The tempo stuff felt great.  I’m actually loving the tempo work this time around.  Usually, I like the track workouts better and dread the tempo, but this time it’s the other way around.  And if you’re wondering, my ear is still numb.

I am spending a couple of days in NH and VT.  When I awoke this morning, the weather guy on TV was clamoring about how it was -10 degrees F outside.  I thought,”10 below, aw c’mon, give me a break” and off I went.

I made several strategic errors when going out for this run.  First, walking out the door in the first place.  Second,  thinking that -10 was really no big deal and not factoring in the windchill.  Third, not bringing my balaclava (or my “running nun” headgear as a friend likes to call it).  I had let Brad take the balaclava on his ski trip.

I was thinking that -10 wouldn’t be that bad.  I mean I’ve been running in the winter cold for months now.  Oh, was I mistaken.  I thought I was in trouble from the very start, but convinced myself that I would warm up.  After 15-20 minutes, I was sure I was in trouble.  I was passing Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and I seriously considered stopping in to the ED.  You see, my ears had become numb and my fingers weren’t far behind.  Like a fool, I carried on and was sure I could make it back before any serious damage was done.  The last 3 miles of the run was a true speed workout as I tried to generate more body heat and get back to the warmth of my room as soon as possible.  By the time I got back to my room, my fingers were numb and I was afraid to even look at my ears.  I burst into the room; my mom and Maddie were surprised to see me back so soon and by my freezing appearance.  I ripped off my hat to find my numb right ear completely blanched (white).   I gently tried to rewarm it  by leaning my head against my arm.  Within minutes, I felt an incredibly painful burning, stinging sensation throughout the ear.  It turned beet red (a good thing) as opposed to black and necrotic (a bad thing), but it remained numb.  For the remainder of the day, the ear was intermittently painful and certain parts remained numb.  Frostnip is what it’s called as opposed to frostbite; whatever it’s name, it’s not fun and it was pretty scary.

I intended to do my speed session today after having to postpone it yesterday, but I was just feeling really crummy today.  My legs had no zip, my breathing seem labored, and mentally I didn’t have “it”.  I tend to have these little low points during some point of training.  Instead of stewing too much about the fact that I felt like even hitting marathon pace was a struggle today, I decided that maybe a little mental and physical break would be a good thing.  It does seem as though I’ve been biting off quite a bit lately.

Maddie was also struggling and not feeling too well, so I decided to make it a short run today and focus on doing something to cheer us both up.  Mads loves going to the little cafe in Damariscotta for muffins and juice.  I’m hoping that outing plus a trip to pick up Nana with brighten up our day.

I often tell myself that training for the marathon is itself a marathon, and I can’t let a couple of down days kill my confidence, passion, and drive.  So, we’ll be back at it tomorrow and hope for better results.