Boo Legs

Utah Valley Marathon Race Report

Wow, where to start here. I was so excited for this race. This was my goal race. I had three goals in mind.

1. Run a 3:06 marathon. Quite an aggressive goal for me. But I trained for a 3:10 marathon and I knew if everything fell into place on race day, this would happen.

2. Run a 3:15 marathon. I know I was fully capable of running this. 

3. Qualify for Boston. Run under a 3:35. I better !@#$ well do this one. I knew I had this one in the bag.

Started the race out feeling good. I watched as the 3:15 pacer raced out and tried to stay with him. I noticed he was running faster than a 7:26 mile. This frustrated me and messed with my head. I knew I wanted to finish under 3:15 yet he was going faster than I wanted to for the first half of my race. Mentally I couldn't handle letting him slip away. By my garmin, he was running around a 7 min/mile. I asked the guy next to me if the pacer was fast and he mentioned that the pacer was probably accounting for the slow down coming on the hills. Still bugged and mentally frustrated, I kept with him....Big mistake. It took so much effort to keep going up those hills maintaining my pace with such a strong headwind. Had the race ended at mile 18, I would have felt great about my performance....but it didn't. Unfortunately, I pushed it too hard against the wind and on the hills that I didn't have any "juice" left for the last 6 miles. I watched myself drop from a 7:10 min/mile to barely pushing a 9:00 min/mile to finally walking mile 24. I was defeated. At mile 25 I decided I wasn't going to finish this dang thing walking so I was able to squeek out a 9:00 min/mile to finish. Not the strong finish I was hoping for....

I'm trying to celebrate the fact that I qualified for Boston. That has always been a goal for me. The frustrating part is that I didn't train for a 3:21:XX marathon, I trained for a 3:10 marathon. I'm a better runner than what I ran.

Lesson learned. Ease up on hills and in wind. Save the effort for the end. And run my own race! I will get under 3:10 one day!

Still pretty sore from the marathon on Saturday. 

At the gym, I did the elliptical for 30 min and body pump. Skipped out on the squats, lunges, and dead lifts. I'm no dummy. :) 

Surprised that my weight was up so much today?! Maybe I tried too hard to drown my race sorrows in ice cream over the weekend. :) Not too worried about it.

Workout today was the elliptical 30 min, stair stepper 20 min, 30 min core work class.  The thought of running still makes me a little nauseated.... :)

Trying to decide on whether or not I want to do the Big Cottonwood Marathon in Sept. If I BQd at that race I'd be eligible for the 2014 Boston Marathon. I won't be able to run the 2013 marathon,....planning on expanding the family soon..... (that's its own kind of marathon!)

I originally had plans to run but I've been having a nagging pain in my knees. I'm not too concerned about it, just want to be safe. So I went to a spinning class at the gym. The teacher is awesome and loves intervals. Usually, I share that love but today my legs felt like lead. I just could not make them go fast. Still got a good workout but felt like I was in slow motion when it came to speed. Hoping that comes back someday.... Also hoping to run a few slow miles tomorrow. The good news is descending stairs is no longer a problem. My washing machine is downstairs so, naturally, the laundry has been piling up since last Saturday.

First day back running! It felt pretty good. Not surprisingly, a little tight everywhere. I started out at a 9:30 pace and worked my way down to a 8:15 pace. 8:30 average for 4 miles.

So I wore the heart rate monitor while running today. I don't know if its because I worked a night shift and ran after I woke up from my nap or if my heart is super conditioned (sarcasm there) but I had a hard time getting my heart rate up. It stayed around 130 the whole time and usually my heart rate goes up to about 140-155 while I run. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the marathon and my recovery? Or maybe I was just super tired from working all night? Who knows.

Good luck to everyone running Ragnar! I'm kinda jealous. 

2 easy miles 8:45 min/mile on TM. Followed by Body Pump. My quads are still angry with me but I'm giving them the silent treatment. :) 2 easy miles after pump.

I'm going for a longer run tomorrow. Excited to see how that feels. 

Went for a 6.5 miler today. Average pace was 8:30. I felt good but it still took a little more effort than it usually does to sustain that pace. I wasn't out of breath by any means but it definitely didn't feel like the "easy" pace it usually is.

The thought of jumping back into marathon training, figuring out long runs, speedwork, paces, etc for the fall makes me a little sick. I'm sort of ambivalent about it. I don't know if I'm going to do a fall marathon, maybe just stick to the smaller races. Then again, maybe its too soon to decide. I feel like the Utah Valley Marathon really took a lot out of me.... Or maybe I'm just a wuss. Probably a little bit of both.

Dang it, I've been avoiding writing this because I didn't want it to be true....I think I have a tibial stress fracture? Stupid. About two weeks before my marathon I started to feel like I was getting shin splints. I stretched, iced, rolled, and compressed those bad boys to make it to the marathon. It would hurt right when I started running and then gradually warm up and it would get to the point that I didn't feel it anymore.

Now, not so much. I kept thinking the pain would get better but its not. I still don't know for sure but when I run, the pain doesn't seem to "warm up" anymore. It's just a sharp pain on the lower part of my shin. I'm good at giving advice to rest up but not really good at taking that advice. I really don't want it to be a stress fracture. I'm gonna take this week completely off of running and see how it is next week? (thinking speedy recovery thoughts) Anyone have any ideas to keep me from going crazy?

I was planning on doing 7 miles today but only made it 1.5 out before I decided to turn around because of this nagging shin. Again I say, stupid. 

45 min on the elliptical. Funny how when you can't run, you want it that much more. 

30 mins abs class. Something I realized during this last marathon is how weak my core is. I need to be better about strengthening my midsection, its probably my weakest area.

Spinning class at gym. So hard and so sweaty!

20 min weights. 

Wow,  (not really groundbreaking info here...) its amazing what working out can do for your energy levels and mind set. Worked an all nighter last night and when I woke up, exercising was the very last thing I wanted to do. Somehow managed to drag my sleep deprived but to the gym and worked out on the elliptical for about 55 minutes. About the last 10 minutes, I finally felt awake and good. Feeling much better now and so glad I got myself to go. Why is it that I have to have the same conversations with myself?

Oh dang it, I'm awake. I don't want to go.

You'll feel better.

But laying in bed, napping, and eating cereal all day makes me feel better too.

You never regret a workout.

......Shoot, its true. I never do. 

Body pump at the gym. Really wanted to run today. But decided my shin would probably not like it too much. Driving home from the gym, I saw several runners and got a bit jealous. Two weeks ago I was ready to take a major break from running, now I'm ready to get back at it. Just waiting for this shin to be ready.

I am looking forward to focusing more on strength workouts. This is something I majorly neglected this past couple of months.

Good luck to everyone running races tomorrow!

Worked out on the stairmill (affectionately known as "the stairway to hell") for a whopping 45 minutes. Seriously, death on a machine! The only thing that made it bearable was that the Olympic Trials were playing on the TV next to my machine. (I didn't get to watch them last night because my little two year old was running his own 10k in the sprinklers at that time. Just as fun, if not better!) I got to watch the womens 10k. So inspiring, makes me want to be a better/faster runner. Oh to be that speedy...

Completed my workout with some leg work. Squats, lunges, calf raises, and finishing off with some good ol planks. I know I have rock hard abs in there somewhere! 

So so tempted to run today. My shin is feeling better but I can tell that its still not 100%. I'm trying to be smart. .... but being smart is hard sometimes. I keep reminding myself that I don't want to suffer later so let it completely heal now. (whatever it is...I still don't know. I'm thinking it was just really bad shin splints?) Still compressing and icing like a champ.

Did body pump today at the gym followed by 20 mins on the elliptical.

While I was training for the marathon, I could eat anything I wanted cuz I was logging a lot of miles. I got into the habit of having some sort of treat at least once, sometimes twice a day. It didn't matter cuz I burned it off like crazy and my weight didn't change. Without realizing it, my simple sugar/carb intake was increasing. (not necessarily a bad thing when logging a lot of miles).  In the last two weeks my mileage and training has significantly decreased yet I've noticed that I still crave those simple carbs. I don't want to feel like I need to have a treat after every meal, so last week I told my husband I was cutting out treats for a week to lessen my cravings for it.

Sure enough at the BBQ I went to yesterday there was a dessert. I politely refused it and my friend seemed to take offense. I just told her I wouldn't care for any and she immediately started asking me why, and why do I think I need to lose weight. I explained to her that I wasn't necessarily trying lose weight I just don't want to be craving sugar so much. Then her husband got in on it too and they started saying how crazy I am how I should just have dessert, blah, blah, blah. The point of this is that I'm just frustrated because I don't like feeling pressured. I shouldn't feel bad for wanting to pass up on dessert for one night.

By no means am I "giving up sugar." I love my ice cream too much for that. I just want to lessen my need for it. I shouldn't feel guilty for that. Rant over.

Wow, that is a novel. Sorry if your eyes hurt. Mine kinda do.

I gave in.....I ran. oops?

Actually it wasn't that bad. My shin kinda ached but it warmed up like it did right before the marathon. Whereas last week, it never got warm and always hurt.

Not gonna lie, it felt great to get the legs moving again. Ran 4 miles at 8:15 min/miles. I'm itching to do speedwork but again...trying to be smart. I did upper body weights after the run on the treadmill.

30 min elliptical followed by.....1 whopping mile. Intense, I know. Followed by lower body weights. I love working legs. They are so much stronger than my upper body. (In fact my 60 year old mother can totally cream me in an arm wrestling match, I've tried several times.)

I ran down to Sugarhouse Park, around the park and then back home. I didn't take the Garmin with me but I'm pretty sure I was around 8-8:15 min miles. It felt ....just okay. I am surprised that I still feel sometimes sluggish and slow. Today I felt like I was putting in more effort than I usually do to maintain that pace. I was surprised when I came home and saw what my actual time was. Kinda disappointing. It has taken me FOR-EH-VER to recover from this marathon. Please tell me this is normal.

I've decided not to do any fall marathons. For lots of different reasons, but overall I think my body just took a beating with this last training cycle/marathon. Hmmm... Maybe I'm not as tough as I thought. (or hoped) Also, my husband has decided he wants to do a marathon! So fun. This came with no pressure from me whatsoever. We've done races together before but he's never really been all that in to them. He just did them with me to impress me while we were dating. :) But I think being at the finish line at the UV marathon did something to him. He came home saying he wanted to do it. He asked me to create a training plan. I was skeptical that he'd actually follow through...but three weeks later, he has completed every run and is starting to look forward to it. I'm proud of him and excited to be on the supporting end this time. If I can't do it, darn it, I'll live vicariously through him!

I'm easing back into running. It seems like at the beginning of every run lately, my legs won't go as fast as I want them to go. The turnover seems to take a while to really get going. But overall my run felt good. I warmed up for a mile @ 8:30 followed by some quicker (for me :) miles between 7:15-7:30 followed by a mile cool down.  And then I hit the floor for some good ol push ups, tricep push ups, and ab work. 

Its hard to believe that I wanted to run 26.2 miles @ 7:10 or better. I'm realizing that was such a huge goal. Maybe even a bit unrealistic. Welp, go big or go home right? I tried going big and the wind (and my head) made me go home. The good thing is, I've definitely learned from this marathon experience. But I'm still shooting for a sub 3:10 next time! (whenever "next time" is....)

Wow, so not a good run today. I started out feeling blah, hoping the feeling would get better as I got into my run. Usually it takes about 2-3 miles to start feeling good. The blah feeling got mildly better around 5 miles, just downhill from there. It just was hard all around. I felt sluggish, my shin ached, my knee started aching. WTH? Not a fan of the run today, not a fan at all.