Marathon Training : Week Three / Flexibility

Running Recap:

• Sunday / 3 Miles / Interval Training (fun fact: my interval average pace has decreased 22 seconds per mile since I started this training four weeks ago, and my max heart rate has decreased from 102% to 95% so...there might be something to this) 
• Monday / 5 Miles / Trails & Hills 
• Tuesday / 3 Miles / Easy 
• Wednesday / 6 Miles / Pace 

Life is a lot like yoga.  Relax, be flexible...and try not to fart.  

A dear friend sent me a greeting card with these profound words of wisdom.  To be fair, she's never practiced yoga with me, so she doesn't know about my bean and broccoli burrito issues.  Flexibility is the name of the game for my training this week.  When planning a vacation with my bestie Beth a few months ago, I knew it would have to happen early in my training and specifically picked this weekend because it's the lightest week of my entire plan.  She was happy to accommodate, even though I realize just now this is her 11th wedding anniversary weekend (my sincerest apologies to her husband, you're a good man, Scooter, and congrats to you both, I love you!).  Hal Higdon says in my training plan "You can skip an occasional workout, or juggle the schedule depending on other commitments, but do not cheat on the long runs."  Fair enough, Hal, I can handle that buddy when my long run is a six-miler.

That said, runners are extreme creatures of habit.  We don't like change.  We always wear the same socks, we don't like changing chub rub brands, we eat the same meal the night before every long run and the same breakfast every single morning before a run (chunky peanut butter toast, one banana and one cup of coffee precisely two hours before start time, fyi if you're looking for the magic).  There are way too many other factors, namely weather and your legs, that can screw with your brain which you have no control over to let the things you CAN control go all willy-nilly.  I don't like running in the early morning, I don't like taking lunch breaks at work, let alone going for a run on my lunch, and my long runs are on Saturday mornings.  Period.  But flexibility was the intention and man, I lived it this week.  And I am not going to lie, this week's training was pure joy!  Keep in mind, I've run eight of the last nine days.  And it's been an average of 80% humidity for every single run this week.  I should have been miserable.  I had total control of the out of control and I loved it!

We are tied to what we hate or fear. 

~Swami Prabhavananda     

I believe by being flexible with my schedule and expectations, I truly made the most out of this week's training.  Rather than feeling like I had to get these runs out of the way, I was blessed with the opportunity to shake things up.  Just don't mess with my peanut butter toast/banana/coffee pregame.    

The next time the week (or month, or year) ahead isn't exactly looking to play out the way you'd ideally want it, take a step back.  Be flexible with the "have-to's" and look at them more as "get-to's."  The flexibility will free you and allow the joy to flow!  

This is what goes through my head on EVERY run.  

Week Four's Intention: Rhythm 

Trust Part Two : Are We All Crazy?

The idea of trust was my intention for Week Two of marathon training and maybe it's the Law of Attraction, maybe it's just happenstance, but a running friend who leads my area's Moms Run This Town chapter tagged me in a running quote this week which resonated with me:

Runners have an unspoken bond that's unmatched in any other sport.  We're trusting of complete strangers.  In every other group I've joined in my life, trust is earned gradually--it has to be proven.  With most runners I've met, trust is assumed.  We support each other immediately and without hesitation.  More than any other group, my running friends are fiercely loyal.  I don't know why "good people run," but I have a guess.  We build relationships outside in nature, forcing us to leave the stress, anxiety, and societal pressures behind for just an hour or so.  We leave the drama at work, family stress, and we just focus on the run.  All we need to have a good time is a pair of shoes. 
~Joanna Reuland 

My Kids 

The fact that I'm even in a Mom's running group just shows the openness of the running community, seeing that my "kids" have fur and terribly awful breath and I have an irrational phobia about pregnancy (which is sometimes exacerbated by the motherhood stories told by my MRTT friends).  At first, the trust was almost a little unnerving.  While on runs with brand new people, life stories would quickly be unfurled, deep dark secrets revealed, and highly personal stories about bodily functions were common place.  Who are these crazy people who tell complete strangers these kinds of things?!  I'm a country girl, raised in the heartland.  We don't share our business with anyone.  At least that's what I thought until I started running.  With my running friends, I've found an outlet to work through problems and often just to admit some of the deep dark crazy stuff going on in my head.

We listen to each other, we cheer each other on through the miles and through mental blocks.  We cry for each other through injuries and across finish lines.  We get up for one another at ungodly hours of the morning (usually on the weekends) to meet for long runs, because we would never dare to let our partners down by bailing on that awful twelve miler scheduled for the day.  We give advice about products, training programs, and all the perplexing problems that come along with running, always ending advice with the caveat, "you need to do what works for you."  We never feel judged or preached to.

We ask if anyone needs one last poop before we hit the road, and we swap stories of lost toe nails. We share our chub rub and our last packet of GU with a random person in a race clearly in need of a pick-me-up.  When I found myself in a half marathon listening in on a conversation of two strangers pondering "Do you think anyone's ever peed themselves while running?" I spoke up and said, "Yup, it happens, I've done it."  Seriously?!  Running is a no holds barred sport, in that anything is open game for discussion (and face, it, we all need the distraction of a completely inappropriate conversation).  But truly understanding the mental, emotional and physical struggle of running five minutes, five miles, five hours, that is a bond that is universal.  And that's where the trust is formed.

Runners might all be crazy, but running is always cheaper than therapy.  
     

Just a Few of My Therapists

Marathon Training : Week Two / Trust

Running Recap:

• Tuesday / 3 Miles / Interval Training 
• Wednesday / 5 Miles / Trail
• Thursday / Cross Train / Ecotrek  (note to self: WAY too intense for cross training without a rest day)
• Friday / 3 Miles / Easy
• Saturday / 9 Miles / Long Run  

Trust 

When I set the intention for this week's run, it was with the idea that I would pursue perfecting my posture as we were taught in the Good Form Running clinic.  The instructors showed us the proper forward lean needed to achieve the most efficient running technique, which involved leaning forward until we thought we were just about to topple over.  This takes trusting that your gut is going to be able to be strong enough to hold your body up without actually falling over while you're propelling yourself forward.  The forward posture helps land your foot under your hip, and therefore eliminate the heal-striking that plagues many runners.    

I never fancied myself a heal striker until I had the harrowing experience of watching myself run on film.  U-G-L-Y, my run ain't got no alibi, it's UGLY.  So I set out on my first run of the week, working on my potato chip hands  and adding in the lean.  About a mile in, I started getting a side stitch.  This is something that never happens to me.  The pain in between my ribs was almost unbearable, and I found myself sucking air while running what should have been comfortable, average pace.  Pushing through my intervals and all I can think is how much this GFR is really killing my run, and if this is really good form, then why is it hurting so much?!  Then a little voice inside my head recalled a sign in the hall way of my yoga studio that read "Trust in the process."  This mantra has carried me through some of the hardest times of my life, and gosh darn it, I am just going to keep trusting in this process of improving my running posture.

The interesting part about setting an intention for a week's training is all the other lessons that you find along the way.  A friend tagged me in a running quote about the trust that is found among runners that is unlike any other community.  You don't have to prove anything to other runners to be considered a runner.  It's inherent in the act of putting on a pair of running shoes and hitting the road less traveled.  The badge is earned instantly.  Manduka's Facebook page reminded me "Today we #practice trust - trust comes from love and commitment to yourself.  When nothing can shake you without your permission, trust flows freely.  Trust teaches us to appreciate the gift of being ourselves, and the gift of others being themselves too."  Okay, Manduka, I get it.  Don't judge the awful run, trust that it's going to take some time, and with commitment to the practice, it's going to work itself out.  But beyond that...as runners, we appreciate the gift of being ourselves, and wholeheartedly appreciate the gift of other runners being themselves.        

Week Three's Intention : Flexibility   

Marathon Training: Week One / Letting Go

Running a marathon.  Number 2 on my 40x40, and I'm not sure why I didn't put it as number 1, because this is the single biggest thing I have set out to accomplish in my life.  Self-proclaimed band geek, I've only been running about fifteen months and began running as a result of a public speaking training.  My mouth tends to get me in a lot of trouble.  So does my dreamer-schemer Jamie who hooked me into a wonderful, terrible idea of running the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. on October 27th.  We all need friends like Jamie in our lives, I like to refer to her as my barometer of possibilities.  Remember back when your mom said "Well if so-and-so decided to jump off a bridge, does that mean you'd do it too?" Pretty much any bridge Jamie decides to jump off, I do too.

What better way to see our nation's capital than on foot?  26.2 miles, through Rosslyn, across the Potomac River, through Georgetown, down the National Mall, across the Potomac again, past the Pentagon and to the finish line.  

At this point in time, I've finished four half marathons and a 25k.  That experience helped me to pick a training plan that fits where I am now and what I want to accomplish.  Hal Higdon Novice 2.  Hal, don't fail me, buddy!  Last week I began week one (of 18) of training, a plan that has me running four days a week, gradually increasing distance through the end of September, at which point I begin tapering to rest for the race.  But preparing for a distance race isn't only about the physical training, but also the mental and emotional preparation that you go through to get you through the literal and proverbial finish line.  

I'm not just a one-trick-pony and also have a regular yoga practice.  I begin each practice by setting an intention, what I want to accomplish during my time on my mat, whether it's finding peace, strength, relaxation, focus, etc.  I decided each week of my marathon training would have an intention, something I would focus on and give special meaning to my week's practice.  

Week One: Letting Go. 

Running recap: 

• Tuesday / 3 miles / Interval Training 
• Wednesday / 5 miles / Pace Run
• Thursday / 3 miles / Trail Run 
• Saturday / 8 miles / Long Run
• Sunday / Cross Train / Bike 1 hour

I recently attended a Good Form Running clinic and following the demoralizing experience of watching myself run on a giant screen in front of a room of strangers, I decided to start with the first tenet of GFR, which is posture.  I noticed while I run I grasp my fists so tightly I frequently lose sensation in my fingers and shoulders and end up with a death grip neck spasm.  In GFR, we learned to run with our arms relaxed, bent at the elbows and our hands lightly grasped as though one is holding a potato chip that you want to save to eat later.  Did someone say potato?  They had my attention!  

Through my runs, and during other quiet time this week, my intention of letting go has bubbled to the surface with some other areas in my life.  Sometimes we hold so tightly to things that just are no longer serving us, that we end up cramped and in a life-stifling death grip on the way things used to be.  It's time to start letting those things go.  If only it all was as easy as just holding an imaginary potato chip for an eight mile run!      

Week Two's intention : Trust 

Dreamer-Schemers Unite!  

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

One of my favorite childhood movies was the Wizard of Oz.  Dorothy, uncertain where she should begin on her journey is prompted by Glinda "It's always best to start at the beginning, and all you do is follow the yellow brick road."  I began a new adventure down my own yellow brick road on New Year's Eve 2012, when I was inspired by a friend to start a bucket list which I like to call my 40x40.  Forty things I want to accomplish by the time I'm forty years old.  Now, my list may not be filled with fantastical, over-the-top, once-in-a-crazy-person's-lifetime kinds of things.  I prefer to think of it as a yellow brick road to follow to help me accomplish some dreams, enrich my life, and keep me moving forward over the next three years.

So my friends, here we start, at the beginning.

1. Read Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman cover to cover. 
2. Run a marathon.  Completed 10/27/2013, Washington, D.C. 
3. Ski out west. completed 2/10/2013, Breckenridge, CO.  
4. Visit Frank Lloyd Wright's Taleisin. 
5. Hike the Pere Marquette River Trail loop. 
6. Top Secret. 
7. More top secret. (sorry, a girl has to have some secrets) 
8. Star gaze in the Iowa countryside. 
9. See a meteor shower. 
10. Write a short story. 
11. Perfect a handstand or forearm stand. 
12. Go on a yoga retreat. 
13. Riverbank 25K race.  Completed 5/11/2013, Grand Rapids, MI. 
14. Re-key my flute. 
15. Take flute lessons again. 
16. Climb Sleeping Bear. 
17. See a play at the Purple Rose Theater. 
18. Start a Master's Degree.  
19. None of your business. 
20. Write a book of poetry. 
21. Have an Audrey Hepburn movie marathon. 
22. Grow a lavender garden. 
23. Make Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon. 
24. Crochet a granny square blanket like my mom makes.
25. Learn to meditate.  And have a regular practice. 
26. See Mumford & Sons live. 
27. Master making hummus.  
28. Start a blog.  Completed 6/30/2013. 
29. Run a trail half marathon.  
30. and beyond TBD.  

And with that, I slide on my trusty ruby slippers and begin my journey.