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When Things Don’t Go As You Plan

Happy Wednesday gang! I hope you all are having a good week so far. This morning I headed back to Barry’s Bootcamp for the first time in 10 days and the intense workout was exactly what my body needed to reset 100% from traveling and partying. As of now, I don’t travel again until April when I head down to Savannah for some quality time with my family! I can hardly believe it at this point since I feel like I’ve been traveling weekly for the past few months. 

This week’s marathons+moderation guest post hits home for me as many of the same feelings Jamie talks about are ones that I had this year when I finished Philadelphia but Bo chose to hold out for NYC 2013. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do and head on over to her blog to show her some support!

Hi everyone! I’m Jamie and I blog at From Couch to Ironwoman.  My husband, Mike, and I started running using the Couch-to-5K program and relatively quickly built our way up to a half marathon only six months after we started running.  Since our goal is to do Ironman Louisville in 2014, we knew we couldn’t stop at the half marathon distance.  Last December we registered for our first marathon, the Wineglass Marathon in Corning, New York, and we trained for it diligently together throughout the summer.

JamieandMike

Mike and I have trained together since the beginning.  We completed all of our training programs together: Couch-to-5K, Bridge-to-10K, our first half marathon and our first triathlon training program.  It only made sense for us to do our first marathon training program together, sure there were days when we couldn’t run together because of conflicting schedules but for the most part we were together.

On the days when we were supposed to do our “marathon pace” (which we just guessed at since it was our first marathon), I would run slightly behind Mike.  I ended up never running my goal marathon pace, I ran it slightly faster.  We ran our long runs together and suffered through some pretty horrible training runs, and celebrated the good ones.

Our 20 miler went really well for me, but Mike struggled through it.  Even though we had both had some difficult runs (19 was NOT good for me), I never had a doubt in my mind that we weren’t both going to become marathoners.

On the morning of the race, I could tell that Mike was really nervous. I don’t think that it helped that his mom was talking about running almost the entire car ride to the marathon, so I just tried to get them to change the subject.  When we got the race, we did our thing and saw two of our friends who were also running the race. Then, we all went and found our respective spots with the rest of the runners.

marathonfriends

Although Mike and I train together, we don’t race together. He is a lot faster than me so he lined up with the 3:55 pace group and I fell back somewhere behind the 4:10 pace group.  This was a little bit faster than what we had been planning for but we both knew we felt relatively good.

A little while after 8am, we were running our first marathon.  The first 10 miles I was averaging 9:30 pace (which was a bit faster than my goal marathon pace) and that’s when I saw Mike’s parents for the first time. His mom told me that Mike was doing well, and under his goal pace too, so that made me happy.

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I hit the half marathon point at 2:07 and then I started to feel fatigued.  I kept pushing but there were times when I had to walk.  At this point, I still didn’t doubt that I would finish the marathon but I knew that I might have gone out too fast in the beginning. I saw Mike’s parents again at mile 16, and his mom said something about Mike and his paces but I couldn’t understand her.

Then, at mile 18.5, everything changed. I saw this guy that looked like Mike on the sidelines cheering me on and then I realized that it WAS Mike. I was so disoriented and confused, but I asked him what he was doing. He told me not to worry about him, but since we’re married I did just the opposite. I remember motioning and willing for him to come with me, but he wouldn’t. I even said, “well then I don’t want to do this either”.

From that point on, the race was “over” for me and really over for Mike. His legs and hips had cramped up so badly he couldn’t continue.  Looking back on it now, it was the right decision, but in the moment I couldn’t believe that he wasn’t going to achieve what we set out to do.

The rest of the race I struggled; my paces plummeted to over 15 minute miles at times. And I probably walked more than I ran. I also stopped taking in fuel, mainly because mentally I didn’t care anymore.  The only thing that got me through was our friend Mark who saw me with about 3 miles left to go, and knowing that Mike wanted me to become a marathoner.


 JamieMarathonFinish

I finished my first marathon in 5:01:23 and I cried as I crossed the finish line. Not because I was happy, but because my training partner, my husband, hadn’t done the same. I felt guilty and I had a hard time calling myself a marathoner (I still do) for a long time.

I know that 26.2 miles is a long way and that anything can happen, but I NEVER expected anything like that.  It felt like nothing was going right and I really wanted to quit, but I didn’t.

Mike is going to become a marathoner someday, and I hope that our next marathon is one that we will remember for the good times and not the bad.  We’re registered for two marathons this year: the Cleveland Marathon and the Mount Desert Island Marathon. In fact, we registered for the Cleveland Marathon the same night after my first marathon finish. We needed redemption and we will get it.

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Marathon Training and CrossFit

Hi everyone! I’m Meg and I blog at RunFitKin about my life as a runner, crossfitter and wife/puppymom (and hopefully person-mom within the next year!) Being a runner the majority of my life, I’ve always viewed myself as someone whose strength and ability was built on running around an oval or on a cross country course.

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So when my husband approached me about trying this crazy new workout program called CrossFit, I was nervous to step outside my comfort zone. I was also intimidated. At the time I was struggling to even do push-ups on my knees! I knew that I would be frustrated with my lack of strength but John was encouraging and we took the leap, mainly because he wanted to lose weight and I wanted to get out of a running slump. I found out a couple of things right away.

  1.  Everything is scaleable, it didn’t matter that I couldn’t do a pull-up, there were bands to help me. It didn’t matter that my flexibility was limiting, there were mobility exercises to practice to get me more limber. It didn’t matter that I didn’t finish first in all of the WODs, my “boxmates” (fellow class members) were always there to cheer me on.
  2. I was the best runner out of everyone. Now this was important to me, especially in the beginning because I have a big ego. I have a “medium size fish”, little pond mentality going on over here. Being good at running showed me that everyone has strengths and weaknesses in CF. The slower runners at our gym were some of our strongest athletes. I wanted their skills and they wanted some of mine, together we gave each other tips and cheered each other on and challenged each other to do better. We believed in each other through and through. It made me find my fire for running again.
  3. I started to believe anything was possible.

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Which brings me to my marathon story. When I moved to Seattle and realized that adults don’t really run XC or track, I was sort of at a loss. I ran a few 5ks, then my first half marathon. I told myself I could never do a full marathon; half was tough enough. But then curiosity got to me, and I signed up for the 2009 Vancouver Marathon. My training was all over the place and I DNFed at mile 10, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to make it through all 26 miles without serious pain. I wasn’t ready.

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Fast forward to 2012. After a big PR in a half marathon in 2011, just 4 months into crossfitting, I could feel the difference in my core. My mentality was stronger and I had much more confidence in myself. I was ready to try Vancouver again in 2012. I used the Run Less, Run Faster training plan, which pairs hard miles with cross training. I used Crossfit instead of biking or swimming and found myself hoping to BQ on my second attempt at the marathon.

While the BQ didn’t happen, I did finish my first marathon sub-4, after injuring myself in mile 14. My physical therapist has told me that it was no fault of Crossfit or even a lack of training that got me injured, she believes I’d been overcompensating for weak hips and glutes for years.

I returned for another marathon after some strength work both in PT and in CF, and hit a 15-minute PR in the race. While training I also gained a few PRs in lifts at Crossfit. I was proving to myself that I could maintain Crossfit strength and run pretty well (though still no BQ).

I won’t pretend that you can be top notch at both sports simultaneously. When training for marathons or attempting to be competitive in half marathons, Crossfit takes on a cross training role for me. I will go twice or three times a week and prioritize my mileage over Crossfit. I will commit a Crossfit sin and cherry pick my WODs. For instance if something is going to burn out my legs on a morning of a track workout, I’ll skip the WOD so that I can bring a strong performance to the track. This is how I manage to keep my love of Crossfit in moderation with my love of running.

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When I’m not training for big running goals, I focus on Crossfit. I can now run a happy pace and hit “good enough for me” times on half marathons and sometimes surprise myself at shorter distances. The advantages I have gained from doing both sports has me convinced that this is the formula for me. My next big goal, which is a very lofty one, is a sub 1:30 half marathon. I plan to do  Crossfit about twice a week and average 40 miles/week.

While there a program called crossfit endurance, I’m still not sold on it. I may experiment for my next full and see if CF endurance can get me to 3:30 (or below). I have not seen many women be competitive runners and competitive crossfitters. I would love to learn from anyone who has that experience!

Have you tried crossfit?

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Give Yoga A Shot

Hello Healthy, Happier Bear readers!

I’m Danielle, one of Ashley’s fellow Greatist Ambassadors and I blog over at Live, Run, Grow!  In sticking with the Marathons and Moderation theme I thought I’d talk a little bit today about my recent marathon training and how scaling back a bit on the actual running and incorporating yoga into my training really helped me!

I ran my first marathon a little over a year ago.  Being a relatively new runner at the time (I began running in May of 2011 and the marathon was January 2012) I didn’t know much about running, training or incorporating cross training into my program.  I basically downloaded the recommended training plan, put on some sneakers and ran.

My training went great…up to 16 miles.  That’s when everything would start to fall apart.  As soon as I got over 16 miles it felt like someone was stabbing me in the butt (which I later learned was because of a muscle called the piriformis) and the arches of my feet killed!  Every step I took felt like I was stepping on broken glass.  I even called my husband towards the end of my 20 mile run crying telling him I didn’t think I could do this and I didn’t even want to go to the race, I was in too much pain and I’d rather not go than not finish.

Well, I DID go, and I DID finish.  My feet hurt and I was sore for days, but I knew the second I crossed the finish line that it wasn’t my last marathon.

Marathon Finish

Fast forward to the fall of 2012, I was beginning to up my training for my second marathon, but this time I was going for the Walt Disney World Goofy Race and a Half Challenge – that is the half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday (and just for good measure I threw in the 5k on Friday!).  I was worried about the long runs after what I had experienced last year and especially worried about having to train with back-to-back long runs to be ready to run a half and full back to back.  On top of that I was starting Yoga Teacher Training and the program ran October through December…exactly the timeframe that I’d be doing my marathon training!

I was really concerned about the effect that 3-4 vinyassa yoga classes a week would have on my running…would my legs be too tired? Would they be sore after a hard class?  Would I have the time to fit in the yoga AND my runs??

The beginning of my training was similar to the previous year, but I was still dreading getting up to those 18 and 20 mile runs.  I really mentally prepared myself for them…I knew what was coming and I was ready this time, pain or not I was determined to tackle those runs without any tears this year!

Well, my 18 miler came (following a 9 miler the day before) and around mile 16 I turned my game face on and waited for the pain to come…but it didn’t!  I was amazed, but didn’t want to get too excited, it was probably just a fluke.  A few weeks later I did 10 miles on a Saturday and then headed out for 20 the next day…NO PAIN!  I got to my house at 20 miles, paused for a minute…and then kept going!

As I ran those extra few miles I began to think about my training this time around and realized that I really hadn’t been experiencing the same aches, pains and soreness I had the last time around.  My foam roller wasn’t getting used quite as much (although it still did get a lot of love!), I didn’t carry around a golf ball to roll the arches of my feet on, and my body didn’t need as many rest days after my long runs.  The difference?  All the yoga I had been doing!

I finished the Goofy Race and a Half Challenge a few weeks ago feeling great and not experiencing any soreness at all!

Goofy Medal Pic Danielle

I even stopped and did some pushups with the green army guys at mile 21!

Marathon Pushups

Because of my experience, I am a true believer of the benefits of yoga for runners and love to be able to share them with others now that I am a certified yoga instructor (I even feature yoga poses for runners on my blog!).

When I began running and started doing some research on training I was surprised to learn that stretching was such a controversial topic!  Many believe that stretching before a run can lead to an injury…and I’m sure for a lot of people this is true.  If you don’t stretch often and your muscles are cold and tight it’s easy to push too far and hurt yourself.  But, if done correctly, incorporating yoga into your regular routine can actually stretch and strengthen the major running muscle groups and help to prevent injury!

Triangle Forward Bend

This past weekend I even took a workshop with Sage Rountree who is an internationally recognized authority on yoga for athletes.  She’s written several great books on the topic and regularly contributes to Yoga Journal and Runner’s World (keep an eye out for a great pre-run routine from her in February’s Runner’s World!).

One of the interesting things I learned from Sage is that a lot of athlete’s have a type A personalities (of course they do, that’s why they’re so competitive!) and it’s hard for them to take a step back from their usual full speed ahead training and do something like yoga, but in the long run (no pun intended!) it’s often that step back that gives your body the time to recover so that you can continue to move forward!

So, that’s my Marathons + Moderation tip for you – give yoga a shot!  You just may be surprised at the results!

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