Week 13: March 4 to March 10

Monday - today I get half credit. I did not go to my room after dinner and do any yoga or yayaog. But I did do some work during the day. See I have a goofy secret. On days like today when My time at work is my own - no presentations, meetings etc. I take breaks every hour or so. I go to the rest room and do exercises in the handicap stall. Usually things like squats, lunges or balance yoga poses. Sometimes I'll do pushups against the wall. About 5 minutes or so then I wash my hands and go back to my desk. It's a great little pick me up and doing it in the restroom is easier than explaining to my co- workers why I'm doing squats at my desk. I did that enough times today that I get partial credit for my workout.

Tuesday - great night time run with Maggi, Julius and Amy. I now have run with 4 different people in March. Garmin

Wednesday - Yoga. I almost didn't go. I haven't been feeling well. Monday my sinuses started bothering me. Tuesday I had a sore throat and an earache. Today I have all of the above and I'm exhausted. I went anyway and I'm glad I did but I'm still not feeling great. I'm thinking there is a good chance I will not be running tomorrow.

Thursday - I desperately need sleep. And obviously I did. I slept about 10 hours overnight. It was aided by taking a decongestant but it worked. I need to research some natural sleep remedies. My bouts of insomnia seam to becoming more frequent. This week's bout was fueled by not feeling well too.

Saturday - You can read about my 18 mile tour of the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge here. Some additional notes: I'm pretty sure a lot of my issues at the end were from going too fast at the beginning. Some of it was caused by the health and sleep issues during the week. I do not feel like it was a fueling or electrolyte issue though. That's a big plus.

I am concerned about carrying stuff for the marathon. I won't be wearing a jacket so food and electrolytes must be carried in pockets. My old hydration belt worked great for the 16 mile run but one bag fell off early in today's run. That could be that I should change bags each week or get thicker ones. The bag simply separated from the pin. I'll post a photo of the set up next time.

The hydration pack and the belt combo started to bother me in the last three miles. I'll hold off judgement until after the 20 mile run though. Given my mood at mile 15 today I think discovering a pot of gold would have bothered me. Garmin  According to Garmin I did not go out THAT fast at the beginning. Could have slowed it down some but I went out faster for longer on the 16 mile run two weeks ago and didn't have nearly as much struggle at the end. Going to have to shake this one off and look toward the 20 mile in three weeks.

Sunday It's Sunday morning as I type this. I'm not going to bike ride. This is a shame since it's the best riding day yet. My legs are in pretty good shape after yesterday's run. The only dissenting vote goes to my left hip flexor (the one that caused my trips to the PT this time last year). So today will be a day of careful stretching and flexing and I think I'll take a walk later instead of biking.

Next week is my off week.

Harder than 2 More Miles

Let's start with the positives for today.

• Running friends rock (not just today of course)
• Chocolate Milk
• Beautiful, peaceful wildlife at the end of a hard run
• Finishing 18 miles

And now let me get the "not positives" out of the way. It was harder to finish 18 miles than 16. Much more than I expected for only 2 additional miles. Two weeks ago I never doubted during the run that I would finish 16. I was super glad it was over when it was but I knew I would. My mental focus faltered a few times but only in a minor way.

Today, I lost focus at 13. I had a terrible time trying to get back into it. I couldn't find an easy rhythm of running. I could chalk some of that up to the terrain which switched back and forth between mud path to big rock gravel but that can't be all of it. At mile 16 I was berating myself for even thinking I could do another marathon. I had to do some serious talk to get out of that funk. After 15 I broke my intervals into half miles at a time. I finished mile 17 as whole though.

At 18, I pushed the button on the watched, stopped running, looked to my left and saw this -

This photo is blurry but s/he was beautiful
and so peaceful standing there in the water

 

And with that I started to come back to the reality that I had finished and that's what matters most.

 

Back up with me to the beginning of my run...actually earlier in the week. I decided to run at the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge. I could piece together 2-9 mile loops there. Maggi told me earlier in the week that she and Russ were going to meet me for the second loop. YAY! . This morning I got a message from Julius that he would meet me for the second loop. YAY again!

 

At 8 AM Julius and I took off. We made a few 'wrong' turns as you will see on the map of this run. There a few loop-de-loops. Julius was a great partner for the first loop. We more or less ran 1 mile and 1 minute walks. I don't think he was really up to 9 miles but he stuck it out with me and for that I am so grateful. My friends are the awesomest.

 

We arrived back at the parking lot with 2 minutes to spare. I unloaded my gloves and jacket in the car and took off with Maggi and Russ. By the way, Russ is the 5th person I've run with this month. 25 to go! Maggi and Russ and I had a very pleasant run at 3 min run/1 minute walk intervals for the next 3 miles. That's when they were smart and turned back so they could keep their total at a reasonable 6.

 

I continued on and finished my 18 miles as I told you above. At 16.5 I turned around and went a half mile in the opposite direction before turning around and heading back to the visitor center. I wasn't sure exactly how far I was from the parking lot but I remember that Julius and I were actually short of 9 miles on the first loop. I did not want to get back to the care with mileage undone. So I had about a quarter mile walk back to the car after I hit 18. And that allowed me to see the Egret.

 

I arrived at the parking, tired, drained a still a bit sad about the finish. Then I see Maggi and Russ! They waited for me. AND they got me chocolate milk. My mood took a 180 degree turn!! I told you my friends are the awesome awesomest.

 

 

18 done. In three weeks 20 miles. Stay tuned.

Week 12; February 25 - March 3

Monday - I did 35 minutes yoga followed by 10 good form pushups knees bent.

Tuesday - 8 miles! This is now my longest weeknight run! I ran 4 miles on my own then joined Julius and Maggi for another 4. I feel pretty good. We got hit with some sleet off and on but managed to finish before the steady rains. My left calf is still misbehaving though. It's an inconsistent pain. It 's not getting worse but I'm not sure if it's better or I just wish it was. More stretching. Garmin

Wednesday - Yoga started again today. 45 minutes and I feel great.

Thursday - I ended up about 30 seconds short of 1 hour. Ran 15 minutes on my own  (Garmin) and then 4 miles with Julius. (Garmin) Looking forward to DST when we won't need headlamps.

Saturday -  I had a fun drop back week.  You can read about it here. Garmin

Sunday - I had a rather unsatisfactory bike ride this morning unless I count that I got outside instead of on the trainer at least. You can read about it here. Garmin

Halfway to Bob Potts now! :)

Battle of Wills

Today's ride turned into a battle between my rational self (RS) and my irrational self (IS). The wind and hills added fuel to the argument. Here's the gist of it as I struggled to comlete 7.5 miles on the bike. You need to know that my irrational self goes back and forth betweeen "What were you thinking, you are never going to make it" to "Failure is not an option, ya big baby"

RS - It's colder than I thought. My face hurts. Keep going if you still feel uncomfortable after one loop around the neighborhood you can go home. But I really want to get some outdoor minutes so I hope that doesn't happen.

RS - (after leaving the neighborhood and heading out on 252 toward the Springton Reservoir). Man this wind is rough. I feel like I'm hardly moving and I haven't even hit the hills yet.
IS - You can't use the wind as an excuse. Suck it up.

RS - (about 4 miles in). These hills with the wind are killing me. I need to ride outdoors more and get stronger. The century ride course will be much flatter so if I can work through the hills of Media I'll be in good shape.
IS - You really should go out and drive the century course. Maybe it's hillier than you think. Maybe you should reconsider doing the century ride.

RS - I'm starving and lacking energy even on the flats. It can't all be the wind. (Start thinking about what I've eaten today). Breakfast at 8 but then you caught up with Dave and the news and then did your taxes. It was three hours later before you headed out here. Maybe you should have had something else to eat before the ride.
IS - That's just another excuse. You just aren't cut out for this biking thing.

RS - Shut up. I've got plenty of time. I need to keep riding as much as my marathon training allows. Give myself a chance to get used to riding longer. When Bob Potts is over I'm switching my emphasis to bike miles and I'll have 4 months until the ride. I can do this. I have to be patient.
IS - Are you sure? (evil laugh)
RS - No, of course I'm not. But it makes sense that I'll have a lot of rough days until I get used to riding and less rough days as I get further into the schedule. I've been through this with running. I just have to be patient.

RS - Now that yoga is at 5:30 on Wednesdays and daylight savings time starts in another week, Maybe I'll be able to put in some easy miles on the bike after yoga. Two days a week on the bike will give me more confidence and shouldn't hurt my marathon training.

RS wins this round. Some days it's more of a struggle than others. Keep smiling and keep moving, right?

2 out of 30

I have challenged myself to run, walk or bike at least 1 mile with 30 different people in our fitness group, Perkis People. Today I ran with Caroline B and Maggi. I have 28 more to go.

Now in the interest of full disclosure I must tell you that I completed just 6.77 of my planned 8 miles today. I'm ok with it though. I feel fantastic. I'm halfway through my training program (week 12 out of 24 finishes tomorrow) and I feel strong and ready to tackle anything. One day at time but ready nonetheless. I stopped today because I felt like it. We had been out and back to the parking lot twice from different directions and I was not in the mood to go over the same ground again. To avoid that I was going to climb Mt. Misery and that was not going to happen. After Potts, though, I'm determined to earn my shoelaces  with the trail group.

Nothing hurt, I wasn't drained. I felt like I could have done twice the distance today. Truly after Tuesday's 8 miler I felt like I turned the corner. It's not all downhill from here - not with 18, 20, 22 and 24 mile runs left to do - but I am not dreading them either. I think I said this before but the variety in my training has been a huge factor. The alternating days of cross training and running have kept me moving and stretching and excercising without wearing out my legs or my mind. I can run 8 miles on a Tuesday because the next day I get to do yoga!

Today we met at Knox Headquarters in Valley Forge Park. Caroline and Maggi and I ran out the Valley Creek Trail to Washington's Headquarters then up the long hill to the Von Steuban turn on the loop and followed the loop in reverse (of our usual) down to to 252 and back to the parking lot. Caroline and I went out again on the Valley Creek trail and back for our total. (Map of VF Trails) It's the light blue trail that starts in the lower left of the map then the dark blue trail back to parking lot.

http://www.lincolnbittner.com/covered_bridge.html

February totals: 80.46 feet miles 207.12 feet miles since starting Potts Training December 15.
In February I spent 480 minutes on the trainer for my bike time. Hopefully I'll start my March bike time outdoors.