16 Miles in Pictures

I ran 16 miles alone on Saturday.  Usually Monica and I like to run together for these longer miles, but our schedules were so busy that we just couldn't find a way to make it work.  I created a really neat loop that covered a lot of ground over 16.75 miles and thought it would be fun to show how much things can change mile-to-mile over that distance.  I love watching how the light changes in the morning.  It is the number one reason why I never mind getting up before the birds.

(Monica, I missed you the whole way, and I didn't want you to miss out on the beautiful views, so here you go:))

Mile 0.  5:15 am.

Mile 0.  Looking North East.  The light is not from the sunrise but from the community center.

Mile 1.5

Mile 1.5

Mile 2

Mile 3

Mile 3.75.  The tiny red dot in the top left corner is Monica.  She had a friend visiting from Ohio and they got a quick run in before her friend had to leave.  I saw them from a distance and waited for a while to see if it was them or not.  Monica, your red hat always gives you away!  ;)

Mile 5 

Mile 5.5.  I've never run on a golf course before.  It was beautiful running along the golf path for a mile.

Mile 6.  That's a mall and major highway in front of me.

Mile 6.25.  Headed under the highway.

Mile 6.5

Mile 7.5

Mile 8.5.  This park leaves out water and cups for park enthusiasts on the weekends.  While I didn't use any, I thought that was really cool.

Mile 10.  This is the cutest neighborhood.  I had no idea it existed. 

Mile 11

Mile 13.  At the top of a 2 mile climb.  I wanted to take a picture of the hill I just climbed, but I didn't because I passed a girl halfway up the hill and she was still back there when I turned around.  It felt rude to photograph her.

Mile 13.  Looking over the highway I crossed earlier.

Mile 14.5.  My calves cramped up suddenly at this point.  I took a Salt Stick and they were refreshed in less than 30 seconds.  That stuff works!  I highly suggest it.

Mile 16.5.  I saw my husband and kids pass by in the car.  They were headed to get me a special breakfast!

When I got home, my husband asked me if I had energy left in the tank for a hike and picnic.  Two hours later, we were at the top of Mt. Falcon, 3 miles total.  The sign above us means, "The well at the gate."  Inspiring, I know!

Looking out over Mt. Rosalie.

Before I started training for marathons, I had no idea how much ground I could cover in one run.  I have a hard time mapping out my runs now because I want something new and different.  It needs to have beautiful views and loop back to the beginning.  I don't like out and back routes, but creating something that covers so much ground is ironically difficult.  

When I got home on Saturday, my boys asked me where I ran.  I told them I ran behind Monica's house, to our library, down to the mall, past Daddy's work, and back up through our favorite playgrounds.  My youngest son said, "Mommy, that's not possible without a car!" 


~Roadburner

Enjoying the Run Again

I'm 21 weeks into training for the Colfax Marathon and the last two weeks or so have been draining.  I'm logging more miles than I ever have before and there are definitely mornings where my alarm goes off between 5:15-5:30 and instead of skittering out of bed, I fumble, loudly.  It has been an insanely long road.  Today, I got the boost I needed to pull me back on track.

My alarm buzzed at 5:15 am, but I awoke 2 minutes before, naturally.  I quietly got out of bed, politely not waking my husband.  I dressed quickly, ate a banana and a Gu, downed some orange juice, and headed out the door.  I purposely hid my Garmin from view.  I'm visiting my parents in Omaha this weekend.  The weather is supposed to be rainy all day Sunday, so instead of going long 3 days after my tempo, I only get 2 days for recovery.  I didn't want to push my luck and feel pressured to go out too fast.

I started out warming up nice and slow and after a mile, slowly accelerated to what felt like a sustainable, moderate pace.  Usually, I try and keep the same pace no matter how the terrain changes.  If it is a mile long 7% incline, I try to run up it at the same speed as I would a straight shot.  Today, I wanted to maintain only by effort.  I thought of it as keeping money in the bank.  "Keep your effort moderate.  Hills hurt.  Save some for later so you can finish strong." Dog walkers think I am crazy, but self talk works.

On the straightaways and downhills I opened up my stride and sped up, keeping the moderate effort.  On hills, I backed way off, listening to my breath and paying very close attention to my legs.  As I rounded the 12th mile and saw my house, I felt great.  I truly wasn't tired.  I could have kept running for another 10-15 miles or more.  The fresh feelings in my lungs and legs were exhilarating.  I haven't felt that good after a run in months!

While I cooled down I looked at my watch to finally check my splits.  My goal was to maintain right at a 9:00 pace.

Mile 1 - 10:06
Mile 2 - 9:18
Mile 3 - 9:03
Mile 4 - 8:38
Mile 5 - 8:56
Mile 6 - 8:20
Mile 7 - 8:31
Mile 8 - 9:10
Mile 9 - 8:35
Mile 10 - 8:48
Mile 11 - 9:08
Mile 12 - 9:10

I read all the time that negative splits are key.  I agree this is very true as you don't want to start too fast.  A warm-up energizes muscles and saves a lot of energy for later.  However, I didn't run true negative splits today and I felt great.  It was a hilly course that climbed over 1,400 feet; some of those hills were 2-3 miles long.  There is definitely something to be said for running based on effort and not the clock.

When I got home, I felt energized and ready to run again.  I miss that feeling.  It made me think, what have I been doing wrong?

• I push too hard sometimes.  I want so badly to improve and grow, but I am not allowing my body to relax and let go. I need to start listening to how I feel, and run based on that. 

• Somehow I was really focused today.  I was able to stare straight ahead and not worry about anything but how I felt at that very moment.  I wore a lower brimmed hat without sunglasses and I think that tunnel vision kept me only looking a few steps ahead.  Also, the reduced pressure of not looking at my watch kept my stride relaxed and simple.

• Yesterday, I ate really clean.  For breakfast I ate papaya, yogurt, and Kashi cereal.  I had mixed grain bread and organic turkey for lunch with a huge kale salad.  For snack, I ate a homemade energy bar with walnuts, banana, cranberries, and whole wheat flour.  Dinner consisted of salmon, long grain rice pilaf, and another giant kale salad.  I didn't have any alcohol and instead enjoyed a huge glass of milk with my dinner.  What I eat the day before a run has more impact than anything else.
• I've never eaten a banana and a Gu pre-run.  It is usually one or the other.  I will do that again! 
• Sleep hasn't been enough of a priority lately.  Last night, I was alseep before 9:30, allowing me to wake naturally before 5:15. 

At first I thought I was insane to run the same marathon two years back-to-back.  There are thousands of courses out there, why do the same one again?  But how much I've grown in the last year is substantial.  I can't think of a better way to prove how far I've come than running it again, and steadily improving from one year to the next.  I am not the same person I was a year ago.  I am much more driven with set goals and tangible plans to achieve my dreams.  For the first race ever, I feel prepared to run.

Not Bonking Before Boston

Let's keep things simple.  I am not extremely fast.  I've only run for little more than five and a half years, and raced for less than two.  There's seven half marathon medals hanging from my medal hanger.  I've only completed one marathon; I have another on the way.  I desperately want to qualify for Boston in the next couple of years and it annoys me when people say, "I qualified for Boston without training."  As if the cherished Boston Qualifying time is really no big deal and those of us slow runners are clearly doing something wrong.  I am happy for people that are naturally fast.  But I am not.  So, what does it take for a normal runner like me, going from a 4:25 finish to a make the 3:35 cut off?   I am going to have to work my tail off, and perhaps my addiction to cookies, in order to achieve my biggest dream of running the Boston Marathon.

Here is where I've come from:

I'm 29.  I am a mom of two hilarious and energetic boys.  Colorado has been my home since birth and I can't imagine living anywhere else.  (Although a lower elevation and less hills would definitely have their perks.)    I started running when my oldest son Ethan was born.  Before that, I was a history teacher.  And before that, I was a hiker, mountain biker, skier, student, and gymnast.

Fast forward to March 17, 2012.  I finished my first 5K in 30:30.  My goal was to finish and hopefully not walk too much.  A month later, I finished my first 10K, a trail race, in 62:05.  Only a week before this race, I ran 6 miles for the very first time.

During the summer of 2012, I ran a series of three duathlons in the run/bike/run format.  I won my division twice and placed second in the other.  Racing duathlons taught me it was about running a smart race.  Everyone else took off really fast, while I studied my watch and paced myself based on previous winning times.

Within one summer, I took my 5K pace down to 25:03.

September 2012, my husband joined me to run my first ever half marathon.  We crossed the finish line together and I couldn't have cared less what the clock said.  I ran 13.1 miles.  Booya!  (We finished 2:01:49.)

After my first half marathon, I ran 3 more to finish off the year.  Last year, I set a new half marathon PR of 1:52:06.  I never hit a wall during that race and I felt like I had more in me when I crossed the finish line.

My first full was the 2013 Colfax Marathon where I finished 4:25:17.

Exactly one month before the race, I bought a new house, moved, caught the flu while moving, and found out pleurisy is not a medieval disease, but a very current and sadly blistering side effect from respiratory infections.  One week after being diagnosed, I ran my first and only 20 miler where I puked my guts out in front of a horrified 5 year old boy.  

Here is where I am going:

This year, I turn 30 years old.  I will have known my husband for half my life.  We have been best friends and each other's biggest advocates since 15 years old.  This is important because without his support, I would doubt myself constantly.

My youngest son starts preschool this August, which will allow me the opportunity to train harder.  I currently wake up at 5:50 every morning and run for an hour or more until my boys wake.  While I never regret a sunrise, running later in the day will help vary my running routes.   

The Colfax Marathon is May 18, which leaves me 16 weeks to train for my goal of finishing in 3:58.  This is a huge jump in time, but I am much stronger and faster than I was a year ago.  My average pace jumped from 9:40 down to 8:30 in the last six months.  I follow the Hansen's Marathon Method very closely and believe in the method equally.

If I can finish Colfax in sub-4:00, I will start training for faster half marathon times this summer, I need around a 1:43 to feel confident.  Then I will continue my speed training and tempo runs at a 7:30-8:00 pace and try really hard not to bloody my knees.

Boston is not unattainable.  It is a lot of work.  I wasn't born with quick feet and standing at 5'4", I don't exactly have a long stride on my side.  I'm not an elegant runner, I typically fall flat on my face a few days before every race, so that I toe the line with scabs.  But who says I am not capable of working just as hard as all the other qualifiers?  I visited Boston for a family vacation two and a half years ago and while walking the streets I told my oldest son, Ethan, "Someday, Mommy will be this fast." 

~Roadburner

Bearing Hansen's

I dedicated myself to the Hansen's Marathon Method for the Colfax Marathon in May.  Many people see this as a very strange approach to training, but most are curious how this method effects my body.  To begin, Hansen's is very different than Hal Higdon.  Simply put, I run more than I ever have, and I feel it!  My previous training plan required 3-4 days a week, with one long run on the weekend.  Higdon slowly built up the mileage on the weekends adding, one mile each week, until the 20 mile run, after which you taper and race.

On the other hand, Hansen's requires a much larger commitment.  I currently run 6 days a week, with Wednesdays off.  Being in the early phase of the program, I average between 35-42 miles a week.  There is no long run.  Instead, you spread those miles out over 6 days, changing speeds each day to work different muscle groups in the body.  In the height of the training program, I will reach 60 miles a week, with a 16 mile run on the weekends.  After the race, I will have run 1,024 miles in about 5 months.  The goal is to run tired.  Not to the point of injury, but just enough to feel fatigued at the beginning of each run.  They want you to feel like it is the last 16 miles of the race, not the first.

I started the schedule a month ahead of time in order to slowly increase my weekly distance from 20 miles per week up to 40.  I didn't want to risk injury once the real work began.  Therefore, I've run 6 days a week for 13 weeks and here's what I've noticed so far:

1. Doubling my weekly mileage with only one rest day was painful.  I found my joints and muscles were extremely fatigued just walking up the stairs after a run.  However, that discomfort never turned into injury and never stopped me from running the next day.
2. About 3-4 weeks ago, most of that discomfort disappeared.  I am no longer sore after a really hilly and fast 8-10 mile run.  In fact, I feel stronger the next day.
3. Food tastes better!  Each week I run off at least 3,680 calories.  At first I felt starved.  Honestly, I think my body was in shock.  But now that I've adjusted to the new schedule, I'm not that hungry.  Food, just tastes really freaking good!  
4. What I eat directly effects the next day's performance.  I've always known this, but I pay the price on a larger scale when I detour.   
5. Cumulative exhaustion (not resting entirely between each running day), is no joke.  I feel it throughout my body and often I start a 6 mile run feeling like I already ran 3-4 miles.  
6. I slept like a fitful baby with colic for over a month.  Every night I went to bed completely exhausted.  I'd fall asleep around 9:30pm and wake around 12:00am.  I'd wake every hour to half hour for the rest of the night, tossing and turning.  Within the last few weeks, I started sleeping normally again.  I no longer wake with aches and pains, a racing mind, or crazy hot muscles. 
7. I'm getting stronger.  Before starting Hansen's, my cruising pace was about 9:20 per mile.  Now, I'm at 8:30.  
8. This training plan scares the hell out of me.  One month ago was my first real speed training session.  A few weeks ago was my first tempo run.  Six months ago, I thought people who ran 6 days a week were begging for injury.  I'm very nervous to reach the 60 miles per week, but my body has handled it so far.
9. I have to follow the plan exactly.  If I skip a day, go out faster than prescribed, or don't work really hard, I notice the effects the next day.  I'm also afraid of getting injured.  
10. Rest days are miserable.  I am painfully sore on Wednesdays and I feel really fidgety. 
11. Runners respond to this method really negatively, "You can't possibly think you are going to do well at Colfax without running a 20 miler somewhere in there!"  Or they say, "You are running too much."  
12. Non runners think I'm crazy.  I've actually had people look me in the eyes and say, "I'm sorry."   

I've got 17 weeks left until the race. Last year, I ran Colfax in 4:25.  I hit the wall a couple times on the course.  It was a harder course than I expected with much bigger hills than I imaged rolling around Downtown Denver.  I ran with pleurisy, which I wouldn't recommend to anyone.  Since that race, I've told people I want another go.  I want to prove that I am stronger than 4:25.  This year, I aim to run Colfax in under 4:00.  I am training for a strong 3:58 finish. 

~Roadburner

Mother's Marathoning Guilt

Six years ago my first son, Ethan, came along.  I quit teaching 8th grade American History and became a stay at home mom.  I about drove myself crazy.  My A-type personality desperately needed goals and stress.  And worse yet, I didn't sleep for the first 14 months of Ethan's life as he had allergies, colick, and severe reflux.  He slept 2 hour stints at the most, and pretty much cried the other times he was awake.  It was a really trying first year and while I would like to look back at that time with a great sense of humor, you couldn't pay me a zillion dollars to go back to that stage.  My poor husband must have thought I was going to jump off the deep end any moment as I cried a lot and rolled my eyes at him equally.  Fast forward six years and Ethan is healthy, happy, hilarious, and vibrant.  Oh, and he SLEEPS!  Thank God. 

My boys at the park this summer.

Anyway, the point of my story is that I needed something to hold onto.  I needed a firm rope to keep me grounded.  My husband took up running around this time and I thought he was crazy to run 6-8 miles in one day.  "There is no way that is healthy!" I would grumble.  But I was secretly jealous that he had the strength and courage to run out that door every day and somehow run back in an hour later.

My husband at the Air Life Memorial 10K in 2012 where he PR'd by over 5 minutes!

Somewhere along the line, I started running to save my sanity.  I desperately needed those few hours a week to myself.  I didn't push a jogging stroller, EVER.  I didn't want a baby with me.  It was, and still is, MY time.  I am a better mother, wife, friend, and person when I run.  My weekly mileage stands for so much more than a number.  Those are the steps I took away from my family every week.  They were the moments where no one asked me for the 14th snack of the day, or desperately needed to know right now, at this very moment, "WHERE is my bear?"  No one is grabbing my legs or pulling my fingers one direction or another.  Orange juice is not being spilled all over my freshly cleaned couch.  I am alone for that one hour and holy bonanza, I LOVE it!

When I walk back in the door every morning, my boys greet me with a much anticipated, "Good morning, Mom!"  Their little smiles bring me back to reality, and in my post run high, I run up to each of them with big sweaty hugs and kisses and find out about last night's dreams. We immediately begin planning our daily adventures together while I make breakfast.

When I first started running, it was only 3 days a week, maybe 10-15 miles.  Over time, that number has dramatically grown and my commitment to the sport has tripled.  I ran my first marathon using the Hal Higdon training method, which dedicated 25-35 miles per week.  For my second go at the Colfax Marathon, I've taken on an entirely different training strategy that requires 50 miles per week on average, spread out over 6 days. That's about 8 hours a week.  In short, my kids hate the new schedule. 

Daily, I return from my morning runs as my boys greet me with amazing hugs and then quickly ask, "Why do you ALWAYS have to run?  When are you going to stop this?  Didn't you just run yesterday?"  I tell them that running makes mommy happy and healthy and it is the only thing that I ask for every day that is strictly for me.  They don't understand that yet, and I hope it will someday sink in.  My husband is extremely supportive and he tells them the same things, but I can't help feel the insane amount of guilt when their little puppy eyes beg me to stop this nonsense. 

I've begun getting up an hour earlier (5:45am or before) so that I can run and be finished, or close to being done by the time everyone else in the house wakes up.  But I still hear complaints on the weekend when I run longer, or if I miss their waking up by 10-15 minutes.  I started this nonsense to break away for small fractions of time.  I needed goals outside my kids.  It was a way to find me again.  Yes, I am a mom, but I am more than that.  And running proved it.  When I am with my kids, I give them 100%.  I love them desperately, but there has to be a balance. 

I don't want running to get in the way of everyone else in my family.  They didn't sign up for the marathon, I did.  It shouldn't affect my kids or husband, but the reality is, you can't train to run 26.2 miles without putting a little pressure on the system.  It's with their unwavering support and patience that I will cross the finish line again in May. 


How do you strike the balance between parenthood and mileage?  
Does your family make you feel guilty for running?

~Roadburner