Learning to Expect the Unexpected

I’m still trucking, but the last week has thrown a good bit at me – my marathon confidence is pretty low.  Work has been busy as usual.  I found out about some travel for work that has to happen at a pretty inconvenient time.  My house is a disaster area.  And this guy showed up on our doorstep:

He’s pretty cute, but I’m still not a cat person.

I know, I know, there are many worse things that could happen.  But while he’s very cute, introducing a cat to my dogs, learning how to manage a litter box (including a dog who wants to eat things out of the litter box – gross), and just figuring out what the heck is involved in having a cat was approximately nowhere on the list of things I wanted to put my energy into this week.  Being an animal lover, I have no intention of getting rid of this kitten unless it’s to a good home, but that’s proving to be not so easy, and having a kitten is big time time consuming and distracting.  To be perfectly honest, this little creature was the most unexpected twist to my week that I could have imagined.  And I’ve let it throw me completely off-kilter.

But pouring myself into taking care of this little guy has maybe been a good thing.  It’s kept my mind off of my hip, which is really worrying me, it’s prevented me from coming home and sitting right back down with my laptop immediately for more work, and though protecting him from the dogs (which turned out to be not as necessary as I thought, Cullie loves the little guy) is a bit stressful, it’s kind of nice to be focused on making sure someone or something else is ok.

And since all of my thinking inevitably rolls back to marathon preparations these days, this highly unexpected twist to my week has been a sharp reminder that anything can happen, and at the most unexpected times.  26.2 miles and 4.5-5 hours (hopefully not any longer …) is a long stretch.  It’s possible that my hip will behave, my fueling will be perfect, it will be clear and sunny and not a degree over 65, and the whole run will be a joyous celebration of my training with no pain whatsoever.  But that’s not likely.  At least not for the whole thing.  More likely, something I didn’t even think of will happen.  And at that point, I’ll need to take a deep breath, assess the situation, and make the right decision to get to my goal – to finish.  Even if it means giving away a pretty cute kitten.  Or walking for a little while.  You know, cause those are the same thing.

Game On.

Here we go, marathon training officially starts this week!  I’m doing a training program run by my local Fleet Feet, which will be great for a number of reasons.  The primary one, of course, being plenty of company and fluids on long runs, not to mention plenty of people I can pester with all of the questions I have about running a marathon, and running Chicago in particular.  Get ready Tammy & co, there are plenty 🙂

The other reason I decided to run with Fleet Feet is that their Country Music training group got me to the half marathon last year fully prepared, and launched me into this love of running that I honestly didn’t think would go this far.  Instead, I’m about to dig into 15 weeks of consistent distance PRs, lots of foam rolling, and way more running through the soupy humidity of a Nashville summer than I ever imagined would be appealing.  And my legs and head are ready for it (I think).

The Fleet Feet team emailed the first four weeks’ training schedule out the other day, and looks like they’re recommending only 3 runs a week.  I was a little surprised, as I assumed the only real way to train for a marathon would require more than 3 days a week, but the more I think about it, the more I think it’ll work for me.  I still hope to have some time and energy to play tennis and go to yoga this summer and fall, and realistically, I’ve never stuck consistently to running more than three times a week.  So hopefully I’ll actually stick to this plan in a way that will get me ready for Chicago.  Since they’ve gotten me to the starting line prepared before (and my only goal here is to finish), I’m willing to put the planning in their hands.

So without further ado, here’s the plan for the next 4 weeks:

 

 I’ll be joining the Fleet Feet crew for speed work on Tuesday nights as well, and will adjust the warm up / cool down appropriately to get to the full mileage for the day.  I’ve also been joining my local Lululemon’s run club on Thursday mornings for the last couple of weeks, so I’m going to try to use that run + extra mileage when necessary for my second mid-week run.  Wednesday nights starting in late July will most likely be tennis nights, and I’ll try to get to a yoga class on Sundays.

So that’s the plan!  15 weeks and counting!

A Sparkly Start

2013 here I come!

As I read through everyone’s 2012 recaps and 2013 goals, I can’t help but get excited about my year to come.  Runners’ blogs and stories provide an amazing sense of inspiration, and I draw on that collective strength daily as I chart my own journey – both in running and everywhere else in my life.

My 2013 running goals are pretty simple:

1 – Run a marathon.  I’ve thought long and hard about this one, weighing whether I’m really ready, whether work and life will allow for me to adequately train this year, whether I’m good enough and strong enough.  I started to more seriously think I wanted to run a full about 8 months ago, when training for the Country Music Half was going well and I was realizing that perhaps I really did like running.  At that time, I really only wanted to run one marathon though – New York.  I lived there for 4 years and many of my closest friends are still in the city.  At the time, I thought a full marathon would be a one and done experience, and New York was where I wanted that one experience to happen.  I know I’m not alone in that bucket list idea, but it bothered me that I wasn’t even willing to consider another marathon – both because getting in through the lottery is ridiculously unlikely, and because I realized that if that’s the only one I was willing to consider, I probably wasn’t actually ready to run a marathon.  Sometime in December as I was taking a bit of a running break, the bug fully hit me.  I want to run a full marathon, doesn’t matter whether it’s New York or another one.  I know I’m ready.  More on this later, but I’m ready to say that a marathon, whether it’s New York or another race, is on my list for 2013.  It’s going to happen.

2 – Continue to grow as a runner, race with more intention, but continue my low-stress racing attitude that carried me through 2012.  Somehow this year, I became a runner.  Never saw it coming, and it’s been so much fun.  I realized this morning that I’ve run 8 races this year. That’s not that many, but it’s 7 more than I anticipated.  Once I started I just couldn’t stop.  From 5k’s to half marathons, I love the challenge.  What’s been amazing is that I’ve only been sort of concerned about times despite my competitive, obsessive nature.  I’ve run and trained and tried to get better, but I haven’t stressed too much about times going into each race.  I know myself – this won’t last forever, I obsess over details and constantly want to get better – but I want to hold on to the joy it brings, and I never want to leave a race disappointed about my time.  I’ll race with intention and a bit more planning (partly thanks to my new running buddy), but as long as I’ve left it all out there on a given day, I’ll be happy.  It feels a bit like I got better magically this year, but when I look back I realize that it was methodical, smart work, and an enjoyment of that work along the way.  I owe a huge debt to my local fleet feet for helping me realize I can run a half marathon and enjoy it, and for helping me realize I’m a lot faster than I thought I was – through their half marathon training and speed sessions I’ve grown in ways I never could have imagined, and I’m amazingly thankful for that!  I know that there’s hard work ahead to keep improving, but I’m excited to dive in!

This post was originally supposed to be a race recap and has veered instead to a goals post, but I did run a race this morning that starts me off on the right foot for the year.  Donning my sparkle skirt that I won in Corey’s giveaway earlier this year, I shook off my bubbly hangover with the help of a few glasses of nuun, braved the fog and rain, and headed out for the Resolution 5K in downtown Nashville.  Not going to lie, I almost turned around and got back in bed.  Glad I didn’t though, as getting out there symbolized the determination I’ll need to hit my goals this year, and I managed a personal first despite not managing a 5K PR – 3^rd overall female!  Clearly the fast ladies who usually frequent Nashville races weren’t out this morning, but I’ll revel in this auspicious start nonetheless – and will thoroughly enjoy the bottle of champagne – note to self, major perks to winning a New Year’s race!

Happy 2013!