July updates: manage your expectations.

Greetings, readers! I hardly believe it, but its the end of July. Last year at this time, I was in the middle of my most intense training ever, getting ready for my first IronGirl and my second marathon. I would never in a million years have guessed that I would spend this summer slacking off my training in order to plan my wedding!

In case you were wondering, the wedding planing is going pretty well. I'll write about some of my lessons learned in that process in a future post. For now, I want to share a bit about this summer's training:

My race schedule this fall is even more ambitious than last year's. I planned this season before I knew I was getting married, and now it feels like a bit of a stretch... actually, a lot of a stretch. At this point, I don't really want to back out of anything, so my compromise is that I'm trying to scale back my goals. Last year, I PR'd in every distance I entered. This year will be all about finishing. I won't lie: this is hard to get used to. As I mentioned a couple posts ago, I had my first experience getting slower in a race this past June. That wasn't an easy pill to swallow. Since then, I've swallowed it a couple more times and it hasn't gotten any easier. Two examples:

The Women's Distance Festival 5K 2012

His and Hers race hats!

Andrew and I ran this race on July 14th. Last year, I finished this one in 27:30, making it one of my best 5K finishes ever. This year, I went in with one goal: stay under 30 minutes. For some reason, my mind believes that my former fitness will remain attainable as long as I can keep my 5Ks under 30 minutes. I don't know what I think will happen if I go over, but I'm trying not to find out! I came in at 29:47- whew! Two upshots to this year's race: I felt a lot less miserable than I did last year, and Andrew ran it with me! Actually, he ran the companion race, which is called Run After the Women. The poor guys in that race got treated to a downpour just as their race began. Only 34 guys completed the race, and I was proud to see Andrew among them!


The John Wall Mile and the Weight Watchers Walk of Shame


On July 21st, I had a morning of double humiliation. First, I did my third running of the John Wall 1-mile race. Going in, I reminded myself repeatedly that I am slower than I was in previous years. I knew I needed to stay positive and just do my best. I can honestly say I gave it all I had that morning, but I was really bummed to finish around 8:30- my slowest time yet in that race. I was even more bummed when I realized that a chip mishap (my fault) bumped my official time back to over 10 minutes! D'oh!

After that race, Andrew and I headed over to our neighborhood Weight Watchers to officially enroll in the program. This is something I had been meaning to do for a long time, but I just couldn't bring myself to face it. I've been following Weight Watchers online ever since I had to stop attending meetings in '09 (due to a schedule conflict). I have not been following it well, and I'm reminded of that every time I step on the scale. For months now, I've known that I need to go to meetings again, but the idea of standing on the official scale and facing the damage held me back. Then, Andrew and I both got some troubling blood pressure numbers from our doctors, and that made all the difference. Before, I thought I would be going it alone in an attempt to look good in a wedding dress. Now, I get to have a partner and we're both doing it for out health. Stepping on the scale was still ugly, but I felt good about doing it.

So, that's the bad news. Fortunately, there is some good news as well!

TRX

For about two months now, I've been doing TRX training at the gym. This is a form of body weight resistance training that really builds core strength- one of my weaker areas. In the second month, Andrew joined me too. Its really fun, and I absolutely feel a difference in my activities. We like it so much we added TRX equipment to our wedding registry!

The IronGirl Dress Rehearsal


Confession time: I have not been to the pool- not once- since TriRock on May 19th. Given that IronGirl is less than 3 weeks away, this is BAD. Bad, bad, bad. This past Saturday, I went to Columbia to practice the IronGirl swim with a pit in my stomach. I floundered in that swim with training! I did poorly in my TriRock swim with training! How would I survive without training? As I lined up for my turn in the water, I seriously considered just backing out. Thankfully, I went ahead. Defying all logic, I had what felt like my best open water swim to date! In previous swims, I've relied on backstroke to get me through. Both my previous IG and TriRock swims were more than 50% backstroke. This time, miraculously, I was able to freestyle almost the entire thing. I was ecstatic!

How do I explain this? First, I think the TRX really helped. My shoulders and chest are the strongest they've ever been, and the improved core strength helped me stay aligned in the water (or as close to aligned as I get). Second, I finally managed to swim s-l-o-w-l-y. Usually, I get in the water, panic, and start kicking as hard as I can. This time, I told myself over and over to relax and take it easy. Somehow, my body listened. I got into a slow, manageable rhythm that I could maintain with only a few short backstroke breaks. The downside? This was my slowest IG swim by far. However, I have a new motivation to get back in the pool and, with some practice, I think I can pick up the pace and still freestyle most of the race.

Tomorrow is the beginning of August and one of my most intense racing months of the year. I know I need to continue managing my expectations, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it. So, I declare July a success!

Wake-up call: the Arbutus Firecracker 10K

We look better than we feel, and we don't look that great! 

I believe I mentioned in my last post that I expected the Arbutus Firecracker 10K, which happened yesterday, to be a wake-up call for Andrew and I. I expected it to be hot, hilly, and a great reminder of all the training we have not been doing for our late summer and fall races. Boy, was I right! This race was BRUTAL.

I'll start with the heat. As many of you know, its been 100 degrees in the shade in most of the mid-Atlantic for the past couple of weeks. When we headed to the race yesterday morning, it wasn't quite as bad as we anticipated. Probably mid-80's at the race start, with some cloud cover. Hot, but not the worst I've experienced (read about that here). By about mile 2, however, the sun was out and the heat was intense. I will give big credit to the race volunteers and neighbors. They managed to put up 5 or 6 official water stops, plus at least a couple unofficial stops, and many people turned on their hoses and sprinklers. So, there were many opportunities to cool off. Still, it was my first time this summer running in really hot weather and I was NOT prepared for it. Ugh.

Next, the hills. As I knew from my three times running the Arbutus 5K, there is not a flat road in that town. This race was hilly at a level on par with the Baltimore Running Festival. Combined with the heat and my poor training, the hills just beat me down. By about halfway through the race, I was talking walk breaks on many of the uphills.

Finally, the lack of training. I spent a lot of this race thinking about the workouts I've missed over the past couple months and the alcohol and poor food I've consumed. I'm trying to give myself a break on the missed workouts because I do need to plan my wedding. The alcohol and food, though? I can do better there, and it would help me get ready for both my races AND my wedding. Time to make better choices!

The results? I never intended to PR in this race. At the start line, I hoped to finish somewhere around 1:05. By the halfway point, I was thinking 1:06. By mile 10, I just hoped to make it in under 1:10. Final time? 1:11:32. That's nearly 10 minutes slower than my 10K PR (1:01:37) and just barely above my worst 10K time (1:12:23). Boo.

On the brighter side, Andrew ran this race too! It was his second 10K in just over 2 weeks and WAY harder than the first one. He finished a bit slower than the first race, but I thought he was a champ just for surviving this one.

This weekend, we start our official marathon training (me) and 10-miler training (Andrew) brimming with motivation!