Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Taking the Plunge

I did it. Finally. I registered for the race I've been talking about...the Disney Princess Half Marathon!!! Ok, I did it a few weeks back, but still-it's done and there's no turning back now! I can't believe how excited I am over something so far in the future-I'm so glad I chose a race like this for my first, it's more of an event than a race and I think the atmosphere will be so much fun that the run itself will be an afterthought!
Princess Half Marathon
Seriously, how much fun does this look?
I've also mentioned the Jeff Galloway plan I'm using to train. I made it through the first 4 weeks without a bump. I even finished my first non-treadmill 5-miler without much incident so I figured things would continue to progress steadily (and easily) along.

Princess Half Marathon
Princess Pics Source
Wrong. This past weekend we came upon the 6.5 mile run. I woke up dreading it. I haven't been dreading running in quite a while so I knew this was not a good sign. It was also pouring down the rain which meant being confined to the basement treadmill-blah.

I decided to try a similar tactic as the 5 mile run with predetermined walk/run intervals. I think this works much better than waiting until you need to walk. This time I counted steps- 500 run, 100 walk. I only count one foot when I say steps, btw. I've used the step counting thing for a long time to keep my mind occupied. *It's also an easy thing to do when you first start running and actual distances freak you out, or you just can't tell how far a quarter mile or 400m or something like that is. Just get yourself to run X number of steps and then walk X number, increase the running number each time you go.* I also find the pure monotony of listening/counting my steps soothing, I get in a rhythm, so to speak.

Generally a good pace should be about 90 steps/minute (I think I heard this on another mother runner podcast, can't be sure though) so this was only 5-ish minutes of running at a time but I was still barely slogging through each one. It didn't help that I was feeling guilty for leaving G upstairs with her daddy who also had a million things to get done on the one day of the week we were actually home. These two things combined gave me an easy out and I only ran 4 miles in 42 minutes.

Should I enter G in the kids race?


I'm lucky. I'm way ahead on this training plan for my race so repeating Week X isn't a problem. The problem for me is always the mental game. Why was I dreading the run in the first place? Let's run down the potentials...

  1. Because I hadn't had enough sleep-no, I get the same 6.5 hours every night (this is the compromise for me to both function and get stuff done!) 
  2. Hmm-did I hate doing it on the treadmill? Sure, but I'd better get used to it with winter and looong training runs unfortunately coinciding soon. 
  3. Was it leaving G with the hubs? Maybe, I always feel guilty (please don't ask why) about doing that even though they need their time together. 
  4. Because I doubt that I can do it and hate failure so much that I tell myself ahead of time that I probably won't be able to do it so that I'll be prepared? DING, DING, DING-I think we have a winner!!
Ah-the psych out. Now here it is the beginning of repeating that week. I have two interval runs before I tackle that 6 miler again. So I have that many days to get myself mentally prepared-this time for the fact that I CAN do it. I need to keep my eating in check-I've noticed almost immediate fatigue when the processed stuff sneaks back in-and practice some positive self-talks during my week day runs.

I've continued to follow the Best Body Bootcamp format for those which means hills this week-yikes! That plan has helped tremendously with not getting bored with the weekday treadmill runs. In fact, even though this is the last 'official' week I think I'm going to turn around and do it for another 8 weeks. I plan an entire post about the overall experience, but it was great and highly recommended.

Here's to positive thoughts this week!

What run/workout thoughts keep you going?

4 comments:

  1. YAY!!!! I think you're going to get hungry for lunch or dinner when travel down 95 in GA and will just HAVE to stop for something to eat in Savannah. Just sayin, hint hint ;)

    Sorry, you weren't able to finish your 6 miles. I get like that when I feel bad about leaving TJ with the kids or like you too, assume I'm not going to be able to do it. Another Mother Runner podcasts have kept me going the last few runs. Thank you for that! ;)

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    1. It's weird, but something we have to do I guess! Don't those girls make you laugh?!
      I'm actually flying to FL, but don't think I didn't consider that ;)

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  2. Hey, you might want to be careful of that step counting thing, I hate to see ritualistic behavior escalate (half kidding). Your post made me think I should share this article with you:
    http://www.cavemandoctor.com/2012/09/10/salt-collateral-damage-in-the-war-on-fat/
    I've had to increase my salt intake since removing processed foods. Lack of salt made me really tired and fatigued, I actually have had to drink a shot of salt water a couple of times. I was just thinking that you might be losing a lot of salt running & sweating.

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    1. Ugh-I hate salt and I have those BP issues anyway-the cardiologist told me to salt everything!- so you're (unfortunately) probably right. Thanks!!

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