the big dogs

i was back with the big dogs this morning. it had been six weeks since i had run with the group. before i got my new schedule, i had high hopes that i would finally be able to start and end a run with the gang. i thought my days of bringing up the rear were over. but that was before i got my schedule with two back to back days of mile repeats. keeping up wasn't so much an option for me today.

which bummed me out. and so i had to keep reminding myself that my legs had two days of mile repeats in them and i was still out there, at 5am running faster than i would be if i was on my own. but i wasn't. oh, it was 5am alright, but i wasn't running very fast. once in the car, i ask coach what the mileage was and i found out what our pace was. shit. it shouldn't have been hard. but it was.

this was my first full week of new, shit hard schedule. in looking back at my food log, i did a really good job of refueling from sunday's run. so i'd like to think this wasn't a not-enough-food thing. it was a three-shit-hard-workouts-in-a-row thing. and they weren't awful. they were just hard. and hard is fine. it is what it is. it's week one. and since i love a good experiment, we'll just see how week two goes.

but if it all remains just too hard, in that it actually does kill me, or threaten to, before it makes me stronger, we'll rethink the schedule. rearrange things if we need to. i'm meant to keep coach posted on how i am feeling on the runs. let him know if the big dog runs are just too tough. i think this is sort of funny. they are always tough. i have no doubts he'll know the point at which they've become too hard. cause he'll look back to see if i am still there and i'll be sitting on the curb. crying.

but! hard workouts aside, the sugar free thing is no longer very hard. i can finally walk by the candy aisle and ignore all the bags of chewy, fruity, sugar covered things crying out my name. zanne, eat us. we are yummy.

and i want to say, don't mess with me, sugar. i am over you.

ten hills

this is how many hills i put into long run experiement #2. now, the long runs are not only an experiment in nutrition, but in the course as well. i need to get ready for this:

that's just the first 13.1. here's the second half:

there's a loop through a park with three big hills that i do all the time, so they are the most familiar and least painful. there is another hill that always remains a pain in the ass no matter how many times i go up it. and there are two hills that i avoid at all costs. one is just shit hard and long, and of course this is the one that coach advises is most like the hill at mile 22. and the other hill i ran by accident last summer & swore i'd never run again. that one is shit harder. and longer and steeper. and i put them both in the last 4 miles of todays' 15 mile run. this is now my new loop for the next 11 weeks. i'll add mileage in at other spots in the loop to ensure that those two shit hard hills remain in the last 4 miles of my run. every sunday.

nutritionally, despite the fact that i felt like i was packing for a day hike, today's run was fairly uneventful. it was a clementine day. i could bring this with me - didn't have to stash bananas at anyones' house. and i thought it might be fun to try something else too, so i brought a zippy bag full of bear naked granola. and i had some at mile 3 and 11. granola is hard to eat on the run out of a zippy bag with gloves on and some of it falls down your shirt and then you have granola in your boobs. and you are running and the granola is hard and this does not feel good. no more granola. but the clementine? that was dreamy. had it at mile 7. drank my heed and my water.which was easy. cause it was right there. on my ass. so handy.

there was no iamrunnerwomanhearmeroar this morning. it was more - just.get.this.run.done. at the top of maple road which sounds so lovely and benign, but kicked my sorry ass, i wanted the run to be over. and i walked. for a bit. but you get home faster if you actually run. i was only 3 miles from home, and it was perfect serendipity that the plan b theme song came on. --every plan b needs a good theme song.

so there it is. long run experiment #2. it was hard. i don't know if it was hard cause of the hills, or a food thing, or just cause i was tired. it was just hard. i couldn't have mapped a harder course if someone paid me to. but that's what i'll be doing for the next eleven sundays. i need to get used to it. i need to not want to die at the top of maple three miles from my house. although today dying would have been preferable. i wrote to coach and told him maybe one day he could just meet me at the top of maple road and shoot me.

now, to go start the refueling process. i will not start this week in a calorie deficit and have another shitty week of sluggish runs. scrambled eggs? oatmeal? what goes best with a nap?

still sugarless

one more week of no sugar. this was purely my choice.

i haven’t graduated to the stage where i can slowly reintroduce it. that’s probably because i still. want. it. and that was made abundantly clear last night as i tried to have a conversation with someone while standing next to the pie table. i. could. not. concentrate. and so until i get to the point where i can have a normal conversation with someone while standing next to a table full of sugar laden things and not want to eat any; i am still sugarless.

i was feeling so great and optimistic in the few days going into sunday’s long run. the no sugar thing wasn’t hurting quite as much. i felt like i had a handle on it all. but i had a hard time this past week with the food thing. i didn’t fill up the tank enough from sundays’ blissful run, and went into my week in a calorie deficit, still running and further depleting whatever minimal stores i had left –which resulted in fairly shitty runs on monday, tuesday and wednesday.

this whole no-sugar, rethinking the way i think (or didn't think, in my case) about food was crazy hard at first, harder than i ever thought it would be. i never have, and never wanted to think about food so much in my life. but then it got easier and i saw for one blissful hour and fifty three minutes how it can pay off so perfectly. then it got hard again and i felt a little defeated and discouraged this week. but i’m seeing the connections and i know there is a point at which it will all become intuitive. the nutrition light is finally, slowly dawning on planet zanne.

i’ve got 15 miles this sunday. i’ll go in well fueled again, but this time, will make damn sure i come out of it well fueled as well so i can get through the next week.

is there a sponsor in the house?

its hard to concentrate
and have a conversation
while standing next to the pie table
when on a sugar free diet.
here's what i'm thankful for:
a husband who sees me at said pie table
and knows what i am thinking.
and he says,
keep your eye on the prize.
step away from the pies.
thank god he was there.

happy thanksgiving.

plan b schedule

i've been running whatever miles i want to and however many days i want to in the past few weeks since the marathon. and while i totally thought it would make me wiggy - and it did, for a bit, i started to get used to it. but i never feel like i am officially "in training" until there is an actual schedule. i need a visual. i need a plan. and i need to cross off the squares. and so last night, my plan b schedule finally made its appearance in my inbox. my excitement over having an official schedule subsided a weensy bit when i saw that coach had said to take a deep breath before reading. oh jesus. am i gonna need a paper bag? so i open the attachment - and there's my schedule, staring me squarely in the face. he should have told me to pour myself a double scotch too. mile repeats. are back. to back. twice a week. back to back. screw the paper bag & a scotch. there has got to be a bag of gumdrops somewhere around here that i can cry into.

but after the initial shock of back to back mile repeat days topped off with a big dog run wore off and i had some time to mull over my new and very challenging plan b schedule, i put on my big girl pants and could see it was a good schedule in that what-doesn't-kill-you-makes-you-stronger way; and i'm actually excited.

monday - swimming
tuesday - mile repeats
wednesday - mile repeats
thursday - big dog run
friday - off
saturday - bike
sunday - long run.
total miles most weeks - 44+

the long runs are really long and for this i am thrilled. i love long run sundays, and i love that there's a bunch of 'em. plenty of chances to figure out what works best going into run, during run & coming out of run.

let the madness begin again.
marathon training.
its official.
plan b training started this morning with a mile repeat.