Weekend Workouts: Stretching and Pushing the Pace

I did yoga yesterday for the first time in about 3 months. It felt great, although it was hot (outside temperature-wise-- I don't do Bikram but Hatha) and I was sore today. Mainly my core and my legs. I do Yoga for Runners, which is excellent and focuses on areas that runners need to relax and strengthen. Lots of exercises to open the hips, loosen the infamous IT band, quads and glutes, strengthen the feet and prevent injury.



So good to be back in the land of "ooooommmm" and namaste. Especially since it's so well-adapted to what my body's doing now. I've been tracking mileage for the month of August and after my run today, I have officially run 102K so far this month. Right on track for marathon training which requires 200K a month (50K a week). Think I'll try to go up a little in Sept, maybe to 250K, if I can, and then back down in October since the big marathon is in early November and you should peak intensity maybe a month away and then reduce intensity closer to the competition...

And the seminal run that broke 100K for August 2013? I feel great about it because I pushed myself more than I usually do. It was a good feeling, it's a cliché, but you really are capable of so much more than you think you are-- although my legs were tired afterwards! We ran it in 9:15 minute miles (5:45 min km) For me, this is closer to my race pace (I run a 2-hour half marathon which is just a little over 9 min miles) than training pace, so very pleased. 15K isn't really that far, but confident that I can build up to longer distances at this pace.



I also tried to think about lifting my knees up more than I usually do (I've been told this is a problem with my form, one of many problems) and can feel that my glutes are sore now, so hopefully that means I was doing it bettter today.

Today's pace would be a great pace if I could train myself to run at entire marathon at that speed (that's the hard part!)  If I could push it just a tad under 9:15 (like to 9:09 min/miles) on race day, that would be a 4 hour marathon which was what I was going for in April in my first marathon.

As you know, running the Paris marathon in 4 hours was a fail, but a learning experience because, as I discovered, marathons are tough and the mental aspect is important! I wasn't sure I'd finish until I did, so already feel way stronger training for the distance the second time around. Now I know I can run 26.2 miles. Because I have. (Even if there was a good deal of walking in the last 10K...)

The advantage of doing the weekly long run with a group is that it helps you run faster than you usually do. I run with a group called Let's Run Paris. They're a great bunch with 3 different pace groups (5 min/km, 6 min/km and 7 min/km) and we finish our long runs each week with breakfast together. Tired but energised and happy is a great way to start the weekend!

Now ready to fall into bed and have a brick tomorrow, meaning doing 2 of the 3 tri sports one right after the other-- it supposedly gets its name from the fact that after when you move on to sport number 2, your legs feel like bricks since you've just finished sport number 1! The program for tomorrow is an open water swim in the lake, followed by a run and a picnic. Not a fan of cycling, so happy to replace it with picnicking any day-- my kind of triathlon! And it really does involve a picnic basket that looks like this one.

Marathon Training Plan

Running down a dream... Marathon number 2 is Nice-Cannes, a point to point along the French Rivera on November 10th!





If I were better at social media, I'd create some amazing training montage video or instagram clip to illustrate my training plan, but since I am fairly low-tech, here's my marathon training schedule in boring written form. I have a plan from runners.fr, but modify it a little to fit into my life. For me, the key is to make it social and I've been organising most of the running training for my triathlon team, which is great-- since I'm the host, I have to show up and do it!

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Easy 12K (usually alone on the trail near my house)

Wednesday: Track intervals with ExpaTRIés triathlon team (5-10K, depending on session)

Thursday: Tempo run 10K with ExpaTRIés triathlon team

Friday: Easy 10k (usually alone on the trail near my house)

Saturday: Long run (this week 15K) with running group Let's Run Paris

Sunday: Brick session: open water swim and 6K run. Through the tri team, we have annual memberships to the Cergy Leisure Park (base de loisirs) where we can swim in a lake (wet suit mandatory). I really like going out there, feels like you're on vacation far far away from Paris.

While I sometimes cut short or even skip the Friday run, especially if the Saturday one will be super long (as they will be in about a month or so), this is pretty much what I do and should be about 50K a week, which I think is the minimum you should be running cumulatively while training for a marathon. My goal is to run 200K this month. So far, I'm at 77K for August and should break 100 this weekend.

As my training progresses, the main change I'll make to this program is that the easy 12K will get a little longer, and I'll increase the distance up to 16K and it will become a steady pace run. The idea is that if I train myself at a steady pace, it will in theory take care of the first part of the marathon and prevent me from starting out too quickly (which I did in my last marathon). One of the other easy runs will also have to involve hills, since the second half of the marathon is supposed to be hilly (and frankly, after 30K, even a miniscule speed bump will seem like an imposing hill!)

This keeps me pretty busy, but will have to add cross training-- a second swim session would be good and maybe one spin class/cycling once a week. I also need to add circuit training once a week with a focus on abs and core work, since weight training is important. Not only for aesthetic reasons (it'll make me look good in a bathing suit!) but it helps you as a runner. After the Paris marathon, I was surprised that my core was sore, so it clearly wasn't strong enough to hold me up for 42.2K!

Rediscovering Joy or a Long Strange Post-Marathon Recovery

I ran a marathon in April and in some ways, it was a great motivation to run another marathon (Nice-Cannes in November) but in some ways it also almost ended my running "career." Not due to injury, but just because it was so hard for me to get back into running afterwards! It took me about 2 months, maybe even 2 and a half months to start to enjoy running again. Boiling hot summer weather didn't help, but I definitely had a case of the runner's blues. It feels good to be over it but thought I'd share in case anyone else is having a similar struggle.

Although I'm over it, this is what it felt like every time I went running when I had the runner's blues:




Although this guy has one up on me, since he at least managed to get a medal before collapsing!

I'll explain. I felt very down on myself and said things like, I think I'm a worse runner after doing the marathon. I blamed the marathon.

My marathon was in early April and since it was my first, I didn't know how long to wait to start running again or how long a break to take. So I just did my best and tried to listen to my body. I ended up taking about 6 weeks off with maybe only a short jog once a week.

In trying to listen to the old body, something it said to me was that it was hungry. Like really hungry and it deserved lots of indulgence that it usually didn't get to have. It mainly wanted tiramisu. Lots of dessert, wine, WAY too much post-marathon celebrating in the form of eating and drinking...

Feed me! I deserve it-- I ran a marathon like a month ago...




I also kept eating like I was still training for a marathon and was suddenly less active, so gained a few kilos which also had me feeling kind of down and like the least fit person on earth, despite having accomplished something that should have left me feeling great! The extra kilos are off now and I'm feeling fit and good now, but running was definitely a bit of a struggle for the months of May and June, I would say. It was only towards the end of July that I felt like myself again.

Here's why: I wasn't running consistently, but did some 10K races and saw my times deteriorate. No matter your level in running, running is hard work that requires constant maintenance. I think I forgot this.  Luckily to compensate a little for running frustration, I did some sprint triathlons and saw an improvement between Versailles in mid-May and Dijon in early July, so that was reassuring. But it also meant that the problem was running and not overall fitness. I'm so slow and out of shape, I thought. And it didn't help that the super athlete I was dating at the time was fairly unencouraging about running.

I realised a few weeks ago that this was kind of all in my head. I wasn't training consistently, so of course I was going to be slower.

I had also stopped enjoying running and just felt performance frustration instead of enjoyment when I did it. So this made me not do it enough to have the kind of performance I wanted. Funny how those viscious little circles work...

All this changed a few weeks ago after a bit of an upheaval in my personal life and I just started running again for real, just for fun, for comfort, to feel in control in a world where you often aren't. Basically, all the reasons I started running in the first place years and years ago! Running to clear my head, to relax, relieve tension, to meditate and to feel better about myself in general (rather than frustrated that the watch said 10-min miles instead of 9!) I put myself on a schedule and I run a lot now-- 10-12K almost every day with a longer weekly run thrown in and I'm enjoying it again.

Happy runner. Ah, yes, hello, endorphins, I now remember how much I liked you!




What I wish someone had told me post-marathon is this:

• You won't want to run for awhile and you'll just want to drink wine and eat tiramisu, and that's ok-- but watch out for some weight gain. After checking with my female runner friends, post- marathon weight gain is fairly common (as is gaining some weight during marathon training)-- it's not that you're an out of shape freak!

• Swim or bike or do triathlons or yoga instead, but try to be somewhat active because you're suddenly eating a lot of dessert! These other sports are good for you but cannot replace running training. I think I kind of thought that swimming a few times a week was the equivalent of maintenance runs, and it's not. I also know to be a little less indulgent after marathon number 2 in November... I feel confident that the second time round, I'll be able to get back into serious running training more quickly.

• When you're ready to start training again, put yourself on a consistent schedule first and increase intensity slowly. I would also have also told myself to hold off on the 10K races, especially since I wasn't training for them properly and it just set up a cycle of frustration that discouraged me from running.

• Push a little harder. You will come back stronger after your 6-week break, BUT to get back to where you were, you WILL have to push yourself a little harder in training. I wish someone had said, you're still a good runner, stop being frustrated with yourself and just push a little harder. Stop comparing yourself to where you were at the height of your marathon training before and just focus on your training NOW.  I also kind of remembered that it was fun to push yourself in training and it's, of course, the only way you'll improve.

• Be patient. Run to be good to yourself, not because you have to maintain a certain pace. A good run isn't only defined as one where you run at a great pace, just one you enjoy. Now it's cheesy, but I think positive things like, this is so good for my body, I'm so glad I'm making this time for my health, this run is clearing my head, or I think about my posture, footfalls, etc.

And now that I just try to do it a lot and do it consistently, a positive side effect is that I am finally starting to see 8s on the minutes per mile pace on the old Garmin again.  :)  This is encouraging and I finally feel like in terms of how I feel about running mentally, I'm back to where I was last summer where after I went running one day, I couldn't wait to run again the next day.

Motivators

What motivates you to exercise? Love of food, love of endorphins, love of being outdoors or stress relief, perfectionism, addiction, frustration or anger?

My lastest workouts have been fueled by Alanis Morissette and other Angry Girl Music soundtracks.

But at the end of the day, by running out the frustrations, the person who I'm angry at is there in spirit with me helping me train.

First Sprint or Trying Not to Drown in a Green Pond at Versailles

I realise I am woefully behind on triathlon updates. This was my first season dabbling in the art of multi-sport competition and I did a super sprint (Meudon), and then 2 sprints: Versailles and Dijon. Not bad for a first season, I think.

I already mentioned the Meudon Super Sprint. You swam 300 meters in a pool, cycled 7K on a stationary bike next to the pool and then ran 2,5K. After Meudon, the distances got longer and goodbye, swimming pool; hello, green pond!

For a sprint triathlon, you swim 750 meters in open water (which usually means a gross pond or lake), cycle between 20 and 24K (it's supposed to be 20K, but the cycling distance seems to vary) and you run 5K.

Versailles was my first 'real' tri, meaning swimming in open water and not cycling on a stationary bike!

I didn't really know what to expect, had only practiced putting on and taking off a wetsuit like the day before and had never been swimming in open water before. We had to swim in a green pond on the Versailles grounds-- you could see the castle in the distance but we were well out of the path of tourists.

This is what the lake looks like-- despite the tiny pic, you can see it looking ominously big and hard to swim across in the distance behind the garden. It was not exactly picturesque tranquility, but cold and murky!

The fact that you can't see anything underwater when you swim in open water is really terrifying, I somehow wasn't expecting this, and the wetsuit felt weird and awkward. Something else I didn't know about wetsuits is that a little bit of water gets in it  when you first get into the water and shocks you because it's so cold.

When the gun went off and we had to start swimming, I panicked a little and didn't think I could do it. I couldn't bring myself to put my head in the water, I wasn't strong enough to do the front crawl with my head up out of the water (I ended up sinking a little despite the wetsuit when I tried), and I felt too inefficient at breast-stroking, so flipped over on my back and improvised a back stroke of sorts, although this had the additional challenge of not being able to see where I was going and swimming in a strange seemingly drunken zig zag...

I honestly thought there was no way I was going to make the swim cut-off time, so figured that this swim was my workout for the day and I might as well enjoy it. On my back, I didn't have to deal with the green pond and could see the blue sky, it was like being on vacation. Floating on your back is very comforting, sometimes when I train at the pool, I'll make deals with myself like 200 more meters of the crawl and then you can do a backstroke lap.

Triathlon? What triathlon? I'm just admiring the clouds...

I was one of the last ones out of the water, but I somehow made the cut-off time. I expected to be stopped, but instead I was helped out of the water and sent on my way. Taking a wetsuit off is an art that I have not mastered, so slow transition onto the bike, but then I was on my way. I was mainly worried about clipping in and out without falling and there was a hill right at the start which made me nervous about the clipping in, but it was ok. I don't really like non-triathlon cycling-- didn't particularly enjoy Liège or Vélostar, the only real bike races I've done, but I do like short distances on the bike when you have something else to do afterwards.

I enjoyed the cycling part the best. It was nice weather and a nice enough course-- 2 loops and a sharp little u-turn at one point, but it was well marked, and a steep little hill to do twice. I'm not a particularly strong cyclist-- I got on a road bike for the first time in February and am not great about training on the bike, but I was surprised to see that there were people who got off their bikes and walked them up the hill! They must have been in the wrong gear, poor things, because if I could cycle up it, it clearly doesn't require you to be the fittest person in the world!

The bike to run transition was faster then swim to bike, since you don't have to deal with the dreaded wetsuit. In this, my first real triathlon, I was suprised at how hard it as to run. The run was tough, I hadn't really done any bricks (doing 1 sport than another, like biking then running). Running 5K sounds easy, but it's challenging after swimming and cycling. It was also a trail around the lake where we'd swum and since I'm more used to road running, ran it kind of gingerly, trying to avoid spraining an ankle. It was also near a shooting range, so you kept hearing gunshots during the run, which made me wonder if they were starting guns for other races!

I was the last one on my team to finish (but not the last one in the competition. It works both ways-- there are always people in front of you, but there are also always people behind you!) but I was just pleased to have done it. My time of about 2 hours was not competitive at all, but I had also run the Paris marathon about a month before and was still in a bit of a post marathon recovery/overindulgence  state of not really running or exercising that much but eating dessert WAY too much... I definitely felt like I'd looked a little sleeker in my none too attractive trisuit at the super sprint in Meudon in March than in Versailles in May!

Despite not being particlarly good at it, I thought it was a lot of fun and a good challenge.  The first time I do anything athletic, it is usually slow and has lots and lots of room for improvement (like my marathon!)  so I immediately set my main and fairly modest goal for my next sprint: to put my head in the water and do the front crawl the whole way!


Before the swim: how do you get a wetsuit on again? (Notice that I am the only one not suited up at this point...) I look slightly delirious because I clearly must have been crazy to sign up for this!



Post-triathlon: we did it! No more wetsuits and now we can drink champagne!

All in all, it was a good experience. Something nice about Versailles is the women and unlicenced men (meaning they don't have triathlon licences so are probably beginners) compete earlier than the licenced men, so the boys got to cheer for us and vice versa. I was glad our race finished first, though, so I could relax watching the men of ExpaTRIés show us how it's done.

It was a nice day with friends, great weather and a lovely picnic with celebratory champagne that Roger the Bike Guru and his Lovely Assistant Shannon had carried on their bikes out to Versailles for us! Big thank you to teammates who cheered for me, lent me a wetsuit and helped me set up the transition area, to the other racing ladies, les belles sirènes de Versailles, who calmed each other's nerves pre-swim and to our fabulous picnic A-Team!

Career Goals

For marathon or triathlon training, for chasing any dream in life, for making bold life-changing plans when it's so much easier to do what you've been doing, even though it's not what you want, for leaving your comfort zone:

"Someday doesn't exist, there's only today.

It's not about finding out who you are, it's about creating who you are.

Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.

Ask yourself, who do you want to be? And what are you willing to do to become that person?"

Mustard City

The official triathlon schedule is :

Versailles sprint triathlon coming up really soon (seriously, I should be swimming right now instead of writing this!) on May 12!

I'm also doing another sprint tri in early July (July 7th) in Dijon, where I've never been (this is where the mustard is from) and is supposed to be a lovely little city.

My goals are just to survive Versailles, especially the swim (first open water swim) and then to see improvement between Versailles and Dijon. Dramatically improved race times would be nice, but probaby not terribly realistic. It would still be an improvement even if I'm just marginally less terrified of the swim...