Training is Hard

My half marathon training is going well. Yesterday David and I did a 5-mile run. Was it the best run I've ever had? No. Was it better than not doing anything at all? Yes, of course. What stands out most about that training run is that I cried more on that run than I have on any other training run.

Why did I cry? Well, I'll tell you why. We recently upped our interval training from running for 4 minutes and walking 2 minutes, to running for 4 minutes and only walking for 1 minute. We did that run on Tuesday morning last week for 45 minutes. That's 9 intervals in case you can't do math that fast (I can't do math that fast). I survived that run. We had a friend along with us and she did a lot of talking to keep me distracted, so that was good. Thursday we didn't run because we didn't want to get up and my knee hurt. When we left for the run on Sunday it was about 7:45. We had a good start. When we were about 2 to 2.5 miles into the run I just stopped. I couldn't do it anymore. My knee hurt (not the same one as Thursday morning, either), I got a really weird shin muscle cramp that was just odd feeling. It sucked.

I cried. A silent, except for sniffling, cry. The tears came and they would not leave. I couldn't stop them, no matter how much I tried. And I did try. I don't even remember all the things that were flying around in my head. But I have a feeling it looked something like this:

The only thing that I said to David during this whole time was, "I just don't think I can do this." He responded with a very appropriate, "BAH" or something like that. Thinking about it now, nearly 40 hours later, that's what it sounds like in my head. I think that he actually told me that the overall race thing I can do. Which I know. But at that moment, I didn't think that I could lift my legs up and start running again. I knew that I couldn't do another 4x1 yesterday. So I didn't. I didn't run anymore 4x1s.

But, I did run again. And I ran the rest of the time (well, not solid, but you know, I didn't quit). I may have switched back to my regular 4x2 interval, but the most important thing that I did for myself was not quitting when I was down. I felt like a rock star! I overcame my most serious mental block to date. I didn't do it alone, either. Had I been alone I may have just curled up on the ground in the fetal position and cried until David got concerned enough to come look for me. That man has done more for me than he probably realizes. My friend Kari has too. She gets up at the ass crack of dawn to come run with us when she doesn't have to be at work at 6:45.

But anyway, I'm getting a little off course. When I did my first interval of running after the tears started I was just going to run a little bit. There must be something about the pounding, though, because I kept running, for 4 minutes, and nearly all those thoughts were gone. It felt good. It was liberating. It was like I was saying screw you to those negative thoughts. I walked for 2 minutes after that. And then I ran again. And then, I ran again, and again, and again.

When we got finished, I thought to myself, "We should have done 6 miles." Had I not had my breakdown we would have finished 5 miles in under an hour. That's amazingly incredible to me. I know that there are a lot of people out there that can run 5 miles in under an hour, but to get this beast of a body to move that far in that amount of time is absolutely amazing!

Tomorrow morning is another session of 4x1s for 45 minutes. I'm sure that I'll survive it. Why? Because I'm the little engine that could, that's why!

Tell me: what's the hardest thing you've overcome in your training, or in anything for that matter?

Half Marathon Training - First Training Run

I signed up for the Lady Speed Stick Women's Half Marathon that is in Nashville on September 22, 2012. This will be my first half marathon. The very first one ever. I rant my first official 5k on April 1 this year. I signed up for the half at the expo the day before the 5k.

Tonight I did my first official training run for the half. Oh. My. Goodness. I've been going out and running/walking and have been doing a good job. You can see evidence of that here and here. But, I've just been doing my own thing. I've tried to stick to the days that I'm supposed to based on reading a few books, but I hadn't really started training.

When I signed up for the half, I got a coupon code to get a free training thingy from Active.com. It's a $30 value, so I picked up one of the run/walk training programs. Today was a 35 minute low intensity (hah!) run. It included a 5 minute warm up (but I walked a quarter mile (probably in 5 minutes) and stretched before I started the next part), then a 3 minute run followed by a 2 minute walk. How is it possible that 2 minutes goes by so quickly when 3 minutes takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to pass by? I know I'm not brilliant, but isn't every minute just 60-seconds? I don't understand... Oh yeah - you're supposed to do this series 7 times for a total of, you guessed it, 35 minutes! Then there's a 5 minute cool down.

David was out there running with me and ran his own pace for pretty much the whole time. We did our warm up walk and then stretched and then started running. I did the first two series well. Then I got to the third one and it started to get a little harder. I was slowing my pace down a bit so David decided to run backwards. I quote "I'll give you something to blog about!" The turd! If I was more coordinated, and not so concerned about ruining my phone with all my sweat, I would get a picture of him while he's running backwards!

We got to a part on the sidewalk where he was running backwards and he was getting ready to step in a pile of dog poop. All I could get out was the word poop. Mind you we were right beside a playground with some kids playing on it and their parents were there. Again, all I could get out of my mouth, besides huffing and puffing for oxygen, was poop! David was like what? I said, "POOP!" He barely missed it. It was the most entertaining part of the evening!

We did another 2 sets and on the 5th set I was about to quit. I felt like I could barely move. Is it possible to hit a wall in a 3-mile run? If it is, then I must have hit a wall. It sucked. And I said so out loud; many times. I'm proud of myself for not swearing though. I was trying to be considerate of the families that were around. :)

On the 6th set I asked David to stop running ahead of me and walk (!) beside me while I was running. Granted, he did have to power walk, but he was still walking... I needed him to distract me so that I wouldn't think about how it took F-O-R-E-V-E-R for those 3-minutes to pass by. He talked to me about movies that are coming out this summer. I don't remember what else.

On our two minute walk between set 6 and 7 I realized that we only had to do 7 and not 8 sets. Then I realized that I made it through my first training run. I couldn't quit then. I didn't want to quit anymore. If I was just one set away from being done, why would I quit? I persevered and came out the other side successful! Maybe I'll actually be able to think of myself as a runner/marathoner (can you call yourself a marathoner if you are just running a half? or even just training for a half?) if I can make it through a few more weeks of this torture training.

I created an activity record for this run, but somehow managed to not turn it off when I was doing my stretches. I thought I did. Oh well. Here, you can see my speed. I stopped to stretch at about 6:55. Then we had to walk nearly a half mile back to the car. Then we rode home, I did my plank, and realized that I hadn't stopped my activity. Oh well! I like the peaks and valleys. I'm pretty consistent in my speed, which really surprises me!

 

Question - What was your first race training run like? Or have you been running/training for so long you don't remember? Does it get easier?!