Training Tuesday - I'm terrible at making decisions

Originally, when I started this half marathon training cycle at the end of September, I built it out around a December 15th half that I was doing with someone.

The more I considered that race, though, the less I wanted to make that my "A" race. I just wasn't excited about it. It's not super great for PR'ing, and I didn't want to shell out the money for a fun run (for whatever reason, this race is far more expensive than any others in December). I picked a different, earlier, race for my goal race, and adjusted my training plan.

After CIF prelims, when I really believed we would be going to states for #1 to run, I decided that since my next choice in half's was not going to work out..... hey, why not try to PR for real at the Renegade Santa Run??

Look at this fun medal!! You can use "HEATHERDISCOUNT" for a discount!

So, last week, even though I posted a half training plan week, I decided Monday afternoon that Santa Run 5k was my new goal race. If I could PR there, I had top 3 in my AG (based on last year's results) in my sights. That might be fun!

I adjusted my training plan again, and added a lot of interval work - I'd been doing a lot of longer intervals and tempo runs, so I threw in a bunch of 400s and 800s instead.

I know, I know, I retired from 5k's immediately following the Veteran's Day not-quite-5k, but I get confused.

Since suddenly, the 5k was my focus, I did the 400s last week, and nailed it - all at my goal pace

wheeeeeee so faaaast!

.
Anyway. Then we found out we weren't going to states, after-all (pride goeth before the fall, sorry, girls, I blame myself), so the half I thought was out, was suddenly back on the table!

I had one last "long" run that I left on my plan juuuuust in case, so I set out Sunday to do it - 8 miles, middle 4 at goal pace. This should have been easy, breezy.

how I felt after.

I got through a mile warm up, 3 pace miles, and just stopped. I felt fine, I just didn't feel like doing any more.

And now, it's Tuesday, 5 days before my supposed goal race, and... I kind of don't feel like it? I looked back over my training log, and my last long run was 14 miles back on November 14 - so it COULD count, and just pretend I've been on an extended two week taper? I just feel like a loser-pants, to let one lack-luster "long" run decide that I'm not even going to bother.

I'd still really like to get a real 5k PR, so I'll keep working on that in the meantime, but to recap... maaaaybe I'm running a half this weekend, but MAYBE NOT. Oh, the suspense.

XC Recap, Season Ender: Womp.

On Saturday morning, #1 raced the CIF Southern Section finals. The top 7 schools in each division move on to the state competition in Fresno. Going in, her school was ranked #9 in the state, and 7th in our section. The school we were most concerned about beating was really neck-and-neck with us at prelims, and ranked 10th in the state, and 8th in our section. We were psyched that it was shaping up to be an exciting race, and... I'll admit, a little confident that we would pull it out.

Since I have alllllllll the free time on my hands, I did a lot of number crunching last week, building out fake-meets against our schools, and every way I played with the numbers, we were looking solid.

Saturday, #1 woke up and was practically giddy. She was excited to run, and looked confident. The girl is a head-case runner - seeing her confident to go into this course was great.

Spectating XC is an interesting day. The courses are short, usually 3 miles, and run so fast, that to spectate in a few places, you have to MOVE. Generally, there's a flood of spectators that flee from spot to spot throughout the course to catch their runners as they move through.

Exactly like this....

If you've ever spectated a longer race before, it's exactly like that, but ON SPEED.

The Mt Sac course is pretty loopy for the first 1.5mi, so you can kind of catch the athletes in about 4 locations before they head up the second half. We knew the layout from last week, and had a pretty solid spectating strategy, so we stuck with it (if you're interested, this is the course map - we planted ourselves at the end of the airstrip, before the loop, so we saw her at the start, on the first loop go around, then ran over to switchbacks, then to the crossover, and then to the gauntlet for the finish - I swear these are all things on the course that I'm totally not making up).

Anyway. We're at our spot. The field takes off - 16 teams, 7 girls each team, plus individuals - and right away, I note that the field is tight, and FAST. It looks like our team is having some trouble sticking together in a pack, but #1 is looking good in her mid-pack position.

source: Joe Gagnon/PrepCalTrack

As we're waiting for them to come through the first loop, Sarah Baxter breeeeeezes through, well ahead of everyone else.

Oh, look. She's winning!

The lead pack comes through, and I start to get a little nervous - usually there's three girls on our team that start together, but they were not running together this time. Then the chase pack comes through - usually, #1 is solidly mid-pack, in here. And usually by now, the herd has thinned a bit - not so much this time. They're all still running really tight, and FAST.

Then the girl that runs 7th for us ran by, and we thought we must have missed #1 in the herd.

15-20 seconds later, after everyone else has passed, is #1.

My first thought, is she got frustrated with the pack, and was giving herself space? She always starts slow and then kicks in... maybe the fast start was too much. Maybe she wanted to give herself some room.

And then I hear her breathing, and it's clearly distressed. I didn't connect what happened at first, until she was running past, and The H noticed the giant scrape under her right hip.

Somewhere in the first 800, she had fallen. And my heart just sunk for her.

We went over to the switchbacks, where she'd come through after the second loop around the field, and she was at the back, but was caught up to the rest of the pack (so, in the second 800, she made up 20 seconds on the rest of the field), and came through the first mile in 6:12.

When she came by us, before heading up the switchbacks, she was crying, and limping.

on Switchbacks

Waiting for her at crossover was just THE WORST EVER. As her mom, I'm a pretty tough-love kind of parent, and generally defer to the coaching she receives from the XC team, but it was horrible, knowing how HARD running is, how hard running uphill is, and that she was doing it while crying and limping.

She came through crossover, and had passed a few runners. After crossover, we planned to wait for her at the gauntlet (the last 200m at the finish), because the rest of the course is hard to get to and then still get to the finish. It was FOR REAL the longest longest longest 1.5 miles ever for me.

She passed that girl in blue.

When she crossed the finish line, I criiiiiied and cried. She finished two spots behind one of her teammates, and the other girls joined them in the line.

After their bib numbers were collected, her teammates took her over to the med tent to get cleaned up, where #1 found out that they had finished.... 8th overall.

Womp. 

She asked to stick around for the varsity boys' race a bit after hers, so we did. 

It was a pretty rough day. 

I'm not sure how she found it in her to finish the race, and finish it so strong. I tried to ask her why she kept running, and she just said "Because coach said to get up and go."

Maybe it's that simple. 

I spent the rest of the weekend kind of coddling her, but she's been in a fair amount of pain - I don't think it's anything serious, just a lot of road rash, and bruising. Since they're not going to states, next week is an off week, anyway, so hopefully she's all healed up when they head back to school after Thanksgiving.

She's had an amazing first season. It was really exciting to be a freshman, heading to CIF finals, and a great experience for her. Just kind of a sucky way for it to end. 

(PS, my number crunching was DEAD ON, and the team that ended up beating us into the finals was a dark horse that wasn't even ranked - they just had a killer day, and ran the race of their lives. Bad ass.  The team we were eyeing as competition TIED with us, and on a normal day, #1 would have been the tie-breaker, and would have beat their #6 runner. Maybe I missed my calling as a XC coach?)

There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.

I ran some, but it hasn't been pretty.

Yep.

4 easy miles Wednesday to test out some ankle funk that had been plaguing me. When that felt resolved, I did 8 tempo on Thursday, and it kicked my ass. Or my right quad/IT Band, which were feeling like I had just run a marathon all of Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday.

Saturday, I set out to do 10 easy with the H at 5:30am, followed by 9-10 easy with PCRF.

In actuality, what happened was a 3 mile jog/walk/whine with the H, follwed by a break wherein he advised that if I didn't shut up with the whining, and just run, he was leaving me (rude), so I ran until we got close to the house. 6 miles total. Went home, taped up the achy spot on my right leg, stretched a little, rolled a little, and headed out to PCRF. 9 easy pace miles with them, and I quit for the day at 15.

Not quite the 20 I had on schedule, and, honestly, if I had been just ACHY or sore in general, I may have tried to push through (maybe). I thought it might just work itself out after some warming up. But since it was a localized pain, that got worse the more I ran, I quit. It sucks that I couldn't finish, but it is what it is.

Yesterday, I did a lot of icing, and stretching, and rolling, and today it feels a little better. Fingers crossed it resolves itself?

I also had 4 days of yoga worked in there, too, so I guess that's something... I mean. Not really something very helpful, like, if I want to RUN, I should do some cardio....

The last three weeks.......



The last 3 months. Not much of a marathon cycle.



Somehow, I committed to run a little something the week before Eugene, which (once upon a time) was supposed to be my goal race....

So... there's that.

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A few people have emailed and asked how Gabby is doing, and.... well, she's doing great.

We had a small issue with her port last week, but it was resolved quickly at OPI, and now we're just waiting for her surgeon to reschedule the port removal.


We had a nice, quiet Easter at home.

Report cards came home last week, and her teacher summed Gabby up with, "Gabby is an absolute delight to have in the classroom. I appreciate her willingness to try new things and she always has a smile on her face while doing it."

Besides not running, we're kind of hunting for a new place - our lease is up in June, and we're looking for something bigger, which is a challenge if we want to stay in the same area. I originally chose our neighborhood because I loved the schools - they are all neighborhood schools, and walking distance (I don't think we even have busses in our district). #1 has a lot of opinions about what school she wants to go to, since she starts high school in the fall (HOW AM I OLD ENOUGH FOR THAT TO HAPPEN!?). #2, I think, would struggle in the middle school she's currently zoned for. So trying to find something in our price range (ie, cheap), in the zones we want, is complicated and time sucking.

Aaaaand my little brother is coming to visit this week, so I've been trying to find fun, interesting, not lame things for him to do. Turns out, I'm old and boring, and don't really do fun things. So it's required some serious internet scouring.

So.... that's our update. Aside from that stuff, I'm just..... I hate to use this word, because it's so cliche and dumb, but I can't think of another term that sounds quite right... I'm decompressing. I'm a little hesitant to yap about how great Gab is doing, and I'm trying to find a balance between letting go of some of the worry I held during treatment, but maintaining our vigelence. I know that sounds dramatic.

I kind of feel like I shared so much with Gabby's treatment, and I kind of want to keep this feeling of relief bottled up. I know it won't last forever, and I want to enjoy it while it's still here.

Pity, party of One?

I know, it's a little weird that I'm leaving for THE HAPPIEST RACE ON EARTH in 48 hours and I haven't blogged one bit about how out of my mind excited I am.

I really am out of my mind excited, really and truly.

But I'm a sick sick sicko. And it's a big, big bummer. I've been kind of out since Wednesday, and haven't run since I bailed mid-way through lame-o crappy run on Tuesday (I'm no longer wondering why that run was so crappy).

That's Tuesday OF LAST WEEK. It's officially a week PLUS since I've run.

I really know how to taper. I'm a pro, yo.

So I've been lazing around, taking it easy, hydrating, etc. I went to work Monday, but it sucked, so I didn't go yestereday. I took a long walk, hoping that would pep me up, but it sucked and made me EXHAUSTED.

I took some medicine, which alternately made me groggy and feeling pukey and FAMISHED (weirdest combination of side effects EVER), but it DID stop the pounding headache and incredible stuffy-headed feeling, so that was nice.

Hopefully, things are looking up, and I think I feel a bit better today, but man, so exhausted.

I guess it's really tiring laying around watching Law and Order on Netflix all day, for days and days and days.

So, I'm really excited, I leave Friday morning, and I can't wait to see Becka and L and Dee and my favorite places in the world and spending Sunday and Monday with my parents.

If I can manage to stay awake for all of the excitement, that is.

Yawn.

Also, I hope my body hasn't forgotten how to run. It won't, right?

My brain quits. PFTW

Last week:
Monday: 7 miles - 1 warm up, 5 tempo, 1 cool down.*
Wednesday: 16 miles. This sucked, hard. **

I know. I ran twice. I didn't cross train. I'm the worst at training.

I'm not sure what's wrong with my brain, but I was thinking pretty ugly things on our drive back from Sequioa's. Like... that maybe I don't even LIKE running. Maybe, I'll just STOP running. Maybe I'm just not made to be a runner.

I'm just not one of those people who OMGLOVE being sweaty. I do like that it keeps me from being a fat blobby mess. But if the option were there to sit on my ass, watch tv, eat whatever, AND not exercise, I'd be all over it. It's a necessary evil. Yeah, I like running, a lot of the time. I just... kind of don't feel like it. I don't know.

*Tempo run was fantastic {words I never, ever imagined saying}. Goal pace 9:45, I ended at 9:30, and feeling great. I don't know where those happy running legs were Saturday for that 5k, but they sure would have come in handy.

**The first 14 miles were fine. Nothing amazing, but easy enough. But those last two?? Awful. I walked, a LOT. I still ended up with a 10:49 overall pace, which is a little fast for me for a long run, so maybe that was the problem. I don't know. It's like my body has never, ever run distance before, eevry week, it melts down when I reach the distance I hit on the last long run.

So maybe it's in my brain.

Bah.

This week:
Monday: UGH Cross training UGH
Tuesday: 7 miles, 400's {I feel like I should be excited about this}
Wednesday: Dinner with friends = rest day!
Thursday: 7 miles easy, weights?
Friday: Yoga
Saturday: 5 miles easy, weights?
Sunday: 18 miles easy

Zoinks.
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In less sucky news, our weekend trip to the Sequoia's was fantastic. Our plans changed a little bit due to some sneaky cold weather, and we ended up at a tiny road-side motel on our own instead of camping with friends, but it was still great. There were bears. And foggy forests. And beautiful mountains. And giant, giant trees. Pictures to come.