What the Heck is Wrong with Me!   Overview of Weeks 1, 2, and 3 of an 18 week Training Schedule

 

After ten years of running for exercise, and having run 2 half marathons, I am training for a full. Over the past year I have somehow morphed from “running is kind of ok and burns a lot of calories” to “I LOVE to run”.  I think part of this change came because I have been living in Shanghai part-time and didn’t have much else to do while my husband was at work. We are empty nesters and so I didn’t have anything to connect me to other ex-pats like I did when we lived in Japan… our youngest was in Japan with us and I met other international school moms (and in the process made some wonderful life-long friends).

Here in Shanghai I started running more often, and was challenged to go longer distances and try to beat my times…I am not a competitive person except with myself. I also turned 50 this past September and sort of had a half-hearted goal that I should run a marathon in my 50th year, so there’s that. The scary thing now is, I’ve actually signed up and paid for it and if you know races…it’s almost impossible to get out of! So if I get sick of training or injure myself or WHATEVER I am out the race fee.

My first long run was 10 miles, and we happened to be back in Yokohama, Japan for two weeks. The city of Yokohama is 30 minutes south of Tokyo by train…although Tokyo, then Kawasaki and Yokohama is all just huge city blending into huge city. According to the weather before we left Buffalo, NY (home), Japan was SUPPOSED to be in the 50’s…which of course didn’t happen. It was in the 20’s and 30’s mostly (we’re talking Fahrenheit, btw)…so of course my packing strategy was pathetic.  Mount Fuji taken from one of my runs in the town of Oiso, Japan

We (my husband and I) packed mostly for warmer runs and only had a handful of cold weather gear…just in case. So we wore some items more than once until we couldn’t stand ourselves and then sent out the items to be laundered. We spent close to $100 US getting a few items of clothing washed! But, you can only re-use workout clothes so much, am I right?!

ANYWAY…first long run, 10 miles…felt really good. I know I ran it too fast, and I HAVE to stop doing that. It was the first time I’ve run “straight” without a walk break for that distance in a few years so I was happy I did it well. I start setting these goals in my head, and push to reach them. The thing is, I have read enough to know my long run should be much slower than my “race pace”. I don’t want an injury, and I should be gearing my body up for endurance…but I couldn’t help but feel that if I can’t run these miles at my normal pace, how am I going to hit my goal in the actual marathon!! I know, I know…somehow it all shakes out…and this was only my first long run! I have a long time to go! It’s hard (for me) to not think in terms of goals, though.   

My husband, Dave and I on Osanbashi Pier in Yokohama. 

My next long run was 12 miles. I definitely slowed down, but I still struggle with taking it super easy (one issue is I have a goal to run a half in under 2 hours). So even though I was pacing myself well through most of a mile…I would speed up to make sure the cumulative would be under 2 by the end. So yeah, I did it in under 2 (1:58:43), but afterwards I again felt like I was failing at training. Last week was a “light” week. We had to travel to Shanghai on one of the days and it rained all weekend, so I missed two days of running. Instead of the rest days, I ran to make up the missed runs…which means days of rest were spent running. None of the runs were very long, but by the time I ran on the fifth day in a row (of a week I was only supposed to run every other) I was feeling the fatigue in my legs. Ugh.

I rested (finally) and felt much better on a run with my husband yesterday. Since he is running the half and me the full, I’ve adjusted the runs so I am doing the long run on Wednesday instead of on the weekend. I will have to figure out how to end up in the right place for tapering and all that towards the end of the training…so researching will be in order. So, today is a rest day. I am going to go walking since the air quality is good…don’t get me started on having to run most of the time on the treadmill last week because of sky rocketing AQI numbers!

I have a four miler tomorrow and a 14 miler on Wednesday. I will check in after that!

Nutrition notes: I’ve started taking snacks on my runs to experiment with what works for me since I can’t do the gels/chews and whatnot that a lot of runners use. I’m not sure what it is (maybe artificial sweeteners, as those tend to not agree with me)…but I’m trying to use “real” food to see if that works better. I tried raisins on my last run, and they worked great! No stomach issues at all. I just took a pinch of out of my water belt pouch every two miles and drank some water. I did a little research, and read about raisins and also that when you eat your carbs during the run they should be watered down. Since I stop and walk for 30 seconds every two miles to mimic going through race day water stations, I figure that is a good time to add a bit of carb.  I also need to experiment with sports drinks. I tried Pocari Sweat (a brand in Japan) and that did not work well…I felt a little “rumbly” when I switched to the sports drink instead of water after an hour. I may try a homemade version, but that will have to wait until I get back to Buffalo next week.

If you are reading this and have any interest in running the Buffalo Half or Full Marathon May 27, 2018, click this link! I haven’t run it, but it is supposed to be “flat and fast”. It is also a Boston Qualifier, if you have any skin in that game.