Shirking Schedules ... and Speed Work

Some of you know me in the "real world" (outside the blogosphere) and some of you don't.  Those of you that do, know that I'm all about schedules (actually, some of you longtime readers may have picked up on this too).  I love to have a schedule, especially if I'm in training for a race.  I look at my training plan, I look at my calendar, and I set up a schedule for running, cross training, strength training, yoga, etc.  They're usually color-coded.  I rock at planning out and setting up a schedule.  What I'm not so great at most of the time... is sticking with it! *embarassed*

I've had a training schedule for my next race hanging on the exercise room door since mid-February..  Let's just say it's probably the least-followed schedule I've ever made.  Before this month, actually, it's was a miracle if I got more than one of those scheduled workouts in per week.  Sigh.  Fortunately, with the ramp up in mileage to get ready for MCM training with my Galloway Group, I have at least been getting in my weekend long runs recently.  Yay!  Next week's races are gonna be UGLY - but they have very generous time cutoffs and I'm running with friends - so we're more just in it for the experience and the bling!

Speaking of MCM training, some of the girls in my pace group are also running MCM, and, like me, are worried about finishing within the time limit.  So we've incorporated speedwork into our weekly regimen - Tuesday nights we meet at the nearby school track and push ourselves.  It's hard work, but it feels great when we're done!

Next week is also the official kickoff meeting for this season's Galloway Group training!  That means I will be back on another schedule - one that I'll stick with because I HAVE TO if I'm going to keep up with the group and get in the training I need to have for MCM.

This week I was almost back on schedule - I ended up skipping Thursday's run because I had to work late and couldn't motivate myself when I got home.  Thanks to a late spring cool front moving through on Friday, Saturday morning's long run was quite pleasant - although it was humid and sprinkled a bit.

Weekly recap:

• Monday - XT & strength
• Tuesday - speedwork & abs
• Wednesday - XT & strength
• Thursday - skipped short run
• Friday - rest
• Saturday - 7 mi; 1:37:59; 14:06 min/mi avg pace

Ramping Up and Amping Up

Today was a good day.  A small group of my Galloway Group friends that are also running MCM have been meeting here in the neighborhood to run the trails to ramp up to our first group run at the end of May.  Not only are we increasing mileage, but we're also amping up our run/walk intervals to increase our speed.

This morning we had 4 miles on the schedule.  And we bumped up to 90:60 run/walk intervals.  I was a little concerned about bumping up to the slightly longer run interval because after slacking off so much this spring, even the 1:1's I've been doing recently have been more difficult than I'd like to admit.  But we decided we'd take it very slow and easy and just concentrate on the longer run interval, not on our speed.

Thanks to the fun of running with friends, the miles went by fairly painlessly, and before I knew it we were done!  4 miles at 90:60 intervals - yay!  I even joined one friend in another short 1.5 mile loop to walk her dog after we finished.  As much as I wanted to just stay in bed this morning, it's always a good feeling when I'm done.

Race Report: Another DNF ... This Time Closer to Home

Three weeks after successfully completing the Tinkerbell Half and eight weeks after my Disney Marathon, I was at the start line of the Inaugural Woodlands Half Marathon.  Why, you ask, was I doing this?  For lots of reasons:

1. Inaugural bling;
2. (Relatively) cheap registration fee;
3. "Flat & fast" course;
4. Some high school friends had tossed around the idea of running it also;
5. (Relatively) close to my parents house;
6. Qualify for Half Fanatics (this was actually an unintended side effect that I realized after I'd already registered); and
7. Inaugural bling!

Pre-race with Dad

What I hadn't counted on, however, was my lingering nasty cold/flu/crud (whatever it was) and my previously mentioned bad case of post-race blues after Mickey and Tink.  All of that led to me lining up in my start corral feeling less-than stellar that cool and damp morning.  I had even told my mom several times earlier in the morning that I really wasn't "feeling it" and that I should probably just be cheering.  But I decided that I could power through it and just finish - certainly not my best idea.

Early on.

At Mile 2, I realized I had no business being out there on that course - with every run interval my chest would tighten up and send me into a coughing fit that I needed the entire following walk interval to recover from.  So I made the tough, but right, decision to stop.  I walked to the next water/medical station at Mile 3 and stopped.  Of course, I was so upset that I was stopping (with flashbacks of Donald 2010 playing through my mind) that I was crying and having trouble getting words out.  Which totally freaked out the medical team - they called for an ambulance for a female in respiratory distress!!!  I quickly pulled myself together and managed to convey that I was fine, did not need an ambulance, was just upset, but did need to get in the sag wagon back to the start.  Apparently there were some serious delays getting the sag wagons through, because I sat there for a couple hours - I even saw my Dad come through on his second loop for the marathon course...

Post race.  No Medal.  :-(

Once I finally made it back to the start/finish line, I met up with mom just in time to cheer Dad on as he finished (and set a new marathon PR - 4:01!).  I was really bummed to not have gotten the cool finisher's medal and finisher's shirt, but I knew I'd made the right decision.  Plus, I knew I had R'n'R Dallas coming up in just three weeks, and didn't want to push myself to finish this one but screw myself for the next.

So that's the story of my second DNF.  Truthfully, it should've been a DNS (Did Not Start) but apparently I'm a little too pigheaded for that.  And hopefully, this DNF has helped me learn my lesson about starting a race when I shouldn't.