Rainier Training: Detour

Quick Look Weeks of April 30-May 6:

# of Workouts:  9

# of miles ran/walked/hiked/climbed:  25

Starting Weight: 220.8

Current Weight: 175.2 (Up 0.6 lbs from previous week)

Total Lost to date: 45.6 lbs

Chest: 40" (No change)

Hips: 45"  (No change!)

Monday: 2.2 mile walk, 40 min ST with Adam
Tuesday: 1 mile walk, 4 mile run; zoo trip
Wednesday: 1.5 mile run; 40 min ST with Adam
Thursday: 2.5 mile walk
Friday: 1.17 mile run
Saturday: 13.23 mile run - Cap City Half: RECAP
Sunday: Rest/carried Avery in Bjorn 30 minutes

Another week, another gain.  I also feel the need to admit, that when I first weighed myself it was 175.8.  They say if you hydrate properly for a race, you should gain about 2-3 pounds...but I don't want to see it on the scale after the race!  HA!

It's hard not to get bummed about a little bump on the scale for a second week in a row.  Especially when I actually counted calories for the first time ever.  I have to remind myself that I almost always gain weight the week of a race, and that I'm in this for the long haul and long term conditioning, not the weekly scale.

Other things I've learned this week???  Don't write a race recap when you are TIRED.  I focused more on the negative in my recap than I should have.  This perhaps reflects what I wasn't admitting to anyone out loud, that I was bummed I didn't meet my post-Knoxville time goals.  I know, I KNOW it was hot and humid....but I'm competitive, especially with myself.  :)

Positives of Cap City that I feel the need to share even if I've already posted that recap:  

• Nice relatively flat course with LOTS of crowd support.  It is a nice loop that starts downtown, goes to the Ohio State campus, and back to downtown, with an extra 5K looping the German Village (the home of the cobblestones).  
• The post-race food was just what I want after a race: water bottles, orange slices, and bagels.  They also had Calcium Chocolate truffles and chocolate milk courtesy of Snowville Creamery!   Because I stayed until the very end cheering in friends and chatting, the Snowville Creamery people gave me one of the extra cartons of chocolate milk to take home.  I also got an extra pile of chocolates. 
• My absolute favorite part???  Cheering friends in at the finish line.  
• They also had lots of fun family and kid activities at the Finish Line that would have been fantastic for Avery if she were just a bit older.
• One of the best looking (and largest) medals in my collection.  Perhaps it's true what they say, it's all about the bling.

Thank you for all the nice congrats on my race!!!

Now it's time to shift gears.  I try to give myself a couple of days of little to no work the two days following a big race.  Then, I ease back into it, listening to what my body says.   As such, this week will be considered a "fall back" week for running, but next week I will actually be increasing my mileage in preparation for Relay Around Columbus.  I also will be splitting my long runs into two shorter runs as a relay leg prep.  (the total distance will approach distance records for me though).

For mountain climbing???  As my wonderful friend's countdown email showed this week, I only have 9 weeks left.  I can't baby my knees any more.  Time to build up the Rainier workouts.  My plan is to ramp up the intensity on days I workout, but give myself one extra rest day a week to compensate.

Any one else ever prepped for a long-distance relay??  Suggestions?

How long do you usually give yourself off after a race?

Cap City Recap

Race: Cap City Half Marathon
Distance:  13.1 miles
Date:  May 5, 2012, 8:00 am start
Finish time:  2:26:48, 11:13 min/avg  (official time/pace)
What sets this race apart:  Being local


I finished it!!!  No more will I say that I register for Cap City and fail to finish it!


All week long the weather was an issue because our temperatures were way above normal.  A few days before race day, we received email warnings about the symptoms for heatstroke and the need to slow down and hydrate.

The dog fountain is an excellent way to stay cool AND hydrate Mommy.

I modified my race plan and intended to slow down, but I couldn't give up the idea of PRing. Turns out, I did both.  Slowed down compared to the Scioto Mile 15K a few weeks ago, and PR'd by almost 3 minutes compared to the Knoxville Half a month ago!


Once again, this race made poor Sports Drink decisions.  Last year, they served Ultima (I forget the exact name - but it was disgusting - everyone was spitting it out).  This year, they served GU electrolye brew.  I'd never had it.  Thus, I'm glad I read the program guide the night I picked up my packet, and filled all 20oz of my fuel belt with power aide instead.  Nonetheless, I wound up taking a couple cups of the Brew during the race - and it was AWFUL.  Now that I've finally finished this race, I think I'm taking it out of the race rotation because of bad sports drinks.


The race was 65 degrees and 93% humidity at the start.  I was thankful, that it was foggy and thus, the sun wasn't shining down on us as well.  I'd intended to run with my friend Amy during the race, but pre-race she was saying that she was going to run with the 11:30 pacers for the first 6 miles.  So, I moved up to join the 2:25 finish pacers.  I stayed with them for about half of the race.  I fell back from them because of the water stops.

About 2/3 through the race, I'm the one in yellow.  Photo Courtesy of Sarah

The course had an awesome number of water stops, which is great considering the above average temps and humidity.  (I sweat more in this race than I ever have at a race, and I have the odd chafing injuries to prove it).  At least 4 of the stops though, did not have water cups ready when I came through.  Runners were having to wait in line to get water.  This is why I took the nasty sports drink a couple of times.  (I drank all of my poweraide by mile 10).  Perhaps it was the heat and the size of the race, I don't know, but it felt like I waited FOREVER at a couple of stops to get water.  At one stop, I actually had to leave the course, go up onto the sidewalk to a table in the back where they were pouring water into cups one at a time.  (There were 13,000 runners in the race!)  To top it off, a lot of the cups only had a gulp of water in them.


Given the fact that I was sweating outrageously by the end of the FIRST mile, I didn't feel like it was a good idea for me to skip many of the water stops (I skipped the first one because it came before the end of the first mile).  So, I waited.  Honestly, I wish I had timed how long I actually waited!


This race brought home how awesome it is to run in a local race when you belong to a couple of different running clubs.  The crowd support was AWESOME.  My friend Sarah, who got injured a few weeks before the race, showed up on her bike and was that added boost I needed several times during the race.  The last water stop was packed with my Run DMC (Daily Mile Columbus) group - and they had plenty of water cups ready!  HA!  On the course, I ran into two other good friends that were also running the race. Imagine that - out of 13,000 runners, I run into those two.  Very cool.

Some of the gang post race!  From left to right: Me, Laurie, Amy, Deb, Suzi and Nita

The only thing I didn't like about the course was the cobblestone streets in the German Village.  I definitely slowed down in that area because I was worried about turning an ankle.  They've changed the course several times in the last few years, I would've loved it if they'd removed this section.  It is a big section for crowd support though, so maybe that's why they don't.


I'm sad to say that I saw more people down on the ground: in the street, on the side of the street and in the back of ambulances, than all the previous races I've run combined.  Many were hooked up to IVs.  I hope that all of them are okay today!


Despite the weather and the water stops, I still PR'd by almost 3 minutes, so I'll take it.  Turns out my friend Amy didn't stick with the 11:30 group, and she PR'd by 13 minutes and beat me by 3 seconds!  She also was prominently displayed in a picture in the local paper!

Hob-nobbing with the Celebrity.  (I was chilled post-race, that's why the extra shirt)

Several of my regular Tuesday/Thursday night group completed their first half marathon in the race:  Sue, Andrew, Lynne, Kumar, Gail and Nic!

From Left to right: Amy, Andrew, me, Kumar and Lynne

So, all in all, a good day!  What else do you need to know???


The goodie bag wasn't much.  A bag, a chocolate and a lot of ads.  The shirt was pretty awesome though.

I also got a few fun things at the expo.  Some Super Feet inserts and some bondibands.

Blogspot loaded it sideways - so annoying

Maybe one of the other best parts of the race???  The Cap City medal is big enough to eat all my other medals...

The empty spot is reserved for my first full.

I am probably done with running the Cap City Half Marathon now that I finally earned my medal.  There are a lot of other Spring races I want to do, and the Sports drinks continue to be nasty.  It is usually a target race for my group, MIT, though, so I will probably enjoy being cheerleader or volunteer in future years!


Mandy


Editor's note:  I should never write race recaps when I am as tired as I was writing this one.  Tired makes me focus on more negatives than positives.  I left out a lot of great things about this race.  It was a nice loop course from downtown to Ohio State and back.  It was relatively flat.  They had great post-race treats: orange slices, bagels, chocolate truffles and Snowville Creamery chocolate milk.  Because I stayed to the end, I even got an entire carton of chocolate milk to take home with me and a bunch of extra truffles too!  I will comment on these in my Rainier training update tomorrow as well!


Anyone else race this weekend?


Any other stories about heat or sports drinks at races?

The Mandy Diet

Ha.  Anytime I see anything with a name followed by diet, I typically run the other way as fast as I can.  (which turns out, isn't very fast).

Image source

I have ALWAYS been very anti any type of fad diet and really any diet at all.  Even eating less than exactly what I want has also been an issue.  I'm an extremely picky eater and I insist on lots of variety in meals.  Anyone else see the problem there?  When I was in high school and playing on three different soccer teams, not a big deal. When I got older and more sedentary, big deal.  When I went to law school and added stress eating to the mix, the pounds started to pile on.

Law School graduation picture

From the time I started running during my chemistry degree to the time I  completed my first half marathon, my weight did not drop a single pound. Lots of people asked if I'd lost weight - so I guess maybe it shifted around, but I was still 186.  

Columbus Half Marathon 2010

I decided to add strength training and try to lose weight right around the time my husband and I decided to start trying to have a kid.  Kid won that race.  Once I got pregnant, thoughts of weight loss had to be put on hold.  When I stopped running because of shins splints during pregnancy (around 5.5 months), my weight jumped.  Just before Avery was born the scale climbed to an impressive 230 lbs.  (And I only lost 10 lbs giving birth.)

The week Avery came home - August 2011

I knew Rainier was on the horizon.  AND, I knew that success depended on not just getting back to pre-pregnancy weight, but also losing some of the excess.  I knew that diets didn't work for me.  For me, drastic changes are not sustainable.  I'll stick with them for a short period, and then revert to where I was before.  So, I started small.  I tried to get back to running 3 weeks after giving birth to Avery.  I was instantly depressed at how incredibly hard it was to start over.  On my friend, Sarah's advice, I joined the Couch to 5K program at my local running store.  It was humbling to be aiming for a 5K when I'd previously run a half marathon.  The huge upside is that I still run with the amazing people that I met in that program today.

The gang, after one of our 5K training runs

Other small steps?  Return to strength training.  Advantage here?  I'd kept up with the strength training until the day I went into labor.  Literally.  As in, my water broke after a set of inclined push-ups.


I was one of those people that weight loss and breast feeding just never went together.  No matter what I did, until I quit breast feeding, my weight didn't budge.


I tried to focus on the portions of what I was eating and how much.  Even though I was working out again, I couldn't eat all the time anymore.  I did need to make sure that I was fueling properly for my workouts and for recovery though.  Biggest dietary change?  Not eating late at night.  No more eating after 8pm.  I still mostly follow that rule, with the exception of late night workouts.  When I finish a strength training session I have chocolate milk to recover, no matter the time.  The protein and carbs are necessary for my muscles to recover.  


When I completed the 5K program, I jumped right back into my old running group,  MIT.  I began training for a half marathon again.  I also added weighted walking workouts to prep for mountain climbing.

After the Knoxville Half April 2012

Basically, I made sensible portion choices and added a lot of exercise to lose 45 pounds from mid-September through today.  


I do not deprive myself of sweets or any other favorites, but I eat them in moderation.  Example: 1 snack size candy bar instead of 1 of each in the variety pack.  I found that by not cutting things out completely, I didn't really binge to compensate for the deprivation.


If I wanted to do an unhealthy night out on occasion - I didn't stress about it.  One night of eating out per week, will not blow my goals.


I did NOT focus on counting calories.  Nor limited myself to a 1200 calorie diet.  That's not healthy with the workouts I had planned.

Try Puffs Mom.  They're whole grain.

Now that I've closed more than half the distance to my goal weight, I may need to start watching those calories more, and focus on healthier snacks.  I have downloaded an app to test this out.  I still do not intend to cut out sweets or "processed foods" or only eat "organic."  I will pay more attention to labels though.  


Side note:  The label organic is completely unregulated.  Just because you are eating organic doesn't mean that the item is necessarily good for you or better than the other choices.  It's a good idea to read MORE of the label to find out if it actually means anything on that product.

My other small change?  After Cap City this weekend, I need to really amp up my Rainier training.  Hmmm, guess that's not small.  I've decided that I need a minimum of 3 Rainier focused workouts per week going forward.

Run DMC (Daily Mile Columbus) gang before our last Cap City long run

I have been babying myself with my workouts lately because of a paranoia about injuries.  I need to push a little bit harder after Cap City, while still training smart and avoiding injury.  I find that line can be a tough one to walk run.


So. That's how I've gotten to this point.  I plan to continue my weekly training updates because I find them self-motivating.  I don't want to tell anyone that reads them that I skipped a workout or gained 15 pounds.  :)


Any questions or advice are always welcome!


Mandy

Rainier Training: Listening

Quick Look Weeks of April 23-April 29:

# of Workouts:  7

# of miles ran/walked/hiked/climbed:  13.8

Starting Weight: 220.8

Current Weight: 174.6 (Up 0.6 lbs from previous week)

Total Lost to date: 46.2 lbs!

Chest: 40" (No change)

Hips: 45"  (No change!)

Monday: Weighted TM walk (28lbs, 10% incline), 1.7 miles; ST with Adam
Tuesday: Ran 3.1 miles
Wednesday: ST with Adam
Thursday: Ran 3 miles, Avery in Bjorn for Costco trip
Friday: MOPS Yoga
Saturday: Ran 6 miles
Sunday: Bonus rest day

I think I was feeling the residual effects of racing the Scioto Miles 15K last Sunday.  I intentionally did not run on Monday to allow those muscles more recovery, but I think the weighted walk on an incline did as much damage.  

All week, my body was giving me little signals that it was tired.  I listened.  Taking it easier for one week will be much less detrimental to my Rainier training than pushing too hard and getting hurt.  

Try cat wrestling Mom, it's low impact

All week long, my scale-checks were high, so I fully expected to gain a couple pounds this week.  0.6 lbs gain?  I can live with that.  That's within statistical probability of being water weight and/or scale error.  I was really expecting to have a mental stumble when I finally had a week with a +sign in front of the weight difference rather than a minus.  The fact that I had not had one since I started weekly weigh-ins is probably a statistical anomaly.  (had not had one - how's that for great grammar?)

With another light week ahead of me, with lots of carbs, because it's race week, I decided to play with excel and make a graph to keep me feeling good about me.

Yes, this means that I am a bit of a nerd.  Yes, I still have a way to go before I'm where I want to be.  I like the overall trend for the past 7 months though!

A couple of people have asked how I'm doing it - so I am planning out a post that covers it.  Fair warning though - I'm not a fan of fad diets or 1200 calorie plans or anything that involves drastic unsustainable change.  Mostly, I've added up a lot of small changes and a lot of exercise.

Mommy wants to exercise again.  Looks like it's just you and me Cassie.

This week brings another change.  It's time for me to pay more attention to diet and actually hydrating properly.  What better time to TRACK my water intake than when I have a race on Saturday where the weather is expected to be 30 degrees warmer than my last month of training.  I downloaded a free iPhone app to try out that has a calorie tracker and a water tracker.  I'll let you know what I think after I've played with it for a few days.

Just now, the UPS gal delivered one of the baby gates I ordered to contain Avery. She commented on how much weight I'd lost.  When I said I still had 30 lbs to go, she asked "What are you aiming for a toothpick?"  LOL.  No, I'm just aiming for a more healthy weight than I was at before I got pregnant.  For my own self image...and because every pound I lose puts an estimated four pounds less strain on my knee when I run!  This makes me faster. 

Blah, blah, blah, Faster..... Do it!

How was your training week?

Do you use any iPhone apps in your training?

Anyone race this past weekend?

When is too soon?

When is it too soon to start registering for the next race???


I am supposed to be in taper mode for my second half marathon of this season, The Cap City Half Marathon.


This race is supposed to be a big deal for me, because this is the third time I have registered for it, and I've never completed it.


Why?


In May 2010, DNS.  I went on a downhill ski vacation a month and a half before the race.  I fell on the last run of the last day.  Didn't even fall THAT hard.  You don't have to when you land on the end of your planted ski pole.  A week later, the doctor confirmed that I had 3 cracked ribs and needed to stop running for 4-6 weeks minimum.  

This may or may not have been the day I fell - same trip though. 

Instead of running the race that rainy May morning, or even cheering my Dad and husband who ran it, I stayed home and studied chemistry.  Wow.  I'm so exciting.


In May 2011, kind-of DNF.  I turned at the Quarter turnoff and only completed the quarter marathon.  For those of you keeping score, Avery was born in August of 2011, so I was 5 months pregnant.  I fully intended to finish the race though, but I got debilitating shin splints (one of the very few times in my life this has happened, all of them while pregnant).  I was hormonal, and sobbing, and at the back of the pack.  So, I quit early.  SHAME.

After the race - I even refused the Half medal for the Quarter one.

Nonetheless, am I focusing on Cap City?  Checking the weather?  Talking about taper crazies?


No.  I'm looking up fall races and finding a half marathon to travel to for fun as "part of my marathon training".  I also am modifying several plans to write my own marathon training plan, but we'll talk about that later.


Earlier this week, I signed up for my first Full Marathon, the Columbus Marathon.  To some, that wasn't that surprising, because I've been saying that I intended to go for all 26.2 this fall.


Just now though, I bought plane tickets and registered for another race.  My first race-cation if you will.

Source

My marathon schedule has 18 miles on it for that Saturday.  To get those in, the plan is to run 2-3 miles to warm-up before this race, not run the race at "death speed," and then run 2 miles to cool down after the race.  I even suckered Laurie into going with me, so I know I'll have a buddy for the extra miles.  AND, I'm working on suckering even more of my running group into going with me.  I like to have company in my crazy.


Anyone else want to come on a race-cation to Virginia Beach?  


Mandy

Going all the way

At the Cap City Expo last year, I bought this tech shirt.  I was 5.5 months pregnant at the time, and thought it would be hilarious to take my belly photo with this shirt on, but not covering the belly.

It says "13.1
I don't go all the way"

Then, a couple months ago, I applied for the ING New York Marathon.  I thought I should put all this getting into shape I'm doing for the Rainier climb to good use and finally go for the full marathon.


Today, I hovered on the computer around 12:35 because that's when you were supposed to be able to find out whether you got in on the non-guaranteed entries for the lottery.  They then changed that line on the website to say "check in later today," and then changed it to say "Check back April 26 to find out if you're in".  I was starting to feel like I didn't want to get in anyway, since it would be a solo trip.  Nonetheless, the not-knowing was killing me.


Apparently, it was killing Avery too, as she refused to take her afternoon nap. 

I don't want to miss it if you get in Mommy!

Just before my strength-training workout this evening, my New York profile unlocked and I got to see the lovely "not accepted" phrase.  (based on the lack of charged fees on my credit card, I was kind of expecting it).  I actually felt a little sad.  Something about the phrase "not accepted" under your name is just sad.  


Before, I could decide that it was I sign that I should never run a full 26.2 freaking miles, I loaded the Columbus Marathon page and....


"Thank you for submitting your entry for the October 21, 2012 Nationwide Children's Hospital Columbus Marathon and Half Marathon: Marathon"

Cassie, I think I should climb on you to celebrate Mommy's craziness!

So.  It's official.  I'm going all the way.  I think I'm in shock.


For those of you who have run those 26.2 miles - any tips, suggestions, concerns?


If you haven't run a marathon, do you want to?

Rainier Training: 70 days left

Quick Look Weeks of April 16-April 22:

# of Workouts:  9

# of miles ran/walked/hiked/climbed:  25.73

Starting Weight: 220.8

Current Weight: 174.0 (Down 2.0 lbs from previous week!)

Total Lost to date: 46.8 lbs!

Chest: 40" (No change)

Hips: 45"  (No change!)

Monday: Ran 5 miles; ST with Adam 40 min
Tuesday: Ran 3 miles; walked the Zoo with Avery in Bjorn
Wednesday: Stairclimber 0.5 miles; Spin class; ST with Adam 40 min
Thursday: Ran 5 miles
Friday: Rest day
Saturday: Ran 3 miles
Sunday: 15K race - recap

So, this week I tried doing a meal plan for dinner for the first time.  How did it go?  50-50.  LOL.  One of the meals was a complete bust (as far as I'm concerned).  The crock-pot lasagna was AWESOME though.  Two nights, we wound up eating out instead.  There was a definite pattern to that.  Friday, we dealt with getting Avery's and my passports, and I was not willing to cook afterwards.  Sunday, with the nasty weather, Mark didn't want to grill.

Despite the fact that I went rather unhealthy when eating out, and binged on chocolate and Twizzlers early in the week, I still lost 2 lbs.  Kind of makes me wonder how it would have gone if I'd been better behaved.  

As I was writing this up, I realized I did exactly ZERO weighted walks this week.  (Unless carrying Avery in the Bjorn at the zoo counts?)  I had a reason why I didn't on every day, but it still bothers me.  I intend to do a weighted walk during Avery's nap today - assuming she takes it.  This week, I WILL DO MORE WEIGHTED WALKS.  Hold me to it!

Enjoying the zoo - just before she moved to the Bjorn

Jack Hanna was filming by the elephants while we were there.

I had a lot of success with running faster this week though - and I find that really exciting!  I'm extremely competitive, and would LOVE to be a much faster runner.  This week I begin my running taper pre-Cap City.  I will also find out if I got in to the NYC marathon.

My Dad and stepbrother booked another climbing trip for June 2013 to Ecuador.  My whole reason for climbing Rainier this summer instead of next (giving me more time post-baby) was because Rainier is a pre-requisite to the Ecuador climb.  I have not booked a spot on the Ecuador climb yet, because I feel that I have to prove myself on Rainier first.  Plus, if I get there and absolutely HATE mountain climbing, it would be rather unfortunate that I had another climb booked.

I had to turn in some registration forms to RMI this week as well.  Rather depressing to put in my current weight, and then write in the fitness section that I plan to lose 15 lbs pre-climb.  I'm sure whoever reads that is saying - "Uh, yeah right."  I would be surprised if I weren't pre-flagged as someone to watch on the mountain.  (Their primary goal is a SAFE climb).  

Thanks for continuing to read my boring this-week-I-did-this posts.  I fully acknowledge that these posts are more for me and keeping me accountable.  I know that they can be boring, and I appreciate y'all for reading them anyway!

Mandy