After last week's run I have spent the last few days pretty certain that I go back down to a slower group. I have been anxious all week and haven't done much running. All I have done all week is stretch and roll around on the foam roller, rolling out the knot in my right leg.
That thing hurts, I made myself cry a couple of times as I rolled away the knot.
Even up to 5 minutes before we ran, I was going to go back to the slower group but at the last minute I decided to stick with Danielle and run with group 8.
It was amazing. I felt so great the entire run, we did a pace of 11:38 mins per mile for 14 miles and I came home and felt great.
At the end of the run, the pace leader was taking us through our stretches and she asked the group who thought that 14 miles was easier than the 13 miles the week before. Alomost 75% of the 40 people in my group raised their hands.
Amazing. She reminded us that our experience will vary with each run and may not necessarily be incrememental. She said that the first time that she took on training for a marathon, she had a terrible run at 9 miles and thought for sure that that meant that 9 miles was her limit. Then she kept going and has now run 20 plus marathons.
I like the freedom in knowing that each experience does not necessarily lead to the next and I can put behind a bad experience as nothing more than that. It doesn't have to mean anything.
And if I do want it to mean something, then I can decide what it means. Last week was bad because I hadn't been stretching. Creating that meaning allows me to use that experience in a positive way.
So now I am in Group 8 and I am here to stay!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Worst experience of my life
I ran 13.2 miles today. My first half marathon and it was horrible. It hurt, I wanted to give up soo much and so many times during the run and I almost cried about 6 times.
Why was it so bad? because I was a knuckle for the week leading up to the run. My right leg (hamstring) had been really tight and I did nothing about it. Then I went up to a faster running group and after about 20mins my right leg just started throbbing with pain. It felt like I had a dead leg. I spent the entire run worrying that I was injuring myself and considering stopping but I am glad that I didn't. I had Danielle by my side and I stuck it out and I completed my first half Marathon and I learnt a very very valuable lesson. Stretch and don't ignore stuff with the hope that it will go away.
Lesson learned. 14 miles, here I come!
Why was it so bad? because I was a knuckle for the week leading up to the run. My right leg (hamstring) had been really tight and I did nothing about it. Then I went up to a faster running group and after about 20mins my right leg just started throbbing with pain. It felt like I had a dead leg. I spent the entire run worrying that I was injuring myself and considering stopping but I am glad that I didn't. I had Danielle by my side and I stuck it out and I completed my first half Marathon and I learnt a very very valuable lesson. Stretch and don't ignore stuff with the hope that it will go away.
Lesson learned. 14 miles, here I come!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Punctuation and a new chapter
This Saturday I ran 12.4 miles which is around 20kms. As I was running with my group, I noticed all of the little 'punctuation points' along the course.
The first turn, the first water station, a traffic crossing, a random homeless person cheering us on. At every one of these points my mind was quickly jolted out of running mode and brought back in to the moment. I enjoyed the moments of punctuation as I went through my run and I realised that I also quite enjoy the punctuation points I have established in my daily routine.
Walk clancy, have a coffee, check my emails..all of these little rituals that break up the rest of my time. They aren't milestones or achievements, they don't mean anything, they are just breaks and just moments in the day.
The power of a break or a change of topic to help move forward when I get stuck or start rambling in an area is awesome. When I feel like an issue is exhausted or that I am waffling on without moving forward, I simple need to punctuate my thoughts and take a new action.
I feel like in my marathon journey, I am turning a new page and beginning a new chapter. This could be the part of the story when it gets hard and it hurts and I am not sure that I am going to be able to achieve my goal.
Until now, this story has been all about setting the goal, gathering the team and getting excited by the possibility of what we are all creating.
That chapter lasted until the 11th mile of my run last Saturday.
At mile 12 my entire right leg cramped up and really really hurt, I kept running but I was kinda limping and I really had to push myself. I was on the verge of tears with pain for the last 10 minutes of my run.
It really hurt and I knew that it was because I hadn't been stretching and looking after myself as well as I should have. I had been feeling tight in my hamstring all week and I have had a couple of weeks of not eating very well. I knew what was happening.
As the pain in my leg increased I started thinking about what would happen if this happened on race day? what if i couldn't do it, maybe i should stop now because what if i am about to get injured? maybe I'm not built to run a marathon...
I finished the run, came home and iced. I was sore all saturday and sunday, hobbling around, feeling sorry for myself and really tight. I kept thinking about how terrible the next few months would be if this is how I was going to feel every week, if this story was going to be about me painfully limping to the finish line.
That is what the story was going to be right up until yesterday (monday) when I went and got a massage with kevin, a muscly chinese shiatsu and reiki master.
When I was with him I remembered all of the amazing achievements I have already made with my body over the last few years, all of the weight I have lost and increased health and vitality I have gained. I have learnt alot about performance and using nutrients to fuel my body and the results have been great. I live with a qualified yoga instructor and health guru - I have all the tools I need.
So the next chapter is not going to be about pain and me enduring this journey, it is going to be about me taking all of the steps outside of my running that I can to help my body get ready for the race: Yoga, cross-training, vegan whole-food diet with lots of superfoods, chinese herbs and lots of rest. I know this works and I know that I haven't been as dedicated to my diet and wholistic health lately as I would usually be. I now know that cheating and cutting corners doesn't work.
So game on, I am punctuating my training and my journey and starting the next chapter..pain is just weakness leaving my body and now I am building towards peak performance.
The first turn, the first water station, a traffic crossing, a random homeless person cheering us on. At every one of these points my mind was quickly jolted out of running mode and brought back in to the moment. I enjoyed the moments of punctuation as I went through my run and I realised that I also quite enjoy the punctuation points I have established in my daily routine.
Walk clancy, have a coffee, check my emails..all of these little rituals that break up the rest of my time. They aren't milestones or achievements, they don't mean anything, they are just breaks and just moments in the day.
The power of a break or a change of topic to help move forward when I get stuck or start rambling in an area is awesome. When I feel like an issue is exhausted or that I am waffling on without moving forward, I simple need to punctuate my thoughts and take a new action.
I feel like in my marathon journey, I am turning a new page and beginning a new chapter. This could be the part of the story when it gets hard and it hurts and I am not sure that I am going to be able to achieve my goal.
Until now, this story has been all about setting the goal, gathering the team and getting excited by the possibility of what we are all creating.
That chapter lasted until the 11th mile of my run last Saturday.
At mile 12 my entire right leg cramped up and really really hurt, I kept running but I was kinda limping and I really had to push myself. I was on the verge of tears with pain for the last 10 minutes of my run.
It really hurt and I knew that it was because I hadn't been stretching and looking after myself as well as I should have. I had been feeling tight in my hamstring all week and I have had a couple of weeks of not eating very well. I knew what was happening.
As the pain in my leg increased I started thinking about what would happen if this happened on race day? what if i couldn't do it, maybe i should stop now because what if i am about to get injured? maybe I'm not built to run a marathon...
I finished the run, came home and iced. I was sore all saturday and sunday, hobbling around, feeling sorry for myself and really tight. I kept thinking about how terrible the next few months would be if this is how I was going to feel every week, if this story was going to be about me painfully limping to the finish line.
That is what the story was going to be right up until yesterday (monday) when I went and got a massage with kevin, a muscly chinese shiatsu and reiki master.
When I was with him I remembered all of the amazing achievements I have already made with my body over the last few years, all of the weight I have lost and increased health and vitality I have gained. I have learnt alot about performance and using nutrients to fuel my body and the results have been great. I live with a qualified yoga instructor and health guru - I have all the tools I need.
So the next chapter is not going to be about pain and me enduring this journey, it is going to be about me taking all of the steps outside of my running that I can to help my body get ready for the race: Yoga, cross-training, vegan whole-food diet with lots of superfoods, chinese herbs and lots of rest. I know this works and I know that I haven't been as dedicated to my diet and wholistic health lately as I would usually be. I now know that cheating and cutting corners doesn't work.
So game on, I am punctuating my training and my journey and starting the next chapter..pain is just weakness leaving my body and now I am building towards peak performance.
Friday, November 12, 2010
A Dozen Runners, a Diva'thon Mix and $1000 plus
I am very excited to announce that we now have twelve runners in the Running Backs! I never really even considered that we would reach a dozen runners and I am absolutely delighted that runner number twelve is our great friend Lacy.
Michelle met Lacy in LA a year or so ago she was immediately struck by Lacy's sense of fun and joy, her infectious smile and amazing commitment to living an amazing life. When I met her, i fell in love with her in an instant.
When Lacy moved to New York a year ago, we were both sad to see her go and also really excited for her as she took on her new adventure. Having her on the team will be absolutely amazing and it is also a great way to get her to visit LA and see all of her friends who miss her.
This week, I was in New York for work and I got the chance to catch up with Lacy and she jumped at the chance to join the team and support Michelle....I always knew she would. She's just that kind'a girl. What was great is that she got to meet MG and now they can both train together in New York before flying over for the race.
In other exciting news, my greatest friend hamish (or DJ Hamish as he is known professionally) has made an hour-long Diva Marathon Mix for all of the Running Backs to listen to while we are training. Hamish has posted the note on his facebook page for everyone to listen to and download. Check it out at www.facebook.com/hamishb
I absolutely love the mix and am so touched by Hamish creating it for us. I am also very proud of Hamish for taking on his DJ career. After years of dreaming about it, he entered a competition last year in Sydney and won the right to play at Mardi Gras for thousands of people. He is so incredibly talented and pretty close to my favourite person in the world.
I love that as I am training to run my marathon in LA, I will be listening to Hamish's mix. Two people on opposite sides of the world connected by the tunes of Katy Perry!
Also, you may have noticed we have also raised more than $1000 (5% of our goal) already! This is partly due to my brother taking on this project as his own and some very very generous donations from around the world. Thank you so much to everyone for their donations. We both feel the support and are excited to reach our fundraising goal.
Please feel free to pass this blog and hamish's mix on to everyone you know and please donate what you can.
Tomorrow at training we run 12 miles - that's one third of the total goal.
Michelle met Lacy in LA a year or so ago she was immediately struck by Lacy's sense of fun and joy, her infectious smile and amazing commitment to living an amazing life. When I met her, i fell in love with her in an instant.
When Lacy moved to New York a year ago, we were both sad to see her go and also really excited for her as she took on her new adventure. Having her on the team will be absolutely amazing and it is also a great way to get her to visit LA and see all of her friends who miss her.
This week, I was in New York for work and I got the chance to catch up with Lacy and she jumped at the chance to join the team and support Michelle....I always knew she would. She's just that kind'a girl. What was great is that she got to meet MG and now they can both train together in New York before flying over for the race.
In other exciting news, my greatest friend hamish (or DJ Hamish as he is known professionally) has made an hour-long Diva Marathon Mix for all of the Running Backs to listen to while we are training. Hamish has posted the note on his facebook page for everyone to listen to and download. Check it out at www.facebook.com/hamishb
I absolutely love the mix and am so touched by Hamish creating it for us. I am also very proud of Hamish for taking on his DJ career. After years of dreaming about it, he entered a competition last year in Sydney and won the right to play at Mardi Gras for thousands of people. He is so incredibly talented and pretty close to my favourite person in the world.
I love that as I am training to run my marathon in LA, I will be listening to Hamish's mix. Two people on opposite sides of the world connected by the tunes of Katy Perry!
Also, you may have noticed we have also raised more than $1000 (5% of our goal) already! This is partly due to my brother taking on this project as his own and some very very generous donations from around the world. Thank you so much to everyone for their donations. We both feel the support and are excited to reach our fundraising goal.
Please feel free to pass this blog and hamish's mix on to everyone you know and please donate what you can.
Tomorrow at training we run 12 miles - that's one third of the total goal.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Recovery Week
This week at Roadrunners we scaled back to 8 miles and ran at a slower pace. The coaches said that it was a recovery week. We had been building steadily for six weeks and I had run 11+ miles the week before, so we needed a rest week before we continued building up our miles.
I found the run really really slow and didn't enjoy it at all. I was frustrated and just wanted to get the run done. I wanted that feeling I had had every other week of having run further than I ever had before. I also noticed that despite running fewer miles and slower, I pulled up really sore. My legs ached on Sunday morning and I felt really tight.
It was all-around a frustrating experience.
What is interesting is that Saturday came at the end of a not-so-good week for Michelle also. She had a back adjustment on the Monday that left her with a bruised rib so she couldn't go to chiro all week. She continued her three hours of exercises at home each day with precaution and really struggled through the week to stay on track while also giving her body time to heal.
We were both tired and had one of those weeks where everything seemed harder than usual.
After the run on Saturday we were talking about how my program was on a 'recovery week' and we realised that Michelle had also been on a recovery week of sorts. Four months in to this commitment, three weeks after the massive high of the intensive treatment at St Cloud and all of these milestones passed...and now what?
Long programs and commitments are exactly that...long. And with anything that stretches over time, it is not always easy to maintain a high level of intensity and drive. Sometimes you do need to give yourself some time to rest, to recover and to get ready to go again and then you need to create your commitment everyday no matter what the circumstances.
I noticed that just as you take a break, whether by choice or not, everything can start to feel like it is falling apart. Maybe this is because you are not getting that incremental feeling of accomplishment and then it becomes easy to lose connection with your long-term goal.
So what have I learnt? I guess I have learnt that it is smart to look after yourself and factor in rest and recovery as part of my training program and see it as just as valuable as achieving a longer run each week as this is not a short-term project. In the grand scheme of things, if one week off or one week at a lower intensity prevents injury or allows me to be ready to improve more in the long run, then it works.
I must admit that I am looking forward to next week's run and I am very happy that Michelle is feeling better and back on track with her treatment. Now, having "recovered" We are both pumped up for the next phase of our programs.
I found the run really really slow and didn't enjoy it at all. I was frustrated and just wanted to get the run done. I wanted that feeling I had had every other week of having run further than I ever had before. I also noticed that despite running fewer miles and slower, I pulled up really sore. My legs ached on Sunday morning and I felt really tight.
It was all-around a frustrating experience.
What is interesting is that Saturday came at the end of a not-so-good week for Michelle also. She had a back adjustment on the Monday that left her with a bruised rib so she couldn't go to chiro all week. She continued her three hours of exercises at home each day with precaution and really struggled through the week to stay on track while also giving her body time to heal.
We were both tired and had one of those weeks where everything seemed harder than usual.
After the run on Saturday we were talking about how my program was on a 'recovery week' and we realised that Michelle had also been on a recovery week of sorts. Four months in to this commitment, three weeks after the massive high of the intensive treatment at St Cloud and all of these milestones passed...and now what?
Long programs and commitments are exactly that...long. And with anything that stretches over time, it is not always easy to maintain a high level of intensity and drive. Sometimes you do need to give yourself some time to rest, to recover and to get ready to go again and then you need to create your commitment everyday no matter what the circumstances.
I noticed that just as you take a break, whether by choice or not, everything can start to feel like it is falling apart. Maybe this is because you are not getting that incremental feeling of accomplishment and then it becomes easy to lose connection with your long-term goal.
So what have I learnt? I guess I have learnt that it is smart to look after yourself and factor in rest and recovery as part of my training program and see it as just as valuable as achieving a longer run each week as this is not a short-term project. In the grand scheme of things, if one week off or one week at a lower intensity prevents injury or allows me to be ready to improve more in the long run, then it works.
I must admit that I am looking forward to next week's run and I am very happy that Michelle is feeling better and back on track with her treatment. Now, having "recovered" We are both pumped up for the next phase of our programs.
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