Category Archives: Running

White Flag

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon Training, Running and tagged with , , ,

Well….you might have guessed it….

I imagined this going differently, but I guess that is life.

I’ll still be running St. George; I’ll likely still try for the BQ–but, it will be without confidence, without expectation, without hope.

The last month has been a whirlwind. My kids both started school for the first time–my daughter in Kindergarten and my son in Pre-school. I went back to work, still teaching, but at a new school in a new district. All of this in the midst of the most rigorous training I’ve ever attempted.

I couldn’t do it.

And that’s really what it boils down to. I just couldn’t make it happen.

I know that many people have kids, have jobs, have training plans and somehow find a way to fit it all in. I thought I could be one of those people.

But I’m not.

Not right now.

The last couple of weeks have found me running three times a week. Three. Each week I would tell myself that I would prioritize my runs, each week I wouldn’t.

Last year in August I ran 153 miles. This year, for a “BQ attempt”–84.

After the second week, I e-mailed my coach and told her I was throwing in my white flag. It had nothing to do with her or her workouts. I love her and I love them. I loved the challenge, seeing paces I didn’t think I could..and doing them. But because I wasn’t doing ALL of the workouts, I knew I was only setting myself up for injury.

I’m not sure anymore… what my plans are. I’ll still run St. George, but I won’t be doing CIM. I don’t know if I’ll do Phoenix. I don’t know when my next marathon will be.

What I do know… is that life goes on.

I’ve had some pretty good races in the last year. I think it’s time I took a little break.

❤

 

Week 6–St. George Marathon Training Recap

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon Training, Running and tagged with , , ,

Whew!! It was good to unload/whine/complain but now it’s time to move on. Thank you all so much for your support and comments the last week ❤

Monday, July 10th–7 miles: 2 mile WU, 4 miles @7:40, 1 mile CD

I met up with another BQ training buddy (I have quite a few, lol!) for this tempo run. I was a little nervous on how this would go as it was my first run after last week’s Saturday long run debacle. But I said going in that I would just give it my best as that is always all I can do.

1-7:53
2-7:32
3-7:44
4-8:01

Not gonna lie, I was a little bummed when I saw the fourth split but then I figured my second mile fast one kinda evened it out. Whatever makes you feel better, right? Ha!

Tuesday, July 11th–3 miles easy, MYRTLES, stretching

Non-eventful 3 miler on the treadmill while watching HGTV. I did some core work and my myrtles.

Wednesday, July 12th–1.5 mile WU, 3×1 mile @7:40, 2×800 @7:00, CD

Back to the track! It was hot but honestly, you kind of get used to it. And for some reason, it’s been easier for me to run fast in the heat than to run long.

I was so happy with this run. It felt the perfect amount of hard. I was pushed for time on the cool down though and had to skidaddle home.

Thursday, July 13th–Foam roll, stretch

I had all the intentions of doing some strength work buuuut didn’t. I stretched and rolled before bed and that was pretty much it.

Friday, July 14th–5+ easy miles @9:20 avg.

It was nice to meet up with some of my Moms Run This Town ladies for this run. We chatted the whole way and ended with almost 5 and a half miles 🙂

❤

Saturday, July 15th–16 miles @9:30 avg.

4 a.m. start time #zzz

Yes, you read that start time correctly, LOL!!!

Soooo much better than last week. I was a little irritated at first because I realized a mile in that I forgot to start my watch. I had to tell myself to not let that throw off my run as I still had a long ways to go. But then I stopped it when we met up with some other friends and didn’t start it AGAIN!! At that point I just said screw it and told my friend Ashely to send me her stats.

The pace from this run and last week’s wasn’t too far off but I *felt* way better and to me that’s more important. I even finished this one with a fast mile (around 8:40ish) whereas last week I was slogging through the finish.

Celebratory post-run mimosas!

Sunday, July 16th–Glorious Rest

___________________________

Overall, it was a much better week spirit-wise. I know I chose a fall race which means summer training, I know trying to BQ is hard and not meant to be easy, but I felt like complaining for a little bit–which I feel like I rarely do. It’s okay (right?) to just want to be a baby about some things and then get over it, LOL. I’m over it, and I know I’ll encounter some rough patches again along the way, but I’ll be fine. It wouldn’t be fun if it were easy 🙂

Total miles: 37

–How do you emotionally purge? I usually exercise it away but I think because running was the source, I felt the need to cry instead, lol!

What’s the worst that can happen?

Posted by hellyontherun in Running and tagged with ,

Recently, I had a good convo with a buddy about this BQ business. I was having some serious doubts last week (and really, I think there will always be a little of it). I don’t know, sometimes I think that maybe I’m not ready or I have too much time to cut off or there’s too much life going on.

But then I was reminded again that this is about running.

Running.

One more time, all together now….

RUNNING.

So what if I don’t make my goal?

The worst that can happen, isn’t so bad.

When he said that, it’s like a light bulb went off. The worst that could happen would be me trying again . How is that bad? I love running. Trying again means…running. Wasn’t I going to do that even if I did get the BQ?

Nothing really changes with or without it. I’m still going to run. I’m still going to challenge myself in different ways. And those challenges will be difficult. But they will still be fun. Because it’s running. And I love running.

Sometimes when we set goals for ourselves–time goals, distance goals, mileage goals, # of races goals–we forget about what it is that gets us to those goals.

Running.

Back to the basics, Helly.

–Have you had a life reminder lately? What do you think you need a reminder about?