What Have I Been Up To?

It's been several months since my last post and so much has happened since then.

MTT  HMTT

The week after the Patrick Henry Half, Lynn and I emailed back and forth several times.  During one of those emails, she suggested that I run with a group of Team Ductape ladies the following weekend who were running 13 training miles on their own, to see how I'd do with the mileage a week later.  I did run with them, but ended up bailing after 7 miles.  One thing that I did learn from these 2 ladies was that doing a 2:1 Galloway interval was much better for me than the 4:1 intervals that I had been doing. 

After that run, Lynn and I emailed a few more times, and came to the conclusion that it would be better for me to drop back to the Half Marathon Training Team (HMTT) for this year, instead of continuing to struggle through MTT.

Switching to HMTT turned out to be the best decision I made.  The team that I was placed with, the Penguins, were the perfect pace for me.  During MTT, I had always been one of the slowest ones on Team Ductape, most of the time doing the group training runs by myself.  However, on Team Penguins, almost everyone was my pace, along with some of the Pandas, so there were always people running just in front of me/with me/just behind me.  This was such a nice change and an esteem booster.  Even though I had struggled with the group training runs during MTT, the group runs during HMTT were easy (even as we got into higher mileage).

Richmond Half Marathon

my HMTT racing singlet that I customized, my race bib, and my fuel for the race

The morning of November 15, 2014 I woke up excited and nervous.  I was up at 4am, got up and ready, then drove down to park my car near the finish line and meet my running family at Starbucks to hang out before the race.  After parking my car behind the Virginia War Memorial, I walked the 10 blocks over to the Starbucks in the James Center.  There were lots of hugs and wishes of "good luck" as everyone arrived and we waited to head up to the HMTT and MTT group pictures and then the starting line.  

pre-race photo of the HMTT on the steps of the Capital building

After the group HMTT photo, I headed over to the starting line with Sandy, Black Amy, Mary Beth, Amy Stacey, Jake, Jenny, Mike Hall, and Marcus, who were also running the Richmond Half.  After they dropped off their race bags, we stood around waiting for our race to start (I had dropped off my race bag with my friend Carrie, who lives just up the hill from the finish line; she would meet me at the finish).  Did I mention that it was FREEZING cold that morning??  It was right around 32 degrees Fahrenheit, so we were wearing our throwaway clothes from Goodwill over our race gear to try to stay warm.

trying to keep warm in the freezing pre-race temperatures

We all decided to start in the same wave, though technically some of us were assigned to a later wave according to our predicted finish time.  As we started the race on the right side of the road, the marathon race was starting on the left side of the road.  When I had heard that the half and full marathons would be starting at the same time, I did not like it; but as we ran down the street, I have to admit that it was cool to be running side by side with the marathon runners.

I felt great as I ran, keeping to my 2:1 Galloway intervals, leapfrogging with Mary Beth.  Around mile 7 or 8, I heard cop cars behind me.  A few seconds later, the marathon pace car passed me on the left, with the lead marathon runner behind it.  It was a bit disconcerting to have the lead marathoner pass me, but at the same time, it was very cool to witness that.

Then around mile 9.5 I felt a sharp pain on the inside of my right knee, then a couple of steps later my whole right quad tightened up.  I slowed to a walk, and limped along.  As one of the runners passed me, she saw I was in pain and offered me some Ibuprofen which I thanked her for but refused it.  Around mile 10 I decided to eat my other Cliff Bar Shot Blocks, with the hope that the electrolytes would help with the cramping; it didn't.  Shortly thereafter, I spotted one of the Team Penguins coaches, Mary, along the side cheering us on.  I hobbled over to Mary, told her my leg muscles were cramping, and asked her to walk with me.  As we walked (or rather I hobbled) along, she gave me advice and words of encouragement.  We stopped a few times so I could stretch.  She ended up walking with me for about 1-1.5 miles.  I walked the rest of the way to the finish line.  My total finish time ended up being 3:16:39; while it wasn't the 3 hours that I was hoping for, it was still a good time, considering I walked the last 2.5 miles.  Coolest part of crossing that finish line was hearing the announcer call out my name as I approached the finish!

Carrie met me at the finish line, and after I sobbed on her shoulder for a minute, I calmed myself down and said I needed to get to the medical tent to get my leg/knee checked out, make sure that I hadn't torn anything.  So I walked over to the medical tent, where one of the athletic trainers examined me.  She said that she didn't feel an indentation anywhere so she didn't think that I had torn a muscle.  They gave me a bag of ice, which they Syran wrapped to my knee, and sent me on my way.

I changed out of my sweaty top into my warm clothes and went to go find Sandy, Amy, and Mary Beth, who had finished before me.  We stood at the finish line waiting and watching for our friends who were running the full marathon.  Fun fact: if you have your race bib in your backpack and stand near the timing mechanism at the finish, the announcer will call out your name at least 10 times because it pops up that you're nearing the finish line.

After everyone had finished their race, we headed over to Brown's Island to take a group photo:

Lessons learned from the Richmond Half Marathon:

1. Make sure that your muscles are warmed up before the race.  My muscles cramping at mile 9.5 was due to the extreme cold and not warming up my muscles before I started the race.

2. It's a great feeling to hear your name called out along the route as the spectators read your customized racing singlet.

3. The best feeling in the world during the race is hearing your name called out by the announcer as your cross that finish line.

TLR

After the Richmond Half, my running friends and I wanted to do a fun run, so we had signed up to so the Tacky Light Run.  We had a BLAST!!  We decided to base our costumes around the Christmas tree, so we got creative:

Coach?

For this year's Monument 10K training team, Sportsbackers had decided to add 2 new sites: Bellemeade and Bensley.  Becky Hapeman was asked to be the head coach at Bensley, and she in turn asked several of us Manchester Superheroes to be her assistants, including me.  I was honored and humbled to be asked to be one of the assistant coaches.  Since this was the first year for Bensley, we had a small team, but that helped our member because the member to coach ratio was 2:1 or even 1:1 towards the end of training.  We became the Bensley Sidekicks, a cousin of the Manchester Superheroes.  I think we did a great job motivating and coaching our members, some of whom had never run the 10K before.

2015 Monument 10K

During our final group picture before the race, Coach Becky was asking some of our Bensley members which waves they were in, and suggested that some of them run with me so that I could keep them on pace as I had done during training with the 2:1 Galloway intervals.  They declined my help because they didn't want to hold me back, but when we saw them again near the start, one of the guys asked me to run with them to help them stay consistent.  So I moved back to their wave and we started the race together.  Because of the wave we started in, there were LOTS of walkers, so we had to weave back and forth around them during the first mile or two.  One of the guys must have been on an adrenaline rush because he started running faster (it was his first time running the Monument 10K).  After awhile I couldn't keep up with him, so I told him if he still wanted me to pace him that he'd need to slow down so I could keep up, otherwise he was free to go ahead and run faster without me.  He took out his phone, started his interval timer and took off with one of the other guys.  The third guy stayed with me the whole way, even when I told him around mile 5 to go on ahead of me (I knew he could run faster and that I was holding him back); he told me that he'd stay with me because he knew that it wasn't as fun to run by yourself.  Our finish time was 1:21:22, just 17 seconds slower than my time last year.

Half Marathon #4 [technically #3.5, but who's counting]

Several of my running friends and I that had run the Richmond Half wanted to do a spring half marathon.  We talked about doing the Shamrock in Virginia Beach or the one Wrightsville Beach one, but finally we decided on the inaugural Petersburg Half Marathon, since it was right here near Richmond.

Some of the Sunday morning HMTT team members started running together on Sunday mornings after the new year, and since quite a few of my running buddies were part of this group, I joined them.  We collectively started calling ourselves the Sunday morning Dog Pack, because it was comprised of members from the Wolverines and Greyhounds (and maybe one other dog-family animal name).  Anyway, many of us had signed up to run the Petersburg Half, so our Sunday morning group runs became our weekly long training runs.

Petersburg Half

The morning of the race was very warm, and after training in cold weather over the past several weeks, our bodies were not yet acclimated to running in warm weather.  Miles 3-6 went through the Petersburg battlefield from the Civil War.  Must to my disappointment, there was only 1 reenactment happening in the battlefield as we ran through.

Selfie during a battle reenactment and half marathon?
Sure, why not?

After mile 6 I started struggling.  The sun shining was a blessing (yay, sunshine!) and a curse (it became very humid).  Around mile 7 or 8, coming down Washington Street, I stopped running and just walked.  Around mile 9 or so, I tried running again but my calf muscles started cramping so I just walked the rest of the way to the finish line.  I knew that the last water stop was supposed to be around mile 11, so I was trying to conserve my hydration but because it became so humid I had drank all of the hydration I had brought with me and the water I had refilled by hydration bottles with at the mile 9 water stop.  When I saw Dennis around mile 11.5 [he was coming back to check on us stragglers], he could see I was struggling and told me that the water stop was just around the corner.  I was so glad to see that water stop!  As soon as I crossed the finish line, the first words I said were "That sucked" to which my friends said that many people had the exact same feeling as they crossed the finish line.  My official finish time was 3:18:23.4, only 2 minutes slower than my time for the Richmond Half.

pre-race group photo of #TeamMassey

post-race......exhausted, but happy

Here's a pic of the cool [huge!] finisher's medal everyone got:

Best.Weekend.Ever

This past weekend was the best weekend I've had so far this year, and it was spent with my running family.  

RE Strong

Friday evening, Mary Beth Hall, Sandy and Mike Brown, and I drove up to Urbanna, Virginia to spend the night there.  Saturday morning, Mary Beth, Mike, and I helped out at the RE Strong 5K/10K race, while Sandy and Black Amy ran in the race.  We had a great time.

Carytown 10K

Sunday morning I ran in the annual Carytown 10K race that is organized by the Richmond Road Runners Club.  I had volunteered to be a course marshal, but ended up switching with Mary Beth because her knees were still bothering her from the Petersburg Half the weekend before.  I woke up Sunday morning tired from Friday evening and Saturday at the RE Strong race; and the rain didn't help energize me either.  But as soon as I got down to Carytown and started seeing all of my running friends either getting ready to run or volunteering, I knew I had made the right decision to come run the race instead of skipping it and sleeping in.  I felt great all through the race and even after I finished.  As I made the turn onto Cary St. from Nansemond, I told myself that I would sprint when I got closer to the finish line since I wasn't tired like I normally am when I get to the end of a race.  When I crossed the finish line, my gut told me that I had just PR'd (gotten a personal record).  I had to wait until the official results were posted, but I was right: my official time was 1:19:40 (1 minute, 10 seconds faster than my previous fastest 10K time).

just about to cross the Carytown 10K finish line

Hardywood Twilight 4 Miler

When I heard that several of my running friends had signed up to do the Hardywood Twilight 4 Miler, I contemplated going to it also, but just to hang out with them.  Then on Friday afternoon my co-worker [MaryBeth] Ryan asked me walk this fun run with her; she's also a runner, but is injured and didn't want to miss out another race she had signed up for before getting injured.  

As we were standing around before the run, all of a sudden I see Jeff Wells [the owner of Fleet Feet Richmond and a walking/talking advertisement for the Addaday roller] walking up with a folding chair and his roller.  He promptly places the chair by me and points to in, indicating that I should sit down so he could roll out my calf muscles.  I burst out laughing and sit down, as my friends around me are laughing too.  

[The background of this is that back in the fall I had gone to one of Jeff's monthly Muscle Maintenance classes, where he showed us how to use the Addaday roller, and I ended up buying one.  I have periodically asked him roll out my calves when I'm at the Fleet Feet store for the weekly Tuesday night runs.  Then back in mid-January, Richmond Road Runner's Club did a shake out run with Bart Yasso the Sunday morning after their annual awards banquet.  The run started and ended at the Starbucks at Libbie and Grove.  I turned back earlier than the majority of the runners, so I was one of the first ones to make it back to the Starbucks.  As I walk in, I spot Jeff, who mentions that his roller is in his car outside.  Without me asking him, he jumps up, goes out to his car, and comes back with his Addaday roller, then sits down and rolls out my calves.  Since then, whenever he sees me, he'll get his roller and roll out my calves.]

Ryan and I ended up speed walking the fun run at a 15 minute/mile pace, finishing in just over an hour.  As I crossed the finish line, one of the volunteers handed me a finisher's medal, but I didn't tell her that I had not signed up for the run.  After the run, everyone hung out at Hardywood having a good time listening to the band and chatting.

pre-run group selfie

circle of running friends.....who's who?

Lung Capacity

I need to share some GREAT news that I got this morning:

As most of you know, I have asthma (which I was diagnosed with back in elementary school), but that hasn't stopped me from running. In fact, that is one of the reasons WHY I run. This morning I had my every 3-6 month check up with my allergist (who's also an asthma specialist). At each doctor's visit, they do a spirometry (a lung function test). When I first visited my allergist back in September of 2011, my spirometry results were 68% for the FVC (forced vital capacity), 66% for FEV1 (forced expiratory volume, meaning the amount of force you breath out in the first second), and 64% for FEF25-75% (forced vital capacity in each portion of the lung: 25% is the top portion, 50% is the middle portion, and 75% is the bottom portion). Normal lung capacity is anything above 80%, so as you can see my lungs were working way below normal.

Well, when my allergist checked the results from this morning's spirometry, he was blown away: my FVC was 99%, my FEV1 was 94%, and my FEF25-75% was 81%!! These awesome results are due to 2 things: (1) the daily allergy and asthma medicines that I take which he prescribed for me, and (2) all the RUNNING that I do!!

The idea now is to continue with the medicine (and running) to get those percentages even higher, way above 100%, so that when he eventually weens me off of the meds my percentages won't drop below the 80% that's considered normal (a 20% drop is expected then though).

Needless to say, I will NOT stop the running and exercising, since that is the key to significantly decreasing my asthma and to stop relying on the medicine!!

Lessons Learned from Patrick Henry

Disappointment.  Frustration.  Anger.  Shame.  Self-doubt.

These were the emotions I experienced as I ran the Patrick Henry Half Marathon this morning in Ashland, Virginia.  Let me explain why:

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I had debated with myself whether to even sign up to run Patrick Henry, because of when it would be.....only a few days after I got back to Richmond from my 7 week absence/vacation to Cleveland, Ohio and Fillmore, New York.  So I finally decided to sign up and was excited, though apprehensive, about running another half marathon.

Then this week, the email was sent out to all the participants which contained all important information.  Included in that email, was this blurb:

"3-hour time limit
All participants must be able to finish the half marathon in 3 hours. In order to do so, you will need to maintain a 13:43 per mile pace. At that time, there will no longer be traffic protection, medical aid, or water stops offered. There will be designated checkpoints at Miles 6.5 and 10 on the course.  You must reach the 6.5-mile mark by 8:30 a.m. and the 10-mile mark by 9:18 a.m. or you will be asked to board the shuttle that will take you back to the finish area."

Now, I know I am a slow runner (and have come to accept that fact), so when I read this blurb in the email, I started to get even more nervous.  After much thought, I told myself that I could do it, as I had finished my previous (first) half marathon in just over 3 hours, including walking the last 2.5 miles.

Thank goodness that I had made plans to carpool up to the race with my co-worker (MaryBeth) Ryan.  We talked the whole 20 minute drive up, which helped calm me nerves this morning.  We arrived at the start line around 5:30am, since Ryan still had to pick up her race bib (she got back in town last night from vacation, so she couldn't pick up her bib yesterday).  After Ryan picked up her race bib, we hung around the start as more and more of the runners started showing up.  It was great to see my running friends (Tammy, Alan, Becky, Brian, Black Amy, Sandy, Shannon, Patty, Dexter, Melvin) and get hugs from them as they welcomed me home and we wished each other luck.

As the race start time neared, I waited in the chute with them.  Black Amy and I decided to run together, but figured out after the start that we wouldn't be sticking together since I was doing the Galloway method and she would be running the whole time.  After some more hugs and "good luck"s to each other, the race started.  Black Amy and I ran together, until my first walking interval.  After that, she kept getting farther and farther ahead.  Other runners kept passing me, but I told myself that it didn't matter and to just go at my own pace.

I felt OK for about the first 3 miles, then I started to slow down and walk more often :(even before my walk intervals started).  By the time I passed the water stop around mile 4, I had a feeling that I would be very close to the time limit at mile 6.  During miles 5 and 6, I walked more and more.  Once I heard my MapMyRun app tell me my mile split time for mile 6, I knew that I wouldn't make it to the water stop just past mile 6 in time (my mile split was around 16 minutes due to the walking).  

As I got closer and closer to the mile 6 water stop, I saw and heard my MTT coach, Lynn.  She walked towards me and as she came right up to me (and I saw the race clock was at 1:32:something), I just lost it and started bawling......because I knew that I was done, they wouldn't let me continue.  Lynn let me cry and walked with me, saying words of encouragement the whole time.  As I tried to calm myself down, Lynn told me to think about what I learned from this, that this was just 13 miles and that my end goal is that Richmond Marathon in November.  There was only one other person behind me, who also did not make the cut off time.  As the gentleman and I got in the SUV that would take us back to the start/finish line, Lynn hugged me one more time and said "you're a good runner, don't forget that, don't let this get you down."

After getting back to the start/finish line and seeing most people struggle to cross the finish line, I realized that I wasn't the only one who struggled during the race.

So, here are the lessons I learned from Patrick Henry:

1. Being away from my MTT team for 7 weeks and trying to train on my own is HARD, especially since I missed about 3 weeks of training due to being at the 2 camps.

2. Don't miss any days (or weeks) of my daily asthma medicine.  My health insurance only allows mail orders for medicine that you take regularly, for which I need to fax the prescription to them (which I can't do until I get the work on Monday because I don't have a fax machine at home).

3. Running in 60-70 degree weather for several weeks, then trying to run in high humidity will take a toll on your body and is hard to adjust to.

4. I have GOT to be better about my overall nutrition, not just the week of a race.  (I was exhausted by about mile 3)

5. Stay positive and adjust to the situation.

Will I allow this setback to discourage me from continuing my marathon training?  Absolutely not!  While I'm disappointed, frustrated, etc. and I know that I failed the mid-term (as my MTT coaches kept calling this half marathon race), I now know what I need to change or improve to ace the final, the Richmond Marathon.

MTT On My Own: Week 3

Week 2 of camp #1 was more exhausting than the first week; hence, my running this week was minimal.

Monday

Today was a "rest day".  As I mentioned in my previous post, rest days at camp weren't true rest days since our form of transportation at camp was walking.

Tuesday

I had every intention of running today, but when I woke up at 5am and heard the leaves rustling in the strong wind, I decided that I'd better check the radar to see if there was a storm approaching; there was one on the way, which would reach us soon, so I went back to sleep.  While I know that I could have run in the rain (as I've done a few times before), I decided that I needed the extra sleep, and so did my running partners at camp.

Wednesday

Since the camp was going on a fieldtrip today to Letchworth State Park in Castile, NY to take a look at the waterfalls and swim at the pool, I decided that I would only run 1 loop around the camp, which was about 2 miles instead of the 4 miles planned for today.  We lucked out with the weather today for the fieldtrip; it had been raining most of the days at camp so far, but today it didn't.  It was still cold, around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, so I didn't swim in the pool; after living in Virginia for the past 8 years and being used to the humidity there, I was freezing in the 65-75 degree weather we had during camp.

upper falls

middle falls

Thursday

By this point in the camp, I was super exhausted, since our days consisted of waking up at 7:15am, activities all day long, a nightly campfire that usually lasted until after 10pm, then a nightly meeting with the patrol leaders and adults to discuss how things had gone during the day and what would happen the next day; this meant that most nights I wouldn't get to bed until almost midnight [I always went right to bed after our nightly planning meetings, while some of the other adults stayed up much later].  I decided that sleeping 6-7 hours each night from now until the end of camp would be much better for me than sleeping 4-5 hours each night if I got up in the mornings to run.

Friday

Today was a "rest day."

Saturday

Today was the last day of camp for the kids, so the morning was spent packing and practicing for the end of camp program in the afternoon.  After the program, the parents packed up their kids and left.  While I would have loved to pack up my things and head back to Cleveland, I didn't want to leave the camp director to have to pack and clean all the camp stuff by herself.  So the adults that stayed helped pack up the things in the office, which took most of the evening.

Sunday

Sunday morning, we finished packing away the camp stuff into the storage trailers, then I packed my car with my things and drove the 4.5 hours back to my parents' house in Cleveland.  Even though I had intentionally stayed at camp the night before to help pack and rest a little before driving home, I was still exhausted on the drive back.  The last 1.5 hours of the drive were the hardest; I had to fight to stay awake, even after stopping to buy some coffee at a gas station.

Monday

After taking a regular shower (not a rushed one, like we had been doing at camp) the night before and getting a full night's sleep, I felt almost 100% back to normal today.  I spent the day resting, doing my camp laundry and catching up on my summer shows.

On Tuesday, I had signed up to run the Patrick Henry Half Marathon in Ashland, VA on August 23rd.  I debated with myself whether to sign up for it or not, because it's the weekend right after I get back to Richmond.  My fear is that because I can't be totally consistent with my running at the 2 camps that I'm helping out at during this summer, that I won't be as prepared for the race as I'll need to be.  What made me finally decide to sign up was that (1) I really wanted to run another half marathon, to see how I would do compared to the one I ran in December, (2) that the marathon training plan includes a half marathon distance run for that same weekend, (3) as a Richmond Road Runners Club member, the price for the race was reasonable/affordable, and (4) I wouldn't have to travel out of town for the race.

My goal for the next 2.5 weeks until camp #2 starts is to stick to the marathon training plan.

MTT On My Own: Week 2

This was the first week of summer camp #1 that I'm helping out in.  I tried to stick to the marathon training plan as much as time allowed at camp, which usually meant waking up early for my runs.  Here are the specifics:

Monday

This was supposed to be a rest day, but it's impossible to not do any form of exercise at camp, since our main mode of transportation here is walking.  

Tuesday

I woke up at 5am, got ready, then at 6am I woke up the 2 ladies who said they'd join me on my runs (Eszti and Tünde).  I ran 3 miles today, while the ladies only ran the first loop with me (about 2 miles).

Wednesday

I woke up at 5am again and ran 4 miles today.  Only Eszti ran with me this morning because Tünde said she needed to rest.

Thursday

I decided that it would be best if I didn't run this morning, since I would be one of the chauffeurs that would be driving the group of young adults who are here from Hungary to help out at the camp to Niagara Falls (Niagara Falls is about 2 hours northwest of camp).  I hadn't been to Niagara Falls in probably over 15 years, so it was nice to refresh my memory of it.  The cool thing about this quick fieldtrip was that Eszti, Jutka (the other chauffeur), and I did the Cave in the Winds, where you can walk right in front of the falls.

Friday

As I mentioned before, there is no true rest day at camp.

Saturday

Even though the marathon training plan called of a 5 mile run today, I only ran 1.57 miles because I knew we would be walking down to the Genesee River in the afternoon, which would be several miles.  The hike turned out to be 3.1 miles one way, all down hill on the way to the river.  We spent several hours at the river swimming and playing around.  The hike back was much more difficult for 2 reasons: it was all uphill and everyone was tired from the hike to the river and playing in the river.  The teachers made several loops with their cars to pick up the young campers and anyone else who was having a hard time making the hike back.  I made it about halfway back, before I decided to hop in one of the cars for a ride back to camp (uphills always aggravate my asthma).

Sunday

Today was supposed to be a cross training day, but since I'm at camp, my cross training was walking throughout the camp.

The first week of camp has been very exhausting, for everyone; I'm hoping that now that everyone is used to being at camp the second week won't be as exhausting.

MTT On My Own: Week 1

It's been a week since I started the busy part of my summer break.  Here is how marathon training has gone:

Monday

I spent my rest day by packing 7 weeks' worth of clothes and things in my car and driving 8 hours from Richmond, Virginia to Cleveland, Ohio to my parents' house.  

Tuesday

I woke up early and ran the 3 miles planned for today in the Cleveland Metroparks with my parents' dog.  Though she LOVED the run, she was exhausted the rest of the morning since my mom doesn't run with her regularly.

laying on the floor with the exhausted pooch after our run

Wednesday

I again woke up early and ran the planned 4 miles, this time in one of the neighborhoods near my parents' house.  I decided to not take the pooch with me, since yesterday's run had exhausted her and today's run was longer.

Thursday

The past 3 days caught up with me (up early, things to do all day, then bed after 10pm), so I slept in instead of getting up early to do today's hill workout.

Friday

I repacked my car and drove 4.5 hours up to Fillmore, New York to the first summer camp I'll be helping out at this summer.  This is a 2 week long summer school camp for kids who are of Hungarian descent.

Saturday

I woke up early and went for an 8 mile run along the camp roads.  Two of the ladies who are here at camp to help out came to run with me, but they only ran the first 2 miles with me because they were helping out in the kitchen and with final preparations before the campers arrived at 11am.  [When I had mentioned on Friday evening that I would be getting up early to go for my run, these two ladies asked if they could join my on my run since they were also trying to run regularly.]  Later in afternoon, one of the other young ladies who's here to help out at the camp asked me if I ran in the morning.  When I told her that I did, she said that she and her boyfriend (who's also here at camp helping out) also want to join me in my morning runs because they had promised each other that they would run regularly at camp.  [Sounds like I'm starting my own running group here at camp.]

even though I've been coming to this Hungarian Scout park since I was 4 years old
for various camps and events, this was the first time that I had done a run
workout here.....I ran 4 loops on the camp roads, each loop was about 2 miles

Sunday

Today was to be a cross training day according to the marathon training plan.  Since I'm at camp for the next 2 weeks, my cross training is walking everywhere at camp, which probably adds up to several miles each day.

Summer Break

As of June 18th, I am on summer break....woohoo!!  The class I had this past school year, was the best group I had had in my 8 years of teaching; I'm going to miss them dearly next year.....but I'm glad to be on summer break for my own peace of mind.

What did I do on my first official day of summer break?  I woke up at my usual workday time of 5am so that I could be at Deep Run Park by 7am to get my 3 mile run done before the high temps and humidity set in for the day.  (I have always been a morning person; I enjoy the solitude of early morning as the world slowly wakes up for the day.)

Since MTT has started, I have had to miss one or two workouts during the week, due to extreme heat during the day or thunderstorms or time constraints.  I am happy to say that this past week I was finally able to complete ALL the training runs that we needed to!  Woohoo!!

The Bane of My Running

This past Thursday was the first hill workout of MTT.  Because of my asthma, hills are the hardest part of running for me.  Knowing that I would be out of town for the next 7 weeks and training on my own, I rearrange my schedule for Thursday so that I could make it to the first hill workout and learn what a hill workout entailed.  Three of the MTT coaches led the hill workout at Deep Run Park, which is only about 5 minutes from where I live.  We started with a slow warm up loop around the pond.  I had thought that we would be running hills on one of the hills along the paved trail in the park, but once the coaches explained what the workout would be, I realized that we would not be staying in the park; instead we would be in a neighborhood nearby.  Since I wasn't quite sure where the hill workout would take place, I ran the whole warm up loop in order to see where the group was going; mind you, I had been doing the Galloway method so far in MTT, so I was quite tired and out of breath once we reached the street where we would do the hill workout.  This week's hill workout was going to be 4 loops of the hill, running up the hill at about 85% of your effort and coming back down the hill should take twice as long as going up.  I made it to the top of the hill the first time in about a minute and a half, but was wheezing once I reached the top.  As I turned around to head back down the hill, Donnie (one of the coaches) asked if I was OK; my gasping/wheezing reply was, "Asthma."  The next two times I ran up the hill, I made it about 3/4 of the way up before I had to stop running and walk the rest of the way up because I was starting wheeze [I think the wheezing was partially due to me panicking as I had to exert more and more effort to get up the hill].  By the time I made my way back to the bottom of the hill after my third loop, only 3 of us were left (along with the coaches) because everyone else had finished their hills.  [In my mind, I knew that I would be one of the last ones to finish, but it still hurt to see that I was right.]  After finishing my 4 hill loops, we ran back to the park (which was just 2 streets away) and did a slow cool down loop around the pond.  Donnie ran back to me as I was nearing the parking lot to check on me; I'm glad I was wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap so that he couldn't see my frustrated and upset expression.  As we walked to our cars, we talked about the hill workouts.  Donnie gave me some pointers on how to do them, and he ended with "Just run at your own pace."  [I know that I'm not a fast runner, and may never become a fast runner, but it still  frustrates and upsets me sometimes to see that I'm one of the last ones to finish a workout or race.]

7 Week MTT Hiatus

Yesterday was my last group training run with my MTT teammates because for the next 7 weeks I will be out of town.  Here's what my next 7 weeks will look like:

- June 30th: drive up to Cleveland, OH to drop off 7 weeks worth of clothes and stuff at my parents' house
- July 1-3: finish any last-minute preparations/packing for Nyári Iskola Tábor and do my marathon training runs
- July 4: drive up to Sík Sándor Cserkészpark in Fillmore, NY to get ready for Nyári Iskola
- July 5-19: help out at Nyári Iskola Tábor (annual Hungarian summer school camp that I haven't been to since I was around 10 years old) with administrative work and try to stick to my marathon training schedule as much as possible
- July 20-August 5: back in Cleveland at my parents' house, working on stuff for KMCsSz (the Hungarian Scout Association), which is my summer job, and hopefully spending time with my Cleveland friends and do my marathon training suns
- August 6: drive back to Sík Sándor Cserkészpark to get ready for VK Tábor
- August 7-17: VK Tábor (reprising my role as my aunt's administrative assistant at the annual Hungarian Scout leadership training camp)
- August 18: back in Cleveland to do my camp laundry and pack up all my things
- August 19: drive back to Richmond

My goal over the next 7 weeks is to stick to the MTT training plan as much as I can, and post here once a week as I recap how training on my own happened for the week.  Check back here each week to see my progress!

enjoying a cold, refreshing Icee pop after yesterday morning's
7 mile group training run with my team

MTT: Week 1, Day 1

And so it begins.....

Yesterday morning was the first group training run with the Sportsbackers Marathon Training Team (MTT).  When I had signed up for MTT back in March, I had accidentally chosen to be in the intermediate team; I think this happened because I was looking at the mileage that the intermediates can run in a week, and I thought, "Yes, I can do that weekly mileage."  While talking to my co-worker MaryBeth Ryan (I call her Ryan), who did MTT last year, she mentioned that the intermediates run at a faster pace and that their mileage increases much faster than the novice team; she suggested that since this is my first marathon that I switch to the novice team.

I was so nervous Friday evening, even to the point of having second thoughts and doubting myself and my ability to actually do this.....but after posting my thoughts and fear on Facebook, my runner friends rallied my spirits with their words of encouragement and faith in me.

One thing that my friends and family know about me is that I'm stubborn; once I commit to doing something, I do it, even if I feel like not doing it.  So, even though I was having second thoughts about doing this whole marathon training and actually running the marathon, I knew that I would show up to the group run on Saturday morning.

I slept OK Friday night, but work up before my alarm went off at 5:15am.  I got up, got dressed in my running gear, then did my morning ritual of checking my email and Facebook which helped calm my nerves a little.  Ryan had mentioned that before the first group run with MTT, there would be an informational meeting, which had lasted about 45 minutes least year; so even though we were to meet at the Sporstbackers stadium at 7:30am, I figured we wouldn't go for the run until after 8am.  I usually eat my pre-run fuel about 1.5 hours before my planned running time, so I ate a banana with almond butter around 6:15am.

#TeamDuctTape

I knew from talking to my running friends who had done MTT in previous years that several hundred runners would be showing up for the first MTT group training run, so I decided to leave my house early and get to the Sportsbackers stadium shortly after 7am in order to be able to find a parking spot.  As I was driving down the Boulevard coming from I-95, I saw that there were already lots of cars in the parking lot and I had a moment of anxiety thinking that I wouldn't find an open parking spot.  Turns out, though, that only the first few rows were full and there were still plenty of parking spots left.  I found one right away, parked my car, filled up my hydration bottle with Gatorade, took off my long-sleeved technical shirt (even though the sun was shining, the morning air was a little cool, around 60 degrees), and headed over to the stadium entrance.  As I got closer to the entrance, I could see coaches from the various teams ready to help.  One of the gentlemen (who it turns out is one of the coaches for Team Duck Tape and was wearing biker shorts made out of duct tape) asked if I knew what my team assignment was (he had a list, in case I didn't); when I told him that I did know my assigned team (Team Maroon, an intermediate team) but that I needed to change teams, he directly me to the table where I could change teams.  Based on my 10K finish time, and my request that I be assigned to a novice team, I was assigned to Team Duct Tape.  Because the novice team had so many members this year, they split the members into 3 sub-groups: Moose, Goose, and Loose.  I was assigned to the Loose group.  Before I headed up to the stands, I decided to make a pit stop in the bathroom, as my nerves were making my bladder be more active.  After my pit stop, I headed up to the stands and realized that everyone was sitting according to their assigned team.  Turns out that my team was sitting all the way at the far end.  As I made my way over, I spotted my running friend Patty sitting with the team.  It was nice to see a familiar face in the group (Ryan runs much faster than me, so she is on one of the intermediate teams).

Just some of the crowd sitting in the stands.
Thanks to the Richmond Road Runner club for the picture.

We spent the next 20 or so minutes looking around, talking, and watching/waiting for everyone else to take their seats with their teams.  Around 7:30am, Don Garber (the head coach of MTT) started the meeting with some general information.  One of the things Don did was have everyone stand up, then those that had run a marathon before were asked to sit down; it was interesting to see how many other people are also training for their first marathon.  The informational meeting lasted about 30 minutes, then we all headed out to the parking lot with our respective teams.  Team Duct Tape coaches introduced themselves, then we staggered the start of our run.  The first run was only 4 miles for the novice teams (intermediates ran 7 miles), with an easy out and back route down Boulevard to Monument Avenue, then Monument to Malvern and back.  Along the way, the Loose coaches kept checking on everyone to make sure that they were OK and to introduce themselves personally.

Because of the breathing difficulties I had this past spring while training for the Monument 10K, I decided that I would use the Galloway method to train for (and run) my marathon.  Back in the spring, after getting advice from Tammy and Alan about doing MTT, they suggested that I try the Galloway method of running.  The Galloway method was invented by Jeff Galloway and alternates intervals of running and walking; Jeff's research has shown that his method helps prevent injuries because you give your body time to rest during the walking intervals and are less exhausted over when you finish your run.  I had calculated my Magic Mile, and based on that, I decided that my intervals would be 4 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking.  I found an interval trainer app for my iPhone where I could set what my intervals would be, along sound notifications at the beginning of each interval.

During the 4 mile run, I met Therese, who also wanted to try the Galloway method but had not brought a watch with her.  We ended up running about 3/4 of the route together, and agreed to be running partners for the rest of the group runs.  It was nice to finally find someone who runs at my pace!  As we headed back up Boulevard towards the stadium, my mind told me that my body was tired, so I walked parts of the running intervals too.  Therese and I made it back to the stadium parking lot; overall, it was a good run for me, I felt better on this run than I've felt in quite a few months.  I picked up my training booklet and chatted for a few minutes with my team's coaches, letting them know that I wouldn't be there next week (I'll be home in Cleveland for my cousin Peter's wedding, but I'll be running on my own that Sunday morning) and that I would be gone for about 6 weeks this summer.  As much as this whole thing scares me and makes me nervous to do it, I'm glad I am.  24 weeks to go until race day!

Easy route, pace was slower than in the past, but good run overall.
We ran past my first Richmond apartment, which was on Monument Ave near the Boulevard.

This is Lynn, the head coach for Team Duct Tape.
I loved her awesome duct tape outfit!

I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening looking through the
training booklet, familiarizing myself with all of the information.

24 weeks seems like such a long time, but when broken down into individual weeks and days, it seems doable.
I spent yesterday evening entering the training schedule into my phone's calendar so that I would know what I would need to do each day.