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.