Life After Marathons: A Running/barre3/Coffee/Life Journal

I did it. I picked purple.
Shipping it to the apartment because I dont know when I'll be back at the house (dont worry, I brought all of my old MBs to the apartment).
I should probably check to make sure my magical express tags are going to the apartment...

EDIT: I checked. All good. I thought so, since I booked the plane tickets from the apartment, but it still feels weird every time I type the address, so I always have to check.
 
I did it. I picked purple.
Shipping it to the apartment because I dont know when I'll be back at the house (dont worry, I brought all of my old MBs to the apartment).
I should probably check to make sure my magical express tags are going to the apartment...

EDIT: I checked. All good. I thought so, since I booked the plane tickets from the apartment, but it still feels weird every time I type the address, so I always have to check.
I endorse the purple. It was my high school's color and the color of my parents alma mater so I have some fondness for it.

I still have to come up with a funny inscription for my little sister's magic band. In April, it read DarthEwok and mine read DrthCosmo (Cosmo is the name of BYU's mascot). She was so excited about DarthEwok that I have to attempt to live up to it now. I'll probably be using my Last Jedi magic band again. Unless I follow @rteetz and get another magic band while I'm down there. . . .
 


I still have to come up with a funny inscription for my little sister's magic band. In April, it read DarthEwok and mine read DrthCosmo (Cosmo is the name of BYU's mascot). She was so excited about DarthEwok that I have to attempt to live up to it now. I'll probably be using my Last Jedi magic band again. Unless I follow @rteetz and get another magic band while I'm down there. . . .

Um, all of my MBs just say "Sarah", except my AP MB, which says "SarahLynn" (one word because of character limits). I'm boring.

Only one?

I'm behind on your W&D TR - how many new MBs did you buy on that trip? And what's your new total?
 
Um, all of my MBs just say "Sarah", except my AP MB, which says "SarahLynn" (one word because of character limits). I'm boring.



I'm behind on your W&D TR - how many new MBs did you buy on that trip? And what's your new total?
0! They didn’t have any new limited edition ones out during my trip.
 


Only one?
There are quite a few I like, but can't convince myself to purchase on account of not being in Disney World all that often.

Um, all of my MBs just say "Sarah", except my AP MB, which says "SarahLynn" (one word because of character limits). I'm boring.
My first MB was pretty boring. Now my little sister expects me to come up with an epic name for her next MB. Last time was pretty easy on account of her loving ewoks and a longstanding joke between us about how we had planned to inform our mom that we went to Disney World by sending her a photo of us and Darth Vader after the race saying "hi mom, we joined the Dark Side."
 
Fact One: I've been thinking about freestyling my next race (after the marathon) and training without a plan.

Fact Two: I'm taking an unplanned rest day today (just schedule stuff making it hard to fit in a run or anything else) and I feel bad about it (and not just because I'm still at work at 6:15).

Discuss.

(Also, I am sticking my head back in my hiatus hole soon. I'm just working on a project at work that requires a lot of waiting for something to run, and I get bored easily)
 
Fact One: I've been thinking about freestyling my next race (after the marathon) and training without a plan.
Sounds intriguing. Should help keep things fresh and interesting. Could help stave off burnout with a training plan.

For me, I would be too concerned about slacking off on the long runs.

Fact Two: I'm taking an unplanned rest day today (just schedule stuff making it hard to fit in a run or anything else) and I feel bad about it (and not just because I'm still at work at 6:15).
One missed run is not going to derail the plan too much. And sometimes it can help to know that you control your plan and not the other way around. Where I have to be really careful is to make sure that one missed run remains one missed run. Far too often, I fall into the trap of one missed run becomes 10 days of 10 missed runs. I'm better about this in training than when there's nothing immediate on the horizon. It's also why I like to start training months before the plan says I should start training because I'm usually settled into running again and have all the missed runs out of my system.
 
Sounds intriguing. Should help keep things fresh and interesting. Could help stave off burnout with a training plan.

For me, I would be too concerned about slacking off on the long runs.

I'm the opposite - I'd be fine on the long runs, but running during the week might be a struggle - I sometimes struggle with running before work, but I just can't run after work. It doesn't work for me. So that's where the potential problem will be.
But this is also kind of what I'm looking to do after the NYC marathon next year, when I'm officially out of training mode (basically, just go out and run a few days a week, except then I probably won't be going over 4-5 miles). So it would be interesting to see how it works out for me.

One missed run is not going to derail the plan too much. And sometimes it can help to know that you control your plan and not the other way around. Where I have to be really careful is to make sure that one missed run remains one missed run. Far too often, I fall into the trap of one missed run becomes 10 days of 10 missed runs. I'm better about this in training than when there's nothing immediate on the horizon. It's also why I like to start training months before the plan says I should start training because I'm usually settled into running again and have all the missed runs out of my system.

So, this is where the random updates instead of regular updates make a difference. What you probably didn't know is that I've had to cut a few recent runs short because I was battling a not-so-fun cold. So I haven't been running as much as I should have been over the last week or so.
But you're right, one missed run will not derail the plan. I just wasn't in love with the fact that now that I'm finally back to feeling healthy, I didn't take advantage of that and run.
 
But this is also kind of what I'm looking to do after the NYC marathon next year, when I'm officially out of training mode (basically, just go out and run a few days a week, except then I probably won't be going over 4-5 miles). So it would be interesting to see how it works out for me.
I understand that. While there have been a few months here and there where I didn't run, I've been running consistently now since summer 2014. But there has always been a race on the horizon. But after Dopey in January, I may take a few months off running. Running in February through April is a huge sacrifice of time and my sanity pays a price for that. I'm not sure it's a sacrifice I want to make with no immediate race (such as Dark Side) looming immediately after the deadline passes. So as much as I envision running this next year during those months with no April race, I'm not sure I will actually do so.

But you're right, one missed run will not derail the plan. I just wasn't in love with the fact that now that I'm finally back to feeling healthy, I didn't take advantage of that and run.
I hate those mid to late training period colds. They throw everything off. Sometimes I can run during them, other times I have to skip runs and it often depends on how I feel day by day. And it can be hard to get back into running after a nasty bug even though you know you need to. I caught a nasty bug in February this year and decided to stop running until I felt 100% recovered. Partially it was because I knew that added rest should help my knee recover from the issues I faced at that time and also because I needed every ounce of strength to get through work at that time. Yet I also worried because I didn't want to start over from scratch after the injury and illness. It's definitely no fun.
 
I poked my head out of my hole again. I probably shouldn't have done that.

Also ... adulting is the worst. I don't want to adult (she says with a load of laundry in the washing machine and as she's about to start looking at her credit card statement).
 
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Guess who forgot to bring gels to her parents' house and will be testing out a new fuel source on Sunday's run???
Thankfully, we have plenty of jelly beans here. But I still need something for pre-run and possibly mile 10 (if I run 10 miles - sundays distance is TBD depending on shoe stuff).
I will try to remember to come back and update y'all on how it goes (I will probably forget, so feel free to nag if you're really interested).
 
I'm testing a new fuel source this weekend, though more by choice. My usual fueling practices for a half is insufficient for the full and my stomach didn't agree the way I would like to take in more, so I'm trying a new source this weekend to see how that goes.

I hope you're enjoying the holiday.
 
Running is stupid.
0/5, do not recommend.

EDIT: I forgot to talk about Sunday's fueling. I used applesauce. It was okay, but I think I prefer gels. Ran 9.45 miles because I didn't feel like running more than 2 hours. New shoes are okay, not great. I'm wondering if I need less cushioning, not more. But I'm waiting until after the marathon to experiment with that.
 
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(Less Than) 4 Weeks Out: A Marathon Weekend Running Update

I was gonna write and post this when I was exactly 4 weeks out, but life. So here's a #laterpost (it's like a #latergram, but not on instagram). It's got some random information about my plans for the races and for training in general, but if you want specific other info that, ask. There may be some info I'm not comfortable giving out, but some of the stuff I don't mention here is just stuff I'm forgetting to mention.

Races
5K
The Plan: Try to continuous run the whole thing, minus character/picture stops (see below for why that might be an issue). Time goal is under an hour, but I don't care if I reach that goal or not.
The Costume: No idea. None at all. Shoes will be Peachy Keen, but that's not gonna lead me anywhere (except maybe Dumbo because gray shoes, but I left my 2016 Dumbo skirt at the house and I don't think I'll be back before the trip, so no dice on that one). I'll probably just end up wearing my colorblock skirt and whatever shirt I grab out of my closet.
10K Finish Med.jpg
Dumbo 2016 ... aka what I'm not doing for this race
The Character Plan: All of the characters. No exceptions, no matter how long the line. Even if someone is out there impersonating Johnny Depp, I stop (and possibly make a comment about Grindlewald).

10K
The Plan: If Thursday's 5K goes well, then I'll try continuous again. If not, then it'll probably be some sort of intervals. No time goal on this one.
The Costume: Ariel - Raw Threads Mermaid Shirt, Black Skirt, Guava Lava
The Character Plan: Preferably all of them. Plan is to start by stopping for all characters, but keep an eye on my pace. If I end up slower than that 16:00/mi pace, then I need to evaluate each stop and see if it's worth it (I can still stop because I will have a cushion, but I may not be able to stop at everything). I'm hoping I can stop for all the characters, but we'll see.

Marathon
The Plan: Easy/LR intervals. Based on the pace I've been running lately, running without stops would have me finishing in 5:30-6:00. Which means I get 1-1.5 hours for characters. Not ideal, but it is what it is.
The Costume: Minnie Mouse! Polka Dot Skirt, Raw Threads "Run Like Minnie Mouse" streets V, and black shirt on top. The minnie mouse shirt will mostly be hidden, but if I ditch the top layer, you'll see it. (Plan is to test drive the outfit on my upcoming 15 miler to make sure it's okay. I just ordered the shirt, so I may have to sub out my mermaid shirt if it doesn't come in time, but hopefully I'll be fine. I just want to test it because while I've worn a RT hoodie for a half, I haven't worn the streets V for anything that long (that I remember at least), so I want to just try it out. I'm sure it will be fine since I run in Raw Threads fairly regularly in all weather.)
upload_2018-12-13_22-57-54.png
The Character Plan: I really don't know. I told my friend earlier this week that I think I'm going to get swept in a character line because I will stop for all the characters. I know I probably won't stop for the pirates, but other than that ... I dunno. I gotta figure something out, because I've never done a rD race without stopping for all the characters before and even if I have "criteria" for which characters I want to stop for, I can't imagine myself following that on race day. Sigh.

The Remaining Training (Ha! I Rhymed!)
Back in September/October, Coach DopeyBadger made me an incredible training plan. It had everything I wanted - variety, distances, and a manageable amount of running. It was divided into Phase One and Phase Two, with my 16-miler as the midpoint. For the most part, I was able to stick to the plan in Phase One, and mostly I enjoyed it.

But then ... the slump hit. Long story short, running became something I hated to do. At first ... I couldn't run continuous anymore. Then I found myself switching a lot of my tempo runs to easy intervals. So I asked Coach if I could do the rest of the plan all at Easy/LR. He said it's not ideal, but if that's what was gonna get me through the plan, that's what I should do. But still, things were hard. I started cutting runs short. Then yesterday I skipped a run. And I wasn't quite sure I felt bad about it. Then ... this morning happened.
I woke up this morning, and I wanted to run. Instead of heading over to Central Park, I decided to risk pissing off pedestrians, cars, and my GPS watch by running down Broadway (spoiler alert: I pissed off at least two of those three). I didn't just stick to Broadway (and ended up running back up a different avenue), and I just really enjoyed this more than running in the park.
After this run, I came to a realization: it's time for me to switch up my training.

For the rest of training, I'm going a little less structured. Tuesdays and Thursdays I will plan to run. The distance/time will be something I decide morning of. I plan to do all my runs at easy pace. If I wake up on Tuesday and don't feel like running, then I have to run Wednesday. If I wake up Wednesday and decide I want to run, then I can run Wednesday (same for Monday). If I ran Tuesday and Wednesday and wake up not wanting to run Thursday, I can skip Thursday.
To put it more simply ... if I wake up and want to run, I run. If not, not. But ... I do have to run at least twice during the week.
Sundays I will try the originally planned long run duration, but I'll allow myself to adjust up or down a mile based on how I feel and how much I ran during the week. (Also ... this coming Sunday I'm doing something that might be a very bad idea - current plan is run ~4 miles to barre3, do a barre3 class, and then run ~4 miles home. If it's raining, I may subway to barre3 and just try to find a way to get in 8 miles on the run home, just because I don't want to go into class wet)
I'm also going to try to vary up my routes - maybe hit Central Park once or twice, but mostly run the streets and/or head over to the Hudson River Greenway if it's not too cold out. Maybe even run through the park over to the east side? We'll see what happens.
(Next week is a bit of an exception to this just because of my schedule, but I'm still hoping I can do at least 15-16 miles during the week in a manageable way and then do 15 on Sunday, as planned)

I don't know if this kind of training will help me. I'm hoping it doesn't hurt me, though I know that might be a possibility. But I also know that I may not be able to stick to a more structured training plan, and I think I can get through the next month being flexible like this. I hope I'm right.

This is short because I wanted to get it posted today. I'll try to come back at some point before the end of the month to share some info about the parks part of the trip.
 

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