Hanging up my running shoes-Update on ZellyB

[ZellyB]

I'm afraid I would be like your group run leader and refuse to get out before 6. I am so not an early morning person. I get what you mean about the high temps though! I think it's amazing you got in 12 miles with the heat!

I'm trying to tell myself to just be satisfied with getting in the miles and worry about pace and how I feel later, so thanks for that!

 

[girliea]

Great work ZellyB! Even though you are having a rough time with training, it helps me our b/c I am too!
This heat has been, well HOT!
So even though the runs have been rough (it seems like for everybody when you read the boards), we're doing them. Fall is coming (ha, wonder how many GoT fans will find that funny!)

You continue to inspire with your perseverance and honest training report. I mean all of us are struggling right now but you have the guts to write it and put yourself out there-I admire that and appreciate it.

 

[Ariel484]

Blech, right there with you on the frustration right now! But that is great news that your knee isn't bugging you lately!

Fueling could definitely be having an effect on your runs...I hope you get it figured out! And I LOVE seeing you guys with that Goofy bling...that is motivation right there!

 

[ZellyB]

Great work ZellyB! Even though you are having a rough time with training, it helps me our b/c I am too!
This heat has been, well HOT!
So even though the runs have been rough (it seems like for everybody when you read the boards), we're doing them. Fall is coming (ha, wonder how many GoT fans will find that funny!)

You continue to inspire with your perseverance and honest training report. I mean all of us are struggling right now but you have the guts to write it and put yourself out there-I admire that and appreciate it.

Thank you! And love the GoT reference. I think I'll chant that in my head on these tough, hot runs. And you are right, many of us are dealing with this, so we all just have to hang in there together.

Blech, right there with you on the frustration right now! But that is great news that your knee isn't bugging you lately!

Fueling could definitely be having an effect on your runs...I hope you get it figured out! And I LOVE seeing you guys with that Goofy bling...that is motivation right there!

I really am happy about the knee - even though you can't tell that from my depressing training report. I think I need to look at the Goofy bling picture every day right now!

 

[ZellyB]

Just a quick moment to say that tomorrow is another LONG long run. Group is doing 17 and I'm shooting for 15. Hot again, but pretty significant chance of rain and for once, I'm hoping it's raining. So, wish me luck that I can get through this one and feel some satisfaction for a change. And just to remind myself, it's all for the bling.

 

[girliea]

Just a quick moment to say that tomorrow is another LONG long run. Group is doing 17 and I'm shooting for 15. Hot again, but pretty significant chance of rain and for once, I'm hoping it's raining. So, wish me luck that I can get through this one and feel some satisfaction for a change. And just to remind myself, it's all for the bling.

Good luck ZellyB! I have a long run scheduled for Sunday, not 17 miles long but 8 miles so we will be sisters in sweat this weekend!
The picture of rundisney medals is always inspiring. Thanks for that.

 

[ZellyB]

Good luck ZellyB! I have a long run scheduled for Sunday, not 17 miles long but 8 miles so we will be sisters in sweat this weekend!
The picture of rundisney medals is always inspiring. Thanks for that.

Thank you. We ended up being total sisters in sweat since I ended up running 8. I was disappointed since that's not nearly enough with the marathon coming up in November, but I'm regrouping and making some changes to my plans. More on that in a bit. I hope your 8-miler went well!

 

[ZellyB]

TRAINING WEEK 7/31 - 8/6
When best laid plans fall apart
​

As I mentioned in the post above, things didn't go so well this week

Sunday 7/30 - Rest day. Well sort of. We had a massive to-do list of things at the house that needed to be done. We actually managed to get all of it completed though which was great and left us feeling pretty good about what we accomplished.
Monday 8/1 - Nada
Tuesday 8/2 - 4 mile run. Same story, new day. We had one of our running friends join us on this one who hasn't run with us in awhile, so that made it nice to have some new company. It was a good run for the most part. Just hot and sweaty, but what's new about that?
Wednesday 8/3 - Nothing again.
Thursday 8/4 - Just 3 miles again. With the long run planned for Saturday, we opted to cut things a bit short. The humidity actually felt a bit better on this one, so it was a pretty good run. Our local fair was in town and my girls really wanted to go, so we headed out to the fairgrounds that night.

Girls on the caterpillar kiddie coaster. They are such hams!

And I had to have my obligatory corn dog and jug o' root beer - my traditional fair food

We wandered around and looked at the farm animals and the petting zoo and just enjoyed the people watching. Even a crummy local fair looks pretty when the lights come on.

Friday 8/5 - I tried to be really good about drinking a lot of water today. I've been bad lately about not hydrating well enough given all the heat and humidity, so I managed to get down about 60 oz of water through the course of the day. Had trouble getting to sleep though, so don't think I managed to fall asleep until around midnight. I was really worried about my plan for a 15 mile run the next day.
Saturday 8/6 - The weather was threatening some rain later in the run and actually we were all sort of hoping for that. The temps were in the mid-70s at 6 when we started, but humidity again was at something like 90%. Thankfully though there was cloud cover, so we felt good that we wouldn't have the sun beating down on us later in the run. Things started out pretty good, we took it nice and easy since we knew we had a long way to go. Sadly though, once again around mile 6, I just started to fade badly. I had tried to go back to some of my old fueling habits, but that didn't seem to help me a lot either. I knew by mile 7, I would be doing good to just finish the 8 miles that our half-marathon training folks were scheduled for. Chris and the rest of our group turned around to head back out for the remainder of the run and I went to the car feeling like a big ole failure. I spent some time driving around and meeting up with the group as they finished out the 17 miles - Chris and the others rocked it!

I spent some time while waiting trying to devise a plan for how to go forward. The half marathon training plan for our local race was at 8 miles for this week which I obviously just ran, so I think I just need to concede defeat for the November marathon and switch to the half mileage and hope that I get a resurgence in cooler temps. I went in and reviewed the Galloway mileage for Goofy and went through my own spreadsheet and made the modifications to have me doing the half in November and still hit the proper training mileage for Goofy. I'm having a hard time admitting defeat on this and pretty bummed about all my great plans at the beginning of the year sort of falling apart. I know there's always next year and the next year and the next, but it's tough having to admit that I just can't get through these goals I set for myself. But, it's also not worth it if every long run I head out on leads me to feeling like a failure and beating myself up, so I think it's just best that I make these changes now and start to feel better about where I am and where I'm headed.

Ultimately, I'm still running and healthy and I get to go to Disney in 5 months, so lots to be happy about and I need to try and focus on that!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Sorry to hear the Saturday long run didn't go as well as planned. It seems like you've made a wise choice to back off on the November marathon. Better running days are ahead. BTW, love the Goofy nails!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

It seems you have a realistic, yet positive view on your goals. I'm sure it is disappointing to not do what you originally planned, but life happens and what you ARE doing is pretty cool! Running a half and then getting ready to take on Goofy is huge.
Great castle pic btw!

 

[rteetz]

Better to play it safe I guess. Glad you're staying healthy. Can't believe how fast time is flying by, marathon weekend will be here before we know it!

 

[ZellyB]

Sorry to hear the Saturday long run didn't go as well as planned. It seems like you've made a wise choice to back off on the November marathon. Better running days are ahead. BTW, love the Goofy nails!

Yes! Better days ahead. Thanks for that. And thanks for noticing my Goofy nails!

It seems you have a realistic, yet positive view on your goals. I'm sure it is disappointing to not do what you originally planned, but life happens and what you ARE doing is pretty cool! Running a half and then getting ready to take on Goofy is huge.
Great castle pic btw!

Thanks. I need to keep that in mind. Not too many years ago the thought of running a half marathon was something I would have laughed about. So, I do need to appreciate what I can do rather than focus on what I can't.

Better to play it safe I guess. Glad you're staying healthy. Can't believe how fast time is flying by, marathon weekend will be here before we know it!

I know!! It's going to be here soon and I can't wait!!

 

[Ariel484]

You're not a failure. Your goals are just different now. I think you're smart to re-assess and come up with a new plan.

 

[Mimsy Borogove]

Hi!

It's been a while (and when I went to see when I last posted on this thread, I couldn't find myself, so maybe I didn't? ), and I've meant to get caught up and post a few times but have been neglecting the DIS horribly for the last couple months. I am somewhat dreading getting caught up on the 70+ pages in the Running Thread.

I'm glad your knee is feeling better and I agree with @Ariel484 that you're not a failure, you're just adapting to your situation and playing it smart. In my profession, we have this concept called adaptive management - basically if your well-intentioned plans don't work out, you assess what went wrong and then adaptively change the strategy and the plan so that your project overall is a success. And that's what it sounds like you've done - very smart!

Apologies for the following exclamation mark salad: Congratulations to your husband on his 50K, amazing! Happy belated birthday to you! And happy belated birthday to your dad as well - 92 and still going to the gym, I am in awe. Cute castle photo with your husband, very nice!

Wishing you continued success on your journey.

 

[CherieFran]

I think we runners can be very goal driven and we create these months-long (or longer) plans that can make it hard to switch gears. I definitely empathize. I deferred the Marine Corps Marathon around this time of year a few years back because life and whatnot were making proper training tough. Once I got over the initial disappointment, it was such a relief to know that I wasn't going to continue down the miserable path. And Goofy is a great target to still have out there in the not-so-distant future! Good luck with the revamped plan!

 

[ZellyB]

You're not a failure. Your goals are just different now. I think you're smart to re-assess and come up with a new plan.

Thanks. I know that's true, but hard not to beat yourself up some times.

Hi!

It's been a while (and when I went to see when I last posted on this thread, I couldn't find myself, so maybe I didn't? ), and I've meant to get caught up and post a few times but have been neglecting the DIS horribly for the last couple months. I am somewhat dreading getting caught up on the 70+ pages in the Running Thread.

I'm glad your knee is feeling better and I agree with @Ariel484 that you're not a failure, you're just adapting to your situation and playing it smart. In my profession, we have this concept called adaptive management - basically if your well-intentioned plans don't work out, you assess what went wrong and then adaptively change the strategy and the plan so that your project overall is a success. And that's what it sounds like you've done - very smart!

Apologies for the following exclamation mark salad: Congratulations to your husband on his 50K, amazing! Happy belated birthday to you! And happy belated birthday to your dad as well - 92 and still going to the gym, I am in awe. Cute castle photo with your husband, very nice!

Wishing you continued success on your journey.

Hi back at ya!

I was thinking you had posted before too, so in that case, welcome back. I am also super happy my knee is doing better and thanks for naming the concept for me. I'll remind myself that I'm merely exercising adaptive management if I start to beat myself up too much. And thank you as well for everything in the exclamation mark salad (the term which caused me to LOL).

I think we runners can be very goal driven and we create these months-long (or longer) plans that can make it hard to switch gears. I definitely empathize. I deferred the Marine Corps Marathon around this time of year a few years back because life and whatnot were making proper training tough. Once I got over the initial disappointment, it was such a relief to know that I wasn't going to continue down the miserable path. And Goofy is a great target to still have out there in the not-so-distant future! Good luck with the revamped plan!

YES on the whole goal-driven thing. It's a double-edged sword for sure. It's great in that these long-term goals I make really do keep me on track and motivated, but, man, they also manage to get me to put unnecessary pressure on myself sometimes. Goofy is really my ultimate goal for this training season, though, and I still have plenty of time (and cooler temps ahead) to make that happen!

 

[ZellyB]

TRAINING WEEK 8/7 - 8/13
BLECH​

Another rough training week - yet today as I write this I'm feeling more optimistic

Sunday 8/7 - Rest day. At least it's a rest day from running. My sister and I hosted a bridal shower for my niece who is getting married this fall. We ended up with over 40 people at my house!! But we managed to fit everybody in and we had some delicious cakes and my sister (who is a lot like Martha Stewart) fixed up the serving table so that it looked lovely.

No games were played at this shower either, so it was pretty efficient. People were in and out in just about an hour and a half. That's my kind of shower. Especially when it's at my house.
Monday 8/8 - My training doldrums continue. Just not interested in doing much of anything.
Tuesday 8/9 - Chris had an early meeting (school is getting ready to start up again) - so lots of stuff to get done, so no run.
Wednesday 8/10 - Since we didn't run yesterday, we opted to get in 3 miles today. The run went fine. I felt reasonably good maintaining pace and intervals and since we just did 3 miles it was no real problem.
Thursday 8/11 - No run today because it's the first day back to school WHAT??? Isn't this just insanely early to be going back to school??? I mean we always start back pretty early here compared to a lot of places (rural community that used to have a lot of farmers - although frankly now we are far more suburban than rural) but this year is especially early. I think it has something to do with the way Christmas is falling this year and so the kids are getting an especially long Christmas break. Anyway, with Drake graduated now, it was just getting my girls headed off for their 8th grade year. How did that happen??
Friday 8/12 - And...wait for it...yeah, nothing again. But, I was hopeful that my run on Saturday might be better. That was based on nothing but blind faith and hope. This was a week off from a formal group run, but I posted to our Facebook group that Chris and I were planning to run 8 miles at our usual pace if anybody wanted to join.
Saturday 8/13 - Planned 8 mile run. We've been having a fair amount of rain and actually got a bit of a cool down this weekend, so at our start time of 6 AM, the temps were at least in the low 70s although humidity remained high. Skies were overcast as well, so was hoping for some better running conditions. We had 3 other people join us and for the first half of the run I was feeling good, but somewhere around mile 6, I started to notice my knee (although in all honesty, it really wasn't that bad) but it got into my head and then I just found myself falling behind, so I dropped behind the group to finish on my own. Boo! Still I finished out with a 7.5 mile run with a slower pace for me of 11:45, but I did finish it out and so overall I'm okay with that. I'm basically on track with Galloway's mileage training for Goofy and since I'm going to drop back to the half marathon this fall, I'm going to say this run was okay. Not spectacular obviously, but it got the job done. So, there! Not beating myself up. Or at least not much.

In other good news, we are finally getting a break in the heat. Highs this week just in the mid-80s and lows in the 60s again. YAY!! I did tell Chris that I want to go ahead and try to use a 2:00/:30 interval during our maintenance runs this week to see how I do. When I did that last year, it made the longer runs at :90/:30 so much more comfortable. So, Tuesday will be our first day trying that, but I'm hopeful I can manage on these shorter runs. So, not really a great week for total mileage, but I'm starting to wrap my head around the new training distance and working toward a better attitude and approach. Thanks to everyone here for the encouragement.

After our run, we managed to talk one of our kids and my sister into going to the lake again for the afternoon and an overnight stay. We went for a nice boat ride and then had pizza and a stop at the best little local ice cream shop in the lake area. Pop's!!

Obviously not food approved for our ketogenic diet. But they were delicious anyway.

 

[Ariel484]

Can your sister come decorate my house please?

Okay, yes - that is CRAZY early to go back to school! My husband doesn't head back until next week! I think the 24th is day 1.

GREAT JOB on your Saturday run!! That is awesome that you finished and didn't quit, even when it was getting hard. So awesome!!

Aaaaaand now I need some ice cream, so thanks for that!

 

[roxymama]

I had a bunch of thoughts but then I saw that fair picture and now all my thoughts are basically just.... DROOL CORN DOG DROOL.
I haven't had one of those in so long that maybe I need to find a fair!

Dopeybadger beat me to the punch on mentioning your Goofy nails! I love that and fully support theme nails for any and all occasions. I have a set of tea-cup nail stickers that I'm just saving for my next disney-cation. Maybe I'll use some this weekend for no good reason

Running doldrums is totally a thing. If I didn't have my checklist plan right now I'd be surprised if I could get my backside out the door until the weather breaks again. Today is absolutely muggy. I sweated a little walking from my door to my garage. I'll start thinking happy cool weather thoughts for you and all of us.

And I know people have already talked about your plans changing so I'll just leave my thoughts at this
YOU ARE AWESOME! A change of run plans doesn't change that

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Wow gorgeous table setting for the shower! I wish I had that talent

My kids started school yesterday It's nice getting back to a schedule, but I'm always sad to see another year start and my kids get older.

Congrats on finishing a long run on Saturday. I still haven't gone beyond 7 miles since PHM in February. It will be here before I know it though.

Also, really happy you are getting a break from the heat! I honestly don't know how you guys do it in such oppressive conditions!