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

[SarahDisney]

I've been having some pain in my wrist this week. Right now I'd rate it at a 5-6 (well, 4-5 since I've been wearing a brace for a bit). If it gets up to an 8-9, I may go to Urgent Care.
I assume that with some rest (aka not me typing all the time) and some pain meds it'll get better, it's just bad timing, since we're hosting a lunch tomorrow and there's prep to be done.
Sigh. At least I got my run in this morning.

 

[SarahDisney]

Week In Review: July 22nd - 28th, 2019​

Monday:
Scheduled: Run - 3.3 miles @ Easy
Actual: Rest Day

Life Interlude:
Went to my first tech conference. I've got some *thoughts* on it, that I'll be sharing with my tech community, but the tl;dr is that the info was good, but I suck at people.

Tuesday:
Scheduled: barre3
Actual: Run - 3.31 miles @ EC (Easy Continuous), 38:33 minutes, 11:39 min/mi
Goal pace for EC is 13:00 min/mi, so this was a bit off, but it’s not a huge deal. Because I wasn’t sure how I’m feeling about my fitness and the idea of pushing for a more ambitious goal, I decided to have Coach base my paces on my result from Broad Street Run, which was a comfortable race (minus the rain), but probably not full effort. So the paces are slower than they’ve been in a while (or actually … ever). This doesn’t bother me much because I’ve always done easy runs by effort, not pace, so I just run whatever pace feels easy (although honestly, this run could have been a drop easier) and don’t worry about what I’m supposed to be running.
The only place I was a bit concerned about that was the R Pace runs, but Coach said those are more about consistency and avoiding the fade (which has always been a struggle for me), so I’ll play around a bit to find the pace where I’m most consistent.
If I’m trending faster in all of my runs, then we can adjust the paces for marathon training. Which is another advantage of doing this pre-marathon plan - since I haven’t been doing much structured training lately (although I was still running), this gives me a better idea of where I should be for marathon training.

Baseball - Trenton Thunder! (aka my favorite minor league team aka Baby Yankees). So … this was a little bit of a mess. The game the night before had been cancelled, so they played a double header - two 7-inning games, starting at 5:30 PM (original start time was 7). But … gates didn’t open until 6 PM (5:30 for season ticket holders). So we missed the first 1.5ish innings, including missing seeing a top Yankees prospect, who was supposed to be pitching but got taken out after like 4 batters with a possible injury. So that was interested. We did get bobbleheads, though, which was good.
Stayed through the second inning of the second game, but it was raining and we didn’t want to stay any longer.

Wednesday:
Scheduled: R Pace - 1.5 mi WU + 6 x 200m @ R w/ 200m RI + 1 mi @ CD
Actual: 4.08 miles, 51:02 minutes, 12:30 min/mi
R Pace Intervals - 88s (watch issue), 71s, 70s, 69s, 69s, 67s
So … it turns out I did okay on my first R Pace run! Coach says I was right on target, and could probably go a little faster with a longer (time-wise) RI. Which means either longer distance or slowing down the RI.
Did this on the track at Riverside Park, which is dirt (not like random loose dirt, packed dirt, but not pavement or cinder or whatever tracks are normally made of), and not in the best shape.



Thursday:
Scheduled: barre3
Actual: barre3 with Katie!
This was my first class back since the fall, and I’ve been having some random pains in my arm, starting in the left arm (that’s what I talked about last week), but also now in the right arm. Before class I mentioned it to Katie, and we talked a drop about modifying. Any time I was supposed to have my hands on the floor/barre I had to move to my forearms because I couldn’t put any weight through my hands, but otherwise it was a decent class.

Right wrist got much much worse later in the day (after I did some cleaning … hmm), so we’ll see how the next few days go.

Friday:
Scheduled: Run - 3.3 miles @ Easy
Actual: Run - 3.33 miles @ Easy/LR Intervals, 46:02 minutes, 13:48 min/mi
Went down Central Park West for a change of pace, but otherwise unexceptional run. Was going to go to a different drugstore than usual at the end of my run, but it wasn’t open, so I went to the usual drugstore.



Wrist hurt a lot while I was cooking (by the time I got to mincing garlic I was pretty much screaming in pain, so I did a bad job with the garlic), but okay when I wasn’t using it. Still thinking that barre on Sunday is probably a bad idea, though.

Saturday:
Rest Day!

Sunday:
Scheduled: barre3 or Rest Day
Actual: Rest Day
Wrist is still bothering me a little, so I took the day. Feeling really crappy about the decision because I haven’t gotten out of the house at all today because I have no friends and therefore can’t make plans with friends even if I want to and I didn’t have any ideas for things to do by myself, so I basically mostly treated today like a weekday, other than sleeping in.

Upcoming:
Monday - 2 miles Easy, barre3?
Tuesday - 2.5 miles Easy
Wednesday - 5.5 miles Easy
Thursday - 2 miles Easy
Friday - R Pace - 1 mi WU + 2 sets of (4x200m @ R w/ 200m RI) w/ 5 min RI between sets + 0.5 mi CD
Saturday - Rest Day!
Sunday - Rest Day!

 

[SarahDisney]

Tomorrow is day 1 of 5 consecutive days of running. Plan is to take the new part of my marathon outfit (my father doesn't like when I call it a costume) out for a test run.
Also planning barre3 in the afternoon, because my wrist is feeling a lot better (although still not 100%). Was going to also do barre3 on Thursday, but something else came up, so this may be my only class of the week (which is possibly one more than I should be doing during a peak week, but whatever).

 

[SarahDisney]

Would you rather...
Run fewer longer runs
OR
Run more shorter runs?

(Meaning, let's say you had to run 15 miles in a week - would you rather do 5 3-mile runs or 3 5-mile runs?)

These are the things I think about on my run.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Would you rather...
Run fewer longer runs
OR
Run more shorter runs?

(Meaning, let's say you had to run 15 miles in a week - would you rather do 5 3-mile runs or 3 5-mile runs?)

These are the things I think about on my run.

I guess I'd probably prefer fewer runs that were longer. It takes me about 20 min to get ready to run and 20 min after the run. So while the two in actual run time are necessarily equal (15 miles each), the amount of time pre/post run is higher in the higher frequency situation. That means I yield similar running gains (a simplistic view) in both situations, yet spend more time on "running things" in one choice than the other. More time efficiency I guess is what I mean.

 

[run.minnie.miles]

I would probably split it up to vary the distances into 4 runs/week (5/4/3/3).

 

[Bree]

Hmmm.....I’d want longer runs. So I’d probably run 4, 4 & 7.

 

[SarahDisney]

I guess I'd probably prefer fewer runs that were longer. It takes me about 20 min to get ready to run and 20 min after the run. So while the two in actual run time are necessarily equal (15 miles each), the amount of time pre/post run is higher in the higher frequency situation. That means I yield similar running gains (a simplistic view) in both situations, yet spend more time on "running things" in one choice than the other. More time efficiency I guess is what I mean.

This makes a lot of sense! Fewer runs is definitely less time-consuming because of the setup/cleanup (that's probably not the best description, but whatever) time.

I would probably split it up to vary the distances into 4 runs/week (5/4/3/3).

I like this option! Mixing it up!

Hmmm.....I’d want longer runs. So I’d probably run 4, 4 & 7.

Another great way to mix it up. I love it.


So ... my answer to the question is complicated. I love long runs, but can't do more than 1-2/week, so I don't know that 5/5/5 works for me. I could probably do 3/3/9 (coach would not approve), 4/4/7, or 3/3/3/6 if I want to do 4.
I hope I'm doing my math right...

Anyway ... it's a five run week and most of my runs are 2-2.5 miles and today (long run/5.5 mi day) I pretty much checked out at 2 miles. So ... it's given me some food for thought in terms of peak weeks and marathon training.
I've got one more 5-run week on this plan, but I'm going to be travelling (more on that later, since I have to check in with Coach on how to properly reschedule things), so we'll see how that goes.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

(Meaning, let's say you had to run 15 miles in a week - would you rather do 5 3-mile runs or 3 5-mile runs?)

I sort of faced this dilemma. For years my biggest concern with the marathon was not so much the distance itself, but the training. I came to believe that I could probably handle the distance once, but I began to be interested in the marathon experience, but given the gradual increase of the Galloway plan eventually capping off around 24 miles for the marathon, I did not want to have 5-6 long runs every 2 weeks to prepare for the marathon.

After coach helped me see that consistently running shorter distances more frequently could yield the same end result I began to give the marathon more serious consideration. For me it worked so much better with my schedule to have 3-4 short to medium (6 miles) runs a week with one longer run on Saturdays instead of 2-3 short runs during the week with anywhere from 4-6 hour long runs on Saturdays.

As it turned out, my volume was actually higher than the Galloway plan, but spread out more over the week instead of concentrated in 1 day.

 

[KevM]

I think i’d Also go with less runs/more miles per run. As @DopeyBadger said, the pre and post run rituals can take sometime, so do them less.

 

[SarahDisney]

I sort of faced this dilemma. For years my biggest concern with the marathon was not so much the distance itself, but the training. I came to believe that I could probably handle the distance once, but I began to be interested in the marathon experience, but given the gradual increase of the Galloway plan eventually capping off around 24 miles for the marathon, I did not want to have 5-6 long runs every 2 weeks to prepare for the marathon.

After coach helped me see that consistently running shorter distances more frequently could yield the same end result I began to give the marathon more serious consideration. For me it worked so much better with my schedule to have 3-4 short to medium (6 miles) runs a week with one longer run on Saturdays instead of 2-3 short runs during the week with anywhere from 4-6 hour long runs on Saturdays.

As it turned out, my volume was actually higher than the Galloway plan, but spread out more over the week instead of concentrated in 1 day.

Makes a lot of sense. Especially for us slower runners, it's all about how much time you can squeeze out of your schedule - sometimes it's easier to find a shorter amount of time more frequently.

I think i’d Also go with less runs/more miles per run. As @DopeyBadger said, the pre and post run rituals can take sometime, so do them less.

I definitely relate to this! I think minimizing the pre/post run is definitely a popular idea .

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Makes a lot of sense. Especially for us slower runners, it's all about how much time you can squeeze out of your schedule - sometimes it's easier to find a shorter amount of time more frequently.

Yeah. If I'm already running 2-3 times per week Monday through Friday, an extra day is a minimal interruption especially when compared with losing 5-6 hours to a run on Saturdays.

 

[SarahDisney]

Today is baggage and transportation option choosing day for the NYC marathon.

If only the website would actually load ... I think NYRR forgot to load test their new website and didn't know it would crash when 50,000 people hit it all at once.
This is why you use AWS. Amazon may be slowly taking over the internet, but they'll also handle load balancing and scaling for you if you want them to.

Sigh. I have to be in Brooklyn this afternoon, so this better be handled soon.

 

[SarahDisney]

5 consecutive days of running DONE! Other than today's run being a crapfest because it's the end of the week, it was all good.

The rest of this week, however ... 0/10 do not recommend.

 

[SarahDisney]

Um ... sorry, I just re-read that last post and realized it could be a little vague post-y, so just to clarify a bit ...
I've had a bit of an identity crisis this week and it's been tough.
I haven't been considering myself a runner lately, and that's fine, because I don't care very much about running. I can be someone who runs without being a runner. There are other things that define my identity.
... I'll let you know when I think of one. Because right now I don't feel like a runner, but I don't feel like much of anything else either.

... And that's why I don't recommend this week. Identity crises are frustrating.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I hope things get better for you.

 

[SarahDisney]

I hope things get better for you.

I believe tht don't get better, its just our ability to handle them thtmat does. But thank you.

 

[SarahDisney]

Week In Review: July 29th - August 4th, 2019​

Monday:
Scheduled: Run - 2 miles Easy, barre3
Actual: Run - 2.08 miles @ Easy/LR Intervals, 28:35 minutes, 13:44 min/mi
barre3 - with Jenna (#2)
Run was fairly unexceptional. Definitely felt like an easy pace.
barre3 was great. I’ve been a ball of stress, and this was exactly what I needed. Wrist was still a slight issue, but I just didn’t put much weight on it and I was fine.

Tuesday:
Scheduled: Run - 2.5 mi Easy
Actual: Run - 2.50 miles @ EC, 31:14 minutes, 12:30 min/mi
Wrist felt sore (not painful) when I woke up and a little bit after my run, but was much better later. I think I’m on the road to recovery.

Wednesday:
Scheduled: Run - 5.5 mi Easy
Actual: Run - 5.58 miles @ Easy/LR Intervals, 1:16:08 hours, 13:39 min/mi
I was mentally checked out of this run after about 2 miles. I think it was the fact that I was running more than twice what I’d run the previous two days.
Something to think about for sure.

Thursday:
Scheduled: Run - 2 miles Easy
Actual: Run - 2.14 miles @ EC, 25:36 minutes, 11:58 min/mi
barre3 - 30 minute online video with Dino
I’m still a drop fast on the easy continuous runs. Dunno why, since it feels fairly easy. I’ll figure it out eventually.

I wanted to do barre3 today but didn’t have time to head into the studio, so I decided to do a 30 minute video when I got back from my run. I was already sweaty and disgusting, so it worked. I did struggle with a few things during the video, but overall it was really good, I was able to do the second plank normally (no more going to my forearms to take the weight off my wrists!), and it was basically exactly what I needed. Yay for free access to online barre videos with my studio membership! (Plus, the instructor for this video was the studio manager of my studio, so it was just like being in-studio, but without the other people).

NYC Marathon Interlude:
Today was the first day to pick transportation and baggage options for the NYC Marathon. I wanted to get it over with (and also to make sure I got everything I wanted), but the NYRR/NYC Marathon websites were being stupid, so it was mad stressful. I eventually got through, but it was stressful and threw my entire schedule off.
Anyway … I went with post-race poncho, since I live ~1.5 miles from the finish, so I don’t need to check a bag. Also, poncho exit is earlier, which means if I don’t feel like walking, I can get on a bus further south and walk less. Also, my dad is planning on following me around the city, so he can have stuff for me at the finish.
For transportation, I’m taking a 7AM bus that should get me to the start village around 8:30AM. Now, if only I knew what wave I’m in or what time we’re starting…

I also signed up for an expo volunteer spot - first shift t-shirt distribution on Friday! I enjoyed bib distribution last year, so I wanted to try something similar but different.

Friday:
Scheduled: Run - 1 mi WU + 2 sets of (4x200m @ R w/ 200m RI) w/ 5 min RI between sets + 0.5 mi CD
Actual: Run - 4.17 miles, 54:06 minutes, 12:58 min/mi avg pace
R Pace 200m - 76s, 72s, 76s, 67s, 70s, 66s, 70s, 70s
It was the end of the week and I was stressed and I just wasn’t feeling this run. Sigh.
I listened to a Yankees podcast (R2C2 is UNINTERRUPTED) during the run and it was good. Most of the run was an interview with Austin Romine - super interesting stuff. I only occasionally listen to podcasts, but this was definitely a good addition to my podcast list. Next run will be finishing up the Luke Voit interview I started at the end of this run.

Saturday:
Scheduled: Rest Day!
Actual: Rest Day

Life Interlude:
I had a very bad day, which was not great timing, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. It's been a rough week in general, and I just didn't want to go out like this.

Sunday:
Scheduled: Rest Day
Actual: Rest Day

Baseball - Scranton Wilkes-Barre Railriders (AAA Yankees). They won! Jonathan Loaisiga started (rehabbing major leaguer) and he was terrible. But the offense was good. Saw a few guys we had seen in Trenton a few weeks ago, which was fun. Clint Fraizer didn’t play, but he also didn’t ask us for a ride back to NYC, so I don’t know what’s up with that…

Upcoming:
Monday - 3.3 miles Easy
Tuesday - barre3
Wednesday - R Pace - 1 mi @ WU + 8 x 200m @ R w/ 200m RI @ WU + 1 mi @ CD
Thursday - 2 miles Easy, barre3
Friday - 3.3 mi Easy
Saturday - Rest Day!
Sunday - Rest Day!

Wednesday I have to get out early because I have to be home early (construction that I need to be home for), but nothing else exciting about this week.
Wrist seems like it's back to 100%, which is good. I think I'm finally recovered from the fall and its aftermath.

 

[run.minnie.miles]

I'm going to guess that you don't want advice, but rather to just vent on the "identity crisis." So I hope you're feeling better about it today!

Looks like you had a good week of running/workouts- way to go!

 

[SarahDisney]

I'm going to guess that you don't want advice, but rather to just vent on the "identity crisis." So I hope you're feeling better about it today!

Thanks. Feeling a little better ... just taking it one day at a time.

Looks like you had a good week of running/workouts- way to go!

Thanks!