Shake off the lousy run!

It's race week! The ZOOMA Cape Cod half marathon is this Saturday, which makes this a lousy time to have lost my mojo.

What happened to it?

I certainly don't know. I've going along nicely: A strong 10-mile race in August, a new 5K PR while on vacation, a little too much chaos the following week that led to some low mileage, a new-found love of stroller running. And then . . . bam! Mojo gone.

Yesterday's run rotted. If you know me at all, you know I rarely have anything other than good things to say about my runs. I love running and, in my book, even a not-so-great run is something worth enjoying.

But yesterday was tough. I couldn't get my breathing right. My legs felt like lead. My head felt like it was about to fly away on its own. I felt off. I had no mojo.

I tried speeding up. I tried slowing down. I tried doing some long division in my head. Nothing worked.

It was just one of those runs.

However. As I said, I have this half marathon on Saturday and I'd like to have a decent race. I need my mojo back and I need it now.

My plan? Shake it up. This morning I'll run a speed workout that I haven't done in quite some time:

10:00 warm-up (about a mile)
10:30 of 30 seconds fast (7:00/mi), 60 seconds slow (9:30/mi)
10:00 of 60 seconds fast, 90 seconds slow
cool down

I need to shake out whatever it is that needs shaking out. Let's hope this workout does it!

What do you do when you have an off run or need to shake things up?

Have a good week!

~ Felice

12 tough miles and July recap.

I've been away. It was just a three-day weekend on the Great Sacandaga Lake but it was a really nice time with my whole family -- a relaxing mini-vacation. Since we were away, though, I knew I wasn't going to be able to get my long run in. (I did sneak out for a fast 4-miler.) Fortunately, Owen had today off so I planned to run 12 miles in the morning.

Well. Those miles sucked.

First some background. The camp we stayed at in Sacandaga was built by my great-grandfather and now belongs to my dad's aunt and uncle. It's basically two rooms: A living area with a semi-enclosed kitchen on one side and an enclosed sleeping porch that extends around two other sides of the living area. So, yes. Everyone who stays in the camp sleeps in one big L-shaped room.

Doesn't make for good sleep when two babies are involved.

Yeah, I didn't really get much sleep on Friday or Saturday. Didn't matter. We had a great time, sleep or no sleep:

My sister taking Conal for a swim out in the lake.

Conal and me on the floating raft.

Hanging out.

My muddy baby. Yes, he was eating sand.

Last night, I was looking forward to some great sleep, since it would be in my own bed.

Nope. The baby was sick and up all night. My plan for my 12-miler had been to head out around 7-7:30 when Niall woke up for the day. Yeah, didn't happen. After Niall threw up all over his crib -- fun! -- I didn't really sleep much at all. So, I waited to go for my run until 8:45 after putting him down for a morning nap.

The nap was great. The run was not.

Holy cow. I haven't had a run like that in ages. I felt like crud the whole time, had to walk several times and almost stopped completely just before 6 miles. The hills got me. The heat got me. The lack of sleep got me.

But what got me the most was my attitude. I told myself this was a sucky run and so it was. I couldn't shake the internal sucky run commentary, no matter how much I tried. So annoying. And that is what really got me. I can run hills. I can run in the heat. I can run on no sleep. But when I tell myself the run sucks? Yup, it does.

Oh, well. 12 miles. 9:59 pace. Done.

And now, a look back at July.

July stats:

Running: 90.4 miles
Racing: 1 -- 15K PR at the Boilermaker!
Out of town runs: 5 -- Long Island, New Jersey, Sacandaga
Cross training: 6 sessions with Jillian Michaels

I'm pleased with July. It's good to be back over 90 miles for the month and my PR at the Boilermaker was awesome! Overall, my training for September's half marathon is going well. For August, I hope to keep up with my training plan, get in some strong long runs and keep giving my body a break with the cross training. I'll cut that out in September but for now I think it is helping to build strength for the race.

And now? I hope to get some sleep. That's really all this running mama wants out of life. Just a little sleep.

Have a great week, everyone!

~ Felice

Don't say it out loud.

Whenever my hairdresser tells me something that is going well, she prefaces it with, "I don't want to say this out loud, but . . . " and then gives me the good news. It goes like this: "I don't want to say this out loud but, my son is sleeping through the night." Or, "I lost 5 pounds -- I shouldn't have said that out loud!"

She fears that saying something out loud will jinx it.

It's her thing and it's kinda charming. Silly, I've always thought, but charming nevertheless.

Only, now I'm thinking it might not be so silly. See, I recently wrote about how great! and positively super-duper! this whole pregnancy and running while pregnant thing has been going. I probably shouldn't have said that out loud. Or written it, as the case may be.

Since that post, it's been tough to get my runs in. In the last week I ran a only 14.9 miles and my last run was the pits. I haven't had such a cruddy run in a long time.

There were a number of things working against me: Owen was away all weekend and I was desperate for a run when he got home yesterday around 2:30 so I headed straight out. It was hot. And sunny. And I don't think I had had enough to drink. And I was beat from the weekend.

So the run was crud. Full on crud. My legs were heavy. My belly was bouncing more than ever. I had to pee. My breathing was off and my pace was slow. After 3.5 miles I called it a run and a week.

Today, I'm taking the advice I've been giving my new runners and putting that cruddy run behind me. And hoping that maybe saying it out loud will jinx it. Wouldn't it be nice if you could jinx your cruddy runs? If you have that power, can you send it my way?

I hope everyone had a great weekend full of non-cruddy runs! Enjoy the week!

~ Felice

The wrong decision.

OK, so, I've been talking about how I'm getting tough this year and running outside. All winter. In the cold. Like a Toughie McTougherson.

And, um, well, I've been moderately tough. Until today. I made the wrong decision today. It was chilly this evening when Owen got home from work. And dark. And I was afraid that the hilly part of my neighborhood loop, the part that is notoriously icy in winter, would, in fact, be icy. So I decided to run on the treadmill.

All I have to say now is . . . why?!?! Why did I do such a silly thing? It stunk. My run just plain stunk. I couldn't find any sort of rhythm and every quarter mile felt like two miles and it was just all wrong. I ran 4.25 cruddy miles on the 'mill. Ugh.

I have no idea why I often have cruddy treadmill runs. Sometimes I can get a good pace going and enjoy my 'mill runs. But then I have these cruddy ones. And, for some reason, they are far cruddier than the cruddiest outdoor runs.

Chalk it up to making the wrong decision. I hadn't run on the 'mill in ages so I'd forgotten. I need to remind myself that a cold run is most likely better than a treadmill run. And I need to get some of those stabilicers or yaktrax or something so that I don't have to fear the ice.

I don't mean to be a treadmill downer today. Tomorrow maybe I'll hit the roads. Or, considering we're supposed to get a storm, maybe I'll run on the 'mill during the day and it will be better. We'll see!

~ Felice

Get the lead out.

First, thanks to everyone who gave me gift suggestions for my mom. I ended up giving her a framed photo of her favorite grandson. OK, her only grandson. But she thinks he's a sweetheart so she liked the photo! And we're going to go out to a nice dinner so the main gift will be an evening out. She enjoys going out to dinner (who doesn't?) so that will be a treat.

As for the rest of the weekend, well, I think I started to feel my age.

My schedule called for rest on Friday, fartleks on Saturday and 5 easy miles on Sunday. Who was I kidding? I had no problem with the rest. That went well. Fartleks? Not so much. Saturday's 4-mile fartleks turned into an easy 4-miler. I couldn't get my legs to speed up. So, I let up on myself, thinking that I worked hard on Monday and Thursday and my legs needed a break. I decided I could stretch out Sunday's run to make up for it.

Yeah, that didn't happen. I pushed and pushed and pushed and couldn't even make it through 5 miles. I stopped at 4.91 and my legs felt like big, honking stumps of lead the entire way. I don't know what was up, other than maybe I just need more time to recover after hard workouts. Maybe my age is catching up with me? Who knows. It was a bit of a drag, though, that's for sure.

No time to dwell. I've got to move on to week 4 of my plan. Here's my schedule:

Mon: Rest (I'll take it!)
Tues: easy 4m
Wed: Warm-up: 1 m easy, 800 @ 4:00, 2 x 400 @ 2:00 (w/400 rest); 10 x 200 @ :45 (w/200 rest); 1 mile cool-down (total: 6)
Thurs: easy 4m
Fri: rest
Sat: 5m fartlek
Sun: easy 7m

Total miles: 26

* * *

Today's a big day here in Happy Runner-ville. My little guy starts gymnastics today and he is beyond excited. He's been doing somersaults all over the house and tons of flips on my bed. I hope the class lives up to his expectations!

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Happy Monday!

~ Felice

Good news and bad news.

I'll get right to the good news, since it's quicker: My hip feels fine. No worse for the wear after yesterday's speed work. So, that's good.

And now the bad news.

My speed work sucked. And I have no one to blame but myself. Me. The Happy Runner. The Happy Runner who, yesterday afternoon, would have been more aptly named The Self-Defeating Runner.

The fact is, I ruined my run. All morning I was thinking about my planned speed work. Thinking, "This is going to suck. It's going to be hard. Very hard." Telling myself, "You're going to have a hard time with this one, Felice. It's not going to be easy. You're probably going to quit."

Well, that works. That kind of self-talk just really makes things go well.

Or not.

My run fulfilled my thoughts. It sucked, as I said. I finished my warm-up with some strides and then got down to business. I was supposed to run 6 x 800 @ 3:35 with 400 rest. Well. Hmm . . . my first 800 was a struggle -- complete and utter struggle -- for 3:39. OK, fine. So I struggled with the first one. Not unusual.

But then I couldn't finish the second one. Maybe I ran 400? Maybe 600? Not sure. I was so . . . off.

And then I couldn't finish the third one. I quit after one lap.

I tried to regroup and decided to run two more 400s, at 1:50. Done. No problem. Then I decided to run slow 800s, which I did. I ran 2 x 800 @ 4:00. I finished with 4 x 200 @ :50 and cooled down for 1.5 miles.

And then I wanted to cry. Is that overly dramatic? Really! I was so flippin' disappointed! I mean, I sabotaged my own workout; I have no one to blame but myself. For real. Why did I do that? Why couldn't I push through and finish what I started?

I have no idea.

I guess I can be happy with the fact that the overall distance run was as planned (8 miles), as was the speed part. It just wasn't as fast as planned nor were the repeats as long as planned. The worst part is that my legs, my lungs and -- most important of all -- my brain just didn't have it today. At all. It was, in other words, a speed-work FAIL.

Can I hear an UGH, Internet?!?

Thank you.

Sigh.

All right, now, lest this post become any more whiny and annoying than it already is, I will sign off but not before leaving you with some photos of my toddler, running his little heart out.


I hope everyone has a good weekend!

~ Felice

(PS: If you want some business/personal calling cards, remember to enter my giveaway here.)

It was bound to happen: The lousy run edition.

I deserved this one, this lousy run.

I've been all, "Hey, running is fantastic! Look at me speeding through speedwork and gliding through easy runs!" ever since I called off my marathon training. And I wasn't lying: my runs had been great.

Yesterday evening was, perhaps, payback for gloating. It was a lousy, lousy run.

I was all geared up to take on the hills. The wind was strong yesterday but I decided it would just make the workout more challenging. Go me!

Not so fast, Chicky . . .

I don't know what it was but my legs never felt into it. I got up the first hill feeling OK but my legs felt like they had cinder blocks tied to them when I struggled up the second. I even felt off on the flat and downhill portions of my run. I tried to push myself, but that only made my legs feel heavier. So, I cut the run shorter than I had planned and headed home, still feeling heavy and slow.

I haven't had a run like this in a while so I guess I was due. But . . . blech.

Today is a day off because my MIL and SIL are visiting. We're off to my niece's lacrosse game this afternoon so I'll probably try to trick myself into thinking that I am somehow being active by watching the girls speed up and down the field. And, who knows? I may even have to park a few dozen steps from the field. So there's that.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

~ Felice