Crushing PR's Doesn't Always Make Me Happy

You would think that if you PR'd in a 10k, crushing your previous year's performance by 10 minutes, improving your pace by over 90 seconds per mile, that you'd be happy, joyous, elated, ecstatic (I have a thesaurus... I can keep going.)  But I think I'm a slight grade lower than all of those adjectives... perhaps "content," is a better way to describe it.

Last year I ran the Holyoke Road Race to see if I could survive.  This year I ran it to crush last year.

The course is ridiculously hilly.  Somehow, it doesn't seem mathematically possible for a course that starts and finishes in roughly the same place to have five miles of uphills and only one mile of downhills.  But I assure you that not only is it possible, it exists in Holyoke.

Do Not Disturb: Runner In Training

My daughter Sam is five... though of course she would tell you that's not true.  "I'm five and a half," she would insist.  And for a little over a year, she's had front row seats to her dad's marathon training.

She's seen it all.  She's seen me with sore legs, barely able to walk.  She's seen shirts ruined from bloody nipples.  She's seen me have to lie on the floor writhing in pain, and she's even used the roller on my calves.

So of course there's only one question on her mind:

"Daddy, when can I run a race?"

I didn't really know if there was any age minimum to running  races, but since there had been snow on the ground at the time, and since her birthday was in the spring, I told her she could run one when she turned six.

Initially I figured I'd just take her down to a local 5k and do a run/walk, hoping the race coordinators wouldn't abandon the finish line before we made it back. We have a trail near us that is a near perfect 3.1 miles (down and back) so it made for a perfect training venue.  But the one time I brought her down there, she fizzled out rather quickly and spent the bulk of the time on daddy's shoulders.

Prepping For My Next Race Rocky-Style, Not Drago-Style

The 2014 Holyoke St. Patty's Day Road Race was the first 10k I had ever done.  Finishing that race on its own was an accomplishment for me at the time.  6.2 miles seemed like a daunting task that I wasn't sure I could overcome.

But I did it.  And as soon as I finished that race, I wanted to do another one.  And another.  Who knew that by the time I lined up for the race this year, I'd have two full marathons under my belt and be anxious to crush my 1:07 finish from last year.  Not to mention, I've dropped a few pounds since then and I think I'll be looking better in my finisher pics.

The Ups and Downs of Weight

There is no doubt about it.  Once you commit to running, you're going to have plenty of ups and downs.  Not beating my NYC Marathon time in the Ft. Lauderdale Marathon was definitely a down.  But after getting myself organized and getting down to 212 pounds, that put me back on an up.

Then, last week happened.  Ever since I wrote an article about how happy I was to get back to 212, my weight has gone back up.  I have been sticking to my workouts and, generally speaking, booking calorie deficits nearly every day.  But my weight has gone back up to 218 pounds.

I'm trying to explain this to myself, but I can't.  Now, yes... while I have maintained calorie deficits, I have been doing more than my fair share of eating.  I have been averaging between 2,500-3,000 calories per day.  In the past, one of the things that would catch up to me is drinking alcohol.  But I have really not being doing much of that at all.

Developing a Training Program

It's a long way till October, when I'm scheduled to run my next marathon - the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC.  Coming off of the Ft. Lauderdale Marathon this past Feb 15, I am now ready to make an attempt at devising a training schedule for the next few weeks.

October is still a long ways away, and I have some time in between that I'd like to use to further my preparedness.  With two marathons under my belt and my spring race schedule getting close to beginning now that February is behind us, I need to focus on what to do to get myself under 5 hours by October (and I hope significantly under 5 hours.)

After Ft. Lauderdale, I noted three things I needed to focus on:

First Half-Marathon... Check

I will be running both the Holyoke St. Patty's Day Road Race and the Cheshire Half-Marathon in 2015.  This is a repost of an article I wrote for another blog in late April, 2014.:

Mile ten was where things started to change.  My pace slowed noticeably.  “Previous mile… Eleven minutes, fifteen seconds,” the voice on my MapMyRun iPhone app said.  I felt as though I had been slowing, but this seemed a bit drastic.

The first nine had gone so smoothly.  I was clocking 10-minute miles (which had been my pace in a recent 5k) and I was shocked that I had been keeping it up for so long.  Mentally I felt great, and there were just four more miles to go.  But I could sense that my legs weren’t working as well as they had been, and the rolling hills were something new and a bit challenging.

“Running long distance is 80% mental and 20% physical,” a friend once told me.  This must be where the mental part came in.  That’s okay… I got this.

The Weight

Yesterday morning I woke up and, as per my daily ritual, stepped on the scale.  I took a deep breath and looked down expecting to see a good number, and there it was:  212.  Weight is all relative to how one looks at it in terms of their personal situation and goals.  On this day, 212 was a good number for me.

A little over a year ago, I had been pushing nearly 280 pounds before I made my lifestyle change.  On the morning of the NYC Marathon this past November, I was down to 212 pounds.  That was a very proud day for me, and afterwards I celebrated heartily.

And I celebrated the day after that, and the day after that.

The Wait

I really don’t know what I was thinking.  I am committed to running the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC on October 25^th.  So, why in the world would I put my name into the lottery for the NYC Marathon on November 1^st, just one week afterwards?

It was just an impulse, really.  How could I not?  This is my third time entering the race.  The first time I did it was in 2001, when I thought that entering would spur on some great training regimen that would keep me in shape forever.  I didn’t get in, and I stopped running altogether shortly thereafter.  That September 11^th, the world changed and many people decided not to fly into NY for the race.  The NYRR sent me an e-mail saying there were now available spots, only I hadn’t run more than 4 miles by then and probably put on 15-20 pounds.  So I didn’t run.

Last year I was able to gain entry through the American Cancer Society’s DetermiNation program and ran NYC, my first marathon.  It was an incredible experience and I just couldn’t resist the chance to do it once again.  After raising money for charity last year, I knew this year would be difficult.  The “fat guy gets skinny and runs a marathon” novelty has sorta worn off.  But… If I could run 2 marathons back-to-back.?.?  That would be something more challenging.  That would be something I could sell.  That would be something I could blog about.

Is it something I could realistically accomplish?  Well, that’s another story… but I’m willing to put the work in to find out.

Karma Suggests I Should Stop Right Now

Obstacles are nothing new.  All runners will certainly understand this.  I think of the mornings where I set the alarm early, only to forget to check the weather and be met with a thunderstorm when I'm half-way through a long run and miles from my car.

This is a fair representation of what happened to me this week, as the day after starting this blog my 4-year old laptop decided to stop working.  The keyboard locked up and no matter what buttons I pushed, nothing was registering.

I almost took it as a sign.  I have started a number of blogs in the past and they always seem to fizzle out.  Maybe this was just karma's way of saying, "Are you really trying this again?"

But I am trying it again.  And I wasn't going to let a little thing like a busted keyboard get in the way.  So I'm back with a new laptop and some renewed vigor.  And since I ingested well more than my fair share of calories this weekend and came up short on my Saturday run goals, perhaps it's time for a completely clean slate.  New energy, new focus, new plan.

So, time for some rest tonight... it all starts tomorrow.  No one will read this... but it made me feel good to write it