2014 Princess Goals - One week to go!

Well, it’s almost here… today marks ONE WEEK until runDisney’s Princess Half-Marathon Weekend, in which I plan to go for the Princess Triple Crown!  What, you may ask, is a Princess Triple Crown?   The P3C is an unofficial term for running ALL the weekend’s races: the Cinderella Royal Family 5K on Friday, the Princess Enchanted 10K on Saturday, and the Princess Half-Marathon on Sunday.  #ALLTHERACES, people!

I ran a mini-P3C last week, just to get a sense of what three races over three days might do to me – I mostly walked 2.5 miles day one, ran/walked 5 miles day two, and put in 10 run/walk miles day three.  And it went really well!  I was shocked to find that my legs felt fine by day three; I really expected them to feel like dead weight, but no.  But I was feeling pretty run down and tired from battling the pollen flying around here in FL in quantities that could rival the snow coming down to our north… I wasn’t into that 10-mile run at all.  My mental state was utter garbage and I thought every mile, “I could totally bail at 7 or 8 miles and be fine…”  And I would have.  Bailed.  Save for the fact that I once again misjudged how far I was from home.

Capt. Picard could get the Enterprise home faster with a broken warp core.

So anyway – yeah, I completed a test run, I felt fine afterward, I recovered well, and in ONE WEEK I’ll do it again… only longer!

I’m pretty jazzed.  As perhaps you can tell.  I’m also tapering.  Which means I’m antsy… and anxious… and easily distracted.  So, to get my thoughts in order and relieve a little stress, I’ve decided to list some goals for Princess Weekend.

1. Stay healthy, inside and out.  It’s cold and flu season and I have the great misfortune of being unable to get the flu vaccine and having a moderately compromised immune system.  So I’ll be washing my hands often, turning/stepping away from anyone coughing up a lung, eating properly, and making sure I get adequate rest, even if that means a 6pm bedtime all three nights.

I’ll also be taking care of my overworked body.  Ice.  Stretching.  Foam rolling.  Rest.  And I need to…

2. Stick to the PLAN.  In order to finish all three races, and finish them feeling good, I. Must. Stick. To. The. Plan.  The Plan being: mostly walk the 5K, walk at least half of the 10K, start slow and listen to my body in the half-marathon, speeding up or slowing down as needed.  This is critical because if I stick to The Plan, I’ll…

3. Have FUN and FINISH!  I have NO time goal for these races.  None at all.  Though I do hope to get a new PR in Fun!  I want to notice my surroundings, take in the energy and entertainment, enjoy every moment.  I plan to stop for plenty of pics in the 5K, grab some more pics in the 10K, and at least stop for a castle pic in the half.  If I do that, stick to The Plan, and stay healthy, finishing should be the easiest part of the whole challenge!

I just know it’s going to be a super-fantastic weekend, full of good times, with good friends, yummy food, Magical entertainment and, yes, even some running – 22.4 miles of it.  My very best wishes go out to all of the other Princesses partaking of the weekend’s events: we’re all going to have a BLAST!  See you at the Finish!

Change of Plans. Again.

With the Tower of Terror 10-Miler behind me, it’s time to look toward my next race.  Which was supposed to be the Halloween Halfathon on Oct. 27.  It’s not anymore.  The race is still happening… but without me.  

After training hard through the HOT summer for the 10-Miler and dealing with my recent hip problems, I felt beat-up and tired.  Bone-deep exhaustion.  I felt physically ill at the prospect of tackling a half-marathon three weeks out from the 10-Miler.  I knew what I needed most was a rest, for both my body and my mind.  Fortunately, Florida Gulf Beaches Road Races offers a stellar refund/transfer policy and, while I’m a little bummed to miss the Halloween event, I am pleased to say that I’ve transferred my registration to the Beach Halfathon in late March.  A mere four weeks after the Glass Slipper Challenge and its cumulative 19.3 miles.  Whatever; I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

So now my next race is the Walt Disney World Half-Marathon in early January.  That little change gave me a few weeks to scale back mileage and recover from the summer.

And…

To develop a new training plan.

Yep, another one.

My last plan was entirely too ambitious for the summer heat and got scrapped a while ago.  Add in my change of race plans, and the rest needed some tweaking, too.  Also, I listened to an awesome Another Mother Runner podcast interview with Greg McMillan, in which he explained the ins and outs of his training approach.  What really struck me was the conversation about how important the need is for slower-paced runs in one’s training program.  That’s something to which I’ve never before subscribed, other than when hobbled by impending heat stroke; on the contrary, I’ve spent the past year and a half thinking every run needed to be run at the fastest pace I had in me in order to get faster.  Well Mr. McMillan?  You talked some serious sense into this lady.

I spent some quality time on www.mcmillanrunning.com, where I first used McMillan’s world-famous calculator to find my best training paces.  It works like this: enter your best time at a certain distance, preferably a distance as close as possible to the distance for which you wish to train, and then enter the distance you plan to race and the time in which you hope to finish it.  I entered my last 10K finish time of 1:16:23 and a hopeful 2:31:12 finish for the upcoming WDW Half, identified myself as a “Speedster” (easily able to go short and fast, but challenged by endurance) and got this list:

Pretty nifty, no?!  But… what do I do with it???

First, each type of pace – Steady State, Long Run, Tempo, etc. – has a video explanation here: www.mcmillanrunning.com/tips.  I took a few notes on each, to have as a handy reference when my mom-brain stalls next week and I can’t remember what in tarnation heck I’m supposed to do with "Tempo Intervals."  Then, I moved on to McMillan’s detailed explanation on how to create a training plan.

Okay, let me say this: it’s intense.  And complicated.  And riddled with ~shudder~ math.  Of the non-Fuzzy variety.  But as I read on (and glossed over the math, as I realized it wasn’t really imperative that I understand the numbers, only that I trust them to work), things started sliding into place in my mind. 

1. Figure out my weakness – stamina, for sure.  And make strengthening that the core of my training plan. 
2. Add in some speed because A. that’s my area of some talent and B. increasing speed can only be beneficial in the long run.
3. Figure out how many weeks I have until race day and create a spread sheet listing each week; include columns for long runs, main workout short runs, secondary short runs, and, for the Glass Slipper Challenge, back-to-back runs later in my schedule.
4. Assign each week’s training runs, based on a couple weeks of base-building, a larger portion of stamina-building weeks, a small chunk of speed-building weeks, and a couple weeks to taper.

At the end, BOOM!  I’ve got a plan that looks very do-able, is very specific to my individual needs, will fit in nicely with my cross-training days, and just may lead me to a nice PR.

McMillan also offers training plans for purchase, which I imagine takes out a lot of the work, and I’ve heard very, very good things about those paid plans… but I’m broke. And I really think my customized plan will be good for me.  I started using it already and I can’t say enough good things about knowing what pace range I’m aiming for before each run, depending on what type of run it is.  Knowing that an expert says to aim for a certain pace removes from the equation the mental anxiety of worrying that I'm not doing enough.

Last Saturday, for instance, was a 6 mile long run; I checked my chart before heading out and knew I should aim for a pace between 13:17 and 14:17/mile.  It was hot and humid, so I aimed to hit the slow end of that range… and I did!  Before, I’d have tried hard to push my pace down to where I hope to race in January, and would have spent those 6 miles courting heat exhaustion.  This time, I felt like I was putting in some effort, but comfortably so; no gasping for breath, no muscle cramping, no dizziness.  It was a tough run, thanks to some overgrown trails and scorching sun, but I recovered from it quickly and was able to spend the rest of my day getting non-running things done and enjoying some quality time with my son.  This new methodology may make me a better distance runner… and a better Mother runner!

The Need for Speed

"I feel the need... the need for speed!"

If you are of a certain age – and I am – you don’t just know this quote and its context.  Oh no.  You’ve repeated it a few hundred dozen times.  You’ve performed the accompanying ‘round-the-world-over-the-shoulder high five.  You’ve also referred to your good buddy as your “wingman.”  And, chances are, you can sing every word of You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.”  You know – with feeling.

I digress.

I’ve been feeling the need for speed, now that my stupid IT Band seems to more or less have accepted that it’s going to run, whether it likes it or not.  Thanks to my piss-poor lungs, I’ll probably never be a fast runner, but I’d sure like to be faster.  So my training plan for the Tower of Terror10-Miler and Halloween Halfathon includes some speed training stints on my non-long run weeks.  And I got started on them recently.

First up was a session taken straight from Jeff Galloway’s Time Improvement plan for the runDisney Tower of Terror 10-Miler: run 800 meters at a pace 15 seconds faster than race goal pace, walk 3 minutes to recover, repeat for a total of four times.   Now, as I’ve mentioned before, I am a sprinter by nature.  Not a super fast sprinter, mind you, but a sprinter – I love to run at top speed for short stretches.  Distance training has been sort of a downer in that regard; I’ve been so busy building base mileage and nursing injuries, I haven’t had an opportunity to go fast in over a year.  So I was pretty psyched to tackle my first speed training task.

I have this awesome little outdoor, paved track near home.  It circles a pretty lake surrounded by trees, so much of the track is shaded – a huge plus this time of year in Florida.  I took a trip around to warm up properly and started in.  I’d set up my Runkeeper iPhone app to four interval sets of 800 meters followed by three minutes walking and wore my Garmin 10 to pause during recoveries and check my pace on the fly. 

So how’d it go?

No, no – I’ll tell you… it was GREAT!!!  Really amazing.  I don’t know when I’ve felt better in a run.  Forget 15 seconds faster than my 12:00/mile goal pace – I ran 800 meter splits of 11:05, 10:33, 10:44 and 10:42.  Up to a whopping 1:27 under goal pace!  Pretty comfortably, too; I really felt like I could’ve pushed harder, but didn’t want to invite problems unnecessarily.

Two weeks later, it was time for hill repeats.  Now, if you’ve followed my blog for a while, or if you live in the southern half of Florida, you know that there is a distinct lack of hills in the area.  But here in coastal Florida, we have many bridges connecting the mainland with our barrier islands.  Since my knee had been acting up the previous week, I opted for the lower of the two bridges near me and vowed to kill it.

I started out on the flat beach road, turning in a mile warm-up before getting to the bridge.  I then ran up, walked down the other side, turned around and repeated that the other direction.  Twice, for a total of four ascents and descents.  Going up a fifth time, the bells began to ring, alerting all that the draw bridge was being raised to allow a sailboat to pass underneath.  I took it as some weird sign to pick up the pace and beat a couple of teenaged girls to the top before turning around.  And I did.  Pass them. 

Once more I ascended and turned around, then finished with an easy, flat mile for recovery.

I must say that I’m loving these speed workouts!  Which is really making me think about next year’s race schedule… perhaps a bit less distance and more 5Ks?  We’ll see.  For now…

I wouldn't walk 500 miles... but I might wanna run 100.

Friends of mine are, this very weekend, competing in a Tough Mudder race.  I was offered the opportunity to join their team in this endeavor. 

My response?

“Hell-to-the-NO.”

I have exactly zero interest in plunging myself into anything called an “Arctic Enema.”  The thought of attempting to get over a “Berlin Wall” calls to mind entirely too well my childhood memory of hanging from a wave pool’s hand rail in some Miami-area water park as a 10-foot wave passed over and left me shrieking in its trough, 15 feet above the pool’s concrete floor.  And running through a forest of electrified cords? Uh… NO.  Thanks.

This fun obstacle is called "Shock Therapy." Makes ya wanna sign right up, doesn't it?

I wish my friends and their teammates the best of luck and wish I could be there in person to cheer them on, but I haven’t the slightest interest in joining them on the course.

Know what else I don’t want to do?  Run a marathon.  

A half-marathon? Sure.  

19.3 miles of a the two-day Glass SlipperChallenge?  Absolutely.  

26.2 all at once?  Nope.  

Would I, could I on a Wall? No sir, no sir, not at all.

It’s not really a matter of distance.  I feel quite sure that with the proper training, I can run a full marathon.  I’m just not motivated enough to try.   I don’t care to spend a huge amount of training time away from Leo.  I’m not excited by running all over a city.  The thought of preparing the vast amount of food I’d require to traverse 26, forget that last .2, miles makes me feel physically ill.

Nope, not that into it.

But…

Wanna know what I fantasize about running?

The Hardrock 100.

100… as in 100 MILES.

Over mountains.  Across rocks.  Through streams.  In rain, sleet and/or snow.  As well as scorching heat.  With a total elevation change of almost 68,000 feet.

Let me be clear: I live at sea level and get altitude sickness when we vacation at 5,000 feet.  The highest “hill” I run is a 74-foot high bridge to the beach.  I run on rocks sometimes – the gravel trails at a local nature park.  I don’t ever contend with sleet or snow… though I’ve got the market cornered on running in the rain and scorching sun.

Do I really think I can run a 100-mile race?  No.  But I’m pretty sure I could run some, walk some, nap some and finish the distance.  Eventually.

I probably never will, if I’m to be honest.  But just watch this stunning recap of the 2013 Hardrock 100 and see if you don’t start thinking, “Maybe…”

Make a New Plan, Stan... er, V.

So, having registered for the Glass Slipper Challenge… which comes on the heels of the WDW Half-Marathon… which is preceded by a late October Halloween Halfathon… which immediately follows the Tower of Terror 10-Miler…

I need a PLAN.

Not just any plan.  A Plan that’ll get me through these races without injury.  A Plan that’ll prevent physical and mental burnout.  A Plan that helps me improve my pace.  A Plan that also allows for a social life outside of convening with pavement.  (Not that I have one of those – a social life – but I’d settle for some nap time in its place…)  In short, I need a Plan with the strength and precision of a D-Day invasion.

I got to work on creating said Plan before I even registered for the Glass Slipper Challenge (GSC).  I started with Jeff Galloway’s Time Improvement Plan for the Wine & DineHalf-Marathon (I’m not racing that one, but it’s near the date of my October half, so it seemed like a good pick), and cross-pollinated it with his Tower10-Miler Time Improvement Plan.  Then, I added a layer of his Dumbo Double Dare Plan (because there isn’t a plan yet for the GSC), and filled in the small gap between it and the Wine & Dine Plan with Galloway’s WDW Half-Marathon Time Improvement Plan.  Finally, I sprinkled on top a bit of Hal Higdon’s distance training plans and filled in my own cross-training/strength training regimen.  And…

Voila!

Note how I’ve pre-scheduled myself at the ER every other week.  That’s pro-active, baybee.

No, no, I’m not really planning on being in the ER!  Not that often, anyway.

ER = Easy Recovery run

ST = Strength Training

Hills = bridge repeats… we don’t have hills here in coastal Florida

MM = Galloway’s “Magic Mile”

I’ll make the final call as I get to that time, but my thought is to race the 10-Miler for time, spend a couple weeks recovering well, race the Halloween Halfathon hard for time, recover and build up again to race the WDW Half for time, recover and build again to race the Enchanted 10K hard for time and go easy on the Princess Half the next day.  We’ll see.

Anyone else getting their Plans in order? 

Glass Slipper for One, Please.

I have to admit it – I was having second (third, fourth…) thoughts about tackling the Princess Half-Marathon again in 2014.  Not because I have any doubts about my physical abilities… but because of the drama that seems drawn to this race, especially.

Until a week or so ago, I’d been feeling pretty good about trying the GlassSlipper Challenge, which combines the Enchanted 10K on Saturday with the Princess Half-Marathon the following day.  I like the distance – 19.3 miles over 2 days; more than a half, less than a full, with a long nap in-between.  I’ve been saving money from my grocery budget each week (don’t worry – we’re all still well fed!) to pay the gigantic registration fee.  Most of all, I’ve been chatting with a GREAT group of stranger-friends on the Internet – new runners, accomplished runners, never-run-before runners, just talking about training plans, race logistics, registration processes, sharing what I learned from my own experience, cheering on and supporting the folks who are where I was a year ago, all have made me pretty darned sure I wanted another crack at Princess.

And then the drama hit.  Some folks found a “secret” link to register before registration actually opened.  Some folks thought taking advantage of that situation was very, very wrong.  Others felt it was perfectly fine.  Some wanted the link to be shared; others said “no.”  Feelings were hurt.  Frustrations were expressed.  Resentment set in.  Judgments of character were made.

Drama.

Personally, I don’t have an opinion on the “secret” link situation.  I chose not to use it, for a number of reasons.  I also chose not to be offended by anyone who did try it because, really, it’s not my place to police others’ behavior.   But the whole thing brought back to me the not-so-Fuzzy feelings I had going into the 2013 Princess Half.  By Saturday, June 1, I’d decided to skip the whole dang Princess weekend.

And then I saw this:

The 2013 Prefontaine Classic.  Seventeen-year-old Mary Cain came in 5^th in the 800 meters… setting a new high school record.  And was promptly celebrated  by her competitor, Alysia Montano, in a big, big, classy way.  (As an aside, this is particularly special to me – a gal who loveloveloves wearing a big, flamboyant flower in her hair.)

Not gonna lie – it made me cry.

Because that’s what the running community is to me: a place in which we support and encourage one another and celebrate the success of our fellow runners, whether they be proven elites or newcomers.  Seeing an athlete of that caliber take a moment to say “Good job!” instead of indulging in a round of self-pity for not coming in first reminded me that the drama isn’t everywhere, and it doesn’t have to impact my enjoyment of running any race.

So, THANK YOU Alysia Montano, for being a class-act and for showing us all how to create some positive drama in our running lives.  As for me, well…

Dear Vanessa,

Congratulations! You are now registered for 2014 Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend. Please check the event's official website for updates:http://www.runDisney.com

View your complete registration details »

This is for the 2014 Glass Slipper Challenge on Saturday, February 22, 2014 and Sunday, February 23, 2014.

Bring it. :)

Race Recap: Partners for Life Police Appreciation 10K

So, I’m still on the fence about this whole Glass SlipperChallenge thing.  On the one hand, I really want to do it.  On the other hand, it’s FREAKING expensive.  runDisney hasn’t actually released pricing info yet… but trust V – it’ll be FREAKING expensive, no matter how Fuzzy the math.  And there’s this other “little” race series going on the same weekend – the Gasparilla Distance Classic.  Located just on the other side of Tampa Bay from me.  Gasparilla ain’t cheap… but it’s not as FREAKING expensive as the Glass Slipper Challenge. 

Also…

There are medals.  Cute, Disney-themed ones for Princess weekend, most likely featuring a way-cool shoe on the mac daddy (RIP Chris Kelly) Glass Slipper medal.  Gasparilla, though, features pirate medals.  Four different races’ worth of pirates. I like pirates.

Meanwhile, in the midst of my indecisiveness… I finally ran a 10K race!  This is a pretty big deal because 10Ks are few and far between ‘round here.  I only came across a couple options last year, none of which fit into my schedule.  So I had no proof of time to submit for any runDisney races.  Which, if you’ve been reading along, you know didn’t much matter – I’ve had insanely good luck with corral placement.  Seems runDisney uses some Fuzzy brand of pace estimate math.

Anyway, knowing that luck must, eventually, run out, I figured I’d best get an official 10K time on record for my upcoming races and ran Florida Gulf Beaches Road Races’ Partners for Life Police Appreciation 10K.  In a word, it was FANTASTIC!

I’ve heard many good things about Florida Road Races and the most excellent events they put on and I can now add my own positive review.  From start to finish, this was an incredibly well organized affair.  Even if we did all run the wrong direction… more on that in a bit.

I went to packet pick-up at Fit2Run in St. Petersburg the day before the race – what a great shop they’ve got there!  I purposely went straight to the race table and did not detour to look at anything because I’m on a tight budget and not in need of anything… but I’ll definitely go back when I’m once again solvent!  Grabbing my bib and swag was quick, easy and pleasant.  I love a great swag bag and I was not let down with this one:

The next morning, I got up and out the door on time and made it to the St. Petersburg waterfront about 45 minutes before start time.  This wound up being perfect, as I got a nice warm-up walk from my car to the start area, grabbed my timing chip, hit the restroom and still had time to stretch and jog a little.  And take some pictures, natch.

Sunrise at the soon-to-be-demolished Pier

 

Boston-strong

There were almost 500 of us doing the 10K (there were also 5K and 1 mile races to follow), which felt big enough to be a “real” race but small enough that there was never any overcrowding.  I’m never sure where to place myself in these un-corralled races; I’m not a walker, though I do run/walk intervals, but I’m certainly not a fast runner, either.  I opted to start just forward of what looked like the walkers, who were asked to start in the far back.  It seemed to work well – I mostly stayed with the same small group of folks through most of the race.

The course was really, really nice – we started in Demens Landing park, beside the Police Memorial, took a jog down the famous Pier, cruised along St. Petersburg’s gorgeous waterfront, ran down Beach Drive, went past the marina, and back to Demens Landing for the finish.  

It was a superbly beautiful morning: sunny, but cool.  I had a time goal in mind of sub-1:20:00.  I have to admit, it was hard to stay focused on that because it was just soooo nice out there – I could easily have fallen into a lengthy walk, just to take it all in.  I stuck to my intervals, though, and stayed on pace, though I did make sure to thank each and every police officer on race course duty.  Many of us did.  I think the bombings in Boston were still fresh in all of our minds and we were all a lot more aware of and thankful for the fine folks in uniform.

Around the 4 mile mark, I started losing steam.  Totally normal; miles 4-6 are always the hardest for me in any long run.  I tend toward hypoglycemia to start and running causes my blood sugar to drop fast; I may be the only person out there digging into some Honey Stinger chews on a 10K course, but man – what a difference some glucose makes.  By mile 5, I was feeling strong again and started skipping as many walk intervals as I could without over-doing it.  I really, really wanted to empty the tank completely and give it my all… but I still had a ¾ mile walk to my car… and groceries to buy… and laundry to do… and Leo’s science project to supervise… Running ‘til I dropped simply wasn’t a viable option.  Such is the life of a Mother Runner.  It was about the time that I was debating whether or not to go all out that I realized I’d been running alongside the same woman near whom I’d ended up running in several other local races.  I introduced myself and vice-versa and we chatted for a bit before focusing our efforts on the finish line.

In the end, I finished with a chip time of 1:16:24 – beating my goal by more than three and a half minutes!  My new race pal had finished just before me and we chatted some more as we walked and cooled off.  I really enjoyed chatting with you, Karen, and look forward to seeing you again!

As an added bonus, I randomly ran into an old friend while waiting in the timing chip line.  We caught up some after the race and are back in touch after many years.  Yay!

I wasn’t able to stay long after the race, as Leo was home alone and that list of Mom-duties was awaiting my return.  But as I headed back to my car, I overheard this from the award announcements:

“Show of hands – how many of you saw the fronts of the mile marker signs?”

No hands.

“And how many of you saw the backs of the mile marker signs?”

Many, many hands.

“That’s because you guys ran the race BACKWARDS!”

Oops. 

Oh well – it was the same distance, regardless!  But a pretty entertaining end to a very fun race. :)

Final thoughts?  I’m very much looking forward to my next Florida Road Races event, the HalloweenHalfathon in late October.  I don’t love the 10K distance; just as I hit my distance groove, the race is over.  But since this was my first, I’m not ruling out future 10Ks.  Which brings me back to that Glass Slipper Challenge…

Once a Princess...

I have a race in two days.

A 10K.

My first 10K.

I should be overflowing with pre-race excitement and anxiety.

And I am.  Only… not so much about this race.

Know why?  Because of THIS:

If you’ll recall, I promised to reduce the number of runDisney events in my life.  And I pretty much swore off a Princess Half for 2014.  And I registered for the WDW Half.  But THIS changes everything.

Why?

Well, for starters, the Glass Slipper Challenge 10K/half-marathon is an inaugural event.  That means first, TFI.  First is good.  First is special.  First is… well, first!  I’m a total sucker for first.

And then there’s the three-medals-for-two-races thing.  I’m not medal driven; earning a medal is a nice treat, but totally not a big motivator for me.  But earning three, with one of them likely to be in the shape of a shoe?  Well, that’s another story, entirely.

So, yeah.  I’m a little distracted.  I cannot – can not – afford to add the Glass Slipper Challenge to my race schedule, physically or financially.  But I can transfer my WDW Half to the Princess weekend… :)