Half vs Full Marathon

Last June (2010) I ran the Rock N Roll Marathon here in San Diego and had a terrible race. (More on my blog Dealing with Disappointment.) I had stomach issues early on in the race and though about quitting several times, and in the end I made it through the whole course with a lot of walking and my slowest time ever. Missing my 4 hour goal for the 12th time completely broke my heart, and the pain of that disappointment was so great that I decided to give up full marathons and to focus on halfs and try out triathlons. This plan  actually worked out quite well for me and I PR'd several times in a row in half marathons and I won overall female in my first super-sprint triathlon! (Race recap here.) As time passed though I started to miss the full marathon.

Last November when I was named a San Francisco Marathon ambassador, I started to feel like I should run the full for some reason. I ended up committing to the full marathon but was scared to have such a challenging course as my first full back in the game. SO .... I signed up for the OC Marathon which was in May .. and then for some crazy reason I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon which is in October. How did I go from no more full marathons to three this year? I must be crazy.

Triathlon & Marathon Training

Before committing to three full marathons, I planned to increase my triathlon distance from a super-sprint to an Olympic distance this year, with the hope of doing a 70.3 distance next year. When I added the three marathons to my racing calendar, I squeezed them in among my triathlons. Suddenly I had this crammed racing schedule of triathlons, half marathons, full marathons, and some shorter running races in between. Ack! Over committed! I was able to massage my 12 week training schedule to accommodate swims, bike rides and long runs, but my schedule was tight and didn't leave me with many rest days. 

Travel & Triathlon

To complicate matters worse, in addition to doing a triathlon in the middle of my SF marathon training, I was also going to be going out of town on four trips. One was a week in Paris for vacation, two were four day trips to Vegas for work, and one was a weekend trip to San Francisco to go see a concert. I planned my long runs around these trips but my schedule didn't leave much room for error... and error occurred! There were days that I was tired, too busy at work, and just needed a break.

My Training Plan

My crazy training schedule is below. I have Mondays and Thursdays scheduled for swims, Wednesday included spinning, Sunday was biking, and four days had running including my Saturday long runs. As usual I planned on two 20 mile long runs.

Hamstring Injury

Unfortunately in the middle of my training a few weeks ago I injured my hamstring. My legs were pretty sore from the triathlon I did on June 26th (race recap here), a few days later my hamstring soreness went from sore to pain, and then a few days later when I tried to do a long run a strong stabbing pain kept me from running completely. Oh no! I went to get a massage and the therapist said I had a charley horse in my hamstring and that the muscle felt like a rock. He prescribed rest and NO running. Shoot, I didn't have time for much rest! I decided to try to get into physical therapy to rush the healing process and was going to find a sports medicine doctor to give me a referral. I was talking to my boss about this and she recommended her chiropractor who was also a sports medicine doctor and actually bills himself as "The Running Doctor". I called his office and was scheduled for the next day. Score!

I had never been to a chiropractor before and was a bit apprehensive, but was happy to find out that not only did I get an adjustment, but I also received laser therapy on my hamstring. From the adjustment I found out that my hips were off and both ankles were jammed. The doctor said that any one of three could cause a hamstring injury, and with three all together its not surprise I got injured. He suspected that my hips were off from a zero-speed bike crash I had a few week prior (which left me with a bruised hip which I didn't think was too serious), and that racing in the triathlon and then running hard at track just flared things up. 

Healed from Injury

I saw the chiropractor four times over the next couple weeks and received adjustments and laser therapy. During this time I rested, didn't run, and mostly swam ... and wouldn't you know the injury went away! Yay! BUT ... I had now missed three of my crucial long runs. With three weeks to go before the SF Marathon the furthest I had run since may was 12 miles. This past weekend I decided to try upping my long run from 12 to 18 miles to see how my body would react. Its not advisable to jump more than 10% in  mileage from one week to the next, but  I thought I'd try it to see if I'd be okay and ran a route where i could stop running and walk back to my car pretty easily at any point. 

Half vs Full Marathon

I was so happy to see that i felt great mile after mile, and the 18 miles went by pretty quickly. This run was only 2 weeks out and in the taper zone ... but I needed a run near 20 miles to test out my distance confidence. Prior to running the 18 miles I was afraid I'd have to switch over to the half marathon. After talking to others and the doctor this seemed like the smart,conservative choice .. but heck, I'm smart and risky. I wanted to go for the full! 

Its now 10 days until the SF Marathon and I'm excited but nervous. This training cycle has been my most off-schedule ever! I haven't done enough long runs and feel a bit under-prepared for a full marathon, especially a challenging course like SF. Since returning to full marathons after my  terrible race last year though, I've been able to take the pressure off myself a bit and am now able to just enjoy a race. 

SF Marathon Goals

My full marathon goal is always to PR and break 4 hours (I'm stuck at 4:00:32 .. argh!!), but for this race I just want to take it easy and enjoy the course. The city is beautiful and the course makes for a great running tour through the different neighborhoods I got to know growing up in San Francisco. I can't wait to run  marathon #14 and for  now I just need to get through the next 10 days without doing something stupid like tripping in my heels and spraining my ankle. 

10 days! Ack!

Balancing Life, Training, and Racing

Two weeks ago in Girls on Track we had a lesson on "The Balance Beam of Life". (For my coach's recap click here.). The purpose of this lesson was:

1. To identify the individuals in our lives who are extremely important to us
2. To learn why it is important to balance time with our friends and family, with all of the other activities we do
3. To learn how effective time management skills can help us do this

 

My Girls on Track Group

 The goal for us as coaches was to help teach the coping skill (or Out of the Girl Box Skill) of time management and learning how to strike a balance. As we went through the lesson and the girls talked about everything they were trying to balance (school, sports, dance, GOTR, friends, music, etc) I thought WOW, these middle school girls are totally overloaded! How can an 11 year old feel stressed? I hope this doesn't set a trend for their adult life! Although thinking back, I think being so busy as a kid made me feel a need to feel busy through my adult life.

 

As a kid I was pretty involved in after-school activities. I went through lessons in everything: ballet, tap dance, gymnastics, acting, ice-skating, piano, violin, and even modeling. (Barbizon: train to be a model or just look like one! Don't laugh.) I sometimes wonder if my parents (mom) was just furtively searching for something that I was really good at. Of all of the lessons I took, piano seemed to be the place where I had the most talent -  but I still wasn't the next Beethover. Regardless of this, like a good Asian kid, I took private piano lessons for about 7 years, and continued on with classes in my high school for another 3 years. (Private violin lessons only lasted for about 3 years thankfully. ugh!) 

Ten Years of Piano Lessons

Anyways, between lessons and school and studying, I didn't really have much down time. Since my mom was a teacher, school never ended when I got home. My mom used to purchase the teacher's edition of several of my text books so if the teacher assigned problems 1-10 of 20, my mom would have me do 1-20 and check all of the answers. It seemed like the work was endless. Fast forward to today ...  I can't sit still. I have a hard time relaxing and have a constant need to be doing one or several things at the same time. If I'm not doing anything I feel like I'm wasting time. For the most part I've set up my life to stay super busy, but every once in a while I just get overwhelmed. 

My Favorite Child Series: Little Miss and Mister

Right now my current commitments are work, coaching GOTR, serving on the board of GOTR, heading up the Marketing efforts for GOTR, training for a triathlon, and training for a marathon. Its a lot! BUT ... without all of those things I think I might feel empty!

 

Work

I am extremely blessed to say that I love my job and enjoy my job. I work at a start-up and was initially leery of taking the job since the last time I worked at a start-up I was working 80 hour weeks, but fortunately I work a normal 40 hour work week, with some evening and weekend commitments.

 

With a Rep and Doctor at a Tradeshow

Girls on the Run

I'm now currently coaching my fourth season of Girls on the Run! Technically, I'm coaching Girls on Track which is the program for middle school girls. GOTR is two days a week for an hour and fifteen minutes. I am the head coach which is generally a 3-5 hour per week job. On top of this though I'm also on the board and narketing committee which takes a few more hours per week. Most board members quit coaching when they joined the board, but I just can't give it up. Its tiring, but at  the same time but so rewarding, and I truly love it. Its instant gratification for a passion of mine (GOTR), and I love being with the girls, the other coaches, and interacting with the parents and getting feedback about the program. 

"I Love ME" - Totally a Girl on the Run!

Triathlon vs the Marathon

Last year after a horrible race (more here) I decided to give up full marathona and focus my efforts elsewhere. I enjoy the routine of training and wanted a new challenge, so late last  year I turned to the triathlon and focused more on half marathons. After completing two sprint triathlons and improving my time continuously on half marathons, I thought my life would focus there! Well, the marathon came knocking on the door of my heart again and this year I will be running three full marathons. The OC Marathon May 1st, the San Francisco Marathon July 31st, and the Marine Corps Marathon October 30th. 

This plan collides somewhat with my triathlon goals for the year which are to work from a sprint distance up to an Olympic distance to prepare myself for a Half-Ironman (70.3) race next year. The challenge of the two sports is that while I'm covered on the running leg of a triathlon (running 4 days per week), I also need to bike and swim. My three remaining days now are currently split between swimming and biking. No rest days! Argh! Luckily swimming is a great recovery activity from running since it uses totally different muscle groups.

Finishing My 1st Triathlon - In the Rain!!

 

Racing

I absolutely LOVE racing! Putting your work to the test? Yes please! Unfortunately with a full training schedule which includes a triathlon and a marathon, its really hard to work a race in. I'm already scheduled to run a long distance on Saturdays and bike or swim on Sunday. Running in a race mean sacrificing one of these things, or cramming in another workout. Also, once you're about a month into training for a marathon you're running over 13 miles each weekend. (For free). To pay a race entry to run a distance shorter than a marathon or even a half marathon is hard for me. I do appreciate the value of a race and the way it pushes you and what it gives you, but sometimes its hard to go for that over a training run.

Approaching the Finish Line of the San Dieguito Half Marathon

 

Life Crashes Together

This past week (and in this coming week) all of these aspects of my life have come crashing together and I'm just plain tired. Last week I went out to dinner with some coworkers Thursday night and got home past my bedtime, had two 12 hour days up in Orange County for a project for work on Friday and Saturday, had to do my long run on Sunday because I was tied up Saturday, missed the month Tri Club's beginner bike ride (once again) on Sunday because I was running, had a long day Monday because of work and then a GOTR board meeting, worked and then coached GOTR Tuesday night .. followed by a training swim with a fellow coach to make up for the Monday swim I missed... and then this weekend there is a lot more craziness packed in. (Triathlon Saturday and a 20 mile run Sunday among other things. Eek!)


Right now I'm pretty pooped, but I decided that to get back on balance I need to stop and take some time for me. Next week I'm going to take Monday and Friday off which will give me two three day weekends. Yippee! At my first job out of college my first manager said to me once "I can push you and push you and push you and give you more work and more work and you seem fine, and then suddenly you break". Haha, in engineering terms, I have an exponential failure curve. :o) Its like metal and fatigue! Okay, geek hat off.

Metal Fatigue ... Failure!

 

I'm looking forward to taking time for myself to recharge and reset, and I hope I will feel more balanced afterwards! I don't want to give up any of my commitments right now since they all enrich my life in different ways, so apparently the way I will tune down on something to even everything out is to take a tiny bit off time for work. Hey, we get PTO days for a reason right?

Marathon #12 – Am I Insane?

In a couple days now I will be running my next full marathon. Number 12! Wow, I feel accomplished by that and saddened at the same time knowing that I’ve made 11 failed attempts at running a sub-4 hour marathon. :o(

I’ve been thinking a lot about my marathon career this week and I thought about one of the funniest quotes I’ve ever heard:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting different results.

- Albert Einstein

I feel that this is where I have ended up in my marathon career. I decide to run a race, I develop a new training plan, I plan to switch up my training somehow to improve my performance (track workouts, tempo runs, weight training, yoga, hill training etc.), each time I fall short of the full goal due to life, work, or travel, and each time I get to those last few days before the race I look back at my training schedule with regret, and start to feel apprehensive about putting all I’ve got to the test one more time.

I can see the finish line…

In many of my long runs I use visualization techniques. I picture coming into the finish chute, seeing the finish line, seeing the clock read 3:XX:XX. Sometimes I picture the smiling faces of friends and family who I know will be at the race. Almost every time the thought of this brings me to tears. Wow, okay, just typing that right now got me a little misty! I’ve pictured achieving my goal so many times, and so many times now I haven’t. Realizing that makes me want to cry too!

Trying Hills on for Size

The most significant change I’ve made to my training for this upcoming race was incorporating hill repeats. I started out in the first half of my training with one speed workout a week (usually on a treadmill looking like a crazy person running at 8.6 speed), and finished the second half of my training with one hill repeat day per week. I have to admit that after the first few weeks going at the hills, I felt noticeably stronger as a runner. I haven’t felt such a significant change like that in years! It felt great, and I’m now more confident on all grades of inclines. (For more about my runs in the park, check out my blog Ode to Balboa Park).

Running is a mental sport, and usually at the sight of a hill I’d have an internal meltdown, convince myself I couldn’t do it and would have to walk - actually TRUDGE sadly up the hill. I trudge no more! I still don’t enjoy hills but feel that I can beat them. With a little determination of course!

Training in Review

I developed a 14 week training plan for this race with runs scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. In reality I probably only ran 4 of the 5 scheduled days on most weeks. I was also scheduled to run from 21 to 40 miles per week, and ended up only running 15-34. Hey, I travel a lot. It’s extremely hard to get the miles in on the road after a long day on my feet in heels.

Of the 411 miles I’ve had scheduled I’ve run 319 ~ 78% of what I should have. Hey, it’s a C+! Being above average is good enough right?

Daily Mile

I’ve been tracking my training online via Daily Mile since last year when David and I started training for the Marine Corps Marathon. So far I’ve logged 895 miles on this site. Wow! I could have run to Phoenix and back!

For those of you not familiar with Daily Mile, it’s like Facebook for athletes. You can find friends and track each other’s training. Its fun to not only see your own workouts for the week, but your friend’s as well! It’s also nice to get (and give) encouraging notes to your friends as you share successes and challenges that come up along the way.

Thanks Martin for all of your encouraging words!

Rock Runners

One other change to my training for this race is that I recently joined a running group! I’ve been running for a couple months now with the Rock Runners from my church, the Rock Church! The church is incredibly large and has an amazing variety of ministries, many of them being sports ministries. I had seen that there was a running group late last year and thought about joining, but for some reason I held back and never got more information. One day though when I was on the Rock’s website I thought what am I waiting for? I’m going to do it.

And you what? Its one of the best decisions I’ve ever made! I love the people in the running group and feel that our Saturday group runs are the highlight of my training. I’m surprised I had never noticed the group before since we run along the San Diego Harbor, right where I’ve done almost all of my long runs since I’ve moved here!

Thanks Rock Runners for the support! And special thanks to my friend Stacey for making each session more fun and entertaining as we trod on for miles and miles!

Here Comes Raceday

I can’t believe that tomorrow is Friday, and the official start of race weekend! My friend Christina is coming in from San Francisco to run the Half Marathon and I’m so excited for her visit! We are planning on going to dinner at my new favorite restaurant tomorrow night (Café Sevilla – most AMAZING tapas ever!), we’ll carbo load on pasta somewhere Saturday night, and then Sunday morning is the big day!

Sadly the race start time was moved up and the race now starts at 6:15am. :o( I will probably have to get up at 4am to have enough time to have coffee and breakfast and to allow enough time to digest. Luckily I live only a couple miles from the start and we won’t have to go far to get there.

Support

Please send good thoughts and prayers for me this weekend! I have tried so many times to break 4 hours and its killing me each time I miss it. I know that I have the physical fitness to do it, I just need to have the confidence in myself to keep pushing myself when I’m tired. My mantra during the race will be stay confident, feel strong, have fun, and be grateful. I know I can do it, I just haven’t yet done it.

Ode to Balboa Park

Since moving to San Diego a few years ago I have been lucky enough to live pretty close to Balboa Park. Balboa Park is a great place for runners and dog lovers, and I am both! I run and/or walk my dogs through the park almost every day, and can’t imagine moving away from such a great location. I have moved from one side of the park to another, and I’m amazed by the variety of neighborhoods that border this park. Each neighborhood has its own small community feel, and reminds me a lot of the neighborhoods of San Francisco.

Golden Hill Neighborhood

Running on the North Side

When I lived on the north side of Balboa Park I ran mostly on the sidewalks which split the park in half, and wound past the zoo and down past all of the museums. I had a nice 3 mile and 4 ½ mile loop worked out which I ran most weekdays. After beating that path to death for a year I finally discovered some trails heading in the other direction into the park! These gave the topographical challenge of a trail, but also provided the safety of being just off a major street which made me feel safe running alone.

 Entering the Trail

The Adventure of a Trail ...

... With the Safety of a Major Street Nearby

The Street is Always Within Sight

Life on the South Side

From my north side apartment I used to take a 1 ½ mile flat paved path out, and then the 1 ½ mile trail side back with some ups and downs to add more of a challenge. Ever since I moved to the south side though (South Siiiiiide!) I’ve stuck to running on just the trails about 95% of the time. I now live at a neighborhood at the top of a hill and enjoy a long semi-steep down, long mild up-down-up-down center, and a long steep incline to my turn around point. And then back we come! (Trail Map)

I Love the Ups & Downs

My turnaround point which is about two miles from home is one of the many dog parks that Balboa Park has to offer. At first I didn’t like this dog park because it wasn’t fenced in, but my dogs don’t usually stray from my side in the park (wimpos!) so I’ve finally gotten comfortable being here or one of the other unfenced dog parks.

Steep Incline Up to the Dog Park

Dog Park in Sight - By the Trees on the Right

Hello Hills!

Since the start of my run is a ½ mile long run downhill at a 6% incline, it also means that the end of my run is also a ½ mile long run UPhill at a 6% incline. This hill has me beat at first! The first week I tried to run up it I had to take two walk breaks. Wow! It wiped me out! I’m excited to say that now I’ve mastered this hill, and for the past 4-5 weeks I’ve been running hill repeats on it once a week. (3 loops down/up the hill)

Heading Back up the Hill

There's the Top of the Hill!

Cotton Fruit Tree

At the top of my hill is a very strange set of trees. About a month ago I saw ‘stuffing’ all over the ground and figured someone had thrown out a pillow or stuffed animal or something. Day after day the stuffing seemed to increase though which was weird considering the location of this area. (Off to the side, why would garbage pile up here?)

Cotton on the Ground?

One day, I finally looked up. There was the source of the stuffing! There were a few trees with ‘fruit’ hanging from them that looked like green mangoes, and the fruit would start to split open like orange or apple slices, and each ‘slide’ had little cotton ‘kernels’, which would then fluff out into just ‘cotton’! AMAZING! I stare at this tree every morning as I run by and wonder what kind of tree it is, and what takes it from a fruit to kernels to fluff. I then think “I need to google this when I get home!” and stay with that conviction for about a block, until my house comes into site and I immediately switch into mentally-preparing-for-work mode. Hence, a month has passed and I haven’t looked up this amazing feat of nature … until NOW! Are you dying to know what it is? Huh? Huh?

The Mystery Cotton Tree

Mystery Unraveled – Like Thread!

It’s a floss-silk tree (or silk floss tree), also known as the Chorisia speciosa , which is a member of the Bombacaceae, or cotton-tree family. Aha! Anyways, they’re neat trees and I enjoy running past them each morning.

Floss-Silk Tree Fruit

Bursting with Fluff!

Taper Week

I’m in my last week until the marathon (Four more days! Oh my!) so I’m going to stay off the trails this week to try to prevent an untimely ankle sprain on the rocky trail. I will trod along on my (once comforting, now boring) sidewalk path for the next couple days until the race. But a few weeks from now, it will be back on the trails!

Thank you Balboa Park for being the place for a running, dog lover to spend time.