Mission Accomplished..and then some

And just like that, it's over. All the weeks of training and preparation, some of the runs being quite grueling, and in 1 hour and 57 minutes it's over. Not that I'm complaining that it went by that fast :) (Picture above is me in the orange shirt and white jacket around the waist crossing the finish line.)

My alarm went off at 5am on Saturday. I laid there for a few minutes, then easily got out of bed, got dressed, and took my time eating breakfast and drinking a large McDonald's coffee. I ended up wearing the full fleece jacket, deciding that I would rather be overdressed in the beginning anyway--turns out I wasn't overdressed at all. Mom drove me downtown and I jumped out of the car on West Street, made a quick potty break before the lines to the port-a-pots grew to almost 13.1 miles themselves, and then walked a few laps up and down Washington Street to warm up my muscles. I finally made my way to Corral G and saw my mom leaning over the corral fence scanning the crowd. I was quite surprised since her original plan was to stay inside in the warmth until it was time for me to finish. Like I said before, she's the best :) After what seemed like an eternity of the wind blowing, I was thankful for the race to start just to get some blood flowing and warm up. It was only after I crossed the start line that I realized how much of the wind had actually been blocked by that massive new hotel on West and Washington. Now we were out of the shields of downtown buildings, and it was fierce! My first mile took 10 minutes...not bad since the first one is traditionally the slowest as you are making your way through the bottleneck and the crowd slowly starts to separate by pace. My highlight of race, other than the obvious ones, was seeing an elephant from the zoo, surprisingly close to us looking right at all the runners--it was like he was silently cheering us on and at the same time bewildered by it all. My first mile last year was 12 minutes, so I was ahead of that pace, but still needed to pick up my speed. It naturally happened; I only looked at my time at the mile markers, and each one was consistently 9 minutes. It's a great feeling to know that your body is learning to pace itself and pick one speed that feels comfortable--challenging but sustainable for a distance race. It occurred to me after these few miles of a solid 9-minute pace that THIS is my new speed...10 minutes per mile is no longer my norm. So long to the 6.0 mph that I always thought defined my running and hello to the 6.7 mph that I averaged for the whole race.

By mile 2, I was getting really warm and even starting to sweat. I knew if I took my jacket off completely I would still be too cold, then I had the genius idea to just unzip it a little bit--it had been zipped up practically to my chin. That made a world of difference--I still had the jacket as an outer shell of wind-protection but I had the best breeze blowing in. I never took the jacket off completely until mile 10.

The first 2 miles, as always, were the most awkward and uncomfortable feeling for my legs, but by mile 3 I felt great. Pace was down pat, form was set, and I was enjoying all the sights. I mentally divided up the race into thirds: the leg leading to the speedway, the 2.5 miles around the 500 track, then the leg back to the finish line. The first third of the race came so quickly. I entered the speedway with a feeling of dread--race fans may feel differently, but running 2.5 miles in a big counter-clockwise circle of black asphalt is not all it's cracked up to be. It does, however, make you realize how fast the Indy cars are!! It was when I hit mile 7 and my time was only at 1:03 (still a perfect 9-minute pace) that I knew, unless something drastic happened, I would break 2 hours. Around mile 8, which was inside the track, my knees were starting to ache, but I just told myself it wouldn't affect my speed at all, and it didn't.

The last leg of the race was by far the hardest, specifically miles 10 on. My left shoulder was starting to ache and the cardio effects started to catch up--before that, it was like my body didn't even know that it was running, it was so high on adrenaline and so well-trained for the job. Knowing that I could slow down slightly and still get under 2 hours was a relief. I don't think I ever ran any miles slower than 9 minutes, but having that safety net was nice.

At the last half mile where most people pick up speed, I didn't even feel the need. My goal was already met, so my options were to either sprint and be in pain or just enjoy the steps up to the finish line. I chose the latter and I'm glad because I was able to pick out my mom standing at the very front of the bleachers on New York Street, again leaning over the fence and scanning the crowd. I didn't know if she would know I had a bright orange shirt on under the white jacket that I took off. I was on the other side of the street, but I started waving to her, and after about 5 seconds, she recognized me. Seeing her face light up and the enthusiasm behind her wave meant the world to me. I hit the finish line at 1:57. It could have been 1 hour and ANY number of minutes and I would have felt equally as happy. My silent goal, the one that I was scared to admit even to myself, was accomplished. It was one of those things where as often as people kept saying "Oh I'm sure you'll break 2 hours if you hit a 2:05 during training," I didn't want to be greedy with my goals. My original mission was to beat 2:15, let us not forget. It became apparent to me as I progressed further into training that beating that wouldn't be a problem, again unless something drastic or unforeseen happened during the race. Maybe anything less than 2 hours just sounded too good to be true--at least for it only being my second Mini. Lesson number 897 in my life of not underestimating myself.

I felt great after the race. My hamstrings and low back were sore and tight, but nothing beyond that, except being wet and now brutally cold. I met up with my mom who was so thrilled for me. She was literally there for my entire race--the key moments of the start and finish anyway. We walked a couple blocks to stop by a post-mini tailgate and "redhydration" party (i.e. beer) put on by a fitness center member from work. I was freezing, but still relished that post-run beer simply for the fact that I've never done that before. (As a side note, I read in Runners World magazine once that it is completely natural for runners to crave a beer after a hard workout for the carb-replacement that it offers, as well it being cold and refreshing.)

As we were comparing stories/times, one guy said "Good for you..you said you would finish around 2 hours, and you beat that!" I replied, "Yes I'm very happy, considering my real goal had been to beat my last year's time of 2:15." He looked at me and goes "You got a 2:15 last year??" with the tone of his voice implying he was soooo above running a slow time like 2:15 (even though I knew that's not how he meant it to come across). And he finished with, "Well I would say you blew that goal out of the water!! By EIGHTEEN whole minutes!" I thought to myself, when you put it that way, that's a LOT of time for a runner to shave off! He made another comment that I thought was pretty funny, "I just assumed you had been running the mini for years--I mean I see you in the fitness center working out like a banchee!" I chuckled at that impression of me. I knew upon starting this blog, that some people who only see me in that setting or in certain roles would find it hard to believe I stress out about anything fitness related--but yes, I'm human :) Finally, this guy asked, "So what's the next goal? Or are you where you want to be?" Good question.

Carb Day!

No, not the 500 kind of Carb Day. The day where I'm allowed and supposed to eat plenty of breads and pasta! The little cold I fell down with on Wednesday seems to have dissipated. Yesterday I still sounded like a man all day with my nose stopped up and a scratchy throat, but I felt better. By the end of the day, I even felt great--on my drive home I had the thought, "If the mini were right now, I feel confident I could do it, with energy."

I had a full day of working out yesterday. I had my usual Thursday of teaching stability ball class, total body challenge, and 10 minutes of an abs class. I made total body challenge harder than normal last night. We did 9 weeks of class in Feb/March using Jillian Michaels' Hot Bod in a Box, so class lately has been less intense in comparison. We've been doing all outdoor classes with the spring evenings being so nice. So last night, I still included a few laps of jogging around the pond, but every minute I would have them stop and do 2 strength and 1 high intensity cardio exercise before resuming jogging. Oh, and did I mention they were running with dumbbells the entire time? :) It was a great workout for me too!! In addition to those 2 classes, I also fit in one more training run before race day. I had planned to do that on Wednesday, but when I woke up feeling like death, I didn't. So, I ran 4 miles around the DAS buildings just like I did on Monday, making it my last official mini training run!!

Today, I woke up feeling the best I've felt on any morning this week. I won't be going back home until after the mini tomorrow--Chad has to work, so my mom took the day off from her job to take me to the mini and pick me up. I'm lucky to be 24 and have a mother that still cares about any event I'm in and is my #1 fan. She even came to my 5K last year and admitted she got teary-eyed when I crossed THAT finish line! This morning I had to pack my bag for everything I would need tomorrow. I still have no clue what to wear. The predicted high for tomorrow is only 53 degrees, so no telling how low the temp will be at 7:30am, and the forecast is windy and maybe even rain!! Not exactly the weather I'm used to running in, which makes me nervous.... I brought a variety of workout jackets, thin cottton to heavier fleece, so it will be a game-time decision when I see just how cold it is outside. I packed everything else I could possibly need too...an assortment of medicindes; first aid cream, Advil, Claritin, Tums, Airbourne (which has helped me this week), as well as a Ziploc bag of oatmeal, walnuts, 2 packs of Splenda, and a pinch of cinnamon for my pre-race breakfast. Overpack much??

For lunch today, we had a going-away party for our NIFS interns with food from Noodles. I enjoy that restaurant on any given day, but especially on a day where you need pasta! After lunch we went to the Convention Center to pick up our mini packets--it's always exciting to be in that race environment. I'm bib number 28344 this year. They had the countdown clock going; 17 hours until race kick-off!

The plan for dinner tonight is Buca di Beppo...and now you see why it's carb day!
I hope I can sleep well tonight. The only time I've spent the night at my mom's new place was the night before my wedding, so I associate that room and bed with anxiousness, struggling to fall asleep and the noise of the nearby trains going by.

For everyone out there running the Mini tomorrow, happy carb-loading, peaceful nights of sleep, and good luck tomorrow! ENJOY and we'll share stories at the finish line.....

Cinco de Mayo aka tres days from the Mini

What started out as just Monday blues has progressed into a full-blown cold. I woke up this morning sounding absolutely terrible--nose and chest feeling all clogged up, bright red throat and swollen tonsils, and the worst stiffness/pain in my neck. If you know me, you know how rarely I get sick. In the past year and nine months that I've been at my current job, I've only taken a half day off for being sick. So it figures that the once-in-a-blue-moon time that I catch something, it WOULD be the week before the mini. Honestly, I think it's just pure exhaustion that spurred this one.

We all know about the classic phases of stress: alarm, resistance, and then exhaustion. In college this would always happen to me around finals week. I would work so hard and be under so much stress. I would finish strong and earn the grades I wanted, but then immediately after, I would fall sick and when I came home for breaks it was like I could sleep for almost 3 days straight. In this case, my body has been under a significant amount of physical stress (which is usually what you want to do for results) with my dramatically increased running and also going through a spurt of teaching more group fitness classes than normal. Besides the group fitness, as I've mentioned before, work has been busier for me lately than it has been in quite a while. Usually my workload ebbs and flows: it is pretty hectic around the first of the month as we roll out new programs and turn in reports from the previous month, then I would have about 2 weeks of a lessened work load. Now, it's always busy with all the events we are gearing up for. My to-do list for this week looks like pure insanity, and even if most of the projects are enjoyable and worthwhile things, they still require work. Yesterday I pulled a 12.5 hour day, waking up at 4:30, as I made an early morning trip down to Lilly's corporate fitness center to observe the awesome boot camp that they run down there. The rest of my day was non-stop up until I left at 6:45pm. At the end of last night, I was starting to tell that what I had thought was allergies was definitely something more, so now we're back to this morning where all the cold symptoms hit me full-force.

I got to sleep in since I don't have to be in to work until 12 today, to make up for yesterday's long hours. The first 3 hours of my day will be spent working on boot camp "lesson plans" so at least I can stay in one place and focus on one task. Thank God for the promise of a lighter work load for one day.

Monday Blues

Oh, Mondays. This is probably the worst case of the "Mondays" I've had in quite a few weeks. Usually I don't mind Mondays; sometimes I'm glad to see my fitness center friends and co-workers and share stories of the weekend, and it's usually not too hard to wake up on Mondays when I've had a restful weekend. Tuesdays are when the freshness of the week has already worn off and the reality sinks in that the end of the week is still far away. But today....uggh.

I woke up with the worst allergies I've had in a long time. I normally don't have problems this time of year; September is when my allergies come on strong. This morning I had the full deal: sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes, and a throat so raw and red I could barely swallow. My stomach was hurting, I think from the pizza we ate last night. And I'm just thoroughly exhausted.

My morning coffee didn't even do the trick. For the first half of my day at work, I felt like I was walking around in a clogged up daze...that feeling of taking too much cold medicine, except I hadn't taken any.

Last night, as the clock was pushing midnight, I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep without much luck, and I started thinking about the mini. It's THIS week. Saturday. I started running through all of the logistics...what time I needed to wake up on Saturday, how early we needed to leave the house, trying to remember to take some Tums and ibuprofen just as preventatives, what would I wear if it rained?? But the forecast is predicting clear skies....but it's still 6 days away, so they could be wrong... Somehow I finally fell asleep and dreamt that I finished the mini with a great time. This morning on my fuzzy drive to work, I started to re-live my panicked thoughts about the mini. Then I thought, I am as prepared as I could be for this. Why am I so worried? I've completed all of my long runs, I remained disciplined and stuck to the outlined training schedule only with slight modifications. I'm giving myself adequate rest time before the mini with only 2 short runs on the agenda this week. I've been running longer distances and faster times than I have in my whole life. Still better yet, I've already run the full 13.1 miles and finished in a satisfying time.

To sum up my mood, I don't feel mentally or physically equipped to run a mini-marathon this Saturday. I think going to bed around 9:00 tonight and knowing that I have my week's schedule under control (thanks to knocking out plenty of tasks today) should help me feel more settled and centered. Chalk it up to a Monday?

My question of the day is: Which one creates more pressure? Trying to complete a mini when you have never run that distance before? Or trying to beat a certain time when you well-surpassed your goal on the first one? Today, I'm not sure.

Live Earth 6K

Last week at work, I had the opportunity to help put on and watch a 6K run/walk--a real change of pace since I've been so focused on the race I'm competing in. This race was the Dow Live Earth Run for Water 6K. It was a corporate sponsored event through Dow Chemical and the organization called Live Earth whose mission is to spread awareness of the worldwide clean drinking water crisis. The 6K distance was symbolic of the distance many women and children have to walk each day to get clean water. On April 18, they held a series of races all across the globe: New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Mexico City, Buenos Aries to name a few. Local celebrities and musicians even made appearances at each one. (If you google Dow Live Earth, you'll get plenty of videos and pictures.) Our event was on a much smaller scale and was held on Thursday, April 22. We had 128 participants, which actually is a huge number for us. Even though I work at company with over 1200 employees on-site, and we have a large fitness center membership, our health promotion department really struggles for participation in events. Luckily, this one had coporate backing to it and was a dual effort between Public Affairs and Health Services.

Not only was this my first "big" race to help plan and organize, I also got the job of being the timer which put me right at the finish line, able to see what times people were hitting. It was one of the moments that make me so proud to be a trainer. There were 3 people in particular that had either never run this distance before or had run that distance the week prior to the race for the first time. They all finished with incredible times and in some cases even surpassed the goals they had set for themselves. Two out of these three people were personal training clients of mine, so I was especially happy to witness their race and be able to congratulate them immediately.

After the race, we realized the course was only 3.5 miles instead of 3.7, making it a bit shy of a 6K. In the scheme of things, it doesn't matter. I have full confidence all the runners and walkers that day could have gone an extra .2 if they had to. And besides, the 6K distance was symbolic--not a common race amount.

Today, I decided to run the course myself. It was 2 full laps around the buildings on the DAS campus then 1 lap around the pond right outside the fitness center. I had made it a point to work on speed in the few days leading up to the mini, but today I could tell I was running much faster than my normal pace. I didn't allow myself to look at my watch along the way, so imagine my surprise when I crossed the "finish line" and saw 29:43. I calculated my pace (using the true mileage of 3.5): an even 7.0 mph. I could NOT have run this same time/distance combination on a treadmill. 7.0 is the speed I crank the treadimll up to only during the last half mile or less of my run. Weird.

Shorter Runs and Food Introspection

The past 2 weeks since my practice mini have seemed odd...after carefully planning out my long runs for about 8 weeks, we're on the downhill. I'm only doing shorter runs until race day, so it almost seems like I'm slacking off! This past weekend I was in Cincinnati so I didn't do any running until Monday morning. Since, I was over on work hours from the week before, I didn't have to go in until 2pm on Monday afternoon. I slept in and did an 8-mile treadmill run trying to keep my speed higher than normal. Actually, when I say that, I mean I was trying to match my treadmill speed to the pace I've been averaging during all of my outdoor runs. I still can't explain why I run faster outside--it really baffles me and throws off all my old theories about treadmill running being eaiser. I made it a point to keep my speed between 6.3-6.5 mph for the 8 miles. It was a hard one! (P.S. I always wonder what people must think when they come into the gym with me mid-run, get in their own hour or so of a workout, leave, and I'm stillll running. Some people even witness me hit 6 miles, which is around the point where the treadmill cuts you off with time, then see me re-start the treadmill and keep going. I wonder if they are giving me looks of awe and admiration or looks of pure insanity.)

I didn't leave myself much time between finishing my run and the time I had to be at work--basically just enough time for a quick shower and to fill up my gas tank that was on "E". Normally after a hard/long run I come back up to the apartment and just lay on the floor sipping on some Powerade. In the middle of hurriedly rinsing conditioner out of my hair, I got the distinct feeling that I was going to pass out if I didn't do something QUICKLY. I stopped and sat on the edge of the tub, head between my knees. That did the trick, and I was fine for a few minutes, but had to resort to lying down with my feet up, while trying to munch on some pretzels for the carbs and salt replenishment. At the end of all of the cyling classes I lead, I preach about the importance of staying on the bike until you are fully recovered, heart rate is significantly lowered, and breathing is normal before hopping off the bike. Just like with water/dehydration, if anyone should know the importance of adequate cool-down time, it's me!

On another topic, I've been diligent about logging all of my food and exercise lately. I started 4 weeks before the mini, just to monitor everything going into my body and the types/amounts of exercise I was getting in besides my long runs. I wanted to avoid getting burned out in the last few days of being so gung-ho about exercise and health. We've had some special events at work lately that have required hours outside of my normal 9:30-6:30 schedule and also lot of mental planning. Our big thing for April was the Live Earth 6K Run/Walk (which I'll talk about in more detail), then in May we have a large-scale Health Expo that is rapidly approaching. June will be a big push on a corporate blood donation competition and in August we are putting on a full-fledged boot camp. :):) Some work has even already started for Corporate Challenge which is held in September. In other work updates, I am spending 2 days taking a certification to become a CPR instructor. This will allow me to assist our Occupational Health staff in leading CPR classes. I have a new intern starting in 2 weeks, so I've been organizing her projects and schedule. All in all, exciting events to look forward to that make my job enjoyable, but all require work that has to be fit in amongst personal training sessions and teaching group fitness. See where the burn-out comes in?!

The food/exercise log has been a great tool in keeping me on track. Even if I'm eating things that aren't considered healthy, I have a clear picture of what that day's eating entailed, and how my calories in versus calories out are balancing. Although, the fact that I'm doing shorter runs now instead of 10-13 miles at a time might be making me over-critical of my diet. I have to remind myself the runs are shortER, not short in terms of exercise. It's funny...Monday I had a brief freak-out when I realized I was eating non-light yogurt that had a "whopping" 170 calories as opposed to the 80-100 calories in the yogurt I normally eat. Then I said, "Mechelle. You ran 8 miles today and almost passed out afterwards. Who cares about the YOGURT?!" Same thing today: I went to Panda Express for lunch and as I sat there thrilled about the orange chicken and fried rice, I was simultaneously grossed out by the amount of food. I started berating myself for teaching a fun yoga class then heading straight to a big plate of MSG and fat, hoping that nobody I knew from the fitness center walked in to witness this. As I was trying to decide how I was going to compensate for this by eating a smaller dinner, I realized how ridiculous it all was. As of today, I am still weighing in at 3 pounds under what I call my "happy weight." To top it off, my day of exercise wasn't even over yet, since I teach twice on Thursdays. Once I allowed myself to just enjoy the meal, I ate to my content and threw the rest away--normally I would have eaten every last bite even if I was stuffed. But I listened to my body, and isn't that what eating healthfully is all about? I might be onto something here!

By the way, Chad, if you're reading this, my fortune cookie told me to "Be sure to handle financial affairs wisely."

Mini Practice Run

Well, Sunday 4/18 was the "big day." The day I was scheduled to do my practice mini. I had originally planned on doing the practice 13.1 on 4/24 but we made plans to go to Cincinnati to celebrate my Dad's birthday and make the first official trip on the boat for this season. Plus, I thought it might be good to have 3 weeks to rest from the long runs before the mini, instead of only 2. Especially since most race training schedules will never take you to the full mileage until the day of.

Learning from my past mistakes, I only drank a small amount of coffee on Sunday morning and drank plenty of water all afternoon. For lunch, we went to Olive Garden so I had a carb-heavy meal with pasta and breadsticks. I even held myself back from eating too much salad even though I love it :)

I don't have much to say about this run, mostly because it went exactly as planned. For once. I felt great the whole run, minus aching knees and getting ever so slightly dizzy on the last 2 miles. I stationed Chad out with Powerade in regular increments, 3 times total (It was supposed to be 4, but we got our timing mixed up a little). I didn't even run a new route; I ran the same one I did last weekend for the 11-miler, I just extended it one mile farther to make 13 out and back. (See map.)


My finish time was 2:05:25. Ten whole minutes faster than my Mini time last May!! I was really excited about that, but at the same time, it was completely anti-climactic. Out of all the cars driving by me and people outside at our apartment complex, I was the only one who knew that I had just finished a mini-marathon run, and not just a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood. There wasn't a big crowd cheering me on, there weren't other runners around me, there wasn't a medal waiting, and Eminem "Lose Yourself" wasn't playing like it was the last time I ran 13.1 miles. I was quietly proud.

Then, I started to get nervous, only because 10 minutes isn't a lot of room for give and take the day of the race. I started remembering how slow the first mile is since the runners are all packed like sardines, and initially it's a big chore to get around the slightly slower participants. Also, there will be more water stops at the mini that I will take advantage of. On the flip side, I won't have to wait to cross busy roads like Allisonville. And for the water breaks, yes there will be more, but I won't linger as long--my shortest Powerade break on Sunday was at least 30 seconds. Chad said that maybe with adrenaline's help, I'll even break 2 hours at the mini. I don't even want to let my mind go there. I set a goal of beating 2:15, so if my time is 2:14, that will still be something to show.

Really, why let a documented finish time at a huge race determine how proud I am? I already won. I beat my goal on Sunday, again let me remind myself, by TEN minutes. I remember back to last year's mini at how fast my pace was to me at that time--5.8 mph--and how I couldn't believe I kept that speed for so long. This time around, my average pace was 6.3 mph. So if I can't recreate that time in 3 weeks, who cares? I have the satisfaction that I did it once--my watch times just as accurately as the mini shoe tag!

Ok. Who am I kidding? The official mini time is all that matters!!!

Songs of the run:
In My Head -Jason DeRulo
Break Your Heart -Taio Cruz ft. Ludacris
(those first two I downloaded just for this run--needed some new, motivating tunes!)
Pencil-Thin Mustache -Jimmy Buffett (just a good song I don't ever listen to, except when it comes on ipod shuffle!)
Taking Care of Business -BTO (because I WAS taking care of business)
Love Generation -Bob Sinclair (came on during my last 5 minutes of the run!)