Another one in the books

 

So I think this past weekend marked marathon somewhere between 19 and 22. And sadly, it was fairly warm, humid, and very, very, very sunny, so not only did I not PR, I missed my RE-Q by more than 4 minutes, and I didn’t even manage to finish in my own personal top 3 records. Ugh. 

The weekend itself was fabulous. I went with one of my bestest friends and it was so great to get to spend the time together.   Friday night we went to the expo and dinner.   Saturday had a couple big highlights – Amy’s recommendation for breakfast that featured biscuits and gravy with a "hearty vegetarian gravy" that was the stuff of dreams, and a mini-high-school reunion lunch with two of my classmates who now live there.   I also managed to put together photo-heavy posts of last year's vacation to post while we're on vacation this year.  In the afternoon, we opted to see Gone Girl to keep us off our feet and chill. Neither of us had read the book, we both liked the movie, my friend did not like the ending but I think I did. Then we had a pasta dinner at the hotel (not the pre-race buffet they had, but off the menu and just right).

 

An expo photo, my friend and the Nuun rep had a huge discussion about the Miami marathon, which my friend and her husband are doing this January, which the Nuun rep had done about 5 times. 

 

 

 For some reason at the expo I was enjoying weighing some California races.  Did I mention that I'm getting a new niece or nephew in San Fran in March?  Some of these might be good excuses to visit:





Some pictures from the lovely and amazing Gravy:

 

Long story, but she's been one of my best friends for a long time and during one bit of joint single despair more than a decade ago, we bought matching sparkly rings (the "diamonique" bands) and decided that even if never of us found Mr. Right, at least we'd always have each other when we grew old.  (For the record, I think my hands are the oldest-looking part of my body.)

A massive breakfast.  Biscuits with gravy, vegetarian sausage, and oatmeal brulee with berries:

The menu at Veggie Grill (maybe legible if you enlarge?):



Running statue made of a tree trunk that was in a running store we visited on Saturday:

Amazing little statues all over downtown:

 

But despite the relatively crappy weather and finish time for the marathon, oddly enough, I loved it. My favorite parts were the proximity of the hotel to the starting line (we left the hotel at 6:30 for a 7:00 race, and there was plenty of time), the starting line logistics (they announced 3 or 5 minutes until the race or something, I realized I needed to pee again, made a bee-line for the portapotty, waited for 2 people to go, then it was my turn, and was back at the start with time to spare), and the scenery for the most part (some industrial, warehouse stretches, some running along railroad tracks, but overall, pretty).   And perhaps the best race shirt ever, a long sleeved lovely blue technical finisher shirt, that fits so well and looks amazing on everyone I saw wearing it, including my friend (and me) and dozens of others at the airport.   

The weather meant I went out pretty much on track, but I knew that I’d only hold the pace as long as possible and then I’d dial it back. I actually started off too slow anyway. I had a few good miles in the first 10, but overall, I was averaging slower than I expected. By about mile 10, I started slowing down, and by mile 12, it was starting to show. There was a horrible hill in between 16 and 17, climbing up onto a bridge, and then crossing the bridge. That was rough. But then it really went downhill – literally and figuratively. I have no good explanation, but on the bridge, starting at about mile marker 17, I was dying to find a portapotty. My stomach was NOT cooperating! I ducked in one right after I got off the bridge (no wait, fortunately). But then within 1-2 more miles, I had to stop AGAIN. Ugh. I’ve definitely had to stop before in races, but it’s usually been on total fun runs where I really didn’t care about my time.   While I knew going in that the weather would be bad and I had no shot at my goal time or at a PR, I was hoping at least for a re-q.  So I tried to eat pretty good and ordinary stuff the week before the race in order to avoid any stomach issues.   

But those miles with the stops and general lollygagging did me in. There was no way to recover, even though the course was largely an amazing downhill run from about mile 21. There was one more notable uphill to go up another bridge, but it was nothing like the bridge between 16 and 17.

My biggest complaint was that somewhere around mile 25, we merged in with half marathoners. Sorry, let me clarify, we merged in with 3:30 half-marathoners, i.e., walkers. And the course was not divided. I attempted to run as straight a line as possible, but there was still tons of weaving around them, or calling ahead to try to run in between.

The good news about running more slowly is that I felt pretty solid afterward and I don’t think I’ll be walking funny at work. A bit stiff, but nothing like the usual Marathon Monday March.

I got some snacks at the finish line but pretty much kept a steady march back to the hotel. My friend and I had decided to leave the luggage in our room since checkout time was at noon, and I was hoping to be able to finish the race, get through the finish line and get back to the room for a quick shower and change before we had to check out. That worked out amazingly well. I got back to the hotel and had more than 45 minutes to shower, wash my hair, and get reorganized (and to text my running buddies, my blogging/boot camp buddy Megan, and my husband). Before I knew it, my friend was finished and she took some time to get cleaned up.

We stashed our bags and went out to lunch for a second stop at a West Coast chain restaurant that was like a dream to us – Veggie Grill. Sooooo many choices, all vegetarian or vegan. It was a bit overwhelming for our first meal there, but after the marathon, I was hungry enough that I pushed myself to decide.

Then, we made the trek to Voodoo Donuts. I decided I’d get one donut for every 5 minutes we waited, so that worked out to an even half-dozen. I hope they’ll be good for a couple mornings. Since this week is going to be complete and utter chaos at work and leaving for vacation (did I mention I haven’t packed A THING??? And we leave on WEDNESDAY?????!!!! AS IN THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I think donuts for breakfast are in order.

 

I ate the dirty donut right away – a raised donut with a creamy frosting topped with crumbled oreos (first photo below). And for the coming days (including later this morning), I have blueberry cake, vanilla cake with sprinkles, mango tango, lemon crème cruller, and raspberry romeo. Is 6 donuts too many after a marathon? I also indulged in some candy that was part of my good luck gift from my boot camp buddies. Oh well, I’m not thinking I’ll have the typical Italian vacation weight gain on this vacation, so 6 donuts it is…

 

 

The worst part of the trip: flying back the night of the race on the red eye. We actually just landed around 2 a.m., and I got to bed not long after 3, which is less than ideal considering the cluster that is going to be my life for the next couple days, but it was really the only option since I absolutely could not take a vacation day (they’re all being used on our real trip). I couldn’t tell you how many hours we were in the air, 4? 5?, but it was WAY too long to sit with even not-really-sore legs. My knees were aching and I was dying to stretch out. Finally got home, got to bed, and woke up way too soon. Oh well, I am about to have a 14 hour and 45 minute flight on which I can do all the sleeping I want!

Best Part of the Taper

So yesterday was perhaps the ultimate highlight of my training.   Well, actually Wednesday night, but the true joy was recognized yesterday.

This happened Wednesday night:

 

It would be so much cooler if my phone weren't in Italian, but the rough translation is that the 4:47 Tuesday/Thursday alarm was turned off!

 

Thursday morning when all my friends who are training for Chicago or Marine Corps or some crazy Ironman stuff got up to go running, I slept in.

 

It felt extra glorious because I woke up at 4:44.  It sucks getting older.  I swear that would not have happened to me 10 years ago.  But even though I woke up out of habit, I went right back to sleep! 

 

The icing on the taper cake (since I can't eat cake while tapering, it's especially lovely). 

 

And I should mention that I got to semi-sleep in today.  I skipped boot camp, but I woke up early to get busy with work since I'm going to have to be offline for a while during transit this afternoon. 

 

Hoping the extra sleep will make me feel even more ready. 

Texas State Fair recap

As I mentioned, one of the destinations this past weekend was the State Fair of Texas.  It runs for just over 3 weeks, but I'll be out of town for the remaining weekends, so this was my one chance.  And based on what I eat when I'm there, it's very good that I only go once a year! 

This will be a picture-heavy post.  Kind of like the travel recap posts I'm HOPING to be able to share while we're on vacation starting next week (!!!!!!!). 

I posted before about what I was going to eat at the Fair this year, and it was pretty much 100% mission accomplished, except I never found the biscuits and gravy as described online (instead, as you'll see below, I found the non-sweet equivalent, likely even better).

The comments on that post showed me what I would not have otherwise guessed -- that not everyone loves this stuff.  People were split, with Meredith and Amy landing on the "yes!" side of my eating plan, but a majority including Jennifer, Mike, Gracie and Megan landing on the "yuck!" side of my eating plan (incidentally, all people with awesome blogs). 

There were several healthy options available (grilled chicken and such), and many "borderline" healthy options (I'd put grilled corn in this category), but the bulk of the menus fell on the unhealthy side (fried, sweet, alcoholic, or two of those three).  And I ended up eating only the unhealthy (though I drank mostly water, which was better). 

Since Saturday night consisted of dinner at a local pizza place and then a long game of Mexican Trains with my folks after my husband went to sleep, and since Sunday my morning consisted of a 10 mile and change run with my friends, a 90 minute Bikram class with my mama, and brunch (at Cafe Brazil) with a friend who'd run 18, I went into the Fair at something less than "full of energy."  I also arrived not hungry, which was nice.  Lots of time to consider what would fill the belly space.  And fill the belly space it did, but I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Our first stop was the greenhouse.  There were tracks and model trains going through the plants and little replicas of beautiful Texas buildings. 

The Alamo in San Antonio, and the Live Stock Exchange in Fort Worth:

Our next stop was one of my traditional favorites, the big Ferris wheel, which is $8 per person and includes lovely views of downtown:

I began menu-browsing after that, trying to see what looked good.  The deep fried spaghetti could have been interesting, but of course since it was with meatballs, I ruled it out.  I put the fried red velvet cupcake on my "maybe later" mental list:

We then got to see Big Tex, who now speaks Spanish too!  One of the many crazy memories from our trip to China in 2012 (I wish I could link to one post that had references to all my travel recaps, oh well, there was lots of crazy stuff) was seeing images of burning Big Tex and not understanding what was going on back home: 

For reference, here is are a couple pictures like the ones we saw on the news in China:





 As you can imagine, it was quite confusing and mildly alarming since we thought there was a chance some major $hit was going on back in Dallas.

Anyway, one of the things we spent the most time doing at the Fair this year (besides walking) was watching dance and performance groups.  A San Antonio "Texas clogging" group, belly dancers, African drum performers, and Irish dancers: 

The first food for me had to be fried butter.  At Jennifer's request, here are photos.  I was disappointed to hear the topping choices this year.  I think they were honey/cinnamon/sugar, grape jelly, or chocolate sauce.  In past years, I've chosen garlic, which makes it taste like buttery bites of garlic bread.  Rather than risk compromising my favorite fair food, I (and my folks, who shared one order) elected to go with plain.  That meant instead of tasting like buttery garlic toast, it tasted like buttery toast.  Oh so good!  This averages out to one fried butter ball per quarter.  My husband thinks only heathens eat butter on their bread (and that olive oil is the only appropriate choice), so I pretty much never have butter at home unless it's on a baked potato or in a baked good.  So hopefully this won't kill me.  If it does, well, what a way to go is all I can say! 

The last ball of fried butter, a sad thing:

Some food options -- fried s'mores sounded intriguing but didn't make the cut in the end:

The butter sculpture this year was wild running horses.  When I saw it, I kept thinking they should cut it up and fry it after the Fair.

We decided on a fluke to go into the children's zoo equivalent at the Fair.  I go in this building about every other year because the animal hair usually kills my allergies within a few minutes and I end up wheezing and sneezing for hours afterward, but it wasn't as bad this year.  Maybe since the Fair had only been open 3 days, there was less hair in the space?

My favorite was probably this little giraffe.  I felt badly for it since it seemed kind of scared, like it just wanted to sit real still and maybe no one would notice it.

This animal won for new-to-me (and below is what I read about it, hollow horns!):

The animal here looked like a cross-breed between a donkey and a zebra:

This little zebra was adorable and kept herding these chickens:

A kangaroo with a joey in her pouch, which just looked so awkward and strange, especially because the longer we watched, the further out the joey came, but the mama never seemed to care:

After we left the petting section, we went to see Boris, the huge pig featured every year.  This always bothers me on some level.  Unnatural, cruel, all that.  But a spectacle and I guess a teaching tool?

We watched a bit of a horse show, but horses are the worst for my allergies, so we couldn't stay long:

The next dining selection was fried stuffed olives, which were surprisingly delicious.  Stuffed with cream cheese and herbs.  It was a total of 6 olives, so we each ate 2 and the verdict was thumbs up from all of us:

Another item for future consideration that didn't make the final cut:

More dancers...

I did want the fried Texas bluebonnet, as it was one of the 2014 nominees for the Big Tex choice award.  It was the fried blueberry muffin and it was okay.  Not something I would get again. 

The winner for "most creative" was the funnel cake ale.  It was pretty good as a beer, but I didn't get any funnel cake taste from it, aside from the sweetness from the powdered sugar around the rim:

My folks got Gulf shrimp boil balls, which won for best tasting this year and they were thoroughly unimpressed.  Thumbs down.  They ate them but said it was not something they'd get again and they guessed the competition was weak if that was best tasting:

D'oh!  At this point, I'd already eaten something sweet (the bluebonnet), and I was saving room for biscuits and gravy still, but then I saw there was a veggie patty with jerk sauce at a Jamaican tent.  I really wish I'd gotten to try this, and I hope it's there next year, because I'll seek it out:

We also toured the auto buildings, I took some Texas car pictures:

And of course there was some Texas history involved:

More dancers:

My best friend works for the FBI (not the same one as this guy).  Yes, this is definitely Texas:

A close up of Big Tex's new boots:

After seeing fried biscuits and gravy on the menu at a few places and asking about it, I never found the one described online -- strips of biscuit fried, with chocolate "gravy" dipping sauce.  But since biscuits and gravy became my favorite new food in 2014 (they serve it for breakfast at my hotel in Las Cruces, and it's soooo good), I decided to try a regular non-sweet fried biscuits and gravy dish.  Vegetarian, not vegan, and definitely my favorite discovery of 2014:

We ended with fried macaroni and cheese, which as not great.  We've had it at the Fair before (it was actually the only food on my mom's "must eat" list"), but this was not the same.  It tasted more fried and less good.  But not bad.  So yeah, between the 3 of us, we ate all 4 pieces. 

A final view of the Cotton Bowl:

Training recap

I think I've done a post like this for every marathon I've taken even somewhat seriously since I started this blog.  It's like a confidence-building tradition to look at how my weekly mileage stacks up, and more recently, I like to compare it against past years. 

There's an awesome passage that I've posted before about doing your homework.  All those weekday runs stack up in a training season to get you ready.  When I don't want to get out of bed to go run, I don't give myself that option.  I just make myself go, doing my homework, slogging out those everyday miles, slowly and almost immeasurably building on prior runs.  So on race day, it's just doing the things I've always done, getting out there to run some miles.  Just somewhere new, with thousands of others, and in a different city.  I love that concept.  And it makes me feel good to look at how all those days of running have piled up into some fairly significant (for me) totals. 

This year, here's how my 20 (!!) training weeks broke out, well, actually only 19, since this week is still in progress:
0-30.0 miles per week:  2 weeks (first week of training, and a week with no long run (Saturday the prior week, Sunday the following), plus this week I expect)
30.0-34.9 miles per week: 5 weeks
35.0-39.9 miles per week: 3 weeks
40.0-44.9 miles per week:  1 week
45.0-49.9 miles per week:  5 weeks
50.0-54.9 miles per week: 1 week
55.0-59.9 miles per week:  0 weeks
60.0 or more miles per week:  2 weeks (67.7 miles and 60.3 miles to be exact!)

Note, I was perfectly honest in that and counted runs on the actual day they were done (so if I had to do my long run one day early meaning one week had 2 longs and the next had none, that was how I counted it).  It is notable that both weeks of 60+ had double long runs, so if I were doing my usual "close enough" counting, it would have stacked up to be more even (more weeks around 45 instead of some around 60 and others around 30).  The first 60+ was the week before Labor Day, with an 18 on 8-24 and a 17 on 8-30, plus quite a few in between.  And the second 60+ was the week before last, with a 22 on 9-14 and a 14 on 9-20 (just because there was a race I wanted to do that day, which I was lucky enough to finish with Megan).  I think most years in my recaps, I haven't counted on the actual day, instead, since I never shift my long run by more than one day, I used to kind of roll it over to the day the miles were supposed to be done (and I never rolled it over more than a day), but below in the paper records, that's how I traditionally counted -- actual miles run on actual day. 

With that caveat, I think I can say that this season held my highest mileage week ever with the 67.7, but since it was double long runs, I hestitate to count it.  But my 67.7 week is notable in that it was preceded and followed by weeks at about 45, so it's not like I totally phoned it in around that week.  If I had stuck with the same day every week for a long run, the highest mileage would have been that week still, but it would have been around 60. 

In summary, this year I had 2 weeks under 30 (soon to be 3), 8 weeks in the 30s, 6 weeks in the 40s, and 3 weeks in the 50+s.  That's 9 weeks over 40 miles, which I've always considered my "tipping point" in serious training (at least for the last several years).

I will have logged (just barely) over 800 miles in the 20 weeks of training (I'm assuming (knock on wood) that I'll follow the rest of this week's schedule, but I'm over 795 already).  

How does that stack up against past years?  Here's a big training evolution for me you.

In 2013, for Berlin, I had about 815 pre-race miles over 19 weeks of training, broken out as follows:
0-30.0 miles per week:  3 weeks
30.0-34.9 miles per week: 3 weeks
35.0-39.9 miles per week: 1 weeks
40.0-44.9 miles per week: 3 weeks
45.0-49.9 miles per week: 4 weeks
50.0-54.9 miles per week: 1 week
55.0 or more miles per week: 4 weeks
Otherwise stated, 3 weeks under 30, 4 weeks in the 30s, 7 weeks in the 40s, and 5 weeks in the 50+s.  A total of 12 weeks over 40.  It still marks the most mileage I've ever put into a single goal marathon.  That daily commuting habit I had that year really paid off in mileage (and a PR).  I can see from my times that year that I was much better about hitting my paces and doing the scheduled workout than I have been this year -- when there have been many days with scheduled pace work and instead I've just run easy. 

VERDICT:  WEAKER than 2013. 

In 2012, there was no goal race (that whole thing happened when I cried my eyes out because they cancelled the Beijing Marathon AFTER we had bought plane tickets to China and I had spent the summer training my @ss off, and race day was only about 6 weeks away).  Earlier in 2012, I ran a spring marathon, but it wasn't a regular race, it was a memorial to the Bataan Death March in World War II, and I did it with a pack weighing over 40 pounds on my back.  While it was an awesome race and I performed a lot better than I expected, I did nothing like my usual training mileage. 

VERDICT:  STRONGER than 2012.

In 2011, I elected not to do a recap for my fall race since I'd half-@ssed it.  My notes for the first 11 weeks of training are good, about 380 miles, but only 3 early weeks over 40 miles, the rest in the 30s.  For Boston earlier that year (no real recap, just this), this was how it broke out, with about 625 miles in 15 weeks of training: 
0-29.9 = 1 week
30.0 – 34.9 = 2 weeks
35.0 – 39.9 = 3 weeks
40.0 – 44.9 = 5 weeks
45.0 – 49.9 = 1 week
50.0 – 54.9 = 2 weeks
55.0+ = 1 week
That was 1 week in the 20s, 5 weeks in the 30s, 6 weeks in the 40s, and 3 weeks in the 50s.  So 9 weeks over 40 miles.

VERDICT:  WEAKER than 2011 (but just barely). 

When I trained for Twin Cities (Fall 2010, recap here), I about 670 pre-race miles in 19 weeks of training:
0-30 miles: 2 weeks
30.1-35 miles: 7 weeks
35.1-40 miles: 4 weeks
40.1-45 miles: 5 weeks
45.1-50 miles:  2 weeks
That was 2 weeks in the 20s, 11 weeks in the 30s, 7 weeks in the 40s (including a week with 2 long runs due to the Fourth of July).

VERDICT:  STRONGER than 2010.

I've alwasy been a running log person, even pre-Garmin and pre-blog, so I can go back to my earlier marathons as well.

If I look back at training for St. George in 2009, I had about 640 pre-race miles over 18 training weeks (actually, since it was a Saturday race, it shows up in my pre-race week miles (my week starts on Sunday), so my total training including the race, ended up with a creepy 666.6 mileage), broken out as follows (not counting the race):   
0-29.9 = 3 weeks
30.0 – 34.9 = 4 weeks
35.0 – 39.9 = 4 weeks
40.0 – 44.9 = 7 weeks
That was 3 weeks in the 20s (or less), 8 weeks in the 30s, 7 weeks in the 40s.  Never over 45 miles in a week.

VERDICT:  STRONGER than 2009.

Training for Marine Corps in 2008, I had about 680 pre-race miles in 22 weeks, broken out as follows:
0-29.9 = 9 weeks
30.0 – 34.9 = 8 weeks
35.0 – 39.9 = 2 weeks
40.0 – 44.9 = 1 week
45.0 – 49.9 = 1 week
50.0 – 54.9 = 1 week (a "double long" run week, due to Labor Day, followed by a week under 30, but I'm counting it as it was actually run)
That was 9 weeks in the 20s, 10 weeks in the 30s, 2 weeks in the 40s, and 1 week in the 50s. That’s 3 weeks over 40 miles (and one of those was a week with 2 long runs).

VERDICT:  STRONGER than 2008.

Back in 2007, when I trained for Chicago (the run of death), about 585 pre-race miles over 19 weeks of training:
0-29.9 = 9 weeks
30.0 – 34.9 = 6 weeks
35.0 – 39.9 = 1 week
40.0 – 44.9 = 3 weeks
That was 9 week in the 20s, 7 weeks in the 30s, 3 weeks in the 40s.

VERDICT:  STRONGER than 2007.

No full for me in 2006, and while I did full marathons in 2005 and earlier, all my 2005 and earlier records are stored separately, so I won't include them.  It's safe to say they were fairly similar to 2007, likely even less mileage.

So yeah, I'm sure no one is reading this, but I think I'm going to be glad someday that I have all this data in one place. 

We will see if my verdicts as to whether I'm currently stronger or weaker pan out...