Interview With Myself

Thank you so much for all of your stories about favorite races!  I do plan on taking the time to sit down and reread each and every comment and get back to you in some way unless you have no link to e-mail or blog. This might take me a few days but I'll get there. It was so energizing to read all of your stories.  


I'm feeling really great with my base building.  Most of my miles have been in the range of 7:45to 8:45ish so I've been keeping them easy and just focusing on building up some mileage before I start with an official Boston plan.  I've had plenty of miles to reflect on my plan, mileage and staying injury free.  Several of you have asked questions or sebt e-mails asking about my training so I thought I'd put some things out there for people that have training questions.  This is my self-interview. Ha! This is how I am entertaining myself in my short 30 minutes of ME time today.  


How many miles did you say you wanted your peak weekly mileage to be?  80


Where did you get that number from?  I pulled it from my butt.  Seriously, it was just a number out of the sky.  It wasn't based on any research, thoughtful consideration of data, or wise understanding of training.  


What kind of mileage are you running right now?  The last few weeks have been in the 50 mile range.  Last week was 50 and the week before that was 49.  I'd like to shoot for 55 this week. Possibly 60 the next.   


Do you still think you're going to do 80 as your peak weekly mileage?  Ha!  Can I do it?  Yes, probably but it would mean that I'd probably have to slow down a bit with a lot of my mileage.  This is where I have to consider quality vs. quantity.  I'm not so sure it would be wise for me to try to hit this number AND still hit all of my quality workouts. 

What is a more realistic goal?  Taking the advice of a very wise friend who knows her stuff and combining it with my risk-taking and dreamer of a self, I'd like to think that 70 is a more solid and realistic peak weekly mileage for me. She advised 65 so I may very well follow her advice and stick with that.  We shall see.  

What does 70 peak weekly mileage mean?  This means that I will certainly NOT be running 70 miles every week of my training cycle.  The goal is to have some higher and lower weeks so that your body can absorb the training and not take on too much every week.  I plan on doing lots of LISTENING closely to my body and increasing wisely and gradually.  I might only have 2 weeks at 70.  This seems okay right now.  I will reevaluate if necessary.  


Where do you find time to workout with your motherhood duties and blog keep up and everything else?  There are definitely things that will need to be cut out of my life.  It is all about prioritizing.  My life will not always be all about training for a marathon but this is a time in my life that I'm going to dedicate to training hard for a marathon.  To some, this might seem silly but it is important to me and I'm willing to put other things on the side for a few months.  We recently purchased a treadmill and this will help tremendously with the time issue.  I will most likely have to get my lazy bum out of bed early on some days and find time to fit in around quiet time/nap time when my oldest is at school.  It is possible to fit in the mileage that you want and still be a great mom, wife and friend.  However, it just takes knowing what you want and making the time for the things that are MOST important.  Not everyone will understand but really, you can't please everyone.  


What kinds of thinks will you have to cut out if you are going to be serious with mileage, training, and self-care?  Reading my book club book, seeing friends as often, staying up late, responding to comments, facebook, e-mail, reading blogs and probably a few other things. When I start worrying about not getting to everyone and not being able to be there for everyone all of the time I will consult the Dr. Suess: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those you mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."  Of course this is all within reason.  Obviously I will still take time for those that I love but my friends will hopefully understand when I am just not up for going out and staying up too late or when I have to bail on a social engagement like book club or girls' night out.    


What things are most important to you to maintain during training?  The quality time with my kids and my husband, self reflection time, eating healthy, and spiritual time. 


What are you most excited for with this upcoming Marathon training?  I'm so very excited to take my training to a new level of commitment.  I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with this one body and one life that I have when I give 100%.  Now is as good of a time as any!  Bring it!  My main goal is to improve and feel STONG!  I'm also excited to be training at the same time as some very dear and wise friends who I continue to learn from every single day!  I'm excited to encourage and be encouraged. Inspire and be inspired.  You girls know who you are!  


My quiet time is officially over and this means that self-interview time is up.  Hope I answered some of your questions that you've e-mailed me with.  


Happy Monday!
Amanda

Your Favorite Race. Not Always Your BEST Time.

I rarely order official race photos.  In fact, I've never really ordered any.  I bought one at the Newport Marathon only because it was right there already printed up after the race and it seemed easy enough to pay $10 for a race souvenir. I never even bought my Boston pictures from 2004 or pictures from my first and fastest marathon in 2003.  The small picture they send you in the mail has always been plenty for me.  But as I looked back over this year and thought of my races, one race came to mind that I might really love to have a few pictures from.  The Sauvie Island Marathon this July.  As I thought more about why I wanted to order some of the photos, I realized that if I had to choose just one race, this would be the race I would say was my best race.  My favorite.  The race that brings the happiest and most satisfied feelings.  When I look at my pictures from this marathon, I feel so much joy.  I can't help but smile. 

This got me thinking about what determines a great race.  It doesn't always mean a personal record, an age group placement, or feeling great the whole time.  So much can go into making a race one that we put on our "FAVORITE RACE" list.  Some of the things we might consider are:

• Who we ran with.
• How we felt physically and mentally.
• Did we meet a goal?
• Did we execute our race plan?
• Strong finish.  
• A special cause that is dear to our hearts.
• The first time we conquered a certain distance.
• A race that made us believe in ourselves on a deeper level.

A bit of background information:  I was training for the Newport Marathon in June 2011.  This was my peak race.  I trained very hard as we always do when we train for a marathon.  Unfortunately, as is often the story of training, it doesn't always go as planned.  I experienced over training, small injuries and weeks where I had to take time off.  On race day my plan of a 3:15 marathon ended up being a fight to just finish. I finished in 3:30:17. Some might agree that I took off too fast.  I'd also like to think of it as taking a risk and believing in myself but just not having it in me that day. I think that this is what it takes to make big things happen sometimes..taking risks.  If we save too much at the start of the race, then we might not have it in us to make these big things happen later in the race. However, I do agree that I took off a bit too fast.  It was a learning experience.  As soon as I finished, I vowed never to run another marathon again.  Of course, even before I went to bed that night, I was already planning for my next marathon.  That happened to be The Sauvie Island Marathon four weeks later on July 4th.  My only goal was to run a strong progressive marathon and experience what it feels like to feel strong the second half of a marathon.  I didn't want to PR or run the fastest splits.  I just wanted to be smart and experience this progression thing that people talk about and that I had always been AWFUL at.  Secretly, I also wanted a better qualifying time for Boston.  

My husband had never trained for a marathon but last minute he decided to run the marathon with me (running a marathon untrained is not advised and can cause serious injury).  We ended up running together and finishing strong with a 3:24:25. I even finished with a smile on my face!  It was the best race of my life on so many levels.  Here are just some of them:

• We started off slow and finished strong. Miles 23,22, 23 and 26 were my fastest miles.
• I was running with my best friend.
• My husband and I seemed to feed off of each other perfectly.  We shared fuel, water, and encouraged each other. We even drafted off of each other.
• I BELIEVED in myself and was hungry for the race. 
• I felt strong the entire race.  The last few miles felt amazing and although I was definitely feeling it, I was able to rise above it all and zone in.  
• It wasn't my fastest race but I learned SO much from it and it was the race I had the most control with.  
• My mind was always in the game.  
• Mile 25 I experienced a pretty powerful emotional moment that made me feel like my dad was there.  This was one the most memorable parts and it was the hardest mile of my entire race.  After this experience in mile 25, I felt so strong for mile 26 and ended up finishing at a 6:49 pace. 
• The weather was a perfect temperature with such a beautiful blue sky and Oregon country to run through.  
• This race gave me a new level of confidence that is now feeding my excited for Boston Training to begin.  
• It was my first time racing with music and a water belt...this was nice.  
• I met ALL MY GOALS:  start slow, finish strong, keep a great form, fuel appropriately, take in enough water.     

So, this will be a time when I purchase some race photos.  Not only was it my favorite race on so many levels, it was my husband's very first marathon.  We did it together and learned a lot about how well we work together.  It was one of the best memories we have as a couple.  Since I will be purchasing some of these photos, I don't feel so bad about using these to share on my blog.  You can see the joy in my face.  Both of us.  

Mile 26.  I've got this!

Smiling at mile 26...can't say that I've done that before. I know that I will have to put myself in some pain in my next marathon if I'm going to make bigger time goals happen but if I can finish 26.2 in 3:24 smiling then this gives me the confidence that I have what it takes to dig deep and reach those goals of mine.  

In the zone together.  Note:  I will be making it a goal to keep more weight on this time around.  Eating LOTS more good food.  I got way too skinny last time.  

Second half of the race.  Feeling strong and happy. 

Good friend Nicole took this one at the finish line.  One of my favorite pictures.  Sweaty and Satisfied!  And you can see the GU all over my arm.  Ha!  LOVED THIS RACE!!

Just writing about this marathon makes me feel so SUPER CHARGED and Happy to be close to beginning Boston Training!  




Your turn!  Tell me what your favorite race memory is.  What's the race that comes to mind when you close your eyes and think about your favorite race?  And why is it your favorite??  


I really do want to know about your favorite race so please share.  Your memorable race experiences are charging for me to read about...they make me even more excited about racing again!  

Amanda

Training, Traditions and Time For Play.

Happy Wednesday! I'm going to have to make this a random post today seeing as my morning coffee/self time is quickly coming to an end and it is almost time to wake these wild things up and let our wild rumpus begin!  So a bullet post it is....at least until I have more time to compose my thoughts.  

• I know I've shared the picture above before and it is Runninghood's facebook profile picture, but I'm sharing it again this morning because it says so much of how I'm feeling right now with my upcoming training.  
• I'm still read, read, reading about marathon training!  I know that it would be easy to just pick up any plan and follow it but I'm really trying to wrap my head around all the science behind the training plans.  
• Base building is going really well.  I will be following a 20 week Boston training plan so that means that I don't start official training for another few weeks.  This gives me the month of November to keep building/maintaining mileage.  
• I'm realizing that although I didn't run a ton of miles this summer, I built more of a base than I thought.  It was a win win win of a summer.  I had fun, didn't have serious training on the agenda, but I still maintained a lot of what I had from my spring/early summer marathons.  With the random speed workouts, races that I "jumped" in, and other few weeks of training for the Girlfriend's Half-Marathon last month, I feel quite strong in my base.  Running 49 miles last week felt good. 
• Still trying to determine how big of a jump in weekly mileage I can safely make.  I want to take my training to a new level this time around but I don't want to get ahead of myself and end up being injured before I even reach half-way.  Finding that balance between setting lofty goals/dreaming big with being realistic about what is safe and wise.  70-80 miles as my peak seems okay right now but I'm not so sure how my body will respond.  And I know that some of these miles will have to be what some refer to as "junk miles".  Not so sure that they are worth it just to increase my mileage volume.  Still researching that.  
• Always Learning!   

Halloween was FUN!  We had one of our better family dress-up nights.  It was truly magical to see how excited my kids were.  I grew up never being able to celebrate Halloween and so I've held on to some of those feelings but after this year, I'm dropping those old feelings.  Halloween is what we make it to be.  In my opinion, it is a fun time of year for kids to dress up and be kids!  A tradition. And for us, it is an opportunity to make memories and have fun with our kids!  It doesn't have to mean anymore than that. However, I respect how others choose to celebrate.  It isn't for everyone.  

Motherhood bullets:

• I've been reading a book about growing grateful kids and it has given me lots of little things to apply to my daily life.  Today's chapter was about PLAYING with our children and enjoying them.  This was good for me to read because I get so one-tracked in my daily living. Always cleaning, reading, training, planning and thinking to the next thing.  This is all good too...part of being on top of things but I'm going to make a point of sitting down with my family more...to just play!  It can be as simple as giving piggy back rides or building a lego tower.  Or letting my kids perform a play and really stopping to watch them.  
• As serious as I want to be with my marathon training, my quality time with my kids and my husband comes first.  This is important to me.  It is also important for me to share my goals with my kids and allow them to see me working hard and reaching for a goal.  This is a great example for them and I think it is always good for mothers to have a chunk of their life for THEMSELVES!  I see too many stay-at-home-moms get lost in their family without having their own goals or things they do just for them...girl nights with friends, self-pampering, athletic goals, and other interests outside of keeping baby books and making sure they are making fantastic memories for their kids.  All this is WONDERFUL and admirable but I think it is so important to nurture and empower ourselves too!  
• Time to make our yearly gratitude jar and start filling it up for Thanksgiving!  It really makes more sense to have this thing going year round but it never seems to last.  

1.  Do you keep a running log, running journal, or calendar with your training?  
2.  What are some traditions that you have incorporated into your family life?  I'm always looking for traditions to help make memories for my kids.  One of the things we try to make a regular thing around here is date nights with our kids.  We try to take turns with each one of them so they each get personal date time with mom or dad at various times.  Also, this gratitude can is a big one for us.  And on Thanksgiving we all have cards we write on and read before dinner.  The cards then go into a gratitude album with our picture for that year.  It is a special book to go back to look at year after year.
3.  Don't forget to check out the jewelry giveaway I have going on.  Awesome stuff for athletes, mothers, and so much more.  
  
Amanda