On why my blog title might now be incorrect

Trying to get back into the swing of my long runs, and wouldn't you know it today it snowed.

I wrote that three weeks ago right after my 8 mile run in the snow, and haven't been able to finish a blog post since. Lots has happened...

Last weekend, I ran and walked 13 miles, which was the mileage for the "down" week of the marathon training plan. I was sore after that one, and learned my lesson about ice baths. Unfortunately, this week the mileage was supposed to be 17 (I'd missed the 14 and 15 mile runs of a few weeks ago). I was pretty sure there was no way in hell that was going to happen, and I was right.

On Tuesday I met with a physical therapist, who had some not-so-happy things to tell me. Well, really, she didn't tell me much I didn't already know - I just had to hear myself say some of them out loud for them to dawn on me.

I started running in July for about a mile at a time, maybe a little more. I worked up to my first 5k at the end of August, and kept running pretty steadily at 3-4 miles until late November, when I pushed it up to 5-6 miles. I ran my first 10k on New Year's Day. Seems like a natural progression so far, right? Well when I told her that then, just one month later I ran a half marathon, it started to dawn on me that I was overly ambitious in my goals. Where it took me from August to January to double my miles the first time, I doubled them again between January 1 and February 6. Add to that my history of orthopedic issues and no wonder I was having pain in my right knee and ankle.

So, she didn't tell me that I can't run a marathon. She did tell me she really doesn't think I should be running this marathon, and I'm starting to see how she is right. So, as of now, I'm going to shift my goals in line with my new, more realistic expectations, and say that I'll be training with the half-marathoners to run the Eugene Half Marathon, unless something drastically changes. But, the marathon is at the end of next month and we're running out of time for a miraculous recovery.

My PT also made me realize something else. Maybe my ceiling for race distance is 13.1, and if it is, that's better than fine. Lots of people don't make it that far, and I have to remember that when my mind and body disagree, my body is going to win. I'd rather lower my mileage and keep running than seriously injure myself and have to stop altogether.

So, I'd like to thank everyone for their support for me and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society so far. And this doesn't feel like defeat so much as living to fight (or run) another day.

Special thanks to Diane Soule and Anna Webster for donating in the past few weeks! I'm now at $1,149.40 - only $350 to go!

Injuries and Recommitment

First of all, thanks to Aaren for her donation! She is now training for a triathlon (in MAUI!) with TNT! Go Aaren!

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been (more than) a little worried about my ankle. It started bugging me after the half marathon three weeks ago. So I haven't been doing much running lately, and have started looking for a physical therapist to see in order to figure out what I need to do to not hurt myself.

I was worried about my ankle today, so I did the 1/2 marathon workout instead of the whole marathon workout (8 instead of 14 miles). Wouldn't you know it - my ankle didn't bother me one bit. I spoke with the coaches and they assured me that even up until race day I can adapt what I do - I can walk if I need to or only do the half marathon if things get bad. So, my new plan is full speed ahead with training and fundraising, and we'll see what happens. In the mean time, I'm going to continue to take it easy and cross train, and maybe I'll try water jogging. Apparently you feel dumb but it's a good workout.

There is a reason all of this seemed urgent and worrisome over the past few days: Recommitment is coming up! On February 24th we are going to officially re-commit to raising all of our money and they register us for our events!

I've raised $1109.40 or 55% of my fundraising goal so far! And it's 73% of the minimum I have to raise! That's right, only $390.40 left before I am officially there. Which is really good, because the other part of recommitment is that you give TNT your credit card info and they will charge you the difference if you don't meet the minimum by the event date. So, it's a great motivator to finish the fundraising strong!

So here is my new fundraising angle: Please make a donation to Team in Training and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society a) so together we can find a cure for blood cancers and b) so I am not on the hook for $390!

Click here to donate: http://pages.teamintraining.org/oswim/eugene12/rvarner

Half Marathon!

Sorry this took so long!

On Sunday, February 5th I ran in the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon - that's 13.1 miles in 2 hours, 33 minutes and 7 seconds - an 11:41 pace.

I spent the weekend in San Jose to visit my friend Hale and run my first half marathon. I was a little nervous at the beginning, but as I said to her at the beginning of the race, whatever happened I was going to PR today!

Commence photo shoot, thanks to Hale's mama.

We ran the first three miles together, and then I decided to really challenge myself and push faster. I was feeling really good in Golden Gate Park and ran pretty fast down the downhill (which I only slightly regretted towards the end), and got to run along the beach on the Great Highway. That stretch was the toughest I think - it was a long out and back with few landmarks except the ocean and all the runners who had already turned around. Miles 7-10 were probably the hardest mentally, and my legs were pretty tired.

I felt pretty good once I hit mile 10 - from here it was only a 5k to the finish. I passed some people I had been playing leapfrog with throughout the race, including a girl in a Wes Welker jersey - Go Pats :( - and the dude in the tiger suit. I employed Coach Neal's tractor beam method mercilessly on walkers and runners, which helped. There was a hill at the end, and as we were going up one of the spectators told us the finish was just around the corner. Yeah right, I've said that line before to runners to give them hope. I didn't believe her but we rounded the corner and there it was! My original goal was to run about a 2:30 half, and after the slow start and checking my times at the 7 and 10 mile marks, I adjusted to a new goal of under 2:40.

I beat this tiger across the finish.

Past mile 12 - around the corner, up the hill and almost there!

 

Look at how sweaty my hat it. That is what I get for running in sunny weather.

I didn't get a medal (there weren't any), but I did get this sweet shirt, a sore ankle and a fabulous blister as rewards. Unfortunately, that sore ankle is persisting and now I'm trying to schedule an appointment with a physical therapist to see what I can do about it.

Victory!

Thank you to Hale's mom and dad for being such good race parents - my parents could take a lesson or two on attending my races, carrying my stuff, and taking excellent photos of me.

And shout outs to Aaren Weisz and Laura Frye  for donating since my last blog post! Less than $400 to go!!

11 is a big number, right?

I ran 11 miles today! The longest I've ever run, and I'm a little stiff but feeling pretty good, especially since I did it in 2 hours. On a related note, can you believe I ran for two hours straight? Ok, I took a few walk breaks because man it is hard to run and try to get at your water bottle and whatever food you are trying to fuel with. But still! I remember back in August reading my friend Jen's blog post about her lovely hour-long run along the Boston Waterfront and I wished I could get there someday. Having a goal and a plan and people to keep you accountable really works!

I didn't post about our team run last week, so apologies if you were hoping for that update. We rested a little and only did 6, and we ran them on part of the marathon course. We started at Hayward Field and ran up Amazon Parkway and back, then up the dreaded 19th Street hills. Those hills are rough - just when you think it's done there is another one staring you in the face! But as they say, hills are your friends because they shift the stress to different muscles and give your flat-running muscles a little rest. Or that is what I am going to keep telling myself as I struggle up them!

And in fundraising news, I MADE IT TO ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!! In fact, I'm at $1,058 and change right now - that's 53% of the way to my goal and over 70% to the minimum I have to raise! Thanks to Jennifer Klementis, Yi Wu, Emmalee Kearney, and Stephanie Silani for donating to help me smash the $1,000 milestone. If you want to be next to get a shout out on this blog, you can donate online here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/oswim/eugene12/rvarner

AND IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS... Next weekend is my half-marathon debut! Hale and I are running the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon Sunday the 6th. I am so excited to take a mini-vacation, push myself two extra miles, and visit Hale, who is one of my running inspirations. This girl ran a half marathon while we were in college, got in an ice bath, and then made it all the way across campus to load a bus to go to a marching band competition, all between the hours of 7am and noon. What a monster! So wish us luck next Sunday!

My bib and chip timer - can't wait to get out there!

I saw on a t-shirt something that helps me get out of bed to go for my 6am runs, especially if I can hear the rain on my windows: If it ain't rainin', we ain't trainin'! But still, thank goodness it wasn't raining today for 11 miles! Go Team!

9 Miles and a Green Monster

This week at Saturday training, I did 9 miles in a little less than 1 hour 40 minutes. And, considering how hard 8 was last week (not to mention it was my first time running 9 miles), it felt good. Like, I-could-maybe-do-one-more-mile good. But that will have to wait, since next weekend we are scaling back to 6. Can't say I'm too disappointed to take a well-earned break, though.

The prospect of snow did not deter me from celebrating MLK Jr Day by being able to run in the daylight hours! Ok, so I whined when I woke up to a coating of white stuff. But I made it out there about 1pm and ran on Pre's Trail, where I encountered fearless ducks that I almost ran over, a flock (gaggle?) of geese, and a few other brave souls like me. To reward myself, I made a Green Monster.

It was slightly greener in real life.

It's a smoothie with milk and greek yogurt, frozen banana and blueberries, and spinach. Yum. Basically, I saw this great recipe for creamy avocado pasta on this vegan recipe website, so I started exploring and the website lady has all these different recipes for what she calls Green Monsters, which are smoothies with veggies. And come on, I obviously could not resist a drink that is healthy AND conjures up images of Wally. And, it was not too bad.

It's official: my half marathon debut is only two weeks away! Well, it will be official as soon as my time off request is approved (which it really better be since I'm registered for the race and bought my tickets to San Francisco. Keep your fingers crossed!). I was thinking about it this week and, while my eye is really on the marathon prize in April, I realized that after February 5th I can be one of those people with those 13.1 stickers on their car. Not that Bubba needs any kind of embellishment - maybe I'll find another place for that sticker where I can (maybe a little too) proudly display it. Maybe something like this...

In case you didn't catch it on Facebook - this is my medal for finishing first in my age group at the First Run 10k!

And finally, I'm still waiting on my thousandth dollar to be donated to LLS. If you haven't yet donated and need a really good reason, consider the following:

One great program that we have at LLS is our Co-Pay Assistance Program. The Co-Pay Assistance Program helps patients pay their insurance premiums and meet co-pay obligations. As you can tell, fundraising in our current economy is tough - now think about having to pay insurance premiums while going through treatment. The Co-Pay Assistance Program helps relieve that stress for our patients and their families. Last year the Co-Pay Assistance program gave out $100 million!

And, from our chapter alone (Oregon, SW Washington, Idaho, and Montana), we have given $80,900 in patient aide since July. That money goes to patients and their families to help them pay for medications, trips to the hospital, etc. Just in December we gave patient aid to 62 patients.

These factoids came from our TNT Eugene coordinator Charlene, who works hard to remind us, along with our Honored Teammate Katy Franklin, what we are raising money for. Katy and her mom, after getting help from LLS, now volunteer with LLS to be "on-call" to help other families deal with a diagnosis of blood cancer by listening and sharing their concerns.

So, if all this sounds like something you think is pretty cool and you'd like to donate, visit my personal fundraising page at: http://pages.teamintraining.org/oswim/eugene12/rvarner

Thanks!

Weekend Update: January 7, 2012

I wish I was as fun to watch as these ladies.

This week in training - it was the first week of our "real" training plan, and I mostly kept to it. I'll admit I skipped the 3 miler on Monday since I ran the 10k on Sunday, and only did 1.5 on Wednesday because the treadmill is SO BORING I THOUGHT MY HEAD WOULD EXPLODE. But, that means I also completed 8 miles this morning, even though that meant running around the EWEB parking lot to make sure we got all eight in. Finally, I've run a distance that is longer than the marathon when you multiply it by 3!

Also on the run today, I found out from one of our mentors who also ran the First Run that I placed first in my age group for my first 10k! And not because I was the only one running! I beat three other girls aged 20-24 running the 10k on New Years Day! 

I'm a winner!

Hope I look this happy after the marathon.

Increasing my distance and time means it was time to start experimenting with the substance known as GU, pronounced "goo." With a name like that, I was expecting it to be way nastier than it actually was. I also got my own water bottle to take with me on long runs and had a nice chat with the lady at REI about marathons and running. I guess that is what I get for living in this town.

The chocolate flavor was kind of like fudge frosting.

I'm also almost to $1,000 in my fundraising! I have raised exactly $978.20 - Thanks Hale and Grandma for donating in the last two weeks! The minimum is $1,500 so I'm feeling way, way confident that I can meet that goal and exceed it towards my personal goal of raising $2,000. The Pegasus Pizza Trivia Night is looking more and more like a go, probably in March, so look out for more info on that soon.

And finally, in maybe my biggest news, I signed up for the San Francisco Half Marathon with Hale, which is exciting and terrifying considering less than a month away. She convinced me by promising me a) a free place to sleep, b) Turkish food, and c) that we could run/walk it. I was also convinced by the fact that is it like a mini vacation plus a chance to test out my training so far. 

Wow what a busy week! And, as always, if you'd like to donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and help fight cancer while helping me reach my marathon goal, it's easy online at my fundraising website.

 

First Run = First 10k!

Got my New Year off to a great start this morning: I ran my first 10k at the First Run (I was not man enough to do the 11:59 version last night, which I guess is both a last and first run). Somehow, I also conned my dad into going with me, although he was no fun and didn't register for the race. I finished my first 10k (6.2 miles) in 1:04:55 according to the chip timer, which was my well under my hour-and-ten-minute goal.

The newest addition to my bib collection.

Happy, but lookin' a little rough after the race.

And now, the fun really begins. Yesterday, we got our real marathon training plans. Apparently, up until now all our training has been pre-season. Now, our schedule gets more and more intense and our Saturday team runs get longer and longer, and fast: yesterday we did four miles, next week it's eight!

Some inspiration arrived this week to help me deal with the terrifying new training schedule: a card from our Honored Teammate, Katy!

 So here's to 2012 - the year I run a marathon and the year you all help me get there. If you haven't donated yet, it's so easy: http://pages.teamintraining.org/oswim/eugene12/rvarner

Thanks everyone!