7 Days Without Running Makes One Weak

So, I'll admit right off the bat two major things about this post.

1.  I sort of stole the title for it. The inspo for most of my posts comes from songs, but since the whole brainchild behind documenting this past week in blog form was my coaches, it makes sense that I keep the momentum going by "borrowing" the title for it from his blog.  (Note: He gave me permission to do so.  Also Note:  I took seven days off.  He took eight.  He likely could have filtched a popular Beatles song to accomplish his post title, but since he's already blogged about the Beatles and doesn't take direction well, we can leave that one alone and move on.)

2.  Seven Days without running really doesn't make you weak.  It, for sure, was mentally and emotionally weakening for someone that loves it as much as I do - I not only use a run as a good workout but also as a mental and emotional stress relief.  While it's been a tough go on that end to take a break from running, I have no doubt the physical break will, in the long run, make me stronger.  So, for all intents and purposes of the title, two outta three ain't bad.  (See, you knew I had a song title in there!)

Alright, fine.  I'll back up.  So, post 2019 Tri season, you all saw the slow fall to me accepting that I probably should take an off season (Finally, she CAN be taught!).  I started out the way any normal triathlete with an exercise problem human being would - by resisting, bargaining, igoring, and finally accepting the fact that if I wanted to move forward in 2020, I needed to step back and let my body heal a bit before starting spring marathon training and Ironman training. Funny how logic works, isn't it?

Except....flip it.  I hate the damned coach.  COUCH.  I MEANT COUCH!

This past week I have tolerated embraced the idea of a true off season and taken off running and biking totally.   I haven't taken a week off from running and biking since....um....2005.  Yep, I even  biked and ran through both pregnancies and post delivery.  You got that right.  Yikes.  While my emotional and mental state are spot on for training (god I love this stuff), my body definitely needed the break.

So, in order to walk you through a week in the life, I've posted a daily recollection of my reactions to each day that formerly only existed in my Training Peaks notes. I, being a good athlete, (snorts) like to give my coach feedback about every effort that I make.  Poor guy.  During this particular week, I was given a lack of structure with specific parameters (NO RUNNING OR BIKING FOR 7 DAYS) that were worse than any Ironman peak building I've ever been through.  (AKA, I am the world's worst recoverer.  Ever.  I know.  You are all shocked).  So, in order to deflect my dissatisfaction with my whole run predicament, I reacted with bad humor that let my coach know that I was 1.  Being compliant, 2.  Not happy about it, and 3.  Trying to be a good sport.  Aside from the many eye rolls and head shaking I'm sure my training notes elicited, I have it on good authority that there were at least a few chuckles, which was my whole goal.  By Day 4, it was suggested to turn this whole week into a blog post.  I'm not sure if that was a subtle hint to leave him the hell alone or a thought that  this might be somewhat useful comical to the rest of you.  I suspect it's the former.  I'm gonna go with the latter.

So, how does one fare without an entire week of running or biking?  Well, read on for the unfiltered truth....

Sunday, November 3: Day One of no running captivity: (Workout: 1x3800ish yard swim in the pool). Legs are sore so a swim sounds good.  I know I'll never get the chance to do long pointless distances during the season, so why not.  This was either 3700 or 3800 not 4000....I lost track and my Garmin was annoyed that we weren't running so it rebelled like a teenager.  Legs appreciated the lack of work and the swim was zen and chill.  Two thumbs up. (Note:  My coach, who is a swimmer, does not condone any swim set above 200 yds continuous swimming.  This is brand new to me and is admittedly a big reason for my huge swim improvement).

Monday, November 4: Day 2 of no running captivity: (Workout: Kickboxing Class) The day starts with 3 hour budget review.  Sometimes I love my job....today is NOT one of those days.  I stare longingly at my running shoes and curse under my breath.  Must. Take. Off. Season.  I decide to blow off steam with a lunch kickboxing class.  Decide halfway through this probably wasn't what my coach had in mind but it felt great to work some new muscles and definitely helped my emotional and mental state.  Don't mess with the chick in pink gloves. (Also this was a legit core and leg workout.  Woof). 🤪

Tuesday, November 5: Day 3 of no running captivity: (Workout: 3000 yard swim).   It's raining.  I sort of even don't want to run.  Who am I??  Arms are sore from punching a bag yesterday, but I have meetings downtown so a swim seemed wise.  Low key easy work with flip turn focus.... too bad my coach wasn't there to watch the  comedy (I look like a drunk Monkey doing these).  Swim was relaxed and easy....I feel slightly guilty about the obviously non coach approved lack of structure to my swims but counter that they are emotionally and mentally relaxing and physically a form of active recovery while resting my legs.  Does he buy it?  Likely not, but he's probably amused by my feedback on the effort in my Training Peak notes.  My work here is done.

Wednesday, November 6: Day 4 of no running captivity: (Workout: Workout DVD)....This sucks.  It's gorgeous out.  My running shoes stare at me from the corner and dare me to break protocol.  It's tempting, but not worth the risks.  I pop in a Jillian Michael's Shred DVD that hasn't been opened since 2009 and do a stupid workout.  Starting to miss my bike.  Who am I???  Workout went fine, some plyometrics, kickboxing and ab work.  Uninspired.  Whatever. 🙃

Thursday, November 7: Day 5 of no running captivity: (Workout: Strength/Cardio at the Y)  I hate the elliptical.  It's stupid.  I hate rowing.  See two sentences earlier.  I might in fact be losing my will to live (Sarcasm or no?  You decide). It's pretty out.  My legs hurt.  They should be running.  At this point, I'd even ride my bike.  In aero.  Outside. In the 30 degree weather. Wtf. Lifting was actually good in case you (my coach) wanted something useful here.  I went lighter weights as it's been awhile and higher reps.  Did the full body circuit minus abs. I still would rather be running.

Running shoes without tights/shorts.  That's what's wrong with this picture

Friday, November 8: (Workout: 3 mile walk/2300 yds in the pool). Day 6 of no run captivity: I have recorded. A. Fucking. Walk.  What is wrong with me???  My running shoes sit in a corner, confused by what they did to cause me to abandon them. I try to feed them a Reese's peanut butter cup to show them I still love them.  It doesn't work.  Disgusted, I eat it and then curse about the counterproductive nature of such a move.  At least I got to swim today.  (Which was actually decent, as I focused on 100s instead of 1000s.  I might be coming around on that short distance thing). 40 hours until freedom.....post workout, I grouse about my grounded state and my buddy helpfully mentions he saw my running shoes on ebay, looking for a mate.  The auction ends in 39 hours and he put a bid on them.  I never liked him anyways.

Saturday, November 9: Day 7 of no running captivity: I decide on one more pointless swim before I'm restricted to 200/yd or less at a go.  20 minutes in I finally acquiesce and realize....my coach is right.  Long swims are dumb.  My watch agrees and craps out after 1600 yards.  I debate stopping but still have that magical idea  that in order to count, all workouts must be 45 minutes or more. (Again, I'm not that bright).  I work on flip turns....uh....most of the time.

Post Swim, I line up my run gear for tomorrow much like a kid leaving out milk and cookies for santa on Christmas Eve. Tomorrow's the big day!!! 😆😆

Sunday, November 10th.  

EVL Half Marathon 2019 - I'm a (snot) Rocket Man

Just when you thought perhaps I might have ended this crazy season, I do another dumb thing.  Yeah, you read that right.  After ending the triathlon season with a bang at Barrelman, I did a "non race" 5k the weekend after.  (Which was a total disaster, save for kiddo cuteness, if you didn't read the recap). 

After that nonsense, I took a week off (well, to my standards) then began the dance of trying to figure out if I had any more racing in me in 2019. Part of the problem with your season ender being such a success is you want to race ALL the races.  2019 exceeded my expectations beyond any dream, so I wanted to keep it going!

I debated signing up for a marathon.  I got my coach to write me a plan for Philly on November 24th, against his better judgment.  Why?  I don't know.  My party line was "fun run in another state" which seemed legit, except we all knew I was debating a lame BQ attempt.  I stuck with that for a few weeks then was talked off the ledge, thank god.  The runs were all fun but after ten months of structure, all I really wanted to do was play....NOT run 5 miles at a 7:15 pace (that was a fun failed workout!).  I then decided that since my buddy Ryan was gonna do a fall half marathon, why not jump on that bandwagon?  Let's play! We narrowed it down to a few races and settled in on the EVL Half in Ellicotville, NY on October 26,  a race I've always wanted to do because of the fun Halloween theme.

Except I got sick two weeks before the race, and it never quite let up.  I suffered through runs where I felt fine legs wise, but couldn't really breathe, took four days off at my coach's urging (god knows why that man puts up with me, he's a saint) and then decided the Monday before the race I was gonna do it....and actually signed up the day before the race.

Spoiler alert here - this year, on the ole bloggy, you are used to seeing "Holy Shit I PRed the hell out of that race and how did that happen?" nonsense.  This is not that kind of race report.  I will say that logically, I totally should have ended my season with Barrelman.   But much like a drunken text message to an old hookup at 2am,  this was one of those "it seemed like a good idea at the time" followed by "WTF did I just do" things...I have been, through one means or another, susceptible to terrible life decisions this year!! (Stop.  I really didn't text him. This is all race related, people).

You've been warned.  With that being said, I actually don't regret this race at all.  It's sort of odd to write a race report from the perspective of "what not to do".  So, in case you actually wanted to, ya know, hear about the race.....let's talk about the EVL half!!

Going into the race, as I said, I wasn't feeling so spiffy.  My legs had felt awesome with 90% of my runs, but I had a lot of issues with light headedness and with my nose and sinuses completely blocked, taking a full breath was a challenge (refer to the two paragraphs above, remember, I'm not that bright).  I knew that a PR was totally unlikely, but with the help of some buddies of mine, devised a plan to go out at about a 7:45, reassess at 5k in, and see how I felt.  I needed a 7:35ish pace to hit a sub 1:40, which was totally out of my expectation, but hey, I'm not afraid to try something and fail (as we have seen all year!)  The course looked to be pretty flat, save for some elevation gain between miles 5-8 (uh, no.  But we will get to that).  Plan B - hang on for a 1:45-1:50 finish (closer to that 1:45, hopefully).

This race was a little bit odd in the fact that it started at 11am, so fueling was a little weird.  I usually do a bagel 2 hours pre race, then applesauce and a banana 30 minutes prior, all while drinking Gatorade or tailwind (about 600 calories total, which fuels me well until I do my standard mid race fueling).  The nice part of a late morning start was that I was able to leave my house about 7am - the race was run near my friend Lauren's house, so about a 2 hour trip.  I planned to eat my bagel about 830, then do the applesauce and banana thing about 10:15-10:30 to top off my stores.  The trip to Eillicotville was uneventful except for the fact that apparently there are no bathrooms in Allegany or Cattaraugus county at all...by the time I arrived at Lauren's I was about ready to bust!  I took care of business then loaded up to drive to the race (Lauren, you rock!).  We got there about 10am, enough to do packet pick up and prep for an easy warm up.

Ryan and I pre race.  I went as a ladybug and he went as a fast runner. 
Clearly, his costume was superior to mine.

Ryan and I had totally different race expectations (he wanted to go under 1:30, which he totally did - once again, I find myself surrounded by fast dudes...I hope this rubs off some day!)  Regardless, I was fast enough to do an easy warm up with him and a few strides, which didn't feel too bad.  Success!!  After the warm up, I realized I hand't eaten half my breakfast and all my race nutrition was still with my sherpa,  and instead of going after it, hit up the bathrooms.  Fail.  I ended up scouring the crowd pre race without any luck and totally missed half my breakfast.   Terrible planning on my part, but one thing I've learned about racing is instead of beating yourself up for bad decisions, you just go with it.  Ryan and I lined up at the corrals five minutes prior to the start, and I seeded myself with the 1:45 pacer (hey, why not).  The anthem played, the gun sounded, and we were off!!

2 minutes into the race with no gum, music or GU, I found my angel Lauren and ran after my bag (poor girl thought I was going in for a hug and i yelled out something super sweet like "YOU HAVE MY FOOD!" as I lunged for the goods.  Love ya, Pea.  I'm sorry!)  I grabbed gum, GU and tunes and was off like a shot.  I decided since I was a good 300 calories short of where I should be that I would settle in and take my GU at mile 2-3 - usually I do them at mile 5 and mile 10 of a half, but I could only find one and my stomach was rumbling a half mile into the race.  Shit. This was not good.

Instead of focusing on my stomach, I tried to make the first 5k an even effort and to enjoy the gorgeous weather.  It was sunny out and absolutely perfect.  Pre race, Ryan and I had chatted with our buddy Bruce to determine race goals, and aside from time, decided fun was really in order.  Ryan and Bruce tend to chase Joy, but since I'm not into chicks, I decided to chase Max - Maximum fun, maximum speed (if I could) and basically anything that entailed.  The first 3 miles clocked off in 7:30, 7:38 and 7:58 - not Max anything, and I realized that even though my legs felt good, my breathing was kind of a mess (where have we heard this??) and that instead of gunning for sub 1:40, I should just enjoy the day.  I walked through the aid station at mile 3, slammed my gel and picked the pace back up.  

The next 5k was also pretty uneventful - I knew I wasn't adequately fueled but could only find water at aid stations, so I walked through them and finally found some Gatorade at mile 5 - score!  Hit the 10k mark at 47 minutes and did some mental math - I figured if I could run the next 7 miles at about an 8 minute mile, which felt good (mile 6 was my fastest mile at 7:26) that I could do a 1:42 or a 1:43, which was perfectly acceptable.  Sweet!

Then....there was a turn in the course, and all my dreams were quickly dashed.  The headwind kicked in fiercly, and I had to stop and walk to catch my breath.  The guy I was running with joked that we needed a tow rope...where had these winds come from???  Yikes.  The next 3 miles were a total struggle bus.  Mile 7 - 8:50.  Mile 8 - 9:08.  Mile 9- 9:51.  Between the winds and the fact that I was starving - my legs would just not work.  This may be as close to a "bonk" as I've ever had, and it was horrible.  I debated dropping out at mile 8 - not only was there no joy to this run, but at this point I WAS running off with Max - Maximum misery!  Yikes.  At mile 10 we mercifully got a break from the winds and I was able to slug some more Gatorade (apparently there were Gu's on this course, but I never found them).  Mile 10.5 we were back into the winds, but somehow I had found my rhythm and was clocking 8:30s.  I saw the 1:45 pacer at mile 10 and now was dealing with a sub 1:50.  It occurred to me at mile 12 that last year at this time I would have been absolutely thrilled with this time, as I had never broken 1:50.  Ever.  Funny how a year changes things, huh?

Brad, me and Ryan

At mile 12 I said screw it and ran it in with everything I had (note - VIC's "Wobble" is a pretty legit run song.  Ok, I'll show myself out).  I wobbled my way to the finish line in 1:48:38, good enough for who knows the hell what, but at least I was done.  And toast.  There are apparently running pics of my during the race where I am not, in fact smiling - and I burned them so there is no evidence.  Shhhh.

Post race I caught up with Ryan and Brad, Lauren's brother, who both killed it - they came in the top 10 of the half marathon and 5k, respectively.  Somehow, to my total shock, I came in 3rd out of 71 people in my age group and 19th woman out of 381.  Apparently this half marathon that I perceived as flat was, in fact, not - with 633 feet elevation gain it was more than double the elevation gain of  Flower City Half Marathon, which made me feel better!

Ryan and I stuck around to grab our age group awards (it was the first time either of us had ever placed in a half, yay!) and then called it a day.  Overall, a fun day racing (if you can call it that) with some lessons thrown in - if you want to run well, you have to eat (I know, I'm a genius), running with a head cold is stupid (once again, up for Darwin awards here), and last but not least....even if it sounds like a terrible life choice, it still can be fun. And it was.  I got to race with one of my favorites and see a few other new friends and have a great day (mostly) doing what I love best!

Highly recommend EVL for a late fall Marathon - the course is overall fair (though there ARE hlls on the back half!), fun (there were so many people in costume- I loved it!) and great race swag and post race food (zip up hoodie for an extra $5...hot soup and OMG diet coke post race (yes, I know, diet coke makes no sense, but I love it.  Deal)).  


EVL, Ill be back in 2020.  This time with a bigger tutu and chasing Max Speed!