Five more sleeps…… I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit nervous….Even though it has been months in the making, it still feels like marathon day is coming around way too fast! Last week was my first of two taper weeks and it feels very odd to be having at least every second day as a rest day. Am not used to having so much down time and have to admit that I have had the odd moment of freaking out and thinking that I should be doing more to prepare. However, Richard assures me that in these two final weeks, less is more! So, I am doing as the schedule says and have been doing some faster, but much shorter runs interspersed with rest days.
I am fortunate that another CP member, Charlene is also doing the Queenstown marathon and we met up last week to discuss progress and how our runs are going. We talked about not taking any run for granted and respect what each runs gives to the overall training plan. I did my last long run (22km) last Sunday and I have to admit I neglected a lot of my usual preparation. Just 22kms I thought, I’ll be fine (seemed much easier than having to do 30 or 35km…) Usually before a long run I would have a quiet night at home making sure I was rested and prepared for the run the next day. However last weekend I went out the night before, consumed a smorgasbord of bbq food (including copious amounts of dessert!), then, being tired from the festivities the night before, I slept later than I planned and didn’t allow enough time between breakfast and running. Needless to say my run was a very looong one and the most of my run was spent lamenting about what I should have done for preparation. In hind sight I would never go and do a half a marathon without good mental and physical preparation, including being conscious of my nutrition, so I am not sure why I thought I could get away doing a training run of similar distance with the preparation that I did on Saturday!
So, back to the business of trusting the process – even though I am nervous about race day, I have every intention of enjoying the day as much as I have the journey of training for a run of this distance. There is something a little bit exciting about doing something out of your comfort zone….
I am now less than two weeks from The Ultimate Goal and my last long run was yesterday. I completed my 7th half marathon race – the Selwyn half marathon.
My goal for a long time has been to do a half marathon under two hours, it has always been in the back of my head. The aim for my half marathon yesterday was to get to as close to 2 hours as I could – considering the amount of running and distance I have been doing recently in the lead up to the marathon I thought I could do it. I knew it would be tough but I really thought that I would be able to crack that 2 hour mark. And plus…isn’t 21.1km like nothing compared to the 35km run the weekend before?!
Note: Let me premise my next paragraphs by saying that I did actually run a personal best time yesterday, it just wasn’t as fast as I was hoping it would be. I ran it in 2:04:41.
Before the run Pauline and I were talking about respecting each and every run, because no matter how much you have trained things don’t always go to plan.
Honestly, the first 4km sucked, plain and simple, they were not fun at all. Especially km 4 – my legs felt like lead and I thought that my run was shot! I thought how the heck am I going to continue for the entire 21.1km if I was feeling like this this early in! I was thirsty and was dying for the first water station. Just after 5km the water station appeared, I was so happy to see it and all I could think was, I wonder if I can stop now? Water downed and off I went.
It was like a miracle, I instantly felt better, felt on top of the world. The next 5km went so well, I was in a good head and running space, maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all?!
I have been training with gels, sports drinks and everything I will need for the marathon and learnt that it is so important to make sure you take your gels with water. At about the 15km mark I decided that I would take my last gel (my favourite GU mint chocolate) in the hope that the drink station wasn’t too far away, it felt like eternity! After the 17km drink station I felt like I was going to be sick, I had to walk for about 50m. I thought are you actually joking me?! Why is this so hard today?!
Despite all of my “slip ups” during the run I did do a personal best and improved my time by more than 10min from the Christchurch half marathon in June and I know that I can do under 2 hours which I plan to do soon! Maybe a few months or after the marathon….
Respect the run and make sure you hydrate sufficiently, something I am going to do for the marathon.
My training life lately has been along peaks and troughs that are not just geographic in nature. The ups and downs of the Port Hills have mirrored my erratic confidence levels. I have been plagued with doubts; that I’m running out of time, I’ll not be ready in time, I’ll not be able to make it etc. And this is for an event that has been postponed a year! The situation has not been helped by really struggling up Kennedys Bush Rd the other day; and I mean struggled. I had to zig zag like mad and hope there wouldn’t be a car coming! I took this picture at the top but didn’t feel I’d earned it. It was a gorgeous morning though. It was only much later I remembered that I was doing repeats on this hill five years ago, BEQ…the mind has a funny way of storing old stuff. As fellow blogger, Jennifer, has written, the self talk can really impose itself.
On the upside though there is heaps to report. I won a Fitbit for a start, from the conference I attended a fortnight back. I’m having all sort of fun with it. I wrote that story on my fundraising page, and that fund continues to see the total $$$ rise. I have some more photos of steps for my collection, I especially love the gnarly ones. The hill walking component of my training is a real highlight and I simply love my little adventures. My knees haven’t been quite so keen on the downhills but a quick trip to the physio has put them literally back on track. Like many people I had begun to experience that little kneecap straying out of its snug groove and causing grief. I am also still really enjoying my daily yoga practice and almost imperceptibly I am getting stronger. But amongst all this good stuff I can still feel very uncertain of myself.
This is where great coaching comes in. Fleur, Beck and Richard can all offer a much more balanced and clear headed view of where things are at, and more importantly can remind my of how far I have come on my come back. Its really easy for me to forget that and simply fall back on what I remember I used to be able to do.
Coming up this month are three charity walks though that should take some of the heat off my cycling obsession!
The Pink Star 21km, the Queenstown Marathon 10km and the Summer Starter 10km. I hope to see fellow CPers out these events too.
It seemed like just yesterday that I committed to running a full marathon, it was actually nearly 11 months ago and we are now heading for the final countdown! It is just over two weeks to go before I can officially call myself a marathon runner.
The Queenstown Marathon has been my focus for nearly a year and it is pretty exciting to think that this massive goal is going to be completed very soon.
My runs have been long as of late – this past weekend I completed the longest run of my training, 35km, it was tough but it was so good to have this run done! Note to self: make sure you put on sunscreen before you set out on your run, even if it is cloudy, because the next day your skin will be as sore as your muscles…..whoops.
I even tried out an ice bath (Richard’s suggestion) after the 35km run – it was very tough getting into the bath, sheesh it was freezing (guess that is the point), but once I was in it wasn’t too bad! I think it has helped my muscles in their recovery. Only time will tell. I do take my hat off to all those professional athletes who do this on a regular basis!
I am now into the taper phase of my running programme – I do have the Selwyn Half Marathon to do this weekend which I am looking forward to, I am aiming to do as close to a 2 hour half as I can! I am hoping that all my training will help in in being able to do this.
The funniest thing is that once upon a time I used to really struggle with running 21km the last 3 was always the hardest, now I can run 21km without even thinking about it and its only when my watch beeps to tell me I have run 21km that I realise that I have! I know weird.
I am looking at my race plan as well as making sure I have everything that I need for the race day! The culmination of 11 months of training and hard work is coming to an end in a few short weeks and I am pretty excited and pumped to do it! I know its going to be hard but I also know that I have done all the work and preparation that I can do to be able to do my best on the morning of the 21st of November in the scenic setting of Queenstown.
Plus I have been waiting all year to get my Ferg Burger…..
And I also have a strange feeling that I might want to run another marathon after this one….something I never thought I would say!
It is now only 12 days until race day or you might say 288 hours or 17,280 minutes or perhaps 1,036,800 seconds. The last of the long runs happened during Labour weekend and it was 28 wonderful kilometres along the Little River Rail trail. The previous week I did a 30km run along Summit Road and Crater Rim. It was the Saturday where the wind was ferocious to the point where mountain bikers couldn’t even stay on their bike with the wind. I set off with Jenn (my directionally challenged partner in crime) and I kept the car keys in my bag as I’m usually back at the car first. Jenn wasn’t feeling so hot at the start of the run so I said I would keep her in sight in case we needed to turn back. What a big fat lie that was!! I took off and didn’t even look back. I turned after about 1 hour where Mount Pleasant Road joints Summit Road as there was a rally on. On the way back towards the Rapaki I was pretty surprised that I didn’t see Jenn running towards me. I then started to feel really bad at the 2.5 hour mark when I didn’t see her and imagined her hiding in the toilets at the Sign of the Kiwi ill and trying to keep warm and sheltered from the wind and probably cursing me. I ran to Sign of the Kiwi and no Jenn in sight. I ran on towards Kennedy Bush track but the wind was so strong it was like being on a treadmill so I turned back towards the car. I did a quick stop by the loos again just to make sure Jenn definitely wasn’t there and frightened some poor unsuspecting woman. Talk about tormenting myself running past the car twice with 8km to go the first time and 4km to go the second time. I finished up and hung out in the car until about 30 minutes later Jenn arrived. While I had stuck to the lower tracks to shelter from the wind, Jenn ‘legs of steel’ Chowaniec stuck to the tracks, got slightly misplaced, mistook a man in an orange t-shirt for me and shouted and followed him thinking it was me then dropped in on a car rally only to be told she would have to go back over the hill as the road was closed. You can imagine she was a super happy camper but it was nothing a pint later that day couldn’t fix! Character building eh!
I’ve found with subsequent runs that I really have trained myself to start taking on nutrition and liquid early on. I headed out on a 15km run last weekend and left my fuel filled drinks bottles on the sink where I had filled them up before I left – blonde moment! It really made a difference to my run. I’ve found taking a sip every kilometre is a good way to get the fluids in. I’m not great at taking on lots of fluids but this is a good way to tip away at it. My watch beeps at every kilometre so it is a handy reminder. Eating wise, I find Nakd bars work best for me when running but have recently discovered a recipe online to make your own and they are great. I can now start eating 30 minutes into a run – something I never thought I’d be able to do.
So here I am 287 hours and 30 minutes away from the start line and the official tapering has begun. This is the part I’m usually really bad at. When training for previous races, I tend to peak too early and taper wwaaaayyy too soon. I see this whole experience as reaching a goal but also a very personal journey where I get to test my body, my motivation and dedication. I’ve learned so many new and wonderful skills, met a lot of interesting inspiring people along the way and have really challenged myself. The last month has been quite busy and it has made fitting in training a challenge but also it has given me a great excuse to explore new places. I spent 1 week in Brisbane at a conference. I took the opportunity run along the river. Even at 5.30am it was 20 degrees and warm unlike warm Christchurch which is 20 degrees with a southerly. The river front at 5.30am was as busy as the Port Hills on a Sunday morning with runners and cyclists. There was the added bonus of watching the rowing crews too. The picture inset is me post run in Brisbane flying the TeamCP flag. It seems that CPers took over Aussie that week with a great showing in Adelaide. I also spent a few days in Wellington at another conference and got one of “those” days in Wellington and got to enjoy running around the waterfront without having to battle a tornado style wind. The taper plan over the next two week is reducing the long runs at the weekend to one medium run and just keeping up some speed work and hill work during the week. I am enjoying this time and haven’t got ants in my pants just yet. For me, it is great knowing that I already have my next challenge lined up with coast to coast and I am looking forward to adding road biking into the training mix.
I look forward to reporting the result of the fruits of my labour in a few weeks.
Thanks to everyone at both Tuesday and Thursday run group who have kept me honest!
Big shout out to Simon – none of this would be possible without your careful planning and rocket jumps 🙂
Over the past two weeks I have noticed ‘the plan’ as it were coming together and have had success on my long runs. For me success is no injuries, being able to maintain a good rhythm during my long runs, positive self talk when running and the fact that I can still walk the next day.
I was lucky enough to be at Lake Alexandrina for Labour weekend so got the opportunity to explore this beautiful part of the country while out for my 30km trot. I initially ran part way round the lake but after 5km had to turn back as there was a rather curious and large bull that was intent on following me. I couldn’t back myself to outrun it, so I headed back the way I came (rather quickly!) The rest of the run was done on the roads around Lake McGregor and out towards Glenmore Station. Very serene and stunning countryside – exploring and soaking up our amazing scenery is one of the best bits about long runs. I had decided from the outset that I wasn’t going to focus on my time, but rather focus on my form and being present in the moment as I find the more I stress about my time, the less enjoyable the run. By the end of 30km I was soooo pleased to see the hut we were staying in as I was starting to feel like a little old lady as I hobbled/ran up the last hill. My time was still quite slow but I enjoyed the run and I had a more even pace and rhythm compared to my previous 30km run. A quick submerge in the lake soon sorted out my legs and after some much needed lunch we were off for a walk over the hills. Amazing what your body can adjust to.
Last Saturday I completed the Mission Mt Somers run which is an off road run with quite a technical downhill aspect. This was probably one of the most challenging runs I have ever done and even though I was just over my projected time, I was elated to finish the run happy and in once piece. It was a great run to work through pre-race nerves, practice my nutrition as well as being quite a hard work out!
As I have discovered through trial and a lot of error, nutrition plays a huge part in training and recovery. This past month I have changed my breakfast plan slightly to include chia seed pudding (I know – pudding for breakfast! How good is that!) as well as my usual peanut butter and toast. I have also started fuelling for long runs 3 hours before which means I get up at 6am to eat – much to the astonishment of my family. I have found that eating at this time sets me up well for my run. I am still experimenting with how many carbs I need to consume on my long runs and I find that this varies with each run.
Queenstown marathon is less than three weeks away and before I know it I will be on that start line with thousands of others ready to tackle my BHAG. I am starting to feel prepared mentally as well as physically – after all running long distances is really just an argument between your body and your mind.
With the postponement of my event for a whole year I’ve done some really hard thinking about the elements of my life that are focused on that event and how to make them serve, not only a solo attempt at Coronet Peak regardless, but also taking a slightly longer term view that isn’t quite so obsessed! This way I get rewarded all the time in little ways that make event generated motivation somewhat irrelevant. I love best the moments of adventure and discovery, the views from the hills, the sights and sounds and smells of getting out and about in all weathers.
This week I’ve been along the Summit Rd including the track under the Gondola. I haven’t been up there since ‘that day’. It was heartening to see so many cyclists along it but still a stark reminder of how much so many have lost.
The next day I was hoofing it up the Bridle Path. That’s one steep road! The views are spectacular though even if the sheep look a little unusual. I am guessing this is a particular breed, the lambs sure are cute!
It’s about four weeks since Spring Challenge. Everything has been a little bit chaotic; I’ve had six overnight field trips for class in five weeks, many assignments and not much time to fit in training. I’m finally getting chance to write about Spring Challenge. I raced in the TeamCP Adventure Chicks team in the 9 hour Spring Challenge race with Kathryn Bunckenburg (previous teammate) and Nicole Ranger (new to the team). We had an absolute blast running, mountain biking, rafting and navigating around the 110kmish course in Wanaka.
On Friday we collected our maps, attended the race briefing and were getting excited about the pending race. We poured over the maps checking the course, working out the best routes and highlighting them. We had it all planned – who was doing what, were clear on our team goal to make the top ten, and to have fun. We finished sorting our gear and then headed to bed knowing there would be an early start.
We got up not long after 4am to prepare for the day and were ready at 6am on the start line. Straight off the start line the pace was quick, with the front team still in sight. It was a fast 2km to hit the rafts. We were quick enough to be one of the first few teams on the water. Then the battle began. It was a mostly flat paddle this year with a few other rafts nearby so we were constantly changing places and fighting it out against them. We got out of the rafts after having heaps of fun and ran a short distance to the transition.
After a quick transition, we headed off on the 64km mountain bike ride. We started on some awesome trails around Deans Bank. We quickly fixed a tiny navigation error near the start. Nicole did the navigation on the bike – a great decision as she nailed it throughout the race. Thanks Nicole! J We were surrounded by several teams, which was exciting and kept the pressure on. We got slick at punching controls. I looked after the control card and clipped it while Nicole worked out where we were going next. As soon as I had clipped the card, we were off to the next control.
After a flattish section, we had a nice big hill. After a little bit of hill on the road we had a quick water refuel and were then off again – up, up and up. It was a slog up the hill but also a lot of fun. By this point, the teams had spread out. We could see a team in front of us just up the hill but couldn’t see anyone behind us. We guessed we were at the back of the top teams. I managed to ride some of the hill. Eventually I joined my teammates walking their bikes as it turned out we were still a long way from the top + I had a sore butt! We were slowly catching the team in front. Eventually we reached the trig at 1444m to find an amazing view of hills partly covered in snow, and the team in front just leaving! It was exciting to start riding but disappointing to find that it was difficult riding in snow. Once we could finally ride again we go to blast our way downhill picking up a few controls and got to transition after 6hours 23minutes of biking. On the final part of the downhill something felt weird on my bike and I looked down to see a flat tyre. The transition was in sight luckily so I just kept riding!
After changing into running shoes and shoving down a banana (my favorite race food) we left running for the hike section. Kathryn took over the navigation and since we had two maps I backed her up. For the first section of this leg we were mainly by ourselves or surrounded by 6 hour teams. We kept moving and gained some ground on some teams. With some good navigation we caught up to another team and were near them for a few controls. We ended up with in a bunch with two other 9 hour teams but lost them when we got stuck behind some 6 hour teams on a section of hill with a rope we had to follow.
We came into the transition keen to get back onto the bikes. Our support crew had fixed my flat tyre but my bike appeared to be making funny noises once we got riding. Luckily, nothing went wrong with it. This was the last leg for the day so we were all ready to go hard and smash it to the end. Nicole nailed the navigation on the last leg and we got to ride some fun single track. We powered along the last section, dropped our bikes, I punched the last control and we ran to the finish line to complete the race in 11hours 44 minutes. We were all super excited when we discovered we had finished 5th place in our category and 7th overall! We didn’t think we were doing that well – it shows you just have to keep pushing and not give up because you never know what can happen in an adventure race. 🙂
I was going to write this update last week but due to unplanned events my head space wasn’t where it should have been. Recently I have become acutely aware of that all-important mental aspect to persevering when things get difficult and the thoughts and the self-talk that goes on in my head can seriously affect my running.
Several things have happened in the past couple of weeks that has reminded me that running/training isn’t always fun and sometimes we need the negative from which to grow and improve. Training recently has become a bit of a struggle as all the important factors like sleep, nutrition, positive mental awareness haven’t been aligned. Last week I had a recovery week and when it was first scheduled in, I thought ”Nah I don’t need a recovery week!” as everything was going well and I felt good mentally and physically. How quickly things can change. I thought that on a recovery week I would feel fantastic as the mileage was less, and not so much mental pressure to get out and do a long run. However it turns out I felt tired the entire week, my legs felt like they had been dipped in lead when I did run, and mentally I was beginning to doubt that I should have ever entered a marathon in the first place!
Another contributing factor to my negative self-talk was comparing myself to others. I lost sight of why I was doing the marathon distance and ruminated too much about how others were doing. I asked others who are doing the Queenstown marathon how their long runs were going. Transpires my 30km time was the slowest. This freaked me out a little and I started if I had done enough to get myself to the start line. So, this week I have been working on just enjoying being out running and have been managing the negative self talk.
So as it turns out running is not always rainbows and unicorns and that actually training for a big event is hard work mentally and physically. Another wee learning curve for this novice runner!
It’s that time of year again when the magpies see cyclists as imminent threats to their nests and test the qualities of one’s cycle helmet. I was very pleased that mine kept the claws off my head and also showed no ill effects from the repeated onslaughts. I gave this particular individual lots of practice as I was going up and down Hoon Hay Valley Rd. This was Saturday morning as the weather turned abruptly southerly and rained on me as I headed out to Lincoln. I won’t repeat details here, see my everyday hero page, and whilst over there get a load of the new total! I’ll keep shifting the goal posts as long as I can!
This morning I took off early up Mt Vernon on the Dry Ridge Track. Cue another of my growing collection of photos of steps. These were particularly nuggety and fun. I got rained on again but was well away when the NW gale blew through. I should put a big shout out to John Bull Cycles here where I picked up a winter weight cycle vest in their sale. These are excellent for walking trails for the same reasons they work on the bike, big back pockets to stash stuff in, windproof and showerproof chest protection, grippy hem, zip up/down to suit etc.
I began yet another challenge today too. That is ’40 days to personal revolution’ at Apollo Power Yoga. I am already a nearly daily yoga practitioner but I am particularly interested to see if I can integrate meditation and some structured introspection into the mix. I think this will be particularly interesting given that the event I have totally engaged in has been postponed for 12 months. Onwards and upwards, one step at a time!
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