Rest day, and I’m thinking about food. I originally said I wanted to get closer to 110 than 120 before real training started, but I’m at 117. I’ve only gotten there by recently (past 2 weeks) formally vowing to cut out junk food and candy, and eliminating my normal glass of wine/beer on weeknights. Everyone says “don’t diet while marathon training,” which makes sense, and I mostly want to focus on eating extra-nutritious food as opposed to *not* eating stuff. Junk food can be a real temptation for me, and I also fall into that stupid trap where I think it doesn’t “count” if I’m on the road/on my own etc. So if I’m with Jonathan, I need real meals, but by myself a candy bar & bag of chips is fine. I want to treat my body better than that!

Going through a number of the running blogs that Mark’s collected, I was struck how many of the first ones I checked out referred to having had eating disorders. Scary! I’ve never gotten near that unbalanced about food, but there are things I need to look out for. Reading and eating are tied together: if I’m eating something delicious I particularly want something fun to read, and vice-versa. So I’m trying to keep a few principles in mind (eat slowly and avoid fake food–emphasized by Will Clower’s great The Fat Fallacy–focus on enjoying the food, choose good food even if it takes longer/costs more, etc.)

I’ve been a vegetarian (lacto-ovo) for more than 20 years, by the way, and normally I don’t worry about protein at all, but I’ll have to keep that in mind a little more. We have a good source of free-range eggs, so that will be easy (especially since I love eggs). Through another blog I found this page on what to eat after a long run. Slim-Fast? No thanks, that spells “fake food” to me, but what seems just perfect is Cheerios with milk & fruit. I love love love them but normally avoid them most of the time because I tend to not be able to stop at one bowl. A legitimate reason to down 2 bowls after a long run? Hurray! “My advice is to find something that you really love to eat and use it as a celebration of your hard work from your training.” Exactly. A reason to look forward to long runs! I just better check the Cheerios box again–I remember them as being basically pretty healthy without too many additives, but…

Miles for the week: 14 (3/3/3/5) PRE-TRAINING WEEK 4
5 miles LSD: 1:00:18, average heart rate 140 (good!)
Weight: 117
Resting HR: 44
Fitness test: 53

Another gorgeous day for the long run: cobalt sky with a few bright white clouds, on the cool side, dry, breeze, sunny, perfect! I focused on keeping my heart rate under 140 if possible, having relaxed arms & legs (especially ankles), and “body sensing” (I’m making my way through Danny Dryer’s ChiRunning). At one point my right knee was hurting a tiny bit. When I became aware of it, I tried to consciously relax the muscles around the knee and straighten my feet a little, and the pain went away.

Long runs on sunny days create the right conditions for my version of “runner’s high”: a feeling of perfect happiness, that all is right in my world, my body and mind are in sync and I’m doing just what I ought to be doing. I’m a monist, not a dualist–I think body/mind is one thing, that I am my body and my body is me, so it’s unfortunate that I’ve often been more focused on the cerebral and not taken my body seriously enough. One of the great things about running is the necessary focus on listening to my body, fueling my body (instead of just eating what my mind thinks I *want*), appreciating my body and what it can do. So that feeling that my body is doing what it was designed to do, that I’m using it to its full capacity as well as my brain, brings happiness and fulfillment.

I have a hat and wristbands now, but the jury’s still out (maybe a visor would be better; a TOWEL would definitely be better than a wristband!) I wore shorts on Friday’s 3-miler and got a blackfly bite on the thigh that hurt like the dickens (especially when my sweat got into it and made it sting) and still itches. I’ll definitely put up with the increased heat of tights in order to avoid that happening again (plus the sunscreen factor). Of course I get bitten & sunburned on my arms, but I’m used to that. My poor legs are usually covered up so they would have a lot of toughening up to do.

Still lots of new wildflowers this week, though it’s got to slow down soon: milkweed just starting, crown vetch, yarrow, musk mallow, aslike clover, curled dock, wild madder (awful weed!), butter-and-eggs, one small brown-eyed susan, bittersweet nightshade, Deptford pink. A spiked rush of some kind, lots of grasses. Ones I didn’t know & had to bring home to check: whorled loosestrife, moneywort, clasping-leaved dogbane, and one I still can’t find although it looks like it should be easy! At the opposite end of Stanley Lake I saw a couple of dandelions with three or four skippers on each (cute little brown insects that are not true butterflies but in the same suborder), and I saw one mourning cloak butterfly.

Tomorrow will be my last long run in pre-training, and then I’ll start the Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer 16-week program. I’ve been posting once a week, but now that I’m moving into high gear, more frequently feels right. I’ve read NRMT all the way through a number of times, but I’m going to go through methodically one chapter a week as I prepare for that week’s training. So I read the introduction this week & it led me to think about why I want to run a marathon.

I’ve never been athletic; last-picked all through school, etc. I don’t stand a chance of ever excelling at any physical activity. The beauty of the marathon is that just finishing is an achievement–and one that most anyone recognizes as such. I mean, it was an achievement for me to finish my first 5K, but in the grand scheme of things that’s not a big deal. But running a marathon is. Sure, it’s something just about anyone could do, but few people actually attempt it. Lots of fit people could hop out of bed and run 3.1 miles without any preparation, but not 26.2.

When I looked at the Forest City News article on Steamtown and saw the long list of names, I realized that each of those people had done something amazing. And that’s what started me running on a small scale, 4 1/2 years ago, even though at that time the marathon was not a realistic goal for me. So: an achievement. A physical achievement. A peak experience, which in my philosophy of life are to be sought out whenever possible.

And what really sold me on NRMT when I flipped through it at Barnes & Noble was the focus on the psychological benefits. All the regular people who took Whitsett & Dolgener’s class (NRMT is based on a 3-credit “marathon class” taught at University of Northern Iowa) said preparing for and running the marathon changed their lives. They talked about feeling, believing that they could do anything now. I want that!

Running a marathon is a peak experience available to anyone that will take you to what you thought were your personal limits and beyond. It is easily accessible, relatively inexpensive, and is the single most physically and mentally challenging activity (equal only to childbirth) I have ever experienced.
…
Granted, running a marathon is certainly not the only way to exercise control over your life. But it is one way. And it could be your way. We will lead you through it, and if you follow our instructions, you will finish. And it will change your life. That’s a promise.

And here’s what Hollie, author of my favorite running blog, said:

i want to turn 29 a few days after the race in october, having the pages of this story written, and feel like i made something of my 28th year– i got off my ass and did something so remarkable, difficult, and inspiring that i can carry it with me as long as i’m alive to remember it.

Change 29 to 40, and yeah, that’s it in a nutshell. And she did it, and it felt just as amazing as she hoped.

Miles for the week: 13 (3/2/3/5) PRE-TRAINING WEEK 3
5 miles LSD: 58:31, average heart rate 150
Weight: 119
Resting HR: 48?
Fitness test: 49

Perfect day: sunny, breezy, not too hot. I tried to keep my speed down by focusing on a 3/3 rhythm for the first 4 miles, aiming for heart rate under 150 (except up hills), then picked up the pace for the last mile. Thanks to Mark adding me to his collection of running blogs this week, I got hooked on Hollie’s enthralling marathon training blog, which I spent way too much time reading but led me to think about focusing on not overdoing it! She pushed herself too hard in the early stages of training and suffered through several injuries. My mileage is still very, very low (and will stay that way with the Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer schedule), but I have to be careful of the desire to run faster on the long runs. I’ve also been reading that hills are equivalent to speedwork, in which case I’m forced to do speedwork on every single run. So taking the long run as easy as I can (“you should feel like you’re not working hard enough”) is important.

I’ve already started to think about how I plan to break down the marathon mentally, since the longest runs before it will be two eighteen milers. This will probably change as training really gets underway, but right now my plan is to think of the first 20 miles as “the last training run,” and the final 6.2 as “the marathon.” “The marathon is twenty miles of running and six miles of truth,” quotes Hollie. Yipes. And the amount of pain she ran with…I’ve had it really, really easy up until now.

The new running tights are working out OK. I’m also going to need non-cotton underwear, maybe a hat, & something to deal with sweat–tennis wristbands would work. Next week 14 miles, and then real training begins!

Flowering now: multiflora rose, which is *everywhere* and perfumes the air (it’s a noxious weed and I’m trying to get rid of it on our ten acres, but it does smell good); Virginia rose; wild sunflower; heal-all; yarrow; hop clover; mountain laurel in full bloom now. I saw some kind of ichneumenon wasp with an incredibly long ovipostor (at least as long as the rest of the body), a dragonfly, and lots of butterflies. There was a tiger swallowtail feeding from the mountain laurel (beautiful together), some tortoiseshells, and many butterflies I can’t find on a quick flip through my books: mostly black with a white stripe across the wings. [Turns out they were admirals; alive the white stripes line up to make a V, but the identification pictures I was looking at were of dead pinned butteflies, with wings spread out as they never are in life. 6/19/04] A couple of male goldfinches right near a stand of yellow hawkweed, so they looked like flying flowers themselves. No dogs or geese today, but earlier in the week there were about 7 or 8 geese couples with maybe 50 or 60 goslings, various ages but all quite large. Too many geese!

Miles for the week: 12 (2/3/2/5) PRE-TRAINING WEEK 2
5 miles LSD: 55:29, average heart rate 151
Weight: 119
didn’t do resting HR or fitness test

Wow–by far my fastest 5 miler, more than a minute less than last week. I flipped through ChiRunning at a bookstore, which reminded me of the idea that you should lean forward and let gravity move your legs instead of keeping your torso vertical. It makes me go faster no matter how short I keep my stride (my feet are overlapping!), so it’s slightly more effort than running as slowly as possible, but it’s clearly much more biomechanically efficient. Still feels a little unnatural but it’s getting easier. I’m thrilled to be seeing improvements, although I need to be prepared to get slower again as I start real training and my long runs get longer. I got new gear from National Running Center–lighter-weight tights, and non-cotton T-shirts. It definitely helps that they don’t get clammy and heavy, but they are loose-fitting enough that they ride up, which is very annoying.

New wildflowers this week: field hawkweed, devil’s paintbrush, pinapple weed, elder. Mountain laurels are budding. There was a great blue heron dropping down into the little pond off Canada Road where it hangs out sometimes. They are such spectacular birds–majestic and elegant whether flying or standing. First red eft of the season, then another one. A woodpecker–not sure what kind. A road-killed mole–I knew they were theoretically around here but I’ve never seen one.

On Friday there was a Canada gosling lying in the middle of Canada road that looked healthy but couldn’t walk. I drove back and it was still there, so I brought it home to warm up in hopes it was just chilled from being separated from its parents and siblings. But it didn’t get any better, so I dropped it off at Wildlife Rescue on my way to work. I heard later that it didn’t survive. :*( There are too many Canada geese anyway, but I couldn’t leave it there to be run over or attacked by dogs. Today there were 2 goose families by Stanley Lake that looked just the right ages to be the same ones I’ve normally seen at the pond. I guess they could have walked all the way, and maybe that’s when my lost gosling got left behind…

Today also I saw an aluminum stepladder with a FREE sign on Stanley Lake road. I’ve been thinking of getting one so I drove back for it. It’s a good run when you save $30+!

Miles for the week: 11 (2/2/2/5) PRE-TRAINING WEEK 1!
5 miles LSD: 56:41, average heart rate 148
Weight: 119
Resting HR: 44
Fitness test: 51

A wonderful long run! Perfect day: cool, dry, sunny, cloudless blue sky. I’ve been trying to focus a little bit on quick light steps (“running on eggshells”) and clearly that helped me run more efficiently. I even had to switch to a 3/3 rhythm for a stretch (3 steps on inhale, 3 on exhale) when 2/2 has always been the only comfortable rhythm. But I didn’t spend too much time working on that so I could also just relax and enjoy the run. The other thing I did differently was run the last mile or so at a medium pace; that’s based on Hal Higdon recommending a 3/1 split to help train for speed (although it’s supposed to be on a long enough run that the first three-fourths deplete the glycogen from your slow-twitch muscles, i.e. 60 to 90 minutes). You run at your normal LSD pace until the last quarter of the workout. Makes sense.

Higdon describes 3 paces: “jog”, 50-65% of maximum heart rate, “fairly light” effort (this is a pace that DOES NOT exist for me, at least not yet! I cannot run slowly enough to keep my heart rate down that much!); “easy”, 65-75% of MHR, “somewhat hard” effort (easy is hard? that’s like small being tall); “medium”, 75-80%, “hard” effort (medium is hard too). Why so confusing? He also defines the “easy” pace as being “conversational (not a jog)”. Huh? The slowest I can possibly run is barely conversational. Well, I’ll continue to adapt new ideas to my own training however it seems to work best for me.

The oldest goslings in the three pairs of Canada geese are almost 3/4 the size of their parents now–they’ve got adult proportions but look a little portlier, and still sort of fuzzy. Very cute! During the week the three families were in the meadow across the road from the pond, and only the adult heads were visible (like periscopes) in the tall grass. Daisies are just starting in the sunnier areas; also blackberry, red and white clovers, plantain, and grasses. I did spot a very few phloxes this week. Columbines are flowering in people’s gardens, but I’ve only ever seen one wild columbine around here, deep in the woods in the state game lands.

I’m amazed my resting heart rate is dropping so quickly. I haven’t even started real training yet! Cool that when I started 10 weeks ago, my “fitness test” was lower than my resting HR, and they crossed last week.

Miles for the week: 8 (2/1/5)
5 miles LSD: 1:01:21, average heart rate 158
Weight: 119
Resting heart rate: 47
Fitness test: 50

Horribly humid today, which slowed me down significantly. I even walked a little bit on one of the hills because my heart rate was so elevated, and it took a long time to drop. There was a cool breeze off Quaker Lake, and it rained a little near the end, which both helped. But it’s summer already (spring, my favorite season, is so short!), so I’d better get used to this. I need some better gear–cotton T-shirt feels clammy, my tights are too heavy, etc. This coming week I start adding a mile each week in preparation for “real training” (starts June 21st). I missed 2 miles this week due to early-morning work commitments…I’m going to do my best not to let that happen again.

I’ve been thinking about why I’m so slow. I know it’s primarily just genetic, but it still puzzles me. Yes, I’m short (5’2″), but my legs are a little long for my height. No, I’m not skinny, but I’m certainly not plump. I’m considered strong for my size. I’m sure my form could use some improvement, but there’s nothing glaringly wrong with it; arm and leg movements symmetrical, arms swinging where they should, shoulders relaxed, etc. I was reading that the difference between elite and normal runners is not how fast they move their legs but how strongly they push off the ground…so if my legs are normally strong, why don’t I run as fast as a typical woman my age? I have Daniels’ Running Formula, which I’ve only browsed so far, but he talks about the importance of turnover speed and says that elite runners take at least 180 steps a minute. I counted today and I’m right around there. Hmmm…. Not that it really matters, I’m just curious about it. I have a Hal Higdon book, Run Fast, which I’ve also only browsed. As the marathon approaches, I’ll probably start poring over these books.

Wildflowers blooming now: birdsfoot trefoil just starting, buttercups everywhere, speedwell started last week but I forgot to mention it (one of my favorite flowers), chickweed, mouse ear, cinquefoil, a shrub that’s either elderberry or viburnum, Herb Robert (love that name), honey locust just budding, hawthorns starting. Phlox is flowering everywhere in the county, but there doesn’t seem to be any on this 5-mile stretch, which is a little strange. I saw two robins squabbling from a distance, flying up at each other–couldn’t tell whether it was territorial disputes, or one was an overgrown baby trying to get its parent to feed it.

Miles for the week: 10 (2/1/2/5)
5 miles LSD: 59:38, average HR 151
Weight: 119
Resting heart rate: 49
Fitness test: 44

Five miles is almost starting to feel effortless (the hills are are still a challenge, but when I get home I don’t feel exhausted or anything). On the flat parts I barely notice or hear my breathing (around 140-145 HR)–that’s what long slow distance should be, I guess! My one miler is still “intervals,” but I really think I’m doing those wrong. If I want to do speedwork at all I should probably go to the high school track. That’s just such a pain!

Transitioning to summer already–the swallows are back. The Canada goslings (saw them Friday, not today) are at least 4 times as big as two weeks ago. Dandelions have gone to seed already. Wild strawberry, honeysuckle, Russian olive, lilacs, winter cress, apple trees, Canada mayflower, starflower, lots more in bloom. I saw a new-to-me wildflower: fringed polygala. This is turning into “Hilary’s marathon blog & nature diary,” I know, but that’s one of my incentives for running. I was looking through a book called The Path: A One-Mile Walk Through the Universe by Chet Raymo–about his walk to work every day for 37 years and what he’s noticed. That’s what I like to do: see the changes in the familiar.

Miles for the week: 10+ (2/2/1/5+)
No stats on the long run
Weight: 120
Resting heart rate: 48
Fitness test: 44

I did the resting heart rate & fitness test while I was asleep (woke up & put on HR monitor, then dozed), so those are the best possible numbers! Long run was yesterday, during the Diabetes Walk that I help organize. We made at least $12,500 this year, which is just amazing! The walk is two miles out and two miles back on a rails-to-trails type path, mostly flat, and I did it twice, running at least 5 miles and walking the rest. (Did it twice because traditionally I bring up the rear to make sure no-one is left stranded on the trail). A lovely day, a little chilly and overcast but eventually the sun came out. Good place for wildflowers, including trilliums–only place I’ve ever seen them.

It’s definitely much harder for me to pace myself when there are other people around, which is why I think I’d prefer to train entirely by myself. (A friend who also runs said he and his running buddy, who live in Montrose, would be up for entering the marathon if we all trained together–would I be willing to drive to Montrose for the long run?–and I said I’d think about it). I’m a classic introvert–basically friendly & sociable, I like most people, but I need to recharge my batteries with alone time because being with people drains me. And training is enough of a time committment by itself–I don’t want to add in driving time plus the inevitable socializing time afterwards. I’d enjoy it, but it would really kill the whole day. Give me “the loneliness of the long-distance runner”…

Miles for the week: 5 (1/4)
4 miles: 49:15, average HR 165
Weight: 119
didn’t do resting HR or fitness test

Mixed-up busy week, I gave blood Tuesday which was also Election Day so I had to leave early, and we went away for the weekend so I tried to do my long run Friday. Giving blood messes with my running for quite a while, although one theory is that like training at high altitude, donating blood can eventually make your red cells bounce to higher levels than they would otherwise. I notice a strong effect from donation for at least 3 or 4 days, but it seems to go away within a week. I did schedule myself to give again at the beginning of August, when my training will be well underway; but by marathon day maybe I’ll be benefitting from the red cell spike! Anyway, the four-mile run Friday morning (I didn’t have time for 5 miles) was very hard. I ran to the State Game Lands which start across the valley from where we live, all the way to a beautiful little trail maintained for hunters (so it’s not a nice loop, just a dead end). I was excited that it’s just a little more than 2 miles from our house to the end of the trail, so that’s a good 4-miler. 2 very very steep hills (our cross-country cyclist friend Talbot said that the road was harder to bike than the Continental Divide!) up and down, so good hill training. Saw the first Canadian goslings, just hatched; three flickers squabbling and chasing each other; flowering grass (sedge actually) with fuzzy yellow blooms; bluets (also known as “Quaker Ladies” or “Innocence”–very evocative names! they are the mystery patches of white I see on lawns while driving at this time of year, that almost look they they hover above the grass because their stems are so thin); violets.

I am finally registered for Steamtown! There are currently 13 people whose last names start with C registered. One of them is also from Friendsville, which is amazingly coincidental.