NVM - 11 Days Out

After a minor distraction with a potentially horrible but really fun idea to go run an ultra in AZ this weekend, I am re-focused on the marathon:

@SarahOUaL @jcbonn yeah let me know. I'am intrigued enough to see if it's possible. Last min plane tix = why I ll never have savings.
— Kara Ruecker (@2tix2karadise) February 19, 2014

They ended up filling the spot, which was definitely for the best but it would have been fun.  T minus 11 days until the Napa Valley Marathon.  I am trying not to think about it too much or let the pressure get to me.  It's safe to say I've achieved that since I was wiling to forgo taper to run 30 miles the weekend before the race.

I seem to do my best in races when I don't overthink it and just run.  I don't want to stress too much about plans and the time.  My only real goal is go out slow and hope that when I cross that finish line, my Garmin says < 4:29:59.  Honestly my biggest concern is that we can't wear headphones.  You'd think my biggest concern would be running that last 6 miles but I am VERY used to running with music or someone to talk with.  I apologize in advance to whomever I run stalk and convince them to casually chat with me for 26 miles.

I am looking forward to the experiencing this marathon, it was recently listed by Forbes as a Top Ten Marathon Worth Traveling For:

With a smaller field than most—organizers accept only 2,300 racers annually—the Napa Valley Marathon allows runners some elbowroom. The route runs along the Silverado Trail on the east side of the valley, and winds south from Calistoga down to Napa. The scenery? It’s simply stunning, with views of the valley, fruit trees and dormant vineyards flanked with gold-colored mustard flowers. Except for the last stretch into Napa, this is a rural race—just you, the road and Wine Country. It’s a great race for beginners, as the majority of the course is downhill (with the exception of the oh-so-beautiful rolling hills in the first six miles). Keep in mind that you can’t use headphones, but the picturesque surroundings make up for the lack of tunes. Though this year is sold out, registration for the 2015 race opens on March 3.

Pretty awesome right?  It's been on my race bucket list for a few years and the time has finally come.  Big Sur is on the Forbes list as well so I am knocking out 2 of the 10 this year.  This race will also be a good chance to preview the course for the Zooma Half.   Which speaking of, our ambassador bios are up on the Zooma site, makes it official.  And don't forget, 10% off registration fees, for either distance when you use the code: NAMB10.

To keep my mind distracted we're  heading to Tahoe this weekend to enjoy some snow, skiing-and-hopefully-not-breaking-anything.  One more 10 miler on Sunday, a few short runs next week and then it's go time.

September Stats & HMB Half Marathon

September Stats:

Running: 81 Miles
Cycling: 20 Miles
Spinning: 46 Miles
Yoga: 2 Hours
Weights/Core: 50 min
Total: 147 Miles

Feeling pretty good about last month given I was sidelined for over a week with knee issues.  This past Sunday I did the Half Moon Bay Half Marathon.  I was originally signed up for the full but pulled the ole switcheroo with Nike Women's on October 20th (I think).  To train for Nike, I had 20 on my schedule for Sunday so I decided to just integrate the half marathon into that total.  I had a lot of back and forth about the best way to do that considering I didn't want to run in pitch black or get up at 3am.  I was also very wary of saving the all extra 7 miles for post race because I knew I'd be tired and probably wouldn't do it so I split the difference. 

After my 4am wake up, breakfast (2 eggs, 2 fake sausage links, coffee, Nuun and half a LaraBar) and a 30 min drive  I arrived at the race around 6:15am.  The half wasn't starting until 7:30 so I walked over to the start to get my bearings, use the restroom and then headed out onto the course.  At this point the sun was coming up and it was gorgeous views right along the ocean.  I ran out 2 miles and turned around. I got some frantic/concerned looks from the volunteers who were setting up water stations when I came running up with my bib on.  I tried to keep a nice slow/steady pace since I knew I still had that whole race thing to do:

Mile 1: 9:49
Mile 2: 9:20
Mile 3: 9:33
Mile 4: 9:29

58 degrees, no wind and crystal clear = perfect conditions

Once I got back to the start they announced they were delaying by 15 min which left me almost 45 min to try and stay warm.  I debated going back out on the course for another 3 miles but they were starting the marathon so I wasn't sure where I'd run.  I had a GU, used the porta again and just tried to keep stretching and moving under my space blanket.  At 7:45ish we all lined up and Bart Yasso started the race.

My plan was just to stay with that steady pace and finish without hitting the wall.  Considering I haven't done a lot of long mileage runs I knew even this 17 was going to be hard.  Luckily I felt good the entire race and mentally stayed in it.  This might have been the most beautiful course I've ever run so I tried to take in the scenery but was pretty focused.  I had a Gu at 7 miles and probably could have used another one but didn't want to take the time.

The course ended up being 13.65 miles - whoops!  They have since dealt with the issue and luckily for me it was just a training run but others were not pleased.  That extra half mile was awful, it took all my mental strength not to stop and walk.  I kept thinking about this clip and it got me through.

Mile 1: 8:49
Mile 2: 8:51
Mile 3: 9:04
Mile 4: 9:02
Mile 5: 9:03
Mile 6: 8:59
Mile 7: 9:08
Mile 8: 10:12 (lengthy water/gu break)
Mile 9: 9:06
Mile 10: 9:46
Mile 11: 9:10
Mile 12: 9:43
Mile 13: 10:12
Mile .65: 6:26
Final Time: 2:07:28 (9:20 avg. if you factor the extra mileage)

I crossed the finish line feeling like ran a good/smart race and training run.  The only problem was I had 2.5 more miles to get to 20 but I didn't want to get stuck in the parking lot with the crowds and I couldn't run on the course.  I did a quick change out of my soaked clothes and drove back to SF telling myself that I would do a 2.5 mile run as soon as I got home before I showered.  Can you guess how that ended?  Food, shower, coach and football wins every time.  So I still haven't hit that 20 mark but I felt really good with my 18.  I am riding in Levis GranFondo on Sat. and have a 10 mile run planned for Sunday since I can't imagine doing 20 the day after a 60 mile ride.  I am aiming for a 22 miler on Wednesday of next week to start/finish my long runs.  Maybe I am being naive but I still think I can break a 4:30 marathon at Nike, it's just going to be really close:)

I will post a full review of the race but to give you an idea of how amazing the course is, take a look at these:

Motivation For Your Face: Do as I say....

not as I do.  I don't know why I wrote that title.  I am in a very sassy mood at the moment and it was the first thing that came out of my brain.  You're welcome for my classy and sophisticated writing style.

Anywho, my momentary freakout and take-me-out-of-the-game injury is doing MUCH better.  I successfully ran 17 beautiful miles on Monday morning without any knee pain.

Summer in SF

Ridiculous views on this run

In case you weren't aware, knee recovery threads make the boys come running.

What is happening here?  Knee elephantiasis?

Although my knee felt good, the rest of my body was screaming in pain.  How can you get so out of shape in two weeks?  I mean good god.  I've been like an 80 year old limping around the past 48 hours.

So now what?  If 17 was that hard, I knew I was not going to run 26.2 on Sunday.  Unless crab walking the last 8 miles is an approved form of locomotion, I had to come up with Plan B.  Warning - It's not a good plan but it's a plan nonetheless.

Plan B:
October 20th is the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco.  I was excited to participate in this race as a local for the first time and on the 10th anniversary of the race.  Nike once again refused to give us any love through the lottery process.  Nuun to the rescue.  Nuun was given a certain amount of guaranteed entries for their sponsorship and since they couldn't fill them all, they offered them up to the Ambassadors.  We still had to pay the registration fee but at least we could crack into the fortress of Nike's lottery system.  Sound familiar?  Try and try again Nike but you can't keep me out of your races.

I signed up for the half with this girl, thinking it would be three weeks after HMB Marathon and one week after Chicago (which Leslie is running.)  Nice little recovery half.  When I saw HMB wasn't going to happen I e-mailed Nike (or the event group) to see if I could switch to the full.  They said no problem and I would be receiving an updated e-mail stating I was in the marathon and see a charge on my credit card for the additional fee.  Eight e-mails later neither of those things have happened even though they say I've been switched.  So I will either be running 26.2 or 13.1 with Nike on October 20th.  I told you it wasn't a good plan.

I am going to train (healthy knee dependent) as if I am doing the marathon.  I am also going to train at a slow pace because I don't want to further hurt my knee and because I am not anywhere near where I should be 3.5 weeks out from a marathon.  This will be more of a get through it run than anything.  Remember when I said I wasn't going to do those anymore?  Me too.  That's why I am not too worried about the distance fiasco, if I end up doing the half that's probably meant to be.  I have my sights already set on my PR marathon in the future.

So there it is: The Maybe A Marathon Plan.  I am still running the half at HMB this weekend and will be tacking on 7 miles to make it a 20 miler.  The following weekend I am riding a 60 mile bike race which I haven't trained for properly either.  I can't see what could possibly go wrong with this plan.

Also Jenny posted this video on Twitter yesterday and I've watched about 200 times:

Way overdue August Stats:

Running: 68 Miles
Biking: 3.5 Miles
Weights/Core: 30 min
Total: 71 miles (lowest overall mileage month this year)

Injury Report: When Mental Strength Isn't Enough

I have a new found respect for any endurance athlete who's ever been injured.  Somehow I've lucked out and made it 5+ years as a runner/triathlete without ever really getting hurt.  Sure I've had the minor aches and pains and not so minor GI issues but I've never had any debilitating/take you out of the game injuries.  Well my number is up and I am officially on the injured reserve list.

Every Sunday night, I give myself the, this-is-the-week-pep-talk.  On a normal week, I will map my workouts out on my calendar of what I would like to accomplish.  This usually includes 9-10 workouts including 2 at lunch, multiple morning runs and a long run every weekend.  Fast forward to the following Sunday and most likely I got in 5 of those workout, zero before work and cut my long run in half or just didn't do it.  So I start prepping for the next week because THIS-is-the-week. It's a vicious cycle of wanting to be a more serious athlete and refusing to give up other things in my life, ex: drinking on Sat. night and watching Scandal and football on my couch. You know, the important things.  Do I keep dreaming big and executing poorly? YES! Do I think that I am the exception for the time and training required for successful races?  Apparently.  But every now and then I have breakthroughs and fulfilling weeks where I hit all my goals.  Those weeks are what keep me going.

Post Hood To Coast I came home rejuvenated, motivated and ready to take my running to the next level.  I had a quick recovery week and jumped into marathon training with a "I am going to own Half Moon Bay attitude."  I researched some good local running groups, sketched out the next month of training and it was go time.  During the first week of this month I had already logged over 21 miles by Wed.  Normally I don't do 21 in a week.  I decided out of the blue on Thursday I was also going to hit up a lunch yoga class at my gym.  I haven't been to yoga in a few months but thought the stretching would be good for me.  About half way through the class I was in a deep plie squat and felt something pop in the back of my right knee.  It didn't hurt right away but it was a moment of "oh crap, that didn't feel right."

I finished the class and kind of forgot about it until I was telling MFR about it later that night.  The next morning it felt fine so I went for my scheduled 5 miler.  I favored the right leg a little during the run but thought it was mental.  The next day it was sore, swollen and hurt to touch.  I took the weekend off, tried a short run on Tues (no-go)  and finally got into the doctor on Wed.  Long story long, I have tendonitis in my knee; more specifically popliteus tendinitis.  This diagnosis is an educated guess without any sort of x-ray or MRI.  However, things that cause this type of tendinitis: overuse, running downhill and squat position.  Ding, ding, ding!!! 

I proceeded to have my one and only mental breakdown. I am feeling the best I have physically in a long time and more focused mentally then ever before.  I am finally ready to be that athlete I envision every Sunday night and now I am sidelined.  In the grand scheme it's really not that bad and knee tendinitis albeit annoying, is not that serious compared to a torn ACL etc... The problem is the doctor didn't really have recovery plan for me, other than RICE, some dynamic stretching and going by feel.  If you know me at all, you know how much I hate vague directives.  I want him to tell me, don't run for 5 days, ice it for 20 min in the morning and night, do these 5 stretches and you'll be good.  Instead I got more of a could be a few days to a few months response.

It doesn't hurt (more) while running it's actually the worst when sitting at my desk.   So I should keep running right?  Right? For now it's rock taped, I haven't ran in over a week and I think it's getting better.  I did two bike rides this weekend and it didn't seem to bother it at all besides just the awareness of something off with my knee.  I am currently struggling with whether I'll make it worse or is this just one of those pains you can work through? 

My game plan is to ease back into running this week.  I've given up the dream of a marathon in two weeks and will be switching to the half (which may even be questionable depending on how this goes).  I am on the hunt for a good PT since I have a theory everything is stemming from my right hip issues that I've never dealt with.  At this point I have not given up hope for a 2013 Marathon but if I need more time off I'll just have to deal.  I will feel like a failure if I don't meet my sub 4:30 goal but it's not worth it to further injure myself and be sidelined indefinitely.  My biggest concern is being healthy for Ragnar Vegas Ultra and I don't want to jeopardize that by pushing for a marathon.  We'll see how the next two weeks go and then I'll reassess a race/recovery schedule.  I am hoping to at least run a 10 miler this weekend but I'll have to take it day by day and see how it feels.

Any and all feedback is welcome if you've had a similar injury.

Week 2 Challenge & Cascade Lakes Preview

I did it!  I did over 30 miles in week 2 as well.  It's official, Half Moon Bay Marathon here I come.  The week looked like this:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 6 Mile Trackmill Workout: 1 mile warmup, 3 x 2000's @ 8:24min/mile pace (7.1), .5 mile cooldown
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Unplanned Rest - whoops
Friday: 9 mile long run
Saturday: 5 mile tempo run
Sunday: 10.2 mile run on the deathmill (way too long on a treadmill but based on ease it just worked out that way)
Total: 30 Miles Exactly (nothing like squeaking by - I just couldn't do the extra two miles on the treadmill)

It's crazy how quickly the training lightbulb turns on once you officially start.  I've ran more this month then the last two months combined and it should be my highest run mileage month so far this year.  I have two more long runs (including a 15 miler this weekend) before I take a few days off to taper for Cascade Lakes Relay (CLR).  Speaking of CLR, have I told you guys how excited I am for this race? 

I clearly have a love affair with everything that is Bend, OR.  Ex: Lauren, Jesse, Beer, Little Wing etc...

I didn't think it was possible to love Bend more...I was wrong. OTG = the new OTC http://t.co/Eszjne6TsT
— Kara Ruecker (@2tix2karadise) July 11, 2013

Okay it helps that my parents also live there and it's quickly becoming the ultimate endurance athletes playground.  I think if MFR and I ever did move back to OR it would probably be to Bend.  When we found out that HTC denied our team this year it took me about two seconds to sign us up for CLR.  I love HTC and I am all about keeping the tradition but I'd been wanting to do CLR ever since I'd heard about it and this was the perfect opportunity.  Also it gave me an excuse to apply for the Nuun Team!  Win/win.

So next Friday Team Put A Bird On It (Portlandia reference) will be running 216 gorgeous miles from Diamond Lake to Bend.  It's more challenging than HTC and you have to account for the altitude, heat and apparently mosquitoes:(.  But from the looks of it it's going to be a freaking blast.  CLR is on it's 6th year and although it doesn't have the bucket list reputation yet, it's getting there.  There is a more laid back feel (which I love) then HTC; I mean they have a costume leg for crying out loud.  And yes I assigned myself the costume leg by accident so get ready for that.  This year the finish line is at the amphitheater on the river and they are providing us with tubes to float the river and a full scale beer garden with 8 local breweries pouring.  Aka - the best beers in the world.  Pretty good incentive to run fast.

Finally, they have contests throughout the entire race.  Time trial legs, costume, spirit etc... and "the best inactive van adventure" with a prize of pub tour on a 14 person "bike."

Obviously I'll have a lot more to report on once I actually run the thing but it looks pretty badass race which literally combines all my favorite things. 9 days until go time. Can't wait.

Week 1 Challenge Recap

Week 1 was a success.  I busted out 32 successful miles last week.  It looked a little something like this:

Monday: Ran/walked 2.5 easy miles on the treadmill to test out my hip, 90 min yoga class
Tuesday: 6 Mile Trackmill Workout (Track workout on a Treadmill - get it?): 1 mile warmup,
10 x 400's @ 8min/mile pace (7.5), 1 mile cooldown
Wednesday: Skipped my 7 mile planned run because of reasons I can't remember now but at the time seemed like a reasonable excuse.  Something about not waking up on time and needing to finish Season 1 of Newsroom
Thursday: 6.5 Mile Tempo (1M jog, then 3M tempo at half-marathon pace, then 2.5M jog)
Friday: Long slow 7 miles I should have  done on Wednesday
Saturday: Hiking along the coastline with friends
Sunday: 10 Miles
Total: 32 Running Miles

All in all I felt pretty good on every workout.  Thursday was probably my toughest run, just felt sluggish and tired.  My "tempo" miles were not that much faster than my jogging miles.  Yesterday I was surprised by how good the 10 miles felt.  I expected to be exhausted from the week but my legs felt great.  I had a sore back and an upset stomach post run but besides the last mile straight up hill I felt good. It's amazing how just giving myself a goal of 30 miles and a reward of paying money to run even more got my ass in gear.  This week I have 31 on the schedule starting with track tomorrow but today I am going to enjoy my rest day.  My appetite is in extreme shock from actually having a training consistency again.  I've basically had four meals already today and I am already planning how many tacos I am going to be inhaling this evening.  Current plan is three but I think four may be more likely.

In other news, out of pure dumb luck, this happened this morning:

Registration Confirmation for:

Big Sur International Marathon

Dear Kara,

Congratulations! You are now registered for Big Sur International Marathon. Please check the event's official website for updates: http://www.bsim.org/

I have always wanted to run this marathon and now that I live so close, it's moved up on the list.  I knew registration was on July 15th but somehow failed to put it on my calendar or post any sort reminder.  This morning while I was making coffee I was thinking about my week of training ahead and registering for HMB.  That train of thought led to foggy, coastal, scenic CA marathons in general.  Enter Big Sur.   "That would be such a fun race to do someday, maybe next year? When is that registration again? The 15th?  Wait, is today the 15th? Hmm..maybe I'll check it out this evening." Since MFR was still in the shower I decided to get on the laptop and see if it was in fact the 15th. Sure enough ten minutes later I was registered.

Turns out registration had opened at 7am and they sold out in 59 min.  I registered at 7:51.  I think it was meant to be.  But before I start sketching out my 2014 race calendar, let's concentrate on the current important issues;  getting to 32 miles this week and just how many tacos is too many tacos?

Anyone else sign up for Big Sur?