Sunday, December 18, 2011

Afternoon Delight

While I was thrilled to get a chance to sneak one more 2011 race in this past Saturday, I also needed to get a long run in, because Saturday was my first official day of training for the Myrtle Beach Marathon. Note: I still don't have a training plan yet. I am leaning towards Hal Higdon's advanced training plan, except it's really intense, and I would be starting at week 10 of 18, and I didn't do the other 8 weeks. Oh, and next month I'd have to add in Half Ironman training on top of 50+ mile weeks. Thoughts/suggestions?

Saturday night, at the ugly sweater party, my throat started hurting and it was getting really hard to swallow. I always have people suggest Airborne when I start getting sick. I have a problem with Airborne.


"Created by a school teacher!" should not be prominantly displayed on anything masquerading as a "medicine". If a teacher ever does create a helpful drug by mistake, their career should be kept a deep, dark secret. I am a teacher. We teachers are good at many things, and our skills can be generalized to other situations, like calming down a sobbing friend in the middle of the dark woods after having to wade through an icy creek.

You know what I learned in college? How to make fun math activities and write behavior charts. You know what I didn't learn? Pharmacology. I didn't learn it so much that I don't even know if that's the right word for people who make medicine, but it doesn't have any red squiggly lines under it, so I'm going with it.

I have no idea who makes this stuff, but the box doesn't scream "created by a ridiculously under-qualified person in an entirely different field!", and it was actually recommended to me by a doctor, so I tried it. 


Tastes great, and I felt a million times better Sunday morning. Not great enough to be ready to run 14 miles though. Although that was due to my affinity for lazing around and drinking coffee all morning, not my sore throat.

Also, Eric is at a wrestling pay-per-view tonight, which I don't entirely understand, but from what I can piece together, it would be equivalent to me being at the live filming of a Twilight or Sex and the City movie. The point being, I wanted to spend some time with him before he left. We watched the Biggest Loser marathon and finale on DVR, and didn't move until well into the afternoon. A perfect Sunday.

You can never see enough Dolvett
 I finally headed out for my 14 mile run (distance chosen arbitrarily) around 2:30. The first 10 miles felt great, and flew by. I've never hit THE WALL in a marathon (and secretly don't even really I believe in it), but something similar to what people describe THE WALL as being like happened at mile 10, and I instantaneously went from feeling great to feeling like crap. Probably because my lunch was part of a granola bar and a Gu at mile 7, but I thought the 8 desserts I'd eaten in the previous 48 hours would carry me through. Also the sun started setting and I started freezing to death. 


Mental note: Sunday afternoons are not good for long runs. It was totally worth it for the fabulous morning, though.


14 miles, 9:36 pace, and training has sort of officially begun.


 I tried out the new timeline thing on Facebook, and saw this wall post from after my first 10K in my last semester of college.




Running a 10K in upstate NY in February....genius


5 years later, we finished our first marathon hand in hand. It's like she predicted the future. I love taking social media trips down memory lane. I had no idea I even knew what a marathon was in college.





When do you like to do long runs? Clearly I'm not cut out for any time other than first thing in the morning.


Ever been reminded of something cool that you'd completely forgotten about online? 
I should check out my old Myspace....who even knows what I'd find on there.

13 comments:

  1. Even the intermediate marathon training plan is pretty intense, maybe just do that one? Personally I think you already have the base running wise, so you don't need to run 50+ miles every week to prepare, especially if you're spending time biking/swimming. Do you have a goal time for Myrtle Beach?

    Afternoon long runs are rough, but not getting up early is pretty nice.

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  2. Long runs starting at like 6 am are awesome. Then you are done by like 8-9 am, stretched, foam rolled and ice bathed by 10 am.

    For HIM and marathon training...I think in the advanced plan, you can replace almost any "easy" run with bike/swim cross training. The point behind those is aerobic base and recovery, and biking/swimming are perfectly good for that. The pace, tempo, track, and long run workouts are key, but the others really aren't.

    Also, two-a-days are in your future. Just accept it. And embrace it.

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  3. Morning runs are an absolute must...my laziness multiplies as the day goes on....

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  4. I'm a firm believer in Emergen-C. I have seen it work miracles!

    To be honest, I don't really believe in "The Wall" or "The Bonk" either. Yes, I have felt my legs get heavy and slow at the end of a long run or race, but I think it is an excuse. People use those terms when they can't push through the pain/discomfort and mental hardships that come along with running long. It cracks me up when I read race reports and the person says they 'bonked' at mile 14 of a marathon. I want to write 'well, you didn't train right or you didn't eat' This isn't rocket science.

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  5. I did the intermediate marathon training (with some alterations). I say go for it.

    I totally agree about airborne. Plus, there have been studies that prove it does nothing. Emergen-C is the way to go.

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  6. I've never thought airborne worked and it tastes terrible. I have heard about the other - need to try it.

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  7. Oh man, I totally sucked at doing a long run this weekend. My holiday to-do list was sucking me in. I must get on it. 50 miles a week sounds hellish.

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  8. You can NEVER have too much Dolvett. :)

    I have to do my long runs in the morning too, or else I'll never get out the door...

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  9. Emergen-C is awesome. I've been drinking it since I was a little kid, and I love that stuff so much. I have no advice to give re: training plans but I'm also in the market for a marathon plan that's about 10 weeks long...definitely not the advanced one!

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  10. take a look at pete pfitzinger, brad hudson, and the FIRST training plan. they are all good too. i'm using the FIRST plan for the 3rd time (i alter it and add more miles) and it might be good for incorporating triathlon training.

    i have a degree in pharmacology and would recommend zycam (zinc) in an instant! i usually shy away from anything homeopathic but this gets the job done!

    I also have to do my LRs first thing in the AM. my run will always suck if i wait until the afternoon.

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  11. You can never have too much of Dolvett!

    What a great trip down memory lane!

    I have to get my long runs done in the morning. Although I've slipped them in later in the day in the past.

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  12. Hahaha, I LOVE your rant on Airborne. They actually lost a class action suit for making false claims about its effectiveness. Anyways, what I've read is that the clinical study data supports zinc as being the most effective in preventing illness, rather than Vitamin C.

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  13. Love Dolvett and Allan swears by Emergen-C. It's kept him relatively well so far this winter so it's worth it so far.

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Thanks for commenting! Comments make me probably more happy than they should.