DAY EIGHT – CROSS TRAINING – THREE HOURS
Last year, at this time, I was training for the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk and I met a neighbor of mine who was also participating in the event. She and I walked together several weekends and the hours passed easily while we chatted about everything you can possibly imagine. Debbie will be walking again this year, along with her daughter, Ashley, (Click to make a donation) and she invited me to do a training walk with her. What fabulous marathon cross-training!

So, I met Debbie at the top of my block at 5 am and we had planned to walk for 2 hours. It turned out to be closer to 3. I think we did about 9 miles. It really didn’t seem to take any effort at all. We chatted on and on about all sorts of topics and the miles just melted away. In fact, my legs started hurting at some point and that surprised me because I had no idea of how far we had actually walked until I got home and mapped it out on the Google Maps Pedometer.

Well, I tell you what – it’s a good thing it was a holiday today because the walk really knocked me out. I took a shower, had some lunch, then I went face-down on my bed for about 2 hours. It’s coming up on 12 hours since we finished our walk now and my legs are still pretty tired. I guess I got a good work-out in and I didn’t even really mean to!

That’s my favorite kind of exercise – the kind I didn’t even realize I was doing!

DAY NINE – SPEED – 1.2 MILES AT 7 MPH
Okay, this is not even funny. This is hard! I have all I can do to keep up 7 miles per hour for the measly little distance of 1.2 miles. I thought I was gonna have to stop. I thought I was going to be sick. I did not think I was going to make it, and that was all in the first half mile! I had to concentrate and focus and just keep telling myself to keep going and although it probably only took me about 10 minutes to complete the run, it seemed like DAYS.

This speed run is going to increase in distance 10% each week so that I’m up to doing about 6 miles at this pace in mid-December. That sounds absolutely ludicrous. We’ll have to see what happens. I’m not giving up this early in the game, though, that’s for sure. So, for now, it’s another victory and I will look forward to tomorrow with happiness that I am still on track.

DAY TEN – CROSS TRAINING – FIFTEEN MINUTES
Boy, fifteen minutes of cross-training hardly seems worth it when I think of how hard some of my other workouts were, but I need to remind myself that it’s okay to have an easy day here and there. The object is to get ready to do a very long distance without getting hurt and today’s brief workout is part of the master plan.

I usually ride my bicycle to work, about 3 miles, and it generally takes about fifteen minutes, so I just called my bike ride to work my cross-training. However, to make it more of a ‘real’ workout, I rode much harder than I normally ride when I’m just trying to get to work. I kept it near 15 mph on the way to work, rather than my usual 8-10 mph. On the way home, I don’t know if it was the heat or the headwind, or the fact that I was tired, but I just could not get it up much over 12 mph. I think I’ll blame the headwind.

DAY ELEVEN – LONG – 3.9 MILES AT 6.3 MPH – First of 10 Long Runs
I have to get a routine blood draw today and the collection center is 3.3 miles from my house. I’m going to plan a route that goes through a pretty neighborhood and adds about an extra half-mile to the distance and I’m gonna run to my blood draw. That way, if I have to wait in line a long time, I can stretch and cool down while I wait and if they take me right away, my blood should be pumping strongly enough that the procedure will be effortless for the phlebotomist.

There are, of course, some details about this plan that may not work out that well. The first is that I need to be fasting for the blood draw, so I can’t eat anything before my run. That’s not really a big deal, though, because I don’t usually eat before my runs. However, I think it’s highly likely that I’ll get pretty hungry on the run and I won’t be able to eat, but I think I can manage. However, I also tend to pass out for blood draws sometimes, and adding running to the equation is probably an incredibly dumb idea, but what the heck? If I pass out, I’m sure I’ll just come to, eat something, and then I’ll be fine. Maybe embarrassed, but fine. In any event, it should be an interesting morning.

In case anyone (myself included) thought that was a dumb idea, they were right. Apparently fasting, distance running, Arizona heat, and blood draws do not go together. Actually, I probably would have been just fine had we not added a 45-minute delay to the procedure. When I arrived, they didn’t have my paperwork. My doctors’ office wasn’t yet open, so I waited a few minutes until they could call my doctor. They didn’t answer the phone right away, so we waited about 10 minutes more. The doctors’ office said they had sent the paperwork, but since the lab couldn’t find it, they said they’d send it again. Ten minutes later, still no paperwork. They checked again. Nope. Meanwhile, two whole waiting rooms’ full of people have come and gone while I sat there, hungry, nervous, and getting increasingly irritated. Finally, after 45 minutes, they took me for the draw.

I’m difficult to draw, so I pointed the young gal to the place where most have been successful and she stuck me. About 3-4 seconds later, she utters the number one thing you don’t say during a blood draw, “That’s weird.” I did not need to hear that, but I was still doing okay. Then she added, “It moves.” I’m thinking, “Yeah, that’s right, honey, my veins move. Maybe you can get your mom in here to help you.” She pulls it out and asks me what I want her to do. Um, how about not ask me? You’re supposed to know what to do. I feel my limited bravery waning quickly, but I summon up all the tact I had and suggested that perhaps it was a matter of confidence and that I needed someone with a little more confidence to draw my blood.

That was apparently not the exactly right thing to say. I believe she found it very offensive and she got defensive, but to her credit, she bowed out gracefully and got me another tech. In walks this buxom African-American woman and I was instantly relaxed. She approached with the confidence of a seasoned veteran and I was once again up to the task. I explained that I had given the first gal the best vein I had and she took a look at it and decided to try that one, too. Stick. “Hurray, this is almost over.”

“Have you drank a lot of water?” she asks me? Oh my goodness, why are you asking me questions? “No, not alot,” I respond. She says, “It’s in there, but it’s hard to flash.” Flash? What does flashing have to do with this? Okay, I am no longer in the mood and things start to fade. “Tell me if this hurts,” she says, and repositions the needle. Bye-bye. I manage to tell her that I’m going to pass out and she immediately informs me that this is a no-pass-out room. I’m thinking it is far too late in the game to be changing the rules and that no one told me that before we started, so I’m gonna pass out anyhow.

So, I have this vague recollection of thinking of ‘things.’ I don’t know what kind of ‘things,’ but I think they were nice ‘things’ and that I was really concentrating on them when I heard that woman yelling at me, “Marlo, where did you go?” “What the heck is she talking about?” I think, and I look around and see 3 sets of legs and the floor about 3 feet from my face. Apparently, I am kneeling. Hmmm. I don’t quite remember doing that. Cold cloths go onto my neck and forehead and that sure is nice, but that pushy woman is still yelling at me, asking me weird questions that I can’t quite think to answer yet.

I guess I managed to stand up and walk a few steps to the table and they got me laid down and that woman is still yelling for me to come back because she’s still got to ‘get me.’ I think, “Oh, honey, I don’t think I’m gonna get ‘gotten’ today, you better just step on back and go back about your business. I’m leaving as soon as I can figure out where the heck I am and where I need to go next.”

However, ask for a confident person I did, and they most certainly did deliver. That woman had me turn myself around on the bench and she went after my other arm and did a draw very quickly and without incident. Yeah!!! I had to sit a few moments more to totally regain my composure, and then she tells me that I didn’t even have to be fasting for the test. Oh sure, now you tell me?

She had already asked if someone had brought me, while I was half in and half out. I must have answered her, but I don’t remember. She now asked, “You aren’t jogging or walking, are you?” Um, what was your first clue? I’ve got running shoes with a foot pod on one shoe and a Champion Chip on the other, spandex shorts, a race tee-shirt, a baseball cap, and headphones on, that I realize are still on. I know I’m not really a cover model for Runner’s World magazine, but I would think that my look, or at least my smell, should have given me away as someone who was traveling on foot. She encouraged me to sit a while longer before leaving and she filled my water for me.

When I left, I actually felt fine. I expected to walk home, but I ended up half walking, half jogging, which surprised me. However, I haven’t actually commented on my run to the facility, so let me back up and do that now.

I was not altogether impressed with my performance. I was supposed to run 3.9 miles at a pace of 6.3 mph. Turns out that was just too fast for me. I kept that pace up for about a mile and then I just felt done. I stopped and walked and took a drink for about a tenth of a mile, then tried to get back at it. I just couldn’t keep it up at 6.3. I bounced around between about 5.7 and 6.3, but I did not stay consistently at 6.3. I stopped again at 2 miles, deciding to allow myself mile-marker walking / drinking breaks. My third mile was more like 5.7-6.0 mph and I got to stop twice during that mile, once for a red light and once for a drink. The final mile was just like pulling teeth. I was down around 5.4-5.7 the whole time and I was really worried about the fact that I’m only in Week Two and I’m not able to keep up with my goals. However, I did give myself a break and tell myself that today is my first of ten long runs that I’ll do during this training period. I did it. I didn’t skip it. I didn’t run any slower than my actual marathon pace will need to be, and I did, at times, run faster, so I guess I’ll just accept it and see if I do better on my next long run – one I’ll actually be able to EAT before or during. I think that should help.

Now, even though my run went sorta badly and the rest of my morning was quite awful, it totally doesn’t matter now because my husband surprised me with a GPS running watch! I cannot wait to try it out. He got me a pedometer watch several years ago and I have totally loved it, but certain features have slowly stopped working on it. It still functions as a basic pedometer and I can download the data to my computer, but this new watch is WAY, WAY, WAY better. I cannot wait to try it, even though I am very tired from my run this morning and the walk/jog home. I am actually looking forward to my run tomorrow!

DAY TWELVE – EASY – 1.7 MILES at 4.6 MPH
First of all, I have to say, I love my new GPS! It is really going to be a central part of my ongoing training. However, I am used to looking at miles per hour and the watch does minutes per mile, so I’m gonna have to try to change my thinking over, which is going to be hard.

For example, I know that 4.6 mph is relatively easy for me and that 1.7 miles is not a very long distance, so I just headed out with my GPS and ran the 1.7 miles without a lot of regard for speed. I believe I finished much earlier than I needed to, but I don’t care, I was having so much fun with my new toy!

DAY THIRTEEN -PACER – 1 MILE AT 6.7 MPH = 9 MINUTE MILE PACE
Well, I sure wish I would have looked at my blog before I did my run today because I see that I already converted the miles per hour to a minute per mile pace. This morning I incorrectly guessed that 6.7 mph was an 8-minute mile and I set my “Virtual Training Partner” for an 8-minute mile.

Off I went. “Beep-beep-beep-Speed Up!” says my Virtual Training Partner. “Beep-beep-beep-Speed Up!” “Beep-beep-beep-Speed Up!”

Holy cow, I hear you already! I’m trying! “Beep-beep-beep-Speed Up!” “Beep-beep-beep-Speed Up!” “Beep-beep-beep-Speed Up!”

Yes, I know! I’m working on it, but relax for Pete’s sake! “Beep-beep-beep-Speed Up!” “Beep-beep-beep-Speed Up!” “Beep-beep-beep-Speed Up!”

Okay, I am going to kill my Virtual Training Partner who is now like a quarter mile ahead of me, by the way, and is so rude that he’s not even waiting for me to catch up. I so totally wouldn’t have a REAL training partner who would not wait for me and would continually bark at me to speed up. This Virtual Training Partner needs an attitude adjustment!

“Beep-beep-beep-Speed Up!” “Beep-beep-beep-Speed Up!” “Beep- beep- beep- Speed Up!” Okay, yes, I know, I will NEVER catch up. I obviously have this set too high. I will correct it when I get home, if I ever get home. This run is only one lousy mile and it seems like it’s going on forever.

I finally finish the one mile in about 8 1/2 minutes, well under the 9 minutes I was supposed to be shooting for, but WAY BEHIND my Virtual Training Partner who was set too fast. Well, I’ll fix his little red wagon by tomorrow, that’s for sure!

DAY FOURTEEN – REST