A few years ago, when I was training for my first marathon (ING New York, 2009), I started a blog to track my progress and post updates to family and friends. Getting closer to the deadline I dropped off on blogging about it, but I did finish it and since then have done the Marine Corps Marathon as well (2011). As usual, though, finding time to train with work/thesis commitments and all of the moving around has thrown various kinks into the system.
While training in NYC I got pretty motivated to get back into running more seriously. This was partly because of the very large and devoted NYC running community, and partly due to having a fabulous training partner that lived just 5 blocks up from me in Washington Heights. NYC has a lot of VERY fast runners (including Olympians!) and the competitive juices got stirring again to see how I could push my own speed envelope. Being surrounded by fast women is highly motivating, especially knowing that they are making time to train and workout despite having hellish work schedules too. Plus NYC has lots of gorgeous trails to run, so motivational scenery is around. Lastly, having a very motivated, fun, and fast running mate made it that much more enjoyable to do longer runs, explore New York, and check out new races in Manhattan. She is one of the reasons I miss running in NYC so much, having a buddy to explore the city. I do have to admit, though, that I also really miss the ability to run to Whole Foods from my apartment (6mi), stuff my face with their sushi and Lobster Bisque, grocery shop, and take the subway back to 168 home. Oh public transportation, how I loved you.
The vast majority of the gains that I garnered training in NYC quickly deserted me when I got back to Texas. The mixture of teaching, heat, lack of infrastructure and running community, constantly being surrounded by and pushed to meet my thesis deadline, and spending more time with a non-runner boyfriend pretty much guaranteed that running took the backseat again. I did meet a new running partner, and I did get the opportunity to train with and did enjoy runs together, but the motivation to do consistent running and racing just wasn't there.
Back to the more recent future. After finishing my thesis and graduating, I moved in with my parents for a few months in rural West Virginia to do the job hunt and recover from all the stress of my thesis. It was in the winter, and between snows I would trudge on the mountainous terrain near their house. They live off of a pretty windy but narrow road next to a highway, and I figured out that one way to the highway was 1.5ish miles, the other 2.5ish. Feeling pretty despondent about the job hunt and being stuck at my parents place (I love my parents, but I've always been the child that couldn't wait to get out on her own...and being confined there was wearing down on everyone), at first I started running in the mountains every other day to get used to stratification again. A couple of weeks later, I decided that I needed a goal I could focus on that wasn't work or thesis related: I needed another marathon goal.
So I signed up for the Marine Corps marathon, and started training consistently again. At first it was only 20-30mi weeks to let my quads recover, then it was getting up to 40-50s. Thankfully there was the Greenbrier trail that was nearly flat as a pancake, so I could some of my longer runs without constantly battling hills. One of my favorite challenges was trying to run up Kelly mountain in the State Park in nearby Greenbriar Co, and then sit in a nearby creek with freezing water to ice my legs, surrounded by spring flowers beginning to bloom.
All of this mountain running helped get a lot of strength, which helped a bit in the move to Oklahoma. When I got the job here, one of the first things I said when I arrived was "Holy cow, its flatter than Texas!". And it is...mostly. Thankfully, though, I could find a few hills to prepare me for the Marine Corps stretches through Georgetown, and the training continued really well for the Marathon. All the base and strength I started in West Va helped push the mileage and consistency for the rest of the year, and I managed to take off another 10 minutes off my PR even with non-existent speed work.
So, its spring again and almost a year since I moved here to Oklahoma. After the Marine Corps I managed to get back to the 50's range and even climb up to the near 60's, threw in a few 5-10K's for the Frozen Nose to add some tempo work, and did a 25K a few weeks ago which went really well despite not really taking it seriously as a planned race (I wanted to use it as a long-run, but instead took it as a tempo since I felt pretty decent). The best part about it was it confirmed that all of the hard running over the last year has gone well: the average pace was as fast for 15.5 as it was for my half marathon PR last year. All the higher mileage is kicking in at least, and it does help prove that consistency does really matter. Plus, no injuries other than the usual piriformis issues (which are going away slowly but surely) are a big impact.
Now, back to present. After the 25K my body was not in a happy place, and was starting to show the usual signs of over-training: not sleeping well, crankiness, feeling fatigued even on short runs...all not good. So, I decided to make the 25K my final "winter season" race to cycle down for a bit, and decided to cut mileage way down for a week or so to recover for a spring-summer cycle to start before fall marathon training. Little did I know that