Training Week 3: Christmas and Illness

Week 3's training schedule looked like this:

Monday: 3 mi easy with hills

Tuesday: 4 yassos + 1-2 mi WU/CD

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 3 mi tempo run + 1-2 mi WU/CD

Friday: 45 min cross train

Saturday: 8 miles long

Sunday: Rest or 45 min cross train

This week did not go as I had hoped. It started off fine with my 3 easy miles on Monday. Tuesday was a busy day at work and I didn't eat as often or as much as I should of, and by the time I got to the gym my stomach was growling and I was out of food. I said to myself, okay, I'll drink a lot of water and give this run a try. If I'm tired, I'll just cut the cool down to 1 mile. I made it through my 2 mile warm up, but my stomach was relentless with it's growling and grumbling. Determined to make it through, I started on my first yasso only to get half way through and have to stop because I felt like I was going to pass out. I knew right then that the day would be a loss. So I quickly packed up my things and went home to eat. Wednesday was Christmas eve and my trainer was off. Thankfully the gym was open for a short period of time and Dad and I were able to go and I got the remainder of my workout in. It was a struggle to get through though, as I was feeling tired and sluggish.  Thankfully I was able to take a relaxing shower and rest up a bit that day so that I was able to enjoy a great Chistmas Eve with my extended family at my Uncle Brian and Auntie Joyce's in Litchfield, NH.  I always look forward to Christmas eve and getting to spend time with my cousins and family.  It was a great evening. 

Thursday was Christmas day and unfortunately I didn't make it out to do my 3 mile tempo run. But we did have a fantastic Christmas here in the Nowoswiat house. We opened our presents together in the morning and everyone was very happy with their gifts. Needless to say, I got some great new running gear including an awesome running jacket from my mom and a purple GPS watch from Jack.  I was excited to get to test them both out!

Friday I was feeling a bit off, but still managed to make it through Thursdays tempo run complete with a 2 mi WU AND a 2 mi CD. Friday night I got together with two of my best friends from college, Julia and Ann, at Ann's apartment in Worcester. It was so great to be able to catch up with them especially as Julia is down in Atlanta at Emory getting her MPH.  Although I wasn't feeling too good, I rallied enough to go out to the bar with the girls and enjoy a drink. I had planned to miss the Saturday team run since I was sleeping over at Ann's. In the morning we all went out for breakfast before Julia had to return home and I went down the Sturbridge with my mom and Carolyn to meet up with my cousins Madelyn and Rachel and my Aunt Maria from my dad's side. They live in Pennsylvania, but were up in Connecticut visiting my Aunt Maria's sister. It was so nice getting to see them, which is something we rarely get to do since they live so far away. 

Today, Sunday, the real extent of my sickness began to set in and I felt too lousy to exercise. I've started to develop bad sinus congestion and a cough and am a little concerned about how long this will last. 

Unfortunately, this was a less than stellar week for running and I only completed 19 out of 26 possible miles. Hopefully next week will be better. 

Training: Week 2!

Our second week of training looked like this:

Monday: 3 easy miles with hills

Tuesday: 3 yassos + 1-2 mi WU/CD

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 3 mile tempo run + 1-2 mi WU/CD 

Friday: 45 min cross training 

Saturday: 6 miles long

Sunday: Rest or 45 minutes cross train

(for definitions of the runs, see last week's post!)

This week was another good week of training. I forgot to mention last week that on Wednesdays I meet with a Personal Trainer at the gym I belong to and we have a half hour session. So I decided from the beginning that unless my schedule gets screwed up Sunday would be my rest day, since I will be working out for 6 straight days during the week. 

This week my schedule got a little switched up because of late night meetings and some icy road conditions, so I ended up doing 45 minutes of cross training on Thursday and completing my tempo run on Friday. 

Saturday we had our second team run. We met again in Waltham at the Children's Hospital satellite location. We didn't have a clinic this week, but we still went through the whole warm up routine together. This week when our coaches asked if anyone wanted to give a dedication or share why they were running for Children's I decided to share my story. I jokingly told everyone that I was sharing my story, predominately because I was a hazard on the road, not being able to see what was on my left hand side. It was nice to share with everyone my personal connection to Children's and to tell them that despite my not being a child anymore, that I was still being treated at Children's to this day. 

When we headed out for our run, I could tell everyone had listened to what I had to say, because when they passed me they told me they were on my left so I knew they were coming (it's nice not to have someone all of a sudden pop out from next to you).  

Our run today was blessed with good weather again. Pretty much the same conditions as last week. I have been listening to the Serial podcasts during my long runs and I'm pretty addicted. I know I'm late jumping on the Serial bandwagon, but if you haven't listened to them yet, you definitely should. It's nice to listen to something other than music sometimes, especially when you're not pushing yourself for speed. I told Sarah, my coach, about the podcasts and she said she was going to start listening too!

One of the cool things about running with the team is that they put water stops out along the course. Basically it's just a milk crate with water, gatorade, and cups in it, but it's nice to know you don't have to carry water with you on the long runs. Plus everyone generally stops at them for 2 minutes or so and chats with each other before they move on. 

Over all the run went well. My knee has been bothering me for some time and today I tried the kinesiology tape as opposed to the brace I had been wearing. It doesn't provide as much support I my knee needs at the moment, but it'll definitely be good to wear during the week for extra support. I've been using the KT Tape brand. You can check them out here: http://www.kttape.com. It's a little expensive, but if you put it on correctly you can wear it for up to 3 days. Hopefully my knee will heal up quickly though!

This week I completed 22.3 out of a possible 23 miles.

Training Week 1 and First Team Run

Week 1 of training looked like this:

Monday: 3 easy miles
Tuesday: 2 yassos + 1-2 mi WU/CD
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 2 mi Tempo run + 1-2 mi WU/CD
Friday: 45 min cross training
Saturday: 5 miles long
Sunday: Rest or 45 min cross training

Some quick definitions.

Easy - run between 30 -90 seconds slower than your goal race pace
Yassos - run 800 meters (1/2 mile) at your goal time, followed by recovery jogging for the same amount of time and then repeat for the number of intervals on the schedule
Tempo run- This is a run where the goal is to run at your goal race pace
Long - Your pace on these runs should be 1-2 minutes slower than your goal race pace.

WU/CD - Warm up and cool down 

On Saturday (Dec 13) morning we had our first team run. 

We met at the Waltham location for Children's Hospital in their (relatively) new Sports Injury Prevention center. 

We had a clinic with one of the women who works at the center who gave us some great stretches she recommended we do before our run.  As a runner, and athlete in general, I am notoriously bad at warming up before I start my workouts. I know I should be getting those muscles ready to work, but it tacks on to the length of the workout and sometimes you just want to get going. Thankfully, we were forced to stretch before going out on our first run. If you want to learn more about stretching warm ups for runners, there's a good article from Runner's World you can read here: http://www.runnersworld.com/stretching/a-runners-guide-to-warming-up.

After our warm up our coaches asked if anyone would like to make a dedication or tell why they were running for Children's. Normally I'm not shy and am willing to share, but decided to not share this first day. One of my team mates told us that she is running for her younger cousin who is currently being treated at Children's. We then bundled up and set out for our run. 

Thankfully the weather was great. No snow or ice on the ground, sunny skies, and temps in the mid-thirites. Just what you would hope for with December training. 

The run went very well. I ran along at a comfortable pace for a while by myself, then one of my coaches, Sarah, caught up with me and we started chatting. I shared my story with Sarah and she encouraged me to share it with the group the next week. It was great to get to know her a little more and have someone to run with. 

Overall it was a successful first week of training with 18 out of a possible 20 miles completed. 

2015 Team Kickoff at Kings Bowl

Today the Miles for Miracles team kicked off our 2014-2015 training season with brunch and bowling at Kings Bowl in Dedham.  It was an exciting morning! The hospital was collecting gift cards to local pharmacies and supermarkets to give out to families in need at the hospital.  I picked up two gift cards to Stop and Shop on my way to the event, happy to make a small but meaning contribution.

Kings had set up a nice breakfast buffet with all sorts of goodies including fruit, eggs, french toast, and even bacon. Each group could bowl a game for free. They also had a fun photo booth set up where you could take pictures with fun signs. They printed them out on magnets and gave each person their own to take home!

Those of us who attended had the ability to meet our patient partners. Patient partners are children who are currently being treated for a variety of reasons at Children's Hospital. Runners can elect whether they want to be a part of the patient partner program or not. I was very excited by this opportunity, as I am still considered a Children's Hospital patient myself. What better motivation to finish the race than knowing you will have a great kid to run for!? After looking around the room for a while for a child with the matching medal number I couldn't seem to find my patient partner, Amayah. So I went up to the check in desk and asked if Amayah and her family were coming to the Kickoff. I was informed that unfortunately, Amayah was sick and wouldn't be able to make it to the event. I was bummed to not have the opportunity to meet Amayah, but understood why she couldn't be there.

We were allowed to bring two guests so I brought along Jack and Carolyn. The two of them enjoyed the buffet and we all were able to enjoy a game of bowling. They had team jackets and hats available for purchase and after much debate I settled on a Headsweat running hat figuring I would get a lot of use out of it this winter (plus it was considerably cheaper than the jacket and we had the opportunity to purchase other gear online).

I was able to meet one of my coaches, Sarah. We talked for a few minutes - I told her it was my first marathon and I was very excited to be a part of the team. The Boston Trust staff who organize the marathon team made a brief presentation and showed a great video that was put together after the 2013 marathon. You can see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2dRo9Bp25g. Of course it made me tear up because I was so excited to be part of what seems like a great team. They told us there were 142 runners currently on the Miles for Miracles team with a few more TQs (time qualifiers) expected to join on in the next few weeks. There are currently 77 patient partners as well.

After finishing our bowling game we decided to head out since the crowd seemed to be dying down (the event was only from 9:00 am - 11:00 am anyway). It was a great way to kick off the 2015 marathon season. I'm so excited to get started with training tomorrow!

Welcome to the team!

Today I received the best new of 2014. I was offered a spot on the 2015 Children's Hospital Boston Miles for Miracles Boston Marathon team (that's a mouthful!)

A few weeks ago when the B.A.A (Boston Athletic Association) announced they were accepting applications for spaces for the 2015 race I thought, how cool would it be to run the Boston Marathon!? It's one of the oldest most prestigious marathons in the world. In order to qualify for the race you basically have to be a cheetah or a particularly sprite 90 year old since the qualifying times are crazy otherwise (at least in my opinion).

            

Knowing that unless I quit my job and start running full time I will NEVER qualify for the Boston Marathon I thought, let's go the path of less resistance - a charity team! One of the great things about Boston is the amazing number of charities that have designated places for the race.  Some elite runners take offense to this, especially when they don't get a spot in the race despite the fact that they qualified, but I think it makes Boston special. Plus, charity runners raise MILLIONS of dollars every year for their respective charities through their running of the marathon (basically, suck it up elitists).

When I saw Children's Hospital was one of the charities that participated I knew I had to apply. So I spontaneously submitted an application without even really thinking about it.  I applied on a Tuesday and on Thursday of the same week I got a call from the Children's Hospital Trust, the team that handles the marathon- they were calling to ask me some additional questions about my application! I was surprised they called so soon. I wasn't expecting to hear anything for a few weeks. They told me I would have a definitive answer by the end of the next week. Well, the next week came and I hadn't heard anything. I was so anxious to hear back that I would jump every time the phone rang. Finally two weeks after I got the initial call I decided to just call them and ask about the progress of the application. Unfortunately, I was only able to leave a voicemail. So I kept waiting. Then one Thursday after a lovely employee outing at the Acton Bowl-a-drome my phone rang as I was pulling out of the parking lot. I scrambled to answer the phone, finally answered, and got the news I had been waiting for. I was accepted on to the Miles for Miracles team!

Now the real fun can begin when training starts in a few weeks!