Nurse on the Run

Why hello, Tuesday, it’s nice to see you!  It’s been a busy past few days and time is flying (did you know that it’s February next week??  Who knew??), and that’s just the way I like it.  That being said, I slept late, just ate a bagel and drank some coffee, and I’m enjoying a lazy day off because that’s the glory of having a week day off while all you 9-5ers are back to the grind.  (I worked on Sunday, it’s only fair.)

Anyway, I’ve sufficiently recovered from my speed workout last week, and thanks for all your opinions on it!  The fact of the matter is that I rarely run in an anaerobic state, so I suppose I need to change that…and get used to be it being much less comfortable.  With that, I present to you my long runs and recovery runs (as any run after a twelve hour shift should be…).

running long

I guess I’ve been doing this marathon training thing long enough (five years, yikes!) that I don’t really bat an eye when I have a 16 miler planned.  It’s just a long time to be out there, but I don’t get scared, I don’t always take water, and I don’t always take fuel.  (Hm, maybe that’s a problem…)  When it’s 22 degrees outside, I can manage without water.  And somewhere in the 20’s it was.  At first I didn’t think it was cold, but eventually it got there.  A mini-loops of Central Park followed by some time on the WSH (hello, Chelsea Piers) and then back home.  I was going to make it 18 miles, but I ran out of time in order to catch a train.  16 miles, done and done, and I don’t mind the fact that it feels easy.

Friday, January 20
16.14 miles in 2:05:15, avg pace of 7:46

That’s not long run pace, I suppose…

jersey never fails to fail

As I said, I needed to catch a train to Jersey, as my TERPS played Temple in basketball on Saturday, so naturally I had to catch them since they were so close.  However, an 11am game doesn’t bode so well for getting from NYC to Philly on time.  I hopped on a train to Princeton, as James was my game buddy and he happens to live there…convenient!  Not so convenient is having your train break down before it even leaves Penn Station, and then have it break down again somewhere in NJ so that we must switch trains part way through.  That 45 minute trip took about two hours, which doesn’t surprise me, as New Jersey still hates me even years later.  Luckily, I made it to Princeton and we got some beer to remedy the situation…I spotted Elephant beer sooo obviously I had to get it.  I was sad that the bottle didn’t have an elephant label on the main part of it, but I’ll take it.  I’m easily amused.

My main squeeze and his beer.

Woke up on Saturday morning with the best intentions of getting a run in, but at 7am the roads were covered in two-ish inches of snow and the one snow plow in the state of New Jersey had yet to make it to our neck of the woods.  James was going to stay back as his Achilles has him on temporary injury reserve, and the idea of sloshing through the snow while I pretended to remember a running route didn’t seem like the best idea.  Or, drinking coffee on the couch while watching Modern Family at 8am sounded like a better idea.

Needless to say, I didn’t run.  I might be okay with that.  It’s a very, very rare day when I get a day off from both running and work (a twelve hour nursing shift is hardly a rest day)…I’ll take it.  And off to Philly we went, battling the roads (it was a bit slippery), but we made it and watched the Terps take on Temple at the Palestra. By “take on,” I mean that we ended up losing…but it was still fun!  I got to see Julianne (check out her blog about her autistic brother, it’s pretty awesome), which is always a good time.

Gatsby dressed for the occasion.

So the Terps lost, but it was worth the trip.  Rumor has it they’re playing in the new stadium in Brooklyn next year, so you better believe I’m going to drag some of you to go see them.  (They will play Kentucky, so you better all be wearing red, okay?  You have nine months to buy a red shirt or find a way to fit into mine.)

post works runs

In case you were wondering, a twelve hour nursing shift is kind of tiring.  One of these days I should wear a pedometer to actually determine how far I walk in one shift, not to mention the strength training involved in turning 300 pound patients or holding their legs up for extending periods of time as we change their dressings.  It’s a serious workout, in case you were wondering.  Plus, twelve hours is a long time to do anything, and usually the last thing I want to do when I get home is go for a run…especially when it’s cold and dark.

On Sunday, I managed to squeeze out of work a few minutes earlier (all my patients left, that was nice), so I had no excuses for not getting out for a run.  It was a little on the chillier side, but off to Central Park I went.  Some people are nervous about running in the park at night, but I’ve found that sticking to the lower loop makes me feel safe, as enough people are out that I can always see at least one other person (or horse and carriage!). 

I ran three lower loops of the park, and I’m always amazed that no matter how tired my legs feel to start, I always feel better towards the middle and definitely when I’m done.  We have some crazy patients at work (mentally as well as physically what is being done to them), and one of the nurses told me that doing something disturbing (like we might do from time to time on the burn unit…) and then going right to sleep can lead to nightmares.  So as much as I might want to crawl right into bed, it’s good to do another activity between work and sleep, such as running.  Win.

Sunday, January 22
7.23 miles in 59:01, avg pace of 8:10

I’m also going to call that seven practice miles for when I pace Meggie this year.  It’s going to happen.

When I walked out of work on Monday (closer to 8pm than on Sunday…), it was a glorious 50 degrees with some drizzle here and there.  Even though my legs didn’t feel like it (especially after climbing to the fifth floor…), I couldn’t pass up 50 degree running weather in January, so I put on shorts and a tshirt and headed out the door.  A mini downpour greeted me after about half a mile, but it was short-lived and the rest of my run was glorious.  Call me a running snob, but the other runners out in the park at 9pm on a rainy night are definitely some serious runners.  (With scheduling issues, perhaps.)  And I happen to like it.

It was a little eerie on Monday night, as the temperature was warm but it got creepily cool on the southeast corner of the lower loop.  Fog took over this area and made it a little chilly!  Crazy what a different a half mile can make!

Creepy Central Park last night, compliments of Baker.

I managed another three lower loops for another seven miles.  I’m glad I discovered my go-to post-work run just when it’s time to switch back to nights.  (Two more day shifts, back to nights on Sunday…sad face.)

Monday, January 23
7.27 miles in 58:11, avg pace of 8:00

back to the light

Now it’s sunny and 50 degrees without any rain drops falling from the sky, so I think it’s time for some speed work.  Here we go…

Isn’t it crazy how different each run can be?  How one day you can love running and feel like you can run at top speed forever, and other days you want to throw in the towel after two minutes?  I suppose one of the good things about running is that some runs will always be hard…that’s what makes it worth it, right?  I mean, don’t get wrong…I love a solid twenty miler where I’m cruising and life feels dandy.  But that speed work that makes you huff and puff and feel like you’re working definitely helps to keep things real.

That being said, in the past two weeks I’ve experienced two different speed workouts that theoretically should have been hard yet attainable…on the first one, I felt like I was on top of world.  (Flashback to The Juliana Theory…anyone?)  On the second, everything felt like I couldn’t hold pace at all.  Nothing was terribly different from week to week, yet one was very uplifting and confidence building, and the next made me truly wonder if even trying for 3:10 is a silly idea.

flying

Megan had posted about a workout she did recently, and I liked the idea of it so I wanted to replicate it.  The idea was three miles at marathon pace, then going into three miles at 15-ish seconds under marathon pace.  If you’ve ever read any of my race reports, you would know that I never go out at pace…I always go out too fast.  And then I die at the end.  It’s a problem, I’m well aware.  So this time around I think it’s important to work on understanding what marathon pace feels like so my legs get used to the idea and we don’t bust out those first miles in Hopkinton at sub-7s or something equally crazy.

For a 3:10 marathon, an even paced marathon would require running 7:16 miles.  26.2 times.  Honestly, that kind of freaks me out.  However, doing some pace work helps me realize that it’s not that fast.  It’s just a matter of hanging on.  However, I will have you know that I’m bad at running tangents, so I figure learning to keep pace somewhere between 7:10-7:15 would be best.  (Maybe I’m wrong?  Someone yell at me…)

So anyway, I headed out to Central Park with a mile warm-up and then headed into some marathon pace miles.  The first three?  7:06, 7:03, 7:05.  Oops?  I need my own version of someone who run will next to me and say, “You can run 7:03 if you want, but I’ll be right back here running 7:12’s.”  a la when I paced Meggie back in the day.  These miles didn’t feel super fast, so I was happy with that fact, although I realize that three miles and 26 miles are very, very different.  But I was happy with it.

Once the first three miles were up, I immediately shifted gears and moved into some faster miles.  I wasn’t totally sure if I should aim for a 6:55 mile or truly drop 15 seconds off what I had been running, but the fourth mile came through in 6:56.  That’s nice.  Feels good.  The next two miles?  6:45.  6:34.  You know what?  It felt awesome.  Well, that last bit didn’t feel amazing, but hitting those paces weren’t a problem at all.  I’m a fan.  I finished this workout feeling confident in my ability to go for it on Marathon Monday and run 3:10.  A confidence boost is definitely awesome…

Overall pace for the tempo was 6:55.  That’s nice.

crawling

After that workout last week, I had high hopes for my speed work today.  I decided on 800’s in order to my legs moving a little bit faster…I’ve never been a speedster and getting my legs go to fast is definitely something I struggle with,  but I was ready to take it on.  Since I’m still coming back to speed work, 6 x 800 with full active recovery sounded like a good idea.

Per Mr. McMillan, my pace for the 800’s should be 2:58-3:07.  McMillan…you’re on.  But not until a two mile warm-up.  Done and done, it’s windy out here, but let’s do this…

First and second repeats weren’t too bad, clocking in at 3:00 for each one.  Felt fast, but nothing crazy.  Gotta love fresh legs.  The third 800 was a little less fabulous…3:10, but it was a lot of uphill sooo I guess that’s not so bad.  Fourth repeat?  I want to die.  I’ve been having some minor GI issues lately (I don’t want to talk about it, especially if you’re going to tell me to cut down on the coffee…I go back to night shift in a week, okay?), and my tummy was a rumbling.  Luckily I saved myself from hurling on the attractive Columbia track team that was passing by, but I did take a mini break on the side of the road to prevent myself from doing so.  Minus that break, the repeat was in 3:01.  Not sure if that really counts.

After that little adventure, I wasn’t ready for two more.  The saving grace was that the fifth one was more downhill-ish, but I survived in 3:05.  The last one clocked in at 3:09, and I will admit that I couldn’t have gone faster at all.

So?  3:00, 3:00, 3:10, 3:01, 3:05, 3:09.  That doesn’t look so bad.  At all.  But I cannot even begin to tell you how horrible they felt!  My form felt awful, as if I was trying to sprint the entire time.  An 800 should definitely not feel like sprint, and the fact that my legs had no desire to turn over any faster was a bit discouraging.

At least the cool down was nice.  Ten miles on the day, that’s fun.

what happened??

I wish I could pinpoint one workout felt so much better than the other, other than the fact that that’s just how it works.  Mentally the second one was much more challenging, which perhaps was the main problem.  I couldn’t get into a zone and distracting myself worked for about eight seconds at a time.  I know the hard runs make you stronger and that my times were still adequate, but it’s still a bit discouraging.  Hoping next week’s workout is a little bit better!

Any tips??

Apologies for the wordiness of the post, sometimes I like to be able to go back and read about how my workouts went.  Anyway…how do you get through tough workouts?  Any mental distractions you have?  Mantras that you use?  Nothing was working today…