20 Miles. Perfect Weather. Excellent Training. What Could Go Wrong?

Everything. And no, I'm not being dramatic. Literally everything.

Last night was a fabulous lead-in. A fundraising, carbo-loading, pasta party. I had a great time surrounded by friends and family, and was really getting excited for my big twenty miler. Melissa and I agreed to try to get to the Lakefront by 5:00 am. Early? Yes. But it was supposed to get hot today, and we really wanted to beat the heat.

Around 3:30, I remember my alarm going off. I heard it, and thought, "Eh, I can hit snooze once. Twenty minutes and I'll be ready to go." The next thing I remember is Melissa knocking on my door at 4:10. Wake up call. Oops. That was the first thing to go wrong. I let Melissa in, and ran around the house getting ready as quickly as possible. Jon filled up my water bottles for my fuel belt last night, so I just had to grab them out of the fridge, grab my fuel belt, and I'd be ready to head out the door. Just one problem -- I couldn't find my fuel belt. I spent a good 45 minutes tearing my house apart before I decided I was just going to have to deal with losing last year's belt. (#2)

We finally make it to the Lakefront at 6:00, which was okay. We were still early, even if not quite as early. We did 3 miles before I had to ditch the old belt. It was rubbing, poking, and causing chafing after only three miles. No way was I going to risk dealing with that for 17 more miles. (#3) I reasoned that there are lots of water stations and water fountains along the course, and I'd take it easy and stop for water every single time. We realized it was getting close to 7:00 and we were still in the parking lot, so we did 2 more miles and joined the TEAM for our mission moment. We even got a prize (Melissa got a hat) for driving the farthest to get there. Things were starting to look up.

As we headed out to run, Melissa found $10 on the ground. Sweet! A donation to my fundraising! (Melissa met her goal already.) Things were really starting to turn around. What I should have noticed at the time was that the good things were happening to Melissa. Things had not, in fact, started to look up for me.

As we started off our sixth mile, I overheard two fellow TNT'ers talking about how funny it was that their "kids" didn't understand that they couldn't, and weren't going to win the marathon. I chimed in, "My students ask me about that all the time!" Turns out they were both teachers. We seemed to be running at a similar pace as these ladies, although their ratio was 8:2 and ours 6:2. We passed eachother back and forth for a while, before they said, "We're just going to run with you." This was the one part of my day that went well. Miles 7 - 13, with our new friends Carly and Ann beside us, were a blast. We told funny stories, laughed, and enjoyed the company of new friends. We lost track of the miles. It was so much fun. We even found out that Carly and I went to the same high school, and Ann a high school in a neighboring district. We're trying to bully these ladies into running with the North Team... instead of the West Team next year. :)

I did, however, notice that I was constantly thirsty during these miles. I lived for waterstops and water fountains. (#4) I began stealing sips of water from Melissa and my new friend, Carly. (Carly's justification: we're both teachers. We have all the same germs.) And then, ever so slowly between mile 13 - 13.5, my legs began to get very heavy. (#5) Just before mile 14, my calves started to tighten worse than I've ever felt, in any run, ever. (#6) I tried walking with different strides to stretch them out, as it's not advised to stop and stretch during a run. When that didn't work, I tried to gently stretch my calves. I squatted to try to stretch, just a little. Bad idea. I felt the most intense tightening of muscles I've ever felt. (#7)

It was then that we ran into one of the West Team coaches. Melissa & Carly explained what was going on, and she said, "You have two choices. I wish I had cab money to give you, but I don't." Melissa chimed in, "We found $10 on the ground this morning. I have it." From then on, I apparently only had one choice. "Go get a cab. If your 18 miler was good, this is not worth it. Get in the cab. You are well trained. You need to get a cab. You need to take care of yourself. Pushing it could mean not making it to race day. Get a cab." When she found out I was training for Nike and not Chicago, she became even more persistent, because I do have the option for a 20 miler (or another long run) next weekend. Although I can be stubborn, I know when to listen to someone who knows more than I do. So I took my $10 and got a cab back to the parking lot. (#8)

I felt so defeated driving down Lake Shore Drive, looking at all the runners, following the route I should have been running. I knew I made the right choice, but I was heartbroken.

I got to the parking lot, where I was happy to see Athletico trainers. I got stretched out, drank lots of water, called my parents and Jon crying, got some pep talks, and started to feel a little better. A little over an hour later, I watched Melissa come running in, beaming. I'm so proud of her for knocking off her first twenty like it was nothing.

I felt okay driving home, but could feel my leg muscles tightening again. By the time I got home, I could feel myself going downhill again. I spent all day today bundled in way more layers of clothing than were appropriate in 80 degree weather, shivering. I couldn't get my heartrate to slow to a normal resting heartrate. I was exhausted, and my head would not stop pounding. My neck and back were throbbing. Apparently I was a lot more dehydrated than I thought. I'm finally doing better, sitting on the couch and resting up.

Despite the fact that 8 more things than should have gone wrong, did... I'm at peace with today. I made a good choice. And I suppose I can look on the bright side: feeling the pain in my legs today told me what pain to push through, and when to call it a day. Today, I needed to call it a day. All I can do is chalk this one up to experience.

29 days till the Nike Women's Marathon.

Do you like baseball? Read on...

Who: You, of course! (And anyone you'd like to bring!)

What: A Schaumburg Flyers game to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

When: July 10, 2008 at 7:05 pm

Where: Alexian Field, 1999 Springinsguth Rd, SchaumburgWhy: You pay face value for your tickets -- $10 each -- and all you have to do is show up and enjoy the game! $2 of each ticket purchased goes directly to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! What do you have to lose?

I'm heading up this fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training North Team. All of the LLS proceeds will go straight into our fundraising accounts for the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, California! Please let me know if you'd like to attend and how many tickets you'd like. The Flyers are taking the money straight from my credit card... so you can just give me cash or check for your tickets. Hope to see all of you there! Feel free to pass this along to anyone you think might be interested.

If you have any questions or want to reserve your tickets, e-mail lauren.erbach@gmail.com

Reason #3,476 Why I Need TNT

On Saturday, it didn't fit into my schedule to make it out for the TEAM run. It was far away, and I had to be at my friend's house at 11:15 to get on a train to Chicago for my Bachelorette party. That doesn't mean I didn't run. What it does mean is I didn't run very well.

Melissa and I met up around 8:00 for our 1 hour run. I was so distracted it's a wonder we even finished. I was thinking about what I was going to wear later that day, whether everyone would be there on time, fundraising, anything but running. I just could not focus on what I was doing, and couldn't get in to that appropriately distracted mode where the miles just fly by. I missed running with my gaggle of girls and I missed running with the team.

I can't wait to hit the pavement on Saturday...

Cross-Training On Demand & Learning How to Stretch

Tuesday's workout this week called for 45 minutes of cross-training. I didn't feel like biking and I didn't know what else to do... so I turned on the TV and found something new: On Demand Fitness. I found a few Pilates workouts that added up to about 45 minutes and gave it a go. It was actually a pretty decent workout.

However, it got me thinking. How weird would it be to be someone who makes workout videos? They weren't even your typical workout videos, where it's like an instructor is leading a class and a camera crew just happened to show up. This was one lady, on a mat, spouting encouraging words to some camera guy. I find myself getting really irritated with their encouraging words. "You can do it!" "You're almost there!" "You're doing great!" How do you know I'm doing great? For all you know, I'm sitting on the couch, eating a Big Mac & fries, and watching you work out. But I digress...

Today's track workout was a blast. I'm glad I'm able to start all this stuff right away this season. I'm picking up on things I missed early in the season last year, like proper ways to stretch. Wow, I can already feel a difference from stretching today. Ran with two lovely TNT ladies tonight and loved every minute of it.

Patting Myself on the Back & Ditching the iPod for Saturdays...

First things first. I have to pat myself on the back. I am not a morning person by any means, and I forced myself out of bed for a solo morning run on Friday! No one to answer to but myself and I did it. Hooray! (I couldn't do an evening run because Dad and I went to see Jersey Boys, which by the way, was excellent.) I wasn't quite as even keel by myself... but I was pretty good. The dips are walking (I was run/walking at a 6:2 ratio), and most of my runs are even, but I have no idea what that spike at the beginning is. Perhaps I was feeling speedy?

Today was a 5 mile training run with TNT. Can I just say that I love my teammates? I ran with Melissa, Lauren, and an alumni, Miss Sue. Jennifer was with us for some of the time too. It's so nice to run with a group! And we rocked a 6:2 ratio with an overall 11:52 pace. Total time for 5 miles was 59:22. I'll take it. I didn't take the iPod/Nike+ out with me today, and I have to say, I really enjoyed chatting with the girls as we ran. As much as I'm addicted to the instant feedback of the Nike+, it was nice to just ignore everything and run. That is probably going to become my new Saturday mantra.

Ahhh. I know there will be setbacks, but I hope most of the season feels this good.

This is What Makes Getting up at 5:30 am on Saturdays Worth It...

It's been so long, I almost forgot how much I love Saturday runs with TNT. It is so nice to see everybody all pumped and ready to run at 7:00 am!

Today was our first training run and "Getting Started" clinic for the North Team. I had an awesome time. :) Our run was supposed to be 4 miles, but got cut back to 40 minutes so that everyone would finish at the same time for the clinic. I thought I'd started my Nike+ (sans headphones), but when I went to turn it off at the end, I realized I hadn't even started it. So, I have no idea how far I ran or what my pace was. It felt kind of quick at the beginning, but I settled into a good pace.

Melissa and I decided that next week, at our 5 miler, we're officially going to become Run/Walkers. It's not that we couldn't be runners for a mere 5 miles, but we've decided to get our Run/Walk groove on early so that we're used to it. I'm thinking about an 8:1 or 8:2 ratio will be perfect this season.

Today I also picked up a new pair of running shoes. I've been having a lot of pain in the arches of my feet, and I suspected it was my shoes. The shoe gurus at Running Unlimited confirmed that they think it could be due to the lack of support offered by my Newtons. I was finally SUPER picky about my running shoes. I nit-picked like crazy, wanting to make sure that this time, I made the right choice. I landed in Asics Gel-Nimbus 9s, in a pretty blue color. (Although now I've looked for the picture online and I see they also come in green... I'm a little jealous of the green ones and may have to order those later this season, if these shoes work out!)

I'm still planning on using the Newtons sometimes. They're a good challenge for my feet & legs. They make me a different kind of runner. But I think I'll use them once or twice a week and stick to the Asics the rest of the time.

Hoorah for new shoes!

Team in Training Kicks Off!

I was getting worried at the end of last week that my training might not start out too well. I got seriously injured on Wednesday night... at the dinner table! A visit to the doctor on Friday afternoon proved that if I would only "sit like a grown-up" and not "crisscross applesauce like a first grader" at the dinner table, I should recover just fine. I guess that's why my mom always told me to sit like a lady. At any rate, I'm fully recovered now and ready for my favorite season to start: marathon training season!

After completing a full season of marathon training, it's refreshing to see the schedule at the beginning of the season. The long runs look so... short. I know it's only a matter of time until 3 miles turns into 15, 18, and eventually 26.2, but I'm enjoying the short runs in this beautiful weather while I can.

Although I said in an earlier post that I was going to become a morning runner, I've decided that what I need instead is a running buddy. Since Melissa and I are running the Nike Women's Marathon together in October, and training together with TNT, it seemed only natural that we run together during the week as well. When she mentioned that she'd have to run at 3:00 am to still get out the door on time for work, I quickly resigned myself to being an evening runner once again.

So tonight it begins. I'm going to lace up my trusty Newtons and hit the trails. I'm still deciding about whether I'm a "beginner" or an "intermediate" runner on our training schedule. Since the difference tonight is only 10 minutes, I'll probably pretend I'm an intermediate runner and go out for 40 minutes. We'll see if I'm still feeling intermediate as the season gets underway.

Just 24 weeks of training until 26.2 miles in sunny California! California, here we come...