Comparing Yourself to Others

When Dailymile first came out I was obsessed (back when the dinosaurs still roamed the earth, do any of you even know/remember dailymile?!) Most of my first local running friends were ones I met through the site. I loved that the site made me feel like I was a part of a community. I loved being able to get and receive positive feedback from my running friends. And I loved the graphs of data. But I hated the comparison and competition that inevitably seemed to take place on there.

Being a runner, I'm a very type A person. I'm obsessed with data. I love comparing data and using it as a predictor for future race successes. Since I've struggled with a strong running mentality through much of my running career, it's always nice to look at data and have it provide you with the mental confidence that you can race at a certain pace. When you're able to look at everyone's data and workouts so freely it's easy to compare yourself, what paces are they hitting for workouts, what are their PRs looking like.

A couple of years ago, a lot of my friends started using strava to log their runs. Luckily for me (or perhaps unluckily for me?) there wasn't a way to transfer my existing running log to their site. I wasn't willing to lose almost ten years of data, so I found something else. And I don't missing seeing people's workouts and paces. There's no judgment of myself or others if I fall short of a goal because my numbers did or didn't stack up to another's numbers.

Now my *own* data, man I spend an eternity analyzing that crap! You should *see* the spreadsheets I have, monthly mileage, weekly mileage, average weekly mileage leading up to marathon PRs and good performances, the same with half marathon performances. CHARTS AND GRAPHS, CHARTS AND GRAPHS! Because it doesn't matter what anyone else is doing around me, the only way I can succeed in my goals is focusing on me. And I'm okay with that.

Do you, boo.

(That's still a thing people say, right?)

Philly Training + Running Buddy

Since I’m planning to run Philly with these two fine ladies, I’m making it a point to try to run with people.  News flash:  I really like running alone.  Running with people is hard for me.  Even in high school track when there were girls that were similar speed as me, I just preferred to chase the boys (real shocker there) than run with the girls.  It’s hard.  I’m always concerned that I’m slowing them down.  Or I’m concerned that I’m not getting the most out of a long run if it’s not the exact pace I want to be/feel like I should be running.  Unless you’re running with your exact pace twin, it just ends up being too much stress.

Well last weekend, I had a date for my 16 miler, but because of our alma mater’s homecoming festivities, and my need to sleep in, plans didn’t work out.  Which brought me to this past weekend.  I had 18 on the schedule, and had emailed Karla to see if she wanted to join me for part of it.  Karla and I have pretty similar race times, and she just destroyed her first full in the Twin Cities a few weeks ago.  She usually runs her long runs a smidge faster than me, but since she’s not actually training for anything, I hoped she’d be ok running a little pokier.  J  Of course I was surprised when she said she’d be up for the whole shebang!  I was doubly thrilled when she was on board for a late morning start!  Dear Fall, Your cool temps are amazing.  Don’t ever leave me.

When we started off, it was 37 degrees, and I knew I looked like a fool in a tank and shorts, but I also knew I’d warm up quickly.  Karla’s daughter recently joined the Dailymile and wanted to log some miles, so she joined us on her bike.  Around mile 4, her daughter got picked up by her hubby and we continued to just run and chat and chat and run.  We navigated through some construction to get down to the Falls, and the miles were just flying by.  Turns out, the nice part about a running buddy, is your brain has other stimulation outside of looking at your pace/time/distance/heart rate.  Who would’ve thought!?!?!  The first time I feel like I really looked at my watch was 13.33 miles.  That’s not a bad distance to zone out for!

Normally when I run with somebody, I run a lot slower, because talking throws off my breathing rhythm, and I pretty much feel like I’m going to die.  But not Saturday.  I’m not sure who the one pushing the pace was, but we were comfortably in the 9:15-9:25 range for most of the run.

Around mile 14 we both started feeling a little tired.  Luckily for me I had a GU to take at mile 12, and it kicked in around mile 15.  Not so luckily for Karla, she left her GU with her daughter’s bike.  She also started to have some tummy problems.  Poor thing.  At mile 16, we parted ways, and I took off like a cannon.  I have never had a second wind like that in a long run, and I owe it all to the GU Roctane.  Blueberry Pomegranite, my fave.  Mmmmm.

Since I was feeling strong, I decided to do a “faster finish” long run.  It felt great to run that strong after having 16 miles on your legs.  8:58 and 8:41.  Whoo!

Sadly, due to our weaving through the construction areas to get to Falls Park, I must’ve over estimated how much distance we had left, because I finished my run a half mile from home.  I like to cool down, and all, but I was out of water and thirsty.  And I swear to you, a G.D. horsefly followed me the entire ½  mile home, landing on me and annoying the poo out of me.

I did 18 miles in 2:48:33 for a pace of 9:21.  Other than our mile walk/running through construction areas (9:56) and our slowed down pace to fight Karla’s tummy issue (9:32) we were cruisin’!

After logging my 3 mile recovery run on Sunday (which sucked, hard), I was so thrilled to see that I was on the top of my dailymile board!  I know a lot of my friends a lot more miles than me, but I think the ones doing monster training are running NYC and have started their taper, so I win by default.  And I'll take it.  To be honest, 40+ mile weeks are a big deal for me, because my body always seems to start breaking down at the 40 mile point.  So three cheers to 45 and no issues (**knocks on wood**).

And just for fun, I was trying out a new filter for a camera app I downloaded and managed to get this gem of a photo after it's 27 rapid fire flashes.  I kind of love how terribly great it is.



Daily Mile Meet Up + Last Long Run

Wednesday night, a group of area Daily Milers met up for some drinks, food, and running gab.  There were a few peeps that I haven't met before, so it was a blast.  Quite jealous of Tom and Sara's new daily mile shirts, I must say.  After polishing off my meal, I managed to eat Tom and Sara's leftovers as well.  I tried to claim I was eating for two:  me + marathon.  :)

John, Karla, Christopher, me, Joseph, Sara, and Tom.

Saturday I had my last long run of MARATHON TRAINING!!!!  I was supposed to do 8 miles, but because I shifted around my schedule earlier in the week, I had decided on 10.  To put it bluntly:  this run sucked!  I had a fun running buddy for the first 5 miles.  I was such a slow poke and I felt like I was running my booty off.  Blech.  At some point I just resigned to the fact that the run was going to be slow and just went with it.  The last 3 miles in to insane winds didn't help.  But, I always believe that a couple of crappy runs just mean that an awesome one is on the horizon.  Long run = crappy run.  Upcoming marathon = stellar.  :)

Also, one cannot complain about running the end of November in shorts and a t-shirt.  INSANE.

I did 9.16 miles (yes, the fact that I didn't end the run at an even 1/4 mile increment tells you how OVER the run I was :p) in 1:30:59 for a pace of 9:55.

Indecision is the Name of the Game

The good news is that I did my run with my clothes facing the correct way.  The bad news is that I was backwards.

What is with the weather on my speed work days?  I sent a text to my gym buddy to see if he was working tonight.  When he was I responded, "Sweet I'll be there.  Pretty sure the world is going to end mid tempo run.  I'd prefer to be inside."  It just looks dark and crummy out.

After running some errands pre-gym, I realized that the wind and general gloominess had passed so I decided to head home and do my run outdoors.  Within a half mile of my run, I realized my legs were t-i-r-e-d.  I had a 7 mile run with 5 miles at tempo pace of 8:25 to do.  I went back and forth about doing my easy run that was schedule for Thursdays instead.  I decided to give it a go.

At roughly the 1/2 mile point, my watch was saying I had ran about a ~9 mm.  Uh....ya, legs are definitely not feeling it.  I decided there that I would do my easy 5 on Tuesday and 7 mile tempo on Thursday.  Well of course, either my math was wrong, garmin was wrong, or distance measurement was wrong, because Mile #2 was 9:00 and that was after running 9:30+ mm for the 2nd 1/2 of the mile.  Sometimes we're too reliant on the watch and not enough on the body and mind, huh?  Oh well, I know my legs will be much fresher and happier doing the tempo run on Thursday.

I ended up doing 5 miles in 47:37 for a pace of 9:32

1. 9:33

2. 9:00
3. 9:42
4. 9:43
5. 9:37

Also, I joined DailyMile.com so if you're on there, look em up yo!  (Primarily because I don't know how to look you up, ya know?)

And in closing I'm going to leave you with some fun pictures from this weekend.

Bryce & I celebrating the birthday bash.  I joked that I always take good pics with him. Seriously 90% of my profile pics have him cropped out.  Thanks for making me photogenic Bizzle!

And another b&w style.

Miss Ariel and I.

Shoe twinsies.

Office hubby and I after a long hiatus (work conference for me and vacation for him).