Casseroles AGAIN?! - lament of a time cruched athlete-wannabe.

Many of my friends ask how I balance my training with my crazy work schedule, and with my "responsibilities" as a wife , (no, I'm not a slave, but the cooking, cleaning, and laundry responsibilities do fall on me).

I don't have multi-tasking down to perfection (D can attest to this).  Although as I write this blog, I am dual-tasking by spending quality time with my dog Fez in my lap (he likes to help when I'm on the computer by pointing to the exact key on the keyboard that I need).  Laundry and cooking is sporadic.  Cleaning, even more so.  Making sure D has underwear and socks falls ahead of mopping and vacuuming.  And thankfully I survive in either nursing scrubs or workout clothes so my wardrobe essentials are pretty minimal.

I'm thankful for the Elmwood Inn or the Otter Lodge to feed us when I don't have time (or just don't have the energy) to cook.  I've been known to have s'mores or a couple bowls of Cap'n Crunch for dinner and nothing else.  D lives off casseroles when I work - and I'm glad he really doesn't mind.

I don't have racing/training down to a science, either.  I'm not particularly fast (a middle-of-the-packer in mid-distance races), so I don't think that anyone looks to my mediocrity as inspiration, or a goal.

Although I "only" work 36 hours a week (three twelve-hour shifts), those shifts alternate between nights (7pm-7am) and days (7am-7pm).  I only have two patients, but as a Trauma and Burn ICU nurse, often those two patients will keep me on my feet all.  Shift.  Long.

For example, one day I had two patients who each had hourly evaluations (other than their vital signs) due to their mechanism of injury.  Add their medications, hourly vital signs assessments, charting, and helping the nurses to my left and right - it can get REALLY busy.  And often my legs feel like dead weight afterwards.

Thankfully I don't have to work a lot of weekends (two weekends out of every six weeks).  But that said, following a prescribed training plan is pretty much impossible.  I don't get to do my "Long Run Saturdays" or "Tempo Thursdays".  It just gets fit in whenever it gets fit in.  I miss out on doing community stuff, like Monroe Milers - something I would really love to do if I had a normal schedule.

I try to work my "three days" back to back, so I get some consecutive days off in between.  So on those working days, I concentrate just on the running.  I've found running tired (especially after a night shift) to be very beneficial.  I don't often have a goal for these runs, but I hardly call them "junk miles".  At times they turn into 5-mile tempo runs and I surprise myself.  Running tired helps you realize what you can push your body to do - something I learned a lot about when I was training for Sehgahunda 2011 (which was by far my worst race in terms of how I fell apart, but one from which I learned from).

On the days I don't work, I often cram in brick workouts (swim/bike or bike/run) or two-a-days.  I don't do specific "speedwork", and only occasionally get in a hill workout.  Over the past year I haven't been running trails as much, although I love running trails in the wintertime the most, so I see this changing over the next few months.  Once or twice a week I hit the pool at UofR.  I don't have a specific triathlon in mind right now, but as my body has responded well to multi-sport disciplines (both in health and my weight), I see this as being my direction go forward (my dream was once do to trail ultras, but as my ankle has been re-damaged annually on trails, I see 26.3 as my max limit on trails).

At times, I feel guilt for not being a better wife - I honestly do try my best.  D is busy too.  And our schedules do not mesh together:  We spend very little time together when you look at how many hours are in a week.  Often I may skip a workout altogether when he gets the rare early night home.  And so be it.

So, there is my (albeit poor) balancing act in a nutshell.  But over the past few months I can't say that it hasn't worked for me:  Since September, I placed third in my age group at a super-sprint duathlon, and I PRd in the half-marathon and 5k (both by over 90 seconds).  I guess these personal triumphs just affirmed to me that quality over quantity will reap decent rewards.  I know that my "success", as others may define it (i.e. consistent AG placing, or winning), will be very limited because I can only dedicate X-hours a week to training - and I refuse to sacrifice family and sanity any more than I have.  But considering that this girl only started running 4.5 years ago, I'm pretty darn happy with how far I've come.

Born to DU it...

A new year, a new adventure.

In a nutshell, and after a lot of talking with my spouse (who doesn't tell me what to do, but he can hear my knees' constant "constructive criticism" of my distance running), I decided to try something new:  multisport.

D is incredibly supportive of this, as he was an avid biker in his youth (and still does quite a bit of it, when he's healthy).  Supportive spouse = carte blanc to buy stuff!

But seriously, I sprained an ankle pretty badly again in February, my knees constantly crack, and I had to think about something I could do in the long-run (no pun intended).  What if I was injured for a long time, or could not run?  As we start to plan for a family, is my potentially gigantic pregnant self going to be able to pound the ground?  I really wanted to explore other things.  I went on a few rides last year with some friends, and while those were my first rides of anything over a "commuter" distance, and I had a hard time on hills, I really loved the challenge!  So maybe incorporating biking would be the way to go...

Now, D got me a pretty nice bike back in 2008 (2008 Specialized Dolce Elite).  And I rarely ride it.  That needed to change.  Flower City Challenge was the perfect opportunity to knock the dust off it, and see what I could do.

Of course, I can't just do one thing - I signed up for the "Double Du":  race the duathlon (5k run/20mile ride/5-ish k run) on Saturday, and the half marathon on Sunday (as a side note, I also signed up for the Ride for Missing Children century ride for mid-May)

Yep, I am far from fast, but I'll tackle ridiculous challenges to make up for it.

TRAINING:  I wasn't able to get out on my bike as much as I hoped, whether it be due to bad weather on the days I could ride, or simply being so tired after a 12 hour shift that I didn't feel safe riding in traffic.  On those days, I went to a local indoor cycling studio, Cycledelic, which really helped me get some saddle time.  Cycledelic doesn't promote "balls-to-the-wall-spinning-so-fast-that-you-launch-yourself-off-your-bike", but tries to simulate outdoor biking, hill climbs, etc.  Without a doubt, Cycledelic really complimented my training.

I also went out on the actual Flower City Challenge bike course a few times, which is a little hilly for the first 8 miles or so.  And every single time I struggled with the final hill on River Road, whether it be dumping my chain because I didn't pace myself up the hill (and had to shift - poorly), or just had to get off.  This did not bode well for my confidence.

And, as usual, I did as much "tired" running training as I could (which is pretty much my norm anymore), whether that be two back-to-back hard effort days, running a race after running 5 miles as a "warm-up", or running after a night shift when I'm dog tired.   This helped me immensely during my training for the Rochester Half Marathon last year (where I PR'd).  I hoped it would produce similar results this time around.

RACE 1 - DUATHLON:  After fretting about the weather (start time temps were predicted to be around 30, with frost warnings), and finding, perhaps, the last pair of size Small non-thermal running tights in Monroe County, I felt as ready as I could.  Jason, a friend from nursing school, parked his car at my house (which is only a couple blocks from the starting line), and we rode over to the park and set up our bikes (and his PBR in his bike's water bottle cage) in transition.

My only goals:  1)  Don't dump a chain or fall off my bike, and 2)  Stay out of people's way.

I took it easy on the first run (31:12), making sure not to break into a heavy sweat and thus freeze my kiester off on the ride.

For the ride, again I took it relatively easy in anticipation of the hills.  I was able to stay in the saddle through most of the hills, and even passed a few people.  All I wanted was to not have to dismount (or put my chain back on)...mission accomplished!  The wind was relatively light going out, but on the way back, there was a little wind in the face that I hadn't experienced before (I assure you it wasn't because of my speed!).  The intersections at Jefferson Road were well patrolled by law enforcement.  And the volunteers freezing their butts off - well, they were just fantastic (thank you, Michael Shortley and Carl C!!!).  Bike time:  1:21:03.  Not as fast as I hoped, but time was not a key goal.

When I dismounted at the transition, I truly felt like I was going to fall on my face, and was glad that my teammate Laura was working the transition entrance (assuming she would catch me!).  I had a brain cramp at the racks trying to set my bike back up (note:  it just hangs by the seat, no need to hoist your whole bike over the rack for any reason.  Of course, I didn't realize this until the rider next to me said "what the hell are you doing?").  I took forever to get my bike shoes off (note - get velcro!).  I shuffled out of transition for the last run, which was rough for the first mile, as the ever-so-slight downhills by the bridges really freaked me out.  Once I covered that mile, I felt better, but also felt as if my legs were a separate entity from my body.  Surprisingly, my pace was faster than the first run (26:32 for 2.8 miles)

Final time (with transitions):  2:24:07, 6 of 10 in AG)

Hindsight:  Quick and to the point...I ((heart)) Dus!