Early to Rise

I love my weekends. I love them! The sleeping in, the quiet morning, the lingering cup of joe, having my boys beside me - just relaxing and considering the possibilities…. Even with a relatively rigorous running and x-training schedule I’ve managed to keep my weekends relatively peaceful and sleep centered. This weekend, however, we set our alarms for a very early Saturday morning wake-up to watch my brother participate in a triathlon, something he particularly loves doing. It’s the first time we’ve had the chance to see him in one, and it was wonderful. The weather cooperated, the whole family came out in force, and Eric did better than he anticipated. It certainly raised my desire to finally tackle that beast (best left to another year).

The dawn waking Saturday hijinks made the idea of an early rise on Sunday entirely unappealing. I really wanted one nice long morning rest - but I knew in order to get my 22 mile run in with our current heat and humidity that I had to be out the door early. I had NO desire to run. When the alarm rang I turned it off and just laid there talking myself out of the whole affair. I honestly don’t think I would’ve climbed out of bed if it weren’t for the smell of coffee (merci Conrad!). I felt exhausted, I didn’t have the proper fuel to take with me, and I didn’t really have time for breakfast if I expected to beat the heat. So as I was pulling on my shoes I made a pact with myself that I would just get to the 2nd water fountain in the park and try again Monday morning for 22. I had no real plan to seal the deal. And I think, for me anyhow, that’s when my best runs happen. Those times when I set out with no real expectations always end up being the runs I feel like I could go on forever. I went out the door and rolled through 22 miles with relative ease. It’s a great sign that my training is paying off in giant endurance dividends, and that despite my poor choice in nutrition for the morning I’m doing a good job taking care of my fuel tank in the long term. It’s exciting to see my body respond on little sleep and a stressful week - but I also know that it’s really important to rest and let my body repair. That balance is tricky, as I feel myself getting fitter I want to push a little more, test the boundary just a tad, but I’ve got 7 weeks until Chicago and 12 until the big event of 50 miles so I’m working on my patience and my restraint.

Miles Run: 62 + 1 hour swimming +1 hour biking +1.5 hour resistance/yoga

Down time

It’s been one of those weeks where I just couldn’t catch up to sleep. It continually played chase with me and won. Luckily it is my down running week and oddly enough the only time I felt good was during my runs. In fact I felt great. My easy week really was easy. Things are finally coming together for me, and although I don’t think I’ll hit a PR with this Chicago Marathon, I am finally truly feeling fit and ready to go. This heat, this extended vacation time, this life…. It’s all been killer. But last week I started to feel better, things got easier - so much so that I had to shave about 30 seconds off my speedwork and base pace times. And this week the trend continued. On Wednesday, my anaerobic day, I added almost an extra mile of speedwork to the run, and my cooldown mile was @ 7:20 (not my cooldown pace…) It’s funny because my body is tired, my mind is a little weary, but once the running shoes are on I feel invincible. Hopefully this burst of running energy is a sign that I am getting fitter and maybe even that speed is starting to make an appearance. I’m not worried about my endurance, I know I’ve got that in the bag - but the fast part, well it’s been a struggle this summer. The 80’s are set to return this week and perhaps that will help me along even more.

Miles run: a delightful 50 + 1.5 hour resistance + 1 hour biking

Why oh Why?

That interrogative has been thrown at me often this week. It’s not as if all of a sudden last week I decided upon 50 miles. It’s been percolating in the brain for over a year now, and in March both Conrad and I made a commitment to ourselves and each other that we would tackle this beast of a distance, together, in 2010 @ the JFK. We read up, watched videos, talked about it with friends and family, and when the entry window opened kissed our envelopes and sent them off. I suppose because I wrote about the confirmation letter people began to believe in this thing actually happening and started asking questions. My first answer is why not… I love endurance training, I love testing the limits of the human body, I love finding out new things about my own mental, emotional and physical toughness - so 50 miles just makes sense in a way 26.2 made sense when my longest distance had been 13.1. But there’s of course more of a story to the 50 mile quest than just why not…

Tenacity and athleticism run in my family. Growing up with your Dad as a successful professional athlete can somewhat skew the curve as to what one thinks is normal in sports and life. I was a good athlete with decent speed but nothing super special. I was afraid of failing in sports so strongly that I gravitated towards theatre and academics. By the end of high school I had given up on organized sports entirely and much preferred to watch my talented brothers play their respective games in baseball and soccer. I stayed fit on my own but became nothing more than a spectator in that world. Then my younger brother graduated from college; feeling post soccer career blues he threw himself into training for a marathon. The Jorgensen domino effect began. Next went my older brother Brian, and then my parent’s began training for a half marathon….

At this point that I couldn’t keep myself out of the game any longer. If my parents, in their late 50’s at the time, could muster up the energy, the courage and the umph it took to train for and participate in an endurance event, there was no reason I couldn’t do the same. So I began, in earnest, to run. It took me a while to get the hang of it, finding the right gears for longer runs, understanding the fueling needs in endurance, but eventually I got pretty good at it, winning some races, consistently coming in the top, gaining confidence and speed with each passing month. However, I still hadn’t made the jump to 26.2. And then I was diagnosed with a genetic hiccup that gave me almost certain odds for breast and ovarian cancer. I reeled over the news. I got frustrated about knowing this handicap. Running helped calm me, center me and give me the courage and confidence to make a very hard and ultimately life saving decision.

3 days before I went in for surgery to have a double mastectomy & reconstruction, I ran my first marathon. I was sick with a fever, my brain was all nerves and exhaustion, I hit the wall harder than I could have possibly imagined at mile 17, but I finished the race, tears welling in the eyes, Conrad’s hand in mine, and I couldn’t wait to start training for my next one. That first marathon and it’s training and focus got me through one of the most overwhelming and difficult times in my life. I walked into surgery, fitter than I had ever been,determined to recover quickly so I could get back to this wonderful thing called running.

And now it’s time for another major life decision. It’s time for another major surgery in December. I can’t think of a better way to bow tie these last 6 years than to do something I’ve never before attempted - to push my mind and my body. In essence I run because I can. I run because it feels good. I run because my mom, my inspiration, smiles when she watches me. She’s proud of my perserverance, my talent, my desire to get better, be stronger, learn more. Her illness and my hiccup crashing into our lives are what brought running to me. And while I truly wish she did not have to suffer, to worry, to hurt - I do this in honor of her. In my endurance training and racing, I suffer, hurt, worry that I will not find the finish line, in the end conquering these distance goals, taking her with me every time.

Miles Run 60 +1.5 hours resistance +1 hour yoga

JFK 50 miles is a real thing now...

I started the mental journey back in April during the STL marathon. My brain had time to wander and sift during those long hours in the heat - I knew, I was dead certain, that 50 miles was well within my wheelhouse. I got excited, overwhelmed, almost brought to tears - all during the 26.2 mile race. My mind and body were already somewhere else. I came home, read up, started a blog, created a ‘pseudo’ marathon/50 mile training plan and honestly dedicated myself to becoming stronger and fitter. I did exercises I never thought I would attempt, began cross training in earnest and even managed to get in most of my long runs during our extended vacation. At some point in July I signed, sealed and delivered our 50 mile entry forms, complete with our marathon times (supposedly good enough to qualify us a place as they have a lottery system with approximately 10,000 entrants for 1,000 spots.) But I still wasn’t quite sure how the whole thing worked. I figured I’d send it - they’d look at it and decide we weren’t yet ready for 50 miles and reject us. Even though the training was progressing and the promise of a guaranteed entry was spelled out on the website - I was still prepared in the mind to not get into the race - and then we did. And the honest reality, the seeing our names in the alphabetical listing, well it sort of took my breath away. I’m so excited for this. I’m beyond that Conrad will be my partner in crime, and I just want it to get here already! That being said, this week in training was equal parts exhausting and successful. I’m truly ramping it up now, adding the speed element 2x a week and keeping the long run as quality as I can. And when I look at the training plan post Chicago, I get all giddy that it’s just 10-15 mile runs each day with a 4+ hour run on the weekends. No need for speed - just get up and go running. I think I’m going to love this ultra thing!

Mile run 66 + 1.5 hour crosstraining (my pool is closed for cleaning and re-striping!)