Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 16 – Holding Myself Captive

It’s just around the corner now. In only four weeks, I’ll be in China preparing to run one of the most incredible races of my life. I’ll be with some of my best friends, checking off a huge bucket list item, and testing my own self-experimentation training style out on a seriously demanding course. I should be ecstatic and giddy with excitement right now. I should be counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds until I’m on that plane to Beijing.

Instead, I’m busy dealing with everyday real-life stuff that’s somehow accelerating in complexity while occasionally managing to remember to do the little things I need to do just to make it on that plane. “Oh yeah, right, I need to get a Chinese visa.” “Vaccinations? What exactly is Japanese encephalitis?” Yes, I’m about to spill my guts about some serious first-world problems here. This is no pity party. I know quite well just how good I have it. I am blessed beyond measure, for sure. I guess I just imagine that there are a number of people out there (hello, fellow amateur athletes) who might be able to relate to my current ‘situation.’

How is it that despite having had this race on my calendar for nearly nine months, the complexity of my life didn’t really get to the ‘critical’ level until the crucial weeks leading up to the race? Has this happened to anyone else? Maybe I’m just more aware of it now, or perhaps the universe really is out to get me, or perhaps it’s all a coincidence. Who knows? I guess since I can’t control what’s being thrown at me, what really matters is how I choose to deal with it. I am well aware that my decision to eat an enormous dark chocolate salted caramel bar wasn’t my best course of action for dealing with life stress, but I make no apologies for it (and yes, it was incredible).

After polishing off the chocolate bar and wallowing in a bit of stressed-out self-pity, I took a good hard look at my current ‘situation.’ “How will I do everything I need to do in the next four weeks and still get all my training accomplished? How can I find the right balance? Is it even possible to balance it all? Maybe I should just nap it over and address this later?” No. I have an incredible opportunity in front of me in running the Great Wall Marathon. This is an opportunity that has absolutely zero expectations attached to it, other than those I’ve placed on myself. And well, there it is. That’s the problem. I’m holding myself captive. Who cares if I don’t get every single one of my workouts accomplished in the weeks leading up to the race? I am not a professional athlete, nor am I aspiring to be one. There will be certain personal and professional obligations I will have to meet in the coming weeks and it might cost me some time in the gym or on the trails. And that’s okay.

I’m really quite happy with where my training currently stands, and if I can even just maintain this for the next four weeks, I will be thrilled. The biggest task for me right now is to remember that this race, this journey, this experience is something I’m doing for fun. Work is a necessity, family is a priority, and running is a luxury. If I can keep that in mind these next few weeks, I’ll be good to go.

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Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 15 – Rest and Recovery

So it’s been over two weeks since the Los Angeles Marathon, and honestly my motivation for doing any training whatsoever has been very lacking. It’s a slippery slope, those few weeks after a hard effort like a marathon. A day of easy-effort running turns into a day of nothing, followed by another day of wishing I didn’t have to do anything, etc. Of course, I acknowledge that my body needed some down time and I needed more sleep and this would ultimately give me time to plan and prepare for the coming weeks leading up to the Great Wall. That being said, it’s hard after being used to training religiously to take that down time and look at it as potentially beneficial to my overall training.

Today I decided to see exactly where I’m at post-marathon. It was a gorgeous day and the trails were definitely calling my name. I’d been derailed in my earlier efforts to get a CrossFit workout accomplished, thanks to work tasks that popped up, and so I was adamant that I was going to get a good hour of trail running accomplished after work. I was a little concerned, mostly because I haven’t run much since the marathon and I wasn’t sure I could accept losing the fitness that I surely must have lost in those two weeks (yes, it sounds just as crazy to me as I’m typing it, but that’s how my mind works).

My favorite quick trail run here in Colorado Springs is this amazing 7-mile loop around the Garden of the Gods. It’s extremely hilly, insanely beautiful, and a really good way for me to test my current fitness and endurance level. I don’t know what happened, whether it was some sort of planetary alignment combined with amazing weather and the right flavor energy gels or what, but I felt phenomenal throughout that whole run. I felt strong on the hills, running past areas where I typically resort to walking (in my less fit moments), I was recovering quickly, and in general I was just feeling really great. I actually was really surprised for a majority of the run, because I expected to struggle much more with this course than I did.

Okay, so perhaps it wasn’t any sort of planetary-energy-gel-weather phenomenon. Perhaps it was the fact that I’ve been getting at least eight hours of sleep every night, eating very clean, and just letting my body recover. Perhaps it’s possible to make gains in your training during periods of rest and recovery. I’ve heard all these things before, and I truly have always believed in them. I guess I didn’t expect to take as much apparent “down time” as I have over the past two weeks and still see major improvement. This is just another thing I’ve learned about how my body works, and that giving it what it’s asking for is typically the right course of action. Point taken, body.

So I’m feeling really confident moving into my first official “long run” weekend since the marathon. I’ll be doing about twelve or thirteen miles of trail running with an Incline thrown in towards the beginning to simulate the Great Wall course to some extent. That will be the real test of how my endurance level has (or hasn’t) been affected, but I’ll take today’s results as a sign that I’m doing things right. More to follow next week!

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Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 14 – Small Sacrifices

Well there’s just eight more weeks until the big race. That’s fewer than two months until I run a marathon on the Great Wall of China. While I’ve certainly come a long way, I know there’s still quite a bit of progress to be made. And yes, eight weeks is theoretically plenty of time to make my final preparations for this adventure. There’s this pesky little thing called ‘life’ though, and it’s starting to demand an awful lot of my attention.

I’m sure very few of us have the luxury of being endurance athletes with zero other time consuming obligations. Therefore I imagine we can all relate to the struggle of balancing work, workouts, family, and social schedules. While specific situations, like running styles, vary from person to person, the bottom line is that we all have a lot on our plates and finding a way to meet our basic adulthood obligations while still enjoying our endurance activities isn’t always easy.

For me personally, these next two months become quite crazy. From work to my personal life, everything seems to be going 100mph with no signs of slowing down. Don’t get me wrong – I’m super blessed to be in the situation I’m in. I really enjoy my job, my family and friends are amazing, and I’m healthy enough to participate in some ridiculously awesome events. That being said, finding time to focus on my training while the rest of my life is desperately trying to crowd training time off the calendar is proving to be a challenge.

So this past couple of days, I’ve focused in on how I can make sure I hit my training markers over the coming weeks, while still finding time to meet my work and social obligations. It’s not going to be easy, but with a plan in place, I feel like I have a little more control over a situation that felt wildly out of control just a few days ago.

First things first, I established what the “must do” items are in the coming weeks. These include both major training markers as well as tasks that life in general demands. For instance, I am moving from a rental house into a house that I own at the end of the month. It’s easiest to move during the course of a weekend, but that’s when I usually get a long run accomplished. So I know that on that particular weekend, before any moving occurs, I have to get an 18-mile run knocked out. It might seem trivial, but now that those items are on the calendar, it helps me feel more confident that I won’t lose sight of my training goals.

The next thing I did was look at my day-to-day training schedule and figure out how I could make things work while still getting eight hours of sleep and not compromising social life or work obligations. My conclusion was that I’d do running (speed work, hill work, or time trials) before work, and then CrossFit during my lunch hour. This leaves a few hours after work available for other fun stuff, like meeting up with friends for happy hour or just hanging out on my couch and enjoying doing nothing before my 8:30 PM bedtime.

The final conclusion I came to is that I’m going to have to make some tough calls in the coming weeks, so I really need to know where my priorities lie. If I were just doing this Great Wall marathon for the experience and social time, I wouldn’t really have a problem with compromising a few workouts here and there. Turns out though, I have every intention of going to China and laying the smack down on this race. I have zero intention of playing nice during this marathon. Knowing that I can’t have my cake and eat it too, something has got to give. There will be times in the next two months where I’ll have to turn down social opportunities or whatever. And I’ll need to be prepared to make that call. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s only two months of buckling down and it’s certainly doable. And when I cross the finish line in China, feeling like I left everything out on the racecourse, those small sacrifices will be completely worth it.

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Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 13 – The LA Marathon

I don’t know that I’ve ever enjoyed a race as much as I enjoyed the Los Angeles Marathon this past weekend. When you think about it, that’s a pretty bold statement. Running 26.2 miles is not supposed to be ‘enjoyable,’ but this really was! I went into this race with precious few expectations. My only performance goals were:

1. Run a comfortable race.
2. Get an understanding of where I stand as I prepare for the Great Wall marathon.
3. Not reignite the plantar fasciitis fire in my foot.

Long story short, I successfully accomplished all of these goals.

You’ll note there were no time goals, no pace goals, nothing of the sort. That’s a really difficult mentality for me to bring to a race. I didn’t even wear a watch. I only wanted to run as I felt I could in the moment. I ran the race with my sister, whose marathon PR is within a minute of mine, so we are a good running duo, even if we train in totally different ways and geographic locations. We agreed we just wanted to run the race together and have fun while seeing how well we could do, since last year we ran it together on a whim, sans training. Yes, terrible plan. I do not endorse that method whatsoever.

I did, of course, have the benefit of running this race at sea level, while having been living and training at 6500ft+ for the past six months. Needless to say, the lungs were never an issue. One issue that surprised me though was how much my knees hurt immediately after the race. I didn’t think about it, but nearly all of my training has been on trails. I mean, why run on city roads if you can run on gorgeous trails away from everything? Oh, because if you are training for a race on pavement, and you never actually train on pavement, you’re going to feel it post-race, if not sooner. I will definitely be reluctantly incorporating more hard-surface training into my weekly runs.

Another issue that became apparent was nutrition. I still need to dial in what I’m going to consume the evening prior to the race, as well as race morning. I never had any sort of gastro disaster, but I did have to deal with a rather uncomfortable stomach for the first eight miles. I also relied on the on-course water and electrolytes, which might have been a mistake. I train using NUUN electrolyte supplements in my water, but the on-course electrolyte drink was different and tasted kind of sugary. As a result, miles 20 – 26.2 resulted in some moments where I quickly scanned for porta-potties, just in case the situation escalated. As far as taking in calories, water, and electrolytes during the race, I felt like I did a pretty good job of staying on top of all that. If I can just get my pre-race meals locked-in, and not make silly on-course electrolyte drink mistakes, I should be in good shape.

Those are the big changes I feel I need to make in the next nine weeks to prepare for the Great Wall marathon. In my honest opinion, those seem like fairly small tweaks. Prior to the race, I had some legitimate concerns about how prepared I really was for a marathon. I had only been running ‘long’ every other week, and my only long runs over a half marathon distance were a 17 mile and 18 mile. The rest of my training was banking fairly heavily on my CrossFit and CrossFit Endurance workouts. To be completely honest, there were some moments around miles 21 and 22 that I felt pretty awful. I don’t think that was my training failing me, but rather just a mental moment I had to struggle through. In fact, I rebounded around mile 23, feeling pretty fantastic, and according to my sister’s GPS watch we cruised the final two miles of the race at a sub-7min/mi pace. Not shabby after running for 3.5 hours!

I won’t bore you with all the mile-by-mile details, but I will tell you when it comes to my goals for the 2013 LA Marathon, I definitely accomplished them! I ran a very sound race, finishing in a respectable 3 hrs and 53 min. It’s not a personal PR, but a PR for the course, so I’m happy. I also know exactly where I stand just nine weeks out from the Great Wall marathon and what adjustments I need to make to my training and nutrition. And most importantly, I woke up the following morning with zero soreness and never gave plantar fasciitis a moment’s thought, because it didn’t show it’s face! All around, a very wonderful and successful race weekend!

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Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 12 – Taper Week

Well, I’m finally wrapping up my week of tapering for the L.A. Marathon. I’m really looking forward to running the race with my sister, seeing my fantastic Los Angeles friends, and ultimately seeing how this CrossFit Endurance programming method is going to pay off when I cross the finish line at the Santa Monica Pier. That is, if taper week doesn’t get the best of me first.

This tapering period has surprised me in many ways. After years of following the more conventional long, slow distance training method, I’m used to a three-week-plus taper for a marathon. In fact, when training for my first marathon in 2006, I tapered for four weeks and since I had very little clue what I was doing, I basically went from a 20-mile long run to hardly running much at all over the following four weeks. Not so much a taper, as much as cease and desist. Clearly, I did not understand how to appropriately taper, and it resulted in a less than stellar first marathon experience.

What I “should” have been doing was decreasing my weekly mileage by 10-20% each week and then decreasing intensity in the week or two prior to the race. What’s great, in concept, about the CrossFit Endurance taper is that since your body isn’t broken and destroyed from 80-100 mile weeks, so you really only need about a week and half to taper. The taper is very specific and overall less intense than a typical CrossFit Endurance training week. I figured this was going to be the easy part.

I could not have been more wrong. This week has been a real struggle, but not in a physical way. All workouts during a CFE taper are performed for a shorter duration and at about 70% intensity. For someone who really loves to feel maxed out after a workout, 70% intensity is incredibly frustrating. I felt really good all week, so any time I went for a run or stepped into the CrossFit gym, I wanted to go 110%. Reigning myself in to maintain a 70% effort was exceptionally difficult. In fact, all week I’ve felt like I could go run a marathon at any particular moment. At some points, I felt like if I didn’t go for a long hard run at the very moment, I just might jump out of my skin.

It was really difficult to follow the taper to the letter, but I managed to do so. Mostly I distracted myself with things I’ve not paid attention to in a while. I picked up the guitar again, while staring longingly at my running shoes sitting patiently in the corner. I took the dogs for more frequent and longer walks, while resisting the urge to turn the experience into a jog, or intervals, or anything else related to running. Mostly, I just tried to remind myself that if I feel this great the week prior to the race, I’m theoretically where I need to be to lay down a decent 26.2-mile race. There’s no sense getting a wild hair a few days prior to the race and ruining my taper. Still, all I’ve wanted to do all week is go for a good, long, hard run.

So on Sunday, me and a few thousand of my closest friends will take to the streets of L.A. I will finally know definitively how my training has progressed, and what changes I need to make prior to the Great Wall marathon in just two months. Thankfully, taper week will be over and I can just lace up my shoes, toe the line with my sister, and enjoy the experience of running through Los Angeles and finally getting in a good, long, hard run. I’ll report back next week with how it all went down!

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Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 11 – Validation

Well, just two weeks from tomorrow I’ll be putting my training and fitness up against the first big test, the LA Marathon. I’m really just using the race as a way of measuring where I stand in my training exactly two months before the Great Wall marathon in China. It’s also my opportunity to run happily through the streets of one of my favorite cities, with my favorite person on the planet, my sister. Last year we ran the race together and bumped into “The Fonz” at mile 25, cheering runners on. And yes, we stopped and got our picture with him. Anyways, the goal this year is to run a comfortable pace for 26.2 miles while testing out my nutrition plan. I figure that’s the best time to work out the final kinks in the plan, rather than risk gastrointestinal distress while running along one of the 7 Wonders.

After this past week, I’m feeling fairly confident in where I stand in my training. It’s been an unconventional road that I’ve traveled, and if you’ve read any of my last few journals, you know it’s caused me to question myself and the plan on more than one occasion. Finally this past week, I received quantifiable verification that my plan is working.

Last Saturday I ran the final race in a four race series called the Pikes Peak Road Runners Winter Series. The race course was a challenging 20K (or 12.4 miles) across snow and ice packed rolling hills. In fact, I don’t think there was any point on the course where I thought to myself “oh good, finally some flat terrain”. Due to the icy conditions, I made the last minute decision to run in Yak Trax, a decision that seemed like a good one, until about mile 8. At that point I could feel blisters forming on my feet from the unfamiliar underfoot contraptions and my knee was starting to hurt, likely from the altered footfall I was experiencing, so I opted to risk slipping on the ice and ripped them off in total defiance and carried them in-hand for the final miles. Just another reminder that there should never EVER be anything new on race day. Such a rookie mistake.

Other than the bad Yak Trax decision, the race went very well. As I mentioned in last week’s journal, I left the watch at home and ran with zero awareness of time elapsed. It was initially strange to be racing with no real understanding of my pace, but it really did allow me to concentrate on how I was feeling from moment to moment, take in the surroundings, and enjoy being able to partake in one of my favorite pastimes. I crossed the line at 1:50:12, and more importantly, I had a great time and felt really strong. That finish time was good enough for 5th in my age group, not bad!

The great thing about this series is that while the terrain in each race varied from single-track mountain trails to casual walking paths and the distances varied from 7 – 12.4 miles, the competition in my age group was essentially the same in each race. So after all the data was compiled and posted for the final series results, I took a look at how I stacked up against the competition in my age group race after race. The results were very validating. Over the course of the four races, I progressed from 9th in my age group in the first race, to 7th in the second race, to 6th in the third race, and then 5th in the final race. In order to determine the overall series winner, the times for all 4 races were added together for each racer, and then racked and stacked by age group. I ended up placing 5th for the age group in the series. Considering the top two women in my age group were the top two females overall, I will absolutely take a 5th place finish! More importantly, I could see actual progress in the form of quantifiable data. This validation couldn’t have come at a better time!

This coming weekend I’m planning to do one final long run and then begin my taper into the LA Marathon weekend. I’m really thrilled so far with my progress, both in the CrossFit gym and on the running trails. And most importantly, I’m managing to keep the injuries at bay and still enjoy my time running. It hasn’t been easy, but I think I’m starting to find the right balance.

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Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 10 – Back to Basics

This week I decided to take a hard look at how my training has progressed over the past few weeks. While I have no doubts that my overall fitness has improved, I’ve been really struggling with some of the mental aspects of training. I realized that I’d started to look at each run as more of a chore than as an opportunity to go and do the one thing that I really love to do.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been overly critical of each mile, focusing more on the time spent covering that mile, rather than just enjoying the feeling of running and experiencing the sights and sounds around me. Suddenly each mile was being measured, analyzed, and critiqued. While it’s certainly important to understand how your training is progressing, I believe I let that go to the extreme. And that extreme caused me to lose my appreciation for running.

Okay, now that I recognize what the problem is, how in the world do I flip the script and get back on the right course? I decided to go rogue and change up my weekend training plan. My original training schedule called for a shorter (8 mile) tempo run, but the thought of that was absolutely dreadful. So dreadful in fact, that I was trying to find excuses to not even go for run during the weekend. Clearly, it was time for an intervention. New plan: take off the watch and GPS, and just go run.

The weather this past weekend was amazing, so I decided to start with my familiar 8 mile trail loop and then enter “choose your own adventure” mode. I just wanted to go and explore and enjoy running again. No expectations. It was an incredibly refreshing and liberating experience. Gone were the mile-by-mile expectations and criticisms, replaced by the euphoria of running amazing trails, hurtling rocks and stumps, and just enjoying being able to run. I was no longer a slave to my GPS, but instead let my body dictate the pace. In the end, I know I ran for approximately 3 hours and covered approximately 18 miles of extremely hilly terrain. More importantly, I had an amazingly fantastic time and was grinning like an idiot the entire time.

I think as athletes, it’s really easy to start to lose sight of what really matters to us. Sure, we want to improve and be the best we can. That being said, none of us chose our sport because of statistical potential. We chose it because it ignited something inside us. I will never forget how I fell in love with trail running. I remember the trail, the forest, the sounds, the smells, the everything. I was hooked. The fire was lit. That’s how it all started, with a simple fire. If we let that fire dwindle into smoldering ashes, then what in the world are we doing putting ourselves through the rigors, just to get a new PR? Passion is so important in what we do. It gives purpose to each and every workout.

I can say that after this week, I think I love running again. I’m really looking forward to my 20K trail race this weekend, and I plan to keep the watch at home for that one as well. I want to see how this concept transfers over to the race day mentality. Ultimately, I just want to keep improving at my sport of choice, while still being able to simply enjoy it for what it is.

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Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 9 – Expectation Management

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, things aren’t going to pan out like you think they should. This is not profoundly earth-shattering information. In fact, I’m sure we all know this from basic life experiences. For some reason though, it’s hard to take that life lesson and apply it to training outcomes. Chances are, if you’re reading this article, you tend to set ridiculously high standards for yourself. You’re an athlete, it’s just part of who you are. And as athletes, we tailor our schedules weekly, adjust speed or weight accordingly, and proceed. We are dedicated, methodical, and passionate. We know that as long as we put in the hard work ahead of time, we can expect positive outcomes on the other side, right? Not always.That’s right. And knowing how to mentally pick yourself up off the ground is not something that gets doled out with your weekly training plan.

This past weekend, I participated in the 3rd of a 4 race winter racing series. This was a 10 mile race and I had planned to use it as a personal time trial. I was interested to see how fast I could knock out a relatively flat 10 miles. I was fairly confident I could break 80 minutes (average pace of <8min/mi). The course was an out and back, with a gradual uphill on the way out and therefore a friendly downhill on the return.

Unfortunately on race day, it was rather chilly (windchill of 20 degrees) with a 17mph headwind on the outbound portion. It didn’t help that I just couldn’t get my legs to warm up prior to the race start. When the gun went off, despite a solid 30 minute warmup, my legs felt dead and heavy. I tried to force a quick pace and get the blood flowing, no luck. I reached the 1 mile mark at 7 minutes, but felt like I’d been running a much harder effort. The wind was demoralizing, and as miles 2, 3, and 4 ticked by, I kept waiting for my legs to finally wake up. No luck.

Finally, at the approach to the 5 mile turn around, I walked through the aid station to take in water and a gel. A quick glance at my watch confirmed my fears. 44 minutes to run 5 miles? Have I even been training? Unacceptable. My legs felt like I had already run 10 miles. How could this be? Then I turned the corner to begin my 5 mile run to the finish. With the wind at my back, a quick shot of mocha-flavored energy, and a personal vendetta against my watch, I was off like a bullet. I started to quickly realize how much I had let the wind affect my attitude. Now that conditions were more ideal, I was averaging an 8min/mi. This was closer to acceptable. My legs were still pretty lethargic though, and never really felt like they were working at full capacity, even as I crossed the finish line. Thankfully my second 5 miles was exactly 40 min, so my time for the overall race was 84 minutes. It was a decent time, but not a great time. I ended up with 6^th in my age group, which is fine. But I wasn’t ever there to beat anything other than my own personal goal, andnd I had fallen well short of it. To say I was frustrated would be an understatement.

It took me a few days to really understand how to move forward from this past weekend’s race. I do realize that there were some things, such as weather, that were completely out of my control. I could have made some adjustments, such as altering my personal time goal to accommodate headwinds, but I didn’t. Instead, I held myself to a somewhat unrealistic standard, and then became frustrated when I failed to meet it. It really all came down to my attitude. I perceived everything in that race as a negative. I could have seen the 7 minute first mile as a great start, but I chose to compare it to previous races and therefore it wasn’t good enough. I could have looked at my 5 mile time of 44 minutes as a decent time given the conditions, but I only saw it as being almost 1min/mi off my goal pace. I could have enjoyed the final 5 miles back to the finish and taken in the surroundings and relished the fact that I’m able to be out running and enjoying life. Instead, I was a frustrated and somewhat angry runner just hoping to make up lost time on the second half of the race. Looking back on it, I’m really not very proud of how I mentally handled the race at all.

So this week, I’ve been trying really hard to focus on positives. I know this past weekend was not my best 10 mile race, but I know I did the best I could given the circumstances. More importantly, it’s okay that I didn’t have a super awesome race. Not every race, workout, or training session is going to be epic. Some of them are just going to be more frustrating than others. The frustration really just stems from the expectations I’ve placed on myself. While it’s good to hold yourself to a high standard, it’s equally as good to allow yourself some grace when you don’t quite hit all the marks. I know I’m going to get stronger, faster and mentally tougher as a result of my training. Accepting that it won’t all happen overnight is the key.

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Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 8 – Willpower and Other Elusive Superpowers

I’m taking a break from my usual weekly training progress report. No worries, training is progressing nicely, and I’m uninjured (fingers crossed while knocking on wood). My biggest battle this week has been, well, getting outside my own head. For whatever reason, my internal demons decided to band together this week and really test my capacity for countering them. Thankfully, I was fairly (although not entirely) successful. I know I can’t be the only one who goes through these bouts, so here’s what I’ve experienced this week and what I did to attempt to set myself back on the right course.

1. Willpower: Or more appropriately speaking, lack of willpower. For the most part, my nutrition has stayed on track and thankfully, I’ve been able to overcome temptation on that front. One exception would be the cookie I ate at work today. I actually only ate part of it because honestly, after weeks of eating little/no sugar, it was just too much. Anyways, my willpower str

uggle this week was to just get my workouts accomplished. It all starts at 4:30am when my alarm goes off and I know I need to get up and do my prescribed speed work. It’s not a long workout, just 45 minutes total including a very long warm up and cool down. All I really have to do is get out of bed, put on the workout clothes I have already laid out the night before, and go to the track or the treadmill. Too easy. Yet twice this week, yes TWICE, I talked myself out of my speed work sessions. I sold myself on the, “Well, you’re training so your body needs more rest” line and reset my alarm for a more civilized waking hour. Okay, while technically that excuse was a true statement, I knew good and well it was just that: an excuse. I knew I was just giving in to my number one temptation, sleep. And of course, when I do crawl out of bed, I’m just riddled with guilt and secretly wondering how much my decision to “sleep in” until 5:30am has set me back in my training. In fact, it ends up setting the tone for my entire morning, unfortunately. And I did it to myself. Sometimes I wonder whose side I’m really on.

2. Believing in myself: If you don’t struggle with doubt, good on you. I struggle with it every single day. From work, to my personal life, to CrossFit, to speed work sessions, to wondering if I’m going to live through my next crazy adventure (joking…kind of). While I struggle with it, I can usually shut it up with some determination, perseverance, and a chat with a good friend. Well, since I was already struggling with willpower, doubt had a more of a place in my mind this week than usual. Doubt does crazy things to you. It’s like you don’t realize it’s creeping into your mind until you’ve already bought stock in what it’s selling. Only this wasn’t a purchase you authorized. There were numerous times this week I really had to take a step back and assess what was going on in my head. What worked for me finally, was to take those thoughts and write them all down. It wasn’t until I wrote those self-doubting comments down on paper that I could see just how silly they were. Getting fat? Um, doubtful. Losing fitness? You missed one of two workouts for the day, let’s be real. But hey, when your mind is in that place, it’ll buy into just about anything. Note to self, keep a close eye on your mind’s bank account.

3. Trust: Yep, I went there. It’s getting real now. Don’t worry, I’m not going to turn this into an episode of Dr. Phil. I’m talking less about trusting other people, and more about trusting myself and the training process/system I’ve chosen. As I’ve mentioned in previous journals, this is my first real effort at training with the CrossFit Endurance method of programming. While I’ve already seen really great progress, I’m still having those moments where I question if this is going to end well for me. This week I came very close to scrapping my plan entirely and going back to weekly long runs, because, “at least I know that will work.” I’ve done that before, so why not do it again? Well, because change can be good. And just because the old way worked, doesn’t mean it worked as well as it could have. I certainly don’t want any more long-lasting injuries, like my 2-year battle with plantar fasciitis. I’ve decided that if I want to continue to improve at longer distances without getting injured, I’m going to have to buy into this process wholeheartedly and not look back. There, I’ve said it. It’s in writing. No more doubting the system. It’s only going to work as well as the effort I put into it. Which should help with that whole willpower/motivation issue I was having earlier this week.

So after a week of faltering willpower, doubting myself, and doubting my whole training plan, I was pretty bummed. Then tonight, I took a look back over the week and realized it was just one week, and really, I hadn’t lost anything. In fact, by going through this frustrating week, I think I’ve learned a bit more about myself and what I need to do as the weeks wear on. I’ll undoubtedly have these same issues pop up again in new and interesting ways, but perhaps now I’ll be more appropriately equipped to shoot them down before they take over my week. I’ve always heard and believed that the mental aspect of training is what will ultimately make or break you. I believe I faced my first real battle this week, and I choose to believe I won.

The post Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 8 – Willpower and Other Elusive Superpowers appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 7 – Listen To Your Body

Last week I detailed my week of highs and lows, beginning with a couple of PRs, and ending with back spasms which had me questioning if I’d be able to participate in my scheduled weekend race. Well, I’m happy to report that 48 hours after the unwelcome spasms kicked off, they had pretty much completely subsided. I forced myself to rest, while also spending a lot of time stretching, alternating heat/ice, and kicking myself for not paying more attention to the people who’ve been telling me I really need to focus more on my flexibility.

On Saturday morning, I woke up with a lower back that was sore, but thankfully no spasms. Apparently, when your muscles have been freaking out for 48 hours, they get a little sore afterwards. Since the spasms were gone and I wasn’t in a tremendous amount of pain, I decided to give the 8 mile race a shot. I spent more time warming up than I usually do, purely out of fear that the lower-back gremlins would creep back in mid-race and I’d have some kind of unfortunate face plant situation right in front of a race photographer. After a solid 30 minutes of warming up and doing whatever yoga poses I could remember, I was ready to go. I knew that as long as my back was feeling decent, I wanted to average under an 8min/mi for the entire race. I based this off of the fact that I was able to sustain a 7:27min/mi pace for a 5k the weekend prior.

Well the gun went off, and as per my usual, I started out much faster than I intended. There’s something about that adrenaline-fueled first mile that I just cannot control. Despite my efforts to rein in my pace, I noted my time as I cruised past the 1 mile marker, 7:07. Yep, probably a little too quick, even if I was feeling really good! I decided to ease off just a bit but still sustain a hard effort as long as I could. Miles 2, 3, and 4 passed and I settled into what was working out to be just shy of an 8min/mi pace. At the 4 mile turnaround point, I felt my back start to tighten a bit and started to wonder if maybe I would be walking the final 4 miles. I consciously thought about releasing tension in my back and breathing as smoothly and easily as possible. It seemed to work. By mile 5, I was still holding my pace and starting to hit my second wind. Thanks to the Foo Fighters blasting away on my iPod for the final miles, I crossed the line in 63:33. Good enough for 7^th in my age group and 24^th overall female. I was nearly completely taxed, but I recovered very quickly, did some stretching and headed straight to my massage therapist.

Thankfully the back didn’t seize up after the race, as I thought it might. Looking back on how the race went, I was really happy with how was able to maintain a perceived hard level of exertion for the entire distance. I was also really happy with how I managed to overcome my moments of self-doubt. Mid-race I started having that mental moment where I start to question my ability, “Ok, I’m only half way through this, I just don’t know if I can hold this effort level for ANOTHER 4 miles.” I almost started to believe it. And then my back started acting like it needed attention That’s the moment when I chose to turn my headphone music up a little louder, took my energy gel, and just focused on each individual mile. I decided to play my favorite running game, “seek and destroy”. Basically, at the start of each mile, I spot someone ahead of me and make it my mission to pass them by start of the next mile. It’s fun and it keeps you pushing hard, a perfect distraction at that point in the race.

With Saturday’s race under my belt and feeling quite happy with my performance, I chose to take Sunday completely off. Not an easy decision. It was such an amazingly gorgeous day, and I so badly wanted to be out running the trails and maybe make a trip or two up the Incline. Instead I did yoga and worked on some of my squat range-of-motion issues. That’s right, I finally made the smart decision and rested BEFORE re-injuring myself. It paid off because I felt amazingly well-rested on Monday morning, and all week I’ve been free of back spasms.

So the biggest lesson I’m taking away from this week is that I really need to listen to my body. Taking the time to give it what it is crying out for (rest, stretching, etc.) and perhaps missing a workout or two as a result is NOT going to derail my overall training efforts. In fact, by ignoring what my body has been hinting at all along, I’m actually putting myself at risk of a major injury. That would definitely drive my season into the ditch and result in unprecedented crankiness from lack of exercise. No one wins in that scenario. So please, for the sake of your training, and those who have to deal with you on a daily basis, listen to your body and give it what it needs.

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Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 6 – A Week of Highs and Lows

I went out of town this past weekend to visit a friend in Minneapolis, which could have spelled disaster for my weekend training plans. Fortunately, my friend is also an athlete and therefore understood completely when I told her first thing Saturday morning I would need to get in my 5K time trial as per my CrossFit Endurance training schedule. (It’s good to have friends that understand and enable your crazy addictions.) Even though it was cold, it was a beautiful run along the Mississippi, and I knocked out my 5K in 22:07. I was hoping to keep it at 7:30min/mi or faster pace, and that worked out to a 7:27min/mi pace, so it was right on the money. I’m getting faster, and I’m running less. Just as I was hoping!

I mentioned last week in my discussion of nutrition that I am a little more relaxed on the weekends. This weekend was no exception! I wasn’t particularly well behaved on the nutrition front, but I make no apologies for the burgers, bacon donut balls, or cheese bites that were consumed. Not exactly paleo, but hey, you only live once, right? I told myself I would just deal with the consequences, as there were sure to be consequences.

Once I returned back to Colorado Springs on Monday, I almost immediately headed to the Incline. I needed to get the weekly hill workout accomplished, plus it was 55 degrees versus the -31 degree windchill temps I’d left behind in Minnesota, so it felt nearly tropical in comparison. I reluctantly started my stopwatch at the bottom of the climb, and just told myself I wouldn’t look at it until I reached the summit. This would certainly not be a PR day, not after the amount of ridiculously delicious food I’d consumed over the previous two days. Turns out, I was wrong. I didn’t just PR the Incline, I PR’d it by two minutes (35:32)! I could not have been more thrilled with how my weekend workouts transpired. This was really a test of how maintainable and flexible this training plan is for me long term. I think this helped solidify in my mind it’s working very well.

Unfortunately this week wasn’t entirely a success. I failed to get in any yoga sessions. I was then promptly bitten by karma on Wednesday morning, when I started suffering from the worst lower back pain I have ever had in my life. I am not someone who typically has back pain, so to have it come on so suddenly and viciously was just totally unexpected. I ended up leaving work a little early (because I was walking around like a geriatric) and headed to my massage therapist.

After 90 minutes of the least enjoyable massage ever, he told me I was experiencing back spasms and that it’s all directly related to my posterior chain tightness. Basically he told me I should be stretching every day, doing yoga as much as possible, and then doing more stretching. Great, mandatory yoga, I can’t tell you how much this excites me (yes, massive sarcasm here). Fortunately I was able to walk upright leaving the massage appointment, but twenty minutes later the spasms came roaring back. I’ve spent the last 24 hours basically not moving except to change out heating pads, ice packs, and do my prescribed stretches. All this because I have consistently failed to take the time to really stretch. Lesson learned. Don’t make this mistake. Not worth it friends.

So because of this new small setback in my week of training, I’m not sure how the coming week’s training will look. I’m scheduled to participate in an 8-mile race this weekend. I don’t want to push myself to the point of a serious back injury, so I will have to re-evaluate how I’m feeling on race morning. I do know there is a healthy amount of stretching, yoga, and heat/ice packs in my immediate future. I intend to report back to you next week with a healthy back and a new appreciation for stretching. Turns out, I’m truly not getting any younger!

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Along with Andrew Read and Narisa Wild, Julie Warren will be sharing her training experiences for upcoming endurance challenges. Follow Julie as she prepares for her next adventure – the Great Wall of China Marathon! Julie’s journals will be posted on Saturdays.

Athlete Journal: Julie Warren, Entry 5 – Taking Baby Steps

I talked last week about the importance of goals. This week I focused on my short-term goals and I think it really paid off. And to be honest, without these smaller “low-hanging fruit” type goals, that big audacious goal on the horizon would probably seem impossible. Enter the importance of small goals, the baby-steps on the road to conquering the Great Wall of China.

One of my goals is to only run “long” every other weekend. This goes against essentially everything I’ve ever been taught when it comes to distance running. It initially freaked me out little bit when I thought about the concept of running less and potentially performing better. How is that even possible? Well I had an experience this past weekend that really solidified my confidence in this approach I’ve taken.

I had heard about a winter trail racing series taking place here locally in Colorado Springs that’s sponsored by a local running club. It’s a 4-race series, with races increasing mileage from 7.5 miles to 13 miles over the course of the series, and 2 weeks in between each race. In essence, it aligns perfectly with my goal of running “long” every other weekend while gradually increasing mileage. Plus I get a free t-shirt and guaranteed running buddies every other weekend!

So this past Saturday morning, on a downright freezing 12-degree morning, I toed the line at my first trail race in the series. I was really unsure what to expect. I’ve never been on these particular trails, so I knew absolutely nothing about the course other than that it was “challenging” according to the website. I also haven’t been doing much running. Aside from any shorter runs we might do in a CrossFit workout and my weekly incline workout, I was averaging maybe one long run every 10-14 days. Needless to say, I had some doubts as the gun went off, but I decided to just go out hard and see how I felt.

About a mile into the race I realized something disturbing. I was steadily passing runner after runner while we were switch-backing up a long climb. I figured I’d blown it. I had clearly gone out too hard and would soon pay for it. I mean, I had been passing old guys wearing those horrendous super-short running shorts. You don’t wear those in 12-degree weather unless you’re a legit runner. I kept waiting for my running pride to be overtaken by reality and that moment when I’d have to slow down or walk.

It never happened. In fact, at the summit of the climb, I recovered quickly and was able to maintain a strong pace throughout the rest of the very hilly course. To make a long story short, I felt incredible throughout the entire race. I finished strong, even catching a few age-groupers within the final half-mile. My final time for a 7.5-mile trail race was 62 minutes. I was extremely pleased with my performance and I realized I must be doing something right. I’m cautiously optimistic I’m on the right path with my workouts.

So yes, my CrossFit workouts and weekly incline workouts definitely paid off during the race, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the other changes I’ve made to my life recently. Most importantly, my nutrition has been a big focal point. My goal each week is to adhere to a paleo diet, Monday through Friday. I’m sure paleo purists will cry foul, but this is manageable for me. And if it’s manageable, I’ll do it. I make my breakfasts and lunches for the entire week on Sunday evening, throw them in the freezer and then just grab and go as I’m leaving the house for work. For example, this past week I made sausage, apple, and sweet potato breakfast patties for my breakfasts and a huge crockpot full of pulled pork for my lunches and dinners. Add some veggies and done. Easy! On the weekends I allow myself some liberties, but honestly I don’t get too crazy. I can tell this approach is working. My clothes fit better (I just bought the smallest jeans I’ve ever purchased as an adult), my energy is awesome, and I’m sleeping really well. So, until I start to see a reason to change this method, I’m continuing with my 5 day-a-week paleo plan.

The other big change I’ve made is the goal to gradually incorporate yoga into my workout routine. I actually did a short yoga session before my race on Saturday and I have no doubt that was part of the reason I felt so great during the race. Still, yoga for me is stressful. Ironic, right? Hear me out on this. As a runner, I am of course ridiculously inflexible. I am also, as mentioned in one of previous articles, unabashedly competitive. So, to be in a room with all these twisty bendy people while I’m struggling to get my heels on the ground during downward dog is stressful. It’s something I personally have to overcome and I know this, but that’s my struggle with yoga. I’m really bad at it. That being said, it’s becoming more and more a part of my routine and I know it’s helping my running and my overall flexibility.

So that’s my week in a nutshell. I was pleasantly surprised with my training progress and performance during a trail race, I established a very manageable nutrition routine that I can adapt on a weekly basis, and I’ve accepted I have work to do in the yoga department. I hope to report back next week on positive yoga experiences. Namaste.

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