What if? Organizing marathon fears

As we embark on the second week of training, I'm struck by fear. Here are my biggest fears about this marathon:

Injury
I'm scared out of my mind about re-injuring my hip. It's not like I can stop running and focus on my swim and bike while my hip heals. I cannot, absolutely cannot, inflame my hip. It CANNOT happen. To combat this problem, I'll be doing a strength workout once a week. This, combined with the change in my run gait I worked on this past season, should stave off any injury. If it doesn't work, I might cry.

Asthma
The timing of this race is a little nerve-wracking for me. The race is Feb. 17. In Pennsylvania, February tends to be very cold. In Austin, it'll be beautiful. However, all of my training will be done here, not Austin. Once it gets cold, I'll only be able to run in the the bitter cold for so long. After about the 35 degree mark, I have to move inside because my lungs cannot handle the cold. Dry, cold air literally closes my lungs and I cannot breathe. I'm pretty sure I'll be doing a majority of my long runs on the treadmill; the thought of which makes me cringe.

Paging Dr. Ross... Regarding the above two concerns, I will be coming to the Performance Lab again very soon.

Weather
What if it snows? OK, so I know this fear is a stretch, but I have a plane to catch. If the weather is bad, will I even be able to get to Austin? Will I have trained so long, spent hundreds of dollars on airfare and race registration for nothing? I will not know the answer to this until the day my plan is set to fly.

Time management
When the going gets tough, workouts tend to fall by the wayside. Let's be honest, I have a lot of things going on right now. Between a full- and part-time job, the kids and my new relationship status, things are getting a little hectic. I think I'll manage to do all my running workouts, but will my swim and bike may suffer? If they do, what does that mean for next year's triathlon season?

Confidence
What if I can't run 26.2 miles? I'm not even talking injury.. what if I just cannot run 26.2 miles? That's some serious distance. I can tell you that during the last 5k of any half marathon I've ever run I thought my legs would fall off... what happens when I double that distance? First off, I train for it, that I know. It just seems so huge to me right now.

Phew... Now that all my concerns on in front of me in black and white, I feel a little better. Organizing fear, anyone else find comfort in it?

Racing for a cup of coffee: Using caffeine to improve athletic performance

Today I am sitting at my desk enjoying a fresh cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee. A treat I have enjoyed countless days before today. Today is different. This marks my first cup of coffee since my detox.

I've had this coffee now for about 2 hours as of the writing of this post and as you can see, I'm a little less than a quarter of my way through this delicious brew. Here's the thing, I'm pretty sure I will not be able to finish it.

Before weening myself off coffee, I could easily drink this cup - in a lot less time than it's taken me to get through this small amount. In fact, I'd say I had a full blown coffee addiction. Sure, there were people out there who drank more than me, but I was pretty comfortable with a cup of coffee.

But now... now! Wow, I'm sitting here at my desk and my mind is racing... my heart is pounding... my hands are a little shaky... and, oh my goodness, I hope no one calls me because I'm talking so fast. Or at least I feel like I'm talking fast.The worst part of all of this is that even though I feel like I'm going a mile a minute, I'm tired. It feels almost like my body is exhausted from the effort of racing, which in turn makes me pick up the cup and take another very small sip.

I've read some articles online about the benefits of caffeine while training. So, I am curious about your coffee/caffeine experience. How do you use caffeine to improve your training ... or do you avoid it? 

At the track: Let the training begin

Before last year, I never ran. I always thought I couldn't run. I learned differently while training for my first triathlon in 2010. I actually can run, albeit, slowly. No matter how hard I try, I'm stuck at a snails pace. On really good days, I can hold a 9:30 minute mile for a mile or two. Maybe. In short, running is not my strong point. Joanna plans to change that. 

I recently met Joanna at the Radnor High School track for our first workout together. It was cold and windy. Very windy. Each loop around the track I ran ended with a gust of wind blowing directly at me, which meant I had a nice tailwind on the other side of the track, but you can't see that.

I haven't run on a track since I was in high school when I needed to run a mile for gym class ... almost 18 years ago, so to say I was a little nervous is an understatement. On top of it, the workout is on film, so I felt a bit of pressure. But also felt excited to start because I really want to be a faster and more efficient runner. According to Joanna, these track workouts are going to help make me a stronger and faster runner, both needed to improve my race time.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with a track, it is 400 meters. So when Joanna says, "Run an 800," she's telling me to run around the track twice.

Here we go ...

 

Our next video will be a bike workout, so please stay tuned. Also, don't forget, if you have any questions for me or the coach, comment and we will try to answer them in a video or a blog post sometime soon.