Lessons Learned ~ 2013 Edition

WOW! Has it really been two months since my last post?  I am slacking – BIG TIME! Well, there is one thing I know for certain, no one is sitting on the edge of their seat waiting to read my blog posts (which is good, because then I would have to question your sanity).

Anyway, just to update everyone on my 2013 progress – there IS no progress.  Yes, I am maintaining my weight but my racing calendar has once again changed.  I am no longer planning to do the Southern Indiana Triathlon as I intended but still plan to do the Buckhead Border Challenge Triathlon on July 22^nd.  As far as any other summer races; I am hoping to register soon for the Great Buckeye Challenge Half-Iron Distance Triathlon this week.  Yesterday, I paid and registered for the 2013 US Air Force Marathon in Dayton, OH on September 21^st! I am really excited about the Air Force Marathon for a number of reasons which I will discuss in more detail in the following paragraphs.  

So, overall, it appears that my race season will start a little later in the year than initially planned but a race season is still a race season regardless of the time of year it is done.  Last year, the race season started early for me and I ended up fizzling out too soon.  This year, I am starting my training and the bulk of my races to avoid what happened last year.  I am still very new to these sports and since I do not have a coach (or the money to get one); I am just trying to learn from my mistakes year to year.  After all, if we don’t learn from most of our mistakes, then how can we ever expect to get better?

Ok, now on to what I have already learned this year: 

Lesson No. 1 – Never expect that your training will go exactly as planned.
Lesson No. 2 – Never assume that tapering for a race is just for elite or “really” fast runners.
Lesson No. 3 – Listen to your body and do the “smart” thing which is not to be confused with the “what we want to do” thing. 
Lesson No. 4 – Never assume that you are immune to sicknesses, regardless of how long it has been since your last sniffle or cough. If you assume that, you WILL get sick!
Lesson No. 5 – If you are sick, and you can’t breathe without hacking up alien life forms, DON’T RACE! Save it for the next one, because there will be other races.

So, with only one race under my belt this year (Derby Day Stakes 10K), I have already learned quite a bit.  Unfortunately, some of those lessons, I had to learn the hard way.  This leads me to address my main topic; getting sick right before race day, and not just any race day, one of the big races on my schedule for the 2013 season.  I am talking about the Kentucky Derby Marathon that I was supposed to run on April 27^th.

Let me explain the series of events that led up to one of the hardest decisions I have had to make:

It was about a week and a half before the marathon; I had run a 23 mile long run that previous Sunday and was still feeling a little sluggish two days later.  I never felt still sluggish two days after my long runs so I attributed it to the new idea I had, not really tapering for the marathon.  I have tapered before and had no success so I figured tapering for a race was just intended for the faster runners (Lesson No. 2).  I was willing to try something new so I just kept pushing myself even though something told me that I should take it easy.  I was getting short on breath and staring to develop a cough.  Surely, I thought, there was no way I could be getting sick; I haven’t been sick in over two years, I can’t get sick a week before the race, NO WAY (Lesson No. 4).  Well, I kept pushing the training thinking that I would just train right through the sickness and I would be fine and everything would be better after the weekend.  I came to find out that it just got worse, my cough was getting deeper and I started having real issues breathing, but I kept running little by little even though my body was telling me to stop (Lesson No. 3).  Well, the Monday came before the marathon and I was really having a hard time so I went to the doctor and was told I had bronchitis. What? There was no way I had bronchitis much less this close before the marathon.  I was prescribed an antibiotic and told if I felt better, then, I could race in the marathon, but it all depended on how I felt. Believe it or not, I already had my mind made up that I WAS going to race no matter how I felt (A little of Lesson 3 & 5 here). Well, it got down to Thursday and I ran about 2 miles and had to stop almost every 0.5 mile mark to cough and hack my brains out, but yet I was still telling myself “I was going to run this marathon.”  So how could someone think, just two days before a 26 mile race, that they would still be able to run when they couldn't even make it 0.5 mile without coughing like a 40- year old chain smoker.  But yet, that was my thought process. 

The next day, after much hesitation and deliberation, I listened to my body, and cancelled my hotel reservations; I wasn't going to run this one.  I was going to try and be smart and sit this race out and get healthy (Lesson No. 5 finally learned). I wanted to run so bad but knew I wouldn't be able to finish and wasn't helping myself by being stubborn.  So, I didn't race, but since, I have gotten back on my feet, ran a 10K, not a very good time, but completed and with both lungs intact.

So that is how I learned some very valuable lessons without before really running a single race.  They say training is where you learn how to run your races and that is exactly what happened, I learned lessons by the problems faced during my training.  I learned that I need to taper, listen to my body, do the smart thing and not necessarily what I “want” and most of all, take care of myself and allow my body the time to get better.  

These sound like such simple things, but when you train for months for something and a week before, you have to admit that you aren't able to do it; trust me, it isn't such a simple decision at all.

This experience and the fact that I missed the official start of my 2013 race season is what has fueled a fire to run the Air Force Marathon and hopefully, do it a little smarter this time around. 

The start of 2013 has been a bit of struggle, hopefully that means that I will be stronger and “smarter” towards the rest of 2013. One can only hope.  So for those of you who are training for your own races, best of luck!

Until next time…

I am training for races, getting stronger, and most of all, hopefully getting smarter…just keep running.