The Ups and Downs of Hockey and Running

It was a busy weekend in my house, and this very long post proves it! 😉

Saturday was quite a day. My oldest had a hockey tournament all weekend, and I had to run 9 miles for my training. Luckily, the hockey tournament was at our home rink, but still…finding the time to run 9 miles in between two hockey games was daunting. I prefer to get all my runs done in the morning whenever I can, because I’m not much of an afternoon or evening runner. I tend to lack motivation that late in the day. 😛

My options for Saturday were to either run really early, before the first game at 10:30, or to run in between the games, which would mean running in the afternoon. Running in between the games would be best, but as mentioned previously, I prefer to run as early as possible. I could run 9 miles around my house, and then make it to the hockey game, but I was worried about getting to the game on time, since I couldn’t start before it got light. If I wanted to start earlier, I’d have to run on the treadmill, and the idea of running 9 miles on the treadmill didn’t sound like fun.

So, I came up with a crazy idea: run to the hockey rink! 😀 I plotted it out, and the hockey rink is 9.83 miles from my house. I decided an extra three quarters of a mile or so wouldn’t kill me, and the thought of running to the hockey rink actually kind of appealed to me. As my runs have gotten longer, some of the hockey parents on our team have joked with me about it, saying, “Maybe one day you’ll run to the rink!” Though they meant it as a joke, I secretly started to think it would be kind of fun to do it. Back when I was still training for a half marathon, I realized that it was about 10 miles to the rink, and the thought of maybe, maybe one day actually running to the rink became kind of a secret challenge to me. Saturday, I decided to try to make it reality!

While I was thinking about that, I have to admit that I’ve been struggling lately with my runs, specifically with my pace. I keep telling everyone that my goal for the marathon is to just finish, but in reality, I feel like I need to finish it in at least five hours. Five hours is actually about an 11:27 pace or so, and considering I ran a half marathon and a 9:50 pace, that shouldn’t be so hard, right??

However, all my long runs lately have been pretty bad. Well, bad for me, because they’re coming in higher than my marathon goal pace. 🙁  When I ran 12 miles a couple weeks ago, my overall pace, including my rest stops, was 11:48.  I was really depressed. How could I run a half marathon at a 9:50 pace, against the wind even, and yet I can’t even manage to do 12 miles even close to an 11-minute pace?! I know that sometimes the footing in the ice and snow has been a challenge, but I haven’t run on any days where it was that bad that it would necessitate such a slow pace, at least in my mind.

At the suggestion of a coworker who has run five marathons, I decided to try and split up my mileage for Saturday’s run. I started out trying to go about 11 minutes per mile for the first three, then around 10:30 or 10:40 for the next 3 miles, and then I figured I could go back to 11 minute miles for the last three.

It all sounded great in theory, but the reality didn’t prove quite as perfect. I had been obsessively checking the precipitation outlook the night before, hoping that it wasn’t going to snow on me or get icy. But what I forgot to check was the forecasted temperature, and when I woke up Saturday morning, I was quite astonished.

 

 

Dude! I was not expecting 7°! It warmed all the way up to 8.2 by the time I got out there, ha ha! On the bright side, even though it had snowed the day before, I was taking main roads most of the way, and they were pretty clear.

I ran the first 3 miles a little too fast, in the range of about 10:45. I managed to do a 10:40 for the middle 3 miles, though it was hard.  Afterwards, I had to stop, because I was just really, really tired. I was really discouraged that running a 10:40-10:45 for 6 miles took a lot out of me!  During my walk break, I took the time to take a picture of a creek that I often drive over, but never have a chance to actually stop and admire.

 

 

I managed to get going again after about two-tenths of a mile, but I was much slower than I wanted to be, and I had to take another stop for some more water. Unfortunately, at that temperature, my water was pretty much frozen, so I didn’t get very much. :/

When I hit the 9-mile point (my actual planned distance for my training that day), I was actually planning to take the trail that ran alongside the rink, but I discovered very quickly that that trail wasn’t plowed. What was worse is that it hadn’t been plowed for several days, so there was snow on top of rutted ice where people had walked. I was so tired, and I was so frustrated, I was ready to cry. In a fit of desperation, I veered off the path and into the neighborhood, but I didn’t know where I was, and I was really starting to worry about getting lost. At this point, I wasn’t worried about finishing that last .83 miles, but I was worried about getting to the hockey game on time. I figured I could call my husband to come get me, but I was worried that it would take more time for him to try to find me, then for me to just run that last three quarters of a mile in the snow.

I ran down one of the side streets for a little while, before I found another entry onto the path, which I took, since I knew it would be the shortest route to the rink. It was unplowed and icy, but I somehow managed to trudge through it to get to the rink.  I was tired and exhausted, but I did it!

 

 

Even though it took much longer than I expected, somehow, I got there just as the kids were on the ice warming up. I did end up missing the first five minutes of the game, because of course I had to change out of my sweaty clothes, but I did get to see the majority of it, and I even managed to take about 150 pictures! Normally I would take a lot more, but my fingers had gotten so numb from being out in the cold, and then of course being in a hockey rink, which is very cold (ha ha!), so I couldn’t feel the button on the camera to push it, so I finally just gave up. 😛

After the game, a bunch of the parents came over to me, because they had heard from my husband what I had been doing while they were waiting for the game to start. They all told me I was crazy, but at the same time, I could tell that they were really impressed that I really had run to the rink. Our family is actually known on our team for being the family that lives the farthest from the rink, so for me to run to the rink was a pretty big deal around our hockey team! 😀  I wasn’t overly excited about my overall time, but I suppose that if you take out the last three quarters of a mile, it was better: an 11:11 pace. Still, for someone who would run 9:50 pace for 13.1 miles just a few months ago, it felt very slow. :/

As far as the hockey game went, the kids didn’t win that first game, but they played great the second game, and managed to beat a team that we have struggled against in the past. After that game, we treated the boys to one of their favorite restaurants, Buffalo Wild Wings. And I treated myself (and the kids) to a yummy chocolate fudge cake à la mode.

 

 

That’s Daniel and me enjoying the cake, while Jamie refused to be in the picture. 😉

The next morning, I was at church, waiting for the kids to get out of Sunday school, when my friend Dave (married to my friend Renée) and I were talking about running. Dave and Renée are both seasoned marathon runners, and in fact, Dave has been a track coach in the past. I mentioned my frustration over my pace, and pointed out that I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to meet my goal of a sub-five-hour marathon, when I couldn’t even do the necessary average pace for a 10- or 12-mile run. Dave was very matter-of-fact about it, and just laid it out for me: it’s cold! He pointed out to me all the reasons why it’s harder to run in cold weather than in moderate weather, and then he also pointed out that I struggled in the hot runs, like my Chicago half-marathon, and running in cold has similar effects. Your body is working harder, he told me, and it’s not going to be as fast. He told me to stop worrying about my pace on my training runs and to just keep running. He said that, as long as I kept up with my training, it didn’t matter how fast I was going, and it would get better as the weather got warmer.

Dave is a great guy, and funny, and by the time we were done, I felt much better, and I was laughing too. He somehow managed to put it all in perspective and made it humorous at the same time. Everything he said made sense, and I’m feeling much better about my running now. Of course, I wish it were warmer, but pretty soon it will be, and I can only imagine that my runs will get faster as that happens. I was so glad I had a chance to chat with Dave. 🙂

Sunday was another day full of hockey, but I managed to get in my strength training.  We were scheduled for a very early game on Monday, so we went to bed early Sunday night. We managed to get to the rink by 7:15 AM on Monday, but unfortunately, the boys lost and did not go to the championship game.  They had some very good games this weekend, and some rather ugly ones, but it was all good.

After the game, I still had to run 7 miles, and I can tell you that I had absolutely no desire to do that 7 miles yesterday after we got back from the rink.  I put it off for at least a couple of hours, but I did do it. I was so busy yesterday morning, that for once, I forgot to weigh myself. I did finally weigh myself after I ran, and I was astonished at the results.

 

 

Woah.  I mean, just…woah.  After all these days, weeks, and months lamenting my inability to get back to 113, and finally coming to terms with the fact that my body had changed and I should probably change my goal to account for my strength training…there I was, under my original goal for the first time in almost a year!  At first I couldn’t believe it, but then I realized that, with all that was going on this past weekend with the hockey tournament, I had earned all those extra points and then I never used them!  Even with the brownie, I hardly ate this weekend, and I left more than half of my activity points on the table.  :0  I felt gipped. 😉

I honestly didn’t want to even enter that number into my eTools, because I didn’t want to see a huge gain the following week, which I knew would happen when I got back to normal eating.  So we had a big dinner and some dessert last night, and then I weighed myself again this morning.

 

 

Still surprising to me, and I have no idea how long it will last, but I’m not going to argue at being back in the 113s for the first time since March of last year!!

Thanks so much for reading this very long post.  I’m going to try to post a recipe this week, because we had a really, really yummy dinner Sunday night that I’m anxious to share.  Not to mention, I got some new studio photography lights for Christmas that I’m having fun trying out. 😉

See you soon!