This week I had a little bit of a freak out about my upcoming marathon. It wasn't related to training or to anxiety about race day performance. Frankly, it was about money. As an academic, I'm expected to go to and present at conferences, but they are expensive. Between air fare and hotel alone, I spent over $900 on my trip to Seattle. I'm going to two other conferences this year, so this one was entirely out of my own pocket. In these days of austerity and budget cuts, I am doubtful that I will receive adequate funds to cover both of the other two conferences either, but the show must go on. M. and I had a talk, and we decided since we are staying home over the winter holidays this year that Chicago is still a go. Sadly, the show will include no more fabulous boots or other unnecessary purchases for a while. We also realized this week that the marathon is the day after Yom Kippur, but M. claims he will be fine to fast that Saturday in Chi-town. He is pretty bad-ass.
Anyhoo, here's how this past week of training went.
Monday - scheduled 0 miles - active rest. Actual 0 miles on foot but 5-6 miles on bike. I pedaled my way into campus and back.
Tuesday - scheduled 4 miles fast. Actual 2.6 miles with one timed mile trial. I ran my fastest mile recorded to date in 8:11.
Wednesday - scheduled 4 miles easy. Actual 4 miles easy. I met up with Jana who was tapering for a half-marathon this past weekend so we kept the pace gentle and chatted our way through the miles.
Thursday - scheduled 6 miles easy. Actual 5.1 miles progressive. I didn't initially intend to run this as a progressive run, but at the mile 3 mark I realized that was how it was unfolding so I decided to go with it and pick up the speed a little bit more for the last two miles.
Friday - scheduled 0 miles - active rest. Actual 0 miles and took a rest day. This was a tiring week.
Saturday - scheduled 16 miles LSD. Actual 14.5 miles. This run was going really well until about 11.5 miles in and then I started getting a serious cramp in my hip. At first it was bearable, but after another mile or so, I started feeling some pain in my knee so I decided to finish it a bit early.
Sunday - scheduled 0 miles - rest.
Coming up for Week 8:
Monday - 4 miles easy.
Tuesday - 0 miles - active rest.
Wednesday - 6 miles easy.
Thursday - 0 miles - active rest.
Friday - 4 miles easy.
Saturday - 18 miles LSD.
Sunday - 0 miles - rest.
How do you feel about the costs associated with traveling to races? Do you tend to stick to just local events because of budgetary reasons?
I've only travelled a few times, and those were places I could get to by car. It was too much time and money for me. I'm pretty much sticking to local events right now
ReplyDeleteThe reason I have not done more races is the cost. I am in the same boat as you; lots of expectations for research but not much university funding to support it. Since most races include at least a one night stay somewhere it always is a consideration. It's funny, due to my job I have a flexible schedule enough to do almost any race I want, but due to my job I have no funds! Ha ha! Life is weird! Good job keep it going during a tough week.
ReplyDeleteI´ve been freaking out about my marathon too! Because a) my training has not been going well and b)I´m realizing that it´s going to expensive and time consuming to fly from BCN to Dublin, miss work, etc in order to possibly FAIL. Ugh, I might cancel my trip and just eat the registration fee.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your fastest mile! I wish I could get in some decent speed workouts, but right now the heat is just killer.
A lot of it is cost for me. Cost and time. I live in a small town with really LAME races (same course). Races involve travel for me to either San Diego or Phoenix (if I want to do a decent race). Travel (with kids a lot of the time) = hotel + food. So... That's pretty much why I only do a couple each year.
ReplyDeleteMy running pals and I have really enjoyed traveling to run. It gets us out of our city for an extended weekend and provides a mini vacation with some exercise built in. We have been to Las Vegas and Monterey so far for races, with Chicago up next and we are eying an international marathon next. Of course, it takes some budgeting and saying no to other vacations but so far it has been worth it. I also enjoy local races too and Seattle has no shortage of those!
ReplyDeleteGreat question, Raquelita! It pains me to admit that time has been my biggest foe in picking out my next race. It's just really hard to take an entire weekend off--I'm in the lab six days a week. I'd love to do a destination race, especially one that my runner-blogger friends are doing, but it's hard to imagine how I'd be able to swing it.
ReplyDeleteJust for fun, top three places where I'd like to run a half: Austin, TX; San Francisco (hills! eek!); and Detroit, MI (hometown love). Maybe I could make Austin happen sooner rather than later...
Also, I'm very proud of you for riding your bike to campus! That is excellent.
I try to stay local but I just recently signed up for a race outta state. It's not till April of next year. I'm saving now! lol We'll see how it goes, I would like to sign up for others races that are on the other side of the country.
ReplyDeleteI hate how expensive races are, but I love doing them. I was going to sign up for the monster dash at the end of Oct which is a half around Nokomis/Harriet/Calhoun. Um, it's $73. I was like - seriously? For a half?
ReplyDeleteI do try to travel to a race once a year, though, because it's a great way to see my running friends who live far away, and I feel there is no better way to see a city than to run thorugh it! :)
I agree that there is no better way to see a city and am so glad that I've run races in some of the places that I have. I just wish that I were not the (mostly sole) bread winner these days - that would make racing and traveling for races a little bit easier.
ReplyDeleteI would like to do a race in Austin at some point!
ReplyDeleteI rode a lot in the past, but I got out of the habit this winter. It's good to be back on my bici!
You are going to succeed! I know that you can run the Dublin Marathon!
ReplyDeleteThe fact that it has been cooler and less humid the past couple of weeks has really helped with the speed work. I'm much more comfortable on my runs now in general.
Haha! It's so true. This semester I don't teach on Fridays and only teach one class on Mondays so I could hypothetically make it to a number of races. However, I am more or less the sole bread winner in the household these days. Between that and the fact that I'll be laying down $1000+ on two more conferences this year, I just can't do it.
ReplyDeleteYes... That is tough. The expenses of a destination race add up fast unfortunately :( if only there was a money tree in your back yard right?
ReplyDeleteI go to races all over. Usually it's part of visiting people, but not always. I think I would mind the expense a lot more if I were going to THREE conferences in a year. That's a lot! I'm going to two this year, but I think work is covering both, fortunately. Travel budgets get out of hand so quickly.
ReplyDelete