wish wash

I am still here, still being schooled by pollen. It is crazy. I’ve even had old-lady smoker voice. Happily, pretty much everything except the throat has gotten better and despite feeling like crap since last Wednesday, I have had some decent runs brought to me by pseudo ephedrine (do allergy meds count as doping?). Most days I have felt like I would probably quit and ended up a) not quitting and b) running farther than I planned, so I felt pretty good about getting it done. Being dehydrated and having cotton mouth is getting old. I have been taking this other generic cold/allergy medicine that looks like it came from 1985 and it is the bomb.

Twilight is Saturday, which reminded me today that I probably would not recognize 5k pace if it ran up and kicked me in the behind. I ran it in 25:05 last year, which is an admittedly modest 5k time, but I do not foresee bettering my time unless I start out fast and somehow manage to hold on. It’s a flat course, but still, the only time I have been running fast is the last couple of miles of progression runs where I’ve already run four or five miles at an easier pace and lie to myself that I’m almost done anyway. Thanks to this week, I’m pretty familiar with the “run til ya puke” feeling. Maybe I can leverage that this weekend.

I’ve been hemming and hawing on a fall marathon. I want to run the Houston Marathon next January; my brother and his family live in Houston, I want to do another big marathon, and it’s supposed to be a nice course. They announced last month that the 2012 Olympic Marathon Time Trials will be held there, so that is cool but not really why I am interested in running it – I am just a convenience kind of person and don’t want to make a huge trip unless there is some other reason besides a race. Registration isn’t until late July. I was thinking about doing another October-December set, but might bump that up a little bit and do one in September. I’ll be defending my thesis, finishing graduate school, and applying to dietetic internships in the fall (and g-d willing, getting accepted to one for January), so I don’t want to pressure myself to spend a lot of time getting ready for a marathon since that is clearly the bottom priority. And yet here I am thinking about it. Maybe I need to set up some reward system for myself. Analyze data+write+defend+finish DI applications = one fall/winter marathon registration.

Here’s what I did last week. Yet another cycling fail…didn’t realize there was no late Saturday afternoon class this month so when I finally decided to go, no dice…I am needing to diversify because I’m bored of just running, but that’s what the 31 miles of cycling Saturday is for, I guess.

4/11 sunday – off
4/12 monday – 7.18, 66:46 avg 9:17
4/13 tuesday – 7.0, 62:44 avg 8:57
4/14 wednesday – 3.05, 30:30 avg 10:00
4/15 thursday – 7.47, 69:14 avg 9:20
4/16 friday – 8.05, 72:05 avg 8:57
4/17 saturday – 8.38, 76:14 avg 9:05

total miles run: 41.13
total time run: 6:16:53
total cardio time: 6:16:53

think fast go slow

Nice week of relaxing/recovering while still having a delusion of high mileage since the race was on Sunday. I took Monday and Tuesday to feel creaky and sleep a little extra. Brian brought new puppy home Saturday night and I have to say that sleeping puppy = best excuse for a nap ever. I took a three hour nap on Monday (oh yes, the life of a marginally employed graduate student which affords such luxury) laying on the couch with the puppy snuggled into my neck. It was gross and soothing at once. I have opposed the addition of another dog to our household, but I guess if I’m stuck taking it outside to pee every twenty minutes and having it bite my feet constantly, I might as well embrace the benefits, like naps and general cuteness. Jumped back in with a 40 minute run Wednesday (four and change), three slightly faster miles yesterday, and three before my spin class this evening. I slept for twelve hours last night. Time for making new goals; fall seems like a long time away.

old year, new year

I ran an easy 3.1 miles this afternoon in 27:15 to finish out my year of running with 1640.32 miles. Since I have never kept track of my miles before, I didn’t really know how much to expect. I had some ups and downs this year so averaging a little over 30 miles per week for the year sounds about right (because it is!). It is nice to finish out with no injuries other than the occasional aches and pains. 2009 wasn’t a happy year for a lot of people, but it was a pretty solid one for me.

Some notable events from the past year are finishing my dietetics degree, applying to grad schools (and being accepted everywhere I applied … okay, I applied two places, but still, those are good stats!), five year anniversary of dating Brian, finishing my first marathon in March, PRs across the board (some by default, some not), getting game MVP in two games after I stopped actually playing derby, ten years of the red dog, my first 50k bike ride in the pouring rain, visiting with family in May and November, and participating in some new community activities (bike/ped task force, aids athens, POUR food drive, the senior farmer’s market nutrition program). Everyone in my family made it through the year in one piece. I’m pretty stoked. Here are my resolutions from last year.

- Run a marathon. Done! I ran three marathons, three half marathons, an 8 mile, three 10ks, a 4.1 mile, and four 5ks. Also, you know, the other billion times that I ran for fun and misery. Success.

- Stop cussing. Hmm. Not so much, but I have cut back. This is going to stay on the list, but I have the feeling I’m never going to completely cut it out. I’ll be a little generous and call it semi-successful, dang it.

- Go visit my siblings. Semi-successful; I visited my brother in Houston once and my brother in Dallas twice, but didn’t make it to Colorado, mostly because I still don’t like to fly (I drove to Texas both times). I’m going to have to work on the fear of flying thing, but between people putting explosives in their underwear, general ineptitude of airport workers/management/policy, and basic concepts of physics and gravity, I’m guessing that I will not be excited about flying any time soon.

- Read more! Yes. Done. I read a ton of books this year, but didn’t keep track as well as I wanted to and then gave away most of what I read to friends, so I’m not positive exactly how many books. Success.

- Other stuff: dog walking (eh), two servings of fruit per day (yes), better attitude (work in progress), and minding my own business (work in progress). Dog walking and having a better attitude were topping my list for 2010 resolutions, so you can imagine my dismay when I realized I had casually tacked them on to my list of resolutions last year. Whoops! I think I need to substitute dog walking for ten minutes of something unproductive per day because I definitely have an extra couple of minutes when I look at it that way, but it’s easier to get lost in doing other things. I’ve tried to keep myself busy with things I enjoy doing so I don’t spend time being nosy or gossipy or whatever.

New resolutions for 2010.

- Floss more. Duh. I got much better about flossing after I went to the dentist and he told me my teeth were prone to decay, looked good on the outside and were bad inside. Basically, just short of telling me I had teeth like one of those Kentucky kids who was weaned on Mountain Dew. However, it dropped off a bit after I went for my second visit this year and he told me my teeth were in great shape and I had superior genetics for healthy teeth (and denied ever telling me my teeth were going to rot out of my head). I’m going to try to bump it up to flossing twice a day.

- Run faster, of course. I am pretty haphazard in my “training” as you might notice if you’ve ever read this blog for more than ten seconds. I ended the year with my fastest marathon time of 4:12, so in the spirit of A, B, C goals for races I’ll say my A goal for 2010 will be a marathon time under 3:50, B goal under 3:55, and C goal under 4:00. I would also like to improve my 5k time, but it’s been so long since I ran one that I’m not sure what a good goal is. I’m a wimp about running as fast as I can and tend to hover in semi-comfort instead.

- Branch out. Do different things, just in general. Have fun doing things whether they turn out as planned or not. Make more homemade foods.

- Keep in touch with people I care about. The internet makes it really easy to have insignificant contact with a zillion people that I could do with or without, but also seems to make me less likely to pick up the phone and have a conversation with someone that I actually want to maintain a friendship with. There are some people I want to be friends with 20 years from now and I would like to focus on actually having better friendships with them now. Many of them are people I’ve already known for a long time and that means phone calls or visits, and for the rest, that means actually getting out of the house and hanging out.

- Other stuff: not leaving things undone at night (dishes, clutter, etc), be better about keeping track of things/writing stuff down, less gossip, fewer impulse grocery buys, volunteer for something at least once a month, finish graduate school. Chill out, don’t be a jerk, be a good person.

Thanks to everyone who has commented on my little blog over the past year with my off and on posting. I hope you have an awesome 2010!

2 weeks out

I was pretty generous with my off days last week. Between feeling like I should take some kind of rest after the half and then going to a wedding on Saturday (plus a gnarly Advanced Macronutrients exam in between), I didn’t pencil in too much running time. So now I’m just kind of dunked into my taper weeks, with eleven days to go before the Marine Corps Marathon on the 24th. It’s finally time to start getting stoked about it; Google Mapping directions, figuring out what clothes to wear, frantically typing numbers into the pace calculator on Cool Running, and, dare I say, considering some semblance of race strategy.

My general strategy for races is something like, run at a pace that doesn’t make you want to puke for as long as you can, then slow down as necessary to mitigate puking. Usually that pace is just whatever feels natural and on practice runs, that’s usually around 8:30 outdoors (slower indoors for some reason). I know I can’t maintain an 8:30 pace for a full marathon; you can see my pace at the half last weekend was about 8:46 with slower miles thrown in at the end and my 21 mile training run a couple weeks ago was 9:15/mile or so pace. I am thinking about starting the race at about 9:30/mile pace and seeing where that gets me. I am just skeptical of the negative split and am pro putting some time in the bank, although that is never really recommended as a strategy. Should I start even slower? I’m concerned that won’t give me enough time to pick things back up if I’m tired at the end. And I mean, really, I’m going to be tired at the end regardless. The question is just what time will be on the clock when I start fading. The course elevation map looks like the hills are pretty minimal and mostly at the beginning. Famous last words.

miles for week of 10/4
10/4 sunday – 13.1 miles, 1:55:02 (Locomotive Half Marathon)
10/5 monday – off
10/6 tuesday – off
10/7 wednesday – 8 miles, 73:50
10/8 thursday – 8 miles, 73:50 (I may not be fast, but I am consistent!)
10/9 friday PM – 6.52, 60 minutes
10/10 saturday off

total miles: 35.62

trying to focus

I’ve been feeling pretty blah on running for the last couple of weeks. Maybe a combination of still being a ways out from MCM and also sleeping pretty poorly. I have always had trouble falling asleep and I wake up a lot at night, but I feel like I have spent more time laying awake trying to fall back asleep than I have actually sleeping. I mostly feel pretty good, so I shouldn’t complain, but I do feel pretty listless and hungrier than usual (trying to compensate for being tired and gaining weight as a result). Anyway, here’s what I’ve got. Pretty much the same as usual, but it’s been a struggle to make myself get up and out. I think that just happens sometimes when your hobby is also exercise; if your hobby is video games or happy hour or singing, you can do those things even if you’re tired and they’re relaxing. You don’t go, oh my GOSH, I did not go to happy hour today and therefore I’m lazy and I suck. You might even be proud of yourself for that, haha.

week of 8/9
8/9 sun – off
8/10 mon – off
8/11 tues – off! (woah)
8/12 wednesday – 9.5 miles, 89:50, avg pace 9:27
8/13 thursday – 8.37 miles, 79:39, avg pace
8/14 friday – AM 7.1, PM 8.4 – this was supposed to be a 14 mile run, but I was tired so I split it. don’t ask why I was tired when I already took 3 days off.
8/15 saturday – 7 miles, time?

total: 40.37 miles

week of 8/16
8/16 sunday – off
8/17 monday PM – 7.0 miles, 65:45
8/18 tuesday AM – 7.57, 70:40
8/19 wednesday PM – 3.25, 30:07
8/20 thursday PM – 8.5, 79:40
8/21 friday PM – 16 miles, 2:31:00
8/22 saturday – off

total: 42.32 miles

So, I have been thinking about what kind of MCM time I am going to shoot for. Things seemed a little easier when I was running to see if I could run a marathon; I knew I could do that, even if it was going to be slow, and as long as I did it, success. Trying to figure out how fast I can run a marathon is a whole different beast and requires a little more effort. My previous time is 4:25, so about 10:07 pace. Obviously, I want to beat that and I think I’ve been running more than I did in prepping for that race. Barring weirdness (and there is always weirdness), I think I could reasonably run a 4:10, but would like to do 4:00 or less.

I think I’m going to sign up for a half in early October and see if my time there has improved much just to see where I am at. There are two on the same weekend in Atlanta; Locomotive Half Marathon and 13.1 Atlanta. I’m leaning towards Locomotive because it seems a little more homegrown. It’s cheaper too, but slightly further away from me and I’d be driving there the morning of the race. 13.1 seems kind of silly; “the latest craze in themed half marathons.” I’d rather something be cheaper than be “themed” (I can’t figure out what their theme is?) and I still disagree with them naming it “13.1 Marathon” because I think it’s confusing to people who don’t realize that a marathon is a set distance. And to be superficial, I don’t want to look like a dumbass wearing a tshirt that says 13.1 Marathon on it, because I know better.

I’m also going to start picking the pace up a little bit again, which was something that I let slip after I was having more bouts of foot pain during faster runs. Running mid-long around 9:30 has been much more agreeable to my feet, but I need to pick it up again and see what happens because now I just feel lazy running that speed most of the time. It’s probably time for some new shoes. How often should you get refitted for shoes? I like the ones I have, so I don’t really want to rock the boat, but maybe there is something better for me now.

woah

I can’t believe how many people wear lined shorts+undies in this Runner’s World post. I guess I just never saw the point. The only time I do that is if I have to change in front of someone at the gym. What can I say, I’m modest.

Booked my hotel for the Marine Corps Marathon. It looks terrible, but whatever, I got it for $100. It took about 1500 tries and I couldn’t find anything in Crystal City. I swore off Days Inn years ago when I had to travel a lot for my job and just stayed at one too many horribly sketchy Days Inn locations; crying may have been involved, actually. Now I know better. We’ll bring sleeping bags and strip the sheets.

twelve days down

I just realized that I hadn’t taken any days off to do nothing since the beginning of the year, which is great, but not typical once school gets into swing and I have smaller blocks of free time. The past week and a half has been a scramble to get ahead on working and exercising while I don’t have any school work to worry about. I skipped working out yesterday because I went out of town for a scrimmage and by the time I got home in the evening, I didn’t feel like huffing around in the cold. I took one of the dogs for a walk as a compromise, figuring a 15 or so minute walk was better than nothing at all.

Anyway, this week is the first full week of classes so I will probably go back to my regular pattern of one rest day during the week and one during the weekend. I am about to go to a food science class on government regulation of food safety. It’s not exactly my cup of tea, but not everything can be. Perhaps I will discover a hidden love for food policy. Anything’s possible.

Weekly mileage for 1/1 through 1/3

1/1 – thursday night – 3 miles – didn’t write down time, but I remember that I rowed for 10 minutes in the middle because I felt fairly pathetic that day
1/2- friday afternoon – 10.02 miles – 91:45
1/3- saturday night- 3.1 miles – 26:45

Total miles: 16.12

Weekly mileage for 1/4 through 1/10

1/4- sunday afternoon – 4.52 miles – 41:26
1/5- monday evening – 10 miles – 93:21
1/6- tuesday afternoon – 5 miles – 45:38
1/7- wednesday evening – 5.25 miles – 47:46
1/8- thursday afternoon – 6.5 miles – 59:52
1/9- friday night – elberton 5k – 27:02 clock time
1/10- saturday night – 5 miles – 44:14

Total miles: 39.42

2009

One of my new year’s resolutions is to keep better track of what is going on in my life.  So, here it is and here are the rest of my 2009 goals, a word that sounds much more like a challenge than “resolution.”

- Run a marathon.  I started running in early 2007 out of sheer boredom and the inability to wait in line to use a piece of exercise equipment at the gym.  I’m slow but steady!  In November 2008, I ran two half marathons in one week (Pinehurst Turkey Trot in Pinehurst, NC and the Atlanta Half Marathon in, obviously, Atlanta, GA).  The first one was impulsive and “for practice,” which probably tells you a little something about me – I’d rather trick myself into doing  something twice and know I’m going to do it than stress out about it beforehand.  I think the half marathon is a good distance and I’m definitely still just running, not racing, but you know, the push to do more is always there.  I’m trying to build my weekly mileage up a bit and although I initially (one week ago, ha) set the goal for late 2009, I have my eye on the ING Georgia Marathon at the end of March. I plan on posting my weekly mileage for accountability; I’ve never kept track before except for my stint with Nike+ and I’m really surprised how much wanting to write down a bigger number wills me to stick it out a few minutes longer.

- Stop cussing. It’s rude, crude, and socially unacceptable! I’ve already broken this one a few times; I guess I’m not ready to go cold turkey. This goal is for free and doesn’t require any time or monetary sacrifice! That’s the darn-tootin’ best!

- Go visit my siblings. They all live far away and I really don’t like airplanes (while in the sky, many feet above ground, experiencing turbulence), so it’s been easy to shirk this in the past, but it’s also fairly ridiculous.

- Read more! I love reading, but I never keep track of what I read and you know, it goes in one ear and out the other. So I plan to keep track of what I’ve read and hopefully read about 2 books/month. Free time is definitely at a premium and as a student/person whose job is 100% on the computer, so is my eyesight.

And some little things: walk the dog more, eat two servings of fruit per day, have a better attitude, MMOB (mind my own business).

Spring semester starts Thursday and I’m taking an over-the-maximum courseload, so tomorrow is my last full day before school re-claims its spot on the priority list.  Getting some work done, cleaning up the house, and making Thursday’s lunch (mmm, boxed lunches, how I miss you!) are definitely high on the priority list, as well as an easy-ish run and then the derb practice later on at night.