Now that I'm (almost for sure) done having all the babies, I'm working on building consistency and seeing how fast I can get in my old age. ;)
Long-Term Running Goals:
I'd like to be a healthy and relatively injury-free runner for the rest of my life.
Personal:
I'm married to Eric (Faceless Ghost on the blog) and we have very active daughters and one dog. I have a PhD in sociology and demography, and I'm incredibly grateful to have work that is meaningful and that builds on my academic experience. I run because it makes me feel strong and it helps to keep the crazy away (there is a long history of abuse and mental illness in my extended family).
The newer Kinvaras have broken in and are finally comfy. But I'm still going to order some new shoes. Because Eric keeps telling me I should. And I can only say no to new shoes so many times. Speaking of so many times, since we've been married Eric has ordered probably a million pairs of shoes. Maybe I've written about this already? He'll decide that something's not quite right with what he's got, so he'll spend a few days doing research and reading reviews and finding deals, and then one day there will be like 7 boxes of shoes on our front step. Then Eric will wear them around the apartment for a day or two, and then he'll decide that none of them will work. He goes through phases where he'll do this over and over again. I think he's only actually purchased 2 pairs of shoes ever.
Tonight's run felt a little harder, but this week was the first time I did 5 miles 4 days in a row since December 2010 so that's probably why.
Today I had an energy drink, pop tarts, cheese, milk, english muffins, a whole mess of those chocolate-covered fruit juice pieces from Costco that masquerade as chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds, about the same amount of Cheeze-its, and some frozen pizza. So after 2.5 miles I took a break from the tummy sloshing and did 1 mile at 4.5/4% before I finished out the run. I've repented and am going to do better tomorrow. After I stay up all night tonight to finish all the stupid stuff I have to get done.
To me cheese is healthy food. Like milk and yogurt. So I don't really get these ads.
Also, my mom and sister joined the blog. Yay! You should go say hi!
I didn't pull the all-nighter I had planned for last night. At about 3 I decided that it would be better to go to bed and just wake up early, so I got about 4 hours of sleep. I think Eric got about 3.
And have I mentioned what a dumb idea it was for me to promise a multiple-choice section on the midterm? Such a dumb idea. Multiple-choice questions are whack.
So anyway, I'm still working on the stupid test (and getting more behind on everything else) and didn't make it to the gym in time to finish my 5 before they closed. Gyms that close at midnight are whack.
Also I got the PureConnect shoes I had ordered. First, when RoadRunnerSports says "free shipping," really they mean free outbound shipping (if you buy their stupid 1.99 membership) and 9.95 to send shoes back. The customer service person I talked to said that they'll waive the return shipping, but we're still not ordering from them again. Second, there's a lot of cush in the arch and the heel feels thick (even though the drop is the same as with the Kinvaras). I'm going to keep looking for my dream shoes.
I love that I love running again. I even wanted to run one more mile but it was getting a little late and I needed to go home so that Eric would be able to make it to the gym before it closed.
My run was bookended (?) by cadbury creme eggs. They were delicious.
We did this race because my mom was running it and because it was on the same course as one we did in November. I was looking forward to being a little faster than last time (just because I've been being more consistent; I don't really do any speedwork). Eric wasn't feeling like running fast so he and Elliott ran along with me. Running with Eric is one of my favorite things ever, and it's fun that now Elliott gets to come too.
The biggest difference for me from November was that the race just felt easier. In November I wanted to run the first mile in under 7 minutes and it felt like almost all I could do. That was my goal again today, but it felt almost comfortable and definitely manageable. And after the first mile I didn't stop trying (like I pretty much did in November) - I slowed down a lot, but physically I felt fine and mentally I still felt like trying a little bit. About half through I was pretty winded (after about the first slightly downhill mile the course is a slight uphill until near the end), but even then I didn't *really* feel like quitting or anything. Overall I think I gave around 80% (physically; I still hold back a lot mentally because I'm afraid of something (but I'm not sure what)), and it was comfortably uncomfortable.
Splits: 6:51, 7:34, 8:01, 7:00 (for 0.1)
(Splits in November: 6:59, 8:29, 8:45, 8:24 (for 0.1))
After Eric and I finished we ran back up the course to find my mom. She looked great! It was fun to see her finish. Then we went to see my brother kick some trash at the state swim meet (and I met his super cute girlfriend for the first time), and after we came home I slept for a couple of hours (thanks Eric) to try to catch up from the week. Then I had some awesome salad (spinach, strawberries, light raspberry vinaigrette, feta, and glazed pecans ("recipe" from the glazed pecan package)) and went to the Orem gym for 5.3 more miles to get to 9 for the day.
I thought I'd be a little tired from Saturday, but tonight's run felt great. Last week I upped my normal pace by about 30 seconds, and I'm thinking about doing it again after this week (but that would still be pretty slow). I did the last half mile tonight at 6:31 and it was very satisfying.
Eric's parents sent us some vanilla Joe-Joe's (sandwich cookies from Trader Joe's) for Valentine's day and now I can't stop thinking about the Joe-Joe's we had over Christmas. They were amazing - like if an Oreo and a Thin Mint had a way cuter baby.
After the gym I was craving pecans but I couldn't find any snack versions at the store. And I hate almonds, and macadamia nuts have a crazy amount of fat. So I got yogurt and soy milk. Probably I really just wanted protein.
Songs that made my run happier: It's Tricky (Run-D.M.C.), Everybody Dance Now (C+C Music Factory), You Make My Dreams (Hall & Oates), Another One Bites the Dust (Queen), Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics)
I had a really hard time getting myself to the gym tonight, and once I was there I didn't feel warmed up until I was half done. But the last half was great, especially since Grease was on.
After I got home Eric and I had a plank contest. He won, but I wasn't wearing shoes.
Songs that made my run happier: Simarik (Tarkan) (I like this song because it was a samba favorite at BYU even though the lyrics are probably dirty), No Diggity (Blackstreet)
I hit my pre-pregnancy weight today! To celebrate I had Cheeze-Its and Jelly Bellies for dinner and then felt like I was going to puke for my whole run. Good times.
I timed my run so that I could watch Grey's Anatomy. It was okay. There was a story line about a woman whose 24-week-old baby had to be delivered because the woman was having a pregnancy-induced heart attack. Definitely the kind of thing that would have whacked me out to watch while I was pregnant. Yay for normal hormones.
When I got to the gym one of the people at the desk said, "You're here late." I said, "Whatever, foo. You only think it's late because your whack gym closes at a 6-year-old's bedtime on Fridays." Or maybe I just said, "I wish you were open later."
Remember when the FRB was down for like two days and I told myself that as soon as it came back I was going to back up all my entries from the past three years and then when it came back I didn't do anything?
And also remember that time when Eric went running with Jun and found out that we might be the only ones who say FRB like ferb and FRBers like ferbers?
I've been thinking that I want to do my Saturday runs outside, so this morning my brother and Eric and Elliott and I met up at Liberty Park for 7 miles. It was my brother's longest run ever, and maybe my longest post-baby run? It was great. For probably half the time Eric and I talked about how much we miss being able to run there whenever we want. Elliott slept and watched and jabbered in her stroller. The pace was about 30 seconds faster than I've been doing my treadmill runs - maybe I was self-conscious about not slowing down Eric and my brother, but it didn't feel like I was trying to go too fast. So starting next week I'm going to try all my treadmill miles at that pace.
Later I went to the gym for 3 more miles (last 1.5 about a minute faster than normal) and 2 sets of 25 hanging leg tucks. Also I ate a ton of food today.
Songs that made my treadmill run happier: Survivor (Destiny's Child), Imma Be (Black Eyed Peas), If I Were a Boy (Beyonce), Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day). Imma Be (at least for the first half) and If I Were a Boy were perfect for the faster pace.
Since Eric and I had the day off we went to Bountiful this morning so that Elliott could have her first swim and I could have a lesson from my swimmer brother. It was fun. Elliott was super cute in the water.
I also got new shoes today - after listening to Eric rave about his New Balance Minimuses, I decided to try them out. So far I like them a lot, but I think I got them a half size too big. We'll see, I guess. Also I did my run about 30 seconds faster than normal, as planned, and it went well even though my tummy was pretty full of yummy dinner. In a couple of weeks I'll try to kick things up another 30 seconds and then stick at that pace maybe forever or so.
Eric makes amazing chocolate chip cookies. They're so good because he makes them with love, and tonight they were even better because he used dark chocolate chips. They're kind of what I had for dinner before my run. I ended up regretting this during my run, but now I'm over it and back on the cookie-eating wagon.
I can't emphasize enough how much I hate it when someone gets on the treadmill right next to mine when there are a million open treadmills. I always move now. I know this makes me sound unfriendly, but I need my space.
Remember the new shoes that are too big? I emailed Running Warehouse and they're going to take them back even though I ran in them. They're awesome. Way better than that other place where Burt gets everything for free. I think I'm just going to go back to Launches for reals this time. Even though that probably means I'll have more injuries.*
For about a week it's been harder to get myself to the gym. I think I might just be getting tired. Also it's harder as the semester gets busier - there are always a lot of other things I could be doing. But, you know - goals and stuff.
Today Eric and I were talking about shoes and he mentioned a blog post Jun had written about Altras and he said, "It's too bad the FRB doesn't have a search function where you could search blogs and not just the forums. And then you could have searched for something like incontinence and seen which runners had dealt with that." (It turns out the FRB does have a search box (right on the front page!), but we hadn't noticed this before.) I said, "Yeah, but you can do it through Google." So I searched for Altra (site:fastrunningblog.com in Google) and found like 100,000 entries because of the shoe manager. Then I searched for incontinence and only found a few entries, but my blog wasn't one of them because I think I always called it the "pee problem." So I decided that when I FRBed tonight I'd put something in about incontinence so that if anyone were ever searching for blogs that mentioned incontinence they'd find this post where I talked about incontinence.
I also wanted to mention incontinence again because it seems like something that's actually pretty common (at least stress incontinence after childbirth and/or as women get older) but that people don't talk openly about. It also seems like sometimes people think that it's just something that happens and is something people have to deal with. Maybe I'm naive and stuff because I've only had one kid and I'm only in my 30s, but I think that people should see incontinence as something that isn't embarrassing, isn't someone's fault (kegels aren't always enough), and that can and should be fixed (and not with diapers). There's enough that women and post-birthers have to put up with. Incontinence shouldn't be one of those things.
And on the shoes - the NB Minimuses are out (I want more cush), so I'm still debating between Altras and Launches. I really like how the Altras feel, but I had really good times with two pairs of Launches (and I'm more forefoot than midfoot so the heel on the Launches doesn't get in my way). Also, I kind of don't want to get Altras in the same way that Eric doesn't want to buy Apple products, and the different names for the road shoes kind of bug me (to me instinct=urge and drive and intuition=sensitive and hanging back, and when I'm running I think of myself as a predator out to pick off the slower, weaker prey (Eric says I like to have a carrot)). But I think there needs to be a girl AltraManiac and if there were auditions I'd want to audition and it would be weird if I were wearing Launches.
It *looks* like I've done 10, 9, and 8.5 mile runs for the past few Saturdays, but really I've broken them up because I'm afraid of doing a "long" run. But Eric said that I needed to start doing the miles all together, so I plotted a little loop that included the gym (water and potty) and set out for my 10. But then the wind slapped my butt and I came home. And even though I was less afraid of doing 9.5 than 10, I still procrastinated the rest of my run for pretty much as long as I could, making it to the Orem gym just in time to get it all in before midnight.
One of the things I did during my day of dallying was finally get those Altras. Yes, I love Launches, but they're not perfect; I love the cush, but they don't fit exactly right and they don't feel as fast as my Kinvaras. And I love the Kivaras because they feel fast and flexy, but they seem to wear down/out pretty quickly. And they're a little too narrow. So it made sense to at least try Altras. And even though runningwarehouse.com is amazing I got them at 26.2 so that I could have the option of exchanging them within 10 days (fear of commitment, yo).
The first thing I noticed after I put them on was that I had fewer injuries. The second thing was that my feet were super cold outside - that mesh upper is for reals. Once I started running on the treadmill I felt like the shoe stayed out of my way; where I usually scuff or skid on my normal shoes there was nothing. That was nice. The shoes also felt pretty good - not as cushy as the Launches but still cushy, and almost as flexy/fast as the Kinvaras (and much roomier). I started with the thinner insole because I figured that I had already gone through the crazy calf pain of getting forefooty and so would be fine. My calves didn't hurt, but I noticed some stretching in my arches and a little twinge to the left of my left achilles. I probably should have switched to the "support" insole as soon as I felt the twinge, but I didn't switch until my 3-miles-left bathroom break. I iced it when I got home. I think it's just sore.
While I was running I watched that Justin Bieber movie on my phone. Cute kid, cute story. I hope that there's a Justin Bieber for Elliott when she gets a little older. The ending was pretty inspiring. I did two quarters at 6:00 in the last mile because Justin said "never say never." Also because I switched the treadmill to the -3 decline. During the first quarter I had some uncomfortable friction on the balls of my feet, but Eric says this might be because my feet haven't found their home in the insoles yet. Later I read some comments on Netflix and felt dumb for being inspired by a kid whose hard knock life included becoming a millionaire in his teens and stuff, but whatever.
When I got home Eric showed me that there are purple Altras and I wanted to cry because purple is my favorite color. Oh well.
(Also - if you're on facebook and don't mind a facebook app, want to vote for our picture?)
My left achilles area is still tight, so I wore my launches and took it a bit easy. And it looks like we're heading for the ending I fear the most on The Bachelor.
I ate three meals today. We're trying to set an example of normal eating for Elliott. It was weird to feel less snacky.
Also did 20 fake pullups and 20 fake dips (70 on the orange machine).
In general I don't eat well and I don't get very much sleep (6 (interrupted) hours is a good night), so it's no surprise that sometimes I don't feel like running. Tonight was one of those times. I had eaten pretty recently and so felt a little sickish, and my legs just felt tired and heavy. After the first mile I slowed the pace down, and then after two more miles I was ready to call it quits. I was off the treadmill and ready to walk out, but then I thought, "Self, you're a pansy butt if you can't get back up there and do 2 more miles." Madonna's "Vogue" came on Pandora and saved me for almost a mile, and by then I was able to stick it out until the end.
