catherine's running efforts

We're nearing the end of the semester, so it's been a pretty busy week. I think next week might be a little worse (I have to write the final for my class and grade final papers and Eric starts his finals), but after that it should be a lot better for the rest of the summer. Also, remember how Elliott doesn't really eat food? Now we go for food therapy appointments once a week.

Anyway, Monday was in the morning and Tuesday was in the evening at our gym. Wednesday I didn't wake up early (since Elliott doesn't eat food she wakes up a couple of times a night to eat, and Tuesday nights are my nights) and was going to that "what it's like to be gay at BYU" panel in the evening, so after my class I took Elliott to the gym day care for the first time. I was afraid that she'd come away with scratches on her face or bite marks from another kid (hugs to RAD :), but everything was fine and she seemed to enjoy playing with another baby there (I didn't love the toy she was chewing on, but whatever). Today I woke up with a sore throat but popped some ibuprofen and had a lovely run to The Green Hornet at the cardio cinema. 

My plan was to do 20 miles at the gym today - I felt like I had had an easy couple of weeks (running-wise) and wanted to just do it and move on. Also a couple of days ago my weather thing said that today's high was going to be 59, and I knew I wanted to run earlier in the day and I really really don't like running outside when it's cold. Plus, the gym has potties and water and is climate-controlled, and it's always easy to stop early or go longer when doing so doesn't make you any farther from or closer to the intended ending spot. I had read about Toby's 18 miles on a treadmill last week and liked the way she broke up the run into groups of 6. So I planned to do 4 sets of 5 miles. 

The first set was fine (watched Jerseylicious or something), and afterward I ate a gel (Jet Blackberry?). It was a little bit gross. As I started on the second set (listened to itunes) I opened up the plastic water bottle I had filled with a can of Diet Dr. Pepper, and the cap exploded off and made a big popping sound (kind of like when my little brothers use dry ice to explode plastic water bottles) and hit me in the face and then landed a few treadmills over. I was really embarrassed and my face hurt, but I acted like it was no big deal. Then about a mile later I was trying to get my top layer out of the cup holder where I had put it and somehow I tripped and my shoe made a big skidding sound and I grabbed onto the treadmill to brace myself and luckily hit the stop button but really was so close to falling down. That was embarrassing too. I had some kind of tropical gel and a bunch of water after the second set because I was so thirsty, but then I had a sideache and had to walk for a few minutes. I knew I didn't have time to do the full 20 miles because of how late I had started (I needed to get home in time for Eric to do his run before our evening plans), but I figured that if I did 5+2 I'd have 35 miles for the week. The third set didn't feel as good as the second set (watched an episode of Friday Night Lights), and during the last mile my feet started to hurt. I went back to music for the last 2 miles after the third set and felt a little more motivated, but I was glad to be done. I think I could have done 3 more miles, but I think it would have been uncomfortable. 

Eric says that maybe I need to change my socks for long runs - I just run in these little cotton-ish socks that came in a set from Costco. I like them because they never come off my heels, but when I run more than about 8 miles I get kind of a frictiony pain on the balls of my feet (on the skin, not inside the foot, and it's like they're blistering or like I've been slapping them down, and when it's happening I feel like it would feel better if I ran without shoes on). I remember feeling like that after a half marathon in my Launches a couple of years ago, so I don't think it's the Altras, and I don't think I need new insoles because I felt the same pain/discomfort the first time I ran in them. Any ideas? Maybe I just need to put in more time on my feet to get used to it? 

Last week was busier than I prefer. But Eric is halfway done with finals, my class is taking its final this week, and it looks like smooth sailing for the rest of the summer. 

Since I didn't run in the morning I made an appointment for Elliott at the AF Gold's child care at a time when they said there would be the fewest children. I guess fewest means about a hundred, but when I dropped her off they said that a bunch of the kids were about to leave. There were two adults there - one who seemed to be occupied at a desk, and one who was hanging out in the play area. They said I could put Elliott wherever I wanted, so I moved an exersaucer into the play area and left instructions for them to call me if she cried for more than a couple of minutes since she's not a crier (their normal policy is 15 minutes). When I came back 30 minutes later there were still a hundred (maybe 100-5) kids, there was only the adult at the desk, and Elliott was crying in the saucer (and who keeps a baby in a saucer for a half an hour?). The desk girl looked at me and said, "She did great! She was happy the whole time." Seriously? 

Lessons learned: wake up earlier, and no more AF gym child care.  

I woke up earlier so I could go to the gym before Eric needed to leave for school. I really wanted to stop after about 30 minutes, but I kept going until I needed to go back home. I didn't have a TV treadmill so I got to watch the people. There are some super buff 40-something women there in the morning. 

Eric's spending the day on campus to finish up his last final of the semester (go Eric!), so I took Elliott to my mom's house in Bountiful so that I could run and do school stuff. Five miles at the Gold's in Bountiful (it's small but pretty nice) and then some solid study time at the Centerville library. Thanks, mom. :)

Today I ran on the indoor track at the Orem rec center while Eric took Elliott to her swim class. I felt super speedy (maybe because I was only planning on 3.5 miles and maybe because I wasn't on a treadmill) and ended up running about 2 minutes per mile faster than I usually do. I got confused when I was trying to keep track of the laps, though, so I'm just counting 3 miles even though maybe I had 3.5. It was 6+ laps to a mile and apparently I can't count when I'm running. 

I'm starting to get excited/nervous about the Thanksgiving Point half next week. It's the first race in a long time that I'm planning on trying to do my best at, and of course all I can think about is all the things that could go wrong.  

One mile on the treadmill at the gym in Bountiful in the morning, two miles outside with Eric and Elliott in the evening. 

Outside. I'm entering this a few days later, so I can't remember where I went. 

I really really didn't want to run today. But I told myself that I just had to run for 2 hours and that would count (and for some reason that seemed better than telling myself I was going to go run for 15 miles) and so was able to get myself out the door. I self-defeating-behavior-ed myself out about a half hour too late, but given how I was feeling it was awesome that I made it out at all. I had been building up running in my mind since Friday or Saturday to the point that I was thinking about never doing it again, and I knew that the only way to make that stop would be to just go. 

My first few miles were a lot slower than normal, but I was on an out-and-back road that would be uphill for the first half and I was just trying to be out. After a couple of miles something clicked and I was really glad to be running. It was the perfect temperature, I was away from our ghetto neighborhood, there were other runners out, the air smelled like springtime, and the sun rising over the mountains and trees was very peaceful. I decided that I'd probably have enough time to turn around after 5 miles. And at almost exactly 5 miles I saw a park with a potty that was unlocked and pretty clean! And there was a running fountain like the one at Liberty Park! It was a running miracle. I had the gel I had brought (experimenting with different types) and it was delicious - a tangerine cliff shot with almost the exact taste and texture of the orange Triaminic that I used to love. As I ran home I was filled with joy at the wonderful route the running gods had blessed me with (I thought about writing a thank-you note to Alpine for having the bathrooms open early in the morning on a weekday, but what if it's a mistake and they fix it after they get my note?) and I really did feel like my performance was boosted by at least 8%. And just like that I loved running again. 

Splits: 10:28, 10:09, 10:06, 9:43, 9:59, 9:39, 9:17, 8:45, 8:32, 7:37 (9:26 average) 

I had a crisis of confidence* last week. I had been planning to run 15 miles on Saturday, but with Eric's "race" and taking Elliott to Bountiful my plan slowly unraveled. I ran out of time to run outside before it was too warm, and I had technical difficulties getting ready to run once I was at the gym. I had just finished a mile on the treadmill when Eric called me saying he had bailed, so I very willingly bailed on my own plans and went to pick him up. I thought I'd do the run in the later afternoon, but we dawdled getting home and I ran out of time for that. Then I thought I'd do the run Sunday morning before church, and Eric even volunteered to drive me 15 miles away and up the canyon so I could practice running downhill. But once we entered AF canyon (is that what it's really called?) I saw that the wide and safe shoulder Eric had described didn't exist and I got scared and decided to not do the run at all. Then I thought I'd do it on Monday, but since Elliott had an eating appointment at 9:00 I realized I'd have to pump before running instead of after, and I didn't want to have to wake up an extra hour earlier when I could instead just do the run on Tuesday. But although Tuesday's run was one of the best I've ever had (see Tuesday's entry), it wasn't 15 miles.

I'm not afraid of 15 miles. I've done it bunches of times. I'm just afraid of getting closer to the end goal (eventually a marathon). I do this with the other monkey on my back (school), too; even though the smaller tasks that lead to the end result are totally manageable and un-scary and are things that I've done bunches of times before, fear of the end goal makes me very much avoid the baby steps that lead there. Lame, yo. 

Anyway, I submitted the final grades for my class about an hour ago, so now I'm catching up on entering my miles for the last few days. Today's run was ouside in the happy, sunshine-y, perfect-weather-y morning before Eric had to leave. I really really really like this time of year. 

Splits: 9:55, 10:05, 9:37, 9:29, 9:03, 8:26, 8:05, 7:31 (9:01 average) 

*I couldn't find a clip that included the part that leads into this where the crisis of confidence is explained, so this might not seem funny if you haven't seen the show.  

I heard from my peeps that today was going to be colder, so I went to the gym for 3 miles before Eric had to leave. I didn't want to wear headphones so I hung out in the cardio cinema to watch some dance movie where the main character's mom was pushing her to be the dancer the mom never got to be. Except that really the movie was about rugby. 

Last night I found out one of my neighbors was planning on running 9 miles out of the canyon after the half today, and I thought about doing that with her. But then I found out that RAD et al. were doing 5 before and 4 after, and I thought, "Self, you know you're not going to go run 9 miles after you finish." So I decided to go with them. Because I wanted the miles and because I knew that I wasn't going to PR anyway.

I met RAD, Toby, Smooth, and two other people who were very nice but whose names I can't remember right now at around the starting point, and we went out and about for awhile before the race started. I was worried about finding a potty and meeting up with Eric (see how I put "finding a potty" first so that it wouldn't sound like I was meeting up with Eric in the potty?) so I just got 4.42 miles then (9:24, 9:14, 8:51, 9:05, ~10:00 for .42).

Zero and Drop were at the start! I hung around them for the first mile (until they dropped back to spread the love) because they're kind of a big deal and because Zero was doing his accent for a bit. I was hoping that we could pretend that the whole race was some sort of wildlife hunt, but I know that's a lot to ask. They did tell Eric that they loved him. He appreciated that.

I felt really good for the first few miles. I had had one of my yummy Triaminic-flavored gels at the start and one again after 5 miles, and after each I'd take water at the next aid station. After the first downhill I dropped into a potty to make sure the tank was empty, but really I could have gone the whole run without (yay yay yay probiotics for fixing the 2010 battle with the trots). When we were halfway done I started regretting the earlier miles just a bit, but when there were 5 miles left I had my third gel and felt good to go again (the gels have 50mg of caffeine each - how much is too much? Should I alternate caffeine/no caffeine?). The area was pretty, but the course was a little distracting with the ups and downs and twists and turns and I didn't ever really feel like I could just think about what was around me. I had read that the pacers ("pacers") would be banking time early on toward the golf course and so I was a little nervous about what the golf course stretch would be like. At the time it wasn't my favorite, but in retrospect I guess it wasn't that bad and maybe I'd do it again sometime. I was also a little bummed a few times through the race because I knew I wasn't being fast, but I kept thinking about a quote I had read on someone's FRB yesterday (I can't remember whose it was) about how comparison is the enemy or keeps us from our goals or something and I tried to just run Catherine's pace. At the end I wasn't unhappy with my time given the day and my training ("training"), and I felt ready to do at least a few more miles as long as there weren't any hills (7:57, 8:33, 8:01, 9:03 (potty stop), 8:39, 8:51, 8:51, 8:33, 8:35, 8:23, 8:53, 8:39, 8:35). 

I lollygagged around at the end with Eric, Elliott, my parents, and others before a couple more miles with the peeps from earlier (11:05, 10:27, something for .46 but I forgot to stop my watch) until I wanted to go back to see our FRBers win their prizes (I knew Melody and Lily were first and second in the 5k) and meet up with Eric again. It was fun seeing Melody - I don't think I've seen her for about a year and a half? and I was *so* impressed with how full-on legit athlete she looked. We read on her blog about how hard she's worked, but seeing her really kind of drove it home. And of course she and all the FRBers I saw today were so sweet. I love our FRB community and am grateful it has space for fast and slow alike. :)

Later in the evening Eric and Elliott and I went out for another couple of miles to round things up (9:30, 9:17, 9:38 for .2). I'm glad that I get to be married to my favorite person to run with.  

My calves are a little sore, but other than that so far I feel surprisingly good after Saturday. I did notice on our tiny hike yesterday that my right achilles hurts a bit when going downhill, so I've been thinking about my shoes. On real downhills (like coming down some of the streets perpendicular to 11th avenue or that one little stretch toward the beginning of the Des News 10k) sometimes I try to just kind of let go and go - no thinking about form or anything, just kind of pounding down and hoping that my legs catch me and that I don't have to try to stop suddenly. It's pretty hard on my quads but a nice rest aerobically as long as I remember to breathe. So I wonder if my achilles was sore from Saturday because of the Altra/downhill combination? I run between the midfoot and the forefoot but go more toward the midfoot when I'm going down a steeper hill. Am I going to hurt myself if I try to pound down a real hill in flat shoes? What if I heel strike down the hill to kind of put on the brakes?

Anyway, I procrastinated my run until right after dinner and some brownies. My legs felt heavy and my tummy felt rumbly and I want to try last Tuesday's run again tomorrow, so I just kept it to 2 miles.