Qualify for Boston (4:05 for my age/gender) - or, perhaps, to use my desire for a BQ as a way to get in the hated speed work so I don't just get slower and slower over the years. This goal is "under (re)construction" right now, until I figure out whether it is truly what I want. :)
Long-Term Running Goals:
To continue learning about myself and about running, and to enjoy being a fit, happy runner for life. To always know why I am running and the best way to get the most (both mentally and physically) out of my runs. To keep a sense of humor and remain optimistic about myself as a runner. To enjoy running more and more with every passing year.
Personal:
Baby boomer generation. Jogged a little in my 20's and 30's. Started running seriously in 2002. Low-carb runner since January 2010.
I love long runs and cold, cloudy weather. I don't believe in "junk miles." I am an optimist. I adore dark chocolate, fog, my family, and knitting -- not necessarily in that order.
"As every runner knows, running is about more than just putting one foot in front of the other; it is about our lifestyle and who we are." -- Joan Benoit Samuelson
55F, cloudy w/ humidity and wet streets. Recovery jog w/ walk breaks. (Four miles estimated, Garmin operator error.)
This was a delightful but slow jaunt in the fall colors. All my monkeys were clinging on, plus some extras so if you are missing any, email me. No soreness left, however, which is nice but also a bit deceptive: one thinks one can go out and "have a run" and suddenly the engines splutter and die. I can't wait to have my full strength back.
My legs feel pretty good, though slow. And the stamina is not back yet. Lots of little walk breaks. Just one monkey left, holding a pathetic little goodbye note from the others: "Gone to Chicago and Portland to await duties there. See you next time."
The most extraordinary Halloween displays have popped up over the weekend. Huge, brightly lit extravaganzas. I think my favorite was the 20 foot high, 3-4 foot wide, glowing pumpkin tower.
44F, clear and starry. Dark side of crescent moon very visible. Nice morning - easy run.
About 10 days post-marathon now, and still waiting for certain muscle cells to return.... sluggish.
The sky was absolutely dazzling this morning. I'm definitely not used to the chill anymore, 44 felt quite nippy and my house was cold for the first time in months. I'm not quite ready to retire my skort for the season, hence the season's inaugural Wearing of the Smartwool Top.
We now have two traffic warning signs in the neighborhood that say "Deaf Child Area." That's great; I'm all in favor of not running said child over in my car. The thing is, other than one street where some boys are always playing ball, I never see any children playing in any streets around here, deaf or otherwise. I don't know where they go after school - most likely soccer (which btw I believe is a Cult, but that's another topic) - but they are not hanging around playing as far as I can see. What we really need is a sign that says, "Spaced Out, Half-awake Runner." Now that would be useful.
44F, another clear and starry early-morning. Easy run. 20 minutes strength conditioning.
Today was my first day of feeling like my legs were "back." The past two days have been pleasant, but sluggish, and today I felt really good. My pace is still in the toilet but that will come back soon too.
Jupiter has been incredibly bright this week, with the added bonus of not being covered up by our usual Northwest cloud layer. We got our telescope out last night and looked at its moons. And btw, I think Ganymede and Callisto would be great names for cats.
Mid to upper 50s (big difference between my house and down in the valley), light showers.
Very pleasant run, the longest yet since the marathon. Everything feels great, and I even had plenty of energy coming up the Parkway (Leg Builder Hill). No one at the club for me to run with, so another nice jog with my invisible friends. That's fine with me. I'm not sure why I even go to the running club meetings, but I do enjoy it. Maybe it's just the 5 minutes chatting with other runners - heck, other grownups! - or maybe it's the excuse to come down the Leg Builder Hill and run different streets once a week. Change of scenery. The elk were screaming their heads off in the woods down near North Bend. (Mating season.) It sounds like a bosun's whistle.
Movie Review... SnoFlake and I went to see Secretariat yesterday. (Naturally, a horse movie of this magnitude needs seeing right away when it comes out, SnoFlake being the equestrian that she is). If you can get past the usual jerkin-my-chain emotional bits that come with every sports movie ever made (you know the kind - lose the music and you'd have nothing), it is a tale well told. I loved the actors in it, and the cinematography was excellent. Ok, we all know how it ends, right? So the way that they made an historical fact into a nail-biter was quite interesting. There was a great deal of focus on Secretariat's owner and trainer, and their personal struggles, but the real coup was making that horse's victory feel surprising. Don't see the movie if you are a boy if you strongly dislike highly emotional movies. But if you can get past that (or enjoy it), this one is worth seeing. And this is a stretch, but the phrase "loves to run" comes up often enough to give it special appeal to the likes of us. :)
I should probably go do something productive, but as long as I'm recommending things, I love the audiobook I'm "reading:" The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. Excellent narration. Very good story. Sad without being depressing. Admirable characters. It's one of those audiobooks that makes me glad I'm not reading the print version.
It is "thumbs up" for my new SealSkinz waterproof socks. Very pricey, but one of the great disadvantages of going to minimal shoes is that I have less and less of a barrier between me and the wet. Just the low profile alone puts me deeper into every little puddle. And, after all, I do live in a very wet climate!
I've been contemplating these socks for quite a while. One reviewer hated them, which made me skeptical enough to pay even more to get them from REI, where I can easily return anything for any reason. I had my return speech all memorized, and was only wavering on how much hostility to put in my tone...
But they felt as comfortable as any sock, and my feet did stay dry. At one point, I felt like there might be water coming in, because there was a chilly sensation. But it turns out that, if your shoe gets a bunch of cold water inside it, your feet are going to feel a temperature change even though they stay dry.
This short run was a perfect testing ground. Next I'll try them on a little longer run, and eventually a 20 miler. I hear we are in a La Nina year, so there may be lots of opportunities to test the socks, and then hopefully to enjoy them.
Can't wait to read everyone's race reports (from today) soon!
48, a few light showers. G-A run. (20 min weights)
I am a little concerned by the fact that there are zero race reports from Chicago as of this writing. ???
And is it just me, or is the format of the race reports page a little mysterious? When new reports come in, they are not necessarily at the top of the list. But the races don't seem to be in alphabetical order or even grouped together by race name. The most useful format would be most-recent-at-top, but that doesn't seem to be the case. The only clear rule is that all races from one day are together. But as a former librarian and a true INTJ, the lack of obvious "filing rules" really bugs me.
45F, clear & starry then overcast. Nice sunrise. General aerobic run.
I'm rushing this morning. Here is a funny blog I often read. And yes, I know it is somewhat pathetic to leech off others' blogs just because I'm too hurried to write my own. So be it. If you get a chuckle, it will be worth it.
50F with pockets of much warmer and much cooler air all over the neighborhood. Clear and starry. G-A run. 20 min weights.
I went about 4.5 miles and stopped at the park bathroom, then two things happened.
First my Garmin got weird. This is the second time in the past two weeks it has done something odd, but I thought the first time was low battery. After running a route I know to be 4.5 miles, suddenly the watch said 2.55. I clicked through some other data screens and then it said 10.77 miles. Gr. I re-booted the watch and started over.
After that it seemed fine, but my one year warranty ends in less than a month. Should I go back into REI and ask for an exchange (for the 3rd time!)? I hate to go through watches like they are paper towels, and all my other runs have been normal this month. Wait and see? Or operate before the tumor grows?
The second thing that happened at mile 4.5 was this: I decided to move faster. I am still technically in my recovery period but I am just so sick and tired of "jogging." And something clicked. Maybe it was my audiobook ending, and me switching over to my Running Music playlist. For whatever reason(s), I just decided to pick up the pace. And the first mile after that was all uphill so I don't know what I was thinking! But after a couple of minutes it felt great! By mile 6 I was only about 20 seconds slower than MP on the flats and downhills, and 45-60 seconds slower than MP on the uphills.
Time to look forward! Tentative 2011 marathon schedule: Yakima River Canyon (April), Newport (June), CIM (December). Also: Nookachamps Half Marathon (January) and maybe Tacoma half (August). A half in October as well???
Next race: Turkey Trot in November. Might do another 5K in December as well.
36F at my house when I started - brrr!!! It may have warmed up to 40. Thick fog in the valley, clear up on the Ridge. Endurance run, club run, Leg Builder Hill. Last un-long run of the marathon recovery period.
One of my goals in the coming months is to build up more foot and leg strength for wearing my minimalist shoes for long runs and marathons. The Piranha's felt fairly good today, but I could tell I was right on the edge.
Whine alert. Forecast looks sunny all the coming week. I'm sorry, but this is getting ridiculous. We should be getting snow showers in the mountains and building up our snow pack for skiing. I know I am weird. I know I am in a teensy little minority (though there are others! we meet in secret and have special handshakes to recognize each other). But I'm going to whine anyway. Enough with the constant sunshine! If that's what I wanted I would move to California. If one more person says to me, "Isn't this beautiful weather" I am going to scream: "No it is not bloody beautiful weather! You had your turn! You had all summer and a fairly warm, dry spring." Yes, we had one week of rain in August, which is unusual, and I had to listen to an unending litany of complaints about "not getting any summer this year." It's time for some good, clean, rain. It's time for clouds and filtered light. We are The Evergreen State. Let's see some gray days. I swear I'm going to go get myself some black contact lenses if this keeps up. (Big exhale.) I feel better now.
46F, clear. General Aerobic run w/ hill pushes. 15 min. weights.
Nine on the button. That doesn't happen very often.
Nice run. Legs felt great and everything clicking along smoothly. Tried to keep my pace well under 10:00 and not space out and fall into mindless jogging. Fun.
Before you buy your next smoothie, energy drink or bottled tea, you might want to look at the sugar equivalents in this list.
50F, clear, with pockets of warmer and cooler air throughout neighborhood. Easy pace run. 20 min. weights.
"Thirty by Thursday..." I did it! (Counting from Monday, 30.3 miles.) I don't like to put too much focus on these kinds of random benchmarks. They can be Fun Killers. But I've heard the 30-by-Thurs mantra and wondered what would happen if I focused on getting there this week. Whether I'll care or even notice next week, I'm not sure. But I am pleased that I resisted my Inner Slacker and got it done.
High 40s, cloudy w/ wind and showers last 3 miles. Endurance run, club run, L.B. hill.
Not one of my better runs. I may not have slept well enough. It was one of those long runs where you keep thinking, "I'll be warmed up soon and things will feel better." Then you realize you've spent the past 10 miles saying that. And no "feel better" is coming. You've been stood up.
I don't know why people send me this sort of thing, but I might as well pass it on, if only for the sake of ending this post on a positive, though goofy, note.
Finally getting around to blogging this morning's run, which was a tricky feat of timing -- to get those 4 little miles in between the really heavy rain and the expected lightening (which never came as far as I know). Not that I am complaining!! I LOVE THIS. Not so much the wet, but I'll take it as a cost I must pay to have the clouds.
My apologies to anyone who got the "Baby Monkey" song stuck in their heads from yesterday's post. I meant well. ;)
Blogging a morning run at night again. Some days are just too crazy. And I think it's actually helpful for me to stay away from the computer in the mornings sometimes. I may be more alert and coherent as a morning blogger, but it's a time vacuum, you know?
So, the run... The run was good. I'm trying a new "program" for Tuesdays in which I attempt to increase mileage this one day through a combination of getting up earlier and running each hill as aggressively as I can manage (after the 2 mile warm up). I have to be a little careful not to push too hard, because I don't want to ruin the quality of Wednesday's run. We'll see. It seemed to work today. One in a row.
Hardly worth typing the digits. I felt really groggy at the 4:30 alarm bell, but figured it was just the usual early morning brain fog. But once I got outside enough for the cool air to really wake me up I realized that I am fighting a cold. About face. Activate viral defense measures. Cross fingers and get back in bed.
High 40s to low 50sF. Partly cloudy, very windy, clouds increasing and a few light showers in the last 5 miles.
This is what I was saving all those lymphocytes for, and I'm so glad I did! It was as pretty a morning as we could possibly get: vivid fall colors, crisp air, elk in meadow, and the smell of wood smoke. Just gorgeous.
I really didn't mean to run more than 19 today, but it was fun. While running in North Bend, I came across... my best friend! She recently started running but we've never run together before today. That was really fun because this is her favorite kind of weather too.
Now that I'm safe and cozy at home, it is POURING outside. hahahahaha All I have to do now, to make this a near perfect day, is to successfully resist eating the crappy birthday cake at a party this afternoon. How do I know it will be crappy? It just will be, ok? Do we have to talk about it? ;)
I'll close with this thought: if you are coming down with a cold, the only running you must do is running to your bed or couch. Rest, rest, rest. It is worth it to have the storm pass faster. Take vitamin C and D3, avoid sugar, and only do Echinacea if you're willing to take one every hour; in my opinion it doesn't work in low doses. Other than a ton of snot, I felt great today.
