I Probably Should Make My Blog Public again

I'm going to start running again tomorrow after a bit under a week of dizziness. I'm a little nervous because I signed up for a 10K--I am fully prepared to stop if my head isn't cooperating! I was amused on Monday; now I'm just anxious to be normal again!

So here's the full story:

I was trying to get my toddler to take an early nap, which was a mistake in itself.  Since I was tired, I thought I'd take a nap with him.  He stood up while I was laying down and when I asked him to lay down, he threw his whole body weight on me, right in my nose.  Saying it hurt is an understatement.

After icing my nose for an hour, I was forced to go to the zoo (which was the reason why I attempted an early nap in the first place).  I felt like poo, but I just attributed it to 1) the race I had run that morning and 2) the fact that my nose was killing me.

The next day I attempted to drive back home (120 or so miles, 95 of it along I-57, quite possibly the most boring stretch of highway ever).  It was raining in Chicago, but when it started to get sunny (with about 60 miles to go) I realized that my vision was strange.  It wasn't blurry, but something with the lines on the road was making it really hard to concentrate.  I pulled over because I knew I wasn't going to make it.  My brother in law drove my husband up to drive us home while the kids and I enjoyed yogurt at McDonalds.

I thought the vision thing was because my nose was swollen.  I took some periodic naps throughout the afternoon.

Then Monday I unwisely drove to school and was still feeling strange.  My condition deteriorated throughout the day and I was guilted into going to the doctor by another teacher.  One of the secretaries drove me to convenient care.  I was actually relieved to be diagnosed with a concussion because I don't even know what I was thinking was the problem.

And then everyone at school was like, "I thought it might be a concussion," and I wonder why it didn't occur to anyone to tell me that.

So the rest of this week has been pure suck.  The doctor actually told me that I would learn what it's like to have ADD, and that was 100% accurate.  I couldn't focus on anything and I had a whanging headache besides. 

I'm looking forward to running again, but didn't want to start until I felt better.  I'm still not 100%, but I'm about 85% and the worst thing about the week is that I haven't run at all.

I began with a bit more than a mile warmup to make sure that I was okay to run.  No major problems, but I felt better with my eyes focused downward.

I didn't have any expectations for this race because this is the first I've run in a week.  I did start off too fast--my first mile was 7:51 and I was shooting for 8:30.  I blame it on nerves.  My second mile was slightly under 8, but during the 3rd mile I slowed down to run with this kid (he looked about 10 or 11) who was having trouble.  He was doing the old sprint, sprint, sprint, walk walk, sprint routine.  I made him run with me for about 1/2 mile and just talked to him a little.  I couldn't tell if he was nervous that I was yelling at him to stay with me, but he did at any rate.  Then he split off because he was doing the 5K.  The third mile was about 8:30

I did another slower mile (8:30) and then at mile 4 I wanted to get ahead of a pack of runners that passed me while I was running with the kid.  I picked up the pace to catch up and passed about 5 people.

During the last 1.2 2 of those people passed me again, and I just didn't care enough to stay with them.  But when a short, squat man tried to pass me, suddenly I cared enough to pick up the pace and keep in front of him.  At the end I saw the little kid from before cheering for me and I just pushed to the end because I didn't want to get passed again.

The little kid took first in his age division! 

I took the first place trophy in my age division, but I don't really count it because the overall winner was my age, so I will give myself 2nd.

I don't know how many runners there were, but I will update when the results are online.  I know the number of 10K runners was small compared to the number of 5K runners.

I did a really slow cool down before the awards were announced.

I'm dizzy right now.  My eyes are just not focusing properly.  I will try to take a nap today and then assess how I feel tomorrow morning and run accordingly.

Just an easy 4 miles at an average of 9:14 pace.  The run was okay and the pace felt nice.  It is a nice day outside, but the sun was a little much for my eyes.  Tomorrow I will wear shades.

I started off with 2 miles slow (average 9:30) and then felt that if I didn't pick up the pace I wouldn't want to continue running.  So then my next two miles averaged 8:30 and my last mile was 8:50.

Then I took the kids to the park and Dairy Queen.  Yum!

I was thinking about a lot when I was on this run--lots of decisions to make soon and another one was added yesterday.  I had a looooong conversation with my mom before I ran, so I got off to a late start.  I'm not a fan of running after dinner, but oh well.

 Since I was thinking about other stuff, I wasn't thinking about running.  I ended up averaging 8:18 per mile on this run and it actually felt easy, probably because I wasn't thinking about it.  After I did 4 miles I thought I'd do an easy mile, and that one ended up at 8:18 pace too.  I guess that's good.

For some reason I have been getting a lot of charlie horses and muscle cramping (legs and feet!) this week.  I haven't had any diet change, so I'm wondering if it stems (at least partly) from my inactivity last week.  At any rate, I'm switching to bananas as my fruit of choice today.  Hopefully that will help.

My first 1/2 mile, I went with the kids to the park, one kid on a scooter, the other in the jogging stroller.  The second 1/2 mile, was home with one kid on a scooter, one kid running next to me, and the other in the jogging stroller.  I magically sprouted a kid on the way home (my nephew).  This was obviously slow.

Then later (MUCH later) I went for an easy 3 miles. 

I had another little hiccup in my running this week.  On Friday I went to pick up my kids at the baby-sitter and Caleb was puking all over the place, so I didn't run.  And then Saturday I spent much of the day in the emergency room with Eli, who scared us all by having a seizure.  Luckily these seizures are common and are caused by a rapid increase in temperature, but I didn't know that when I was riding in the front seat of the ambulance, listening to the siren going and watching the odometer climb AND watching my baby convulsing in the back.  It was scary, but I am so thankful that this was not as bad as I first feared.

So at any rate, I was emotionally drained this weekend and I finally got up some motivation to run in the early afternoon.  I started off fast and maintained that for 3 miles.  Then all of a sudden, right around mile 3, I just wanted to quit.  I was slightly under 8 min. pace and I just wanted to start walking.  So I stopped to stretch and give myself a mental pep talk.

Part of the reason why I just wanted to quit was a silly reason:  I was wearing a skort that I bought on mega-sale at Kohl's.  And it was a little too big, which I didn't realize when I first put it on, but definitely realized when I was hitching it up all throughout my run, and when I had the wind at my back, I felt like my butt was hanging out.  And I was wearing the wrong kind of underpants because I didn't have anything else clean.  I hate being an overly emotional woman, which I certainly am.

So at any rate, while I was stretching (and self-conscious about that, too) I just wondered why I felt like I had to run 5 miles at an 8 minute pace.  And then I just decided to run the last two miles slowly, but I talked myself into at least doing them.  So the last 2 miles were averaged about a 9:10 pace.  I'm not going to say the run was a good one, but it was tolerable.

I know that part of my problem is now I have nothing on the horizon as far as racing is concerned.  I am hesitant to sign up for any summer races, or even to plan summer training (which I was all gung-ho about a few weeks ago) so that I can reach my goal of a fast 5K. 

But on the happy side, I'm done teaching for the year and all I have to do is show up to work and clean out my classroom and do some end-of-the-year paper work, which I'm putting off right now as I half-heartedly supervise my study hall.

Just an easy 4 miles.  I am less crabby today.  The run was uneventful and a little under 9 minute pace (the first 2 miles were at 9:10 pace, so I must have unknowingly picked up the pace a bit during the last 2 miles).

I'm just guessing at the fast/slow here, probably a bit more fast, but not 1/2 fast, I don't think.

I planned on doing intervals and then as my garage door was closing, I realized I wasn't wearing my watch, so I improvised.  I warmed up for 2 songs and then did one song fast, 1 song slow.  I'm not gonna lie, my ipod picked out what felt like some reeeeeeeally long songs for the fast parts.  The first one was Against the Wind by Bob Seger, and I was, appropriately enough, runnin' against the wind.  It was strong, according to the weather channel, about 18 MPH.  It was gearing up for a storm.

But anyway, the songs probably weren't as long as they felt.  I finished my run in a little over 40 minutes, I think, but I'm not positive since I just had a vague idea of what time it was before I left.

When I was done I lifted, which I haven't done in quite some time.  I'll have to check my blog for the last time (I think I almost always wrote when I lifted) so that I can try to figure out exactly why I stopped.  I think it was probably because I was running more to get ready for the 1/2 and then I never picked it back up again.

And then I fell asleep.  I think I'm getting sick.  I don't know exactly which day I'm going to take off from running this week. 

I just had time for a quick 3.  Run was fine, but short.

Woke up at 4:45 to get in this run.  Yuck.  But I have class tonight from 5-10.  I'm hoping the prof lets us go home early.

I left when it was dark and ran 4 easy miles at avg. 9:20 pace.  It started to drizzle part way through the run, but it was pretty warm (maybe 55 or 60) so it didn't matter much.  After 4 miles I decided to push the pace to see how close I could get to a 9 min average over 5 miles.  I did my last mile in 7:34, so I came in a little under 9 min. pace.  It felt good.

I have class tomorrow too, and I don't think I'll be able to run before it (we'll see though). 

May I complain about a non-running topic?

My mom is so interfering; it drives me crazy.  My sister's son is being baptized this weekend, and when she first planned it, she called me and I told her that it was graduation day.  She told me to go to graduation (she's not churchy--in fact, she literally said, "It's only a baptism.  Big deal."  I hope that changes) and I compromised.  I'm going to graduation and then I'm going to drive to Chicago afterward for the party at her house (and then I'm taking Monday off).  I wasn't planning on bringing the kids since I'd have to drive out of the way to pick them up.

So anyway, my mom can't bear to miss an opportunity to see the kids (even though I am spending the whole Memorial Day weekend with her in Michigan) so she told me that she is going to come down on Saturday to pick up the kids.  She didn't ask, just told me.

I know it's not that big of a deal since she's the one driving 4 hours round trip to do it, but it's annoying. I was actually looking forward to Monday when I wouldn't have the kids with me.

At any rate, my only consolation (I'm so spiteful) is that Eli is horrible during mass and she will have to deal with him.  And he's really really bad.  I told her she wouldn't even enjoy the baptism, but she didn't care.  She makes no sense. 

Oh, and the reason why I started this rant (I almost forgot) is that she will probably guilt me into not running, since she's going to be at my house when I get home from class tomorrow.  Maybe I better plan to run in the morning.  We'll see what time I get home tonight.

A nice easy run before I had to go buy shoes for graduation because my feet are too disgusting for open toed shoes and I somehow didn't realize this before today.  Well, not really, I just didn't have time with class this weekend.  

I don't remember my pace or anything.  I feel like my average was somewhere around 9 min/mile.

My mom did guilt me into not running, but we did walk all over the place on Sat. to go to the park.  I was going to run and meet them there, but my mom is not too familiar with my neighborhood.  Only problem?  She walks really, really slow, so she pushed the stroller while I kept up with the kid on the bike.

I enjoyed this workout, even if it was on a treadmill.  I did an interval workout.

Warmed up for 7 min, then did 4/3/2/1/1/2/3/4 hard with equal time at easy pace, then after the last 4 min hard I cooled down for a little over 7 min (mostly because I wanted to end up with a normal number for mileage.

For the hard parts, I got progressively harder as I went from 4 to 1, starting at 8 min pace and then going 7:47, 7:35, 7:03 pace on the hard parts.  Then as I climbed back up, I started at 6:40 pace and went progressively easier, but the second hard parts were faster than the first (by 10-15 seconds per mile, so not much faster). 

The reason I did it this way is because I want to train my mind to realize that I can go a lot faster when I'm tired if I just push myself.  This is what I want to work on for the time being, even if it's only to get faster in a 5K.

Then I ruined my workout by eating lunch at McDonalds.  I took the day off today.  I hate McDonalds, but I was unfamiliar with the area I was in when I went to meet my sister and my kids were starving.

Whenever I eat fast food I go someplace like Subway or Jimmy John's.  I never know what to order at McDonalds because just about everything on their menu disgusts me.  I DO though, like those fruit and yogurt parfaits, but I didn't think that was substantial enough for lunch.  Oh, and I also like McFlurries :)  I settled for chicken selects, but forgot they came with fries and of course I didn't want to waste them once they were in my car.  Ha ha.

A nice easy run around town.  I picked up the kids at Julie's (SIL) after I was done so I needed a new route, since her house is along my usual route, but not far enough away.  So I ran to Veteran's Parkway and then up to 136 and along the edge of Indian Acres.  That way I got some uphill, which I don't normally get in my run.

It was beautiful today.  Almost 80 and sunny with a brisk breeze.  It was obviously warm in the sun and when I was running west, I was annoyed because I had the sun and the breeze in my face.  It wasn't too bad, though. 

I started to do an interval workout at 2:00 in 85 degrees.  I warmed up 5 minutes and then did 2 min fast/2 min recovery until I got to 3 miles (cumulative) and realized that I was feeling poopy.  I didn't drink much today and it was hot.  So I decided just to finish at a slower pace.  I averaged 8:45 pace for the whole thing, but my last 2 miles were 9:30 avg.

And then I felt like crap until dinner. 

Revising plans for the rest of the week.  No run tomorrow, since I'd have to run at the same time as today.  Run early Friday and then Sat. run when I get to Michigan (maybe evening, depending on the temp).  I haven't run 6 days a week in quite some time and I'd really like to this week.  Plus I'd like to get over 30 miles this week so I can do more building mileage.   

I doubt I'll do more than 5 miles in Mich, since my whole family will be there and will try, in their evil way, to get me to skip running.  Luckily my husband has become quite good at helping me create opportunities to run!

I also found a race for June that I forgot about.  It's a 7.1 mile trail run.  I was looking at the results from last year, and there aren't that many women that run it.  I'm going to sign up sometime tomorrow--who knows?  Maybe I could be one of the fastest women.

These were tempo miles, not fast miles.  I went for a run this beautiful morning.  Started at 5:05 and the sun was already coming up--it was perfectly light when I was done.  65 degrees with a light, but pleasant breeze.  Perfect for a run.

While I was running I was thinking of two things:

First, I had a conversation with my principal yesterday.  I'm working on my degree in admin, and I made a comment about how he should make me dean and let me teach one class--AP English.  About 1/2 hour later he looked mad and asked me, "Why would I let one of my best teachers be dean and only teach one class?  Right now I know you impact every one of the seniors who walk across our stage at graduation.  You wouldn't be able to have that kind of impact as dean."  And I argued that I would be able to impact all 400 students.  Then he told me that he wouldn't take a strong teacher and make her admin, but he would take a weaker teacher and do the same.  I can't remember his exact words, but that was the gist.

So that tells me two disturbing things.  One, I will never be an administrator at our school as long as he is there.  Two, our school rewards the weak and punishes the strong.  I was irritated, but I will wait him out--he won't last long.

I was also thinking about a conversation that I overheard when I was at my niece's informal graduation party.  She goes to the public high school in our town.  The kids were talking about a crabby teacher who just had a baby and then the conversation shifted to how many girls were pregnant in their graduating class.  The thing that bothered me about this conversation was not the fact that girls are pregnant--I'm not naive--but that the kids at her house were so nonchalant about it.  I'm not saying I want to go back to the days when pregnant teens are hidden away with some relative, or worse, when they are forced by the boyfriend and the parents to get abortions, but could we have a little indignation?  A little less acceptance?

So those are my thoughts for today.

5 miles at 8:40 pace.  It was a nice run at my sister's place in Michigan.  I ran out of the subdivision a mile and then back in, once around the subdivision, and then back out of the subdivision a mile and back.  It wasn't too hot because I ran closer to dusk.

I wanted to do some faster portions today and I decided that I didn't want to do it out of the subdivision because the cars go too fast around some of the curves.  Around the subdivision is just over a mile, so I just did some spins around it.

I warmed up 5 minutes and then did 3 min fast with 3 min recovery.  I think I did the faster pace 7 times because I ended on a fast(er) section.  It was very warm so I stopped to hydrate after mile 2 and mile 4.  Then when I finished, I put on my bathing suit and walked 1/2 mile to the beach.  Don't get jealous, though.  This "beach" is nothing too exciting.  Just a little plot of sand off a tiny lake.  I waded around in the water with the kids.

Yoga today.  I decided in the past couple weeks that I felt stronger when I was doing more core work.  So I've been lifting and doing ab work, but I haven't always blogged it and I have to keep a better record.  I did yoga while everyone was out of the house at the farm and it was relaxing.  Meant to go running afterward, but everyone came back early.

An easy 6 miles at 5:30.  I am waking up this week before my husband goes to work so I have some extra time.  As long as I'm done by 6:30-6:45, it's all good.

There was a slight chill in the air and a breeze, but I felt good in shorts and a t-shirt. It was already light out by the time I started.  I didn't wear my watch.

Afterward I did pilates and I plan on lifting as soon as I'm done with my cleaning.

Changed this after I mapped it.  I will drive it later and adjust if necessary.

My legs just didn't want to move this morning.  And it is HUMID outside, even at 5:35, which is when I walked out of the house.  If it's going to be this humid tomorrow, I'm going to have to stay close to home and drink something every two miles.

My allergies are bothering me right now and I'm really bothered because my kids are already awake.  Why can't they sleep in till 7?  That would be nice, but it never happens.

My alarm went off at 5:15 and I turned it off.  I went to bed later than normal last night.  Eli has a cold and he took a long time to fall asleep.

I ran at about 5:30 p.m. instead.

Every time I do a run like this I realize I would really like a garmin.  How many times have I posted that?  Maybe for my birthday--only 3 weeks or so!

I did a ladder, starting at 5, going to 1 with equal rest time.  On my first 3 min fast, I accidently went 4, but no big deal.  I estimate that my fast times were somewhere around 7:45 or so, since I averaged 8:30 pace for the run altogether.  This is why I need a garmin :)  The other reason is because I use mapmyrun and it doesn't have the streets in southern Rantoul exactly right.  I don't know how long it takes to get with the times, but construction on those streets ended 3 years ago. 

 It is not as humid out today.  It was windy, but not terribly so.  I felt strong through the run. 

Also did a little pilates.  About 15 minutes

I had a horrible night's sleep.  Mostly I kept waking up because I was dreaming of running.  I either was dreaming that I was running OR that my alarm didn't go off and I missed running.  

Woke up at 5:15 and got out at about 5:30.  It was in the high 50s, sun already up, but definitely not as humid as the other day.  I didn't stop to rehydrate throughout the run because I didn't need to.  

I did run slow, though.  It was nice and I didn't have the usual I-hate-running-slow-and-easy feeling where I wonder why I'm out there running.

So close last week to 6 running days...Yesterday we were up and off to Chicago at 7 and I got lazy after my bro's bridal shower (well, obviously not really my bro's).

But I was up this morning for a run on my sister's treadmill.  I don't know her area that well and I wanted to make sure I ran at least 6 today.

My mile times were 8:57, 8:34, 8:19, 8:06, 7:47, and then 1/2 at 7:30.  After that I cooled down 1/2 mile at 8:57.  I probably should have forced myself to finish a whole mile at 7:30, but I was 1) afraid I couldn't do it and 2) anxious to go swimming with the kids in the pool.

I love summer, and not just because I don't have to go to work  :)