The Long Run

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September 27, 2004

Feelin' gympy

I'm starting to get really concerned about this ankle thing. I can't see any swelling or discoloration, yet I start to limp by the end of the day. As I sit here typing, I have an ice pack on it. Running on it doesn't hurt too much, it hurts right after I run and try to walk on it. I'm going in for a massage tomorrow, so I'm going to ask her to work on it some. Tomorrow will probably just end up being a day off since I'm getting my legs worked on and we're supposed to get the leftovers from Jeanne and anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of rain.

Tonight's track workout didn't go too well. I was awfully discouraged during it. I was supposed to do 6x800 with a 400 jog. The warm-up wasn't too bad, I didn't feel great, but not bad. I got to the track and put on my flats. There were 3 new guys running with us tonight. J, K, and myself tend to run our recovery jogs pretty fast. These three new guys decided that they were going to sprint each of their 800s and then walk or barely move on the recovery. Even though they were absolutely dusting me on the work interval, I passed them every recovery. After 3 of the 800s my ankle started to feel tight, so I changed back into my training shoes. I was supposed to aim for 3:00 for each of the intervals. I stopped timing them after a while because I felt so choppy and tight. This workout should have been a piece of cake, but I just could not get the wheels moving. I felt fine on the warm-down. In fact, I may have pushed the guys some on the warm-down. One thing I can say is that I recover fast. I may not have the best leg speed out there, but I can keep on plugging away.

I may have gotten myself a new job today! The interview went well. I have to call the HR person and see if I can get emergency certification since this job is not in the area that I'm certified. It may mean that I need to start to take classes again, but I can do it. I'll know more later in the week, but everyone keep their fingers crossed for me!

Posted by Blondie at 8:06 PM | Comments (3)

September 26, 2004

Lots of Sleep

I have this really bad habit of taking naps after work every day. I might not actually fall asleep, but I have my half hour of quiet time. I crawl into bed and set my alarm. I use this time to refresh myself before I do anything for the rest of the day. This past week I was so busy that I didn't get to take my nap any day. When I don't get to have that little bit of time I find that I'm unusally sluggish. Friday night I went to bed really early because I meet the group to run at 7 on Saturday morning. I was so beat last night, that I was in bed around 9:30 and didn't wake up this morning until 8:15. I know that the "sleep experts" out there say that you should go to bed and wake up at the same time every day to avoid feeling tired, but honestly, what is there to do at 5:30 on a weekend morning? I do get up early on Saturday, usually around 6:15, but I sleep in on Sunday. I hope that taking one day and not getting up at around the same time isn't ruining my sleep health.

Two of the guys in our running group have started a race organizing company. Currently in our area, there is one race organizer who has a monopoly on races that are less than stellar. It has gotten so that I basically will not run in one of his races unless I absolutely have to. The prices are very steep, the times are always off, there are only two course he really uses, the prizes are medals or trophies, and there usually is not any competition. So these guys are trying to things better. I missed their first race over the summer because I was out of town at another race, so I felt that I had to come and support them at this race. I felt terrible, they only had 18 people show up to run, but at least everyone got an award. It was a 3 mile out and back course, with the out portion a steady uphill and, naturally, the second portion a steady downhill. I purposely did not wear anything I associate with racing. I wore my "go slow" training shoes and no racing top. This was only my regular run, maybe a few seconds faster, but that was it. There were only 2 other women in the race. I knew one of them was going to race it and if I felt good I could have gone with her, but that was not my plan. Anyhow, I just tried to run easy and relaxed. I don't know if I could have run much faster, but doing a track workout tomorrow night is more important to me. I won $25 and this race gave mid-pack awards, so since I was second out of three, I won a Gore-Tex ski vest. I think that I'm going to give it to my father for his birthday since it's a men's medium and is absolutely huge on me.

My ankle felt fine all day yesterday, but when I was warming down it got that stiff feeling again. I'm starting to get worried about it since it has been doing this for a week now. I don't understand why it was fine the entire week after I turned it, but now it feels more painful. I'm still icing it and taking Advil, but it has not been feeling much better.

Posted by Blondie at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)

September 25, 2004

Making Wise Choices

One would think that since I am a college educated person who also has a graduate degree, that I would make good choices. I usually do, in my personal and professional life, I make the best choices that I can. One could argue that by keeping the job I currently have that I have not made a good decision, but I have been looking and it is not that easy to find guidance jobs in this area. When it comes to running, I tend to not think as much as I should. Maybe I think too much. Haven't quite figured that out yet. I always feel like I should be doing more and faster. Reading all of these blogs sometimes makes me think that I should be doing more, but I use my history to really decide what I should and should not be doing.

I have experimented some with higher mileage. I found that I couldn't maintain it, got sick all the time, and was always tired. I hadn't been really running for very long when I tried this, maybe 2 and a half years. I have gradually increased mileage so that the upper fifties to sixty per week feels good. I find that I can maintain this kind of mileage almost all year and still get two workouts per week without feeling too beat up. J has told me that my body will know when it is ready to do 2 runs a day. He says that when he was doing it he ran his best times, but it isn't for everyone to do all the time. He also knows that with my work schedule it will be very difficult for me to do. We've discussed that I probably shouldn't even try doubles until I think about a marathon again.

All of this has a point to today's run. I wanted to do 16 this morning. Yesterday I wasn't too sure if it would be a good idea. Thursday night made me think it probably was not a good idea. Doing track intervals, barely holding on, at only a few seconds faster than your everyday recovery pace is not a good sign for training. I finally looked up how I felt last year after PDR in my log. I was so relieved to see that it basically took me a full week to recover from it then too. The Saturday after it I only did about 10 miles. I also saw that my Thursday night workout had comments of "could not move any faster" and "could never get going".

This morning I got up early and the weather was great for running, clear and around 60. I still was not sure how far I was going to run. L wanted to run 19 and P wanted to do 90 minutes since he's tapering for Steamtown in two weeks. Everyone else was doing an hour. I decided that I would go for about 90 minutes with P. My right quad felt tight for the first 30 minutes or so, but then it started to loosen up. My ankle felt stiff for about the first hour, but now it feels fine. I don't know if the stuff I did at the gym helped it some or what. Anyhow, L, P, and I ran together. L wasn't too comfortable finishing the full out and back course on her own, so she stayed with us. We ran an out and back and turned around at about 49 minutes. This course is quite downhill on the way out and then has a series of long, steep hills for about 3 miles on the way back. We run this course to get ready for any race that has hills at the end. It is also very difficult to get lost on it since you pretty much stay on three roads the whole time. I guess that I picked up the pace some on the first in the series of hills. I'm not a particularly strong hill runner, but I try to maintain through the top of the hill (something I'll never forget hearing everyday in high school cross country practice) and P says that I really picked it up on the second of the hills and just kept on rolling. During the second half of the run I was feeling much more like myself. I ran the second half in just under 44 minutes and then ran around the parking lot until I'd been out for 1:35 just becuase I like round numbers. I felt like I could have gone on for another 3 miles, but I know that my body has not fully recovered yet and I have another week to get a long run in before my next real race. I'm not doing a marathon, so as far as I am concerned I don't really need to do many runs much over 90 minutes.

I couldn't get in the pool to run today since swim team is going on. My aqua running is going to decrease greatly now since there isn't much pool time available. I did lift and ride the stationary bike. I didn't lift last week and I could definitely feel that I was weaker than usual.

One of my friends is sponsoring a race tomorrow morning. I don't really want to race it, but I feel like I should go and run it to support him. He only expects to have about 65 people turn out, so I feel like I should go. I might do it but not race it. I really need to do my workout on Monday night, so I might run it just a few seconds faster per mile than my regular runs. I just hate doing races as training runs because some people around here think that any time a number is on them it is a full out race and then ask me why I ran slow. I absolutely hate that! Sometimes I do races for tempo runs, or even easy runs if I feel like the race is for a really good cause that I support. Just because I'm there does not mean that it is a race that I have "peaked" for. Sorry about the vent!!!

Posted by Blondie at 11:48 AM | Comments (1)

September 24, 2004

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Think along the lines of the Mr. Roger's theme song. It has been absolutely beautiful around here this past week. A few days have gotten a little bit on the warm side, but nothing too oppressive. Today, I had every intention of going to the pool to run, but when I got home from work it was sunny and in the mid-70s out. I couldn't bare the thought of wasting such a beautiful day inside at the pool, so I went for a walk. I didn't walk very far, or fast, but I got to do something and be outside.

I thought that it was taking me longer than usual to recover from my race, so I took a look at my log book from last year. This made me feel much better. Last year it took me a full week to recover. This is making me have second thoughts about running 16 tomorrow. Last year I only managed about 10 the Saturday following the PDR. I do have another weekend before the next longer race I was planning on running, so I might postphone the long run until the first weekend in October and go about 90 minutes tomorrow. I think that I'll see how my legs feel once I get moving in the morning.

Meghan, nobody I work with would be reading my blog. I am the only person in the entire building who even works out on a regular basis. If anyone did happen to read it, I would be in big trouble since I write so much about how it is far worse than sucky-sucky!

Posted by Blondie at 7:03 PM | Comments (10)

September 23, 2004

Busy Week

This week has been so hectic. All I want to do is sit down and not have something that I have to take care of. Right after work today I had a dentist appointment. I've never had a traumatic experience at the dentist, but I don't enjoy having someone poke at my gums with a sharpy object. I didn't actually get to see my dentist because he was at his son's cross country meet. The dentist works next to my parent's office and my mother offered for me to run with his son sometime. His son is only a freshman, but he is pretty good, he broke 18:00 in their invitational last weekend. The hygenist who I saw this time was much gentler than the one I usually see. The lady I usually get is really rough and then tells me that I need to floss more, etc. I have been good about flossing for the past year. Before I would only floss in the weeks leading up to my appointment. All right, enough about going to the dentist.

I went to the track tonight. I'm still not too sure if it was a good idea to do any kind of workout. My legs are feeling better, but my ankle still feels really stiff. The workout was 2 x 3200 with an 800 jog between each one. The original plan was that I should aim for right over 6:00 pace for both of the 3200s. I could tell on the warm-up that was overly ambitious. My ankle was stiff and I just didn't feel right. We got on the track and I thought that I might only do one. I ran with J and A for the first interval. Our goal was just to stay steady. We did negative split the first one and finished in 13:15. By the seventh lap my legs were feeling really beat and I decided that I was only going to push through a mile of the second one. I went through that mile in 6:38 and jogged the second mile of it in 7:10. It's amazing how a 30 second difference in a mile makes it feel so easy. I realize now that I probably should not have done it. Most of my regular runs are around 6:45 or 6:50 pace and feel easy, but running slightly faster today felt hard still.

I had to go to the grocery store on the way home to pick up food for lunch at work tomorrow. While I was there I picked up some ice so that I could take an ice bath when I got home. My legs are cold now, but feel much better. Tomorrow is my day off from running and I don't have any place I have to be right after work. I'm planning on going to the gym right after work and running in the pool for a bit. I haven't gotten to do this in a while and I know that it makes my legs feel better. I can't wait to get a massage next week to really get myself feeling better.

A final work related note-I got a call about an interview for a better job today! I called the woman back, but she wasn't there, so I just left a message for her.

Posted by Blondie at 8:36 PM | Comments (1)

September 22, 2004

Not feeling much better

I'm not feeling much better. In fact, I might even be feeling worse than I have been. My left ankle is feeling worse and worse.

I got to work this morning and could barely function, I was exhausted. I really think it's because I didn't get to have my half hour of quiet time when I try to sleep on a daily basis yesterday. As the day went on I was having waves of feeling awake and waves of feeling like I could just fall right to sleep.

My ankle didn't feel too bad when I was walking around at work, but when I was running it felt much worse than it has for the past few days. I think that running on the grass last night didn't help it feel any better. J told me that I should take today off or just run in the pool, but I'm stubborn and it was nice out today so I wanted to run outside. I probably should have turned around at the two mile point and gone to run in the pool. Unfortunately the swim team uses the pool almost all afternoon and early evening now, so pool running is much harder for me. I stopped to sit down and stretch a few times. I also tried to kind of massage the tendons that feel tender. Right now I'm sitting with an ice pack on it.

I ended up with a short 7 miles this afternoon. I didn't even bother to time it, but it was probably about 9 minute pace because I felt like I was just plodding along. I really hope that I feel better tomorrow since I am supposed to do a track workout. I wanted to do a long, slow run on Saturday since I have another somewhat long race coming up.

I'm getting really frustrated with this ankle thing. It didn't bother me at all last week. It only started to hurt right after the race and it seems to be getting progressively worse. Ice and Advil are going to work so much magic. A massage early next week should be very beneficial. The massage therapist is really able to get into some of the muscles, but of course trying to run after she works on my legs is next to impossible since they feel like jelly.

Posted by Blondie at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

Marathon Tuesday

Tuesday was a marathon of a day. I left the house around 7 in the morning and did not get back until about 8 at night. When I got home I had lots of work to do and didn't get to bed until later than planned.

I did get to sleep a little bit later since I had to go to a meeting for work at another site. This meeting started at 8:00 and my supervisor told me that I didn't have to come into our building at 7:00 just to turn around and leave. I didn't get to eat breakfast before the meeting and I knew that it would be rude to eat during the meeting, so I didn't get to eat my breakfast until almost 9:30 while I was driving back to work. This messed up my entire day of eating; I didn't eat a normal lunch since I wasn't hungry, so I just had a snack until later.

After work, I had an appointment to get my haircut. Then I went to pick up the pair of training shoes that I had ordered. While I was there, I changed into my running clothes. My friend J coaches a 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade cross country team and I told him that I was going to come and run with the kids. I got over early and ran 20 minutes on my own before they got there. The warm-up with the kids felt like an eternity, but it was only about 7 minutes. The kids stretched and then they did striders. I didn't think that doing the striders and drills were a good idea for me since my legs were still feeling beat. The workout was doing a loop of grass hills. The goal for the JV was to just keep on moving, and the goal for the varsity was to do about 25 minutes. I did 20 minutes of the loop, but I was really just going through the motions. We warmed down on the warm-up course, about another 7 minutes and stretched some more. I enjoy doing this every now and then. J does a great job with the kids and they seem to really have a lot of fun.

After practice I had to go to the pharmacy and pick up a prescription. While I was there I bought a bag of ice so that I could take an ice bath. This time the water felt so much colder than it used to, but I know that it is good for my legs in my quest for recovery.

I finally got in touch with my massage therapist. We decided for a couple of reasons to wait until early next week to work on my legs. The first reason is that our schedules don't have a time available this week and the second reason is that I don't know how much work she would be able to do on my legs since they still feel very tender.

After dinner I had to get my resume together since I was getting together with a former co-worker after work. She's trying to get me a job at her new school where the employees are treated much better.

Posted by Blondie at 5:48 PM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2004

Recovery

Yesterday was a very rough day. For some reason I always end up sick after long races. I really did not want to eat at all since my stomach was so unsettled and crampy. The little bit that I did eat made me feel better, but I had no desire to put any food in my mouth. My left ankle was also throbbing all day. There wasn't any swelling, but I was walking with a definite limp. The fact that I still have a blister on my right heel from wearing heels that rubbed the back of my foot earlier in the week wasn't helping too much.

This morning I hobbled into the shower. I limped terribly from the car into school. The nurse was telling me over and over that I was limping. I even wore running shoes to work. As the day went on the limp started to subside. Around noon I got a splitting headache, probably from the lack of eating yesterday. I came home and took some Advil and iced. I also tried to nap some, but couldn't fall asleep. By the time I was getting ready to leave for the track, my limp was almost gone. The little bit of stretching I did helped too. I think that my hamstrings were so tight that it was affecting my gait in general.

I had no intentions of running a workout today. I had to give a race report and some easy running. I did the warm-up, which is about 2.5 miles. Then I did 8 laps on the track easy, with the backstretch as a strider. Then I did the warm-down, which is the same as the warm-up. My legs are definitely beat up from yesterday. I want to get a massage, but I don't think that my legs will be able to handle it until at least Wednesday. They still feel awfully sensitive.

Right now I'm sitting with ice on my hip. It was on my ankle and shin earlier. I wanted to do an ice bath yesterday, but I felt too sick to go out and get ice. Tonight I'm going to empty the ice bucket into a bag so that I can use it tomorrow. Most of this week is going to be on the easy side to recover. I hope that this is an indication of some good races to come. I still am not sure what other races I am going to do this fall. There are two that I know are going to be on my schedule, but I'd like to find a few others.

Posted by Blondie at 7:53 PM | Comments (1)

September 19, 2004

I'll take it

Thank you to all who sent encouraging words for this race. The PDR is one of the best half-marathons in the country. I feel so lucky that this race is local for me, but I would definitely travel to do this race. One of the little bits of trivia that they were bragging about before the race was that something like the 10 fastest half marathon times have been recorded in this race. It really is that fast of a course.

I woke up early this morning to take care of business before leaving for L's house to head into Philly. When I turned on the weather it was only 52 degrees out, brrr. The forecast was also calling for gusting winds, uh oh. They were calling for sunny skies. I was also worried since they said on the news that parts of Kelly Drive were flooded. Portions of the Delaware River had flooded as a result of all of the rain yesterday. The course starts in Center City, heads out through Old City (the oldest part of Philly, very nice), past the Art Museum (where Rocky ran up the steps), out West River Drive, turns over the Falls Bridge, and comes back Kelly Drive. Then you head up past the Art Museum again and finish along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. There are some inclines on the course, but it is mainly flat and fast.

L and I left for the city around 6:30 and got parked and settled around 7:15. We were freezing since it was significantly cooler than it has been lately and much windier. We jogged a little bit from the car to the starting area, maybe a mile. At this point we separated. I had a seeded number and found out after the fact that I had a hotel room in the city, a staging area, and sweat drops. I'll remember that for next year. I found a random port-o-pot in a parking lot that had a short line and had my nervous pee. I had on a throw-away tee shirt over my racing outfit and had on gloves. I would have liked to have sunglasses because it was really very sunny on portions of the course. About seven minutes before the start I got rid of my tee shirt and lined up close to the back of the seeded runners area. They did the national anthem and then we were off.

My goal for today was to run a consistent and strong race. In the first mile I was amazed as I always am at how many people were in front of me. I started very close to the line and was not running all that slowly. I was getting passed left and right by men and a few women. When I hit the mile, I looked back and saw 6:22. I thought that I might have been running faster, started to freak out that I was running too slow, and then got myself back together and calmed down. I hit 2 miles right around 12:40. At this point a guy around me said to his buddy, "we're going too fast, I can't keep this up" and then stayed in front of me for at least another mile?!? I didn't hit the split button at any of the miles. I was noticing where I was. Every mile was within a few seconds of 6:20. All the way along West River Drive was into gusting headwinds. Every time I tried to duck in behind some men I was running close to, they would slow down. I decided that I would be the one who would set the pace. Tiny me, but I was not going to use the wind as an excuse to slow down. The final five miles were with the wind at our backs. This was much nicer. About the first 3/4 of a mile along Kelly Drive was very muddy and wet from where the river had overflowed. Everyone was mucky at the finish. I think that my splits were a little bit faster from this point in. On the results, it looks like my second half was just a little bit faster than my first half.

Around 11 miles, I passed two women who were in front of me. Just past the 12 mile mark, one of them came flying past me. I don't know where she got it from. Even though I have run this race 4 times, I still forget exactly where the finish line is. I know that it is further up than you would think it is. I managed some sort of finishing speed, not kick, but a slight surge. I squeaked under 1:23:00 which made me very happy. Earlier in the week I said that I would be happy to get under 1:24, and J had predicted 1:23:40.

On the way home, my stomach started to get upset. When I got home, I was feeling pretty awful. As a matter of fact, I still feel pretty awful. I don't really want to eat, but I noticed that my stomach was a little more settled after I ate some lunch. My left ankle is also very sore. When I twisted it on Monday it felt kind of like this. It started to get very tight around 10 miles. Now I'm limping on it. I've been icing it off and on all day, but I think that I'm going to have to fill a bucket with ice water and soak it some. I've also been trying to massage and stretch it.

Today was not a PR for me, but it was one of my fastest times. It gives me some confidence for the race that I think is going to be my peak race for the fall. I only had one long run under my belt for this race. One thing that I am very proud of is how consistent I was. Sometimes I go out and do something stupid in the first few miles. I may have run over my head, but I didn't get in too deep until late in the race.

One last note, even though I ran quite well, I still did not even place in my age group. My age group was stacked, since when I looked at the results I would have placed in any other age group. It doesn't matter that much to me, I'd rather have lots of competition than win a little medal.

Posted by Blondie at 6:12 PM | Comments (6)

September 18, 2004

Ivan the Terrible

All day yesterday I was waiting for the rain to come in. The forecast was for rain all day on Friday and into Saturday. When I got home last night (a little bit after 11) the rain still had not started. I knew that it meant that it was going to rain all day today. The first time I woke up this morning, around 7:30, it was absolutely pouring. Like it was so loud that I knew just in my groggy state that there was no way on earth that I would head out for my short run in rain that hard. I took advantage of the weather today to catch up on some much needed sleep, and didn't get out of bed until around 9:15.

It is still raining pretty hard right now, but I did manage to drag myself out the door to run today. Let me say that I am happy PDR is tomorrow, not today. My legs were hardly moving. It was raining hard and windy. These are the kind of conditions I abhore. One good thing about this weather is that there was no way that I could run too hard in it. I was going to do about 5 miles, but it was so gross out and I was so miserable that I decided to do 4 instead. The first 2 my legs weren't too cooperative, but the second 2 were much better. I went out in 15:45 and came back in 14:00. I jogged up and down the driveway to make up the last 15 seconds since I like to be able to say that I was out for an even amount of time.

The weather was much cooler, and of course wet. I had on shorts, a sports bra, light jacket, and hat. I never made up my mind if I was warm or cool. Being soaked to the bone makes it hard to determine if the temperature is right or not. I selected today to be the last day that I wore my stinky Wave Riders. My new ones aren't in yet, but they should be in a few days. I have a few other pairs of shoes hanging around that I can wear, including a brand new pair (which I couldn't wear today because it is the day before a race and pouring). My brother used to make fun of me because I didn't like having bright white running shoes, I like them to be just dingy. Muddy and stinky are bad and bright white with absolutely no stink is bad. Somewhere in the middle is just perfect.

The forecast for tomorrow looks good. They're calling for a low in the mid 50s, a high of 70, and sun. Since the race starts at 8, it should be in the upper 50s to low 60s, comfy running temps in my opinion.

Later on today I'm going to take an ice bath. We didn't have enough ice in the freezer to do any good. I just didn't feel like dealing with going into the Wawa soaking wet to buy some ice. When the rain tapers off, I'll go down and buy two bags of ice and subject myself to the freezing of my legs. Today I'm going to have to put more water and ice in the tub to cover the tops of my quads. The past few times my quads haven't been under the water and I definitely feel the difference in my quads and hamstrings.

Posted by Blondie at 11:50 AM | Comments (3)

September 17, 2004

A Little Confession

I am a huge advocate for taking days off from running. Days off can do wonderful things for your body. Little aches and pains can go away and your legs can feel refreshed. I usually take one day off from running every week. Friday is that day. I have to admit that I usually feel really guilty if I do absolutely nothing on my day off from running. I don't think that I'm going to fall out of shape, I just feel better if I can do a little something to flush some of the lactic acid out of my legs.

All day today I was debating if I should do some kind of workout this afternoon or not. I have been awfully tired and my legs feel a little bit beat up. Since I have a race on Sunday, tomorrow will be a very light day. I didn't want to do anything to tire myself out. When I swam last weekend, my upper body was achy for a few days. This may have been because it was coupled with an upper body lifting session. I didn't want to hop on the elliptical because when I get onto that I really push hard. The only cross training that I can do easy is the stationary bike. After a 45 minute nap this afternoon, I went over to the gym and hopped on the bike for 45 minutes and then stretched. I did it so easy that I didn't even break a sweat. I felt much better about myself for getting out there and at least doing something.

Ivan is heading this way. We are under a flood watch until sometime tomorrow morning. The projected forecast for Sunday's race is a high of 70 with some sun. Hopefully the humidity will be gone by then and it will be pleasant conditions for running.

Later on tonight I'm heading out with one of my friends to one of the trendier bars around. This means that I have to wear something other than the sweats that I'm fond of on weekends. Neither of us is in the mood to party, but this place is kind of a laid back lounge. We're just going to chill since we both rarely go out.

Posted by Blondie at 7:03 PM | Comments (2)

September 16, 2004

Refreshing Run

I was really pooped this afternoon. The past few days at work have been exceptionally draining. It has been a real struggle to get myself to make it through the day at work. I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to stay in this place. The other staff members are making me miserable and not want to be there.

Anyhow, I was going to go over to do my run immediately after school today instead of coming home and taking a nap first. I got over to the place where we meet to do our runs hoping to meet up with J. He doesn't get off of work as early as I do, so I usually have a short wait. I don't see the point in coming home, dropping off my things and then running out the door to get back in my car again. Anyhow, I got there and I really had to use the bathroom. There is a public bathroom in the park about a half mile from where we meet, so I walked over to it because my stomach would not have let me run at this point and then I walked back. This took up most of the time that I would have had to wait. 3:45 came and went and J still had not shown up. I gave him five more minutes and then left. It isn't like it really mattered since he was going to be doing hill repeats and I was going to do the river run, but it would have been nice to at least get started with someone else. I saw the boys from our local powerhouse team on their run and said hi to the guys who trained with us over the summer and went on my way. As I was running down to the river, my path crossed with theirs again and I was passing the bulk of their team. At one point, I had to go left and the boys had to go right, the coach was standing in the middle of the road as I was passing his runners and he goes "Well, there goes a good runner". I felt pretty quick for most of the run. This run goes downhill to the river, is flat on a path around the river, and then climbs back to the starting point. I really tried to stay relaxed on the down and the flat and work the up. I'm not really sure how long the run is, but we do it frequently on our off time, or for holiday runs when we don't have a workout scheduled. I know that it is over 6 miles, but under 7. My guess is close to 6.5, but I'm not positive about this. I finished in 43:20, and I can definitely say that I was running under 7 minute pace. I decided to do my 200 striders with a 200 jog today. I only did 4 and tried to pick up the pace and finish strong on each 200. I did time these, but I didn't look at my watch until I was finished the entire mile. My splits looked like this: 41.6, 53.8, 41.6, 54.1, 41.6, 53.9, 42.0, 54.0 (the first 200 of each lap was the strider) for a 6:22 mile. I was happy with this and hope that I can average right around that pace this weekend. I jogged two *really* slow laps to finish off for a total of about 8 miles for the day. I ran in the racing shoes that I plan on wearing Sunday for all of today's run. I bought them to train in, since they are heavier racing shoes. I just have not been able to do much training in them since we've been on the fields and hills for the past few weeks.

I went to the downtown branch of my gym and ran into an ex. We're still friendly, but it is always awkward when I run into him. He told me that he sees me running a couple of times a week with a bunch of guys, leading them and talking the whole time. He claims that it is a good thing, but that the guys always look so tired and I look so energized. I rode the stationary bike for 20 minutes to take up some time and then went to the Stability Ball/Ab class. I had not been in a few months and there was a new woman teaching. I didn't care for what she did and I felt she did the moves too fast for me to feel my core working. On the way home, I stopped for some ice and subjected myself to a 15 minute ice bath before dinner. My body just does not seem to want to warm up from it, but I am convinced that it makes my body feel so much better. I'll probably even take one on Saturday before the race even though it is a really easy day of running.

Tomorrow is a much needed day off from running. My body is starting to feel pretty beat up. I should call to schedule a massage for soon after the race because I am starting to feel the effects of my training. If it were earlier in the week, I would do it now, but with the race on Sunday I don't want to mess with anything.

Posted by Blondie at 8:21 PM | Comments (0)

September 15, 2004

Miracle Cure

I am convinced that my ice bath yesterday was my miracle cure. My legs did not feel great at all on Tuesday. After the ice bath my legs felt much fresher today. I also like Alison's theory that you can only have one injury at a time. That must be the explanation for the aches that have been wandering all over my body.

Today's run went much better than yesterday's. Of course it did help that I went on one of my regular routes rather than trying to take up some time to get over to the track. I was exhausted when I got home from work so I took a short nap. When I got out of bed, I put on my running clothes and looked outside. It was gray outside, but it had been all day and had not really been raining so I opted to leave my hat at home. When it's warm out, I don't care for wearing a hat since it traps all of the heat on my head and I just feel sweatier. I got outside and it was sort of misty which I can handle, but about three minutes into my run it started to rain. A light, steady rain. It really was not too bad, but I would have been happier with a hat covering my face so that I could see.

My legs felt so much better than they did yesterday. The temperature was cooler and the rain seemed to be bringing the humidity down. I covered my 7 mile course in a few ticks over 47 minutes, which is a normal time for this course. I know that I should not be obsessed with weight, but since I have gained a few pounds the effort feels so much greater to run the same pace. My lunch was sitting at the bottom of my stomach from about the two mile point on. This feeling hits me at least once a week which makes for some unpleasant feelings while I'm running. I still have not figured this out. I try to wait at least four hours between eating and running which should be plenty of time. I realize that my digestive system probably works slowly since I even have trouble when I run first thing in the morning and have not eaten anything other than dinner the night before. Back to my workout, I went to the gym and rode the stationary bike for 45 minutes and spent about 15 minutes stretching. I was going to go to the other branch of the gym for the 5:00 Spinning class because I enjoy the change, but I didn't get home from my run until about five minutes until five and due to the situation stated above, I was not able to get myself ready to leave right away.

I am hoping that we have nice weather out here on Sunday for my half-marathon. I am really hardly nervous about this race at all. Quite different from the way I was at this time last week. I guess that there are many reasons for this. First of all, I have had a race number on now. Second, I think that I am in better shape to run a longer race than to run a shorter race. I have done very little running at much under 6 minute pace this year since most of my training was geared towards the half marathon during the spring. Third, there is no chance that I can really do anything in this race. Even if I PR by several minutes I won't even crack the top ten. The Philadelphia Distance Run is one of the best races I have ever run and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to run a world class half marathon. The weather is usually nice and the course is fast. There is also always an awesom field. It's nice to not have any pressure to do well in a race. I can just go in and stay with some of the men.

I've been trying to use my Swiss ball as the chair at the computer for the past few days. I would take it to work, but I think that everyone would look at me like I'm crazier than they already think I am. This ball is a little bit too small to be a chair, but for the time being it will work. Yesterday I did notice a difference when I tried to do my core exercises. My stomach muscles were more tired than usual. I haven't done my core routine yet tonight.

Since tomorrow is another light day of running, I am going to run directly after work and drag myself over to the running store to buy new shoes. I did not feel like going out in the rain again today after my run. I'll probably do the river run tomorrow which is around 6 miles and then do some striders. The store is about a mile up the road from that course and I'll just bring some clean socks. The guys who work there have had to deal with some really nasty guys who come in right after they run with no clean socks-yuck!

Posted by Blondie at 8:48 PM | Comments (0)

September 14, 2004

Change of Plans

After my non-workout last night, I had planned to do some 200s kind of like striders as part of my run today. I was going to cut my regular run short, do 4-6 200s with a 200 jog and then do about a mile warm down for a total of about 7 miles. My regular course does not go anywhere near a track, so I had to change my course in order to do this. I hoped to run for about 30 minutes before I got to the track.

I got started and my legs weren't exactly feeling fresh. In fact, they were almost downright tired. I figured that I could make up a half hour in some of the local neighborhoods and then head over to the high school where I went. I got to my old stomping grounds in 31 minutes. Perfect. As I was going into the parking lot the assistant cross country coach drove by and into the lot. When I was jogging over to the track I noticed that there was a soccer game going on. I didn't think that they would be too happy with me running on the track with a game. The assistant coach said that it would be OK as long as I stayed on the backstretch. I know the head coach would say the same thing (they're also the track coaches) and that the athletic director would be OK with me running on the track (he's a client of my father's) BUT I did not feel like getting yelled at by parents and the soccer coaches. Plus my legs felt like two blocks of cement. I proceeded to make a big loop back to home since the direct way home is only a mile. I ended up running about 51 minutes, or about 7 miles. It was kind of interesting to run in some different neighborhoods since I always run in the same places.

When I got back I decided that my stale legs could definitely use an ice bath. I filled up the tub with cold water, got in, and added about 10 pounds of ice and sat in it for 10 minutes. I must say that my legs feel much better now that I froze myself.

I am going to make an effor to try to be more positive here. I know that I am drowning in negativity at work. Being around so many people who complain about everything makes me feel negative. The two women who are my equals think they are right about everything (they're not) and complain all the time. These two caused many ripples last year and caused many of the teachers to quit. Neither of them are well liked by the staff. Of course I am put in an awkward situation because I am not friends with them and then I have to be the ear for all of the staff who can not stand them. OK enough venting, I just need to get some of that out since I can't do it to anyone at work.

Someone at work asked me if I had any races coming up soon. I told her that I had a half-marathon this weekend and she said, "oh, how many miles is that?". Now I know I shouldn't make fun of this, but everytime I have a race I explain how many miles it is. I guess that it only makes a lot of sense to all of us who run, especially the metric races.

Good news-my left shin has not hurt at all in three days. Of course, last night when I turned my left ankle I think I shocked it out of my system!

Posted by Blondie at 6:51 PM | Comments (1)

September 13, 2004

I should trust my instincts

I knew that today's workout was a bad idea. I really did, I swear. In fact, I'm almost positive that every monday I write about how much I hate to run on the fields. Honestly, hate is putting it mildly. Grass really is not all that bad to run on as long as it is even, but this has so many ruts and roots in it that klutzes such as yours truly and destined to hurt themselves.

Knowing that I have a race this weekend I thought about cutting the workout short or maybe doing a lighter workout on the track, but I was talked into doing the entire workout on the grass. The first loop is pretty uneventful. Halfway through the second loop I stepped on something and my foot couldn't go through the normal range of motion and I kind of twisted it funny. Of course I screamed and had two people stop their laps to make sure I was OK. I really was, I just needed to sit and stretch it out and make sure everything was normal and just get myself calm again. After taking off my shoe and seeing if I could get my foot to go through the full range of motion and examining my foot for any discoloration or swelling, I decided that I could jog the fields for a while and really watch my footing. It does not really hurt right now, but I am icing it to be on the safe side.

Needless to say, I am one happy camper since that was our last week of the grass. I said when we started that I didn't like doing it. I can just see myself getting hurt on the fields. I kept saying there was a reason that I didn't like to run on grass, and the reason is I am really really bad at it. My balance and vision just are not good enough to do it.

I ended up with around 9 miles tonight. The rest of this week is a bit of a cutback since I'm running a half marathon this weekend. Tomorrow I'm doing some 200s as part of my run since I didn't get to do the speedwork tonight. They won't be really fast, probably right around 6:00 pace which is not that fast for a 200.

I also need to get new shoes this week. The Wave Riders I have been wearing are going into the trash right now. They are absolutely offensive. I'm not sure which other pair of shoes I'm going to get as my "clunkers", I'll just be a PITA and try on basically every shoe on the wall! I always do that and end up going back to the same shoes because if it ain't broke, don't change it!

Posted by Blondie at 8:04 PM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2004

Happy Legs

This morning my legs felt suprisingly happy once I started to move. When I first woke up, I thought it was going to be a very long run. I felt stiff all over. I know that putting two hard runs back to back and wreak havoc on my legs and give me that nice "dead legs" feeling.

Today had to be easy. After a race Friday night, a fast longer run yesterday, a workout tomorrow night, and another race next Sunday-I need to take it easy. Girl's night with my mom was cancelled-one of the guys I run with had people over to watch fireworks last night. I did not eat the best dinner, actually I just kind of grazed while I was there. Big mistake. I ate somethings I know that I should not eat (salsa, I love it, my stomach does not) and ended up paying for that this morning. I ended up being out much later than I usually would be and on my feet almost all night.

OK, back to this mornings run. I felt suprisingly fresh once I started to run. I saw one of the older guys from the group who hardly ever runs anymore (he was cycling and rode next to me while I ran for a little while) who told me to make sure I was taking it easy today. The weather was beautiful, mid sixties and less humid. I kept telling myself not to push and I really wasn't. About three miles from home, my stomach decided that it was not going to cooperate with me anymore. The last two miles were the longest two miles of my life. My legs really felt fine, but I had to walk/jog because I didn't know if I was going to be able to make it home. I did make it home and I am feeling slightly better now, but still not 100%. The feeling will pass, I just need to eat bland food today.

I really wish that I had a stomach like a normal person. It takes so much effort for me to find things that I don't get sick from eating. The doctor I went to couldn't find anything wrong with my GI system, he just said that it is sensitive and irritable. Lucky me.

Posted by Blondie at 12:18 PM | Comments (1)

September 11, 2004

I should never make an entry when I'm hungry!

I got home this morning from my workout and remembered that I needed to let everyone know how my race went since I didn't get back until late last night. Anyhow, I was so hungry since I had not eaten in so long that I was trying to write quickly and completely forgot to thank everyone who wished me good luck going into the race. So, thank you!! I really appreciated all the words of luck.

Posted by Blondie at 4:57 PM | Comments (0)

Another run, less than 12 hours later

I did not sleep all that well last night. I didn't figure it out until the alarm went off and I went to put my contacts in and realized that I forgot to take them out last night. I never sleep well when I leave my lenses in overnight. I usually only do that if I end up staying at a friend's house and have not planned on it. I think that even though it is sunny out today, I'm going to wear my glasses today to let my eyes rest.

I wasn't sure how this morning was going to go for two reasons. First, my race last night was not even 12 hours ago. I did not know if my legs were going to feel like a ton of bricks or not. The second was that I ate so late that my light dinner might not have been digested and my stomach would be upset. I really think that my digestive system works very slowly because I need so much time to digest my meals before I can run.

J, who keeps us in check on our early morning runs for the first few miles, was not there this morning. In fact, there was a very small group today. One of the guys was feeling really good, so our run was much faster than usual. I was planning on a semi-long run. The plan was to run an hour, I wanted to run closer to 75 minutes. Well, C was feeling so good that a course that would usually take almost an hour ended up only taking 53 minutes. We were all talking quite a bit which was nice since sometimes I end up by myself and can get lonely. Around 45 minutes my stomach was starting to feel queasy, but it was not so bad that I could not deal with it. I did add on quite a bit since I have a half-marathon next weekend. I gave up the idea of trying to get under 1:20 in it, but I still want to run well. Since I have not had many long runs, I thought it would be best to run for more than an hour today.

I went to the gym and got to run in the cooler pool. I wanted to pool run a little bit longer today, so I went for half an hour. I also brought a cap and goggles because I thought that I would swim some after. I did 10 laps and just did not feel like swimming. I didn't realize that I forgot to bring a towel until I was getting into my bathing suit in the locker room. Oh well, that's what my sweaty clothes are for. I know that it sounds gross, but I blotted off some with my sweaty shirt. I was only putting on running shorts and a sports bra to go into the gym to ride the bike and lift. I wasn't that wet since I saw someone I knew in the bathroom area of the locker room and stood and talked to her for a while, so I kind of drip-dried.

I rode the stationary bike for an hour while I read Glamour. When I got off to stretch, the queasy feeling came back, so I had to go deal with that for a while. By this time I really was not feeling like doing a whole lot of lifting. I did four exercises (chest, back, triceps, biceps)-three sets of fifteen reps for each, and called it a day.

Instead of doing grass loops on Monday night, I want to run some 800s on the track so that I can learn what pace I feel like I am running. My legs actually felt fresher this morning than they did at the race last night. I was a touch on the hungry side, but not so bad that I could not deal with it. The weather was much cooler, it was about 64 when I left. The humidity was still up, around 80%, but as the weather guy put it, "it's still drier than it has been for the past few days". I'm hoping that it really dries out some for next weekend. I've run this half in high humidity and it is really unpleasant.

Tonight my mom and I are having a girls night. We're going to do wine and cheese and watch a movie. It should be pretty fun. Of course, we don't have any wine or cheese at the moment, so we might just be watching a movie.

Posted by Blondie at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

Well, Now I Have a Starting Point

Yesterday I had a plan for my entire day. My race was supposed to start at 7:00. I planned to eat my regular breakfast at work, then eat an early lunch, come home and eat a snack around 3:00 and then leave for the race around 5:00. My plan was working until at 10:30 I was told that they needed someone to take the kids to the gym at 11:00. That someone was going to be me. Well, me and two other staff members. It is so pathetic. The kids at my school are so bad. Really. They've all been expelled from public schools. Anyhow, there were 3 adults and 8 kids. I didn't get back from the gym until 1:00. Obviously, I did not get to eat my early lunch. I decided to eat lunch when I got back to school and forget about the snack. I would much rather run a race a little bit hungry than end up laying on the ground because my irritable gut flared up. I did come home and take a nap which was huge help, I tend to be very tired the first few weeks of school because I'm just not used to waking up so early.

I got to the race and registered. Then I put on my trainers and warmed up the course. I could have told you as soon as I started to run that the race was not going to be very pretty. My legs felt SO tight. I just did not feel like myself. I'm pretty sure my lack of stretching on Thursday afternoon was affecting me. I've done this race for the past two years, so I know the course. I warmed up the course, came back to my car, put on my racing top, number, racing socks, and flats. Then I finished my stretching and made my last port-a-pot stop. Now I'm just waiting. They had the kids races right on schedule, so I'm ready. Nervous. I keep telling myself to stay calm and then reminding myself why I try to run a race once a month. Seven comes and goes and we don't start. I'm starting to get crabby. The race did not start until about 7:20. OK, I would have been done by now if we started on time. Did I mention that I'm getting grumpy?

So we go off. The course is two laps. I know that some people are going to start off way too fast, like in every race. For about the first mile I was the fifth woman. Since this race brings in all of the local studs, I figured I was OK. I passed one woman and was in fourth. Someone called a split of 5:50 for the first mile, but I don't know if they were right or not. This race runs through a neighborhood and the daughter of the woman whose race this is in memory of says "ready, set, go" and I don't think that the guy really knew when we started. I notice that I'm starting to get closer to two of the women in front of me. We finished the first lap and I wasn't feeling all that great. I'm starting to notice how terribly humid it still is, even though the weather guy said it was drying out. I will admit that it was not as bad as Wednesday or Thursday, but it was still awfully sticky. Around the two mile mark I got passed by a woman. I'm back in fifth, but one of the women who was in front of me is really starting to come back. I keep telling myself not to give up. I definitely do not feel good at this point. I keep thinking only five more minutes, only four more minutes, etc. I manage to kick it in, I can't see the clock since it was getting really dark, and I forgot to stop my watch. I was thinking too much about running hard through the finish line.

When I checked the results on line they had me in 18:30. I'm not all that happy with that. I get really depressed when my races don't really represent what kind of shape I'm in. I really thought that I would be able to run around 18:10. I warmed down on the course, so I ended up with 9 miles for the evening.

By the time the awards came around, I was really grumpy. I was hungry, but all of the food I wanted was gone because I did a longer warm down. I just wanted to get my award and go home. I ended up winning $125.00. The thing that was really depressing was that the time I ran last year was the winning time this year. Also, the two women who were second and third are women I beat on a regular basis.

I got home around 9:30, had a light dinner and then went to bed to get up to run this morning.

Some things I learned from this experience:

1. I know that I always like to race some before bigger races. Since this race had money in it, I should have run something where I had to put a number on beforehand. The butterflies in my stomach were driving me nuts.

2. If I want to run a PR, I should be doing at least one track workout per week. Right now I've been doing strength based speed work. I did feel stronger at the end of the race, but my pacing felt off.

3. In all, considering that I ran fewer days in the month of July than I did not (I only ran 9 days to try to recover from nagging problems) and most of my spring training was based on longer intervals for a half-marathon I have to be pleased. After all, I did walk away with some money that I didn't have when I woke up in the morning.

To top everything off, I was changing out of my soaked top at my car after I warmed down before I went to the awards. I was in the process of putting on a tank top with it half on and my racing top half off and my car alarm starts to go off. Nobody would have noticed me changing and half naked in the dark parking lot until my horn starts going off and my headlights are flashing off and on.

Posted by Blondie at 11:56 AM | Comments (1)

September 9, 2004

Bundle of Nerves

Since it has been quite some time since I have raced, I have been a bundle of nerves today. I jumped in one race for fun in July, but before that the last races I have run were in May and June. The last 5K I really cared about was in late May. I have been freaking out since I have no idea where I am and would really like to have a good race tomorrow night. I am also nervous because the last race I ran caused my plantar fascia to flare up. I know that I have to get over that. It hasn't bothered me in about six weeks since I have been diligent about icing it and stretching it. My shin hasn't been bothering me either for the same reasons.

The weather has not been conducive to racing in these parts for the past week. The weather report I just saw called for cooler and much less humid for tomorrow. Today was sticky to put it mildly. We have had off and on rain all day. Luckily I finished my run just before the last rain, but it was still sticky.

I only planned to do about five miles today with some strides. I met up with J and ran the first 2.75 miles very easily with him. He told me that he has a prediction for what time I'll run tomorrow night, but won't tell me what it is. After the easy warm-up, I did 3 fairly long striders and then went out on an approximate 2 mile warm-down. I didn't start to feel decent until I was almost done the warm down. About half a mile from my car, I noticed that the sky was getting very dark, when I was about 100 yards from the car the wind started to pick up a lot. I was going to put on my racing shoes and do 2 laps with striders, but I really didn't want to get soaked today. I got in my car and by the time I was driving it had started to rain pretty heavily. The forecast calls for more showers throughout the night, but it should break this nasty weather pattern.

I sent out two resumes today to try to get myself out of my dead end job. Hopefully one of these two turns into something. I'm giving myself until the New Year to try to find something new. I'll even do something that does not use my degrees since being treated decently by an employer will definitely make me happier.

Posted by Blondie at 5:18 PM | Comments (4)

September 8, 2004

Two down, two to go

My title refers to my work week. I can't think in terms of an entire school year, it is just way too depressing for me. I am trying to make the best of a very bad situation, but it is hardly tolerable at this point. Later on tonight I must revise my resume and send it out to one of the local schools that has an opening. Of course, I know who most of the people who will also be applying and even work with some of those individuals. I have adopted a very bad attitude towards work, primarily due to the lack of reward from the higher ups (I never even get a thank you). The work situation has gotten so bad that it is affecting my everyday life and my health at times. OK, OK, enough of my complaining about work. I know lots of other people are in just as bad of a situation or even worse, so I'll just suck it up.

The weather on my run this afternoon was nasty to put it mildly. It was on the warm side, around 83, with 100 percent humidity. At least this was only supposed to be an easy run. The only reason I even wore my watch and timed it was to make sure I didn't do anything stupid, like run too fast. I know that I can probably do more damage by running too hard two days before a race than the day before it. I probably could have told you in the first half mile that there was no way that I would be able to run too fast. My legs felt absolutely DFT (you can figure out what that means :)! ). By about the mile point in my run, I was absolutely drenched in sweat. My feet and legs were not happy with me since I did wear dress shoes to work today. Sneakers are not techically allowed in our dress code, but I have been able to wear them on a somewhat regular basis this year.

Even though this run was supposed to be easy, I started to beat myself up when I got done since it was so slow. This is one of the reasons that when I want to run really easy I don't even wear my watch. I guess that I am sort of time-obsessed.

I am getting really nervous about my race on Friday night. I have not really raced since June. I did run one race in July, which I should not have run. I wore my flats even though my plantar fascia was acting up. By the end of the race, I could hardly run. I was limping so severely that it was commented on by the race directors. I have not had those flats on since that night and I am nervous to put them back on. I think that I am going to bring them with me tomorrow and wear them for striders to build my confidence. The other factor in my being so nervous is that I have not run on the track since early June and I have no idea what kind of shape I am in or what kind of target pace I should shoot for. This race has some significance for me. I have run big PRs at this race for two years in a row. It draws a great field and is a fair course with a few inclines and declines, but nothing major. I think that I may have a shot at a PR, but I don't really know since I haven't been doing track work, I've been doing grass loop pick-ups and hills. I know that I am running the hills faster than I was at this time last year, but I was also doing track repeats so I knew what I could be aiming for. Tomorrow I am going to run some with J who predicted my time last year. On Monday I asked for a prediction and he told me that he would have to get back to me later in the week. When I told him what I would be happy with he told me that it would not make me happy, even though I think it would. I'm going to try to put it out of my mind for the time being because I don't want to obsess over it and I am not putting all of my eggs in one basket.

Posted by Blondie at 7:00 PM | Comments (0)

September 7, 2004

Back to Work

After a nice, long weekend it was back to work. Most of yesterday afternoon was spent finishing laundry and complaining that I had to go back to work. I was not ready for the alarm to go off this morning. Luckily I was on a funky sleep schedule over the weekend and never really slept late any of the days I had off from work, so I could go to bed early last night. This didn't stop me from being exhausted this afternoon when I got home from work. I collapsed into my bed and napped for a little bit over half an hour. I always come home and at least lie down before I go out for my run.

The heat and humidity are creeping back in. Today was much warmer than the past two days were. Since I'm planning to race this Friday night, today was my last "quality" run of the week. Tomorrow will be shorter and easier, as it always is to get ready for Thursday night workouts. Thursday will only be a short run and some strides instead of doing the hills. Today I ran the same 9 mile course that I suprised myself by blazing through last week. Ironically I ran it in the same exact time as I did last week. Not only was the final time the same as last week, but the time at 2 miles and 6 miles where I have to stop to cross a major road was the same too! I usually run most of my routes in close to the same time, but I might start out slower and finish faster or make a real push for the middle section and run slower for the start and finish. I think that I would have been able to run faster this afternoon, but during the last three miles of the run my lunch hit the bottom of my stomach. This unpleasant feeling is pretty common for me on my runs, especially during the first few weeks of work until my stomach gets used to lunch. I may be strange, but I need at least 4 hours to digest food before I can run. I am jealous of everyone out there who can run shortly after eating.

I went to the gym and rode the stationary bike for 40 minutes to try to flush some of the lactic acid out of my legs and then stretched some.

Yesterday I went to Trader Joe's to stock up on some food. They are the only store around here where I can find the plain Greek style yogurt. I was so upset to find out that it has been pulled from the shelves everywhere until it gets FDA certification. This is one of the few foods I like to eat. It also has more protein in it than regular yogurt (because it is strained?) and I mix it with protein powder to get more protein in it since my diet is seriously lacking in protein. I went to their website, but there was no mention of it on it. Hopefully it will be back on the shelves soon.

Posted by Blondie at 7:10 PM | Comments (0)

September 6, 2004

Feeling Stiff

On Saturday night when we went out to dinner, my father said that he wanted to go for a bike ride with me on Sunday. I agreed to go. He does not ride all that fast or long, so I knew that it would not kill my legs for my workout this morning. We rode a very leisurely ten miles. We were quite a sight. Me on my racing bike in cycling gear, my father on his hybrid in jeans and a tee shirt! It was cool and breezy and I swear that it was drizzling, but my dad didn't feel any drips.

When I got up this morning I knew that my workout was going to be LONG. I don't run particularly well in the morning. We had a small group since lots of people went away for the long weekend. I shuffled through the 2.5 mile warm-up. At this point I didn't know how I was going to be able to run the workout and the warm-down. I could barely get one foot in front of the other. I felt like I was still asleep and my long run on Saturday was still somewhere in my hamstrings. Since this is the fifth week of doing the loops on the grass fields, I had to bump up the time this week to 30 minutes. I don't care how fast I run on the grass as long as I have a pick-up for the push part. I'm more concerned with where I put my foot down. The weather was much more pleasant than it has been the past few Mondays. We've been doing these workouts when it is about 90 degrees out. This morning it was around 60 when we got started. I can't wait until the weather changes to cool every day. Not cold, cool. I made it through 8 loops in a few ticks over a half hour. Then we went about our longer warm down. Around the third loop, I felt like I was starting to wake up.

One of the girls I used to work with is turning 30 today. Her husband called when I was out running to invite me over for a barbeque and when I called him back he was laughing at me because I was out running so early on a holiday. They've gotten used to my crazy schedule and that my vacations revolve around races. He keeps asking me when he's going to see my picture in Runner's World. I told him that when I don't have to work a regular job anymore and marry a rich man!

On a good note, my shin did not hurt at all today. The doctor told me to take anti-inflammatories for it, but I don't really like to do that since I want to know if it hurts. If I can't feel something hurt I'm going to keep on going. I hope that the icing and stretching are taking care of whatever this is that is bothering me. I've been getting so frustrated because everytime one ache goes away, another one pops up. I am way too young to be going from ache to ache.

Posted by Blondie at 1:05 PM | Comments (1)

September 5, 2004

Feeling Sluggish

I had no intentions of doing a quality run today. Sundays are EASY days. After doing a quality 16 mile run yesterday and barely eating any dinner, I had no expectations of feeling good this morning.

Last night we went out to dinner to celebrate my brother's birthday. Seeing as I don't eat any meat, finding something on the menu at a steakhouse was a little bit difficult. I ended up eating plain spinach leaves and a baked potato. Since we didn't get home from dinner until about 9:30, I didn't want to eat anything right before I went to bed. I was exhausted from having a long day on Saturday.

When I woke up this morning, I was greeted by somewhat overcast skies, stronger winds, temperatures that are slightly cooler, and humidity. We are feeling a little bit of Frances around here. I plodded through 7 miles. When I felt tight, I would stop and stretch. My shin was a little bit sore, but it is feeling much better right now. I had no energy since I had such a small dinner and I do not have a stomach of steel. I can't eat before I run. I am so jealous of everyone who can eat something before they go out to run.

I'm supposed to go for a bike ride this afternoon with my father. We're doing our workout tomorrow in the morning since most everyone has the day off from work. Hopefully we'll also go out for breakfast after the run.

Posted by Blondie at 1:12 PM | Comments (1)

September 4, 2004

Cold Toes

This title refers to how my toes feel at this very moment. More about that later since I'm going to try to stay chronological here.

I'll start with yesterday afternoon. I was bored on my day off and decided to ride my bike. I have a nice racing bike, however I rarely ride it. Yesterday was the first time since the Fourth of July that I have been on it. There are not many safe places to ride near my house, so I drove over to a loop on one of my running routes that is just over 1.8 miles. I ended up riding 19 miles in just a few ticks over an hour. After about fifty minutes my hip flexors felt tight, but I am stubborn and I decided that I had ridden that long, I might as well finish out the hour.

This morning I got up for my long run and realized that my legs could definitely feel the last two days. As I said earlier, I did not care how fast I did this run, my main goal was to get at least 16 miles in. I have not run over 13 since late May, so I was not sure how this was going to go this morning. Lucky for me, two of the people in our group are planning on doing Steamtown and wanted to run 16 today, so I had good company. We opted to do something different than our usual 16 mile course, so none of us really know how far we went, but we ran for two hours. Some of the run was on trails (yuck!) and some was through the beautiful museum/estate that I ran through last week. We started out on the easy side, but by the last mile we were running around 6:20 pace. A and I struggled on every hill since we both did hill repeats on Thursday nights. We got back to the high school where we park and still needed about 10 more minutes, so we ran around the school to finish out. We made a consensus that it was a solid 16 due to how fast we were running by the end. I must say that this run was HUGE confidence builder for me. I'm supposed to be running a half-marathon in two weeks and have not had the bigger miles on my legs.

I went over to the gym to do my pool run and other cross-training. I forgot that they are cleaning the main pool and the that the rehab pool was the only pool that was open. The main pool is for the swim team and more serious lap swimmers, they keep it at about 80 degrees. The other pool is only four lanes and they keep it close to 90 degrees. I had thought about doing a longer pool run this morning, but it was so hot in the pool that I could only stay in it for 15 minutes. I changed into shorts and a top and then went and read trashy magazines and rode the stationary bike for 40 minutes. I really don't think that I get anything out of it other than catching up on celebrity gossip, but I still like to do it. My gym just got TVs, but I don't know if they are going to have any way to listen to them yet. I'm going to have to look into if I'm going to start to need some headphones. I got off the bike and really stretched everything out. Finally I did my lifting. I only lift upper body and I usually only do it once a week, so I try to make it a quality lifting session. I did two exercises for each upper body muscle group with three sets of fifteen reps.

On my way home, I stopped and bought a bag of ice. The convenience store only had seven pound bags of ice, so I bought one. I thought about two, but I still can't handle very cold water in my ice baths yet, but I filled the tub with cold water, got in, and dumped the ice into it. I sat in the cold tub for 15 minutes and read to pass the time. Now my toes are freezing, but I'll get over it soon. I really hope that this helps me feel better tomorrow since I have not done a long run in so long.

My brother is coming into town today and the family is going out to dinner tonight to celebrate his birthday. Of course, we are going to a steakhouse (what a great place to take a vegetarian) but he loves steak and I'll have to find something on the menu that I can eat. It shouldn't be too bad, since at this point in my life I am used to finding something on any menu that I will eat.

Posted by Blondie at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)

September 3, 2004

An Awesome Workout and A Doctor's Appointment

Last night I had one of the best hill workouts that I have ever done. During the warm-up I felt on the sluggish side and thought that I might still be paying for the great run that I had on Tuesday. The group did the usual 2.75 mile warm-up and then we tackled the hills for the fifth of seven weeks. Since last night was most likely the last of my hill workouts based on the races that I plan on running in the next few weeks, I planned on doing five hills again this week. When I was getting started, I thought about cutting down to four since I didn't feel really sharp during the jog before. Once I got started, I felt OK going up. One of the guys commented that I seem to fly down the hills (he runs the downs REALLY slow, but I seem to thud too much when I run the downs so slowly, so I just try to keep my foot steps quiet). So after three hills, I was feeling pretty good and actually had not really zoned out on any of the repeats and made the executive decision to do five again. Going up to the top on number five was hard, it didn't get any easier, but I was really proud of myself for not cutting down and for not zoning out on any of the repeats. I finished the five miles of hill repeats in 33:25 which was a huge surprise. I'm thrilled to average just under 7 minute pace on these hills. People keep telling me that I am in better shape than I think I am and some of the runs I have had this past week make me believe that I may be in somewhat decent shape right now.

We started out on the 2.75 mile warm-down (which happens to include two more nasty hills) and a couple of the guys commented that they were going to go over to the bar. I decided that I had a rough week at work, had a great workout, and had the day off from work--I joined the guys for a few drinks. We also ate one of the least nutritious dinners ever-the best soft pretzel sticks I have ever had (I go to this bar just to get the pretzels) and hard pretzels. They have this spicy apple butter that you can put on the pretzels that is just so good too! All of the guys know how little I like to eat, but comment on how I'll scarf down these pretzels.

Today is my day off from running. I might ride my bike for a little bit today or get in the pool some to get all of the gunk out of my legs from last night since I plan to do 16 tomorrow. I don't care how slow I run, I just want to get some miles in. I also went to the doctor today to try to figure out the twinges in my lower leg. She runs and has done at least one marathon and understands just how crazy I am. She thinks that it is probably just a shin splint and that I just need to keep doing what I have been doing to take care of it. She called me a sadist since I take ice baths, but hey they work! After I explained my insurance situation to her and that my parents would pay for whatever therapy or tests that I need, she said to wait a few weeks and see if I start getting pain. I told her that it does not hurt when I run and that I get little twinges every now and then, but not anything really painful. She also knows that I will go bonkers without running.

It looks like I should have some decent weather for my long run tomorrow. I'm planning on doing a half-marathon in a few weeks and have not had a long run in a few months. I hope that I have residual fitness from my spring training. In the spring I hoped to run a PR for the half, but the race did not pan out the way I hoped that it would. The conditions were less than ideal and I was running alone the entire way. I was happy enough with how I ran. If the weather is nice for this one, I would like to get close to my PR, but going into it I'm thinking just a good effort will make me happy.

Posted by Blondie at 11:49 AM | Comments (1)

September 1, 2004

Dull Day

Today was such a dull day. Work was dull. Running was dull. In all, there really has not been anything exciting for me all day.

I work with two other counselors in our small school. These two women are the most miserable people I have ever delt with. I dread going to work everyday because I have interact with them. They are both always right and have very negative attitudes. Just another reason that I need to find another job, soon!

My run today was not much better. I was probably paying for feeling good yesterday. Since Thursdays are a workout day, Wednesday is supposed to be an easy day. Today felt awful. I managed my way through 7 miles. It was not one of the best feeling runs I have ever done. My stomach was rebelling. I ate lunch at 11:30 and didn't make it out the door to run until 4:15. Usually I'm OK with this amount of time in between, but today I might have wanted to go longer because my stomach was doing the things it does to me when I eat too close to running. I did manage to run my 7 miles in 49:00. It's funny how one day 6:30s feels effortless and they next day 7 minute pace feels so hard. Some days I think that I'm in good shape and might be able to run some pretty good times this fall. Then other days, like today I wonder how I have run some of the races that I have. Maybe my body is playing tricks on me.

On a positive note, tomorrow is my last day of work for the week. I have a nice, long, four day weekend this week. I plan to sleep in on Friday and Sunday. Monday morning we are doing our workout in the morning since most people do not have to work.

Posted by Blondie at 6:54 PM | Comments (0)