The Long Run

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November 30, 2004

Will It Be Three In a Row?

Today was another really enjoyable, feeling good kind of run. The best part about it was that I was not expecting it to be so good. If tomorrow is as good as today and yesterday, I'll be one very happy chic.

Today was one of those days when I woke up a minute before the alarm was set to go off. Work was a pain in the rear end, as usual. I had to stop on the way home to buy gas. I was so tired from taking advantage of my opportunities to sleep in over the long weekend and my body is not quite used to having to wake up while it is still dark again. I got home and crawled into bed for a little while. When I woke up I had the sensation of having to take care of business. I thought it would be best to do that at home, so I waited for a little while for that to take place.

I got myself dressed and out the door. I seriously considered not wearing my watch and just going, but I thought better of it and threw my watch on at the last minute. Once I got moving, I sure was happy that I had on my watch. They're calling for heavy rain overnight tonight and the sky has been dark all afternoon, so I was running in almost darkness to complete darkness. There is one portion of my route that is on a bigger road that does not have a shoulder, so I was dodging cars for about half a mile. I get what I deserve for running during rush hour! Anyhow, I covered 8 miles in 55:20. If I can keep this up, I should have a decent race on Sunday.

My hunch is that my runs have been so pleasant recently because I don't have to run hard or fast right now. If the weather looks crummy on Sunday, I won't run in the race. All pressure is off now, so everything is a lot more fun. I try to not put pressure on myself, but there seem to be expectations from others at times. I also beat myself up when I don't run the way that I know I am capable of running.

I headed over to the gym and rode the stationary bike for 35 minutes and then lifted. Lifting is not something that I particularly enjoy, but I force myself to do it at least once a week. I know that it plays an important role in injury prevention and is good for me as a woman.

I need to get outside before the rain comes and put the new inspection sticker on my car since the old one expires today. The last thing that I want to happen is get pulled over for having an expired registration after I did get the car inspected last week.

Posted by Blondie at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2004

Back to Reality

I spent most of yesterday moping around dreading having to go back to work today. The weekend reinforced my thought that I must find a new job for my happiness. Sleeping was difficult last night since the thought of facing work today was hanging overhead. I even stayed up later than usual last night to watch Desperate Housewives. It isn't the kind of show I usually go for; I'm usually a forensics-type show fan, not soap operas.

Track workouts have offically ended for the year. Normally I would not do my runs with the track group at this time of year because I can run in daylight if I go at home after work. This year I have been put in charge of collecting money for the guy who organizes our workouts and keeps us all together, so I have to go up to collect the money. We ran a loop that is somewhere between six and seven miles. J, D, and I added on a little bit to run for just over 50 minutes.

My body felt really pretty good tonight. Yesterday's calf issues were gone. Running in spikes and then wearing heels for seven hours was not kind to my calves yesterday. I usually wear heels at work, but I get to sit most of the time, I stood the entire time I was at the party on Saturday night.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my multiple races this past week. The week of Thanksgiving is my biggest week of the year. I have learned from experience that the Thanksgiving Day races must be taken more lightly than the weekend races. Based on how I felt today, I am going to race on this Sunday. I don't plan to have any expectations heading in. I'm going to just run easy all week and then see what happens.

Off to see how everyone else's return to real life went.

Posted by Blondie at 07:35 PM | Comments (2)

November 28, 2004

Poor Timing

Given the fact that during the past few weeks, running has not been easy for me, I know that it is getting to be time to take my annual break from running. Well, really it is a bi-annual break. During the summer I usually take a short break, four or five days in a row with no running. In the winter I usually take at least a week off from any kind of running. Sometimes the break could be longer, or shorter, depending on how my body is feeling. At this point, my body is feeling pretty broken down and beat up. I'm still not sure if I'm going to start my break now, or try to hang on through next Sunday when there is a final big race in the area.

I'd like to do this race for a few reasons. First, it is one of the premier races in the area. It draws a great field. Second, the only time I ran it, the course was not the traditional course. I'd like to run it on the regular course, not the horrendous course we ran when they did not have access to the regular route. Finally, I'd like to run one half-decent 10K this year. From what I've been told, the regular course sets up very well for someone who races the way I do.

After staying up way too late at a party last night, I slept in this morning. I didn't get home until after 2 AM-I never stay up that late! It was raining this morning and I putzed around wondering if I was going to run or not. I decided that I would talk to J tomorrow and see if he thinks racing next Sunday is even worth the effort. My feeling is that, I may as well do all light running this week, go up and see what happens. After that, call it a year and take time off. I finally got myself out the door to run around 10:30. I hardly ate yesterday since I had such hot soup for lunch and I knew that I was going to a party, so I had a really light dinner to save room for munchies if there was anything I ate. Of course there was nothing that I ate at the party. I had two glasses of wine during the six hours that I was there and was starving by the time I headed home.

Once I got outside, I knew that it was not going to be the greatest run. I walked outside and it was misting. About a minute into the run, a steady cool rain started. Needless to say, I felt like I had wet myself the entire time I was out. Also, I was feeling really weak from not eating much yesterday and running so late in the morning. My calves felt trashed from racing in spikes yesterday. I guess that wearing them once a year can do that to you! I already have a tendency to run on my toes, so putting on spikes really exaggerates that.

Right now I'm icing my shin. That funky feeling has been coming back. This is one of the reasons I know that it is time for me to take my break. I don't want to push through anything and end up with a real injury. The only good thing I can think of about this "discomfort" is that it feels more like it is in the muscle instead of the bone. It felt pretty good yesterday after taking the entire day off on Friday. The good thing is that the ankle that had been bothering me for about 10 weeks now is hardly feeling tight at all!

I'm planning on scheduling two massages in the next few weeks. The first is my usual deep tissue, leg-work only massage. The other is with my other massage therapist. Yes, I have two. One for purely running related work, the other for relaxation and upper body work. She does everything, but she is not a runner and does not have a physical therapy background the way the other therapist does. So one is painful, and the other plays the new-age music and burns incense. It's my Christmas present to myself!

Posted by Blondie at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2004

Thawing Out

Ok, so my fingers have thawed out enough to type and report on my cross country adventures.

My cookie adventure did not turn out as planned last night. I followed the recipe for the cookie dough (following directions when it comes to cooking is not a strong point of mine, I like to experiment). The bowl sat covered in the fridge for 3-4 hours just like the directions said. When I went to roll out the dough, there was no way to roll it out, the dough was still like a cake batter. I added some more flour and let it chill a bit more, but I was tired and decided to go to bed instead. I guess that I'll try to roll out the cookies and bake them later on today.

This morning I woke up early enough for the race. Since it didn't start until 10:35 there was the pleasure of being able to wake up at a normal hour. I took care of business, packed up lots of warm clothes, and got dressed. I've run this race enough times to know that it is always 10 degrees colder and windier at the park than it is anywhere else. I'd rather have extra warm clothes in the car than not have enough. Standing around during the awards seems to be the coldest part of this day.

I picked up my number and then decided to sit in my car with the heat on until I needed to warm up for the race. While I was warming up I was actually pretty warm, but I was well-dressed. Obviously I had my uniform on, long pants, a long sleeve shirt, a Gore-Tex pullover, and a hat and gloves. I warmed up about the first mile and a half of the course to see how bad the course conditions were. The second half of the course is pretty much on grassy hills while the first half is in the woods on trail. I knew the second half would be OK, but the first portion could be pretty bad. My hunch was right that there were some deep mud portions and slick parts. I got back to my car, put on my number and changed into spikes. I have not worn spikes since this race last year. Needless to say, my feet are pretty sore now!

I won this race last year, but it really was a fluke. The race draws people out of the woodwork because it gives cash prizes and is the Saturday after Thanksgiving so people who are visiting tend to run. One of the guys in my club kept telling me that I had to defend my title and I kept telling him there was no way on earth that would happen based on who I saw there. Two of the women are former DI All-Americans, one of whom ran in the world XC junior race while she was in college. A few of the other women are pretty good trail runners who I can beat on the roads, but they do this stuff all of the time. I kept telling them I would be happy just to finish in the top seven.

I headed down to the start. I must say that this year had the biggest field I've seen in this race. I don't know if it was because the weather was a bit better than it has been or if because it was the 20th anniversary of the race. Either way, I was amazed at how many women were in the race. There are multiple races held with separate starts: two kids' races, open/masters women, masters men, and open men. J is the race organizer and he kept telling me I'd be fine and I kept telling him who was who in the race and that he had a bunch of studs. I gave him my clothes to take up to the finish line for me. Then we were off.

The high school girls ran with the open and master's women. I was kind of blocked out at the start. This course has a fast first mile. If you aren't used to it, it is very easy to go out way too fast. Even knowing the course and holding back, the first mile is quick. I think that I was in about 10th when we hit the mile. The first 3/4 of the mile had the worst footing of the entire course. Wearing spikes did not help too much. I hit the mile around 6:15 or a little bit slower. The second mile starts the climbing. The first portion is a long, gradual, rocky uphill through the woods. Then the course comes out of the woods and goes up a pretty nasty hill that marks the halfway point. At the top of this hill I had moved into the position that I would maintain for the rest of the race. Just after two miles, the course goes up a kind of short, steep hill. This hill has always killed me. The backstretch can be kind of lonely. It is on a long grass straightaway and is next to a road. After what seems like an eternity, the course makes two quick turns and you're on your way home. There is about a 500 meter slight downhill and then the final quarter mile or so is up hill. Of course, it finishes on an uphill. I managed sixth place in 21:00. When I won last year, I ran 20:28, so I was pretty happy with my time today. Considering I was petrified to run on the grass and rocks since I have not done that since I fell in September and my racing has not been going nearly as well this year as it was last year.

I found my long sleeves and pants and changed into my trainers and started my warm down. I ran on the course backwards so I could cheer for the men as they ran. When I got back, all of the clothes I raced in were taken off and dry items were put on. I pants, two long sleeve shirts, a short sleeve shirt, my Gore-Tex pullover, hat, and gloves on. By the time the awards were starting, I was freezing, so I went to the car and got my extra gloves and parka. I didn't want to put on the parka until later so that I wouldn't get any colder. Eventually the parka had to go on, but I was still shivering so badly.

I won $25 for my efforts. The race also gave hats to the first 100 registrants, so I got that in addition to my long sleeve tee shirt. This race has awesome random prizes. In fact, the prizes in the drawing are even better than the cash. There are lots of dinners, running shoes, Gore Tex wear, dress watches, hair cuts, manicures, pedicures, etc... I always make sure to stay for the drawing becuase almost everyone gets something. Sure enough, my name was drawn during the prizes. There were a bunch of L and XL Gore-Tex Windstopper tops when my name was called. There was also a long sleeve women's M UnderArmour shirt on the table, so I took that. The price sticker on it was for $60. It may be a little on the big side, but it can be used as a part of layering.

By the time I was in the car coming home, I could barely feel my fingers and toes. I got home and all I wanted to do was take a long hot shower to thaw out. Even after the shower, I was still freezing and could not really feel my toes yet. Right now I'm getting warm, but I have on slippers, PolarTec socks, fleece lined tights, a long sleeve tee shirt, PolarTec shirt, a one-piece fleece jumpsuit thing and a hat. I also ate hot soup and had some hot tea to warm up. By the time the party I'm going to tonight rolls around the icicles should have melted!

Posted by Blondie at 03:13 PM | Comments (4)

November 26, 2004

Busy Day With No Running

Today was so busy, I don't know if I would've been able to squeeze much of a run in. I definitely could have, but Friday is the day off AND there were lots of things to be accomplished today.

My parents have talked for years about having family portraits taken and we never have. We do not have a single professional picture of the family, so they scheduled an appointment for today since my brother is in town. We had to be at the photographer's at 11, so I took advantage of the chance to sleep. I woke up around 8 and enjoyed some coffee and oatmeal with my mother. After we all got ready, we went over to the studio. The poses they put us in were so uncomfortable and awkward. The worst was the pose that made my brother and I look like we were about to kiss. Seriously, this pose was more appropriate as an engagement picture. We all were laughing so hard, but we probably look the most like ourselves in this picture because we could not look serious.

After the pictures we went out to lunch at Panera Bread Company. It was really nice to just be able to hang out. My parents both work all the time and my brother lives about two hours away, so we don't spend all that much time together. We also braved the crowds at Target. It could have been much worse, the toy section was pretty scary, but most of the lines were open so we did not have to wait all that long.

We came home and changed clothes, then I had to take my brother over to get his Christmas present. I buy him a new pair of running shoes every year for Christmas. He doesn't really run, so he does not need to replace them as frequently as we all do. While we were at the running store, I bought my spikes for the XC race tomorrow. Then we headed over to this cute little gift store that my mom and I love. One of my brother's friend's mother is the owner, so he wanted to say hello to her and to buy my birthday present (OK, he's only six and a half months late). It was nice to know that I was getting something that I would definitely like and to get a random present. Then I had to take him to pick a present for his girlfriend. After that we had to go to the grocery store to buy eggs so I can make cookies to donate to the snack table at the race tomorrow. About two weeks ago I wanted to make some cookies for my parents and when I cracked the first egg open it was rotten. We do not eat eggs and rarely bake. I actually bought EggBeater Egg Whites since they can be frozen and won't go rotten.

I started the recipe for the cookies, but now the dough needs to chill before I can make the cut out cookies. I also bought icing pens so I can draw on the cookies. Sometimes I enjoy being a domestic person.

After the race tomorrow I have to make something to bring to the party I'm going to Saturday night. This couple is having a party to celebrate his finishing his first Ironman. He's never run a regular marathon, but he has in the Ironman now. I know that I'm going to hear all about how I should do some tris, but I just try to laugh it off. Hopefully there will be some cute athletic guys for me to meet. I'm trying to not stress about this race tomorrow. I truly despise running XC. I did win this race last year, but I really think that it was a fluke.

We've had quite the change in weather around here. It was very warm yesterday and then it dropped and got very windy. It isn't supposed to be too warm tomorrow. I think that winter is here to stay. Oh well, tights and gloves are here to stay!

Posted by Blondie at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2004

Good Turkey Day with a Few Hitches

I definitely can not say that dinner tonight went off without a hitch. Mom and I ran into a few roadblocks, but we got around them and had a very enjoyable dinner. Running this morning was also pretty nice, so in all it has been a terrific Thanksgiving.

I woke up early enough to head over to the Thanksgiving morning races. It was quite warm when I got up, over 60. I was happy that I was not treating these as real races. That means not having to get up as early or get stressed at all. I registered and got both of my numbers. I almost did not wear my racing outfit, but this is one of the biggest local events and I really should have it on for our sponsoror. Racing shoes were left at home, that would turn it into a real race. I did wear my new Zoom Milers for the 10K, I'm still not too sure if I like them.

I did about a 3 minute warm-up since this was only supposed to be a tempo effort. Other runners who were not participating for various reasons kept saying that I was going to run so much faster than I was planning. Nobody believed that I was really going to be doing it as a workout. During the first mile I was running with one of the top 60+ runners in at least the area, if not the country. He said either we're really tired or everyone else is running too fast. The first mile and a half of this course are very downhill, so lots of people go out way too fast. I think that I was in fourth at the mile. I was slowly picking people off as we started to climb. This course climbs from about a mile and a half until a little bit past the four mile point, when you go back down what you've climbed. At the 2 mile point I was securely in second and closing in on the leading woman. I think that I passed her around 2 1/4 miles and ended up running with some guy the rest of the way. He was really getting on my nerves since very time I tried to pass him, he would surge. I kept telling myself to let him do it, every time he did he came right back. If I were him, I would have been pretty ticked on the way back in because everyone was cheering for me. At one point, he did look back and tell me that no other woman was in sight. I finished in 39:47 which made me happy for a tempo run. Last year I ran it a minute faster as a tempo, but considering how much trouble I've had this year, this was satisfactory. It started to rain a few minutes after I finished, but luckily I was already under the aquaduct.

I jogged back to my car. I was going to keep the same uniform on since it really was not all that sweaty, but it got soaked by the rain. I changed into an older racing uniform in my car and changed into my regular training shoes. I switched numbers and headed over for the start of the 5K. I did not realize how far in the back I lined up. There were walkers in front of me! I did run a very even race and was passing people all the way. At the turn around I saw a guy who I used to date and decided to drop the hammer a little bit because I couldn't let him beat me. I finished the 5K in about 21:50. Somehow I won my age group in this race.

I won two sweatshirts, one of which my brother proudly wore all day. For the 10K, I won a men's XL hooded sweat shirt that says "overall winner" down the sleeve. Hello, I usually need an XS or S, the thing is huge. For the 5K I got a regular sweatshirt that says "division winner" on the sleeve. This one is a medium, so it isn't quite as big.

The guy I used to date told me I should come over for his Thanksgiving brunch, but I was lazy all day yesterday and did not do any of the cooking I needed to get done. My brother was in bed until about 3:00 and I had no access to the computer since it is in his room. I had to make the dessert and all of the sides for dinner tonight. I got the dessert (pumpkin angel food cake roll) done early without a hitch. I did all of the prep for my potatoes and was waiting to put them in the oven with the turkey. I went to put the potatoes in the oven and we realized that the oven was not working anymore. The element thing-ee wasn't orange anymore and the temperature was only 215. Not good. My dad had to reset something so that the oven would work, but he wasn't at home so we had to call him to get it done. Anyhow, after all of the drama, we had a very enjoyable dinner.

Tomorrow is my day off. We're having family portraits done and then going out to lunch. I have to take my brother to get his Christmas present in the afternoon and buy the spikes I didn't get around to buying yesterday. I also have to bake gingerbread cookies for the race our club is putting on this weekend. I found the cutest running shoe and runner cookie cutters and need to use them.

I hope that everyone else had enjoyable meals with their families!

Posted by Blondie at 09:27 PM | Comments (4)

November 24, 2004

A solution?

Today was a much better day. Of course it also involved sleeping in. Really sleeping in. It sort of affirms my suspicions that the scrimping on sleep I've been doing recently is not good for me. I stayed up and watched the end of Law & Order last night since I got sucked in during the first 15 minutes. I hate when that happens! Anyhow, I was in bed right after it was over. Other than waking up to pee at 3:00, I slept straight through until 9:15! The last time I had a day off from work and could sleep late I did the same thing. I should start trying to get into bed by 9:15 most nights now so that I can get enough sleep.

I did not feel great by any means today, but I felt so much better than I have for the past couple of days. I considered tacking on a few extra miles this morning, but used my better judgement. I looked in my log book from last year to see what I was doing at this time and realized that my mileage has been higher for the past few weeks. Tomorrow is also a rather big day since there is a 10K/5K in town. It costs the same amount to run both races, so I always get two numbers. It's only supposed to be done as a tempo workout, but given how poorly I've been running recently it may take more out of me than I anticipate. Saturday is the real race, the XC race my club puts on every year. Since I abhore running cross country and have not been on the trails all year it should be pretty ugly.

This afternoon I have to go shopping to replace the black boots I wear practically every day. One of the kids at school opened the door over my foot and tore the leather off of it. My dad tried to repair it and it does look really pretty good, but it's going to bother me. I also need to pick up some spikes to put in my XC shoes. Wine for dinner tomorrow night rounds out my shopping list. Of course none of these things are in the same place.

Good luck to everyone running Turkey Trot type races this weekend and happy Thanksgiving to all!

Posted by Blondie at 12:37 PM | Comments (2)

November 23, 2004

Just Call Me Scrooge

I do like the holidays, I really do. I can not believe that I have been seeing houses with Christmas decorations up already. I was out shopping on Halloween and heard Christmas songs in the store. Come on folks, it isn't even Thanksgiving yet! Personally I like to keep the holidays special, so I don't like the decorations to go up too soon or stay up too long. Just a few weeks of each year makes it special. I don't mean to sound like Scrooge, but it just is not special to me if the stuff is up most of the winter time.

So I was completely unproductive at work this week. Two days, come on, who would feel like doing anything. I pretty much tried to hide all day this week so that I did not have to do anything. Tomorrow I can sleep in and get some much needed rest as my body is feeling awfully beat up.

Today was a failed attempt at a workout. The warm-up should have been a clue as to things to come. My legs felt like two blocks of lead. Even after stretching, there just was not oomph. So I got started on the planned workout. The second clue that it was not to be was that there was not a single other person on the track today. Not even a walker. The plan was to run 90 second laps and then to drop the pace each lap. Well the first lap was 94. I managed to hold 91s for a few laps, but the sixth lap went back to 94. J told me to stop as soon as I was not maintaining or dropping the pace, so that was it. I jogged two laps and then did a few quick 200s that felt much harder than they should have.

The first part of the warm-down felt better than the rest of the run. About a half mile from the track I pretty much bonked and crawled the rest of the way back. There was absolutely no energy flowing today. We all have these days, but it does not help to have these days right after poor perfomances as well.

I had to head over to Trader Joe's and pick up some necessities before I got home. I wasn't too cold after the workout, but by the time I got back from my grocery trip my nails were turning blue.

I hope that everyone who needs to travel this weekend does so safely, there is no reason to do anything silly.

Posted by Blondie at 07:10 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2004

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Last night and today I did quite a bit of reflecting. This fall has been very discouraging. J and I talked quite a bit tonight about how disappointing this season, this year in general, have been. This fall there were only two races that we could even call decent. In retrospect, I should have taken the week after the Philly Distance Run off. I could barely walk because I aggravated a sprained ankle, yet I insisted on running through it. That resulted in lingering pain for almost two months. That stubbornness also resulted in not being able to do workouts because it hurt too much to run fast. Selecting a big race to do in June also affected me this year. I had the race hanging over my head for six months and did not have much flexibility. I think that I need to have a bigger race every six weeks or so because my body can not maintain a high level of fitness. I may need to train in shorter cycles. J also feels that speed is an issue. I do not have the kind of speed that I should for some of the races I want to run. He thinks that we need to work on it this spring.

Anyhow, I'm not going to sit here and dwell on the negative. On the positive side, this fall I did get much stronger in general. This is all in the past. Right now I'm looking forward to taking a break in a few weeks and then some easy running. In January I'll start looking into which races I want to run.

Tonight was supposed to be an easy night. This week is actually a tough week for me. I did the warm-up and then I was supposed to do a few accelerations on the straightaways while everyone else did 400s. J and I had our discussion while we were jogging since his calf is still bothering him. He's supposed to meet me at the track tomorrow afternoon while I do a workout. I get an easy day, a tempo/race day, a day off, and then a race. Everything that is supposed to be easy this week must be easy because the rest of the week is truly quality.

It was somewhat damp and cool out tonight. I had on pants while we were warming up, but once we got to the track I decided that I did not really need them anymore. I can not say that I felt really bad, but I did not want to push too much tonight. I think that I did 16 laps on the track, but I'm not really sure since I was jabbing too much with J while he was running that I did not keep track of how many laps we did. I think that I ended up with a total of nine miles for the night.

Tomorrow is my last day of work for the week. Wednesday is devoted to cooking and prepping for Turkey Day. The policy has been "if you aren't eating what I make, then cook for yourself". Since I don't eat meat, I prepare the rest of the meal. This way I eat and the rest of the family reaps the benefits.

Posted by Blondie at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2004

The Expo, Race, and Rest of Weekend

Wow, this has been one busy weekend. Saturday afternoon I headed to the expo. I usually do not enjoy going to expos; in fact, if someone else can pick up the stuff, I usually pawn it off onto them. No such luck for this race. Actually found a free parking place not that far from the Art Museum. I was supposed to meet Jessie at some point while there. I try to not buy things from expos because I would rather support my local running store, but I found a pair of Nike Zoom Milers that were samples in my size for $25 so I did buy them. I figure that even if I hate them, they can be lifting shoes or just hang out in sneaks.

I met Jessie and a bunch or her clubmates from DC. I was apprehensive about even mentioning to meet at first because this is my "secret" place. I put a lot of things out here that I would not tell to most people, so meeting someone who knows some of that stuff was kind of weird. She was really nice, as were all of her clubmates. After hanging out and looking at all of the vendors (most of the same vendors that are at every race) and eating Philly soft pretzels, Jessie and her friends went off to see some sight-seeing of Old City. They invited me along, but we are moving my grandmother from one nursing home to another this weekend and I had to help some.

I got up this morning and my body was not feeling so hot. Found a parking lot that was not too far away from the start finish area, not free, but at least there was some form of security. I did a pretty long warm-up, about 35 minutes. I knew then that today was not going to be my day. As always, I got a little bit lost finding my car and started to panic that I would miss the start (which would not have been a bad thing all things considered). I must say that I was apprehensive about racing because the last time I raced was the day I fell. I saw some people from that race and they all asked how I was feeling and did remind me that there really are not any pebbles on this course to trip me up.

One of the problems with this race is that everyone goes out really fast. Not just fast, but obscenely fast. I really tried to stay in control and not go with the flow. The clock was not running yet at the mile marker, so I took a peek. 5:55, right where I wanted to be. The second mile was not too bad either. I hit the 2 mile point just over 11:50. I thought, hey I might be able to salvage this. Something started to happen in the third mile. I went through there in just over 18. Uh oh. Usually around this point on the course are a bunch of pro-lifers with graphic photos, but they were not out there this year. By the time I got to the turn around I knew that there was no way to save this race. Three out of four wheels had fallen off and the last one was coming off fast. The fourth mile was really ugly. However, the last mile was the worst. I was barely hanging on. My form was way off. As I came up the hill to the Art Museum I was passed by about three women, and I could not do anything about it. I had to let them go. M was on the sideline telling me to relax and he knew that I was hurting, but to push through it. I finished in 31:01.

Jessie looked great and like she had a lot of fun. I saw her finishing as I was talking to M. He said that when he saw me around 2 miles he knew that I was not having a great day. My form looked off and I didn't look like I could get comfortable in the race. Some guy I don't even know told me that I did not look too good heading into the finish.

I met up with Jessie and her clubmates at the baggage check. She and I warmed down for about 20 minutes and cheered on the leaders of the race. She's considering doing some more of the big races in Philly now, including PDR, which I highly recommend.

After we warmed down, I headed back to my car to put on some warm clothes. I walked back and watched some of the marathoners finish. I started to feel pretty queasy so I headed home early. My stomach was not feeling so hot and still is not right. I was supposed to hang out at one of the bars with some folks who ran today, but I didn't think that would be a good idea. Alcohol just was not a good idea.

Instead I went shopping with my friend S. She bought a ton of electronic equipment for her house. I had to tease her that she isn't really a girl anymore after she got all of the stuff she was buying.

My grandmother is spending the night here tonight since her room in the new nursing home is not available until tomorrow.

Posted by Blondie at 07:32 PM | Comments (2)

November 20, 2004

Gotta be quick

Not much time right now. Just got done a pretty unexciting easy 7 miler. It was much warmer than I thought it would be and I was way overdressed. I had to get online to check that I had the right place to go for the expo for the Philly marathon. It's a good thing I checked, because it is not in the same place that it has been for the past two years. I'm supposed to be meeting up with Jessie there. I'm really looking forward to having a face to put with a name. Well, I've got to hop in the shower and eat something before I go off to pick up my number. More later!

Posted by Blondie at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2004

Stupid Me

Last night I did the same stupid thing that I've been doing on Thursday nights. After the track workout some of us went to the bar for drinks after the workout. I only intended to go for one drink and go home to eat dinner and watch my favorite TV shows. Well, the next thing I knew, I was leaving the bar at 11:00 having only eaten some soft pretzel sticks and a few hard pretzels. I ate a little bit when I got home, but I don't like to eat much so late because I can't sleep (which, by the way did happen). I really didn't drink much either. I was just having a good time with normal people (as in people who do not think like the little hoodlums at school). As a result, I have been starving all day today. I know that is what happens to me when I do this, but I always seem to hang out later than I plan to and then don't get a chance to eat dinner.

Bridget, Barb, Alison, and Leilani-thanks so much for your input regarding fueling. I think that I'm going to try fluid alone first. I have a hard time getting gel in and drinking enough water to swallow it. I also have serious stomach problems with it, so I hope that liquid will be easier for me. Since I've been doing my long runs with absolutely no fuel, some liquid will probably be better than nothing. Leilani, I have eaten the Soy7 pasta, it is much better than the other kinds I've tried...I have a box of the spaghetti open right now. The yogurt was not the only thing that I was eating for dinner...I know that I probably do not eat enough, but it is more than just yogurt (I didn't mean to scare anyone there!)

OK, on to last night's workout. At work I got a call from J with my assignment for the night. He said that he was going to have to work and his calf was worse than he thought it was. The workout was 2 x 1600. He told me to do the first one in 5:50 and do 2 or 3 laps recovery because I was to be good and recovered to do the second one, FAST. He told me that he should be up at the track by the time we'd be running the second one so that he could time me and "encourage" me through it. J the tri-guy and I did the first 1600. It was so dark that I could not read my watch if I wanted to look at my splits. I led the whole thing and we finished in 5:46. I don't think that I've run that fast other than a few of my races this year ( I think that I've only done a handful of 5Ks, so it has not been much). We did the 3 laps for recovery since we ran faster than the assignment stated. Well, I started on the second 1600 and my buddy thought I was working too hard in the first 200 and wanted me to settle in more. As we went through the quarter, J told him to sit behind me for the second lap and then to pass me on the third lap. We came around the last curve of the second lap and he told me that he was going to go and to hold on to him; I told him that I did not feel good, my stomach was queasy. He went. Really went, he dropped the pace by 7 seconds on that quarter. I could not hold on at all. At the start of the last lap J was telling me to make myself uncomfortable when I yelled back to him that I was already there. With about 300 meters to go I was at the point where I really was not in control anymore and just barely made it the rest of the way in. I collapsed in a pile just past the finish point, K was telling me to get up, but J knew that my legs would not hold me up right then. The second one was in 5:50, so I did the opposite of the plan. I think that if I hadn't tried to settle in on the first lap, we may have been closer on the second 1600. In all, I am happy with what I did since I have not trained that fast pretty much all year.

Today I did an easy 60 minutes on the stationary bike. I was going to lift, but I just did not have any motivation to do it. I decided that I did not need to because my heart was not in it.

The weather report is about to come and I want to see the forecast for Sunday. The meterologist just said that the Philadelphia Marathon is on Sunday and the forecast looks pretty good so I need to go pay attention to it now. Hope for no rain (forecast earlier this week)!

Posted by Blondie at 05:21 PM | Comments (1)

November 17, 2004

Fall is Back

I'm not really sure what is up with the weather around here recently. On Saturday and Sunday I had on a few layers on top, tights, gloves, and a hat. All of this week has been shorts with long sleeves and gloves. I'll take this weather, but if the past is any indication, this means that we're going to have a snow the first weekend in December. Extreme fluctuations in the weather also usually mean that I'm going to start suffering from my all-winter long minor cold.

So, as if you couldn't tell, today's weather was wonderful for running. A little bit cool and hardly any wind. Perfect. I hope that this weather can hold out till Sunday when I race and we have a party for all of the marathoners (Philly). I've decided not to cut back at all for Rothman since I don't feel like my racing has been up to par. The only change is that I'll do a recovery run on Saturday rather than a long run. Back to today...my legs felt a little bit on the heavy side, but that is to be expected from having two good, hard days back to back. I had a touch of stomach problems, but not anything that caused me to have to stop or anything. Essentially I just tried to stay relaxed and not run too hard. I have a tendency to run too hard on my easy days at times. I finished the 7 mile course in about 48:20.

I may have to stop my after work naps. It was getting awfully dark again as I finished up again today. I fear that if I go earlier than I have been I will have some bad stomach issues. I know that I need a little bit over 4 hours between eating and heading out for my run. The thought of eating lunch at 10:15 just is not too appealing.

On a related note, after my break this winter one thing on my agenda is to learn how to fuel during long runs. I have serious problems with gels/gu. I've determined that my best bet is probably liquid. Does anyone have any suggestions. I was thinking about trying watered down Gatorade or that new PowerBar drink. Once I figure this out I may try another marathon, but there is no way that I'm going to try to compete in a race that long without learning some way to fuel. Thank you in advance for any advice that y'all have!

Posted by Blondie at 07:11 PM | Comments (5)

November 16, 2004

No Gossip Magazines

The past two days that I have gone to the gym (Saturday and today), there have been no trashy gossip magazines to read. Actually, there have not really been any magazines that would interest a 20-something, single female. Seriously, how interesting do I find Parenting or Family Circle? I wanna read trash while I'm at the gym, not something serious. It actually gives me a headache to read serious material while I am on the stationary bike, I can't concentrate so I really do need trash. Now I would never actually spend my money on these magazines, but as long as they are available at the gym I'll read them.

My run this afternoon was much better than I expected. When I woke up this morning I was tighter than usual. I did not get around to stretching last night and as pathetic as it sounds, those quarters were pretty darn fast for me. Seriously, all of my training is based more on 10K pace and maintaining it for longer workouts. I got out there and felt suprisingly peppy. The weather was quite pleasant which made feeling pretty good feel so much better. I had two run-ins with idiot drivers who would not stop at stop signs, but at this point that is par for the course. The last 3/4 of a mile or so it was getting pretty dark. Some woman in a mini-van pulled up alongside of me and told me that I was really hard to see since I wasn't wearing any of my reflective gear. I do not remember it being quite so dark so early in the past few years, but I could be wrong. I got my 9 miles in in about 58:30, but the best part of the entire run was that I did not have any potty issues or stomach pain!

I headed over to the gym and rode the bike without any fun reading for 40 minutes. I lifted after that. I should be pretty sore tomorrow since I did some exercises that I have not done in quite some time.

Because my body has been feeling more run down than usual recently, I've been trying to incorporate more protein in my diet. I've been straining Stoneyfield Farms plain yogurt to simulate the Greek yogurt that I love so much and mixing it with protein powder for my dinner. Since I'm racing on Sunday I'm worried that I'll feel sluggish, so later in the week I'm going to need some more carbohydrate. I have felt a little less run-down the past few days, so I hope that this is working!

Posted by Blondie at 07:33 PM | Comments (2)

November 15, 2004

Monday Night Madness

Tonight the Eagles play Monday Night Football in Dallas. Now I don't live and breathe Eagles green like some folks round here, but I definitely do like my birds. The name of that team from Dallas is practically a curse word in these parts, even though we have beat them many times since Andy Reid took over. It's not too safe to be cheering for the opposing team in Philly. Eagles fans are particularly tough, they even threw snowballs at Santa Claus one year.

The weather today was much warmer and less windy than it was over the weekend. This provided for pleasant conditions for the track tonight. I had myself all psyched for the workout I thought that we were going to do tonight, 16 x 300 with a 100 jog. I got myself ready all day and had even figured out what kind of pace that I wanted to aim for. Anyhow, after we finished the warm-up J asked if everyone liked doing the 400s with a full recovery last week. A few of the people (we had a really small group tonight) said they thought that we should be doing more, but J explained that these should be right around 5K pace because we are getting a longer recovery. It was decided that we would do 10 x 400 with a 400 jog. The thing I was most excited about was that the barriers were turned inward so that we could run in lane 1.

I didn't get to start my watch for the first 400 so I have no idea what I did that in. J and J the tri-guy (I have to differentiate them somehow) ran the first few together. I caught them on the recovery between numbers 2 and 3, but then they pulled ahead again leaving me in no-man's land. After 5 J dropped off because he was having some serious tightness in his calf and did not want to push through it. I caught J the tri-guy after the sixth quarter and finished the workout with him. Other than number 3 where I ran faster than I have in about 3 years, I hit all of my 400s in 86. Number 3 was an 83-way too fast. I assume that because I'm still not too comfortable running in the dark that I would be close to 2 seconds faster in daylight. I did hit all of them right around 5K pace. It was amazing how fast it felt to me. This year I have done very little true speed work, more pace work. I think that next year I'm going to try to incorporate a true speed day once every two weeks or so. I just do not have the leg speed that I would like to have to get my 5K time down where I'd like it to be.

My ankle was feeling much better again today. Usually I wear flats or lightweight trainers on the track. Since my ankle has been so tender this fall I have not worn them at all. In fact, when I wear them in races it seems to feel worse so I don't want to push my luck. I have races planned for the next three weekends.

I want to catch up on what everyone else has been up to before kick-off. I'd like to see a little bit of the game before I have to go to bed...

Posted by Blondie at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2004

Bonk!

Even though there was no race today, there was a definite bonking sensation. Last night I ate a smaller dinner than usual because I had to go out and do some errands for the bridal shower I had to attend this afternoon. Since I have been so exhausted recently, I slept in this morning. I did not get up until about 9:00 and then I let my body wake up before I went out the door to run, close to 10:00.

My legs were tired early on during the run. Although I did not run particularly far yesterday, the effort was harder due to the pace. I believe that since I did not run much at a faster pace last week, yesterday felt even harder. On a positive note, the sore area is feeling much better. The bruise on my left knee is more painful, but the muscle pain is lessening. After close to halfway, I felt worse than just a little bit tired. I had the dreaded bonk. It took every bit of energy I had to put my right foot in front of my left foot and repeat. By the time I had a mile to go I did not know how I was going to get back. I was starting to feel a little bit lightheaded and dizzy.

Whenever I have this feeling, I start to think that the people driving by me think that I am so slow and such a slacker. I probably do not look nearly as bad as I feel. I guess that I do this since I pay attention to the runners I see when I'm driving. Most of them probably don't even pay attention to the runners which would explain why I've almost been hit by so many inattentive drivers.

It was definitely chilly today. The forecast for the rest of the week is slightly better and warmer than this weekend. I know that some of y'all would probably be out in shorts today, but not me. I even broke out a hat this morning. I probably would have been OK with an earband, but the good one was in my car from yesterday.

This afternoon I had to go to a bridal shower for a girl who I went to high school with. I was out of touch with her for many years until she moved back to the area about two years ago. I see her every few months now. By the time I left the shower, I could have used a stiff drink. The groom's family stayed very much to themselves and made no effort to socialize with anyone they did not know. Other than the bride, there were only a handful of younger people, about half of which were relatives of the groom. I did win one of the games, so I'm now the proud owner of two small black cherry scented candles. I am very good at the don't say the bride's name, groom's name, wedding, or shower game. Oh, did I mention the shower was dry? A drink could have made it slightly more tolerable to loosen up some of the anti-socials...

Posted by Blondie at 06:05 PM | Comments (4)

November 13, 2004

Just Barely Hanging On

The alarm went off way too early this morning. Even though I was in bed early last night, I was still absolutely exhausted when it was time to get out of bed. My lack of motivation grew after I turned on the TV and saw that it was only 36 degrees and on the breezy side. Being hard-headed, I did get my layers on and went over to the long run group. I haven't been over in a few weeks since I've been doing races on Sunday, so it was nice to see some of the Saturday morning-only folks from our group.

My plan was to run 80-90 minutes since this was to be my last long run and we are on cut-back time. Before we got started, I realized that I have not run that long in quite a few weeks now since I've been racing. Two people were doing 16 miles (way too long) and most of the rest of the group was aiming for right around 60 minutes (way too short). I settled in with a group of four that dwindled to three after one of the guys dropped off because he was not feeling too good. We were planning on about 80 minutes. The pace was very fast and I was not feeling quite myself. My left leg was not sore, but I just did not have a lot of drive in my body. I think that my body has overcompensated this week in trying to overcome the soreness that I was overly tired from less effort. I was hanging off the back of the other two I was running with. I felt terrible because they had to keep waiting for me. The course we ran had a 2 1/2 mile stretch of trails where I fell way off the pace because I was so afraid of falling on the wet trail. After we got off the trail, there was a massive hill to climb and we were home free. I should mention that one of the people I was running with has been a national class runner and that person even said that the pace was fast. Two weeks ago they did this course in 78 minutes and thought they were running fast. Hanging off the back, I finished today in 77 minutes. We figured that the course is around 11 1/2 miles because we were running way under 7 minute pace.

I was a little bit on the overdressed side. Around an hour I started to get pretty warm. I had on tights, a long sleeve shirt, a fleece, gloves, and an earband. I took my gloves off after an hour, but I would have been better off leaving the gloves on and taking of my earband because my hands were freezing for the last 15 minutes.

I went to the gym and rode the bike for an hour. I made sure to stretch really well and then I lifted. About halfway through my lifting routine I got a killer headache and decided that I should go home because I really was not feeling very good. When I got back home, I ate some hard candy for the simple sugars and took a short nap which helped quite a bit.

I hope that everyone is enjoying their weekends!

Posted by Blondie at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2004

Complete day of rest

Friday's are the day of the week that I usually will not run. Since I am slightly on the obsessive-compulsive side, I feel awfully guilty taking the day off from doing any kind of exercise. I'll usually end up doing some sort of cross-training. I know that taking a day off is not going to cause my level of fitness to plummet, but I like to use the day that I do not run to better my fitness in another way whether it is in flexibility, strength, or some other form of cardiovascular exercise.

Given the residual soreness that I have been feeling the past few days, I decided that today needed to be a lazy day. I had thought about going for a swim today, but the gym I go to is weird about letting people in with scabs. I swam all of my life and never had a problem with this, but this gym is strict about that rule. Add to that it is rainy and cool, I just decided that I would let my body rest and recover today.

I don't think that cross-training would have helped me at all. The soreness had been feeling worse every day when I was out running. My left side was not feeling as tight when I got up this morning, so I think that taking some rest will help me.

I plan to take another hot bath tonight. Last night, I put too much cold water in the tub so it was only lukewarm. It's funny how I take so many ice baths and here I am trying to take a bath as hot as I can handle. The foam rolling seems to work better when my muscles have been warmed up, so I'll do that some after the bath.

Since I had the day off from work, I tried to do some more shopping. I could not find the blazer I bought in a smaller size, so I'll just have to wear a heavier sweater under it to take up some more room. The only sucessful shopping I did today was at Trader Joe's. I'm still bummed that the strained Greek yogurt I eat is not on the shelves. I can't find strained yogurt anywhere now. One of the main reasons I eat it is because it has more protein than regular yogurt and I don't eat meat or nuts so getting enough protein is pretty difficult for me. We don't have a Wegman's or Whole Foods all that close to here-about 40 minutes. There is a Food Source that is pretty close and they are building another one that is much closer, but I do have a Trader Joe's. I don't know how I ate before it opened!

Posted by Blondie at 04:08 PM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2004

Happy Veteran's Day

Today was supposed to be a workout day. For one of the few times in my life, I paid attention to the signs my body was giving me and did not do the workout. Of course, the idea of doing a workout alone was not too appealing to me either.

I got up early since I had a haircut scheduled and plans for the afternoon with an old friend. I let my body wake up for a little while and then headed out the door to run. At this time I thought the workout might have still been a possibility. As I started what would have been a warm-up my body was still feeling achy. The left quad/hip area is really sore. I knew that there was no point in trying to push through a workout and hurt myself. Around 3 1/2 miles, the sore area was really tight, I had to stop and try to stretch it out. By the time I got home, I was very happy that I didn't try to do the workout or a semi-long run like I had thought about. Some quick foam-rolling and a shower and I had to head out for my hair appointment.

While I was eating my lunch, J called to see if I was going to the track tonight. He gave me a hard time since I already ran. He agreed that I did the right thing by not doing the workout because I'm sore. He reminded me that I have my last long run on Saturday and said he thinks I should go in for a massage even though I just had one the other day to make sure I'm not out of whack from the fall.

I had a nice afternoon of shopping with my friend from high school. I was able to drag her away from her soon to be hubby for a few hours and have some girls time. I feel like I spent quite a bit of money, but I got two sweaters, a shirt, a pair of pants, and a blazer for just over $100 so I didn't do too badly. I just love sales!!! I may have to exchange the blazer since I didn't try it on and it's pretty big. It just means more shopping since I'll have to go to other locations of the store to see if they have a smaller size.

We didn't get back too late, so I went over to the gym. I rode the bike for 40 minutes and sat in the sauna for a while. I couldn't stay in as long as I wanted to because some guy was in the far side of it stretching. This forced me to sit right next to the coals. It was so hot on my face and my necklace started to feel like it was burning my neck, so I had to leave. In a few minutes I'm going to take the hot bath prescribed by the school nurse.

Posted by Blondie at 07:02 PM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2004

Woo Hoo!

I'm quoting Barb for my title today. Today was our Friday at work, so I have a nice four day weekend ahead of me. Long weekends are the best, I think that every weekend should be a long weekend.

There was no doubt about it, today was a chilly day around here. There was frost when I went out to my car to leave for work in the morning. I forgot to put gloves on when I went out to run this afternoon, so my fingers were raw by the time I got home. I had on one of my few "matching" running outfits. I have lots of stuff that goes together, but usually I'm just concerned with being warm so I don't care if I match or not. This time of year is not so cold that multiple layers are required, so I try to match as often as I can. Who know what kinds of cute guys you might run into out there!

My left side is feeling tight and "off". I'm not sure how I would explain it, but I might be limping a tad. I didn't feel great today, but it was supposed to be a very easy day. Since I don't have to work tomorrow, I'm going to do my workout in the morning, so I really did not want to do anything too strenuous this afternoon. I did my easy 7 mile course and rode the bike for 40 minutes.

On my way home from running, I crossed paths with this guy who I see at least on a weekly basis. He lives down the street from my old training partner. Anyhow, he was carrying a boquet of yellow roses home to his wife. I thought that was the sweetest thing!

The great thing about this time of year is that our track club is cutting down the workouts. I love to do workouts, but I hate to run in the dark. By this time in the year I'm also getting pretty tired and just hanging on without burning out. I think that it's funny because I look forward to my week off from running and after three days I'm ready to go out and run, and then I've usually gone out to run on the fifth day. So, my break is coming, but it won't be a long one!

Posted by Blondie at 08:47 PM | Comments (2)

November 09, 2004

Fall is Slipping Away

In the past few days, I've noticed that fall is slipping away and winter is starting to encroach on us. The first indication, of course, is changing the clocks back. It gets so dark so early now. The second indication is that in the past few days, the trees have gone from having brightly colored foliage, to leaves falling off, to absolutely bare. I really noticed this today. Lots of people must have been out raking their leaves this weekend since there were lots of garbage bags out on the curbs. Finally, the weather is getting much cooler and the wind is picking up. Days like today will be downright balmy in about six weeks, but today felt chilly to the bone at 40!

My legs definitely felt tired from two quality days in a row. It would not be fair to say that I felt bad, just not very fresh. I must admit that I did feel pretty achy all day. The school nurse recommended that I take a hot bath to try to make my body feel better, but I haven't gotten around to doing that yet. Today was my longer run of the week, 9 miles. I did run my watch while I was out, but only to have an idea of how long I was running. Given the fact that Sunday and Monday were quality days, today had to be easy to let myself recover. It was a bit slower than usual, just about an hour.

I went to the gym and rode the stationary bike for 35 minutes and then lifted. I think that my upper body is going to be sore tomorrow since I used the 8 pound dumbbells. I have made quite a bit of progress...a year and a half ago when I started to go to the gym, I used the 3 pounders! I was going to hit the sauna for a few minutes to simulate the hot bath the nurse prescribed, but by the time I was done lifting it was almost 7:00 and I had to go to the drugstore to get more band-aids and I hadn't eaten since my lunch at 11:15.

I've got to go call my college roommate since we are supposed to get together on Thursday and we need to make some plans...

Posted by Blondie at 07:55 PM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2004

Much better day

I want to sincerely thank everyone for expressing concern about my wounds yesterday. This is really an amazing community, most of us have never met, yet we feel concern for each other and encourage each other when things do not go well. I look forward to meeting some of my fellow bloggers some day.

After not sleeping particularly well last night since I couldn't find a comfortable position, I got up and got ready for work. I really thought about calling out since I was feeling sore, but we have no school on Thursday and Friday, so I decided that I would tough it out and go in today. Of course everyone noticed the scab on my upper lip right away. Most of the swelling had gone down and the cut on my nose is not as obvious. The cuts on my palms hurt more than anything. Taking a shower was the worst because I could not lather the shampoo or rub the soap with my hands.

When I got home, I took off all of the band-aids I had covered the wounds with. I could tell that the cuts needed some air to dry out. The wounds did not look nearly as bad today since the cuts on my knees have dried up and scabbed over some. Luckily, everything is pretty much just scrapes and nothing deep, more like road rash. Before I headed over to the track, I put more ointment on. The cuts on my palms have not scabbed up much and are not as dry as the others, but I still don't have them covered because I want them to dry out some.

My intentions for the workout were to test out my legs and see how they felt (fatigue from the race and pain from the cuts) and to shake out any of the lactic acid. J called me at work on my cell to tell me that we were changing the workout to 400s instead of 300s. We were going to do the quarters with a full quarter in between. This was actually a better post race workout for me. I was feeling pretty good, so I did the full workout of 10 x 400 with a 400 jog. I didn't time any of the quarters, I just went by how I felt. I did a push-and-cruise type of thing. I told myself that I only had to do 6 and then I could call it a night, but once I got to 6 I told myself that I only had 2 more sets of 2 400s and I could do that. My quads do feel a bit on the sore side, I think from the shock of falling. The foam roller is going to get quite a bit of work tonight.

A cold front has been come through. It was almost 70 out yesterday and it didn't quite reach 50 today. I know that some of you wear shorts into the mid 30s, but I had on pants, long sleeves and gloves today. I was also so cold when I got home that I made soup for dinner. Starting this weekend, I'll make a big pot of soup on Sundays and eat it through the week.

Again, I want to thank everyone for their concern. I am lucky that I only have some scrapes and cuts, I could have really hurt myself or lost my teeth since I landed on my face. The guys at the track let me know tonight that they'll never let me live this down. Of course, they did not believe that I fell until I showed them some of the battle wounds. Now I have to catch up on what everyone else has been up to.

Posted by Blondie at 08:03 PM | Comments (2)

November 07, 2004

Bridges

I don't know how many of you have ever run a bridge race. Every time I do one, I swear that I'll never do one again. When you're driving, you never seem to notice how steep the grade is on the bridge. This morning's race ran on the Ben Franklin bridge which connects Camden, NJ and Philly over the Delaware River.

The race started and finished in Camden, which if you do not know, is not a very safe city. I got there relatively early and registered. I was wary about warming up by myself because I did not want to get lost. I started my warm-up early which ended up being a good thing because we had to be ready to race by 8:00 even though the race didn't start until 8:30. They had to walk us over to the toll area for the bridge and the only time you could get there was when they took you over. I think that I got about 20 minutes of warming up in, but I'm not too sure. I did get lost and was freaking out that I wouldn't be able to get into the toll area and made the trip for nothing. I made it back just in time and quickly stripped and changed shoes. I was walking away from my car when I realized that I left my number in the trunk. I retrieved it and was on my way to the toll area.

The race started and we were on our way. There was quite a deep field. There was one African women, two Russian or Ukranian women and some of the top local women. The first 3/4 to mile were up the hill on the bridge, then there was a steep downhill and a turnaround. Obviously, we repeated the uphill and downhill. Basically the first three miles on the bridge were either up or down. I went through the first mile in just over 6:20 which did not bother me too much since it was up such a steep grade. I passed three miles in just around 18:30 or so in 7th place. The top five were money spots. I knew that one of the women in front of me was a master, so I really wanted to catch the other woman who was pretty close. The rest of the course looped the Camden Waterfront. Somewhere between the third and fourth miles, I passed the master and set my sights on the other woman. At around the five mile mark, I was really closing in on her. The gap was getting smaller and I was feeling really good. I thought that I could catch her, but I did not want to do too much and not be able to finish strong.

At this point we were running on the Riverwalk, a brick path. As we came off of it, I was getting much closer. The next thing I knew, I took a step off the Riverwalk and was on my way down. I did a huge faceplant! My first instinct was to make sure I had all of my teeth. Some guy who I had just passed asked me if I was OK and I replied something along the lines of "yes...no...i dunno". This happened at about 5 1/2 miles. I got up and decided that I just had to finish. It hurt so much to really push and run fast and I knew that I had to get back somehow. I got passed by a few guys during this time, but all I wanted to do was finish. There was blood dripping off my lip and my knees really hurt. I was able to finish in 39:14, but the more important thing was that I was OK. The girl who I was trying to catch said she heard me fall and said that I sounded so much stronger than she felt and that I would have passed her. As I crossed the finish line I asked for the first aid. They told me there was an ambulance straight ahead and to go to them.

I walked over to the area where I saw the ambulance and just as I was getting close to it, it drove away. I waited for a few minutes to see if it was coming back or if another one was on its way, but none came. I asked anotther one of the volunteers who suggested going to where the registration was. I walked over there and a very nice volunteer helped me try to find the first aid people. We were finally able to find the tent, but had to walk all the way around the building to get to him. He told me that he'd been waiting for me since some of the other volunteers had told him that someone had fallen. He cleaned up my lip, cuts on both of my palms, the scrape on my right elbow and the cuts on both of my knees. I didn't ask him to clean up the scrape on my right boob, it was more road burn than anything. He did not do the best job cleaning up the cuts, he only used water and then put NewSkin on the cuts. I really wish he had not used the NewSkin since I could not get it off in the shower. The bottle says that nail polish remover can take it off, but I really do not want to put that on some open wounds. I used soapy warm water and the cuts look cleaner and then put some ointment and band-aids on them. I've iced my upper lip since it is swelling up.

Since I spent so much of the post-race getting first aid, I did not get to do a warm-down. I may try to do a very easy jog/walk this afternoon. I'm not really upset about the way this turned out. I know that I would have been able to pull out 5th if I had not fallen. There are plenty of other races left to run. The most important thing is that I'm OK. I do feel awfully beat up and sore, but everything will heal just fine. The cuts on my palms hurt more than anything other than my lip. I would have been happy with the time I would have run considering the hills on the bridge. I was running a really smart race, which was my primary goal.

The rest of my afternoon is dedicated to watching the NYC marathon coverage on NBC and some shopping. I saw online that Paula Radcliffe was able to win. I'm very happy for her, she deserves it. The British media were very cruel to her after the Olympics. Later folks...

Posted by Blondie at 12:59 PM | Comments (5)

November 06, 2004

Fighting Mother Nature

This past week has had pretty much all Mother Nature can throw at us. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were pretty good weather days. Not really cold, not too terribly windy-pretty much good fall days. Thursday brought rain. Really, almost as much rain as when Noah had to build his arc. All right, I may be exaggerating just a ton; but it was a cold, hard rain. Friday was windy. The peak wind gust recorded in our area was over 50 miles per hour. The wind has not died down too much today.

In general, I do not like to run in the wind. I struggle quite a bit in wind. All of the men I run with like to tease me about it. They tell me that I'm so slight that I need to stay in the middle of them or else I'll get picked up and blown away. The officer in our school yesterday said, "if you're going to run today, you better put some weights in your pockets". It sounds kind of crazy, but I prefer to run into a strong headwind than to have a strong tailwind at my back. I feel like I have no control when the strong wind is behind me and would prefer to hardly move at all into it since at least I am in control.

So yesterday I was feeling guilty that I have hardly done any running this week. Thursday night is usually a big night for me with intervals, but J and I only ran a little over 5 miles. I was feeling guilty that I'm not going to have a long run or even a workout for that matter this week, so I did a short run after work. I was exhausted when I got home from work, so I took a nap. I dragged myself out the door and ran 4 pathetic miles. I didn't time the run and I felt like I was barely running because I was so tight from Thursday night. I got home and stretched then I went to the gym like a real loser. There were actually a fair number of people at the gym since it was only about 5:00 on Friday and some people like to get a workout in before going out. I rode the bike for 40 minutes and then I lifted since I did not get to do that at all this week. The rest of the night was spent in my PJs on the couch watching TV.

I woke up fairly early this morning, although this was my morning to sleep later. I decided that I should take advantage of my mini-taper that has not been intentional and race tomorrow morning. The wind was still blowing strong, but the sky is clear and very sunny. I went out for an easy 7 mile run and ran for a mile with my old training partner K and her neighbor W. Having female company is so great, I forget what it is like sometimes. I tend to run with almost all men in our group and they sometimes treat me like one of the guys. I don't really mind, but sometimes I want to talk about clothes or something that the guys just won't listen to. Anyhow, I felt pretty decent this morning. I know that the massage I had on Tuesday was a big help in my feeling much better now. My upper body was sore from lifting last night, but it is better to be sore today than to be sore on race morning.

I'm not sure what kind of time I'd like to aim for tomorrow. My 10K PR is not the most solid of my PRs, but I'm not too sure if this course is favorable to PRs since part of it is on a bridge. I know that last year's results were fast. People who usually run times similar to mine ran faster than usual, so it could be a quick course. My primary goal is to continue running good, solid, smart races. If the wind is still a factor, I will settle for a slower than usual time.

This afternoon I'm heading over to one of the high school cross country championship meets. Some of the boys have been my training partners in the summer. One in particular has been training with me for the past three summers and may be training with me again this winter. A told his friends the summer after his freshmen year that they should get up early on Saturdays to run with him since there were a bunch of "hot women" who ran on Saturday mornings! Fourteen year old boys think that anything a 25 year old woman does is amazing. One of the girls is also looking to break her own course record for the third time this season. The last time she did it the course conditions were worse than they should be today. If the wind dies down, there ought to be some quick times this afternoon. Some of the coaches also run with our group and I like to go and support their teams as well.

Now off to the grocery store since I have no food for lunch today.

Posted by Blondie at 10:49 AM | Comments (2)

November 04, 2004

Slip-Slidin' Away

It was not too bad out this morning, but as the day went on it got greyer and wetter outside. By the time I left work it was a light yet steady rain. When I left for the track the rain was getting heavier. It was also starting to get dark, which was probably intensified by the lack of sunlight all day.

C showed up to run, but when he saw that nobody else was there he left. This didn't bother me too much becuase he can be difficult to run with at times. I decided to wait five more minutes to see if anyone else came. I debated on what to do if nobody else was crazy enough to show up-I could go to the gym. I am anti-treadmill, I thought that I could do the elliptical. The main problem was that I had no shorts to put on. Call me a wimp, it was about 50 degrees and warm, but I wore light weight pants and I'm glad I did! I've determined that in order to be a guy in our group, your first name must start with J. Seriously, almost 1/2 of the men in our group have first names that start with J. One of the J's showed up, so he and I decided to do an easy run since we were out in the rain.

It was cold and wet. I started out a little bit on the warm side, but about ten minutes into the run I was soaked from running in the rain, through puddles, and getting splashed by cars. My legs would not have gotten warm if I had on shorts and I would be tighter than tight later on tonight if I wore shorts. Footing was a bit of an issue as was traffic since we decided to stay on busier streets. I was very happy that he showed up because I will not run alone in the dark, it just is not a good idea. It was an enjoyable run, short, but I'm glad that we got it in. We ran for about 42 and a half minutes. I stepped in some pretty deep puddles and was absolutely soaking wet by the time we finished.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to race this Sunday. At this point in the year, I may as well race as much as possible before hanging up the shoes for my annual break from running. There is no reason to do lots of long training runs now, this is race season.

Hope everyone has happy Fridays!

Posted by Blondie at 07:44 PM | Comments (2)

November 03, 2004

A very, very long day

This morning began as all work days do at 5:30 AM. At that point, there was still no decision on the election results. I remember waking up in 2000 to see the same folks on TV as were on when I had gone to bed the night before. Since this blog is about running and not politics, I will keep my views brief. I must say that I was not happy with the results of this election, but we must remember that there is a large portion of this country that is not nearly as open-minded about many issues. I just worry that things have already gotten to the point where they are now, this may give the powers to be the thought that this is approval of what has been going on and permission to continue. That is all I'm going to say about the results of the election.

Today was Open House afternoon at work. We had an hour between the end of the work day and when parents were invited to attend, leaving no time to accomplish anything. Luckily we were able to leave around 5:45 due to so few parents attending, giving me just enough time to hop in the car and drive up to the running store to go on the group run. I ran into quite a bit of traffic, so if we had stayed until 6:00 I never woulda made it on time.

It was decidedly dark when we got started tonight. For some reason I feel like I am running so much faster in the dark when in reality I'm running slower because I am so cautious. I ran most of the course with A who was smart enough to bring a flashlight with him so that we could see where we were putting our feet down. I finish with M when he and the other M caught us and A took off. M knows that I can not see at all in the dark (or even in the light for that matter) and stayed with me becuase he agrees that it isn't safe to be out alone at night. I ended up with just over 7 miles for the night.

My legs felt so much better after the deep tissue massage yesterday. I try to remember to make a note of when I get a massage and then write in my datebook four weeks later to schedule another session. It just has to be a part of training, especially when my form is off from various little, stupid injuries.

I didn't walk in the door until almost 8:00. My parents were nice enough to go down and pick up my car from the dealership. The bill was much higher than I expected it to be. I didn't think there was anything wrong with it, but I guess that I'm just a clueless girl. Either that or they just did all sorts of things that did not really need to get done. They changed the oil, spark plugs, added wiper fluid, brake fluid, and then there was a charge just for bringing it in for a tune-up.

Oh well, I'm cold and need to get to bed soon. Clearly the 11 hours of sleep on Monday was not too much since I was still in bed early last night. I did not even bother to try to stay up late to watch the results come in because being sluggish at work for three days is not worth it.

Posted by Blondie at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)

November 02, 2004

At least my car isn't lost

Yes, for a while today I thought that my car might be lost, but I'll get to that later...

I know that I have been tired lately, but I had no idea exactly how absolutely exhausted I was. I got home from dropping my car off at the dealership last night and ate dinner after the track. I had every intention of doing a core workout before going to bed, but I found myself falling asleep on the couch while I was trying to get warm again. Using some common sense, sleep won out. I was in bed by 9:15 and did not get up until 8:00 this morning. I think I did get up to pee once, but I could have kept sleeping this morning. I did have enough sense to not go back to sleep then because that would result in absolutely no sleep tonight.

So I was feeling extremely stiff this morning from being in such a deep sleep for so long. Since schools are used as polling places around here, I didn't have to work and could do whatever I wanted. I watched some of the Today show while waiting for my body to feel awake enough to try to run (and rush hour traffic to die down). I had wanted to do a longish run today because I might be racing this weekend and I had the time to do it. When I got out the door, I re-evaluated my plan. My legs still felt stiff and tired (from the past two days and being a little bit hungry). I remembered that I usually do not run well when I've only had about 12-14 hours between my runs. Let me clarify: I did not feel bad, just not really fresh. I did extend my regular loop, but partway through the extension I realized that I could use a potty stop, but had about a mile and a half until there was one I could use. The bathroom break did help my stomach, but my legs just felt sluggish and heavy. I opted to go straight home instead of adding on the extra extension to make the 12 mile course from home. I ended up with a little bit over 10, but less than 11. I did not time this run since the past two days were harder efforts.

My original plan was to run, shower, vote, eat lunch, and go for my massage. It was 11:00 when I got done showering, so I decided to change around my plans. I ate lunch and put voting off until after my massage. The massage therapist said that my legs were tighter than they usually are. She worked on my iliosopas and piriformis quite a bit. Both of these are very painful, but afterwards feels so much better. Before rushing to the polling place, I had to pick up some items at Target. Since I went to vote at such an odd time, I was in and out in less than 10 minutes. In 2000, I was so confused about the "hanging chads" since we have computerized voting machines here.

So the warrenty on my car is up in three weeks and it needed to have it's 40K tune-up. I scheduled it for today since I didn't have to work or have many places I needed to go. On the envelope, I wrote that I would call to see if it was ready at 4:00. So at 4:00 I called the dealership to see if my car was ready. The girl on the phone couldn't find it in the computer, then asked me if I was sure that I dropped it off there (duh), asked to spell my name again, asked if this was the first time I brought there (no, I bought it there), and then put me on hold again. I went through this about 10 times with different people on the phone. They could not find it in the computer and were trying to tell me that they didn't have it. Ok, if I don't have it and you don't have it, WHO HAS MY CAR? Finally, one of the guys from the service department asked me what time I dropped off my car (around 7:00 last night) and I told him that I filled out the envelope and gave it to the woman who was on the cashier side because service was closed. He went over there and found my envelope. They told me that they would do the tune up tomorrow and discount any work that needs to be done. That's fine and dandy, but there is no way that I can pick it up tomorrow since I have to be at work from 7-6 because of open house afternoon. After that, I'm going on the group run from the local running store because there is no way on earth that I am running alone in the dark, it just is not safe, no matter who you are.

I decided not to do any cross training today since my legs need to recover from the massage. I'll stretch some while I watch the election results come in. Heck, I'm feeling pretty awake, I might stay up later than usual to see more of the results.

Posted by Blondie at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2004

Running in the Dark

As much as I absolutely love "falling back", there is one drawback-track workouts in the dark. I much prefer it to be light in the morning. It is so much easier to wake up when it is going to be light soon, rather than having the first half hour at work in the dark. For the most part, getting dark earlier does not bother me too much since it makes me get into bed. On days that I don't do track workouts it isn't too bad either, I'm usually getting home just as it is starting to get dark. I can even take a short nap or wait for my lunch to digest and still get a good length run in before it gets dark. The only days that are problems are the days I do my track work.

I don't know if anyone is really good at running in the dark. I am particularly bad at running in the dark, especially when it has been a long time since the last time I ran in the dark. My balance is not very good, as I demonstrated by falling twice on grass this summer. My vision is really bad and it takes me a long time to get used to moving in the dark. Sometimes I wonder if my driver's liscense should be restricted at night like they do to old people because I have such a hard time seeing at night. It has been quite a while since the last time I had to run at night, so I was very uncomfortable tonight, especially during the warm down.

Tonight all but two of the people at the track had run races yesterday, so we did not do the scheduled workout. The scheduled workout was 16 x 300 with a quick 100 jog recovery. It's a really tough workout, but I consider it to be one of my bread and butter workouts now. Instead, we did 12 x 100 strides with a 300 jog as a recovery. I felt really good tonight. I probably could have done a workout tonight, but it would not have been using my head.

Thank you to all who gave encouraging comments about my frustration yesterday. I appreciate everything. In some ways I know the answers and put them out there, but it is nice to hear encouragement from others who have been there and can emphasize. The pace ended up being more like a long tempo workout rather than a race. The extra bit of sharpness from having competition around was not in me yesterday. It almost sounds like a cop out, but I do know that the best races are never run alone. In fact, it may be a blessing in disguise that I did the race as more of a tempo effort, since I'd like to race a 10K this coming Sunday. If I had put it all out yesterday, I might not be able to race for real this weekend. Hey, I still came away with money I didn't have when I woke up yesterday!

Tomorrow is election day, everyone please go out and vote. I'm happy with yesterday's NFL results...the Eagles won and are the only undefeated team in the league this year!

Posted by Blondie at 08:08 PM | Comments (1)