The Long Run

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February 28, 2005

Runs Getting Closer Together

Last night I was like the little kid who is so excited about opening presents on Christmas morning that she does not sleep at all the night before. Given the forecast for snow, I could not sleep at all last night. Even being tired, I tossed and turned all night. I probably would have been better off staying up and watching the Oscars, since watching TV is a surefire way to get me to fall asleep.

A few minutes before 5 when I was getting up to run, I turned on the TV and there were closings running accross the bottom. The district I worked for was on the list, but of course I could not trust myself, so I had to wait for it to come up again before I would go back to sleep. I took 2 Tylenol PM and set the alarm for 7:45. Even after taking some drugs to try to make myself sleep, I was tossing and turning. I got up just before the alarm and got myself dressed to at least get my morning run in.

It is amazing how much easier it is to run at a normal hour in the morning. The school district that I live in still had school, so I saw lots of kids out at their bus stops waiting for the bus. The snow had not come yet, but it felt like it would snow. I got back and put on some dry clothes since I was too lazy to take a shower since my plan was to do my afternoon run earlier to avoid the snow.

I laid around on the couch and did fall asleep for a little while. I called J to see if he could sneak out of work to do the workout. It turns out that he was not going to be able to get out, but we altered the workout for me to do on the roads from my house. We also discussed that we might just use this week as an active rest week because of the weather. Instead of racing this weekend, we think that I'm going to do an extra-long run (for me). Anyhow, this "afternoon" (more like 11:30 in the morning) I was to warm-up and then do 5 times 4 minutes hard, 2 minutes float and then a longer warm-down.

I got started and was pretty disappointed to see that it had already started to snow. At this point it was not sticking to the roads, but was starting to stick to the grass. The four minute pick-ups were hard for me mentally because I don't have a definite stop point, I have to wait for my watch to beep. I felt really pretty good on them. On the last pick-up I had to ease up quite a bit because the roads were getting slick. In less than an hour, there was about 3/4 of an inch of accumlation on the roads. I ended up getting over 14 miles in this morning.

The rest of today has been lazy. I made some whole-wheat cinnamon swirl bread to take up some time. I'm waiting to hear if there is school tomorrow. I may run with my former training partner tomorrow, since she is a teacher and probably will not have school. It will be good for me to run easy and gab the entire time. I run so slowly on snow and ice because I have such a tendency to fall. I hope that everyone who is in the snow track is staying safe!

Posted by Blondie at 7:08 PM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2005

How Much Will We Get?

The big topic on the news in these parts is the Noreaster that is forecast for tomorrow. Towards the end of last week the forecast was along the lines of "we don't know if it is going to be rain or snow, but whatever we get, there is going to be A LOT of moisture". Now the forecast is pretty much calling for snow, and quite a bit by our standards. I think that the weatherman on the news at lunch time was calling for 8-10 inches, possibly more if the storm takes a further east track. Weather.com is predicting for the snow to start falling around 6 AM. I will be one unhappy camper if I get up to do my run at 5 and then come back to find out that school has been cancelled. I think that we will probably have an early dismissal, similar to Thursday, so that we get a day of school in that won't need to be made up at the end of the year.

This morning was a very uneventful recovery run. My legs felt suprisingly fresh considering the effort of yesterday's run. My stomach was cooperative, as well, which was a surprise given the amount of wine consumed last night as well as some of the foods that I ate. Hey, 90th birthdays don't happen all that often, some rum cake is allowed! My ankle hurt significantly more today. I had to stop and undo the extra loops in my right shoe to take some of the pressure off of it.

Dad cut all of Mom's hair off this morning. It had been coming out in clumps for the past few days. She decided that it was time to take the plunge, so now she hardly has any hair left. It was not an easy task for any of us.

I've gotta get ready to start cooking our dinner. We picked up some bread bowls at Panera yesterday so that we can have soup in them for dinner. It won't be as good as theirs, but I love bread bowls!

Posted by Blondie at 5:23 PM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2005

Disappointing Tempo Run

After having an early dismissal on Thursday, school was cancelled on Friday. This was quite the blessing for my body. Getting to sleep until a "normal" hour was a significant help in my fight against being so exhausted. The district did not have the closing announced on TV, but I went online and found out around 11:00 on Thursday night, right after Without A Trace went off the air. The school closing allowed me to sleep until about 8:30, which made me feel much better yesterday. I did absolutely no physical activity yesterday, unless you count changing the sheets on my bed (which is quite a challenge!). I think that I am falling into a cross train every other Friday type of deal. Given how tired I have been, rest yesterday was the most beneficial thing I could have done. I have to keep reminding myself that rest is just as important, if not more important, than training.

Every so often our group meets at a different location on Saturday to do a tempo run. Today was one of those days. This park has an inner and an outer loop. The inner loop is 1.75 miles and the outer loop is 3.6 miles completely on the roads outside of the park. The outer loop has a quite a bit of rolling hills, the first mile and a half is a good downhill, from 1.5 miles to about two and a half miles it is a steady up hill, about the next third of a mile is downhill again, and from that point until the end of the loop is a really tough uphill. The schedule today called for two of the outer loop as a hard effort.

This park is further from my house than the school where we usually meet, which meant that I had to wake up earlier than usual to account for driving almost twice as far. When we did this last year, it was quite a bit warmer than it was today because I remember wearing shorts under my tights because it was supposed to get into the 50s but it was only about 35 degrees when we ran. This year it was about 22 degrees when we ran, needless to say there was no thought of wearing shorts! Tights, long sleeves, a fleece, jacket, hat, gloves, and socks were the attire, my hands did get a little bit warm by the end of the second lap, but I would rather them be warm than too cold.

We warmed up for about 3 miles around the inner loop. This was pretty uneventful and easy. I did not look at any of my splits on the tempo run. It was not a smooth or easy feeling run for me. I did the seven miles in just over 46 minutes. I really can not compare this to last year because I had to stop for a loooong bathroom break last year which was the running joke today! The pace was right about the pace that I wanted to run today, but it felt much harder than I would have liked it to feel. I was a bit disappointed because I think that I am in better shape than that effort. I warmed down for another 3 miles with a really annoying guy. We started as a big group and then ran into a group of older men who were on their easy Saturday morning run. A ran with one of the guys who is older and much slower and the faster guy was running with me and would not let up on the pace. He did not seem to understand that we had just done a hard effort and pretty much wanted to race. It got to the point where I was starting to see spots, so I turned back and said that I was going to double back to run the last .75 miles with A. In total I got in 14 miles with half of it at a good pace.

I headed over to the gym after the run. I wanted to ride the bike, but there were not any available, yet there were tons of ellipticals empty. I got on the elliptical and did it easy for half an hour and then got on the bike after that for half an hour. After stretching I did my lifting for the day.

On the way home from the gym I had to stop and buy a bottle of wine to take to the birthday dinner tonight. I also had to drop off a skirt that a co-worker "outgrew" and gave to me to get dry cleaned. The skirt is suede...let me just tell you that getting it cleaned is highway robbery. It will take at least two weeks to get cleaned, will cost $40 and I had to put down half as a deposit!!!! I could not believe how much it would cost. Ok, I feel much better now that I have gotten that off my chest.

Posted by Blondie at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

February 24, 2005

Early Dismissal

This morning, somehow, I was able to wake up a minute before the alarm was set to go off at 4:55. Chalk it up to Tylenol PM and the fact that I have been exhausted all week. I had to skimp on my core exercises last night because I was tired and desparately wanted to get into bed before 8:30 so that I would hopefully have enough energy for my morning run.

Anyway, I was able to get out and do my 4 mile out and back this morning. I did notice that it was a bit on the windy side, but it was not too terrible. I think that I have a hard time writing anything interesting about these morning runs because it is so early and dark that it is hard to notice anything. When I turned on the TV when I got back, school closings were starting to show up even though there had not been a single snowflake yet. None of the public schools in our county closed this morning.

Work was pretty chaotic. The districts decided to close early, with the buses coming to pick up the students by 10:30. Around 10:15 I was getting ready to call J to tell him that I was planning to bag the hills and do an easy run as soon as I got home from work. As I was going through the phonebook on my cell phone it started to ring and it was J asking me where I was and to meet him at the track at 11:15 to do the workout.

I got myself out of school as quickly as I could to go home and change into running clothes and get over to the track. I thought that I had my workouts close together on Monday night, but this completely trumped that. The snow was coming down very steadily but not really sticking to the roads yet. I wore my new Gore pants and discovered that they need something under them by the way they ride up, it was not comfortable at all. We did four of the hill repeats, just like last week.

I finished the repeats a little bit slower than last week, but all things considered I was happy with the workout. I have been much more exhausted this week than last week. I was not even sure that I would be able to get a workout in today. This week I had less time in between runs before doing the hills. No matter what direction we were running, the snow was coming down in our faces. Something is most definitely better than nothing.

This was probably my last week of hills. I think that I will be racing the next two weekends. The thought of racing makes me nervous. The one race next weekend is one that I ran last year. I'm nervous that I won't do as well as I did last year even though I think that I am in better shape than I was at this time. The other race is longer and I have more confidence in how I'll be able to do in that race.

I am hoping for a snow day tomorrow so that I can get some much needed rest. Being able to sleep in and not have to worry about doing anything would be such a nice feeling.

Posted by Blondie at 1:41 PM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2005

Taking the Time to Listen to my Body

I am really trying to take the time to listen to the signs that my body is giving me. This week I have been absolutely exhausted. This is above and beyond my usual state of tiredness, I come home from work and sleep hard during my nap. I am not too sure about what brought this on, my thought is getting to sleep later than usual for two days in a row has altered my body. Whatever the cause, I have been really struggling the past two days.

Seeing how tired I was this afternoon, I made the executive decision to not wear my watch until I'm feeling less tired. I was definitely feeling much stronger today than yesterday, but set no land speed records by any means. I just tried to stay relaxed. I ran into K and W around the halfway point and finished my run with them. This was probably good for me since it made me hold back and chat with them. In all I got in 7 miles. When I got home I stretched more than usual because my legs have been feeling very tight. I watched the weather and then headed over to the gym to ride the bike for 40 minutes.

I may only be able to get my morning run in tomorrow, provided that I can get myself out of bed by 5:00. We are supposed to get hit by a significant winter storm tomorrow. The forecast is calling for the snow to start around 8 in the morning with heavy snow in the afternoon and early evening hours. Not sure if that is going to pan out or not. My hope is that there is no school on Friday so that I can get a jump-start on all of my weekend cooking. My grandmother's 90th birhtday is on Saturday and I have to make things for the dinner that we are having for her so that there is food that I will eat at the dinner.

Posted by Blondie at 7:22 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2005

Dizzy

Perhaps last night did not have a good quality sleep. It seemed to be a good night of sleep, only one wake up for a bathroom trip. Waking up just one minute before the alarm, which is acceptable. One minute is OK so that the blaring noise doesn't interrupt the peace of sleep, ten minutes is not OK because then it's missing out on a nice chunk of sleep. This is all leading up to an absolute state of exhaustion this afternoon. I have not had an afternoon like today in quite some time. Upon getting home from work, I crashed. I slept pretty hard for 40 minutes this afternoon.

Having written all of this and looking back, I should have known what was going to happen on my run. The first indication that all was not well was that I felt tighter than usual from not stretching after the track last night. Within the first 2 miles I knew that it wasn't going to be a stellar run. During the next four miles, there were parts when I felt really tired, but they would go away pretty quickly. The last three miles got pretty ugly. At first I was just feeling kind of tired, but a little more than a mile from home things got pretty scary. I got a bit of a dizzy spell and had to stop and walk it out. At this point I just turned off my watch and decided to jog in. Less than a half mile from home the same thing happened again. I walked it out and got in the house and ate some hard candy since I think that one of the factors was my blood sugar bottoming out. This kind of thing happens to me once every so often, like maybe twice a year, so I don't get all that concerned about it.

After I got some sugar in my system, I headed over to the gym to ride the bike and lift. I only rode for 35 minutes, during which I was going to read US Weekly, but I ended up gabbing with two men who I run with instead. One of these men has been struggling with plantar for about a year now and has had a bit of a setback. He had surgery in May and says he is having pain now. Anyhow, the time on the bike went by much faster than it does when I'm reading. I stretched more than usual and then did some lifting. I tried to do my reps slower than usual so that it burned more.

I tried to eat a good, hearty dinner so that I don't get that awful no energy feeling tomorrow afternoon on my run. The one great thing that happened today was that I did not need to use the shrubs as a bathroom! Tomorrow is hump day, the week is flying by...

Posted by Blondie at 7:54 PM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2005

Two Yucky Runs

Happy President's Day all! This is one of those holidays that those of us in education take for granted as a holiday. More corporations do tend to celebrate this holiday than some of the others that we celebrate. Of course, it snowed overnight and we would have at least had a delay this morning if there had been school. It just figures. Since the weather was not exactly conducive to doing a workout, J and I decided to wait until this evening to do the workout.

I was going to scrap my morning run this morning. My ankle really hurt when I woke up, again. I putzed around, read the newpaper and enjoyed my coffee and ate a light breakfast. About an hour later, I decided that I was bored and would do my morning run after all. It really was not all that cold and the roads were just really slushy. I had to purposely run *really* easy for more than one reason. The first was that my stomach was not happy at all to be out moving so close to eating (and drinking coffee), the second was that it was about 10:30 by the time I got out the door. I did not give myself much time in between runs. I managed to make my full four mile course, but could not get myself into the bathroom soon enough!

I did take my mom out to lunch at Panera Bread Company today. I ate my favorite, Garden Veggie Soup in a Bread Bowl. You could give me hot water in a bread bowl and make me happy. I did a little bit of shopping afterwards. I bought two pairs of dress gloves and a purse, but only got charged for one of the pairs of glvoes. I also invested in another pair of Gore Windstopper pants. Since I have spent quite a bit of money buying high quality warm running clothes it means that the weather is going to get much warmer soon.

We had a decent sized group up at the track tonight. I knew during the warm-up that it was not going to be one of my better workouts. I ate my lunch a little bit later than usual and it was not something that I would normally eat before working out. I had lots of burpies the whole time making it quite uncomfortable. The workout was 5 x 800 with a 400 jog to be done kind of Yasso-style (but we've renamed them). J advised me that he didn't want me to be running these particularly fast, in the 3:00 to 3:10 range since the races that we're looking to really race aren't until late April/early May. There wasn't anyone for me to run with anyway, so he wanted them to stay more relaxed. I ran the intervals in 3:05, 3:03, 3:00, 3:03, and 3:03. I did keep my recoveries right around 1:48. Although I ran my 800s a little bit faster two weeks ago, I was happy with the workout tonight. Two weeks ago I was running with someone and did not have any intestinal stuff going on during the workout. I would have done more and a touch faster if my stomach hadn't been acting up so much. Including the warm-down I got in nine miles for the night, a total of 13 for the day.

Well, got to read about everyone else's holiday and then off to bed early for me since tomorrow is a work day.

Posted by Blondie at 7:55 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2005

Almost Reduced to Tears

My massage this afternoon was so painful that I was practically in tears during it. My friends all think that I go for those nice, relaxing massages where you have scented candles and fall asleep. Little do they know the torture I go through for massages...elbow in the butt, bruises from how deep the therapist gets, etc... If all else, I did learn a lesson today...even if I'm not *really* training, my body is still getting abused and the massages are a necessity.

When I woke up this morning, my ankle hurt so much to put any weight on it. I was afraid to run today because it hurt so badly. By the time I was really awake and moving around it did not hurt too much. Putting on running shoes made it feel much better as well. I don't know if the shoes that I wore out last night irritated it some. Since it was not too painful, I decided to go out for a run.

My run was not eventful at all. My legs really did not feel bad at all considering yesterday's long run. My buddy from yesterday e-mailed me yesterday and told me that he was sore. The only thing that was really bothering me was my stomach. I went to a party last night and then headed over to a lounge for a little bit. I ate a breadstick around 10 and was in bed by 11. When I ran it truly felt like I had just eaten that breadstick before heading out the door. I am *definitely* not one of those people who can eat before they run. It almost got to the point that the port-o-pot was going to be too far to go, but thankfully I made it. After that stop, my stomach felt much better.

Tomorrow is a holiday for us at work, that I need greatly. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about training. J and I were going to do the workout in the morning and then I would do my easy run in the afternoon. We're playing it by ear since there is a winter storm heading our way. They say that the morning is going to be pretty ugly with snow and turning into rain in the afternoon. Right now they are classifying the storm as a nuisance, so it should not be too much snow. Other than that, mom and I may be going out to lunch at Panera Bread Company so that I can get soup in a bread bowl. Probably not much shopping since I hit most of the places that I buy clothes today and only found two pairs of pants that I bought up!

Hope everyone enjoys the holiday!

Posted by Blondie at 6:06 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2005

A Cold 16

Not going to happy hour after work yesterday was probably the best part of my day. Not having breakfast did affect me all day yesterday and may have been affecting me this morning. I was starving all afternoon and evening, the morning was not too bad since I was so busy with all of the problems going on at work. I think that it may have been one of the factors influencing my run this morning.

It was quite cold this morning, especially by my standards. It was sixteen degrees out with a windchill of about six when I woke up. I put on my new Gore-Tex windstopper pants, which I have only gotten to wear once. I'm not sure how much I like them because the front of the pants does not have any spandex/lycra in them, so they don't stretch much when you run. On top I had on a thin long sleeve, a thin fleece, and my new, quite heavy, Gore-Tex jacket. On my head went my thick hat and gloves with socks over them for my hands. I was quite comfortable for the entire run, I may have been a touch on the warm side as I was coming back, but only for about 10 minutes.

My plan this morning was to do 16 again, on the out and back course. There were probably about ten of us doing the out and back, a few were running longer, like 18 to 20, but I'm not doing a marathon so I only "need" to do 16. We kind of ended up breaking up into groups of two, I of course, ended up with my tri-buddy J. J is in the best running shape that I have ever seen him in, he even says that he is probably close to the best running shape he's been in since he ran in college. We ran out about a minute faster than we did two weeks ago. When we got to the turn around, I had to stop to fix my shoes and others wanted to make potty breaks of fuel up. It would have been nice to wait and regroup, but I was getting cold so I started running again. A bunch of the guys followed about thirty seconds later. I ran by myself for the first half of the way back in until J caught up to me on one of the hills. We ran together for a while and then he surged ahead. My stomach was not acting up too much, but it was not on its best behavior, either. I finished the 16 mile loop in about 1:53 which is plenty fast for me.

I got out of my wet tops and drove over to the gym. I had to take the way out of the way route since the bridge is out on the short route. By the time I got to the gym I was freezing even though the wet shirts were off. I dried my hair and put on dry clothes. I rode the bike for an hour while reading the newest issue of People. I stretched out some and then lifted. The thing about lifting is, I don't know that I really get anything out of it since I always do it at the end of my workout and have practically no strength left.

The rest of the day has laundry on tap. I must own 30 or more sports bras and I'm down to the ones that I hate to wear. Same for shirts and pants, I'm wearing the ones that aren't as comfortable or have bad memories associated with them. Laundry is a task that I absolutely abhore. I prefer to hang it out to dry. We have had days warm enough to do that, but I've had to work on those days and by the time I get home from work it isn't light enough out to hang the laundry out. Today it's going to have to go on the drying rack, it'll freeze if I hung it out!

Posted by Blondie at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2005

No Happy Hour

OK, so I am probably one of the few people who after a *really* stressful Friday at work decides to bag happy hour. I am not a huge fan of the watering hole that was selected and really just wanted to get away from my colleagues. I will be eating dinner tonight, thankfully, but did really mess my body up since I did not get to eat breakfast this morning. I usually eat about an hour after I get to work since my sensitive tummy does not want to accept any food until around 8. There was an incident involving one of my students on the school bus this morning and I had to wait with him and his mother for the police to arrive and resolve the issue. This issue did not get resolved until close to 11 in the morning and I never even made it to getting my breakfast.

One of my big fears of going to happy hour was to rant and rave about how unprofessional and out of line one of my colleagues was during this situation. She had no business getting involved and she was giving the parent incorrect information. She was not going to go and I did not want to say anything to people who may like her (not many do) or that would get back to her.

Instead, I went to the gym and rode the bike very easily for 40 minutes and stretched. I then went to Trader Joe's and picked up some food that we need. I also got some daisies for my mom. She isn't feeling so hot today, the chemo is making her more nauseous this time around. Today was a good day to take off from running since it is cold and blustery round here. Of course it should be like that tomorrow morning when I head out for my long run.

Hope everyone has great weekends!! It's a three-dayer for me :)

Posted by Blondie at 5:51 PM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2005

Has Anyone Else Noticed...

...that the days are getting much longer? The sun is coming out earlier and it is staying light much later. I have been noticing this for the past few days when I'm leaving for work. The sun has been starting to peek out. There is just something so discouraging about being at work and the sun not being out yet. Tonight the sun was still out for the first two intervals. It'll be spring before we know it!!

The sun was most definitely not out for my run this morning. I don't know that it will ever be out for my pre-work runs, I'm pretty sure that the sun never comes up before 5:00 AM. There was nothing really exciting about my run this morning. I actually saw three people out, one woman walking her dogs and two women walking together. There are very few people up at that hour, I take notice of the houses while I'm out. Running that early is gettin easier for me to do. I ended up doing 4 miles, completely untimed, since who can really run fast that early?

I am convinced that naps are required on these days. I'm practically falling asleep after the students leave school. Tomorrow should be an easy day for us since most of the students have said that they are not coming. Monday is a holiday, one district is closed, two are not providing transportation, and most of the other students have reported that they aren't going to come.

Tonight was week number 3 of doing the hills. The only objective was to get up and down the hill four times tonight. J said to do 4 and stay as relaxed as possible. Unlike last week, I finished feeling as though I could do another hill. I was very well behaved, I did the 4 hills in a few ticks under 29 minutes for what we think is a little bit over four miles. Each interval is just over a mile. The first 300 meters or so are flat, then it climbs pretty steeply for 500 meters, you turn around at the top and come back down. The downhill is what causes some people in our group injury since it is so steep. We did the warm down for a total of just over 9 miles for the night, and giving me a little over 13 for the day.

Tomorrow is off from running and we're planning on going to happy hour after work. I hope to go to the gym and ride the bike so that I can loosen my legs up some. I also scheduled a massage for Sunday afternoon which is much needed.

Posted by Blondie at 8:15 PM | Comments (1)

February 16, 2005

Wickedly Windy

The forecast for today was for rain. Well, I was convinced that the weatherman was wrong. While I was at work it looked sunny and beautiful outside. Around 1:00 it started to look like it might rain. About half an hour later it was raining and by the time I was leaving it was raining pretty hard. After my nap it sounded like it was still raining, but by the time I headed out the door the rain had stopped, but the wind had picked up. There were wind gusts well into the 40 mph range. The sun was even making another appearance by the time I was finishing up. When I was watching the weather tonight, they said that the temperature had hit 62 degrees earlier in the day...the temperature dropped by over twenty degrees in less than two hours.

In a way it was a good thing that I was feeling really tired this afternoon. Wednesday is supposed to be my very easy day during the week. By being tired and having the strong wind I was able to run very easy. I did not even bother putting my watch on since I knew that it would be slow running into the wind. One thing that absolutely sucks about the wind is that no matter which direction you're going, it seems as though you are always running into the wind. It was never once at my back.

I don't know what is going on with my stomach. It seems as if every time I go out for a run is when it decides it needs to go to the bathroom. Lucky for me, on Wednesdays it decides this before I get to the port-o-pot so I can use the proper facilities. Sometimes I try to run through the feeling, because I know that I have to learn how to deal with it in races, but I'm not so sure that is good for my health.

My ankle was feeling a little bit better today...I used my brain and wore sneakers to work. We really are not supposed to, but my supervisors never really notice. At least I have a pair of clean trail running shoes that I can wear to work. There are a few other pairs of sneakers I can wear that look kind of funky with my dress outfits. Riding the bike after running irritated it more than anything else.

Tonight is bill night before getting in bed early for the early morning. I hate having to part with my money, but I love to shop, so it is a necessary evil!

Posted by Blondie at 6:39 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2005

About a Million Times Better

Looking back at yesterday's entry makes me realize how bitchy I sounded. It is 100 percent the weather's fault...it is really hard to have a good day when it is really crappy out. Seriously, when you're already having a not so great day and it's windy and raining out it can really affect my mood. Work was not any better than usual today, but sunny skies and temperatures in the mid to upper 50s made me much happier today.

The right ankle is starting to concern me. Of course, I am a complete and total idiot and do not wear good shoes for work. Boots yesterday, and even worse, high heels today. Neither of these pairs of shoes have any kind of support or stability. Today I was smart enough to take of my heels for a good portion of the day. Walking around with no shoes on does not hurt it at all, but putting shoes on irritates it. I also iced it twice during the day at work today. The tendon on the very outside of my right foot is the one that is slightly discolored. It was kind of swollen after I stood on it for forty minutes today.

This afternoon was the longer run of the week. It felt pretty decent once I got moving. My ankle was not too much of an issue. Murphy's Law struck today: about 3/4 mile past the port-o-pot, nature was calling and I had to use my shrubs again. When I ran by the potty, there was no indication that I was going to need to use it, but by the time I had the sensation it was not worth turning around to go back. The run was a little bit slower than it was last week, but the last portion was quite a bit faster. No sweat, I can tell that I am tired. I called to schedule a massage this week, but the therapist hasn't returned my call yet.

After the run I headed over to the gym. I rode the bike for 45 minutes, stretched, and lifted some. The massage should really hit the spot. I need all that gunk flushed out of my legs.

Thank you for the encouraging comments to have a better day today, they were very much appreciated!

Posted by Blondie at 8:02 PM | Comments (2)

February 14, 2005

Feeling Crabby

Today has just been one of those days that is not a "good" day. There has not been anything to make it particularly bad, but I just have not been in the best of moods. It really does not bother me that I do not have someone for Valentine's Day, today would have been a crabby day no matter what.

I got going nice and early this morning. It really is amazing how I don't even think about anything before heading out the door on my morning run. One thing that I have noticed is that because I'm thinking so much about where I am stepping and so concerned that I can not see anything, it feels like a much longer run than it actually is. This morning's run was four miles in 31 minutes, but it felt like a forty minute run. The ankle was acting OK for me this morning. I was very happy that the rain hadn't moved in yet.

Work was terrible as always. That was probably the biggest influence in my bad mood today. I really must find a new job because this one just makes me so unhappy all the time. The only bright spot in the day at work was that our supervisor gave us a Valentine's present and let us leave 45 minutes early. Our students can not handle a full day of school and leave at 1:00 but the staff needs to stay until 3:00. Let me tell ya, it is awfully boring. There is not nearly enough paperwork to do to fill up two hours every afternoon.

The final straw in influencing my crabbiness had to be the weather. Around 7:45 this morning, it starte to sleet. The rest of the day was just grey and rainy. On top of the wetness, the winds picked up quite a bit as the day went on. Not conditions that I had any desire to run in.

Only a few of us showed up for the workout tonight. As we did the warm-up, we made the decision that with the conditions we would not really get any benefit out of the track workout. We did our river loop with some pick-ups in it. Tonight was one of those nights where all I can say is that I made it through. I felt tired and slow. One of the hardest things for me was that I did not know how long each pick-up was going to be. I was getting a "hot spot" on the ball of my right foot under the big toe which was making running a little uncomfortable towards the end of the run. We ended up with just over 9 miles, giving me 13 for the day.

I hope that tomorrow I am back to being positive. Sorry to be so negative tonight, but it is just one of those days. Hope that everyone had a good Valentine's Day!

Posted by Blondie at 7:59 PM | Comments (2)

February 13, 2005

Very Easy Morning

Two of the men in our group host a party every year. They always have it on the Saturday of Valentine's weekend (always the night of our tempo run). It really is a fun party...they have a theme, but I'm not going to tell what it is. Everyone is supposed to bring drinks and appetizers to share. Instead of bringing a beverage, since they had so much wine last year, and not enough food, I cooked up a storm yesterday. As always, it was a fun night. My training partner was wasted, and dancing up a storm. Somehow, I was picked as his dancing partner and ended up being thrown around the dance floor. My already tender ankle, taped and in boots, was not appreciative of his actions.

My ankle was quite tender this morning as a result of last night's dancing. The original plan had been to run on grass this morning to save my legs from the increased mileage on pavement, but given the tender state of the ankle, running on uneven surfaces did not seem like such a good idea. This morning was probably one of the slowest runs I've ever done when there is no snow on the ground. Since I was cooking all day, I never got a chance to go for a walk and stretch out on the foam roller. My legs were so tight. When I stopped to cross the major road and stretched some, it felt so good.

The rest of the day today involved going to visit my grandmother. We had a nice visit, my uncle showed up with his puppy. Her 90th birthday is in two weeks, and she is just as kicking as a 90 year old really can be. I ran some errand with the high point being going to the local running shop to buy some new socks.

I plan to turn in early tonight to get up for my morning run. The forecast is saying "cold rain". Not exactly my idea of fun. I have to get my parent's Valentine's cards ready to hide...

Posted by Blondie at 6:30 PM | Comments (1)

February 12, 2005

Annual 10 Mile Tempo Run

One of the workouts our group does every year is a 10 mile tempo run. We always do it the Saturday closest to Valentine's Day which has led to some pretty ugly conditions in some years. Two years ago we did the run in a snowstorm leading into a blizzard. The weather this year was not too terrible, it was chilly and windy. The wind was not too bad for the most part, but at times it was really biting.

This run does not start at the same place as our usual Saturday morning long runs, we meet at the track where we do our workouts. A group of us did the usual track warm up, while others did a shorter warm up. The run goes off in groups, the slowest groups going first and the fastest groups going last-so we can all try to finish closer together. A few weeks ago I gave J my training log so that he could see what I'd been doing. He put some notes in for the coming weeks, one of which was to stay relaxed and aim for anything between 66 and 70 minutes for today's run, depending on the conditions. After being so tired on Thursday night, he changed his tune and said that it should be run right around goal marathon pace if I were to run one this fall. I guess that was about the same kind of pace, but just a different way to think about it.

I went off in the last group. The course is a straight out and back course. It is definitely not an easy course, there are some bitchin hills on it. The way out is more uphill than the way back. A brief, mile by mile description of the course is: miles one through 3 are pretty uphill, mile 3 to 4 is a significant downhill, mile four to five is a hill that never ends, then mile five to six is a really nice downhill, mile six to seven is another long hill, then from seven on in it is pretty much downhill. T took off for the first 3 miles and then started to peter out, which is typical of his running. I really tried to not look at my splits. It isn't something I do that often in races because I really try to run by feel and learn how paces feel without having to depend on my watch. I did take a look at the turnaround, which I hit in about 34:04. I was feeling pretty good on the way back until around the 7 mile point. Two things happened there: two 18 wheelers came by me and made me come to almost a complete stop with the wind and my stomach really started to cramp on me. I backed off some then because I did not know what would happen with my stomach. Even with the cramping, I was able to finish strong in 66:45.

Three of us went on the regular warm down. We ran it really easy, since two of us were not feeling so great. My ankle did not bother me while doing the tempo run, but it was sore after I stopped. I think that I would have been better on the warm down if I had never stopped. As soon as I got done the tempo part of the run, I was laying on the ground in a ball.

My traing buddy, the triathlete J, was on patrol this morning. He drove up and down the course giving us some encouragement. I flipped him the bird a few times because he was giving me such a hard time. He kept telling me that I was slowing down and the people behind me were catching me. I know that it is not a race, but you never want to be the one who pushes the pace and then blows up.

I went over to the gym and my stomach was giving me lots of trouble the whole time. I did manage to ride the bike for about 50 minutes. I did some lifting, not as much as I would have liked, but it is difficult to lift when you have run 15 miles and gotten sick so that there is nothing left in your system. I had to run into the bathroom at the gym about 4 times because the cramping in my stomach was so bad. At this point, there is nothing left to get rid of.

I have a party to go to tonight, so the rest of the afternoon is preparing appetizers to take with me. I would like to take a walk in the afternoon so that I can warm up my legs to be able to stretch. Hope that everyone is having enjoyable weekends!

Posted by Blondie at 12:13 PM | Comments (1)

February 10, 2005

OK, the Calendar is Right

Today definitely felt like February. In fact, it was one of those weird days where it is warmer in the morning than it is in the afternoon. The temperature dropped pretty steadily and the wind picked up throughout the day. By the time this evening's workout rolled around, it was pretty darn nippy.

This morning I was out the door to run by 5:05. These early morning runs are getting much easier. It does not take nearly as long to get rolling as it did the first few times. It was raining lightly, so it was not too bad, but I was still grumpy about having to run in the dark and the rain. Luckily, it was not that cold out. My ears were kind of on the cold side since I wore a baseball style cap instead of one of my skull caps. The only thing that was unusal was that I saw three cars in a row!

This afternoon was a completely different story. I was freezing when I got home from work. A 40 minute nap did not do much to help how tired I was and since there is good TV on tonight, I probably won't be in bed as early as I should. The weather really would have been considered on the mild side if we'd been having normal February weather. At least I got to wear my new Gore-Tex pants. I was getting worried that I broke down and bought the good quality warm clothes and the weather changed so that I would not need them anymore.

Tonight, we did week 2 of the hills. Normally, we would have done 4 hill repeats tonight, but we stayed at three. Saturday we have a tough run on the schedule, so most of us wanted to save up some for the long run. I was also quite tired. The past two days have caught up with me. I don't know if I could have done a fourth repeat at all. They were a little bit faster than last week, but not too much. My ankle hurt a little bit less. I wore Merrells to work today instead of heels which did help some. It's on ice right now. I told J that I was very well behaved again tonight and he quipped that I was behaving so well because I'm tired. He may have been right.

My morning run was four miles and the evening workout was a bit over 8 for a total of about 12 1/2 for the day. Tomorrow is a day completely off. Tonight I plan to use the stick and to foam roll in addition to doing some core exercises. Gotta rest up for Saturday...

Posted by Blondie at 7:55 PM | Comments (0)

February 9, 2005

Lemme Check My Calendar...

...because it sure feels like April. Today was the third day in a row with temperatures in the mid/upper fifties. According to the calendar that I have been using, it is still February, and the earlier part of February at that. The weather has been very strange for this time of year. Wearing shorts, comfortably, three days in a row in February is just not normal. Wearing shorts when there is still snow on the ground does not feel right. My suspicion, although I did not get to see the weather, is that the warm temperatures are not here to stay.

Today was just one of those days when everything was feeling pretty darn good. I made it to the two mile point where I have to cross a major road about 20 seconds faster than yesterday. I was really trying to hold back and run easy since tomorrow is a more difficult day. Nature did call again, I should be more prepared because I am notorious for these problems, but the port-o-pot was more accessible. There was some hopping through snow, but the big drift in the front had melted some. This time I may have been able to make it home, but there was a toilet available, it's rather clean, and it is the only one that is on the route-so I used it! I looked at my watch and realized how fast I was running at this point and made a real effort to back off the rest of the way. I ended up with 7 miles in 47:35. My right ankle was acting up towards the end again. It's funny, it hurts the least when I run. It's on ice as I type.

After the debacle yesterday at the gym, I knew that some more needed to be done today. I went over and did 38 minutes on the stationary bike. I had programmed it for 45 minutes, but I was done the magazine I was reading, my legs were feeling tight, and it was getting late. I stretched which helped the tight feeling. Then some lifting, yesterday's pathetic attempt must have done more than I thought since my arms felt pretty darn sore. I need to do some core exercises before bed and set the alarm for 5:00. Tomorrow morning is going to be a real test since they are calling for rain in the morning. Rain is not one of my favorite conditions, and being so early it is going to be extremely unpleasant. My co-workers may have to deal with one really nasty chick tomorrow!

Posted by Blondie at 7:29 PM | Comments (0)

February 8, 2005

When Nature Calls

Today I was not sure if I should go out and run. Now that it is done with, I am still not so sure of my decision. The ankle was feeling sore most of the day. Actually, it is kind of weird, it does not really hurt while I am running. I can feel it most when I am driving, it must be something with the angle of my foot against the acclerator and the brake. It bothered me a little bit in the last half mile of my run that involves quite a bit of stopping for traffic, but other than that, I could hardly feel it.

It was another beautiful day in the neighborhood. More like early April than early February. It was about 55 degrees when I headed out the door this afternoon. Suprisingly, I was actually warm! I wore shorts (!), a short sleeve, a light fleece, and gloves. I had my sleeves slightly pushed up for most of the run because I was on the warm side. This beautiful weather is supposed to be heading out of here tomorrow and the rest of the week looks pretty nasty.

I opted to do my back-up long run this afternoon. I was feeling really pretty good until around the 5 mile point when I knew I had to use the bathroom. Even with the warm weather, the snow drifts have not melted and the famous port-o-pot was difficult to access. By the time I reached the six mile point, where I have to stop to cross an 8-lane road, I knew that I was going to have to become one with nature. There are some bushes that hide me from the road that I have scoped out before in an emergency, so I used that as my private bathroom. From that point on, my stomach felt great, but about a mile and a half later my legs started to feel pretty tired from yesterday's workouts. I kept on telling myself only ten more minutes and that I could push through it. At this point, it was pretty clear that the pace had been fast, probably a result of the unusually warm weather. It ended up being 9 miles in 58:30. I meant to do some striders, but I just wanted to get out of my dirty shorts!

I changed and headed over to the gym. While there, I rode the stationary bike for half an hour and read a magazine. I hate when I pick up a magazine that I think I have not read and it turns out that I have read it before. I never realize this until I have already started and do not want to get off the machine. After that I wanted to lift, but the weight area got really busy while I was on the bike. I did a half-assed weight session since I was in a hurry to get to Trader Joe's to pick up some necessities, like dinner food. Tomorrow I'll try to do some more of the weight stuff since I'll have some more time.

Now off to ice!!!

Posted by Blondie at 8:04 PM | Comments (2)

February 7, 2005

What a Difference 12 Hours Makes

To put it mildly, the weather this winter has been bizarre. The weatherman on TV was even talking about how strange the weather has been. We started with an unusually mild December and early January, then had a bitter cold spell in late January, and now we are having springlike weather. It has either been well above average or well below average, not much around average.

I woke up early, just before 5:00 to run. I could not stay up to watch all of the Superbowl. My stomach was really acting up last night and I was tired, so I made the decision that although I wanted to see the Eagles play, it was not in my best interest to force myself to stay awake. The part of the game that I saw was actually a game, not a blowout like the Superbowl can be. My mom left me a note on my bathroom mirror to let me know the score, a definite bummer. I had decided that if my stomach was still all bloated when I woke up that I would not go for my morning run, but luckily it only felt tender from being so bloated last night.

Dad remembered to give me his headlamp last night so I did not have to carry a flashlight this morning. It was definitely chilly this morning. I was toasty in my new Gore-Tex jacket, but my fingers were pretty raw even with gloves on. My body is so out of it and still asleep that I don't even know what I am doing until about the turn around point. My stomach was still feeling funny, but I got an early enough start that I could fix that when I got back from the run. I ended up doing 4 miles in about 31 minutes, which considering the sleepy state that I was in isn't too shabby.

J called me on my cell this afternoon as I was pulling into the bank to cash my paycheck (a long story and if y'all heard it, you'd make me quit my job!). He was letting me know that he was not going to be able to make the workout since he had to work overtime and to give me instructions for what to do. We also discussed how my body is handling the higher mileage. Anyhow, the workout was either four loops like we did last week or four 800s on the track.

Given the very warm temperatures today(I even wore shorts, in February!!), the track was clear. We did the 2 1/2 mile warm up, which was feeling very fast. C has a tendency to do the warm up and warm down faster than the actual workout. We got started on the workout and I was feeling OK, not fast, but not slow. This was really the first workout that I've done since before Thanksgiving, so it was hard to judge where I should be. My tri buddy J and I ended up running together. We did 2:59, 2:58, and 2:59 for the first three 800s with our 400 recovery right around 1:48. J took off on the last 800, but I still ran another 2:58. The goal is to try to keep the recoveries on the faster side. This makes me stronger and more consistent, as well as teaching myself how to run fast on tired legs. We did 2 1/2 miles to warm down, a total of 8 miles for the night and 12 miles for the day.

I have to do some core exercises while watching TV tonight and then hit the sack early. I can "feel" my right ankle, it doesn't really hurt, but it is not right. I'm icing it as I type. It doesn't look swollen, but it does look a bit purple. I'll just keep an eye on it for the next few days.

Posted by Blondie at 7:49 PM | Comments (0)

February 6, 2005

GO EAGLES!!!!!

I'll keep my football cheering brief, as I know that as an Eagles fan I'm in the minority here. Anyways, tonight we'll be chillin in my parents room watching the Eagles in the Superbowl. Since we don't have cable and get crummy TV reception, only the 13 inch TV in my parents room gets FOX. The game will probably go on past my bedtime, but since the Eagles are playing I feel obligated to at least watch until the game is over.

I woke up this morning with a pounding headache. I had a small dinner last night and then met a friend from high school for drinks. After that I went to a party that a co-worker's boyfriend was having. In retrospect, one too many glasses of wine was probably consumed given the amount of activity during the day. Taking two Advil immediately after getting out of bed did help, but the headache did not start to subside for about 40 minutes.

The fresh air during my run helped my head feel much better. Considering yesterday's long run, my legs felt really pretty good. Taking a short (a little over a mile) walk yesterday afternoon and then stretching and using The Stick and the foam roller helped immensely. There was just no energy or pep going to my legs this morning. Hey, I get what I deserve for not eating enough (really not my fault) and drinking too much (that was my fault).

It almost felt like a fall morning this morning when I did get out to run. It was about 44 degrees and sunny. I didn't have to wear a hat or a jacket, just gloves. Now, I still think that 44 is chilly and not nearly warm enough for shorts, but it was really pretty. There was quite a bit of wind which was making my run feel even more difficult than it should have felt.

I ran very very easy for just under 7 miles today. That gave me 64 miles for the week. That is my highest mileage week in nearly two years. For the most part, my body feels good. I must have turned my right ankle at some point because it is a little bit tender. I felt it a little bit on Friday when I was walking around. It started to feel sore at the end of yesterday's long run, but not too bad. I've been icing it a few times a day and trying to massage it to get the blood flowing better. My main problem is sleepiness; getting up at 5 in the morning to run is very difficult for me. Once I get used to that hour it should not be too bad.

Posted by Blondie at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

February 5, 2005

Unintended Long Run

Yesterday, being Friday, was my usual day off. Having added a couple of morning runs, therefore increasing my mileage, has made me think that taking the day completely off is probably in my best interest until my body can get used to the extra miles.

Yesterday in the afternoon, I met my mom at the salon where we both get our hair cut. She was getting her hair cut really short. Mom is one of the only women in their late 50s who I know who looks really good with longer hair. Her hair is this beautiful white/silver color and really silky smooth. She thought it would be less traumatic when it falls out to have short pieces come out instead of longer pieces.

After her haircut, I did some shopping. It is really a downfall of mine. I love clothes and especially love to get good clothes on sale. This is the time of year to stock up on nice sweaters! Anyhow, I also had to go to the Verizon store to update my calling plan and decided to get a new phone while I was at it. I ended up with a new camera phone that I still need to figure out how to use.

The only "working out" I did yesterday was about 25 minutes of core exercises before I went to bed. This morning I got up early for our 7 AM long run. My stomach felt really bloated when I got in bed which was a concern for me. It still felt a little bit on the bloated side when I got up. This morning was almost 30 degrees warmer than last week! I didn't have to wear quite as much clothing as I have been recently. Some of the guys we run with even had on shorts!!! No shorts for me, long pants, a long sleeve shirt, a fleece, gloves, and a hat. I ended up taking my hat off towards the end and having to unzip the fleece, but I was comfortable.

The original plan was to run somewhere between 1:40 and 1:45 today. There is a half-marathon in March that I am thinking about running. I was concerned that I would not have any long runs in before this race and I would really like to do well in it. After hemming and hawing with the group on the run, I decided that I would do the full out and back. There was a group planning on 1:25 to 1:30, but the last thing I wanted to do was get back to the school and have to add on 20 minutes. Two or three minutes I can handle adding on, but 20 minutes is almost three miles of adding on. I figured if the run was feeling really bad, I could always throw the towel in early and walk the final mile or so.

Four of us ended up doing the full 16 mile out and back course. It runs along a wooded road, one side of it kinds of reminds you of Dances With Wolves. There is a creek and lots of wooded area, it is really pretty. Anyhow, we run out to a post office/convenience store/gas station area. A and I both had to use the facilities at the halfway point. I thought that my stomach still had the bloating problem, but nothing happened in the pitt stop. We made it out to the turnaround in about 59:20. This was a little bit uncomfortable for me. All four of us tried to stay together on the way out. I knew that to make it up the hills comfortably and feeling strong, I would need to run more of my own pace on the way back. I felt really strong on the way back, especially on the hills. Maybe doing the hill workouts are finally starting to pay off for me. I finished in 1:52:28, coming back significantly faster than going out.

When I got back, J told me that he screwed up so much that I can do whatever I want for the next two weeks. He keeps telling me to back off and let things come to me, but he goes and runs 13 hilly miles today. He's still struggling with injuries. He said, "what kind of leader am I? Telling everyone to take it easy and I can't even do it myself". He did suggest that I go walk some today to shake out my legs from today. I haven't run much over 90 minutes since early October, so this was a bit of a shock to my system.

After running I went to the gym to workout. I rode the stationary bike for an hour while reading Glamour and Marie Claire. I made sure to stretch some after the riding. I think that it helps to work the lactic acid out of my legs. The elliptical does some too, but I tend to work too hard on that. I lifted for about 40 minutes after that. My stomach started to feel weird as soon as I got off the bike. It has calmed down some now, but it could come and go for the rest of the day.

Since we are supposed to have temperatures close to 50 degrees today, I'm going to see if my mom wants to go for a walk sometime this afternoon. Nothing very long, probably only about 15 minutes. If she is not feeling good, I won't force her to do it. The fresh air would be good for her, and the blood flowing would be good for both of us!

Posted by Blondie at 11:57 AM | Comments (5)

February 3, 2005

Drug-Induced Sleep

Generally I do not like to take anything to make me sleep. Although I have had sleeping issues for years, I prefer to let nature take its path-eventually my body will make me sleep. Knowing that I was going to have to get up super-duper early this morning, I took some of the prescribed medicine that I have. I made sure that I took it really early in the evening so that I would fall asleep early and not feel like I was a zombie when I went out to run. It worked...I fell asleep early and slept straight through the night. I still felt like a zombie when I was running, but I think that is to be expected when it is only 5:15 in the morning.

This morning's run was rather uneventful. The roads were not too bad and it was not all that cold. A few spots were still on the icy side, but they were pretty obvious. While I was out I got to thinking that I miss having a running partner at times. I do enjoy getting to run alone, but sometimes I would really appreciate some company. It would make the time go faster and it would be so much easier to have to meet someone when it is only 5:15 in the morning and very cold. The main problem is that I have sort of earned the reputation of someone who is not that easy to run with...at least from some of the women around. Most of the guys end up wanting to push harder so that they can shake the girl, so those runs end up being way to hard. Oh, well.

Tonight we started to do the hills. My only objective was to get up and down the hill. Sometimes I get "interval" face on which is almost as bad as race face. This usually happens when certain people come to the track. I feel like I have to beat them for whatever reason, probably to keep my racing instincts sharp. Tonight I was very well behaved. One of the individuals who brings that out in me was at the track. The only workouts she ever does are the hills and she really pushes the hills. J reminded me to just go up and down and let the hills come to me in the next few weeks. After all, I am adding quite a bit of mileage. Both runs today came to about 13 miles, 4 in the morning and 9 in the evening.

Eagles fever is all around. Tomorrow I'm wearing my Eagles green sweater to work. I can't wear any of my official t-shirts, they're just too casual for the workplace. So far I'm just hanging out at home to watch the game since I can't really have too much fun because 5:00 is very early in the morning. GO EAGLES!!!!!

Mom is feeling a little sick to her stomach today. She feels more like she has a bad sinus headache than anything, she gets sick to her stomach when she gets those. The nurse told her today that people who have headaches tend to get that feeling after chemo treatments. She's going to get her haircut tomorrow and I'm meeting her at the salon after work. Her decision was that she would be in charge of losing her hair and just get it cut before it starts to fall out. All of her doctors told her that she is going to lose her hair. I think that next weekend we might be going to buy her wig. She got flowers from my brother, my dad, and a colleague...our house is virtually a flower shop. Our allergies are going to be out of control!!

Posted by Blondie at 8:13 PM | Comments (0)

February 2, 2005

Early to bed, early to rise

First, a little bit of venting. I finally returned the call from the guy who I'm kinda, sorta dating last night. Returning phone calls is not always one of my strong points. So, he isn't there and I leave a message saying I'm about to go to bed, call me tomorrow. What does he do? He calls back an hour later to see if I might still be up!!!! Big, huge turnoff...he does not listen. I had the worst time getting back to sleep after the phone was ringing. Seeing as tomorrow is a 5 AM morning, I'm taking something to help me get some sleep tonight (I'm still having trouble) and turning the ringer on the phone off.

This afternoon I was not sure how my run would feel. All day my legs felt fine, but in general I am very sleepy. This sleepiness is a result of not getting enough sleep for a variety of reasons in the past two weeks. My legs are feeling a little on the tight side, but some good stretching should help out that situation. This afternoon I was practically naked when I ran. I only had on light pants, a long sleeve shirt, a jacket, earband and gloves. Early on this felt like it may have been too much, but about two miles from home I did start to feel a bit chilly. It was actually a pretty good run. I didn't time it because my stomach just wasn't feeling it today. Anyhow, with starting to do doubles I'm just going out and getting the mileage in. I did 7 miles and then finally got some striders in at the end. The street is finally clear enough that doing some striders is safe.

Mom was home from her first chemo treatment when I got back. Our neighbor, who has been a wonderful friend, was over visiting. T has had breast cancer 3 times and is just a great person for my mom to be able to talk to, since she actually knows what she is going through. We visited for a little bit and then T had to go. I rode the stationary bike in the basement for 42 minutes. After catching up on everyone else's blogs I've got to do some core exercises and then go to bed very early. At least tonight is a crappy TV night!

Posted by Blondie at 7:20 PM | Comments (0)

February 1, 2005

Your Eyes Are Getting Heavy

Pretty much all day today I've felt like my eyes are going to shut and I'm going to be in a dead sleep. Last night was a much better night of sleep, but it was not quite enough to make up for Sunday night. Walking around in a chronic state of sleep deprivation is not good for the health, yet most of our society does it on a daily basis. My nap after work just made me realize exactly how tired I am. I was out like a light and had some trouble getting moving again.

So it was almost tropical out this afternoon with temperatures in the high 30s. That is not to say that I was by any means warm, but it was certainly nice to not need to wear five pounds of clothing! I was concerned about how I would feel after yesterday's double. J had called and told me to cut back both today and Wednesday so that my mileage does not spike too quickly. Once I got going, I didn't really feel bad, just tired. Not tired like after a long run kind of tired, tired like I really want to lay down and get more sleep kind of tired. I ended up not cutting back this afternoon and ran my 9 mile route. Since my stomach had been feeling funky all day long, I did not time the run. I was not sure what was going to happen with my tummy. My mom makes fun of me because I swear that the brand of some kinds of food affects my stomach. She says it can not be so, but the only thing that changed was the kind of pretzels we bought and this problem has only surfaced since those pretzels were opened.

After I got done running I changed into dry clothes and headed over to the gym. My legs did feel a touch on the tight side, so I wanted to ride the bike some to flush out the lactic acid that has built up over the past couple of days. I rode the bike for 40 minutes and then did a better job than usual of stretching. I lifted and did push-ups on the BOSU ball which totally impressed the guy who was stretching on the mat. He was amazed that I didn't do the girly push-ups AND made them harder by using the BOSU. I wanted to lift some more but I was tired and hungry, so I headed home to make my dinner. I have to do some core work tonight since I skipped it yesterday because all I wanted to do was go to bed.

Posted by Blondie at 7:59 PM | Comments (0)