The Long Run

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April 30, 2005

Rainy Day Blues

Today is just one of those days that there really did not seem to be much of a reason to get up and get going. It is just a typical April kind of day-rainy, cool, gray, etc. Lucky for me, I don't really have much to do today. Having a race tomorrow gives me a nice excuse to stay in all day and keep my feet up! I did sleep in this morning and then just hung out for a while. The conditions outside did not make me want to get dressed and head outside.

Well, I finally got myself out. Part of the reason that I had no desire to get out was that today was only a short, easy run. It just kept getting put off. It's really ironic, when I have a long run scheduled, I want to get out and get going; but when I have a short run, I try to put it off until the last minute. It is some kind of mental problem. I have the same problem with the workout before a race. The workout is shorter and should be easy, but I have the mentality that it should be easy, but in reality it is still a tough workout.

I ended up doing about 5 miles around the local neighborhoods. My legs felt funny, but that is how they normally feel the day before a race. It was kind of cool, kind of warm. I had on long sleeves, shorts, a jacket and a cap. I was kind of warm, but would rather be warm than wet. There was quite a bit of wind as well. The forecast for tomorrow looks significantly better than today. It should be cool and cloudy, but that's fine. Last year it was warm and a humid with a headwind-almost the worst conditions possible for this race.

I was going to go to Penn Relays today. I haven't gone in two years. I tried to enter the OD 5000 last year-I should have entered the 10,000 but I didn't know any better. I was going to try to enter this year, but Broad Street was my original goal and running a 10K on the track three days before is just a stupid idea. The problem I have going on Thursday night is that I have to get up so early for work, I would have to take Friday off. I was not sure if anyone I knew was going today, the weather sucks, and it is better to be at home having a race on Sunday. I really should take advantage of the fact that the Relays are so close to home. Maybe I'll be the social director of our track group next year and organize a trip to go up and watch next year instead of doing the workout.

My right foot is still a little on the sore side. I have not been paying enough attention to it. I tore the base of my right Achilles when I was in college and swimming. Yes, it was a swimming injury. I had the most obscure injuries as a swimmer. Anyhow,when I don't pay attention to it, my plantar screams at me. Some extra stretching and some TLC and I should be happy again. The fact that I am a toe/forefoot runner just aggravates my Achilles even more. I'm just working on nipping it in the bud.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and I'll have a report tomorrow!

Posted by Blondie at 01:00 PM | Comments (1)

April 29, 2005

Ineffective Training

This title is not in reference to running, it is in reference to my inservice day today. It was all about PBS (Positive Behavior Systems) which is actually a very effective system. The problem is that in my school it will never, ever be effective. In order for it to work, the whole staff has to be on board (including the administration). The problem is that in my school, it is the supervisor's way or the highway. Everything depends on what kind of mood she is in. There is no consistency and everyone other than herself sees that. OK, that was enough.

This afternoon I went shopping to buy some cute summer clothes. I also looked at some running clothes, but I need those like I need a hole in my head. All right, cute summer clothes aren't that necessary either, but....I found some awesome sales and clothes in my size.

Oh yeah, I did work out a little bit this afternoon. I rode the stationary bike for an hour this afternoon. L was at the gym and we talked the whole time that we were on the bikes. It really made the hour fly by. I have not seen her in about two months, so we got to catch up on all the gossip.

I can "feel" my right plantar wanting to act up. I'll ice it and stretch it more. It never wants to act up when I do high mileage, it wants to do something whenever I cut my mileage.

Tonight I ate my good dinner to get ready for Sunday. I usually eat my big dinner two nights before. This way my stomach has digested everything ahead of time and there are no potty issues come mile 8. I won't eat any veggies tomorrow. Nothing that can rush through the digestive system, just bland and binding foods.

Well, I want to catch up with everyone else and be able to ice my foot before it's time to go to bed.

Posted by Blondie at 07:08 PM | Comments (2)

April 28, 2005

Like a Leaf...

...floating in the wind. OK, so today was not nearly as graceful as a leaf floating and fluttering in the wind. The wind was just freaking ridiculous. I tried to nap after work and kept being woken by the gusts of wind. This morning was calm and peaceful, but by afternoon it was a different story.

It goes without saying that I was very happy that I was not doing the workout tonight. The schedule called for ? x 800-seriously, that is what was written. My assigned workout was to do 6 200s, but I could not justify only doing 6, so I did 8 to make it an even 7 miles for the evening. The wind made any running extremely difficult. For some reason the track that we train on seems to have wind no matter what the actual weather conditions are. On top of that, when it is windy, the wind is always in your face. It seems to defy the laws of logic, but that is how it always feels.

Tonight I did not feel quite as fresh as I have the rest of this week. The right calf seems to be tightening up again. I made a point to stretch it more. I have also been making sure to wear nice, sensible shoes rather than cute shoes to work. I was going to take an ice bath tonight, but i didn't have enough cash to buy ice after my other errands and my mom's "girls" were over. Drinking wine with the girls definitely won out over sitting in a bathtub filled with ice.

Anyhow, I'm feeling ready for Sunday. I am excited to race in a good field. The weather looks conducive to fast times...cool. Broad Street is the kind of race that sets up well for fast times as long as you have good conditions. Last year it was warm and humid with a head wind-times were a good two minutes or more off of where they probably should have been. My ride on Sunday is going to the expo for me to pick up my packet. I have a love-hate relationship with expos. They can be enjoyable, but for the most part they are a pain in the ass.

Well, that's about all for tonight. Hopefully I can still see some of the TV shows that I like, but it seems doubtful now.

Posted by Blondie at 08:51 PM | Comments (1)

April 27, 2005

Must've Jinxed Myself

After all the bitching and complaining that I have done about waking up before my alarm clock, I slept through it this morning! I woke up and looked at the clock and thought, "Damn it! I woke up early AGAIN!!". After laying there for a few minutes, it registered that I had hit snooze in my sleep without realizing it and slept through the alarm. It was actually about 5 minutes later than wake up time!!! It must have been my body telling me that it needed some more rest than it was getting.

As promised, there will be no complaining about work. It was a tough day. That is all I will say. I had to leave early so that I could pick my mom up from her treatment. She only has one more to go, so the finish line is definitely in sight. One of her liver tests had been abnormal, but that was a reaction to the drug in the clinical trial that they took her off. She is handling this set of treatment much better than the first set. She says that she has been experiencing some bone pain and joint soreness, but it is much better to deal with than the nausea from the first round. Her doctor said that her red blood cell count was on the low side, so she is getting a RBC booster tomorrow as well as the white blood cell count booster. She didn't think that she had been exceptionally tired the past two weeks, but she also knew that she had not been eating as much red meat which seemed to help keep the RBC up. I did pick up some iron pills for her this afternoon when I was out doing some errands.

Running this afternoon was pretty uneventful. The weather was not really sure what it wanted to do. It was spitting some and then would be sunny. I'm pretty sure that I heard some bolts of thunder as I was heading home, but the storm never materialized. The only eventful part of the run was that I *really* had to use the bathroom and could not find a secluded area to use. My legs felt much fresher than they have on a Wednesday is several weeks. I did seven easy miles and six striders.

There was no time to go to the gym since I had to do some errands. It won't help me or hurt me any this week. It could probably hurt more than anything since it will make me a little more tired. I get to "sleep in" on Friday since we have an inservice day, so we don't have to report until a normal working person hour, 8:00. The extra sleep will be greatly beneficial!

Posted by Blondie at 08:04 PM | Comments (1)

April 26, 2005

Nothing Special Day

For the past few weeks my body has gotten into the habit of waking up anywhere from one to ten minutes before the alarm clock is set to go off. Normally this would not be much of a problem since it means that my body should be getting enough sleep. My philosophy is a little bit different though. I think that I have been waking up slightly before the annoying beep is going to start because my ears just do not want to hear the beeping. There are not many other explanations for waking up so early (other than having to make the bathroom trip, which may be some of the issue). This is not particularly relevant, just something that I have been noticing over the past few weeks.

Onto running...today's weather seemed like it would be perfect for running, while I was inside. It was sunny, not too hot or cold. From inside school it looked like it would be perfect. Once I stepped outside, I knew that it was not a perfect running day. The wind was blowing like crazy. I woke up from my nap and my stomach was feeling funny and I still felt tired. I got dressed in my running clothes and opted not to wear a watch. Once I got moving, my stomach did not feel that bad and my legs felt pretty fresh. Since I am cutting back, I only did seven miles today. When it is windy, it takes so much more effort to run at the same intensity. About two-thirds of this afternoon's run was right into the wind. By the last half mile I felt whipped. I got home and changed into my flats and did my six striders. By this point, I just was not feeling like running anymore. One indication that it was windy was that the garbage tubs were knocked over. These tubs are nearly as big as I am!

I went to the gym and saw S who was supposed to race with us this weekend, but he just found out that he has a stress fracture in his second toe. He was riding the bike wearing his boot. He says that he is still planning on coming up to see the finish and then going out to brunch. I rode the bike for forty minutes and then did some lifting. The weight area was crowded again today.

My dad is coming home early tonight to help me with my resume and cover letter. We really need me to get out of my job. I've said it before, but some days I really wonder why I bother. OK, I've just made a rule for myself...no more bitching about my job. One day I'll let everyone know just how bad this position is, but not until I have something new!

Posted by Blondie at 07:54 PM | Comments (1)

April 25, 2005

Sort of Taper

Tonight is my last real scheduled workout for this week. The rest of this week is a "taper" week leading into Broad Street. This is one of my favorite races-there's a huge field, the course is fast and flat (OK, slightly downhill) and the weather is usually cooperative. Even the years that I have not had good races at BSR, I've run well. J and I had decided early on that this was one of the races that we wanted to focus on this year. That being said, I am not going to screw things up by doing too much this week. I read somewhere that your body does not feel the effects of any workout for ten days. That being said, all I can do this week is too much!

Tonight I was to do the full workout. J called me at work to tell me that he was going to be late because he had to go to his daughter's track meet. He also wanted to know how my weekend had gone and was not surprised to hear that Saturday was so difficult after the massage. J was very late for the track, he didn't get there until I was halfway done the workout. Tonight was 16 x 400 with a 200 jog again. We had a very small group tonight; only five showed up and only three of us were doing the workout. This made the workout much more difficult mentally. Trying to run 10K pace all alone can be challenging, but it only makes me tougher for a race.

I did feel a little bit better tonight than I did last week. It was significantly cooler tonight which made it more comfortable. Around the seventh quarter, I got this stomach pain in my left side that would not go away. It felt kind of like a gas bubble but there was not any gas to push out. During the last six 400s I would go through feeling good for two and then not too great for one. I was happy that I was able to hold 90s (except for the two not so great laps) and that my total time was close to a minute faster than last week. This means that not only were the intervals faster, but the recoveries were also faster. Having a pretty good workout, even not feeling all that great, is a huge confidence booster going into a race.

Now that it is staying light out later there are more people out on the track. We have a problem with walkers who stay in the inside lanes and don't move out of the way when people are running at them screaming TRACK!!! They also have kids who will jump out into lane one and stand there as you run at them and just look at you like deer caught in headlights. Some of these walkers are doing it to be ignorant. They must catch on when you are lapping them over and over again and yelling at them to get out of the way. This is one of my major pet peeves when it comes to tracks. I guess that I can't complain too much becuase the school does let the public use their track for free.

Thank you all for the prodding me to work on the job. I have gotten so that I don't really pursue anything because I am just so tired and exhausted at the end of the day. Our students have taken to coloring. These are children in high school. They are coloring super heros with crayons. There is a huge problem if there are no snacks. They actually get a snack for not going to time out during their classes. In order to not go to time out, they need to do the bare minimum-stay in their seats, maybe some work, not curse the teacher out. OK, putting this in public makes me know that I need out.

I didn't realize I would get so many responses about the comment of if I was on the high school track team. Some day I will be very happy to look young. Both of my parents look young for their ages, so hopefully it is in my genes.

Posted by Blondie at 08:19 PM | Comments (1)

April 24, 2005

Yes, I am out of High School

All I really wanted to do this morning was to sleep in. Not just sleep later than I do every other day of the week. Really sleep in, like until 9:30 or later. After being exhausted all day on Saturday, you would think that I would be able to accomplish this. Nope. I went to bed late for me, around 11:00. What happened? About 5 minutes after I fell asleep the phone rang. Then there were two potty trips in the middle of the night. The final straw...waking up around 7:30 and not being able to sleep any more. Arrgh. I did putz around and read some of the Sunday paper and watch some TV. There was a segment on one of the shows that discussed overweight people tend to live longer...?

I spent a long time trying to decide where to run this morning. I kind of wanted to run from home, but I knew that it would be better for me to go over to the park to run. The real reason for wanting to go from the house was laziness, I didn't feel much like driving the two and a half miles over to the park. Utterly lazy, I know, but I really hate to drive. Going to the park seemed to be the smarter option especially considering how beat up my legs felt yesterday. The park ended up winning out. One reason the park is such a good place to go on Sunday is that I need to ease up because the footing is so bad in some areas.

I did my usual course that I have been doing over there for a few weeks now. I don't time it anymore because Sunday is supposed to be a super easy run. My legs felt a million times better than they did on Saturday morning. It really had to have been the massage that was affecting me so much. It was much cooler than yesterday and quite a bit windier. I had to think about Leilani and her goose while I was running. There are usually lots of geese at the park and you have to try really hard to avoid the droppings, but I did not notice any today. This is very unusual since they are usually everywhere. I did notice that the fishing pond was close to overflowing because of the heavy rain that fell overnight. Luckily, my course was not all that muddy. I finished up with six striders. As I was getting ready to start the final strider, some obese man who was walking asked me if I was on my high school track team. I responded that I am much too old for that to which he told me that I didn't look too old. I was quite upset by this. I know that I do look very young for my age, but I do not think that I could pass for being in high school anymore.

On the job front, I have found a position to apply for at the local university. My father also is trying to get the job listings from an insider at one of the local major corporations that is not in serious trouble. I do know that I have three personal days left to use by June 10 and I plan to use all of them. I actually only have two and a half, but I will take a half day unpaid to make life easier for me. It is just a question of what days to use.

Posted by Blondie at 04:51 PM | Comments (6)

April 23, 2005

A Lesson Learned

This is really a lesson that I have learned before, and probably should have known better. Being stubborn, I did not want to admit that this would probably happen today. Trying to have a decent run the day after a deep-tissue massage is not a good idea. Running immediately after a deep-tissue massage is an even worse idea. I have done both. Seeing as there was virtually no activity yesterday after having my legs kneaded, this morning was not a pretty run. The massage therapist and I even discussed this fact when we set up the appointment. I figured that I would be OK because I have been getting massages for a while, but that was not to be.

The weather this morning was not great...damp, cool, humid, overcast. Just the kind of weather that can pull you down when you just want to stay under the covers. This morning was one of those mornings that I just wanted to pull the comforter over my head and stay there for a long time. Anyhow, I decided that I would not stay in bed all day long and be a lazy slug. My plan had been to run for 2:20 to 2:30. After about half an hour of running with K I knew that it was going to be a pretty dreadful run. We did our usual out and back course since I really do not need super hilly courses anymore. We stopped at the gas station and used the bathroom. I knew about six miles in that I needed to go, but I would much rather use a toilet when it is available than to squat in the shrubs. I felt pretty weak on the hills, actually I felt pretty weak in general. We got back to the school around 1:55 and K stopped.

I kept on going and did the same extra loop that I did last weekend. At the entrance to the neighborhood that I was adding on in; I stopped to stretch, take a drink, and take off my long sleeve shirt. My legs felt so tight and not flexible. The stretching did help me out some. The main problem is coming back to the car is a nice uphill. I got back in just over 2:20 and was done. That was it, there was no way on earth that I would have been able to go on for another ten minutes. I wanted to know how far it was, so I drove the extra loop before heading over to the gym. I turns out that witht the addition, the course comes to a total of just about 19.5 miles.

I dragged myself into the gym and got out of my soaking wet clothes. I rode the bike for an hour, which felt like an eternity. I did catch up on all of my gossip since I was reading Star magazine. After 40 minutes I did have to get off the bike and buy a bottle of water. After riding the bike I lifted. Staying with the heavier weights and added some extra sets, my upper body is going to be mighty sore tomorrow. On the way home, I stopped to buy a bag of ice. My thinking was that sitting in the ice tub may help to revitalize my legs. All I know is that I am a popsicle right about now!

I had to think some about Audrey's question. In smaller races, the men don't seem to bother me all that much. Most of the men who seem to be running similar times are either the men who go out way too fast or are the men who are trying to impress by sprinting as fast as they possibly can when they see the finish line. Now, the first group I usually end up passing. The second group are the ones I just let go. Don't get me wrong, I am competitive with certain men, but women bring out my killer instincts. In larger races, I like to set my sights on men and pick them off.

I would like to thank Alison for her vote of confidence. Most of my training has been based on 6 minute pace for some time. Sometimes I think that I need to incorportate much faster speed, but that seems to throw me off and races turn out much worse. The theory that J has been working with me on for the past two years is to learn pace. Hopefully, the next time I run a marathon, 6:00 pace won't feel too bad!!! :) I've learned the hard way that running 5:20 pace and I don't mix...I end up going out too fast in races and barely holding on. When I work out at race pace, I know what it feels like and can do it in a race. I've learned to stop looking at my watch and can judge the pace some by feeling.

Well, this is turning into quite a novel. I want to catch up on everyone else's blogs and my mom and I are heading over to Target later on this afternoon. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends!

Posted by Blondie at 01:16 PM | Comments (1)

April 22, 2005

Some More Analysis

Like most of us, I have a very hard time being happy with my performances. It seems as though there are always some kind of extenuating circumstances to use to make excuses. I can probably only count on one hand the number of races that I have actually been truly happy with how everything went. Although last night was a good, solid effort...it was not what I was hoping for. I truly believe that I am in shape to run 18:30, even on a bad day.

After having an entire day to think about it, I have come to the conclusion that I have to be happy with it. First of all, this was the first 5K I have raced in over 6 months. Shorter races are much harder for me. I have a hard time feeling the right pace to run. I was extremely nervous before the race because it had been so long since I had run that fast. Secondly, I did not back off at all leading into last night. Last week I ran 72 miles, one of the highest mileage weeks of my life. This week did start some of the backing off, but nothing really changed until Thursday. I did 15 miles on Monday in a double, including a track workout of 400s. Tuesday was a hard, fast 10 miler in the heat. Wednesday was an easy run, as it always is. The only cutback was not waking up at 4:50 to run in the morning. My training has not really included any real speedwork so far, we have been doing lots of strength work. I've also been doing way more mileage than I have every done.

In looking at all of this I have to be happy with the race. Throw in the difficult course and the fact that there was a relatively weak field, even better. There were some men close to me, I could even see the guy who won the entire way. Men do not inspire me to race the same way as women do. I don't really care that much if a man outkicks me, but if it is a woman...look out. I must admit that it is a sweet prize. I definitely will not drink it all at once. I won the same prize once before and it took about a year and a half to finish all six bottles.

My massage today was not quite as painful as anticipated. My right calf was extremely tight, but other than that it was not that bad. I was especially surprised because it had been about a month since my last rubdown.

My goal is still to get as close to 60 at Broad Street. Even though I could not race at 6 minute pace in a 5K, I still think it is possible next Sunday. I will cutback some next week and the course is way more conducive to fast running.

Thank you all for the encouraging comments about last night!! It really was a test effort and it seems to have gone fairly well.

Posted by Blondie at 06:52 PM | Comments (3)

April 21, 2005

Thursday Night "Race"

After quite a bit of thinking, tonight ended up as participating in a race instead of doing a track workout. The race tonight is one that I have always liked to participate in, there are always terrific prizes. Don't get me wrong, I don't do every race based on prizes, but the prizes can make or break a race. This race does go to a good cause, and it does not terribly alter my week as far as workouts go. J always gives me a hard time for participating in this race because the course is hilly and has lots of turns. Basically it is a slow course. We have determined that it is about 30-40 seconds slow. The only reason I was given permission to run in the race tonight was that the course was changed and we thought that it was going to be relatively flat.

I had a tough day at work and did not get to eat my lunch until late, which was OK because the race did not start until 6:30 (actually later, because they always run late). I took a longer nap than usual and then headed over to the race. One of the things that I like about this race is that it is close to home, only about a mile away. My legs did feel a little bit tired during the day, but not so much that it would make a huge difference during the race.

I got to the race, registered, and found R, the only other person from our group who showed up. A whole bunch of other people from the group had talked about racing, but R was the only one who showed up. We warmed up the course and saw that it was pretty darn hilly. It started with a short, steep uphill, then down a longer hill that was just as steep. We turned onto a road that is a long gradual uphill and part of my daily loop. Then there was a short loop with some rolly hills and back down the gradual hill. The ending was up the steep hill and down the hill again. The last uphill was an absolute killer.

The race was pretty uneventful. I didn't feel bad and I didn't feel good. I think that I went through the first mile right around 6:00. Some guy outkicked me on the downhill into the finish. My final time was 19:12, which considering the hills is not too bad. I also did not cut back at all this week. I ended up being the first woman and 7th overall. My prize is 6 bottles of wine from the best wine shop in the area, a book on wine tasting, and two wine glasses. I think that I'll pick up my wine sometime this weekend. R finished in 20:20 which is close to his best. We warmed down for about 24 minutes and called it a night.

Tomorrow I am not running at all. I have a massage scheduled right after work. My legs are crying out to get rubbed down. It will probably hurt so badly, but it is much needed. After that I have to do a Trader Joe's run and stop in to visit my grandmother on the way home.

Posted by Blondie at 09:07 PM | Comments (6)

April 20, 2005

Signs to Take an Easy Day

The first sign is not sleeping at night. Given the summer-like weather, sleep without air conditioning has not been easy. Waking up at 2:30 sweating buckets does not make sleeping easy. A second sign is HOT weather when your body is not acclimated yet. Just not a good idea to run hard for the first few days of hot weather. A third sign is wind. Strange, hot and windy, not a usual combination. Fourth sign was legs just feeling beat up from the 25 miles accumlated in the past two days. For me, four signs was enough to know to just back off today. Also, Thursday night workouts have been suffering, so I did not want to do anything that would make it even worse.

Due to all of these factorsm, I really tried to just lay back and take it easy on my run this afternoon. I had hoped to maybe hook up with J and run someplace different today, but he had to go to his son's track meet. Darn kids... As I was coming up a hill, I thought that I saw K, who was my training partner for about two years. It did turn out to be her. We crossed the street together and ran about a mile and a half together until she had to turn off to go to her house. It was really nice to get to run with somebody for a while, especially when I really was not in too much of a mood to be running.

I got home, put on my racing flats, and did my striders. My legs felt really flat during the striders. Afterwards, I changed my clothes and went to the gym. I rode the bike for 35 minutes and was ready to get the heck out of dodge when some guy who has talked to me once or twice asked if I was doing Broad Street. I had to have a conversation with him. When he heard what I would like to do in that race, he determined that I should be tailgating in the parking lot by the time he is done! I wanted to get out so quickly because I had to go to the grocery store and I wanted to eat! I bought some ice and did an ice bath for as long as I could stay in the tub, about 8 minutes. So far, my legs do feel peppier, but we shall see tomorrow!

Posted by Blondie at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2005

Spring?

In the span of two days we have gone from April to August. In two days, we're going to be back in April. It was about 83 degrees this afternoon when I went to run. It is supposed to be even hotter tomorrow, close to 90. By Thursday, we are only supposed to have a high of 65. The pollen count is off the charts, so my allergies are acting up as well. These are a few of the problems with spring in the mid-Atlantic. I can't complain though, other than the few rainy days early in the month, it has been dry. It does make me nervous that we will have May showers, not April showers.

Today I was going to do a 12 mile run. I do not know what possessed me to even consider it. It was hot and I did a tough workout last night. By the time I got started, I had scrapped the idea of 12 miles and decided that 10 was a much better idea. Sometimes I don't use my brain when I make decisions about running. Considering how sleepy tired I felt, I was able to run at a good pace. I did learn that you have to be careful about your thoughts. As soon as I thought that I was lucky that I was not having any stomach/bathroom issues, the feeling started to come over me. When I stopped at the emergency spot, I could not go on demand. The last three miles were pretty unpleasant. When I got home I thanked myself for not using the shrubs. I was absolutely parched by the time I finished. Because of the weather, I made a real effort to back off the pace that I usually run on Tuesdays. I did the course about 30 seconds slower than I have the past two weeks. Not only was it warmer, I did a harder workout last night and more mileage yesterday. I finished up with 6 striders in my racing flats.

I drank some water, changed into dry clothes and headed over to the gym. I rode the bike for about half an hour. I got off a little bit before the time I programmed was up because I thought it would be better to stretch instead of riding for an extra two minutes. My legs have been feeling tighter than usual and I need to pay attention to that. I lifted some, but I was really not in the mood to lift. I wanted to go home and eat some dinner.

OK, enough about this. I have to call my college roommate. We've been playing phone tag for about two months now, but never actually get each other.

Posted by Blondie at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2005

Mental Health Days

Growing up, my brother and I were never allowed to miss school unless we were deathly ill. Even when we were sick, we went to school. Our parents have a very hard work ethic. They did not believe in taking a day off just to take the day off. In college, I had friends who would choose to skip all of their classes one or two days a semester, just because. I never did that, I could not justify not going to class because my parents were paying so much for me to get an education. When I started this job, I learned that the policy on taking days off is basically you use them or lose them. We don't get many, which is a problem for those with families, but for individuals like me there are plenty of days. I have also found that in this job where the administration treats you like crap, the students treat you like dirt, you are severely underpaid for your level of education, you can not even count on getting paid, etc...that a mental health day is needed every so often. Today was one of my mental health days. I really did not do anything strenuous today. I caught up on laundry, but did not go anywhere at all.

I did a double today because it did not involve waking up at 4:50 in the morning. I got to sleep in until I woke up, which I will probably pay for the rest of this week. I did an easy 4 miles around 8:45 this morning. I was surprised at how warm it was so early. I had on long sleeves and by the time I reached the turnaround I was feeling pretty toasty.

During the day I worked on laundry and tracked the Boston Marathoners. I can not wait to hear reports on the race. I truly do not remember much of it from the year I did it. It was such an awful experience for me that I never want to relive it. Some people love it, but it is not for me. It feels like there is so much pressure associated with the race.

Tonight's workout was a buttload of 400s with a 200 jog. I was the only person who really did a buttload of the quarters. I did 16 all by myself. My tri buddy did the first three with me, but must have been having a really bad night becuase he left. I was really parched by about halfway through, when I would try to spit I ended up with mucus all over my face. J gave me some watered down Gatorade to at least wet my mouth. He thought that I looked really good and consistent. I felt pretty good, especially since I was running solo. Some of the recoveries started to get too slow when I was trying to spit and to drink. I did all 16 of them in 90-92 seconds. I would have liked to be closer to 88-90, but today was the first time that I have done shorter speed and it was much warmer today than it has been in a long time. I think that the last time I did this workout was over a year and a half ago. When I finished then it was a little bit faster, but I was used to doing this workout and was running with someone. I ended up with 15 miles for the day, which is a pretty good start to the week.

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

April 17, 2005

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Once again, I used today to run at the park. It's starting to become a routine for Sunday morning. With the higher mileage it does feel pretty good to get off the roads one day a week. Today was much more pleasant because the weather has been dry for over a week, so the grass has dried out a great deal. No more running in mud that is ankle deep! One of the rules at the park is that all dogs must be on leashes. Well, all of the dogs that I saw were on leashes, but I did see some interesting folks. I saw one woman walking/running with five dogs! She had this belt-like contraption around her waist that all five dogs were attached to. I also saw two women walking together with two dogs each. They were on leashes, but one of these dogs decided to try to attack anyhow.

Considering yesterday's long run, I felt really good. I did the course that I have been doing for the past few weekends. I am fairly confident that it is at least 7 miles and takes about 55 minutes, so I didn't even wear my watch this morning. I felt like I could have run about 5 more miles, but I was smart since this is the main easy day of the week. I did finish up with 6 striders. I did not bring my racing flats to the park to do striders today, I just did them in my training shoes.

I got home and washed my car. I try to avoid doing this chore. I don't really mind doing it, but my dad does a much better job than I do. My excuse is that I just do not have enough hand strength to really get the dirt off. Of course, he countered with that I am probably the strongest woman he knows. Mom and I decided to gang up on him when he said that because she was standing right there when he said it. He tried to get out of it quickly, but he did not say one of the strongest, he definitely said the strongest.

I definitely have a Vera Bradley addiction. Yesterday we ordered a bag for my birthday and picked up a piece in the pattern of my luggage which is being retired in June. I walked back to the store today since the sale was still going on and bought myself another bag. Hey, I'm not getting the one we ordered until my birthday. It is very warm out today and I ended up being pretty hot on my walk. My hamstrings are feeling on the tight side now, so I'll have to stretch tonight.

I made a trip to Border's as well. Last week one of the guys who I run with said that the cover athlete on one of the magazines he gets looked just like me. I went last weekend, but the May issue was not in yet and there was some guy on the cover of the April issue. I was hoping that was not who he thought I looked like! Anyhow, today the May issue was in and there is definitely a resemblance.

I'm looking forward to my day off from work tomorrow. I'm not sure if I'm going to head over to my ex's house to watch Boston or if I'm going to "watch" online. Good luck to all running in Boston, those who blog here and those who I know who are participating as well.

Posted by Blondie at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2005

Some Much Needed Rest

Last night I was such a big loser and was in bed around 8:30 and asleep by 9:00. And some people wonder why I never have any dates. Some day I will meet someone who understands my sleep needs. I did wake up about half an hour before the alarm was set to go off this morning, but it was nice to not be rudely awakened by the alarm. My body felt so much more rested than I have in many days.

I talked to J some before our run this morning. Yesterday I had left him a message about how terrible Thursday night had been. We decided that although I am responding really well to higher mileage and not injured, sleep is such an issue that we're going to cut out the doubles for now. If I had a different job, the doubles would work really well, but getting up before 5 has been taking a toll on me. He says that my body is sending me a signal that I need to rest. The big races are coming up now anyhow, so we were probably only going to keep the doubles for another week or two at the most. I may do a double this Monday since I took the day off from work and can do it at a reasonable hour.

We had a small group this morning since people were up in Boston and now that it is getting warmer others are heading to the beach for the weekend. Since we are still trying to build strength (for me), I am keeping my long runs on the longer side. This was pretty unfortunate because it meant that I was going to have to run alone because all of the folks running Boston are not running long anymore. I'd been running with them for my long runs, but they would either add on before the group started or after we got back. I did our out and back course. When I got to the turnaround, I looked at my watch to see what kind of pace I had been running and realized that I had never changed the mode on my watch and it just showed the time of day. I changed it to chronograph mode and started it for the way back. At least I have run this course enough time to know about how long I had been out. Today was a little bit slower than usual, I came back in about 55 minutes instead of about 53. I also added on at the end, probably close to four miles. I ran for about 2:20, close to 20 miles. I felt pretty good. I did drink some water and diluted Gatorade. The weather was that confusing kind of weather where I didn't know what I wanted to put on. When we got started it was below 40 and quite chilly, but I knew that in two hours it was going to be much warmer. I finally decided on long sleeves, shorts, gloves, and a hat. Anytime that I was in the shade it was cold. In the sun it was comfortable. Early on, I was really chilly. I took off my gloves for the last 20 minutes or so, but kept the hat on the whole time.

I went to the gym and did the elliptical for half an hour and then rode the stationary bike for another half hour. I got all caught up on my celebrity gossip. I also picked up an Organic Style magazine, but it was from 2002. I lifted some and then headed home.

Hopefully my mom and I are going to head over to one of our favorite stores this afternoon. This store is having a Vera Bradley sale. These bags never go on sale, but they are 20 percent off this weekend. I have to model bags for her so that she can pick one for my birthday gift.

Posted by Blondie at 01:02 PM | Comments (1)

April 15, 2005

Life Like a "Normal" Person

One day a week, I get to live a life like a so-called normal person. OK, maybe not quite like a normal person, but not so much like a crazy-runner person. I don't think that most normal people leave their house for work at 6:30 in the morning or get cursed out all day by children who think they are adults, but that is not the point. As nice as it is to be able to relax some after work, there is no way that I could do this every day. Some weeks I like to do some kind of light activity on my day off from running, but I listen to the signals my body sends me. After a night like last night, my body is crying out for rest.

After dismissal, we had a baby shower for one of the teachers at work. His wife came and brought the twins (they were born prematurely and we waited until they came home from the hospital). When we were done, I went over to one of my ex's houses. He had lent me a DVD and one of Lance's books. He also wanted me to show him some of the core exercises that I do since he discovered that his core is weak. Some people do happy hour after work on Friday, but that would interfere with my Saturday morning run, so no happy hours for me. Hey, not everything can be "normal". He invited me over to his house on Monday to watch Boston since he has cable and we don't at home. I'll probably take him up on that offer.

Today I did manage to schedule a massage for next Friday. I know that my body is crying out for one, but Friday is the day that is best for both the massage therapist and myself. I'll have to work with the Stick and foam roller between now and then to try to hang on.

Tonight I plan to be in bed very early. Like 8:30 kind of early. The problem with changing the clocks is that it stays light out so much later. It is so hard to be getting ready for bed when it is still light out. This is why I have been so exhausted. Trying to stay up until 10:00 or later when the latest you wake up during the week is 5:40 is a recipe for disaster. Staying up that late and waking up before 5 is even worse. Ideally I would get close to 9 hours of sleep at night, but there just is not enough time in the day for that.

Hopefully my stomach cooperates with me tomorrow morning. I tried the new Dannon Light'n'Fit with Fiber today at lunch. Friday is the day that I can experiment with my lunch since I don't have to run until the next morning. My guess is that I will not be able to eat this on a regular day for lunch...just a hunch.

Posted by Blondie at 04:37 PM | Comments (1)

April 14, 2005

Discouraged and Frustrated

For a few weeks now, my Thursday evening workouts have not gone too well. Actually, I probably have not had a really good track workout in over two weeks. I'm not quite sure what the reason for my poor workouts is. There are probably several contributing factors. For example, tonight I was completely exhausted. My lack of sleep is definitely catching up with me. When I got home from work I noticed the pretty black circles under my eyes. Another reason is my consistenly higher mileage. I have not averaged this high of mileage in my running lifetime. Another factor is that Thursday is my sixth consecutive day of running, so tonight I've run a lot of miles without a break. Another factor is mental. One of the guys in the group was asking me what the workout was. I told him that it was 4 x 1600 with an 800 jog. He replied to me, "oh, that's six miles, then isn't it?". I never, ever think of the workout in those kinds of terms. It is 4 seperate entities, not one whole. He had me thinking right away how long the workout was going to be. He's a very nice man, but thinking in those terms is not good for me psychologically.

When I woke up about two minutes before the alarm was set to go off, the first thought that entered my mind was that there was no way I was going to be able to get out of bed and run. I was so exhausted, but I managed. It was much cooler this morning and I was definitely not moving all that fluidly. I managed my four mile out and back, by the end I was feeling pretty decent.

This evening's workout was a different story. I just could not maintain pace or feel good. My stomach was making sounds, I was running in no-man's land, and I just felt tired in general. I did 3 of the repeats and then just ran easy because my body really could not give any more. I even sat down on the side of the track and cried a little bit thinking "what is wrong with me, why can't I do this". I felt better on the warm down, but I ran alone, I needed the space. As I was leaving T told me to rest. CM told me to drink a glass of wine and relax. Tomorrow is a complete day of rest, I know that my body needs it. Monday is the other break I need, a mental health day from work.

I did some errands immediately after the track. I had to buy baby gifts for a colleague. While I was out I saw a girl who I went to high school with and we were discussing how having a job that you hate just carries into other areas of your life and makes you plain miserable. That is the boat that I am in at the moment. I hate being so miserable and down all of the time, but my job makes me pretty much hate my life. I dread Sunday nights because I know that it means that I have to go back to work. I'm not going to think about that right now since I have a long weekend this weekend.

Posted by Blondie at 08:56 PM | Comments (2)

April 13, 2005

Change of Plans

My plans for this weekend have changed, which essentially changes the rest of this week. M won't be going to the half-marathon and after some consideration, I decided that I do not want to race a 20K two weeks before Broad Street, a race that I really care about this year. This means doubling tomorrow, doing the full workout tomorrow night, running long on Saturday, and running on grass on Sunday. I may do a tune-up 5K/5 mile/10K next weekend.

The doctor took my mom off of one of the drugs she was using because of some of the side effects she was having. This makes her treatments slightly shorter. It should also make this weekend a much better weekend for her. We have less than one month left of chemo. She made a paper chain, like the Christmas chains, of how many treatments are left. We've been taking turns cutting links off and tonight it is my turn to cut off the link.

My body was extrememly tired today. Last night was not a great night of sleep and there really was no time for napping this afternoon. To keep today a relaxing and easy run, I did not even wear my watch. At times my legs felt good, but at other times they felt like lead blocks. During my striders they were just tired.

I rode the bike in the basement for half an hour and then sat in the cold water for ten minutes. This seemed to work over the weekend, so I hope to give my legs a lift. Tomorrow I need to call and schedule a massage.

I need to read all the other blogs now and then clean my room before my early bedtime.

Posted by Blondie at 07:10 PM | Comments (1)

April 12, 2005

Finally Some Rest

Last night I finally got a somewhat decent night of sleep. The alarm blaring this morning was not a welcome sound. Most of the morning was spent being very groggy. Hopefully the rest of this week will help in getting some much needed rest. Due to the extent of the grogginess, I did take a nice nap this afternoon, as usual.

This afternoon I did my weekly back-up long run. Although I'm participating in a race this weekend (probably not racing) I have not really altered my workouts. If M is not going to the half, I'll probably race someplace else. Anyhow, this weekend is not my goal race...I'm just going to train through it. I did my ten mile route in the same time as I did it last week, but felt much more relaxed. Last week my legs felt like they were going to fall off at the eight mile point. Last week I also felt like I was running really hard, this week it did not feel like such a hard effort. On the way back when I was waiting to cross the major road, I had to use my emergency bathroom...these things happen.

When I got back, I did my 6 striders. I decided to try out my new racing shoes. They feel different than the other flats that I've worn in the past. I seem to have a love-hate relationship with flats. If I really like a pair, they're great. The others usually aren't so great. Today I didn't have on my racing socks, so they fit differently than usual. Yes, I have certain socks that are specifically for racing. One of those things that puts me in a racing state of mind.

Then I changed and went to the gym. I rode the bike for 35 minutes and lifted. I think that I am seeing some results from my heavier lifting already. My arms look like they are more cut, in my opinion. The gym was not nearly as crowded as it was last week, so I thought about doing two exercises for each muscle group, but I was hungry so I decided to go home and eat instead.

Tomorrow I won't get a chance to do my nap since I have to go to the hospital right after work to pick my mom up from chemo. Dad is taking her down in the morning and I'm picking her up in the afternoons. These treatments are basically all day long. She does not think that it is fair to my father to make him pick her up because he is self-employed and does need to work in order to pay all of the medical bills. She gets done about a half hour after I get done work, so it is convenient for me to pick her up. It really is not a sacrifice, I'll be tired enough to get to bed at a decent hour!

Posted by Blondie at 08:24 PM | Comments (3)

April 11, 2005

Naps Are the Root of All Evil

OK, maybe not, but I'm suffering. I really have not been sleeping well for a few weeks now. Not even over the weekend when I did not have anything really hanging over my head. I woke up around 2:30 this morning and couldn't really get back to sleep. There was some intermittent dozing, but no real sleep. This meant that I was very much awake for my run at 5:00. It also meant that by 1:00 this afternoon I was really dragging.

Because I was more awake than usual this morning, my 4 mile run was a little bit faster than usual. There was a pretty strong breeze that I was hoping would go away before tonight's workout. It seemed darker than it has been, it could have been cloudy or a new moon.

Due to my really poor sleep, I came home from work and absolutely crashed this afternoon. I slept for a solid hour and could have stayed asleep even longer. When I woke up I was super groggy. Now I'm paying for it because I don't feel as tired as I should.

Tonight's workout was supposed to be a 4 mile tempo run. We had a few options on where to do it. None of us really wanted to do it on the track since the track is such a wind tunnel. We were not really sure how long the course that we decided to do was, but J told us to stop at the first speed bump when we got into the park. He was pretty sure that was the 4 mile mark. I was running with J and T, around two miles they started to pull away and the pace was getting faster and faster. I was about 15 meters behind them for the last part of the run. We got to the designated speed bump at exactly 20 minutes, so the stopping point was way too early. There was no way on earth that we were running 5 minute pace for 4 miles, I don't think that I could run a single mile in 5:00. We were pretty sure that we were running under 6:00 pace and think that what we did was about 3 1/3 miles. In all, I am happy with this workout, but disappointed that the course was not accurate.

Tomorrow I must decide what race I'm doing this weekend. If M is still being wishy washy about the half marathon, I'm going to do the 20K. The half is two hours away and I don't really want to go down by myself. I don't really enjoy driving and that is a long way to go alone. The 20K is closer to home, but I'll have to race harder in it. I did take next Monday off from work because I know that I'll be beat from whatever I do on Sunday. I completely forgot that it is Boston as well. We don't have cable, so I won't be able to watch it here on OLN. I may go to a friend's house to watch it or just track it online.

Posted by Blondie at 08:26 PM | Comments (0)

April 10, 2005

Feeling Like an Idiot

My father loves a particular sports car. He has loved this kind of car ever since it came out. He loves it so much that he has had three different models of it. When I was a little girl, I thought everyone's father had a sports car in the garage, I thought it was a normal thing. I didn't realize until elementary school that it was not normal. My father eventually stopped having this sports car around when my brother and I were in junior high and high school. He special ordered a new one when I was in college. It arrived two days after my birthday, and I think he was more excited about his new car than about my birthday. Anyhow, I was at Border's today and saw a book about this car that went through year by year on the bargain table. I was so excited that I bought it for him to enjoy. I brought it home and showed it to my mother and she thought it was cool too. I just looked on the coffee table in the living room and realized that he already has the exact same book! I'm feeling like a real idiot right about now.

This morning I was very proud of myself for doing the right thing. There was a race in the next town over that was giving prize money to the top three men and women. The person who told me about it said that the race organizer's did not think that there were going to be many people there and that I would probably be able to win even running easy after my long run. I woke up early on my own this morning and gathered up some things to head over. My plan was that if there were people there that would make me run fast, I would leave and do my easy run at the park. I pulled up and waited a few minutes before getting out of the car to register. While I was sitting there I saw two women who would pretty much make me want to race. I'm in this funk right now where I really do not have too much desire to race. Doing races messes up my workouts and long runs for the week. Planned races are OK, the workouts get re-arranged for those, but spur of the moment races during the training cycle are pretty much looked down upon. Next weekend will be a planned race, which one I do not know yet, but the workouts have been modified to accomodate it.

Anyhow, I drove away and did my 55 minute half grass/half road loop at the park. It was much better for my legs to get off of the roads and to just run easy. It was not nearly as muddy as it was last week when I went out there. I ran by one woman walking her dog and she said to me that I amazed her. I wasn't really sure how to react to that, so I just said thank you. My legs felt much better than I thought they would after yesterday's really hilly route. I did 6 striders when I finished and then headed home to read the paper and drink my coffee.

Today has been a hungry day. I seem to be having these days more and more often. It could very well be due to the fact that I was not very hungry yesterday, so I did not eat all that much. Either way, it is disturbing because I feel like I have eaten a house and could eat another!

Posted by Blondie at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

April 09, 2005

Saturday Morning Marathon Workout

The quickest way to sum up Friday is day off. After struggling so much on Thursday night, taking Friday off was a definite. The weather was pretty crummy, but by late afternoon the sun was struggling to make an appearance. Thursday night probably was not all that bad, the wind just changed the goal and objective of the workout. When I talked to J yesterday about the workout and he heard how windy it was on the track, he supported what I did. For some reason, wherever he was with the CYO kids, it was not nearly as windy (or he was just yanking my chain).

I did manage to go to the running store and get a new pair of training shoes and a new pair of racing flats. I ended up getting the Nike Zoom Marathoner. The owner also ordered the Sacuony FastTwitch, but they just didn't fit right. The flats I did get may be a little bit on the big side, but I really liked that they were soft around my toes so I won't end up with any black toenails. Mom and I went shopping last night, but after my spending earlier in the day, I did not purchase a single thing.

This morning I was absolutely exhausted when I got up. I was going to do the 19 mile course that I did about a month ago, but J reminded me that I really do not need to run that long for any reason. The course that I was planning to run is plenty hilly, in fact today I realized how hilly it is. The last time we ran this course, I did not remember it being so hilly. I was able to recruit my triathlete friend J to run with me today. He's doing a half-Ironman in three weeks, so he wanted to get a hilly long run in before the race. One road on this course can be pretty dangerous. There is a hill on a curve at one point and not much of a shoulder. We were running along and could hear this car coming, he was absolutely flying, we both jumped off the side of the road into grass. If there had been anyone else with us, or if we were about 20 feet further down the road, we would have been toast. J is a police officer, he tried to get the plate numbers, but could't get all the numbers. The truck was way over the speed limit and very reckless. Other than that bit of excitement, it was a nice run. We aren't quite sure how long the course is, but it definitely takes a lot of effort. It was cold in the shade, but really nice in the sun. I wore my fuel belt, three bottles of water and one of watered down Gatorade. I was a little bit better about drinking today. I had about 5 squirts of water and 2 squirts of Gatorade. I got back in about 1:53. My original plan was to run on the track to try to figure out what kind of pace I was running, but it looked like there may have been a track meet getting started, so I just ran back out on the road to hit 2 hours. I'm going to call it 17 miles, if it is a little bit short, the hills make up for the effort.

I dragged myself over to the gym. An easy hour on the stationary bike reading trashy mags was pretty unexciting. I did see a girl who I went to high school with and talked for her for about 20 minutes of the biking. The time goes much faster when you're talking with somebody. Afterwards I lifted. I was going to do more exercises, but I was just sick of lifting and people were doing all of the things that I wanted to do.

Today was another attempt at an ice bath. I swear that the water in our pipes is colder than it was during the summer. I had to straddle the tub and lower myself into it that way. My arms were so tired that they were shaking as I tried to get my butt in the water. I managed to stay in the ice cold water for 10 minutes. Hopefully my legs will thank me for it tommorow!

Posted by Blondie at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2005

Payday!

It's Thursday!!! This work week is almost over. Last year I kept saying that I was going to pack up my belongings on the last staff day and never return, but I did return. This year I am packing up my belongings and never going back. The work environment is so bad that I never, ever want to go back to it. Today was payday, which did make today a little bit more tolerable. Of course, having to run to the bank the check is drawn on, cashing the check, then running to my bank and depositing the check is a stressful afternoon. This is a necessity as paychecks have been known to bounce before. In fact, the teller had to get an override this afternoon when I was cashing my check. And people wonder why I hate my job...

This morning I managed to drag myself out of bed at 4:50 to go for my morning run. The nice thing about running so early is that my body really does not realize that it is running until I'm halfway done. There were many more cars out than usual this morning. I even had to wait to cross two roads, that never happens so early. I also got to wear shorts, the first time on a early morning run! Other than that, the only thing of significance was that I really had to use the bathroom. I kept telling myself that I was almost done so that I could use the toilet!

I talked to J when I was at work about tonight's workout. I had thought about doing an extra interval, but I had no idea what the conditions outside were. As soon as I stepped outside to leave work, I knew that there was no way that doing an extra interval was going to happen. It was so windy that I was getting knocked around. Weather.com claims that the wind is only 14 mph, but my mother said that it is so windy that she thought the flagpole was going to get broken, it is probably gusting close to 50 mph as the storm is coming in. I was wiped out after work, I slept for about an hour, which was another indication that doing an extra interval was not a good idea.

Anyhow, tonight's workout was 5 x 1000 with a 600 jog. Our track is always a wind tunnel, and for some reason there always seems to be wind on two curves and one straightaway. On each lap, about 220 meters was straight into a wall of wind. Even when I got there I had a really B. A. (bad attitude). There were a bunch of people that I have not seen in a long time at the track tonight, so there was quite a bit of socializing going on. I was really pissed that the conditions were so bad because this is one of the workouts that I really like to do. I turned off my watch early on because it took so much effort to even run into the wind. Then one of the guys who I usually lap must have been having a good day because he decided that he was going to draft off of me. This really irritated me because I am all of 5-5 and 110 pounds and he is much bigger than I am. I pulled off of the track to hit the reset button. When I say this, I mean that I had to change the objectives: instead of trying to run under 6s, I wanted to stay up and finish the workout. I was so ready to stop after 4, but I had to be tough. Tonight was all about toughness. I did make it into a 14 mile total day.

I must apologize if this is a little bit rambly (don't think that is a word), but I have been sipping on a glass of wine. It's been that kind of day. One drink will affect me so much that I won't really remember writing this tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow is a much needed day off. I need to pick up new shoes! Saturday is supposed to be extra-long (for me) and I need to rest up for it.

Posted by Blondie at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2005

It Doesn't Get Much Better Than This!

Gorgeous. Today was absolutely gorgeous. Warm, sunny, only a slight breeze...if someone can tell me where it is like this every day, I might just pack up and move there. I realize all good things must come to an end at some point and the forecast for the rest of the week does not look nearly as pretty.

I was hoping to get to run with J today, but he did not call me at work to set up a time and place. It would have been nice to run with someone else today since it was a super-easy effort. My legs could definitely feel what I did the past two days. No watch today, I just wanted to go out and flush some of the lactic acid out of my legs. My stomach was making the hollow leg sound again today. I'm starting to wonder if it is the new protein powder that I started to use yesterday. My stomach is even sensitive to brands of items. I'll give the powder a few more days, but if this continues to be an issue, I'll have to buy a canister of the more expensive powder that I've been using. I did seven miles, very easy with six striders at the end.

I went to the gym again today. I rode the bike for forty minutes and then got the heck out of dodge. Today would have been a better day to lift since it was not nearly as crowded as it was yesterday. My arms are most definitely sore, which is not what I would want for a workout tomorrow.

I have to make some decisions this week. I would like to run a race next weekend, but I am not sure what race it is going to be. All efforts are pointed to Broad Street right now. There are a few races that I could run, probably not race though. One is a half-marathon, one is a 20K, and I'm sure that I can find something much shorter, but I do not know if that would even be worth my while right now. This is one of the things that J and I need to discuss because it will affect my training for the next few weeks. Well, that's about all for now. I have to get in bed early tonight and actually get a good night of sleep. I have been absolutely exhausted for the past few days because I have not been sleeping through the night.

Posted by Blondie at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2005

If Only Every Day Could Be Like Today

Sunny, sixty five degrees, little to no wind...I would be one very happy camper. Today was the epitome of what kind of weather I love. I think that is why I love the fall so much, this is the kind of weather that typifies fall weather.

This afternoon I ran 10 miles. My legs were a little bit tired from last night's workout. Of course, I got tired after the point of no return. I have not done a mid-week 10 miler since this time last year, so I was not really sure how I would feel. I did finish it in a decent time for the course. The more disturbing sensation was the sloshing in my stomach. This is something that I am notorious for, I have even been asked who has the hollow leg becuase it gets so loud. I started out in long sleeves with shorts, I know it was probably too much. I was comfortable for the first 7 miles, then I got warm. When I took off the long sleeve shirt to run in my sports bra, I was cold, but that was better than being warm. On my way home I saw my former training partner, K, who was laughing at me because she had on long sleeves and long pants! When I got home, although I was tired and tight, I did four striders.

I went to the gym and rode the bike very slowly for half an hour. After I lifted some. I have not been too happy with the definition in my arms, so I'm changing up my routine some. Instead of doing higher reps of low weight, I'm doing lower reps of a higher weight followed by one set of low weight high rep. Of course, I am such a weakling that my higher weight is still pretty wimpy. I could feel I was straining and working harder than usual. I hope that throwing this in for two or three weeks will help in aiding the definition in my arms. Either way, I'll be sore tomorrow.

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

April 04, 2005

Got a New 'Tude

Well, I vowed that I would have a better attitude towards my track workouts after Thursday night's debacle and that is exactly what I did. This evening's workout is one of the hardest workouts that we do, in my opinion. It is one of the workouts that we do that I can judge if I am really in shape, or just faking it in races.

This morning, it was so tough to get up. Since I had been off from work all of last week, I got to sleep in. Setting the clocks ahead meant that it felt like 3:50 when I woke up this morning, way too early! I did get out there and do my usual four mile course. It was so dark, I was happy that we replaced the battery in the headlamp or else I wouldn't have been able to see anything.

Tonight was the track. The wind was really gusting. As Jessie stated, I hate wind, IhateitIhateitIhateit. I think that there were gusts close to 40 miles per hour. Aside from that, I have determined that the tracks that I do my workouts on always has wind on it. For some reason on this track, there is never wind at your back, always in your face. I swear it defies all the laws of physics. Anyhow, the workout was 8-10 by 600 with a 200 float recovery. When I saw J yesterday he told me to do at least 8, but if I felt good to go for 10. My secret goal was to do 10, so that was how I approached the workout. I was aiming to run the intervals right around 6 minute pace. I was very happy with how the workout turned out. The first two were faster than I wanted, most of them were right on, I purposely tried to relax on the 7th and 8th 600s so that the last two could be good. After the warmdown, it was ten miles for the night, fourteen for the day.

I tried to return to doing ice baths tonight. It was not the most sucessful attempt. I swear the water is colder now because I could hardly get myself into the cold water. I finally was able to get into the tub, put the ice in and lasted for a grand total of two minutes. I'm not too sure it was worthwhile, I need to get used to being in the cold water again, but I'll see tomorrow if my legs feel better. Well, that's all, I've got to call my college roomie back!

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

April 03, 2005

Spring Ahead

I hope that everyone remembered to set their clocks ahead by an hour last night! When I got home, I remembered to set the most important clock, my alarm clock, but not my watches. My cell phone resets itself, I did my car this afternoon, and this morning I did my running watch. Tonight I need to move my dress watch an hour forwards and then I'll be done. Springing ahead has its advantages, like not having to rush to run before it starts to get dark. On the other hand, when I get up for my morning run tomorrow, it will feel like 3:50 instead of 4:50. I'll just have to bite the bullet and get used to it.

Most of the heavy rain from yesterday is done. There have been a few sprinkles today, but compared to yesterday, it was nothing. I think I heard them say on the news that we set a record for the most rain in a 24-hour period yesterday. The flood watches are still up because the rivers and creeks won't really crest until sometime tomorrow morning. It was much colder and windier than yesterday morning, although in the afternoon yesterday it did get very windy.

This morning was a pretty pathetic 7 miler on my usual course. I missed my course because I have not run it since last Wednesday. There are two possible reasons for the patheticness of this morning's run. The first is that I pretty much sat and laid around all day yesterday instead of moving around. I think that if I had been moving around my legs would not have felt nearly as tight as they did. The other reason is that I ate a really pathetic dinner at the function I went to with my friend. I had to ask for a meatless plate, which they made specially for me. I didn't want to complain about my new plate, in which all of the vegetables were covered in butter. I like my veggies to taste like veggies, not butter. I ended up picking at the ones that seemed the least smothered and ate the rice, but that was about it. This morning I tried to eat a more protein rich meal than usual to aid in recovery, but I know that getting back on my schedule tomorrow will be a great help. I have also been a slacker on water. When I am at work, I do not go anywhere without my water bottle, but at home I tend to forget. I also have a tendency to drink too much coffee when I'm at home. They say that admitting you have a problem is the first step in recovery, so I have a problem about not drinking enough water at home.

Posted by Blondie at 05:34 PM | Comments (1)

April 02, 2005

Early Morning Runs are Good for Something

At least some of the time. I have found that I usually manage to get my long run in before the really nasty weather makes an appearance. That was most definitely the case today. The weather was not all that great this morning, but it was far better than it is at the moment.

I had planned to run about 17 again this weekend, but that was not to be. The first issue was the weather. Running in the rain is not all that bad, it is not one of my favorite things, but I can tolerate it. When I got dressed I was not sure what I wanted to put on; it was about 46 degrees, shorts were a possiblity, but I didn't know about the rain. I decided to put baggy pants on over my shorts, that way if I was hot, I could take the pants off. When I got outside I thought that I would be cold if I lost the pants, so I kept them on. Early on in the run, before the rain, I was warm, but once it started to rain I was comfortable. Today's rain is one of those hard, driving, cold rains. My pants were soaked, about 40 minutes into the run I was complaining about how heavy my pants were from the rain. I said that I could pee my pants and nobody would be able to tell, one of the guys said that I might not even know since we were so drenched, but I reminded him that it would be much warmer than the rain! By the end of my run I think that I had gained about ten pounds of water weight.

We decided to do the back roads this morning, the roads that we were supposed to go on last weekend. We were kind of like Noah's Ark, running in groups of two in the rain. Most of the group was going on the shorter side, Boston runners are tapering, the weather sucked, the longer races around here are almost done-basically nobody really wanted to be out all that long today. The course we did was very hilly and I was struggling more than usual on the hills. M and a visitor, I (I think), were hammering pretty hard. Another M and I caught up to them when they stopped to wait for us to see if we would add on there or go someplace else. The first M said that he would run whatever with me, so we added on for about 45 more minutes. We backed off the pace some, especially after I told him that I was feeling awfully depleted. I really have not felt so depleted during a run for a very long time. I think that I can attribute some of it to doing doubles three days this week. My poor eating habits earlier in the week did not help matters, either. We got back to the school in 1:52, which was plenty long for me.

Last weekend we had a discussion in which one of the guys stated that one of his friends will call a hilly 7 mile run an 8 mile run. Today I was thinking about that...I would not call today's 15/16 longer in my book, but it takes much more effort than a flat 18/19 mile run. Some people may not have the same problems on the hills that I do, but hills really take a lot of effort for me to run. I don't seek out flat courses because I am so weak on hills, but I do not seek out extremely hilly courses because it takes more to recover.

I went to the gym, did half an hour on the elliptical and a half hour on the bike. I stretched more than I usually do because I have noticed that I have been unusually tight for the past couple of days. My flexibility has been better, so it is something that I need to start doing again. I lifted, but again, felt depleted. I did less than I usually will because I was feeling weak and discouraged. The gym suddendly has a foam roller, so after riding the bike I did some work on it instead of waiting until I got home. My piriformis is feeling restricted again, so I was trying to work it out. My next massage could be very painful...the elbow will definitely be in the butt!

It sounds like the rain has eased off some. We're under a flood watch until sometime tomorrow morning. When we ran by the river this morning, we could really smell the worms. The river looked like it could overflow at any minute. This bodes well for tonight. A friend from high school has a black-tie optional event for work to attend. Her husband is working, so she invited me. Nothing like going out, all dressed up, in a driving rain. I've got to go and decide what to wear.

Posted by Blondie at 03:25 PM | Comments (0)

April 01, 2005

April Fool's Day

So far, no April Fool's pranks have been pulled on me, yet. There is still time left in the day. My father has been pulling pranks on my mom all day, but that is just his personality. He had a bunch of jokes last night, then kept going this morning. Dad thought that Mom was pulling a prank on him today, but she was completely serious. I went out to get the mail and there was an envelope from the courthouse addressed to my mom. She's been called for jury duty, the date of the trial is the day before her last treatment, and it is a capital murder trial that is expected to last for three weeks. She has three days to respond and tell the court that she needs a medical excuse. I found out today that my grandmother and I are the only ones in the family who have never been called. My grandmother is too old to be called now, I never knew that there was a maximum age, but apparently there is!

Liz, thanks for the encouragement. This treatment has gotten to my mother a bit more today, but I don't think it is quite as bad as the previous drugs were. My brother sent her a build-a-bear today that is a breast cancer bear. I suggested naming it Cyndi (as in Lauper) because it has pink sparkly fur. She decided that she was going to name it Boobie Bear, so she still has a sense of humor. We were able to go out for lunch today at our usual lunch place, Panera. We hung out watching morning talk TV most of the morning. I'm usually not too big on those shows, but today was the kind of day where I could watch.

No running, as is normal for Friday. My original plan was to go to the gym and ride the stationary bike for a while, but it was so nice outside today that I decided that I could not waste the beautiful weather. I went for a 4 mile walk to take advantage of the weather. The forecast is calling for another 2-3 inches of rain starting tonight. Today I vowed to take on a new 'tude for track workouts. The workouts are going to start to count soon and I need to have a PMA from now on.

All right, now to catch up on everyone else and have a happy weekend to all!

Posted by Blondie at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)