The Long Run

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August 31, 2005

Is a Storm A-Brewin?

My thoughts go out to everyone who has been affected by Katrina. The man who rents office space from my father said that the house that he lived in when he lived in Louisiana is gone now. My father had a client in today who is moving to Mississippi and had not heard from her husband who is already there until she got a call on her cell during their meeting. Finally, one of the men who I run with is from Louisiana and his mother still lives there. He is on vacation with his wife (or at least he was supposed to be, but they may have changed their plans after Sunday).

As far as weather goes around here, it certainly feels like a storm should be on its way. It has been hot and humid for the past few days. The winds had definitely picked up quite a bit today and there have been some periods when the sky is looking awfully black. According to the weatherman, the remnants of Katrina are further north than we are. Whatever the case, they seem to think that we should have a pop-up thunderstorm to break things up tonight.

I was rudely awakened this morning by the trailer dropping off the back of the lawn mowing company's truck. The other problem was that they were riding their mowers right in front of my window. It took me longer to get to being functional than it would have if I had woken up on my own. Once I got dressed I was in a quandry as to where to run today. I decided to do the G trail thing because it was really nasty when I went outside.

After yesterday's 8 miles that felt more like 16, I wanted to take it really easy today. I was thinking more about having quiet footsteps today. I used to be a very quiet runner, but recently I've become louder, so I was thinking about landing lighter on my feet. I took a peek at my watch and was surprised that I was running faster than I thought. I did the same loop that I did on Sunday, but I did it a minute and a half faster! I did try to make a bathroom stop, but nature wasn't agreeing with being in the really hot port-o-pot. Hey, life goes on!

I went to the gym to do the lifting that I didn't get around to doing yesterday. I was feeling thirsty but forgot to bring water with me because I was about to run from the house. They have two different kinds of vending machines, one has 20 ounce bottles of water and the other has 16.9 ounce bottles of water. Since both machines cost $1, I wanted to get as much water as possible, but for some reason all of the machines with the larger bottles are out of order. I used my money to buy a bottle from the other kind of machine and the machine spat out two bottles for me. Two for the price of one!!! I can handle that. I rode the bike some and then lifted. I wasn't loving the lifting and I was getting hungry, so I cut the lifting short.

I had to pick up some groceries before I went home since Trader Joe's is closer to the gym than home. Since there is minimal money coming in and gas is going to cost me my first-born, if I ever have one, I try to combine all of my errands. I wish that it was easier to get around by foot in my community, but it isn't really practical. I did pick up some whey protein powder, but I haven't tried it yet. I'll probably have some tomorrow in my oatmeal because I know that it can be kind of gross to drink by itself.

Posted by Blondie at 06:58 PM | Comments (1)

August 30, 2005

How Embarassing

This morning I had to do more of the heart rate monitor wear testing. This meant going to the gym to run on the treadmill. Since the best words to describe what it feels like out today are "tropical rain forest"; being inside, on the treadmill wasn't so bad after all. When we first got there, it was quite crowded. They gave me the first bra to wear and I went to change into it. When I got back from putting it on, there was only one treadmill open. Since I do next to no treadmill running, I don't know what kinds I like and what kinds I don't like. The one that was open turns out to be one I don't like. The LifeFitness treadmills at my gym have this bar on the front that I must have hit on every third stride. Luckily, after the first bra to wear, the gym cleared out and I had all the treadmills to pick from. We went over to the Precor treadmills that did not have that bar to hit and I was much happier. My gym does not have the one towel rule, they just have these big garbage tubs of towels for people to pick towels out of. I was most embarassed when I went to change the bras and the researcher told me to dry off as much as I could because I was so sweaty. Even indoors in the air conditioning, the sweat was pouring off of me.

I did six miles on the treadmill, at 7:30 pace. It wasn't so bad early on, but my body was wiped out from last night. The last segment wasn't as bad because I knew that was all I had to do, but the one before that felt terrible. The pace is supposed to be the same for all of the trials, so I didn't think that I should make it slower even though my legs felt shot. Even though I was tired at the end of that, my obessive compulsiveness kicked in when we were leaving...see I had planned to do an hour today, so I went over to the G trail to do my last fifteen minutes. I didn't have a watch since the researchers took the watch with them to download the files, so I just ran out about a mile and turned around to come back. In retrospect, this probably was not the best idea because my legs were really tired. When I finished that, I did a few striders, well more like drills. I also did two barefoot striders. They were on a hill so my form was probably not how it should have been. We'll see how my feet feel tomorrow. I don't think it should be that bad because I didn't do that much. I haven't ever run barefoot intentionally as an adult, I know that I used to do it all the time as a kid.

Today is usually my lifting day, but that is going to happen tomorrow. By the time I was done running at the gym, I wanted to finish my run and didn't feel like lifting. I would have gone back this afternoon, but I had an appointment to get my haircut. My usual stylist is on maternity leave and the stylist who is taking most of her clients is really busy, so I had to take what I could get. This stylist was much better than the last time I had to see someone else. Usually I have the attitude of "it's only hair, it grows back", but when going on interviews, I would like to have a haircut that isn't bad.

Posted by Blondie at 07:57 PM | Comments (1)

August 29, 2005

Eleven Hours of Sleep Isn't Always a Good Thing...

...because that means that the night after it, you hardly sleep at all! My body was all out of sorts last night. I got in bed, tossed and turned, finally fell asleep, only to have to get up and pee. Repeat cycle two times and then it is time to just give up and get out of bed.

During the day I searched at home for some job postings, but there is no way that I could apply or post a resume with the world's slowest dial-up internet connection. Seriously, it has taken me ten minutes to even get to the inbox of my e-mail here. There really weren't any postings where I was looking, but I went on over to my dad's office to post my resume online with the high speed DSL line. If I tried to do that at home, it would just time out on me.

Tonight was track night. The humidity is definitely creeping back in as Katrina inches her way inland. Compared to what it had been like just a few weeks ago, tonight probably would not have been that bad, but it was not good running conditions by any means. My primary goal with tonight's workout was for it to be better than last Monday. Something about having to puke the entire time made that a pretty easy goal to achieve. This week, the agenda was to do 7 x 800 with a 400 jog. They were better than last week, the jogs were still a little slower than I would have liked them to be, but I really was trying to maintain the proper pace for these 800s. They are supposed to be at about half-marathon race pace, which they were. The other thing that I have to keep reminding myself is that every other time I have done this kind of workout, it has been on the longer interval day as a sharpening workout-not the short interval day as base building. I think that I would be in some serious trouble if I were hitting these at a faster pace right now, my intended peak would be way sooner than planned. I did a little bit of extra warm-down to get to talk (gossip and serious) with J. The main question was if I could have done 5 of them at under 6:00 pace since I was running around 3:06 for the 800s. My answer was that if I knew that I was only doing 5, I probably could have, but that it was not realistic for 7. Knowing you have to do so many does affect your plan of attack on the workout.

On a completely random note, I have a pimple. My complexion has always been on the clear side and when I have a pimple it is always a big sucker somewhere that just stands out on my face. So right now I have a glaring pimple. At least I don't have a job interview to go on in the next few days. Imagine that, I look young enough as it is and they would just think that I'm going through puberty!

So, on a semi-running related topic...does anyone have any advice on protein powders? Unlike most Americans, my diet is seriously lacking in protein. No meat and no beans (the latter are too much for my seriously tender tummy). I know that there are benefits to both soy and whey proteins, but I don't know which is better. The canister that I just finished was soy protein, but I think that I read somewhere, don't remember where, that whey was more beneficial. Any help?

Posted by Blondie at 08:34 PM | Comments (4)

August 28, 2005

Online Job Applications

Today I discovered that online job applications are a royal PITA (Pain In The Ass). Supposedly they make life easier for everyone, but it seems that the only people that they make life easier for is the people in human resources who must read through all of the applications. Example: In the box below please describe the duties of your position. OK. I try to be as concise as possible, but my last job had a ton of duties. My entry gets rejected because you are only allowed 200 characters to describe what you did. 200 characters? That's like three sentences to describe a position that entailed everything from serving breakfast to going out to other schools as a representative! Whatever the case, I did get three online applications completed, including the online resumes required be each different employer. It was such a pain since each place had its own format to be used. The fact that I brought a disk with me to my dad's office with the DSL line that I thought had my resume on it, but it had my old resume from when I graduated from college, not my updated resume made it slightly more difficult. I'll probably go back tomorrow to do some more now that I have the hang of it. I think that I'm also going to put my resume on one of those databases that employers search for prospective employees.

So after my writing yesterday about being so tired...I slept for nearly eleven hours last night! I must've been wiped out from something. I was tired last night, I had called a friend from HS to see if she wanted to do something, but she wasn't in town. It turns out that it was a good thing since I was in my bed before 9:30. I read for a while and then went to sleep. I woke up pretty early and looked at the clock. The thought I had at that time was it is 7 AM on a Sunday, if I get up now there isn't anything that I can do after my run. My philosophy is that Sunday is meant for sleeping late because nothing opens until late anyway. So with that thought, I rolled over and went back to sleep until almost 9:00!

I putzed around for a while and watched the news. I can't believe how strong Katrina has become. I feel so badly for the people who have been affected by it and worry for those who are in the projected path. I finally got myself dressed and went over to the G Trail to run. I thought ahead and put a cap on because it had been drizzling when I went out to get the paper.

I kept telling myself to slow down and take it easy while I was running today. I really want to have a good workout tomorrow night. I feel like I write that exact statement every Sunday. There really is no reason to care about how hard the easy recovery runs are, they are supposed to be easy for a reason, right? I ran five minutes longer than I usually would because that way I get 55 miles for the week. Mileage usually isn't a big deal to me, but when I get close to a nice "even" kind of number, I try to run enough to hit it. Oh, so back to the cap...about halfway through the run it started to rain pretty hard, so I was happy to have the cap on to keep the rain out of my face. I didn't see that many people out today, mainly mountain bikers, but I knew about three quarters of the people I saw. Speaking of rain, it's supposed to be rainy all week.

All right, I'm tired of looking at computer screens, so I'm going to catch up on weekends and then call it a night.

Posted by Blondie at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)

August 27, 2005

Kind of Like Going on a Blind Date

So...last night I met up with Audrey on her way back from DC. When I pulled into the parking lot of the shopping center where the coffee shop we were meeting, I was looking to see if she was there already. See, I figured she would have car loaded up with stuff and a bike on the back of it. Sure enough, there was a car on the other side of the lot that looked like someone was moving or going someplace...lots of stuff and a bike hanging off the back. I kind of went over to it to see where the plates were from to see if it was her or not. I felt so bad that she got there before I did, but she swears that she wasn't waiting that long. To be honest, I wasn't sure what she looked like, so I was happy that she was waiting at one of the tables outside. I kind of have mental images of what every blogger looks like based on their entries/personalities, but I could be way off. Audrey is really cool, but probably absolutely wiped out given what her past week has been like. We both had some water and sat outside since it was a really nice night out. Meeting is kind of weird because we already knew so much about each other, but got to find out more (like details) about each other. Audrey, I hope that you made it back OK, I should have checked to make sure you knew how to get back, so I apologize for not checking that out. We discovered that we drive the same kind of car, although I hate to drive!!

Even though Audrey and I were not out late by any means, she had to drive the rest of the way home, I was exausted last night. I went to bed early and slept really hard. I don't know why, but lately I've been more tired than usual. I've been sleeping later too. It could be the steroids that I'm coming off that have been affecting my sleep. Whatever the case, I woke up twice to pee but when the alarm went off, it was like waking the dead.

We had a really small group this morning. My guess is that last week's announcement that we were doing the back roads no matter what this week kept some people away. The back roads are really pretty, but they are also really hilly and sometimes more dangerous as well. Only K and I went longer this morning. I sort of know the route, but I am not very confident at it, but the last time K tried to do this route, he and K (another K) got terribly lost. I felt really bad because I wasn't the best company this morning. See, I suck at hills. It takes every ounce of energy I have to get myself up hills, so there really isn't any energy left over for chatting. The problem with this route is that we're either going up or down, there really is no flat on it. My legs felt heavy and it took more than usual to get going. The last time I ran this course it was so cold, but we ran it fast then and ran it faster this morning, so I don't feel that bad about it. I had to add on around the school when I got back to get to 90 minutes.

Being a predictable person that I am, I went to the gym after running. Seriously, anyone who reads this on a regular basis could tell you what I do pretty much every day of the week because I am THAT predictable. I did the elliptical for half an hour and the bike for half an hour. After fifteen minutes on the bike my feet were feeling numb, so I stopped to loosen my shoes. I stretched some with the therabands because my legs felt a little bit tight. My quads are still a touch on the achy side, so there was no lifing legs today. I won't do it again until there is no achiness left. I did lift upper body and tried to really concentrate on "feeling" it.

Right now I'm freezing from the ice bath that I took when I got home. As I was leaving the grocery store I saw a classmate from high school. She saw my huge bag of ice and the first thing she asked me is if I was getting ready to party. When I told her what I was going to do with the ice she looked at me like I was crazy, but I'm used to that from my non-exercising friends. Hold on, some of my exercising friends think I'm crazy too! I'd have to say that the jury is still out on my sanity...

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

August 26, 2005

Dull Day

Ho hum. Boring day. I did tie up some loose ends, but nothing too exciting. I did print out a bunch of possible jobs to look through and probably send resumes to over the weekend. I slept in, drank coffee, worked on the crossword puzzle. It is the life. I could really get used to it.

I didn't run today and I think that it was a really good choice. Anyone who reads this regularly knows that I don't really ever run on Friday, but this time around I think that my body really needed it. My quads and calf are feeling better. On Tuesday when I was getting my massage, the massage therapist and I were discussing how good ice baths are for us (and how painful they are!). I told her that I'd been doing it every Saturday and she told me that she thought it might be a good idea to do it at least Saturday and Thursday night after the hills, so last night I stopped on the way home and bought ice. Ah, to be in high school/college again and have the access to tons of ice for free! Whatever the case, my legs feel much better today. I don't know if it is because it has been six days since their trauma or the ice bath last night, but they feel much better.

I did take a long walk today. I could not let such a beautiful day go without spending some time outside. On the way home, I stopped by to visit someone who I used to run with on a very regular basis who is pregnant now. She had a very hard time getting pregnant and has not had the easiest pregnancy thus far, but things seem to be going better for her now.

I have to quickly catch up on everyone else's blogs and then cook something for dinner. Later on I'm meeting Audrey!

Posted by Blondie at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2005

Did Mother Nature Mess Up?

NOT that I am complaining about the weather by any means, but, is Mother Nature confused? It is August and right now the weather is absolutely gorgeous for summer. The weatherman commented this morning that this is the lowest humidity we have had all summer. The highs are a little bit below average, but really, we deserve this after the past seven weeks or so of high temperatures and ungodly humidity. This is the kind of weather that I live for. Ideal weather would be a little bit cooler, but I would take it like this every day if I had to, someone might have to twist my arm a little, but only a little to take it.

Doing a workout in these conditions is so much easier than trying to do it in the weather that we have been having. Doing the workouts in those conditions only serves to make one tougher. Anyhow, tonight was another hill night. Only two more weeks of hills!!! Of course, next week we add a hill to make it tougher. I can only be happy with how the hills went tonight. They did feel tougher than last week, but my quads are still not back to being "right" and that spot on the back of my calf is still a little tender. L is one tough cookie on the hills and she really pushed me up the hills. I did my four about ten seconds faster than I did them last week, so I really shouldn't complain about them at all. After all, last week was the fastest I've ever done four of them without cheating and I did them a little bit faster tonight. I did the longer version of the warm-down, the one that does not involve going through the woods but does have the sixth hill repeat in it, for a total of about ten miles for the night.

Thank you Alison for giving me some more confidence in myself. I do know that my PR days are not behind me, but sometimes I get so discouraged when I have a bunch of really bad runs in a row like I did earlier this week. I'd kind of like to attack some of my PRs this fall and when the workouts are not even close to what my adjusted goals for the workout are it gets to me. I decided today that I will definitely be running the PDR in three weeks. I'd like to at least challenge my half PR there. It is one of my strongest PRs, but it is one that I've consistently come close to. They've changed the course this year to make it even faster, it was already blazing fast to begin with, so it's going to be FAST. I've had a lot of success at this race in the past, so hopefully the trend continues. I'm not sure if I'd highly recommend it this year, it has changed management, but if you're looking for a fast half-marathon, this is it. In order to do what I want there, I think that I need at least one or two weeks over 13 miles on the weekend. The base that I built up over the spring should get me through, the year I PR'd that's what I did.

It doesn't look like I'm going to be heart rate monitor testing tomorrow. This is a good thing. My legs want a day off from running. There might be a little light cross-training tomorrow, but the rest is much needed. No pain, no gain...whatever. Pain is not good and I should've listened to it when it made itself present. Sometime tomorrow I should be meeting Audrey on her way back to school. Unlike Beth, I'm in the middle of the East Coast so I can meet the DC or Boston bloggers when they are going places if they can stop.

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

August 24, 2005

'Nother Night With the Girls

I don't know if it is sad or cool that a night hanging out with some of the girls involves hanging out with my mom and my aunt. M was probably at the beach, or else it would have been me with three women who are all old enough to be my mom. OK, that was a dumb statement, cuz one of the girls is my mom! I don't wancha all to think that I'm a big loser, I do have some girlfriends who are my age...but I seem to hang out with these ladies more than some of my own friends.

My aunt stopped over tonight for another celebration of the end of treatments. We sat around the living room and finished off the last bottle of wine that we had open and the end of the champagne. I'm nowhere near the state I was in when Bridget announced "BEST POST EVER!!!!", but there is a nice happy kind of feeling going on. We talked about politics since my aunt really can't talk about her true feelings at home, she and my uncle have differing views, nuff said.

Yeah, so, I did run this morning. It might have been better if I didn't, don't know for sure. I think that I did something to my quads on Saturday morning when I lifted. I did some squats, but my legs felt weak and depleted. They have not felt the same since. The early part of the run was good, but about half way through, my legs just felt dead. I had to keep stopping to stretch some. I think that I just overdid it on Saturday. My quads were sore on Sunday, Monday night was a workout, yesterday was a massage. I did ice when I got home and that may have helped. They just felt so tired this morning. It may have been better to take the day off to recover. Hopefully the heart rate monitor guys don't call to do more testing on Friday, I think that my legs need a day of rest.

I don't know why I am so stuck in my schedule. I like the schedule I keep, but it does not need to be set in stone. For some reason, I just like to have the continuity every week. I know what is on the plate for each day of the week.

I have been thinking and wondering lately if my PR days are over. It seems like two years ago all of the stars had lined up in my favor. I haven't really come close to the times I ran those days. Even my daily runs are much slower. My fast days now aren't as fast as my slow days were then. I think that I am a bit heavier now, but I'm not really sure how much. Something happened sometime last spring that has slowed me down, but I can't pinpoint what it is. Last March I PR'd at 5 miles and ever since then I've been running much slower. I don't know if it comes from listening to others about not doing all of my training at such a fast pace or if it is something else. I know that I was doing intervals with some other people then and now I'm more or less on my own. I really wish that I could figure out what it is because I have been feeling really not into racing because I don't have the fast times in me anymore. I have had some good races in the fact that I have done very well in some strong fields, but that is not always going to happen. I don't know if it is nutritional or not, but I think that I eat healthier now than I did two years ago.

OK, nuff of that. I think that the massage therapist bruised or irritated a spot on the back of my right calf yesterday. It is so sore right now. I know that my calves tend to get excessively tight as a result of toe running and I've had this sensation after a massage before, but it still hurts. I tried to stay more on top of the water today than usual to rid my body of the rest of the toxins from yesterday, but I'm usually good about the water as it is.

Hope that everyone is well and time to read up on Lump-Day.

Posted by Blondie at 09:58 PM | Comments (2)

August 23, 2005

How I Wish I Had a Job

I have actually gotten quite content in my non-working status. I have come up with a schedule that seems to work for me. I wake up at a decent hour, wake up some, run, do whatever else I need to do and then maybe do some work for my parents. The main reason behind wishing I had a job is health insurance. All of this talk about anemia and iron deficiency makes me wonder where my iron level is. The last time I had a physical and blood work done that I've gotten the results from was over 3 years ago. I've had blood work done as part of a research study I did, but was not given the results and I don't even know what they were running in those tests. I tried to look for the results of the bloodwork from my last physical, but have no idea where it is. I believe that my iron level was in what they considered the "low-normal" level, but that is for someone who does not run seriously. I can't see it being very high since I don't eat meat at all and don't like most other high iron foods. My cholesterol is also a bit of a concern since the last time it was tested it was borderline high (199, but the doctor wasn't that concerned with it). I was discussing it with my massage therapist months ago and she had a high reading once and they told her that serious athletes can sometimes have false high readings because when in a hard training cycle you may create a stress on your body that increases your cholesterol reading. I certainly hope that is true, or else one of these days I'm going to end up on a cholesterol med with some not so great side effects. My diet is really not bad and I am almost vegan, I really don't eat animal products because I don't like most of them. The other day I did get a notice from the doctor that it is time for a physical again, well, when I have a job with insurance I'll do it.

Running this morning was so pleasant. It was so much cooler than it has been in weeks. It was sunny, and dare I say it, almost fall-like. Given last night's less than stellar feelings, I was not too sure about what this morning would pan out to being. I actually felt pretty good. I did my 8 mile loop, which I hardly ever do and now believe that it is actually much closer to being nine miles. Towards the end my stomach started to feel funny and my legs felt very very tired, but it was much better than I thought that it would be. I did time it, but since I hardly ever run this route I have nothing to really compare it to. It took 57:25 this morning. I have run it as fast as 53 and change as a tempo run, but most of the few other times I have done this loop it was either untimed or a tempo. I did find some (like 2 or 3) timed entries in my old log books in the 55-58 minute range. I have to remember that I am still most definitely in the "base" stage of my mileage, so running super fast or long is not really imperative at this point.

So my massage therapist most definitely had her work cut out for her today. My legs were so tight and beat up. She did work her magic, did it ever hurt! Between not running a whole lot and having rash issues I have not been able to get in for a rub out. She and I were talking that most of the people we know have not been able to train the way they would like to this summer for a variety of reasons. She is a runner herself and has not been able to run for most of the summer. Most of us have had weird, nagging kinds of problems. She did not know that I took some real time off. Not the cross-training kind of time off, but the kind of time off where you don't do a thing. She was able to get the possible plantar problem and nip it. It seems to be more that the muscles/tendons in my right foot are weak and get tired. I know that it is from tearing the base of my Achilles in college that never really healed properly that leads to this problem since it only ever happens in that foot.

This afternoon I went to the gym and rode the bike and lifted some. I also made a point to stretch. My massage therapist was so excited to hear that I was doing yoga and wanted to know if I was going to keep doing it. I didn't get to lift as much as I would have liked because I just was not into it today. I wanted to go home and make dinner, not do extra exercises, so sue me. I can always lift some more tonight when I do my core exercises since I do have some dumbbells here, but it won't kill me. Hell, I went for years without touching a weight and ran much faster then.

On the job front. I am assuming that I did not get the job that I interviewed for in June. They start inservice this week and I have not heard a peep from them. I called and followed up and they never got back to me. They were given instructions to not leave me hanging, but I guess that was ignored. The position that I interviewd for last week had a slot for an interview this week, so I would expect to hear from them soon. There was nothing in the classifieds this week. I am not going to take a dead-end job just to have a job again. I am looking for a career that has room for growth. I could easily get a stupid job, but why would I have gone to four years of college and two and a half years of graduate school to do something like folding shirts. I have thought about that kind of job when I had the summers off, but not for a full time job. There is nothing wrong with it, but it would not be using either of my degrees. One of my friends from college has a job as a manager in a clothing store, but it kind of uses her degree. I can't see an education degree working in clothing, even being a clothes lover like I am!

Posted by Blondie at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2005

Walking a Fine Line

Oh how I wish that I could be sitting here writing about how I had a great workout tonight. I tried to do everything in my power yesterday to make sure that it would happen, but there are some things in life that you just have no control over and one of them struck me today.

I guess that it all sort of started this morning. I had a follow-up appointment with the dermatologist which was scheduled for 11:15. I didn't even get called out of the waiting room until five minutes to twelve. It had gotten so late that I was about to ask the receptionists if they had forgotten about me. People who came in after me and said that their appointments were later had been called back but I was still sitting there waiting. Apparently even though this is a husband and wife practice other dermatologists do some kind of contract work, but the guy who I was seeing (the husband) was running really late. I'll say he was running really late! My diagnosis was right and we are tapering me off the drugs now. Then he basically told me that running in the woods for me is very dangerous because I am very allergic to the poison plants. Anyhow, this relates to walking the fine line with my run in that I didn't get to eat my lunch until much later than I wanted and my finicky stomach was not too happy about that.

I got up to the track and tried to do the warm-up really easy because I wanted to have a good workout. After having some really good runs for about a week, I wanted another good workout. I started my workout, 6 x 800 with a 400 jog, after J and I discussed what I should be doing. The first two felt great, I hit the times I wanted, I kept the jog quick, and then I started with the HF on the first lap of the third 800. We have all experienced the HF, the Heave Factor. I was only able to run fast enough to not puke my guts out. The rest of the workout was much slower than I wanted, but the jogs were still on the quicker side, not as quick as I would like, but not too bad. The warm down wasn't as bad, but I still felt a little bit pukey.

I have to keep things in perspective here. It is only the middle of August. This is really only the third week I've been doing workouts. Before this I hadn't been doing any thing resembling speedwork since April. My body is still all out of whack with the drugs I've been taking. I need a massage desparately, which I am getting tomorrow morning. The massage therapist definitely has her work cut out for her. This isn't making excuses to make myself feel better about having a crappy workout, shit happens. It is more or less my giving myself the reasons to not get upset and dwell on it. As I said before, shit happens and life goes on. Tomorrow is a new day.

So now that the flights are booked, which I should have done last week when I was really looking around since the cost went way up over the weekend, I'll let everyone know what race I am going to run this fall. I know that everyone has been holding their breath for the past, what, three weeks (just kidding). I'll be in Boston to run the Tufts 10K for women, so I think that I'll finally get to meet some of the Boston-area bloggers. I'll be there from Saturday through Monday evening. I've done this race before and would like to do better than I have in the past. We are starting to look at what kind of pace I should be doing to achieve the kind of time I would like to run. I don't feel like I am in the shape I need to be to run that time. The last time I was up there we all thought that I would easily run the time I was looking to run (and still am looking to run), but it was not in the cards that day. The fact that I got terribly lost on my run the day before did not help me and that I ended up walking another six miles or so the day before. OK, so now the cat's out of the bag.

Posted by Blondie at 08:35 PM | Comments (3)

August 21, 2005

Some Things Never Change

My college boyfriend, M, used to tease me that some things never change. He was mainly referring to my eating habits, because he saw the comments my mom wrote in my baby book about me being a picky eater. My favorite foods from then are still in my list of favorite foods, although they have expanded since then. On that note, my brother, P, is still the prodigal son. When he comes home, he is the golden boy and I'm chopped liver. As predicted, at dinner last night he ordered the biggest and most expensive steak on the menu. I'm a cheap date and kept the cost of dinner down, my meal was all of $6.99-if she even charged us that for it. I had a bowl of spinach leaves and chopped tomato, the salad was supposed to come with bacon, onion, and mushroom that I didn't want. Any guy who dates me gets off lucky when it comes to eating out!!

We did have a good time at dinner, as much as I kid around about it. P was not as unbearable as he usually is, but he is the world's slowest eater...it drives me nuts. I want to eat my food while it is still hot, while he is content to talk and talk and talk while his food gets cold and then he wants seconds. Every ex-boyfriend I have has commented on how slow he eats. Dinner took a while, we had a bottle of wine with dinner and then came home and had a good bottle of champagne that we had been given as a gift. You only live once, and hopefully you only have to beat cancer once as well. We had a cake that said "Mom won, Cancer 0" on it and I even ate a piece. I don't particularly like most cakes, only certain gourmet cakes, but again, this doesn't happen all that often, so I had a piece. We ate late which concerned me about this morning, but things were OK.

I was pretty pooped last night, so when the rest of the family watched a movie, I went to bed. Even with going to bed early, I woke up relatively late this morning. I figured that I really needed the rest so I didn't feel guilty about sleeping later than usual. I watched some of the news and read some of the paper to wake up and then got ready to go run.

I headed out to the G trail to run since it was kinda nasty out. I guess that a lot of people decided that since the little parking lot was absolutely full. It only holds four or five cars in "vertical" spots and two or three more in "horizontal" spots. I got the last of the "horizontal" spots and by the time I got done running there were two cars in the driveway leading to the townhomes next to the trail. I did see more mountain bikers and people out with their dogs than usual and it wasn't like I was out any later than I usually am on a Sunday morning. I even saw my friend K's husband M twice on his bike (he told me that I need to learn some of the trails).

I really felt like I was moving as slow as molasses this morning, but the watch didn't agree with that. When I got to my turnaround point I was right about the normal time for the out portion, maybe two or three seconds faster. The back portion was slightly faster, but my body didn't feel like it was really moving fast. I didn't try to run fast at all, I would rather have a good track workout tomorrow night because I think that right now that is more important. I want to start to feel fast again and I know that track work is imperative in that mission. I added on some when I got back to the car so that I could have 7 miles for the morning.

This week marks two accomplishments. Yesterday was my longest run since early May/late April. I have not really run much over 10-11 miles since then. It was also my biggest mileage week since the same time. Part of the reason I went for 7 miles today (other than it seems to be my favorite training distance) was that it would give me an even 60 miles for the week. Otherwise, this week was one of the first weeks I have had in a long time where the good runs outnumber the bad runs. Other than Monday night which I can attribute to a number of outside factors I had all good runs during the week. Looking back, I should have taken some more down time, but I kept thinking that if I pushed harder or ran harder things would fall into place. I should have taken some more time off or not pushed as much early on as I did, it may have hindered the recovery process, but it is so much easier to realize these things when you are looking back. Anyhow, now we are in the present, and things are going better, so I am one happy camper.

Posted by Blondie at 07:45 PM | Comments (0)

August 20, 2005

Is Summer Over Yet?

Waking up was relatively pain-free this morning. I took my Benadryl very early last night since I knew that this morning required getting up earlier than the past few days. It was not that much earlier than yesterday, but based on how much I dragged yesterday morning, I knew that it needed to be taken at an earlier hour. I took it right after dinner and then went to two grocery stores with my mom, I know I lead the most exciting life of single gals! Everyone must be so jealous of going grocery shopping on Friday nights. In all seriousness, I have been told that it is a good night to meet single guys in the grocery store, although I haven't met any yet. By the time we were leaving the second store, I was seriously dragging, and by the time we got home, I was nearly comatose. I was in my bed and nearly fast asleep by 9:30.

I slept pretty much straight through, except waking up around 5:15 to pee. I probably wasn't hydrated enough, because I usually have to get up earlier to pee. My benadryl wore off around the time the alarm was set to go off, I woke up a few minutes before it went off, always a good sign. It is so much easier for me to get going when I wake up on my own instead of to that blaring beep. The weather report was not the most conducive to a good long run, but I was not going to let the weather affect me today. Mind over matter ladies! The temperature was warm, but at this point I'm just used to it, but the humidity was way up there. Can I just say that I am tired of summer now?

I was ready really early this morning on account of the fact that I was functioning. My plan had been to try to run for about 90 minutes. Once my long run gets to 90 minutes, I can feel like I am getting into some kind of shape. I know that it is not the best way to increase my long run, but I take baby steps up to 90 minutes, but once I hit that magic number, I'll jump all the way up to 2 hours in one fell swoop. Something about an hour and a half for me is that if I'm comfortable there, I can go longer pretty comfortably. Anyhow, once we figured out which way we were going, I decided what route I would probably do. I wasn't sure if there was anyone who was going to do it with me, but A was looking to do about 15. I told him that I was planning on doing 13, so he asked J if he should do that route with me and then add on, which J thought was a good idea. It turned out that not only A and I did this route, but three others did as well. A and I did this loop about this time last summer and I'll write about that later, but it was a joke between us this morning.

Our course is about thirteen miles, downhill for the first six or so, then up for about three, and then rolling hills for the final four miles. The three miles that are up just keep going and going and going along a road that is supposed to be haunted. I suggested that when we got to this road that we slow down and tell the ghost stories associated with this road to the two who were with us who are not from the area. Going up the hill M (who ran 3/4 of the marathon with me), A, and I started to pull away from the other two. We stopped and waited for them when we got to the top of the hill since the three of us were the only ones who knew where we were going. M was struggling some, so he stayed with the other two, since A and I were feeling pretty good. I didn't really want to leave M alone, but he swore that he was OK and would not pass out on the side of the road. He was also with two other people who could wait with him, and I didn't really want to leave A alone either.

As we were running in A and I were talking about when we did this run last summer. We ran with another person who is the fastest woman I have ever met, she can whip most of the men I know. We were running this course at what felt like race pace and it was so hot and humid. A was telling me that he wanted to slow down and drop back that day but she was having a conversation with him. I was smart and made a water stop that morning to finish at a more reasonable pace. I have run with A in the summer since he was a freshman in high school and he is getting ready to go to college now. I told him that he is finally old enough that I won't get a call telling me that I am ruining the youth on our long runs. He joked around that he shot his wad for his senior cross country season on that one long run!

We did our loop in just over 1:30, but we did slow down a few times to check and see if our plan was OK. That's OK with me, when I can do this course between 1:30 and 1:32 I feel like I'm in good shape, not just physically, but mentally as well. The hill on this course is a real ball-buster and then once you get off it, there is a four mile rolling stretch back to the cars. It's straight ahead and it feels like you can see where you're going forever but it isn't getting any closer. Mentally that final stretch is hard for me. I've had lots of bad runs on this route, especially physically, but when I can do it, I know that I'm getting there. In other words, lots of things are starting to look rosy again.

We hung out for a while, stretching and drinking water. I went to the gym and did my cross-training hour, half an hour on the elliptical and half an hour on the bike. I stretched some more because parts of my legs are feeling particularly tight. I lifted afterward, not that many meatheads were in the weight area, and the ones who were there were the nice ones. My quads felt beat when I tried to do squats. I was only doing the bar on the Smith machine, but I could barely do them because my quads were shot. This is a big indication that it is time for a massage (Tuesday). I took an ice bath when I got home. I don't know if it is really helping me all that much becuase the ice melts after about five minutes, but I am convinced that doing this is part of what is helping my Sunday feel better.

My brother, the prodigal son, is coming home today to have another celebration. We're going to a steakhouse that I won a gift certificate to in a race. They'll all eat steak, my brother will probably get the biggest one on the menu, and I'll have some kind of salad. The gift certificate will barely make a dent into the bill, but it expires soon. We have to live it up some tonight, so there might be a little too much to drink on all of our parts, but we need to celebrate all of the good that we have. P wanted to give our mom a gift certificate to a spa, but I have not had the time nor the energy to go around and find one. She can live with us telling her that we are giving it to her. Personally, I don't know if she really wants it, but he has his heart set on it. She has indicated that she really does not want somebody touching her that much and I know that she does not want a pedicure! Whatever, I'll go along some with him.

OK, I've been writing enough for now, but I am just so excited about feeling good that I want to write more than when I feel like crap. When you feel like crap, it kind of sucks to rehash your crappy day and who really wants to read all that whining, assuming there is anyone out there reading this.

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

August 19, 2005

Sick and Tired of Driving

As far as I am concerned, driving is one of those necessary evils. It is something that I don't particularly like to do. I have driven more this week than I normally do in about a month. Today was one of the worst days I've had, if I don't drive again for a week I'll be a happy camper (of course, that won't happen!). When I bought gas on Monday (the cheap day), I practically had to take out a mortgage on my car. I won't go into detail on all of the driving that I did this week, but I will detail some of today's driving because much of it was not needed.

Normally I don't run on Fridays, but beggars can't be choosers, especially when there is money involved. Those of us who don't know when we will have a steady job again and need some sort of income need to do whatever they can in order to earn some money. I have been doing some testing of a heart rate monitoring system. I'm not too sure about exactly what they are doing, but all I have to do is run. The guy doing the research doesn't speak English too well and his assistant doesn't know all of what is being done, so I just do what he asks me to do. I know that a sports bra and heart rate monitor are involved, but I'm not sure if they're working on the sports bra or a new way to measure heart rate. Anyhow, they needed me to run on the treadmill again today because they are trying to get all of the data collected so they can get their product on the market as soon as possible.

I was supposed to meet the guys at their lab at 8:30 this morning because the branch of the gym that I use still does not have the equipment up and running (well, they do now, but it was not going to be ready until 5:00 this afternoon). The downtown branch was not too happy with us testing the equipment on Wednesday, in fact they thought it was dangerous (how me running on a treadmill with a heart rate monitor is dangerous still confuses me, but they thought that something was going to happen and they would be liable). This kind of left us in a predicament as to where to go, they are trying to find a place in their lab to put a treadmill, but so far that has not been done. So the plan was to go to the Y in a town about twenty minutes away. I was almost to the lab when I realized that I forgot the transmitter for the heart rate monitor, which was kind of needed to collect the data, so I had to turn around and go back home to get it. Then I had to drive all the way back out to the lab (it's not that far, maybe 8 miles or so, but I was almost there!). I got out there and we had to go to the researcher's apartment because he forgot his cell phone. That wouldn't have been that big of deal, it was on the way to the Y, but none of us are members at that Y (it's in a different state), but the boss and his family are members there, so we had to go pick up the boss's son. This was a bit out of the way, then we were on our way to the gym. By the time we got there it was almost 10:00.

I got there and had to run in the different systems. I was pleasantly surprised at how good my legs felt this morning on the treadmill after last night's hill workout. Last night's workout made me very happy the more I thought about it, I'm getting some confidence back in my running. I know that I've been putting a lot of hard work in, and I think that pretty soon I'm going to be seeing the results of the hard work. The first 13 minutes this morning were slower, about 8:00 pace, but I was hooked up to an EKG monitor and holding onto electrodes. I kept thinking that I was going to pull the wires out and my hands were getting sweaty, so I ran that part easier. I ran the rest of the trials at 7:30 pace again, but it felt slow. They wanted to make sure that I ran everything at the same pace, which I did. They were taking pictures of me and the equipment while I ran. It was funny becuase while I was running at least three people dropped water bottles on the treadmills, and they were worried about me and the heart rate monitoring system. I guess that I got about 6.5 miles in today, on the treadmill. It wasn't done straight, it was done in 11-13 minute increments. It makes me wonder if this is really effective. The breaks were only long enough for me to go to the locker room and change sports bras, so about three minutes or so, probably not much longer than waiting for a stoplight to change.

So after that I had to drive home (another 20 minutes or so), showered, ate, and then headed over to my parent's office to do some work for them. Their runner has been on vacation all week, so I've been doing the running for them, which involves driving downtown. I'm not lazy like some of the runners they have had. I park in one place and walk all over town, it isn't that big. But it is driving another 10 miles a day or so. In all, I've driven about 60 miles today.

I hope that everyone has a good weekend!

Posted by Blondie at 05:36 PM | Comments (2)

August 18, 2005

Graduation Day

Not for me, for my mom. Today was her last day of treatment. She actually got a diploma for completing radiation! My dad had decided that we would have some champagne tonight, because we can't celebrate too many times. One of the things that my parents have learned from this entire experience is to not take things for granted. They need to take some time and enjoy the moment when it happens. They are both very hard working and driven, but sometimes that takes a toll on the enjoyment part of life. I have seen that growing up and like to think that I take a more balanced approach to life, although I have not really been on a vacation in years. My brother is coming home for a celebration dinner on Saturday, but we had a small celebration for just the three of us. This celebration meant that I had to hurry home from the workout tonight, but that was OK since we had a small group and pretty much everyone had to get out quickly.

So, tonight's workout. Hills again, this time four. This is probably not the best attitude to doing a workout, but when I know that I have four hills, mentally I think "push the first two, just get the third one in the bank, and push the fourth one". I do this whenever I do more than three hills, I give myself a break on the one before the last one. In reality, I probably do it just as hard because I am not as fatigued, but the mindset that I don't have to work as hard makes it easier to get up. It was cool today, if you want to call 85 degrees cool. The humidity was down slightly as well, which made the conditions all the more tolerable. I ran the first two hills with M, who said that her goal was to run the first two with me (she was only doing three) and the last two by myself. I felt suprisingly good on the hills. I felt pretty strong for all four of the hills. Each loop is just over a mile and I finished in 28:15...I'll have to see how that compares to previous years in my old log books, not that I am that obsessive or anything. It is just that these workouts are a bread and butter type of workout that I can use to determine what kind of shape I am getting in. There is no way to "cheat" on these hills, they are that steep.

I can honestly say that things are coming along for me now. There was a point, maybe a month ago, when things seemed to be going down and getting dark. My body really was not responding and I felt pretty awful all the time. The things that I wrote may not have sounded as bad as they felt, but it was a really low point for me. J reminded me the other night that it can take up to six months to recover properly from a marathon, so some of how I have been feeling is considered normal. I think the reason that it was so difficult for me to take time off is that I recovered really quickly from the other marathons that I did.

I have to book my flight for my October race soon. My credit card has seen way too much action this past month. Last weekend was particularly bad with the doctor, medicine, the wedding gift, gas, and shopping at the beach. My brother also wants me to pick up a spa gift certificate for our mom tomorrow and will pay me back, but yikes, that is a ton of money that I have been charging. My parents will pay for the doctor's visit and medicine, but the number on that bill still freaks me out!

Happy Friday all!

Posted by Blondie at 08:17 PM | Comments (3)

August 17, 2005

Lab Rat

Should I be ashamed to admit that I freely volunteer to be part of research studies? I have participated in quite a few. For the most part, you get to learn some pretty cool stuff about yourself AND they compensate you for your time and effort. I participated in one that studied stress fractures. That one was kind of boring and it took a long time becuase it involved tracking your mileage for two years as well as a rather long session in the lab. I also did one that measured VO2 max and some other stuff with heart valve function. That one was really cool since you got all sorts of really expensive and informative tests done for free and they paid you for it. Recently I was wear testing this heart rate monitor bra. Hey, I'm going to run anyhow, they're giving me something and I'm getting a small stipend for doing it. When you don't have a job, you'll take any little bit of money you can get your hands on! So yesterday I got a call that they needed someone to try out different bras and run on a treadmill for them and I would be compensated for it, so I jumped at the opportunity!

Well, they wanted to start collecting data ASAP, so that meant that today, the most beautiful morning of the entire summer, when it has been unbearably hot for like months on end, I had to run inside, on a treadmill. We agreed to meet at my branch of the gym at 9 this morning. I got there and waited for my research folks. When I got there, I noticed a sign that all of the cardio equipment is out becuase they are getting completely new equipment. This posed a bit of a problem, since they needed me to run on a treadmill for some reason. We talked for a little bit and they followed me to the next closest branch. One of the researchers had to be a guest, which was not too much of a problem. We got him paid for and were talking some about what we were going to be doing and some guy overheard us and told us that we had to talk to the manager about it. She seemed to think that everything would be OK, so we went upstairs and started to get set up. They didn't have enough batteries, so they left me there to change into the first of the bras I had to test and wait. They took so much longer than I thought they would to get back, I got to meet the guy who is completely in charge and still wait for quite a bit longer. They finally got back and set up all of the various equipment that they needed to check things out. I got on the treadmill and they told me to run for about 20 minutes, so I set it at 7:30 pace (there was a chance that I could be running for up to 2 hours total, so I wanted to run a pace that I could run for a long time). Almost as soon as I got started one of the fitness center workers came over and started to ask a lot of questions and didn't seem too happy to see what we were doing. They were afraid that something might fall on me or that I would run so hard that I would max out or something. We did this with a few different variations of the bra, but because they didn't seem to want us in there, we cut down the amount of time from 20 minutes to fifteen minutes. I ended up running a total of 50 minutes on the treadmill. By the end I was really thirsty and getting hungry because it was much later than I thought it would be. When I got home, I decided to run for ten more minutes outside just to be OCD and end up with an hour.

I am a terrible treadmill runner. I have not run on one in at least three years. I would much rather run outside and go super-slow in the snow than to run on a treadmill. I get really bored and I have terrible balance. Today I felt like I was going to trip and fall at the beginning. By the time I got warmed up I could have run faster, but I was so uncomfortable that I had to start out easy. Not to mention that today was supposed to be easy and there was the possibility of running for up to two hours. I had to keep the pace the same to eliminate any confounding variables (god, I sould like a scientist!). The whole time I was looking out the big window that looks outside at how beautiful it was and thought about what a waste it was to be inside today. While I was on the treadmill, the RD for all of the local races came over and talked to me about why on earth I was running inside. I explained that I was wear-testing and he thought they had the right person to be testing things out. He asked when my next race was, always looking to make a buck. I had to tell him it would not be for a while because that marathon really sapped me and I need to get comfortable running six minute pace again. He did admit that I have been putting in a lot of work this year...as far as I am concerned, this year is pretty much a building year to get used to more training.

The rest of today involved doing the running for my dad. I parked where I didn't have to pay and walked all over downtown. I was a sweaty, nasty thing by the time I got back. I did some errands after that and then came home for a quick dinner. I realized when I started to cook that I had no fresh produce left, so I had to go to the grocery store after yoga tonight. I had a flexible night tonight!! I could actually touch the ground with almost flat palms! We did a lot of balancing exercises. I have a horrible time trying to balance on my right side because that ankle has been sprained so many times that it is just so weak.

I've taken my extra-strength dose of benadryl, so I should be getting sleepy soon. I have been so groggy in the morning because I am so easily affected by the drugs in it.

Posted by Blondie at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2005

Feeling Better in More Ways Than One

Today was much better than yesterday in more ways than one.

My interview went pretty well. I felt much better about the position once I had the interview. The school is changing the departments around and the department that I was interviewing to be pretty much in charge of has been completely re-vamped. I met with the Chief Operating Officer and the Dean of Students. That part of the interview was more formal and I was more nervous about that part. I still don't know if I have all of the qualifications they were looking for, but at least they didn't bombard me with questions that I had no idea how to answer. Then I met with the people I would be overseeing. It was kind of strange since most of them are quite a bit older, but we seemed to get along pretty well. The school is in another state, but it is only about 15 miles away. The drive home was horrendous because there had been a bank robbery very close to my house and an ensuing chase with two accidents. Once I got over the bridge, traffic came to a halt and did not move. The traffic reports on the radio pretty much said to avoid that area at all possible costs and gave alternate routes to go south, which is fine and dandy, but I needed to go NORTH. I finally got to the lane that could go north and made it home without any more problems. I have to write my thank you notes to go out in the mail tonight, but I feel much better about the interview now that it is over.

I ran pretty much as soon as I got home from the interview. Today was the first time that I have run my road course from home in probably over a month. My body felt so much better than it did yesterday. I still took it very easy since yesterday my body had to have been telling me something. Dehydration was definitely a factor. I drank four Nalgene bottles after track and before I went to bed (about 120 ounces of water) and did not wake up to pee until 4:15 in the morning. It was raining lightly the whole time that I ran which felt pretty refreshing. I did the course a little bit slower than I normally do, but because I forced myself to not run hard it was OK.

After working for my parents today, I went to the gym. I rode the bike for an hour and thankfully, they had a few good magazines to read. I did bring the book that I have started, so even if the magazine selection was crappy I had something to pass the time. I wanted to lift, but there were a ton of meatheads in the weight area. For a while I was the only girl in the weight area. I couldn't do everything that I wanted to do because it was so crowded. The gym crowd was probably bigger because it was raining outside.

When I got to my interview this morning I had to use the bathroom. Blame the coffee and the 32 ounces of water I had at breakfast, or just nerves. So I checked in and asked where the restroom was. The receptionist pointed me in the direction and I relieved myself. It probably was not just nerves because I peed a lot. I went in one of the middle stalls and as soon as I finished peeing, I realized there was no toilet paper in the stall! I was very happy that there was not anyone else in the bathroom at the time as I waddled out of my stall to the one next to it to get some toilet paper. Imagine how embarassing it would have been to be out of the stall with my skirt up around my chest, my stockings down and my butt exposed and the woman I was interviewing with walked in!

Posted by Blondie at 08:09 PM | Comments (4)

August 15, 2005

All 'Roided Up Again and Not Feelin' the Love

Well, my mom was able to get me an emergency appointment with the dermatologist in their complex this morning. He was running late (which affected me later in the day) but I should be thankful that they were able to get me in on such short notice. He confirmed that whatever my rash is is definitely poison something, although he can't exactly specify which one. Based on the handy phamplet he gave me to read up on, it is either ivy or sumac, it does not appear that poison oak grows too well around here. Also according to this handy phamplet, "if you receive treatment with a cortisone drug, you should take it longer than six days, or the rash may return". That explains why my rash returned, I only took my 'roids for six days. He prescribed me more 'roids, taking a stronger dosage and gave a steroid cream to help with the itching and I need to see him again next Monday. Based on the pictures of the plants in my phamplet, sumac looks like the culprit because the leaves look like leaves that I see. Anyhow, his drugs were significantly cheaper than the drugs that the PA prescribed.

Tonight's workout was not good. There really isn't anything good I can say about it. It was not as hot as it has been (funny, I'm starting to think that 87 degrees is cool). The workout was to do our four mile loop at tempo pace, actually the slow end of tempo pace. I was supposed to run 7 flats which should be a walk in the park. I was running with T and D and could tell pretty early on that things were not going too well. We hit the first two miles just under seven minute pace, but about a quarter mile later the piano landed on my back. I kind of talked myself through the next half mile, but by 2.75 I was feeling weebly-wobbly on my legs. I had to stop and walk because there was no way that I could continue at any sort of decent pace. I jogged the rest of the way back and like dumb blonde did the full warm down. That didn't feel too bad until about half a mile from the track when I noticed that my calves were feeling crampy because I had not had nearly enough water to drink.

I have to read up and prep for my interview tomorrow morning. I am in no way or shape qualified for this position. Even my parents, my biggest supporters as they should be, said "Did they even read your cover letter and resume?". They sent me a letter with what the duties, responsibilities and qualifications are and I don't come anywhere close to meeting them.

I had to try to let my friend's dog out today. I only met Henry for the first time last night and I have determined that he does not like anyone but S. He wouldn't go out to go poop for me or for her boyfriend. He ended up in the foyer area and I couldn't get him to go back into the house for me. Finally I had to push him back in which made him snap at me. Hey, he gets what he deserves...he won't go out to go take a dump, he gets pushed back into the house!

Posted by Blondie at 08:58 PM | Comments (1)

August 14, 2005

Itchy, Again

I did not sleep all that well last night because the rash that I have is kickin' again. It is so itchy, I know that I should not scratch it, but there has been no relief. It is not like a bug bite where if you ignore it for a minute or so it stops itching. This is a constant itchy state. It is now pretty much covering my entire torso and has spread some onto my right arm. My parents are going to see if they can get me into the dermatologist who is in their office complex tomorrow. I have an interview on Tuesday and I don't think that scratching my ribs like I have fleas is going to make a good impression.

I ran this morning. Nothing too exciting. I let myself sleep later than planned since I didn't get too much sleep. It was hot, duh, again. I went out on the G trail and did the out and back and then added on. My legs didn't feel too bad. I thought that I was going to run with J today to learn the course we are doing as a tempo tomorrow night, but I never heard from him. I thought we might go in the afternoon, so I purposely kept things super easy this morning. I did get about seven miles in and was soaked at the end. I didn't do anything else today since I was waiting to see if J called (he never did) and I was so itchy that I didn't want to do anything. At some point tonight I need to do some core exercises, but that's about it.

On a final note, today marks my blog's first birthday. I still don't know that I'm ready to be "public" with it. I have not told anyone I know about it, there are things that I write that I feel safe writing because nobody knows me. Well, I have to do some work with my mom and try to not scratch my rash.

Posted by Blondie at 08:30 PM | Comments (5)

August 13, 2005

Two Flat Legs

The weather around here is starting to sound like a broken record. Hot and humid. Hot and humid with a chance of thunderstorms. Every day is more of the same. We have had something like 27 days of highs over 90 this summer. We had, like, two, last summer. As if the heat isn't bad enough, the humidity is sky high, making it feel so much worse. There have been so many days that we have had an excessive heat warning, yet, like an idiot, I continue to run outside. There are a few "runners" at the gym who can not believe that I run outside in these conditions, they keep telling me that it is risky (OK, it is) and that I am an idiot (I probably am) for going outside. I saw on this morning's news that we have not yet broken a record on any of our hot days, but we may today. They were forecasting a high of 100, with the heat index anywhere from 105-115.

So early this morning was really pleasant. Nothing like running when it is 80 degrees with 93 percent humidity. Clearly backing off was essential. Thank goodness that I really don't have something on my plate to need an especially long run. I showed up at five minutes to seven and there were only two other people there. We were talking about how the weather must have scared everyone away. Around three minutes after seven, everyone started to pull up. We used to actually get started on time, but now 7 AM means more like 7:10. Pretty much everyone made the decision to round down this week. There really was nothing to be gained by doing a long run in these conditions.

J and I had talked on Thursday night about how long I should run. I had kind of wanted to get to my "standard" 90 minute run. Once I can do 90 comfortably, I feel like I am in shape. When I can do 90 minutes, I also feel comfortable making a jump to 2 hours. Don't ask me why, but that is my benchmark. He said that although I may not mentally feel this way, I have had a tough ten days in my training and should round down and do what my body is telling me, anywhere from 60 to 80 minutes. Well, with this morning's weather, that was a no brainer.

Most of us ended up doing one of our standard ten mile routes. The main reason for doing this is that J had put water out on it so that we could have a water break if needed. There were a few other ways to go that would have passed the cooler, but this is the one that I felt like doing and was about the right length for me. It has a few rollers in the first five miles, but is generally downhill. The next two miles are a series of four hills that get steeper with each one you hit. The main problem is, as with almost all hilly routes around here, you climb say ten feet and then drop five and then climb 15 feet and drop another five, a constant up and down. The guy who I was running with kept complaining about the hills and I kept responding, "that one wasn't that bad" or something along those lines. When we got to the last one he thought I would say it wasn't that bad, but I repsonded, "now this one sucks". I tell myself that the hills aren't bad until the last one so that I can get up them. I knew that the water was at the top of that last hill. We got some water (I only sipped a little and put the rest of it on me to cool me down) and headed out for the last part of the run. This is a generally uphill road back. The thing that makes this ten miler especially challenging is that the first half is easy and the second half is really uphill.

I got back and was soaked. Some people had gone even shorter, out half an hour and then turned around. We all looked like we had been in a swimming pool to swim laps, not out for a Saturday long run. Once again, we hung out gossipping for a while before I got around to leaving.

I got to the gym and got out of my soaking wet clothes. As I was changing I noticed that my rash is spreading more. I hope that I don't have to go back to the doctor for it. I am itchy and trying to not scratch at it, but it is a real challenge for me. I'm trying to use a numbing gel so that I can't feel the itch, but I digress. I did the elliptical for half an hour and the bike for another half hour. I like to do an hour of crosstraining on Saturday, but splitting it up makes it go faster and is so much more comfortable than sitting on the bike seat for an hour.

Once I got done crosstraining, I made a real point to stretch. My legs felt so flat today that if I were a bicycle I would have had two flat tires. I lifted more than I usually do and then got out of there. In an effort to give my legs some more life, I bought some ice on the way home and then soaked in the ice water.

Hope that everyone is having a good weekend!

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

August 12, 2005

Good Day to Not Run

Today was a great day to take off from running. I like to think that the weather gods know what days that I am not running and then make those days the most oppressive of whatever season we are in. Maybe I am delusional, but it seems that the hottest/windiest/iciest/rainiest days are Fridays when I don't run. Case in point; today. It is terribly hot and humid. OK, as if it has not been all summer, but it seems so much worse on the days I don't run. As I write, the heat index is something like 103, ugh!! Tomorrow is supposed to be even worse, but at least I'll run super early in the morning.

So, after last night's drink-fest (blogging while intoxicated can be fun), I didn't sleep all that well. I got up and decided to go to the gym. I hadn't been to yoga in a week and a half since last Friday when I would go I was at the doctor's office and on Sunday when I would go I was off shopping two hours away. I did the elliptical for an hour. I half-read a magazine and sort of watched the Today show. All of the cardio equipment at the gym has these ports that you can plug headphones into to listen to the TVs that are overhead, but I don't have any headphones so I got stuck trying to read the closed captioning. This also means that I can't crosstrain too hard because it takes a great deal of effort to read while on the elliptical. For once my feet weren't burning up on the pedals and I didn't have the urge to get off after just a few minutes. I probably could have gone longer, but I had to get to the yoga class.

I was T-I-G-H-T today. Guess that's what happens when you don't stretch well after doing a workout. I can touch my toes on a good day, but today I wasn't even close. As the class went on I did loosen up some, but still was not getting close to my toes. I may be able to do it now, I think that I'll stretch some more before I go to bed. It was freezing in the room today. It didn't help that I was soaked with sweat from the time I did the elliptical. By the end of the class my hands and feet were ice cubes.

Since I have had a tough week of running I thought that I should maybe try to revitalize my body with an ice bath today. Of course, I did not buy any ice and tried to use what the ice maker in the freezer had in it (not much). I got in the water and added the ice that was in the freezer and sat there for a few minutes, but it really was not all that cold. Can I say that it is the thought that counts?

Now I know that I have been frustrated that I have not been racing as fast as I would like, but what I read today kind of hurt. I read the weekly running article from the race that I ran on Sunday. The author said that I was the winning woman with my time being slow (OK, he did say for an "elite" runner, something I have a hard time considering myself). Still, I did not want to read that about myself. The times were slow because of the weather and I was not really supposed to be running (he did mention that too).

I had to run into the grocery store today to buy something to make lunch and there were so many old folks there. I've noticed this before, especially in this store, but why do they always get a cart? The express line ends up so long because there are all of these people in it with carts. The man in front of me had two jars of spaghetti sauce, an ear of corn, and a pint of strawberries-in a cart. The woman in front of him had two cartons of oatmeal, two boxes of graham crackers, and a few cans of cat food in-you guessed it-a cart! They could easily use a basket. It isn't like the items they are getting are all that heavy to carry.

Well, I'm hungry, have been all day, so I'm going to make some dinner now. And drink more water. I'm going to be up peeing all night!!

Posted by Blondie at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2005

If This is Incoherent, Blame My Mom!

More about that later. Let's just say that if this doesn't make much sense, it is absolutely, positively my mother's fault. My mind may be working much faster than my fingers are, no thanks to her!

Tonight was week 2 of 6 of the hills. J wasn't going to be on time, so that left me in charge. There was a lot of bitching and moaning about various things that I just didn't feel like dealing with. People were basically not acting like grown ups, and to be blunt, I didn't want to deal with all of that crap. I won't really go into what people were complaining about, but the workout needed to get done. J wasn't there, things were in the past, we're in the present and need to move on.

Ok, now onto what I did on the hills. Tonight was meant to be 3 hills again. My goal for tonight was to run the hills slightly faster than last week. Last night J reminded me to not worry about pace on the hills until next week. As he and I both know, all I can ever hope to do is get up and down the hills. Most of the people I run with are much stronger on the hills than I am. All I can do is get up and down it. We were doing 3 again, even though I wanted to do four. When we do track intervals I can do more, but on the hills it is much more difficult for me. Anyhow, I didn't feel quite as good as I did last week, but I did manage to run the three hills a little bit faster than last week. The whole loop is a little over a mile and I did my 3 loops in 21:40, so I was a little faster per loop than last week.

After the warm-down, we had a little bit of a party with beer, soda, and snacks. I hung out there for a little bit and then had to head home. My mom was having some of her friends over for dinner and drinks. She picked a few of the people who have been exceptionally supportive of her through her entire journey through cancer. My aunt, her friend M (who she has known since she was pregnant with me and refers to herself as my "Auntie M"), J (who had breast cancer) and another J. I got home after the broke two corkscrews and decided to give up on opening the wine that I was sent out to buy today! I got the bottles of wine opened and drank too much (I think that this might be a record for me!).

We had a lot of fun. I love to cook, I don't know if I've mentioned that before in this blog. I made some appetizers during the day, especially one that I made for a party before that my mom was drooling over but couldn't eat because there weren't enough. We also had tomato pie, my second favorite food of all time (number one is soft pretzels, don't even go there with what I have said about them before-if you really want to know, you'll have to meet me and ask me!). Anyhow, we're 3 glasses of wine later and I'm blogging...it may be more dangerous than drinking and driving (not to mention the beer that I had after the workout).

All right, I need to stop before I write something that is regretable in the future!!!! (but I am having some much needed fun!)

Posted by Blondie at 10:12 PM | Comments (4)

August 10, 2005

"Gimpy" Race

Tonight the owner of the local running store put on a special race to celebrate his business. It was not meant to be a huge race, it was meant to be the people who have supported his business having a low-key race and some fun. The idea of the race was that it would be a handicapped race. Not age/gender handicapped, but based on your previous performances. He took any race that you have run in the past two years and extrapolated a 5K from that. For some reason my seed time was 17:37 (much faster than my actual 5K PR) based on one of my half-marathons. I guess that I am one of those freaks who can run faster over a long distance.

So the premise of this race was that the slowest seed time went first and had an actual physical head start. The idea was that everyone would be making a mad dash for the finish at the same time. Everyone was supposed to finish close to the same time, in an ideal world. My seed time put me starting third to last, yikes! Given the fact that I have not run nearly that fast in a 5K in close to two years, that I have raced twice in the last seven days, and that I would rather do a workout tomorrow night, I decided to do this as a semi-push. My game plan was to shoot for just under 20:00.

I got there early and did a nice long warm-up. I didn't really know where to go since this was a track race. The school is on a rather busy, narrow road. Two of the guys tried to convince me that the road would be safe to warm-up on, but it most definitely was not-I had to avoid so many cars. I got back to the school and hung out with some of the other people, changed my shoes and got ready for the race. There was some confusion about starting times so things did not work quite as well as they were supposed to, but we learned for next year.

The track was a fast track. I wish that I had been racing on it. I went out a bit faster than I wanted, it was hot, and I was all alone. I ended up running 20:30 or so and finishing next to last (I think). Hey, it was all for fun. It was nice for people who don't normally get to win the big prizes at races to get a chance to win. I warmed down for 6 minutes (hence the extra long warm-up) and called it a night.

They are projecting our fifth heat wave of the summer starting tomorrow. The worst part about it is that it is the fifth time in six weeks that we will have an extended period of time above 90 degrees. I guess this means there is no relief in sight.

Posted by Blondie at 08:47 PM | Comments (1)

August 09, 2005

Nothin' Much to Write 'Bout

The cocktail of medicine that I've been taking has made the itchiness of the rash subside a great deal. It is not nearly as red as it was on Friday morning. It is so nice to know that the pills I'm taking are doing something. I had trained myself to wake up instead of scratching in my sleep, so I had not been getting nearly enough sleep at night. Instead of taking the non-drowsy anti-histamine last night, I took the real stuff so that I could sleep. Sleep I did, I didn't wake up until almost 8:30 and even then I was a zombie.

It took a while to get going partly because I was a zombie and partly because it was just grey and damp outside, not exactly weather that was calling me to go outside. I did get myself dressed and packed to go to the gym, albeit much later than usual. I drove over to the G trail to run even though it was not nearly as hot as usual. I still wanted to run over there today because that would force me to run easy, not push after the days I've been having (and will have). The agenda for today was to do a pseudo-long run since I missed my long run last weekend. Running around the cornfield was out of the question because I am convinced that is where I got the rash, so it was two out and backs along the trail.

I started out really easy. My legs didn't feel bad, but today was meant to be an EASY day, not a day that I hammer. I ran the first out and back loop in 39:40. On the first out portion I kept reminding myself to hold back and just run easy since there was quite a bit more to go. On the start of the second out portion I allowed myself to pick up the pace slightly and for the final back portion I let myself run however I wanted. The second out and back took exactly 38:00. As far as I can tell, this double out and back along the trail is right about 10.5 miles. It was drizzly for most of the time and slightly cooler.

I went to the gym right after running, but it was getting really late. I didn't ride the bike for as long as I had planned, only long enough to get my body adjusted to the major AC. I lifted, but scrimped because it was getting really late and I had to get food for my lunch. I made up for this later in the afternoon since there was nothing for me to do at work, so I rode the bike in the basement and lifted more. I'll probably be more sore than usual tomorrow since I did more exercises in the split lifting session.

There are some things I need to take care of. I need to book my flight for October. I found out that the travel stipend is $50 more than I thought it was, so I can find a flight for less than that. Yea!! I also need to write back to the elite athlete director for the PDR. I have a feeling that I won't be given elite status this year because the race is under new management and the new race directors are trying to make it an even bigger and richer race and won't accept some of the local "elites". Life goes on, but it is cool to get that kind of status at such a big race.

OK, I thought that this would be short, but it turned out to be much longer than I thought it would be. Tomorrow will be interesting, but I'm not going to write much about it until after it is over. Just want to keep everyone in suspense!

Posted by Blondie at 07:39 PM | Comments (0)

August 08, 2005

Running in the Rain

This summer has not been a drought summer like some previous summers where we were banned from watering the lawn or washing the car, but it has not rained a great deal either. Most of the rain has either come overnight or has been on my already scheduled day off. Tonight was one of the first times that I have had to run in the rain in quite some time. The rain had actually tapered off some by the time I ran, earlier in the afternoon it was absolutely pouring.

There was nothing special about today's run. I didn't feel sharp and I didn't feel particularly beat up. My legs felt a bit on the flat side, but given what I have done since Wednesday, it was to be expected. Since I did race yesterday, I opted to not do the workout. Instead, I warmed up for 3 miles and did 8 x 110 striders with a 290 jog and then did a longer warm down. I even let my OCD tendencies go and did not add on to hit an even 60 minutes and was satisfied with 56 minutes for the night. It was well over 7 miles, probably closer to 8. An easy day was more than needed and this was it.

I don't want to make excuses about my less than stellar race performances, but when I look at it realistically, the race that I ran yesterday was actually pretty darn good. The conditions were awful, but they were for everyone. The last time I was really doing any speed work (really) was in April. We tried to do some about a month after the marathon, but I was so beat up and pained that we stopped. I've only been back to running regularly for just over 2 weeks. The main factor is not doing any track work for three months. There is no way to expect to run fast when the training isn't there. Most of the people I talked to yesterday felt times were about 30 seconds slower and I know that I am easily affected by the humidity, so I'll take it for what it is worth.

Since I didn't really get to see what everyone else was up to over the weekend, I have a lot of blog reading to do now!

Posted by Blondie at 08:13 PM | Comments (0)

August 07, 2005

Well Worth the Drive

This weekend has been so busy, Friday afternoon feels like it was five minutes ago. I had typed up an entry that covered half of the weekend, but I lost it somehow and I'm having a bad typing day, so this won't be as in detail as it had been.

Saturday
I got up early to run since that was the only time of day I had to do it. My plan was to run for 35 to 40 minutes, go to the gym and ride the bike for 20 minutes and lift. I ran the first 20 minutes at the back of the pack. I was running up closer to the front, but I didn't want to do anything stupid because I wanted to race well. I turned around and made the trip back in 17 minutes and then ran in to J. He's just coming off a knee issue, so I ran an easy 14 minutes with him. Instead of going to the gym, I ended up hanging out and talking to people. I decided to not go to the gym and lift at home. While I was lifting I heard what I thought was an explosion. I ran outside and could not find any fire, so I went back to my lifting. It turns out that it was the spring on my father's garage door that broke.

I got ready for the wedding and spoke to the RD. He was able to get me a room and gave me directions. The bride is late for everything, and her wedding was no exception. The actual ceremony started 45 minutes late. The meal was not served until 3:00 and I was planning on leaving around 3:30 and had not packed yet. I changed my plans again, and ate dinner at home and left late.

I made good time getting to the beach, about 90 minutes. I found the motel just fine and checked in. The RD said that he would have a packet for me at the desk, but there was not one. I wasn't sure if that was because the guy at the desk didn't speak English all that well. I went down to get the RD's phone number out of my car and he was downstairs with some of the other invited athletes and our packets. I filled out all the paperwork and he gave me directions for the morning. I went upstairs and went to bed.

Today
I didn't sleep all that well for two reasons. I was afraid that I would oversleep even though I had two alarms set. I have also trained myself to wake up instead of scratching in my sleep. They now think that it is poison sumac, not ivy. The itchiness is subsiding now that I have been taking more medicine. There was no reason to worry about oversleeping since I was up around 5, I tossed and turned until a few minutes until six and decided that it was time to get out of bed.

I got ready for the race and turned on the weather. As soon as I saw the forecast, I decided that my time goal was out the window. It was 72 degrees with 95 percent humidity. Yech. I tried to check out since check out was at 11, but there was nobody working. I got to the race OK, but I missed a few of the turns. I was early enough that it was not an issue. The RD gave me my number and shirt and I went off on my warm-up, the course.

I got back and was soaked. I changed my socks and put on my racing flats. I also put on my racing top, my long bra top. I wore my old, short one on Wednesday night and had not done laundry yet. I felt like I was wearing a winter coat with that dang thing on. They announced and introduced the elite runners before the start. Of course, I was the first one they introduced and did not know what to do, I felt like such the idiot. The race went off and I stuck to my plan.

Unlike the race on Wednesday, I had a plan for today. I was not going to go out too fast and die like I did. I went out much easier, in 6:14. I was actually panicing that I went out too slow, but I felt OK. I was in the lead, which surprised me. There were lots of guys in front of me, but I was picking them off. I reached the second mile at 12:26, so a 6:12. This was making me feel good, my pacing is coming back. I was picking off more guys. I ran as hard as I could to the finish, got outkicked by two guys, but finished in 19:24. The time is slowly getting back to where it should be. I also ran smart and even. Other people thought that times were about 30 seconds slow because it was so humid. I warmed down about another 3 miles to give me 9 miles for the morning.

I felt like an idiot again at the awards ceremony because I could not see the announcer or where the awards were, so it took me a long time to get up there. I even heard a joke about the only time she is fast is in the race. I won $300 and a necklace. The necklace is apparently worth a bit, but it is not my style. I love jewelry, but this is too big for my taste. I had to leave the awards before they were done so that I could shower and check out.

The only excitement involved in that was that the dryer in my room was broken. My fine thin hair dries quickly, but it dries flat. I went shopping afterwards since there are shops there that we don't have at home. I bought a pair of kid's Puma casual sneakers. The sales guy asked if I was shopping for my child because I was in the kid's section. Hey, I wear a 6 1/2, kids sneakers fit and they are half the price. I also got a sundress and cardigan. I left around 3 and made decent time home given the traffic.

OK, that is my busy weekend in a nutshell. Hope that everyone else had a great weekend!

Posted by Blondie at 07:34 PM | Comments (3)

August 05, 2005

Itchy and Scratchy

I want to scratch everything that itches so much right now. That is a real weakness of mine. I pick at my scabs (I know, bad) and like to cut my blisters. I know that is bad, but I just do it.

I woke up this morning and the poison ivy that was on my ankle had spread. Not just around it, but all over my body. My ribcage is absolutely covered with it and it is on my lower leg and up on my thighs as well. It had spread so much that my parents insisted that I go to the doctor. The blister on my ankle was oozing and dripping.

The PA I saw was very concerned about how much it had spread and that the blister was ozzing. Now I am on antihistimines, steroids, and antibiotics because she is afraid that the blister may get a staph infection. Great. Just because I explored and ran through a cornfield. She also made a big point to tell me that if I felt like my throat felt like it was closing up to get myself to the emergency room ASAP. I guess that it is pretty bad.

Oh, I did work out some today. I would usually go to yoga in the morning, but I was too concerned about my spreading rash. I did go to the gym this afternoon and do the elliptical for 35 minutes. Before that I saw a friend from college who thought the rash might just be heat rash, but then I told her I'd been to the doctor and how concerned she was about it.

This weekend has gone from being not too bad to being really busy. I have to go to a wedding tomorrow for a girl who I went to high school with. I don't really want to go to it. I still have not gottne the thank you note from her shower. I can't drink at the reception, not that I was planning on a lot, but not even one with the meal. After that I have to drive down to a race that I got invited to today. The race is on Sunday morning and they just contacted me today. I've always wanted to go to it, but would need lodging. They're trying to get me a hotel room, but don't know if they have it yet. I tried to contact my mom's cousin who lives close by to see if I could crash on her couch, but she has not gotten back to me yet. I may have to crash in my car or beg somebody to let me on their couch. I also warned the RD that I may not be able to run all that well since I have a nasty case of poison ivy and am all drugged up.

Hope that everyone enjoys their weekends!

Posted by Blondie at 05:34 PM | Comments (3)

August 04, 2005

Up and Down

Um, I know that I said it was hot last night. It was definitely hot. The race results indicate that it was 90 degrees during the race. There was only one water stop (well 2, it was an out and back), but it didn't do much to get water in me, I pretty much threw it on my face and if some landed in my mouth, it was all the better. I had tried to drink water all day yesterday, but clearly did not have enough. In order to make that better today, I drank so much water that I could only make it about half an hour without having to pee.

So, it was pretty much close to as hot today as it was last night. It didn't seem quite as bad. I don't know if that is because I am slightly used to the heat or if it was because the course last night was completely out in the open. Com'n, it ran around a freaking parking lot, how many trees line large parking lots? This week was our first week of hills and I actually felt better doing the hills than I did in the race. I had to promise J that I would not do anything stupid and try to race the hills the way some people do. His opinion is that these are strength training, not speed work. Most of the HS boys absolutely fly up and down this hill. It is no little, easy, gradual hill. It is flat for about 300 meters then it starts to climb to a pretty steep incline. I had to remind him that I am one of the few people who do the hills the right way, mainly becuase I can not physically fly up the hill. I may run the downhills faster than he would like, but that is just the way I run.

Anyhow, the agenda was for 3 hills tonight. If people weren't feeling good because they are not strong enough yet or the heat was really affecting them they could do less. I felt pretty decent. The third hill was tough as hell, but the last hill always is. Each loop is a long mile, but we aren't sure how much over it is. I finished my 3 in 21:57, I looked in last year's log to see how I did at this point last year. I did 3 in 20:40 last year, but we cheated last year and did not go all the way to the real turnaround point. Also, last year I did not race the day before starting the hills. After the warm down, which included the fourth hill (seriously, we go down so far to do these hills that you have to climb quite a bit just to get back) I can call it at least 8.5 for the night.

After the workout, one of the high school boys was commenting on how he was sweating so much because he was hot. His comment was that his legs only sweat when he's really hot. I was absolutely soaked, my shorts looked like I had jumped into the river. I was speaking to my friend who got me into a wear-testing study and telling her how I was so embarassed about having to answer a question on how heavily you prespire when working out. The HS boy then had to comment on how much I sweat as well, that I am absolutely doused anytime we do a workout. Yuck!

I think that I have come down with a pretty nasty case of poison something around my right ankle. I am allergic to grass and do have some bug bites on my ankle too. The doc who was running with us told me to take some benadryl and if that doesn't work I'll have to take a steroid. He said that if it hasn't cleared up by next week to talk to him more. It's a huge blister now. I had some spots there for over a week, but it just blew up today. It should look really pretty at the wedding I'm going to on Saturday.

According to the weather report today, this has been one of the worst summers recently. They said that the summer of 95 was one of the worst we have ever had. I remember how bad that summer was when I was lifeguarding. They also said that the rest of the summer looks like it will be hot and humid based on the warming ocean temperature. Yeah!!!

Hope everyone enjoys their Fridays!

Posted by Blondie at 08:55 PM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2005

It's A Family Affair

Tonight was family night. My father and I both participated in a 5K and my mom was our cheerleader. Dad walked and I ran(duh). Even up until when I got there I was not too sure how I was going to approach this race and in retrospect I may not have made the best decision. It was definintely hot and I don't really want to miss my hill workout tomorrow because in the long run I'll get a lot more out of that than today's 5K. The main reasons I did this were that I had talked my dad into running and it was to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I got there early and was shocked at how many people were already there.

After getting my number (Dad and I pre-registered) and losing it and getting another number from the race directors, I went off on a short warm-up. Given how hot it was and the fact that I don't really need to be racking up the miles at this point, a long warm-up was not necessary. I changed into my racing shoes and looked for a place to take a leak. This was no easy feat in itself because of all the people and that the area is rather open. I saw a number of women who I will not let beat me, under any circumstances. I know that my pride does get in the way of the big picture, but I just can not let certain women beat me. One of these individuals does one of my pet peeves and that is the sole reason that she will not ever beat me in a race. I won't go into further detail, but she is running particularly fast for this reason. We lined up and the race directors announced that there were 1000 people registered (a record for a 5K here, not to mention an inaugural 5K on a weeknight).

At this point I decided that I might as well make a go for it. There was one woman who I knew could beat me, but I have beaten her before. Other than that I was not too sure. My pacing is still off and my race tactics were not too good, but in all I can't complain too much about the race. My first mile was way too fast, my second mile hurt alot, the third mile, well I was passing people, but it wasn't too hot either. My splits were so ugly that I don't even want to write down what they were. I finished in 19:29, the time that I just can't seem to get away from. Twenty minutes for a warm down gave me about 7 miles for the night.

In all, I can't complain too much because I did take a week off not that long ago. Not to mention that my body is just recovering from the marathon that I did. For a well-educated person, I do some stupid things (like deciding 3 weeks before a marathon to run it without training for it!). I've just started to do some workouts again. Finally it was hot. I know that it was hot for everyone, but I also know that my body does not handle heat well at all.

The post race party was cool with lots of soft pretzels (my absolute favorite food that I hardly ever indulge in) and beer. I felt guilty leaving my parents for too long of time to mingle. They got the chance to meet more of my running friends. They have met some of them before, but they got to meet even more of them. I got a gift certificate to a steak house, great since I don't eat meat. I'll take my parents and it will buy a drink for me. It was not for a whole lot of money, but it will be nice to go out to dinner with my parents.

Dad did great. He walked the 5K in 46 minutes. He can do it in a little under 45 minutes on the treadmill in the basement, but it is not nearly as hot down there or as humid. He also had to start way in the back, so it took him a while to get to the starting line. I was really happy to get to do a race with my dad and have mom around to cheer for us. She said that when her toes start to heal and she feels a little bit stronger she is going to start to walk and do some of the 5Ks. I can't wait!

Posted by Blondie at 09:20 PM | Comments (2)

August 02, 2005

Getting Late

This morning was a pretty sorry run. In all honesty, it really was not all that bad, but at the time it seemed pretty terrible. Waking up was not easy this morning and the morning TV shows were more appealing than trying to get out to run.

I knew that I would be going to the G trail to run, it was already getting pretty muggy and nasty when I woke up. I should have trusted my instincts. My thought was to do the cornfield loop, but if I was doused in sweat by the time I reached the boulders to just do out and backs. I was doused in sweat at the boulders, but I decided to do the cornfield loop anyhow since out and backs sounded boring. I should have listened to myself! I stopped to make two tick checks today, at least that was how I rationalized stopping. The cornfield loop is not that shaded so it was awfully hot up there. I twisted my right ankle (of course it was the right side!) pretty badly on a downhill. The first indication that today was not the day was that it took me about a minute longer to get out to the boulders than it did on Sunday. The whole course took nearly two and a half minutes longer than it did on Sunday. That is a testament to the fact that I was running fast on Sunday and slow today. There just was no reason to try to push through this morning. I had almost forgotten how hard it is to run well the morning after doing a real workout.

After the run I headed right up the road to the gym. I rode the bike for 40 minutes. I didn't bring the book I've been reading since there has been a good magazine selection lately, but there were hardly any to pick from today. After riding the bike I did some lifting. It was getting late and I was hungry, so I didn't do as much as I had planned.

This evening I went to the free yoga class that I was given. It was hot in the studio and I didn't particularly care for it. The stretches didn't hit me as well as the ones that I have been doing. The class didn't start until 6:30 and it lasted for 80 minutes. I was so hungry when we got done since I did not eat dinner before going. Now I'm still starving because I went so long without a meal. I should know better, but I wasn't hungry before I left (I usually start to cook dinner around 6:30), but about halfway through I was feeling hungry. Ah, so is life.

Well I want to quickly check up on the other blogs and then do some core exercises.

Posted by Blondie at 08:53 PM | Comments (1)

August 01, 2005

Real Trackwork

Today started ou return to regular trackwork as opposed to doing timed pickups on the track. Twice a year we take some down time and don't do real workouts. In the winter the down time is just easy running because who really wants to try to do any fast running when it is freezing outside. The summer involves some pick-ups on the track or on the roads. Anyhow, tonight was the start of doing a more structured workout. The theory is that after a few weeks of pick-ups our legs are used to doing some faster running.

The heat and humidity started to come back today. The weather people were saying that today was probably the start of the fourth heat wave of this summer. I'm not sure if it officially hit 90, but with the humidity it was definitely hot out. The schedule called for 5 x 800 with a 400 jog, but J told everyone to be smart and listen to what their body was signaling. He changed the agenda to 4-6 800s and to not push too hard. These were not supposed to be all out, instead he said they should be at 10 mile race pace. Well considering the races that I have run this year, my half marathon and 10 mile paces are the same as the 5K's I've run. I decided that I should try to stay as close to 6:00 pace as possible since that is my goal pace for the half.

The first one was a whoops! I held back but there were people doing different workouts on the track, my body felt nice and warm from the weather and I felt fresh. It wasn't too bad, but I did it in 2:56. I really did try to keep the jogs relatively quick, but given how hot it was that was not an easy task. The next two were in 3:00. During the fourth 800 I got really thirsty and J asked how many I was going to do. I told him I was doing five and asked him to get me some water for the jog. He passed me a bottle about fifteen meters from the finish so that one was a little off because of the awkwardness of carrying a bottle and veering off to get it. I think that I also purposely slowed down a touch so that I could feel strong on the last 800. My final 800 which was solo since the guy who I was pretty much running with only did 4 was in 3:03, so that made me happy. In an ideal world I would like the last interval to be as fast if not faster, but given how hot it was and that I was completely alone it was a strong interval.

I'm testing my ice bath and drinking as much water as possible theory. I soaked in the tub with 16 pounds of ice before dinner and now I am trying to drink as much water as humanly possible so that I will be up peeing all night. My hope is that these two things will make tomorrow morning more pleasant.

Happy running all!

Posted by Blondie at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)