The Long Run

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November 29, 2005

Glutton for Punishment

Today was awful, just awful. I really do know that it is not possible for computers to have feelings, but my computer at work must hate me. It is constantly freezing up on me and it refuses to print every other time I try to print. Supposedly it did not do this for it's previous user. We have no clue as to why it is so tempermental, but my theory is that it hates me. Other than the computer issues, the phone would not stop ringing all day. It got to the point that I thought I would scream if the phone rang one more time.

Early this morning, J called me and asked what my running plans were for today and tomorrow. I fudged a little and told him short easy runs each day. They are short in my book, but according to him they are not short enough. I knew what he said could have been coming, but I thought that I had gotten out of doing this because the season is essentially over. He wanted me to warm-up, go to a track (not necessarily the one where we do workouts), do two striders, a mile at 90 percent, jog two laps and finish up with two more striders. He also said that my mile should be at least under 5:40 since I did repeats in 5:42 a few weeks ago. This was the call that I pretty much have been dreading all fall. I didn't have to do this today, I had the option of doing it tomorrow, so I spent most of the day unsure of if I was going to do it or not.

When I left the house to run this afternoon it had been raining earlier but didn't seem to be too bad at that point. I decided to bite the bullet and go for it today because it could be worse tomorrow. I took the roundabout route to the high school I went to. It is only a mile from my house, but if you go around the back of the school it is about three miles. About two-thirds of the way through the warm-up, the winds picked up and the rain got heavier. Why, oh why, does this always happen to me? At least the temperature didn't plummet today like it did two weeks ago. When I got to the track, which is a new track in the same place, I discovered a very nasty wind on the home stretch. I forgot about that since it has been over ten years since I ran on this track.

I purposely ran slower on the warm-up even though I felt pretty good. Somehow, once I arrived at the track that good feeling wasn't there anymore. It was dark and kind of spooky. The bleachers kept making noises that were freaking me out. The school backs up to a development, so I kept thinking that some kids were out there smoking pot or something (of course, there is an odor that goes with that that I didn't smell). My mile was terrible. The wind was knocking me around and the track was slick, one of the turns was covered with wet leaves. I ran as hard as I possibly could, but it was at least 15-20 seconds too slow. It's done now and I ran as hard as I could, so that is all I can ask for.

I did my jog and striders and then headed out on my warmdown. The route that I took to get there was longer than I wanted and not exactly the safest route to go in the dark, so I went a different way. I must not have been thinking, because I kept adding on and adding on, so when I got to the final road that I have to cross to get home and had to stop my watch I realized how long my warmdown was. My legs probably need the extra warmdown, so it might not have been that bad.

I stretched more than I have been today. My body is rebelling at this point from the abuse I have subjected it to recently. My calves hurt just putting them on the foam roller without putting any weight into it. My butt is terribly tight as well, but my calves really take the cake. I know that Thursday's massage is going to be painful, and that is putting it mildly. Again, it is something I did to myself...racing in spikes, what was I thinking?

Posted by Blondie at 07:14 PM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2005

An Unusual Job

My work role this morning was to be a taxi driver for my mother. She had somehow avoided having a colonoscopy when she was fifty. She managed to avoid it until her oncologist found out last year that neither she nor my father had had one yet. Both of them were, give or take a year, a decade late. Since I can hardly do anything at work without help, my assignment for the day was to drive and wait at the surgicenter. The procedure went fine and there were no signs of polyps, however given her history of having breast cancer, she needs to have one every five years. Even in a semi-sedated state, she was able to say a few choice words to the doctor when she heard that.

The weather here today really reminded me of fall/winter in Florida. It was in the mid-sixties, kind of grey, and humid. It was really reminiscent of when I used to go to Florida during the winter on training trips in college. I can't deal with these changing weather patterns. Last Monday it was warm, by Friday it didn't even get to 30 and now it is in the mid/high 60s again. No wonder I always feel kind of on the verge of a low-grade cold!

It was absolutely perfect running weather, although still unseasonable. We had the option of doing a workout tonight or starting our down-time. The track workout lost out, everyone is starting to feel a bit on the tired side, so we just did a loop around the river. I ended up with two guys who tend to push the pace some and one girl who may have been in a bit over her head. We took the longer loop and caught up to the rest of the group on the way back. I got dropped some by the guys on the final hill back to the track. It was nice to get just a decent paced effort in without the constraints of needing to run hard on the track for time.

I may or may not race a 10K this Sunday. It all depends on the weather. If the weather is nice, I'll jump into it and see what happens. If the weather is wet, forget it, my break starts a day earlier. I also called and scheduled a massage for later this week because I have definitely abused my body in the past three weeks. The massage therapist even commented on how much I've been racining when I called her. My calves are not too happy with me at the moment, but that's what happens when you only wear spikes once a year!

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

November 27, 2005

Like it Was a Surprise

I felt like crap today. This shouldn't have come as any surprise to me, but that doesn't make it any better. There are multiple reasons for feeling so crappy today:

1. 6 races in 14 days with a workout or two thrown in there.

2. Racing yesterday. Racing yesterday in spikes on a tough cross country course.

3. Eating like crap yesterday. Now that I'm used to eating well, having noodles at midnight for dinner just doesn't cut it anymore.

4. Going to high school reunion and imbibing some. Also, standing for four hours in high heels at the reunion while breathing in smoke from those classmates who choose smoke cancer sticks.

5. It is just the end of the season and it is time to start to feel tired for no real reason other than the need to rest some.

I'm sure that there are some other factors, but those are the reasons that really stand out in my mind. This morning was one of those runs that seemed to take about three times as long as the actual duration of the run. My body did not want to run by any means. It was so much warmer than yesterday and the entire time I was thinking about how frigid it had been just 24 hours earlier.

The reunion was enjoyable, but definitely overpriced. The tickets that we had to purchase ahead of time only covered two hours and the food pickings were slim (at least for me, everything had meat in it)-this is what resulted in eating noodles at midnight. It was great to see people who I had not seen in ten years and I recieved numerous invitations to stay with various classmates who live in NYC if I ever chose to race the marathon there. After we left (we left early because we had pre-arranged transportation), we hung out at S's house for a while. I got home late for me, around 12:30 and crashed.

I have spent most of this afternoon tackling the unpleasant task of cleaning. My room has not had a real cleaning since 1999, so this is a huge undertaking that will probably take the rest of the year. I found gas receipts from 1999, which I feel safe in throwing out at this point. I also threw out virtually every notebook from both undergrad and graduate school. At this point, I have not gone back to look at the notes I took, so I hope that it was safe to do. I did keep some things, such as samples from my internships and a graduate program handbook that may come in handy at some point. I would get rid of the textbooks, but they cost so much in the first place that I feel guilty about throwing out the thousands of dollars that I spent on them over the course of my education. Basically, I made a dent in a small bookcase this afternoon and in the process filled an entire garbage tub.

Tonight I need to do some work for work because I will be out tomorrow morning as the taxi driver. Hrmpf, work should not ever have to come home with me.

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

November 26, 2005

Defrosting

Although the forecast for today from yesterday looked better than it was yesterday, it was still awfully cold out this morning. I should know better than to expect anything else. Every year it is absolutely freezing for the club cross country race. In the five years (or more) that I have done this race, I can not remember a single year that it was not cold. I'm getting ahead of myself, but I believe that I may have suffered some brain damage earlier.

The races didn't start until 10 this morning, but I got out there really early. This was more a result of poor sleeping than anything else. It seemed like a better idea to go out to the park and help out some than to sit around and stuff my face with bagels and coffee. After taking care of some of the set-up and picking up my number, I got back into the car to stay warm before heading out to warm-up. While sitting there and listening to the radio, I heard a weather report that stated that it was 31 degrees. For some reason, the park where the race is tends to be, or at least feel, about ten degrees cooler than anywhere else in the area. I felt pretty darn awful while warming up. So awful that the question of being able to finish the race without walking kept crossing my mind. After my pathetic warm-up, which really only served the purpose of getting used to the cold again, I put on my racing outfit and changed out of my trainers into my spikes. I truly enjoy running in spikes and don't get the opportunity to wear them all that often anymore. My calves probably thank me for not wearing them all that often, they are tight enough as it is. I got my jacket back on and headed down to the starting line.

This race is one race that really freaks me out. Some real studs have shown up at this race in the past. Some years, even in very good shape, I've finished out of the money. You just never know who is going to be there. The women's race is still the smallest of the races, but it is getting bigger every year. It turns out I was the only person stupid enough to race in a bra top and shorts, but I did have enough sense to wear gloves and a hat-not that it made much of a difference. J, who organizes the race and is the starter, was nice enough to take my jacket to the start for me.

From running the course a few times over the past few weeks, I knew that if I made it through the first half OK, I would be able to pick off people close to me. About the first 1000 meters are grassy without too much rocks. The next 800 or so are downhill and very rocky. I think that I was in about 7th or 8th at the mile. My friend A was about fifteen yards in front of me and said that she thinks she went through in 6:09 and was afraid to go any faster for safety purposes. I was too scared to look down at my watch because the footing is so poor. From the end of that downhill portion there is a ton of climbing-the first part is gradual and in the woods followed by a steep hill out in the open. Once I got to the bottom of that hill I was home free. I started to pass some people at this point. At the top of the major hill was the first slippery part. Coming down from here I caught up to A and started to feel better. I'm not exactly sure of what the 2 mile split was, but it had to be slow-it's physically impossible to run even splits on this course. Going up the short steep hill right after the 2 mile mark was the second really slippery area I found. The frost had just started to melt when we raced and the paths that are usually used were slick. I started to feel really strong as we were getting to this point but the two women in front of me were too far out to catch. If the race had been 6K or 8K I think I would have caught them. I ended up 5th in the open women finishing around 20:32-only a few seconds off my best time ever on this course, run when I was in exceptional shape, the year that I PR'd at everything.

I met up with some of the other girls and warmed down for about 20 minutes. We tried to run really easy because the course just beats up your body here. After warming down, I got out of all the clothes that I ran in and put on dry stuff for the awards (and standing around before). In addition to the nominal amount of money that I won, I also won a month membership at another gym that is all the way on the other side of town.

When I got home and was starving, I decided that taking a hot shower was more important than eating first. When I got into the shower, my fingers, not just my fingernails, were bluish. Standing under the hot shower and thinking about the hot soup that I would be eating soon started to help with the thawing process. I still haven't really thawed out yet, but at least my fingers aren't blue anymore.

I have to hem the pants that I bought to wear tonight at some point this afternoon. I used to have an issue that I could nver find pants long enough for my legs, but it seems that now the trend is to make pants for amazon women. Even in the small sizes the inseams are for people who are nearly six feet tall. So even with my legs being too long for my body and heels on, the pants still need to come up about a half an inch. With my poor sewing skills this will be an interesting task to tackle. Whatever happens tonight, it should be a fun night...

Posted by Blondie at 03:04 PM | Comments (3)

November 25, 2005

A Shopping Filled Day

Of course, I did absolutely no shopping for other people, yet. This morning, my mother and I did some shopping and lunch. She wanted to treat me to lunch for taking care of her and being so patient in the past few weeks. Before our meal, we did some shopping for things each of us needed, not really gifts-the mundane stuff, like shampoo and hairspray. We had a nice lunch at Panera, where I had my soup in a bread bowl. I just love being able to eat the bowl!

After lunch, we did some more shopping. She got a few gifts for my brother and I got some more running clothes. I need running clothes like I need a hole in my head, but there are a few gaps in my winter running wardrobe, now I can go a little longer without doing laundry! After we got home, I had to go out to the running store to get new spikes to put into my spikes for tomorrow's cross country race.

Later on, I went out with my friend, S, to buy new clothes for our high school reunion tomorrow night. Not like I needed anything new to wear for it, but it is more fun to wear something new. I haven't seen S in a while since she has a local boyfriend now. It would be easier to do things with them if there were someone that I was seeing around here, but as it is, I'm more of a third wheel with them. T is cool with it since I have known S since the second grade, but still it is awkward. Tomorrow night should be interesting to say the least, but we won't know until then!

Oh, this blog is about running, not my shopping exploits! I did do a short run this morning, although Friday is usually the day that I don't run. My body, especially my back, was very tight this morning. I'm not sure what brought on the back tightness today. That used to be a problem that I had frequently, but it hasn't bothered me in close to three years. The only reason that I even ventured out today was that I raced yesterday and I have to race again tomorrow. I did a super easy four miler and really tried to stay easy.

The weather was so much not like it was at the beginning of the week. With the windchill, it felt like it was in the single digits. Some of the real winter weather clothing saw the light of day today-like the Goretex tights. Unlike a lot of runners, I would rather be warm than cold.

Tomorrow is the race that I like the least all year, but it is the one race that I have no choice about participating in. Tomorrow will make it six races in 14 days. If I had done the double that I usually do on Thanksgiving, it would have been 7 races in 14 days. Speaking of that, I could have easily come back to win the 5K yesterday, but it would not have been in my best interest. Cross country and I are not a good mix, but our club puts this race on and my father is a sponsor of it, so I have to be there. I guess that I am one of the "senior" members of our club, even though I am one of the youngest and one of the newest. The senior status has been achieved by being a regular and one of the most involved.

I hope that everyone is enjoying their weekends! I must go and pack for tomorrow morning-it is always cold at the XC race!!!

Posted by Blondie at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2005

You Know, You Can Get Arrested for That

Like virtually almost every runner in the United States, I participated in a Thanksgiving day race this morning. Our local race is actually a double, at 10K and 5K. Most years I end up doubling at it; racing the 10 and jogging the 5. That was my plan until Tuesday when I got a call that basically said "do not even consider getting a number for the 5, even though it only costs you 5 bucks. Race the 10, warm down and call it a day". There were some other things said in this conversation, but those comments are not at all appropriate for this blog, but the general meaning of this conversation was not to do too much today.

Yesterday I was extremely concerned about the forecast for the race. It was looking ugly and that is putting it mildly. The forecast was calling for cold, rain, and wind. Snow would have been much better than a cold rain, but it seemed that we are too far east for the snow here. I think that it rained last night because there were puddles in the driveway and the roads looked wet. It was cold, but not as cold as predicted. It was windy, but it got windier as the morning went on.

My warm-up wasn't too exciting. I wasn't feeling all that great, but not terrible. This isn't too much of a concern because something can happen when the race starts, some kind of energy takes over. I got back to my car, got into my racing top, changed my shoes, put on my number-did all that mundane stuff that you need to do before going to the starting line. When I got done doing all of this stuff, there was about 8 minutes before the race started. I had to pee, but there wasn't nearly enough time to go to the building that was open with 2 toilets. Every time I do this, my mother so nicely reminds me that I could get arrested for doing it, but I always look around and make sure nobody is around.

On the starting line I got lots of comments on the fact that I had on my bra top again. It is very common knowledge that I hate to be cold, so the fact that I'm the one in the skivvies is always amusing. This is one of those races where you never know who could show up, which I'm pretty sure is the case at most Thanksgiving races. Looking around, I was pretty sure that I would be able to win again (I won this race last year).

Normally I'm not too into taking mile splits, but I did it again today. It appears by my splits that the mile markers were thrown just anywhere by the variation. The course is downhill for the first mile, the first two-thirds of the second mile are flat, from 2 2/3 to around 4 are uphill, most of the fifth mile is downhill with a bit of an up before the five mile marker, from 5 to 6 is downhill and the last point two are flat to slightly uphill. Because there is so much climbing in the middle, it isn't the fastest course out there. There was someone calling out splits at the mile and the possible 3 mile marker.

Take a look at these wacky splits:

Mile 1: 5:56, a bit faster than I wanted, but it is downhill after all.

Mile 2: 6:14, it is going uphill and I'm probably paying a little for being too fast in the first mile.

Mile 3: 7:08!? I think this may have been at the 5K mark, not the 3 mile mark. The girl calling out splits here called out 21:27 which sounded wrong, so I looked at my watch here and saw 19:19. I knew that I wasn't feeling good or fast, but also knew there was no way that I was running over 21 minutes for 3 miles. I can accept that this mile was slower because it is uphill, but that just looks way wrong.

Mile 4: 6:53? Again, it is uphill, but it seems a bit slow. Start to close in on the only person close to me.

Mile 5: 6:05. It is downhill, but it is windy and cold. Still closing on the only person near but he keeps walking, what a pain!

Mile 6: 5:58. Downhill again and I do feel a bit better. Can't catch the guy who is doing a walk/sprint kind of deal.

The last .2: 77, tried to finish strong. My final time was 39:35, about 15 seconds faster than last year. The year that I didn't care at all is the year that I ran my fastest time on this course, 38:58. The cold does not help at all-that year was one of those flukey warm Thanksgivings.

I ran alone for the entire race. I am not one of those runners who can really push through when they are alone, I tend to settle into a 6:25 pace, give or take a little. I'm not really reading into my splits at all. One thing that I am happy about with my splits from today and from last Saturday is that I am able to finish strong even though I am tired. I won a huge hooded sweatshirt. Last year I have my sweatshirt to my brother because they only had XLs, but this year they did have Ls, so I got one of those. When I won this race in 2000 the sweatshirt was much heavier, they have started to cheap out on the quality now.

Today I am giving thanks that the biopsies my mother had on Monday were benign. The one area was a cyst that the surgeon drained. The other area, the one they have been watching for years, had no abnormal cells. Since I don't eat meat and it is just my parents and me for dinner this year, we're making pizza for dinner tonight. No reason to stress out and make a huge dinner for just the three of us. For everyone out there eating turkey, enjoy!

Posted by Blondie at 01:34 PM | Comments (3)

November 23, 2005

Getting it Over With

All day yesterday I really was not looking forward to running. In the morning it was raining quite hard, in fact we got something like an inch and a half of rain. By mid-afternoon the rain had stopped, but it was super-windy. The thought of going out in cold rain was really not appealing, but running in the wind really isn't all that much better.

I bundled up when I got home and ventured out. My intentions were to do between 6 and 8 30 second to one minute surges during the run to replace the workout that didn't happen on Monday. I got out and had one of those feelings that I hadn't eaten enough at lunch. I keep yogurt, etc. in the fridge at work to eat with my lunch-but I hadn't checked on it in a few days and only had one (for breakfast) left. The cup of yogurt is really what makes me feel like I've eaten enough, so I was a bit on the woozy side. Anyhow, the winds were gusting into the 40 mile per hour range, so doing anything fast was more difficult.

Trying to be an obedient runner, like I am, I tried to do the pick-ups anyhow. One of the jokes is that I'll try to do whatever I am supposed to do, no matter what the conditions are. I did manage 5 (I think), but decided that I felt much better running at a comfortably hard pace. When I got home, I actually stretched. Not the half-assed stretching I usually do, but a good half hour of stretching.

Today I wanted to run in the morning to give me an extra 12 hours or so of recovery before racing tomorrow morning. This morning was a great reminder of why I do not do the bulk of my training in the morning, especially in the winter. I was so cold and my body felt so tired and tight. With the wind chill, it felt like 17 degrees-a far cry from the 50s we had 2 days ago.

The forecast is concerning me quite a bit for tomorrow. It looks like it could be in the 30s, windy and wet. Just being in the 30s is a concern for me-my body does not handle cold well at all. Of course, I whine about sweating and losing so much fluid in the summer, but I can not get warm when it is cold. Throwing in some kind of precipitation (it could be snow) and wind just makes matters worse. Part of the problem is my racing outfit, I don't know what to do with it when it is cold. On the other hand, I do tend to race relatively well when it is cold. My theory is that my body is not as warmed up at the start, even after a long warm-up, so I can't go out too fast. By going out slower, I am stronger and more consistent.

Good luck to everyone racing tomorrow and have a great Thanksgiving!

Posted by Blondie at 10:24 AM | Comments (2)

November 21, 2005

The Workout That Wasn't

I think that the title pretty much sums up today. Tonight's workout just was not meant to happen. At this point in the season, I have a hard time getting excited to do the workouts anyhow. My body is tired and it is getting time to take a break. Given where I was just a few months ago, I'm very happy with the races that I ran this fall and I'm looking forward to the spring. Anyhow, I'm getting way ahead of where I need to be right now.

It seemed like it was going to be a decent day this morning when I left for work, but the weather steadily got worse. By this evening, it was cool and rainy. Rain isn't all that bad, but cold rain is just downright unpleasant. My concern was that it was a cold rain, but it turned out to be not that bad. The weather seemed to keep everyone away from the track, there were just three of us there. Nobody was that excited to do the workout, so we scrapped it. It was only 12 x 200, so it wasn't even a really long or tough workout.

We did the regular warm-up to see if anyone else showed up late, but that was not the case. After that we did our old road course accross the street from the track. The pace was very relaxed because one of the other people who showed up is just getting back into shape. I have a serious complex about running alone in the dark in certain areas and this route goes through one of those areas, so I insisted that everyone stay together. One of us hardy folk had run to meet up, so this person headed home before we finished. When we got back to the school we both went on the track for a little bit. My plan was to run a mile on the track, but when the mile was up the running time was 58:10, so my OCD took over and I did another lap to make it an even hour. It didn't turn out to be all that bad, it was warmer than I thought so I was able to take off my pants and run in shorts. The rain also got lighter, so we weren't drenched when we finished. I may not have done as much if I'd been alone, so I'm very happy that I had two partners show up!

Posted by Blondie at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2005

Run Hard or Run Easy

This is my mantra for the next two weeks or so. The season is winding down, it's getting to be time to back off from training and rest for a bit. Runs are either sharpening workouts, very easy recovery runs, or races. After Dallen wrote about running four races in six days and having another on Thursday, I got to thinking. From mid-November through early December, I will string together almost as many races as I ran in the previous ten months! It always works out this way, the end of November just seems to have races every weekend that are on my schedule.

Today was the Philadelphia Marathon and Rothman 8K. I was quite envious of the weather the runners had, it has been quite chilly or too warm for this race in the past. I used to do Rothman as one of my big races to peak for, but after having several crappy races there, I decided to try something new this year. There is something either about that course or that distance that does not work well for me. I've blown up there and had some of my worst races ever there. It was kind of strange to not be there for it, but I am definitely content with the choice I made this year.

I woke up early this morning and it was cold when I went out to get the paper. My plan was to go to the park to run on the XC course today. The gates don't open until 8, so I started my laundry before going. This took longer than expected, so I didn't get out there until about 8:45. It warmed up quite a bit by then, so I only needed one long sleeve shirt and a vest as opposed to the two long sleeve shirts I had put on. I am known for being a huge wuss in the cold, so this was an accomplishment (I shouldn't mention all the other clothes that were also on!).

This was not a special run by any means. I didn't feel great, or I should say that the terrain was extremely difficult for me. This park is true cross country, not running around a golf course or something. The grass is kind of long, there are rocks everywhere, lots of hills, and tons of roots. I find it very draining to run here because it takes so much effort to watch where I put my feet down as well. When I don't really think about where to step, I end up with really badly turned ankles. I ran for almost an hour on the course, doing the flatter parts multiple times to add on time without the stress of the hills. Today may have been a much better run if it had been on the roads, but I have to be at least slightly prepared for the cross country race next weekend.

I am greatly looking forward to the short work week this week! The three days may be quite busy at work. My mom won't be in the office tomorrow, or at least definitely will not be in the morning. If they need to biopsy her, she won't be in; if they don't do that, she will be in. The other woman will be out most of Wednesday because she has to take her daughters to the doctor. The task that I was working on for the past three days should be completable tomorrow, the bugs are out of the program so it will work for me now!

Posted by Blondie at 06:50 PM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2005

What Happened to Fall?

After the storm that rolled through on Wednesday, it has been downright chilly. When I got up this morning, it was only 33 degrees and there was frost on the grass. My windshield had lots of frost on it as well. Of course, I'm too lazy to scrape it off, I tried to use wiper fluid and my defroster instead of doing the right thing. This makes for some interesting driving when first getting started.

The first race didn't start until 9, so it wasn't too early of a morning. In fact, I got to sleep later than I usually will on a Saturday morning. The races were about 20 minutes away, which for me is pretty far to drive for a race. I know that in other parts of the country that is not the case, but I am truly spoiled in that most of the local races are within five minutes of my house. I got there pretty early because I can't stand feeling rushed. My directions didn't give an exact location for the start/finish area, so I drove right by it. After about three miles, I knew that I had to be well past it, so I turned around and found it.

My plan was to do not too much of a warm up, but not too little either. If I'm doing a 5K, I'll usually do the whole course as a warm-up. I did not want to do quite that much of a warm-up today because a 10K is longer and doesn't require running quite as fast. I ended up doing about 22 minutes to warm up, so it was close to a 5K. It was definitely cold, so I decided that a little bit of a longer warm-up was in order. I got back to my car and put on my racing top, changed my socks and shoes, and grabbed my number. Everyone was amazed that I was running in just my long bra top because I'm always so cold, but our racing tops are longer sports bras and I sort of have to wear that. A hat and gloves did help me stay somewhat warmer, but I did get cold during the race.

I usually don't take mile splits in my races, but I did today. J didn't bring his bike (the race isn't that serious, most of our local races aren't too strict) and I didn't even see him before the start. This year there were some men that were a little faster than last year, so I wasn't all alone. I purposely tried to not start out too fast, the plan was to try to be as even as possible. My poor map reading skills had led me to believe that the course went a different way than it actually did, so none of my warm-up was on the course. I'll give the mile by mile here:

Mile 1: A long gradual uphill. Most of it was straight, we turned just before the mile marker where the hill got a bit steeper. I got kind of boxed in by a guy at this turn and got scared of falling. Went through in 6:05, pretty much where I'd like to be (didn't look at my watch, someone was calling out the split).

Mile 2: Rolling mile, down then up, down, then up. Now we're on definite back roads. Just before the two mile mark is a turn that is on an uphill. You go up, turn and keep going up. Someone was calling out splits, 12:12 (6:07)...pretty much on target again.

Mile 3: Nice downhill for most of this mile. Trying to stay focused on the guys who are right in front of me. Nobody was calling out splits at the mile marker. Hit the split button on my watch, but don't look at it. I see J right before the mile marker, he tells me to listen for splits and that 2nd is about 100 yards back. 18:21 (6:09)...still around where I'd like to be, but didn't really know exactly then.

Mile 4: Really try to work the uphill and surge. The hill is winning. At this point, I get really cold and feel stiff. I'm getting worried because my body is so cold that the pace feels hard. Someone was calling splits here, but I don't really know what it means since I didn't catch a 3 mile split. 24:35, a 6:14...oops.

Mile 5: Rolling mile again. I try to work the down parts, but that up right before the mile marker absolutely kicks my ass. 30:52 (one of my fastest 5 miles in the past two years), a 6:17...big oops.

Mile 6: REALLY work the downhill. It's almost over and the downhill is nice. Nobody calling splits, my watch says 36:50, a 5:57? This mile may have been short.

The last .2: I see J and M, J says I'm at 37:30 and to kick to get under 38. It ain't gonna happen, the finish line is WAY down. He says he was kicking himself after he saw how far down the finish was and that if he'd known, he wouldn't have thrown that out. The .2 was 88, so I think that it was long to compensate for the short 6.

The final time was 38:18. I would have liked to get under 38 again, but this is the fastest I've run on a legit 10K in over 2 years. Both of the times that I have run under 38 have been on flat, fast courses under ideal conditions (like 55 degrees, not 38 degrees). Miles four and five could have been better, but it was pretty even. The first 3 miles were 18:21, the last 3 were 18:29-not too bad. I also gapped second place. M commented that I looked better the second time around than the first time through.

I got on my clothes and grabbed my other number and kept on moving. I jogged about a mile or so between races because my legs were feeling stiff and tight. I stripped down again for the 5K, which was pretty much my warm-down. I had to drive there and would have had to just wait for awards during the 5K, so why not run it as well? I didn't care if anyone passed me and didn't give in to peer pressure at all. It was just a nice, relaxed run. I didn't care if people passed me, I let people outkick me too! I didn't take splits, but they were calling them out-my mile was 6:40, 13:24, and finished in 20:45.

After this I put my clothes back on and jogged very easily with M for ten minutes. My legs know that they raced, now they feel really tight. It didn't help that I did my warm-down in my racing flats! I got a good amount of mileage in for the day, about 13 or 14 miles, most of it high quality.

I have a few more chances this fall to get my 10K down to where I would have liked it to be. It isn't really fair to complain because lots of people can't run a low 38 10K in the first place. Also, I have not run this fast in two years, so things are going in the right direction. As M and I warmed down we discussed how it isn't right to complain about not running under 19 in the 5K when there were people still running and finishing in close to 40 minutes-it really puts things in prespective. The course on Thursday for the 10K is one that also sets up well for me, gradual climbing in the middle with a downhill finish-plus it's a fun race!

I won my age group in the 5K, so I had to stick around for all of the awards. I won two trophies that have turkeys on top instead of a runner. I may or may not have won a turkey. They used to give a gift certificate to a certain grocery store for a turkey but they got gift certificates for Butterball turkeys instead and did not have the certificates yet. They announced this as they did the 5K awards that the top three in the 5K got these, but did not say anything about the 10K. Not that I want a turkey, or even eat meat for that matter, but it is the principle of the whole thing. I ran twice as far (at almost the same pace), so I deserve a turkey as well!

Posted by Blondie at 02:36 PM | Comments (4)

November 18, 2005

Race Planning

Not too much to say today. I have a sort of goal time for my race tomorrow and have been thinking about how to do it. J would like me to do a big negative split and does not really care that much about what the time is. I, on the other hand, would like to have a nice boost mentally as the season ends.

I do know that the course is two loops and there are some rolling hills. The hills aren't supposed to be that bad and there is supposed to be a nice downhill into the finish. I think that I am going to start conservatively and increase the effort on the second lap. This might not be a big negative split as far as time goes, probably more like even. I tried to talk J into riding his bike alongside me. Looking at last year's results, I could very well be close to actually leading the entire race. Kind of cool, but kind of scary. I always feel like there should at least be one or two men in front of me, but there are plenty of races where it is possible to be the outright winner-it all depends on who shows up.

The weather is looking to be a touch chilly for my taste, but I'll have to deal with it. I can always wear a hat on the first loop and take it off at the start/finish area.

There hasn't been much for me to do at work today. There have been appointments all day long and things go wrong with each of them. I've completed all of the work I know how to do and am now just sitting around waiting for help or for something that I know how to do to pop up.

Hope that everyone has a great weekend!

Posted by Blondie at 03:25 PM | Comments (2)

November 17, 2005

Changing the Week Around

Normally, my weeks all look more or less the same. Monday is short intervals at the track, Tuesday is a semi-long run, Wednesday is an easy day, Thursday is longer intervals at the track, Friday is off, Saturday is long, and Sunday is very easy. During certain phases there are doubles scattered through there. Races are usually carefully planned now, there is very little just jumping into a race for the heck of it anymore. Most of the time altering the days of the week is doing strides on a Monday after racing on a Sunday. On occasion, Thursday will be strides if there is a big race that weekend, but most of the time the workout is done or shortened.

This week was a bit different. I did my longer intervals yesterday. All week the weather had been indicating some major storms rolling through at some time on Wednesday. In the morning, the weather looked like it would be warm and nice through the morning and into the afternoon with the storms coming in sometime in the late afternoon. I left work early (I had to go back at night) to do the workout. J was supposed to meet me, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to make it. I got there and it was starting to get dark and J wasn't around. I decided not to wait because I didn't want to get stuck in what was supposed to be a dangerous storm. For the first part of the warm-up, it was HOT. I considered losing my shirt and doing the workout in just shorts and a bra, in November. Just before a turn on the warm-up, the sky got dark, the wind picked way up, and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees. I got to the track and realized just how much fun the workout was going to be. The track is always windy in the first place, and there was a brick wall of wind coming off of the last turn of every lap. I finished my the warm-up, went over to my car and changed into my flats and left the trainers in the car and got started. The workout was 4 x 800 with a 400 jog. Sometime in the first lap the rain started. So now it was really dark, really windy and raining. I was the only person on the track and miserable. Doing track workouts alone is extremely difficult for me. The thought of aborting did cross my mind, but I was already out and started, so I decided to just go through with it.

I wasn't going to time the 800s, but I'm kind of stubborn like that, so I did start my watch. All four 800s were right around 2:55, which the time was slower than ideal, made me very happy given the circumstances. The wind got stronger on each interval, so the effort increased even though the time didn't decrease. On the warm-down, it rained even harder and got even windier. At some points, the rain was going sideways. In my mind, I think that if the circumstances had been better the 800s would have been somewhere around 2:45. I know that I have trouble doing speedwork alone and in the wind, so I was very proud of those intervals.

I was really busy at work yesterday and even had to go back. Today was another story. Everything that I tried to do didn't work right and I needed a lot of help from my dad, the only one who knows how everything works. The main problem was that he was busy and I couldn't do anything, so the day just dragged on and on and on.

Tonight I went to the track even though I wasn't doing the workout. This week I think that I have done the bulk of my running on the track, but with only one workout. There was a small group and it was COLD. I was very lucky to have an extra long sleeve shirt and an ear band floating around in my car. I was still freezing in all of my clothes. It was only 37 degrees when I was driving over. That might not have been so bad, but it was 76 yesterday afternoon, so given how cold I usually am, today felt really cold. I did 8 striders and felt kind of choppy. I think that it was because it was so dark on the track, but judging by how close I was to the people doing the workout, I must not have been running that slow.

I have a race on Saturday. I would like to run well and sort of have a time goal that I would like to meet, but since I don't really know what the course is like, I don't want to put much pressure on myself for it. I'm actually doing two races on Saturday, but the second one is more of my warm down. I think that I should be able to do what I would like to by the workouts that I have been doing, but if I don't, it is only a race and there are plenty of others out there.

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

November 15, 2005

It Seems I'm Dead

I think that I had a similar title earlier in the year when I was trying to figure out how the heart rate monitor that I was wear testing worked. With that, it would not register a heart beat no matter what I tried. Today's episode of death involves my temperature. My mom wasn't feeling very well at work, so when she did the banking she also stopped at the drugstore and bought a digital thermometer to keep at the office. She thought that she had a fever, but it didn't really register that high. She had me take my temperature to see if it was working because she wasn't sure if the thermometer was supposed to beep. Well, my temperature was 95.9, so I must be either dead or on my way to being dead. My body temperature is usually low, which is part of the reason that I am always so cold, but this is the lowest I've ever seen it.

I must have recovered well from being dead, since I was able to run this afternoon. Today was the first attempt at the new and improved, safer loop. My regular loop is just way too dangerous to do when it is dark and rush hour, so I mapped out a new loop. The start and finish are the same, but the middle loop is a little different. The roads are roads that I have run on before, just not in one loop and I am going in the other direction. The direction could easily be changed, but for variety's sake, I went the opposite today. The entire time I was doing it, it felt soooo long. It turned out to not be that long, but because it was new it felt longer. The loop is a touch over 7 miles which I finished in 48:30. Some guy's dog made me come to a screeching halt when I was almost done when it came flying out the front door and tried to attack me. I'm sure that it didn't really want to attack, but it came right over to me and I was not about to keep running and have it bite me.

When I got home, I made a point to really stretch. Usually I do some half-hearted stretching when I get done, but I haven't been really stretching when getting home. My legs have been feeling stiff and tight, probably because my body is getting worn down from the higher mileage and the higher intensity. It is getting to that time of year that I shut down for a while and my body always feels tired around now.

When I was out running, I passed by a house that already has it's Christmas lights up! Seriously, it is not even Thanksgiving yet. I admit that I have bought a few Christmas gifts, but no decorations yet. The only reason I have the gifts is that I saw them and knew that I would not have the opportunity to buy these items again before the holidays. Before you know it, people are going to be putting lights up in August!

Posted by Blondie at 07:12 PM | Comments (2)

November 14, 2005

Stumped

Tonight the creative juices are not flowing. Usually after a minute or so, some semi-creative title will come to mind, but not today. That isn't saying that all of my titles are creative or awe-inspiring, but usually there is something that comes to mind. That is not the case today.

I did have another interview today. It was further away than I would like to travel, so if (and that is a BIG if) I get this job, I'll have to look into moving somewhere a little closer. The best thing about my current job situation is although my boss wants to teach me what to do in the position, he really wants me to find my own "real" job. I guess that is what happens when your boss is your father! This means that I don't have to be secretive about looking for a job or going on interviews like I had to in my old job. I don't know how well it went, but it is experience.

I did venture up to the track tonight, but there was no way that I would even attempt to do the workout. J called me around lunch time to see how my legs were feeling. Something just was not right yesterday and we don't want to push things too far. This is the end of the racing season, I have a few more weeks left, but not much real training left. It would take some checking, but I've been averaging right around 70 miles a week since the beginning of September, so it is getting to be time to cut back. During the cut back/break time I always feel so lazy, but the body can only be pushed so far so it is needed in order to improve.

Tonight's workout was the 300s again, definitely something that would push my legs over the edge. We decided that the best thing to do was to just run easy and not even do striders. Usually the Monday after a Sunday race I'll do some striders to get some faster turnover without really taxing my body. I ended up with around 8 miles for the night, most of it feeling pretty quick. I did about three miles on the track while everyone else did their workout. I lost track of how many laps I did and tried to figure it out by the pace because I started to look at splits. The problem was I could never remember what the running time was on the lap before-all I know is that my pace was somewhere between 6:40 and 7:00-two or three seconds a lap can start to make a pretty big difference over the course of a mile.

Once again, I could not believe the weather. We have had very little November appropriate weather. There has never been a year that I have consistently worn shorts this late into the year. When we have had appropriate weather, it has been below average. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a very mild winter!

Posted by Blondie at 07:46 PM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2005

Speed Hurts and Baby Veggies

Last night was a relatively late night, especially considering having to get up early this morning. An ex had a grand opening for his new store and had an invitation-only party. This is an ex that I am still on very good terms with and I pretty much had to make an appearance at the party. I don't regret going, it was good to get out for a night and this store has been a long time coming and I needed to be there to help him celebrate it. Even being out late (for me), I had no problems getting up early for this morning race, er, I should say races.

Before going to the party last night, I took care of all the registration stuff, so that was out of the way. I still got there way early, but I hate the feeling of being rushed. There were two races going on-a 2 mile and a 4mile; I signed up to do both. My warm-up was solely the two mile course. The warm-up wasn't that great, I felt stiff and tight. There are a couple of reasons for this-standing around at the cross country meet yesterday and standing around in heels last night. These reasons are in addition to running flat out fast on Thursday night, which I swear is still residually in my legs.

The two mile was first. It took a while to get started because a lot of the walkers didn't make it to the starting line in time. There were more kids in this race than it almost any other race that I have run. The front line was filled with twelve year old girls who would not let anyone in front of them. Once we got started, the race was fine-I was in about 20th for the first quarter mile because all of the kids went out so fast. The first turn was about fifty feet into the course, but other than that most of the turns were more like leans. After that first turn, there was a nice downhill for about the first three hundred meters, then we turned and ran uphill until just past the mile marker which I passed in 5:57. We turned there and then the last mile was pretty quick, mostly downhills with a finish on the track. I was in third for most of the race until some guy blew by me on the downhill, but I was first among the women in 11:55.

I changed numbers and walked/jogged around until the start of the four mile race. We had to start later than planned because there were so many people in the two mile and the course shared a road. The start of this course was the same, it had an extra loop, and finished the same. I hoped to win, but there was another girl who runs just about the same times as I do in the race. I tried to stay as close to her as possible, usually about fifteen yards back, but around two miles, my legs felt dead. I knew that trying to really push through that would do me more harm than good. She didn't really pull away that much, but it wasn't there. I did outkick one of my training partners, but it was not a special race by any means. I managed to finish second in 25:00.

It was kind of upsetting to run the four mile in 25 since I ran a workout faster than that on Monday night. Of course, I had not run a hard two miles (with half of it up a hill) before it. That is not an excuse because it is hard to do two hard races with about twenty minutes in between. This was supposed to be sort of a test for a 10K next weekend. My warm down was so short because I felt woozy, so something was not right. I felt stiffer and tighter than usual as well. Anyhow, adding my two times puts me in 10K PR range, which is the goal next week. I would not be attacking nearly as early either which would make me feel stronger at the end. The four mile was not that bad, my splits were within two to three seconds of each other.

I did win a very nice Gore-Tex jacket that I believe retails for about $150. Not too bad for a $20 entrance fee. The only problem with the jacket is that it is a medium and absolutely huge on me. It does make sense to give away a medium, but it would have been nice to get a voucher for a specific jacket and to be able to pick the size that fits the best. I don't know who their models are, the sleeves are about six inches too long for the body. Of course, I am not complaining because I would never spend that much on a running jacket! I also won a set of ceramic coffee mugs, so the whole family can drink hot beverages in matching mugs now!

This afternoon I went for a long walk. J and I agreed that it would probably help with loosening up some. After the walk I spent lots of quality time with the foam roller. Some areas really hurt with the pressure, so there might be some more time spent with it tonight. The Stick will probably also make an appearance to help with the tightness. I'm sure that running so fast earlier did not help matters at all.

Finally, I have a slight obessession with baby vegetables. I think that they are so cute. I'm not talking about baby carrots, more like baby zuchinni and baby corn. Something about mini vegetables is absolutely adorable. Tonight I had baby carrots, baby corn, and snap peas and thought it was the cutest! OK, I'm probably weird, but I just think that they're cute!

Posted by Blondie at 07:00 PM | Comments (2)

November 12, 2005

In Search of Extra Hours

Although I am working the same number, or less hours, in a week than I used to; there just doesn't seem to be enough time to get everything accomplished in one day. I truly believe this is becuase I'm working from 9 to 5 instead of 7 to 3. On my previous schedule, I had plenty of time to get things done in the afternoon/evening. On this schedule, not much is open before and the evening is consumed by my run. In theory, it would be great to do the bulk of my training in the morning because there is plenty of time then, but I have established that I am not a good morning runner and I think that because I am so tight in the morning it could make me more prone to doing something stupid. As a result, I seem to not have enough time to do everything that I would like to do.

Thursday night was a track night. It was so windy during the day that J actually called me and told me not to even be concerned with what the pace was. He had earlier given goal times to me because the workout was supposed to be short but hard. The wind did die down some as the sun set, so it wasn't too bad by the time we got started. The workout was 2 x 1600 with an 800 jog. The 1600s were supposed to be fast, our workouts are getting shorter and faster because it is peaking time. There was a pretty small group, but two of the guys were about my pace. This was nice, having people to work with makes the workout so much better. I didn't check any of the quarter splits, but one of the guys was looking, so I had no idea what pace we were running. I had originally planned to do the miles in 5:45, but my plan was changed to run at about 95%. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the first mile was 5:41/5:42. We did a very easy (to me) 800 jog and started the second one. J had said that there could be more recovery because he wanted closer to a full recovery, but I was ready to go. On this one, I did most of the pace setting and did a 5:43. I would have liked that one to be faster, but being consistent is just as good and they were the fastest workout miles that I think I have ever done. We did a similar workout last year that left me lying on the track gasping for air with much slower times.

When I went to bed Thursday night, I realized that I left my flats behind a bush at the track. Since it was dark when we finished, I was pretty sure they would be fine, but I also knew that I had to get there before school started in the morning. Since I would be up, I also decided to go to the gym in the morning before work. My flats were right where I left them, behind the bush, thank goodness! I have other pairs, but these are my current workout pair. The gym was dead, a pleasant surprise. I must have gone in the down period, there were maybe ten people in the fitness center. I did the elliptical for 35 minutes and then did a little bit of lifting before getting ready to go to work.

This morning, I did get up early, but I didn't need to run early. I was running from home instead of doing a long run because I am racing tomorrow. I got up and did some cleaning, like putting laundry away to get the blood flowing. After about forty minutes, I decided that it was time to run. I got dressed, with too much on as it turns out, but not too much too much and headed out to run. I did an easy five miles, the first two definitely felt worse than the last three. My legs still felt a bit heavy and tired from the extra hard effort on Thursday night.

I have some more cleaning to take care of and then I'm going to the state cross country meet today. Some of the kids run with us in the summer and others are kids who I used to coach in swimming. There should be some good races, one with two guys who have been really close all season and one of the girls is just phenomenal to watch. Luckily for us spectators, it won't be too cold!

Posted by Blondie at 10:13 AM | Comments (1)

November 09, 2005

Changing Plans

The plan for my run changed three times today. It wasn't too bothersome, I try to stay relaxed about that kind of thing. Originally I was going to do treadmill wear testing, but the bras weren't clean yet. By the time it was time to leave for work, I had not heard anything, so I planned to run outside this afternoon. About an hour after getting to work, I got a call to see if I could do a test sometime today. The research/developer guy was very flexible and willing to wait until the afternoon to do it. The only problem was that I had no clothes to run in with me. I'm just not a prepared runner, if I was, I would always have a running outfit available at all times!

I did fifteen minutes in each of the three bras that I have been testing. One of my concerns was the thirty minute limit that is usually posted on the treadmills during "prime time", but it wasn't that crowded when we were there. It is amazing how much easier the pace felt with my body being warmed up throughout the day. All of the trials are done at the same pace, so the different days can be compared. It felt so much easier than it did first thing in the morning last week. I decided that I wouldn't put my longer sports bra on over top of the bras that I was testing because I wanted it to be dry for when I lifted after they left. This is something that I'm not all that comfortable with. Running outside in just a sports bra is no problem, but the gym is a public place and I kind of feel like I should have my stomach covered.

After I was done the testing, I put my sports bra on and hopped back on the treadmill. My OCD took over and I had to do another mile to get 7 for the log book. After my last mile, I hit the weights some. I wasn't feeling all that motivated to lift and I was getting chilly because of the sweaty clothes. Nevertheless, I did more lifting than usual.

My mom went to the surgeon today to have the spot looked at. There has been a spot on her mamogram for years that they have watched and it was still there. They couldn't find it on the ultrasound, but they found another area on that. The surgeon wants to do a fancier ultrasound with a biopsy just to rule anything out. Mom was pissy all day today, but she is apparently in a slightly better mood now that she has some kind of plan of action. The procedure hasn't been scheduled yet, but it will be done soon because she and my dad don't want to mess around with it.

Posted by Blondie at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2005

Election Day

Once today is over, commercials won't be campaign commercials anymore. We don't have any offices up for election this year, so I didn't have to do my civic duty and vote today. New Jersey has a dirty governor campaign going on at the moment and I am sick and tired of every other commercial being an attack on the other candidate.

This morning's run, which I apparently was not supposed to do, was pretty lame. It wasn't that anything hurt or felt bad, it was just kind of pathetic. My legs were still tight and stiff from last night's workout. Recently my morning runs have been five miles, but there was no reason to keep it longer right now, so I just did four miles, nice and easy.

As it is starting to be time to cut back on mileage, this afternoon's run wasn't supposed to be as long as it has been. I tried out a new loop, but made a bit of a mistake on it. The plan was to try to cut out the very dangerous third of a mile or so of road, but I forgot to turn before it, whoops! Then I added the loop that I'm thinking about substituting it with which ended up being longer than anticipated. That won't be a problem when it is part of the main run, so it was OK. I was only supposed to run for about fifty minutes, but it ended up being a few ticks under an hour. It was very quick, probably about nine miles. Life goes on, it won't kill me. There are still three weeks left to cut down, so today wasn't too bad.

I hope that we can keep having the weather that we've been having. Not too windy, nice temperatures (in my opinion), and dry. I keep thinking that if I get all the things that I need to survive in really cold weather, it will mean that there is a mild winter. Kind of a reverse psychology.

Posted by Blondie at 06:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2005

Must Always Forget Something

Whenever I have to pack to go anywhere, I always forget something. I remember going on a college overnight visit, getting all the way out to the school, only to realize that I forgot to pack pajamas. Most of the time, I think that I forgot to bring my mind! Today, it was socks.

I packed all of my running gear early this morning. I brought long sleeves, short sleeves, shorts, tights...pretty much any combination that you could think of needing. I went to get dressed before leaving the office and discovered that I had no socks. My feet are so blister prone that running without socks just is not an option, so I had to go home just to pick up a silly pair of socks.

This morning I had a meeting with someone about the graduate program that I am interested in pursuing. It seems like a good fit, now I have to apply. There is a possibility of taking a class this spring, but I think that all of the application materials need to be, oh, by the end of this week. That's going to be interesting. I need to get three letters of reference, but because I'm "older" and already have a graduate degree, two of my letters can be character references. The GREs are also waived because of already having a graduate degree.

The weather tonight was just about perfect for a workout: cool (in my opinion, high fifties) and hardly any wind. The workout is one that I would say separates the men from the boys, but in this scenario, the tough from the...not so tough? It is one of my favorite workouts but also one that I hate becuase it is hard, it is a good indication of what kind of shape that I am in. Anyhow, the workout is 16 x 300 with a 100 jog, but it is supposed to be all "up", besides even if you go really slow for a 100, it isn't that far or long. When we do this workout, I don't worry about 300 times because they are too difficult to translate to mile pace, so I just get my mile splits. Tonight I did the 4 miles in 24:50 with mile splits of 6:07, 6:10, 6:12, and 6:20. I worked with two guys for the first 12 but they only did 12, so the last mile was on my own. Granted, it probably should have been faster, but there wasn't anyone pushing me and J wasn't standing there telling me "OK, now make yourself uncomfortable"-as if I wasn't already uncomfortable. If memory serves, the best I've done this workout before is around 25:20; so I would venture to guess that I'm in pretty good shape at the moment. We only do a few weeks of this workout at the end of each season becuase you really need to be in shape to do it right and it can take more out of you than you think that it would.

Posted by Blondie at 08:40 PM | Comments (1)

November 06, 2005

Pre-Empted

Grrr...Although the results have been posted on-line, live, I was looking forward to watching the highlights of the marathon on TV this afternoon. When you have hardly any life and are follow running, things like that are really exciting. So, I had the TV on and was ready to watch, and...there was tennis on. OK, it was live and local, but the marathon was scheduled. There was a comment that said something to the extent of because the match took an extra set, they would shortly go to marathon coverage. Well...the match didn't end until after 2:45, so they never got to marathon coverage. I'm sure that it was a very good tennis match, if tennis is what I had tuned in to see, but I had tuned in to see the marathon and that is what I wanted to watch. After the tennis match, the went straight to NASCAR coverage, so I didn't get my running-TV fix. Grr....

This morning was the first of my practice runs on the course where we'll have our club cross country race in a few weeks. Running there is something that I absolutely despise. In order to have any chance of running reasonably well, I decided that running on the course a few times might be in order. The state cross country meet is on this course next weekend, so hopefully the conditions will be better in a few weeks than they were today. Most of the first half of the course has terrible footing in the first place and right now it is covered with about two inches of wet leaves, making it impossible to see where you are about to step. I do realize that cross country is not supposed to be easy and all, but the conditions of the course at the moment are pretty dangerous.

I decided to do a double course this morning. Since the start and finish are not in the same spot, I ran the course forwards and then turned around and ran it backwards. While running, I did formulate my plan for the race, pretty much the same plan I have every year when I run it. Although the biggest and hardest hill is at about halfway and I suck at hills, I know that if I am somewhat close to the front at this point, I can do it. Once the footing gets better, at the massive hill, I am comfortable. The part of the course that is hardest mentally for most people is actually where I am the strongest and have always picked off lots of runners. It doesn't matter yet, the race isn't for a few weeks, but because it combines two things I hate (hills and grass) I have to get ready for it.

In all, I felt better than yesterday. My body is still on the dehydrated side, but I've been working on drinking more and more water today. The unusually warm fall has not been helping matters any. I can't remember the last time we have had this many warm days in November. The month is still early, but the forecast is still looking warm as of now.

I did a second run today pretty much out of boredom and OCD. There really wasn't anything to do, the Eagles aren't playing until prime time and who knows how the rest of their season is going to be. TO is indefinitely suspended, Donovan is injured, David Akers is just coming off an injury-to put it mildly, I don't expect them to return to the Super Bowl this year. As far as the OCD is concerned, 70 miles looks so much nicer than 65 in the log book, although both are pretty nice numbers for weekly mileage. J probably didn't want the extra miles today since I'm supposed to be cutting mileage and increasing speed the next week or so to race more. My only excuse is that the extra runs I do definitely are not junk miles-they are at the same pace as my other runs. Running slower than 7:30 is so uncomfortable that I'll usually just stop instead of trudging on.

This afternoon started out not feeling too good. My first thought was that running the cross country course this morning really wiped me out more than I expected. As the run progressed, my body started to feel better and better. I was going to cut it short, but by the turn around point I was feeling fine. It must have just taken more time to get the blood flowing. The wind had picked up more and it was starting to get dark, so I had to get in. I tried to keep everything relaxed because I think that some of my poor workouts on Mondays are from running so much mileage over the weekends. Last week Sunday was a really big day, so it did make sense to not feel very good the next day.

Hope that everyone enjoyed their weekends!

Posted by Blondie at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2005

A Good Sign of Dehydration...

...is not having to pee for over 8 hours, even after drinking water. I thought that I drank enough water yesterday. The massage therapist says that you need to drink extra water after she works on you, and I probably had close to 100 ounces yesterday. The first sign that things weren't great was the fact that I slept through the night without having to get up and go. Getting up in the middle of the night is just something that I have come to accept and understand that it means that I've been drinking enough water during the day.

This morning was probably my last long run of the year. Even calling today a long run was a stretch, there just isn't a point to run really long at this point in the season. I have races scheduled for most of the remaining weekends before my annual break from real training. There was a suprisingly large group, but with people who aren't really regulars on the Saturday morning run. My plan was to run for about 1:40, give or take, but nobody wanted to run that long. The thought of running on back roads by myself for that long really wasn't all that appealing, so I went with the rest of the group and did a short loop through a historic country estate. The pace was definitely faster than it normally is on Saturday and we got back in about an hour. I knew that I had to add on at least another half hour, but couldn't talk anyone into going with me, so I was by myself. Being alone for half an hour was much more appealing than being alone for 70 minutes of the run. I felt pretty good for the first 80 minutes or so, but then I just suddenly felt off. Nothing was wrong, nothing hurt, I kind of ran out of steam or something. Looking back, I know that it was some dehydration. I got back in 1:33 and decided that doing the extra mile was not a good idea and I was back at my car, so that was it.

I went over to the gym and bought a bottle of water and got out of my sweaty clothes to discover some pretty severe chafing under both of my arms. The shirt that I wore is one that I have worn before without any problems, so I don't know why it chafed, but it did. I did the elliptical for about 20 minutes and just didn't feel like doing it anymore, so I went over to the bike. After about 25 minutes on the bike, it got boring, so I stopped. I made a point to stretch better and the lifted. As awful as lifting is, I tried to do more and different exercises than usual.

I showered and changed at the gym so that I didn't have to go home before going to the county cross country meet because the gym is half way there. Some kids had some really great races on a different course. This was the first time they have held this meet at the historic estate that we ran through this morning, it was pretty much neutral ground. The teams weren't even allowed on the grounds until this week, so nobody knew anything about it before this week. It looked like it was the kind of course that you needed to have a plan on how to race, but not having run it, it is hard to say.

This is where the big sign of being dehydrated comes in. I had a bottle of water at the gym, a diet soda with the lunch that I bought, and about a half gallon at the meet and didn't have to pee until about 3:45. Umm, that's a lot of water and not having to go is not a good sign. It also explains why my run was mediocre feeling and why I just didn't feel like doing any cross training. I've been trying to drink more and more as today goes on so that I don't run into this problem later.

Posted by Blondie at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)

November 04, 2005

Not Much to Say

I didn't do any working out at all today. When I woke up this morning, I felt extremely stiff. I dropped something in the bathroom before I took a shower and couldn't reach the floor without bending my knees. Now I could probably do that even wearing my heels, so it just goes to show how much my body warms up as the day goes on.

I did have a massage this morning. It didn't feel nearly as painful as the last one that I had, but I was tighter. The calves weren't as bad as they can be, but the psoas was tigher than usual. Right now there is a sore spot on the top of my right knee. I think that this is kind of a friction burn, the skin hurts more than anything.

In other random news, it has just been the most unusually warm fall that I remember. It almost hit 70 today and there hasn't really been much rain. I'm not complaining about the lack of rain too much, since running in a cold rain is one of my least favorite things to do.

Anyways, I'm hungry, so I've got to quickly catch up on other blogs and then cook something to eat.

Posted by Blondie at 05:39 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2005

Things Aren't Always as They Seem

Yes, appearances are deceiving. This seemed to be a common theme for the day today. It seemed that things would be going one way, but then in a cruel twist of fate, would actually be another way.

This started with waking up this morning. I thought that I would have plenty of time to run and get ready for work. I would have, but I had more to do than I thought. My morning run, which was probably one of my last doubles, was pretty decent for only being awake for a grand total of ten minutes before going out the door. I did not want to get up when the alarm went off, in fact I did hit the snooze bar before getting out of bed. It was brisk out, I had on pants because my legs already felt stiff. If it had been later in the day shorts may have been acceptable at that temperature, but given my level of stiffness, being cold was not a good idea. This run was about a hundred times better than Tuesday's run in the morning. The only thing that was bothering me was my stomach since things didn't happen before I went out to run, but I have definitely run through much worse stomach problems. Anyhow, I got my five mile loop in and felt fine.

At work, there was not a whole lot for me to do. Today was will day, so there were a few appointments with senior citizens. I did clean out the desk that I'm using. It appears that the woman who used to work there was collecting paper clips. There must have been well over a thousand in the top drawer. There are still at least five hundred in the top drawer and I got rid of about ten fistfulls of them. The bad news of the day was that the breast surgeon who my mother sees, he's an old friend of the family, called and wants to see her to follow up on the ultrasound. It turns out that the one area looks like a cyst and another area is denser than it had been. She's nervous, but not as nervous as before. She did get a letter that said they think it is noncancerous and she knows that G, the surgeon, is very conservative. He likes to follow up if things are even slightly abnormal. He also takes extra care with my mom since we did used to live next door to them, I used to babysit their daughters. Anyhow, she has her appointment with him on Wednesday and she said that she knows that she can deal with whatever he says it is.

Tonight's workout looked like it would be very easy on paper, but when we did it, it was much harder than it looked. The workout called for 2 x 2000, our workouts are getting shorter because it is time for us to race (for those of us who do race) or it is just time to start winding down. It didn't look too bad, but I did get a call with directions on how to do it, and they way to do it did sound kind of difficult. There were two guys for me to run with and I made sure that they knew how the workout was supposed to be done. The first 1600 was to be right at 6:00 pace and the last 400 was supposed to drop down to an 85. We did the first one a little bit too fast, the mile was in 5:56 and the last quarter was 84. We pretty much did what was supposed to get done, just a hair too fast. There was a 1200 to recover since the idea was to do it right. The second one, we went through the mile in about 5:58 and I did the last quarter in 83, but my two buddies did it in about 80. Doing this workout with the mile at 10K pace and the last quarter at sub 5K pace was hard. The guys did complain that they didn't feel recovered since I tend to run my recoveries fast, but we did it right and it was a lot harder than it looked.

I bought a bottle of wine for my mom and I to celebrate with. We have learned to just enjoy life for being life, and we've been neglecting that some. We had some trouble opening it, so we may have to drink the rest of the bottle tonight! We couldn't get the cork out, rather the cork ended up in the bottle! That being said, this is not a drink-and-blog...We only had half a glass each with dinner.

I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow morning. The massage therapist definitely has her work cut out for her, as she always does. Next week, I will be so happy about getting the crap kneaded out of my legs, although it will be quite painful while it happens.

Posted by Blondie at 08:43 PM | Comments (1)

November 02, 2005

Relief for Now

Thank you to everyone who sent thoughts of strength. For now, everything is OK. The ultrasound didn't show anything unusual, so she just has to have it checked again in six months. This has been pretty par for her; her file at the mamography place is, as she put it, as big as I am. She has had lots of mamograms that require follow-up and have been nothing. Last year, she thought that, but then the ultrasound was weird, so she had the biopsy, etc. Hopefully, none of this will ever apply to any of us, but taking care of our health is of the utmost importance.

This morning I had to do the treadmill running tests. They had three bras for me to wear this time, fifteen minutes each. Then because I have some strange compulsion that I can not put less than 7 miles in my log book for the main run of a day, I hopped on for another mile after they left. It was not one of the better runs I have had of late. If I had been out on the road, I may have stopped or seriously slowed down, but being on the treadmill and being a lab rat prevented that from happening. The fact that I ran later in the day and so well yesterday probably had to do with just feeling flat and tired this morning.

This work thing is killing me. I don't have my schedule down yet. I always feel tired and hungry. Starving today, but I didn't get to have breakfast which messed me up for the rest of the day. Actually, missing my morning coffee was more of what messed me up! As soon as I get into a routine, things should be better. I realize now how lucky I was to have a job that allowed me to run in the afternoon, not the evening. Hopefully I'll learn how to do more things and be able to work earlier in the morning so I can run in the afternoon. Speaking of all of this, I have a meeting regarding another graduate program on Monday!

Tonight I went to the gym with my mother. I rode the bike for 35 minutes and then lifted for another 35 minutes. I want to do some core exercises before I tip over and fall asleep, so I've gotta get cracking!

Posted by Blondie at 09:37 PM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2005

A Little Bit of Good, A Little Bit of Not So Good

There was something definitely not right last night. I'm pretty sure that it was nutritional, but I can't be 100% sure of it. I was barely able to keep myself upright and was in bed almost as soon as I signed off from writing in my blog. Sleeping well was a bit of a help, although I am still feeling a bit on the tired side.

This morning's run wasn't spectacular. I was surprised at how light it was, but it was not a crack of dawn kind of run like I was doing in the spring. Going out the door at a few minutes before 7 isn't nearly as awful sounding as going out a few minutes before 5 is. The first half of it felt OK, but I still felt a little bit on the weak side, so I cut off the extra loop to make it just four miles. One part of me was saying, "do the extra mile, it'll make you tougher" and the other side was saying, "your body is telling you something, don't do it". I listened to the second voice, pretty soon I won't be doing the double runs, to cut mileage for a bit of a taper.

What a difference feeling fueled and awake makes in my main run! I didn't get out of the office until 4:30 (I should have stayed later) and it got very dark during my run. Things probably would not have been so bad if I hadn't gone as long as I did. I did my ten mile loop and felt great. It was perfect running weather, in the low sixties, and I just felt peppy after two crummy runs. The end was very dark and I kept getting blinded by headlights. One road was kind of scary because there isn't really a shoulder and there is no sidewalk. I think that next week I'm going to try to make up some loops from the office because it will save me at least ten minutes in travel and changing. I did wear my watch and time the run, it was a little slower than it usually is, but being in the dark and slowing down to avoid cars probably affected the time. I do know that it is not good to race your watch on every run, it is much better to just go with the flow.

Now for some not so good news. My mom had to go for her annual mamogram, and first one since her cancer. There has been a spot on her right breast that they have been watching for a while and it looked denser than it had been. She has to go for an ultrasound on it tomorrow. They used to do it right away, but they have changed the procedure for it, so she has to wait a day. She says they are extra careful with her because she has had cancer, but she is still freaking out and very upset. It could very well be nothing, but it is hanging over our heads right now. She said that she knows that she can handle it because she already has, but none of us want to have to go through the cancer and treatments again. We were very lucky in how well she handled chemo last time, but none of us want to do it again.

Posted by Blondie at 07:04 PM | Comments (5)