The Long Run

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December 31, 2005

Year End Wrap Up

I was only going to write one entry today, but the last one was getting kind of long and this is a sort of different topic, so I decided that it should merit a separate entry. At this time of year, we all seem to make new goals for the coming year, but in order to really do that, you need to look back at what the previous year held. Some goals for next year have been sort of formulated, but nothing is set in stone yet. More about that after the looking back part.

For the most part, I am happy about how this year turned out. There are things that I would have liked to have gone differently, but failure is a part of learning.

I did learn that my body can handle higher mileage, but really prefers it to be in doubles. Doing doubles really isn't all that bad, but they are much better when the first run is not done before 5:00 in the morning. Those were some of the toughest runs that I have ever gone on, but I know that I can do it if need be.

Remembering that recovering from races can be different every time is something that I need to work on. There were races this year where I was ready to do a workout the next day and others where the next few days (or weeks or months) were a struggle. Trying to push when not recovered spelled disaster in more than one instance.

Keeping with that theme, listening to my body when trying to recover was not a strength of mine. After the marathon when my body felt awful, I should have just put my running shoes under my bed and not even try to take a step for at least two weeks, maybe even closer to a month. That race really messed my system up and trying to keep going after it delayed the recovery even more. The next time that my body reacts that way I will remember what happened this time. All of the summer and most of the fall were affected by this.

I will not run crappy summer races just to run them! During the struggles to recovery, I ran a few 5Ks that got me even more discouraged than they were worth. These races should have been a clue to rest, but I kept thinking that the next one would go well. One here or there is fine, but not as many as I tried.

I may not have made most of the time goals that I had established earlier in the year, but my times did start coming back down to where they had been. I got closer to my PRs than I have been in a long time. Hopefully this year, those PRs will come down. Not reaching those goals was fine by me, there are plenty of other races to do and basically re-starting in the fall meant not having the real base under my belt.

I learned that I am able to run on the treadmill if nothing else is available. My form is not conducive to treadmill running as my hands seem to always hit the bar, but if the weather is really terrible I don't have to go out and be a hero.

Things I would like to do in the coming year include:

Keeping up with the doubles three days a week. I'd like to stretch the morning run on one of those days to increase the volume some. J has said that he would like my long run to slow down a touch and to go longer to increase volume. We have determined that running in the 70-75 mile per week range is probably where I do my best.

Continue to run off the roads at least one day a week. During the winter once a week is probably the only possible amount because I can't run until it is dark. Doing this probably will help with some aches and pains. It also forces my easy runs to be very easy.

Work on drinking while running. My stomach does not like to have anything put into it while running. Water sloshes around and other stuff makes me sick. If I ever want to run a decent marathon this is going to have to get solved. It seems that liquid may be the way to go for me, but I have to find a drink that will work and then learn to use it on training runs. Gels are too much at once and the consistency does not work well. This is something I plan to work on this year.

I would like to keep doing some kind of yoga or flexibility work at least once a week. It really seems to help me feel better. Along with that, keeping up with the strength training. It really makes a difference at the end of races.

This year I would like to break some of my candy habit. Last year I worked on eating more veggies and have been very good about that. Now, the candy habit needs to be broken. My dear mother was very prould of herself for finding Reindeer Corn to put in my Christmas stocking. This was something that I definitely did not need. For anyone who is wondering, it isn't nearly as good as the real deal-candy corn. If we could get the Mike and Ikes out of the office, I would be good about the candy habit.

I'm sure there's more, but things need to be taken in baby steps. Hope that everyone has a happy and safe New Year!

Posted by Blondie at 11:54 AM | Comments (3)

Ordering Up the Usual

If there were a restaurant that I frequented on a regular basis, there would definitely be a "usual" order for me. I seem to be a creature of habit. My breakfast is the same thing every day. Ditto for lunch. Dinner is one of only a few dishes. These are foods that I happen to really like and are at least mostly healthy. The point is, routine does not bother me. Routines are actually comforting because I know what to expect.

Like most any other Saturday morning, this morning was my long run. At this point, it really can't be classified as a long run, I only call it that because it is the longest run of the week. It is gradually creeping up into long run territory, which I consider anything over 90 minutes. Long seems to be a relative term-for some people an hour is long and for others it isn't a long run until it is over two hours. Going over 90 minutes for me usually means thinking about having some water out and maybe trying to have some kind of fuel. In the winter I can easily go for over 2 hours without drinking anything, but that isn't necessarily something to be proud about. Fuel is another story, I havent' figured out how to use any kind of fuel without getting terribly sick from it. At this point, completely falling apart still seems more attractive than getting sick.

Anyhow...this morning my plan was to run for 75 minutes. Most of the group seemed to be planning for about an hour. I decided to stick with them because it is more enjoyable to run in a group than to venture out alone, so we did one of the museum loops. The pace for most of the loop felt a bit pedestrian, but we did pick it up towards the end. There is a long gradual hill that leads to the exit that T and I did pick up the pace on, but we waited at the top to regroup. The paths all look the same, so if I were left alone, I probably would not get out for over two hours. I've been having trouble with my new(er) watch starting recently. There are two issues-(1)the start button isn't in the same place as it was on my old watch, so when I hit the button that my mind thinks is the start button it won't start, and (2) when there are layers on top of the watch and I have on gloves, I don't seem to hit the button right. I'm not positive which I did this morning, but I found out that my watch hadn't started about 16 minutes into the run when we had to stop for a turned ankle. I starte the watch at this point and had to remember how much time to add to the running time. We got back and I added on another 16 minutes to get to 75. It didn't feel too bad, but the slower pace was more difficult to do and that seems to make my legs more tired at the end. I don't really get it, but running slower makes me more tired than running faster.

After the run, I went to the gym and did the rest of the Saturday workout. I hopped on an elliptical for half an hour. Trying to read a magazine was a bust since the fans were on and kept flipping the pages. I've read that to really get any benefit out of cross-training you shouldn't be able to read, but my interpretation of that is in order to get the same benefits as running you shouldn't be able to read. My goal of cross-training is to loosen up the tight areas and get a little bit of extra conditioning, not to take the place of running. After the elliptical, I hopped on a bike for half an hour. Reading was possible on the bike because the fans aren't directly over the bikes. I stretched and then lifted after the bike. My arms were very sore on Wednesday and I think there was still some reisidual soreness because I felt very weak when lifting this morning.

Posted by Blondie at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2005

Just a Busy Time of Year

I never realized how busy this time of year really is since this is the first time in about five years that I have actually had to work during the week between Christmas and the new year. If my job were at a large company where you can put in for vacation time, I'm sure this would be a week that I would request. Since working with the parents in a small company does not offer those benefits, I'm stuck working.

Yesterday was strangely warm for the end of December. Even being sissified, I managed to wear shorts comfortably (along with a hat and gloves). Since my parent's Christmas open house was last night, I managed to get out to run a little bit earlier. Of course, we ate lunch later that usual, making the run much less than pleasant. It wasn't a great run, but that was more or less due to the fact that I thought that I might not make it back before things got really ugly.

This morning I had plans to meet with J, M, and whoever else could make it in the morning. It was damp and a bit rainy, but that was the forecast for all day. This run was terrible, but none of us was feeling all that great. My lack of dinner from last night (there was no cooking, so dinner was a handful of baby carrots and Christmas cookies). I was really toasty, but wearing the extra clothes was basically to stay dry.

This evening, I went to Spinning. There really wasn't a class since the instructor had to miss. We got the room to stay open as long as someone promised to lock up. There wasn't anyone telling everyone what to do, so I pretty much rode at a comfortably hard cadence for the hour. It was supposed to be an introduction to doing two workouts in a day again.

Posted by Blondie at 8:29 PM | Comments (1)

December 27, 2005

Knitting Woes

It appears that both my mother and I are incapable of learning to knit. My grandmother used to knit all the time-we all had multiple afgans and nordic style sweaters. She could probably still do it, even with her limited vision. She tried to teach my mother many times without any success. She tried to teach me when I was about 8, but I don't really remember much of it. Since knitting has become somewhat of a fad again this year, my mother bought me a book called "I Taught Myself to Knit", basically knitting for dummies. Apparently, I am a big dummy-I can't even get my attempts to even look like the diagrams in the book. Lesson One, Casting On, was mastered, but Lesson Two, The Knit Stitch, just ends up being a big mess. It looks like I might be registering in a knitting class because I am now determined to master it.

My running lately has been very boring. I'm the one doing it, and even I'm bored to write about it. At this point, every day in my log looks exactly the same. Same distance, same comments. If it's that boring for me, it must be really boring for other people to read about. Anyhow, today was the regular 7 mile loop without a watch. It wasn't as cold as it has been, above average temperatures! I didn't wear anything over my head, but probably should have at least had on an ear band because my ears looked red and raw when I got home. I felt really pretty good, an encouraging sign.

After running, I got on some dry clothes and went to the gym to lift. It was quite a bit more crowded than it normally is. I guess that between people starting early on their New Year Resolutions and having off from work, it will be more crowded. I did what I wanted to do and got out of there. I would like to get my arms slimmer and more defined next year, so that means working on them some more.

Posted by Blondie at 7:45 PM | Comments (1)

December 26, 2005

Not Doing Justice

Right now I'm so on the tired side that writing about the past two days won't really do them justice. So much has been going on with all the family obligations that there has been very little time to sit down and write. I won't bore anyone who reads this with all the dull details of Sunday morning

On Saturday night, I was the only one who was pooped, so I was the only one who actually went to bed on Saturday night. This resulted in me being the only one up early on Sunday morning. At 7:40, there were no signs of life, so I got dressed and went to run. This wasn't one of those great runs. In fact, it was pretty lousy. Rolling out of bed and heading out to run just isn't the route to a fantastic run. The last mile wasn't too bad, but the other six were really sad. Of course, it did give me free reign to eat as many Christmas cookies as my little heart desired.

This morning, I met up with R, J, and M to do an easy run. We did our usual Monday evening loop around the river. I hit the wrong button on my watch, so I never started it. We ran so easy that it felt kind of uncomfortable, but still did the loop over two minutes faster than we usually do it in the dark. My stomach wasn't too happy-we ate dinner really late last night, so there wasn't enough digestion time for me. After the loop, we did four 200 striders on the track. The idea was to run them just around 6 minute pace so that it was within all of our ranges of pace(5K for some, 1/2 marathon for some) but not all out.

It was suprisingly warm this morning. It was raining when I woke up which would have made for a very unpleasant run since it wasn't overly warm. I was comfortable without my head being covered and considered taking my jacket off during parts of the run, but decided not to do it.

Time to write some thank you notes. Hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Posted by Blondie at 7:43 PM | Comments (0)

December 24, 2005

Christmas Eve

Taking yesterday off from work was very welcome. Trying to sleep in didn't work very well, but it was nice to not have any pressing matters to tend to with deadlines. I didn't really get moving until late morning, but lots of tasks that I needed to finish did get done. I cleaned out one of my closets, more out of necessity than out of the desire to clean. The bar had fallen out, so in order to get the bar back up, I had to clean everything. I got rid of shoes that I forgot that I had and got rid of old clothes that just never get worn. Some of the old shoes went to my grandmother (the flats, imagine a 91 year old woman with a walker wearing high heels!) the others I donated to a shelter. The old clothes will be going to the shelter as soon as I finish.

This morning was the annual Christmas Eve breakfast run. Since the holiday fell on a Saturday it meant that it was a "longer" run and earlier. There are always more people at this run than a regular Saturday morning run. The group that I was with did a variation on the museum loop. The pace fluctuated between faster and easier, but that was fine. We got back in 64 minutes but I had some crackpipe idea that I wanted to do about 70 minutes, so I went around the school to tack on a little bit. It was kind of chilly when we got started, upper 30s, but warmed up significantly by the time we finished. I was really sweaty because I had dressed to be comfortable when we started. By afternoon it would definitely be shorts weather, it's supposed to get into the 50s. I don't mind not having a white Christmas as long as it's warm!

Breakfast was smaller than it usually is, but it is always nice to go out for breakfast after a run. Even being prepared for tomorrow, there are always a few things left to do today. I had to get the wind for tomorrow night's dinner and while I was there, pick up the wine that I won in a race about seven months ago. We also forgot to get some water for my brother's girlfriend, so I picked that up while I was out. The tree isn't done yet and I need to make something for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Happy holidays!

Posted by Blondie at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)

December 22, 2005

Long Weekend

Can I just say how happy I am that we are taking both tomorrow and Monday off? Having worked in a school for the past four years spoiled me as far as all the vacations and days off. Of course, normal jobs don't follow the same schedule as my parents (as in hardly ever taking a day off-my dad'll probably go into the office on Sunday). There are a bunch of errands that need to be completed tomorrow so that Saturday can be a more relaxing day.

Tonight wasn't as cold as it has been, but it did not qualify as warm by any means. It was nice to not have quite so many layers on, but it was still a bit on the chilly side. Tonight was a track night but we did our other road loop. This loop runs through a really ritzy neighborhood, so it was fun to look at all of the decorations. We ran really easy, like three or four minutes slower than the last time we did this loop. I was reprimanded for running too fast on Monday night, but it felt good. The run was just over an hour, there were lots of interesting conversations, but I really wasn't in the talking mood so I just listened.

My plans for closer to 50 miles this week are thwarted by some other activities on Sunday morning. I kind of forgot that there were some other things to tend to this week. I will get something in, but probably not as much as I thought I would. We'll see, my brother will be home and will probably sleep pretty late so I could get a normal run in. It won't kill me if my mileage stays down for another week.

Posted by Blondie at 7:44 PM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2005

Just Call Me Scrooge

A few days ago, I came to the conclusion that I am ready to not hear any more Christmas songs until next year. The radio station that we have on at work plays all Christmas music, all the time since before Thanksgiving. The easy solution isn't really possible since I have no say on the radio station. Also, being low-woman on the totem pole gives me no say. Having it on so much makes it not so special anymore.

Today was another cold day, but that is probably to be expected from now until some time in April. After today there is a little more daylight every day, yay!! I was a little bit tired again, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. Tonight is the breaking point, the night that I take my medicine that will help me to sleep. When the lack of sleep starts to affect my daily life it is time to take it.

My run was pretty pleasant today. The loop doesn't feel as long as it did when I started to do it, probably because it doesn't feel new anymore. No watch again today, this is still supposed to be easy running. In a few weeks the seven mile loop will be a recovery run, but for now it is one of the main runs of the week. Right now my long run isn't really any longer than a regular everyday run.

After running I quickly got into dry clothes and headed over to the gym to lift. This new job is killing me on my schedule. The weight area was crowded and I was hungry, so I did what I needed to do and got the heck out of dodge. Lifting didn't feel easy at all, the same weight felt much more difficult than it usually does. I'm pretty sure that the gym is closed on Saturday, so I wanted to get my lifting in when I had the time.

Posted by Blondie at 8:21 PM | Comments (0)

December 20, 2005

So Tired

Today felt like those days at my old job where my eyelids gradually got heavier and heavier to the point of nearly falling asleep on the job. The first clue of tiredness should have been the thought when the alarm went off in the morning, "why is the alarm going off? I can sleep in on Sundays" followed by "huh, Sunday is Christmas". Getting out of bed was more of a struggle than usual and the shower didn't help too much in the waking up process. By two in the afternoon, my eyelids were getting droopy and it was hard to keep my head up.

I ended up heading out of work early because there wasn't really anything that I could do and my dad was at an all day seminar. The thought of taking a short nap did cross my mind, but I was afraid that I wouldn't get up to run and that it would make me too awake tonight to go to bed. I was freezing all day long; I don't know if it was because I was so tired or if it was just because I'm always so cold, but it was worse than usual today.

According to the news, it was 34 degrees when I headed out to run. The thermometer in my body did not agree with that, so I bundled up. I may have had on more than I needed, but I had been so cold and my feet were numb for the first half of the run. After the first half of it, my body warmed up and I started to get a second wind. The first two miles felt so bad that the idea of turning around and quitting was very tempting. Right around the time that I started to wake up and warm up, I saw a guy running in the other direction. He must have an internal thermometer more like Becky-he had on shorts and long sleeves with no hat or gloves! I, on the other hand, had on thick lined tights, a long sleeve, a fleece, a jacket, hat and gloves. I didn't wear my watch-I was too tired to care and it is still supposed to be very easy running. The usual 7 mile loop at whatever pace will suffice for now.

The tree is still not finished. We have found the missing ornaments and my special ornaments are taking the prime spots on the tree. Hopefully we have it finished before Sunday morning!

Posted by Blondie at 7:18 PM | Comments (1)

December 19, 2005

Quick Update

Time has slipped away tonight. It's amazing how much time doing a simple errand with my father can take up. Of course, he has no sense in the mall and needed some direction. Buying one gift took us much longer than needed, but it also involved me having to lie in order to get out of the house without suspicion.

It seemed to get significantly colder throughout the day today. Going out this morning it wasn't too bad, at lunch time it was a little bit brisk, but by tonight it had gotten to be downright cold. The group was a bit bigger tonight than it has been for the past few weeks. Somebody (not me) started us out pretty quickly on the way down to the river. The problem is once I get warmed up, that pace is easy and I'll start to get going. The loop was in much better condition than it was last week, in other words, not covered in ice. It turns out that I was running way too fast, I got back about five minutes faster than we have been averaging on this loop. I did a mile on the track when we got back-the first two laps with striders on the straightaways and very easy curves and the second two laps just jogging. That mile was just over 7 minutes, so the miles leading into it must have been pretty quick.

We didn't get any tree decorating done last night, so it needs to get started now. Since my brother isn't home, his special ornaments don't get the prime real estate that they always get. My special ornaments will get those spaces since they always get relegated by his.

Posted by Blondie at 9:16 PM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2005

Revisiting an Old (Bad) Habit

A few years ago, I had a ritual of doing a long run and then weighing myself after getting back and using the bathroom. This routine kind of spiraled out of control and the ultimate goal was to be as light as possible. This realization took a while, but the ultimate "cure", if you'll call it that, was to banish myself from weighing myself. This ban went so far as that I would not let the nurse at the doctor's office weigh me. By sight it was pretty clear that I was not obese, so I didn't want to know what the number was. Anyhow, I have not set foot on a scale in about three years, until last week. The test was basically if the skinny jeans fit or not; the number on the scale didn't matter. Last weekend, curiousity got the best of me...I weighed myself. The number wasn't too bad, my clothes fit, so why did I do it? I don't know, then I did it again yesterday. The happiness of the number being lower was too much. I am bringing this up because it is something that most distance runners encounter at some point. Being older and wiser (that is debatable), I now know what a good weight is.

Waking up this morning was not easy, I was pooped. After getting out of bed, laying on the couch and reading the Sunday paper seemed to be the most inviting thing to do. After doing that for about an hour, the thoughts of going to run started to seem more appealing. A call to the weatherline gave me some wardrobe guidance and then I made the decision that it would be a good idea to run off the roads today.

I drove over to the G trail and noticed that there weren't any other cars in the small parking area. This probably should have been a clue, but no. The start of the trail was clear, then a spot about 300 meters in that doesn't really get any sun was covered in ice. OK, remember that for the way back. Maybe another 300 up, it is all covered in ice. Hmmm, running on uneven ground covered in ice? Probably not a good idea. Turn around, drive home. The agenda for today was only 40 minutes of easy running, so I got home and did my short morning run loop. I felt surprisingly good, the loop was much faster than it used to be in the morning. Of course, anything is faster than running before 5 AM.

This week brought me back to 40 miles for the week. Next week I hope to hit close to 50 and hold that for a few weeks before starting to build up for the spring. I've picked a few races for next year, but right now I'm thinking more about times that I would like to run. There are a few races that are definite without necessarily time goals, but place goals. The year is long and things can change, but looking to the future makes going out the door so much easier right now.

Posted by Blondie at 6:56 PM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2005

Awkward

Last night had to be one of the more awkward nights of my life recently. For an end of treatment/birthday gift, one of my mother's friends said that she was going to take her out. Last night was that night-they went to dinner and to see a performance of The Nutcracker. They had also been invited to a cocktail party that friends were having...my dad didn't want to go alone and my mom said that he had to go and make an appearance. To make a long story short, most of the night we ended up being introduced as X and his girlfriend, X. Hopefully nobody got the wrong idea, I kept going, no his daughter.

This morning was not nearly as cold as it has been recently. It was still too cold for my taste, but pretty much anything under 50 degrees is too cold! Two pairs of tights weren't necessary today, but it was cold enough for three long sleeve shirts (no fleece or jacket though). There was a decent sized group for our run, but early on we were all too chilly to have good conversation going. The pace felt pretty quick early, but I'm never a really good judge about that. There were too many reasons that it could have felt fast-tired, didn't eat enough last night, glass of wine last night-that I didn't mention it at all. It turns out that one of the guys running with us probably had slowed down for him, but it was still faster than we usually run. He turned off after about 30 minutes or so to head back for another obligation, but that was when the hills started. The hills wiped me out. First off, I suck on hills. Secondly, the hills were pretty brutal. The guy who I was running with even stopped, walked for a second, and said that it was a brutal series of hills. Finally, the hills all came at the end of the run. We've done this course before under an hour, but usually in the 59-and change area, today it was the 56-and change area. We ran around the parking lot to make it an hour long run.

Going to the gym consisted of the regular Saturday morning routine. Riding the bike for half an hour seemed endless. Although I have good cycling shorts, my seat area wasn't used to being on a bike again on Thursday night, so it was not a comfortable half hour. After about half an hour, I need to get out of the weight area. It is not an enjoyable activity, but I have noticed that it isn't as bad if it isn't after a run.

Our Christmas tree is going up tonight, so the decorating process needs to start. My brother won't be home until next weekend and he needs to put up some of his special ornaments, so the entire process won't be done for another week. We have an insane amount of ornaments and we can't throw any away, so it takes a long time. There are certain ones that are relegated to the back of the tree because they are so ugly that they are forbidden from being seen. Some ornaments have a story to go with them that needs to be told every year to the new person (this year: brother's girlfriend). After the ornaments go up, the bows need to be put on the tree. All of this work for something that is only up for a few weeks. We do have a family friend who keeps her tree up all year (artificial, of course) and has for at least 20 years! Doing that makes it not special, so we can't do that.

Posted by Blondie at 5:08 PM | Comments (1)

December 16, 2005

Gaming

So, since today is a boring day, both as far as running (none) and work (nothing I'm capable of doing), it is a day to participate in the newest blogging craze. Coming up with five random facts about myself is pretty tough, I'm a really boring person. Anyhow, here it goes:

1. If there was one thing I could change about myself it is my height. It just seems that life is generally easier for people who are on the taller side of average than the average side of average.

2. The entire pregnancy/childbirth/parenting thing is terrifying to me. There have been enough friends of mine who had difficulty conceiving and have had difficult deliveries that make that part scary, but the scariest part is having to take care of another human being for the rest of its life. In good conscience, I could not let go at 18 and let him or her fend for him/herself-my parents didn't do that to me and I could never do that to my own child.

3. I love cars. It isn't a girly thing to like, but I like cars and like cars with powerful engines. I drive like an old woman, but you better be sure that the engine in my car is capable of really going.

4. The only bones I have ever broken have been while swimming. Yes, swimming. Two broken fingers. The ring finger on each hand. Swimming is supposed to be a nice, non-impact sport, but I somehow have had my worst injuries doing it. One healed very nicely becuase the hand specialist fixed it, the other is very crooked because the college trainers buddy taped it. I may be one of the only people out there to have broken two bones while swimming laps.

5. I have seven pierced holes on my body-three sets in each ear and a navel ring. My college rebelliousness was to get things pierced. As far as rebellion goes, it was pretty tame. I don't wear earrings in the third hole anymore and it does hurt to try to push something through the hole, but it is still there. Most people don't know about the navel ring at all, I never wear things that show it. In fact, when it is hot in the summer and I'm forced to run in just a sports bra one of the new people in at the track will always comment that they would never picture me having a navel ring.

Wow, that was a lot tougher than I would have thought it would be. Happy weekend all!

Posted by Blondie at 2:52 PM | Comments (1)

December 15, 2005

Stupid Move

Yet another winter storm was forecast to move through here this afternoon into tonight. After the last two storms that were over-forecast, the call for this storm was for little to no accumulation. Of course, the snow/ice is still on the ground from the storm last week. Since the forecast is for next to nothing, I expect it to be the exact opposite. Throughout the afternoon it was flurrying off and on. By late afternoon it was more on than off.

Today is normally a night to go to the track, but I had promised one of the guys that I run with that I would go to a Spin class some Thursday. Given the forecast, today looked like it would be a good day to do that instead. If I didn't run some today, it would be two days off in a row, not something I wanted to do, so I brought running clothes with me as well. When I went out to run, the roads were really bad. There were several areas that were more icy than snowy. It was more of a freezing rain than snow when I was running, definitely not conditions that I enjoy. I found that if I stayed over to the sides of the road that had not been driven over, it was more snow and not as slick. I had to run about a mile longer than I planned because I took a major road home because it was not icy. I ended up with just under 5 miles instead of around 4.

I went to the early Spin class, but I was actually supposed to go to the later Spin class. It didn't really matter because the person I promised wasn't there to do his duty anyway. Walking into the gym I almost fell on ice, so I had no intentions of staying any later than necessary. The class wasn't bad. I think that this was the first Spin class that I've been to in about a year, but I can fake being able to ride for an hour on a bike that doesn't move. Most of my problems are from the fear of actually falling off my bike or getting hit by a car. The bike isn't moving and there are no cars, so I can spin like a champ. The class was OK, I've had much better instructors, she just didn't get into it as much as some. It was safer and a nice change of pace.

Hope that everyone who is in the path of this storm stays safe.

Posted by Blondie at 7:34 PM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2005

Cold and Dark

Last night and this morning, I learned a bit more about L, my grandmother's boyfriend. He would have been 92 in April. His wife died in 1988, but I thought that I remembered him coming around before that, but I could very easily be wrong. His only child, a daughter, has been in town becuase the home where he lived had called her to let her know that his health was failing. She actually came into our office today, so I did meet her. My grandmother is pretty upset, practically all of her peers have passed away and she feels like she is the only one left.

Also while reading the paper this morning, I noticed that one of the former students from where the school where I used to work was convicted of murder along with many other charges. He did it while I still worked there and calling him a student is a stretch-he never came to school and when he was there he was a disruption. My dad said something to me along the lines of "I'm glad you don't work there any more, I was afraid that something would happen to you".

I did a longer, well really regular, run today. There was no other description than cold. I bundled up in layers, but still suffered from the cold. My toes were numb when I had to stop at the two mile mark to cross a major road. I did get pretty tired about two-thirds of the way through. I think that I might run faster than normal when it is cold out to try to get warm. It seemed to be darker than normal when I got done, but I could be wrong. It took forever to cross the last road that I need to cross to get home. It really sucked-I had about a third of a mile to go and there is no other way to go than to get accross this road, so I had to stand and wait.

I was having some serious issues with the tights that I had on, I don't know what I was thinking when I bought them. First of all, they are tights-I thought that they were my preferred loose fit pants becuase there are zippers on the bottom of the legs. I hate to wear tights, I don't like my butt exposed. Second, I must not have checked the size. These things are tiny. Again, I also thought that they were looser fitting, so the smaller size isn't that big of deal, but I can barely get these things up. Finally, I just thought that they were thicker.

Now I need to work on the laundry that has been accumulating. This is part of the reason that I had to resort to those awful tights today. All of the good tights are dirty.

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

December 13, 2005

Stubborn

If I did things the way that someone wants me to, I would not have run today. In an ideal world, if I weren't so stubborn, J would like me to take two weeks completely off from running. We had come up with a compromise that I would just run the days that the group gets together to run for most of December. The rationale is that your body can not simply keep improving without some rest. This does make some sense, but I feel so lazy when I don't do anything, that I prefer to take a few weeks of short easy running instead of real training.

Anyhow, I decided that I would do some short runs this week. Today was one of those runs. It was the first time that I have run from my house since the snow. Most of the roads were fine, except for the development directly accross the street from me. I think that my run ended up being about five miles, it was my morning loop with a little extra bit tacked on to it. My legs felt quite peppy, perhaps because I haven't really been running that much. It was the coldest day so far of the season, but I was a little bit on the warm side! Of course, my head was nice and covered with two hats and an ear warmer, so no heat was escaping!

If all else fails and this winter is terrible, I have learned that I am capable of running on a treadmill after the test that I did in the summer and fall. This is what I was helping out with. Too bad I don't have the same stomach as the model they have!

We got some sad news today. My grandmother's "boyfriend" passed away this morning. I don't know what you can really call him, they sort of went on dates before they each moved into nursing homes in the last three years. They have known each other since they were in high school, married other people and were both widowed. Sometime as adults they became reacquainted and dated. He was a really nice man and we pretty much took him in as our family since his only child had moved to Florida. There won't be a memorial until spring, but we aren't sure why. From what I understand, my grandmother was pretty upset, but I wasn't there when my mom told her. He did live a long life, he was 91 or 92 years old, but it is still sad.

Posted by Blondie at 7:50 PM | Comments (1)

December 12, 2005

Getting Old

Even in my younger days, I never really stayed up late or stayed out late all that often. Every once in a while, yes, but for the most part, no. My roommate in college and I were both in bed by 10:00 most nights, probably among the few college students who did that on a regular basis. Staying out late usually would force me to sleep in the next day, but that was all that ever really came of it.

My, how things have changed. Saturday night was our track Christmas party. Most years I am home from this party by midnight. Imagine my surprise when I got in my car and saw that it was nearly 2 AM when I left! As I have gotten older, when I stay out late like that, I tend to wake up earlier because I know that I am just going to mess up my system even more by waking up late. I was up between 7:15 and 7:30 and just felt like I had been run over by a Mack truck. Now I had been up since 6 that morning, to a baby shower, and then on my feet all night-but late nights never used to affect me so much.

Yesterday was another planned day off, but the thought of running had been sneaking into the back of my mind. I did not give in and run. In fact, I'm ashamed to admit this, I never even made it outside the house at all yesterday. Taking all of these days off is difficult, but they do serve their puprose. This week is still another low key week, but now my mind is getting back to wanting to run and coming up with goals.

This evening we did one of our loops around the river. We had a really small group, only five of us. The path that leads down to the river is a very steep downhill that is never out in the sun, so it was very icy. There were a few other areas along the loop that are never in the sun, so they were icy as well. All of that ice and being dark did not make for a very easy run. I did wear my headlamp, so I looked like a big dork. It didn't help very much because the battery in it is dying. By the end of the run it was nearly dead and only being a pain by adding extra weight on my head.

Speaking of batteries dying...the battery for the remote key to my car seems to have died. It didn't work for a little bit on Saturday, but I attributed that to it being out in the cold for so long. It started to work after it warmed back up, so I decided that it must be close to dying. It worked during the day today, but when I left the track it only opened the passenger door and then didn't unlock the rest of the locks. When I got home it didn't lock the car. Now I have to figure out how to reset it. Audrey, have you had to do this?

Posted by Blondie at 7:55 PM | Comments (1)

December 10, 2005

I'll Never Believe the Forecast Again!

It did snow here, but it was definitely not the massive storm that had been predicted. There was enough snow to make things a bit messy yesterday morning, but it wasn't that bad. They did close all of the schools, although they probably would have been fine with a delay. Now that I don't get snow days with my job, I don't wish for the snow anymore. The main problem was, as is common in the mid-Atlantic, we got snow and then it turned to rain. This makes it messier and then it all freezes and we get the real problem-ice.

It was closer to bitter this morning than to cold. I don't know what I'm going to do if this trend continues, because I truly struggle in the cold weather. Part of the problem right now is that just ten days ago it was nearly 70. Anyhow, it was apparently either 17 or 19 this morning when we started. I know that I have run in the single digits, but I look like a marshmallow with how many layers I have on. This morning wasn't too bad-thin tights with GoreTex tights over top, a long sleeve, a fleece, a GoreTex jacket, gloves with socks over top as mittens and a hat. My toes were numb the entire time and so was my face.

We did another one of our museum loops this morning that was a little bit longer than last week. The paths aren't plowed, I think that they are shoveled. Most of the paths weren't too bad, but the last path we took is in the shade and was a sheet of ice. As if it isn't hard enough to run up a hill, to do it while sliding backwards on ice only makes it that much easier. We also ran up a hill that was covered in snow/ice. It had some kind of crunchy stuff on top, I barely made it up that hill because I'm so timid running on the ice and snow. The nice thing about de-shaping is running with the rest of the group and chatting the whole time. The other nice thing is that with the change to winter at the moment, I don't feel like running nearly as much so it's nice to break it up. We ran around 9 miles, probably just over, and it was just a nice run.

I headed over to the gym after the run. I didn't have as much time as usual, so I rode the bike for 20 minutes to thaw out and then lifted. I'm trying to be better about lifting. I know that I usually do it, but I hate it so much that I tend to slack off on it. My new theory is to give myself 30 minutes and try to do it for just that half hour. When I'm done, I'm done.

This afternoon I have to go to a baby shower for a girl who I used to run with quite a bit. She had a hard time conceiving and her pregnancy has not been the easiest. Obviously, she is not running right now. I hope her the best. After that, I need to pick up presents for our club Christmas party tonight. This is not a relaxing day whatsoever.

Gotta go and shower!

Posted by Blondie at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

December 8, 2005

Catching Up

It seems that when I am not running, my life is about a thousand times busier than when I have to find the time to fit in a run. I'm sure that this time of year does not help matters at all. My week "off" has been busy and, as always, teaches me to appreciate running. The business is probably directly correlated to using this week to take care of other matters that had not been completed.

Monday night's "signficant" snow was a dud. Sure, there was snow, but it didn't put a crimp into our lives as predicted. It was the kind of snowfall where it didn't stick to the roads at all, just on the grass. There was enough on the grass and trees that it was pretty to look at, but not a problem for driving. The forecast is for another large storm tonight. Since we are prepping for it, it means that it won't snow at all!

On Tuesday I did no activity at all. While trying to make glaze to ice cookies, I jammed my little finger between the bowl and mixer. We have one of those really scary, big KitchenAid stand mixers. At first I thought it was broken, but I think that it is just kind of sprained. It still hurts a little, but isn't black and blue and swollen like my other broken fingers have been. I can bend it without a lot of pain, just a little bit. I did get those cookies iced though!

Last night, I went to yoga for the first time in months. The evening class fills up so fast and I was running late. Some other guy was running even later and put his mat well into my space. I couldn't do anything without hitting him. My flexibility wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I could still touch the ground.

Today I ran!! We had a small group again, but we did have good conversations. We ran for just over 54 minutes in a really ritzy neighborhood. One of the biggest houses is completely lit up with all of the trees covered thoroughly in lights. These people must pay groundskeepers to put the lights up because it is so completely lit that it would take a week to get the lights up. It was definitely cold, my layers are starting to come out now!

All right, I need to finish doing cookies. I have to make truffles and bourbon balls and decorate all of my gingerbreadmen sometime before Saturday. All day Saturday is occupied with a shower, so I need to to it by tomorrow night.

Posted by Blondie at 7:54 PM | Comments (1)

December 5, 2005

Not Caring

Today was the start of my period of not really caring all that much about running. It isn't exactly what it sounds like. I'll still run some, but without this period, burnout is a certainty. It isn't that I enjoy taking this time off, but I have learned that without it, I get blah. Right now is also when I start to think about my goals for the next season. I have one, but it is too early to really think about it. I have been weighing the possibility of doing a marathon in the fall, but that is almost a full year out-first things first, I have to figure out the spring.

I did go up and run with the group tonight. We had a pretty small group, the weather probably scared some people away. It is supposed to snow quite a bit tonight, but it hadn't started by the time we started to run. I was running with D for a bit and chatting and we got way ahead of the rest of the group, so we doubled back to meet up with them. The pace was very relaxed, which made it feel more difficult than when D and I were running faster. During the last mile and a half, it started to snow more. We finished with some striders on the track. It felt really good to work on some turnover but not to stress about anything.

As we were leaving, J reminded me that if it's snowing, raining, or really cold to just take the day off. I'm not nearly as beat up as I was in July when I needed to take a week completely off from any kind of training, but I am coming off of higher mileage and an intense set of races. For the rest of the year, running is more of a social event for me-I'll run with other people and just relax. This week the only kind of cross training I'll do is yoga, well, I might lift one or two times, but nothing else.

The snow was starting to stick when I was driving home. This is supposed to be a pretty significant early storm by our standards-five to seven inches. Since my Dad's back went out on him earlier in the week, I'm more responsible for helping shovel. This is not a good thing since I have been walking a very fine line with my back for the past two weeks. It's been under control, but shoveling would put me over the edge.

Posted by Blondie at 7:48 PM | Comments (1)

December 4, 2005

Tis the Season

The race that I was considering doing ended up being a no-go for me. I woke up to grey fog and some stuff on the ground; a little snow, some rain. My body just felt tired, so I decided to have a productive day instead of doing a race. This race doesn't start until 1:00, so the weather did have a chance to improve. The problem was that it would kill the entire day-I'd have to leave around 11:00 and probably would not get back until about now. Taking into account how crappy my runs have felt, this would have been a waste of time and money.

My run in the morning was so-so. The ground was wet, but the temperatures were hovering around freezing so I had to be careful about black ice. I realize that the last three runs I have done have been in the morning, so it does make sense that none of them have felt that great. My mind and body are in need of a break, which is about to start. I don't think I'm going to do what I did back in July, a full 7 days without running. I think that I'm only going to run on the days the group gets together for at least a week. Running will be an entirely social thing for a week. This week, I probably won't even do intense cross training. Both my body and my spirit need to recharge and refresh.

Since I wasn't wasting my entire day at the race, I started to do my Christmas shopping. It wasn't going all that well initially. The sentimental part of the gift that I was going to purchase on behalf of the group for J isn't carried at our mall. They are supposed to call me to let me know if it is even possible to get it here by Friday tomorrow. I'm going to order my Dad's gift online tomorrow, a model replica of his beloved car to go along with his collection of models. I know part of my gift for my brother's girlfriend who will be spending Christmas with us but that store wasn't open today. The rest of her gift I haven't been able to find. My brother is done!! As for my Mom, no clue whatsoever. I guess that I do have a bit of a dent into it, or at least know what to get for everyone.

Hope that everyone has a great week!

Posted by Blondie at 5:24 PM | Comments (0)

December 3, 2005

Random Tidbits and Some Running

It was a very good idea to run Thursday morning, even if it was an awful run. My legs felt much better after it, but the bruise on my right calf yesterday morning was an indication of how deep the massage was. My friends used to always think that I went and had a nice, relaxing massage where the lights are dimmed, new age music plays, and incense is burning. My therapist has offered to turn on music, but says that it won't make it hurt any less. One of the first times they heard about the bruises and the elbow in the butt, they decided that my massages do not feel like fun. I drank tons of water, but with the amount of work she did, I probably needed more.

Thursday night I went out for drinks with some of the guys from the track. As I was leaving, I met someone who used to run with our group. This man is older, still runs some, and follows the local races. This was the first time he and I met. The first thing he said to me was "you're smaller than I thought you would be". OK, I guess that is a compliment. I don't think that I'm particulary short or tall. Everything is relative. I've been told that I'm a lot taller than people think, too...it all depends on who I'm with. One day J told me I was a lot taller than he realized. When you're the only girl who runs with a bunch of men who are all about 6 feet tall, I look short, but when I'm with the other women in our group, I tend to look tall.

Cookie baking has started. I make personalized gingerbread cookies for our Christmas party. The party is next weekend and next Saturday is a busy day, as in there is no time to work on them during the day. Luckily, gingerbread men freeze well. I made the dough last night and now I need to roll out the cookies and bake them today. I'll be decorating through out the week.

Yesterday I went to the gym after work, mainly out of guilt. I haven't been there in about three weeks between working and racing. During "race season" I pretty much lay off the weights. There really isn't any reason to lift when I'm trying to be rested to race well. I tried to get on the elliptical, but my heart really wasn't in it. The magazine selection was really pathetic and the only somewhat fluffy magazine was a shopping magazine. The fans were on and kept flipping the pages leading me to get off the thing and head over to the bikes. After riding a bike for about 35 minutes I did a little bit of lifting but was hungry so I went home and had dinner instead.

This morning was my first Saturday morning run with the group in nearly a month. It had been so long that I was having the shakes like a drug addict trying to get sober. It was pretty darn cold at 7 when we met, especially since it was nearly 70 on Monday and Tuesday. For some reason the colder it gets, the bigger our Saturday morning group is. This means that we had a pretty large group this morning. Nobody in our group is really running all that long now. It was one of the most enjoyable runs that we have had. We did our short museum loop. It gets us off the roads and there are lots of rolling hills in it. We pretty much stayed together as a group and stayed relaxed. The total run was an hour, but we stopped a few times to re-group.

I went back to the gym after running...twice in less than 24 hours! I managed to stay on an elliptical for a full half hour and then rode the bike for another half hour. I made sure to stretch, my hamstrings and butt have been really tight even after the massage. I lifted again because I can't really call what I did yesterday lifting. It felt good to get back onto the Saturday schedule.

Originally I had planned to race tomorrow to close out the season. At this point there is only about a 0.01% chance of racing. The forecast isn't too cold, but there is a chance of some kind of precipitation. It changes depending on what source you look at. One channel is saying snow/rain overnight tonight and stopping by morning. Others are saying the snow/rain is going to be tomorrow morning into afternoon. The last thing I feel like doing is racing in cold rain. My body is tired and it will be racing for four consecutive weekends. The race is a late race, so if I wake up and feel up to it, I may head up to it, but probably not. The season is pretty much done and I'm ready for a break.

Posted by Blondie at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)

December 1, 2005

Now I Remember

Today I remembered why I don't do my main run first thing in the morning-I feel like crap. It's OK to do my short, easy run first thing in the morning, but otherwise my body needs the time to warm up.

Since I had a massage scheduled in the middle of the day (the wonders of working for your parents, you can make that kind of appointment), I had to run before it. My massage therapist doesn't like me to run after she works on my legs because that is a workout in itself. I rolled out of bed around 6:30 and was on the road around 6:50. It was much colder than it was yesterday. Of course, I wished for tights yesterday afternoon, but with the wind chill it was supposed to feel like it was in the twenties.

My body felt asleep, which it probably was. I could hardly move. It was just one of those really sucky runs. The fact that I had a very good run just thirteen hours earlier probably did not help matters this morning. I find that running any slower than 7:30s is very uncomfortable, so I had to walk some. Something about running slower is more taxing on my system than running fast. I don't get it, but I know that it feels bad.

My massage was much needed. My calves were terrible, of course I did it to myself. My ITs were also a bit on the tight side, but all of the racing I did kind of got me tight. Anyhow, this is going to be a mini-vacation from running...tomorrow is off, so it's kind of like taking two full days off even though I'll still get 6 days of running in this week.

Posted by Blondie at 3:52 PM | Comments (10)