The Long Run

« December 2005 | Main | February 2006 »

January 31, 2006

Moving on to Phase 2

This week marks the official move to the second phase of spring training. My long run has steadily been growing and is now at a true long run. Although, this past weekend was not the weekend that was supposed to happen. We've moved back onto the track, even if it isn't real speed work. We're working on strength based speed. We'll also start the hill training this week. All of this means, that I get to do doubles a few days a week. For the most part, I enjoy doing doubles. Last spring they were particularly difficult for two reasons: it was the first time I ever did doubles and I had to be on the road by 5 AM. Lack of sleep became a major factor as the spring went on and the doubles had to be cut out a few weeks earlier than planned. Now that I don't have to be at work so early, I can do the morning run at a more reasonable hour.

This morning run was...well, I got out the door. Given everything that has been on my mind, I have not been sleeping as well as usual. I was up and decided to set the alarm for ten minutes later to get some more time in bed. When it was time to get up, into the bathroom I went to brush my teeth and put in my contacts. Back out I went, put on what I thought were appropriate clothes and shoes and out the door I was. The run went as well as any run can go when the person running has not been up for even ten minutes by the time they start to run. It turns out it was warmer than I thought this morning, so I was pretty sweaty. My legs felt creaky and crunchy. I did my old morning out and back course. I have an extension on it, but used my better judgment and stuck to four miles. The extra sleep was much more important and it would be stupid to start it longer than needed. I never ever wear my watch on these runs because it would be so discouraging to have it on. The point of these morning runs isn't to break any speed records, it's to get some more easy mileage in.

This afternoon was colder and windier than this morning. Keeping in the theme of moderation, I didn't add an extra mile onto the loop. Besides, I haven't figured out how to turn my eight mile loop into a safe nine mile loop. It didn't make sense to add a morning run and add distance to the afternoon run in one day. I was surprised at how windy it was, there were many points where I was cursing the wind. In all, I felt pretty good. My ankle wasn't bothering me. I've determined that the New Balance shoes I have aggravate whatever the problem is. I haven't worn them in a few days and it has felt better.

After my run I went to the gym where it was packed. The resolutioners are still going faithfully. Some man told me that he keeps staring at me because I look exactly like his best friend's daughter. It turns out that she was a runner as well, so that might have something to do with it. I've gotten better at balancing on the BOSU ball, I can do it for about five seconds before starting to tip over.

Dallen asked if he missed an announcement about a race. I am going to run in a race this weekend, although the plan is not to actually race it. It's a half-marathon, not in this country. I don't know a whole lot about it; hardly anything about the course. I'm really going for the experience and to enjoy it, not to race it. Given the fact that I only have four weeks of base mileage, racing could be very ugly. I have an ability to race beyond the shape I'm in if I really want to, but it has bad after effects that I don't want to deal with in another country. I will write more about it when it's over.

Posted by Blondie at 08:33 PM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2006

Spoiled

All of us here on the East Coast have been spoiled so far this year. This is the warmest January I can ever remember. If I really thought about looking in my log book, there would probably be more days with a note of wearing shorts than wearing tights. It has been so common that I don't even note it any more, usually in the winter it is a rare occurence to wear shorts. This is by no means complaining, cold and I do not get along. The thing that really worries me is that March could be bitter cold, but at least then there is a light at the end of the tunnel. All of this having been said, it was warm again today.

I was (incorrectly) under the impression that I was going to add another 800 onto the workout from last week tonight. My thought was that I was going to be doing 6 x 800, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out when I got to the track that I was only doing 5. The workout went by much faster when there was less of it than I was prepared to do. We had a decent sized group to take turns with tonight. Before the workout we were given the lecture that most of us can do 800s faster than the pace we were supposed to be aiming for, but that was not the point. We were also reminded that we were supposed to work on learning how to run that pace at a more relaxed effort. My group did things right, while others did not. We hit our first 4 like clockwork in 3:08. The last one was 3:03, my theory is the last one is always fastest since the rest of the group isn't around to chat with. What we've found is that if we can talk some the effort is right, if we can't talk it's too fast and if we're too chatty it's too slow. I feel that I could easily do this workout quite a bit faster, but it is still base building, so I'm not going to sweat it too much.

This was my last night at the track for at least a week since I'll be travelling. It's kind of weird, I'm the one who is always there. I'll miss it quite a bit. I should start to pack tonight. The big question is should I pack a pair of racing flats or not? If I bring them I'll want to wear them. If I wear flats, I'll probably start to race. If I start to race, well, things could get ugly. I'd probably end up doing something that I'm not ready for yet. If I don't, well, I haven't run a race in trainers in a long time. I'd probably end up treating it more like a training run than a race. I still have a few days to ponder this. My lightweight trainers still aren't broken in enough to consider wearing them for that long. There's still three days left to decide...

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

January 29, 2006

Lacking Good Judgment

Days like yesterday show how much I can be swayed into doing things that might not be in my best interest. I won't go so far as to say what I did was stupid, but there was no good reason for doing it, either. It wasn't even so much giving into peer pressure since it was originally my idea, although I never voiced it to anyone-I just went along with what someone else wanted to do.

Since we run quite early in the morning, it was still on the cool side when we got started yesterday. The day ended up being really warm, but it was still in the low 30s when we left and didn't get much warmer while we were out. Initially it looked like there weren't going to be many people, but about half the group pulled into the parking lot at 6:59. Most of the group was doing an 80 minute loop, but I knew that I was supposed to jump up mileage this week and J, my triathlete training partner, wanted to go longer. He suggested a loop that he and I did once last spring that is quite a bit longer. We don't know exactly how long this route it because we do it so infrequently. In a way, I like that because there is no way to race your previous outings on it if you don't do it that often. I was kind of surprised that he wanted to do this loop because when we did it last year he had a really ba day. Our loop was the same as the other loop for the first five miles or so, but we had all broken into different groups by that point.

I tried to go to the bathroom before leaving, but sometimes things don't happen when you want them to. As soon as we started to run, the sensation came. The past few weeks this has happened on Saturday mornings, only to fade as the run goes on. Yesterday it faded for a while, but after a while it came back and was not going to fade at all. We were running along a road that is in the middle of nowhere that you would think there would be a place to hide, but it was all out in the open because the trees were so bare. Finally, I saw a spot that was a little bit hidden, so I went in there and J continued up the road. Just my luck, I had to climb through sticker bushes to get to my hiding spot, but there was no way that I could have continued on this run without a pit stop.

I wanted to map this loop yesterday, but the mapping system doesn't seem to work on our home computer. It probably has something to do with a seriously slow dial-up connection. This afternoon I tried to do it from the office computer and wanted to see the elevation profile on it, but the elevation tracking wasn't working for some reason. According to that it was about 15.5 miles.

Poor J was having a bad day again yesterday. We were coming up the last hill when an eighteen wheeler came by us and the next thing I knew he was walking. I don't think that he'll ever want to do this course again. We decided that even if it is shorter than our traditional long run, it is much tougher so it beats your body up more.

After running I went to the gym and rode the bike for 45 minutes. When I got off, my legs didn't feel refreshed at all. I stretched some, but it didn't really help that much. I know what this means, but didn't feel like stopping on the way home. Lifting was the same as always.

This morning, my legs told me that I was stupid yesterday. Why did I jump up to nearly 16 hilly miles when my longest run this season was barely 13? Stupid, pure stupidity. An ice bath yesteray would have helped, but I was too lazy to go to the store on the way home. My run was pathetic. I did my usual Sunday trail run, slower than normal. Now I have a game on Sunday to try to keep my heart rate as low as possible. Always competetive in some way.

It was warmer this morning, but not hot. It started to drizzle for a little bit while I was out. If it had really started to rain I would have been one very unhappy person. It was only about 45 degrees and I was wearing shorts. If I'd gotten soaked, I would have been freezing and very grumpy about it. After about ten minutes the drizzle stopped, so it was bearable. I did the loop about a minute and a half slower than normal, with my heart rate average at 143. This really means nothing since it was all over the place for the first fifteen minutes. The only thing it really means is that it was an easy run, as it was supposed to be.

Today I did stop to buy ice on the way home. Our water is significantly colder coming out of the pipes in the winter. It was so cold that I had to add some hot water to the cold water to even get into the tub before adding the ice. In the summer I can hop right in without a problem, not so today. Once the ice was in, it hardly melted in the ten minutes that I soaked. Once I got out, I was freezing, walking around the house bundled up and in a hat. Yes, I looked like an idiot, but I felt better.

I have about six loads of laundry to put away so that I can pack. The stupid run on Saturday gives me some confidence that I can run a hilly half marathon next Sunday. I realize that it takes ten days or so for a workout to actually affect your fitness, but it gives me a mental boost to know that I can cover that much ground at a good clip. As J put it, on Saturday I was dialed in. The main agenda is to give a good, decent effort. The last thing I want to do is get sick to my stomach in a different country, in somebody else's house. It's one thing to be at home, but another to be a burden to other people. Also, it is a long flight home the next day that could be very ugly if my stomach acts the way it can after long races.

At some point in the next few weeks, I want to update the scrapbook I have from my races. A few years ago I was so good about keeping it up. Now there are just newspaper clippings all over the place. At the Christmas party I was inspired by the scrapbook that J's mother kept for him. It could be a massive undertaking to put it together, but it should be worth the effort.

Well, I think that I have written enough for one day. I need to finish my log for the week to see where I am and then work on those other things, like cleaning.

Posted by Blondie at 07:02 PM | Comments (2)

January 27, 2006

Yesterday

Last night was winterlike once again. In the grand scheme of things, it would have been a relatively mild January evening, if it this January had been a normal January. There is something wrong with wearing shorts more days than wearing tights in the dead of winter. It also makes me worry that March and April could be pretty awful.

Last night was our last night of doing pick-ups on the four mile loop. I begged and pleaded to start doing hills this week, but was told that it was too much change to start doing two real workouts in one week. Whatever. The group was really small and we ended up breaking into three smaller groups doing the pick-ups. This week felt the easiest and was the fastest of each week. It was just this guy, A, and I in my group. It might have been easier feeling because I had more control. The control is the factor that makes me hate that workout so much. That and we've been running this loop every Thursday since the beginning of Decemeber. I can run the same loop from home on an almost daily basis and not hate it the way I do with this loop.

My massage this morning was much needed. The laundry list of really tight spots included both calves, right IT, and piriformis on both sides. Everything else was tight, but those areas were particularly painful. She worked on both feet and also on my right ankle. I just did something that made it crack, which made it feel better. Probably not the healthiest thing to do, but it does feel good.

I've been checking the weather for my trip on a regular basis now that I know how to find it. As of now, it looks like it is going to be 40 degrees and raining for the race. Yuck. I'm a bit scared that there won't be central heating as well and that I'm going to freeze. It's still ten days out, so a lot can change between now and then.

I've been hungry all day, so I'm looking forward to going home and making something for dinner. It seems to be a Friday thing. I know that it is the case today because my schedule was thrown off last night by our dessert party. Who can resist eating tons of desserts? Dinner just wasn't appetizing with desserts around.

Posted by Blondie at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2006

Disappointed

In my mailbox this afternoon was the latest issue of Running Times. One of the featured articles on the cover had me excited, that it could help me. After a brief skimming of the article, it was pretty clear that it wasn't what I thought it was going to be about. So far, I haven't had the time to actually read any of the articles, I'll do that soon enough though. Saying that I'm disappointed is like judging a book by it's cover, it's too early to tell.

This January has had the strangest weather of any January in my memory. It seems like I've worn shorts more days than I have worn tights. Since it has been so warm, the days when it is colder seem even colder than they actually are. Further compounding the cold on the colder days is the wind. Today was so windy that I was getting knocked around. The temperature was just cold enough that having those strong winds made it feel really cold. So far the forecast shows tomorrow to be like today and then guess what? Warm again.

Being the stubborn person that I am, I wore my heart rate monitor today. The past few windy days I discovered that running into the wind, no matter how easy it is, causes my heart rate to spike. I've been wearing it on Wednesdays and Sundays in order to make sure my easy days are truly easy. Instead of judging by effort, I went by what the monitor was reading. This was misleading most of the time, because any time I was running into the wind it made my heart rate go way up, even if I wasn't actually moving forward. I got in seven very slow miles, with an average heart rate of 135. On a normal day, that run would have been about two minutes faster than it was. It was actually kind of hard to run that pace because the wind was so strong.

I have to do some Internet research here to prove my mother wrong. I better be right. It's a $40 difference in what I owe her if she's right. If I'm right, it'll cost me $14, if I'm wrong it'll cost me $53. I better be right!

Posted by Blondie at 07:37 PM | Comments (1)

January 24, 2006

"It's Just Like Any Other Car"

Those were my father's words to me this morning to try to comfort me into driving his new car to work. He wanted to get more pictures of his new car with his old car before the weekend when the guy who bought the old car comes to get it. The thing is, he's driven fast cars all of his life and says that this car is so fast that it scares him. By the way, he followed up his previous statement with, "any other car that has 400 horsepower". One final note, this car is very low to the ground and there is absolutely no graceful way to get out of it wearing a skirt.

I've determined that my feet must be shaped oddly. The shoes I wore today were plenty big, but I still had issues with the tops of my toes rubbing along the top of the shoe. It was really kind of painful since there are already open blisters along my toes. My toes must bend funny or something, because it seems to happen in almost every pair of shoes. On another foot note, there is a part of my foot that has been sort of troublesome lately. It's kind of my ankle, but kind of my foot. It doesn't hurt when I'm running, only after. It is sore when I poke at it, but not shooting pain kind of hurt. The easy answer would be to stop poking it, but all runners seem to like to poke and prod their troublesome areas. Hopefully my massage on Friday will help it some.

So, I had a really good run today. J called me this morning to see how I felt after the workout. Since I hadn't run yet, of course I felt fine. He asked how hard the workout last night seemed even though he knew the answer. Given how I felt this afternoon, the workout was really easy. It was the kind of weather that no matter what I had on, it would have been the wrong thing. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't warm either. I opted for shorts, but my legs were freezing the entire time. My hands were warm because I overcompensated everywhere else. The start button on my watch need to be hit very solidly, because it did not start yet again today. This was discovered just before the two mile mark when I have to cross a busy road. At this point, I started my watch and ran the last 10K or so of my course in 40:50, so I was definitely cruising. It didn't feel hard and Tuesday is supposed to be a harder effort day.

After running I went over to the gym. The resolutioners are still coming so it was really crowded. I lifted for about 20 minutes, but didn't take any real down time between exercises. As long as I can find something that I do that is open, it doesn't bother me too much. The ten pound dumbbells that I was using felt heavier than normal, so maybe I'll be sore tomorrow. After doing weights, I worked on balance on the BOSU ball. Some days are better than others. Today was not one of the better days. Hopefully doing this two or three times a week will help with the problematic ankle.

I just got some info about my trip that I need to decipher. I'm getting really excited...

Posted by Blondie at 08:06 PM | Comments (3)

January 23, 2006

Back on Track

My relationship with the track is a strange one. Way back in high school, I hated track. Doing track workouts and races made me nervous. People could watch me. Basically, my coach could see me and tell when I would slack off. Now...I really like track. Something about doing track workouts makes me feel in shape.

I was upset this morning when it was pouring. Running in the rain is OK, but doing workouts is not. It's too easy for me to fall when I run fast in the rain, so I don't like to do workouts in the rain. I was very pleased to notice that the rain cleared out in the late afternoon. Today was colder than it has been, but still extremely mild for January.

The idea of our season is that we just finished phase one and are moving into phase two. We're supposed to be working on base speed and everything is supposed to feel comfortable. Our workout was supposed to be Yasso style 800s. I don't know if they actually work the way they are supposed to, but the idea for us is that the pace of what kind of marathon time we think we can run should not be too taxing. It was kind of difficult for me because we really have no idea what kind of marathon time I should run, so we've assigned mine to 3:05 to 3:10. We had a group of five of us that were aiming for that time.

The workout was supposed to be four of the 800s with a one lap jog, but I found out about a hundred meters into the first one that I was doing five. Each of us took a turn leading an 800, so the pace was all over the place. The times ranged from 3:04 to 3:14. Early on we were kind of all over the place since none of us have been on the track in two months. M graciously said that he would run the fifth 800 with me. We sort of messed that one up and did a 3:01, but it was comfortable. There was a lot of talking going on during the 800s, so we weren't running over our heads.

It felt really good to do a workout again. It wasn't a workout that was spectacular, but it was good enough for January. It does give me some confidence for things to come. I do know that I need to get a massage. Every time I go on a training break I get out of the massage habit. It's been over six weeks since I've been in for one and my body is yelling at me for not having it worked on.

Posted by Blondie at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2006

Dog Encounters

A huge, enormous peeve of mine is people who have their dogs on trails without leashes. Now that may be a huge generalization since there are some dogs that mind their own business and leave every person runs, bikes, or walks by alone. In all honesty, the dog I encountered today wasn't all that bad, but she most definitely did not leave me alone. At some point in my youth, I must have had a very bad dog experience to explain why I get so skittish around dogs.

This morning, I decided to be adventrous and do the cornfield loop. This loop is off limits during the spring, summer, and fall. It's where I've determined I must have picked up my poison-something rash over the summer. After learning how terribly allergic I am to those plants, there is no going anywhere I could pick it up. The loop starts out with the out and back trail I run and then there is a sort of lollipop loop to it. The loop seems to be all uphill. In reality, it climbs most of the way and the drop is short and steep. The footing was not too good, lots of soft mud that ended up being slick, spikes would have been helpful. As I was coming down one of these slippery hills, a dog came towards me with no owner in site. This dog is at least part Doberman, if not all Doberman-in other words, looked pretty darn scary. I hear the owner calling, "Diesel, Disel"-not the kind of name that makes you feel too comfortable with the dog. Then I hear, "oh, hi----", it turns out the owner is a neighbor of one of my good friends. She kept telling me how friendly her dog is, but she kept running around and right up to me. This little encouter probably lasted two or three minutes.

Other than my dog encounter, the run was very pleasant. There were minimal ankle turns, a major accomplishment! It was cool, clear and very sunny. Not unbearably cold, just cool. I wore the heart rate monitor again, which continued to act up. Given the hilliness of the loop, I expected it to be a bit higher than on a regular Sunday morning run. I ran until it read an hour, but the run was a bit shorter since I didn't stop the watch when I ran into the dog.

This afternoon I had a bit of a guilty conscience for not getting to cross-train yesterday. Funny how that guilty feeling doesn't happen with real work, just with working out. I did the elliptical for half an hour while I was reading a magazine. I was surprised to see how "fast" I was on it since it didn't feel hard at all. Of course, I don't know how accurate the calibration is on it. After that, I rode the bike for 15 minutes and then stretched.

I ended up spending much more time at a friend's house this afternoon than I planned. It was fine since I didn't really have anything else that needs to get done right away. Tonight I do need to pay all of my bills, what a depressing way to spend a Sunday evening.

Posted by Blondie at 07:36 PM | Comments (0)

January 21, 2006

Whirlwind

The past two days have been an absolute whirlwind. So much has been going on that I have barely been able to digest it and think about it. I don't want to write too much about it for the simple fact that I really don't know too much yet. All I can say is I'm very very excited!

My feet are not happy with me. I wore shoes that need to be replaced yesterday. They look nice, but I don't know what I was thinking when I bought them a few years ago. I never wore them much before this year because they were considered too risque at my old job. Now that I can wear them, I do. They aren't that trampy or anything, black slingbacks with skinny heels. Not really high, at least by my standards. The problem is that I bought a 6, not a 6 1/2, and they rub the tops of my toes that get crammed into them. Unike most American women, I want to have bigger feet because mine are so small. Well, I walked around a lot yesterday in these shoes and my toes paid the price for it. Blisters on the tops of the middle three toes that all broke. Ouch.

Anywho, my running shoes felt much comfier this morning. Getting dressed was confusing. It was supposedly 45 degrees outside. I say supposedly because our town must not have been updating to the news. The temperatures in every other local town were in the mid to upper 40s, ours was registering at 35. I decided to put on shorts with two long sleeve tops and a hat and gloves. I knew that the route we were going on took us down in elevation early and next to the river, an area that is always cooler. I'm glad that I made the decsion that I did, although early on I was quite chilly.

Only M, A, and I were running longer this week. We wanted to go longer than we did two weeks ago when we went in that direction, but shorter than last week. We're supposed to be following a two weeks up, one week down kind of schedule. The route we took is very pretty, but brutal. About two-thirds of a mile in, you get greeted by a steep uphill. Since it is still early on Saturday morning and your body is still waking up, that hill is not welcome. At four miles, most of the group turned off and we got to run up another brutal hill. This direction really has no flat sections. Instead of taking the road that is a series of hills, we took one that is more of a long climb, followed by another long climb. A was having some trouble on the hills and M is a great hill runner, I ended up being in the middle. I know when I'm getting better at hills when I can stay closer to M on the hills. We ended up stopping a few times to regroup so that A wasn't back by himself. We tried to time a mile segment on the way back in, but the second of the marks was paved over. I looked at my watch at the first marker and was pretty sure that I knew where the next one was, but it has new pavement over it since the summer, so I missed. When I looked again, I was pretty sure that we had passed it and it had been 8 minutes. The general consensus was that there was no way on earth we were running 8 minute pace. When we got back to the school A and I had a few more minutes left to run, so we hopped on the track and did a lap. I timed that lap at 1:45 and it was probably easier than some parts of the run. I say easier more in the respect that it was flat, not slower. I ended up with 90 minutes and we decided it was around 12.75 miles.

I had a bunch of errands to run this morning, so there really wasn't much time for cross-training. I went to the car dealership to change the battery in my key. It died completely on me about a week ago. It had been dying in the cold and then coming back to life when it warmed up. While I was there, I also ordered some touch up paint that I was supposed to get for it a long time ago. After that, I had to stop by the running store for some information. I made a quick trip to the gym, but didn't have time to get on an elliptical or bike. Well, I had time, but I was waiting for a phone call and the people who work there are really weird about people on cell phones, so I just lifted. I had to buy a card and gift, so that was my next stop. During that trip, I got the call I was waiting for. Nothing like doing business and shopping at the same time! Luckily, the owner of this shop is a friend and she was so excited to hear what I was getting ready to do!

Anyhow, I committed to a race. This is what the whirlwind is all about. It isn't a local race by any means. It's in two weeks and I am not ready at all for it. It doesn't matter that much how I do, but I am very very excited for it. I just finished my travel arrangements. Other than that, I don't really know much about it. It should be a fun time and that is what this running thing is all about, right?

Posted by Blondie at 04:39 PM | Comments (1)

January 19, 2006

What's Wrong With This Picture

Well, there isn't a picture, so you'll have to do with my description. I show up to the track tonight and every single other person has on long pants, jackets, hats and gloves. I get out of my car in shorts and a long sleeve with a hat and gloves. Historically, I am the first one to break out the tights and the last one to put them away. It really was not too cold, even though I was freezing all day in the office. The hat might have been too much, but losing all that heat through my legs meant that something had to be done to keep the heat in. After the warm-up, a few of the guys stripped off their pants and ran in shorts, but early on I was the lone one with glowing white legs. This is a serious problem with the unusually warm winter weather. My legs are never all that tan in the first place, so at this point when they have not seen the light of day in five months, well, they're awfully pale. When wearing shorts at night, the reflective vest might not even be necessary, they act as reflectors on their own.

Oh, the workout. We did the same workout that we have been doing on Thursday nights. This is a workout that I don't really like and can't wait until we are done with it. The neighborhood loop with about ten surges in it. We broke into two groups or else we would have gotten all strung out. Our group ended up being faster than we usually are and didn't do as many pick-ups as usual. The pace got pretty quick during a very heated discussion about football. Most of our surges came during times when we kind of picked things up because of the conversation or on uphills or downhills.

It was a bit easier for me tonight because I sort of took control of my group. One of the hardest things about this kind of workout is giving up control. It's very difficult to do pick-ups based on someone else. The other person decides when we're going to go and when we're going to stop. The other person may or may not tell you how long the pick-up is going to be, so you don't really know what is going on. If one person in the group is feeling really good, he might start a pick-up almost right after one is finished. Anyway, I'm very happy that we only have one more week of this.

My new lightweight trainers have definite hot spots on the balls of my feet. I wore the previous model of this shoe and encountered the same problem until they were nice and broken in. Of course, last time part of that breaking in was during a marathon. That will not be the case this time around. The burning sensation is not pleasant, so I ought to try to bend them around some.

Posted by Blondie at 08:03 PM | Comments (1)

January 18, 2006

Pick Your Poison

No matter how you cut it, today was not going to be a pretty running day. Last night it started raining and it poured overnight into this morning. We're talking Noah building his ark kind of rain. Sure, it was warm, but this was the kind of rain that would drive even me onto a treadmill. Sometime around lunch, the rain stopped, but the wind rolled in. Wind like on Sunday kind of wind. Wind that makes it impossible to keep your car door open when you're trying to put something in it kind of wind. It was one of those days that the weather probably sent lots of people indoors.

Work was so slow for me today. Yesterday was busy, I got everything done. Today was senior citizen day. Lots of will stuff. When I'm not busy, the day just drags and drags. Of course, right when I need to leave things picked up. Too bad, I had to go. Things can wait.

So, my run this afternoon was interesting. Not really. I tried to do the heart rate monitor thing again to make sure today was completely easy. The thing drives me crazy. At first it wasn't registering, then it was registering way too high. Not that I was working too hard high, that it wasn't picking up right. Then, when I had to stop it to cross the street it wouldn't re-start, then it cleared and I had to completely restart it. Argh. I did check it several times during the run, trying to keep my heart rate around 140 or lower. I found that when I was running into the wind my heart rate went up to maintain the same pace. Anywho, it was seven miles in about 51 minutes.

Yesterday I tried to lift. The place was hopping with resolutioners. I did the few exercises that I could do and then got out of there. One thing I'm trying to work on is strengthening my weak ankles. Well, really my right ankle is the only weak ankle. I've worked on just standing on one foot for several months now, so I've decided to up te ante and am trying to work on standing one footed on the BOSU ball. Let me tell you, if I can stay upright for about three seconds I'm doing well. It's really hard. There are some people there who can do one legged squats on it. i am impressed with that. Maybe one day I'll be that good. I can only hope.

Posted by Blondie at 07:42 PM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2006

Overdressed

Hmmm, that really isn't anything new. My theory is that I would rather have something extra on to take off instead of not having enough to stay warm. Given my funky body temperature, I'm usually cold, so I wear tons of clothes. Today was one of those days where I was freezing all day. When I left work, it felt really cold out, so I bundled up. In reality, it wasn't too bad, but I may have been very cold if I didn't wear as much as I did. You just never know.

Since last week was the first time I hit the 50 mile mark, I decided that it is time to slowly start to increase to real training and move out of maintainence mode. Because my old loops were not safe to do in the dark, I had to map a new longer route. Every loop from my house is longer than it maps out to be due to running through a parking lot where there is no road. This loop mapped out to 8.05, so it was safely 8 miles.

It was a bit of a strange run. In the first mile, I kept stumbling. During the day I never felt like I was so tired that I would be stumbling, so I'm not sure what brought that on. Around three miles, the wind really started to pick up. It wasn't nearly as bad as it was on Sunday, but it was enough wind to notice an increase in effort to maintain the same pace. At six miles, my lunch decided that it didn't want to stay in my stomach. It amazes me that people can eat within an hour or so of running. Today, we ate lunch at 11:30 and when I ran at 5:00 I was affected by it.

I probably ran too fast, but it felt OK. I will admit that once I warmed up, the pace got kind of fast. When my mileage increases, that won't be as much of a problem. Seven minute miles just don't feel hard, although easy runs probably need to be easier. On Saturday I noticed that no matter what the pace, I get tired by the time, not the effort. My body gets tired at X time if I'm running 8 minute miles or 7 minute miles, but the seven minute miles feel much more comfortable. Does this happen to anyone else?

Posted by Blondie at 08:06 PM | Comments (2)

January 16, 2006

Quite Improved

The conditions today were quite improved over the conditions of yesterday. Sure, it is still significantly colder than last week, but after yesterday anything is better. Wind is one of the worst running conditions. Some people don't seem to be as affected by it as others. I'm one of those people who actually does get blown around. It is kind of funny, I've been blown into cars at times. It could have to do with size, I'm not really sure. Of course, my bed was nice and toasty, so I didn't want to get out of it.

Tonight was the last Monday of re-introducing speed. We did the same old loop around the river and then came back and did 200 striders. We all noticed that it is staying light a little bit later now. I didn't need to turn on my head lamp until almost two miles in to the run. I ran with the same guy who I ran with on Saturday morning. We held a pretty good clip, but neither of us knows what we ran the course in. My watch didn't start because I hit the start button before it was in stopwatch mode and he was late, so he didn't start his watch either. Oh well, life goes on. It would have been a bigger deal if it had been a track workout, but it was only supposed to be a conversational run. We got back to the track earlier, so we did two laps before doing the 6x200. The goal was to hit them in 45, but we weren't very good. Each of us took a turn leading a 200 and they ranged from 42 to 46, depending on the leader. After that, we jogged two more laps.

One of my former training partners just had a baby, I can't wait to hear from her and visit them soon!

Posted by Blondie at 08:07 PM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2006

Needing to be Weighed Down

After spring like weather for an entire week, winter came back with a vengance today. Honestly, I think that the conditions today are up there in the top ten worst conditions that I have ever run in. Sure, it has been colder. It has been snowier. It has been rainy. Today was rather cold, when I ran it was in the mid-twenties. The wind was the real issue. Sustained winds of 25-30 miles per hour with gusts well into the fifty mile per hour range. Wind is one of my least favorite conditions and when it is that windy, it gets kind of dangerous. We are still under a wind advisory at the moment, the winds really have not let up yet.

Today was meant to be an easy day, so the wind wasn't too much of an issue. I opted to run off road, but it was so cold that the trail was hard as rock. The wind was good for something, it swept all of the rain away so it wasn't too muddy. I tried to use the heart rate monitor today to keep things easy. It wasn't much help, the thing was possessed. I used the bra instead of the strap today. When I got started, there must not have been enough moisture because it wasn't registering. Once it did start to register it was showing readings like 232, which could not have been accurate. It took about fifteen minutes for the thing to settle in and read something that could possibly be the right reading. In other words, it was pretty useless. I shuffled along to seven slow miles. The average heart rate is probably higher than it should have been, but that is a given since it was registering so high for five minutes or so. Training by heart rate is not something that I am particularly into, but I do want to make sure my easy days are easy enough.

I met my mom at the gym this afternoon. We did five minutes on the elliptical with the arms, two minutes on the EFX without arms, and five minutes on the recumbent bike. She said I was a slave driver. She really doesn't work out a lot, so twelve minutes is a lot for her. She was hilarious on the elliptical with the arms. She could not get it to work. She kept wanting to pedal backwards and could not use her arms and legs at the same time. We also did a little bit of lifting, but she can't really do much with her left arm from the lymphodema.

I feel a bit like Audrey right now. I seem to be plagued with weird aches and pains. There is always something that has a bit of an ache, but usually nothing is very serious. I must have done something when I was kneeling yesterday because my right knee feels like it has a bruise on the kneecap. This has happened before, so it isn't too worrisome. It must have happened doing the assisted dips. I also think I did something to one of my abs. It kind of hurts right where the waistband of my jeans are. It could have been from the knot in my running shorts, doing too many crunches, I don't know. All I know is that it is not comfortable. On the bright side, neither of these is very serious.

I am greatly looking forward to a day off from work tomorrow. The plan looks to be getting rid of the clothes that are just cluttering up my closet. Fun times.

Posted by Blondie at 07:05 PM | Comments (2)

January 14, 2006

Wet

If this were snow instead of rain, we'd have something like 20 inches, so there really is no reason to be complaining. Yesterday had weather appropriate for Friday the Thirteenth-wet, gloomy, foggy, and just plain depression. It didn't rain too much, but the fog never really lifted. It started to rain overnight and when I woke up to go to the bathroom around 3:30 it was raining so hard that I thought the roads would be flooded out when it was time to wake up. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that the rain had pretty much moved out by the time I woke up. Apparently we had tornado watches in effect very early in the morning, but we were out of the danger zone by 6:00. I may be nutty, but running in a tornado watch is stupid and I would not have gone outside during it-I have that much common sense.

Not that many people showed up for our run this morning, the weather probably kept them away. We did wait a few minutes longer because it wasn't that bad and the theory was that everyone would finally get out of bed and discover that the rain had really let up. It felt kind of like an April morning, mild and misty. I can not remember a day in January, ever, that I have had on shorts and no gloves. My hands did pay for it by the end, in the last mile or so they did get really raw. My fingers were so swollen when we finished that my rings were stuck on.

Only my triathlete friend J was going longer with me. It seems that he and I are going to be doing a lot of our training together this winter. It is nice to know that there will be someone to do the same things as me instead of being completely on my own. J only wanted us to go for 90 minutes even though the course that we had planned would take longer. He wanted us to stop and walk in the last quarter mile or so, but that didn't happen. We started out really, really easy-like close to 8 minute pace. Once we turned off onto the two mile uphill, the pace had to pick up or else we'd never make it up the hill. The course we did pretty much drops for the first five and a half miles, the climbs for at least the next two and a half, and then rolls the rest of the way in. It is definitely a challenging long run due to how the hills hit you. According to J's pod that tracks distance, altitude, pace, etc...(more information than I really need, but it is fun to hear it from someone else) we climbed 975 feet on the run. Yikes!

I felt fine towards the end. Early on there were some stomach issues, but they worked themselves out. On the way in I felt good and strong, probably from taking it so easy early on. We ran the whole course instead of walking in since it was raining. We determined that although we are supposed to take it really easy on our long runs, it is OK to go faster than our supposed range as long as it is finishing strong, not starting fast. OK, we are rationalizing things a bit, but it made both of us feel better.

After running, I went to the gym to do some cross training, lifting (hmm, every weekend sounds like this). I prefer the ellipticals with the arms, but none of those were available, so I used an EFX for 17 minutes. These just don't do it for me. They're the kind with the incline ramp and my toes fall asleep whenever I'm on it because I can't really lift my feet without falling off. I did the last 13 minutes on the kind that I like better. No biking since they were all full, so I did more lifting than usual. After reading aobut Alison doing her chin-ups and dips deducting 35 pounds of her body weight, I was curious about how much I actually take off. In other words, I used the same assistance as usual, but read the translation. I did my body weight minus eighty pounds. Basically, I hardly have any weight. And I struggle with that weight. Nobody ever called me strong.

This afternoon I think that I am going to go bargain hunting with one of my old, old friends. I have been inspired by Barb's bargains the other day. Tomorrow I'm taking my mom to the gym to teach her some about the fitness center. We have off from work on Monday, so I may take that as an opportunity to buy some new running shoes. As if I need another pair, but seriously, I need a pair to wear for workouts.

Posted by Blondie at 01:42 PM | Comments (1)

January 12, 2006

Some Spring Plans

In our effort to try new things, once again, my training is going to be changing some for the early part of the spring. Most of what we will be doing is going to be slower but with higher mileage. This concerns me a little bit when we talk about the goal time for the first race, the only one I really have on my schedule at this point. Most of the speedwork we have slated for before that date is barely at race pace. We will be doing more of it than ever before, so we are trying to go at a strength angle. My assignment for Saturday is to figure out what my average weekly mileage was last year leading into racing season because we are going to try to go on some higher mileage.

So far there is really only one race on my calendar for the spring. There is a second one about six weeks after that. Goals for each race are out there, but making those goals public isn't something that I really want to do. One of the goals is a time goal, the other isn't. The time goal has a much better chance of being on a good day, the other race has a high chance of really crappy weather, so it is a take what you can get kind of goal. There is another race that I am looking at to be my season closer, but the website for that race has not been updated yet-there is only information for the 2005 race, not the 2006 edition.

Before we can get to any of that stuff, I have to finish the build-up we're doing now. Today was another strangely warm January day, but it was cooling off really quickly once we got running. Our workout was the same as last Thursday, warm-up and then the four mile loop with some pick-ups. We pretty much stayed as one big group this time instead of breaking up into smaller groups. This kind of workout is particularly tough for me. I thrive on locking into a pace and maintaining it. Surges nearly kill me. Another problem was that the jogs were a little too slow to be comfortable and when I do that it is even harder to pick up the pace. We did the loop about ten seconds slower than last week, but the second half was much faster than the first half. We did about a mile and a half to warm-down, giving me about nine miles for the day.

My training log from last year is calling me for analysis, should be lots of fun!

Posted by Blondie at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2006

Fast and Furious

Wow, that title works on more than one level. Not necessarily my running today, but on lots of other levels. I'm trying to type as quickly and accurately as I possibly can because it is too late to be writing. So, on one level, this entry is going to be fast and furious.

The weather today was kind of, well, cruddy. During most of the day it was really overcast and damp. At some point in the afternoon it started to rain some, but when I left work it was hardly raining at all. When I got home it was hardly raining. In the ten minutes it took me to check the messages, go to the bathroom and get dressed it started to pour. Absolutely drenching rain. Trying to stay dry was a futile effort, within five minutes all of my clothes were soaked and my shoes weighed about five pounds each. Not only was it pouring, it was kind of chilly becuase the rain was so heavy. Those two conditons, along with running in the dark are my least favorite running conditions, so I was definitely not happy.

The run itself wasn't too bad, ironically. One problem I was having was that the rain was so fast and furious that I really couldn't tell where I was stepping. I tried to avoid puddles because where there are puddles, there are holes and where there are holes there is an open invitation to wrench an ankle. Anywhere there were hills the water was rushing. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there was over an inch of rain in about an hour and a half. I did my seven mile loop and tried out my new heart rate monitor. I'm really not too into HR training, but I have it, so I thought that I would give it a go. The watch is a bit of a pain to work, and it didn't like me stopping it when I had to cross roads. To make matters worse, about halfway through the run, I had some shoelace issues and that is when I really had the trouble with my watch. Anyhow, the loop took about 51 minutes and my heart rate was pretty tame ( I think).

I had to watch Lost and now I'm half paying attention to Law & Order before going to bed...

Posted by Blondie at 10:09 PM | Comments (2)

January 10, 2006

Changing Plans

Although I freely admit to being a creature of habit, I like to think that I am flexible as well. Today is a perfect example of my flexibilty. My plans had to change, but it was definitely for a good reason. Today was slated to be the basic after-work run until my cell phone started ringing around 10:45.

That phone call was asking me to do another running bit for the sports bra. There were lots of phone calls back and forth in order to set this up, coordinating everyone who needed to be there and setting up a location. Around 11:30, I got a phone call telling me that I would be getting more information in about 45 minutes. Great, no lunch now (we eat around 11:30) if I'm going to be running in the next hour. Around 12:30 I get a phone call that says we're meeting at 1:30, so I have to jet home and get some running clothes. One of the cool things about having your parents as your bosses is that you can do things like leave and come back.

One of the local new stations was doing a segment on the bra and wanted to show someone modeling it. Lucky me got to be that model. Really, it was cool, but whenever it airs, I'm going to be on the news nearly naked. Oh, well. I only had to run for about five minutes on the treadmill, so it wasn't much running. Once we were done shooting, I ran from the gym. It was so strange to run in the middle of the day. It was another very beautiful day. I haven't run wearing my sunglasses since November, so I had to remember to bring them. My loop was pretty similar to last night's run, only in reverse. The actual run was actually very crummy. By the time I got out to run it was after 2:30 and I had only had a cup of yogurt around 9:30. After about 20 minutes I somehow started to feel a little less crappy, but it was definitely an easy run. My best guesstimate is that the run was about 7 miles, how much I wanted to do. Since a good deal of the run is on a path, none of the mapping tools work on it (I've looked, this path isn't on it).

My eating habits have been all out of whack today from the above mentioned run. When I got back to the office, I only wanted to snack, but because I was so famished, I feel like I've been eating nonstop since 4:00. Sometimes I think that I do better just not eating once I get to that point because my body forgets that I'm hungry. I know, a very bad habit, I shouldn't do it.

Today I did want to either lift or ride the bike, but I can always do that here at home tonight. Maybe I'll feel ambitious and use some of my dumbbells tonight, but it seems unlikely. My upper left IT (I think) needs a good foam rolling. It actually needs a good massage, but I've been procrastinating about going. I do know better, but I'll be going so often soon that I don't want to go just yet.

Posted by Blondie at 07:29 PM | Comments (0)

January 09, 2006

Frustrations at Work Lead to Good Runs

Granted, I am frequently frustrated at work, but I tend to find my best runs are after days that are so excruitatingly frustrating. There are lots of tasks in my current job that frustrate me since it is almost all new to me. The task that I worked on today is the most frustrating to me, probably because it isn't an everyday or even every week thing, it's a once a month thing. I've only done it twice, so I'm just not comfortable with it and it needs to get done and get done right, so it causes lots of stress.

Today was strangely warm, when I got to the track it felt like an evening in October, not January 9. We still aren't up to doing real workouts yet, we're still working on reintroducing some turnover. We did our loop by the river, trying to stay together-something that hardly ever happens. The pace felt uncomfortable, but it's just me. It felt slow and awkward to me, but there were lots of comments that it was too fast. Afterwards, I was talking to J about the person who starts it out too fast and that he can't finish it at that pace and yet complains when someone does (terrible explanation-this person wants everyone to stay together, starts out too fast, and then has a hissy fit when people maintain his early pace that he can't maintain). When we got back to the track, it was time for our 200 strides. We're up to 5 now, which I hit in anywhere from 42-45. I jogged a lap and a half after the 200s to give me a total of 8.5 for the night and then had a long talk with J about some training for the rest of the spring. I may or may not write more about it later, but I'm tired right now and just don't think that I could write about it coherently, so I'm not even going to try.

Posted by Blondie at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)

January 08, 2006

Late Night With Babies

My roommate from college and her husband recently bought a house and last night had their housewarming party. In general it was a nice time, but I felt like the odd one out all night. First of all, I'm pretty sure that I was the only one not in a serious relationship (long term boyfriend/engaged/married). Secondly, virtually every person there was either the mother of a baby or pregnant or trying to get pregnant. Now, these are not people much older than myself, I just feel too irresponsible to even consider having a child at this point in my life. Of course, there are other things that need to be accomplished before even thinking about babies. Sure, they were sort of cute, but I can barely take care of myself, how could anyone expect me to take care of another living thing? It was a late night for me, I didn't get home until a little bit after 11, which is very late after getting up at 6 to run. Everyone did mention that it is my choice to do that, but those are my priorities.

This morning was my obligatory off-road run. True trails are not my strength, my ankles turn too easily and I'm too prone to falling to go on seriously technical trails. J really likes me to get off the road at least once a week, especially when my mileage goes up. Even though it has been warmer than usual, the mud on the trail was much harder than usual, so it was almost like running on road anyhow. Since it wasn't that cold, lots of people were out walking their dogs on the trail. This is fine, but it really gets on my nerves when people take their dogs off their leashes. I had at least three encounters where I had to come to a stop so that dogs wouldn't freak out. It's fine on days like today, but if it were supposed to be an up tempo run it would really bother me. There are much worse things that could happen during a workout, but getting bit by a dog isn't my idea of fun. I felt much better than I thought that I would this morning given yesterday's run. The loop took less time than normal, but it was hillier than I remembered it.

I've been doing my laundry all day today. If I could live without ever doing laundry again, I would be one very happy person. The whole process takes me so long that by the time I'm done with putting it away it's time to start over again.

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

January 07, 2006

Getting Up Was Tough

Yesterday was one of those strange weather days where it got colder and windier as the day went on. When I left for work it was very mild, but by the time I left it was starting to get blustery. It was a nice afternoon to not run :) I knew that it would mean that it would be cold this morning. In the winter it is so hard to get up early to run on Saturday morning. I love the group that I run with, but when it is cold and dark my bed is much more inviting. So when it was still awfully dark this morning when the alarm went off, it was so tempting to turn it off and go back to sleep. After I'm done running, I'm always happy that I did drag myself out of bed to go.

It was much, much colder this morning than it has been lately. The fact that it has been warmer than usual has made me even more of a sissy about the cold, so I knew that I would have to break out some of the serious cold weather clothing since it was only in the upper 20s. Even bundled up, my hands were really cold for the first half hour. Right before we started, I decided that I only needed my mittens instead of mittens over gloves.

We went the back (hilly) roads this morning. We have a tendency to go out the front every week, especially once we get to running longer. This is pretty much because the hills on the back roads are so brutal that it is hard to run for much longer than 90 minutes because your legs get so beat up. Looking back in my log from last year, we only went the back way a handful of times. J wants us to change to do it every other week, which he says every year only to have people override him and go out the front anyway. Since it looks like our hill workouts are going to be changing, I think that I will be following the every other week out the back for a while.

It's funny that every loop out the back seems to be much longer than it actually is. These are the kinds of roads where if you take one wrong turn, the run goes from 11 to 15 miles because there is no way to get back. Most of the group was planning on about 65 minutes, but I'm a little bit further into my training, so I recruited two guys to go the longer and hillier way with me. This run includes running up the steepest hill that any of us know of in the area. The road that the loop is named after is a series of seven hills where it goes up and then drops almost as much as you gained each time. Every time we do this loop, the hills kick my butt and today was no exception. Once we turned for home, one of my recruits went the other way because he was looking for closer to two hours. We aren't too sure how long any of the loops out the back are, but the guy who I was running with had on one of those heart rate monitors with the shoe pod. According to his watch, the loop was 11.1 which is pretty close to what we guessed that it was. Once again, I had trouble with my watch, so I had to take the time from his watch, about 82 minutes.

I haven't been able to figure out if I'm out of shape or kind of in shape at the moment. I feel out of shape, but that is how I am supposed to feel at the moment. I figure that I'm a week or two ahead of where I was at this point last year. We did this loop a little later in the month last year and about a minute slower, so that is giving me an idea of where I am. Since I tend to get into racing shape very quickly, I need to be cautious.

After running I headed over to the gym to elliptical and bike. There was a wait for the treadmills and the different kinds of ellipticals. I got on the EFX instead of the Life Style elliptical that I prefer because there was no wait. Soon enough things will calm down. I did some lifting, but not as much as usual because I was tired and still had lots of errands to run for the housewarming party I'm going to tonight.

Posted by Blondie at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)

January 05, 2006

Starting Over

Tonight was the first workout of the year. Well, if you're being really technical, the first workout was on Monday, but that was a holiday which yielded bigger numbers than usual. Our early season workouts are barely even workouts, the idea is simply to re-introduce some leg turnover. Everything is very loose and not structured at all. The plan tonight was to do the regular warm-up and then head over to the neighboorhoods across the street. We were supposed to do the four mile course that we have laid out there with some pick-ups of various lengths. Basically it was a fartlek run. We were supposed to do 10-12 pick-ups that ranged anywhere from 10 to 45 seconds. My directions were that the overally pace for the group I ran with was to be no faster than 7 minute pace, closer to 7:30s. Three of us got phone calls to be "group leaders" so that there were three different pace groups.

This winter has been unusually mild except for that cold spell in early December. Of course, I am not complaining by any means, just stating a fact. Now that it has been said, it will probably turn cold. But, since I got Yaktrax and other cold weather running gear for Christmas, it means that it won't snow at all this winter. Things just work out that way. Anyhow, I digress. One of the guys decided that he would wear shorts for the workout, so we had to stop for a few minutes after the warm-up. My group had four, so we each took turns leading. Each of us led three pick-ups; one longer, one middle, and one short. We had a hard time determining how long the surges were, so they were all probably a little on the longer side. We had to back off after the first mile since we were way too fast going through that. The pace did get a little crazy at times, but I was the sane one who tried to keep things in check. We finished right with the group that was supposed to be doing 7:30s, but we all finished just under 28 minutes, so none of us followed what we were supposed to be doing. We did a shorter warm-down since we really have not been putting in any mileage.

We all have to start somewhere. Breaks are necessary, but restarting is alwasy hard. One of the guys in my group doesn't really follow the schedule that the rest of the group follows. He wants to be doing intervals on the track and truly long runs on Saturdays. I know that for me personally, if I were doing that right now, I'd peak in mid-February. Simply put, there are no races at that time of year, so I need to hold back for a few more weeks.

Smile everyone, tomorrow is Friday!

Posted by Blondie at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2006

A Little Glass Never Hurt Anyone

In all honesty, I am very lucky that things turned out the way they did. Last night I was heating leftovers in the toaster oven in a Pyrex dish. You know, the kind of dish that is supposed to be able to handle going from cold to hot. Upon taking the dish out and trying to scrape my concoction out onto a plate, the dish cracked. Well, not only cracked but completely broke into three pieces. Luckily the breaks were clean and no shards of glass ended up in my dinner. I guess that particular dish had gone from cold to hot one too many times.

Today was one of those days when my cell phone just would not stop ringing. J must have been having a very slow day at work because there were three separate calls from him. The first had nothing to do with running, just gossip. Later on we did talk about running and some of the plan for this spring. I honestly only have two races on my calendar at the moment, as the weather warms up and I get into better shape I will look at some races to go after.

As far as my own running went this afternoon, it was another watchless day. I am curious about how fast I am running my loop currently, but I did get reminded that right now is just easy running and starting a base. Next week the watch may get worn during some of the regular runs. There is nothing to be gained by racing my seven mile loop, so keeping the watch at home keeps me in check. I did feel good this afternoon. My stomach didn't act up nearly the way it did yesterday. There was only one car issue, he disregarded not only the person and the stop sign, but the other cars that were in the middle of the intersection. It was cool as far as I was concerned, but I did see a guy out in shorts. My new mittens kicked butt, my hands were warm at the end! I do need to find some kind of hat that covers my ears and has a small brim for days like yesterday. Baseball caps don't cover my ears and the brim really obscures my limited vision.

After running I headed over to the gym to lift. This year I would like to be better about lifting. Last year I did go twice a week most weeks, but some of it was really pathetic. Parking was an issue today, so needless to say, the fitness center was a mob scene. There were so many people there who I'd never seen before. I did what I felt constituted a decent lifting workout and got the heck out of dodge. It seems that the resolutioners are still out there. Besides working out, they seem to be hitting Trader Joe's as well. My short trip in there to pick up a few foods that I need showed bare shelves, like in the old Soviet Union. Not that I have a problem with people adopting a healthier lifestyle, the problem is they are impeding my healthy lifestyle!

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

January 03, 2006

I Made It!

For the past, oh, nine months or so I have been in a rather sticky situation-without any health insurance. It wasn't really by my choice. Originally our health insurance contract with a major company was not renewed due to low employee participation. Then we were offered a plan that didn't really cover anything (like heart attacks, pregnancy, or cancer) but it was better than nothing. It did cover doctor appointments and prescriptions, so as a healthy young person it wasn't too bad. The kicker came when we got a memo in late April informing us that our coverage had been revoked in March. Anyhow, my new health insurance kicked in on Sunday, so now I am free to get sick, break bones, etc and not have to pay out of pocket. The position I was in was not one I would choose to be in, but as a single peson there really weren't any other options. I was looking for another job and because of the way in which the contract was not renewed COBRA was not an option.

I'd like to thank Barb for mentioning the new interface. In my computer ignorance, I thought it was just me. It is really cool, so whatever was done, I appreciate it!

OK, onto the real topic here...my run today. It was pretty obvious that everyone and their brother went back to work today. About a quarter mile into my loop I need to cross a four lane road. It is a sort of big road, but there aren't any pedestrian walkways or crossing lights on it. On the way out, it took three cycles of the light to get across and when I did go across it was a little bit scary. It was cool and drizzly, so I was kind of apprehensive about the cars possibly skidding. I was going to wear my watch, but the wind made me decide against it. For whatever reason, tailwinds are hardly noticable but headwinds are a real bitch. On the way back when I was crossing the six (or eight, if you count the turn lanes) lane road that does have a crossing light I was nearly hit by a car. The guy in his Saab decided that the walk light meant that he could cut across the road. Legally I did have the right of way, but two thousand pounds of metal is going to win no matter what. This just irritates me, he saw that I was there and had pressed the button to cross, he should have waited an extra fifteen seconds. Other than some GI distress, it was a regular run. Actually, the GI distress is pretty normal, so there isn't anything to write about.

Posted by Blondie at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2006

Oops, I Did It Again!

A few weeks ago, I was severely reprimanded for pushing the pace way too hard during one of our easy runs. Even if it is my fault, I always reply that it isn't me. On that particular occasion, someone else did start the run out fast...I just continued it. This morning, I pointed out that it was a similar situation. For the first mile, I was sweeping the rear, but by the two mile mark I had moved up. Honestly, I don't think that I picked up the pace, just maintained. It isn't my fault that someone else will start something that they can not finish.

This morning felt much colder than it really was, probably because it was really damp. I changed my tops in the car to put on something warmer, although by the end it really wasn't necessary. The run ended up being way too fast, but it didn't feel hard at all. I was having a nice conversation with one of the guys and when I looked at my watch when we got back I was shocked to see that it was well under 47 minutes. After the loop, it was an easy lap on the track 4 x 200 striders then another easy lap. The 200s were supposed to be around 45 seconds each, of course, they were too fast. We hit each of the 200s in 42 and change, so even if they were too fast they were consistent.

After the run, we hung out at the bagel shop for a while. I drank way too much coffee but really wasn't hungry. I went to the gym and lifted. It was mobbed with new years resolutioners. It is actually pretty amusing to watch these people who probably have not worked out since this time last year. They do get in the way, but it doesn't bother me too much. I don't have much of a routine, I just do whatever is open. This is probably better than having a routine since different muscles get worked in different ways twice. Nothing else was interesting today, but I'm not really looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.

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

January 01, 2006

Happy New Year!

To be completely honest, New Years Eve is not one of my favorite holidays. Staying up until midnight is way past my bedtime and although I enjoy a drink every now and then, drinking into oblivion is not my style. Besides, there is no way that I am going to drink and drive, especially when the risk of getting pulled over is so high. One of my exes was having a party last night that I said that I would go to. It turns out that yesterday was just one of those cranky days, not for any reason, just a cranky day. I made an appearance at the party, but left early and was in bed around 10:30. It was for the best, I would have been a party pooper if I had stayed. Even after going to bed so early, I ended up sleeping until a little bit after 9:00.

I had my alarm set for 9:30 since there was a group running event scheduled for 11. We had a big game of tag in the park. It's played just like how everyone has played as a kid; the way when you have one person who is "it" and when that person tags someone they are both "it". My only objective was to stay upright during the game, which was barely achieved. I ended up on some trails that really were not trails anymore because all of the ground was so covered in leaves. Towards the end I had a really bad ankle turn. For some reason, I only turn my right ankle. I don't know if that is because I turned it badly once in high school or if it is something about my running form. We played for an hour and I ran the entire time. Calling it 8 miles would be generous because of the terrain and the hills. An hour on the roads is easily 8 miles or more, but this run was slow because it is just plain hard to run fast in the park.

Otherwise, it has been a very unexciting day. The Christmas decorations came down which is always a sort of depressing event. I just love the way the house looks when everything is out, but we do have the day off today and it is a time consuming activity. I am looking forward to having another day off tomorrow!

Posted by Blondie at 06:08 PM | Comments (1)