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July 30, 2006

Happy Half!

Congrats to my pa and bro who finished the San Francisco half marathon this morning. I talked with my brother just a little while ago and it sounded like they had a great time. Perhaps my brother had a slightly better time than my dad did, because he asked my dad at about 12 miles if he wanted to pick it up and Dad just said "no." They had great weather - the fact that my brother went to the start area in a long-sleeve shirt but then ran the race without it says a lot. Sounds perfect. I'm putting it on my calendar for next summer. I'm glad they ran such a great distance on a great day. Maybe now my brother will have a better understanding of why I love running so much! He ran the Honolulu marathon a few years ago and I think he thought the experience was fine. I don't think anyone who runs a warm, humid, full marathon actually thinks it's great. A cool half marathon through a beautiful city, on the other hand, is a completely different experience.

My running this week was low on volume but high in enjoyment. I didn't get to run until Wednesday (I still haven't figured out how to squeeze in runs when Andy's work schedule is wacky) when I ran with our friend the local Brooks rep again and two people I'd never run with before: a former NCAA women's champion and another guy who could keep up with both of the other two. Yep. Just the four of us. We did a fartlek. All I can say about that is that I definitely had the hardest workout of all. We'd all start the hard intervals at the same time, but then when the interval was over and they slowed down I still had to catch up to them (and they were very far away), and I tried to keep the intensity up until I reached them. It was similar to my workout with the boot camp guy. Agh! Moving target! I had a good run, though ... the company (during the non-interval time) was great.

I had actually run with the NCAA champ once before, several years ago. I was finishing up a long run by myself and wanted to finish strong and was looking for something to motivate me to pick it up. She ran by, and she just looked so smooth and easy and strong and I asked her if I could run with her for a while and she said ok. We only ran together for a little bit - she was on the easy part of a workout, but she was a huge help in giving me the pickup I was looking for. When I finished I ran into a friend and pointed out the person I'd been running with. My friend just stared at me with her eyes wide and her mouth open and said "Do you know who that is?" "No. Who?" When she told me, all I could say was ..."oh." I felt a little Forrest Gump-ish.

I had a nice social run on Friday morning with some strides at the end, and this morning's run was good, too. I did my Mt. Bonnell run with a nice social group. I'm definitely a creature of habit, but the route is nice and hilly and scenic - one of the roads on the route is called "Scenic" and it has some very nice views of Lake Austin. A dip in the pool afterward was a great way to wrap up the morning.

The other happy half today is MG's six-month birthday! I'm loving this six-month time - she's so absorbed by everything and she's sitting up on her own and has a tooth and has a giggle/squeal to die for. To celebrate we had some sweet potatoes and turned a paper cup into a party hat. Awesome.

Posted by jenandmats at 1:55 PM

July 19, 2006

Another old friend

This week hasn’t been so great for running with our work schedules. I haven’t been so good with “flexible.” I ended up running this evening, after a 100-degree day. It was still probably high 90s while I was running. I made about 3.5 miles with 4-5 strides at the end.

Last Wednesday I’d been able to make it out to the track again with our friend who’s the local Brooks rep. We did 8x400 all out with about 2 minutes rest. I remember doing that workout several times with the very first group I ran with when I moved here. My first track workouts ever. We used to do four and then stop and stand around for a loooong time drinking water and procrastinating before starting the second set. I always used to blast that first one back after the break. My fastest timed 400 ever was one of those 5th ones. It was 79 seconds. My racing times have come down so significantly since that time, but I’m not convinced I could do much better than that 79 now. I think I may have matched it two summers ago with Gilbert’s group, in the middle of a tough workout, but I haven’t bettered it.

Last week we did the quarters straight, without the break after the fourth, and I was remarkably steady throughout: 88, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 87, 85. That 87-85 combo for the last two is pretty typical of me, too – just the slightest slack in the penultimate one so that I can finish with my fastest.

Guess who slept through the night (I mean roughly from 8pm-8am) the past two nights?! Guess who’s crying in her crib right now struggling to get to sleep?

Posted by jenandmats at 8:03 PM | Comments (5)

July 16, 2006

Leroy says "Send a picture." Leroy says "Hello."

Meghan tagged me a while back to answer the following questions. As I read her responses to the questions, I was thinking of what my own responses would be. And I was reminded of a song. (Not so surprising with me, really.) I felt like the friend in Michelle Shocked’s “Anchored Down in Anchorage” who writes in a letter to her rock-n-roll friend:

I got a brand new eight month old baby girl/ I sound like a housewife/ Hey Chel, I think I'm a housewife.

Although I’m not a housewife, my S.U.V.-driving, working mom, suburban life makes quite a contrast to Meghan’s wilderness emergency response one. And the responses to these questions make that oh-so evident. And in some cases I even tried to make the answers a little more rock-n-roll and less easy-listenin’. It wasn’t easy. But hey, Meghan’s happy, I’m happy. So this line of the song is for her:

Leroy says, "Aw, keep on rocking girl"/ Yeah, keep on rocking

4 Jobs I've Had
lifeguard
substitute teacher
squid researcher
sporting goods store clerk

4 Movies I watch over and over
I love to watch movies over and over.

Parenthood
Mr. Mom
Office Space
The Sound of Music

4 Places I have lived
Guam
Merced, CA
Galveston, TX
Austin, TX

4 TV Shows I watch
The Real Housewives of Orange County
The American Experience
The Daily Show
South Park

4 Places I've Been on Vacation
(this is the "rock-n-roll" part. I'm so international.)
Mediterranean Cruise (Rome/Sicily/Greece/Turkey)
Saipan (ok, this is old, but I went three times to swim the Saipan Ocean Swim from '85-87. Never forget it as long as I live.)
Ireland
Cancun (my "happy place.")

4 websites I visit daily
my Yahoo! Page
Texas Legislature Online
Running-blogs
RunTex

4 Favorite Foods
Pizza
Chocolate Chips
Andy's chocolate cake
Coke (does that count as a food?)

4 Places I'd Rather Be
nowhere! I’m serious.

4 Favorite Bands/Singers
U2
Patty Griffin
Steve Earle (well, I loved seeing him at ACL Fest last year, have really liked the songs I've heard off of The Revolution Starts ... Now, and then last night found out he wrote a song, "Someday," that I love, so I'm kind of on a kick right now.)
ABBA (seriously.)

Bloggers I'm Tagging
well, the only bloggers I know are the girls on Alison's site! So if you guys haven't been tagged yet consider yourselves tagged. You're welcome!

Posted by jenandmats at 7:39 PM | Comments (1)

July 9, 2006

Just running.

I have started more than a few philosophical(ish) entries that I don't finish. I guess there's a fine line out there that divides what I'm willing to put out there for everyone and anyone to read and what I'm not. I don't feel shy about the things I'm writing about usually, but there's a level of "exposure" that I guess I'm not willing to subject my thoughts to.

Then again, it might just be that they're terribly boring, even to me!

So I'll stick to running.

No workouts to speak of this week, aside from strides at the ends of two runs. But that's ok, because the week before I put in two workouts. I showed up last Tuesday at 5:30am to run with ... nobody. The group I was counting on was a complete no-show, so to avoid running by myself in the dark I asked to join another group of three who looked like they were about to start a run, except they were wearing backpacks and camelpacks (camelbacks? dunno.)

Turns out they are adventure racers, and we stopped a few times along our ~4 mile run to do crunches and pullups and to run stairs. But the "P.T" as they called it wasn't the real workout for me. The real workout came because the guy who was leading the group seemed to want to break me, and I just can't back down from a challenge like that. To give him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he was really just trying to challenge me to give me a good workout, but it didn't feel that way at the time. From very early on in the run, while I was talking to him he began to increase the pace until we weren't even running with the other two people in the group anymore. Then we stopped for the crunches and pullups (which I could not do without some serious help), but as soon as we started running again he was pushing the pace and dropping the others. After about a mile or so of this faster pace he stopped and ordered me (there was a bootcamp feel to the group) to sprint back to my "teammates" and bring them in. Which I did. He waited. And then as soon as we were all together he said it was time to "pick up the pace." When I asked, after about 800 yards after we started, how long we'd be holding this pace he told me it'd be until he said stop. I think when he did say stop I had to run back to my teammates again, but I can't remember. At this break we did crunches and ran the stairs of the pedestrian bridge. Then we headed back, pushing the pace again, and about half way back I got sent to sprint to my teammates again. But this time I was supposed to sprint back to him, and instead of waiting in one spot, he continued to run away. He never even slowed down as I approached him after my sprint, so I went from the sprint back into his faster pace. Only he never really allowed me to catch up to him. I was running behind him, and he was talking over his shoulder at me. I just kept saying "I can't hear you. I'm breathing too hard." What I wanted to say was, "if you want to talk to me, why are you insisting on running in front of me?" I'm actually tempted to say that a lot on the trail, to people I see who insist on running ahead of their friends AND carrying on a conversation over their shoulders. Would it kill these people to run WITH their friends?

I'm grateful to the adventure racers for letting me run with them. BUT ... I was just looking for a run, dude!

The following Thursday night I ran with Al's Ship of Fools again, but this time we did a hill/tempo-ish workout. My legs were so tired from the weight training program I've been doing and it was so hot, but I still had a good time. That says something about Al's group, I think! My downhill running still needs some real work. I'm such a spaz. Hopefully the strength training and the balance work from yoga will help with making my downhill fast running a little more smooth.

Last Sunday was a longer run in the rain. This morning was a little shorter but much hillier. And I've been getting in Barton Springs after these hot muggy runs, just like I did last year. Very nice.

I think I have a plan for this year's racing season. Right now I think I'd like to do all the races in our marathon series, including the marathon, but focus my training toward a half in January and then run as a pacer for the marathon. I wouldn't have to run too many 20-milers to run a slow marathon, and one of the series races is a 20-miler, which would kill two birds with one stone. I worry, though, that it's too much; that it'll have me too busy during the session, which is going to be even more stressful since I've never been through session as a mom before. It's so easy to sit here in July, when work is pretty easy and comfortable, and think it's doable. It's probably best to just let it percolate for a while.

Posted by jenandmats at 3:06 PM | Comments (4)