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June 29, 2007

Prissypants

Cross-country may not be my thing. I tried it tonight for the first time; I was looking to have a reason to run a little faster without hurting myself, and 3 Stories Racing was having a Two Bags of Swedish Fish bandit cross-country race in a neighborhood very close to my own. How convenient.

To my credit, I did not scream when we got to the water crossing. I did hear a few high-pitched screams up ahead of me before I got there. But I also did not charge across the calf-deep water. It was so murky from all the people who'd already gone across by the time I got there I couldn't see the bottom and didn't really have anyone in front of me to gague how deep it was.

And therein lay the heart of my problem. I wasn't dead last, which I was legitimately concerned about, but somewhere as early as the first quarter mile I began to lead one of the slower packs, with nobody really in sight ahead of me. At least twice I'd put some distance on the group behind me but then had to wait for them to catch up so somebody could point out where I was supposed to go. Duh. The first time it happened, nobody actually told me I'd run off course; I was just kind of jogging in place, nearly standing still, trying to find the next marker, when I noticed that people behind me were now running in the opposite direction. Haaa.

When all was said and done I finished with an 8:08 pace (I'm truly not one of the XC "cool kids"; I ran with the GPS!) That's sad. But it's not really surprising, either, really. I just hope I'm not stuck here in 25:00 5K land. Or even 22:19 5K land, which is what I ran at a road race at the end of April (after having run 15 mpw or less since pacing the marathon in February and in the middle of stress city at work.) I don't mind visiting these places - I'm not too proud for that. But I don't want to live here.

I won a cool technical tee in a raffle, got to spend time with friends, got to show off MG, and got to meet some new people. Not a bad way to spend an evening. Maybe I'll try a track 5K later this summer. Running in circles is technically much easier than XC!

Posted by jenandmats at 9:44 PM | Comments (2)

June 27, 2007

Not a Joiner?

My current struggle with running is whether to join one of the many training groups in town. At one time or another I've run with just about all of the larger currently-existing ones - Rogue, Gazelles, and Carmen's group - and each has something that I love.

Rogue has a great training mind in Steve, and I love talking training and racing with him. And many of my long-time running friends run with them. BUT ... they don't really run together. Even the friends don't really run together. And the vibe is pretty competitive. When I ran with them a few years ago it was similar, but I was bossy enough to forge my own group of sorts, mainly because my training was ahead of theirs and I was a little ahead of them fitness-wise, which allowed me to get to water stops or finish an interval first, and I could say "you guys ready?" to the people who had been more or less running together and kind of shame everyone into starting or re-starting together.

Gilbert's group seems to fit my personality best, since he encourages people to run together. If you're new, he'll tell you whom you should run with. If you drop one of your own on a long run, you circle back to get her. He loves Mt. Bonnell and I love Mt. Bonnell. He loves road 1000 repeats and I love road 1000 repeats. He does long tempos each week. I think long tempos (probably technically the wrong word - more like "hard sustained efforts") are probably the best bang for your training buck. BUT ... I feel a certain loyalty to Rogue and Ruth and Steve, and would feel guilty running with their main competition of sorts.

Carmen's group is a really fun group of people. They have a good rapport with one another, and they so obviously enjoy spending time with one another. And they and have always made me feel so welcome, even though I've never been "official." And Carmen herself is so inspirational. Plus, with Carmen being associated with Rogue, I wouldn't have as traitorous a feeling running with her. BUT ... Carmen does two workouts on the weekends, and I've gotta share weekend mornings with Andy.

So right now I'm leaning toward doing my own thing. I have such set opinions on what I think I need to do anyway I'd just be a pain in the ass to a coach. And I need flexibility with planning runs. But I'll miss out on being part of the group and working with and encouraging other people. And it means that I'll have to put more effort into coordinating with other people if I don't want to run by myself (and most times I don't want to run by myself and like being accountable to meet other people.) And I'll have to plan out routes and water stops and put out gatorade and whatnot. Yuck.

Dilemmas.

Recent Running -

I ran 12 on Sunday pretty comfortably, mostly on my own. I went up Bonnell without walking, but ended up walking the stairs to the very top. That'll get easier as the weeks go on. I purchased a $2 32-oz bottle of Gatorade Rain approximately 8 miles into the run, and it tasted SO GOOD I didn't want to get rid of it, so I ran a few hilly miles with it tucked under my arm like a football. I looked like a dork, and it was awkward, but it was worth it.

Yesterday I did hill repeats. I've decided that hill repeats are the perfect workout for getting back into shape. You have to either work hard or quit. You can't just slack. And for the most part, you can avoid the complete disappointment of running your ass off for a quarter on the track only to find that you've just completed 400 yards at a pace you used to be able to sustain for 13.1 miles - an experience I'd rather avoid repeating, thanksverymuch. I didn't do very many repeats, but I had a real feeling of accomplishment when I finished. I'll definitely do them again next week.

This morning we ran 9 miles. It was a comfortable pace, and didn't seem that slow, but GPS had us down for just under 9 minute miles overall, with the later miles in the mid-8s. I'm chalking some of that pokiness up to the trail being a slower surface than most. We finished in the rain, which is always enjoyable ... in the summertime.

I'm hoping to get up to 43 miles this week, 50 the next, and then take a recovery week. And then, well, then I'll have to make some decisions on what I want to do next.

Posted by jenandmats at 2:23 PM | Comments (2)

June 22, 2007

Letsrun didn't win me over

Yesterday I emailed a friend about joining her on the track this morning. In her response she seemed glad to have an offer of company out there. And then this morning rolled around and I just couldn't do it. It just doesn't seem smart to do workouts and up mileage at the same time. So I flaked on her. I did do a run-by of the track to let her know. She had already gotten started. She is hard core.

I think she's where I was about seven years ago. She's just finding out what she can do with her running. That's such an exciting phase. I'm jealous of her.

So no workouts. But other than the mid-week longer runs, all runs this week have been finished off with strides. Yay strides. And a dip in the pool. Yay pool.

At one point this morning I caught up with a group of friends. They were running a miserable pace for me, though: not comfortable and not tempo, either. Just this awkward middle ground that I despise. So I let them go and finished comfortably on my own. So sad to be too slow for your friends! Hopefully I won't be too slow for too much longer ...

Posted by jenandmats at 8:13 PM

June 20, 2007

She pointed at me and said "Mom."

She's a genius. She's incredible. I just can't get over her.

I ran eight miles this morning. It felt really good. I'm hoping to get up to ~35 miles this week. I was feeling like I was making progress. And then I revisited a thread on Letsrun that I'd marked as a favorite a long time ago about marathon training, in which the idea of lots and lots of slow mileage - laying a base before beginning training isn't ideal; that getting back into workouts was important. I hadn't planned on doing any workouts for a while, but maybe I'll start back sooner than I'd planned. It's not like my body is such a complete stranger to mileage that I need to be really conservative. I do have a history of higher mileage in these legs.

BUT ... The advice was aimed at someone returning to running after only a month off. I have had only a few forays above 20 miles per week in the past - geez - two and a half years, and had about a month completely off (and not in a relaxing way) in the past eight weeks. So my case is a little more extreme than the case they were addressing.

But I'm kind of itching to get back into it.

Posted by jenandmats at 9:13 PM | Comments (1)

June 17, 2007

Happy Father's Day

My #1 advice for newbie runners is to start slow and stay as slow as you need to. I may be changing that advice after this morning's run, however. I think I may have to change it to DO NOT eat a clif bar before or during a run. EVER.

I have been so burned by those damn things too many times. This morning I rationalized eating one by making the determination that although I might have problems with it, it was the only calories I had with me (I had accidentally grabbed a bottle of sports beverage without noticing the "less sugar!" advertisement on the label) and besides, you know, I was only going to have a few bites.

... and four miles later I find myself in a porta potty at a construction site in one of our fancy neighborhoods. It was the worst I've ever been in (although not the worst I've ever heard about; my brother does a rendition of what he believes a person using a porta potty before him at the Honolulu marathon must have done to make it the worst porta potty he's ever been in.) And then another four miles later I find myself staring ashen-faced at the "restrooms temporarily closed for cleaning" sign at Barton Springs Pool. I'm pretty certain I should have risked passing out from a lack of calories.

But I did survive 12.5 miles of hills. I ran with excellent running partners who would circle back or wait for me to catch up to them to touch bases with me every few miles. My goal was to stay close enough to them so that I could hear one of their Garmins when it marked off a mile. I didn't have to be too close; it was pretty loud.

And on the subject of Garmins, I'm finding that the training center has its limitations when it comes to serving as a record of training, since if you don't run with it there's no record of that run. You can't add it in manually. And you can't copy and paste it into Excel. And anyway, the thing tracks from Sunday to Saturday, and I just don't think of weeks in those terms. I'm a Monday to Sunday girl. I'll get confused if I try to do Sunday to Saturday.

And now we're off to celebrate our Andy! What a great dad he is!

Posted by jenandmats at 3:18 PM | Comments (1)

June 13, 2007

And What Did You Do With YOUR Morning?

I ran some kick-ass hills. Only half of the seven miles I ran this morning were hilly, but the ones I ran were some pretty good ones. And it was pretty rolling, with not too much of a break between them.

"The plan" calls for making Wednesday runs longer than the others. This was a good intro to that. Not only was it longer, but it was tougher. I liked getting out there and getting through the course. I could almost feel myself getting stronger. And then afterward I got into Barton Springs Pool for a cooldown. Perfect.

Posted by jenandmats at 10:09 PM | Comments (1)

June 11, 2007

Giving the Stink Eye to Pink Eye

Ickiness has visited our house in the form of yellow eye slime. The adults haven't gotten it yet, but our girl is a mess. She has a fever in addition to the slime and the red puffy eye, and to add insult to injury, we're required to put ointment ON HER EYEBALL three times a day. Andy's mom has gotten the closest so far; my attempts have just resulted in smearing on the outside (she is very, very strong and can shut her eyes harder than I ever could) with the hope that some of it gets in there.

I ran 10 miles with my dad on Sunday morning. We walked A LOT and spent a good bit of time at the gas station buying and drinking Gatorade. It was very humid and apparently I'm still pretty out of shape! I'm relying on walking a lot to get me through the miles, and it actually feels pretty good. I think it's always a good idea to mix up paces, and I've been doing strides at the end of runs or pushing at the end. So although I have some really slow stuff in there I add in some faster stuff to hopefully ease myself back into shape.

Posted by jenandmats at 9:50 PM | Comments (2)

June 6, 2007

Ten percent rule shmule

So my "plan" if you can call it that consists of adding 7 miles each week until I'm up near 50, and then thinking about starting a marathon training program. I'll see if I have the motivation for 50 before I commit to anything crazy. I'm not as fired up about things as I was at the end of the last non-pregnant session. Or either of the previous ones before that. This may be precisely the type of attitude I feared I would have, and I'm pretty sure that the desire to not become what I feared will not be enough in and of itself to get my ass out of bed on Wednesday mornings for those necessary mid-week long runs.

I ran four miles this morning with a few strides. Last week I gave myself 16 miles, so this week I'm aiming for a big 23. I think I can I think I can.

Oh that reminds me. Bikini Boot Camp meets at the track on Wednesday mornings lately. It's a HUGE group. This morning the coach reminded them to "make way for the joggers" as I was going by. What-evs. Then later they were doing an Indian run (and admittedly it was a long line because there are so many of them, but they only had to run hard for like 100 yards) and the same coach was encouraging them to "push through the pain." Seriously. On an Indian run? Why on Earth would there be pain associated with that? It's sentiments like that that make people think running is so awful. It doesn't have to hurt, even if you're pushing yourself.

Oh c'mon, who am I kidding? I'm just bitter because last time I did strides on the track they were doing some too and I couldn't beat all of them.

Posted by jenandmats at 9:28 PM | Comments (1)

June 3, 2007

Stormy Seven

I ran weenie miles this week, walk running between 2 and 4 Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I was really trying to ease into things. And I had planned to walk-run seven miles this morning. But then last night was prom (yes, prom - our penguin in the back yard friends have one every year) and we were out too late so I didn't get out this morning.

So I promised myself I'd get out tonight after MG went to bed. I wore my running clothes all afternoon to make sure I didn't talk myself out of it. And I came very, very, dangerously close to doing that. Sitting next to Andy on the tree swing after two failed attempts to get going and some serious procrastination I announced I just wasn't going to go. He said "just go."

And I did. And I ran longer than I've run in two months or so. And I had intended to walk-run it and go easy. And I did until the last two miles, when the weather turned pretty threatening. Made it pretty exciting. It was a great run. And it almost didn't happen. Ain't that the way it goes?

Posted by jenandmats at 9:58 PM | Comments (1)