December 21, 2004
Hills and House Sitting
My nana left this morning and it seems so quiet without her around already:( I am thankful that I got a chance to spend some time with her this holiday season and that she is well. I hope that I can be as lively when I am 60, forget about 87!!!!!
Running wise, things seem to be getting a little better (in spite of the freezing cold). It was barely above zero this morning, but I braved the craziness outside regardless. We got a few inches of snow yesterday and it stuck to the ground and doesn't seem to be melting, except where there is traffic. I am probably one of the few people looking forward to the rain forecasted at the end of the week, melting the snow and ice. So, I warmed up 6-7 miles and ran a small hill near my house. Since I am running a marathon sooooooooo long from now, I am doing basework type stuff. I find that mileage makes me really strong and fast (well, as fast as a marathoner ever is!) The more miles I can squeeze in during the base phase, the faster I know I will run at my races. Back to the hills..... it was a short hill, so I spent about 40 minutes on it, up and down, and felt good but not great. I warmed down about 3 miles and am very happy to be warm right now:)
I start house sitting for my boss today. He and his family are going to CA for vacation (lucky them!) and I am watching their chocolate lab, guniea pig and house. The chocolate lab, Max, is a great, great dog and very sweet. The guinea pig, well, it's ok until the first time he bites me. I try to pick him up and pet him, etc, but I draw the line when I am bitten. Then, he's fed and watered and that's about it! Max is about 90 pounds and much stronger than I am, so when he decides where he wants to go, we go there whether I think it's a good idea or not. When I take him for a walk, I am actually the one being taken for the walk!!! I am glad that he's almost always a great dog.
I have to get my clothes and things together to live elsewhere for a few weeks. It's always fun to have an entire house to myself:) Hope everyone had a great run today!
Posted by lilly at 1:46 PM | Comments (3)
December 20, 2004
Nana
This will be a short entry, but I feel guilt if I do not try and write something at least every other day! My grandmother (I call her Nana) is here for a visit tonight. She is 87 years old and amazing! Her sense of humor is terrific, so I have spent a great deal of time teasing her. And, she gives it back. She's a very fun person. Sooo, since she doesn't visit too much, I want to spend as much time with her as possible.
Running has been ok. I ran longish both sat and sun and felt pretty average. Today was an easy day and I am glad for that. If you haven't noticed, I am not good at giving the details of the yucky days, but I will try to be better. I ran 17 on both sat and sunday and wimped out today by only running 5. Actually, that's all I was supposed to do, but I feel lazy. It was snowy and I was lazy.
I will write more tomorrow afternoon when my nana is not here. Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Posted by lilly at 7:05 PM | Comments (3)
December 18, 2004
Slog Fest
I think I made up for the no sleep thing last night with 12 hours. Ok, so I don't believe that you can make up for lost sleep, but I was certainly surprised to see 10:30 as my wake up time. Is it allowed to just say that you have had two HORRIBLE running days and not dredge up the specifics? I hope so because that is exactly what I am going to do:)
I have finally decided on a "goal" for the first part of the year. I am running Grandma's Marathon in June. I love that marathon! Actually, I have only run 3 marathons and all have been in Minnesota, so I guess I should say that I love Minnesota!! Seriously, though, I have nothing but great things to say about Grandma's. And, my only DNF also came from there, so I have had a variety of experiences there and still love it. My first marathon was there and I death marched home the last 10k in 49 minutes and missed my goal by a little over 3 minutes. The next year, I ran a minute faster than my goal and negative splitted and ran my fastest marathon yet and felt like I could have run another one the same pace. I won't give details about the DNF because who needs to relive that! So, I am really hoping to turn around my bad luck from the past few years and run a really great marathon in June. Patience is really the big, huge key for me (everybody, I think, but I can only really speak for myself) I tend to feel HUGE guilt if I am not logging HUGE miles. I feel like I am wasting time when I have an easy day and I get very fristrated with myself.
The big "problem" I am having with my return to serious training is balancing eating and running. I know what I need to do to run well, but I want to lose those few non-serious training pounds NOW not gradually. But, I know that I am only hurting myself and that I will struggle big time training if I am not eating enough. I am always amazed when I read some of the blog entries that mention not eating dinner. I think that women- ok, so I should only speak for myself- I tend to think that eating less helps or that somehow there is power in training ( and, thus, not eating) yourself down to a bone. Repeatedly, though, my body has shown me that it performs better (especially in longer races) when I am a little heavier. So, my goal for the next 6-7 months is to hang with the training schedule my advisor puts before me and eat well. I refuse to call coffee and cream my breakfast, only to inhale a bag of tortilla chips two days later because I haven't fueled myself properly and then wonder why I have had "bad" runs.
I am just rambling thoughts that I had on my way home from my slog fest today. I asked a friend (and former boyfriend) to help me hash out a schedule through my marathon. I did this a while back and he has given me some really good feedback. I am excited that he has agreed to help me because I know that we tend to think enough alike that I will believe in whatever he suggests. And, I am assured that I will not be asked to run 5 miles a day or something that could put me over the deep end. He has run enough and had enough success and failures to have a pretty good grasp on the difference between training yourself into the ground (which he did while we were together) and training yourself to run well (which he has also done a fair amount of!) He is truly an amazingly, strong person. His mileage was WAY up in the double digits (and I mean WAY up). Ok, if I start talking more about him, I'm going to have to admit that I really never stopped loving him(although I know that our split is healthier for me). So, I will stop:)
I am hoping to drag a new friend to sushi tonight. I am not sure it will happen, but if it doesn't I have to do something "fun" tonight. Today is going to be spent stuffing my face and getting ready for a great training day tomorrow. I guess I should also start thinking about Christmas shopping! I am trying to get some friends together for a cookie baking night next week. Anyone who knows me laughs at the thought of me and baking, but for some reason, I have it set in my mind that I want to bake cookies. I'll just have to be sure to squelch the urge to leave them in for a few more minutes, which always results in burning whatever I am attempting to cook. I baked cookies for the middle schoolers I was coaching 2 falls ago and being the sweeties they are, one of them said, "These are really good!" Keep in mind that I had more or less burned half the batch and figured I would bring them all because it was better than nothing, so this kid was just being polite! I think middle schoolers get a bad rap as being pains. I love that age! They are still sweet and kind and say exactly what they are thinking, but it's not a bad thing. They are just honest. I often wonder why we adults couldn't be more like 6th graders!
Ok, I have lots and lots of food waiting for my consumption. Hope everyone has a great weekend and eats well!
Posted by lilly at 1:08 PM | Comments (2)
December 17, 2004
Easy Days
I have been having these terrible sleep nights lately. I wake up every hour and have trouble getting back to sleep. The only thing different is that I am taking a multi vitamin immediately before I go to sleep and I will be changing that today to see if it helps.
Yesterday was an easy running day. I ran 8 easy miles in the morning and felt great for the first few miles and began the slog home at about the halfway point. I was happy I was far enough from home that if I turned around it would be the same distance than if I kept running because I was tempted to cut it short. After eating lunch, I took a LONG nap (although I mostly had my eyes open during it!) and went to tutor.
I am a math tutor at a school for special needs kids during the day. It's a great place- very accepting and liberal and a place where I never feel any kind of judgement. For example, I wore my running sweats to work yesterday, knowing that I wanted to run a second run and that it would be easier mentally to already be dressed, and I never got a second look. It's all about being nice to the kids, building their self esteem/confidence and helping them in any way possible. I had a new kid last night. He is a junior in high school and in honors algebra 2 with trig. I much prefer the younger kids(and usually I work with grades 5-8 who are really struggling) and so this kid was a real challenge. It worked out fine, but I now have some "homework" during the break to figure out some of the mistakes he made on previous tests (luckily, we were not able to get to them during that hour because it all looks Greek to me!) After work, I ran another 5 miles in the cold and dark. If anyone is in Maine and looking for a place to run in the southern part of the state that has wide, wide shoulders and great snow removal, route 77 in Cape Elizabeth is it. My dad pointed this fact out to me a few years ago when we were having a particularly brutal winter and I was complaining about running inside too much. Soooo, my run was okay. I rarely time my runs and run by how I feel because I do not believe that you can ever run too slow! Obviously, I am not going to be walking, but if I need to run 8-8:30 pace to recover and run a good, hard workout when I am supposed to, I have never seen the point in beating myself on easy days. I do most of my training alone and LOVE it. Running with people forces you to run where they want, when they want, how fast they want or at least you need to come to some sort of compromise and it's just easier to do it on my own terms:) I have always felt like it's my time to think and enjoy my run and think about what I want from life and running.
I met a friend for Japanese afterwards and had a great time catching up with her. I tried sushi about a year ago for the first time and loved it. I seem to always order the same things lately- salmon or tuna maki-rolls and seaweed salad with lots and lots of tea. What a great treat! I did my situps, pushups and ab routine before bed and was happy to end the day. It was a great day, but I was quite tired and was looking forward to a good night of sleep. It didn't happen, so now I am trying to wake myself with coffee and a decent breakfast before braving the cold and doing a baby tempo run today. I am thinking that 6:30 pace sounds about right for now. This workout is supposed to be like a half workout, so I am figuring that pace should be fast enough that I am not jogging but slow enough that it's "half workout" pace. I have to get moving towards the road.
I still haven't figured out how to spell check, so sorry for any mistakes!
Posted by lilly at 8:51 AM | Comments (2)
December 15, 2004
Running in Place
Ok, so this is my first blog entry and I already had trouble coming up wtih a title! Today was a longer run day and it was brutally cold. Sooooo, I wimped out and ran on the treadmill for 2 easy hours (which better be AT LEAST 15 miles). I met a friend for lunch to talk about whether or not he should run for city council next year. After lunch, I promptly took an hour nap and found it tough to fall asleep, but it felt great to rest. I planned to do some step ups in the afternoon to get my legs used to lifting higher than a shuffle. This is an idea from a friend who had some great marathon success when he was doing lots of them, so I figure it won't hurt me (although, I must admit that they were much tougher than I initially thought). I remember seeing him do them and wondering why he wasn't moving faster. 2 minutes of stepups answered that question for me!!! Part of the initial soreness was doing them in the basement, where the surface is cement. Grass is a much more forgiving surface! Unfortunately, I was meeting a friend for some Chirstmas shopping and the cold wasn't an incentive to being outside near dark, so I did 17 minutes of stepups in the basement. Ok, I am boring myself, so I will end here. It feels weird writing a blog because I have so much fun reading everyone else's blogs that I feel like whatever I am writing is just boring and self absorbed. I guess it takes time to get used to writing for everyone to see. I usually keep some kind of journal, but no one reads that craziness except for me! Time for bed. Oh and thanks to Alison for letting me be part of this blogging community.
Posted by lilly at 9:19 PM | Comments (4)