Suddenly in these past few weeks, I dread running. 60 degrees is too cold to go out. It's too windy. The grey sky is too depressing. My legs are tired. Why did I sign up for another marathon anyway? I don't want to run a marathon. There's too much going on in my life. The cats need me around to help them adjust to their new home. I need to sell my condo. I need to plan a wedding party. I need to plan a wedding ceremony. Running is hard. Running takes time. I'm tired of my same old routes. I'm going to miss my old routes when I move. I hate running during rush hour. Maybe I'll sign up for Oprah's online book club. I'm hungry. I can't run when I'm hungry. I can't run when I'm full. It's too dark to run.
How about that. I actually feel a little better now. Okay, okay, I'm going.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
bad runner
I really blew off my training last week. Maybe I let the 20-miler the Saturday before go to my head. In any case, I didn't run again until 5 miles on Thursday and then the 16-miler Saturday. Not surprisingly my pace was back down. Not as bad as 11 minutes, but almost at 10:45.
It's possible the carb-loading I did before the 20-miler may have helped my pace as well. I usually forget about what I'm eating and how it impacts my running.
On the bright side, I have been very good about doing my strength training every Monday and am getting stronger. I can now actually DO some of the moves that seemed physically impossible when I started about a month and a half ago. I may be able to run long distances, but I am as strong as a two-year old.
In unrelated news, the cats were officially moved into MOB's place over the weekend and I'll be putting my cozy, wonderful condo out on this beast of a market. My "Midtown Life" will soon be behind me. It's kind of a significant point in all of our lives. You would think with all of this change going on, I'd have lots to post about, but it seems to have the opposite effect on me.
The new life is going to be terrific and I'm so looking forward to finally getting things resettled. Maybe I'm afraid that if I post about all the unsettling of my old life, it will seem that I don't appreciate what's ahead. In any case, we're getting closer day by day!
It's possible the carb-loading I did before the 20-miler may have helped my pace as well. I usually forget about what I'm eating and how it impacts my running.
On the bright side, I have been very good about doing my strength training every Monday and am getting stronger. I can now actually DO some of the moves that seemed physically impossible when I started about a month and a half ago. I may be able to run long distances, but I am as strong as a two-year old.
In unrelated news, the cats were officially moved into MOB's place over the weekend and I'll be putting my cozy, wonderful condo out on this beast of a market. My "Midtown Life" will soon be behind me. It's kind of a significant point in all of our lives. You would think with all of this change going on, I'd have lots to post about, but it seems to have the opposite effect on me.
The new life is going to be terrific and I'm so looking forward to finally getting things resettled. Maybe I'm afraid that if I post about all the unsettling of my old life, it will seem that I don't appreciate what's ahead. In any case, we're getting closer day by day!
Monday, February 11, 2008
On the sidelines
For the first time ever, I was on the sidelines cheering someone else on at a race this past weekend. It was odd to stand around near the starting area on the wrong side of the fence, but kind of enjoyable to experience the thrill of a race by proxy - without having to sweat for it. The hardest thing I had to do was clap my bare hands in the cold weather. (My fingers were pruned and numb just from the cold! I'm really sensitive to cold - have I mentioned that yet??)
Luckily, MOB was running the half-marathon, so I didn't have to wait too long. (He came in 125th overall! That's my guy! :)
And I got to witness a neck and neck, back and forth fight for the finish line of the half. You can watch video of it: click here. They went by in a flash. You can kind of make me out in my tan jacket on the right of the screen at the very very beginning of the video. Don't look too hard though or you may strain your eyes.
Birmingham is a very very quiet town on the weekend, but I will give it kudos for being very clean and having a working trolley down the main street. Birmingham didn't even exist as a city until 1871 and grew up as a steel town. Don't know why I thought it was around longer than that. The free, donation only, art museum was worth a visit.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
The hills didn't get me today
I felt so much better running my 20-miler today than I did on last week's 18-miler that at one point I even started to wonder of I had accidentally mapped out a shorter route, but that wasn't the case. It was just a better run.
Last week's 18-miler time: 3 hrs 18 min, a 11 min pace
This week's 20-miler time: 3 hrs 31 min, a 10:33 min pace
Go figure.
Last week's 18-miler time: 3 hrs 18 min, a 11 min pace
This week's 20-miler time: 3 hrs 31 min, a 10:33 min pace
Go figure.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
20 miler coming up!
Here's the run on the menu for Saturday... then we jump into a car to go to Birmingham for MOB's Half Marathon on Sunday. I'm looking forward to cheering MOB on - I think this will be the first race of his since I've known him that I'm not also in...
Monday, February 4, 2008
What happened to my pace?
My long runs have been abysmally slow these past few weeks. I feel like I'm in a lot better shape now than I was for either of the two previous marathons I did, but it's not showing in my time. Granted, the routes I'm running are maybe 10x hillier than those races were.
At this rate, I don't think I can hope to match the 10:10 minute pace (4.26) that I managed in my first marathon. I don't even think I can match the 10:38 pace (4.39) I managed in my second marathon- the one in which I hurt my knee right after passing the half-way mark. In that one, I held back tears as I miserably forced myself to run/walk through the pain for 2 1/2 hours until I reached the finish line.
My hope going into that second marathon was to finish it in 4 hours. I felt so ready and I wasn't far off my target at the halfway point. It was a flat flat course. It's that sense of regret for how badly that second half went that has been driving me to want to do just one more marathon and finish strong this time - maybe not fast, but at least not in tears.
These hills are killing me. I know I'm going to be slow, but I hope that at least by training on the race route, I'll have a measure of protection against injury. And when this race is over, there will be nothing but shorter races and strong legs that I can work on speed with.
At this rate, I don't think I can hope to match the 10:10 minute pace (4.26) that I managed in my first marathon. I don't even think I can match the 10:38 pace (4.39) I managed in my second marathon- the one in which I hurt my knee right after passing the half-way mark. In that one, I held back tears as I miserably forced myself to run/walk through the pain for 2 1/2 hours until I reached the finish line.
My hope going into that second marathon was to finish it in 4 hours. I felt so ready and I wasn't far off my target at the halfway point. It was a flat flat course. It's that sense of regret for how badly that second half went that has been driving me to want to do just one more marathon and finish strong this time - maybe not fast, but at least not in tears.
These hills are killing me. I know I'm going to be slow, but I hope that at least by training on the race route, I'll have a measure of protection against injury. And when this race is over, there will be nothing but shorter races and strong legs that I can work on speed with.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Everything's just fine...
I've long since learned that when my non-runner friends and family ask me how my running is going, they're just being polite. They really don't want to hear about my pace, the hilly routes, my running shoes... I've learned that the best answer is simply "Fine, thanks."
That lesson now needs to be applied to the question I am getting these days "How are your wedding plans going?" Yesterday, I found myself responding with an explanation of how I designed and redesigned my wedding invitations, triumphantly located good, cheap paper after hours of searching the internet, and finally finished them with a red ribbon and a wax seal.
Considering how much time and thought I put into them, it seemed noteworthy enough to me. However, that moment of awkward silence that followed my answer brought the familiar lesson home to me. "Fine thanks" will do in the future!
That lesson now needs to be applied to the question I am getting these days "How are your wedding plans going?" Yesterday, I found myself responding with an explanation of how I designed and redesigned my wedding invitations, triumphantly located good, cheap paper after hours of searching the internet, and finally finished them with a red ribbon and a wax seal.
Considering how much time and thought I put into them, it seemed noteworthy enough to me. However, that moment of awkward silence that followed my answer brought the familiar lesson home to me. "Fine thanks" will do in the future!
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