New Scheme

Today I didn't wake up until 6:30 a.m., which means there is no way I could run and get to work before 10:00. My hours are somewhat flexible, but they are not THAT flexible. So, I morosely went off to work.

At about 11 a.m, I had the brilliant idea to come home for lunch, change into my running clothes, and take a 3 mile run... then put my work clothes back on and head back to work. It worked wonderfully! I got to take a nice run, it was glorious at noon - which is a time I never run. I went back to work looking somewhat worse for the wear, but not too bad.

I think this new plan might work! It is so hard at this time of the year to get a run in before work.

I also want to say that I am so encouraged that my 8 mile run on Saturday caused no soreness whatsoever. I will try 9 miles this weekend! I may actually be able to do this!!!

Running Fool

This morning I woke up with a migraine. So, I ate a bowl of cereal, took a motrin, and headed out for my long run. Yes, that is sane. My headache was so bad that I drove around for nearly an hour looking for a park I have been going to for almost 24 years... I guess I am suffering from Migraine Induced Cognitive Impairment. (is there such a thing?)

I gave up on the park and went to another one that is closer to my home and I know where it is. I actually ran 8 miles in record time. Record SLOW time. You know, I think I am done with the concept of running around and around and around a lake. It is just boring. The path is dirt, I thought it would be dry, but I was wrong. It was muddy and lumpy and rutted and hard to run on. But I did it anyway. I feel good about persevering - even though I probably shouldn't have. I just now looked over and there is even a bit of mud on my Garmin - that is a lot of mud when you get it on your wrist!

I am now going to eat lunch and go to bed. I hope I will sleep away the afternoon and when I wake up my headache will be gone!

Spirit of the Marathon

Last night I met a friend and her daughter at the theater and we all watched "Spirit of the Marathon." I loved this movie. It gave me a much-needed shot in the arm as far as motivation goes. I could relate to the 70 year old man!

I just did a google blog search to see who was blogging about the movie. Imagine that once again, I find that runners are somehow insulted that anyone other than a stellar athlete should be running a marathon. One of the posts about the movie is entitled "Boo hoo I'm a runner." And the post very sarcastically laments that the movie might feature a formerly overweight single mom who gets emotional when she finishes a marathon. The movie also features world class runners. I thought it was balanced and wonderful!

One thing that was really fabulous was the demographic of the audience. I don't believe there was one bag of popcorn in that whole theater. Or jumbo cup of icy pop. There were lots of bottles of water, and that was about it. A bunch of people leaping up the stairs to the high seats. A bunch of really fit and mostly happy people. We cheered and clapped and generally had a good time as an audience.

A marathon. Imagine. Wow. I am actually registered and training for one.

Getting Better

I ran past this sign this morning on my run (yes! I actually ran!) as I have done probably hundreds of times, and as I past, I thought "WHAT did that say?" So, I stopped my garmin, backed up and read the sign. I thought it was probably appropriate to many situations, especially the workplace, so I took a picture. It will probably be my desktop on my computer at work before the end of the day.

So, I feel like I am back on track. I swam half a mile on Monday. I ran 2 miles (in record time) on Tuesday. I did my abs workout yesterday (waah, I hate this!) and today I ran another 2 miles - adding in hills and therefore no record times. I am going to be careful to ease back into my training. I do not want to get hurt.

I am going to meet a friend at "The Spirit of the Marathon" tonight. I am looking forward to seeing it and I hope it will get me fired up to run my upcoming marathon.

Did anyone see that there is now a Garmin Forerunner 405? Oh dear. It doesn't look like a Dick Tracy watch like my Garmin Forerunner 305. One more thing to want. drat.

Negative Toes

This afternoon, I woke up from a nap and was so lazy, I didn't want to get out of bed... so I picked up my cell phone and started playing around with it. Imagine my surprise when I saw that it would take pictures in negative. So after about a half hour, I opted to take a bath, and decided to take a picture of my toes in negative. I don't know why. I really don't know why I would post it here, but I did. So there.

Today I also could not muster the energy to run. But I did drive to the gym and put on my swimming suit and hit the pool for the first time since last August. It felt great! And I wasn't even much slower than I am when I am all trained up. Now all I have to do is find a way to want to run again.

I noticed tonight that one of my blog referrals is my neighbor! I have linked to him here. We run the same route many days. He always seems to hit it a tad earlier than I do though.

This winter has got to END! I want to run in shorts! I want to run without sleeves! I want to run EARLY in the morning before it gets hot. I have 18 weeks now before my marathon and I have got to start training. I don't quite know how I am going to do this.

Registered for another race (I'm not training for...)

I registered last week for the Tri for the Cure in August. Last year it was not a stellar experience, but I will try it again. I long to cross train. Now, mind you, I still have a marathon to train for.

I have not run now since Feb. 6 (due to injuries). I have now been able to run for maybe 3 or 4 days, but my schedule is horrible. I am wondering how I managed to be so disciplined last year. I think my wack-a-doo Nike + iPod really motivated me. I was in all kinds of competitive challenges - and those made me get out of bed on cold mornings and make time to run. I think I may purchase another Nike + (mine died). I will be sure to get it calibrated so that it is correct.

I have been doing core work with my balance ball. It is fun and it hurts. So, it must be good, right?

Oh please Spring come back to me. I need to hear birds singing. I need to feel sunshine on my skin. And I need to run outside.

Thinking instead of running

Thought I would include a picture of my striped hair... for no good reason...

I was urged by many people to take a week off from running - even though I am no longer in pain. I wanted to run tomorrow, but I will wait. I also did something today that hurt. I asked a friend from work, who happens to be a recreational therapist, if she could recommend some 'core' exercises. Oh, that hurt! She has told me for a couple of years that I needed to strengthen my 'core', and I fought the idea. But this last bout of pain scared the crap out of me. So, she laughed at me, but then she went to the store and got me some DVDs that should be helpful to me. I will get them (and pay her for them) tomorrow. Oh, God help me. She will nag me relentlessly about this.

Tonight in the mail I got a letter from my sister. Stuffed in the envelope was an article from the New York Times (she lives in NYC) entitled "Staying One Step Ahead of Aging." Some little quotes from it are: "Some runners are faster at 60 than 50" and "When you have to choose between exercising hard and often, hard is the better choice." She said she thought of me when she saw the article. That made me happy (probably about as happy as the rec therapist at work was when I asked her about core exercises.) My sister has never run a step in her life. She smoked until she was in her 60s, and thinks I am wack-a-doo for running. The letter felt so nice to me - maybe she does understand in some small way!

I am trying to arrange to meet 2 other women at the encore showing of "The Spirit of the Marathon" on Feb. 21. We are having logistical difficulties. Hopefully we can get them worked out. I would really like to see this movie.

OK. That's enough out of me!

19 Weeks

First of all, congratulations to everyone who participated in 9 on the 9th. You guys and gals inspire me every single day.

Second, with 4 days now since my last run, I am feeling much better. It took till yesterday to realize that it was truly my hip that was hurting. Specifically the acetabulum (I would hate to have taken all the years of Anatomy and Physiology, and Pathophysiology and not use the big impressive medical words I learned!) It took a great deal of self-restraint to NOT go out and run this morning. But I counted up how many weeks until the Mayor's Marathon on June 21 - there are still 19 weeks, so technically, I still have three weeks until I start my training in earnest.

Third, I went to my favorite running store (Runners' Roost, Lakewood) on Friday and the owner said "I saw your blog!" She is such a nice lady and it is a joy to go to that store. I then wondered how she found my blog and thought about getting a site meter - I have one on my other blog and have found that the ways people find blogs are very interesting indeed. This desire was also fueled by Wenster finding that she was findable under "cactus attack."

So I did install a site meter and imagine my dismay to find that since Friday, the number one search that netted my blog is "Z-pac". Holy crap. I titled one of my entries that way when I was sick with bronchitis and was hopeful that the Zithromicin would get it out of me (and it did.) So, clearly I have not arrived on the radar as a middle aged fitness maven.

Oh, and another search was for the name of the person who wrote the awful letter to People Magazine about Katie Holmes disgracing the entire sport of Marathon running by coming in at 5 and a half hours. I hadn't realized that he was a famous marathoner, I thought he was just some random jerk who wrote a letter to People Magazine.

Fun with Site Meter! And it is Free!

Fourth: I got my hair cut on Saturday. I hope my hair stylist doesn't find my blog because I am not real happy about this. When I heard that her Dad died two weeks ago and she was completely and utterly destroyed, I should have offered my support, and then run the other way. I now have striped red, blonde, and brown hair. It was KINDA this way before, but it was really, really cute. Now it is striped and the red is RED. Not auburn, not strawberry, but cherry kool-aid red. yikes.

Some day soon I am going to be writing about running again. And I am anxious to do so.

oh crap.

I am hurting so bad that I took a day off of work today, just to sit and try to figure out what is going on. I had a secret hope that if I got a really good night's sleep, it would help. However, the pain prevented sleeping all night.
The pain starts in the upper left portion of my back. Then it travels to my hip. Which really really hurts. It feels like the acetabulum is full of ground glass. Then my left thigh hurts, but I think it is just because it is between my hip and my knee.
The knee hurts, not nearly as bad as my hip though. It just feels old and decrepit.
The tibialis muscle just below my knee is extremely sensitive - even to touch - I have no clue what that is about.
My ankle even hurts. I think it is just because it is attached to all that other pain.

I can't understand why this is all on the left side of my body. I almost went out and ran this morning and then I thought to myself " ARE YOU CRAZY?" and then I didn't go out and run. I think I will go for a swim later on this afternoon and perhaps sit in the hot tub for a while (and be really really thankful that I have been going to the evil tanning salon since January).

I almost called the doctor this morning, but then I thought that I would see how a weekend off of work and school would calm my pain. I will call if I am still in pain on Monday. Part of me thinks I am just so tired that I am in pain. I had class all day Saturday last week, then on Sunday I ended up doing all the stuff you have to do on the weekend... then back to work on Monday. I was busy all day at work every day this week and every night I had something to do too. I even went to my first caucus on Tuesday night!

Thanks for listening to this complaining (complete with illustrations).

Washington Park

This morning I went to Washington Park to run my planned 7 miles. And I did it! When I got to the park, I realized there was a 5K race - it was relatively small, I actually thought about registering for it, but then I would have run only 3 miles.

The first mile of this run was absolute torture. Why, oh why does my digestive system decide to "get moving" when I do? I thought I was going to have to quit after a mile, but then I found a porta potty - and then I felt great the rest of the way.

The porta potty was so nice, I took a picture of the nice mirrors on the back of the door. I have never seen such a nice porta potty!

Today I had negative splits for the first time ever (?) My best pace was for my 7th mile. It was a minute faster than the second mile, and almost 2 minutes faster than my first mile. But that first mile was rather scary.

At about 5 miles, a lady in the park shouted out to me "How many miles are you running?" I told her "Seven." She said something encouraging like "all right!" It was nice.

I think I might make this park a regular for weekend runs. It is not particularly close to home, but it is nice to not have to deal with any dang hills! The altitude is also several hundred feet lower - I don't know if a couple hundred feet matter, but it seems like it does.

So I am actually on track for my marathon training! Yay!