Break out

Today I ran past Centre Street.

I broke past that psychological barrier and ran as far as the Kosher strip mall on my Heartbreak Hill run. I broke past that corner of Centre and Commonwealth, past the mental barrier of "I can make it one mile..."

Last night I looked at the map site to figure out where to turn around if I wanted to do a 3 mile run. This morning, just before I got started, the inner loser spoke up.

"Excuse me, but THREE miles. Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Freakin' inner loser. If I didn't think it was a good idea I wouldn't be planning it now would I? On the other hand, given my knee and now my ankle - which is bugging me because I was favoring my knee - was it a good idea?

So I decided I would decide when I got to Centre Street.

At Centre Street, it felt good and when I realized I was at the Kosher strip mall, I figured I had gone far enough for this morning. In the end my Heartbreak Hill run was 2.5 miles this morning on a day when I almost turned around and went home more than a few times.

First I almost didn't make it out the door because I overslept. Normally I get there at 7 am, I didn't leave the house until almost 8. Most of the parking spaces at City Hall were taken, then I noticed an empty stretch. I forgot my watch and key pocket and I hadn't eaten.

Finally I said, "I'm here, I'm going to do this." I decided I'd relax and take my time and when I got home I'd figure out what song I was on when I finished, went to put my key in the mp3 player case (and discovered it has a key pocket inside) and shoved my inhaler in my cleavage.

The difference between running at 7 am and 8 am is the commuter traffic. At 7 am there's traffic on Comm Ave, but the carriage road is pretty much empty. Around 8 am or so, you get little back ups in traffic and people trying to avoid the traffic will cut down the carriage road to get to the lights. So every so often you'd get some moron in an SUV barrelling down the hill and you have jump onto the median or the sidewalk to avoid them. (As a side note, it's even worse in the evening commute.)

I was glad I did remember to bring my shades this time through, the sun was pretty bright. The problem with them is that people tend to avoid saying "hi" or trying to make eye contact because your eyes are hidden behind a pair of polarized lenses. I missed being able to smile, nod and greet my fellow runners and walkers this morning. But I was equally glad not to be squinting.

Coming back down the hill, I kept an mind's eye out for my virtual trainers - Cap'n Tek and Johnny Kelley. I guess Tek's on west coast time right now because I didn't see him out there. At the bottom of the hill, I did let Johnny know I made it past Centre Street. "Just 24 to go now Johnny, not 24.2," I called out as I passed the statue.

He was applaudig as I crossed the finish line but had faded by the time I was able to walk it off and stretch. The important thing was that he was there today.

By not having a watch to pace myself, I had to be more aware of the back beat in the music. I also wasn't pushing myself to go faster. I couldn't use my mantra of "13 up/12 down" - not even in a modified manner - because I had no way of checking times. By adding up the music times and plugging that into the pace calculator - I ran about a 14 minute pace today. I'd need to get that time down next time, but I'll take it for today.

Running Club: Week 2

Tonight was the second week of the running club at BSC to get ready for the Tufts 10K.

The clinic is run by a personal trainer from the club and he's a military guy. That can be a good thing when you're warming up in Copley Square and the drunks are hanging out on the benches hassling you. One guy got a little too close and he used that military voice to chase him off. Nothing mean or nasty, just that authoritive, "Hey buddy, I need you to step away now," with the tone and we're golden.

Basically he spends about a half hour doing stretching and warm up exercises. I can understand some of them like the squats and such - but the freaking down on all fours to stretch your hip flexers... not gonna happen. Especially with the spectators looking on.

Also, this girl ain't jumping. When you're blessed with a big chest, jumping jack, bounders and a few other bouncy, bouncy type things are just a hair too much. I'm not only one of the oldest women in the group, but I'm the only one who looks like she's got her own personal set of airbags in case I go down face first.

Because Mr. Bear made me wear a knee brace (he's a good bear), the first mile of the tonight's two miler (it was really 2.1 miles... but close enough) was fine. It was slow - a 13 minute pace - but fine. At the one mile mark, I knew my knee didn't want to run back, so my "buddy" and I walked with this other woman in the group. I couldn't keep pace with her - she was fast! I would walk for five, jog for one going back so it only took about 16 minutes to get back (a total of 29 minutes tonight). Again, not one of my greatest paces, but I did manage to comfortably make the distance.

Next week is a 3 mile run and I'm determined to run the whole three miles. So I may make all my runs this week 3 milers and add an extra one in. I also realize I need to give Carol a call so we can get a couple of runs in before the next time she's able to go back to the clinic.

Now if only I could talk Chaya into this, it would be too cool for words.

Just another Manic Monday

I will be so glad when the kids are back in school.

Yesterday I was all set to go to the pool, but then the clouds started rolling in. I was worried that the weather would shift to predicted sudden thunderstorms (which, by the way, never arrived) and changed my focus to the walking a mile here and walking a mile there. I ended up covering over four miles by doing that.

I wanted to make sure my knee was OK - and it seems to be. So that's good. I'll go to the running clinic tonight and get myself back on track.

My goals this week are simple:

- running clinic tonight
- xt tomorrow - perhaps I'll pull out my bike and chart a course.
- heartbreak hill run on Thursday, let's see if I can make the 13 up/12 down this week
- xt Friday
- LSD of 4 miles Saturday

Oh yeah - that 5k I ran the other day in Brockton was actually 3.3 miles, not 3.1 which means I ran a 13:35 pace in spite of mostly walking that last mile with my knee. At least now I don't feel like a total loser.

One race, two race, good race, bad race

The first thing I heard this morning was rain dropping on the AC unit. In it's steady drumming I was thrilled - I like running in the rain and if it was raining, it would be a good race day. Unfortunately, it stopped but left a wet, heavy blanket of humidity that wrapped around me and dragged me down.

Gazelle boy and I joked a lot at the start - how he had to beat the tough tattooed boys of the Brockton x-country team and if he got beaten by someone pushing a stroller there would be no end to the taunting. He started at the front, I started in the back and we were off.

The course had 9 turns in it and were pretty well marked. It wound through the neighborhood behind Brockton High School, through the parking lot, around the soccer field and back through the other parking lot to enter the stadium with a finish by running along the warning track and crossing at home plate. Even though it was a road race, it was really an all terrain race: asphalt, concrete, mud, grass, gravel and clay. As I said, this was done under a gray sky with a blanke of humidity wrapped around us all.

I started well. Again I went out a bit too fast, finishing the first mile in 11 and change. I knew if I didn't slow down, I'd be burned out too quickly so I did the one minute recovery walk so I could start again at my pace. It's a good way to reset my pace and I was doing fine until I hit the soccer field.

Because it had been a soaking rain, running over the uneven edge around a soccer field was not a happy thing. About 1/3 of the way through there I lost my footing and righted myself before falling - but not before I felt my knee do something odd. I started walking with little checks to myself: is it swollen? No. Is it red? No. Does it hurt? Well, it's a bit tender and sore. Should I run? Let's give it a try... probably not.

I passed the two mile marker at 24:24 (double Jack Bauers) thinking, "Damn, I'm on pace for a PR." So I tried running again - nope, not gonna happen. I tried to walk quickly - not quite race walk, but briskly almost marching. That was OK, so I was going to finish and not let the inner loser drag or a sore knee drag me down. I tried running for a couple of minutes ("Just to that cone..." "You can make it past the women with the stroller...") but the knee was unhappy and now the ankles were also unhappy because I realize I'm not distributing my weight properly.

I slow it down a little and keep moving. Some guy from the running club putting this on thinks I need encouragement - but it grated on me this time. "Just jog and walk, you're near the end and you can do it."

"I hurt my knee."

"You can make it."

"Listen, I twisted my knee on the soccer field. Is there first aid at the finish line?"

"Oh... can you make it?"

"I'll make it - just I should ice it when I finish."

He scampered off - I assumed to let someone know.

Again I start thinking, "This is almost over - can I run to the giant baseballs?" Then I walked to the 3 mile sign and decided, "Dammit, I'm going to run to home plate." I ran the last .1 mile around the puddles on the warning track and finished in 44 and change. Not my worst time but it certainly isn't the PR I wanted and was on track for.

Crossing the finish line I asked for ice for my knee. (Remember the guy who scampered off...I never saw him again.) It took a little bit but finally someone brought me a bag of ice. DH got me some food and I sat with my leg up, icing it down for about 20 minutes.

Gazelle Boy won his age group and came in 10th overall. He got a cool trophy with a spinny thing on it. Unfortunately, the spinny broke and DH is going to figure out how to fix it so it's spinny again. DH and the youngest did the walk. The youngest said they would have done much better if DH didn't stop to ask to look at the race volunteers' maps three or four times.

In the end, it wasn't a good race for me (obviously), but it was for Gazelle Boy. DH and the youngest had fun - so overall it was a good thing. We didn't stay for the ball game, it's not until 5 pm and we were worn out.

As I was sitting there during the award ceremony, I got hit with an odd thought. If Tek is my virtual coach and he's out with a knee injury - does that mean I should hire a new virtual coach since I now seem to have one? But then I realized I could never fire Cap'n Tek - he's the best. But I suspect I'll be seeing him leaning on his crutches with a stop watch in his hand and a whistle around his neck on future runs. No more namby, pamby, whining inner losers. Cap'n Tek is going to banish them as surely as he keeps A-Rod in control after showing him who A-Rod's daddy truly was (two words: glove wash). Tek will whip me back into shape and get me going again, of that I'm sure.

So I'm home and I'll keep the knee up, eat some ibuprofen and read the Sunday papers. Tomorrow I'll swim and see how I feel. Hopefully I'll be back to normal by Tuesday and take it from there.

Rolling on the river

I didn't do anything yesterday.

Well, it's not that I didn't do anything - it's just that I didn't run or cross train at all yesterday. So I'll call it a rest day.

That left me with a little dilemma today. Since I'm running a race tomorrow, what (if anything) should I do today? I thought about maybe going for a short run - like a mile or so but then I got a bright idea. With the younges and DH in the car, I said, "Hey, let's go kayaking!"

Keep in mind I haven't been kayaking in like 30 years and the last time I was out in any small craft was a canoe about 6 or 7 years ago. So why I thought of this, I really have no clue. But off we went to Charles River Canoe and Kayak to paddle away.

Because I had on my cargo shorts, everything was in my pockets - including my camera.

I know what you're thinking and no, I didn't dump them overboard or swamp them by accident. In fact, I took some lovely pictures... as you can see. It's hard to believe that this spot is under an major highway interchange of 128 and the Mass Pike - and yet here is this calm beauty in the middle of modern life.

We kayaked for about an hour - a little over a half hour upstream and then taking our time back downstream to the rental place.

For a workout it was a mild, pleasant upper body workout. I don't think I'll wait 30 years for the next time I go kayaking but I will remember to bring a ziploc bag to put the camera in... just in case.

26:09

I began beating back my inner loser again. First yesterday I managed to get into the pool and do my half mile. I have to admit that one of the ways I was able to do that was to make Mr. Pi go with me.

He swam a quarter mile and my last few laps he was practicing his "encouragement." I'd say "two more to go" and he'd reply, "keep going Mom, you can do it." It was really funny.

This morning I beat back my inner loser again running up Heartbreak Hill. First I actually hauled my sorry butt out of bed at 6:30 - something I haven't done in some time. (I don't call getting up at 6/6:30 last week as counting because it was really 9/9:30 as far as my body was concerned.) I got dressed and headed over to Newton City Hall to run Heartbreak Hill for my 2 miler.

For those of you who know Commonwealth Avenue, there is a carriage road that runs beside it - a residual from the days when the people in the big houses along the main drag needed such a thing. At some point things got paved over and the road structure remained the narrower lane separated from the main drag by a median strip.

The carriage road that runs along Commonwealth Ave. belongs to the walkers, runners and cyclists in the early morning hours. We take it up in singles and groups. Some people, usually the cyclists, are going somewhere while others are just out for a morning constitutional.

I start at the corner of Lowell Ave, a block beyond the Johnny Kelley statue. I take a warm up walk, stretch while Freddy Mercury croons "nothing's gonna stop me now" in my ear. Just as David Bowie yells out, "Wham bam thank you ma'am," I begin my 1 mile run up the hill.

The first block is easy - it's fairly level and when I get to the corner to wait for the light I usually call out, "Good morning Johnny," as I pass by the statue - then the climb begins. As I start up the next block I pass a couple of knots of walkers. They are older people and it's always a source of amusement to see which member is pushing the other to do this.

This is where I see my first runner as the Hives blast out see the idiot walk. I don't know why it seems appropriate for this particular person - perhaps it's the way their iPod shuffle bounces all over his chest because he's wearing the neck lanyard instead of the arm band. I do nod and mumble good morning as I run past. I'm heading up the hill while he is running down. I'm going where he's been and there's something to be said for that.

I travel along to Bono and B B King singing trying to repeat my mantra: 13 up, 12 down. This is the goal I've set for this run - 13 minutes up to Centre Street and 12 minutes back down to Lowell. One of the super runners passes me. She is the type of person I imagine as a runner - long and thin with a tan and a stride. I suddenly remember I'm short and fat as I wonder if I'll make it while the Foo Fighters sing "Everlong" (breathe out so I can breathe you in), I reach the top of my hill - 13:21. Not bad, just a hair off my goal of 13 up.

I turn around at Centre Street since this is the 1 mile mark for me. Lenny Kravitz asks me, "Are you gonna go my way?" as I run down, glancing at my watch every so often. I'm hoping to make my 12 minutes down - negative splits and all that. On the way down I start passing the older couples. I notice that one woman has given up on her husband, determined to show she can do this even if he can't. She has that look on her face - the one you see in the faces of couples, particularly older ones, who are in that "I told you so" mode. As I pass them I need to see where I'm at and out loud I count out with Bono, "Uno, dos, tres, catorce - turn it up loud Captain!" I can do this with out panting, but the level of sweat tells me I'm working hard so I'm in a good zone.

There is a group of three overweight adults - all of them maybe in their 60's - struggling up the hill. It really is steep at this point so I give them a thumbs up and yell, "good job." One of them smiles and thanks me before saying, "looking good."

I have to stop my watch as I wait for the light at the final block. The carriage road crosses Walnut St. here - a major intersection. I bop around to the Ramone's "She's the One" as Johnny Kelley looks on from across the intersection. Just as they finish up, I start my watch again because the light changes and I wonder if I should walk the last block, but the infectious drumming of "American Idiot" keeps my feet moving at pace.

I decide I really like this mix as I trot down the last block - OK, it's really two blocks but it feels like one because I'm keeping the length of City Hall in my peripheral vision as I go past the doggie water fountain to the finish line marked by two octagonal stop signs. I run across the crosswalk with my arms raised up as if I just broke the tape. I've done it, I ran Heartbreak again and I did it in25:58 - not quite my 13 up/12 down, but close. Maybe next week.

Now it's time to cool down and stretch a little. I walk towards the car as Dave Grohl tells me he doesn't want to be my Monkey Wrench. I lean against a tree to stretch my calves, my soleus, quads and hams in my right leg and then do the same for my left leg. Just as I finish, it starts again. Freddy Mercury reminds me - nothing's gonna stop me now.

Training for a 10K

I signed up for the Tufts 10k.

I took the plunge, filled out the app gave them the financial info and I'm good to go.

When I told Mr. Pi (to the right with Red Sox ambassador and part time ball girl Meg - another in the stable of "hot women" he is "crushin' on"), he told me he was proud of me for sticking with this after he quit.

He also said he can't wait to hold up a sign that says "Go Mom!" along the route.

He did take my 30 day challenge and said that, towards the end, he ran farther than he ever thought he could, but he's not sure if he's going to keep it up. I'm making him go to the pool with me today while I do my laps and hoping he joins in.

Part of why I signed up was I got a call from a friend of mine who wanted to start running again and told me about the Running Clinic at the Boston Sports Club (BSC) on Tuesday nights. She wanted to know if I'd join her for the clinics. I figured it would be a good thing for me to do something like that, so I agreed.

Yesterday was supposed to be a 3 mile run, but since the weekly running clinic started last night, I figured I'd put it off to see what we'd be doing.

The clinic is being run by a military guy who works as a personal trainer at the club. (He a N'tl Guard Lt. - so he's part time military.) There were like 2 dozen women and two men there and my friend and I are the only ones over 40 in the group. First he had us doing all sorts of funky stretches, leg hops, agility drills and such and then we went for a 1 mile evaluation run.

Because this is Boston and we got rain for the first time in a long time yesterday, I didn't factor in things for myself like the humidity and allergens. About half way through the run, my asthma decided to pop up and say, "Hey there - how you doing?" I'm glad I had my inhaler with me, but I haven't needed it on a run in over a month so I forgot how much that takes out of me and we ended up walking the last half mile of the run.

I know I'm still a bit out of whack from the trip - so today is all about starting to resume normal schedules. After I swim, I'll drop stuff off at the library and go food shopping. I'll spend some time before swimming working out a game plan food-wise for the week and start getting back into my groove. I suspect that will make a big difference in terms of getting past this heavy, plodding feeling that's been trying to creep over me.

Home Again

We're home. Last night I crashed for about 11 hours. I'm not surprised given that we took a red-eye home and the time changes and such. So today I woke up and realized that I still had an LSD to do this week of 4 miles.

All morning long I struggled about this. First I needed to eat and then it was laundry and then it was... well, no more excuses so I changed up and headed out. Immediately I knew it was not going to be an easy run and at the end of one mile I realized I wasn't running any further.

What to do? Should I go home and call it a day or what?

I decided I was doing the 4 miles - even if it meant walking the last 3, so I did exactly that. It took 1:16:45 to do the whole route, but I did it. I also intend to run that route before this week is over.

It was as if the inner loser took a new approach - instead of whining and shouting and tantruming, it just kept getting heavier and heavier. As if I were carrying a huge weight that was wearing me out. By walking the last 3 miles, I managed to make it clear that no matter how tired I may feel - I'm going to do this.

So let me lay out my schedule for the week:

Monday: XT day
Tuesday: 3 mile run
Wednesday: XT day
Thursday 2 mile run
Friday: XT day
Saturday: (at least) 4 mile run
Sunday: off

Road Trip: Days Four & Five

(Yester)daily:

I walked 10 miles. I can forgive myself for not swimming.

Daily:

I'm trying to convince myself to do a few miles on the dead mill.

Trip report:

Wednesday I went up to La Jolla to see the seals and experienced a local political battle. Basically there was a children's pool built in the 30's. It's basically a sea wall that protects a little cove in La Jolla to let kids swim at the beach. At some point the beach was discovered by some seals and they pretty much took it over. It has become a place they go to for giving birth and things like that. They don't like people and if someone is on the beach, they won't rest there.

Some folks in San Diego say that it's a public beach and the seals need to cope. Others say there's 70 miles of beach in La Jolla - the seals can have this one corner. Right now the compromise is the beach is closed during pup season.

So there were no seals on the beach Wednesday when I got there. One of the no seal people was sitting in a lawn chair under his umbrella to keep the seals away. So the seals were out on a big rock in the ocean sunning themselves. I saw some playing in the water - including a highly amusing dance between a seal and a snorkler. The snorkler kept trying to follow the seal, the seal kept following the snorkler. To me, it looked like the seal was having a lot more fun than the snorkler.

I did go down the 145 steps through a claustrophobic tunnel to the Sunny Jim cave. That was pretty cool... figuratively and literally. I still can't believe I did that. Apparently a painter who had the tunnel dug over 100 years ago hired two Chinese laborers away from an opium den to dig it out. It took them two years and the thing is still standing. I'm impressed.

I did take pictures and I will scan them in when I get home. I'll also do a full trip report on a second blog.

Thursday I picked up a cheap digital camera (hurray! I can now just upload photos) and went to the Midway... which is why I logged so many miles yesterday. The thing is (was?) a floating city on its own. This was a "Rosie the Riveter" ship - built entirely by women at the end of WWII. It took 18 months for them to build it. Very cool.

I guess they keep opening up more and more of it each year, so I got to see the officers' area like the dirty shirt and clean shirt mess as well as sleeping quarters and such. There were all sorts of cool planes and choppers up on the flight deck.

Now let me plug my favorite pedicab guy since coming here. Pedicabs are a bicycle taxi that hold a couple of people. (Yes I will have a photo at some point) Some of the guys charge by the block, some by the mile - it varies. Yesterday I was at Horton Plaza ... which was a pretty cool display of architecture when it comes to setting up a mall, there'll be more in the trip blog ... and grabbed a pedicab to the Midway. The guy starts by introducing himself. His name is Dennis and he figured he was a "concierge on wheels." He only works for tips, not fares and he gave me all sorts of cool tips, pointers and such on the ride to the Midway.

His philosophy is that if you give people good ideas, information and a pleasant ride, they tip you better. I paid him $10 to take me a few blocks.... so I guess it works.

But if you're in San Diego and you see a Ball Park Pedicab guy named Dennis - he's worth it.

Well... off to go run on the deadmill downstairs before I pack up. We're hoping to go to the wild animal park and Scripps Aquarium today before we leave.

Road Trip: Day Three

First my daily/race report:

This morning was the ESRI/UC 5K at 6:45 am. Yeah, it was early but there's a conference to get going and people need to shower and get back to listen to speakers and things. The race was along the Embarcadero in San Diego around the two arms of park that hug the marina behind the hotel and there were about 250 people there.

I started way too fast. I could tell a minute in that I was going too fast in trying to keep up with the people around me, so I fell back a little to try and find my pace. I think this is the hardest part of a race... finding your own pace. Even then, I think I made it harder on myself by listening to a new playlist - so I'm not used to the music or how to pace myself to it. I passed the 1 mile marker just after the 11 minute mark. I figured I needed to catch my breath a little and walked for a minute and then began running again.

This time it was a little easier to find my pace. I was between packs of runners, so I could just run the way I do. As I passed the start/finish line (which is in the middle of the course as the course was a giant loop), Mr. Bear was there with his coffee yelling "Woo Hoo!" That made me feel a lot better and I kept going. At the two mile mark, I was still going fast (23 minutes) and let myself walk a recovery minute before running once more.

I almost missed the final loop after the turn around. Fortunately someone called out to me to let me know about it (I guess a few people missed the loop), so I didn't lose any time as a result. As I was coming up on the finish line, I realized I was the "there is no way I'm letting that chick beat me" person for three people who sprinted past me - which was fine with me. I knew I set a PR (38:26) and Mr. Bear was there cheering for me.

I felt good - sweaty, but good.

Trip Report:

Yesterday I went to the zoo where I can honestly say that the baby panda gives the west coast pandas the edge over the east coast pandas BUT, to be fair, I should go to DC and check out the east coast pandas in the near future to be sure.

The zoo is HUGE! I spent close to 8 hours there and I know I missed the reptile house and one of the trails.

OK - here's the funny part. Monday there were these Japanese sailors who had rented a bike pram and were riding around the convention center. One of them kept yelling out, "Hello" to people and I said "Hello" back - it was funny. Monday night we went to a little fish shack for dinner and the sailors were in front of us in line.

So here I am at the zoo sitting down to eat after seeing the pandas and who sits down at the next table? You guessed it, the Japanese sailors. I said, "Are you following me?" He clearly didn't speak English and I said, "Yesterday, bicycle."

He got excited, "Yes, yes. Yesterday bike" while pantomiming riding the bike.

I said, "Last night fish?"

"Yes, yes. Fish and water."

"Today Zoo?"

"Yes, yes. Today Zoo."

I don't know, it was just funny.

I would see them every so often while I wandered through the zoo. There was a whole bunch of them, not just the three I saw on Monday.

The bears were fun, but then I like bears. The Koalas are adorable (yes, I know that Koalas aren't bears, they're marsupials but I still count them as bears) - just hanging in the tree getting stoned on eucalyptus. The tiger and I had a staring contest (he looked away first, so I win) and the hippo cracked me up when he kept farting under water. Mr. Bear and I are going to go to the Wild Animal Park on Friday

Right now I'm debating between Sea World and swimming with sharks. I think I might go to Sea World today - I'm not up for another all day adventure and I'd like to rest before I'm kayaking around La Jolla and snorkeling with the leopard sharks.

Off to find food - damn all that running made me hungry!

Road Trip: Day Two

First my daily:

This morning I swam the breast stroke for half an hour in the hotel pool. Because the pool is short (what a surprise, the hotel pool is a non-standard length), I ended up doing circumferences. I figured I'd have no idea about mileage (or fractions there of), so I'd just go for time.

I was the only person in the pool... for like 2 minutes. Then came the guy I began to think of as my swimming buddy. Like me, he was only doing breast stroke and he did it the same way I did. A few minutes later, athletic woman joined in.

Athletic woman was around my age with the "dig me, I work out" body and attitude. She (literally) swam circles around us, got frustrated after 10 minutes or so and went off to the spa.

Then came swimmer guy. Swimmer guy was the guy in the guy bathing suit (tight fitting ... more like boxer briefs than trunks) who made a point of stretching and walking around before diving in. He jumped in before Athletic Woman got out, lasted like 5 minutes before he got out, stretched some more and went off to the other spa. In the mean time, swimmer buddy and I are still swimming in circles doing our slow, steady breast stroke.

Then came tri-girl in her Tyr 2-piece athletic suit. She took one look at swimming buddy and me, rolled her eyes and then hopped in. Again, she was either bored, frustrated or done in less than 10 minutes with another eye roll.

After 20 minutes or so, swimming buddy got out and shook himself off before toweling down and heading back to his room. I relaxed a little, still doing my circles cursing the PR people who listed "view of San Diego bay from the pool." (Yeah, if you're standing up looking over the freakin' cement portico railing.) Then came fit guy. Fit guy looked tight in a great bathing suit, did a couple of stretches, smiled and jumped in.

Too bad my half hour was up. :)

I spent five minutes in the spa - after I saw Athletic Woman leave - before heading back to the room to shower and get ready. I'm off to go see the pandas today. I'm hoping to see the baby panda this morning (how fun is that?) Tomorrow morning is the 5K race here.

San Diego - day two:

Yesterday I spent the day wandering around the Gas Lamp District. I can't believe how much I walked yesterday. Because I couldn't find my steppy doodle on the way out the door the other day, I grabbed Mr. Pi's - which I think has some issues. (I know, I know - what do I expect from a cheap piece of plastic?) I started walking over to the conference with Mr. Bear (he's so cute) and stopping at the Kinkos/Fed Ex store front in the center to get some business cards. The guy was like, "Oh... I'm going to copy it onto card stock and you cut it yourself... I don't know if I can line up a 2-sided card."

Dude - you work in a freaking copy shop where everything is digitized. Learn to use the equipment.

At any rate, I ended up with about 10 cards in case I needed to pass any out. (I did actually pass a couple of them out.) I went to the City Club of San Diego luncheon where John Hickenlooper, the Mayor of Denver, was speaking. Considering all of my knowledge of Denver comes from four sources (South Park, Hunter S. Thompson, the Masonic conspiracies about Stapleton airport and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), it was nice to get a different ... shall we say, more realistic view of the city. If half of what he says is true about his approach to running Denver - then we need more successful small businessmen to become politicians.

On my way back to the hotel, I walked through the convention center (two words: air conditioning) and bumped into Mr. Bear and his boss. We chatted a little before going our separate ways again and making plans to meet in the map display room at 4.

Here's the thing with GIS conferences - there are a lot of maps and they are freakin' cool. Like the most precise map of British Columbia ever created. (OK, it was a scale model of the most precise map of BC - and that was cool. I can only imagine what the real one is like.) Then there are the maps that show all sorts of things like hurricane tracking for the past 5 years off the coast of North Carolina. One of the things that was even cooler about that is, because they can precisely measure terrain and overlay the roadway system - they could figure out how to direct people to high ground and then rescue them by chopper if need be.

I thought about it myself after leaving the map room. Let's get real, I figured out the length of my run yesterday using GIS mapping at the USTFA site. This is truly cool stuff.

After the reception, we drove up to La Jolla to watch the sunset over the ocean. Sorry - that's something I don't know if I could ever get used to - watching the sunset over the ocean. The sun is supposed to rise over the ocean and the water is supposed to be on the right hand side of the road when you're driving north, not the left. It was pretty and stuff, but it was just wrong.

In fact, all I could think of was that line from Hitchhiker's Guide when they first encounter the infinite improbability drive and Arthur remarks how it looks like the seaside in Brighton but the water is perfectly still and the buildings keep washing up and down on the shore.

So... I'm off to go check out baby pandas. I want to get there early enough to see them. Hurray Pandas!

Port of call

I ran along the Seaport Village/Embarcadero area in San Diego this morning. Turns out I ran 2.7 miles in 24:04! Woo Hoo!

Running by the ocean just made me realize how much I miss living someplace where I can smell the sea when I step out the door. Don't get me wrong, running by the river is a lovely thing but the smell is different. To me a river doesn't smell alive the way the ocean does. The Canada geese are lovely creatures - and I certainly admire the beauty of them playing and landing on the water the way seagulls could never do, but it's just not the same.

I know I'm doing a lot of walking this week and tomorrow I plan on doing my laps in the hotel pool before I soak in the hot tub....

If this is Saturday, it must be time for an LSD

No... not that kind of LSD - a Long Slow Distance run kind of LSD.

I'm starting to build up mileage for a long run - so today I ran a 3.5 mile "long" run. Yes, it was only a half mile more than something I'm getting used to, the 3 mile run, but it makes a difference. It didn't help that I spent about 2 minutes giving instructions on how to get to the other part of the running path and estimating the distance to a landmark to a stranger with a smooth British accent instead of doing my recovery walk, but I made the whole distance with only two recovery walks.

The first one (which I ended up giving directions) was just after I crossed the street at the scary traffic corner. The second was at the 3 mile mark and it was more of a "see, you can do this," sort of reinforcement... a sort of, "I'm doing this to show I don't need to do this," sort of gesture to myself. I literally had to force myself to walk the full minute instead of running early - again, I was trying to prove to myself that I didn't need this, so I needed to push it.

One other thing that changed this morning - I forgot Mr. Pi took the body glide with him to LAX camp. Oops! Good thing I still have half a tube of A&D ointment in the drawer (what I was using before I bought the glidy stick) so I'm not all chafed. Of course that stuff is a bitch to get off - which is supposed to be the point of it. So add "glidy stick" to the list of stuff I have to pick up today.

I ran a 14 minute pace - not great but not bad. I'm pretty steady and I made the distance, so I'm good with it. I want to see it start to get faster, but first things first. First I have to be able to run the distance before I can make the time decrease.

I also downloaded a new playlist for myself. iTunes has a new section to compliment the Nike+ chip that works with the nano, so I downloaded the 10k list from there. It was different than what I'd normally pick for myself but still a lot of stuff I like. Of course I didn't download it from there, I went over to Napster and did it there so I wouldn't have to pay for the songs. (I have Napster to go - so I pay a monthly fee and can download anything. Once I stop the subscription, my access to the music stops... sort of like Netflix for your mp3 player.)

It was interesting to run to new music - I couldn't do the "here's the marker, I should be on this song..." evaluation, which kept me on my toes. Sometimes I had to rely on the beat to keep me going - which is a good thing - and it did help me keep pace pretty well. I'm might give Lance Armstrong's playlist a try at some point. If nothing else, I'll keep my eye on that section of iTunes and see if anything interesting comes up in the near future.

Yesterday I actually got a swim in! It was Friday and there wasn't a thunderstorm - what a concept! Unfortunately, by the time I got there, I estimated I had enough time before the swim team took over the pool to get my laps in. Unfortunately they have a big meet today and the pool closed 10 minutes early when I had 3/4's of my laps done.

Damn!

Stupid swimteam. ::mutter mutter snarl::

I only needed another 5 minutes - if that - to finish too. Feh!

Tomorrow's a rest day and I'm glad I'm on a plane most of the day or I know I'd be itching to get out and do something. I'm excited about going to a Padres game, of course it will be the 3rd time I'm seeing the Nats play this year... which is weird in itself. But I'm going to a Padres game, so I'm excited.

By the way, I just got through watching this week's "Who Wants to be a Superhero" and I can't say I'm surprised at the twist Iron Enforcer just got. In fact, I said that was going to happen after seeing the first elimination round last week. I also called Tyveculus' slap on the wrist as well.

I think if I were on that show, I'd be Super LAX mom... able to drive the kids to practice, do the household chores, meet my deadline, pick the kids up and still make a nutritious dinner without breaking a sweat. I'd carry a lacrosse defense stick (one of the long ones) and my battle cry would be: It takes balls to be a mom.

That show is growing on me more and more.

Heartbreak Hill

Even though my virtual trainer, Jason Varitek, is on the DL for 4-6 weeks, (Tek Stays With Team) I am still out there running. Today's 2 mile challenge: Heartbreak Hill.

I drove over to City Hall and parked. Since I didn't have the warm up walk I normally do, I walked to the Johnny Kelley statue and then back down the block to the the corner of Lowell Ave. to start my run. About a two minutes into the run I was thinking, "What the hell am I doing? This is hill is fucking steep..." I began thinking about all the people who hit this hill after running 19 miles knowing they still have 7.2 more to go and thought maybe I was picking up a bit of that energy.

Plugging on I had other thoughts:

• Why did I forget my sunglasses?
• I hope no one I know drives past now
• Is this weather ever going to break?
• I can't believe they make the track kids run this hill all the time
• Maybe this isn't so bad - I mean I'm already half way up
  

and other such things. When I made it to the top, I just felt really happy and proud as I circled around and headed back down for what, I assumed, would be an easy run. I was wrong. It wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy either. There were a couple of "serious" runners that smoked me both directions, but it was OK. The majority of the people out there looked sort of like me - mostly middle aged who left their best bodies back in their 20's struggling up and down the hill with no water in sight to even think about fetching.

When I passed the statue on the way down, I called out, "24.2 more to go Johnny."

He just smiled that enigmatic grin through the decades. There were no memorials or tributes to him today - DPW must have cleaned up around there recently since the trees are trimmed back
and the grass is mowed. I know they'll start popping up again - the blown sneakers, empty gatorade bottles and such always seem to find their way there. Oftentimes with messages of thanks and running stories.

But I'm still glowing from this run. I did it, I ran Heartbreak Hill in 27:57 - a great time for me. In the background, as I crossed the crosswalk marking the 2 mile mark, I could hear Tek clapping while he leaned on his crutches next to Johnny who yelled "you go girl."

It was a good run.

It's like one billion degrees

Well... maybe not a billion - more like 96 and climbing. It makes me glad today's an xt day so off to the pool before they let the kids in for a 1/2 mile of breaststroke. There was still a huge wake today from the water aerobic class and I still managed to swim faster today than I ever had before.

I was thinking about that a bit. I'm running faster, I'm swimming faster - could it be my body is working more efficiently? Perhaps it's saying, "Man, the faster I get this done, the faster I can go back to reading chick magazines in the A/C." Maybe it's a combination of both things and then some. There's probably some exercise physiologist out there that can explain things like increased aerobic base, maximum VO2 levels and such. All I know is that I'm getting faster.

Now if only I'd get a little thinner...

I did not want to get out of the water - which is probably why the kids run out of the locker rooms promptly at 1pm - to make the adults think twice about staying.

It would have been so easy to stay in the pool instead of having to get out to deal with my cell phone that died, a Costco run and everything else. Not only that, I have to do a bunch of laundry before I bring Mr. Pi to over night lacrosse camp tomorrow. Here's hoping the thunderstorms roll through early to break this mess.

The weather is one of those funny things where I don't want to eat because it's so hot and then I get hungry and nibble a little and it feels like there's a rock in my stomach. Right now I'm hungry - so I'll have a yogurt and a pria bar. I suspect that will be enough to keep from turning to cement in my stomach.

Oh well... off to deal with cell phones. *sigh*

On track

I think I figured out how to use the loser-be-gone properly this morning. As you may recall, last week my inner loser kept throwing tantrums and I was trying to figure out how to get it under control. Yesterday, after finding out I was actually running further than I realized, I decided to try a slightly different approach.

I mapped out my 3 mile run using that nifty GPS tool at the USTFA site and then, since I knew my route, I then took a different approach. Up until now I've been groovin' on these 14/1's, today I changed it to a 28/2 - run for 28 minutes, walk for 2 minute recovery and then finish the course in whatever.

It worked nicely. Even better was the 28 brought me to the traffic light and the 2 gave me the chance to cross the road and get back to the path. I was then able to finish out the course without worrying about distance, time, etc and I did it in 34 minutes!!!!

Holy crap! That's an 11:46 pace!

The other part of the loser-be-gone application was out on the path. Today there were mostly women out there - singles, pairs, old, young - you name it. Most of us greeted each other, but there were a couple out there that were walking with strollers that went beyond that to say, "looking great" when they passed going the other way on the back half of the loop.

Last night I asked Gazelle boy to wait until the sun came up before he did his mileage. He grumbled and told me about how safe his route was, etc., etc., etc. until I finally said, "if anything ever happened to you, I don't know if I could bear it."

When I left at 6:15, the door was unlocked and his shoes weren't on the rack. I know the door was locked and they were on the rack at 3 am when I woke up and had to pee. Since he usually goes out for a long run in the wee hours - I think he heeded my request. Oh wait, I know as he just walked in the door.

But I feel good. I'm also going to map out a 1 mile route up Heartbreak Hill for my 2 miler on Thursday (1 mile up, 1 mile down). I figure that it's harder to bail when you have to run to your car in order to get home.

Monday, Monday

OK - I made my goals last week, so I guess it's time to set this week's goals:

Monday: xt
Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: xt
Thursday: 2 miles
Friday: xt
Saturday 3.5 miles
Sunday: rest

This works out since I'm flying on Sunday - so I'm not going to be all antsy about what I should be doing. Of course I have to look at flight times and such to figure out my schedule for next week - but I can hold off a day or two on that.

I just discovered a cool link: USTFA Map How cool is it that I can now really measure my routes instead of guessing. The end result is that I learned I've been running a lot further than I realized. Like the 1.5 mile loop turns out to be 1.6 miles. A loop I though was 2 miles is 2.48 miles - meaning if I do the full loop, I'm running 3.65, not 3 miles like I thought.

It also means my inner loser's tantrum was after the 2 mile mark, not at or before - so now it's sulking because ... well, that's what inner loser's do I guess. But it also makes it easier for me to tell it where to go.

Today I went to the pool during the adult only swim at lunch time and did my 1/2 mile in 25 minutes. There was only one lap lane up, but it was OK because everyone in the lap part of the pool was doing laps anyway. It meant I didn't have to slow down or speed up for other people and could just swim my pace. It also meant I didn't have to do circles or pause or anything like that for other people.

It felt good.

OK, it felt good because the water was such a good temperature and it's hot out. It was also strange because the water was really choppy from the water aerobic class down the shallow end of the pool. Since there were no lap markers to break up the wake, we were getting it at the other end of the pool and you could see the difference between the lap lane and the rest of the pool.

Man I love it when there are no pissy adolescents playing splash games.

I also fixed the not enough lanes problem at night. I noticed the schedule has 3 lap lanes for the evening general swim. So I called the pool manager and asked, "Why are there only 2 out at night until there are 6 people to a lane?" He told me that would now be fixed - there is supposed to be three and he will make it clear to the swim team and life guard teams that it doesn't matter if there's one person or 12 - there are to be three lap lanes at night.

Problem solved. Now I can feel better about swimming at night.

I have to admit, resting yesterday was a challenge. So I ended up picking up some beads and charms and things at AC Moore and made a necklace and earring set. Of course now I have to find a jewelry roll pattern on line since I can't seem to find one in the stores that doesn't cost a ton of dough.

Saturday, after my run, I went downtown to pick up a pair of LAX gloves for Mr. Pi. While I was there I hit the Macy's clearance sale and picked up a couple of tops marked down to $8.50 each. I also picked up a nice CZ necklace/earring set for next week. I always worry about being dressed properly for these business casual (and not so casual) things because I'm so used to whatever works working out of the house. (For example, right now I'm still in my bathing suit waiting for someone to get out of the shower... not something you can do in an office.) Just walking around downtown put my steppy doodle up around 11K steps - not including my run.

Even though it was a rest day yesterday, I still posted 6K before taking it off to go see "Taming of the Shrew" down on the common. (A lot of fun - if you're in Boston over the next couple of weeks, you should definately try to catch it.) I know I did a fair amount of walking around down there - so I easily made 10K before the day was over.

I also picked up some of those Goody Stay Put elastics they're making for "active" needs. It's basically a rubber coated elastic that doesn't pull or damage hair, but has enough traction to stay in place. I've been looking for them ever since Gazelle Boy stole the one they gave us in the Ryka goody bag and finally found them at Target. I figure I need them now that Mr. Pi is doing a combo of wearing a bandanna and pulling back his hair with an elastic too while it's growing out.

Yeah... I just heard the bathroom door open. This means I can take my shower now! Woo Hoo!

Monkey Wash, Donkey Rinse

The goal today was 3 miles. I was a little nervous after Thursday's run and watching the hourly temp predictions at weather.com (boy that desktop icon is both a blessing and a curse).

First I went to strap on the new running shoes I won at the Reggae Ramble. I should have listened to my gut feeling and asked for the wide - once I got my feet into them they were really tight across the top of my foot. I'm tempted to take them to City Sports and demand they give me the right size (since their moron "measured" my foot). First I'll try relacing them and see if it's just because it's that new stiffness. If not, I'm going to CS and demanding a manager.

So I strapped on my usual shoes in spite of the fact they're losing their spoingyness - that stage when they aren't dead yet... it's just a flesh wound - and headed out. (Good thing the NB tent sale is this weekend and I can pick up a new pair on sale.)

Two miles into the run my inner loser (thanks for that description Falco) threw a temper tantrum and said, "I'm not running anymore! You can't make me! I'm going to sit here and hold my breath until I turn blue." Instead of fighting it I figured - fine, you're not going to run - but you ARE doing the three miles. When it tried to turn around a couple of times, I realized I had to show it the same sorts of consequences I show my kids.

"Just for tanking the other day, you need to make up that half mile," I told it. It screamed, shouted and tried to hold it's breath - but I made it run that last half mile loop it didn't run the other day. I broke into a run just as the B52's yelled, "You're what?!" "Tin roof.... rusted."

That's how you handle an inner loser temper tantrum.

So mileage for today is a 2.5 mile run and 1 mile walk.

Because of yesterday's thunder storm rolling in just when they open the pool for general swim, the only thing I got in was the 1.25 mile walk to the mechanic's to pick up my car so I could get Mr. Pi at LAX camp. Because the local lacrosse store shows up at camp on Tuesday and Friday, I wasn't surprised when he wanted a new goalie head and mesh. (Hey, I don't need to buy groceries this week, I spend $100 on new LAX stuff he doesn't need... right?)

This lead to a sulky Mr. Pi when I said, "Well buddy, I guess you better start saving your allowance...." OK, I admit I bought the orange mesh when he wasn't looking for his coach to restring the head of his stick as a surprise next week. That part is cheap - it's the head that costs the big bucks and his current one is "perfect" according to his coach.

If it stays hot I probably will head over to the pool to just do some easy laps and cool down. Tomorrow is a rest day and I suspect it's going to be harder to do nothing than I thought.

One other thing I started doing was seeing how much water I lose during a run. I weigh myself before heading out the door and when I come in. I pretty much lose two pounds - that would be 1 quart of water. Now the next question I need to figure out - given I drink about 3 quarts of water a day - should I add one more quart to make up for that loss or not? Of course I probably absorb that much when I take my shower after running but it is a question worth researching.

More fun than herding cats

Last night was the Jerry Garcia Memorial run/walk. Gazelle boy ran the 4.2 while the boys and I walked the 2.6 mile course.

Keep in mind that between the weather, the fact that I had to walk instead of run because DH had to go to NJ for a business meeting and I had to herd the boys - I was not it a great space for everything. They did their part in assisting the mood by bickering over things that only teen siblings can bicker over. About a half mile into it, the two began to bicker and I did such a mom thing:

me: If I have to listen to this for the next 2 miles, we're turning around right now and going back. I mean it.

About a mile later - when the youngest wanted to "jog along with the runnters until he was tired" (not a good idea on many levels - not the least of which is the reality some of the runners at that point are highly competitive people who take their running intensely seriously):

me: will you please think about the people around you. This is important to them, it's not a game and it's not right for you to screw it up.

youngest: you take all the fun out of everything.

me: that's my job, and I do it well. Now stay out of the runner's way.

At one point Mr. Pi was complaining his back hurt. It's not that I don't take him seriously, but I also know that he can be a whine machine when he wants to be. I ran down a list of ailments (back, ankle, asthma, etc.) to remind him that he should cope with being a little sore because he didn't do the stretches before the work out at camp yesterday. At the end of the race he was not only fine, but he was being all "Oh yeah, I finished..." while doing a little dance.

This morning I looked up the results at Cool Running and realized we moved at a 16:27 pace. Not too shabby. I told Mr. Pi when I woke him up a few minutes ago he just said, "Whoa!"

I have to admit, after looking at the results, I'm a little miffed at one thing. There was a group of walkers that posted a 12 minute pace. We could see them on the path and they weren't walking, they were running as soon as they were just past the initial start on the path. On the one hand, I can appreciate that maybe they were only up for 2 miles, on the other it just didn't seem right either. It's a freaking walk (and yes, I can tell the difference between a "race walk" and a run) but then I guess we live in a world where people are just super competitive and it's another thing to deal with.

After last night I came to a few decisions - first of all I'm not herding cats like that again. If we ever do something like sign up for a walk with DH leading and me running - I would rather sit on the sidelines than lead those two again. Secondly, I'm not entering any of these races again until I can run at (at the very least) a steady 12 minute or less pace.

These are supposed to be "fun" runs - but last night I learned that there are far too many people there that define "fun" as being so intense that it's OK to do things that I would reprimand the kids over (like making fun of "fat-assed, slow runners blocking the bike paths without a clue" and openly mocking some of the folks crossing over the road to the starting line). What a concept - supposedly mature adults acting like adolescents. Maybe that's why they kept scowling at me for keeping the kids in line the way I do. Perhaps if their parents had done that to them they'd be focused beyond the "I'm so freakin' hip, I'm an athlete" thing.

Today is an xt day for me. I don't know if I'll get my laps in before the thunderstorms roll through. This may be another - if all else fails, mall walk night. *bleh*

Mr. Pi Update

Turns out Mr. Pi is fine. He strained the two long muscles in your back and only needs some ibuprofen, heat and rest today and he'll be fine.

she falls apart

Again, it's fitting that the music that strikes me seems to reflect my mood. I suppose that's how the mind works - finding ways to tell you to pay attention.

In this case I wanted to run early but DH has a to-do list a mile long before going into work which means he can't drive Pi to lax camp this morning. So instead of running when it's not quite 70 and tolerable, I have to wait around for kids and go out when it's 76 and climbing. In fact, in the half hour I was out, the temp climbed past 80.

I was supposed to do 2 miles today - it didn't happen. Yeah, yeah, a mile and a half at a 13 minute pace for me isn't shabby, but I wanted the 2 today. I realized I wouldn't make it when one major shift happened - I became aware of my ass.

You have to understand that at my size, there are certain things with which I'm comfortable in my body. Personally, I don't have a bad ass. It's big, but it's got a great shape and I'm pretty happy with it. I know it sounds kind of weird - but aren't we all like that? Isn't there that one thing you look at in the mirror and think, "Not bad..."

For me that was my ass... until today on the path. About a half mile into my run I could feel the fat on my ass shift back and forth with each stride like a wind flap or something. That had never happened before. It was strange and upsetting.

I tried to focus past it - think about breathing, every so often ask myself a question out loud to make sure I'm at a good pace, the usual sorts of things. And I would get past it for a bit and then I'd feel it. Boom, boom, boom, boom.

After a mile and a quarter, I could see the path entrance and realized I was hot, angry because of the argument with DH and unfocused. I tried to console myself saying, "Hey, you've got a two mile walk tonight with the kids." To no avail, I ditched and I'm disappointed.

Then came the next song in the shuffle - Sugar Ray's "Falls Apart."

The lyrics are as follows:

She falls apart by herself
No one's there to talk or understand
Feels sustained, dries her eyes
Finds herself, opens the door inside
People see right through you
Everyone that knew you well
Falls apart, might as well
Day is long and nothing is wasteful

BINGO! We have a winner here folks.

As soon as I come in the door DH calls out that Pi called from camp. He forgot his water bottle and his kidneys hurt - can he come home. Oh yeah, he has to "take a quick shower first" so he can get to work.

Now that he yelled out he's done, I'll go take mine, pick up Pi and head to the pedi's office.

I'm all wet

Today is an xt day - so I just got back from the pool where I swam a half mile of breast stroke. My time is pretty consistent - 30 minutes. It's just so frustrating that I get there and have to swim with four other people in the lane before someone says, "Oh look, there are eight people in two lanes... maybe we should put up a third lane."

Tonight was worse than usual because the swim team parents were there coaching their kids. So now you have four adults swimming at a variety of paces and two kids splashing their way down part of the lane with adults screaming, "Breathe from on the left! Your other left."

But I did get my laps in. One thing about swimming that's nice is I think. I have always been a water girl, so I'm not surprised this is the easiest form of xt for me. Tonight as I was swimming a few things occured to me. The first is that I was aware of various muscles I was using. There were certain ab layers as well as my biceps, triceps, lats that were all saying, "Hi there, remember us? We used to get used like this a lot a few decades back and we're glad you rediscovered our existence."

The other thing was how much stronger my lungs feel. This is important when you're asthmatic. I haven't needed my inhalers for a couple of weeks in spite of the heat and exercise.

So my body is feeling happy (in spite of the complaints I get every so often). If my body's happy, then I'm happy... these are all good things.

Tonight DH is taking us out for dinner so I don't have to cook. I can feel happy about that too.

It's a hot one

At one point towards the end of my run today, the song "Smooth" came on. That opening line about, "It's a hot one, like 7 inches from the mid-day sun..." just described how I felt. It's like 10 degrees cooler than it was a week ago - but it still felt killer out there today.

I wanted to get out early today while it was still in the upper 60's/lower 70's but between my deadline, getting the kids out the door and the normal morning stuff, it was suddenly 9:30 am and 80 degrees.

Damn!

Since my goal was a 3 mile run, I figured that 45 minutes would be a good time to shoot for - and I did it in 46 ... close enough considering I ended up walking through a stitch and then a toe cramp for a while.

The toe cramps throw me. I remember the first time I really got hit with one was years ago when I was at a karate tournament. I was about to break 3 inches of wood with a front kick when the toe cramped and I crumpled. It was sudden, it was painful and I have no idea where it came from. Ever since then I get hit with them on ocassion and today was one of them. Again, no warning or reason - it just hit. I didn't crumple like a used tissue, I instead walked and tried to flex my toe as best I could before running again.

Another thing that happened was the reaction I got from a little girl out walking with her... I guess her mother. (Although around here it could have easily have been an au pair or nanny.) Yesterday I bought a running skirt and all of my shorts were in the washer. So I wore my new skirt and a performance shirt. It was cute and the little girl (who, you could tell, is one of those girlie girls) got very excited and said, "Look, you CAN run in a skirt!" The woman with her rolled her eyes and gave me a scowl, but I hope that maybe this will make that kid feel like she can be a girl and an athlete rather than feeling like she has to choose between the two.

I'm thinking that it's now close enough to adult swim time that I might just wait an hour, pull on my suit and head to the pool to just do some lazy floating and maybe some laps before I hit the shower. Especially since I have to throw stuff in the dryer and I hate taking a shower when the dryer is on during the summer - it just gets too damn humid in the bathroom.

Goals wo 7/24

After looking over a bunch of stuff, I think I have a relatively sane training schedule to follow for the next couple of months - so this week I'm hoping to do the following:

Monday/Wed/Friday - run/walk/xt
Tuesday - 3 mile run
Thursday - 2 mile run
Saturday - 3 mile run
Sunday - rest


Since today is Monday and I raced yesterday, I figured I'd do some non-weight bearing xt work and swam for 16 laps (32 lengths, 800 yards, 1/2 mile - however you want to count it) of breast stroke in 30 minutes.

One thing I really hate is swimming during "general swim" time. They only have 2 lap lanes and the adolescents who want to play splash games don't care if there are 12 people trying to share 2 lap lanes - they want the whole pool and any adult who complains is a pain in the ass. Not only that, you have 12 people of varying ability and goals sharing those two lanes. The "serious" swimmers - people training for tri's, fitness swimmers, etc. who like to go quickly get frustrated with people like me who swim at a medium speed while the old farts who just take their time to go back and forth as they desire (and frustrate me) are thrown into the mix.

Add to that the little kids who over estimate their abilities and then hang onto the lap lines for dear life as they are (literally and figuratively) over their heads... well, it gets a bit tense.

By the time the lifeguards figured there were enough adults to add a 3rd lap lane, I was done in more ways than one. So my choice is to come for the only adult time during the day from 12:45 until 1:30 or put up with the general swim situation.

Let's just that we'll see where I'm at on Wednesday before I figure out what to do next time.

Race Day: Johnny Kelley 5K

I drove down to Hyannis with Mr. Chesley the gazelle boy for the Johnny Kelley Memorial Race. There was both a 5K and a 10K - I did the 5, he did the 10.

One thing that annoyed me was the traffic. I understand it's Hyannis and the summer and all that, but it's really a pain in the ass when you're trying to run and you've got cars full of frustrated beach goers and such coming up behind you.

This was a slightly hilly course, some along the ocean, through Hyannis. I was hoping for 2 things:

- a time of 45 minutes or less
- to cross the finish line standing

I managed to accomplish both and crossed in 43:44!!!

While Chesley's goal was to cross the finish line before I did (I had a 10 minute headstart - otherwise he might have done it), I was happy to be standing there saying, "You look like shit, let me buy you a water." He said it was a garbage day for him. I understood as there were a couple points on the course where I was wondering if there was a meat wagon or not.

As I mentioned, there was a head wind. Even though the temp was in the 70's, it was that slightly heavy air type humid and the sun decided to try and break through during the race. There was no water before the race, so I had to find a water cooler (I was fortunate and hit it a couple of times). There was plenty after the race, but a bottle or two before hand might have been nice.

So I was running with a slightly dry mouth wondering why did I leave my nalgene bottle in the car?

The other problem - and I'll ask at some of the forums about this - was in the second mile I realized the Body Glide wasn't working as well as it had the first half of the race and my thighs were starting to chafe a bit. My shorts also did something truly unusual: the liner began to creep up my butt a bit - but not so badly that it was a problem... just not something that I normally notice happening when I go out for my runs.

I figured the best approach was to do my 14/1's and I was doing pretty well with it. I finished the first one well past the one miler marker. I had started the second one when they let some traffic through. This meant those of us in the back needed to run on the dieswalk to keep going. Unfortunately the road took a turn and the sidewalk disappeared into an uneven strip of grass - which forced me to walk a little. Once I started walking, it threw off my rhythm. So for the next 1/2-3/4 mile, I did some walk runs until I could push myself to the finish.

I crossed strongly - standing up ... no barrel rolls for this girl today.

Right now I'm bushed. I want to take a little nap since I didn't sleep that well last night.

Stupid thunder storms

I've ranted a couple of times over the past few days about things. One is thunderstorms.

Yesterday was a slow day - one of those days when you just couldn't get going (perhaps not drinking coffee for a few days had a hand in that) , so I figured I'd go for a run after my ex picked up the boys. Not five minutes after he left, the skies opened up in a torrential downpour with a lightening show that made Fourth of July pyrotechnics look lame.

Even though it stopped shortly after that, I doublechecked the weather to find out that it was the eye of the storm (so to speak). There were a number of cells and we were currently in the clear but surrounded by all sorts of other cells. Damn! No running, no laps, nothing but sitting on my butt doing nothing.

It was hard to do nothing because today is supposed to be a rest day since I"m running the Johnny Kelley memorial 5K tomorrow. That leaves me with this decision: two rest days or do something this morning.

Finally I decided to do one 14/1 this morning in the light rain. It is freakin' humid out there, but I managed to cover slightly more than a mile on my 14/1.

Because I was stuck last night, I figured if it was going to rain and the Sox game wasn't until 10pm (stupid west coast road trip), then I'd go sulk in a bookstore and hunkered down in the comfy chair at the local Borders flipping through running books. I decided to buy Bill Rogers' Complete Idiot's Guide to Running, 2nd Edition.

Yes I hate the titles to those guides; however, it's pretty clearly written and I trust Bill Rogers.

I'm off to shower before picking up my number and such.

Two times the charm

The weather does make a difference. Today I did my (14/1)x2 covering 2 miles in 30 minutes. The other day it took me a couple of minutes longer to cover the same distance. I'm happy that I have now done this twice in a row, tomorrow let's make it 3 times in a row.

I signed up for the Johnny Kelley 5K on Sunday, so I figured I'd run tomorrow and take Saturday as a rest day and Sunday as my race day. If it gets hot again, I'll go to the pool on Saturday and do some laps and relax a bit.

Yesterday I went to the Sox game and realized that my shorts don't fit me properly anymore - which meant my pedometer was at a funny angle and didn't count things properly. I was kind of hoping to log my steps/mileage yesterday too.

I'm going to the game today too. I had a ticket for yesterday (beautiful seats in the grandstands behind the Sox dugout) and I had a ticket for the Mother's Day game that got rained out. Today I get my special treat: box seat in right field. Hopefully Papi will hit one to me today. :)

After Sunday's race, I figure I'll have a better idea of whether or not to do the Tufts 10K on Columbus Day. It would be 10 weeks to train for a 10K... can I do that? I think I can, but let me see if I can run 5K before I start thinking I can run 10K.

I did it!

I did it! I knew I could and I did my first (14/1)x2 today. Even going at an easy pace (15:30), I managed to run 2 miles.

I wanted to get up at 6, but overslept again. Well, to be fair I woke up at 4, 4:30, 5, 5:15, 6:45. By the time I left the house, the temp was 73 and humid. By the time I got back, it was 77 and more humid. The one spot on the course that is entirely out in the sun was brutal. The shade and occasional breeze really made the difference today

Right now I'm happy. I did it and I knew I could and I did. Tomorrow is a rest day and I have Sox tickets - so I'm going to rely on my pedometer to log the amount of walking I do tomorrow. If the game ends early enough, I'll try and get to the pool for some laps.

For now, it's shower before I write for my deadline.

It's like one million degrees

It is hot.

Not just here, but all over the country. I just couldn't bring myself to run today so I went down to the local pool and did 8 laps (16 up and backs) in like 10 minutes. I then spent 45 minutes sitting on the edge of the pool with a couple of friends with my feet in the water enjoying the fact it was like 15 degrees cooler there than any place else in town.

I'm planning of getting up early tomorrow to get a run in. If weather.com is correct, there should be a window up until 7 am that is reasonable running weather. If it is, then I'll go for either my (14/1)x2 or 2 miles at an 18:39 pace or some combo there of.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to do the Tufts 10K in October. One of my friends at the pool was telling me what a fantastic race it is, how much I'm going to love it and why I should do it. I know that I'll probably do a 5K when I go to San Diego... even if I am the last one across, it will be fun.

Right now I'm going back to the Sox game ... although I may listen to it on the radio in the AC rather than watch it on TV.

Hot, hot, hot

When I left for my run, it was 78 degrees. By the time I got home, it was 83... this weather is insane.

Of course the fact that I run along a shaded path next to the river probably makes a difference.

The goal for this week was to do four (14/1)2 runs (run 14 minutes, walk 1 minute twice). I guess I'll have to modify that goal to just accomplishing it once this week and then being able to do two consistent weeks of four (14/1)2's.

Because of the heat, I took it easy on myself. Even then a 15 minute miles feels like crawling - which is weird since I run a 13 minute mile consistently at this point. I ran the 14 no problem, walked the 1 and started the second 14 but 5 minutes into it my legs felt like lead. I figured better that I've pushed myself beyond the "run one mile" thing and tried a slow run before giving up and walking to my start point. Granted today I did a mile and a half in 24 minutes - most of it running - so I should be happy but I really thought I could do the whole thing today.

I guess I'm just disappointed.

Yesterday I took out 3 books on women and running from the library:

• The Complete Book of Running for Women by Claire Kowalchik
• Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running by Dagney Scott
• Joan Samuelson's Running for Women by Joan Benoit Samuelson

So I'm hoping to learn a lot from them. The Kowalchik and Scott books have been good so far in terms of just general knowledge. For example, I always get frustrated when people run in the street rather than on the sidewalk - but I know understand that it's easier on the body to run on asphalt instead of concrete. It still frustrates me as a driver, but at least I understand now.

By the way, I embed amazon links into titles as a way to support doing this site. I originally added some boxes on the side, but after a week they turned into obnoxious amazon banners... sorry that doesn't work for me. If I wanted banner ads, I'd just do the google ad thing. I just want to make things available for folks and if I can get a couple of free books or something out of the deal to support my book habit... so much the better.

At any rate, I'm still sweaty so it's time to go off and shower.

Good news ... sort of

The good news is that I really am getting comfortable with running a mile at a time and my time is pretty consistent. I just need to find a way to push myself to the next level.

Of course when it's incredibly hot and humid with all sorts of hot weather advisories, that isn't easy. Nor does having your arm throb every time you jar it because you got a DTaP booster. (I know, I know, tetnus boosters hurt like anything and you only have to get them every 10 years, but it still hurts.)

But I do have to start figuring out a game plan for longer distances.

I just found out that my husband has to make a business trip the day of the Jerry Garcia run, so that means I'm stuck with walking with the boys instead of running. In the car the other day, I told my oldest I was disappointed because I was really looking forward to the run. He just stared for a second and said, "I never thought I would ever hear you say that."

To be honest, neither did I.

I was telling my husband that I'm really loving the performance shirt they gave us at the Ryka race - you know that light weight dri-weave shirt that really wicks the perspiration away. He told me I should go out and get a couple of more if I like that much - but then I started seeing how much they were... $40! That's a lot of dough for a running shirt. I did see them for the $15-18 range at the New Balance factory store, so I may pick up a couple there. I just wasn't ready for that sticker shock.

The library got a couple of the books on women and running that I requested, so I'll go over to pick those up later today.

So I guess it's now time to start setting goals and working on performance issues.... I need to think a little on it.

Calm before the storm

Today I ran a mile in the oppressive humidity and darkness before the storm. This is part of the same system I got caught in yesterday after I walked to the supermarket to pick up a few things for dinner. I was originally going to go 1.5-2 miles today, but then I realized I want to be able to run a mile consistently with my body ready to go the next step. As it is right now, I seem to be around the 13 minute mark on the trail now, so if I can do that a few more times and just let my body guide me, I'll be fine.

Yesterday I was going to wait until the afternoon to run with my son. Yes, Mr. Pi is going to give it another try based on an ad for Morgan Spurlock's show "30 Days." Spurlock has that whole thing going about can 30 days change your life? Of course his biggest claim to fame is "Supersize Me" when he ate nothing but McDonald's food for 30 day. While his film was slightly propagandist (slightly? OK - pretty much a propaganda piece), his premise is an interesting one and the TV show has been interesting as well.

So what I proposed to Pi was simple: for 30 days all you're going to do is go out for a half mile and run for a minute and walk for a minute for the entire half mile. That's it. We'll see how long it takes you each day and if that time improves or if you want to run for more than a minute or walk for shorter times. Just 30 days of doing that and we'll see where you are.

He did it the other day and yesterday he walked to the supermarket and back with me. Today it looks like he'll be doing it in the pouring rain.

Beyond that I go to the doctor today for my physical. I'll figure out why I seem to be permanently stuck at this weight in spite of exercise and a fairly healthy diet. If the guy in GNC was right and it's my thyroid, I'll feel kind of ... stupid? relieved? scared? I'm not sure. I suppose relieved to find an answer, stuipd I didn't think of it before and scared at my body doing what it's doing.

At any rate, I'm off to shower and get ready to be poked, prodded and such.

Another day, another run

I took yesterday off to recover from rolling across the finish line on Sunday (and man you should see the bruises on my thigh, arm and wrist from that), but today was back on the trail.

Instead of t-shirts at the race, they gave us performance shirts - those microfiber waffle weave shirts, so I wore that on my run today. I really like it and may have to swing by the New Balance outlet to pick up a couple more of these.

I wanted to get a run in today before the thunder storms started rolling through. There's supposed to be one of those hot, humid air masses stalling over us for a couple of days, I am so not looking forward to that.

I ran the 1 mile segment of the running trail in just under 15 minutes today. No stopping to use the inhaler and no real serious thoughts of walking any portion of it. I figure if I can do that pretty consistently, then it'll be time to add to that. Because my next race is on the 27th and it's 4.2 miles, I'm going to have to figure out a training strategy. The problem is, there doesn't seem to be a real place for people like me to go for that stuff. They're more for people who are already established runners with a clue.

I suppose I'll try a couple of different things over the next few weeks... we'll see how it goes. But today is good. I got my mile in with a decent time (for the trail) and a minimum of pain from the injuries I got the other day. I did notice my ankle bothering me a little - so I'll ice it down and read the paper before I shower and go off to do things like food shopping.

Race Day

I did it.

I ran the Ryka Iron Girl 5K in Quincy, MA today and I did it in (officially) 47:07. Of course I started my watch when I crossed the start line and had 46 and change - but either way it was a respectable time.

I ran the first mile, walked the second and ran the third mile. Even though my sister and two of my nieces were there, I ended up running alone - which was fine by me. I just sparked up the mp3 player and ran my race.

I loved how there were random people waiting for their loved ones to come by but still found a way to yell encouragement to the rest of us as well. During the second mile, I was pretty much between packs and as I walked by one father with his two young sons, one of the kids broke into applause for me. I felt special.

Remembering my brother, the marathoner, and his tales of how important that t-shirt selection can be, I decided to wear my oversized tie-dye shirt I got at a Boston Cannons game. It is the perfect tie-dye shirt - a bright rainbow spiral that is truly a gift to get. Along the route race officials and volunteers as well as the police detail officers were all saying, "Looking good - great shirt!"

Just as I passed the second mile sign, the speed demon 10K folks were coming through. I began to run again as the song "Dirty Water" by the Standells started up just as I came around the curve. There, in front of me was a beautiful view of the Boston skyline through the marshes just as I heard, "Oooo Boston you're my home" and that distinctive chord riff. There was no way I was going to walk any more of the race, I was going to finish it and finish it strong.

As I turned the corner for the finish, my sister and nieces were there waiting for me and cheering me on. They jumped in to run with me but ... let's just say that whoever thought a carpet at the end was a good thing was sadly delusional. My sneaker caught on the carpet and I went down. Determined to finish, I got up, my sneaker caught a second time and I rolled over the finish line. After that was just funny.

One of my nieces, since she used to be a crew cox, is trained to yell out any medical information necessary - so she's yelling, "She has asthma and uses an inhaler." The volunteer is trying to hand me a medal and my sister and my other niece are trying to keep me walking. I sat down in the chair to take my chip off (which my sister graciously did) and telling everyone I was fine but figured I needed to get my legs back.

Overall this is a nice race. They gave us performance shirts instead of t-shirts, which is really nice. The medals are really pretty - that magenta/dark pink color withtheir butterfly logo. The food spread at the end was plentiful and a great variety: fruit, yogurt, cereal, bagels, coffee cake, breakfast burrittos, you name it - they had it. OK, they didn't have coffee... which I could still really use a cup right now... but that's fine with me.

I also like that they set up a ton of tables with table cloths, chairs and centerpieces. It was just a really nice touch. They also gave out free pictures - so the four of us had ours taken and I'll get a frame for it to hang on the wall. It was such a pleasant race that I think I'll do it again next year.

Listen to me.

In April I didn't run for the bus and now, three months later, I'm planning on my races for next year.

Wow.

Rise up with a new day

I know today is supposed to be a rest day where the race is tomorrow, but after yesterday I couldn't just do nothing.

So I got up at 6:30 and ran to the church - which is one mile exactly - in 13:09. Since I didn't want to over do, I walked the last 2.1 miles at a 20 minute pace. The whole route took 55 minutes. To a certain degree, this eases my fears a bit as I was worried I wouldn't be able to do the race in under an hour; however, I know I can run at least 2 miles so even if I walk the last mile I'll be fine.

Time to make myself some breakfast, read the papers and spend the rest of the day resting up for tomorrow morning's race.

To sleep perchance to dream

Today has been a draining day. I'm not sure why - it's just one of those days where I feel exhausted and lethargic. I started the day by oversleeping and then rushing around to get kids out the door and to an early appointment.

By the time I got home, there was no time to workout. Finally I managed to get a half hour on the glider going, but I'm just... I guess the word I'm looking for is weary.

Time to go crash again - that seems to be all I'm good for today.

2 miles

I woke up at 6 am - it was in the mid-60's and raining lightly. At first I thought, "Damn it's raining, I can't run." My second thought was how stupid that pre-caffeniated thought was.

So I got up, pulled on my running clothes, stretched and sparked up the mp3 player before doing a 2 mile street run. I did a 13:12 pace (26:24 overall) running to the church and back. I didn't walk at all and had to wait for the light twice, so I'm pretty happy with my run this morning.

Running in a light rain was actually kind of nice. I didn't heat up the way I usually do and I'm sure the physics of the water on my skin and evaporation and such are the real reasons why. I just know that it felt somewhat refreshing. It was warm enough out that my t-shirt didn't feel all clammy until after I stopped when I got home.

I was tempted to go 3 miles this morning but realized I had to get back in to get kids off to camp and such - so I'll take running 2 miles for today and attempt going the 3 tomorrow. Because the race is on Sunday, I probably won't run on Saturday.

The concept of rest days are important, I know that. Yesterday instead of running, I walked just shy of 8,000 steps - mostly in the quest to find an affordable bike for my son. He loves his chopper-style stingray designed by the American Chopper guys (his uncle gave it to him last year), but when you're going off to high school you're better off on the lame-o $70 bike from Target your mother bought you than on a middle school style chopper, no matter how cool everyone thinks it may be. It's high school and image is everything.

In the course of bike shopping, we stopped at a triathlete store where I showed him just how light the bikes used in racing truly are. He was absolutely floored. I told him how his cousin is training for short triathalons (1/2 mile swim, 11 mile bike, 5K run) and he said, "That's sick."

Of course sick, in teen speak, is the equivalent of groovy or cool.

My niece, the one training for short tris, just finished the book Slow Fat Triathlete (http://www.slowfattriathlete.com/) and is somewhat inspired. OK, my niece was probably on this track before reading the book - in fact I know she was - just the book helped spur her on. This is a girl who went to a Division I college on a partial crew scholarship and tried out for the Olympic bobsled team.

At any rate I'll add a link to the book to the side there. By the way, if you buy stuff at Amazon by clicking through the links on the side, I'd appreciate it. It earns me a bit of cash which all writers for hire could use. So please, be kind and support this slow, fat keyboard warrior.

Independence Day

I ran/walked 3 miles in 49 minutes. Not bad, not great but it does give me a new goal. I'd like to be able to do that distance in 36 minutes - which means I need to figure out how to shave 13 minutes off that time.

If you're wondering how I hauled my butt out of bed this morning to be running at 6:30, the cat decided to act as an alarm clock. She was sleeping next to me on the bed and I awoke to the sounds of her about to hack up a fur ball. I tossed her off the bed and hoped she didn't hack it up on my slippers (she's done that in the past too). Fortunately she hacked it up on the floor - so it was easy to clean up but by then I was awake and figured I might as well get the run in.

This morning was pleasant. It was 68 degrees when I left the house and about 70 by the time I was done. There was a nice, soft breeze every so often off the river and the path was quiet. I ran for just over 20 minutes without stopping - just shy of the 1.3 mile mark. I walked for about 10 minutes and then did run/walk combos as I felt like I could.

Overall I kept a 15 minute pace - there's something to be said for that. If I'm up early enough, I may try running that same distance on the road to see if there's a time difference. It seems when I run 2 miles on the street I tend to run a 12:30-13 minute pace while on the running path I tend towards a 15 minute pace. If I do the street thing, it means running up to the church and back and then a loop around the block to make the 3 mile mark. Of course I'd have to do that at like 6 in the morning before there's real traffic and people that might see me.

I'll probably try the other balance ball DVD I got from the library today. I need some good stretches right now.

Well, go off and celebrate folks as today's our nation's birthday. I'm going to a ball game (and is there anything more American than that?) - the NH Fishercats vs. the New Britian Rockcats. I guess you could say it's a cat fight. :) No matter what you call it, it's baseball and I love baseball.

Walking benchmark

My regular deadline was moved up a day due to the holiday, which meant I had to work this morning instead of getting out for my run. By the time I could go running, it was a hot 83 degrees (sticky, little breeze). I decided I'd walk the 5K course and get a benchmark today.

After all, walking it is better than doing nothing.

I walked it in 1:02:07 which, according to Runner's World pace calculator, puts me at an even 20 minute pace. This means that even if I only run a mile or so of the race on Sunday, I'll make my goal of coming in under an hour. Unfortunately, the ankle I fouled a pitch off yesterday at the batting cages is starting to knot up now that I'm starting to rest and cool down. So I'll go pop a couple of ibuprofen to reduce the inflammation and ice it down.

Tomorrow, because it's a holiday, means no deadlines, no pressure. If I can just haul my butt out of bed instead of sleeping in, I should be able to get a run/walk time on the course and set out my training schedule for the week.

I am the eggman

It was a rest day today - especially after everything I did yesterday. So we went off to hit some baseballs, ride in go carts, climb the rock wall at REI and other fun stuff.

I chose not to climb the rock wall because I fouled a 70 mph ball off the front of my ankle. It didn't take long for a huge egg to form and it start to turn red and purple (and it really is such a lovely shade of both colors).

We did stop at Newbury Comics to scan the used DVDs to see what we could find. I found some Ranma 1/2, Legally Blonde 1 & 2 - the fully accessorized editions and a Swiss Ball workout DVD. It looks a little lame and I figure if I don't like, I'll sell it back to them for a couple of bucks - no biggie.

Tomorrow I start running the 3 mile loop to get ready for next Sunday's race. This will be the first time I get a real time on running a 5k course and be able to (hopefully) adjust from there. I know where the 1 and 2 mile marks are on the course, so the idea is to be able to cover both of those and then run/walk the 3rd mile before next Sunday.

Here's hoping.

Today's run 7/1/06

I ran 1.4 miles in 22:36 for a 16:09 pace. That's slow but it was also 85 degrees and partly cloudy when finally made it out for my run.

I also did a 51 minute balance ball workout with the "Balance Ball for Dummies" DVD. The GAIAM DVD is more a moving meditation with soft new age music and flowing from one movement to the next... sort of like a yoga routine. The Dummies workout is more of a health club workout. There was that synthesized upbeat rock-style music and there was a break between each exercise to set up the next one. It wasn't bad and I liked that there were some bicep and tricep work with hand weights while sitting on the ball (something I may just do on my own).

Of the two, right now I prefer the more meditative DVD. I like the relaxed feeling. If I decide to buy the Dummies DVD, I don't think it would be a regular one, just one I'd use every so often to break up the monotony. I'll keep my eye open on used racks and at yard sales for this one.

Let me roll it to you

One of the things I've been doing to supplement the running is using one of those balance balls. I like the idea of "stabilizing my core" - in other words, focusing on strengthening and aligning my abdominal muscles.

Mostly I like the stretching - and most of it feels like stretching. The one thing I discovered that makes a HUGE difference is using a yoga sticky mat to keep the ball from rolling all over the place when I'm trying to do stuff.

I bought a copy of the GAIAM "Balance Ball for Weight Loss" video (OK, the "weight loss" portion is really just a lecture on how to eat healthy and the reminder you need to burn more than you take in to lose weight ... duh!) But I didn't buy it for that, I bought it because it seemed to be a good intro program, which it is.


I just took out a couple of more DVDs from the library - "Balance Ball for Dummies" and "Stott Pilates" balance ball series - that way, I can see if they're any good and pick them up so I can mix them up every so often. I'll watch one today and one tomorrow and let you know what I think.

What really is nice about the ball is that it's gentle. Sometimes you just need something that doesn't feel like it's a chore or work so you can relax while still doing what you need to do.

So, before anyone gets up (it is Saturday morning after all), I think I'll go roll around for a little bit and then go for my run.

The 5K is one week from tomorrow and I'm still only doing the 2.1 mile loop on the trail in what feels like forever. Starting tomorrow I'm adding the last 1 mile loop so that I'll have a realistic time frame.

getting a run in

Up until 8 weeks ago I used to say that I didn't even run for a bus because there'd be another along at some point.

Then my son didn't make the lacrosse team. In talking to his coach, one thing made a difference: he would refuse to run. (Goalies don't run, they block shots.) Knowing he didn't do anything alone, I bought a pair of running shoes and worked with him on one of these 6 weeks from couch potato to 5K plans. Here it is 8 weeks later and he's quit but I'm still running.

Today I ran 2.1 miles in 35 minutes. I know how badly that sucks (16:33 pace). Normally I run about a 12:00 - 12:30 mile but I also run really early in the morning on a street where I know the church is exactly one mile from the house. Because I got a late start this morning, I ran the running path along the river, so there's no way of knowing "this is a mile..." or anything like that. In fact, when I went out and walked it earlier to get the distance, I was surprised it was only 2.125 miles.

I'm registered for a 5K next Sunday, the 9th. I'm a little nervous that I'll come in dead last. We'll see. I'm also registered for a 4.2 mile race at the end of July (the Jerry Garcia Memorial Road Race). I'm hoping to finish in under an hour, although after today's run, I'm not so sure that's possible. I have a month to get ready, hopefully I'll be all set by then. The goal is to finish in 48 mintutes for the Garcia run. The 5k next week I'm hoping for a 36-40 minute finish.

Here's hoping.