Sunday Seven

What a "run." Typically I do all of my long runs on the B&A Trail, which is a 13 mile trail running from Annapolis to Glen Burnie. I start in Glen Burnie around mile 11.5 and head toward Annapolis, although I never get there since the farthest I've made it before turning around is 5 miles. On Sunday, my typical starting point was closed due to some kind of construction. John and I decided to find the actual trail head in Glen Burnie and go from there.

We ran the short bit of the B&A that wasn't closed and then headed onto the BWI Trail for the first time. As we hit four miles my knee pain that I've been having showed up. And then we hit this:



Running in the snow to avoid the ice on the trail.

I'll spare you the gory details but between the ice, COLD, and knee pain that got exponentially worse, this was not the best 3 miles of my life. I have to admit though, if I take out the pain and cold, and the fact that God seems to have decided I will never have a good seven mile run in my life (1st time I puked. A lot. 2nd time I had shin splints), it was a pretty fun time.


Please excuse my voice and sniffles.

We finally finished 7 miles in 1 hour and 22 minutes, which is slower than it takes me to run 8 miles. As we exited the trail we saw two dudes all over John's car, looking in the windows, clearly up to no good and making trouble in the neighborhood (I hope someone appreciates that reference). John scared them away with his manliness and I have decided to invest in pepper spray.

After this "run" I obviously deserved Chipotle.


Is this not the most beautiful picture you have ever seen???

Chipotle should thank me for inspiring anyone who looks at this to immediately go out and purchase a burrito bowl.

Things I am Liking Lately...

1. SPIN. Oh my goodness. I cannot believe I didn't try it sooner. It makes Thursday one of my favorite days of the week. It is just so. much. fun. The loud music, the darkness, Ricky*, and the sweat (now that it is winter, sweat is very valuble to me)...good times. I think I like it as much as I like running. Yeah, I just said that.

2. Work. I'm one of those (lucky) people who actually like the career field they're in.** I'm happy that I'm actually doing what I went to school for (kinda) and that I work with an amazing, although very set in her ways, teacher who is teaching me a lot. Also, it gives me an excuse to listen to Raffi at the age of 24 and not seem like a nut.

3. Bodyrock. I had been staying away from Bodyrock for a while because they started incorporating all sorts of equipment that I don't own or want to own. They've really stepped their game up with the new trainers who show modifications for people who don't have the equipment. I also found this online interval timer which is easier to use than the stopwatch on my phone. Finally, although I miss working out "with" Zuzana, I like that she's putting up a lot of recipes on the site.

4. Winter. HA! Just kidding, that goes on the list of things I am hating. Replace winter with "reading." I felt like I was in a reading slump after reading The Hunger Games series (you had better believe I will be at the midnight showing when the movie opens).

I like for a book to inspire me in some way or at least make me so invested in the characters to the point that they're almost real. The books I read after the Hunget Games just didn't do it for me. At the beginning of the year I started reading Big Machine by Victor LaValle. Most of the book was kind of disturbing and just...strange. And when I say most I mean all but the last ten pages or so. The last ten pages completely changed my opinion of the book and made me excited to read again. I'm currently reading Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo and while I'm not completely sold on it yet, I have high hopes.

5. Pigeon Pose. Dr. Google has diognosed me with runner's knee and this pose feels FANTASTIC on my hip. The other day I just had to drop to the floor in the middle of the hallway to get some pigeon.

Bonus! Chipotle. Really, this is something I'm loving all the time. I don't think there's ever been food that I like as much as I like my Chipotle. I could literally eat it all the time, and no, I'm not even close to exaggerating. I keep waiting for it to get old but it never does. I would not be surprised if they put some chemical in that spicy salsa that makes it addicting.

*The yoga class I used to go to on Mondays was preceded by a step class. I would watch class while I waited for my own to start. There was a guy in the class named Ricky who yelled a lot and had a ton of engery and made me tempted to start going to step class too. Now he's in my spin class!

**Preposition at the end of a sentence, AH!

New Year's Resolutions

Yes I realize I'm about a week late with this one. I'm going to blame that on the fact that I've never actually made New Year's Resolutions before. I thought (and still think) that it's silly to make a resolution just because the calendar changes. However, looking at everything I accomplished last year, I'm finding myself wanting to take things up a notch. So I have decided to make goals in lieu of resolutions.

1. Run 600 miles. In 2011 I ran 328 miles and was on track to run over 400 until I took almost two months off after fracturing my foot. Last year I also couldn't run 3 miles until March, which means I spent two months running very low milage. I think I can definitely put out 600 this year (assuming there are no injuries that keep me from running for an extended amount of time) giving that I can run much farther and I will be marathon training in a few months. Which leads me to my next goal...

2. Run a full 26.2. I've finished two halves and I'll be making it three by March. It's time to conquer the full.

3. Strength train. "The workout you enjoy the least is probably what you need to do the most." John heard that somewhere from someone (aren't you glad I paid attention when he told me about it?) and it is completely true for me. I do not have the attention span to work on specific muscles but I'm going to try. Next time you see me I plan on looking like Lisa-Marie:

Just kidding. (I wish I wasn't).

4. Go to the DENTIST. It's been an ebarrassingly long time since I was at the dentist. I'm one of those weird people who like the dentist, although when I finally get in there this year I don't think it's going to be so fun. As long as I don't have any cavities, I'll be happy.

5. Go to the dermatologist. I went a while back because I had a random mole pop up, which turned out to be fine but it was recommended that I come in at another time to get a full body screening. I'm sure they didn't mean to wait almost two years but at least I didn't forget about it, right? Plus I want to get a few moles removed that I think are ugly. Apparently I'm fine going under the knife for vanity, who knew? And aren't you glad you just read a paragraph about my moles?

So that's all for now. Nothing earth shattering and I'll definitely make more goals over the course of the year but this is my start. I'm off to eat chips and salsa because that is the best food in all creation.

The World Spins Madly On

Today, my alarm went off at 4:30 am. I cannot remember the last time I got up that early. Maybe for the Richmond half, but I think I got up at 4:45 for that.

I got up that early because I had to leave the house by 4:50. Thankfully it was 32 degrees this morning instead of 14 degrees like yesterday. I HATE the fact that I just said I was thankful for it being in the 30s. As John said, "This feels like a heatwave compared to yesterday."

I had to leave by 4:50 because I had to be at my very first SPIN CLASS by 5:30. All the biking I did while I was sidelined from running made my knee feel almost completely normal. Sometimes I still can't believe it, I never thought it would be this good again. So, now that I can run, I didn't want to let the biking go to the wayside and thought a class would be a great way to make myself stick to it since group fitness is usually (usually) way more fun than going solo.

I wanted to get there a bit early to talk to the instructer since I had no idea how to adjust the bike or what I was doing. Her name is Amber and she is pretty cool (although how can you not be cool if you're that peppy at 5:30am in the middle of winter?).

We got started and I thought I was about to die. I was embarrassed to call myself any kind of athlete and worried that I would have to walk out of class. Then Amber said it was just the warm up and I decided I was in way over my head. Maybe it just took my a while to wake up find my groove because after a while, I got the hang of everything and had a lot of fun. The hour flew by, especially the last 30 minutes. I can't wait until 5:30 next Thursday.

PS-Next time you make oatmeal, put blueberries in it. You can thank me later.

Don't Worry, I'm ALIVE!

You all probably think that I ran 13.1 miles and died a few days later, but lucky for you that isn't the case. Let me update you via pictures because that is way more fun and because I know how much you miss my beautiful face!



Went to North Carolina for our friend Mary's wedding!



The next day I ended up in the ER with a stress fracture in my foot :(



So I've been spending no time running and a lot of time getting to know the bike.



Thanksgiving in West Virginia with John's family. Pretty scenery!



Went to John's work Christmas party. It was a good way to force me to remove
all the calluses on my feet and actually paint my toenails.



I managed to visit Santa before Christmas. He gave me a candy cane.
Why are we not supposed to take candy from strangers again?

So that's pretty much it! I promise another update before my next birthday, don't worry.

Richmond McDonald's Half Marathon!

The difference between the Patrick Henry Half and the Richmond Half was like night and day. I could probably write a novel about Saturday and will come close with this post.

John and I spent hours in stop and go traffic on the way to Virginia. We hit up the expo first. After we picked up my bib, shirt, and goodie bag; we attempted to browse all the running stuff they had. Unfortunately there were a lot of people and a lot of stuff which meant looking at anything was difficult. Kind of a shame because there was a lot of cool stuff. We left and drove by the starting line on the way to the hotel. Once at the hotel, John was awesome and walked across the street to get Subway for dinner so that I could do nothing conserve my energy for the next morning. We ate and watched TV until we eventually fell asleep.

My alarm went off at 5:35 the next morning. Once we got outside to head to the race, we saw that it was 35 degrees. Ugh. I was wearing capris, tank top, and long sleeve to run in but had a jacket and sweats over that to stay warm before the start of the race. I was still freezing of course. They were giving out bandanas so I tied one around my neck to keep it warm, plus I thought it would make it easier for John to spot me in the crowds.

We hung out, drank water, I ate a fruit rope, and used the port-o-potties twice before I shed my extra clothes and headed to my wave (F). They let the waves go one at a time with some elapsed time in between. I thought this was great because it really prevented us from getting too bunched up. For some reason they did not start the full marathon and 8k like this.



After removing layers :(



Starting line. Fall is pretty.

Anyway, I crossed the start line and of course the first mile flew by. In fact, miles 1 through 5 were easy and fast. I warmed up after the first mile and tried to pick out different people to set my pace to (another good thing about starting in waves-I knew the people around me were around my pace). I was having some weird pain in the back of my leg kind of in between my ankle and calf muscle. At some points it was really bad and made me worry about the latter half of the race but it ended up not being an issue. Luckily my quad injury from the week before didn’t hurt at all until I was stretching at the end of the race.



Who has two thumbs and is having the best time ever
even though her legs feel like lead?



Somewhere between mile 5 and 6 I ate half of my fruit rope and we headed into a park. This was probably my least favorite part of the course. There were no spectators so it was pretty boring. The park was basically a series of hills on a narrow path which made passing people (especially on the downhill) very difficult. John and Kathy were supposed to be at the park and honestly, I was really looking forward to seeing them, but with all the roads blocked off and the traffic, they ended up not making it.

We exited the park between miles 7 and 8. It was here that my legs started feeling tired. A little before mile 9, I think I hit the wall. It really was no joke-I was going along, tired but moving, and all of a sudden it felt like I couldn’t run anymore and would never finish. I decided to use the whole ‘mind over matter’ trick and pretended I hadn’t hit anything. It’s actually kind of funny because around this point in the race I kept seeing cheesy motivational signs, only they don’t seem cheesy when you’ve ran 8 miles and have 5.1 to go. One that stands out said “All walls have doors-break through!” And so I kept focusing on the ‘door.’

I ate the rest of my fruit rope a little before mile 10 and focused on the finish. My Garmin was off from the race course. I think it was around .2 miles fast, so I wasn’t entirely sure what my time was going to be. At some points I thought I was going to do worse than my previous time but thankfully I didn’t start worrying too much. By mile 11 I realized I was going to make it in under 2:20. I was predicting 2:17. I knew the race finished on a downhill and was counting on that to help me but I kind of forgot about the uphill that preceded the downhill. By that point, however, I was too ready to finish to care about hills. I started seeing people who had already finished walking away with their medals and realized that was going to be me in 10 minutes.

As I headed down the home stretch I started hearing people screaming my name and I realized John and Kathy were somewhere up ahead. It made me SO happy and I am beyond grateful that they were there. I also truly cannot express how awesome it was to end on a huge downhill. I had it in me to finish strong even without the downhill but because of it, I finished fast. I tried to get some stretching in after I got my medal and space blanket but the shoot was super crowed. I grabbed a water and two bananas and then found John and Kathy. My clock time was around 2:29 and my Garmin said I ran 13.25mi so I had no idea what my official time would be until John got the text with my finish time of 2:16:37 which is a 10:25m/mi pace.



This is how I smile when my face is numb!



The medal weighs 1lb...yes I actually weighed it.



We watched the first and second guys finish the marathon and then headed back to the hotel for a quick shower before the drive home. I cannot say enough good things about this marathon. It was fun, well organized, good crowd support, and good course. Also, if I remember right, there were five bands along the way, including some Taiko drummers that were really awesome.

My knees were incredibly sore afterwards and the rest of me was sore in the days following, but I’m healing up nicely. Ready for the Galveston Mardi Gras Half in February!

PS-Here is my present from John for making him wake up early and stand out in the cold for almost 4 hours.....I mean...for running well.



His name is Winston.

PPS-Here is your present for getting through this very long post-fast Kenyan man who was 2nd place in the half marathon.


He's lucky I let him win.

 

Half Marathon Plan

I’ve been putting off writing this because I really couldn’t figure out what my plan would be for the longest time. Now I think I’ve got it. At least, I’ve got the ‘for now’ plan when my head will inevitably come up with something else while I’m trying to will myself to sleep tomorrow night.

So, the plan is, there is no plan. Just some things I want to remember when the gun goes off Saturday morning.

·         Run my race (Don’t go out too fast).
I have a very bad habit of freaking out when people pass me. I don’t know why, I have no pipe dreams of winning the race or even placing in my age group. I know I’m not even fast for a “normal person.” But still, I feel like I’m back in high school soccer running the mile and the need to be first kicks in. Not this time. I’m going to do my best to pretend I’m all alone on one of my long runs, and just do the damn thing.

·         Hydrate.
During my first half, I made the silly mistake of not really drinking anything until mile six. I guess I thought that the hurricane rain that was all around me would hydrate me via osmosis. That didn’t work out, which resulted in me realizing I was dying of thirst that couldn’t be quenched until I chugged a bottle of water-something that cannot happen during a race. I LIVED for the water stations for seven miles. Seriously, all I could think about after throwing that empty paper cup on the ground was the moment when I could grab another full one. Not a good way to spend more than half the race.

·         Have fun.
Not that my fist half wasn’t fun but…okay it really wasn’t that fun. Being around other runners=fun. Crossing the finish line=fun. But the actual running-not so fun. I think the key to this one is the first bullet. On my training long runs I turn into a motivational speaker and tell myself how freaking awesome I am every other step. Then come race time all I see are people passing me and I become mentally unstable and panic. That makes for not a lot of fun.

I’ve had issues with shin splits and a last minute soccer injury that’s kind of prevented me from finishing my training. But I know I’m ready. My runs this time around have been easier, I’ve felt stronger, and ran faster. My only time goal is 2:20. I know I have it in me to get a 2:15. But who knows what will happen on Saturday? If all else fails, I'll just focus on the junk food station at mile 9...