In My Copious Free Time

I'm Gonna Be (13 Miles)

First of all, how awesome is MTV Music? So what if they don't play videos on MTV anymore - they play them whenever I want, on demand, on my computer. Sweetness.

The Proclaimers |MTV Music

Because the new iPhone has built-in Nike + AND I had to get a new sensor since the old one finally died, I decided to start anew on the Nike + website, which syncs run information directly from the phone. Innocuous enough, right? Well, I started playing around on the site, something I'd never done since I never really used it consistently in the first place. I noticed the training programs link and once on that page, there it was, staring me in the face:

HALF MARATHON

In all honestly, it looked more like this:

HALF MARATHON

Imagine that in some spiky font with little heat lines coming off of it, as if it just rose up out of the bowels of hell. Also, imagine it flashing.

It looked big. It looked scary. (I know you're thinking it - "that's what she said.") It looked impossible.*

So naturally, I signed right the hell up.



I usually run 2 miles a day, sometimes 2.5 miles. On a good day, I'll run 5k, but let's face it, I'm not a distance runner. I've run a 10k. Once. So I'm really not sure what I'm thinking or doing**, but it just seems like the thing to try. Or do. Just do it. Do or do not, there is no try. 

I'm going to go lace up my shoes and see if I can come up with more hackneyed motivational expressions. In the meantime, if you all never hear from me again, it's because running the first 4 miles was the end of me.

*Actually, it looked like a little, robin's egg blue square. I exaggerate.
**I suspect that a tiny part of this is being inspired as all get-out by Donna Downey's story of becoming a runner (in the midst of losing something like 50 pounds). I used to think I couldn't be a runner, like Donna thought. But now I am. I used to think I couldn't run very far or run something as big as a half-marathon. I want to prove myself wrong.

Running notes

Okay, a few running notes first...

Sunday I was way tired, but I went out for an early morning run. Some fog still clung to the grounds of Emma Willard where I run - it was that early and cool. (Aside, breakfast was being prepared somewhere n campus because the smell of bacon was almost overpowering. You know those cartoons where a character is lifted off the ground and follows the visible trail of a scent in the air? That was practically me.)

Anyhow, I set my Nike + iPod for a 2 mile run, thinking I'd be lucky to make it that far. Then a lovely thing happened and my iPod served up song after song to keep me going. I got to 2 miles and decided to keep running until a song I didn't really love running to came on. That didn't happen until the 2.75 mile mark. So I figured I'd keep going to do 5k. Then I realized I could make 4 miles if I wanted. I ended up running 4.19 miles, or two-thirds of a 10k!! This was huge for me because I've mentally committed to running the Nike + Human Race 10k on 31 August, but I had doubts about whether or not I could finish 10k. This run laid those doubts to rest.

Then I got to thinking...if I can double my distance ability from 5k to 10k, maybe I can double it again? 6.2 miles doubled isn't far from a half marathon. That thought freaked me out a wee bit. :)

I didn't run again until Friday when I did a 5k in the morning and then went to the track with Alex and Joe that evening. Joe wanted to run 2-3 miles, but I wanted to take it easy. Somehow taking it easy turned into an initial easy lap followed by 3 laps of seeing just how fast a mile I could turn in. 8:52 was the result!! whoooooo!

Tonight I ran another 5k - not my fastest time (~34 min) but I was pretty tired. It felt really good and I could have kept going but it was getting dark, so I figured it was best if headed home.

Post about running music coming soon...

Running 2.0

Running in the rain
Teardrops caressing my face
The morning is sad

(I actually like haiku. What I don't like is the abuse of the haiku sensibility. I have no illusions that the above is a good haiku, but it is what I wrote in my head as I walked home from my run, and I always write down what I think up during my runs.)

I ran this morning. I usually don't run two days in a row out of respect for my knees, but today I just felt like it. I got the Nike + iPod attachment for my Nano and I love it. I can't believe I've teched-out my running. I ran two miles yesterday, but since I set it for a 30 minute run, I didn't finish the set workout. Bah. Truth be told, that's why I ran today -- I wanted to finish something, damn it! So I set out, running up to the track instead of walking as I normally do. It was lightly misting when I left, but mist had turned to rain by the time I got to the track. I knew I should have worn my contacts, or at least a headband to keep my hair out of my face. It's hard for me to run in the rain because it's as if I can feel every raindrop pelting me, so until I am wet enough to mitigate that feeling, it's very distracting. Fortunately (or unfortunately, perhaps), it was raining hard enough that I wasn't distracted for long. The workout program tells you when you have 400 meters to go, then announces each 100 meter mark until you finish, congratulating you and relaying your time, distance and pace. I reset it for another mile, planning on running that far and then walking a lap to calibrate the walking workout function. No dice, though, as my iPod ran out of juice about a half-mile in. Yes, I could have kept running, but the dead iPod, the steady rain and the cold wind were just a little too  much, so I headed home. It wasn't a bad run, just uncomfortable and not as far as I'd hoped,
but considering I normally wouldn't have run, I'm not complaining.

A bad run is better than no run at all

For the last few weeks I've had this vague notion that I should run in my town's Thanksgiving day Turkey Trot 5K. This notion doesn't sound too unusual until you consider the fact that I haven't run in months. And no, Tuesday's mad dash through the Charlotte airport to make the Unmakeable Flight doesn't really count. (I was wearing boots with 3" heels, though.) Apparently even I didn't believe myself, because at about midnight I thought to myself "Oh, right. Turkey Trot. Guess I'd better go to bed if I'm going to run." Then I got in the bed and thought, "Guess I'd better get back up and find out when the race starts."

So, I got up and dressed, and as I was brushing my teeth, I realized it was raining. If it is hard to make yourself go out and run a 5K when you haven't run in months, know it is even harder to make yourself do it when it's freezing. But it's almost impossible when it's also raining. That said, I got in the car and went. As I looked for a place to park, the voice in my head kept saying, "Oh, just go home, it's raining. You don't really want to run anyway." But I parked, trudged through the rain to City Hall, paid my fee, and pinned on my number (4327). Now it wasn't just a matter of determination -- I didn't want to waste my $25, either. My office is close to the starting line, so I went in and stashed my keys (the front doors have a locked, keypad entry after hours, so this was a safe move).

Every year I make the same mistake. I line up back in the 10-minute mile section, but then it's actually 1.5-2 minutes before I can actually run past the starting line because of the slow pack. This year it was 1 minute, 40 seconds before I was past the start line and could begin actually running. So no matter what my official time is, I'll knock off 1.5 minutes because that short distance could have been covered in less than 10 seconds if I didn't have to fight the crowd of slow starters.

Running in the rain is not fun. Running in the cold is not fun. But running in a race is fun -- I could have never gone out on the track and run 3 miles cold, but somehow the race atmosphere makes it possible.

My primary goal was to finish and my secondary goal was to not stop running. I managed to do both, but man, it was hard. Anytime I wanted to stop, I thought of my mother. I am sure there were times in her treatment that it was more difficult than I can even imagine, but did she stop? No. She kept going, kept pushing. Stopping was not an option.

My unofficial time on my watch was 35 minutes and change, with 18 and change for the first half and 17 and change for the second half. All those include the 1:40 before I could actually start. When the official results are posted, I'll update this. That's a pretty bad time and slower than even my first 5K, but not bad considering that I'm not really in good running condition because of my lack of running and my general fatigue from work and travel. So, I'll take it.

One more thing. If you ever consider going out to see a road race, please go ahead and do it. It may sound silly, but it is really energizing to have people along the course cheering the runners on. It's a little thing, but it makes a difference.

And now the kitchen is calling my name. Happy Turkey Day, y'all.

That wasn't so bad

It's been way too long since I ran. I think the last time was about a week before I went on vacation, and, if I recall correctly, that was a pathetic run. Since vacation I've been a lazy ass (sleeping late) and lately it's been raining, so morning runs weren't happening. Today I slept late (10am), but it was still very cool when I woke up (50F), so I decided to give it a try. Not at all confident in my ability to have a good run, I told Joe as I was leaving, "I'm sure I'll be back in 20 minutes."

Three miles later, I'm home. On lap 4 I thought that I'd be doing good to make it to 1.5 miles. On lap 6 I got a serious stitch in my side (I can't remember the last time that happened) and had to walk about a quarter lap to work through it. Otherwise, it was a good run and I feel good now.

Now to shower and eat before the Braves game starts...

Meaningless short post #87

I'm all over the short posts today. Not sure why.

Anyhow, pathetic 1-mile run today. But even more pathetic is what happened before my run. I woke up at 7am and thought, "Oh good, I can get up and start my Saturday off with a nice run before it gets too hot." Tuesday never seemed so bitter.

Last night/this morning

You know how sometimes you are having a nightmare and in the dream you try to scream but no sound will come out? Last night, I didn't have that problem. As danger approached, I started to scream, thinking that no sound would come out, and when it did I just screamed louder and louder, until I woke up. It was horrible -- there was water everywhere, and I couldn't save the babies, and I should have called Joe but I thought I could do it myself, and that meant he wasn't there when I needed protection. Probably the scariest nightmare I've had in a long time. There's a lesson in there about how I don't let people take care of me. I should think about that.

This morning I managed to drag my ass out of bed and go run. Only 2 miles, but I'll take it. Unfortunately, during my run I realized that there's something wrong with the track labelling of the Kanye West cd that I ripped yesterday.

So I'm a bad running updater

I was thinking as I was running this morning that I haven't said much about it lately. Which isn't entirely coincidental as there hasn't been much to say. I did manage to drag my sorry ass out of bed this morning and run 2 miles. I realized as I started lap 3 that I hadn't given a thought to my breathing yet it was very even and easy. Yay, me. Halfway through lap 7, I felt a strong oh-my-god-I'm-never-going-to-
survive feeling -- like suddenly I weighed a ton. Weird. I pushed through (there was no pain or discomfort associated with this, just a general feeling of fatigue) and managed 2 miles anyway. I might have been able to do more, but I'd really overslept and didn't have enough time to run any more than that.

I think I need a new pair of running shoes, too.

I running

2.5 miles today. Also was honked at by 2 decidedly sketchy looking men in similarly sketchy looking vehicles. Great.

Pardon my celebration

I FUCKING ROCK.

Okay, so maybe I really don't, but right now I feel like I do. After a month filled with sporadic and bad runs and bronchitis, I went out for a run today. I haven't run 3 miles since the 5K I ran on 1 May, and when I made it to the 2 mile mark, I thought, "I should try to run 3." So I kept going. By the time I hit 3 miles, I realized I felt like I could run a long time, so I decided to run another lap. Then suddenly 4 miles seemed within reach, so I decided to aim for that. The first half of the last lap was really, really hard, but I managed to finish without feeling totally shredded. In fact, I felt pretty fucking victorious.

4 MILES!!!

The last couple of laps I kept thinking about the end of Sharon Olds' "Sex Without Love": " the single body alone in the universe against its own best time."

My time was 48:27. Definitely not winning any speed records. But it's my own best time, I did it all myself, and it's all mine.