Back to it - fo reals

Alright, time to stop slacking. Back to really running..... and with a partner??

I ran my first race since the marathon this past Saturday. This time though, I didn't run for my own PR, but for my husband's. This was his second 5K and he beat his former time by at least 15 seconds. The course was fairly hilly (I believe his exact words were "This course is bullsh**.") but the weather was beautiful and I think we both ended up having fun. The best part, for me, was having a running partner. But then it got EVEN BETTER - later that same day, we stopped by a running store so I could pick up a new knee band and (gasp!) he decided to buy some serious running shoes.

I'm really trying to hold back my excitement here and I know I am tempting fate, but I think running might kinda actually be developing into a 'we' event. Now, I don't want to pressure anyone into running with me if they're not really into it, but when I timidly suggested we try to run together once a week, he agreed! We did our first 3+ miler together this past Monday! (Around the abandoned prison buildings in our town, a nice sidewalk path that I had previously wanted to try, but had been too chicken to run alone.)

Now, here's the deal - though he has not seriously exercised in years, my husband was a serious high school athlete (baseball) who used to run 5 or 6 miles a day. (For the record, I was a high school athlete too, but considered myself allergic to running.) So, even though he very modestly suggests that maybe one day he'll be able to keep up with me, I know that if he does stick with it, he will quickly surpass my measly 10-minute miles.

So, though I do not dare imagine any couple's marathon training in our future, and I don't have any plans to pressure or guilt him into sticking with it just for me, I will look forward to and enjoy the times he feels like running with me - especially in a race. We already signed up for another 5k next month. Maybe new PRs for both of us - who knows!

slow fast slow fast

Back to intervals. I used to do intervals way back (like a few years) before I started my marathon training, but had as of yet not included them in my running schedule. Mainly, this is because my cheap home treadmill doesn't have any settings other than manual. Hotel treadmills, however, usually have myriad settings which I have previously ignored. This week, out of sheer boredom, I tried out intervals once again - and they completely kicked my ass! Awesome.

Especially since my recent hotel runs have been less about running and more about getting in real shape (i.e. shedding the ~10 lbs. I have put on since I started running!). Being away from home has given me the opportunity to detox (really just cut the booze), eat less and work out more. So Monday was intervals, Tuesday was hills, today was intervals again and I am hoping to get in a last quick set of intervals during my lunch break tomorrow - before I get to check out and go home for 3 whole days, yay!

I find that spending so much time in the exercise room achieves several goals, in addition to the whole get-in-shape thing: 1. winding down from work 2. keeping me from spending all of my down time shopping 3. giving me quality time to Keep Up With the Kardashians, and 4.alleviating the soul-crushing boredom of being away from my honey in hotels for nearly a month.

As of right now, I have one more week on the road to cement this healthy lifestyle in place. I just hope that I can keep it up when I am once again home.... and back in grad classes. The fall semester starts in two weeks. :-o

2 words - hotel treadmill

It's squeaky. It's jerky. The linebacker on the stair climber beside me is wearing a weight vest, huffing and puffing, and sweating like a pig. And somebody stole the tv remote. It is far from ideal, but it's right downstairs and it does the trick for a mindless after work run. On really lucky days, I get to run by my lonesome, with some delightfully bad tv on the flat screen. On bad days, I get to exercise with some jerky stinky schmo that wants to watch PTI at a thousand decibels - and talk to me while I'm running.

But, thank goodness for the hotel treadmill. My two week stint in this just-off-the-interstate, backwater HIX wold be unbearable without it.

blog schmog

Well, I may have taken a prolonged break from blogging, but I have not stopped running. My weekly totals are waaaay down due to a race-free summer, but I have managed to keep up a modest routine. Since the marathon, I have managed to run an average of 3 times a week, usually 3-5 miles each time. I even ran on the Hermosa strand while I was on vacation!

As far as my reason for not blogging - laziness. On top of the stifling summer heat that makes me not want to move, being on hiatus from grad school and not having a rigorous training schedule have actually resulted in me being less productive. It's counter intuitive, but I have recently come to the conclusion that I actually get more done when I have more to do. I use my time better when I have less of it.

But, productivity can be overrated. I have to say that the slow summer evenings filled with cold white wine and fresh-from-the-garden meals with my sweetie have been - if not 'productive' - really, really lovely.

They have not done much for my waistline, though. Which is why I will be using my next two weeks of working out of town to cut back on the calories and hit the hotel treadmill as much as possible. Who knows, maybe I'll even get motivated to start speed training to work on my race time. My next 5k is 9/11.

5:04:05

Great (small) crowd
Laid back, non-competitive (small) group of runners
Nice first lap in the pack with idle conversation
DIY lap-tracker with sharpie on a string
Beautiful (flat) course -
Paved, wildflower-lined, creek-side
Cool misty mountain air
Great first half
Pulled right quad
Sneaky occasional hubby appearances
Consistently motivational playlist
Last lap downpour
Soaked to the skin
Cool, not cold
Really heavy saturated shoes
Walking more than expected
Running at the finish
Last sharpie tally mark
5:04:05

Closing in, in not-so-golden silence

It's getting close. Real close. 8 days away. I'm excited, not really nervous..... about the marathon, that is. What I am getting increasingly anxious about is the half-marathon I have in 2 days. A few weeks ago, when some fellow runners tried to scare me by telling me that this race is the hardest half in the area, I shrugged it off. Not being all that competitive, I just said, "Well, then I won't focus on setting a new PR." No big deal. Anxiety did not creep in until I started reading the race details online yesterday and noticed this heart-stopping message:

WHAT?!?

OK, OK, some of the races I have run so far have had similar messages, but I (like everyone else) ignored them and they were not enforced. This one is just worded with such strong, angry language, in red, and with a vivid graphic, no less!! (Insert a big long whine here.)

To be completely honest, I view my ipod as an appendage, delivering motivation via an umbilical cord with earbuds on the end. I need it. I have never run outdoors without it.

Until today. I bit the bullet and ran my prescribed 3 miles sans earbuds and it did not kill me. But, it wasn't what I would characterize as fun, either. I need fun. I need external motivation. And, while chirping birds and buzzing bees might get me outdoors, they do not make me want to run - or keep running for miles and miles and miles.

So, as I do with any moral dilemma, I turned to the blogosphere for answers. And, as usual, I found way too many conflicting opinions to actually be helpful, but I am more informed. I learned, for instance, that REAL runners NEVER run with music, but that many other so-called "runners" also admit to regularly breaking no-headphones bans in races.

What to do, what to do? I think I have come to a decision, but I don't want to jinx myself, so I will not share it until the race is done. I can disclose that I will be wearing my new magic compression socks (and yes they are magic), and my new Nathan running belt with my own supply of water and Shot Bloks. Along with my ball cap and sunglasses, I'm thinking the look will be aging softball player meets crazed tourist. Whether or not that crazed softball-playing tourist is enjoying some renegade tunes, yet to be seen.

By the way - the full marathon, that is 8 days away, has no policy on headphone use. And I fully plan to rock out the entire 26.2, thank you very much.

Catching up

Wow, has it really been over a month since my last post? April went by super fast, but I guess quite a bit has transpired in the gap. As far as running goes, I have continued with my training and I ran another 10K (new PR - 58:53!!). My only setback was last week, when I attempted my 20 mile run (to be the longest pre-marathon) without my IT band (stupid) and threw in the towel at mile 11 to keep the ensuing pain from becoming an injury.

So, the goal is to run my 20 tomorrow and then start tapering. I have to say I have been looking forward to the big taper since I started this whole program. So now that it is within reach, I am pretty darned excited.

On a somewhat unrelated note is the excitement that comes with getting new magazines in the mail. I know it's a bit frivolous and maybe more 'low-brow' than curling up with a book or a kindle, but I love to snuggle up to good magazine. And Runner's World fulfills that craving. On top of just being another glossy to casually peruse, I have so far actually found something useful in each issue.

For instance, in this months issue, which I enjoyed with my coffee this morning, I found that I am already doing most of the things they recommend in the "Run Faster (Without All the Work)" article. (They had me at their strategic use of parentheses in the title.) Most things, that is, except wearing knee-high compression socks. OK, easy enough. I decided I would surf the web a bit to find out some good brands and hit up a local sports store this afternoon - just in time to try them out for my 20. After all, acquiring new gear is one of the fun things about running, or any hobby/sport I would imagine.

Nope. Total fail. Nowhere in the area seems to carry compression socks, and one store even tried to make me think I had made them up! They tried to tell me I had to go to a medical supply store for "diabetic stockings". And when I mentioned reading about them in the latest issue of Runner's World, they pulled out last month's issue to try to prove me wrong!! I was so incensed that I didn't even purchase any Shot Bloks from them. Mean old behind-the-times-so-called- running-specialists!!

I know I have seen several people wearing them in my recent races, and there can't be that many runners who are diabetic! or at least that many that need "compression stockings"! Jeez.

So, no cool socks for tomorrow, but I am going to order some right now online. Even if they don't work, or I never even wear them, it will be worth it just to prove those sports' store $%#@ers were wrong. Maybe I'll put them on and run very slowly past their storefront.
$%#@ers.