Struggling

Hey all. I haven't actually done any physical exercise since Sunday morning. I ran today after a 4 day hiatus. I've been tired, blue, burned out, bummed, just not motivated to run in the least. I forced myself out there today and managed 6.4 miles at an avg. pace of 9:35 and I felt bummed out the entire time. It felt like such a chore. Like I was only out there because I HAD to do it, not because I really wanted to or that it would bring me joy. I guilted myself into it.

It was the first time since the CIM of 2003 where I wanted to just stop, lay down on the course I was running and just fricken sleep. Just sleep. The Geetah on runner's world has this method of checking himself while out on a hard run or during a difficult race, "ATFQ" meaning answer the fu*&ing question: "If you could be anywhere on earth right now, where would you want to be?" I asked myself that today on the run and for the FIRST time ever, I said, "NOT F_ING HERE." I wanted to be home. But I said, "Just get at least 6 miles in and then that's it for the day." So I jogged and sometimes walked. It sucked but I did it.

I think I need to reevaluate my running goals. I think I need to figure out if training for marathons is worth it anymore. Why am I doing it? I had told myself long ago that once I ran Boston, I'd forego marathons for shorter races and just enjoy running again. And here I am training for the CIM. It's absurd. Why am I pushing myself to do something that's not in my heart right now??? Why? Why? UGH.

Okay, thanks for reading yet another rant. Time to go. God bless ya'll!

Work Stories

There's nothing like work and 2 hours sleep to put things into perspective. I worked swing shift patrol yesterday and it was so busy and I loved it. But there was a call that really bothered me afterward.

To make a long story short a little, preschool-aged girl got bit in the face by the family dog. The good news (if there is any out of this) is that the dog is just a little ankle biter and did not maul her vital areas. The bad news is the ankle biter left a 2" in diameter hole in the girls cheek, and some flesh hanging off of her little face. The really sad part though was the state of her home. Dog feces and urine were on the floor where she and her infant sister played with garbage (no toys around). She also has an older sister and all three of them were inhaling second hand smoke from their grandparents and dad. Mattresses were strewn all over the floor along with food wrappings, half eaten food, dirty laundry, cups filled with who knows what. The word that describes it best is filth. The adults in the house didn't seem to be too concerned about anything. The dog owner (the girl's grandmother) was more sad about watching her dog go with animal control services than watching her granddaughter being taking away by ambulance. It just IRKED me, and I'm being polite when I use that word. And the worst part is there was no CRIME committed. I could only write an information only report of the dog biting incident.

Through it all, the children there still managed to smile at us. Seeing their little smiles offered a glimmer of hope. When I left to go see the girl that was bitten at the hospital, I reminded the dad and grandparents that they were ALL these children had and that in their eyes they were God. They were/are the children's heroes. I told them that they need to never forget that and to try to set an example for them. I'm hoping it did not go in one ear and out the other, but most likely it did.

Anyway, the girl is fine and the dog is in quarantine for a while. If the owner can't afford the fees to get the dog after quarantine is over, it's going to be put down because animal control will never try to get a dog like that adopted. Thank goodness.

All of this made me think about how good my family and I have it. We have nothing to complain about or long for. We have a loving and caring home with all our basic needs met. We have only to be thankful!!!

Thanks for reading my "rant." I hope it offers some insight to others.

Weekly Totals 8-21 thru 8-27

Tue 8/21: Rest day
Wed 8/22: 9.76 w/ track intrevals
Thu 8/23: 3 @ recovery pace
Fri 8/24: 5.4 @ easy pace
Sat 8/25: 8 w/ 2 @mgp, 2 @tempo, 2 @mgp
Sun 8/26: 11 mile "long" run
Mon 8/27: Rest day

TOTAL: 37.16

Track Intervals - Geetah Style

This is my 7th race in the RW Online Geetah Race Series.
Okay I was going to blow off the intervals today and push them out til tomorrow because the DOMS were setting in from the Tabata workout yesterday. Then I reconsidered because I know the DOMS usually hit me harder TWO days after the initial workout. I sucked it up and did the track intervals. 83 degrees at the start. Here is how it all broke down:

2.03 miles jog for warm up
1600 meters @ 6:33 / (equivalent to a 6:08 mile). I ran lap 3 in lane #2.
800 recovery jog
1200 @ 4:54 / 6:13 mile
600 recovery jog
1000 @ 4:02 / 6:01 mile
600 recovery jog
800 @ 3:10 / 5:52 mile
400 recovery jog
600 @ 2:19 / 5:58 mile
300 recovery jog
400 @ 1:27 / 5:47 mile
400 recovery jog
2.00 miles cool down

Total miles = 9.76

I'm feeling pretty decent, kind of tight right now. I will stretch a lot later on today. But I have to clean house in a big way. Time to scrub the bathrooms and everything else for that matter. Joy. ;-)

CORRECTIONS on pace per mile equivalents:
Mile....6:33 pace
1200m...6:34 pace
1000m...6:29 pace
800m....6:22 pace
600m....6:13 pace
400m....5:50 pace
Thanks to The Geetah for setting me straight!

CrossFit Tabata Day

The workout of the day:
"Tabata Something Else"

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

This was a tough one. Never did a tabata workout before. The push ups were the most difficult for me today.
Pull ups: 9,6,7,8,7,7,7,6 = 57 (jumping pull-ups)
Push ups: 14,10,12,7,7,6,6,6 = 68 (traditional, down to fist)
Sit ups: 10 x 8 sets = 80 (not anchored)
Squats: 15,14,13,13,13,13,12,12 = 105 (no weight)
TOTAL REPS: 310

I took a day off from running to rest my legs after the weekend's race and long run yesterday. Tomorrow I do more track intervals. It'll be over 100 tomorrow so I'm doing them early in the morning.

Weekly Totals

8/14- off
8/15- 9.3 4 x 1 mile intervals included
8/16- 6
8/17- off
8/18- 6 5K race included
8/19- 4.5
8/20- 10

Total: 35.8

I miscounted the weeks in my marathon training and the week listed was actually my first official week, not last week. Now I'm back on track.

5K Results

Hey there!
I'm pretty happy with the race today.
The bad news: Did not get 21:00 (6:45/mile).
The good news: Still got a PR at 21:24 (6:53/mile). No chip time, gun time only.
Three females finished in front of me (all high school cross country runners between 18-20 minutes).
I won my age group of 30-39. (A lot of females in my age group today so it felt good to finish ahead of them).
After everyone settled in to their first mile, I was passed by the 40-49 female winner, then I passed her after the 2 mile marker and passed a male runner as well, and then held the spot to the finish.
First mile was 6:44. After that, I lost track of the splits but I obviously slowed down. Didn't wear the Garmin for the race, just my old sports watch.

I have no excuses except that my legs just weren't fast enough. I felt GREAT, a little winded in the last mile, a lot of mental talking in the last mile, but didn't seize up or anything. I just need to work on faster leg turnover for these shorter races.

I'll race the same course again on Thanksgiving Day against 400-500 other runners, so I'll see how my speed has changed between now and then.

Thanks for all your good thoughts!!! I appreciate it so much. And P.S. I wore a running skirt. I love those things!

My Brother's Blog

Pssst. Check out my brother's blog. He started running marathons long before I did, and he inspired me to give them a shot. He's a great little brother. The best I could ever ask for!

Yosemite. I LOVE IT!

Let's Catch Up, Shall We?

I've been a slacker posting my workouts lately. Ugh.
Let's see, Sunday I ran 6 easy miles in the early morning hours. Then I hiked in Yosemite and I will share pictures in another post. We went as a family and it was so much fun!
Monday my legs were so shot from running and hiking the day before. I managed 8 hilly miles on the treadmill between a 9:05 and a 9:13 pace. I was supposed to do 10.
Tuesday I could not find time to run between MOMS Club activities, visiting friends from high school, and the kids' soccer practices. I got home at 7:15 and had to get the baby ready for bed.

Today I ran 9.3 miles today starting at 11:35 a.m. By the time I finished the 4 x 1 mile cruise intervals it was close to 12:45. HOT OUT! No shade at the track of course.
The intervals were all over the place. I ran them by feel and you can tell I felt a combination of tired and not so tired. I followed each mile with an 800 m recovery jog and went straight into the next mile.

7:06
7:12
7:00
7:13

I have a 5K race this Saturday so I also didn't want to run the intervals too hard. I want to save as much as I can for the race. We'll see how it goes. It's my first race since Boston. It's supposed to be a flat and fast USATF Certified course. I'd like to run it in 21:00 or as close to that as possible. That's 6:45/mile. Am I ready for that? Please cross your fingers for me. Thanks!

Mileage Total 8/7-8/13 = 36.1

Some Speed

Hey there. I'm feeling much better today than I was the last time I posted. And no, I'm not pregnant! I think I had some vertigo issues after the swim. I was feeling completely normal and great all day until after I got out of the pool. I received a lot of good advice for different ways to breathe and I will try them. I can't let one bad swim stop me from swimming. Just like running, gotta do it through the good and the bad.

Today was GOOD! I ran 8.6 miles. After a 1.6 mile warm up jog, I ran 6 at the following paces: 7:54, 7:38, 7:18, 7:13, 7:13, 7:38, then 1 mile cool down.

Miles 3-5 were my tempo paced miles and the 7:38's are my marathon goal pace. I was very happy about the run. Tomorrow it's 6 easy, and Monday is my "long" run for my first week of marathon training. Just 10 miles with hills.

Feeling good! Hope all of you are too.

Swimming and Nauseous

I just finished a 45 minutes swim, nothing fast, just laps. And I have this overwhelming urge to throw up. I drank plenty of water today, and throughout the swim, and I just feel dizzy and bleh. Anyone have any ideas why???

In Full Swing

Thanks to all the feedback regarding my post long run headache on Sunday. Just a little background, I've suffered from knock down, drag out migraine headaches since I was about 10 years old. They have always been exercise induced. Believe me, I sufficiently hydrate to the point where I sometimes fear hyponatremia. These migraines go far beyond any dehydration. I have been putting off talking to my doctor about them for too long. Time to get them taken care of. Anyway...

...marathon training week one has begun. It started Tuesday with a nice easy paced 4 mile run followed by 4 x 100 meter strides. Yesterday I ran 9.5 miles including 4 x 1 mile cruise intervals with 800 meter jogs in between. The first interval was closer to race pace for The Geetah Mile, and miles 2-4 were at my cruise interval pace which is 6:54-7:03/mile.

6:46
6:55
6:53
6:56

Today is a non-running day and tomorrow I do a combo of marathon goal pace and tempo paced miles. I might swim later today for 40-45 minutes if the baby goes down for a 2nd nap. If not, I'll just do some general CrossFit stuff later in the evening.

Have a good one!

Long Run with the Running Club

Man, what a run. Yesterday's long run was epic for me. I like that word. MarathonMoon from Runner'sWorld online uses it to describe a truly great run. Anyway, I ran 16 miles with the running club, but mostly it was by myself. The women in the club opted to run only 6 miles of the course, and the men were running 16 at an 8:10-8:15 pace. I knew I couldn't run that fast for a 16 mile training run, so I ran most of the course about 3-4 minutes behind them.

The course was like the Newton Hills in Boston times 4. Literally, it was 16 miles of all hills the entire time. It was the kind of course where as soon as you crested the top of one hill, you saw all the other ones still looming ahead. I just practiced going easy on the downhills to conserve energy for the uphills. Some grades were as little as 4%, some were as scary as 16%. Most of the grades were between 8 and 10%, at least according to my Garmin.

The monster hill was on the way back in the last 4 miles. It was the 16% grade and a couple of the men came back to run it with me. They said, "Nobody new to this course should have to run this hill alone." And they were right. It's a monster and it was so hard, but after that, it was all downhill. My last three miles were 7:48, 8:07 and 7:59. For the 16 miles, I averaged 8:32/mile.

I got a horrible migraine afterward, but I was fine by the time bedtime rolled around. I can't wait to run that course again, but it won't be for another few weeks. I will say that knowing other people were on the course "with" me helped me push it a little harder than if I was running out there all by myself. I'm so glad I joined the running club.

Have a great Monday!

Mileage Total 8/1-8/5 = 45

County Fair

What a great Saturday. I was supposed to work but my shift got switched to later this month. I woke up and had a little coffee then headed out the door to meet the running club. I ran to our meeting place (1 mile) then ran 6 with them at an easy pace, then ran the mile home. Nice people!

When I got home, the kids headed out the door with me for a 1 mile run. They covered it in about 11:30. I was very proud of them. So I ran 9 total today, which actually didn't feel bad. After the run we hopped in the pool with the baby.

Later in the day we went to our County Fair and I felt like a kid at Christmas (only it was 101 degrees out). We got to pet the animals, the kids rode a few rides and went on a pony ride, we got to eat hamburgers (made by the local VFW Women's Auxiliary and they were very tasty), hotdogs, cotton candy and I even had chocolate dipped cheesecake. There was live music playing everywhere and the exhibits were very cool. We even got to see my hubby's dad's antique hay baler. My father in law had donated it a long time ago, and it was so neat to see on display at the Fair today. I looked at our son, named after my father in law, and I got misty eyed. My husband did too. Of course our older ones just thought it was the coolest thing on display!

Now I'm getting the baby ready for bed and gearing up for the 16 miles of hills tomorrow. I hope to get good rest. After the run it's family time all the way.

The Miles This Week

Well I am so appreciative of the kind words and encouragement some of you have left me! Sometimes I just need to know that other runners have been there too. Thank you guys and gals!

Wednesday: 6 very easy, slow miles in 85-degree heat. Free run all the way!

Thursday: 6 easy miles earlier in the morning and felt a lot better. Still free. I also did another push up test to see how many traditional push ups I could do, down to fist without dropping to knees, before muscle failure. 52. Then I did 3 sets of 15 pull ups alternated with 3 sets of 15 dips. Ouch.

Today (Fri): 8 miles on the treadmill. 6 of which were run at avg. tempo pace of 7:19. Yea, I had to break the "free run" spell with a little speed. Surprisingly the entire tempo portion felt awesome. I didn't even have to stop for sportsdrink/water and I caught up on the news. However, my upper body was a tad tight!

Tomorrow: Will do 6 easy miles with the running club & 2 on my own, for 8 total.

Sunday: Will do 16 mile run in the hills with the running club.

Please be safe out there, friends, on your runs and your bike rides. Enjoy your weekend too! Blessings to all of you. :-)

And Now We Return...

...to the regularly scheduled programming.

Oh wow, I took 3 days off from running this week, and did NOTHING. I needed the time off and now I'm ready to run again. I can still feel my sore right hip (from front all the way through, not around, to the back). I sometimes wonder if I have the beginnings of a stress fracture in my hip. Ugh, I'll try not to think bad thoughts.

Anyway, I think I will definitely run easy for the rest of the week to keep my legs as fresh as possible for marathon training starting next week. The nerves are already starting to work me. Yikes!

Thanks to everybody for your comments on the reunion pictures. It was a great time and I'm looking forward to maintaining contact with everybody now. My classmates are still sending out emails to the entire class email list and I love it. I tried it yesterday and my email shut down. I guess mine has a spam filter and thought I was sending spam. It's probably a good thing it shut me down, but I got it fixed, so back to spamming. ;-)

I'll post mileage later this week. For now, FREE RUNNING DAYS for me until Sunday! Yaaaaaaaaay!

Late addition, mileage total for 7/24-7/31= 29.3