Running Mom's Motivation

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T07:55:00.003-04:00

The running has been great lately, and I promise to post more coming up. But today is my favorite holiday and I wanted to focus on that.

To my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, thank you for all of the wonderful blessings you have bestowed on me. Thank you for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life that you offer freely to all. Your love and influence in my life gives me freedom to be more than I could be on my own.

Total Miles For 2010 =239

On The Road Again

2010-03-17T07:37:00.002-04:00

I have not done much running outside during the winter. The weather was much worse this year than last, and I have been more sensitive to the cold. I would pretty much do a run outside during the day on Tuesdays and my long run outside on Saturdays. The rest of the time I have been indoors. I know, I have turned into a wimp.

The nice thing about the treadmill is that I can watch the news while running. And I have gotten in better shape since getting the gym membership. I tend to lift weights and do more core workouts while I am at the gym. But, I forgot what it was like to do an early morning run outdoors.

This morning I had a chance to remember. With the weather getting better, I decided to run outdoors. While I always feel good after a workout no matter if I am outside or in the gym, being on the roads in the early morning is exhilarating. There just isn't much at the gym that can really be called exhilarating. The weather was crisp and it was mostly quiet. Another nice thing about running outdoors is that I have time to jump back into bed before the alarm goes off. Now if only I wasn't freezing when I got back into bed, maybe I could actually sleep.

Total Miles in 2010 =183

Running With My Darling Husband

2010-02-14T10:14:00.003-05:00

I am so very proud of my husband. He has been working hard at the gym for many months now. He has also been eating better. He wants to have a positive impact on the rest of his life and be an example to his children. That is the same reason I started running. Although the weight is not coming off as quickly as he would like, he hasn't given up hope. He really is inspiring.

David and I rarely get a chance to work out together. I usually go to the gym at 5am and he goes at 10 or 11 at night. With the kids, there just isn't much opportunity to do it together. This weekend we are at my brother's house in Maryland. One of the great things about visiting my brother's family is that the cousins have a great time playing together and it requires very little parental involvement. Therefore, David and I were able to go for a run yesterday knowing that our children wouldn't be too much of a burden on my brother and his wife.

I told David I would let him set the pace. I didn't want to push him too hard because that is one of the primary ways to get injured. And injury often leads to defeat for the beginner. We had decided to do four miles. I knew we would be walking quite a bit, so I figured with all the work he had been doing at the gym it should be doable. I shouldn't have let David set the pace. He instantly took off too fast. I made a comment about how I wasn't going to be able to keep up with him, but I quickly realized that he wasn't going to be able to keep the pace going either. He made the common mistake of starting with a pace that feels right in the beginning, but is really too fast. The fast starting pace and the viscous hills in my brother's neighborhood really took their toll on him. David ended up having to cut the run short at 3 miles.

I finished up my fourth mile and came back home, but realized when I got in the house that I really wanted to run some more. David acted as if I was nuts when I told him I was going out for some more. He has been telling everyone how I kicked his butt. But if there is one thing I learned from the beginning of that run, it is that once he gets fit, I will have no chance of keeping up with him. For now I can revel in my superior physical fitness, and when I no longer can, I will be his biggest cheerleader.

Total Miles In 2010 = 118.3

Dreaming of longer days

2010-02-11T08:08:00.003-05:00

I could not get my butt out of bed this morning. I felt exhausted. But really, it is probably the darkness that keeps me there. I get tired of going out when it is dark and coming home when it is dark. At least it is getting to the point that when I leave the gym or get home from a run the sun is just starting to peek through the clouds.

The main problem with me not getting out of bed when my alarm goes off is that I feel so anxious and guilty for not getting up that I don't sleep well anyway. I will sit there and think about the miles that I have run so far this week and how many total I will have for the week if I don't make up the run I am missing. I know, I know....I am pathetic.

Total miles in 2010 = 106.3

How cold is too cold?

2010-02-07T15:40:00.002-05:00

I am turning into a southerner. I find myself getting cold all of the time. But I still enjoy winter running. Well at least most of the time I do. Yesterday's run was one of the most miserable I have ever done. We were recently the beneficiaries of two large winter storms exactly one week apart.

Last Saturday I went for a run during the storm. It was cold and the snow was coming down hard. But I was able to run in the tire tracks on the roads most of the time. It was a beautiful run except when I had to run directly into the wind, which wasn't too often. I kept the run short because running through snow really tires my legs out. The snow pelting my face during those times when I was apposing the wind caused skin issues later in the day, but I was feeling good.

Contrast that to yesterday. It wasn't too cold (about 30 degrees) and there was very little snow on the road. I had gone to the battlefield near my house because it had rained all night and many of the roads around here were pretty wet. The road that I ran on had been plowed but had sections where there was some slush...no problem. I have been slowly increasing my long run and had planned to do 9 miles either last week or yesterday. But since the road is only 3.5 miles long and the weather wasn't great, I decided to cut it short and do 7. The first mile was ok. The second was heavenly. It was so beautiful in that section of road. And the snow made everything very quiet.

I just had another 1.5 to do before the turn around. As I came out from the more wooded area and entered the open fields I started to realize that there was indeed quite a bit of snow coming down.....WET SNOW! And the wind seemed to be blowing harder than I had remembered. No problem, it was just another 1.5 miles to the turn around and I would have my back to the wind. I started hitting wind gusts that seemed like they were 50 miles an hour. I am sure they were not, but it seemed that way at the time. I kept checking my garmin to see how much longer I had before I could turn around. I climbed one final hill before the turn around and thanked God that I didn't have to go any further in that direction.

When I turned around the wind died down for about 10 seconds. Then it started back up more continuously than it had been before. I was sure this must be what it was like to run in Antarctica. The funny thing is that my body was actually a little too warm, but my face felt like an icicle. The wind didn't stop until I re-entered that beautiful wooded area of the road again. As beautiful as it was, I just couldn't enjoy it anymore. By this time, the dog and I were both so miserable that we had been pushing the pace and I ended up having to stop and walk multiple times. What is crazier than running in a blizzard...why, of course, walking in a blizzard! We spent the rest of the time alternating between walking and running just trying to get back to the car as quickly as possible. Then I tried to stretch without the wind blowing me over and we were on our way back home.

Funny, looking back on it, it doesn't seem that bad. But at the time, I know that those park rangers that drove by me were not the only ones who thought I was nuts for being out there. Oh well, at least I didn't have to do my long run on the treadmill.

Where have I been?

2010-02-07T08:59:00.010-05:00

I was really trying to keep up with this blog and did so for quite a few months, but I think I just saw a notice that said my last post was in June of 08....Really? Did I not post a thing in all of 09? Well, thank you Slugline for reminding me that someone might actually pay attention to this thing.

I will not attempt to catch you all up on the last year. Suffice it to say that I had a pretty low period where I wasn't enjoying the running much. My miles dropped and I started to gain weight. Not a lot, but I noticed it. I thought having a goal race in mind would help me to get things back on track and I picked up a new running buddy. I registered for the OBX marathon excited that it would be my first 26.2. Bad idea. While I completely loved running with my new buddy, she is much faster than I am and I ran with her too much. We didn't increase the miles too quickly ( a common runner mistake that leads to injury) but I was pushing my pace for most of my runs. Before I knew it, I was injured.

I had a pretty good case of shin splints. I tried running with the injury for a while and that didn't work. My darling brother reveled in telling me that when he was in high school and had shin splints he didn't get better until he took 3 weeks off from running. I couldn't do that....I had a marathon to train for! I would try taking a few days (3) off in a row. I would ice my leg every few hours. I would use ibuprofen. I put on a compression bandage. I would feel a little better. Then I would try to run and it would all fall apart. It got to the point where it was excruciating to run and hurt just to walk....time to see the doctor. She confirmed my fears. I didn't have shin splints after all. I had the dreaded stress fracture. My buddy told me I had time to heal and still train for the marathon, but I knew I didn't and if I attempted it I might end up in worse condition.

Around this time my husband started getting serious about wanting to shed some pounds. We joined a gym together. I could only use the stationary bikes and weight machines. It killed me to watch the other people on the treadmills while I slugged through 45 minutes on the bike with my aircast on. I gained more weight. No matter how hard I worked on that bike and lifted those weights I couldn't shed the pounds I gained. I realized that there is just no substitute for running when it comes to burning calories. It was exhilerating and scary the first time that I was allowed to walk on the treadmill with my cast on. I followed my rehab directions exactly as my doctor had given them to me. It was hard because by this time my love for running had been rekindled but I could do nothing about it.

Slowly but surely I got back to running. I have remained injury free since restarting and I am building my mileage very slowly. The good news is that I have continued to keep my gym membership. I DO NOT get on those bikes, but I do continue to weight train and work my core a couple of times a week. I am more fit than before I was injured and the wieght training apppears to be helping my running. I am considering training for another marathon, but I want to build my base slowly before I make that decision. I am hoping it will help keep me from ending up back on that bike again. I hope that when I have another period where running doesn't seem as fun any more I will look back on last year and realize that this too shall pass.

2010 miles = 97

Thank God it is cooling a little

2008-06-10T07:57:00.003-04:00

The dog and I are slowly acclimating to the heat. We have been running in the morning. It is the only time I dare take him as I had a least 2 patients die from the heat this weekend. Despite running at 6am, the temperature has still been near 80, and let's not even talk about the humidity.

This morning's run was funny. We passed by two dogs that we see all the time. The last time we went past them I swear the bigger one was trying to push the smaller one over the fence after us. Well today the little one didn't need any help. He just jumped the fence on his own. I wasn't really worried about him coming after us because every time I turned and yelled at him he ran back home. What really worried me was that he would be hit by a car. I was just about to go knock on the door to his house when I saw he had gotten back behind the fence. Resourceful little sucker!

In the last half mile of our run today, we passed an older woman running in the opposite direction of us. We were running up a hill. Shortly after we ran by her she turned around and started going up the hill. She flew past us, got to the top and started going back down. It was killing me to see her do hill repeats in this heat. I told her that running those hills in the heat was impressive. She said "I am from South Carolina, this is nothing." At least that made me feel a little better.

Total Miles for 2008 = 364

Checking Out The New Digs

2008-05-26T20:21:00.002-04:00

So we have been living in Virginia for almost a month now. I am really enjoying it so far and David and the kids seem to be adjusting well also. Figuring out where to run has been a challenge. I don't exactly like running in the city. I used to live in a pretty good sized city I know...But my previous house was so convenient to so many places that didn't make you feel like you were running in a city. It was a great place to run. But I wanted to make this a positive post. I have been bound and determined that I will get my running groove back.

When I have been running I have mostly been going from the house we are renting. It isn't too bad, but there aren't many sidewalks in this city. It is a much smaller city than we used to live in, but right now, it still feel like I am in the city. I have been able to figure out some short 3 to 5 mile routes that seem to work for me. And I don't mind running the shorter distances in the city. I also live less than two miles from work, so one day I ran home for lunch, picked up the dog, and ran back to work. So the short runs aren't too bad. The problem is all I have been doing is short runs and my stamina is severely lacking.

Saturday I was able to finally check out the area I wanted to try to do some longer runs in. I went to the Petersburg National Battlefield. I slathered on DEET (more about that later) and took the dog and headed out. I was very excited, especially when the woman at the gate said "have a nice run." She obviously knew what I was there for based on the way I was dressed. I was hoping her greeting would mean there would be a nice place to run.

I started out on a trail near where I parked the car. It was nice and I got to see a few cannons from the Civil War. But in no time I was back where I started. It was only a half mile loop! So I started on it again thinking I would take one of the trails I had seen coming off from it. Pretty soon I was back at the beginning...another half mile loop. I was getting discouraged. I had wanted to run 8 miles, and there was no way I could make 16 laps here. I took another trail. About 3/4 of a mile in I was running out to the highway...not my idea of a scenic, relaxing run. I entered back into the park on the opposite side of the highway thinking maybe I missed something. Boy was I right.

Across a bridge from where I entered the park there was a 3.5 mile one way road. There were two lanes. One was for driving, the other was for biking, parking, or hiking. It was gorgeous! Most of the road is tree-lined, so there were only a few spots where the sun was really beating down on us. It was only after I started out on the road that I started seeing all the other runners. There were plenty, and now I could see why. Very rarely did I actually see a car. The other really nice thing was that there were miles of trails off the main road. Any time I got tired of pounding the pavement or the sun got a little hot on the road, I was welcome to head off road and explore the trails. I finished my 8 miler (my first in over a month) in a much better mood than I had started.

Now back to the DEET. There is just one little thing about Virginia that I am having a hard time adjusting to. TICKS! They are everywhere. David had one crawling across his hand in our dinging room one night and I have pulled one attached one off me. We have taken to doing tick checks and when in the battlefield DEET is definitely necessary. I enjoyed the battlefield so much that I took the family back today. When we did our tick check this afternoon we didn't find any on us or the kids. We did however pull thirteen (YES...13!) off from the dog. Luckily, thanks to Frontline, most of them were dead, and those that weren't hadn't started feeding yet. So if you ever come to Virginia, don't forget to pack your bug spray. We may not have enough to share.

Total Miles in 2008... 334

Delinquint

2008-03-20T08:30:00.002-04:00

I have been running. I haven't been writing. There is a lot going on in my life right now...so build a bridge and get over it ;). Just kidding. Our family is going to be moving and my life is consumed with packing fixing up our home and work. For any of you that I know personally, you should know that we lost all our email addresses, and our old email will only be up for a couple more weeks. Send us an email so we don't lose contact with you!

Total Miles This Year =211

My Race Report

2008-02-29T22:34:00.002-05:00

Well, here it is...I know that you have all been on pins and needles waiting for this report. Hope you enjoy.

I was really hoping for a 50 degree morning last Sunday. That would have been perfect racing weather for me. When we got up at 5:30 am it was already 64. We got to the parking lot with time to spare, but then has to wait for my SIL's friend to show up. So, I barely had time to get a quick bite to eat (cinnamon rolls were the pre-race snack..yum) and to do a half mile warm up. I got in line for the porta potty when they started saying we needed to line up. They kept telling up we were going to start "soon". There were probably 200 of us in line when the Mayor of Gainesville started talking. Suddenly in the middle of her speech, the gun went off!!! I looked around and saw that not to many people were getting out of line, so I took my jacket to my brother and walked to the start line. It made for a very disappointing start for me. I was probably close to 1/4 mile into my race when the national anthem started.
I purposely took the first 3 miles easy. I was feeling pretty good at that point and picked up the pace. At about mile number 5 the hills started. When I asked the people in charge of the race about hills about a month ago they said that they couldn't get any elevation information to post online because the elevation was so low. They said there were "a few hills" for the half on 16th street. Those first couple hills were just fine. I was feeling really good and thinking that I was going to be just fine. I don't really know how many hills there were, but at the last one around mile number 6 I was really dragging butt. I found out later that my Sister-in-law and her friend walked this hill. About 3/4 of the way up the hill a volunteer told us it was the last hill. That was definitely reason for celebration, but I was a little disappointed to find that over the rise, the hill continued.
Despite how hard those last couple of hills were, I felt like I could still finish with the 11 minute pace that I was hoping for. At about mile number 8 I was really starting to feel like I wished I had the time for that porta potty before the race. I stopped and had to wait for what seemed like a lifetime while the person in front of me finished up. I swear the porta potty was rocking and I was wondering what the heck was going on inside of there. But, after my pit stop I did feel much better and my pace improved again.
I am guessing that it was about mile number 10 when we went through a big balloon arch and the volunteers seemed especially lively. I stopped to drink at this station because I felt like I just really didn't get enough liquid down me at the last couple before it. I started up again just in time to come to a very busy cross road where for some reason we were expected to stop instead of traffic stopping. When I came up to the road I was completely dumb founded. I was the first runner up there in our group, and thought that maybe I had missed a turn. The Police Officer at the intersection just looked at me as I was looking around for another route and didn't say a thing. The rest of the group caught up with me and we all just sat there and waited for our light to turn green. I have to admit that my thoughts were less than gracious at this point.
In the next section of the race we had a loop around the inside of the University Of Florida stadium. I was really looking forward to this. When we got there, we just ran around the inside of the concourse. It was hot and there was very little air movement. It wasn't nearly as much fun as I had imagined.
At about 11 miles there was a couple that I came up behind. It was obvious that the woman was struggling. Her SO kept alternating between running a little ahead of her and coming back and holding her hand or arm as if he was pulling her along. How sweet.
It was shortly after this, that my chills started kicking in. I knew I didn't have long to go and that I would be just fine, but I was definitely ready for the race to be over.
As I came into the last quarter mile, I saw my husband, kids, brother and Sister-in-law cheering at the side of the road. I really needed the boost. My youngest daughter didn't see me right away but as I was running away from her I heard her yell "mommy!" I guess she jumped up and started trying to run after me and had to be rescued before a couple motor cycle cops ran her down.
I already knew that I wasn't going to make my goal time and I really didn't have any kick in me, so I didn't really finish all that strong. But I finished. Towards the end of my training with the bad weather and the problems we were having with our house and vehicle and my husband losing his job, my running really was pretty weak. I had resolved to not worry so much about my goal pace and just go out a finish. I was a little disappointed when I finished, but looking back on it, I think I ran the best race I could have. The original times that were posted were wrong, but the official chip time had me at 2:29:05. I am satisfied with an 11:22 pace for my first half, and it gives me something to shoot for next time. I liked this distance. I hope to do more of it.

Mission Accomplished

2008-02-24T15:31:00.001-05:00

I know, I know...I haven't blogged in a while. I am not going to write much today. I just wanted everyone to know that I finished my half marathon today. I will try to write more later, but for now I am tired.

Slacker

2008-01-11T07:26:00.000-05:00

I know, I know, I haven't blogged in a while. I had great plans to tell you all about my running anniversary. Turns out I didn't run that day. But I have been running for a more than a year. Sometimes I can't believe I am still actually doing it.

My training is starting to ramp up. I am running 5 days a week starting this week. And my boss took a trip to Florida with her family over the last week. So you see, I have been kind of busy. I have a feeling that I will be blogging less as we get closer to the race on February 24th.

We have had some really warm weather this week. On Tuesday I went to track near work to do some intervals. I ended up wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but had to pull the shirt off half way through my run and just run in my sports bra because I was so hot. I am hoping for a perfect 50 degrees on race morning.

Later this weekend I have a 10 mile long run scheduled. It is the same distance as my long run last week. I ended up doing last weeks long run on New Year's Day. I was trying to figure out how to fit in all the workouts and with all the snow we had at the time I figured I would break the 10 miles up into two five mile runs in one day. I went out at 4pm and 9:30 pm. Both workouts were horrible, but the second was especially bad. At least wading through 8 inches of snow made me really work. That is one of the only days that I think I really wore the dog out. When I started to get ready for my second run, he looked at me as if to say "Really? Another run already? But we just got done!"

I will have a new format for my posts. I won't be keeping track of my total miles because it was just an estimate anyway. I will post my 2008 total. I doubt I will hit 1000 for the year, but we'll see.

Total Miles Today = 3.2 Total Miles in 2008 = 39.7

Happy Birthday Jesus!

2007-12-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

This may be the last year that my girls sleep in on Christmas morning. So I had to take advantage of the opportunity to go for a morning run. I was up at 6:30 this morning and out the door by 7. It was a perfect morning for a run and singing Christmas carols, which I did in my head through the entire run. I was a little nervous that I wouldn't have time to complete a run before the girls got up. Not only did I get my run in, but I got back home and had time to crawl back in bed for a nap and to warm up before the girls got up.

On a side note, Under Armour really knew what they were doing when they named their clothing line. I fell today on my run. It was no big deal, I just wasn't paying attention enough and tripped on a lip in the sidewalk. The great news, is that my Under Armour Cold Gear tights protected me so well that it didn't hurt at all. I didn't even get a scrape. Those things are expensive, but worth every penny, even if being actual body armour is not their intended use.

Total Miles Today = 5 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 733

What Wind?

2007-12-23T11:06:00.000-05:00

If I haven't said it before ( I know I have), Maria is an awesome friend. This morning was my long run. I was a little apprehensive about it because I had such an off week last week. But the good news is that the training plan I am using has me doing the same distance for my long run two weeks in a row. So since I missed a nine mile run last week, I did the same distance this week and didn't really get behind.

Maria has had a very hectic schedule this week. She worked three extra days and has multiple Christmas parties in various cities. On top of all that, her oldest son is on a travel basketball team and both of her sons had a birthday party to attend this week. I don't know how she keeps up with it all.

So you can imagine my surprise when my dear, sweet friend offers to come and do my long run with me. Keep in mind that Maria lives about an hour away from me! It almost didn't work out because her husband had plans for the day and their family has another party to go to this afternoon. But Maria's husband said he was willing to hang out with the kids if she could be home by noon (Thanks Ronnie).

So the plan was to start the run at 8am. At 7am Maria called me and asked me what the weather was like here in Lansing. She explained that there was a typhoon in Fowlerville and that she liked me a lot, but that she wouldn't risk her life to run with me. After we determined that the worst part of the storm had already passed Lansing, she continued on towards "the other side of the world."

We started our run just after 8am while David and the girls slept in on the futon in the living room. The miles seemed to pass so fast this morning. There were a few times that the wind picked up bad enough that I seriously felt like I wasn't moving at all. I learned that when the wind is that bad you just need to look at the ground to convince yourself that you are indeed moving forward. As we came into the last 100 yards or so, Maria said she was going to try to convince me to do the run at my half marathon pace, but that with the wind she thought it would be too hard. When we stopped, I quickly pulled up the history on my handy dandy Garmin and found that we had run an average pace of 10:21!!! That is faster than my anticipated pace for the half. Maria told me that she suspected we were running faster than usual, but that she didn't want to jinx me...she is an awesome friend.

Total Miles Today = 9.35 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 728

The Running gods Are Out To Get Me

2007-12-18T10:57:00.000-05:00

Last week was bad...really bad. I can't quite decide if I should blame it on myself or just chalk it up to really needing some sleep. Monday was a rest day because Phantom and I had run 8 miles the day before. It all started on Tuesday. I was going to get up and go to the track to do intervals. I just couldn't get my butt out of bed. I was exhausted all week and this was one of the worst days. That night I had plans, so it didn't happen then either. Wednesday at work we were too busy in the middle of the day for Maria and I to get out and go for a run. After work, David was late, so I had to pick up the kids. Finally on Thursday I got to the track to do my intervals. But, I just didn't have time to do everything I needed to before David had to go to work. So instead of the scheduled 7 miles, I only got in 3.5. Friday was more of the same at work. Saturday we worked late and we had our work Christmas party, so Maria and I only did 4 miles.

Then comes Sunday. I was scheduled to run 9 miles. I was going to make it 10 since I had such an off week. I got my butt out of bed at 6:30 am. We had gotten about 6 inches of snow over night and it was still snowing. I couldn't convince myself to go outside until 7:30. Phantom and I started running and I quickly realized there would be no way I would be running 10 miles in all that snow. I was okay with that and decided to just take it easy and see what I could do. It was hard, really hard! I got half way down our road and turned around because the wind was so cold and blowing wet snow right in my face. I knew that if I didn't stop, I would get frostbite quickly. I am not that insane. Maria got it on her big toe last year during a race, and I still think she is nuts. Now I have one more thing to add to my list of things to buy... a face mask for running.

After getting back home I quickly change into my shorts and sleeveless top to got to the track. I drove to the track. It took much longer than usual because of all the darn snow! Once I got there I was excited to see other cars there, that meant it was probably open. My excitement quickly turned to frustration when I found they were having a cheerleading meet inside and I wouldn't be able to use the track. Out of options, I gave up on my long run. So last week I had a grand total of 7.5 pitiful miles instead of the planned 22.

This morning I went to the track to do a tempo run. I still didn't have enough time to go as far as I needed to, but at least I did 4.5 out of the planned 6 miles. This training in the winter is harder than I had thought. That's okay, if anything, it will only make me adjust my race pace. I will still run the half. As I said before, I already paid, and I hate losing money.

Total Miles Today = 4.5 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 708

The Dog Thinks He Is A Contender

2007-12-09T23:05:00.000-05:00

Today was my long run. I spent last night and tonight out on a hill in the woods behind my church singing the same song over and over again about 30 times each night. Here is a link ...
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071209/NEWS01/712090683/1002/CONTACTUS01&GID=+PmoeO08WY11rVHS9R7fVAWEXK9f52fQC0w/jI91TUA%3D

So this morning it was very hard to get out of bed at 6:30am. I turned off the alarm and slept in until 7:30. The weather hasn't been too bad for Michigan in December, but we have had a little snow and ice. It gave me another opportunity to use my YakTracks. The good thing is that they really keep me from falling on my butt. The bad and good news is that it is hard to run with them on. It gives you a good workout, but sometimes I don't want my long run to be that hard. I ended up taking them off about three miles into the run because I was running on mainly clear, dry cement at that point. But there were a few places on the way back home that I should have had them on. I will have to remember next time that I can work harder to wear them and stay upright, or I can work harder to run through the snow and hope I don't fall on my butt when the unexpected ice pops up.

Having my Garmin allowed me to run the river trail this morning. I can run it any time I like, but it can be hard to map out online because the trees over the path kind of block out the view from the satellites. But with my Garmin I was able to tell exactly how far I had gone while I was running. Just in case you can't tell, I really like it.

My dog is so funny. He really loves the snow. Whenever we get to a section of road or trail that has even a little snow covering it, he acts like a kid that has never seen snow before. I don't mind too much as long as he stays on my left side and doesn't pull my shoulder out of joint. I also realized that he is much more competitive than I am today. He will often be a little ahead of me during the early stages of a run, but will fall back right next to me as the run goes on and he gets tired. We were about six miles into an eight mile run this morning when a woman came up on our left to pass. She made a comment about how nice it must be to have a dog that can run with me and how her Beagle is too fat to run (surprise, surprise...just ask your vet about Beagles and food). I quickly assessed that this woman was faster than me. At least today she was faster than me. As soon as she started to pass me, Phantom picked up the pace. He didn't want anyone to be in front of us! For the next half mile or so until she was out of sight it was all I could do to keep Phantom from running too fast and ruining my run. Thank goodness he slowed down when she was out of sight.

One last thing for all you people with dogs. I am talking about the active dogs. You know, the kind that need more attention than you have time for. The one that scares people not because he is mean, but because he is so hyper that no one knows what he will do next...That dog...My dog. He needs to get out and run. The best thing I could have ever done for Phantom's mental state and my own was to start running. He was a puppy (about a year) when we first got him. He calmed down a lot by just being trained and being in one home for a while, but he really became better behaved once I started running. A tired dog is a good dog! And the running will be good for you too. One word of caution...if you have a puppy don't run with her until she is at least a year old (giant breeds more like 18 months) so that you don't do any damage to her maturing joints. Always be careful in the heat and humidity and watch your dog's pads year round to make sure they aren't being damaged by the pavement or ice. Other than that, have a great time. Phantom is the best running partner I could ask for. He is always ready to go, even when I am not. And he knows instantly when I am getting ready for a run and won't let me go out the door without him. So get out there and run with your dog. He will love you for it and you can thank me later!

Total Miles Today = 8 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 696

No Turning Back

2007-12-08T13:13:00.000-05:00

I signed up for the Five Points Of Life Half Marathon in Gainesville, Florida today. I have to follow through now because I hate to lose money and there are no refunds. David hasn't been running much lately, but still says he is going to do the 5k. I signed him up today as well. I guess he will either start training or he is walking.

My mom seems to think that my sister-in-law is faster than me (it wouldn't surprise me). So I may be running the race by myself in February. I have a function on my Garmin called a virtual training partner (VTP). I am shooting for 11 minute miles for the half. I can set my VTP to 11 min miles and it will let me know if I am starting out too fast or if I am falling off pace. Some say this is cheating...I say it is smart!

Total Miles Yesterday = 4 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 688

Great Feeling

2007-12-06T14:01:00.000-05:00

I have been getting ready for my husband's office Christmas Party tonight. I wanted to get dressed up and surprise him. Little did I know that when I tried on all my nice dresses (even the ones that used to be too small), they would all be too big for me. Now that is an awesome feeling.

I have applied for a program that Runner's World is doing to help people lose weight. They want to highlight some people that have different weight loss goals in their magazine sometime next year. I will let you all know if I get picked.

Total Miles Last Night = 3 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 684

Running With A New Toy

2007-12-04T16:30:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged in a while. I didn't think there was anything too interesting to share over the last couple of weeks. Last week was a cut back week for me, so I only ran 14 miles total and none of them were quality workouts. This week it is back to the grindstone.

I convinced my darling husband that he should buy me the only thing I really wanted for Christmas and nothing else. Maybe he conceded because I bought him what he really wanted. Or maybe it was because I was nagging a little too much. So last Saturday my Garmin Forerunner 305 came in the mail. We got an awesome price on it with rebates etc so it ended up costing $113. Not bad in comparison to the suggested retail price of over 300 or even the average retail of around 200.

So I was able to go for my first run with my Garmin today ( no wise cracks about it not being Christmas yet- Christmas is about the birth of Christ not gifts, so I am sure that God doesn't care one bit if I opened it early!) I had a tempo run planned for this morning. I was thinking about going to the indoor track at MSU because the weather has been brutal the last couple of days, but I didn't want to get up early enough to do that and David was home this morning, so I slept in until 6:30 and was on the road by 7.

My run was a 6 miler. Four miles in the middle are supposed to be at tempo. My head math screwed everything up. I thought I would run a 2 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down. Now any 1st grader could tell you that adds up to 7 miles, not 6. But I couldn't seem to comprehend that until about 4.5 miles into my run. My bad math put me doing the end of my tempo section UP A VERY LARGE HILL! So here i am trying to maintain my fast pace going up this hill when the wind kicks in. I thought my nose and lips were going to fall off right there. But after that hill it was easy. And it was an awesome run.

The Garmin is awesome too. I set it to alert me at every mile so I wouldn't have to keep track of how far I had gone. When I look at the screen it shows me time, mileage, pace and heartrate all at once. I also set it up with auto pause. That way when I stop at a street light or to let the dog do his business it automatically pauses the time and distance...now that is handy. When I got back home I plugged it into my computer and it uploaded all the information from my run. The next time I run I am going to program it to do automatic splits at every mile. That way I will get average pace for every mile. I love technology!

Total Miles Today = 6 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 681

Still Running...Just Busy!

2007-11-18T21:55:00.000-05:00

I am still out there doing my thing. I have to train for my half marathon after all. My boss ended up having to have surgery last Tuesday. They were supposed to do it with a scope, but when they got in there, they realized that they would have to open her up. I don't know when she will feel well enough to return to work.

This surgery came up kind of suddenly. Consequently, I have been working a lot more hours than I had expected over the last couple of weeks. I have barely seen my kids. Grace has a killer cold. Rachel has pinkeye. I don't know when the last time that I balanced my checkbook was. But I am still running (at night and during my lunch hour).

Hopefully the craziness will end soon. I have told them at work that I will not work the day after Thanksgiving. I just need a break. And next week is Grace's birthday, so wish me luck in planning for that.

Total Miles Today = 7 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 642

Awesome Friend!

2007-11-05T22:21:00.000-05:00

I forgot to say what the other reason that so excited is. My buddy Maria is getting me a pair of Yak Tracks or Stabilicers or something else like them for free!!! It pays to know people who know people.

Awesome Tempo!

2007-11-05T21:59:00.000-05:00

My half marathon training officially began tonight. I have sixteen weeks to prepare. I want to do the best I am capable of, but other than that and finishing, I don't have any real goals for the race. Today was supposed to be a rest day according to my handy training plan from the Runner's World website. I decided to take some good advice from my friend Maria. She suggested some time ago that I get in my quality workouts whenever I could. That way if I can't run every day I planned to in a week at least I got in two quality runs each week. So tonight, I did my tempo run.

I didn't want to run when I got home tonight. It is getting cold out there and I was tired after a long busy day at work. David had a long day too, so by the time we got the kids from daycare and got home it was about 8pm. After getting the girls in bed, it was hard to get ready to go for a run. I have to remember this every time I don't want to run, because tonight's run was awesome. I am so glad I went.

I can set my pace for my tempo run a couple of different ways. I can use my heartrate monitor or I can time the run with my watch and try to stay at my tempo pace as determined by my training plan. I couldn't see my HR monitor or my watch tonight, so I used neither. A tempo run is supposed to be done at a "comfortably hard" pace. So I decided to set my pace based on effort. The first mile of the run is a warm up and the last mile (or 0.7 in my case) is a cool down. I ran both of those at an easy pace. The middle three miles were supposed to be at tempo. I decided to do my cemetery route again tonight. It is kind of hilly, so I wasn't sure that I would be able to keep my tempo up for the whole three miles. My tempo pace was determined from my first 5k race time and was supposed to be 11:51/mile. This was such an awesome run that even the hard parts felt great, but I had no idea what my pace was until I got back to my house. I ran the entire 4.7 miles in 50:40. That is a 10:43 pace!!! What's even better, is that my 3 miles of tempo were done at 10:04 pace.

I am so geeked. But as great as this run was, I know that they won't all be like that. I know that there will be days over the next 16 weeks when I won't be able to maintain a 12 minute pace. And I know that I won't always win the battle of the will and get myself out the door when I don't feel like running. But I am very happy with my start and am looking forward to the training that I have ahead.

Total Miles Today = 4.7 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 612

Zombies and skunk and deer oh my!

2007-10-26T07:25:00.000-04:00

This morning I was supposed to go running with my neighbor kid. But being the 17 year old punk that he is, he didn't get out of bed so I left him! I took the dog with me and was planning on running through my neighborhood, but since it was six in the morning, I figured I might fair better with the zombies in the cemetery than with the city folk of Lansing. Besides, the cemetery is my normal 5k route.

I love running through the cemetery because it is quiet and pretty hilly. Phantom (my dog) and I had a great time, and he only had to stop about 7 times to relieve himself ;). Just after we entered the cemetery, we had our first encounter. Luckily we didn't see him, but I sure did smell that skunk. As we made our way to the back of the cemetery the hills actually seemed pretty easy. Maybe it was because I couldn't really see them. The last time that I ran through the cemetery when it was dark, I was on edge. I wasn't at all scared today. That is until the two deer ran out in front of us with no warning. I had no idea they were there, and my heart just about came out of my chest.

We finished up the cemetery and headed back through the streets of my neighborhood. My time was 34:05. Slow, but not too bad for me. I have been finding that I have been taking off way to fast on my shorter runs lately. It is like I got a bug up my butt once the cooler weather hit. Each time I would go out for 3 miles it would be a little faster than the last. There have been two problems with that. First of all I think that is how I injured my knees. Secondly here lately I have been taking off fast enough that I can't even run the whole three (sad, sad, sad). So I was happy with today. I started off better and was able to maintain it for the whole run. So hopefully I am getting back on track before starting to train for the half.

Total Miles Today = 3.1 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 581

Time for LASIK

2007-10-23T08:42:00.000-04:00

If I had the money, I would definitely get LASIK surgery done on my eyes. Why? Well, first of all, when I ran DWD back in August it was a little difficult to keep the glasses clean. Last night I went for a beautiful run. It was a little short of 5 miles. I haven't been able to run more than 3 miles for a while and it was really nice. I forgot how much I like running longer distances. Not that 5 miles is very far, but I realized that I was getting my groove about half way through the run. A little over a mile into my run it started raining. Not a downpour or or anything, but it was steady. The dog was soaked through when we got done. I absolutely loved it. To be out in the dark and rain was exhilarating. The only problem was that my glasses got great big water spots all over them and when the lights would shine on them I could barely see anything. So you see, I NEED to ditch the glasses and I hate contacts because my eyes dry out way too fast with them.

It is amazing to me that you can spend so much money on running. When I started running I really needed to lose some weight and get more active. I didn't have money for a gym membership and figured I wouldn't go anyway. Running appealed to me because it would be cheap. I had some shoes. All I needed to do was strap them on and go. Yeah...Right! The shoes didn't fit right and I knew I was going to get a blister...time for new shoes. I am on my 3rd pair now. Then I was running in the cold so I really needed some clothes to run in that would keep me dry and warm. Then I didn't want to push too hard and injure myself, so I started saving for a heartrate monitor. More summer clothes and bodyglide... Endless bottles of gatorade... Race entry fees... Water resistant shell... As you can see, I am obsessed. Now I really want some YakTracks for winter, a Garmin forerunner 205 so that I can measure my distance and speed better, and LASIK surgery that I so desperately NEED. Yep, running is cheap.

Total Miles Last Night = 4.76 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 575

Back at it...hopefully for good!

2007-10-18T14:26:00.000-04:00

I don't like this "rest" thing. It makes me edgy. I went running last night for the first time since last Wednesday. I did an easy 3 miles to warm into it. I felt great all the way through, but had some slight pain right at the end. I am trying to work on this mental imagining stuff to prevent me from heel striking. It seems to work if I concentrate. But when I try to pick up the pace or if I am getting tired I seem to loose it. All in all, my run was very nice and I did it in a respectable time.

I hope that I can stick with the running and not injure myself again. My sister-in-law and I have made a commitment to run a half marathon in Florida in the end of February. And David is training to run his first 5k. Hopefully by sticking to my training plan and not overdoing it I will be okay. Today is a rest day so as not to jump back in too fast. I am hoping to start my official training for the half in a couple weeks. In the mean time, I need to make sure I am fully healed and keep at my exercises...wish me luck.

Total Miles Last Night = 2.88 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 567

Resting

2007-10-12T16:57:00.000-04:00

I am taking a week off just so you all know. I have an injured knee (both are actually bothering me). In order for me to continue running I need to take some time off . I think a weeks should do it. In the mean time, I am doing some exercises that I got from a PT to strengthen my hips and legs in order to keep my knee healthy. See you all in a few.

PR!!!!!

2007-10-02T21:46:00.000-04:00

PR is short for personal record. Last Friday I went for a short run and decided to push myself a little bit. While I was out on that run, I felt like I was flying. I could tell that I was running fast (for me) and there wasn't one part of the run that felt hard. I loved it.

I was so excited to get back and look at my time on my watch. That was until I realized that I had somehow screwed up my watch and it read 24:29. I knew there was no way that I ran that fast. I was so bummed out to not know how I had actually done.

Tonight, I decided to take the same route as last Friday and push myself again. It was a good run again, but It was definitely not easy. The route I ran was 5k. My race time for the 5k ( I have only done one) was 34:25. I have run this route in probably 33 minutes a couple of times. I don't know for sure because I didn't keep strict time. Tonight I ran it in 30:59!!! During the last 1/2 mile I was really dragging the dog behind me, it felt so good. So, slowly but surely I am getting there. I am sure tomorrows run will probably suck now ;).

Total Miles Tonight = 3 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 542

My Goal

2007-10-02T13:09:00.000-04:00

I want to run a half marathon. Now I have said it and can't take it back. So now I have to do it or else everyone will think I am a quitter. I was thinking of running the Bayshore Half. That makes me feel like a real runner since I know what that means ;). It is the half marathon in Traverse City, MI in May.

But there is a part of me that would like to do a half marathon in a warm climate during the winter. It would give me the motivation to keep up the training this winter. And I was thinking with a big race like this it might be nice to do a destination race. Now I would have to do it where I have relatives because I already don't think we can afford the travel. So if we have any chance of doing this, it would have to be in Arizona, Florida, Nevada (probably still too cold in the winter), or Texas. I was looking at the Sedona Marathon, half and 5k because then David could do his first 5k. Alas...how to get the money. Obviously I have to think about this a little harder. What do you all think?

Planning to run today = 3-5 miles Approximate Miles Since Starting = 539

Running Family?

2007-09-28T16:17:00.000-04:00

Maybe we will get there one day. Maybe we will be one of those active families. I don't ever expect to be a thin family, but maybe, just maybe my plan is going to work. David is starting to get out and walk/run more frequently. And Grace is showing quite a bit of interest herself. We have started logging her miles for the Martian Kids Marathon that will finish in April of next year.

Yesterday I went with Grace and bought her some new shoes. Talk about a bad mom, I felt horrible after we got them. I realized that she has been wearing shoes that are too small for her and are falling apart while running. But now armed with her pretty pink running shoes she is all set. So far she has logged 2 miles...only 23 more to go before the big day. She does seem to be having a good time. I don't want to push her. I want her to want to do this on her own. And if she doesn't end up liking it, at least she tried.

Grace was so darn cute running yesterday. And, Rachel was not about to sit in that stroller while her sister ran. Grace would run up ahead of us, wait for us, and then her and Rachel would hug each other when we caught up. At the end I had Grace running short distances like she was sprinting in a race. She really loved it. And I think Rachel did somewhere between 1/2 mile and 3/4.

So I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but maybe we will be a family of runners. I will just be happy if my kids are active and healthy!

Total Miles Yesterday = 3 (one with Grace) Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 523

I Thought This Was Fall?!?

2007-09-20T07:50:00.000-04:00

Last night's run sucked!!! But I am still glad I went. The dog kept stopping and acting like he had to pee when he didn't and my butt was dragging. Maria is so sweet. She always tries to blame it on the heat instead of my laziness.

So it was three miles of huffing and puffing in the heat. I can't wait for the cool weather to return.

Total Miles Last Night = 3 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 511

Not A Gu Girl

2007-09-18T17:15:00.000-04:00

I am still running. I haven't been as good about blogging. My husband and I are trying to cut back on our Internet time. We are both finding it hard to blog and limit our time online.

I am loving the cooler weather. I can't believe how much easier it makes running. Last week Maria and I went for an easy three mile run. It was so nice. And the effort was nothing compared to usual. I was amazed to find that I had run it in a time similar to my race paces. It felt so good, I just assumed it had to be slow.

I have been experimenting with different was to take in energy while on my longer runs. A couple weeks ago I tried Clif Shots Gel. It is a thick Gel consistency that has 100 calories and some electrolytes in it. I hated the stuff. I barely gagged it down. But it did give me the pick me up I needed in the middle of the 12 mile run I did a few weeks ago. When I talked to Maria about it, she was pretty sure that it was just the brand that I was using that tasted so bad. She assured me that Gu would be better and it was her favorite. She dropped a couple samples in my drawer at work for me to try.

Last Sunday I decided to do a ten mile run. I was having some trouble with it and things just weren't going as smoothly as I would hope. I know that I will have some down days, so I didn't worry about it too much. But since I felt like I was dragging butt, I decided to try the Gu about half way through the run. It tasted slightly better, but I still had a hard time choking it down. I am not really sure if it helped me on my run, but didn't seem to hinder it either. I felt good when I ended the run, but then started getting extremely nauseous. I continued to retch for an hour after the run and had to go lie down at home because I felt sick moving around. When I finally felt better, I was starving and ate a huge dinner. But even though I felt better, I would still gag and feel nauseated every time I thought of the Gu. I am pretty sure that it just doesn't set in my stomach well. So I have concluded I am not a Gu girl.

Total Miles Last Week = 21 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 508

Ouch, oops, watch out, you ok?

2007-09-09T19:39:00.000-04:00

This is my race report that I posted on the Runner's World Website...

What an awesome day for racing yesterday was. It got a little hot in the middle of the day, but since we were in the woods for most of it, it wasn't too bad. For those that don't know what DWD is, there is a 50k ultra, a 50mile ultra, and a 5 man 100k relay. This is all through the trails of Hell and Pinckney, MI.

Most people, including me, think of Southeast MI as being pretty flat. But the hills in Hell are something to talk about. Each leg of the race has a special name. There are 15 legs in the relay. Names include "Where's the F'ing Bridge?", "This Sucks", "Purgatory", and "The Stripper Pole." Each leg is rated on hills, water, and mud factors so that you can decide ahead of time whom should run which legs.

This was my first year doing the race, so I didn't really know what to expect. As we were pulling into town around 7am we started noticing all sorts of people in the road with head lamps on. They kind of came out of nowhere, so I am glad we didn't hit one of them. I had forgotten that the ultras started at 6am. When we pulled into the initial parking area I was in awe with all the people. It looked like one heck of a party going on at 7am.

Soon enough it was time to start and our first man took off with a huge wave of people dressed in everything from normal running clothes to women's underwear. Each leg of the race was unique and I can't tell you about all of them because it would take forever and thank goodness I didn't get to see all of them!

I had the third leg of the race. It about 3.5 miles. It was called the Rave Run. It was a nice run. The runner from the leg right before me got lost for a while, so I was really hyped up and ready to go when she got into the exchange point. I took off like a flash (at least for me) and quickly realized that I was running way too fast for my abilities. I slowed way down for the rest of the run. I had to walk a few hills, but I ran most of this leg. It was a good hard trail run, but not anything too over the top. I think it and one other leg were the only legs that didn't have something really hard. I fell right on my butt coming up to a road crossing as my feet slipped right out from under me on the wet grass. After I landed, I took inventory and noted that nothing felt injured, so I got up and finished shortly there after.

It was awesome coming into the exchanges because there were so many people standing around cheering and waiting for the next runner to come in. On some of the legs you needed to cheat and send out the next runner before the last one came in so that you didn't finish too late in the day. Even at these exchanges people were yelling and cheering. There were many people who passed me on the trails and were very encouraging. The volunteers were also a great help reminding us which markers to follow and giving encouragement along the way. This race was awesome because so many of the people were demonstrating what many of us have come to find in other runners...it is a great bunch of people.

My second leg was called Swoosh. I thought I was going to puke when I started because I had a headache all day and it was at its worse at the beginning of this leg. It was supposed to be any easy 4 miler with a low hill rating. THEY LIED! The hills on this leg were big. There were none like the Stripper Pole, but there were just so many of them and quite a few large ones. It was quite rocky and there were a lot of trees down along the trails. This was the leg where I could have easily gotten lost. We would be running along a perfectly nice, groomed trail heading out straight in front of us and suddenly the markers would just turn off the path and go down into the woods where there was no trail. The people that map out these trails are sadists! This leg had a little poison ivy. There was one small area of black mud that it looked like a lot of people had run through. But after my experience getting stuck up to my hips a couple weeks ago, I decided to go around. As a side note, when people got to the mud on the Where's the F'ing Bridge leg, there were ropes to help people get out and our team mate said there was no way someone as short as me could have made it through there on my own.

So the major thing about Swoosh was the hills. The good news was that my headache disappeared about half way through this leg. It took me an hour and 5 minutes to run just over 4 miles. When I got back my team was there again screaming and cheering me on. They are all much better runners than I am, so it was great having their support and them letting me take part in this event with them. When I got back, I yelled "those hills were a B*@ch." My team enjoyed hearing about my pain.

After getting back to the exchange (where my teammate had already left on the next leg) it was off again in the car to the next exchange. So that is pretty much the way the rest of the day went, moving from one exchange to the next. I was continually in awe of the Ultra runners that we saw throughout the day. At the finish, when our last man was coming in, the rest of us met up with him and crossed the finish line together. We all got medals and t-shirts that have the section of the release form where it mentions our possible injury or death printed across the backs. We had beer waiting at the finish and each team got a couple pizzas. There was a band playing as the final teams were coming in and the announcements for different prizes were being made.

It was an incredible day and I still can't believe that I was there to do it. I was filling in for another person on the team, so I don't think I will be able to do it again next year. As a runner that hasn't even been running a year yet, I was so thankful that my team included me and I got a little teary eyed thinking about it as I sat and watched the other teams finish. Our final time was 12hours and 2minutes.

Total Miles Yesterday = 7.5 Approximate Miles Since Starting = 487

Another Runner

2007-09-04T08:34:00.001-04:00

Check out my husbands blog. It is at davewithbighands.blogspot.com.

The Ups And Downs

2007-09-04T08:02:00.000-04:00

If there is anyone out there besides my darling husband keeping track of this blog you'll have noticed that it has been a long time (over a week) since my last post. There is a simple reason for this. I finished the Crim, and I crashed. I felt awesome after I finished that race and for some reason my body or my mind or both didn't want to run again.

Don't get me wrong, I have been running. I just haven't been enjoying it too much. When I started I didn't enjoy it much either. Sometimes you have to do things because you know you need to not because it feels good. There are many examples of this in life, childbirth is one. Even though I continued to run, I couldn't think about much to write. Of course I could have written "this sucks, I hate this, why the h@*# am I doing this, when will this end, " etc. But I don't think those thoughts are really good for anyone, so I will just keep them to myself.

I took two days off after my race. Maria thinks I should have taken more. Of course Hussam (my neighbor) thinks I take too much time off, but he is a teenager and I swear he has ADHD, so he doesn't believe in rest except when he is sleeping in past noon. I ran Monday, partially on Tuesday, and Wednesday last week. Each run was difficult and I walked a lot. Finally on Saturday I wanted to run and I was instructed by Maria that it was the last day before DWD that I could do a hard workout. So Hussam and I went for a long run.

We were planning on running 14-15 miles, but at the last minute decided to run on MSU's campus. We didn't have a route planned, so we decided to run for a certain amount of time. It was a good run, but a little interesting. It would take less time than I expected to run to a specific spot, so then we would have to loop back. That campus seems big until you have to run on it for over two hours. We also had the problem of having to find bathrooms and places to get water multiple time. So, we pretty much ended up running a crazy route with no rhyme or reason to it. I am glad no one needed to follow us. But it was a really nice run and we were able to go through the gardens on campus. It is absolutely beautiful there. It was nice to get back to the point of wanting to run. When we mapped out our run online it ended up being about 11.5 miles.

Yesterday Hussam and I went for a short easy run. I think I have finally convinced him that he needs to run by himself more. He tends to only run when I go. Since I am much slower than him he isn't making the kind of improvement that he should be. His distance has definitely increased, but I don't think his speed has. At the end of the run yesterday He decided to take off and run the rest of the way home to push himself. He told me later that it "started to hurt " in the end. I think he meant that in a good way. Then he said " I guess when I run with you I'm not doing anything......in comparison to what I should." Boy he knows how to make a woman twice his age feel good.

So this is a just a post to remind all of you that there will be good days and there will be bad days. Whatever your form of exercise, you aren't going to always want to do it. Some days you just need rest and some you need to get out there and do it despite how you feel. When you are at the bottom of the barrel, you have nowhere to go but up!

Total Miles Last Night = 3.6 Total Miles Since Beginning = 476

Crim Of The Crop!

2007-08-26T14:42:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was race day. The 31st annual Crim was held in downtown Flint, MI. When people talk about the Crim they are usually referring to the 10 mile race. There are multiple other smaller races. I ran the 8k (just under 5 miles). There are quite a few elite athletes that run the Crim. The fastest 10 miler did it in 47:11. That is faster than I ran 5 miles!

Despite that, I had a great time. Maria once again helped me keep my pace and kept me company for the race. She a great plan all thought out for me. We were going to run the first half of the race at an easy pace and then slowly increase our pace from there to make sure I didn't take off too fast and end up not being able to run the whole way. The plan was great, although we ran the first mile a little faster than we should have. We decided we should slow down for the second, but actually ended up doing it a bit faster. The third mile was slower...probably because I was getting a little tired. The last two miles were awesome. And my last mile was at about 9:36 pace. That is lightening fast for me! In the last half mile I asked a boyscout to splash water on me. His entire troop took this as an invitation and at least 4 people poured water on me...I came into the finish soaking wet and my underwear didn't dry out for hours!

After the race David and the girls walked the 5k route (girls in the stroller). They started up right when some nasty ran blew in, but David did an excellent job and it sounds like the girls had a good time.

There was free pizza and beverages (pop, water, beer, gatorade, juice) for all the participants after the race. There was a DJ, dancing, lots of food vendors and blow up slides etc for the kids. Flint has deteriorated quite a bit over the last 20 years, but they still know how to throw a party!

My overall time was 54.44. That gave me a pace of 11.01. The pace was 4 seconds faster than my last race which was about 2 miles shorter. I came in 35 out of 56 in my age group. This doesn't seem very good to most, but for a short, fat woman who has always been slow, I feel blessed to be able to move like this. I never could have seen myself running a mile since middle school. Now I can run 5 or 10 and have a respectable pace. I am elated. Thanks to God for helping me turn this part of my life around. It has spilled over into other parts of my life and given me a new confidence. I am looking forward to doing this for many years to come. Faster or slower, God willing, I will keep waddling on.

Total Miles Yesterday = 5 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 449

Insane?

2007-08-23T17:51:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally have a slight idea what I am about to get myself into in a few weeks. Last night was the last training run for Dances With Dirt. It was a 5 mile run. They had told us it would be the longest 5miles of our life...they were right! Looking back on it, I am so happy I did it. I made it through just fine, although I don't know how. I should know soon if I am allergic to poison ivy.

The first section of the trail was tight and a little new for me to get used to...there really wasn't a trail. But it was also flat, so it wasn't too bad. I got one thorn from a raspberry bush stuck in my arm on this section. Next, the mud started coming up. We have had some good rain lately, so it was nice and muddy. This was the thickest, blackest mud I have ever seen. At first we tried to run or walk around it, but soon it became obvious that this tactic wasn't going to work. We started running straight through it. At least that kept us out of the poison ivy and thorns. Our first water/mud crossing was a bit deceptive. It looked a little like a deepish puddle. Since there wasn't really any trail people would just get across these obstacles any way they could instead of following the runner in front of them. I made the mistake of going off to the left instead of following Maria. When I stepped in I quickly sunk up to my NECK! I thought I was going to go under, but got my footing quickly. This side was mainly water, but as we crossed it transitioned to being mainly mud. As I was trying to climb out, my foot got stuck in the mud above my knee. I couldn't move it at all. A nice mud covered gentleman helped pull me out only for my other foot to get stuck! After being pulled out ( I still had both shoes...bonus) we had another fairly easy, flat stretch. The only problem was that my feet now felt like they had cement blocks on them. I found myself praying for more water.

Next was the hills. I kind of lost count of how many. It could be that I was slightly delirious at this point. These were HILLS!!! There were many that no one ran up. And you just hoped to keeping your footing enough so that you didn't topple off a cliff on the way down. Then came the dirt ladder (that is what the people that were running near me called it...my team said they thought it was the stripper pole)...I am guessing it was about 75 yards long at about an 80 degree angle. I think we all took a rest at the top of that one. The rest of the run was mainly crappy hills instead of insane hills. Then we would have some areas where you couldn't run because the mud was too slippery. I actually was thankful for these areas because my heart was about to pound out of my chest. There was one man that I thought was going to clock his head on a down tree when he tried running this part.

Once I got past the point of thinking "boy, this sucks" or "am I going to make it out of this alive?" I started noticing that we were in some of the most beautiful land I have ever seen. Then I really started enjoying the run and taking it less seriously. I relaxed just in time for us to get towards the end of the run. We finished it going up a river with a pretty good current. For the most part, it was up to my waist. But there was that one hole...and it was up to my neck again. I didn't see anyone running this. There were times when my legs were moving but my body wasn't. It was cold and beautiful. At the end we all attempted to wash off some of the mud...it was futile.

Then it was time for dinner and margaritas...what a good way to end the day. I hope we didn't stink out the people in the restaurant too badly. Today I have washed my clothes twice and am soaking them for a second time because I just can't get the black out of them. The great news is that I have found a way to keep my mind off the heat and humidity...the mud weighting my legs down and worrying that I am going to die does a great job of that!

Just 2 1/2 weeks until DWD. I will only be running about 7 miles that day. It is probably a very good thing based on last night. Either way, I can't wait!

Total Miles Last Night = 5 Total Miles Since Beginning = 444

Made For Distance?

2007-08-20T21:57:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my long run. I was planning on jogging over to the county park near our home, doing 8 laps (12 miles) around the park and jogging home. I headed out really slowly. So slowly I wondered why I wasn't walking. When I got to the park, I started running. I didn't have anyone with me. I felt an odd combination of confidence and discouragement. I wasn't sure I wanted to be there. The first lap took me 18:30...not too far off my usual pace of around 12 minutes per mile. But, I felt like I was dragging. After the first 1.5 miles, I started to feel a little better.

A couple of laps into my run a middle-aged man began running in the opposite direction with his kids. One of the boys was on rollerblades, the other ran on and off with his dad. I said hello the first time we passed and they kind of ignored me and looked like I was nuts. It was cold and rainy, so there weren't really any other people out on the path. I thought, "well this will be fun running past this stick in the mud over and over and over again." The next time I passed him I tried to make it look like I didn't notice him and he asked how far I was going..."10 miles?" I said "no, 12." He yelled out something that was meant to show his approval and his son said " 12...she is going farther than you!" That was all I needed. The next time I passed him I said "thanks for asking, now I am committed." He said he was running 10 miles. Now, you can't tell another runner you are going to run 12 miles and not follow through. So I kept at it. And I started noticing that we passed each other at about the same spots every half a lap. I was keeping track of my pace for each lap and realized this guy was helping me to keep my pace nice and even. I was going to have a good time.

Then, I hit the wall. I was on lap 5 (7th mile) and I just wasn't sure why I was doing this...only three laps to go...but could I do it? 6th lap...still hurting...literally...my knee was starting to hurt. And I noticed that I wasn't the only one having a hard time...my friend was looking a little taxed and we barely grunted at each other now. During the 7th lap I started thinking that I could finish even if I had to slow way down.

But before I knew it, my friend was telling me he was on his last lap, and I was coming up on mine. I still had a little reserve, so I pushed it a little at the beginning of my 8th lap. Then, when I approached the last 1/4 of my last lap, I sprinted as fast as I could. Keep in mind, this is still just a jog for many. But I was breathing hard and moving my legs as quickly as I could. I finished the last lap in 16:41...Almost 2 minutes faster than my first lap!!! I was so geeked, I started throwing my hands up in the air and jumping up and down. It is a good thing it was cold and rainy. Otherwise there would have been a lot of people on that path and they all would have thought I was nuts. I finished 12 miles in 2:19:38. That was only about 9 minutes longer than it took me to run 10 miles a week ago. As I told Maria a week or two ago..." I certainly can't impress anyone with my speed, so I am going to have to do it with my endurance." She assures me the speed will come later, but I am happy with where I am for now.

I was really happy that man and his kids showed up when they did. You just never know from whom you might find encouragement. I couldn't have asked for a better running partner...but before I knew it, he was gone.

Total Miles Yesteray = 12 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 439

Getting excited

2007-08-16T08:23:00.000-04:00

I am getting excited...I can tell I am improving, and so can others. We had a slow day at work yesterday so instead of eating lunch Maria and I went for a run. We went on our usual three mile loop, dropped the dog off at the clinic and went backwards on the loop. We were going to cut out a section because we didn't have enough time before my next appointment to do the whole three miles. We were about to head back towards the clinic when Maria said we had enough time to go down the hill into the city park and then turn around and climb back up the hill. She loves to make me run hills! After we were done with the hill, she made a comment about that hill being easier for me. Easier, but not easy. And even better, we ran 5 miles in under an hour (just barely). So it seems I may be getting a little faster too.

The other reason I am excited is because I finally signed up for my race next weekend. August 25th brings the Crim to Flint, MI. It will only be my second race, and I am upping the mileage. Maria and I are doing the 8k (just under 5 miles) and David is walking the 5k (I am so proud of him). I am starting to assimilate to the heat and I am feeling more comfortable running. I think I will be ready for this race and be able to do my best. It should be fun.

So, next weekend is the Crim and then I need to keep working my butt off, because Dances With Dirt is coming up real soon. Maria was showing me pictures of last years DWD. The people were so dirty and absolutely crazy... I can't wait!

Total Miles Today = 0, rest day and cleaning house Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 424

Double Digits!

2007-08-11T11:33:00.000-04:00

Feeling great, but pretty tired right now. If it weren't for two little girls that need some mommy time I might be in bed. But it is a good kind of tired. Today was my long run and I ran 10 miles!!!

My neighbor Hussam went with me again this morning after he finally peeled his butt out of bed...7am is not that early. The first couple laps around Hawk Island were a breeze. It probably helps that Hussam is a teenager and has all those issues that we can discuss while on our runs. And for once, he didn't try to run too fast so that I was pushing too hard. Thanks Hussam.

When we got to the six mile mark (4 laps), I was feeling great...just two more laps and the run home to do. The fifth lap was a little harder, but I was still doing okay and knew I could do the sixth. The last lap and the run home (about 2 miles) were a killer. We had been talking about how good we felt through the whole run, now we were talking about beginning to feel it. All I could think about was getting home to some ice cold water. Hussam gets a little goofy towards the end of runs. He starts singing and jumping around. I on the other hand get annoyed. It is a good thing that we love each other, or else we wouldn't be able to run with each other. The rest of the time we get to spend together makes up for the last mile of me telling him to shut up.

Now a couple hours later after cooling of with a walk, drinking lots of water (probably too much), stretching, taking an ice bath and a hot shower I feel great again. Tomorrow is a well deserved rest day with the family. I am looking forward to it.

Bonus...I just learned that I burned about 800 calories today!

Total Miles Today = 10.2 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 415

First Trail Run

2007-08-10T18:06:00.000-04:00

What an awesome run today. It was my first real trail run, and I loved it!!! One of the county parks near my home has some awesome trails that I didn't even know about. I am so glad that we checked them out. My neighbor Hussam went with me today. It is a good thing, because at one point we had to pick up the stroller with the girls in it (think 94lbs) and lift it over a tree. And Hussam pushed the stroller most of the way. It slows him down a bit, so we at least have a semblance of actually running together.

I am so excited about today's run. Maria asked if I wanted to run Dances With Dirt in Hell, MI with her relay team (www.danceswithdirt.com). It is a relay for teams of 5 people. Each runner does three different legs of about 4 miles each. Think dirty, hilly (some that you have to slide down on your butt), and wet. It sounds like such a blast, but I have to up my long runs fast and get used to doing trails.

So in a little under a month, I will have completed my third race. It will be the longest yet. I also think it is going to be the most fun. I was already hooked, but after DWD there will be no turning back I am sure. So everyone pray that I don't injure myself before then.

Total Miles Today = 3.2 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 405

You Stink Mom

2007-08-07T16:54:00.000-04:00

Just a short post today. It was raining this AM, so I didn't know if I would get out for my run. I run in the rain, but I didn't think the kids would tolerate it so well. But God must know I need to run and that if I miss one run, I might just stop all together. It stopped raining long enough for me and the girls and the dog to go out together. Pushing that stroller with two good sized children can be quite the workout. It was humid, but the heat wasn't too bad, so it made for a pretty nice run. We did a little over five miles all together. Before we finished the last mile I stopped at the park near our zoo and let the girls play for a while.

Starting back up after that break was harder than I had anticipated. And to make it worse, the sun was starting to come out. I was just annoyed enough when a biker went by and gave me a dirty look because I didn't pull the dog in quickly enough and he had to go off the path by maybe a foot. It was ridiculous. I try to be considerate of others. I was in a tight spot and the bushes were growing over the path on my side. I guess that since I am a mom and a dog owner I don't have the same rights to be out on the river trail with everyone else. Sorry buddy, your dirty looks only make me want to be out there even more!

When we got back to the house I was getting lunch for the girls when I realized just how rank I was. I said "I stink." My sweet Grace responded with "I KNOW!!!" You gotta love kids. At least I don't have to huff and puff when I go up the stairs to my bedroom now.

Total Miles Today = 5.36 Approximate miles since beginning = 398

Owning Seven

2007-08-05T22:57:00.000-04:00

This was a crazy week for me. I worked all week long to cover for my boss while she was on vacation. It isn't just the working. I live 35 miles from the office and my kids go to daycare in the town where I work. In order to get the kids to daycare and myself to work, I have to leave about an hour and a half before I need to be to work. Then I work about a ten hour day and the whole thing goes in reverse. So on the days that I work, our whole family has a very long day. Thank goodness our wonderful child care worker took the girls for a couple nights this week to help out. She is a God send and I don't know what we would do without her. As it was, I worked late into the evening both Monday and Tuesday. I was exhausted already by Wednesday. And, I was worried that my training was going to be put on the back burner for the week. For the most part, we just live in survival mode when my boss goes on vacation. I had to alter my training schedule to get in all my runs. I just couldn't run on Wednesday like I normally do. The combination of my exhaustion and the heat and humidity would have made for a dangerous experiment. But I have been very happy that I did get in all my runs this week. I didn't know if I would be able to do it, but luckily things slowed down a bit towards the end of the week and I was able to play catch up. And, my lovely friend Maria encouraged me to get out on Thursday despite the fact that the heat was unbearable.

So, I was supposed to run 6 miles today. It was a distance that I haven't run before. But, planning for it was easy. The loop around the lake near my house is 1.5 miles. I was going to walk over there, do four laps and walk back home. But, I just couldn't do it. I wanted to run as soon as I got out my door. I just didn't feel right walking over to the park. So, I ran. I decided to go 7 today (7.24 to be precise.) I wanted to make up for the crappy long run that I had last week and to prove to myself that I could run 7 miles. The first two laps around the lake were a little hard, but once I completed them, I knew I could finish. I did the entire route in 1:28:01. Not fast by any means, but a definite record for me. It tells me if I keep training and working hard I should be able to finish in a respectable time when I run the Crim 8k on the 25th of this month. And then, I will have my eyes set on a 10k a few weeks after that.

I feel great tonight. I am looking forward to next weeks long run. I am supposed to do 6.5 miles...maybe I will do 8.

Total Miles today = 7.24 Approximate Miles Since Beginning = 393

Wonderful Man

2007-07-30T23:08:00.000-04:00

My husband is the best. This week I am covering for my boss while she is on vacation. That means I am working full time plus some. It can make it very difficult to get my runs in . Our girls are with their daycare provider tonight and tomorrow. David and I had a very unhealthy dinner before coming home. I was tired (as I am sure he was too) when we got home, but asked him if he would take the dog for a walk while I went for my run so that I would have someone kind of watching over me since it was getting dark. Thanks to him, I was able to get in my tempo run tonight. That means that even if I have trouble at work the rest of the week and am unable to run at least I got in one quality workout.

I felt like I was working hard, but my pace ended up leaving a little to be desired. I guess when you look just at the tempo portion ( there was a slow warm up and cool down) the pace was close to my 5k pace.

I fell while on my run tonight. It was the second time in the last month. While it wasn't as bad of a fall this time as last, I still scrapped up the same knee, which means I am starting over with the healing process. Note to self... the road is smoother than the sidewalk...maybe you should run there at night when you can't see the ground!

Total Miles Today = 4.26 Approximate Miles Since Starting = 379

Lesson 1001...know your route!

2007-07-28T18:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was hot and humid when I ran. I was supposed to do 3 slow, easy miles. In the heat and humidity there are no easy miles. My dog and I got back to my office and he literally collapsed on the floor. Usually he is ready to play after 3 miles. But it was a good workout and I felt good about it. Today was a different story...

Today was my long run. Since I am new to running, my long runs are pretty short. I was supposed to do 5.5 miles. I try to do my long run at a slow even pace so that I can run the whole thing. I decided to run on the river trail near my home. As you guessed, it winds along the river. It is nice because there are markers every 1/4 mile...Or there were!!! I started running and the first mile was hard. I have found that it takes me about 1.5 miles to really get my stride going and to feel comfortable. I wasn't really gung ho about today's run, but I decided to give it a mile and a half. Most of the time by then I am feeling good and even if I am not, I at least have to run 3 miles because I have to get back from where I started.

So I pass the one mile mark and am starting to feel a little more comfortable when the markers on the trail seem to be spacing out a little more than they seemed like they were in the beginning. If I would have known I was going to have trouble, I could have read the numbers telling me which marker I was at, but I didn't do that in the beginning. So now I was trying to figure out how far I had gone. It was a pretty hot day. A lot of the trail is wooded, but when it isn't, it is right in the middle of the city and it is HOT! I started feeling like I missed out on one or two markers. I was keeping track of my pace, so it helped a little. Then it just all seemed to fall apart. I couldn't tell where I was or how far I had gone. I thought I had gone two miles so I figured three more markers and I could turn around. But some of those markers seemed off too. I was so frustrated by now I went up another marker and stopped at the fish ladder. I had never really seen it before so I figured I would take a break. By now I was really POed. Not only did I not know how far I had gone, but I was also appearing to have horrible pace. I ended up walking quite a few times. I think my frustration got to me just as much as the heat.

So I started back. The return trip wasn't as frustrating because I knew where I was going and had a general idea of how much further I needed to go. On the way back, some of those markers that I couldn't find started showing up... Maybe I had gone a little two far? Maybe I went out 3 miles instead of 2.75. Oh well, that would only add an extra half mile...no problem. But by now, I was so psyched out and mad that I was doing so poorly, that I ended up walking quite a bit. The heat seemed unbearable. I have the horrible psychological problem that I think I can't run in the heat, and today it caught up with me. I finally get back to my car and I am spent. It was one of the most miserable runs I have had since I started. I am glad that I know that there are good runs and bad runs and this one bad run doesn't mean I should quit.

Now I am back at my house and I need to map my run online so that I can see how far I ran and jot it down in my log. I ran a little over 7 miles! No wonder it was taking me longer than I expected and the markers seemed further apart...THEY WERE! This is only the second time I have run 7 miles. I did it last Saturday for my long run. I was supposed to do 5. But at 4.5 miles I felt so good, that I kept going around the park near my house. I loved last weeks run...the difference was that I wanted to do it last week and I knew what I was getting myself into. So that is why the lesson of the day is KNOW YOUR ROUTE!

Total Miles Today = 7 Approximate Miles Since Starting = 375

Not so speedy

2007-07-26T08:39:00.000-04:00

I did my first official "speed work" last night. Most of my runs throughout the week are kept at a slow, easy pace. I have one run a week that is a little faster and one that is longer. Last night was intervals, which means I got to run around a track multiple times. I was dreading it! I don't like running in circles. That is why I was outside with a scarf around my face and my glasses freezing over when I ran on the coldest day of the year last winter.

I was supposed to run a lap at 5k pace...slow for the rest of the world, but close to as fast as I can go. Then I was supposed to slow way down and jog or walk half a lap to recover. As soon as I was done with the half lap recovery I started over. I did eight intervals. I haven't run around a track more than about 4 times before and that was many years ago. They actually weren't very bad. It may be that my heart pounding out of my chest and the buckets of sweat pouring down my face distracted me from the fact that I was running in circles!

There was a five or six year old little boy with his mom at the track. He was riding his bike that had training wheels on it. This track is old and very messed up. There are quite a few "pot holes" in it. He would get stuck in a hole every now and then, or just have a hard time keep the bike going on the poor surface. Every once in a while I would pass him and he would say something about having a hard time going. I could tell that him and his mom were talking about me. It entertained me as I was running. When I stopped to stretch, he rode past me and he was so excited to pass me. To think that he thought I was fast enough that he wanted to try to pass me... for a penguin like me, that made my day! Thanks Alex for boosting my ego just a bit.

Total miles last night = 4.5 Approximate miles since starting to run = 365

A New Start - Why I run

2007-07-24T16:28:00.001-04:00

So this is my first blog...I guess it should be inspirational in some way. I started this to help keep me accountable with my running. So, why do I run anyway?

My uncle died at the age of 55 last December. My family (especially my dad) have taken the shock pretty hard. My mom has many medical problems related to arthritis, osteoporosis and years of smoking. She stopped smoking, I am so proud of her! My dad had a kidney transplant 15 years ago. Since then he has developed diabetes. His kidney is failing again...I am guessing from the diabetes and high blood pressure. Most of my family (including me) struggle with keeping their weight under control. I guess what I am saying is that I don't have good genes medically speaking. I need to do all I can to help fight off the illnesses that are going to try to ruin my life as I age.

I don't want to end up like my uncle. I love my family enough to try to change the bad luck. I want what they have had to go through to make an impact. And hopefully if it makes an impact on me, it will also impact the life of those around me. I want my husband and girls (what better reason can there be) to have a good example. And I want my girls to think of exercise as fun and a natural part of life. So I run...to lose weight; to fight stress; to keep my joints working properly; to lower my blood pressure; to reduce my risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer, osteoporosis; to feel better about myself; to show others if I can do it then so can they; to not go down without a fight; and to show my girls that they can be strong, beautiful, and healthy.

So on December 31st of 2006 I took my first very slow steps (literally) towards being a runner after at least a decade of only moving when I had to. I am SLOW. I am not a natural born runner. It has taken time to even get to the point where I was really running instead of just walking. But now, I have found, that I love running. I love the way it makes me feel. I love that I am doing something hard that I never thought I would. I love taking my dog for runs and wearing him out. I love running with my girls in their stroller. I love the other runners I have met. I love that I have run in my first 5k race (3.1miles) and was able to run the whole way faster than I ever had before. I love that 3 miles now seems like a easy run and the miles seem shorter now. I love that I have run enough miles to need a new pair of shoes. Have I motivated anyone yet? I hope so. Like I said if I can , so can you!

And finally, I wouldn't be running if it weren't for my very good friend, Maria. She can kick my ass any day and yet she still chooses to run with me and have an easy day while I am having a hard one. She has kept me motivated and encouraged me when I didn't want to get out the door. She has also kept me from doing too much at once so that I don't injure myself and I can keep running. Most of all she has shown me that a 30 something woman can challenge herself and be a real athlete. Thanks Maria!