9/29

Three this morning.  Would have loved to run more to make up from yesterday, but there's no time.

STATS:  3 miles

9/28

So it's official:  I've missed my first run of this half-marathon training.

Neil's alarm went off at six and I barely registered that he left.  I'd thought last night about trying to run this morning but realized that the sleep was probably going to be more important in the long run, since I didn't fall asleep until about midnight last night (one of those manic mind-too-alert nights where you lie there just thinking forever).

When I did finally wake up, I got myself and the kids ready, fed everyone breakfast, made our beds, vacuumed the house, and left for visiting teaching at 9.  We got back at 11 and went on a walk, played on the swings, ate lunch, and left again at 12:25.  Jules and Isaac went to a friend's house; I went to Abigail's school and worked in her classroom all afternoon.  We got home at about 4, read stories together, then I made dinner, we ate, cleaned up, and I took Abigail back to school for an orientation meeting.  We got home from that about 7:30.  Neil and I worked on Abigail's school assignments with her, then did some vocab, I read her a story, and then she went to bed around 8.  I spent the next hour paying bills and prepping everything for tomorrow (appointments at 9, 10, and 12:30-3:30, plus missionaries for dinner).  Now it's nine o'clock, I can still think of about five things I need to do before going to bed, and I need to be up in another 9 hours running.

I'm actually okay with this (despite my long explanatory post).  I went to bed last night knowing I probably wouldn't run today; I wish it had worked out, but sometimes it just doesn't.  I really try to make sure that neither running nor teaching infringes on my family time, so...there you have it.

9/27

Hard to get up today, even after a night of solid sleep.  It was freezing!!  I think fall is officially here--except my basil is still alive.

We ran five over the same trail that Neil and I ran Saturday (and the same one we went to yesterday on a walk through the woods with the kids).  I need to find a new place to run just for variety's sake, but that one's so convenient and has a good mix of hills and flat stretches. 

When I got home, I was still icy cold.  I stood in the shower for ten minutes with my teeth chattering.  Then Neil wrapped me up in towels he'd warmed in the dryer.  I was still cold, so I crawled back into bed fully dressed under a huge pile of quilts.  When I finally got warm, I fell asleep again, and didn't wake up all through Neil getting the kids ready and fed.  He woke me up right before he left for work.  What a great guy.

9/25

Ten long, hard, painful miles tonight.

We had our friends' children overnight, and it was an exhausting day (their parents picked them up at 6 pm this evening after dinner).  I was dreading the run all day.  And it was pretty bad--both Neil and I were just tired and worn out.  Running in the evening is always really hard for me anyway, but today was especially difficult.  The first five miles were pretty good, then we stopped and got a drink and it started raining.  And it was completely dark by this time.  So it was raining and dark and cold (55 degrees, which is normally pleasant but in the dark and rain was a little chilly). 

My knees and arches were aching by the time we finished the next four.  We needed to get back to relieve the friend who was watching our kids (did I mention we watched their kids too last night, so we had 9 kids?) and so then I ran the last mile on the treadmill.  It was a really miserable mile, but it was standing between me and my no-missed-runs record for training for this race.  Kind of like how I didn't miss a single day of early-morning seminary until the very last day of junior year, when I had a required field trip that left at 5:00 AM.  I guess it's a mental thing.


Sidenote:  Neil is at the store right now buying bacon.  I have been craving BLTs since I picked tomatoes earlier today and realized that it's a long time until next summer's tomatoes, since we've quit buying them from the grocery store for the last couple years.  I have had bacon exactly twice in the last two years (on my birthday in 2009 and on my sister's birthday this June while we were camping--the burned nasty I had at IKEA doesn't count) so I am really looking forward to this.  There's very little I miss meat-wise about being vegetarian, but I do miss bacon. And sausage.  (you know, those super-healthy high-quality meats.)

STATS:  10 miles; deliberately did not time

9/24

Five this morning.  It took me twenty minutes to actually get up, and then it only happened because Neil turned the light on. 

I didn't push too hard today because there's ten miles waiting for me tomorrow--after we watch our friends' kids overnight and until 6:30 pm tomorrow.  I'm really not looking forward to running after 28 hours with six kids, but that's how it has to happen, I guess.  (And we're watching another couple's three children tonight so that they'll watch for us tomorrow night.  I think I'm going to sleep well after an evening with 9 children--the oldest is six).

I ran on the treadmill today while Neil ran outside.  I don't like the treadmill, but on the other hand I read the Conference Ensign the whole time, so that was nice...plus when Neil came home he said the wind was terrible, so I guess I got the better end of the deal.  But I still don't like the treadmill. 

STATS:  5 miles, 8:41/mile

9/22

Exhausted today--completely exhausted.  I've got to get more sleep.

I clocked the run, but we also had to stop 4 times for traffic, so I think it's actually slower than we were going--although I really was slow.  My thighs just felt like lead weights rather than actual muscles.  I'm looking forward to a rest day tomorrow and sleeping in.  It's funny because I always think, "Oh, the Wednesday run is so short!  I should add another couple of miles," and then I'm totally dragging by the third mile.  Which I guess means that my workouts the other two days are just strenuous enough...right?

STATS:  3 miles, somewhere under 30 miles with lots of traffic stops

9/21

Speedwork today.  I've been fighting a really killer headache since about 10 pm last night (the kind where you're lying with a wet towel on your head at midnight wishing you were unconscious) and it definitely kicked in while I was running--I think I just haven't been drinking enough, which ALWAYS triggers headaches for me.

So I ran the first 7 400-meter repeats okay (although I did stop after the 6th set to take a drink), but during the 7th, my head starting pounding so much I was having trouble staying upright.  I slowed down and kept running, then slowed down some more.  It's sort of okay now, but I need to be drinking a LOT more--I didn't hydrate well over the weekend, since I wasn't home Friday through Sunday, and I'm paying for it now.

First 7 400-meter repeats at 8:00/mile out and 8:20/mile back
gradual slowing during last 2 repeats, ending run at 8:41/mile

STATS:  9x400-meter repeats (4.5 miles), 37 minutes, avg pace 8:13/mile

Okay, so I really feel pretty crappy right now.  Stupid headache, I loathe you.  

Neil's 10K time

I forgot to post this earlier--Neil's 10K time was 48:05 (he ran the first third or so with me at a slower pace; his average pace was 7:44/mile, although the first few were at that slower 8:28 pace, so when he wasn't with me he was running quite a bit faster, about 7:25/mile). 

I love running with Neil, but I'm glad he went ahead and ran by himself--I kind of wish he'd done it for the whole race so he could see what his real race pace is without his slowpoke wife!  After the race, however, he told me he didn't like running by himself and he really missed me, so I guess I just need to get faster...

9/20

Oh boy, did I NOT want to go running this morning.  I slept about twelve hours yesterday--totally coming down with the awful cold the kids have.  And once we drove the 3 hours home and I was in my own bed, I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about everything I needed to do.  So crawling out of bed this morning was not pleasant at all.

I'm glad I went, however, because I feel better now than when I first got up.  It was definitely not my most impressive time ever, but on 4 hours of sleep last night, my goal was to not stop and just keep running.  Which I did. 

STATS:  5 miles, 9:38/mile

10K race report

Okay, so I don't have a ton of time to write this, since we're finishing up a big party, so I have to be quick!!

Neil and I ran our first 10K this morning.  We arrived there and it was just a bunch of people bouncing up and down in the freezing cold early morning.  I was laughing to myself because only runners are crazy enough to get up too early and run in the cold and the rain and then PAY FOR IT. 

Anyway, so this race had the following:

• A spray-painted starting line
• A woman on a ladder with a megaphone telling us to line up behind aforesaid starting line
• Woman on a ladder saying, "On your mark, get set, go!"

Which is to say, it was not the largest race ever.  I was bib #590; I'm not sure how many total entrants there were.  A pretty decent-sized field, but definitely on the smaller side.

We started out and I was running WAY too fast; about 7:00ish/mile.  I slowed down because I started feeling dizzy, and we ran down the first hill.  To be honest, I was not feeling great.  I didn't feel very good when I got up this morning, and I ate about four bites of oatmeal and couldn't eat any more.  I managed to choke down a little bit of bread on our way to the race, but I was just kind of running on adrenaline and willpower the whole time.  Then the skies opened up and a typical Michigan monsoon began, and let me tell you, it can seriously dump some rain in Michigan.  I was soaked pretty fast, and the thunder and lightning was a little crazy. 

I kept feeling like I was holding Neil back, so about 3 kilometers in, I convinced him to run ahead of me. He finally agreed to go, and I just ran along by myself.  Actually, in some ways it was a little easier running by myself, because I just zoned out and focused on catching up to the person in front of me (and avoiding the deer).

It rained the whole race.  And it was cold.  And my iPod kept telling me I wasn't going as fast as I wanted to, (but then guess what?  When I got to the end, I realized it was miscalibrated and so it was under-pacing me).

When we got to the end, I was actually running pretty strong; I'd picked up the pace again after coming over a nasty (long build-up) overpass, and I'd skipped the third and final waterstop so I could just push through--which turned out to be a really good decision.

So when I saw the finish chute, I just powered it up.  I switched into full-out sprinting mode (shades of middle-school track) and pushed as hard as I could up the HILL to the finish line--the runners on either side of me did a double-take and pushed hard and we all ended up crossing together. 

My final time was 52:34, for about 8:28/mile.  But here's the best part:

I placed 16th overall for women...AND...

3rd in my age division!!  I was SOOO excited!  But of course, I wasn't expecting anything like that, so I just jogged the mile back to my car through the rain without waiting around...so hopefully I can pick up whatever certificate or thingie later.  But seriously, I am SO pumped!!!  I was feeling a little bummed about this race while I was running most of it, because I just didn't feel very strong through most of it, and I started out too strong and then took awhile to recover, but I was REALLY happy with my time and my place, which was completely unexpected.  My goal for this race (when I realized how crappy I felt this morning) was under 9/mile with my "top goal" of 8:45/mile, and I totally smashed it.  :-)

STATS:  10K, 52:34; 8:28/mile, 3rd place for age division

9/15

Three-miler this morning.  I thought about running farther, but my body is really starting to not be happy with me.  The rest of my life is contributing stress, so that I'm getting physically worn out, even when I'm not running 200 miles a week or something crazy like that.  (Although most people who run that much probably don't have a ton of other commitments, because really, how would you have time? Or maybe they do and I'm just a wimp.) Apparently 25 a week is enough for all kinds of crazy things to start happening; my menstrual cycle has become incredibly irregular/nonexistent, and I'm so tired that I  fell asleep the other night after dinner with Juliet sitting on my head brushing my hair and Isaac climbing over my legs.

So I'm really looking forward to the 10K this weekend; it means I'm only running 6.2 miles on Saturday, plus I'm going to take Thurs and Fri. off.  I feel like a wimp, but honestly, I haven't missed a single run in the last 8 weeks, and the five runs a week is taking a toll on me.  I am just worn out, and I've got to recharge before that race.

Anybody else feel this way?  (And in particular, I am kind of disturbed by the whole athletic amenorrhea thing.  Granted, it hasn't been six months for me, which is the diagnosis point, but one of the reasons why I decided not to do a marathon was so I didn't mess that up too much, since I'd like to have another baby in the next year or so.  One of my friends told me that it was pretty much the norm for everyone on her college soccer team and then again on her mission, but still...it kind of worries me).  Has this happened to anyone else, or have you heard of it before?

STATS:  3 miles; didn't time, but probably around 8:50ish/mile

9/14

Tempo run today for 40 minutes; started out at 8:42/mile and worked up to 7:30/mile, then back down again.  I ran at my slower warm-up pace for too long, since I forgot to check the time, so I ended up running the first ten minutes at 8:42/mile.  Oops. 

STATS:  4.8 miles, 8:26/mile average pace

9/13

The stars were visible until the very last mile of my run today (at which point I could finally see the trail, so it was an acceptable trade-off).

I've been feeling really burned-out lately.  I have a 10K on Saturday and I'm not planning to run on Friday, but now I'm wondering if I should take Thursday off as well.  I don't know why, but it just seems like I have zero energy these days...

STATS:  4.5 miles, didn't time

9/11

Very tired tonight; ran at the end of a long day in Chicago and dealing with extremely cranky kids.  I started out incredibly slow, totally aching and tired.  I kept telling myself every half-mile that I could do just one more half-mile.  And then of course, once I hit 3.5, I felt great and then I was almost done.  Go figure.  It always takes me 4 miles to really hit my stride and start loving it.

STATS:  4 miles; 9:07/mile

9/10

AWESOME run last night.  Seriously.  The picture is not mine, but that's pretty much exactly what it looked like.

We got out of our temple session at about 8 pm and sat in traffic while we watched the sun go down.  I sighed and said to Neil, "It's going to be completely dark."  And he peered glumly out into the dusk and said, "Yep."

So we decided that we'd at least run four miles, which was our short run for the weekend that we were planning to do Saturday, and if necessary we'd run the ten on Saturday.

Here's the thing:  we live in the country.  Running after dusk there means it's pitch-black, you can't see anything, and you're falling all over the place.  Nobody else is out and quite frankly, it's not very safe.

Running after dusk in Chicago means all the streetlights are on and there are a gazillion people out everywhere just beginning the night.  It was crazy bright!  I seriously felt like the little country mouse gawking at all the lights.

We parked near Children's Memorial Hospital, where Neil's brother used to work.  We ran down Fullerton looking at all the gorgeous row houses, then looped through Lincoln Park and around the lake (which was completely dark with no lights.  A little exciting).  We passed a fancy restaurant right on the edge of the lake--with all its windows and doors open to the gorgeous night air--which was only accessible by foot.  Which I thought was really cool.

We left Lincoln Park and ran along the beach for almost three miles.  This was SO cool, because there was quite a lot of wind, and we were running along the breakwater, and the waves were pounding against it and breaking up over the breakwater near our feet (we ended up running higher for most of the time so we didn't get wet, but oh my goodness, it was so gorgeous).  There were all these boats out moving around in the harbor--enormous yachts, tall-masted sailboats, and tiny little speedboats.  Chicago rose up in front of us and the skyline was absolutely beautiful.  I wish I'd been able to take a picture--it was amazing.  I used the enormous fancily-lit sign of the Drake Hotel as my goal for about two miles!  We were running right next to Lakeshore Drive most of the way, so we were about 100 yards away from the high-rise apartment buildings and hotels lining Lakeshore.  If you've ever driven that at night, you know how spectacular it is; from our perspective near the lake with the light reflecting into the crashing waves, it was just beautiful.  

We ram out to Navy Pier, which was kind of crazy and carnival-esque; I've been there during the day but never during the night, and it was totally different.  The air reeked of fried dough, which smelled good from about a mile away and was totally nauseating up close after I'd run five miles.  We ran past all the beer gardens and the Ferris wheel (wish we'd brought some cash!) and out to the very end of the pier away from all the lights and the noise, where we paused for a minute and watched the tall ship Windy sail away from the pier and out into the harbor.  Then we ran back again.

Some cool things we passed right on the beach--built-in chessboards, a whole bunch of Muslim women on the sand with their babies dressed in gorgeous saris and jewels (at 10 pm, which I thought was kind of cool), about a gazillion runners and bikers, lots of fountains, a roller-hockey rink (with a heated game in progress), and a restaurant with live palm trees that looked very unhappy in the Chicago wind.

We ended our run at Noodles in the Pot, one of Neil's very favorite restaurants.  We ordered a couple of curry dishes to go (it was about 10:30 pm by this point), drank a lot of water, then drove back to our hotel and took extremely hot showers (great showerhead, thank you hotel!!) and ate our curries while we watched an episode of Glee, then we both completely collapsed into instant sleep at 1:15 am (it took awhile to get back to the hotel).

Long story short:  we ran through Lincoln Park, along the beach for three miles with the waves and the wind and the gorgeous Chicago skyline lit up just feet away, and out to the end of Navy Pier.  And back.  Seriously, it was SUCH an awesome run.

STATS:  10 miles; 1 hour 34 minutes, about 9:24/mile--slower than I'd like, but then again, it was pretty late and we were pretty tired.

image

9/8

Easy 3-miler this morning.  Cold enough that my teeth were chattering!!  I didn't bring my iPod, so no idea on the time...

STATS:  3 miles

9/7

My run got pushed to the very end of the day today, which meant I didn't want to run too hard, since I'm up before six to go running again.  And to be honest, I just don't have anywhere near the energy at the end of the day that I do first thing in the morning...

Theoretically this was a speedwork day of 8x400-meter repeats, but it was pretty pathetic--my top speed was an 8-minute mile, whereas last time I was at a 7:30 mile.  My main motivation in running today was that I haven't missed a run yet while I've been training for this half; I feel like if I miss one, it will make it easier to skip again.  As long as I can keep my streak going, it's much easier to convince myself to just do it, even if it's not up to the usual standard.  Every little bit helps, right?  And a not-so-fast run is better than no run at all.

At least that's what I'm telling myself today. 

STATS:  4 miles, 8:30ish/mile

9/6

Happy Labor Day!  Mine started off a lot earlier than I'd like for what is supposedly a "vacation" day for the rest of America (goodbye Neil, have a nice day at work...).

On the other hand, running felt great today.  My iPod had a dead battery, so I wasn't worrying about pace (which is good because when I started running the first few strides, I really felt the last two runs).  It was super dark the whole way and cold, but we talked about skiing the entire time and the miles flew by.  I am SO grateful to have my running friend!

STATS:  4.5 miles

P.S. When I got home, Jooj was crying because she'd just woken up from a nightmare about a monster that escaped from the zoo and chased her and bit her on the backside.  She was rubbing her little flowered pants in remembered fear.  Is that not a sad way to wake up when you're three?

9/4

Easy recovery run today; I'm not really sure how to handle these runs when they're done the day after the long run.  Any advice on that?  My normal schedule is MWF are pace runs, Tuesday is a speedwork day, and Saturday is the long run, but lately it seems like I'm flipping the Friday and Saturday runs, and I'll have to do it again next weekend.  I'd love advice if anyone knows if I should be approaching my Saturday runs differently following a long run Friday.

So normally this would be a pace run, but I really didn't have it in me to do that tonight, especially since I ran at 9 pm after a day of wandering the farmers' market, taking the kids to the zoo and then the playground, then canning three dozen jars of applesauce, plus apple chutney and cranberry-apple relish.  Long day all on my feet.

So I took it really easy--like really, really easy.  Partially because I was tired, and partially because it was completely dark and I couldn't see a car parked across the sidewalk until I was five feet from it.  So I just enjoyed the run and the cool night and the smell of burning leaves and the stars come out.  It really is gorgeous here. 

STATS:  4 miles, 10:13/mile

9/3

We did our long run tonight, since it was the only time we could find someone to watch our kids.  I'm definitely not a fan of the evening long runs; I'm always tired (plus it's hot!).  But better an evening run together than a morning run alone.

Nasty wind tonight--very, very nasty.  It was blowing so hard that I felt like we could have gone faster at a walking pace some of the time.  But on the other hand, the wind kept it cooler (about 66 degrees) so that was the silver lining.

Same long run as the last couple weeks; we'll probably keep running that and just adding length, since it's got a good mix of hills. 

We tried to keep the pace under 9/mile, and were pretty successful most of the time, but we ended up stopping to walk twice and once for water:  stopped around mile 5.5 and walked for a few hundred yards to ease the weird leg cramps from running up the suicide hill against the wind, stopped about mile 7.5 (after running two miles straight into the wind; both of us were having trouble swallowing because our mouths were so dry, so we walked and coughed for a ways, and then we stopped about half a mile after that at a drinking fountain.  Thank goodness, because we were completely parched from the wind; I don't know why either of us didn't think to grab a water bottle.  I'm not too stressed about the stops, since I can't run while I drink anyway (unless I want to be coughing and spitting for the next half mile), so I'll have to walk through the water stops. 

STATS:  9 miles; 8:55ish/mile (started out at 7:52/mile, running around 9: 13/mile at the very end).  Extremely strong winds!!

9/1

Easy 3-mile today.  That is, I don't remember if it was supposed to be easy (probably it was a pace run), but I was totally exhausted today.  We started out really fast, and I said to my running buddy, "There's no way I can hold this."  And she laughed and said she was thinking the same thing.

So we ended up jogging more than running.  Plus, there was a TON of traffic, so we had to spend a couple of minutes waiting at the stoplight to cross the highway, which never happens at 6:00 AM.  I guess that's all the students back in town...

I clocked us, but with all the stops it's hard to tell...I think we were right around 9 minutes a mile or so.

On a semi-related note, I decided that I need to get faster not just by training harder, but by ensuring there's less of me to move.  My goal is to lose 6 lbs in the next 6.5 weeks before the half-marathon.  (I've been reading up on ways to increase your speed, and the #1 recommended way is to lose 5 lbs).  So to that end, I'm going to completely cut out dairy (I've still been eating too much cheese, although I'm not eating butter or milk) and eat only fruit after dinner, which is my real pitfall time...something about the kids being in bed and finally having some quiet moments always makes me want to snack, and I'm determined to break that habit.  So I'll start reporting on how I'm doing there too. 

STATS:  3 miles, 9ish/mile?