10/4, 10/2, 10/1

Ran 5 this morning and 5 on Friday.  Saturday was supposed to be a long run, but after the awfulness of spending Thursday in the ER with Neil, I was a wreck.  Neil wanted to run, so we ran about five and a half together, but I was having awful stomach cramps around 5, so we decided to walk for a couple minutes (we were almost home) and then stop for Conference, which was just starting.  I thought about running on the treadmill during conference, but I was just feeling so sick like I was going to throw up any minute.  So then I thought I'd run after Conference.  I got up to go and I was so nauseated and dizzy.  I ended up showering and just sort of sitting on the floor feeling terrible.  I felt awful the rest of the day and had stomach cramps all afternoon until I finally went to bed that night.

Today I'm still exhausted.  I couldn't sleep last night because I was so stressed over the last week and how much I have to do this week.  My running partner mentioned that I shouldn't even do the 12-miler I have planned for Saturday (next Saturday the 16th is the half-marathon).  She suggested that I just start tapering this week.  I'm leaning towards this option because a) both people I regularly trade running babysitting with will be out of town this week b) I have been so tired plus Neil has a concussion and c) I'm 8 weeks pregnant.  Surprise surprise!  I'm not mentioning this on my regular blog because I don't want people to hassle me about still running, but it's affecting my running enough that I decided to go ahead and mention it here.  I don't want my body to be totally shocked by the 13 (although I don't care about time anymore and I just want to finish) so I don't know whether it will be better to NOT stress myself with the 12, or whether the thirteen will feel harder having only run 10 miles as my longest run this training period.  I have a TON of grading to do this week and I'm kind of an emotional wreck right now (lots of stress + pregnancy hormones + husband in the ER was a very bad combo!), so the idea of somehow wedging in 12 miles this Saturday is not very pleasant. 

So what would you do?  Try to fit in the 12, or just do a 6 or 7 and call it tapering?  Anybody have pregnant-and-running advice to share?

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.

9/20

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?

8/31

Last run of the month!  I've run about 93 miles in August.  Not a whole lot if you're training for an ultra-marathon, but it's cool to me, since when I very first started running again after Juliet was born--I hadn't run much since middle school--I was running about 9 miles a week, or under 40 miles a month.    (Of course, the flip side of this is that my shoes wear out a lot faster...)

Today was a 40-minute tempo run (on the treadmill while Jules and Isaac were asleep).  I started out running an 8:50 mile, worked up to an 8-minute mile, and back down again.  I always feel like I'm running much more slowly when I do tempo runs than when I do interval training--it's so much easier for me to do those 400-meter repeats at a faster pace than it is to do a steady build.  Which is why I train with both, I suppose.

STATS:  4.7 miles, 8:28/mile

8/30

Another day, another run.  It was very dark.  There were lots of bugs.  Like every day.

On another note, I really like this image.  What do you think?  Inspiring, or disheartening? 

STATS:  Four miles, 8:36/mile

8/28

Normally this would be a long run today, but as I mentioned on Tuesday, we're watching another couple's three children today while the wife does a triathalon (they're watching ours when we run the half-marathon).  We have two families that we regularly trade long workouts with, which is really nice. 

So today, since I was up at 4:45 am to go over there while their kids were sleeping, we opted to swap the long weekend run with the shorter midweek run. I was hoping I'd still have time to squeeze in an extra few miles, but I don't think it will happen, so...I'll have to be content with my three.

Today I ran a trail that I haven't run in about four years (to a nearby lake)--and while I was running it I remembered why!  Part of it is just a deer trail, barely room to put one foot in front of the other, and I'm pretty sure it was completely lined with poison ivy.  And then when it opened up, I was running over mud flats and sinking in.  Awesome.  I'll stick to my regular trails from now on, since that definitely slowed me down.

STATS:  3 miles, 8:33/mile, hilly, muddy

As a sidenote, I spent an hour yesterday afternoon (while the kids were napping, when I should have been doing something productive) reading running blogs.  Then I moped around the rest of the day feeling like a loser because I'm not training for a marathon.  I really, really want to run a marathon.  I just keep having to remind myself that I'm barely finding time to run 20 or 25 miles a week; I don't know how I would double that.  Sigh. 

8/27

Easy run today over the bog trail.  My running partner had been up literally all night with kids--she told me that when six am rolled around, she figured she'd just go anyway, despite the fatigue, since she was already up (and had been up since 1 am, after going to bed at 12:30 am due to completely disassembling then reassembling her toilet.  Which she didn't get to start until about 10 pm, because before that she was at my house learning to make mozzarella).  So anyway--I was amazed that she was still there running. Because I probably would have wimped out. 

Anyway, we took it easy for her sake so I didn't bother clocking it, since we walked twice for about a minute, but we were probably running about an 8:45 mile the rest of the time.  I felt great--much more energy than Tuesday's run.  I thought about running another couple of miles after we wrapped up, but since Neil isn't feeling too hot and two of the kids are sick, I figured I better skedaddle on home. 

It was actually cold this morning, and the moon was enormous--it didn't get light until the very end.  Beautiful running conditions, but it's reminding me that not-so-lovely ones are on their way.

STATS:  3 miles, bog loop trail

8/26

Speedtraining today; 7 x 400-meter repeats.

Alternating between 8 mph for the 400 meters, then 7 mph for the 400 back.

It was doable, but barely.  I don't think I could have gone much past the 400 at 8 mph (7:30 mile).  This is definitely a 5K pace right now rather than a half-marathon pace.

STATS:  3.5 miles; average page 8:00/mile