On my Run today

Crisp acorns crunching beneath my Mizunos
Water main break, brown water bubbling up through the grass and dirt
forming a rushing river down the street. I go around.
Sidewalk, asphalt, grass, dirt, I zigzag to find the safest path
Cold breeze, colder still in the shade
I withdraw my hands into my sleeves for warmth
Full sunlight, breeze dies, too warm now, I shed layers
Runners come toward me, pass by me.
Some glide by with ease
Others are struggling
I make up stories
Is this their 1st new years resolution run?
Will they still be running a month from now?
I stick with my intervals. Run. Beep. Walk. Beep. Run....
Steady, slow, consistent.. Run. Beep. Walk. Beep. Run..
Minute after minute, mile after mile, I get it done
I've made it back to my apartment complex
Tuck in through the gate, head for the pool
It is 53 degrees out
The pool is not heated
Shoes and socks come off
Pants rolled up to my thighs
I step into the icy water
Feel it burn and freeze and sink into my bones
My legs go numb and start to feel warm from inside out
Recovery.
11 miles on my Garmin
I am proud of me
Good job T.

My Dream Board video pt. 1

One Way Trip

Because we were traveling back from my parents house on Saturday, we missed the weekly Galloway training run, which was 8 miles long. So Em and I knew we needed to make that up on Sunday. We sent out last minute emails to try to get other people to join us, to make it more fun and to provide us with enough accountability to make sure we didn't just bail out and sleep in. So luckily, Laura, Andrew and Angela were up for it so we met at the School Board building at around 9 am Sunday morning. Laura had mapped out a route down Hendricks to Peachtree, and thru the neighborhoods along the river and then back to the School Board building, which would be 8 miles. I was a little concerned about losing the group, because all those guys are faster than me, plus they like to run 3:1 intervals, and I am more comfy with the 1:1 intervals. So we compromised at 1 and a half to 1 so we would stay together.
So off we went. Right from the start I knew I was in trouble. My left leg was still getting that tearing sensation around the back of my knee. I was breathing too hard and my shins and calves were burning. It was about 45 degrees and overcast so I had on two shirts, a jacket, my running tights, shorts, gloves and earwarmers. About a mile in I was shedding the jacket and gloves and earwarmers because I was too warm. At about two miles I was still having trouble getting my breathing and heartrate under control and was starting to feel a little sick. Maybe I need to start taking my vitamins again.... Anyway, around 3 miles, I told Emory that I wasn't doing well, and I just was going to run straight down San Jose and to our house. I had my phone, water and cash with me and it was daytime, so neither of us were worried about me going it alone, so I let them go on without me, and slowed down my pace and went back to my 1:1 intervals. I started feeling alot better after that and got back into a good rhythm. I had just passed the Lakewood Shopping center and was passing in front of Lakewood Presbyterian Church about 2 miles away from home, and the next thing I knew, the sidewalk was rapidly coming up to meet me! Boom! I have no idea what I tripped on. I fell mostly on my stomach and chest but the left knee took a lot of impact and my hands got pretty scuffed up. It shook me up a bit and knocked the wind out of me. I got up and went over to sit on the side steps of the church to settle down for a minute. Then I got up and walked a bit and everything seemed okay, so I started jogging again back to my intervals and got home just fine. I don't know whether I was happy that it happened without witnesses or concerned that if I really had gotten hurt I would have had to involve strangers to help me out, but fortunately it was just a minor incident, and I am hoping that now that I have had my 'fall', I won't do that again for a long time. I've seen quite a few people fall during our group runs, and thank goodness, so far they have all bounced back up and finished the run.
So I got home safe and mostly sound and got 6 miles in. While I was in the shower was the first time I looked at my knee and noticed there was a golf ball size lump on it! Yikes! So I iced it down a couple of times that afternoon and by the next morning the swelling was gone and it's just bruised now. I've also been icing the back of my leg to hopefully get the hamstring feeling better.. I have to be solid by Saturday for that 23 mile training run... Stay tuned. :-)

Christmas Day running

I've been quite negligent in my nutrition over the last couple of weeks, using the holidays as an excuse to eat whatever I want and not make any attempt to track any of it. I am at least still writing down, and doing my workouts, which provides a little motivational boost. We spent Christmas at my Mom and Dad's house, out in the country. To combat the cabin fever and offset all the wonderful food we ate for Christmas dinner, we set out that afternoon at 4pm with a plan to run 5 miles. It was 49 degrees out so we layered up. I couldn't find my interval timer, so we had to kind of guestimate the 1:1 intervals and/or keep an eye on my watch to know when to run and when to walk. That always messes me up as we seem to go out too fast for too long when I don't have an interval set. I don't know if it was the sitting in the car for 6 hours the day before or just all the food, and sugar overload, but I was having a hard time keeping up. Or maybe Emory just keeps getting faster and faster, at a faster rate than I am getting faster... so it feels like I am getting slower.. anyway, suffice it to say, I wasn't 'feelin' it that day.We did finish the whole 5 miles, but I started to notice a tight pain in the back of my left leg. I'm calling it a hamstring problem, but not sure if it's a muscle or tendon that is inflamed. It doesn't hurt too bad when I am actually running, but when I switch to a walk and extend my leg straight, there is a pulling, tearing sensation in the back of the leg. So I am a bit concerned about that and need to work on resting and recovering so it doesn't get worse. We ran down some clay, gravel and asphalt back roads. We saw more dogs and cows than cars. The one thing we didn't count on was how fast it got dark. The sun had set by the time we made our way back to the house and it got dark fast. We had no issues, but it sure had my dad worried. He was imagining us out running on the highway getting picked off by cars. I guess we should have told him what route we were taking.. ;-)

My First Half Marathon

I woke up nervous. I hate being nervous. I kept repeating "this is just another training run, just another training run", like a mantra. I wasn't nervous about breaking any records, which is never gonna happen. I wasn't nervous about whether I would be able to finish or not - I'd done 14 miles in training, so I knew I could. I was nervous about stuff like "Should I wear my jacket? If I don't wear it, I will be too cold, if I do wear it and have to tie it around my waist, will it be banging against my legs the whole run? Should I wear my Zensah calf sleeves (I did, and they felt fine, but made me look pretty goofy.) And most importantly, what is the exact right time to get in line for the Porta-Potty?
It was Thanksgiving morning and I was preparing to run in the Outback Distance Classic which is the first half marathon I have ever attempted. I awoke at 5:45am, showered, dressed and reviewed my checklist of 'stuff' to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. Running is supposed to be a simple, inexpensive sport, but, I swear, if I dont have at least 3 pieces of electronics attached to my body, I know I have forgotten something. Polar HRM and Chest Strap? Check. Ipod Nano with Nike+ reciever and foot pod, and headphones? Check. GymBoss interval timer? Check! IPhone? Check! It's hard to tell if I am going for a run, or preparing to launch a small spacecraft.. Now for the basics.. hat, sunglasses, sweat towel? Check!
Now... If I am going to be out there for about 3 hours, I better pack a lunch! I've got my Nathan waist pack with water bottle, mini pack of raisins, 2 packs of ShotBlocks, small bag of almonds, and my "magic granola bar"! That should do it..
My "just a training run" mantra was working pretty well, because by the time I got my stuff together and went out the the kitchen, my tummy was calm enough to eat some breakfast without sending me back to the bathroom for the rest of the morning. At 6:30 am, our neighbor Laura, drove up to our house, and me, Emory, and our next door neighbor, Andrew, climbed in the van. We were all talking about how cold it was. It was only 51 degrees, but our Florida blood has gotten pretty thin, and it felt much colder. One of the best things about training has been all the people we've met and get a chance to spend more time with. Once we got to the race site, parked, picked up my race chip and waited 10 minutes to use the Porta-Potty, I went looking for my Galloway training buddies. Luckily, there were quite a lot of fellow training buddies from our breast cancer marathon training group. Four of us decided to run together and stay on the same pace. Stan had said that he thought we would finish in 3:12, but Amy told me privately that she thought we could finish in 3 hours or less, and we just needed to keep pushing the pace a little to get there. I was thinking along the same lines, that I would love to finish under 3 hours, so I was all for that plan.
Getting Started.
At 7 am Stan, Amy, Jennifer and I were standing in the middle-back of the pack, when the starting gun went off. I am assuming the people at the front of the pack took off like rabbits, but where we were it took about 30 seconds for anyone to move at all. It took us 2 minutes to get to the starting line. I was fumbling around starting my Polar HRM, my interval timer and my Ipod Nike+ all at the same time. We set our interval timers for 1:1 (walk 1min/run 1 min), and took off. We restrained ourselves through all the excitement of the race start and kept to our 1:1 intervals, which had the benefit of allowing some of the crowds to thin out so we weren't weaving around too many people. I had put together a 3+ hour playlist on my iPod to get me thru the race, but never needed it, as I had a great group to run with who kept up engaging conversation for the whole run. The run itself was pretty uneventful. One of the main forms of entertainment was pointing out discarded items of clothing along the race course. "That's a nice shirt." "Ooh, I like that jacket, I wonder if they are coming back for that?" There were also a few people wearing turkey hats, and one guy running in a full turkey suit, and he was fast!! I dream of running fast in proper running attire, I can't imagine running fast while dressed in a hot, uncomfortable, silly-looking costume. That's a whole other level of fast.
Once the sun had been out for a while the temperature became quite pleasant, and I had that attractive jacket-tied-and-bunched-up-around-the-waist look going on. The race course was nice and shaded and there were plenty of water stops with enthusiastic young volunteers. There were also porta-p0tties lining the course, which we availed ourselves of around mile 7. I was feeling pretty good and keeping on around a 13:30 pace, but around mile 8 I started fading. I had been fueling with raisins and Shotblocks at regular intervals but, I was feeling a little queasy and lethargic. I decided it was time to break out the 'magic granola bar'. Don't tell anyone, but this is just a regular chewy chocolate chip granola bar, but I decided to bestow it with magical powers, and sure enough, it perked me right up and I felt good again. Around mile 11, however, the magic was starting to wear off. My legs were hurting, my feet were tingling, and it felt like my big toenail was going to come off. But oddly enough, all of us complaining together, and asking "whose brilliant idea, was this, again?" seemed to help us all get thru the last couple of miles. I told the group that if I felt okay I was going to run in the last .3 miles or so, and they were ok with that. Well, I wasnt feeling great, but when I saw the time on my watch said 2:58 and I still had about .2 of a mile to go, I got motivated. The only bad thing was the finish line was around a corner so you couldnt see it until you got right up on it so I wasnt sure when to let it all hang out and 'sprint' it in. But when I saw the clock as I came around the corner and it was just turning to the 3:00:00 mark and I realized I was going to make my target, I was pumped. I finished in 3:00:11. Emory was there to take a picture and congratulate me. He had finished more than a half hour earlier. At this point the race organizers had already started packing things up. There was no food and no medals left, which was kind of disappointing, but I knew I had finished in a time I was happy with so it didn't dampen my spirits too much.
We stood around and talked to some of the other finishers and took some more pictures and then Emory and I started the 4-mile walk home. Why?? We had committed to doing a 17 mile run that week to stay on our Marathon training program, and we had foregone that training run because we knew we were running the Half Marathon four days later. So the plan was to run/walk 4 miles home, but unfortunately Emory standing around waiting for me had caused his muscles to get sore and his feet were hurting alot at that point. So we tried running for a few seconds and Emory said "This is not gonna work", so we just walked the 4 miles home. I'm not sure if that really counts as a 17 mile run, but I think it does.
When we got home, the legs were really feeling the pain, but we still had kids to pick up from Grammy's and food to prepare for Thanksgiving, but it all turned out well. The best part? Great running buddies, a feeling of accomplishment, and burning 2,100 calories and enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with zero guilt!

Did a 3 mile walk tonite. No running.

I watched Emory complete his first Triathlon today. He did great. Last nite we both signed up for the Race for the Pies 5k on June 13th.