Too Tired to Think of a Title

Went to the gym yesterday, it's been raining a lot. Tried running but the hip hurt, so I walked 2.5 miles. Pretty discouraging—after running 13.1 miles and surviving, I'm ready to run again. I never thought I'd say it, but I really want to go run 5 miles right now!

Owie

I rode my bike with Andy on Saturday, but other than that I hadn't exercised since running the race. I was ready last night, got on the treadmill, and the hip that has been nagging me since the race was just killing me. I ran for an embarrassingly short amount of time and then gave up. I've tried stretching it, but I can't seem to make it any better. I'm going to try again tomorrow, and hopefully it's just a kink that needs to be worked out... If it isn't better by Monday, I'm going to the doctor. Unfortunately my WebMD diagnostic skills aren't helping with this one.

Fortunately my training schedule says today is a rest day anyway. :)

Lovely.

If you think this is good, check out Sexy People—I think I might fit into their category... :)

Early in the race

Pouring Rain!

Downtown Fredericksburg—a lot nicer than I thought

This looks like the speedwalking championships or something...

Almost there! Dragging myself to the finish...

And the lovely finish shot.

Tin Man Syndrome

Still recovering... I like to call my current state "tin man syndrome" because of the way I am walking. :) Surprisingly, the shin splints are still not back... I must have been doing something right. I think that I stretched my lower legs plenty during the race, but didn't stretch my quads once—and those are the muscles that are killing me. Also need to learn to stretch my hips without laying on the ground... or suck it up and just lay on the ground in the middle of the race. Hmm... could be an intimidation technique? :)

Gimpy

Good thing I took today off--I can barely walk! I am trying to get up every few hours just to keep the muscles moving, but apparently I didn't stretch enough yesterday. I still don't have shin splints though! A miracle!!!

I'm already planning on another race, I want to do at least a 10K later this summer. I think I could do pretty well! I always have been a sprinter... if I keep running after the marathon I'll probably do shorter races and work on bettering my times.

Yes, I realize how silly I am, that 2 days ago I was scared and didn't want to do it, and today I'm plotting my running career. :)

Done and done!

5K = 3.1 miles; 10K = 6.2 miles; 15K = 9.3 miles; half marathon = 13.1 miles

10K is almost halfway, as you can see I lost some energy on the second half of the race—I especially tanked in the last 3 miles... my hip is killing me and I need to figure out what that's all about. No shin splints yet, YET being the operative word.

But I was aiming for around 3 hours and I did it! Imagine what I can do after many more months of training, especially with a coach and a team... I'm very sore but I'm so glad I did it. Hooray! I'm calling in sick tomorrow. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Knock on Wood

Oh yeah... it's definitely like thunder and lightning from this afternoon all the way through 10 am tomorrow. I'm secretly very happy—I really don't want to do this half marathon. I guess that's not a secret anymore...

I'm being a baby about it: I don't want to go by myself, I don't think I can run 13.1 miles, I'm just not there yet in my training. I'm scared of failure, but I don't even know what constitutes failure in my mind—I just know I don't want to be struggling and have people passing me all the time. It's all very cowardly really. Not to mention that GK are having a graduation party since Galen just finished his Construction Management degree. So I will have to go home early and go to bed while everyone else is having fun, just so I can get up at 5:45 to go running in the scary weather. Blargh.

I'm going to Fredericksburg this morning to pick up my race packet and information, and I'll ask more questions about the weather policy then. When it comes down to it, I know I should race. It will be good practice for the marathon and just good to push myself to that distance that I haven't reached before. But... the thought of the horrendous shin splints that will come after just makes me want to stay home and bundle up and stay warm and dry and pain-free. :-p

I promise I won't be this way about the marathon. You can trust me for several reasons:

1. I told my grandma I am doing it for her.
2. I am asking people to donate money in conjunction with me doing it. (See sidebar!!)
   
3. I will have LOTS more training before doing it.
4. I have made up my mind that I am doing it no matter what.
5. Everyone I know will give me shit if I don't do it.

Official Team Member!

It's official—I'm running the MCM as a member of the Team in Training! Here is my TNT page, and if you are able, please help me achieve my fundraising goal to help eradicate blood cancer! I called my grandma and told her she was my "honored teammate", and once she realized she didn't have to actually run the marathon with me, she is cool with it. :)

The kickoff event is June 6, and team training begins the next Saturday. The half marathon is in 3 days, should be a nice ass-whipping (as in the 13.1 miles will whip my ass) but at least I'll get some race experience.

TNT First Meeting

Tonight is my first meeting with Team in Training (TNT as they call themselves). It's just informational, but hopefully they'll give me all the info I need to know that I want to join up with them. Here's to hoping that the meeting isn't a room full of super-peppy happy folks who are going to do cheers or something in the name of cancer fundraising. I can't take all the exuberance! :-p

T Minus 5 Days and Counting

I didn't run at Burke Lake on Saturday, but I did go yesterday. I did fairly well overall, but I definitely went out too fast at the beginning and tired myself out. So I ended up walking a lot more than I had planned. Also, I spent the first mile trying to find the main trail—it gets weird around the parking lots and I decided to go the iffy way first so that I wasn't super tired and trying to find the trail. Anyway, the total was 5.47 miles, and the overall pace was 14:58. I checked my pace several times along the way, and my running started at under 10:00 pace and slowly made its way to 11:30. But even when I was super tired, the running/jogging never dipped below a 11:50 pace, which isn't fabulous but also isn't terrible, at least for my standards.

I'm getting a little nervous about the half marathon again, just because I feel like it's going to take forever and I'm going to be super tired. I really don't want to come in last! But running at Burke Lake helped me realize the following things:

1. I can ignore other people passing me. This was the first time I had run in a situation where a lot of people were also running, and I passed some and some passed me. Good to know.
2. Even if I'm not staying on my "plan" for the run/walk segments, I can still pick up and run for at least a little ways when I'm super tired. The running came in shorter spurts as I got more tired, but at least I could still make myself run.
3. It was good practice to run at a place where I couldn't just take a shortcut back home or hop off the treadmill. Since it's a giant loop with a lake in the middle, I had no choice but to press on, no matter how tired I was.
   
4. Even when I'm super tired, I can still walk at a decent pace and keep going. I never stopped, except to stretch.
   

I'm nervous about it, but I'm sure it will be fine. I'm also not looking forward to getting up so early, but there's nothing I can do about that! I can't tell what the weather is doing, so I might be on the treadmill today... hopefully outside...

Spin-Rest-Run-Repeat

I tried a spinning class for the first time yesterday, and I loved it! It was definitely hard, but in a good way. The instructor was VERY peppy, something that usually annoys me, but I was so focused on keeping up that I didn't have time to care. My favorite thing about the class is that it is based on a perceived exertion scale—the bikes have a knob that you can turn for more or less resistance, but there are no numbers or other qualifying marks on the knob. So when the instructor says "take it up to a level 7" then you're going to what you perceive to be a 7 on your exertion scale (from 1-10). This, combined with the dark room lit only by blacklights, makes for a comfortable setting in which you're just concentrating on your workout instead of how you're doing compared to anyone else. I'm planning on going every Thursday from now on (except next week, since I'm already busy).

Today is a day of rest, and then tomorrow I have a 5 mile run planned for outside. It's been raining for a week straight, so hopefully with the sun out today, the trail around Burke Lake will dry out enough for me to run there tomorrow. (The map below says 4.3 miles, but it's a very rough outline—I didn't take the time to follow the satellite image perfectly around every curve of the trail. We'll see what my iPod says is the actual distance traveled...) It's usually crowded, but that's fine—I'd rather run through the woods with a ton of people than no one (as previously discussed)! Here is the route via MapMyRun:

Splints-B-Gone!

Great workout today! My legs feel great, I did lots of stretching during the workout (3.5 miles, didn't want to overdo it and have the splints come back!) and a good long stretch afterwards. I'm hoping that I can keep the legs in this condition until the race!

You're supposed to taper before a race, but since I had to take a long break so recently I'm just going to hold steady around 5 miles (give or take!) until then. You're also supposed to rest the days before a race, so next Tuesday will be my last workout. After that, it's lots of water, pasta Saturday, and early to bed!

I also want to work out a pace guide for myself. I saw in the running store the coolest thing: they make fake tattoos with a pace guide for different levels! I'm making my own, and just gonna write it on my arm with a Sharpie, just like back in swim team. :) The only other thing I really want to do before the race is to drive the course. I'll definitely map it out on MapMyRun, but I hope to have time to drive it before the race. Maybe this weekend...

Blah

Last night's workout was fine, I did lots of walking and lots of stretching. I was excited to run today but I have a terrible headache and I need to go lie down before I vomit. Yay migraines!

Positive What?

I really could use some pretty fields and deer right now. I've had kind of a crappy day--the Monday back from vacation is always hard, but I just found out that I owe SC $1400 for taxes in 2004. It's a big misunderstanding, but it's going to take lots of phone calls and effort to get it off my credit report and off the books. UGHHHHHHH.

I'm actually looking forward to running, because I know it will make me feel better. Plus, my legs feel better, so *fingers crossed* it should be a good run. (It's also easier because it's raining and I get to run on the treadmill. Yay!) Under 2 weeks to go on the half marathon. It's gonna be scary... but I'll get through it. I think I will deserve a day off afterwards... :-D