1 Mile

Totally lame, I know, but I was running short on time, and it was either 1 mile or nothing. So I picked the mile. For what it's worth, I ran really, really fast. No easy feat after having stayed up late to watch the Oscars last night.

7 miles - track workout

2 miles warmup (closer to 2.5), 4 laps, one hill, 3 laps, one hill, 2 laps, one hill, 1 lap, one hill, cooldown. I had a great workout. I started the warmup with Kelly and Jim. Kelly is getting faaast, and I had to book it to keep up with her. So my warmup left me spent and sweaty.

I'm shooting for around 10:30/mile for the race, so the first 4 laps were at 2:37/ea. No problem - I actually finished the first mile in 10:22. Down the hill, up the hill.

Three laps - supposed to be at 2:30/ea for 7:30 total. I missed it by about 10 sec, and was kind of pooped by this point. Also around this time, my late breakfast, and shortened routine getting out of the house made my tummy start feeling not so great, plus I had to pee. Down the hill, up the hill.

2 laps were supposed to be at 2:25 ea, for 4:50. No problem! Down the hill, up the hill.

Last lap. Supposed to be at 2:20, which is slightly superhuman for me, especially with tummy troubles and a too-fast warmup. Halfway around the track, I looked at my watch - 1:18 already. Gol dangit, there was just no way I could do the second half in 1:02. But when I rounded the curve, I saw that straightaway in front of me and just took off. I pushed hard off my back foot, I tried to keep my arms and shoulders loose. I was passing people left and right. I was breathing really hard. I crossed the line and looked at my watch - 2:20. YES!!!!

Down the hill, and up the hill. I was totally dragging and feeling a little nauseated at this point. I drank a whole lot of water, then started with Jim on our cooldown. About a block into it, I was pretty sure I was either going to barf or crap my pants, so I quit running, walked a little bit, and then just threw in the towel and walked back to my car.

I got home and ate a ridiculous amount of goldfish crackers and some Thin Mints, and (surprise) continued to feel awful. I had some flat gingerale, and started feeling much better. Note to self: Do not drink so much water. And always bring Shot Bloks.

As an aside, I am finally happy with the new shoes. We've adapted to each other, and are working as a team.

2 miles

Not earth shattering, but hey, I am back into the weekday swing of things. The weather was almost spring-like yesterday, and it felt great to be out in shorts and t-shirt and not be freezing. We'd had a little rain overnight, and the sleet piles were melting, so the air smelled wet and fertile.

I traded in the big ole baby jogger and the not-really-a-jogging-stroller on a shiny new BOB, and Max and I took it for a spin last night. He did his usual stroller zone-out, which I take as a good sign. It weighs the same as the the not-really-a-jogging-stroller, but feels so much lighter, due to the bigger wheels and suspension. The handlebar is at a more reasonable height than the BJ handlebar, which I always felt like I had to reach up to hold. The seat is higher off the ground, so Max gets a better view, all the while being shaded by an enormous sun canopy. I still don't plan on taking him running all that often, but it's nice to have the option.

a meme

Because it's nice to remember the days when I had time to read books.

Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicise the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of. I left unformatted the ones I don't care about one way or another.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. + The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. + The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. + The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. + Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. + A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. + Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. + Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. + Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. + The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. + The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. + Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. + Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. +I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. *The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. + Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. +The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. * The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. + Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. + The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. * Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. * Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. + One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) (I own it in Spanish, too!)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. + Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. + Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. * The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. + A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. * The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. * Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. * Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. + The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)(loved the movie, though!)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

7 miles

Yep, seven! I'm so proud of myself. For once, it was above 20 degrees and nobody was sick, so I joined the group at the track. Ran 7 miles of the 10 miler course in about 80 min, which is definitely slow. But I felt amazing the whole time, and invigorated when I was done. For the first time in ages, I had no pain, no aches, no twinges of any kind while running. A total high. The frozen sleet made for some slow going around town, but I ran the whole way with Jim and the time just flew.

twenty

...minutes on the elliptical. Long story short, after spending a ridiculous amount of time looking for a parking spot at the gym, it turns out it was closed for a big swim meet. So I ended up at a different gym, without a pool, where I was able to squeeze in 20 min on the elliptical, some stretching, some lifting, and a jillion ab exercises before I had to scoot on in to work. I am planning on running with the group tomorrow, though I'll probably end up running with the 1's or 2's, instead of doing 11 miles with the 3's.

1.5 miles

Hey, at least I ran! In my defense, we had an inch of sleet last night, and only our neighborhood roads were plowed, not any of the connector roads. So I ran laps around our neighborhood. The neighbor across the street was shoveling her walk and must have thought I was nuts the 3rd or 4th time she saw me go round. I capped off my morning by shoveling the walk and part of the driveway. Then Max's school was closed, so I spent the rest of the day chasing around a toddler.

Zero Miles

What's that about the road to hell? I'm on it. I fully intended to run this morning. The baby woke up early, and I thought, great, plenty of time to run and get everyone out the door, especially since I didn't have to be at work till 11. Then the usual morning circus, and Jack said, hey why don't you get your shower now since I have to leave early, and the next thing I knew, I was all blow dried and even had makeup on and I had totally forgotten to run. Mommy brain at its finest. All is not lost - there's an ice/snow storm coming, so I'm sure I'll get a good workout shoveling and scraping. And I *will* go to the pool Friday morning.

As penance, a thousand crunches tonight. I'm so ashamed.

3 miles...

...indoors. I had every intention of running with the group on this morning. Except it was 14 degrees at 7:30 a.m., and I still had a stuffy nose. So I got to the gym right when it opened at 9. Funny thing is, it's just down the street from the track, so as I was winding my way there, I could see people from the group, all bundled up, running along. They looked very serious and extremely cold.

I did 8 gazillion laps around the tiny indoor track, then as much on the treadmill as I could stand. Boooooring. I lifted, then came back for another half mile on the treadmill. The last half mile actually felt pretty decent - I guess there is something to be said for warming up. But it was a real blow to my ego to know at all times exactly how fast (slow) I was running. Anyway, I'm just trying to muddle through the best I can. I had a nice email convo with IronMo about our respective muffin tops. Which should make me feel better, except that she and her muffin top ran a half marathon last weekend, while my muffin top and I slept in.

Since I haven't been to the track in forever, I hadn't yet picked up my program for "Phase II" of 10 miler training. So after my workout, I headed to the shop for it. I'm supposed to run 11 miles next Saturday. That is *not* going to happen. But the other mileages I think I can handle, I just need to actually get some weekday runs in for a change. While I was there, I bought some gloves, to help me out of my cold weather wussitude. Yes, I already have gloves, but mine are icky cotton knit that gets clammy when I get warmed up, plus they date from Bush 41's administration. So I spent the rest of the gift cert on a pair of spiffy microfiber looking gloves with little reflective patches. What really sealed the deal is that the two gloves have small magnets embedded in the cuffs, so they'll stick together when not in use! How cool is that. Extremely. Far less cool was the fact that after I got home, I realized that I had two right gloves. Dammit!

8

...degrees Fahrenheit, that is. Yeah, it's cold here. I'm recovering from the latest day care head cold, and have decided that this week, it's indoor exercise only. Which means some stretching and crunches while watching American Idol. So yes, the 10 miler is but 6 weeks away and I'm having a slack break. This is how I maintain my street cred when I say "I'm not really a runner."