3 Miles

The baby has not been sleeping well, so neither have I. I missed Monday's run - after a 5am nursing session, I headed back to bed for some much needed sleep. Today, I felt grumpy and out of sorts, but hopeful that a run would clear my head. It was humid, and I just couldn't get a rhythm. Turned around early, and headed home discouraged.

Eight Miles

Another speedy run! I think I was about 11:50ish, maybe a little faster. I left my watch at home, darn it. I ran the first 3 miles with Claudia from work - we did the first two in 22:00 exactly. Holy moly! Overall, it was kind of a bummer run, felt like a lot of hard work. Some big hills, Claudia was only doing 6, so turned around at 3, and left me partnerless for the remainder. It wasn't all bad - back at the track, I ran into my high school French teacher who is doing the 4-miler training. We had a nice time catching up.

Two miles

Back on the wagon, sort of. I actually felt pretty good. It's the first day of school around here, and the air, while not exactly autmnal, has definitely been released from the grip of the dog days of summer. I needed fresh air in my lungs.

But I felt a little lightheaded, and my tummy hurt when I got home. And I realized I was supposed to have run 16 miles this past Saturday. I haven't even done 12 yet. Less than three months to go. My goal is to finish, but I'd like to finish with a spring in my step, not with an extended visit to the medical tent. Phase 2 of the program is coming up in September - time to readjust.

Off the wagon...

Max and I are both recovering from the latest day care special - it was a doozy. I'll leave out the gory details, but it was enough work trying to stay hydrated this past week without adding running in the heat and humidity. Perhaps some weights at the gym tomorrow, and then on the road again on Monday. God willing, my long run will actually get longer one of these days.

I'm feeling a little down, but I've still got more than 2.5 months left, and I did make a hotel reservation, so I've *really* got to run the thing. I met someone who is dutifully training (all summer!) to run the four miler. It came up that I'm training for the marathon. "Oh, but I'm not a runner," she said. "Me neither. I just put my head down and put one foot in front of the other," I replied. When you get right down to it, it really is just that easy. (Says the woman who hasn't run in a week and who has missed 3 of 4 Saturday runs.)

8 Miles

The stars aligned today. Was it the Shot Bloks? The Endurolytes? The good company? The perfect (and I do mean perfect) weather? The interesting course*? Whatever the reason, today I had an 11:52 pace overall - my first time breaking 12 min/mile for the whole run. And I didn't even stop my watch at crosswalks and water stops. I feel much better about having missed two long runs.

*Astute reader(s) (hi Mo) might notice that the link is to the Ten Miler, and I ran eight miles today. There's a two mile loop about midway through the course that you can skip. Hence, eight miles, as per my program.

5 Miles

Another variation on the ark site and back. Ho hum. I tried raspberry flavored Clif Shot this time. It was really gross. The first ingredient listed is "brown rice syrup." The gel tasted exactly what you would imagine brown rice syrup would taste like. And oh yeah, it had some fake raspberry flavor added. I couldn't finish the whole thing.

Four Miles (back on the wagon)

Yeeeeeeha, I ran my program today. Four miles - ran past the ark site, around the nature trail (which is bitchin' hilly, and not all that fun to run, despite the shade), and back home. I tried a Gu halfway through. It was banana flavored. It tasted okay, but I wasn't crazy about the texture (it's not called Gu for nothing). And then it sat in my tummy like a rock as I jounced around in the heat. Bleargh. But I didn't feel as ass-draggy on the long uphill bit, so it wasn't a total loss.

I also wore my spiffy Ironman visor, my Camelbak, and my watch with the new battery. I feel like a dorky poseur weekend warrior with all those entrapments. I think I need to accept the fact that even if I'm the slowest runner out there, I'm actually a runner. Me, an athlete! I was the kid who cried every day after gym class in the seventh grade. I had math right after gym, and my wonderful teacher would let me sit in class with teary eyes, and just quietly do that night's homework. She never once chided me for not paying attention. I loved the numbers and patterns, the regularity, the rules, and mostly, the fact that I was as good at math as I was bad at volleyball.

And now, I'm a runner, I'm a swimmer. I love the rhythm of running, running my pace by the numbers. I love the solitude and time for reflection. I love counting laps in swimming. I love devising workouts in my head, counting by 25's or 75's, and finding novel ways to add up to big numbers. I love keeping count of breaths, strokes, laps, kicks. I love the strangeness of 26.2. On November 11, it will be the first time I have purposely not run a distance that was an even mile, half mile, or kilometer.

100 degrees (and far fewer miles)

The past two weeks have been a blur of travel and sickness. Not to mention the heat. It's regularly topped 80 by 8 am, and was over 90 by 10 am the other day. I'm just not that hard core. Even coach Mark said to back off some in this heat. I think I've run a grand total of 6 miles in the past 10 days. I'm waffling about whether to do the long run tomorrow - I'm afraid to look at my program and see what kind of mileage I'm supposed to be doing. I think one more day of rest. Perhaps a good swim, and some weights instead. IronMo gave me her too-small brand-new speedo, I think it needs to go for a swim. It's all orange and red and flamey. I'll look fast, even if I'm still desperately trying to recover the body roll I lost somewhere around week 30 of the pregnancy.

I feel lazy and irritable. But at least I'm not starving all the time.

Oh, and I made some progress - I got a new watch battery! So now I can know exactly how slow I am. And I bought an assortment of gels and Clif Shot Bloks, and Mo gave me half a bottle of Endurolytes. And, I got a fancy new IronMan visor. So one of these days, when I get back off my tuchus, I'll have all the gear.