Flat Speed

I got behind. Lots of reasons, but Wednesday's speed workout was one I'd been scared to do. I asked the rehabbing KR to be my pacer for it. We built a mini-girl date out of it, so quite fun :) I did just what KR suggested- drank my water and held on tight when we took off! She was keeping track on her wrist GPS and I deliberately turned off my GPS app from telling me average pace. Because we ran on trails, my phone would occasionally tell me my current pace, alternating between 16 and 6 minutes per mile. The 6 was never accurate, although when I took my walk breaks, the 16 might not have been off, but I got told that during my fast times!

The goal for the day was 4 miles total, with 2 single mile fast runs, with 1/2 mile in between. The fast miles I was aiming for 8:45 pace, which was my fastest single mile EVER! KR kept us between 8:15 and 9 pace, occasionally giving me hand taps to slow down (hee hee, never thought I'd have to write THAT!) but even more, especially the 2nd mile, gesturing the "gimme more!"

KR sort of chided me, a lot:/ Her point, methinks, was that I could do the fast miles and not die. Or puke. Not puking is a good thing! IT might be painful, but enh, running for 2 hours is painful. Running for 2.5 hours is a different pain. Be the fast pain. Get back to views like this faster:

Here's to the next TV timeout,
-Syd

Mic check....

So… I’m back. And when I say I’m back, it should also be noted that I’m about to take it easy. Whiplash yet?!

Let me backtrack… when last we met, I believe I was still slaving away at the thesis, dating Fred, looking for a job and chilling on the running because North Carolina in the summer isn’t the best for avoiding heat. Now, the thesis is done, degree in hand, Fred… is still Fred but not mine, details on the latest version eventually, back to looking for a job, and yes, almost about to take a break from running because its already 60* at 7am nowadays.

I got back into running in September. Yeah, no clue why I got back into it when it was SEPTEMBER and still suuuper warm, but I knew I needed to get back into some sort of routine. Maybe there were even a few cooler days that gave me hope?! I stopped writing stuff down, so who knows. What I did discover was that I was faster! I hadn’t lost the “speed”, but I could go faster! I started back on KR’s 10k plan, and then got boy whiplash and thought that maybe I’d ratchet it up to a half marathon in…January?!

But FIRST! The roomie, the mom and I dressed up like fools for a Turkey Trot 8k on Thanksgiving Day. What better way to make sure you won’t gain as MUCH weight from the turkey and stuffing and pies than to rev up the metabolism before all the goodies?! I tried to rev up quickly for a couple of halfs in January, but shin splints, traveling for Christmas and the realization that apparently yes, at 25 is when your body decides it wants to break down led to 0 half marathons for January.

Except… you see… I’d done something crazy on Thanksgiving Day, darn post-race endorphins! But let’s keep this chronological! Having conquered my own 8k, I volunteered to mentor for Fleet Feet’s 8k Training group. Making it even more fun?! I knew I’d have someone to drag, I mean, keep my company twice a week. The roomie had gotten into running, starting with the couch to 5k plan and was ready to go be faster, stronger and generally more bad-ass!

So, with our first run a chilling 2 miles on a Tuesday evening in January, the roomie and I were off! We were both in the 11-13 minute/mile pace group. I started off being comfortable at the back, but as the weeks progressed, I sometimes had to be the mentor at the beginning of the pack. Those 11 minute miles got trimmed to 10:30s and shorter, while talking, and before I knew it, it was the last week of January which meant…

MY half marathon training started! On Thanksgiving Day, I’d signed up for the first NC Half Marathon at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. There were a few other races in that general time frame that I was considering. I figured late March would mean it would still be cool, maybe rainy, but warm enough to run without 50 million layers. The one I’d originally had my heart was soon ruled out. Never underestimate the power of bad word of mouth!

The roomie’s friends had heard that my “target race” was on a great course, but the people running it didn’t know what they were doing. Messed up logistics? Yeah, that sounds like a recipe for disaster at my first half. Plus, that was the race where KB got injured and was a hobbling fool for weeks afterwards. I started looking around and, having family near Charlotte, figured that driving 2 hours to go race was totally sane, so why not?!

I did the 8k with the training group, rocked it, but dear heavens, the HILLS around here! I realized I’d pushed myself more than I planned to or remembered when I went to go run the next day. It totally did not happen. I think I did 2 miles, and cried like a baby for the last mile. Always great walking into the house and explaining to your boyfriend that, despite being out for 25 minutes, you only went 2 miles and yes, your face is caked in snot and tears, Cosmo’s surefire way to attract men!

At this point, I had to juggle the Runner’s World half training plan I’d been following with what my body would physically allow me to do. I did most of my long runs, but my mid-week runs weren’t as long or as fast or inclusive of the speed work as I would hope or plan for. The two “perfect” examples were the 8 mile run that didn’t happen and the 10 miles of pure suck. The 8 mile was supposed to happen on a Thursday evening, about 2 weeks after the 8k. I’d run 2 miles on my shin splints the Sunday before and knew that if I could just get 5 minutes in, the pain would just be numbed and dull and I could power through.

Except… I couldn’t get out of my own head. This is a seeeerious problem for me, but that night, I just panicked, didn’t want to keep pushing through the pain, yelled at my training partner (aka dear sweet willing to mess up his workout schedule for me boyfriend) for always staying 2 steps ahead of me, not by my side, and other random thoughts just took over and I was DOA. I maybe did 2 miles? And that was it. Buried the thought of that run, shook it off, moved forward.

A trip to the beach that weekend threw a huge wrench in my 10 mile plans for that weekend, so I decided I was still on shin splint recovery rest, and had a much better and motivating 2 mile run with the bf and a dog that can actually run! (Yes, I still love Lucy, but the gremlin rebels at walks up hills, she can’t pace you for 2 miles!) There was still another weekend to do a 10 miler, so I marked on the calendar in Sharpie, planned out a challenging but scenic route, made sure the phone with music was charged and headed out! At 10 am... when it was really sunny…with plans to just get water/Gatorade at random gas stations and fountains along the way…and some darn evil hills…and a part with just the side of the road, no sidewalk…and one of the most stressing things that could happen to a girl less than 48 hours old … I did 10 miles.

Did. I didn’t run the whole way. Might not have run even half of it, but Huck (so bf has a nickname, its “Huck”…continue on) refused to let me turn around unless it was on the route. He let me walk some, took pictures of the snakes on the sidewalk near the arboretum, downed the world’s best Gatorade at mile 8, looked at me like a CRAZY person when someone that I knew (but didn’t explain to him that I knew) stopped to give us water, but most of all kept me moving and reminded me WHY I was doing this and that I was doing this for ME and HE was doing this for me, darnit! That’s love, ladies and gentleman.

They say awful training runs set you up for some pretty awesome races. You know, sort of like how awful dress rehearsals in band or for a play get out all the suck, so that all you have left when it counts is the awesomeness you have inside of you?! Well… today was awesome. There were signs that said “embrace the suck” but I didn’t, because there wasn’t any left. I’ve had some pretty awful days since the shin splints reared their ugly head, and not just because of running, but the kind of days where you have to consciously and deliberately remind yourself that its just a bad day in a good life, or an awful day in a flipping AMAZING life, focusing on the positive, working on the parts of your life that you CAN control. Today, I blocked it all out.

The butterflies grew noticeable as I was standing in line waiting to pee when it was 7:26 and the race was scheduled to start at 7:30 and I didn’t know exactly where to line up. Thank heavens for lightning delaying the start! Oh yeah, by the way, tooootally saw lightning driving into the speedway. Not scary at all! But, I peed like a champion speed demon, found Huck, and found my way to the start line, my pacing group and started the music, after taking a picture or 2, of course, and posting it to Facebook. Priorities!

There was a lot of “ok, run YOUR race, know YOUR goals, forget about the people around you, they didn’t train like you, their shins don’t hurt like yours, they might just be faster than you, this tank needs to last you longer than anything you’ve prepped for so its okay to be conservative now” running through my head for, oh, 2 miles?! I ran into people I knew at the first mile marker, had someone else talk to me shortly after that, and my mood was just ON!

The music was great, I ran into more spectators and runners that I knew, and at mile 6, picked up a running buddy. BJ was walking, but I told him to get back to running, he was almost through the worst parts! We ran into mile 10 together, when he peeled off for the bathrooms. He and I had the same goal pace, and were both super excited to not be crawling (yet…or do I?! keep reading!) and setting personal distance records with every step we took. Reason #918 I love running- you can make new friends mid-race and make 5 miles feel like a walk in the park.

Other highlights include:

    kid with the sign that said “slap sign for extra power boost”- I hit it twice!

    Running over US 29 on a pedestrian bridge that had some bounce to it. Later found out that a few years ago, one of those bridges collapsed! Seriously excited I didn’t know that before the race!

     I was on the 4^th mile when I saw the eventual winner, and he was in mile 9. Yeah…he did it in half my pace, but he didn’t look as happy as I did across the finish line and he probably didn’t get as many hugs as I did!

    I never. Stopped. Running. No walk breaks. NONE! I told myself to get to 10 miles, and once I got there, I pulled a mental switcheroo and said “enh, you only have a 5k left, no walking, suck it up!” and it worked! Personal pride, determination, not just to say “I didn’t walk” but also to just get this thing DONE with were amaaazing motivators!

     The course went around the NASCAR oval, then out around that track, around the dirt track and down and back over the drag strip, around the outside of the NASCAR track then, and this is the cool part, you ran through the tunnels to get onto the asphalt again. Something SUPER chilling about running through a tunnel, and then emerging to the light and lots more spectators and a finish line that, yes, is 2 miles away, but that you can at least SEE!

   

And last…but oh.my.goodness…not least. I smiled I ran across the line, and I cried for a second because I was done, I did it, in 2 hours and 27 minutes, without walking, and hey, here comes a super awesome medal. Seriously, this medal has cars that move and LED drag strip lights that do the countdown. I got my picture taken, grabbed food, found Huck, and just reveled in the glory that was my first completed half. Yeah, I said first. This might be a regular thing!

Every muscle in my legs is on fire, my upper abs even took a turn at being in pain, but the pride of what I did makes it all worth it. The medal is hanging on my door right now, but I need to find a place of honor to hang it in my room. Yeah, I’ve got my master’s, but right now, the accomplishment I’m the most proud of culminated with two and a half hours on a Sunday morning in Charlotte. Maybe it’s the post race endorphins, but dang they’re good and strong, and I wouldn’t trade my hobbling body for the world right now!

…pictures to come!

Here’s to the next TV timeout,

Syd

One

I had a random encounter at my running group today that seemed to tie together so many crazy thoughts I’ve had recently. With the help of quite a bit of wine, and without wine since, my roommate has noticed that her life is pretty much stress free at the moment. Her biggest worry was getting her super long hair cut, and that finally happened Thursday. Now? Well, the power and internet have been sketchy today thanks to storms, but we’re safe and sound, so in the big picture, her life is super blissful. She’s gorgeous, healthy, gainfully employed, and has wonderful friends and family.

There are times when I am stupidly intimidated by this, given the lack of permanent job (but huzzah for gainful summer employment OUTSIDE!!!), the last $3 in my checking account before payday this week, and, oh yeah, the molar I chipped about 1 hour after all my insurance-covered dentists were closed for the next 67 hours on Friday afternoon. The tension built up to a physical manifestation in me last night and carried through to this morning. I even woke up before my alarm, thanks to the overactive mind.

In this state, I went off to running this morning. By doing training for obstacle course 5Ks with a group, I’ve gotten to talking to more and more mentors during the pre-run times. One guy, let’s call him Tim, and his wife are both mentors and in the obstacle course prep group. Tim’s wife is off to a cruise, so I naturally ribbed him about watching his wife go on a tropical vacay without him, which is when he told me how they can’t afford a trip, so she was actually filling in for someone who had to drop out last minute and didn’t have to pay for it. We started swapping stories about how we earn a paycheck. I realized just how I look up to elite runners. I think of them as machines- if they can train their body efficiently, push through the pain I hit when I go too fast with KR, then I just presume that they’re college educated, run as their distraction from the corporate world.

I don’t know quite what I’m trying to say, but running, for as individual of a sport as it is, has drawn me in to more and more people. “I’m a runner” is such a conversation starter, a sort of secret handshake, but we’re all human. The simplest form of transportation and exercise unites the Olympian, flailing grad student, equestrian, interior decorator, project manager and unfulfilled produce man. I get why people who run are drawn to each other, because even thought it might just be something you do for 30 minutes, 3 times a week, it takes heart, soul, strength, discipline to go pound pavement in the calm of the morning, rush hour sidewalk, or hidden trail.

As my right IT band makes my right knee creak (it’s a Powerstroke diesel to the left knee’s 2mph Prius), I remember why I run and long for a run that feels good inside and outside, that feeds my soul and recharges the endorphins. If I wasn’t a mentor for this running group, I would definitely take Dr. KR’s recommendation and just take off 2 weeks from running completely, but I just do intervals on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings. The people are catching up to me as they get better and I fade, much to my chagrin. I hide it cleverly with funny stories, energy during the walking intervals, and the sly smile that asks if they want to run it in when we can see the finish line, but I can feel the “blegh” settling in. Am I still a runner if I’m injured and fading?

I get to see my mom and Charleston, SC next week. Maybe a change of settings with the mom who is just awesome will clear my head and heal me- inside and out.

Here’s to the next TV timeout

-Syd

Heels

 I used to not think of myself as a shoe person, but over time, I realize I have a finely cultivated collection of heels. First up?

The ones I wore for Fred and I's first date, exactly 364 days ago. Not that I'm counting. So yes, it was early February, and yes, even though we live in the 70% of the country NOT hit by this week's snowpocalypse, it was still cold. Did I mention the short black skirt I had on, too?? Oh, and clearly the heels (and skirt) worked :D

   

After a night of wearing heels like that, I wore shoes like this A LOT the next few days!  And yes, the heels seem to be torn up. This is on purpose. I have size 10.5 feet, as does KR. Its how we became friends, true story. As a result of this mammoth, and thus, unusual, size, lots of the cheap brands- payless, targay- don't make 10.5. Its 10 or 11. Pick. So I picked smaller for these, clipped out the heel, and thus spared my Achilles tendon many many blisters.

 The next two pairs are my usual go-to during the winter. If I'm going to be walking around a lot, I go for the Sperry's, aka boat shoes, aka most versatile things ever. I wear them with socks in the winter, barefoot in the summer. They go with jeans, dresses, and even khakis if I'm running late for Sunday morning church. According to NC natives, they're the official shoe of the state, and base on how many pairs of them I see on campus, I tend to agree. 

My other go-to shoes are my boots! I bought these on a whim, totally expecting to return them. Instead? Love. Adoration. Worship. I only wear them with jeans, and always under! Well, unless it dumped 6" of Boxing Day snow on you, but that's a rarity.  They're comfy enough to stand in, make little noise, and give me an extra heel to make me feel even more intimidating, if needed :)

 These I talk about often. I log my miles, wear them religiously only for running, hit heel first, pushing off with the ball of my foot. The amazing Mom got me contraptions to basically turn them into slip-ons, but I haven't done it. Yet.

And last, but certainly not least, are the actual heels that slip into all of these. Yes, I have a tattoo. Its easily hidden, obviously, not offensive, recognizes 3 years of my life, and makes the occasional great conversation starter. 

But back to the heels... These things have been dragging recently. The token example came this past Saturday when, about 1/2 mile in, I lost it. Couldn't breathe, broke down crying- well, as much as I had the water/energy to- and could feel any and all mental resolve to keep pounding the pavement slipping away. With 3.5 miles to go. It had nothing to do with running, everything to do with my life off the road, but when you're that stressed out, the mind-body connection takes over. That same drive that tells you "YOU CAN DO THIS!" can also tell you "what's the point?!" It sucks to listen to that, but its like a Patronus charm in Harry Potter- you have to have a stronger positive thought to overcome it. At that moment, I had zero happy.

Runs like that make you dread everything from figuring out a route to lacing up again. Tuesday morning, 2 days of no running, and I couldn't even figure out a route, much less a distance. I ended up walking out the door and running about 1.4 miles- up a long evil hill, then back down it. I'd never run up it, always taking the shorter, more compact hill , so it was a nice mental victory, pounding out the long slow hill. No clue pace, and that's how I wanted it to be. My podcast was weird. Really weird. I changed it at the top of the hill. Seriously, who talks about selection for the perfect astronaut by talking about "flautus" for 10 minutes?!?! 

After runs like this and the general feeling of this quite often, after this Saturday's race (omg so excited to do it, then tell you about it, and most importantly, NOT PUKE!), I'm diversifying. I'll still run, but more yoga, pilates, weights, cardio classes. Less "run x in y miles." Run when you feel like it. Stretch it out often. And as always...

Here's to the next TV timeout :)

-Syd

Art!

Ladies and gentlemen...

For your viewing pleasure tonight, we have the last 4 pictures I took as a 23-year-old...

In an effort to do speed work, I went to a nice little 1/2 mile trail that is flat. Well , mostly.

I call this one "bite me, hill!" My shins have been KILLING me post-runs recently, so, with knowledge that I just need to be fast on the flats for now, I decided to keep up the distance but nix any and all hills. Weak sauce, yes, but after icing my shin and knees tonight, I have faith in my later runs this week. 

I did the first mile with 60/30 second intervals runsofastyouknowyoucan'tsustainit/ jogandbreathe . Miraculously, I did an 8 minute mile this way. WHO AM I?!?!

With this latest revalation in mind, I call this one "gofast"

I was oh-so-tempted to just go back to the car after the fast mile, but seriously, an 8 minute workout? Weak sauce. Plus, I knew my daylight was fading fast, so maybe I'd get some pretty skies without the creepiness of being alone on a trail with just my cell phone freaking me out. The 2nd mile was just nice- I pushed and went faster than I wanted to relax at. The timer was purposely off for that. Sometimes you just need to run and time by yourself. 

Egads that sounded pretentious...

So here, look at the last two pretty pictures!

Oh, and I totally felt pre-guilt driving me to run today! I made cream cheese pound cake to take into work tomorrow for the big 2-4! Nothing exciting about this birthday. Is this part of being an adult? Having way less anticipation for your birthday?!

Boo hiss...

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

Weirdest Mantra to Date

I found myself today thinking "this is so dumb" over and over again as I went for my run. I guess I should explain a bit of the background... Knowing I was frustrated by the "too easy" and "too hard" plans for 10ks I'd found, KR made me a "Goldilocks" plan- just right ;) Her setup had it as a MWF, but since I ran Sunday, I decided I'd make the first Monday today. On the list? 3 miles, easy. KR knows my pace, so "easy" was 12 min miles, enough to be able to hold a conversation while going along. 

I went to my friend's house to let her dogs out. This is typical of how it went: The boy leading, saying "let's GO!" and the girl mozeying, taking her time sniffing the sidewalk. Girls, seriously!

Before I'd driven to the house, I looked up a good 1.5 mile route that I could do an out and back, as long as I was already outside and away from work. The doggy-mom and I have run together in her neighborhood before, too, so I had some ideas, and knew that for the most part, the area was very flat. Its around a golf course, so no evil hills there!

Again, I set my gps/phone to give me updates pretty frequently. I didn't want to overdo it, especially since I'd never run 3 miles without a walk break before. Even during my 5k, I took 2 walk breaks, but those hills were mean! The first update told me I was going 6.3 mph, so I slowed a bit. Next one said 6.1, but I literally couldn't slow myself down. The mechanics wouldn't do it. Every time the nice MyTracks lady came into my ears to tell me I was going at 10min mile pace, I kept thinking "this is so stupid" but I kept running :) 

Overall? 3 miles, no walk breaks, in 30 minutes. I would've made a mad dash to the end, but the phone started to yell at me for low battery right about then. My usual post-run stretch routine was broken up by grocery shopping and I want to apologize right now to all the people at the WalMart Supercenter who smelled me post run. I swear, I bought new deoderant today!

We'll see how I feel tomorrow :/

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

Icky weather

Today was one of those days where there were lots of "shoulds"- I should go to church, I should wake up from my post-church/lunch nap, and of course, I should go for a run. I went to work dressed up for church, and oh the comments that garnered and so I did go to church- I would've gone without the comments. However, being the only person in dress pants in a greenhouse, moving around plants for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning when your co-workers and even boss are in jeans or pj's makes you stand out. Juuusssst a bit ;) Oh well! My handsome reward was a full choir to sing along with the Christmas songs!

Post church/lunch, I started falling asleep while checking up on stuff. I gave in and napped for a nice 2 hours. Mmm. But getting up with weather that was icky and rainy was not a way to motivate myself. However, new clothes? ALWAYS WORK! I put on my running tights, even though it was probably 50 outside, hat to hide the hair that had gotten smushed in the nap, and figured out my route.

The snow is all melted, so I conquered the evil hill from the last run first, ran the majority of my time on relatively flat sidewalks, then had a nice 1/2 mile hill down to end my 2.44 miles. My awesome new Android has an app called My Tracks and I set it to tell me my distance, time elapsed and pace, every 2 minutes. My goal was to keep around an 11 min mile pace. Yes, its slow, but my first race 2 months ago was 12 min miles, so I'm improving :) Oh, and running, not walking, the hills ;)

Why yes, you are indeed the route I ran today and exported to google maps!

 To make things even more cool, the app exported the data, both the route to google maps, and the pace/distance/etc info to google docs. Muwahahaha! I'm using the runner's day-by-day log my mom got me for Christmas and they mesh well together :)

My goal for the month is 15 run days, 10 weight/strength training days. Making the double batch of risotto I had for dinner last night doesn't count for strength training by any chance, does it?! Also, I get to keep track of how many miles I run, which I sort of do here, but if you asked me off the top of my head how much I run, only now can I say "well, this week it was 7.5 miles, but I'm hoping to keep increasing my mileage, but no more than 10% per week." <-- true story :)

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

 

Three in One

Maybe its the Illini in me, but when I hear "Three in One" I think of this:

But, to catch up, you get three posts in one :)

First... Santa (aka my Aunt) was awesome and brought me... RUNNING TIGHTS! 

So of course, I had to test them out on Christmas. Can I once again say how amazed I am that I actually was EXCITED to run, especially on Christmas?! But I went with my mom to a little trail, and by little, I mean 1/2 mile. It will eventually link up with longer trails, but I didn't check the distance before we went out. Oh well :) I did a good 1.5 miles while my mom walked with Lucy. Part of my mom/Christmas-ness was a new Droid (go Verizon!) so I have 4 apps to track runs and 5 to play radio/music.  

I also realized I really need to work on crosstraining- aka weights! I have minimal arm strength and realize that better leg muscles should help limit the injuries. The legs had gotten nice and muscly, but the post-race/injury hiatus has led to them being loose again :( Also, while losing weight is somewhat of a goal, I'd rather weigh more and go faster, stronger. Plus, at 5' 9", I can weigh over 150lbs and still be in a healthy weight range, but qualify for "Athleta" divisions at races :)

Women's Health Magazine has some great workouts online, so I've decided that non-running days will be strength days. Many of them only require your body weight or light weights, which I have. There's something wrong with me and the fact that I love lunges and squats. Plus, the burn afterward? Yes it hurts, but you know you earned it!

Last but not least... I've decided its time to start working on the 10k! I want to be faster and go further- doesn't everybody?! So for now, I'm accidentally doing sub-3 mile distances, but according to the Droid apps, at faster pace- 11 min mile pace, even! And that's outside with natural changes in elevation :) I looked around at plans online and although there was one I loved, I knew I loved it because it was doable... and I need a challenge. So the one I picked includes a) hill work b) speed work and c) tempo work- everything to help me go faster and further! Right now, I'm thinking 10 minute miles as my goal- long term. If I can do a 10k at 11 min pace, I'll be happy- for the first one, at least! 

My little 3 mile route was derailed by 2 things today. First, I forgot Mom's ultimate rule of running: go pee before! About half a mile in, singing along to the radio was the only thing distracting me from the fact that omfg, I needed to PEE! Sorry, I realize its maybe TMI but it was not cool! Second, the sidewalks looked like  this:

Uh... no thanks! I've already shown how prone I am to falling on straight, flat, non-snow-covered surfaces! When I got to this chunk of sidewalk, the little voice in my head (aka Google myTracks) chirped up that I'd done 1.5 miles at 11 min mile pace. I could see my car, so I scurried back. 

This Eastern snow storm has me going "dang nature, you're scary!" a lot. When I came home today, I started hearing this crackle/crash sound and risked running on my walkway that looks a lot like the scary sidewalk above to get to the porch alcove. Its somewhat sad when you have to choose between potential fall on the ice or whatever scary ice/snow is about to come crashing to the ground. Thankfully, I got under the safety of a roof without falling and had nothing crash on me :)

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

8.5

I put 8.5 miles on my legs this morning at the gym, in about an hour. No, I didn't all of a sudden turn into some KR-fast runner (btw, super awesome story if you stay tuned in!)- I walked about a half mile, ran a mile, then biked for 7 miles. One of my goals for 2012 is to do a sprint triathlon, so I'm trying to get my legs used to being worn out! I did the running first and then the biking, but when it comes to the tri, it'll be reverse order. Whatever :) I'm also just trying to re-gain cardiovascular endurance after basically a month and some change off. 

This morning's gym session was actually my 2nd of the week. Since calender weeks start on Sundays, so too do I! I did 20 minutes on a treadmill, alternating running and walking. During an off-season triathlon workshop (which I'll blog about one of these days!) they talked about how training on the treadmill should be done at a 2% incline or more to compensate for the fact that you exert less energy running on a flat treadmill vs. flat pavement. Plus, what road is ever flat?!? Even though I've clearly lost a lot of the endurance, I've definitely gained some speed. I used to push myself to run at a 12min/mile pace, and now that's my slow running pace. My usual training speed is 11min pace, and when I'm pushing towards a distance, not time, I'll crank it up a notch or two. I did a little bit at 10min pace on Sunday and man... the burning sensation was NOT pleasant! 

KR got me an awesome "KEEP RUNNING-SAFELY!!" present: ankle braces! And yes, this is totally a shameless way of showing off our Christmas tree- isn't it pretty?!?! :) Its sort of basic this year, but since the roomie put it up, who am I to complain? :) 

I'm sure that come Christmas, there will be a few more ornaments on it! Both the roomie's mom and my mom will be coming to spend the holiday with us and OMG I'm so excited for it!

Oh and your final story of the day... Its not really my story, but I'm so excited for her and y'all heard about her first race, so I feel like bragging for her like a proud mamma bear. KR did her first half marathon this past Sunday. She hadn't even run 13.1 miles before then and man, did she pick a doozy of a day to run her first 13.1!!! It was rainy, unseasonably cold, and the course had quite a few hills! Given the recent craziness behind the scenes in my life, I went to go cheer her on and figured that as long as I was there, I could volunteer as well. I helped run the gear check (btw, world's greatest invention for >5k races!) with an old retired Navy man named Sid (we laughed about that!) as KR did her trek. 

The race was a fundraiser for the camp where it was held- Victory Junction Gang Camp. Race car driver Adam Petty, of the Petty racing family, HUGE deal in NASCAR, was killed during a practice run and the camp is supported by NASCAR, drivers and NASCAR's sponsors in his memory. (My NASCAR-loving brother-in-law had heard of the camp!) During the summer, different groups of kids spend a week and they have family weekends during the school year. Just from what I saw, they have awesome rec spaces, horse stables, a frisbee golf course, and tons of room to just go, play, and be a kid. What I thought was really neat about the camp was that each week or weekend is dedicated to kids of a specific disability, so if you were a kid with, say, cystic fibrosis, you would be at the camp with other kids like you. It takes away some of the comparisons and heightens the bonding experience to be with other children facing the same struggles as you. Plus, the reason fundraisers like this race, which raised over $100,000 for the camp, are so important is that no family has to pay to send their kids here. Richard Petty himself was at the camp to support the runners!

I met some really neat people, both affiliated with the camp and other runners, as I waited for KR to do her thing. Like I said, it was super cold and rainy out there. The first half marathoner came in around 1:20. He was booking it with under 7 min miles! FOR 13.1 MILES IN THE POURING COLD RAIN! I don't get it. Even crazier, there was literally nobody behind him that we could see. The end of the course had you running down a hill, up a hill and back down a hill to the finish line, all in sight of the finish area. After they'd interviewed him (from Charlotte, his first time running this race, could they please cut out some of the hills), the 2nd runner still wasn't in sight. 

Forty rainy minutes later, I saw the figure in a white top and black tights and I started yelling "Go, KR, GO!" Her one reply? "water!" After she changed into dry clothes, we ate some delicious chili and cornbread, and headed back to the car. In true KR fashion, for her 2nd race, she got 2nd in her age group. We ignored the awards ceremony and left while it was happening because KR was sure she didn't place. I'd been working the gear check so I didn't pay quite as astute attention as the previous race to see if she'd won. Plus, how do you tell a 26 year old from a 24 year old? They look the same, but different divisions! Anyway, it was super exciting to go and see some amazing runners and it definitely inspired me :)

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd