My life seems to be going in 1000 directions at once and 13 is my favorite number, so... 1. Yesterday I spent my entire day in snow pants. I put them on early in the day to shovel snow and just never took them off. Why? Because my drafty old house does not do well with wind chills below zero. 2. It appears that I got the job I interviewed for last week. At least HR thinks so. I have an appointment next week to fill out paper work, but I haven't been contacted by the department I'll work for, so I'm not exactly sure what I've been hired for LOL. 3. I bought a new torture device at the running store last week - the Foot Log. I've had issues with my forefoot for quite some time now + plus my feet are getting kind of tired of all … [Read more...]
TTT: Tired, Slow, and, umm, Fluffy
1. I'm still tired. I was never really sore, but I've been sleeping soundly for 8-10 hours every night. When I'm awake, I'm still tired. I'm pretty sure this is just recovery from pushing myself, but since I didn't really race the first four and even the fifth one was slower than my previous slowest half, I admit I'm a bit surprised. I'm sure a little bit is a mental issue too. I'm caught somewhere between the "OMG, I did it" high and the "I can't believe it's over" low. Sitting here with no real goals on the horizon feels weird after investing so much energy for 8 months! 2. I'm really slow. I went out for a run with my dad on Tuesday. We ran 3 miles at a 10:oo minute pace. For a short distance, that pace should have been … [Read more...]
State #25!!!: Colorado – Half Marathon 4 of 5
Short story: I finished. It wasn't my slowest day. Long story: For the fourth race of the Dust Bowl Series, we ran in Lamar, CO. Thanks to our decision to switch to a B&B, we had a yummy breakfast before the race instead of having to make a PB&J in the room. It was also closer to the race start, so we didn't head over until 6am. (As an aside, three of the races were in central time and the last two were in mountain time. I just stayed on central time, which means we went to sleep at 8:30pm mountain. I'm so time confused right now, it's not even funny.) It was chilly again, but not as bad as the previous day. I opted for fewer layers on the bottom, but still wore my arm warmers and two pairs of gloves. Thanks to … [Read more...]
State #24: Kansas – Half Marathon 3 of 5!
Short story: I finished and I finished faster than the first two!!! Long story: Wednesday we ran in Ulysses, Kansas on a 1.14 mile asphalt path through a golf course. From first arrival in Ulysses to the point where we left town, it was a great experience. The Chamber of Commerce hosted a pasta dinner for us at the Grant County Adobe Museum. The food was great and the museum was really interesting. Even better, one of the other runners brought me some beer from Amarillo! The only negative of the race was the temperature. It was 25 degrees with a feels like of 19 when we got to the course in the morning. I had on almost half the clothes in my suitcase. Seriously. I wore: a winter hat, a short sleeve shirt, arm warmers, a … [Read more...]
State #23: Oklahoma – Half Marathon 2 of 5!
Short story: I finished. Long story: Tuesday was the second day of the Dust Bowl Series. We ran on a concrete path around a small lake in Guymon, OK. The path was exactly one mile in length, so the half marathoners had to run 13 laps, with a small out and back at the end. Thankfully, they set us up with chip timing, so we had help keeping track. When I originally signed up for the Series, I was dreading the one mile loops. As it turned out, there was a lot of awesome to it. Beer Geek had food poisoning, so he took my picture before I left and then I caught a ride to the start with another runner. (I LOVE this part of the running community!) One of the first purchases I made when we got to the Dust Bowl area was a … [Read more...]
State #22: Texas – Half Marathon 1 of 5!
Short story: I finished. Long story: Monday was the first day of the Dust Bowl Series and we ran around Lake Rita in Dalhart, Texas. It was a 6.55 mile loop that the half marathoners ran twice. It was a "crushed gravel" surface, but really felt more like running on sort of packed dirt. As a pavement runner, I found it took a lot of my energy, but it did make things easier on my foot. We started "dark and early", but thankfully it was mostly light by the time we actually hit the path. It was quite chilly and I couldn't feel my feet until about the end of the first mile. The scenery was lovely in some parts and very desolate feeling in others. Sadly, I spent most of the 13 miles by myself as we were all spread out. The … [Read more...]
Run, Walk, or Crawl
It seems like only yesterday I was joking about doing 5 half marathons in 5 days, but it's been 8 months in the making. When Kim and Jess started talking about it on Facebook, I never thought I'd actually do it (and sadly I'm the only one of the three of us doing it). But I made the "mistake" of sharing the idea with Beer Geek, and next thing I knew, it was the plan. Since then, I've run a lot of miles. Not as many as planned thanks to a bit of a detour. But a lot. And tomorrow we leave for the adventure! But the big question is "What are my goals?" All along, I've said that my goal was to finish all five, preferably upright and smiling. At one point when training was going well, my goal was to run all 5 in under 2:30. Now, … [Read more...]
Confidence Builder
So, sometimes I think I've bitten off more than I can chew. Five half marathons in 5 days? What the hell was I thinking? I haven't run long since April. I haven't run fast since 2010. What makes me think I can do this? Today I ran 10 miles. They weren't awful. In fact, they had moments of really good. On the whole, they were ok. But you know what makes them awesome? The fact that yesterday I ran 7 miles. And the day before I ran 5.3. And the day before that I ran 5.1. The back to back mileage is building slowly and my body is playing along. That is what made the 10 today awesome. Slow and steady. That's how I'm going to get there and that's how I'll be running the races. HBBC Total HBBC points = 127.5 HBBC Week 3 … [Read more...]
AMR’s 10 Running Related Personal Questions
The lovely ladies at Another Mother Runner came up with a great group of questions for us all to answer. Have you answered? No? Well, get on it. 1. Best run ever: I have a lot of good runs every fall. I can't say that any one run stands out. When it comes to races though, there are a few. One of my best came in the middle of taper for my second marathon. My legs were feeling fresh and a 9:15 pace felt like a good easy pace (gosh, I miss that) until I reached the end and couldn't resist "chic'ing" two poor guys. Yeah, that pretty much rocked LOL. 2. Three words that describe my running: Sanity, silence, necessary 3. My go-to running outfit is:whatever is clean in the drawer. I'm starting to love racing in Skirt … [Read more...]
How do you train for THAT?!?
You may remember my crazy post from a few days ago about the five half marathons in five days? You know, this... I realize it's 7 months away, but there's been a lot of discussion about it in our house. I mean, the cost and logistics of getting four people from DC to Amarillo, TX, is a bit daunting. That's without even thinking about the missed school, the missed work, and what the heck the boys will do while I'm running. There's even been some discussion of having my non-runner husband volunteer at the races so that I can get a free race or two. But the piece of planning that has been foremost in my mind is "how do I train my body to cover that kind of mileage over 5 days?" (And maybe a little bit of thinking about what level … [Read more...]
