‘Cause We’ll Put A Boot…

In Your Ass, It’s The American Way! (Full song at the end of the post. Amazingness and it may be my favorite song of all time)

Wow.  I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since my race. Crazy how time flies! It’s weird to be like, hey I *just* ran a wicked awesome race.  And then be like, oh wait that was a week ago.

I guess it helps that I’ve been WAY busy at the clinic.  And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  We had 3 days of clinic this week so there were lots of providers there and lots of patients and thus lots of work to do.  But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love my job.  Part of my job is being the master of medical recording (aka putting the hand-written notes the doctors take and put them into the computer.  Some doctors can do this themselves but the older and retired ones need help sometimes) Usually there are medical student volunteers who do this but on Wednesday afternoon there weren’t any (they tend to come at night) so I got to go into the rooms to do the recording.

WAY fun.  And totally reinforces that I MUST go to into the medical field.

Anyway enough work talk.  It’s the weekend and a much needed one at that! Despite loving work this week (and the 4 day work week HOLLER) being busy = being exhausted.  My boss on Friday at our staff meeting even asked me if I was okay this week because I looked drained.  Oops.  And I’ve even been getting full nights of sleep this week!

So I took the opportunity on Friday night to SLEEP.  Actually sleep kind of took me because I put on a movie after dinner just to unwind (and instead of milk in my beer mug I put wine.  I am a class act. It also should be noted that earlier in the afternoon I was reading HP in French.  I am such a nerd!) before heading out and I fell asleep.  Embarrassingly early too. And I was watching a current favorite movie too

I know who I am: I’m the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude

RDJ please marry me?

But I fell asleep just the same.

It probably was for the best just because I probably am still sleep deprived from, oh say, my life? And I had a long run on tap this morning. But let me back up a bit and pick up where we last left off, shall we?

So on Thursday I had a, apparently kick ass, speed workout according to you guys.  Thanks for saying that.  It really does boost my mentality and confidence to hear (or read) rather all the nice things you say and write! And the incredibly helpful suggestions you guys have given me regarding both this upcoming week (with the possible race being next weekend) and for the rest of the fall if I decide to do more.  Although, in the back of my mind, I’m still kicking myself for not signing up for a fall marathon.   I suppose, however, that if I had I’d be overtraining right now.  Because that’s my MO.  Instead I get to run fast.  Silver lining 😀

Anyway, I expected to be much more sore than I was when I woke up on Friday morning.  Because of the staff meeting at work I actually had to set an alarm *gaspthehorror*.  It was only for 0600 which, despite being only a half hour later than a typical office hour day, felt SO MUCH NICER and not as early.

I think part of the reason I wasn’t sore is because I’ve been wearing my “compression socks” (in quotes because they really are diabetic stockings.  Don’t judge or laugh because they were $3.  And they do the same thing) every moment I’m in my apartment.  Granted I did this after the race too and I was sore.  So maybe I went too easy on my workout? Who knows.

But the Friday run was pretty great.  Relatively speaking in terms of an easy run.  It was nice and cool and not as humid as it has been.  So I *finally* broke out my Boston long sleeve shirt that I got at the race.  I felt like such a pretentious ass wearing it though.  Like, I’m WAY proud that I earned it but I’m not the kind of chick who revels in the spot light or likes to truly bask in the glory of things.  I kind of get embarrassed really easily.

Something I need to get over and so I wore the effing shirt anyway 8)

Here is the data from that run

• 1st loop: 4.1 miles @ 8:54
• 2nd loop: 4.1 miles @ 8:27
• Add-on:       1.1 miles @ 8:10
• Total               9.3 miles @ 8:37

So overall a solid effort.  It never once felt hard and, I’ve said this before I believe, each segment felt the same.  So weird and irritating! If I’m running at 8:10 pace I don’t want it to feel like my first loop at 8:54.  In some ways it’s probably good because the whole run is at an even and easy effort but I’m a numbers junkie so my brain doesn’t like it.

And then, of course, I went to work to catch up on paperwork and the meeting, came home around 1300, read HP, ate dinner, fell asleep.  Who doesn’t want to be me right now?

Thank you google images for summing up my life so eloquently

I woke up feeling WAY groggy on Saturday morning.  But it’s okay because I didn’t have to work so I could putz about for a bit before heading out on the long run.   Now, just to note, I may be trying my hand at short fast races (or rather thinking about it because I haven’t actually signed up for any!) but I still love the long run.  There’s just something about it.  Sure my LRs aren’t in the 16+ range anymore but running for 11-14 miles is still awesome in my book.  And that’s not going to change, even with a possible 5k next weekend and 10k next month 🙂

Therefore I went out for a planned 11.2 that turned into 13.6. Oops.  But it felt good and I’m really pleased with how it went.

The original goal was 2 X 5.6 miles.  Both loops being easy as opposed to trying to negative split it.  This happens normally but wasn’t the goal. I was just too lazy to come up with a big 11 mile loop.  Here’s the data, followed by the analysis:

• 2 X 5.6 miles (1st loop @ 8:19, 2nd @ 8:16)
• 1 X 1.1 miles @ 8:02
• 1 X 1.3 miles @ 8:33

Total: 13.6 miles @ 8:19

Once I finished up my 2 X 5.6 and felt good I wanted to do at least one lap of my 1.1 mile loop because it’s a nice loop. I felt pretty good after that too and decided to tack on another one to end it. Well I missed a turn because I wasn’t paying attention on the second loop (I blame it on running that one in reverse) which tacked on about a quarter of a mile.  No biggie as I love it.  My pace on that last loop was faltering so maybe I shouldn’t have done it.  Oh well.  Gotta push through those miles to become stronger, right?

The run itself was pretty non-descript.  The weather made it really nice and I got to see lots of runners.  Not that I don’t when I run so early in the mornings but it’s a different crowd on the weekends.  The pace was great from the get-go and, not including the first mile which is always junk, the first loop felt really good and “on” which is surprising because there’s usually a big discrepancy from my first and second loops of any run.  Not a bad thing but a bit out of the ordinary.  Still negative splits, like usual, and of course, I put the hammer down on my first 1.1 mile loop.  The second one? I guess my legs were a bit tired.

Silly legs 😉

The weather was darn near perfect for a run too which made running even nicer.  As much as I love being able to say I pounded out XX hardcore miles in the 100*/-10*/hurricane/nor’easter/97% humidity and whatnot in order to proclaim how bamf I am (oh wait did I say earlier that I don’t like to brag and that I get embarrassed easily? Oops.), good and nice weather is always appreciated.

So before I go and *attempt* to be productive (aka go outside and sit on my deck pretending to do work!), I want to say check out the giveaways from Matt and Tricia and Mel

And to honor those fallen 9 years ago (again, where does time go?! I can’t believe that was 9 years ago!) here’s a song to rally up some ass kicking 😀

Never Forget

Ehhhhh. And *THAT’S* my GMP?

I loved reading all your thoughts on my last post regarding marathon age. Many of you had some great thoughts and while I go back and forth as to the whole “Should I be marathoning now? Is it right for me at the moment?” I thought you guys had some great insight and wise words that will be in the back of my head.  Granted the whole question/debate thing isn’t something that consumes my thoughts but every once in awhile it pops into my head and it’s really nice to have other opinions.

Today was met with an “eh”. Since I’m home and always want to lug the least amount of stuff from school to here, I opted to leave my clock radio back at school.  Which leaves me clockless at home.  Yes I set my alarm on my cell phone but in the middle of the night I’m sure as heck not getting out of bed to satisfy my curiosity.

Sidenote: The line “curiouser and curiouser” just popped into my head.  Alice in Wonderland was pretty darn good and I’d recommend seeing it.   Maybe I’m skewed because I saw it in IMAX 3-D though which can make any movie good. I wouldn’t see it again but I was happy that I did see it.  Definitely worth the money.

Anyway the whole point of my talking about the clock was that I woke up sometime before my alarm.  It was light outside so I knew it had to be post-7 but since my alarm hadn’t gone off yet it wasn’t quite 0730.  But since I am lazy I wasn’t going to get up to check my cell.  It was really nice to wake up by myself and I think I got 9 hours (!!) I can’t remember the last time I got 9 hours of sleep.  Way too long.

Silly me though didn’t realize that Thursday = only day of break with no real obligations aka no appointments.  So I still decided to tackle the tempo run I had on tap first thing.  Who knows if things would have turned out differently if I had given myself sometime to wake up, eat a little etc.  Then again the weather got warm again today and that might have let the run play out similarly as my body isn’t used to the extreme changes in temp.  I need some time to adapt!

In any case the tempo flew out the window and was replaced by a GMP run.  Part of it was the length of the actual workout portion.  I thought that 2 of my running routes were cleared of water / not affected.  Apparently I was wrong and severely underestimated how much rain we got.  Yes I can quote the number but it doesn’t really mean anything until you’re faced with knee deep water in the roads. Or as was the case with me. So I had to make an adjustment which tacked on more miles than I was planning.

Without further ado here it is:

• 3.1 mile warm up @ 10:12
• 7.8 mile GMP @ 7:59
• 3.1 mile warm down @ 9:01

In complete contrast to yesterday’s workout where I felt so sluggish but was pleasantly surprised by a good pace. Although I guess I shouldn’t say complete contrast because I knew I wasn’t hauling for a tempo pace.  Part of it was the length, I’m pretty sure I dipped slow during the mid miles before finding the Last Mile Party.  And part of it was the damned hills around me. I know I don’t live in a really hilly area but where I was forced to run today had some pretty considerable ones.  I’m not used to it.

But good Boston training 😉

So while I’m pissed that I couldn’t do a solid tempo I’m okay with the workout as a whole.  It was another steady-state run.  Both with the pace and the distance.  Much longer than what I wanted to do tempo-wise so I guess it was a good thing that the pace responded as well. I will say, though, that it did feel semi-hard.  Not quite sure when I said that 3:29:59 was my goal that I really thought it through.  Hold that pace for a marathon? HA. So I have to just put my trust in the fact that I’ll be able to run 26.2 miles at that pace. I know factors leading up to the race will play a role buttt it’s just so hard to believe that it’ll happen that way.

And before I go finish packing (because yes I’m going back to school tonight. It’s like getmeouttahere!!) I want to mention that I have my first PT appointment tomorrow.  I keep being amazed at how fast I’m able to be getting into to see people about my shin/ankle.  It’s an evaluation appointment so it’ll mostly be the PT getting familiar with me and my specific problems but I’m sure that I’ll gain something from it right off the back knowledge/info wise.  And I’m really looking forward to the e-stim that they’re going to do 🙂

Because I got a second massage today and I think that some more layers of the tightness onion have been peeled.  My calves are still hard as rocks but there is some softening which is good.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get some more of that out on my own and with the help of PT.  Plus she was able to spend sometime on the “bum ankle” and I think that whatever she did on Monday was really positive because she said she could notice a difference in the sight of it ie) less puffy.  And the area was less tender.  So I’m thinking that the combo of her massage + ice + ibuprofen + compression socks at night really are making a difference.

And I’ll leave you with that as I really should go pack hah! I’m not even going to proofread this sucker so I apologize for any spelling or grammatical stuff 😛

Weekend?

Hope you guys enjoyed reading my goals for 2010.  If not check them out and let me know what you think. I know I like seeing what everyone else is gearing up to do! It really pumps me up and after writing mine I kind of want my races NOW.  But like I said yesterday I’m going to start with the whole progress toward the goals NOW.  I’m chomping at the bit here!

This weekend was interesting and fun.  But tiring too. Here’s what went down (and the title of this post come from the fact that it didn’t feel like the weekend.  At all.  But I think that’s because I’m on break so my days are all jumbled):

Friday:

As I kind of wrote a bit about already, Christmas night was great for me.  After I got back from my run that afternoon the family has already left for Christmas dinner so I was free to do what I pleased.  Which meant that I took a long  hot shower, poured myself a glass of wine and read a book.  I had plans to go see Holmes which was awesome.  It was such a good movie and balanced action/explosiony stuff with wit and humor.  And Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law aren’t too bad on the eyes.  The way it ended leaves a sequel option which I am totally cool with.  Afterward me and my friend hit up a Chinese restaurant with some other friends and there was lots of laughter and joking.  Not so much reminiscing about high school / the past which was nice because I really don’t want these friendships to turn into “Remember back in the day…” stuff. Stayed out wayyy too late though but I lost all track of time! Craziness as that never happens.

Saturday:

After a night of fitful sleep (thank you too many mai-tais and beef on a stick!) I ran 12.2 miles in what turned out to be drizzle rather than just cloudiness. Ew.  But it was semi-warm at 35* and there was no wind.  Thank god for small favors I guess.  The overall pace was a true long run pace which, needless to say for my type-A self, was slow.  It was appropriate and I’m trying to wrap my head around the idea of really going slow and easy. Sometimes I just feel like long run pace is too slow for my liking: if I had my way it would be MP + 30 seconds.  Because that’s what I like to see my pace work out too.  So it was good that I hit MP + 60 seconds today.

And I did not have an “accident” like yesterday heh.  After talking to some people I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s tired / fatigued pelvic floor muscles.  Interesting because I associate it with women who have had children.  But I figure that all this mileage is fatiguing ALL my muscles rather than just the “running” ones.

Saturday night was a night to celebrate with friends from high school. I went into the evening exhausted and I was a major league grump getting ready but I’m glad I went.  Even though I really don’t have much in common anymore with my high school friends (I have this theory that high school friends / childhood friends are really only there because you live in the same town whereas college friendships are actually based on common interests) but they’re still cool people. And fun to drink with.  I didn’t spend the night and left on the “early side” but still a good night. Lots of Lady GaGa.  You’d be proud Sarah haha.

Sunday:

I really wanted to get a gym session in yesterday but by the time I dragged my sorry butt off the couch it was an awkward time to go so I stuck with the run.  So that meant it got transferred to today.  I did the same workout that I did on Tuesday (found here under the Strength page). Since the gym I worked at was closed all weekend (it’s really small and doesn’t have a huge staff) I went to an affiliated gym today which didn’t have “in-between” weights: 17.5, 22.5 etc so I bumped UP the weights today.  Let’s just say I’m going to be sore tomorrow. But it was a great workout. I was in awe the whole time though because the gym was pretty packed with middle age and old people. I felt like the youngest by far but it was totally motivating because I want to be like that when I’m older.

Running wise (yes I did that too) I had calculated last night that I only needed 8.4 miles to hit a new weekly PR.  Then I did some more math and calculated that I only needed 11.7 miles to hit 84 which would be an average of 12 miles a day.  I ❤ me some round numbers and ended up doing 12.3 miles because I felt so damn good.  Well kind of good.  There is some soreness from lifting (and likely all those miles) but I never felt like I was doing the miles just to do them.  I still felt like I wasn’t going to die even though my legs definitely lost their “freshness”.

But the run was great.  A little slow to start but when are my runs fast out of the gate? And it was drizzling the whole time.  Well that’s a lie, maybe the first half.  So the 50* (!!) weather felt a lot cooler because of it and there was a really cool fog.  I loved running in and out of it at various points during the run.  And interestingly enough, despite the soreness in my quads, the HUGE monster week I just put in and the lifting I did this morning my pace was right on target.  Well MP + 50 seconds which I’m happy with. Not only that but the last 3 miles were quick.  Like really quick (MP which is PDQ after running so much heh). It didn’t feel that way during the run but numbers don’t lie.  So I’m pretty happy with myself although now all I want to do is lay down on the couch and not move. Haha.

And I think today is going to be the end of the double digit streak.  It was fun while it lasted (16 days!) but I think that I need to refocus on other things.  Plus I don’t want to get to the point where I’ve gone so far on the streak that I end up ignoring a nagging hurt (which there is no sign of yet — knock on wood) and end up sidelined.  Boston is just around the corner and it’s wicked important.  Granted I say that now and who knows what tomorrow will bring (especially since I might want to kick of the New Year — which starts this week!! — in style) but that is my musing of the day 🙂

Hope everyone is relaxing on this Sunday.  Hopefully the holiday weekend doesn’t end for you today! As I’ve been a student, oh my whole life, I’ve always had the week after Christmas off so I’m not sure if any of you have to work tomorrow or not.  I know that even though I’m still on break I have lots of errands to run so I’m sure as heck relaxing right now haha!

Happy Christmas!

Hope everyone is celebrating Christmas in the way that they want 🙂

Luckily my siblings didn’t get up with the sun like they’ve done in every other year I’ve been alive.  They waited until 0800 this morning which is when I was waking up anyway.

Anyway for me Christmas is camping out in my room until the family leaves for my Uncle’s house (which is where they are now) then vegging out (reading most likely)  until tonight when I get to see Holmes with one of my close high school friends.  I ❤ Robert Downey Jr. so I’m wicked excited.

Of course running happened too and, like the past couple of Christmases, I wore my Santa hat.  Just so that people can’t say I’m a complete Scrooge heh. I also wore a red long sleeve with a green short sleeve over it.  Yes I have Christmas spirit.  And the weather, while definitely not Christmas weather, is so nice out.  Nice bright and sunny so it feels even warmer than the 36* it actually is.  Feels like 50* or so honestly and according to the weather reports it’s suppose to be that warm tomorrow.  Crazy.

I saw a lot of runners out today.  Not really surprising since lots of people make sure to get that workout in before feasting heh.  None of them as decked out as me though. I got a great 12.6 mile run in at a good clip.  It felt slow at times and really fast at times but overall it averaged out.  There was one hill that almost made me walk.  Almost though.

And I have a funny (well to me.  I guess I’m too dumb to be embarrassed by this) story related to the question I posted yesterday about my bladder (and I still want an answer too. Preferably a medical one my doctor friends? You know who you are 😉  Or at least someone to tell me my suspicion is correct and my bladder is just unhappy with the jostling running does to the lower torso organs).  Which I’m sure you can guess where I’m going with this already. And I apologize if anyone finds this unfunny or gross or immature or whatever.  I actually do find it funny. Maybe not the final outcome but certainly the whole situation. And I do recognize that this might lower my BAMF status.

By the time I had finished my run the family had already left for Christmas dinner so the house was locked up.  Which is fine in theory.  Tell that to my bladder though because I’ve known since mile 5 that when I stop running, be it at mile 5, 10 or 12.6, I’ll need a bathroom.  If you recall I said yesterday that my routine lately has been to sprint into the house and into the bathroom stopping, oh ummm, never? So this whole, get my hidden key, unlock the door THEN try to get to the bathroom thing? Yeah not so great.  But my bladder held miraculously. Seriously a Christmas miracle.

So at this point I’m feeling good about myself even though I don’t shut the door behind me nor do I remove my shoes, sunglasses etc.  Because let’s face it I still need to go.  I make it to the bathroom and go to pull down my shorts and my shirt is tucked into my shorts and my fingers don’t have full circulation and therefore don’t have full manipulation capabilities.  Problem? Yes.

And I’m not saying I full on wet my pants.  Because I didn’t.  But I did a little bit; kind of like if you laugh really really hard. Yes I think I am trying to justify this haha. I am 23 years old but do not have the bladder of one. At least after a long run because I do have a bladder of steel any other time during the day.  Even while drinking.

So I hope you enjoyed my story on this lovely Christmas day.  I’m still not sure if I should be embarrassed and sharing this but since almost everyone who reads this is a runner I’m hoping that you understand.  I mean if Uta Pippig can poop her pants during the Boston Marathon (and win) then I think a little bladder weakness on my part shouldn’t be too big a deal.

And I hope this hasn’t detracted from your Christmas spirit in any way 😛

Now it’s kicking back with a glass of wine (yes it’s only 1500) a good book, music (NOT of the Christmas kind) until my date with Sherlock Holmes.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS ALL!!

Running in a Winter Wonderland

Yes. I did have to have cliche for a post title. Because it was soooo true.

Last night the rain that I was complaining about yesterday changed over to snow.  Now I’m not the biggest fan of that white fluffy stuff but I ❤ the first snowfall.  It’s just so clean and fresh and doesn’t have any of that old stale-ness that future snows will have.

Since snow means freezing temps and we’re entering the last week of classes (which for most seniors at my school = finals week due to upper level classes not really having scheduled finals week) I went to the campus theater last night to chill out with a movie, Julie and Julia.  I was hesitant to see it because it’s obv not an action/bamf movie and I only went for lack of anything else to do and wanted to feel social by going with a friend.  But I loved it soooo much. It was funny and awesome.  Totally unexpected and it made me want to cook.  And I don’t cook haha.

I almost titled this post “Well that should have sucked but it didn’t” because that’s how this whole weekend has gone.The social scene for my friends has been lacking because of the end of the semester stress but I still have been having fun.  Like getting to read a really good book, watch a good movie, listen to some good music and get some good sleep.  All of which I didn’t expect to happen.  Funny what happens when you don’t have really high expectations.  Maybe I should just lower all my exceptions for life.  Then everything will be happy haha

My expectations for running were pretty low too this weekend. Yesterday was all rainy and icky but I still got a good run in. Today was bitter cold so I just accepted that I would be freezing and the run wouldn’t be so fun. Boy was I wrong.

I didn’t even bother breaking out the cold gear for this 28* morning.  It was really really sunny out so I figured as long as I was dressed okay and put on a windbreaker the sun would keep me warm.  Plus I know that I’m going to get cold. Period. Luckily my thoughts re: the run were right and my hands didn’t start to go numb until mile 4 or so.

My legs took a bit — prolly those same 4miles– to warm up as I hit the streets immediately after waking up.  I chose to go first thing because A) the weather wasn’t going to get *that* much warmer in a few hours B) it was icy out and I figured less cars would be out earlier and C) if I waited later, the sun would be out and melt the ice which would mean puddles and ickyness.

Everything worked out the way I planned it too with those A,B,C options.  A definite “that should have sucked but it didn’t”.  I was even feeling so good / not freezing that instead of my planned 8.5 miles I did 10!! I was actually having so much fun out there.  Very bizarre because the conditions of today’s run should have made the run miserable.

The only bummer was that the icy roads forced me to slow down my pace quite a bit.  BUT the silver lining is that, for a 10 mile run following a 13 mile run, I needed to go slow.  I’ve been pushing to hit faster paces lately but it was good for me to just relax on a run and not worry about pushing it. But OTOH the sound of snow crunching under my feet on the ice was so amazingly lovely.

Yet again I’m going to have to sign off on this post saying that I need to go finish up some work.  Contrary to what I thought was going to happen this weekend (much like everything else this weekend) I’m in good shape going into today work-wise and must keep up with that trend. Plus I have a preceptor (it’s a peer advisor for freshmen) holiday party to go to later and need have some peace-of-mind work wise for that.  Adios amigos. Have great Sundays!

Poppies…

Poppies will but them to sleep. Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

Last night was a good night all around.  I went to see New Moon with the girls and it was great!! I actually can give this movie my endorsement.  The graphics were great and the acting was much better than the first one.  The second book is actually my least favorite so I was happy that I was happy with the movie.  Very pleasant to watch.  Plus there were some shirtless boys (although ewwww not Robert Pattinson).  Very pleasant indeed.  My one problem was the amount of 13 year old girls that were there.  And they squealed at every sexually charged moment.  Which there were a lot of.  Annoying to be sure (the girls not the sexual tension haha).

When I got back to campus I really didn’t feel like going out.  I think that finally the 3-4 hour nights for the past 3 weeks have caught up to me and I just felt exhausted.  Granted I’ve felt like that before and still had trouble sleeping.  So I helped my body out by caving to Ambien.  But I slept for 9.5 hours.  A solid sleep too, no tossing and turning, no waking up during the night.  It was glorious.  Kind of.  Sure I definitely needed the sleep but when I woke up I felt like I could go back to bed for ANOTHER 9.5 hours.  Sort of funny if you think about it because the nights I was sleeping 4 hours I was chipper and alert the next morning/day and last night I more than doubled my shut eye and I was all groggy and sleeeeeeeeeepy.

Didn’t seem to affect my run though — although has it yet? Nope.  Saturday = long run so I had planned for my 11.5 mile route.  However, seeing how GORGEOUS it was (and still is) outside made me rethink that and I set out on my 12.6 mile route.  It was great because I hadn’t run this route since September so it was like a rediscovery.

With 55* temps, no wind and partly cloudy skies I was totally able to take in my surroundings and I actually let go of my must-run-fast-or-else mentality.  Not completely (I will always have moments of “Oh snap, I need to hit my pace!) but the large majority of the run was worry free.  Not that I need to worry — even when I think I’m going slow I’m not, a la AMarathoner.

It’s funny how at the end of a run your body just doesn’t want to stop even though it can be screaming at you in the mid-miles!  Definitely how I felt today regardless of my being able to enjoy the run.  There were moments where (and this is when my mentality of going fast popped back up) I felt so creepy-crawly that I thought for sure I was walking.  I even debated cutting the run short and finding a way to high tail it back to my room.

I’m really glad I didn’t though because, after sticking with my route, I wanted to run an extra 1.3 miles and brought it up to a round 14.  Even after hitting 14 (and although I don’t have a garmin I’m pretty sure it was almost a damn even 14) I still wanted to go for more.  Prolly a good thing that I didn’t because as I sit here I can feel my leg muscles slightly spasm-ing in the “Holy Exhaustion Batman” kind of way. Not unpleasant at all though because it tells me I was a bamf today 🙂

Speaking of bamf-ness I’m going to see Inglorious Basterds tonight which is being played on the campus theater (not an actual theater but that’s the best way to describe it) I’m really pumped to see it! I’ve heard mixed things about it but everyone that I’ve talked to says that regardless of what they think, it’s a movie I’d like.  After that the Programming Council is sponsoring a Vegas night on campus so I’ll hit that up.  Who know if it’ll be cool or not but there’s free beer.  Clearly I am so there 😉

But first though there are a couple of busy work assignments that I need/want to finish up that I should get crackin’ on.

Yay for Saturday nights! Have a good one y’all!

Short Run and Halloween Excitement

Wow.  Thanks for all the advice/support/kind words yesterday.  I knew posting about it would be the right thing because it seems that most of you know exactly what I’m talking about! My friends just look at me and roll their eyes because none of them run and therefore don’t “get it”.

Everyone of you who commented had valid points and were stuff that was in the back of my head already but took an outside look to really hammer it home.  I definitely DON’T want to injure myself and I totally recognize the fact that I am headed that way if I don’t relax a bit.  Both in terms of my mileage and, as LARunner mentioned, my pace, particularly the LR pace.

So here’s where I’m going to lay out actual (target) numbers for you guys (I rarely do because I hate the comparison stuff it generates) but here goes:

• Marathon pace: 8:21
• Easy / recovery pace: 900-915
• Tempo: 715-730
• Mile repeats: 650-700
• LR: 900

So this is what I’ve been doing.  And actually been pretty close to them in reality with the exception prolly being this past week. Thoughts? I honestly feel like most of them are too slow for my liking.  I definitely left some gas in the tank during my marathon (ran a 3:37:58) so I think that I am faster than numbers plugged into a calculator tell me.  I’ve gotten these baseline paces from McMillian which is considered pretty good but I’m such an overachiever that I try to hit the lowest of the range given.  Maybe as well as re-thinking miles I need to rethink pace too.

Definitely something else to ponder as I want to maximize my running “potential” (gosh I hate that word! haha)

Anyway, last night I hung out with my friend (who I still call my roomie even though it’s been two years since we lived together ha) and we eventually went to see The Hangover at the campus theater.  She had just come from a vball tourney and was exhausted and I was exhausted too (I am soooo old because I still am recovering from Thursday’s partying haha) so a movie was a good fit.  So glad I went because it was HILARIOUS.  I haven’t laughed like that in a while, definitely a spirit lifter.

I also got a great night of sleep last night and woke up to a sunny sky and clear weather without an alarm.  Amazingness! Especially considering that last night it was monsoon-ing out.  I don’t think I’ve ever gotten more soaked than I did getting around last night.

So clearly this is me we’re talking about and I ran today.  I was feeling better mentally thanks to you guys and my last night but I made sure that I did not run as far as I typically do.  I did about 5 miles which is better than nothing and better than 8+.  Progress? Maybe.  But I need to decondition myself from the thinking that more is better.  I know it’s unrealistic to just drastically cut down my miles, but if I can cut 2-3 here and there, over the course of the week it’ll make an impact, right?

This run was pretty great.  The sun was shining, the temp was an amazing 56* and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  My body felt really good too after a mile or so.  I definitely wasn’t flying (and was reminded of that when the boys XC team zoomed past me) but I didn’t feel like I was struggling the way I have been lately.  Although my legs did remind me that my brain was foolish to want to do more by the end.  And I listened by sticking to my guns (and by guns I mean plan of 5 miles).

Another highlight of the day was my shopping trip to Target.  Not only did I stick to only getting what I needed (Halloween costume stuff) I found an even better costume than what I was planning on being! I’m so excited and I’m going to be mean and make you guys wait until Halloween is closer for me to reveal it (or maybe even meaner and make you wait until I have post-Halloween pics!). But my friend was looking at stuff and she was like”WTF?” Of course I looked and was like “This is IT”.  The costume is sooo me so I’m super excited to wear it.  And it was wicked cheap too.  Double bonus!

Going to write an awkward wrap-up here (aka no wrap up at all) because I have to go work on a physiology project then get my study on.  Don’t worry though, tmrw I will do another installment of the Facts of Life.  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Good Luck Lacey! and a great long run

First off: GOOD LUCK TMRW LACEY! I’m sending fast vibes your way as well as making an animal sacrifice or two to the weather gods so it’s NOT cold and rainy and bad out. I mean the weather ppl were wrong about today, n’est-ce pas?

Oh wow I am tired. I think I have a sleep hangover.  I saw Transformers 2 last night and my advice to you if youre thinking of seeing it: don’t.  Total waste of my time (luckily it was free so I didn’t waste any $$) but there was too much robot and not enough action.  I actually wanted to leave 30 minutes into it but my friend wanted to stay so I was there the whole time.  It put me in a slightly bad mood (and the fact that it’s 2.5 hours long didn’t help) which is too bad because another GREAT thing happened last night…

MAJOR HOT-SPANISH-TA SIGHTING. Last night there was a Latin Dance performance and I went to support my friend who, while not in the Hispanic dance group, was doing a piece to help out (she’s in the school’s Dance Co.).  And guess who was there? Well I already told you but Hot-Spanish-TA. AND he stood next to me / my group of friends for the entire performance.  Plus, just when I thought that my night was complete, some of my friends wanted to grab something to eat at the dining hall and guess who ended up getting there just after us? Yup, Hot-Spanish-TA (plus some other TAs he was with).  Word.  Not only was the night fun from all the stuff I was doing with my friend but I got to see Hot-Spanish-TA.  Too bad the movie was a complete buzz-kill.

Anyway, on to running as this is the reason I started the blog and why most of you prolly started reading it haha.  Another cold day in New England, about 36* when I woke up.  Since today was a planned long run, as opposed to all the longest runs I just do during the week haha, I chose to wait a bit before running and eat some breakfast first thing.  This gave me food in my belly and a chance for the weather to warm up a few degrees.  Since it was really sunny out the temperature would really matter *that* much but I’ll take whatever I can get!

Since I did an interval workout yesterday, I was hesitant to go long today but it was sunny (yet still in the 30s) when I left and tmrw is suppose to be rainy.  I try to avoid the rain whenever possible, so today was going to have to be the day. My legs were a little stiff getting out of bed but that may have to do with a little impromptu dancing last night haha.

Even though it was a bit chilly when I left, I knew that I would eventually warm up so I wore this baby (except with longsleeves):

I bet you could see me in a blizzard wearing this!

and I was complemented by a couple of cyclists as well as hollered at by a few high school boys haha.  I’m glad I went with the long sleeves because the temperature DROPPED so much by the end of the run, or at least it felt that way (it’s about 47* now I think).

And my legs held up remarkably well the whole time.  I don’t really know what it is but my body loves long distances. I just feel like I’m warming up the first 6 miles or so then everything is ready to roll.  During my marathon this past spring, I felt amazing post mile 20 and both post 20 mile training runs AND the actual marathon I never felt real soreness.  Guess it’s no surprise that my planned 12 turned into 14.  Plus the extra miles also gave me a chance to run by Hot-Spanish-TA’s house.

The 14 miles were also much faster (like 30 sec per mile) than my *shorter* mid-week runs.  How crazy is that? Plus I’m 99.99% sure that miles 1-6 were creepy crawly, meaning that miles 7-14 were actually faster than the average pace. So I finished my run all pumped up and actually wanting to do more.  And I would have too, if my stomach wasn’t grumbling.  Now my legs are a wee bit sore again so I’ll  *gasp* stretch them out and maybe use The Stick (haven’t done that in a while).

But I’m still happy because the run just lifted me up.  I wasn’t necessarily in a bad mood per-se beforehand but there’s just something about a good fast long run that just buoys you (or maybe it’s just me).  I’m for once not dreading the to-do list I’ve been staring at for the past hour or two haha.

Enjoy your Saturdays y’all and GOOD LUCK (again) LACEY 🙂

Will the work ever end?

The movie last night was good, but looooooooooooong.  I had seen a documentary on the crime wave of the 30s over the summer on The History Channel (nerd alert 1!) so the movie was a little on the boring side because there were no surprises.  I’m guessing that lots of the people knew the basic plot but I knew the details.  Eh. Christian Bale is hot though soooo it was worth it. I think I knew how long it was (2 hours 15 minutes) going in but I guess I didn’t consider that it meant I would be going to be kind of late.  Extra late if you consider that I was up at 0600. So by the time the movie got out at 2315? Yes I had been up for 17 hours and 15 minutes.

So while my intention of getting up and getting the long run done early was noble it was postponed until late morning as I slept really late: 0830! Which gave me the chance of going to the leadership conference.  Wahoo. NOT.  My school requires leaders from every club on campus to attend.  If you don’t then your funding and assets get frozen.  I stayed just long enough to secure finding for the physics club (nerd alert 2!) and then hit the studying / working hardcore.

I took my running break around 1100 and set out on a 12.7 mile route.  Since being back at school I hadn’t yet run this route yet so I was excited although I always have butterflies in my stomach of “Oh *expletive* can I do this?” I mean, I always can but I still get nervous.

The weather (and you’re going to hate me Southerners) was WONDERFUL.  I left when it was 55* and it only rose to 60* for the entire run.  Plus it was very sunny and bright, and the route was shady so I was able to not bake and roast.

I knew I was going to be semi-pressed for time as my phone interview was at 1440 (more on that in a bit) but 12.7 miles shouldn’t (and didn’t) take me that long.  I mean it was a long run but as my runs get longer, my pace gets faster.  So weird but my overall pace for a 5 miler will be much slower than my overall pace for a 20 miler.  So despite knowing that I would have just enough time to eat and shower and prep for the interview I decided to tack on an extra 1.5-ish to the run bringing the distance to 14.3 (roughly).

It felt amazing! Well that’s a half-truth, my IT band (I think?) stiffened up and felt streeeeeeeeeeeeetched around mile 6 and my hips/glutes are feeling tight right now but I still feel good.  I think the mental goodness that I feel is totally trumping the bit of discomfort I’m feeling heh.

And just as a note about the interview: I’m still going to be cagey about what it’s for but I think it went well. I tried not to stutter and say “Ummmm” and “like” and I hope I came across as well-spoken.  The way that the application process is going to work for this job is: submit online app (done), if they like that: phone interview & submit references (done to the phone interview, need to confirm my references that they are going to do it), if they like that: in-person, day-long interview conference, if they like that: job offer. I find out if I make it to the next round in early October so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Tonight = Oktoberfest though and there will be a keg provided by SGA (student government association).  Free beer and German food? Yes please!

I just need to get through another billion hours of homework.  There may or may not be a light at the end of the tunnel though.  I was able to get a HUGE dent done yesterday (courtesy of my 6 hour hw love fest)  and this morning before the run and interview.  Hopefully I can keep my nose to the grindstone and push out another paper.  I wrote 2 last night and a poem (in French) as well as an analysis of it this morning.  Ummm, I’m a physics major? What is all this paper stuff?

Well if free beer isn’t an impetus to get this stuff done I don’t know what is.  I don’t even like beer.  But it’s free. 😛

Wowza.

That was a GREAT long run. Seriously.  Like the best long run in a very long time (excluding my half obv). Since I’m so pumped up about this, it may read like a race report haha 🙂

I let myself sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep last night.  Friday’s are generally a low-key night on my campus; Thursday and Saturday being the hard-core partying.  So I went to the campus theater which was playing Terminator: Salvation.  And even though I haven’t seen any of the other Terminator movies I really enjoyed it.  Doesn’t hurt that Christian Bale is mind blowingly hot. But the result was that I got a good night’s sleep and woke up this morning feeling ok.  Still pretty tired from the week.  It was also a morning where my bed was the most comfortable thing in the world. Love it.

The weather was iffy.  According to weather.com it was supposed to rain all day. Well it’s about 1600 right now and the worst I’ve seen is some misting. But I didn’t know that at the time and spent most of the morning debating whether or not to go long today.  About 1130 my breakfast had digested and I hit the road for a planned 11.5 with the option to do more if I was feeling it.

Apparently not only do I not know how to pace myself in races but I don’t know what paces actually feel like.  I thought I was plodding along but when I got to mile 9 I looked at my watch and saw that I was going 30 seconds faster per mile than I planned! (And yes I can do mental math incredibly fast while running.  Be jelly haha) It must have been the compliment Sarah paid me this morning by saying that I’m fast.

Now sometimes knowing what pace you’re going at alters what pace you finish at.  I was stoked to be running fast, especially after having some slow ass runs this past week.  The last 2.5 miles to finish up my route did feel like I was slowing down but my watch showed that I was going faster than the pace I held at mile 9.  I mean, I guess my watch could be really old (it is) and slowing time down, making me seem faster than I am.  Anyone know if digital watches do that? Well regardless I’m calling myself fast and the watch workable.  Afterall, at the half my watch was deadon the clock time (adjusted for me hitting start a couple seconds after the gun went off).

In the back of my mind the whole run was the idea to go for 13.  Don’t know why but I kind of got a bee in my bonnet (gosh did I really just use that expression?!) that 13 was where it was at. So I made a deal with myself that if I felt good I’d go for it.  And clearly I was feeling good.  The last 1.5 miles felt really good.  Definitely think I could’ve gone further.  Glad I didn’t as I don’t need these miles.  Not for a good overall week, not for the 5k coming up.  Plus I want to do 10 tmrw.  Don’t know if that will actually happen or not.

Another great thing about my run today was the mental clarity I got.  Not going to go into too much detail on here right now — too many things are up in the air at this point.  But I got some perspective over many of these miles.  The great thing about the long run is that I can tackle the same issue at many different points during the run.  Something about putting one foot in front of the other repeatedly drives my brain to solve problems. Now, all my life plans aren’t worked out after that run but I have a great plan of where to start.  Es muy bueno.  C’est très bon.

Now I’ve got to start acting on everything.  Lots to do to prep for this week — in addition to all my regular work. I’m talking to my advisers about everything so hopefully I will have something concrete to tell you later.  I hate to keep y’all in the dark but everything is too shaky to commit something to actually words yet.  And I don’t want to jinx myself.

And since I’m lame and still haven’t taken any new pictures yet to post here’s another one from my marathon

Truckin' in the late stages of the race