running: the dawn

Less days of running this week somehow equaled more miles…This week was not the most inspired or elated week of running.  I was able to get in all my miles, but it was definitely more of a chore this week than usual.

This week’s miles:

Sunday-12; 10 with KT and then two quick ones by myself.
Monday-3; these were just miles.  Mid-run had to make an emergency stop in the restroom of the other gas station in town.
Tuesday-7; afternoon miles, I got angry and a couple school buses that did not move over and give me much room to run.
Wednesday-3; the ONLY day that I ran in the morning.  KT and I felt pretty decent on the new through-town route.
Thursday-10; toughest run of my life.  Hands down.  See below for details.

Total Miles: 35

Also, two hours of Jazzercise.  This week I really slacked off on my core training regimen.  And by slacked off I mean I did nothing.  So, that’s my goal for next week: all three days of core strength.  No exceptions.

Ummmm, yeah….my run yesterday.  Here’s the long version:

KT came over in the morning as planned.  However, instead of sticking to our scheduled 4 miles, we ended up just sitting in the living room chatting.  One of the important thing that I needed to talk through was how many miles I had already run this week and how much would I need to do later in the day if I decided not to go running right then.  I figured out that I needed 9 more miles to meet my goal, and even though I knew that would be a pretty long run for an afternoon, I was willing to do anything to avoid running at that moment.

This set me up for my epic battle.  I intended to go running right after work, so I had to first swing by the sporting goods store to pick up some gu’s for the upcoming runs and by the time I got home it was after 4.  I gave Mr. Dawn the choice to eat and early dinner then or to wait until after 7.  He chose the early option.  That meant I wasn’t actually on the road running until after 5 and I had a full belly.  I decided to set out on my 7 mile route that has the option to stretch it into ten.  I figured I would make a decision at the 7 mile turnoff based on how I was feeling.

The first part of the run was INTENSE!  There’s a pretty significant up hill climb as you head towards the highway.  That is where I met my nemesis: the wind.  There was no tree cover and nothing to block the waves of wind that came screaming across the fields.  They would meet me full force and almost knock me over.  I got so desperate I actually found myself grunting out loud as I mustered enough strength for another step.  And I don’t mean the little pig-like grunts you hear as they muscle for position at the trough.  I’m talking full-fledged, weight-lifting, body-building, lion-inspired, man-sized grunting with each foot fall and swing of my arms.

The funny thing was that it wasn’t miserable.  I wasn’t mad at the wind or the snow that was falling.  I never faltered.  I knew that when the 7-mile turn off came, I would be running straight ahead into the wind and up the hills towards my 10 mile goal.  I just felt internal resolve.  There was no turning back.  Things didn’t necessarily get any better.  I did enjoy when I got to turn and the wind was more at my back and I also appreciated that the second half was more sheltered by trees.  But the sun went down and the snow kept coming.  I never stopped.  Days like that help me to believe in my own strength.  To see that I am capable. To understand that I can trust my abilities.

I thrive best when I am in the supporting role.  My seventh grade year, I remember well, I won “best supporting actress” in our little play.  It felt so amazing!  At the time I didn’t realize how much the word “supporting” rang true in my heart.  In high school I was student counsel vice president for two years, always involved but never in charge.  I loved to figure out how to help other people’s visions come to life.  Even the one year in college when I was president of the student body, I lived that role more as a support to my vice presidents than anything else.  My “vision” was more about how to help each one of them succeed at what they set out to accomplish.  I love being there as other people celebrate their victories.  I might not be good when I have to “go it alone”.

Since learning that KT will not be running with me in San Diego, I have come face to face with this truth about myself.  Now, I don’t know what I want out of that race.  Before, it was easy.  I was going to run with KT stride for stride and encourage her along her journey.  I was going to be able to see her accomplish and amazing feat.  Coaching and cheer-leading have been both my motivation and my goal.

In this new world, the one where I’m going to run a marathon alone, I am left to form my own goals.  What is it that I want to accomplish?  How hard do I want to train?  How fast do I want to be?  Its so hard for me to answer these questions.  I know that I am relatively limited.  I mean I know that I’m not ready to shoot for a Boston Qualifying run or anything that grand.  I do know that I want to be faster than my current PR, which is 4:28.  But that still doesn’t really narrow my scope much.

Whenever I think of a time that sounds like a good goal, immediately I’m racked with self doubt.  What if I set a goal and don’t reach it?  Then it will all be on me.  What is the magic number that will both push me to achieve and yet not be so impossible that I end up training myself to death?  Exactly how much of my life over the next three months do I want to sacrifice?

Oh the questions!  I’ve been downloading so many different training programs, checking out running books from the library, and messing around with different “pace calculators” to try to figure out what to do.  This has all proven to confuse me more.  I actually feel as lost as I did the first time I decided to run a marathon.  I didn’t really know what I wanted to do then either.  Except, I knew that I wanted to finish.  That was certain.  Now, I know that would not be enough.  Yes, I expect to finish, but that is not a picture that I can focus my training around. And focus is what I need.

My favorite year playing basketball was my freshman year of college.  I got to ride the bench.  That didn’t mean that I checked out, in fact it was the year that I was the most engaged with the process.  I could watch the game from the sidelines and give tips to my fellow players.  I could see the weaknesses in the opponents and try to imagine creative solutions.  Maybe this is why I make a good teacher.  I get more out of the times when I get to focus on the achievements of others than when I am left with only focusing on what I want.

I prefer the spotlight to be on someone else.  This time, I will step out of the shadows and into that blinding light.  Alone.

Somewhere under all this fear, I am hopeful that I will grow enough to meet this opportunity.

I am pretty sure that my toes recently got together and decided to have a blister-forming contest.  At first it was just the one.  Then, it seemed like that blister decided to grow one of its own, now it has spread to my other foot, with toes over there joining in the action.  I am not a fan.  I was about 3 miles into my run this evening when I noticed that there was a new bubble of pain forming on my left foot.

That, however, is not the worst thing that happened today.  My inspiring, dedicated, training partner KT may not be able to run the marathon with me.  She has been told that she cannot miss work that Monday after the race.  Ugh.  My heart just dropped.  She and I have had so much fun running together and training for this event, so the idea that only one of us will actually be running is downright discouraging.

I know myself, and I know that I can’t run or even train when it’s just me.  I need someone to share the adventure with.  Otherwise, it’s just me, which is lame.  She and I have decided that we’re going to let ourselves be angry and throw our little emotional temper tantrums for a day or two, then we’re going to regroup and come up with a plan.  We’ve been discussing running another marathon for sure this fall, we may need to find another one close to the San Diego so that we don’t waste all the training we’ve been doing.

The most frustrating part is that she has improved SO MUCH in just a short time.  Seriously!  Just six short weeks ago, she’d never run more than 3 miles, then this last Sunday she ran 10 miles.  That’s amazing!  And it was a week ahead of schedule.  She’s already got her weekly mileage over 20 miles.  She is so committed to running and to racing.

I will still be racing in June.  It might end up being the first marathon I’ve run alone.  I can’t say that I’m excited about the prospects, but it would be a personal growth moment.  I guess.  I’m reaching here.

They just announced the new course for this year’s San Diego Rock ‘n Roll marathon!  I have been checking the website regularly in anticipation of this moment and it is very exciting to see all the places we’re going to be running.  At the same time…looking at the elevation chart, I am a little concerned.  There are some pretty serious hills, both up and down, that will do some serious damage on my legs.  KT’s suggestion is that we can add running the dunes into our workout mix.  That sounds incredibly hard, but so is running 26.2 miles, so I guess they go together.  Here’s the map and the elevation chart:

SD10-Course-Map-2.19.10

Hope to see you there!  Bring cowbells and signs

Yesterday, I had my first of what will be many long runs.  When I first started running I used to classify any mileage over 5 as a long run.  Then, as my race distances increased, so did my definition of the long run.  I guess it is also dependent on where I am in the training for which particular race.  So, right now in the training process my long runs are anything over 10, but hopefully in another month or so, 10 miles will be my mid-week running distance and I won’t think twice about heading out on a Wednesday to do “only” 10 miles.

For me, a long run means several things: preparation, time commitment, proper fueling, and intentional recovery.  Oh, and the best feeling of accomplishment that I’ve ever found.  I seem to have to wrap my mind around a long run.  I need to picture in my mind how many miles I’m going to go, how long it will take me, and how I plan on feeling.  Bottom line is: I love the long run.

This weekend, it took some coordinating of the schedules before KT and settled on doing our long run early.  Seven in the morning is terribly early on a Sunday.  Since that was the only time we could both make it happen we buckled down and did it.  Then, I had a really hard time finding a suitable route for us.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the loop that I did last week, mainly because I miscalculated a turn or two and ended up having to run BY my house in order to get the last half a mile in.  Sidenote: It is never a good idea to have to pass by the  “finish” line in order to get the miles in, just messed with the mind.  But, no matter how many other routes I mapped out, they would either be 10.9 miles or 9.6….11.1 or 8.9.  It was so frustrating.  Finally I decided to tweak my loop from last week and be done with it.  It ended up working rather well.

In preparation, we drove out to the half way point and planted our water bottles in the snow beside the road, knowing we would be so thankful for that liquid after 5.5 miles.  Then we drove back to the start and took off.  I had planned on running an extra 2 miles to get my mileage up to 12 this week, so I took my gels at miles 4 and 8.  There were some really nice hills at different places on the route, but they didn’t seem to bother me.  One up just led to another down.  I guess my legs are starting to adjust to all the “elevation” around here.  Now, some might argue that the landscape here is pretty flat, which I’m sure that it is, but when running you notice even the slightest change in incline.  I might even get gutsy enough to tackle the hill from my crazy 7 mile route….hmmm someday.

After the 10 miles with KT, my legs were feeling a little dead but I was pretty sure that I could get in another two miles.  I decided to change my playlist, increase my pace, and see how fast I could get them done.  Surprisingly running fast actually felt really good after  the long mileage.  I was engaging what felt like a new muscle group.  I was able to kick up my feet and push harder than I thought I would.  Not the fastest two miles, but pretty quick for me.

Yes, I did take an ice bath after.  People continue to think that I’m crazy, and I continue to be free of pain, so I will continue to take ice baths.  Then I went to Jazzercise which was super fun as always.  Once again, since it was a different kind of movement it felt so refreshing to my legs.  I’m starting to think that I need to increase the weights that I use.  I need to continue to challenge my upper body and I’m strengthening my lower.  It’s all about balance.

The one part of the recovery process that I didn’t do great with was the refueling.  I just didn’t seem to be that hungry yesterday.  I had a smoothie and then some vegetarian hotdogs, but that was pretty much it until dinner.  We decided to splurge and go to Red Robin with KT and company.  IT WAS SO AMAZING!  Now, while I may not have been hungry during the day, by supper time, I had no trouble eating at all.  I had gotten very hungry and the gardenburger hit the spot as usual.  I decided to venture away from my usual “five alarm” styling and another one who’s name I can remember, whichever one has BBQ sauce on it.  Delightful!

Came home, did some stretching with my foam roller and “the stick”.  What a great day!

So, for the second week in a row, I ended up four miles over my mileage goal.  It feels so amazing!  KT and I had the best run ever this morning.  I didn’t have to be at work until 10:30 this morning which means that we had a little extra time this morning and we decided to take advantage of it and go on my favorite Friday route, the 7-miler.  I know that I’ve said I love this route before, but this morning it was just downright magical.  It was a chilly 17ish degrees and there was frost on all the trees.  We started running just after the sun started creeping up into the sky.  That lit the whole world up with a warm glow, and it sparkled off the frozen limbs.  Oh what a day to be out running!

This weeks’ miles:

Sunday–10; my favorite distance to run.  Felt so good.
Monday–zip; took the day off and felt no guilt, a mild victory in and of itself.
Tuesday–5; the new playlist led to a nice fast pace.
Wednesday–10; 4 in the morning, 6 at night.  Not fast, but good.
Thursday–2; beautiful sunny day, nice quick pace.
Friday–7; glorious sun, perfect route.

Total Miles: 34

Also 3 hours of Jazzercise, and 3 hours of core strengthening.

The one goal that I did not reach was that of getting up early Tuesday-Friday.  Now, I did run early on Wednesday, and it turns out that I didn’t need to get up early on Friday since I could sleep in until 7, get the 7 miles in, and still be to work on time.  So, really it was just Tuesday and Thursday that I slept in.  I guess I feel ok about that, although I really do enjoy having some workout time in the morning.  I always end up getting so much more done in my days when I get up at 5:30am…

This week’s goals: 34 miles, 2.5 hours Jazzercise (they’re having the express class on Thursday), 3 hours core work

Enjoy the weekend!

When I was younger, I loved winnie the pooh.  I loved the songs he would sing.  I can still remember one to this day.  He would sing it first thing in the morning when he got out of bed and did his stretching routing (which I’m pretty sure was the only physical exercise he ever did that didn’t involve trying to get at something to eat).  It went “when I  up, down, touch the ground, puts me in the mood.  Up, down, touch the ground, in the mood, for food.”  (Just to be sure that I remembered it correctly, I found it on YouTube.  Sad how 20+ years later and I remembered it perfectly.)  And Pooh’s “food”?  Honey.  Actually he always spelled it Hunny, but that was another reason I liked him so much, he spelled like me.

I am beginning to think that I may be addicted to honey.  Lately I have been inventing new ways to eat the delectable sweetener.  I love peanut butter and honey sandwiches and since we don’t really keep much bread in the house I’ve started to eat honey and peanut butter roll ups with tortilla shells.  Oh so amazing!  I drizzle a couple spoonfuls on a bowl of frozen bing cherries (handpicked) or blueberries (also handpicked).  This is especially delightful because the cold of the cherries harden the honey some and make a hard-candy-like substance.  So good.  Then of course it goes into homemade smoothies!  Ok, if I’m being completely honest, there are even times when I just spoon the golden goodness into my mouth.

This got me to wonder, how “good” is honey?  I mean somewhere along the way I guess I just decided that honey was inherently better than sugar.  Like sugar is the evil stepsisters next to the Cinderella of honey.  How much of that is based on evidence and how much is just me wanting to feel good about something that I love…?

Well I’ve decided to explore that question.  First of all, I must say that I am not a dietician or nutritionist.  That means that any information I provide here is mainly based on a google search and not on any first-person research.  I teach math and run, so I am not qualified to make recommendations.

That being said, I did find some interesting information…

Here’s the not so good:
Honey has more calories (per serving) than table sugar.
Honey is higher on the glycemic index than sugar.

Here’s the good:
Honey tastes sweeter, so you use less of it.
Honey goes through less “processing” than sugar, so it’s considered more natural

Here’s the random stuff I’d never heard of:
Honey can be used as an antiseptic.
Honey is anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungus.
Honey helps to absorb water, and therefore is sometimes recommended for kids who wet the bed.
Honey raises blood levels of protective antioxidant

So, with all of that information, imagine my joy to find energy gels that are made from honey!  Some of the other types can give people upset stomachs or other GI problems, meanwhile this stuff I’ll be able to clean out any cuts I may get whilst running…right?  It is made with honey after all…

Ah finally, a good early morning run.  Feels so amazing.  Well, now it does.  Not so much at 5:14 when KT texted me to see if I was awake and ready to run.  Luckily I was still able to be ready to roll when she pulled up to my house.  We had an easy 3-miler on the calendar, but decided that we could both handle another mile, so we set out on the 4 mile route.

This is when things got interesting.

And by interesting, I mean dangerous.

And by dangerous, I mean slippery.

While I had been waiting and assembling all of my running gear I heard no less than 6 snow plows go by my house.  Now, since I live in the world’s ninth smallest town (totally made that up) I know that there couldn’t possibly be that many separate plows, which means that it was probably the same one doing laps or figure eights, or something else to entertain himself.  Needless to say the streets were very clear of all loose snow.  What remained however, I’m pretty sure was more lethal that what had been removed.  We literally skated through all four of our miles.  There were a few places that remained untouched by the Zamboni, oh I mean plow, that made us feel safer and more sturdy of foot.

Poor KT.  While we were rounding one corner, she lost her footing and ended up on her rump.  Ouchie!  That will definitely bruise.

Besides all that the run ended up being more successful than either of us thought it would.  We hadn’t run together since last week (maybe Wednesday?) and so had much to catch up on.  There was chatting all through the first half and we didn’t even realize how fast we had been going until we were both breathing much harder than normal and decided to slow up the pace for the last two miles.

Oh and by the way, by the time I drove to work, all the roads were fine.  The ice turned to slush/water and there were no slippery spots.  Of course.

To be completely honest, I have already failed at one of my goals for this week.  I wanted to get back on track with my early morning workouts, but alas this morning I did not rise before the dawn.  Instead I slept.  Don’t get me wrong, the joy that I got from sleeping out weighed the guilt I felt from not meeting my goal.  The good news is that KT is back in town and we are scheduled for our early morning run through the empty streets at 5:30am.

Since my run did not happen early (and I logged no miles yesterday) there was no escaping a run tonight.  It did take a fair amount of incentive to get me out the door.  I decided that I needed something that would truly make the run enjoyable and this prompted me to fine tune my running playlist for my ipod.   Up until now, I just throw all of the songs that I like well enough into a playlist that I then put on shuffle when I go out for my shorter runs.  This has turned out to be more distracting than anything else. I end up having to skip over songs that are not in tune with my running mood or that distract me from my pace.

It is important for me to explain a couple things.  First, since I taught Jazzercise for almost 3 year, I have a wide variety of music in my library.  Usually only a song or two from each artist or album.  The genre range from hip hop or techno to country and rock.  Secondly, the idea of sifting through this haystack of unacceptable music all the while hoping to find the gem that is the perfect running mix is not my idea of a good time. However, if I was going to get myself out the door, I needed the promise of some uplifting tunes to champion me on my run.

It totally worked!  I ended up with a fabulous mix of songs with strong beats, loud guitar, and inspiring (sortof) lyrics.  My favorite is still the first song.  I have run across it several times on past runs as I was skipping over every other song.  Because I knew of it’s ability to lift my running spirits, I put it first.  This song is “Check Yes Juliet” by We the Kings. I love the words:

Lace up your shoes
Ay oh Ay oh
Here’s how we do:
Run Baby Run!
Don’t Ever Look Back

Gets me every time.  A huge smile on my face and wings under my feet.  After that there was no turning back, it got me out the door and far enough away from my house that I knew I’d have to get the miles in before I turn back.

Then at the half way point, my keep me going song “Gotta Get Through This” by Daniel Bedingfeild.

I gotta get through this
I gotta get through this
I gotta make it, gonna make, gonna make it through
I’m gotta get through this
I gotta get through this
I gotta take my, gotta take my mind off you

I titled my new playlist “running tunes: fast” and it lived up to its name.  I was able to run five miles with an average pace of 8:41 and the last time I had that pace I believe I was only running a two mile loop.  Feels good!

Besides the music there were many things that kept me entertained during my run.  Since it was dark there was the added challenge of seeing the potholes and ice packs in time to avoid them.  Near the end of the run I was not so lucky.  Hidden in the shadow cast off from a street light, my foot found its way directly into a pothole full of slushy water.  It covered the one foot and sloshed onto the other.  Magically however, thanks to my amazing goretex running shoes, not one finger of that icy water reached my skin.  I was utterly amazed.  I kept waiting for the water to trickle into my footbed, but it never came.  This excitement carried me the last mile home.

I decided to take yesterday off from running.  I’m not sure if that decision was made early enough to call it intentional or not.  Either way, no mileage was added.  However, it was Presidents’ day, which means that I did not have to work and got to go to Jazzercise at 9:30.  Morning Jazzercise is really fun!  I should know this, since I taught the 5:45am class for two years, but some times things slip through the memory cracks. There’s something special about a group of women starting their day together and bonding through sweat.  Even though it was the exact same set (read: routines/moves) as the day before, I got a much better workout.  This is probably due to me not having just ran 10 miles prior to class (like on Sunday) and being able to just enjoy the movement and make it more dance-er-ish.

The remainder of the day was just as enjoyable.  A little shopping followed by getting the house in order.

Mr. Dawn and I enjoy celebrating Valentine’s Day on any day except February 14.  So, this year that day was yesterday.  We went to my favorite restaurant and then, more importantly, my favorite dessert place.  Oh, Chocolate Cafe, how I love you.  It was so fun to walk in and practically have the place to ourselves.  The joy of the day after Valentine’s Day!  Oh yeah, and it was 4 in the afternoon, that helped too.  I enjoyed my “chocolate lover’s spoon cake” down to the last morsel.  Mmmmm.

We had reserved a racquetball court for the “entertainment” portion of the date, but that wasn’t until 8pm, so we had some time to kill.  I was able to finish all the grading I had brought home, which is good, because I hadn’t even looked at it all weekend long (whoops).  So, yeah.  I’ve never played racquetball before.  I don’t think I’ve ever even held a racket before.  To put it in perspective: Mr. Dawn played with his RIGHT HAND (note: he is left-handed) and still beat me all three games that we played.  And yes, there were plenty of times when I would swing the racket wildly and never even make contact with the ball.

Things I discovered playing racquetball: 1.) I must sweat more than most because my goggled kept fogging up even after we switched and Mr. Dawn let me wear that “anti-fog” ones.  I kept having to take them off and wipe the sweat off.  LAME!  2.) My right arm may never work again.  My fore-arm is KILLING me today.  It hurt last night right after we played.  It felt all numb and strange, but then this morning—OUCH!

All in all…best Valentine’s so far!  Good work Babe