running: the dawn

I know that everyone gives and receives love in their own unique way and style.  Not everyone communicates with the same love dialect.  That’s why I believe that it is my responsibility to discover the times when I most feel loved.  That way my husband doesn’t have to guess and check his way through our marriage.

Today Mr. Dawn uncovered the highest form of communicating love to me.  He accompanied me to Target.  While this might not be anyone else’s idea of true love, it is the most amazing thing that my husband can do for me.  You see, I hate grocery shopping.  I will put it off until our fridge is empty and our cupboards are bare.  There are a two little grocery stores in our town, but they can be a bit pricey, so once a month I go to the Target that is a half-hour away and stock up on the essentials.  I dread these outings.  The drive is painfully annoying, I hate trying to remember all the things I need, and more than anything else, I hate getting home realizing that I forgot something.

That was not what happened today!  The drive down, not only did I not have to drive, but there was someone to chat with and keep me entertained.  Then we decided to eat out for dinner which was yummy and had the added bonus of not having to figure out what to make for dinner or clean up afterwards.  With both of us at Target it was so much easier to think of all the things that we need and it took half as long because we could split up and get everything.  I actually got some insight into the famous question asked in our house everyday, “what do you want for dinner?”  As we were walking through the aisles we would discuss what upcoming meals we would like to have.

After all that, we pulled into the driveway and I had such a peaceful, happy, love-overflowing feeling.  The companionship, help with decision, and conversation made it the most gracious gift my husband could give me.  Thanks Baby!

What fills your love bucket?

Today I got my first runburn of the season.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term, it is when you get a sunburn whilst running.  Ouch!  I’m not sure what it is about the combination of sun and sweat that makes the burn so much worse.  So, now I will have my running tan lines from now until September.  Awesome.

Other than the lobster-hue of my skin, I had a pretty decent run today.  Yesterday Fidi decided that he wanted to try his first real long run.  First off, Fidi is a treadmill junkie.  He works at the local YMCA and loves to log his miles on the human-sized hampster wheels there.  He’s a stronger person than I, that’s for sure.  So up until today the longest run he’d ever done was 13 miles and that was indoors on a treadmill with water and bathrooms easily accessible.  My plan was to do 16 miles and I wanted to keep it slow for the sake of my healing knee.

We mapped out a new route and set out.  Just minutes into the run my ipod quit working.  So frustrating!!!  I know that it will be ok, I just have to plug it into my computer and reset it, but that did not help me today.  This meant that we would run the entire route without really knowing how far we had gone or how many miles we still needed to go.  I tried to not let that bother me, and just enjoy the run for what it was.  I was moderately successful.

Most of the run we just chatted back and forth.  The first part of the route we wound our way out to the edge of a lake and then ended up on a dirt road.  I really enjoyed it because it had the feeling of running on a trail.  Then there was a HUGE hill.  We walked up cause there was just no way…after the part by the water we turned and headed south for the out-and-back part.  The instant we made the turn I knew that this was going to be the hard part.  We were running straight into the wind and it was brutal.  I kept telling myself that we just needed to get to the turnaround and we’d be golden.  During the wind battle, Fidi started feeling the consequences of a long run.  Aches and pains.  Soreness and fatigue.

Once we got to the turn around we did some stretching in the hopes that it would help loosen up the tension in his legs and let us make it back however many miles we had left.  It was then that I started to notice the affect of not having my ipod with me.  I love listening to the miles count down, especially when I know that I’m past half way.  Each time the miles remaining is announced I say to myself, “Yeah, I can run X-amount of miles, no problem!”  It just feels better knowing that what you’ve already accomplished out weighs what you have left to do.

As Fidi kept fighting with his legs he began to slow his pace.  I started to get worried about the time because I had an appointment to meet Mr. Dawn for a cooking class this afternoon.  I felt so bad, but eventually had to pull away and try to get back to my car as soon as possible.  It did feel good to get some faster miles in and test out how my knee is doing.  It felt great all day, including the faster miles.

By the time I got home I felt the familiar tingle of runburn on the backs of my shoulders.  It’s my own running version of a farmer’s tan.

After our pizza-dough-making cooking class (which was amazing by the way) I was able to take my ice bath, clean out my car, finish the laundry, and ironing.  Oh, and I discovered that I had mapped our route wrong.  We ran 17.7 miles, not 16!  Whoops.  Have I mentioned how much I need a GPS?  I’m just sayin…

This has been the first week of this training season where I did not meet my running goals.  Instead, I had a couple firsts.  Sunday was the first time I have ever had to stop running because of pain.  Tuesday was the first time I’d ever exchanged a pair of running shoes because I was unsatisfied with their performance.  Thursday night/Friday morning was ta!he first time I was running during a sunset and the next morning’s sunrise.

This week’s miles:

Sunday-12.33; stupid rock in my shoe!  Ruined everything.
Monday-nothing except icing the knee, crying at work, and fearing that I wouldn’t be able to continue training.
Tuesday-new shoes!
Wednesday-4 tentative miles with no pain.
Thursday-8; including 10×100 meter sprints
Friday-11

Total Miles: 35.33

Seeing as how at one point in time I was afraid that I would have to back off running and maybe be out for a month, I feel pretty good about the week even without the extra miles.  It helps that I built a good base and still feel really confident about my endurance.  I’m not as sure about where my speed is right now, but we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks.

The best thing that happened this week (regarding running that is): running with a new friend.  I always do better when I have someone to run with me.  I’m excited about tomorrow’s run because Fidi said that he wants to run the 16 miles with me.

Regarding the cross-training front.  I have been tentatively working on my goal of doing chin-ups (or is it pull-ups?  I’m not sure).  I think I did one the other day.  However no one was there to confirm it and I’m not really sure what the rules are.  Am I allowed to have my grip facing in?  Is lifting up my knees in front, whilst struggling the last little bit allowed, or is it cheating?  I did do two like that…but still not sure if it counts…

Last night I had a magnificent run.  My friend Fidi decided to come with me and we did 8 miles that included some 100-meter sprints.  It was so fun having a new running buddy.  We chatted and the time just flew by.

Around mile 4 we got to experience a beautiful sunset.

This morning was the first time in almost three weeks that KT and I got to run together again.  She had to be somewhere at 8am, so it was up at 5:30.  I was planning on running 11 miles and she only wanted to get in three.  The plan was for me to run to her house, run three miles with her, and then finish up my miles on my own.

Around mile 8 there was a magnificent sunrise.

I don’t think I’ve ever been running during a consecutive sunset/sunrise before.

I did the math and discovered that I logged 19 miles in less than 12 hours.  We started our 8 mile run around 8pm and I ended my 11 miles just after 8am.  Awesome.  Or ridiculous.  Not sure which.

I love Google.  I remember the first time one of my education professors told us to “google” something and I had no idea what he meant.  I was still using Yahoo search to get around the internet.  A whole new world was opened up to me after that day.  Actually, when I first went to the Google homepage, I was confused because it was so empty.  I was used to other search engines that filled up every inch of space with links and adds.  This was also back when I used my hotmail account exclusively.  I had no idea how much more peaceful the world of Google was and would become.

Google as a company seems like they are a group of people who know how to have a good time and probably spend much of their time cracking up over programming jokes that the rest of us just wouldn’t understand.  This is evidenced every April Fools day.  They make some kind of company announcement that seems 100% legitimate until you realize that the date is April 1.  A couple years ago they claimed that their gmail service was going to allow post dating emails.  I actually received some forwards from irate people wanting to boycott all Google services after the announcement.  Silly people!  It’s April Fools day!

I must admit, I am usually against pranks.  I don’t participate and I really don’t appreciate being on the receiving end.  Google‘s pranks though?  Crack me up!  Read about the latest here.

Being a native Kansan, I love this!