The truth is I haven't been running in several days. Perhaps weeks? But with the FirstLight half marathon coming up, I should probably get back out there and get moving.
For Christmas, my best friend Daphne bought me a Christmas tree ornament with 26.2 on it. She got it from HeavyMedalz, a company in Waco, Texas, that specializes in making metal ornaments and medal racks so that one can showcase marathon medals (or medals from another sport). You should check it out. My husband probably would have done well to have a karate rack back in college...
Unfortunately, the ornament is too heavy for my Charlie Brown tree (but it's really not that heavy), so right now it is hanging on the knob to my entertainment center. Next year it will hang on the tree. I love it.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
10.33 miles
Saturday, Kat and I went for a long run (turned out to be >10 miles) and it didn't go very well for me. I started out with stitches in my side, and it went downhill from there. We were supposed to do this long run, but since there wasn't water anywhere except Cathy's house, we had to plan our route around our cars and Cathy's. There are not even 4 miles between them. That made things interesting (and what I really mean is that it didn't allow us to make things interesting). We did quite a bit of walking, but who's counting?
Yesterday, it was unseasonably warm outside, and I just really wanted to go for a run, but I had places I needed to be. I hope it's nice out today, because Laura was out of town so we didn't go running this morning. I just need to relieve some holiday stress by pounding it out on the pavement...
Yesterday, it was unseasonably warm outside, and I just really wanted to go for a run, but I had places I needed to be. I hope it's nice out today, because Laura was out of town so we didn't go running this morning. I just need to relieve some holiday stress by pounding it out on the pavement...
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Lone Runner
Well, it's Saturday, and that means that today was a long run. For me, it was eight miles.
Eli (my husband) came home from work at 3:30 this morning, so I knew I wasn't going to wake him up at 5:30 to go with me because I'm just not that cruel. Laura wasn't going to be there because she's moving to a new apartment today, and I hadn't heard from Kat.
So, today, I ran alone (mostly). I hate running alone. But yet, today it wasn't so bad. I didn't have any excuse to walk. I didn't have anyone talking to distract me, but I was able to think through some things going on at work, and some stresses in my personal life (December always brings stress). I was able to imagine in my mind that I would be writing this post and be able to say,
"Today, I ran 7 and nine-tenths of 8 miles."
That's pretty dang impressive for me. As I was running back across the Lurleen Wallace Bridge on the opposite side, I remembered what Kat had said in the early summer on one of our first runs together, about me being a [dang] Energizer Bunny. That's really how I felt today. I kept going and going and going. I only stopped to walk at the water stops x 2, and then for a distance from the corner of the University side of the Quad to Denny Chimes, with under 1 mile to go.
You know, I never cease to be amazed with what our bodies can do. I was probably supposed to run further today if I plan to run the whole Mercedes Marathon (I haven't decided yet) but I feel really good about what I did today.
I had an inkling that I could probably run farther than I had tried, but that I was letting my fear of running alone hold me back with slower runners so that I would have someone to talk to. And I still don't think there's anything wrong with that. But now I know. I can run 8 miles pretty much without stopping, and I can run by myself without going crazy insane in the silence.
Eli (my husband) came home from work at 3:30 this morning, so I knew I wasn't going to wake him up at 5:30 to go with me because I'm just not that cruel. Laura wasn't going to be there because she's moving to a new apartment today, and I hadn't heard from Kat.
So, today, I ran alone (mostly). I hate running alone. But yet, today it wasn't so bad. I didn't have any excuse to walk. I didn't have anyone talking to distract me, but I was able to think through some things going on at work, and some stresses in my personal life (December always brings stress). I was able to imagine in my mind that I would be writing this post and be able to say,
"Today, I ran 7 and nine-tenths of 8 miles."
That's pretty dang impressive for me. As I was running back across the Lurleen Wallace Bridge on the opposite side, I remembered what Kat had said in the early summer on one of our first runs together, about me being a [dang] Energizer Bunny. That's really how I felt today. I kept going and going and going. I only stopped to walk at the water stops x 2, and then for a distance from the corner of the University side of the Quad to Denny Chimes, with under 1 mile to go.
You know, I never cease to be amazed with what our bodies can do. I was probably supposed to run further today if I plan to run the whole Mercedes Marathon (I haven't decided yet) but I feel really good about what I did today.
I had an inkling that I could probably run farther than I had tried, but that I was letting my fear of running alone hold me back with slower runners so that I would have someone to talk to. And I still don't think there's anything wrong with that. But now I know. I can run 8 miles pretty much without stopping, and I can run by myself without going crazy insane in the silence.
Marathon Challenge
One of the Team In Training members for the fall season was able to DVR Nova's Marathon Challenge on PBS and offered to put it on DVD for anyone who missed it. We had a hard time catching up with each other Saturday mornings so she could give it to me, and finally she sent it in the mail. I got it yesterday, and I watched it last night.
For those of you who have not seen it, it's an experiment to see if regular people could be marathoners. They chose 13 Bostonians from all different walks of life (fitness levels, ages, health issues, personal issued, weights) and spent nine months training them for the Boston Marathon. One girl had to drop out because of chronic stress fractures in her shins, but they replaced her with a 300-pound former football player. In the end, the final 12 finish the marathon.
I was a little bit disappointed in the show. I don't know what I was expecting, but I guess I was expecting more. It was still a good story, though, because I saw my own story--mortal becomes marathoner--but with 3 more months of training. And at one point in the filming, when one of the last women was crossing the finish line, the person immediately behind her was a TEAM member! I saw the purple and my eyes were drawn to her, rather than the bright yellow of the Nova team member. That was pretty neat.
The one part that was most interesting to me was the explanation about how running makes you healthier almost immediately. The Nova team members had to have physicals before they were allowed to take on the challenge, and one of the measurements taken was each runner's Vo2 Max. From what I gather, it has something to do with the amount of oxygen that your body is able to use to oxygenate the blood going to your various limbs. Each person's max is different depending on how sedentary a lifestyle they were leading. At the beginning, the team was mostly in the poor to fair range. Nine months later, they were all excellent to superior, like professional athletes.
In that first physical, each runner also underwent some sort of body scan that determined a very accurate muscle to fat ratio. One of the women was over 50% fat! I think I'd be scared to undergo that test.
Another interesting thing was how they mentioned that the runners didn't really lose any weight in nine months, and when they interviewed the doctor, she said that running is not really a sport for weight loss, but more for major cardiovascular and minor muscular gains. The key to losing weight is diet. (Duh!) Some things you just know, but don't really practice. I also have been running pretty regularly for 8 months and have had no noticeable weight loss, but my asthma has not been acting up, and I have a lot more energy and better outlook.
So, all in all, I would recommend this Nova program, Marathon Challenge, for any mortals out there.
For those of you who have not seen it, it's an experiment to see if regular people could be marathoners. They chose 13 Bostonians from all different walks of life (fitness levels, ages, health issues, personal issued, weights) and spent nine months training them for the Boston Marathon. One girl had to drop out because of chronic stress fractures in her shins, but they replaced her with a 300-pound former football player. In the end, the final 12 finish the marathon.
I was a little bit disappointed in the show. I don't know what I was expecting, but I guess I was expecting more. It was still a good story, though, because I saw my own story--mortal becomes marathoner--but with 3 more months of training. And at one point in the filming, when one of the last women was crossing the finish line, the person immediately behind her was a TEAM member! I saw the purple and my eyes were drawn to her, rather than the bright yellow of the Nova team member. That was pretty neat.
The one part that was most interesting to me was the explanation about how running makes you healthier almost immediately. The Nova team members had to have physicals before they were allowed to take on the challenge, and one of the measurements taken was each runner's Vo2 Max. From what I gather, it has something to do with the amount of oxygen that your body is able to use to oxygenate the blood going to your various limbs. Each person's max is different depending on how sedentary a lifestyle they were leading. At the beginning, the team was mostly in the poor to fair range. Nine months later, they were all excellent to superior, like professional athletes.
In that first physical, each runner also underwent some sort of body scan that determined a very accurate muscle to fat ratio. One of the women was over 50% fat! I think I'd be scared to undergo that test.
Another interesting thing was how they mentioned that the runners didn't really lose any weight in nine months, and when they interviewed the doctor, she said that running is not really a sport for weight loss, but more for major cardiovascular and minor muscular gains. The key to losing weight is diet. (Duh!) Some things you just know, but don't really practice. I also have been running pretty regularly for 8 months and have had no noticeable weight loss, but my asthma has not been acting up, and I have a lot more energy and better outlook.
So, all in all, I would recommend this Nova program, Marathon Challenge, for any mortals out there.
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