the perfect run - gerlinda

i had one of those runs yesterday that was so amazing it's hard to describe. why can't you bottle up that mood and take a shot before every run??? i don't know what it was... the perfect weather? it was dusk and the air was cool and almost autumn-y. i did my 4.5m loop around grant park, varying the route slightly to avoid having to go DOWN the monster hill at the beginning. i had put some new music on my iPod - some cure and radiohead and this song called "metal and steel" that i love. i somehow managed to pace myself and not get all exhausted in the beginning. there was this one moment at about the first mile, where i had to cross the street & i found myself face to face with oncoming traffic, so i turned up the gas and sprinted across the road, and it was like i had never felt those muscles before - they were so strong all of a sudden, it was like nothing to just keep going faster and faster. i mean, it was only crossing the street - but i surprised myself. i felt like i could outrun the traffic! i kept getting faster and faster as the run progressed and the music pumped me up. i think i did the loop in 43 minutes and felt so good at the end that i ran right by my street and had to turn around...

???
i dunno what it was - a gift from the running gods, i suppose! tuesday's 3-miler sucked; i went too fast and then had to stop and walk for a bit. i need to do another short run today or tomrrow & then this weekend, abby & i are going to run around for an hour 1/2 or so, trying to get in 9 miles. IF SHE'S NOT TOO SORE!!!!! :)

sore -- by abby

i took monday off because you're supposed to. this morning i ran a little recovery 5k and felt okay running, though going down the stairs poses more of an issue. the truth is: i'm sore. more sore than i would like to admit.


i always hate the "taper" week (the week right before a race) and the "zero" week (the week right after a race). i feel gross because i can't get in as many workouts but i still eat like a little piggy. i know it's normal, but still. poo. tomorrow i want another 5k or so ... since i'll be off thurs and then who knows how this week of being in atlanta will look, aside from 9 miles with g on saturday?

and that is all. see ya in a few, g.

Woah! You're FAST Abby!! -gerlinda

WAY TO GO on the half mary!!!! that is so, so, so awesome!! You must feel really good about yourself!!!!!! and such a challenging course, too! I bet you could've broken 2 hours on the flat va. beach course! Wow. I'm very stoked for you!!!

me? not so much. i was good about my runs last week...i ran more miles than i had to, generally. until yesterday's 8-miler. i dunno. it was hot and really muggy. they had been calling for rain, and i'd expected overcast skies ... but no. anyway, i flaked out at the halfway point for no reason other than i couldn't get my mental game on. i ran a hard 4 miles at a 10-minute pace, and maybe that's why i found myself unable to resist the temptation to stop. "after all," said the devil, "your schedule calls for a step back week, you're only doing 8 because you decided to..." and that was the end of that. ah! gotta work on that mental toughness!

i'm gonna need it, becase this week is going to be hard! great! but way too busy - and fitting in quality runs will be a bit of a logistics nightmare, requiring early mornings and such... but i'll do it! and i get to run this weekend's 9-miler with Abby The Speedster, so at least i'll have the company of her backside, as she leaves me in the dust! :)

it musta been the pesto -- by abby

the lewis & clark half marathon is a really pretty, grueling course that takes you from kelly canyon where lewis & clark camped to the MSU track complex. it starts downhill, and then hits some serious rolling hills, and then hits some serious technical trails and then hits a long uphill followed by a long downhill and then finishes pretty flat on trails for the last 5k.

i was ready for it to be over before it started. the hype is ... well, hype, i guess. i mean, you get on a bus with a bunch of strangers and everyone's all nervous and twitchy and has to pee alot and stuff. and i just want to be running, already! so, when the horn went off, well i guess i'd had enough hype. and def enough standing around in the cold grass. it was freezing at the start, and my feet were numb. i ran the first mile in under 8 minutes and the first 5k in under 25 minutes (wha ...?). all i have to say about that is it must have been part fuel (can anyone say more pesto please?) and part anxiety. then came the hills, where i decided i better slow up or risk dying.

but, something about a race gets in you, you know? it's like, it can't be just a training run, no matter how much you want it to be. so i mountain-goated up and down the steep switchbacks before burke park and then there was this kid, like an 8th grader, sitting on the sidewalk playing his trombone. and that was excellent. (this is a small-town race. nothing but aid stations every 2-3 miles to keep you going ... and the occasional bystander cheering you on. so the trombone kid -- everyone loved him.)

the scenery was excellent and running's a nice way to see your own town. anyway, i felt pretty good until about the 10 mile mark, and then my body started with its usual complaints. i fueled, walked a hill, got inspired by the people running around me, by the two marathoners who passed me, and just kept going to finish feeling pretty good in 2:08:59, which is like 9:52 pace. it was fun. really. in the way that races like this are.

today, i'm a little sore but basically no worse for the wear. so, check that one off, kids. only 13.1 more to go!

run abby run! - gerlinda

i can't wait to hear how your half mary goes!!!

me, i'm hanging in there.
i'm a day behind this week because of falling off the wagon, but i did between 4-5 yesterday - ran from my office to my friend's office after worked, and then helped her put together some Ikea furniture. i'll be running a bit tonight, and a bit tomorrow. and i think i'm supposed to do 8 this weekend. i haven't been very anal about the distances. i've been more, like, picking a destination and just running it. ususally it's a little farther than my schedule calls for, but i'm never sure on the mileage.

i'm grateful to be at the beginning of this training schedule...already it feels like it takes up a lot of my time. i can't imagine how it'll be once the miles start piling on!

almost there by abby

monday ... who remembers? tues i ran 5 and felt fine. yesterday was just ... well, unhealthy all the way around. i ran 4 this morning in the rain/wet/cold/burr. it was okay, but i felt starving for some reason. i'm sort of ignoring the taper for this half ... because really it's just another training run, since i continue to go up in mileage after it's over. but, i am going to take it easy tomorrow and saturday, and -- most importantly -- eat.

i love winter, and i'm glad it's basically here. it's absolutely my favorite season, hands down, no matter how much i'm ready for spring and summer, no matter how good the air smells in fall. the peaks are snow-covered and it's not long until the valley floor is too. really, this time of year, the transition away from summer and into winter (we have like 3 days of fall), it's renewing and refreshing. but ... i have to say i'm sad to see the bikes get put up (as much i like seeing the skis and snowshoes come down), and i'm sad that we're losing daylight like crazy, and, although i'm enjoying splitting wood now, i know i'll be sick of it by december. anyway, i'm rambling.

on the wagon - gerlinda

i sucked it up & did my 7 miles last night after work. it was fantastic, one of the best runs i've ever had. 1:15, which i think is a little shorter than the last time i ran 7.

off the wagon - gerlinda

Abby - good luck in your half this weekend!!! I can't wait to hear about it.

Nothing much to report. I ran around Grant Park for 45 minutes friday and felt good about it. I was supposed to do 7 miles this weekend, but i had a very long and interesting weekend and ended up not working out at all. So, sometime today, I need to make up the 7 miles. Which I *will* do, come hell or high water! :)

10 again by abby

crazy week. i think i left off at monday.
tues -- 5 mi run
weds -- pilates; 12 mi mountain bike ride (50 mins)
thurs -- 5 mi run
fri -- pilates
sat -- 3 mi walk w/ dogs
today -- 10. felt great. i dunno what my problem was last week. probably just anxiety. today's run was cold and very windy, but i had on the right clothes and really felt fine. time was 1:41, so i should be able to pull off a 2:10-2:15 half next week, although i know it's a tough, gravelly and hilly course so who knows? i'm just going to go and run it and do my best and have no expectations (as much as i manage that). today i played with food a little. food has a tendency to be my worst enemy during races, mostly because it get myself all worked up and then my insides revolt. but i know it's important to figure out what will work and what won't, thus the beginnings of experimentation. today i ate a clif bar shot block organic energy chew at about mile 6, just to see how that went. it went fine. maybe it helped. maybe it didn't. i've never really been an eater on runs. gu and other gels make me gag, though admittedly i have the gag reflexes of a 2-month-old. power bars and the like are okay if they're softened enough, and that's the road i've gone down in the past -- 1/2 a powerbar before a race, the other 1/2 during. recently i've found the clif bar nectar bars to be my energy bar of choice -- they're soft and date/fig/nut-based and all natural and easy to get down. so these shot block things are interesting. they're chewy and sweet and organic, which i like. they come in a few different flavors and today's the first day i tried one and like i said, maybe it helped, maybe it didn't. anyway. food. gah. whatevs.

pilates is a new introduction into my workouts, and i'm using it mostly for strength and stretching. and plus i can do it from home, for free, which is good. i wanted to be in bikgram yoga again at this point, but right now i can't afford that, so, pilates it is! and i like it -- it's fine. i can get a good workout in in 30 minutes before work and it's a good way to wake up, i guess. so anyway. i plan to do it M-W-F. that's the story. next week's the half marathon!

just checkin' in - gerlinda

Abby, i think we must be on different training schedules at this point...
after the half, my schedule switched over the Hal Higdon's novice marathon training schedule - which has me running 4 days per week, instead of the 3 + cross that i was doing on the half schedule. also, my long run is slated for saturdays instead of sundays (but i'll prolly be switching that.)

ANYWAY, at this early stage, 3 of my 4 runs this week are 3m each; the 4th is 7 miles. i've done 2 of the 3 milers so far, and hopefully will do another 3 miler tomorrow. again, i'm having trouble forcing myself out of bed in the morning...so i've been doing the 3 milers at the gym, on my lunch break. Good news is that i shaved my 5K time down to 28:45! i still feel like i could go faster - but i seem to lack the mental character to block out the "pain" of pushing myself that hard.

i'm not competitive and there is a large part of me that finds it incomprehensible that anyone would ever want to hurt so much just to get a faster time...when its so rewarding just to run, period.

swim, run -- by abby

so, my mountains are back. all last week, they were gone. obscured by smoke. i think that might have been part of my problem last week. my sense of place is key to my sense of self, and the mountains are such a key part of my existence that it's like a part of me got obscured too. mountains help me escape the anxiety and tedium and heartbreak of trying to live a normal person. without them, i guess i'm sort of just adrift and tense and missing pieces. i know they were still there, despite their invisibility. but i just felt claustrophic and closed into some weird world where everything i could count on was just beyond my reach. so. obvs, i am glad to have them back!

anyway. monday i did pilates in the morning and then swam 1500 at lunch, which broke down to a 300 warmup and 200 cool down, with a mess of 50, 100, 150s and 50 kicks mindlessly strung together. it was a short workout, only half and hour. i haven't been in the pool in forever, and i'm feeling it in my arms and upper back today. i need to pull out my old masters swim binder and put together some workouts that make sense. then, this morning i got out early for 5 miles and felt great. it was dark and the moon was bright and the stars were big and the mountains were silhouetted against the sky. i was kind of worried since last saturday's run was so icky, so i was relieved when i settled in easily and the run went off without a hitch.

this weekend, the weather's calling for snow in the mountains and rain/snow mix in the valleys. so i guess i need to find my tights. speaking of tights, these look interesting. they're expensive, but knowing that i've got three months of long, cold runs ahead makes me think they might be worth the investment.

this week sucked X 2 - gerlinda

Abby - I have no earthly idea why some runs just feel...off, and others feel great. I don't seem to have any kind of consistency with my runs. I can't seem to find connections between sleep or food or stress or anything as to why one run would feel so much harder than you think it should... Maybe i should start keeping a written record of food & stuff, like when i was in boot camp. Maybe there *are* patterns, but I'm just missing them. I dunno.

Anyway, I kind of took last week off as a reward to myself for finishing the 1/2 marathon. I did a little swimming on Monday, mostly to work out the soreness I had in my quads. I lifted a few weights on tuesday - enough to make me sore the next day, but nothing too harsh. I didn't do anything at all Wed or Thurs. Friday, I went on a 13ish mile hike, but it was moderate, and I stopped for about an hour in the middle to eat a sandwich, read, enjoy the view, etc.

Saturday, I tried to run for the first time since the half. I had one of those "off" runs you were describing, Abby. I was on vacation w/ my family in W. Va, so I took advantage of the opportunity to run on trails. I meant to just head out for about an hour long run, but, I only made it 45 minutes. And I had to stop and walk a few times. I just felt, flat I guess. I was wearing my heart rate monitor, and even though it read in the 150's, I was breathing heavy. I amost wonder if I lost some of my aerobic conditioning by not doing anything this week? It was nice to run on the trails, though. Would've been nicer if I'd felt good about the run. Onward & Upward! Today, I have to get back on my program!

ashes, ashes, we all run 8 - by abby

this week sucked!!!!!!! it was sooo smokey by weds and thurs that there was ash in the air here. thursday i planned to do 5 on the treadmill, but i loathe the treadmill so much that when it came time to actually do it, i didn't. argh!!!! so, that means i missed wed and thurs, which meant i had to do *something* friday. or course, there was still the ash issue, which means no outside exercise, etc, etc, WILL SOMEONE PLEASE PUT THE FIRES OUT????


i'm a bit rigid when it comes to scheduling and time. i admit it. i like getting my run workouts done in the morning, because i don't like having them hanging over my head all day. if something happens to inhibit my schedule – like, oh say 300,000 acres go up in flames about 30 miles away – i have a really hard time dealing with it. it's an ocd thing, and it will always plague me, i'm sure, but i just need to be okay with things going differently. SO. that said, after throwing a brief tantrum and being inconsolably grouchy early friday morning, i put my on my run clothes, shoved some jeans and a tshirt in my gym bag, and hit the gym. and it wasn't that big of a deal, i told myself. FINE. so i did 4 on the treadmill at about 9:30 pace and was at work by 9, which is when everyone else shows up, so no one even noticed that i wasn't there at 8 like usual. so .... in the future, if there are environment/weather issues, i know that i can be okay with the gym as an option. of course the gym is always an option -- it's my own stupid stubborness about wanting to be outside that's the issue. but see ... i'm becoming more flexible by the minute!


ANYWAY. today was not quite as smokey, and i felt okay about running outside. i did 8, in about 1:20, and honestly, i felt horrible. gerlinda has asked if i feel bad if i don't run well, and i've always said i try not to judge myself. but today, something was just off. i mean, i felt great about last week's 12. so why would 8 be an issue suddenly? maybe it was because my schedule got all wonked and i missed more workouts than normal and got myself all worked up about that. maybe it was because i had a show last night and ended up eating dinner at 10:30, and just a measly salad at that. maybe it's 7 days of breathing ash. i dunno. gah.

holy smoke! by abby

yeehaaaw g! congrats! i bet it feels good to have the 1/2 behind you!!

i've been sort of slacking .....

we took a spontaneous trip down to jackson hole over the long weekend so i had sunday and monday off unless you count walking around the town square and teton village.

it's so smoky from the fires here that everyone's been told not to exert themselves too much outside, lest we die. nevertheless, i did 5 outside on tuesday. it wasn't that bad, really. until about 10 am when i started coughing and wheezing. dang smoke. yesterday i meant to swim, but got conned into a "work" lunch .... and today it's still smokey .... so i'm planning on banging 5 out on the treadmill. this weekend i'll go down to 8, then 10 next week, then my 1/2, finally! i'm actually kinda looking forward to it .....

i survived the half marathon - gerlinda

So, mainly... I DID IT!
i'm not sure yet how to put it into words, how to make you feel what it meant to me. so - i guess, just, pick something you'd never in a million years think you could do. maybe even something you don't really even WANT to do. and then try to imagine how it would feel to do that thing. and then try to imagine how it would feel to do that thing for someone else, someone who has known you your whole life and who would be so startlingly proud of you. Whatever words that would describe that, that's how it felt.

as for the race itself ... i went through various iterations of emotion. friday, before Rama, Lauren and I left, i was a HUGE bitch. and i realized, even at the time, it was because i was nervous. everything in me just wanted to back out of whatever it was that i was about to experience, because i was afraid.

but, i had to maintain and not freak out ... and luckily, the logistics of getting to the race kind of drove the fear underground. we flew into Richmond, VA to have a little mini-vacation before the race. saturday, KerriAnn and Eileen (Lauren's Mom & Sister) met us and we all drove to Va. Beach together. There was unexpectedly awful traffic, and we only made it to race registration with 45 minutes to spare. Then, it turned out that the hotel had lost power to half its rooms. They managed to move us into the presidential suite (which deserves a post in and of itself.) We hadn't planned ahead about food or anything, and all the pasta places (of which there were only 3 within walking distance) had long waits. We finally sat down to eat at around 8:30, and Lauren was so starving that she got a little, um, assertive, with the wait staff. I think they finally served us around 9:30, by which time Lauren's anxiousness had been surpassed by a sad desperation ... she sat and silently stared toward the kitchen while her body slowly ate itself from the inside out. But - our spaghetti finally arrived; we ate and went back to the hotel to sleep. Except, I was too excited and nervous to sleep. Maybe I dozed a little.

Race morning, everyone was kind of in her own head. Rama had laid out all the race fodder on a counter - GU gels, blister bandaids, enduroshots, amino vital, bananas, bodyglide (the awesome anti-chafe lube,) advil, excedrin, even aspircream. Rama was methodically going down the line, taking care of her pre-race medical and nutrional needs. KerriAnn was tying and untying her shoes. Lauren was doing the dynamic stretches we learned in boot camp. I was obsessing about the giant, painful blister on the back of my heel. I finally dealt with it by putting bodyglide under a bandaid and then more bodyglide over that. It still hurt like crazy when I put on my shoes, but - what was i going to do? Not run because of a stupid blister? i don't think so.

Lauren and KerriAnn were in corral 7, having both put down anticpated finish times around 2 hours. Rama was in corral 13, and I snuck in with her. It was cool and breezy - perfect weather. Rama and I stretched and bounced and chatted nervously and it felt like forever, but finally, they let the elite athletes go...and then one by one, they let each corral surge forward.

Rama and I stayed together for the first 3 miles, doing an almost dead-on 10-min. mile pace. At mile 3, Rama stopped off to eat a GU and that was the last I saw of her. By mile 4, I could feel that I needed to slow down if I wanted to have any hope of finishing strong ... but it was next to impossible. The runners surging around me, some darting past, some falling back; the crowd lining the sidewalks, cheering; the bands playing every mile or so; the water stations every couple miles; the flat course leant itself to staying on pace - almost so that it was wrenching to speed up or slow down ... all those things pushed me past my "Long, Slow, Distance" pace.

I had put vinyl letters on the back of my shirt that said "4 U DAD," and I really could feel him with me the whole way. Around mile 6 or so, we ran past a golf course, and I smiled to myself, thinking that if he were with me, he'd have booked a round and chosen that spot to come cheer me on, so that he could support me, and still get in a little golf. Just past that point, there was a band playing Bon Jovi "Living on a Prayer," and half the runners around me started singing "oooooh, we're halfway there!" Runners are so stupid! (And I'm grinning as I type that.)

The neighborhoods we ran through were competing against each other for "best cheerleader" bragging rights. I think the pirates won hands down. This neighborhood built an entire pirate ship, dressed in kerchiefs and eyepatches, and sprayed us down with hoses yelling "Give me an Arrrrgh!." I even saw some of them handing out beer! Mile 7, Mile 8, past the pirates, through tree-shaded neighborhoods...

Around mile 9, once we were on Atlantic Avenue it started feeling a little harder. The sun had come up just as the race was starting, and by now, it was beating down on us without any relief. There was no shade and no breeze either, even though the beach was visible to the right, in between hotels. I was really looking forward to the GU station at mile 10. I knew 100 calories of carbs and vitamins would push me through to the end. But mile 10 came and went, and no GU!! Argh!! Mercifully, there were a few "misting stations" where you could cool off. Up till this point, my strategy had been to walk through the water stations that cropped up every couple of miles, and then run the rest of the way. By now, my pace had slacked off to 11+ min. miles. I was still feeling strong, but I was tired and it was definitely an effort, especially mentally, to keep going.

As we turned onto the boardwalk at mile 11, the sun was beating down harder than ever - but at last there was an ocean breeze. And there was a band playing something really LOUD and FAST, so that helped. At mile 12, I turned on the gas a little - and ended up having to stop and walk for a bit. I had some sort of weird pain in my left foot that I hope is not the beginnings of a stress fracture. At 12.5, there was an unexpected water station! Praise Jesus! I picked up the pace again, and when I saw Mile 13, I started sprinting. I ran that last 10th full out ... and suddenly - i had done it, it was over.

To my left, a guy was puking over the rail. To my right, another guy was holding up his girlfriend, who had literally fallen out and could barely stand up. Me? My muscles were seizing up and I felt kind of foggy and light headed and I had my hands on top of my head, trying to slow down my breathing. the crowd pressed all around me; we were all herding slowly, slowly toward I don't know where. Someone handed me a bottle of water. A few minutes after that, I got a little towel soaked in ice, which I draped over my head. Then somone handed me a bottle of Amino Vital, which was good because without remembering doing it, I had finished off my water. Then, a man smiled at me and put a medal around my neck and I would have cried, except I was too dehydrated to have any tears. Then I saw Lauren, and she gave me a banana. And soon after that, the colors got sharper and the world started making sense again. We found Rama and KerriAnn, and Eileen and we all kind of slapped each other on the back and hugged and talked gibberish about what we remembered from the course.

My time was 2:22:12, a 10:54/mile pace, if that matters.

Things I learned:
1) make a reservation for your pre-race pasta dinner!
2) carry your own GU!
3) it's difficult to conceive how i will ever run 26.2 miles, when 13.1 was such a challenge. i am backing off my goal of finishing in under 5 hours. if i can finish at all, it will be *something.* And that's all I want to do.
4) blister, schmister. the bodyglide and the bandaid worked.

12 by abby

***GOOD LUCK SUNDAY GERLINDA!!!!***

i'll be thinking of you and sending you good vibes from afar. :)

i did 12 this morning, and feel pretty good about it. i spent a lot of the day friday moving rocks, so my hamstrings were pretty tight, but i just ran through it. my time was 2:03, which means i should be able to do the half in 2:15, though i am setting a 2:20 goal for myself just in case. this was a hilly run ... the same course as usual, but with 1.5 more miles (3 round trip), and those are hilly miles --- lots of ups and downs, steep, neverending, argh. i ran them all, though. i did walk one hill toward the end of mile 7 ... mostly so i could strip down to less clothes. anyway, i feel like i could have managed another 3 miles if i'd had to, so that's good.

the rest of the week went as normal -- 5 on tues, 18 mile road bike on weds, 5 on thurs, rest fri (except for the above-mentioned rock moving and other gardening.) i took a GPS to my routes on friday ... and it turns out i've been running about .3 miles over each distance ... so that means i've been just under 10-minute pace, which is kind of encouraging. now that i know exact distances, though, i'll be running just those ....