Training Recap - Week of October 5th

Aside from missing a long run last week, overall got in a good week of training:

• Monday, Oct. 6th: 3 miles (a.m.), 3.6 miles - hill (p.m.)
• Tuesday, Oct. 7th: 3 miles (a.m.)
• Wednesday, Oct. 8th: 3 miles (a.m.), 3.6 miles - hill (p.m.)
• Thursday, Oct. 9th: 4.6 miles - track
• Friday, Oct. 10th: 3 miles

Total weekly miles: 23.8

I had good intentions of running 8 miles on Saturday morning, but some stomach issues presented themselves. I firmly believe that it was a little stomach bug and NOT the 1/2 bottle of wine and pizza consumed Friday night. No matter what the cause, fear of crapping my pants kept me from running Saturday.

On the non-running side of things, a great weekend. I had a blast scrapbooking Friday night with Erin (Sophie cooperated, went to bed early, and I got four pages done). Saturday, Sophie and I headed down to my mom's where we canned applesauce all day - a sign that fall is indeed here. Sunday morning, my mom and I played a couple of two-piano duets at her church. Had a a yummy lunch at Acapulco, and then did some shopping. Now it's back to the grind . . . It has been raining steadily here all day, so the evening run may not happen. Got in an easy 3 miles this morning, so I won't be heartbroken if I have to stay inside tonight (I'll have How I Met Your Mother to ease my pain).

Friday Randomness

I'm glad I got my rainy 3-miler in this morning, because this girl is NOT running tonight. No siree. I'm going to be hanging out, scrapbooking, and drinking wine. With my friend Erin, who's been so busy running around the world, that I haven't hung out with her in a month.

Last night I finally sucked it up and sort of cleaned out my car. All I can say is thank goodness I didn't get an Explorer like Eugene wanted and got the Escape instead -- an Explorer would have had me out there until midnight last night. Among other things, here's a list of things I removed from my vehicle:

• 4 half-eaten cinnamon graham crackers
• 2 skirts
• 3 1/2 pairs of shoes (if anyone sees a pink strappy high heel anywhere, it's mine . . .)
• 2 pairs of running socks (1 clean, 1 dirty)
• 7 Goldfish crackers
• 1 sippy cup
• 3 G2 bottles, in varying stages of fullness
• 1 black slip (which I have been looking for for about two weeks - so to everyone who's enjoyed looking through my skirt at the courthouse for the last 14 days, the show's over)
• running shorts, shirt & sports bra
• 2 empty tupperware containers

And my vehicle is still pretty full, because I left the following items inside: approximately 17 pens bearing my office name, 1 pair of shoes, 1 set of golf clubs, and a big bag full of baby toys. Why did I suddenly become a slob when I became a parent?

Finally, a word of advice: don't walk into the front of your office (where the secretaries sit) and ask, "Why does it smell like a pile of crap up here?" Apparently that's offensive to the person who caused said pile of crap odor. And she will proceed to send all the crazy-ass phone calls through to you all day in retaliation. Happy weekend!

Big Fat Dork

Last night, after Sophie miracously went to sleep before 9:00 for the first time in about a month, I sat down to create my friend's 5K training plan (or, what I am now referring to as, "Sarah's TTFU* 5K Countdown"). Of course, working on her plan got me thinking about my own running. I've been working on increasing my mileage since Grandma's, all in the name of building a solid base for my next marathon training. I am convinced that one of my major downfalls with Grandma's was the lack of base (that whole getting knocked up thing really threw me for a loop), and I don't want to make that mistake again.

But I'm weirdly excited to start the marathon training. I printed out a FIRST program and, using my goal marathon pace of 10:12 (a sub-4:30 marathon), wrote in all of the training times for the long runs. I spent almost an hour doing this crap last night -- three months before I'm supposed to even start training. Which of course got me thinking that I should just start now - because if 16 weeks of training is good, wouldn't an extra 12 be even better?

Loser. I know if I start running those crazy long runs now, I will get burnt out. I need to stick with the current plan - build my base mileage, shoot for weekly "long" runs for 10-12 miles, and run my super fun fall races. And settle right on down. Save this energy for the marathon. Good thing The Office is on tonight . . . another night alone with my running calendar could lead me to do something really crazy.

*toughen the fuck up

New Convert

Sarah has been my best friend for about seven years, and for almost that entire time, she has been completely adverse to exercise. She joined the YMCA a couple of years ago and got into step classes, but decided to quit the Y after hassles with the health insurance reimbursement. Over the seven years of our friendship, I can't count the number of times she has referred to my little running habit as completely crazy.

This morning we had the following conversation:
Sarah: "I don't even want to tell you this, because I think you'll get all crazy on me." (She may have even used the word harassment, but I don't really remember.)
Me: "What?"
Sarah: "Well, if I were going to start running, would you be able to help me?"

YES! I live for this stuff. Within five minutes I had her (I think) convinced to run a 5K with me on November 29th - a little over six weeks from now. I can't wait to finish traffic court Wednesday and get home to make her a little training plan.

Speaking of traffic court, I'm out of here . . . since the new trend seems to be to count how many times our presidential candidates repeat their catch phrases ("my friends"), I'll be counting how many times I throw out the phrase, "valid driver's license." Good times.

Rainy Day

Thank goodness I ran this morning, because it has been raining all day today and I probably won't run again this afternoon. Because the sun never came out, I feel like I should still be sleeping. I've been making it through the day by drinking Diet Mountain Dew and eating chocolate (thank goodness for the senior trip/band uniform/improving school lunch fundraiser - I have a lifetime supply of mint meltaways). It is supposed to be nice tomorrow, so I'll shoot for 3 miles in the morning, and another run after work. But tonight, I'll be hanging inside the house with Sophie, watching the Biggest Loser and the debate.

Training Recap - Week of September 28th

I had a great week last week, training and everything. The recap:

• Sunday, Sept. 28th - 3.6 miles
• Monday, Sept. 29th - 3 miles
• Tuesday, Sept. 30th - 3 miles (a.m.), 3.6 miles (p.m.)
• Wednesday, Oct. 1st - 3 miles (a.m.), 3 miles - hill (p.m.)
• Thursday, Oct. 2nd - 3 miles (a.m.), 4.6 miles - track (p.m.)
• Saturday, Oct. 4th - 11 miles
• total miles: 37.8

I had some pain in my right leg nagging me through most of the week, and after Saturday's 11-miler, both calves were sooooo tight. I busted through the pain by mega cleaning in preparation for Sophie's birthday party, and it seems to have worked. After taking yesterday off, I ran 3 miles this morning, and they were only a little bit tight.

Sophie's birthday was so much fun - I can't believe I have a one-year old!

I'm hoping for another good solid week of training this week. I want to keep a strong base going, so when I tackle the next marathon training at the end of January I will be ready.

Happy October

I love October. It is the perfect distance between the humidity of summer and the 3-month period of depression and freezing my ass off that is January through March in Minnesota. My two favorite races are this month -- the Run for the Apples at the Pine Tree Apple farm in White Bear Lake, and the Anoka Gray Ghost run before the Halloween Parade. We're celebrating Sophie's 1st birthday on Sunday, and I've got a wine tasting weekend planned later in the month. Life is good.

I didn't hit the 100 mile mark in September -- but was close. I'm not going to beat myself up about it, because we had two weeks with Sophie really not sleeping much at all. I might be superwoman, but really, even superwoman has to get a little bit of sleep! I'm going to work hard to get in more than 100 miles this month.

My track workout last night didn't happen AGAIN. Last week it was lightening, this week, crazy high school football players swarming the track. I feel old enough running past the cross-country team as they are out practicing. I don't need to make it worse by letting a bunch of pimply 15-year olds run me down while I'm traying to hoof it around the track. So I turned around and took a meandering route back through town (got to take advantage of every last second of babysitting offered by my mother-in-law!). I have plans to try to the track again tomorrow after work.