Thursday, January 26, 2012

Three Things Thursday

Let's go with three positives and three negatives:

YAY! I had a great night in with Steve and Cory! And they seemed to like the salmon sandwiches and sweet potato fries I made!


BOO! This Thursday night was without my sweetie. 


YAY! At least he gets to pick me up from the train station tomorrow afternoon!


BOO! It's 10:40 pm and I haven't even packed yet, which means a late night and an early morning. I hate not having enough sleep.


YAY! Par-tay for T's 14th birthday this weekend!


BOO! It's in my parents' basement, and a lot of people will be there that I either don't like or don't know (but probably if I knew them, I wouldn't like them).

YAY! (I have to leave on a high note:) I get to run hills and dales with my sweetie tomorrow all around my parents' neighborhood (and I've heard it said that hill work IS speedwork)!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Seven miles

Technically, last week was five miles (which I did), but next week is eight; so I decided instead of jumping up two miles in one week, I'd jump one and a half, two weeks in a row. So today I did a little over six and a half in a like over an hour. Next weekend, though...is going to be  little more than busy. Lunch with PJ on Saturday, T's party Saturday night, and Sunday head back early for eight miles. Yikes.

But at least I did what I was supposed to do today. Even if I just felt like staying in bed. I did it. Isn't that the real battle, anyway? "A journey of a thousand miles behind with putting on your running clothes and stepping out your front door," right? It's something like that.

And my half marathon journey begins (or continues) like this. And I think I'm in for an adventure. A journey. 13.1 thousand miles.

Friday, January 20, 2012

I wasn't tagged, but...

Yeah, yeah. I'm a thief. Stealing ideas and blog prompts. Whatever. Here goes. First, the questions, then the random things.

Q: What's the last thing I took a picture of?
A: Snowball in the back seat of Goldie last weekend when we went to pick up a pizza.

Q: What made me decide to write my blog?
A: Motivation. I wanted to be held accountable to myself, and to have a record of my distances and how I felt, challenges, barriers, words of encouragement, and everything in between.

Q: If I had to listen to one song on repeat the rest of my life...?
A: I might have to kill myself. There's nothing I would like for that long. Nothing.

Q: One item on my bucket list?
A: Kids.

Q: If I could be on any tv show...?
A: If we're talking reality show where I'm myself, then "The Amazing Race." If we're talking changing my life to a sitcom, then "Gilmore Girls."

Q: Start my own race, what distance would it be?
A: I think my favorite distance is 10k. So far, anyway. We shall see how the half goes.

Q: What would I name the race?
A: (These are getting to be some pretty lame questions.) Umm... 10k on a Tuesday, because alteration is always funny, and when are runs ever held on a random Tuesday? Like, never.

Q: If I had to live an alternate-food lifestyle...?
A: I don't think I could go a week, much less a month or longer without meat, sugar, fish, or anything processed. Instead of taking something away, why not add a while bunch of veggies to my diet? I would do that. Fruit. Veggies. There you go.

Q: If I had to train with just one person for an entire training cycle...?
A: Might be pretty cool to train for something - even a 5k - with Xander. That would be fun. Y' know, if he could come back to life for a while.

Now, I think I can think of maybe ten random things. Here...


I will eat almost anything, at least once. I've eaten some crazy sea creatures, and some stuff from my recent jaunt to N'awlins. Nothing too crazy, but enough to say, "yeah, I ate that."

2
I freak out. Very obsessive-compulsive and anxious. Almost all the time. I've ditched some habits, but picked up new ones over the years. I think of some of these habits as a prison I put myself in, and that motivates me to try to escape, but I'm not always successful. Sad.

3
I love to read, but haven't done much reading recently. I'm not sure why, but I just don't feel like it. I don't even know what kind of reading material sounds good.

4
I'm often nervous when it comes to meeting up with my family for certain activities. Such as an upcoming trip with my brother. Very anxious about that. Worried about what we'll talk about and how soon we will find disagreements. Also nervous about staying in the same hotel room.

5
I think I should eat more protein. I was eating a ton of Greek yogurt, but I kinda got burnt out, and haven't eaten it in a month or more. What else has tons of protein?

6
I used to think I was super lucky to never have experienced any type of familial loss until my grandma died just before I turned 25. Now, just five short years later, I've also lost my grandpa and little brother. Not feelin' so lucky now!

7
I don't have kids yet, but they'll be in the works in the near future, and despite what everyone says, I do not think I will ever want to stay home with them full time. Maybe part-time. I think getting out of the house and being constructive will make me a better, more patient mom for them. I say this like I have kids. Funny how I talk about future kids.

8
I'm so excited that RAD has come to my neck o' the woods recently. It makes living here not quite as unbearable. Especially in the mornings, on my drive to work.

9
I've lived all over, and people always ask about the places I lived. "Did you like it there?" But I can think of some great aspects of each of the places we've lived. I can think of negative things about each place, too, but that's life, right? As Sirius says, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters." Nothing is pure black or pure white, right? The works is shades of grey.

10
I'm probably the only person who is looking forward to seeing "The Beaver" on DVD. I seriously can't wait. Yes, I'm that lame.

Fail...

I continue to have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. So when my alarm rang at 4:15 on yesterday morning, when I'd only fallen asleep at maybe 11:00, it didn't so much happen as...not.

So today, when I woke up at 8-something, after a night of falling asleep almost before my head hit the pillow, and staying asleep the whole long night (shocking, I know), then trying desperately to fall back asleep, I jumped out of bed and dressed in my running gear: compression capris and a purple short sleeve shirt. 

On the docket for today WAS three miles, but because I missed my four miles yesterday, that's my revised target for today. Sunday should be interesting, though: six miles. As in, almost a 10K. Yikes.

Wish me luck.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Thrilled for Thursday

Yeah, alteration! Funny stuff. Anyway.

Tomorrow is my first morning run longer than three miles. Yeeeah, bumpin' it all the way up to four miles! Four whole miles, thank you very much.

That's why I was in bed at 7:00 tonight, because my alarm goes off at 4:15, I'm at work 7:00 until 5:30, and date night starts at around 6:00, and probably won't wrap up until maybe 10:00. I love date night, but early alarms make for long days (daze? hmm...).

Yeah, so awake for at least...what does that make it...20 hours, right? No way, that can't be right. 18 hours? Umm...yeah, 18 hours. I must be crazy.

A Starbucks run might be in order. Four miles might call for it anyway. Long run, long day, Starbucks. Makes perfect sense, no?

No.

Running total

I have been having a really hard time falling asleep lately. Ever since maybe the last week of December, since everyone left my parents' house that day. But Sunday nights arre particularly bad, since I get used to staying up later on the weekends.

I was scheduled to run three miles on Tuesday morning, but once again, I couldn't fall asleep the night before, and by the time 4:15 rolled around, I just could not do it. It wasn't going to happen.

I felt kinda defeated, but when I came home after work that day, my hubby asked if I was ready to go.

Go...? Wow. Go! Yes, let's go! I couldn't believe he wanted to run again. And after a long day of work? Surely I must be dreaming!

My run was great! I ran my three, and he ran what he estimated was somewhere between one and one and a half. Very awesome.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Mileage so far

According to my Daily Mile account, I've gone a total of 13.95 miles so far this year. I'm having trouble figuring out how to find the information I want, so I'm going to start tracking mileage for myself, starting tomorrow morning. For now, I'm going with 14 miles so far this year.

My goal is 1,000 miles for 2012; in order to reach that, I need to first keep track, right? If I can't rely on my daily mile stats, I'll have to rely on myself. Like I said, starting tomorrow morning, with (I think) four miles.

Why I run

In no particular order...

I run to think. 
When I run, it's just me. It's my time alone. Alone in nature. Alone with my thoughts. Quiet time. To figure things out, to reflect and ponder. To re-consider priorities. To shuffle the cards, and deal again.

I run to escape. 
When I run, I have nothing to weigh me down. Nobody can interrupt me, or stop me, or make me do anything. Me, however, now that's a different story.

I run to prove it.
To prove to myself that I can do what I think I can do. What I've told myself I can do. To prove to others too, but mostly to myself. I run because I need evidence. If I tell myself I can do something, but I never actually do it, how do I know for sure whether I'm full of it or not?

I run for health.
It's great for your heart. It's great for your lungs. It's great to build muscle, and burn fat, and all that great stuff. Blah, blah.

I run to eat.
When I run, especially when I run a longer distance, or a longer amount of time, I don't feel too guilty when I eat something that's typically considered less than "healthy." I'm a big-time foodie, not a particularly picky eater; I'll eat almost anything that's placed in front of me.

WHY DO YOU RUN?

Sunday, January 15, 2012

5 miles

Training for the Shamrock'n Half Marathon is definitely causing some stress on my body. Don't get me wrong: that's what it's supposed to do, right? It's kinda the whole point. But right now, I'm kinda scared to do the five miles that are on schedule for today. I don't know why exactly, because I've done multiple 10Ks, but it's been a while. 

I don't know, maybe I just need to find some sort of new motivation. What keeps everyone running? Surely everyone must hit a wall every now and again, even when training for a new distance...? I can't be the only one!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

for the record...

i ran the ole man river 30th anniversary 5k yesterday, and i could feel alexander cheering for me, and screaming for me to keep going. because i would never want to disappoint him, because he's my little brother, i kept running, even when i wanted to walk.

well, thank you alexander, because you helped push me to a new personal record. i finished in 29:49.3 chip time, or 30:16.8 gun time. i wasn't exactly at the head of the pack, but it landed me 9th in my 30-34 age group, with an average 9:46 mile.

xander finally got to watch me race. he may have teased and tormented me relentlessly for so many years, but i love him still. I always will.

Slow morning

My sleep schedule has been seriously messed up over the past...well, almost a month. It all started on December 13th at about 8:30 or so at night.

Anyway. I have had trouble falling asleep since then. Even when I'm super tired, I can't sleep. It sucks. This week, though, I've slept right through multiple alarms. Today was the same story, but my loving husband kicked me to tell me my alarm was going off.

It might be a little duh, but I felt more than a little sluggish running this morning. I did 2.5 miles before I met my hubby for another mile (he's just starting to take an interest in running), for a total of 3.5, even though my training plan called for five miles. Oops. I'll get it tomorrow.

Totally exciting, though. After I was done with my extra mile, where I ended at the house, SOMEONE didn't stop! How great is that? He said he just wanted to keep going, he felt great this time, since his ears and hands weren't frozen. I estimate he did a total of...maybe 1.5 miles. Give or take. Total score for him. I'm so proud! Maybe he'll join me again tomorrow...?

I could definitely get used to this ruining partner deal here. Very cool.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

2011 and 2012

In 2011, I did more races than I did in 2010. It's not hard to top zero.  So my goals (not to be confused with resolutions, which are just stupid) for this year, 2012, are as follows:

1.
Definitely get faster. Especially in my shorter-distance runs. Maybe try to cut down my 5k time even more. Do I have 25 minutes in me? Possibly...!

2.
Obviously increase endurance as well. Build up to double digit mile long runs on the weekends. And don't feel like I'm gonna die. That would be nice.

3.
Run half marathon in March. Look into full, if all things go as planned with the half.  As in, I have fun doing the half, and sign up for a full in my high-on-life haze that's sure to follow completion of a half.

4.
Participate in more races. Even if it's just a 5k. Or maybe I should try the volunteer thing once or twice, since race fees are pretty low on the priority list these days. I would love to average one race per month, but given our current finances...um...no. Not going to happen.

5.
Do another run out of state. Or at least out of my Sac and Fresno comfort zones. LA perhaps...?

Slow!

I love having someone to run with me, especially in the mornings, but wow. T joined me for my run this past Sunday, and again this morning. And I love the company. But geez, he's kinda slow. And I know it'll take a while for him to build his endurance.

Sunday was 1.25 miles in somewhere between 13 and 15 minutes. This morning was about 1.1 in 13. Yeesh. Plus, he doesn't like the cold. Or the dark. Or the early wake up call. So I might talk him into joining me on weekends only. Might be easier that way. Plus, he's grumpy in the morning, and doesn't want to wake up early enough for me to get my full mileage in.

Hello, 1 mile this morning? In 13 minutes? Um...that might be a little less than what my half training calls for. I think this weekend is 4 or 5 miles.

Monday, January 9, 2012

I have a new running buddy!

It's my sweetie! And he let me kick his butt for 1.2 miles in (wah, wah) about 13 minutes yesterday. I kept trying to get him to speed up, all to no avail of course, but at least he ran the whole way.

Half marathon training starting this week, so I'm trying to convince him to come with me for at least some of the shorter runs. Yesterday was a little too short, but it'll take him a little while to build endurance and speed. I'll enjoy him being behind me for a while. I know it's only a matter of time before he can go farther and faster than me.

Now, I'm trying to focus. What kind of comfortable-for-13.1-miles outfit can I think up to wear for the Shamrock'n Half in March? Definitely nothing too annoying. No necklaces. Maybe some fun socks and a decked out shirt? Hair bling perhaps?