Running and Biking and Losing, Oh MY!

Good weekend all! The weather has been great here this weekend, and I am looking forward to my first 'long' run since the half marathon later today. Today's long run is just 6 miles. 'Just' lol. Funny how time and miles on the road changes your perception of what 'long' really is! I plan to head down to the valley later today to run. I decided not to do an early morning run just because I want to be among the masses in the park today! It's a beautiful day and the valley will be hoppin later with cyclists, runners, families, fishermen, golfers etc. (**Plus there's a science project going on here later that involves creativity and building and I am SO out of here while that is goin' on ha ha! THAT is 'dad's work' through and through!)

Friday evening I had a GREAT tempo run. I was just heading out the door when I suddenly heard thunder, and a sky check revealed some nasty weather rolling in. I was bummed! It all passed after about an hour, and then it was just awesome out after the rain, so even though it was 8:00 (I never run that late), I HAD to hit the pavement! It was a great, fast run! I was supposed to run 3miles at a 12:09 pace, but ended up running them at 11:22! I felt great and not like I was pushing too hard. It was just one of those totally awesome runs. In fact, I thought for sure my watch was off or something, because even my easy warmup was going a lot faster than normal. Sometimes I was running at about 9:50. It was so cool. I kept thinking, I'm not REALLY running this 'fast' (for me). But when I got home and went to mapmyrun to compare against my watch, sure enough, I really was running at that pace!

I'm not sure what this means with my Runner's World SmartCoach plan. The paces are SLOW, but they are based on my 1/2 Mary time. I have a 5K on June 13th, so we'll see how I do there and see what kind of training paces SmartCoach gives me based on that finish time. If I need to tweak the plan I will!

My Bike

I got my bike out yesterday, washed it, greased it and took it out for a quick 3.5 mile ride. It was supposed to be a gym day, but it was so beautiful out, I could not stand the thought of sitting on a stationary bike at the gym! Plus my arms, chest and back were still a little sore from my weight workout Thursday evening, so I did not want to hit the weights again.

My bike is nothing special, it's a 'Murray'....just your basic 18 speed bike. I really enjoyed riding though, and I am going to take the bike to the shop for new tires, a new seat and a basic tune-up. The rear brake does not work at ALL We got Grace a new 'big kid' bike for her birthday, so I am looking forward to some fun rides with my girls this summer! Chris does not ride a bike, I wish he would but he has no interest whatsoever! His sensory system requires both feet on solid ground at all times!

I think I only burned about 100 calories (if that), and my heart rate didn't get up over 130, but I was really just casually trying to add some activity in to my day. Because it's all about ....

The Calorie Burn

I have the Runner's World Nutrition for Runners book, and the focus is really on calories in vs. calories out in terms of weight loss for runners. The biggest mistake runners make is over-doing the carbs, even if it's healthy carbs, it's still excess calories beyond what is truly needed to fuel running. This is the mistake I made in the last month or so of training for the half. I ate more 'grain' carbs, when I could have been eating more fruits and vegetables and getting enough carbs for less calories. That's not to say the whole grains are 'bad', because obviously they are not, but I know I've been a slacker in the fruit/vege group. Especially the veges!

The second mistake (according to the book) that runners make is having the mindset of 'I ran 5 miles today so I'm 'done'. In other words, running is the only significant calorie burn, which is great, but if you're trying to lose weight also, you can either reduce your calories, or, add in some more activity to increase the calorie output.

Well, to me, it's a no brainer! Would I rather eat 100-200 calories less (and be hungry?), or would I rather use the stairs more, walk faster, bike to the store, take a 5-10 minute walk break around my office building every hour, park further away from the store - and burn those calories instead?

So my casual little 80-100 calorie bike ride was much more fulfilling than reducing my food intake!

But the good news is that my first week of watching calories has yielded a 3 pound drop from the 5 I had gained. So I am pretty pleased with that! Hopefully by next weekend I'll be back to my 'low' weight and then can keep working to get the last 10 or so gone! I am sure though that most of my 5 pound gain was water retention from over-doing the carbs, and also the 'stress' to my body from the 1/2 marathon effort.

That's my rambling for today! Looking forward to some great race reports in blogland in the coming week!

Enjoy your Sunday!

She Runs Again.....

I’m alive and well! I am not a blog slacker! Well, maybe a little, but frankly there hasn’t been a whole lot of runnin’ goin’ on, unfortunately! But I am back in the game and slowly but surely getting back in the swing of things.

My first run post-half was not until Saturday, almost a week! I wanted to run sooner, but wouldn’t ya know it, life happens…school concerts, projects due and all that jazz….so I didn’t get to hit the pavement until Saturday. I did a very easy 2.5 miles and it was a great early morning run!

The remainder of the weekend was filled with picnic hopping and LOTS of yardwork, but I am officially in Week One of my next training plan for an end/September half marathon! I was supposed to run last night, but I got rained out, and I had some last minute birthday preparations to do for my Gracie (Happy Birthday to my baby! Ten years old!!!!) It was ok though because truthfully, my legs were a little sore from heavy lawn work on Monday. So this morning I was up at out at 5am for another easy 2.5 miles.

The schedule had 2 miles at a 13-something pace, but that is just WAY too slow, so for the easy runs, I plan to do what feels comfortable on that day. This is a Runner’s World SmartCoach plan based on my half marathon time, but I don’t know where the 13:39 pace comes from….. My legs had more than 2 miles in them too. My average heart rate was 143, so it was truly an easy run in terms of sticking with the plan. Normally this easy run each week will be following a long run on Sunday, so it was super easy today since I obviously did not have a long run this week! 95% humidity though – YUCK. It made for a sweaty run, but it was great! Mostly it felt great to just be running again.

WEIGHT CHECK

I’m not really sure what is up with the poundage lately. I find it hard to understand how it can take me a month to lose a single pound, and then I gain 5 pounds in 3 weeks? Something is not right. I have not been to the gym or done any weights in almost a month, and I am looking at about a 50 mile month for running in May – and although I know I have taken in more calories than I needed, it’s still not enough to explain a 5 pound gain. My clothes feel fine, I’ve heard two ‘skinny’ compliments in the last week….so it’s a puzzle. I’m tracking my calories now and being very mindful to not OD on carbs, so we will see what comes up (or down I hope) over the next week or two. I want to say this is my body responding to the ‘trauma’ of the half marathon. ;-) Works for me!

WE WEAR SHORT –SHORTS

And finally, I am on a mission to find the PERFECT running shorts. Perfect shorts for every day running, and that don’t ride up! What is YOUR favorite brand that you can not live without? Give me links, give me reviews – because I own 3 pairs of running shorts and do not like ANY OF THEM. What do you LOVE to run in? (and no they don't really have to be short shorts!)

Cheers~

Race Weekend Pics!

Wanted to post some pics from Race Weekend for my bloggie friends that are not on Facebook....

This is me at the expo with all my "13.1" loot, Tshirts, keychains, coffee mug, magnets, lace locks (for Chris), Asics jacket...you name it, I bought it!

Shosh had her share of expo loot too, plus note the Trader Joe's stop for snacky snacks. Shosh made me buy Quinoa. (KEEN-WA) I have not made it yet, but if Shosh says it's good, it must be good?

The final part of my pre-race breakfast, sitting in the warm car.

Right before checking our gear...we did not want to part with our long sleeves but it was time to suck it up!

Of course the first thing I think of after the finish, before changing my shoes and putting on warm clothes....is that I must update my Facebook status!

The Finishers! Doesn't Shosh look HAWT????

My awesome familia, cheering me on all the way. I got to see them at mile 7, mile 12, and of course at the finish line.

I want to do it again!!!!

Plans and Goals - The Best Is Yet To Come!

I think I need to change my blog name to "Tales from the FORGOTTEN Scale". The whole time I was training for the half, I was bouncing up and down between the same 5 stinkin' pounds. It didn't really bother me all that much, but now I think I need to start multi-tasking and bring the whole weight thing back to my immediate consciousness.

Mainly because I know that 15 pounds less of me can potentially drop 30 - 45 seconds from my pace - or so I've read. So of course now I need to test that theory. I also know that I ate more than I needed to while preparing for this race. But I was so focused on getting the training in that I had no focus left for analyzing every bite of food. I ate healthy, limited sweets, lots of water, little to no alchohol...I was a good girl! I just ate more than I needed, and so, I am not losing weight.

Fifteen pounds is not a lot to loose really, but it is when it's the LAST 15 pounds I need to lose! So...it's back to food journaling for me. That's the first step. The next part of the plan is to keep up with the cross training.

I LOVE to do strength training....weights, BOSU ball, planks....LOVE all of that. But I do NOT love other forms of cardio! So I slack on it. The bike is not fun. It is HARDER than running (I know, go figure), and I don't have the patience to sit on the bike at the gym. I would rather run. So the next step includes taking a spin orientation and then trying out a class or two and see if I can have some FUN on the bike while blasting away the supposed 500 calories in an hour's time that I've heard about. We'll SEE. I will TRY IT but I may not LIKE IT! ;-) But if I want to lose weight...I need to burn more calories!

And so that leaves my beloved running...which of course I will continue with three runs per week for now because I don't want to risk injuring myself (hence the cross training) while I train for my next half. I think my next half will be either the RoadRunner Akron Marathon on September 26th, which happens to be the day after my 42nd birthday (holy crap I am getting OLD). OR, I would love to try the Towpath Marathon in October. I have some time to decide but I'm really leaning towards Akron. There is some Detroit talk going around with Shosh and company, but I'm not sure if I can do it with the travel and all, at least not this year.

I've already printed out my RunnersWorld SmartCoach plan which starts next week! The RunnersWorld plan did not work well for me for this half, because the speedwork was agressive for my ability, and I just didn't have the base for the miles. But, I entered my 1/2 marathon time and it gave me a good 16 week training plan that looks do-able to me now! The paces even seem a bit slow to me, but I will give it a go first before I do any tweaking. I plugged my time into a pace calculator and the training paces that came up are right on target with the RunnersWorld plan, so I feel pretty good about the plan!

My goal for the next half is obviously to better my time. It doesn't get any simpler than that! The nice thing about the next training cycle is that I will have two 10 mile runs and two 11 milers. And speedwork and more formal tempo runs. I am looking forward to kicking it up a notch!

I'm feeling great after the race Sunday and have been doing some walking. I was going to do Pilates tonight but since Chris had a rough day or two, I am hangin' with him instead this evening. He is on the way back up though and tomorrow will be a better day.

For Chris and for me, and everyone for that matter....the best is yet to come!

Cheers~

Cleveland Half Marathon - Race Report!

Last night, Alison & I were hanging out in the kitchen chatting about the fun weekend, and after a moment of comfortable silence, Alison said,

'I want to do something big'.

I asked her to elaborate, and she said , 'I don't want to run a marathon or anything like that, but I do want to do something "big".

I couldn't have been any more proud at that moment. Of all of the things I've been through in the last year, the miles I've covered, MY long and slow miles, the ups and downs, personal sacrifices - to hear my oldest daughter recognize the meaning of what I accomplished yesterday, and want to emmulate that somehow, has to be one of the proudest moments I've had as a mother! YES! I AM doing it right!

I guess I ran my race right yesterday too, and it had to be one of the greatest days I've ever had. Before I get on with the play by play, Id like to note that all day yesterday we were broadcasting the WRONG finish time, so it was a pleasant little surprise for me when I logged on to Active.com last night and saw that my time was one minute faster than I thought!

Official chip time: 2:44:05 (NOT 2:45:04 - dyslexic much?)

Overall place: 3706 / 9524

Gender: 1991 / 4976

Division: 207 / 575

Pace 12:35

10K Split 1:12:33 (**when Mike received this update on his cell, it predicted my finish to be 2:32 - that would have been SWEET, but not to be this time ha ha....)

I couldn't be more pleased with these results - for a first half marathon!? For only running for 10 months? I am certain that had it not been for a couple of little moments during the race, I would have pulled out about a 2:35. I met my goal for this race though, and I had already made a comittment to myself that 'things happen' and I would accept whatever 'happened' as just part of the race on THIS day.

I got up at 4am, had my pre-race breakfast: english muffin with peanut butter, and a yogurt. Two cups of coffee, and some water. I made Shosh a bagel sandwhich with one egg and one slice of full fat cheese and took it to her hotel when I picked her up.

It was a typical cold and gusty Cleveland morning when Shosh and I arrived downtown at 5:30am. I think we were the first people there! We walked around a bit, and then shivering - decided to head back to the car for another half hour and stay warm.

At 6:15 we went to check our bags, and then ducked into a hotel lobby to use the restrooms and do some stretching with about 500 other racers. Then we headed over to the start area and got in between some buildings out of the wind. It was COLD. And we had already checked our jackets. I was getting antsy, I just wanted to start running.

We lined up near the 4:30 marathon group, sang the National Anthem ( I felt like a real athlete at this moment) and crawled our way over 4 minutes to cross the start line. I must've tripped over the guy in front of me three times on the way to the start, as well as giving him a 'flat tire'. *gulp* Can you say Rookie Racer? He was a good sport about it of course, but I felt like a doof ha ha. I just wanted to GO!

Miles 1-3 Warm up miles that flew by. I told Shosh that my strategy for the race would be to run 5 minutes, walk 1 minute, at least for the first half of the race. She normally walks whenever she feels like it, but when I do that, I walk more than I need to. It's better to have a structured plan. So we agreed on my strategy. It paid off well! We went out a little faster than I wanted, averaging about an 11:00-11:30 mile, but it was ok, because we had the 1 minute walk breaks. (walking was about a 15:00 pace)

The first big hill was in mile 3-4, over the Lorain Carnegie bridge. We walked that - serious walking though, pumping the arms good and passing people still while walking. It was too early to waste energy on a hill.

Miles 4 - 6 I was settled in my zone. Shosh & I were both dissappointed that there was virtually NO music on the course! Hello...this is the ROCK AND ROLL MARATHON. WTF? No music? I did not bring my walkman because I thought there was supposed to be music playing throughout the course. Nope! There was a marching band, a steel drum band, and one car stereo for us - but that was it. I REALLY needed the tunes, I run so much better with music. But I made do. Right before mile 5 I had some Powerade at the aid station, and immediately felt like I needed to use the restroom. I drank Powerade all through training, and never had any stomach issues, so this caught me by surprise. I was also very careful with my diet in general the whole week prior to the race. So I was not liking the stomach surprise at all.

Miles 7 - 9 I was still feeling great, but the stomach thing was starting to nag away at me. I was surprised by how fast the time was going, and the legs were feeling GREAT. Around mile 9, my breathing started getting a little out of whack. It hurt to inhale - the wind was so strong and the air was cold in my lungs. I was coughing a bit. I started to get a little frustrated because my legs were feeling so strong, but the stomach and lungs were starting to bother me. I finally had to stop at a porta-poddy and experienced some frustration that SPECTATORS were making runners wait in line. I mean seriously people? I wasted about 4 minutes at that stop. I decided to stick to water only for the rest of the race. First potty stop yielded no relief unfortunately, so it really was wasted time.

Shosh had her Garmin (305) and I had mine, and our pace readings were off by about 30 seconds to one minute at times. Shosh would say, we have to ease up, we're at 10:20, and I'd be like, no we're at 11:30! At the end of the race, my Garmin said we only coverd 12.38 miles, so I'm glad we relied on her watch through the race. I hate my Garmin. I used it only to time our walk intervals.

By the way, the walk intervals were the best thing we could have done. I am convinced this is why my legs felt so strong the entire race, and why they feel so good today. Galloway has a good thing going with the whole run/walk method. I feel better today than I did after my 10 miler.

Ok, moving on to miles 10-12. Right before we got on to the Shoreway (a highway that goes along the lake shore), I veered off to Edgewater Park to the public restroom. I HAD to get some relief or I wasn't going to make it. (sorry TMI but it is what it is) This was about 5 minutes wasted, but not really, because I was better after this and was able to tolerate a Hammer Gel by this point and not be concerned about anything since we were so close to the end.

However, miles 11 - 12 were the toughest for me, as I expected it would be. After my 5 minute stop it was SO hard to get going again, and my legs felt like lead. My lungs were literally burning as we were right on the lakeshore now and the wind was brutal. I got a side stich, which NEVER happens. In addition to the wind, we were on a highway, there were no spectators, no music, the sun was beating down and it was WAY more hilly than I expected. These two guys running along with us were groaning around every bend, 'ANOTHER HILL?'. Me being the optimist said, 'ok guys, this is it, it's all downhill from here'. I really thought it was - it was time to go down into downtown and finish this thing. NOPE. One more upward climb! NOW my quads were burning. Even power walking the hills was hard. Many people in our section of the pack were walking now. I don't know how people can say this was a 'flat course'. I guess everyone has a different definiton of 'hills' while running.

Finally at Mile 12 we were back downtown, and by this point, I was BEAT. That highway run kicked my butt. NOW my legs were tired ha ha. Damn hills. My family was there at the bottom of the hill cheering us on, and it was a nice little boost for me - I was almost done! I was going to do this! I barely remember the rest of it to tell you the truth. This part was all mental for me. Shosh said I was smiling the whole time. I didn't feel like it!

When we rounded the corner for the finish line stretch and I saw kazillions of people, and heard the emcee announcing 'HERE COMES CYNDI FROM FAIRVIEW PARK AND SHOSHANA FROM NEW YORK CITY!!!!, I was like holy CRAP...now it's just Shosh and I running for the finish, no one else was around at the moment, and all these people are screaming at us. It was surreal. Shosh saw the clock and said, CYN come ON, You are going to get your GOAL if you KICK IT NOW! Come ON Come ON Come ON!!!! It was literally an out of body experience - I thought to myself, even after all the BS with the bathroom stops, I am STILL going to meet my 'sweet' goal of 2:45. It was all I needed to kick it in. Then I heard the emcee announce the guy in the marathon lane coming in for the finish and I thought, Holy CRAP - that guy just ran twice as far as I did in the same amount of time! I felt like I should clap for HIM!

But I managed to focus and sprint to the finish, and as soon as I crossed the line, I got my medal and saw my family on the sidelines clapping and cheering. Chris was over the moon excited and it was really a fun, fun moment. Mike was hugging me and kept saying 'you did it, you did it, you did it' and my girls were smiling and excited. They had all gone to my first 5K, but the atmosphere for this race was WAY different, and they were really in awe of the whole spectacle. Too fun!

Shosh was AWESOME. I am a 'silent' runner, and she kept chattering away the whole time. I tole her not to take it personally, but I needed to go 'inside' myself at one point. She did a lot of talking with the other runners about other races and such, and I just kept my focus. AT one point she offered to sing for me, lol. I said 'no thank you' and she found that very amusing. :-) She was a great running partner! We had such a great weekend together!

Other random fun stuff.....

Spectators were awesome. I high fived as many people as I could, especially the kids. I wanted them to know that their presence along the course really meant something. The same goes for the volunteers...they rock! I loved running with the 'back of the pack' folks...they were all just like me, a lot of first timers, or Team In Training members, or fun little ladies from Canada , two dudes just giving this race thing a go...it was all so cool! It's easy to be intimidated by the 'hard core' racers as you wander around the start area waiting to run, but settling in with your 'people' is what it's all about. All shapes and sizes, all with their own story to tell I'm sure. I loved every second of it!

I finished this race knowing I gave it everything I had. It feels good to set a goal and meet it. It feels good to know that I will become a better runner, that I am only just beginning really...and that I already AM a better runner just for having completed this race.!

I treated myself to a post-race massage today and it was awesome! I really was not as sore today as I thought I would be, and today other than the massage, I'm just stretching today and taking it easy with a day off work. And of course, planning my next big adventure! ;-)

I have some pics to share, some are on Facebook, Shosh has some to post too on Facebook, but blogger is being difficult today with the whole inserting picture thing, so I may have to put them up in a separate post.

Thanks again for all the encouragement and support! My blog has been a big part of my journey to this first Half Marathon, because I have learned so much from all of you! I look forward to sharing more!

13.1 - Been there, run that!

I did it! I AM a half marathoner! I had a great 'first race', and look forward to doing it again! My goal was to finish under 3 hours. My 'Sweet Goal' was to finish in 2:45.

Official finish time ~ 2:45:04.

Couldn't be more happy with how it all went! The race had ups and downs, but mostly UPS. The downs involved wasting time twice at porta-pottys, and some lung / breathing issues due to almost constant, cold winds off Laker Erie).

Nothing that I couldn't overcome though and I finished strong!

Full race report some time tomorrow! After my MASSAGE that is....

Thanks everyone for cheering me on all this way. I thought of everyone of you while I ran today. (while Shosh was chattering aimlessly ha ha - she was so upbeat and cheerful the whole time, and her energy pulled me onward! SO glad she came to see me across my first finish line!)

If I knew Then....

Ok everyone....here's your chance to offer your best 'first race' tips. I want to know all, the good, the bad, the ugly! Think about your very first 'big' race - especially a half marathon, but any distance applies here - and complete the following sentence:

'If I knew then what I know NOW.........'

Don't hold back now...you won't scare me!

Feel free to share the bad as well as the good! Even if it wasn't your first race, I am sure you've all learned something 'the hard way' down the road...please share!

Got my bib number yesterday: 4624

How's that for a nice even, lucky number! :-)

Five Days and Counting!

Well, it is now just FIVE days until my first half marathon! I remember when I started training officially for this FIVE MONTHS ago! Now it is just 5 days away...unbelieveable how time flies.


I remember back in November/December, trying to decide if I should go for the half marathon. I remember saying OKAY, and instantly signing up before I could think too hard and change my mind. Off and on through the last 5 months of training, I've had ups and downs, which I now know is part of being a runner. I've had the 'what the HELL am I THINKING?', and more often, an underlying giddy excitement of 'I think I can actually DO this.'


After reading many race reports over the last nine months, I also know that despite everything we can do 'right' in training and on race day, there really is no predicting how things will go or what the outcome will be. All I know is that I will give 150% on race day, because that's just how I roll. I hope to finish in under 3 hours. My good friend Shosh will be running along with me, and she just ran the Nashville half in 2:41, so she will be a good pacer for me!


By the way, Shosh is a BLOG SLACKER these days, but she is very active on Facebook, so feel free to look her up and give her some flack! ;-) She is deep in Tri-Training, and doing great with Weight Watcher leading, and generally just a busy chica - but I keep telling her to get back to her blog! So everyone feel free to ping her on her blog and give her some friendly shiz and see if we can't get her back to posting!


Anyway, She's flying in on Friday morning, we are then hitting the expo to officially kick off race weekend. I am so flippin' excited!


Of course, I have my share of 'anxiety' over the distance. 10 miles was hard, and although I know why it was hard, I still wish I could have done it again. But I am keeping a positive spin going and to help me, I've reviewed my running log back to January when I started training for this. Take a look at my average pace progression over 5 months:


January 13:44 - 14:01

February 12:45 - 13:00 (huge jump in progress here)

March 12:30 - 12:45

April 12:19 - 12:28

May 12:04 - 12:20


These are my paces on my weekly runs, not long runs. Also, I could barely eek out 4 miles in January, and now I am about to go 13.1. That is really, really cool!


In other news, Mother's Day was awesome. Alison got me this book :

Here's a little description:

Editorial Reviews
Review
"One of the greatest athletic achievements I have witnessed in 20 years of extreme sports."—Chris Kostman, race director, Badwater UltramarathonProduct Description

The story of the woman who shocked the running world in 2002 when she won the sport’s most grueling race—135 miles from Death Valley to Mount Whitney—beating her closest competitor by 5 hours! One year after her astonishing victory at the Badwater Ultramarathon, Pam Reed again made distance running history when she braved the hottest weather in years—135 degrees—to successfully defend her title.

How does this 100-pound mother and stepmother of five muster the endurance and courage for the 28-hour climb from the hottest desert floor on Earth to the shadow of the continental United States’ tallest point?

In The Extra Mile we watch this ultramarathon champion seek balance in her life as a wife, mother, athlete, and entrepreneur. With astonishing candor she tells of her 15-year-long battle with anorexia. And she helps us to understand her passion for ultrarunning—to discover how far the human body can be pushed. The success of Dean Karnazes’s book, Ultramarathon Man, and Reed’s TV appearances have demonstrated the public’s fascination with this growing sport. Reed’s book will be an inspiration to women everywhere

And inside Alison wrote this:

I was just very touched by her acknowledgement of 'my running'.

And from my Gracie-Lou:

And from Chris, an awesome sea green Danskin hoody and a matching Adidas tee.

I am truly blessed and just thankful for my wonderful kids!

That's all I have for today. A quick little run on the books for this evening and because I have a very busy week ahead (4 softball games, two school concerts, an 8th grade dance....), it will fly by for me but I plan to hit the bed early every night and I am watching the food intake very carefully!

Woot!

Deep Thoughts

Remember the old Saturday Night Live Episodes with the 'Deep Thoughts' segments? I loved those! MY deep thoughts are serious though....seriously ;-)

I got back a little while ago from a nice run in the drizzle. I know I said I wasn't taking any chances running in rain a week before my race, but alas...I needed to get out and run off some steam this evening! One of 'those' moments - a spur of the moment get out and run and forgot some water kind of runs.

I was calm by the time I returned. It was a great one hour run.

I was able to think some things through, without interruption ~ I have said before that running has made me better able to address some challenges in my life. One issue in particular I'm still mustering up the gumption to face and make some hard decisions, but at least I'm thinking and weighing thoughts and carefully considering all angles - compared to 'before running', when I just ignored, avoided, buried, turned the other way....

Something I was thinking about during my run and I wonder how other runners feel about this with respect their own selves. Has running changed me? Am I a different person than I was a year ago? I don't recognize myself from a year ago , that's for sure. Aside from the obvious physical changes, I am a much different 'soul' then I was a year ago.

But, am I really 'different', or am I uncovering the 'me' that was here all along? I have uncovered a certain strength of spirit that I never had before, and I am learning to demand much more 'good' for my life, and I assume the responsibility for choosing what's good for me, what brings me happiness and joy, and most importantly believing that I deserve that happiness. Everyone does! Sometimes though, the search for contentment in life means making changes that may not be easy to do in the short term, but may be best for the long run.

Yes, Deep Thoughts for a Friday night. BUT the second half of my run was all about race strategy next weekend! Woot!

Carry water or no? (I would prefer not to, with 7 water stations I think I"ll be good?) How many Gu's to take? What will my first 5 mile strategy be - how 'slow' is starting out 'slow' for me? My 'sweet pace' for going long is around 12:20. I think I need to start out slower than that though. It's all a jumble, but I'll get it nailed down.

I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve, I'm soflippin' excited I can hardly stand it!

THIS first 1/2 marathon is indeed bringing me contentment, satisfaction, and joy. THAT is for sure!

Happy Mother's Day weekend!

Cheers~

Random Reflections

First, thanks everyone for your positive thoughts for Chris. Thankfully, the rest of the day yesterday was quiet for him and in true RockStar form, Chris was up and at’em bright and early this morning and ready to take on the day! And thus, I followed his lead….

I did not run yesterday since my focus was on Chris, but it’s just as well because my quads were still a little bit sore. Today the legs are 100% and I am really looking forward to a good 5 miles this evening. There is rain in the forecast though, so I’ll be bummed if I have to hit the treadmill! I am not taking any chances this close to race day by running in the rain, which normally I would love to do, but I don’t want any last minute sniffles getting in my way this close to race day!

I have taken some time off the weight training and cross training. Last week I did not go to the gym mainly because I wanted to be more rested for my 10 miler. Now I notice I am feeling really good and not as tired as I have been lately. So other than keeping up with some core work and push ups/planks, I’m putting a hold on the weight training until after the half. Also after the half I am going to try a Pilates class on Wednesday evenings at the rec. AND, I am excited for a Spinning Orientation on May 30th so that I can start jumping in to some spin classes to see what all the hubbub is about. So I have all kinds of plans coming up...to include a fall half marathon.

Yes everything has become ‘Before the Half’ or ‘After the Half’.

Watching the Biggest Loser last night, I was SO impressed with the four finalists and their completion of a full marathon! Especially Tara, with her sub-5 hour time? What a great accomplishment for all of them, who just 5 months ago were dangerously obese! Yes, they only had ’22 days’ to train for it, but really considering the last 18 weeks of workouts 6 or 7 hours a day – they had a good training going for this all along. The fact that there was a lot more running goin’ on through the season than I normally see tells me that Bob and Jillian were preparing them for this. However, the mental aspect of completing the marathon was just fascinating to me. And so…..

I have to do it!

It’s that simple. It’s on my List.

I’ve got my sights set on a Fall 2010 marathon. By then I will have (hopefully) three half marys under my feet and a handful of shorter races as well. (even though I don’t think the 5K thing works for me, but I’ve only done one so I have nothing really to base that feeling on).

I have not told the husband this yet, so it will be our little secret for now ok? :-) He’s very supportive and all, but I think he’s looking forward to THIS race coming and going and I’m pretty sure he thinks life will return to ‘normal’ after May 17th.

Ha ha…he has no idea …..

Cheers~

Damn Monster Rears It's Ugly Head again....

Pardon me while I express a rare moment of anger...no comments necessary, I just wanted to spew for a moment and then move on.

It seems that Chris' 60 days of 'peace' is all he gets this time. He was up this morning and had three seizures in the space of 45 minutes, the first of which had him falling into the bathtub with the shower curtain falling down on top of him. He did not get hurt, the shower curtain actually caught his fall.

I am pissed. I hurt for Chris.

I am home with him today, while doing a fair share of fist pumping to the sky.

I Did It! Ten Miles - CHECK!

I am still riding high on the endorphins from my first 10 mile run yesterday! It feels so good to have reached yet another ‘rookie milestone’. Even better is that there is so much still yet to come.

On Saturday, I finally bought my OWN MP3 player, so I could stop mooching off my daughter or the hub’s players. All I had were my own earphones ….and then I would grab whichever device had the most charge on it for my runs. I justified this purchase by changing the 18 year wedding anniversary gift tradition from ‘porcelain’ to ‘electronics’. I’m not a big fan of the iPod, and I really like the player I got for Mike on his birthday, so I got the same one as his, in pink. (now known as “L’il Pink” ). It’s an 8GB Sony.

I spent Saturday afternoon loading up tunes, mapping my route and gathering all my schtuff. I was so excited and looking forward to this run!

I woke up at 5:30 Sunday morning and checked the weather, poured some coffee, ate a PowerBar and read the paper. I had a couple of thoughts about this run….

1) RELAX and enjoy the run.
2) Take it slow, especially in the beginning

I took plain water with me this time, and 2 Gu’s. I have read recently that the Gu’s metabolize faster/better with plain water. That would explain why I had been feeling like the Gu's weren’t working for me before, because I was taking PowerAide on my runs instead of plain water.

I made a hasty last second decision to hit my puffer before I headed out. First hit of the season, ugh. I was feeling vaguely ‘wheezy’ in the chest, and with everything blooming and all the freshly cut lawns, I felt like I would need it. I have noticed a bit of heaviness and burning in the lungs over the last few runs, and I know this is allergy stuff just like I experienced in the fall. This turned out to be the best thing I did and perhaps I should have been starting on the puffer 2-3 weeks ago. Yes I'm an adult onset athlete with adult onset allergic asthma. NICE.

Anyway, I was out the door at 6:45, and I had a good 15 minute warm up walk with some running strides before I hit the button on the Garmie. The weather was awesome – it was 54 degrees, no wind. It was perfect. I love Sunday mornings.

The route I had mapped out was perfect because there were perfectly located pit stops if I needed them. After the first 2 miles, I was in the groove – it really takes me awhile to get to that ‘sweet spot’, but I was very careful to go out slow and not increase my pace too soon. At mile 3, I ran by a group of kids on the front lawn of a church, doing a 24 hour teeter-totter marathon to raise money. I thought this was VERY cool, and stopped to give them a dollar and take a picture of their sign. I told the parents in the group that maybe that’s the sort of marathon I should be doing, and they said no, they should be doing what I was doing!

I was running towards Lake Erie, so the first 5 miles was basically all downhill. I had to work hard to keep it slow, because I was going to need the energy to get back – which of course would be going back ‘up’. I reached my halfway point in 1:05, so I was keeping a nice steady and slow pace. My tunes were AWESOME – I had the player on shuffle and every song that came up was exactly PERFECT for each moment. Love when that happens! For example, right after I gave my dollar to the teeter totterers, the song ‘Give a Little Bit’ by Supertramp came on. This run was filled with little moments like that. (And incidentally, Supertramp is awesome to run with!)

I have to digress a minute here on the topic of the tunes…I didn’t even remember that I had put a couple of old Prince tunes on my player. So when the song ‘Purple Rain’ came up, I spent an entire mile or more lost in smiles and giggles remembering some fun times. Purple Rain was the most awesome, longest slow dance tune back in The Day. Remember? If you were lucky enough to be ‘attached’, it was the best slow dance, lol. For the un-attached girls in the group…it was time to cue up the ‘air band’ complete with a keyboard player (that was me usually), a guitar player, a drummer and of course EVERYone sings for Purple Rain. Loud, dramatic, soulful singing and swaying: “Honey I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW, times are changin….’ Of course the air band was always at it’s best after a few 10 cent beers at the bar….oh yes, good times. And then a little while later I hear ‘Baby I’m a Star’ and that pretty much got me through miles 6 and 7.

Baby I'm a (star)

Might not know it now

Baby you’ll find out, I'm a (star)

I don't want to stop, 'til I reach the top

Sing it (We are all a star!)

With all this rockin' out ....I glanced at the Garmie and saw that I was running a 9:30 pace! YIKES. Cool, but not so much, because I was starting to get tired and had lots of uphill yet to do. What was great though is that for awhile there, I was on autopilot. Just cruising along, almost like I was not even running at all. That was a great feeling!

Here's a shot taken along Lake Rd, which is a great place to run because there are lots of big trees and large beautiful old homes, and then some randomness like this :

But then, Miles 8 and 9 were both going up gradually – away from the lake, and I had to take a few walk breaks and I was getting tired. I took a Gu at mile 8 and that helped give me a little kick. I did a mental form check from head to toe: relax, relax, relax. Lighten up and loosen up. Shoulders back, open up the chest, breathe – relax. That helped immensely. By the time I was finishing up mile 9, I knew it was mostly mental from there. I started getting a little negative, thinking, holy shiz, there’s no way I have 3 more miles in me if this were the ½! Right about then, the 'universe' spoke to me again with the right song and a street sign of all things...and I thought, well how cool is THIS? Let's get this done!

I reminded myself that I was running TEN today. Not 13.1. I didn’t go all this way, on this day, to walk the last mile! So I put my game face on and pulled out that last mile, finishing 10 in 2:10:38. I wasn’t really all concerned about my time for this run, however, I am feeling pretty hopeful that I *may* be able to do the half in 2:45 or less. It will depend on the factors of the day, but it doesn’t really matter, because my original goal was to finish in under 3 hours. So I feel pretty confident about that at least.

And as I hit the stop button on my watch, I put my hands in the air and celebrated right there on the damn sidewalk. I just ran TEN MILES! How cool is that? And it felt good! I was never very challenged physically until the last 2 miles, and I somehow found the mental strength to get through it. Plus, I still had another mile to walk it out to my house, so it was nice to have that time to reflect on the run, and savor my milestone moment. Here is a snapshot of the elevation for this run, and really the only downside of the route is the last 2 miles uphill. It was tough! Sorry for the blurriness, but you get the idea....the downhill was much more gradual than the uphill climb.

It was a great run though. I still can’t believe I did it – I was supposed to run 9 last weekend and wasn’t able to do it…so I was basically jumping from 8 miles to 10 but I was determined to do this, and enjoy it at the same time.

The hubby and I celebrated 18 years of marital bliss yesterday, and he pulled out our wedding picture and said, ‘did THIS girl ever think that she would run 10 miles for fun on a Sunday morning at the crack of dawn?’.

The answer? NO WAY.

I spent the remainder of the day visiting my newest niece and chatting with family. Then I took Alison to shop for her very first 'formal' dress for her 8th grade dance (oh brother) in a couple of weeks. I was on my feet all day - didn't really get to rest until early evening when I finally sat down with my first glass of wine in a long time, and continued to bask in my accomplishment.

It was a great day. I can't wait to do it again!

A (Very) Brief Return To a Familiar Place

Most of you probably don’t know this about me (well, I know at least one of you does *wink*) but back in The Day, I was a concert pianist. Throughout my high school years, I was practicing and preparing endlessly for competitions, recitals and conservatory auditions. It was a very intense part of my life, but I did have opportunities to have fun with my talent – I wrote songs, I taught kids in my neighborhood, I played in the jazz band, traveled to Switzerland, accompanied the choir, and my jazz band even cut an album. (ok, it was a cassette recording but still…it was done in a real recording studio!)

As I got closer to college auditions – things got intense. I had to practice 2 or 3 hours a day, 4 or 5 hours a day on the weekends. I would spend hours and hours on one passage within one line of a sonata. I would do endless drills to get my fingers to move ‘just so’ to get one bar of a Bach invention to sound just right. (ie just like Bach would play it ha ha)

During long practice sessions with my instructor, sometimes things just did not fall into place on any given day. Sometimes my instructor would massage my tense shoulders and tell me to ‘step away from the piano’ for a day or two. Performing a Beethoven Sonata or a Mozart concertina required much much more than technical skill. There was a mental and emotional component as well, and on some days, all factors just did not come together for a perfect practice session.

For all the preparation and practice that went into an audition or a special performance, there was still the matter of the ‘unknown’ at showtime. I never knew what a performance would bring, other than the simple fact that I knew I was well-prepared, that I had done everything I could to get the repertoire under my hands.

But then….things can happen. Two days before my Senior Recital, I somehow managed to scratch my cornia. Thank goodness all of my pieces were memorized, so I did not have to ‘read’ music, but it still was enough to throw some angst into something that I had been basically been preparing 4 years for. Or, there was my audition to Bowling Green’s music conservatory….I sat down to begin a very technically and emotionally charged sonata and I started IN THE SECOND MOVEMENT! I remember just being astounded that I had done something SO amateur. Oh my god, I beat myself up for WEEKS after that. All is well that ends well though, as I still got a scholarship AND the offer to study with a renowned piano professor that only took juniors and seniors as students.

I remember my teacher presenting me with a piece in my Freshman year of high school, and saying ‘THIS will be the finale of your Senior Recital’. I remember thinking What? That’s like, four years away? Why are you giving me this now? Then I opened the music….holy COW. There was NO WAY I should even be attempting this piece – was she crazy? But, I went to work on it – bar by bar, line by line, note by note. By the end of one year I had mastered the first movement. It still needed some fine tuning, but I had it down. By the end of the second year, I had the second movement perfected, and the first movement fell even better under the hands. And so on…and finally, what had seemed so impossible in the beginning, had become possible.

I landed my big scholarship and a great professor to study with…life was good. This is what I had worked for, but there would be more work to come. In fact SO much work that in my freshman year of college, I crashed and burned. The competition among piano students was fierce. I was a freshman studying with the best piano professor – I had to keep up with juniors and seniors and even some grad students! I wanted to be a music TEACHER, but all the emphasis was on my performance. Suddenly playing the piano was not so fun anymore. I was spent. I started craving something new. Music became a chore, all the elements of fun in music had gone out the window.

That’s not the end of the story, but you can probably see where I’m going with this. Lately I’ve been feeling this familiar feeling. I am stressing myself out, and I’ve noticed some element of the ‘fun’ with running is slipping away a little. Alas, I am falling into ‘concert pianist’ mode. I am placing way high expectations on myself – for something that is supposed to be a new, fun and healthy adventure – a hobby, a past time, a passion….suddenly I’ve noticed myself going into ‘hard work’ mode. Perfectionist Cyndi Mode…unforgiving of my mistakes or perceived ‘failures’. (ie my stupid run in the heat last weekend) I am NOT training for the olympics for goodness sake, this is supposed to be FUN. Yes, it’s great to challenge myself, try something new – develop a new ‘skill’…but lately every run seems difficult, and I am WAY too intense about my training and progress, or lack thereof. I need to practice balance.

It suddenly occurred to me while running Wednesday evening that I have been in This Place before in my life. And that is not the way I want running to be for me. And yet, I’ve slowly started slipping into that place.

So I am catching myself and pulling myself out of Concert Pianist mode! It’s time to put the fun back in the run! Nine months ago, I could not run one lap around the track without practically passing out. This weekend I am going to go for a ten mile run!

How fun is that? I don’t know how long it will take me, I may have to take some walk breaks – but I do know that I will celebrate every step. Because really, I have come so much farther than I even imagined, in a relatively short period of time in the whole scheme of things. And this is really just the beginning – there is so much more fun to have! I was reading a race report over at AKA Alice the other day, and it struck me how much FUN she has with her running friends ('The Herd" ha ha love it), funny adventures, wonderful scenery, great races topped off with mimosas and great food. I couldn't help but think THAT is what this is all about. Yes we want to beat our previous time, a PR is always a plus, but good health, fun and friendship is really what it is all about!


Wishing you all fun runs this weekend ~ I'll be back to report on my very first 10 mile run on Sunday!

Cheers!