Wannabe Will Be Out of the Office...

Off to Disney in the car with dh and kiddos. Running down there, I dunno, but I'll sure walk a lot.

Back on Labor Day when dh & I head to Rutgers season opener!

Good runs, recoveries to all.

Run Before the Storm

In honor of today's Walt Disney World Marathon (Wes is running there this weekend), went out for a beautiful sunny Sunday run.

Well, also because I owe my VRAA team whatever paultry milage I can muster...

But really because it's going to snow for about 24 hrs starting tonight here in Joisey and I wanted to get some milage in.

My shiny new iPod has helped me discover podcasts (the aforementioned DisUnplugged is my favorite right now) but I am also rediscovering music--what a concept. I feel like I've been in a time warp for the last 6 years, not really listening to music. I've missed it. It made me bop a little while running (Gwen Stefani, "Sweet Escape," just fun), and it actually made me run a little faster at the end ("Whine it up"! Kat DeLuna). Loved getting in some miles with some podcasts & tunes before the snow hits.

Holiday Slacking

The holiday slacking had to come to an end last night, went out for a 3 miler. I stuck with R3/W1 since I hadn't run in two weeks, and it went ok. It was a nice, just-under-40 night, and I was running with ...

MY NEW iPOD NANO from DH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am still figuring out how to load songs and categorize them, and darned if I could NOT figure out how to deal with the volume while out last night, but wow, running with tunes was a blast and really made the R3 intervals pass by more quickly. And I ran to Bruce, Soul Asylum (I just yesterday figured out who they are, hello, 21st century), Indigo Girls, Abba, Sheryl Crow,U2...mmmmm. And I am a Disney nut and just started downloading Dis Unplugged podcasts, oh yeah.

400 miles for this year is in jeopardy, I still need 20.25, and in 4 days, it's not going to happen (it would be like cramming for an exam if it does), but last year was 122.94 miles and this year is (so far), 379.77. Improvement in distance, yep. Still off the couch, yep.

**Mom update: She is home, recovering from pneumonia, feeling tons better just wiped out. Now maybe she can get to the business of recovering from all that chemo & radiation. And she also pushed me to get my first mammogram this week, it wasn't that bad, so if you haven't done it and you're female, just do it :-)

Wishing all my fellow runner-folk a good holiday and a great new year. You all amaze me and inspire me.

Recovery 3

3.0 miles
39:55 (13:18/mile)
Temp: 45 Humidity: 42%

It is Election Day, so I voted while out on my run, ha! Can I multitask or what? :-)

Off to Disney tomorrow for a quick getaway weekend with the fam. Can't wait. How will I get through school tomorrow (I am worse than the kiddos!)...? I will not even say I'll try to run @ Disney, so that if I actually do, it will be a bonus. Does all the walking count as x-training? ;-)

Peace.

Imperfect 10 - But it's DONE

Got it done this morning.

Mile 1 - 14:24
Mile 2 - 15:21
Mile 3 - 15:10
Mile 4 - 14:05
Mile 5 - 14:37 (legs/glutes started getting sore)
Mile 6 - 14:03 (H20/Gu break)
Mile 7 - 13:55
Mile 8 -13:31
Mile 9 - 13:57 (started R5/W1)
Mile 10 - 13:48 (started R3/W1)

10 miles
2:22:57 (14:17/mile)
Temp: 37 up to 47; Humidity: 77% down to 57%

10 miles is far. 13.1 is even farther. 2 weeks and a trip to Disney separate me and the Philly HM. It will be interesting...

Went for 10...did 9

9 miles
2:11:32 (14:36/mile)
Temp: 55ish Humidity: Low, like 40%ish

Trying to pull this run apart. What went wrong?

• I did the run at lunch time (didn't eat beforehand, had waffles for breakfast hours before).
  
• Thought I drank enough H2O last night & this morning, guess not.
  
• Beautiful day, 55ish but WINDY!
  
• I ran around the track a half mile before I noticed I hadn't hit "START" on the Garmin, duh, bad omen?
  
• I am still nursing a cold (now with a cough)
• I missed my 3 miler in the middle of the week, so I suspect that too had an effect (my legs and gluteous were getting sore from the pounding early, like Mile 3ish, not typical)...

I dunno. Not a confidence builder with the Philly HM in 3 weeks. Hmmm.


The good:

• Well, I ran 9 miles straight. That's kind of cool, and I need to remember that.
• I did a butt-kicking HILL around Mile 5, still a new experience for me, oh yeah. I had this sick smirk on my face, telling myself "I LOVE HILLS. I LOVE HILLS" over & over, yeah!

The bad:

• Labored.
  
• Nature called loudly at Mile 8, hence the 9 (not 10) miler
  
• My mind was not in it (I just wanted to quit from the beginning, caught myself saying "What the heck have I gotten myself into2 signing up for this HM, what was I THINKING?" Definitely didn't have my head on straight today)
• Stood in the rain for two hours at Rutgers yesterday after traipsing a few miles to & from car. And RU lost. Probably not great for the cold, eh?
  

The ugly:

• Went for 10, made 9. Am doing 13 in 3 weeks. Not optimal.

One more chance next weekend as I see it. Because the following weekend I'll be in Disney with the fam. The weekend after that is the big day.

In performance...then off to Disney

Tech week began after my last run (a week ago), had one day off (last Sat, our 12th anniversary [!] we saw Audra McDonald in 110 in the Shade in NYC last Sat--she is amazing, beautiful show, too), then our show opened finally on Wednesday night, it was well received:-)

With the show in the late nights and kids with me in the day, Mr. Higdon had to be put on hold for a week or two. Two steps forward, one step back it seems.

So I need to finish the show, it closes this Saturday. We then head to Disney on Sunday, and will be back in a week. Should I even bother to utter the words, "I'll try to run @ Disney..."?

Good runs, recoveries, rests and races, all.

Post Disney, Long Time No Run

Returned from a 4-day weekend in Disney with the kiddos and husband, it was intense and sooo not relaxing, but so fun, too. Husband and I resolved rode more grownup rides than our trip in July, yay. Celebrated the five year old's birthday there, he loved that everyone said Happy Birthday to him all over the place, and he loved seeing their light parade all three nights we were there. He was an excellent traveller, despite delayed flight, delayed connection, then cancelled connection, then rerouting to freakin' White Plains, New York (lovely airport, but our car was at Laguardia), etc., and our adorable but screaming crying teething 17 month old who was so DONE with travelling. So we are all tired and fine now:-)

On the fitness front, good news, I guess with all the walking we did (despite the junk we ate), I lost a few pounds.

The bad news is with the crazy week leading up to our trip, and then the crazy, non-stop-ness (is that a word?) that is Disney when you only have 3 days there, I had not run in NINE DAYS when I set out this evening at 9:45 pm.

I have been negative, down on myself and my ability to juggle job, graduate school, house, kids, family, LIFE. Everything seems to be getting more demanding and I have just been feeling like I am one of those plate spinners that runs from plate to plate restarting the spin for each one just as it is about to fall off the stick...that's me! I am just tired. Tonight, after 5 year old's project was finished and he went to bed, I was done. Checked out. But I set out for the jog because I needed the lift. I needed to know I could still do something and feel like I am seeing gains, and running has been the one area of my life (ok, besides child rearing) where I feel like I have some control and I see that work = gain. So I am glad I sucked it up and ran.

I have been using R3W1 for the last few weeks. But tonight I decided to try to jog straight through, slowly, for a short run to find my running legs again after my 9 day hiatus. And I did it, no walking, just slow and steady jogging. Here are the stats:

1.44 miles
16:21 (11:21/mile)

I usually don't post about the other aspects of my life, so forgive the seemigly off-topic aspect of the post, but I found it relevant to the running. The nuttiness that seems to be my life right now is both what made me NOT want to run and made me WANT to run. And I'm glad I did.

Fit it in

3.36 miles
36:18 (10:48/mile)

The boy had a birthday this weekend, so that was the priority. My grandiose plans of a five mile run in daylight hours were usurped by Chuck E. Cheese:). I ran with a belly full of Chuck E. pizza and birthday cake and it slowed me down a bit on this beautiful night.

Glad that I fit the run in:-) We are headed to Disney this Thursday, I have class Monday night, chaperone a school trip to a Broadway show Tuesday night, I suspect I'll be up mighty late packing Wednesday night! But woo hoo, Disney, here we come. I'll even try to run there (in anticipation of the 2008 HM;-))!

PS--I am happy at our growing HM Express training team, thanks Wes for organizing!

In the 10's, YES! And my *real* running dream

Awesome Halloween night! 58 degrees, decent humidity for Jersey, and I feel so good now that I've done this run I had been dreading. After running 5 miles this weekend, I wondered if that was a fluke, if I could really run, etc., etc. You know, those doubts that creep up on you after kicking butt in some fashion when your confidence should be really high...

BUT...I had a regular run tonight, pushed the pace a little but never to the point of desperation. And woo hoo, I ran a couple miles in the 10 min range, woo hoo. Did I say woo hoo yet? Woo hoo!

2.63 miles
28:09 (10:42/mile)

So running a HM seems nuts and beyond my reach to most folks, but here's the real reason I want to do it. I fell in major "like" with Disney World this past summer when we took the kiddos there. As a slow newbie runner, I could never justify the expense of entering an expensive "destination" event like that (airfare, staying at Disney, etc.) unless I knew I could complete the task. Nor could I justify the day or two off from work--schools don't look too kindly on teachers that ask for days off right after a 10 day Christmas break, ya know? So I want to run the local Jersey HM this Spring, be sure I can do it, then aim for Disney in January 2008.


So that is my dream. My past two runs make me believe I could do it. Definitely not easy, undoubtedly crazy for this thirty-something wife, mom, teacher and recovering couch potato. But by golly, I want to take my kids on the Buzz Lightyear ride in January '08 and "earn" our time there, so this seems like a cool way to do it:-)