Laura Redman Running in Royal Oak--

Back to Blogging

2009-04-03T06:11:00.001-07:00

I have not been blogging but I have been running. Did this year's Detroit Free Press Race with only a few hours of sleep after a Halloween party as princess Leia so kept some of the costume on... I think the powers of Leia helped me-- I ran a 5K PR-- as Veronica said: "You took off and you just kept going!!!"

I followed the flag for the 8 minute pacers and did the race in an average 9 minute mile. For most runners I know that's practically sleeping not racing but for me that is a Keynon pace. Veronica knows that my average training pace is 11 minutes, so she could tell I was going quite a bit faster than our usual TNR.

Okay--here's why I am back to blogging:
As this is the lent season, I am feeling the need for humility and full disclosure:
I am not training consistently.
Let me define not training consistently:
Training three times a week and taking three weeks off.
Training one day, one really good RUN and then patting myself on the back for a week until I run again.
I have this feeling, though, that if I DID train consistently I might actually not need the Powers of Leia to run a 9 minute mile consistently.

So, here I am, publically flogging:
Last weeks mileage:
Sunday: ran to my car from my house with Robbie dragging behind me (.9 miles)
Monday: Nothing
Tuesday: Ran a bit over 4 miles-- 10.58 average pace
WED: NADA at deadline till late
Thursday: TNR ran 4 miles-- 10.15 average pace
Friday: NADA
Saturday: Planned to run with team. Nope, overslept. Ran midday instead. 4.5 miles 10.11 average pace.
Total Mileage: 13.4
Here is what I am susposed to have run to train for the Bayshore:
Sunday: 3 miles
Monday: None
Tuesday: 5 miles
Wednesday: 3 miles
Thursday: 6 miles
Friday: None
Saturday: 7 miles
Total mileage: 24

This week so far:
Sunday: NADA-- sleepy day
Monday: 4 miles (Don't remember average pace)
Tuesday: Left work early, back pain (oh that's an interesting story--Let's just say Corktown race this year after little training nearly killed me)
Wednesday: Awesome fun playing/learning Tennis with a French club friend. We then ran a little over 4 miles-- don't remember the average pace--about mid 10's.
Thursday: 3.5 miles (give or take a bit) don't remember pace.
Oh Thursday, Thursday-- what a day--- started out with a ticket for running a red light then--between parking my car at work, teaching, and walking back to my car--I somehow lost my car keys. Searched everywhere and finally had a friend drive me home to get my spare car key. Pulled into TNR as everyone stretched in the free lot on 4th street.
Post run stretching.
Mohamed was kind enough, after he finished running, to run another 3 or so miles with me!
Friday (that's today) I am not running-- will consume some carbs and pick up my camera from Best Buy (yes--finally fixed. So glad I bought that even if you drop it warranty:)
This Saturday: Martian 10K-- the aliens will finally find me. Here is my sincere and determined goal. I WILL DO THIS!!!
Run the Martian 10K no slower than a an average 10.09 pace-- 09 for the year.
Here is my running plan: mile 1-- 11.3, mile 2- 10.5, mile 3-- 10.20, mile 4-- 10.05, mile 5 9.5, mile 6 9
Oh crap. I just realized I am no good at math. I have NO idea what this plan averages out to.
Okay Thanks to my friend Geoff, a social studies teacher, we just majorally changed the above figures to make it average out to 10.09 pace. I am uniquely mathmatically disabled. I do believe the left side of my brain ate up the right side when I was born.
All right-- so off to lunch in 2 minutes-- yes folks, that's LUNCH at 10:05. Ah the time zone of a teacher. I plan to eat some good carbs.

Grand Island 10K Results

2008-07-27T23:04:00.001-07:00

Yeah! I did it! I accomplished my more humble, revised goal: I ran the trail race without stopping to walk. Despite sporadic training, I even ran up that insane hill! My memory twisted that hill in an odd way: imagining it as a very long, gradual hill. In fact, it was about a mile and a half and very steep. I passed some who walked the hill--esp a father and his daughter, a team that sped before me and then behind me and then next to me and finally behind me at the last part of that wicked hill.

The trail was more beautiful than I remembered--very thick forest on either side and branches that arched over the packed dirt and an occasional glimpse of the lake and the stone formations of Pictured Rocks, the surprise of the narrowing of the trail into a field of flowers and tall weeds and full sun and then back again into the pleasant coolness of the darker forest.

I spent the first mile reminding myself: hold back, hold back, hold back! As cliche as this is, I created a playlist on my Ipod that begins with Chariots of Fire--to both inspire me and to keep me running slower in the beginning of a race. So I ran to this the first few minutes of the race and let the faster runners rush by me in waves and did not allow the pull of their speed to lure me into a mistake that would take the energy I needed for that "gradual, 3 mile hill". After the first mile, I expected the trail to start elevating slightly but it stayed level, even dipped a few times--I was delighted. At mile 2, I realized I had exaggerated the length of the hill in my memory. I knew that by mile 4 the trail was a steady descent.

Around mile 2.5, though, I discovered that my memory had greatly softened the steepness of the hill.

Around this part of the race, the trail forks-- part of it continues straight and rather level and another part veers sharply to the left and up an incline as steep as stairs, full of rocks and branches. You would never believe or want to believe that this was the way to go . . . surely that straight away, that level packed ground is where to go. It must be for this reason that Grand Island race posts volunteers at this point to direct you to the left and, yes, up that impossibly steep incline.

At least I knew it would not last as long as I thought. Here is also where I gained on some that sped so fast at the beginning. The father and his daughter were two such. When I slowly but steadily ran past them, at about a 13 minute pace, the father smiled at me and called out "this hill doesn't end!" Must be his first time in this race, I thought, cause it ends not to far from here. Maybe that knowledge, that around mile 3.8 the hill would become an exhilarating and easy flight down, helped me keep up hope and my legs from slowing to a walk.

I loved the last two miles the most-- all down hill and at times, very steeply downhill, as steep as the uphill. I let gravity pull me without breaks and greatly picked up my pace, sprinting down along the hill's spiral towards the finish line.

I ended up with nearly the same results as last year: 1 hour and 14 minutes and a 12 minute pace. Not close to my original goal of a 10 minute pace--entirely my fault for getting so lazy this summer--but I was happy with this because it was the same result with much less training and I did what I set out to: finish the race without once stopping to walk.

Debbie, a friend from down state, did much better. She finished in about an hour and placed 5th in our age group; I placed 8th. We were giddy when we picked up the ticket w/these results and placement. I learned later that day that there were only 10 total in our age group. So, we came up with a plan for next year: train earlier, faster, and longer so that we could place in the top 3. There were only 10 last year, so we estimate that there will not be many again next year. The top 3 get a beautiful, green, handcrafted glass finishers medal. We plan to be in that top 3--with only 7 to beat, should not be that hard. The number one in our age group this year ran at a 7.4 pace, finishing at 47 and the third was a 9.5 pace finishing at 58. If we aim for 8.5, we should be firmly in one of the top 3 next year. A herculean goal for a marathon, but, with dedication, doable in a 10K--esp one with 2 miles of downhill to the end.

Debbie and I contemplated jumping in Lake Superior but sat on this sand hill just outside the finish line instead.

We went to a few beaches and drank wine and Debbie helped me collect rocks to bring back and use to make more necklaces.

The view from our balcony was amazing.

Debbie shows me her signature "in front of an amazing view" pose on our balcony:

I try to get the in-front-of-Grand-Island-view-pose right.

Heading out to the Dog Patch to gorge after the race.

Carefully read the cartoon that hangs just inside the door to this family restaurant:

Only a yupper could combine innuendo and cows . . . only a yupper.

Trail Race

2008-07-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

"Do not litter the trail with gel packets – they
attract bears" is the comforting advise given to runners in an email a few days before the race.

I hope my beach running last weekend counts for more than the measely 4 miles. I was so exhausted, but I am hoping one mile of running in lumpy sand is equivalent to two miles on the packed trail. I am the least prepared physically for this race than I have ever been for any race since I started running and I am, therefore, not very mentally prepared. I have not even run 6 miles since around the time of my half-marathon--about three months ago.

There is a gradual but long uphill to this run-- around 3 miles-at least half the race and last year I remember that I got up that hill without walking because I made sure I did a lot of six mile hill work at Pontiac Lake Trail. Ha!!! This year my longest run was barely five and that was during a thunderstorm and on the street.

I'm trying to tell myself right now that this just makes the race even more interesting--it'll show me what I have w/out much training. Arrrrgg. I hope that "mental toughness" my brother talks about just kicks in and mind leads legs to keep up. I'm going on my last run tonight at Heritage park. NO CAMERA--it'll be all running.

Humility and Bliss

2008-07-15T23:56:00.000-07:00

So here is the humility part: forgive me legs for it has been very sporadic training at best for this upcoming trail race. Because of this sin of omission, here were my stats for tonight:
3.2 miles
average: 15 minute mile!!
best: 4.2
worst: 35 (stopped lots to take photos--hazard of running a beautiful trail)

Cristina says that the only thing worse than an Irish Catholic is an Italian Catholic.
I always remind her that we are both hamstrung by guilt and duty. So, I began this blog last year as a form of self flagellation, as a public confession, as a place to wear my Scarlet O (zero miles).

Even though I now wonder if I will even finish this trail race because of my gluttonous summer, much more so than last year where discipline and duty ruled, I am never more blissful about having found running than tonight and thinking about the joys of the trail. It helps that, unlike Tony, gnats, mosquitoes, flies, etc. do not find me in the least appealing. If they land on me at all, they tend to jump off right away as if tasting in my flesh some poison or at least nothing to nurture their need for blood. This helps my trail running bliss--meanwhile, poor Tony was running with me getting absolutely dive bombed by every flying and biting insect God created. As such, he looked a bit like a lunatic runner constantly jerking and swatting and waving his hands about his head and ears.

To Tony's credit, though, he seemed to enjoy the trail despite his hosts and, of course, he literally ran circles around me on the River Loop trail. The only time I managed to get in front of him was on the downhills. I love to just fly down those bounding off the ground. He has that road racer's initial fear of falling or killing yourself on a rock, root, branch, log, etc. Of course, the glory was more his as he would then beat me on the up hills! Best thing to do when you first start trail running is a carefully planned fall running down hill. Seriously, I am terrified beyond belief of bees. Why? Never got stung. I have, however, taken a few nose dives as I tried to fly unreservedly down a rather steep trail. Perhaps I am lucky--but I have not had any major injuries from this (construction holes, yes, the trail, no). Just scraped up and super bruised legs and arms and of course that beautiful mud caked look. I actually went to yoga one time right after I ran on a trail mucky from rain and wearing my running shorts only to notice my bruised and mud caked legs in warrior one pose. I swear the other polished yogis must have thought I was some homeless woman just back from a serious cat fight in a swamp where someone was batting on my legs with a heavy branch.

I have since made sure if I do yoga after running that I shower and change--seems a bit ridiculous as you get so sweaty and have to shower again--but, ah, well.

So tonight, we started around 8:00 and I quickly realized as we got deeper into the woods that my eyesight was needed more than my eyeballs, so I took off my trail sunglasses and propped them on my head. We ran the River Trail and the loop a few times and then came to the Estate trail and Tony stopped me. Two deer stomped the ground in front of us down the trail. Amazing sight. As we got closer, one of the deer hopped into the trees and disappeared while the doe stayed and even turned to face us. "It's the mom and I bet she shooed the fawn off the trail and will stay there to protect her. Maybe it's not such a good idea to go right up there."
"We have to get by here anyway," Tony said
As we got close and certainly close enough to pet this doe, we realized she was limping--broken back leg or something.
I ran to my car to get my camera and told Tony to stay with her--as if he could get her to understand-- "listen, I know it's a pain but just stay right here until Laura gets back to get a photo of you."
By the time I was coming back she was already gone. We had just about given up, when I saw another deer on one of the side trails--I told Tony to stop, and I turned my camera to night shot and got a million shots of this deer.

Tony got on the other side of the trail and made noises so the deer would look up while I took photos.

It was so amazing! After a while, she didn't even seem to mind-- almost seemed to be posing--turning her head this way and that--bend down to eat, chew slowly, dart her head up and to the side and straight on then dip down again and tear up some more leaves and continued to her late dinner. God I loved it. I walked a bit into the brush, and she still let me take photos.

Even though my stats are horrible, it was a truly awesome run. It reminded me why I run, and why I don't mind being a back of the pack runner (even though I will train more consistently and get faster). The last two weeks or so--actually, probably almost the last month--I have been super sporadic about running-- getting out to run maybe once or twice a week.

I stopped running consistently and about two weeks later guess what nasty little habit started to crop back? Yeah, smoked cigarettes. After my run tonight you could not pay me to smoke a single cigarette. I begin to want to smoke at nearly the two week mark of not running and then quit immediately upon returning. So odd--cause it's just not that conscious. So I wonder, do I smoke to replace the runner's high? In a few days of no nasty smoke in my body I will be faster from both the discipline of running consistently and the sludge getting out of my lungs.

Also, it seems that when I don't run I do stupid stuff in general and let my emotions get all crazy--I start to focus on the negative too. I wonder if that's why runners, in general, seem to all be pretty balanced and happy people--fun people to hang out with. You run with people but you can never run for people (you run for causes but you can't actually do the running itself for someone else, of course). When I run, I practice something that cannot be taken. Okay-- you might fracture a femur, fall in a construction pit, get bronchitis-- but that's the whims of fate. No person, unless they kidnap you and put you in leg irons, can make you stop running or take it away from you because no one gives it to you--doesn't come with a membership and payment due and nowadays doesn't even need to come with legs--all those articles in Runners World where they explain how the those who run with running prosthetics have an advantage over those who run on two legs.

So, I will carry on at the back of the pack or with Tony running loops around me and continue to love it because it is a joy no one can give or take.

I must now get through those first two miles without stopping-- at the beginning I always feel like I can't break that barrier but once I do, I am set to go--also that's when a bit of the dizzying chemical euphoria sets in.
It's so cool that our body responds to this general pain and depletion of energy with a surge of dopamine--so a few brief moments of pain give way to bliss. A microcosm for life.

My previous yoga teacher, Erin, used to put us in these ridiculously painful poses-- only because we were in them so long. Warrior Two for three songs can make your muscles shake your teeth out of your head.

So we'd be there grimacing through song after song as our thighs shook, and she would just smirk at us and tell us the most important part of the pose was to relax our faces and turn the corners of our mouths up slightly. Ha! But it's a good lesson to learn not to run to or from pain but to sit with it until the pleasure inevitably comes--that wonderful shivasinah that is all the more transcendent the harder the practice.

Now back to the raised Catholic in me. I used to really, really wonder why God would show his love for us all through the intense pain of himself and son. Why not an all powerful being whose symbol was joy instead of the ubiquitous cross of torture? Yoga helped me understand, if not theologically then just logically.
Our bliss is often polished on the whet stone of pain. Our character ground to such beautiful stuff by challenge and triumph. Without challenge (which is momentary pain) there would be nothing heroic in our lives and nothing to celebrate in ourselves. I wish what we wore from our necks and hang in our churches was not the cross--the symbol of a tortured, near naked, mask of pain Jesus--but rather an open, empty tomb-the triumph of his pain. I guess it would be hard to fashion such an icon. Oh my gosh. I just realized my next jewelry project!! How to create a necklace that depicts an empty tomb .
Ok before I start waxing philosophic about my toe nails, I'm just going to sign off with this-
Can't wait to run again!!! Also look forward to my TNR buddies for both the run and the post run, carb loading drinks-- very important for keeping those glycogen stores :)

Labrynthine Heritage

2008-06-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

This is truly hilarious (mostly cause I didn't actually get struck by lightening).
I planned to only run 2.5 miles at Heritage Park but I got hopelessly, blissfully lost until I got up to 5.8 miles!! Now, only about half of that was actually running--the other was fast hiking ending with all out sprinting.

Those trails move-- I swear they do--they cross each other in odd places and the signs that once said "Meadow Trail" become "Marsh Trail" and "River Loop" becomes "Scout Trail". I was just running haphazard from trail to trail-whatever looked beautiful, technical, and shaded.

Here are a few things I re-learned since last summer about trail training:

1) Don't run first mile ALL up hill
2) Keep eyes on trail as well as trees and meadows and birds
3) Keep eyes on trail
4) Keep eyes on Trail and be sure to jump-- time jumps to go completely over obstacles-- broken rocks, fallen logs, jutting roots-- landing on such slightly (or worse) twists the ankle--even in heavy trail shoes
5) Keep mind on trail-- eyes see but mind must tell the legs and arms to act
6) No fear going down a steep, technical hill + mind not on trail= lots of speed and lots of fun and lots of pain-- knees and hands not happy with me. Must get some good, lightweight gloves.
7) Subsequent fear, putting on breaks with shoulders back, and tip toeing down steep hills= no fun, might as well get back to the road.
8) No fear down steep, technical hills + mind on trail + arms winged out for balance + clearing obstacles + shoulders aligned with hips= CRAZY FUN!! Also helps you get up that steep, technical hill that is just a few fallen logs away.
9) The farther into the woods the cooler and the better-- ah, nature's air conditioning.
10) Bridges are fun to run over
11) The one time you decide to leave your camera at home so you can focus on running, a fantastic vision will appear on the trail. This time it was a fire colored deer-- huge and nimble too. I was at one of those trail splits when I looked to my left and saw this orange/brick colored deer gazing out at the meadow lands. He sensed me watching and his ears got all sonar like but he stayed still--I turned off my I-Pod and crept down that trail until I was just a few feet from him. He glanced at me and still did not move. Amazing. But as I got a bit closer he lept into the thick brush of trees and disappeared.
12) Meadow mowed sledding hills are really crazy fun to lope down and near impossible to run up-- you have to run up them on your tip toes because they are vertical with your body.
13) When those charcoal clouds hover to your right and jagged lightening zags through them while blue skies and birds remain to your left--don't get too comfortable. Here's when I wished I wasn't lost, when I wished I had paid attention to the names of the trails, to identifying marks, to anything that would help me get back to my car and FAST! The trail became dark and the thunder rumbled through Def Tones crooning "I took off your wings". I heard the crack and snap of something and I felt panic--real panic-- like I was in Minos' labyrinth and the Minotaur was laughing and waiting while I ran in serpentine circles.

I'm not sure if it's a phobia--but, while I love running in the rain, I am terrified of being lost in lightening storms--esp when I am trail running. I feel like I'm going to become a human candle, torched by some lightening fired tree nearby. I just kept running fast until I saw one of the trails that had pavement-- I ran and ran on that pavement with many choices to turn down another trail but I just kept running on the same paved trail and came out at a parking lot far away from the one where I parked my car. I didn't care--at least I could run away from the match light trees. I ran down the park's streets until I found my car--grabbed a park map on the way and lightening cracked just as I opened the wooden box to grab it-- I jumped and yes, screamed, as embarrassing as it was, and took off again for my car.

I sat in my car laughing and trembling-- looked with glee at my Garmin- 5.8 miles! Ha! and my best time???? 6 minute mile-- yeah-- I sure know when that kicked in.

Can't wait to run at Heritage again. I have memorized the map--memorized it! Next time lightening chases me I will know how to get out of the maze--even without Daedalus's wings.

I've been tagged

2008-06-22T16:10:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by Ken

Here are the rules as explained to me.Copy the rules (or your version of them) and the set of questions onto your blog post, provide your own answers and then tag 5 new people. If tagged, you’ll find your name at the end of this post.To be sure everyone tagged knows they’ve been invited to play, go to their blogs and leave them a comment notifying and referring them to your blog for details.Lastly, once the chosen have answered the questions on their own blog, they should come back to yours to tell you.Here are my responses.

1. How would you describe your running 10 years ago?

20 minutes on the treadmill everyday for a few weeks and then not at all for a few months

2. What is your best and worst run/race experience?

Best – Running a 5K side by side with my brother--not only my best experience running because I got to bond with my brother but it was also my best time.

Worst – Fracturing my femur after the Detroit Free Press race-- but before that would definitely be running the 15K Tax Trot in 85 degree weather in April wearing my under armor and a black turtle neck--thought I was going to pass out--also got lost.

3. Why do you run?

I started with Team in Training to raise funds for blood cancer patients, and I got hooked. Now it's just become part of who I am-- I don't feel quite myself when I take too long off running, and it's such a great way to experience everything beautiful around me--esp when trail running--also nice way to bond with my dog.

4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you’ve been given about running?

Best - Don't run in those Sketchers anymore!! Buy good shoes with stabilization. Also, let gravity get you down the hills and be sure to keep your arm swing straight and your feet will follow. Lean a bit into the uphills and shorten your stride
Worst – You can't drink enough water just before a race (oh yeah you can!) and don't cross train-- one of my coaches actually said to me "You'll never see a Kenyon in the pool!! Stop cross training" and hello fractured femur, twisted ankles, injured knees, etc.

5. Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.

I was mugged twice within the first month I lived in Dublin but have never been mugged in Detroit and lived here most of my life! I still love to travel--esp. by myself because it feels more exhilarating.

These are the folks I'm tagging:

Scott Keeps Running

Dag

A Kiwi on the Run

Cycling through life

TNT ROAR

More blogging than running makes Laura a lazy girl

2008-06-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

So, I have not run since the darned half-marathon. This is becoming a habit--run a
half-marathon take a million days off running--train again for next half-marathon just shy of three months before the race--at this rate I'll reach my goal of a two hour half-marathon in about two decades.

I started to blog to motivate myself for what was supposed to be my first full marathon--which turned out to fracture my femur and scared me off of trying for a full--burned once and don't want to get burned again. It did not help that it was after my 14 mile run that I started having leg problems--like that magical number past the half-marathon itself cracked my leg and now I seriously am scared of going anything over 13.1. Some day, though, some day.

For now, it's as many halfs as I can sign up for, take off work for, and train/be a slug after for.

My parents took my brother and I out after the race and this photo was taken right before they drove to the lake house in Manistee. The wonderful highlight of this half was that it was my brother's first full. He took my advice and we had exactly two drinks together the night before the race at the Grand Traverse Resort. It was surreal to actually give my big brother Mark advice about anything but especially something athletic--but I successfully warned him off of using his tri belt for a full marathon, talked him into putting on his entire racing outfit, socks, pinned on (yes pinned on not clipped on!) race bib, and most important shoes with timing chip already looped through the laces and then taking it all off and having a good nights sleep with it piled next to the door.

It's my method for every pre-race night: exactly two glasses of wine, try on all my race gear, take it all off, go to bed and it's completely lights out. Some people never sleep the night before a race. Me? I get my best sleep ever the night before a race and I usually have a rather hard time getting to sleep.

This was Mark just minutes after he finished the Bayshore Marathon. Some advice he didn't take-- don't stop! Don't sit down! keep walking! He walked a few steps and then did a small twirl like motion and sat/thumped down on the grass.

He also did not take my advice about the post-race ice bath and took a hot tub instead-- crazy. It's actually nice to be so numb you can't feel anything because you also can't feel the pain in your legs.

Veronica, who ran the 10K, was kind enough to tell Mark, as were having help-get-to-sleep drinks, that a full marathon was much harder than a triathlon. Nice timing Veronica. "It's true!" she insisted. "You tell me, you tell me after the race," she said to my brother, "if it isn't harder than a tri." I told her that was enough for the night before Mark's race. Veronica is a crazy fast runner and certainly has her priorities--she prefaces everything with "Two choices" As in "I had two choices: go for the bathroom or go for time." Guess what she chose?
I loved rooming with her and Lou that weekend. While her, Lou, and I suited up for the race, she talked incessantly about running in her jeans--the girl from Mexico city could not fathom 38 degrees any time of day (even 4 a.m.) in late May. She almost talked me into running the Bayshore in my jeans.

Here she is post race already in her jeans and the temp rose to nearly 60.

Here some middle of the race photos.

After my half I waited near and on the track for my brother to finish the full. I was so excited that I got as far out into the track as I could without being an obstacle. Though I nearly become one.

I was so absorbed taking this photo of my brother finishing that the racer behind him almost slammed into me-- I didn't even notice.

My parents, who were watching in horror, told me after I ran across the track to show them the photo of Mark finishing.

A nice 38 degree summer race

2008-06-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

Jackie and I on the bus to the Bayshore start line-- around 5 a.m. and the sun was just coming up--that dawn with the rosy red fingers as Homer calls her--spreading across the windows of our bus--made being up so early not so bad.

Here is where it did get bad:

FREEZING!! That plastic poncho might as well have been dipped in ice--did not keep out the 38 degree wind and drizzle as we waited our nearly two hours of rotating through the bathroom lines until the start of the race.

It did warm though to a perfect 50 degrees as the race went on and the sun broke through the drizzle--turned out to be another beautiful Bayshore race--lake on one side, nice breeze, and sprawling lawns on the other side--with families sitting on their lawn chairs cheering us on and some offering water--one family had a bucket of candy for the runners.

Bayshore Flash!

2008-05-29T17:25:00.001-07:00

I shaved 10 minutes off of my Bayshore time from last year! Now, that's mostly because I learned when to gulp down water and when not to (um, 3 full bottles of water half an hour pre-race=very, very bad idea). I was able to run nearly the whole time--only making one pit-stop and clothes drop-- someone maybe picked up a nice WRIF men's large black tee-shirt at one of the port oh johns by the side of the race or perhaps a pair of Family Dollar blue capri sweats.

Coach Ken thinks I'm flashing him in this photo, but I was just trying to show my TNT's-- Team in Training logos and honored hero. Ah well, I guess he can dream ;)

Finished the race: 2 hours and 36 minutes. SO next year's goal: 10 minute pace or finish at or under 2 hours!

I had this crazy temp tattoo on my arm that showed where I should be if I was keeping a 10:41 pace-- I still have it on despite an ice bath and showers later. Looks like someone stamped me with an oversized bar code. Had I kept that pace I would have finished in exactly 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Stoney Creek photo blog

2008-05-22T21:00:00.001-07:00

This was last Saturday--my last long run, a taper run 8.5 miles, but, as you can tell, I did not really go all out as I spent much time taking photos- often while running but also while stopping--especially for the bird shots.

My running partner Jackie was wine tasting up north, so I thought I would photograph the training for her--especially photographing her favorite bird: the Oriole.

This truly is a beautiful place to train and is a nice compliment to my city runs.

Need a Running Whisperer

2008-05-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

I thought I figured it out a week or so ago when I was doing speed work. When I ran around 11 minute miles Robbie trotted too far behind me so that I could not even swing my right arm in rhythm to my left: encumbered by the leash and more so by 100 pounds of resistant dog, What happened to my perfect running partner??? How could I get him in shape? Why was it taking him longer than me to get up to speed?? I tried holding the leash in all different ways because I noticed no matter how tight I made it, it still slid down to his ears and then crunched them and that made him go into spastic and resistance head gyrations to get the thing off his ears. So I tried to hold the leash higher. I tried to hold the leash closer to him, closer to me, across my body, behind me, more slack, less slack. Nothing worked!! I wanted my side kick back!! My perfectly in sync w/ me running pal. What happened? I sped up to my 9 to 10 minute pace.
That's when I thought I found a solution.
At that pace, Robbie kept up with me--easily ran next to me--looking exhilarated, mouth open, tale up and wagging, paws in full gallop.

AH!! HA! I thought. When I was under a 10.5 minute pace, he figured it wasn't worth running-- for him that was between a fast walk and a jog and fast walk was just easier.
Too bad that lasted only a few times of me surging forward. The third time I sped up he was even worse, stayed at his slow trot, and I lugged him and even had to yank his leash and call out his name as if I had not seen him in a month and was just so overjoyed that I wanted nothing more than to have him close to me: "Robbie!! Come here good boy! Robbie. That's right!! Good job!" Okay, that brought him up to speed again. But then he slowed down and he was walk/jogging behind me.

So, I realized a new career for some entrepreneurial soul: The Running Whisperer. This canine specialist could train runners and their dogs to run at the same minute per mile pace. I wish I had one right now to analyze why we are no longer the perfect running partners, as we were before.

I would actually love for Robbie to run faster than me, just once. I don't see how he is so out of shape when he is so much more muscular than me and has the herding, hunting instincts, that I was not born with and that do require running.

Those of you that are dog runners, any tips?? Anyone want to be my running whisperer?
My Cesear?
Thanks!

I blame Thena

2008-04-29T03:43:00.000-07:00

Jackie helped me again!! We ran 8 miles this past Saturday and only stopped 3 times (once at the "water cooler" w/ no coach Ken around to chase us away with his car roaring up behind us--that man manages to be everywhere we try to stop or even slow down). Finishing the last mile, Jackie said I had improved since the last Saturday because "You sounded like that the entire run last time!!" I was in bad shape that last mile but, again, made her promise to not let me stop. That crazy gasping sound means that I will be able to run 8 miles easier next time. So, w/ this victory, I planned to be really, really good. But, darn it!
Here is where my Sunday a.m. plans to run went:

Too much dancing means not enough running. Wonder if I can dance my way across the Bayshore finish line??

Went to Luna's w/ Thena and all my resolve Sunday a.m left me and then Monday, nope. Now Tuesday a.m. and did not run before work
Must run tonight after grading. 3 miles, wed. 4, Thursday 8, Friday: nope, Saturday 11. Jeez, almost time to taper--must kick it up even w/ PT conferences coming up and grades and everything

Martian 10 K in Dearborn

2008-04-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

Me n the Purple Alien after I got my race packet.

This is the second mile of the Dearborn Martian 10K and I'm in the left corner with the white TNT hat on trying to hug the curb so I can get the the finish line faster-- I always have these little tricks-- like thinking if I run on the inside of any turn I'm going to shave off at least five minutes from my finish.

I had another running angel that day and he was in his mid seventies with a wrap around his knee doing a walk/run. He forced me, like my zoo angel, to turn off my I-Pod and talked to him/pick up my pace with him and he told me stories the whole way to keep my mind off any pain.

Race was last Saturday and I finish in about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Last year finished 1 hour 20 minutes. So I am improving a teeny bit. This guy had some great stories-- he met Bill Rogers--who used to smoke up a storm! and someone asked him why he didn't try out for track in high school and I guess Bill said, "I'm too slow". The guy, even though he was a crazy chain smoker, ran a 5.4 minute mile around the track and he thought that was "too slow"!! So these were some of the tales this wonderful man told me while we ran, "our foot race" as he called it.

Told me that I should enjoy my foot races while I can cause it gets really hard when you get old like him. Yeah, this guy could walk circles around me while I try to run. Really, you can see in the photos that when my feet are about a foot or two in the air and arms pumping he seems to be taking a brisk walk. Okay, some of that does have to do with my short legs and his long ones. But seriously, the following is probably one of the more embarassing race photos to date:

I think I am a little faster already since the Martian. Ran 8 miles tonight and only stopped twice-- stretched after a mile and stopped to talk to friends on Main near Lincoln at about 4.5 miles. Could have gone a few miles longer but wanted to get some grading done. Felt really awesome and ran faster than last run. averaged 13 minute miles even with the stops--felt faster than that though.
Robbie seriously needs to get shape. Here's his usual daily activity:

It's weird but he's alot like me-- first two or three miles I have to cajole and drag him to keep up with me and sometimes when I don't feel that tug and I am running free as free can be I realize I am running with a leash and no dog cause he has figured out how to slip the thing from his neck to off his nose. But the last three or so miles he was kickin butt! He ran with or ahead of me and man was that easier than dragging him--it really inspired me and is maybe why I felt like I could go a few more miles.

Okay so, now, well now the knees are killing me. I stretched alot after the run but just too lazy at that point to put ice on. Up and down stairs hurts the most.

This is what I get out of it

2008-04-10T13:59:00.001-07:00

I took this picture last July while we were in the UP after I ran the Grand Island trail race. I love taking pictures out of moving cars. This is what I see and feel sometimes when I run. Like I'm in a car with the music blaring and I seriously get that twinge of nerves when I run by a cop car in Royal Oak, like I'm in a car doing something so fun it's wrong.
I took this at the Butterfyl house at the zoo-- also reminds me of why I run. Pushing myself while loving everything I see.

Mark always asks me what I get out of running, and I think about it, really try to articulate it, but always fail to really explain it. But a lot of runners can probably sympathize with this. How do you explain to someone who HATES running why you do it so often? It’s a feeling, a zone, mental and physical place, that is really hard to articulate and it’s not always fun but even then you know you love it and will again.

So, last night, after an easy, high inducing four mile fast (for me) run, I stretched in the kitchen while Mark stood at the stove, making delicious ribs. After I stretched, I got out two cups of Styrofoam ice and iced both sides of each swollen knee. Mark gaped at me and said, “See! That’s why I don’t get it and that’s why I will never run. I just don’t get why you would keep doing something where you’re always icing something after. It’s not for me.” He shook his head and went on and on about how many doctors have told him running is bad for your back, for joints, for your bones, for your skin, your toe nails, for your ability to write Haiku, etc., etc. He said he would just go to the gym, peddle the “old man bike” as he likes to call it, lift weights and then be out of there. He also doesn’t get why I would want to keep doing a form of exercise that takes so much time. “I don’t have time for some hour yoga class and then an hour or more running. That’s insane!!” He was on a roll, but I’ve heard this before.
The timing was perfect because, having just had a tremendous run, I was able to articulate it better than I ever have and so I write this here to remind myself when I’m feeling down on myself for going on, say, a two month hiatus and then thinking: “ Oh my lord, why, why can I only go .25 of a mile without my lungs getting into a wrestling match when I used to be able to run 13 miles easy? Maybe I lost my ability to run!”
(I actually told coach Al that three weeks ago. “I don’t think I can run anymore”
“Why! What happened?” He was really concerned.
“No. Nothing like that. I just think I lost the ability. I go half a mile and I’m heaving and out of breath. I just can’t go and go like I could. It’s like I just don’t know how to run anymore.”
He said that maybe I had a cold or excersize induced pnemona where your lungs get so muscular that they squeeze and then you get out of breath easier. An evil little paradox of getting stronger making you weaker. I thought about that. Even thought about puffing on an inhaler before I ran. Well, it just took running to be able to run and not nearly as long as I thought it would when I could only go .25 miles before heartattack zone. Each time I ran I could go farther and longer and faster.

So here’s what I told Mark as I very happily iced my knees (or at least a paraphrase of what I remember):

Running is an etch-a-sketch. It’s like shaking myself clean. No matter what I was obsessing about, no matter what happened at work, no matter how blasé, anxious, existentially perplexed or down I may feel before a run, running is wiping the slate clean. (I wanted him to understand so badly that I wiped my hand across the kitchen wall to show him wiping something away).
I think its chemical, the endorphins that kick out, but I also think it’s something else. It is like a drug but not like any I know. You can drink, but there are places it doesn’t reach. Running reaches to the bone—it gets right to where you need it, right to the source and just lifts you up. I guess it’s really more mental therapy for me, but which is also physical. I think and feel best when I am moving. It gets me in the now. Pragmatically, when I’m running w/ Robbie through the city, every minute or so, I have to be in the now because I have to be keenly aware of my surroundings: make sure that car doesn’t run me over, make sure Robbie doesn’t scare that family walking towards us, watch that chunk of cement jutting up where they are doing construction. Then when I am inside myself, I am thinking “don’t let my arms swing across my middle or my feet with follow, am I standing too straight am I bending too much, how is my stride? This is an awesome song!! Wow, I think I can just surge, fartelek style for as long as this song is going and then maybe I’ll just put it on repeat and keep surging. That sunset, just over the houses, oh my—thank you so much God for that sunset. That’s the most beautiful thing you have ever given me and I’m so thankful that I decided to get out of the house just at the perfect time so that I would see that sunset as I ran up this hill on Gardenia and it’s so golden now, so Goosebumps making, esp. with this clean smell of the air. I love the spring breeze as it blows across my arms. How are my arms, put them closer to my torso, swing them faster, what does the Garmen say? Oh, sweet! 9 minute mile! That’s awesome. I could run forever. I love this feeling of turning the corner at the Frenz and Son’s Hardware, running around their long brick building onto main—feels like running to a new world—like coming out of the wardrobe in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. from the curving, hilly, clean, tree lined, neighborhood to a strait-away down main-- the lights and cars and stores and smells and eclectic mix of people. Love that my dog is in rhythm next to me. My dog is so awesome. I look down and he seems to be smiling as he jogs, jerking his head toward my legs every now and then to make sure he doesn’t knock into my legs or run too far from them. He’s such a good dog. He gets right behind me whenever we must weave in and out of people down busy Main. Who else has an awesome dog like this? I swear we knew each other in a past life. Ah, nice. I have now completely forgotten about my legs and arms except to remember that I have forgotten them, but I am flowing, they are flowing me down main street doing their thing while I just feel this awesome metronome feeling, like I am myself simply a flowing rhythm going down the street with my beloved dog and the night gets cooler as the sun is gone. How wonderful to feel the night around me as I run into and through it.

Okay—so those were just some of my perceptions while running. Sounds like someone on some serious THC, right? Well, just water, running, dog, and blaring music. It’s an un-drug (like the “undead”) that just gets right down in there and fixes things, puts it all in perspective. Forces me to live in the moment. And when I come back, it’s like what they hoped electro-shock therapy could do. Shocks me out of any irritation, mulling over my “need to do” list or “didn’t get done list” “or why can’t life just be” whine—all there is is me and moments and I’m refreshed (stinky, yeah, probably pretty stinky) but re-baptized to not be such a worrier and to just feel everything is in balance and what it should be.
Mark said, “So you feel like that for an hour and a little after, so what? At the end you still have your to do list, you still have stress. What about the 23 other hours of the day when you are limping around cause you sprained your ankle, or fractured your femur, or get your knees swollen? “
I thought about that too. Well, the first thing I thought to say was that you can live in an hour—that even if it’s just an hour, you are still living in that hour. “Why not spend that hour doing something that gives you such a high, that for nearly an entire hour, helps you to live right in the now and not in a selfish way but just in a this is it and this is all I need to be right now. And, I think the more I do it, the longer that deep down good feeling lasts even when I am not running.”
Mark said if it’s like drugs then it does the same thing as drugs do just masking something else in your life.
But it isn’t like that. It is healthy—unlike drugs, this may actually help me live longer and want to. It is an end. Not a means.
Yeah, with a broken back and fractured femur.
He will never let me forget that I fractured my femur just by running too much too soon.

I guess some people hate it. Some people think it’s a waste of time. Some people don’t mind it. Some people just do it to lose weight or get toned. Some people love it. Some people need it.
I think I am the last two. That’s just the way it is.
(If I wanted to lose weight I would go back to my college days and drink boat loads of de-caf coffee and smoke tons of cigarettes—I was skinnier when that was my lifestyle than I am now that I am running consistently and have these muscles on my legs)

Want to move beyond slowing my way around

2008-04-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

Found my stats at athlinks and added it to my page elements. Need to be more consistent with my training as I've really learned that runnig is really all about running. You don't just get it and keep it cause you had it once.

Here is my long term goal: to complete my bayshore half-marathon at an average of 10 minute miles, to complete the 10K trail race at an average of 9 minute miles at Grand Island this summer.

So short term training goals:
I’m doing a tempo run tonight. I did it!!! went to yoga for an hour and then ran 2.87 without stopping and without feeling too out of breath
Long run Tuesday. nope-- read a book a student gave me instead: "Bloody Sunday" about the Irish revolution in 1916-1920's
Speed work Wed. Nope. Did my Tuesday run-- four miles felt awesome--could have gone more but knew Mark made dinner.
Long run Thursday w/TNR-- nope. Kris, good friend who moved to Las Vegas in town for one night. I am about to go meet her tonight (it is now April 10)
Yoga Friday. Plan to! Nope-- met up with friends instead--saw some of my old roommates from Ireland
super long run—11 miler on Saturday at Stoney. This is a definite, but saw on the schedule that I only have to do 10 miles. Nope, slept in till 9 or so. Spent the day doing errands and cleaning the house like mad

Think will squeeze in the requisite sports massage in there sometime—probably after my super long run on Saturday. Nope

Sunday (April 13) : Went 8 miles today-- only stopped twice

This goes out to Jackie

2008-03-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

You are the BEST Jackie!! Thank you so much for helping me push past my rut during the long run this a.m.at Stoney!!! It was deja-vu in reverse, but I don't think you were ever hurtin as bad as I was this a.m. I sounded like a near heart attack victim during that last mile, but you kept ruthlessly pushing me, which is exactly what I wanted you to do!!

I went 9.5 miles today w/ Jackie, and I had to call myself the chain and Laura around her ankle cause she wouldn't leave me, but neither could I go nearly as fast as she could and I had to stop and walk every .75 of a mile (her plan, by the way, much more sensible than my idea-- the only 3 stops plan) I told Jackie that if I couldn't run a mile in the the finish then I was finished and no matter what I said, or what I did, even if my heart itself leaped from my chest and sat on her shoulder and begged her to stop, to not stop and not let me stop. So when my breath got really insane, esp. up one of the hills, she told me to keep going or she would leave my ass!! Yes!! I kept going. Felt good to finish those miles. I was swearing like a trucker though! Usually I am the one admiring the "Monet Painting" of the leaves as we run and Jackie's telling me to shut the hell up, this sucks! as I wax poetic about every bird and tree and lake we pass.

well, this time I swore up every hill--even took the lords name in vain many times. We had fun, none-the-less, talking about teaching English--how our kids hate us over the Odyssey and getting chased by coach Ken in his car. I swear he was EVERYWHERE!!! He was at the 2 mile handing out cups of water, at the water cooler (only 2 more miles up) telling us "this is not a social stop! get going!" Then he drove his darn care up the nature center right behind us
!!! I asked if we could get in, but he said no--he was going to drive behind us and make us go faster. He sure is motivating, you know, in that lovable drill sergeant who scares the hell out of you every time you see him, kind of motivation.

So, I'm feeling confident again as many parts of my body are already, to use Jackie's term, "Barking" at me. That means I really pushed myself, I won't be walking right tomorrow, and I can get myself through this 10K in Dearborn next Saturday and eventually the Bayshore itself.

JACKIE IS AWESOME!!!

A very cold engine

2008-03-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

Even more sad running stats:

Tuesday
Miles: 3.75
Average pace: 15 minutes per mile!!!

I felt like my heart was going to fling itself from my chest after just a quarter of a mile and so I stopped and walked every quarter mile or so. It was terrible. It's weird, but I think in some ways my earlier training made me a mental wimp. Having experienced the ease of running six miles w/ barely any increase in breathing or muscle fatigue made pain a surprise. I was too wimpy to deal w/ starting this cold running engine again after my, mostly, two month hiatus. Sure, I could surge forth in a four mile race, but try to run around my neighborhood? Nope.
The minute I felt that stretching feeling in my heart and my chest heaving, I thought, what the?? and stopped.

When I first started running, though, I remember now that that was what every mile felt like and it was my mind not my body that kept me running--well the one part of my mind barking the wimpy side to stand down and give way to training. This feeling is training, I would tell myself.

So, with firm resolve, I planned to run four miles w/out stopping no matter what my breathing, lungs, legs did. Didn't happen.

Here's the stats
Wednesday
miles: 2.75
Average pace: 13 miles per minute

This time I only stopped to walk/stretch three times and made sure I ran at least an entire mile first but I was done after 2.75 miles. I warmed the engine up some more but not nearly as much as I wanted to.

Tonight is TNR. The group plans to run a six mile route that I am going to cut into a four mile route by cutting across 12 mile to main street. I bet they still get to Farmers Market before me.

Okay. I am taking hold of my brain right now and I will drink lots oh water. I will NOT stop running until I have at least gone four miles.

2008-03-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

! Favorite time to be in Detroit and favorite part to be in! Funny, when I lived in Dublin on St. Patrick's there were more American's than Irish parading down O'Connell Street but here on this day, there truly seems to be more Irish than Americans.
The parade was fantastic as usual. I can't recall what the knives were for but they were part of the parade immediately after the race.
Both the pontiff himself and the king of Oz made it to the race/parade day to celebrate St. Patrick's day.
Loved listening to the traditional Irish--Flowers of Forest after the race but hated my place and my time:

169 Laura Redman Royal Oak MI 1761 34 1815 48:24 12:06/M

Sad, just plain sad. This is slower than the first time I ran the Corktown four mile race. Well, I guess this lass cannot get away with almost no training for nearly two months and still place anywhere near respectable in a four mile race. Never was too good with the short distances anyway.

Okay, that said. How fun! Love running through downtown Detroit--especially Corktown. What a great way to see the city and seems to always be beautiful the Sunday morning before St. Patrick's! Lots of bagpipers and a cup of beer awaiting the runners at the finish--also a nice Corktown touch. Though, tis a wee bit dehydrating to gulp down a plastic cup of Miller rather than cold water immediately after pounding past the chip mat. A bunch of us TNT currents and alumni kept in contact via cell phone and found each other off and on at various Corktown staples: Gaelic league, Slow, Nemo's, etc. Capped the celebration off at Dougins. My friend Tracy and I after the race--she always dresses for the part.

But really must get back to true training as in more than once every two months running. It felt awesome to run again.

2008-03-07T22:20:00.000-08:00

This is the last place I ran--my mom's home town in Minnesota for my cousin Tiff's wedding in February. Got lost, of course, but it was so fun, such a beautiful place! Historic downtown Faribault is just as it sounds: a place time forgot. They filmed parts of Grumpy Old Men here and the "downtown" part is but one long corridor of brick store fronts, coffee shops, diners, bars, a resale boutique called the "The Closet" and an old fashioned pharmacy that gleams with green and purple glass potion bottles in the display window. Even a barber shop with one of those candy-cane posts marking the outside.

So, how did I get lost? Well I ran way past "downtown" from my grandma's house and into steep, hilly streets lined by oddly shaped mansions nestled between broken down shacks and multi-colored Victorians. I even saw an ancient looking red house with a widow's walk. I tried to use all the strange, beautiful, timeless sites to make my way back after I had gone four miles but found that I was starting to literarly run in circles--the last landmark I remembered was a small market called "Nelsons" which bordered "central park" I had four directions to choose from to run back to my Grandma's, tried all four and decided there must be a fifth one somewhere I couldn't see, when my Aunt Sarah pulled up and I hopped in her car-- I thought she had been sent to find me but she was as just on her way to Nelsons-- only in Faribault.

tomorrow I start my training in earnest for my half-marathon at Bayshore again this year. I'm not going with TNT this time but I am going with some friends I met through TNT.

I'm meeting my friend Michelle at Stoney at 8 in the morning, so of course I can't sleep.

My goal: A) keep up with Michelle---probably won't happen as I have not run, except in MN, since the January race. B) Go three miles without stopping C)total of four miles.

Next weekend I'm running in Detroit's Corktown, St. Patrick's day race and it's an odd four mile race. I at least want to be able to do four miles the week before!

photos of Arizona PF Chang half marathon

2008-01-17T16:18:00.001-08:00

Thumbs up-- this was about mile 7 and the guy taking the picture was sitting between the runners on one side of the interstate and cars on the other.

The guys were hilairous: dressed as Roman running twins-- they even had the same stride.

UP to the victory party

My honored heroes and the sponsors who donated to the Leukemia society

I finished the Arizona half marathon!

2008-01-15T14:49:00.000-08:00

Second tour of duty to port-oh-john w/ Ingrid from TNT. Cold that morning so we piled on the clothes and then added them to the trail of the discarded gloves, old shirts, sweats on the course.

Took forever to get from my corral (22) to the start-- actually took nearly an hour to get to the start.
I was in corral 14-- would have been my pre-stress fracture pace, but I moved down to corral 22-- oops. Another lesson learned. Coral 22 was for walkers- I just arbitrarily picked it. Here's what I learned: don't go out w/ the elites who will stampede over you or make you fly so fast you can't go more than a half mile w/out collapsing. BUT don't also go out with people much slower than you or you will be running much further than a half marathon as your run in zig-zag fashion from one slow moving road block to another. I felt like my feet were bushwhacking their way through a dense forest of legs and torsos. I got so sick of moving from one side of the field to the other that I just ran straight and yelled out "on your right" or "excuse me. Can go between you?" People appreciated that- "Thank you for at least asking" one lady said good naturedly-- apparently someone who made the same corral mistake as me just barreled into her moments before.

My dad noted on line (miracle of computers) when I passed the 5K mark at 41 minutes and called my mom to tell her. When I called him, he said "You really picked it up after the first 3 miles"! What? HOw did you know that!!!? Then he explained that the Arizona website had it all in real time! And every time my chip passed a mat the time got registered on the website so my dad back in Michigan could virtual watch my progress in Arizona. Yeah, I really picked it up after 3 miles-- I had mostly bushwhacked my way through the lines of slow moving people blocks and got to coral 17 with the jog/runners. This was when it got fun and I think I just grinned the whole way from there on out!!

Okay--gots to go to PT--- will feel very good today!
My finish time was 2 hours and 47 minutes and some seconds. Much better than my goal--which, w/ my just healed leg, was anything under 4 hours. I never stopped running-- not even through water stations-- just grabbed two cups-- as I ran by== one to drink/spill down my shirt and one to toss water on my back and legs and still running.

I had ear to ear grin-- so beautiful Arizona is!!! I took some photos as I ran-- kept the camera in my water bottle pouch. Will post those soon.

My favorite moment (there were many but this saved me): the part of my body that killed the whole time were my feet-- I stupidly, nostolgically wore the same shoes I had for Bayshore in May and my feet felt every pound of the pavement until it was like that psycho from Misery was hammering the bottoms of my feet with a hobbling sledge hammer. As I ran up one of the bridges around mile ten and my feet pulsed with pain, I saw a man with a huge sign. I ran to my left to read it--anything to keep my mind off the bottoms of my feet.

His sign read: IF YOUR FEET KILL, THEN YOU ARE KICKING BUTT!
Oh what an angel God sent me. What an angel. What a perfect message for that moment of pain. I laughed out loud and suddenly each throb became part of the delightful message on the angel's sign.

I love rock-n-roll marathons-- over 25,000 in the half marathon alone (reason for the wave starts) and 9000 for the full marathon. Cheerleaders-- really, never thought I would say this, but the cheerleaders also go me through my race! Something about someone cheering for you to keep running actually helps you keep running.

When I rounded the corner for the last .1 miles almost to the finish, ACDC was playing--don't even remember what but I loved it. I was sprinting at this point, having speeded up my pace in planned increments the whole race so I could finish at a sprint--knowing I didn't need to reserve any more energy.
Gramen says:
miles 0-4 13.48 pace
miles 4-10 12.38 pace
miles 10-12 11.41 pace
miles 12-13 all out sprint-- registered 5.57 as my fastest time (that could be one second and probably was a second as I sprinted down a hill that last mile) But I think I averaged a 7 minute mile for the last mile.

Had so much fun and can't wait for the next race-- Tracy, Lou, and Jacqueline and I are already planning the next three races to do together!!!

So nervous-- only one day till I leave

2008-01-09T16:23:00.000-08:00

This man is such a saint. His wife died of a blood cancer many years ago. Instead of becoming bitter, I think it might have made him the most generous man on the planet. He comes every Saturday a.m. before 7 a.m., whether 90 and humid or below 10 and freezing, to Stoney Creek and brings food, a warm heart, and drives down to mile threee to set up a "Team in Training" water/lemondage/hot cidar you name it stop. Or what coach Ken calls "The Water Cooler". As in "Laura! Stop lingering around the water cooler and get running again!" His words here I will carry with me to Arizona and my race this Sunday. For all this love and support, he wants one thing: for us to finish our races.

Beautiful by car not by running shoes

2008-01-04T13:42:00.000-08:00

Wednesday morning, I was so in awe at the beauty of the snow covered trees, at the snow lasting in the below freezing Michigan temps, at the surreal look of the blue/black morning against the stark white that I grabbed my camera from my center console and started taking pictures out my car window on my way into work.

When I left work, I was equally in love with pink-gold of the sunset as a backdrop for these snow hearty trees. So, out came the camera again.

I couldn't wait to get home and run in this cold and this beauty.

Another lesson learned the hard way.

I put on my many layers: Underarmor (with a name like that I always picture those scenes in movies and epic literature where they show the "dressing of the hero" in his armor-- a stock scene used by Homer and later JR Tolkien to show the transition from the every day to the perilous/glorious impending battle). And so, I donned my UnderArmor, my over armor, my glow in the headlights running pants, my two sports bras, my UnderArmor shirt, my turtle neck, my second layer of dry fit long sleeved running shirt, my third layer of zip up running jacket, my Garmen, my I-Pod, my thinsulate ear protectors (over my headphones) my wool turtle collar that goes up to just under my eyes, my TNT baseball hat w/ flashing headlamp to see pitfalls in the dark and to warn others to see me from their speeding cars, my wool hat over my baseball hat, my strapped around my wrist water bottle, my black and red waterpoof trail running shoes, and, most importantly, a well watered and leashed Rotterman dog, beloved Robbie.

Off we went to glorious running (after nearly an hour of "the dressing of us heroes" who were about to battle the cold).

Well, at first it was glorious. I loved the smell of the crisp air, the glint of iced over snow in meringue like tufts along the sidewalk. The trees hanging heavy with snow above me. The pumping sounds of "Turn the Music up!" I planned to go 11 miles today because I completely messed up my plan below and did not do a long run the Saturday after my 10 miler!!! The vacation laziness got me. Didn't run Saturday, Didn't' run Sunday. Then ran on Wednesday Dec. 26 for 3.5 miles. I went to physical therapy Friday a.m., came home and changed into my running gear (see above) started my car to get warm for my drive to Stoney Creek, came back inside and promptly fell asleep. Mark came home three hours later to find my car still on in the driveway, and me in full running gear, including my shoes, sleeping deeply in bed. Then came New Years and holiday celebrations. Hung out with Lisa, Erin, Mark,and Adorjian.

No running, in fact, not much movement the next day, Tuesday.
Did not run again until the next day, this wintry Wed-- my planned 11 miler. Despite nearly 7 days off, my breath and legs felt good. I could do 11 miles, even if I needed to stop a few times and walk/and or stretch. I was turning from my street onto the next leg of my run when I tripped on some dark crevice in the road and went sprawling across the ice. Luckily no face scraping sprawl and no twisted ankle. Just a very frightened, yelping dog. I landed right on Robbie's unsuspecting back. I felt so bad. I sat up and just held him for a while but he started wagging his tale and becoming "Mr. Lick Lick" slobbering all on my face, so up I got and started running again. That's when things got annoying. Patches of dry, smooth running, heart-warming sidewalk gave way to sheets of ice, and I had to run as if I was wearing ballet point shoes-- like I was some kind of overdressed, gangly performer in the Nutcracker-- gingerly making sure each foot fall was a point on the ground, not a slide. Okay, annoying but doable. Well, then came the park I love so much to run around or on (when I want snow cushion for my bad right leg). This was darn right ankle twisting, knee torcing treachery. The snow, usually springy, was also hard as marble but not smooth-- jagged little, unforgiving peaks and valleys. I ended up wobbling more than running and almost fell again on my poor dog!! I pointed my headlamp down as far as I could to spotlight each little upward slope of icy snow but realized, when I saw the endless lumps carved by those who had walked there, that now I would have to hop/walk/amble/avoid more than run. So I just gave up and walked fast-- even this had me weak left ankle complaining from the strain. But then, But then ahhh dry sidewalk again and ever so pump me up sounds of "Lose Yourself" blaring through my headphones. I got in a stride and Robbie got in a happy stride behind me. Every now and then I had to hurtle a snow bank at the intersection of sidewalk and apartment entrance, but that was fun, reminded me of the doable but unpredictable trail running I did this summer.

Robbie was nimble enough at this point to keep up with me.

All the while, traffic to my left, Robbie's side, whizzed by on 11 mile road.
I planned to run us down 11 mile to Woodward and then maybe past that to Coolidge and then see how far Garmen said we had gone.

Dry Sidewalk gave way to complete iced over snow again--this terrain worse than at the park--an ice encased snowed over sidewalk that was also cut in half by construction and a billowing/flapping orange canopy hung over a block long fence.
Okay, thought, more annoying hop/walk/jogging and I started my awkward trot over the mini snow mountains. I felt a tug on my left arm, the arm wrapped in Robbie's leash.
I glanced to my left just to assure myself that separation anxiety ridden dog was still trotting right at my heal. He was not there! He was all the way on 11 mile in front of on-coming traffic. I screamed. I could hear myself over the blaring music in my ears. I screamed at Robbie to "come here!" he didn't! I tugged at his collar. He stayed firmly planted in the dry 11 mile cars whizzing around him road. I tugged again and the blessed collar almost slipped off his neck onto his nose.
I realized I would have to somehow get this 95 pound dog, forcefully, back on the iced over snow. I grabbed his two front legs sat back on the snow and pulled. Oh it wasn't working!!! A small, white sedan zoomed up and stopped just before hitting Robbie. I screamed again. yeah, I was almost in tears by this time. I managed to grab both his back and front legs in some sort of bear hug and hoisted him off of 11 mile and directly on top of me as I fell back on the hardened snow. I sat there for a while just holding him and letting my heartbeat slow down. I said, "Okay Robbie. It's okay. We've had enough for tonight". Stupid me. I thought that assurance would be enough for him to just trot by my legs again back home, but the minute I got up, he bolted for the street again!!! I had to grab him quickly and basically half carry him/half push him until we left the Alpine block of sidewalk or it was dry, busy 11 mile for him! The flapping canvas also scared him to no end and he quivered every time the wind picked it up and slammed it back against the metal fence.

Once we got on dry sidewalk again, he was fine and we jogged home.
With all this adventure, the Garmen said: 2.5 miles. That's all I accomplished.

So, I bit the bullet and last night, Thursday, I went sans dog, sans beautiful snow covered trees, sans Garmen to the gym and ran on the boring treadmill. Only got to 4.3 miles before I couldn't take the sweat nor the boredom anymore (again, I had planned 6-8 to make up for only 2.5 on Wed.).

So, rest today, and tom at 7:15 I am picking up Lou so we can do 6-8 miles at Stoney Creek. Ah Stoney. It will be cold, it will be beautiful and crisp, and it will, most importantly have PLOWED SIDEWALKS!!!!

So, again this morning I couldn't help taking photos of the still beautiful trees, but this time I realized I'd have to wait till this beauty melted before I ran in it-- dressing the hero does not always arm the hero against unforeseen foes.

Merry X-Mas! Lots to Catch up on!

2007-12-25T19:13:00.000-08:00

First, I passed! I gave myself a mental test and I passed. A few weeks ago (not last Thursday, but the Thursday before) I said to myself: If I can run three miles without big pain in my right thigh and without panting to a stop, then I can and will do this half marathon with only a few weeks to train.

I did it!!!! With the help of my wonder dog, Robbie, I did it!! He gets in shape much quicker than me and he was running ahead at times. He's no longer squeamish about the ice either-- though I spent some of the run on the snow to give my bones some cushion.

When I realized I was going to make it to 3 miles, I got so excited I decided to put a wee bit more umpf in and got to a complete 5K-- just that .2 made me feel awesome. I knew I would do this half marathon.

Okay, so I got a little too pat-myself-on-the-backish about passing my own test and I didn't run again until the next Wednesday-- oooppsss!!! I went to Tony's Team in Training fundraiser at Rosie O Grady's the next Tuesday to help him raise funds since he is way under his minimum and already even ran the Hawaii full marathon (which I heard had a near monsoon descend on the runners-see Lou? Told you Arizona was the place to run). He raised nearly 400 for Leukemia/Lymphoma society in one night!! Nice!

This photo is near the end of the night—Tony's sister is the one w/ her eyes closed holding up the TNT banner and he is to the far right.

Lou told me he ran the other day at the Y and sweat after just a few miles like he had run in 80 degree weather. I told him how much I love winter running and hate, hate, hate the treadmill even more than running in the summer. I hate that unnatural pounding feeling, I hate the off balance feeling, I hate just staring straight ahead, I hate no wind, I hate no scenery, and most of all, I hate running in place--the boredom of it is enough to make me want to pull out me eyeballs and throw them outside while my disenoracular body numbly keeps running inside in place. No dog, no sparkling snow, no stars, no landmarks. Yuck. Well, Lou knows heat is my cryptonite and he reminded me of something: our race is in Arizona. Ugggh. It could get up to 60 maybe even 65 or 70 and I've been running at night in 20 degree weather. I am going to dehydrate and drain myself to a puddle of nothing in Arizona. He suggested I do at least one run at the Y since they keep it at 70 just to avoid heat shock when I get to the race.

So, that Wed. I went and I ran in three layers w/ sweats and all just to simulate Arizona. I went through my entire water bottle by mile 3 and I wanted to collapse. I hated it as much as I remembered and had to stop and walk at least 4 times. Running is so mental and w/ all that boredom of just staring ahead at a painted white cinder block wall while I ran in place just took the run right out of me. Not even Sisters of Mercy could keep me going, not even "Radar Love"-- nothing. And, like Lou, I was sweating something fierce. I even threw some of the precious water over my head and didnt care if I got electrocuted or slipped on the water and got conveyered through the treadmill to be flattened on the other side.

Oh, just so I don't forget: also no lemonade, not gulps of it anyway, just before a run.

Okay, so all this is to say: I didn't run for two of coach Kyle's long run Saturday's in a row-- missed the 5, missed the 6, and then went to Stony for TNT' longest Sat run: 20 for full and 11 for half.

I planned to do 6, maybe push to 8, then realized, I better just do 10 and so I nearly did! 9.78 miles. I stopped 3 times at the "water cooler" (TNT water, hot cider-- mmm yum--- station) and walked intermittently-- but was happy that I did nearly 10 miles. It was great to see TNT people I have not seen in a while: Coaches Sandy, Kyle, Ken--especially Ken-- I saw him running in Santa gear on my 2nd mile and ran over to give him a hug--it was awesome to see him. I saw someone else later in a tall Santa hat and didn't recognize him. Later found out it was coach Kyle! He ran with for part of my last 3 miles. I laughed at his hat and said I didn't recognize him--he said he wondered about my blank look. Anyhow admitted I hadn't stuck to his schedule. How many today? He asked-- 10 I said. He grinned: "What happened to 8 miles??" I told him I added the 8 for Sat to the 2 for Sunday and got the 10 for Sat.

Sandy asked me how it felt to be running again: AWESOME! I told her. It felt so good. There is just no, no, no therapy in the world like running.

Even better, not once did my hip flexor nor my femur give me deep down pain. Only my lungs this time were giving me a hard time. Sandy says you get it back quick.
Kyle was so awesome to run w/ me the last few miles--even though I was being a renegade and running those last few against his orders. I had to stop some and walk and as we walked he gave me some good advice. Let me know I didn't really have time for a taper. But, reminded me that I had two more weekends till the race weekend: Jan. 13.
So here's the plan we came up with: run 3-4 miles 3x's during the week and my true long run next Sat.: 11 miles.
Sunday: stretch and rest. Monday: 6, Tuesday: 2, Wed. 3, Thursday 6, Friday stretch and rest, Saturday: 8
Week of race: Sunday: 2 and stretch, Monday, 3, Tuesday, 4, wed. 2, Thursday, 2
Friday: drink lots o water on plane, Saturday: lots oh water, Sunday: race.

Okay, so today is Tuesday and I have not run since Sat. for as much as I love running, when I first start up training it's hard to get into the groove of doing it as frequently as I plan. I can see that looking back at my old logs. So, tom: 4 miles, thursday: 6 miles, Friday 2 and stretch. Saturday: 11
I know I am supposed to rest day in between/before long run and should not have let all Sunday, Monday, Tuesday go by w/out a run. But, so be it. This is my plan.

Best news? after a lung punishing 9.78 miles, very little hip flexor or thigh pain even two days later!!! yeah!

I also credit this to my very amazing physical therapist, Lisa, at Beaumont Health Center She really knows her stuff and has done wonders for my leg strength and to keep scar tissue from building around my bone injury.

I can’t wait to complete this race: by my Garmin I should be able to do it and not have to get bussed at the halfway point. Wow—just realized how eerily prophetic my early nightmare was for this marathon: dreamed I started out okay but then had to keep running inside and through all these places with pools! Then eventually get bussed to finish/start and forfeit! I will not let that last happen. I did do the pool rout w/ pool therapy but I will finish the half in 4 hours. Kyle said that’s for walkers—even w/ me running some walking some he said I would make it in that time. Still average a 13 minute pace.
I finished nearly 10 just under 3 hours (which included long stretching stops and slow sips of break time hot cider) so I can definitely get 3 or so more miles in under the 4 hour mark.

Many happy wishes to all this holiday season. I have a heartwarming story about some people I met Christmas eve day gift wrapping at Borders to raise money for TNT--but will tell that in next blog--getting sleepy. Hope everyone found something they wanted today.
Laura

Breath and Will

2007-12-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

I thought of Austyn again last night on my run when my breath and will got short--She is amazing-- not just in general because of her maturity and compassion and sense of honor but to go through so much pain and exhaustion and fight it out they way she has and how victiorous she has been against this cancer. One of these blogs, I'm just going to dedicate to the article she wrote, the beautiful/poignant article about what it took her to get ready for her battle and to win against the cancer.

So here's what my coach sent me

This week: Dec. 10- 16
2 days do 2 miles
1 day to 3 miles

weekend (15th/16th)
5 miles one day, stretch and rest the other

Week of the 17th
1 day do 2 miles
2 days do 3 miles
That weekend, 6 miles one day, S&R the other

Week of the 24th
3 days do 3 miles
That weekend, 6 miles one day, 2 miles the other

Week of the 31st
2 days do 3 miles
1 day do 4 miles
That weekend, 8 miles one day, S&R the other

Week of the 7th
1 day do 3 miles
2 days do 4 miles
That weekend, half marathon!

Well, guess what?

Mother Nature had another gift in store for me. Behind prize door number two in mother nature's attempt to thwart my marathon dreams: acute bronchitis. Yum!!!
so after last weeks 2 times at 1.87 miles I had not run until yesterday-- for 2.5 miles.

Everyone from my students to colleagues at work were sick and I was doing my usual not drink from any one's glass not let anyone drink from mine, wash my hands before and after every meal and ever trip to the bathroom, etc. But when what was going around got me, it hit me w/ a sledge hammer. Started w/ typical cold for a week or so-- no biggy so still ran last week-- just sore throat, stuffy nose, sneezing.
Create numerous herbal concoctions, tinctures, steams to battle it off-- Well seemed to get better, at least it left my throat and nose. Woke up one night to sound of my own coughing and never got back to sleep. Even went to the bathroom numerous times thinking I was going to gag. I actually thought I had swallowed one of those spiders "they" say you swallow in your sleep at least once a year and my body was trying to get rid of it.

Ah, no such luck. Got worse and worse, chest tighter, coughing non stop, cough syrup did nothing. Tried to teach w/ almost NO voice-- a difficult task, let me tell you. I Woke up last Saturday and could not only not talk but barely breath. Rushed to the hospital and they put me on some machine w/ a tube in my mouth and oh did it feel better as my bronchial tubes and trachea calmed down. Ahhhh. Breathing is soooo nice. I had felt like I was drowning or choking--it's a desperate feeling.
so they did chest x-ray-- gave me an inhaler and antibiotics and said (drum roll, please) NO PHYSICAL EXERTION FOR A WEEK!!!

Alright, Mother Nature, what are you trying to tell me? You have something against Arizona? Against the happiness running gives me? Think I should go back to ballet? What? What????
Well, here's what I learn-- I really do put a whole ton of stock in my will and what it can do, but I guess chance, fate, happens and can thwart your will. I get that. Okay? Listening Mother Nature? I get it. But please no more. I am going to run this race with my lungs falling out and my fractured leg dragging behind me. So please stop!!!!
Okay anyhow, for the stats:
Monday: barely moved
Tuesday: Same
Wednesday: 2.5 miles w/ Robbie-- it's great we are learning sign language. I had to trick our older dog into the kitchen w/ food and motion w/ my head toward the door and oddly, my precious Rotterman tip toed after me, w/out his usual bark so we could get out the door before Flappy realized we were gone. I feel so cruel but it would be more cruel to drag my very elderly hound dog w/ severe arthritis on a 2 mile run around icy Royal Oak sidewalks and roads. Robbie is much younger and more physically vibrant. He loves our runs and afterwards sits under the stars w/ me as I do yoga and even stands next to me while I do pigeon.

I was on the driveway, splayed out in pigeon at about 9:30 last night and suddenly Robbie started to bark his head off right by my ear-- I shushed him, looked up and saw a large man w/ a rottweiler coming down the sidewalk in front of our house.
I stood up and said "hi" and shushed Robbie again as he looked about ready to tear both dog and owner to shreds (a dog much bigger than him, I might add).
"What were you looking for down there?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing. I was just doing pigeon," I said.
He looked at me like I was a talking turnip.
"I just ran" I said.
He just laughed and kept walking.
stats:
Garmin-- the bugger never turned on--it tricked me into thinking it had turned on, but it didn't-- never got satellite but appeared to by showing me last week's mileage
Distance when I turned it on outside--
well got to my 1.87 point (my house is exactly 1.87 miles on this particular rout) and then ran back to the start of my course cut a bit off and ran back home again-- I estimate this as 2.5
Stops: 2 for dog-- bathroom break and I don't like this collar protest, one for me--stretched against on a tree
Walks-- walked a block after the 1.87
Pace-- slower than fast walkers but I was jogging
Immediate post run feeling-- Not bad, not bad at all. But still did 30 minutes of ice
on hip flexor (that's what ached when I ran)
Okay today, well, today: my thigh hurts deep down-- yes, feels like bone. But, I will go very, very slow and I'm going to keep training. Just take it easy and take coaches running schedule, which is much slower paced and fewere miles than mine own.
If I have to walk part of the half-marathon, so be it. But I will be there an I will finish.
Okay, Mother Nature-- thank you for the lessons in humility. I understand my will is but a part to your plans. But can we please work together? Please?

I ran!!!!!!

2007-12-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

Look at all those photos of hanging out like lumps, just sitting-- just depressing lounging. Animals sitting, pets lounging, no motion. I got sick of all my sitting in a lump of non-running bla.
So, I decided to start running again! Physical therapy be damned!

Those last two photos are from a Halloween party this year, around the time I started all this sitting-- I dressed like Athena and brought a very sturdy, long, wooden sword to use as a crutch and spent much of the night sitting and still in pain. Of course, I didn't feel very warrior goddess like, more like Mark, dressed as the infant.

I have come a ways since then and I'm so happy! My Rotterman is so happy! The world feels right again! A few days ago I decided not to even try the half marathon, especially after a particularly hard day of pool running. I thought, if my hip and thigh hurt "running" in the pool with no weight at all on my leg, what the heck am I thinking trying to train for a month and week away half marathon?

Well, I decided to let stubborn rule and made the final decision that I would do this race. I had even emailed my Team in Training contact to tell her I had to bow out. She assured me that I could put the funds I raised toward a future event and was understanding. I thought and I thought and thought how darned unhealthy and just bla in general I have been not running for nearly two months and I just can't stand my non-running self anymore. So here's what I emailed Sarah back again yesterday:

"thanks for touching base. My leg is feeling better, I have been off the crutches and I will leave here soon to go water run.

I've decided I'm going to particpate in this event. Even if that means I have to walk the whole way, I'm going to do it. My main goal was to raise money for victims of blood cancer-- you may not know, but I started w/ TNT because of a student I am very close to who at just 16, despite being very athletic, very healthy, and very spiritual, came down with non-hodgkins lymphoma, which went on to invade her ovaries. This young woman had been on the newspaper I teach/advise for three years and I when I wen to see her for the first time in the hospital, she told me she would not let them remove her ovaries so she could have kids. That meant many rounds of very aggressive chemo. Yet, every time I visited her she beamed and asked all about me, the newspaper students, and my training w/ TNT. She so selfless. I got her a TNT bracelet and she told me on the phone after Bayshore that she never took the bracelet off.
Anyway, she is back in newspaper this year (her treatment was last year) and looks just beautiful. She still has the TNT bracelet and asks me about my training.

In short, I finally realized that if she can be stubborn and let her will get her through this, so can I. I might have to slow walk the darned thing, but I will do it. Yeah, it won't be as glorious as running it, but I have future races. Right now, I still have Austyn in class. She willl graduate this year and after that I'll start running more for my own glory.

so, in short, yes. I'm sticking with this event and I hope to start a little bit of training this week.

I would love to get a training schedule from a coach for starting back after an injury. I have from tom until about Jan. 3 to taper-- that means just 4 weeks to get up to my longest run. I'd like a new schedule--keeping in mind that I have to start really, really, really slow not to hurt myself or make the stress fracture worse.

Thanks again,

Laura
oh. ps, can I drop off my checks directly to the office since it's less than two weeks to deadline?
Thanks"

-----Original Message-----
From: Cowlbeck, Sarah (MI)
To: lauraredm@aol.com
Sent: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 9:41 am
Subject: Status Update

Laura,

I wanted to touch base with you and find out if you had made a decision regarding staying with the winter season or transferring to another. I hope that you are healing up well. I feel so bad that you are going through this!

Sarah

Sarah R. Cowlbeck
Campaign Manager
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Team In Training

So, after officially deciding to do the race, I decided I had to see if I could run it. I haven't been able to get anything from the coach, so here's what I did:
I went to my calander and wrote out my own schedule
This week: Tuesday: 1.5, wed. and yoga 2, thursday 3, Friday bike, Saturday 5, Sunday 2and yoga
Next week. Tuesday: 2, wed. 3 and yoga, thursday 4, Friday elyptical, Saturday 6
Sunday 3 and yoga
Week after: Tuesday: 3, wed. 3 and yoga, thursday 5, Friday: just yoga, Saturday 8
Week after: Tuesday 4, wed. 4 and yoga, thursday 6, Friday: swim, Saturday 10
Week after: Tuesday 4, wed. 4 and yoga, thursday 6, Friday: rest. Saturday 8
Week of race: sunday 3, Tuesday 4, Wed. 2, thursday 2, rest Friday and Saturday
Race: Sunday.

So, I basically tried to go as slow and easy as I could w/ varying days and workouts and some cross training to get up to at least a 10 mile long run before the half.

Here's the stats from Tuesay:
distance: 1.87!!!!! Yeah!! I went over my 1.5
stops: 2 because Robbie's collar came off and I realized i was running much lighter and when I saw collar in my hand and no dog attached I had to go back and get it on him--otherwise, just as I was getting to my house, I realized I just felt warmed up and could have kept running another few miles
Lungs: feel awesome-- hardly out of breath
Hip flexor and thigh: another story. It was mild pain-- more like a pull or ache, esp. in my hip flexor. I made sure to warm up before the run by running/marching in place in my kitchen as my I-pod recharged. Then I did some yoga stretches. Then, when I got back I did a bunch more yoga on my driveway (it was dark out) while my dog tried to sit on me while I was in pigeon. I swear I love that dog but he has no sense of boundaries. I streched my calves good on a nearby powerline pole, I also did downdogs for my calves and thigs as well as lunges and triangle. Pigeon seemed to stretch out and help the most. Oh and I also tried running on as much lawn, park grass, etc as I could for softer landing! I made sure to have my headlamp on to see where the possible leaf covered pitfalls might be.

I went inside and spent at least a half hour icing my thigh and hip flexor. And, I am walking fine today. My hips a bit sore but not too bad!
I feel like I'm just starting to live again.

Giving Thanks

2007-11-25T15:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neM-PuW3_jY

This Ohio cross country runner is amazing! I hope the clip above works--it shows her nearly at the finish line, when her left leg breaks in three places, and, rather than forfeit the race, she literally crawls nearly 50 feet to the finish line! Amazing. She ran fast enough earlier in the race that she only came a few seconds slower than her PR--even w/ crawling that far to the finish.

I am so thankful for people like her, real people who are so inspiring, and to show me that I don't have it so bad with my little bone stress.

Happy, wonderful holidays all!!!

Like brother like sister

2007-11-23T14:01:00.000-08:00

My brother has had stress fracture like symptoms same time as me--lucky for him he is an amazing tri-athlete so he doesn't mind focusing on swimming and biking. I just love the running. This is a photo of us racing last July for the fourth of july race in Berkley. He can go much faster than me but stayed w/ me as we did this more for bonding than for competition. Notice our stride-- same. We both supinate. And we both have similar muscles. We actually sprained our ankles the same day in two different countries: I fell down a flight of stair in October 1994 and he was training for Race for the Cure in Boston- same exact day and we both sprained our left ankle same time. Odd huh? Well, he started w/ same type thigh/hip flexor pain as me same time a month or so ago. So, like the good doctor he is, instead of seeing his own ortho, he just asked me what my ortho found in the bone scan and determined that was good for him. My doc told me I could do "active rest": weightless workouts. My brother took that as something he could do too for rehab since his symptoms were so similar, and he's been swimming and biking.

Well my recovery has been slower than anticipated and I just started the pool running on Tuesday. I LOVED IT!!! Oh my-- I had to talk my physical therapist into it but it was sooo fun. They put this weightless belt on you and your arms pump above the water while your legs pump below. Oh my-- it was the closest I have come to running in sooo long I can no longer keep track. I just kept going from on side of the short pool to the next and she finally told me they were closing the pool (I was over my session by 30 min). Well next day went to my land physical therapist.
So, here's my stats:

warmth on hip flexer (hurting me more than femur now): 10 minutes
weights: 7 pounds 3 reps 12 per rep for 5 exercises just injured leg
I talked him into treadmill by brining my running shoes
2 minutes at 4 miles per hour
5 at 4.5 (average)
2 at 4 miles

My physical therapist was literally at my elbow the whole time telling me I had to tell him if it hurt. Well, it ached more than hurt, and it was mostly in my hip flexor-- he seems much more happy about hip flexor than femur fracture so he said okay.

I cannot wait to water run again!!
by the way, getting fatter than a thanksgiving stuff turkey w/ all this non-running. Wow, it's just not the same fitting into my size 0 bathing suit in a size 6 body--- yuck!!!!!! Must diet hard core while I'm not out there burning 1500 calories per run.

Thanks so much to my fellow runners w/ kind words of encouragement.
I'm going to admit, though, that stubborn runs in my family. Just like my brother still plans to race his triatholon, I still plan to do my half marathon in January. I will start slow, first w/ lots of water running then land running--even if I have to start at 2 miles and work my way up to 10 before the half.
Have wonderful holidays everyone!
Sincerely,
Keeping dream alive runner!!!

Dead runner walking

2007-11-11T20:49:00.000-08:00

Attended the Scriptor newspaper fundraiser on crutches--colleagues laughed at me while I kept crowd control with the crutches. Photo is of me and Ben Harwood, adviser for Seaholm's newspaper. We raised almost $4000 that night for our newspaper and Harmonize for Hope.

I started walking without the crutches this weekend and my leg hurts. I am so upset. The physical therapist said that I would be training again by Nov. 20 but I had to stay on the crutches. It's just so darned hard, esp. when I can walk w/out them and it takes a day or so to make the pain come back. I'm getting truly worried. Not that I have been good about rehab. I've been on deadline week which kills every thing else in my life--so I missed wed and friday physical therapy with Ken and all week of water running. Arrrggg. I was looking back at my training log for this particular marathon and realized that it took me a while just to get up to 3 miles!!! So, let's see, today is Nov.11 and I have not run since the Detroit Free Press relay marathon. That would be about 3 weeks no running. Enough for my earlier training to die. Last night I saw the Electric Six at St. Andrews. I talked to one of the singers for an opening band and he said, "we are all dead bands, here tonight." I asked him what he meant, and he said "Still playing but not going anywhere anymore."
Ah, I said, "Dead band walking."
So, as I lay here having had little to no cardio in weeks much less running, I feel like dead runner walking. It sucks big time. And I am so busy, it's just a pain to use the crutches-- having hands to do things other than lift your body from place to place really does save time.

I wonder if I'll have to push back my retraining date. Coach Kyle said he would have a new/improved schedule for my now half-marathon by Nov. 22, but I wonder if he'll have to change that again.
If I start training in earnest December 1st I will only have 4 weeks before taper. Can I get up to 10 miles injury free in that time?

Here comes the pool . . .

2007-11-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

Bone scan results:
I got the scan done on Sunday, and I asked the technician what the results were. My brother is an OBGYN and my sister-in-law, his wife, is a nurse, so I know better, but I did the following anyway: I threatened her into to telling me the results when she said she was not allowed to.

After the second scan was done, I told her I planned to run a good 10 Miles that day. She advised me not to, and I told her I would assume that all was good and I could continue running unless she told me what the results were.

She sighed and said, "The doctor looked at the images and said it looks like you have shin splints except they are in your femur bone. DON'T run 10 miles today."
"So it's not a fracture?"
"I'm just telling you what the doctor said. Your femur looks like it has shin splints."
Huh? Okay, so is this worse news? better news? I assumed better but I anxiously called my orthepedic Sunday (I guess they don't consider my bone scan emergency enough to page the doctor on a weekend--the nerve:) then I called him a few times on Monday. Finally got a call while grading papers, not by the doctor, but by someone who works in his office. She read the results and explained that I had "a stress reaction in my femur". I asked if that had anything to do with shin splints and she said they were similar. I guess, basically, I have a weakening of the outer layer of my femure bone-- a pre fracture condition. I started physical therapy yesterday--had some ultra sound done to my thigh and some manipulation tests where the therapist twisted, pushed, and pulled on my right leg and gauged by my reactions where and how bad my injury was. I'm pretty expressive so it was an easy test for him. He determined that it was more bone stress than soft tissue (muscle, etc.) because when he pulled by right foot towards him and asked me to resist I "expressed" the pain I felt. He said that the test had put pressure on my femur and the muscles in the back of my leg. Since I felt pain on the top of my thigh, he said that just flexing caused my femur to react and that I should put no weight on it all and maybe wait for pool running until, earliest, this Saturday and maybe not then cause I would have to use my muscles which would put strain on the femur.
So, he said to be an angel today and tom (angel meaning absolutely no weight--darn it, already broke that rule-- crutches are just so annoying) and he would see when I can start pool running.

Well, I already contacted another physical therapist to do some pool running starting next week for 3 days a week :) SO, I'll really try to stay off of my right leg entirely for at least the rest of today and tom, get more ultrasound and then start my pool running next Monday.

I really prayed that this was NOT a stress fracture, and I am thankful that it isn't.
Perhaps this is fate helping me learn how to cross train and become an even more effecient, stronger runner.
I also had to give up my marathon dream. I will now be running only a half marathon in Arizona. ARRGG-- I'm slowly coming to grips that this year will not be the year I run my first marathon. It's so hard, though, when you dream of this for months, work at it nearly every day, get better each run, feel good, and then just before you start really getting into some PR's you realize you have to let go of everything you psyched yourself up for. I am known to be stubborn and I'm even stubborn w/ myself. I can't help sort of beating myself up for not being smarter about my training. I really wish I could find a sports doctor who could analyze what I did to cause this. I gave Dr. Jurist all my theories but he said I was over analyzing that this just happens to runners. From what I've read, though, it doesn't just happen. It's usually the wrong shoes resulting in improper biomechanics while running or not enough strengthening of oposing muscles or following a training schedule that adds too many miles too soon, etc. I just want to know how I can prevent this from happening again after I recover and I can't do that if I can't figure out what I did wrong this time.

Okay, off to grade.

The Last Leg

2007-10-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

The Flying Falcon Relay team for the Detroit Free Press Marathon last weekend-at least three of us-- Science teacher Michelle Tindall, Math teacher Jason Kong, and me.

This was my first race relay and it was exhilarating: watching members of other teams waiting on the tips of their toes as another runner raced in the hand off chute to pass the timing chip. One sprinting in, the other sprinting out, barely touching as the Velcro bracelet switched hands. My blood swirled with anticipation as I went from window to window on the bus, gawking at the elite runners.

I saw, for the first time, the glorious Kenyon Bird. That's my name for the elite Kenyon runner--so fast they are exotic. My lord did those first and second place winners of this marathon fly, sprinting at mile 20 so fast, by the time I got my camera phone to photo they were accepting their winner medals. I crouched on the steps of the relay bus in awe, and they ran by close enough I could have touched them. I think I actually tried to.

I did some jogging along the beach (near Belle Isle) while I waited for Judy because I couldn't sit on the bus watching anymore. I couldn't wait to run.
Our team had gone to dinner the night before to estimate timing-- Michelle did a full half-marathon, Judy's daughter did the second leg, Jason the third, and Judy handed off to me (we estimated the earliest possible times and she got there around 10:50, later than we estimated but earlier than we thought she would, and, when I saw her, I knew we were doing better than we hoped.) I ran the last leg of the race.

Well, it was my last leg in more than one way.

The Saturday before the marathon, I did something unpleasant to my right hip and thigh on my long run with TNT. After the run, I took an ice bath, felt better, and ran the next morning. This further did something unpleasant to my hip and thigh, so I stayed off of my legs, at least running-wise, until the relay marathon. All the runners I complained to about running on cold, untrained legs said that was perfect, that I would be well tapered for the race. I was. I also took mucho vitamen IB (Ibuprofin) and some muscle relaxers the doctor gave me so my leg would not bother me on the run. And, for the most part, it didn't.

The last leg was about a 10K length, starting a little after mile 20. I planned to go almost a minute faster with each mile (I started at an oh so brisk pace of 13 minute per mile) so I could slowly warm up my legs, esp. my right hip and thigh.

I was starting to feel really good around what I thought to be mile 24 of the race and what my Garmen assured me was around my fourth mile of running. Someone on the side of the road was cheering for us and I had passed a few of the runners I saw at the hand off chute. Someone, well or ill intended, I don't know, but someone yelled: "Only one more mile to go!!"

Well, almost unconsciously, everything in my body surged forward, I pushed myself as in a fartlek and dropped two minutes from my pace--which had speeded up to an 11 minute mile. I was now sailing at a 9 minute per mile pace (for me that's sailing; the Kenyon bird probably sleeps at this pace.) I envisioned seeing the finish line and my team any minute. I think this image made me even faster as I passed a few more people I recognized from the hand off chute. This surge strained my leg and my lungs a bit past where I thought I could go. No worries though, because soon I could gulp down some water and collapse beside the finish chute. My legs felt like they were on auto-pilot but that the circuits were going to break and shut them down any moment. Just a few more minutes, and I'm there. When I saw it.

The 25 mile mark.
OH SHIT! That liar!! Why didn't I trust my Garmen??? I looked down, sure enough, I had only gone 5 miles. I had an entire mile left to run on flagging, auto-pilot, felt like tree stump legs and squeezed in the fist of a giant lungs. There is a law; a law I am sure no runner has broken. That law is simply this: you do not run your last mile slower than your first.

In fact, I think there is a related law: you run your last mile faster than any of your previous--esp., idiot, if you are only running a 10K and you have smartly paced yourself to have left over energy for a surge at the end. So with these two laws in mind, I dealt with auto-pilot legs and squeezed up lungs and surged a bit more just to show them who was boss.

I have seen a video of me finishing and it is not pretty. Everyone else seems to have their arms raised, shouts of joy carried on the wind, babies held in their jubilant arms, streamers of celebration emanating from their pores. Then I come bounding in, no smile on my face, just grim determination. The minute my feet pass the timing mat, I stop--not slow down. Just a stop and a sigh, my face red, my legs about to collapse under me and I hobble off camera. It's as if I didn't even know I finished and I think that's how I felt. When I got home, I slept all day, all night, and woke up nearly late for work. That's when I realized something was not quite right with right leg. I hurt so bad I had to crawl up my stairs to get my clothes for work. I went that night to Dr. Jurist, the sports doctor for our school, and he gave me news I can barely think on. He took X-Rays and said that it looked like I have two stress fractures: one on my right hip and one on my right femur--yup that oh so important, weight bearing femur.

Tomorrow I go to Troy Beaumont for a radioactive bone scan. Yippy, I get to drink nuclear shake and then sit in a tube for 90 minutes. I am praying that it is soft tissue damage and not bone fracture. I must get back to training. I will run that marathon. I will not let my early nightmares come true. The doctor said I should pick another marathon. No. I told him I couldn't. I had raised money for the Leukemia society for this particular marathon. He said I should reevaluate how I "participate". I will participate and I will run it, I thought, but didn't say cause he had already looked at me like I was a lunatic about three times during our discussion of how I might have gotten injured. He especially didn't like my comment about the fists fulls of vitamen IB I took before the Free Press race.

Blog Action Day

2007-10-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

A runner's temperature (only when running--unless they spend ALL their non-running time in a hot tub) is about 20 degrees higher than the air temperature. This is why you see those "crazy" runners out in shorts and a singlet in 50 degree weather--that's nice and balmy. I prefer winter running myself--and I used to HATE the winter! I learned when racing my first 15K last April in Flushing, MI on an unseasonably hot (read 80 degrees!) day how much I love the winter!!! I didn't understand why I kept getting so out of breath, so dizzy, why my time was so ridiculously slow, other than the fact that the race is set in no-where-village, and I got lost. I couldn't believe there were signs as the labyrinthine course wound around farms, through sub-divisions (where the nonchalant suburbanites simply continued mowing or watering their lawn as we ran by without even looking up) around middle schools and back into another subdivision. Few people to flag where to go next, no blocked off roads. Just some orange cones every now and then. I finally asked a runner near me, "How do you know where to go???" "hhm," she was puzzled at the very question. "I live two streets down from the finish and I've done the Tax Trot for five years." Ah, I finally realize everyone (except me, that is) lived in Flushing or knew somebody from Flushing.

Well, here I was, someone who trained in winter weather and wearing a black turtle-neck and long black running pants, huffing my way to the finish--screaming, "Where's the finish line?!!!" There were almost no markers the last mile or two of the race, so I just I ran back to the start line and realized the start was not, in fact, the finish. Oh no, the start was in front of Flushing High School but the finish was behind the school on the other side of the parking lot. Silly me for thinking the finish line should be in a clearly marked, obvious place. Well, I was one of the last ones in and the heat was killing me.
I worry about the increasing frequency of these "unseasonably" hot days. What if they don't become so unseasonable anymore?

Here's what this means for runners:
Temperature Heat-stress risk 75º-85º
Heat cramps or Heat Exhaustion possible 86º-105º
Heat cramps or Heat Exhaustion likely. Heat Stroke possible. 106-115º
Heat Stroke highly likely after 120

Now add 20 degrees to each of the above. Tragedies like the Chicago Marathon may be more frequent if global warming continues at the rate it is.
No amount of PowerAde will help us then.

Running doesn't kill, heat does

2007-10-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

This is my first TNT mentor Leslie Jones and her sister Tara. Leslie and coach Ken are by far the biggest reasons I stuck w/ TNT and running. Leslie and her sister Tara were so supportive and so fun--they always came to group runs in Royal Oak, offered to drive me to Kensington w/ them (but I discovered Stoney and loved it), led awesome fundraisers and just listened to all my running stories (and passed many of them on). Well, this picture (despite our grins) represents a sad moment: Leslie and her family are moving the Minnesota and this was her going way party at Bastones and Cinq. I will miss her so much but because of her, even though she is leaving, she helped me build a strong enough foundation that I will keep running and raising money despite what kind of mentor I may have without her.

Tara is our Royal Oak hero-- she defeated a blood cancer that impacted the development of her bones and still gives her pain. Despite this, she also ran with our team and definitely outran me!! She did this in all kinds of weather, terrain, and pain in her legs. She did not "take precautions" because of her smaller bone structure (she told me once that because of her cancer her bones stayed at the development of a 13-year-old while the rest of her continued to develop). Tara ran faster, longer, and more often as race day approached and finished the Bayshore full marathon putting her all in.

Well, a lot of people are saying that Chad Schieber of Midland, Michigan, who died last Saturday at the Chicago marathon, was stupid, that he should have stopped before he died, that he knew he had a heart problem and should have taken precautions.
Guess what his "heart problem" was? His big heart problem was a mitro-valve prolapse-- so saying that his heart problem should have made him slow down in the heat or stop is like saying my hang nails should force me to stop typing or at least slow down.

Many people have this and many of them run very fast marathons because it is a minor heart irregularity. I have a PFO (I forget what the acronym stands for--so I just call it my heart UFO). This PFO was a congenital irregularity with my heart and according to my heart doctor nearly %20 of the population has this, but most, like me, don't know it until they have a stroke or other symptom of a problem. As babies, the walls of our hearts are not sealed so that, before the heart's muscle gets stronger, blood can pass easily between the left and right ventricles. By the time we are toddlers, that wall is erected, sealed, and strong. Well, with the UFO condition, that wall never gets sealed up all the way--so there is a "communication" between the left and right side that allows blood (and tiny blood clots) to get through. I have been running in all weather with this and I am still alive, sore in different parts of my body each week, but still alive.

What does it mean that someone who has a "heart problem" should take precautions? Should they run slower than they can? Less often than they'd like? Take more breaks than they need? I don't think so. Running to the best of your ability is what makes running such a joy--anyone who trained for a marathon would certainly not have held back in training nor the big day because of a minor heart irregularity.

I think it is heartless to blame this man for his death and ignorant to blame running itself as so many couch potato doctors do. How many massage therapists and doctors have asked: "Have you ever considered just NOT running" when I go to get advice on my clicking knees, pulled hip flexor, sprained ankle, low back pain. Um, nope, I haven't and I won't. All kinds of people think runners are asking for injury. Well, yes, we are, so is everyone who does any form of exercise. It is the paradox of life that to build something new you must tear the original down. Our muscles get stronger because we tear them when we lift and our bodies say, "Oh yeah?? Well try tearing THIS down!" and builds a bigger bicep--or, in the runners case, trunk solid legs. Same goes for the heart and lungs of a runner--"oh yeah? you going to push me that hard? you going to make me pump that fast, heave that heavy? Well, try pushing this!!" and our hearts and lungs improve. So we get more pulled muscles-- we also get stronger muscles and stronger hearts. That is what this man did for his heart--he made it stronger by running. Not a stupid idea at all. So what killed him?

Heat and humidity.

Many people who run long distances have difficulty knowing when they are in danger-for a number of reasons:
Reason one:
after some miles, your body greatly increases dopamine in anticipation for the usual pain when running and then further increases it in peaks and valleys as the run continues. This is often helpful because it allows you to keep running, to keep feeling good, and to stay positive. You only notice how much pain you are in when you walk or finish the race--that's why some marathoners (I saw this at Bayshore) literally have their legs stiffen the minute they cross the finish line. One of my TNT contacts, Patrick Strait, ran all out for the Bayshore marathon, felt really good approaching the finish line, gave one last surge, and then fell and was forced to crawl to the finish line and put his foot on the mat so his time could be counted. In his mind, the few feet before the finish line meant victory, meant race done and so his legs locked and he fell. He felt no pain in his legs for the 26 miles before that.

Reason two: Trainers/coaches/and your own self repeat this mantra: "it's not about physical but mental toughness" (The first time my coach said this, I got deja-vu, then I remembered that my brother said the same thing to Rachel, my sister-in-law, on their honeymoon hike through the Smokey mts; I don't think it went over so well in that situation). Anyhow, you are trained to talk yourself out of the pain, to dissociate and think about something happy, to imagine the finish line--anything to avoid focusing on the pain. Any seasoned runner would have this strategy down so pat they might not even be aware they are doing it, esp. at such a critical moment.

Reason three: Heat related injuries are very, very similar to your run of the mill I wish I were dead exhaustion past a runner's "red line"--the farthest point they can go until they've used up all their glycogen stores and begin to feel like two elephants moved in and are sitting on their lungs and legs. Almost always, simply slowing your pace and getting to the next water/gel not only stops this pain but makes you feel even more energized. Heat related injuries cause edema before more serious coma and death from the imbalance of water to electrolytes. Edema (swelling hands, legs, feet) is also a common symptom of simply running long distance w/out enough salt in your body (again the next Gatorade or gel stop alleviates this).

Reason four: It was frickin 88 degrees and more humid than a sauna (See post below. I ran in the fricken soupy hot air Saturday and Sunday) and was OCTOBER people!!! OCTOBER. Not supposed to be hotter than an August noon. Therefore, the people running the race were not prepared w/ enough electrolyte giving drinks at closer stops along the race route and the runners themselves were not able to prepare properly for the heat either with their own water and sports drinks.

Reason five: Runners feel the pain, but most who train for a marathon have trained for months and months--this has been their goal and many runners look forward to a marathon with the same anxious hope that people look forward to their wedding day. So, they have run some pretty tough training days and they will absolutely run through anything the BIG DAY. This is not unique to the runner who died but a mental condition of all competitive runners. There but for the grace of a cool drink of water goes any runner.

Running in that type of record breaking heat and humidity is bound to end in tragedy. I don't blame the racers. I don't blame the organizers. Races are huge events. Stopping one is like stopping a train mid speed: it takes many officials, a mile or so of squealing, grinding breaks, and an extreme but unforeseen emergency. Neither do I blame the volunteers handing out water. Runners do not need nearly enough water on a typical October Saturday than they do on an August noon. No. I blame our increasing emissions of greenhouse gases and rising temperatures. The heat kills, not the running.

Maximus Pain

2007-10-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

The first Saturday in October, as hot, as humid as the first Saturday of August on that fishing boat at our friend's wedding, and yet, it feels like those icy branches are gripping from the inside the outside of my left thigh--Yes, I've pulled my gluteus maximus. I went to Stony w/ Lou and Tony at the ripe time of 7:20 a.m. this morn. We were supposed to do 12 miles. I covered 12 miles, but didn't run them all. After it felt like the steel claw of a determined terminator gripped my left butt cheek, every time I tried to run, especially up hill, I yelped (and swore a few times) in pain and had to do some limp walking. So I ran a good seven and limp walked a good five.

I was doing so great the first six miles. Wow--how beautiful Stony is in the a.m. I looked to my right going over one of the bridges and the water looked like a pastel painting--glossy but w/ a bit of fog and muted oranges and reds spreading across the calm surface of the water. It was so transcending and I was listening to James Taylor: "I've seen fire and I've seen rain. I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end. I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend. But I always thought that I'd see you again." It's about one of his friends, Suzanne, who died in a plane crash. "You've got look down upon me Jesus, you got help me make amends. I can't make it any other way. My body's aching and my time is at hand. You've just got see me through another day. OOOH I've seen fire and I've seen rain." and I was now into the forest and the trees made a canopy above me and I was going up a hill, feet in closer arms pumping higher and at the top of the hill the trees gave way and I could see rays of the sun beaming down in streaks through the clouds--like prisms from God and I almost cried it was so beautiful and suddenly nothing but beauty matter, nothing but this flying feeling and God and the beauty that he makes for us and how he is there in everything around and in us. I realized I didn't need anything but this, this moment.
As you can see, the running high was kicking in. I felt high and dizzy at the same time. Holy humidity--when I looked down at my fingers they were so puffed up I thought I'd never get my rings off--they hurt they were so puffed. I poured some of my water on my face and when some fell into my mouth I tasted an ocean--so much salt. At mile four, I started to worry that I had edema and maybe that one sickness our coach told us about where you feel drunk because your brain is swelling from too much water and not enough electrolytes and salt.

I stopped my worrying brain by reminding myself that at the TNT water stop one of our runners said she had intense shin splits, real painful. When I told her maybe she should walk, she shook her head. "Too stubborn huh?" I said.
"Yeah," she grinned.
I knew what she meant (trail racing on a sprained ankle counts as stubborn too). So I dropped it.

Anyway, I shook of my growing fear of getting drunk on brain swell by remembering her stoicism. Runners are not wimps. So I turned the music up and flowed with it and tried to enjoy the humidity inspired dizziness--speeding down hills with longer strides and slowing my way up hills with shorter strides and higher arm position. Ken in my head directing me. "Let gravity pull you down" I felt my legs just revolve under me and leaned more to my toes. The left side of my left butt cheek started to ache--but it wasn't an intense pinching/gripping pain yet. It seared more up hills, so I slowed a bit and then made up for it down hills.

I got some food w/ salt in me at the 6 mile stop and stretched. Then off refreshed and running. For the first time, my legs failed me before my lungs and before my spirit. At mile seven they began to feel like unbendable stumps of wood-like rigermortous had set in and I would soon fall on my face while trying to move forward on unmovable legs. I had to stop and walk and walking felt more painful because I could feel even more how stiff my legs moved. I picked up the run again at a down hill and, just as a mother on her bike and a daughter in front of her on her legs trotted behind me, a sudden pain gripped my left thigh. I yelped loudly and the mother and daughter (whom I didn't hear because of my blaring I-pod) past me as I limped to a walk and then "shit!" slipped from my mouth before I saw the young, startled girl pass me on the left.

From then on I walked and jogged in intervals of a quarter mile, each quarter run more painful, until I saw Tony running toward me. "Oh. This is what I have been dreading. Oh, I am so embarrassed," I said to myself as soon as I saw his blue singlet. I thought I was so slow he had run to find me to see if I had fallen into a ditch. But when he yelled out "Can you see the mile marker? Point it out!" I realized he was on his last four miles--two out and back to make 14 miles. When he reached me, I told him about my pain and he asked if I needed help getting back-if he should stay w/ me or get a car. I said no, I'll walk back. I walked the rest of the way in, slower with each step. It hurt to walk even--and especially up hills. I walked fast on the down and slow on the up. I didn't stop at stop signs--I was in so much pain I felt like a dumb beast and didn't care if a car hit me.

When I got to the 12 mile mark, Lou, Jim, Lisa, and Tony were waiting. As I got within a few feet of the TNT flag, Jim rang the cowbell for the second time and despite my pain it made me grin. I was done! I had promised him that he would ring the cowbell twice for me: once at the 6 mile mark and again at the 12.

On the car ride home, Lou told me that I was limping in so slowly that as soon as they saw me, Lisa told him to ring the bell. Tony retorted that he would be ringing it for ten minutes with how slow I was going. Jim, ever proud of his bell skills, said, "I know when to ring it!!" and he did ring it at the perfect time.

When I got home I took an ice bath and it actually felt good--my left thigh doesn't hurt as badly.

I will run a very slow and careful three miles tom at 7 a.m. with Tonya from TNT.

Totals for this week:
Sunday: 6
Thursday: 5
Saturday: 12 (w/ only 7 ran)
Total: 23 covered (18 ran)

Map my run runs

2007-09-30T19:09:00.001-07:00

Okay-- so here's one of the joys in my life-- my niece Grace-- on her 4th birthday last Saturday. I got to see her after my long run and that pained smile makes me wonder if I still smelled despite my quick shower.

My own zoo route
Find more Runs in Royal Oak, MichiganSo this is the route I did tonight. I think I need to keep better track of my training--I've been slipping.

So last week:
Last Saturday: 10 miles (hurt ankle so limped the last of those miles)
Tuesday: speed training-- two laps warm up, 6 laps surge 6 laps jog-- half mile (2 laps) recover (about 4 miles total)-- surge at 9 minutes per mile and jog from 11-13. Had to stop cause went out to fast w/ Lou and Haley.
Wed: break
Thursday: TNR Run-- a bit late and had my i-pod all set up-- my TNR buddies were laughing when I walked up to stretch with them. "Have any Rubens?" Anika asked when I came up. Ah, news spreads fast. There was a rather confusing new route someone came up w/ and since I had to get my Garmen set up I fell behind, esp. at Woodward--so I did my own route- at times just running around neighborhoods in circles to get up the mileage when I realized I was getting to the Farmer's Market too soon. total miles: 5
Total Week's Miles: 19

This week so far:
Saturday: supposed to do 10 at race (near the Martian Marathon) overslept a bit and left phone in car so I didn't hear Lou calling me before 7 to get me up--he was going to pick me up but I didn't tumble out of bed and find my phone until he was halfway to the race. I put on my running clothes anyway to race in my car to the race--pulled on my armor like sports bra, my running shorts and singlet, my ankle brace, my double socks to prevent blisters, my Garmen, and even my I-Pod. Walked into the bedroom to say goodbye to Mark--and promptly crawled back into bed w/ him.

I woke up four hours later still in my running gear. HA! so all dressed up and no where I ran to. I did change, shower, and get my nails done, though. So at least I left the house.
Total miles: 0
Nails polished: 20 (had pedicure too)

Sunday: did the above map my run (wanted to 10 miles but my Garmen ran out of battery after 3 miles so I just sort of ran around where ever, remembering the streets so I would be able to "map my run". Only made it to 6 miles (this included a few stretch stops and one stop at a gas station to refuel my water in their nasty bathroom).

The Return of the Stitch

2007-09-21T11:59:00.000-07:00

September 21, 2007.

Adam (a new reporter at the Scriptor) took a photo of Austyn and I at the computer in newspaper class today for a TNT video project. It's great having Austyn back in newspaper--victorious over her cancer. She is now one of our opinion editors and working on an article about the student trip to France this past summer.

She has always been athletic and probably already learned what I did yesterday just before my training run: before I was defeated by a Ruben sandwich.

I learned a few weeks ago not to gulp down a mint chocolate mud frosty and then gorge on 15 Chicken McNuggets slathered in sweet and sour sauce an hour or two before a long run.

I should have globalized that lesson.

Last night was our weekly, team TNR (Thursday Night Run--but sounds oh so official as an acronym).

This mixed group of ability runners includes those who run a 6-7 minute 10K, a 7-9 minute 10K, and then me- you might call me the anchor, the one who gets lost at the end of the pack, the slowest runner. It's cool though because everyone is so nice-- Lou esp. who ran with me my first few times out and even dragged me pouting, sweating, and seething in anger off of various lawns when I refused to run anymore the first few weeks I ever ran. On days we go out afterward, they wait for me at the Farmer's Market. They usually they only have to wait ten or so minutes, and they don't make fun of me too much for being so slow at this early point in my running journey.

Today, though, well today, was just plain embarrassing.

Pre-run drink: gulped down organic pineapple juice from Trader Joes 30 to 20 minutes before the run. I actually thought all that sugar would be great glycogen fuel for my legs
Pre-run meal: greasy Ruben and cheese sandwich with hot sauerkraut in buttery pita bread.
Eaten fifteen minutes before my planned 6-8 mile run with my team.

Showed up at Farmer's Market to stretch w/ the team and we all chatted runner chat-- breaking in new shoes, merits of Brooks vs other shoes, road vs trail, how to get your Garmin to find a satellite faster (Lou doesn't believe me that holding it up toward the sky and away from buildings helps-- Mark also thinks this is ridiculous and says I look like I am ET trying to phone home with my running watch). What we planned to run this Saturday and what we planned to run on Thursday nights as the Saturday runs got longer, etc. Anyway, I felt like a seasoned runner with seasoned runner obsessions, interests, concerns.

My teammates noted all my electronic paraphernalia as we started out: my beeping Garmin (to tell me I was running too slow) my I-Pod, my high tech attached to the arm water bottle, my no glare sunglasses. I laughed and said "Beem me up Scotty!" and right then the Garmin beeped again--we were running and laughing and I barely noticed how fast we were going .

HA!!! very soon all I had was the fight between my lungs and legs to keep me company--oh and my up-chucked Ruben.

I started out too fast: a 6.5 minute pace--ouch, ouch, ouch-- I just wanted to be able to talk w/ people as I ran. Well, I changed that goal after just .10 of a mile and realized it was either slow down or fling myself onto the nearest lawn. So I slowed to a more comfortable 9.5-10 minute pace--ah, felt good, turned on my I-Pod and enjoyed a little "Walking on Sunshine--Oh Yeah! and don't it feel good!!"

Only about a mile into the run, my breathing got crazy labored and it started to feel like a small balloon was being inflated in my esophagus. My legs were doing fine though, actually my legs really enjoyed the forward momentum and wanted to go faster. My lungs puffed out and crawled up into my mouth and begged me to stop.

What the heck is going on? I just ran an easy five miles on Tuesday after my 10 K on Sunday-- easy, fun, runner's high inducing 5 miles. Why am I choking after only one mile??? My legs told my lungs to suck it up and keep going, so I listened to them and did. By 1.6 miles, the cramp that had also began with my choking feeling got worse. It started to feel like a very angry Ed Ghein was performing indelicate surgery with a butcher knife through my stomach wall and into my intestines. My stomach not only cramped, it burned and twisted and I had to stop and walk. From then on, it was walk a little, run a little, walk a little w/ arms above my head, walk a little. I took a different path at this point than my team (couldn't even see em at this point anyway) and decided to cut my rout and make it just a 4-miler. My legs really started to feel good and I ran another mile: my legs and lungs and gut fighting it out the whole way. Legs: "This is fun!! This is what we love! I'm flyingj!!!" My gut: "If you don't stop I'm going to get ripped in half or puke on you." Legs: "Whatever, get over yourself. Wimp. The feeling will pass." Lungs: (in a hoarse and faint whisper) "I ccccan't bbbreath, please stop".
Stupid me, I listened to the legs.
Next thing I knew about 2.6 miles, up came the evil Rubin and his evil side kick Sauerkraut. You know how sometimes throw up tastes like the food itself? Well I learned that a digested Ruben tastes just like you image eating a bowl of throw up would. I didn't want to throw up Ruben on my white running shirt, so I swallowed that now digested Ruben back down. Oh that acid burn. I will never, and I mean never, be able to eat neither a Ruben sandwich nor sauerkraut again. Actually, just writing about it is making me a bit queasy. Especially because I kept listening to legs, even after that, and kept letting them revolve almost mindlessly underneath me-- quite unsympathetic to what my gastro-intestinal system just endured.

Well, Ruben and Sauerkraut came back at mile 4 again and this time with a vengeance that didn't let me swallow them back down. I doubled over and puked off of 11 mile road, just blocks before my return to the Farmers Market. I gulped down a ton of water and it helped some. That was it. No more listening to legs. I walked briskly to the start-- none of my teammates were there. I had only run/walked 4 miles while they did 6-- I had either gotten there before them or so far after them that they were already home, showered, and probably asleep by the time I finished. I stretched a bit, but I didn't hang round too long. I didn't want to answer questions about where I had gone off to during the run.

So, learning time:
NO FOOD. NONE!!! Within one to two hours before running (esp. not greasy, heavy food)
DO NOT START TOO FAST--even if I do want the company of more elite runners. It's just not worth it!
IF SOMETHING IS REALLY GOING WRONG ON A RUN DON'T LISTEN TO LEGS!!! Listen to lungs and slow down.

Coach Randy writes: "We all have bad runs. After a bad run, just tell yourself 'I've logged in my bad run. I'm glad I can check that off my list.'"

OH yeah, I'm checking that one off my list alright.

Tomorrow is my 9 mile in Royal Oak-- no food, just lots and lots of water pre-run (and no fancy organic juice either) I'm also going to will myself to actually start out SLOWER than my normal pace!

10K Zoo Angel

2007-09-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Sept. 16, 2007

Just finished the Detroit Zoo race. Mark's nephews, Evan and Nathaniel above, came to watch me race and explore the zoo after. This is a rare moment of them being sweet to each other-- might actually have been a shameless ploy to get me to take a picture of them.

Right now, I'm taking Lou's advice, Lou's hugely painful advice, and giving my swollen, re-injured ankle a post race ice bath in a white bucket. It feels like a thousand Lilliputians with fire arrows sending a million salvos into my heel, toes, and top foot.

I ran my best 10K to date! this morning! Thanks to the running angel to my left in the other photo. He seemed to know many people along the way, kept saying "hi" to people watching from their lawns.

It's so odd how hard the first mile or so of a race is before you get into your stride. I saw a fellow runner from TNT just before the race started--He called out to me and I ran over to give him a hug; it was so nice to see a familiar face. Then I looked around and realized he was near the mid front of the group-oh no, not falling into that trap again. But I did-- I started out w/ him even though he runs twice as fast as me. So I did what coach Ken preaches never to do: I ran out too fast, much faster than my fastest pace (by the Garmin that was 6.34 minute mile--ouch) I slowed and slowed to 9, then 10, then 11 and kept a pretty comfortable pace at 11. I was still suffering from my first mistake around mile 3, when I ripped off the gel safety pined to my shorts and held it, ready to squeeze it down w/ the next water. At that moment, this Latino looking guy said something to me-- my I-Pod was blaring so I didn't hear him, but I clearly made out "BEAUTIFUL" and thought-- "oh jeez, you've got to be kidding me-- it's all I can do to keep one leg before the other and now some yahoo is hitting on me during a 10k race" Well, what an ego I have! I found out after he kept getting my attention and I was running past Joanna's house on one side and the golf course on the other that he was talking about how BEAUTIFUL the golf course was!! Then he kept looking back to check me and my pace. He motioned me up and said "You are my pace so don't slow me down, get up here." So I laughed and turned off my music, picked up my pace, and mused with him about the beautiful houses and trees. He noticed my breathing get really labored at this pace (10 minute) and he said "Imagine something beautiful, something full of energy and take yourself there." I thought about it, and I imagined the creeks that Mark and I go to up north, the ones with such a strong pulling current that you have to struggle up stream and then fly on the current downstream. "Water!" I said "Rapids". "Good" he said. "Now your breathing. Listen to it. Make it very quiet and listen to it. Stay on the rapids and listen to your breath."

My lord! It worked. I imagined myself floating fast down those rapids and made my breath quiet.
"You can run forever this way" he said.

He was right! When the pain got a bit too much and breath got all out of control again, I imagined myself cantering on a chestnut horse through a beautiful forest--real controlled speed, and I leaned forward and pumped my arms straighter and my strides longer and I started to get ahead of Zoo Angel (or he let me get ahead). I saw my split at mile 4 and couldn't believe it was only 43 minutes! I was going to make it in just over hour! The last 10K up north I did in an hour and 17 minutes and the one before that in Dearborn 1 hour and 35 minutes! (sad I know). After the five mile mark, when we had only half a mile by my Garmin, I told him and he said you take the lead--made me get in front of him and at only a quarter mile left I felt the surge, the effortless surge, put my I-Pod back to blaring and finished in an hour and six minutes!!! My best yet-- I wanted to thank Zoo Angel, but I had double and tripled tied my timing chip onto my shoelaces and it took me nearly two minutes to get it off and drop it in the chute bucket. By that time, Zoo Angel was gone.

Some truly funny stuff that happened during this race:
Every time we passed a race volunteer they clapped and cheered for us--really, even though you don't know them, I swear it gives your legs energy. Well, I didn't time my spit to well during one of these bends where the volunteers directed, and just as I spit she clapped. I turned to Zoo Angel and said "She just cheered on my spit!" After that, every time I spit, ZA clapped for me.

Also, when I announced by my Garmin that we had less than a mile left. ZA said we had to sing something--He asked if I knew any Jewish songs-- "No sorry" so we ran in silence-- all I could think was "I once was lost but now am found . . ." but didn't think that would be a cool song for him to sing (a Spanish looking Jewish man-- very odd) so I suddenly bust out "She'll be comin round the mountain when she comes" and he responded "She'll be comin round the mountain when she comes" She'll be coming round the mountain, she'll be comin round the mountain, she'll be comin round the mountain when she comes. "She'll be riding six white horses when she comes" Zoo Angel "Oh, she'll be riding six white horses when she comes"-- People were looking at us like we were crazy. When we got closer, we stopped singing and he said "Okay. let's just run-- you lead the way" and so we did and I did and I pumped out the last few yards with Radar Love blasting and I saw Mark, Caroline, and my two nephews cheering me on just before the finish. I see now in the photo that, at that point, my ZA was just next to me--grinning.

This video below shows my "blue butterfly" in take off. A host of butterflies of all colors swoop around the Detroit Zoo Butterfly Exhibit, and they land on various flowers, plants, stone water fountains, but this blue one zoomed erratically: was the most beautiful and the most hard to photograph. I literally chased it around, dodging in and out of families, trying to get its picture. Finally realized I was going to have to stalk it w/ strategy rather than dumb speed. I waited until it landed, closed those brown mottled wings (which hid the azure inside) and then I turned on my camera to video and waited, and waited, on until it fluttered off the rock.

non run journal

2007-09-06T23:19:00.000-07:00

Looks like my dog Flappy but doesn't look at all like the inside of my car.

Okay, so the packet I got from TNT that was written by coach Randy, owner of Running Fit, says that runners should log in "non-runs". In other words, journal on days that they are supposed to run and don't. "Looking at all those skipped days will get you out the door."

Well, here it is: was supposed to run today, didn't. Was supposed to run Tuesday. Didn't. Sunday. Didn't. Was supposed to run a long run (6 miles) on Saturday and . . . didn't.

Wow, I feel so much better.

I am going to run tom for three easy miles cause I'm supposed to do my long run as a 7 miler. Ouch and I just celebrated breaking the 3 mile barrier.

Me to Lou before my first 10K race, after I nearly passed out from my first five mile run w/ him:
"Does it count as five miles if you don't actually run half the time?"
Lou: "If you're not riding in the car, it counts."
Okay, going to keep that in mind on my long run this weekend.

broke 3 miles with body guard dog!

2007-09-05T21:05:00.000-07:00

Brought my own body guard: Robbie, my Rott/Doberman mix. I was not afraid tonight even when I ran past an empty parking lot and some scowling, fifty something, ragged looking, smoking (of course) guy gaped at me.

I usually get annoyed when people shrink from Robbie because it's such a case of judging the book by the cover. His favorite sport is cuddling and watching TV, not rabidly ripping apart the mail lady (who refuses to deliver our mail even if Robbie is outside with us). At 95 pounds, though, and with a clear Doberman body and Rott heft, I must admit he is a bit intimidating.

I had to run after 9 p.m. tonight, when I got home from work, and I really wanted to run further than three miles, but that meant going farther a field and even past some scary-at-night long stretches of dark, empty construction sites. Well, as I tugged on my road shoes, Robbie wagged his tail so hard he banged out a rhythm against the closet and bashed his nose into my leg. "Oh, sweety, you want to go for a walk." It hit me! Take him running w/ me! Why had I not thought of this before? This is not a dog most people make cooing noises and try to pet. Some people glance at him and scowl at me for my audacity at letting this beast out in public, or, especially if they are walking with children, perform a sudden, quick hop to the other side of the sidewalk, kids clutched to their sides, to avoid him.

I had never run w/ Robbie before and I worried he might not be as well behaved as Flappy--- but he was AWESOME! He stayed right by me and even agily weaved with me in and out of smoking obstacles in leather, studded jackets sauntering down the side walks of Main. He even kindly moved closer to my left leg when we ran by anyone.

Only problem: that dog is not as in shape as his muscles would imply. He ran about half a foot behind me and I had to keep yanking on the leash or saying his name to get him into my peripheral vision. His tongue nearly dragged behind him and he panted the entire run. This is not an old dog and he should not be so out of shape. It did make running with him a bit like trying to drag a wheeled cart full of mud at the same time.

Stats: My Garmin was not charged so these are not as specific

Distance: 4.07 (thank you "map my run")
stops: two-- one short one to stretch, one longer half block one to catch my breath
Smoky smelling houses: too many to count-- I just don't get how houses can actually smell like smoke--whenever I run by one and it's just overpowering I always look for someone on the porch smoking and there isn't anyone--I think one time I'm just going to walk four miles and really investigate this house smoke smell. Thing I hate: after passing a few of these I can really feel the slow down and my lungs fill w/ sludge. Ugggh. My civil libertarian sensibilities fight with my desire to breath in no Co2 and just let big ol' brother outlaw smoking all together.
Dog drag: 95 pounds
Beautiful, starry night-- loved stretching afterwards, especially when I was in triangle pose and lifted my head and arms up-- just amazing sight and it felt like my body was flying into it-- yes, that is a runner's high talking. Nothing like it.

Pace: again I tried the fall into the run near my toes stride--it is faster. I also did alot of inner association (and some disassociation--at one time I actually reached a perfect yoga state of mind and was not thinking at all-- then I realized I was doing that and began a whole lot of analyzing how I did it and what it meant and if I was conscious how I could really be thinking nothing--which is also a form of inner dissociation--just not as complete). What worked the best tonight as far as pace, comfort, mood: imagining I was in a race and certain landmarks ahead were the finish line-- often the end of a block or a traffic light. It's weird but that mindset made me surge forward w/out much effort or pain. It felt good. At one point, I even realized the slight tension in my legs and chest felt good. Felt like life.

pace: no idea--- again, no Garmen. But I feel like, at points, it was faster than my recent, and very sad, 11 minute miles. I did have to practically drag my very large, teenage-in-dog-years Dob most of the way.

I'm excited now for the zoo 10K in two sat.

The night's run ended perfectly with a stop at the mailbox to find that three very, very generous people donated to the Leukemia/Lymphoma society. It really added more joy to my run. One of my colleagues was just diagnosed with Meyloma and I think about her along w/ my beautiful, brave, gloriously alive newspaper student who just won her first round against non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I visualize both of them now when I get to a sinister hill ,and I want to stop. It helps. Both of them have a bravery I hope I never have to find within myself.

A family friend sent me a note the other day that his dad died in 1973 (the year I was born) of Leukemia. This note came with an astoundingly generous donation to the TNT Leukemia/Lymphoma society. I guess you never know who has been impacted by these cancers. I look at smiling, bright Austyn, now back in my newspaper class, and I have hope.

One long stop

2007-08-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

My running pal from TNT Stacey on the right. This was around mile 10 of our Bayshore half marathon. I really hope she runs the long run this Saturday. I need a pace partner!!!

Ran tonight
.
stats:
miles: a bit over 3
pace: average 10.5 (getting better!)
best: 7
stop: one, one long one. stopped at Royal Oak Brewry to help celebrate Mike's b-day. Had glass of wine and met another runner, one of Mike's friends, who, of course, competed w/ him in a half iron-man--jeeze. I just wanted to ask how, how do you even get your body to the point that it can do an iron man??? Any how, I've noticed that these super athletes, been in a million ultra competitions, are always really nice, unassuming. I guess if you've got it you just don't have to flaunt it. He taught me a new trick on my Garmen: how to make it stop timing when I stop-- that is part of why my average pace is better. It wasn't factoring 40 minute miles for stopping to tie my shoe.
I tried something tonight, though, that seemed to also speed my pace-- I read some where about falling into the run and not letting the body's natural breaks stop you. So I sort of leaned forward a bit and ran more toward my toes, not on them, but just sort of falling forward w/ each step--I looked at my Garmen at one point and I was doing a 9 minute mile doing this. It was easier and faster and it was just my mind I had to deal w/, my mind telling me it must be harder on my lungs to go faster, but really it wasn't, it was different form making it easer to go faster.
freaks: none
friendly people at bar stop: lots!
Ran home after about 30 minute stop.

Injury note: my sprained ankle, which is getting swollen again, really hurt when I started running. It warmed up after about half a mile or so but it's throbbing a bit now. I didn't wear my brace for the first time so I guess that's the easy answer to that, will wear it or tape my ankle for my long run on Saturday.

Ran!

2007-08-29T00:34:00.000-07:00

I miss my summer season TNT group-- much easier to run with someone at your pace and talking-- goes by much faster. Maybe I need a new playlist. I did really enjoy my run when "Lose Yourself" came on-- definitely think that's when I did my 8 minute pace. Hope Stacey and Jackie start running again or that my winter TNT teammates have a few slower runners.

So, here's the stats for Morning Glory:
Didn't get up at 6-- got up at 7:40 and was supposed to be at work at 8--I got there at 8:15-- so that tells you a bit about how I drove-- Left at 5 to 8.

So, after work I ran around 10 p.m.
distance: 2.8 miles
average pace: 11
fastest: 8
stops: None!!!
freaks on the road: None!!
cigarette smell from cheap, look like pay by the hour type Royal Oak motels: 3
cigarette smell from houses: 2 (didn't realize till I quit smoking that houses can actually smell like smoke-- they can and it's gross, esp. when you need all the oxygen you can get)
I really prefer to run at Stoney, Kensington, or Pontiac Lake Trail-- no smoke, no nasty vents spewing that burned grease smell from Chicken Shacks, no exhaust nor people who take up the entire sidewalk and don't budge even though you have to practically run into oncoming traffic to both keep your pace and get out of their way, no blind drivers who turn left at a light when you have the right of way and almost slam into you while you run across Washington. At Pontiac lake it's just beauty, clean air, interesting terrain, cooler temp--great view of the lake from the top of the hills. Problem-- when I don't get home till late don't really have time for a 40 minute drive along w/ the run and probably would freak out even more running at night at the place where Grant's wife's body parts were found.

Run tonight felt good-- again, getting easier-- didn't go the full 3 miles cause my house is at 2.80 miles on my route and I wanted to get dinner and chill. I should have resisted my house though and ran past till I got to 3. Maybe I should do another route where I don't run by my house--too tempting to stop. Anyhow, did not feel like stopping, no cramps, steady breathing, felt good.

Tom. 4 mile run w/ TNT-- at 7 p.m. then ROB to celebrate Mike's b-day. I wonder if I will ever be able to actually run at his pace--he's crazy fast.

Signed up for an upcoming race-- two Sundays from now at the Detroit Zoo (which, technically, is the Royal Oak zoo) - signed up for the 10K to motivate myself to break my 3 mile wall.

Okay-- time for re-runs

If he can go to Iraq, I can get up early, right?

2007-08-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

Nick was shipped to Iraq a month ago as an army medic. Bet he has some late nights and early mornings. I bet they are not filled w/ re-runs of Runway, either.

Today, I felt like work took the run out of me.
Will try to get up early again tomorrow--wait, as Yoda says, "there is no try, only do". I will do a run tom. before work.

Ah, 6 a.m- see you soon!!!

ps had nightmare a few nights ago that I was trying to run the Bayshore full marathon but I had to run through buildings, up stairs, find my way through corridors, across swimming pools, etc. and by the time I got outside again I had barely done a half marathon and some announcer told everyone I had only run five miles in five hours and I had to get a ride back to the start/finish line and forfeit the rest of the race. I was in agony. I didn't care about my time; I just wanted to get the chance to finish the marathon. Suddenly I was in some observation tower and all these sports announcers were telling me it was no big deal--that I could try again next year. I was then on the ground again begging another runner to give me a ride to the 5 mile mark so I could try again, but he wanted me to pay him and I didn't have any money. It was just one road block after another. Okay, so dream interpretation: if I get stuck at three mile training runs I'm not going to get past a 10K much less a marathon!

Monday no run, Tuesday susposed to do 3 miles

2007-08-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

I wish my job was sleeping on the couch next to my dog and both of us watching TV. But, no, I must get back to teaching . . .
Today was a run-day-off, according to the TNT calender. So I, slept in , went to work after noon, then went to musical, then came home.

Scheduled for a three mile run tom. Plan to do that before work at 8-- means must get up by 6-- hhhm but set alarm for 7--so how will this happen? Too lazy to change alarm. Maybe I won't run before work. But, can't really run after. Well, hold on. Okay, just changed alarm. Will get up at 6.

August 26 2007-- slept in

2007-08-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

Robbie, my rot-dob mix is as lazy as me--loves watching tv. I videotaped him doing this for a whole discovery show on lions a few nights ago--it was great. When a commercial came on, he curled up on the floor and as soon as the show returned he perked up and watched, with his nose practically kissing the glass.
So, did I get up at 6 a.m.? Nope. Did I run this morning? Nope. I didn't get up until 11: 30 and, technically, I didn't even get up. I stayed on the couch watching Sleepless in Seattle (I actually had never seen that--Meg Ryan doesn't look like a mutant fish yet) and polishing more Lake Superior rocks until about 5. Then I cuddled with my dog for a while--my sweet 95 pound black Rotterman, who thinks he's only 5 pound and a lap dog. I eventually got up, as in off the couch,walked around my garden outside, and left the house for the first time for some Mc Donalds and, yup, another movie--since it was at a theater and not on my TV it felt like a little bit of exercise. I sneaked in my Golden Arches mint-mud frosty and my McNuggets and watched Stardust, feeling accomplished, feeling like I was finally doing something with my life today. Am I the healthiest runner or what?

Anyhow, we got out of the movie a little after 10 and I told Mark he was going to do me a favor tonight. "What?" he said, looking leery.
"You're going to drive around the city while I run my 5 miles."
"No. You can run tomorrow. I can't encourage this insanity."
Okay, so I guess I would have to turn the music up and try to forget all the imaginary rapist, muggers (who, of course, would steal my precious Garmen watch) and ax murderers lurking on each corner. The moon was amazingly huge and bright tonight. Seeing two other runners on our way home guided by the moonlight helped bolster my courage-- of course, they were guys and probably five times my size, but, whatever.

So here's the stats for tonight:
Distance: 3.34 miles
Average pace: 12 minutes (oh how embarassing--but here it is)
Best pace: 8:30
Slowest pace: 35 (wish I was patient enough to read the instruction manual for my Garmen--can't figure out what to do so it stops averaging in my stops (I wonder how actually being stopped and stretching counts as a 35 minute per mile pace?)
Stops: once after a mile and half to stretch-- did not linger though

Okay, so here's why I didn't go the planned 5 miles: After about 2 miles and after imagining all these murderes lurking in every dark spot on the sidewalk and cars that would jump over the curb and try to run me down, even w/ my I-Pod blaring out The Cult's "Here Comes the Rain", the screams from a nearby car made me jump-- I looked over and it was some dark blue car w/ a bunch of guys in it. Are you kidding me? What kind of idiot screams out the window at a sweaty, smelly girl trying to get her night run in. Anyhow, it shook me up. So I was shaking by mile 3--now I was feeling that good high just before my house and my mind had been made up to stop there after that scream and not tempt fate but then I really got that high kickin, that magic that makes problems into glorious adventures, and I talked myself into doing the whole 3 mile lap again--I ran past the house--a victory in itself--and got only .10 of a mile further when a huge cramping stitch ripped through my stomach and I felt sick, like I might puke. Oh, hello Minty Mud Frosty, another stitch on the other side. Hello McNuggets. I immediately started walking w/ both arms folded above my head--turned around and walked the rest of the way home.

What I learned from this run:
Yes, running in the dark is easier on my cardiovascular system.
I can run better and better the more I run (I wasn't nearly as out of breath as yesterday and didn't really stop like I did).
Never eat Mc D's before a run--even if it's a few hours before. Actually, I hardly ever do it anyway and I think I just never will again--esp after that puking feeling tonight, which brought up visions of Super Size me when the guy pukes after only the 3rd day of eating nothing but Golden Arches.
If I go to bed at 4, I can't get up to run at 6.

So, with that in mind, I'm going to try and sleep. Oh, yeah, don't want to forget. There is a 10K up north on Sept. 22-- a trail race and, even better, it's through the vineyards and wine tasting afterward!

3 a.m. August 25-- Must run early tom.

2007-08-25T22:47:00.001-07:00

Sunsets off Lake Superior and Pictured Rocks. I can't wait to do the Grand Island Trail race again next year. But, here's my dilemma . . . I ran this evening for the first time in nearly two weeks, and I could barely do three miles. I stopped for water and a stretch after only one mile and then stopped at least two other times to walk because my breathing got so labored. Not too hot today, esp for August, just 73 degrees; even my favorite 80's music didn't inspire me--not even "Gloria" or "Radar Love".
When I ran the Grand Island trail race, just before the start, my I-Pod, my take my mind off the pain and imagine I'm speeding in a car I-Pod died-- just wouldn't turn on even though I had charged it the night before as I sleeplessly paced in my race clothes. Brief panic gave way to the realization that I had completed a few short races without a working (charged) I-Pod by talking w/ other runners at my pace. This trail race, though, I sang my I-Pod playlist in my head. I had heard it so often during my training runs that I surprised myself and silently recited entire songs--from Sisters of Mercy "Empire Down" to "Radio playing my favorite song . . ." It was an amazing, beautiful 10K. I ran it just a month ago after a few weeks off w/ a sprained ankle (I fell in a 3 foot deep construction hole on the 4th of July). I taped up my ankle, took vitamin IB, and didn't feel any pain nor get eaten by any bears. Mark brought my bathing suit across to the island so we could swim after the race. Jumping in Lake Superior after a humid 10K was amazing--much more fun than an ice bath.

Okay--so back to why this blog. Well, my motivation really waned these past few weeks and I loved my run today. Even as bad as it was with my stopping and planning to go 5 miles and only going 3, it felt good to be back. I decided that if I blogged my first running journal, I could give myself some extrinsic motivation when the intrinsic (or music) failed to motivate.

I plan to run tomorrow early a.m. (6) to see if even cooler temps help me have a better run and I can get that 5 miler in. Of course, it's now 2 a.m. and I'm still up watching stupid re-runs. This not sleeping at night is messing w/ my running too. I think I will just kick myself out of bed to get on some normal sleeping schedule so I can get back to my a.m. run. By August, I have gone from my usual teacher sleep schedule of up by 8 on a Saturday to up all night reading, watching tv, making jewelry, surfing the Internet, etc,. etc., and then getting up the next day after the post office has closed. NO MORE!! I need to get my run back! I will be in a relay marathon in Detroit in October and a full marathon in January. If I'm still huffing and puffing after only 3 miles next month I'll be in serious, serious trouble.

Okay, so now I have told my computer and maybe someone reading this three months from now, that I plan to get up early tomorrow and run 5 miles. Maybe I'll go back to Stoney and try to get the memory of TNT coach Ken's cow bell ringing in my head!