What do I want for my birthday? A pr.

So, I don't care that this is somewhat (wildly) impractical: I want a pr in vegas in december.  For me, that would technically be anything under 2:40, but I'm going to randomly reset the bar and insist that I beat it by ten minutes.  All this, ladies and gentlemen, without running (much) in the meantime.  Why? Because that's what I feel like today!  Perhaps I shall run tomorrow, if I can talk my mom into running the trail race that's happening in the morning. :)

So, for a 2:30 pr, coolrunning's pace calculator says I need to beat 11 1/2 minute miles.  That's about 5.3 mph (I like mph so much better than min/mile, don't you?  Who even thinks that way?  It's so hard!), which is quite speedy for me... Maybe I'll run just a tiny bit to train, then...

Can't wait for the trip, either way.  Sad that we won't make the Great Santa Run like we did last year, but I suppose there might be some kind of limit to how many pictures of yourself in cheap santa suits you need to have.  They are great though, no?

So behind!

ahh i have so many race recaps to post and things i should update about- but as i'm sick (and still sitting here thinking about running, wow) i'm just going with random thoughts.  i'll have to post some proper stuff and back-date it later.

so jealous of this race and want it to come here!  damn you nyc for being cooler than us, and getting everything first!  if you live there you should totally do this bc if i were you i would but i'm not so i'm so far away!  zombi race

getting quite nervous about january's plan...i've looked at several marathon training plans (since i figure that's basically what i'm training for; the night's sleep in between halves [halfs -?] is just a bonus...), but they all count distance rather than time.  training by time worked superbly in getting me here, and i want to stick with what works...my problem is, i'm coming up against some limiting factors in trying to scale my model up; namely, if i run at the same pace i've been, that means it will take SIX LONG HOURS to finish a full marathon.  that's kind of a deal-breaker, party people.  and obviously i can't train for that, going out and doing 4+ hour long runs on the weekends between now and january-? methinks this will represent too much strain on the ole bod.  i've read some opinions that long runs should be capped at 3.5 hours--but clearly this will not take me 26 miles.  more thinking needs to be done (to say nothing of more running!), and it needs to be done fast as there are only 2 1/2 months between me and (w)D(w)-day!

Ever the Run(plan)ner...

So, can't wait for the muddy pictures from Warrior Dash to be posted! Grateful in the meantime to Th James for taking some great 'before's :)

(altho, this is actually 'after', having been hosed down and changed, as you can tell from Mah Medal)

It was hilarious and I can't wait to do another one!  Especially as James n I sort-of-on-purpose blew the curve by walking most of the way between obstacles; should be easy to set a PR now that there's a (very low) bar to compare it to! I was surprised and gratified by how not-foreign it felt to clamber over stuff and fling myself through obstacles; aside from the running, as soon as it was over I wanted to do it again.  Apparently, my life doesn't contain enough things for me to climb...

The comparative un-success of the running part was a bit eye-opening tho: San Diego is a month away!  Half the time I glance at seven shiny medals on my wall I think, "no brainer! Just show up!"-- the other half I look and think, "who the hell ran 91 miles for those?! Bc I wouldn't get up right now for a donut."

So I'm thinking, I might train.  Like I said I would last post.  With the five weeks I have left!
Apart from total Sloth, I think the biggest thing that's been in my way is not having a clear plan.  I know I grabbed the marathon plan quickly enough, but as far as halfs my big question is how to get faster--and I hate all the complex vo2max crap and vocab-driven calculations everyone suggests.  Fartleks, I guess I could handle...intervals, yeah...tempo pace, speed runs...FUCK! Shut up already, I'm tired just filling out my calendar.  I got here because the plan was excuse-shatteringly simple, and methinks that might be the key to lasting success: "run 5, walk 2".  Got it.  I've had this idea before, going back to Bud Coates and just adding a faster pace guideline to the miraculously simple plan, and hopefully that means it's worth investigating.  Any case, I've pencilled in a date with the treadmill tomorrow morning to test my theory!  With any luck (read: abatement of my blogging-ADD), I'll let you know how it goes!

OH ps- as we were shambling along between the straw bales and rickety balance beam (and cracking up at the eventual Quote of the Day: "I can't believe the waiver for this was only one page!"), a fellow (slow) runner overheard us talking about the similar Spartan series of obstacle races.  He said a guy from his gym ran one recently, and as it turned out, the fire he expected to leap over rather than being two feet tall as implied actually turned out to be a six-foot wall of flame which singed most of his hair off.  And just to add a little intrigue, stationed on the other side were volunteers dressed as spartans who beat him with sticks! Perhaps this shouldn't fill me with glee- but it does.

New plan?

I'm honestly sad to have missed the lake havasu half this last weekend, and am mulling over how i'm going to get going again... I've been in an intensive acupuncture mode for the last three weeks, working on correcting some long-standing issues, which is why I've been quiet.  It's been a great process, but it's also required me to put the kibosh on running so I could direct my energy to what we were working on (read: avoid the usual "I can do it all!" dance and getting overtired and then sick).  So it's been almost a month off and the other day I caught myself thinking "I just don't know how people do that"- before suddenly remembering that, hey, I'VE done it, and not just once but seven times! What's the mystery?! But it's a telling moment: two years of training to do the impossible doesn't undo 30 years of training to define what is impossible.  And I definitely don't want inertia to carry me back to that pointless pastime, so I'm ready to move forward.

So, I think I need a new goal to work toward.  I love running the half marathon distance and definitely look forward to everything that's already on my calendar, but I think it's Firsts that excite me, and I'm ready for a new one of those...So far the full marathon distance has felt too unreasonable, but with my recent realizations and this plan I just stumbled on in the bookstore today, I'm starting to get interested...


Update- after a walk tonight I've decided I'm in.  After all, I have half this plan in the bag already! So even if I go back to basics and start at the beginning I'm only 4 months from a full marathon; that sounds good. :) 

Goals

Just read a cool article about fell running in Ireland, and it's got me thinking about what goals I have for running.  I love the idea of running in Ireland sometime, where (I suspect) it's the antithesis of desert running: green!  Not that I have to cross an international border to locate some plants, but...well, why not, after all!

So, these are some of the goals I have and have had for my running career:

Get out of bed!
Be able to run 30min straight
Run a half marathon
Sub 2:45 half marathon
Sub 2:30 half marathon
2:00 half marathon
2 half marathons a month apart
2 half marathons 2 weeks apart
2 half marathons 1 week apart
2 half marathons same weekend (DisneyWorld relay and half)
A half marathon every month (for a year-?)
Half marthon in all 50 states
Run a full marathon
Sub 3hr marathon
Run NYC marathon
Run in some other countries...
Full and half back to back (Goofy challenge)
Full, half, 5k back to back (Dopey challenge)
Run an ultra
Pace at Leadville
Run route 66
Run coast to coast

Right now a lot of these things seem kind of ridiculous- but the part of me that's already accomplished the first 4 things likes seeing them there in print. Having worked my way up through 7 halfs and counting, I really believe the distance between the bed and that first 30 minutes is greater than the difference between 6mph and 8mph, or between 26 miles and 50.  Whether it is or isn't though, I look forward to finding out.  :)

See why I need green?

These are in the order I got them too, how cool is that!!

6? down. 7? here we go...

Not sure if I'm crazy, but I just booked the hotel for this weekend to do the 6 Tunnels race at Hoover Dam.  Oh, how was the Princess, you ask? Hm, I'm sure it was fine and I haven't even unpacked and ooh looky here another shiny medal...

The thing that cinched it was, in fact, the medal.  I noticed that the 5 on my wall were making a nice rainbow gradient (fun fact: I can't resist anything in rainbow colors), and with the Disney Princess's kind-of-awful-greenishly-yellow one, the next color I'd want would of course be green.  Enter the mountain men and their early St. Patty's Day celebration. 

Can't decide whether to train this week or just rest up.  Kind of hoping for some kind of toxic-sludge accident to transform me into teenage mutant ninja runner in the next five days.  But I suppose I'll settle for the kids not complaining all the way through the Dam tour.

Wish me luck!

EEEEEEEEee- waaaiiit a minute...

So I got my third medal from Competitor today!  Wooooot! Except-

Okay, so I earned this one too.  But where's my Desert Double Down, hmm?  Perhaps in tomorrow's mail??

Ps, I know I owe an explanation about Janathon.  The short story is that Sick, the Sonata became Sick, The Symphony and I actually, physically, literally was unable to finish the last three days.  I say it like that because the truth is, after 28 straight days of (albeit sometimes lame) effort, I wasn't going to take any prisoners.  Nothing short of being physically incapable was going to stop me.
Yeah. I was physically incapable.  Take my word for it; I cried blood and considered going out for a feverish crawl, but I couldn't manage it.  Fukkin sucked, my dudes.  Especially since I'm sure it'll make me want to do its daddy event, Juneathon, which will be suicidal here on the surface of the sun...but maybe I'll grow some sense by then and be able to let it go.  Time shall tell!

Sick, a sonata in three movements

Not sure why, but my lungs are unhappy with today.  I have several theories, running from the mundane (coconut? crab?) to the sinister (bug spray in the house for the first time in months? an innate inability to sustain any good feeling for too long?) to the extreme (lung cancer?! sarcoidosis?!?) but the upshot is I haven't done anything overtly Wrong according to my girl-in-the-bubble script.  Still, my lungs have been tightening down over the course of the day like the fists of a republican contemplating Obama's second term.  A bit oddly, when I went for a run it largely cleared up, which was supagreat, but unfortunately I can't keep up 4.2mph all night so eventually I did come home.  At which point the union steward in my lungs declared "break's over!" and it's back to the picket line staged between oxygen and my brain.  If only I could make out what they're chanting!  Blah.

Pate or Prolonged Misery...

So I went easy after last night's realization of fatigue, and had a fab dinner with friends.  Then we went to see Black Swan.

Don't.

Did you see Jim Carrey's version on SNL?  I am not at all kidding when I say it was very true to the film.  The only thing that version is missing is the moral:

Should you ever find pinfeathers growing out of your back, be sure and see a therapist.

One you can be reasonably sure is real.  And doesn't look like you.

Now you're all set and I've saved you $18!  :)

I guess it's time to finally train up the dog!

Is it possible that I feel strong and tired at the same time?  I thought I had a lot more run in me tonight, but once I got out there I used it up kinda quickly; guess that was a pretty taxing sprint last night.

But one thing I was enjoying turned into something that irked: when I started out last night I was loving the solitude and wide openness of the park.  I even took the liberty of huffing out a few verses of the songs I was listening to (partly to distract from how *frozen* my lungs were feeling), just because no one was around to hear.  Then halfway through at a water stop, I caught a shadow flitting on my left at the edge of my vision.  Normally, I'm a mostly-grown person and I can handle general movement in my vicinity; however, close to midnight, allllll alone, having spent the last few weeks chowing through four novels in a Stephen King series, yeah- I spooked like a barn-sour mare after a jolt cola and a bee sting. (...visual-? :) )  nT has some Castanedan theories about this, which I'd sum up by saying they end well, but I still don't enjoy when it happens. 
So then it happened again tonight.  Geh!

I love running with people, but it seems my random-ass schedule doesn't really lend itself to the triangulation necessary to make that happen very often.  (Speaking of which, I need a little more race action...)  And since nT is busy testing the limits of brain-training, that kinda leaves the dog.  C'mon dude, you're up to bat!

Now, how can I get him trained between now and tomorrow's run-? ;)

Perspective

Wow, friends and neighbors, reality gets away from me too easily sometimes!

See, despite earlier (self-)encouragement and analysis, I honestly was starting to feel like kind of a sloth, with all my .1 and .2mi runs this week.  It wasn't until I was sitting in the bathroom (Just Visiting) looking at my lil medal display that I realized- the date on that last one was January 16.  That's not even 10 days away.  And even though a lot of them were short and excuse-ridden, I still got out there every damn day in between then and now, and even if I hadn't it seems kinda terrorist to think a week-old half marathoner would qualify for a Sloth moniker.

Clearly, I want the moon and stars.  Maybe that's a trait of this new zodiac sign I'm supposed to be, Cthulhu or whatever it is...(sure hope they rewrite those astrology books soon, so I can know how to act! ;f )


Update: sweet run, amigos!!  Garmin says I made 5.2mph average over my 2 miles, and even though that's not a blistering pace or a long run, it's way over my target average for this week and it felt like Running.  :)  It also said my best speed was 9mph, so I know I'm sampling the goal, it's riiiiiight- there!  Yay!  (Mmmm, tasty tasty endorphins! You love me, you reeeeally love me!...that's reason enough to run right there, ain't it?)

Janathon 24 r u kidding me

Some days you just don't feel witty.  You don't feel like running, either.  What you *do* feel like is marching sullenly down the street and back in yet another ridiculous half-pajama outfit, eking out a couple of sentences which will for some reason count as a blog entry, and then ransacking the pantry for hidden but unexpired treats before laying down to read another 700-page novel.

So then that's what you should do, I say.  And I do as I say (and as I do, if I do say so myself).  And you should too.

Thanks, Veggies

So I've gotten on the right side of the law with my stomach, it seems, and I think it's largely due to a dose of vegetables.  Which I've been lacking, despite trying to do this slow-carb thing Tim Ferris has been talking about; I seem to do just fine adding protein and legumes, but I keep getting distracted when it comes to actually adding the vegetables that should probably be the framework of the diet...Any rate I finally availed myself of some to counteract the cheesy comestibles and am doing much better.

On the running front, work has gotten in the way this weekend, but it's a problem I can't lament since it's been so long without much coming across...But I've had to be creative to wedge my Janathons in between pulling all-nighters and running around meeting clients and colleagues.  Tonight I strapped my shoes on and went right out the door during a break, and am now getting my blog in under the wire with 35 minutes to spare.  I'll definitely be glad when this is over, but I've learned a lot about how crafty I can be in pursuit of my determined sprees, and just how possible it is to fit things in when you don't make the criteria too strenuous.  A brisk walk? Sure.  How fast, how long, when, what to wear, will I have the garmin or the right shoes or music I don't know, but can I actually get out the door no matter what the day brings? Turns out, yes I can. 

And all with no better motivation than a medal I (still need to) make myself.  Not bad!

Wah!

Something I ate was Wrong.  :( Guess it's time to pull my head out of the sand about that agave-sweetened but still dairy-filled Mojo offering...Or maybe not pair it with carne asada.

Fucking Janathon.  I won't fold so close to the end!!  But there's nothing I could have wanted less than a run, except for a sharp stick in the stomach.  Oh wait!  It seems there's already one in there!  Sooooper.  With the help of nT I did drag myself out the door, but I wouldn't say it was one of my more shining moments.  Here is a photo of me just before my run tonight:

I think the greenish pallor in my face came out particularly well.

On a totally unrelated note:

I taught my son to make his first crank calls tonight.  Best night ever! He was crap at it bc he kept laughing and falling apart, but I have to say his accents were very good.  It suddenly occurred to me that with text and caller id and the ubiquity of cell phones, crank calling is an endangered pasttime, and if I didn't teach him it's possible no one would!  Amazing how the world's moved on, I guess...

We also took a leisurely stroll (well, not for the pigeons and ducks and geese we chased...) to the gf bakery down the block from us -- yes, I'm counting that for Janathon, watch me...it's a rest day anyway! -- another endangered pasttime, I suppose!  I'm not sure if we've ever stopped to toss crumbs to birds and stayed to watch what they'd do...And when he fished a very mossy giant superball out of our 1-ft lake I'm sorry to say my first thought was, "ew, don't pick that up!"

But happy to say my next one was, "that's what your immune system is for."  And we took turns bouncing it as far as we could, all the way home.

Only 10 more days! And- a decision.

Can't believe Janathon is 2/3 over, and I'm still making it.  Chalk up another version of me doing things I never saw myself doing, courtesy of running.  Exercise every damn day? Two years ago that wasn't even in the realm of things on the table to possibly be considered at some point doable. 

So, I decided tonight that I'm just going to tell people at restaurants that I'm celiac.  I've been trying to go it on my own, all reasonable-like, being honest that 'no, it's not an allergy', 'no, I haven't been diagnosed with anything', 'I just try to avoid it bc it doesn't agree with me'...F that.  Two weeks ago we went to PF Chang's, where it turns out they have a new gf menu, and I asked why their sauteed spinach was on there- just to point out that it was gf? Cuz I kinda deduced that on my own- it's just spinach sauteed with garlic!  NoooOOOOooo, the server enlightened me, there's a different sauce they use.  In the spinach.  Side dish.  Which is just spinach.  Okie dokie!  Then I read that chinese food in general is often a big fat mistake for gluten-freers (can there be a better name pls?), bc there's often flour used to thicken the oyster sauce, the brown sauce, the mystery delicious spicy sweet hoisin mongolian tabernathy whathaveyou- so tonight when we went to check out a new place in Scottsdale (decor: cool.  crowd: nonexistent!  tea: mixed bag.  ha! get it??) I asked about the sauce and told the server I was gf.  Being the helpful sort, she went and consulted with the chef... and came back with the revelation that not only most of their sauces, all of their soup, AND ALL OF THE BEEF had gluten in it.  Uh, good to know-? And thanks for scaring the crap out of me-?  'How, pray tell, can all of the Beef have gluten in it, before you even cook the crap?' 'Because,' she rejoined, 'it's in the marinade.'  Wow.  Got me on that one.  Marinade. 

So now, I'm just tired of guessing.  I give: society, your love affair with gluten is no match for my limited wiles.  So I'll just put on my heavy celiac hair shirt and wear it around!  I really haven't wanted to, because I don't want to start every meal out with a harangue about Some Disease I Supposedly Have, and turn every ordering event into a circus of special pots of condiments that I and only I should allow past my lips, but seriously- the marinade.  I don't have time to guess all these things!  I think I'll have a shirt made, to take the word back and make it my own...HA, maybe I can even find a hair-y font to carry out my pun!..

Ugh! I officially hate running clothes.

So, I guess I'm picky.  I won't run in cotton, I hate crewnecks and I'm over black.  Other than that, I thought I was pretty much up for anything; extra points for zip pockets and prints, pants or top.  I'm flexible.  Oh, and I'd like to pay something south of $59 for each piece, please!

But I guess my lofty requirements mean 98% of gear out there is out.  I mean, ctfo, I don't mind a blue v-neck or a solid purple half-zip--but once I bought them, I kinda already have them, right?! Roadrunner Sports, Adidas, Champion (better than most), Brooks: quit hittin me with the solid colors.  I'm bored, okay!  Athleta, Lululemon, Sugoi: PRICE, please! Sometimes your designs are totally nomtastic, but I ain't shellin' out $98 for one shirt.  It's a shirt.  And I'm going to run it thru hell and back.  Peace, please.  prAna, Avani, and Etsy crafters: honorable mention, I love it all, but please get hip with the lycra and nylon, I don't want to come home soggy after a 2hr run in my scorching desert sun.  And Nike- just, what are you thinking??

So what's a girl to do.  I've never had a problem *shopping*, of all things, but thus far Janathon week 2 reward is going undone.  Step it up, people!

I am whatever, hear me...

Funny, in the second half of Janathon I'm finding the running easier and the talking harder!  I really don't want to log and count my every run and calorie here (that's what garminconnect is for!!), nor all the dips and turns of my complex feelings on the subject of how well (or not) I'm doing (that's what my handsomely paid therapist is for!!).  So that leaves pithy tidbits and running-related gossip and sometimes, dearest, I'd rather have a cocktail.

But I did do some great speedwork today.  I really didn't think I'd be back out there doing 2 1/2 miles two days after the race; maybe I've finally figured out a few things that work, recovery-wise.  Which is, as Miley Cyrus would say, pretty cool.  And I was over my average speed target for the week, according to my screamingly complicated and yet not-at-all-scientifically-based training plan, so Miley feels good about that too.

Does this call for a (lovingly donated and handmade, gluten- dairy- and sugar-free) cupcake? And a rerun of The Soup?  Yes, methinks it does!

I run, risen

I really think it was all the calories I had yesterday.  Tonight's run was an unimpressive .63mi - until you factor in that this time last year I was still in the ice bath, passed out from the day before with an In-n-Out wrapper dripping from my nerveless fingers, moaning incoherently for more ibuprofen.  I'd call .63 a big improvement.

I also learned that all my calf issues of late totally subside after about mile 3.  (Another excuse to just push through the pain? Why, yes, thanks! I Will have another!) Very curious to figure out why this is, but for now, I give tonight a:

Tha Plan:

So.  Considering we're into the part of the year when there are actually races every weekend (because it's pleasant enough to be outside sometimes!), and it's still Janathon for another 2 weeks, I need to be a little careful in designing a plan that will take all the factors into account.  Thank god I'm feeling pretty recovered from yesterday, and I can actually get out and do another run today to stay in the game!

My goal for Disney is to set a new PR, and I think 2:30 would be a great one to hit next.  That means shaving off almost twenty minutes, bringing it up from a 4.63mph average to 5.24.  That's measurably faster than I've ever maintained, I'm pretty sure...so that calls for speedwork.  I'm thinking that's a good match for Janathon, since I can run faster but shorter and get out there more often without using up all my will to live.  (I mean, "using up all my glycogen"! How did that get in there?...)

So, here's my new plan.  Explanation (for noobs looking for random info, fanatical running beancounters, and thought-voyeurs) later!

Full Circle

So, today I did PF Chang's here in Phoenix again, the race that got me into this whole affair a year ago.  And while I didn't break any records I did stay in the realm of things (no PW, like I feared!) for me.  And it was good to run my inaugural route again and see how far I've come.  I'll have to do a post on awesome Things I've Learned, because I spent a lot of today's run thinking over (and using, thankfully) such helpful tidbits as "get your water at the end of the line, not the beginning", and "cut corners to avoid running further than the race is measured", and the ever-popular and -present "MOVE, bish git out the way!!"...

I've learned to eat more.  I finished two packs of shot bloks, a packet of gu, and my disgusting-yet-superb homemade gooo concoction (this time: sauerkraut juice! yummy!), plus cytomax at every drink stop.  I also had water with the cytomax so overall I'm sure I was twice as hydrated, twice as calorified, and probably as caffienated as I've ever been.  I think it worked: I never hit a wall.  It felt more like a steady, consistent decline over the course, which doesn't sound like a triumph but actually felt like one.  Compared to last year, feeling like I was swinging 60-lb slabs of granite from my hips over the final bridge, a slow steady decline was quite heavenly!

I've also learned not to screw with food.  I can't eat gluten.  I can't eat sugar.  I reeeeally really shouldn't eat dairy.  Sucky as that is, them's the facts, and that sucky doesn't hold a candle to the Sucky that happens when I get out there with burning lungs and screwy stomach.  Cupcake, you can eat me as far as I'm concerned, because not much feels quite that crappy.  New year, renewed commitment, grownup choice.  Unlike my hat today:

 Anyway.  Looking for a big PR at Disney, and think I have the tools to do it.  Next stop: a big ole plan...

ps- 30 miles so far in Janathon! Fun!

Kids Rock Rocked!

Rawwwwr! One mile kids' run: Pwned! That's right, finished strong, ahead of most second graders and ALL of first grade! Kidergarten, I left you in the dust!!

Terror in a sz 42

So, I'm not stupid or nothin, I know you don't show up for a 13 mile race having only trained 9 and 10 minutes at a time.  Perhaps I'm a bit too brazen though, to think I could not only slack off but smashbam my diet to smithereens *and* slack off and still waltz up to the starting line and expect to get somewhere...

I certainly hope not, bc the start line is where I'm headed...I feel the crush of people all around me, shuffling forward in baby steps of anticipation....they're all around, ahead, behind...I couldn't turn around now if I wanted to.... their momentum and excitement is carrying me forward!...I..I...have no choice but to stumble forward in baby steps of my own, lengthening into stutter-steps...a trot or two...I'm running, I can't stop it, I'm not ready AAAHHHhhhhhhhhhh.....

Yeah.  Then I wake up and it's Saturday, just in time to run the kids' mile with them before PFC the next day!  Yarg!

I'm just that little bit scared, ya see.  More so, because I've been through the stretch, the chiro, and the massage (dammit, I missed acupuncture!!) this week, and my calves are still tight enough to bounce a quarter off.  (Did i just end a sentence with a preposition? I meant not...to. AUGH!)  Maybe an admirable trait in abs and sheets, but not calves.  Not if you want to use them to propel you places.  Maybe I'm just letting little things get to me; I'm sure I had concerns going into the other four races...But that's just it: this is the *5th time* I'll be doing something I really didn't think I'd ever do at all, and it's like I finally woke up and realized this is maybe a bit daunting.  Maybe I was outrunning my fear-? You'd think it'd given up and gone in for cookies long before the fifth half.  Maybe that's the nature of fear, it never quits, you just get ahead of it for a while.  Fuck You, Fear!  Go to your home! Are you too good for your home??

Well, and fuck you gluten too.  I could feel that old tired burn in my lungs tonight (flour? yes, chinez food sauce haz you. boooo!) and I can't say as I enjoyed that.  It's frustrating to be so careful and still get blindsided by some random one-off.  Guess that'll teach me for blowing off home ec and not learning to cook!  (Note to self: learn to cook.)

Yeah, so, that's where I'm at tonight.  Going to close up shop now, got a lot of rocking in a corner to do!

What shall I tell you?

Is it running that has fried my brain, or the lateness of the hour, the diet changes or hidden gluten in my delicious chinese food-? Or the dance class, three hours of spring cleaning and not enough sleep?  The answer is, I could care less because I'm too tired to even wonder for much longer.  Here is a very accurate drawing of me doing my Janathon 13 run to the restaurant, a .1 mile odyssey to sushi (notice my perfect form):

Psoas not to disturb my newfound equilibrium

Awesome stretch session today!  Not wanting to disturb my alignment-settling, tonight's run was more of a stroll-trot.  Whatever! Two more days and Janathon is nearly half over!!  Amazing.  I think I'm learning to pace myself in this new way; it feels similar to the process I went through when I was learning to run in the first place...Stop thinking about what should be, and just be there.  Oddly, the mantra appears to be "So What!".  I only went .62 miles today- so what.  I only ran 4.2 mph- so what.  Progress is coming a lot slower than I wish it would, than I had planned- So Mother What, matey.  'Tis what 'tis, I'm either showing up tomorrow or I'm not.

And I'm definitely showing up tomorrow- it's one day away from week 2's (self)reward, and the PFC expo where I plan to avail meself of Schwag.  Mmmm lovely schwag...

On a semi-related note, I found my dress!  It's Prom 2.0 when we head out to the Princess run next month, and cleaning out my closet I found a perfect Cinderella dress to wear.  Shoppin in my closet: win!  (Keeping random ball gowns laying around: also win!)

Now, if anyone has the inside scoop on where to find a coconut bra for nT's Ariel costume, lemme know! :)

Walk (almost) a mile in my (not) shoes

Well, jog at a walking pace, really. 
So, adding in some actual barefoot training to my running schedule has been on my list pretty much since I started running in Vibrams.  And I've done very little so far, because we live in Arizona where the weather ranges from bitterly cold (read: balmy, to most actual winter-dwellers) to sun-surface hot, and takes the grass with it from frost-killed summer grass to scorched-brown winter rye.  (Getting the timing right every year on when to switch from one to the other is an art you'd think we'd collectively master on of these days...And please can someone explain to me why we can inject salmon genes into strawberries but yet can't breed a single species of grass capable of living through both our harsh (balmy) winters and horrifying (true) summers?? This cannot be as complex as sequencing the human genome.  Thanks, Science Fairy!  -Love, Me.)  So, mostly my choices have been searing pavement or searing razor-wire dead grass (ps- shouldn't it be cooler just by virtue of being organic matter? Evaporation? Bueller?) and factoring in the ants and goose poo I've not been too inspired.  Anyway: so far, very little barefoot time. 

So I went out barefoot tonight.  It must have been warmer because my lungs burned significantly less, even in spite of the bag of jalapeno potato chips I had for dinner.  (yes, Training: going well.) Miraculously, the sidewalk was relatively free of its usual gravel and goose gifts, and I made a good .87 miles before I gave it up.  (Didn't I want to round it out to a mile, at least? What am I, lazy?  Yes, and no: I suddenly noticed that it was a bit too cold for me to know exactly how much I was tearing up my feet on their first run in who-knows-how-long, and caution won out over bravado (a first-?) in thinking about the viability of running 13 miles on glass-embedded feet this weekend.  Thus, I return, somewhat vanquished. (Can you be just "a bit" vanquished?) )  Pulled-calf was mighty cooperative, and I must say "Fine"-calf was a durn sight too squawky for my taste!  I have just the girl to set that varmint straight tomorrow though, just see if I don't!...


Ooooh-- I did notice (okay I got an email) that it was 1-11-11 today, and I felt a bit grinchy that I didn't have any cool thoughts to mark the occasion with.  But then I realized, come November, at 11:11 on 11-11-11 WHOA, watch out because I have a whole ten months to come up with commemorative thoughts and you bet I'll be there with bells on!  Especially since I realized if I come up short in the morning there's a re-do built in just before midnight.  That's right, two chances!  Who the man now, huh?  (And who hedges bets inside their own head?  That's right, I do.  And I'ma leave that grammar just like that, too, just 'cause.  Who always wins? Hah!)

Sudden dawning of realization

Oh hai! Yes, I'm the half marathon you all but forgot about!
Somehow, even with all the logisitcs and planning and what-time-should-we-hit-the-expo talk, I hadn't really internalized the idea of running 13 miles this weekend.  Can I put this in perspective right now?

I haven't run any further than 4 miles since Dec 5th.
I took half of the last month completely off.
I ate crap for at least three straight weeks over the holidays.
I've weighed a lot more, it's true, but I've also weighed a lot less than I do right now...
I pulled a calf muscle yesterday- again.
The unpulled calf is starting to cry from overcompensating (read: hunchback limp).
I've run every day for the last ten days--something I've literally never done before in life. (Read: tired much?)
Hot dogs are currently my go-to meat. (But, no bun! I've learned something in my travels! But- ketchup.  Maybe I haven't. :( )

Two words:  Over. Whelmed. 

Now, before anyone starts telling me to lay off or take it easy, take a few days off to rest or anything like that,

. .  .   .    .     (<----- my footsteps running away from your sound but unwelcome advice)

DAMN IT

I babied that calf back to okayness, and AGAIN 5 steps out, I pulled it again!

7:40p: I'm going to need to know why this is happening! What does it all meeeeean?! It doesn't seem to want me to point my toes, so when it happens, I run the rest of the way with that foot permanently flexed. Student is ready!! Techar? Techar?
  (yeah, I update while running.  I know that's weird.)

-----

10:56p: Mad.  Don't suppose that will help, will it?? I should be so lucky.  On the other hand, Janathon log says I ran 11 miles this week! Probably not my most excellent training week on record, but I thought it was going to be a bit dismal with all the tiny .2s I ran...guess this every day stuff adds up just like they say! :)

...And another non-actual one.

...but if this is taking the easy way out, I shor nuff haven't graduated from easy yet bc I'm sure I fell asleep at least twice today.  I went to a 2hr yoga workshop and then my run consisted of racing G to the car afterward, like .13 mile!  Why "should" I be so worn out? It's gotta be the food... and the fact that I missed my usual 4 acupuncture sessions this week.  It was all going so well, I...I figured I could just jump ship and swim to shore, I guess.  I have that pattern: things start working and before I've even finished acknowledging the fact I decide, "I don't need this anymore!", and then I've jettisoned the very thing I just realized was working.  Guess I better hold off on trying skydiving, I might be likely to cut my cords! 'I'm floating, it's working (*snip*) ahhhhhhhhhhhh......(poof)'

Anyway.  I'm still breathing, it's still Janathon, and there's my post.  Neener!

An actual run...

Back to a 2.29mi tonight, a normal "short" run for me (and not at midnight either, praise beezus), made possible by an awesome session at Stretch to Win.  I was beyond excited to see them mentioned in Tim Ferriss's new book--how can you not be excited when two things you love unexpectedly come together? peanut butter and chocolate? potato chips and nutella? cantaloupe and cayenne? mmm why is this all about food...

Anyway.  Totally excited that he mentioned them, as The experts in stretching that he's come across to date.  They totally deserve it; they pioneered their method, and it WORKS.  But, apparently Tim didn't say anything about who he was when he was there, and they had no idea about it until the book came out a couple of weeks ago!  I suppose it's a little like food critic-ing, all stealth-author-y, but still-!

At any rate, it was quite brilliant and between that and the sauerkraut that's my new go-to food, I think I'm on a good track.  Maybe not a track that can veer me away from setting a new PW at PFC in ten days, but still- a good track!

Janathon 6!

Okay, so what if I just got out of the car on the way home and ran down the street for today's run?! I mean, I ran.  I had a good session today with the stretch trainer and I didn't want to ruin it!...(Okay, I was tired and full and had a glass of wine and my head hurt all day and I really didn't want to go but) the point is I went!

I really am still surprised, this isn't how I expected the whole running-every-day thing to go, but que sera sera, I guess I've just forgotten how not to judge.  Requirements, check!

A Familiar Problem

So I have literally five minutes to get this blog entry out before the end of the day! I cut it close with the run, too; last couple of days it's been 9, 10, 1030p but tonight I didn't get out till 1140! I'm burnt out, not mentally but physically. I thought I was running very conservatively- a mile here, two there, how can that be pushing it??- but here I am, day 5 and I'm sooo sleepy and my damn muscles are sore! When will I ever learn?- it's not about judging what you think you "should" be able to do, it's just about living what you're actually doing. Today I actually ran just 1/5 of a mile, at the 11th hour HA literally! For shore I wish I was feeling stronger and running longer but you know what? That .2 mile got me out and kept me from quitting. Sometimes that's gotta be the point! I'll take it.

(And all yall who are hatin out there, yeah I type fast :p)

Janathon 4, what can I say...

...except a huge *THANK YOU* to Right Calf, who graciously decided to cooperate tonight!  After last night, my hopes weren't high.  But you came through!  Awesome!  What's the matter, Lefty- feeling left out of the limelight?? Why can't you be more like your brother, instead of tightening up and complaining like that?? Shame on you, mister!

Why my left calf is male is a mystery that will remain unsolved.


OH! YEAH I meant to mention (to the whole world, obviously) that I had my bodyfat tested today--in a DEXA machine, no less--and it was

39%.

Yashoudo appalled.   And, mind you, that's after I lost 45 lbs.  So what was I before, like half fat?  How small must my brain be then?!  Yeah.  39%.  And I've run 4 half-marathons like that!  Sheesh.  I totally can't decide whether to be excited or disgusted.  I guess I'm going to go with:  there must be like a super-athlete under here somewhere if I've been doing this well with that kind of handicap.

So, that needed sharing.  See how I try to strip away your excuses? I'm the Everyman; seriously, if That Girl can do it, you definitely can.  (Like how I turn my horrifying 64 pounds of fat into a big win?  Your big win?  I do it for you.  Here you go, take it! :p )

Mayday!! Yet, somehow, peace!

So it's a good thing I already had an appointment scheduled at Stretch To Win this week, because now I've injured myself properly for it.  I was going to just work through a minor lingering calf issue before PF Chang's, but when I stepped out tonight to run, said calf suddenly seized.  (I should have said "said soleus suddenly seized", shouldn't I? Then I would get the Alliteration Crown of Awesomeness.)  Yeah, and I was being all savvy, doing a million (ok 40) jumping jacks in the living room to warm up, to correct my error on the first!  Sure, sure, everything was fine for all that, but the minute I launched (ok stepped mildly) off the curb, BAM! No soup for me!

Well, there wouldn't have been any soup if I were less committed to (ok hell-bent on) doing this Janathon thing.  Plus, (she rationalized) I think I'd like to move to trail running at some point, and if I have some kind of disaster out there, I'd have to cope.  (Never mind that I was inches from my front door.  In my mind I was miles out in frozen tundra.)  So I stretched and tested and limped and stretched and rattled and swore and set off anyway, in a gait probably much akin to a seventy-year-old hobbit's, with a nail in his toe.  Thankfully it seemed to be a good move, because it did loosen up quite a bit and I managed about 3/4 mile before my left side started feeling achy, from bearing the brunt of all the hobbit-limping.  Reeeeaallly not wanting to invite any other injury or imbalance before PFC, so I (ok did my last quarter mile and) headed inside at that point.  I hadn't planned on going any farther today anyway, as I'm trying to alternate longer days with shorter ones so I don't burn myself out too early in the month or before the race; but even with that snafu I found myself going "awwww, I could totally keep going."  And I totally wanted to; the wind was cold, I was warm, everything was working and the music was good, my lungs weren't burning...and even though I kept a pretty Eh Not Bad pace, I wasn't at all tired at the end of a mile.



Maybe you have to understand how sick I was and for how long to feel how I feel about that.


I mean, I've run four half marathons thus far and god knows how many miles training for them, but it never gets old, that sudden recognition that, "hey, I can breathe.  -!"  And after it, I never go "well, of course you can breathe, it's been years and all and you ran 6 miles yesterday duh-mmy..."  Not even close.

I always think "Yeah.  That is Awesome...Let's do it again!...And again!...Another!...".
 
I suppose that's what yoga wants to teach you, but I never found it there.  Though, I love yoga too; I just don't Need my breath in yoga.  I want it, I like it, I look for it, but in running I Need my breath.  And, finally, it's there!  That just never gets old, I tell ya.  I guess that's gratitude for you- you can't force it.


...not like you can force an errant gastroc into submission!  Heal, I command you (ok really I cajole stretch ice knead pray and beg but damn you), heal!! ;)

Maybe I need a plan...

So today's 4mile run felt like no problem--but I realized that I only have two weeks till PF Chang's and I haven't run any farther than that since Vegas.  Mmmmm, I'm hoping to see that taking two weeks off gets me back stronger and better than ever, but if recent times are an indication, that ain't happening.

I've written a bunch of plans before (turns out I'm the Running-Plan Queen- not as much Runner Queen...), but none that involved running every day.  Let's go with: that's why Janathon's a challenge!...(right?)

So I'll probably get right on that, tomorrow.


Update:  instead of making a plan, I surfed the Half Fanatics website; it looks like I qualify for Neptune with Disney, the Women's, and Vegas already, but if I make it to Surf City or Hoover Dam I'll qualify for Uranus.  Ooooh, more things to accomplish!  More planning to run!...

My lungs! They're buuuuurrniiing!

Update: yes, I got out the door, and yes, it's bitterly cold out here. Random article advising an indoor warmup: 1, me: 0. Or- me: 30, which is probably my core temperature right about now. Fuck!

Update 11:28p: wow.  Well, now I know what I'm in for when I miss the prime middle of the day.  Hats off (or on, strapped tightly down) to you'ns in colder climes who are toughing it out in much worse weather than this creampuff Zonie.  I got my mile in [1.1 to be precise!] and called for a ride. (Much love to nT for suiting up and trucking to the store!)  Day 1- check! Resolutions and Janathon thus far preserved!

Janathon!

So.  Never have I *not* wanted to run so much.  It's 38 degrees.  My pants need a wash.  It's 10pm, and I ate too much earlier.  I have a headache!  I gained 10 pounds over Christmas.  AND, there are several unwatched episodes of House and How I Met Your Mother on the tivo.  I am not at all interested in doing this.

She said, wearing vibrams and a giant wristtop computer.
Obviously, I'm going.  It's Janathon and I'm doing it.  Is it all about bragging rights or just sheer muscular will?  Or maybe the lingering superstition of new year's, not wanting to see resolutions go south before they've barely begun.  Maybe I'm finally a runner and that explains it...

Whatever!  The sheer lack of specificity in the rules is reason enough-- I can scamper back in the door after five minutes, chittering about my accomplishment even though it barely exists.  That's the kind of bar I like: A Low One.  :)