The Ides of March

Alright, so it's not yet March 15 here in my corner of the Midwest, but I'm not blogging tomorrow (and since when do I blog on a regular basis anyway?). So I figured it would be appropriate to post it here.

(And by reading up on the Ides of March, I found out that the Rome Hash House Harriers celebrate it with a run. See, there IS a connection between Julius Caesar's assassination and running somewhere...)

Switching gears, my running has been coming along OK. Well, OK is too understated. I think it's been pretty darned GREAT. I like taking it easy on most days, and saving the hard work and exertion for tempo workouts. It's been working beautifully so far. I was doing Jack Daniels' Red Intermediate Plan for the past 2 months, but switched to half marathon training mode this week. I needed a specific program that will move me closer to my goal time (2 hours). And I got one via Runners World, hehehehe. We'll see how I do on it.

Oh, and last Saturday, I ran part of my goal half marathon's course. Did an easy 5 miler, and I started slow, and ended with a fast finish. Felt FANTASTIC. As much as road running and racing are fun, I think the trails that I've done recently have really flipped a switch in me. As in, I'm feeling more fluid and at ease when I'm running.

On the other hand, that could all very well be due to the fact that I've dropped 5 lbs. Losing flubber helps. :P

Back from the Dead

Ok, not quite, but I haven't posted anything in here since October, and now we are waiting for Christmas, not to mention the close of 2010. Yikes!

Since October, I have done the following:

-Ran the Waddell & Reed Half Marathon in Kansas City with a 2:10:38 time
-Did the Palm Beach Marathon on Dec. 5th, and PR'd. Chip time was 4:42:07

Lots of things have been going on with me, so it's been pretty tumultuous for the last two months. I don't want to elaborate on it now, but when I'm ready, maybe I'll talk about it here. But I've always had the hardest time expressing personal life-related matters, and I feel protective of my loved ones.... The latter part especially explains my reluctance in "sharing" my current stressors - I just feel a bit weird and hesitant in disclosing things that are mostly affecting my family.

I also have a few running-related goals I want to (and WILL) achieve next year... Will discuss them at length in my next post!

The Return of the Delinquent Blogger

I just wanted to post what's been going on with me lately. Nothing earth shattering (of course) but things are swimming along.

I've joined the local triathlon club in my town, even though it's confirmed my belief that I am definitely NOT attempting one, or will even start training for one, any time soon! It's simply too much activity for me, and the exercise I already do on a regular basis use up my energy reserves. And I'd like to conserve them for other things, like spending time with hubby or playing with the cat, seriously. However, the club has good discounts, Accelerade and sporting goods included. And the lure of Thai food and beer (they hold their monthly meetings at either a Thai restaurant or a brewery) is too much for me to resist. ;)

My first 10K in a while happened two weeks ago. I performed better than I'd expected, around 59 minutes. Considering the course is hilly and I'm a horrible runner on any kind of incline, I think this was solid. But I still want to reduce my 10K time - I've yet to match the PR of 54:49 I'd set months ago, grrrr....

I've also signed up for a 1-mile race, something I also haven't done recently. I'm doing this, the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile in NYC. That'll probably be the only running I do while I'm in New York, LOL. But I can go super-fast and not worry about the after-effects!

Getting Back on Track

This training cycle for my December marathon affair has already encountered a mini-bump of sorts. After my speed workout on Wednesday afternoon, I started feeling tired and achy all over, as if I was on the verge of a flu. Even my husband noticed that my body temperature seemed to be pretty hot. It remained so until Friday, when I decided to investigate why only the left side of my throat felt sore. I took a look, and I discovered something new: tonsil stones. So if you're a little squeamish, I advise you to skip this paragraph. Basically, it's a small lump that collects in the back of your throat, and it can sometimes cause irritation, including swelling. With me, apparently, it was also inducing flu-like symptoms because once I took two of these stones out, I almost immediately began feeling better.

My planned long run on Saturday got curtailed to 3000m on the rowing machine, and 2 miles on the treadmill. Not bad, actually, considering I'd also spent the first half of the day outside at an event, in really hot temps, walking around with bags. For some reason, those kinds of activities (low-key but lengthy in time) just leave me feeling really beat up. Maybe the free spareribs that I ate yesterday morning while at the fair made things seem easier than they were, who knows.

Alrighty, with that, I hope to kick things off tomorrow with a 6-mile loop around Ft. Leavenworth. It'll be the same hilly route that I'll have to take for the Great Escape 10K later this month - hope I make it in under an hour!

Going to Kansas City, Kansas City Here We Come...

Actually, DH and I already made it to Kansas as of the second week of July, and we're not really in Kansas City. But I still wanted to use that song lyric regardless, LOL.

Running is *starting* to slowly pick up again, as is my weightlifting. I went to the gym last night and did a bunch of semi-heavy deadlifts (for me, that's around 120-145 lbs.), and my back is feeling them today. Oy.

I'm also checking out the races that are coming up in the area, and there are 2 half marathons scheduled in my vicinity in the fall... I think these would be great opportunities for me to PR for my half time. The first HM I did last year resulted in a 2:09 time. I believe that a 2-flat is within reach. But I gotta focus, focus, focus and train hard. Eeesh, the "focus" part is pretty challenging for me. I have to get back to feeling comfortable with, ahem, discomfort. And you runners know how "discomfort," whether in training or in a race, feels. It sucks while you're out there, and if you don't work through it, you feel like kicking yourself afterward for not sucking it up. Or at least that's how I feel after the fact.

Hope I can actually start posting mileages again here soon. I won't even make it to the 10 mile mark for this week. *sigh*

Just Random Stuff

I'm doing a 5K this Saturday, and hope to smoke my previous 5K PR of 26:52. I think I can, I think I can... This post will serve as a good reminder for me to write something on that, too.

Also, signed up for the Palm Beach Marathon, so I gotta get my training shiz together and all. Full throttle, baby, I'm going full throttle for this!!!

In Search of Inspiration

I haven't updated here since my tapering began, mostly because PT is taking up some of my time, and partly because I don't feel inspired to write much at the moment. I was even talking with a friend tonight about writing projects, and I mentioned that I haven't been doing anything on that front, either. I just haven't been compelled into tackle anything of even a modest magnitude, so even writing a brief post is enough to put me into a tailspin. *whee*

Got flight tix to NJ, and will be heading up this weekend. DH and I will head immediately to packet pickup after we land. I'm really, really hoping the marathon goes well. I woke up this morning with the realization that it's happening, and a fleeting sense of panic. Good times.

I Should Get Better at Updating my Blog....

But alas, that won't be happening anytime soon, LOL. Anywho, here's a roundup of what has happened in my sphere for the last couple of weeks:

1. I moved. Again. This time, back to Texas. And even then, I'll only be there until the summer. This moving thing, while irritating at times, can have its perks, though. For example, I don't have face the folks I may have pissed off in the course of my stay at a particular location.

2. I decided to sign up for a marathon... And even more importantly, I finally made up my mind and decided on which one it'll be as my inaugural! It's the NJ Marathon in Long Branch. Gah, I hope the course is fast and flat!

3. Did I mention that it sucked moving? While I don't totally miss Florida (I'll get some hate for saying this, but the central and southern parts of it are pretty soulless - lots of stuff to keep you amused, but no culture), what made it nice was the people there, esp. my family and the very few friends I made there. Because I'm special that way. :P Also, the safety net of my running coach has been eliminated. That is a bit scary, considering I made incredibly awesome progress through her guidance and advice.

I think that's it, for now. I now have to finish the rest of the unpacking, stock up on protein powder, and get back into a dieting mindset. My weight really didn't go up by much since last year, but it did creep up by 6 pounds between November and now. I'd like to get rid of that, and possibly more. However, my initial plan of choice, the TNT Diet, doesn't seem to be completely compatible with my marathon training/ambitions. It's very low-carb, and while I love the food selections on it (Brats and sauerkraut! Taco salad! Salad with a ton of steak and cheese dumped on top!), I probably won't be able to run OK on this plan, especially when my mileage starts increasing again. *sigh* I need to look up nutrition plans for endurance weenies like me.

Being the Procrastinator that I am...

...leads to a lot of dead air in between blog posts, LOL. (My friend Leann, by the way, was the one who nudged me into writing this entry, ahem).

Things have been fairly busy, especially because of Christmas, work and all of the usual suspects. I'm not busier than the average person, just do a pretty lame job at balancing work/life/personal interests. That said, however, I accomplished the goals that I'd set for 2009 (one of them running a half marathon - done as of December 6), so overall, I'm satisfied.

I'll write about the HM in the next entry. And despite my grinchiness during the holiday season, I realize I have plenty to be grateful for. And even though it isn't apparent to those who know me in real life, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Oh Crap!

So... I've been really awful in keeping my blog up to date. What can I say, I'm very good on loafing around that time-suck known as Facebook, and my various forums, but lax when it comes to my own log.

I haven't gone crazy with entering races, but I did a local one by me in July (the Dreher Park Dash 5K), and made it to Disney's Race for the Taste 10K last Sunday. I'm especially proud of my results on the last one - even laid up with a chest cold, I ran it in under an hour (chip time: 57:38; clock time: 59:35). It was teh awsum. Allow me to add that a Disney race experience is fabulous. They are so well-organized - we started at 7 AM right on the dot, as promised - but still incredibly fun. Fireworks kicked off the race, and even though the course snaked through Epcot and Hollywood Studios (probably the least magical areas of Disney - as fun as they are, they not the Magic Kingdom), it was still sprightly enough so that 6.2 miles seemed like a piece of cake.

Wish I could wax more about it, but on to more races. Next stop: the Wellington Horse Country 10 Miler on Oct. 26.