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!

I Just Love It When a Plan Comes Together

I rocked a half marathon this past Saturday. Ok, "rock" may be too strong a word, but when you're congested and in the throes of a wicked cold, anytime you exceed expectations, you can't help but feel a little good.

Yesterday morning, I did the inaugural Ft. Leavenworth CAC Half Marathon. I wasn't sure how I'd feel during the race, so I decided to just roll with it, and run according to feeling. If I had to be a slowpoke, I was down with that. If I was up to being brisk in pace, I'd go along with that, too. I wound up doing a mix of the two, and managed to pass three folks along the route! All in all, I crossed the finish line in 2:12.

Per (my) orders, I went to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival afterward to recover from that experience. A little beer and turkey legs are fabulous antidotes to a good outdoor run. ;-)

Running Stats

It's always cool to use the reports feature on the community website that's set up for Garmin's Forerunner. So basically in the last 30 days I've done the following:

Count: 33 Activities
Distance: 100.86 mi
Time: 17:45:31 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 4,650 ft
Avg Speed: 5.7 mph
Avg HR: 148 bpm
Calories: 8,622 C

Always nice to see that this running thing of mine isn't a fluke.

Randomness

This post will have nothing to do with running or training or anything exercise-related. But I wanted to share with folks my latest, and embarrassing, fixation... A German song for kids called "Schnappi Das Kleine Krokodil."

Here's the clip, if you want to bask in some absurdity:



I first heard it from my DH a few weeks ago, and I don't even know HOW he'd stumbled upon this song in the first place. However, he and I both speak a tiny amount of German, so we've been singing and humming the tune ever since we viewed it (seven times the first day, and many more viewings after that). Even worse is that we also got into another song from the same album called Schnappi Ein lama in Yokohama. What is it with Europeans and trippy children's music????

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!

I Can't Quite Put My Finger on That Feeling...

I lived in Florida for only a year, but sometimes I feel homesick for the Sunshine State. Even on the days where dark clouds are hovering in the distance, there's a bit of sun peeking through the murk.

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!