Over the hump

So I breathed a little sigh of relief when I finished my run yesterday.


I finished up my last really long run and I was pretty sure there was a chance it would all fall apart the week after.  Two years ago, that was when it happened -- ran my 22 on Sunday, ran my 9 on Tuesday, and then two years ago, I was supposed to be running 5 in Philly, converted it to 6 (ish, probably more like 6.5) because the weather was so nice, stepped on the biggest rock that had no business in the road, and broke my ankle. 


It was kind of funny because Tuesday, I ended up running on two particularly crappy streets that I very rarely run.  Dallas has some serious funding issues right now, most of the press coverage relates to our police pension fund, but streets need repair, water mains are old, all kinds of stuff like that.  Anyway, while on the particularly crappy streets this week, I was certain that was going to be it for me.  I didn't have a light with me, and it was dark later than I realized.  I survived the 9 miles without tripping and having it all fall apart.


So then I thought it would be Wednesday.  I was just doing boot camp and for most of the running, I stayed with my friend Megan, who also wanted to take it easy that morning.  Survived again!


Yesterday was my last run of substance.  8 miles, with the last 2 slightly faster than MP.  Ran on the usual streets but that doesn't give me any immunity from falling.  I was frustrated because for some reason, my watch hadn't charged.  I got my first mile split and it died about a minute later.  My friends were calling me a data mooch since I (and they) became painfully aware of just how often I look at my watch during a run!  I kept asking where we were in the mile and how fast we were going.  I tried to minimize the number of questions, but in the last mile, I asked for the first time (thinking surely we were past .6) and we were at .45.  Asked again when I was sure we'd be right around the mile split, and we were only at .79.  Asked again thinking surely we'd hit the mile and my buddy just had neglected to tell me what the split was -- but we were only at .91.  Yow.  But it's done!


Hills this morning, but super easy pace and decent streets that I'm very familiar with.


Tomorrow is volunteering at a back to school festival with Megan (giving out backpacks and lunch!), and then a belated birthday celebration with a friend in the afternoon, probably just doing a puzzle together, or going to see a movie, then grabbing dinner. 


Sunday is my last "long" run -- 12 miles.  Then brunch with friends and nothing else all day.  I'm hopefully going to get some stuff done around the house, and ... if things go according to plan ... try to lay out most everything I need to pack for the race and trip. 


Then just a low-key mileage week.  It might actually work out, which will be two years in a row of getting to the marathon starting line injury-free!  I'm so pissed that 2015 broke my ten year streak before that...

Getting ready

Getting ready for the marathon.  As I said (but am now proving by photo), I bought my shoes for race day and enough gu to train for some time.

This season has gone quickly, but mostly because it's been quick.  I've followed a more abbreviated training plan than usual, and I'm not expecting any great results.  A PR is out of the question (going for one would just be stupid and would result in a very painful 20 miles after that first 10k).  But I'm going to be happy with a solid run where I feel relatively strong for relatively long.  I don't have a right to expect anything more with a 15 week training season (that's 15 weeks total until the race, counting taper weeks), my current weight, and my current paces.  I might even be asking too much to hope for a solid run, but it will hopefully be possible if I pace smartly and the weather is on my side. 

It's in Washington state, so hopefully we'll get at least a 20 degree temperature break from my usual running weather to race day highs.  Since I run at the coolest part of the morning (usually about 5:00 or 6:00), it's usually only in the low 80s when I run, although I got a run in the low 70s once each of the last two weeks in Philly, which was a treat.  Just to offset that, I got in one evening run last week in the low 100s, which was the opposite of a treat.  But hopefully race day high will be in the low 60s, although I haven't actually looked at the weather.  Low 60s would feel amazing. 

The best part about this race I think will be that I'm driving after the race to Bend, Oregon, to stay with my brother and his family for a little while.  I'll be there for the eclipse, which will be special.  I'm going to have to work most days (I am taking a half-day of vacation though, for the day my husband arrives), but working in Bend near one of my sweetest nephews (Willard!  Age 2.4 when I'm there) and one of my sweetest nieces (Ava!  Age 0.7 when I'm there) beats working in Dallas!  And my folks will be coming out as well, and we'll have a fun weekend together celebrating my birthday and my niece's baptism.  I think my brother's in-laws are all coming too, so I think it will be a big crowd, which will be so fun.

We come back from Oregon on August 29 very early in the morning, then I've got a few weeks with a fair amount of work travel (more Philly, more Pensacola, and a trip I'm excited about to Denver), and then we'll split for our real vacation on September 29!  Woot, woot! 

Just keep swimming!  I've only got one really, really long run to do now, then one sweet weekend taper run.  I can totally manage that! 

Blessing

Well, as of yesterday, I am a grandchild orphan.  I know pretty much every adult goes through this, including many people at a much younger age, but it makes me feel older than 41 to know I don't have anyone to call Grandpa any more.  In this case though, it really was a blessing.  He had been in the hospital for the last two months, and really didn't have any quality of life.  I'm glad he's not in pain, and I'm glad he's with my grandmother, who has been waiting over 26 years for him.  I wish it were easier for my dad. 


Incidentally, I think he died while I was running my last long run.  Possibly about 15 minutes before my watch died (which happened at mile 12.04). 


Other notable happenings on my 22 miler:


We passed a possum in the road that appeared to be roadkill.


4 miles later we passed him again going the other direction and he was sitting up.  I was certain he'd been hit again and moved into a weird position by the second car, but as we got closer, he was indeed alive.  Maybe someone ruffied him?  He seemed really out of it.


Just past mile 20, we got caught in a massive downpour.  Two weeks in a row with flash flood type rains during our long runs.  That's weird for Dallas in September.

The rain yesterday was so weird.  I could see it as I approached but I didn't really comprehend it.  It was right by a big football statue and just past the finish line of a 5k (that we had crossed going the opposite direction from the race, but we didn't see anyone else finishing, seemed to be mostly over).  I actually thought maybe there was some weird temporary fountain or a huge sprinkler set up for the race.  A couple seconds later, I got a few big drops, and then the massive rain that was so heavy, I could barely see 15 feet in front of me.  Glad it didn't happen 1-20 miles earlier though. 

But with the rain came a break in temps.  This morning it was still raining but it was only 69 degrees.  But instead of enjoying it, I slept in.  Even though I was expecting the news, it was still an emotionally draining day.  And I'm tapering now, so it was easy to take a pass when I woke up to rain. 

Morning Mezzo

When I had my best training season ever, I was running pretty high mileage for me (chump change for others).  High mileage for me is when I have multiple consecutive weeks in the 50s.  I've done plenty of marathons where I rarely get into the 50s for a week, and when I first started running, there were races that I trained for and I rarely got into the 40s for a week.  But when I'm running strong, mid-50s is where it's at for me.  I seem to find I get injured if I go over that.  And I am very good about mixing up my miles -- some quality, but also plenty of junk miles.  The best junk miles for me are commuting miles. 


If I do my full commuting week, it adds about 19 miles to my schedule.  Commuting miles are the best junk miles because I do them alone and I'm never under a serious time constraint (if I was ever running late, I'd just shower at home and drive to work).  So 19 slow, easy miles per week. 


Sometimes VERY slow and easy, especially when I can talk my accounting buddy into going halfway home with me one night per week.  That adds in a couple miles of walk-run.


At my peak, doing high mileage with a full commuting week included, the most I ever run before I get to work is about 12 miles.  That happened fairly regularly on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  I would run about 8 miles with my running buddies, go home for breakfast and sometimes a dry shirt, then run another 3.75 miles to work.  And then on Tuesdays, it would be a 15.5 mile weekday because after that morning 12, I'd work my usual day and then run the 3.75 home.  But it was broken up so it never felt too long.


Well, today for the first time ever I think, I did my highest pre-work mileage.  I ran a morning half, and then some!  (Half is "mezzo" in Italian.) 


I decided that with a marathon later this month, I couldn't afford to totally blow off my weekend long run. 


But on the other hand, I have the foresight to recognize that I consume more alcohol at Mardi Gras than pretty much the rest of the year combined, and odds are very high that a run will not happen there.  And even if by some miracle it does happen, I'm usually not inclined to go very long -- something about standing around watching parades and then wearing heels and dancing at a ball all night...


So I told myself to suck it up today.  I was only running 6 with my usual crew, but one of them ran to the grocery store where we met, so after our group 6 miles, I ran him home, then back to my car.  That got me to 8.  I was thinking I'd drive home and then run the trail by our house, but it was so cold this morning.  I figured I'd be freezing if I got in the car and stopped sweating on my drive home, even though it's not very far. 


So I ended up grabbing water at my car and heading toward the lake, then zigzagging my way back to the car, ending up just over 13.5 miles. 


On a weekday!


Boo-yah!


Of course I'm totally dragging ass now.  If I'd needed to do a running commute on top of that, I'd probably still be out there, crawling slowly toward the office...


I need to plow through major work so I can leave early tonight to start our trip.  But now, any Mardi Gras miles will be bonus miles.  Exactly my goal! 

Surprise Success

I didn't write much about it on the off-chance my husband would decide this was the week he wanted to read a bunch of stuff on the blog, but I ended up planning a surprise party for him for this past weekend.  One month and one day before his birthday.  I would have rather done it closer to the big day, but the next weekend he's off work, my folks will be visiting, and the next weekend he's off, we'll be in Nepal!  We spent some more time trip planning this past weekend, I think it's going to work out to wake up in Agra and see the Taj Mahal on his birthday, which will be awesome.

Anyway, back to the party.  I think it went off well, as of 5 minutes before "surprise" I don't think he had any idea.  Unfortunately as we were driving from the distraction (a movie) to the party (at our house), one of the party invitees who wasn't able to come called my husband on his cell. 

First thing, he said "Hey, sorry I wasn't able to make it to your house." 

Who does that??? 

My husband was sufficiently confused, and the guy apparently asked him where he was.  So my husband said "home" and I said, "well, almost home, we're still 2 miles away."  So the guy kind of flubbed it and just said oh, call me when you get home. 

We together concluded that maybe it was basically a misdial, and he thought he was talking to someone else, but suspicions were aroused.  Especially since I'd been baking two kinds of cookies the night before, and I'd been preparing appetizer dips, setting out platters, etc. all day that day.  AND I'd been insisting that he help me clean the house -- all in the name of book club that I told him I was hosting on Sunday night. 

I thought he'd see right through that cover story, I mean, I just hosted book club in February, so why would I host again in September, but apparently he doesn't really keep track.

So we got home and I was trying to keep his mind off the weird phone call and to hurry him along.  I asked him to go to the kitchen (second floor) and put a few cookies in a ziplock bag to take to dinner to give to my coworker.  As he was walking in the house and starting upstairs, he called his coworker back and he was saying, "hey man, I'm home now, what's up" -- he turned the corner and everyone yelled "Surprise!" 

He stood there in total shock for what seemed like a very long time.  It was so funny.  And then he broke out in a massive sweat.  Massive.  Looked like he'd just come back from a very fast run. 

The party itself was great.  My best friend had done an AMAZING job setting it all up, everyone was drinking, the appetizers were being eaten, and everyone seemed to be happy.  I was a bit bummed that a few people who I had expected to come weren't there (one's wife had to work, one's kid was sick, the one who called us in the car had gotten stuck at work late, of course after they'd all been included in the head count).  The caterers also did a great job.  We used Nathan Burke, the Super Fly Pizza Guy.  He brings a mobile wood-fired pizza oven and cooks and serves a variety of pizzas (he also did a couple appetizers, an awesome salad, and dessert pizzas).  It ended up being a late night and I drank way too much.  I'd also barely eaten all day -- my lunch was some broccoli and a few beets, and then popcorn at the movie.  Just too nervous and busy.  And my bestie and I had picked two awesome cocktails (which she made AND served all night), one Campari tequila tangerine drink, and one raspberry limoncello prosecco one (as with everything involving my husband, there's kind of an Italian theme).  When I talked to her yesterday, she said she thought I'd be okay until it was toward the end of the night, most guests were gone, and I grabbed a huge water glass and poured a monster drink for myself (the raspberry limoncello) one.  She said her husband told her right then that I had just made a bad decision.  He was right! 

So Saturday was a rotten day.  I probably got sick about 5 times.  Finally by dinner time, I felt mostly better, but I was worried that I had definitely set myself up for a disasterous 22 mile final long run on Sunday, but I figured it was worth it to have had such a great party.  He said it was one of the best nights of his life.  While it certainly would have been one of the best nights regardless of whether I drank or not, I enjoyed myself.  And I'm definitely a happy drunk -- hugging friends, telling them how much I love and appreciate them, and how glad I was that they're in my life. 

But Sunday held the big VENTIDUE.  I've done marathons early in the fall "marathon season" (which obviously meant a lot more before Boston started filling up) for about a decade now.  And I know for certain that for the last 7 years, I've always had a similar training plan which includes at least 1 run of 20 miles, and one of about 22 miles.  And I also have never done the 22 miler anywhere other than Dallas.  When my training schedule and race are locked in, I do what it takes to make sure I run the 22 with my friends.  A few times due to a wedding or travel plans, I've had to tinker a bit, doing the 22 either 2 or 3 weeks out from race day, but always in Dallas, and always sometime between late August and mid-October.  Usually right around this time of the year (since many of the fall races I've done are ones that are right at the start of the season, like St. George, Chicago, Twin Cities, etc.).

I don't even need to go back and look at my data.  I can say with 100% certainty I've never done a 22 miler in better weather than I did yesterday.  We had a cold front come in on Friday.  And while I didn't get to enjoy it on Saturday as I lay on the bathroom floor most of the day, it was blessedly still here on Sunday.  I looked at the weather before I headed out -- 64 degrees!!!!  78% humidity, which kind of blew, but 64 is 64!  Wow!  What a difference 10-20 degrees makes. 

My stomach was shaky the entire time.  When I stopped for water and when I ate my gu, I was pretty certain that if I bent over and gave a little cough, I could have easily upchucked again, but you know, I just didn't do that!  Staying upright, I managed to hold it all in.  I won't say my pace was pretty, but it was pretty close to the pace for last week's 20.  If it had been warmer or sunny, I don't think I would have managed, but it was misty and cool, and I did it.  Busted out the 22.  And if you'd wanted me to go 4 more miles, I definitely could have.  A huge confidence booster for sure. 

I skipped Chinese class in favor of doing some final post-party clean-up (my dear husband had done almost all of it while I lay on the couch moaning on Saturday, but I still had to return pitchers and tables to my friend's house, put away the platters, etc.) and cooking a delicous and nutritious dinner and getting ready for the week.  I'd figured it was going to be a stretch to sit through hours of Chinese class after having run 22, but I probably could have managed.  I intended to go to yoga, but somehow that just didn't happen.  Oh well, I should be able to fit it in more this week as my official taper will start after Thursday's run. 

Piling on the Miles

This is it.  Hitting peak training mileage, and starting to feel it.  I'm just telling myself to hold on for about 13 more days. 

Two weeks ago, I had mileage in the mid-60s, exceptionally high for me, but since it was Labor Day weekend, it wasn't "really" mid-60s mileage.  It was mid- to upper-40s week, my usual, but with a long run day switch, I added 17 miles.  So that meant the following week should have been about 17 below usual -- so maybe upper 20s?  30? -- since there was no long run. 

But I didn't work on Labor Day, which meant I had time to do things like boot camp, a 10 mile run, bleachers, and yoga (it was truly a day of laboring without pay!).  And then I threw in a race this past week on Saturday, my normal rest day -- and surprise, it put me at another week in the mid-40s. 

That gets me over 200 miles in the last 4 weeks.  Unremarkable for some, a lot for others, but a bit frightening for me. 

This blog has shown me time and again that when I do three consecutive weeks in the mid-50s, I start hurting.  As in, thinking I'm injured hurting.  I've been insanely fortunate in that it always turns out to be nothing -- a few days off, and I'm back to normal. 

But SOMEthing starts hurting.  And yep, that happened. 

I made the mistake of doing yesterday's 20 (woo-hoo, last 20!) in brand new shoes -- and I mean new.  In addition to being fresh out of the box, they are a new model of my usual favorite (trying out the Brooks Glycerine 12, after more than a year of wearing the 11s, and more than 5 years of wearing mostly Glycerine most of the time). 

And so, which is causing the pain?  The new shoes or the high (to me) mileage?

If I want to self-diagnose, I think it's an inflamed tendon on the top of my foot, right where it meets the ankle.  There are two apparent tendons there, for me, the inner and larger one is where it hurts (there are actually a bunch of tendons there, but only two readily apparent on my foot to the untrained eye).  Google makes me think it's the extensor hallucis longus or the tibialis anterior tendon.  My money is on the latter since there's no pain on the actual top of my foot, it's just at the front of my ankle. 

The good news is, it feels fine right now.

The bad news is, it hurts when it is in contact with running shoes.  (So the heels I'm wearing now are fine, pain only when I actually rub it.)

I'm going to try to ice it tonight, but we have big dinner plans with a high school friend of mine who is coming into town.  So the icing may not happen in reality. 

So maybe I'll skip the planned 8 miles for tomorrow? 

Hoping this will be totally true to form for me -- a pain that scares me about a month out, totally forgotten less than a week later -- to the point I'm not even entirely sure which foot/leg it was. 

Too Little, Too Late

Another strong long run yesterday, which is good and bad.  Good because, finally!  Bad because it seems a bit late to be hitting paces I was starting my training at last year. 

Oh well, it's 18 miles in the books and I'll take it.  In order to get my final goal marathon time, I'd have to go 62 seconds faster per mile (and add another 8.2 miles). 

Just not feasible, though I could see maybe doing one or the other if it were 30 degrees cooler. 

Rest of the weekend was a blur of errands and stuff, not very exciting, but I've got a very big week at work coming up, so glad to have had some time to get organized. 

We picked out a hotel in Nepal, which is nice.  I usually go back and forth on whether I want to have stuff booked in advance, but as we land at 10 p.m. or something and it's the first destination on our trip, we figured it would be good to have that lined up. 

Weather Stats and Chafing Solution

I don't really have any business posting about my rainy 20 miler AGAIN, but as Mike always says, sometimes the comments are the best part.  One of the comments I got yesterday made me think that I do have one other thing worth sharing about my run.  And one thing I saw on the news made it doubly worthy of another post. 

Fun stats on the news last night about the rain that we had on Sunday. 

At the outset, I will admit for the record that it didn't start raining until probably 6:30 a.m., I was done running by 9:00, and it poured for about an hour after I finished, and then went down to a drizzle for much of the rest of the morning and early afternoon.  So I can't claim all 2.8 inches, but it felt like it. 

Per the news last night: 

We got 2.83 inches of rain, making it the wettest DAY in 2.5 years, the wettest August day in 20 years, and the second wettest August 17 on record. 

(Photo, you know, since I'm sure your initial reaction was that it was totally unbelievable. ;))



I hate to call it worst case scenario for 20 miles because Amy's right, it's worse if you have it for 26.2, and I suppose there are several other scenarios that I don't want to imagine that would also be worse (especially since Meredith's comment about my first 20 miler indicated that doing such a run in the rain would be awful, and that fear came true).  But suffice it to say, not ideal.

Anyway, Amy's comment hit on other horror that accompanies such a wet and long run:  the chafing.

Well, blisters and chafing happen on a wet long run, but this post is only about chafing. 

I figured I should share my totally awesome solution for chafing. 

Yeah, I try to put Body Glide everywhere I expect it.  And yeah, now I'm also using paper medical tape around the edge of my sports bra and/or heart rate monitor.  Those help. 

But that's never enough.

During Sunday's 20 miler, I could feel my left collarbone chafing.  I always know it's bad when I can feel it while running.  Usually the place where I feel it during the run ends up being the worst, but there are about 8 other places that show up when the shower water hits them. 

So I realize my solution works best if you live alone (or if whoever lives with you isn't home when you shower) (and preferably not in an apartment with nearby neighbors), and I realize it's totally ridiculous, but I swear, it has been working for me this year.

By the time I'm ready to get in the shower, I can usually tell where the problem spots will be.

Sunday, I had the spot on my left collarbone that I expected, but I also had round spots under each arm, on each inner thigh, a vertical stripe on my chest, and most unexpectedly, a large upside down T on my left hip.  Yes, a long vertical stripe coming up from my waist.  I truly have no idea how that happened.  My shirt was loose fitting, but I guess somehow that seam got me.  I can only assume the shorter portion of the T came from my shorts waistband.

Anyway, the solution.  When I get in the shower, BEFORE the water hits what will be a problem area, I start shouting/screaming as loud as possible.  A huge, loud, AHHHHHHHHH!  It can't be at all half-hearted.  Like you're being murdered.  And somehow, then when the water hits it, there's a second of pain, but I kind of laugh. 

I don't know why it works.  I guess because normally, all I can do is scream with the pain, and if I'm already screaming, there's nothing more I can do? 

Honestly, it's working.  I won't question it further.  And I'll hope that I will have a soundproof hotel room for my post-marathon shower. 

 

 

Twenty, take two

So when I posted about how warm it was for last weekend's 20 miler even at the coolest part of the day, Meredith commented that she always seemed to have to do a 20 miler in the rain, and that Mother Nature could be quite cruel. 

I didn't even know what to say to that.  All I could think is how much doing a 20 miler in the rain would suck and how it would probably be worse than doing a 20 miler with a starting temp over 80.

You know where this is going, right?



Drink if you guessed worst of both worlds!

So yeah, my second 20 of the season yesterday.  It was low 80s and 79% humidity at 5:30 in the morning. 

A solid six miles.  I won't say a dry six miles, because I was sweating like crazy, but it wasn't coming from the sky.

Around mile 6.5, it started raining lightly. 

By mile 8, it was raining pretty steadily.

I got to mile 10, as far as I could possibly be from my car, and that was when the downpour, complete with thunder and lightning, began. 

Fun.

At one point, probably around mile 13, I was running with one of my buddies (the rest of our group had spread out way more than usual).  He's an oncologist.  There was lightning right above us and an instant huge clap of thunder.  We both screamed.  It was kind of funny afterward, he said he probably sounded just like his daughter.  It was really scary though. 

And just in the name of public service, after what felt like a near miss, I asked him what he would have done if I'd been hit.  Would he start CPR immediately, or run to the nearby house and have them call 911?

His answer:  CPR for sure.  Obviously, if you don't know CPR, the answer might be to call 911, but he said that a lightning strike doesn't always stop someone's heart, but if it does, the first few minutes of CPR are critical and can restart a heart.  He said he'd just start CPR and since other runners would likely be along within a few minutes, he'd leave it to them to find a house where the people were home and call 911. 

I thought that was interesting.  Even though I know CPR (to be a running coach, we're required to be certified annually), I honestly might have tried to get 911 first.  But now I know! 

By mile 15 or so, it was getting miserable.  Every time there was a cross street along our route, it was like running across two rivers on each side of the cross street.  I tried to jump over a few, but some were just so wide that I basically gave up.  And some of them were deep!  Like I tried to step in the shallower part along the edges, but even so, each foot ended up completely submerged at least twice, and there were about 100 steps total where the water came over the sole of my shoe and flooded in.

Yuck. 

Definitely a run I'll remember for years and years to come.  I'm sure among my running buddies, it will become the stuff of legends, a story we're still remembering 5 years from now.

But the upside is that the rain brought the temps down a bit, or actually just kept them from going up.  It was in the low 80s when we finished, not a ray of sun in sight. 

And as a result, my overall pace was 30 seconds per mile faster than last week's 20!  Still slower than I'd like, but I'll take it. 

Like I said before, each marathon season, I usually have about 3 20 milers.  Survive the first, improve on the second, own the third.  So far, I've survived and I've improved, so hopefully I can own the next one. 

Driving home after the run:

 

Huge puddle outside, basically we crossed something like that almost every block.  Sigh:

Twenty

An obligatory post to say that I survived my first 20 mile training run in temps of over 80 degrees.  I would not say I thrived, I would not say it was fast, I would not say it was pleasant, but it is done.  I'm glad I started at 5:30 or the temps would have been unbearable.  I ran a route with a lot of shade, but by the last hour, it just felt hot and any stretch in the sun seemed interminable.

For many years of marathon training, my "rule" for runs at about 17 miles or more is to get through it the first time, to improve it the second time, and to own it the third time. 

Since it was my first 20 of the season (actually, I think my first 20 since the marathon in Houston in January?), I should be happy just to have it done. 

But yow, my pace was depressing.  I think a lot of it can be blamed on the weather.  We've had a fairly mild summer this year, and frequently the temp when I've started running has been in the 70s.  So having it be over 80 was kind of a shock to my system. 

Instead of remembering the pace, I'm going to try to see it as just a check mark on the training log.

First 20 miler:  check.

I'm heading to New Mexico in a couple hours, and looking at the overnight forecast, I see 69 degrees from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m.  I've decided to ignore the lightning bolt and isolated storms that are also in those hours, and instead, I'm going to look forward to a lovely cool run.  Too bad I couldn't do my 20 there! 

FMM: Getting To Know Each Other

The highlight of my weekend was my looooong run yesterday!  22 miles!  It wasn't pretty, but it was probably one of the best 22 milers I've ever run in training, and as of mile 16, I was feeling pretty strong.  Unfortunately, I ended up doing the last 2 miles solo, and they were fairly slow, I was tuckering out.  But it's done! 

Now I just have to get through this week, and then I'll officially be in taper mode.  Only 15 miles this weekend (with more than half at race pace, which will be tough...), and then only 12!  And then the big 26.2.

I actually spent the weekend doing lots of Europe shopping.  I got new shoes that I hope will be comfortable for lots of walking (I expect we'll walk a lot in Munich and Venice and Amsterdam; I expect we won't walk much in Berlin or Lamezia).  I also got a warm black coat with a hood that is long enough to cover my behind -- I'm really hoping it will be cold enough to wear it!  Then if say we are up at Eagle's Nest, I can sit down on a cold stone wall and be perfectly comfortable.  I also got a couple pairs of knee-highs.  I think I'm going to wear compression sleeves for a lot of the time in Munich, but those might be nice both to stay warm and for a bit of compression. 

The rest of the weekend was uneventful.  I spent tons of time working on photo books for hubby's birthday and one for my mom for Christmas.  Oh, and some cooking (finally), and cleaning (not so fun).  But all in all, I feel so good and excited for the next few weeks!

So let's just get on with it Monday!



If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Getting To Know Each Other

1. What is your favorite flower? I like Gerbera daisies and hydrangeas, but really, pretty much any flowers are nice! 

2. What is a date on the calendar that you’re looking forward to?  September 25 we fly to Europe!  Marathon is on the 29th. 

3. List at least five characteristics of your ideal mate.  I actually made this list in written form about three years before I started dating my husband, when I felt like I was spending too much time with the wrong kind of guy.  Things on the list were silly "bonus points" (like "dances at weddings" (which hubby does and I LOVE!)), to serious things (like considerate (another point hubby gets)).  Other things on the list -- affectionate, wants to see the world with me, happily will eat vegetarian meals sometimes (had a friend who became a vegetarian whose husband insisted she cook him meat, yeah, they're divorced), financially stable, not a golfer (this was important to me, since it would have meant we didn't get to spend time together on the weekends), gets along with my brothers and folks, taller than me. 

4. What is your favorite travel destination?  My top 10 places that I've been so far is posted here.  These have been my top 5 that I've been to so far: 
1. Southern Italy
2. Chiang Mai, Thailand
3. St. Petersburg
4. the Masai Mara area in Kenya
5. Bali

5. What is your idea of the perfect date?  Perfect date would probably be something like going to the lake and renting a sailboat or a kayak or canoe or paddleboat for a couple hours, then having a picnic.  Especially if it weren't 100* out. 

6. What is your relationship with your family like?  I wish I lived closer to them sometimes (but at the same time, I like our life here the way it is and they visit pretty often, which seems to be a good balance).  They are all very happy and healthy, and I love spending time with them. 

7. What time did you wake up this morning?  5:11 (alarm was supposed to go off at 5 but I forgot I'd turned it off last week Thursday night since I got an extra 10 minutes of sleep on Friday morning).  So hubby called at 5:11 to see why I hadn't come downstairs yet, I told him to grab my mat and save me a spot at boot camp.  I got there at 5:35 (counting getting up and dressed, driving, parking, and getting my weights in place), so not too bad! 

8. What characteristic do you like most about yourself? Which do you dislike most?  I'm reliable.  I'm argumentative. 

9. What is your favorite sport to watch?  Marathons.

10. Share a few interesting things that you did over the weekend.  I ran 22 miles, I organized pictures from last fall's trip to China into a photo book, I cooked "curried lentils with spinach" and I slept about 10 hours on Friday night! 

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions! Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments. Take a minute to say hello to someone new this week too! Happy Monday!

FMM: School Days (and an injury update that's good!)

Buckle in, I’m in a hotel room with no reason to rush out the door, so extensive weekend notes prior to FMM…

While it seems like I could choose a lot of words to describe my weekend: family, fun, vine, restaurant-week, puzzling, lake, the best word is actually relief.  I did my long run yesterday, 20 miles, and it was all without leg pain.  It sucked to take the majority of a week off this close to my race, but it seems to have done the trick – knock on wood.  I can’t even tell you how happy it makes me.  And I had a totally awesome weekend, so the fact that my long run almost overshadows it is very telling as to how much it was weighing on me. 

My brother got into town on Friday (for work this week) and the three of us went out for lunch.  I finished up work, and we hung out for a while, then we went to pick up one of our neighbors (a guy who just moved here and I found out when I met him, works for the same company as my bro).  The four of us went out for drinks at one of my favorite restaurants, right by our house (Abacus), then we came home and dropped the neighbor off and went out for a late dinner (at Bijoux).  It was restaurant week in Dallas, so we’d made reservations at places that offer special limited restaurant week menus, 3 courses (app, dinner, dessert) for only $45 per person, part of which goes to a good cause.  So delicious meal Friday night, complete with dessert. 

Saturday we slept in a bit, had breakfast, ran a couple errands and decided to go to the lake and rent stand-up paddleboards.  Sadly, they were all booked for more than an hour, so we made afternoon reservations since it was a mild (for Dallas in August) day.  We ran another errand and then headed out for a restaurant week lunch (at Nosh).  We got home, worked on the puzzle a bit, and then went back to the lake.  My husband did not like the stand-up paddle boards.  He stood up and paddled for a while, but ended up being happier basically laying on his back on the board and napping as he floated around the lake.  My brother and I paddled about halfway down the lake to the bathhouse, and then paddled back.  All told, we spent about 90 minutes paddling. 

Lots of people had told me it was a good core workout, but my brother and I agreed that either we were doing it wrong, or it was out of shape people saying that.  My feet were a little sore (a lot of pressure standing on the board, balancing, not lifting your feet at all).  But no core soreness or even arms. 

After our SUP experience, we basically got home and it was time to shower and head back out for another restaurant week dinner (at Hibiscus).  It was also very good, and even though our reservations were fairly early, I was completely beat when we got home and went to bed early to be as ready as possible for Sunday’s long run. 

Yesterday was my first 20 mile run on the schedule.  And since I’m doing a fairly abbreviated schedule, it was an important run.  My schedule only has two runs of 20 miles each, and one longer one (about 22-23 miles).  Last week I ran with my friends at the track on Thursday and my leg was fine.  We had 800 meter repeats at half marathon pace (so slower than yasso pace).  I did them all and felt good, but just to be safe, I got a ride back to the starting point instead of running any cool-down miles, and then I decided to push my luck and do a very slow and easy run to work (another 3.75 miles).  Before I was even halfway to work, my leg hurt.  Same place (upper calf on my left leg), and it was bad.  It hurt even to walk.  I was starting to panic, thinking I’d really done it.  Pushed too hard and done real damage or something. 

Well, somehow on Thursday, I managed to scratch my eye with my contacts very severely.  It turned all red and puffy, and by Friday, I was at the eye doctor, a total mess.  Friday morning, I went to boot camp but didn’t run at all.  But it was almost like my eye hurt so much that I didn’t even notice the pain in my leg.  Long story short (heck, long story long at this point), I am supposed to wear my glasses until tomorrow, and then if I’m back in Dallas, I have another appointment and he will try some new contacts for me.  Of course this particularly sucks because we’re supposed to leave town on Wed. morning to go to my high school reunion.  In glasses?  Ugh.  I’m not a particularly vain person I don’t think, but I really hope I can wear contacts for the big event.  Though I really need to get a dress or something too!  I haven’t put much thought into it (aside from trying to make long run plans and being excited about seeing about 15 people who I really miss). 

Anyway, back to yesterday.  My brother said he’d go with me for the run, and in my mind, that seemed like a good plan.  While I figured there was no way he could run 20 miles (no offense to him, he runs, and he’s in great shape, but lately he’s been training for a 100 mile bike race and only running about 25 miles per week), I also thought it was very unlikely that I’d make it 20 miles.  So we met up with my running buddies Sunday morning and we set out for 20 miles, not knowing how it would unfold.  We held back a bit on the pace, and my brother said he was thinking of turning around at about mile 6.  Well, mile 6 came and went and he was still there.  As we ran, he said he was now thinking 7.  Then 7.5.  At that point, I was pushing him to go 8 miles before turning around, since there was a water stop at 8 and I thought that even though it was cool, he wasn’t used to the weather and could easily get dehydrated.  Well, at mile 8, my buddies egged him on.  A bunch of the guys talked trash and told him it was only 2 more miles, then we’d u-turn.  And my brother caved and stayed with us.  WTH?  Did he give in to peer pressure like that in high school?  I’d expect more.  Haha.  He probably gave in because he really thought 20 would be do-able with virtually no running base, particularly since he was going at my slower pace. 

Well, by mile 12, he was not loving life.  He said his legs were heavy and I could tell he was slowing down.  He had directions and he told me to go on without him, that he’d run a bit further, then he’d take the sag wagon.  It blew my mind, but he made it to mile 16!  And equally mind-blowing for me was that at mile 16 I was still pain free.  He and one of my friends grabbed the sag wagon, and I continued on.  By mile 18, I figured that if I could go another half mile, then I’d just tough it out and finish the 20 (but if it hurt by 18.25, I’d turn around to the water stop and take the sag wagon).  But 18.5 came and went, and then 19, no pain.  Around 19.3, I felt a slight twinge in my calf, but it was gone so quickly I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it.  Bottom line is that I got all 20 with no calf-related pain!  Sweet!! 

I stretched for a while, went out for tacos with my bro, went to buy 40 pounds of ice, took an ice bath at home, packed up, and then he and I went out for lunch (hubby was at work).  We did a restaurant week lunch (at Central 214) and I was definitely hitting my max on eating out.  The food was good, but dessert was almost too much (don’t worry, I ate the entire piece of cheesecake, but I kept thinking I’d stop).  Got home from lunch and transferred laundry to the dryer and hung up our running clothes, then I was out the door for the airport, saying goodbye to my bro.

The airport was the biggest disaster ever.  I got parked about an hour before my flight, cutting it too close, but at DFW, that should have been fine.  15 minutes for security (had boarding pass on my phone), then 15 minutes to get to the gate and buy a bottle of water before boarding.  But as soon as I walked in the terminal, my plans were foiled – there was a massive line for security, 45 minutes they said, so I hauled butt down to the next security line, about 15 gates away (a long haul).  A much shorter line there, but I was nervous about not making my flight.  Finally got to the front of that line and they couldn’t take mobile boarding passes there.  I almost died.  I ran (literally) back to the other part of the terminal to print a boarding pass, but it was too late to print one.  The flight was LEAVING in about 20 minutes.  The attendant where I was trying to print a boarding pass said the nearby security line could take mobile passes, so I went to the line and proceeded to BEG people to let me cut in front of them.  Thankfully, there were about a million kind souls in line.  I don’t know what I would have done otherwise.  I bypassed probably 50 people, rushed through security, ran to my gate, and boarded as the last person less than 90 seconds before they closed the doors.  Yikes.  I am so angry at myself for letting that happen.  I should have known that Sunday afternoons can have huge lines, I just should have planned so much better.  I definitely need to pay a big one forward – I feel like I owe about 500 favors to random strangers. 

So this morning I’m sitting in Philly, here for work again.  Hopefully going home tonight, but it will depend what unfolds today.  Hoping to settle a very stupid case.  The problem is that since it’s so stupid, I don’t want to pay much to settle it, and since I don’t want to pay much, of course there’s a chance I won’t be able to settle it.  We shall see…

I have about another hour to kill before I have to leave for the conference, so plenty of time for FMM today!

It's a perfect topic for me since my high school reunion is next week! 

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

School Days

1. What was your favorite subject in school? I would say Social Studies or History.  Or French.  In high school, it was definitely debate. 

2. Did you attend elementary school and high school in the same town? No.  Elementary school through fourth grade in Milwaukee, then another state for 5th and part of 6th, then the KC area for the end of 6th through the end of high school.

3. Are you still friends with anyone that you met during school?  With a few people from 7th grade onward.  One of my best friends was a year ahead of me, and we stay in touch and she came to our wedding, as well as a guy who was my year and another best friend.  There are a couple other people that I am occasionally in touch with, and back when I was on facebook of course, it was easy to keep up with about 100 of them that I'm connected to. 

4. What activities were you involved in as a student? My main activity was debate (I was really destined to be a lawyer).  As far as sports, my main activity was tennis.  I also liked French Club.

5. Did you bring your lunch, or did you get it at school? I think I usually bought it at school but I don't have strong memories.  In elementary school, there weren't choices (it was a single meal for everyone), so then I looked at the menu and told my mom what days I wanted to bring my own lunch.  But by high school, there were options and there was something I wanted. 

6. Did you enjoy shopping for clothing and school supplies?  Not really.  I didn't end up with tons of new clothes (large family, lots of hand-me-downs in the early years), and lots of begging for the school supplies I wanted (trapper keeper, etc.). 

7. Name a song or a band that reminds you of high school.  Here comes the hotstepper.  There was a dance group or spirit squad or whatever and I remember wanting to be on it initially.  They were called the starsteppers I think, but then I heard people calling them the star-heffers and I was appalled (I hadn't made it through the try-outs).  On some petty level, I think that nickname for the group made me feel better about not having made it. 

8. Did you like school?  Yes, for the most part.  I had good friends, but of course I didn't really like homework or waking up.  But I liked the learning part and was lucky to do well without a lot of effort. 

9. How long have you been out of school?  20 year high school reunion is this coming weekend!

10. What did you like most about school? What did you dislike most about school?  This relates more to grad school, but I liked being in school (and not working!), and of course I loved having a network of friends.  I guess I most disliked homework. 

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions. Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments! Happy Monday.

Injured?

This has been a wonderful, completely awesome weekend except I'm a little worried I'm hurt.

I posted last week about having one of the best days ever.  It's like it's just kept going (with one exception, detailed below).  Work is awesome.  I mentioned winning the running class prize at dinner on Wed.  About two days after that, I came home to a really large check waiting for me -- the results of a re-balance of my escrow account on our house (we don't escrow ourselves, it's in with the mortgage), so technically I'm just getting my own money back, but score!  Since we owed an insane amount (let's just say just shy of 5 figures) on our taxes, it's basically going to that, but still a nice little treat.

Yesterday was the big St. Pat's run.  I pushed my sweet godson in a stroller.  Here he is after the race.

Unfortunately, I may have scarred him for life.  This was the scene in front of us for way too many minutes.  And don't forget at what level my godson is seeing this race. 

As you can see, this was an uphill stretch so I had to stay behind him until the top when I finally hit the gas just so this sweet kid didn't have to look at that guy's butt anymore.

The race was tough.  It was hard to run with a stroller.  I started a little further back than I should have.  I wanted to run and push, but I started behind a lot of people who were walking.  So there was tons of time spent trying to weave around others, both walkers and slower runners. 
We ended up with an okay finish time, considering the people dodging, the stroller, and the easy pace I tried to maintain. 

The rest of the day was fab.  Went with the kids and their mom to meet a whole bunch of friends to watch the parade.  Got too much sun unfortunately.  Then went to a friend's house party for the rest of the afternoon.  Sat around snacking and eating and chatting.  Not drinking.  I drank a bit at the tailgate party, a couple beers and a single jello shot.  But I was nervous about today.

Came home and cooked our usual Sat night meal for a long run.

This morning was 22 miles -- set up with 12 easy, 8 marathon pace, 2 easy.  I felt really good for the 12, and then the first 6 at race pace, but then I started fading a bit.  Unfortunately, my garmin died after mile 19!  It gave me a low battery message, then crapped out to blank screen (despite having 100% charge at the start of the run).  And then it randomly came back on with 1.3 miles to go!  VERY FRUSTRATING. 

I think for the race I might wear my old trusty sports watch in addition to my garmin.  My old watch has never failed me, the garmin seems too picky. 

Anyway, after the 6 solid race pace miles, I felt like I started slowing down a bit.  My heart rate was good, but I was struggling.  It was in the low 60s and 80-90% humidity, so that was tough.  But I still held a pretty strong pace through mile 20, when we went back to easy pace. 

The guy who'd been right in front of me was stopped at the 20 mile water stop when I got there, and he was going to wait for a woman who was right behind me, but I wanted the run over, so I headed out solo.

And somewhere around maybe mile 21, I started getting some sharp pains in my upper left calf.  If I'd had anything more than about 2 miles to go, I think I would have stopped.  But I figured I'd tough it out. 

Unfortunately, it actually hurts right now.  I did my ice bath when I got home and went out for Mexican food with hubby and ran a few errands.  Now I've iced again and I am about to put on my compression leg sleeves.  And I've had a ben gay patch on since after my shower.  Fortunately the tortilla smell was stronger than the ben gay smell! 

I'm afraid.  Actually very afraid.  It's my first real possible injury this season.  And it hurts when I walk, which is a very bad sign.  And it's definitely just the one leg.  When both legs I hurt, I figure it's just soreness.  This is possibly injury. 

I'm taking tomorrow off.  This is our last really big week, so I'm hoping it was just the stress of the long run, and I'll be fine on Tues morning. 

Fingers crossed!  About to start doing some major cooking for dinner tonight and lunches this week!

Ventidue!

22 miles on the schedule fo rthis morning, successfully completed! 

Not painless, nor easy, but done.

It was warm and humid.  Probably mid-60s at the start, upper 60s at the finish.  And very sticky.  A little bit of mist/drizzle right before we started, but then that just hung in the air. 

My pace was okay, though my final 2 miles were fairly slow (basically the same pace as mile 1, which is usually my slowest).  But by the time I was at about mile 18, I was very ready to be finished. 

Unfortunately there seemed to be a lot of vehicle traffic over the last few miles, so I also had to run on the slope of the road, which sucked.  And I also ended up running a whole lot of it alone today.  Blah. 

My legs are very achy right now, more than 6 hours after I finished.  The most pain seems to be on the back side of my lower left calf and my right foot -- both the problem toe, the swollen bump/cyst thing, and something new that seems undefined but painful.  And this is all after an ice bath even!

And I ended up with chafing near both my shoulders from the straps of my sports bra.  This doesn't usually happen and it's the same bra, so I don't know what the story was today. 

But after the run and my ice bath, hubby and I went out for Mexican food and I loaded up.  I ate about 3 bowls of chips all by myself, a lot of salsa and about half our order of guac, and I cleaned my plate -- mango salad and I ordered my usual avocado-artichoke enchilada, but I asked that they DOUBLE it so I actually got (and ate) two enchiladas.  Yum! 

Then I went shoe shopping for new shoes for tomorrow (very excited!!).  Got two pairs of black shoes, one casual for travelling and one for work.  But I do not recommend going shoe shopping for work shoes after you've run 22 miles and you have a very tender problem toe.

Got home and threw in some laundry, then went for a 4 mile walk with my local bestie.  Sounds healthy but it wasn't -- our destination was this place that's build-your-own ice cream sandwiches.  You pick the cookie and ice cream flavors.  I felt indecisive so I had two diff cookies (vanilla sugar and white chocolate cranberry) and two diff ice creams (cake batter and blackberry cobbler).  YUM!!!! 

I think with all that food, I put a dent in my 2400 calorie deficit from this morning's run!  Anyway, since I'm unemployed, I'm going to fold some laundry and make a lovely dinner for my sweet hubby.  I'm going with a recent recipe fave -- an orzo/eggplant dish.  And I'm going to make my lunch for tomorrow.  And then hopefully very early to bed (no nap today, which is usually a must for me after anything over about 20 miles), and I've been asking hubby to give me a legitimate serious leg massage for about 15 minutes before bed.  They are tight and they hurt some.  I think tomorrow might be even worse. 

I might skip camp in the morning in favor of sleeping in and getting ready for my big day!  Hope they know I'm not handicapped, even if I'm walking funny...  Feel very nervous but mostly excited! 

LSD

We had 14 easy miles on the schedule this morning.  Hilly route, but it all went pretty well.  My heart rate was a lot lower than I would have guessed -- I think my body is pretty shot from yesterday, but my heart doesn't know it.  That's good I guess!

No big plans for today.  I have a long to do list, but all non-taxing, relaxing stuff like organizing my personal email, captioning and sharing photos, etc.  We got some major stuff done around the house yesterday, and that makes me feel good too.  Big item on my list today is to do some major stretching.  A month or so ago, a woman in our training group sent us info on a stretch called heavy legs on the wall.  I did it yesterday and will make time for it again today.  Basically you lay on your back on the floor with your butt up against the wall and your legs up against the wall.  You just lay there in that position for about 20 minutes.  Yesterday I took a little break around 15 minutes but went back into it for another 5.  I had my husband feel the back of my legs while I was in it -- my hammies felt rock solid.  I was joking that he wouldn't be able to tell if he was feeling my leg or the wall.  Crazy how tight they are, but I'm telling myself it's not just tight, it's strong.  Anyway, an enjoyable stretch to have on the itinerary today. 

So not much to report really.  Close to 70 miles over the course of 8 days and my legs are holding up well.  Not high mileage for some, but definitely for me.  In years past, I've been around low to mid-40s most weeks of marathon training.  It will be very interesting to see if all these miles add up to an impressive finish in Boston. 

First 20 -- check!!

Pretty solid 20 miles this morning!  I'm thrilled.  The only bad part of the run was that I had to make a pit stop at mile 18.  My stomach was so upset and it came on very suddenly.  If I had to guess about causation, I'd say it was because I started eating some Cliff blox toward the end of the run and I also had Gatorade at some of the late water stops.  I know full well not to mix gu or shots with anything other than water, but wasn't too focused on it this morning.

The good news though, is that my pace and heart rate were awesome.  I am so happy with both! 

And I'm fairly pain free.  I'm about to do an ice bath, ugh, and I'll try to ice my ankles this afternoon at some point.  I might take the scheduled rest day tomorrow instead of cross-training.  I'm exhausted right now. 

But I'm so happy!

I don't know why the first 20 miler of any marathon season makes me so nervous, but it always does.  And I always feel so good to have it under my belt.  I don't know how many more 20 or 20+ milers we have.  Probably at least 3 more I'd guess. 

Alright, enough writing.  Plan for the day:  ice bath, hot shower, start laundry, go meet hubby for lunch for Mexican food (chips will equalize my sodium levels), then probably to the office to do a response to a motion to quash, then I'm going to cook an awesome dinner, then go to a heart rate monitor lecture, then come back home and eat the delicious and nutritious dinner I made.  Can't remember where I got the recipe, it was a blog, but it's some kind of squash lentil soup. 

Score! 18 down.

Very happy to have had a good run this morning.  I was thinking it was going to be insanely tough.

8 miles easy, 6 miles marathon pace and/or HR zone 3, and then 4 miles easy. 

The marathon pace part was hard.  Very, very hard.  But I did it.  And felt pretty good, and my heart rate wasn't maxing out zone 3 at any point.  And going 8 more miles wouldn't have necessarily been fun or fast, but it would have been possible I think. 

This was very different for me.  First, in no prior marathon training season have I run 18 miles more than 2 months before race day.  Second, in no prior marathon training season have I run race pace for this many miles on a long run this early.  I hope this yields great results! 

But now I'm fading.  I've been home for less than an hour I think.  I drank my recovery drink before I got home, and then had an English muffin with pepper jack cheese to tide me over while I made breakfast.  And I think my eyes were bigger than my stomach.  I made an insanely huge portion of oatmeal -- probably 3 or 4 servings -- mixed with pumpkin pie filling, raisins, cinnamon and brown sugar.  I used whole milk to make it (very rare for me, I usually use light soy or skim) (and actually, I most often eat oatmeal before a long run, so then I make it with water since dairy is not a good idea for me (or most other runners actually) before a long run). 

I'm starting to feel a little bleh from eating so much and I still have about 5 big bites left in the bowl.

One weird thing about me is that I'm very strange about wasting food.  Like I HATE doing it.  More than almost anyone I know.  We had clean plate rules growing up, but generally my parents were pretty reasonable.  I didn't get strange about it until my first trip to Africa in 2000.  When I got back from that trip, not only did I insist on either cleaning my plate or boxing up the remaining food (regardless of how little it was sometimes), but I was actually very disturbed to see anyone else wasting food too -- I never went so far as to get a stranger's food boxed up, but at that time, I either insisted my friends take their remaining food home with them or I'd take it myself.  Waste makes me sad when some people have so little.  Thankfully I'm not quite so neurotic anymore.  But if I really am too full to finish this big @ss bowl of oatmeal, I'll stick it in the fridge and eat it later.

Anyway, so happy not to have a big agenda today.  I'm thinking Law & Order marathon, naps, and then some cooking before the game tonight!  Neither of us care about football at all, but I like funny commercials!

Tracking

I was in a hurry to finish my 14 miler this morning because I had a big date with the laptop.  I was in a rush to track friends running the Houston marathon. 

The friend I was most interested in following was making his second serious sub-3 attempt.  Crazy fast!!  Though of course I know, all running speeds are relative.  Anyway, this guy tried in Chicago this year, with crappy weather, and slowed the second half, missing his goal by just a little.

Well, this morning we had unseasonably warm temps for our 14 miles here.  I was excited for the break that we've had for about a week now.  Today I actually just wore shorts and short sleeves.  Awesome fun for me running 14.  Not so awesome for people running 26.2 and even further south!

I was happy to see his finish -- 3:00:11.  I worry he'll be disappointed, but it was a PR for him and less than 15 seconds slower than he wanted...  Crazy impressive in the first place, but even more so given the warm temps, the humidity, and oh, the icing on the cake, rain.  Ugh!  I'm so proud of him for working so hard and digging so deep. 

So we got to step back this week, which was nice.  14 miles.  Smooth sailing all the way, though my "problem toe" is going back to its normal bad self.  This toe has bothered me for something like 7 years.  No idea why.  Middle toe on my right foot.  Seems to blister easily at the very top.  And after my 5k PR in the fall, the toenail turned black.  That shocked me, because I was running long runs at the time and had no problems with losing any toenails.  But running a 5k at a hard effort did it in.  Anyway, the blackish toenail has been hanging on.  It's just been discolored and mildly tender to the touch for about 4 months now. 

Well, after today's run was the first time it actually really hurt.  Oh well, just more of an inconvenience than anything.  I'll take a funky toe over any real pain any day!

Oh, meant to vent about one other irritating thing.

I mentioned before that I got plane tickets for Christmas from my husband.  He'd booked through Amerian Express travel.  This is for our spring trip -- Dallas to Pittsburgh to Boston to Dallas.  And we're still planning to purchase Boston to Italy and back to Pittsburgh, then Dallas.  Well, our Pittsburgh to Boston flight has been shifting in time since it was purchased.  5 mins later, 5 mins earlier, etc.

Well, yesterday AmEx travel called my husband to say the first leg of the Pittsburgh to Boston trip was being delayed so we'd miss our connection to Boston.  So they wanted to put us on a later flight, but that won't work since we're going to Boston the day before the marathon and I want plenty of time for expo and carbs and sleep.  AmEx was going to look at other choices for us and get back in touch with us.

So I've mentioned before too that my husband works on Sundays and has to get up very early (4:15).  It works well for me, since I get up at 5ish for my Sunday long runs.  It's actually easier for me to get up when I know he's up too. 

Last night one of my best running friends had a party for her husband's 40th.  We went out for dinner, which is rare for us on a Sat night -- I like eating the same stuff before a long run, and we both like to go to bed early.  But we went to the dinner and had an awesome time.  Hubby left early to get to bed, I stayed to enjoy dessert and socialize more, knowing I could nap today if necessary.  I got home around 10:30 and went straight to bed.

Hubby's cell phone rang at almost midnight, waking us both from a dead sleep, and at least putting my heart in my throat.  No good comes from a phone call in the middle of the night anymore (when I was younger there used to be amusing drunk dials, but now that I'm older, it only means bad news).

Surprise!  It was Am Ex travel with some other flight options.  I was incredulous!  I kept telling him to call them back tomorrow.  He was almost incoherent because he was so disoriented and sleepy.  He was trying to get off the phone.  He asked her if she knew what time it was.  He asked her where she was, and she said India.  He said, well, I'm in the middle of the US and it's midnight here and so I'm going to have to call you back.

WTF???  I mean, if our flight were in less than 24 hours, I would not only understand a midnight phone call, I'd appreciate it.  But our flight is more than 2 months away!!!  WTF??????? 

So I see a nap in my future, now that I'm almost done tracking my final friend in Houston. 

And so it begins!

First long run to prepare for Boston this morning.  16 miles.  I haven't run that far since the White Rock Marathon at the beginning of December.  Crazy!

It wasn't technically the first long run, we've already had a week of 12, then a week of 14 (which I skipped b/c the group run was cancelled for ice/snow and I was sick), then another week of 12, so it was a big jump up for me to go to 16.  Technically, too big a jump.  Long runs should increase by 10% per week, but I think that applies more to beginners and higher mileage.  Otherwise, even going 12 to 14 would be too far, since 10% would be 1.2 miles.  I think lots of programs step up about 2 miles per week, which is reasonable. 

It's very different to run based on heart rate, when I've been pace-based for so many years.  It was definitely slower than I expected trying to keep my heart rate in zone 1.  But it was fun, it was a good group once we got settled in. 

I tried to paste the elevation chart, which might explain a second reason for a slower pace (because of climbing heart rate) on the second half, but it didn't work.  About 200 feet down over 8 miles, then back up the 200 feet.  Technically the garmin says it was 276 feet, but the chart looks really cool because it's like a huge slope down, then a huge slope up.  Until you look at the numbers and see it's only about 200 feet of difference total.  Big hills for those of us in flat Dallas! 

But the best part about today's run:  when we were about 3 minutes away from being down, I honestly felt like I could run another 10 miles.  Woot!

I know this feeling will fade.  As it gets closer to the race, there will be days that we run 20 miles and I feel like there is no way I could go another 6.  But today was all easy, the weather was good, I ate well last night, and I felt great.  10 more miles might have eventually gotten ugly, but it seemed like I had at least a few more steady miles in the tank, and that's nice.  I love it!! 

This has been a fun weekend.  A night on the town was in order on Fri night.  This running/drinking club I'm in had an outing, so I went along since hubby was still out of town and I didn't have other plans.  We went to this place called Pete's Dueling Piano Bar.  They have them in other cities now (Vegas I think), but I think it's originally an Austin bar.  I went for the first time a few years ago in Austin for a friend's bachelorette, and based on Fri night, I don't go to the Dallas location nearly enough!

It's a bar with 2 pianos and they get everyone to sing and play games.  I didn't drink very much.  Maybe one mixed drink (well, it was a double, but it was only one glass!), a couple shots, and a beer.  But that was all over the course of about 5 hours.  But by about 9:00, I was on my feet the entire time, belting out the tunes (and I do NOT sing well), and dancing.  It was such a fun night, though my husband did not appreciate the several semi-drunk dials. 

I really liked all the people who were there.  One couple I know fairly well but don't get to socialize with enough, and a few people I see every so often at races or at this group's events (and am regularly in touch with on fb), and several new people, but I mostly talked to those I already knew.  A vast majority of the group is unmarried, which I guess makes sense since I'm sure it could be quite a good hook-up pool if you were looking, and since they're all runners, everyone seems super-cool and nice. 

Saturday morning I slept in and decided to take an off day.  Volunteered at the running store to help with people picking up packets for the race today, then went to the airport to get my husband! 

We ran a few errands (including getting measured for the suit he has to buy for my baby bro's wedding that we're in this summer!), and went out for frozen yogurt with one of his former coworkers and his family. 

Then we had our neighbors over for dinner Sat night while I did my carb-loading for this morning's 16 miles.  There is one very exciting development on that front (related to our neighbors and our vacation) that I'll have to write about later this week when things get a little more certain.  And I'll post later this week about some more wedding stuff. 

One funny thing.  While we were out with hubby's former co-worker, we were saying we had to get going so we'd be home in time to make dinner.  Hubby mentioned our last meal debacle cooking for them -- he stalled in going to the grocery store, so by the time he got home, I had to throw squash straight into the oven and it was slightly undercooked when dinner was served.  Dude, I was irritated with my husband!  But he and I took the most undercooked ones and gave our neighbors the ones that seemed a bit better, and the rest of the meal was really good, so it was fine.  Hubby's friend and his wife laughed about that.  And then I mentioned the time we cooked for just her, pasta with red sauce.  But instead of using crushed tomatoes, I used tomato puree, oh it was bad.  Hubby's friend's wife was like, you made pasta for someone from Italy??!!  Haha!  Yes, the meal was no doubt doomed!

But they come over a lot for simple pasta dinners on Sat nights before my long runs.  Fun to have the company, though we need to be better about speaking Italian during the meal. 

Fort Worth Marathon Race Review

Well, not so much a marathon review as a review of the 20 mile course.  But I think most of it is applicable to the full as well.  I ran the 20 miler as a training run for White Rock and I had a fair-to-poor run. 

First, Elizabeth went to pick up our packets Friday at lunch time.  So sweet of her, so extra sad that it was such a waste of her time.  They didn't have any shirts and said we could just come back later to get them, or we could get them at the race when we picked up our chips.  She was like, say what??!!  What's the point of having advance packet pick-up if you can't get shirts or chips?  Just so we have a couple extra days to read over the flyers about other races or get a jump on using a few random coupons?  Packet pick-up sucked.  For a race of this size (small), if you aren't going to give out everything we need, just don't offer anything prior to race morning. 

So we decided we'd have to leave extra early race morning, since now we'd have to park, get shirts and chips, put the shirts back in the car and get back to the starting line.  We had very poor directions to the start and kind of got lost in downtown Fort Worth, but that was definitely our fault and not the race's.  We found cops on bikes to give us directions, so we made it there without too much trouble. 

One of the best parts of the race is the size -- it's small, which means lots of primo parking available.  We had to walk about 200 meters to the start.  Maybe not even that far. 

And it has a staggered start, so the full starts at 7:30, the 20 miler at 8:00, and the half at 8:30.  That means for the marathon, if say you run a 4 hour marathon (9:09 pace), you're finishing right next to people who are running a 3:30 20 miler (10:30 pace), and a 3 hour half (13:43 pace).  That can be very tough mentally, at least for me.  It's one of my least favorite things about the original Rock and Roll San Antonio course, though in 09 it was better since there was a divider between the slower half marathoners and those doing the full.  In 08, it seemed like everyone around you was walking and made it very hard to finish strong. 

Anyway, a good and bad part to the race -- the shirts.  Only one size available when we got there -- unisex XS.  Lovely.  But it's actually bigger than I expected since it's unisex.  So assuming they can figure out how to get the right size shirts for everyone, the shirts are great.  One of the best I've gotten in a while.  Short sleeve, light blue, technical. 

So, on to the race report.  It's an out and back along the Trinity River Levee until about mile 9.  Very flat overall.  A couple hills in the first (and last mile), each less than 30 seconds of running up.  And then one steeper one near mile 9 (and 11) (and a steep down too), but also less than a minute up.  Almost the entire route is on a concrete sidewalk, but maybe 1-2 miles total are on a gravel path.  Not much shade and it got warm today. 

The absolute worst part of the race, and why I'd not recommend it to anyone next year (it may be fixed next year, but I don't want anyone I know to suffer if it isn't!), is the water stops.  The first two were fine.  Gatorade and water.  Then for all the rest of the stops until the u-turn, just water and NO CUPS!  Many of the volunteers apologized, but there were just big gallons of water and you had to stop and drink out of a used one if you wanted any water.  For a race that cost $85 (and keep in mind, I paid $85 for the 20 miler, full marathoners paid more and were on the course ahead of us, so they had the same problem for at least as long as we did), I expect water stops that have both water and Gatorade (or something similar, at at least every other stop) and I want the water to be in cups (or tell me to carry my own). 

After the u-turn, cups had been distributed to the water stops, but still many of the stops had only water.  And I was still grossed out to know that I was drinking water from cups that had been poured from gallons that runners (often snotty runners, it was cold at the start) had chugged from just a little while earlier. 

Elizabeth wasn't feeling great and we slowed considerably on the second half, walking at some points, but it was fine with me.  I wasn't doing this race for time, I was doing it to see if I could go the full 20 miles.  Another notable thing about the race was that there were little yellow signs to delineate each mile.  However, the mark for the half u-turn was just some spray painting on the course.  The 20 mile u-turn was a very small sign right next to mile marker 10.  We'd been warned to look for it by several runners coming back at us, but could have been very tricky. 

We finally got to mile marker 18 and ran the last 2 miles.  It was fun to pick off slower runners ahead of us, many who were just out for a leisurely half. 

The finish line was decent.  Another pet-peeve:  there were massages available at the finish, but it was a single line.  I absolutely think full marathoners should have had at least half the benches just for them.  It's fine to put 20 and 13.1 in the same line, but it seems unfair to the marathoners.  But as I've said before, I tend to prefer races that have a full marathon only.  When you mix a full with a shorter distance, it can be disheartening.  People going out fast all around you, while you have to pace for 26.2.  Then you get to the finish line and the half runners have eaten all the food.

That wasn't an issue at this one, at least not for me, but it's a frequent issue at other races (and possibly was for the back of the pack at this one).  We didn't need massages, but we got some recovery drink, Muscle Milk (don't love it, but it's okay) and sat around with a friend from speed class that we'd found who also ran the 20 miles.  We figured out there was a line for food and beer, I got a small bowl of pasta with red sauce with a piece of bread, and half a beer (had to drive 40ish miles home and was a little worried about being too dehydrated from the water fock-up). 

The medal was interesting.  I hate the ribbon (full of sponsor logo), and the medal is the same for all 3 races -- marathon, 20 mile and half.  It's interesting because it's actually a belt buckle.  How cute and typcially Texan!  And even better planning -- the ribbon (ugly as it was) has a little spot of velcro, so you can take the medal/belt buckle off it without cutting it. 

So, for the Fort Worth Marathon 20 mile course on 11/14/10, I would say: 

• pre-race logistics were okay (just shouldn't offer advance packet pick-up);
• shirts were okay (great shirt, need adequate numbers of all sizes);
• parking was great (ample and free and very close);
• course was good;
• elevation profile was completely awesome;
• course support was poor, poor, poor (inexcusable in my mind);
• crowd support was minimal (very enthusiastic, but very rare);
• finish line was pretty good (separate massage line for marathoners would be good, but otherwise pretty nice);
• medals were okay (ribbon was poor but inventive, medal was decent but gets major points for being so unique).

I would say this could be a great race for someone who wanted to qualify or PR.  The lack of any real elevation changes and the lack of congestion at the water stops could really work in your favor.  But you would have to be prepared to bring your own electrolytes largely, and at least for 2011, bring your own cup -- and brace yourself to pour someone's potential backwash into that cup...