Distance Dreamer Wednesday

Race Recaps:

Darlene - Naples Half Marathon.
Caroline - Carlsbad Half Marathon.



Other Updates:

Tanya is training for her second half marathon and Elizabeth continues her training for her first half marathon. Kim is also in training for a half marathon. Genevieve ran a 10K. Sarah received the OK to ease back into running after an injury. Bobbie is three weeks into her marathon training (don't worry we all have bad weeks!).

Marathon Training Officially Underway

Sixteen weeks out from Pittsburgh so marathon training is underway and I can start crossing off workouts from the plan. I love having something big to work for again.

After a really terrible week last week, this weekend proved to be exactly what I needed. I started a new position at my job at the beginning of the year. While I'd basically been transitioning into it for some time, it wasn't official until January 1. With it, comes new responsibilities and challenges and it ended up being a little overwhelming last week. Being a creature of habit, all the changes felt like a lot. On top of that, I'm still having issues trying to run on the treadmill even though I really want it to work for my weekday runs. With everything going on, I didn't quite feel like myself and was in the state where I felt like I was walking around in a fog. I've also got a typical case of the winter blues.

Saturday morning, while I didn't want to get out of bed, I forced myself up and out the door for a four mile run. It wasn't fun because I just wasn't in the mood. Of course, it was also 7 degrees out, but I don't think the cold temperature actually had much to do with it. All I felt like doing was laying around on the couch. I was scheduled to take some dogs from the animal shelter to PetSmart for the whole afternoon and so didn't want to go. But, luckily, all changed as soon as I got there. I picked up one of the dogs and drove over to the store. We had a beagle (of course I had a fondness for her) and a beautiful husky. Both dogs were awesome and did great at the store! I anticipate both will be adopted soon. After taking the dogs back, I headed back to the store to take care of the cats. The people at the store were like, "You're back again?". Yep, back again. I was so glad I got out of my funk! I finally felt like I was back to myself.

Sunday morning, I was up, ready to go for a 12 mile long run. It was even a balmy 20 degrees when I returned - not sure what it was when I left. The run was awesome, just the way I like them. I got lost in my thoughts and as is very typical for me, I hit my total happy place eight miles into the run. Everything seemed to go smoothly, the right songs were playing in my ears and there were no incidents to report.

Distance Dreamers Wednesday

Darlene completed her first half marathon this weekend and it sounds like it was wonderful. Can't wait until she posts more details.

Caroline ran her longest run yet - 10 miles and has her first half marathon this weekend. Good luck!

Jessica ran her first 20 miler this weekend. Congrats! Kate ran her last 20 miler before her marathon and is enjoying (maybe!) the taper. Genevieve is also building up her long runs for her March marathon.

Amy is building up her endurance for her first half marathon and ran a new personal distance record of 7 miles.

Janene completed a chilly 5K! Finally, Amanda has signed up for her first race ever - a 5K this weekend - good luck!

Beginnings

Lately, I've been reading a few new blogs and have been excited by the new batch of Distance Dreamers. But, as I've been reading posts, I've noticed a bit of a trend. Then, after yesterday's post, I was noticing the same thing. The great thing about running and what has made me fall in love with it is the competitiveness I have against myself. The ability to continue to push myself to improve and take on new challenges. Overcoming that mental hurdle when things get tough. Always keep that in mind - competitiveness against yourself.

Reading lots of running blogs can be a double-edged sword. On one side, there's nothing better to motivate you. Seeing the accomplishments of others is inspirational. Finding out about new events, watching others ups and downs and seeing how others train is better knowledge than any reading any training book. It is real life. Being able to make real life connections or online only has been great. You find people you connect with, you start to know people through comments/e-mail or in some cases real life. It's a wonderful support system. However, it can be easy to fall into that trap of comparing yourself too much to others. To think you aren't stacking up enough, that your accomplishments are falling short in some way. To be honest, this is partly why I deleted my DailyMile account. I wasn't enjoying keeping track of miles in that way.

I used to be a blog lurker. I read for inspiration and motivation but certainly never thought anyone would want to read about what someone as boring as me was doing on a day to day basis. I felt the blogs I read were truly interesting people with many different things going on in their lives. This blog is for 100% me but having it started to open those doors of making connections with others.

In regards to running, I remember every milestone along the way. I remember the first time running 5 miles, 8 miles, 13.1 miles, 26.2 miles. Every milestone along the way felt huge. Being able to run a 10:00 minute mile used to feel very hard. Today it feels really easy. It just happened along the way. Now, it's miles in the 8:00 minute range that feel like a challenge to me. Yet, at the same time, I can go through the blogs I read and find many who running an 8:00 minute mile would be a snail's pace for them. They would laugh (not literally) at a pace like that being difficult. For others, running that pace is completely unfathomable. It's all relative and constantly changing. The great thing about running is being able to push your own limits, not what limits anyone else tries to set for you. It's a sport in which anyone can participate. Regardless of the event, your best competitor will always be there if you choose to show up.

I certainly used to feel like I didn't belong. It was very hard to go to the first 5k. My stomach has been in knots for every 'first' along the way. I'm sure most people have had those thoughts of, what if I am last? What if I can't complete it? What will others say? What will others think? Well, the more involved one gets, the more you realize none of that matters, others will support you. Maybe there will be some bad apples along the way, but they'll be the minority, and if there are any, it's easy to ignore.

I met with the local running group yesterday for a trail run (Hi Chuck!). I am not a trail runner, but want to start. This was my first time on trails, except for a rail trail/gravel/canal towpath. It was my first time trudging up and down hills on snow covered trails. But, I went out and had a great time. It felt good, but it also felt hard. We were on the last loop I was going to do and I had to push myself. I felt like I was unearthing many unused muscles. I can go out and run 7+ miles on the road, and not be the least bit sore or tired. After yesterday's 7, I felt it that evening. But, I went out, ran what I could and am ready to tackle the next adventure. I'm never going to be the best, I won't be the worst, but I can always work on improving myself.

Snowflake Chase 5 Mile

The Snowflake Chase 5 mile race was held on Saturday. I'd been signed up for it for awhile but it was going to be weather dependent if I would actually show up. It's back in my hometown which is a 2+ hour drive away and also in a winter wonderland mountain setting. Somehow the weather worked out and I was able to make the trip. I ran this last year. It was the first time I'd ever run 5 miles outside. Afterwards, I was on cloud nine - it felt like a great accomplishment. It was the first race where I actually pushed myself. It's fairly hilly and last year, it was hard towards the end. I had no intentions of trying to get a PR (my 5 mile PR is on a flat, easy course) but I did want to see how much I improved in a year.

I hadn't run since Tuesday. My hip had been bothering me and still felt a bit off on Friday when I took the dogs for a walk. By Saturday morning, it felt normal again which was such a relief! So happy to not be cranky anymore. I made the drive, arrived super early and waited around to the start.

This is a small event so we all gathered at the bottom of a hill and soon we were off. Uphill for the first half mile or so. I was feeling pretty good but wanted to try and pace myself because I couldn't really remember how bad hills were. Luckily, it's an out and back, so I could try to be a bit conservative on the way out and then try to remember what I'd just run for the way back. That didn't really work out though.


Photo credits to the race photographer - gotta love little events where you can easily save your own photos from their site.

The hill that about killed me last year still was hard this year - it starts a little before mile 4 and definitely felt easy on the way out on the downhill, very hard on the way back. Several guys in front of me were walking it but I passed them and kept running - although it felt like I was crawling. It wasn't long until we were in the last downhill to the finish line. My clock time was 43:00 exactly and the Garmin shows me at 5.05 miles in 42:57. Not a PR, but I was happy with it. Last year's time was 49:40. The funniest thing was last year I actually was 2nd in my age group. This year, next to last in my age group. Guess it really depends who decides to show up!

I used to never wear my Garmin to races. I always felt funny about looking like I was too 'into' it since I'm not that good. Since I've become more and more attached to the Old Garmin, it's been creeping into races and I've gotten over feeling awkward about it. The stats:

Mile 1: 8:38

Mile 2: 8:05

Mile 3: 8:22

Mile 4: 9:03 (hill!)

Mile 5: 8:14

.05 - :36 (forgot to stop it right at the finish).

After the race, I gorged myself on some free deep dish pizza certainly negating any calories burned during the race - but it tasted good. Yum!

Tag: Stylish Blogger Award

I was recently tagged by both Kate and Danielle for the Stylish Blogger Award. Thanks! Which means, you all get to learn 7 more random things about me. Here goes:

1. I like to avoid confrontation - this often means even if I have a strongly differing opinion, I won't say anything. There are a few exceptions.

2. I've mentioned them often, but my dogs are my children. I spend more time with them than anyone else, including my husband (not necessarily by choice).

3. Those two facts lead me to this. One of the few things I feel strongly about is adopting animals from animal shelters and rescues. I've mentioned this several times before, I know. One of the main points I try to get across to anyone is that animal shelters are not sad places. They are sad if no one goes to them and no one adopts. They might look sad, but it's not. Spend 15 minutes walking a dog and that's the best 15 minutes for that dog. The only time I ever felt sad was the first time I volunteered at a PetSmart adoption event. Stand at the entrance of a PetSmart for 4 hours holding a dog from a shelter. Watch the number of purebred dogs and puppies that walk through the door. There are plenty of purebreds in shelters and rescues, I know, but I doubt most of those dogs came from them. As hard as it is for me to believe, lots of people still think to get a dog, you go "buy a puppy" and don't realize there are shelters, often nearby, with extremely high euthanasia rates.

4. I'm not a germ-o-phob, at all, but I hate staying at hotels and turn into one when travelling. For this reason, I prefer day trips that don't require overnight stays.

5. I don't like nice upscale restaurants. I'll take a little casual cafe anyday. I'm always extremely awkward at a nice restaurant. I'll drop silverware, spill drinks, not want anything on the menu (I don't like actual large meals, I'm more of a snacker/grazer or sandwich kind of person). This might make more more equivalent to a 5-year old.

6. This one is kind of gross, fair warning. One time, I had to go to a doctor at an urgent care place because I was in a new town and didn't have a primary care physician. The guy made some weird comment about ear wax and I've been very paranoid about it every sense. I won't go beyond that.

7. I turn 30 this year and never thought I'd think it was a big deal. But for some reason, I've been thinking about it for the last year and feeling like I should be doing more with my life, etc. The typical stuff people think about...I didn't think it would happen to me.

This award has made its rounds pretty well, so I'm not going to tag anyone else. Thanks!

Making Friends With My New Enemy

I was so excited when I ordered a new treadmill in November. With my motivation dwindling in the cold, dark winter mornings, I was sure this was my new answer for those weekday runs. It had been almost a year since I'd been on a treadmill. I used to crank out a few miles on the treadmill all the time. I remember making that transition from treadmill to outside. Wow, outside was so hard compared to the treadmill.

Yes, I was actually excited at the idea of a treadmill. The idea that I could get back to watching TV on a few mid-week runs, I could sing along to my music, make funny arm motions to dance along to the music and not have anyone (other than my dogs) looking at me like I was a crazy person. I didn't have to worry if we just got a ton of snow and the roads were covered in ice. My husband would be happy because I wouldn't be running outside at 5 AM in the dark anymore. I'd get in some easy runs during the week to keep myself sane and I'd still have my weekends to run outside - sounded like the perfect balance.

The first run on the treadmill felt hard. Why was a run on a treadmill at a 10:00 minute pace and 1% incline feeling difficult? That feels really easy to me outside these days. I totally expected the treadmill to feel easier than outside - it used to. Also, I'm pretty sure that little flashing track thing is broken. There's no way that thing moves that slow, maybe the clock is broken too. I didn't know seconds and minutes moved by so slowly.

After those first couple of treadmill runs, I figured I just needed to get used to it again. Maybe my form was different. Maybe that's why it felt difficult. Maybe it was the shoes I was wearing. I kept switching the different ones I have in my rotation. Maybe I was starting too fast. Maybe I start slower outside than I realized and need a longer warm up. Tried that. Why does stuff just seem to hurt when I'm on the treadmill? I never have pain outside.

Maybe it was just because it felt so boring. OK, new plan. I'll use the treadmill for speed workouts and just tough out those couple of other easy runs that feel boring. Perhaps that will help - I don't really care that much about speed, but hey, if it makes these treadmill runs more exciting and I get a little faster in the process, that can't be a bad thing. I printed out a handy little treadmill pace converter because doing the math in my head wasn't really working out very well. I had a new plan and once/week I'd try some speed workouts.

It made the runs more exciting. I actually felt good during the run, it was no longer boring and I felt like I was actually accomplishing something. I went about it the correct way - 1 mile warm up, some intervals with recovery and then a cool down. Looking back, I may have been doing the half mile intervals a little too fast.

But, the treadmill and I still aren't friends. I've only run once this week. Something I'm doing when running on the treadmill is causing my hip to hurt. I stopped doing the speed stuff, that had to be it, but it still hurts after I finish the run. When I run outside, I have no pain and no pain in the days following. It is only the treadmill. Hoping to not make this an actual issue, I decided to take it easy this week and hope it goes away. I really want to make this relationship work - hopefully a short break will make us grow fonder.

Until then, I'll just keep being a royal bitch because I'm stressed out at work, I can't run, and I'll whine about it all on a public blog.

**I've been tagged by two people - that post coming soon...I have a couple others half written too. I just felt like complaining today.

Distance Dreamers Wednesday

2011 is off to a great start. A few items of note:

Tanya already completed her first marathon on the first of the year. Her recap can be found of the Hangover Half. Congratulations!

Caroline has her first half marathon coming up in a few weeks. She recently completed her longest run yet!

Kate, whose first marathon had to be put on hold last year, is getting very close to the Surf City Marathon in early February. Jessica is also training for a February marathon.

Genevieve and Fran are our two international members this time around. Genevieve is training for the LA Marathon and Fran is training for her first half marathon. As more people get deeper into the training, more updates will be posted. For now, check out all the people who are training for their first half or full at the Distance Dreamer page here!

What to do with the fat girl jeans...

I'm still going strong on my urge to make 2011 a big year - in terms of running/fitness as well as simplifying and de-cluttering. One thing that I've always been good about is getting rid of old clothes. Years ago I heard it mentioned somewhere that if you haven't worn it in the last year - get rid of it. So, at least once a year, I go through my closet and drawers to get rid of clothes.

There are, however, two exceptions. Jeans and T-shirts. Why? Because I'm a crafty girl and think I can create useful items out of them! I have in the past, but honestly, haven't done anything with either in several years. Still, I save them, put them in containers for the day when I'll have the inspiration to create stuff.

As I was going through yet another closet, I found the jeans and T-shirts bins. I moved them into the center of the room and decided they will remain there until I do something with them. Having to look at them everyday will keep me motivated to use up the materials.

Since I was already motivated, I also decided to sort through them. I divided up the T-shirts and have already started cutting them to make a T-shirt quilt - but not a typical one. I don't care for the look of most T-shirt quilts so I'm going with a different approach - we'll see if it turns out.

Then, the jeans...Wow, um, they kind of brought back some memories. I had no idea I still had any of the clothes (besides the T-shirts) from my, um, larger days. I'd been getting rid of that stuff all along the way and don't have much to remember from a few years back. I hardly have any pictures because I hated having my picture taken (there's one in my About Me section, but it was hard to find any). I pulled out those jeans and was pretty shocked by the size. I certainly have no intentions of reverting back to my old ways, but if I ever needed an extra motivator - those clothes would be it. To remember, I took the picture above and will soon be cutting up the jeans to make a quilt. I guess the only advantage is the bigger the jeans - the more fabric I have!

My husband didn't understand the concept of a quilt made out of old jeans so I went upstairs, grabbed the one I'd made several years ago and showed it to him. He asked, "Have I ever seen this before?". I think he had, but maybe not. Then, he said, "That's actually kind of nice, why don't we have that out?". So, it's now out where it can be seen and used. He likes the back, not the front but since he likes it, I can make one a little bit more to our current tastes. The last one took a really long time to make, so I don't anticipate it being a quick project, but if I can at least get started with it, that will help with the de-cluttering and it's a perfect way to use up the fat girl jeans!

Oh, and my number 5 goal, I decided to take a 'before' picture (it won't be posted here). Seeing those jeans was a great reminder. Tracking my progress sounds like a good idea.

Call for Distance Dreamers!!

With all the new year resolutions, goals, whatever you want to call it going on out there, I wanted to put out another call for Distance Dreamers.

If you are running your first half or full marathon this year and have it picked out/planned/training for it and would like to be included in a weekly post here with other fellow first timers, please contact me. Please see the Distance Dreamers page for more info...and to check out the current list - I separated out the 2010 group from the 2011. Thanks!

Simplify - Online

Next up on the the plan to simplify - online.

1. First, limiting/removing some social media items, mostly ones I never logged into. The only one I actually used was DailyMile but I deleted it today. I like my spreadsheets and hard copies - I'll stick with those, no more redundancy. The only ones I'm keeping are:

• Facebook, which I hardly log into anyway
  
• Athlinks, not that I use the social aspect, but there's no better way to look up people's past race times...don't act like you've never done it!


• Ravelry - all things knitting!
  

2. Google Reader - I've started unsubscribing to blogs I no longer care to read. My list is still huge but it's nice to get rid of a few that I don't ever really read that I always skip over anyway. The ones I enjoy will still be read daily.

3. E-mail Subscriptions - As they are coming through, I'm taking the time to unsubscribe instead of just continuing to hit delete. Just because I ordered some random Cubs T-shirt two years ago does not mean I am going to again - no need to keep getting their e-mails.

Simplify

My running related goals for 2011 have already been shared. But, of course, I have some non-running related goals for the year as well. The major one - to simplify. There's actually a few meanings to this, but for now, we'll concentrate on 'stuff' and I'll share the other ways I'm planning to simplify in time. The 'stuff' is how it all started...

Several weeks back, as I was attempting to clean out the dreaded 'back room' in preparation for the new treadmill, I had one of those moments where I just felt the urge to throw away everything. Stuff from years past, stuff that no longer matters, stuff from a time when I was a different person and in a different stage of my life. Stuff I attempted to sell at a yard sale that made its way back into the house and not to the dump, Goodwill or some other place like it was intended. It's a little ironic that all I want to do is get rid of stuff when I was doing it simply because I was getting new stuff, but it happens to all of us.

I was actually sitting in that room, surrounded by stuff and I yelled downstairs for my husband to come up stairs. I said..."This is just depressing. I don't want any of this. All I want is a big dumpster to make it all go away and forget about this stuff from the past". I was being a little dramatic, but it's honestly the way I felt. Half of it is from a time when I was a completely different person.

I used to be a pack-rat. I saved everything. I went away to college and left my parents house full of my stuff while I was in an itty-bitty dorm room. Then, when I finished college and got my first place, I took it all. Everything last little bit. The problem was I moved into a huge place - I was renting half of a house and I pretty much had it filled with all of my crap. Then, the day came when I moved in with hubby. He was in an itty-bitty apartment and some of my crap went back to my parents house for storage - big stuff, like a stove, a refrigerator, all my bedroom furniture, etc. At that point, I did a major purge of all the little crap I'd been saving up for years, things like old VHS movies, cassette tapes, stuffed animals, etc. It was two pick up loads. It felt so good.

Eventually, we moved out of that apartment and bought our first house and I finally got the rest of the stuff out of my parents house once again. They were ecstatic! At first, our house was bare with random mis-matched furniture and then doubles of other things, like blenders, vaccuums, etc. Then, we got married (we did things a little backwards) and had a super small DIY wedding. I still have all the crap from that too. It's all in the back room. Most of it is stuff that someone else could use but I would still have to take the time to organize it, haul it, Free-cycle it, etc. And, of course, it's just easier to put it in the back room and close the door.

Instead of doing much with it that day, the stuff basically moved from scattered throughout the room to being piled up in a bigger pile in the side of the room. There's other closets in this house that need the same treatment. So, that's one of my goals for the year - the very, very typical resolution to get rid of stuff. I'm looking to simplify. Will I go the course of so many others and abandon my resolution by the time February hits? We'll see...but at least it's public knowledge now, hopefully that will help my motivation. I actually have plans for some of it....more to come in the next few weeks. I know without an actual plan, it'll just stay right where it is.

For now, half of the room looks like the above, the other half like this (still in progress as well) . Hopefully, the whole room will look better at some point.

2011 Goals and Plan

I've been thinking about my plan for 2011 in terms of running and fitness for quite some time. First, I needed to figure out where to focus and determined there were three possible general areas I could try to focus on:

1. Try to get faster in particular distances
2. Try to go longer
3. Try something completely different

I'm not that overly concerned about speed. Sure, I want to get better, but nothing too crazy. I could try to go longer, but obviously need to be realistic about what I'd be capable of at this point. I'm quite happy with running so I don't want to switch - maybe just branch out a bit. Therefore, I decide to combine all three and make goals to accomplish all of the above - all while remaining injury free and enjoying every bit of it, of course!

With that, my goals for 2011:

1. Run 1500 miles
2. Run a half marathon under 2 hours
3. Run a marathon faster than my first (under 4:42)
4. Complete an ultra
5. Superficial goal: Get to a point where I'm comfortable enough with my body to run in just a sports bra & shorts.

The plan so far:

January - Snowflake Chase 5 mile. Repeat and already registered.

February - ??

March - Chambersburg Half Marathon. Repeat, registered and will go for 2 hours.

April -

Race for the Birds - 7.7 mile trail run and CVRT 15K

Both new to me. April was supposed to include another marathon - Mountain Maryland - but it was cancelled just a couple of weeks ago. Yes, I was going to be crazy and attempt two marathons close together, but it wasn't in the cards...guess I'll play it smart this way.

May - Pittsburgh Marathon. Registered - goal to have better time than my first marathon.

June - some sort of 5K/10K?

July - some sort of 5K/10K?

August - Ausherman 5 mile, repeat

September - some sort of half marathon or equivalent.

October - Bald Eagle Megatransect - registered! I was waiting for registration to open on this before listing my goals. This is a 25+ ultra-hike. Considered an ultra-hike due to many areas that are basically impossible to even try to run.

Fire on the Mountain 50K - hopefully.

November - ?

December - ?