Just Plodding Along

Well this happened this evening. Fingers crossed that the end of March is not as brutally cold as last Saturday was. Either way the medal for this race looks amazing and there is an Easter Egg hunt involved. Pretty much had to register. Half #26 looks like a lot of fun. What is weird is that I for some reason can't seem to pull the trigger on the marathon registration. I have a training plan. I have placed training plan on the calender so I know when training commences. There it is- the date of the Illinois marathon in pen so pretty committed.  I have pretty much begged Yo Momma to be there. Just do it already. But you know when you register all of the sudden it becomes real. The twenty mile long runs, yep they have to happen. The injury fears after so many miles of work become a weird type of paranoia where every twinge is a shattered bone. The self doubt about staying upright and moving forward for 26.2 miles becomes loud when your finger hesitates over the enter ...

After yesterday's race I was feeling quite sorry for myself. My hip was sore, not my best race. Waa, waa, waa. Whoa is me. But after refueling with chocolate milk  a double vodka tonic (I like potatoes, fried, mashed, baked, triple distilled) which D made me in the very appropriate I'm Very Bitter glass, and rolling the crap out of my IT band I felt much better about life.  Spent the rest of the day in triple sweats and slipper socks. The cold weather and I do not see eye to eye.  This morning I woke up and ran a mile on the treadmill to keep the streak alive. Then did an hour of yoga and felt pretty good. The hip is still a little sore but already feeling better. Therefore the plan for the week is to run a mile a day and alternate between lifting weights and doing yoga. No running except to continue the streak. I can always bike if I feel the need for more cardio (my guess is I won't). I was in need of a break and this seems like a g...

Well this half was a mix of good, bad and frozen. The Schaumburg Half and 5K Turkey Trot  takes place in Schaumburg, IL mostly in a forest preserve. It is mostly paved bike path with some short sections through grass.  The course is point to point though there were two out and back sections. I left my abode at 6:40 this morning and arrived at the finish area for packet pick-up around 8 a.m. Packet pick-up was a breeze. After grabbing my number and fleece I practically sprinted back to my car to stay warm. There was a moment when I woke up and thought hey I could just stay in bed. And then there was another moment when I sat shivering in my car, the big Arizona baby I am am, when I thought hey I got my fleece I could just drive home, heater on full blast. But I knew I would never live that down so eventually I got up the courage to get on the bus to head to the start. After a ten minute shuttle ride to the start, I hit the loo one last time and then stood shiveri...

Don't you just hate it when you have a big mouth and instead of sitting around eating leftovers all day you have to get off your butt and run an....entire.....mile. Ugh. Day 2 of streak complete- slow start, less slow finish. Thanks Jac for keeping me on track. You rock! I am glad you accepted the challenge because apparently I can not do it without you! I totally killed Black Friday shopping. Out the door by 8:30 a.m. Got a sweet xmas tree on sale, a guest bed and mattress on sale for future visitors and Christmas gifts for the family and didn't threaten to kill anyone verbally or even have the thought cross my mind. Which is weird because usually my normal trip to the grocery store ticks me off in some way. Apparently I have shopper rage instead of road rage. But even the massive line at a department store didn't kill my holiday buzz. Christmas has arrived! Tomorrow is the Shaumburg Half and I am super not excited about it. Mostly because it is supposed t...

Tis that time of year. A time to reflect on how you are going to get the stuffing, potatoes, rolls and turkey done all at the same time. Kidding. It is time to reflect on what I am thankful for. 1) D. I feel lucky to be married to my best friend. He may not understand the running thing or the obsession with all things dessert but he loves me anyway. 2) My family. They get me and I love hanging out with them and even though you don't get to pick you family like you do your friends, I would have picked them given the chance. 3) My in-laws. Got super lucky on this front. They are fun to be around and nice enough to come visit us in Illinois in December and I love the heck out of the them. 4) My job. I am very, very thankful to have a job. Even better, a job I enjoy with people I like. It is rough out there on the job front and I feel very lucky to be employed. 5) My friends. Whether we talk all the time or hardly at all I am thankful to have such fun and wonderful people...

Runner's World once again has the streak going on. Run a mile everyday between Thanksgiving and Christmas to combat the bulge and the tendency to get lazy as it gets colder and darker out. Last year Jac totally killed their Memorial Day to Fourth of July streak and I egged her on and I jumped in to extend the streak until I hurt myself......where am I going with this..... Okay, to streak or not to streak. I kind of want to streak. First, I have a treadmill. If I can't get a mile a day in, no one can. Second, last time I went streaking I got all crazy about it and saw the mile run a day as a chance to throw down a fast mile instead of a just take it easy recovery run between my normal runs. I shall be smarter this time. Third, we are not traveling at all this holiday season. Therefore it should be extremely easy to get'er done. Finally, I love to eat. All things delicious. I see Thanksgiving as the kickoff of a month and a half of face stuffing, therefore this strea...

So when Running Times isn't grossing me out  it is filling me head with a case of the crazies. There is an interesting article about racing with the idea that you are going to run as hard as you can with the intent to basically blow up on the course and DNF. When we race our first concern is always finishing (okay so Running Times is geared more toward professional/ elite runners so their first concern is probably winning but for us normals finishing always seems to be the top concern) so we are never pushing as hard as we possibly can therefore we never really know how hard we can push ourselves unless we push ourselves to failure. Huh....... did that makes sense. Basically run hard until you puke. That is my interpretation at least. So this article has been rolling around in the vast void of a brain of mine and got me thinking- always a dangerous thing- maybe I should try this. Not really get a DNF, that would mean no medal and that would be tragic, but run as hard...

First up- winners of the giveaway: Number 3 and Number 1  Congrats Katie B & Cathryn from My Heart's Content  you guys are the winners!!! Email me at justploddingalong@gmail.com  with your mailing address and I will get your goodies in the mail. I am so happy you can sweat pink with me! I know Katie from my time living in Alaska and she is all kinds of awesome working for the Red Cross and recently helping out with the Hurricane Sandy recovery if my facebook stalking is correct. Cathryn is an awesome runner and blogger from the UK who also happens to take amazing photos of the awesome places she visits and flaunts them on her blog making me want to be her travel buddy. I promise I will carry your bags if you let me tag along.  Training last week: After taking it on the easier side the week before with 18 miles I was ready to push it.  Monday: x-train day 30 minutes biking and 30 minutes yoga Tuesday: 4 miles in 40 minutes in am/ 2 miles in 19:02...

First the random: 1) I ran twice on Tuesday. Not even sure why that happened. I came home from work and declared I must run two miles after running four in the morning. So that is what I did and it was kind of awesome. 2) I was reading Running Times the other day during lunch and happened upon an article about Dathan Ritzenhein and how he had surgery on his achilles and ended up being allergic to the stitches and the infection created a hole in his body so he could actually see his achilles tendon. I almost barfed in my cubicle. Seriously a little warning next time Running Times. I am not a fan of precarious cubicle situations. 3) I lifted weights on Tuesday. I can now hardly walk. Everything hurts. I cry a little every time I get out of a chair. Seriously twenty pound weights people. You crossfitters with your giant weights......I can't even understand that. 4) I really, really want to see the new Bond movie. I care less that it is a Bond film and more that this gentleman...

Once again I am shocked to find someone finds my blog entertaining enough to give it a shout out. Jac over at Challenged and Running in the Bike Lan e listed me as a very inspiring blogger. Very cool. Jac lives in the Phoenix area and when I lived in AZ we would commiserate about how sweaty and ridiculous it is there. But now that I live in Illinois I use her blog to think about being warm and sunshine. She is kind of a rock star runner and is just recently coming back from an injury to kick butt. I find her blog inspiring myself so if you are looking for inspiration to get out the door check her out.  Here are the Inspiring Blogger Award rules:  Display the award logo on your blog. ( Done) Link back to the person who nominated you. ( Done) State 7 things about yourself. ( Done) Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them. ( Um I am not that cool to list 15 so I will just list as many as I can think of) Notify those bloggers of the nomination and t...

This past week I had big plans. I was gonna do yoga, I was gonna lift, I was gonna run like a rockstar. Instead I decided I was freakin tired and took it down a notch. Awesome, but fatigue inducing. One session of yoga on Monday (but it felt like many as my useless T-Rex arms hurt for four days after). Three four miles runs all around 40 minutes or under. One six mile interval run on the treadmill in 57:47 where I kind of just ran faster till I felt like passing out and then slowed down until I stopped seeing spots- repeated as necessary to hit six miles. I only scared the crap out of myself once by dropping my ipod on the belt and having it fly into the wall behind me. Treadmills are no joke. I love you treadmill but you scare the crap out of me. And today. Today I was going to run 12 -15 miles on a new route I even took the time to plan out on Map My Run until I realized that both my right and left shins have a weird pain in them and the top of my left foot hu...

Saturday November 3rd was the Tyranena Beer 1/2. This race caught my eye because...um.... BEER ...hello. This race is put on the Tyranena brewery in Lake Mills, WI which was about a two hour drive from my house. The race starts at 11:30 a.m. and only has packet pick-up on the day of so it worked out perfectly. We rolled into Lake Mills around 10:15ish to snow. Nothing was sticking but I freaked out for a minute. I am not ready for that yet. We parked (D came along for this one, I had him at beer) right next to the race tent and headed in for my race packet. The tent was huge and warm. Good thing since it was freezing outside. After grabbing my number, returning to the car to drop stuff off and obtain ipod and gels we headed back into the tent to keep warm before the start. Should have gone with pants on this one. I had the most awesomely awesome hair for this race. Apparently washing and not drying and styling leads to an interesting race 'do.  The timing c...

Miles Run: 110.6 Half Marathons: 4 Prairie State Half Des Plaines Half Monster Dash Half Skeleton Skamper Medals obtained: 4 Half marathons under two hours: 1  Number of pumpkin flavored items ingested: too many to count Blogger meet-ups/ new running BFF obtained: 1 Me and Yo Momma Treadmills obtained: 1 Whiny, cold early morning runs avoided due to new treadmill: many with many to come Coming up in November: Tyranena Beer Run 1/2- Done, review to come Schaumburg 1/2 - Turkey Trot Half Nov. 24th Except for the half around Thanksgiving my plan is to keep it easy. I am tired after all those half marathons and want to take a step back before marathon training commences in January. My goal is to focus on more strength training. My back and core have been sore and I think it is in part due to sitting in an office chair a majority of every day but also they are just weak. Oh and my arms are useless. For example went bowling the ...

I am not particularly political. I have my beliefs, I have picked a side but I don't really want to share. Yes I have a MA in Political Science but I studied international relations and public policy, mostly focusing on natural resources.....so am no expert on American Politics. To be honest most of my political knowledge comes from watching the Daily Show and Colbert Report so there is that..... I work in local government so I will always be biased and believe that the individual should pay more attention to local elections than federal as the decisions being made at the local level have a direct impact on your everyday existence. And living in Illinois, which has the most local units of government out of all 50 states (fun fact) there is a lot to pay attention to. That being said even I am more interested in the flash and jazz hands of those running for higher offices. It is hard to ignore televised debates and commercials even when all you have for television are ba...

Tomorrow is the Tyranena Beer Half . This race is kind of different in that it starts at 11:30....so not sure what to do with that.  I have done some super sleuthing and found some other people's race reviews and comments on the interwebs. There is a common theme: Hills. Yes, those are some hills. Mile three looks like a particularly good time. Knowing my general distaste for hills I doubt another sub-two will magically appear. A Goal: Sub 2:10- keep running, even up the hills, even the big one. B Goal: Sub 2:12- run, don't focus on how much you have walked up the hills, and stop whining. C Goal: Obtain medal and beer after getting some exercise. I can only hope the amount of Halloween treats I have consumed this week count as carb loading. How do you all feel about hills- love/ hate? Any hill running tips to share?