Just Plodding Along

So I got over myself and went for a 16 mile run which I totally killed. I ran it faster than I thought I would and felt pretty good until the last two miles. I realized as I get tired I start to curl up in a little ball of pain and probably look a cross between Quasimodo and an injured water buffalo that is dressed in compression gear and wearing a sweat encrusted visor. ProCompression and Aspaeris shorts, what would I do without you?  So really what I am saying is as the run goes on I only get prettier. I had to keep reminding myself to straighten up. Apparently I need to do some core work and upper body strength training so I can keep myself upright as I get more and more tired. I can only imagine what happens at mile 18. Do I hit the ground and start crawling??? Regardless of the water buffalo situation I ran 16 miles which is a freakin long way for me and did not die. So that is awesome. I have a love/hate relationship with long runs.  I love them when they are done, I hate

Looking for something to do this weekend? Had a long run and now can't get off the couch? Maybe these will keep you entertained.   The Avengers: I loved this movie which I did not expect. Sometimes with action films I can take it or leave it. This one got better as it went. This movie had the best portrayal of the Hulk I have ever seen. Mark Ruffalo you rocked it. There is a scene with the hulk that had me cracking up and rewinding at least four times to re-watch and bust up. I give this movie a thumbs up for catching non-comic readers up on story lines and making it easy for non-marvel worshipers to follow along. Rent it, watch it, love it. Sometimes I love Katherine and sometimes she annoys the heck out of me. She was okay in this. The movie was quick and entertaining though I found her hard to believe as a bounty hunter. I wouldn't cry a river if you miss it.  This movie went from suspenseful to completely terrifying in about two seconds. I am not up on

So there is this phenomenon happening. I am not sure when it started. Maybe it has been happening for awhile and like all things social media it has taken me twenty years to catch up. Everyone and their mom seems to be vlogging. You know vlogging, when a blog which used to be made up of the written word turns into a YouTube filled mess. You may be picking up on my complete and total disdain for this trend. I am sure I will get some hate mail for this or at least a few hateful thoughts thrown my way but I must vent. I give you the reasons vlogging makes me completely and irrationally annoyed. 1) By vlogging you completely remove most situations in which I could pay attention to your blog. Train rides, lunch breaks, waiting in line, etc. Instead I have to be in a place where I can watch a video. So instead of watching I just ignore and hope that you go back to typing soon. 2) With vlogging there seems to be the assumption that I have 17 minutes of my time to spare to listen to y

On the schedule: 16 miles Reality: Sleeping in, ate a cinnamon roll, sipped coffee and knew there was no way in H, E double hockey sticks I was going for a run today. Yesterday's run sucked. But usually I can move on pretty quickly but for whatever reason I am not into it. My hip hurts, my ankle is slightly swollen and I have a bad attitude about the whole thing = running sucks. The idea of one mile is too much let alone anything in double digits. I need a rest. ohh shove it Long story short: no long run this week (unless you count yesterday's 10 which I totally do). Instead I got D out of bed to go walking with me. Ahhhhh marriage. We hit up a new bike bath for some bonding time with nature at a leisurely pace. Max loves nature Plan for this coming week: Mon: X-train- find a bike or a weight and use it Tue: 4 miles/ yoga Wed: 8 miles Thurs: Rest/ yoga Fri: 7mi Sat: 4 mi Sunday: Try number 2 for 16 miles I am sure by Tuesday's run I will have

Workout today: 10 miles of cold, windy, rainy stupid running. Visor kept flying off due to wind. Headphones getting whipped out of ears due to wind. Snot freely flowing due to wind (I haven't over shared in awhile so you're welcome for that image). Pebbles somehow frequently getting kicked up and flying into the back of shoes. Rain off and on (but whatever wore my hot pink running rain jacket so I beat that element, score one for me). Temp. drop of 10 degrees while running. What the heck. Worst run in a long time. But whatever still did it so I win. But I better buck up because Illinois does not play around with winter. Or I could just shell out and get a treadmill....there is research to be done today. Since I will not be collecting my Denver RnR medal today due to the fact that I am sitting at home in Illinois as I type, let's discuss medals instead. It has come to my attention that I have collected a lot of medals in the past year. So many I am in need of another medal

As fall begins it can only mean one thing And with winter comes darkness. I am an early morning runner. I always have been. I like waking up and after a good fifteen minutes of staring into space/sipping coffee putting my shoes on and heading out the door. I like to knock my runs out first thing so inevitably when something comes up later in the day I don't have to wonder how I am going to fit my run in. Instead I can feel all smug that I knocked out 8 miles before most people are out of bed. That is right. Winning with the early morning runs. But I have recently run into a problem with my smug early morning runs;  The Dark Forest (aka the bike path I run on surrounded by early morning ominous trees.) Running in the early morning hours increasingly means running in the dark. I have a super bright flash light I carry and a pretty hip neon yellow reflector waste band thing so I can be seen. But that does nothing to stop the weird panicky claustrophobic feeling I g

I thought I might wake up on Sunday a ball of hurt after my 10k but instead I woke up and felt fine so decided to go on a long run. I ran 15 miles. That is the longest run I have done in a very long time. I went slow, fueled properly and ran into no problems. I had enough energy left to run the last mile in 10:08. This morning I woke up a semi-ball of hurt but not too bad. Hmmmm perhaps I am getting better at this long run thing. The only issue is water. I need a better hydration system. My handheld is just too small. I ran by my car around mile 12 to refill but running by the car and stopping at the car are kind of torture when you have multiple miles left to cover. Mental weakness I guess. Last weeks workouts: Wed: 8 miles Thurs: 4 miles Sat: 10k Sunday: 15 miles This weeks workouts: Tues: 4mi Wed: 8mi Thurs: x-train Fri: 7mi Sat: 4 mi Sun: 16mi I was able to do this long run in part to not racing again until October. Why not till October? Because I won't be showin

This morning D & I ran the Celebration of Life 10k that started and ended in our neighborhood. I am happy to announce that this household contains two age group placers. We dominated. Oh yeah. Okay maybe not dominated but we did pretty good. The race started at 9a.m. two blocks from our house so I got up, remembered to charge my Garmin, sifted through tech shirts to figure out what to wear, I went with pink read some blogs.......long, boring, overshare story short 9a.m. race times allow for a pretty leisurely morning especially when you can just walk outside to get to the start. 9a.m. race starts also mean it is going to be freakin hot and the sun will try to melt your organs. After lounging around and eating a banana D & I headed to the start. The race got off to a late start by about ten minutes which bugs the heck out of me. Start on time, my type A just can not handle lateness. The course was an out and back down to Lake Michigan and along the harbor. They did not

Saturday is a big day. D & I are running a 10k together. Or at least we will stand at the start line together and find each other at the finish. It has been awhile since we have run 'together'. Not only will we be celebrating life, we will also be celebrating that this race starts a block from our house and doesn't start till 9a.m. The only down side is towards the end of the race I believe we may run right past our house and I will already have my t-shirt at this point so it would be so easy to say hello couch and goodbye run. I ran part of the course this morning and it is a really- beautiful down to Lake Michigan past fields of wild sunflowers and only a little bit hilly but all the hill is at the end- course. Should be fun. I haven't run a 10k in a few years and I believe my time was around a 1:16 but that course was hills from start to finish so I am thinking I can get close to an hour now if not under. Goals: A goal: Under an hour B goal: hour to hour a

Things got off to a rocky start for this half when we piled in the car at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday to head towards Crystal lake (an hour and 15 minute drive) and it wouldn't start. And the panic sets in. But D saved the day, poppin the hood, looking at things (with a flash light since it was still dark out). I just stood there in my running skirt looking lost, totally pissed but also ready to give up and head back to bed. Eventually we noticed our neighbors light on and I went and knocked on the door to ask for a jump. And since they are the nicest neighbors in the world they agreed and D jumped our car. I gotta say if someone dressed in compression socks and a crazy elephant head band showed up at my door at 5:30a.m. I am not sure I would answer. I owe those people cookies for sure. After our dramatic start to the day it was smooth sailing the rest of the time. We got there around 7a.m. where I grabbed my race number and long sleeve shirt and headed back to the car to sit in the he

And bam, time for another half. I kind of like back to back weekends of races mostly because I feel I can run less because I am 'resting' during the week which equals more sleeping in which is nice. Sunday is the Crystal Lake Half  in the Crystal Lake Park district apparently the course goes through town and around some lakes on a mostly paved course. From the description it would seem that there are hills. Well tickle me pink. And I assumed the Midwest was flat. Apparently I was wrong. Goals: A Goal: Beat last weekends time of 2:16 B Goal: Around 2:16 C Goal: Finish I guess My goals are a little uninspired this week. There is a Clydesdale division at this race as well so maybe place in that again would be a good goal. The only thing I am not loving about this race is their disclaimer that you might not get your t-shirt size if you don't come early to packet pick-up. Um why? I have to choose it when I register so why can't I get it when I pick up my packet on race

Monday, Labor Day, the day America celebrates its labor force by letting government laborers have the day off I decided to labor through 13.1 miles. And it was an awesome, sweaty fun fest. D and I rolled out of bed at 4a.m. to make the hour and twenty minute drive to the Oak Brook area where the race was held. And we hit absolutely no traffic, so there is an up side to being on the road at 4:30 a.m. We got to the start line in plenty of time for parking, me to pick up my number and to weigh in at the Clydesdale table.  Now me and my lovely lady lumps have had mixed feeling about this category but I have decided to embrace it. I can compete with others who have junk in the trunk but I can not compete with the lean, mean fighting machines so I might as well join in the fun when the category exists. I have done many a 1/2 marathon at this point (have even placed in my age group in non-Clydesdale- super small race) and the Clydesdale categories are all different. For this one any fema