Birthday and 2x the PDRs!

I turned 26 on Saturday and I'm still not used to it. It's really weird to think of myself as an "adult", but maybe it wouldn't be so hard if I was out on my own and working a "normal" job. Oh well. Going to have to wait a little while longer for that.

I didn't slack off my long run just because it was my birthday, though I did decide I'd rather sleep in a little longer and then run when it was a little warmer. My training plan called for 9.5 miles, but I've been trying to stay a half mile or so ahead of my long run distances [just call me an over-achiever] which meant ... my first double-digit run. Ever. *insert dramatic music here*

That tenth mile is about 2 minutes longer than the others because I had a moment where I was deciding if I was going to throw up or not. It wasn't pleasant, trust me. I haven't felt like that since the finish line of Happy Trails 5k over a month ago. But, I was able to enjoy the run for most of the time. I had an awesome playlist and there was a nice breeze blowing off the river in areas. It might have been a bit easier on me if I had run on pavement, but there isn't consistent shade on any roads near my house and I knew I could plan in a water bottle refill along the towpath.

One thing about my run that I WASN'T happy about ... it was also the day the metroparks was hosting the bike tours and I was running on the towpath trail that connects a couple of the parks. Most of the cyclists were very courteous of others on the trail, but there were a couple who REALLY ticked me off. I was yelled at to "get out the way" by a group of cyclists who were riding 2-wide in a really narrow area of the trail. I was already on the edge of the stone when this happened so I just held my ground and forced one of them to drop back and slide over. And then when I got closer to the Farnsworth shelter house the cyclists were using for lunch [near my turn-around point], I actually had someone ride down the MIDDLE of the trail [nobody else around] and clip my shoulder with their mirror. Of course, I yelled at him and he just looked back over his shoulder at me like "What?". Come on, jerk. You rode up on ME on a straight part of the trail, so you knew I was there [how could you miss the BRIGHT orange shirt?!] and your mirror hit me hard enough that it moved out of position, so there's no way you didn't notice that you hit me. No "sorry". Nothing. And, yes, I do have a light bruise on my arm. I didn't even notice it until I was leaving for the evening and my mom pointed it out. I have a few friends within the metroparks organization and I sent them an email about the situation. I know they won't be able to find out who it was, and I wouldn't expect them to, but maybe they'll say something to the specific program organizer and they'll stress the "rules of the road" next time around. Metroparks have been stressing the rotr with runners on their trails so maybe the cyclists need to be included in this crackdown.

I did have an awesome evening with some old friends, though. We got Chipotle and took it to a little seating area around the "pond" at the Fallen Timbers Mall, where we hung out until movie time. I've had a tradition for over a decade now of seeing a movie on my birthday, almost always either a Harry Potter or Batman flick. This year is was "The Dark Knight Rises". Freaking awesome. Besides the awesomeness of the movie, I got to see one of my favorite football players (Hines Ward) run across my favorite field (Heinz Field) one more time [PS - GO PITTSBURGH! Less than a month until pre-season starts! :D]. There was actually a kid in the theatre who yelled "Run Hines Run!" I nearly fell out of my seat laughing. Of course, we finished off the night with chocolate fudge cake and my favorite wine from Heineman Winery :)

This weekend was actually a double PDR weekend. I had planned on getting up "early" Sunday and going for a bike ride. I figured it would be a good mental and physical detox after Saturday. Instead, it go put off until the hottest part of the day and I took a route I hadn't so far ... the west end of the W-C Trail loop. A couple days away from the bike this past week must have been a good thing because my backside didn't hurt AT ALL at the end of this ride, so maybe that's the trick to putting in longer mileage rides?

I'll probably set 2 more PDRs next weekend, but I'm going to enjoy these ones while they stand. The double-digit run on my birthday was pretty darn special to me :)

It's official. I've registered for my half marathon. It's slightly more real now. I usually snail mail my race registrations to avoid the service fees, but I just wanted to get this done so I couldn't talk myself into backing out [which WAS a possibility of even with me being halfway through my training plan].

Also - Does anyone use special software or program to write your posts off-line ahead of time? Our internet is iffy at home right now so I've been working from either Panera or a coffee shop a LOT lately (I don't like going into campus unless I have to ... I just feel trapped in that basement lab). Preferably free? This is one of the reasons my posts have been so scattered lately. Sometimes I write out as much as I can in a word or basic text document, but I almost always end of having some weird formatting error or I can't get the post to look the way I want it to in the end and I have to waste time retyping everything once I get to internet. We're supposed to be up and running (and faster than before) by the end of this week, but I have a feeling I'm going to need this option more and more once/ if I get the kind of job I want. I can't spend ALL my time sitting in coffee and sandwich shops on blogger. lol

February Wrap Up and then some.

Well, I guess it's time to wrap up February since it's officially March now. I started writing this post last night, but I was just too darn tired after watching Ghost Hunters International and Face Off to finish it and post. Oh well. Here we go ...

Did everyone enjoy Leap Day? Did you do anything special? I was a little nostalgic in the morning because I realized it was the first Leap Day without my grandmother (mom's mom). It would have been her 19th birthday. Yes, she was a leap day baby. All the grandkids LOVED needling her over surpassing her in both age and height (she was also a SHORT woman). The joke in our family was that you were officially allowed to sit at the "big kid table" (none of us act like adults) once you were taller than Grandma. lol. My dad and I were pulling for my cousin's baby to be born yesterday just to spite K, but no luck.

Last night, I got sucked into another race, The Quantum Leap 2.9 Miler. It was put on by the Toledo and Fremont running clubs and the store where I've been going to group runs, Second Sole. I hadn't really trained specifically for it, but I figured yesterday was a speed workout anyway (I'll make up the extra mile tonight at group) and a new distance meant an automatic PR. *grin* There was a threat of thunderstorms, but we got lucky. Actually, we got doubly lucky because the temperature was in the low 50s! Sheesh! If it hadn't been so breezy, I would have worn a tee shirt with my capris. There were actually quite a few people there in shorts and tees! In February! *shakes head* It was a really fun race, though. I got there, signed in (relatively quick for the number of people there), and started my warm up before I realized who was standing less than 10 feet from me. My friend Mike and his wife (yes, Liz, the one I ran with the night I won my Saucony Nomad jacket at group!). He made a big deal out of how surprised he was to see me and I just raised my eyebrow and laughed at him. Another friend, also Mike, from dailymile, was there too, but we didn't get to talk much until after the race since he got there so close to the start. Unoffficially, my finish time was 29:43. That's a 10:10/mi average pace. Not too shabby. I'm sure the official time will be a little different since it was a gun start and I was a little ways back in the pack. I thought I started out a little too quick, but I was able to maintain my pace pretty easily as long as I didn't over-think it. I THINK the photographer got a picture of 2 with me in it, but we'll see when they're posted on facebook. I'll be sure to update here if/when. I'll go crazy pouring over the age groups once the results are posted too, so no worries.

Some of you know I've been experimenting with my nutrition and hydration lately. Some of it has to do with knowing I need to find a better (read - healthier) system as I increase my mileage and part of it is trying to avoid the migraine-like headaches I get from being dehydrated and electrolytes being out of whack. No joke, I used to get them after EVERY run, no matter how much water or gatorade I drank before, during, and after. The only thing I could do was take painkillers and crawl in bed for a couple hours, hopefully to sleep off the prain. It was horrible. Anyway, my latest thing to try out finally came in the mail yesterday ... nuun. A smaller shop that sells through amazon had a pretty great deal on a pack of 4 tubes plus 4 individuals, so I used some of my amazon credits. So far, I like it! I have tubes of tri-berry, citrus fruit, lemon-lime and orange. The individuals are grape and fruit punch (NOT my favorite flavor, but I'll try just about anything once). I tried out the orange before the race last night and lemon-lime later. I like that the flavor isn't overpowering. More to come as I try out the other flavors and work them into my regular life.

Wheeeeee! Fizzies! Yes, I'm mature. lol :D

Since it IS the end of February, I sat down with my weekly mileage tracker (woo, more excel spreadsheets!) and figured out my monthly totals. This month, I had 9.15 miles walked (warm ups and cool downs, mostly) and 62.68 miles run (in 11:55:14). Not bad. My miles walked is down from January (mainly because I've been better at planning and mapping my runs) but my miles run is up (53.64 in January). There hasn't been a whole lot of change in my pace, but my endurance is much better. My longest run in February was my 8-miler last Saturday where my longest in January was 5.1 miles (twice). I can feel the difference in my body, but I'll address that in another post (I swear. I'm writing it bit by bit every day).

The end of February also means the end of Fab Ab February and Amanda @ RunToTheFinish's Appreciation Challenge. These were both eye-opening for me. FAF really showed me that I need to take more time to work on my core. Since I quit #plankaday (I got annoyed at being bitched at over twitter for not getting online and sharing every damn day. You don't like that my first instinct ISN'T to run online and tell you every time I do something? Too damn bad.), I need to come up with a plan of my own and stick to it. I'm working on it. The Appreciation Challenge really opened my eyes to appreciating the little things about myself and those around me. I'm really enjoying going back and re-reading some of the journal entries and thinking about WHY I was appreciating certain things and people each day. I realize how much the "little things" impact the rest of my day and my longer-term mood. I think this is another thing that I need to work on more frequently.

Alright. Lunch break over. With the University being on Spring Break next week, all the professors who do field work trips on the "week off" are in a tizzy over getting all their equipment ready to go. Which means the basement is pretty loud (even after our department chair got the construction crew to shut up during class hours) and I have to concentrate even harder to get anything done here on campus.

A New PDR and Underestimating Myself.

Sorry for the delay with this post, but I enjoyed a weekend away from my computer. Except for uploading my Garmin after my run Saturday and the occasional facebook comment from my Blackberry, I was blissfully unplugged. I caught up on some reading and sleep, had a great dinner out with friends, and helped dad make a huge step in finally getting the dining room finished. It was nice. Maybe I should just commit to only writing 1 or 2 posts each week so I don't feel guilty when I don't post every little new and exciting thing that happens. Especially now that I'm getting serious about my "101 Things in 1001 Days" posts over on my Xanga blog. And I'm putting more effort into my creative writing again (and organizing my older writing). Guess we're in for some longer posts, people. Double knot your running shoes and hold on tight.

I'm constantly learning that I underestimate myself. I'll be completely honest here, I was scared to death thinking about running 8 miles on Saturday. That's longer than I've EVER run, even with walk breaks. I've been staring at that "8" on the calender for several weeks now, just waiting. When I woke up Saturday morning, I just rolled over and stared at my running shoes for a good 10 minutes before I decided to crawl out of my ridiculously comfy cocoon. I got slightly more excited once I looked outside and saw that it was snowing! I knew it wouldn't stick, but I wanted to get out and enjoy the flurries while they lasted. If you're friends with me on facebook, you know I spent a while Friday night debating which route to take for my 8-miler. I wanted to run on busy roads as little as possible thinking that I would need to have my music cranked up in order to get myself through this run. But, I didn't want to run on muddy trails and have to expend even more energy that I wasn't sure I had in me. I ended up making a compromise with running north along Whitehouse-Spencer to the north fork of the Wabash-Cannonball trail and then taking that west into Oak Openings. From there, I'd be taking my normal route home through the park and along Obee. I also figured I knew plenty of people who lived along that route in case I had a problem. I DID take my cell phone with me (I'm seriously in love with the pockets in my Saucony nomad jacket) in case I needed to suck it up and call home ... or to take pictures (will get to that in a minute).

The run itself was SO not what I was expecting. From the start, my legs did NOT want to go slow. I couldn't get above a 12 minute mile even for my first mile, which surprised the heck out of me. So, I just settled into a comfortable pace, focused on my music, and TRIED not to look at my Garmin every 3 minutes. I don't run the north fork of the W-C Trail very often (ok, hardly ever), so it was a treat for me. The heaviest of the snow flurries were coming down while I was alone on the trail so I occupied myself for a little while with seeing how many snowflakes I could catch on my tongue as I was running. Before I knew it, I was already in Oak Openings and getting ready to turn down Girdham Road and go past the dunes. I don't think I've spent any real time in this corner of the park since high school when our Environmental Science class took a fieldtrip to these dunes. I tried to get a picture of myself while running past the dunes, but I think I look ridiculous with my big US Rowing hat, sunglasses, and everything tinged bright orange from my jacket. lol. Oh, and I may have dropped my Blackberry RIGHT after I took this. Oops. lol

I had considered calling my friend and having him meet me at Mallard Lake since that was where I was going to pass my previous distance record and have him run me the rest of the 2 miles home to keep me motivated. But, I didn't. Once I saw how close I was to the turn off for Mallard, I took stock of how my body was feeling. Shoulders and jaw were still relaxed. Not thirsty (I'm getting better at during-run hydration). Hands and ears were actually warm. Knee and ankle felt ok (a big worry). Legs felt strong. My mind was a little fuzzy, but it always gets like that during a run. It's a coping mechanism. I'm very good at noticing details around me while running and then forgetting them in the next breath. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but oh well. Anyway, I decided to play a mind game with myself. As soon as I passed Mallard Lake (holy crapola construction!), I blanked out the previous 6 miles and told myself it was only a 2 mile day and I was just starting ... at 5k tempo pace. I found some good tunes (Crazy Train, Ozzy Ozborn.) and before I knew what was going on, my Garmin was beeping the end of 8 miles and I could see the road leading back into my neighborhood. I did it. 8 miles. An hour and a half of running. Without a walk break. I broke my distance record. Wow. It occurred to me around this time HOW MUCH I underestimate myself. I've been following a training plan pretty diligently so there is NO REASON I shouldn't have been able to complete this run. Why was I so worried? I "ran" an 11k on 11/11/11 and I remember how much I had to walk, but that was over 3 months ago and I've been training for a longer distance since then! It's time to start trusting my body and my training. I could echo the same ideas when it comes to my weight loss, but I'll save that for another time.

Being all psychological and clinical about it, I can understand why I underestimate myself sometimes. I'm constantly being told I can't do something and usually that "something" is physical. 2 prime examples. The first occurred several years ago while out doing fieldwork with a professor who is now on my committee (eek). While unloading equipment from the truck, I grabbed one side of a heavy box to help him lift it down off the tailgate and got told to "wait for xxxx (the other guy) because I was a girl and it would be too heavy for me." It REALLY ticked me off because 1) I was the one who had loaded it in the truck in the first place and 2) xxxx was this nerdy, weak, uncoordinated guy who I probably could have bench-pressed. So, I sat back and watched as "the guys" tried to lift the equipment, dropped it, scraped the leg of the professor, and cracked the equipment. Luckily it was just the external casing that cracked and it was easily secured, but it still took everything in me to not point and start screaming "I told you so!" Later in the day, I had a private conversation about the incident with the professor, which I thought was the mature thing to do, and he chose to just throw it back in my face that "they did the best they could and I still wouldn't have been any help." I blew my top. My poor advisor listened to me rant for a good 20 minutes when I got back to campus that evening. I've heard since then that my advisor AND the current department chair (who I've done field work with on several occasions) had a conversation with the professor. I've worked with him several times since then, and he's kept those kind of comments to himself, but I think I finally proved to him that I'm a capable researcher. Though, thinking back on it now, I've always had one of the guys with me that the professor "trusted". Hrm. Whatever. Anyone who I've worked with and they've had their eyes open could tell you I throw everything I have into my fieldwork. It's just a shame such cool work is being done by such a jerky prof.

The other example just happened last night. Like I mentioned earlier, we've made HUGE progress in finished the dining room. Dad got all of the wood molding and beadboard stained and installed (I hate how it looks, but oh well. I've just never been a fan of mismatched wood colors :-/ ) and we brought the china cabinet back in from the garage. Our china cabinet is a beast. The top and bottom are actually 2 different pieces otherwise it'd be impossible to move. The top part we DID have to use a dolly to move it because of all the heavy glass, but the bottom part is just wood so dad figured we could just carry it. It was a little awkward, but manageable until mom decided that my end looked "too heavy for me" and decided to "help". Yea, can you see where this is going? I almost tripped and had the whole thing dropped on me because she was trying to talk through a doorway while holding on and pushing it away from her so she could fit through. I snapped and yelled at her to "just let the $!@# go", which of course caught me some hell with dad, but I didn't care. I'll take pissing mom and dad off over having a several-hundred-pound cabinet dropped on me, probably killing me from internal injuries the way it would have fallen. This kind of crap happens EVERY time we have to move something big in our house. It's WELL past old-hat.

Wow, I can't believe I just ranted on those. Oh well. I'm too lazy to go back, delete, and try to find a shortened and less rant-y way to talk about it.

Alright, I'm off on today's run, a short 2 miles. And then I'm diving into the Hunger Games books. A friend is letting me borrow her copies since our wonderful library system decided to order only 1 copy of each book for each branch and they're all reserved well into the summer. Really?! *glare*

New Year, New PR!

What a weekend! I raced 2 live 5ks, a virtual 5k, and a Resolution Run! Ok, maybe I just ran the 2 live 5ks and I'm counting one as my virtual 5k and the second as my Resolution Run, but it was still a pretty sa-weet weekend for running. Plus my Pittsburgh Steelers just beat the Cleveland Browns [start up the trash texts with my Cleveland-fan friends who were at the game. Bwahaha]. :)

New Year's Eve (last night) was the Midnight Special 5k right here in Whitehouse. Actually, it started and ended at my old middle school and the course was the trail that I run on several times every week! The tagline for this race makes me giggle: "The race so long it takes 2 years to run it!" Haha! Anyway, I was telling anyone who asked that my only goal was to beat my 5k time from last June (35:52), but I was secretly (ok, once again, not so secretly if you follow me on dailymile) going for a 33 minute finish. I was a little nervous when I got there since my last 2 runs were plagued by shin pain, but I got there early and warmed up and stretched really well. I even wore my new Zensah compression socks instead of my normal socks. When they shot the gun to start the race, I found a comfortable pace (without looking at my Garmin) and just let myself run. I didn't even look down until I heard it beep for the first mile [10:01/mile pace]. The second mile was all about weaving through people who were dropping off and laughing at how many people were keeping my pace purely because I was one of the few people wearing a headlamp [9:51/mile pace]. This part of the trail has NO lights (hence why it's normally closed at dusk) for about 3/4 mile between road crossings and you're basically between a field and a just-started subdivision. It was DARK. I had a little bit of pain just under my ribs during the 3rd mile, but I breathed deeper and focused on my stride. I knew the course and how long it should take me between landmarks, and I was watching my Garmin the last mile, [I even had my playlist set to start Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory" when I hit 30 minutes] but it didn't dawn on me what my finish time would be until I came around the last corner and could see the clock at the finish line in the parking lot. Without really thinking, I stretched my stride out even more and took off in a sprint the last 0.15 miles. I was SO happy when I saw that 0:31:16 on the clock as I crossed the finish line and the woman handed me my finisher's medal. The ushered us inside right away for hot chocolate and bananas. After only a couple minutes, they posted a sheet with times on it (Toledo Roadrunners does an AWESOME job at setting up races and making things run smoothly). It took me a couple minutes to realize that ONLY the top 5 in each age category was on that list ... AND I WAS ON IT!!! I was 214th overall, 86th of 163 women, and 4th of 12 in my age group (awards were 5-deep in each age group so I got a nifty champagne flute)! I barely made it out to my car before I started screaming and dancing around. I'm sure I looked like a fool, BUT I DON'T CARE! I was SO proud of myself!

New Years Virtual 5k picture

I counted my Midnight Special 5k as my New Years Virtual Race (hosted by Kiley @ Daily Vitamin F). I took the picture in the car after I stripped off all my cold-weather gear to give the cars around me time to get out of the parking lot (I was going to have to do a little maneuvering to get out without hitting the guy who parked next to me [NOT A PARKING SPOT FOR A REASON, JERKOFF!]). So, sorry you can't see the whole "bib" or my awesome medal. You'll just have to look at the previous paragraph if you want a semi-close up of the pretties.

As soon as the official race times are up (for both last night and this morning), I'll post the link in my "Races and PRs" tab. Actually, I'm getting all my posts and links set up over there so it's being updated on a regular basis.

Today brought on the Hangover Classic (I know, the name is great, isn't it? I was hoping someone would stumble into the community center this afternoon looking green and barely standing upright, but everyone looked like they were ready to run. Darn.). When I woke up, it was raining with ridiculous gusts of wind, which made me even more nervous than my shins did last night. I pretty much stayed in bed hitting the "snooze" button repeatedly until about an hour before the race was supposed to start. Luckily, the weather cleared up just as we all were getting to the community center and getting ready to go. We were still having some pretty insane gusts of wind (I guess they got up to 45+mph), but the rain was holding off. I wore my rain coat as a windbreaker (and just in case NW Ohio had a change of heart and decided to dump on us during the run). I went into this race just hoping to RUN the whole thing and wanting to ENJOY the run (note the "bib" in my picture for my Resolution Run). I was on Cloud 8 (ALMOST Cloud 9, but not quite) and I didn't know how my body would take running another 5k so close after last night. When the gun went off, I just blasted my playlist and focused on putting one foot in front of another. I was a little tired, but I could feel the strength in my legs. I physically COULDN'T run slower than an 11:30/mile pace. It just wasn't comfortable. Before I knew it, I was at the turn-around. I zoned out into my music again until I could see the 3rd mile marker and then I pushed it through the end. Just like last night, it was like my legs KNEW they needed to step it up at the end and I didn't really need to think about it. It just happened.

Resolution Fun Run 2012 picture

I used the Hangover Classic as my Resolution Fun Run (hosted by Amanda @ Run To The Finish). I think I'm already living my "resolution" (I don't really believe in resolutions and I don't believe New Year is the only time we should be making goals, but that's a whole other story). I really ENJOYED running the races last night and this afternoon. It wasn't just that I was finishing with great times (for me). I actually enjoyed the RUNNING. The feeling of strength in my legs. Knowing I'm physically and mentally capable of doing something I wouldn't have dreamed of a couple years ago. It's a great feeling. Oh yea, and sorry about another car picture. Mother Nature decided she couldn't hold it in any longer JUST as I was walking out the door of the community center and heading for my car. lol.

Oh, and funny story. I was telling my parents about these virtual races and fun runs and they decided to be smarty pants(es?) with the Resolution Run bib. While I was asleep, they took my bib, stuck a post-it note over MY resolution and wrote "sleep more" on it, stuck it next to my head, and took a picture. I didn't know about it until I uploaded the pictures off my camera a couple minutes ago. Yea, hilarious. And, no, I'm not going to post that picture on here. lol.

A huge thanks to Kiley and Amanda for hosting such great races/runs! Hope everyone had a great NYE/NYD and here's to a great 2012! :)