A Runner’s Balancing Act

What happened to my little flowering blog? It was blooming so nicely and then I went and forgot to water it for a few days and now its all wilty and sad. I'm so sorry little blog, I did not mean to neglect you so!

After reading Chris's blog today I have to echo his sentiments – I feel like a bad bad blogger. Not only have I been a few days late on posting, but I also have neglected the comments on all of your wonderful blogs. I HAVE been reading, between bites of my lunch at work and for a few minutes during breakfast in the morning, but commenting takes thoughtfulness, and to be quite honest, my literary brain seems fried lately.

This has been a really good week for running. And it only stands to get better, because tonight Joe and I are heading up to the mountains for a little three day camping trip. I know this great running path along the rim near the lake where Joe likes to fish. It's about 5 miles, but at 7,000 feet elevation its a great workout. It's really scenic, so I will bring my camera phone. The really great thing is the campground has a shower, so I don't have to worry about sleeping in my own ick. Joe appreciates it too

This morning I actually got up early (on a workday!) to try running with a new friend. I met Malinda at church a few weeks ago. Come to find out, our marathon finishing times are less then a minute off!  We'd been emailing back and forth and finally decided we should try a run.  So at 5:30 this morning we met at the local park and headed off. I let her show me her route, since I was bored with mine.

It was great, we went into a part of town I don't usually run in and chatted up a storm. Its funny, normally I'm kind of shy and awkward in social situations where I'm having to make conversation with someone I don't know very well. But when I'm running, I'm totally different! I'm just so much more… myself!

We ran for about an hour and the Nike Plus showed a little over 7 miles. Not bad for a weekday! Usually I cap the weekday runs at about 6 miles.  The Nike plus showed a very even pace. That's good, I'm used to seeing that little red line jump all over the place. I really liked running with her. Hopefully we can make this a regular thing.

I've been wanting to pick up some running sunglasses, but I'm leary of getting something that is going to bother me or slide down my noes when I get sweaty. Malinda had some nice shades so I asked her about them. Okaleys. Great. Another $100+ item to add to my ever growing running wish list. Terri, you are not the only one who feels like a high maintenance runner!  [Sigh.] I remember the good old days when the only expensive running item I owned was my shoes. I ran for several years before I even discovered performance sweat wicking fabric!

So here is my wish list incase Santa happens to be reading.
1.) Garmin Watch (I want one so badly, I visit amazon almost daily just to see if the price has gone. I just stare and drool) ($160)
2.) A tiny camera. I really like the Olympus one that is water and shock resistant. Perfect for running ($250) plus extra battery ($30) and a bigger storage card ($30)
3.) A pair of Oakleys ($120)
4.) Nike Amp+ (controls your ipod from your watch!) ($80)

(sorry no time to provide links!)

Yikes! Thats almost $670 worth of stuff! And that doesn't even count the new shoes I will need in a month or so.

Okay, really, I'm not going to buy all this stuff (yeah right we just bought a house and we are totally house poor!). But wouldn't it be nice

I'm going to be without computer until Sunday. Until then happy running!

I love rainy days. I'm sitting here snuggled in warm clothes with a cup of coffee listening to the ran drizzle outside. Luckily, we didn't have any rain on our first Team in Training run this morning. We got really lucky with the weather. We managed to avoid getting rained on, but enjoyed the the cool temps and overcast skies. It was a big group today because they had all the Phoenix teams together partially because of coaching logistics. The spring teams are in the final practices and our coaches are having to work double time in the next few weeks. It’s kind of fun running with a lot of people. The canal we run on is pretty much runner central on Saturday mornings, so it kind of feels like a small race.

Unfortunately, the downside to the big group is it’s a little less personal and I wasn’t able to find many of the 10 “mentees” I have been assigned. Once we break out into our regional groups I’ll have a better chance of actually meeting people.

Ariana, my friend from my last TNT team (and also mentor) is going to be running in the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon next weekend (go Ariana!). She had 10 miles on her schedule today and since I’ve been running 10 comfortably in the last few weeks, I told her last week that I would do 10 with her today. Our plan was to go out with the group and do the official 4 we were supposed to do, and then go back out and do another 6. Well, it didn’t quite happen that way. Ariana and I took off and got well ahead of everyone. The first mile I felt euphoric. The weather was cool (57 degrees!) and the cloud cover and cool breeze felt great after all the hot weather we’ve had in the last few weeks.

At about the second mile, I was having trouble talking without sounding out of breath. Ariana and I used to run right around the same pace, but she has really been pushing herself in training for San Diego and today she was kicking my butt!  By the time we finished the four miles, I knew I was done. I was proud of keeping up with her though. It was a perfect tempo run. I checked the nike plus afterward. Even though it has my overall average was a 8:43 min pace, the two and three mile splits were 7:38 and 7:43. I didn’t pause the nike plus at the water stops or the walking we had to do at the beginning just to get to the front of the crowd, which is why the overall pace is a little slower.

So I guess today’s run counts as a good tempo run. Maybe tomorrow morning I will get up and run around 10 to keep my long run endurance up. I have to make use of this unusually cool weather before it’s gone! We had such STRANGE weather this week. Monday, the high hit 110, which is really high for May. By Thursday and Friday, we had a late spring storm move through and the highs have been around 75! Just about an hour and half drive north from my house, it’s snowing today! Crazy huh!

So here is how my running turned out this week:

Sunday: A warm 7.5 miler starting at 6 am and it was already in the mid 80's when I got home. Felt pretty good even though it was hot.

Monday: Headache, no run. I was totally exhausted at the end of the day

Tuesday: More headache and exhaustion, so no run, but played competitive indoor volleyball for about an hour and a half. We had some extra time before the game to use the court so me and my friend did a lengthy warm up that included some fast paced jumping and hitting drills that had me huffing and puffing.  I didn’t feel great, but when I’m doing something fun, it sure helps.

Wednesday: Still had headache and unusually heavy fatigue, so did a short one just to get out there and shake the spider webs out of my legs. When I started out, I thought maybe I would feel better after a mile or two and be able to get in a 5 or 6 miler. Not the case. It was a terrible run. No endurance in me at all. I turned around at about 1.25 miles, making the run about 2.5 miles round trip. That totally sucked, but I’m proud of myself for at least giving it a try.

Thursday: Had a mild headache in the morning but it departed me by about 3 pm. I had a wonderful, empowering 6 mile run in the afternoon. It was 10 times easier then the 2.5 miles I did on Wednesday. The temperatures sure helped. A storm was moving in and the temps were in the 60’s

Friday: No run, I usually like to take Fridays off. The headache was gone though and I was feeling more like myself

Saturday: Feeling great, did a 4 miler at just under an 8 minute pace. Pretty proud of that!

It was less then I had planned this week, but I’m okay with that. I’m leaving you with some awesome pictures of the clouds that I took with my camera phone after Thursday's run. The storm was moving in, and the clouds were AMAZING! Enjoy!

In response to Chris's challenge to define my life in six words, I say, Grateful to be where I'm at. It didn't take me long to come up with these words. It is explaining them that is the challenge. Lets just say, that in all my 26 years, there is no past moment, age, or period of my life I would rather be living than right now. Sometimes I just want to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. I can't believe I'm married to such a wonderful man, and finally living in a home we own together. We are so lucky to both have found careers we excel at and enjoy and meaningful hobbies (like running for me) that keep our minds and bodies excited for the weekends. To top it all off, we have wonderful friends and family.

Personally, I'm finally at a place where I'm totally at peace with myself. I was reading a few blogs the other day that were supposedly about health and fitness, but were obviously written by authors who were obsessed with diet and exercise. I had to stop reading because it made me feel so sad for those people. They have no idea how much better life is without all that obsessing. I had forgotten how far I'd come since all my issues back in college and reading those blogs made me realize that I am so grateful to be where I'm at.

I love running because it challenges me and gives me personal goals outside of work to keep me going when the daily grind gets monotonous. I love the excitement of racing, even though I'm not particularly fast. I love feeling the runners high after a hard day at work. I love the feeling of accomplishment I get after finishing a marathon. But still, running is really nothing more than a hobby. It is not the axis of which my life revolves around. My happiness is not hinged on it. I don't feel like I need to skip desert if I can't run that day. I'm so grateful to be free from all those distorted thoughts. It wasn't long ago that this life seemed impossible. If your struggling, be encouraged, freedom is possible! I'm there and it's AWESOME.

Thanks Chris for the challenge! It really got me thinking. Unfortunately, I think between you and Terri, I don't have many more bloggers to challenge. I will leave you with some pictures of the me and my hubby Joe. He's the best thing that ever happened to me.

PS: I will blog about this week's runs in an upcoming post.