San Quentin run

I managed to run in Marin!  Running while in the midst of a slew of 12 hour night shifts has proved to be near impossible for the last six months, though I managed to do it before then  I have been over successful in convincing myself to just roll over and get another hour's sleep, time after time.  This tactic in NOT going to work during marathon training, though, so I knew I was going to have to HTFU. I managed to do this yesterday, and cracked off an 8 miler before work, under my target pace no less, and came in at 1:33. Not bad. The run was fantastic, as I discovered a whole new place to go right ou the front door. Now I had run previously in the same general area -- paved bike paths through residential areas, parks and whatnot. On the advice of my Marin roommate, I took a left instead of a right And found myself on flat dirt paths headed in all sorts of directions. I very rarely run on anything flat, so I was digging it. The scenery was pretty spectacular as well, so I was in a bit of running heaven. Not heaven?  The picture above, taken smack dab in the middle of the run--San Quentin Prison. We see a lot of these prisoners in the ER and, well, it's not a very nice place, despite the view.

So I was going to get out there today and repeat the feat but disaster! Gary the Garmin was left on and done ran out of juice.  I am using this as an excuse to stay in bed and laboriously type blog posts on my iPhone.  Lame!  I should be disgusted with myself, but it's quite amazing how I can use the least excuse to justify my laziness while bogged down in my week o'work.

Oh, and it's raining too!

Having said all of the above, I do think I need to get out there, if not for the 9 miler I should be doing, then at least for one of the simple 3 milers on my schedule, as this week is a busy one of lots of travel, and a probably impossible running schedule (more on that later).

So I'm hoping I press send and get the fuck out of bed and HTFU and go out for a run even in the rain even without Gary, it's only 3 miles. There's a high chance that I'll just roll over and get another hour, because that's the way I roll. Over.

Update:

I rolled over . . . and out of bed. I ran a nice 4 miles in about 45 minutes. I'm so glad I did. Yay me!

Not on the treadmill

Another revelation: I can't, for the life of me, run on a treadmill.  It was very cold this morning, and Tom's invitation to the gym just seemed better than braving the cold crispy outdoors.  I was supposed to do three miles -- piece of cake! -- but managed just two.  Good gawd, that thing is boooorring!   I'll remember this, and choose the cold next time.

Or that nice nifty new track.  I'm trying to get out of my expensive gym membership, which I have barely utilized.

Hell yeah, I'm a RUNNER!

I should clarify something that came up in the comments for my last post . . . I know I'm a "Real Runner", and would get all up in someone's face, probably complete with spittle, if they were to suggest otherwise.  Hell, 3 years, lots of races, hundreds upon hundreds of miles, training schedules and all that peeing on the side of the trail ALL speaks to that.  I mean, man! I have a Garmin for crying out loud! Of COURSE I'm a runner! But . . .

. . . sometimes I still FEEL like I'm pretending.  Like I wish I was.  Like a wannabe.  Like even though I have all the bibs and the miles and the shoes and stuff, there's that awkward, un-athletic school kid who always got mocked and chosen last in gym class* inside of me and someday, someone's gonna figure that out and be like, "You! Don't belong here!"  I've spent a lifetime not being able to catch a ball, correctly swing a tennis racket or run a mile and while I know that I have changed at least some of that and have more endurance that probably 80% of the people I know, that subconscious self-image of a loser is a lot harder to shake.  Consciously I'm full of "I rock!  I ran 8 miles today and I fucking rock!" but there's still that little nagging voice in my head saying "You can't do that!" (hi, mom!)  Even though, obviously, I am more than capable of doing just that, and much more (have I mentioned I'm going to run a marathon?!?).

THIS is what I'm hoping will finally go away this year, this nagging self-doubt that I have no earthly control over.

THIS is one of the many reasons I love running.  Because it will go away, and it will be because I've run it right into the ground.

::stepping off my little soapbox of self-revelation::

*I almost didn't graduate high school because I skipped my entire senior year of PE.  I hated gym class with a passion!

Plans for 2010

A little late off the starting block, here's my plans for 2010 . . .

I'm hoping that this is the year I finally become a Real Runner.  3 years under my belt, and I still feel like I just get out there and flail around, full of slow and full of klutz.  I don't think either of these axiomatic truths about myself will really ever change  -- maybe I can speed it up a little, but I'm not interested in an undue amount of suffering and dying, and therefore not interested in running 8 minute miles.  I'm not interested in falling down either, but I *DO* that, and at least it's kinda funny.  Sometimes.

So I think I'm going for distance.  I *THINK* I can do distance.  Like, serious distance.  Like, really serious distance.  Like, I may be fooling myself, but check this out:

Bidwell Classic Half Marathon, March 6 (Chico, CA)
Rock n' River Marathon, May 2 (Reno, NV)
High Sierra 20 Mile Trail Run, May 15 (Bishop, CA)
Celebration of Life Women's (sprint) Triathlon, September 19 (Grass Valley, CA)
Marin County (olympic) Triathlon, October 31 (San Rafael, CA)
High Desert 50K(!!), hopefully December 5 (Ridgecrest, CA)

This is a starting list.  I know more races will fill in a lot of the blanks, plus there's my running club, local races, and races of fellow bloggers that make me jealous and I just gotta join in.  I've thrown in a coupla tri's, even though I'm geting less interested in multisport stuff as time goes on, I think having a few in there will help with cross training and being a stronger runner.  I'm going to run the celebration of life triathlon FOR somebody, actually doing some fund raising (SO not my thing, but), and I really really enjoyed the Marin tri, so I think those two will probably be it for tri's.  This might change . . . but I doubt it.

Oh, yeah, and last on the list?  If I don't die training for (or running in) the marathon, I'm throwing my hat into the ultra running field.  There, I said it, therefore it will come true.  Oboy!

In other areas, I'm totally committed to at least 2 and better would be 3 yoga classes a week, harder than it may seem because I'm only home a little more than half the time.  I think I can pull this off.  Also, right now I weigh 152 -- I'd like that to be 140 by March, but as I refuse to actually d.i.e.t. (on moral grounds, as in -- it is immoral to deny myself those little treats I want so much) this might be a little hard to reach.  I'm hoping with the increased milage and the regular yoga classes, the pounds might just melt off, but as I'm over 40 those days may be gone for me.  I also want to be more consistent with the blogging thing (don't hold your breath), brush up on my Spanish, spend some time playing banjo, and keep my car cleaner.

I seriously doubt anything in that last sentence is actually going to stick, but I'm all on board with the previous items.  C'mon, 2010, this is the year!

YAYs

OK, I know I had a post awhile back titled Training Begins, but I really just fluffed around for two weeks and barely got outside, never mind training runs.  This is normal for me with my running.  After a break (self imposed or otherwise) I am just Seriously Lazy Girl and really don't want any part of anything that means moving fast (relatively!).  I admit this freely to myself, and should have built 2 weeks of fucking off into the training plan.  Well, actually, I did, but in a failed attempt to motivate myself I was all about blogging the beginning of my running season.  Silly girl.

Anyhow, I don't worry much about it (even though that really long race looms in the future) because I knew it was only a matter of time before I got it together.  I think I have, yay, and hopefully my running log will appreciate it!

Today I went out and started my mishmash training plan.  Yay!  And for the first time in a non-race situation, I had a pace and distance goal, and was determined to do my best to meet it.  Not a huge goal, mind you, but 12:08 for 4 miles, ok, I'm down with that.  The first half was a piece of cake, I just cruised and felt great (yay again!).  Second half trickier, as there was a maybe 350' elevation gain, including a killer hill right at the very end -- I stopped here once, for maybe 10 seconds, otherwise steady on the hills with a little slower pace.  I *totally* met my goal, yay #3!

Mile 1: 10:49
Mile 2: 11:21
Mile 3: 11:48
Mile 4: 12:27 (that hill!)

Problem, solved

I run with music.  Always.  Without music -- or, probably, without the Garmin -- I quickly move from "yay! I'm running!" to boredom to apathy to focusing on all the wrong things to "why? am I running?" . . . I seriously doubt that I would be a runner if I couldn't pop on the tunes (not to say I'm any connoisseur of music, in fact my playlist is embarrassingly retro).  Unfortunately, I apparently have odd shaped ears, because anything that I pop into (or on, or over) my ears quickly pops right back out again.

This pile represents a fraction -- and I really mean a very small fraction -- of the earbuds, earphones and various listening devices I have tried over the years.  In-canal, over-the-ear, earbuds, snap-on attachments, strap-on attachments(!!), cheap, expensive, recommended and bought on a whim, I have had all kinds of little things bringing the tunes to my brain and they never, ever, EVER stay in my ears for more than 5 minutes at a time.  I can't imagine what my running form must look like, 'cause for a large portion of the time I am fiddling with infuriatingly evasive bits of plastic that seem to work for everyone else, but nothing short of duct tape will keep them anywhere close to my ears.  My running bag is full of cast-off experiments, and my house is filled with those little rubber earpad things that supposedly hold the things in the canal -- these rubber dohickeys have now rolled onto my desk, under the couch, on the table, by the tv, EVERYWHERE, it seems, but where they belong -- in my ears.  I have tried everything (except the really really expensive ones because, let's face it, I'll ruin those too).

So when I stumbled on this site, I was pretty skeptical.  I read the testimonials and was all, sure, the idea sounds great, but -- like every other product that claims "stays in your ear!" -- well, they're not talking about MY ear!  For 19.95, though, I figured sure, I'll give it a try, at least I can dig the duct tape out of my ear and experience another spectacular failure.  I was lured by the fact that these little rubber thingies that slip over your standard iPod earphones are "Custom Fitted" -- you actually have to send in a close-up photo of yourself holding a quarter next to your ear.  From there, they determine what size you should have (what a job, looking at ear pics all day, I guess a perfect job for someone with an ear fetish), and then ship these things out to you:

The whole thing slips over the existing earbud, then sits in the cup of your ear, and the little Dr. Suessian horn thing slips into the ear canal.  Imagine my surprise and delight when I went out for a 7 mile run and those fuckers stayed put!  For real!  The entire time (yeah, so it took me 1:30 to run those 7 miles but hey! 7 miles!!) I think I just gave the left one a little nudge, maybe 2 nudges, and that was it.  They didn't move, slip or slide, fall out, pinch or get tangled in my hair.  I don't know that the sound was any better, but it was certainly amplified and I had to turn the volume way, way down to reach a comfortable level.  They didn't fall out, they didn't fall out, they didn't fall out!

This is like a revelation!

If you suffer from chronic earbud-fallout-itis, seriously, give this product a shot.  They worked for me, and I truly thought I was a lost cause.

(I am in no way getting paid or anything for this little product review -- as if!)

Finally!

A post!

I just haven't been into blogging so much recently (that's a first -- not!), making me even more appreciative of you guys who are sticking around to read my (as of late) infrequent posts.  I've got a number of ideas for future posts (well, I guess I'm a little late for the "Year in Review" and "Goals for 2010" posts that seemed so prevalent a week ago) so maybe I'll get on it a bit in the next few days . . .

Meanwhile, I've sloooowly been getting my running feet underneath me again.  Good thing, too, 'cause that marathon is only something like 15 weeks away.  I had started a training plan last week, but after doing some more reading and looking around at various schedules and concepts, I've modified it a bit more.  What I came up with is a combination of my original plan, mashed together with another, and then all switched up to fit in with my weird schedule.  So.

I basically took the meat of it from Hal Higdon's Novice 1 program -- this was my original plan, which consists of 4 days of running a week, focusing mainly (exclusively, for me) on milage, and not paying a whole lotta attention to pace.  Sounds like me, yes?  A few days ago, I read something about Runner's World Smart Coach, and bopped on over to check that out.  Here you input your time from a recent race (I based mine off my 2:21 in the Death Valley Half), how much you're running a week currently (10-15 miles), how hard you want to train (I got wild and chose Moderate), plus the distance you are training for and the time frame you wish to do it in.  Presto! A custom training plan!  I gave it a good look over, and decided that I liked the milage from Hal's plan better, but got to thinking that it wouldn't hurt me (much, hopefully) to incorporate a little speedwork into the mess.  So I cribbed some of the pacing and tempo run information (me! doing a tempo run! this oughta be interesting!) from the RW schedule and imposed that into Hal's program.  If it works out right, and I stick with it (I'm shooting for an 80% compliance rate, we all know I'm a lazy girl), supposedly this will bring me to a 4:50 marathon finish time in May.

Huh.

Meanwhile, I am up to doing a yoga class almost every day when I am home.  Really!  I'm totally into it, and am already noticing some definite improvement to my (arthritis-ridden) spine.  Wonder of all wonders, now a month and a half in I am starting NOT to fall down a ridiculous amount of the time.  Mind you, I am still falling down with depressing regularity, but it's kind of a normal amount of falling down for a clutzy beginner, as opposed to the amount of falling down you might expect from someone unfamiliar with the concept of gravity.  Progress!