Monthly Archives: May 2013

Hurts-so-good soreness and my new running toy

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I’ve been thinking about two blog posts for the last week. But I’ve been super busy and haven’t had the wherewithal to sit down and write them out. So now it’s two (or three?) topics in one
Last Wednesday afternoon a text showed up “want to go see Iron Man tonight” the answer was “of course” but I had planned to run with a co-worker. I checked movie times and there was one that we could go to at 7:30. This would give me enough time to run, change back into real clothes, and drive to the movies. It also meant no time to stretch after the run and rolling up to the movies a little smelly. I figured NBD, I wasn’t doing a hard work out and I was meeting another runner who know’s that sweat = smell. My timing was right and I got there with enough time to stop at the Whole Foods to grab dinner to sneak into the movies and then play a little Galaga in the lobby. (We went to see Iron Man 3. Are you surprised video games were also involved? No). The movie was really good but half way through nature called. As I stood up to sneak out of the theatre every muscle from my belly button down groaned. And it made me so happy. I was sorry that I didn’t stretch and that I was hurting my body, but that kind of soreness is just so gratifying. It’s the reminder that you worked hard. I stretched some before bed and that helped. My legs woke up happier Thursday morning.
Friday, my new Garmin 210 came in the mail! I’ve been saving for it for a while (throwing $1 in a jar for every mile run) and I got some birthday money so it was finally mine. I was at the office until 8 but had told myself I was going to run so when I got home I took my new toy out for a spin and it’s fantastic and I love it so much I just want to squeeze its cute little digital face. Setting out for the run, things were feeling good. And as I was running along I started to think I might run the whole workout. About halfway through I wanted to stop and walk So. Damn. Bad. But I knew if I stopped running, I’d never get back into the groove. By the time I was running up to my house my ribs were on fire but otherwise my body was feeling pretty good. 2.77 miles, no walking!!!! 
I was so glad I didn’t stop. I felt invincible for a little while after. Being at work late meant I was running in the dark , but running in the dark in May >>> running in the dark in January. I feel silly but I always wear my reflective vest and then because it was super dark, I wore my head lamp hat. I’m sure I looked crazy but I like feeling safe. Both from cars and if anyone tries to grab me I know I’ll make a lot of noise but I’ll also be highly visible. At home again I stretched and stretched and stretched, in the light of my hat, which only does so much. And meant that when I laid down on the grass to do some iron crosses and the dew had set in, I got soaked. It actually felt pretty good though and helped cool me off.
My friend Beth stole my gold star idea (well. Imitated? Steal is maybe too harsh). We might as well keep it going. For today’s post I’ve got a gold star for Friday’s run. And for working right through week 10 in my program and moving right into week 11!
Saturday was full of a hike, friends, and babies and it was the best.
Hearts and running progress!

A week of solid running

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I’ve had an entire week of good runs.

Finally.

And by good I mean I didn’t quit, I didn’t feel sick, I didn’t get crampy, And I stuck to my schedule. The runs themselves are still sometimes challenging. But that’s the whole point of 0-13.1, right? I was at 0. I want to be at 13.1. I’m slowly slogging away.

Thursday, after not running for a week, I left technology at home and ran in the rain with just a watch to keep my intervals on time. I checked out a path that is at the end of the street that I’ve know about for a while and just didn’t take the time to explore. Turns out, it’s not just one path. It’s a whole bunch. Through this really nice little marsh and fields and a honest to goodness pine grove. The last drops of rain stopped falling just as I reached the entrance so everything was soaked and quiet. I didn’t have my phone so didn’t take any pictures. I’ll say this. It was so peaceful. And calm. And I never would have found it if I wasn’t a runner! I love that. Also, I almost stepped on a frog. But I side stepped just in time. In lieu of actual pictures I doodled you this
I chose the Sesame Street News Kermit because he’s the best. Also, I love when he says “Kermit THE frog here”
Friday I had a date cancel on me. So I invited myself over to Jennie’s and we sat outside in the sun and drank wine. It was fantastic. Spring is here. Well, it was here. It was 39 when I woke up this morning. I’m trying to block it out.
Saturday I went shopping. I hate shopping. But my friends were going and I could use a few new things. And I ended up doing the most shopping (I think. I at least kept up with the biggest shopper if it wasn’t me). It involved hours of walking in flip flops. And not a lot of water drinking. Then I drank an entire bottle of wine by myself. And then I went to sleep incredibly late. You’d think I was still in college.
My family had evening Mother’s Day plans (hearts to the Mother’s in my life!). I only had to do a little prep so I had the whole day to run. I woke up and said “Oof, no thanks” but then I logged into my email and it had EXPLODED with facebook posts from my running group. And they had all completed their weekend runs.
It now happens every weekend. It’s awesome. And of course if they were all out running all over the country and world (what up, Australia?), so I had to get out there too. The run was not great, thanks to a severe lack of water in my body. But I survived. And I’ve run much, much worse. And actually, my body felt amazing after. I’m still learning this lesson: I’ve decided to set this goal for myself. And for a little while I have to keep it in mind whenever I do anything. Really if I had just kept drinking water all day Saturday and for the better part of Sunday morning I would have been ok. I’m just so bad at water drinking on the weekend. Grr. On the other hand, a couple months ago I would have opted for the nap instead of a run. I’m really glad I didn’t. 
Last night was Wednesday Monday Night Running Club, though we were down a runner due to injury. Sad. But instead of running she made us an amazing dinner (my hungry runner stomach thanks you!!!). My running program is broken into 4 week chunks. Each chunk is in it’s own file folder. For a million weeks (pretty much since I started in November) I’ve been in the 5-8 week folder. This week I’ve moved into the 9-12 week folder!!!!!!!!!! I can’t tell you how exciting it is. It means I’ve finally been working hard enough and consistently enough to keep moving through the program. It makes me feel like I’m getting my life back into balance. It’s almost peaceful. Also. Terrifying. These workouts are getting longer and harder!
I was supposed to run 25 minutes, but was allowed to still have a walking intervals if I felt I needed it. Jumping from 5 minutes intervals to 25 minutes was a little daunting. Plus, I knew Jennie would just make me run 30 minutes (and by make, I mean she would say “You know you want to” and she would be right, but I think it’s still a tad too soon). So to help myself out I said let’s do intervals of 8 minutes running, 1 minute walking. Those are the longest intervals I’ve done in while. Possibly since last spring. My legs were tired and I didn’t think I could keep up the whole thing. We stopped to stretch halfway through to try to make my legs feel a little better. Then I proposed we take an extra minute walking between intervals 2 and 3. After interval 3 (which felt better thanks to the stretching) I knew I’d need 2 minutes again. Jennie always encourages me to push a little harder (it’s reason number 4,208 I like running with her) so to propose it, I knew I’d need to bargain. I traded an extra minute of walking for an extra 3 of running, bringing us to a 40 minute run. Because I knew I could. And I knew Jennie knew I could. At the corner of her street she said 10 seconds left. I said let’s just run to your house. Then she upped it to running until the Garmin said 3 miles. So I followed her. And damn did it feel like a huge accomplishment! All told it was 35 minutes of running!!!!!!! 
And 5 minutes of walking. But we won’t talk about that.
I’ve talked about this before, but I like to write encouraging messages on my mirror. For a while it’s said “Goals are dreams with a deadline; 13.1 in 2013”. After this week, I’m feeling more and more confident that it will happen. And I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
Hearts and goals!!

Headcold and Non-Running Running commentary

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Oof. I got slammed into by a nasty head cold this past weekend. Normally I think “Rub some dirt it in and get back in there” but this time my body said “no way, Jose”. I stayed home and slept Friday and Saturday. Saturday night I went out for a few hours because I had committed to a dinner months ago and really wanted to help celebrate my friend’s upcoming marriage. Sunday I was back to feeling icky again and Monday I woke up and sounded like I’d been smoking a pack a day for a thousand years and walking downstairs to make oatmeal was too much effort so I called my boss and we agreed I should work from home. Yesterday I was back in the office but it was exhausting and thanks to my cold and my body’s insistence that I lay down for 4 days, my apartment was one more mostly empty soup bowl away from an episode of horders. Tonight I went to another Red Sox game (let’s just not even talk about it yet. It was not a good night for the boys of Fenway). This is all to say I have not gone running since Thursday. I will be going tomorrow and I’m hoping to mostly pick up where I left off. Until then, here’s a running commentary of the night because my stupid phone battery is awful and can’t stay charged to save it’s life and I couldn’t #LiveTweetThatBitch

I now present to you what it’s like to go to a Sox game with my BFF

Pre PS: Don’t hate me for using BiFFLe. It’s late and I’m home alone and it’s cracking me up to call her that. ❤ to you KP.

We find our seats. We made it in the top of the 1st inning. A new best for me for the year. Turns out it was because an entire ice age came and went during the 1st inning. My favorite current player, big Shane Victorio steps to the plate and I try to woo. Because of my cold, I can’t woo. This makes me sad. Also makes us think of the Woo girls episode of HIMYM and the sad fact that yes, we are woo girls. And by sad I mean awesome. Because when is wooing not awesome! Also, BiFFLe said it sounded like when the woo girls were sad woo girls and that was even more of a bummer.

2 outs, top of the 2nd. When we CHANGED PITCHERS. Webster went 1 and 2/3 innings and gave up a bazillion runs. Lame.
Me: “Um. It’s 8:10 It’s just now the 2nd inning. We’re never leaving”
BiFFLe: “I think I’ll have to just drive back to work after the game”
Me: “This was going to be a 2 beer night”
BiFFLe: “I think it might be a 3”
Me: “Yup”

Middle of the 2nd – 8:16ish
Me: “Ok. We’ll go for a beer after the Sox bat, or 8:45, whichever is first”
BiFFLe::side-eye::
Me: “Ok. We’ll go for a beer after the Sox bat, or 8:35, whichever is first”
BiFFLe: “Deal”

We I used the ladies, then we got dinner and went for the beer. After April’s promotion of $5 beers the prices went back to normal. Domestic Draft (Bud Light):$8.50. Premium Draft (Blue Moon): $8.75. We were shocked. For a quarter WHO’S DRINKING BUD LIGHT. The pourer at the Blue Moon stand agreed. (I don’t know. Is there a name for this person? Is there a beer sommelier?) (PS I spelled sommelier right on the first try ::drops mic::)

::catches mic:: a la John Krazinski on J-Fal this week (Google/Hulu it)

We were gone for all of 10 minutes and missed the whole third inning. At this point the innings started to blur together. The Twins kept hitting the ball (they did it 19 times) and the Sox kept whiffing. Or stranding runners. Or getting thrown out at first. This became my chant: “Stop letting them hit the ball”

I do know the 4th and 5th went by quick enough. But I think that was mostly because I was focused on not dropping pizza. Also, baby pictures on facebook. What? KP and I haven’t seen each other in a month. We have a lot of catching up to do!

In the 6th, we’re ready for our final beer. Ok. I was ready. KP wasn’t. So I enabled her by telling her “I’m done, drink faster”. We ran down and I ran to the bathroom (I’m trying to drink a ton of water to get the rest of this virus out) and I thought, Well. We’re down by a lot. But it’s the 7th. There’s still time Yes, Jennie, “we”. The Sox aren’t the Sox without the fans. I came of the bathroom and there was already a beer waiting for me. Because my bestest friend is THE bestest. I think we were gone for 7 minutes max. That was the fastest that’s ever happened.

We got back up and in the middle of the 7th I looked around and was wondering why we weren’t signing Take me Out to the Ballgame. It’s because it was the middle of the 6th inning. It’s hard to keep track from the bleachers. Also when the Twins are kicking the Sox all over the field. I’m pretty sure it’s as hard as being a gangsta.

Middle 8 we sang Sweet Caroline. By then so many people had left, we were surrounded by empty seats so I didn’t have hundreds of voices bombarding me. I could actually hear the sound of the crowd bouncing off Fenway. It was odd.

Somewhere in all of this Ellsbury made a weird catch off the Green Monster that I’m hoping someone can explain to me tomorrow. Was it a fly out or a hit??? We don’t know! This is when I continued to yell “Stop letting them hit the ball” and added clapping to punctuate.

The biggest cheer other than the brief glimmer of hope in the bottom of the 1st was finding out the Bruins won. (Go B’s!)

At some point Johnny Gomes was up and KP wanted him to hit a homer to us, right into our beer. Like that Mariners fan. Didn’t happen. Sad.

I do know in the 9th, I yelled “Don’t swing at bad pitches. That’s how you play baseball” And decided I could be a coach with that kind of wisdom tonight. And then I begged the Sox for one more run. It wouldn’t been a win, but at least it would be worth it to be still sitting there in the bottom of the 9th in the start of a rain storm after a crappy game. No dice. At least we got a nice night of weather at Fenway. And beers with a bestie are never a bad way to spend a night. We walked to Kenmore and went our separate ways on the Green line.
At this point my phone was dead, so all I could do was wait. And wait. And wait. Anyone who lives anywhere on the green line knows that the train you want never comes. I looked at the clock: 11:10. It was so late. I just wanted to go home. And so I waited. And waited. And I couldn’t believe I was still waiting. I figured it was at least 15 minutes. I checked the clock 11:17. Seven minutes had passed. Seven. All sense of time is distorted with no iPhone to distract. Finally the B line showed up and I pumped my fist with joy. The woman next to me said “Exactly”
Once on the B line many things ran through my head, I wish I could have written them down. But I was getting tired and there was some commotion and I can’t remember any except when I rested my head on my hand: My hand smells like beer

Finally in the car and driving home I saw a flash of lightening and yelled “Lighteniiiiiing” Though thunder and lightening can happen in a snow storm it’s rare. So to me lightening means spring is here and summer’s coming. And that means the beach! And hopefully those boys of summer working over at Fenway can get their bullpen in order and start playing like April again. If not, it’s going to be a looooooong baseball season.
Hearts and sleepytime!