Go Away

Sep26

I am officially in taper mode for the Chicago Marathon and of course, I’m restless. This is a time when I need to be taking it easy with my intensity in the miles I still have remaining as well as the cross training that I am doing. Things that for a person like me, are much easier said than done.

I have chatted with a few people and gotten some great advice on what to do during my taper. It shouldn’t be so hard, considering that I did a taper before the Green Bay Half Marathon I ran in May. However, I didn’t really feel a need then to “chill” during taper because I had already so many half marathons. Continue reading →

It’s Getting Real

Sep18

Sunday I ran a 14-mile cutback week run long run. I was supposed to run it on Saturday, but having been dealing with a cold that just won’t settle in my body or go away and dealing with crappy work hours, I have been exhausted. So exhausted that I ended up sleeping for a really long time on Saturday. Clearly I needed the rest and the me of now gladly took that extra rest. Months ago, I would have tried to push through it, but now I really “get” the importance of rest to make myself perform well.

Anyway, I think my 14 mile run was probably the best one yet of my marathon training season. Probably because the temps were really cool (yay!) and I felt rested after taking a rest day on Saturday. During my run, I did get rained on quite a bit. About half an hour into my run, it started to sprinkle. Then when I had reached the halfway point, it really started to rain. Fortunately, there was no lightning so I could continue on in my run. As for the rain, it actually felt wonderful to run in it. It had me getting anxious about a winter run through the snow. That is something I have wanted to do for a long time and I’m hoping this winter I have that chance. Continue reading →

Running and Music. Music and Running

Sep7

September 7th was a 20-mile run. I wasn’t even nervous about it. In fact, I was looking forward to it. A few weeks ago, I was freaking out about 17 miles. After I finished the 17 miles, 18 and 20 were just no big deal to me.

This 20-mile run in addition to getting used to being in my feet for so long was also special because I did it solo and with no music. I normally run with music, but since I discovered a few weeks ago that my music player wasn’t going to last, I thought I should do at least one really long run without music. And the 20 mile run seemed like the perfect run to do this on for a couple of reasons.

One, it was sufficiently long so that I would have more of the marathon experience. Second because I was going to be starting my run well before the sun came up and for safety reasons, it would be better to be fully aware of my surrounding until sunrise. Continue reading →

Things are getting less scary

Aug26

This past weekend I ran 18 miles. That was by far the longest run I have done. At least the farthest I have done on a training run. In my first attempt at the marathon, I made it just past mile 21. In any event, the 18 miles actually felt pretty good. This was kind of surprising to me considering that the week prior, I had 17 miles to run and the entire week leading up to the 17 miles, I was freaking out about how far I was going to have to run.

I chose not to do the 17 miles with my pace group for various reasons and it turned out I did alright. Although, I did have to adjust where I ran because the Air & Water Show was happening so I couldn’t run as far south as I normally would have. Anyway, that run was almost my best long run of the year except around mile 10, I started to get a weird pain in my calf near my knee. Continue reading →

The Dead Body Run

Aug5

It isn’t every day that when you decide to go on a 15-mile run, you come across a dead body. This is especially true if you are running in a highly populated area. Most people would expect that if you a person were to run across a dead body, it would be because you were running trails in the woods or on country roads.

However, this past Saturday when I left to go to the Lakefront Running Path in Chicago for my group run, I did indeed see a dead body. I live in a very populated area so I wouldn’t exactly expect to see one. It is a very residential area that I was running through to get to the lakefront and only expected to see the random early bird person out as I was.

Instead, as I was roughly 0.38 miles into my run, I saw flashing police lights. There were no sirens or anything, just the lights. As I got closer, I then saw that a police car had the street blocked and there was yellow tape up. Then, as I was passing the scene, I saw the dead body. Fortunately, it was covered with a sheet. Continue reading →

I Wish I Had Friends

Jul22

Thursday night, I ran in the inaugural Esprit de She race in Chicago. It was a 10K and a 5K race. I signed up to do the 10, but because the temperatures were so high, the 10 was canceled so everyone had to do the 5K. Part of me is happy about that because I would have pushed through to do the 10 and perhaps regret it later.

In any event, I was only one minute slower than my fastest 5K time. Not bad considering the heat was forcing us runners to go slower. If the temps were decent, I can only imagine what my 10K time would have been as well as my 5K split.

Continue reading →

Athletes, Burnout and Routine Shake ups

Jul13

Before I started marathon training, I had been taking a number of rest days. Part of me knows that was completely reasonable to do. Especially since I had run a half marathon and a 10 mile race within six days of each other. During the weeks of the taper leading up to my half, I started to get sick. That would explain my half not being the absolute best and why I ended up missing my time goal.

Anyway, Shortly after the 10 mile race, I ended up taking consecutive days off from working out. And I realized I was starting to get burned out from working out. Yes, I took days off, but then to get back at it seemed like such a chore. I tried to run a couple of times and each time, all I could muster was a mile. It felt so pathetic. Pathetic because I was the person who had gone over 450+ days straight of doing something, whether it was easy yoga or an intense weight class to leisurely runs. I talked about this revelation with my trainer and she said, well part of it is because I am now an athlete. Athletes have to and do take breaks. To prevent injuries and so as not to start hating what they do. Continue reading →

Being a Troublemaker

Jun23

Cricket Hill in Chicago, IL / Image by flickr user karbon69

I don’t ever set out to be a troublemaker because I have no reason to do so. However, last Saturday, I seem to have put myself in that position. It was my first group run with CARA for the summer marathon training program. I was pretty excited about it because this year I plan to finish the Chicago Marathon and hopefully get myself that much closer to ultimate running goal.

In any event, things were not bad to start. My pace group leader is a hugger, but that is ok. Even though I am not one, I felt prepared for the incoming hug when we met so I wasn’t in a foul mood to start the run. The group is pretty big and already I could tell from our second water stop of the day that there might be some people who will drive me bonkers. There is the lady who I would flat out call a jogger because when we stop, she will jog in place. Why people do that is beyond me because it really doesn’t do anything beneficial that I can see. I guess that some people think they cannot start again after a stop, but really, you’ll start again. Continue reading →

Misadventures

May31

Lately, my life has been one laughable moment after another. Nothing bad, per se except that I have unintentionally made people laugh at stupid stuff I’ve done or have had happened to me.

It all kind of started a few of weeks ago when I was at the gym running one night. I know some people are “surprised” I was at the gym, but I kind of “live” there so whatever. Anyway, this particular night, I wore some grey pants to run in. That was a mistake because about 2/3 of the way through my run, I looked down to see that I was sweating so much that it appeared that I had peed my pants. Had I been wearing black pants to run in, this would not have been a problem.

ANYWAY, when you are at the gym as often as I am, you will start to see the same people around the same time. Lately, I’ve noticed this rather attractive guy there. And he sometimes makes me “Edith googly-eyed” if I see him and he smiles and says hello. (I’M HUMAN OK!) This particular night, when I got to the gym, I didn’t see him so all was well in my world because there was no thinking, do I look unbelievably awful right now?

Continue reading →

I Don’t Know What Else to do

May30

Last week after a run, I was checking a notification on Facebook and ran across the above picture. All I could think was that it summed up perfectly my need to run. I say need because, while I desire to run, it really is a need. When I shared the picture, I said that this is really the only time in my day when I am truly happy.

I know some people took that to mean oh, running is fun sometimes so if you are having fun, then guess you are happy. What I really meant was that for me, running really is the only time during my day that I am happy. I’m not thinking about how I might be disappointing others by being a terrible friend. I’m not thinking about how my life is not where I want it to be or that I am ot in a great job or in a great relatioship. I really do mean that when I am running, I am happy because I am able to do it and all the other things that go on in my life really don’t matter. Continue reading →

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