Tempo, fartleks, studies and goals

I did a 3 mile tempo run this morning. I missed the set time for mile 3 by 30 seconds so that needs work. I tried some speed training the other day after reading Jeanne's blog. I wasn't as daring as her to do 2 minutes of sprints. I settled on 1 minute, then after 30 seconds I decided that was more my lung capacity. I did one every mile. I hate speed work! I remember reading in one of those running books a quote from a guy who says he does no speed work and just runs a 5k every week. Which is basically what I did today. I don't have my splits now, but I did 3 miles in 25 minutes. Not a PR, but much faster than what I'm used to in normal runs.

About a month ago some University students asked me if I wanted to participate in a running study before I ran my PB in the last 5k. Of course I said "yes". Here are a portion of my results:

"You recently participated in the study: Identification of Runners with High Tibial Shock at the University of ______________
Here are the results: The average peak
shock (This is what we measured with the accelerometer that
I taped to your leg.) was 6.3 g on your left leg.
On your right leg, the average peak shock was 10.7 g. Based on
previous studies, peak shock above 8.9 Gs could be considered high.
There is some evidence that high shock may put one at increased risk for injuries
such as stress fractures. If you would like to discuss these results,
please, call me at _____________

Isn't that weird? Do I look like a freak when I run? My right leg does feel different and I push off more with that leg, but I thought that was just b/c it is the dominant side of my body. During the study I had to push off with my left leg at times and that really felt unatural. I'm going to try to do the next study (since I qualify...I don't think that a good thing either). I hope they can give me some tips and maybe help some other people like me with injuries.

Working on 2006 goals tonight. I'm starting to rethink the 2 hour half marathon time. I need to get some running self confidence back immediately. I think I might join the local running group and go on some faster pace runs. It would be neat to try out an 8 min/mile pace. I read somewhere that Oprah could do that for 5 miles. If she can do it I definately can do it.

Happy New Year!

Moi

I do exist. Though not as a cute blond. Let's see what we can gleam from the pre-race picture. I am freezing, the xc course is actually beautiful (though at the time it was just a bitch) I look fat in my red jacket or can I blame it on breasts? Why am I wearing sun glasses on a cloudy day? Oh, and I almost beat the cute blond(niece) who is 19 years younger than me!

I found actual race pictures from that day, but decided against posting pictures of people I don't know. There was one pic though of a girl running in shorts and a summer tank top. Maybe there is something to all that b/c she did kick my ass that day.

Ouch, Ack and quit being a wuss

Ouch:

I worked my core yesterday for the first time in at least a month. I have that nice"ouch" feeling this morning. Which reminds me how much a muscle will go to fat if you don't keep working it. (and I only did maybe 15 min of core work yesterday) I got my bikini catologin the mail yesterday, need to do core work daily if I want to have a stomach half as good as those 20 year olds.

Ack:

My WW weight on Friday the 23rd (in jeans mind you!) was 145. My weight on the scale this morning (naked, mind you!) was 150. My weight on Saturday the 24th was 143 (naked) so either way I either put on 5-7lbs on in 5 days. I ate 3500 extra each day. Well who cares. I'm hoping it's that 'ole water weight and will be off my frame by New Years Eve. I've set up a 5 mile run with a neighbor this afternoon. I'm skipping out of work early to get it done. It won't be fast, but at least I'm out there.

Quit being a wuss:

I watched "Real Sports" on HBO last night and finally saw the story about the Hoyt's . Everyone seems to already know their story, but watching them on TV just made me cry. The father is amazing. I actually sat there after the show was over and thought I can do a triathalon. This from the girl who yesterday said she will not run another 1/2 marathon ever again (before she even runs her first). I don't know how many mom's out there have tried to run with a jogging stroller, if you have you know it is hard as hell. Even riding a bike with a kid in it is hard. I can't even imagine swimming (in the ocean) pulling a kid in a boat for 1 -2.8 miles. Not a 40lb child either. I think when he trains without his son he puts 80lbs in the stroller and he's 65 years old! Anyhow the point of this rambling is ... I have been a wuss. It's time to stop and get busy.

Back

Twas the night before Christmas. Do you like my tree angel, it's the head of a black lab on an angel body. It's been cracking me up for oh, about 7 years now. Notice there are no real balls on the bottom half of the tree. Whatever is there is cheap plastic. I bought the little one a "little people nativity scene." Figured I was safe. Yeah right. He took the little people and threw them at the tree. I think a donkey might still be stuck in there somewhere.

Thank God it's over. I've done the following since I've been gone:

broke in my new running shoes.
Had some awesome runs and gym workouts.
Actually ran in shorts in December
Functioned on very little sleep the week before Christmas. (if I was lucky 4 hours a night)
Had a mini breakdown in the Costco parking lot (that was weird) I hope my kids forget that scene.
Took some drags off a cigarette (needed stress reliever before I had a major breakdown)
Decided that I needed to divorce my husband about 3 times the week before Christmas (do you really need to hunt ducks two (2) days straight while I'm losing my mind planning and cooking a feast for YOUR family? Huh, do you...I'm still waiting for an answer..he just ignored me.
Decided that I will never do xmas eve dinner again
Threw a fucking awesome xmas eve dinner (i rock!)
Lost 3 lbs (then promptly gained it back)
Ate for two days straight and my only exercise was getting my ass off the couch to scrounge for more food.

That was yesterday. I went to the gym today and did an eliptical workout. It was hard b/c you are what you eat and I ate all the crap food I could find. Today is a new day and back to the normal routine. I feel 100x better. How I functioned for the past year(S) like this I will never know. Cigarette smoking sure must of helped me a lot.

One of the reasons I took such a long break from blogging is I'm beginning to wonder if I suffer depression (which I never believed in) or maybe it's just the season. I'm not sure. After talking with my best friend we decided that we need a pill that takes the edge off (of life ) and that we wasted all our money on drugs in our 20's when we definately didn't need them. We need those drugs now in our 40's. It was a pretty deep, funny conversation. By the end of the conversation I felt so much better knowing that I'm not alone in these feelings. I'm going to see how the next 6 months go. By then spring will be here and maybe this depression thing is really the holidays and the winter solstice. I just don't want my kids to think their mother is a raving lunatic that lays on the couch every night. (which is pretty much what I thought of my mother, but I did love her a lot and really appreciate all that she did/gave up for me)

The half is coming up in March. My friend (bons) who decided we needed to run this event is finally getting her shit together and bought new running sneakers and some winter running gear. I don't think she has run since early November. She is hooked on some 12 week training schedule she got off the internet. I've seen the schedule and don't really agree with it, but whatever works for her. My long distance is still around 7 miles. I wanted to be up to 10 by now but the weather, Christmas and my life in general has gotton in the way. I think the new sneakers have taken care of my leg problems. I need to drop 10 before this race. I will work on that in the new year. I really, really want to finish this half in 2 hours. (b/c I only plan on running this long distance once in my life) My last run which was 6.82 miles was done in 1 hours time. Good right? Well my last mile, which I felt like I was sprinting I look down at my watch and it says 9:20! Ack. There is no way I was running that slow. I was quite pissed at that time. I need to start doing tempo runs immediately.

Bleck

Is that even a word?

It's freezing here on the East coast. I haven't gone out for a run or exercise since Sunday when I had that horrible run.

Work is a bear and the Christmas holidays are starting to stress me out mentally, financially, decoratingly and cookingly. Made up words, but you get the point. I hope to get at least 3 workout sessions this week and next week.

This is my last post until the holidays are over. To much on my plate and too boring to post about it all. I hope to keep up on reading about everyone else....but it looks like we are all busy with our lives. (which is good)

Merry Christmas everyone.

See you soon.

damn

I think my shoes suck. Right now I have bandaids on the arch of my one foot. Can one foot be an overpronator and the other not? Anyhow I can't afford another pair of $80+ sneakers until after Christmas . This sucks. Maybe they need to be "broken in". I don't know, but I am really bummed about this. My run today was the worst ever #6. I walked a ton after mile 2, and mile 3 was finished in about 10:25. Some parts of my 3-5 mile loop have sidewalks and of course nobody shoveled them. I did a lot of running on a road with no shoulders. And some drivers don't want to move over for you. They just drive down the road like you are not there. So there were some stopages where I just jumped onto the snow. Sometimes I wave at these drivers in a thank you sort of way. I really want to give them the finger though.

My weight.....i'm close to 5lb gain. Could be from the parties yesterday and the wine and beer, and/or PMS. One thing that was nice....since I don't smoke anymore I'm not that loser outside in the cold weather puffing away and coming in the house stinking. Also if I were a smoker I would of felt more like crap this morning than I already did. I still want one though. I wish that would pass.

I'm hoping to try out my sneakers on the road again soon. If not I might skip the stepper this week and do sprints on the treadmill.

What I have done:

The good:
I got my new sneakers and I love them.
I made my Italian Wedding soup in pretty much one night (unheard of)
Cleaned my refrigerator - gross
Primed/painted a ton of wood
Eliptical for 40 min level 8 hill
Ditto on the above for Saturday's workout too.
Ran 4+ miles without reviewing/recording splits (a small miracle)

The Bad stuff:
I couldn't stop eating on friday
I didn't get to go to work friday b/c my husband took the 4wheel drive. Lost pay 4 hours
I can't run until Sunday b/c of the snow and ice (most of my running is hills and that is where all the runoff is) and Saturday is the start of all the Christmas parties.

Other than that not much to blog about. I'm absolutely discusted by Friday's eating. I almost went swimming today after my eliptical workout, but the time was not there since the first of two parties started at 10:30. I cannot wait to try my new shoes out. I could of brought them to the gym today, but their too virginal for that. I need to break them on cold hard black pavement. I'm hoping to get 3-7 miles in tomorrow. (probably will be closer to 3 with all the black ice and snow on the roads) I did go running with a neighbor on Thursday. I miss running w/people. It was nice to talk about stuff and was a very enjoyable run. I wasn't for once going "for times" My neighbor wanted to get 4.5 miles out of the run so I took her on my loop (her's is to flat and boooring) She was intimated by a hill in our neighborhood and told me she might walk part of it (it's not that bad!) anyhow she ran the two hills I led her to and I got an email yesterday thanking me for it. That was nice.

Case solved:
Ok. Mary and the wise man were found in our living room. (though not together) Joseph, he was behind the piano. The head.....well it seemed to appear by the original crime scene. I have yet to question the family about it. But all is good at nativity land. A little gorrilla glue will make everything fantastic. Now if I could just find the glue.

There is a crime scene in my house. Mary, Joseph and one of the wise men is missing. The other wise man has been decapitated. Baby Jesus has lost an arm and his head is hanging on by a "Made in China" sticker. No one at the scene is talking. We have a suspect in mind.






His name: David _______
alias: Babycakes, Hugger, Deej.
and he is NOT talking. We found him in his rocker waiting for; the cookies to come out of the oven, to scarf the ones waiting to go in, to grab the scissors his mom left right there on the counter top, getting ready to stand on that rocker and go face first into the oven door. We will never know. We are hoping to find the missing persons before Xmas or we will search for other "players" to pose in the Nativity scene. Updates to follow.

I have been eating cookie dough for the entire weekend (hence the 2lb gain) and I don't care. (5lbs and I'll be freaking out though)

I tried my friends free sneakers (that gave her black toenails) they basically suck. I ran my worst ever today (it was only 3 miles) I walked at one point, felt like I had lead weights in my soles and was pretty much miserable. On the brightside though.............I don't need new brakes on my car(i really have to play the lottery with all this good luck I'm having) One thing about the new shoes I tried out... I had no leg problems whatsoever. To bad they are horrible to run in. They actually felt like my old New B*lance sneakers. I'm actually looking forward to my elliptical/stepper workouts at the gym. I'm hoping I can get a session in tomorrow. It depends on how much snow we are getting and all the freaks that freak out about it.

I'm the biggest sap

but more about that later.

My shoes are shot. I had a feeling that they were. The good news is they worked perfectly for my feet (i'm an overpronator) and I wore them down right down the middle. I guess I'm sticking with adidas. Why is it every running store tries to get me into Nike? Nike is about 2 steps up from Walmart in my book. I refuse to shop at Walmart on principle and have not bought any Nike product in I don't know how many years. The guy at this running store didn't push the Nike, but all running stores try to steer you to Nike. Though my husband thinks Nike is the best. Maybe I'm over analyzing this.

My legs (lower hamstrings) are killing me. I went for my 7 mile run today and the first 3.5 miles were great. After the "killer" hill the legs started to go. I did more walking today then I have in a long time. I was pretty bummed, but what can I do about it? What I don't get is that I have been using resistance training on my lower hamstrings. Hmmm. Well anyway I'm sticking with elipitcal and stepper during gym days (b/c I know this leads to split improvement)

I must say I love my wicky clothes. I went to Target (after spending $$) at the running store and checked out their products. Of course they were cute as can be. But the stuff I have is just fantastic. I wear my bra, a tight summer tank, turtleneck and this thin jacket. I'm so toasty on my runs. It's amazing what the right fabric can do. I don't have any money regrets on the clothing I got. I just need to find out how to come up with an extra $89 for the new shoes I desperately need. My running parter had a pair of adidias that were bad for her feet. We don't know if they are for overpronators, but I'm going to try them on my next run and see what happens. If they can get me through January I will be psyched. If not I'm going to have to come up with the money somehow. My body canNOT handle the pain it is in. I might take a day off tomorrow from the running scene (or do a small 3 mile run) OR I will run xc on Monday since I finally get the whole pole direction thing.

I made pizzele's today. Not to shabby for a first try. But and this is a big but I think the electric irons are for the birds(the cookies are to thick for my taste). I want the vintage iron. So no Italian cookies for Christmas . I can save $30 on no iron and that can go to the shoe budget. Baking part II will happen on Sunday. I'm trying greek cookies (if I can find my candied cherry's tonight at the store)

The hubby and awesome neighbor/carpenter Steve put in a new (another early xmas present..I'm glad my family is so practical) door today. We now have heat in our laundry room and not the polar express back there.

Speaking of the Polar Express I bought the movie today (saw it last year in the theatre) and it is an awesome movie. (especially if there are little ones that love trains in your household) Anyhow I'm watching it and by the end I'm gasping for air (kinda like in mile 1 of a run) the tears are coming and I'm choking up. I'm doing this on tv shows too. Last week I was watching Cold Case and I'm practically bawling at the end of the show. My husband comes in and asks how it ended and I can barely get the words out 10 minutes after it ended. I can't even blame it on PMS. Actually my all time cry movies are: ET, Saving Private Ryan, (my husband won't admit it, but he cried at the end of this movie) Steel Magnolias, Terms of Endearment, I think I cried at Forest Gump too.

Found my zen?

Ok. The pissy fit/rant whatever is over. Things got so much better on Wednesday that I should of played the lottery. Hubby's car went from $500 down to $50. I still need new brakes though. The stove ignighter switch ($299 with labor...and it took him 10 minutes to do it) is an early Christmas present. And finally Lost was actually back to it's fantastic writing. Or maybe it was because the Ana Lucia character was only on for a couple minutes.

I think all my anger and hysterics can be attributed to several things. A bad workout and weak goals. First, since I don't have smoking anymore (God, I miss it somedays) cardio and weights are my salvation. I had a 30 min hard core eliptical in my head and ended up doing a bouncy sprint routine for 17 minutes. I could not get any of my money frustrations out. I don't even think I sweated on Tuesday. Now my weak goals. I have two goals...lose 10lbs and run a 1/2 marathon in 2 hours. Those are pretty lame goals if you ask me. I need more detailed goals. I'm reading an excellent book on goal setting. I will put a link to the book on this website if I think it is worthy. Another problem I seem to be having and fits in with my pissy rant is uncontrollable circumstances. I don't do well with change. For example the breaking down of everything in the house throws me for a loop, then the construction that is not going on was frustrating the hell out of me. Actually I got that moving, by doing it myself the other day. Husband somehow became a perfectionist within 24 hours and took down my wainscoting work and redid it. I thought it looked fine, but he was unimpressed. I'm still not impressed with his carpentry skills, but that is to be expected since I can be a real bitch. I would love a nail gun though. ($300) Hammering nails is for the birds.

I ran Thursday. My goal was 5 miles and I only did 3. My knee was killing me and I will no longer run through some types of pain. Knee pain being the main one. I am in desperate need of new sneakers though. I'm hoping I can hold out through December. I got an awesome eliptical workout today. Damn it was good. I did my usual hill profile and sprinted on the hills. According to the machine I burned 430 calories. I decided on the eliptical to set up gym goals (my epiphany when the heartrate hit 170) every week. I need to get back into "diet" mode too. This will be hard during the holidays. I might just set the goal to maintain my weight until Jan 1. My Irish side has dissapeared and the Italian side is out in full force. I'm beginning cooking mode this weekend. I'm attempting the whole baking/cookie thing again (God, help me) doing the wedding soup, apps etc for Christmas eve. I like to plan early on all this.

I will also try to get at least a 7 mile run in over the weekend. I'm really looking forward to that. It would be nice to get an early run in, but hunting season is in force and we have Church on Sundays so an afternoon run it is.