running

It’s my birthday!

4 Comments

I am celebrating having survived 37 years, I guess.  I met a runner last time I was buying shoes who says he runs a mile for every year he’s been alive on his birthday.  He’s about my age, and his birthday is in February/March (I don’t remember exactly).  It’s hard enough for me to imagine running 37 miles today.  I’ve never run more than 10 miles in one go.  I might do a half-marathon someday,  but I have very little interest in training for a marathon.  And then to go beyond 26.2?  To be an ultra-marathoner?  That just takes up SO MUCH TIME.  I have other things I want to spend my time doing.

Anyway, if I were following that guy’s model, I’d have to run 37 miles today.  Today.  In February.  Sure, I’m in Oregon right now, and sure, it’s not as cold as it would be if I were in Annapolis, but no.  No, thank you, I’m doing just fine.  I’ll celebrate in another way.

This one guy

1 Comment

There’s this one guy in Annapolis who runs every day – okay, there are plenty of people who run every day.  And for all I know, this guy doesn’t run every day, but he runs every day I do, so I’m making an assumption.

So there’s this one guy who, every time I see him running, is wearing ONLY a speedo.  Well, and shoes.  The cold doesn’t seem to bother him.  Maybe he stays in when it’s in the single digits, but I’ve seen him out running when it’s 18 degrees.  It’s possible he puts clothes on to run when it’s colder, but I wouldn’t recognize him, so I wouldn’t know.

I just don’t understand 1) how it’s comfortable to run only in underwear, basically, and 2) why you’d want to.  Oh, and 3) how is he not freezing his you-know-whats off?

I guess Olympic runners run in what is basically performance underwear, but he is not an Olympic athlete.  Did he lose a bet?  Must run in only a speedo for, what, a year?  Really, I can’t think of any other plausible reason to do it.

SO cold

Leave a Comment

Today was unbelievably cold.  Sure, it gets colder in LOTS of places, but I think today was the coldest day of this winter here, and that’s enough for me.  When I went for my run (because I’m tough – I’ll run when it’s that cold), the temperature was in the 20s, winds at 18 mph, and the windchill was 8 degrees.  EIGHT.  It was cold.  I warmed up, as you do when you’re working hard, so I wasn’t miserable the whole time.  Just the first mile…and a half.  And then parts of the fourth mile.  And then, well, I guess the rest wasn’t so bad.

The weirdest parts of the whole run were the parts where I had to cross the bridge.  It’s windy up there.  On my way out, the winds were gusting and they were hitting me diagonally from behind, and when they caught me off guard (which was every time), it was like I was being suddenly pushed towards the railing.  Not cool.  I couldn’t get off the bridge fast enough.  On my way back, the wind had shifted a little so it was blowing exactly perpendicular to the bridge, hitting me on my right side.  No kidding, my right nostril was frozen.  The left was…not.  It was unpleasant.  But it’s over, and next time it’s that windy and cold, I’ll avoid the bridge.  At least the sun was out.

I’ll still have to run in the cold, though.  I want to build distance again, and that means I can’t wimp out.  Six miles today!

Big news!

3 Comments

John passed his pilot’s exam this morning! YAYYYYYY!!!!  He’s got a few more lessons to go (some navigation stuff), and as soon as he’s comfortable solo, he does a check ride with a different instructor, and then he gets his license.  This will be the recreational pilot license.  He’ll get the regular private pilot license after we move.  (Here, I googled that for you.)

This takes some of the stress off of John (both having the exam behind him and getting the rec license first) and will give him proof of competency he can take to the next school.

In other news, it’s stupid-cold today.  I was going to get up when John left for his exam this morning and run before work, but the wind chill was in the single digits.  NO THANK YOU.  So instead, I went at lunch time, when the wind chill was in the teens.  I wore a long-sleeve shirt and TWO jackets.  My body was warm, but my face was cold.  It’s creepy to run wearing a ski mask.  I don’t really know how to get around that problem.  Scarf wrapped around my nose and mouth and cheeks? Hat pulled low over my forehead?  I suppose it’s less creepy than a ski mask, but I’ll still look like I’m going to rob someone.  I’ll even be dressed for the getaway.

 

The house in the hole

2 Comments

Here’s the house I was talking about the other day.  It was still foggy Friday evening when I went for a run (with my phone), but nothing like that day.

IMG_20151225_164049 IMG_20151225_164044 IMG_20151225_164053

It got dark fast, and I found myself at the bottom of a steep hill, so I trudged up to the top and back to the house.  Not that house.  John’s parents’ house.  It wasn’t my greatest run, but boy, was it necessary.  The food, guys.  It’s nuts.

(Also, I’m ready to go home.  Every holiday has to come to an end.)

Mr. Blue Sky

2 Comments

All it takes is one sunny day.  Yesterday was a gloomy, chilly, rainy day.  Today has been the clearest, sunniest day in the history of clear sunny days.  And even though it’s a bit chilly (I wore a scarf with my jacket and hat to lunch), it is glorious.

Good things that happened today, in no particular order:

  • John had a good phone interview for a great job
  • Jess got very positive news about a potential promotion
  • I had a GREAT run this morning (five miles with perfect music)
  • Lunch was half of a delicious burger, split with a giddy Jess
  • Except for one meeting this morning, I have not wanted to reach through my computer screen and throttle anyone

It’s a banner day!  And it’s Friday!

 

From now on, I’ll just pretend I’m invisible when I run

2 Comments

I didn’t need to know this about myself, but now I do, and I’m going to share it with all of you.  When I’m running, and I think I’m going all out and looking smooth and streamlined and super-fast, I am not.  I am not any of those things in that moment.  I got to the end of yesterday’s race and revved up for my final kick across the finish line, and yeah, I picked up speed.  I was going faster than I had been, and I passed a few people.  But I do NOT look smooth.  I do NOT look all head-down, speeding bullet-like.  I do NOT look like a cheetah.

I look like a robot.  I look like a robot on springs.  Who thinks she’s a gazelle.  Seriously, I catch air.  And my arms!  What the hell am I doing with my arms?  I’m pretty sure when I run normally, they stay pretty close to my sides.  But here…man, here my elbows are flapping, and my hands are out – am I trying to grab hold of the air and pull myself along?

On the plus side (I guess?), I have very good posture.

I would show you the actual video, but I can’t figure out how to download it.  Wait – here’s the link.  I’m in the center of the screen by about 4 seconds in, wearing sunglasses and a pink jacket tied around my waist.  It’s probably just as well I can’t embed it.  And I don’t know how long the site will keep it up.  So, you know, if you’re going to watch it and make fun, better do it fast.  I’m not going to tell you how many times I’ve watched it.  John looks normal, and Jess looks cool.  I look like a crazy person.

I don’t need to do that again

Leave a Comment

Whoops, I missed a day.  Well, it was a busy day.  A busy weekend, really.  We spent Saturday morning cleaning up, both because it was necessary and because Sean and Emily were coming to visit, and we spent the rest of Saturday hanging out with them.  I made the worst decisions in terms of food and alcohol – let’s have salad and fish and hey, some raw oysters, and then follow it up with cream-based alcoholic beverages!  Sounds like a plan!  That combination is never a great idea, but it’s especially stupid when you have a race the next day. I woke up this morning at 6:15 seriously wondering if I would be able to run.  I could, and I did, but I wasn’t sure I’d feel well enough until I actually started running.  (I feel much better now.)

Today was the Across the Bay 10K, the race where about 30,000 runners cross the Chesapeake Bay, taking over one of the two spans of the Bay Bridge.  It’s nuts.  We were afraid it would be windy and chilly, but it was sunny and warm-ish, so yay for that.  The logistics were a nightmare: park at the stadium (we jogged there, since it’s only a little over a mile from our place), wait in line to get on a school bus to get to the start line. Run the race, finish on the eastern shore, and get on another school bus to bring us back to the stadium.  Since the eastbound span of the bridge is closed (until 2pm), the westbound span is handling two-way traffic, and it took forever to get back over the bay.  We got off the bus at the stadium and still had to walk over a mile to get back home.

We stopped for brunch at the Irish pub (John had corned beef hash, I had the andouille quiche), and we just got home, and I really want to take a shower.  So, you know, there I go.

My wise little Sansa

Leave a Comment

My little Sansa SanDisk mp3 player knows all.  I went to bed in a mood, and I woke up in a mood, and then I didn’t get out of bed and my mood got worse until I basically threatened myself with bodily harm (it’s called being fat and lazy) if I didn’t get up and run, so I did.  And I’m glad I did.  (No surprise there.)  The sky was overcast and the temperature was in the mid-sixties and the humidity was, well, it wasn’t high, and I had just taken two days off (which is why the threats were effective), so my legs were fresh, and it felt good to run.  Even then, it would have been just okay if it weren’t for my cute little purple mp3 player.

IMG_20150922_102530

I don’t know what songs played during the first few miles (maybe some Van Halen?), but I know that as I coasted downhill about a mile and a half from home, Dean Martin’s “Good Morning, Life” started, and then with a half-mile to go (and the last incline in front of me), I heard Stevie Wonder’s harmonica heralding Sting’s “Brand New Day”.

I am as certain as I can be that my mp3 player has become sentient.  Maybe it happened after a certain number of hours of use for such a tiny little device, maybe it needed this exact combination of sweat and wind and weather, or maybe all mp3 players become aware (or have always been aware), but I KNOW that mine is now.  There are a LOT of songs on it, and while many of them are upbeat (I do use it for exercise), they aren’t all upbeat and they’re certainly not all that positive and life-affirming.  I mean, really.  What other explanation could there be?

 

 

It’s pretty darn nice here

Leave a Comment

I had the best morning today.  Getting up was a little difficult, but I got up and out and went for a run.  Ran over the Naval Academy Bridge (across the Severn River), went a little past and up to a scenic overlook.  I was skeptical, since it seemed like it would just look out over the road (yay road?), but no, they know what they’re talking about when they say there’s a scenic overlook.  There’s a view of the river and the bridge and the academy on the other side.  Scenic.  That was my halfway point, so I came back home thinking I’d grab John and we’d go have breakfast, but he wasn’t back yet.  (He went to Pax River last night to see Shorty and ended up staying.)  So I grabbed my phone and my key, went to Starbucks, and looked for a place to enjoy the sunshine and people-watch.  Found the city dock instead (where we saw a band Thursday night), so I plunked myself down right on the edge with my back to a support post, and talked to Mom and Dad for a half-hour or so.  It was SO nice.  Warm, but not hot, sunny, breezy (no bugs!), me with my iced white mocha.

See my shoes? Proof I was there!

See my shoes? Proof I was there!

Better view, but not great. The sun was in the wrong place. Move, sun! (Yes, let's blame the sun.)

Better view, but not great. The sun was in the wrong place. Move, sun! (Yes, let’s blame the sun.)

I took a few blurry pictures of sailboats that I won’t subject you to, and I tried to get a picture of the guy who was sitting near the top of his big sailboat’s mast doing…something, but that picture didn’t come out well at all.

My terrible photos aside, it was SO pleasant, SO nice, and then as I was walking back to the apartment, I went down the street John usually parks on to see if he made it back, and there he was, driving up the street looking for a spot.  Perfect timing.  After we got his car safely parallel-parked next to a gigantic tree, we headed to West St to check out the flea market (underwhelming, but then, flea markets aren’t really our thing – it might have been an awesome flea market as those things go), and then we had coffee and breakfast at a spot down the road.

Every Saturday morning needs to go like this.  Every morning would be nice, but that might be asking too much.

New shoes! And then more new shoes!

2 Comments

I had a rougher time than usual buying new running shoes over the weekend.  My running shoes were shot -I’ve had them for over year…I’m actually not sure how much longer than a year I’ve had them.  Way too long, certainly, and I could feel it when I ran.  I went to my local running store last Friday evening, tried on 5 or 6 pairs of shoes over the course of 90 minutes (I had a very chatty sales guy), decided on a pair of New Balance shoes, and went home.

See my pretty purple shoes?

See my pretty purple shoes?

I took Saturday off from running, so I just admired my pretty pretty shoes, and then Sunday I took them for their inaugural run.  It was also their final run.  My feet hurt in ways they’ve never hurt before, in places they have never hurt before.  I ran a little over 4 miles, just to make sure I was fully warmed up and loose, and it didn’t get better, so I went back to the store Sunday afternoon.

The chatty sales guy was there and recognized me right away.  He brought out my two runner-up pairs, but he had other customers (who were there when I got there), so I didn’t get much help after that.  I didn’t really need any help, though, so it wasn’t a big deal.  I just tried on one pair, ran around the store, then the other, ran around the store, then the first, then the second, then one on each foot, etc., until I felt comfortable enough with my decision.  Of course, this time I was a little gun-shy – what if I chose badly again?  And I didn’t make it easier on myself – I didn’t choose the same model I had before.  I chose another pair of New Balance shoes, a brand I’ve never bought and the brand of the shoes that didn’t work for me just that day.  But they’re so pretty!

pic_shot_1437942295675

I promise I didn’t pick them just because they’re pretty, and luckily, after two runs now (and a total of 11.5 miles), I can confirm that they’re good (and I am relieved).  Yay new shoes!  But I will be forever nervous when I buy new running shoes in the future.

Heart rate ramblings

3 Comments

The American Heart Association says that when you exercise, you should try to keep your heart rate between 50% and 85% of your maximum heart rate.  The easy way to get your maximum heart rate is to subtract your age from 220.  So my max heart rate is about 184 beats per minute.  85% of my max heart rate is 156 bpm.  My GPS watch came with a heart rate monitor, so I’m usually wearing that when I run.  Based on those guidelines, my warmup should keep me around 100 bpm, and I shouldn’t reach 156 until I’m working hard.  But that’s not how it works for me.  I reach 156 bpm with a light jog.  Running uphill, I hit 165-170.  Sprinting, 185 to 190.

So….am I stressing my heart?  About to die?  I don’t feel like I am.  At 156 bpm, I’m not even breathing hard.  I know those are guidelines, but should I be worried?  I’d been wondering about this for a while, and I finally remembered to ask my doctor about it while I was actually AT the doctor’s office.  (That almost never happens.)

Answer?  If I feel fine, I shouldn’t worry.  They really are just guidelines, and it’s okay if they don’t apply to me exactly right.  So, okay.  No worrying.  But I’m glad I finally asked about it.  I kept remembering that runner a few years ago in Colorado (?) who was running in the heat and had a heart attack and died.  No history of heart problems.  I wasn’t actually worrying about this.  Really.  I lost NO sleep about it.  I just wondered.  Now I don’t have to wonder.  And neither do you.

But I am curious about my resting heart rate.  Sitting here right now, my heart rate is 72 bpm.  You’re supposed to get your resting heart rate after you wake up in the morning, before you get out of bed.  For one thing, I never remember that.  For another, what about alarm clocks?  Does it only count if you wake up naturally?  If the alarm startles you awake, wouldn’t that mean your heart rate is somewhat elevated?  I haven’t checked it in years (either I don’t think about it at all, or I do, but not when I’ve just woken up), but the last time I remember checking, my resting heart rate was about 60 bpm.  I’m curious to see what it is now.  But that will require me to remember to check.  And I don’t have a morning without an alarm coming up for almost two weeks.  Maybe a little more.

Running with purpose

Leave a Comment

We made an actual, literal, grocery run today.  A milk run, even!  The plan was to have tomato and mozzarella sandwiches for dinner (things we already had at home), but John realized (at lunch today, while trying to eat a sandwich) that the bread was moldy.  We’d talked about running after work, so we combined the two and ran to a Harris Teeter a little over a mile away for bread and milk.  If we’d gotten anything else, it would have been awkward to run back, but I carried the bread and John carried the milk like a football (it was a half-gallon).  It worked.  Can’t say I want to make a habit of it, though.

It was nice to run with John.  Usually I run alone.  I might have a running  buddy in one of the women we box with, but we haven’t managed to meet up yet.  She’s running tomorrow morning with someone else we know, but it’s BEFORE boxing.  I wouldn’t mind going for a run and then going to boxing (we might run to boxing tomorrow anyway), but not when it means we meet at 5:10am.  Class starts at 6.  I’ll be there then.  I don’t want a running buddy THAT badly.

Life is a stage

1 Comment

My run this morning was so great, it had to have been faked somehow.  I’m pretty sure I was on a movie set.  It was around 8:30 on a beautiful Saturday morning in spring.  The sky was clear and brilliantly blue and the sun was shining.  Everyone I passed answered my “Good morning!” or least waved or smiled back at me.  My running playlist (which is huge and on perpetual shuffle so I’m always surprised) skewed heavily toward Dean Martin with Three Dog Night’s “Let Me Serenade You” to bring me to the finish line.  The trees are still in bloom, and – I swear I’m not making this up – as I passed under a couple of cherry trees, a breeze picked up, and I ran through a cloud of tiny pink blossoms falling to the ground.  The only things missing were chirping cartoon bird.  I think I’ve seen this happen to Jennifer Garner.  Minus the cartoon birds.  I guess neither of us rate those.

Unreal.

Trying to rush spring

2 Comments

After a ridiculously cold winter, spring seems to be in a hurry to get here, and I’m in a hurry to have it here, but I may have been a little overly-enthusiastic Tuesday morning.  We decided to go for a run instead of heading to boxing (we got to sleep in a whole extra 45 minutes!), and since the temperature was in the upper 50s on Monday (and the overnight lows were in the low 30s but above freezing), the snow was melting and the sidewalks were clear and dry.  Well, they looked dry.  We started out fine, but we found out the hard way which side of our new complex doesn’t get direct sunlight.  Those wet patches where snow was melting were just damp pavement on one side of the street, but we turned a corner and woooo!  Damp patches of pavement turned into icy patches of pavement.  In my memory, we slid a lot and eventually stumbled to a halt, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that dramatic when it actually happened.  It definitely dampened my enthusiasm.  It was still dark out, so I couldn’t tell shadows from black ice, and I didn’t want to fall down and – way to ruin a run.  So I cut it short (I wasn’t going to go long anyway – it’s been weeks and weeks since I ran last) and headed back.  The 10-day forecast still shows a few nights with below-freezing lows, but maybe they won’t be after rainy days.  I am DETERMINED to find the bright side.  Also DETERMINED not to fall on my ass.

Good start

2 Comments

Today is going to be a good day.  It’s nice and cool, perfect weather for running.  I ran three miles, listening to Welcome to Night Vale for most of it.  When the episode ended, I switched to music since I don’t have the next Night Vale yet, and one of the last songs I heard as I pushed to the end was “Waiting for a Star to Fall” by Boy Meets Girl, which I LOVE.  Always have.  So yay happy song, right?  I got home, put Riley’s collar on (making him a happy dog – yay for a walk), and as we left the house, “Mr. Blue Sky” came on.  Super yay happy song!  So I was singing along as we headed up the hill, and Riley seemed to be doing well, and really, how could the morning be better?  The answer, apparently, is to follow ELO with some Queen, since “Hammer to Fall” came on next.  Now I’m home, stretching (and typing), all smiles, and today is going to be okay.

Speaking of music, we saw Guardians of the Galaxy Saturday night (liked it a lot) – the soundtrack is fantastic.

“Waiting for a Star to Fall” , Boy Meets Girl

“Mr. Blue Sky”, ELO

“Hammer to Fall”, Queen

I can wear shoes!

2 Comments

I never thought I’d be so excited about wearing shoes.  And socks!  Turns out a whole week of not being able to wear anything other than flip-flops is nearly more than I can take.  Mostly it was going a week without being able to run (or go to the gym for any reason, including zumba, because working out in flip-flops is not recommended) that was bothering me.  I was doing so well and working out so consistently!  Didn’t want to lose my momentum.

Why couldn’t I wear shoes?  That’s what happens when you have a violent encounter with a cabinet.  You lose (painfully) the toenail off your left big toe, and since it hurts so goddamn much, you can’t wear shoes.  That’s what happened to me last Saturday night.  I was in an unfamiliar hotel room, it was pitch black, I was trying to find my way to the bathroom, and boom: cabinet, toe, toenail askew, lots of profanity.  It was the middle of the night, though, so I continued on my way to the bathroom and back to bed and sleep (despite the throbbing).  It wasn’t until I got up the next morning that I actually looked at my toe (and the barely attached nail) and grossed myself out.  (And you just now, I’m sure.  Sorry.)  I’ll spare you the pictures (because I did take pictures).  Emily and Molly, my angels, went to a nearby drugstore and bought me some bandages and a pair of flip-flops (I didn’t have a single pair of completely open-toe shoes with me), and I patched myself up (mostly rinsing and covering) enough to get home.  Or to get to Urgent Care.  I went there first after 5 hours on the road (it was supposed to be a three-hour trip – this was not a good day).  The Urgent Care people, thankfully, were really nice.  They numbed my toe and removed my nail the rest of the way and sent it home with me.  I almost didn’t take it, but I figured I’d have to show John (who was appropriately creeped out that I thought he’d want to see my detached toenail.  But he totally did.).  Don’t worry, people – I threw it away the next day.  No one who comes to visit has to worry about mutant red-painted toenails crawling towards their feet.

My toe didn’t really hurt anymore by Friday, so that morning I tried to go for a run.  I didn’t get past putting on socks.  Socks are tight!  Did you ever think about that?  Too much pressure.  So I didn’t run on Friday.  Saturday was yard-work day, so I had the brilliant idea of borrowing John’s very large socks.  No pressure, I was able to put on shoes, and (lucky me) I was able to help with the weeding and mulching.  With that success behind me, I put on my own socks today, waited out the uncomfortable pressure for a few minutes, added my shoes, and out for a run I went.  I am back.  Thank goodness.  I was getting tired of flip-flops at work every day.  Everyone could hear me coming.

Trying out insufferable

Leave a Comment

I feel virtuous.  I RAN to my polling place this morning and voted and then ran home.  I exercised my rights as a citizen of this country while exercising.  (John did, too.)  I am proudly wearing my “I voted” sticker, which has so far managed to stay stuck to my sweater, so EVERYONE knows how citizenly and more-civic-minded-than-thou I feel today.

And with that, I think my period of insufferableness (insufferability?) needs to end.  I’m tired, and I’d like to take a nap.

Ow

Leave a Comment

Still achy this morning, but it occurred to me that maybe my legs are achy not just because I didn’t pay attention to my pace yesterday but maybe also because I spent several hours standing around in heels while trying on bridesmaid dresses with Emily AFTER being stupid about my speed.  I thought running through the ache this morning would be good for me.  Maybe it was.  (It’s hard to say.)  But that wasn’t the only reason I ran this morning.  (It wasn’t even the main reason.)  Mostly, I ran because I felt obligated to.  I spend so much time complaining about how I don’t like to run in the dark that I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to run at my usual time (just before 6am) and see the sun.  It was nice (if a little cold).  Also nice?  John told me that I looked super-skinny in my running clothes.  I think I’ll keep him.

Fall perfection

Leave a Comment

I was a little too ridiculously happy this morning.  Maybe it’s that extra hour of sleep, except no, that can’t be it.  John and I deliberately set an alarm for 7 today.  7 felt like 8, which is when we usually get up (or when we usually aim to get up – sometimes we miss), but wasn’t.  Because it was 7.  So we used the extra hour this morning to get up and run.  And that was fantastic.  It was a little chilly to start (mid-40s), but I ran a little over 5 miles, and by the time I got halfway, I had my jacket wrapped around my waist and was running in just a tank top.  (And pants.  I swear I was wearing pants.)  It felt great.  And the sky was blue and the sun was shining and all the trees are changing colors and I had a silly grin plastered on my face because it was all just so beautiful.  Of course, my legs are a little achy now, but that’s my own fault – I got carried away and ran a bit too fast, considering that I haven’t been running as regularly as I should.  I’m paying for that.  But still – happy!