5 1/2 months to St. George Marathon

I haven't done any kind of running for about 3 weeks, since I started homeschool with my 9 year old. I finally escaped today. If I were smart, I would have just done a light 4-5 miles. I went 8 1/2. Anything less than that and I just feel like I haven't worked out. I hate not being able to run in the mornings. I'm going to start just recording any and all working out I do, so that I can at least feel like I'm doing something when I can't run.

So... today 8.5 miles. It took me an hour and 20 min.

bleh.

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New Iron Man in Southern Utah!

http://www.examiner.com/x-2490-Denver-Endurance-Sports-Examiner~y2009m2d6-St-George-Utah-to-host-new-Ironman-race-in-May-of-2010

I tried to post the link to the article here but couldn't get it to work. Anyway... Ironman... I think I'm going to have to do it. I don't ever ride a bike. I have a mt. bike, but never had a road bike. I guess if I feel like I have to do an ironman, I'm going to have to have a bike? Maybe I ought to try a triathlon first too? And the next obvious step before an ironman would be a century? Geez... It's not that I'm competitive. I actually hate competition. I just like a personal challenge. It's a year and a half away and I've been told one should take that long to train. Guess I'll get on it!

Winter blues

I miss my trail so bad. Sarah is getting old enough to know it's not alot of fun to sit in that jogger for an hour to an hour and a half, especially when it's cold. So she doesn't cooperate very much anymore. I haven't been on the trail for probably a good three weeks to a month. Then the holidays, then I got sick. I jogged today on the treadmill at 6.5 mph, 1% grade for an hour. The inside of my knee started hurting. Is that just because I've been sedentary for a while? I'm thinking I'd be better off now starting a cooking blog.

There's a half marathon here in a couple weeks. If I can pull it together by then and actually get some good runs in without my knee causing problems I'll do it. If not, I'll start that cooking blog. I've got a great recipe for Pear Streusel I'm dieing to share!

Slow 7.5 and possible stress fracture.

Just a couple weeks ago I actually said this to my husband:
Me: "There is ONE thing I really like about my body."
Ron: "Really?!!!" He has never heard me say anything nice about my body, so he was happily surprised. "What?!"
Me: "My feet. I think they're pretty cute. No weird bumps or lumps and they never hurt like yours. I can be pretty grateful for my great feet."
Knock-on-wood. Not a week later, I start noticing that at the end of a day, the ball of my foot right under my second toe hurts and when I lay down in bed it's throbbing. I'm thinking it could be a stress fracture. Strange to get one now though, when I have not really been doing alot of miles. The other option is that it's my flip-flops that are pulling weird on that toe and just causing it to strain a little. I hope it's the latter and that with the coming of Fall and Winter I will notice the discomfort go away as the flip-flops go away.

I ran this morning and noticed my usually fatigue, but decided that a slow jog was better than nothing, so just pushed through it. I stayed at a pretty slow pace, but noticed that it wasn't just grueling like it was a couple weeks ago. I'm able to keep it going for as long as I want. I actually don't mind giving up on the racing training. It's no secret I hate speed work.

It's pretty interesting to watch your body change with weight training. Running trims you down, but weights totally change the shape of your body. Bulges where their weren't any, cuts where there were none, stuff "lifting" where it was once sagging! It's a fun experiment. I've always known I bulk up really easily, so I have to be careful. My thighs are... not needing bulk! Your appetite is alot bigger with weight training as well. Your muscles are using purely sugar that's stored in them to lift weights, as opposed to sugar and fat with running. So, I really crave carbs now. Another thing to be careful of. I have to adjust everything with the new routine. It's been a good thing to break up my usual thing.

I've been having great days lately. Actually feeling happy and excited about things. The Holidays are coming up and I don't remember the last time I was excited about that. It feels so good. I hate that I need medicine to feel normal though.

Hey look, it's me posting!

I was going to change the name of my blog, since I'm no longer training for something. But the title is even more true to life now that I am officially on speed. After the spring and summer of running my legs off, I realized I needed more than running to live for. I need to be able to enjoy the other blessings in my life as well. I wasn't getting enjoyment out of anything except the running. So, I got a prescrip for Paxil first. That may have quieted my mind a little, but made me very tired and almost got me killed in a couple car accidents. And now I am using Celexa. I think I'm on about week 4. I wasn't able to run the first couple of weeks because of the muscle fatigue, but definitely not as bad as with the Paxil. Today was the first day since starting that I went running outdoors and was able to jog the entire time and not have to stop and walk. I think the side effects are subsiding. I feel a little bit less dark. I can see things around me that could be enjoyable. I can see the reason why I might want to clean the house or be with the kids. It sounds rediculous, but seriously I can't see the point in it when I'm at my worst. I would clean the house and still feel lousy, play with the kids and still feel lousy... nothing brought any kind of peace or satisfaction. I can see a little light at the end of the tunnel for the past few days. So.... BACK TO RUNNING.....

I'm not going to just pound the pavement like I did before. Since it's not going to be my sole coping machanism, I'm going to try and get a more rounded workout routine going. My husband bought this awesome Hoist home gym that has everything on it. Pullies, smith machine, chin-up bar... it's fun. So, I'm going to start using that seriously every other day instead of run. I also have always had the desire to get better at yoga. I've always felt so much better when I have more flexibility. That's going to become my new nighttime routine. Maybe if I run less, I'll actually get faster too. I'll let you know. I mean, I'll let me know. I'm sure there's no one reading this anymore!

Run, run, run, run, run, run....

haven't quit running. I just have no time for posting now that school has started for my three boys. I don't think my mom ever checked to see if I had done homework. I am working with my kids from 3:00 to bedtime making sure it's done. Ok, that and Facebook. I've become a little bit addicted. Addiction can be a good thing. Like in the case of running, right? I mean, I'm a stay-at-home mom, which by definition means I have no social life. I run and I Facebook. I'll give myself those things that are mine - outside of being wife and mommy.

Since running the July marathon, I've just been trying to keep moving. Every time I try and do some speedwork I start to feel knee injury coming on. I never feel any kind of problem when I do excessive mileage. I was wondering after reading Bryan's post about too many long runs and no speedwork if it would catch up with me. But, I think I might be one of those that is just made for an ultra. I would love to try one. So, I've been running about 75 mile weeks and feeling great. Working in alot of stretching at the end of each run and every night. I know that helps avoid my injuries. I have so much sun damage on my face from all my hours outside. It's pretty gross. It looks like the skin on my face is peeled off in some spots and left-over tan remaining, but it's not peeling. It's just huge sunspots. Think Phantom of the Opera. The visor needs to come along from now on.



One month to the next marathon. I really am going to try and do some speedwork this week. Maybe even tomorrow... we'll see... I feel my trail calling to me though.