Why???

Why is it that 20 minutes ago my right knee decided to start feeling like it did back in May? Scared...worried.

And I'm back at the beginning

So I had the kickass run last Friday and since it's been a little rough. Luckily it's tapering week before the Big Race, but it still feels rough. I have ran all of 6 miles, in 3 mile increments, since Friday and both were a little off. Weather hasn't been helping but all I can hope is that this tapering thing and stretching this week will still benefit me on Sunday.

Thank goodness Sunday's weather is looking to be p.e.r.f.e.c.t. After two years of opposite extremes I'm ready for some nice running weather. 2007 was rough. 2008 was better. So this year, I'm thinking, this year is My Year. I am going to finish the race in the time I originally wanted back in 2007 (but was no where near ready to run that). I will finish strong.

MS is coming up with me this year and will be hanging out with Debbie the morning of the race as my schleppers. It'll be fun to see them along the course. Debbie has promised me Lime Neon Green, not that she'll tell me what that will be (but I'm guessing a wig of some sort). She also has a cowbell this year - bright pink with bling (of course, this is Debbie). MS has an obnoxious cowbell he'll be bringing too, but I just want him to bring a camera so I can get some pictures of me running for once that don't make me look like an idiot. :)

I'm slowly getting nervous but still trying to stay focused. Each day brings me closer. And of course, because I'm insane, I'm looking at follow up races later this month (and there are a lot of options).

I can't believe tomorrow is October. Wow. 4 more days at this time and I'll be home in my own bed reliving the sure-to-be exciting moments from the race. God willing. :)

A few days

It's been a few days but a lot has happened. Thursday I started to freak out a bit at work because my office is such a mess and since it is Discardia season again I started cleaning up my office in a big way. MS was nice enough to ask me if I need help organizing, and while I do, if I don't get it to work the way I need it to work, i.e. using someone else's method, it won't work for long no matter how good it is.

So Friday, I cleaned off a whiteboard I had my training that I have to complete written on and started with my list of crap I need to get done. Before I left for the day I dated the stuff of when it's due so when I go into work Tuesady (maybe even tomorrow) I'll be better prepared for what I need to do. Hopefully this will work.

Friday afternoon I went for a 4 miler. I couldn't believe it. I have never had a day like that. I started out the first mile and my shins were really hurting. I kept trying to figure out what I was doing differently from other runs. It was afternoon and so I had eaten a lot more that day than normal, but otherwise nothing was really different. At the mile marker I clicked my watch and saw why my shins were screaming - 9:52. Wow. So I took 4 minutes to stretch and walk out the pain a bit, then walked back to the mile marker and took off again.

The next mile was funny - I kept thinking I'd turn at the halfway point and just do three miles, but as I was running my quads just kept pushing me forward - pushing and urging me to run faster. It didn't hurt, I wasn't out of breath, my legs just wanted to go. When I hit the halfway point I saw I was at 4:33 so I just kept going forward and decided to do 3 more miles (for 4). The mile was 9:39, the next 9:14 (holy crap!) and my last was 9:23. My pace was 9:32 for the day. Shocked, I was. It was insane.

MS and I had a rummage this weekend. Saturday went much better than today. It took hours to unpack and to pack up again (though the latter was good because we organized it a bit better and we have a ton for Goodwill). I'm glad it's over though - at least for the most part. Like I said, we have a lot of boxes for Goodwill and recycling and scrap metal. I can't wait to have it all out of the garage.

Anyway, now it's Sunday and I have 6 days until the marathon. MS has to be back Sunday night as he has to work Monday, so my normal weekend plan is shortened. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

For now, I need to go to bed. Tired girl, I am. :)

Back in the saddle

So I guess I'm getting my knack for writing nothing back...the following were from this morning:

I track all my running on dailymile.com. Jillwillrun got me started there back in January and it's really been a lifesaver for me in the past months with marathon training. There's a great tracking system for miles, calories, and shoes. But the fun part is having other folks track your running too who are also training for various races. For the Half a week or so ago, there were about 7 of us on dailymile who were all running it. I intended to meet up with one of them but he's a little more hardcore than I am so I didn't want to disturb his prerace warmup (I know I'm not a fan when people break my concentration).

But the cool thing is a friend of mine from seminary, Eric H, is now on dailymile. I swore I saw him last year at the TC marathon, even yelled out his name but he didn't turn around. But then on FB I saw his picture with his shirt and finishers medal and so we started chatting about it. A few weeks back I got him on dailymile too so now we can watch each other's running.

The fun part is that it's turned into a friendly competition. We have been going back and forth about the leaderboard (where all those you're tracking show up - those you've "friended" if you're of the facebook vernacular) on who will overtake who in mileage this week. Usually he's ahead of me but so far we've been neck and neck. He did take the lead yesterday but today I will take the lead (mostly because he's taking the day off).

It's great to have this kind of mini-goal setting. I need that to keep me motivated with my running...plus it's fun.

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Also was thinking today how Eric H is taking today off from running because it's Wednesday and Wednesday in a church is usually a very busy day. I thought I got away from that, but I have found over the last couple years that Wednesday's are MY busiest day too. Weird how that works. Maybe it's just Wednesday's trait - to be busy...something to do with the most letters and an off letter from the other days. You know M for Monday which is blah - which I think is because it's Moody Monday (though I generally like Mondays, so that doesn't really work for me) and Friday is awesome with the weekend and everything - Fun Friday. But Wednesday is just whacked out, warped, wiggin' out, weird, wired, or if all you have all day is meetings that a wasted day. The other four of the week share letters T's and S's so they don't count at all.

Okay that was really messed up. Did that come out of my head? Really? What is wrong with me? It must be a Wednesday.
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It's Discardia season again, and it couldn't have come at a better time. MS and I are having a rummage sale this weekend where we're going to get rid of a bunch of our stuff (knock on wood, crossing fingers, genuflect and prayer). My guess is this is just the first of a few rummage sales we'll have. I know there are more things I'd like to sell but for now we'll go with what we have.

But Discardia goes until October 17 this go'round, so I'm excited to take this opportunity over the next couple weeks to really evaluate my office, my home and purge if I can. Today I'm cleaning and reorganizing the office a bit - at least moving binders and stuff off the cabinets and desk and on to a shelf in a wardrobe so it's not out in the open where it's an eyesore. Then I can go one by one with each binder and make sure it's up to date, rather than just having them all staring at me daily. I need to get a couple file things so I can put projects in them when I'm not working on them, so I have them out, but not so out that it's just clutter. My clutter is out of control right now and this is the point of discardia - declutter and purge. I'm excited for this time. Boss1 thinks I'm a bit of a freak; Boss3 is overjoyed that I'm doing this and suggesting I put things in various places. I'd like to tell him where to put a thing or two, but I won't. (JK!) :)

Two links

Two interesting links:

Darwin movie

Enjoy life

I'm sure I'm messed up...

I have no desire to bake cookies.

What is wrong with me?!?! :)

Just kidding. I really want to make cupcakes but I don't have the veggie oil required for the cake mix. So I'm not going to bake anything.

MS was really cute the other night. We were talking about our schedules for the week and he said, "So Tuesday, you get off at 5:30, right?" Yep, I said. He nodded and said, Okay.

But then I said, "Well, if I don't get my run in before work I'll have to run after work, so I'd be late getting to your place."

He said, "But it's Tuesday."
Me, "Yes, I still need to run on Tuesday."
He said, "But...it's Tuesday."
Me, "Well, I'll try to get my run in the morning but I might not."
He said, "But, it's Tuesday."
Me...after a little bit of contemplation, "OH! It's Tuesday! I'll be running in the morning before work."
MS just smiled.

See, he's not manipulating me like it seems...it's just that the season premiere of NCIS is on Tuesday and we're both just a wee bit addicted to the show.

Ah, yes, Fall is here. :)

Darwin at its best

So MS and I survived a week where I work 6 days in a row and he hardly works at all. I know these weeks are going to come up and I really need to keep my emotions in check. We're still learning about each other. It's juvenile to think that we have everything figured out at this point, a mere 5 months in. But in the same breath, we're farther in our relationship than I ever have been with someone at 5 months. Not to jinx it but there's a good chance this one will stick.

But onto the most important topic. I am now less than 2 weeks from my third time running the TC Marathon. I haven't quite gotten to the nervous or excited phase, preferring to stay in the planning stages for the weekend, of course. So of course, daily, if not hourly, I'm going through the chain of events planned for the weekend.

My planning is happening usually while I'm running. Sometimes it's sideswiped by my other thoughts (shocking, I know). Today I was going over in my head how I got started running and how my running has changed and developed since.

It's great I can replay this in my head, but I really wish I had some sort of electrode or wiretap in my head that would record my thoughts so I could transcribe them here. I had some good fodder today, but now I can't remember much of it to make sense of it all. Hopefully I'll remember at some point so I can get it all down.

Novice

So in my quest to write a bit more, I blogged some random comments today while at work, but while I was running tonight I figured out a better topic.

I realized tonight that I really suck at this whole dating thing. I figured out that I haven't really needed to be accountable to anyone for at least 13 years, if not 16 (back when I lived at home). So this suddenly being accountable to someone, ie MS, is very strange.

A work week like this one has me wondering if I'm up for this. Before I used to just work late and call it good. I didn't need to worry about being home at a certain time or having to check in if I was going to be late. I just worked until I got tired, then went home - sometimes quite late into the evenings, but it didn't affect anyone but me.

But now, now there are tiemlines and deadlines and I have someone waiting for me. It's a very strange place for me to find myself. I've always been pretty independent, so having the impendingness of needing to be home by a certain time, or to get my run in at a certain point of the day, is very new.

I'm scared I'm not quite up for it and that I'm going to screw it up somehow. Of course it's also whoosh week which makes me moody and cranky and irritable. Add to that the stress of work, doesn't really work well for me either. And I've missed two days of runs. I ran tonight and my adrenaline was so high I ran sub-10 minute miles. That's great but it's not.

I need to find a balance. I need to figure out my schedule so I can make sure I can fit everything in I need to, which means I also need to figure out what I don't need and purge that.

I need to do that soon. I really don't want to mess up anything with MS.

Needing to write

It's been a long work week and I have one more day to go.

It's been interesting because it's a week where I have to work this weekend too which always means I have to work late because things just are busier. Well MS hasn't had to experience this since the last 4 months we've been dating he's always been working during those weeks. Well this week he's off so it's been a little different.

It wouldn't be so bad if I could stay motivated (or GET motivated) in the AM, but I don't really get crackin' at work until after lunch. It sucks because I'm just not motivated to work in the morning so I'm missing out on a lot of hours I could be getting work accomplished.

I've been trying to push this week, push to get things done during the day - resorting even to shutting my door so I don't get interrupted by people unless they know the secret way to get in my office when my door is shut - but it hasn't been working. We've had a few part-timers out working this week and they want to get caught up on their work and training which means they need my help. Which means, my ever-growing list doesn't quite get checked off like it should.

It also doesn't help that I haven't gotten to run the last two days because my schedule has been so tight and I'm still trying to have a life outside of work and running, so running has taken a backseat. Not good.

So my plan is to get up tomorrow AM bright and early and go get a long run in before the morning hits. My hope ... hopefully will follow through with an action.

Oh, and thank you K for reminding me that I need to be writing. I miss this. I need it.

Another item checked off the list

So I finished the half marathon - 2:28:26, an 11:20 pace. I'm actually quite pleased with this, even though I was hoping for more of an 10:30 pace. If I can stick with the 11:20 pace for the full marathon I'll be a very happy camper three weeks from now.

Some thoughts during the race:

At mile 2 - "there is no hill, there is no hill" Ugh - a nice incline but a good workout for TC since there's a hill at 2 there too.

Just before mile 3 - "Is it wrong to flip off a little old lady on a Sunday morning?" This lady yelled out as we were heading into a corner - "It's all downhill from here." And then started laughing. I was so pissed. To any of you spectators out there, please don't yell this. Runner's know their course and they know that it's never all downhill from that point (especially that early in the race). I mean if you want to say that at mile 26 of TC, go ahead because it IS all downhill, but any other time, this is just mean.

I had a bunch of other thoughts too, but most were fleeting. I met a few nice people along the way. Brad and Jane were running with me for awhile, but I let them go ahead of me after awhile. I like running with folks but I also like my solitude. The last 4 miles I ended up running with a guy who had initially hired my Boss1 years ago. That was fun to meet him. He was nice enough to let me finish 15 seconds in front of him, which was good since I was feeling pretty pathetic running with a 70 year old man.

So now I just need to keep moving so my legs don't cramp up. I'm not feeling too bad right now. Hoping to run a short 3 tomorrow just to keep everything limber.

Thanks to everyone for their support!

Tomorrow is a new day

So tomorrow I'm running my first half marathon (officially). I sort of ran a half in May when I DNF'd on the marathon then, but this will be an official half with chip and everything. I don't think they have medals at the end though, which is a little disappointing. I like the medals, they last longer than t-shirts and, in my head, stand for something more than a t-shirt. I got a t-shirt from the marathon in May but I didn't finish so I feel guilty wearing it but I like the shirt.

Anyway...so tomorrow will be a first for a half. Maybe I'll figure out what it is that E finds so appealing about them. We'll see. The route looks good - a little through downtown, then on the bike trail to one of the bigger parks. MS is going to meet me there afterward to give me a ride back to my car. Hopefully I'll finish strong and make him proud.

Filling in some blanks

It's been weird for me lately. I want to write but I just can't seem to find the time. Or when I do sit down to write, I suddenly don't know what to say.

Life lately has been about running, running, working, and running. MS and I did take a break a week or so ago and headed to K&E's parent's timeshare for the day. MS needed to meet K&E and Nika, of course. We had a good time eating at the Wharf, playing at the pool, going on a lake cruise, walking to the lake, and just playing. Nika and MS bonded on Nika's little bikes. And for me it was sooooo good to be with people who understand me again.



Let me clarify a bit. It's not that people around her don't understand me, but yet they don't. K&E have always had this connection with me and I with them that has seemed to just click. We get along really well. MS said on the way home, "They are very protective of you like a brother and sister." It's true. We're family and always will be.

Otherwise, I've had some good runs, last week at least. I had a 6 miler without walking last Friday and then a 10 miler without walking too. It was nice. Then I took a day off and everything went to hell. :) Typical. I'm one month from the marathon (4 weeks on Sunday) so I need to keep up with it. I signed up for a local half marathon in a week so that'll be a good warmup.

MS and I are going camping again this weekend. My family thinks I'm nuts that we do this, but surprisingly (even to me) I do enjoy camping. And it's nice for MS and I to get away from work and yard work and just be with each other for awhile.



And one final note. 15 years ago today, almost to the minute that I'm writing this, my dad died. He had had a rough weekend and he claimed God's promise on a quiet Sunday morning. It still stings that he's gone and I will miss and love him forever. Love you, Dad.