Catch up

Hi there! Did you miss me? I am SO sorry that it's been almost a week since my last blog - this has been a week where I literally haven't had a moment to myself. Between job, rehearsals, work committments and actual running, there's been precious little down time.

Last weekend's training runs are edging me out of my comfort zone. Last Saturday I had to run 5 miles, and I started to hit a wall around 4.5 miles. That last half mile was brutal. Sunday's 2 miler was a walk in the park compared to Saturday.

Monday was a rest day, but I ran 2 miles at lunch anyway. Same thing Tuesday, except I ran 3 miles. Today was a rest day, and I actually rested!!

I'm definitely not focused this week. There's too much going on. It's hard to keep in the zone, and concentrate on what I need to do. I'm very pleased that, despite the busy-ness, I haven't slacked on the mileage.

I'm nervous about the coming weeks. The long runs are getting longer. There's a few weeks where I've got 4 mile short runs planned, and that seems a bit much.

Cross fingers that I can get through the rest of this week and re-focus next week!

FRIDAY FUN DAY!!

It's Friday! It's a rest day - rest days are getting harder. It's gotten to the point where if I'm not out there getting a run done, I feel antsy. I want to do SOMETHING. So usually I go for a 2-3 mile walk.

BUT - it is important to rest. It reduces the risk of injury.

Here's your fun link of the day! I'm a little hesitant to post this, because it's a wee bit raunchy with the bad language and all, and my Aunt Jane reads this blog and I want her to be proud of her niece.

That said, I bring you.........FU Penguin!!

wherein a guy mocks a series of cute baby animals. It's genius. I love it.

Interior Monologue

Sometimes it's more edifying to see how I'm dealing with my training by monitoring my interior dialogue - you know, the stuff that's running through my head while I'm running. Usually it's 3-4 syllable combinations, like "keep on going", "ow this hurts" or "I hate this".

When reading the following interior monologue, keep in mind my blisters are still pretty fresh...

[laces up sneakers][sets off down the road]
"ow this hurts ow this hurts ow this hurts eff you blisters eff you blisters eff you blisters who's your daddy who's your daddy who's your daddy how can I blow my nose with no one seeing me? keep on going keep on going keep on going crap this hurts crap this hurts shut up shut up shut UP SHUT UP"

Yeah - tonight's 3 miler was a beaut. It actually wasn't that bad, since once I got moving, the pain of the blisters just sort of became background noise, and got drowned out by the feeling of accomplishment for getting the run done.

Then I peeled my socks off.........YEEEEOUCH!!!

Blisters and Chafing and Socks, Oh My!

I'm not so smart. Here's what I did:

I wore cute little flats to work today. Little ballet flats, with cute stitching. I love them. They go with everything. Even though cardio isn't on my training schedule today, I decided to do a 3 mile loop at lunchtime, so I changed out of my cute little ballet flats, into my sneakers and took off. When I got returned, the ballet flats went back on.

Here's where the not-so-smartness comes in. When you exercise, your feet swell up. When you shove your swollen feet into little ballet flats and then walk around with them rubbing up on your big toe knuckle, you're gonna get blisters. And when you have to walk a half mile to the parking garage, IT'S GONNA HURT.

So, I've got giant blisters on both my feet. I eschewed the cross training (I was going to do the rowing machine to get my arms toned up), and soaked my feet instead. I figure the 3 extra miles I ran today makes up for it.

You'd think I'd stop making these newbie blunders, wouldn't you?

PS - I want these shoes. If someone donates $1000, I'll run the whole half marathon in them:


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Today's fun link:
An Honest Facebook Political Argument

(big thanks to my friend Mark P., who provides most of these links)
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Nightmare

You know things are getting serious when you start having nightmares about your training, or your fundraising.

Last night I dreamed that I had agreed, as a fundraising stunt, to ride a Big Wheel down one of the main roads in my hometown. You remember Big Wheels, right? Made of smelly plastic, one giant grinding loud wheel in front, low-slung adjustable cruising seat, giant back mag wheels in the back that would rip the skin off your elbows if you didn't hold them up? Big Wheels RULED. I was the terror of the sidewalk in mine.

However, in my nightmare, I was riding a kid-size Big Wheel as an adult. Let me tell you, fitting into a Big Wheel when your butt is wider than the trike itself is pretty hard. The whole dream was filled with me sweating and panting and cursing my fate as townspeople lined the route, jeering.

I woke up, shaking. Then I thought - you know, this isn't such a bad fundraising idea. I'm pretty sure my town officials wouldn't go for the idea of shutting down the main cross street in town, but what about maybe having a Big Wheel Derby at the high school track? Sort of like a Kentucky Derby, but with adults riding Big Wheels. We'd charge a $25 registration fee for anyone wanting to race, and admission to the event would be a free will donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. There'd be facepainting for the kids, booths for local vendors, trophies for the victors (and maybe a rose blanket to lay over the champion Big Wheel) and all proceeds could go to the LLS.

I'd certainly pay money to see adults race around a track on Big Wheels. What do you think?