secret girl stuff

Monday mornings are always hard. Monday mornings after a long run and skating for an hour are brutal. Ow. But on the other hand, YAY for half marathon training.

Sunday was great though. Maureen came over and we did my flat 8-mile route, which is far more manageable than my 6-7 mile hilly routes through Newton, and we beat the rain, too. Superior!

After she left, I ate some cereal with soy milk, took a shower, made myself some vegetable cous cous soup, and followed it up with a loooooong nap. When I woke up it was nearly time to get myself together for skating. My legs felt a little tired, but nothing too bad.

Skating was fun, as usual. I still kind of suck, but at least I’m not falling, and the people in my group are all very nice. They laugh at me when I clap and cheer for them. I can’t help it though; that’s just who I am. But holy hell. All that sculling. NOT great after an 8 mile run. My legs were shaking by the end of the hour, and the walk back to the car was all wobbly.

Fast forward to now and I am sore, sore, sore, but in a good way. Plus, I got to eat ice cream last night after all those calories burned. Totally earned it.

Those who know me well (read: in person), know that I never shut up. So what’s with all the silence online?

The month of January was crazy busy, and I wasn’t running much, so I didn’t have a lot to write about. Also, I’ve been reading and um… doing some work on myself and my relationship, which is not something I can comfortably blog about.

Running, honestly, has been so up and down this month. I mean, what the hell is with this weather we are having? There has been snow on the ground since late December, and the last storm made things extremely icy, so much so that I could barely walk the dog, let alone run outside, safely, in the dark.

That said, I have been doing a lot of ice skating. Rob and I have been going on weekend dates to open skate, and I have been taking skating lessons at the nearby rink. I’m learning a lot and feeling much more comfortable on the ice, and I can skate backwards now! I’m not graceful and I can’t corner or stop fast, but I’m getting better. And it’s fun!

So this week I had such high hopes for my running. I had planned to run on Monday, but I felt terrible. Tuesday it snowed like hell. I tried to run, made it two blocks, slipped and fell, told the snow to go to hell, then went home and had a glass of wine. But today I ran at lunch. It was slow going, but at least the sun was out. The path along the Charles wasn’t plowed so much as it was packed down, so the footing wasn’t too bad. I ran probably just shy of 3 miles, and tomorrow I will probably try to run again. Saturday I have plans to run 6 with Maureen, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

Maureen and I hit the snow-covered trails on Saturday for our “long” run. I only had 5 on the schedule and she had 6 miles on hers, so we compromised and ran 5.75.

Highlights of the run:

• Beautiful scenery. We ran on the conservation land bewteen Millennium Park and the cemetery, then backtracked and headed into the Newton conservation lands.
• Great weather. Cold, maybe 32F, but sunny and once we got out of the park, which was unbelievably windy, it was relatively calm.
• Great company. I love running with Maureen because she doesn’t care about time, only distance. That is sometimes just what I need so that I don’t feel frustrated and give up on myself.

I like having a schedule and started my official training for R2R.  Since the Jan 1, I’ve logged some exercise every day and I’m proud of that. I think today will be more time on the trainer, given that I won’t have time to run this afternoon. Tomorrow is yoga/core day, although I may run at lunch. Also, I have minimal pain/discomfort with my PF right now.

The year is starting off great.

I read a sentence the other day where the author said, simply, “there is always hope.” This has become my mantra for everything that is going on in my life. See, things haven’t been great at work, and they certainly haven’t been great at home. I have been having a really hard time trying to put on a brave face for the past 6 weeks, and most days I do OK, but sometimes I break.

But there is always hope.

Hope is the thing that allowed me to do my own self-inventory and learn what I need to change about myself in order to sustain a healthy relationship. Hope is what made me take a chance on something at work. Hope is what allows me to be vulnerable in ways that I never imagined. And hope is what keeps me on the roads in even the coldest weather - the hope that one day I will run farther and faster than I ever have before.

Anyway. I have hope. I’m not making any promises for this year, but I am working toward where I want to be, and who I want to be.

And I hope that your year is wonderful.

This morning at 11am, the Boston Chapter of the Abominable Slowmen (all four of us!) ran the Walter’s Run 5K in West Roxbury. The race is held in honor of Parkway Runner Walter Burgess, who passed away suddenly in 2003. It’s a great race, and I can’t say enough about the people I met, the volunteers, and the wonderful spread they had for us after the race. Plus, inside bathrooms!

The temperature today was at least 15º warmer than last week’s race, and was much more enjoyable in that regard. We were able to stand around inside the gym at the Y, where the race starts & finishes, so that helped too.

The course followed streets I’ve run on hundreds of times during my 2.5 years in West Roxbury, but I have to say that I don’t believe I’ve ever run those streets in the direction I ran them today, which was interesting and a little challenging in parts.

The good: stupid Grayfield street? Downhill, baby! (I hate Grayfield Street with a passion. Seriously.)  Bellevue Street - same deal. Awesome.

The bad: LaGrange Street, which might have well been the way I run Bellevue, given how steep it was. But then again, what’s a race without a few hills.

I finished 10 seconds faster than last week’s race (by my watch. My official time will probably be the same), which was pretty impressive given that I had to walk for about 45 seconds at the top of the hill on LaGrange to work out a side stitch that had been killing me for about half a mile. Turned the corner, turned again, and booked it down hill to the finish.

As I was headed down the hill, some kids who had run the kids race earlier were walking up the hill to cheer for the runners. The mom said, “way to go!” And the one killed yelled, “YAY FOR YOU!” This made me laugh a lot. Until, that is, some lady who had been behind me the entire race passed me right before I came into the chute, as I slowed down to avoid some ice that was in the road. Stupid lady.

After I finished, I walked back to the finish line to wait for Maureen, Victoria and Chris, who weren’t far behind and finished strong. We made our way into the Y for bagels, coffee, and cookies (from Sugar Bakery!). I saw my neighbor, Meg, and we talked for a few minutes. She had run the R2R Half this year and finished well ahead of me. We talked about doing the Resolution Run on New Year’s Day. I talked with an older runner named Jack, who I’d been chatting with at the starting line. We took pictures to send to Philly Slowmen (Maureen has them), and then we made our way back home.

Great race. Great day. Great running.

Now here’s a race that Jon would like: the Hot Chocolate Run in Northampton, MA. Instead of a T-shirt, runners get a ceramic mug filled with hot chocolate, marshmallows optional.

It’s a long drive for a 5K, but I’ve run this race several times. It’s a good chance to see some of my friends from NH, CT, and the Pioneer Valley area, and Northampton is a cute town. We usually have brunch after the race and catch up over pancakes. Honestly, it’s one of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday morning.

But oh my gosh it was COLD this year. So very cold. And I was way underdressed for standing around outside. The last several years the race has started at the People’s Institute, which has a fair amount of inside space for runners to congregate, or to at least duck in out of the cold for a few minutes, and provided inside bathrooms. But the race has grown a lot since 2004, the first time I ran it, and as such, the packet pickup has moved, portable facilities have been provided, and we froze our asses off waiting for the race to start. The good news was that it was sunny and not too windy, but still, holy crap.

I always have a great time at this race, no matter how I do. This year I knew that my time would suck. I just didn’t know it would suck that much. :)

Maureen and I had planned to run together, and it was her day (she had a huge PR), but as soon as we started running, I knew I would just need to take it easy and try to start warming up during the race. For the first mile and a half, I couldn’t feel my feet or my hands (which were covered by gloves and the ends of my thick hoodie/fleece wind shirt thing, but that didn’t help much). Every step of the way, my stupid hamstring - which has been bothering me all week - was causing me some pain. I figured it was just because I was cold from standing around, but it never stopped hurting, and it still hurts today. Awesome.

Anyway, the course is uphill for the first mile or so, levels out as it loops around, and then the last mile heads back downhill the same way, through downtown. It’s a really nice course, running past the Northampton storefronts, Smith College, and some of the historic homes in the area. The last mile is the best part, because you can haul ass down the hill, which is what I did, as much as my hamstring would allow. Great music at the end, cookies & fruit, and of course there was hot chocolate. Lots of families both running and walking (there’s a 2 mile walk that starts a half hour before the 5K).

Afterward, we went to the brewery and had lunch with a big group of people. I met some new folks and hung out with old friends. Jillie made cupcakes for Jen’s birthday and we sang to her.

Then it was time to leave and Maureen and I drove back to Boston. It had been a long day and I was exhausted but happy.  Maureen was so excited about her PR and I was so proud of her. It really was her day.

I finally made it home at around 4:00 and promptly showered and then slept. It had been a good day for me, too.

After this cold has run its course, it’s going to be time to get serious. Between work, my PF, and a general lack of motivation that came with the time change, I’ve been running inconsistently for the last few weeks.  New Bedford is in March, and I’m no where near being prepared to start on a real half training schedule.

Technically, my training doesn’t start to pick up until mid-December. I should be running around 15 MPW right now, with 2 days of cross training (swimming, mostly) and yoga. I’ve been good about the cross training but my mileage has hovered around 8-10 lately. Sad, sad, sad.

My foot pain has been… manageable. I picked up a new pair of Sauconys in a bigger size, which seem to accommodate my orthotics a little better. While they’re still a bit narrow in the forefoot, they seem to be a nice ride.

These are the same shoes that I first started running in, so it’s been a bit nostalgic to lace them up. Somewhere along the line they changed the fit and I switched to a different shoe, which was later discontinued. Then I moved to the Asics, and got PF, which might have been the shoes, and might have been the increase in miles - I’ll never know for sure. Anyway, I’m back in the Sauconys for now and we’ll see how it goes.

In spite of being sick, I did manage to run a few miles with Maureen today. It kind of sucked, given that I had only one working nostril, but we managed. Yes. One working nostril. *sigh*

On the schedule this week is a 4, 5, and a 6. I’m hoping to do the 6 on trails, but we’ll see how muddy it is. This week is supposed to be cold (in the 30s! Yikes!) and dry, so it’s definitely a possibility. Provided this stupid cold doesn’t move into my chest, I’m feeling optimistic.

Woo!

I woke up today hoping that my cold wouldn’t have gotten any worse overnight. Instead, it felt like someone punched me in the face and ear, repeatedly. Joy.

I went back to bed for a while, but lying there just made the pain worse so I got up and tried to start my day. Soon I discovered that were out of juice, cold medicine, Nyquil, tissues, and canned soup. I bundled myself up (in spite of the warm temps) and actually drove down to the store.  I never drive to the store when I’m getting just a few things. Never. But today I felt sh*tty enough to do just that.

The good thing about the grocery store on a weekday morning is that there’s usually no one there; a few SAHMs, a few blue hairs, and me. The bad thing about the grocery store on a weekday morning is that the cashiers are really slow and it takes forever to get out of there. I’m not usually in a hurry, but today I was sick and just wanted to purchase my tissues and soup fixin’s and be on my way, you know? Sigh and woe.

I watched some bad morning TV and blew my nose 800 times, and then decided to make my soup. Now, this soup is, hands down, my favorite thing to have when I’m sick. Maybe because it’s spicy. Maybe it’s the garlic. Maybe it’s all the vitamin C. Maybe because it has goat cheese in it, which is maybe the perfect garnish of all time.  Heidi’s Vegetarian Tortilla Soup recipe is the one I use, with the following changes:

• Roast four, whole Italian peppers along with the tomatoes. Peel when cool, remove the seeds, and chop them up.
• Use a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes, and only 4 cups of broth.
• More garlic. Double it.
• Add half of the roasted peppers before blending the soup.
• Add the rest of the peppers and half a bag of spinach (chopped) after the soup is blended.
• If you feel like it, add some beans, too. Cannellini or red kidney beans are a good choice.

That’s it! And you don’t even really need the tortillas (even though they’re delicious). Guaranteed to clear sinuses and make you feel a little better, which is all you really want when you’re sick. Well, except for a hot toddy. We all want that, right?

Stupid sick.

Stupid Rob for giving me his cold.

Stupid having to be at work when sick.

But, great run last night.