running, sunshine, and baseball

10 miles, last one, then 26.2. and after 26.2, i'm going to enjoy weekends of 10's and 12's!

this was a low week for me, lower than i wanted as i was forced to take tuesday off due to feeling a bit under the weather. monday was my day to teach spin twice, so i usually look forward to a longish, easy run on tuesday, which didn't happen. after teaching wednesday morning, i went for that longish run after work. 7 miles, easy, relaxing, and my legs felt good. thursday, i was going for 7 or so again. stopped at 5 cause it just wasn't my day! i managed to salvage my workout by doing some yoga, stretching, and ab work at home. gotta work those kinks out!

saturday, i met terri and jenny to run 10. vicki joined us for 8. we had a great time, and it ended up being a really quality run. it's funny, cause none of us wore our garmins! i was able to run my last mile and a half in pretty hard. it was a good day.

the weather was gorgeous this weekend. it was the perfect weather for one of my favorite things - college baseball! friday was opening weekend at the park, and i made it out for a few innings after work. saturday, after my run, i headed back out for day two. what a great day! i'm looking forward to spring, more baseball, and lots of 10 to 14 mile runs for a while! i'm going to enjoy life without training for a marathon for a while (until fall), and get back in the short distance game. my first few 5k times will be sucky, but i have to start somewhere! i have a few ideas for the fall, and i'm going to keep those to myself until i figure things out. there will definitely be a fall marathon, and i plan on getting there strong!!!

i hope to be celebrating and recovering this time next sunday from a FUN marathon! it's just for fun, right?

snow, long run, and camping

the first time it snowed this winter, i was on my way to las vegas to run the marathon. so i missed it. this time, i was home and off work. when it snows in the south, life shuts down, and people play! snow isn't a nuissance here, it's an excuse to be a kid again, takes tons of pictures, and talk about it for days. this is my first snow in my first home that i own. also my first snow with my best pal, molly. i spent the morning playing in the back yard with molly, and the afternoon 4-wheeler riding in the snow and mud. that was fun. below are a few pics.

after the fun in the snow, i was talked into 'camping'. i'm a country girl, but still not into the 'roughing it' kind of camping. we were in a nice camper, with a kitchen, heat, a shower, a bed, and a bathroom! we parked at paul b johnson start park and had a great view of the lake. we went down friday, and i came home today. saturday morning, i woke up and headed back to town to meet ginny and audrey to run. ginny was doing 16, and audrey ended up doing 14 with me, her longest distance ever. we met up at anatomies, a local gym, and ran about 7 miles in the hilly neighborhood. the lawns were still covered in snow and it was a lovely run. we met audrey's husband charles at the trace and planned to finish up with him. poor charles is suffering from a knee injury and had a tough time. after our run, the gang indulged in post-race pizza at mellow mushroom. i do think that is my favorite part of running - the post-run fellowship. below is a shot of the trace at our destination, epley station.

camping. i headed back to the camp after the run and pizza. we spent the afternoon relaxing outside, checking out the rest of the campsites, and then listening to the southern miss basketball game by the fire. we got brave and let molly enjoy the outdoors without a leash. she did great! and she LOVED camping! she loved sitting outside watching the birds, the geese on the lake, and just walking around sniffing things like dogs do. i can't wait to take her back in the summer so she can swim! we had a great weekend, and i was sad to come home today. snow is gone, run is over, and the relaxing weekend by the lake is done. these are the things in life that make going back to work ok.

bring the pain #9

i've been flip flopping back and forth about whether or not i wanted to run the full in new orleans. i registered for this marathon last june, and the plan was to keep working after vegas and go as hard as i can. you all know about my aches and pains and how it troubled my training. i then started wavering on the full and started thinking about the half.

a childhood friend ran his first marathon in baton rouge the same weekend i did vegas. he LOVED it. we discussed running new orleans together, for fun. in my wavering, i forgot all about it, until he mentioned it on facebook the other day. so it started me thinking. and after my sleepless night a couple nights ago, i started thinking that i can still do this. so today, i headed out for the test, a 20 miler.

i'm happy to say i made it. it wasn't the easiest 20 miles, but i've felt much worse, many times. it was a decent run, and i was able to keep the pace around a 10 minute mile. before vegas, i was doing 20 milers about a minute faster per mile, but i understand the shape i'm currently in. i understood the shape i was in then, and knew i had been in better shape than that even. however i'm happy for today's victory. i can't change the shape i'm in at this point for this marathon, so i accept it for what it is and celebrate that i did it. my last long run, 3 weeks ago, was a horrible 18 miler that left me walking and sick in the last 5 miles. the week before that, was a tough 16 miler. and the week before that, a pretty slow 14 miler. today, there was no guarantee i'd finish running 20 miles, but i did in an ok time with no walking.

so....new orleans marathon is back on the table. it won't be a PR, and i feel pretty confident it won't be my worst. it'll hurt like an SOB, but i'm going to have fun, run with a friend, and celebrate finishing my 9th marathon.

bring it on #9!

standing still

today was a blah day, with lots of rain, and a long stinking nap that has rendered me sleepless at midnight. luckily, i am off tomorrow, so sleep isn't overly important. however, it led me to facebook and the urge we all have to stalk. my browsing led me down a path i wasn't at all expecting. i thought i was just being nosey.

i won't go into details on what all was involved in my stalking, but as i've said before, 2009 was a tough year. i've been very fortunate in my now 37 years to not have that many tough times, so i've been trying lately to take it in stride and learn from it. i am learning from it daily. tonight, i realized i've been standing still for quite some time. not all came from this past year, but it certainly didn't help me to get moving again.

as i was lying here, listening to the rain, i started thinking that for a long time, i quit moving, almost quit living in some ways. i slowed down and started letting life pass me by. work, friends, training, my relationship with God. i also realized there were a lot of things i didn't want to do, but i still wished i was doing. for me, that's a strange place to be. to wish to get out and run, but not do it cause i hurt or just don't want to. to wish to go hang out with a group of friends, but not do it because i'm tired. to want to be at church, but find excuses not to go or fall back asleep. i have been standing still while life kept moving.

many of you reading my blog haven't known me but for a few years at most. i was a shy girl growing up and still have shy moments, but in college, i became larger than life. even in years after, i was often the center of a party, a group, a joke, laughter. in my older age, i've mellowed out, but i realized i have also shrunk. my personality is still there, but it lies quietly behind a wall. what built this wall? not one thing, but several. a collection of pieces over the last few years that instead of knocking down and moving on, i felt it easier to let them stack up. i can only assume that i felt letting them stack up wouldn't cause me any harm as i never had any issues before. all this time, i just thought i was growing older, changing interests, or something. i think if i'm wishing to do all these things i'm not doing, then i'm still the same me inside.

what to do now that i've had this midnight revelation? i don't know, but i can only hope and pray that now that i have realized that i've been standing still, i can start working on moving again. i don't expect to wake up tomorrow and go run a blistering tempo run, or start reading my Bible for an hour. let's face it, i've never been that motivated. i do expect to keep this realization on the forefront of my mind, and pray about it as often as i can.

you ask, what does this have to do with running and getting to boston? EVERYTHING! i can't be standing still to realize my goals.

run, for your life!