It's that time of year

When whatever is in the air attacks my system something awful. I've been sick for about 2 weeks, which means no running for the past two weeks, so I don't have much to report.
I am feeling better though, so I hope to be out on the roads tomorrow. I'll let you know how that goes for me.
wish me luck...and health!

That's the way it goes

In May I applied for a photography workshop that takes place during the first weekend of October in NY. It's a big deal workshop that takes 100 people (50 students, 50 professionals) and immerses you in four days of intensive learning.
If I would have gotten in it would have done amazing things for my photography skills. I still haven't received my "rejection" e-mail, but I went to the site today and saw the list of names. Mine is not on there. Now ordinarily this would send me into fits. I'm an overachiever, I expect to get accepted to the things I apply for because of that. And when I don't, it pains me. Only this time was oddly different.

My first thought was: Oh, well, onto training.

The thing is running has made me realize a lot about control in life. As in you have very little sometimes. So the judges didn't like my application, I can't control that and I shouldn't dwell on it either. Life goes on, I'll find some way to make my photography better without this workshop.

I've said this before but running is a great metaphor for life. Sometimes the road is tough and the elements will beat you down, but you can still have it in you to complete the course. It doesn't matter if you're going slow or if you feel like you'll never make it over the next hill. At the end the satisfaction is in having completed the run.

Curves and Straights

There isn't anything I like about running on a track. No, wait. I take that back. There are two things I like about running on a track: tracks are completely flat, and it's a nice surface to run on. But track work isn't my favorite thing. It's almost as boring as running on a treadmill, except you're actually outside and "going" somewhere. But I wanted to keep an open mind about speed work. After all it's supposed to make you a little faster over time. I got to the track a little after 5:30. We had the choice of meeting at the store and running the mile and a half to the track or meeting at the track. Well since I'm fairly certain I would have been left behind I opted to meet at the track. I got there and started my mile warm up. There were three other women and one guy from our group, so I wasn't alone on the dark track. Because well there is no daylight at 5:30. Also will someone please explain to me why it was 80 degrees when I started and 75 degrees when I got back into my car to come home and write this? Please explain the science behind it getting cooler as the sun comes up. I've wondered this since high school when I had a 7 am class, in the winter I might not need a coat when I got to school, but you could bet I would need one when I left that first class. But I digress.
So as I trotted around the track at a comfy pace I wasn't even halfway through when I wanted to stop. See the thing about the track is I know exactly how far I have left to go. Be it 100 meters or 400 meters. I feel like the track is staring me down.
Luckily I won this staring contest.

I finished up as the rest of the group got there and then we were off to the races doing "Curves and Straights." Basically it means keeping a slow pace on the curves and pick up the pace significantly on the straights, not sprinting mind you, but enough that I was ready for the curve each time.
Our "coach" Gabby said we should do about 8 laps. But if we've never done speed work before just to listen to what our bodies were telling us. For me, that was 6 laps.
For me this also brought about memories of Junior High P.E. and our "Wednesday run day." I hated Wednesdays. We all did. We started out the beginning of the school year running a minute walking five, or something like that. And we built up to running the whole time. Of course most of us would basically shuffle our feet for the "run" part and walk along lazily for the walk part.
Except this time I'm huffing and puffing trying to keep pace with everyone before I decided that was a dumb idea and finding my own pace and sticking with it. Part of me hates that in the time I did 1.5 miles they did 2 miles. But most of me really doesn't care. That part of me is just glad I got out of bed and to the track and am really committed to the entire training program, not just the long runs.

Week 2

Our second "long run" was Sunday. All of 8 miles. Which in theory shouldn't be that difficult for me. Except the area that we run in is HILLY. I mean they aren't these monster hills, but there are enough rolling miles that it starts to wear on you. Not to mention it's starting to heat up in San Antonio.
At about mile 4, I could feel my whole body heating up. And the only thing I wanted to do was make it to the next water stop and pour a cup of cold water on my head. Except that guy in charge of the water stop did one better. He had an ice chest filled of towels soaking in ice water. It was the best thing ever. I squeezed the bulk of the cold water over my head, covered my face and chest with the cold towel and felt my body temperature drop a good five degrees.
The last four miles were just as challenging as the first four, with the exception of the last 200 feet being all downhill.
Wednesday will be my first speed training workout. I'm a little anxious and a little excited about it.
Then we head to New Mexico where I have to find some place to do a 5 mile run. 5, not too hilly miles, good luck to me. According to the training schedule I was supposed to do 5 miles this week and 8 next week. But since I'm going to be out of town and not sure where I can do such a long run, I switched them up.
My ankle hurt a little this morning, I need to get back to the podiatrist and see what's going on. ugh, I fear this ankle may bug me for the duration of training.

Day and Night, Night and Day

That's my Cole Porter reference for the day.

So my first official training run for the marathon (aka MCM) was bright and early on Sunday morning. Actually it was early, but there is nothing bright at 6 am. Turns out that's a pretty good time to run since the sun hasn't had a chance to make it hot yet. It was of course humid, very very humid. So humid in fact that when I was done with the run my clothes were heavy from all the sweat.
When I trained for the Country Music Marathon in 2004, the most I had ever run was 5 miles on a treadmill. So my first 4 mile run was a long slow event. I think I finished in close to an hour. I wouldn't say it was miserable, but it wasn't fun either.
So I was really looking forward to Sundays run. I mean I'm in decent shape now and I've run three half marathons this year. When I got to the gathering place we were told that we had a choice of 3 or 5 miles. The sleepy side of me was trying to convince the overachiever in me to do 3. But I opted for the five. Turns out there's a guy in the group that runs about the same pace I do. He's a bit faster, but takes walk breaks every 6 minutes (a brilliant idea and I might see if I can't keep pace with him next time and do the walk breaks too) so we kept passing each other throughout the run. It was nice to have someone around, considering I did the runs for Nashville all by my lonesome. Sure there were people along the way with water, but there wasn't anyone that was at my pace.
As always the first mile and a half were painful. It always takes me at least 15 minutes to hit my stride. After that I felt like I was coasting. And I managed to do the five mile route in just over 53 minutes!

Speed work starts next Wednesday at 5:30 in the morning! Yikes!
I didn't do any of the speed work in 2004, so this time around I'm really sticking to the schedule and doing everything it says to do. With any luck I can finish under 5 hours at the MCM.

Bright and Early

It's 5:22 am and I'm about to leave my house to go on my first official marathon training session for the Marine Corps marathon.

Oh my goodness! it's so early in the morning. I hope I can get used to this.