slow goin'

Stone Cat Marathon Race Report

2010-11-11T21:32:00.011-05:00

I figured that everyone else was writing race reports, so I might as well write one up. So here goes nothin’ in a very long winded kind of way....

I’d like to start by saying, wooot! I’m a marathoner.

And, what an amazing day it was. I’m not sure how much I even slept the night before. I was too excited and nervous to relax. I amusingly woke up at 3:30 to Jamie sitting there with his laptop, playing a game of chess online. When I asked him why he was up so early he merely stated, “The alarm goes off in 15 minutes”, like one should always be awake for the alarm to go off.

I tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t, so I got up and ate a bunch of my left over delicious garlic chicken pasta from the night before (can I just say how much I love eating leftovers for breakfast? Almost as much as I love pie for breakfast, but not quite.) I then spent some time on the foam roller and started to pack up what I needed in as few bags as possible.

We headed out to the race at 5 and got there in plenty of time for me to have to make two nervous pee trips to the bathroom. I had read in Mindy’s report that this is the one time where there is a very long line for the men’s bathroom and no line for the woman’s. It was really funny to see though!

In time my mom and dad and then Monique and Karen arrived. What an awesome support team I had there for me at 6:15 AM!!!!! The race was delayed 15 minutes due to a car accident that blocked the road to the race, so we began at 6:30. I thought that maybe I wouldn’t need my headlamp, but it was still pitch black out there. As all the runners made their way out of the gym to the start line, it was quiet the site to behold.

At this point I was so excited, yet in a bit of denial that I was going to run 26 miles. I really had so much adrenaline pumping, the worried part of me drifted away as we started out. Despite the bottleneck of moving from an open field onto a small path, I still ran the first mile pretty fast for me. As I made my way along in the dark I ended up falling in with a very fun group of women who led me all the way to Fast Fred’s. One of the women was named Ann. I will forever be thankful to her. She stayed with me the whole way through the first lap even though she could have run much faster. She kept me going and slowed down through the hills I was struggling on so that I could keep up with her.

I was cruising along great - and running fairly fast for me with the kind of trails we were on. When we hit the cold water - unlike Danielle and Val - I did not run right through it. I tried so hard to keep my toes dry and warm - poor things. I eventually realized the lost cause and made large splashes as I tromped through it. This is when my toes decided to hate me for the rest of my life. There is nothing like running through ice cold water halfway up to your knees in sub 50 degree weather when you still have 23 miles left to run.

I met my entourage for the first time a little after Al Cat’s Lounge. I guess they had been lost, but they didn’t show it! It was great to see everyone and get the encouragement to keep on going. I also passed off my headlamp to my mom so I wouldn’t have to carry it anymore. I had zipped though Al’s because I knew that if I stopped I wouldn’t be able to control the urge to eat the bacon and that would have made bad things happen.

The women I had been running with caught back up to me and I worked hard at staying with them. The first lap of this thing is somewhere around 13.5 miles. I gotta tell you, 13 miles is long. I had been working hard those 13 miles too and felt it as we were beginning to make it into the soccer field. I was feeling a little low when I looked around the corner and saw in the distance my mom standing with my Aunt Judy and Uncle Rod! What a surprise. I had no idea they were going to be there! What a pump of energy that gave me. I looked further down the field to see Jen and Adam there. Rockin’ good times all around. I now had a fan club of 8. This lifted my spirits. I am so blessed to have so many awesome people in my life who would come out at crazy hours and watch me run by them in the woods for a few seconds before I disappearing for a few more hours.

The second lap started fantastic. I was on such a high having just seen everyone and I had made it through in 2:58 (who would have guessed I could pull that off?). The first mile sped past as I watched 50 milers go by about to finish lap 3. As you cruise along this part of the course you suddenly make a sharp left up a hill to go into single track mode away from the “in and out” section. For some reason when I hit the top of the hill I felt like I had just climbed Mt. Everest. My brain went, “oh no, this doesn’t bode well for the remaining 12 miles”. I kept chugging along though. It was a little hard to have to stop to let the 50 milers go on by, but I secretly enjoyed the excuse to stop.

This lap was hard. I made it to Al’s and my left ITB felt like it was going to break in half like a too taut elastic. Seeing everyone again though lifted my sprits and Erik was there helping out. It was fun to see him! I hadn’t eaten any food and it still didn’t look appetizing. Looking back I should have partaken in the chicken soup. Erik tried to get me to eat. Next time I’ll listen to him.

Running alone in the woods is a funny thing. I did almost all of my training alone. But when training I would pause, find a comfy spot, perhaps lay down for awhile, call my mom and dad or friends to chat for awhile (Jamie eventually figured this out and would answer the phone with “are you laying down? get up and start running again.”). There were many points on the second lap where I looked longingly upon a lovely pine grove with a soft bed of pine needles just beckoning for me to have a moment’s respite from this torturous event I actually paid money to participate in. At this point in the race I also resorted to talking to my legs. They weren’t very good listeners though. I part of me didn’t really want to stop for long because there was a clock ticking away at the end. I had to keep stopping to stretch though. I was hoping a massage table and masseuse would magically appear at some point on the trail, but no such luck. “Who wants a body massage?” I did.

The last 8 miles brought some wonderful people who passed on by me, but helped me through some rough parts and kept me going. With a couple miles left before Fast Fred’s, I became ravenous. I pulled into the aid station and immediately started to chow down. My family and friends later laughed as they recalled the vision of me double fisting 2 ginger snaps and potatoes. Man those were good.

I was sad to leave this aid station. I remembered it had seemed long from this point to the finish line the first lap and then I was with Ann. This time I was all by my onsie.

Note: THIS WAS THE LONGEST FIVE MILES OF MY LIFE.

I’m not sure I fully remember these miles. I ran some very slow ones - around 20 minute miles (was I actually moving forward?). I stopped many times to stretch my left IT band. My calves were also screaming at this point. I eventually couldn’t figure out what hurt more. My ribs had had it with the coughing and I felt like they were broken, every stride the shift in my sports bra made the pain worse, my lungs felt like they were only half working, my feet hurt, my toes were cold, my nose wouldn’t stop running (and I refuse to partake in the pastime of snot rockets), my hips felt like a 98 year old’s and I definitely noticed the lack of cartilage in my knees. It was me alone in the woods with one very tiny violin.

I eventually hit a point I recognized and thought I was almost done. I was running so slowly though this stretch took forever. I was getting really annoyed with the fact that I was still running and not enjoying a beer when I heard Jamie’s voice bellowing through the woodland. What a sweet, sweet sound. I actually teared up a little. I still couldn’t see any one but I knew that if I could hear Jamie, the end must be near.

Jamie walked beside me while I lobbed along into the field. Ah, sweet victory - the finish line was in sight. Along with my mom, dad, Jen, Adam, Uncle Rod, Aunt Judy, Monique and Karen.

I have to admit that I found finishing fairly anti-climactic. I was so tired and moving so slowly it wasn’t the photo finish I had quite envisioned. I was just super happy to not have to move forward anymore. I was so glad to be surrounded by family and friends though. Again - a huge thank you to them all. I would also like to thank all those Trail Monsters out there who encouraged me along the way. What a very cool group of people you all are.

So thus, I am officially a marathonwe. I slow one, but a finisher. And I felt different going into work on Monday morning. Nothing around me had changed and no one looked at me different;y, but a piece of me had changed. Yep. 26.2. Check.

A Painful 10

2010-02-21T21:50:00.002-05:00

After getting only one run in mid-week when I had wanted to get two in, I thought a nice 10 miles would be good for a weekend run. Silly me using the words 10 miles and nice in the same sentence.

It started out great- I bumped into Jamie as I was heading to the road and we ran the first mile together before I turned off onto trails. I haven't run down CC Road since the fall. Now I remember why I was avoiding it. It has this hill that feels like it goes on forever. And doing it on slushy snow, mud and ice made my not-really-in-hill-shape-body take a turn for the slow.

But after you turn off CC road, there is a section of woods that I love to run through. It's so beautiful and it makes me feel like a elf. If only I could run with the grace and speed of an elf. Instead, I look more like a three-legged elephant trying to run across a frozen pond.

As I was running, I somehow missed the turn I wanted to take to loop back around to CC road. I was on a dirt road though, so I kept going and going. Finally, at 5 miles I called Jamie to have him try to figure out where the heck I was. I knew I had to turn around or find a loop back, because over 10 was not an option. Jamie was able to place me on the map, and I'm glad he got me turned back around.

Running is funny. Some days are rockin' good times- no matter what pace you're going. Other days are like you are trying to drag yourself through waist-high cement that is beginning to solidify. Today was a cement day for me. It took me 2.5 hours for today's run. And that doesn't count the stopping to figure out where I was. Or for the stop when I decided I needed to take the middle screw out of my right shoe right then and there if I was going to take another step.

I made it back in one piece though. My body is really tired and my big toes are blistered, but I've got another 10 miles under my belt, so hopefully the next 10 won't be so bad.

Time to Resurrect the Blog

2010-02-16T16:32:00.005-05:00

Sooo.. my last post was some time last June. I don't really have an excuse for not writing over the summer. I just got lazy. But now that I've been running more regularly again, I figure it's time to get back to things.

Here's a little recap of the past 7.5 months:
Ran off and on throughout the summer and into the fall.
On October 4th I ran the Leaf Peepers Half Marathon in Vermont (which is mostly on dirt roads). I finished in 2:42:50 and managed to stay in front of 15 people out of 670. I was pretty darn proud of my time and how I felt after the race.
The weekend after the half marathon I ran in The Road to Recovery 5K to support my friend Erin and I PR'd! I finished in 28:09. I was pretty darn excited with this right after the half marathon.
In the month of December, the only exercise I got was pressing the pedal on the sewing machine while making all of my Christmas presents. I did get in a short run on Christmas Eve with my brother.

In January I started to pick things up again as I started to plan out the year. I really, really, really want to run the Stone Cat Trail Marathon in November. I figure that's going to take a lot of work for me to get there.

I also would like to run the 25K at Pineland Farms again this year- and for this round I would like to finish in a reasonable amount of time! And I'm trying to add hills into my running so I can run in some of the Bradbury Races this summer.

I'm currently up to 8 miles - which I managed to do today on some icy trails and a little bit of road. Being vacation this week, I can actually get some running in mid week. I'm looking forward to seeing how I feel after 3 days of running this week!

Here's a little video of me slowly running on trails- this is for you Chris so you can see how it's done on the east coast!

Splash

2009-06-21T21:13:00.005-04:00

In between the rain I went for a run on the trail Jamie showed me last week. With all the rain the trails were a bit muddier than last week, but were not as bad as I expected.

I started out a little slow, but got some of the creaks and aches out from spending the last 3 days packing and moving boxes of books at school and helping to pack and move a friend of mine yesterday. The dump road hill was a little rough but I ran the whole way even though my running is slower than walking at times.

After the hill I felt great going down the trail by the powerlines and when I hit the woods I actually felt like I was running at a semi-normal pace, something I haven't been able to do at all in the past 6 months. It was at this point that I remembered that I hadn't taken my blood pressure medicine today. Feeling like I was able to run again at a normal pace has solidified my decision to call my doctor to change my medicine to something that doesn't slow my heart rate down. I'm hoping a change in meds will help be get my body going a bit faster!

I was cruisin' through the woods and feeling great. I got about a quarter mile from home and I attempted to dodge a very large mud puddle. I made it halfway around and then totally wiped out and down I went into the deep muddy water. My first fall in the woods. I feel like a true trail runner now.

On a side note, I ran this 4.6 miles at a 12:56 average pace and last week with Jamie I ran it at a 14:29 average pace. Sweet.

Post Run Mud:
(you can also see the funny swelling that happens in my knees- it's like my knees have a weight problem)

Attempt #3

2009-06-13T14:16:00.002-04:00

I think I've finally recovered from Pineland Farms. I'm still as slow as ever, but that horrifying feeling of overwhelming exhaustion didn't hit today when I ran. It also helped that Neighbor Jamie took me out on the trails by our houses to show me a new loop (4.6 miles!). He walked most of it because my running slows down so much after a mile, but it was very nice to have company and very nice of him to put up with my slowness.

My legs felt good too and my ad and abductors didn't tighten up until mile 3! Things are going along swimmingly. This week I'll try to get another run in during the week. The end of the school year has been keeping me a bit busy, but I'm curious as to how I feel with two runs/week. Very exciting!

Attempt #2

2009-06-06T15:35:00.004-04:00

Things have been a wee bit busy with the birth of my niece and then coming back to work and dealing with the work that piled up, so I haven't done ANY form of exercise all week. No TKD and wiffleball ended, so I didn't even do any base running.

Today I decided to go out for a short run so perhaps I could finish it. I ran the Sarah Vaughn loop at a medium pace for me. I just get so tired. I'm not sure how I ever made it through 15 miles. I need to get back to the gym for cross training and I need to start doing intervals. I think I'm going to stick with some shorter mileage and work on my pace so I can go running in a reasonable amount of time.

Attempt to run again #1

2009-05-30T14:47:00.005-04:00

This run can be summed up in two words: Epic Fail.

As the week has progressed I have been feeling better and better. My left hamstring was loosening up along with my hip flexor. I was even walking at a semi-normal pace by Wednesday. I also made it through an hour and a half of Tae Kwon Do Wednesday night and the Wiffleball Championship Doubleheader Thursday evening(our team made it to finals but lost by one run in the last inning - being runner-up ain't so bad though!). I brought my foam roller to the game that night to roll in between innings. It helped keep the left hamstring going through the games.

Today I decided to get my butt back out on the road. I went out to do the Wakefield Loop (4.7 miles) because it's flat. I was feeling great the first mile and ran it in 11 minutes (which for me is pretty darn fast). After mile 2.5, my left hamstring and my right adductor got so tight near my knees. I figured that I probably wasn't doing anything good, so I slowed way down and walked for a while. When I started to run again after stretching for a bit, I was moving super-slow. It was also really hot out compared to how the weather has been.

So, lesson learned: I must be spending more time on the foam roller and more time doing my core exercises from the dr. Off to foam roll I go.

And thank you for all the congratulations on completing my first 25K! I have to admit that I'm still pretty darn excited about having done that.

Pineland Farms 25K

2009-05-25T10:32:00.002-04:00

I ran my first long race yesterday. It was long, I was slow, but the Pineland Farms 25K was conquered.

Until yesterday, the longest distance I had ever run in my life was 8.5 miles. Jamie kept telling me, "It's only 7 more miles Kate. You'll be fine." I didn't quite believe him, but I figured, what the heck.

I ran alone through most of the race. There was a father-daughter team that I went back and forth with for a while, but at one of the aid stations I stopped and had my dad stretch me out for awhile. That break left me as the last runner in the 25K with a big gap between me and anyone else. (though I did beat the 4 people who walked it!)

Knowing that my parents were out there somewhere waiting for me was very motivating. They sat for HOURS in the cold and rain waiting for me to come around to the aid stations. It was so nice of them to come down and help me out. They kept me going!

Around mile 8, my left hamstring and hip had just about had it. Thanks to Jamie Raymond, my amazing sports chiropractor, he had me walking around again after my Thursday evening wiffleball game, but I think running on it this long was just too much to ask of it. I did have hot pink Kinesio tape on my hamstring, ad and abductors to help out with the pain and inflammation. I got lots of comments about the tape out on the trails. I made it through miles 8 and 9 and then really started to drag. What was nice was my right leg and I felt fantastic! I had the energy and my right knee was still hanging in there. It's pretty exciting to be running without knee braces!

After I crossed the area where you go by the finish line (painful to see it so close, yet it is so far away), I ran this section of the race essentially alone. And when I say alone, I mean ALONE. It was just me and the fields and woods and the rain. I sang to myself making up the grand ole tune of "I'm alone, in a field, in the rain". At this point I was barely able to move the left leg. So I tried a variety of running techniques. I sashayed so I wouldn't have to use the left leg. I was able to do this for a good while, and then I switched to one-legged skipping. I also tried the keep the left leg straight and swing it around to the side for a limp-along stride. I kept trying to move a bit faster 'cause at this point I was just looking forward to stopping. My right leg then got very tired of having been pulling all the weight for the last many miles and I eventually surrendered to my extremely slow pace and no running up the hills at all. I think the last 5 miles were the longest 5 miles I have ever run. Eventually the 50 miler runners started to go by me. It was very exciting to see people. Emma and Chuck both cruised by me at this point.

I eventually hobbled in to the finish at 4:25:03. I was pretty excited I broke 4:30. Next year I think I'll tackle this again and I should be 100% healthy by then thanks to Dr. Jamie.

So the good news is, up until the last 3 miles, I felt great. My left leg didn't allow me to have much of a stride and it was in killer pain, but the rest of me was doin' fine. Thanks to my parents and all of the other runners out there cheering me on. It was nice to see Raw Food Frank out on the trails - he walked with me for a little while up a hill and kept me going. I also saw a lot of the Trail Monsters out there - every stopped to say hello and give me some encouragement. And thanks to Jamie for pushing me to get out there despite all odds!

I can't move today, but will hopefully be out on the trails again soon. And I can't wait until next year. I'm hoping to knock an hour off my time.

Stop the presses..

2009-01-08T21:39:00.002-05:00

Exercise actually happened today.

Thanks to neighbor Karen, I went to the gym tonight. I did 20 minutes on the bike (11 something miles)and 35 minutes on the treadmill (2.5 miles). I walked for 15 min, jogged for 5, then upped the incline for 5, and upped it again for another 5 with a little increase in speed and then I walked a little cooldown for 5. This was the first time I dared to press the incline button. It feels a little funny on the treadmill, but kicked my butt, which was a good thing. I think I'll work on treadmilling it at an incline from and perhaps it will be more like running out and about on the road.

I have a feeling I'm going to be sore tomorrow, but if felt good to be moving again!

Tomorrow I am starting the biggest loser competition at my school. We do our first weigh in. I'm hoping that this competition keeps me motivated as I start once again down the road to getting in shape. It is also great how so many members of my staff have signed up! It's really exciting to promote healthy eating and exercise and to have so many people excited about it. It should be a lot of fun.

Yellow Belt with Green Stripe Test

2008-12-22T21:54:00.005-05:00

I made it through my testing tonight, but not without some bumps and bruises. I made it through the first part of the test and all of my self defenses and front grabs. I didn't realize we were also doing wrist grabs - not too bad, but I burst a vein on the top part of my wrist- which stings. I then only had to perform my poomsae, Taeguk I Jang, once! (meaning I did it correctly the first time) I also got to skip the sparring (yea!) because I wasn't testing for a new belt - just a stripe.

Then came the breaking (ominous music in a minor key starts to play now).
I'm not a big fan of breaking. Call be a wuss, but it hurts. Really hurts. It's like whacking your hand/foot against something by accident, but you are doing it on purpose and hitting the object with everything you've got. Being an adult, I'm supposed to use 1 inch boards. This round I was supposed to do a strike with my hand that at least my instructor knew that there was no way that I could do it. So we tried a simple hammer fist. I did that testing for my orange belt.... piece of cake I'm thinking. I just couldn't do. After the 3rd try with the right hand, I switched to the left, then we switched boards to a smaller one and went to the right again. I finally broke that one. The result of all of the pounding can sort of be seen in the following photo:

I also failed at the kicking breaks. I tried two different kicks- both of which I have done before. Just not the night for me.

So, besides the breaking it was ok. I've asked if I can use the breakable non-wooden boards for next round. I guess I'm just not that cool.

Smackdown

2008-12-11T19:48:00.002-05:00

Last night at Tae Kwon Do I received a true beat down. I landed with a solid thump directly on the left butt bone while sparring a much larger opponent. There was just no hope when our kicks met. I went flying.

So no fast moving for me for awhile. I ache from head to toe. And with parent conferences happening this week, no running has happened. I'll try to get out this weekend if the ice stops coming down and if my spine and butt feel like moving ever again.

I did get a good workout in last night before I hit the ground. And my instructor made me get up after I got hit and finish the match! Brutal.

Night Run #2

2008-12-04T21:46:00.003-05:00

It was a warm evening tonight at 40! It felt like a heat wave so John and I tackled a longer route. We ran down 202 and around the loop of Darbick road. The road was very dark, but it was nice to get off the tar for awhile. The run was a total of 3.95 miles. At the end I was going so slow that John had to stop jogging and walk beside me, but I kept plugging away. After the run, John and I headed to the grocery store for steak and we cooked up a tasty meal. Now I'm fighting sleepiness as I start the many hours of school work that I need to complete tonight.

3 runs in one week! (woo-hoo and a click of the heels!)

In the Dark

2008-12-02T20:09:00.003-05:00

Tonight John and I ran the Sarah Vaughn loop. This was my first run in a long time where we started out in the dark. It was still 30 out so not too cold, but chilly. I've been looking for some thicker weight running pants to help with the cold weather. I haven't found any yet, but have found a thicker undershirt. It kept me nice and toasty :)

I was hoping my run would put me in a better mood. I enjoyed John's company, but I'm still annoyed with how my day went. Perhaps I needed to run longer. I'll have to add mileage on in the future depending on how my day went.

Wakefield, Kennebunk Pond and the HHH

2008-11-21T16:24:00.005-05:00

A couple of Sundays ago I managed to conquer all 4.6 miles of the Wakefield loop once again. I shuffled along at a slow pace, but it felt good. I did some serious icing of the knees after, but they were ok the next day.

Later that week I went out after school by Kennebunk pond. Brr. I was not prepared for the weather or for the wind whipping. I ran 2.6, but it was not easy. I was underdressed, despite the layers and I was wishing that I had gloves on. Winter is finally upon us.

And for the final part of my update, yesterday I went up to portland with Jamie for our first Hash House Harriers Run. What a riot with a lot of really cool runners. I love that the way that the run is set up, it allows for us slower runners to catch up with those speedy people. Jamie was very nice though and kept checking in with me to make sure I wasn't left behind. Also on the run back to the car I made him walk up the hills because my knees were done with it. Next time I'll remember to take ice. When I don't ice immediately after stopping there are consequences. Today my knees feel like each individual piece of the knee has detached itself and every time I step they all come crashing down together. It was a day of delicate stepping and as much desk work as possible.

I'm hoping to hit up the next hash run. I could get used to that kind of running! Anything that starts and ends with beer works for me :)

First Flakes of Winter

2008-11-11T14:27:00.007-05:00

Today I saw my first few flakes of snow come trickling down from the sky. I had left some stuff at school that I needed, so I thought I would go for a run around there after I picked things up. I headed down the road around Kennebunk Pond. I've always wanted to go down there, so I figured running would be a good way to do it!

I made it a total of 4 miles. It may have been the slowest 4 miles ever run, but I ran the whole way - even the hills!

Reason #56 to Lose the Gut: Harder for German Shepherds to Latch on to Your Stomach

2008-11-09T09:24:00.004-05:00

It looked like a nice crisp morning this morning to take a little hike up Ossipee Hill. Jaime informed me that you could drive all the way to the gate now, so I thought I would challenge the Honda Fit. The Fit is awesome. I can't believe how well it handled the rocks. I felt like I was driving a Jeep up there - just a very tiny, low Jeep.

I didn't quite make it to the gate because of a large puddle with an indiscernible depth so I parked about 50 meters down the road from the gate and started to head up. I was about halfway up the mountain when two dogs came barrelling around the corner. I am NOT a dog person. They terrify me. Especially a German Shepherd that is coming at you full speed with his teeth showing. I froze as the dog jumped on me gripping my gut with his teeth. At this point I simultaneously screamed, started to cry and started to pee myself. The owner yelled and the dog unlatched, but he continued to circle me. The owner took him down on the ground as I slowly backed away from them. Fortunately the teeth and claws didn't make it through the fleece too much and I am just scratched a little; but it's sore and I think it will make for some good bruises later on today.

That little incident had my nerves a bit on edge and as the sky darkened and the wind picked up as I continued up the hill, things felt a little creepy. It started to rain a little just as I made it to the fire tower, so I didn't stay at the top long. And then I booked it back down the mountain for the heck of it. I love that it takes me 20 minutes to get up the hill and you can run down it in about 5 minutes. I'm sure my knees were cursing me the entire run down, but they already hurt, so I figured, what the heck?

So, lesson learned. If I had a fit and flat stomach, the dog perhaps would not have been able to bite me. Perhaps this will motivate me to get into better shape.

2 runs in 1 week!

2008-11-08T19:27:00.003-05:00

I actually ran twice this week. I ran 2.9 on Wednesday and another 2.9 today!

Long Overdue Update

2008-10-26T22:27:00.003-04:00

So, since I wrote last, I have run in the Hugs for Haley 5K and the Wine Flight 5K. Not a lot else has happened. The Hugs for Haley run was a lot of fun and was a great benefit event. After the run I swabbed my cheeks to maybe one day be a bone marrow donor.

Yesterday I "ran" in the Wine Flight 5K. This race benefited a couple of wonderful organizations for girls: Hardy Girls, Healthy Women and GoGirlGo. The event was a blast. We ran the 5K in three sections and there were three aid stations we took a break at and enjoyed yummy treats. The first station was all fresh fruits and veggies, the second was crackers and cheese and the third was all about chocolate and yummy desserts. After the race was wine tasting at Sebago brewery. The best part of the entire event was that the race wasn't even timed! I think we finished in an hour or so. Most of that time was spent at the chocolate station that was 20 ft from the finish line. ;)

Yesterday's run was the first time I've been out in a couple of weeks. My muscles are still in shock, but it felt good to be out and about.

Mustang 5K

2008-09-20T12:28:00.005-04:00

I have to confess that I haven't done anything since the Hanover Half Marathon Relay. I made it to Tae Kwon Do one night, but that was it. It's been a bit of a struggle getting back into the routine of the school year and I'm still working on not being a workaholic. So, with my lack of running or anything else that remotely looks like exercise, I headed down to the high school today for the Mustang 5K Road Race. This race benefits my town's high school cross country team and I also work in the district I live in, so a few teachers that I work and with signed up for the race.

Driving in I was also feeling the effects of staying up until 1 AM playing Rock Band and drinking Sam Adams. Great fun, but not a great idea the night before a race. I met up with Cecelia, Deb and Penny at the registration table. The day was turning out to be beautiful and looked perfect for running. We headed down to the start line and I pretended to do some stretching.

When the race started I quickly became aware that I was the slowest runner out there. Everyone took off really fast and within 15 seconds, the only people behind me were 3 walkers. I felt ok though and I had my ipod on, so I was good hanging out all by my onsie at the back.

About 3/4 of a mile in, I started to catch up with a few people, so I started counting them down and some sort of evil laughed played in my head as I passed each person. By mile 1, I'd passed 9 people and my first mile split was 10:04. I thought I had been running around an 11 min pace, so I couldn't have been more excited when I heard the split time. I trudged along some more and then came upon the house of a teacher I work with, Barb. Her cheers helped me keep going as at this point in the race, the top runners are already going by in the other direction.

I hit mile 2 around 20:10, which was also very exciting. I was glad to have gone back by Barb's house and she was right there at the end of the driveway cheering me on with a big smile.

The last mile was not pretty. Around 2.5 I got tired and the hips and knees were stiffening up. I don't think they slowed me down though, my lack of being in shape took care of that. Two high school girls that I had passed earlier went by me. What was annoying about this is that they were also dribbling basket balls as they ran, making it look easy. Also the person that I had been running closely behind was pulling ahead. Things were looking bleak.

We ran into the high school parking lot, beside a playing field and then did around 1/2 of a lap on the track to the finish line. At this point I was just trying to stay ahead of the two people coming up behind me. I could see their shadows looming close behind. When I hit the track, my feet felt the comfort of the very familiar surface and a burst of energy hit. The track is my kind of running.

I kicked it up a bit and realized that I was catching up the the woman in front of me, despite the fact that she had really pulled ahead. As I rounded the last turn, there was a moment of indecision. Do I stay behind this woman, who ran ahead of me the entire race to be nice or do I go by her? I realized that she was not picking it up for the end of the race. I decided to ignore her and run my own race. I cruised by her, leaving her in the wake of my excitement that I was going to get to stop running soon.

I finished in 31:18. I couldn't be happier with my time. I'm just excited that I can still run close to 10 min miles. Here's the best part though.....

I WON RUNNER UP IN MY AGE GROUP!!!

Crazy isn't it! My friend Penny took the top prize in our age group. I was so excited when they said my name I just kept bouncing around! The man who was handing them out laughed at me and said, "You're really excited!" I wanted to say, "Hell ya! I'm normally excited to finish before the walkers!" I am not the kind of runner who wins their age group at races. Of course I was excited!

So, there is my once in a lifetime award for a road race. I think Penny and I might have been the only ones in our age group, but I'm going to pretend that the few people that finished behind me was also :) My friend Deb placed second in her age group and her daughter rocked the race and placed 3rd in the under 14 category and ran some spectacular time that I can't remember- I think in the 26's. Not too shabby for a 10 year old!

So the day was great fun, it was a very nice race to run and to top of it off, I won an award (see below). I feel like a kid in a candy store.

K + 2(K) = 13.1

2008-09-07T15:25:00.004-04:00

This weekend I ran the CHAD Half Marathon Relay with friends Katherine and Kathryn (hence our relay name. KKK was not really a good option so we went with the K + 2(K). Despite the rain (thanks to hurricane Hanna), it was a great weekend.

I hadn't done a lot of exercise this week so I was little worried. I'd run 2.9 last Saturday and went out for another 2.9 on Tuesday with John, but only made it two because of some sharp muscle tightness. I also didn't make it to TKD this week because of our school's open house night. So I was a little weary about going into the race this weekend.

This is the first race I've done with an afternoon start time. I headed up to my brother's house in Hanover Saturday morning to meet up with everyone. It was raining right before I left, but then cleared up. The day was humid and warm with no sun, but it looked good for running. Along with my relay team, my brother was running on a team with the husbands of my two teammates (team name: Two guys and a couch). Also, my brother's friend Sean was running the full half marathon.

We all drove in to the Dartmouth campus and set up home base in my brother's office. His office is right next to the Dartmouth green - right where the start/finish and the relay handoffs all were. It was very handy, especially when it started to rain 15 minutes before the start of the race. It seemed odd to be running so late in the day. I'm not sure I liked it. It gives you too much time to think.

I ran the first leg, 2.8 miles (the shortest distance and the flattest!), with Jeff from Two Guys and a Couch. I left him at mile 1, trying to keep a 10 min/mile pace. I held that pace until mile 2 and then I hit a hill. It wasn't a particularly large hill, but the incline seemed to go on forever. The hill wiped me out and my pace slowed to a crawl. I picked it up when I rounded the corner to the last 100 yards in my leg and passed our bracelet baton off to Kathryn. Kathryn had the longest and hilliest leg of 6.5 miles. She cruised through and looked really strong at the handoff. She passed the baton off to Katherine in the middle of the green and Kathryn brought our team home with the last 3.8 miles. Throughout the race the rain kept coming harder and harder and it cooled off quite a bit. Our official time was 2:25:54. We were pretty excited about breaking 2 and a half hours. Two Guys and a Couch finished in 2:06:03. Sean, who ran the whole thing, whooped us all with a time of 1:56:29.

After partaking in the after race BBQ, we headed home for some excellent pizza and brownies. I had a great time and hopefully we'll be able to do this race again another year.

Here are Kathryn, Katherine and I (aka K + 2(K) = 13.1):

Lullaby of Birdland

2008-08-28T19:33:00.002-04:00

Tonight I ran Sarah Vaughn. All of it. A whooping total of 2.9 miles. Thanks to my neighbor John, I actually got out there and ran tonight. The best part was that the run actually felt good. We ran around a 10:15 pace. The pace felt light and I wasn't hobbling at the end - it felt so nice to finish a run dragging myself into the driveway like Egor. I am now sure I'll be able to finish my leg of the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Half Marathon Relay next weekend.

So even though the real Sarah Vaughan spells her name differently than my neighborhood road, I named this blog entry after one of my favorite songs that she sings because it is so light and fun. Tomorrow I head back to the osteopathic dr. for another session with my bewildered dr.

Different kind of training

2008-08-27T23:07:00.002-04:00

I'm not doing very well keeping up with exercise. Work is dominating once again. But I made it through today and now should have a little more time to work out a steady schedule. Today I ran a workshop/training for my staff on classroom design/purpose, meaningful independent reading and how to take and analyze running records. Sounds fascinating doesn't it? :) I actually do think all of it is fascinating, but I suppose that's why I do what I do.

For the second official day at school, when there are so many things to do, I have to say that I am so lucky to have the staff I do! It was a lot of information in an uncomfortable school cafeteria. I can't say enough about how I am really excited about this upcoming school year! I can't wait to see where we go as a school and how we can impact kids.

Seeing yellow

2008-08-25T22:12:00.002-04:00

I am officially a yellow belt.

And I was able to break my boards. I had never done or seen my kick break and I wasn't sure I was going to pull it off, but I broke the board with a very satisfying snap. The kick was a jumping axe kick.

Jumping Axe Kick

Running from reality

2008-08-24T15:29:00.002-04:00

Today I finally dragged myself back into reality and out on the road. I haven't done anything all week, except work and read. My parents were also visiting from Tuesday night to Friday night, so I spent a lot of time with them and we ate out a lot at some very yummy places. Mostly I have been reading. After finishing Twilight, I had to go get the second book, then the third and I finished book four last night. I couldn't stop. What, you may ask, am I doing reading high school romance novels about vampires and werewolves? The answer is Edward Cullen, who leaves every female reader wishing that they had their own Edward. He's an addiction- no wonder these books are so popular! So as work takes more and more time as the beginning of the school year draws closer, I was able to escape this world with Bella and Edward for a short while. Ahhhhhh.

But now that I have finished the book, I decided I should probably restart my life. So I headed out today to run Sarah Vaughn. I started right out with no warm-up walk. 50 meters down the road, I realized I had forgotten my watch - that was ok though. I didn't need to see how slow I was going. About another 50 meters down the road I went past a patch of goldenrod and realized that I had forgotten my inhaler. That would be ok too - the wheezing will just keep me company. Then, about another 50 meters down the road, I realized I had forgotten my knee braces. I apparently haven't run in so long, I forgot how to get out the door! I can't run without my knees all wrapped and cozy, so I headed home to get everything I'd forgotten.

I eventually made it back out. I ran 2.5 miles of the loop at an average of a little under a 10 minute/mile pace. I felt like I had lead feet, but I didn't feel too bad for having not done anything all week. Now I'm just going to have to work on a set schedule. The trick will be to keep up with the running now that I'm back to work.

Running? What's that?

2008-08-18T21:30:00.004-04:00

I haven't been doing a heck of a lot since my run last Thursday (besides my walk on Saturday). I did help friends of mine pack up yesterday for their move to Texas. That was a good workout and I've got another whole set of exciting bruises to show off. We fit an amazing amount of things in their moving van (after having to unload a large amount of it to reorganize and to dig out the bike rack).

I had a meeting all day today, but I made it to TKD tonight. I'm testing next Monday for my yellow belt! I'm a little nervous. I'm not looking forward to having to break again. I learned that I can switch my hand break though from a knife hand to a palm break. I'd rather hit the board with my palm rather than the outside of my hand. It just doesn't feel good to slam my hand into a board! (but I have to say it's cool that I can do it :) )

Below is my current Poomsae form that I will need to perform on Monday.

Taeguk Il Jang

First Trip to Pineland Farms and Twilight

2008-08-16T20:28:00.010-04:00

I have heard about Pineland Farms from Jamie and I had driven by sort of accidentally on a detour gone awry at the beginning of July. I was intrigued with the gardens as I drove by and made a mental note to make it up there some time in the future.

So today I went up and met with Jamie's running crew at Pineland Farms because Mindy was going to be there to go on a walk to begin her path to running again after a long stint of rest and healing for her stress fractured hip. I thought I would be able to handle a walk :) Frank the runner we met at the Vermont 100 was also going to be running. It was fun to see him, even if only for a short time before everyone disappeared into the woods. He did pass along to me an amazing calendar that Cathi had given him to give to me. It was signed by all of the runners in the calendar. It is filled with amusing pictures of "naked" runners and excellent looking recipes. Cathi had also asked Frank to bring me some of his chocolate macaroons, which are heavenly. I'm guessing there is ginger in them, which goes perfectly with the chocolate and coconut(three of my favorite things), creating a treat that I couldn't keep my hands off of. They're almost all gone. Thank you so much Cathi and Frank!

I had a great time this morning and Mindy and I walked a couple of miles through the beautiful trails. We saw what I think was a Red Tailed Hawk. It was some sort of hawk-like raptor. We also heard a deep voiced sounding bird that was possibly a wood pecker. After our walk, I played with an adorable puppy named Echo for awhile and then headed over to the gardens.

I then spent about two hours here:

After walking around the gardens, I grabbed the book from my car and plopped myself on the above swing, just as the sun was starting to come out. I had brought the book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I have been wanting to read it as it is all the rage with high school girls. I started it this morning and couldn't put it down. I finally left the wood of the hanging seat in the garden and headed home to my soft feather bed to continue to read. It was scandelously delicious. No wonder there is such a huge following of the series. It is such a guilty pleasure to read all day and this book did not disappoint. Somehow the 500 pages went by very quickly and now I'm going to have to get the next book in the series. I'm thinking a late night trip to Borders might be happening this evening.

Below are pictures from the garden. It is a beautiful spot and the 2 hours I was there, only 1 couple walked through. I had the place to myself. What a day.

My adorable car at one of the gates

Some slightly faster running

2008-08-14T20:34:00.004-04:00

John and I did some "speed work" tonight. I'm glad John was around because I'm not sure I would have gone out. I worked all day, have a ton of work to do tonight and my body is just really cranky today from head to toe.

I also tried something new tonight. I went to a new osteopathic doctor yesterday, Dr. Yee. In the past 17 years (when the hip pain started), I have been to too many sports doctors, specialist and physical therapists to count. I'm still not convinced that chronic pain is normal and I think I have found a doctor that will be willing to work with me long term. I think she recognizes that it's not a quick fix and that we can't just focus on one area - you have to treat everything as a whole. She told me I should take one Aleve in the morning (I normally take 2) and then take another right before I run. I'm thinking the one Aleve this morning is why I ached so much today, but I'll give it another try tomorrow. She also said I should try heating before exercise and icing after. I normally ice after (and sometimes before), but I don't use heat that much. I think it helped a little. I'll continue to give it a try. I'm also not supposed to stretch "hard". Dr. Yee said that a lot of the areas where there is major pain is where everything connects. What can happen is the tendons and muscles and such start to fray - so I need to work on stretching the middle of the muscles because I've put so much strain on those points over the years.

So, using this new plan, John and ran the Sarah Vaughn loop. We started with a 7 minute warm-up jog and then did:
30 sec sprint - 2:00 min wog (this is a jog that is as slow as walking - my high school track coach named it the Kate Shuffle)
30 sec sprint - 2:30 min wog
30 sec sprint - 3:00 min wog
30 sec sprint - 2:30 min wog
30 sec sprint - 2:00 min wog
30 sec sprint

Then we jogged back, ending with a cooldown walk. We were out for 35 minutes and went a total of 2.8 miles. I was actually proud of myself. I wasn't really sprinting, it was more of a faster run (John was going much faster than I was). I am going to take it slow so I don't pull anything or do too much damage. It felt like a good little workout though and hopefully I'll see my speed increase if we continue to follow this format once a week.

I also bought another knee brace for my right knee and it was much happier at the end of the run. At least I match now!

Running and rumbling

2008-08-12T20:23:00.004-04:00

Tonight I went for a run with my neighbor John. We haven't had a run together in a VERY long time. It was nice to have company! We did the Sarah Vaughn loop and ran 2 miles of it. We ran an average pace of 10:33. Right before we headed out a storm started to come through. The thunder kept rumbling loudly, but it looked like the storm was a little south and not too much lightening. The thunder was loud though and at one point made me scream loudly.

Now I'm settling in to an evening of Olympics. I'm really looking forward to the women's gymnastic team competition.

Why gymnastics is so amazing(from nbcolympics.com):

Does watching other people exercise count?

2008-08-11T12:40:00.004-04:00

I'm currently addicted to the Olympics. I can't seem to stop watching. It doesn't matter what the sport is, if it's on, I'll watch it. Last night we got a glimpse of the women's gymnastics team. China is going to give the U.S. a run for it's money. Should be an excellent showdown. I also have to make sure that I'm available whenever Michael Phelps is swimming. Man, he is bionic man in the pool. The 4 x 100relay last night was worth staying up for. The U.S. team beat out the French by a reach, after France had been leading. It was great because the French team had been trash talking the American team. It also made Gold medal number 2 for Phelps.

Because I was up late last night watching the Olympics and my lack of desire to drive to Biddeford to go to the gym, I plopped my sore butt on my bike again and biked to the post office to mail my certification for the state. I will now be officially certified as a Literacy Specialist in the state of Maine. I dropped off my mail and then headed back, taking a side detour up Jellerson Road. It was only a 2.6 mile ride, but I forgot my knee brace and even though I could have stopped back by my house to get it, the Olympics won over. Wouldn't want to miss the U.S./China match in water polo!

giddy-up

2008-08-09T12:46:00.003-04:00

I was feeling a bit lazy and didn't want to drive to the gym, so I headed out for the Sarah Vaughn loop. The sun was out with some nice fluffy cloud cover - perfect running weather. As always, I walked to the dirtbike track for a warm up and then ran the loop back to the track so that I could cool down with a walk. Today I decide to brave wearing the garmin to track my time. Often, when I'm feeling slow, I prefer not to know how slow I'm actually going. It's much better to live in the fantasy of thinking that I could be going faster than I think I'm going.

Today I was going faster! I did the 2.13 miles in 20:30. That's an average pace of 9:37!!!! I'm pretty darn-tootin' excited about that! I didn't think I would ever run at a 10 min/mile pace again. I'm ecstatic about running 2 miles under that pace!!!

That calls for a knee-slappin' yee-haw!

Holding true to the blog name

2008-08-08T13:59:00.002-04:00

So, I got this crazy idea that I would go on a longer bike ride today. My legs were still tired this morning from my bike and run at the gym yesterday, but I thought it would be good for me. Jamie suggested that I do the 202 to 35 route. It's 9.2 miles. I thought to myself, "I've done over 7 a few times at the gym - 9 should be ok."

hahahahaha. silly me.

I started out feeling ok. I was working out the kinks in my quads, but eventually made it into a good pace. I'm about 3 miles down the road and I realize that I can't visualize where 35 meets up with 202. I begin to panic because my legs are getting tired and the sky is looking awfully dark and I have a strong desire to stop. With a sigh of relief, I finally see rt. 35. I'm plugging along and that pace I once had has turned into sporadic pedaling. I'm still doing ok though and then I turn down Clarks Mills Road. This excites me because I know it comes out on Route 5 less than 2 miles from my house, but then I hit a rut in my energy and many ruts in the road. All hope of pretending that I can bike is gone. I can't figure out what hurts more, my butt bones or my burning thighs. As my bike weaves around because I'm going so slow, I start to think that I could probably run faster than I'm going, which is just really, really sad. I begin to hope for a storm so that maybe I would get struck by lightening and I would have an excuse to stop.

I'm really struggling and then I see it. A Frito Lay truck goes zooming by on the road ahead. It's Route 5. I'm almost home. When I hit Rt. 5, I realize that it is MUCH easier to bike on smooth road. I feel like I'm actually moving again and I have hope that I will make it home.

It took an embarrassing long time (50 minutes) to bike the 9.2 miles, I might not be able to sit on a hard surface for awhile and I'm pretty sure that Jamie runs that route faster than I biked it, but at least I made it without stopping.

Murakami and rockin' it at the gym

2008-08-07T20:01:00.003-04:00

I've made it quite a ways through Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". Whether you know Murakami or not, this is a great read. It's insightful and amusing and if you are a long distance runner, you'll appreciate this memoir. His description of his individual run from Athens to Marathon made me laugh out loud. Currently I'm reading about his one and only ultramarathon experience. Every time I read a new book of Murakami's, I enjoy his writing more and more. I wish they would translate his books faster.

Even though I really didn't want to today, I headed to the gym. I started out with 20 minutes on the bike, moved to the treadmill and then quickly worked through the upper body weights because I wanted to make it home in time to watch the Patriot's first pre-season game. Here's a breakdown of what I did:

Bike: 20 minutes/7.2 miles
Treadmill:
10 min walk
10 min @ 11 min/mile pace
15 min @ 10 min/mile pace
10 min @ 11 min/mile pace
5 min walk (I think - may have been more)

I ended up going 4.4 miles. I was happy to be over 4. A chunk of that is walking, but I was moving for over 4! woo-hoo!

I'm jogging in the rain, just jogging in the rain...

2008-08-06T21:36:00.002-04:00

Tae Kwon Do this evening was fairly low key and I was excited to try out the running playlist I created on my ipod, so when I got home I hit the road for my first road run in quite awhile. I'm glad Jamie suggested that I wear a headlamp and that I should borrow his reflector vest. It got dark pretty quick with all of the rain.

I did the Sarah Vaughn loop, which is about 2.9. I walked the first bit and the end and ran a little over 2. I ran the 2.1 miles in about 21 minutes. I was pretty excited about that! I felt good the whole way through. I started out a little bit faster than I probably should have, but it felt so good to be running outside! I love running in the rain.

I also hit up the doctor today and she referred me to an osteopathic doctor. Hopefully that will help get rid of some of the muscle yuckiness around my hips, knees and back and take care of some of that pain, allowing me to run more!

Lost in a book

2008-08-05T17:24:00.002-04:00

Today I went to the gym, but it was just an excuse to say I had done something other than read all day, but I really went to read more. I did 20 minutes on the bike (while reading). I've upped the level and I made it 7 something miles. I then headed to the treadmill, with the intention of running, but I walked at a good pace for 20 minutes. I couldn't seem to get the motivation to run when I could read while walking.

I also did weights for my legs. I added some weight to some of the machines now that I know I felt good after last time - no bad aches. I feel good now, but am off to continue to read. I'm almost done Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card. Excellent book with some very interesting stuff going on. Today at Nonesuch Books in Saco, I also picked up Haruki Murakami's latest that just came out, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and I'm looking forward to getting into that one.

A few days off, but I have color!

2008-08-05T08:53:00.006-04:00

I took Sunday off from all exercise to work on my bathroom. I finished Monday afternoon, just in time to make it to Tae Kwon Do, where we started working with sticks. That's just a disaster waiting to happen. The stick drills are good for your brain though. You have to develop the motor memory and be able to do it fast and without whacking yourself. It could be interesting.

I just have some touchups to do in the bathroom and I need to paint the trim, but other than that, it's done! Here it is:

Painting has begun..well at least the priming

2008-08-02T20:02:00.003-04:00

I have finally finished priming my bathroom after much sanding and hole filling!!! I also managed to get to the gym today and I tried out the new knee brace I got at the fancy sports store known as Hannaford. It did a good job keeping the swelling down in my left knee.
I just did the treadmill today:
5 minute walk
5 minutes @ 12 min/mile
10 minutes @ 11 min/mile
10 minutes @ 10 min/mile
5 minute cooldown walk

I managed to make it 3 miles and then come home and paint all afternoon! Pretty exciting!

Cathi- I did find the cat. He came out from under my bed about 2 hours after the storm passed. Despite his size (he's 25 pounds), he's a big baby and is the definition of a scaredy-cat.

Here are the boys lounging around yesterday:

Lower body

2008-07-31T16:41:00.003-04:00

Today I started working on the lower half of my body. To warm up I did 15 minutes on the bike - but upped the resistance level. I did a little over 10 on the elliptical because my knee was feeling funky and I wanted to make sure I could do the strength stuff. I'm oddly excited about getting going on strengthening my legs. Again, I'm starting everything on very low weight. I want to make sure I've got some core muscle there and I don't want another injury.

Overall a good workout. I missed the major part of a killer storm though that was brewing above my house. I got home just in time to get soaked in the rain. I'm sad I missed the lightening. I'm guessing it was pretty loud here though because I still have yet to find one of my cats.

Upper body

2008-07-30T16:20:00.002-04:00

Today I went to the gym to get my training on the upper body machines. I now know how to adjust everything and what is good form. I have to have everything on the lowest setting, but it's a start! I think we did 12 machines.

When I first got there, I did 15 minutes on the bike. It then took an hour to go around to everything and I was with two other people, so I didn't actually do the workout. When we finished, I did 15 minutes the the elliptical to warm up again and then I went through everything to see if I could remember. My arms are very tired. I'm thinking that they might not be moving tomorrow morning. After I finished, I went to the treadmill and walked 10 minutes, ran 15, walked for 7. So when you add the bike and elliptical in, it's a sporadic cardio workout for 1:02.

I feel good too. My legs are tired and arms are REALLY tired, but I think the joints are holding up. Last night I had my neighbor John rolling pin my IT band. I might need to do that again tonight. It keeps tightening up on me on the left side. Overall though, I think things are going really well!

Another day at the gym

2008-07-29T14:17:00.002-04:00

I got up this morning feeling great after I got the joints going. I momentarily thought about running, but I've been doing some research and it looks like the treadmill is easier on the knees. So after being lazy for awhile, I headed to the gym.

I biked for 20 minutes (7.7 miles) and then hopped on the treadmill. I figured that because I'm meeting with the trainer tomorrow to do upper body, it would be ok if the joints are a little out of whack. It felt great. I walked for 10 as a warm up - doing rotations of side and backwards walking. I then jogged at a 12 minute pace for 5 minutes, an 11 minute pace for 5, a 10 minute pace for 5, back to an 11 minute pace for 5 and then a cooldown walk for 5. So I was moving at some sort of pace for 35 minutes.

That makes the total cardio time of 55 minutes. Before and after I also did A LOT of stretching. I'm trying to work the kinks out of my hips and lower back. And thanks to Bob's suggestion, I think I'll pick up "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook".

I've decided that I'm going to ignore the doctors and try to figure things out on my own. I think that my knee pain can't be the arthritis because on the xrays, my right knee is a lot worse off than my right knee, but it's the left knee that is really bothering me when I run. Also, I'm thinking that with the right amount of ice, heat, massage and stretching, I might be able to get my hips to come around. After the long stretching today, they feel great. My left knee feels like it died and then exploded, but that will hopefully work itself out. I'm just currently walking the stairs like I have a peg leg.

Now I am off to drive to a faraway Target to get the shower curtain I want so I can pick out paint for my bathroom - my first home project.

Trainers and Tae Kwon Do

2008-07-28T20:38:00.003-04:00

This morning I headed to the gym with a couple of friends and I met with a trainer there. My hopes were that she could give me some insight into how to best use the machines to maximize muscle growth and minimize stress on my knees and hips.
We sit down to talk and she gives me a form to fill out. I then see the dreaded line where I have to list "medical". As I fill it out, she looks a little confused at the list of damage I've done over the years. At least I'm now getting the gray hair to match my old lady joints! She then tells me that I need to get a note from the doctor to give to them to make sure that I can do all of the exercises. What's up with that? Am I not an adult and can I not decide what I want to do?
We finally get started on the list of machines and such. Today she just showed me how to get the treadmill, elliptical and bike set to do either a cardio or fat burn workout- things I already had a grasp on. I had to make 2 more appointments- one for her to show me the upper body workout and one for the lower body workout. I was kind of hoping that everything would happen all in one day, but oh well.
The good thing was that she told me I should do things for 15 minutes and then switch. She also told me I can't run on the treadmill, only walk (again - how old am I?). But I like the idea of switching it up and then mixing up the order each day. This morning I biked for 15 minutes, ellipticaled for 15 minutes and then WALKED for 10. Walking, I did some sideways walking on each side and some backwards walking - something I had to do at physical therapy last year. It was a good 40 minute workout.

I'm going to need to figure out how to add "distance" to my running without running. I'd like to be able to do races longer than a 5k and have my knees hold up. I'm hoping that my time doing cardio will transfer to running somehow.

Tonight I also had Tae Kwon Do, which I had trouble focusing on because I just bought an ipod nano and I wanted to go home to play. We learned a great new kick though that I like a lot. It's for when your opponent is really close to you. You bring your rear leg up close to your body so it's kind of curled up and then you kick your opponent, flat footed with your whole body. I managed to push a young man who must have a good 40 pounds on me back about 10 feet.

Now I am going to go play with my ipod.

Messy house

2008-07-27T22:02:00.002-04:00

This morning I went to roll over and I felt the pain in my hips and lower back. I slowly got out of bed with some stretching. I had planned on running today, but wasn't sure because everything felt so yucky. I have a hard time telling the difference between good muscle pain and bad joint pain in my back and hips. My left knee was also still swollen. Arg.

So, I tackled my house - which is a workout in itself. I cleaned for 8 hours today and cleaned everything from the fridge to the cupboards to the bathroom floor. I've been so busy lately, I haven't had the time to give the house a good spring cleaning. I also would like to start painting soon, so I thought it would be good to start cleaning up and getting some of the walls washed.

By the end of the day my body was tired, but it felt ok. I was going to go out for a walk/jog, but we had a storm hit that just wouldn't go away. And the lightning looked vicious, so I stayed in and played cards with the neighbors.

So no official exercise today, but a good workout just the same- and I have a clean house! Tomorrow morning I'm meeting with a trainer at the gym so I can get started on some strength training. Hopefully they know what they are talking about!

A bike, a hike and a very slow jog

2008-07-26T14:10:00.007-04:00

This morning I decided I would go for a hike up Ossipee hill and test out my new Mizunos that I picked up last night at the Maine Running Company. Then I got this hairbrained idea that I would bike there instead of driving. So I went over to Ed's Grove to get a bike lock, got my fanny pack packed and I got my bike out of the very spidery basement. It took me so long to organize myself that I didn't get out the door until 10:30.

I headed down route 5 on my bike. After a mile and a half, the shoulder disappears and I biked on the white line, trying to stay out of traffic. Once you hit McLucas road, a short ways in, the road turns to dirt. I was able to bike for awhile, but the uphills are loaded with rocks, so I ended up walking my bike in about a 1/2 mile and then I locked it to a tree.

At this point, my legs were tired and I was thinking, "why didn't I just drive here?" and I wanted to turn around and just go home. There were swarms of deer flies, mosquitoes and some sort of tiny flies that kept getting in my eyes. The deer flies were enough to make one go mad. At this point the road is all uphill, so I was moving pretty slow and I momentarily thought about running, but knew that would be a lost cause. So I continued to trudge along up the hills until I FINALLY reached the trail to the top of the mountain. That didn't take me long to hike, but I was glad to make it to the top and sit down to rest.

I didn't rest for long though because I brought up the gps to find the geocache at the top of the mountain. After a little wandering I found it. I haven't had time to go geocaching since April, so it was fun to be out searching again. This one included photos of people that had found the cache. They were neat to look through.

My knees were kind of annoying me so I put my knee sleeve thingy on the left knee and jogged back down the mountain and back to the bike- something I shouldn't have done to my knees, but at this point, I just wanted to get home and I figured if I was jogging, I'd get there a little bit sooner. Back to the bike, I was able to slowly cruise down the gravely roads and then made it back home to a long icing of the hips and knees. My left knee is still swollen, but it's beginning to look like a knee again. It feels good to have made it out and back. I'm quite proud of myself- this was far from easy for me.

The total trip was around 11 miles and it took me a very long 2.5 hours (.5 of those hours were for geocaching).
Biked: 7.5 miles
Walked/hiked: 2 miles
Jogged: 1.5 miles

The view from the top:

Thoughts from the Vermont 100

2008-07-24T21:25:00.005-04:00

I stole this photo from Ian's photos from the VT 100. I have a feeling I might have had this look on my face a few times. Sorry Jaime.

A walk in the woods

2008-07-22T16:30:00.002-04:00

Inspired by the amazing athletes I saw this weekend, I thought I should get out there and do some sort of exercise. I asked my neighbor Karen if she would like to go for a walk in the woods. We headed down the logging road for about a 1/4 of a mile before we could take the deer flies no more. I've never seen it so bad. Only one was able to take some of my skin away with him, thanks to my violent arm flapping. We jogged it out of there and then walked a mile on the roads, followed by a mini ab workout.

I've decided I really should do some walking before I get into running. Every time I run lately I'm good for a little bit and then I get so annoyed with my body and tired of everything hurting, that I don't go out again. So maybe this time I'll get it right. My class ends this friday, so next week I'm free for the first time in a long time. Karen and I are going to work out a schedule to get to the gym. The Dartmouth half marathon relay is only a month and a half away!

First Ultra Experience

2008-07-21T13:17:00.008-04:00

Living next to Jamie, I have been pulled into the world ultramarathons - something I had previously known little about. Since meeting Jamie, I have been forced to watch a few documentaries, read magazine articles and listen to Jamie talk about running nonstop. So I have become intrigued by these 100 mile long races and the motivation behind doing something like that. I asked Jamie if I could come to the Vermont 100 and he enlisted me as a crew member. Months ago when we were talking about it, I imagined me and a few of his fellow experienced runner friends being his "crew" and they would know what they were doing and I could just watch and enjoy the experience. I had recently learned that it was just me! Jamie takes his running very seriously and I was terrified I would mess something up. I had no clue what it meant to be a 'handler'. I was even more concerned when I got to the area of the race and discovered the very tiny back roads and sweeping hillside that I could easily get lost in (which I had done on the way to the race).

I have to say, this was one of the most interesting things I have done. It was great fun and I met some wonderful people who were crewing for other runners. A couple of Jamie's Trail Monster teammates ran and I got to hang out with their families at the aid stations. Ian, Stephen and Chuck were all running at a similar pace for awhile, so it was fun to travel in a pack together. After the first few aid stations the runners spread out and there become less and less handlers waiting while you waited. It's a bit surreal also. You drive and drive on very rural dirt roads, carry a chair and all of the equipment needed (Jamie was very low maintenance, so I didn't have to carry much) and then you sit around waiting for your runner to pop out of the woods and there is 2 minutes of frenzy as you try to get him back out on the trail as soon as you can. And then you start the process over again.

At the station that was close to the 50 mile mark, I met up with Al, who would be pacing with Jamie. It was nice to have someone reading the directions when I drove and Al was great company. I'm glad I got the chance to get to know him. But Al started running with Jamie at the 70 mile mark and then I worried about getting everything all set for 2 runners!

My brother joined me for one of the stops. He was very entertaining to have in the car despite the fact that he made fun of my slow driving. He was there for a late night aid station in a beautiful farm area with rolling hills and and animals milling around the hills. I saw some horses and I think I heard a cow. It was too dark and misty to see though. It is very odd just waiting around, watching the dark, waiting to see the glimpse of a tiny light. But then you can't tell who it is when you do see a light and I couldn't tell the difference from a distance between the runners and the horses. I knew that Al and a light he was going to carry and Jamie had a head lamp. When they came down the road it looked like Jamie was running with a midget.

I could not believe Jamie's race. He looked fantastic all the way through. He ran a lot of the race with another runner, Frank. Frank's handler and I were at each aid station all the way through. We started calling Jamie and Frank the cheerful runners because they didn't even look like they had been running! There was only one time I got worried because Jamie was a little pale, but he said that most likely had something to do with the rain.

Jamie completed the race in 22 hours, 26 minutes and 29 seconds. Absolutely amazing. It took quite awhile to get Jamie to stand back up again, but we eventually made our way back up to the tent area to get some sleep. A storm had swept through, so many tents were down or had blown away. I was lucky. Stephen's family had a tent next to mine and a tree had fallen on it. Mine was nice and dry. Jamie's had unfortunately gotten all wet, so I gave up my tent and for the evening and slept in my very handy Honda Fit.

It was an awesome weekend. Despite getting only 2 hours of sleep and then driving home to an evening filled with paper writing, I would do it again. I was a little sleepy teaching today and kept bumping into things but I'm looking forward to a good nap this afternoon. I'm tired and I didn't even run! I can't imagine how much sleep the runners need get after something like this.

This weekend made me wish that I could get out there and do something like this. Perhaps when I'm 50 and I have 2 knee replacements and 2 hip replacements I'll be able to do it :) Until then, I hope that I have the chance to crew again.

Fowl play keeping me away.

2008-07-16T23:08:00.002-04:00

On Tuesday the latest book in the Artemis Fowl series came out. Tuesday afternoon as I opened the book (I had started to read it on the way home), I thought, "I should go for a run." I quickly forgot all things in this world and was swooped away with Artemis, back in time. I finished the book this afternoon. An excellent read. I'm sort of sad that it's over.
I was also bad and skipped Tae Kwon Do tonight. Instead, I hung out in the back yard with my neighbors. I'm really going to have to force myself to get out there tomorrow.

Mall walking

2008-07-13T21:37:00.003-04:00

Today I decided to take a day off because my hips were really bothering me. Especially my right one, which normally is ok. I kept massaging my hip and butt in church because it was hard to stand so long and then sit for so long. I'm sure the elderly couple behind me thought I was a bit odd.

So instead of exercising, I did the next best thing... shopping! I figure I walked at least a mile or so while browsing at the Maine Mall. Tomorrow night is Tae Kwon Do. Hopefully we aren't sparring again.

Short but fast....

2008-07-12T15:26:00.003-04:00

well fast for me that is. I started down the road with plans to do the same run/walk I did on Thursday. When I came to the spot where an ATV trail comes out, I decided to swing into the woods and check out why the sign said the trail was closed. The trail was very nice on my knees, but man alive- the deer flies and horse flies were out of control. So I started in at my normal slow pace and within two minutes into the woods I was bookin' it through, wondering why I decided to go into the swarm of hooved animal flies. Jamie was right. It is bad out there. So I ran as fast as I could over the river and through the woods until I finally saw my back field. Though, once you hit open field, you can see the shadows of all of the flies, which makes me even itchier.
The run was a mile. I had planned on running a bit longer, but I was so tired from attempting to run away from the flies that I decided to call it quits when I made it back to my house.

Feeling the burn...

2008-07-11T19:38:00.002-04:00

Today I dragged my bike out of the basement, freshened up the air in the tires and set out on the road. I was a quarter mile down the road when I began to feel the burn in my quads. So....out.....of.....shape....
I biked around the Wakefield loop. It's been so long since I've been around the loop, I forget how long the loop is. Something like 4 miles. It was a good little ride and I can feel it in my quads. The weather is beautiful and my pale skin appreciated the cloud cover. I'm hoping that I get out tomorrow for another short run/walk.
I also officially registered for the Chad half marathon. I'm running with two friends as a relay. Now I really have to get going with my training!

red rover, red rover, It's time to start over

2008-07-10T16:30:00.003-04:00

After getting my ass whooped by an 11 year old last night at Tae Kwon Do, I decided I really have to get back on the running bandwagon. I'm taking it easy though, like the couch to 5K plan starts. Today I did 2 miles, alternating running three telephone poles and walking 2. I think my knees hated me at the time, but they are doing ok now. When I came home my neighbor was setting up the sprinkler, so I got to cool off by running through a few times. Now let's see if I can keep up with it this time...

Doc's Tiger 3 Miler

2008-06-14T08:22:00.002-04:00

Last night I ran in Doc's Tiger 3 Miler in Biddeford with a couple of friends. Well, I ran behind them I should say. I actually ran the whole way (with a little backwards running down hills). I was quite proud of myself for finishing since I haven't run since April and really just haven't trained a lot in the past year. It was a lot of fun and the bonus of this race is that it ends at Doc's tavern.
I finished in 34:03 - quite slow, but I did finish! I even beat 5 people :) My body feels a little beat up today and I decided not to go hiking in the white mountains like I had planned to do today. Instead I am hanging out in bed covered in biofreeze and aspercream.

Spa day and more running

2008-04-27T08:28:00.002-04:00

I can't seem to keep up with the blog this week. Wednesday I had TKD and we did more prep for our upcoming belt tests. My mom was down visiting so she watched class and helped me with some stuff at school. Thank you mom!

Thursday my mom and I headed up to Augusta to the Senator Inn Spa and we had a day of luxery. I did a mile on the treadmill while I was there, but didn't want the knees to hurt during my massage. I had a deep tissue massage and he did a lot of manipulation too. My hips got a workout and I took Friday off to let them recover. They needed some rest time, but I can feel the difference.

Saturday I did the Sarah Vaughn loop again. I'm still doing a mix of walking and jogging, but I'm trying to speed up the jogging. I'm hoping that sometime next week I can maybe try a slightly longer route. I'm not sure how that will work out, but I'll try.

It is now the end of break and I fear that school will once again take over. It was good to know that I can run more than one day a week as long as I take the time to ice all over after I run. If I have time I might try to get out today. Perhaps a bike ride would be nice.

Geocaching has taken over!

2008-04-22T14:28:00.002-04:00

I haven't updated because I've been spending all of my free time searching for tupperware in the woods.

Running update:
Sunday I did the Sarah Vaughn loop again with the same mix of running and walking that I did on Friday. This time the knees weren't has happy, but it was still a good run.
Monday night was Tae Kwon Do, so no running. We did more practice for our belt test. I'm getting nervous I won't remember everything I need to, but I'm looking forward to my orange belt because I really like orange :)

Geocache update:
After I got back from the run and cleaned up Karen and her parents, Jamie and I headed out to search for some more caches in the area. Some were rather tricky but we found the.

We also spent quite a bit of time on Monday geocaching. One took us to some beautiful cliffs in the woods, which were great fun to climb up. One we couldn't find and since then Jamie and Karen and Paul have tried.

Geocaching

2008-04-20T10:26:00.004-04:00

I went out geocaching yesterday for the first time with my friend Karen, her mom and her aunt. We went to a few places around Saco. It was great fun and we were on trails that I never knew were there. We went to Cascade Falls which is right off rt. 1. Oddly there is an old cage there that is supposedly an old bear cage. The falls are beautiful and it is a great place for a picnic.

If you've never been you should check out the site www.geocaching.com. People hide things in the woods and post the coordinates on the website. So you plug those into you gps and search away. When Karen and I arrived at home we discovered our neighbor Jamie had an older gps hanging around so he let us borrow it. Karen and I headed out to the boat ramp and then to Pine Park to find a couple of micro caches. I think I have Jamie hooked now. Today he's going to search for the three caches on CC Road when he goes out on a run. We'll be at it again this afternoon!

On the road again.. and then some off road

2008-04-18T17:32:00.003-04:00

I ran again today for the first time in a long time. I attempted 2 miles last month and my knees were in rough shape for 2 weeks after, so I held off for a bit. Today I did a 2.8 mile loop with a mix of walking and jogging. I ran 1.7 miles of the trip! I felt really good after which was a nice surprise. All joints were still moving! I think Tae Kwon Do is helping me get some strength back in my legs. (I'm about to test for my orange belt!)

I have a question though...
I am looking for some sort of wrap or brace for my knees. Right now I have a generic ace sleeve that helps out. I want something that will keep the wear and tear to a minimum for my arthritic knees. My knees are also have a bit of bursitis, so they have a tendency to swell up like balloons if I don't have something on them. The bursitis isn't hurting anything though- I'm more worried about the damage from the arthritis. So if anyone out there has any suggestions, I would love some help.

After running on this amazing sunny day (it's in the 70's here for the first time this year!), my neighbor Karen and I headed out back to walk the new road they have been putting. We walked it until it came to a stream that we couldn't cross. So we followed the stream until we finally found a way to get to the other side. 1.75 hours later, we made our way back home. We discovered what looks like logging roads, or they might just be clearing for houses. The land looks sad and I miss the trails back there. I hope they don't clearcut it all.

Couch to 5K again

2008-02-16T13:42:00.002-05:00

Today I ran again for the first time in a long, long time. John was patient and ran with me, despite the fact that he has been running all along. We did 2 miles with a mix of jogging and walking. It was a bit windy on the way out and my cheeks still feel a bit frozen. It felt good and I was even able to climb my stairs afterwards (which means my knees are still bending).

I'm going to try to run at least once a week. I've been doing Tae Kwon Do for a month now and that doesn't seem to bother my hips or knees too much, so I'm hoping to throw running into the mix again. We'll see how it goes!

feeling slow and out of shape

2007-09-30T16:13:00.000-04:00

Along with all of the apple dumplings I've eaten this week and the lack of physical exercise, I was barely moving today. I probably ran around 1.4 today. Though I'm using the term "ran" very loosely. It was more like a shuffle. I took a few little side routes. I also stopped at the pond for awhile. It is just so beautiful right now. Especially with the sun shining down.

I almost took a digger too. I stepped on a stick with my right foot and then when I went to bring my left foot up, I realized it was under the said stick. I did quite the fancy footwork midair. I managed to stay upright though.

I need to start getting home a little earlier so I can get a run or a bike in before dark. That's my goal this week. I'll shoot for one day out of the week.

In the Woods Part III

2007-09-22T16:36:00.000-04:00

I headed out again today for the one mile trek through the back woods. There are a couple of things I've noticed about running on trails.

1. It's a lot more of a workout than running on tar with less pounding.

2. I can't seem to run nonstop. I keep stopping to look around - especially with the trees all changing color. Today a cute little frog hopped around in front of me for awhile before plopping into the water.

3. I can't quite run the short steep downhills. They are a little bit much on the knees. So I take long quick walking strides that make me feel like bigfoot. I'm sure I look funny, but it feels better on the knees.

It feels good to be back out there again. And great weather lately. Perfect for jaunts through the woods.

another mile down....

2007-09-19T21:07:00.000-04:00

I ran tonight! I did the loop on the trails behind the house. I think Jamie said that it was a little over a mile. I'll have to ask him again. It felt good. I really felt like I was working going up and down the hills and avoiding large rocks and sticks.

I headed out when the sun was beginning to go down. It gets dark here so early now. Being in the woods it made it seem even darker. For awhile I thought I might be lost as the trail seemed to be longer this time around, but then I heard the Hounds of East Waterboro and knew I was almost to the road.

It feels good to be out there again. I have a long ways to go to get back to 3 miles, but I'll keep working on it slowly. I'm looking foward to running St. Andre's Jack O'Lantern 5K on October 20th. I hope I'm ready to go by then!

Stop the presses!

2007-09-16T16:55:00.000-04:00

I actually did some exercise. Inspired by the folks that ran the Trail to Ale 10K this morning and the beautiful weather, John, Karen and I went for a walk on the trails behind our houses. Karen walked the first bit with us then headed back. I then jogged while John walked beside me. Slightly depressing that his walking is the same as my jogging, but it felt good to be moving in the jogging motion.

The trails behind the house are beautiful. I need to try to get out there more before hunting season kicks off.

I'm slowly getting back on the running bandwagon. Hopefully my joints will hold together and I'll keep my milage low and add some other exercise in there.

What have I been doing lately?

2007-08-15T19:40:00.000-04:00

As far as exercise is concerned....nothing!! As far as the rest of life is concerned...everything! Between being crazy busy and my allergies going buck wild, the motivation to exercise just hasn't been there. I'm thinking about setting a start date so I can't make any more excuses. I'll just set that date tomorrow....

2.75

2007-07-30T20:57:00.000-04:00

Tonight I thought about attempting the Wakefield loop (around 4.5), but when we started running I realized I was still sore from Saturday. So John and I took it easy and did 2.75 on the Sarah Vaughn loop. It was super humid this evening and the deer flies kept insisting on landing on my face, which was rather annoying. Other than the usual cranky joints the slow pace felt good.

The best part of the run was the beer on the steps after the run.

Peaks Island Five Miler

2007-07-28T17:56:00.000-04:00

I woke up bright and early this morning to Dave and Heather's son jumping off the couch and saying, I want to play with John! (Dave and Heather are friends of John that live on Peaks Island and who graciously let us stay at their house friday night) The race started at 10:30. For a short while it looked like we were going to have some nice cloud cover and perhaps a cool day. Right before the race started that cleared out and the sun started burning down.

The race course was lovely and for a chunk of the beginning you run right along the ocean. I spent a lot of time looking at the scenery and the beautiful houses. I was feeling good until around mile three and the right hip started to feel not so great. I kept plugging along though and slowed my pace a little to minimize pain and damage. I also chose to walk up a short steep hill to save the joints a little agony- but that was the only time i walked! I was still feeling ok though. Around mile 4 the knees started to freeze up and my running stride started to look a little special. I tried to up the pace a little, but just couldn't really get that right hip up and going again so I just stayed at my pace while people passed me like crazy during the last mile. At one point there was a couple walking up a hill on the side of the road. I jokingly asked them if they wouldn't mind slowing down so I could pretend I was running faster than their walking. They were so nice they actually did slow down!

I was relieved to see the finish line. I was hot, drained and my legs were beat. John came back (after his splendid finish of 46:02) and jogged the last bit with me. I had to keep getting him to slow down though :)

My goal was to finish under an hour and I did it with 3 minutes to spare. My official time was 57:02. Not too bad for not having had time to train a lot in the last couple of months. The nice inn down the road gave me a big bag of ice and after a solid icing of both hips and both knees, john and I headed down for our steak and lobster dinners. I was ravenous and ate my entire meal and a little bit of John's. Then we headed back to Dave and Heather's for a BBQ before heading back over on the ferry.

It was a fun weekend and it felt nice to "get away". I'm quite proud of myself for finishing and I'm still able to walk tonight!

diddly squat

2007-07-27T16:42:00.000-04:00

that's what i've done in the last month.. diddly squat. With the peaks island 5-miler looming in tomorrow morning's horizon, i'm doubting whether I'll be able to even walk the 5 miles. I'm hoping to do a mix of walking and slow jogging and am looking to make it to the finish line in an hour. Perhaps the thought of lobster will keep me going.

I'm also hoping that the bit of exercise I did with my nana during her OT times and just the physical work of taking care of her counts for something.

John and I are heading out to Peaks Island this evening to stay with his friends that live out there. Should be a good time even if my running time is laughable.

a little over 4.

2007-07-18T16:29:00.000-04:00

Last night john and I ran a slow 4.2. That's all I really have to say about that.

ugh.

2007-07-14T22:23:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning barely walking. I was so sore from pt yesterday. My physical therapist really made me work hard. the hips, groin, hamstrings and quads all felt like someone had tortured them. So what do you I? I went out running. I did a little over 4. It was long and very, very slow. Very slow. I looked like one of those really out of shape people that start running every spring for a couple of days and who shuffle along the side of the road. On a positive note, my new sports bra is awesome.

Released!

2007-07-13T15:07:00.000-04:00

Today I was released from physical therapy. I'm just going to go in if I need help working kinks out or if I need a little extra help as I start running again and working my mileage back up to 5 miles - which i need to do rather quickly for the peaks island race. Hopefully I'll be able to work my way up in a way that doesn't do more harm than good. If I need to I'll just do a mix of walking and running during the race. I'm much more into taking care of myself rather than competing. I'm glad I've finally come to that conclusion and no longer feel any pressure to become a "better" runner.

Today I biked to PT. It's about 2 miles there and it was a lot warmer out than I thought it was. I was already sweating like crazy and my legs were tired before I got there. We then worked my quads and hamstrings like crazy today. They still might be shaking. The good news is that with all my work my hips and knees were still going strong. For the first time my muscles gave out before the joints!!

Slow goin' again, but at least I'm goin'!

2007-07-07T15:10:00.000-04:00

Today i ran 2 miles. This is the first time I've really run in over a week or so. I ran through the neighborhoods and then up to the rehab center again to watch the end of a skip-bo game between mom and nana.

when i started i was really hurting. but as i got the creaks and wrinkles out, my stride started to become smoother and it wasn't such a struggle to get one leg going in front of the other.

hopefully i'll run again in a couple of days. I think i was inspired by the game of bingo i helped my nana play this morning. We played with such a peppy group of older ladies that they inspired me to get out there and do something.

A run up the hill

2007-07-05T22:57:00.000-04:00

A couple of nights ago I ran up the hill to Brewer Rehab. It is probably around half a mile. Then my mom drove me back. (it was an excuse to take a break) That is about all I've done for exercise in a week. Oh yea- yesterday I kicked around the pool for a little bit.

The attempting to stay in shape situation is very sad indeed. I am going through high periods of stress and major strain on my muscles from helping out with my grandmother though so that must count for something!

I return home next week. Though I will have to start over from the beginning, I'm prepping myself for it so I'll be ready.

Pool-side

2007-06-27T21:34:00.000-04:00

This is where I did my workout this evening! I'm currently at the Maine Department of Education Reading First Summer Institute. It's being held at Sunday River and I'm staying at the Grand Summit Hotel. (see below)

So this evening after our sessions got out I swam in the pool. Mind you, I am not a strong swimmer, but I made it for 15 solid minutes of doing some sort of motion (often flopping like a dying fish) before my legs pooped out on me. My quads are still really tight from PT and the added running yesterday, so they feel like they got a workout.
It was nice to swim. It's very different from running, and while not as enjoyable, I can feel that it is doing good things for my body.
The pool was actually really warm. I was hoping it would be a little more refreshing, but it served it's purpose. Now I'm going to go relax in my room with a balcony and enjoy this mini-vacation before I return to chaos.

Over 4 again!

2007-06-26T22:34:00.000-04:00

Tonight in this nasty heat wave, John and I ran around 4.5. I haven't run this far in awhile. It was really slow and at the end I was barely moving due to the usual aches and pains, but it was great to be out running. I also had PT this morning so my legs were a little tired from all the lunging that I was made to do. I'm hoping to be back up to 5.5 soon and to have it feel comfortable again like it was beginning to before everything started to fall apart again.

Tomorrow morning I head out to a conference at Sunday River. They have a pool so I'm hoping to get a few laps in at the end of the day. I think swimming would feel good after a day of running.

Christopher Scott Cash Memorial 5K in OOB

2007-06-24T12:33:00.001-04:00

Saturday morning John and I drove down to Old Orchard Beach and met up with friends to run in the Christopher Scott Cash Memorial 5k. It was a beautiful morning to run and the race started down a hill overlooking the ocean. The rest of the race was uphill, but that one downhill was nice!

The running felt good. My hip has been feeling better and better. Actually better than it has in years. I'm still taking it easy though and I'm not feeling the need to "race". I'm just there to have fun and pushing my body right now just does more damage. I finished the race in 30:54. Not too bad for barely being able to walk 5 days ago!

The friends I have been running with- we are all connected through literacy at Lyman Elementary School. We want to start running as a team. How does this sound:
Lyman Literacy Team
We're Bookin' It!

I'd welcome any other clever ideas for our team name and slogan. With spouses and children we have 7 members!

Update from a delinquent blogger

2007-06-21T16:52:00.000-04:00

Since I last wrote I have:

1. Run in Doc's Tavern 3 miler in Biddeford with a group of friends last Friday night. It was a great time and beer at the end was an added bonus. I ran the race with my co-worker and friend Penny so John wouldn't feel guilty with zipping ahead. He rocked the race, cutting off something like 3 minutes from our previous best time. I hung out and Penny and I talked and laughed the entire way. I think I ran it in 31:02.

2. Pitched a game of kickball with 6th graders on this past Monday and was up throughout the night with my hip. Fortunately I had PT the next morning so they used heat, ultrasound, massage, electrical stimulation and ice to help it out. I still couldn't really walk on it though until...

3. I got two Cortisone injections in my left hip joint yesterday. This has helped greatly and made walking much easier. My hip is still really tender and tired, but doing much better.

4. Went for a short bike ride last night. I picked my bike up at the shop yesterday and took it out with John. I haven't ridden a bike in a long time. It was good exercise and didn't bother my hip. I now know it is time to do exercise other than running, because my body can't take all running.

5. Today I successfully did strength training at physical therapy. I haven't been able to do any strength stuff lately because of my hip. My quads and hamstrings definitely got a workout this afternoon. It felt good.

Later today John and I hope to go for a run. I need the hip to calm down a little bit and then I should be good. Saturday we are running in another 5K in Old Orchard Beach with the same group of friends. It should be a good time.

A tired 3.75

2007-06-10T09:48:00.000-04:00

Last night I ran 3 3/4 after a very long day. It wasn't too bad but I was tired at the end and the cramp in my calf from the charlie horse the night before(that was painful!) was beginning to tighten. There was also a steep hill thrown in there - but I made it all the way up in that very slow jog where I kind of look like I should be wearing a helmet.

It was good to get out after two days of sitting and then extreme lifting, then sitting then extreme lifting. I head back home tonight and should be able to resume a semi-normal running schedule during the school week.

Not even a massage!

2007-06-07T22:48:00.001-04:00

Now physical therapy is getting down to business. Not even a massage today. I warmed up on the treadmill for 10 minutes. Once every minute I would change directions for 15 seconds. I would look to the left, right and then go backwards. Being the graceful person that I am, I'm sure it was very amusing to watch. Surprisingly it took a lot out of the muscles around the hips to do this.

Then we moved on to even more intensive things. Though at one point as I was standing there exhausted the therapist stated that she couldn't understand how I ran what I did without having the muscle support. I suppose that's how you end up in physical therapy :) I'm learning my legs aren't very strong.

I'm doing ok this evening. I went straight from PT to sitting in my truck for 2 and a half hours, so my hips currently hate me, but things are going well. I should be all buff soon and hopefully I'll be able to squeeze a run in this weekend. I think I'm going to need one!

PT - no running

2007-06-06T22:37:00.000-04:00

Tuesday evening I went to a not so relaxing physical therapy visit. I still get the wonderful heat and massage, but this time I had to work. I'm sure you would laugh at the exercises I had to do - they appear very simple and like something an 80 year old lady could do. But it's wednesday night and I'm still sore. I think that most of the soreness is good though. I means its working on the muscles i don't have. Some of the soreness is the not so good soreness, but i'm doing ok. Just if my lower left back and hip would feel like they weren't in the wrong place i'd be doing great!

The other piece of this though is that there is no running for me until I go again tomorrow. The physical therapist wanted to see what these exercised did without the running interfering. It kind of works out well since I haven't had time to run. There hasn't been a night yet this week where I've made it home before 10:00.

John and still going strong though. I'll see if I make it out alone this weekend when I'm home in Brewer.

Rainy, Fast, 4.6

2007-06-03T20:17:00.000-04:00

Tonight John and I headed out for a run after he returned from a trip to his hometown. It was rainy and cold, but after we got going it felt nice. It felt like we were really booking it too. I've recently stopped wearing a watch when we run so I don't know how fast we were going.

Now I am frantically trying to get everything done for tomorrow. It's the Sunday night teacher panic.

The never ending hill

2007-05-31T20:17:00.000-04:00

Tonight John and I ran the 5.6 dump road loop with the never ending very steep hill. We stayed at a really solid pace too. The steep part of the hill was v-e-r-y slow, but everything else we were right on. I think it was the most solid run we've done on that route so far. Everything felt pretty good too as far as muscles were concerned. The joints were cranky as usual, but I was able to keep going.

It was also nice running weather. I little sprinkle at the beginning and rain at the end, but nice and cool. I'm not quite used to running in the heat yet. I did a quick mile yesterday (I had 15 minutes after i came home from school and had to get back out the door for my grad class). It was hot and muggy. It was fun to just do the quick mile though.

The weather changes are wacky. Though as they say, if you don't like the weather in Maine, wait five minutes!

Snowy Egret 5K

2007-05-28T16:23:00.000-04:00

John and I ran in the Snowy Egret 5K this morning. It was a slow run as I was still a little beat from our hilly 5 miles on saturday. Our time was still under 30 though, despite my slowness and achy quads and hips. My official time was 29:37 (9:34 pace). John raced ahead at the end and finished in 29:14.

It was fun to be out. I was hoping we would be running on the paths around the Scarborough Marsh, but nonesuch luck.

The picture to the left was taken by David Young who always posts photos of Maine races at Maine Running Photos.

Somehow photos of me running aren't so attractive. I usually look like I'm dying. In this one though I have to say I think I see some leg muscle there. So if I ignore the exausted facial expression, I'll be all set.

Update.

2007-05-27T13:30:00.000-04:00

John and I ran this past Thursday and Saturday. Thursday we did around 4.5 and Saturday we did 5 on the very hilly route. It's all uphill I think except for one downhill, or at least it felt that way :)

Things feel good, but still very slow. I started physical therapy on Friday and the therapist worked on my left hip. I'll be going a couple of times a week and we'll continue to work on loosening muscles and then strengthening them back up.

There is a 5K tomorrow at the Scarborough Marsh. I'm thinking about running, depending on how cleaning and homework go today....

Holding true to the blog name...

2007-05-22T20:20:00.000-04:00

slow goin'. Tonight I ran for the first time since last Tuesday. Due to being sore from the Dr's and then family emergencies I haven't been able to run. We did a little over 2. I felt like I ran 5. I was tired and stiff. It was good to get out there though, but everytime I have a break like this I feel like I start over. Ugh.

Lots of races are happening this weekend. John and I might do a 5K if I don't head home again and if we are feeling up to it. I think bbq's and beer might be more attractive though.

Finally, a good dr.

2007-05-16T22:00:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I went to the sports doctor in portland. I was ready to go through the whole history again and have the Dr. roll their eyes because they can't pinpoint any one thing but there seems to be lots of things and give me some generic answer. Not this Dr. He took time to go through everything and even confessed when he was confused about what was going on.

He had some xrays taken of my knees. I haven't had xrays in a long time. They develop them right there! We discovered my kneecaps are high (but not as high as he suspected though). I also learned I have arthritis in my knees. It's the beginning stages which is good.

I'm headed off to physical therapy to strengthen the muscles around my knees and work on my hip. I'm excited to get things underway and have a doctor willing to work with me. And He's doing a bunch of blood tests too to rule out other things. I'm looking foward to many more years of running now- something I hadn't really even dared to hope could happen!

No Walking Zone and We Saw Deer on Deering Ridge Road!

2007-05-15T20:11:00.000-04:00

We did it. We did the 5.5 mile loop past the dump and down deering ridge without walking up the monstrous hill. It was a slow run (I didn't even bother wearing a watch), but it felt good to run the entire thing. Running up hills seems to be so much more difficult than it should be. I need to continue to work on that.

I'm also struggling with my energy level. Work is so busy and stressful and I'm now taking a class that is two nights a week(until 9:30 pm). With that and my volunteering and all the other literacy events happening in the evening I'm exhausted. I can really feel it in my running and how I feel after a run. I keep falling asleep at odd hours when I'm trying to get work done. I'm not sure if there is a solution to this or I just have to wait until the end of the school year before I will really feel like my running is improving. I feel like a slug out there, which is slightly frustrating.

Sea Dogs Mother's Day 5K

2007-05-13T19:47:00.000-04:00

This morning John and I ran in our 4th road race. We thought that we were cruising right along. I clocked us at 27:57, but my official time was 28:22. I really wanted to have the offical time be in the 27s. I guess there is always next time.

The race was huge. So many people. It was packed all the way through the race. I think we covered extra milage going around people. The weather was nice minus a few strong wind gusts.

And the best part is we each got a ticket to a sea dogs game. rock on.

Well, it was better than Tuesday's Run

2007-05-10T20:45:00.000-04:00

Tonight John and I ran a little over 4 miles. Ever since the 10K on Saturday and the sudden Summer weather (where the heck did spring go?) I've been hurting. Tuesday John and I started out with a goal to run 4. We ended up doing a little over 2 and it felt like we'd run about 20. My legs were so heavy. Tonight was much better, but still not great. I think it's going to take a bit of time to get used to the heat. I'm so used to running in temperatures below freezing that this sudden shift is a little much.

I'm hoping that I'll be all energized and ready to run on Sunday for the Mother's Day 5K.

My Very First 10K

2007-05-06T19:59:00.000-04:00

I did it. My very first 10k. It wasn't pretty, but I finished.

Friday night my friend Minsuh drove over from a day of professoring at Dartmouth in her snazzy rental to pick John and I up at the Biddeford park and ride. We safely made the 2.5 hour trip to Brewer where a carbo-loaded meal of spaghetti, garlic bread and salad awaited us. The nieces were already in bed, but I got to peek in to see A. sleeping away. After scheduling our race day we made our way to bed to get a good night's rest.

Saturday morning I woke up to my niece A. saying "I'm in an auntie sandwich!". I must have been excited about the race because A. and I got up to play when my brother informed me that it was quarter to 6. A wee bit early for us to get up. Eventually 7am came and race day preparations began. Minsuh got to sleep in because she slept in her race clothes.

A little after 8, John, Minsuh, Chris and I headed to Orrington. Dad, my sister in law and the girls were to follow and Mom was coming over from Nana's. On the way Chris decided we needed some pumping up music. Unfortunately when we put on the radio we heard these lyrics from Billy Joel's The River of Dreams:
"I don't know why I go walking at night, But now I'm tired and I don't wanna walk anymore"

This was not a good sign for the race. We quickly changed the station, but that song was stuck in our heads the entire race, and made us laugh continuously.

Before the race my mom and dad and sister in law did the 1 Mile fun run/walk with A. and my other niece S. S. cruised the whole way(she's not quite walking yet), but A. ran half of the race. As she came into the finish line in her Birkenstocks the crowds went wild. She was very cute.

As our race started out we started strong and kept the pace under 10 for the first three miles and a little over on the 4th. I can run 4 miles- we've been running it for a few weeks now on a regular basis. Over four is a different matter. This is when I got really tired. Really, really tired. We all stayed together though which was very nice since John and Chris could have completely gone ahead. It was so much fun to run together. I think perhaps if we had talked and laughed less our time could have decreased, but it wouldn't have been as fun.
Here we are on the way out:

At the end of the race my mom was waiting for us on the corner before the turn into the final stretch. She yelled for us then started to run ahead so she could see the finish line. The fact that mom was running much faster than I could even think of moving caused much laughter. I didn't know if I was going to make it I was laughing so hard. I finally crossed the finished line at 1:02:58 (10:09 pace).

Here we are on the way back looking slightly more tired(We don't know the lady in peach and yes I know I look like I'm barely moving):

Following the race we had a rockin' bbq (hamburgers with egg, sausages and corn on the cob)and then I passed out for 2 hours after a short full body massage from A.

It was a great weekend. I'm so excited to have finished my first 10K. With a little more training, I'm looking forward to my next one.

Cranky Body

2007-05-02T21:19:00.000-04:00

Tonight John and I went out for a 4 mile run. I didn't make it though. My body was super cranky this evening. The weather was beautiful and I've been feeling good, or so I thought. Everything from my feet to my shoulders hurt. And I still ache 3 hours later. We walked when my knees couldn't take it any more. I really want to run on Saturday so I'd rather walk today and take it easy.

This is the first time my knees and hips have really bothered me enough to stop running in awhile. I'm hoping I'll feel great on Saturday for the big day. My brother, a friend and John and I will all be running. It should be a lot of fun to run together since none of us are running for the competition piece. We just want the t-shirt.

Orrington 10K here we come.

I am not the energizer bunny

2007-04-29T15:51:00.000-04:00

I ran a little over 4 miles today. Without John here I headed out on my own. I have also been in bed for the last 2 and a half days with a nasty cold/flu that knocked me out. I'm doing better, but didn't even make it to church this morning because my stomach hasn't recovered and I tried to eat breakfast.

So, after the breakfast fiasco, I decided I just wouldn't eat for awhile so I could leave the house and do things such as laundry and grocery shopping. So what do I do? Go run 4 miles with essentially no fuel in my system. I also was playing with pace and stride for the first two miles which wore me out. In the end my average pace was 10 min/mile, but there were some very slow moments along the way. Not too bad for barely moving the last couple of days.

Under the weather

2007-04-27T08:20:00.000-04:00

John and I were supposed to do 6 miles last night, but I'm not feeling so hot. I have the latest cold that is making it's way through the school system. Most of the time I have the immune system of steel when it comes to school colds, but I think I've been so busy and haven't had enough sleep so this one is whooping me.

So this could be an interesting race next weekend. John flies out to Vancouver today so we won't be able to run together until next Wednesday. Running 6 miles Saturday all by my onesie seems rather daunting. I also need to be feeling better soon and not like an elephant is sitting on my lungs. Hopefully I'll get over this soon and will be all ready to rock out six miles by next weekend!

We beat our 5K PR!

2007-04-23T21:39:00.000-04:00

John and I ran 4 miles tonight. When we ran the first mile in 9:08, second in 9:23 and I don't remember the last two. We slowed down for the last mile, but kept it around a 10 minute pace. The exciting thing is that when we hit the 3.1 mark we were at 27:55. Our last 5k race we did in 28:23. So we were running faster than our last race. Very cool. And we ran a mile after that. Now just if we can keep that up for 2 more miles we'll be all set.

It was beautiful out today. I ran in shorts for the first time. My legs were in shock feeling so free and airy! I feel 20 pounds lighter without all of the layers on. It's actually enjoyable out there!

5.5, cars downstream and local stars

2007-04-22T20:21:00.000-04:00

Saturday John and I ran 5.5. It was a beautiful day outside. We had to walk up the nasty hill again (but less of the hill this time) and we averaged around 11 minute miles. Slow, but ok. Going over a little stream we noticed a subaru that was washed downstream. Some person who couldn't have possibly been thinking straight had probably decided to cross the stream during the storm. Silly person.

With the Orrington 10K looming around the corner, my brother discovered this article in the Bangor Daily News this weekend when we were all home at our parents':

http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/sports.aspx?articleid=148891&zoneid=23

Before reading you need a little background information. I grew up in Orrington(central/northern maine)(which is why we are running in this race), but now live in East Waterboro(southern maine). My brother currently lives outside of Boston. He, my neighbor and runner partner John and I are all registered for the race. Here's the funny part from the article:

>>>At a small-town race such as this one, you normally wouldn’t expect runners to travel from the southern reaches of Maine and even outside of the state, but that is not the case.
"I have about 20 registrants already, have them as far as Massachusetts and a couple from East Waterboro," King said. "[There’s] a big swath of people signed up, some people I haven’t even heard of."<<<

If the poor guy only knew. It's just us. When I come in last I hope he isn't too disappointed.

New Clothes and Dr's Diagnosis

2007-04-17T20:43:00.000-04:00

Tonight John and I tackled the cold rain and wind again. Instead of doing our usual weekly speedwork, we opted to just run for a bit. Our speedwork route is what we did last night and we didn't want to be running in the dark through that lovely river in the road. So we did 4 miles at around a 10 minute mile pace. Not too bad considering the weather. And I was wearing my new shirts, which I fully enjoyed. One of them has long arms and a place to put your thumbs through. I feel cool in it. :)

4 miles is beginning to feel very comfortable. We're tired at the end and can feel it, but nothing like it was a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty excited. My left knee still is ballooning up but hopefully that will be solved soon, which brings me to my next subject..

I went to the dr's today. She is sending me to a sports knee Dr. She thinks I have chondromalacia, which is a fancy word for runner's knee. The kneecaps are misaligned are rubbing over the femur and the cartilage has deteriorated. She said that's why my knees feel like something is griding in there when I bend them. So I guess this is what my kneecap looks like:

I think it will just involve some strengthening and physical therapy. She said this is what is most likely making my hip hurt too. So good news there. Seems easy enough to fix and I should be headed to the knee dr. soon.

Sightseeing Tour - A Kind-Of Run

2007-04-16T21:24:00.000-04:00

After being pounded with hurricane like wind and rain all night and day, John and I couldn't resist going out for a run to check things out during a lull in the weather. We thought we would just do the 2 mile run down Jellerson and back.

After running through the pond in our driveway (see above), John and I headed down the road taking some time to look at the trees and branches down. Jellerson was hit a littler harder than our complex. One huge tree was down inches from the corner of a house and right over the power lines.
As we made it out to where the pond on Jellerson is we realized there was now a river flowing over the road. We assessed and decided to heck with it and ran though. I neglected to think about the fact that most of the water is melted snow and is very, very cold. It was fun to run through though. We ran down the road until we came to a section that appeared to be missing the dirt that goes under the road. It had been washed out, so we headed back through the river and back to rt. 202. As we headed down 202 the gusts of wind picked up again- right into our faces. I felt like a cartoon character making exaggerated running motions, but staying in one place. I was laughing so hard I didn't think I was going to make it back.

So this wasn't really a run, just a fun jog with some stops for sight seeing after the storm. It was a lot of fun to be out there in that weather. My sneakers are currently dripping into my bathtub. When they stop dripping they'll have to spend a lot of time in front of the heater. Hopefully they'll be dry for tomorrow's run.

By the way - that downed tree in the picture- I am not strong enough to move it. I tried.

Tomorrow I might hit up walmart for a float so I can float around our new pond.

Running in the rain

2007-04-15T13:21:00.000-04:00

John and I made it to the 5 mile mark. Though I have to confess we walked a bit. There was this hill... it was so long we just couldn't do it. So we walked up the steep part and then ran again. The total loop was 5.5. We walked 1/4 mile at the beginning as a little warm-up and also knowing we didn't want to do 5.5.

We went running at just the right time. It was cold rain the entire time we ran, but as soon as we got back to the driveway, slush started coming down from the sky. That would have been really nasty to run in. It was interesting in the rain though. The temperature was getting colder as we ran and so was the rain. The nice part of that was we didn't overheat in our rain gear- the warmer I got from running, the colder it got outside.

But now I am very cold as I sit here trying to reduce the large swollen left knee with ice watching the snow come down. I'm hitting up the dr. on tuesday. On top of asking about my hip pain i'm going to check out what i can do about this knee that likes to balloon up.

woo-hoo. we are now very close to 6 miles.

This week's runs

2007-04-14T07:21:00.000-04:00

This week John and I took it easy to see if my hip could recover a little bit. We ran on Wednesday and Friday nights. Wenesday was a quick 2 mile jaunt. Last night we ran a little under 4.5 miles. I'm still going pretty darn slow for the 4 mile runs and things begin to ache a bit around 3.5.

Last night I really didn't want to run. I had already been in my pajamas all snuggled on the couch reading and dozing for an hour and a half before John got home. Waking up from an afternoon nap to go run 4.5 miles was slightly painful. Especially on a Friday. On busy weeks I have a tendancy to crash on Friday nights. But we did it. Now we're going so start working on making our way to 6 miles again.

I'm not so sure about the Orrington 10K at this point. It's only 3 WEEKS AWAY!!!!!! Chris - you better be training too!

Love 2 Run 5K

2007-04-07T22:22:00.000-04:00

Besides getting really cool orange running shirts, John and I set a PR. Though I'm not sure if we are allowed to call it a PR since this is only our second road race. We ran it in 28:23(9:10 mile pace). Results John came in 79th and I came in 80th.

John could have totally finished much sooner too if he hadn't hung out with me. I was hurting by the end. John started really ambitious. I have a tendency to ignore the people around us. All week at work my entire job revolves around reacting to the people around me and what they are doing and where they are in their learning. When I run, I don't really want to deal with anything else, except enjoying it. As we started in the first minute or so I turned to John and said, "John, we are going at a really fast pace - check the Garmin and see what the pace is." John was leading us away at a 6:30 pace or something like that. His response was, "Yeah, but look at all the people in front of us." If I hadn't already been gasping for air at that point I could have said something like, "Soon we'll be watching everyone behind us run over us as we look at them from the ground if we don't slow down."

It was a good race. We were excited to offically make it under 30. The course had to be altered because the back bay pathway was still covered in snow, which was a slight bummer. We ran out and back on the road. I'm hoping to run back bay again this summer. It's a pretty little jaunt.

Yeah us. We're officially sub 30.

Snow Day Run

2007-04-05T21:16:00.000-04:00

Tonight John and I ran a little over 4 miles. Tonight we were on the wee bit slow side. Let me rephrase that. I was on the slow side. John was doing fine, but being the great running partner he is, he slowed down to stay with me. My knees and hips were a not the happiest, but I came right in and iced and that seems to have helped.

After our race on Saturday I'm thinking a few days of rest might do me good before we start increasing mileage again. We've got to keep working our way to 6 miles before May 5th!!!!!

Days like this are a bit depressing since I was injured most of my high school and college running career. This time I know its good to take it easy though. I'm not taking another 10 years to heal again!

Tuesday's Run

2007-04-05T15:12:00.000-04:00

I haven't had time yet to write about our speedwork in the snow on Tuesday. It wasn't snowing hard at all, but the snow got stuck on our eyelashes making it really hard for us to see. We did the usual Jellerson 2 mile speedworkout. My headlamp was fading rapidly on the run which made it even harder to see.

I can feel that i'm getting stronger. We're still slow and my hip has been bothering me a bit when I'm walking. It feels ok when I'm running though. I've been taking a lot of time to stretch it and working on some strengthening exercises. I think wearing heels this past weekend kind of did some damage. It's recovering though.

Tonight's run ought to be interesting since we accumulated over a foot of snow last night and this morning. Snow day for our school district!

opps. i forgot to write!

2007-04-02T22:41:00.000-04:00

And we had a really awesome run! We ran 4.5 miles on Saturday. The most exciting part was that our average pace was sub 10!!!!!!!!! (9:56) Our first three miles were all around 9:30 and then we slowed the last mile and a half.

Today John and I signed up for a 5K this weekend. We thought it might be fun :)

feeling a wee bit tired.

2007-03-30T08:38:00.000-04:00

Boy, am I feeling tired today. Last night John and I ran 4.5 at an ave. of 10:08/mile, which is fast for us for a long run. I can feel it in every bone in my body today too. I’m thinking maybe we should slow down with increasing mileage for a little bit. We felt great until around the 4 mile mark. The last half mile was a struggle and it felt really good to stop. We had planned to do five on Saturday. We’ll have to see how we feel. Right now the stairs are killing me and of course today I’m at the school with two floors.

Ok. I must get back to work.