Wow.

I was just looking at my blog, and looked at my miles this year counter, it reads 20 miles ytd. (and we are only in the beginning of the fourth week of the year)

I realized that even though it seems low to me, it's actually pretty impressive.  Sure I know quite a bit of people who cover that distance on a Saturday, but I also know a bunch of people who have said to me that they could not even imagine running 1 mile.  I need to celebrate my accomplishments and keep in mind that what may have seemed impossible 4 years ago is now completely doable.

What is crazier still?   Later this year, I will run 20 miles as my long run in my training..... and after that?  26.2 miles.  I got this.

a small time away from the blog and running

I have been a touch absent from my blog this week.   I don't have a great reason, but I do have an-it's-easy-to-understand reason: our desktop computer died.

And why is this a valid excuse (for me)?  Well, have you have tried to type something longwinded on an iPad?  In itself this is not a terrible task, unless you want to navigate inside said longwinded blog post!  Enough excuses.

I have also been a touch absent from my running this week as well.   I don't have a great excuse either, but I think I had a valid reason to take a little break.  My double runs last Tuesday left my right knee feeling a little inflamed, and when I ran on Thursday morning it began to ache after 1.5 miles.  I switched to walking to give my knee a break.   I ended up taking Saturday off due to scheduling conflicts, and I feel that this extra rest may have been good for my knee.

I have always been warned by more experienced runners to be cautious with injury and I really do not want to risk an injury this year!  I think it is very hard for most runners (myself included) to take a break and not feel like you are being lazy.  I know as well as the next guy that the minute I start writing excuses for myself, I can start writing one each time I don't want to get out of bed when my alarm goes off at 4:50am.   I do, however, have a 3.5 year history of getting out there and running every week rain, snow or shine.  That track record keeps me in it for the long haul, I have built my running up for so long.  I don't want to take an extended break and have to start all over again!

That being said, sometimes a break of a couple of days does do me some good.  It breaks up the monotony of the alarm going off so early and gets me ready to do it again.

a reminder and a goal

Yesterday I double dipped.

No, I did not indulge in two scoops of ice cream.  I ran twice in one day.  I did not have to, I just chose my own crazy.

Why crazy?  Crazy because I haven't been running a lot lately, just maintenance miles.  Maintenance for me is three miles three times a week.

So yesterday I ran three miles at 5:30 am, and three miles at 6pm.  Why?  There were two reasons.  The first being that I run regularly with RP in the morning and we have been missing a few runs here or there due to illness, weather or schedule conflicts.  Nothing serious, just enough to mess with the regularity of our schedule and I want desperately to get back to our normal, predictable routine.  The second being I was asked to fill in for a coach at the Tuesday night running group yesterday and I love running with that group so I said yes knowing that I would end up double dipping.

Though not in my regular repertoire, double dipping is not all that uncommon.  Many runners will run twice in a day to break up longer mileages in their training.  I plan to do it myself as my weekday mileages get higher in my marathon training.  I just do not recommend doing a lot if you are not used to it, you need to work up to higher mileages slowly and not go out and run ten miles if you haven't even run one before.  There is so much good advice out there about buliding up your mileage slowly to prevent injury.

And my body last night reminded me of that.  While I did not struggle to run either time, I suffered the niggling fear that I may have injured myself yesterday.  After I got home last night my right knee 
was a touch sore.  I ran the equivalent of last weeks weekly mileage on one day.  I should not have done that, I know this.  I intend to let that feeling in my knee last night serve as the reminder to not let my desire to do great things this year to overpower the wisdom I have gathered over the years about training.

As a result, I took it easy on my legs this morning at my workout. No need to make matter worse.  And no more heroic jumps in mileage!

I have begun to look into training plans.  We have about 36 weeks until the marathon, and most training plans are roughly 18 weeks long.  I have a good amount of time to investigate and figure out what I want to do and I intend to use it wisely.  I want to fit my marathon training into my life instead of fitting my life into my training. This lead me to look up some marathon training books at the library.  I found a great promise in the intro of the invitingly titled book, The non runner's marathon guide for women: "... this book offers advice on how to avoid death while training for a marathon.". 

All right, you hooked me, that is my new goal:

I want to avoid death as I train for this marathon.

trying to find some motivation...

I have fighting my alarm since 4:50am.  It beeps, I shut it off.  It beeps again, I shut it off again.  And on went the cycle until 5:30 when I decided I needed to get up if I am to meet RP at 6:30 (we got out late on the weekend).

I start checking the weather as our plans and consequently my running outfit depends on the weather. We had already decided to run inside if it was raining, outside if not.  This is a most important step as the indoor track can reach near sauna levels of hot (not truly, but hot enough!).

Then I notice I have a text from RP, she is not feeling well and cannot run this morning.

Motivation derailed.

I want to run, I do.  It is so much easier though to get my behind out the door when I am meeting someone.  The thought of running alone indoors or going to the store for run group added to the possibility of running in the rain just has me wanting to just return to bed.

But skipping my run and going back to bed will do me no good.  I know this, I live this.

So what is a girl to do?  I looked for a bit at some online running motivation, most I have read before and some of it I find to be terribly cheesy.  One resonated more than others:

"there will be a day when you cannot do this, today is not that day"

Time to get dressed.

Inspirations

This morning I got up and met RP at the indoor track again.  We both felt like we could use an indoor run as the roads are still a little questionable and we are still a little bit cold.  We did 3 miles at 5:30am.

Not too long after I got home this morning I checked my FB account and saw postings of my cousin Sara who is at Walt Disney World with my sister, Andrea and two of their friends.  They are there for Marathon weekend and Sara and her friend are taking on the crazy, unproven... DOPEY CHALLENGE.  If you haven't heard of it, the Dopey Challenge is running all four races offered during the WDW Marathon weekend.  So these ladies ran a 5K today, will run a 10K tomorrow, a Half Marathon on Saturday and a Marathon on Sunday.  Yes, yes I know its sounds crazy!  Crazy or not, I am excited for them.

They also inspire me.  A ton.

Sara is a dedicated wife and mom to two awesome kiddos.  She puts her best into everything and it shows.  Her race times rock, and I aspire to someday be able to post times like hers.  She made me smile when she told me about signing up for the Dopey Challenge.  She told me she was all excited to get signed up and then as soon as she logged off it was an immediate "What did I just agree to do?!?"  I think I would have felt the same way.

Andrea is well, amazing.  She had tried about five years ago to get me to do a half marathon with her.  I said "Yeah, sure. Why not?"  Then I did nothing.  I never signed up for the race. That year it wasn't meant to be, as Andrea ended having a rare type of heart attack in March (the race was in May).  She was not able to run at that point.  She has since returned to running although she does face limitations as a result of that heart attack.  She puts so much heart and soul into her running - she made her goal of running 13 races in 2013.  We ended up running that half marathon that she encouraged me to run in, this year.  It was awesome.

So they are at WDW attempting the never before attempted (at least not by anyone I know) Dopey Challenge (A is doing 5K, 10K and half - she is calling it a Dopey Trifecta).  I am on pins and needles waiting to hear all about it.  I don't think I could be more excited about someone else running a race!  Go girls!!!

Back at it!

We here in Ohio (and most of the country) just experienced some of the coldest weather in a very long time.  They were calling it a Polar Vortex and the media was reporting that today that very vortex was moving away back up north where it belongs.  And now we are celebrating temperatures of 11 degrees at 8 am.

I believe in running outdoors in most conditions.  Most.  I don't however believe in running outside when the wind chill and ambient temperature are low enough to turn a pot of boiling water tossed in the air into a mini snow storm.  (google it there are some awesome videos out there!) So, the last time I ran was Saturday and the last time I worked out was Friday morning.

This lead to a weather induced hiatus.  I tried my best to not leave the house under any circumstances for the past two days.  My children were off of school (they were supposed to start back from winter break on Monday), and so I have had an extended rest period.

Today, the weather warmed up and the windchill was up to 0 degrees Fahrenheit and school was back its normal programming schedule.  So today I went back to the gym!  I add the exclamation point because if you had asked me last night or even this morning when I woke up I didn't want to go.

You see, I learned this a long time ago in Physics class, a body at rest wants to stay at rest and a body in motion wants to stay in motion unless a force acts upon it.  My motion stopped abruptly after my run on Saturday morning and I had to really convince myself to put on my workout clothes and head to the gym.  I double and triple checked if school was delayed (which would mean that WP and I would not meet) and the weather status before I got dressed.  Thankfully I had a force acting upon me and that was knowing that WP would be there.

I share all this because I know how easy it is for anyone to get derailed, especially when starting a new habit (a good, this will change me for the better habit).  You can get derailed, but you CAN get back at it.  Sometimes it helps to have a few fail safes installed.  And its important to know what fail safe method will motivate you.  I have a couple: 

1.  I hate spending money - if I have spent money on something such as a gym membership I will guilt myself into making the most of it.
2.  I hate going back on my word - if I have promised WP I will be there, then I will be there.

and as a bonus, I now have the evidence of how far I have come by going to workout 3 mornings a week for a year - my strength has increased, my muscle tone has improved to the point you can see muscles when I flex, and my stamina has increased.  I wish I could give you nominal proof, but I can only give my personal observations which is really all I need.

So today I was back at the gym and it felt great.  I was a little rusty but I still felt strong and we got it done.

starting the year off with a ...................bang.

I finally got my first run of 2014 in early this morning.

I never quite got my last in of 2013 at least not the one I thought it would be.

Turns out I missed my traditional last day of the year/last run of the year due to being sick.  I am not often sick and typically I will run anyway.  This cold had my number and I decided to skip my last run in favor of saving up some energy for our NYE festivities at our friend's place.

I am not sorry.  I had a great time on NYE and I have learned that after nearly four years a small little unscheduled break from running will not unravel all of the good work I have put into it.

So I missed a run on December 31st, I missed a run on January 1st too.  And if you are counting I did not run on the 2nd either (it was FRIGIDLY cold however, so yeah I wasn't going to run in that).

So when RP said she could run this morning, but we should do it inside, I agreed enthusiastically.

I find my response a touch out of character for myself because 1) Friday is my workout day, not a running day and 2) I HATE running inside on the blooming indoor track!  Not that its a bad indoor track, it is actually quite nice.  (I am the lucky girl who lives in community whose AWESOME parks and rec department puts an indoor track in the HS basketball arena and allows residents to use it for free.)

But when it is terribly cold, and you haven't run in 6 days, you agree to run indoors on your workout day BEFORE meeting your workout partner (WP) for an early morning workout.

Uh huh.  Early morning and that means I met RP for 3 miles at 5:30, had a little downtime and then met WP at 6:30... thankfully at the same facility!

Sure my year started out with a slow burning fuse... and BANG!  Now I feel like Wonder Woman.

(and yes, that is my first attempt at a homemade running costume--Ghost and Goblins 2011)