8/31/11

Gone With the Hurricane and Wind...

We opted to take a weekend family trip to Lancaster, Pa so as to dodge the potential threat of Hurricane Irene. Most of the shore was under mandatory or voluntary evacuation and we could see no reason to stay and wait it out.

We were quite fortunate- our home suffered no damage and our town only lost power for a short amount of time while we were gone. Friends and nearby neighbors were not as fortunate. I am grateful that we were spared, however, I can only be so joyful about it given the fact that so many suffered great losses and are barely on the road to recovery as flooding is still an eminent threat.

What the heck does this have to do with running? Well, all of us regular boardwalk runners lost a precious part of our route. Spring Lake boardwalk was destroyed. The synthetic (is that what it's called) boards were a pleasure to run on. It was beautiful and well kept. From the boardwalk that bisects the street I live on to the end of Spring Lake boardwalk I had just a little over five miles. So this was my place for a ten mile out-and-back. This is Spring Lake before the hurricane:


And here's the boardwalk after it was destroyed by the storm:




What am I supposed to do now? Get in my CAR and drive somewhere to run?!?! It's a bummer, but I know things could be so much worse. According to the media, the township intends to repair the boardwalk quickly. My running club does a September 11th Memorial Run every year and this boardwalk was where we ran most of it. Bah. So sad. I don't know what else to say...


8/20/11

38 miles

Damn right. I'm back. Since last Saturday, I got 38 miles of running out of my body. I feel good, too. But I'm not taking all the credit... Well, yes I am. But I have some people who are helping make this happen with me.

I am stretching out of my comfort zone and running REGULARLY with other humans. I love how we inadvertently pull each other through the long runs. I run at a faster and more consistent pace with them and I NEVER even think about renegotiating the distance when we're out there. Even through I usually stick with the distance I commit to, I almost always start deliberating reasons to shorten a long run- even by just a mile or so- when I'm alone. They seem to be opposite of me in one way- they both start out faster in the beginning. I start out slower and build up to a faster pace between the 2nd and 3rd mile. We seem to meet in the middle in this regard- I keep them slower in the beginning but we're still running faster than I would run at the start.

I believe this is going to help improve my race pace. I expect to shave several minutes off of my marathon PR particularly because Philadelphia is nothing at all similar to Lake Placid.

One great thing about this is that one of these women has never run long distances before. I think we were both impressed with the ease in which her first ten mile run came and went. The second time we went out and ran 11.5 miles and she seriously told me that it was fun. If she can use the word "fun" after her 2nd long run which is also her longest run to date, I think she is built for this.

One of the ladies I run with brought her daughter with us for two of these long runs. Please tell me how awesome it is that a 17 year old girl would wake up at 6 am on a Saturday morning to go out and run ten miles with her mother and her mother's friends! This girl is training for her first half marathon. The mother in me beams when I watch her. This level of determination was unfathomable to me when I was her age. And it's SUMMER! And the girl has a job! You'd think she'd want to be doing teenager-y things, like sleeping in on a Saturday morning...

One of them is running the Philadelphia Marathon with me. There is much debate about who is "slower" but based on pure stats it's a toss up. Her fastest 5k is better than mine by more than a minute. Our half marathon PR's are almost exactly the same- I believe mine might be a few seconds slower- BUT she boasts about not stopping at any aid stations through the entire 13.1. (And yes, I told her that was dumb.) Since I stopped (and walked while drinking) at more than half of the aid stations AND stopped to stretch twice during my PR race, I think this technically makes me faster in the half marathon distance...

Philadelphia will be her first marathon, and my 3rd. May the faster one win!

We shall see on November 20th. Either way, I'm grateful for these friends and new experiences. I'm excited about what is on the horizon.

8/15/11

Weighing in... blablablabla

I am not on any type of serious weight/fat loss regimen but I do have a fat loss goal.(which is not the same as a weight loss goal) I do watch what I eat- white carbs are a rare occurrence as is alcohol and anything with high sugar content. (I recently realized that I window shop the white carbs in the cafeteria at work EVERY MORNING... slightly pathetic, right?) I sometimes see lower numbers on the scale. Since I put myself on a schedule/regimen for proper hydration, I became curious about how it might affect my weight. I started weighing myself every couple of days in the morning before breakfast and coffee and everything else except going to the bathroom. Here's what I have:

Fri: 127.5 (after a work week of wise choices)
Sun: 130 (after a bbq where I ate and drank at will, but not quite gluttony)
Mon: 131.5 (see sunday)
Wed: 129
Sat: 126.75 (and I'm carb loaded for a long run!!!)

I follow a few blogs and also talk to others (in real life!) about weight loss. I still don't know how on earth people get excited about losing one pound or get discouraged about gaining a pound. My life would be a roller coaster if I did that.

What causes this tumultuous fluctuation? I haven't seen the scale go below 126, so I'm thinking that when it does (even by 1/10th of a pound) I can assume that to be a real decrease.

I do have some new abdominal definition- sometimes(that's another mystery- it's not consistent) I can see obliques pretty well, but I do not know the rhyme or reason to this. After a run I can usually see them, for obvious reasons. But sometimes I'll sit around all day, then eat Taco Bell for dinner and have great definition the next morning... I'm not obsessed with having perfect abs (or a perfect body for that matter) but I know that this is a good indicator of fat loss. The prominent fat that I have is on my hips, lower abs, and thighs. I want to shed some of it in exchange for speed and efficiency during my next marathon but I honestly cannot fathom being under 120 pounds. That isn't a super low weight for my height (I round up and say that I'm 5'3") but I imagine hanging saggy lifeless skin if I go under 120.

One thing that is not in my favor as far as fat/weight loss is that running is not an efficient exercise for me if I'm trying to reduce. My heart rate is too high, therefore I'm up in my anaerobic threshold and I'm burning more stored energy (carbs, sugars) than I am burning fat. I didn't know this until I had my metabolism tested. But when I look back at my weight loss history and I notice that I had the most success when I used other forms of cardio exercise. (elliptical, walking with a kid in a stroller, classes at the gym) So since I'm training for the Philadelphia Marathon I can't really cut down on the running, and I only have so many hours in a day to spare for fitness. Also, my basal metabolic rate is pretty low. If I want to maintain my current weight, I only need 1150 calories. If I don't exercise regularly, I inevitably put weight on. Do you know any adult human who lives in the US and only consumes 1150 calories a day? I sure don't.

I'm wondering how other people weigh in. How do you know your weight loss is real? And what do you consider your "true" weight? I just pick the lowest number because it makes me happy. I am going to try and touch 122 lbs. before November 20th. I think a 4-5 pound loss in the span of 3 months is pretty realistic.

8/13/11

Say, you want a (personal) revolution? Well, ya know...

Here's another truth about my second marathon. This website is NSFW, but it's not pervy. I promise. Oh, and I'm slightly embarrassed that this entry is soooo long. It's probably a good bathroom read...

8/8/11

...Digging for treasure...

It has been a little over a month since the 2nd marathon. I know it's not surprising when I admit that I have yet to feel like I'm back in business as far as running goes. I am not running long distances yet- my body is still telling me to rest and still showing lots of signs of needing recovery time. And that's fine. But I miss running for no other reason than the fact that I love to run. When you have slight knee pain, both groin muscles recovering from being pulled, and two toenails completely gone and two more that look like they need to go, it's hard to love running. Crazy, right?

Yesterday I decided that if I felt any knee pain after my four mile run, I'd stop running completely for a week or two and see a doctor. I put the odds in favor of stopping by running without my patella strap just for the heck of it. With the exception of the beach run and the Undy 5000, I have not felt free and alive and liberated while running like I usually do. I know recovery and rest are essential, and I know that pain and discomfort after my first two marathons should be expected but it's been a bummer, to be honest.

So this was my test. One more run to determine if I should throw the towel for awhile. Even though I was going to let my body decide and in some ways I seemed resigned to the worst case scenario, my mind and heart were fighting this. I want badly to go back to that place when running wasn't counting miles and keeping track and maintaining pace- when it was literally just for the love of the run. Marathon training was an amazing in it's own way, but it stole a lot from me.

So on this night, I figured I had to dig deep to find the heart of running for myself. What is it that drives me? Why do I do it? What is the best thing about it? If I could remember those things, perhaps I could get there again. I refuse to have another painstaking, tortured, sub-par, mentally disconnected run. I'm going to come back to life as a runner, darnit. No matter what it takes. I sift through the confines of my mind and grab hold of all the little things I've written about on this blog and hold on to them- knowing they might be what I need to fuel my heart so that I can soar for 4 short miles. I'd like to soar rather than struggle or drag ass.

I will be honest, I thought I'd have to dig deep. But I thought of the progress and accomplishments I achieved over the past few years. And there was one constant...

He was in Philadelphia with me when I decided (very last minute) to try and run the half marathon in 2008. It was freezing and he stood at the finish line waiting and waiting and waiting as I barely ran at all and took over three hours to finish. He was there in Washington DC at the Army Ten Miler when I finished strong and triumphant. He biked twenty miles at Manasquan Reservoir as I ran ten on the trail, occasionally claiming that it might be easier to carry his bike over his head and walk rather than pedal through some of the hills. At my request, he pushed me out the door for training runs when I didn't "feel" like running. He helped me make the time and priority. He drove for six hours to bring me to Lake Placid and stood at the finish in puddles and mud and held my rain and sweat soaked body tight as I cried tears of joy after finishing my first marathon. He waited in the heat and humidity at Pennypack Park in Pennsylvania, in full support of my crazy notion to become a Marathon Maniac by running my first and second marathon 15 days apart. He is not a runner, but his love, support and abundantly generous heart have been the fuel for the high, bright burning fire within me. Without this fuel, I could never soar. Without him, I would not run.

And just like that, I'm back. I ran my four miles, and I loved it. No pain, no discomfort. I ran in celebration of him, of us, and what we accomplish together. Each medal, every PR, and all of the wonderful memories I have been blessed with through running are just as much his as they are mine. He is not along side me when I'm running, but he is in every stride. He and I built this runner in me. And I am strong and determined and in love with running again. Without him, none of this would exist. I can only imagine what more we might build in this life together.