Archive for the ‘Torture’ Category

I was talking to my mom last night who, you’ll recall, is training to do her first half marathon with me. We are talking daily to keep each other accountable in our training. I’m so proud of her. Anyway, I encouraged her to take measurements of her body for comparison at the end of her training. I tend not to lose weight, but I do lose inches, which is more important to me anyway. (I’ve ranted before about weighing myself.)

Mom said she was also going to eat healthier. I laughed! I told her I run to enable me to eat crap! LOL! But, hey, if she wants to change her diet, more power to her. Heck, she could take Lipovox if she wants to. Although I tend to be skeptical of all diet products.

I’m going to try to get a run in tonight since the gravitational pull of my bed was strong this morning. My goal is to avoid running on Fridays at all cost. But I need to get in one more run this week before my Saturday run. So, running in the mid-nineties heat looks unavoidable.

Mom is using a treadmill in air conditioning. I wonder what that’s like? I’ve never really used a treadmill before.

wRitErsbLock

Comments (4)

Holy Toledo! My avatar says this morning’s run put me over 600 miles since I first began tracking my runs back after Christmas 2006. That’s a lot of miles. And the majority of those have been run since August 2008. Go me!

This morning was the first time I got up at the crack of why-am-I-doing-this, and as I ran in 80 degree heat even though it was only 5a and the sun was not up, I started thinking about my motivation. When I was working with Team in Training, my motivation was partly my team keeping me on task, partly those of you who donated to that worthy charity keeping me on task, and a lot of thinking about people fighting cancer who could not refuse chemo that day just because they didn’t want to. But since I’m training on my own, and I have a terrible time keeping myself motivated, I was trying to find a source of motivation. As I hit the two mile mark, and realized I didn’t get up early enough to get in 45 minutes, and would be settling for slightly less than 40 minutes, I thought to myself, “wouldn’t it be nice if someone ran in front of me dangling somthing like certified diamonds or a strong martini? That would give me a visual goal to chase!” Yes, I get silly when I’m running in the Florida heat.

Anyway, my motivation, for now, will be knowing that my mom is training, too, up in Nashville. And knowing that she’s calling me daily to ask how my training is going, and to share how hers is going.

I am so proud of her! She is 60 years old and training for a half marathon, having never been a runner in her life. Because I asked her to do this with me. Go mom! My mom did three miles yesterday morning in somewhere around 50 minutes. I am so proud! Truly, I am.

She and I will be a great team!

wRitErsbLock

Post a Comment

I began training again on Monday. My mom has agreed to run the Women’s Half Marathon with me in November over in St. Pete. I am beyond excited that my mom wants to do a race with me. And my little runner avatar over in the sidebar is pretty excited, too.

Monday, I drew up a training plan. Quite literally. I got out construction paper and markers and made a colorful 16 week training chart. It’s actually 17 weeks until the race, but my math was too fuzzy to divide that paper into 17 rows. I have my chart hanging in my bathroom mirror and have greatly enjoyed crossing off two squares of training so far.

I have it set up that I do three “short” runs per week, and a long run on Saturdays. The weekday runs are timed runs, the weekend run is a mileage run. Even though 45 minutes may equal 3 miles, at 5a, it’s easier to digest 45 minutes than a daunting 3 miles. It’s all about tricking my mind!

In week three, I bump up the three weekday runs to a full hour.

Funny how easy it is to fall out of the running habit. But now that I’m getting back into a routine, I am remembering how good I feel after a run. Certainly not during the run, as I hate running. But after, I feel amazing!

I’ll put my training schedule after the fold, for Maya and Arcanai, who are probably the only two interested. And Maya, I probably will take a picture of my chart and post it. After I buy myself some gold star stickers!
Read the rest of this entry »

wRitErsbLock

Comments (3)

I’ll admit, I get a lot of my daily news intake from Instapundit. I read him in a blog feed reader program thingy (technical term), as I do most of the blogs I read. It’s helpful, especially with Instapundit, who produces a crazy number of posts every day, to keep track of where I am in reading him. I also like that I can flag posts to read later, if they’re too long or have a video, or that I just want to remember to come back to as a reference on my humble little blog.

This morning, I discovered Glenn linked to an article about replacing happy pills with exercise. I typed out an email to Glenn, and then decided to just go ahead and blog it, as I rarely hold back on my blog.

Those of you who have been reading me for any length of time know I suffer from seasonal depression. I crash late September and don’t recover until mid-January. They’re very difficult months for me. In fact, my botched suicide attempt was in the month of November (twelve years ago).

In fall 2008, I was training for my first marathon. I was shocked to discover that running four days a week kept my depression away. Of course, after my January race, I fell back into the habit of sloth and laziness, and found my normal depressed state returned (because I’m never truly “normal” off happy pills, and have been off Zoloft since November 2001). And so, fall 2009, I began training for a half marathon, having come to my senses that only truly insane people should do 26.2! Again, my depression was kept at bay because of my running during my bad months.

This time around, I kept running (after my January 13.1) until around late May. And then I crashed. Hard. Like I typically do in September.

I wonder if all that running tweaked my natural cycle of down/downer. I found May and June to be debilitating this year. They sure felt like October-December to me. Horrible. In fact, the only reason I was still functioning was because not functioning is not an option. And, truth be told, I haven’t fantasized about killing myself this much since my botched 1998 attempt.

(Don’t worry, I’m not suicidal. I have a husband and child and house and pets and my garden… all things that prevent me from making an unexpected exit.)

I guess I should go strap on my Asics and get my depression therapy back in full swing. After all, there’s always another half marathon coming up that I should be training for!

Now, if we could just get the Florida heat to cooperate so I could not loathe being outside…

wRitErsbLock

Comments (2)

Apparently today is the national day of running. I’ve celebrated by running drinking some decent wine and eating a fattening dinner.

Shame on me for not running at all recently.

wRitErsbLock

Post a Comment

Dear WB,

I am so proud of you for finally getting out there and (1) calibrating your Nike + iPod and (2) “running,” especially given the beastly heat you chose to do this during.

Shame on you, though. Just four short months ago, you were in half marathon condition. Now, you’re fat and undisciplined. That .3 run to calibrate the iPod nearly killed you. It’s absolutely a disgrace that you had to sit on the bench on your front porch and gasp for air for five minutes before your official “run” began. Four months ago, you could run just over a mile, or 17 minutes, without walking. Now, .3 is almost more than you could handle. Shame on you.

It was beastly hot out there. Remember how much better (ie cooler) it is to run in the morning? Remember why you prefer to run in the morning? Do you think you might be able to channel your seething hatred of 430p Florida heat into a little motivation to get up and get your run in first thing in the morning? Maybe skip those 10p tv shows so you can have an easier time getting up just before 5a?

I’m pleased you finally found your motivation. Shall I count down the days for you so you know how short a period of time you have to get your body into a slightly more svelte shape? Forty-five days. That’s it. On the forty-sixth day, you need to feel good about your body and wear something that makes you feel amazing, because so many factors will be working against your self-confidence and self-esteem. So how about you start running four days a week, and get some weight training in for the sake of your disgusting arms.

Also, I think we’re all happier when your avatar is not so slothful.

Love,
your completely-disgusted-with-yourself self

wRitErsbLock

Comments (2)

Don’t believe the little runner girl in my sidebar. She’s way off on how far I ran this morning, because I still haven’t calibrated my iPod sensor. So when I was crossing the 3 mile mark, my iPod thought I was at 3.8. It was a 10K race, which is 6.2 miles.

This was in central park in Winter Park, at the start/finish line. After the race, those booths have things like bananas, strawberries, smoothies, milk, water, sports drink, and other stuff.

This was the start line.

It was a pretty run through the mansion-lined streets of Winter Park. I think this is Lake Osceola.

Different lake, with a saxophone player playing for the runners. We ran around this lake…

…and this is the other side of the lake. I was so relieved to see there were plenty of runners on the other side of the lake. Yay! I’m not last!

I passed this quartet twice, as the course looped back past this intersection a second time.

After almost an hour and a half, I finished. This was a difficult run for me; my fault for never running regularly.

Official results are posted:

1,779 people finished this race
I placed 1,696
I was 915 of the 979 women who finished the race
Clock time: 1:29:25
Chip time: 1:28:06
Pace: 14:10.7/mile

Mile 1 took me 13:10.
Mile 2 was about the same pace.

I started strong and fizzled fast.

It’s another race number hanging proudly on my wall!

Around about mile 4.5, I was dying. And my mind went morbid, and I started wondering if my husband would enjoy the life insurance payout if I died on the course! I’ll be the first to admit that life insurance rates confuse me, as do the whens and whys of payouts, but surely running a race would be one of the ways to die that would pay out without question, right? Moot point, I lived. And will race again. My next planned race is on tax day. An evening race.

wRitErsbLock

Comments (5)

On Wednesday, I stopped at Track Shack to pick up my race packet. There’s a 10K race tomorrow that I’ll be attempting to complete. I’m worried because I have not run since my February race, back on February 5th, I think it was, and that’s a long time to be stationary. Even though I know I can do six miles with relative ease in about an hour and fifteen minutes on a bad day, I’ve managed to psych myself out about this race tomorrow. The distance seems insurmountable.

Yes, I know, I’ve run much, much, much farther.

My race packet listed my age as 33. GAH! I’m 33! I literally gasped when I saw that on my race packet in the store.

I stopped today to take advantage of the 20% off sale Track Shack was having. I finally bought my fabulous new running shoes. My MIL gave me a gift card for my birthday, and with the sale, I ended up only spending $35 out of my own pocket. I’m elated to spend so little of my own money on my $100 shoes.

They’re Asics GEL-Cumulus 11 in White/Paradise Pink/Black. I choose not to link to them, but if you’re so inclined, that search term will bring up the pretty orange shoes that were too narrow for my fat feet. So, pink. Good thing I have recently come to embrace pink as my power color!

Several people have urged me not to break in my new shoes on a 10K, so I’ll be wearing my way worn out old running shoes in the morning, and then begin breaking in my pink shoes later. I may need to apply for disability insurance, since my shoes are so worn out. Then again, if I end up breaking in my new shoes, I could end up with massive blisters and unable to walk. So, I’ll take the guaranteed leg pain from the worn out shoes over the blisters of new shoes. At least I already know what to expect from the leg pain, whereas blisters on feet are annoying. Ask Boudicca!

wRitErsbLock

Comments (2)

If you’re interested in seeing race pictures from Saturday’s Lady Track Shack 5K, the pictures are here.

In the Start Line group, you can find me in pictures 402 and 405. I’m wearing a white, long sleeved Disney Half Marathon shirt (so, yellow and blue design with Donald Duck).

(this shirt: )

In the Finish Line sets, I am in group 40-45 minutes, pictures 833, 841, 845, 849, 853, 856, 857, 858, and in group 45-50 minutes, pictures 2, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, 20.

Some of them are decent. I might look into purchasing them.

wRitErsbLock

Post a Comment

You may notice my little runner avatar is finally off her butt and moving again. I got a new sensor for my Nike + iPod so my runs can “count” and get her moving. It is not yet calibrated, and is way off on mileage counting, but I’ll calibrate it soon. It thinks I did almost 4 miles this morning when I only did just over 3.

I participated in the Lady Track Shack 5K. It was a women only race, which was kind of nice, and it supported cancer research. That picture was taken at the start line… sort of. The actual start line was around the corner to the left, but that’s where I started, back behind the 10 minute mile pace sign. No, I don’t do 10 minute miles, but that was the last pace card they had for starting position, except for the next pace card for walkers with baby strollers.

It was a great race. I really enjoyed it. You know, but for that running thing. It took me around 42 minutes… wait, Track Shack has just updated their site (seriously, 2 minutes ago, results were not yet posted), so I can give you my official results.

2,077 women ran this race.
Place: 1,391
Division Place: 213
Clock Time: 45:03
Chip Time: 42:17
Average Pace: 13:36.4

I think that’s fantastic! Look, I’m never going to be a fast runner. But at least I’m consistent!

And I cannot even begin to properly express to you just how proud I am of myself that I get out there and do races. I have come so far from that scared girl who ran her first 5K in February 2007.

This marked my eighth race, but I only have seven race bibs to show for it, as the race in PCB cheated me out of having a number and a shirt.

I still hate running, I do. But the enormous sense of pride I get from doing this is amazing. It boosts my self-esteem and self-confidence. And, frankly, even though I now have tons of friends/acquaintances who are all runners that I see at all the races, not many people in my real life run, and this is something I do for myself, for my health, to balance out my unhealthy eating/drinking, and to help battle my depression.

Also, it’s pretty frakking cool to tell people I’m doing a race, or I just did a race.

I am a runner.

wRitErsbLock

Comments (6)