the good and the bad

Well, I ran twice this week. That should mean something.

Thursday I headed up to Uptown Park to run the Turkey Trot 5k. It was great! But, it was annoying to have to dodge so many walkers who obviously started up near the front where the fast pacers are supposed to be. Now, I have nothing against people who walk a 5k - but please, PLEASE start near the end of the pack and don't walk like 6 abreast - it makes things really difficult for the people trying to run the event.

Other than that, the run was great. I struggled a bit to breathe, but I felt pretty strong and finished with a personal best of a bit over 38 minutes. The weather and the people I got to run with made it pretty perfect. Yay!

Saturday's run, unfortunately, was not nearly as good. Our route was the same 10 miles from a couple of weeks ago - Memorial to the convention center downtown and back. I started hurting early in the run (I think I killed my lower back wrapping Christmas presents on Friday) and ended up having to walk over half of the distance. My inner thighs were screaming, too. By the time we limped in to the finish, I wasn't so sure about even walking. Ugh.

I guess there will always be bad runs. Here's hoping things get better soon!

cold rain

You guys, seriously, I'm neglecting this, and I don't see that ending right now. Even so, I figured an update was in order.

2 weeks ago we did our first 10 miler. We ran from Memorial Park to the convention center downtown. That's a seriously long way. I ended up having to run alone since none of the people I run with were at practice.

Honestly, it was a pretty good run for me. I felt strong. I walked bits, but I felt good. It was weird running downtown, but interesting.

So, yeah, long but good run full of interesting smells and sights. I then promptly failed to run at all for 2 weeks (busy busy busy plus a long weekend in Napa - not conducive to running). Which brings us to yesterday.

Yesterday was another 10 miler (which actually clocked at 10.8 miles) in the cold rain. It was gross and ugly, but we somehow made it through it. More walking than I would have liked, but still respectable, I think.

Today I hurt all over. Seriously, ow.

I'm a sick-y

Well, I would like to say that I'm getting better about getting my workouts in, but the rest of my life appears to be conspiring against me.

Last week I didn't get any weekly workouts in. There were good reasons though, including an ugly stomach ache brought on by the lunch a vendor brought and my trainer being sick. See, it's not like I skipped them because I was lazy.

Saturday's 8 miles really wasn't too bad. I am feeling stronger, even if I am missing too many runs. And I really don't enjoy the running, still, but I love the feeling I have afterwards. I'm still slow, but I think I've pretty much accepted that.

The neighborhood we ran through on Saturday is one of the nicer ones in Houston, and it was nice and quiet early on a Saturday morning. It was fun to see all of the Halloween decorations. I'm hoping that we'll run through the same area once Christmas decorations start going up.

In health news, I finally got the testing done and the verdict is in - I have asthma. I guess it's really a bit of a relief. I mean, it's nice to know that there's a reason I can't breathe when I run. I no longer have to chalk it up to being out of shape (now, the aches and pains, those are maybe because my body isn't used to the running =)). He put me on a couple of meds, including an inhaler to use before I run. He said I should start feeling a difference in 3 months. I'm pretty excited about that, honestly. I wish the effects would start sooner, but at least I know it's not always going to be this bad.

So far this week I've been better about my workouts. I did a treadmill run on Monday, followed by my Pilates class. Yesterday, I was supposed to have a workout with my trainer, but she managed to forget, so I ended up on the treadmill waiting for her, and I just decided to finish out my workout on the treadmill since I had places to be. I'll miss tonight's track practive because we're taking Kevin to a knife skills class (the kitchen kind, not the throwing kind =)) for his birthday, but I'm planning on running with my lovely running buddy on Thursday since we've missed so many runs together and there's gossip to be shared =). So, yeah, 3 out of 4 weekly workouts isn't bad...

I can't say I'm looking forward to 10 miles on Saturday.

La la la

I'm not writing, but I'm still running. Some. I'm busy, and I've been sick. I still don't really have the energy for a full-length discussion of the running, but I should at least try to catch up.

Since I last wrote, we've done an 8-miler, a 6-miler, and another 8-miler. I've largely failed to run much during the week due to a combination of illness and a period of general ennui. I substituted walks for some of my runs, and I flat-out skipped others. I haven't been good about the training, really, and I need to get back to it.

The long runs haven't been terrible. The first 8 mile one was pretty slow and involved a lot of walking and my stomach having a brief freakout, but it still felt decent. The 6 miler was a lot better, and actually felt somewhat comfortable. The 8 miler this past weekend was good, I think.

I ran the 8 miles this weekend with a couple of the girls, and I felt strong most of the way. Company really does help on these things. We alternated walking and running, and that seems to work fairly well for me - I finish faster, even if I don't feel that much better.

This weekend's run took us into the Uptown Park area, and it wasn't fun to run by both Crave and the Tasting Room. Luckily, it was too early for them to be open, or I might have had an early end to my run!

So, yeah, short entry. Hopefully I will get better about both the running and the writing =)

Wait, how far?

I really am bad about updating this thing in a timely manner.

Saturday's long run went pretty well, surprisingly. I'm really not sure why some runs are so much better than others. We did 6 miles, and I got to runs parts of it with 2 different awesome ladies, so I definitely enjoyed the company. The run really did feel tons better than the week before, but I was still glad to be done with it. Running is hard. I know I've said that before, but I really mean it. I have lots of respect for people who do this regularly. I'm glad I have such a great cause pushing me forward.

Fueling is going better. The Clif Shot Blocks really work for me, so I think I'm going to stick with them for now. They taste good and aren't all weird like the gels, so I'm happy. And they haven't made my stomach screwy yet, so I'm taking that as a good sign. I haven't figured out the best time to start taking them, though, and I haven't figured out what to eat for breakfast on run days. I need to figure out SOMETHING that I can eat an hour before a run without feeling sick.

This week hasn't been great for running for me. I skipped my Monday run for book club, and I didn't run Tuesday (though I did still go work out with my trainer, so it's not like I didn't get a good workout it, I just didn't get any mileage down). My workout on Tuesday definitely hurt, and my core, arms, and butt are still in pain, so I know I'm getting my money's worth there.

My trainer gave me her pulmonologist's information because she thinks I might have a disorder similar to the one she has. It's like asthma, but it's not quite the same. Her symptoms are really close to mine - weird troubling breathing when working out (but not like traditional asthma attacks), breathing problems significantly affected by the weather, tired all the time, weird lethargy. She started naming symptoms that I hadn't even considered as symptoms but totally have. They're all basically caused by lack of oxygen. I'm really hoping that I'll learn something if I see the doctor - she says it really isn't normal for me to have so much trouble since I really am in decent shape. And what she has is treatable with daily meds. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to breathe when I run?

Yesterday's run didn't exactly go as planned. Kelli and I were going to show up to track practice, say hello to everyone, then just run the loop at Memorial instead of doing track. We both felt like we needed to get a little more distance in this week, and track just wasn't what we were looking for.

Unfortunately, one of our coaches was out of town, and the other had her car break down, so we ended up having to lead track practice instead of running a loop. We ran several laps around the track, but we were both feeling exhausted and run down, so we didn't do nearly as much as we probably should have. Shame on us!

On top of the lack of running, I got destroyed by the park's fall mosquito convention. Not a great week training for me.

I ought to go run several miles tonight to gear up for the 8 mile long run on Saturday morning, but I have to go to associate night at Hanszen instead (hey, it's a worthwhile volunteer position at the residential college that shaped my university experience - it trumps running =)). It's Western themed!

Here's to not wanting to die on Saturday!

Geese and lost keys

I did my run at the park across from the plant today. Technically, it's a cross training day, but I have nowhere to work out and I skipped yesterday's run, so I decided to do 25 minutes. The running itself wasn't terrible - my legs are insanely sore for some reason, so I felt that, but otherwise, it was ok.

I think what killed me was the weather. It was cold and dreary and yucky. I was chilly at first, but that passed. But, for some reason, I just felt awful. My sinuses felt really screwy. It was just icky. But I still made it through 25 minutes of running without walking.

At about minute 20, I realized that I had managed to drop my keys, so I got to walk the entire loop again looking for them. You would think that a black key fob on a light colored running path would be easy to see. Unfortunately, the large number of geese that live in the little park seem to like to leave little black presents on the path, so, yeah. I did find them.

I felt terrible when I finished. Just sick. So, I allowed myself to stop at a great little bakery for a lovely, hot chai (I forgot how great hot drinks are when it's cold out) and a pastry.

I really do think that the sick feeling is the weather and the dry air up here. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss running in Houston. The grass is always greener, right?

In fundraising news, why haven't you donated yet? http://pages.teamintraining.org/txg/houston10/khughesw0s

Catching up...

So, what happens when I miss a week of blogging is that I just keep putting it off because writing the entry has become a bigger and bigger task. I am now 2 weeks behind, and I really need to just get caught up.

Actually, there's not that much to write about from 2 weeks ago. I got sick, and I really didn't run during the week except on Tuesday. On Tuesday, I got stubborn and decided that I wasn't going to let a little cold keep me from my workout. I started with a half hour leg workout with my trainer, which hurt a predictable amount (and continued to hurt for the rest of the week =)), and then I ran the loop at Memorial with my running buddy. Neither of us was feeling well, so it wasn't a great run, and we walked at least half of it, but we got out there and did it. I felt great when I got home, but I felt truly awful when I woke up Wednesday morning.

The run that Saturday went surprisingly well for me considering that I had skipped most of the weekly workouts. We did 5 miles, the same route as the week before. It was probably the best run I've had, ever, and I shaved about 2 minutes off my mile time (it still took about an hour and five minutes, but that's practically FAST for me =)). I really missed running with my running partner (poor girl was really sick), but I ended up running a good chunk of the mileage with one of the other girls, and she was great company, too =)

Last week was pretty uneventful. Monday I did the standard treadmill run followed by Pilates, and I felt awesome afterwards. I actually felt like I could have easily run more than the required 20 minutes on the treadmill. Why is it so much easier to run on the treadmill? It makes me feel like it's not a good workout.

Tuesday, it was raining and ugly all day, so we decided to skip our park run. I still worked out with my trainer, though, and my whole body felt it the next day. She is GOOD.

Wednesday was track night, which meant the first ladder of the season. The workout for those of us doing the half was 200, 400, 600, 600, 400, 200 (yards, if you remain blissfully unaware of track workouts), with walking breaks in between. I managed to get through it, though I was definitely slower at the end than the beginning. As we were without a coach (again, sickness, bah!), I led the group through a short (and probably funny-looking) set of form drills. Yes, I know I'm not the best person to demonsrate FORM drills, but I was nominated =)

I skipped Thursday's run in order to go to a cocktails/culture "crawl" thing at the Pavilions downtown. The space is neat, and I maintain that cocktails, yummy food, multiple musical performances, and good company totally counts as my workout =)

Saturday's run was pretty ugly. The route was a loop at the park followed by a loop through the nearby neighborhood. The start/end point also served as the midway point, which was kinda evil, really. I didn't have anyone to run with this week, so I set out for 6 miles on my own.

3/4 of the way through the Memorial loop, I hit a wall, hard. I ended up walking the rest of the way around the loop, popping energy chews near the end because I was starting to feel sick (I usually wait for the water stop to fuel, since it's best to fuel with water). I still made it to the picnic tables at 40 minutes in, meaning that I started out way too fast (considering I walked about 8 minutes, I must have been over a minute or two under my best pace). I basically just burnt myself out with no one around to help regulate my pace.

The second 3 miles was very slow. I did a bit of it with one of our coaches and the last half of it with one of the other girls. It was pretty painful, but I learned a valuable lesson about speed. I also need to find something I can eat an hour before a run without making myself sick, because not eating before long runs isn't going to fly anymore.

So, it was bad, but I've definitely had worse runs. It's really weird how you can have such a good long run followed by such a bad one. My body is a fickle thing.

This week I'm in Morris for work again, and it is cold. I missed today's run because I forgot to take my shoes to work (bad excuse, I know). The plan had been to run in the park across from the plant, then get groceries and run some errands I don't have time to do back home. When I left work, it was dark and windy and cold, and I never feel quite right up here anyway, so I decided to just run my errands and rest. It's only 20 minutes, and I seem to need the rest.I hate skipping runs, but I'll make up for it.