Anything over 5 miles is painful.

But it was a pretty good run this morning!

6.3 miles in exactly one hour and 12 minutes, which I'm quite proud of considering last year at this time, I was running 5 miles in exactly one hour and 12 minutes. I'm still at the very back of the pack...but I'm choosing not to focus on that and instead reveling in the personal achievement of shaving off 34 seconds per mile.

And here I am, having run, socialized after, and driven home, and it's all of 7:47 am.

(The marathoners are running 20 today. God bless 'em.)

The Best-Laid Plans

I thought I was going to run last night to make up for Wednesday's travesty, but that didn't happen. I was tired on a scale I cannot easily hyperbolize.

But I got to thinking...in one 8-day period, ending with the 12 mile run last Saturday, I ran 28.5 miles. No wonder I was tired!

This week is a back-down week anyway. A mere 6 miles tomorrow. (How weird that I'm at the point where running 6 miles is a "short" run.) So I'm OK with letting my legs rest a little. It'll be back to business next week...

Crash and BUUUUUURRRRNNNNN

What just happened? That was damn near dispiriting. I think that was the worst run of this entire training season. It just wasn't in me. I couldn't do it. The only thing I can equate it to is the first run after being very, very sick. That's what my body felt like. Weak and shaky and overall not good.

I did 3.6 miles in 37:48, but I had to stop twice to retie my shoe and then a third time to take off my top shirt because I was DYING of the heat (which is never usually a problem for me! and it wasn't all that warm out anyway!).

I might still be tired from the weekend, but I'm not ruling out my diet, either. I typically eat some form of pasta 6 or 7 days a week, but the past two nights, I've had really low-carb dinners (Mexican last night and a hamburger casserole thing tonight). So that couldn't have helped matters...

Whatever the problem was, my body did not like and decided not to cooperate with me tonight. Bad, bad run.

Uncharted Territory

Prior to today, the longest I had ever run in one stretch was 10.5 miles. That was as far as Megan and I got in our long runs last year. And I don't think we even got that far in last year's half before we took a walk break.

But this morning, starting at 6:00 am, I completed my first 12 mile run. Twelve miles. Two hours, seventeen minutes, and forty-four seconds. OF RUNNING.

So I'm in some pain right now.

My new shoes worked wonders on my joints, and I'm happy to report that I'm currently experiencing minimal knee and ankle pain. But my feet. My feet started to hurt about 4 miles in. Damn those hard new shoes! I remember last year after the half, I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and I could not stand up straight my feet and knees hurt so badly. So I'm guessing I won't know the full level of damage I've done to myself today until I wake up in the middle of the night tonight.

About 8 miles, I hit a low point and basically wanted to die. But around 9 there was a water break, and we stopped for about 20 seconds to down a cup (since this is not like a race where you can drink as you run and just throw your cup to the side of the road...this is the extremely nice people at Breakaway spending their Saturday morning standing around waiting for our sorry selves to drag in to the water stand they've set up) and after that, I felt a lot better.

I was running with two friends I run with most weeks, but this week they added the variable of complaining. A lot. About everything. And on the last leg of a run, it is a horrible, horrible thing to have to listen to people talk about how bad things are. I already knew how bad things were. I could feel it in my body. The only way my body could keep going was if my mind muted its complaints, and it was hard to do that when my mind was being inundated by negative conversation!

I left them in the last mile or so, running just far enough ahead so I couldn't hear them.

We were running a 6 mile loop twice and to break up the monotony the three of us decided to run the loop backwards the second time. The second mile of the loop was extremely hilly, so the downside to our plan was that going backwards put those hills in our 11th mile (instead of our 7th). Again, I felt like dying a little. (And this was the point at which I made a conscious effort to get ahead of the others.)

The other thing is that (as you know) I always wear a pedometer when I run because our routes are mapped by Google and the distances always clock in a tad longer than estimated. We didn't quite complete the first loop before we turned around because, after being asked, I checked my pedometer and we were at 6.2 miles. So we were fine to go ahead and turn around.

But my running mates kept asking for the distance! "How far, Becky?" "What mile are we on, Becky?" "Let us know when we hit 12 miles, Becky!" I never, ever look at my pedometer while I run (too psychologically damaging), but I think that opening and closing it while I was running screwed up the mileage because we were just at 12 miles when we finished when we should have been at at least 12.5.

So really, I have no idea how the hell long I ran, but I'm going to conservatively say 12 because that's what I was supposed to have done.

The lesson of the day is that I may actually prefer running solo to running with people who are talking about the wrong things.

I went to Walgreens yesterday and bought myself a bag of Skittles as an after-run treat. A lot of runners are all like, "Oh, I only eat fruit after I run." Like that makes them awesome people or something.

Fuck that. I just ran 12 miles. I have EARNED these Skittles.

And, um, I think I'm going to go take an ibuprofen or twelve now...

Getting closer...

4.5 miles. 48:44. The thermometer in my kitchen reads 55, but it feels oh so much colder!

This was the first run of the season at the park in Bartlett. It's a flat course. Not a lot to look at. And the drive is a pain. Good thing there's only a month now until the half.

Actually, now that I think about it, it really is a month until the half. EXACTLY A MONTH. Good God.

The shoes were a little stiff, but then again new ones usually are during a first run. Let's hope I softened them up enough for Saturday!

The New Shoes

Blue! The new ones are blue!
Damn. I was so attached to the pink ones that it's only now that the blue ones are in my possession that I realize how much I'll miss them! We had some good times, my pinks shoes and me. *sad face*

Here's the thing. You can't buy running shoes based on color (tragically). Back when I didn't know what the fuck I was doing, I would just go to the New Balance store, pick out something that looked cool, and run in them. And inevitably the shoes wouldn't feel good and I'd quit running.

After my first half-marathon (2007), I decided I should maybe go to an actual running shoe store and have an actual running shoe store employee watch me as I actually ran. It was then that I learned that my entire adult life I'd been wearing shoes one size too big, and also that Nike Zoom Structure Triax running shoes are my match made in heaven.

The pair I bought tonight is my third. It's the same shoe every time. I just walk in, show the store person what's on my feet, and say, "I need this shoe." And then I get the shoe and it's exactly the same in every way except Nike changes the color every few months, so I never know what the hell I'm going to wind up with.

This time, it was blue.

So the above picture represents the condition of a brand new, never-been-worn pair of running shoes (in stupid blue).

The below picture represents what a pair of running shoes (in awesome pink!) looks like after about 200 miles:

And er, well, OK, I was hoping for a more dramatic contrast there. Damn that flattering flash in my living room! They're in pretty bad shape, but I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

And here we see the comparison from the bottom. The pink shoes are shredded. And I feel deep, deep personal pride over this. I have torn those shoes UP.

I was told this evening that I should definitely not do any more long runs in my pink shoes, but I'd be OK doing a few more short ones if I wanted. But to break in the blue ones before the 12 mile (!!!) run on Saturday, I'll wear them tomorrow for a shorter run.

I have no doubt they'll feel good. Tonight, like every other time I've bought a new pair, I put them on and couldn't believe the spring in them.

But I already know I'm not going to look as good in them. Man. I really, really, really liked the pink...

Better luck next time, I guess.

Experiments in Running: Today's Lacked the Element of "Success"

Last week I bid adieu to my regular running park and I was all prepared to drive to another track today to get my run in...

...but...

...but...but...there's a really awesome NOVA on tonight! And NOVA is on at 7:00 and if I drove all the way out to Bartlett then I wouldn't be back by 7:00 and wah!

So I hypothesized that if I came home from work, changed clothes immediately, and went straight to the park, I could get my run in at my regular park before the sun set and thus be home in time to watch my show.

At first, all was going nicely according to plan. I even lucked out and was the last car to cross the tracks before a train came by. The way things were going I'd have plenty of time! Maybe I'd get 4 miles in. That would be good.

Then it just all fell apart, friends. For one, I didn't have time to eat before I left, and while pretty much every other runner ever will tell you he or she would never eat right before a run, I am nothing if not an anomaly. I have to eat before I run or else I will keel over dead from hunger right on the track. This is almost what happened tonight (despite a vain attempt to deflect this fate by stuffing a fistful of pretzels into my mouth on the way out the door). I was so hungry.

Two, by a mile in, it was obvious there was no way I'd make it to four miles before it was completely dark. I decided to try for three instead, but then when I hit two, it was suddenly *really* dark and there were all of these sketchy people hanging around in the parking lot and I was like, what the hell? So I stopped. Sad, because had I known I was only going to run two miles, I would have done them faster than I did.

And three, I completed my run just in time for another train to come chugging along and this time I was not so lucky. I had the grand idea that I should drive out of my way in the opposite direction so that I could cross the tracks down the line instead of waiting for the train to pass...FAULTY LOGIC. It took me forever to get home.

Today's run was a measley 2 miles in 22:58. And I don't even know what to do about my shoes because I didn't run far enough to get a feel for how they were holding up.

So much fail today. To make it for it, I should probably do stomach crunches during NOVA or something.

OH GOD THE PAIN

9.94 is close enough to 10 to call it 10, right?

Yes. Yes it is.

I printed off the route the group did last week, but the map was pretty small and didn't show street names, so I wrote all the street names at the bottom.

Too bad I forgot a couple of the streets. Oops!

Erin and I had to improvise some today on account of me not knowing exactly where we were going a bunch of the time. I don't even know what we did. We just ran around a lot in the general vicinity of the course from last week. And miraculously we wound up running within 0.06 miles of our target.

OK, this is what I will say...ten miles hurts. It doesn't matter how many weekly runs you do or how far your last long run was...the first time you hit ten miles in a training program, there is PAIN involved. 18,598 steps = feet hurting. 1:54:18 = mind hurting. 858 calories = stomach...well, not hurting, but hungry.

I will now go find lots and lots of food to eat and maybe go to bed for an hour or so (only the first part of this sentence is true).

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

Farewell Audubon

Off topic: Has anyone else noticed that now that Michael Jackson is dead, Beatles songs are showing up in even MORE commercials?

Yeah. Ugh.

So. There was a break in the rain today! And I did run! But God was it not fun. I was damn near dead a mile and a half in and that was only halfway to my goal.

I made it a full 3 miles in 34:10; a little slower than yesterday, but my main concern is that I did three complete loops without keeling over. I timed it perfectly, too. It started raining approximately two minutes after I got back into my car.

The time changes this weekend and with that will come a change in my after-work running schedule. I won't have enough daylight anymore to run around the track where I've been running (there are no lights to run there after dark). I'll have to drive out to Bartlett, which is a 20-25 minute drive one way. And the track there is only 9/10s of a mile, which makes it a bit more difficult to decide in advance how far to go. It's no longer 3 miles or 4. It's 2.7 or 3.6 or 4.5...

So changes are coming!

But for now I just need to concentrate on resting up for the next two days. Saturday is almost here. TEN MILES. Eek.

And I'm BACK IN THE GAME.

Four miles. Four long, arduous, clunky, agonizing, heavy miles. But FOUR MILES. Whew!

I ran them in 45:03, keeping a fairly steady 11:15 (or so) pace. Which, um, hello? When did I get so awesome?! And I thought I was going slowly! Not bad for eight days off. (Though I would suspect that getting out of bed tomorrow morning will be more difficult than usual.)

AND my feet are starting to hurt at the end of my runs. Five miles is about my limit for running without any sort of physical discomfort (I think I've mentioned that before) but I'm thinking this foot pain might be an indicator that I need new shoes. I just got shoes in April and generally only need a new pair every nine months. But I'm running more than usual so perhaps this pair is wearing out more quickly???

If it's not raining tomorrow (which it's supposed to be), then I will try for a 3-miler. We'll see how the feet are feeling then. In the meantime, I have some Miller High Life in the fridge and yesterday's Colbert Report to watch.

And OH YES. I just entered the triple digits on the mile counter. About damned time!