Saturday, May 27, 2006

fierce women.

for no apparent reason, i am feeling the need on this saturday evening to give a shout out to the fierce women of this world. i am going to start a little list here that i plan to add to and reconfigure throughout the course of my own training.

here are the women who i love today:

lisa andersen - surf goddess
paula radcliffe - need i explain?
babe didrikson - my north star
granuaile (a.k.a. grace o'malley) - honest to god, my great great great great great grandmother. talk about fierce!

not to mention bridget, iesha, mums, hannah, mammy, zig-monster, ab-tastic, gommie, and grandma babe.

i love you all - you're fierce!

Friday, May 26, 2006

what a few days off can do.

well, we have returned from florida and while dealing with a family crisis is never the greatest thing, i managed to get in two nice (hot!) runs down in florida and a pre-dawn dip in the ocean (see below) with my super-fabulous little sis (in-law).

i had to take a day off of running for the 24 hr. non-stop drive down there and another 2 for the drive back. i wasn't super excited about that but i decided to just let it go and when i finally headed out for a run today back here in chicago, it was GLORIOUS. i took my favorite 6 mile loop and felt like i was flying through it. i didn't time myself but i know i was running about 1 minute faster per mile than i usually take this route and was having minimal trouble. my stride opened up and my legs felt positively springy.

what a day! :)

Monday, May 22, 2006

south florida sure is hot!

i went out this morning for what i hoped would be a 50-60 minute run. turns out palm beach county gets awfully hot by 10am. it's only in the mid-80s but the 70% humidity and high UV aren't helping much. i bagged the run after 30 minutes and walked for another 10. i may try to finish off the run after dark. i'm not used to this heat yet.
___________________

i did head out around 4pm and finished off the run with another 30 min. still HOT but way more doable!

Sunday, May 21, 2006

greetings from south florida!

so life has thrown us a curve ball and we just hopped into the car and drove all the way to south florida to check on the family. as such, i've decided to take the day off (after a 24 hour straight-through car ride) and run in the morning. my circulation feels TERRIBLE after the day in the car - oh vey!

more to follow...

Friday, May 19, 2006

my triumphant return...

HOORAY! g-d bless bridget for running with me today. after becoming progressively more and more insane and agitated over the last three non-running days, a 6 mile loop with my best friend was just what the doctor ordered!

my metatarsals felt a-okay in my new insoles but my left lower leg still felt funky - i think the insole was pushing my left foot to the outside. after the run, i popped them in the oven to refit the left insole and they now feel great.

i'll keep my fingers crossed for continued health but boy does it feel good to get back into it.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

walking, walking, walking

well, i've taken three days to simply walk: day one with bridget, colleen, and rosie, day two over to lisa's and a movie ("keeping up with the steins"), and today, a walk to school and then to meet drew. i picked up a pair of sole custom footbeds and, after wearing them for two of those three days, my metatarsals feel great but my left leg feels a little... wonky? i'm going to let the arch settle down a little bit and see what happens. all in all, i feel good. i no longer live in fear of breaking a bone when i step out of bed in the morning so that's good!

i can't wait to run tomorrow. YAY!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

"when you're a female athlete, you're supposed to be happy with the crumbs...

i didn't want the crumbs anymore, i wanted the cake and the icing."

-billie jean king.

thank you readers!

thanks guys for the good foot advice. i've taken the day off from running, switched back to my hiking boots, and am icing my foot. this doesn't seem like a terrible problem *yet* but i sure don't want it to turn into one. my high arches, skinny feet, and not-small frame are a volatile combination.

¡salud!

Monday, May 15, 2006

the body sure is a funny thing.

so after my "disastrous" 9 minute mile struggle of a week ago, today i hopped on the treadmill and pretty easily busted out 30 miuntes at 8.57 pace. i rounded out the 4 mile day at 9.27 pace - after the treadmill automatically shut off at 30 minutes - and that felt SLOW. too strange.

my only worry of the day, then, is the intermittent ache in my metatarsals - very dull and, for now, very rare but it's something i need to keep an eye on. after a metatarsal stress fracture last year (when i was barely even running!) i know i don't want to deal with that again. i'm going to check out some orthotics this week.

happy trails!

Saturday, May 13, 2006

wanted: fast-twitch muscle fibers.

i decided to wrap up the week with a 6 mile route straight over to the lake. (this was a bad idea, incidentally - soooo many stop lights.) that put me at about 29 miles for the week, which seems about right (after 30 last week and 28 the week before) - maybe even a little high for me right now. regardless, i'm feeling injury-free, which is a godsend.

anyway, as i trudged through the first five miles or so of today's run, i got to thinking. i need: 1) a day off - tomorrow; 2) some sleep - i've been having "keep you up half the night" cramps; and 3) some fast twitch muscle fibers. anyone know where i can stock up on the third? i figured they're not going to come to me from nowhere so i kicked it up a notch on the last 3/4 of a mile or so of my run and felt pretty good. mechanically, anything around 9 minutes or faster feels the best, but my body is just not strong enough to keep that up right now. oh well, someday, right?

Friday, May 12, 2006

"hey, you run track?"

after finishing up a nice 4 mile run today (again, in the 42º rain), i walked over to the walgreens to stretch my legs when a friendly streets and san worker stopped me.
"hey, you run track?" he inquired.
"yeah, uh, no, uh, i used to," i stammered.
"well your legs sure look like it!"
i laughed uncomfortably, thanked him, and ducked into the walgreens.

now i'm not so naive as to think that his comment was utterly innocent, and yet he seemed to be sincere. so i'll be honest - i was pleased. as i float somewhere between my "runner" and "non-runner" identities, there was something reassuring about being outed by a complete stranger. as bridget would say, our bodies are "marked" by certain discourses and no matter what else my body says, someone on the street was reading my body as "runner."

when i walked out of the walgreens 15 minutes later, the streets and san worker was still outisde, pouring concrete. as i walked by him he said,
"hey! someday, you and me are gonna race."
i laughed again and as i walked away i turned around for a moment.
"okay," i replied.
"but i'm gonna win."

Thursday, May 11, 2006

run like a kid.

i'm just back from a fantastic 6 mile run. i figured out a great loop from my house that's (relatively) exhuast and pedestrian free. i love it. i went out today with no watch and no time restraints. it's about 55 degrees here, super windy, and raining. it was PERFECT. i had nothing on my mind other than splashing through puddles and laughing at the strange looks i was getting from people driving by.

i think everyone needs days like this, days to be a kid again, days to remember why you started doing this in the first place: because it was (and is) FUN!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

like mother like daughter?

okay, so i realize that posting more than once a day borders on the neurotic but i am so excited that i simply had to share! my darling, wonderful, talented, hilarious, kind, energetic, brilliant, and altogether delightful daughter hannah (seen here)


has just started running herself and has enthusiastically agreed to run chicago's wondergirl 5k with her dear old momma (that's me).

i am verklempt!

"here," indeed.

just in case i needed any more positive reinforcement about "here" being a-okay:

on my run this morning i passed by a woman taking a cigarette break from work. as i ran by she announced,

"i wish i could do that!!"

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

why i need running (as much as running needs me).

i just got done working out at the gym and, as i showered off in the locker room, i got to thinking. if i had to identify my most prominent mental “quirk” (it’s okay – go ahead and laugh), it would be my unfailing tendency to always, always, always think about “there,” at the expense of “here.” sometimes this tendency manifests itself spatially – my knack for returning from vacations hell-bent on moving to boston, london, cedar falls, milwaukee, you name it, or my undying love for iowa city – and sometimes temporally – backwards to the summer when i was 15, the winter i fell in love with drew, the end of senior year of high school, or forwards to the end of the semester, my next birthday, the completion of my ph.d. don’t get me wrong; this “habit” has served me well. when most of my fellow students are worrying about the next paper, i’ve got it done and have already moved onto the next assignment, the next reading, the next conference, the next project. the only problem is that in my haste to get to “there,” i never really enjoy the being “here.”

what does this have to do with running? well, running has been, for much of my life, the battleground on which this war of “here” and “there” has played out. when i finished second in the distance run at the national lifeguard championships, i didn’t want to think about the 30 girls i beat, i wanted to think about the one girl i didn’t. and when i won my first race in high school, i enjoyed it for approximately one afternoon until i started to panic about how i would get faster and what i would be expected to achieve next. this fear, this constant preoccupation with “there,” is what made me quit running over and over and over again.

and i’ll admit: when i got on the treadmill today and realized that after one “pathetically slow” 9 minute mile and one “disgustingly worse” 9.30 mile i needed to actually (gasp!) WALK, i was ready to throw in the towel. i didn’t want to be “here” – in this 29 year old body that couldn’t string together a couple of sub-10 minute miles. i wanted to be “there” – in my 15 year old body, clipping off 5.40s or 6.00s or 7.00s or even 8.00s.

but i kept going. i walked for a while, let my legs recover, and started running again. and when i stepped off the treadmill, i walked over to the indoor track to stretch my legs out. and i started to realize that being “here” is okay. i can still run quickly and gracefully enough around the track that all of the basketball players can’t help but watch. i can breathe better than i could a year ago. i’ve got a strong body. i’ve got long legs. i’ve got a perfect stride. and i’m slow-ish. but so what? for once, i’m “here.” and “here” is pretty good.

Monday, May 08, 2006

procrastination.


so it's 11.21pm on a monday evening and after a LONG day of theory at northwestern, i am home watching a roseanne marathon and attempting to finish grading my freshmen's research papers. abbey was sleeping comfortably by my side until about 5 minutes ago when a truck came barrelling down our street.

i am bored.

and so, in the hopes of keeping myself amused, i am posting a dated photo of my feet.

why? i have no idea.

lead weights.

yes, that's how my legs felt this morning. i had to cram a run in before a trip up to evanston and some combination of straight out of bed/seven mile run yesterday/biking for four hours simply was not cutting it. oh well, at least i ran! the highlight of the morning, though, was bumping into bridget and my sweet nephew mr. ajax. they made my day!

Sunday, May 07, 2006

and we're off!

okay gang - if you know me and love me, you've probably seen this coming since at least 1983. that was the year lisa started running on the st. ignatius cross country team. one look at those muddy, grassy, rocky trails and i was hooked (not to mention the butter yellow sweat suits with the maroon winged sandal logo on them!). a year or two before (age four?) i had attempted to run the chicago park district turkey trot but, not understanding the ins and outs of outdoor racing, i foolishly expended all of my energy on what i thought was the race but turns out to have been only the course walkthrough. (incidentally, lisa came home with 1st prize - the 20lb. turkey.) i seem to recall winning a few olympic day races at s.m.m., some lifeguard events, and even an amazing high school track debut - the indoor 3200m race at OPRF against the then star of the high school track team. triumphs in the subsequent fifteen years have been a bit fewer and further between but there have been a few. and so, where is all of this heading? i'll tell you.

i just registered for my first marathon: chicago, sunday, october 22, 2006.

so hang with me here. you can follow my progress, laugh at my insanity, and pray with me to avoid injury. i'll post some photos and who knows? we may all have a little bit of fun along the way.

and now, for the details: i'm just back from a delightful 70 min. run around the neighborhood and over to the lake. the weather is perfect - 65 degrees and sunny - and, after a much deserved day off yesterday, my legs felt great. i think this is actually my longest run of 2006. my feet feel good, my knees feel good, my back feels good, my head feels good! drew and i are off for our first leisurely bike ride of the year. oop, and "official" marathon training doesn't start until june 5th.