Rebooted!

Week of December 18, 2011:

Run: Sunday

Wouldn’t it be even better if I were wearing boots in that photo above?  Alas, I have no cute boots, just a pair of extremely old black boots that are about to get, uh, booted from my closet if Santa brings me a new pair.  But I do have a great pair of black flats that I wear all the time now.  You could say they are part of my work uniform.

I’m finally caught up on my life!  My computer is working beautifully these days, the number of ants in my apartment is down to a tolerable minimum, and I’m making strides on my grant work.  What I’m not caught up on is blogging, and I think I’m going to let that go because frankly, I just don’t have the energy to rewind two weeks to tell you all about my work-outs.  Suffice to say that I have been working out.  The best part of my running life is having a running buddy, my friend Christy, with whom I’m training for the 2012 Armadillo Dash.  We ran 60 minutes this morning, starting at our home base (a pretty park in my favorite neighborhood) and into main campus.  It was a beautiful day for running, overcast but with mild temperatures and no wind.  We ran slowly, with several walk breaks, which is totally fine with me because I want to run with a friend, and sometimes that means running slower to accommodate your friend.  The important thing, in my mind, is that we get out there and get some miles under our feet.  I want to have a fun race at the Armadillo Dash, and if we’ve trained to go the distance, even if we run slowly, then we’ll have a better race day and better recovery after the race.

How is your Sunday, sweet reader?  I am brainstorming ideas for a grant and downloading papers that for some mysterious reason, I haven’t saved on my computer.  Oh, Past Rose-Anne, sometimes I do not understand you at all! 

Speed Demon! Or Maybe Not…

Week of November 27, 2011:

Run: Wednesday

I have a new running buddy!  Christy and I went running two days over Thanksgiving weekend, and I think we’ve decided to train for the upcoming Armadillo Dash half-marathon together.  It’s been really fun to have a buddy who is eager to run with me, despite the very chilly weather we had last Sunday.

When it comes to running buddies, compromise is often a necessity.  I’ve told Christy that we’ll run at her pace, and it doesn’t bother me if it’s slower than I might run on my own.  For the 2012 Dash, I’m not looking for a new PR; I’m just looking for the fun and health benefits of a good training season and then a fun race at the end.  I know that running helps to lift my mood and keep me feeling focused, energized, and positive about life, and I need that now more than ever.

So speed demons we are not on our runs together.  In light of that truth, I decided to hop on the treadmill last night to see if I couldn’t crank out two 8-minute miles.  And I could not.  I warmed up, and once I was running the 8-mile/min. pace, I realized just how hard it was.  It was hard, y’all!  I decided I could push through one mile at that pace, which was exciting.  And then I was done.  Whew!  Let’s do it again next week, shall we?

Have you had any good speed work-outs lately, dear readers?  Any failed attempts to run faster?  Does anyone else overestimate her fitness sometimes like I do?

Do My Feet Look Like a Muppet’s?

Week of November 20, 2011:

Bike: Saturday

Run: Thursday and Friday (woot!)

Yoga: My memory fails me…

Week of November 27, 2011:

Bike: Tuesday

Run: Sunday

Yoga: Monday

Oof, I’m woefully behind around here again!  I blame my depressing work news, which I’ve been countering with a lot of running (five miles with a friend on Sunday, woot!), kitchen time, and dancing.  My spirits have been really up and down: most of the time I feel okay, if mildly bummed, but occasionally I have moments when I feel frightened by my impending deadlines and joblessness.  I’m trying to think positively and to focus on what I can do, rather than worrying about the uncertainty of it all.  But still, it’s pretty damn scary.

In other news, cold weather has arrived!  Without the heat on at home, my apartment’s ambient temperature is a chilly 60-something degrees, so I finally caved and turned on the heat.  I also dug into my sock drawer and pulled out the silly socks you see above.  They look like a Muppet’s feet, don’t you think?  But they are really warm and cozy, and I kept them on when it was time to do my strength exercises last night.  Who says Muppets don’t do yoga or push-ups?

The Answer

This week, by day…

…and by night.

Week of November 20, 2011:

Bike: Sunday and Wednesday

Run: Monday

Good news, people: the bike doctor was able to fix my bike lock!  Two friends suggested lube, and indeed, the answer was lube.  Something wasn’t moving freely enough inside the locking mechanism, so even though the key could turn, the lock itself was still jammed.  Some magic bike lube greased everything up and now my bike lock is working better than ever.  Hurray!

(And my dirty mind wants to know this: when is lube not the answer?  Hmm?)

In other good news, I went for a 40-minute run on Monday night.  DORK ALERT: I had to use my kitchen timer to time the run, as I have not yet figured out exactly how to a) open the back of my watch and b) purchase the correct battery type for said watch.  But the kitchen timer was a perfectly fine in-a-pinch substitute.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure how hard 40 minutes would feel since I’ve been running without a watch for the last few weeks.  But I took it slowly, and it wasn’t too bad: I had to add on maybe a mile to get the full 40 minutes.  True, those last few minutes were harder than the first 35, but I finished without too much drama and I just felt so pleased to be getting into a real schedule for half-marathon training.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Anybody else planning on a day-after-Thanksgiving run?  I’m heading out with a friend on Friday morning—fun times.

A Fog of Uncertainty

Week of November 13, 2011:

Bike: Tuesday and Saturday

Run: Wednesday

Walk: Saturday (the wildcard!)

It was a week of extremes: a great run on Wednesday night, a malfunctioning bike lock, a fun work social today, bad news about my immediate future yesterday.  Sun and rain, heat and cold.  Good times and deep disappointment.  Life is like that sometimes, this juxtaposition of the good and the bad.

I’ll say more about my bad news over at my other blog.  For now, I’m just stunned and disappointed and feeling more than a little uncertain about what to do next.  If you have a tin of good luck powder in your desk, maybe you could sprinkle a little in my direction?  I’m going to need it.  In the meantime, I’m going back to the job listings.  Too bad I can’t work at Monsanto because they’ve got a lot of openings!

The Way It Will Never Be

The alternative title I considered for this post is “She Who Hesitates” because I, dear reader, have been hesitating.

Maybe you can tell.  I haven’t been running as much in the past two months as I was at this time last year.  I have been running, but the commitment I’ve made to the sport feels nowhere near as serious as it was last year.  In 2010, I decided that 2011 was the year that I would break two hours in the half-marathon.  I knew I could do it, and I wanted that victory.  For those of us who run for fun, achieving a race goal can feel rather arbitrary.  Does anyone care if I finish in 2:00:00 or 1:59:59?  Anyone other than me, that is?  But for those of us who run, I think we know that deep down, it does matter.  Not because we’re saving lives with our running—I hope that I’m saving or at least helping lives with my professional efforts, eventually—but because the ability to set your mind on a goal and reach that goal is success in its purest form.  The meaning you attach to that success is up for debate, and I believe that’s true for all types of success.  Sometimes I take the long view of life, and I think that no success is without cost and drawbacks.  You just had a healthy baby?  Congratulations!  Oh, your child is now displaying sociopathic behavior?  Let’s hope he doesn’t grow up to become a serial killer.  Perhaps that is a rather unpleasant example, but it just goes to show that success is relative, ephemeral, of the moment.

In the wake of my sub-two-hour half-marathon this year, I’ve been feeling unsure about what’s next for me.  The 2011 Armadillo Dash was such a wonderful race this year.  Not only did I run my fastest half yet, I had Matt there with me at the end.  It was so special to share that experience with him, inasmuch as a runner can share a race with a non-runner.  So many little things added up to make me feel so loved and supported: that he didn’t mind sharing me with the Dash, that he didn’t mind getting up early on race day, that he delivered me to the race start and then kept himself occupied until my finishing time.  Matt was such a good sport, and I’ve tried to live up to his example since then.  (“Oh, you want to play golf on a steamy day in June in College Station?  Then you want to take your stinky, sweaty self back to my apartment to take a shower?  Sure, go for it!”  That’s romantic, right?)  I’ve been learning that love is giving someone what they want with a smile and a “Go get ‘em, tiger!”

I feel like the next Armadillo Dash will be disappointing in the wake of 2011’s race.  And that makes me sad.  I’m bummed that I haven’t been focused on a new PR, and I’m bummed that I’ll almost certainly be running the 2012 race without a handsome man waiting for me at the end.  I’m bummed because I feel like 2012 can’t live up to 2011, so I’ve been at a loss as to what I should do.

In spite of my disappointment, I’ve been trying to rally.  I was on a little roll there in October before I went on vacation, fitting my runs into the day and feeling stronger every time I laced up my sneakers.  And this month I’ve had two really good runs recently and I’m feeling more optimistic about getting back into a running habit to take me through the winter months.  I talked to a new friend recently about the Dash, and she wants to run it, so maybe we can run it together, which would be a new and different way to experience the half-marathon.  I’ve run all three of my halves alone, and running it with a friend would be such a joy.  I don’t know how fast she is—we might be incompatible if she’s running 8-minute miles while I’m running 9+-minute miles, but it’s worth considering.

Most of all, I’m trying to accept that while I won’t be able to repeat the experience of 2011’s Armadillo Dash, I can make some new memories this year.  Maybe I can find some running friends, or run in new places, or even just mix up my work-outs like Sunday’s run doing laps at the park.  Just like some runs will be amazing and some will be routine, each race is different.  There’s something really freeing about just doing your best and then letting go of the outcome.

2012 Armadillo Dash, you’re on notice: I will be there.  I may not run a sub-two half, but I will be there, and I will finish, and it will be fun, dammit.  That’s all I really want for now.      

Mismatch

Week of November 13, 2011:

Run: Sunday

I am reclaiming my running fitness!  There, I have now declared my intentions, and on Sunday, I did more than talk the talk: I walked the walk.  Or rather, ran the run.  Since I’m still watchless, I decided to compensate for my lack of technology by doing laps around a pair of parks that together have a 1-mile running path.  This month my goal is to work up to a 50-minute run, so on Sunday I decided to try for a 4-mile run around the parks.  4 miles x 10-minute miles = 40 minutes.  My math is all based on estimates here, but I’m okay with that.  Was I running 10-minute miles?  Maybe.  Maybe I was slower than that.  But the main point here is that it was a challenging run, and if I’m going to rebuild my running fitness, I need to be challenging myself during my long runs.

I’ve noticed that when it comes to running, there are two main areas where fatigue sets in: my breathing/cardiovascular output or my legs.  On Sunday’s run, my legs did pretty well, but my lungs were feeling challenged, and I had some cramping in my abdomen.  It wasn’t so challenging that I wanted to die, but I definitely felt the mismatch between upper and lower halves.  On the plus side, I was able to complete my four laps without any walking breaks, just a tiny pause for cars before crossing the street.

I really liked this run.  It was hard, but it was good.  There’s no doubt that it takes time and patience to get back into running shape, but there’s only one way to do it: get out there and run.  I can’t wait to do it again.