Wear It on Your Heart

I’ve been thinking about getting a tattoo lately.  Then I remember that I’m not really a tattoo kind of girl—not yet, anyway.  The tattoo I think about getting is something like “13.1” to celebrate my love for the half-marathon distance, the race that rekindled my love for running.  At this time in my life, I can’t imagine not training for a half each year.  Going through that training cycle and running those miles with strength and confidence is being carved into my sense of self, and it only makes sense that I might write it on my skin as well.

But here’s the truth, and please don’t hate me: I’m not a fan of the tattoo aesthetic.  I’m probably in the minority here, and seriously, to each her own decisions about her body, but I’m just not into ink on the skin.  Instead, I’m thinking about having a pendant made with this design:

I know this sounds like a grammar mistake, but you get it, right?  13.1 miles for the half-marathon distance, and Feels Like Flying for this blog, which has helped me realize my running dreams.  The heart is self-explanatory.

I think I will look into commissioning this design from someone, either a jewelry store at the mall or an artisan with an on-line shop.  If you have any recommendations, send them my way!

Happy day, speedsters!

SPI Belts: Your Thoughts?

Hi, everyone.  Pardon this extra post today, but I wanted to ask all of you, my three loyal readers, your thoughts on the SPI belt (Small Personal Item belt).  Do you have one?  Do you use it?  Do you like it?  Most importantly, does it stay in place when you run?

{Image from here}

I’m thinking about buying two of them, one for me and one for my sister.  Any reviews you care to share would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you and good night!

Full Speed Ahead…or Maybe Not

A few quick notes on my star chart above: here you can see the evidence that I struggle to run three days a week.  Doh!  And the week of June 24 is mostly goose eggs because I was on vacation and the exercise I did get was walking, which is not a category on my chart.  

Week of July 1, 2012:

Thursday: Short run after work (25 minutes easy)

Friday: Yoga (Morning Flow #1—whoa, this was a good session)

Saturday: Biking for groceries

Week of July 8, 2012:

Sunday: Bike commute + grocery shopping (again!  I know…)

I’ve been back from my epic ten-day vacation for a week now, and I think that maybe, just maybe, I’m finally back in the game.  Last week, I had a really hard time putting myself back to work—between the exhaustion of traveling for ten hours, the luxury of not thinking about work for ten days, and the 4th of July holiday (which I chose to spend at home, thinking I wanted the time to relax and refocus), last week felt hard but lacking in productivity.  I know why it feels like I didn’t get anything done—it’s because science work is largely a result of momentum.  You put in the effort to get something going, the project starts picking up speed, and then results start rolling into Excel.  Because of my break, my current experiments are at Stage 1: put in the effort to get something going.

I’m trying to be patient with myself, but I also know I’ve got to find my focus.  With that in mind, I went into the lab today, a Sunday, to test some animals for behavior and collect flies for a Wednesday assay.  I didn’t get a lot of animals tested, nor did I collect a lot for behavior later this week, but I got a few in each category.  More importantly, I feel ready to hit the ground running tomorrow morning, and that is a good feeling.

I did not run this weekend for two reasons.  1)  My back was quite stiff and sore on Saturday morning, probably from Friday night’s yoga.  2)  I biked to the lab on Sunday and ran some errands, so I’m going to save this week’s miles for later this week.  Which brings me to my next topic: weekly mileage.  My plan is to follow the 10% rule about not increasing your running more than 10% each week.  Last week I ran 65 minutes, so this week I’m aiming to run 72 minutes.  Those minutes will be broken down into a 40-minute “long” run and either a 32-minute run or two shorter runs.  My friend Tom (Trainer Tom, he of the free training advice a few weeks ago) is talking about going to the track for some speedwork, so maybe I’ll do that with him.  But I want to be really careful not to overtrain right now—I’m feeling good about this summer’s running, but I’m afraid I may be overestimating my own fitness.  I’m going to be cautious about my running minutes and do plenty of cross-training in the form of biking and yoga.

Have a great week, everyone!

I Heart Summer Running in Texas: Link Love

This summer, I am determined to conquer my fear of summer running in Texas.  The heat and humidity are formidable around these parts, but the benefits of running outside loom large.  I want to enter the fall/winter running season with strong legs and a great base to support me during my next half-marathon training cycle.  With those thoughts in mind, I’ve rounded up a few fun posts to inspire me and any of you to not let the heat get the best of you.

* I like these two posts from Amanda of ChemE Runner: Summer Running in Austin: Part 1 and  Summer Running in Austin: Part 2.  It’s good to be reminded that while summer running is tough, it does have its rewards.  (Also, check out this super-cute post about Amanda’s dual-race weekend, during which she ran a 5K with her boyfriend and their two dogs!  She is adorable…and a pretty hardcore runner.  I love it.)

* The Idiot’s Guide to Summer Running in Texas is self-explanatory.

* Our own Chrissy wrote a good post reminding us to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate and not to freak out about running slowly: Summer Fun Running.

Got any links to add to this list?  Feel free to leave a comment!  And happy running, as always.

New Running Fun: Podcasts!

Hello again!  Do you guys listen to any running podcasts?  I found one a few weeks ago, and now I’m hooked: The Extra Mile Podcast.  The gist of the show is that listeners call in to talk about their training, racing, injuries, running gear, and all things related to running.  In that sense, it’s really a listener-created show, which is groovy.  The host, Kevin, offers an update on his own life and training in the introduction (usually done during his lunch-break run, from what I can tell).  At the end, he summarizes any questions or concerns brought up during the show, such as advice about injuries and questions about gear.

It took me some time to get used to listening to Kevin and some listeners recording their podcast contribution while running—all that heavy breathing reminds me of sex, because I am a pervert.  But I’ve sort of gotten over that, and in any case, it’s so much fun to listen to everyone’s stories.  I’m most inspired by the extremes: the hardcore runners with very serious training plans (such as Stuart in southern California) and the beginners who are overjoyed to learn that they, too, can run and love it.  The newbies make me feel so proud to be a runner, to be a member of a sport that opens its arms to welcome anyone who wants to lace up their sneakers and MOVE.  And running is such a rewarding sport for beginners because they often see results quickly: gains in endurance and speed, gains in muscle mass, loss of weight.  All of that from such a simple endeavor—it’s humbling.

Do you have a favorite podcast about running?  Do share!  I love finding new podcasts.

Running is…Independence

Week of July 1, 2012:

Tuesday: Evening bike ride for groceries

Wednesday: Morning run!

Happy Independence Day to all my American friends!  Weirdly enough, I took today off from being in the lab, mostly because I needed a breather at home after all the travel and jumping back into work on Monday.  Today I’m cooking, blogging, doing laundry, cleaning (maybe…), and hopefully doing some academic reading.  But the most exciting thing I did today was run.

I’m trying to keep up my new habit of earlier morning runs on days when I’m not at work.  Today I was up around 7 AM and out the door by 8.  I clocked 40 minutes of running, and my goal was to run easy but upbeat.  In other words, I was running at a very comfortable pace, but I didn’t want to slip into a slog, which would have been all too easy considering the heat and humidity.  (Let’s just say both are bad today, which is to say that it’s a typical July day in Texas.)

I love that I got a good run into my morning on Independence Day.  I know I wax poetic a lot about running even as I struggle to fit three runs into my week—I’m a running paradox, I know.  But truly, running has set me free over the past year or so.  It’s given me some freedom from all the other anxieties about my life, the stress and the heartbreak and the frustration of not knowing and not being in control of things.  To know that if I just put in the miles, I will be rewarded is a powerful feeling.  In the spirit of optimism and independence, here are my summer running goals for the rest of the summer.

1)  Maintain the base.  For me, a base is being able to run 60-70 minutes comfortably.  I would like to be fit enough in September to be able to do this.

2)  Get a little faster. Just a little.  I love speedwork because I love the feeling of running faster.  To keep things exciting, I’m going to try to do a little speedwork each week, whether it’s some all-out sprinting at the end of a work-out (say, 20-60 seconds 2-3 times), a few pick-me-ups in a longer run, or even a timed mile or two.  There’s an approximately 1-mile loop at my favorite park, and I’m entertaining the idea of running it to see how fast I can do it and then to see if I can perhaps use that ~1-mile distance as a test of my speed later in the summer.  We’ll see.  Mostly this goal of speedwork is to remind me to have fun with my running.  Running faster is one of those things that really sets me free and gives me joy.

3)  Run 3 times a week.  As I said above, I struggle with this.  Between work, errands by bike, cooking, and having some fun with my friends, I often don’t complete that third day of running each week.  Lately, I’ve been finding that if I tell myself, “Hey, if you leave now, you’ll be done in half an hour!” it’s easier to get out the door.  (Wine helps too.)  My goal is to do two short runs during the week (probably no longer than 40 minutes each) and one longer run on the weekends (ranging from 40-70 minutes).  Fortunately, I don’t run frequently enough or hard enough to have been injured in recent years, so there is definitely an upside to my laziness.  I’m such an optimist!

What are your summer fitness goals, friends?

The Speed of the City

Week of June 17, 2012:

Thursday: Off (traveling!)

Friday: Easy pre-race shake-out run (~20 minutes)

Saturday: Solstice Run 10K!

Week of June 25, 2012:

Sunday: Off (but with lots of slow walks, with and without kids)

Monday: Easy shake-out run (~20 minutes around the neighborhood)

Tuesday: Off (off chasing small children, that is!)

Wednesday: Two walks with kids + chaperoning the little ones at the park

Thursday: Travel + too much walking in Chicago

Friday: Speed-walking in Chicago with Ammie and later with Adam

Saturday: More speed-walking!

Week of July 1, 2012:

Sunday: Travel (off)

Monday: Yoga (Gentle Hatha)

Whew!  I apologize for the overwhelming list of days and activities in this post.  Suffice to say, I stayed active during my vacation, even though I took a week off of running.  Or perhaps more accurately, I should say that I spent more time running after small children and speed-walking with friends in Chicago.

I consider myself to be in good shape, but man, my friends showed me that hoofing it around a city ought to be considered a sport itself.  Their speed was overwhelming, and I worked hard to keep up with them.  I’ve grown used to the easy pace of Texas, where we walk slowly and live easily.  Chicago, by comparison, is exciting, fast, and challenging.  I’m sure that when I lived in Evanston, I was quite the speed-walker myself, but that was the old me.  The new me runs and bikes quickly but walks slowly.  I wonder if my slow-walking ways are more about a shift in my mental game, a way of cultivating patience.  As a graduate student, I had to hustle to keep up with everything—maybe I felt like I had to hurry.  Now, I feel more reluctant to let anyone rush me.  I want to move through life at my own pace, whether it’s running a race or taking a slow photo-walk around the neighborhood.  Even in my cooking, sometimes I whip up a quick snack or meal, and other times I want to tuck something in the oven to bake slowly, filling the apartment with its delicious scent.

I suppose what I’m saying is that the speed at which we move through life may be a metaphor for our current needs.  I’m happier with a slower pace these days, though I certainly have my moments when I’m hustling.  But if I’m hustling all the time, I feel like life is rushing by me as I rush through it.  And that’s just not how I want to live.