Sunday, December 20, 2009

Birthday Run

Yesterday I celebrated my 32nd birthday.  I had to work this weekend, so I decided Friday would be the day for my birthday celebration run.  I had been looking forward to a nice, easy run all week.  Unfortunately my cold had other plans.  Regardless, I slept in until about 7:45am and headed out for an 8 mile run.  Since I wasn't feeling fantastic, I thought I'd run the same route as my last 8 mile autopilot run.  I was hoping to have the same experience, but it didn't quite happen.  I noticed every single little incline in my legs and my lungs were huffing and puffing to keep up!  I'm ashamed to admit that I actually had to stop and walk a few minutes towards the end.  I just didn't have it in me.  Luckily hubby had taken the day off and was decidedly in charge of the kids for the day.  I came home, showered and crawled into bed....and remained there until it was time to get ready for my family birthday party at 4:45pm!  Hubby and the kids even brought me my lunch in bed.  It was fantastic and I felt 100% better by the end of the day.

As for my birthday gifts, hubby didn't disappoint!  I had requested some running items and that's exactly what I got.  Last winter I bought a good jacket and some tops to run in.  This year I requested some nice, warm pants and a vest for the spring/fall.  I had to do some exchanging, but I ended up with:

This vest from LOLE
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These Saucony ViperLite XPT pants
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This Saucony neck warmer....for those chiiiiiilly days in Ohio
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More of my favorite socks (for summer)....Smartwool PhD Run Ultra Light Micro

and

New Pearl Izumi gloves, to replace mine that had ripped.

I love new running gear....gives me that extra motivation to get out of bed in the morning.  I have no excuse now, not to get out there and get my runs in!   Hopefully this week I can get over my cold and get back to enjoyable running!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Under the Weather and Upcoming Plans!

Last week was trudging along nicely (well, with the exception of hubby being gone and having to travel to Michigan during a blizzard warning) when Thursday night I started to get that achy, fever coming-on sensation.  Sure enough Friday morning my alarm goes off at 5:00 am (had planned to do 2 levels of Jillian's 30 Day Shred before work) and I'm weak, shivering and hurt....everywhere.  The worst pain was in my head/neck area.  I had slept horribly the night before and could barely keep my eyes open.  I decided working out wasn't going to happen, so I pushed snooze for another hour.  This is major for me....I haven't skipped a workout in over a year.  I knew I was really sick when I didn't even have guilt over it!  So the alarm goes off again at 6:00 am and I decide to get up and shower.  Usually getting going helps me to feel better.  I felt like a zombie stumbling around my room, bathroom and shower, but I get dressed for work, took some medicine and debated on whether or not  I should go in to work.  The babysitter (my MIL) was already on her way to our house and it was my day at work to get the workload planned for all the dietitians.  I figured I might as well go in and put in an hour at work and see how I felt.  I couldn't take my temperature at home (all the thermometers were in the kids' rooms, who were still sleeping when I left) so I walked on to one of the nursing units and had a nurse take my temperature.  100.4 degrees.  Not too high, but high enough to be sent home.  So home I went....with dread.  You see, once you become a mother....it doesn't matter if you're sick.  The show must go on!!  My MIL was just leaving to take Braden to preschool when I got home.  She was nice enough to also agree to pick him up and bring him home.  It was bitterly cold that day and she didn't want Caroline out in the weather (she's been sick for 2 weeks now).  And this is where I become a heartless daughter in law.  I should have just been happy to not have to drag 2 kids to/from preschool but instead...I found myself angry at my MIL.  Couldn't she just take both of them to her house for the day?  Let me rest and get better?  I'm NEVER sick. The fact that I actually told her I was sick and not feeling well is pretty significant.  I don't complain.  I didn't want to be waited on hand and foot, I just wanted a reprieve from my job as "Mommy".  If only for 2 hours!  Luckily taking care of one child is much easier than two, so Caroline let me catch a few minutes of sleep here and there as I went from couch, to chair, to couch, etc!  I couldn't keep my eyes open.  2 hours later MIL and Braden come home.  She fixes lunch and does a little craft project with them and then she leaves.  This is the part that really gets me....As she's leaving, she laughs and says "hopefully you can make it 2 more hours until nap time!" Yeah, thanks.  What's worse, is that she knew hubby wasn't home and wouldn't be home until later that night.  When you feel like death warmed over and you have 9+ hours to spend with your children....alone.....that seems like an eternity. Note to self:  when my daughter or daughter in law is sick with no husband in town and 2 young children to care for, make every possible effort to help her out!

So I did indeed make it to nap time, where both kids took a gloriously long 3 hour nap.  THANK YOU SWEET BABY JESUS!  Now, I  had registered to do the Jingle Bell Run 5K for the local Arthritis foundation on Saturday.  I could pick up my packet that night or do it the day of the race.  Being new to running, I wasn't quite sure what would happen if I never showed up to pick up my packet or the race, but I had spent $30 to register and I was surely going to at least get my t-shirt!  I still wasn't feeling great, but with medicine and ibuprofen every 4 hours, it was manageable!  I had about 4 hours at this point until hubby was going to be home.  I couldn't entertain them at home any longer, so out we went to pick up my packet/t-shirt.  Well, I felt like a jackass telling them I just wanted my t-shirt, so I picked up the timing chip/bib number as well.  I earned major Mom points by taking them to McDonalds on the way home.  Next thing I knew, hubby was walking in the door and my role as family CEO was officially over (for a few hours, at least).

Saturday morning comes around, it's 18 degrees outside and I'm still running a low-grade fever (99.6 degrees) and can barely swallow, my throat hurts so bad.  I take 600 mg of ibuprofen, more cold medicine and lay in bed debating on what to do.  About 30 minutes later, I'm feeling marginally better and decide I might as well go run the darn 5K.  I had friends expecting me there, and I didn't want to disappoint them!  Afterall, I knew I would feel real guilty about skipping another workout AND wasting $30.  So we ran the 5K.  I don't even know my official finishing time.  I didn't even care.  I just downloaded my Garmin and it said 30:something.  Not a PR by any stretch, but at least I wasn't lying in bed.  We just ran at an easy, conversational pace and enjoyed the festive holiday run.  I felt great afterwards and had no regrets.  I met up with my kids and hubby at a local donut shop, and called it a day.

My run this morning wasn't quite as good.  The cold has now descended into my lungs, making breathing (especially while running) that much harder.  I got in 4 miles (usually do 5-6) at a snail's pace and called it good!  I'm hoping to be back on track by Thursday, as my mileage last week was pretty pathetic.  This Saturday is my 32nd birthday and while I have to work this weekend, I'm hoping to get in a nice longish run before work.  Who would have thought a year ago, that I'd actually prefer to get up and go running on my birthday?  Oh yeah and guess what..... I officially have another race on my calendar.  My friends and I are going to run the Indianapolis 500 Festival mini-marathon on May 8th.  My bib number is something like 34446....I just saw on the webpage that it SOLD OUT yesterday at 35,000 registrants.  Talk about cutting it close!  Apparently it's the largest half marathon in the nation and has sold out for 9 years in a row now.  I love big races and am very excited about this.  The funny thing is that during registration if you selected an estimated finishing time before 2:30, you could provide documentation to get a seeded/ preferred start.   Now my best time is 2:18, but I could care less where I start!  My friends and I just want to start/run together, so we'll risk our luck and just start with the masses.  Could be chaos....but then it seems like every race I run is! 
Still to be decided is the April 24th half marathon at the Kentucky Derby Festival.  These would be 2 weeks apart, but completely doable and maybe a bit challenging.  Training will likely start the first week of January and I'm ready for it!  It just feels so good to have something on the training horizon. What has my life become?

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Autopilot

I got up bright and early this morning to do my long-ish run for the week.  Hubby is heading out of town tomorrow and I'm doing a 5K race on Saturday (my usual long day).  If I wanted to get a long run in, it had to be today!  The alarm went off at 5:15.  Despite going to bed early last night, I didn't feel very rested.  That seems to happen to me a lot before a long run, or really whenever I know I'll be running a new route.  Weird?  So I headed out on a familiar route, one that I ran many times during my marathon training.  The dingo knows it by heart. And thank goodness he does, because I was on complete autopilot.  I thought it was going to be colder than it was, so I was bundled up and ready!  Each mile ticked by more smoothly than the last.  I didn't look at my watch once or even stop it for our dingo stops (coincedentally, poor Cooper has thrown up more on this route than any other one....I wonder what the deal is?) and traffic lights.  I was just in the zone and before I knew it, 8 miles had whisked by and I was on the homestretch.  It's days like this that I love running!  No aches, no pains, no general annoyances.  No worrying about my pace or if I'm working hard enough.  Just running. 

You see, I have some major guilt about my running.  I never feel like I'm running hard enough or long enough.  Reading through this month's Runner's World was completely deflating.  Just when I think I'm okay with my workout routine, I see that really..... it's not good enough.  I'm a slacker because I only run 3 days a week.  I'm a slacker because I never do speed work.  I'm a slacker because I have no desire to do trail runs or a speedy 5K.  I feel like I'm an imposter of a runner and I desperately need to make peace with myself.  People with more responsibility and less time do more than what I do.  When it comess down to it, I settle for mediocre....and maybe that's okay, but the voices in my head tell me to do more, work harder.  This morning I was able to shut them off and it was GREAT!  I'm not really sure what all this means....I just know I'm really conflicted.  Perhaps if the scale were moving in the right direction I'd be less conflicted, but until then... the voices will continue.