In case you somehow missed it, last week was Thanksgiving! Who else ate way too much? I'm going to assume all of you did so that I don't feel quite so bad about myself. I am happy to say I ran 7 miles Thanksgiving morning to help offset some of the calories. Interestingly, while running through town I could actually smell turkey a couple of times. Seriously. There are a couple of houses that had such enticing aromas coming from them that it was hard not to stop and ask for a bite to eat. Since I knew the people they probably wouldn't have been shocked, but I kept running. Mostly because if I did soemthing like that my husband would have a heart attack.
On Saturday I went to Pittsburg to run with someone that I met recently. She's a member of the running forum I'm on and lives not too far away. Her parents live in Pittsburg and since she was coming to visit for Thanksgiving I talked her into doing a long run with me. I've wanted to check out the trails at Wilderness Park for a long time and this seemed like the perfect time to do it. I think Libby was a little skeptical of the whole thing but she met me there anyway. First of all, brrr! It was cold starting out. I really like the trails there though. They are pretty easy compared to my local trails and I like that you can make loops and stop at your car if you need to. As it warmed up we stopped to shed layers, grab extra drinks, gels, etc. We also ventured out of the park a few times and ran on the roads. It wasn't a quick 14 miles but we got it done. I've never done a long run with someone else so I really enjoyed it. The miles go by much quicker when you have someone to chat with. We both neglected to get pics of the trail due to some weirdness at the end of the run so I unfortunately don't have anything to show for my running field trip.
It was so nice to run with someone else and discuss things like nutrition, walking durning ultras, hydration, etc. We talked about PT, massage, injuries, etc. No one that I know really cares how often I hydrate or eat a gel during a run. They definitely don't care what kind of gel I prefer and won't give me tips on what they like and works for them. They don't care that my strategy is to always walk the hills during really long trail runs. When you run with someone else though they do care, because they want to talk about the same things. It's very cool. Or there's a chance that she only listened because she's really nice and wanted to get a long run in and felt like I was holding her hostage. Libby is running FlatRock next year so I got to talk about that. Since it's one of my favorite subjects it was right up my ally.
We had quite an interesting experience. There is a lot more to the story of our run together, but I think that's a story that is best left for another day.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Piles of miles...
I haven't updated my blog lately but I can assure you it's not because I've slacked off on my running. In fact, it is just the opposite. The weather has been pretty much perfect and I've been running a lot. I actually ran two of my highest ever mileage weeks this month. Then I was struck by illness and didn't run as much last week. I still ran 20 miles, so at least I didn't completely quit running. It actually amuses me that I am considering 20 miles a bad week when there were times over the summer that 20 would have been great.
Why am I running a lot you ask? Well, I want to be training for something. Confusing? Yeah, I'm confused about it too. Conflicted might be a better word. See, there is a race I really want to do but it's likely out of my reach this year. My plan is to follow a training plan as well as I can and see what happens. I will wait until the last minute to register. If the race fills up before I'm able to register then I guess that's a sign that I shouldn't do it.
The rational part of my brain keeps telling me I'm crazy. It's been saying that since week 1 of Couch to 5K though. I stopped listening to it a looooong time ago! The crazy part of my brain keeps telling me I can and should do it. In fact, my inner crazy person is wearing a cheerleading uniform and waiving pom poms around. She's also skinny and cute and has perfect hair. Why can't I look more like her?
My husband and kids are fully against me doing this race. Well, that's not completely true as I haven't told them about it. (Don't worry, my husband doesn't read my blog. He won't read this! He's completely horrified that I even have a blog.) So while they may not be against me doing this race in particular, they are fully against me doing any distance further than a 50K. That race was very much a stretch for them. They can't comprehend why I would want to do it and they worry about me. Their feelings are legitimate and I try my best to pay attention to them. I can't have them worrying about me all the time and I can definitely understand why they would. It's not fair to them to have to worry. If they continue to be against me running a distance over 50K I won't do it.
The reason I'm not really saying what I'm sort of but not really training for is because whether or not I do it is still so up in the air. I dislike feeling like a failure and if I tell everyone and then don't do it I would feel like I failed. So right now I'm following a training plan that very well might lead to nothing except exhaustion and aches and pains.
Happy Running!
~Mel
Why am I running a lot you ask? Well, I want to be training for something. Confusing? Yeah, I'm confused about it too. Conflicted might be a better word. See, there is a race I really want to do but it's likely out of my reach this year. My plan is to follow a training plan as well as I can and see what happens. I will wait until the last minute to register. If the race fills up before I'm able to register then I guess that's a sign that I shouldn't do it.
The rational part of my brain keeps telling me I'm crazy. It's been saying that since week 1 of Couch to 5K though. I stopped listening to it a looooong time ago! The crazy part of my brain keeps telling me I can and should do it. In fact, my inner crazy person is wearing a cheerleading uniform and waiving pom poms around. She's also skinny and cute and has perfect hair. Why can't I look more like her?
My husband and kids are fully against me doing this race. Well, that's not completely true as I haven't told them about it. (Don't worry, my husband doesn't read my blog. He won't read this! He's completely horrified that I even have a blog.) So while they may not be against me doing this race in particular, they are fully against me doing any distance further than a 50K. That race was very much a stretch for them. They can't comprehend why I would want to do it and they worry about me. Their feelings are legitimate and I try my best to pay attention to them. I can't have them worrying about me all the time and I can definitely understand why they would. It's not fair to them to have to worry. If they continue to be against me running a distance over 50K I won't do it.
The reason I'm not really saying what I'm sort of but not really training for is because whether or not I do it is still so up in the air. I dislike feeling like a failure and if I tell everyone and then don't do it I would feel like I failed. So right now I'm following a training plan that very well might lead to nothing except exhaustion and aches and pains.
Happy Running!
~Mel
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