Posts filed under 'Marathon Momma'
My sister’s getting married in a few months, so in typical sibling fashion, I want to show up in a stunning dress that’s, oh, a size or two smaller than I am now, with abs of steel to show off in the hotel pool. That’s probably a bit too lofty a goal, but hey, I’ve been professionally trained on “being the best by any measure” and “bold and audacious goals”. These are definitely bold and audacious.
In pursuit of those goals, I grabbed a copy of the South Beach Diet and spent two weeks in the first Phase of the diet. No bread, cereal, rice, etc. No fruits. Eat reasonable portions, and multiple snacks. Outcome listed in the book: up to 8-12 pounds in that first two weeks. Outcome of mine: 1-2 pounds. Not very inspiring. One of my snack breaks, I ate pistachios (up to 30 is a snack serving) and roasted pumpkin seeds. Closest to eating like a bird I’ve ever done, and end result was 1-2 pounds??!
Beyond South Beach, I’ve also started taking a class at the gym called Group Power twice a week. It’s an hour of continual weight training to your basic cardio-pumping music. The class is probably broken up into 6 or so segments, with maybe a minute or so break between them. You take a bar and then add weight, depending on the basic body area you’re working on (biceps, triceps, back/shoulders, legs, abs, warmup, cooldown). I always know that I’ve done the class afterwards, and the first time or two I did it, I knew it for up to 3 days afterwards. I’m also adding some running back into my routine, with hopes of doing the Baltimore half-marathon in October, and then a trail marathon in November.
Becky’s wedding is in September: I’m hoping a few months of watching my diet (more gently than formally), lifting weights in class, and running regularly will give me some noticeable results. Nothing like a little motivation to kick me up a gear.
June 15th, 2008
I’ve been scheming for a while now about a tattoo to mark the completion of the marathon. I’ve seen folks who put wings on their ankles and folks who put wings on their feet. Also, 26.2 with flames. Somehow, those just seemed a bit cliche to me, not to mention indicating a speedier pace than I manage.
Chic-Fil-A gave our girls the Tortoise and the Hare as a storybook for a kids’ meal. Although I’m certain that they didn’t intend for its artwork to end up on anyone’s skin, at least one of the drawings in there gave me an idea for a great tattoo. I’m one of those slow and steady runners, rather than the speedy hare, so my tattoo became the tortoise. When I went to talk with the tattoo artist (thanks, Drew, for the recommendation!), I said I didn’t want anything too goofy, and I really didn’t want anything Teenage Mutant Ninja-like.
So, last week I got a turtle tattoo: 
. My last tattoo had been when I was 20, so either my memory was a bit fuzzy about how painful these things are, or leg tattoos hurt more, or things just hurt more when you’re some 10+ years older. Youch! But now my turtle and I will be loping along as I train for a half-marathon in June. Maybe when I’m fast (hah!), I’ll get Speedy Gonzales on the other leg.
April 3rd, 2008
Sunday was the 32nd running of the Marine Corps Marathon, also known as my first running of any marathon, after many years of interrupted training attempts.
As an indicator of how the race went, I have two times to report. My
chip time was 5:44:32. My chip time net time spent in port-a-pot
lines was 5:29:36. I made the newbie mistake of drinking the PowerAde
I hadn’t trained with, and paid for it dearly, in terms of discomfort
and time spent in port-a-pot lines. Girl or no, there are just some
things you CAN’T do in the woods off of Spout Run Parkway.
For one prolonged stretch of the course, I got to debate whether the intense cramping in my legs was (1) an indicator of something more unhealthy than an attempt to run 26.2 miles, (2) something that I could manage to muscle my way through, or (3) going to slow me down so much that I’d get picked up off the course and told to ride the bus of non-completers. I’d had rather turned myself in medically than get picked up by the bus. Eventually (and I mean miles later) the combination of walking and shuffling worked the cramp out, or my legs just decided that my brain was too stubborn and decided to stop yelling. From that point on, it was just a matter of making it through the miles.
On the more positive side of things, I completed my first marathon,
and managed to run up that last hill (thank you, baby bear, momma
bear, and papa bear, you hellacious hills on our training course!) to make sure I came in under the (adjusted) time of 5:30. I learned a few things that I’ll apply the next go around, and I’m mentally rarin’ to start running again in preparation for the
half in March. I made it up the stairs to class tonight, gingerly, and am thinking about what tattoo might best commemorate my first 26.2. Thanks to all the Striders who encouraged me on the long runs those early Saturday mornings. I’m certain I’d never have made it had not I had the structure of the program bringing me along.
October 29th, 2007
04:42:43: nice round numbers that correspond to what a race pace calculator thinks I’d complete a marathon in, assuming I continued on the 10:47 pace I ran this morning for the 16 mile run. That 10:47 pace, though, includes various stints of walks up nasty hills on the Strider’s training course. I’m a lousy hill runner. Today was better than many: I did at least make it up some PART of the hills at the end before walking, but I still haven’t managed to break those hills before they break me. And it’s not as if I somehow have the gusto to speedwalk those hills: when I’m slowed to a walk, it’s more in the 16 or 17 minute per mile pace.
All of that to say, I’m getting more and more excited about the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October. If I can run what would be a 4:42:43 on THEIR course, my expectation is that I’ll do better on the Marine Corps course. And even if I don’t, I’ve still got 18 minutes leeway to make my goal of running a sub 5 hour marathon for my first time out.
I got my latest issue of ‘Runners World’ today. In the articles there, they describe folks whose first marathon experience was in the 3 1/2 hour range. Hah! I’ll likely never be there… But sub-5 looks promising, and I’m already dreaming of what marathon I should enter in the spring. It’s very empowering to think that by 10am, you could’ve already run 20 miles. And to compare your commutes to the grocery store or to work to the lenght of the LSD (long slow distance) run for the week. Just as a cross-comparison to today’s training run, my commute to work is something like 16 miles.
September 29th, 2007
Hitting the iTunes store with a gift card I bought from Best Buy. Downloaded a few songs, mostly of the ‘keep me running’ variety for the long marathon training sessions. (Hey, Saturday’s run is 20 miles: expecting to go through a few songs there.) In the ‘Just for You’ section, iTunes now recommends ‘Greatest Hits’, by Pat Benatar. Ouch.
September 20th, 2007
The marathon training is progressing. Today’s 18 mile run was doable, though it has left me a bit sore. It’s the first run that I’ve gotten through, though, where I looked at my GPS watch after the run and was bummed that we didn’t go quite far enough. Back-story: usually when the Striders say we’re doing N, we’re really doing N + at least 1/2 a mile. The first day we ran, we ran a ten mile run. On the way back up the hills that lead back to the starting point, I watched the mileage markers put on the road very carefully: 2 miles. 1 mile. 0 miles?!!! (Note that I was not yet back to the starting point.) Turns out that 0 mile marker is about a 1/2 mile into the run. So when we run 10 miles, we really run 10 plus the .5 on the way out, plus the .5 on the way back.
In today’s run, we hit some hard hills. I hate hills. In fact, I’ve often decided to walk a good part of a hill up, on the theory that the Marine Corp is flat (mostly) and I still have to make it those last miles back to the start, so ’tis wiser to walk. But even walking up steep or long hills takes it out of you. At the top of a particularly steep hill, my watch marked me at 13 and change. The next mile marker I hit listed us as 6 miles out, putting the total distance at at least 19.5 (remember that extra .5 to get to 0). I wasn’t liking life right about then. I was on roads that were new to me, running my longest run ever, and it had suddenly gotten longer. As we got farther along the course, though, it became clear that that 6 mile marker was wrong. The first indicator was that, after running a mile, the mile marker went to 7, instead of 5. The second was when we looped back around on the course to familiar terrain, and got there much more quickly than should have happened given a 6 mile marker.
When I finally got back to my car and pressed “Stop” on the Garmin, my watch read 17.67 miles. First time I’ve been bummed that we didn’t go farther. Jason asked why I didn’t just go out and run till I hit 18 on the watch. In my 17.67(!) mile tired leg and brain state, it frankly never even occurred to me.
So, stats for the day: 3 hours 14 minutes 31 seconds to run 17.67 miles, with an average pace of 11.01/m. That’s slower than my norm, but includes walking up those lousy hills. My watch gave me some other interesting stats: since I’ve had my watch, I’ve logged 125.9 miles, some 25+ hours, and 15285 calories. I’ve done other running without the watch on the gym or home treadmill, so count all those numbers as the low end. Think I’ll have to treat myself somehow when I hit 250 miles. That should happen easily sometime in early October.
September 1st, 2007
So, I think I’ve mentioned I started a new job a few weeks ago. Thought I’d mention an interesting culture shift I’ve seen… I’ve mentioned that I’m running at lunch now. Most of my office does some sort of exercise at lunchtime. For most of them, bicycling is the sweat-dripper of choice. These guys go out for 16 mile rides, and then come back and sling code with the best of ‘em.
At my previous gig, lunchtime meant walking to a great restaurant in Bethesda and having interesting conversations. Here, it means dripping with sweat and comparing stories as to great hills conquered or sports jelly beans (I want to get me some of those!). Gotta admit, this way is cheaper, and might even lose me a few pounds in the meantime.
June 12th, 2007
So, a few weeks ago I mentioned needing to run between 7 and 8.5 miles to hit my next milestone on the marathon plan. I’m happy to say I ran 8 miles that day along the local trail. That meant Saturday was a nine miler. I got up in time to go out and beat the heat, but then, so did my son, and since my hubby’s never been one to go to bed earlier than way later than he should, didn’t seem quite kind to get him up so I could go run. Cameron and I went for a walk instead. Later in the day, though, when it was way too hot to be out pounding the trail, I did my 9 on the treadmill at the gym. Boring, but effective.
My marathon strategy is to recognize that I’m neither a fast runner, nor a great endurance runner. I can, however, run for stints of time over and over again, so Galloway’s method of run/walk works by me. At the moment, I’m a 6 minute run, 1 minute walk person, which puts me in at around 11 minute miles. (I did mention I’m not fast.) Since I just want to finish, preferably in under 5 hours, that puts me in good shape. This upcoming Saturday is my first training run with the local running club. I missed the cutoff date to get my entry bib into the Marine Corp marathon, but the local runners’ clubs have first-time marathoner entries. Gotta suck up the 6:30 am start time, and the ten mile + training runs, though.
In the meantime, I’m running loops at work at lunchtime, making good use of that afore-mentioned shower in the ladies’ room. The loop is 2 miles, with a nearly .5 mile trek to get there (with an almost .5 mile trek to get back). By the end of the summer, I want to run the loop twice, getting me a 5 mile trek. Short-term, I just want to run the loop itself without stopping. (Closer today, but still walked on the uphill side.)
I like goals. Running gives me goals, and accomplishments. Given how slow/out of shape I am, I can pretty reasonably continue to set incremental goals, and with some work achieve them. The upside to the side-effects of 3 pregnancies, too much beer, and too little exercise.
June 11th, 2007
7-8.5 miles tomorrow… yikes. I was driving back from Krispy Kreme tonight with the girls (today was National Doughnut Day, according to our favorite Krispy Kreme guy, Mr. Jeff), and was watching our van tell me how many more miles it could eke out on the last bit of its gas tank. 10 miles. Which looked to be longer than the distance from Krispy Kreme to get back home, in terms of how the Sienna’s mileage meter was counting. (Note that I stopped for gas before I got home, as I didn’t want to rely too heavily on that meter.) Still a darn long distance, though one that I need to be able to run/walk by the 16th to go on a training run with the Striders and get my marathon entrance. To make it to 10 by then, I’m supposed to run 7-8.5 tomorrow. I did 6 last weekend: very slowly, iterating on running N minutes, walking 1 minute. Starting to fathom just how much long a 5 hour marathon is…..
June 1st, 2007
Spoken by our 4 year old today - “Daddy can’t earn money, that’s what Mommies do.”
I’m so proud… she’s completely bucking social conventions, and doesn’t even know it.
May 23rd, 2006
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