5/30/2011

Training schedule says I will do: OFF

 

I actually did:    Nothing.  Literally nothing.  I didn't even get out of my pajamas all day.  This was mostly due to the fact that I have a sick little boy who just wanted to snuggle, but a day spent in your pajamas is still a good thing.

5/29/2011

Training schedule says I will do: 13 miles

I actually did:    12.01 miles*

* 14.26 miles using Aubree's Bonus Mileage System, getting 1/2 mile for the wind, 1/4 mile for the rain, 1 mile for my socks, pants, and 2 shirts getting soaked through, and 1/2 mile for traveling >10 miles

 

Days to go until the marathon: 119

Miles to go until 1000: 800.46


This run was pretty miserable.  The weather started out crappy, and got crappier as I ran.  Yuck.  The weather made it pretty mentally challenging, and made me start to question what it is I'm doing.  I am someone who doesn't doubt myself a whole lot.  While I don't really consider myself to be great at anything, I do tend to be successful when I set out to do something.  Even in the great unknown of medicine, sometimes I second guess decisions I have made, but for the most part I feel comfortable in what I do.  So I guess this has led to some level of confidence that when I say I want to do something, I will be able to do it.  Because of this, I have never really questioned that I'd be able to run a marathon.  Until today.  This run was just so awful, I started thinking maybe I couldn't run a whole marathon, and maybe I shouldn't even try.  

But I am always one to look for the silver lining, and at the end of this terrible, terrible run, I think I found it.  As awful as I felt today, I kept at it.  Yes, I cut the run short by a mile (which I did knowing it would be >13 miles once the bonus miles got added), and yes, I walked for probably a total of a mile of this run.  But never once did I think, "I'm going to call my husband to come pick me up."  When the going got tough, I walked for a bit.  Which I think is fine.  Honestly, I'll be fine if I have to walk for part of the marathon.

And even when I was thinking I couldn't run a marathon, I wasn't thinking I'd give up on running.  Instead, I thought I'd just run the half marathon that's being held on the same day.

So I'm going to take those things as signs I really shouldn't give up trying to run a marathon.  And I'm going to tell myself that I'm sure everyone has bad days now and again.  And I'm going to remember how much fun running is when the weather is not awful.  And I'm going to go back out for a long run next weekend.

5/26/2011

Training schedule says I will do: OFF

I actually did:    32:03 minutes/ 2.95 miles* (to make up for yesterday's missed run)

*  3.075 miles using Aubree's Bonus Mileage System, getting 1/8 mile for darkness

 

Days to go until the marathon: 122

Miles to go until 1000: 812.47

I just realized I haven't been posting the Red Hot Chili Peppers stat.  They have not played in quite some time, so I guess I have definitively proven that they don't ALWAYS play when I run.

This morning's run brought with it a first: I saw a young woman clearly doing a walk of shame.  My run takes me near a college campus, and she was walking towards campus, at around 5:30 am, in a cute little going-out outfit, walking barefoot and carrying her high heels in her hand.  Ah, to be young again!  These days, for me, walk of shame has a new meaning: it means I have left the house to go out in public in clothes that are covered in some combination of spit up, baby poop, and dried Yo Baby yogurt that got flung at me from the high chair.  Oh wait, that happens once a week at least.

I thought a lot this morning about something about which I've been considering for some time: taking a hiatus from Facebook.  I am growing more and more disillusioned with it and the fake friendships it promotes.  I have written about this before, I think.  Recently a friend of mine posted, on Facebook, similar feelings and since then I have been thinking about a hiatus even more.  I think I'm afraid to leave, though, for a couple of reasons.  For all the fake friends I have on there, I also keep in touch with some of my very good friends that way, and it certainly is easy to have them all in one place.  Also, I think the insecure junior high girl that lives inside me is afraid I'll miss out on all the fun if I leave Facebook.  As it is, I really only interact with the people with whom I want to interact, so I don't know what harm it does if many (most?) of my "friends" are people I barely know.  So, I'll probably stay.  We'll see.  I'll update my status if I change my mind! :)

5/25/2011

Training schedule says I will do: 30 minute run

 

I actually did:   Got up to run, only to discover that my running shoes were still wet from yesterday.  So I went back to bed.

5/24/2011

Training schedule says I will do: 45 minute run

 

I actually did:   43:51 minutes/3.94 miles*

* 5.19 miles using Aubree's Bonus Mileage System, getting 1/4 mile for running in the rain and 1 mile for my shirt, pants, sports bra, and socks getting soaked through.  It was WET on this run!
 

Days to go until the marathon: 124

Miles to go until 1000: 815.42

 

The first song that played today was "Name" by the Goo Goo Dolls.  I always love the line in that song that says "reruns all become our history."  As I've mentioned before, I used to be quite the tv watcher, and although I have watched less and less over the last few years, I do still think that is kind of true.  I started thinking about that today, which got to me thinking about the show Friends.  I think that if I was ever asked what my all time favorite tv show was, I'd have to say Friends.  That is not to say I think Friends is the best show ever (that would be Sports Night, followed closely by the Aaron Sorkin years of the West Wing and Friday Night Lights), or the show to which I looked forward the most (that would be 90210 in the late 90s and Veronica Mars in the mid-2000s with honorable mention going to Gilmore Girls), or even the show I thought was the funniest (that might be Modern Family).  And I do think that by the end of it's run, the characters on Friends were just caricatures of who they had been in the first season.  But Friends started my senior year of high school and ended my second year of medical school.  I did a lot of growing up in those intervening years, and I feel like Friends was always there with me.  To this day, I can watch a rerun in syndication and still laugh out loud.  And often I can remember where I was when I first watched the episode.  I remember watching in the basement of my sorority house surrounded by friends, or watching with my family when I was in high school or home for the summer, or watching with my now husband when we were early in our relationship.  And since tv now has a different place in my life than it once did, it might be fair to say no other show will ever have the impact of Friends.  So in that sense, the reruns really are my history.  So wise, Goo Goo Dolls. 

5/22/2011

Training schedule says I will do: 12 miles

 

I actually did:   5.61 miles*

* 8.36 miles using Aubree's Bonus Mileage System, getting 1/4 mile for running in the rain, 1 mile for running with a cold, 1 mile for running uphill for a total of 2 miles, 1/4 mile for my socks getting soaked (from running on wet grass) and 1/4 mile for sweating through 1 layer of clothing.  I think that's the most bonus miles I've ever accumulated.  I also just noticed that I'm supposed to get 1/2 extra mile for every distance above 10 miles, which I haven't been giving myself. 
 

Days to go until the marathon: 126

Miles to go until 1000: 819.36

 

I told myself when I went out for this run that I would just go as far as I felt I could, since I'm still not 100% from my cold (this cold actually made me miss a day of work this week, which if you know me, you know I don't call in sick lightly).  I started to feel lightheaded at around mile 2, so I decided to start heading home, although took somewhat of a circuitous route so that I'd have at least a little more distance.  I started to feel better around mile 4, but decided to keep heading home so I didn't make myself more sick.

I spent a lot of this run thinking about that guy who predicted the rapture would happen yesterday.  I wonder how he is feeling today.  I would imagine he is embarrassed (although I read that he has once before incorrectly predicted the rapture, so maybe this is nothing new), but mostly I was wondering if the fact that nothing happened yesterday has shaken his faith.  Putting aside my thoughts on religion and whether I think the Bible is meant to be taken literally (I won't get into those here, at least not today), I have definitely seen first hand the comfort religion can provide to people.  So I hope that, if his faith provides him comfort, he still has it.  And if this makes him reevaluate his faith, well, I hope he finds peace wherever he lands from his reevaluation.  

5/18/2011

Training schedule says I will do: 14 x 30-30

 

 
I actually did:   Have my stupid cold return!

 

When I got up at 3 to nurse my son this morning, I couldn't breathe out of my nose and couldn't stop coughing.  So, I decided to skip my run this morning.  I am hoping I'll feel well enough to make it up tomorrow . . .