Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Answered, Unanswered, or Postponed?

I take it back. There were so many times when I was running in the summer heat and I prayed for a slight breeze, but now I take it all back. Running in the summer was actually fairly grueling by the time July rolled around. I distinctly remember a day when I actually contemplated drinking from someone's sprinkler...seriously. And for all I know, I may have actually done it too. When I tried to recreate that same run with my boyfriend later that week, I couldn't figure out where I had gone that led me out to the place I had ended! Although I am tired of winter, I can still remember those scorching runs and the prayers I said over and over in my head begging God for just a slight breeze.
When people say God works in mysterious ways, I guess it is right. Extremely mysterious. I am fairly certain that God answered all those prayers at once....today. I was running against the most ridiculous wind ever today! It was seriously nuts. I only went out on a 3 miler, but I felt so exhausted by the time I got home...and actually, I felt exhausted way before that. In fact, I felt exhausted in the first .10 of the first mile!
I live on a dead end, so I walk up to the end of the block to start my run. I immediately thought about turning around and going home with the first step on the street where my route begins. I just wanted to quit. In the end, I didn't quit. I went the whole distance, but it was a long and windy road.

I can't decide if I should stop trying to listen to music when I run. I know people who hate listening to music when they run, and I know people who hate running if they don't have music. I just really can't decide. I didn't listen to music when I trained for my first half marathon because I felt like it messed up my pacing. I have been trying it out both ways the past couple weeks, but today I got scared while I was running. I don't crank the music and make my ears bleed like it is apparently fashionable to these days, but it is still hard to hear if there is anything coming up behind you. Now I am a fairly skiddish in the first place, but not being able to hear amplified that today. As I was running, a leaf brushed passed me, and I jumped ten feet in the air. I think I was more frightened by the leaf than I was yesterday when the wiener dog that chases me brought out reinforcements...a mini Yorkie-Poo...he was vicious.

Tunes or no tunes? That is the question.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Head Race and Dog Days Are Over

They say the hardest race is the one run in your head. Whoever they are...they must know what they are talking about. As I have just taken up running again after my winter hiatus, I have found the head race to be particularly bothersome. When I started out on one of my runs earlier this week, I felt as if I was moving in slow motion. More than once I looked down to see if I had somehow stepped in wet cement when I wasn't paying attention or something. I just felt like my Nikes weighed a ton! I confided in my brother that night on the phone that I had been giving myself walk breaks on 3 mile runs. Yes...breaks, plural. He told me to "suck it up and run." He said, "Michelle, you ran a half marathon; you can run 3 miles!" When I set off on my scheduled 3 miler the next day, the head race was back with a vengeance. It appeared as if it would start raining anytime, so I told myself as was taking the first step that I miiiiiight only run one mile because I didn't want to be out in the rain. Then I realized I was already backing out, and I decided that I would continue on my route until the first drops fell, then I would turn back toward home. After I finished the first mile, I told myself that I would just finish no matter what. I did finish all 3 miles, and I didn't even walk once! My brother was right! (Don't tell him.) I managed to shave 5 minutes off my time in one day! I am still pretty slow right now, but 5 minutes in one day is quite a bit.


Now, the head race is not the only thing a runner has to overcome when hitting the pavement. Small to mid-sized dogs. Oh boy. I manage to get more dogs chasing after me than most people, I believe. I once ended up with a trail of 6, yes 6, small dogs yapping after me. True fact. My younger sister taught me the key to ending the dog days! She has been my guiding light in learning the ropes of becoming a runner. (I know it seems simple...put one foot in front of the other, but there is really so much more.) When we were running together one day, I got to see her patented move in action. It's called The Stomp and Bark, and if you don't mind the risk of looking absolutely crazy, then I promise you it works. When a dog starts yapping along behind you, you just continue running at the same pace with out turning around at first. If you make it two houses away, and the dog is still there, then it's fair game. Without hesitation, you turn while taking the next step and stomp in the dog's direction while making the loudest most guttural sound physically possible. I had my first major success with this system. Now, it turned out to be a small wiener dog, but I maintain that it would work just as well with a bigger dog. You would just need to re-calibrate the stop and bark accordingly. And for the record, I am a dog person, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do when the owners aren't around to keep their dog from starting the world's worst parade behind you on your daily run.

What method do you use to beat the head race or lose the dog parade?

Monday, February 20, 2012

Half Marathon 12 Week Program

Training Schedule



Week
Run 1
Run 2
Run 3
Run 4
Weekly Total
1
3
2
3
4
12
2
4
3
3
4
14
3
4
4
3
5
16
4
4
5
3
6
18
5
3
5
4
7
19
6
4
3
4
5
16
7
3
5
4
8
20
8
4
5
4
3
9
9
4
5
4
7
20
10
4
3
3
11
21
11
4
3
4
5
16
12
3
3
3
RACE
22.1


 Training starts this week for my next half marathon. This is the training schedule my sister Grace gave me that I will be following. Here we go...

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Anything For 10-- The background story

When I was in college, I was fairly lazy. I always thought my best friend was crazy for running all the time. I thought she's seriously lost it when she ran her first half marathon. My younger sister also took up serious running when she was in college. She was always posting pictures of her at the finish line of a race with her uber fit friends. I pretty much wanted no part in any of that business.

One day at a family get together, my sister Grace was trying to talk my muscle head brothers into running a half marathon. I decided that if she did it, then I could do it. I piped in that I would run the half. My family laughed. My sister-in-law didn't laugh because after all, she was married into our family and isn't quite as rude. She was probably originally just trying to make me feel better, so she said she'd run it with me. Then as my friends found out that I was going to "run a half marathon," they all conferred with each other that there was "no way in Hell." That, my friends, made me determined to run a freaking half marathon.

I had a couple months before I needed to start the training plan my sister had lined out for me. My friend Lindsey helped me do my pre-training, which mostly consisted of jogging 1/4 mile and walking 2 3/4 miles. Even though she was one of the only people who had really ever witnessed how out of shape I was, she still told me all the while that I would be able to complete the half I signed up for. When my first week of real training rolled around, my sister was about to move to Bangkok, Thailand. Yes, the one who convinced me to do this crazy thing in the first place was leaving me all alone to train for and run a half marathon. She did run a couple runs with me before she moved. I was still at the run-walk stage that was more walking than running, and after the first mile I wanted to walk already, but she told me that I needed to run some more before I started to walk. She said, "Michelle, you can do anything for ten minutes." I pushed a little further before walking, and at this point, I really can't remember if I pushed for ten for minutes or not. As my training progressed, I was more and more wary about being able to actually do the half. When I told my sister, the saying she had given to me as a mantra before had suddenly changed. She told me, "Michelle, you can do anything for three hours." What!? I thought it was only ten minutes! Then I really panicked, but in the end she was right.

By the time race day rolled around, only one of my brothers and his wife, the polite one, ended up running the race alongside me. The others chickened out, and I proved my family and friends wrong. I ran the Kansas City Half Marathon on October 15, 2011. The race was much tougher than I thought it would be. I stayed with my sister-in-law for the first 4 miles, and we made pretty good time, but then I decided if I didn't walk for a bit, then I would never be able to finish. She decided that if she stopped to walk, then she would never finish, so we parted ways. Around mile 6, which I had run many times before, I felt like I was about to die, and I hated Westport more than I ever thought I would. When I got to the Plaza, I wanted to punch the spectators who kept cheering me on. I wanted to walk to the sidelines and wait for my family to come find me, but I just kept going...slowly. Somewhere around mile 9, I started to walk when I heard a voice say, "Just keep going till that sign up there, and then I walk with you." I looked over to see an older woman next to me. I did as the stranger said. She talked to me briefly. I found out she was a former teacher of a college friend of mine. Then she told me that if I wanted to finish in under 3 hours I had better get a move on, so I did. As I neared mile 12, I saw a person ahead of me who looked familiar, and yelled, "Joe!" To my surprise, my brother turned around and yelled, "What?" I said stupidly, "What are you doing?" He replied, "Running a freaking half marathon, what does it look like?" I caught up to him and we walked for a bit. I explained that I thought he was already done, and he told me part of his race story. I picked up the pace for the last mile and ended up beating my brother's time by less than a minute once we got our chip results.

I started my training for my next half marathon today. It was a little chilly for running outdoors in my opinion, but I am going to make myself do it anyway. I will be running the Joplin Memorial Run this May, and I am looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead of me. I can still remember how crappy I felt during my first half marathon, but I can also remember how great I felt that I had finished. I have grown to love and crave running. This blog will be my outlet for everything running, but I can't promise that a little bit of life won't get mixed in as well. This winter I set a new goal for myself, and this time I pushed it off on my "anything for 10" sister. This blog will be my journey to 26.2 and beyond.