speeding up and slowing down

Well, the holiday weekend marks the unofficial kick-off of Summer, and talk of speed work seems to be everywhere! The Running Laminator has a great post comparing the benefits of intervals and tempo runs for distance runners. Nitmos has launched his 2nd annual Summer of Speed (SOS2). And the June issue of Runner’s World has a good, basic spread about all things track related. It makes me miss my glory days of being my high school’s illustrious 2nd best 800 and 1500 meter runner! Quite the claim to fame, right?? (The only race I ever won was at the end of my sophomore season. It was me versus one other girl in the 800, and I beat her by half a lap. Track wasn’t very big in my county…)

Last week I questioned whether it was too early for me to incorporate some speed work into my runs. After a bit of research on the internets, I’ve decided it’s probably best to put it on hold for now. I found a great Q&A page on the DC Road Runners website that addressed some of my questions. It recommends having a base of about 25 miles per week before jumping into the faster stuff. That’s my mileage goal right now anyway, so it makes sense to wait. What I will be doing, though, is sticking with hillier routes for my shorter runs, to keep building strength in my legs.

It’s funny that I’m reading all this stuff about speed when what I really need to focus on is s-l-o-w-i-n-g down. My mid-week runs are getting faster and faster, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing. I tell myself multiple times during each run to slow down and take it easy, but it doesn’t seem to help. It even feels like I’m trudging along, until I check my splits and see that I’m still at the same pace or faster. So here’s a ridiculous question: how do you slow down?? I don’t want to reduce my turnover rate (the number of steps I take per minute). That means I need to take smaller steps, right? But it already feels like I’m tiptoeing along as it is! (Sigh.) I’ll get the hang of pacing one of these days…

…hopefully tomorrow. I’ve got 7 miles on the schedule in the morning, and I will be trying hard to hold down a 10:30-11 minute pace. Maybe the oppressive humidity will help with that – yuck.

Happy holiday weekend, everyone!

intermittent posting

I started this blog thinking that I had a lot to talk about and it would be easy to keep up with it, but I’m having trouble getting into a rhythm with my writing! I know a lot of you fellow bloggers have multiple drafts going at once, as you think of things to post. That may be the solution. I’m a quiet person, but I’m sure I’ve got more to say! For now, I’ll skip right to the running.

Last week was a good running week for me. I finally fit in 4 runs, which is the schedule I plan to stick with for the foreseeable future. My legs are responding well to the slowly increasing mileage. The strain in my right hamstring from 2 weeks ago never got any worse and has pretty much disappeared. Here’s how the week went down:

Tuesday: 2.64 miles, 30:00, 11:22 pace (treadmill)
Wednesday: 3.95 miles, 41:11, 10:26 pace
Thursday: 3.55 miles, 34:50, 9:49 pace
Sunday: 6.0 miles, 1:00:35, 10:06 pace
Total: 16.1 miles

Yesterday’s 6-miler went a million times better than the previous weekend! I ran the entire distance (no walk breaks) and had a negative split of about 1 minute. I ate well the night before (no BBQ this time), and the weather was perfect – overcast and about 63 degrees. There were a couple of times that I wasn’t sure I would make it, but I pushed through and just tried to focus on the fact that I wasn’t hurting and I was still breathing ok (so, no good reason to stop).

I am really loving running on the greenway! Sometimes in the past, the markers posted at every ¼ mile drove me crazy, making the run seem never-ending. But I’ve made my peace with them, and now I find that they are friendly little faces helping me stay focused on the present, rather than stressing about how much further I have to go. It’s also fun to see all the different runners, walkers, dogs, strollers, and cyclists sharing the trail.

My biggest concern right now is the quickly approaching summer season, with its 3-H days – hazy, hot, and humid… It is by far my least favorite time of the year. But it looks like I won’t have to worry about that this week. This morning, temps were in the 40s - yay!

Mom, music, and miles

My mom is the coolest 60-something woman I know. And I’m not just saying this because I’m her daughter and Mothers Day was last Sunday (although those are happy coincidences)! She does all the regular mom stuff pretty well – you know, being there when I need her, listening, giving great hugs, all that. But then there’s her cool side.

My mom loves to go to rock concerts. Most recently, she saw Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen with my sisters and my aunt. Over the years, she and I have gone to Bush, Creed, Pearl Jam, and Tom Petty shows. She has tickets to U2 in October! This is just a small representative sample of her concert resume.

What brings me to talk about this is that I’m thinking of taking her to yet another concert for her birthday in July. Aerosmith and ZZ Top are coming July 9th, and I heard today that lawn tickets are just $10 if you buy them this Saturday. It’s like the gift fairies heard me lamenting how difficult it is to pick something out for her (and also how tight money is right now…) and bestowed upon me some of their magic. I love it when they do that!

ZZ Top is the soundtrack to all the road trips we took when I was a little kid. It was one of a handful of cassette tapes we always had in our car. Just imagine three little girls sitting in the backseat, happily singing along to ‘Legs’ and ‘Sharp Dressed Man’. Ahhh the wholesome memories…

But don’t worry – we also had the John Denver & the Muppets ‘Rocky Mountain Holiday’ cassette. If you’ve never heard John Denver and Miss Piggy sing a duet of ‘Happy Trails’, you’re really missing out...

***

My running has been going pretty well lately, overall. Last week I completed three runs (13 miles):

3 miles on Wednesday (10:56 pace)
4 miles on Friday (10:32 pace)
6 miles on Saturday (10:59 pace)

Wednesday’s 3-miler was done on the treadmill, where my pace continues to lag behind that of my outdoor runs. (This seems to defy logic. Does anyone else find it hard to push the pace on the TM?) I strained my right hamstring slightly and have been trying to baby it over the past week with ice and some additional stretching. I’m liking the TM less and less…

My 6-miler on Saturday was not the greatest. I tried to monitor my pace and keep it around the 11-minute mark and did pretty well with that. But halfway through the run I started taking walk breaks and kind of fell apart from mile 4.5 to 5.5. I think it was mostly mental, but it was hotter than it has been (about 75 degrees and super humid). Plus I had eaten a lot of BBQ the night before – probably not the best pre-run fuel. I figure I was due for a bad run anyway, so I’m glad to have it out of my system!

This week I’m on track to run four times for about 15 miles. I ran 2.6 miles on the TM yesterday (11:22 pace), and today I did the 4-mile neighborhood loop I call the Big Block (10:26 pace). Both runs were uneventful, and I finished them feeling strong. Tomorrow I’m planning on about 3.5 miles around the neighborhood, and Saturday I’ll repeat the 6-miler on the greenway, hopefully with more success this time!

On my mind lately is speed work. I think it’s too early for it, as I’ve only been running consistently for about 2 months now, but I’m wondering if it might boost my fitness faster to start incorporating some brief accelerations in some of my shorter runs. Nothing too speedy, just enough to get me a little bit out of breath. Maybe hills are the better answer, for now…?

A note about goals

If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. ~Lawrence J. Peter

I am a person who loves maps. And lists. And plans. Really, anything that brings order to my universe. I’m the one who knows exactly when the plane takes off and lands, exactly how far we are travelling, and exactly when we need to be at the next gate or train station to make our connection. It is both a blessing and a curse. Just ask my friends. (Or, uh, maybe it’s better if you don’t.)

So it may come as a surprise to know that I’m kind of scared of training plans. I think my perfectionist tendencies lead me straight to a fear of failure when I see those beautiful, calculated workouts all laid out neatly on a calendar. And yet I am drawn to them like Christina Yang to Owen Hunt (any Grey’s Anatomy fans out there…?).

The last time I followed a plan was when I trained for 2 half marathons in 2006. It still shames me to think that I only really managed to do the long runs prescribed each week – and none of the mid-week runs… I love training plans, and yet I don’t have a lot of success sticking with them.

This is a long way of saying that right now I don’t have any crystal clear running goals, and I’m not sure that I’m okay with that. Or maybe I am. I’ve been avoiding thinking too far ahead because I want to build a solid training base before I decide what comes next. But without a target race on the horizon, it is hard to get myself out the door as often as I should.

Right now I’m doing pretty well with fitting in 3 runs per week, slowly building the mileage. I’d like to push that up to 4 runs per week, about 25 miles total, with a long run of about 10 miles. At the rate I’m going, I should be there by the middle of June. I think if I can hold that base for a good 3 months, I should be ready to tackle a more formal training plan of some sort.

The marathon is my ultimate goal, I won’t deny it. It’s fun to pick out races. Vermont City, Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach, maybe even the National Marathon if I can get a qualifying time. There are a couple of half marathons in Charlotte towards the end of the year that are on my radar and would be a good test of my fitness.

I guess all this rambling is me reassuring myself that even if there is not a single, monumental goal to my running (right now), there is still a plan in place. (Albeit, a relatively loose one.) I am still on my way somewhere. The rest of the details will come into focus later.

And I’m okay with this.

Really, I am.

Sort of…

(sigh)

This post brought to you by the Snoopy MetLife blimp

Any golf fans out there? If you’re watching the Quail Hollow Championship, there’s a very slight chance you may see my house in one of the overhead shots, courtesy of the blimp. I live about a mile from the course, as the crow (or birdie) flies. Golf is not my thing – it’s on my list of pseudo-sports, along with baseball and bowling – but it’s kind of exciting to be so close to the action.

That said, yesterday I left all the hubbub behind to go watch 2 of my nieces dance in their annual recital. Little R is in ballet, and Big R is in clogging. (If you’re not from the South, there’s a good chance you have no idea what clogging is. My best description would be that it’s a mix between Irish step dancing and tap dancing.) They’re both in their 2nd year of dance and have improved significantly over last year! I’m so proud of them for sticking with it and having the nerve to get up on stage in front of an entire auditorium full of people!

Especially in those glorified bathing suit dance outfits… Big R referred to her class as the Dancing Cheetos – ha! Little R fared better, with a Disney princess-esque tutu. On a side note, why is it that the older the girls get, the skimpier and tighter their outfits get…? *sigh*

Thank goodness runners aren’t subjected to such exposure of the flesh! Oh wait…

Speaking of running… (how’s that for a segue??) My goals for last week were to run 4 times for a total of 12 miles. I came up short in both frequency and duration, but I’m not too disappointed. I managed 3 runs for 11.9 miles. I could round that up to 12, but I won’t because I’m a numbers person and it would bother me.

Run 1 – 4 miles (average pace 10:12) on the greenway (see post below)
Run 2 – 2.9 miles (10:24) around home
Run 3 – 5 miles (10:14) on the greenway

On Run 2, I missed a turn and ended up cutting about a half mile off my route. I knew I would be short, but honestly my legs had had enough of the hills anyway. This was my first time running hills in about 6 months, and I had forgotten that delightful feeling of huffing and puffing but going nowhere (seemingly).

Run 3 was this morning. The only thing of note here is that I intended to run around an 11-minute pace but obviously failed. That’s something I really need to focus on, especially as I am trying to build the mileage of my long runs. I will say, however, that I ran surprisingly even splits. Surprising because I fully expected to crash in the last mile. I guess my observation for the week is that I am still exploring my running boundaries, if that makes any sense.

And now I’m going to go sit out in the sunshine, sip on a beer, and watch the blimp circle overhead!

4-miler & MObama arms

Four miles run on the greenway this morning. Here are the splits:

mile 1 – 10:36
mile 2 – 10:08
mile 3 – 10:12
mile 4 – 9:51
total – 40:47

I promise not to post splits for every single run! The greenway has markers at every 1/4 mile, so it’s hard not to obsessively track my pace. And I don’t have a Garmin (yet), just my trusty Timex Ironman watch.

my local greenway (photo from tricharlotte.com)

I’m really happy with this run because it tells me that last week’s 4-miler on the greenway wasn’t just a fluke, in terms of speed. Coming off of a few weeks of treadmill running, I wasn’t sure what to expect pace-wise. This is a pleasant surprise – especially that last mile in the 9’s! On the treadmill, most of my runs were in the 11:20 pace range, and that felt like I was pushing it!

Lest I get too excited, I need to remind myself that the greenway is basically flat, and anywhere else I run around here will have hills hills hills…

In years past when I’ve started running, I haven’t felt nearly this strong. This is probably obvious to most people, but I’m shocked to find that the strength training I’ve been doing since late February is paying off! I can tell that I am recruiting different muscles when I start to get fatigued on a run. The exercises that I do concentrate mostly on my twiggy upper body, but I am incorporating some squats or lunges and these lifted-bridge thingys, too. I can’t wait to see how strong I’m feeling by the end of the summer. Michelle Obama arms, here I come!

DC recap

Well, there was no running on the DC trip afterall. But I did do a LOT of walking on Saturday, basically from 7:30AM to midnight! Friday and Sunday were mostly spent folded up in a car… It was a long way to go for such a short trip, but I had a lot of fun with my sisters, and I always enjoy getting out of town for a few days.

We were able to squeeze a lot of sightseeing into the limited time we had. We started at the National Museum of American History, where I think we all agreed the highlight was seeing the original Star-Spangled Banner that inspired our national anthem. It was huge, measuring 30’x34’! Next, we moved onto the sculpture gardens outside the National Gallery of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum. These were beautiful spaces and had some interesting works, but the sun was blazing down on us in what turned out to be 92-degree weather. Too hot for much contemplation!

We sought solace from the sun in the National Museum of the American Indian, the newest addition to the Mall. This museum interested me primarily from an architectural standpoint (its design is reminiscent of the wind-sculpted cliffs of the southwest), but I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying the exhibits as well. After a quick dinner break, we joined a tour group to visit the major monuments, including the Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, Vietnam, Korean, and WWII. Halfway through the tour a storm moved in, dumping rain on us at the Vietnam Memorial. The rain seemed to suck the remaining life out of us, and we were happy to head back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

I hope to post a few pics from the weekend once my sisters email them to me. Someday I will actually get a good digital camera of my own!

One other highlight of the weekend was a trip to the Fractured Prune, a donut shop that is part of a small chain that started up in Ocean City, Maryland. Yum! I’ve been to the original shop in Ocean City (I have family in that area), and there is actually one here in Charlotte that I’ve avoided for fear of starting a really dangerous habit! This place has the best donuts! I’ve always sort of dreamed of opening my own shop… Future franchisee…? Hmmmm, something to consider!

***
Since this is a running blog, here’s how I fared last week:
2 runs for a total of 7 miles
2 strength training sessions for a total of 1:20

I’m disappointed in the shortage of running, but my legs took a beating on Saturday, and I was probably due for a step-down week anyway. This morning I did 40 minutes of strength training and hope to fit a run in either tonight or tomorrow morning. My goal is to get in 4 runs this week for a total of 12 miles.

Greenway run and Washington fun

I finally did it. I ran outside for the first time since December! And it felt great!

This morning I decided to head over to the greenway near my neighborhood and run 4 miles. The weather was perfect - sunny skies, light breeze, and about 65 degrees. The greenway is a mostly flat trail that runs along a swampy creek on a mixture of paved, boardwalk, and dirt/gravel surfaces. Last summer I frequently saw snakes beside or on the path - *shudder*. But otherwise it is a great place to get away from the traffic and enjoy some different scenery. I'll probably start going there about once a week, maybe more as the weather heats up.

Here's how the run went down:
mile 1 - 10:33
mile 2 - 10:34
mile 3 - 10:45 (includes a 1-minute walk break at the 2-mile mark)
mile 4 - 10:12
total time - 42:04

This may have been my last run for the week because tomorrow I am headed to Washington DC with my sisters for a short getaway! Yay! I would love to run along the Mall, past all the monuments, but realistically I know it won't happen. I'm debating whether to throw in my running clothes on the off chance that I might hit up the treadmill in the hotel fitness center for a quick 30-minute run...

Washington DC is one of my favorite cities, and I'm so excited to hang out there with my sisters. We used to live on Andrews Air Force Base (home of Air Force One), back in the late 70s/early 80s. I was too young to remember much about it, but I've since been back to DC twice as an adult. My mom loves to tell the story of how she and several other military wives got to ride down the Potomac at sunset in a military helicopter (in restricted airspace!). There's just something about the area that holds good memories and feelings for me.

Anyway, enough about that! I have some last minute errands and packing to do, so I better get to it. I'm taking the pup to the dog park this evening so she'll have a chance to wear herself out before her weekend at the kennel. More to come next week!

100 Things About Me

1. I’m an Air Force brat and spent the majority of my childhood moving every 2 years around the southeastern U.S.
2. I’ve lived in North Carolina for 23 years of my life (that’s 72% for the number lovers out there)…
3. …but I’m more likely to say that Virginia is “where I’m from”.
4. I only lived in Virginia for just over 3 years (ages 8.5-12).
5. My dad proposed to my mom on the 4th date. They were married for 39 years and 8 months.
6. My dad died April 17, 2007, after a 9 month battle with the blood cancer Multiple Myeloma.
7. I hate cancer.
8. I worry that my mom will never start living life again.
9. I worry that I will never start living life again.
10. I have 2 sisters. L is 2 years older than me, and S is 7 years older.
11. At Christmas, my sisters and I always opened our gifts from each other first. We continue this tradition anytime all 3 of us are together on the holiday.
12. Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the decorations, carving pumpkins, and creating costumes...
13. …but haunted houses and scary movies make me uncomfortable.
14. There is nothing like trick-or-treating on an Air Force base – amazing!
15. My favorite candies all have this in common: peanuts and chocolate.
16. I strongly believe that Peanut M&Ms with pretzels and iced tea is the most perfect food combination.
17. I often eat pretzels – just pretzels – for dinner…
18. …but usually my meals are pretty well balanced.
19. My idea of well balanced is a plate of nachos and a pint of Yuengling from my favorite pub.
20. I am blessed with a fairly high metabolism.
21. My sisters are not.
22. If I ever had to really watch what I eat, I’m not sure I would have the discipline for it.
23. Fortunately, I love vegetables…
24. …except for lima beans, butter beans, and kidney beans.
25. I thank my mom for that – both the love and the hate.
26. And the high metabolism.
27. Even my dog is skinny.
28. Her name is Libby, and I adopted her from a shelter in December 2007.
29. She looks like a tall, 50-pound Jack Russell terrier.
30. Even though some days I wish I didn’t have to walk her, I still think she’s the sweetest, best thing to happen in my life.
31. Except for my 3 nieces, of course.
32. They are 8, 11, and 14 – and growing up too fast!
33. I miss the days when they were naive and innocent, but I love watching their unique personalities emerge.
34. I love being an aunt…
35. …but I have no plans to have children of my own.
36. Owning a townhouse is enough responsibility for me.
37. It freaked me out to buy a home because it meant I was settling down somewhere.
38. At least for a few years anyway.
39. I still dream of living in Washington DC, Denver, Portland, or somewhere in Vermont someday.
40. My paternal grandparents used to live in Wyoming.
41. I spent a summer out there and fell in love with the wide open spaces and huge sky.
42. And the extremely low humidity wasn’t so bad either.
43. I don’t handle high temperatures and high humidity very well.
44. Unfortunately, North Carolina summers feature both.
45. My ideal weather is 70-degrees, partly sunny, calm winds, and low humidity.
46. That’s why Fall is my favorite season…
47. …and October is my favorite month.
48. My ex-boyfriend was born in October.
49. He was German.
50. We dated for 5 years before it became apparent we wanted different things in life.
51. That’s the polite way of saying I wanted a ring on my finger and he wanted to relive his early 20s.
52. I hope my next boyfriend is at least 5’10” and weighs more than me.
53. For the record, I am 5’7” and weigh 130.
54. I’d like to get down to 125, but I’m not trying very hard.
55. I left home at the age of 16 to go to the NC School of Science & Mathematics, a public boarding school, for my junior and senior years of high school.
56. It was one of the best and worst decisions I’ve made.
57. I could not have been better prepared for college…
58. …but my self-esteem took a beating.
59. I’m still trying to get over it and regain my confidence.
60. In college, I studied architecture and geography (urban planning).
61. I have never worked directly in either field.
62. Currently, I am a consultant in corporate real estate facility planning…
63. …but I aspire to become a librarian or teacher.
64. My aunt is a librarian, and I’ve worked part-time at various libraries over the years.
65. I think teaching is my calling, but that self-esteem problem is holding me back.
66. When I was a kid, I thought I would join the Air Force like my dad.
67. I received an ROTC scholarship but turned it down when my dad warned me that the “modern” military isn’t the same as when he joined up.
68. I think both of my parents were relieved.
69. But I still sometimes wish I had gone through with it.
70. I don’t consider myself extremely patriotic, but I value the freedoms and opportunities we have in America.
71. My only international travel to date was a week spent studying parks in Paris during my senior year of college.
72. New Zealand is tops on my list of places to see, but I would be pretty happy to go just about anywhere.
73. My sister, L, was born in Turkey.
74. I was born in Nebraska but lived there for less than a year.
75. I don’t remember a lot of details about my childhood and often mix-up real memories with stories I’ve been told.
76. My sisters and I believe this is because we experienced so much growing up that our brains only have room to hold onto a few bits and pieces.
77. My favorite color is red. Or orange. (Go Denver Broncos!)
78. My favorite book is The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
79. My favorite movie is Thelma & Louise (except for the rape scene).
80. I don’t have a favorite musician because my tastes are way too eclectic.
81. For example, I like Willie Nelson, Billy Joel, Tori Amos, Coldplay, and Kanye West…
82. …today. But who knows about tomorrow??
83. Simple things make me happy.
84. Like salty french fries dipped in a vanilla milkshake.
85. And singing Christmas songs with my sisters. (Even though none of us can sing well.)
86. And hanging out with my best friend, sipping drinks outside in the fresh air.
87. And going hiking.
88. Someday I hope to hike the Appalachian Trail, maybe after retirement.
89. I also hope to run a marathon (sometime before retirement).
90. I know a LOT about the various marathons in the U.S., thanks to MarathonGuide.com and my obsessive nature.
91. I tend to research to death anything I have even a remote interest in.
92. My dad also did this.
93. Sometimes it gets me into trouble, like when I read that jumping out of an airplane is like stepping out onto a supportive column of air.
94. You can’t believe everything you read.
95. Skydiving was the most terrifying experience of my life…
96. …but I’m glad I tried it.
97. And I hope that I keep trying new things as I get older.
98. I think that’s one of the most important things in life.
99. To keep pushing the boundaries and discovering new parts of your character.
100. Did I mention that I love running…?

Thanks for reading!

***

Ran 3 miles this morning, on the treadmill once again...

Week in Review

Five miles done! Yes, I did them on the treadmill (more on that later), but I'll take it. So here's how the week went down:

Monday..........2.55 miles in 30 minutes; 40 minutes strength training
Tuesday.........off (birthday!)
Wednesday....2.65 miles in 30 minutes
Thursday.......40 minutes strength training
Friday.............3.43 miles in 40 minutes
Saturday........40 minutes strength training
Sunday...........5 miles in 58:30
Totals.........13.63 miles; 2:00 strength training

My friend Ruby and I meet 3 times a week at the gym in our neighborhood, for about half an hour. We hope to extend our time there as our fitness levels improve, but for now this works. I think for me it is more about forming the habit of working out regularly than worrying so much about distance. It's great to have the accountability, and the time seems to fly by while we catch-up with each other.

Now, about the treadmill... There is absolutely no reason for me to ever need to use one. The weather in North Carolina is mild. I live in an area with plenty of great running routes right outside my door. I'm not coming back from an injury or anything that would require the lower impact of a treadmill. My only excuse is that I have recently developed an irrational fear of running outside.

Will I be able to cover the same distance outside as I'm doing inside? Will I be able to run as fast (relatively speaking...)? Will I kill myself by trying to run too fast when I encounter other people?? Will the hot guy who lives down the street laugh at my barely-faster-than-a-walk pace...?

My heartrate is escalating just thinking about it! Or maybe that's from thinking about the hot guy... Anyway, I've got to just get over myself and go on the inaugural outdoors run and then everything will be fine. Like jumping into a swimming pool, right? (...sigh...)

***

Still working on the 100 Things About Me post; I hope to have it up by Wednesday. I also hope it won't be the most boring piece of writing ever... Oh wait - there's already a blog with that claim to fame. Phew!

Might as well face it...*

I’ll admit it: I am addicted to reading about running, whether it’s in magazines, books, newspaper articles, blogs, or any other written form of communication (did Pre keep a diary??). Reading is one of my passions anyway, and when you combine it with the subject of running, the addiction reaches fever pitch. The great thing about blogs is that I can feed the fire on a near hourly basis!

Not Born to Run is the first blog I stumbled across that I absolutely had to read every day. The stalking started in August 2006, back when Jeanne was still “just a runner”. She’s a full-fledged triathlete now, tricking herself into training for the Half-Ironman distance. Not Born to Run is a fabulous mix of training log, psychoanalysis, DC area guide, pop culture commentary, and just about anything else you can think of (including colonoscopies - HA). Jeanne’s tone is largely self-deprecating, but her underlying message is one of hope and a feeling that it is never too late to try. Plus she is just darn funny. I love to see what she’ll do next and where her adventures will take her!

Around the same time that I found Jeanne’s blog, I also discovered 21 Days. Jess started out with the premise that it takes 21 days to form a habit – in her case, a running habit. Nearly 4 years and a marathon later, I think she can safely say that she has achieved her goal. Jess runs through the heat, hurricanes, lizards, and bugs of southern Florida, but she’s a Minnesota girl at heart. It’s a fun mix and makes for some great stories! 21 Days is well written (Jess is an English professor), super humorous (drunk posts, anyone?), literary (better book reviews than the NY Times), and real (no sugar coating here). All around swawesome! I look forward to seeing how her running continues to evolve as she welcomes a little one into her life in a few months!

This analogy doesn’t really work, but if I were stranded on a desert island and had to pick 5 blogs to take with me, these are the remaining 3 that would round out the list:

• runner’s rambles – Aron is relatively new to running but has already completed 2 marathons and hopes to BQ at her 3rd in May. She is incredibly positive and inspiring! And her detailed training information is wonderfully educational for this aspiring marathoner.
  
• DC Rainmaker – Ray’s blog is packed full of great information, gorgeous photos, and amazing stories of his travels, cooking, and super-human triathlon training. He packs more into 24-hours than anyone I know – and, lucky for us, blogs about it all.
  
• Frayed Laces – FL is another super-human athlete, but the inspiration I draw from her is her ability to overcome all sorts of obstacles (including a broken pelvis) and stay positive throughout. She is always looking forward to the next big thing. And she shares all sorts of great tips and information along the way!
  

These are the people I turn to for intermittent inspiration (plus a few dozen others listed to the right). They’ve helped me get back on the road to consistent running and have taught me so many lessons. My hope is that this blog might serve the same purpose for someone else and keep this great virtual community growing!

***

*Shout out to Robert Palmer! Is anyone not playing air guitar now??

Five miles on the schedule for tomorrow morning.

Hello, my name is....

Kate!

I’ve had this blog set up for a couple of months now, but so far its only use has been to make it easier to keep up with all the great blogs I follow, and to give me an identity when I (rarely) come out of the dark to comment on someone’s post. Now seems as good a time as any to begin posting some of my own thoughts to the wide world.

A little background on my athletic life: I was a very active kid, playing soccer, basketball, softball, volleyball, and running track through high school. In college, all of that came to a screeching halt. It wasn’t so much a conscious decision to stop as it was simply that I found my time being filled with other things (primarily the rigorous demands of architecture school). There were still moments when I returned to my old ways: a college course in tennis, hiking and camping trips, sea kayaking with my roommate, a brief foray into mountain biking. But I missed the camaraderie and accountability of team sports.

Fast forward to 2009 (and 32 years of age) and I am still struggling to lock onto my inner motivation and will to become the runner I long to be. I’ve participated in a couple of different running programs (the Jeff Galloway Run/Walk training group and USAFit), and I’ve completed 2 half-marathons. But the end of each program marked the end of consistent running. (Hence the blog title.) And here I find myself starting over once again.

This time feels different. Maybe it is just the eternal hope of Spring. Or maybe it is a change in my perspective brought on by a piece of wisdom from my oldest sister (I have 2). I was talking to S for the millionth time about my ambitions to run {fill in the blank} Marathon in 6 months and how I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to run 26.2 miles and reach one of my life’s goals. She stopped me with a simple question: “Why don’t you ever train for a 5K or 10K?”

In all the time that I have run consistently as an adult, I have always been training for the half-marathon or longer distance. I blame it on my athletic background and the feeling that I’m really not a beginner (even though all the evidence indicates otherwise). 5K? 10K? Those are races that any old schmoe could do. But a marathon? Now that’s the race for REAL athletes! But my sister’s simple question suddenly made so much sense to me. When I finally run a marathon - and I WILL - I want to do it right (if there is such a thing), and that means first becoming a consistent runner.

So here I am, in my 4th week of regular running, aiming to have completed 4 runs by Sunday for a weekly total of 12 miles. It pains me to write such a low number, but I am staying focused on consistency.

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This blog will primarily focus on my running obsession, but other bits of life will invariably find their way here. Stay tuned for a post about the blogs that first hooked me into this virtual running community, and the infamous 100 Things About Me list (it seems the simplest way to let you get a glimpse into my life without having to write endlessly). More to come!