Training!

Iiiiiiii am training again! Registered for the Fitness Half in NYC in April. I have convinced two running buddies (one here in Boston with me, one in Brooklyn) to train and/or race with me. I trained this week-- 14 miles Mon-Thurs at about an 8:30 pace. We hit the pavement this morning (when it finally broke 20 degrees outside!) and ran 7 miles + change at an 8:49 pace. It felt awesome! Pretty and sunny and definitely not too cold after our first mile warmed us up. I was running with my Garmin for the first time, and it was SO convenient to have the pace calculator talking to me and to not be running with a bulky phone and its unreliable GPS.

Thank you, stock photo, for setting such a glamorous pace. Not my pace... but I'll take it.

I think it's definitely going to justify its price very soon! Basically I feel very optimistic right now, and glad I finally got out of my dreary, weather-averse mindset I was in in November and December.
I was also sad, sad, sad to have wasted energy and money on Nike Women's last year when I couldn't afford to fly there-- stupid mistake. I know now to register for races actually near me.
Woo hoo! Looking at another 20-ish mile training week, and going to focus on pace.

It Is Over!

I am free to run again!
It is over! My foot stopped protesting. Like Achilles coming out of his tent despite grudge-holding and sexy pleas from Patroclus. Ready TO FIGHT!

Aww, sad.

Guys, I have a running injury. This is a bummer because running is so fun. One time I had IT band problems because I was running all sorts of badass distances and my body was like, "hey! stop being so cool all the time!" This time, I was running an hour a day, minding my own business and really enjoying benefits like improved concentration, new levels of psychological clarity, and a glimpse of the bigger picture. Then I screwed up my foot and all I can think about is wanting to run, Hulu, and a casserole of stressful life issues that I normally sort out while I run. Brain soup! Foot, please feel better. Heaven is not so far away.

Lament! My foot is wearing the crown, and I'm in the back wearing the bat wings.

Holla!

Wise, wide readership:
Sad to announce I will not be running the Nike Women's Marathon, due to a recent bout of poverty resulting in the inability to fly across the country. If anyone looks a lot like me, has trained for a half marathon and can meet my time goal of 2:00:00, and is trustworthy, I will literally mail you my driver's license, which expires on 10/29, so you can have my number.
In other news, I ran a 34-mile week last week which KICKS ASS. I also headed out to the Korstian area of Duke Forest in Saturday's "Jesus Weather" for the first time since being back in Chapel Hill and it was gourd-geously fallish (get it!?). Yesterday I wore el ear warmer for the first time of the season and tonight I might bust out the Running Gloves. I AM SO DOWN FOR THIS. ALL OF THIS.
Love,
Liz "Grandma Slow" Phillips

The Marning

I stand by the idea that even if you are a total wreck and productivity failure for the rest of the day, if you've run 7.5 miles in the morning, you're still good. That's the rule, right?

This is How I FEEL

About my new Saucony Kinvaras.
SO MUCH KNEE PAIN.
DAMN YOU!

Sticking to Your Guns

So I started my training plan-- I chose the Fitness Magazine's 8-week plan, which I plan to do twice, once attempting a 9:30 average pace, and once attempting a 9:00 average pace, which theoretically puts me at a sub-2hour 13.1 miles (1:58). Is it possible to cut :30 off of everything I try to do on the back half of this thing? IDK. I don't know enough about training to answer that. But the plan is pretty rigorous, so maybe I can ease into that goal race pace as I build my stamina back up, rather than trying to jump drastically at the halfway point.
Last week, Week 1, I had an amazing week. I stuck diligently to the plan, including speed repeats (which I never do) and cross training. I swam laps for the first time in years. I lifted weights and made it to a 7AM hot yoga flow class. By Saturday I was sore as hell but pleasantly tired and ready to do my Sunday distance run. I even was tempted to run on my prescribed rest day because the rest of the week felt invigorating. Awesome, yes?
But then, for the holiday weekend, Boyfriend and I went to the steamy, nasty hot Chattanooga. While it was way fun, and I got a good arm workout from lifting and swinging around a lead-heavy 3.5-year old, it was preventatively hot for running during the afternoons. We slept in both days, and I chose to revel in the evenings instead of carving out an hour and a half to do my distance and shower, or even 45 minutes for junk miles on Monday.
By Tuesday, I was sluggish, mad at myself for getting off schedule so early, and disgustingly full of three days worth of corn on the cob and peach cobbler. Which brings me to my point: stick to your guns. Even though running is largely a solo sport, there is a lot of offensive and defensive strategizing to be concerned with, even if, like me, you are a huffing, puffing amateur. If, like me, running feels really good, and not running feels disappointing and bad, you have to play defense against distractions, and offensively prioritize. It can feel a little antisocial to abandon a preplanned activity to have time for yourself. I imagine for people with kids of their own it feels absolutely weird to get up in the morning and leave the house to go be by yourself. For me, I feel the need to hang out with others every minute of a vacation, and typically feel exactly like I described when I return from them which, might I add, is not how one should feel returning from vacation. So yes, I think it's important. If it makes me happier with the world and myself, I'm sure I'm more consistently pleasant, and that, I think, is more valuable than being present for every single minute of a vacation. So I just need to have the guts to run always, not just when it conveniently fits the routine.

Marathons

Y'all.
I feel like the proverbial elephant in the room* with my doing a running blog is that I have never run a marathon. I think about this about once a week, and get a little sad at myself. Half marathons are nice, but I still harbor a little guilt over never running the TNT marathon all the postcards that Emily and I sent to our friends and family promised we'd run. I feel pretty secure in my ability to run a painless 8-10 miles, which is more than I could say two years ago. I feel pretty secure that I can run 13-14 miles with a little water and walking. But I am still not secure about running 26.2+, or, moreover, waking up on Saturdays before North Carolina preheats the oven to do a training run of 20 or 24 miles like I know I Would (Should). I know I'll run a marathon one day, but thinking of it sort of stresses my runner's brain out. Like do I really love running that much? Running is fantastic, but so is brunch, being in bed at 11 on a Saturday, and my IT band feeling like it is a friendly, non-alien part of my body.


*Mind-room. Blog-room. Whatever room it is, I'm pretty sure I'm flying solo in there.

Running is Sexy

"Running is sexy": a search term that has led some to this blog. Righteous!
And so true, anonymous sir.

I have 4 months until Nike Women's and am not really sure what my training plan is yet. I am thinking about just doing Fitness Magazine's 8-week training plan twice through, once at whatever pace I'm at now, and once at a race pace. That sounds fair, right? AMIRITE?

Guess what's on the first page of google images for "sexy runner"?

That's right.

Hi Rajeev!

One and all,

This post is for Rajeev, who has notified me he will read my posts even if they are lame (every delusional, self-aggrandizing blogger's dream come true/ expectation). And so, with the newly-minted confidence that my truly mediocre running routine is news to some, I have several pieces of news!

First off, I balls'd up and entered the lottery for the Nike Women's (1/2) Marathon. I have wanted to run it for a while now, and several contributing factors (namely, a strong desire to check out the bay area for personal livability and grad school aspirations, and having read dozens of Yelp reviews about how hot the firemen who fork over your Tiffany-necklace-as-finishers'-medal are) led me to throw in my $130 gamble. I was selected (yahoo!) and now have something to train for, as well as the grand excitement of training to see if I can stomach chocolate on the 11th mile of a race. That part I will train hard for.
I hope to run it in 2 hours. I have no effing clue if this is even partway possible. My past and only two races have been significantly slower than that, and I really don't love trying hard or going fast, but a sub-2 might bring some degree of self-satisfaction and/or devastatingly sexy legs. The nice thing about This Year of Racing is that my boyfriend has actually run a pretty fast 1/2 marathon and could maybe help me train (not that TNT didn't volunteer to train me, I just forwent enough of the group runs that it didn't matter a lot). It's nice to live with a sort-of athelete, because it makes me accountable for any slothiness that may/will/has occurred.

"News" two: I went to Bull City and got some new shoes, finally. They've redesigned the Mizuno Wave Rider I loved so dearly, making instead some bullshit, super-high, ankle-rubbing rubber rubbish, so I got some Saucony Kinvaras

BOOM

And they have been, like, okay. They're cooler than I expected, which'll be good for summer, but they kind of rub and WHY DID THEY REDESIGN THE WAVE RIDER and they look much more ~dramatic~ than I am fast.

"News" three, now attempting to cater forthright to Rajeev, yesterday I ran 5.34 miles from my apartment around UNCA and it was fun and there were lots of hills and I didn't know where I was a couple of times which is always nice. I went with Patrick so the first 2 miles were faster than normal, but then I lost him, which was kind of awesome. ZOoooom

Aaaaaanyway, never before has anyone said so much about so little to so few, but there you have it.

Back from the Dead!

Well goodness! After a six-month hiatus, I return to thisisarunningblog. Since the half marathon in September, wherein I cut 12 minutes off my June half marathon time, I have not done much distance running (and, unfortunately, during the months of November and December, very little running at all). It is for this reason that I let this blog go. HOWEVER. I moved to Asheville in February and have since been greatly enjoying running and the changes and challenges my new location presents. For one, hills. Also, much more delightful and varied and new and exciting scenery and sometimes vistas. Also, a bunch of rain much unlike Chapel Hill rain. But overall it has been a positive and inspiring move in terms of my running life (and my life in general).
I am really stoked on the idea of getting into trail running; I always enjoyed running in Bolin and Duke forests and the hills and roots and streams they delivered. There is, as is predictable from the huge hiking and rambling and mountaineering culture here, a healthy trail running community and great resources and ideas and maybe, just maybe, running buddies to be found. Happy girl, happy runner and very glad winter quit doing what it was doing.

Halfsies

I ran 13 for the first time since June yesterday! The weather was perfect and I was so grateful: low 70's, sunny but not beat-you-down sunny, crisp and beautifully sunrise-y (not the biscuit kitchen, though by the end of it I could have downed an egg and cheese... I definitely could have...). My legs were pretty toasted by 11.5mi or so, just as I remember having happened during the marathon.
I have been a pansy about hills lately; I don't know whether or not to forgive myself.
My knee has been better. My yoga teacher gave me some decent new IT stretches. He says my flexibility in my right leg is so extreme that 1) it makes no sense that my band is painful/ tight and 2) that it's going to be nearly impossible to loosen it up because bones don't bend how I would need to bend to stretch it. Well then. I concede.
Two weeks until the race and I'm a little less afraid because I think John is going to escort me to Asheville and after having run 13 I remember what it's like and that I'm capable of it.
I'm a little weary of waking at 6:15 on Saturdays after long, long workweeks but I think I can cope for another 10 weeks. I have no idea what it's like to run for four hours on a Saturday morning, though. One day. One day I will know.
Happy trails.

Jitters

I am getting nervous about the Asheville half marathon. I am supposed to work until 5 the day before, the drive down is 3.5 hours, and packet pickup only goes til 7. My parents (Asheville residents) are going to be in Scotland so I gotta drive myself to the race the morning of and somehow park. On top of that, my last few runs have been really slow and my knee/IT band has been hurting. Tomorrow I'm running 12 miles with Fleet Feet (and my fuel belt... mmm...). I hope it goes well, or else these jitters are gonna feel even worse.
The San Diego race was perfect. We loved the trip and were pretty happy with the race itself. Now I'm alone and the whole thing feels a little scarier. Even though I'm not planning on "racing," I do hear a voice inside my head demanding I get a[n even slightly] better time but I know the course is harder (hillier). I'm trying to generate some positive vibes for myself in the next couple of weeks.

The Fuel Belt is Incredible

Oh my gosh. The fuel belt is literally the most best running purchase I've ever made, inclusive of the Mizunos I was fitted for, bought, and have loved since March.

I went on that dank run on Saturday and didn't have to stop to walk once. I was super relaxed, never stressed, and didn't have to think about how close I was to water. The belt didn't jostle, wasn't annoying or too tight, and held my phone, keys, and a gel without any problem (didn't even plan to use the gel, just wanted to see what it would be like). I was so in love with being hydrated that I kept a good pace and was just beaming. This middle-aged woman jogging with her tiny ugly dog passed me on Seawell School Road and was like "you look so beautiful! you are glowing!" in the most genuine way. BANGIN.

So yeah, I'm running with that dorky, dorky belt whenever I do distance in the future. For sure. For SURE.

Fuel Belt

I bought this thing today. I don't know whether or not I'll like it and if I don't 10 miles tomorrow is a lot to not like it (I hate it when the hairtie around my wrist is too loose or too tight when I'm running-- I'm gonna HATE it if this thing is clunky or ill-fitting). But it has been SWELTERING and I know I need it. Ran ~4.5 in Chapel Hill North on Wednesday and damn near died from heat heat heat.
Trying to stay positive, but hellfire, I am looking forward to <85 degrees.

Fleet Feet!

TNT will always be my first training love, but I've just joined a new training group at Fleet Feet Carrboro and I'm really, really happy with it. It's set up sorta like TNT-- group runs Saturday morning at 7:00 at different locations, but FF also has Wednesday evening runs. We also have the privilege of cool clinics after training. Yesterday was a quick chirunning lesson--super fascinating. It basically carries the principles of yoga I've learned over the years into running. This makes a ton of sense and yet I've never exploited the crossover.
And, of course, I really love the people in the new group. I think I just love runners!?!?!?! So much energy going around.
It's been too hot for me to really be "successful" (=fast) lately and it gets me down when I snooze through a morning run, so I've been struggling a little with my 'tude. I used to consistently be able to wake up to run regardless of how much I had slept the night before. I also used to always shower before school. I've re-prioritized now, I think, but it feels so damn good to be freshly-run and freshly-cleaned that I can't really parse that decision.

Anyway, yeah, excellent new group, registered for my second half, with the first full possibly in sight before the end of 2010... beautiful.
Oh, and I'm really, really happy these days. Summer in Carrboro is perfect.

You'd Better Believe It

I dun registered for #2:

So Much Love All Around

I just finished Phase I of writing thank you notes and I think my hand hurts worse than my legs did after running the race. Which means we have a hell of a lot to be grateful for.

It was a spectacular weekend. The race was hard but about half an hour after all we could say to ourselves was "WHEN DO WE GET TO DO THE NEXT ONE?!?!" so I guess that means we gotta get on that soon.
We love you all so much. Thank you for your support--monetary, emotional, sometimes even physical. It's incredible to be surrounded by such a giving and warm community.
There's no way I'm going to abandon this blog because I like the link so much so I think I'm going to keep it as a training log in the future. That may mean for other races/marathons and even for future TNT events but for the next little while I'm just going to try and beat the heat and love the road, so if you're into hearing about how much I (we, I guess) like to run, keep checking back. I've got a lot to learn about running and a lot to learn about fundraising and being charitable and giving of the self-- many things I can learn from you guys. So stay tuned. Let the force be with you. Live it up. Run on.

We're Really Ready

The View from the Wagon

WELL. I'm back. Looking through my paper journal, I (involuntarily) had almost a full month off of training (with a few short runs sprinkled in). My knee is feeling better.
Saturday I did about 8.5 miles (really, really hilly) in the Korstian Area of Duke Forest. I had never been out there even though it's like 10 minutes from my house. It was so, so beautiful and the 7AM start got me finished before the heat made things unpleasant. Coach Bill ran about a mile with me and we had never met before it-- that's one of my favorite things about TNT, is just saying YES to running, saying YES to friendships, to 7 AM. I get out of my comfort zone sometimes but the program is so well-designed that it always seems to work out.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about building up distance over the next few weeks (only 5 left!), but my legs feel pretty strong and I think if I can stretch a lot and beat the heat I'll be okay. We'll be great!!!
According to my calculations, I have raised $2,401.00. Amazing, right??? That leaves $499. I'd like to see if people will pay for my weekend distance runs-- $14 to my 14 miler this weekend (my first 1/2 marathon distance!), $18, etc., etc. I might go around Friday nights with a blank tshirt and some Sharpies and say I'll wear it to training and you can write whatever you want on it (and my face, etc.) for a dollar a mile. I have no idea. Might be fun, right?
Please donate. The link's on the right side of the page and it's super easy. Let's KICK CANCER!

-Elizabeth