this is how I know...

...that I'm definitely running more now than I ever have.

a certain part of my anatomy (let's say i have two of them, and they are typically pointing forward when i run ; ) is beginning to really hurt on these runs! i'll have to ask some more experienced ladies for advice on how to deal with this predicament (i think band-aids might be a suggestion for this) but it was very noticeable and uncomfortable toward the end of my last run. yeowtch!

my last run may have been a bit of a breakthrough. i decided to return to one of my favorite places in SD to run, mission bay park. it's scenic, mostly flat, and marked every 1/4 mile so you can keep track of distance. my group has shifted from running for a certain time (e.g., 30 or 40 min) to distance, in this case, 3 mi. i went after work on thursday -- a little later than would be advisable given how early it gets dark these days, but i was committed. while i wouldn't characterize the experience as "easy," it was not frustrating. and for me, that's big. generally i've experienced running as a tug-of-war between my mind and body, sometimes one wins, sometimes the other wins, but they are constantly battling. this time, i found a pretty steady rhythm of breathing, tried to focus on stepping lightly per coach james ("pretend like you are running on hot coals and you want to touch as lightly and quickly as you can as to not burn your feet") and experienced minor, transitory body aches (mostly in my shins) but pushed through them. i also decided to forego the 5/2 protocol -- at first i stopped to walk a bit, but after the first mile i mostly kept going because i find it hard to find a good pace if i'm looking down at my watch anticipating my next walk break. so that felt like progress.

i'm also realizing that part of making this whole program work for me means allowing myself to not do a workout every now and then if i need a break. for example, i chose to forego this saturday's group run. it sounded like a bit of a clusterf*ck -- it was by a lake with no parking so somehow 100 people were going to hike in and then run? -- yikes! but more because i was at work until 9:00 last night (yes, a friday) working on this godforsaken project that prevented me from being in hawaii right now with my family. (apparently my nephew is starting to walk on this trip and i'm really bummed to not be there to see it! oh well.) and i'm headed to LA tonight with an early morning tomorrow as i'm participating in a Komen 5K in pasadena with my dear friend P who is valiantly fighting breast cancer. i think one 5:30 am wake-up call per weekend is enough for me! i'll get caught up on the schedule, not worried about that. but i do need to get my fundraising letters out there if i want to use the TNT free postage. so you might get an e-mail from me asking for your address. i also have a handy-dandy website already set up for donations in case you are interested....ah, shameless self-promotion, gotta love it.

more soon, when i'm back from LA...and after the academy awards of course!

: ) - j

slacking?

well, the good news is i've been slacking on posting, not on running! though i did opt for tacos and champagne with j* on 2/14 over "30 min jog/walk" and i don't regret it one bit!

following coach james's strong advice to not rely solely on the treadmill for mid-week runs, i decided to try a road run for my 40 min on thursday after work. i've mapped out the distance from my house to one of those big neon neighborhood signs they have in SD (this one says "kensington") -- it's about 3 miles so i figured that would be about right for a jog/walk combo. it got a little dark which i didn't love, but i know soon we'll have longer daylight. i found it really hard to hit my stride, but on the way back i started to feel better and actually just ran for a while instead of doing the 4 min run/1 min walk pattern i had planned to follow. i think it can be hard to establish a good rhythm with the run/walk thing, though i think it's a less stressful approach to this whole thing.

then friday was off, and saturday was group run #3, this one at UCSD. i am still amazed at my ability to get up at 6:15 on saturday mornings! this was 3 mi, and i found a great little pace group of 4 women, one of whom kept time for us. we "graduated" from 3/1 to 5/2 which felt pretty good. once again, it felt better toward the end -- hopefully the amount of time it takes until i start hitting my stride will get shorter and shorter as i get better at this!

i think i've come far enough that i can confidently begin the fundraising part now. not that i doubted my ability to stick with this, but i wanted to make sure the schedule was realistic and that my body would tolerate it as i've had some low back pain and knee discomfort. but so far so good, so watch your mailboxes (real and virtual)...

cheers, j

i can't tell you...

...how much i did NOT want to go to the gym today. work is crazy and will be until 3/1 (with a fun but ill-timed family jaunt to hawaii in between) and today was exhausting. but, as i missed yesterday's workout (a 20 min easy run or cross-train...i'll credit crawling after my nephew and walking around with him for an hour as cross-training!) i knew i had to go today for fear of a growing sense of self-loathing. today's menu was 40 minutes, which sounded like a long time! but it was a good opportunity to break in the new running shoes and insoles and also the incline on the treadmill. see, at saturday's group run, i learned that it's not really equivalent to a road run at no incline -- i think the running coach recommended a minimum of 1.5% incline. so to ease into it, i went with 1% today and i'll go to 1.5 next time. thankfully my shins didn't start to hurt which i was worried about. i got through it though i had some weird pain in my left foot at the end. i'll attribute that to my body getting used to the new kicks and the slight incline and see how next time goes. i'm really looking forward to "springing forward" so i can do more outside runs, this long on the treadmill is boring even with the likes of ludacris and outkast to keep me going.....

doin' it

well, i earned my gold star this week!

after wednesday's post-flight treadmill run, i noticed that my thursday schedule was 30 min jog/walk so i had to go back to the gym. that's a big adjustment for me -- even in my most active exercise phases, rarely would i go to the gym two days in a row! but i did and had another pretty good experience, though i almost tripped once or twice (omg, how embarrassing would it be to trip and fall on the treadmill. here's hoping i never experience that!)

today (sat) was group run #2, 3 miles, followed by a shoe clinic at road runner sports. i guess eating half a bowl of popcorn and drinking three rolling rocks might not have been the best call last night...nor going to bed at midnight when i had to get up at 6a. ah well, live and learn...

i treated myself to new running shoes and insoles today, and this funky belt that holds four little water bottles. here's to another good week...after we return from our family trip to hawaii i'll send out the fundraising stuff. i just wanted to get through a few solid weeks of training before i start asking people to invest in my endeavor...

thank goodness i don't have to get up at 6am tomorrow!

atypical behavior

today i returned from my conference trip. normally, i would hit trader joe's on the way home from the airport, get caught up on tivo, maybe throw in a load of laundry. but not today. my schedule said "20 min walk/jog" so i had to do it. i came straight home from the airport, changed into workout clothes, pulled my running shoes out of my still-packed suitcase, and headed to the gym. this treadmill workout went so much better...i decided to get on the machine right next to the guy making the most noise. and i stepped lightly and quietly, who knows why, but it went well, three-one, three-one, finishing up with five straight minutes of jogging. yes, it was short, but it was easier, and i think it's important for me to feel that i'm making progress. so yay for me!

off to a....start

today my training calendar said "30 min jog/walk" so I decided to follow the jog three-walk one program from saturday (yes, I'm really trying to ease my body back into this since I'm even more out of shape than I had realized...ugh!). i'm out of town right now, so this workout took place in a small, hot, hotel fitness room. at first i was incredibly frustrated as i was pounding away so loudly on the treadmill that i was worried that i was disturbing the other exercisers! i didn't used to have that problem...or maybe it's not as obvious in a big, crowded gym. i think it means my core and quad strength is diminished and those parts of my body aren't doing as much of the work...so it looks like weight training will need to be part of this equation as well. (lucky for me, i have a trainer of elite athletes in my family to get some help with all this! : ) so i cranked up the iPod and eventually found something of a stride and made it through. i have a ways to go, i realize, but as my mom said the other day, you can't do anything about yesterday -- you can only do something today. so i'm happy that i ditched the free food and open bar reception at this conference and did the right thing today. and my reward is that tomorrow is an off day! : ) ~j

off and running

well, today was the first official training day of my TNT half-marathon program. strangely enough, my eyes popped open at 6:35 am, right before my alarm went off, so i guess my body knew what today had in store for me. (anyone who knows me will understand how unusual that wake up time is for me, especially on a saturday!) now, it's 10:45 am, i'm home, i've already completed my workout for the day (2 miles to start, plus stretching), and i've made a new friend and potential training partner (ellen). normally i wouldn't even be up by now, so i guess this is a good start! stay tuned. we received our training schedule this week so i'm going to try to write after just about every workout.

-j