new blog

I've moved my blog here: http://suzshe.wordpress.com/

This new blog is an overall blog. It's not just for running. You can click on tags on the right if you want to see all the exercise posts. All my runs will be tagged there.

short and sweet

I did a 2miler, but hey, glad I can still do that after being a bum the last couple of weeks. It felt good to get out there. Feels real good now for having done it. I figure I'll stick to 2 and 3milers until I have plans to do something further and then I'll start training. It's not much of a time commitment with the shorter runs. I am aiming for 30min of movement. I added a few minutes of walking onto my run to make up the extra time.

I'm back on my summer work schedule, 2 days a week. I wish I could say that now that the kids are home I'll have more time to run. Sadly, that's not the case. The only hope is for Matt to get home after work and go then since Anna doesn't have as many after school activities anymore. Except afternoon is the hottest time of the summer. Mornings are better. But the getting up part is hard.... arghhh. ......more sleep, less wine, more sleep, less wine, more sleep, less wine.......

hazy hot and humid

it could have been hotter I guess, but it was still miserable. We (Becky and I in Wilbraham) did about 3.6mi which seemed like twice that amount. The hat did nothing for the sweat dripping into my eyes. I don't know how I'm going to do this all summer long. I'm going to have to get creative. Maybe a fan clipped to the visor of my hat.

no baby turkeys

No goal in sight and I still ran. I did 3.2mi around the neighborhood. I didn't even bring my watch! That's a major accomplishment for me. At first I felt strange not knowing how fast I was going (hence knowing how far I'd gone and when I could stop). Eventually my mind took over and I was once again thinking about the day of the marathon. It was a good run. No wildlife viewings.

VCM 2007!

there is so much to say, so much has been said. I guess I will let the pictures speak for most of it: http://picasaweb.google.com/suzshe/VCMRelay2007

There were ups and downs. I've got to make a blog entry to list those ups and downs and things we can do better next year. But not tonight, not tonight. I'm still on a high from 2 days ago. I've searched online for other races. I can't wait a whole year to do that again! Becky and I have been talking about a race in Portland and a race in Newburyport. I found something online for the kids to participate in.

Back to the present, and the race..... I had my watch on me and recorded each of the miles. Here is the breakdown:

	mileage
lap 1	0.4	3:33
lap 2	1	10:19
lap 3	1	10:45
lap 4	2	21:13
lap 5	1	10.39
lap 6	0.2	2:08

That results in a 10:30 mile. I can't believe I ran a 10:19 mile. I think that must have been the downhill at the beginning.

Our team did awesome. Much better than Matt's spreadsheet predicted. We finished in 4h:50m:34s. Our pace was 11min 5sec. Unbelievable. Yay Saps!

I cannot wait to do it again.

THE LAST RUN!!

I went out and did my last 4miler, last run before D-day. I got up early. I do enjoy the early hour. It's just so hard to remember that when the alarm goes off. Except this morning I was awake at 5:30 even tho my alarm wasn't to go off until 6:00.

It wasn't the best of my runs, it wasn't the worst. On Becky's recommendation I ate a banana before my run. I do think that helped. I had more energy this morning than I did on Tuesday. Maybe it made me run faster. I ran 10:37 on average. All miles were sub 11:00.

I do enjoy seeing the wild life (and I'm not talking the human variety), even in my urban sprawl neighborhood. Last week I saw about a dozen baby Canada geese, Tuesday a turkey flew in front of me from tree to tree (I didn't realize they could fly that high), today I saw, what I imagine to be, the same turkey on the side of the road watching me. Anna says she thinks that it was a different turkey, that it was the boy turkey and the girl turkey is somewhere with the eggs. She says the next time I go out running that I'll see the babies. The next time I go out running............

last 3miler before race

So the only plans for the week are to fit in a 3miler and 4miler. Once again our evenings are just too busy so I got up early this morning and did a 3miler. It wasn't an easy one. I blame that on the earliness of it all. But I did it. And I'm glad of that.

I find myself thinking about what I will do next week. Will I keep up with this when there's no goal in sight? I'm afraid I won't. It's not easy finding the time to fit these runs in. Will I be motivated to find the time if I don't HAVE to do it? These are my worries. Even tho the run was difficult this morning it was still nice to be out before the masses. The neighborhood was peaceful. I tooled around and did some things before the kids and Matt (and Chris) got up. It was some good "me time". But getting up early isn't easy. SO many obstacles.

5.5 baby!

Well I can do it. As long as it's 50deg and rainy anyway.

I had a great run. I went through Fidelity and down Naticook to Joey Road. Was going to stop at Peter, which would have given me 5mi, but figured if I could do Peter I could certainly do Joey, so I did Joey. And he was good- I mean it was good.

Between the 2 and 2.5 mi my knee started hurting. I hope it means nothing. I was really bummed for a bit but by the time I got to Peter (2.5mi) the pain had gone away. It returned after I stopped running but feels fine now.

I ran 11:12min/mi. I'm really happy with that. I'm so psyched that I've done a 5.5mi run and that it wasn't hard. Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay!

Can you tell I'm psyched?

Oh and I saw baby Canada geese on my trip. Almost ran them over.

taper?

I really shouldn't be tapering for a 5.6mi run, but 2.2mi was all I could fit in today. I ran in the high heat of the day. It's a fairly mild day, around 74deg, but still not too comfortable for me. I ran at about the same time as I'll be running on race day. Not on purpose really, mostly I was busy doing other things looked at the clock and thought, better get this in before Anna's bus comes. Only gave myself around 1/2 hour to run. I ran a 10:49min mile. Funny how 2.2mi feels so lame when last Fall it would have been a major accomplishment.

not a run, but.....

We hiked Tuckerman yesterday. Technically that is not a run. But it certainly feels like I did something today. I put my exercise into weightwatchers and I earned 21 activity points (meaning I can eat 21 extra points of food and still lose weight, 23 points is my usual daily intake). A run of 5miles normally earns me 8 activity points. Oh and BTW I did NOT eat 21 extra points yesterday.

I am amazed at how much easier the hike was this year. I'm usually very slow and spend the whole time apologizing to my hiking buddies about slowing them down. Yesterday I hiked with Matt, and where I don't think he hiked as fast as he usually does, I still think we made very good time. He looked back a few times and asked if I was ok (I was right on his heals the whole time) and I very honestly said I was fine. There's something to this running thing. I may make a habit of it.

excuses excuses

excuses seem to be the theme of the week. Here are mine: no time, too hot, no energy.... Guess those are the big ones. I started on Sunday with a 5miler then tried going out on Tuesday for a 4mile run and just didn't have it in me. I ended up *gasp* walking for a 1/2 hour. Better than nothing, but not enough. I didn't get a chance to get out again until this morning. I was determined to fit it in so I got up early and did a 4.7mile run. I'm so glad I did it. Becky just sent a reminder, the race is 2 weeks away!

Tomorrow we're hiking Tuckerman. It's 2 miles up, 2 miles back. That's gotta count for something. I still need to do a 5 mile run for the week and I don't know how I'm going to fit that in. I'm afraid I won't feel up for it on Sunday. We're going to a Red Sox game. It's going to be a long day.

ouch

I feel so old. My back hurts, my knee hurts and my achille's tendon. But I DID IT! 5 miles in the bag. I did the first 2.5mi in 27:45 and the second half in 28:00 even. That translates to 11:09 minute miles.

I didn't do a loop this time. I did a there-and-back. The weather was perfect. I was quite comfortable except for the pain in my achilles. The knee didn't hurt until the very last little bit. The back hurt after I stopped. I'm sure I'll be fine in a little bit. It feels so good to sit.

not bad, not bad

was not feeling like going AT ALL. But my friend John encouraged me and I did it. 3.7mi. It wasn't a tough one. It was kind of a medium one. I had some good random music.

Had some tightness in my lower calves again. Not even sure the area is considered the calves. I'll have to look it up online. But it didn't hurt like last run, just tight. It feels fine now. Probable would benefit from a little stretching.

Gotta do a 5er this weekend. I'm a bit nervous about it.

only 3 miles

As I was leaving the house for my run I told Matt, "I'm only doing 3 today". He asked if it felt good to say "only 3". Yes, yes it did.

Was very tempted to cut my run short today but I persevered. I find it easy to make excuses for why I should stop. Like tonight Anna had piano lessons and I couldn't go out until Matt came home from work. So I'm out there until 15min before her lesson. I tried telling myself to stop early so she wasn't late. But I didn't let myself. I'm important too! And this is MY time.

I just looked at my spreadsheet and I was supposed to do 3.5mi, I only did 3mi. Oops. Oh well, I'll save that for Friday. My calves were tight today. I'll need to do some stretches before my next run. And.... note to me.... BRING KLEENEX!! I never remember and I need it every run.

nice run, longest yet

I did it! Longest run evah. 4.5miles. It didn't get too hard until the last 0.5 miles. That was a whole mile over my previous record! Wow.

I ran with Becky in Wibraham. I was thinking that out of everyone training for this marathon I have the crappiest training route. Christa is at the tip of Long Island, that's gotta be the best. Ali is in Burlington, need I say more. Tara has a nice country road. Becky has a beautiful town with beautiful landscaped houses. Even Karen has some areas that are more interesting than where I live. Runnability is going to be a major factor in our future house hunting.

I don't know what my time was. I brought my watch but forgot to wear it. It doesn't matter. I'm sure it was somewhere around 11min. My legs are pretty tired now. I need to strengthen them. I started doing some simple strength exercises on my off days.

I wore new running shorts today. Becky gave me a pair. They were awesome. Gotta start a list of things needed for race day. So far the list goes something like this: (not necessarily things that I need to buy beforehand, just things I need to have on hand that day)
towel
tank top
running shorts
watch
hat (or visor? I get so hot and sweaty I wonder if a visor would be cooler)
ipod and headphones
sunglasses
sneakers
socks
underwear
some kind of food
water bottle
water

Any other suggestions welcome.

1 in 10

I think that's what Ali said..... 1 out of every 10 runs is that dream run, the one you strive for every time you run. Today was that run. I did 3 miles, which isn't the most I've done, but it's right up there. And it was great. My mind was wandering all over the place. I completed the run in 32:56. Consistency is my middle name.

So now I have 9 sucky runs to look forward to. sigh

still a challenge

It started and ended difficultly. The middle was ok. I am proud that I made it the full 3.5mi but a little miffed that it doesn't seem to be getting any easier.

I did the interior neighborhood zigzag loop. 3.5 laps. It's boring but safe. I need to do 4.5mi this weekend and I think I may do a loop that takes me far from home (well as far as a 4.0 mile loop can take me). I'm nervous about being that far away from home. I may take a fanny pack and bring my cell phone.

My overall time was 11:19 per mile. The first mile I actually broke 11:00, 10:49! I really hope it starts getting easier from here on out. I'm getting nervous that there's only 5 weeks left and I haven't gone above 3.5mi.

catch up

I fell behind this week. It was a tough week. I'm going to blame it on the cold that I seem to have come down with. The week started off tough and I thought it would pick up, but it never seemed to. Each and every run was hard. But I stuck with it and only came in shy 0.5mi for the week. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do a 4miler like I was supposed to. (I posted a link on the right to my training schedule)

I'm pretty proud of myself for going out and doing a couple of miles today even tho I feel like crap. I wish I could say I felt better afterwards, but..... still feeling pretty crappy. Going to bed soon. Tomorrow will be a day of rest.

I find it quite interesting that I ran faster today then I normally do. My first mile I did in 10:39. That's considerably faster than my normal 11:00. Guess I just wanted to get it over with.

yesterday, 3mi

I did 3mi yesterday. Broke it up and did 2miles then had to come into the house to blow my nose and get some water. It was a hard 3miles. I was supposed to do 4 but...... oh well.

not an easy 3

(posting for last night's run)
Yes, I made it. It wasn't easy. I'm feeling it today too. Lesson learned: do not take 3 days off from running, it will set you back.

Got in a discussion with my neighbor this morning about running (again). She keeps saying "I'm not a runner", "my lungs aren't made for it", "I run like a smoker", etc....... I'm sorry but I think that's such bullshit. I don't think anyone's lungs are made for it. I use to think just like her, way back before I had it in my head to start running. But the truth is you can train your body to do anything. You just need patience. You aren't going to run a 5K right away. You start with 30 sec here, then a mile, then a few more.... Given time I could probably run a full marathon. It might take me 3 years to get there, but with patience and perseverance I'm pretty sure I could do it. Now the question remains, do I want to do it? And at this moment in my life I'm going to say an emphatic, NO WAY!!