cricket

So here is where things stand almost 1 year exactly after starting this project.
Kathryn has done her half marathon and is running regularly.
Licia is doing 10K's quite nicely.
I can do 5K's without killing myself.
David can do 5K's easily.
I think Pammy is not currently running.

Here is a picture of Megan (my daughter) on her Aunt Licia's treadmill, just in time for some cold weather indoor running.

Itabashi Riverside Half Marathon

On Sunday Yoshi, Erena and I all trouped down to a park by the river where they held a 5k and a half marathon.  The 5k people went first while all the people planning to do the half lined up at the porta-potties.  I heard there were around 5000 participants, about 500 of which were women.  When we all lined up for the start it was just a seething mass of humanity.  I use zombies run! a lot when I jog so it wasn't much of a leap for me to start imagining a shambling hoard of zombies in our midst.

I was worried for a few minutes before the race started because I didn't see many ipods.  I thought 'oh no Japanese people actually take that rule seriously' but as the minutes ticked away till the start everyone started pulling out their earbuds and finding their playlists so I went ahead and pulled mine out as well.  

There were signs for what time you expected to finish in and it was left to the honor system for you to line up with your sign.  I expected to be 2 hours of above so I was at the back of the pack, which meant when the gun went off we didn't even move for a minute or so, then at a walking pace, then slowly we started running. We circled a full race track and went a little further to the start line so actually those of us at the back did an extra half kilometer, and I found at the end our time started at the gun not when we passed the start line.  

I ran pretty slow compared to most people for the first couple kilometers and was near the back of the pack at our first turn around.  Then for the next 10 kilometers after that I steadily passed people after which point I guess everyone had settled into their places and nobody passed anyone anymore.  It was a beautiful quiet path and I liked my music so I felt quite good for the first 13 or so kilometers, which was where the second turn around was, and then my legs started to slowly get heavy, by around 16 I had a cramp in my foot and by 17 I wanted to go home.  At the beginning the k markers would just tick by but around 17 I started to wonder if the signs had been taken down or something it took so long to see the next one.  But I kept on running and running and running.  I saw my friends waiting for me about 50 yards from the finish line and ended pretty strong.  My time was 2 hours and 38 minute, though because of the issue at the beginning I think it was really closer to two and a half.  I finished 212 our of my gender/age class in which there were 330 people.  I also saw a good number of men finish behind me.  Not to mention my friends saw bus loads of people who had given up along the way riding back to the park.  Multiple bus loads.  So I'm pretty proud of how I did.  I did the whole thing without stopping once.  Next time I do a half I'd like to get my time a lot closer to 2 hours though.

She did it!

I'll leave the description to her much better writing.

Tomorrow is Kathryn's Metric Marathon

Kathryn lacks the advantage of lots of available training races. She lacks the support of a running group. Kathryn has so little support that even her own husband said he didn't think she could do this race. Kathryn is about to do the longest race that any of us has ever tried.
I am so proud of her!
Good luck Kathryn! You can do it!!!

Recent Runs Done and Missed

Rockville 10K/5K

The Rockville 10K/5K was set at the King Farm Village Center.  People had to get there before 8:00 when they shut off the roads for the 8:30 AM race.  Parking was at the shopping center.  The day was cold but fairly nice.  They had the 10K and 5K runners start at different times.  We ran around the neighborhood and some main roads.  It was reasonably flat.  Just over 500 people participated in each of the 5K and 10K parts of the race.  As always with MCRRC it was a friendly well organized race.  This was my 2^nd 10K and I went at a comfortable pace and finished in just over one hour. 

Candy Cane City 5K (missed)

The race day was a very nice pretty fall day, not too cold or cloudy or windy.  I got up 6:00 AM to get there on time and did not have any problem finding the place.  Sadly the small park where they had the main parking was full and people were going off in the narrow residential streets to find parking.  By the time I got turned around and out of the park there was not a great deal of time to go searching for parking and I am directionally challenged, getting lost easily and not over found of parallel parking.  So I sadly turned around and went home having seen the place and the other runners.  This was quite disappointing.  Next year I will have to get there earlier. 

Turkey Burnoff      

As promised the temperature dropped significantly and the wend started howling the night before the Turkey Burnoff race so it was quit cold and windy for the race day morning.  Since the description made a point of the limited parking I made sure to come early and had no problem getting a good spot.  I did have a bit of a scare since just after I got out of the car to look around I dropped my key in the grass leaving my cell phone and scarf and hat in the locked car.  Fortunately I found my key fairly quickly.  This race was at Seneca Park on the paved path were the Christmas lights were put up.  They had both the 5 and 10 mile participants’ start at the same time and at the end of the course you could turn for the finish line for the 5 mile or go start for a turnaround to run the course a second time for 10 miles.  The runners did not need to choose until the end how long they wished to run.  There were over 300 people that did the 5 Mile and over 200 people the 10 mile race.  During the second half of the race I chatted some with several very nice people which made the race more fun.  I ran at a comfortable pace and was not too tired at the end, although I was a bit sore by the time I got home.  They will be having another race at Seneca Park this weekend.  This time a cross country 8K. 

Hydration

After our last long run I had a horrid headache for a few days. Chalk one up for a house full of sick kids but it reminded me that I am not hydrating the way i should and that as the miles add up I need to dig out my camelback.
I think I am going to start running with it and that thought lead me to look at what runners generally do for hydration.
I came across this article in Running Times about what ultra runners do and thought it might be worth a read for everyone else. It is nice and scientific and reinforces my own bias so whats not to like. lol
Amazon has quite a few and even some with comfortable straps and waist belts to prevent bouncing.
Anyone else have experience carrying water for exercises?

image from http://images.usoutdoor.com/usoutdoorstore/products/full/p-ROGUE!850.jpg

Licia for the 10k

Licia emailed me last night not feeling well and saying she might not run. We are all sick over here so I wrote the whole thing off until I got a followup email this morning saying she didn't have a fever and the race was pretty good.

!!!

99  23/31     1/1     1404 Licia Scearce         F 51 Silver Spring MD    MCRRC 1:04:12 10:20

Licia

You Rock!

Picture and results from the Montgomery Road Runners site.

A moment out for Kiernan

Kiernan (my 3yr old) ran his first race this weekend. Every time we go to a race he wants to come but we never have anyone to watch him while we are running who isn't already watching his sister and her ability to be out and about isn't very strong yet. This time it was a race all for him. He was worried at first about what to do. The race organizers provided a man in a bright Tye-die shirt to be the "rabbit" for all the kids to chase. He ran for .25 miles and we chased him around the parking lot. So many kids showed up that they broke the short run up into heats. Kiernan finished 4th in the 2 and 3 yr old heat. At the beginning he wanted me to hold his hand but by the end he got the idea and left me in the dust.

Here is the moment that he let go of my hand and took off.

The reward was a ribbon and a gummy worm

He said he wanted to do it again before we even crossed the line.

What a wonderful thing for Montgomery county road runners to do for their community.

He wants more races and next week we will be doing a 10k The Lake Needwood XC that has a kids fun run beforehand. Aunt Pammy, who had to take some time off running for a bit, will run with Kiernan this time.

Honestly I am more excited about his race than my own. This will be my first 10k ever. We did our 5 mile weekend run yesterday and I got a bit sick after but it is time to move up from the 5ks so here we go.

Group run idea

Sundays at around 9 am alternating weeks Lake Frank/Needwood and Greenbelt.
Starting this Sunday.
Ready?

Results and some pics

119  34/64     3/5     1404 Licia Scearce         F 51 Silver Spring MD    MCRRC   34:56 11:15

129  90/105   14/15    1009 David Kuehnert        M 37 Germantown MD       MCRRC   35:58 11:35

148  51/64     9/10    1010 Melissa Kuehnert      F 38 Germantown MD       MCRRC   40:32 13:03

Some pics from the Montgomery Road runners featured photo section for the Comus 5K

David Mooving right along

over hill and over dale

we will hit the muddy trail

Look at Licia's legs!!!!

looking tired and hot

Where do I put this darn cup?

Reward of delecious ice cream

Comus XC 5k

85 degrees and shade is the best of all possible outcomes in the middle of August.
5:30 p.m. with a very friendly people and free doesn't hurt either. I have been running regularly again so I thought this race would be easier and faster than the last one but man not faster!!! Hot and tired and ug. (also I was in the bathroom when the race started lol)
BUT...

The organizers got an ice cream truck for the finish line! So cool.


Licia's dedication has really been paying off. This time she even beat David.
Go Licia! GGOOOOOO!


MMmmmmm chocolate eclair ice cream.

re-focus

I am falling so far behind Kathryn and Licia that earlier this week on the phone I told Kathryn that right now it looks like they will run a marathon and I will not.
Feeling quite low about that likely eventuality, I have been to the gym twice this week and even had a good run.
Licia recommended this to me awhile ago and I finally to around to watching it: Nova - Marathon Challenge .
Quite good and a little discouraging but also, I think very useful. Have a look.

It. . . . too. . . hot. . .

So far I've managed to stick to a good schedule.  I run about 5 times a week and one day a week I do a long run, which is getting up to around 15 kilometers.  Today was suppose to be my long run.  The only time I can go running is during the day time after dropping off the baby and before going to work.  When the sun in high in the sky and it's hotter and wetter then most legal saunas I suspect.  I stuck my head out the door and thought 'I am not going to do a long run today.'  I did somewhat less then my normal run, at a terrible pace and ended up getting tingly in my fingers and shaky after I stopped.  Clearly we have finally reached unsafe running temperatures.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to deal with the situation.  I have lost around 25 pounds.  I'm happy with my pace.  I'm happy with the distances I'm running.  I think I'm well on my way to being able to do a marathon next year and I don't want to slack off and loose all my progress.  On the other hand I also don't want to die in a ditch from the heat.  I've got no money to join the gym and no alt. child care so. . . I guess I'll start buying a cold sports drink midway and be as smart about timing as I can.

Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest

Since it had rained all day long before the race was set to start Saturday night I was not sure I wished to actually participate in the 8K Rockville Twilight run until right before it started.  As just over 900 people ran and they had issued bib numbers for over 2400 it would appear other runners had reservations about running in the wet weather.  Fortunately by the time the run started it had settled down to a light mist off and on leaving it a lot cooler then it could have been so that the temperature was reasonably comfortable for running.

The run was fun with friendly runners, volunteers, and residents.  The course was well lighted as we ran around the residential streets, on closed off parts of the main road, in parking lots, and around the Montgomery collage Rockville campuses.  They had plenty of water available before, during, and after the race.  The course had only moderate hills so that was nice.  At one point in the race they had people playing live on drums and guitar.  I set a slow steady pace so although I did not run it very fast I felt that I could have gone on longer if I needed to at the end of the race.    

5 miles YAY

I haven't run 5 miles for a long long time.
Today we did our first group run and Licia and David and I ran 5+ miles!
Yay for our side. We ran on the greenbelt perimeter trail. This is a trail I used to run all the time with my dad. It is shady and quiet and interesting. I am so happy that we actually did it. I am so happy that i made it. Once again I was the slowest but we kept going and made it around and then David (who has never run so far in his life) babied me for a few hours by letting me nap while he took care of the kids. He is The Man!
Next week we will be helping his sister move on long run day but I hope we make this greenbelt run a regular event. It felt exhausting but very good to do that run.

Group Run this Sunday

Hey!
Want to suffer in teh heat!?!
Sure you do.
The weather will actually be much better .
Meet in the 2nd parking lot at 830 or at Scearces at 8.

I think I'm finally starting to get somewhere

So it's been about two and a half months since I started running really regularly. Before that I was running but it was kind of on and off due to . . . a kid, weather, injury ext. I've gotten up to running an hour 3 or 4 times a week. Don't ask me how far I'm running. I have no idea. I'd guess well more then 5 k and somewhat less then 10. My first goal was just to be able to keep going for a decent amount of time, now I'm going to dedicate a day a week a shorter run where I'm really working on speed.

Anyway, I mentioned on Facebook but I know some of you are not on, I've finally officially hit 15 pounds of weight loss since when I started training a bit seriously. That still leave a LOT to loose to be honest but it's a start I'm proud of. I know the ultimate goal is not weight loss but my feeling on the matter is it will be a lot easier to run a marathon if I'm not having to lug all that extra along for the ride. I haven't managed to attract any cheering school children but more and more encouraging old people. Hope everyone else is feeling as positive about their training as I am right now.

June Bug 5k

 The Run with the June Bugs Cross Country 5k is done. It was very pretty. There were rolling hills and lots of shade. David and Licia and I ran it. I most slowly of all but still not dead last. This was our first run as members of the Montgomery county road runners. Our over all impression is very favorable.


Licia showed once again that her dedication and hard work is taking her to the top of our group. David was faster but she creamed me.

We had a bit of a hard time lining up someone to watch the kids (Thank you Lore and Carolyn!) So we weren't sure until the last minute if we were going to be able to make this one.
I am glad that we did.


 rolling

&

  hills

Habits & Goals

I haven't run for a while, I am bad. However on June 1st I ordered 30 Day Shred on Amazon. I especially liked that I get the DVD, but more importantly the streaming video on Amazon Instant. So I was able to immediately get into it.

I know this blog is for running but I just wanted to talk a little about making goals and other exercise that I'm doing. I am implementing Jerry Seinfeld's productivity secret for 3 goals: 30 Day Shred or other exercise, flossing, and arriving to work on time & ready to go (= wake at 5am instead of 5:30 = enough time to do make-up, park on street & walk 10 mins instead of wasting $5 on garage, arrive at work before or at 7am ready to work!) The point is to string Xs together and "don't break the chain" of Xs. Although I realized that my third goal only applies to 5 days a week, so it will be more like groups of Xs than a chain... Oh well!

I am on the third day of the 30 Day Shred and I look forward to doing it again today. Yesterday I was very sore and put it off until 7pm but finally just sucked it up and did it. I googled around and read that other people felt the DVD didn't have enough stretching afterwards so I did more of that and feel much better today. I feel stronger already, it's awesome! I plan to incorporate running back into my routine on Saturday morning. We leave for vacation on Sunday so I can't join in on the group running in Greenbelt until next Sunday. I wish I weren't so slow because I feel bad for slowing others down!

Where's my crowd of cheering school children?

I think this is a case where I've been lied to by the main stream media again. Cause things aren't shaping up like I've been promised by dozens of Japanese dramas. So hears how the dramas go: Some vastly unlikely person decides to run a marathon (or insert any other sport that mostly takes dedication rather then talent, though frankly it is usually actually a marathon) despite some obvious reason why they should fail. I think the most recent drama I saw with this plot the boy had autism. But anyway there have been plenty of variations on the theme. So OK, said inappropriate or unlikely person tells others of their plans. Others scoff. Others tell unlikely person to give up and go home. But unlikely person has a dream, and nothing can crush that dream. Unlikely person goes out every day and practices and practices and before long others begin to notice. Neighborhood people begin to cheer unlikely person on. At some point (and I'm not really sure how this one usually works) school children start to join unlikely person on their long runs, and draw encouraging pictures in crayon and say really uplifting things. At a critical point in the training, adversity hits. A sprained ankle in the pouring rain. Unlikely person ends up on all fours in pain, watching the rain hit the pavement and then the uplifting crayon sketches along with some appropriately uplifting music give unlikely person the will they need to get up and keep going. In the final episode a whole class of cheering kids shows up to scream encouragement while hero struggles toward success. I've also seen this whole plot played out point by point for a chick who randomly decided to do competitive police dog training. Talk about unlikely.

Now I'm a vastly unlikely person to run a marathon. When I was told (by Missy) I planned to run a marathon in a year, I totally scoffed, but none of the other drama points seem to be happening for me. Well. . . I sprained my ankle in the rain but not while running, and there were no uplifting sketches, or swelling music. From time to time old people smile as I job past and say 'I think your loosing weight sweaty!' Not too bad. And I have actually lost a bit of weight. So I guess since the universe isn't planning to spontaneous sprout motivational background music for me, I'll just have to download some from itunes and hit the road.   

Germantown 5 Miler

Seems like I showed up the wrong race.  I skipped the Runamuck race that everyone else (living locally) ran in, and I showed up for the 5 miler which everyone else skipped.  It was a little too challenging to be really very fun but it was a good race.  I was ready for five miles although I was happy to see the finish line and that it was not a 10K yet. The 5 Miler was a small race (just under 200 runners) and very friendly.  Everyone seemed supportive to everyone else. The weather was great.  The course was reasonably flat with only a few slight slops.  It was a good experience and I am glad I went.  I think in general most of the people there were experienced runners.  Many of the people were wearing shirts form previous runs.  I suspect longer runs attract mostly experienced runners.  I would recommend the Germantown 5 miler for next year.      

5 mile fail

So the Germantown 5 miler happened and I didn't run. In fact none of us ran it except for Licia. Licia is being much better about keeping on schedule than the rest of us. She stopped by afterward and reported on the race and the people involved and she seemed fresh as a daisy.

GGGOOOOOO!!!!! LICIA!

This weekend we are starting our group long runs.
We are going to Greenbelt to run the perimeter trail and hopefully be more virtuous.

topo map from http://www.rundc.com/Doc/MD/PG/GreenbeltPark.htm
We will be doing the run dc 5.8 mile version.
Greenbelt park is sort of far from all of us but it is shaded and a good length and near potential babysitting and at one point I knew the trail fairly well.

In other news I have joined the Montgomery County Road Runners group. This is something I wanted to do earlier but felt like my running was not good enough to merit it. But...membership pays for some of the races we have upcoming and they have a close Wednesday running group so I will give it a go.

Run amuck/mud

That was so much fun!
I want to do that every weekend.

We had a late day race start (2pm) and thank goodness for that because it was freezing cold (OK it was 52 degrees) and rainy most of the day and we caught the only dry time of the day.
Well it started dry...
once you jump in a cold spring lake a few times the rain doesn't make a huge difference.
The costumes were fun and the crowed was playful and enthusiastic. The hills were significant and the obstacles left me sore and bruised. It took around an hour to do a full loop of the lake and there was cheering and mud for all.

David made a swan dive into the mud pool and had weird coated contact lenses. Pammy had no sleeves and was amazingly not blue. Ashley seemed much fitter than the rest of us but gamely carried on with the team.

We were Power Rangers.

photos by Jenny Ruley photography

Marathon Change

OK here is an idea.
The Marine Corps Marathon is full. What do you think if we postpone our marathon to next spring. I am thinking about a small flat shaded marathon on the C&O tow path ...
3 reasons: Kathryn will be here and we could all run together, the weather will be great and the course flat, and it gives us more time to prep.

What do you think?

OK, so it goes better if you actually train for a race

The race was fun. We went at a comfortable pace and it was a really nice day. I felt that I was ready to run that distance without difficulty, if not very fast, so I was not anxious about the race and things went well. It was also very pleasant that the course did not have any challenging hills to run up.

I love flat running routes.

The 5k on Sunday was mostly flat, with some downhill, and hardly any uphill incline to speak of. It was wonderful, I loved it. None of the 5ks I have done were that flat (and i've done 5, in the last 4 years apparently). As a result I think I got my best time yet. But to be completely honest, I prepared more for this one compared to the others, and I couldn't find my time for two of them. This is encouraging because I know I can do much better than what I did on Sunday! I also really liked this race because it was so much more diverse and less competitive than ones i've done before. I didn't think that I would continue (after 5ks) this incremental race experiment that Missy conjured up. But the Germantown 5 Miler is a very reasonable price and the course map seems like it will be flat.

My inhaler was running low and I was nervous about that. But it ended up not causing any problems at all. I ran at a reasonably slow pace and walked for about 4 minutes off and on. The weather couldn't have been better.

I'm excited to continue training now. We went on a nice power walk on Tuesday, and yesterday I ran near the house without planning a route. In retrospect I will plan my route next time, too many steep hills! On Friday I am going biking with a friend on Beach Drive, can I pretend that this counts as training as well?

Lacking motivation

I heard all about the race. Wish I could have been there. Unfortunately I don't know how well I would have done. I asked my husband to look around for races and he said there weren't any which I didn't actually believe. So I asked a friend to look for me and it turned out there really aren't any 5K's. She found one two hours away that you have to pay 50$ to enter. Sadly I took a pass on that. It's really killing my motivation. I know I should be able to get up and run for my own satisfaction or health or something but to be honest a lot has been happening over here. I'm still in school, working many extra hours, and am pretty much entirely responsible for the baby. Most days I feel like I'm going on empty, so when time comes to jog. . . . well sleep seems a lot more appealing. Not exactly sure how to turn it all around at the moment. The weather is getting nice though so maybe that will help.

Our May Race - The Germantown 5 miler

On May 19 we are going to try for a small local race. The Germantown 5 miler. I am thinking about having a BBQ thereafter. This will be our first incrimental step up in distance and after doing 2x 5k's I think it will be worth a shot. Registration is now open.
In other news I am ready to start running again and I know David is doing some heavy duty cross training, a la Krav Maga.

Get ready

Get set

Go

Our first 5k is done. It went really well. No injures and good times for all. Big crowed and lots of cheering and great weather 66 degrees and sunny and breezy. 

I was quite nervous about this one. My first post babies 5k and my first group run for this little adventure of marathon or bust. 

I am only on week 4 of 9 for my 5k training program so I was worried about that too. My weekly runs are 1.8 miles in about half an hour and they are very comfortable so I was guardedly hopeful.

Success.!

I ran the whole way with Licia and for a bit with Pammy too. I felt good at the end and am only a bit stiff today although last night I got a killer migraine and poor David had to feed, bath and put the kids to bed on his own after an equally hard race. 

I think I was dehydrated but everything is fine now.

The race started on a huge downhill and really never had a significant uphill. We ran around the inner harbor and the mood was so festive that I feel very much like doing that shamrock 5k again next year.

progress progress everywherer

I joined a gym 3 weeks ago. I have been running and lifting weights and fairly virtuous. Today is the end of my week 2 program. Things are going smoothly if slowly. I am taking it easy and have not hurt my knee and am increasing my speed by small inciments along with the distance (and weights). I am in the beginning phase (that truly unfit part) in which even the slightest effort is rewarded with gain. I haven't lost any weight but my pants are looser. I am running at a bit more than half my 5k target speed of measly 8 minute miles.
I have never run on a treadmill before. I have played around on them but I love the outdoors and the woods particularly for running. Treadmills give me weird almost dizzy reactions. I get off and nearly fall, its like a sailor walking on dry land after a long voyage. Entertaining and very unexpected...
I am not more impressed by the staff at Planet fitness so far. Despite meeting 2 very helpful employees, overall the customer service thing seems to be lacking. I know that some of this is my fault. I don't know what I am doing in a non-school gym and I am sure it gets on peoples nerves.
Example of Missy not knowing what she is doing and getting on peoples nerves:
Planet fitness offers free personal training upon appointment. My first day at the gym I made an appointment therefore, for the Thursday upcoming. The man at the desk, a very helpful person, told me to be there at noon plus or minus 5 and to arrive ready to work out. Thursday was a very busy day at work and I skipped my time in the nursing room to leave early and get to the gym at +/- 5 min. I got there at 12:01 and out of the changing room at 12:09. Too late :(
The personal trainer told me in no uncertain terms about how late I was. She was quite unhappy with me and moved on to training the other 4 people in the session. I made another another appointment for Thursday the following week.
The next Thursday I arrived at around 11:45 and saw the trainer driving up just as I entered the gym. I changed and walked out to the meet up point and stood around. The trainer was behind a desk working on some paperwork. There was a group of 3 sitting at a table under the class meets here sign. I stood near the 4th chair (there were papers and pens at the 4th spot). The personal trainer came up to the table and looked at me (quite unhappy again) and asked me if i was in the class again. I replied that I was and she said "Well your late"...
I answered that I had been there for quite sometime. She asked if I had checked in with the desk..only she didn't ask me she spun around to the desk and said "Did she tell any of you that she was waiting for me?". They informed he of their ignorance. She stared at me for a while then said "You didn't check in and fill out your sheet (apparently there is a sheet and I should check in but I wish there were a better way to find out that through this trial and error thing.). I made an appointment for this Thursday at noon.
I am afraid of the personal trainer.
The first week I was relieved to be excluded after my conversation with her, thinking that I had caught her on a bad day.
The 2nd week I decided that Planet fitness must be a rough place to work and that she was just generally on edge. But after watching her with the other clients I am now leaning toward the she really doesn't like me solution. She seems all smiles and kind words for most of the other people she is dealing with.
I get on people nerves sometimes and when I know that a person is one of that sort I work quite hard to avoid them. As far as I know there is only one personal trainer and I really want help with my running program so I will keep trying.
Wish me luck!
(credit to http://www.waynet.org/waynet/spotlight/2004/040705-turtle.htm for the turtle pic)

next year . . . how did I not hear about this!?!

Cupid's Undie Run I sure hope we do this next year. Pictures from the Washington post for this years run are here .

Long way to go

I have been running fairly regularly since the Christmas holidays, between using the treadmill in the company gym before work on some weekdays and real runs on the weekend when it is not too cold and/or windy (OK I never clamed to be a true jogger, true joggers do not let little things like unpleasant weather deter them.) I am still very slow and have not made great improvement yet. I know am the weak link in the team since I am the oldest and most out of shape of the group so I am trying to get to a place were I don’t slow people down too much.

How dose your foot fall

An interesting article in the New York times about running form and injury. Makes me think about how I land on my feet. I am not actually sure if i am a heel striker or not...
We shall see.

Well hello

So... we bought a treadmill. I know, I know, I said I never ever wanted to get one. But as I am already signed up for the Shamrock race in March, and it was obvious I was never going to actually get to run outside because a) it gets dark 30 minutes after getting home from work and b) it's cold because it's winter, isn't that weird?

Anyway, the treadmill is pretty cool, we like it. Chris has been using it too, but no, I can't convince him to join in on a race, he's a party pooper. What would make the treadmill so much cooler is if we could get the dang iFit Live to properly integrate with google maps! I keep reading about how fun it is to run "through" the street view but it just doesn't work properly on our machine. All it does is adjust the incline to the terrain in custom maps that you create. It also has pre-programmed workouts that you can use, as well as some with trainers such as Jillian Michaels where they yell at you the whole time. But all I really want to do is run in street view... and of course customer service is terrible. I have made several custom maps that i'm excited to use when we get it working: the trail off the river in Manayunk, outside of Philadelphia that my best friend runs, a two mile route that ends at my grandfather's house in Mt. Pleasant, PA, a 3 mile loop I used to run when living at my parent's house, & a few mile trek along main street Greensburg. Should be fun...

Anyway, I am a bit nervous about training mostly on a treadmill. I read that you need to set it to at least a 1% incline to simulate wind resistance. But it still feels ten times easier than running outside. I mean, the friggin' belt is moving under you, rather than you pushing against the stationary pavement. Oh well, maybe we will have some more freakishly warm winter days so I can get some proper outdoor runs in before March.

My main challenge is figuring out the best time to run. I prefer to do it in the morning before work, but I already wake up very early (don't you feel bad for me, parents of young babies who I know get much less sleep than I?). When I get home, the last thing I want to do is run. I usually want to eat dinner immediately, and who wants to run after eating? Not this girl.

Once i'm up and pull on my sneakers though, i'm ready to go. It's just getting to that point that's difficult. Because, I. love. sleeping. so. much.

sigh

Okay, so the running was going well... Then I got sick. Then I decided to switch jobs. Needless to say I'm back to square one. Not that square one is a bad square, but...

So Clearly fate Hates Me

My running got off to a great start. I was picking up time, I was running easier, further, having more fun. All those wonderful things. When I went for my monthly doctor visit my blood pressure even seemed to be lower. And then. . . . first my daughter and I both picked up a killer cold. The kind of cold that makes you just want to crawl under the covers and forget the world exists, except you cant cause the baby is sick too. Two weeks I couldn't breath and barely wanted to live. No jogging. So I finally felt better, hit the road one time and the next day white stuff fell from the heavens, and kept falling. Not a common event in Tokyo proven by the fact that everyone's reaction was to pour tons of hot water over the roads and sidewalks to 'clean them off.' One and a half weeks of dangerously icy roads. OK. Roads cleared. Got one jog in. Huge project for work suddenly appears, plus a project for school, not so sudden but every minute of every day for a week was taken up. But I cleared that away my schedule was set up perfectly to jog again and SURPRISE! The incredibly puking baby. All day all night till mid yesterday. Dropped her off at daycare today looked up at the sky pelting down rain at me and thought. . . . maybe tomorrow.

Ashamed. :( On some level these are all excuses I know. Well maybe not the ice. But the cold and the work. I could have dredged up the time and energy somewhere and I didn't. One of the problems is that I'm not signed up for any races thanks to a husband, the literate one among us, that says 'there are no 5 or 10K's in Japan. Nope none. Skeptical. I'm going to ask a friend to look up some races and as soon as the sky gives me the smallest break I am going to go running. Really. I mean it this time.

Sign. But no, really. I am!

commitment devices

Today I was listening to the freakemomics commitment device podcast. I am joining a gym. Today I went to the gym to have a look around. I am joining planet fitness because it is cheap and it is close and looks pretty good equipment wise. This is the 2nd planet fitness I have visited. At first I thought I might join one near home but have decided on the one by work because if I work out during lunch it won’t interfere with baby time.

I have to say this. So far planet fitness has not been very impressive customer service-wise. This isn’t going to stop me from joining because I mean to run and probably won’t have much dealing with the staff but good heavens.

The first location (near home (Germantown)) was full of barely attentive workers who were chatting with each other or texting instead of helping me to sign up. The 2nd location (near work(Frederick)) was vastly understaffed (1 worker so I couldn’t sign up or look around without waiting 1/2 hour) and the girl/woman on staff was deeply flustered and irritable.

Ug.

On the other hand I only visited each location once and who knows if I saw the norm.

Hopefully with more exposure my first impressions will be more favorably altered.

As a barefoot runner I say "Have you read born to run?"

Nothing to see here move along...or not

Sad to say that illness and work relocation had completely jammed up my running. I am perpetually in week 2. That may be a problem come March but I think I will be ok if I can get going again.
This weekend hopefully.
I am joining a gym...fighting bankers hours to set up an account.
This is pretty discourging. I had such a head of steam before we all got colds and even into the move but between the baby not sleeping and the weekend work I am all steamed out. I know that some of us are in the same boat and others are chugging along. I hope to place myself firmly in the chugging along column shortly.
Wish me luck.