Rocky Road

Today was terrrrrrrrrrible. I knew it would be. I wasn't planning on doing my long run today but my plans changed so today was the day. I certainly didn't plan on doing it the day after 120 box jumps, 80 wall ball squats, 400 ft of walking lunges with a 10 lb plate over my head, and 40 handstand pushups. That's not really how you prep for a long run. Also, my dinner of red wine and chocolate cake didn't help either.

I went out late, I don't think I even left the house until 11:30. I stopped at the Paperback to use the bathroom and ended up talking to the owner (who I know from Cross Fit) for a while. He's a super nice guy. He's lost a ton of weight since joining CF. He said I looked leaner just from a few weeks ago. That was nice of him. He's planning on going to the Tough Mudder, even if registration is filled he's going to go to hang out with the team. Awesome. It really is a little family over there.

So by the time I actually started running it was close to 1 pm. Not great for the day I chose to do 10 miles. I always say that I know how a run is going to go in the first 2 minutes. I knew it was going to go terrible. Terrible. I didn't have a thing in me and I knew it. I forced out the first 2 miles at my regular pace and then I felt the dreaded bonk coming on. I walked for awhile and I gave myself a pep talk. Here's what I said:

1. You didn't drive 25 minutes here on a Saturday to blow this off
2. You could have gone to the mall if you weren't going to run but you said you'd get your long run in today
3. Get it in today because there's no way you'll want to do it tomorrow if you quit now
4. Don't blame Cross Fit. Don't blame the wind. Don't blame too much time on the treadmill. Runs are hard. Don't act surprised.
5. Do what you have to do but you're not cutting this run a single inch short

My inner voice can be a real taskmaster! I guess that's a good thing though. I remembered completely blowing a long run about 6 weeks before the marathon and I was all freaked out about it. Turns out, it was a great thing to have happened because, in my mind, it got a real stinker out of the way. I think everyone should blow a run. Completely f*&@ing blow a run. I mean, to the point where if someone passed you on the road that you know bend over and pretend to tie your shoes because you're so freaking embarrassed by how badly you're doing. Everyone should have that experience because when you do it makes you more determined for it not to happen again.

We're not machines, we're humans. If I could control how I perform for every single run I'd be a professional. Bad runs happen and I'm glad I got this one out of the way. The upside is that I plan on doing this long run sequence (8, 9, 10) again before peaking out before the NYC Half and I can only improve from here. Hopefully dropping back to 8 miles next week for my long run will give me a boost of confidence and I can work a little on pace again.

NOW...onto WAY more important stuff. The NYC Marathon is not called the Greatest Marathon in the World for no good reason. Today I got a gorgeous, glossy, Official 2010 results magazine. It's loaded with pictures and articles and, of course, the official results for all the finishers. So, because it never gets old to me, I looked up my results and then Jared's to see how many pages I was ahead of him. I had to look up results online first and when I went to that section in the book, guess what? NO JARED!



Conspiracy! Conspiracy! Was he so shamed by my underdog victory that he had his name pulled? Oh, Jared. You will forever be my marathon nemesis!

The right decision

I was sooooooo ready to blow off Cross Fit tonight. I had a rough day and at 4 pm I felt like someone had unplugged my battery. I knew, if I could just make it, going to CF would make me feel better.

I'm glad I didn't blow it off. I had some heavy family stuff to deal with today and I got to blow off some steam tonight.

WOD was 4 rounds for time of:

10 handstand pushups
20 wall balls (I Rx'd tonight with the 14 lb ball for all rounds! First time!)
30 box jumps
Walking lunges holding a weight plate (I used 10 lb, need to work up to 25 lb plate) for 100 feet

My time was 21:20 for the 4 rounds. That's 120 box jumps, btw. Gawd.

I was planning on doing my long run on Sunday but my plans are getting switched around so it's going to be tomorrow. I didn't know that until I got home though. Would I have skipped CF had I known? Maybe. But what's done is done. If I'm slower because my quads are beat, so be it. I'll be happy to get it over with tomorrow and then I can do a recovery run on Sunday.

We have SEVENTEEN people from CF signed up for Tough Mudder! How cool is that?! 101 days. As soon as the snow melts on my street (if it ever melts) I'm going to start doing hill repeats. Run, puke, run again. Should be a blast!

More

Yeah. More snow. Big deal. I didn't have to be anywhere today, my husband got home last night because they cancelled his school for today so I didn't have to worry about him. It's an amazing amount of snow, though. Our fence is 3 feet high and you can barely make it out.

The plow never came though. I called the place we hired and she said "maybe tomorrow." Excuse, me? Maybe tomorrow? She said the plows are having a hard time, blah, blah, blah. Sounds like they have too many clients for the number of plows (I'm thinking 1) they have. My neighbor called me, pissed, and she wants to use another company. Fine. Good. Call them up and make it happen. As long as the company she wants to go with is taking on new houses then that's fine with me. I just hope the old one shows up sometime tonight because my poor dachshund needs to get dropped off at the vet tomorrow at 7:30 for his dental cleaning. He's going to be so groggy and cranky when he gets home, poor little guy. And while work wasn't expecting me to be there today I don't know how well it would go over if I said I couldn't get in tomorrow because of the snow. Although lots of schools are cancelled for tomorrow because there's no place to put the snow.

All this snow just means more time on the dreadmill. I did fartlek training today. It's the workout I dread every week and love every week. Today it went really well. Cross Fit was cancelled last night which gave me the much needed rest day I've been whining about and it really helped me to come back strong. The next part is of no interest to anyone but myself but it's my running blog so I'm blogging my run:

Warmup
4.0 mph (2 min)
5.7 mph (3 min)
5.8 mph (2.5 min)
5.9 mph (2.5 min)

Intervals
6.5/5.5 mph (2 min each)
6.6/5.6 mph (2 min each)
6.7/5.7 mph (2 min each)
6.8/5.8 mph (2 min each)
6.9/5.9 mph (2 min each)
7.0/6.0 mph (2 min each X 3)
7.1/6.1 mph (2 min each)
7.2/6.2 mph (2 min each)
7.3/7.4 mph (1 min each)
6.4 mph (2 min)

Cooldown
6.0 mph (30 sec)
5.5 mph (30 sec)
4.0 mph (1 min)

Today it came out to be 6.26 miles with an overall pace of 9:35 min/mile. That's great because 14 minutes of the hour is at 10 min/mile or slower. When I have workouts like this -- a 10K in under an hour! -- it gives me hope but then I remember stuff like this treadmill conversion chart. I know that's not my outside pace. According to that it's at least 25 seconds slower. Wind, hills, and the pavement all work against me. It might be some day though if I keep working at it. I looked at my Runkeeper log and on October 19th I ran 8.09 miles at a 9:39 min/mile pace. Of course, I was at the peak of my marathon training and it must have been the perfect running day. I can get there again. I just need to have the chance to run outside more!

Then again, I look at where I was a year ago. This is from January 29, 2010 and I realize how far I've come.

For today, I banged out 6.2 miles in the 80 minutes. That's a 10K!!! My overall pace was a little slower (12:54/mile) but slightly better than last week's long run and I'm okay going a little more conservatively when I'm trying to add a full mile onto the workout. I think I will stick with the 80 minutes for awhile since 6 miles is all I really should be doing that this point.

That's progress! I hope next January I have a post that says something like, "Ran 6-minute miles today, felt too easy though." HAHAHAHHA! Okay, maybe not something as dramatic as that. I'll be happy if I have another injury-free year with a few more tweaks in pace.

Dead. Lifts.

When I was recapping CF last night, HOW could I have left out the deadlifts?! There were a zillion of them (okay, 72). I did them with a 75-lb bar and that was so wimpy compared to others. Anyway, if I left that detail out I sure remembered it first thing this morning when I could barely move. It's my own fault, I didn't stretch out after the workout. It wouldn't have helped with the soreness but it would have helped with the tightness. Today I felt like if you stretched out my right leg it would have snapped.

I just didn't feel well today. I had a headache and earache from the storm. I had a stomachache for whatever reason and I wonder if I should not take ibuprofen at night anymore because it might be messing with my stomach lining.

Anyway. I just felt crappy. Crappy, crappy, crappy. I didn't really want to do anything when I got home. But I didn't want to get myself in the same rut I did last week by pushing off all my runs to the end of the week. So I got on the treadmill and did what I'm calling a "maintenance run." I didn't improve anything, I didn't increase pace or distance, but I didn't lose anything either. I took a nice long walking warmup with a nice long walking cooldown. I couldn't do speed work because anything over 6 mph really pulled on my right hamstring. So I took it for what it was. A regular run. Just a Tuesday on the dreadmill.

I took a long, hot bath after and that seemed to alleviate a lot of my woes.

Oh, this came today:



It's a giant postcard from the company that did the marathon photos. They just want me to purchase more ridiculously expensive prints but the postcard itself is a cool memento. On a day where running wasn't coming so easy, I know (and my mail lady knows) that I'm capable of good things.

I want a rest day

Cross Fit was Cross Fit tonight. Hard. Exhausting. I don't even remember exactly what the workout was and it was only 2 hours ago. I know there were squats, push presses, push jerks, and a bunch of other things. I had a really crappy day at work so it was good that it was so draining. It temporarily took my mind off of the trainwreck that this week is going to be.

I need a rest day. My body is tired. This was my 6th day in a row and here I was just saying that my routine wasn't killing me. I don't want to take tomorrow off though because that's what I did last week and that's how I ended up running 4 days in a row and I didn't want that to happen again this week. So I'll do my best to run tomorrow to get one of them over with. Maybe if today wasn't such a lousy, soul-sucking day at work I wouldn't feel this way. Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow.

Everyone is getting excited about the Tough Mudder. Cross Fit is renting 2 houses at Mt Snow so that will be fun to stay with everyone on the team. I guess I can cancel my hotel reservation. I have my aerobed, I'll be comfortable. :) I think all of us will be so sore after the Mudder on Saturday that I'd be able to sleep standing up. We were all looking at the obstacles and trying to decide which one scares us the most. I think the glacier climb won out although the electrical field was right up there too. This should be interesting. I know it's going to be way harder than the marathon but at least I'm part of a team and we'll help each other get through it.

I can't lift as heavy as most people at CF (yet!) and I can't do butterfly pullups and all the other insane things they do but I can run. At least I have that going for me.

Who needs Miami?

We got it going on in balmy Connecticut!

Got outside today (FINALLY!) for my long run. I think it was 14 degrees when I was driving to my start point, it was 27 when I finished. I was prepared though.



Kicking it Arctic Style!

I purposefully went out slow because I knew it could be dangerous for my lungs to force cold air in if I was running too fast. I also wanted my muscles and joints to thoroughly warm up because hitting the frozen pavement could be bad too. It wasn't about pace for me today, it was about adding on some mileage and working with the elements.

I got it done: 9.15 miles, 10:13 min/mile pace. I'll take it. I had to stop once to tie my shoes (AGAIN!). WTH?! Seriously, this is the second week in a row where my sneakers have come untied. I know how to double knot. I can't imagine that I didn't automatically do that this morning but, alas, I looked down around mile 4 and saw my laces flopping around. Considering I was running on patches of packed snow and ice, I thought I'd lessen my odds of taking a digger by not having laces to trip over. I think I need velcro. Seriously. Apparently I can't be trusted to tie my shoes properly.

I also got chased by 2 dogs! I'm not afraid of dogs but I was afraid that they would run into traffic and I didn't want that on my hands. So I stopped running so they would stop chasing and gave the owners a chance to catch up and pick up their dogs. One was a little white yappy thing, the other was a Cocker Spaniel. I know accidents happen but I get pissed at people who routinely let their dogs get out. As annoying as it was to stop and wait for the dogs to get picked up I am more annoyed by owners who would risk their dog getting hit by a car because they're not responsible. Like I said, accidents happen, my dogs have pulled their leash and if I wasn't careful Daisy would run out the front door any chance she got. But for it to happen twice on one run seemed like a lot.

Even with all that, it was a great run. Dealt with the cold, dealt with the wind and got in a decent pace for a good distance.

Total mileage for the week was 25.6. Again, I'll take it. I'm shooting for 20-25 miles a week plus Cross Fit. It doesn't seem to be killing me (yet). I'll have to adjust things in the late summer when marathon training starts up again but that's a long way off.

I hope to run Tuesday and Wednesday this week to give myself 2 days rest before my long run on Saturday. It was not easy going 4 days in a row and, when I think about it, I'm really happy with my performance today because I normally have nothing left when I have to do 4 running days straight.

ETA: I'm glad I'm tracking everything on Daily Mile because I forgot to add in my long run from last week to my ticker. I kept thinking it seemed like it was low, now I know why.

Crawling the walls...

LITERALLY!

The snow wasn't as bad as it could have been but it was still going when I woke up and the plow hadn't come yet (it just came at 1:51 pm) so I stayed home today. We're supposed to get another huge storm next week so I can see how someone would start to go a little batty at this point with the snow. So what do you do when that happens? You do a wall climb!

I wanted to do it again to see if I could do it better than when I was at CF so I went into the guest room and I went right up. I got perfectly flat against the wall and it was awesome. Until I got down and saw that I had left nice red marks from my Uggs on the wall. Oops.



They're hard to see here but, trust me, they're there. I wisely did it in the guest room and if the door is open no one will ever see them. They're high! I guess it's because it's my height plus the height of my outstretched arms. Next time I'll wear my gym shoes that have never been worn outside. But I like doing these wall climbs. I never could do a handstand as a kid so to be able to do one at the tender age of 39 kind of rocks. And note the super fashionable Midcoast Crossfit shirt. :)

At lunch I ran on the treadmill and I'm starting to see the payoff of the interval training. Today I gradually built up speed starting from 5.7 mph to 6.5 mph (9:13 min/mile) at the 30-minute mark. I stayed there until 50 minutes then did 4 minutes at 6.6 mph and the last 4 minutes at 6.7 mph (8:59 min/mile) and then walked for 2 minutes as cooldown. Overall, my pace was 9:43/mile for 6.18 miles. That's great considering I had to catch up to a sub-10 mile from warming up and then stayed there for the rest of the run.

It wasn't easy but it wasn't impossible. I think because I've always told myself I'm a slow runner I never really pushed myself to move below 10 min/mile. But I'm seeing it's possible. Probably not for a marathon but maybe, just *maybe* there could be a sub-10 half-marathon in my future. It won't be NYC in 8 weeks but there's at least 2 more in 2011 that I'm doing. I'm putting it out there that I'd love it to be the LI one on May 1 because that was my comeback 1/2 marathon where my time was 2 hours and 47 minutes. To come back a year later and rock it out with a PR would be sweet. That's my dream and I'm going to work on it.

Here we go again...

Honestly, I don't mind the cold at all. I don't even particularly mind snow. But we're running out of places to put it! This stuff is going to stick around for awhile because this weekend will be bitterly cold. My only beef with that is that it's cutting down my running routes to just one because the trail is pretty much done until Spring, the hill loop from hell near my house has no shoulders on the road anyway so it's even more dangerous now, and the lake route is the same thing. So I have one route in OS with 2 variations: the 6.33 miles one and the 8.10 mile one.

Today I was going to do the 6.33 mile one at lunch but I just didn't get out there. With the storm coming my sinuses are outrageously bad. I feel so, so lousy the day before a storm. My ears are clogged, my jaw hurts, my cheeks hurt, my TEETH hurt, I feel dizzy, and I get weird numbness in my hands. I used to think I was having a heart attack or stroke when these things would happen but my best friend gets the same weird stuff and we've both had all the tests in the world to show we're otherwise healthy. Still, it doesn't make it any more tolerable to know it's just sinuses.

After work I got on the treadmill, my only other alternative to the OS routes. I wasn't thrilled about it because the storm means I'll definitely be on it tomorrow and probably Saturday, too. But a run is a run. I did speedwork again and amped up my intervals a little more this time. At the end my intervals were 7.1 mph/6.1 mph, 7.2/6.2, and 7.3/6.3. My recovery pace at 6.3 mph is a 9:16 minute mile. This is exactly why I've been doing this kind of workout once a week, not to work on the top speed so much. Let's face it, I'll never be running an 8-minute mile for more than 2 minutes at a time. But it is conceivable to run a 9:16-minute mile. My overall pace for the 6.12 miles was 9:48/mile, including the walking warm-up and cool-down. I'll take it. Especially how I was really suffering at the end with my sinuses. I didn't realize how NOT fun it is to run on a treadmill with my ears clogged. My equilibrium was shot and it made me feel unsteady. It's every runner's nightmare to take a digger on the treadmill and have the belt rip up their face or something while they're on the ground.

My calves were a little sore from CF last night but I'm finding that my legs are doing pretty well and not interfering with running. That was my concern about going into a program like CF with all the squats. I'll feel a little sore the next day but I'm not hobbling around anymore like I was in the beginning. Does that mean I'm becoming more fit? I hope so!

Now that I'm thinking of it, I really do hope it snows tomorrow. I'd like to sleep in a little and work at home.

Fear

The other night at CF they did handstand pushups. I did the modified version off the box in a pike position because I was afraid to flip my legs up on the wall like a cartwheel. Like, deathly afraid.

Tonight was tough, as always. First the warmup. Then walking squats across the room and back. Then walking pushups across the room and back. Then the real WOD:

50 wall balls
50 pullups
35 wall balls
35 pullups
15 wall balls
15 pullups

Simple but brutal. My legs and arms were all quivery after. I was cooling down and getting ready to go home when I saw 2 girls working on wall climbs in the corner. I wanted to join them but I was afraid, like with the handstand pushups. While they were teaching a third woman how to do it I started to attempt one but it was a false start. I got scared. I sat and watched the other women and I decided to give it another go. I got about halfway up and got scared and it was one of those seconds in life where you either push through or give up. I pushed through and I did it!!!!! And after I did it, I did another one just to make sure it wasn't a fluke!

This isn't my CF but this is what I did. And I'm going to keep doing them because they are AWESOME!!!



Next thing I work on: handstand pushups!!

Functional fitness

This blog has been all about running and my other workouts. I feel like, because it's a blog mostly about running, that unless I do one I don't have anything to say. If I don't log a workout, then I feel like I haven't earned my fitness.

I didn't work out today. I had a 4-hour commute to get to Stamford (2.5 hours to get home), my ears are clogged up and I feel a little feverish, I'm sore from last night's CF, and I'm just tired. I needed a day off. Thinking about it though, I got in a different kind of workout, one that makes me realize the true benefit of all the ones I blog about.

At the train station, I went up 2 flights of stairs with a loaded laptop bag wearing a heavy coat and I didn't break a sweat.

When I got off the train, I walked really fast with that heavy bag and my winter coat and my heart wasn't racing at all when I got to the office.

Going home, I jogged uphill back to the train station with my laptop bag because it was raining so hard and I didn't want to miss the train. I never got out of breath.

When I got to the train station I ran up the escalator steps because just standing on it felt like I was moving too slow.

When I got home I shoveled snow so heavy it felt like concrete and since the sides of our driveway were already piled high I had to fling it over the banks. I did it quickly and without getting winded.

All of these things weren't possible for me not that long ago. This is where the miles run and the pushups done mean something other than a blog entry. It's even more than being about burning calories and keeping the weight off. It's about life and what it throws at you and being able to take it on. That's functional fitness. And that's a blog entry!

What doesn't kill you...

...makes you stronger? We'll have to see about that one!

Tonight's CF was brutal. Broo-TAL. Definitely the hardest one I've done since I started. After the warmup (which included squats and pushups, ugh), we did squat holds: get down in a squat breaking 90 degrees with your knees (meaning you go LOW), hold it there for 20 seconds, come up and rest for 10. Four rounds. Harder than it sounds. Then the actual workout:

5 handstand pushups
10 power cleans
15 burpees
20 wall balls
25 kettle ball swings

FIVE ROUNDS!!!!

It took me 32 minutes, 15 seconds. The burpees were especially rough, they're like special CF burpees, I'd never done them like that before. I can't describe it other to say it's a lot freaking harder than I've done them in the past and burpees just plain suck to begin with.

I have a new goal, though. I did modified handstand pushups. I was completely vertical except I had my legs in a pike position off a tall box. I want to do them against the wall so bad and I think I have the upper body strength to do it but I've never done a cartwheel before and that's how you get in position. I might try it at home so when I fall on my head a few times no one will be there to see it. Not that I care, I honestly can't see anyone at CF laughing.

What's so cool about CF is that as people finished up their workout they went around encouraging the rest of us who were still going. I was on my last round standing there wondering how the hell I was going to get out another 5 burpees and one of the guys came by and yelled "Come on Kelly, looking STRONG!" I banged out those burpees and was actually smiling. It's such a great atmosphere. Everyone is working at their own ability but there is mutual respect just for being there.

I've been Paleo perfect today. I made spaghetti squash yesterday with turkey meatballs (ground turkey, pine nuts, golden raisins, 1 egg, baked). It was so good just to be able to heat something up when I got home instead of freaking out about what I was going to eat. I'm going to bring it to work tomorrow because I have to go to Stamford and can't get my Paleo lunch at the Paperback Cafe.

Speaking of, my hubby met me for lunch at PC today. This is his last week off so it was nice to have lunch with him.

I am sore, drained, and I feel like I pushed my body right to the limit tonight but I feel SATISFIED. Gotta love that.

Conspiracy theory

What didn't go wrong on today's run? A test of wills, that's for sure.

I got up late - after 10 - which I hadn't planned on. But I didn't go to sleep last night until 2 so the vicious cycle starts again. I was crabby and cranky when I woke up and I hated knowing that it would be after 1 pm by the time I got ready, did my run, and got home. My whole day was already shot and it hadn't even started yet.

I got going, slowly, and drove to OS for my run. I stopped at the Paperback Cafe to use the bathroom and saw a bunch of folks from CF having a late breakfast, so that was nice. I felt like I had to run since I clearly hadn't just been at CF like they all were but that was a good pressure.

I got going and I felt decent. It was around 32 degrees which is probably my favorite temp, to be honest. I still sweat, I still get hot, I still peel off layers, but I'm relatively comfortable. The only downside is cold wind. That's brutal. And I had a lot of that today. Really strong, cold wind coming off the water. I only saw a few other runners but they were all going in the opposite direction and I thought they were onto something I wasn't because the wind was at their back the whole time. Maybe next time I'll reverse my route and see if that makes a difference. But I'm not big on change so I probably won't.

Just when I was feeling warmed up and hitting a decent pace, I looked down and one of my sneakers was untied. That's such an amateur mistake but I was practically asleep still when I got dressed. So I stopped and tied it but I had to walk for a minute or so after because I get postural hypotension, especially if I've been doing something physical. So that pissed me off for no reason.

Everything was going sorta okay around the 4-mile mark, as well as it was going to go with that wind, so I did a gel because I was doing 8 miles. Honestly, I don't think I need it and I'm not going to bother for an 8-miler anymore. Today I did a vanilla one and while it was delicious it was caffeinated and I haven't done one of those in a long time. About 15 minutes later when I usually feel the extra boost of simple sugars kicking in, I started to feel the dreaded GI upset. Since this is a running blog I'm assuming any one who reads this is into running so when I say the "dreaded GI upset" I know everyone knows my pain. I thought I'd be okay though because I knew of a porta-potty not far from where I was. Except when I got there it was gone. I guess they take it away in the winter. Panic!!!! I knew there was a McDonald's about a mile away so I did everything I could to take my mind off my deteriorating physical state. Before I got to the McDonald's I noticed there were a lot of cars at one of the churches I pass and I decided that at that point I had no choice. I felt like God wouldn't mind. I certainly was thanking him when I went to pull the lobby door open and it wasn't locked.

After that, I felt much better except I had cooled down and I had that postural hypotension thing going on again so I had to walk before I could run but I made the most out of the last mile and a half.

8.08 miles. 9:53 overall pace. With all that was going against me today, I'll happily take that. I would have been happy to just finish, to be honest. I hope I don't have a repeat of today for a long time.

It was a good week: 24.79 miles. I think the NYC 1/2 is 9 weeks from today so I'll start alternating some 10s with 8s for my long run. If I manage to get my ass out of bed before 9 next week and I'm feeling okay, maybe I'll do it next week. No promises.

Paleo took a little vacation

On Wednesday, the snow day, I freaking white knuckled it through the day trying to stick to my Paleo plan. I haven't felt that way in a long time and I didn't like it one bit. I knew I was going away for a girls' night the next day to the casino with my friend so I had a pretty good idea that the next day would be a planned cheat meal but even that annoyed me. Why should I have to plan a cheat? The last year+ have been about me learning balance and self-acceptance. Again, I don't talk about diet or weight loss in this blog too much because it started out as a chronicle of my NYC training. But I will say that I've lost a ton of weight and I learned how to stop punishing myself for being human. Those miserable feelings of being on the brink of losing self-control on Wednesday brought me back to a dark place in my life and I decided that I don't need that again.

I did go on my little getaway and I did have a great time. Even now my "cheats" are well within control and what used to be what my daily diet was. So I don't even feel bad about what I ate.

Today I had a good run. Having 2 days off from working out had a good effect and made going for my run today a treat. I only planned on 4 miles because I'm planning on 8 tomorrow for my long run. I got into a nice groove with the fartlek training and 4 miles came and went and by the time I finished my last fartlek interval I was at 4.6 miles so I just slowed down and went for 5. My overall pace was 9:54/mile, which is good considering that includes 4 minutes of walking warmup and cooldown. I spend a lot of my intervals in the 8-something range which makes my recovery intervals of 9-something seem so much easier. I'm really hoping to get to the point where I can do a 1/2 marathon distance at a sub-10 pace. That's an ambitious goal for me but I'll keep working at it.

Monday I will get back to Paleo. There are good principles in it that I think would benefit me but I'm not going to make myself miserable trying to stick with it religiously. I feel like I've learned the hard way what works for my body and mind to get me to a healthy place and if this is too stressful then I'm not going to risk derailing all my progress.

Get out the snowshoes!

This is my deck lounger where I get my rays on. Not today!!!!



I do actually have snowshoes. And poles! Maybe I'll take a stroll around my front yard later for some cross training. We got over 2 feet of snow, it's the most we've ever gotten since moving here. The dogs aren't happy but I don't mind. It's been a laid-back day.

I did get in a treadmill workout though: 5.10 miles. I'm glad tomorrow is a rest day, I didn't have much to give today.

Day 3 of Paleo. Have resisted the urge for Chex mix so far! HAHA! Since I was home I made my own breakfast -- egg whites with zucchini, portobello mushroom, and spinach. Not bad. I have a pork shoulder in the crock pot, a recipe from the Paleo cookbook. It smells good so far.

Feats of Strength

Day 2 of Paleo. I got the mashed banana/almond butter/flax seed pancakes at the cafe this morning. They were awesome and they came with that delicious chicken sausage that was in yesterday's breakfast. He must make it himself. I thought it was odd that the pancakes came with a little cup of syrup because I didn't think syrup was Paleo-approved so I ate them dry. Which was fine, they were tasty. When I got to CF tonight I asked the owner about the pancakes and said I didn't have the syrup and she said it was agave syrup and I could have had it. Ugh. That would have been yummy. Next time...

I did feel kind of weak this morning though. I'm detoxing from sugar and simple carbs I guess. I felt fine once I got going in the morning but I had NOTHING in my legs when I went to run today. Nothing. My quads were lead. I guess they like sugar better, too. HAHA. I managed to pull out a decent run: 6.36 miles at a 10:21/mile pace. This is the course I've PRd on but some days are better than others, I accept that. It wasn't terrible considering my legs were shot from CF last night and I've radically changed my diet in the last 2 days. It felt good to get the run in outside. We're supposed to get buried tonight in snow so it will be the weekend before I can brave the roads again. I'll do the treadmill tomorrow as a recovery run from today.

Then I went to CF to make up the workout I missed last week. I was glad I had that as an excuse because the one they were doing tonight looked insanely hard. The hardest one I've seen yet. I did the one I needed to do, got my score recorded for the challenge, and left. I felt like I was getting out of school early! All day I was sore -- my shoulders, my abs, my forearms even. One of the exercises last night was Power Cleans and when I look at this picture the owner took of me, I can see exactly why all those parts hurt. Wow. I look pretty tough! ;)



Tomorrow will be a real test of my Paleo Powers. Nothing would be better than having a fire, reading a book, and eating a bag of cheddar Chex Mix. I was maintaining my weight loss even eating that delicious, delicious garbage but I'm really curious to see how my body responds to a completely clean diet that is pretty much gluten free. If I drop a few more ell-bees in the process, I'll take it.

Connections

Day 1 of Paleo and I'm not dying! I'm hungry only because it's 8 pm and I always snack at this hour but I was satisfied with my meals all day. I went to the cafe for breakfast where the owner is a member of CF and created a Paleo-friendly menu. I got the "Box Jump" and it was delicious: 1 egg over easy, sauteed portobella mushrooms, spinach, tomato, and onion with a chicken sausage and avocado. It was really good and I had enough for lunch as well. When I ordered the owner came out to see who was ordering a Paleo meal and he introduced himself to me. I have wonderful friends but I don't have many connections to people up here. It's nice to be a part of something.

The workout tonight was ridiculous, as always. It's unreal what some of these people can squat. I am such a light-weight when it comes to that stuff but, oddly, I don't feel bad about it. I don't feel like I'm in competition with anyone like I sometimes get with running. I'm just there to get through the workout and do the best I can. It will all come along. Everyone is so encouraging anyway. Again, it's nice to make connections.

I found out some of the CFers are doing the Tough Mudder. I've been signed up for awhile and had planned on going up solo. It will be cool to know some people up there. Again, connections. I didn't realize how important that is.

We're due for another storm so I'm definitely going to try to get in a lunchtime run tomorrow because the rest of the week might get messed up if the snow is as bad as they're predicting.

Dreadmill, take 2

It snowed again last night. I thought it had stopped for the day but then, there it was, sifting out of the sky. Not that I mind snow, I like it. I don't mind the cold, I can handle the wind. So I was planning on going out and doing my run today. I went out on the deck and it seemed kind of nice out and I walked back into the kitchen (I was wearing Uggs so I had good rubber soles) and skidded right across the floor. My husband said "That's it! You're not going out!" I couldn't really argue since I practically took a header into the kitchen island so I reluctantly agreed to do the dreadmill.

I hate the treadmill. I hate it a lot. It's so mind-numbingly boring to me. Also, any time I've ever felt any kind of twinge or pain in my back or knee, it's been on the treadmill. I think it's really hard to get a natural gait going. The belt pulls your feet back instead of you pushing off like on pavement. That's not to say great things can't happen on the treadmill. I do like it for speed work. It's a lot easier to say "Okay, do 2 minutes at 7 mph" and watch it count down than try to estimate what 7 mph is outside. It's good for bad weather. It's convenient. And, to be honest, it got me going with running because there was no way I was taking my fat body outside up and down the hills where I live. That came later, but starting out on the treadmill at least gave me the confidence to try.

But still...I can't wait to get back outside.

I'm bringing my running stuff with me to work tomorrow but I'm not sure if I can get a lunchtime run in. I think I have back-to-back telecons.

And tomorrow officially starts the 6-week Paleo challenge at Crossfit. Jeebus. One of the members owns a cafe near my office and he's putting some Paleo-friendly items on the menu so I think I'll be eating breakfast and lunch there a LOT. I'm used to giving up carbs but dairy is going to be hard to go without. I'm going to have more fruit than I usually do, so that's good. We'll see where this goes. Crossfitters live by Paleo like it's a religion and I can't argue with the results. They're all ripped and in super shape.

Today will be a repeat of yesterday. I read Catching Fire and today I'm going to read the last book in the series, Mockingjay. I'm SO in love with this series!

I also plan on eating a lot of crap today. Just being honest.

It's good to be back

I didn't have to clear my lungs of all kinds of nasty phlegm this morning (I know, TMI) so I took that as a sign that it was okay to run. We got lots of snow last night so I decided to a treadmill fartlek workout. It went great! Maybe there's something to be said for forced rest. I felt strong and fast. Got in 6.09 miles in 60 minutes which is pretty good considering the walking warmup and cooldown included. I'm seeing progress!

After that I did some kettle ball swings (because I missed going to Crossfit last night) and some overhead presses with the barbell. I like this balance I have going with the running and Crossfit. The running gives me endurance, Crossfit gives me strength. Win-win.

Tomorrow the roads should be good enough to head out. I'm not sure where I'll go though. I think the trail is out because it's not like they're going to plow it. So it's either the lake or OS. I'll decide in the morning.

For the rest of the day I think I'll do a little reading, a little knitting, some snacking, and chill out. I love days like this.

Fight Gone Bad

Well, I'm sick again. I don't think I've ever had so many colds in my life as I have in the last few months. Here's my theory: I worked at home, isolated from all of humanity, for 6 winters. This year I'm back in the office dealing with germs of all kinds. I'm just not used to it, I guess.

I had a double planned today -- run at lunch, Crossfit after work. I was almost stupid enough to do it but I knew it wouldn't be the smartest thing. So I didn't run but I did go to Crossfit. I can still run the rest of the week but I really want to get in the routine of Monday, Wednesday, Friday at CF since this is my first official week.

Our workout tonight was "Fight Gone Bad." It was a killer. First, the usual tough warmup. Then the workout was:

Wall balls (1 minute)
Sumo deadlift high pull (1 minute)
Box jumps (1 minute)
Clean and press (1 minute)
Rowing (1 minute)

Then a minute rest, then the cycle twice more. It's only a total of 15 actual minutes working out but JEEBUS it's hard! I'm sore all over and usually that doesn't hit me until the next day. It also could be because I'm sick but it was still a hell of a workout. We'll do this one again at the end of the 6 weeks to see if our score improved (I got 216 points tonight). In addition to getting more reps in I also hope to improve on strength and go heavier on the weights. I can also go higher on the box jumps (I started at the baby height) but there were some people doing 24" box jumps! There's always ways to improve and that's what I like about CF.

I'm glad I went. I've spent my life making excuses about fitness and health. I wasn't coughing so I felt like I was good from a respiratory standpoint. I have a sore throat, a headache, a runny nose, hardly cause to crawl into bed and give up on everything. The more in touch with my health and body I get the more I know my limits. I was able to work out tonight and I'm glad. If I was really sick then I wouldn't.

I hope to run tomorrow, I have no mileage so far for this week and I don't like that. My snail (her name is Gail, btw) got a nice jump on Sunday but she's been idling since. Gotta change that.

Helen

Tonight was my first "official" night at Crossfit as a regular member. I was nervous because this was my first night doing the same workout as everyone else and with everyone else.

The warmup was the same tough one it usually is: stretch, shoulder presses, wall balls with squats, pushups, situps, 200 m row. I did that 3 times.

Then we did a group exercise: the Bear Claw. It's a clean and press, front squat, dip and press, back squat, dip and press. I know, I'm speaking another language. Believe me, no one else will even read this paragraph so I'm just writing it for myself so I can gauge my progress. We did that 5 times, upped our weight, 5 more times, upped our weight, and then 5 more times.

Then we did the real workout: HELEN. It's done for time and we're doing this particular workout this week because we're going to do it again at the end of the 6 week Paleo challenge to see if we've gotten stronger and faster.

It was:

400 meter run (about a quarter mile)
21 kettleball swings
12 pullups

Three times.

My time was 12:35. I wasn't last! I started last but, to be fair, I wasn't all out running because it was dark in the parking lot and I couldn't see very well. The good thing is that in 6 weeks it should be light when we do this again so I know I'll knock off time right there. ;)

Then we weighed in for our start weight of the challenge and I like her scale way more than mine. I'm like 4 lbs lighter than I thought I was.

I would normally run on Tuesday but I'm going to Stamford so I'll do a double on Wednesday: run at lunch, CF after work. It's not ideal but I don't want to sacrifice miles for CF even though I know CF will ultimately help me with my running.

This week I have to make an eating plan for next week. Paleo is strict: no dairy, no grains. There's plenty of good stuff to eat I just need to make sure I'm prepared so I'm not caught out. I lose 5 points for every cheat. It's the honor system but I have a feeling these CF folks would take the 5-point loss if they put so much as a kidney bean in their salad. So I'll be just as honest.

Time to hit reset

Yes, 2010 was great but, unfortunately, it's time to hit reset on my running goals. It pained me to take away my little turtle who had traveled so very far this year but he's happy -- he's somewhere in Florida. He didn't quite make it to Disney World (that would be 1200 miles) so I'd guess he's hanging outside Daytona Beach somewhere, soaking up the sun, eating some fruit. He did good, my little turtle. I owe him a lot.

This is the year of the snail. Actually, I think turtles move faster than snails (I'll have to Google that) but you get the idea, slow-moving critter. That's me. The snail is a girl so we'll see how far she gets this year. I know where 1000 miles took me last year (hello, to the finish line of the NYC marathon!), I'm looking forward to seeing where I can go with it this year.

I got the first run of 2011 over with. I say "over with" because I really didn't want to do it. It's crappy out today -- it's humid but raw, it's rainy but it's not. It's just lousy. I went to Crossfit in the morning to get the rules of our 6-week Paleo Diet challenge (which is going to be, like, impossible but I'll give it a shot) and did my run in OS while I was there. I was slow. I felt like I had a hard time getting air into my lungs. At first I thought it was because I was not feeling well but when I spoke to my mom later I said how lousy my run was and before I finished she said "the air is so heavy." That's exactly what it was, heavy. It was hard to get in, hard to get the oxygen to my muscles, just hard. I was slower than I should be on this course, some of my fastest times have been on this route, but I did it: 8.17 miles. My snail moved off the zero. It's all good.

My Year in Running

2010 was good to me, probably one of the best years I can remember. As with any year, there were certainly ups and downs. I lost an uncle and there are people close to me in poor health. But overall, the year was a year of growth where I can honestly say that the woman writing this year-end wrap-up is not the same woman who began 2010. So let's take a look back.

I started the year overweight. I had already lost some weight in the fall but nothing puts things in perspective like seeing a picture. Here I am on New Year's Day with my dear friends, Tom and Ricardo.



I had already been working out 3 or 4 times a week but I wanted to start running again. So I asked 2 friends from high school (since I had just seen them at our reunion) if they would be interested in doing the big St Patrick's 5K in New Haven in March. Everyone agreed and I started working on running more seriously. I read through some old blog posts from January and I was thrilled, THRILLED to be running a 13:55 minute mile. Back then I was lucky if I was getting in 12 a week and I had to work so hard to do that. Even though it seemed unreasonable at the time I thought I would keep track of all my miles and see if I could hit 1000 for the year. That averages out to 19.2 miles a week and even though I wasn't close to that in the beginning, I hoped I would get better and have some weeks at the end of the year where I did more to make up for the difference. I knew it was a lofty goal but I also thought it would be fun to see how far I got.

The training for the 5K continued in February and early March. By that time I had gotten down to an 11:32 min/mile pace on the treadmill and I had been able to run for 3 miles straight so I felt as ready as I would be for the 5K.

It was a beautiful, chilly day and my friends showed up with their game faces on.



It was Wayne and Elaine's first 5K, too. We decided to all run our own races since we really had no idea what to expect for pace. That first mile felt like it was the hardest thing I ever did, the second didn't feel much better. I was sure I was going to have to walk to the finish but I found some strength inside me as I got closer to the end. I ended up finishing in 36 minutes and 33 seconds. I was overjoyed, as were Wayne and Elaine with their own victories.



That race gave me some much-needed confidence and I started to work harder on running, venturing outside for some trail runs and trying to get faster on the treadmill. Later that month I was out in Louisville and they had a huge 10K the weekend I was there. I figured, why not? Give it a shot. Again, I was lucky to have a beautiful, cool day and the race was a lot of fun. I did it in 1 hour, 13 minutes, 46 seconds. It was about the same pace as for the 5K but twice as long so I was happy with that. The Colonel was pleased, too.



After that, I decided to really get serious. I felt like I had (no pun intended) my running legs back and that I could aim for something bigger. I started spending more time on the trail which was challenging every week because of the elevation climb and the terrain but I saw my pace start to come down slowly but surely and I started to feel stronger.

In May, without a lot of planning, I decided to do the LI half marathon. It just worked out that my husband had to stay out there for the weekend it was happening so I could go out to see him and do the race or stay home, miss him for 2 weeks, and not do the race. I rushed in some long runs the 2 weeks before but you can't ever cram for these things. It also didn't help that the weather had gone from high 50s/low 60s to 80 that weekend with super humidity. The race wasn't a great one for me. I was slow -- my finish time was 2:47 or something like that. I wasn't quite ready to do it and it showed.

Despite that letdown, I got it into my crazy head that I wanted this year to be the year. I wanted to do a full marathon. I hadn't gotten into the NYC lottery so I was thinking about doing Hartford instead but something made me check the North Shore Animal League website and, to my great happiness, they were still accepting applications for their charity team. To my even greater happiness, I made it!

With 5 months ahead of me and my friends and family behind me, I started training in earnest. But every now and then I stopped to enjoy the process with the races I did in the summer and Fall. I learned that races can have great after parties, especially if free beer is involved:



I also picked up some pretty good bling:



I made some celebrity friends:






Beth Ostrosky Stern was the founder of Team Animal League and Harvey Walden from Celebrity Fit Club called me during my training and emailed me the day of the marathon to congratulate me.

I also made a serious celeb enemy!



But we worked it out and even congratulated each other in the lobby the day after the race.

From the months of training and the encouragement of my loved ones, I became a runner! I ran the 41st New York City Marathon in 4:47:31, an overall pace of 10:58 per mile. I was ecstatic!



I was high on my marathon finish for weeks, but I still had one more goal for the year to finish. On Christmas Day I hit my thousandth mile. I was smiling even as I felt like puking coming up that last hill (to be fair, I always feel like puking on that hill). For the first time I could remember I actually followed through on a New Year's goal. It was an amazing feeling.



I didn't stop there though. I ended up with 1,021.28 miles for the year. The good thing about running is there's always some kind of goal in progress. I may have been winding down for the year but was beginning to ramp up for the Spring racing season. The NYC half is March 20th, the LI one is April 30th, the Tough Mudder is May 8th -- all things I want to train hard for to make this coming year a continuation and progression from 2010. I'm not starting over and I am so grateful for that.

I couldn't have had such an amazing year had it not been for the love and support of my family and friends. It was 2 friends who got me out of my rut and on the streets of New Haven for that 5K and it was friends and family who continued to believe in me getting me to the finish of the NYC marathon. I am forever thankful to them. I'm even thankful to those who doubted me. Proving them wrong has been quite satisfying.

I rang in 2011 with my dear friends again. What a difference a year makes!



I hope to have another great year. I'm certainly going to do my best to make it happen!