January 11, 2006--a little scare

No run for me tonight, as I planned. I did take a walk this evening (as in I had to walk home from the bus) and took the pooch for her long winter evening walk (meaning it's only about a mile--she's old and arthritic). I thought I could spend a nice evening at home with hubby, especially since he offered to order Chinese food and I wouldn't have to cook.

But during dinner, my sister called. First my home phone, then my mobile. Uh oh. Now the thing is, my grandmother is in the hospital. She has congestive heart "problems" (no one says "failure" which is what it is, because they're afraid to upset me, when I know she could live with CHF for years and they're able to treat it.) Anyway, heart in throat, I grabbed the phone. Sis tells me, now, don't get worried, but Dad was having chest pains and shortness of breath and they're on the way to the hospital. In an ambulance. Ma's with him. She says it's the scallops and fried potatoes...but they wanted to be safe.

So, NOT my grandmother but my dad.

A bit of background: my dad suffered a pretty serious MI in 2003; had to be medivac'd to Boston in the middle of the night for an emergency angioplasty. He had to be resuscitated twice in the helicopter. But he's had a great and very successful recovery....

Anyway, during the next 3 hours, I tried to stay focused on TV and a book; finally sis called again. Dad's heart is a-ok. Turns out, it looks like it's acid reflux/indigestion.

Guess it was the scallops and fried potatoes after all.

Ironically, they're keeping him overnight for observation. He's on the same CU ward as my grandmother. They'll both be released tomorrow.

Yeah, so this puts my crap day at work into perspective. Although I have to admit, does it make me think, oh, thank goodness, I have a nice job with good people and I'm lucky to be healthy, OR should I be thinking, I hate my job and life is too short, I need to find something that makes me happy. Discuss amongst yourselves, dear readers. You know who you are.

LC

January 9, 2006--how time flies.

Ok, so I guess I was wrong. I won't be posting everyday, as evidenced by the last few. I also didn't run all weekend, so had less incentive to post. I got my sorry butt out last night and ran 3.25. Slower than I'd hoped and I wore my forerunner, so I'm clearer on my pace (nuts), but all in all it was ok. Tough run, I was tired and sore from the get go (methinks that IKEA bookcase building on Saturday left some residual aches and pains.) But done it was.

Tonight I'm off again for a short 2 miles. Not much, but I'm gonna try to push the pace a little. Now tomorrow is the question: swim in the morning? take the day off and go for a good walk? try to get to the Y at night and maybe (gulp) try out that scary elliptical machine that I've been avoiding for the last year? Might see how I sleep and what the day brings before I make any decisions. My training needs to be jumpstarted, but I'm also being careful not to burn out before I've even begun. Seems like a good approach.

OK, I'm in my gear (stinky though it is; I need to test out the "soak in Borax" treatment tonight) and I'm off. Wish me luck, readers. (Oh the massing hoards who are my faithful readers.....)

Ciao for now,

LC

January 5, 2006--am I really going to post everyday???

Well, it appears, for the moment, yes, I am. I'll get bored with this, don't you worry. Bound to happen sooner or later.

After some discussion with my "virtual" training buddy, I decided I'd try some speedwork tonight. Speedwork, for you non-runners (and I'm sure there are millions of you reading this!), can be any number of techniques, but basically, you run fast for certain distances or amounts of time. Because I'm slow and not a very talented runner, I opt for the very simple, "run fast between X telephone poles, then run slow for Y number of telephone poles." In my case, X = 1, and Y = 2-3, unless I'm feeling spunky, then I might just alternate, run fast, run slow, every other pole; when I get tired, I just resort to a slow run for a couple blocks. Anyhoo, it worked. I ran just over 2 miles (all I intended to run) in 22:11...10:46 pace. May not seem like much, but to me, this is astonishing!

So here in lies the problem. I can run faster. I'm getting faster all the time. But I slow down during races. I psyche myself out, because I'm convinced if I start off too fast I'll burn out before the end. Which isn't based on fiction...my early races were definitely like that. I guess I need to test out my new theory in a 5K to see if I can actually find a "race pace" that isn't slower than my training pace. Interesting.

I also need to get off the stick and start looking for a new job. Although I've got some interesting responsibilities at my current position, it's just not what I thought I'd be doing 12 years ago when I got my Master's. But what exactly, do I want to do with the rest of my life????

January 4, 2006

Just got in from a run. 34:40 or so...must be about 3 miles. Gosh, it would be nice to say, "34:40, must be about 4 miles..." Oh well. Someday I'll break the 10 min mile. (I actually did do this recently, New Year's Day in fact, but it was a full mile downhill in a race...ah, gravity.)

Tonight I wore a new item: a Brooks tech vest with "Scotchbrite reflective technology"; all I know is that I looked down at one point and I was literally glowing in the dark. I "won" this vest for completing all 4 races in a series over the summer. (If you ran all 4, you got a fleece or a tech vest. I think I chose wisely).

Tonight's run was not easy at all. I'm not really sure that my decision to try to run a half marathon in May was the wisest. I might be setting myself up for failure. But I'm staying the course, at least for the moment.

Now if I can just find a new job...anyone looking for a librarian?

January 3, 2006--this year is already turning into a disappointment

So it's Tuesday, Day three of the new year, and well, I'm just not interested. In my job. In running in the cold and wet weather squalling around outside my front door. In doing much of anything. Bah.

I mentioned to a friend that I started a blog, but that I wasn't sure that I wanted people to know about it. He laughed and said, then it's a diary. He may be on to something.

I don't really know where I'm going with this blog, but at the moment, I guess it is just a diary. Rather a modern day spin on Pepys or something. Without the filandering. Or something.

I'll be interested to see if anyone ever finds this and reads it and if they'll even choose to respond. I guess time will tell.

January 2, 2006--a new year

My first post on my first blog. I'm hoping that by keeping a public record of my running and training, it'll keep me on track and on target. My goals are pretty simple: run the Indy Mini (half marathon) in May. Keep running. Do another sprint tri this summer (probably another Danskin). Keep running. Believe in myself and my abilities. Keep running.

There's a theme here, yes, I know.

I am slow as molasses, overweight, asthmatic and eveytime I walk out the door to run, I think I'm going to fail. Generally I don't. But I still feel that way.

So here I am, bearing my soul to those of you who've found me and choose to read this. Frankly, if 2 people even see this I'll be surprised, but hey, it's worth a shot. Stranger things have happened.

Oh, and I ran a 4 mile race yesterday. 46:08. Like I said, slow. Really really slow. But I ran the whole thing, and it was a tough course, 3 miles of uphill and one terrific last mile, all down hill. Started off my year on a good foot! Feet?