It's been a while! Things have been very busy with work, training and in general. I've been feeling great for the most part and have been pretty good about staying on track with my runs, especially when the weather is warmer than 15 degrees. This weekend was pretty tough with the wind on the Charles, but it always holds true that the most adverse runs are the most rewarding. Finishing 17 miles in a little under 3 hours was discouraging, but the amount of times we dodged ice, snow and the like really tacked on time.
I started to post last week when I was in DC:
Yesterday, today and tomorrow I'm in DC for work and visiting with the Jumpstart DC staff! It's so great to see the staff in other areas of the country to be able to put a face to a voice (or email). The staff here are so wonderful and very committed to Jumpstart and it's connection to children in need in DC. I'm going to be sad to leave them because they are all so wonderful. Tomorrow I will be recruiting at Georgetown at their career fair and then hop on a plane back to Boston, just in time for Saturday's long run. This morning I took advantage of the weather here (it's almost 60 degrees today!) and ran around the mall. It was incredible to have the monuments as the backdrop for my morning run - I could definitely get used to that.
All went well on the trip to DC and it was actually 70 on Friday - it felt so good to just walk outside, even with no specific destination. But now I'm back and it snowed again a bit yesterday and it's slated to snow again this weekend. Someone, who has run the marathon before, sent me a great article about training in Boston this winter. Though I'm not in the picture (thank god), this is the same path I run every Saturday for my long runs in Newton on the actual marathon course. Take a read: Marathon hopefuls try to stay the course. Thanks so much Erin!
I'm so close to my goal and STILL haven't had an event yet. Soon though! I'll keep you posted!
Have a great week everyone!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
nothing to say.
It is not usual that I sit down, wanting to blog, but then nothing comes to mind. I feel like I'm reliving writers block in college all over again. This relates to hitting a wall in running; wanting to run or train but can't get worked up or convinced to go. Usually I overcome this quickly, but there has been two times during training thus far that I just can't muster the physical or mental engery to go out and run. I've learned that this isn't such a bad thing for me though because I've ended up get things done that I've been stressed about or have on my mind to get done.
Moving forward, I have been thinking about what I can do if any of these days happen again. Our team coach told us that if we ever decide to do cross training instead, we should double the amount of time we would have spent running. My favorite cross training is days include 30-45 minutes of strength training and 30-45 minutes on the elliptical. If I substitute a run for crossing training in the future, I might find myself in the gym for longer than that, but probably will never go for more than 2 hours at one time.
The weather certinaly hasn't made training easy either. I want to blame lack of motivation at times because of the weather, but honestly feel like it's a cop out. Everyone in Boston is going through the same weather and same hardships - come marathon day I hope that the snow is gone, as well as the puddles! Yesterday I ran home for the first time in a while since it's dark when I leave work. I managed to step in snow up to my mid-calf and then decided that I need to make better choices when choosing a path or route. I am anticipating, though, that there will be many articles saying this is the toughest winter to train for the marathon since 1996 (that says something!).
The wind is whipping outside my window right now and all I'm thinking is "is it spring yet?"
Have a great week!
Moving forward, I have been thinking about what I can do if any of these days happen again. Our team coach told us that if we ever decide to do cross training instead, we should double the amount of time we would have spent running. My favorite cross training is days include 30-45 minutes of strength training and 30-45 minutes on the elliptical. If I substitute a run for crossing training in the future, I might find myself in the gym for longer than that, but probably will never go for more than 2 hours at one time.
The weather certinaly hasn't made training easy either. I want to blame lack of motivation at times because of the weather, but honestly feel like it's a cop out. Everyone in Boston is going through the same weather and same hardships - come marathon day I hope that the snow is gone, as well as the puddles! Yesterday I ran home for the first time in a while since it's dark when I leave work. I managed to step in snow up to my mid-calf and then decided that I need to make better choices when choosing a path or route. I am anticipating, though, that there will be many articles saying this is the toughest winter to train for the marathon since 1996 (that says something!).
The wind is whipping outside my window right now and all I'm thinking is "is it spring yet?"
Have a great week!
Monday, January 31, 2011
going with the flow.
Happy Monday! So I intended to post a few days ago with pictures of all of my favorite winter running equipment. I still intend to do that, however, unfortunately the past few days have been a bit interesting and I now no longer have a computer because our apartment was broken into. While I am angered and disappointed that someone went to the lengths of breaking into my home and stealing my stuff, as well as my roommates, there's really not much else to do but to go on (and have a glass of wine). So the cold weather gear post will have to wait, but it looks like we're getting more snow here so I think it will still be timely when I do post.
Saturday we went for a 14 mile run - the farthest I've ever run! And surprisingly enough, I felt great. Right about at mile 12 I was a little lethargic, but I picked up the pace and felt fine. The incredible thing is I wasn't sore the next day and I also had no achilles pain during or after the run. I drank my usual chocolate soy milk (so amazing) and did a fair amount of stretching afterward, as well as ate some pineapple. Things seem back to normal so keep your fingers crossed for me!
A good friend (thanks Paige!) sent me information about a webcast of a live Harvard discussion that happened last week and I was able to listen to it as it was broadcast. Harvard has created a group on campus called "Harvard on the Move" and for the kickoff they invited author of Born to Run, Christopher McDougall; Daniel Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology and department chair of Human Evolutionary Biology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard; and John J. Ratey, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. They spoke about how the human body was built to run and run for long distances. Here's the link, if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/harvard#p/a/u/0/HxHhUhIXwHs
If you haven't read Born to Run, I would recommend it. It's not the best piece of literary work, however, it's non-fiction and has many interesting anecdotes about running and the people who run some of the longest races in the world. It's definitely entertaining if nothing else. Another great running book is one I recently finished, Once a Runner. This is more of a focus on short distances (one-mile and two-mile) but is an interesting fiction account of what it was like as a running in the 70's. I've always been fascinated by Prefontaine and this book definitely captured his spirit in it. I also recently watched two running movies: Saint Ralph and Without Limits (about Prefontaine). Can you see a theme?
Hope everyone has a great week - I failed to wake up on time this morning so I'll be running 4 miles tonight. I think it's supposed to be 17 degrees.
Have a good one!
Saturday we went for a 14 mile run - the farthest I've ever run! And surprisingly enough, I felt great. Right about at mile 12 I was a little lethargic, but I picked up the pace and felt fine. The incredible thing is I wasn't sore the next day and I also had no achilles pain during or after the run. I drank my usual chocolate soy milk (so amazing) and did a fair amount of stretching afterward, as well as ate some pineapple. Things seem back to normal so keep your fingers crossed for me!
A good friend (thanks Paige!) sent me information about a webcast of a live Harvard discussion that happened last week and I was able to listen to it as it was broadcast. Harvard has created a group on campus called "Harvard on the Move" and for the kickoff they invited author of Born to Run, Christopher McDougall; Daniel Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology and department chair of Human Evolutionary Biology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard; and John J. Ratey, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. They spoke about how the human body was built to run and run for long distances. Here's the link, if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/harvard#p/a/u/0/HxHhUhIXwHs
If you haven't read Born to Run, I would recommend it. It's not the best piece of literary work, however, it's non-fiction and has many interesting anecdotes about running and the people who run some of the longest races in the world. It's definitely entertaining if nothing else. Another great running book is one I recently finished, Once a Runner. This is more of a focus on short distances (one-mile and two-mile) but is an interesting fiction account of what it was like as a running in the 70's. I've always been fascinated by Prefontaine and this book definitely captured his spirit in it. I also recently watched two running movies: Saint Ralph and Without Limits (about Prefontaine). Can you see a theme?
Hope everyone has a great week - I failed to wake up on time this morning so I'll be running 4 miles tonight. I think it's supposed to be 17 degrees.
Have a good one!
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