If it doesn't kill me...

Today I ran my longest run yet. Eighteen miles. It was...hard. Because I'm not able, for a variety of reasons, to make it to Team practice tomorrow, I ran the miles at home near my house. I'm very grateful that my friend and fellow Teammate needed to get in an 11-mile run, so she kept me company for a large part of the run. The first 11-miles were not bad at all. It was nice to have company!! We had some killer hills, because that's what happens to be near my house, but overall we had a good time and it didn't feel like it was an extreme effort. My last 7-miles, however, were a different story. I had to head back out and back up one of the bigger hills of our previous route. I think that mentally tackled me before I even got to it. Halfway up, and about 13 miles in to the whole distance, I had to walk. I walked for probably a half mile at that point, and I walked for short stretches through the remainder of the run.

In addition to the hills and long distance, I had to run later in the day than I'm used to running, and it was starting to get warm. So warm, in fact, that by mile 15, my feet had started to swell so much that I had to stop and loosen my shoelaces. I drank well over 64 ounces of fluids, and was still feeling dry. My legs were starting to feel like they were swelling, too. Maybe it was all in my head, but I actually felt like my thighs might burst through my shorts! By the end of the run, almost every one of my toes had a blister on the end, my legs felt like lead weights and I was chafed in brand new places. But I finished deliriously happy because I did finish. It was hard, and it will get harder, but I know if I didn't die, I must be getting stronger!

BIG THANKS!!

I just reached the $2000 mark on fundraising, making me meet my latest challenge of $2000 by the 20 mile training run, which will be on May 15th. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! My support team rocks, and I couldn't do it without you! Touching lives and helping to fund research to find CURES!

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So much to say, so much to say...

Last Saturday was my 16 mile run. That's the farthest I've ever gone before!! It took me just over 3 hours to do it, so I had plenty of time to think about what to write about. I came up with so many things, I will probably have to split them all into two posts!

First of all, WOOOHOOO!!! I finished 16 miles!! It felt pretty good. My knee and right hip started giving some trouble about mile 14.5, and my quads are still really sore, but overall, I was pleased to find that I didn't bonk and I didn't die. It was a long run. I have even longer ones coming up and they scare me a little. But it's good to be a little scared. If it was easy it wouldn't be a marathon, right?

I have decided that running any distance more than about 10 miles is sort of like getting a tattoo. You know it's going to hurt before you start, but once you do start, you eventually become a bit numb to the pain. In a weird way, at least for me, during the long miles I start to feel the tiredness and the things that are beginning to hurt, and I do register them, but it's as if those things exist in a part of my mind that I can "file away." Sure, if I dwell on them, they start to drag me down, but if I just notice them and push the thoughts into the "file for later use" box, I can let my thoughts go elsewhere and my body just keeps moving. Getting into the longer and longer runs has sometimes felt surreal to me. I know I'm consciously making a choice to keep running, but it does almost begin to become subconscious...like breathing. My legs just keep going. I'm not thinking, "I just have to run one more mile," or "I just have to run to that tree" because I often have so much farther to go I can't even fathom it rationally. I just think, "keep going," and somehow, I do. There is a point during almost every run over 13 miles when I eventually hit a wall. The stuff in the "file for later use" box falls out all over the place and it is tough to pick it all up, cram it back in there and keep going. But I'm learning how to do it. Right about mile 15 on Saturday, the box started to throw-up everything I'd crammed in with the knee and the hip and the aching quads. I stopped for two or three minutes, had a drink and stretched, and kept going. I sure hope I can keep being able to do that as we add even more miles!

Next, I was reading an article a while back...and I can't remember WHERE I read it or who wrote it, darn it...but the writer was a runner and said he really liked running to Japanese Taiko drums. I thought that was interesting, and checked out a few tracks just to see what it was like. I REALLY like a song by Kodo called Strobe's Nanafushi. If my head had a soundtrack when I'm running a long run, this is what it would be. Lots of loud drums and yelling. Cool. There are a couple of other fun songs on the album, too. Check it out if you want something new and adventurous to listen to. I also had a new Podrunner mix on my last run, and it contained some running cadences. Something else interesting to try if you're bored with your current playlist. Find the Podrunner mix for FREE on iTunes: Power Play.

More to come soon...

Higher mileage, new goal!

Wow. We're just about 6 weeks out from the marathon date, and the mileage is starting to really crank up. My weekly runs are up to 6 or 7 miles at a time, and that's far more than I've ever done during a weekly run. This weekend I'll do 16 miles for the first time. Coming up May 15 will be the longest run we'll do pre-race. 20 miles. I have to be honest, it seems a little scary right at this moment, but I know when it gets here I'll be able to do it.

Twenty miles is a big deal for me. I remember when 5 miles seemed daunting, now I'll be doing 4 times that much!! To celebrate this coming major milestone, I have set a goal for myself of getting to $2,000 in fundraising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by the 20 mile run. So by May 15th, I need just over $150 more. That's TOTALLY doable. That's just 15 people giving $10, or 30 people giving $5. My youngest son just gave me two pennies he found in his pocket, so I've already got just $149.98 to go! You can click on the widget on the right over there, or here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ocie/rnr10/jresch to check on my progress!

A run through Redlands

Last Saturday we were on a cutback week, so our weekend long run was only slated for 10 miles. What I didn't bank on was that it would be 10 of the hardest miles I'd ever run! We followed most of the course for the Run Through Redlands race that was supposed to happen on Sunday. Although it was a GORGEOUS run with lots of beautiful homes, scenery and landscapes to look at, the hills were crazy steep. I was out on an early start with one of our wonderful Team run/walkers, so we kept a really easy pace, and that is probably what allowed me to keep going at all!! If you want to see the course route and elevation, you can see it here: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3623664. Running up Rossmont alone was like rock climbing up asphalt. I am pretty sure there were people repelling down as we went up!!

The good news is, I know that running hills does make me stronger!! That thought alone helped keep me pushing. I was incredibly sore afterwards, so that also reminded me I was working my muscles hard and building them up. That said, and in spite of the beautiful overlooks, I think I'd rather not run through Redlands again for a while. Give me time to forget how steep those hills really were!

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Runs on...gadgets?

Wow. It's official. I am a running nerd. A total geek. Okay, some say this is not news. But the realization finally sank in for me when I took a look at myself in the mirror after my last run. This past Saturday, the run was 14 miles. I ran with my standard loaded fuel belt, one of the few belts I've found with a pocket big enough to house my cell phone. In addition to that, I had my iPod (with new headphones!), the Nike+ and remote, AND the Garmin. I think I had enough gadgetry on my person to make 007 himself jealous. Between my various devices, I could nav the route, map the whole city, find the nearest starbucks, quote my pace, check my mileage, answer a phone call, and check email, all while listening to the theme song to my favorite TV show "Chuck" (It's Short Skirt, Long Jacket by Cake, if you were wondering.)  I know. Insane.

Elitest runners out there somewhere are pointing and laughing. Those who run light and hydration-pack-less, barefoot, back to nature and all that, they think I'm a total loser. "No wonder you're so slow," someone said to me once. "You've got like 9 lbs of GEAR." Really, I get that I could probably run without so many gadgets. But if they make it more fun for me, more interesting, more entertaining...if the gadgets help me run, so what?? So I'm a "runnerd." I'm okay with that.

As for the run itself, the 14 miles literally flew by because I was able to keep myself completely entertained. I LOVE the Garmin. Wearing both the Nike+ and the Garmin allowed me to really see the differences in accuracy. The Garmin clocked the run in at 13.96 miles. The Nike+ said 12.76. Along one stretch of the run, the Nike+ said I was running a 12:20 pace at the same time the Garmin said 10:30. Does it really make that much of a difference?? Maybe not, but to someone like me who gets inspired by even tiny improvements in my running, it's nice to be accurate. And it was the Garmin's accuracy that made me realize that at 13.1 miles, I was 3 minutes ahead of my best half marathon race time. THAT was pretty cool.

That's it for today. I have to go charge my gadgets!

Letting go of Expectations

Slogging, as I am, through the tail end of an upper respiratory bug has made my runs tougher than usual this week. As a highly competitive (sometimes) perfectionist, I have been trying to get something out of my weekday runs besides just logging the miles. I do hills, speedwork, or just try to run a few seconds faster than last time. Some days I get obsessed with racing the clock. So much so that I get aggravated with myself when I don't finish faster than I want to. When I first started running, I just wanted to be able to RUN without passing out. When that was doable for a mile or two, I wanted to be able to run farther without any walk intervals. As I began to push through those early goals, I guess it was inevitable that I would eventually want to work on getting faster.

This week I needed to log a minimum of two 5 milers. On Tuesday, I eased slowly through the run, giving myself some leeway due to being sick. I was okay with going slow that ONE day because I allowed that ONE day to be a recuperative day. By today, I was ready to push harder and just "get over it" already. About halfway into my run, I suddenly realized I could do one of two things. I could keep pushing my pace and my body and end up collapsing because I couldn't breathe, or I could back-off, slow down, and finish my run at a pace that I could manage with the hacking, wheezy breaths I was getting through my stuffy nose and post-nasal drippy throat. In that moment, I had to decide what was more important...meeting the pace goal I'd set for myself or finishing. Of course I decided I wanted to finish, so I eased up and finished the run at a slower and relaxed pace.

At first I was ultra annoyed with myself. Thank goodness I'd had the foresight to put a little Jack Johnson on my running playlist this week! I usually run to driving rhythms, booming bass notes pounding out each stride. Jack is way more laid back than my usual stuff, in fact I don't think it's humanly possibly to listen to Jack Johnson and not feel more relaxed. As I began to shift gears into a more laid back attitude, I actually started to really enjoy the last half of the run. Not only that, but I began to give some serious consideration to my goals of late. When I ran my first half marathon, my goal was one most first-time participants have. I just wanted to finish. And not be last. (That competitive part of me made me add that last bit!) The second time, I wanted to be faster. And I was!! More than 10 minutes faster. That's great, but now here I am basically back at the beginning again. I'm training for my first full marathon. I keep saying my goal is just to finish, but is it really?? Didn't I deep-down want to finish in a certain time? Didn't I have secret split times in mind? I realized I've been pushing myself to meet a goal that's potentially unrealistic. Having never run a full marathon distance before, why in the world was I stressing about my pace time? I need to mean it when I say I just want to finish. I need to take time to make more of my runs relaxing and fun. Isn't that what it's all about anyway, at least for non-elite, middle to rear packers like me?

Today I let go of my expectations. I'm not going to push myself for more speed at this point. Eight weeks out from marathon date and weekly base miles getting higher and higher, I need to concentrate on endurance and sticking with it through the big miles. If that means taking a step back, slowing down and enjoying myself, so be it. The speedwork will still be there for me when I get this one under my belt. The San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon course time limit is 7:00. I really, sincerely hope it doesn't take me THAT long. But if it does, so what? I just want to finish.

New TOYS!

I am SO excited!! For my birthday, Mike got me a Garmin Forerunner 305 . For those of you not in the know about what this is, it is one of the coolest running gadgets I've ever seen. I was totally NOT expecting to get it, either. I can't WAIT for my long run on Saturday so I can try it out. This thing is a computer on your wrist, telling you things like current pace, distance, elevation, route, and soooo much more. It can even tell you how to get back to where you started from in case you get lost, as I am often prone to doing during my long runs! (Okay, I don't actually get LOST lost, I just sometimes end up making my own course instead of following the prescribed one!)

And why am I even more excited about this than my Nike+, you may ask? Well, I do dearly love my Nike+...something about someone saying right in my ear how far I've gone and what my pace is can be really nice...BUT, it is a pedometer system. That is, it has a shoe remote that counts your steps, and that's how it calculates distance. It doesn't take into account changes in stride length going up or down hills or switching between a long and short stride over the course of a long run. That means the distance estimation it comes up with isn't always correct. So on a run that you've actually mapped out to be 6 miles, it might say you covered 5 or 6.5 just because pedometers are not an exact science. (I know you can "calibrate" the Nike+, but no matter how often I do it, it just never seems to come up with the same distance I get on the map.) With the Garmin, it is using GPS satellites to track your actual position, so the distance it can calculate is going to be spot on. That said, the Nike+ is still going to be my go-to for treadmill runs. The Garmin can't figure out how far you've gone if you're running in place. (Well, there is a foot sensor you can buy, but for now I'm happy to stick with my Nike+ for indoor runs.)

In addition to the new Garmin, the boys got me a set of Auria Exceed headphones. Okay, these are not unobtrusive. You can have the Apple earbuds in your ears and sometimes people don't even notice you have them in. People WILL notice these. However, they are so comfortable YOU may not notice they are there, and they DON'T FALL OFF. Okay, they haven't yet. I ran five miles in them and they stayed solidly put. Earbuds fall out of my ears constantly. As a runner, you don't want earphones that constantly have to be adjusted or repositioned or that fall off, but you don't want to go the "in-ear" headphones route simply because you need to be able to hear ambient noise. If you have in-ear headphones on, they are in all likelihood going to drown out the sound of car horns, approaching bicyclists, and people trying to warn you about the loose dog up the street. The Aurias sit right outside your ear, like earbuds, but they sort of hook on to the natural curve of your ear. They also have cool little swappable "personalizers" you can use to make the headphones look however you like. Since they are fairly conspicuous, it's kind of fun to customize them.

I am sure you'll hear about how both of these new toys contribute to my long run this coming Saturday. I'm gearing up for 14 miles!!

Spring fever

Saturday's run was a really nice 12 miler through the orange groves. I do love running over there, but I'm wondering if the gorgeous scent of orange blossoms in the Spring-ish air could be the culprit of the complete and total sinus meltdown I'm having at the moment. It was lovely perfume during the run, but the unseen pollen may have wreaked havoc on my system. Either that or I just have the world's grossest upper respiratory bug. Either way, I'm down for the count for the moment. I'm calling it an extra recovery day and just trying to rest since I can barely breathe just sitting on the sofa. Hoping to pick things back up tomorrow and get back on schedule...I'll update as soon as I can clear my airway!