26.2 FAIL

No, that doesn't mean I entered and DNFed a marathon without telling you all! It is referring to this:

Yep, that's my 26.2 sticker after a huge snowstorm. My once bright pink, shiny, STICKY sticker reminding me of my goals! Faded and peeled off like a weakling!

Well, I guess it's fitting that, with a new season approaching, bringing with it a whole slew of racing opportunities, I ought to get a new sticker.

Can I get one that says 3.1?

Ha ha!

Happy New Year!

These last few weeks have been filled with family, friends, cooking, shopping, and traveling. Some are better with a baby....and some aren't!

Being home again feels good. My own bed with my own pillows. My own shower and clothes that don't come out of a suitcase. All of Lorelei's stuff at hand instead of in bags. And she gets to "sleep" (ha ha) in her own crib too, instead of a pack and play! (Although she does enjoy the pack and play.)

Well, I guess it's 2011! What?! And time for some "ideal situations" (I wouldn't dare call them resolutions, and I really don't even want to call them goals, because then if they're not met, then they're just disappointments).

My Ideal Situations for 2011

• Get the hang of this whole baby thing. Or at least get a little better at balancing no sleep with all I have to do during the day.
• Run more races. A 5k to start, some 10ks, and 1-2 half marathons.
• IF and only IF I get into the NYC Marathon lottery, consider doing that one (or perhaps defer for  a year).
• Lose some/all of the "baby weight." Ideally: 15 pounds. But I'd settle for 10.
• Blog more. I like it, and don't usually give myself time to do it.
• Meet new people in the Cleveland area (ideally, other moms and/or runners).
• Look into a career change. That one, I have only recently been thinking about. Not to say that I definitely want to go back to school right away, or that I even definitely want to leave teaching, but...I want to consider other options, especially since I feel like I started teaching spontaneously (NYCTF program after college) without having a lifelong desire to do it. And I'm not totally sure that's what I want to do for the rest of my life. So anyway, I want to explore my options this year.

Here is a recent picture of Lorelei (although, seriously, there are SO MANY from over the holidays that it was hard to pick just one!):

Running Quote of the Day

Great article by John "The Penguin" Bingham in January's Runner's World.

The article discusses how runners sometimes become as obsessed with running as they had been with some old addictions they conquered when discovering the sport (such as smoking, overeating, etc.). He says that throughout his running lifetime, he has often had to "start again" because he didn't listen to his body and pushed himself to injury. Here he talks about how he has adjusted his view of what it means to not give up:

The great lesson that I learned from running--because I wanted to run for the rest of my life--was that I had to accept the limits of my body.  I had to adjust my goals to match the reality of my abilities. I had to understand that if I wanted to run forever, I might have to not run today. Taking a day, or a week, or a month off, if necessary, might be hard, but it wouldn't mean giving up.

For someone who has quit jobs, left relationships, and often quit when the going got tough, running has been the exception. I haven't quit. I'm not going to quit, even if I take a break. And in that I take enormous pride.

I think this speaks to me, and to a lot of us who are either easily injured, are too hard on ourselves for taking time off, or both.

Just something to ponder. As I always say when I am injured, "Do I want to run for this next month, or for the rest of my life?" We put a lot of pressure on ourselves as runners--some of which is necessary to keep moving--but much of which is just another excuse to punish ourselves for not doing enough. I know I do this, and it's counterproductive. Don't we already have so much to worry about? Let's remember that running is suppose to be a release from all that madness, not another cause for worry.

Thoughts?

Gotta have a goal

Well, it's getting down to the wire!  The NYC Marathon is just a week and a day away!

I've been pretty calm in most aspects concerning the actual race, and running.  My aches and pains have seemed to have all fixed themselevs (knock on wood!), and the taper has been great for me to feel refreshed and to go into each run with energy.  Had a 5-mile "easy" run on Tuesday, a great, final speed session on Wednesday behind Steelyard Commons, a rest day on Thursday, and a little faster than expected 3-miler yesterday around Tremont.  (I wore my garmin, and it just kept saying paces that were fast for me!  I kept having to force myself to slow down!)  Part of the briskness of yesterday's run was the fact that it was raining, so I just wanted to sort of get it over with and nobody likes standing around in the rain.  But it felt really nice, and that last mile passed by so quickly and I almost felt that I could do one more...but I didn't.  I need to not push so much!

Today, I was going to do 8 but I think I might save that for tomorrow and just do an easy 2-3 today...part of the reason is because it's again overcast (and supposed to clear up tomorrow), we had a lot of errands to run this morning (dry cleaning, laundry, bank, groceries), and, uh, let's just say I had a little bit too much fun with the wine last night at Rob & Claire's.  Ha ha.  Which reminds me, I totally did not stick to my original plan of not drinking a full month before the race...but I'm going to at least try to do a good 5 days before if not a full week.  (I read up online and nobody really says it's necessary to fully cut it out except for a couple days before so that you're not dehydrated.)

So, I am feeling "ready."  But how do you ever really feel ready for something like this?  Will it be easier than I thought?  Harder?  It's gotta be easier than Phoenix in that I actually KNOW I am capable of finishing, and that I trained smarter and harder than last time around.  But the course itself will be hilly!  Oh well, at least NY will have tons of crowds - and my friends and family - to pull me along.  Here's the course:

NYC Marathon Course

And here, for the first time ever...are my marathon goals!  (Drum roll)
I've heard it's smart to always make three goals: a reachable goal (like I finished), a somewhat attainable goal (like I finished having a great time without any pain, or I beat my time by a few minutes or seconds), and a harder to achieve, "stretch" goal.

Being that I only ran one other marathon, and my time was not that impressive (5:53:45), I truly feel that I can beat that time, even with the hills of NY.  I think last time, I was very tentative and was so scared of pushing too hard and hitting the wall (which, by the way, I did anyway) that I ran super slowly.  We also stopped for the bathroom a ton of times, which I don't really want to do this time if I can help it.

So Goal A: Beat my time by at least 10 minutes.

I don't really know what times to put for the others...I am thinking of "milestone" times, like 5:30 as the next goal.  I don't know why, but for some reason, the time 5:11 keeps flashing in my head.  Maybe it's cause it was my address in Madison....haha.  But I feel that that might be something to think about.

Going to the McMillan calculator and putting in my last half-marathon PR (2:17:12) gives an output of 4:49:21 for the marathon.  But that is crazy!  I don't think I am capable of breaking 5 hours...however, in that same page, the output for 5000m is 29:41...one second off my last 5K race time.  Creepy, huh?

So my super-secret goal, that I might be able to do if EVERYTHING worked out and the stars were aligned (weather, no clothing mishaps/chafing, no hitting the wall, fully hydrated, etc.) is to break 5 hours.


Haha!

Dedications to come in a future post...now?  An easy 3-miler!  (And I mean easy!)