More dates

It's going well with the boy. My head is in the clouds for the most part but with one or two toes still firmly planted on earth. He's not perfect by any means (who is?) and I'm trying to not let myself get carried away. It's only been a week and a half after all.

I've been having some great runs here lately. I'm not sure if it's because I seem to run better in the cold or if it's because the time passes by so quickly when you have a running partner that you're trying to look cute for (tee hee). Either way, my 1/2 training is coming along swimmingly. I do have to admit that I'm slacking a little on the cross training but that's only because I find those machines at the gym so daggon boring! I've even loaded up my ipod with all kinds of new interesting stuff to listen too, but it doesn't matter. As soon as I get on the elliptical I immediately want to get off. Maybe I should find some other form of cross training, huh? Now there's a novel idea!

Date #2

We met at the same spot as Tuesday's run but only did a short and easy 3 miles. I was still a little stiff from last night's grueling tempo workout on the TM and I want Saturday's long run to go well. I found out that Tuesday wasn't a fluke; it was relaxed and easy and, most importantly, a lot of fun. He's silly and funny and...we're meeting for a "real" date this weekend. One where we wear normal street clothes and don't have to worry about wiping snot off our faces. Pardon me while I drift off to la-la land. I won't mind if you gag, I would if I were you. I'll shut up about him now!

In other news, I dragged my best girlfriend with me to see Spirit of the Marathon tonight and I loved it. I've been anticipating it's release for a long time so I was thrilled when it was announced that it would finally be showing, if only for one night. All 3 movie theaters that were playing it sold out so I'm glad I got tickets ahead of time. And bless my wonderful BFF for coming along to watch it with me. Another person I've long since added to my list of "Most Supportive People Ever".

The Date

I had butterflies in my stomach all day, annoying my co-workers to my slight pleasure. We agreed to meet at a popular running path, one that I am familiar with like the back of my hand. I told my mom and my close girlfriends where I was, what I was wearing and when I expected to be back...just in case. As an aside, its sort of sad that we have to think of these things but this is the world we live in I suppose. But, none of that was necessary because it actually went pretty great! As soon as we got our feet moving, we fell into a comfortable pace (well, a little fast for me, near power-walking speed for him!) and into a comfortable conversation. There was talk of books, movies, art, friends, running....all the typical safe first date topics. It was easy, and I'm not usually a person for whom conversation comes naturally. As I told one of my girlfriends later, running is something I'm very comfortable doing and feel the most like myself. To do this as a date took away all the awkward I-don't-know-what-I-should-be-doing-with-my-hands feeling I so often get on first dates.

I was relaxed and mostly un-awkward. He was funny and really cute and we're meeting again tomorrow!

Weird 48

It's been a strange weekend. Full of things happening to me that never happen to me. My life is so undramatic it's pathetic, and usually this is the way I like it, but I had some drama this weekend, all of it...well, good. I'm telling you, this kind of stuff never happens to me.

• my car broke down in the middle of rush hour traffic. While this might appear to be a bad thing, the auto mechanic told me the problem was covered under a recall. I got a brand new fuel pump installed for free, and it only took about 2 hours. This kind of thing never happens to me. Whenever I take my car in, I assume it will cost $1,000 and be in the shop for a week. That way I'm pleasantly surprised with anything less. I know, eternal optimist, right?

• I talked to this guy for the first time in about 2 years. I think I was calm and collected, but who really knows. The strange thing is that he's been on the forefront of my mind for the last week, even more so than usual. I've blogged about him and even seen him in my dreams. And then, there he was. He initiated the conversation (I never would) and I actually responded with some degree of intelligence. This never happens. I've been known to stuff creamers down my shirt or run away screaming when a boy I like says "Hello." The fact that I was able to form a complete sentence, not once but many times, means progress on my end. He liked my shoes.

• I have a date. This never happens. I never get hit on or asked out, no one ever flirts with me ever. I think I give off an unapproachable vibe anyway and I really don't think I'm much to look at so when I met this guy and he asked for my number, I wrote it down for him without much hope. But for some reason, he called the next day. A sinking pit of dread formed in my stomach as we talked. He's going to ask me out for dinner, I thought, and I'll be all awkward and embarrassed at myself and it will be a total failure and no one will ever love me and I'm going to die alone and my cat will starve so she'll eat my face and I'll be the pathetic old lady who's cat ate her face. But to my surprise he said, "Would you like to get together for a run this week?" Swoon.

I feel confident that my car will start when I want it too, I can say "Hello" to the man I've been admiring from afar for far too long without running away screaming, and I have a date. Can you believe it???

'ello laddie

I've just returned from an awesome 7.33 miler on the bike path. It started out not so great as it was FREEZING and my dad, bless his heart, has started wearing goofy hats on our long runs. This is the one he wore today:

Tell me that's not embarrassing! And there were tons of people out there. Gah! But, to his credit, he sure knows how to make long and cold runs a lot of fun. My bum foot was pretty stiff for the first mile or two but it eventually loosened up and didn't give me much trouble at all. I took Thursday and Friday off so I was pretty antsy to get out there this morning. I finished the run feeling great and ready to add on some more mileage.

As for my weight loss plateau, I've decided to take the advice of Lynn-e and start keeping a log of everything I put in my mouth. Every breadcrumb, sunflower seed and M&M counts starting this morning. I just need to get over this hump.

Plateau

I've hit The Wall. The weightloss wall, that is. I lost those annoying 20lbs pretty quickly in the months following the marathon, even with Christmas and Thanksgiving shoved in there. But now? The scale hasn't moved in about 4 weeks and I'm both running and eating well. It's extremely annoying.

So, anyone have any advice for overcoming this? I don't want to run any more miles than are on my schedule for fear of injury (bum foot) but I'm not opposed to doing more cardio if need be. I could throw in another day of weight training (doing that 2x a week now) but I have a hunch the problem and solution lies with my eating habits. I *think* I'm eating well but I have no real record or proof. How many calories should I be eating a day anyway? I rarely eat fast food or cheesy poofs or other junk that will send me to an early grave. But maybe I'm not being careful enough. I still have some excess tonnage I want to get rid of before summer. Grr!

Speedy

5 miles tonight on the treadmill at the gym. This whole going-to-the-gym thing is a weird experience. For one, it's not my old gym and I miss it. For two, there's a lot more youngin's at this new gym. Lots of young pretty men and women. The pretty men grunt at their weights and the pretty women glow on the elliptical thingy. Then there's me, the only one who has sweat enough for it to show on my t-shirt. I figure, if I'm going to be stuck on the treadmill of doom, I'd better make the most of it. Tonight it was 2 x 1600m @ 8:57 pace with 800m recovery jogs in between with a warm up mile and a cool down mile for a total of 5 miles. This all felt pretty good minus a new weird pain in my right foot. It kinda feels like I rolled it but I don't remember ever doing that. I got through my workout with no real problems but I'm going to take it really easy tomorrow and ice it tonight.

So, that's all the exciting news in my little corner of the globe. Hope everyone is staying warm out there and getting some good runs in!

The space between the stars above your bed

You meet, briefly. And that beautiful simple moment you thought was so fleeting would turn out to be one you would come to roll over in your mind again and again each day thereafter, like some fragmented piece of film that has no real beginning or end. Each word and expression dissected smaller and smaller until none of it makes sense to you anymore. None of it ever did.

You think it shouldn't linger like this. Like it should have been an opened and closed case like anyone else, but somehow he keeps popping up in front of you when you least expect it. You don't speak when you see him. You internalize and paralyze. He sees you, but headed in the opposite direction. He smiles, and waves. He looks happy. You know he remembers you but has no knowledge of the space he occupies between the stars above your bed.

Sometimes you wave back, sometimes you don't. You go on with your day wondering what your life would be like if you'd never met him. You don't speak of him to anyone. You run. And run. And run and run until he's all gone and all that's left there is you. You rest your weary head against your pillow only to find he still lingers in the space between the stars above your bed

Tempo

So I'm in week 1 of a 14 week 1/2 marathon training program concocted by Smart Coach. I start out at 16 miles for the week and top out somewhere around 30 by race day. Not huge mileage but I'm doing a lot of speedwork so I'm curious what the outcome will be. I didn't start keeping a training log online until March of last year so I can't really remember how many miles I was running in preparation for the same race a year ago but MAN I feel great. I'm so excited at the possibilities. Today was my first tempo run of the plan so I did a warm up mile and a cool down mile and 3 miles in between at a 9:13 pace. (It was actually supposed to be a 9:31 pace but I didn't realize I had transposed the numbers in my head by mistake until I got home and looked at the schedule. oops) The pace was difficult to hang on to there at the end but I didn't feel like I was running all out either. I know I couldn't have done this a year ago. I felt like I owned that treadmill!

Miscellany

Couple things of note...

1. I joined a gym. I haven't had a gym membership for about 2 years (my old gym went out of business, what does that tell you about this mid-western town?) but after being dragged to one by my BIL, I decided this might be something that could be really good for me. My 1/2 marathon training program starts tomorrow and I'm gonna give speed work a go. Doing this on a TM seems safer than running around my neighborhood in the dark, ice and snow. Plus, there are cute boys there.

2. I signed up for the Flying Pig half marathon, which means I'll have to maintain my training for a few weeks after the Capital City Half Marathon. Capital City is where I'm hoping to PR in a big way so I'm not really too concerned with my time for the Pig, although I think the Pig will be really fun.

3. I've been doing a lot of impulse buying this weekend which is pretty unusual for me. I can't explain the urges, but man, I've got a whole new wardrobe and a fake plant, top that off with race registrations and gym memberships and you'd think I actually had money to burn. Not exactly.

4. I spent Saturday afternoon watching episodes of My So Called Life. This show came out when I was a junior in high school and I was convinced the writers had peeked into my very soul and plastered it on TV. Watching it again (for the first time since it originally aired) made me sentimental for that time in my life but also wondering how anyone ever makes it through high school alive. And all that flannel!

Anyway, that is all. Hope everyone has a wonderful week. It's going to seem like a long one!

Happy New Year!

I tend to think of my running life as being divided into two parts. The first part was way back in high school when I ran cross country, but really only as a way of keeping in shape for my true love (swimming).

My second running life, as you may know, began in the summer of 2004. My first and only goal that summer was to run around the lake one time without stopping, the equivalent of 1.2 miles. It took me about 8 weeks to get that far but I did it and I will never forget how proud of myself I felt that day.

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I shy away from comparing times from my two running lives. After all, I was much younger and thinner in high school. Every PR I keep a record of now only applies to my second running life because never in my wildest dreams could I imagine that I'd ever run close to my high school times ever again.

But something amazing happened on New Years Day. My BIL and I (acting goofy above) ran the Resolution Run 5k. My dad (wearing the goofy hat on the left) came along with sis and my mom as the most supportive cheering section on earth. Despite all the wind and the cold, BIL managed 2nd in his age group with an official time of 20:46 (sick) and I came along in 27:34, which works out to an average pace of 8:53. When I peaked at my garmin at the first mile marker I thought for sure the course was short. There's no way I was running that fast! But at the finish line I knew I had done it. Breaking my previous second running life PR by almost 1:30. I have no idea where that burst of speed came from but I'm riding it all the way.

As soon as I got home, I dug though some old boxes to find my high school PR. I just had to know how far away I was. Finally, I found that flimsy piece of paper given to my by coach after my last race and I knew. In my junior year, I ran a 25:25 and now, believe it or not, my goal is to blow that away.

This is the thing I love about running. Every day is an opportunity for a PR. Before the race, I told my BIL I wanted to run a sub-30 again but I was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen. After all, it was cold and windy and starting to snow and my lack of mileage has been so discouraging. But I reasoned to myself that I'd never run this race before. I'd never run any race on New Year's Day before so whatever happened, I was running a course PR, right? I was going to run a PR for New Year's Day, right? Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine a 27:34.

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And, to be honest, it's not the actual time that I'm happiest about. For most decent runners, this is still pretty slow. But for me, it's knowing that with a little hard work and sweat, I may be able to do something I never dreamed I'd be able to do. Something that seemed out of the question when I was struggling for weeks to get around that lake just once. This (dare I say it), even more so than the marathon, gives me hope...

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Here's to a healthy and happy 2008!