rest day!

just woke up from an hour and a half long nap!! it's the perfect day outside to curl up and take a nice long cat nap! I had two good runs these last couple of days bringing my weekly mileage up to 23 miles - not quite where i want it - but higher than it has been - so that's good. Friday night I set out for a nice 5-6 mile run around the nieghborhood. Lesson learned - although the portion of the street you are living on has clean sidewalks - does not mean all of the neighboring streets have clean sidewalks! I ran down my street and turned down a street that doesn't have sidewalks - first mile eight minutes flat - nice! then i hit the slush ... my next miles drop down to nine minutes flat b/c i couldn't get up the hills with the snowy slushish mess under my feet! I decided to name this run the "first annual bridget's five mile snowcone fun run and snowbank steeple chase"! (I'm working on the t-shirts now!) No i seriuosly got back some of my old high school hurdling form jumping over all the snowbanks the plows made at the end of people's driveways. Well it ended up being a decent run - i found a new neighborhood to explore - and some good christmas lights. i went back the next day to take a picture of this one house that has lights that are fake tulips in their flower bed - they're kind of hard to see in this picture.

So yesterday I DID NOT want to run. As i've told a lot of you - for months now i've been running 5-6 miles pretty much everytime I run. I haven't done a long run for months. However, now that i have decided to do the pig - i have no excuse to not start ramping up the long miles. So - i decided start off small - just do an eight miler on saturday - not exactly a long run - but bumping up the mileag a bit. all i can say - is thank god for steve - who literally forced me to go running. he said "just go - i'll see you when you are happy when you get back" i yelled that it was windy and cold and I was tired and he couldn't make me run. Well i got out there and quickly realized that one part of my tantrum was completely wrong - i twas not cold - windy yes - but not cold so i was a bit overdressed. but short of taking of my tights and running in my drawers there wasn't much i could do about it - and if i went back home i knew i was going out again. Well as i was still grumbling to myself about running and how heavy my legs felt when i stepped in not one but two puddles and got sprayed by a bus driving by. During my run i saw a huge hawk - i took a picture of that too. i'll have to get a phone with a better camera to document my runs. Well i ended up running a little over eight miles at a 8:35 pace. I'm really happy with that.

On a sad note - as i was writing this steve just got a call that a good friend from his work passed away yesterday. This guy battled leukemia, graph versus host disease and whole bunch of other things that i don't know if i would be strong enough to battle. In the end his body couldn't take anymore. Please say a prayer for him - he will be missed.

Pig 2008

Wow - i can not believe it is December 20th already!!! I am never going to get all of my work done by the end of the month!!!! aggghhhh!!
Anywho - I took some time yesterday to work out my training schedule in order to get me ready for the Pig in 2008. So - it's official - i'll sign up for the pig next pay check! I know that i'll need to fine tune the schedule - but at least it's an outline of what my long runs need to be. And...I have an idea of where I need to be right now - which will be a lot better than the random running i'm doing right now. Plus - I always do better when i have a schedule where I can cross off things as I do them.
I don't really have much else to say right now -- but guess what? I think that tomorrow is the shortest day of the year... which means... the days are getting longer - which means - before you know it we can stop being vampires and start running in the daylight again!!! woo hoo!! ok - back to work...wish me luck!

i'm so tired...

Well I cracked open a red bull at 8:30 this morning. Not a good sign. I'm not sure what's wrong with me. I thought i was rested from this weekend - we literally slept all day long on saturday - i can't remember ever doing that - but we got up at about 3:30 in the afternoon... who does that? well regardless i felt great come monday. We were able to get a ton of wedding stuff done the last couple of days -- and although not enough - i got a ton of work stuff done too. But i am just dragging. I really want to ramp up my workouts - get back in the pool - take a spinning class - something - but it seems all i can do is be happy if i get a workout of some sort in 3-4 times a week. I guess i need to just deal with it over the next 51 days. there is only so much time in a day right? I guess planning a wedding right after the holidays, redoing the house and working an insane job all while trying to train is a bit more than i thought it would be. all i know is 53 days til hawaii.... ahhh!!!

"There's a lot of people who would run in this shit, but i believe i am not one of them" Steve S.

Well I think Steve's quote sums it up. I was having the "to gym or not to gym" dilema today. I hate going to the gym - I know that strength training is necessary - but I just get no satisfaction out of lifting a heavy metal object repeatedly. What is the point - at least if you go for a run or for a ride - you get to go somewhere and see something. Guess that's part of the reason I loathe treadmills. (That and it's tough to run on one of those when you are the type of person who has trouble running in a straight line as it is!)
So anyway - i was having the internal diliema of to run outside in the cold or go to the gym and lift some rocks for awhile. Well i checked the weather channel. 32 degrees -- perfect! Still didn't want to get out there. So I stuck my head outside and realized it was pouring rain! So i decided to be a wuss and go to the gym. Maybe it was nature's way of telling me to get back to strength training. I was hoping that the temperature would drop the half of a degree necessary to turn the nasty rain into snow - but no such luck. So i went to the gym, got a good lift in and ran for about 30 minutes on the dreaded treadmill. I did some messed up version of an interval training workout. Not sure if it did much for me -- but at least it made the time go by faster. (mental note - look up some good treadmill workouts)
Oh and good news. Ever since I got my new shoes I have been having horrible arch and heel pain. And my toes have been falling asleep midrun. Well i was using a pair of less agressive arch supports - put the old more agressive ones in (even though they are worn down) and my feet did not fall asleep and my arches do not hurt. good thing - b/c i wasn't looking forward to taking any time off.

holly cow!

58 days til we get married. agghh!!! just needed to share the fact that i am overwhelmed with life at the moment... why can't my work just pay me to plan my wedding and let someone else do my work?? maybe i should see if they'll let me have a co-op - then i can make the co-op do all of my wedding planning. how funny would that be? I just can't believe we are down to 58 days -- that means we can actually apply for our marriage liscense. I remember telling steve after we set the date that it seemed as though we were never going to get married b/c it was so far away -- now here it is creeping up quickly!!
I think i am losing my mind... My boss told me that i need to see a doctor after I showed up to work an hour and half late because I
1.) i overslept
2.) i had to return to the house to check if the iron was plugged in
3.) had to return to check if my straightner was plugged in
4.) had to return to the house to look for my cell phone that was in pocket.
5.) got to work and said i thought i might need to go home to see if the stove was turned on
6.) told him about how i managed to get cheese all over my floor and sock that morning which delayed me as well.

Now in addition to that my cell phone is playing games with me. i have spent probably a good hour and a half this week alone looking for the darned thing. my favorite was yesterday when i finally pulled into a wallmart parking lot to try and track the bugger down in my car -- well i found it under the drivers seat -but i couldn't get it or my hand out from under the seat for a good five minutes...

ok that's it -going crazy and thought i'd let you all in on it.

666

666! What kind of omen is it when you are waiting in line to pick up your race number and you are handed a 666? Well for most normal people it's not an omen at all - rather it's just a number that enables you to get your correct time at end of said race. Well for an over analyzer like me I thought - well maybe I'll run like the devil -- or maybe it's going to be a bad day. Well, since my running ephinany of a few weeks ago - i'm starting to become a little psycho about analyzing my times. For instance i had looked at the past i don't know how many years of results at the reindeer run and decided that i was going to finish in the top 10 of my age group, i looked at the course map and decided that although the my fasted 5k in oh approximately 10 years was a 24:55 at the pig skin classic a few weeks ago - i decided that i should be able to bust out a 22 minute run.

Well I woke up that morning and thought - well i better go out there and run in the 22's or at the very least get in the 23's or this whole running ephiphany of mine will be farse. Well then i got the 666 number at which point i decided i hated my new shoes and that my running jacket i bought last year was nothing more than a large parachute and that today was not going to be a good day. How does one psych themselves out that bad?
Anywho... as usual we didn't get there in time to have any sort of warm up -- unless of course you count jogging from the car to the pavillion - so when the bell went off I was stiff and cold - but i thought - well just go out there and run the three miles. Usually when i run in a race i try to pick someone and mentally reel them in - as a way of keeping myself from slowing down. Well i was having a really hard time reeling in these two old guys and I thought sheesh today is just not my day -- i'm barely moving - all these people are passing me -- i knew today was going to be bad. Oh - and have you ever been running and gotten a stick or something stuck to the bottom of your shoe? That's what my shoe felt like -- so i spent a few minutes trying to drag my left foot along the road to scrape the offending object off my shoe -- only there didn't seem to be anything on the bottom of my shoe. I must have looked like I had a stroke or something - running along dragging my left foot behind me! Not so sure about the new shoes by the way - love the color - but i think maybe with this particular model of shoe, they've finally altered it enough that i may have to switch my alligence to another shoe. Ok - back to the race...

Well after what seemed like at least 20 minutes (i had forgotten my watch at home) i finally get to the mile marker and my time is 7:28 -- obviously i was not slugging along like i had thought! well then my brain kicked in - and said well dummy you lined up closer to the start line than you normally do - so you were up with faster people - that's why you couldn't reel them in - which made me feel better - but at the same time I was feeling pretty crappy and was worried that my pace was going to drop way off. Well then I got stuck next to a couple of people with jingle bells on their shoes, a loud breather, a grunter, and kid that sounded like he was running in clown shoes with each step. I knew I couldn't stay with that pack for the rest of the race or I would go mad! I saw i girl up ahead that had her shoe untied so i decided to catch up to her to let her know about her shoe. She was grateful to me and the next ten zillion people that told her about her shoe i'm sure! Anyway - I thought - just stick with this girl to the end. Well we pass the mile two mark and i'm at 15:20 or 15:30 something I don't remember -- but i remember thinking holy cow - yes my pace dropped off a bit - but I'm still running under and 8 minute mile -- maybe a 23 is in the cards today. As I turned the corner after the 3 mile mark I tried to kick it in - but it was one of those days that i was trying not to show the finish line my breakfast - so i just kept it strong and as i crossed the line I saw 24:09 -- which i was initially disappointed in. But... official time...23:58!!! Woo hoo -- i broke 24 for the first time in 10 years -- and I ended up #10 - out of 44 in my age group -- so mission accomplished for the day. Maybe if i stop being such a head case and start expending all of the effort i put into over-analyzing into training - maybe I'll be able to break 21 early on in the new year! Maybe i'll make my new year's resolution to stop over analysing and self doubting!!! Think i'll get a jump on it a little early though... sheesh this is a long post for such a short race!!