A Crappy Long Run, But a Record Week!

It's ironic that the last run of this week was so crappy, but the week as a whole was record breaking.  Saturday is "long run day," but I knew it wasn't going to be spectacular.  I had no plan (which might pose a problem), had been sleeping pretty crappy the previous few nights (which is a problem), and just wasn't looking forward to it like I should have.  Ended up not even setting my alarm, and finally convinced myself at 5:45am that if I was going to do this, I had to get up.  Saturday was forecast to be warm and get even warmer very quickly.  What started off as "I'll do 22 miles," quickly went to "maybe 20 miles;" after that, I started to consider scrapping it at 10 if I could do another 10 later in the day.  (That's a stupid move for anyone considering it; if time's not an issue, why cut the run into two parts like that, especially if it's not during relay training?!)  I told myself to suck it up and get to 15 miles.  The problem was that was exactly what I did on Christmas, so how much of a "long run" would that really be?  Ok, 16 is the next logical spot to go, right?  Well, at that point, you're beyond 2 hours but not quite at 2 and a half hours.  I reasoned with myself that if I was going to do a bit more than 2 hours, I could deal with getting to 2 and a half hours.  That would've put me just a tiny bit under 17 miles, so the final decision was to go to 17 and stop there.  Mission accomplished!

Despite the fact that this was probably my crappiest and shortest "long run" since finishing my marathon in October, it still was a record week.  Funny, right?  I guess the stars just aligned, and with it being the first week of winter break, I could run whenever I wanted and for as long as I wanted.  (Seriously, when else would 15 miles happen on a Thursday of all days?!)  During my marathon training, there was one week towards the end that should've had me at 51 total miles; it didn't happen because of my toe problem and needing to scale back on running for a few days.  (A full "toe recap" can be found here for your reading pleasure.)  Well, at long last, I can say that I hit topped 50 miles in a week...twice!  Last week's total was 51-point-something, and this week's total is 54.6 miles.  Awesome stuff!

Now it's time to scale back; January's 6 hour ultra is a mere 2 weeks away at this point!  Are you ready?  Grandma is!  She got a 2 bottle delivery from Wine.com that had strict instructions to save one bottle for the 11th!

"You've Got a 50 in You"

Today's Christmas, and what better way is there to celebrate (as an athiest) than to run 15 miles?  Yup, that was what I did today, and it was awesome!  Part of what made it awesome was that Addie joined me, and she's an incredible runner!  In fact, if anyone should have the nickname "Lady Hans," it really should be her!  We kept our run at an easy, conversational pace, and that was nice because we could chit-chat about everything, anything, and nothing.  We got to talking about how she'll be doing the Keys50 in May, and during the conversation, she says (I kid you not), "You've got a 50 in you."  This is not the first time that she's said that either!  For a runner as good & strong as Addie is, that comment is no joke!  It's really neat to hear that she thinks that.  But, as I admitted to her, at this juncture, I look at a 50 miler the way I used to look at a marathon: "I can't do that!"  Well, a few years ago, I never would have thought that I'd sign up to do a marathon, let alone do another one and throw a 6 hour ultra into the mix.  I guess the saying "never say never" is appropriate.  Who knows - maybe I'll be blogging at some point in the future about plans for a 50 miler!

You're So Skinny! (Times Two)

Yesterday, I popped into a nearby salon for a quick wax.  This was not my normal salon, but it was super close & saved me from having to go all the way to St. Lucie West.  (The hysterical thing is that I sometimes run farther than what the drive would've been to St. Lucie West; we're not talking here to Fort Lauderdale by any means!)  Obviously, because it's not my normal spot, the chick who was going to do my waxing isn't someone I knew already, so when she came out to the waiting area to get me, we exchanged "hellos" and then went to the room in the back.  Even before the door was closed, she said, "You're so skinny!  Maybe it was my new (and super cute) Under Armour capri yoga pants, but I didn't think I looked any thinner than usual.  Since I wasn't sure if this was a compliment or not, I politely replied with "Well, I run."  Ok - done...right?  Nope!  Probably 5 minutes (or maybe even less later), she says, "You're so skinny!"  Snarky Kim's response would have been, "I heard you the first time."  I decided to keep Snarky Kim hushed and, instead, went with, "I run a lot."  Saying "you're so skinny" once could be considered small talk or even just a first-time-meeting-you compliment along the lines of "I like your shoes" or "That's a great purse."  Saying it a second time in the span of a few minutes feels like something totally different.

Yoga - A Metaphor for Life & Ultras

I've blogged about Suzanne (aka: Little Miss Sunshine).  For a while, she's been inviting me to attend a yoga class with her, but I've never been able to go because of work.  Well, now that winter break is here, I've got 2 glorious weeks of freedom, so I took Suz up on her offer last night & went to yoga with her.

Here's what I learned (in no particular order): it's very slow, it's slightly "hippy-ish," it's very slow, it's relaxing, and my balance blows!  Did I mention it's very slow?  With all that said, I bet you're guessing that I didn't enjoy it.  Wrong!  As I said to Suz when we were done, it was the perfect way to begin winter break, and I realized that yoga is a metaphor for life and ultra running in that it teaches you (or almost forces you) to s-l-o-w--d-o-w-n!  (I probably threw in a few more colorful adjectives that might not make that comment as PG as it appears; either way, you get the point!)

"You Go, Little Girl!"

This cold weather is torture, and I've been off of my game lately because of it!  Who wants to get up super early & run when it's going to be in the 40s?!  Not me!  In fact, I bailed (again) on the Tradition group with whom I normally run on Tuesdays & Thursdays.  My thinking was that I'd run...but just later in the day when it was warmer (at least in the 60s).  The problem with this is that as the day goes on, my motivation to do anything active just diminishes more & more.  By about 3:30pm, I don't really feel like doing anything, but with my race exactly one month away, now's not the time to skip any training days; it was time to man-up, get dressed, and get out there to run!  

I wasn't feeling any of it and just kept telling myself that if I got to at least 6 miles, that would be good enough (since that's what I'd do at the very minimum if I ran in the morning in Tradition).  It's pretty sad that I had to bargain with myself just to get to 6 miles, but here's where you never know what'll happen on a run!  I was over in the next neighborhood running down one of the streets toward a cul-de-sac, and I passed a lady who had parked her SUV on the side of the road and started unloading bags.  When I came back around past her, she was still unloading bags, but as I ran by, she asked "how far are you going?"  Since I wasn't up for stopping to chat, I kept running & said "maybe 10 miles."  Oh my gosh!  She was so genuinely excited about that!  "You go, little girl!" was what she said with so much enthusiasm (and, honestly, no snarky-ness)!  That one single comment totally turned my run around!

I'm not sure what it was, but after telling this complete stranger that I was going to do 10 miles and seeing her reaction, I felt like a whole new person.  How could I not do 10 miles?!  What started off as a less-than-great run had changed.  I was suddenly motivated to not just keep going, but to kick some ass!  I ran hard the next few miles.  In fact, my final mile (before stopping to walk & then do a final "cool down" mile) was at a 7:03 pace!  Seriously, how cool is that?  I'd love to be able to find this lady and thank her for what she did today!

"You Inspired Me"

I haven't seen Julie at the gym in a while.  That's probably because I'm not going super early like I used to when I was marathon training.  You might remember that she was the one who gave me some compliments about my focus on the treadmill.  (Linky in case you need to refresh your memory.)  Well, I ran into Julie this morning, and she said "You inspired me."  Of course, I had to follow that up with "To do what?"  Apparently, Julie has wanted to get back into dancing; what type of dancing, I do not know.  However, she explained that by seeing me at the gym and knowing how dedicated I was to training every day for my race, that inspired her to get back into dancing.  Cool!

In Case You're Wondering...

I did not run the West Palm Beach marathon.  As much as I know I could have run it, the conditions weren't optimal for the time I'd like to get: 3 hours and 40 minutes.  Instead of paying the highest race entry (due the last minute-ness), I opted to do my usual Saturday long run, and it was a good one.  iPhone batteries don't particularly like it when you want to stream music and run a GPS app like RunKeeper at the same time.  If you checked my RunKeeper log, you'd see that I had to break up what's there into 2 runs because I was afraid the battery would die & I'd lose what I'd already run.  Got 16.95 miles done, stopped the app (which saved the stats), grabbed my other phone (just to track the time), and went back out for another 9 miles.  Not too shabby, huh?!

It's Kind of Cool...

It's kind of cool that even though I haven't been "training" (like I was leading up to SoMo), I'm at a point now where I can decide completely last minute to sign up & do a marathon.  This realization hit me when I caught myself thinking "I might do the West Palm Beach marathon this weekend if the weather's right!"  Here's how this all started.  Hans emailed me and said that both he & Morgan are running in Sunday's marathon, and he asked if I was signed up for it.  That got me thinking, "I wonder what the route is like.  I wonder what the weather might be."  Yup, I looked all of that up.  The route looks good (no bridges), but it's a late-ish start (6:30am), and the morning low temperature isn't really going to be that low (65-ish).  If I'm going to pay last-minute prices to do a race, I want near-perfect conditions.

So while I may or may not do the marathon on Sunday, it's really neat to just know that if I wanted to, I could sign up for it and handle it!!!

"Don't You Get Tired?"

When I go to the gym on my cross-training days, I normally park myself on a stationary bike and read, read, read things on my iPhone for a good 45 or more minutes.  It's a good way to pass the time, and I can catch up on great articles linked on Twitter, email friends, check the news, etc.  Because it's a cross-train day doesn't mean I take it easy.  (You wouldn't have believed me anyway if I said that's what I did at the gym, would you?!)  My RPMs normally start out at about 85-90 and then go up from there.  It's not like a spin class, but I normally get into a groove around 100-105 RPMs.  Toward the end, it's not unusual for that to go up to 110-115.  The kind of cool thing is that despite this being faster than probably most of Planet Fitness' clientele's cycling, it really isn't too much of a workout (cardio-wise) for me; I'm certainly not huffing & puffing even after 50-55 minutes.  (Hmmmm...does that mean I should work harder?!)  

On Tuesday, this older gentleman (probably in his 70s) comes up to me while I'm trucking along on the bike and asks me, "Don't you get tired?"  He goes on to explain that he was watching me (uhhhh, kind of creepy) and wondering how I could keep going & going.  My short answer was to tell him that I ran for 3 and a half hours on Saturday, so this was pretty easy for me.  (Was that too uppity of a response?)  He was very nice, so I guess my answer didn't come across as snooty (and I certainly didn't intend for it to be snarky).  I can't remember what his parting words were, but they were pleasant.  Something along the lines of "it's very impressive" and "keep up the good work."