Major change in plans

After running out at the parking lot behind my house for the last few weeks, I have decided that it cannot continue. I have witnessed some strange things and don't feel entirely safe running alone or even with my son by ourselves. For one, the area is surrounded by woods - and not pretty woods either, more like scrub and cactus's and a big ol' drain ditch. Normally woods aren't a bad thing (especially when I'm stalking Bambi), but these woods are used for more sinister things, I think. I see people driving up to the woods, getting out of their car, walk into said woods, and then come out a few minutes later and drive away. I've also seen police cars sitting next to the woods for hours on end - they don't just sit there for hours to socialize. Since it's a large area I've also noticed that you cannot hear things that go on such as vehicles driving into or out of the parking lot and there really is no one close to come help if the need arises.

My change of plans include moving my run area to the 1.5. mile track on base. It's safer over there and as a bonus, there's a bathroom next to the track area, which will prevent me from having to quit and drive somewhere if need be. The downside is that I won't be able to just pick up my son to go run with me, which has proved to be quite entertaining these past few runs. It's also not the same as the 3100 mile run in New York that is on a .5 mile course. Oh well, I weighed my options and this is the best that I could come up with. I wish there was a better answer, but I have yet to find it. Ultimately, I guess it does not matter if I run on a .5 mile track or a 1.5 mile track...what matter's is that I am out there...for Ethan and Reid.

Not exactly

I was on call this weekend and was not expecting much. I was asked by one of my co-workers to go with her car shopping since English is a second language for her and it's not always easy for her to understand. I was also asked to do a photo shoot for a family that lives down the road - it's bluebonnet season here and it's a yearly tradition for most families to have their picture taken in the bluebonnet patches. The kids also had swim lessons and I needed to go purchase some new running shorts. Busy, busy weekend!

Saturday I was able to squeeze in a 2 mile run after swimming lessons. My son ran with me. Afterwards, we went home and he wanted his head shaved...it's a current fad, I guess.

Sunday my daughter had a fever and I ended up getting called in to do an MRI scan. I was there for a while, and when I got home my daughter was very clingy, so nothing got accomplished.

I went to the Y with my son to do some core work this afternoon after a CRAZY, HECTIC, FRUSTRATING day at work. Afterwards, we went by the parking lot to get some laps in. In the end, we only got 1 mile in. It should have been a lot easier as the temperature was only about 70 degrees, but I just wasn't feeling it today.

I have off tomorrow to spend some time with my husband on our anniversary, but already have a run planned for the morning before the sun comes up. Hopefully I'll be able to do something worthwhile...for Ethan and Reid.

No run today :(

I am on call this weekend and don't know if it will happen at all until Monday. I am carrying the pager and tomorrow is not looking good. I was going to go this afternoon, but remembered we have the pinewood derby race tonight and had to get my daughter's car ready to race. By the time I finished with it, there would not have been sufficient time to get out there to log any distance and then run back here, shower, change and get to the race...I'll get there...hopefully...for Ethan and Reid.

Slowly chippin' away

I called my husband on the way home to see if anyone wanted to run with me today. He said that both children wanted to run, so he would meet me there once everyone was dressed and ready. I was able to get about 1.5 miles in before they got up there, so almost 3 laps. My son started running with me and ended up doing about 1.75 miles before he had to go to the bathroom, so he went back home with my husband and daughter.

I started having to go to the bathroom between 2.5 and 3 miles, but since I knew I had a photo shoot to do after my run and knew that if I went home that I more than likely was not going back out, I decided to suck it up and keep moving...at least to get to 5 miles! It was 82 degrees when I started and 85 when I finished and there was very little to no wind - except when I was trying to run uphill and then it was hitting me in the face, go figure.

My right foot started hurting around 4.5 miles, so I think that it's either time to start breaking in some of the other running shoes or get another pair of these from the shoe store. I have 3 other pair, and wore one of the other pairs for my first 7 mile run as well as one of the shorter ones, so I think I'll be okay. My second digit on my left foot starting hurting around 5 miles. I'm not sure why since I have plenty of room in the toe box, but oh well, I pressed on.

At 5 miles I decided that I had enough time to do another mile before I had to run home and grab my gear for the photo shoot. The shoot was going to be outside, and my client knows about my running, so she didn't have a problem with me going straight there from my run (especially since I was not going to be all up on top of them in a stuffy studio, so my nasty funk wouldn't have smelled too bad - totally professional, I know, but she ended up calling and canceling it anyway)!

At 6 miles I noticed that I had negative splits from the first and second 3 miles. I ran the second set about 5 minutes faster than the first, so I was really happy, albeit surprised, about that! I stopped and went to my car and got a drink of water and started up my car. I sat in the car and realized that I had read the time wrong and still had a good amount of time before I had to be at the shoot, so I figured that I would keep going!

I ended up doing 8 miles, which gives me a .5 mile extra over my daily "required/recommended" amount! What this means is that I get to apply that .5 mile towards the 31 miles I was in the hole - so now I'm only 30.5 miles in the hole, haha! I'm chipping away at it very, very slowly - for Ethan and Reid.

Wednesday, 23 March 2011

I was supposed to have time to run when I got home from work, but the problem was that I did not get off of work on time. I was almost an hour late, which meant that there was less time for a run. When I got home, the family was getting ready to head to the Y, so I went with them since it was 86 degree's. I decided to wait until later to run when it had, hopefully, cooled off some, so I figured a little work-out at the Y would just be a warm-up. I rode the bike for a little over 3 miles and then we headed home.

My son wanted to come run with me, so we headed over to the parking lot with a big glass of ice...hoping it would melt and provide some cold water during the run. We started out pretty good, although my left leg was really tight. About 1/2 mile into it, my leg started to loosen up and felt fine after that. We did the first mile non-stop, but then had to walk during the 3rd lap since it was so hot. I looked when I got home and it was 85 degrees, so, my plan to wait so it would cool down didn't work out very well! I guess I need to realize that it is already hot and most likely will not be cooling off - hello summer, I suppose!

We ended up doing 3 miles before Eli decided that he was done and needed to go home. It was dinner time  anyway. We were having to stop and get a drink of water after every lap due to the heat and wanting to avoid any kind of heat injury!

So, final count was 3 miles on bike and 3 for the run, but the bike doesn't really count towards the 310, so we'll just go with the 3 for the run. This brings me up to 13 miles total with 297 miles left. At this rate, I should probably decrease my goal from 10% of 3100 (310) to 1% (31) in 51 days...I might actually achieve that! Regardless, I'll keep going out there when time and weather permit...for Ethan and Reid.

Another day down...and even farther from my goal :(

I got home today to realize that the Pinewood Derby weigh-in is tonight! Now if it was Zsa Zsa's car we were talking about, then it would have been no problem, but it was Eli's car...and that was a problem. You see, I sent the car's with Mark and the kids to Louisiana to get worked since Mark's dad has a huge woodworking shop. I thought they would come back all finished. I guess I was wrong. Zsa Zsa's car was done, but I'm not sure anyone even looked at Eli's car, so I had to finish it up before the weigh-in. I painted two (or three or four) coats of the clear-coat, but the last coat I put on there looked awful and made the rest of the clear-coat crack. I tried to sand it down, but that didn't work, so I got the Dremel polishing tool and tried to fix it, but all I did was succeed in taking off a few layers of EVERYTHING (including paint)! So then I had to strip down the entire top of the car and sand, paint and clear-coat it again...all before weigh-in at 1800 hours!! It ended up getting 2 coats of paint and 2 coats of clear-coat - oh well.

So what does this have to do with my run today? As I'm sure you guessed, it didn't happen. Well, let me take that back - I got 1 mile in. Yes, 1 measly mile. After the car weigh-in, my daughter and I were headed back home. I asked her if she wanted to go to the parking lot (she knows that the parking lot means we will run). She asked me what her other options were and I replied that we were either going to go to the parking lot or go home and get ready for bed. Her choice was the parking lot! We did 1 mile at which point I noticed that she was dancing around (aka: she needed to go potty). So, we got back in the car and drove home. She is now getting ready for bed and I am now now 26.5 miles behind...however, there is a silver lining to every cloud and that is that I now only have 300 miles left. After tomorrow (of which I have NO plans so I can actually run) I will have broken 300 miles...for Ethan and Reid.

Here we go...

So I had planned on running about 6.5 miles a day, but I haven't been able to get off to quite as good a start as I had hoped...

I was out at MRT for 3 days last week (Medical Readiness Training - where I go out in the field and do deployment exercises with mannequins and triage and all that good stuff) and for our big exercise, I was originally on the manpower team - having to tote the mannequins on the litters and bring them to the plane, chopper, ambulance, or field hospital - but ended up being the "runner" for the MCC. My job was to run back and forth with all my field equipment, rubber duck (pretend M16), gas mask in MOPP 2, back and forth to the different places that the commander needed me to go in order to get his questions answered. It was hot, and there were IED's and shooters and gas being thrown everywhere, but I guess I don't have much to really complain about as it was just an exercise and not real-world.

So back to my plan...I had planned to do 6.5 miles a day. This would bring me well over my goal, however, things sometime look better on paper than in reality.

So I get out of the field on Thursday and head over to the YMCA to do some core work. The push-ups kicked my rear-end on our last PT test, and I don't plan on having to deal with that again, so core work is a must. I finished at the Y and then stopped at Target to purchase myself a little watch so I could keep track of my run times (not that the time matters, I just want to see how long I'm out there). At this point, I still had not eaten since I did not want to eat before the exercise and did not want to eat before the run - oh well. I got my little watch and then headed over to the parking lot where I am doing all of my runs. The parking lot is exactly a 1/2 mile course, and it's somewhat close to the house - just in case I need to run back home for something.

So I start running and it is HOT! I'm not saying that the temperatures were all that high, but when you have been in the field all day long and then a workout at the Y, and then a run...on asphalt, well, 80F feels high!

When I got to 1 mile, my right foot started hurting. I pressed on.

When I got to 2 miles, my left foot started hurting. I pressed on.

When I got to 2.5 miles, I decided I would do 3 and call it a day.

At 3 miles, I figured that I was over half-way to 5, so I might as well do at least 5.

At 5 miles, I thought about doing an even 6.

At 5.5 miles, I decided that 6.5 was totally do-able.

At 6 miles, I knew that I would be okay to do 7.

At 6.5 miles, I thought I could make 8.

At 7 miles...I got in my car and drove home! Eight miles was not going to happen.

I was exhausted, hot, nasty, and HUNGRY!! It was after 1600 and I had yet to eat. Call me lazy; call me out of shape; call me a dirt-bag; but I was ready to call it a day.

My family was out of town on Spring Break, so I went back home and cleaned up and then ran some errands. I called up a co-worker and he and his wife and I went out to eat at BJ's Brewhouse. I got a pizza and then splurged on an Oreo Pizzookie (this amazing warm cookie with ice cream on top)! It was great.

So Friday comes, and my family gets back into town. I worked a regular day and got off around 3pm or so. I knew running 6-7 miles was out of the question since we have symphony tickets and there was a concert that night. Needless to say, I missed my entire run on Friday.

Saturday found me sleeping in later than I should have, but I knew that I needed to get up and get out there before we had to take the kids to swim practice at 1200. My son wanted to ride his bike next to me while I ran, so we got his tires aired up and headed out to the parking lot. We walked there since it it pretty close, however, I had to carry my son's bike since he is not very proficient at riding it yet, hence him riding it next to me in a very vacant 1/2 mile parking lot.

So long story short, my son decided that he really didn't want to ride his bike after all and I had to turn around after 1 lap and carry his bike back home. Swim class lasted longer than normal and then I was unable to get back out there and run.

Sunday I took off (I think I will take off one day a week just to re-coup and rest, which means that I will have to up my daily milage to about 7.2 miles).

Monday I woke up and got my clothes ready. I went to work with all the intentions to running after work. Things got busy with patients and then, after adding on a few extra patients, lunch ended up being after 1330 hours...not exactly ideal when you plan on going run at 1500! I changed into my workout clothes and headed over to the parking lot. I called my husband to let him know that I was leaving work and he told me that our 6 yo daughter Zsa Zsa wanted to run with me. I headed home to pick her up only to discover that she was not done with her homework, so I went over to the parking lot alone.

I got over there and started running. I was tight and just not feeling it. My lunch was still sitting heavily in my stomach and it was now about 83F. I managed to get 1.5 miles in, so not at all what I wanted...

So here we are - 5 days into this and only 9 miles to my name...so far behind where I should be. I should be around 30.5 or so, which means that I will have to make up those miles by tacking them on somewhere. I figure that I can add a mile or two on per day for a while (provided I actually get myself out there to run) and if need be, I can do some long runs on Saturdays like we did when we (my husband and I ) were training for our marathon or I could even do some 2-a-days if the schedule permitted. It is certainly proving to be a challenge, which is really a double-edge sword, but I know that if I apply myself I can do this...for Ethan and Reid.