Why

Why do I run?

Bad

I was bad tonight.

Bad, bad.

I havent gone running.....

For TWO days!!

Saturday was the Bix.....yahoo! It was a great race.  Wet....but great.

Sunday I ran 12 with the Lake Run Club.  It was a great run.  I ran with Merlin for the entire 12 who realllllly pushed me.  We ran much of the 12 at an 8:30ish pace.  A few times I felt like throwing in the towel....my legs were pretty spent from the ever-hilly Bix the day before....but I kept on pushing and survived! :).

Monday I ran 3.  Hal said that's all I had to do....and I listened! ;)

Tuesday I ran 9. It was HOT....and afterwards I played a sand volleyball game! I realized that day (not for the first time, either....sadly this girl needs to "learn" more than once!! ;)) that I realllllllllly need to do a better job of eating and drinking water throughout the day.....

Wednesday I biked!! 11 miles on a tandem bike with Merlin! This deserves a post all its own! Perhaps tomorrow.....

And today?  Today.....

Today, I was BAD.

Dinner with coworkers and friends....Firehouse Pizza....an entire gluten free pizza with garlic sauce, canadian bacon, pineapple, and mushrooms and a side of marinara...just for me.

Yup, i ate the entire thing.  Eight (somewhat small, but still eight!!) pieces of delight in my mouth.

AND.....

I wasnt even full afterwards...

Really!

My metabolism is wicked crazy lately with all of this running....

And....

Afterwards I had ICE CREAM!

Coconut ice cream with hot fudge.  Emack and Bolio's....you are gooood friends of mine ;).

Tasted like Hawaii in my mouth.

But....also....

Tasted like NOT running.....tasted like guilt....tasted like getting fat/flabby/gross

*sigh*

I did have some very good conversations with some very good friends.  I have to keep reminding myself that a day without running is not necessarily wasted.

....right????

Posted by Rachel Lynn via Blogaway

Bix x 7!

I did it! I finished my 7th Bix! I did get my best time yet....56 minutes and 42 seconds. Just 42 seconds over my "goal" :)

Anticipation

Tomorrow at 9am it will be all over....I will have completed my 7th Bix 7! :) The humidity is supposed to be 82%. Oh dear me. The temp at race start will be 80ish. It's gonna be a hot, painful race! I'm shooting for 56 minutes. Last year I got 59. Not sure that an 8 min/mi pace is realistic tomorrow....but I can dream/shoot for it! ;). My biggest goal for myself tomorrow is to finish in the top 10% of my age group....which is within reason :).

I've been dealing with some intestinal issues since Sunday....so I am not very sure how that problem will come into play tomorrow, either. Hoping my system evacuates all extraneous matter before start time, if you know what I mean ;). Typically my body seems to know it's race day and gets rid of things rather expediantly before a race starts. However, I have to admit, I am quite nervous about the current state of my bowels.

Hey, don't act like you're all surprised that I'm discussing my bowel issues ;). I will readily admit that I've crapped my pants. As an adult. Hey, I have gluten intolerance.....I can't help it!! ;)

*sigh*

That's enough of that!!

Bring on the hills....bring on the humidity....bring on the crowds of 20,000 runners and even more spectators. Bring it, Brady Street!! :) :)

Yahoo Bix 2010!!

Posted by Rachel Lynn via Blogaway

Guilt

So, I have been a bit of a slacker marathoner lately. Ugh. So, instead of running...I'll blog about it ;). Ok, ok...it's 9:43pm and I've been home for a whopping hour today. I guess I shouldn't feel TOO guilty for sitting here at my computer unwinding by blogging for a bit ;). But I still do. Anyway....

So, in my post about last week's "week-in-review"...I had written that Sunday was TBD. Hal called for 8 miles (well, actually, I had flipped Sunday/Saturday this week)....but all I got in was a four mile run. Two miles in, I started to feel awful. Awful with a capital A. I pushed through...but when I started in on that third mile, I had to slow to a walk. that never happens. Ever. I walked myself to a port-a-potty located in a park along my route...and let's just say it was very, very lucky that the port-a-potty was located where it was. Whew. I was able to run the final mile of my 4 miles after...some relief ;) (UGH!) and ended up running a 7:30 mile. So, I didn't feel as if the entire workout was wasted. But, I finished the week with a 4-mile deficit in my mind. Ugh.

Monday...I was supposed to do 4 miles. It was raining. I hate rain. I didn't feel like truckin' through the rain after a nasty day at work. I didn't feel like running on the loathed treadmill at the gym. Plus, my stomach was still jacked from the previous day. So, when Jeremy suggested that we go see Inception after work...I jumped at the opportunity. Relaxation? Score! Running? Fail.

Four mile deficit for the week thus far.

Sigh.

Tuesday....I was supposed to do 9 miles. I muscled through a very painful 6. My stomach has felt AWFUL ever since Sunday! It is really disgusting. I am sure it may be due to some gluten I accidentally ingested somewhere...but not sure where or what it was from. That makes it even more frustrating...I am so careful!

Three mile deficit from Tuesday, added to a four mile deficit from Monday...equals a disappointing seven mile deficit for the week.

Today...(Wednesday)...Hal called for 4 miles. I (SUCCESS AT LAST!) got up at 5am and did 8 miles before work!!! SO...that is a surplus of 4 miles for the day!

Seven mile deficit for the week, subtract a 4 mile surplus from today...remainder of a small 3 mile deficit for the week! (*Feelin' a BIT better about things* :)).

Tomorrow Hal calls for 6 800's. We'll see. We'll see.

Work has been somewhat stressful again lately, too. It stinks when I can't feel like I can get things under control there...especially when I can't get other things in my life under control (like my training) as well.

Sigh.

Tomorrow is a new day :).

Actually...a new day starts in approximately 2 hours and 6 minutes. If I want to be in bed before that, I need to stop blogging and finish up my work for the night!!

Goodnight! :)



Posted by Rachel Lynn via Blogaway

BIX....

Five days, 13 hours, 47 minutes, 21 seconds...and counting! Here it comes, ready or not!

(and, sources say it's going to be one of the HOTTEST Bix races in history! UGH!!!)

Life, we know, is full of choices. Good choices, bad choices. Easy choices, hard choices. Choices that affect only ourselves, and choices that affect others in ways we can't even imagine. I made a tough (for me) choice lately...and have caught a bit of flak about it. So, I felt like writing...to get it off my chest.

You see...

We love the Bix 7...

It definitely holds a special place in our "hearts."

Yeah, that's pretty nerdy (even for me!). Nope, I am not ashamed to admit it :).

I ran the Bix 7 (a seven-mile race through the streets of Davenport, Iowa; held on a Saturday toward the end of July each summer) for the very first time in July of 2004. I've run it every summer since...which means this year's Bix will be my seventh! That first summer, I ran the Bixwith my little sister, Megan (to whom I owe my love of running...and my obsession with it :)).

2003 was the summer of my first races (if you really care, I wrote about my "running beginnings" in a blog post here)...a 4 miler and a 5k, both of which were run with my little sister (Megan, who ran cross country in high school and undergrad)....and then 2004 was the year of my first Bix.

Anyway...

The following year...2005...Jeremy joined me! This requires some explanation....

We had been going through a rocky time together that year (backing up a bit, we started dating in January of 2002, when he was a sophomore at Augustana and I was a first-year). Not to go into too much detail, but we broke up in January of 2005. This was the January of my senior year of undergrad (he had graduated a year ahead of me and was in "the working world" here inBloomington)...a stressful time in my life as I was just starting to hear back from graduate schools about acceptance/rejection, etc. We broke up for a variety of reasons, and the subsequent months were not pretty...not for either of us (in the way of our friendship/relationship and in the way of other choices the two of us made during that time period).

Well, in about March Jeremy decided he was going to start running.

I won't sugar coat this...and neither would he....Jeremy hates running.

***OK...at least he says he does ;). He runs up to nine miles at a time now, so I don't think he can truly still hate running. But that's a story for another time, perhaps ;). ***

However, back in March of 2005...he really did hate running. On his first run, he reportedly could barely finish a mile. So, why did he decide to start running? For me, he told me. He got it in his mind that he was going to run the Bix in July that summer, because he knew how much I loved that race...and how much of a part of my life running was starting to become. He wanted to show me that he could do something...for me.

So he trained, starting with that first painful mile.

He got up early before work some mornings. He ran after work some evenings. He ran in the heat some days. He ran, pushing through each mile...an expression of love. An expression of love, as strange as it may sound, to me.

Soon it wasn't just one mile he was struggling to complete...but it was two. Then, three, four...and, well, obviously you get the picture.

He ran, though he didn't know what the future held.

He ran, though we were both "seeing" other people.

He kept running...pushing through the physical and mental pain. Ran in spite of the uncertainties of life in general and the uncertainties of our relationship. Ran...though he didn't really even quite know WHY he was doing it, or IF it would be worth it.

In the meantime, two hours north, I was running. Running, because it kept me sane. Running, because it was one of the few things in my life I could "control." Running, because I needed a "constant" in my life. Running, because I didn't know what the future held, yet I had this unshakable feeling that it would help me get there somehow.

I may have "loved" running more than Jeremy, but that doesn't mean it was easy. I pushed through excuses, mental exhaustion, and physical pain. Ran in spite of the many distractions of college life. It was that spring, the spring of 2005, when I really started to make a cognizant commitment to running....and have never looked back.

And on a Saturday in late July...we ran our first Bix together. The start of a tradition that will go on for years and years for our family.

***In June of 2004, about 6 weeks before our big race, we did get back together :)***

Now don't be fooled....

If you know us, you know that Jeremy and I are NOT the sappy lovey-dovey type. We are both content to, in general, "do our own thing"...we have our own hobbies and interests as well as joint interests. We have our own groups of friends, as well as joint friends. We bicker at one another more than we probably should. We do, though, love and respect one another immensely. I say all of these things to illustrate the point that we don't have a bunch of silly/meaningless "traditions." We have a few "big" things a year that we do together (besides celebrating our birthdays and anniversary, of course)....seeing Handel's Messiah at Augustana in December each year and running the Bix each summer.

AND, we don't even really run together! Our pace and strategy is much different. Jeremy tends to go out harder than I do, thanks to all of that testosterone, I tease him. I start a bit more conservatively and build speed as I go (negative splits). In most races, I typically pass him after a while and end up finishing before him. We wait together in the start corrals, but split up shortly after the gun goes off. It just works best that way :). Otherwise one of us is annoyed with the other...etc., etc. BUT, we start together...and we meet up at the end and commiserate together. Complain about the heat, the hills, the humidity, a sore knee. Lament our slower-than-we-would've-liked time. Whatever it may be. Weexperience something special...together. (ok, ok...if any of you non-runners are reading this, I am well aware that this sounds completely loony and bonkers!)

So, this spring when an Easter Seals fundraiser...Walk With Me....was announced as having the same date, I was crushed! Torn. I am very committed to my workplace, so I thought I should probably sign up and attend the event. However, when I told Jeremy about it, he seemed very surprised that I would even consider doing anything else on that date. In his mind, it was out of the question. He even told me that he would still be going to the Quad Cities to run the Bixwithout me if I chose to go to the fundraising event.

So, I chose the Bix. But....that's not really it. I chose Jeremy. I chose our relationship, our marriage, our friendship. I'd say it is empowering to finally choose MY personal life over work, but I still feel guilty. I wish I could be there....I really wish the dates were different. I love my co-workers, and love the kids and families I work with. It truly SUCKS to not be able to be there with them on what is sure to be a very special and fun day.

But, I think I made the right choice.

I mean...he runs for me, remember?

Five days, 13 hours, 3 minutes, 34 seconds to go....

...and did I mention my goal??? I am shooting for an 8-minute/mile pace....56:00 minutes :). We'll see how the heat plays into that plan!!!

Week-in-review...almost

Monday--4 miles

Tuesday--8 miles

Wednesday--4 miles

Thursday--4o minute tempo run (15 minutes slow, 20 minutes faster, 5 minutes slow)

Friday--REST day! AHHHH (after TEN consecutive days of working out!)

Saturday--17 miles

Sunday (today)....TBD

I had to swap this weekend's runs a bit...Hal called for resting on Friday, and then an 8 mile run on Saturday followed by a 17 mile run on Sunday. Well, I was planning to go out of town Saturday evening through this afternoon (Sunday)...so I knew I needed to make the most of my available time and get the all-important 17-mile run in on Saturday morning. That leaves the 8 mile run for tonight....it's only 6pm here, so I still have plenty of time to get it in....but, MAN, sitting around sounds SO much more appealing right now after a busy weekend of GO-GO-GO!

{siiiigh}

We'll see what the night brings :). In an ideal world...I'll wait an hour or so and then head out. It will be at least a bit cooler, so perhaps I can get some good pace work in.

Week in Review

So, another running week has come to a close :).

Monday--off (we were driving back from the east coast)

Tuesday--8 miles in the evening after work

Wednesday--4 miles in the morning before work with my friend Jamie

Thursday--4 miles in the morning before work with my friend Jamie

Friday--4o minutes of pool jogging with my friend Jillian

Saturday--8 miles

Sunday--17 miles

Grand total for the week: 41 miles (not including "pool jogging")

Woot! New high-mileage week! :) I'm gettin' there! :)

This morning I met up with the Lake Run Club marathon training group at the constitution trail to do my 17 miles. Two other people ran with me for 10.5 of the miles and one guy ran with me for about 13.5. It was a great run :). I was planning to do 16 (what Hal Higdon called for today), but the pace with the group was a bit slower than I would've liked...so I added some speed work and extra hills at the end. Felt great! Legs are tired now, though. I've been stretching this afternoon...and I think I am going to go lay by the pool with a book :). We'll see :).

Have a great day, all! Happy running!

Life seems to revolve around running...

....well, for me anyway :). Somewhat, at least :).

So I went on vacation with my family....we are driving back now. Let me tell you, being in the car for 10+ hours is giving my poor legs some serious cramp-age action!

It was an awesome vacation....and, thanks to traveling with my trusty and amazing Garmin running watch and my fellow runners, my sister Megan and brother Dan's girlfriend Laura...I was able to get some great runs in. As I said, my life seems to revolve around running. Many conversations about running/schedules/etc were necessary to plan out the runs for the weekend.

Wednesday night before we left, I was able to do a quick 3.5 (Hal plan called for 3) with my friend Jamie at home. Thursday was a day off (in place of Friday, which is the day off my plan called for). Friday I did 7 (Laura ran 3, Meg ran 5, and I did 7). Saturday we did 3. Sunday Laura did 2 with us and Meg and I did 8. I was supposd to do 10....but the hills and heat did me in....in a major way. As I posted afterwards on facebook, Virginia (where we were staying)....you are one hilly B!! Our hotel was right outside of the Quantico Marine Corps Base (where my brother Dan was attending Officer Candidacy School for the past six weeks). And, it was conveniently minutes from Prince William National Park...beautiful and perfect for running. Meg and I took on "scenic drive" on Sunday morning....oh, it was scenic.....and completely hilly. Big hills. Rolling hills. Steep hills. Hills that made us cry out for mercy and cry out for our mommy. For real. ;) It was pretty incredible training, though :).

We also spent a good part of the weekend walking. We walked at least 3 miles on Sunday and 4-5 on Saturday. Saturday we spent the day touring DC on foot and Sunday we went to see the fireworks downtown. It was fabulous....but tiring!

I do love "active" vacations, though :). So I don't feel as if I go home tons fatter or anything ;)

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