There’s this movie I like. It’s based on a book by Nicholas Pileggi called Wiseguy. The plot follows this gangster named Henry Hill and his crew in NY in the ‘60s and ‘70s and how after years of living the high life he eventually gets caught. He gets flipped by the FBI, testifies against his crew, and goes into the Witness Protection Program. It came out in the early ‘90s and had some of the day’s big stars in it. There’s some cheesy nonsensical scenes in it about merengue dancing, but also one
Ladies, I am emailing you all today to withdraw from the team. I no longer feel that this expedition is right for me. I do want to thank everyone for giving me the opportunity and believing in me enough to be a member of this team, and to be a part of the incredible training that we have done. I’ve gained great skills and knowledge that I do not believe I ever would have received otherwise. This experience has shown me that my love of endurance athletics can be pushed even further than I imagine
And here we are at the end of another week. I spent several years in retail and don't miss it very often. The time I miss it least is probably around the holiday, but every Friday I'm reminded just how that industry is a demanding one. God bless the people who do it. Not many of their customers seem to. All that to say I'm happy to be at the weekend.
Sadly, it looks like rain most of the day tomorrow. I don't mind rain too much, of course, but it's fall and it's cooler than normal this year
The year has rolled into October and the next marathon is around the corner. Training is done, for better or worse, so it's time to taper and consider how this last cycle went.
Well, it's gone pretty well, I'd have to say. Certainly not optimal. Not my best training. Not my most miles, and definitely a little slower.
But I'm looking on the bright side: It's only the second time I've done two marathons in one year - so the risk of injury was higher. I came out of LA in March with a tw
I’ve been doing a lot of writing here - for myself mostly because it’s pretty mundane. But maybe someone has a lot of free time on their hands and enjoys sifting through my mess. And my return-to-running training log is here for the spreadsheet lovers.
Week 1 - 2
Week 2 - 5.6
Week 3 - 12.4
Week 4 - 18.4
Week 5 - 23.7
Week 6 - 19.5 (10 miles on Monday of Week 7)
Week 7 - 39.5 (10 miles from Week 6)
Week 8 - 28.2
Week 9 - 26.3 (taper-ish for A
Race: Fort Bragg Army 10 miler When: 6:30 am, June 3rd, 2011 Temp: 69 glorious degrees with a little wind Outfit: New bright orange/white singlet (got 10% off for a grease stain), white/blue marathon slutties, and my orange/white Ghost 3 Brooks.
Since the race started at 6:30, I had to get up at 4:45am to eat, get dressed and get to the
parking area before it filled up. I forgot to charge my Garmin the night before and it was the very first thing I thought of when I woke up. I jumped ou
I'm such a whiner.
Seven weeks since I started running again consistently.
Mostly what I've done in those seven weeks is complain that it's hard and I'm slow.
Beginning the first week of September:
Week 1: 12 miles, 9:53 avg, LR 2 miles (9:41)
Week 2: 14 miles, 9:17 avg, LR 4 miles (9:22)
Week 3: 20 miles, 9:24 avg, LR 5 miles (9:25)
Week 4: 20 miles, 8:55 avg, LR 5 miles (8:55)
Week 5: 24 miles, 9:15 avg, LR 6 miles (9:27)
Week 6: 24 miles, 9:05 avg,
Since I'll be seeing at least a few of you in Rehoboth, I thought I'd update you on where I am currently...
Ever since a run the day after my 40th birthday, I’ve been battling right leg pain that seemed to move all over the place. After plenty of working out, dry needling and physical therapy I discussed the issue with my good friends and trainer/PT people Jill and Rachelle and I think we figured it out.
My baby calf just hasn’t been ready for what I’ve tried to put it through.
I was initially planning to hold the Second Annual Inaugural Irma Gerd 8 Mile Classic on Monday, seeing as how I had 8 miles on the schedule and the first running of the event had also been a Monday. Seemed symmetrically preordained. But, as is ever the case, life intervened. I found out I had to spend all day Tuesday in Florida with a client who likes to be wined and dined and always insists on closing the bar of whatever restaurant they make us buy them dinner at. So I knew I wasn’t going to g
The MH marathon is a local Half and Full that is fairly popular here. It's held during the Columbus Day weekend but my family is usually out of town that weekend so it's rare that I can manage to run this race. I've ran the Half two times when travel plans fell through. MH allows bib transfers so that makes it easy to get in late since the race sells out in a few hours. The course is mostly flat but results in a net downhill elevation change so it's a good PR course. I registered becaus
Hello. I'm still at it. This running thing.
Haven't posted in a month, mainly because I've just been feeling pretty negative every time I try to think of something to write. Why? I'm in the midst of marathon training - still getting the miles done - but it seems like most runs are disappointing. I'm sore a lot. My knee still hurts, although it's not so bad that I have to cut back. Mainly I think it's just my slow times. All my runs, whether it's an easy run, a tempo, or track work, are a l
Well, today I made the decision to drop down to the half marathon at Rehoboth, which will make it my 3rd consecutive 13.1 there. That isn’t a bad thing because I have the BEST time there, but it’s just sad to give up the idea of running 26.2. There are several different reasons why I know that decision was the right one.
While running is a great part of training for climbing Mt. Denali (20,310′ – I gotta remind myself of that from time to time), and I will still be getting runs in, I’m tak
This year's transition to fall weather has been pretty crazy. 20+ degree swings between summer and fall nearly every single day, and often on the same day. And I can really tell the difference between 60 and 80.
Saturday was a perfect example. It was about 60 in the morning, humid and foggy. I don't mind so much the 60. By 2:00 in the afternoon the fog and clouds had cleared and it was 80 and humid. Yuck. But I ran in the morning, so it was all good.
My week's runs were so-so. Decent w
Monday: If you didn’t read what I did on Monday, you really should!
Tuesday – Saturday: REST. I know, I know. I really shouldn’t be taking so many rest days but I’m just being cautious. I haven’t felt my shin a single bit in almost a week now! I had two pretty strenuous back-to-back weekend hikes and those didn’t make things worse. My calves got sore from the Aspen to CB hike, but not as bad as I was expecting! That tells me that my muscles are finally getting stronger and getting use to th
September 2018 in review
Total mileage for the month: 305.4 -- in comparison: January - 207, February - 254, March - 298, April - 307, May - 355, June - 232, July - 290, August - 357
August 27-Sep. 2: 75.8
Sep. 3-9: 73.0
Sep. 10-16: 80.1
Sep. 17-23: 81.7
Sep. 24-30: 57.7 (planned cut-back week, but ended up being lower than the 70ish planned because I missed cool down miles on Sep. 29, then took Sep. 30 off due to a calf issue)
This month sur
In 2016, the Hinson Lake 24 Hour Ultra Classic was the race that earned me my first buckle. I completed 109 miles that weekend and knew that I would return after recovering from experiencing some of the highest highs and lowest lows.
In 2017, I trained hard. Really, really hard. I ran half marathons on weekdays and spent 6-7 hours running each weekend. I had big goals going into the race and ended up with nearly 116 miles, a new 100 mile PR, and a course record.
A
The year was 1998. It was a chilly, windy and overcast Pennsylvania fall day. It was all I could do to drag myself across campus to class. Staring at the teacher, not hearing a word he said I could not imagine how I would make it back home and back to bed where I wanted to be.
It had been like this for a while. My days revolved around going to class, going to work, and going to bed. When I was awake, I was a walking zombie. My waitress job wiped me out every night. Being th
Sometimes it’s difficult to know whether to toe the line or DNS. It can be even harder to know when a DNF would be the best call. I now know I should have made the first choice about the Indy Women’s Half Marathon, but if I had to start the race again I would have made the second choice, pride and other considerations aside. But I’m getting ahead of myself...
Expo fun
After I PRed at the Plaza 10K at the beginning of the month, I felt
Week 8 has come and gone and I haven’t ran since the end of Week 5. I’ve tried to take the shin splints seriously because it can turn into something much worse that would take me out longer. Consequently, with only 10 weeks to go, the chances of being able to run a marathon in December are starting to look quite bleak. If feel a PR is definitely off the table, but I do still hope to run the 26.2 miles.
I basically didn’t do anything during the week. Aunt Flo came for a visit on Monday and
Bits and pieces of the long slow road to recovery. No, I'm not 100% yet. Maybe I never will be. Worry about that later.
Shoutout to DrWhiskers for suggesting I do my strength work AFTER running. Duh, Dave. I also googled how often I should to them, and it looks like a couple days a week is about right. So much better than boring my skull out every day. I pick Tuesday and Thursday for it. The other four days (M/W/F/S) will be running days, and Sunday (as always) off. Careful, meticulous even
A little late in getting this one out…
Well, week 7 is over and I haven’t ran since September 8th. I’m trying to remain optimistic that I still have time to get in enough training to run a decent marathon, but it’s fucking hard to keep up. My hopes of completing a full training plan have once again gone down the shitter. Will it ever happen? Who the fuck knows.
Now that the fucks are over, let’s hear about what I actually did.
Monday: Barbell Strength – I got my lift on and my le
During #soberJanuary, I went to Jekyll Brewing with a group of friends I'd met through the SFTC (South Forsyth Tri Club) and despite being sober and unsure of my impending injury, I ended up halfway agreeing to do the run portion of the August 70.3 Ironman relay.
Booted in February and March, I was reluctant to commit right away. April and May slipped by unnoticed and by the time I was approached about it again, I was back in the stupid boot. June and July passed with misery and when
So, the new yet-to-be-named Forerunner 235 and I had a good week. Monday through Saturday we ran every day. A couple were short of the planned 3 miles, but that's because the route was a tad short and I'm not in the mood yet to be a stickler for the numbers. 19.71 total.
This makes three weeks in a row I've run without a miss.
People who lift/ XT regularly know this already, but I'm discovering that weights just before running makes running harder. At least, when you're almost 60 and t
Hi. I still run.
After the pretty amazing 13.1 in Utah (and days and miles of hiking), my legs were destroyed, and boy, did I feel it for a few weeks, so I took a little time off. Did some more yoga, did lots of renovation work, mowed the lawn, went to work conferences, and delt with some pretty major life stuff.
Then, I found my wedding dress and the typical, "I want to look as gooooooooooood as possible in this thing" thought rose to my head, and I joined a Beachbody challenge. My
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