Do you have a 'plan'?

This week as part of the training we are getting, we were given a homework assignment to have completed.  We were to write our plan for the Race to Robie including the week before, day before, day of and during the race itself.  Our plans for hydration, sleep, nutrition, etc.  Not everyone actually did the homework, but several, including Chipper Betty and I, did.  After listening to everyone's plans I realized that it truly was just a way to separate the serious runners from the.... well, ME!  Here I am sharing that I have learned the night before the race not to eat Thai, Vietnamese or Mexican food while the others are all talking about continuing their diet of brown rice with lean chicken and ham for breakfast, etc., etc., etc.  BLECH!  I LIKE FOOD!  I know this isn't a surprise to anyone who knows me and I am aware that a person needs to eat healthy.  However, I am a firm believer that healthy and good tasting CAN go together.

So, Betty and I both have plans in place (during the race, my plan is to follow Betty).  They may not be fancy and we most certainly won't be clocking 9 minute miles, but I am pretty certain that even if I did eat nothing but sawdust I still wouldn't have that kind of a time.  We WILL finish and collect the T-shirt and wear them with great pride!  In the meantime, we are healthier than we were the beginning of January and having a BLAST!  I think WE are winners already!

some lessons learned

I have learned the importance of making certain the mid-week work outs happen in addition to the long runs on Saturdays.  The last 2 weeks, I haven't gotten any of them in.  Not one and let me tell you, yesterday's 11 miles was killer!  My breathing was terrible and my endurance worse.  Probably the slowest time I have had in 6 weeks.  Chipper Betty was fabulous and kept telling me "you can do it!" which my brain was NOT saying.  We did finish it and for that I am glad.  I deserve to be much more sore than I am, but still need to stretch.

So, there are people who truly are crazier than Betty and I and yesterday we saw them!  As we were on the return leg of the 11 miles, we went by a couple who had packs on their back, using ski poles, and tied around there waist a tire they were dragging.  They each had their OWN tire.  It appeared to be rigged up to put additional weights on instead.  I was looking for Jillian behind them.  Seriously!  I proceed to tell them that they were a special kind of crazy and had ALL of my respect and awe.  I then had to pick up my jaw for about the next mile as I thought about it.  Really, the only way you could ever get be to do that was if Jillian was making me.

I've lost how much?

Nothing?  Really?  Yes, really.  I have to tell you that since I have run approximately 27 million miles (just a rough estimate) since the beginning of the year, I thought at least a pound would have left!  But noooooooooooooooooo, not even ONE pound!  Now, I have had some friends suggest I measure myself and go with that.  It really is a good idea because we all know muscle weighs more than fat (it just doesn't taste as good).  However, I have not done this.  Why you ask?  At first I just didn't get around to it, but as the couple days became a couple of weeks I realized I wasn't going to get around to it.  Honestly, I just don't think I could take both the scale and the tape measure not changing.  I will just continue to enjoy the running, know that my insides are healthier even if my outsides don't show it, and one day, perhaps, I will need different sized clothes.  At least that is the positive attitude I am taking today.

The voices- they talk to me

I have this great program for when it is just me running I just got.  I tracks the time, miles, speed, etc.  I can set it for a specific distance run or a time run.  That determines how the 'voice' notifies me of progress during the run.  I spent most of Wednesday trying to have the voice notify me of the completion of another five minutes at a different spot in my lap at the park.  I tried, and tried, but by the end decided I could have cut across the lap half way and it wouldn't have mattered.  There must have been some lady in a helicopter up top watching me, telling the pilot, "watch this, I am going to make Alex a bit frantic today". 

As I was headed back from the park home I realized that I probably needed to provide you all with some information.  Should you see an old lady in a black jacket with a Pooh ear warmer stumbling along, she is not drunk, lost, delusional (dangerously anyway) or confused and you do not need to stop.  She is just crazy.  However, if you see that same lady laying on the side of the road with her reflective sneaker up in the air (I have been trained to collapse in this manner as it makes it easier to locate the body) please consider stopping.  Unless of course you are an old boyfriend or buddy of my teenage son.....

She's a lady...

not so much!  My proper English Grandmother is rolling over in her grave.  While running the track in the park today I actually had to spit and I did.  I think this is probably only the 3rd or 4th time in my entire life I have done that.  Yep, so nasty and so not lady like, but I was only half way through and it was inhibiting my breathing.  I did look around to make certain no one would see, but really, what choice did I have?  A girl's gotta breath!
On second thought, what I know and remember of my Grandmother she would have said that sometimes you just do what you have to do.  I am pretty sure than not one of my Great Grandmothers would have approved though.

Race to Robie- ACK!!

It has taken me almost 48 hours to actually get to posting this.  I think it is a combination of denial and FEAR  and yes, I mean all capital letters FEAR.  There is a lot of competition to get one of the tickets to the Race to Robie each year.  There are a limited amount available and they are gone, literally, in 30 minutes or less.  This is not a qualifying race so it you get a ticket, you are in.  It is, however, considered the hardest half marathon in the northwest so a popular event. 
You can get more details on the website HERE if you want, but in a nutshell you go uphill 2000 feet in elevation over the first 8 miles and then back down over the next 5 miles.  It is basically for crazy people.  So, get the men with the white coats, I need to be examined!!!

In case I forget

now that I have had over 24 hours to recover, first I want to say- I WENT 8 MILES!  Second, what the?  Really?  I don't walk to Shopko and it is only half a mile.  Not only that, I set an alarm on a Saturday morning to do this.

I also discovered that after about mile 5- I get a bit silly.  Well, I don't actually know if it is me or the people around me, but today I SWEAR Betty and I saw a man put a rock in his pants.  I don't mean a pebble, I mean a rock about the size of a goose egg.  We could only imagine- and joke - what that was all about.  Is that a rock in your pants.....  Needless to say, the speed was slowed as we were doubled over laughing.  Let it never be said that you can't have fun while participating in self induced torture.