Get in Gear!

The only thing about this photo that I'm proud of is that I don't look like that anymore.  This was taken at my very first race ever, the Get in Gear 5K.  I even had a t-shirt printed up for the occasion!  Gary surprised me by telling me at the starting line that we weren't walking as a warm up to the race.  We were running the entire 3.1 miles.  I didn't think I could do it.  I hadn't ever run that far before!  As he always does, Gary stuck with me for the whole 5K, we ran the whole time, and I had tears (big surprise) as I crossed the finish line.  I had accomplished something that I didn't think I could do.  Fat people don't run.  And they don't run without stopping for 3.1 miles. 

Why am I telling you this?  Well, I want you to join us this year at the Get in Gear race.  It's on April 30th.  You can run a 5K, 10K, or a half marathon.  And the best part is that if you register by January 30th, the price is still really low!  So go and register right this very minute.  http://www.getingear10k.com/

There are a ton of people so there is absolutely no chance you'll be last.  There's a great shuttle from the parking lot.  There are goodies to be had after the race.  It's a picturesque course.  What's stopping you?  We'll see you there!

I Love My Nike+... Sometimes

When I was starting to run, Gary bought me an iPod Nano and a cool little doohickey called a Nike+.  There's a little thing that goes into a pouch on my shoe and then I calibrated the receiver so it would know how I'm running and it keeps track of how fast I run and how far I go.  It's really cool and I love it. 

Most of the time.

I don't know exactly how it works, but I think it has something to do with the force of my foot hitting the ground and the time between my foot strikes.  Or something.  I don't know.  Anyway.  I love it because it tells me that I've run a lot of miles and it tells me whether I'm running at the pace I want, etc. etc. etc. 

The Nike+ does not work well on the treadmill. 

A treadmill run is generally going to be fairly evenly paced.  (Long and boring.)  But this morning when I ran, my Nike+ was telling me that I was running 10'40"/mile and then I'd look again and it said I was running 7'52"/mile and it just kept bouncing around like that for the whole run.  It's disappointing because I thought I was going at a pretty good pace (pretty good for me, anyway) because I had the treadmill set to run 9'10"/mile, yet that is not what my pace setter was telling me!  I didn't wake up at 6am so I could have a 9'37"/mile run.

Why not just get a Garmin?  That would keep an accurate count of my pace and my miles run.  Well, I just don't know.  I feel like the Nike+ and I have a history and I've accumulated over 1700 miles with it and I just don't know if I can start something new.  Also, REAL runners have Garmins.  I don't know if I'm ready to admit that I'm that hardcore.  Is that silly?

Perhaps.  I mean, I am almost in training for a marathon.  I think that probably qualifies me as a hardcore runner somehow.  But, maybe not at the pace I'm planning on running.  However, that's a post best left for another day.

6:30am is Early... Isn't It?

We ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse last night.

Before we finished eating, I announced that I would need to run when we got home.  Well, once we got home and got the kids in bed, my excitement for running had seriously begun to fade.  The Bachelor was calling, so I told Gary that I'd run and then my reward would be watching The Bachelor.  (Are you laughing at the thought of watching trashy reality as a reward?)  But then my sore muscles from my kettlebell/TRX class started to come out (thanks Trainer Nikki) and I was starting to seriously doubt my evening run. Then I started thinking about how sweaty I'd get and how I didn't want to take a shower and have wet hair when I went to bed and it was decided. 

I'd get up early and run in the morning.

I thought if I got up at 6:30am that would give me enough time to get in a quick 3 mile dreadmill run before the kids woke up.  And it would have been enough time had I actually gotten up out of bed at 6:30.  It was 7am by the time I headed to the basement.  (After reading this I decided that it was time to get moving because it's not raining nor are there tornadic-like winds in the basement.)  Katherine was just coming down the stairs and wondered what in the world I was doing.  (HAHA!)  But I figured she'd just watch a little tv and I'd be fine.  So I headed to the cold, dark basement to run.

About 10 minutes later, I had a visitor to the basement.

Mr. Smiley Oliver came bounding down the stairs.  He kept talking to me and he was so happy and cheery and excited, it was tough to tell him to leave me alone so I could run.  I slowed down and took out my earbuds and tried to carry on a conversation with him while he showed me things he was finding in the basement.  Finally I told him that I just had to concentrate on running and he went upstairs.  Phew!

So anyway, there are a lot of lessons to be learned from today.  Lesson #1: Don't eat at Texas Roadhouse.  Lesson #2: Wake up earlier than 6:30am to run before the kids are awake.  Lesson #3: If you're too lazy to get out of bed in a timely manner, don't be disappointed that your running time is slower than you wanted it to be because you slowed down to talk to your uber cute little boy.

The View from My Dreadmill

Looks super exciting, doesn't it?

Life has been stressful the last few days and I knew that a run would probably help my state of mind.  I also know that I really need to get back into the habit of running on a regular basis.  But knowing that I'd have to run down in the basement on the "dreadmill" did not sound very fun.  It's tough to get motivated to run down here, hence the reason why I only ran twice in December!  There's no tv to watch to catch up on my shows.  It's just me and the kitchens and the view out the window.  Good times.

It's strange that I feel this way because when I first started running I didn't dare even think about running anywhere but on the treadmill.  I just KNEW that people would see me running outside and they would be laughing at my comical attempt to get some exercise.  But now, I'd take outside any day... well, unless it's 7 degrees with a -4 windchill.  (Note to self, buy more cold weather running gear.)  So this morning, I had a very limited time period to run and I didn't have nearly enough time to talk myself into running outside.  So I dragged (drug?) myself to the basement, hopped on the dreadmill, and made myself run for 3 miles. 

The moral of the story?  Buy a tv for the basement.  No, just kidding.  (Although that is a very good idea!)  You'll always be glad that you ran when you didn't want to.  You'll always be unhappy with yourself if you let yourself give in to being lazy.

How do YOU motivate yourself to run when you don't want to?

My New Pretty Shoes

Back in April 2007, my family had gathered on a Sunday afternoon at a restaurant on Lexington Avenue in St. Paul to celebrate my grandma's 88th birthday.  We went right there from church and then I was driving to work after our lunch.  Wouldn't you know it, I forgot my shoes to wear to work and all I had were my black, heeled dress shoes.  Lucky for me, there was a running store right next door to the restaurant!

I walked into that store, feeling quite intimidated as a very overweight person who "said" she needed a pair of running shoes.  Sure, I was running a little bit.  I mean, I could probably run 2 miles without stopping (and it only took me 25 minutes!)  But I was not the lean, mean, running machine type of person who frequented REAL running stores.  Thankfully, the salesperson looked past my outward appearance and helped get me fit for my very first pair of proper running shoes so I could have something to wear to work that afternoon.

Imagine my shock and horror when the shoes they said I needed were over $100!  I'd never spent that much money on shoes before.  And I certainly didn't need to spend that much money on a pair of shoes for running!  (At that point, I still very much despised the act of running and it seemed incredibly silly.)  But hey, I was desperate to wear something other than high heeled shoes with my scrubs at work that day, so I bit the bullet and forked out the money.

best. money. ever. spent.

Honestly.

Those Asics Gel-Kayano 13s were heavenly to my feet.  They made me feel like I was running on air.  I love them.  Still do.  They're not pretty anymore but I still hold them in high regard as the shoes that made me actually feel good while running.

So fast forward to today.  I was giddy when I opened up the box that held my brand new Asics Gel-Kayano 16s.  It's not just because they're purple, that part is also very exciting for me.  But opening up that box started a new era for me.  They're my marathon training shoes.  Am I excited to start training?  Not really.  I'm dreading the day on the calendar when it says that I'm supposed to run for 20 miles.  (May 21 or 28, depending on which training plan I decide to follow.)  But I am truly excited to put these shoes on and get back into the habit of running.  No excuses.  It's the little push that I've been needing.

So thank you Mr. UPS for delivering my shoes.

And thank you Holabird Sports for still having the purple shoes in my size.

And now... Let's start running!

You know, just as soon as I can breathe without coughing up my lung.

Preparing to run

I have a huge goal for this year.  It's something that I said I would NEVER do.  And I still have a hard time believing that I'm actually going to try and do it.  I'm going to run a marathon.  Yes, I'm going to run for 26.2 miles.  If that's not insane, I don't know what is.

I started running 4 years ago.  I wanted to be in better shape and thought that running would be a good way to do that.  At first I just wanted to be able to run a 5k.  Gary has been with me the whole way, cheering me on.  The first time I ever ran 5k was the day we ran the Get in Gear 5k in April 2007.  It was difficult.  On that day, Gary said, "Hey, next year we'll run the 10k race."  I told him in no uncertain terms that I was never running anything more than a 5k.  I distinctly remember saying, "A 5k -IS- my marathon."

Fast forward to February 2008 when I said we could run an 8k race and if that went ok, maybe I'd try a 10k race.

And the rest is history.

I said I'd never run a half marathon, that running a 10k would be the longest I ran.  Well, in October 2009, we ran the Twin Cities 10 Mile.  Last summer, I ran not one, but two half marathons.  So, I'm now at the point where I feel like I need to run a marathon to complete the cycle.  It's something that seems impossible to me.  It's a daunting task that scares me to death.  But when I think about where I was four years ago and where I am now, I almost feel like I have already run a mental marathon.

It's not going to be easy.  And it's not going to be happy every day.  I'm going to have days when I absolutely don't want to run.  And I'm going to have moments when I want to quit.  But I've paid my money and anyone who knows me knows that I don't want to waste any money.  So... it looks like I'm running a marathon!