am I ready? I'm not so sure...

I ended up not running the mileage I needed for my last week before taper. All weekend I went back and forth on if I would really confess about my mileage. I'm feeling overly guilty and a lot worried at this point. Oh and slightly embarrassed. There is nothing left for me to do and honestly I took training too lax thanks to a multitude of excuses. On my vacation I relaxed too much, I didn't take training seriously when I should have, my work travel schedule, the holidays, my ankle is hurts worse thank when I broke a bone in my foot, I had 1 or 2 too many drinks... I can go on but I won't. I didn't put the miles in and I extremely worried I'm going to pay race weekend. But I have about 3 weeks to worry about that. Hopefully, I'll find some fabulous runners to pull me through race day or dig down deep and find something in this 30 years old body to get me through to the finish line and not feel like death. We shall see ;)

Enough of my depressing race ready talk. This weekend happened to be Christmas #1 at the in-laws in central Illinois. Luckily I did pretty good on all the nieces and nephews gifts - yea me! And it was fun seeing the extended family Saturday night. Sunday was fun with the immediate family Christmas. Again I think I scored even though I felt rushed to find the perfect gift.

Before we left for Christmas #1 on Friday I ran 19 miles in 14 degree F weather. It should have been 20 miles but at 18.5 I was done mentally and headed home. Because of the ice around here much of my path is closed so I ended up running a 3.6 mile loop. I had to pass the path to my home about 4 times before I just turned to go home. Besides the layers of clothes annoying me and weighing me down I thought I had lost my chin due to frostbite so I was ready to go home and get some lunch before hitting the road. It was a weird run and I never found my cadence partly because of the loop and partly because I felt rushed. Gah! I returned home not happy with myself and seriously doubting how I'll finish come January... I really hope I'm only being too hard on myself right now. Now it's time for taper just in time for Christmas!

goofy training and donations!

Goofy training is trucking right along ridiculously cold temps and all. This week is my last big week before the taper. I am trying to find a creative way to fit 30+ miles in before leaving for Christmas #1 this weekend at the in-laws. And fit in another 20+ miles while traveling and going into the office (ugh says the home based employee) to file (double ugh). It's getting interesting and mostly involves a mixture of treadmill and outside running. I may be breaking up another 20 miler on Friday between the outside and treadmill before getting in the car but it will work out. At the end of the day I truly hope miles are miles no matter how they get done! Unfortunately the treadmill just doesn't feel the same as outside running physically and mentally. So while I may not have any time goals with Goofy I do want to complete the 39.3 mile weekend and not be completely destroyed. I have Disney World to enjoy post race!

Also for the Goofy challenge I have made the sort of last minute decision to raise money for The American Cancer Society. If you have followed me for awhile you may recall my step mother was diagnosed with breast cancer about 2 1/2 years ago now. After a double mastectomy and several months of chemo the cancer is gone. As soon as my step mom was done with chemo my dad was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. A disease that will return but right now he has been in remission for about 6 months! In addition to the immediate family there have been countless friends and extended family who have had cancer in their life or lost loved ones to cancer. I hope someday we will see a cure! But for this reason I chose not to raise money for 1 specific cancer as there are too many and all need our help. This is where I ask for your help to meet my goal! Please consider donating to raise awareness and funds! I haven't decided how it will all work out but I hope to have a giveaway for those that help out. Of course something running related ;) And if you re-post/facebook/tweet let me know and I'll throw an extra entry in the giveaway your way.

If you can donate to my effort go ahead and click here

I appreciate any help in meeting (and beating!) my goal!

This and That

Weeding your dad's yard totally counts as cross-training - right? Well that's what I told myself yesterday ;) I had plans for an actual workout but they went out the window as it tends to happen especially when I'm at home. Instead I thought I would be the nice daughter and clean up the front yard the best I could since dad can't play in the dirt during chemo thanks to the whole compromised immune system. The yard is not done yet (I had to go watch my teenage step sister cheer as I didn't believe she could smile for an entire football game!) but I plan to finish before the end of my time here.

While watching miss s do her cheer thing I realized I am so glad my days of jr. high and high school have passed. I also told my dad I don't know how he sat through all my sporting events. I played 3 sports for most of my grade school/teenage life and more poor parents had to sit through hours of girl sports! Fred finally confessed my softball games were the worst; even worse than my 5th grade cheering days for pee-wee football :) Did any of you play a sport or were part of club in your younger days you can't believe you did?

So today I had to travel 2 hours to/from Toledo, Ohio for work. A lot of toll road driving for a short visit = long day. On the way home I decided to go a little out of my way to hit of the Towpath for my GA 11 miles. I like a nice out and back when I get into mid to high mileage and I can't seem to get that around Medina. Technical difficulties of all kinds ensued. First, I forgot my visor and headband so my hair (which hasn't been cut since March) was crazy style all in my face. Second, my garmin was dead even though I had just charged the dang thing. I decided to go off my best time estimate by my cell phone on the mileage. Luckily there were some sporadic mile markers along the path to help me guess a little better. So I have no idea what my pace was or if I hit 11 or went short/long. It was a nice, albeit a little rushed, run. I really need to take a camera my next time there (this weekend for my last 20!) so you can enjoy in the little piece of running sanctuary. Finally the run turned into a bit of a tempo run towards the middle miles. All I will say is thank goodness for real bathrooms along trails!

First Day in Ohio

In Ohio visiting my dad who went through his 4th chemo treatment on Monday. Hopefully only 2 more after this month. We will know for sure in 2 weeks when he has his next scan to see how much of the cancer has been killed. My step-mom had a scan Monday to confirm no cancer cells had returned (she was diagnosed with breast cancer, had a double mastectomy, and went through chemo, all 6 months before my dad was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma). News came back today - all clear so that is a big relief!

I arrived late Monday so luckily I ran in Chicago before I left. 7 miles with 6 x 100 strides. My legs felt heavy and it was warm. I think warmer than any run in August! Which is crazy! I'm glad I put the miles in before the 5 1/2 hour drive. Tuesday was me trying to get used to working from Ohio and not having my full home office. I had breakfast and lunch with dad since he stays home the day after the treatment so that was nice to have some father/daughter one on one time. It's a rarity in this house now! Today I had 10 miles with 4 x 1200 meter repeats on the schedule that I put off until the end of the day. I decided to run around the neighborhood then head up to the Jr. High track/high school soccer stadium to do the repeats. Yeah, I made it through 3 repeats, not so good. These kicked my ass today! I did run the full 10 miles though :). After the 1st repeat I was hurting since I went out too fast. The 2nd I thought I couldn't go on anymore. During the 3rd the boys soccer team started showing up to do some pre-game warm-ups and I starting feeling a little self-conscious so I took off to finish up my remaining miles around town.

I came home and cooked a healthy dinner for the family. All in all a good first full day in Ohio even though I didn't quite hit my speed session this week. It's nice being around the family even though I do miss the hubby who's holding down the fort back in Chi-town.

stinks and shopping

Monday had me traveling to Texas so before the flight I decided to run one of my scheduled 12 mile runs for the week. Technically the first 12 miles of the week should have been done Tuesday but Monday was a cool day in the city I didn't want to try to figure out where to run in the Texas heat or that long on a treadmill.


The run turned into a gag fest. First, the lake had kicked up some nasty seaweed and other miscellaneous junk and it was sitting on the concrete baking. Then, the pick-up and clean-up of port-o-potties remaining from the volleyball tournament was happening. I had to pass the truck twice. Finally, mix that with the city garbage truck pick-up of the extra garbage bins that were at the beach for the tournament as well. Yeah I nearly lost my shot bloks and water by mile 6.5! Nasty! After that I ended up finishing the 12 miles under 2 hours.

Since I was playing switcharoo with the schedule Tuesday I opted for 6 mile recovery run with 6x100 repeats on the treadmill. I was all excited when I finished up early on site which meant arriving at the next hotel early and hitting up the mill before the 5pm rush. On the drive to San Antonio I saw the signs for an outlet mall I've seen every other time. I told myself I wouldn't stop because I didn't have much room in the suitcase. Then I convinced myself I would stop and see if they had a Nike outlet as I love the Nike outlet but I wouldn't go anywhere else. Hahahaha. 2 hours later I walked out of that mall with a couple extra bags. And... I hit up Coach outlet hard. I had to pay to have the items shipped home. It's not all for me though I found great deals on some excellent birthday and Christmas gifts. Just doing my part to stimulate the economy :) So after all that I didn't arrive at the hotel until 5 pm. After some room key issues I finally made it down to the full workout room. Luckily there was 1 treadmill open! 6 miles felt long on the 'mill but the pick-ups helped pass the middle miles a little faster.

One more day in Texas then home for the long weekend! Let's hope I start September off right by having my flight take off on time. Every trip home in August end up delayed 3+ hours. That is a trend I do not want to continue!

Holy Humidity Batman!

ummm... yeah... it's hot.  It happened practically overnight and I was sooooo not ready.  2 days ago was cool, in the 60's.  Today 80 moving on up to the 90's with nearly 40% humidity.  The 10 miles may have gone better had I had more time to acclimate.  But thanks to the drastic change I crumbled mid-run.  My legs were great, the rest of me not so much.  Initially I wanted to run 12.  Nearly 2 miles into the run I decided to cut it down to 10 but I did not run the whole 10 miles.  I was disappointed when I realized just before 5 miles I wouldn't be able to continue unless I started to incorporate walking breaks.  Flashbacks of my experience at Chicago 07 started happening. And although today was not a marathon,  I didn't want to push when I wasn't ready and could potentially end up hurt.  So I swallowed my pride and for the second 5 I moved to a 5:1 run/walk.  I know if it hadn't gotten so hot and humid as quickly as it did I would have had little to no problem completing the run and possibly even going further.  It will take a little time to get used to the weather and in the meantime I will push myself but need to remember to be smart.  The heat changes everything when it comes to training.

Also, thanks to everyone who commented letting me know I wasn't the only one with sleep issues ;)  It feels a better to knowing I'm not alone!  I'm hoping today's run sends me to bed early!

Happy to Finally be Home

Hope everyone is full on turkey and pumpkin pie! I know I am. In fact I just polished off leftover turkey sandwich - yummy.

This seemed like the longest weekend EVER. I seriously thought it was never going to end. It is hard going away for every holiday. I couldn't get a minute to myself to decompress. Family is great but it wasn't mine (at the boyfriends house all 4 days) and I need some downtime. All I wanted to do was come home and sleep in my own bed and not have to do anything. So I am very happy to be home now. Running according to the schedule became a challenge this long weekend too. There was always something else to be doing, someone to see, somewhere to go.

Turkey day I was able to get out for a 6 mile run before the food eating competition began. I felt so much better sitting down to the huge spread knowing I burned some calories already. I had planned to run between 16-18 on Saturday but what do ya know but the boy's parents had a night out for a big steak dinner planned on Friday (yeah and I rarely eat steak and we had just had a steak dinner the previous weekend). Seriously two huge meals in two days not my idea of fun and I like to eat. So needless to say halfway through dinner Friday I nixed plans on running Saturday. Instead I helped rake all the leaves in the yard as Jacob's dad messed up his back and couldn't do it himself. Got home today around 3 pm and headed out for that long run. Thought I would be a mess after taking 2 rest days but I wasn't! It was a good run. Freaking cold with some snow, sleet, rain mixed in. The rain/snow mix felt like tiny pinpricks on my face for over 6 miles and my cheeks felt like I just had two shots of Novocain that hadn't worn off yet. My legs felt strong and I was able to maintain a 9:30 min/mile pace for all 16 miles. I was feeling very guilty about resting for 2 straight days and there only being 2 weeks left before the race. However, during the run I realized I needed the rest and didn't even know it. So that unplanned rest worked in my favor this time.