Thursday, October 25, 2007

I NEED AIR!!!

First and foremost, Happy Birthday to my mother yesterday!!!

Next, thanks guys - all of you - for your comments and insight on the weight gain. I'm not letting it get me down - see the pic - I'm still smiling. As much as I so don't want to admit it, I can't help but wonder if those 30's I've been talking about have brought with them the difficulty to lose weight. Like IronJenny said - she now has no more free bites of food - I wonder if I am starting to see what that's like. It's a scary thought, but there's really nothing I can do about it. I might as well face it, deal with it, and learn to like it. I'll feel better in general without the junk anyways.

Moving onto other things, Tuesday was a rest day. I went to yoga class and enjoyed every minute of it - especially the back massage that the instructor came around giving everyone at the end of class. I needed that. When that was over, I rushed up to the weight room to try and squeeze in some hamstring curls and quad lifts. I got a couple of sets done, but probably not enough to make any difference.

Wednesday was a recovery paced 4 miler w/6x100m strides at the end. We had a pretty big group show up to run this one. We laughed and talked the whole way, probably awaking all the people who live on our route. We had such a good time that we totally forgot about the strides at the end. I did go in and finally...I repeat, finally, get back into the pool. Ha - lle - lujah! And just as I would have expected, my ears had forgotten that they have to deal with water rolling in and out of them like sand in an hourglass. My ears really do not like that feeling, and it normally takes a while for them to get accustomed to it. I should have never taken such a long hiatus from the pool. The funny thing is, when the water goes in, I can't help but squint my eyes shut. So even though I'm swimming with goggles, I have my eyes shut half of the time. My form goes completely to hell, too. For some reason, the ears think that shutting the eyes and not leaving my arm outstretched long enough will help the pain. Go figure.

And that brings me to this morning. Mr. Pfitzinger suggests an 8 - 15k race today. I guess in a normal person's schedule this day of their training would fall on Saturday, making it fairly easy to find such a race. But, not being very normal, it falls on Thursday for me. And there's no race before work on a Thursday morning anywhere around here. I emailed all my running buddies asking for anyone who was game to race a 10k at 5:15 this morning. I had 3 takers - Mike, Amy and Mary Beth. Amy and Mary Beth weren't exactly racing, they were just getting in a good, hard run. I told Mike I needed to be pushed, and he did just that. It was all I could do to keep up with him. I was gasping for every breath. We stayed well under 8:30's until around mile 4 when Mike pulled a hamstring. He slowed down a little, but he wouldn't stop. We came to the main intersection and I had to pretty much stop to let traffic pass, and then I pushed the last 1.2 miles in about as hard as I could go, still gasping for air between my crazy-high heart rate and this chest/head cold my kids brought home from school for me. I finished the run in 51:46. Not my 10k best, but I'll take it. Average Pace: 8:21/mile. Avg HR: 169, Max HR:181

Tomorrow is 17 miles. I'll be glad when that's over.

11 comments:

Michele said...

I guess I don't get any free food either since I am almost 40!!!
Awesome job on your 10K.
It is hard racing when not at a real race.
I am running at 7:45 tomorrow if you want to join me, I would LOVE the company.

E-Speed said...

you look skinny to me! I don't want to see the day where I can't eat my freebies. For me it seems like I go through waves. My body responds to drastic changes in training well for about three months then I better start something new of I gain. Works well for me since I can never stay focused on one thing for long anyways :)

Got your Huntsville comment. Oddly I have been thinking about doing it, but of course it would be to attempt a PR (I still feel like I got cheated at Cinci this year). The drive is so far though and the race is two weeks after JFK. Not much in the way of recovery!

It is tempting though!

I am sure having your buddy with you will make the task much easier, especially with that good 20 miler under your belts now!

Benson said...

Very nice smiley face.
Very nice 10K too. Way to push it.

TriSonq said...

Too cute!

Kate said...

Nice work! You look fabulous- gosh, you're in FAR better shape than I am at 25!

Joe said...

I think you have nothing to worry about in the weight department. Frankly, the picture you posted is amazing. You look great. So go and have a cookie.

My Life said...

First of all... you are so pretty! ;) Hot mamma!

Awesome you were able to get a "race" in... you are very lucky to have such great friends. (& very lucky to have a yoga instructor who knocks in some free back massages - wow!)

Kate said...

Your new design looks great!

Stephanie said...

I'm dealing with the no free bites of food thing right now, too. I do pretty good then mess up big time, like last night - 1 huge bowl of chili, countless Fritos, 6 beers (none of them light), 2 s'mores, and 1 brownie. And all I did earlier in the day was ride VERY EASY for a whopping 33 miles. Ugh. But today has started out okay. Even though I didn't go to bed until 3am, I managed to get up at 7am and go for a 1:35 trail run.

Like the new format, BTW!

Tri-Dummy said...

Your banner looks great!

So do you.

Don't let the weight issues get in the way of seeing yourself the way God sees you.

His beautiful creation worth dying for.

Keep your chin up, you just rocked a 10K!

Lisa said...

Like your new background here and LOVE that 10k time!