Progress!

So this time, only two weeks since the last update -- consider your collective self lucky. Last time, I mentioned wanting to up my mileage and get back down to my running weight. The past week was a little light on mileage, since my sister was in town visiting and she wanted to go for some walks, but the week before that I did 36 miles, and this week I'm aiming for 40. I've also lost seven pounds since the beginning of September, which means I'm only 3-5 above where I'd like to be. Hooray!

Also, I bought new running shoes last week -- my fifth pair of the Mizuno Wave Elixir. Word on the street (track?) is that Mizuno is discontinuing the model, which makes me so very sad -- a lightweight stability shoe for the small-framed, mid-to-high mileage runner is hard to come by, and I've developed quite an attachment to the Elixir. Plus, it's the closest-to-non-ugly running shoe I've ever worn. Oh well, at least this means I'll probably be able to scoop up a few pairs on sale in a few months.

My efforts to find a suitable marathon keep being thwarted. I was initially looking at either Seattle or CIM, but that was when I was planning on being on the West Coast until New Year's. Now, it appears my move back East will happen in the next few weeks, so those two are out. Buying an entry into New York was another possibility, but the prices are outrageous, and I'd probably feel too guilty to use someone else's number. So, then I started looking towards the spring, and was am kicking around the idea of doing Hamburg in April, because one of my best friends is moving there for work, and it'd be a great chance to visit him. This, of course, is dependent on him being in Hamburg that particular week, and seven months out is probably a little early to ask him what his plans are.

Long time, no type.

Ack. Just realized it's been a month since I posted. So, the very short version -- running seems to be going better, though that may be because I'm out of the overheated gym and back onto a bike path (that has water fountains! and bathrooms! and markers every half mile!). I also joined the local Road Runners club, so I've thrown weekly track/speedwork and tempo runs into the equation. Still trying to get back to 40+ mpw, without much success. I've been closer to 30 the last few weeks. But, this week I'm trying to lengthen my slow/easy runs and might throw in a couple doubles.

My biggest irritation/all-consuming neurosis right now is that I'm currently 10-12 pounds above what I think of as my fighting weight. Granted, I know that by all objective standards, I'm still quite thin, but I can definitely feel the extra weight and I think that it is entirely possible that it's what is slowing me down. 120 was a weight that I attained and maintained without much conscious effort when I was running 40-50 mpw, even though none of those miles were particularly fast. So, I'm hoping that simply increasing my mileage, without a major change in intensity, can get me back to where I need to be.

falling into place!

Finally, a good run! My runs over the last week have all felt much harder than they should have, and I was starting to get discouraged. I decided to ride it out, though, and tonight, at long last, I had a solid 7-miler. The pace was still a little on the slow side, but it was faster than I've been running recently, and I felt good the whole way through and like I could've gone further. So, yay!

A slight quibble with the person in charge of choosing the gym's music, though: Jermaine Stewart's "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off" is NOT good workout music. It's actually kind of creepy.

ew.

That's all I have to say about tonight's run. There's something wonky with the gym's AC, or else I've had a serious spike in body temperature in the last few days. The past three or four runs, I've sweat so much that I'm *dripping* onto the treadmill after three-quarters of a mile, and by the end, my shorts are clinging to me. In addition to being absolutely disgusting, it also means that in order to get in any kind of decent mileage, I have to slow waaaay down, and even then, I feel lightheaded and nauseous by the time I'm through. And I'm pretty sure it's not just me, since everyone else seems suspiciously sweaty, too, and when I walked in at 5 p.m. today, it stunk.

Anyway. I slogged through 5 miles, putting me at 12 for the week and 29 for the month. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow will be better.

And In the Beginning...

So, here's the story: I'm 28, a recent law school graduate, and I just finished taking the Bar exam. Now, I'm reveling in the joys of not working for the first time in three years, and finding it surprisingly easy to fill my days with frivolous activities. However, I fear this is short-lived -- I'm the product of 13 years of Catholic college-prep education, an Ivy League university, and three years of political employment, all of which culminated in the aforementioned JD. Oh, and I've also got a serious coffee habit. In other words, I'm your classic type-A, high-strung, eye-on-the-prize, overachiever. The point of this ramble? I am clearly in dire need of a Project to get me through these lean times. Or Quaaludes. But something goal-oriented is probably easier. And less likely to keep me from getting admitted to the Bar.

Part Two of my background: growing up, I was a tall, skinny, gawky, hopelessly uncoordinated kid. Combine this with the fact that I also had so much pent-up energy that I would spontaneously begin jumping up and down, in place, just because I couldn't stand to sit still. After some ill-advised bouts of team sport participation (see above re: "hopelessly uncoordinated"), I picked up running. One foot in front of the other? Don't have to deal with the possibility that people might kick me in the shins or that a base/tennis ball might hit me in the face? My kind of sport. Right off the bat, I demonstrated a freakish endurance, or at least a willingness to ignore the fact that my lungs were burning if other people were watching. Unfortunately, all of my natural athletic "ability" apparently ended up in the slow-twitch column, because I dragged ass. By the time I finished high school, I had improved enough that I was a respectable middle-of-the-pack runner. I quit running competitively in college, and morphed into a half-hearted jogger -- 2 weeks of solid gym-going, followed by a month of pizza and keg beer at frat parties. Lather, rinse, repeat.
A couple of years post-college, I decided I missed running and that I had let myself get woefully out of shape, and that I needed something major to get me back on track. So, I did what any crazy person would do, and signed up to run the Marine Corps Marathon. The short version? Not pretty. I crossed the finish line with a time of 6:15. Which, for a 24-year-old female in good health, is pretty pathetic. But, I was hooked, and four years and six marathons later, my time is down to a not-shameful 4:15, and I've set my sights on qualifying for that mother of all marathons -- Boston. Since that 4:15 was run on two-days notice (though I'd been running 40-50 mpw for most of the preceding three months) and involved some serious stomach problems, I think that this is a not-unattainable goal.

So, there you go -- that's why you've read this far, so that I could tell you that this blog is about my efforts to run a marathon in less than 3 hours, 40 minutes. Thrilling, no? I'm using August to build up my base again (it having suffered during that last intense month leading up to the Bar exam), and then will start seriously training in September. I'm still not certain which marathon I'll run for my BQ attempt, since my life/career plans are sort of in limbo at the moment, but I've tentatively picked the CIM in Sacramento on December 2. It's flat, fast, and within a two-hour drive of my parents' house.

Today:I managed 25 minutes on the stair-climber thing at the gym (stupid post-work hordes beat me to it and hogged all the good treadmills), and I'll head back and hit the 'mill tonight to put in some miles. I'm shooting for eight, followed by the usual abs/stretching/etc.