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.