Treadmill Run

I attempted to head out for an ill fated 4 mile run today. I was supposed to meet up with a coworker to get in about two miles with him, but due to my lack of skill in the direction giving area, we never met up.

I assume this is how confused he was. Except he's not as cute as this very confused giraffe. 

Heads up to future running buddies, I may give you bad directions.

Our attempt to meet up was also doomed by the fact that it started pouring as soon as we got to the lake area. And that there's tons of apparent bridges and parking lots that look similar. Let me tell you something about Baton Rouge. The weather here doesn't know how to do something half heartedly. When it rains, it doesn't just drizzle, it goes all out in a downpour.

Totally true. And sort of relevant, because it started pouring right when I got to the parking lot. 

With the whole weather and being confused about the meeting point, I ended up doing a sort of a interval ish run of 2 miles at 8:30/mile. I ran faster than I would normally to each bridge and waited for a while under it to see if he was waiting there. Let's just call that a fartlek workout. Anyways, by the end of the two miles, my clothes were wet and heavy, and my sneakers were seriously waterlogged.

Now comes the dilemma. I would love to meet my major running goal for this year and run a marathon. There's a perfectly timed one in Baton Rouge in the first weekend of December. However, I am not certain I'll be able to get all my training runs in outside.

In an attempt to not fall off the wagon again and also so that I could get some cross training in, I signed up for a gym today. My plan is to go to group classes like spinning. Now that there's some monetary commitment, I'll at least get some good cross training in.

So I know that I'll most likely always have a treadmill to get my runs in. Other than the crushing boredom, I'm worried that running at the treadmill will make me super unprepared to run an outdoor race.

This is totally what I do. I sneak looks at the speeds of everyone around me. I'm glad I'm not the only one. 

Flat, air conditioned treadmill runs do not adequately prepare a person for a varied terrain and humidity. What do you guys think? Do you think it's possible to train for a race with a lot of the miles logged on the treadmill? 

In a random note, I brought the sexy back in my newly obtained prescription safety glasses.

Whoa close up. But look at the side shields on those glasses. Yeah, this is how us chemical engineers do it. 

Quick recap on my life

I actually said something about this last night in the other post, which is now deleted. Sorry Unexpected Runner for making you read that post, but thanks for the great wishes!

So the most important things that have happend in my life was that  . .

1. I got a job in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (So scary to write that out).

2. I graduated and received my piece of paper worth $200,000!

It still hasn't hit me yet. 

3. I ended up not making it to the Run for the Red Marathon. After the job search craziness and the whole hip thing, I just didn't make enough time to prepare. (Fun fact: The girl in the hat in the above picture ran a marathon under four hours after three months off due to an injury and her longest run having been about 16 miles)

Now, I'm trying to get back into the running thing and learning to drive, which both scares me. Can you believe that I'm still scared of driving? But I haven't really driven since I was sixteen and I never got over that fear.

What have you guys been up to? I'm going to start marathon blog reading really soon!

Happy Friday

Making lists are fun. The only problem is that I don't make them nearly often enough. One of my non running related goals are to make more lists and become organized with things that I have to do. Not to mention, all these to-do lists in my head seem way more daunting in my brain. So I am going to try to make a list of all the things that make me happy to get in the mood for the weekend. Sort of like Ali's Thankful things post. And I'm inspired by my non internet friend, Gina, who has lists of her lists. (Hey Gina!)

Here are the things that are making me happy.

1. Double running days. 
Yup, today was the double running day. I went in the morning for a quick 4.1 miler at 9:59/mile pace in between classes. I had originally wanted to get in 5 or 6, but I didn't want to have to rush home at a non-easy pace. Even though it was an easy day and I reminded myself to run slowly, I died slowly inside as I watched the numbers on my garmin go up past 10:00/mile pace. I really need to stop being stupid and get with the program of running my easy runs slowly.

I got over the slower pace, but the less mileage was bumming me out. As a result, when my bf decided to head out on his 6 miler at night, I tagged along. Unfortunately, my knee started hurting (not exactly painful, but uncomfortable) again. It's been happening during my runs lately. I have a few suspects in mind. So I just cut it short and ran 3.3 miles at his 10:28/mile pace.

My suspect number one is my old Brooks. They only have 335 miles on them, but the treads are worn through where I pronate.

Possible suspect? Maybe. Looking at the soles make me happy. It shows me how much hard work I put in pronating and wearing my shoes down unevenly. 

Suspect number 2 is that I've been breaking in a new type of shoes. I wanted to try a different brand, so I am currently breaking in my Asics. Maybe it is the Asics, since the treads on Brooks have been worn down since about mile 250. And I just started breaking in the Asics. 

Suspect number 3 could be increased mileage (although I had a good base from training for the half), or maybe I gained weight. It's hard to tell since I haven't weighed myself in forever. Whatever the reason, I'm taking a rest day tomorrow and coming up with a plan to narrow down the suspects. 

2. My new waterbottle

I have a really hard time drinking water. I just forget my thirst really quickly. With all this running, I know that I have to make hydrating a priority. So I preemptively rewarded myself with a new giant waterbottle. I will bring it to class and hydrate throughout the day. 

It's has obnoxious logo everywhere, but I love it. 

3. The way that light hits the clock tower near sundown. 

I was sadly in the basement working on projects, but then I came outside and saw this gorgeous view. It made me all excited about life and stuff. 

So pretty. I didn't even have to instagram it. 

4. My bf signed up for a marathon with me even even though the longest he's ever run before was 6 miles. 

After months of nagging/begging, he finally agreed to give up his weekend mornings, therefore some of his weekend nights of partying, for a marathon. 

This sadly did not involve any alcohol. We were all sober and he wore my jacket . . . while not being drunk. 

5. Human bonding class

So far, we've watched countless videos of babies interacting with their mothers. It's just one long warm and fuzzy session. 

6. Brownies that I earned from a friend

My friend bet me that if I can teach him to skate without the wall, he'd bake me brownies. I really wanted those brownies. So with threats of skate up his a** if he grabbed the wall, I turned him from this:

He's literally crawling to the wall here. To a person who can skate across the rink without the wall. I know, I'm pretty amazing. Maybe that's my calling. Threatening people so that they learn how to ice skate.

Now, tell me about your happy things. And while you're at it, if you can shed some insights or your suspicions about my knees, that would be great! Happy Friday! 

Doing Everything

I was the opposite of this last week. I tried to do everything, and then got stressed and just slept a lot. I also worked on school work like it was the end of the semester. Sadly, despite the fact of being a second semester senior, I had group project meetings before classes even started.

 

First week in and this is how I feel. Like I'm dying, like the last 0.1 miles of the half. 

I know that people busier than I am find time to do everything and be productive. So I'm going to try to be more efficient and consume lots of coffee. In fact, there's even a t-shirt sold by the chemical engineering society that reads: "Cornellians run on caffeine by day and alcohol by night." Seriously, there are some crazy people here who do more things than I do, and then party like a rock star from Wednesday to Saturday. I am unfortunately not at that level, so I'm going to do everything that I need to do and then train for a marathon.

This is totally going to be me. 

Part of the reason I'm kind of running around everywhere is that I'm not prepared to drop my fun classes yet, like Human Bonding, figure skating, dance technique, and rifles. Yup, I'm taking a rifles course where I am going to shoot M-16s. I'd say that's beasting it. Especially since 50% of the grade is how accurately I can hit the targets.

Last time I really pushed myself, it turned out pretty well. 

So hopefully by the end of this semester, I'd be modern dancing, figure skating, marathon training, M-16 shooting, researching, teaching English, blogging, and hopefully employed after graduating chemical engineer. Wish me luck! 

Tell me, how do you guys do it all? Or how do you guys keep from procrastinating?  

You know you're a runner . . .

When you talk to your bf about how he should commit and stop being afraid of commitment, you're actually talking about signing up for a race.

Yup. I am actually in the process of convincing him to run a marathon with me.

I convinced him to do this awesome but girly thing with me. And posted embarrassing pics on fb. So convincing him to become a runner, no problem.  Right?

~~~~ Aside: If you are ever in Santa Barbara California, rent the above bike. It's so much fun. And so much easier than a tandem. We couldn't make it out the parking lot in a tandem, so we had to go back and switch to this side by side double bike ~~~~~~

But after I snuck in a GPS watch to his annual Christmas wish list that gets sent out to his family, he received a pair of vibrams and a Garmin 305. So now, he has no choice but to run. And what better way to say thank you to the gift givers than a marathon registration!

Unfortunately, he's never been a runner and he can't really start running until mid January. The race that I'm looking at is at the end of April. I think/hope that he'll be ready to at least walk/crawl 26.2 miles by then.

I am now in the process of convincing him to commit and fork over those dollars. What can I say, misery loves company. And training for a marathon in frigid upstate NY weather would be a lot better with company.

Yup, I'm a great gf. Oh and cute finish line photos would be awesome. That is, if he can make it to the end and doesn't have to resort to riding in the sad wagon to the finish line, because he couldn't meet the time cut off.

Actually I'm very worried that once he starts to run, he'll get so much faster and leave me behind in the dust. Does that make me too self obsessed? Probably. But I like knowing I can run farther and faster than he can. At least for now.

Face of a man who will hopefully be a marathon finisher. 

So wish me luck! I will hopefully tell you about my first ever marathon registration soon! Do you ever try to convince others to join in his running madness? How do you do it?