My Luck with Races / On a Bright Note

I am hoping that after a series of unfortunate events at races, luck will turn around and be on my side. After the Philly incident (missing Boston-Qualifying by three minutes), I took some steps to make sure that wouldn’t happen in my next marathon. I adjusted my physique (lost 14 pounds and did more strength training), I started up with speedwork, and I went back to doing yoga. Last Sunday was a race called the Boston Prep 16-miler. I thought I would do well because I had been running well on hills and I had been hitting my goals in track workouts - I felt like I was back to my “old self” running-wise. In addition, I had a pacing and nutrition strategy (in Philly I started at my desired marathon pace and I brought water instead of sports drink) - here I planned on starting out slowly, and speeding up to do 8 minute or so miles.

After carbo-loading on Saturday, I woke up on Sunday with pain in my chest, coughing up phlegm (ewwww) and with a resting heartrate much higher than normal. Uh oh. Well, I might as well try my best since I am signed up right? The worst that could happen? I could be slow and I could get more sick. I am already sick, and if I go slow, it would still be a training run which I could use. So, I took some Robitussin so I wouldn’t be coughing the whole way as it was pretty cold out.

I get to Derry and it was snowing hard. I had just gotten yax trax, but I had not thought I would need them so I left them at home. I started out with my husband and two friends since we’re all around the same pace. We ran together for the first half, it was definitely slower than expected because of the snow. It was challenging to maneuver and if you found the pavement “trail”, it was much easier, but people could get in the way. I was okay for the first half, but the second half, my body was just not having it - I told my two friends I wasn’t feeling well and dropped back. Whatever it is I have (still) made me very weak. I slowed down to a crawl and had to walk quite a bit. The cutoff was 3 hours, but it was very cold so I didn’t want to walk because I was all wet and my body temp could drop a lot, but least I wasn’t coughing b/c the medicine was still in effect because it hurts when I cough. So, I pretty much jogged until the end - even though I felt very beat and it was even hard to do that, the snow looked really nice so I wasn’t really in a miserable mood. I finished very slowly but at least I got a 16 mile training run in.

Anyways, on a brighter note - about fashion & completely unrelated to racing - I am extremely psyched that one of my favorite stores, H&M, will be carrying clothes from one of my favorite designers, Marimekko, this summer! It is coming in April. I haven’t seen any photos of the garments, but here is where I saw the info. I will be popping-in regularly in April to see when they get it in, because it is likely that the collection will sell-out quickly (they might send an email about it).

To Do’s and To Dont’s

For the past few weeks, I’ve had minimal satisfaction with myself and my existence. I am increasingly frustrated with where I live (cold and gray with Massholes), other people (annoying, rude, unfriendly, see previous about Massholes), lack of freedom, wanting more money blah blah blah. I am happy that I have lost 13 pounds, but I miss having a lot of foods I used to eat.

The hope is that with a few tweaks and changes, I can be a little more content.

To Do

Behavioral
- Focus More
- Relax More
- Work Harder
- Continue watching what I eat

Races to Do
- Boston Marathon
- Rock n Roll Marathon
- Vineman
- Ironman Lanzarote
- Pucon 70.3
- St. Croix Half Ironman
- Ironman New Zealand

Places to Visit
- Triathlon Destinations Above
- Somewhere isolated in Florida (Captiva Island)
- South Pacific

Books to Read
- Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
- Go Ask Alice (Paperback)
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Hardcover)
- The Memory Keeper’s Daughter (Paperback)
- Atonement: A Novel (Paperback)
- Water for Elephants (Paperback)
- A Thousand Splendid Suns (Hardcover)

To Don’t

- React (relax, think, and do instead)
- Scatterbrain (focus on the task at hand instead)
- Shop for clothes (I already have enough for a small country)
- Putz around (if it’s not the most important thing I could be doing, rethink and change behavior)
- Eat too many goodies

Back to the Grind

Here in Boston, it is not a very nice time of year. January, February, and March are usually cold, gray, and icy. This is the time of year when I wished I lived somewhere warmer. I am trying to stick to my workouts so that I can get faster and also keep my weight down. Dieting is challenging. I am always hungry and it’s not a good feeling because I have trouble concentrating on other stuff. I wish I could be more postitive and cheery at this time of year.

As far as good things, I have almost reached my goal weight, I got a new trainer since my old one died, and I found a nice yoga class to go to on a regular basis.

Work (full time job) is what it is - there…other than the commute which is annoying, it’s fine. I can swim during lunch because there’s a pool there, so that’s a positive. As for consulting, I am putting a wordpress site on my domain so that it is easier to update. I’m currently writing content in addition to doing some client work. Hopefully it will be done soon.

Goodbye 2007

So I guess a New Year is supposed to be a new start - although I really don’t feel any differently than I did yesterday. I have told myself about some “resolutions” although I am wondering how they will stick since it’s been spotty in the past. For me, it’s more of a matter of changing something when I can no longer tolerate the previous behavior or situation.

Same usual stuff for me:
- be more frugal (especially with clothes shopping) so I gave myself a monthly budget for clothes
- eat healthier and train more consistently to get faster and keep body composition in check
- try to be more relaxed/content and not freak out as much
- get my bloody website up along with at least one “web property” which I hope to sell so I am not stuck in a 9 to 5 for the rest of my life

Today I did a 10k - I am 8 pounds lighter than a month ago, but for some reason I am slower. It is very frustrating. I thought being lighter was supposed to make me faster. I know I have not done any speedwork, but the first mile I hoped to hold that pace and I could not, so I finished in a snail’s pace and was not happy about it. I am wondering how much muscle mass I have lost - I’ve been trying to not lose more than 2 pounds a week (that in itself is extremely tough for me)…but I thought it would affect cycling and not running. Hopefully I will get faster in time for my race. I start track next week and (in hopes that I don’t get injured as I usually do in track) it always seems to help me get faster.