Author: mrsartis

Need to clean. Need to do laundry. Need to run an errand. No desire to move. *sigh*

Feeling a little better today. Short tight skirt with fitted white blouse and killer heels. Work friend said my squats have been paying off. Nice. 🙂

Feeling a little better today. Short tight skirt with fitted white blouse and killer heels. Work friend said my squats have been paying off. Nice. 🙂

Woke up feeling FAT today. Ugh. I know it’s just shark week induced bloat, but still, ugh. Didn’t even bother getting on the scale as i knew it would only make it worse. Hoping for a decent run after work (for a change). Need to get past the mental block of the 5k runs. Need to stop psyching myself out. Sooner than later, please.

I’ve been struggling lately. It’s been a rough week. Weather was lousy–like stormy lousy–most of the week so running outside was a no-go, I had a day or two where everything just kind of fell apart. Like everything in my life that could go wrong, did go wrong, all at once, like it does.

It’s getting better. The high point–though it is something I’m struggling with, and I’ll get to that–was running 5k with my friend yesterday. He took some time off of running after finishing his first full marathon. Like a month. He was nervous about starting again. So I pushed him into running 5k with me. And he totally kicked my ass. Totally. I knew he would, 5k is my nemesis. I can do 13.1. Hell, I can do 15. But 3.1 without the 10 mile warmup just messes with me. I struggle.

I’m typically tough when I’m running with my friends. Especially the guys. I don’t tap out first, I keep running through pain, I don’t show weakness, and whenever possible I chick them pace-wise. Yesterday I kept stopping to walk. It was 5k, and I just couldn’t do it. It’s mental, it really is. There is no physical reason I can’t do it. Yes, I was stitching and cramping, but I’ve run through that before. And oddly, I’m not upset about it. I’m frustrated by it, but I’m not upset. I was good and pissed when I had to cut a 15-miler short at 10 (with this same friend) because my hips were killing me, I beat myself up over that for a solid day before I could move on, but somehow this bothers me less.

Still, I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve been trying to process why this distance is so tough for me. I accept that part of it is that I’m better suited for distance, I prefer it. I’d rather be out for 3 hours than 30 minutes. It takes me a solid 3-4 miles to get into my groove most of the time, and so, somewhat obviously, a 5k doesn’t give me that time to mentally get into the zone. So there’s part of it. Another piece is that because I like longer runs I tell myself I hate the short ones, so I’m going into it with a less than stellar attitude because it’s not what I *want* to be doing. I know this is something I struggle with and I call it my nemesis (I did it earlier in this post). I put myself in a negative space before I even get out there.

My friend also pointed out that I kill myself on hills. Which I do, but not in the way he thinks. Yes I did tend to walk after hills, but less because I had killed myself on them and worn myself out and more that mentally I was just done. He says I won’t make it through the marathon (he’s thinking PGH next year more than CBUS this fall) if I don’t go easier on the hills. I don’t think he’s totally wrong, but I don’t think he’s totally right, either. I get through hills by putting my head down (literally, looking up just enough to make sure I don’t run into someone or something) and plowing through it to the top. I can’t focus on the top or I’ll look at the grade and psych myself out. So I put my head down and plow through it, to be rewarded with glorious downhills when I get to the top. I also have the rule that if I walk, I walk downhill. You don’t get better at running hills by walking them, so if I’m going to walk I can’t walk up.

I have other thoughts, but they are for another post another day. I think I’m going to focus on not psyching myself out for the 5k distance. Just think of it as any other run and not get hung up on it being “short” and see what happens.

Earlier this year I got talked into doing an obstacle run with the girls from work. I figured it would be a good bonding opportunity. It was for a good cause. It was something that intimidated me so it sounded like something I should try. But I was nervous. Obstacles? But I have no upper body strength! And mud? UGH! I hate getting dirty! Still, I was going to suck it up, get over myself, and do it. So I registered. And then as the day drew closer I was less sure of what I was getting myself into, but looking forward to it nonetheless. Some of us girls got together to make our t-shirts last week and it was a good time. I was glad, for bonding purposes alone, that I agreed to do this. Plans for carpooling came together. And the next thing I knew it was Saturday morning and I was getting up way to effing early to meet the girls in the parking lot at work so we could leave for the race.  

We had fun in the car on the way there, then got through check-in and gear check and all that good stuff. We wandered around a bit, took some before pics, and finally lined up at the very front. We were the first people out in the first wave of the day. And we led for the first two obstacles. Literally, Jackie and I were the first two people to get to the first obstacle, and our team was first to get through the first two. There were only two people ahead of us at the third obstacle, even. We were awesome.

Dirty Girl is a 5k with 12 obstacles set up along the course. Most of them either involve climbing things, or flopping around in the mud. It is a tremendous amount of fun, it’s an all female event (with apparently an all male staff, which was kind of awesome as most of them were HOT), and you CAN go around any obstacle you’re not comfortable with or find yourself unable to do. We didn’t skip anything. No one on our team skipped anything. We did them all, and we did them together. It was awesome.

After the race we got cleaned up, had food and drinks, then headed back to the car for the trip home. It was a great day with some great ladies I’m glad I got to know better.

 

Our team (Ain’t Nobody Got Time For Cancer!) before and after the race.

June 1, 2013 was my third scheduled half marathon of the year, and the last one I needed to finish to qualify for Half Fanatics. June 1, 2013 was also the day my friend Run, Stacey, Run married the love of her life. It was going to be a busy day.

So Friday night, I drove to Washington to spend the night with my former roommate so we could drive in for the race together, as she was running it too (in her husband’s place as once again he got injured during training  *Sad Face*). Going to races with friends is always so much more fun. Mooched a pre-race beer (as I’d left the house without mine, damnit), laid out my clothes for the morning, and went to bed.

Saturday morning , we headed to Morgantown for the race. Caught up on life events from the past couple of weeks when we’d last seen each other. Got primo parking near the finish. Picked up our packets (race day packet pickup always makes me feel like I’m forgetting something), took our bags to the car, then got on the busses to the start line.

Lynn and I before the race.

The course runs along the Decker’s Creek Trail in Morgantown, WV and it’s gorgeous. It’s really pretty. Proceeds from the race go to maintaining the trail. If you are ever in the area, I’d highly recommend checking it out—a great place to walk or run. The way this course runs is ever so gently downhill the whole way (or at least very solidly most of it).

So we get to the start. Use the portolets. Kill some time (our wave didn’t start until 8:15). Then line up. I started off solid. Very strong. But I was flagging by mile 4. To the point a fellow runner said “you can do it!”.I smiled and told her this was my third half marathon this year, I would be fine. It got better after mile 4…I had a Gu, walked a little, and when I started running again my pace was a little more moderate. I settled in and for awhile a PR looked possible (I hit mile 10 just before 1:55, this is good) then got dicey, then I said ‘forget it, they can’t all be PRs. The finish will be good enough to get me what I want.’

I ended up with a completely respectable time: 2:31:39—solidly between my JASR time and my current PR from the Pittsburgh Half. I was pleased. Afterwards we went for burritos at this amazing place called Black Bear. Again, highly recommend you check it out if you’re in the area. Then we went back to Washington to get ready for Stacey’s wedding, which was beautiful and lovely and awesome and I’m so incredibly happy for her and Frank.

Today I finished my first obstacle race. It was incredible. And now I’m hooked on that. So there’s that. Then I came home, took a super short nap, got up, cleaned almost the entire house (just need to finish my room and vacuum the living room), cleaned out the fridge, made cookies, pasta & broccoli, and baked chicken for the week’s meals. Now I’m roasting the bit of broccoli that was left to eat with eggs sometime this week.

Sometimes I amaze even myself.

• Get to goal weight of 130 and maintain it. Working on it. I’m in the mid-130s. This is unreal to me. I still want to get to 130, so that is still the goal.
  
• Get half marathon time between 2:30 and 2:45. Mission Accomplished. Current PR is 2:29:56.
• Achieve Half Fanatic status. Mission Accomplished. Half Fanatic #4398
• Get my finances in order. Working on it. Not easy. But working on it. Hoping it will be easier once I get past this month.
• Move into my own apartment. Mission Accomplished.
• Take a week long road trip to VT/NH to see my friends up there. On the schedule for this month.
• Learn to shoot. On the schedule for my VT/NH trip.
  
• Go skydiving. Tell mom afterwards.
• Start meeting people. I’m gonna call this done. I haven’t done everything I planned to meet people, but I am meeting people and making the effort to be more social.
• Get a full physical. Need to get this scheduled. Princess Doctor too.
• Start dating again. Yup. Doing this one too. Officially back on the market.

So far so good. 2013 is my bitch.

MAY GOALS

• Lose 5 pounds. I saw 136.5 on 5/30. I’m calling this a win.
• Stick with stretches and squats routine. Only missed a couple of days, but my hips have been fine. Awesome.
• Register for last June race. *FAIL* Still haven’t done this.
  
• Finish getting car taken care of. *FAIL* Still haven’t done this either. Shit!
• CROSS TRAINING. Kept up with the challenge routine for most of the month (the last week was a little shaky). I’m going to call this a win.

3 out of 5? I call that a win. Much better than last month.

JUNE GOALS

• If not lose, maintain my weight. Let’s be realistic here…I’m dating again so I’m eating out/drinking more. I’m going to be traveling. My race schedule is a little nuts. And the last 5 pounds (ok 6.5) are going to be hard enough with 100% focus. So since I can’t give it 100% without sacrificing quality of life at the moment, I’m gonna say that as long as I don’t gain, I’ll be happy. I can do that.
• Finish getting car taken care of. This NEEDS to happen before my road-trip at the end of the month.
• Keep up the Cross Training. Working on my June challenge/training/workout schedule.

June is a wicked busy month for me. I think three is good enough for this month. Next month my marathon training begins, so look out world, I will be getting hard core. For real.