8 miles

I just ran 8 miles and man am I tired but boy do I feel good. Thank goodness for little sis, who called this evening to go running- it's awesome to have people to run with.

Race for The Cure

Yesterday was the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. It's always inspiring to see women in pink shirts, the survivors, walking or running.

It was fun running streets in my hometown where I normally only drive- the feeling running by familiar places is so different from driving by them. Unfortunately, the loop was only 1.5 miles, and so we did the same loop twice, and because the 1 mile walkers started 15 minutes after we did, you can imagine the congestion that that poor planning created. Other than that, it was a great race, if a little hot. Whoever decided 8:45 was a good time to start a race in West Texas in September is either a) not a runner or b) just not from here.

I was surprised to see how many people came out to run or walk in Lubbock- and happy. Not so happy to see the mountains of food for people after their 1 to 3 mile bout of exercise. I'm betting that a lot of people ate 2-3 times the amount of calories they burned on the course by eating either the donuts, burritos, sausage on a stick, ubiquitous free candy, sugary drinks, yogurt, bagels, and cream cheese that were available after the race.

Seriously, after the Austin Marathon there wasn't any free food available, and that's after burning ~2600 calories! As one person I overheard put it, "This obviously isn't the Race for the Cure for Obesity." (as he was chowing down on a chocolate glazed donut).

I didn't get in the rest of my miles yesterday as I'd hoped, but I did bike 10 miles for the Tour de Tech Terrace, which our house was a stop on this year. We give cookies out every year and this year we ran out before I even got the chance to engage in counter-productive behavior, so that's good.

So I feel like that the biking somewhat compensates, though the pace of this particular pelaton didn't exactly get my heart rate up. More leisurely riding from house to house, have a beer, bike to the next house (I didn't drink though...someone's got to be the designated biker). Good Tour, though- the cops were actually cool this year, and we didn't have any problems, even with ~300 (or so I hear) crazy bicyclists roaming the streets of our neighborhood collectively for six hours.

Little Sister gets home today so I think this evening we'll go for a run. 8 miles, methinks.

I'm so glad for my sister, who called me at 6:30 yesterday morning to go run after I had fallen back to sleep after my 5 AM wake up call. We got a solid 3.5 miles in and I love running with my sister. She's funny, down to earth, and as previously mentioned gets me out of bed in the morning when I thought I was too tired.

No running today because tomorrow is the Susan G. Komen race for the cure (5K). I'm actually going to go put in some miles before the race so I will have a total of 8 for the day, but I dont' want to put extra miles on my legs the day before a race and long run. I know people that run every day, but I'm not quite there yet. I'm still kind of paranoid about re-injuring my knee.

September 19

4.3 miles- With a great girl who is actually a professor at our university. She's a little faster than I am, so it's a good challenge to keep up with her.

Coming off of a break from running due to my full participation in Austin City Limits. I don't think it's ever a good idea to take more than 2 days off of running. I took 3 days off and it made yesterday and today harder than it had to be; I should have gone to run before we went to the festival.
The reason I didn't is that I am very adverse to driving, and having driven to Austin at all was an ordeal for me. It's the whole growing up in a town where 40mph was booking it, there were no mountains or curves to impede the view (and therefore you always could actually SEE what was coming at you....curves and hills really freak me out). That coupled with my being hit by a car while riding my bicycle a few years ago makes driving a very traumatic experience for me. In the eight years I've had my car, I've put about 40,000 miles on it, most of which were put there from driving to Dallas to visit my sister, various road trips to national parks/backpacking trips, or music festivals in various locales.

Anyhow, I hate driving, but especially hate driving where there are lots of other cars. I.E. Austin. I therefore did not feel comfortable driving from our seedy interstate motel downtown and back. I suppose that is no excuse, as I could have taken advantage of Austin's excellent public bus system (which we used to get to the festival) ....but I didn't. I should have. I will move forward from here.


I am loving my research project. I love my life right now....I wake up and read about things I find fascinating...I feel like I'm in a different world. The folks at the coffee shop get my mug ready for me before I even get to the front of the line because they know what I'm going to order. I know I'm in the right place in my life, because even if I wasn't getting a degree, I would be doing the same thing. That's a good place to be, living as you would want to even if you weren't 'getting something' for your efforts. Of course, you are getting something for your efforts, but not something material.

Speaking of...I've got to get to work!



OH the TOUR, the race for the cure, and the lubbock music festival is all this weekend. So exciting!

Shallowater Stampede Pics

:)

Sept. 17th

So, good overall week last week. 21 miles. Not bad, still working on adding mileage. I unfortunately didn't get any running done this weekend because I was preoccupied with the Austin City Limits Music Festival which was AMAZING! But I'll be up early tomorrow for a run.

The Arcade Fire had a brilliant performance, as did Amos Lee. I also really liked seeing Andrew Bird. Those were probably my top 3 performances, although the whole thing was awesome.

I'm considering making this blog more all inclusive, still with a running emphasis but also perhaps including other issues. Because all of life is a marathon, anyway, and I don't want this to be just a training log. On the other hand I'm kind of hesitant to put really personal stuff up in a public space, which was why it was nice to just isolate it to running. I don't know for sure, I'm just thinking about it.

sept. 11th

Today I had a great run. It started solo for a mile, I walked with a friend for awhile, then ran 4 more with my sister. All before the sun was up! I've finally gotten over being sore from the race on Sunday, which happened because I pushed myself a little harder than I have been. Today was the first morning in the 50s, so it was nice and cool throughout. A nice change from summer running. Pretty soon I'll be wearing gloves and ear warmers..............

On Sunday I ran about 3.5 miles in the rain. It was the first time I had run in the rain and it was actually kind of nice, except for the squishy shoe factor. I wanted to run further, but I was pretty sore and tired from the previous day.

shallowater stampede

I had a great race today! Actually, I finished last in the 10K....but my time was 1hr 5 min, which is about a 10 min/mile pace, which is good for me. And I enjoyed the course- out and back and flat, with good support. They had cookies, bananas, and bagels for us afterwards and plenty of gatorade and water in between. It was a lot of fun to be in a race again. :)

Shallowater!

No run today, but I'm signed up for the Shallowater 10K tomorrow! So exciting.

Yay!

Getting pumped about White Rock. Here's a bit of nostalgia from last year's race:

Still no major knee issues! I'm beginning to think it really is better!

It's so exciting to finally be back to calling 3miles an easy run. I've been doing GREAT on my training schedule- 5:30 AM is a lot easier when you know there's NINE other people waiting for you, which is what happened today. We don't meet until 6, but the meeting spot's exactly 1mile from my house, so I get 2 extra miles in by waking up a bit early.

5:30 AM used to be obscene hour for me, one I was only conscious for if it had been a really amazing night. I certainly never began a day at that time. It's so worth it though, to start of the day in such a great way, with great people. It really helps me focus for the rest of the day, too.

I've noticed that on sleepy days, where nothing starts to get done until after 10, I'm much less productive and much more tired than on days I get my ass out of bed and begin the day with something productive and challenging. It's the law of inertia.

Today I went on about a 5mile route that I had never done before- I explored a park I didn't even know was there and ran through gardens just when the sun was high enough to sprinkle through the trees and turn the path and shadows a beautiful amber color.

Usually I don't run on Sundays, because Saturdays are my long run days (yesterday we ran 7 miles at the usual place). But, I love the new running group I've found and they go everyday, and I couldn't resist meeting up with them this morning. Their "easy" pace is equivalent to my moderate pace, so I think running with this group is a great challenge and opportunity to get faster and stronger. My knee feels healthy, too, so I don't feel too bad about it.
25 miles for my total this week. Not bad.