Humid Hoofing

I knew I was going to have an interesting run the second that I went down my stairs and my knees just ached. Ah, it must be really humid! So sad that my body in its old age can already tell me the weather report. I set out anyways and decided to go back to the dirt bike trails that I found last week. I took a different trail that led to a dirt road which led down to the continuation of 9 mile run stream. So excited. So I crossed to the other side where there looked to be a 'path' and headed back to the familiar Frick Park. It turned out to be a good run athough since some parts of the trail were rough/non-existent/grown over I slowed down almost to a walk. Well, also becuase I ran through a lot of greenery, I am now totally itchy. It's probably just mental but I'm not taking any chances. I've already thrown all my clothes and shoes into the washer and am going to scrub down asap!!

Just a reminder - Wednesday at Noon - Sign up for the MCM!!!!

Women's Olympic Time Trials - The Spectators

Sitting on the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, waiting for the next pack of runners to come by.
The view from the bridge over into Cambridge.
Lisa and Nathan at the starting line.

Women's Olympic Time Trials - The Runners

Magdalena Lewy Boulet - the lone lead runner for 23.5 miles; ultimately finished second.
The main lead pack - among them are Blake Russell (finished third), Deena Kastor (finished first), Elva Dryer, Desiree Davila, Mary Akor, Kate O'Neill and Desiree Ficker
Joan Benoit Samuelson - won the inaugural women's marathon event in LA in 1984. This was supposedly her last real competitive race (though I bet she might still be able to beat me even when she's 70).
Veena Reddy - not a real contender in the race, but featured in Runner's World as one of those people who has a "normal" life in addition to training for the Olympic Time Trials.

Hydration Station #2

Lisa and I are carefully mixing the brew. It is a strict one bottle of concentration to 5 gallons of water. And by "strict" they mean that a Gatorade rep comes around to test your mix to make sure you are doing it correctly. Nathan and Osei had a drive-by audit of their brew!
Standing proud next to four tiers of lemon-lime Gatorade!
We quickly discovered that the newbies are the ones who get stuck w/ the Gatorade duty. What a sticky mess. Don't know if I'll be able to stomach lemon-lime Gatorade for a little while.
Do you see the fluorescent yellow glow bouncing off of Nathan's face?

[More photos to come...there are so many great ones to post up here!]

lopsided!?!

So Megan suggested i could ask my running questions here. I'm impressed, by the way, with your bloggingness.

So my one leg (calf) hurts and the other doesnt. Do we think i am lopsided? It hurts the day i run and then lessens as time goes on. I think i am a freak. But mainly i can probably still run with it like that right?

thanks!

Girls on the Run Team Picture

Maybe I should get an Ipod...

So shockingly I not only left work before 8:30, I made it to GOTR, AND got there early ...I was so pumped at having a free night that I went out for a run as the dusk was settling in. It was chilly, but it was delightful to be outside for the first time in a couple weeks. After a good half hour, I realized that in between my random thoughts, I had continually been singing the first two lines of the chorus of "Touch my Body" by MC. It was only stuck in my head because a 3-5 grader had it as a ring tone! Can you say growing up too fast!?!?! It would have been nice to have some variety but still very happy to have full awareness of my surroundings since it was very dark by the end of the run and I still insisted on running on the streets (sidewalks are so uneven and a hazard).

Happy End of Busy Season Eve!!!!

A Springtime Run in Central Park

After plans of running mid-busy season were continually cancelled and no schedule whatsoever was being adhered to, I simply submitted and said, "OK, at this point, I'll just wait until after April 15th." Well, I broke that by three days with a trip to NYC. I can never pass up a chance to run in Central Park and Saturday morning was absolutely gorgeous. It had rained the night before and the fog was so thick that you couldn't see the tops of skyscrapers, but it was warm and the blossoms were out on cherry trees, magnolias, forsythias, dogwood - you name it! I jogged up from Times Square and then did a portion of the loop, cutting through the middle when I had thoughts of, "You haven't run in awhile, Megan. Make sure you can make it back." The park is always the quiet gem in the middle of the city, but it was extra peaceful on Saturday morning because there was a bike race going on and the whole loop was closed for any traffic at all. Very fun - what a great way to kick off the spring training and the post-April 15-return-to-normalcy...well, maybe...

LOVE/hate

Have you guys seen the new ad campaign launched by New Balance? The commercial I have seen a few times is so incredibly good...completely captures a runner's mentality. Check it out!

I guess I'm a hypocrite too

While I'm still resisting using headphones on my runs, I realize that I am now doing the one thing I always hated about other people - only running when the weather is above freezing. But now that tomorrow is spring, I have no more excuses. Went running this morning since I didn't have to be anywhere until 9. I don't really know why I stopped running over the winter - it feels so good and I have so much more energy.

P.S. Since some of you do not have Facebook - I want to make sure that you know that tomorrow (Thursday) is Rita's Italian Ice's First Day of Spring celebration - I think you get a free ice (or at least some discount). I know it's supposed to be chilly and wet but I am stoked for Rita's to open up again.

Gasp! She's a Hypocrite!

Today I did what I said I would never do - listened to music while running outside! I have to admit, it was a bit anti-climatic, not life-changing at all. In spinning, you can kind of pedal to the beat, but in running, you really have to work to keep up to the beat. I think I was only once in stride w/ the cadaence and it was going down a hill. There is no way I would have been able to keep up to any of the music. The other thing is that headphones have a totally different sound quality than a car stereo or speakers at the Y. And I was a little nervous to turn it up too loud to drown out the surrounding noise even though I was running on the sidewalks and there was little chance of me being hit by a car. I actually heard someone come up behind me (go figure, I haven't been passed by another runner in a long time...it was up a hill and he stopped at the top of it, though and I repassed him) and didn't jump out of my skin. It did give me a chance to fine tune my next contribution to Emery's music selection, though. Will I do it again? Maybe. Top song of the run - Chocolate by Snow Patrol.

PS - I was inspired by Lisa's Daylight Saving post, but I was a bit too ambitious about it starting to feel like "spring" outside. I went out in my shorts and lightweight long-sleeve T and was freezing the whole time. All the other runners I saw had no leg-skin showing at all and most had multiple layers on top. One even had full hat and gloves. I also saw a dog w/ a coat on. Granted, it was a wimpy looking dog, but still...

Daylight Savings Rocks

So last night when I was leaving my client relatively early, some weird feeling possessed me. Maybe it was the sun beating down on me during rush hour traffic or maybe it was that I had ordered a new pair of running shoes (that are currently out for delivery), or the fact that I realized that I better start actually running if I want to meet my goal of running 10 miles before I sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon on April 30th. Whatever it was I put on my running shoes and bolted out the door for the first time since Thanksgiving (yikes!). I only had twenty minutes to run, but I used every minute with glee as the sun began to set and blind me. The exciting part is that I could have gone much longer than twenty minutes - I didn't totally lose all my muscle mass and lung capacity. Wahoo! Can't wait to be able to start running with you girls again once our schedules open up.

Kickoff to GOTR

Last night was the first session of Girls on the Run. We have a full group already with two repeaters (Katie Hazen and Maive) and one little sister (Brooke). It seems like we either have really quiet or really loud girls - one or the other. Its different without CJ, but the new coaches, Sarah and Kat, seem like they are really excited to coach and it comes as a bonus that they are actually runners as well. Excited for the season!

Full Body Workout

My midweek workout this week was comprised of shoveling snow! You may not think this counts as a workout, but let me tell you, this was some of the heaviest snow I have ever shoveled and I have shoveled a lot of snow in my days. I normally like shoveling snow and, yes, it could be considered a chore with a healthy dose of fresh, winter air to go with it, but when you take 7 inches (that's the word on the street, probably exaggerated, but we'll go with it) of nice fluffy snow and then you dump an inch (complete guess) of freezing/mixed rain on it, that 7 inches gets really heavy. That's what happened to me. I procrastinated shoveling it in the morning when it was fluffy, so by the time I got home at night, it was the heavy sludge. My abs/back muscles felt like they were going to rip apart as I shoveled the stuff. I had to stop every few minutes for a break; if the neighbors were watching (most of them didn't shovel their walks), they were probably laughing.

I did learn my lesson the next day it snowed and though I was a bit later to work than I wanted to be, I shoveled a clean path, salted it and came home to a nice clean walkway!

Not the Stroudsburg we know and love

We had somewhat of a warm spell this week, so there were no snowy morning runs in East Stroudsburg this year. I got in one morning run, but I was a little overheated in my tights and long-sleeve T with a jacket over top. I wasn't too courageous in venturing all that far from the hotel, so I did a couple out and backs to places I am familiar with - the Wa-Wa, the hill up 10th Street and the Main Street. The only snow I came across was a severely melted pile at the back of a parking lot.

A View of the Golden Corral

Did the treadmill again tonight. I gained some confidence and did a faster pace than last time. I still can't look up enough to be able to watch the TV, so all I have to look at is my reflection in the window (which is helpful, b/c I can see if I am veering to one side and I can really focus on NOT having a freak treadmill accident), the glow of the red and gold neon lights from the Golden Corral and the parking lot of the Super WalMart off in the distance.

The 10 Degree Runner

The 10 Degree Runner is not me...but I saw someone out this morning and was actually slightly jealous that it wasn't me. I've been slyly good at coming up with excuses for not running without directly using the excuse "It's too cold out." Other excuses recently have been - "I need to get into work" or "I need to catch up on sleep."

Happy Birthday, Crazy Daisies!

I just missed the two year anniversary of the Crazy Daisies blog. (It was on January 12.) But, I am back up here in good ole Hermitage/Greenville and this may be the first year that I do not get in a track workout. Reason being (1) I'm not on a training program that suggest them, (2) It is darn cold outside...ok, maybe not any colder than the past two years, but next week the forecast is filled w/ single digits and (3) Nathan wasn't all that comfortable w/ me running after dark at a track behind a high school...not that it wasn't dark when I've done it the past two years.

Tonight I got my two staff to join me at the Y. They both said their wives would be proud of the job I did in getting them there. I'm not a huge fan of the treadmill, as we all know, but I got in 30 minutes on it with no freak accidents. I always picture this happening...my shoelace comes untied and then gets stuck in the belt.

Here's to another year filled with good blogging, but more importantly, good running and good times!

Mark Your Calendar!

Matt called me yesterday and said that his dentist, who is also a runner, filled him in with all the Michigan relay races. I've found the site for a few and I am still looking for a supposed 70 mile trail relay. I think it is an absolute MUST that we do one of them!

http://greatlakesrelay.com/ - A 270 mile relay. They start taking applications on April 16 - a wonderful way to celebrate the first day of non-busy season. Swag for this race is a custom-made ceramic mug from potter I.B. Remsen and you get to meet famous Pinky Winky (???).

http://www.shoretoshorerelay.com/ - A 200 mile relay, actually not in Michigan...it is in sourthern Ontario. We should get things pulled together by February 29 to get a discount. This race looks a bit more organized than the first.

http://danceswithdirt.com/ - A 100k relay in either Hell or Gnaw Bone Michigan (one in May, one in September). This could be a good starter. It is the shortest and only includes 5 relay runners, but we could have multiple teams race against each other if we get some interest.

http://www.laurelultra.com/ - I also just found this one! I knew they did a 70 mile ultra, but didn't know there was a relay option. So close to home!

And I also looked for half marathons in the spring/early summer. Here are some reasonably close options:
May 4 - Frederick, MD
May 4 - Alexandria, VA
May 18 - Marine Corps Historic Half (already sold out...darn)
June 21 - Niagara on the Lake, Ontario
Hmmm...that's not that many options.

Also - REGISTRATION FOR THE MARINE CORPS MARATHON OPENS ON APRIL 30. THIS ONE FILLS UP FAST!

Guess Who I Saw?

I was at Michael's (the craft store, not the pizza place) on Sunday and I saw Laurie (or is it Lori?) from GOTR! She was with her mom and I stopped to talk with them for a few minutes. I asked what they were there for and she said, "Well, I'm like, kind of getting into scrapbooking..." I asked her if she had been running...to which she said "no," but her mom chimed in with the fact that they had gotten a stepper for Christmas...interesting.