2009 Race Ideas
February - Fanconia Anemia 5k
February - Hagg Lake 25k
March - Shamrock Run 8k
May - Eugene Marathon
July - Cascade Lakes Relay
August - PTC Walk
October - McDonald Forest 50k
Monday, October 27, 2008
Dreaming, Wishing, Planning
Since my foot and hip don't want to cooperate, I'm going to assuage my injury blues with some daydreaming about next year's race schedule. It isn't the same as going out and enjoying this gorgeous fall weather, but it will have to do.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
TiArt Thursday: Running and Weight Loss
When I first began running after college, I was thrilled with how easily the weight came off. Ten pounds melted off with ease; I don't think I did anything more than up the miles. Naturally I assumed that increased mileage would always equal weight loss.
Fast forward ten years and two children later.
Last summer, I decided to run my first marathon. As I charted out my miles, I imagined the way the weight would just fall off. I wouldn't have to change a thing, other than dedicating more time to running. People would ask me if I was losing tons of weight from running, but the scale was telling me no. It was discouraging.
That winter, I decided to up the miles even more. Surely burning nearly a pound a week in calories would do the trick. Nope.
I was at a dead end.
But I knew what I needed to do. I needed to look at my eating honestly - face the truth about how I was fueling myself, how I was snacking in the afternoon, all of it. And I didn't want to. But I knew that if I ever wanted to have any chance of making a change in my weight, I was going to have to open the closet and look at the mess inside.
I happened upon the website Sparkpeople, which would give me an easy way to count the calories going in. But then I saw that I could get a sample menu based on my weight loss goals, and it was super easy to make changes to my diet based on what I had at home. The best thing about Sparkpeople was that it wasn't advocating some crazy diet based on grapefruit or toast; it helped me to figure out the right kinds of foods to be eating.
The education came quickly. I needed to be eating brown rice and whole grain spaghetti, whole grain bread and lots of vegetables. I needed protein at all of my meals, and a much larger breakfast than I was used to. Water was important to drink throughout the day. As I made the changes in the kinds of foods I was eating, I found that I no longer wanted the junk that I had been using as filler for so many years.
The weight came off quickly then. Nearly 15 pounds lighter now, I am finding it easy to maintain this weight as long as I continue to eat the healthy foods. I use Nancy Clark's Food Guide for Marathoners and the Essential Eating Well Cookbook extensively, as well as recipes from the Eating Well website. My running helps as well, but I realize now that I can't rely on running alone. Sure, I can splurge now and then, but I can't splurge every day at every meal.
I still have panic moments when I worry that if I don't get the miles in I'll end up like I used to be. I've noticed that about a week before my period I become an eating machine, craving sugar and high carb foods like they are going out of style. But I know that it will pass in a few days and that I can go back to the healthy eating that I truly prefer. And I know that all it will take is a good, hard run and my head will be cleared of all the panic I have created.
Fast forward ten years and two children later.
Last summer, I decided to run my first marathon. As I charted out my miles, I imagined the way the weight would just fall off. I wouldn't have to change a thing, other than dedicating more time to running. People would ask me if I was losing tons of weight from running, but the scale was telling me no. It was discouraging.
That winter, I decided to up the miles even more. Surely burning nearly a pound a week in calories would do the trick. Nope.
I was at a dead end.
But I knew what I needed to do. I needed to look at my eating honestly - face the truth about how I was fueling myself, how I was snacking in the afternoon, all of it. And I didn't want to. But I knew that if I ever wanted to have any chance of making a change in my weight, I was going to have to open the closet and look at the mess inside.
I happened upon the website Sparkpeople, which would give me an easy way to count the calories going in. But then I saw that I could get a sample menu based on my weight loss goals, and it was super easy to make changes to my diet based on what I had at home. The best thing about Sparkpeople was that it wasn't advocating some crazy diet based on grapefruit or toast; it helped me to figure out the right kinds of foods to be eating.
The education came quickly. I needed to be eating brown rice and whole grain spaghetti, whole grain bread and lots of vegetables. I needed protein at all of my meals, and a much larger breakfast than I was used to. Water was important to drink throughout the day. As I made the changes in the kinds of foods I was eating, I found that I no longer wanted the junk that I had been using as filler for so many years.
The weight came off quickly then. Nearly 15 pounds lighter now, I am finding it easy to maintain this weight as long as I continue to eat the healthy foods. I use Nancy Clark's Food Guide for Marathoners and the Essential Eating Well Cookbook extensively, as well as recipes from the Eating Well website. My running helps as well, but I realize now that I can't rely on running alone. Sure, I can splurge now and then, but I can't splurge every day at every meal.
I still have panic moments when I worry that if I don't get the miles in I'll end up like I used to be. I've noticed that about a week before my period I become an eating machine, craving sugar and high carb foods like they are going out of style. But I know that it will pass in a few days and that I can go back to the healthy eating that I truly prefer. And I know that all it will take is a good, hard run and my head will be cleared of all the panic I have created.
Injury Blues
Being hurt sucks.
The weather is fantastic, the road is calling, and I'm stuck with a limp and stretching exercises. Awesome.
It won't be long until the rain is constant, the mornings cold, and the trails muddy. But maybe at that point, I'll be ready to go again.
Sigh.
The weather is fantastic, the road is calling, and I'm stuck with a limp and stretching exercises. Awesome.
It won't be long until the rain is constant, the mornings cold, and the trails muddy. But maybe at that point, I'll be ready to go again.
Sigh.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Race Plans
An awesome resource for figuring out a race plan: http://www.ridersite.org/SBTraining/PaceCal.php
This not only figures out your splits, it figures out how to run negative ones to achieve goal pace.
Now I just have to be able to run them . . .
Surfing the Edge of Overtraining
As the days have settled in to fall, and I've found myself with more time now that the kids are back in school, I'm finding that I'm struggling with too much training. I head out for a 6 mile run, only to decide to tack on another mile or two . . . two or three days in a row. Inevitably, I find myself waking up with a scratchy throat, elevated heart rate. If I ignore the signs and decide to run anyway - wham, a real cold.
I'm trying a new method. I will run or play soccer three days in a row at most, and then take a rest day whether I want to or not. I find it difficult to keep perspective. I want to tally the miles, see the improvement. I am struggling to keep my recovery runs slow, even when I leave the Garmin at home and refuse to look at my watch. The hard part is remembering that this is not a short term goal. I don't know how to relax and just enjoy the ride. But I am trying.
Coming up next week is the Run Like Hell. I'm hoping to break a 1:50, but there are some serious hills, so I'll be happy with a finish. (Yeah, right.) A big landslide is blocking Terwilliger at this point, so I'm not sure if the course will be the same. Just hope they don't add any more hills.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Life Lessons from Running
So what life lessons do we learn from running? This is the question asked today by the Runner's Lounge - a question that I haven't really asked myself as I have logged the miles this year. I've been running after the fastest pace, or the highest monthly mileage, or even the elusive dream of qualifying for Boston. I haven't been living the running. I've almost forgotten that the runs I do are my life.
Perhaps this is the greatest life lesson I can take from my running. Life isn't about the goal, or the finish line, or the next size smaller pair of jeans. Life is what happens on the road, during those slow miles, up the big hills, through the dark in the forests of Central Oregon. Life is in the van with your teammates, on the bridges with your running partners, sitting with you as you enjoy a hard-earned cup of coffee Sunday morning and chat about the next big race or home improvement projects waiting your return. Life is at every stoplight you wait through, in every rabbit that hits you in the foot while you run down the trail, every cold soak in the tub as you recover from too many miles in the heat. Life is the osprey circling the field at the top of the hill, the sting of the snow falling through the trees on a late day in March, the nagging pain in my hamstring that reminds me of every step I take.
It is only when I stop to realize that this running that I do is my life, not just an ends to it, that I can really learn the one lesson from life I need to learn. This is it. Life happens in all of these moments. I have had fantastic experiences out there on the road this year, even if they haven't all been pretty. And whether I'm running, or stretching, or dreaming of the next race, I'm living the life I have always wanted. I am a runner. And sometimes it just takes answering the question to realize it.
Perhaps this is the greatest life lesson I can take from my running. Life isn't about the goal, or the finish line, or the next size smaller pair of jeans. Life is what happens on the road, during those slow miles, up the big hills, through the dark in the forests of Central Oregon. Life is in the van with your teammates, on the bridges with your running partners, sitting with you as you enjoy a hard-earned cup of coffee Sunday morning and chat about the next big race or home improvement projects waiting your return. Life is at every stoplight you wait through, in every rabbit that hits you in the foot while you run down the trail, every cold soak in the tub as you recover from too many miles in the heat. Life is the osprey circling the field at the top of the hill, the sting of the snow falling through the trees on a late day in March, the nagging pain in my hamstring that reminds me of every step I take.
It is only when I stop to realize that this running that I do is my life, not just an ends to it, that I can really learn the one lesson from life I need to learn. This is it. Life happens in all of these moments. I have had fantastic experiences out there on the road this year, even if they haven't all been pretty. And whether I'm running, or stretching, or dreaming of the next race, I'm living the life I have always wanted. I am a runner. And sometimes it just takes answering the question to realize it.
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