Sunday, August 29, 2010

So here's a crazy idea..

It's kind of funny how quickly I revolt against and then embrace the idea of new feats of athleticism.

Last year when someone was like, "Oh, you've done halfs... now you should do a full!" immediately I was all, "Hell no... I could never do that... and I wouldn't want to."  But the seed was planted, and after awhile I was all about doing a full, and well, here I am.

Today someone was talking about doing an Ironman before he's 40.  Initially I was thinking "Hell no!  I could never train that much, I don't have it in me... I could never do that."  But again... I think the seed has been planted.  Because I've been thinking about it all day.  Maybe I need an outlandish goal for my upcoming decade.    The more I realize what I can do training-wise, the more I want to push that boundary.

We'll see how this marathon goes, obviously.  I think I could eventually get comfortable enough with biking to train on a bike, and I think I could hire someone to give me swim lessons so I can keep improving--you know, after I have a better job and can afford such things.  And I can keep working on running faster in the meantime.  It would certainly be the challenge to end all challenges.  I'm definitely not talking about the near future, but more long-term, like in the next 7-10 years.

I can't believe I've been thinking about this, really.  It's probably ridiculous.  But I'm also intrigued.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

I ran 18 miles!!

I ran 18 miles this morning!  **fistpump**  Hell yeah!  My longest distance to date!  

More details on how the run went a little later once I've had some rest... but I've been back for about 2 hours and I feel pretty decent so far.  I had a bunch of food and a bath and a shower, and I think I'm headed for a nap :o)  Woohoo!  *throws adrenaline party*

Sunday, August 22, 2010

On progress, and growing one year older...

Tomorrow I turn 29... sooo only one year left before I move up the age-group brackets.  I'm kinda doing the "omg I'm almost 30" crisis a bit, but also this is definitely the best shape I've ever been in in my life, which is helping.  All in all I have to say I'm pretty happy about where I am right now health-wise... my early 20s were troubled with a lot of negativity and poor food choices and alcohol and general lethargy and depression, so it does feel good to look back on that and see how far I've come.  I never in my craziest wildest dreams thought I would have been running at all, let alone running a marathon.  I just wasn't into fitness.

Some health-related musings I've been having as I've thought about all of this:

  • Feeling like a victim (of life, of circumstance, of chance, of other people) leads to treating yourself like a victim (feeding yourself poorly, not exercising, etc).  Negative thoughts breed a negative lifestyle.  I still am reminded of this sometimes... feeling mopey about work or other things definitely reduces my desire to eat good meals and stick with the scheduled runs.  But I think I'm much better at forcing myself to do those things regardless of how I feel. 
  • Surrounding yourself with active friends is a real motivator.  And the reverse is true:  spending a lot of time hanging out with or dating people who don't make fitness and healthy eating a priority can cause you to weaken your own commitment to yourself.  It's become so important to me to have active friends.
  • When you start leading a more active and positive lifestyle it almost attracts other active, positive people to you--I'm amazed at how this continues to happen.  And there really does seem to be a direct connection between "active" and "positive."
  • If you follow a training plan loyally, your "average" non-athlete body can suddenly start doing things you didn't think it was capable of.  (Like running 15.4 miles! haha)
  • It's easier than it seems to stop making excuses and stick with something.  Running has taught me a lot about commitment and tenacity.  So many people start working out and just stop because life interferes... and it's easy to let life interfere.  But this IS your life, and you can get that hour for running from somewhere else --watch an hour less of tv, cut some corners each day if you have to, get 15 minutes less of sleep... all of that adds up.  It's all about making your workouts a significant priority.  And once you see progress in your abilities, you get more motivated to stick with it because you don't want to LOSE that progress.  For me it took about 2 weeks of forcing myself to stick with the c25k to let me see enough results that I wanted to keep going.  I stuck with it in spite of candidacy exams, in spite of rocky relationships, in spite of family problems and other work stress.
  • I met my friend L. for coffee last night, and she was saying that as we age, physical appearance might decrease but mental health and stability DEFINITELY increases--so i should be looking forward to my 30s as a great decade of possible happiness and stability.  And I think a small part of me might actually be excited about that--excited about the future.  I have all this possibility to do things I never thought I could do--I might do a triathlon, even.   
  • For so long I felt like I was an outsider to the "athlete" world because I simply wasn't athletic or wasn't "good at sports," and I always felt like no amount of effort would make me able to do things I thought I wasn't able to do or automatically good at.  But it is within my power to make decisions to become a part of whatever world I feel like being a part of.  That sounds like motivational crap, but seriously.  Running has given me new faith that I can be the person I want to be instead of assuming I have to be the person I am.  It makes me want to work harder to improve.
  • And I have so much faith in my body to not suck now--not in the appearance sense, but in the strength sense.  Seriously, my body will do whatever I encourage it to do, if I feed it properly and care for it and nudge it in the right direction.  And that's probably the most empowering thing I've ever realized.  And it's something I shouldn't squander--there are a lot of people in this world who aren't as fortunate, who aren't in good health or who are otherwise disabled or limited.  It's something to be appreciated.  And  it feels so good to know that I've broken the cycle of self-defined failure that so many people seem to experience when it comes to working out.
May 31, 2008 was the first day I became a runner--the first day of my c25k program.  My first race was a 5 miler on Labor Day of that same year.  And now, my 29th year will be the year of my first full marathon.  In some ways my late 20s have been a steady progression upward.  And I may be turning 29 and unmarried, but I have a renewed faith in the possibility that there's someone out there for me who will be a good fit--I won't have to settle.  Weirdly in the past 2 weeks as this birthday has been approaching, I've been thinking a lot about how each day seems to get better than the last, and each month seems to get better than the last.  And if you know me, you know that positive thoughts like this are a real shift from my typical cynicism.  Let's hope it continues.  Heh.

I think I will be ok.

15.4 miles yesterday!

Yesterday I got up at 545 and was headed out for my run by 630 (it was still a little dark!!  bummer).  I did 7 and met Sam as planned, refilled my water bottles and ate half a banana, and kept on.  I took a Clif shot at 10 miles in.  Running with a banana in my stomach actually didn't phase me, strangely, but it also didn't give me that much energy.

I noticed throughout the run that it was taking more effort than usual to keep my HR up in the zone; usually the reverse happens and it's hard to keep myself from running too hard.  It wasn't that much cooler outside either, although there was more of a breeze.

When I hit 15 miles I threw a huge party right there on the path... I don't remember all of the details but apparently there was some guy standing there and I screamed "Fifteen miles!! Hell yeah, I did it!!" and jumped around and high-fived Sam.  Haha.  That's the good thing about this training... for awhile I will get to keep hitting new distance landmarks.  I was still 0.4 miles away from my place and ran that last 0.4 at a minute faster pace, probably thanks to adrenaline and joy.  Hopefully that will carry me through the last 4-5 marathon miles, too.

The new shoes were good--only a blister on the inner side of my right foot.  Here's the deal, though... the store guy recommended a neutral shoe with my generic arch support inserts, instead of a light stability shoe (which is what I had before).  I got the same brand, just the neutral model and this year's model.  No toe pain or anything, but that inner side of foot blister means I'm still overpronating somewhat--I've dealt with that before, and it went away when I started putting arch supports in my stability shoes.  It wasn't that bad this time really, but I had a tiny bit of hip soreness too that could be related.  (That usually happens with any new shoe I get, though, so maybe I will adapt).  But my toes felt awesome.  Worst case scenario I just take these shoes back and get the stability model again, so no biggie...but I'm going to keep wearing them this week to see.  I also found a website with some exercises to help you strengthen your arches and reduce pronation:  http://www.trifuel.com/training/strength-training/correcting-overpronation  There's debate about whether pronation can actually be "fixed" or not but it's worth a try.  The vibrams will help over time, but I'm not wearing them much just now out of injury-paranoia because my mileage is increasing so much.

Some other lessons I learned this week:

  • Chocolate Clif shots are a lot easier to get down than raspberry or any other flavor.  I was considering switching brands or using dried fruit because the raspberry one I had last week was so disgusting...but chocolate was kind of yummy and didn't stick all over my mouth.
  • I need to start doing some core work on the mat again--my lower back was aching by mile 11 or so, which usually means I'm doing a crappy job of keeping my hips tucked under me while running, which means I need a stronger core.  In the past, this has been my core workout of choice:  http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-263-266-13030-0,00.html  ... I'm thinking I'll stick with the same thing again.
  • I think I've decided to try a little hill training on one of the mid-week short runs.  The marathon, while advertised as "flat," has some hills... and I'm totally unprepared for them.  
  • Here is an article about running form that I found especially helpful:  http://www.active.com/running/Articles/The_perfect_runner__Improve_your_form.htm?cmp=17-4953&utm_source=sendible&utm_medium=feed
This training week was a total success. 

Friday, August 20, 2010

Friends and running buddies are lifesavers...

...seriously.  These long runs are getting harder because I'm getting more bored with running, since I've been doing runs 5 days a week and more miles.  Which means more time on the same trail where I always run.  I'm finding that the biggest thing I have to fight with running is NOT physical:  it's boredom.  As soon as I'm mentally out of the game, every little thing on me starts to ache and feel tight and I just want to walk and feel sorry for myself.  And I start getting distracted by the things I should be doing and the work I'm behind on (*cough*dissertation, and dishes, laundry, other things).  Don't get me wrong, running is usually fun enough and it's still something I look forward to...but there's definitely a mental component to this marathon training stuff. (Totally stating the obvious there eh?? hehe)

I'm a little scared to move my long run to a new spot, because so far it's been helping me mentally to know how much further I have to go, etc, and because on Saturday mornings a Marathon In Training group has a ton of enormous water jugs out along my course (I try not to steal their water because I know they paid a membership fee or whatever to train with that group and have that convenience, but last weekend I ran out of water in this heat and it kind of saved my life... I was able to refill a bottle.  So now I'm paranoid about running out of water, and it's giving me a little peace of mind that if I mismanage my water bottle refills I won't shrivel into a raisin 6 miles from my apartment.  Trying to plan better this week though).  I should probably mix it up a little and start doing my mid-week runs around other places in the neighborhood just to keep things fresh.

Anyway, Sam (my good friend and eternal running buddy) has been really helping me to drag my ass through burnout and to get through these longer runs as my level of fear increases.  Seriously, tonight all I can think of is, "Omg, I'm not going to be able to do this marathon.  Tomorrow I'm doing 15, and that's barely even HALF of how far I'll have to run!" etc.  I'm scared I won't even be able to do 15, even though it's only 2 miles more than what I did last Saturday.  This is the longest run I've ever done.  But for the last 2 weeks he's done the second half of my long run with me.  So I go out and back to do 6 or 7 miles, then meet him and we do the last 6-8.

And even when Sam's there sometimes I want to start doing my pathetic whiny omg-i-dont-want-to-run-now-i-cant-do-this-i'll-never-finish-a-marathon routine.  I told him last week we need to talk or do something to keep my mind doing something besides focusing on my sore toe or whatever else ails.  And last week we played "Would You Rather," where we took turns thinking of two horrible or disgusting or otherwise tough scenarios and then choosing which we'd rather do.  And, THE MILES FLEW BY.  It seriously made like 5 miles pass and then the last 2 were no biggie.  I wish I could think of examples because we had some hilarious ones, but it was all a blur :o)

For tomorrow I printed one page front and back from this Book of Questions book and I'm going to put it in my running belt.  So we'll be the dorks on the trail passing a tattered folded paper scrap back and forth reading a question every now and then.  One could argue that I should be doing my long runs faster and harder if I'm able to pass a paper back and forth and read a line from it, but I'm still sticking with my heart rate zone training for the most part, and we aim to do the long runs at an easy conversational pace.  I want the long runs to be as fun as possible so I don't start dreading them and dreading running...and I push the pace more on my Monday and Wednesday runs.

If the paper-passing fails or is too awkward, though, just for funsies, I asked some other runners what games they do to pass the time, and someone else suggested a game she called "Fuck, Marry, Kill," where one of you names 3 related people (3 politicians or 3 characters from a tv show or 3 lead singers etc) and the other has to name which of those people you would fuck, marry, or kill (one person per item).  Yay amusing backup plan.

All of this entertainment on training runs begs the question WHAT THE HECK AM I GOING TO DO AT THE MARATHON WHEN OMG I HAVE NO FRIENDS RUNNING IT WITH ME... and yes, that is a very good question.  I'm hoping I'll have someone along for the first 13 miles at least, because I know some others from my training group who run my pace are doing the half.  But the second half of the run will be harder.  I'm hoping I can station Sam (after he's done with the half) and at least one other person around what I expect will be the worst miles, so I have people to look forward to seeing.  But we will see.  If nothing else, the race itself will be a true test of my mental stamina as well as physical, which I sort of expected but sort of didn't.

If I have support from my friends to help make this mentally easier, it still counts as running a marathon right?  Maybe I should be toughing this out alone so I've really earned it?  Haha.  Seriously though, I've thought of that.

Anyway, what do you all do to stay entertained on long runs or to avoid getting into a boring training rut?

Monday, August 16, 2010

Nutrition; or, "My Rookie Mistake"

I started realizing last week that I was tired a lot and often had a headache or some muscle aches, and it was affecting my runs--my legs were super tight and painful on even short runs.  I thought maybe I was missing a nutrient or something, so I started to keep track of what I eat on a daily basis.  Calorie intake occurred to me too, because Frayed Laces recently posted about her calorie intake during bike rides (and it was a mind-blowingly huge amount, and I never take in many calories on a run).

Get this.  Apparently I average only about 1450 calories a day.
I feel so dumb now, and I hate admitting this publicly.  But, I'm posting about this in case there are other rookie marathoner-vegans who need to learn about this, too.

I wasn't skipping meals, really.  There were occasional days where I'd creep toward 2000 calories, but it was usually through getting takeout or eating tortilla chips (so not the healthiest, either).  It looks like I tend to eat a large and caloric breakfast, a snack-y lunch (like hummus and carrots or something), and then I fall off the wagon with dinner... I just never care about dinner.  I will eat whatever's around, or I will get takeout.  Sometimes dinner is something with a lot of vegetables and thus not a lot of calories.  And also I know there are times I'm working and don't feel like stopping to make food, or I'm sitting on the couch and not eager to get up to make something.  If I want snacks during the day I usually eat a)nothing, or b)carrots or radishes or a banana, or c)well... usually nothing.  It seems that I tend to have one big meal a day (breakfast) and then don't really make myself good meals the rest of the day and generally ignore feelings of hunger, often unintentionally because I just have my mind on other things or am out and about and it's difficult to just buy a vegan snack.

So here I am, this purportedly health-conscious person, eating 1450 calories a day.  I didn't know anything about calorie intake, really.  So why is this such a problem, you might ask?

I ran my info through this calorie need calculator, and it says that I need 1950 calories/day to maintain my current weight and 2500 calories/day if I'm doing 1 hour of activity a day.  I averaged my time spent running weekly and it's more than 1 hour a day (and increasing).  So I need to be eating probably more between 2500 and 3000 calories a day.  It occurred to me to bust out my Hal Higdon book, and he has a chapter on nutrition... and he says if you're running at least 30 miles/week you probably should be eating 3000 calories a day (obviously it varies by your size and weight, but he doesn't mention that).   I guess I assumed I was eating what I needed to all along (I had no idea how many or how few calories I was eating, actually, because I hate calorie counting and I figured I was probably close enough).

So, I'm supposed to add 1000 calories to my diet each day and somehow I won't start packing on weight? I can't say I was/am totally convinced, but I also recently met this amazing cyclist (he rides for a local team) and he told me he saw a nutritionist for awhile, and he had the same concerns when she told him to up his calorie intake... but that she said instead of gaining weight, you will get stronger and faster because your muscles will have more energy and more ability to store glycogen or something.  And that your body starts expecting to have that many calories so will just burn them instead of storing them as fat.  He's a whole different athlete than I am (he burns like 7000 calories on a ride sometimes) but I guess the same principles hold true.

So the facts are that apparently I should be eating a lot more than I am.

The plan is to start keeping portable snacks by the door (clif bars, bananas, trail mix) in case I'm headed out and need to grab something on the way.  And I'm going to keep things I can eat quickly in the fridge (hummus, other bean-spreads, soy yogurt, things like that) with some pretzels and nuts around.  I think I probably also don't eat enough carbs, but my next step will be to see exactly what percents of carbs, protein, and fat I'm eating each day (I guess it's supposed to be around 60% carbs, 30% protein, 10% fat, which I kind of already knew but stopped paying attention to).  And yet somehow during all of this I need to still make sure I'm eating enough vegetables as usual.

My breakfast alone is around 450 calories (I almost always have 2 servings of steel-cut oats made with 1c. soymilk and a banana, with half a cup of yogurt, a cup of blueberries, and some rice protein powder).  I ate the same thing after my long run on Saturday, and was hungry after just an hour.

I also learned that sometimes thirst can masquerade as hunger, so it's possible if you're really hungry that you're dehydrated.  So I'm also trying to drink more water (which I should be doing regardless of the calorie stuff).

It's such a new and different way of thinking, to think that it's actually bad for me to NOT have calories.  I don't want to gain weight and I think I've somewhat internalized the American mainstream fat-paranoia and calories=bad mindset.  But the stakes are different if I'm being a runner, I guess.  I hung out with the cyclist after my long run and his 100 mile ride on Saturday and it was great because he was chowing down on everything he could get his hands on and made it seem fun and positive (he's a vegetarian with vegan tendencies, too, which is nice) and it's nice to have support from people who make eating lots seem awesome instead of like a source of guilt.

So I'm reframing my thinking.  If you're new to marathoning, it's worth taking a look at your calorie intake. I'll keep you posted on how this works out for me.  I guess this is why I have this blog, though... to post about and share things I learn while training :)  The plan is to be attentive and eat when hungry, while hopefully not swinging too far in the opposite direction and eating TOO much.

(Two years of running and it takes marathon training for me to realize I need to eat to run.  Wtf was I thinking?)

ETA:  As far as eating TOO much goes... I think this is perfectly impossible for me.  It's now 5pm and I've been steadily eating all day... big breakfast, lunch, snacks, chocolate soymilk... and I'm still only at 1500 calories.  I'm going to run and will have dinner after, but I know I can't eat another thousand calories in the next 6 hours before I go to sleep sooo... this is going to take some practice.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Bits of news!

  • I ran 13.5 on Saturday--I added the half mile so I could officially "break" the half marathon distance barrier for this training cycle.  This upcoming Saturday I do 15, which will be my longest run ever!
  • I want to make an important post about nutrition soon, maybe tomorrow.
  • I think I've decided to get new running shoes this week.  I felt great on my 13.5 and could've probably kept going if my feet didn't hurt so much (toenails, toe-ends, etc).  Better safe than sorry.
  • I'm behind on my blog-readings and commentings--but congrats to Average A on her move and for conquering the SFO hills, and props to Vegan Booty for powering through an injury toward an Ironman 70.3 goal!  (You guys are tough!)

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Saturday's 11 miles

I'm almost back on the normal training plan.  On the original plan I was supposed to do 14 miles for my long run yesterday, but given that my long run last week was 9, I just couldn't quite push myself to 14.  Well, I probably could have, but it wouldn't have been pretty. This is ok, though... I've looked at the plan and made a few changes and I think it's all going to be fine.  When I headed out the door the plan was to do 11 at minimum, 12 if I was feeling good, and then take it from there.  So I hit my goal.

Last night's 11 came after S. and I walked around this little artsy town called Yellow Springs all day (me wearing vibrams).  We also had a really really good dinner at this place called Sunrise Cafe--I had some kind of creole tofu and rice dish that was really killer, and he had a quinoa saute.  So we drove an hour and 20 minutes back to Columbus and I went out right away to start running because it was quickly getting dark.  I guess an hour and 20 minutes isn't quite enough time for me to digest, because I felt like I had a food-baby for the better part of the run (and I wasn't hungry after the run like I normally am).  But it was fine.

So I headed out for 5 miles and then met S. again and we did another 6 miles together.  I actually felt really good for about 9.5 miles--it wasn't a painful nightmare like last week's 9 kind of was, where I was taking walk breaks and things.  I was running a pretty good pace.  But that last 1.5 miles really killed me.  It was so, so tough.  I don't think I've had a mile feel that tough since the last half marathon I did in May.  My legs were hurting, my feet hurt really bad, everything hurt.   It's possible that it was dumb to do a long run after already having been on my feet and walking around all day, but I didn't think about it.

BUT I did it and I'm hoping that this means that next week the first 11 miles of the 13-14 I'll do will come easily.

Re: shoes.  I am getting concerned that maybe the sauconys I have are more used-up than I thought--my knees were kind of getting that "uhoh, your shoes need to be replaced" feeling.  Also interestingly enough this was the first time in my 2 years of running (including all the half marathons) where I've felt my feet swell a lot.  My feet were so swollen when I took off my shoes.  I have no idea why now of all times they're swelling that much when they never have done so noticeably, but hey... definitely making note of that for buying future shoes.  Sooo...thanks to Debbie for her comment on my last post, which turned out to be super-accurate the very week she said something about it!

I'm super-sore and stiff today but I made sure to eat a good breakfast and might go for a (leisurely) swim in a little bit.  Wow, though, it's been awhile since I've felt this sore the morning after a run.

Also, plain soy yogurt in steel-cut oats is amazing...especially with blueberries.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Training update

Training has really been awesome this week!  Yesterday I did my first mid-week run longer than 6 miles (it was 7).  I can tell I'm still a bit out of shape--or maybe it was just the insane heat/humidity again, it was a pretty intense combo yesterday--but in spite of that I feel really really good.  A little scared about the 14 that awaits me this Saturday, though.

So I've been thinking about two things:
1) Food.  I'm fairly sure I've been doing a crappy job of eating well.  Laziness, work stress, other stuff has been preventing me from sticking with my healthy breakfast routine.... which is bad because I think I haven't been taking in enough calories during the day, which leads to a mega-pigout at dinnertime.  All I had yesterday before my 5pm run was a sweet potato saute I made around lunchtime (no beans added to it, no veggies... really pathetic).  I was hungry hungry during my run, and when I got back I proceeded to have a whole box of coconut water, 1 soy yogurt, a clif bar, 4 black bean tacos with avocado on them, and 2 bags of popcorn (which I never eat--I don't even have a microwave, so this was consumed at a friend's house).  This is pretty awful in terms of healthiness.  I mean, the popcorn? Yikes.  And if I'm feeling like I need to eat that much in the evening, I'm doing a lousy job of fueling my poor body during the day.  I've also been a lot more active lately than I usually am.  Usually runs are my only real activity during an otherwise sedentary day, but I've been swimming almost daily too... not laps and etc, but just lots of swimming around underwater for a couple hours at a time and that kind of thing.  So maybe I'm using more energy than I'm used to?  No idea.  At any rate the increased activity has resulted in me being a much happier person so I'd like to keep it up.

Also I've been having tons of cravings for junky foods like chips.  I gave in to the popcorn craving last night, but I've been trying to resist my massive craving for bags of potato chips.  I don't know if something is lacking in my diet that would cause me to want potato chips this much or what (not like they have any important nutrients really... so it's probably just me being hungry hungry).  I generally do not buy potato chips at all because I know if they're around my apartment I'll inhale an entire bag in one sitting, and I could just as easily be snacking on raw veggies... so I've been trying to re-route my cravings wherever possible.

2) Shoes.  Yeah, still with the major shoe dissatisfaction.  When my foot was hurting me I switched from my Pearl Izumi's back into the Sauconys I'd been wearing before them (they still have some miles left in them).  Then yesterday I wore the Pearl Izumi's again and it was really quite bad.  I don't know if it's the shoes themselves or if it's just that I've been switching footwear too much or what, but I feel like the PI's force me into a feet-slapping motion that makes my ankles hurt.

Also, the fits of these two pairs of shoes are different:  the PI's are an 8.5, while the Sauconys are a 7.5 wide.  The Sauconys give me a tiny bit of end-of-toe rub, but I have some pretty tough callouses there so it's generally ok.  Other than that, they feel like they're a part of my feet, which I like... not a lot of foot motion inside the shoe.  The PI's are a bigger size to compensate for the fact that they aren't a wide size.  As a result I can feel my foot moving around inside the shoe a lot more, and I sometimes get black toenails from them.  I think I've pretty much decided that I don't like having a shoe where I can feel my foot moving around inside it.

At some point I'm going to have to make a shoe commitment here because I need to be in the best shoe for the marathon.  Both of these pairs are more than half-used-up, I'd say, so the timing for new shoes may be unfortunate right near the marathon date.  The bad thing is if I like the Sauconys best, they changed the model this year and they fit/feel different (I tried some on awhile ago) so I'd have to adjust to that, and they may not end up being awesome.  I'm going to keep wearing the Sauconys for now.

As for the vibrams, I've been doing the first .5 or .75 of every run in them and then putting on shoes for the rest.  I'm trying to take it SO SO SLOWLY with them in case they were a factor in my foot pain.

Monday, August 2, 2010

one can dream..

Dear sexy man on bike path wearing the "Go Vegan!" kit,
Marry me.  That is all.
*swoon*

ETA: apparently we have an OrganicAthlete chapter right here in Columbus.  I'm making an account to find out more.  Not to stalk this guy, but because, well, finding other vegan athletes in my own city would be totally badass.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Well, now I'm committed...


Guess that says it all, eh?  The price for the Columbus Marathon was going to go up by $10 tonight at midnight, so I registered.  SO... I guess I'm going to have to ramp up my training and not be a baby about it.  If nothing else, now the guilt over possible wasted money will motivate me to keep training... haha.

So Columbus Marathon here I come.  77-ish days left.
*nervous*
Hope there's enough training time left for me...