Side planks: an oddity.

I'm supposed to be doing side planks (chiro says it's good for me and my running) so I've been doing them--holding each side until exhaustion.  Well, I wasn't timing it or paying much attention really... just plankin' away and going to my mental happy place to avoid thinking about how hard planks are.  Today he told me to start timing them, so I did.

Get this, I can hold a side plank for a minute and 15 seconds on my right side, and only 27 seconds on my left side.  What the what?

He said 60 seconds would be my goal, and told me that when I reach 60 seconds we'll have to make planks harder.   Wth do I do now, now that I know that I'm this uneven?? Just stop doing planks on the strong side?  I guess I'll have to wait to see what he says.

This is starting to all come together.  I mean, I put 16 more lbs on my right foot vs. the left one... right side I can hold a plank more than double left side... right hip is the one that's effed up and hurty...  right ankle is one that slightly overpronates... maybe if I can balance out these muscles some stuff will get fixed and future problems prevented.

Run recap

Am I glad I got out there in spite of the temps: yes.
Should I stop my bitching and whining now? yes.  sorry guys.  There was a point when I felt like I had something to prove and I'd be out there running even if there was a freaking hurricane, blizzard, -11 degrees, whatever.  Somewhere along the way I just kinda feel like I don't have anything to prove any more (maybe the marathon made me feel badass enough?  I don't know).  So I fully admit that I'm not as badass of a runner as a lot of the runners I run with, because I *will* either wuss out and rearrange my running schedule if it's TOO too cold or else complain about it miserably.  Ha.

I only did 5 instead of the 10ish I should have done, but I could no longer feel my butt and the girl I was running with was doing 5 so... I made excuses.  I might do a longer run tomorrow.

It wasn't snowing or anything but my eyelashes, eyebrows, and hair froze (see above photo).  I probably would've been a walking ice-woman had I done my full 10 miles.  The first 2 miles were rough as I was worried about one of my toes that I couldn't feel, but then I got some circulation goin' and felt pretty solid for the rest of the run.

Running in negative temps...

... is not really my thing.  It's -3F right now (actual temp, not windchill) and I have to go lead another pacer run.  Maybe signing up for this was a terrible idea, cus I have to subscribe to other peoples' insanity instead of doing what I normally do for a run (no way would I run right now... I've done a run when it was -11F before and it was terrible!!!)

Such is life I guess.  Maybe I'm just really really stressed (true fact) and tired (also true).  Can't wait to get home and get back in bed for a little bit before tackling all of this crap I have to do.  For now, time to man up I guess.

So, what I've REALLY been up to...

I've been a terrible running slacker for the most part for the past couple of weeks... between the cold weather and the Los Angeles trip and then coming back and feelin' lazy... meh.  I've been running maybe 3 days a week, and my hip is killing me again (blah).

Anyway, I haven't been TOTALLY lazy.  Get this.  I met a guy who owns a bouldering gym (!) and this gym is only 4 blocks from my apartment (!!!).  So I've been rock climbing my face off.  It's a co-op gym, where people pay a fee and then get a key and can go climb anytime they feel like it.  This guy's been letting me go for free, and he put up a few easier problems for me to work on.  The people there are super-cool... it's mostly guys in my age group (I have yet to see a girl there, but there are at least 7 of them who are members), and lots of them are grad students of various kinds (some med students).  The owner is really talented and designs and makes his own climbing holds, and sells them across the country.  He and the other climbers there are incredibly strong badasses.  I have witnessed some unbelievable feats of strength and maneuvering and am very jealous.

Omg though, rock climbing is so awesome.   Talk about stumbling into a hidden-away secret of a gym, and right by my apartment, too.  It's in an old garage with no signs on it or anything so you'd never know it's there.  And it's a really, really good gym... tons of walls, and they're changing the holds out all of the time so it's always new and different.  The floor's covered with old mattresses and these pads you can drag around for underneath spots you want more padding in case you drop off.

The first few times my arms were absolutely blasted afterward... like to the point where I could hardly grip anything.  I think I'm already getting a little bit stronger, but now the limiting factor is the skin on my hands--it's raw, and ouch.  Hopefully this will turn into callouses soon.  Last night I went climbing from like 1130 - 1:00am (yes that late...after an evening nap I was wide awake) and I had to stop before my arms were fully tired because my hands were a wreck.  I seem to have a blister in addition to the raw spots.  Blah... I want to climb more!

So I'm obsessed with building some upper body strength and learning more about some climbing maneuvers and getting better at this.  It's an incredible workout and uses your legs and abs too.

Somehow I have to balance this with running and not just do my usual thing in which I become totally obsessed with some new feat of awesomeness at the expense of all others.  Heh.  But I ran Saturday and yesterday and I'm about to head out now... and tomorrow night is the thursday group run...so I'm still runnin'.

Pace Group Leading, & "Four things"

So I headed out to Dublin (a Columbus suburb) this morning for my first time at being a pace group leader!  It was a ridiculously early morning, and the wind is SO COLD out there in Dublin--there are no buildings or trees to block it, it's just this cement wonderland of a suburb.  I'm supposed to be pacing 10:30 and these two women who already knew each other were going to run with me.  There was a pretty large group running an 11:00 pace and about 4 people running the 10:00 pace.  We started running and these women who were going to run 10:30 were going pretty fast... my watch had us at around 9:15 for the entire first mile.  I don't know if since I'm pacing I'm supposed to point out "oh hey we're going a full minute and 15 seconds too fast" or what--they seemed to be experienced runners and had their own garmins and seemed to know they were running that fast, so I just kept my mouth shut and eventually dropped off the back.  Oddly, I wasn't feeling that tired at that pace... I just didn't feel like doing it (lazy).  So I ended up running with the 10:00 pace group, some really friendly people, and it was a good time. But a very cold run.  And, I only did 5.  I guess if there's no one who wants to run 10:30 I'm off the hook?  Still getting a sense of how this works...

Hopefully the pace group leader thing is going to get a little more comfortable as I get to know more people.
________________
As a fun little non-running aside, I was tagged by Alison over @Physically Philosophical to do this little 4 things meme.  So, here are my answers!


Four TV shows I watch
Hell's Kitchen
Millionaire Matchmaker
Man vs. Wild
Reno 911! reruns

Four things I'm passionate about
environmentalist causes
running/fitness
being the best damn teacher and mentor I can be
eating/cooking

Four words/phrases that I use too much
I know right?
so...
for what it's worth..
yikes

Four things I've learned from the past
choice is more powerful than circumstance
there's something valuable to learn from even the worst experiences
i can do things i didn't think i would ever be able to do
hindsight is always clearer.

Four things I'm looking forward to
finishing grad school
summer weather!
having an apartment with a dishwasher!
some job security

Four things I love about winter
(this is a tough one cus I flippin' hate winter!)
blankets
feeling extra badass on runs while others sit inside or use a dreadmill
eating soup
kitty is more snuggly, and she loves the winter sun through the window (in summer the trees block it).  Happy kitty= happy me.  Here she is lovin' some sunshine:

Trail Run + City Run

In the past two weeks I've had two new "firsts" as a runner: 1) I did my very first long trail run; and 2) I did my first run in a serious urban environment.  I've done some runs around cities and parts of cities--Columbus Marathon started in downtown Columbus, I ran around Louisville, I ran around DC... but downtown Los Angeles took it to the next level.

So first, the trail run.  For a long time I've avoided trails because I dislike the amount of attention it takes to run on a trail; it always seems to me that you have to be constantly watching the ground and alert so you don't wrench your ankle on something.  And, well, I like the mindless monotony of plodding along on a nice flat paved road.  But one of my running buds is getting into trail running pretty seriously and she invited me along on a run she was doing at Darby Creek Metro Park just outside of Columbus--the photo here is taken from the park's website.  We headed out around 330, and boy was it cold--what a day for a run.  But the trails there were beautiful:  one of the better parks I've seen around here.  There were some hills, and parts of the trail go alongside Darby Creek.  We did 7 miles through the woods and then did our last 4ish on this out and back flat trail.  Well, in theory it was a flat trail, but what it really was is a packed limestone path that had recently thawed and refrozen with deep footprints and bike tire tracks--it was a terrible running surface, and we'd thought this was going to be the easy finish to our more difficult woods running.  It took a lot of attention and also got increasingly freezing cold and dark; we ended up making our planned 13 mile run into a just-over-11-miles run so we wouldn't get locked into the park.  All in all, though, I would say that this trail run was a great experience and I'm not adverse to doing more trail running.  I do only have road shoes and no trail shoes, though, but it seemed fine in road shoes.  I was worried about the little air pocket thingies in the heels of my shoes getting punctured, but they were fine.  This run overall made me feel pretty badass and awesome.

Then, Friday and Saturday this weekend I was in Los Angeles for a conference.  At one point on Saturday to combat stress I threw on running clothes and went for a little short 3 miler around downtown LA.  The notable thing about this run--and why I'm considering it my first "serious" urban run--is that my garmin would not get consistent reception due to the tall buildings.  I turned off the auto-pause so it would stop pausing constantly, but I really have no idea if the distance it measured was accurate or not because it kept losing reception.  I don't know how city-runners do it.  Also, I don't know how city-runners get any kind of steady running in at all, as there are so many street crossings and such.  For awhile I was doing a stoplight run, where at each corner I'd just turn whichever direction had a walk signal, but I started to get worried that I was going to get all turned around and confused so I nixed that plan.  I had a contingency plan in case I got lost--I put a credit card in my sports bra in case I had to take a cab back or something, because I had a limited time to run and a very important place to be 2 hours later--but I was able to find my way back.  Also, on this run I saw a taxi accident and the ensuing craziness of ambulances and fire trucks shortly thereafter.  Yikes.

As a side note, Los Angeles was nothing like I expected; I didn't really have time for sightseeing since I was there for such a short time, but it seemed very sprawling and spread out, and when my flight got in I was shocked by how brown the sky was... so much pollution.  And the downtown area seemed kinda dirty and ick.  My experience of San Francisco was very different than my Los Angeles experience... I can say that I think I'd live in San Francisco (in spite of how cold it seemed there), but probably wouldn't live in Los Angeles.  Maybe there are better parts of the city that I didn't see, though.  I didn't get to do the Hollywood tourist thing, and I didn't make it to the ocean.  I did, however, see the very very tiny Hollywood sign from my hotel window (not my photo, but pretty much it looked like this, just a bit smaller!)

Facts are facts, and I really like my little flat paved bike path in Columbus where I run.  I guess I'm a bit spoiled as it's kind of the best of both worlds... a flat even surface that goes through woods and parks and along a river, and down by the city if I want to run in that direction.  And no cars.  But the trail run was nice.  I'd do it again.

Green curry is the BEST.

Confession:  I have a huuuge obsession with Thai green curry.  There's a restaurant around here called Bamboo Cafe that had some of the best green curry I've ever had.  And Sam and I once made this killer homemade green curry.  That stuff was so good, but a TON of prep work and it totally trashes your kitchen. Also the smell lingers forever... my ex insists that his coat this winter still smells like curry from when he came inside my apartment last year after I'd made it (he's prone to over-dramatization so somehow I have trouble believing curry smell lingers for a full year... but it does stick around for awhile).

Anyway, let's get real... there's not always time to make a really involved dinner and also I'm poor and also I'm lazy.  But I've found a way to make a perfectly satisfactory green curry quickly and on a budget.

Why is this relevant to running?  Well, I don't know really, but the new year may bring some vegan food posts as well.  But it's sort of relevant because people constantly rave about the positive benefits of coconut products (coconut oil, more specifically) for endurance athletes--Brendan Brazier puts coconut oil in a lot of his sports drinks/recovery drinks, for instance.  And coconut water is good for hydration--better than sports drink.   Coconut milk apparently has its advantages as well, and there's a can of it in most green curries.  So if I wanna engage in some green-curry gluttony I'm not going to feel too bad about it.  I also buy the lower fat coconut milk.  And for the record, coconut is pretty much my favorite smell and favorite flavor of anything.

Enter the magic:  this stuff.  I've bought a jar of the red curry paste before and hated it, but I think that's just because I hate red curry (how someone can hate red curry but love green curry, I have no idea, buuuut... yeah).  It's $2.50 at my local grocery store  and it's also clearly labeled vegan so...win.

Here is what you do to create deliciousness:
Ingredients:
A grain of your choosing (brown rice, quinoa) or some rice noodles
1 package tofu
1 14-oz can coconut milk (i used lowfat)
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. agave nectar or some other sweetener
This magical jar of curry paste--you will use 1-3 Tbsp.
vegetables that might be good in curry (I used a package of baby bella mushrooms, cut into quarters, a red bell pepper, and arugula--I know, weird)
1 or more hot peppers (I used a serrano but it wasn't hot enough for my liking)
fresh cilantro or basil if you wanna feel fancy

• Start making brown rice, quinoa, noodles, or whatever you want.
• Sautee the tofu in a large skillet in either coconut oil (if you keep the temp low) or olive oil.  
• When the tofu looks slightly brown, add the mushrooms and any other veggies you're putting in that you don't want to be hard and crunchy.  I kept my peppers out until the end because I like them crunchy.
• Pour in the coconut milk and add the curry paste, soy sauce, hot pepper, and sweetener--let it simmer for a bit (10 mins?)  Taste it and see if you want to add more curry paste or sweetener.
• Add the rest of the veggies and stir.
• Serve it up!  I put brown rice in the bowl, then a big pile of arugula and poured the curry over it so the arugula would wilt.

For coming sort-of from a jar, this is really good.  It's not as potent as the fresh stuff we made, and it doesn't have that subtle heat-building effect that the curry from Bamboo Garden has... but the flavor is nice.  Man, I love green curry.

In unfortunate news at this very moment after writing this post, I just realized that while the ingredients are normal, innocuous, and seemingly not heavily processed, the sodium content on my beloved curry paste is through the roof... 550mg for 1 Tbsp.  If you put one Tbsp in and then eat half of what it makes, I guess that leaves you around 225mg, which still isn't great. I just put 2.5 Tbsp in mine so I'll probably have a sodium-related coronary tonight now.  In the future I think I'll stick with 1 Tbsp and then add some of my own fresh ginger to pump up the flavor.  For how rarely I eat sodium-filled packaged foods, though, now and then probably isn't going to kill me.

Make curry!  It's awesome. 

Obligatory Year-End Post..

I made this list of things I did in 2010 that I've never done before.  I posted it over on my other blog, but I thought I'd share it here as well (so what if it's not all running-related...)  I like that I have this many things I did this year that were completely brand-new:

• trained for and ran a full marathon
• went to a music festival for 3 days (Pitchfork Music Fest in Chicago--it was awesome)
• overcame my paralyzing fear of water and learned to swim, with semi-good form
• went to arizona (sedona, prescott, phoenix)
• ran my first destination race (in Arizona)
• successfully navigated NYC public transit, and by myself
• joined a running group
• had a paid summer off teaching (it was a fellowship, so I still had to do writing)
• briefly wooed a hot cyclist (and it was as fabulous as it sounds)
• wrote 28 pages in 24 hours
• touched a famous french man (well, his legs.  at a concert.  ha.)
• co-op gardened (and failed, except for some tomatoes)
• went on my first ever completely blind date (friend set us up)
• watched The Office
• went to Virginia Beach
• applied for my first "real" jobs that will require my PhD
• participated in a hot pepper eating contest in a public venue (was totally owned by a guy wearing a jester hat)
• started a training/running blog
• got/ran in vibram fivefingers
• weighed in at approximately my high school weight 
• rode my bike in downtown Chicago traffic (against my will)
• got my first ever speeding ticket (for going 31 mph, seriously)
• went to court and got out of my first ever speeding ticket
• went to Ladies 80s, thus finally participating in a popular Columbus cultural phenomenon
• spent substantial chunks of time alone with my brother
• ran 20 miles with no company or friend-support
• saw a chiropractor
• had a flight of bourbon with a cool new person I met in Louisville
• decided to finally own the fact that I simply hate sauteed fajita veggies

Things I HOPE I will do for the first time in 2011:

• call myself Dr!  (*please can I graduate yet? omg....must write faster*)
• visit Los Angeles (this is happening for sure, in just over a week)
• run my second and third marathons (one spring, one fall)
• beat my existing marathon time
• establish some new kind of job situation--if not a permanent one, at least something I can tolerate for another year
• see the Rocky Mountains; do some other random traveling
• if I secure a better income, take up some kind of cool outdoorsy sport (rock climbing? kayaking?)
• be able to make a list of "brand new" things that is longer than the list I made for 2010

New Year's resolutions:

• going to stick with my speed training, even if that means only doing one set of intervals/wk rather than two, and maybe a tempo run or something (something has to be better than nothing...)
• trying to consistently write 4pg/day of single-spaced garbage--even if it's garbage, at least it's down on the page
• doing a better job of sticking with the whole foods supplements the chiro has me taking, and also juicing greens more regularly again (daily if possible)

Feeling very American right now...

...because somehow I managed to go home for the holidays and pack on 5 lbs.  I have no idea how this happened, because honestly, I ate like crap while I was there (it's very had to be vegan around family, and I usually take my own groceries but this year I didn't)...but my version of "eating like crap" involved simply not eating enough (quantity), not eating enough (variety), and not seeing a green veggie in like 6 days.  Don't normal people get holiday fat from delicious cookies and sweets and cramming themselves full of holiday potluck food?  I guess I had one sweet thing the whole holiday season, and I was hungry most of the time.  I mean, here's a sample of what I ate:

• salsa, corn chips, and refried beans -- mom had these gallon containers of frozen homemade garden salsa.  Honestly I ate way more salsa than I did chips, sometimes even attacking it with a spoon, so if I'm fat from chips I'd be kind of surprised.  In any case, I had salsa for a meal at least 3x.
• coffee cake:  my mom made me this 8x8 coffeecake that was freaking delicious... this is the only holiday sweet I had while I was gone.  She said it didn't really have fat in it but it had a lot of white sugar and white flour.  (It was really amazing, with swirls of cinnamon and a crunchy cinnamon topping... oh man.)  Anyway I didn't eat the whole cake... I had probably like 4 pieces total.
• quinoa salad:  for Christmas day mom made a quinoa salad with dried fruit and edamame.  It was really good and I ate a ton of it, but cmon, it's quinoa.  Also on christmas day I had some "plain" sweet corn and a bunch of butternut squash (garden things my aunt had frozen and thawed).  
• On Christmas eve, I ate 5 dinner rolls, a bunch of pistachios, and some radishes (no other vegan options).
• mom made a loaf of homemade cinnamon bread... no fat, but white flour (and so amazing).
• black bean soup from Panera while I was checking my email
• on my drive in each direction I wiped out a box of Bunny Grahams.  So sue me.  Am I fat from that??  I guess each box is about 900 calories, so maybe I AM fat from that.  I pretty much never sit there and eat 900 calories of something, unless it's a weak moment and I'm having at some potato chips.
• I didn't eat anything other than coffee for breakfast.  On Christmas Eve I also skipped lunch.

So I mean, if I was going to gain weight I sure wish it could be from pigging out on things I wanted to eat instead of for the most part eating unhealthy scraps while others ate full meals.  I did drink so freaking much coffee though.  Right before my trip I was pretty much done with coffee... I successfully converted myself to either Macafe (roasted maca powder in hot water) or a small bit of coffee brewed with Teeccino.    But when I got home it started almost immediately, the coffee drinking.  If there is prepared coffee around, I have no self control.  My mom enables my dad really badly by putting coffee and a filter and water in the coffeepot so that all he has to do is press "on" whenever he wants a cup.  So basically, we finish a pot and then the pot is ready to make more, and my dad walks by and remembers there's coffee there and turns it on.  I had coffee all morning, coffee in the afternoon, coffee with and after dinner, coffee before bed.  I completely derailed.  Then at Christmas Eve I was really exhausted from family stress and I wanted to feel comfort so I had a couple of cups, and Christmas day I took my own thermos so I could have "good" coffee... once I killed that, I refilled it with some of the Folgers the rest of the family was drinking, so across 5 hours I had about 5 cups.  Usually when I'm drinking excess amounts of coffee though it tends to make me LOSE weight, especially if I'm having coffee as a meal (I know it's unhealthy so I try not to do it...but I know from times when I've been really high stress with no appetite and still drinking coffee... it's a nearly sure way to lose weight).  

So basically, I have no idea where these 5 lbs came from unless a) my theory holds true that when I'm eating less calories than my body needs, my body freaks out and starts to store them, or b) 2 boxes of bunny grahams and some coffee cake really did it, or c) my body freaks out when I dramatically change what it's used to.  

Since I've been back I've been trying to really eat healthy; I started juicing greens again, and I've made a couple of good meals (yesterday I made this okra stew over quinoa... it was really really amazing, and I don't like stew).  I had one feast-meal with my vegan friend who made this epic brunch-for-dinner with apple beer marinated tempeh strips, tofu scramble, biscuits and cashew gravy, and hash browns.  But I cut the junk for the most part and I'm back down to 1c of coffee or so per day, yet here I am lingering around 134 lbs when I was lingering around 129 (marathon weight was 123, but I was ok with 129 for the off-season).

I never used to be this weight-concerned.  Oddly, my neuroticism about it started after I lost marathon weight.  I mean, realizing I weighed only 123 was kind of amazing and now I'm obsessed with wanting to weigh numbers in the 120s instead of the 130s.  

As for running, while I was home I had 2 good runs; one was an 8x400m interval run, and the other was 6 miles in strong wind so my pace wasn't that great.  BUT I stuck with my runs while I was home--there wasn't that much snow for the first year in ages.  I did go cross country skiing a couple of times too.  So I wasn't being totally lazy.  Since I've been back is another matter... I ran on Saturday, drove back on Monday, did a cycling interval ride on Tuesday, and ran 4 on Thursday... so basically I had like 5 days off of running.  As I realized I was fat I also got depressed and skipped runs :( which is like the worst thing I could do to solve the fatness.  

The weather is going to be amazing on Saturday though (50 degrees in January!!) so I'm going to try to do a good long run then.  

Facts are facts and I guess I need to ramp my mileage back up if I don't want to be as fat as I am right now.  I was lurking around 22-25 miles/week before holiday week.  I need to update dailymile.

Various happenings...about time I posted an update!

I've been an extremely lazy blogger lately.  I think perhaps, like Physically Philosophical, I need to give some thought to what I want my new blogging identity and purpose to be now that I've achieved that seemingly unattainable marathon goal!  Once it hits January, though, I think marathon training might actually begin again.  I need to bust out the book with my training plans in it and see if that is the right timeline.

Future Marathons:
I'm thinking at this point that I have two choices for a spring marathon:  either the Cleveland Marathon on May 15, or the Sunburst Marathon on June 4.  I want a flat marathon, so that rules out Pittsburgh and Cincinnati's Flying Pig.  I have my reservations about Sunburst because, while it was a great first half-marathon for me and while I could stay with my parents to run it, it's pretty late for a spring marathon--the half I did was extremely hot, and I'm not sure I could handle a full in those conditions.  Also, it's a small field of runners (950ish expected for 2011) and also an exceptionally fast field for some odd reason compared to most bigger marathons.  Oddly, too, it's mostly men--the 2009 results show, of 595 finishers, 409 men and 186 women.

I want to do a spring marathon and then a fall one as well--I'd love to do Columbus again because it was a super-awesome race.  Throwing a wrench in my plans, however, is the extent to which my 2011 year is completely up in the air.  It's possible I will be graduating in June, and could be moving away from Columbus in either June or August.  It's also possible that none of that will happen for another full year, so I'd be here as usual, but completely broke.  I want to plan to do a destination race with weeona, but as of yet I have no idea if I will have a job and what and where that job will be (and thus whether I can afford a trip).  I also don't know if I'm moving and graduating in June or not, and if I am, the Sunburst marathon would have terrible timing (Cleveland would be a little better).

So, these things are keeping me from making a real commitment and registering for a race just yet.  I'm not really sure what to do... it could be well into April before I have any idea what is happening with my life for the remainder of the year.

Fun Running News!
I got picked to be a pace group leader for Cbus Pacers, Dublin!  This means every Saturday morning for the first half of the year I'll be leading a group of runners on a long run at a 10:30 pace.  I'm hoping I can handle this regularly without imploding, as my usual long run pace was around 10:45, but I think I can do it.  I did 10 miles Sunday on snowy terrain at about a 10:45 pace, and if I can do that in snow with unsure footing, I should be good to go for 10:30.  This is good because now I have committed myself to not be a lazy-ass in the foul winter weather.  I do wish I lived closer to Dublin so the drive wasn't so far, but eh, it's ok.  I'm a pace group leader!  And hopefully I'll get to meet some more awesome runners.

Other happenings:

• I've still been seeing my chiro, who's working on my right hip that's been bugging me a little since the marathon.  Good news is he thinks it's basically just muscular rather than structural, so I see him once a week and he rubs on the sore spots to loosen them up.  I have seen some improvement (actually a lot of improvement) but we're not quite there yet.  Also, randomly my achilles started hurting really bad a few weeks ago and he fixed it with only two treatments.  He is my hero, seriously.
• I got some new shoes and, after several pairs of loyalty to Saucony, have switched to Brooks Ghost.  They are SO LIGHT it's awesome.  So I have a neutral pair of shoes with superfeet inserts (who knows if those silly things even do anything, but I've had them for awhile so I just use them).  These shoes are so light, and they aren't all overly smooshy like some pairs of shoes--I like to feel the road.  I'm pretty psyched.
• I bought a scale and have discovered that my weight is basically normal and I haven't turned into a huge post-marathon fatty even though I feel like it sometimes.  My weight fluctuates within about a 4lb range, though.  And I also discovered that on Sunday my 10 mile run caused me to lose 2lbs (water weight... and I looked this up online and you have to drink 16oz to replenish each lb lost).  So I lost a lot of water.  No wonder I'm always so thirsty on runs... I guess I sweat a lot.  I have a feeling my hydration needs in a marathon are much higher than I had been accounting for before, but there will have to be some experimentation with this.
• I've started doing cross-training!  D. has some really sweet cycling trainer videos, where you ride along with Robbie Ventura and the bottom of the screen cues you along with what intensity you should be working at.  I wear my heart rate monitor to help me gauge if I'm working hard enough.  The one we did on Friday was a criterium... we did a 10 minute warm-up and then what amounts to a really hard interval workout for 45 mins.  On the video, Robbie Ventura narrates race strategy and you follow these guys riding the course through crowds, etc... and there was even a sprint finish.  Of course I got totally geeked about all of this because I'm totally obsessed with watching pro cycling and this was like.... simulating me getting to ride along with the Big Guys.  So D. and I set up our trainers in his living room and did an hour long workout.... I was so sweaty by the end.  I don't think I've ever sweated that much even on hard runs, probably just because we were inside with no wind and on trainers.  We have plans to do this again on the 28th, when we might go to a group trainer ride at the local BikeSource.  I'm afraid I'll look like a total n00b loser with my uncool older road bike, but he insists it will be fine.  If we keep this up I might consider clipless pedals for a better workout and for more comfort (I was getting some pain behind my knees and D. says this is because of the toe clips....)  Anyway, I have high hopes that workouts like this will help me improve my cardio fitness.  We will see.

The Holidays...

I'm soon off to Indiana to spend Christmas with family... this is usually terrible news for running, because they live in an area that gets tons of lake-effect snow and much colder temperatures due to Lake Michigan. Last year I ran 6 miles in literally an ice-storm... literally.  It was completely insane.  I have my screw-shoes so I can get traction in such situations, but I'm definitely not looking forward to doing that again!  Going to try to squeeze in one last interval workout tonight, and then I'll have a tenuous running situation until I return on the 27th or so.  Whee!