Frozen stride.

I've been doing my easy runs leading up to my marathon on Sunday. Except that these runs have been nothing short of frustrating. Frustrating (capital F). There's hard ice, black ice, slippery ice, frozen snowy ice, and some actual ground here and there. I can't get anything going on when I'm out trying to run. I think the noticeable lack of other runners is telling me something - these conditions suck, don't bother. But I have to.

I keep feeling myself annoyed at some unknown responsible party for apparantly doing nothing about the paths. No salt, for instance. I can only assume they go around checking, and do it during the day when what I encounter as slick black ice is only seen as snow meltoff. I guess it never occurs to anyone that this "water" stuff freezes at some point. It's so bad out there that I could only really open up my stride and get some freedom in movement for about a 1/4 mile on the "back stretch" (approaching Fullerton from the north, on the lakeshore path).

Oh well. My next easy run will be in sunny Southern California! I just hope the weather here is a %1000 better when I get back.

final countdown

I ran on Saturday, and was going along just fine. The weather wasn't brilliant, of course, but it wasn't stormy or even snowing (yet). I did my 10+ out and back along the lakefront. The "out" part was a nice cruise, the "back" part was hell. It felt like a strong steady headwind off the lake the entire way back. I was actually thinking that I'd end my run feeling real good, like I didn't work too hard. The wind changed all that. I was only too eager to finish.

It occurred to me that no matter what I seem to set out to run, it's always "hard" somehow. Last weekend I ran for 20, and yeah, it was hard. This week I ran for 11, and yeah, it was hard. I was running 7s in the morning, and yeah, they were hard. Running is hard. For me. It's work. It's a workout! Wait, it's supposed to be, right?

Now I'm less than a week away from Los Angeles. Normally I'd be excited about going there (I am, honestly), and eager to get away from this lousy weather we have here. Trouble is, I know I'll be doing something rather painful when I'm there. I confess, I'll be glad when it's over, but I'm looking forward to getting better at this.

I didn't run this morning - another late night out, eating some fine homemade Bulgarian food....too much of it. Since I'm in taper, I'll only go out for an easy (yeah, right) 4 after work. I always have trouble falling asleep when I run at night, so I'm going to try to get out as early as possible.

There's a battle going on.

Spring vs. Winter, warm vs. cold. Sometimes, run vs. sleep in.

Tomorrow (Saturday February 24) will be my last opportunity to have a daytime lakefront run. I've been looking forward to it all week, especially after the particularly good weather last week on my 20-miler. Now ... grr ... we're going into the weekend with a "winter storm watch" starting tomorrow, with rain, freezing rain and snow in the "wintry mix" as possibilities. But they say the temperature will be in the low 30s. Not terrible. I just wanted to run along the lakefront in some sunshine before I head out to LA!

Now, assuming I can get home from work at a decent hour, it looks like a prudent course of action for me will be to get my run in early, missing potential sun, but also missing potential nasty weather.

It won't be a long run. I'm supposed to be in my taper period anyway. Nevertheless, I feel like doing my 10-mile out & back, with a secret desire to extend that to 13.1 somehow. Then I'll start my taper, seriously!

My running life must be good if these are the problems I'm dealing with. I feel blessed and lucky.

Vigilance against treachery

I have to find something to complain about. The black ice on the footpath, sure, yeah, that's it. My morning running has been dicey out there, with many spots of slipperiness. I guess I should complain that there's no salt on the path; or when there is salt, it's in a pile at one spot in the middle.

Nevermind that it's in the low 30s at this time of day now. Nevermind that a mere week ago I was calf-deep in snow. ha, this is great! Some ice here and there, but otherwise the path is coming back!

Hey, isn't today one month away from the first day of Spring?

My LA travel plans are all set up, I've got my gear (what do you wear when it's warm out, I forget....) all prepared, and I'm mentally ready. I'm excited!

I should be deep in my taper now, but I'm honestly only mildly so. I'll do 10 or so on Saturday, and then some easy 4s before I fly out. When I'm there I'll just walk around or something.

I'm in!

I finally signed up for the LA Marathon. Exciting. I hope I'm ready. I think I am......

Yesterday (Saturday) I did my last long run - 20 miles - and survived. It was a beautiful day, though. When I left for my run it was "December" but in the heart of the run and when I ended it was "March or April." I started in grey overcast skies with flurries and found myself in sunny blue skies. Very nice. Still only about 25F, but nice nonetheless.

My route was just my 10-mile loop done twice. I walked only when I was taking Gu or arranging my water belt. Like an idiot I forgot to clear memory in my Polar, so it only recorded about 3 miles of heart rate. That sucked.

I say I don't run for speed, but just for the aerobic benefit. I wish I were faster though. After the marathon is over, I'll look at my running and consider learning how to train for speed. It may be more important to me than I think.

Right now it's Sunday night, after I spent a lot of the day sleeping, and the weather report looks really nice for next week. I've got the day off tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to another run in greater-than single digit temperatures, and hopefully some sun.

I'm still cold

A few times, since the snow we had a couple days ago, I've been feeling a sense of burnout. My California heritage has a tendency to take the forefront when I'm less than happy here in Chicago. Like when I'm realizing that I've had 1 running day where the temperature was around the freezing mark in the last month or so. Whatever, it seems like it has been a long time, and I'm tired of it!

The last couple of days have been decent, snow-packed runs. I'm appreciative that someone has plowed the paths, but for some reason appears to have forgotten to plow the parts where you access the paths, like the corner at Fullerton and Cannon. There's a huge snowdrift there. Also, the paths aren't really clear of snow. I'm running on snow pretty much the whole time.

I'm also wondering why there are no streetlights on...it would be cool if we were in a full moon, but right now it's just dark.

Please don't let there be more snow on Friday and Saturday, during my long run!

From nod to plod

Dear God my run this morning was an extreme sport.

Chicago is being socked in at the moment, and I in my clearly finite wisdom "went for it" this morning. My regularly scheduled run, a 7 miler out & back along the lakefront path, can be categorized something like this today:

- moguls
- wind armed with millions of needle-like projectiles (in all directions, of course)
- wet socks
- grit

I learned a lot about reading snow drifts today, too.

Alas, I survived. I had a great workout. Hats off to the other 3 runners I saw out there. I couldn't fall asleep too easily last night either, and ended up getting maybe 4 hours before this morning's adventure. I doubt that'll happen again tonight, so tomorrow's run is already better.

It's still snowing, well over 12 hours later. Since I'm doing the same run tomorrow, I'm crossing everything I can cross hoping the park district actually moves some snow around for us.

I just had one of the most fun runs. Tonight after I finally got home from work I went out for a 6-mile loop I've settled into. Only this time, I found a bunch of snow out on the lakefront path. Powdery stuff, maybe 3-4 inches deep in places, windblown from the east. It was almost like running on the beach, and it added a challenging element to my run. For some reason I was totally enjoying it - so much so, the lousy headwind (of all things weatherwise, wind has to be my most undesired thing to deal with!) didn't even dim my glimmer. I must have waved or said 'how you doing?' to a bunch of people out there and even some dogs. I think the one dog I saw bounding through the snow drifts on the beach knew what I was feeling. Good dog. Dogs rock.

I've started to accept the adversity of snow and the seemingly constant headwind (how does that happen, no matter which way I go?), not to mention the cold, as opportunities to work out differently. For instance, it's pretty flat here - a good headwind might offer me a chance to work harder as if I were climbing a hill. Especially if I'm plodding through inches of snow. (By the way, it was 30F *warm* tonight!)

The LA marathon has some hills, including a steady climb from the start (I'm from LA; knowing the area, I'm nervous about the first and last few miles!). I'm hoping that the training I'm doing here, and the conditions I'm doing it in, will somehow toughen me up for a decent passing performance (i.e. not DNF) on the 4th. Heck, I won't be wearing all the clothes I have to wear here, that's gotta count for something.

Overnight tonight we're expecting inches of snow and windy conditions. I'm doing a slightly different route tomorrow morning, and I may be miserable. If it sucks, I'll try to remember the good feelings from tonight to keep me going.

I don't normally run at night, since it's possible I won't know when I'll be home from work. At least in the mornings I can decide to wake up at the severe crack of dawn. Tonight was different because I got home completely late last night from a really fun birthday celebration (Whirlyball and then Liar's Club). I didn't think 2.5 hours of sudsy sleep before getting up would be too cool, so I decided to get my run in after work today. I'll get up at my regular time on Tuesday to get back to "normal." I liked running after work, but now I'm completely awake. But happy. Hopefully it'll repeat tomorrow morning.

Oh yeah - I think I want to cue up the first four or five Van Halen albums for my long run on Saturday. That just popped into my head.

Sand in hair, salt in shoes

It seems out-of-sync to be writing about my running. I'm totally beginning writing, but I've actually managed to maintain running as a regular part of my life for a year and a half. Believe me, I don't feel like an old hand at running at all. I don't feel fast. No races, no PRs, no clue. All I know is that I get up early in the morning and head over to the lakefront path and run.

The only real quantifiable signs of progress are revealed to me in how much I [don't] weigh now, and what my tech-geek gadgets have been telling me. They say I'm maintaining a decent pace, and I'm not working hard to do it. Believe me, they weren't always this nice to me. They've taught me important things, though. Be patient, take your time, positive change will occur. Seems totally obvious in hindsight, but when I was starting out it all seemed so impossible.

Yesterday I ran 18.5 miles out there in the beautiful sunny (still cold!) day that we had here in Chicago. Jeez - that's *definitely* a personal best. I've *never* done that before, and it was tough. Start to finish clocked in at 3:24, including a totally convenient port-a-potty stop by Belmont Harbor at mile 8.5. I also included walking breaks, to allow me to suck down this recently new-to-me gel fuel stuff (totally works). I don't care about the time, though - I'm pretty stoked I was just able to finish and still walk (and go out for some music and Guiness)! I mean, less than two years ago I couldn't do 10% of that. Heck, even less time ago, but that's another story.

I'm reasonably convinced I'm going about marathon training (March 4 in LA is looming) all wrong, but friends and people more experienced than I am are only encouraging me and telling me I'm definitely capable. I'm just too scared to go look online at training programs, only to avoid a total sense of "I'm definitely screwed." I think in some ways I have to learn things the hard way, by having my head yanked out of the sand.

I never intended to complete anything when I started running. My motivation was merely to see if I could actually do it with some intelligence (start slow, build up, etc.) - essentially make it stick - and of course improve my health. One step at a time, I guess, and I'll learn from each one.

Day Zero (?)

Beginning running for me was not real simple. In fact, I've tried it many times. My last attempt was the one. I've lost about 40 pounds (which is not a little scary to admit), I've had to replace a lot of clothes, I eat differently now, and I've noticed that my cruising speed has increased as my effort has decreased.

Oh, I'm also deep into training for my first marathon, at Los Angeles on March 4, 2007. I feel like I've turned a corner in that I actually think I'll finish it, and perhaps decently! I have learned so much in the process.

Why did I call this "plod, lift, repeat?" Well, that's how I started running. I took first steps in August 2005, and by October 2005 I was hooked. I think it's all right to say I plod less, but in some ways I still feel like a beginner. Every day is a new day, and as my LA training is showing me, a new adventure as I reach new milestones. Lift, repeat.

I'm new to blogging as well. I may or may not have readers, but I confess to lurking in other blogs (which I'll link to). I've learned from their experiences, and have been inspired by their trials, tribulations and successes. Inspired enough to even write something.

It's probably not unusual to have some sort of lofty goal or intent in starting a blog, but I do want to write (and share) what I've learned and experienced. At least I won't forget it (like, what did I wear when it was so friggin' cold out!?). If there's something to take away, and I do hope there is, it's all worth it to share my own trials, tribulations and successes.