Happy Birthday, Emma!

Today Emma is 23! I love her because she is my daughter, I like her because she is an amazing person! I've lost count of the number of times I've been "wow"ed by something she said or did. She is smart, funny, kind, caring, determined and successful (just for starters).

It wasn't all fun and games for us of course. As a child ..well if you looked up "wild child" in the dictionare I bet her photo would be there. For me, who was more or less afraid of my own shadow growing up, it was a challenge to understand how and why she worked. Fortunately we both survived.

I have lots of stories to share. I'll limit this post to one. In November 2008, the weekend before Thansgiving, she finished her shift at work on Saturday around 10 pm or so, took the train into center city Philadelphia, crashed on a friend's couch and showed up at the starting line of the Philadlephia Marathon to cheer me on in my first ever marathon. There are a number of things that make this special. First consider that most 18 year olds will not get up before noon on a Sunday unless they absolutely must - the Philadelphia Marathon starts at 7 AM! It was still dark and very very cold..about 28 degrees.

I didn't know she was at the race until mile 9. As I ran and watched the crowd I noticed someone in an awesome turtle hat. I thought, "Emma would LOVE that... wait a minute that IS Emma!" We started wavinig frantically and she dodged runner traffic (carefully, no runners or walkers were injured) and we hugged as she handed over a baggie full of fig newtons. My fuel of choise for that race. Then she (and Dave) waited at the finish line for me to finish. It took me over 5 and 1/2 hours to finish the race. They waited for over 5 and 1/2 hours in temperatures that barely broke 32. I also learned - after I finished - that when it appeared that the organziers were running low on heat blankets, Emma went in search of one to save for me.



Here is a photo of Emma (and the hat) and me (and the heat blanket).
I'm a very happy camper in this photo and only partly because I had just finished my first marathon!

Happy Birthday, Emma!

Spelling Bee and a rest week

Yesterday, for the third year running, I helped at the Lancaster County Home School Spelling Bee. My job was to pronounce the words for the children. There are two bees each year; a junior bee for 4-6 graders and a senior bee for 7-9 graders. The senior bee winners (1st and 2nd) advance to the written test "spell-off" in February where other local winnners are narrowed from around 100 to 30 who will then compete in a regional competition in March. These kids can eventually go to the Scripps National Spelling bee in late May or early June.

The senior bee was very short this year. We were into end of bee procedures (when there are only 4 or less left) after 1 round.  I am proud to report that my niece, Elizabeth, will be going to the write-off next month.

The real competition this year was in the junior bee. These kids were tough! Round after round they kept spelling and spelling. Admittedly the first rounds were failry simple words. Although when you are standing in front of a group of friends and family at a microphone in a one and done contest I'm not sure how one defines 'simple'. It was great to see them do so well. These kids don't advance to the national bee but they got in some great practice for when they do.

After the bee we went to my brother and sister in law's house for lunch and visiting. I look forward that as much as the bee (maybe more). Dave came with me this year. It was a very nice day.

So it's Sunday now and the end of a week off from training. I did go to yoga on Wednesday and I did an hour on the indoor trainer on Tuesday. I did some stretching throughout the day on Monday as I watched the inauguration but nothing tough. I took Thursday through today completely off. Partly because I promised myself some down time and partly because I wasn't feeling great. I was in bed well before 10 most nights this week and before 9 one night. On Friday I had severe stomach pains - as in wishing that someone would cut off my arm because I was sure that would hurt less. The pains went away and I was left with chills and fatigue. I seemed to have recovered by Saturday with just a little bit of pain after eating. Today, Sunday, I seem to be ok.

I'm excited to get back to training next week. I'm looking forward to seeing what affect, if any, the week of downtime will have on this week. In terms of miles running I will pick up where I left off with 6 on Tuesday (half of my previous long run of 12); an hour on Thursday and 13 on Saturday.

One of the  challenges this week will be that I'm out of town for work on Monday and Tuesday. Monday should be fine. I'll have my Ipad with me so YAYOG workouts can continue easily enough in my hotel room. My friend Terry has already asked me if I want to run with her on Tuesday morining so I have accountability for that. However, on Monday Harrisburg's forecast is for sleet, snow and freezing rain - as much as 2 inches. I may end up on the hotal treadmill on Tuesday depending on the condition of the roads/sidewalks on Tuesday a.m. As much as I hate the treadmill I can't let that derail this training.

So on to segment 2 of my training. I'll go from 13 to 18 miles in the next 6 weeks. Yoga ends this week (Jan 30). It doesn't start up until February 27th. I'll have to find something else to fill my Wednesday slots.

Speaking of Yoga - I've decided to add something to my daily routine. Starting tomorrow morning I'm going to try to do a Sun Salutation routine each morning just after getting up. It's not too hard - although I am not near doing the poses as well as the folks in these pictures.  Doing these regularly - accepting where I am - can only help. I plan to do one routine for each side each morning. I watched video demonstration and even with some introductory remarks the whole thing was less than 5 minutes. I can spare that every morning for sure.

Thanks for  'listening'.

Week #6; Jan 14-Jan 20

Week #6

Monday - ladder YAYOG workout. Squats with a twist to either side, push up knees on floor, russian twists, bent over lateral raises. The push ups are still killing me.

Tuesday - 5 miles today. I rushed to change and get out running before the rain and to get as much of the miles in before dark as possible. I will be very happy when the sun sets later. I was all dressed and ready to go and realized I forgot to put on my heart monitor. I left it.

I've decided it's pretty much impossible to start out slow on any run in Media. I live at the top. Less than a quarter mile in any direction from the house begins a downhill. I am not going to fight gravity. Lord knows at my age that's a lost cause anyway but really it doesn't make sense to fight the downhill pull. What I need to do is pull back to normal running when the downhill is over.

I wanted to run 2 miles and then walk break. The first two miles were fine. The second two were interrupted by a barking dog and several traffic stops. So I skipped the walk break after mile 4. I stopped the Garmin for the traffic but the dog not so much. It was getting pretty dark when I came upon him/her and it was a very loud dog. I stopped dead in my tracks and waited to see if it was leashed or at least behind and invisible fence. Then I walked past it until I couldn't hear it's growl anymore. Too bad I didn't have the heart rate monitor. It would have been an interesting spike!

Overall, the run felt good although I'm pretty sure the second half was slower than the first - the downhill thing and all. My goal for runs around home may have to be to just keep a steady pace. Garmin

Wednesday - Yoga. Tonight was tough. I arrived in a great mood! I almost felt bad about that because almost everyone else in the class said they had a headache of some degree. After class I didn't feel so good anymore. I know it's just frustration because the movements were very difficult for me. I have very poor strength and flexibility in my arms and shoulders and that was where we spent most of our work tonight. Kristie keeps reminding us that it's important to accept where we are. It's just a little sad that I played lacross for 5 years in Jr high and High school. And it's all gone now.

Thursday - Well I know what you are going to say. She'll do anything to avoid a speed workout. Believe me that's what I scolded myself with all afternoon but in the end I didn't do any minutes tonight. I woke up thinking I'd likely walk tonight. As the day wore on I wore down. I wish I had a fever or something then I'd feel better about this. I just feel weak. Not sore but weak. Just the thought of changing into workout clothes feels like work. I hope I'm not making a mistake and I'll just have to focus on Saturday's 12 miler instead.

Saturday - 12 miles. Now that I've crossed the 10 mile mark I want to manage my Saturday runs as close to what I'd like race day to be. That means running two miles at time; with walk breaks every two miles for hydration and fueling. On race day I want to run water stop to water stop about 2 miles apart. I also want to try to average 12 minute miles.

Today I met Caroline at 8 am. Since I was not alone I chose to run whatever she wanted to do for the first five miles together. We did our "usual" 2 and 1's. We had a very pleasant run and chat. Our pace averaged more than 12 but i was fine with that. I still fueled and took water at the 2 and 4 mile mark.

After Caroline left I went in the opposite direction. One more mile to 6 - walk to fuel and hydrate - and then 2 at a time to finish. I was doing fine until about 9 miles. The bottom fell out of my energy. I decided not to stop. If this happens on race day I'm going to have to push on so I might as well today too. I was taking in 45 calories every 2 miles but obviously that wasn't enough. It's possible I was going faster than expected and also likely that I'm not 100% right now. I felt great on the run (save for the energy loss) but all week I've had bouts of achiness and fatigue. Anyway I made it to ten and took my last fuel and finished all 12 miles. I also took electrolytes at 2, 5 and 10.

I was taking the Honey Stinger version of chomps today. Three at a time every 2 miles. I noticed that I had one set of three left at the end of the run. I can't remember if I did that on purpose to have something for post run or did I forget to take a set? Even if I did forget one set that wouldn't explain the bottoming out. It was very noticeable. I'll probably increase my intake for next run anyway. As long as I don't get an upset stomach it's probably better to have too much than too little.

I don't know for sure if I managed the 12 minute mile average or not. I know I was over for the first 5. My Garmin only recorded 11.68 miles. I stopped it when I had to wait to cross route 29 shortly after mile 6. I didn't notice until later that it hadn't started again. So I lost some time and mileage. Until then the watch was signaling the miles very close to the trail markers. So I know I ran 12. My goal was 12 in 2 hours 24 minutes. The watch says 11.68 in 2 hours 20 minutes. So I think I was close assuming the missing time/miles were not slowpoke slow.

Now that I've had time to think about it I realize my math was off on the fueling. 45 calories every 2 miles means I only had 90 by mile 5. I didn't take the next set until after mile 6 so it's no wonder I ran out of steam. I should be taking in around 135-150 per hour and I had 90. So next time I'll try 75 every 2 miles and see how that works. In hindsight I don't think I drank enough either. So today was a fueling failure but I have lots more 'practice' runs to fix the mistakes.

The Honey Stingers were ok on my stomach. Only very mild discomfort at the very end.
Garmin

Ok so now that I've looked at the paces and heart rate, I'm pretty happy about this workout. If I had fueled and hydtrated bettter it would have been awesome.

Sunday- 75 minutes planned. Ended up with almost 85. I drove out to Betzwood and rode on the SRT. It was a gorgeous sunny day. The river was sparkling in the sunlight. I didn't have the camera though. The wind picked up in the final 30 minutes or so. I was fighting it most of that portion. I think at times it was actually going across the trail. All in all though a great ride. My legs were not happy for the first mile or so but once they loosened up I felt fine. Garmin

A Walk Through Time

I came across the story on this adventure in my Facebook newsfeed from the BBC.

Everything about this walk fascinates me. This man, Paul Salopek, a journalist is going to walk from Ethiopia to the southern tip of Chili. He is tracing human migration that took tens of thousands of years in what is estimated to take 7 years. Although there will be some twitter activity, one of his goals is to slow things down - from the digitally enhanced gotta-have-it-now race to report things. It should be a fascinating persepective.

He left on January 10th.

The history of this adventure engages me but the walking is what really sparked my interest. My bucket list (which I should post here someday) includes a multi day walking adventure. I love running and - as you know - I'm currently training for some running and biking events but walking and I go way back.

I've always enjoyed walking. The fitness aspect was only part of it though. I've always liked the idea of slowing things down and being able to see more. You can walk the same routes that you might run, bike or travel in a car and you'll notice way more when you walk. A 7 year journey wasn't quite what I had in mind for myself but I'd love to work up to something that lasts for days or weeks. A year would be awesome. But I don't have National Geographic and others sponsoring me so I'll have to settle for something that will fit into a vacation time slot from work.

At present, it's just an idea in my head (a recurring one). Some day I'll put some purpose to it and make it happen. For now, I'll follow Mr. Salopek's journey. I'll probably post here periodically about it. Stay tuned.

Training Week #5; Jan 7 - Jan 13

Monday - YAYOG ladder workout. Push ups; swimmers; military press;pointers. I did these with my friend Maggi's voice in my head. Focus on your form. I feel like I worked! One thing about these, I've been avoiding pull excercises. They hurt! I have to try to get to them and just go easy at first.

Tuesday - 3 miles today. First I took my bike to Bikesport for an adjustment in the derailleur. While I was there I ordered an indoor trainer as well. I researched then online then asked the store owner for her thoughts and picked the one I wanted. Now it surely will not snow the rest of the winter .. :)

I headed to the Perkiomen Trail entrance at the diner to do my three miles. I should have brought my headlamp. The trail was ok most of the way from surrounding lights but about 10% of the portion I ran was pretty dark. I managed. The run felt good. Garmin read out I'm pleased that the pace was more consistent. I need to work on making it slower at first; faster later.

Wednesday - Yoga. I'm enjoying these classes a lot. I'm pretty sure I will sign up for the second session (10 weeks) that starts at the end of February.

Thursday - 60 minutes running. This was a mixed up fun run. First I went to the East Whiteland Twp building entrance to the Chester Valley Trail. I was meeting my friend Caroline at 5:00. I was early so I went out to get some miles/time in while I waited. About 1 mile in, Caroline called and said she would meet me at the Wegmans entrance. So I ran back to my car and drove the short distance to Wegmans. It was still early so I ran back and forth in the trail behind Wegmans. Caroline arrived and we crossed Route 29 and headed west on the trail. We got about 1.5 miles along when I suggested we turn around. My headlamp really isn't bright enough and we were losing light fast. All the way back we heard noises in the bushes. I'm certain we spooked a deer one point. I had a great run though and a good time. The Garmin report should be interesting.

I have to do a better job of stretching before and after. I've slacked off and it's starting to show. Nothing serious yet but the fact is I'm old and I have to stay ahead of these things.

Garmin read out (part 1)
Garmin read out (part 2); split #2 shows where I got bored running back and forth waiting so I walked one length; then ran one; walked one etc. Interesting the last 2.5 mile we did get progressively faster. Our pace is proportional to the amount of daylight left! :)

Saturday - 10 miles today . I ran at Evansburg State Park. You can read about it here.

I made sure I did some loosening up before the run today. I did not feel the bag of sand on my outer right thigh at all today. a few hours run I worked with the foam roller on all sides of my legs. My right IT band is still tight but it does feel less so.

A great run and I feel good. My only frustration is the my average pace was over 13 minute miles. I want to do 12's for the marathon. I was on trails which are slower and I didn't stop my watch in a few places where I could have but I don't think that was 14 extra minutes of time. No worries though. I'll keep working at it.

Garmin read out; my average moving time was under 13 but still over 12. My heart rate was signficantly higher on the trails which makes sense.

Sunday - 75 minute cross. I went out on the bike around Media today. I really want to get over on the trails and just ride - not worry about traffic - but our schedule today kept me closer to home. It was very foggy and misty. I was cold but the ride felt good. I didn't feel like I was struggling to get the time in as I was in previous weeks. I wasn't pushing but I was much less tired this week. Garmin read out

The derailleur fix was great. No rubbing and annoying metal on metal sound anymore. :)

I also worked  with the foam roller again a few hours after the ride.